1 Reply by ZebN

(8 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

elpablo wrote:

I see a lot of decks go with out the one drops.  If you end up with scry/shock lands then chances are your not playing anything turn one anyway.  I think the BTE is better for this style of deck than the cackler.

Agreed.  I've actually run a R/W devotion deck for a few months now (here's my list: http://deckbox.org/sets/589771) so I can speak from experience.

I originally ran 8 one drops but all of them ended up underwhelming both in the devotion department and just as not great creatures, especially in the late game.  Burning-Tree Emissary is good early and late, since the mana acceleration always matters unless she's the only card in your hand.  Also I think running 4x Chained to the Rocks is almost essential as you need answers to Master of Waves and Desecration Demon or you are most likely just going to lose.  If you need the Boros Charms after game 1 you can always side them in.

Once I started playing this deck as less of an aggro deck and more of a midrange/win with Purphoros/Fanatic/Stormbreath from devotion deck I started winning much more often.  It has the ability to explode and win out of nowhere and is super fun to play when you curve out.

As for beating U/W control, unless they don't draw Supreme Verdict you will have a hard time winning game 1, but after you board in your Boros Charms (for Verdict protection), Skullcrack (to combat Sphinx's Revelation), and Revoke Existence (for Detention Sphere) your chances go way up.

For Mono-U Anger of the Gods hits most of what they play, and Chained to the Rocks handles Master of Waves.  Really this match up is not that favorable for this deck, so it usually comes down to who curves/tempos out first.

Good luck and have fun with this deck, I really enjoy running it!

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2 Reply by ZebN

(5 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

I did think of splashing Black just to have access to Doom Blade/Hero's Downfall or even splashing white for Boros Charm and possibly Chained to the Rocks.  I still may end up testing out one or both of those in the future, not sure yet.

I do like your list, looks very interesting, unfortunately I can't afford even the lands it would take to put it together right now.  If anyone else gives it a shot I'd be interested to see how it does!

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3 Reply by ZebN

(5 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

Oh by the way I forgot to mention that you can use Quicken to cast Anger of the Gods on the opponents turn, you don't make too many friends with that play though. tongue

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4 Reply by ZebN

(5 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

Yeah, I have the 2 Divination in the sideboard and bring them in against a control mirror.

I did think about the Sphinx as an option, but really I think the only creatures I would add are more copies of Aetherling, which I have a few of so I may end up doing that.

As for Anger of the Gods, yeah it's a brick when playing against control or even midrange so it gets boarded out, but it answers agro nicely.  Against control I bring in Cyclonic Rift, Divination, and my suite of burn spells.

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5 Topic by ZebN

(5 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

Hey guys,

I've been using an unconventional deck at my local FNM for the last three weeks and having a great time with it.  I've gone 3-1 at each event and almost had last week's event won outright.  For those interested in something different take a look:

http://deckbox.org/sets/504696

A couple of quick notes:

This deck was inspired by this article, with edits of course:

https://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/ … /deck/1326

I don't think this is a tier one deck, and don't think it would compete outside of a FNM type environment.  It is fairly cheap to build though, and it's a blast to play, especailly if you like counter-burn.

Some things I've learned playing this:

You have to must a counterspell in your opening hand or you are going to have a difficult time against aggro.  Essence Scatter takes care of lots of annoying early plays like Burning-Tree Emissary.  Against decks that play huge creatures Curse of the Swine and Turn // Burn are essential.

Steam Augury seems like it's a underwhelming card since most of the time you will just draw 2 cards with it, but with Spellheart Chimera you win no matter what happens on the draw.  They either dump instants/sorceries to the graveyard making your Chimera that much better, or they load up your hand with spells.  I've even had people give me 4 spells and chuck a land to the graveyard just because they didn't want my Chimera to have 4 more power.

The obvious weakness with this deck is that Spellheart dies to everything, which is why I run 1 or 2 copies of Mizzium Skin.  It's basically a 1 mana counterspell that the opponent usually doesn't see coming, the +1 toughness also saves your Chimeras from Anger of the Gods while potentially wiping the board on the other side.  Otherwise you have to protect it with counters, and it's also the reason that Aetherling is important, since it can win the game for you when all of your Chimeras have been blasted.

