4x Ponder
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Hedron Crab
4x Lotus Cobra
4x Sign in Blood
4x Harrow
3x Jace Beleren
3x Archive Trap
2x Mind Shatter
2x Haunting Echoes
2x Liliana Vess
4 Misty Rainforests
3 Verdant Catacombs
1 Scalding Tarn
5 Islands
5 Forests
4 Swamps
2 Mountain
Board
2x Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
4x Blightning
2x Scepter of the Fugue
4x Mindbreak Trap
3x Spell Pierce
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Monday, September 28, 2009
Challenge of the Week: Luminarch Ascension
4x Silence
4x Path to Exile
4x Harm's Way
4x Disfigure
4x Doom Blade
4x Journey to Nowhere
4x Luminarch Ascension
4x Day of Judgment
3x Martial Coup
3x Baneslayer Angel
4x Teramorphic Expanse
4x Swamp
12 Plains
2x Emeria, The Sky Ruin
4x Path to Exile
4x Harm's Way
4x Disfigure
4x Doom Blade
4x Journey to Nowhere
4x Luminarch Ascension
4x Day of Judgment
3x Martial Coup
3x Baneslayer Angel
4x Teramorphic Expanse
4x Swamp
12 Plains
2x Emeria, The Sky Ruin
New Planeswalkers for Standard
14 Instants, Sorceries, Enchantments
4x Grim Discovery
4x Volcanic Fallout
3x Martial Coup
3x Harrow
11 Creatures
4x Lotus Cobra
4x Sprouting Thirnax
3x Broodmate Dragon
11 Planeswalkers
3x Garruk Wildspeaker
3x Ajani Vengeant
3x Sarkhan Vol
2x Elspeth, Knight-Errant
24 lands
3x Arid Mesa
4x Marsh Flats
3x Verdant Catacombs
6x Forest
3x Plains
3x Mountain
2x Swamp
sideboard
4x Spellbreaker Behemoth
4x Lightning Bolt
3x Blightning
2x Summoning Trap
2x Bogardan Hellkite
The sideboard is pretty heavy on anti-control. The behemoth lets the hellkite come in unmolested, and he is hard to deal with on his own. The blightning gets rid of a counter spell for cheap. The luminarch ascension is a win-con if they can't draw a bounce or o-ring. Lightning Bolt is to the dome.
Lightning bolt also comes in vs. white weanie, and grim discovery goes out.
Summoning Trap gets a hellkite into play for free. Not sure if it is worth a sideboard slot when i could play Luminarch Ascension as a two of out of the board, and it is a self-contained win-con.
4x Grim Discovery
4x Volcanic Fallout
3x Martial Coup
3x Harrow
11 Creatures
4x Lotus Cobra
4x Sprouting Thirnax
3x Broodmate Dragon
11 Planeswalkers
3x Garruk Wildspeaker
3x Ajani Vengeant
3x Sarkhan Vol
2x Elspeth, Knight-Errant
24 lands
3x Arid Mesa
4x Marsh Flats
3x Verdant Catacombs
6x Forest
3x Plains
3x Mountain
2x Swamp
sideboard
4x Spellbreaker Behemoth
4x Lightning Bolt
3x Blightning
2x Summoning Trap
2x Bogardan Hellkite
The sideboard is pretty heavy on anti-control. The behemoth lets the hellkite come in unmolested, and he is hard to deal with on his own. The blightning gets rid of a counter spell for cheap. The luminarch ascension is a win-con if they can't draw a bounce or o-ring. Lightning Bolt is to the dome.
Lightning bolt also comes in vs. white weanie, and grim discovery goes out.
Summoning Trap gets a hellkite into play for free. Not sure if it is worth a sideboard slot when i could play Luminarch Ascension as a two of out of the board, and it is a self-contained win-con.
Monday, September 21, 2009
casual BR madness
90% of the magic i play these days is casual vs. non-competitive decks. By that I mean sub tier 3 tournament level decks, if they were tournament decks. So with that in mind, I am trying to build fun decks to play that don't give me such a competitive advantage. I thought back to my early days of magic, and I decided to try to recreate one of my favorite decks: Madness.
I looked through my non-standard trade binder and this is what I found:
mindslicer --this guy was my clean-up hitter. I'm pretty sure I used him in conjuction with gravepact and nantuko husk, and I don't think I will try that this time. I'll just turn him sideways.
