Challenge of the Week

We all know card advantage is a good thing. That's why we played with cards like Dark Confidant and Bitterblossom. Sometimes, there is a price to pay for card advantage, and sometimes its worth it. Sometimes, though, it is just a bad card with a bad effect. I'm assuming that is what most people think about my selection for challenge of the week, since I've never seen it in any decklist, ever, nor heard anyone talk about it, ever. So how to make a bad card playable? That does seem to be you guy's specialty, after all.

Without further adieu:




















Ad Nauseam. What's it got going for it? It lets you potentially draw as many cards as you want for five measly mana. It is an instant; usually black cards that say draw on them are are either triggered effects (graveborn muse, dark confidant) or at sorcery speed. It is in black, a nice color to make life loss and drawing relevant.

Now the downside. You have to lose life every time you draw a card that has converted mana higher than zero. So you have to build the entire deck around the principal of you may be playing ad nauseam on turn five or later, and possibly have already taken damage in the combat step by your opponent's creatures turning sideways, which means your life total may be less than twenty.

Ok, so think about all that, and get back to me.

I already came up with my decklist.


Assault On Intelligence
4x Mogg Fanatic
4x Knucklebone Witch
4x Facevaulter
4x Festering Goblin
4x Pack's Disdain
4x Sensation Gorger
4x Goblin King
3x Seismic Assault
3x Goblin Assault
3x Ad Nauseam
4x Graven Cairns
4x Sulfurous Springs
6x Mountains
9x Swamps

So the idea is early game aggro that either turns into mid-game combo (seismic assault + ad nauseam) or mid-game aggro (if you are playing someone who has not yet drawn firespout or wrath, you get to win with aggro). Either way is fun. Play a bunch of goblins, use your limited removal to get rid of their early game blockers (hope they don't have kitchen finks!) and by turn three your dumb goblins should get them to around ten life or so. If all your goblins die, no problem, drop your seismic assault, play ad nauseam, and draw a bunch of lands to finish them off!

I get bonus points for using Sensation Gorger, right?

Standard Deck I'm taking to Iowa

Creatures:
3x Tidehollow Sculler
3x Sower of Temptation
4x Mulldrifter
3x Reveillark
3x Puppeteer Clique

Spells
4x Ponder
3x Broken Ambitions
1x Familiar's Ruse
4x Unmake
4x Cryptic Command
2x Makeshift Mannequin
2x Profane Command

24 Land (I have to get the uncommons for it still.)

Im bringing a lot of cards for sb so that way I can change as need be.

I think I found a place to play!

http://www.mayhemcomics.com/index.cfm?section=weeklyevents

I Challenge Thee to Fix this Tenth edition Pariah Deck

So I've been wanting to do something different for awhile, I get annoyed with having to rebuy cards everytime a new set comes out. I wondered if a moderately competitive tenth edition only deck could be built using the pariah I've tried to build before in standard. Also I thought it would be a good change of pace to put the challenge and our side conversations in the 'comments' section, full bore into the spectrum of full fledged rebuild posts. Oh yeah your builds don't need to be tenth only.

4 x holy day
4 x bird of paradise
3 x condemn
4 x howling mine
2 x millstone
2 x mobilization
3 x recollect
3 x nomad mythmaker
4 x pariah
4 x Troll Ascetic
4 x Cho-manno Revolutionary

7 instants, 3 sorcery, 6 artifact, 6 enchantment, 15 creatures = 37

10 forests, 9 plains, 4 brushlands

Thursday Night Draft 12-11-08

Pack 1 Pick 1:
Rare: Godsire
Uncommon: Behemoth's Heral
Common: Oblivion Ring

I made the wrong pick, Godsire. Should have taken the Oblivion Ring, Pick 3 gave me a Branching Bolt, soI started leaning towards green red at this point. I picked up a Resounding Silence around pick 4, followed by a Sprouting Thrinax somehow, got grixis land next, .

Pack 2 Pick 1: I take the Bant Charm since there's not much for me in the pack. Get Passed Violent Ultimatum. I also get another Sprouting Thrinax, a Carrion Thrasher, a Tidehollow Sculler(I think pick 5!) and a couple of obelisks.

