If I was ever fortunate enough to write a series for a proper big money-paying website, I'd call my column "a thought beyond". It would be all about the stella decks that really smack a format for 2, and end up with all the Top 8 players.
Sealed formats are quickly "understood" because the Commons that really rock show up in winning decks, or sometimes the 'problem' cards like Madcap Skills. It's a problem that you can be so dead so quick, either taking damage or trading for more mana and perhaps the same cards.
That's not the case for constructed though, seeing the top decks show up, and present themselves very well and then are WIDE-LY spread around. What's the key thing? What's the thought beyond all the other decks, that lead to great players having the greatest deck to make day 2, top 8, win?
I'd like to bring up the magical number, after the obvious "bargain" cards. Sphinx's Revelation is the best thing you can do in Standard at the moment. Melisa DeTora and Ben Stark both played decks that took great advantage of this, using different key cards to really punish the opponent.
Ben Stark played a very clever set up, with no permanents that 3 or less and very few creatures that weren't brilliant value on their own. Augur of Bolas: draw a card. The 1/3 is what's extra. Resto Angel? Reloads on Augur or Snapcaster, the 3/4 is just a bonus, or and instant creature-based lightning bolt in the air. Snapcaster Mage? The 2/1 is highly forgetable, as instead you can rebuy ANY SPELL you want, or even bait out that counter spell from the opponent (I'll Snapcaster and possibly replay that Sphinx's Revelation. Counter it?).
The exciting card here, that was only a 2-of, was Planar Cleansing. It clears away all the problem cards, anything not indestructible, and most importantly any Garruks and Lilys hanging around. Included is the deck's own built-in self resilience, winning with nonBasic Nephalia Drownyards. No problem. Got more spells? Here's another 4 wraths and a Cleansing. Still alive? 2 Snapcasters make it 8 total.
The exciting thing about Melisa's deck is that it plays the same 2-of, being drawn very easily off bigger and bigger Sphinx's Revelations and allowing the deck to transform. It goes from being basic Bant, which plays against itself all the time, and turn into a trampling madhouse, where all your lands get to attack for +1! Trampling Thragtusk's change the game and play against expectation.
So my point was that the magical number is 2, if you're playing with Sphinx's Revelation. It's allowed these two decks to play single, out-of-the-ordinary cards to gain a really good advantage.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Bloodhall Snooze?
Hello. The latest new involves a round hole, and a square. Peg "what to play instead of Bloodbraid Elf." Not really, I'm interested in Modern but never had a feeling that I should play Jund. I have the colours, bringing Seismic Loam wherever I go, but never wanted to play the Jund.
I did see one small red drop, Bloodhall Ooze. I like these tiny creatures that unimpressive at very first, or entirely on their own, but with a simple deck constructing premise, say, being black green and red, they're utter monsters. Wild Nacatl no longer legal? Bloodhall Ooze is a 1/1 upon entry, and then after very quickly a 2/2 and then 4/4, permanently. And if they spend cards and mana to deal with it they can only ever match it, or spend more than it, so that's awfully nice. And on a developed board that +2/+2 is rather gaurenteed.
It's these clever small cards that I find, and imagine I'd play myself if I were piloting those decks. I'm sure lots of people have had the thought, but opted for the "common sense" or consensus better choice, but the truth is both work. Not only that, but whatever is better has differing characteristics from #2, and who's to say that fighting option 1 fights number 2 just as easily?
Nacatl was a 3/3 attacking on turn 2, while Bloodhall Ooze can't get that quick. On the other hand though, it just keeps growing. Pay R, once, for an eventual 5/5 monster. And if dealt with your whole turn wasn't spent on just one card! I could see this being adapted moreso everywhere, but I also feel a tiny sting of pride.
Because I thought so, CPal90. I thought so too! It's a bit like being a cheerleader for a certain card, and when it shows up Woo you cheer. You knew it was potentially good, and that everyone would know that -- it's not like you're the first person to ever do anything. But to see it played, to a 4-0 finish, you're happy inside.
My little red drop that could.
I did see one small red drop, Bloodhall Ooze. I like these tiny creatures that unimpressive at very first, or entirely on their own, but with a simple deck constructing premise, say, being black green and red, they're utter monsters. Wild Nacatl no longer legal? Bloodhall Ooze is a 1/1 upon entry, and then after very quickly a 2/2 and then 4/4, permanently. And if they spend cards and mana to deal with it they can only ever match it, or spend more than it, so that's awfully nice. And on a developed board that +2/+2 is rather gaurenteed.
