This is truly a turn up for the books, really. The title says it all really, but today was the day I made my second attempt at sealed drafting. Now, if you have read the previous writeup, you'd know the last time didn't go too well, placing me a few positions up from last place. You can imagine my surprise this time around. Without further adieu..
This prerelease was set to be a good one. I turned up on the saturday, with five of my friends, all looked hyped to take on the world, and hopefully do better than our last (and disappointing) prerelease standing. Of the six of us, four were drawn in by the green pack, a friend taking black and I (for increased chance of Athreos) took white. The seeded pack pulled me an Aegis of the Gods on top of my promo, my pool netting me a fair amount of aggro (and heroic triggers to properly benefit the promo - Dawnbringer Charioteers) and the inclusion of Iroas and a Foil Temple of Triumph on top of a strong Selesnya pool lead me to finalise my deck in the colours of Naya - Previously unexplored territory buildwise and the complete opposite of the last prerelease, when I played Dimir Control. Nevertheless, My decklist is as follows:
(Full decklist will be here when I publish it)
1x Aegis of the Gods
1x Bladetusk Boar
1x Blinding Flare
1x Chained to the Rocks
1x Charging Badger
1x Dawnbringer Charioteers
1x Desperate Stand
2x Eagle of the Watch
1x Font of Ire
5x Forest
1x Gods Willing
1x Iroas, God of Victory
5x Mountain
1x Nessian Demolok
1x Oreskos Swiftclaw
1x Peregrination
1x Phalanx Formation
1x Pheres-Band Thunderhoof
6x Plains
1x Prowler's Helm
1x Rouse the Mob
1x Sightless Brawler
1x Starfall
1x Temple of Triumph
1x Titan's Strength
1x Traveler's Amulet
1x Vanquish the Foul
1x Voyaging Satyr
1x Warrior's Lesson
Not like me to post a decklist like that, but the situation is pertinent enough that my thought process might as well be recorded. Looking at the mana curve, my hopes for a high tempo deck with plenty of combat tricks to back them up. After about an hour, the matchups began.
Matchup #1: Izzet Control(?)
The question mark in this one was because the intent of the deck wasn't immediately clear. The guy was running counterspells, cantrips, a fair amount of red creatures... But nothing to really push the creatures through. He was a charming lad, with an entourage of support, apparently he was as new at this as I was; but between the lack of disruption once my Charioteers hit the field, coupled with not really enough damage to push through, I took my first victory of the game relatively unopposed. 2-0.
Matchup #2: Azorius Tempo
To my surprise, this matchup saw me against a familiar face; the Golgari player from the Born of the Gods prerelease. He sported a white pool with an appropriate backup/removal to support a dual-colour strategy. I hoped he would be a good matchup like last time; We dealt up, and played on. First game was a pretty decisive one in my favour; he burnt his removal on smaller threats, tapping himself out on the turn I brought out my Charioteers, then blowing a ton of heroic triggers on it to swing for lethal (I believe the blow was dealt by 5/8 double strike lifelink). Second game was MUCH closer however; we both stalled out, building up forces but neither one wanting to take a swing at the other. Eventually through the few removal spells I had/Iroas I could take his bulwark apart and (eventually) swing through for lethal. 4-0.
Matchup #3: Naya Midrange
My third matchup was a friendly face. He was one of the group that I arrived with, giving me the advantage of knowing 1) what he was playing, 2) what he intended to do with it, 3) He was packing an Ajani, Mentor of Heroes. Needless to say, we shuffled up and dealt out. I've played against this guy A LOT since I started playing magic, so I know his style.
First game was pretty easy going for my side, the guy had some pretty easy to deal with creatures, he dropped a Swarmborn Giant on me which was dealt with easily enough by the fact that I had managed a turn 4 Iroas the turn before. Between my Bladetusk Boar and Dawnbringer Charioteers, once Ajani hit the board I could push through enough damage to kill him on the first turn while pushing for his face as well.
Second game felt a bit cheap, but he still put up a valiant fight all the same; I put my strategy together on the board and pushed through to his life somewhat quickly; in a game where the guy didnt pulled a single forest. his Boros offensive was valiant, but without Swarmborn Giant or Ajani he didnt really have too much of a chance. 6-0.
Matchup #4: Dega Minotaurs
This was a janky deck. I knew the guy I was playing against, and knew round about what to expect. He had timmied out at the sight of all the minotaurs in his pool, and looked to put them all in, with some white for good measure. I very nearly underestimated him, weren't it for the fact that he was 5-1. I chose the side of caution. Game 1 was a blow out in my favour, all my pieces came together and I won effortlessly. Perhaps this was to be my downfall, as in the second game it was one sided in the opposite direction. The third game was close but, ultimately, was not to be. A horde of deathtouch minotaurs sealed my fate. 7-2.
This would normally signal the end of the prerelease, but no. Not today, as there was a 4 way tie for first. Having played against the other two in the tie (Matchups #2 and #4) I sat down against another familiar face, running mono green. Unfortunately there is not much to talk about, as he didnt draw lands either of the games and I 2-0ed him without too much trouble. The other game ended up in Dega being 2-0ed by the Azorius, but because I had beaten the Azorius player previously, it is assumed that I rose above him in the standings as I was declared the winner at a prerelease for the first time in my Magic career. Truly a wonderful day.
Saturday, 30 August 2014
Friday, 11 April 2014
Inpromptu Deckbuild #3: Combatshaping
So, another challenge has been issued.
This time around, I was given the Boros Battleshaper. A decent rare, sees a bit of use in EDH (that I have seen) but never really made a splash in Standard. Looking at the CMC, its no real wonder why; its PAINFULLY expensive. But, what if we were to build around it? Well, I think you might be surprised.
One, you take your battleshaper. Seven mana for a 5/5, he's a decent body, but look at the potential in that ability. You can literally determine whether your opponent attacks into your wall of meat, or if his creatures are too scared to block your 7/7 swinging into his face. He's got the potential, but at the staggering cost of 7 mana I can see for a fact that he needs a slow deck to be built around him. I could go for control, Boros has quite a suite of control in this standard, but the combat-based ability of the Battleshaper makes me want a decent creature line up. What deck does slow/beefy? Mid range.
Midrange in mind, as an archetype it needs its bombs. Red/white isn't the bombiest of colours, so I'm thinking of splashing some green, and making this a Naya setup. Keeping within the colours at the moment however, I am excited at the major Boros bomb to be revealed recently (as of last Monday, in fact); Iroas, God of Victory is an excellent mid-game bomb (As early as turn 3 if you ramp into him) and he himself shapes combat. Your attacking creatures will be unable to be damaged by blockers, and each of them cannot be blocked by just one creature. If your opponent has two blockers left? Your entire field is Unblockable.
Splashing out into and keeping with the combat-heavy gods, it's hard to NOT be persuaded by Xenagos, God of Revels. A decent turn 4 play w/ ramp, He can double the power of your incredibly big creatures, ripe to take out your opponent's forced blockers, or straight past the ones that can't block. The addition of haste also makes any play after he hits the field VERY tense for your opponent, as he may just be staring down a 14/11 Iroas with haste.
Stemming out from the gods, the battleshaper presents an interesting opportunity; in being able to force combat in your favour, he can force potent bombs through to your opponent's face, or at least force to attempt chump blocks in the absence of double blocking your onslaught. As a result, I'm leaning towards Giant Adephage as a bomb to close out with. With the right setup, the Adephage can swing for 14 on the turn he's out with Xenagos, which can be sped up to turn 5 in the right condition. If you shape the combat right, at least some damage will go right to the face which, due to the Adephage's effect, produces a copy of the giant beetle, making your next combat hit hard. With Selesnya in the colours of Naya, some token shenanigans could be in order. Another non-God (But might as well be) is the ever-popular Polukranos, World Eater. In a deck that desperately wants ramp as much as this one does, Sooner or later you're going to have enough mana to make him truly Monstrous. And hey, he's removal on a creature, what's not to love?
