26 Reply by drock007

(3 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

I really like the idea of what this deck is trying to do. 

Descendant's Path is a really awesome way to cheat out Emrakul, the Aeons Torn because it actually triggers his extra turn effect. 

I think you should have more than one copy of Emrakul in the deck, he's your best win condition, the last thing you want to happen is to draw your 3 card combo in your opening hand then top-deck Emrakul before you're able to play the other pieces of your combo.

One thing about playing a combo deck is increasing your chances of drawing all the required pieces and enabler cards that help pull it off faster.  In this case you I'd recommend 4-of Mutavault, Descendant's Path, and Congregation at Dawn.  You've already got an 8 pack of one-drop green enablers in Birds of Paradise and Noble Hierarch to help you get to 3 mana on turn 2.  So that is pretty good, you may want to consider 1 more mana dork, perhaps Avacyn's Pilgrim to help with the white mana required for Congregation at Dawn.

Also to this end I think you need more land and besides Mutavault nearly all of it has to be able to produce Green mana on the turn it is played. 

If you think about your combo is mainly centered around 2 cards Mutavault and Descendant's Path.  Congregation at Dawn is an enabler that seals the deal. 

Under an ideal opening draw our combo wants you to:
T1: Play Green Mana source, Play Mana Dork
T2: Play Mutavault, Play Descendant's Path
T3: Untap, Upkeep, Descendant's Path triggers, while it is on the stack, activate Mutavault with it's own colorless mana, cross fingers, reveal top card and hope it's a powerful creature.  If not draw that card.  Play a third land.  Cast Congregation at Dawn arrange top of library with Emrakul on top.  End turn, hope for no mill effects.
T4: Untap, Upkeep, Descendant's Path triggers, while it is on the stack, activate Mutavault with it's own colorless mana, cross fingers, reveal Emrakul and cast him for free, get extra turn and probably win the game. 

As you can see, extra copies of Emrakul increase your odds of unleashing your win condition sooner if a copy just happens to be on top of your deck at the beginning of Turn 3.  It also helps protect against drawing your only one on Turn 2 making your Congregation at Dawn less useful, still good considering the other powerhouses you are packing but Emrakul's extra turn is the real win condition. 

Now we should look at other Modern cards that do the same or similar things to our combo components.  Unfortunately that's pretty tough for Mutavault and Descendant's Path.  Congregation at Dawn is a little easier to find a similar effect, even if it's not as powerful. 

However if we focus on Emrakul and not the other powerful creatures you have in the deck we have alternatives to Mutavault.  We just need an Eldrazi on the board when Descendan't Path triggers. There's a few 2 drop spells that are Eldrazi Creatures or spawn Eldrazi tokens.  Nest Invader is probably the best bet for the colors you're using.  Definitely slower than Mutavault but faster than having to tutor for Mutavault and play it. 

Now we increase our odds of our win-con because we're not totally dependent on drawing Mutavault to cheat Emrakul onto the board. 

Other options to help us get Emrakul on top of the library, especially if we play 4 copies, possibly could include Index and Mystic Speculation.  There may be others that would be good.

So those things help us get to the Emrakul win-con a little more reliably. 

Now we have to consider what is our opponent going to do or try to do to shut down our strategy and how do we stop them.

1) Remove the Eldrazi or Mutavault after you activate it but before Descendant's Path trigger resolves stopping your from casting Emrakul or other creature for free. 

Potential answers to this are counterspells.  For this purpose Dispel would be particularly efficient but any one-drop counter that can target an instant spell can work.  Swan Song is another good option.  The 2/2 flyer they get will likely be annihilated before it can block Emrakul.  Avoid Fate is another good option. 

2) Destroy/exile or even counter Descendant's Path before we hit with it. 

This is trickier than the last example.  If you cast Descendant's Path when you really want to cast it you should be tapped out.  Making a counterspell pretty much impossible.  Obviously in games 2 and 3 you'll be better able to anticipate how your opponent might do this and can wait a turn or two to cast Descendant's Path to make sure you have the mana available to protect it.  Pact of Negation doesn't help because you'll only be untapping 3 mana sources next turn so wouldn't be able to pay 3UU during your upkeep.  Not having a good answer to this is probably your deck's greatest weakness.

3) Removal of Emrakul.  This is usually pretty difficult to do but there are ways to do it.  Retaliate, could get him he'd have to have the mana available and float it during the combat phase before annihilator probably forces him to sacrifice his lands, then use the floated mana at the end of the combat step to cast it, destroying Emrakul.  Your opponent is still pretty much screwed without anything in play but it at may slow you down a turn depending on how you setup your top of the library. 