Pack 3 I start off picking my second Branching Bolt, use the rest of the picks to kind of flesh things out, Wild Nacatl, a Cavern Thocter is a nice pick in their, a Naya Charm and a second Gift of the Gargantuan.

final deck:
Creatures
1x Wild Nacatl
1x Cylian Elf
1x Tidehollow Sculler
1x Hissing Iguanar
2x Sprouting Thrinax
1x Carrion Thrash
1x Waveskimmer Aven
1x Cavern Thoctar
1x Ridge Rannet
1x Godshire
Spells
2x Gift of the Gargantuan
2x Branching Bolt
1x Naya Charm
1x Bant Charm
1x Resounding Silence
1x Violent Ultimatum
Artifacts
1x Obelisk of Bant
1x Obelisk of Jund
1x Obelisk of Grixis
1x Obelisk of Esper
Lands
1x Crumbling Necropolis
4x Plains
6x Forests
6x Mountains

Sideboard Playables:
1x Cylian Elf
1x Rip Clan Crasher
1x Thorn-Thrash Viashino
1x Exuberant Firestoker
1x Naturalize
------------------------------

Match 1: Boogie (0-0)
I win 2-1, the early good creatures mixed with good removal just turn out to be a little much. Gift of the Gargantuan gives me the extra push to finish things off.

Match 2: Will (1-0)
I lose (0-2) to a mirror that is faster than mine with just about as much removal. He just out gasses me

Match 3: George (1-1) (I get paired up)
Its George. + for the first time for the night, I cant get the fixing to work right. When I lose game 2, Im holding Violent Ultimatum, Sprouting Thrinax, Bant Charm, and Branching bolt, he has 4 creatures on board to my 1 and no Black or blue available, I never draw my sources. :( I lose 0-2

Match 4: Scott (2-1)
He's playing Necrogenesis, I just have too many beefy creatures and dont leave him very many targets in the graveyards. early hissing iguanars make him squirm a lot. I win 2-0

Finish 2-2 fifth place. out of 12.

Elf tokens that wins turn three

2x Banishing Knack
4x Ponder
3x Distant Melody
1x Roar of the Crowd
4x Heritage Druid
4x Nettle Sentinel
4x Llanowar Elf
4x Elvish Visionary
4x Manamorphose
4x Gilt-Leaf Ambush
4x Elvish Promenade
2x Skullmulcher
2x Vivid Creek
2x Vivid Crag
16 Forest

This deck is so cheap I was able to build it on magic online for like five tickets. I lost my first three games (I should have mulligan'd I suppose) then won the next game turn five, then the next game turn three. So there you go.

The vivid lands slow me down for sure, but I was making it for cheap. I'd probably go with 2x firelit thicket and 4x g-b filter land (whatever its called) and 4x yavimaya coast. Also the two banishing knacks would be primal command.

I like skullmulcher better than the other guy because I want to just tap all my guys to make mana, then sac my tapped guys, then play my twelve new spells for the win. i don't care about keeping my guys alive, really, and skullmulcher is cheaper to play.

Helix Pinnacle Challenge of the Week

So if you are wondering why there isn't a decklist it's because in trying to build a helix deck, all I found is all the reasons to be building something else, it seems like if you can either make enough mana to make helix work or double enough counters on it, there are soooo many other faster ways to have gotten the win by the time you are still a couple turns from the win with helix.

So I'm going to just say cut and paste Drok's blue white board control build, adding gilder bairn and springleaf drum, so that somewhere along the way to you don't have to wait 20 turns of pumping into helix before it might go off. and springleaf gives you the chance to use gilder over and over while cheapening his cost to use.

But this is really more of a gilder combo, and if I was doing that, it would be closer to a plainswalker deck than helix cause you could get what you want to win from the walker in 2 turns rather than like 5 or 6 from a helix.

Helix Pinnacle Deck

4x Helix Pinnacle

4x Mulldrifter
4x Ponder
4x Cryptic Command
4x Wrath of God
4x Condemn
4x Unmake
4x Oblivion Ring
2x Primal Command
2x Austere Command

4x Brushland
4x Yavimaya Coast
4x G/U Cairns
4x Reflecting Pool
4x Adarkar Wastes
2x Forest
2x Island

Mulligan until you have a turn 1 or 2 Helix Pinnacle. everytime you play this deck. then stall.

