Got to play Rosheen tonight. (Was eager. Sosumi fer not playin' Scion.) Results:
1. I shouted a lot.
2. I did about 120 damage to players.
3. I didn't win, but killed Allen, got Ryan to 1 and new guy (sorry new guy, didn't get a chance to ask your new guy name)to 3.
4. Got called an asshole.
So, a resounding success all around. Good on ya, Rosheen -- maybe next time I'll get to play some land destruction. I also saw a Chaos Warp in the case and swapped out Tropical Swarm for it. Win!
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Monday, October 24, 2011
Mana
My project this week, besides looking for a Mana-Charged Dragon, is to watch the mana for this deck.
Specifically, I want to trim out dual lands -- particularly my shocks -- in favor of basics or Terramorphic Expanse and Evolving Wilds. I'm leery of utility lands; the very last thing I want in this deck is to make all my land drops and have something idiotic like RU3 on turn five. I'm also leery of unnecessary duals, and I've got way too many in the deck.
So, I'm going to keep track of what lands I play; how hard I lean on my signets; what mana I'm behind on (hint: it'll be black or green); and how often I hit WUBRG on turn five. Secondly, I'll be tracking how long it takes me to hit my minimum mana requirements -- WWBBGGUR -- every game. That particular combination of mana allows me to meet the color requirements for every card in the deck except Nicol Bolas and Chord of Calling, but Chord cheats mana costs and I doubt I'm ever going to hardcast Nicol Bolas.
Typically, my fetches are for Scrubland, Savannah, Bayou, Tropical Island, Taiga and Underground Sea; I'm pretty sure Volcanic Island only gets played when I topdeck it and need a land. (Shocks are second-class citizens in this deck, and are probably going to be scaled back pretty severely. The 2-life penalty happens a lot more than I like.) I'm guessing that, when I've got mana a little better tuned, I'll be looking at five or six more basics. There's also room for improvement in the signets -- Coalition Relic and Darksteel Ingot are probably both better than Dimir Signet, for example. (Golgari Signet is solid gold, though.)
Specifically, I want to trim out dual lands -- particularly my shocks -- in favor of basics or Terramorphic Expanse and Evolving Wilds. I'm leery of utility lands; the very last thing I want in this deck is to make all my land drops and have something idiotic like RU3 on turn five. I'm also leery of unnecessary duals, and I've got way too many in the deck.
So, I'm going to keep track of what lands I play; how hard I lean on my signets; what mana I'm behind on (hint: it'll be black or green); and how often I hit WUBRG on turn five. Secondly, I'll be tracking how long it takes me to hit my minimum mana requirements -- WWBBGGUR -- every game. That particular combination of mana allows me to meet the color requirements for every card in the deck except Nicol Bolas and Chord of Calling, but Chord cheats mana costs and I doubt I'm ever going to hardcast Nicol Bolas.
Typically, my fetches are for Scrubland, Savannah, Bayou, Tropical Island, Taiga and Underground Sea; I'm pretty sure Volcanic Island only gets played when I topdeck it and need a land. (Shocks are second-class citizens in this deck, and are probably going to be scaled back pretty severely. The 2-life penalty happens a lot more than I like.) I'm guessing that, when I've got mana a little better tuned, I'll be looking at five or six more basics. There's also room for improvement in the signets -- Coalition Relic and Darksteel Ingot are probably both better than Dimir Signet, for example. (Golgari Signet is solid gold, though.)
Third Changes
It's week three, and I've had some changes lined up. I'll just jump right in:
-Ashes of the Fallen
-Glimpse of Nature
-Krosan Reclamation
+Court Hussar
+Ethersworn Adjuticator
+Memory's Journey
These are all straightforward trade-outs, but here's the reasoning.
Ashes of the Fallen was only present to allow Haakon to play non-knights. That typically meant that I was either a) trying to replay dragons from the grave that I'd ditched with Scion, or b) I've been playing piecemeal catch-up all game long and had stumbled upon Ashes. Neither of those situations is particularly appealing, one because it's a win-more and the other because it's typically a gasp before death. It's hard to get really aggressive with Haakon; I've got three discard outlets, but all are high-priority targets, and he's mana-intensive.
My solution? Just play a dude that I'd want to play with Haakon. Ethersworn Adjuticator is like Avatar of Woe in a lot of ways, and I think it'll work out OK. (Much nicer, of course, when I've got Anger.) The trick here is that I've got to be a little narrower in my strategies: I'm only going to go for Haakon when I've got Survival, and I'm not going to go for Survival when I can go for other plans.