Speaking of ramp, there are two stand-out entries at this point. First, the Sylvan Caryatid. This guy sees 4-of play in every green deck in Standard for a reason. 2 Mana for a 0/3 hexproof wall is fair enough... Then you make that wall able to tap for ANY colour of mana. Not just green. ANY colour. It's a triple-colour deck's dream. My one regret is that you can only carry 4 in a deck. I must say though, as much as the Caryatid's fixing is nice, it's not quite the ramping power of my other choice for ramp; Meet Xenagos, the Reveler. He does more than create interesting time travel paradoxes when he and his God Form are on the field at once, I assure you. His +1 ability is the main reason I chose him, he ramps. Hard. He makes the 7 drops viable by just being there. Dropping a creature on Turns 1-3 then him causes him to almost pay for himself on entry, then just create value from there. His 0 creates a creature, synergising with his god form; want to break a wall? Throw 4/4 hastes at it until problem is dealt with. I'm assuming unless your opponent has no idea of how to deal with planeswalkers he won't let you get near your ultimate, but if, for example, you were to make his combat so it was impossible to touch Xenagos until he ults, well... Enjoy your free creatures and lands, this deck runs very few noncreature nonlands.
Of course, this strategy is nice, but we need to get there. So we may well need a few early beaters. With the size of the creatures coming down in subsequent turns, my good friend Experiment One will have to make an appearance. He's quite frankly too nuts in most green archetypes to not, a mid game threat with an early game cost. A choice that may give me flak is the inclusion of Wayfaring Temple. Why did I include this? Well, for 3 you get a */* that gets bigger as your field grows. That's nice and all, Crusaders of Odric are routinely seen as end game bombs in my local meta. But, say if you were to get the opportunity to get a free shot at the opponent's face with this monster, you get a populate. An extra token (which is not as small as it sounds, potential targets include Giant Adephage tokens and tokens from Voice of Resurgence) and that makes it even bigger as a result. The potential to stomp your way to victory is pretty attractive, in my opinion. As previously mentioned as well, Voice of Resurgence makes a play in here as well. My reasoning? Well, for one, this card is nuts. Like, super nuts. Guaranteed at least one token whose P/T mirrors your Wayfaring Temples. Add onto the fact that it discourages any Red/Black/Blue/Any deck with instants from doing anything during your turn, is amazing. Psychological Warfare. As I close out the token-heavy section of the build, I feel the need to mention that with every token that hits the board, Xenagos (Planeswalker) becomes more valuable, due to that +1 ability of his.
Now that we have our creatures out of the way, how about some other ways to shape combat? The obvious place to go is combat tricks, but with big enough creatures the only trick I feel is relevant to put in is in defense: Pay No Heed. A white instant reprinted in the Core Set, it nullifies all damage one source would do. Most likely the only creature your opponent attacks with that turn, because he's forced to. This can turn already awkward situations into demoralising losses for your opponent, all for one white mana.
When you see the decklist, you may note there is a one-of on the board: Assemble the Legion. This is a card that I see all the time as a pseudo-sideboard card: If you see it ever, you've stalled out way too long, and this is something to help you end it. To its credit, it does that very well; the exponential growth in field makes Xenagos more valuable, gives you chump blockers, and makes your Elemental tokens/Wayfaring temples bigger. I can only see a one-of of this card being useful, but that's just my opinion!
Thats it for this deckbuild, the full link to my decklist can be found at here if you would like to check it out/give it a try. For now though, see you next time.
This time around, I was given the Boros Battleshaper. A decent rare, sees a bit of use in EDH (that I have seen) but never really made a splash in Standard. Looking at the CMC, its no real wonder why; its PAINFULLY expensive. But, what if we were to build around it? Well, I think you might be surprised.
One, you take your battleshaper. Seven mana for a 5/5, he's a decent body, but look at the potential in that ability. You can literally determine whether your opponent attacks into your wall of meat, or if his creatures are too scared to block your 7/7 swinging into his face. He's got the potential, but at the staggering cost of 7 mana I can see for a fact that he needs a slow deck to be built around him. I could go for control, Boros has quite a suite of control in this standard, but the combat-based ability of the Battleshaper makes me want a decent creature line up. What deck does slow/beefy? Mid range.
Midrange in mind, as an archetype it needs its bombs. Red/white isn't the bombiest of colours, so I'm thinking of splashing some green, and making this a Naya setup. Keeping within the colours at the moment however, I am excited at the major Boros bomb to be revealed recently (as of last Monday, in fact); Iroas, God of Victory is an excellent mid-game bomb (As early as turn 3 if you ramp into him) and he himself shapes combat. Your attacking creatures will be unable to be damaged by blockers, and each of them cannot be blocked by just one creature. If your opponent has two blockers left? Your entire field is Unblockable.Splashing out into and keeping with the combat-heavy gods, it's hard to NOT be persuaded by Xenagos, God of Revels. A decent turn 4 play w/ ramp, He can double the power of your incredibly big creatures, ripe to take out your opponent's forced blockers, or straight past the ones that can't block. The addition of haste also makes any play after he hits the field VERY tense for your opponent, as he may just be staring down a 14/11 Iroas with haste.
Stemming out from the gods, the battleshaper presents an interesting opportunity; in being able to force combat in your favour, he can force potent bombs through to your opponent's face, or at least force to attempt chump blocks in the absence of double blocking your onslaught. As a result, I'm leaning towards Giant Adephage as a bomb to close out with. With the right setup, the Adephage can swing for 14 on the turn he's out with Xenagos, which can be sped up to turn 5 in the right condition. If you shape the combat right, at least some damage will go right to the face which, due to the Adephage's effect, produces a copy of the giant beetle, making your next combat hit hard. With Selesnya in the colours of Naya, some token shenanigans could be in order. Another non-God (But might as well be) is the ever-popular Polukranos, World Eater. In a deck that desperately wants ramp as much as this one does, Sooner or later you're going to have enough mana to make him truly Monstrous. And hey, he's removal on a creature, what's not to love?
Speaking of ramp, there are two stand-out entries at this point. First, the Sylvan Caryatid. This guy sees 4-of play in every green deck in Standard for a reason. 2 Mana for a 0/3 hexproof wall is fair enough... Then you make that wall able to tap for ANY colour of mana. Not just green. ANY colour. It's a triple-colour deck's dream. My one regret is that you can only carry 4 in a deck. I must say though, as much as the Caryatid's fixing is nice, it's not quite the ramping power of my other choice for ramp; Meet Xenagos, the Reveler. He does more than create interesting time travel paradoxes when he and his God Form are on the field at once, I assure you. His +1 ability is the main reason I chose him, he ramps. Hard. He makes the 7 drops viable by just being there. Dropping a creature on Turns 1-3 then him causes him to almost pay for himself on entry, then just create value from there. His 0 creates a creature, synergising with his god form; want to break a wall? Throw 4/4 hastes at it until problem is dealt with. I'm assuming unless your opponent has no idea of how to deal with planeswalkers he won't let you get near your ultimate, but if, for example, you were to make his combat so it was impossible to touch Xenagos until he ults, well... Enjoy your free creatures and lands, this deck runs very few noncreature nonlands.
Of course, this strategy is nice, but we need to get there. So we may well need a few early beaters. With the size of the creatures coming down in subsequent turns, my good friend Experiment One will have to make an appearance. He's quite frankly too nuts in most green archetypes to not, a mid game threat with an early game cost. A choice that may give me flak is the inclusion of Wayfaring Temple. Why did I include this? Well, for 3 you get a */* that gets bigger as your field grows. That's nice and all, Crusaders of Odric are routinely seen as end game bombs in my local meta. But, say if you were to get the opportunity to get a free shot at the opponent's face with this monster, you get a populate. An extra token (which is not as small as it sounds, potential targets include Giant Adephage tokens and tokens from Voice of Resurgence) and that makes it even bigger as a result. The potential to stomp your way to victory is pretty attractive, in my opinion. As previously mentioned as well, Voice of Resurgence makes a play in here as well. My reasoning? Well, for one, this card is nuts. Like, super nuts. Guaranteed at least one token whose P/T mirrors your Wayfaring Temples. Add onto the fact that it discourages any Red/Black/Blue/Any deck with instants from doing anything during your turn, is amazing. Psychological Warfare. As I close out the token-heavy section of the build, I feel the need to mention that with every token that hits the board, Xenagos (Planeswalker) becomes more valuable, due to that +1 ability of his.