Again it's not tier one, but it's fun and thought some of you might be interested. big_smile

Cheers!

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6 Reply by ZebN

(9 replies, posted in General Discussion)

I picked red as my color but ended up pulling the white god instead.  roll

I ran red/blue with just a splash of white to shore up my curve.  I ended up pulling another Ember Swallower (besides the promo one) and those were the MVPs of my deck.  I also got some nice synergy from Favored Hoplite and Ordeal of Purphoros.

I ended up losing to a fairly aggressive red/black deck that continually forced me to sacrifice my own creatures, but went 3-1 for the day.  I pulled Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, Xenagos, the Reveler, and some other nice stuff in my prize packs.  Overall a good day!

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7 Reply by ZebN

(11 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

TyWooOneTime wrote:

As for attending an FNM, my suggestion would be to go to your LGS and just scout things out.  You don't have to play the first time you go, as you would benefit just getting to know some of the people, scope out what people are playing, what format it is, the cost to enter, how competitive it is, etc.  The reason I suggest this sort of peaceful fact-finding mission before just leaping in is because some FNMs are laid back and welcoming to even the most inexperienced players; but others are REALLY competitive, not all that different from Grand Prix trials - as you can imagine, you're likely to enjoy one but not so much the other.  In either event, I don't know that you're really well suited to perform well at one until you really invest a bit more on some newer cards, but you could easily still have fun.

I second this - getting to know who and what people are playing at your game store of choice is really critical of how you will do and how much fun you will have at FNM.  For instance at the store I play at we have a complete range of "just threw this deck together today" to "tier 1 $300 serious decks".  The vibe of the store is really critical as well, some places are just uptight and not that much fun to play in, so see what the atmosphere is like as well.

Good luck!

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8 Reply by ZebN

(15 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

Lukecelmare wrote:

P.S. perhaps drop vile rebirth and add Wild Guess? i feel like i have to draw a lot of cards for this deck

I would probably use Dragon Mantle actually.  With your token generation you will most likely have a target for it, and it makes your guy better while drawing a card for one red.

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9 Reply by ZebN

(10 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

Here's my Izzet Deck, I'm super happy with it.  http://deckbox.org/sets/422594

Regarding your build, I would probably take out white completely since you are just splashing it for a couple of cards.  Feeling of Dread is alright but not great.  I think your deck would run smoother with just 2 colors.  If you really want to splash white I'd definitely pick up some Warleader's Helixes.

Consider replacing your Faithless Lootings with Izzet Charms, they have the same looting effect and also give you two other really nice options.

I'm not feeling Last Thoughts, just too dang expensive.  Consider picking up some cheap card draw like Quicken or Think Twice.

Aetherling is a nice blue finisher, might be worth it to pick one up and just relying on the Cyclopes/Guttersnipes as your only win condition is risky.

I'll also echo the others and say that the shock lands are really worth the investment if you are planning on competitive play.  It hurts to spend 30 bucks on 4 cards but there is really nothing that replace their flexibility in the current format.

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10 Reply by ZebN

(9 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

I would say that both have their advantages and disadvantages.

For example if you are playing a Landfall heavy deck then the fetch lands are going to give you more bang for your buck (allowing 2 Landfall triggers per turn).  However barring this I would give a slight advantage to the Gates over the fetch lands, and here's why.

Typically with the fetch lands you need them to supplement your mana base instead of replace mana slots.  So for example if you are running a 3 color deck with 22 lands you will need fetch lands on top of that base to fix your mana, thereby taking up spots in your deck that could be filled by spells.  So if you are running 22 lands and 4 fetch lands essentially your mana base becomes 26, which is a drag.

Gates don't have this problem, since they are replacing mana in your deck.  In the 22 lands example above you would just replace the basic lands with gates of your choice, and still only have a base of 22 mana.

Also, gates provide more flexible mana fixing throughout the whole game.  When you use a fetch land and grab a Plains, that's a Plains until the end of the game.  But if you had an Azorius Guildgate, you could tap it for White or for Blue as the situation arises as the game continues.  When running more than 2 colors this flexibility gets more and more important.