Second, Glimpse of Nature's a fun card, but it's a lot worse without Aluren. After I cut Aluren, I'd typically engineer a one-shot turn to pay G to draw two with it; that price is good, but I shouldn't be setting up a turn for a 2-mana discount off Divination. Court Hussar is a dork -- a knight dork, in fact -- he doesn't require setup, he gives me more selection, he plays defense and Haakon brings him back. All winners. (As an aside, I'm pretty sure I'm the only deck on the Internet that plays two Vedalken Knights.)
Finally, Memory's Journey is a perfect example of a card that's not strictly better than what it's replaceing (Krosan Reclamation), but it kinda is. If it cost 1G, it would be strictly better; that 1U v. 1G makes it a different animal (especially in this deck, where a spare green on turn 8 is a touch more likely than a spare blue). In any case, the card's better in every numerical way, and it's a replacement I've been meaning to do for a while.
I'm still gunning for Goryo's Vengeance -- it's really trying my patience. I'm never in a position to cast it, but I would have cast Necromancy in more than a few of the situations I had GV in my grip. Tutoring for Vengeance in order to cast it so I can cut it is against the spirit of the rules, but I'm damned close to doing just that.
-Ashes of the Fallen
-Glimpse of Nature
-Krosan Reclamation
+Court Hussar
+Ethersworn Adjuticator
+Memory's Journey
These are all straightforward trade-outs, but here's the reasoning.
Ashes of the Fallen was only present to allow Haakon to play non-knights. That typically meant that I was either a) trying to replay dragons from the grave that I'd ditched with Scion, or b) I've been playing piecemeal catch-up all game long and had stumbled upon Ashes. Neither of those situations is particularly appealing, one because it's a win-more and the other because it's typically a gasp before death. It's hard to get really aggressive with Haakon; I've got three discard outlets, but all are high-priority targets, and he's mana-intensive.
My solution? Just play a dude that I'd want to play with Haakon. Ethersworn Adjuticator is like Avatar of Woe in a lot of ways, and I think it'll work out OK. (Much nicer, of course, when I've got Anger.) The trick here is that I've got to be a little narrower in my strategies: I'm only going to go for Haakon when I've got Survival, and I'm not going to go for Survival when I can go for other plans.
Second, Glimpse of Nature's a fun card, but it's a lot worse without Aluren. After I cut Aluren, I'd typically engineer a one-shot turn to pay G to draw two with it; that price is good, but I shouldn't be setting up a turn for a 2-mana discount off Divination. Court Hussar is a dork -- a knight dork, in fact -- he doesn't require setup, he gives me more selection, he plays defense and Haakon brings him back. All winners. (As an aside, I'm pretty sure I'm the only deck on the Internet that plays two Vedalken Knights.)
Finally, Memory's Journey is a perfect example of a card that's not strictly better than what it's replaceing (Krosan Reclamation), but it kinda is. If it cost 1G, it would be strictly better; that 1U v. 1G makes it a different animal (especially in this deck, where a spare green on turn 8 is a touch more likely than a spare blue). In any case, the card's better in every numerical way, and it's a replacement I've been meaning to do for a while.
I'm still gunning for Goryo's Vengeance -- it's really trying my patience. I'm never in a position to cast it, but I would have cast Necromancy in more than a few of the situations I had GV in my grip. Tutoring for Vengeance in order to cast it so I can cut it is against the spirit of the rules, but I'm damned close to doing just that.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Second Changes, part two
Only got one game in tonight (we played Horde variant, which is pretty rough -- horde needs to be less swingy).
So, first off -- Anger is incredibly good. I kinda hate it, but them's the breaks. I'm trying to chalk it up as yet another bit of utility, but haste is sooo good in multiplayer.
Secondly: Haakon needs something a little better. Ethersworn Adjuticator and Knight of the Reliquary are both solid drops; one's a beater that can also kill dudes and play on defense, while the other's a solid beater that can grab a touch of utility before it starts crashing through the gates. I don't have an Adjuticator at the moment (but I will -- $1 mythics ahoy!), but I do have my Knights of the Reliquary, which are just wasting their time in the Conflux box. Both will come in, but we're going to start with what I got -- Knight of the Reliquary. (On the utility side is Court Hussar, who's crazy solid, too, for a slower game.) In addition, one or two karoos might go in with Knight; Plains --> Bojuka Bog --> Karoo --> Bojuka Bog --> Karoo --> Bojuka Bog, /hip thrust. You can just picture it, you know?