Now that we have our creatures out of the way, how about some other ways to shape combat? The obvious place to go is combat tricks, but with big enough creatures the only trick I feel is relevant to put in is in defense: Pay No Heed. A white instant reprinted in the Core Set, it nullifies all damage one source would do. Most likely the only creature your opponent attacks with that turn, because he's forced to. This can turn already awkward situations into demoralising losses for your opponent, all for one white mana.
When you see the decklist, you may note there is a one-of on the board: Assemble the Legion. This is a card that I see all the time as a pseudo-sideboard card: If you see it ever, you've stalled out way too long, and this is something to help you end it. To its credit, it does that very well; the exponential growth in field makes Xenagos more valuable, gives you chump blockers, and makes your Elemental tokens/Wayfaring temples bigger. I can only see a one-of of this card being useful, but that's just my opinion!Thats it for this deckbuild, the full link to my decklist can be found at here if you would like to check it out/give it a try. For now though, see you next time.
Deck Spotlight #4: Undying Assault
Feeling something a bit light-hearted for a blog post today. How does some Plants vs Zombies sound? Or Plants with Zombies? Plant Zombies? Close Enough.
Story time, being a Uni student with not much money and no car, my local meta centralises around my halls of residence, typically. Besides myself, there is perhaps only one other who enjoys the competitive aspect of magic, and we can play for hours with our multitudes of decks (I have 6 main decks with 3 in the works, he has about the same main, but 10 apart from that) and, being blunt, the others don't quite feel our competitive spirit. Quite the opposite.
When we're not locking horns in a competitive arena, my meta prefer large Free-for-all games, which surprisingly end up having the two with highly competitive minds/decks, even if we're not playing competitive decks, being the main targets. It's the way things will be anywhere, I've come to grips with that. So, one day, I decided to make a deck that would make people NOT want to target me (either my creatures or my deck, mill is/was a big thing in the meta) and, flicking through my binder, I found a copy of Varolz, the Scar-Striped in my collection. It was from then on that the idea hatched: A build up deck, which doesn't make enemies unless provoked, and if it does get targetted by creature or mill, it speeds up my clock. Glorious. IT fits the meta as well, as they prefer Field-building games anyhow. And so, Undying Assault was born.
First up, let's talk about the poster child of the deck, Varolz. Traded into shortly after the Dragon's Maze prerelease, as he was my favourite of the champions; as much as the Orzhov Syndicate have my heart guildwise, look at him. Makes EVERYTHING you have useful after death. Can regenerate, and doing so adds more fuel to his first powerful ability. A perfect opportunity for capitalisation, as most people underestimate his frail 2/2 body (Hell, even the Selesnya "Champion" can take 2 2/2s with no problem). The scavenge cost on each dead creature is equal to its cost, so high power, lost cost creatures will be the best way forward, along with as few spells as I can spare, as he is creature hungry.
Being a sucker for the Standard pool, I had a look around and found another guy I wanted to make a staple of in this deck: Corpsejack Menace (or as my local meta now calls him, "Not that Fuckface again") because, unsurprisingly, once he enters the field untouched, he instantly makes things a wee bit nuts. Suddenly, your scavenges go crazy, your evolvers (I'll get onto those later) start doubling output, and your hydras (Once again, I'll cover that in a sec) become incredibly efficient. Doubling counters is an ability that should NEVER be underestimated. Period.
Next, the heart of the Swarm: the Scavenge creatures. It's rare that these guys see play long, as they're serve as, let's be honest, aggro fodder. They're the early game creatures that keep your opponent down so your bombs can grow. I could have loaded up with tons of Scavenge creatures, but with Varolz that's less of an issue, so I went with the most valuable Scavenge creatures: Slitherhead, a 1/1 for 1 that Scavenges for FREE. The only scavenge creature that Varolz doesn't add value too, but he doesn't need to. Opponents typically ignore him early, but a poke or five down the line they have to kill him, which feeds the swarm. Next in line is the Dreg Mangler, one of my votes for early game MVP. If you're on the play and hit your land drops, he's nigh-unanswerable on turn 3, if you're on the draw he's answerable but will either burn removal or your opponent's creatures of equal or greater size. Then he scavenges for 5, made cheaper with Varolz to 3. For my final scavenge creature, and to answer to those that think "3/3s are cool, but where's your meat?" I present the top end of my mana curve: Deadbridge Goliath. He's a solid 5/5 for 4, which is enough for at least a look in, but when he turns into a +5/+5 scavenge for 4 (increased exponentially by the presence of Corpsejack Menaces) his death and subsequent reraising ends games.
Carrying on the aggro theme, I mentioned that this deck would not be fully Scavenge fodder in the early game. What did I mean by that? Well, Meet Experiment One. My ideal turn 1 play, he would come out to provide much needed defense, regenerates by cannibalising himself, and his evolve trigger works with the Corpsejack Menaces, putting up to 8(!) counters on him per evolve trigger. Of course that rarely happens; Best so far is turn 5 experiment one into second corpsejack menace, creating a 5/5 and another 4/4 for a total of 5 mana. Ridiculous. As for the other inclusion I've seen questioned about in this deck is my election for 2 drop, the Kalonian Tusker. Upon the reasoning that 1) He's above the curve at 3/3 for 2, 2) scavenges for +3/+3 minimum when Varolz is on the field, and 3) evolves Experiment one straight out the gate potentially up to twice, justifies his inclusion in the deck.
Now for what you've all been waiting for: the bombs. The guys that end games very quickly once a scavenge or two is put onto them, getting obscene in the presence of Corpsejacks. First up, the Lotleth Troll. He's expensive, and with good reason. at BG, I have a 2/1 Trample, which regenerates for B. B being needed to cast him in the first place, he needs to be killed the turn he hits the board or he's going to be a problem. He's unpredictable in combat as suddenly, every single creature in hand is a combat trick. This goes from just +1/+1 to get you out of range of that burn spell, or +2/+2 to send you over the top of their blocker, or +8/+8 to finish the game out. Then, the turn after, every creature you've discarded to give him the edge becomes scavenge material to make the trampler ensure the game ends swiftly.
Or is that not enough? Would you prefer a trampler that grows quicker, AND puts your creatures into the grave, fresh for a scavenging? A new inclusion with Born of the Gods, Scourge of Skola Vale, has been doing work for me. First off, he comes in with counters. These are doubled if you have a corpsejack or two on the field. Alone he's a 2/2 trample for 3, respectable. With one corpsejack, he's a 4/4 trample for 3, absolutely absurd. In a long drawn out game, when he ETBs as a 32/32 trample, I have seen on the spot scoops from unprepared players. Second, his sacrifice ability. These counters are also affected by corpsejack, so it's entirely possible to sac a Deadbridge Goliath for 10 +1/+1 counters, then scavenge another 10 onto him the same turn, for 4 mana total. I give this as an example because it was the first time I'd playtested him in this environment. He subsequently ran through a Sliver tribal deck for the win the turn after, didn't even blink. That game sold me on this card completely.
Finally, no deck would be that great if it didnt have removal. For a quick run down of the removal suite, I elected to go with a playset of Putrefy as my 3 drop; if I had the budget I'd just as easily go for Hero's Downfall, but the added utility of artifact removal is nice. At 2 drop I also have a playset of Ultimate Price, As in my meta I come up against heavy black decks fairly often (hence the want for graveyard manipulation) and Doom Blade wouldn't have quite done the job. While it could be argued that Doom Blade would be quite good, Its hard to justify replacing the Ultimate Prices for them with Monocoloured creatures being very prevalent, and in the case of coming against a black deck I would not enjoy having 4 dead cards in the deck, and relying on my Putrefies.
Thats it for this deck folks, my full deck list including amounts of each card can be found here. I hope you enjoyed the ride; Until next time!
Story time, being a Uni student with not much money and no car, my local meta centralises around my halls of residence, typically. Besides myself, there is perhaps only one other who enjoys the competitive aspect of magic, and we can play for hours with our multitudes of decks (I have 6 main decks with 3 in the works, he has about the same main, but 10 apart from that) and, being blunt, the others don't quite feel our competitive spirit. Quite the opposite.