Skullmuncher combo feat. Nettle Sentinel and Banishing Knack

2x Blaze
4x Llanowar Elves
4x Heritage Druid
4x Nettle Sentinel
4x Banishing Knack
4x Ponder
4x Manamorphose
4x Gilt-Leaf Ambush
4x Elvish Promenade
4x Skullmuncher
4x Yavimaya Coast
4x Flooded Grove
14xForest

Turn 1: ..... forest, llanowar elves.
Turn 2: ..... forest, heritage druid, nettle sentinel.
Turn 3: ..... Flooded grove, nettle sentinel. Tap two neetle sentinels and heritage druid to add three mana, play elvish promenade making four tokens, untapping your two nettle sentinels. Tap two sentinels and a token, tap your grove, have a total of two blue and one green. Play ponder, picking up a skullmuncher. Tap three tokens for three mana. Tap llanowar for a mana. That leaves one blue and four green. Tap an untapped forest, play skullmuncher, sac'ing four tokens and your llanowar elves, (leaving two sentinels and a heritage druid) untap nettle sentinels and draw five cards. Play banishing knack on a nettle sentinel, play another llanowar elves, tap your elves for mana, play ambush to get three more tokens, untap your sentinels. tap a sentinel to bounce something. tap your other sentinel and two tokens to play promenade, make six tokens, untap your sentinels. Tap sentinetl to bounce something, drop another skullmuncher, sac'ing nine tokens, untaping sentinels, play another banishing knack, bounce some more stuff. Etc.

Your win condition is a million tokens, a huge skullmuncher or two, nettle sentinel + banishing knack returning everything to your opponents hand, many tokens + heritage druid + skullmuncher and playing out your entire deck on turn three, making a million mana for a huge blaze. It is a combo deck, so you have to mulligan aggresively and get good top decks, because if you don't go off on turn three or four, your opponent will firespout, wrath or infest and you lose the game. Luckily, with a turn three skullmuncher, you can win by doing massive damage on turn four's attack phase, but one targeted removal keeps that from happening. Or, if you have twenty tokens at the end of turn three, if your opponent can't make any blockers (or if you banishing knack all their creatures + lands back to their hand) you can swing with all your tokens for lethal. Also, you can use skullmuncher to refill your hand to seven good cards to enable a second chance combo at the end of turn three, in case your opponent does have a board sweeper. That way they will need two, (but if you have a nettle sentinel + banishing knack that shouldn't be a problem).

Originally this was going to feature Helix Pinnacle and Wake Thrasher, but I decided the first was not as good as a good ol' fashioned blaze to the dome, and the thrasher is an expensive rare, and a win more.

I guess I still need to come up with a helix pinnacle deck now

Black-White control v4.0

4x thoughtseize
4x tidehollow sculler
4x bitterblossom
4x nantuko husk
4x kitchen finks
4x spectral procession
4x murderous redcap
3x ajani goldmane
3x grave pact
2x profane command
4x fetid heath
4x caves of koilos
4x windbrisk heights
8x swamps
4x plains

Sideboard
3x mindtwist
4x fulminator mage
4x condemn
4x relic of progenitus

Vs Aggro, especially decks featuring Figure of Destiny, Tree-top Village and Mutavault (elves, white weanie): -4 Thoughtseize, -4 Tidehollow Sculler, +4 Fulminator Mage, +4 Condemn.

Vs Mid-Range Aggro (Depending on if they play mulldrifter or esper charm or ultimadeums): if yes, -2 Profane Command, +2 mindtwist; otherwise, leave everything the way it is, because I destroy mid-range aggro. (Possibly +4 Fulminator Mage -4 Tidehollow Sculler, if they are three or four color or if they have lots of firespout effects.)

Vs Combo/Reveillark/Mannequin: +4 Relic, +3 Mindtwist, -4 Kitchen Finks, -3 Grave Pact. It is about keeping my opponent from getting their combo (i.e. reveillark + mulldrifter or esper charm or mannequin + mulldrifter) early game and utterly destroying them by turning guys sideways early and often.

Vs 5-color control: +3 Mindtwist, +4 Fulminator Mage, -3 Grave Pact, -4 Kitchen Finks. To win this matchup, I need to be holding a bitterblossom and at least one thoughtseize/tidehollow sculler. I need to either draw a fulminator mage to keep them off of cryptic command, or get lucky with a turn four or five mindtwist (when they tap out to evoke or play mulldrifter) to get all the esper charms and mulldrifters from their hands. In other words, I need a little bit of luck. But having bitterblossom on turn two is huge.