Your opponent could also Celestial Flare or something similar so make sure to attack with all your creatures during the extra turn so you can sacrifice one of them instead of Emrakul. 

Extremely modified version I put together that does most of the things I talk about above:http://deckbox.org/sets/586967

Obviously it got a bit more expensive but it should hit your win-con more reliably and has a means to defend it. 

Hope this helped.

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27 Reply by drock007

(1 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

Some major problems can exist here.

Namely that anything that can recycle their graveyard into their library is going to do bad things for your. 

Secondly, cards like Serra Avatar or Worldspine Wurm or Emrakul, the Aeons Torn or the other Eldrazi bosses.  Basically mean you can't win.

For your strategy to work you probably need something to exile their graveyard at some point.  You'll probably need things that can hit at least one card at instant speed, and something else that just exiles the whole damn thing. 

Scavenging Ooze is potentially a great option, he can take one of those big boys when it hits the graveyard while it's "put into the graveyard" triggered ability is on the stack.  He also gets bigger and gains you one life.  Having at least one creature that can attack (besides Clone if you Clone one of their creatures) gives you an out in case you can't kill their graveyard and they have an efficient means of recycling it. 

You only have 4 copies of a creature that can block fliers and will only absorb 2 damage from a trampling flier.  They can also die to something as mundane as a Shock spell.  Short version - Fliers will kill you. 

Bojuka Bog is a really efficient way to exile someone's entire graveyard, but there are tons of other ways as well. 

Your stuff takes forever to setup and is ultra-vulnerable to removal and board wipes.  Modern is full of decks that typically can do very powerful things very quickly. 

Literally T1 wins on the draw are possible, unlikely, but possible.

Memnite, Simian Spirit Guide, Infernal Plunge, Griselbrand, Faithless Looting, Mountain, Goryo's Vengeance as a opening hand with 4 copies of Fury of the Horde in the deck along with a bunch of other red spells and here's what can happen.

T1: Draw a Chromatic Sphere, play Mountain, play Memnite, cast Infernal Plunge get RRR in mana pool, use R to cast Chromatic Sphere, exile Simian Spirit Guide from your hand and get another R in your pool, use R to activate Chromatic Sphere and sacrifice it add a B to your mana pool and draw a card, mana pool now has BRR in it.  Use an R to cast Faithless Looting draw 2 cards then discard Griselbrand and just about any other card except Goryo's Vengeance or Fury of the Horde if you drew it with the sphere or Faithless Looting. 

Use the BR still in the pool to cast Goryo's Vengeance and put Griselbrand into play with haste.  Pay 7 life, draw 7 cards, hope you get two red spells and a Fury of the Horde shouldn't be too hard, but if you miss Pay 7 more life and draw 7 more cards, if you miss again, attack with Griselbrand, gain back 7 life, Pay 7 life draw 7 cards, you probably hit it at this point.  Discard 2 red cards to cast Fury of the Horde, untap Griselbrand and attack again.  If you need to, Pay 7 life and draw 7 more cards to hopefully hit another Fury of the Horde, if you do and have 2 other red cards, you've won on T1. 

It's a pretty ridiculous example but that was just turn 1.  It gets more and more possible each passing turn as he could play more land and draw more cards.  Hell you might make it easier by milling Griselbrand into the graveyard for him. 

I love Mill Decks as a fun way to win, but I think your strategy may be way too slow, counting on a huge board state that just as you're about to start doing your thing most other decks are deciding on which option they will use to destroy your entire plan, or worse calculating whether they can finish you that turn or the next. 

There are cheaper decks like RUG or Jund infect decks that can pretty consistently draw T4 or better wins and your only interaction might be blockers or your 2 putrefy.  Either of which will slow you down even more if the blocker dies or you decide you need to constantly keep 3 mana open to putrefy any threats. 

My suggestion is to add some additional win-cons via damage and some additional removal to be able to interact with opponent's threats more reliably.

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28 Reply by drock007

(10 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

Mutagenic Growth for the infect deck. 

Going G/R instead of G/B for the infect deck gives you access to Assault Strobe

T1: Copperline Gorge or Stomping Ground, Glistener Elf
T2: Forest, Assault Strobe on Glistener Elf, Attack, Mutagenic Growth x 2 or x 1 and Giant Growth deal 10-12 infect damage, win.

Inkmoth Nexus can do something similar but a turn slower and requires x 2 Mutagenic Growth for T3 win. 

Avoid Fate or in the case agains Blue Guttural Response can help save your combo, at the cost of slowing it down a little. 