When we're not locking horns in a competitive arena, my meta prefer large Free-for-all games, which surprisingly end up having the two with highly competitive minds/decks, even if we're not playing competitive decks, being the main targets. It's the way things will be anywhere, I've come to grips with that. So, one day, I decided to make a deck that would make people NOT want to target me (either my creatures or my deck, mill is/was a big thing in the meta) and, flicking through my binder, I found a copy of Varolz, the Scar-Striped in my collection. It was from then on that the idea hatched: A build up deck, which doesn't make enemies unless provoked, and if it does get targetted by creature or mill, it speeds up my clock. Glorious. IT fits the meta as well, as they prefer Field-building games anyhow. And so, Undying Assault was born.
First up, let's talk about the poster child of the deck, Varolz. Traded into shortly after the Dragon's Maze prerelease, as he was my favourite of the champions; as much as the Orzhov Syndicate have my heart guildwise, look at him. Makes EVERYTHING you have useful after death. Can regenerate, and doing so adds more fuel to his first powerful ability. A perfect opportunity for capitalisation, as most people underestimate his frail 2/2 body (Hell, even the Selesnya "Champion" can take 2 2/2s with no problem). The scavenge cost on each dead creature is equal to its cost, so high power, lost cost creatures will be the best way forward, along with as few spells as I can spare, as he is creature hungry.
Being a sucker for the Standard pool, I had a look around and found another guy I wanted to make a staple of in this deck: Corpsejack Menace (or as my local meta now calls him, "Not that Fuckface again") because, unsurprisingly, once he enters the field untouched, he instantly makes things a wee bit nuts. Suddenly, your scavenges go crazy, your evolvers (I'll get onto those later) start doubling output, and your hydras (Once again, I'll cover that in a sec) become incredibly efficient. Doubling counters is an ability that should NEVER be underestimated. Period.
Next, the heart of the Swarm: the Scavenge creatures. It's rare that these guys see play long, as they're serve as, let's be honest, aggro fodder. They're the early game creatures that keep your opponent down so your bombs can grow. I could have loaded up with tons of Scavenge creatures, but with Varolz that's less of an issue, so I went with the most valuable Scavenge creatures: Slitherhead, a 1/1 for 1 that Scavenges for FREE. The only scavenge creature that Varolz doesn't add value too, but he doesn't need to. Opponents typically ignore him early, but a poke or five down the line they have to kill him, which feeds the swarm. Next in line is the Dreg Mangler, one of my votes for early game MVP. If you're on the play and hit your land drops, he's nigh-unanswerable on turn 3, if you're on the draw he's answerable but will either burn removal or your opponent's creatures of equal or greater size. Then he scavenges for 5, made cheaper with Varolz to 3. For my final scavenge creature, and to answer to those that think "3/3s are cool, but where's your meat?" I present the top end of my mana curve: Deadbridge Goliath. He's a solid 5/5 for 4, which is enough for at least a look in, but when he turns into a +5/+5 scavenge for 4 (increased exponentially by the presence of Corpsejack Menaces) his death and subsequent reraising ends games.
Carrying on the aggro theme, I mentioned that this deck would not be fully Scavenge fodder in the early game. What did I mean by that? Well, Meet Experiment One. My ideal turn 1 play, he would come out to provide much needed defense, regenerates by cannibalising himself, and his evolve trigger works with the Corpsejack Menaces, putting up to 8(!) counters on him per evolve trigger. Of course that rarely happens; Best so far is turn 5 experiment one into second corpsejack menace, creating a 5/5 and another 4/4 for a total of 5 mana. Ridiculous. As for the other inclusion I've seen questioned about in this deck is my election for 2 drop, the Kalonian Tusker. Upon the reasoning that 1) He's above the curve at 3/3 for 2, 2) scavenges for +3/+3 minimum when Varolz is on the field, and 3) evolves Experiment one straight out the gate potentially up to twice, justifies his inclusion in the deck.
Now for what you've all been waiting for: the bombs. The guys that end games very quickly once a scavenge or two is put onto them, getting obscene in the presence of Corpsejacks. First up, the Lotleth Troll. He's expensive, and with good reason. at BG, I have a 2/1 Trample, which regenerates for B. B being needed to cast him in the first place, he needs to be killed the turn he hits the board or he's going to be a problem. He's unpredictable in combat as suddenly, every single creature in hand is a combat trick. This goes from just +1/+1 to get you out of range of that burn spell, or +2/+2 to send you over the top of their blocker, or +8/+8 to finish the game out. Then, the turn after, every creature you've discarded to give him the edge becomes scavenge material to make the trampler ensure the game ends swiftly.
Or is that not enough? Would you prefer a trampler that grows quicker, AND puts your creatures into the grave, fresh for a scavenging? A new inclusion with Born of the Gods, Scourge of Skola Vale, has been doing work for me. First off, he comes in with counters. These are doubled if you have a corpsejack or two on the field. Alone he's a 2/2 trample for 3, respectable. With one corpsejack, he's a 4/4 trample for 3, absolutely absurd. In a long drawn out game, when he ETBs as a 32/32 trample, I have seen on the spot scoops from unprepared players. Second, his sacrifice ability. These counters are also affected by corpsejack, so it's entirely possible to sac a Deadbridge Goliath for 10 +1/+1 counters, then scavenge another 10 onto him the same turn, for 4 mana total. I give this as an example because it was the first time I'd playtested him in this environment. He subsequently ran through a Sliver tribal deck for the win the turn after, didn't even blink. That game sold me on this card completely.
Finally, no deck would be that great if it didnt have removal. For a quick run down of the removal suite, I elected to go with a playset of Putrefy as my 3 drop; if I had the budget I'd just as easily go for Hero's Downfall, but the added utility of artifact removal is nice. At 2 drop I also have a playset of Ultimate Price, As in my meta I come up against heavy black decks fairly often (hence the want for graveyard manipulation) and Doom Blade wouldn't have quite done the job. While it could be argued that Doom Blade would be quite good, Its hard to justify replacing the Ultimate Prices for them with Monocoloured creatures being very prevalent, and in the case of coming against a black deck I would not enjoy having 4 dead cards in the deck, and relying on my Putrefies.
Thats it for this deck folks, my full deck list including amounts of each card can be found here. I hope you enjoyed the ride; Until next time!
Monday, 7 April 2014
Inpromptu Deckbuild #2: The Cunning and the Cruel
So, it's blog post time again, ladies and gents.
This time around, things are a bit different; I've had a request. I've been asked to form a deck for a specific card this time around, and this time around that card is a black mythic from Theros, that isn't a god. I am, of course, talking about Hythonia the Cruel. This card is one that I (and my significant other) have been wanting to put into a deck since we pulled one out of a Theros pack, and promptly pulled a second one later that week. Queen of the Gorgons, she has the power to wipe a field of non-gorgons, leaving her only more powerful and with any number of friends she cares to have left behind. Question is, what can we do with her?
First things first, I'd want to be able to use her effect when I need it. So i'll need a lot of mana. This deck being standard, luckily I know exactly what I want. A source of mana so rich and easy to work into a build it would be nuts to try and find something else. I am referring, of course, to Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. With enough devotion, the normally staggering 8 mana cost of Hythonia's ability becomes negligible. Sure, you lose your devotion after. And sure, it only works once. But usually, once is all you need.
So, what do we use with her? First kneejerk reaction goes towards Gorgons, of which there are pitiful few in the set, some are present the the Golgari Swarm in Ravnica but our best bet is a stab in the Theros block. The only real one we can see to actually impact in any meaningful way would be Reaper of the Wilds. The scry-on-death effect will cause a mass delve into your library after a Hythonia wipe, as well as her in-built hexproof generation to protect her from removal. I'm a big fan of her work.
Looking outside the Gorgon box, preferably down the lower end of the CMC spectrum, we have few choices to be excited about, but they are solid when we do find them. For one, we have Nighthowler. Provides two black devotion to the Nykthos buff pool, survives Hythonia's wipe (if bestowed) and either is super-buff or super-buffs whatever it's attached to after the fact. Value upon value upon value. Just what i'm looking for.