It's these clever small cards that I find, and imagine I'd play myself if I were piloting those decks. I'm sure lots of people have had the thought, but opted for the "common sense" or consensus better choice, but the truth is both work. Not only that, but whatever is better has differing characteristics from #2, and who's to say that fighting option 1 fights number 2 just as easily?
Nacatl was a 3/3 attacking on turn 2, while Bloodhall Ooze can't get that quick. On the other hand though, it just keeps growing. Pay R, once, for an eventual 5/5 monster. And if dealt with your whole turn wasn't spent on just one card! I could see this being adapted moreso everywhere, but I also feel a tiny sting of pride.
Because I thought so, CPal90. I thought so too! It's a bit like being a cheerleader for a certain card, and when it shows up Woo you cheer. You knew it was potentially good, and that everyone would know that -- it's not like you're the first person to ever do anything. But to see it played, to a 4-0 finish, you're happy inside.
My little red drop that could.
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Reworkin', y'all?
So in the latest few articles I've been reading, the best one is usually a PV article, because that man is just so damned good at thinking completely outside of Magic. He's not a good player, he's a good thinker, and Magic just happens to be what he's doing when he beats you.
The article in question is this one: http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/pvs-playhouse-the-core-resources/http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/pvs-playhouse-the-core-resources/
It talks a good deal about time, life and cards, and which resource is more important in which types of match ups, the three mains being Combo, Control and Aggro. I wont bore you with my bastardisation of the article, go and read it for yourself. He puts it better than anyone else could have.
Having read it though, I remembered another age-old article about how a burn deck burns. If they can play enough 3 damage, R costed spells, they only need 7 spells to win. The problem is so many cards can get around it, such as Control's plethora of counters, card draw, etc, or Combo simply not caring and waiting until the last chance to go off.
This lead me to the idea of counting cards for damage. Char and Psychic Blast deal 4 apiece, and that means you'd only need 5 to kill an opponent. Not only that, but the 3 cost 4 damage spell enjoys the Flames of the Bloodhand type spell, which is really 4 damage plus life, or in some cases Flame Javalin, though at RRR it'll be hardest to cast.
I'm also a big fan of blue red white, because it seems to be my natural go-to. If you give me a sealed pool, I'll try and build blue white flyers with red sweepers. I wont always get it, but I'm happiest playing it. So to that end, we're thinking of a Modern deck, WUR, and something different from those that have gone before.
I'm sure I'm not the first, but it's the first I've seen of it. So here's the list, I imagine.
4 Steam Vents
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Arid Mesa
2 Mountains
1 Island
1 Plains
X xxx
---
22+ lands
4 Goblin Guide
---
4 creatures
4 Mana Leak
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Path to Exile
4 Char
4 Psychic Blast
3 Pulse of the Forge
4 Terminus
4 Supreme Verdict
2 Planar Cleansing
2-3 Demon's Play
X Chandra, the Firebrand
---
34+ others
I don't believe the deck would have mana base problems, and it responds well to every kind of threat. Planar Cleansing deals with trouble PWs, while Mana Leak plays permission and Bolt/Path both control the creature world. We're not worried about accelerating their lands for a creature, because it means they've paid 1GW for a Land, not a Knight of the Reliquary, etc.
All the sweepers simply eat up aggro decks, while against Control... we simply race them with Chandra doubling up on Devil's Play, which also acts double as creature removal and then finisher (double X damage with a Chandra's -2).
The sideboard has the right colours to allow us some real fun, by which I mean cards that nail archetypes. We've got Rest in Peace for any graveyard, and blue tricks for the combo dance, namely Commandeer to steal their key permanent. We're not worried about giving up three cards if we steal their only piece needed to complete a Combo, we're trading cards for time enough to kill them.
Gather Specimens and Volition Reins allows us to steal very good PWs or late game giant monsters, like a topdecked Broodmate Dragon/Armada Wurm against the aggro decks.
Against aggro, we'll assume Naya Zoo, we pack in the Terminus and sweep.