Second: My tutors need to be more targeted. Mystical is terrible, because it's almost always fetching other tutors, it's usually too slow to get answers and I don't have any powerful, game-advancing sorceries or instants to grab when it comes down to it. There's quite a few better tutors for this deck -- Eladamri's Call, Liliana Vess, even Sylvan Tutor all spring to mind -- but I think that, since I can't play with Gifts Ungiven, I'll go with No. 2 (with an air pellet) Intuition. Intuition's really nice in that it can grab answers (Path, Swords, Crib Swap), it complements Haakon, it can grab Haakon, and it does it all at instant speed with no inherent card disadvantage. I'm kinda in hearts with you, Intuition, but you're no flashy one-night stand like Aluren. You're solid, you're a workhorse, you can bring home the bacon. Your brown eyes make me swoon, baby.
So, that leaves us with two cards to drop. Avatar of Woe is going to go out for Ethersworn Adjudicator, but we haven't crossed that particular threshold yet. (We've also only played Avatar once so far.)
Paradoxically, Ashes of the Fallen is high on my list of "meh" lately. I'm trying to hone Haakon a tad more, and "you can play your crappy dudes from the grave over und over" just doesn't cut it. That being said, it's staying on for a little while longer -- I've got some other nonsense to cut first, and Ashes + Haakon gets a lot better with small utility dudes that like to die. (Magic: It's more vicious than you'd think.)
So what's coming out? Crop Rotation and Mystical Tutor. We've gone over Mystical Tutor's painful, sad life in this deck. Crop Rotation, though, is truly miserable -- its entire job in life is to get Bojuka Bog. That's literally all it's there for. Before I over-fixed the mana base, it would sometimes fix colors; those days are done, though, and unless I put in a Maze of Ith and an Academy Ruins, Crop Rotation just ain't earning its pay.
So, first off -- Anger is incredibly good. I kinda hate it, but them's the breaks. I'm trying to chalk it up as yet another bit of utility, but haste is sooo good in multiplayer.
Secondly: Haakon needs something a little better. Ethersworn Adjuticator and Knight of the Reliquary are both solid drops; one's a beater that can also kill dudes and play on defense, while the other's a solid beater that can grab a touch of utility before it starts crashing through the gates. I don't have an Adjuticator at the moment (but I will -- $1 mythics ahoy!), but I do have my Knights of the Reliquary, which are just wasting their time in the Conflux box. Both will come in, but we're going to start with what I got -- Knight of the Reliquary. (On the utility side is Court Hussar, who's crazy solid, too, for a slower game.) In addition, one or two karoos might go in with Knight; Plains --> Bojuka Bog --> Karoo --> Bojuka Bog --> Karoo --> Bojuka Bog, /hip thrust. You can just picture it, you know?
Second: My tutors need to be more targeted. Mystical is terrible, because it's almost always fetching other tutors, it's usually too slow to get answers and I don't have any powerful, game-advancing sorceries or instants to grab when it comes down to it. There's quite a few better tutors for this deck -- Eladamri's Call, Liliana Vess, even Sylvan Tutor all spring to mind -- but I think that, since I can't play with Gifts Ungiven, I'll go with No. 2 (with an air pellet) Intuition. Intuition's really nice in that it can grab answers (Path, Swords, Crib Swap), it complements Haakon, it can grab Haakon, and it does it all at instant speed with no inherent card disadvantage. I'm kinda in hearts with you, Intuition, but you're no flashy one-night stand like Aluren. You're solid, you're a workhorse, you can bring home the bacon. Your brown eyes make me swoon, baby.
So, that leaves us with two cards to drop. Avatar of Woe is going to go out for Ethersworn Adjudicator, but we haven't crossed that particular threshold yet. (We've also only played Avatar once so far.)
Paradoxically, Ashes of the Fallen is high on my list of "meh" lately. I'm trying to hone Haakon a tad more, and "you can play your crappy dudes from the grave over und over" just doesn't cut it. That being said, it's staying on for a little while longer -- I've got some other nonsense to cut first, and Ashes + Haakon gets a lot better with small utility dudes that like to die. (Magic: It's more vicious than you'd think.)