Chancellor of the Tangle might help you as well letting you play Glistener Elf and Rancor on your first turn.  Or Blight Mamba

Like TyWoo pointed out, infect strategy can be pretty dodgy, and usually requires aggressive mulligans, however it may also force your opponent to aggressively mulligan if he doesn't draw a showstopper that can shut you down. 

Grafted Exoskeleton combined with Hellspark Elemental,  Strangleroot Geist, Arc Runner, Chandra's Phoenix, or Hell's Thunder can give your mid-game strategy some steam with some hasted surprise infect damage. 

If you're willing to go 3-color and keep black you'd also have access to Tainted Strike to really surprise someone with hasted infect damage.

Flesh // Blood, especially the Blood half, could help you seal the deal in a lot of games where your opponent has stood up any efficient blockers to stop your infect creatures from pushing through damage. 



Just some ideas.

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29 Reply by drock007

(6 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

I like the 2 Selesnya Charms in the sideboard, but I think you should have 2 more main.  I'd trade out the 3rd Golgari Charm and the 3rd Whip of Erebos.

The instant speed of removing a God as soon as it gets turned on is huge, especially against that tough Mono-Blue matchup.  Also against Mono-Black whacking their Desecration Demon while their Gary is on the stack is gold especially if they were counting on that additional 2 points of damage and lifegain (4 point life swing and their Demon is gone). 

It's one of the best cards for your toughest matchups and is great utility in pretty much all matchups.

It can also help save your Obzedat, 5/5 Wurm token, or Blood Baron against that "well-timed" Devour Flesh by putting the 2/2 Knight out at instant speed to sacrifice it instead. 

Lastly it can help you push Ghost Dad through by giving him trample.  You can possibly even "bluff" Ghost Dad in for 5 against an unbuffed Demon if you have cards in hand and make a little show of reserving {W}{G} mana off to the side.  Mono-Black is frequently willing to take a hit instead of possibly putting their Demon at risk because of their confidence in drawing a Gary to swing the game. 

I love the Ready // Willing idea here.  Even with just a single Wurm Token on board a fused Ready // Willing is at minimum a 4 damage to the face 5 point life gain (9 point life swing in your favor), destruction of a blocker and you have an untapped 5/5 ready to block during their turn.  It's glorious and at least in game 1 going to be unexpected.

If you're getting aggro'd too fast for it to be relevant as a fuse it has utility to save your creatures or deathtouch/lifelink block theirs to extend the game until you draw into something that helps you stabilize.  Worst case scenario if it's dead in your hand because of the mana or any other reason it can be Pack Rat food. 

The instant deathtouch will probably down a demon or two for the price of a Packrat every now and then as well.

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30 Reply by drock007

(4 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

As you can see Pact of Negation is probably the worst of the pacts to win with this strategy in multiplayer.  Slaughter Pact is probably equally bad because everyone could just keep the target on the same creature.

The best bet is to wait until you have Intervention Pact, Pact of the Titan, and Summoner's Pact in hand before casting Hive Mind as it is very unlikely that even if someone had all three of those colors that they would be able to pay the whole 12 CMC during their upkeep. 

You also might want to make sure that most everyone is tapped out so that you don't get burned by some instant speed spell copied multiple times.  If two Lightning Bolts get cast in a 5 man it's probably going to be 24 damage to you making you lose first.

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31 Reply by drock007

(4 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

Alright now for the multiplayer scenario.  First off I'm going to add something like Memnite to your deck. 

Let's say you are playing a 5 man game and each of you is playing a different mono-color (to keep this simple).  We'll call all 5 players Blue (you), Red, Green, Black, and White.  Obviously the only pact that will win with your Hive Mind trickery is the Pact of Negation as if any one player is able to meet the requirements of the beginning of the upkeep trigger they will not lose and you probably will at the beginning of your upkeep.  Obviously you've got some other cards in your deck that gives you some alternatives by not letting them untap so even if they have 3 or more plains in play, they may not be able to pay the upkeep trigger of Intervention Pact. 

But we're going to keep this simple.  It's your turn 6 again and you were the first player, we'll assume everyone else has 5 basic lands in play that correspond to their color.  The player to your right is playing white and during his second main he tapped 4 of his Plains and a Sol Ring to cast Planar Cleansing and nothing on the board had indestructible.  So at the beginning of your turn only land is on the board.

Your turn: Untap, Upkeep, Draw, you draw your 6th Island and have Memnite, Hive Mind, and Pact of Negation in already in your hand.  In this scenario, assuming the other players work together to ensure you don't get a clean win, you will probably not win, and only one of them (the white player) will lose assuming nobody has any useful instant speed interaction.  You also probably will not lose, but if anyone has a counterspell that can target blue, and if combined they can destroy 2 of your lands... before your next turn you will be the only one that loses. 