It's true Psychic Blast and Char hurts us as well, but it's the flexibility of colours that make us play it over a straight red burn deck, and we also don't fold to a turn 0 Leyline. That's key to this deck---we are burn, but not "stupid" burn. But to my point, where does the damage leave us? Probably weaker against the opponent, so that Pulse of the Forge can come back! We may experiment with other cards that want our life for tricks, but maybe not. If we're playing key creatures Spellskite is always an option, as we can save our repeatable damage source Goblin Guide with the additional safety of Spellskite's ability, plus we throw away our life in 2 point chunks until we're able to burn twice end of turn and again in our main. Is 12 outta nowhere OK with you?
The deck needs testing, but this is the main ideas so far. I'd love to point out that France, Australia, New Zealand and England all have red white and blue EXCLUSIVELY in their flags, so I'm gonna call it Australian Revolution.
The article in question is this one: http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/pvs-playhouse-the-core-resources/http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/pvs-playhouse-the-core-resources/
It talks a good deal about time, life and cards, and which resource is more important in which types of match ups, the three mains being Combo, Control and Aggro. I wont bore you with my bastardisation of the article, go and read it for yourself. He puts it better than anyone else could have.
Having read it though, I remembered another age-old article about how a burn deck burns. If they can play enough 3 damage, R costed spells, they only need 7 spells to win. The problem is so many cards can get around it, such as Control's plethora of counters, card draw, etc, or Combo simply not caring and waiting until the last chance to go off.
This lead me to the idea of counting cards for damage. Char and Psychic Blast deal 4 apiece, and that means you'd only need 5 to kill an opponent. Not only that, but the 3 cost 4 damage spell enjoys the Flames of the Bloodhand type spell, which is really 4 damage plus life, or in some cases Flame Javalin, though at RRR it'll be hardest to cast.
I'm also a big fan of blue red white, because it seems to be my natural go-to. If you give me a sealed pool, I'll try and build blue white flyers with red sweepers. I wont always get it, but I'm happiest playing it. So to that end, we're thinking of a Modern deck, WUR, and something different from those that have gone before.
I'm sure I'm not the first, but it's the first I've seen of it. So here's the list, I imagine.
4 Steam Vents
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Arid Mesa
2 Mountains
1 Island
1 Plains
X xxx
---
22+ lands
4 Goblin Guide
---
4 creatures
4 Mana Leak
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Path to Exile
4 Char
4 Psychic Blast
3 Pulse of the Forge
4 Terminus
4 Supreme Verdict
2 Planar Cleansing
2-3 Demon's Play
X Chandra, the Firebrand
---
34+ others
I don't believe the deck would have mana base problems, and it responds well to every kind of threat. Planar Cleansing deals with trouble PWs, while Mana Leak plays permission and Bolt/Path both control the creature world. We're not worried about accelerating their lands for a creature, because it means they've paid 1GW for a Land, not a Knight of the Reliquary, etc.
All the sweepers simply eat up aggro decks, while against Control... we simply race them with Chandra doubling up on Devil's Play, which also acts double as creature removal and then finisher (double X damage with a Chandra's -2).
The sideboard has the right colours to allow us some real fun, by which I mean cards that nail archetypes. We've got Rest in Peace for any graveyard, and blue tricks for the combo dance, namely Commandeer to steal their key permanent. We're not worried about giving up three cards if we steal their only piece needed to complete a Combo, we're trading cards for time enough to kill them.
Gather Specimens and Volition Reins allows us to steal very good PWs or late game giant monsters, like a topdecked Broodmate Dragon/Armada Wurm against the aggro decks.
Against aggro, we'll assume Naya Zoo, we pack in the Terminus and sweep.
It's true Psychic Blast and Char hurts us as well, but it's the flexibility of colours that make us play it over a straight red burn deck, and we also don't fold to a turn 0 Leyline. That's key to this deck---we are burn, but not "stupid" burn. But to my point, where does the damage leave us? Probably weaker against the opponent, so that Pulse of the Forge can come back! We may experiment with other cards that want our life for tricks, but maybe not. If we're playing key creatures Spellskite is always an option, as we can save our repeatable damage source Goblin Guide with the additional safety of Spellskite's ability, plus we throw away our life in 2 point chunks until we're able to burn twice end of turn and again in our main. Is 12 outta nowhere OK with you?
The deck needs testing, but this is the main ideas so far. I'd love to point out that France, Australia, New Zealand and England all have red white and blue EXCLUSIVELY in their flags, so I'm gonna call it Australian Revolution.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