So what's coming out? Crop Rotation and Mystical Tutor. We've gone over Mystical Tutor's painful, sad life in this deck. Crop Rotation, though, is truly miserable -- its entire job in life is to get Bojuka Bog. That's literally all it's there for. Before I over-fixed the mana base, it would sometimes fix colors; those days are done, though, and unless I put in a Maze of Ith and an Academy Ruins, Crop Rotation just ain't earning its pay.
Monday, October 17, 2011
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Second Changes
I know I just posted first changes two days ago -- but it was a Friday, and this is a Sunday. New week!
Besides, after a few more frustrating games, I confirmed a few suspicions.
1. Aluren is terrible. It's absolutely horrible. I've loved this card for so long, but it just doesn't do anything. I don't have the engine to abuse it properly, I don't have a game-ending plays to make it good game once it resolves, and the cards it plays nice with are two different types -- meaning it's hellishly difficult to resolve all three. The fact that others can play Phantasmal Image into it for free just makes it that much worse. Resolved twice, and it's outta here.
2. Goryo's Vengeance is just a low-rent Necromancy. I couldn't resolve this card twice, so it's still in, but it's just worse in almost every respect compared to the enchantment. I've sat on it, with no valid targets, in three of the last five games I've played. The exile clause means you really only want to use it when you either a) can really stick it to your opponents or b) when you have no choice.
3. I need at least one creature-based enchantment or artifact removal spell. I'm leaning toward both an Uktabi Orangutan and a Viridian Zealot. One's cheaper, the other doesn't fold to Torpor Orb.
4. Scavenging Ooze is choice, but he don't nuke graves like I want -- I'm already hurting for green mana due to Survival and all the double green in the deck. I'm thinking a Nihil Spellbomb or a Withered Wretch might be in order.
5. I want a Mana-Charged Dragon for Scion. The Trample!
6. I need an Anger. It literally makes me sick to say that, because he's in every single deck with red, and it's just a no-brainer with Survival of the Fittest (something I'm trying to avoid), but I'm so aggro-based that I really need the haste. I've been whiffing a lot on attack steps to removal, and that ain't kosher.
7. I need a cheap dude that EtB and kills a dude. Fleshbag Marauder, Big Game Hunter (that should be hyphenated, Wizards!) and Bone Shredder all fit the bill. (Thanks for the heads up on Bone Shredder, Travis.)
8. Finally, I wanted the deck to play Volrath's Shapeshifter, Haakon and Scion as differing threats that had some synergy. The way the deck's shaping up, I'm running Haakon with Shapeshifter and Scion backup; Haakon's awesome, but he can't hold down a table by himself yet. (Stillmoon Cavalier may change that. With enough control and a dose of mana, I think he might get there.) My next few games will concentrate on getting Shapeshifter to hold its own. I'll try to kill someone with him and see what I wish I'd had.
So, the changes:
-Aluren
-Hibernation Sliver
-Dominating Licid
Aluren is terrible, as said above; the other two are just way too cute (re: narrow). It's a shame, because I wanted to make like 14 Licids, but it just wasn't in the cards.
+Anger
+Fleshbag Marauder
+Viridian Zealot
Besides, after a few more frustrating games, I confirmed a few suspicions.
1. Aluren is terrible. It's absolutely horrible. I've loved this card for so long, but it just doesn't do anything. I don't have the engine to abuse it properly, I don't have a game-ending plays to make it good game once it resolves, and the cards it plays nice with are two different types -- meaning it's hellishly difficult to resolve all three. The fact that others can play Phantasmal Image into it for free just makes it that much worse. Resolved twice, and it's outta here.
2. Goryo's Vengeance is just a low-rent Necromancy. I couldn't resolve this card twice, so it's still in, but it's just worse in almost every respect compared to the enchantment. I've sat on it, with no valid targets, in three of the last five games I've played. The exile clause means you really only want to use it when you either a) can really stick it to your opponents or b) when you have no choice.
3. I need at least one creature-based enchantment or artifact removal spell. I'm leaning toward both an Uktabi Orangutan and a Viridian Zealot. One's cheaper, the other doesn't fold to Torpor Orb.
4. Scavenging Ooze is choice, but he don't nuke graves like I want -- I'm already hurting for green mana due to Survival and all the double green in the deck. I'm thinking a Nihil Spellbomb or a Withered Wretch might be in order.