Faeries: I gave up my wispmares in my sideboard, and I'll just expect to get destroyed by faeries if I have to play them. I have good answers in my maindeck already in Spectral Procession, Murderous Redcap and Bitterblossom. If I get a turn two bitterblossom, turn three procession and a turn four redcap (killing their scion of oona or their sower of temptation) I might be able to stall long enough to get down an ajani or a gravepact. If I'm lucky and they don't immedeately cryptic command it back to my hand, or spellstutter sprite it on the way in, I might come away with a victory. I might go -2 Profane Command +2 Fulminator Mage, depending on if they run multiple mutavaults and faerie conclaves. I can't bring in Condemn, because I can't have them gaining any life.

As for the husk + tidehollow sculler combo of permanently removing my opponent's card from the game, I believe I have to sacrifice the tidehollow when it comes into play, with its triggered ability on the stack. The tidehollow leaves play, then its ability resolves, but it isn't in play anymore, so the removed card stays removed, and my husk is 4/4 until the end of the turn. It can be a useful trick, especially if I can grab a condemn or wrath of god or firespout.

As for infest...I'm putting all my hopes and dreams into getting a grave pact. I do not have any way to draw cards, so it's all top decking with this deck. I guess I am trying to draw threats, not answers. That may be a design flaw of the deck--overly aggressive for a control deck? If I had three infests in my maindeck my two losses might have gone differently: boogie's white weanie, and keppie's U/W control with Stillmoon Cavalier maindeck. It would have been a dead card vs 5c control, it would have been mostly dead vs GRW mid-range aggro + violent ultimadeum I faced the first round, as well as the RBG mid-range aggro + mannequin I faced round three. Grave pact was definantly the call those three games, to deal with broodmate dragons, cloudthreshers, and the like. So is it a sideboard that replaces grave pact? Or is it maindeck, with -1 redcap, -1 procession and -1 finks?

Did I forget anything?

Oh, and all I need are +3 Caves of Koilos and +2 Fetid Heath. Ideally, I would have +2 Elspeth, but I doubt my ability to get any of those, since they're $25 a pop. But I think if I did have her, I would -1 Ajani, -1 Murderous Redcap.

Challenge of the Week: Helix Pinnacle

Ok, here's the challenge of the week. (It's a bit early. We have all weekend to think about it.)

Here are some hints on what my build will look like:

Ponder
Heritage Druid
Nettel Sentinel
Skullmuncher
Mirrorweave



Have fun!

Black-White Control FNM version

4x thoughtseize
4x tidehollow sculler
4x bitterblossom
4x nantuko husk
4x kitchen finks
4x spectral procession
3x murderous redcap
3x ajani goldmane
3x grave pact
3x profane command
4x fetid heath
4x caves of koilos
4x windbrisk heights
8x swamps
4x plains

Sideboard
2x mindtwist
3x wispmare
4x fulminator mage
3x condemn
3x relic of progenitus

Here is my decklist and sideboard. I am not sure I can get all of these non-basic lands (since I'm relying on trading before FNM starts), but I'll do the best I can. This deck could seriously suck if I don't get the filter lands (gravepact and spectral procession become wishful thinking)...

I feel like I match up well vs aggro, with the exception of treetop village and mutavault, so I don't have a lot of space dedicated to that. I'm more concerned with Faeries, 5c control, and Reveillark(Clique/Mannequin, too).

Faeries I have 3 wispmare to kill bitterblossom and protect my skies. That's pretty much it. I can't use condemn because a). they don't attack with scion of oona or sower of temptation and b) if I don't get a wispmare, I want to be gaining enough life that their bitterblossom becomes a win condition for me...so giving them life back (even though it prevents it to me) is a bad idea. Fulminator Mage isn't useful, either, because Faeries can kill you with just two lands. Stupid spellstutter sprite! So I don't have much to board in vs fairies, but with 4x bitterblossom, 4x spectral procession, and gravepact (not that it'll land unless they're tapped out) I should go 50/50 after adding wispmare. Ajani and Kitchen finks are my win sauce, and I pray I can make my gravepact stick. -1 thoughtseize, -2 tidehollow sculler. I just need them to not have bitterblossom.