I'll break down how only the white player to your right loses.

First Main you do nothing, skip combat, Second Main:

Play your Island,
Cast Hive Mind, it resolves and comes into play.
Cast Memnite, cast Pact of Negation targeting Memnite on the stack,

Hive Mind triggers and it's ability goes on the stack, all players pass priority.

Hive Mind's ability resolves and starts creating copies of Pact of Negation starting with the active player unless he/she is the one who cast the original spell to be copied (which is the case here) then it goes in play order from the active player (usually to the left) we'll use the order I listed the players above.

A copy of Pact of Negation is created on the stack under Red's control targeting Memnite, as it is created Red can choose a new target for the copy, his only option to switch to is your original Pact of Negation at this time.  In his/her situation it doesn't really matter so he leaves it as is. 

So from top to bottom our stack now looks like:

Red's copy of Pact of Negation targeting Memnite
Your original Pact of Negation targeting Memnite
Your Memnite

Now Green get's a copy of Pact of Negation on the stack.  He can change the target but he thinks about it for a second.  If he doesn't, he'll counter Memnite before Red's copy does, making Red's copy fizzle, making Red safe from paying the upkeep trigger.  So he leaves the target the same.

So from top to bottom our stack now looks like:

Green's copy of Pact of Negation targeting Memnite
Red's copy of Pact of Negation targeting Memnite
Your original Pact of Negation targeting Memnite
Your Memnite

Black and White see what is happening and White realizes he is screwed in this deal simply by sitting to your right they follow suit.

At the end the stack looks like this:

White's copy of Pact of Negation targeting Memnite
Black's copy of Pact of Negation targeting Memnite
Green's copy of Pact of Negation targeting Memnite
Red's copy of Pact of Negation targeting Memnite
Your original Pact of Negation targeting Memnite
Your Memnite

As long as nobody casts anything else White's copy resolves, Memnite is countered and all other copies and your original fizzle.  Only White loses at the beginning of his turn. 

You pass turn.  Red casts Lava Axe everyone gets a copy and points it at your face.  You're copy of Lava Axe will resolve first letting you deal 5 damage to one of them, if that's not enough to kill one of them, you are going to take 20 damage and lose before White does.

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32 Reply by drock007

(4 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

I've had a similar deck/win-condition idea before, understanding the stack and what is required to have a spell resolve is very critical to making this work.  It just gets more convoluted when you add in multiple players. 

For starters let's look at all the pacts: Pact of Negation, Slaughter Pact, Intervention Pact, Pact of the Titan, and Summoner's Pact. 

Pact of Negation and Slaughter Pact can't be cast without a valid target.  So a spell needs to be on the stack for you to even cast Pact of Negation and a non-black creature needs to be on the battlefield for Slaughter Pact to be cast. 

Intervention Pact also requires a target but you can choose a land on the battlefield if you wanted to. 

Summoner's Pact still works even if they don't have a green creature in their library.

Pact of the Titan works under any condition. 

All of the copies of the pacts under your opponents control must resolve in order to create your win condition.  If their spells fizzle because they no longer have a target or have been themselves countered then they will not have to pay because the spell never resolved.

Also you DO NOT want to play Eon Hub as it will cause them to skip the upkeep step and the pay mana or lose the game effect will never trigger. 

Let's run through the simplest way this strategy wins in 1v1 one time before tackling a multiplayer scenario:

Your opponent only has Black Mana available.  On your turn 6 you play a 6th Island, tap all 6 and play Hive Mind, your opponent has no response, Hive Mind resolves and is put onto the battlefield you have priority. 

You then play Pact of the Titan, it goes on the stack. 

Hive Mind triggers and it's ability goes on the stack, both players pass priority.

Hive Mind's ability resolves, creating a copy of Pact of the Titan on the stack under your opponent's control, both players pass priority.

His copy of Pact of the Titan resolves.  He puts a 4/4 Red Giant token on the field under his control, then both of you pass priority.

Your original Pact of the Titan you cast resolves.  You put a 4/4 Red Giant token on the field under your control. 

You start combat, declare no attackers, end combat, end second main phase, and then pass turn. 

Your opponent untaps, then at the beginning of his upkeep step Pact of the Titan's trigger occurs, requiring him to pay 4{R} or lose the game.  He is unable to generate the {R} and therefore loses the game and maybe loses his cool and desire to play with you anymore.

I'll run through your specific Pact of Negation multi-player question in my next post.

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33 Reply by drock007

(16 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

Lost to Big Green Devotion with Nykthos, lost to a mirror match (that wasn't running Battle Drivers but had pretty much the first list I posted with a slightly different sideboard), and lost to a Jund aggro-mid-range kind of deck that was piloted very well. 