5. I want a Mana-Charged Dragon for Scion. The Trample!
6. I need an Anger. It literally makes me sick to say that, because he's in every single deck with red, and it's just a no-brainer with Survival of the Fittest (something I'm trying to avoid), but I'm so aggro-based that I really need the haste. I've been whiffing a lot on attack steps to removal, and that ain't kosher.
7. I need a cheap dude that EtB and kills a dude. Fleshbag Marauder, Big Game Hunter (that should be hyphenated, Wizards!) and Bone Shredder all fit the bill. (Thanks for the heads up on Bone Shredder, Travis.)
8. Finally, I wanted the deck to play Volrath's Shapeshifter, Haakon and Scion as differing threats that had some synergy. The way the deck's shaping up, I'm running Haakon with Shapeshifter and Scion backup; Haakon's awesome, but he can't hold down a table by himself yet. (Stillmoon Cavalier may change that. With enough control and a dose of mana, I think he might get there.) My next few games will concentrate on getting Shapeshifter to hold its own. I'll try to kill someone with him and see what I wish I'd had.
So, the changes:
-Aluren
-Hibernation Sliver
-Dominating Licid
Aluren is terrible, as said above; the other two are just way too cute (re: narrow). It's a shame, because I wanted to make like 14 Licids, but it just wasn't in the cards.
+Anger
+Fleshbag Marauder
+Viridian Zealot
Friday, October 14, 2011
First changes
So, we're changing 14 cards in the deck this week.
Such a massive change doesn't break the rules -- we're going to go overboard on the mana base and then prune it back in future weeks. It's hard to get real testing in when you're spending most of your turns working around your mana.
So, 5 material changes (my max for the week): 5 Swamps traded in for one each of the Zendikar fetches.
Then we're changing out 5 Forests, 2 Islands and 2 Plains for 9 of the RAV/GPT/DIS duals. The one we're not including? Steam Vents. I'm not a fan of Overgrown Tomb -- most of my 2-color 3-drops are GB, so it's awkward -- but Steam Vents is next to useless for the deck. (I really want my U and R lands to be tapping for G, B or W. I don't have much use for U or R.)
It's a turrible, boring change, but I really need to not be fighting my manabase. It's just a horrible thing that makes baby Buddha scowl. (That and I can carry over any changes I want to make after Saturday to next week -- it's not like I've played enough to satisfy any of my rules so far this week.)
Other cards I'm considering for inclusion: Intuition, Eladamri's Call and Regrowth. (More boring crap, I know.)
Other cards that I want to chop: Aluren, Conspiracy, Disciple of Griselbrand (he's just the worst sac outlet in the deck, but I really like this dude), Hibernation Sliver and Glimpse of Nature.
Such a massive change doesn't break the rules -- we're going to go overboard on the mana base and then prune it back in future weeks. It's hard to get real testing in when you're spending most of your turns working around your mana.
So, 5 material changes (my max for the week): 5 Swamps traded in for one each of the Zendikar fetches.
Then we're changing out 5 Forests, 2 Islands and 2 Plains for 9 of the RAV/GPT/DIS duals. The one we're not including? Steam Vents. I'm not a fan of Overgrown Tomb -- most of my 2-color 3-drops are GB, so it's awkward -- but Steam Vents is next to useless for the deck. (I really want my U and R lands to be tapping for G, B or W. I don't have much use for U or R.)
It's a turrible, boring change, but I really need to not be fighting my manabase. It's just a horrible thing that makes baby Buddha scowl. (That and I can carry over any changes I want to make after Saturday to next week -- it's not like I've played enough to satisfy any of my rules so far this week.)
Other cards I'm considering for inclusion: Intuition, Eladamri's Call and Regrowth. (More boring crap, I know.)
Other cards that I want to chop: Aluren, Conspiracy, Disciple of Griselbrand (he's just the worst sac outlet in the deck, but I really like this dude), Hibernation Sliver and Glimpse of Nature.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
First two games
So, I got two games in. I don't think I'll be able to play Friday -- some prior plans -- so I wanted to play Wednesday.
First, the bad news -- in both games, my mana was terrible and I did nothing. When I was goldfishing the deck, I found I couldn't get WUBRG on turn 5 consistently, but was assembling some shenanigansy game-ender by turn 8ish usually. That -- that didn't happen tonight.
The first game -- Scion, Karador and Horde of Notions -- ended with me getting blown out because I fetched a Tropical Island rather than a Tundra. That's a little too tight for me, all things considered.