Avatar of Discord --looks good
Squee --might make it as a madness enabler. I can't imagine a situation where I would actually play him, and only one of my cards has hell-bent, so there's a chance he'll make my decklist
dark confidant --this guy was awesome, and he may not be a perfect fit for my deck, but i want to try to sneak him in there, if for nothing else as a learning lesson for my casual opponents that card advantage is greater than life. again, only 1 guy has hellbent, so although it doesn't sabotage anything
reckless wurm --yeah, this guy has to go in there, unless i decide to go with the confidant. 5 may not be worth it
delirium skeins --i'm pretty sure i'm the only person to ever win a FNM match with this card in my decklist. three years later i still like it for my deck.
pit keeper --i remember this guy. i don't think i played with him, but maybe i did, can't remember. we'll see if he makes the cut
fiery temper --this is a must
lightning axe --another one
undertaker --fits the theme. probably go with this guy or pit keeper, but not both
rakdos guildmage --I remember this guy as being the card I always wanted to topdeck. It still looks amazingly good. And the picture makes me want to run pyrohemia
pyrohemia --since I don't think i'll do gravepact or husk, might as well put 2 of these things in there. My casual meta is lots of weak shadow creatures, creakwood leige tokens, spawning writhe tokens...I'm sure 4/5 times I'll lose this card to my own discard and that will be that, but occasionally i might get to play it, and then i can point to my rakdos guildmage and say, "see, he's on fire"
rakdos pit-dragon --a big bomb for a measly 4. So he doesn't cost too much for a dark confidant. Unfortuantly, he also has hellbent, so my confidant shoots me in the foot there.
So then I looked through newer cards and I thought these might be good:
Shambling remains -- he is cheap and has unearth, and he is big enough to warrant having pyrohemia
rotting rats -- cheap, discard for my opponent, madness enabler for me, like the remains he has unearth
malfegor --he is a big body, but he sucks with dark confidant and i'm not sure how i'll get to take advantage of his triggered ability since i'll probably be hellbent after turn four most games
So here goes:
4x Lightning Axe
4x Rakdos Guildmage
4x Pit Keeper
4x Rotting Rats
4x Shambling Remains
4x Fiery Temper
4x Delirium Skeins
2x Avatar of Discord
3x Mindslasher
1x Rakdos Pit-Dragon
3x Reckless Wurm
23 Lands
So I decided against dark confidant, but i may change my mind after a few games. I didn't put in any squee (or any phoenix) but I could consider that, also. I think not putting squee in my deck is probably a good thing. I don't see this deck having an impressive winning percentage, but that is kind of the point.
Anything I forgot? Did I make a poor choice?
I looked through my non-standard trade binder and this is what I found:
mindslicer --this guy was my clean-up hitter. I'm pretty sure I used him in conjuction with gravepact and nantuko husk, and I don't think I will try that this time. I'll just turn him sideways.
Avatar of Discord --looks good
Squee --might make it as a madness enabler. I can't imagine a situation where I would actually play him, and only one of my cards has hell-bent, so there's a chance he'll make my decklist
dark confidant --this guy was awesome, and he may not be a perfect fit for my deck, but i want to try to sneak him in there, if for nothing else as a learning lesson for my casual opponents that card advantage is greater than life. again, only 1 guy has hellbent, so although it doesn't sabotage anything
reckless wurm --yeah, this guy has to go in there, unless i decide to go with the confidant. 5 may not be worth it
delirium skeins --i'm pretty sure i'm the only person to ever win a FNM match with this card in my decklist. three years later i still like it for my deck.
pit keeper --i remember this guy. i don't think i played with him, but maybe i did, can't remember. we'll see if he makes the cut
fiery temper --this is a must
lightning axe --another one
undertaker --fits the theme. probably go with this guy or pit keeper, but not both
rakdos guildmage --I remember this guy as being the card I always wanted to topdeck. It still looks amazingly good. And the picture makes me want to run pyrohemia
pyrohemia --since I don't think i'll do gravepact or husk, might as well put 2 of these things in there. My casual meta is lots of weak shadow creatures, creakwood leige tokens, spawning writhe tokens...I'm sure 4/5 times I'll lose this card to my own discard and that will be that, but occasionally i might get to play it, and then i can point to my rakdos guildmage and say, "see, he's on fire"
rakdos pit-dragon --a big bomb for a measly 4. So he doesn't cost too much for a dark confidant. Unfortuantly, he also has hellbent, so my confidant shoots me in the foot there.
So then I looked through newer cards and I thought these might be good:
Shambling remains -- he is cheap and has unearth, and he is big enough to warrant having pyrohemia
rotting rats -- cheap, discard for my opponent, madness enabler for me, like the remains he has unearth
malfegor --he is a big body, but he sucks with dark confidant and i'm not sure how i'll get to take advantage of his triggered ability since i'll probably be hellbent after turn four most games
So here goes:
4x Lightning Axe
4x Rakdos Guildmage
4x Pit Keeper
4x Rotting Rats
4x Shambling Remains
4x Fiery Temper
4x Delirium Skeins
2x Avatar of Discord
3x Mindslasher
1x Rakdos Pit-Dragon
3x Reckless Wurm
23 Lands
So I decided against dark confidant, but i may change my mind after a few games. I didn't put in any squee (or any phoenix) but I could consider that, also. I think not putting squee in my deck is probably a good thing. I don't see this deck having an impressive winning percentage, but that is kind of the point.
Anything I forgot? Did I make a poor choice?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