5c Control: in come the fullminator mages and possibly relic, if they are playing any GY stuff. In comes 2x Mindtwist. It is critical they don't get two Cruel ultimadeums off on me. One I might recover from. Two is the lose. I'll hope my thoughtseize and tidehollow zombie guys get to be played, and then, if I'm lucky, I'll get to mindtwist them while they are tapped out, then remove the yards. -3 grave pact, -4 kitchen finks,

Reveillark/Mannequin: +3 relic, -3 profane command. Get their graveyards out of the way. I might accidentally get mine out of the way, too. I take out profane command and go all out aggro

I need to make top four, cause I'd like to get my hands on this month's FNM card:

Fable of Wolf and Owl

4x Ponder
4x Cryptic Command
4x Rampant Growth
4x Gift of the Gargantuan
2x Fable of Wolf and Owl

4x Llanowar Elves
4x Mulldrifter
4x Kitchen Finks
3x Overbeing of Myth

Basically this is a reason to play overbeing AND Fable and make it look all aggroie.

Improved BW aggro-control

4x thoughtseize
4x tidehollow sculler
4x bitterblossom
4x nantuko husk
4x kitchen finks
4x spectral procession
3x murderous redcap
3x ajani goldmane
3x grave pact
3x profane command
4x fetid heath
4x caves of koilos
4x windbrisk heights
8x swamps
4x plains

Sideboard
4x oblivion ring (enchantments and planeswalkers)
4x fulminator mage (4-5c/control)
4x condemn (manlands/white weanie)
3x ??? (runed halo? wispmare? infest? distress?)

Wow. I was messing around with my decllist today and I remembered two cards: tidehollow sculler, and reveillark. Then, whilst contemplating the pros and cons of reveillark, I remembered how I can do better than that: profane command. For the same five mana it costs for reveillark I can kill an opponents creature and get a finks back from the yard. For six mana I can give my husk and his token friends fear and get back a flitter from the yard. That's pretty much game. And oh yeah, it hits people in the face for "x" late game. Solid, solid, solid and solid.

Early game is control like only b/w can offer: thoughtseize and sculler help ensure my opponent has to topdeck answers to bitterblossom, husk, ajani, etc. After turn three I go all out, saving a spectral procession to reload after a board wipe, but applying so much pressure my turn five sees my opponet hurting. Turn six is my win turn. If I can't win turn six, I play one threat at a time and go the distance with bitterblossom tokens and life gain. If I drew grave pact, I will win the game with bitterblossom + ajani. But hopefully I win turn six or seven most games.

I feel real good about my maindeck. I feel less good about the sideboard. Suggestions? Comments?

Fable of Wolf and Owl Challenge of the Week

I really don't know what I'm doing ha - with that in mind, and because I don't do control or blue easily. I decided to just avoid it all together and build something much crappier - NOW INTRODUCING SHAMAN WOLVES! ta daa (chirp chirp - crickets) yeah that's what I think too, but it's different.

4 x Elvish Visionary
4 x Wolf-Skull Shaman
4 x Troll Ascetic
3 x Vexing Shusher

4 x Snakeform
3 x Loxodon Warhammer
2 x Blanchwood Armor
4 x Leaf-Crowned
2 x Masked Admirers
2 x Garruk Wildspeaker
2 x Wren's Run Packmaster
2 x Fable of Wolf and Owl

24 forests

So obviously I didn't use most of the creatures I posted, but that was the more obvious pure creature build of G/U - they entered my mind as potential better alternatives but seems like you can have fun with a Wolf-skull earlier than the Fable Wolf. Use the kinship mechanic with the rest of the shamans for synergy. Elvish Visionary early to a snake form trade gives 2 card advantage, followed by Wolf-Skull who hopefully will help maintain creature advantage, turn 3-4 troll that hangs out looking for a loxodon or blanchwood. then 4-5 turn Leaf-crown getting free shamans from the library directly into play. Hopefully a Wren pack master to pop off a few token wolves with death touch to maintain some level of board control until Garruk can blow big. Fable is just there late game to maintain creature advantage against wrath or the like. and Masked is there to maintain late game card advantage by playing a creature at plus 2 mana and getting mask back and a card draw (essentially 2 cards for 2 mana) (also good with Wren's who needs to champion an elf)

Over all not very competitive but has some funny elements of draw for playing creature, play a creature for nothing, and get a creature and card draw just for playing a creature.