The highlight of the game was Haakon + Crib Swap. It's very awesome, and I'm going to need a better way to turn it on more reliably. Allen suggested Chameleon Colossus, but I brushed him off. I was wrong. It's both a dragon and a knight, so it's actually pretty good, and it's easy to cast to boot. (Thanks Allen! Sorry for blowing you off.)
The second game I drew tons of narrow options and didn't really have ways to leverage my good cards -- like Survival -- to any real benefit. In other words, I need some neat-o creatures to exploit, and some better ways to exploit my graveyard. Genesis is right out because it costs a billion mana; Karador seems pretty boss, though.
Both games, Goryo's Vengeance just sat in my hand, but that's partly because I'm terrible. Necromancy is probably (the obviously?) better card, but I'm stupid.
The second game was kind of a waste of time anyway -- Horde had a turn 2 Survival that turned into a turn 4 Sun Titan. The two dominated the game; Survival dug up answers (Mystic Snake and Venser) and proceeded to steal everything with a Gilded Drake and Sun Titan activations. No one drew any point removal, and the Day of Judgment was countered by a Draining Whelk. Waste of an hour, all things considered. (No offense to anyone in the game. It's just that we all knew it was a crap shoot to draw enough hate to beat Horde, and we all whiffed.)
So, cards I played twice: Haakon, Ancient Grudge, Crib Swap, Survival.
First off, the mana base needs to be better. I need it to be auto-pilot, for the most part; I don't like having to make decisions for what I need now against what I might need later, with my backup being Eternal Witness or other recursion. A better player could probably skitter along with what I've got now, but it's seriously not flexible enough. I really need better access to on-color mana, and that means more fetches and perhaps two or three on-the-nose shock lands. Watery Grave, Overgrown Tomb, Breeding Pool and Godless Shrine, along with Misty Rainforest, Marsh Flats and Verdant Catacomb would probably cover it. (The trade-out would be three swamps, two forests and two plains.)
Second off, there's too much cute crap in the deck. Too many sac outlets, too many pointless cards. I'll need a creature that destroys artifacts or enchantments on resolution, and a cantrip knight (like Court Hussar, cheers!) would be completely welcome. I suspect that Conspiracy will die a horrible death in the future, but I haven't resolved it twice. In fact, none of the cards I've played will be cut -- I love them all!
So, a short list of cards I'm eyeing for inclusion: Necormancy, Court Hussar, Uktabi Orangutan, Viridian Zealot, Ethersworn Adjuticator (yurp, over the top), Chameleon Colossus. On the card draw / tutor front, Intuition and Fact or Fiction seem like they'd be solid; Beseech the Queen and Necrologia may be solid too.
First, the bad news -- in both games, my mana was terrible and I did nothing. When I was goldfishing the deck, I found I couldn't get WUBRG on turn 5 consistently, but was assembling some shenanigansy game-ender by turn 8ish usually. That -- that didn't happen tonight.
The first game -- Scion, Karador and Horde of Notions -- ended with me getting blown out because I fetched a Tropical Island rather than a Tundra. That's a little too tight for me, all things considered.
The highlight of the game was Haakon + Crib Swap. It's very awesome, and I'm going to need a better way to turn it on more reliably. Allen suggested Chameleon Colossus, but I brushed him off. I was wrong. It's both a dragon and a knight, so it's actually pretty good, and it's easy to cast to boot. (Thanks Allen! Sorry for blowing you off.)
The second game I drew tons of narrow options and didn't really have ways to leverage my good cards -- like Survival -- to any real benefit. In other words, I need some neat-o creatures to exploit, and some better ways to exploit my graveyard. Genesis is right out because it costs a billion mana; Karador seems pretty boss, though.
Both games, Goryo's Vengeance just sat in my hand, but that's partly because I'm terrible. Necromancy is probably (the obviously?) better card, but I'm stupid.
The second game was kind of a waste of time anyway -- Horde had a turn 2 Survival that turned into a turn 4 Sun Titan. The two dominated the game; Survival dug up answers (Mystic Snake and Venser) and proceeded to steal everything with a Gilded Drake and Sun Titan activations. No one drew any point removal, and the Day of Judgment was countered by a Draining Whelk. Waste of an hour, all things considered. (No offense to anyone in the game. It's just that we all knew it was a crap shoot to draw enough hate to beat Horde, and we all whiffed.)
So, cards I played twice: Haakon, Ancient Grudge, Crib Swap, Survival.