Out of pure necessity and as my favourite creature in the whole Theros block, Good old Gary is included in my list. With Thoughtseize and Underworld Connections being serious contenders in our noncreature spots, the Gray Merchant rears his ugly head to fuel another of my black monstrosities.
Another honorable mention in this deck is Sylvan Caryatid. A flexible mana dork, with hexproof, which can provide an early wall against those pesky aggro decks. Only disadvantages would be that she is not Hythonia proof, and she doesnt contribute to our devotion counter.
Im fairly happy with the creature count currently, as they all contribute towards the end goal, and the deck itself looks like it's leaning towards a control shell, so I may return but creature-light control decks are widespread. So, what next?
Thoughtseize. That's what. Getting into your opponent's head (or hand, in this case) seeing what he's thinking, and then DENYING him that strategy is a valuable strategy. Oh, it's one mana? Surely there must be some other setback. 2 life? I'll survive, but anything to eliminate that Detention Sphere, or that Gray Merchant. Literally the only thing this card can't touch is their land drop, which leaves a LOT of room to ruin their game, and possibly their day.
Next on the list of considerations, Golgari Charm. Usually a sideboard card against boardwipes like Supreme Verdict, but when your main win condition can expertly eliminate half of your creatures, a fallback in order to make it a one-sided field wipe for 2 extra mana (when you're probably swimming in the stuff from Nykthos) is nothing to be sniffed at. Also provides enchantment removal for the increasing impactful presence of enchantment creatures, and a Shrivel, which won't kill your creatures regardless.
Next, onwards to our suite of Removal. Being a control deck, being overwhelmed before you reach your ultimatum is not the best of ideas. As such, I have two suggestions for this decklist in particular. Bile Blight introduced in Born of the Gods is an incredibly versatile removal spell at BB, removing the prevalent Pack Rat as well as the host of tokens produced by Mono White and Mono Blue devotion decks. For everything else, however, there is always my good friend Hero's Downfall. Indiscriminate, same cost as murder, and ices planeswalkers, which are rising through the ranks with Superfriends builds being increasingly big (even moreso with a planeswalker lineup of Jace, Kiora, Elspeth and soon to be Ajani in Bant colours) and thats why I placed the Downfall over something like Putrefy. Putrefy would be a decent sideboard card by all means, but planeswalkers > artifacts in terms of wanting to remove them.
Speaking of planeswalkers, we have a very special inclusion in this set of colours: Vraska the Unseen. The reasons for including at least one include: Doesn't die to Hythonia, includes 1 black devotion, is a repeatable Bramblecrush (and stalls out attacks on you with her +1) and is also a gorgon, so flavourwise I'm a giggling schoolgirl. This hideously resistant inclusion to the deck will make opposing decks feel even more like they're running through tar the whole time, all the while you're fuelling your ultimatum.
To end out the deck, what's a control deck without a draw engine to fuel it? For this spot, look no further than Underworld Connections. Same as Vraska, adds black devotion (two this time, as opposed to one), is resistant to Hythonia's ability, and can draw you cards at instant speed. What's not to love?
Put those all together, and you have yourself one Deck List, containing one of the first ways (that I've seen) to give Hythonia the Cruel her competitive edge. It might not be incredible, but it'll be enough to beat a few people at FNM, maybe lose a few friends while you're at it. Have Fun!
This time around, things are a bit different; I've had a request. I've been asked to form a deck for a specific card this time around, and this time around that card is a black mythic from Theros, that isn't a god. I am, of course, talking about Hythonia the Cruel. This card is one that I (and my significant other) have been wanting to put into a deck since we pulled one out of a Theros pack, and promptly pulled a second one later that week. Queen of the Gorgons, she has the power to wipe a field of non-gorgons, leaving her only more powerful and with any number of friends she cares to have left behind. Question is, what can we do with her?
First things first, I'd want to be able to use her effect when I need it. So i'll need a lot of mana. This deck being standard, luckily I know exactly what I want. A source of mana so rich and easy to work into a build it would be nuts to try and find something else. I am referring, of course, to Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. With enough devotion, the normally staggering 8 mana cost of Hythonia's ability becomes negligible. Sure, you lose your devotion after. And sure, it only works once. But usually, once is all you need.
So, what do we use with her? First kneejerk reaction goes towards Gorgons, of which there are pitiful few in the set, some are present the the Golgari Swarm in Ravnica but our best bet is a stab in the Theros block. The only real one we can see to actually impact in any meaningful way would be Reaper of the Wilds. The scry-on-death effect will cause a mass delve into your library after a Hythonia wipe, as well as her in-built hexproof generation to protect her from removal. I'm a big fan of her work.
Looking outside the Gorgon box, preferably down the lower end of the CMC spectrum, we have few choices to be excited about, but they are solid when we do find them. For one, we have Nighthowler. Provides two black devotion to the Nykthos buff pool, survives Hythonia's wipe (if bestowed) and either is super-buff or super-buffs whatever it's attached to after the fact. Value upon value upon value. Just what i'm looking for.
Out of pure necessity and as my favourite creature in the whole Theros block, Good old Gary is included in my list. With Thoughtseize and Underworld Connections being serious contenders in our noncreature spots, the Gray Merchant rears his ugly head to fuel another of my black monstrosities.Another honorable mention in this deck is Sylvan Caryatid. A flexible mana dork, with hexproof, which can provide an early wall against those pesky aggro decks. Only disadvantages would be that she is not Hythonia proof, and she doesnt contribute to our devotion counter.
Im fairly happy with the creature count currently, as they all contribute towards the end goal, and the deck itself looks like it's leaning towards a control shell, so I may return but creature-light control decks are widespread. So, what next?
Thoughtseize. That's what. Getting into your opponent's head (or hand, in this case) seeing what he's thinking, and then DENYING him that strategy is a valuable strategy. Oh, it's one mana? Surely there must be some other setback. 2 life? I'll survive, but anything to eliminate that Detention Sphere, or that Gray Merchant. Literally the only thing this card can't touch is their land drop, which leaves a LOT of room to ruin their game, and possibly their day.
Next on the list of considerations, Golgari Charm. Usually a sideboard card against boardwipes like Supreme Verdict, but when your main win condition can expertly eliminate half of your creatures, a fallback in order to make it a one-sided field wipe for 2 extra mana (when you're probably swimming in the stuff from Nykthos) is nothing to be sniffed at. Also provides enchantment removal for the increasing impactful presence of enchantment creatures, and a Shrivel, which won't kill your creatures regardless.
Next, onwards to our suite of Removal. Being a control deck, being overwhelmed before you reach your ultimatum is not the best of ideas. As such, I have two suggestions for this decklist in particular. Bile Blight introduced in Born of the Gods is an incredibly versatile removal spell at BB, removing the prevalent Pack Rat as well as the host of tokens produced by Mono White and Mono Blue devotion decks. For everything else, however, there is always my good friend Hero's Downfall. Indiscriminate, same cost as murder, and ices planeswalkers, which are rising through the ranks with Superfriends builds being increasingly big (even moreso with a planeswalker lineup of Jace, Kiora, Elspeth and soon to be Ajani in Bant colours) and thats why I placed the Downfall over something like Putrefy. Putrefy would be a decent sideboard card by all means, but planeswalkers > artifacts in terms of wanting to remove them.
Speaking of planeswalkers, we have a very special inclusion in this set of colours: Vraska the Unseen. The reasons for including at least one include: Doesn't die to Hythonia, includes 1 black devotion, is a repeatable Bramblecrush (and stalls out attacks on you with her +1) and is also a gorgon, so flavourwise I'm a giggling schoolgirl. This hideously resistant inclusion to the deck will make opposing decks feel even more like they're running through tar the whole time, all the while you're fuelling your ultimatum.
To end out the deck, what's a control deck without a draw engine to fuel it? For this spot, look no further than Underworld Connections. Same as Vraska, adds black devotion (two this time, as opposed to one), is resistant to Hythonia's ability, and can draw you cards at instant speed. What's not to love?