Just my feelings on the two options. smile

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11 Reply by ZebN

(14 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

elpablo wrote:

What was your final decklist like?

Here's what I ran on Friday:

2 Nivmagus Elemental
2 Augur of Bolas
3 Guttersnipe
3 Nivix Cyclops
3 Hypersonic Dragon
2 Aetherling

1 Ral Zarek

2 Cyclonic Rift
2 Izzet Charm
1 Negate
4 Searing Spear
2 Think Twice
3 Dissipate
2 Turn // Burn

3 Pillar of Flame
1 Epic Experiment

1 Desolate Lighthouse
9 Island
3 Izzet Guildgate
7 Mountain
4 Steam Vents

elpablo wrote:

and with the changes?

And here's my edits:

3 Augur of Bolas
3 Guttersnipe
3 Nivix Cyclops
3 Hypersonic Dragon
2 Aetherling

1 Ral Zarek

1 Syncopate
2 Cyclonic Rift
2 Izzet Charm
1 Negate
4 Searing Spear
2 Think Twice
2 Dissipate
2 Turn // Burn

3 Pillar of Flame
2 Epic Experiment

1 Desolate Lighthouse
9 Island
3 Izzet Guildgate
7 Mountain
4 Steam Vents

Here's my (somewhat) final sideboard, still have to buy some of this stuff:

2 Mizzium Mortars
1 Negate
3 Skullcrack
1 Dissipate
4 Flames of the Firebrand
1 Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius
2 Thunderous Wrath
1 Blasphemous Act

I would probably sideboard a Dragon and put the extra Negate in if I was playing another spell heavy deck.  Once I get the Mortars I will swap at least one with a Searing Spear.

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12 Reply by ZebN

(14 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

So I used this at FNM on Friday, and went 3-1 with it.  The match I lost I did win one game and it ended up going down to the wire with him having only 4 life left when he pulled a Blasphemous Act/Boros Reckoner combo to finish me off.  Some notes:

This thing is ridiculously fun to play, even when I lost I still had fun and there was never a game that I got completely dominated.  The deck is also fairly versatile, while it's not fast by any means it can hang with an aggro rush with cheap removals and then get really strong midgame. 

As expected Aetherling dominated if I was able to get it on the board but Epic Experiment was a surprise win condition in two games as well.  An overloaded Cyclonic Rift is just devastating and kills token decks dead.

Nivmagus Elemental is out - he's really just a chump blocker with an ability that will most likely never be used.

Ral Zarek is fun and provides a nice tempo swing as he can untap mana spent to play him right away.  Only problem with him is that if you don't have a way to protect him he will be removed fairly quickly.

I love this crazy deck, I'm going to roll with this for a while!

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13 Reply by ZebN

(14 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

elpablo wrote:

When you exile cards with nivmagus, you don't get the resolution of the spell.  It just fizzles and gives him counters.  He's not hexproof and very susceptible to removal.  TBH he's a pretty bad card.  if you want this kind of pump effect, get some runechanters pikes.

Yeah, honestly the reason he's there is that he's a 1 mana 1/2 and I can chump with him, and even take some dudes out.  I hardly ever use his ability to pump him but he can slow down some early game creature rush.  I agree he's not great but I'm not going to spend a ton of money on Vexing Devils just have them rotate out.  I will probably replace him with Young Pyromancer when the time comes.  He costs 1 more but should do quite a bit more work.

elpablo wrote:

I see the logic behind the cyclops, but he's easily chumped and you won't always have a spell to enable him to attack.  I would prefer boros reckoner here, if you could splash a couple white lands to help make him easier to cast.  Chandra's phonix will even be better in a couple weeks.  Or anything with flying/evasion.

Nivix Cyclops has actually performed surprisingly well, especially in the early game if I'm burning one or two of their creatures to create an empty board for me to swing into.  Boros Reckoner is obviously head and shoulders above this guy but 3 are out of my price range (I'm a cheap ass). smile

elpablo wrote:

The dragon is big, but Ætherling is really your finisher here.  letting you cast sorcories as instants just isn't good enough.  You can put in almost anything else imo.