First off, the mana base needs to be better. I need it to be auto-pilot, for the most part; I don't like having to make decisions for what I need now against what I might need later, with my backup being Eternal Witness or other recursion. A better player could probably skitter along with what I've got now, but it's seriously not flexible enough. I really need better access to on-color mana, and that means more fetches and perhaps two or three on-the-nose shock lands. Watery Grave, Overgrown Tomb, Breeding Pool and Godless Shrine, along with Misty Rainforest, Marsh Flats and Verdant Catacomb would probably cover it. (The trade-out would be three swamps, two forests and two plains.)
Second off, there's too much cute crap in the deck. Too many sac outlets, too many pointless cards. I'll need a creature that destroys artifacts or enchantments on resolution, and a cantrip knight (like Court Hussar, cheers!) would be completely welcome. I suspect that Conspiracy will die a horrible death in the future, but I haven't resolved it twice. In fact, none of the cards I've played will be cut -- I love them all!
So, a short list of cards I'm eyeing for inclusion: Necormancy, Court Hussar, Uktabi Orangutan, Viridian Zealot, Ethersworn Adjuticator (yurp, over the top), Chameleon Colossus. On the card draw / tutor front, Intuition and Fact or Fiction seem like they'd be solid; Beseech the Queen and Necrologia may be solid too.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Strategies and themes
The current deck has three gameplans.
The first is to resolve Volrath's Shapeshifter and use its abilities to frustrate everyone at the board. The money combo is with Essence of the Wild in the grave. Every dude you play while this pair is online will turn into a Volrath's Shapeshifter -- a permanent change. Choice!
The second is to resolve Haakon. This guy is a house; there's simple combos like Nameless Inversion and Crib Swap, but he turns into an absolute bomb with Aluren. The major problem here is that, while the pieces are cheap, there's quite a few of them. The eventual noose should be enough to kill everyone at the table -- it's a pretty solid lock -- but it realistically takes about 3 turns to set up. It won't be winning any awards for combo of the year.
Finally, there's Scion. He flies in the air, disrupts opponents, reanimates old friends and then dances on everyone's head, all at the low cost of 4B spread over two turns. This is gameplan C for a few reasons -- it's old hat, and everyone's seen it before; I don't have greaves, so it's pretty chancy; and I haven't found anything really interesting to do with him yet. (Hellkite Igniter is amazing, but the color and artifact requirements are too steep for this deck.)
So that's what's planned for Friday (and Wednesday, if I can get a game in that night).
The first is to resolve Volrath's Shapeshifter and use its abilities to frustrate everyone at the board. The money combo is with Essence of the Wild in the grave. Every dude you play while this pair is online will turn into a Volrath's Shapeshifter -- a permanent change. Choice!
The second is to resolve Haakon. This guy is a house; there's simple combos like Nameless Inversion and Crib Swap, but he turns into an absolute bomb with Aluren. The major problem here is that, while the pieces are cheap, there's quite a few of them. The eventual noose should be enough to kill everyone at the table -- it's a pretty solid lock -- but it realistically takes about 3 turns to set up. It won't be winning any awards for combo of the year.
Finally, there's Scion. He flies in the air, disrupts opponents, reanimates old friends and then dances on everyone's head, all at the low cost of 4B spread over two turns. This is gameplan C for a few reasons -- it's old hat, and everyone's seen it before; I don't have greaves, so it's pretty chancy; and I haven't found anything really interesting to do with him yet. (Hellkite Igniter is amazing, but the color and artifact requirements are too steep for this deck.)
So that's what's planned for Friday (and Wednesday, if I can get a game in that night).