Meanwhile went to my normal Saturday afternoon tournament after doing a straight swap of Ogre Battledrivers for Witchstalkers and went 3-0-1 tying to a Mono-Black Devotion that splashes Green played by one of the regular winners of that tournament.  Took first out of the 16 man pod and took a $30 store credit.  Witchstalker was a boss card whenever I played it.  Especially boss when if I bestowed Boon Satyr on it.

Then played draft cause I'm crazy, and went 1-1 before dropping to come home drink some beer and do my homework.

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34 Reply by drock007

(16 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

Went 3-3, Ogre Battledriver ended up being just OK.  The games where he helped me win it seemed I was facing sub Tier 1 decks or even worse. 

He also made lines of play decisions harder for me especially once I had 4 mana available.  I'm not sure if I give up on him and put in Witchstalker or go back to the baseline...

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35 Reply by drock007

(16 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

WRT Pithing Needle I'm just not that fond of the card.  When I do draw it, it seems to sit in my hand until the threat appears, then I play it.  Then it gets removed or they play a worse threat it also stops and I facepalm. 

The only thing I'd really need it for would be Aetherling and it's being played less now in the meta.  My beastly creatures are usually able to deal with a nuisance Planeswalker.  U/W/x control usually just minuses their Planeswalkers to get some value out of it before my creatures destroy it. 

Which just made me think of another "advantage" of Battledriver.  His 3 power let's him dodge Elspeth's second ability.

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36 Reply by drock007

(16 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

So I've made some edits here : http://deckbox.org/sets/580799

I added Fade into Antiquity into the SB but kept Destructive Revelry as well (it's just too good against the U/W/x Control game). 

I moved all the Mizzium Mortars to the sideboard and added a Flesh // Blood to the main.

Got rid of the "extra" planeswalkers both mainboard and sideboard keeping my bread and butter Domri Rade and Xenagos, the Reveler. 

I found that in most games I was siding out Garruk just to keep tempo with aggro decks in regards to mana all the time.  I felt like the times I got to play him I was already winning and he often didn't do as much for me when I was losing.  When I top decked him and could cast him I often didn't have a relevant creature in my hand to put on the board for free so I would +1 him get some creatures in my hand but then usually he would die (unless I was already winning).  At best he was an awesome closer for games I'm already ahead in, many times just causing people to scoop if I +1 and show a couple Ghor-Clans or a Stormbreath Dragon.  But even then as a one-of not that valuable. 

Added 3 x Ogre Battledriver which might raise some eyebrows, so I'll try to explain:

1) More creatures!  All changes combined I'm adding +2 creatures to the deck, improving my odds of getting more value out of Domri as far as card draw. 

2) Synergy!  While helps Domri just being in my deck, when he's on the board he helps everything but my lands... wait he helps 2 of them as well, he even helps Flesh // Blood by adding 2 power to a creature when it comes into the battlefield.  A mid to late game Elvish Mystic is now a one-drop Spike Jester or at the very least can pay for himself if I have other spells to cast and boosting the Xenagos +1 essentially for free.  He beefs up Xenagos tokens the turn they come in and will frequently turn any Xenagos' Ultimate into an instant win. 

3) Hate Magnet!  Most opponents will not be able to stand for him being on the board.  He'll pull the hate that usually gets reserved for Polukranos, World Eater or Stormbreath Dragon

4)More card parity.  4 of Polukranos, World Eater often led to multiples.  This was usually fine because of all of the hate in the format, but if one stays on the board for awhile that one in my hand ends up being a dead card for multiple turns just waiting to get hit by Thoughtseize or Lifebane Zombie. 


So that covers the Battledriver... what else?  No Ruric Thar, the Unbowed in the sideboard.  This is a meta-meta-game decision.  This deck already steamrolls U/W/x control most of the time.  Their removal just can't keep up with my creatures and planeswalkers.  Especially after Destructive Revelry fouls up all the enchant removal, frequently as a surprise.  Ruric Thar would for sure close out many games against them, but he isn't necessary to do so, meanwhile other match-ups need more help, like Mono-Blue. 

I think my mana base is still good, Forests still take priority over Mountains even with the Battledriver because all of my little guys rely on green and can ramp me up or activate Scavenging Ooze. 

Anyway, would love to read any comments on the changes or my reasoning behind them, I took a slightly less modified version, only one Battledriver to an 8 man yesterday and even though I forgot a Chandra at home and had to mainboard a Mistcutter Hydra and put a Forest in my SB to play I ended up going 3-0 and winning $20 in store credit. 