Put those all together, and you have yourself one Deck List, containing one of the first ways (that I've seen) to give Hythonia the Cruel her competitive edge. It might not be incredible, but it'll be enough to beat a few people at FNM, maybe lose a few friends while you're at it. Have Fun!
Monday, 3 February 2014
Born of the Gods Pre-release
Today, as of this writing, I went to a prerelease.
I by no means did incredibly, but I was incredibly excited to see my first prerelease event through until the end. My friends and I were semi-expecting a deserted LGS, as we rolled in to the Sunday Afternoon event. It sort of was. Fifteen people had shown up, unsurprisingly most of them sporting the Destined to Conquer pack that had been hyped the day before. Unfazed, I went to the counter, requested a box of Destined to Dominate, the Black seeded pack, and went to sort out my deck.
Unsurprisingly, my deck was black based. Notable pulls in black include Drown in Sorrow, Pain Seer being the rare in my seeded pack, but ultimately the card that made me crumble in my choice of colours was the pull from the final BNG booster, Phenax, God of Deception. After seeing one of my favorite cards from the spoiled set, I set my mind towards the Dimir end of the spectrum.
This would be an awful move usually as I didn't take much else into account, but in all fairness my pool luckily supported a Dimir deck. Several high toughness creatures in the colours, notably Coastline Chimera and Marshmist Titan were present. Low costing, high toughness creatures like Returned Phalanx were uncommon but strong, and my suite of removal consisted of many counterspells, a few kill spells, and a Griptide, which appeared frequently and dismantled many would-be game finishers into a blank space and many disjointed bestow creatures.
So, sit down. First opponent is playing Golgari. I'm somewhat alarmed by the knowledge he's running Destined to Dominate from his dice, but we shuffle, cut, and deal. These games go off without much resistance unfortunately, as Phenax made his appearance promptly and closed the game out in two or three turns each time. 2-0.
Now, here's where things get awkward. I sit down to my next opponent, playing Mono-green devotion. Cocky and self-assured by my first victories, I mess up with blockers a lot in the first game, which costs me the game. Shout out to Siren of Silent Song for the pure value brought around by green's lack of removal. Second game his stars align, and I get hit for lethal in a turn caused by double Battlemaster with Mischief and Mayhem two turns in a row, the former decimating my poor blockers. 2-2.
My next opponent is a jolly guy running Boros. This game I was feeling anxious about, as everytime I'd seen this guy in action his Forgestoker Dragon was clearing up for the game. These were the more enjoyable games, if only because the guy was laughing and joking all the way through it. Sitting next to my mono-green opponent who was of a similar disposition made it an incredibly enjoyable experience. These games were very close, the games coming to within 1 and 2 life respectively. He kept the pressure up amiably however, and I couldn't best him. 2-4.
My final opponent (due to exceedingly long rounds on some peoples tables, we only had 4 rounds) was running Gruul. The first of the prerelease, despite a few lying around. As popular as they were, I expected more if I'm honest. The guy was rigid conversation to start but loosened up after a bit of small talk, and soon we were laughing. First game went to me, on the back of a voltronned Marshmist Titan which he just couldn't stop from swinging for his face. The second I misplayed very badly, but I still put up a good fight. As we were starting the third game, the time on the round was called. Convinced we couldn't finish the game in five turns, we agreed to draw it there. 3-5 was my ending W/L.
By no means a stellar performance, but for my first draft event I enjoyed it. My friends came up 1 win each, one coming behind me but one of the others, having played fewer games, beat me by percentage win-loss. Notable pulls include Phenax, the Scourge of Skola Vale, and a Temple or two; a Dimir one and a Selesnya one. Needless to say, it left us pumped, and we're planning on heading to the launch weekend. Promokratis here I come!
I by no means did incredibly, but I was incredibly excited to see my first prerelease event through until the end. My friends and I were semi-expecting a deserted LGS, as we rolled in to the Sunday Afternoon event. It sort of was. Fifteen people had shown up, unsurprisingly most of them sporting the Destined to Conquer pack that had been hyped the day before. Unfazed, I went to the counter, requested a box of Destined to Dominate, the Black seeded pack, and went to sort out my deck.
Unsurprisingly, my deck was black based. Notable pulls in black include Drown in Sorrow, Pain Seer being the rare in my seeded pack, but ultimately the card that made me crumble in my choice of colours was the pull from the final BNG booster, Phenax, God of Deception. After seeing one of my favorite cards from the spoiled set, I set my mind towards the Dimir end of the spectrum.
This would be an awful move usually as I didn't take much else into account, but in all fairness my pool luckily supported a Dimir deck. Several high toughness creatures in the colours, notably Coastline Chimera and Marshmist Titan were present. Low costing, high toughness creatures like Returned Phalanx were uncommon but strong, and my suite of removal consisted of many counterspells, a few kill spells, and a Griptide, which appeared frequently and dismantled many would-be game finishers into a blank space and many disjointed bestow creatures.So, sit down. First opponent is playing Golgari. I'm somewhat alarmed by the knowledge he's running Destined to Dominate from his dice, but we shuffle, cut, and deal. These games go off without much resistance unfortunately, as Phenax made his appearance promptly and closed the game out in two or three turns each time. 2-0.
Now, here's where things get awkward. I sit down to my next opponent, playing Mono-green devotion. Cocky and self-assured by my first victories, I mess up with blockers a lot in the first game, which costs me the game. Shout out to Siren of Silent Song for the pure value brought around by green's lack of removal. Second game his stars align, and I get hit for lethal in a turn caused by double Battlemaster with Mischief and Mayhem two turns in a row, the former decimating my poor blockers. 2-2.
My next opponent is a jolly guy running Boros. This game I was feeling anxious about, as everytime I'd seen this guy in action his Forgestoker Dragon was clearing up for the game. These were the more enjoyable games, if only because the guy was laughing and joking all the way through it. Sitting next to my mono-green opponent who was of a similar disposition made it an incredibly enjoyable experience. These games were very close, the games coming to within 1 and 2 life respectively. He kept the pressure up amiably however, and I couldn't best him. 2-4.My final opponent (due to exceedingly long rounds on some peoples tables, we only had 4 rounds) was running Gruul. The first of the prerelease, despite a few lying around. As popular as they were, I expected more if I'm honest. The guy was rigid conversation to start but loosened up after a bit of small talk, and soon we were laughing. First game went to me, on the back of a voltronned Marshmist Titan which he just couldn't stop from swinging for his face. The second I misplayed very badly, but I still put up a good fight. As we were starting the third game, the time on the round was called. Convinced we couldn't finish the game in five turns, we agreed to draw it there. 3-5 was my ending W/L.
By no means a stellar performance, but for my first draft event I enjoyed it. My friends came up 1 win each, one coming behind me but one of the others, having played fewer games, beat me by percentage win-loss. Notable pulls include Phenax, the Scourge of Skola Vale, and a Temple or two; a Dimir one and a Selesnya one. Needless to say, it left us pumped, and we're planning on heading to the launch weekend. Promokratis here I come!
Thursday, 30 January 2014
Deck Spotlight #3: The Rise of the Wolf
So, another day, another blog, I guess?
I've lifted the lid on my favourite Standard-Legal deck so far, and my current project deck, and even done a bit of on-the-spot deckbuilding. But what haven't I done?
Today, I would like to showcase my favourite deck period (ever), my Werewolf tribal deck, the Full Moon Lynch Mob. (I'm crap at names, anybody with a better idea could probably outdo it) But, I digress..
My Werewolf deck was the first deck I ever looked outside of my spares in order to build. That is, once I'd fluked my way into pulling a Huntmaster of the Fells out of one of my first Dark Ascension Boosters. My first mythic rare of my Magic: the Gathering career, and I got one of the strongest aggro bombs to date. Quite a good start, no?
Needless to say, the 'werewolf mechanic' captured my imagination. A werewolf deck would become a race for the opponent: Kill me, or run out of spells. If you run out of spells, you'll be facing a lot more than the nice happy 2/2s I've been dropping the last few turns. And thus, my hunger for the Moon began.