Current Decklist
SCION OF THE UR-DRAGON
ARTIFACTS
Ashes of the Fallen
Culling Dais
Dimir Signet
Golgari Signet
Mana Vault
Orzhov Signet
Sol Ring
Spawning Pit
CREATURES
Avatar of Woe
Dimir Doppelganger
Disciple of Griselbrand
Dominating Licid
Essence of the Wild
Eternal Witness
Haakon, Stromgald Scourge
Hibernation Sliver
Nantuko Husk
Nicol Bolas
Numot, the Devastator
Oros, the Avenger
Riftsweeper
Scarland Thrinax
Scavenging Slime
Spore Frog
Steel Hellkite
Sun Titan
Teneb, the Harvester
Volrath's Shapeshifter
Wall of Roots
ENCHANTMENTS
Aluren
Attrition
Conspiracy
Grim Feast
Survival of the Fittest
Tortured Existence
INSTANTS
Ancient Grudge
Brainstorm
Chord of Calling
Crib Swap
Crop Rotation
Enlightened Tutor
Glimpse of Nature
Goryo's Vengeance
Impulse
Krosan Reclamation
Makeshift Mannequin
Mystical Tutor
Nameless Inversion
Noxious Revival
Oblation
Path to Exile
Pernicious Deed
Ray of Revelation
Reclaim
Swords to Plowshares
Vampiric Tutor
Worldly Tutor
LANDS
Badlands
Bayou
Bloodstained Mire
Bojuka Bog
Command Tower
Flooded Strand
Plains
Plateau
Polluted Delta
Savannah
Scrubland
Taiga
Tropical Island
Tundra
Underground Sea
Volcanic Island
Volrath's Stronghold
Winding Canyons
Windswept Heath
Wooded Foothills
SORCERIES
Demonic Tutor
Ponder
Preordain
Vindicate
ARTIFACTS
Ashes of the Fallen
Culling Dais
Dimir Signet
Golgari Signet
Mana Vault
Orzhov Signet
Sol Ring
Spawning Pit
CREATURES
Avatar of Woe
Dimir Doppelganger
Disciple of Griselbrand
Dominating Licid
Essence of the Wild
Eternal Witness
Haakon, Stromgald Scourge
Hibernation Sliver
Nantuko Husk
Nicol Bolas
Numot, the Devastator
Oros, the Avenger
Riftsweeper
Scarland Thrinax
Scavenging Slime
Spore Frog
Steel Hellkite
Sun Titan
Teneb, the Harvester
Volrath's Shapeshifter
Wall of Roots
ENCHANTMENTS
Aluren
Attrition
Conspiracy
Grim Feast
Survival of the Fittest
Tortured Existence
INSTANTS
Ancient Grudge
Brainstorm
Chord of Calling
Crib Swap
Crop Rotation
Enlightened Tutor
Glimpse of Nature
Goryo's Vengeance
Impulse
Krosan Reclamation
Makeshift Mannequin
Mystical Tutor
Nameless Inversion
Noxious Revival
Oblation
Path to Exile
Pernicious Deed
Ray of Revelation
Reclaim
Swords to Plowshares
Vampiric Tutor
Worldly Tutor
LANDS
Badlands
Bayou
Bloodstained Mire
Bojuka Bog
Command Tower
Flooded Strand
Plains
Plateau
Polluted Delta
Savannah
Scrubland
Taiga
Tropical Island
Tundra
Underground Sea
Volcanic Island
Volrath's Stronghold
Winding Canyons
Windswept Heath
Wooded Foothills
SORCERIES
Demonic Tutor
Ponder
Preordain
Vindicate
Scion of the Ur-Dragon
New long-term project!
Scion of the Ur-Dragon EDH deck. It's a return to five-color graveyard abuse, and man, it's terrible. Five-card combos? Check. Cute five-mana enchantments that do nothing? You bet. Searching my library five times a turn? Yurp.
So first, here's the rules for this LIVING DECK project.
1: I'll keep decklists posted each week, keep notes of every game I play, explain changes in the deck and describe my favored plays.
2. I can only make 5 material changes a week. A material change is any change that isn't a) a refinement to the mana base; b) an exchange of a card that has a non-mana ability for a land that only has mana abilities; or c) a switch to a strictly better card (like, from a new set).
3. I can only remove a card to make a material change if I've resolved the card twice.
4. Volrath's Shapeshifter; Haakon, Stromgald Scourge; and Scion of the Ur-Dragon must stay in the deck.
Scion of the Ur-Dragon EDH deck. It's a return to five-color graveyard abuse, and man, it's terrible. Five-card combos? Check. Cute five-mana enchantments that do nothing? You bet. Searching my library five times a turn? Yurp.
So first, here's the rules for this LIVING DECK project.
1: I'll keep decklists posted each week, keep notes of every game I play, explain changes in the deck and describe my favored plays.
2. I can only make 5 material changes a week. A material change is any change that isn't a) a refinement to the mana base; b) an exchange of a card that has a non-mana ability for a land that only has mana abilities; or c) a switch to a strictly better card (like, from a new set).
3. I can only remove a card to make a material change if I've resolved the card twice.
4. Volrath's Shapeshifter; Haakon, Stromgald Scourge; and Scion of the Ur-Dragon must stay in the deck.
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