I'll be taking this version to FNM tonight and will post results tomorrow.

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37 Reply by drock007

(4 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

Boros Reckoner might have a place here too, at least in the sideboard.  He ups your devotion, and can swing into damn near anything and at least trade if they choose to block.

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38 Reply by drock007

(4 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Xiris wrote:

I have Wing Puncture and I am wondering if I can cast it on Sigarda, Host of Herons. I know that hexproof means the card cannot be the target of spells or abilities, but Wing Puncture does not deal damage directly to a creature, but rather picks one of my other cards to deal damage.  My logic is that the SPELL targets my own creature, who then deals damage to Sigarda. Is this wrong?

Your spell actually targets both creatures.  It has the word "target" twice.  If Sigarda was the only flying creature on the board you wouldn't be able to cast Wing Puncture at all. 

Another example of this situation would be protection.  Say I have Domri Rade in play with 5 Loyalty Counters and I also have an Elvish Mystic in play and it is my 1st main phase.  My opponent landed a Master of Waves during his last turn with a total of 6 devotion so he has 6 2/1 elementals that are going to start causing me major problems, so obviously I want to kill Master of Waves at nearly any cost. 

Domri Rade has a -2 loyalty ability that reads: Target creature you control fights another target creature. (Meaning both creatures deal damage equal to their power to each other). 

Elvish Mystic has 1 Power and Master of Waves only has 1 Toughness!  We're in business!  Wait Master of Waves has protection from red, but Elvish Mystic is green so we're good right?  Elvish Mystic would have no problem dealing 1 damage to Master of Waves, however it is Domri Rade's ability that needs to target the Master, Domri is red, making this a no go. 

Now let's say that instead of being the clever tactician that he is, Domri Rade was a chaotic Planeswalker and his -2 Loyalty ability read like this instead: Target creature you control fights another creature selected at random. 

Now we have a 1 in X shot of having our Mystic fight the Master, not very good odds with all those other tokens and any other creatures our opponent has (not to mention any other creatures I might have) but because Domri's ability is no longer targeting the Master, if the Master is selected at random the Mystic and the Master will deal lethal damage to each other.

I hope this helped.

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39 Reply by drock007

(4 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

TyWooOneTime has put up some solid advice here about Chained to the Rocks.  Arrest is terrible right now because of Devotion.  Two of the decks you're most likely to face (Mono-Black and Mono-Blue Devotion) will almost be happy to let you lock up their threat as long as it gets to stay on the board for devotion points. 

Banisher Priest is... ok.  Against mostly vegetarian control he becomes a vanilla 2/2 for 3 Mana.  Against control running Aetherling or Blood Baron of Vizkopa (the most common control creatures) he's not likely to hit Aetherling ever and simply can't do anything at all to Blood Baron.  The best you can usually hope for is targeting Aetherling, forcing an exile, so you can swing with other creatures before it comes back at end of turn. 

Against mono-black putting your Banisher Priest on his Desecration Demon is a good play in theory, until you attack against his empty board and he kills your priest with an instant and has that demon eat one of your other creatures. 

Alot of these problems don't happen with Chained to the Rocks. 

Fiendslayer Paladin he goes with the lifegain strategy your deck is trying to do, he's resilient to Black and Red spot removal.  He trumps any 2 toughness or less creature in combat, plus if you have Archangel of Thune on the field his first strike and lifelink will trigger and resolve in the first strike damage step giving all your other creatures +1/+1 before they deal normal combat damage, which is pretty awesome. 

I'd say cut 2 Banisher Priests entirely, and put the other two in the sideboard for now.  Get four Sacred Foundry and a few mountains in there so you can run 4 x Chained to the Rocks in lieu of the 3 Arrest and 1 of the Banisher Priest.   Hmmm.

You only really need Nykthos to cast Elspeth, which you are only running 2 of.  Not sure if 3 Nykthos is the right number.  You'd hate to double draw them opening hand.

Now if we add Heliod, God of the Sun we'd have a mega mana sink for that Nykthos and all that devotion. 

I messed around a little bit and tweaked your deck into this http://deckbox.org/sets/580612

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40 Reply by drock007

(16 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

Thanks for the feedback TyWooOneTime.  First off, I didn't build this list, Chris Van Meter with some help from Brian Braun Duin did, so the credit goes to them with regards to your overall assessment.

Elvish Mystic is definitely a card I'm looking at in this deck as being a possible cut.  However it and the Temple of Abandon or in certain situations Stomping Ground represent an 8(12) card count towards a value play on my first turn.  1/5 of the deck if you count them increasing my chance of starting with at least one of those cards. 