As with any Tribal deck, I started where any search would start: The availability of Lords. Lords in this context meaning any number of cards which provide small boosts to creature of a type, in this case werewolf. Needless to say, I was not disappointed. For those well versed in Dark Ascension, the cycle of Captains covered the 4 main 'fantasy monster' archetypes. Diregraf Captain covered the zombie contingent, Stromkirk Captain filled the vampire section. Immerwolf was the werewolf version of this card, and made my little newbie heart skip a beat. A werewolf lord? That stops them transforming into their weak, fleshy forms? Oh Wizards, you spoil me. However, being non-wolf, I decided to add a smaller amount of them than most other creatures, as Werewolves are preferable over Immerwolves in most situations.
This lead me onto Mayor of Avabruck. What a beautiful card design. A lord that affects either humans or wolves, and switches when my humans become wolves and back again. I was aback. The wolf token spawning is just gravy, but those things become lethal if the Howlpack Alpha is left untouched. the basis was coming together.
Now, the colours told me I wanted to make it an aggro deck. Red and Green are an aggro partnership forged in the depths of the Helvault. As such, I looked to quicken my curve: I had 2, 3 and 4 drops. The 1 CMC creatures did not fail to disappoint either. Reckless Waif was a great choice to add to the deck, as swinging for a minimum of 3 on turn 2 if the opponent couldn't handle a turn 1 play was an exciting thought. What was even more exciting was the look of Wolfbitten Captive, which could swing for 3 on turn 2 UNTRANSFORMED, then transform in the opponent's upkeep as you would tap out pumping him. the Krallenhorde Killer has broken many any early frontline for me, as a 6/6 wolf is a good removal target, the 2/2 he becomes after is not, necessarily. As such, he goes untouched.
With those down, I explored my prospect of removal, to waste early resistance. I was drawn to Searing Spear (Lightning Strike as it is in the current decklist, the Strikes did not exist when I was looking) and lo, what was this? A werewolf with targetted removal. This just got better and better. Daybreak Ranger was probably the hardest wolf to amass a playset of, but it was ultimately worth it. The ability to throw a wolf amongst the enemy defenses and rip apart weak links, or to hate on those flyers coming at you, is invaluable.
Filling out the curve comes the copious amount of 2 drops. The Gatstaf Shepherds are decent beatsticks, and 4/4 Unblockables against all non-green decks when transformed with a lord out speaks volumes about its worthiness in the deck. Full Moon's Rise allows the wolves to run recklessly at the opponents force, threatening decimation of his field or his life total (often both), at more or less no downside to you. Oh, and it stops most board wipes. That has that going for it too. Speaking of decimation, however... Moonmist rounds out the decklist, providing one of the most demoralising sights an opponent staring down a field of humans can witness, guaranteed. I can not promote this spell enough, honestly. It's caused on the spot concessions, scoops, what have you, as your opponent who thought they were being clever by deliberately spreading out their casts in order to stop your horde transforming just had all their work undone... And then they run at the opponent, with no threat to themselves, annihilating everything in their path. Yep, this is a Gruul deck alright. And it's my favourite of all time.
Thats my deck spotlight folks, hope you enjoyed it!
I've lifted the lid on my favourite Standard-Legal deck so far, and my current project deck, and even done a bit of on-the-spot deckbuilding. But what haven't I done?
Today, I would like to showcase my favourite deck period (ever), my Werewolf tribal deck, the Full Moon Lynch Mob. (I'm crap at names, anybody with a better idea could probably outdo it) But, I digress..
My Werewolf deck was the first deck I ever looked outside of my spares in order to build. That is, once I'd fluked my way into pulling a Huntmaster of the Fells out of one of my first Dark Ascension Boosters. My first mythic rare of my Magic: the Gathering career, and I got one of the strongest aggro bombs to date. Quite a good start, no?Needless to say, the 'werewolf mechanic' captured my imagination. A werewolf deck would become a race for the opponent: Kill me, or run out of spells. If you run out of spells, you'll be facing a lot more than the nice happy 2/2s I've been dropping the last few turns. And thus, my hunger for the Moon began.
As with any Tribal deck, I started where any search would start: The availability of Lords. Lords in this context meaning any number of cards which provide small boosts to creature of a type, in this case werewolf. Needless to say, I was not disappointed. For those well versed in Dark Ascension, the cycle of Captains covered the 4 main 'fantasy monster' archetypes. Diregraf Captain covered the zombie contingent, Stromkirk Captain filled the vampire section. Immerwolf was the werewolf version of this card, and made my little newbie heart skip a beat. A werewolf lord? That stops them transforming into their weak, fleshy forms? Oh Wizards, you spoil me. However, being non-wolf, I decided to add a smaller amount of them than most other creatures, as Werewolves are preferable over Immerwolves in most situations.This lead me onto Mayor of Avabruck. What a beautiful card design. A lord that affects either humans or wolves, and switches when my humans become wolves and back again. I was aback. The wolf token spawning is just gravy, but those things become lethal if the Howlpack Alpha is left untouched. the basis was coming together.
Now, the colours told me I wanted to make it an aggro deck. Red and Green are an aggro partnership forged in the depths of the Helvault. As such, I looked to quicken my curve: I had 2, 3 and 4 drops. The 1 CMC creatures did not fail to disappoint either. Reckless Waif was a great choice to add to the deck, as swinging for a minimum of 3 on turn 2 if the opponent couldn't handle a turn 1 play was an exciting thought. What was even more exciting was the look of Wolfbitten Captive, which could swing for 3 on turn 2 UNTRANSFORMED, then transform in the opponent's upkeep as you would tap out pumping him. the Krallenhorde Killer has broken many any early frontline for me, as a 6/6 wolf is a good removal target, the 2/2 he becomes after is not, necessarily. As such, he goes untouched.
Filling out the curve comes the copious amount of 2 drops. The Gatstaf Shepherds are decent beatsticks, and 4/4 Unblockables against all non-green decks when transformed with a lord out speaks volumes about its worthiness in the deck. Full Moon's Rise allows the wolves to run recklessly at the opponents force, threatening decimation of his field or his life total (often both), at more or less no downside to you. Oh, and it stops most board wipes. That has that going for it too. Speaking of decimation, however... Moonmist rounds out the decklist, providing one of the most demoralising sights an opponent staring down a field of humans can witness, guaranteed. I can not promote this spell enough, honestly. It's caused on the spot concessions, scoops, what have you, as your opponent who thought they were being clever by deliberately spreading out their casts in order to stop your horde transforming just had all their work undone... And then they run at the opponent, with no threat to themselves, annihilating everything in their path. Yep, this is a Gruul deck alright. And it's my favourite of all time.Thats my deck spotlight folks, hope you enjoyed it!
Monday, 27 January 2014
Inpromptu Deckbuild #1: Gift of the Gods
So, I'm looking for a format which will properly frame the deck-builder's mindset into text form. As I've attempted before on this blog to frame my mindset, some decisions seem iffy even to me (and have even brought around changes to the decks - see my updated Wrath of Keranos build. So I'm shaking up the blog bag - I'm going to brew a deck right now, and transcribe my thought process to text.
For this deckbuild, I want to build around untapped power. Something that may be under-appreciated in standard, not quite as dominant as Master of Waves. For the locus of my deck-brew, I would like to present the epitome of Theros' untapped power - Gift of Immortality. When this card got spoiled people went nuts (I remember it well, it was my first spoiler season that I was a contributor on the MagicTCG subreddit for) but, in the wake of Esper, Mono-B and Mono-U decks, the Gift from the Gods did not see much use. So, wh
at could it use?
The first thing that comes to mind is 'What does this card synergise with'? My gut tells me enter the battlefield effects, so I'll work with that. After a quick look around the current standard format (No BNG just yet, patience) more or less any colour combination is amazing. Going Orzhov would allow the destructive Ashen Rider or more subtle Sin Collector, Azorius would allow Lavinia or just about any other detain creature there is. In white hybrids though, the cards I'm most excited to look at are Viashino Firstblade or Trostani, Selesnya's Voice, making me lean towards Boros or Selesnya. The Firstblade creates seemingly unrelenting aggro, but is janky with the Gift's effect; it would have to die in my main phase 1 in order to have its effect be of use. So, Trostani it is.
