Perhaps this is an opportune time to construct a build with more than 60 cards. Assuming your statistics are close enough to that of a tuned 60 card build, this could easily be feasible.
Not to mention that there's a chance your starting 7 is a mull because it's too slow against aggro, or it doesn't have the right gates to cast your removal spells. You could alleviate this by playing some basics, or just running 10 gates, but that'd be foolish to do against an Esper filled metagame, since you're going to autolose to Psychic Strike/Dimir Charm. I think the only way you can consistently win with a Maze's End deck is if you're 90+% guaranteed to face Esper every round, because otherwise you're just going to die to aggro.
the problem with maze's end is that you almost have to play with a minimum of 20 gates, or else you risk randomly losing the game to a mill from psychic strike or dimir charm. And then you add 4 maze's end on top of that, which means you have about 2 lands in your deck that don't come into play tapped. That means when you're on the play, it's like you're actually on the draw after taking a mulligan to 6 and when you're on the draw, it's as if you were on the draw and then forgot to play a land on your first turn. Needless to say, it's pretty difficult to win games against aggro in those circumstances - turn 2 mugging, turn 4 detention sphere, turn 5 wrath just doesn't cut it.
Im pretty sure standard control elements will help with Maze's End. The trick is figuring out how many of each (Supreme Verdict, Detainment Sphere, Oblivion Ring, etc)
Thanks for the correction, that does change my evaluation of the card slightly. I'm probably still of the view that it's too narrow to run but that does make it better, seeing as many esper decks will still leave baron's in post-board (presumably because they're not running obzedat's to swap them for).
I will be taking a look at maze's end decks in 2-3 weeks time, i'm interested to try them out. There seem to be two routes that people have taken, either mono removal and saruli gatekeepers or lots of fog effects and planeswalkers. I suspect all are too slow against aggro due to all your lands coming into play tapped.
Good to hear Cape Fear Games is going. Wish I was.
I had tried to get time off to work the event as a judge. Would have been epic. Logistic will be insane. With 4,000 players, thats 4,000 blank decklists to print. 24,000 booster packs. That means opening 1,000 booster boxes, and bundling 24,000 boosters into pack of 6. Just distributing product is going to take organization and a lot of judges.
Thanks gawd Wizards changed the number of rounds rules. Distribution of product, build, 10 or 11 rounds of Swiss day one, then two drafts and two builds, plus 7 or 8 rounds before the T8 draft would have been one really, really long weekend.
Enjoy Vegas, everyone!
Reminder - if you did not see it above, registration closes Friday night. If you are not registered by then, you will have to settle for sides.
I know WOTC's prime directive is to money grab as much as possible, but I feel like they're banking on people playing in this PE without doing an ounce of research. Or maybe that hope to go 3-0 and have a shot at more goodstuffs is just that tantalizing to people, I don't know.
Yeah, that's good threat assessment. Unfortunately, Mayael is often considered a high threat regardless of what else she has on the board, at least initially. Other generals like Zur, Sharuum, etc suffer from this. I count that as a negative to the deck.
My enthusiasm for the CC has waned quite a lot. I am not sure what would fire it up again but I don't think going through the motions is doing it for me. As I posted on the mothership forums I am still voting for Keya of course.
Am I missing something here, or is the payout for the Modern Masters Premier Event absolute garbage? 30tix or 9tix + product, single elimination, if you go 1-1 you get a single booster, 2-1 two boosters, 3-0 it starts getting good and you get at least 4 boosters with a shot at more.
Or.. you could just do an 8-4 draft and pay less and have a much safer chance at making a profit?
Stuffy doll! So many x damage spells flying around if your opponents board is wiped than at least you can target your own doll plus earthquake effects plus even if vigor was out even though stuffy stops workin you can still ping him to make him a beefy creature
That is poor judgement.
But there are plenty of Worldly Tutor type cards to set her up as well.
And of course just grinding the shuffler with scroll rack/sdt/sylvan library/etc and shuffle effects.
Personally I only go for Mayael when I know the caliber of the players deck warrants it over other targets.
Where possible I like to let others deal with the problems for me.
Though in multi I tend to have to use sweepers as "spot" removal.
Since I run far less single target kill and far more sweepers in multi games.
I'd understand that if Mayael got to search the library and put a creature into play. Her ability is completely RNG though so it's far less potent than that.
Obviously kill her whenever you can, but I had a game where she was the primary target while someone's Fauna Shaman sat pretty on the field. It didn't end well.
That terrible game was one of the last ones I played with the deck before I finished writing this up. I should've made that final edit though. For the record, I'd probably take out Aegis Angel and either Twilight Shepherd / Deus of Calamity / Ulvenwald Tracker / a ramp source for two of the GY hate cards.
Mana Reflection is already in there. Out of the budget for the offline version though. I can't believe I forgot about Kessig! Good catch.
If I worry about mill breaking my deck I run Elixir of Immortality.
Perhaps this is an opportune time to construct a build with more than 60 cards. Assuming your statistics are close enough to that of a tuned 60 card build, this could easily be feasible.