The Mystic also makes Turn 2 Domri Rade a possibility and very high value depending on the opponent and his board state and creatures.  If Domri isn't there Sylvan Caryatid on Turn 2 can turn into a Turn 3 Polukranos or Stormbreath Dragon.  This happened quite a lot, and put opponents on a short clock if they can't deal with the threats. 

That being said, top decking a Elvish Mystic on turn 5 or 6 is usually a huge disappointment except in a few circumstances where the extra mana the next turn helps Polukranos or Stormbreath Dragon do monstrosity for good profit.  I might cut him and test for a bit and see how it goes though. 

Flesh // Blood is awesome.  I want to run more but every non-creature limits the effectiveness of Domri and Garruk.  If I were going to run two more I would probably cut a Domri and put Garruk in the SB. 

Destructive Revelry is AWESOME!  It's cheaper, runs at instant speed, and does 2 damage to the dome compared to Fade into Antiquity.  Obviously it doesn't hit the gods, and it isn't there for them.  It's mostly for Detention Sphere, Chained to the Rocks or other enchant removal, but is serviceable against all of the god's weapons.  It can also hit opposing Boon Satyrs, Unflinching Courage or any other troublesome enchant or artifact and do it at instant speed.   Every game I boarded the card in and drew it, it paid big dividends.  U/W Control D-Sphere's Polukranos, I take it back at the end of his turn and deal two damage, now my mana is free, Polukranos can attack and with the free mana I can monstrous him or cast a Stormbreath or double bloodrush with 2 rampagers or 1 rampager and Blood and he potentially has no response after tapping 3 for D-sphere. 

I've thought a lot about adding Fade into Antiquity into the sideboard.  Mono-Blue is a poor match-up if they get Thassa out early.  I have very limited interaction with their early flyers, main reason for Shock is downing a Cloudfin Raptor before it gets too big, or whacking Tidebinder Mage to free up one of my creatures.  If I don't get rid of those early then Thassa hits the board and starts making all the ground-bound guys unblockable I'm usually in serious trouble. 

Master of Waves isn't that big of a deal as Polukranos's Monstrous can hit it, though that is my only answer really.  His protect from red stops Flesh // Blood and Domri's fight ability from targeting him. 

I'll try to get to the rest of your comment a little later.

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41 Topic by drock007

(16 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

So I took Chris VanMeter's G/R Monsters to a PTQ and an IQ this weekend.  For those unfamiliar with the list here it is: http://deckbox.org/sets/576144.

I did ... okay at the PTQ for my first time at an event like that.  I placed 54 out of a 167 field. 

The next day I went to a Star City Games IQ with the exact same deck.

I went 4-1-1 in 6 rounds and made top 8 in a 37 player field.  Ended up being the 6th seed.  Sadly lost first round of elimination to the same person and deck that I faced in round 8 of the PTQ. 

Anyway, I wanted to open up the question to the deckbox folks of how to improve this deck in the metagame. 

I'm open to white splash being an option or even full Naya as I have all the lands to support that.

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42 Reply by drock007

(6 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

As people pointed out already keep their devotion down and their God doesn't become a creature nor much of a problem.  If you're worried about opponents turning on their God and profitably blocking your rush you could use Arena Athlete to prevent their Indestructible god from blocking, this also works well against other decks which field big baddies that are tough to remove for red because of their size like Polukranos, Desecration Demon, etc. 

Firefist Striker might even be better cause he prevents up to two creatures from blocking and battalion doesn't require you to keep stacking enchants on one guy to keep triggering.

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43 Reply by drock007

(8 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

http://www.starcitygames.com/article/27 … -Wurm.html

Check out this article.  It pretty much summarizes where you want to be with G/W aggro and explains, with pretty good reasons why.

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44 Reply by drock007

(15 replies, posted in General Discussion)

At a 4 drop and only 2 loyalty she seems to me to be one of those types of cards that depending on the situation can be useless or completely awesome (wait a second, that's like most cards in this game). 

The major reason people use the non-ultimate -X ability right after they land the Planeswalker right now is because of the potential of Hero's Downfall or lethal attacker damage on the board already.  It really depends on what your opponent is playing.  As primarily a Standard player who only so far dabbles in EDH I can see how differently people who focus on different formats might look at this card. 

Most board wipes in EDH deal with creatures, letting this survive with a big creature later in the game potential still growing.  Meanwhile her +1 ability let's you tag the biggest flying or unblockable creature on the board or some other damage inducing threat, this is generally a good thing in EDH especially if you consider the political side, your Planeswalker is stalling the guy who managed to cheat out the 7/7 flying trampler from abusing us.