Agreed, Aetherling is my finisher, no doubt.  Hypersonic Dragon does put some nice pressure on them though and it's nice to swing for 4 in the air the turn he comes out.

elpablo wrote:

Your missing some sweepers.  Mizzium mortars is a must.
More thing twice and turn/burn... such good cards.
turn a couple of the dissipates into syncopates.  Syncopate is surprisingly flexible especially when they tap out to play something.
see if you can get a jace, architect of thought.  He'd be really good in this deck.

Completely agree on the sweepers.  Mizzium Mortars looks really good but I'm worried about the 3R in the casting cost.  I have one Blasphemous Act but that's going away soon.  Amazingly Cyclonic Rift (overloaded) has worked really well as a 1 way sweeper.

The other cards I agree with, I will find a place for those as well.

Excited to see where this goes, thanks for the advice!

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14 Reply by ZebN

(14 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

So after falling on my face repeatedly with this deck I put it away for a while in favor of my reliable Orzhov deck.  Recently I got the itch to play Izzet again so I pulled this out and just gutted white out of it and removed most of the counterspells.  It immediately got fun to play and is much more offensive/burn focused.  It's not going to win any major tournaments, and I have yet to try it out at FNM but it has tested pretty well against my friend's FNM decks, and most importantly I find it really fun to play.

Here's the cut I'm the most happy with: http://deckbox.org/sets/422594

It's still missing a few spells here and there, but I am going to purchase those and the Steam Vents and then try it out at FNM.  I'll let you guys know how it does! big_smile

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15 Reply by ZebN

(12 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

Here's my Orzhov deck, it's fairly similar to yours in terms of creatures, but I focus almost exclusively on removal for my instants/sorceries.  It performs really well in FNM and it's pretty fun to play.

http://deckbox.org/sets/339671

In my opinion, Murder and Oblivion Ring are absolute staples of this deck.  You want to slow them down while keeping your Extort going and while you generate mana for your bombs.  Merciless Eviction is great against token decks and Voice of Resurgence.  Smite is helpful against early attackers, or can be used to turn a chump into a champ and has actually come in quite handy for me.  One Thousand Lashes is kind of looked down upon, but it is effective and provides a boon for you each turn, plus not many people run enchantment killers so they sometimes have to resort to killing their own creatures to get rid of it.

As far as creatures go, I don't think Dutiful Thrull is going to do much for you and Thrull Parasite fits the 1 drop better and has Extort to boot.  Tithe Drinker is OK, but High Priest of Penance plays into delaying the game and costs the same exact mana.  Vampire Nighthawk is an absolute beast and I would try to work that in as well.

Good luck, let us know how it goes!

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16 Reply by ZebN

(14 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

Thanks for the feedback, it's appreciated.

I do plan on getting the shock lands as funds permit since they are useful in multiple decks.

I agree with you about the Nivix Cyclops, I though it would perform better than it does, but since most of my instants are counters it just doesn't do much.  I'm not sure if there is a slam dunk replacement for the 3 drop slot, but I'm thinking I may try out Guttersnipe.

The Fluxcharger is a little harder to figure out what to swap out with.  Hypersonic Dragon would give me much more consistent damage but costs 5 CMC.  Ascended Lawmage is the same cost and has Hexproof which is nice, but still not a monster damage dealer.  Not 100% sure what to put at the 4CMC slot, Skymark Roc maybe?  Dunno.

I added another Aetherling to my deck and it's basically a game-ender if you have 7 mana on the board.

I'm going to test this more and see what happens, I'll post back if I see some success.

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17 Reply by ZebN

(14 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

I've made some edits to this deck to make it a little faster and not so reliant on counters.  Still looking for advice or opinions! big_smile

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18 Topic by ZebN

(14 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

Looking for some feedback on this deck that I whipped up, it would be for occasional FNM/casual play.  I'm wondering if it's even worth spending the money on the Snapcasters and Ral Zarek if it won't be competitive.  It would be awesome to able to play Izzet in Standard again at least semi-competitively. 

Also you can probably ignore the sideboard, I didn't really put much thought into it. smile

Thanks in advance!

http://deckbox.org/sets/371941

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