Not to mention that there's a chance your starting 7 is a mull because it's too slow against aggro, or it doesn't have the right gates to cast your removal spells. You could alleviate this by playing some basics, or just running 10 gates, but that'd be foolish to do against an Esper filled metagame, since you're going to autolose to Psychic Strike/Dimir Charm. I think the only way you can consistently win with a Maze's End deck is if you're 90+% guaranteed to face Esper every round, because otherwise you're just going to die to aggro.
the problem with maze's end is that you almost have to play with a minimum of 20 gates, or else you risk randomly losing the game to a mill from psychic strike or dimir charm. And then you add 4 maze's end on top of that, which means you have about 2 lands in your deck that don't come into play tapped. That means when you're on the play, it's like you're actually on the draw after taking a mulligan to 6 and when you're on the draw, it's as if you were on the draw and then forgot to play a land on your first turn. Needless to say, it's pretty difficult to win games against aggro in those circumstances - turn 2 mugging, turn 4 detention sphere, turn 5 wrath just doesn't cut it.
Im pretty sure standard control elements will help with Maze's End. The trick is figuring out how many of each (Supreme Verdict, Detainment Sphere, Oblivion Ring, etc)
Thanks for the correction, that does change my evaluation of the card slightly. I'm probably still of the view that it's too narrow to run but that does make it better, seeing as many esper decks will still leave baron's in post-board (presumably because they're not running obzedat's to swap them for).
I will be taking a look at maze's end decks in 2-3 weeks time, i'm interested to try them out. There seem to be two routes that people have taken, either mono removal and saruli gatekeepers or lots of fog effects and planeswalkers. I suspect all are too slow against aggro due to all your lands coming into play tapped.
Good to hear Cape Fear Games is going. Wish I was.
I had tried to get time off to work the event as a judge. Would have been epic. Logistic will be insane. With 4,000 players, thats 4,000 blank decklists to print. 24,000 booster packs. That means opening 1,000 booster boxes, and bundling 24,000 boosters into pack of 6. Just distributing product is going to take organization and a lot of judges.
Thanks gawd Wizards changed the number of rounds rules. Distribution of product, build, 10 or 11 rounds of Swiss day one, then two drafts and two builds, plus 7 or 8 rounds before the T8 draft would have been one really, really long weekend.
Enjoy Vegas, everyone!
Reminder - if you did not see it above, registration closes Friday night. If you are not registered by then, you will have to settle for sides.
Good luck to ya and don't bother with the slots. MM is better ev :)
I wish you could make it. The event and all of the side events should be pretty nuts.
Debtor's Pulpit does hit Blood Baron. While the enchantment is white the land is colorless, and the land is the one that does the tapping.
I've been trying to figure the best way to set up a Maze's end deck but the aggro match-up seems rather harsh.
IM just jealous your going and im not, lol.
Enjoy the gaming!
I know WOTC's prime directive is to money grab as much as possible, but I feel like they're banking on people playing in this PE without doing an ounce of research. Or maybe that hope to go 3-0 and have a shot at more goodstuffs is just that tantalizing to people, I don't know.
I am surprised to hear that....Or..am I? Lately Wotc has done a number of puzzling things.
They didn't change the price for the 64-player premier drafts though, just the queues.
Yeah, that's good threat assessment. Unfortunately, Mayael is often considered a high threat regardless of what else she has on the board, at least initially. Other generals like Zur, Sharuum, etc suffer from this. I count that as a negative to the deck.
On the forums it was confirmed the building time has been extended 10 minutes: http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75846/29971067/?sdb=1&pg=
My enthusiasm for the CC has waned quite a lot. I am not sure what would fire it up again but I don't think going through the motions is doing it for me. As I posted on the mothership forums I am still voting for Keya of course.
What you may be missing is they knocked $5 off the entrance fee.
Am I missing something here, or is the payout for the Modern Masters Premier Event absolute garbage? 30tix or 9tix + product, single elimination, if you go 1-1 you get a single booster, 2-1 two boosters, 3-0 it starts getting good and you get at least 4 boosters with a shot at more.
Or.. you could just do an 8-4 draft and pay less and have a much safer chance at making a profit?
Stuffy doll! So many x damage spells flying around if your opponents board is wiped than at least you can target your own doll plus earthquake effects plus even if vigor was out even though stuffy stops workin you can still ping him to make him a beefy creature
Citanul Flute is very cool tech with Dryad Arbor and hydras. I've never heard of Rosheen before so this was really neat to see.
That is poor judgement.
But there are plenty of Worldly Tutor type cards to set her up as well.
And of course just grinding the shuffler with scroll rack/sdt/sylvan library/etc and shuffle effects.
Personally I only go for Mayael when I know the caliber of the players deck warrants it over other targets.
Where possible I like to let others deal with the problems for me.
Though in multi I tend to have to use sweepers as "spot" removal.
Since I run far less single target kill and far more sweepers in multi games.
I'd understand that if Mayael got to search the library and put a creature into play. Her ability is completely RNG though so it's far less potent than that.
Obviously kill her whenever you can, but I had a game where she was the primary target while someone's Fauna Shaman sat pretty on the field. It didn't end well.
Yeah, it's so good. I was always delighted to see it and it's so fun to play!
That terrible game was one of the last ones I played with the deck before I finished writing this up. I should've made that final edit though. For the record, I'd probably take out Aegis Angel and either Twilight Shepherd / Deus of Calamity / Ulvenwald Tracker / a ramp source for two of the GY hate cards.
Mana Reflection is already in there. Out of the budget for the offline version though. I can't believe I forgot about Kessig! Good catch.