In Standard it gets a bit more complicated.  Especially not knowing what new cards are coming with it.  Perhaps a Simic Permission/Control deck could evolve to push her to highly desirable.  Her +1 is a better counter to a Desecration Demon than sac'ing creatures or tokens for 2 reasons 1) You don't need to sac something preventing it from growing 2) His demon is only a chump block if you attack with smaller dudes. 

I think there is potential, but I don't have a major boner for the card in general, that might change after we see some more spoilers.

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45 Reply by drock007

(1 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Thanks for the link TyWooOneTime.  BTW, Cockatrice isn't dead.

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46 Reply by drock007

(8 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

Splashing red for Boros Charm to protect your heavy investment in the board state is probably a must.  Keep in mind Boros Charm gives all of your permanents indestructible not just your creatures.  Obviously Boros Charm's other options give you some utility to maybe close out a game with doublestrike or doing 4 damage to the face.

While you're splashing red, you also might want to add something like Messenger's Speed so that you can give your Ethereal Armor buffed guy some trample without having to also splash green for something like Ghor-clan Rampager or Unflinching Courage.

Trample will probably end up being pretty critical because your enchant strategy is a Mid-Range one.  What else comes out in the Mid-Range?  Tokens.  Via Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Xenagos, the Reveler, or Master of Waves.

Without trample your Boros Reckoner with Ethereal Armor who is now hopefully huge with first strike is rendered useless when one of those threats hits the board.  He won't even take damage to use his triggered ability because of first strike.

Also splashing red (adding mountains) lets you play Chained to the Rocks for some much needed removal against major creature threats.  It also is an enchantment, helping to fuel your overall strategy.

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47 Reply by drock007

(2 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

Persist creatures with ETB effects, Melira, Sylvok Outcast, a grip of no mana cost sac engines, and a grip of tutors that can grab the components.

This Jund EDH deck isn't tuned yet but I've hit turn 5 infinite damage loop with it in a head's up 1v1 game. 

http://deckbox.org/sets/558120

I use Prossh as the Commander.

Melira, Sylvok Outcast
Any of the artifact or creature sacrifice engines
Then Murderous Redcap = Infinite damage loop
or Woodfall Primus = destroy everything but your opponents creatures

Some of the sac engines or other enchants in this deck also combo for infinite mana, infinite draw, or infinite damage as well.

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48 Reply by drock007

(12 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

Selesnya Charm also let's you respond to a Devour Flesh when you've only got a single creature on the board and you need to keep it there, you summon the 2/2 Knight and sac it instead of say your 5/5 Wurm Token that is attacking.

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49 Reply by drock007

(2 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

Another place to go with the sideboard would be to add more creatures, assuming they're going to dump a bunch of their spot removal.

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50 Topic by drock007

(2 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

Here's the decklist with current sideboard:  http://deckbox.org/sets/563029

With the prevalence of all the different hate and spot removal available I thought one way to play around the meta-game would be to use hexproof or primarily hexproof creatures. 

The intent of this is to make many of the cards they are holding and drawing "bad" cards. 

Golgari Charm and Orzhov Charm help me protect or keep my investments against Supreme Verdict and if I have a solo-creature with enchants on it Orzhov Charm lets me keep all my cards against Verdict or Devour Flesh.  Not sure yet if there's good value there but it also can do other things that work with this deck as well. 

I think a lot of the time this deck will play somewhat like control and it will take practice to figure out the right tempo to play against different archetypes. 

Weaknesses:
The deck doesn't have any way to do burst damage, if I can't keep creatures on the board dealing consistent damage, preferably with lifelink, I'm going to be in trouble.  The singleton Pithing Needle in the SB is basically my only answer to Aetherling unless they get reckless and cast him without an extra blue available.  I'm sure there are more.

Pros: Decent removal suite. Draw via Underworld Connections which pairs well with the Lifelink from Gift or Orzhova.  Thoughtseize speaks for itself. 

What's missing that might be better than what is here? 
Ajani, Caller of the Pride might need to be in here somehow to help beef up our evasive but relatively small creatures.

Heliod, God of the Sun If we're investing so much into building our hexproof guys up and keeping them alive, it would be nice if they can play on offense and defense at the same time.  Also the capability of token generation helps protect us against Desecration Demon and Devour Flesh.  Not to mention that two Gift or Orzhova or one and the Spear of Heliod turn Heliod into a creature.

Sphere of Safety With enough enchants on the board this pretty much shuts down any creature based offense or at least forces them to tap out to attack. 

Indestructibility Why bother staying untapped all the time to "counter" Supreme Verdict when you can make it useless?

Anyway, would love to hear your thoughts on the deck or my assessment of it so far.

Thanks.

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