I have an idea, I have a theme. I'm pretty sure I want it standard - if not I'd have a few more ideas from standards past. But, keeping with Standard, what would we do? Trostani gives life gain and can populate, we could work off of that, but bearing that in mind, we want something to work with the Gift. What are our options?
It doesn't take long to find a fitting combo piece - Armada Wurm, Selesnya Battering Ram instantly springs to mind. Take time to think of all the interactions between these 3 pieces. An immortal wurm recurring indefinitely would create 10 toughness worth of life gain per recursion from Trostani, as well as providing a token which we can sink mana into to populate. The interactions are delicious.
Now that we have a combo core, my thoughts turn to the mana curve. Sets of 3, 4 and 6 CMC - hardly healthy. We need to quicken the curve, by adding in some weenies to stop our faces getting caved in before we can drop our combo. With the idea of constant big creatures hitting the board, I looked into the Simic mechanic, Evolve, for inspiration. Immediately I found Experiment One; renowned aggro beatstick and evolve outlet, he sees copious use in a lot of strategies involving big creatures as the front runner. Or shambler. Or however an ooze moves. Glorious.
Add in sets of each, and we're at 16 cards. Add in land (assumed 24, we aren't playing aggro - which could legitimately run less) and we're at 40. Boy, that went fast. But, we're not quite done yet. In case of spanners in the works- primarily Naturalize - I want to run Auramancer. In a deck so dependent on the combo of Gift of Immortality, losing even one would be a hefty loss to us. Hey, even slap a Gift onto the Auramancer - infinite recursion!
Next, getting to that 6 land as quickly as possible to drop our Gatecreeper Vine. Allows the grabbing of land on entry and - best of all - allows infinite grab with a Gift attached. Not that you'd necessarily want gatecreeper to have one, but it certainly breaks those land veins apart and thins our deck to find more land. He's not exactly the most durable fellow either - he's often killed early game, but is a valuable source of stall against weenies - even evolves Experiment One, whats not to love?
Wurm into play is a perogative. For this, taking note of the gaping hole at 2 CMC, I suggest
On the other hand, the deck's now at 48, and is all creatures. Lets see what spells can offer the Immortal Selesnya Engine. Immediately before looking anywhere I know i'll want Advent of the Wurm, which produces half an Armada Wurm. Not exactly Giftable, but will allow Trostani to do something while we twiddle our thumbs waiting on the big guy himself.
As much as I hate on it, artifact/enchantment hate is important, love it or hate it. I could go naturalize but while looking through cards Sundering Growth may be
helpful. This could be moved to the sideboard but at this point it may be useful. Populate is a godsend as well.
Speaking of enchantments to hate on, I have an idea. With Trostani providing us so much lifegain, why not supplement this constant stream of life gain with Angelic Accord? Token spawning providing life, which then provide tokens... that provide life. You get the picture. Props to synergy during sundering growth at this point, populating in your opponents turn would cause an angel to spawn at your opponent's end step too.
That makes 60 cards, but one last minute gem in the sorcery section catches my eye - Call of the Conclave. A 3/3 on turn 2 is nothing to sniff at - even less a 3/3 that can be populated. This is a kneejerk last addition into the mainboard, opting to lower the numbers on Trostani and Armada Wurm to 3 each, as the high CMC pieces are a nightmare if drawn in the early game; and Trostani, being legendary, has the disadvantage of only being allowed onto the board one at a time. Sundering Growth, being a situational addition, is reduced to a 2 of so it's less likely to be drawn when unneeded.
With the cards sorted, I look to tweak the mana base. With a purely basic set of land, the split of mana symbols of the deck is almost equal, white having 4 more than green. In which case, I alter the skew so it is 11 forests to 13 plains, to ensure I draw the right colours when I want to. In terms of nonbasic land, I obviously want Temple Garden. Its flexibility is unparalleled, so I cut down 2 of each basic for a full set. Also, I know I said no BNG, but the scryland from BNG, Temple of Plenty, will do wonders in this deck. In order to keep the balance of lands equal again, I remove 2 of each for a full set. And the deck is done.
I hope you guys enjoyed this as much as I did, and I hope this fulfils its purpose - to give people an insight into the mind of a deck builder. The decklist of the made deck in today's article is available here. Happy Deckbuilding!
at could it use?
The first thing that comes to mind is 'What does this card synergise with'? My gut tells me enter the battlefield effects, so I'll work with that. After a quick look around the current standard format (No BNG just yet, patience) more or less any colour combination is amazing. Going Orzhov would allow the destructive Ashen Rider or more subtle Sin Collector, Azorius would allow Lavinia or just about any other detain creature there is. In white hybrids though, the cards I'm most excited to look at are Viashino Firstblade or Trostani, Selesnya's Voice, making me lean towards Boros or Selesnya. The Firstblade creates seemingly unrelenting aggro, but is janky with the Gift's effect; it would have to die in my main phase 1 in order to have its effect be of use. So, Trostani it is.I have an idea, I have a theme. I'm pretty sure I want it standard - if not I'd have a few more ideas from standards past. But, keeping with Standard, what would we do? Trostani gives life gain and can populate, we could work off of that, but bearing that in mind, we want something to work with the Gift. What are our options?
Now that we have a combo core, my thoughts turn to the mana curve. Sets of 3, 4 and 6 CMC - hardly healthy. We need to quicken the curve, by adding in some weenies to stop our faces getting caved in before we can drop our combo. With the idea of constant big creatures hitting the board, I looked into the Simic mechanic, Evolve, for inspiration. Immediately I found Experiment One; renowned aggro beatstick and evolve outlet, he sees copious use in a lot of strategies involving big creatures as the front runner. Or shambler. Or however an ooze moves. Glorious.
Add in sets of each, and we're at 16 cards. Add in land (assumed 24, we aren't playing aggro - which could legitimately run less) and we're at 40. Boy, that went fast. But, we're not quite done yet. In case of spanners in the works- primarily Naturalize - I want to run Auramancer. In a deck so dependent on the combo of Gift of Immortality, losing even one would be a hefty loss to us. Hey, even slap a Gift onto the Auramancer - infinite recursion!
Next, getting to that 6 land as quickly as possible to drop our Gatecreeper Vine. Allows the grabbing of land on entry and - best of all - allows infinite grab with a Gift attached. Not that you'd necessarily want gatecreeper to have one, but it certainly breaks those land veins apart and thins our deck to find more land. He's not exactly the most durable fellow either - he's often killed early game, but is a valuable source of stall against weenies - even evolves Experiment One, whats not to love?Wurm into play is a perogative. For this, taking note of the gaping hole at 2 CMC, I suggest
On the other hand, the deck's now at 48, and is all creatures. Lets see what spells can offer the Immortal Selesnya Engine. Immediately before looking anywhere I know i'll want Advent of the Wurm, which produces half an Armada Wurm. Not exactly Giftable, but will allow Trostani to do something while we twiddle our thumbs waiting on the big guy himself.
As much as I hate on it, artifact/enchantment hate is important, love it or hate it. I could go naturalize but while looking through cards Sundering Growth may be helpful. This could be moved to the sideboard but at this point it may be useful. Populate is a godsend as well.
Speaking of enchantments to hate on, I have an idea. With Trostani providing us so much lifegain, why not supplement this constant stream of life gain with Angelic Accord? Token spawning providing life, which then provide tokens... that provide life. You get the picture. Props to synergy during sundering growth at this point, populating in your opponents turn would cause an angel to spawn at your opponent's end step too.
That makes 60 cards, but one last minute gem in the sorcery section catches my eye - Call of the Conclave. A 3/3 on turn 2 is nothing to sniff at - even less a 3/3 that can be populated. This is a kneejerk last addition into the mainboard, opting to lower the numbers on Trostani and Armada Wurm to 3 each, as the high CMC pieces are a nightmare if drawn in the early game; and Trostani, being legendary, has the disadvantage of only being allowed onto the board one at a time. Sundering Growth, being a situational addition, is reduced to a 2 of so it's less likely to be drawn when unneeded.
I hope you guys enjoyed this as much as I did, and I hope this fulfils its purpose - to give people an insight into the mind of a deck builder. The decklist of the made deck in today's article is available here. Happy Deckbuilding!
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