Even in losing, they're some of the more enjoyable games. Today I had a game run down to me being at 1 life, and ultimately I dropped a Carnifax Demon and created 28 tokens. Good stuff!
Well, I've always wanted to see a fun deck utilizing Spellweaver Helix. I've seen very boring control shells where it pretty much only casts Cruel Ultimatum. I'd rather not be bored while playing.
Any of the Liege cards would be cool in a deck. Anything with Parallel Lives. That's it! Looking forward to this weeks article.
Awesome luck you got there Dr. Cat. I am pretty unlucky with winning in my last drafts I always get a money mythic card and then totally lost the game mostly by mana screws. Either that or flooded. it feels too weird especially when i know that the interaction of my picks are a tested combo. Hope I will see videos of your draft soon...
I think there is a missed name with Ghor-clan savage. It's suppose to be Ghor-clan rampager. But with that in mind the chances are you will be using a simic gruul deck and you might actually be seeing yourself being gruul instead of simic. I almost played a very good simic deck before the crash last thursday and it really sucks because i got a master biomancer and zegarna in that draft and have my first win already. Shambleshark is not really that good but frilled occulus is agood blocker and conditional attacker. The Krasis guys both the flying and the unblockable guy are the bomb in simic. Getting hands of binding will also make these guys stonger than they already are. Ivy lane denizen is also a good pick if you are going simic making the evolution of your creatures faster.
I mean you could add those other colors but the real point of the deck is dropping something fat turn 3 or 4. This relies on making as much use of the mana as possible. The more colors you play the more shocklands you need which can get spendy on the lfe totals. Also branching out from more than 3 colors seems risky against LD and overall just makes the deck less consistent. If you had some specific cards in mind that would be worth adding another color to please share them. On the 62 cards thing... I cut the Farseeks but accidentally left them in because the total # was 75. I forgot to add the 2 obstinate baloths to the actual list. Sorry for the bad editing; I stay up way too late when I write.
Yes. I think I wrote in the article somewhere that Molten Rain is filling in for Fulminator Mage in my list. The only reason I am not playing it is for budget purposes. It's dropped in price quite a bit recently but at the time I built this deck it was too expensive.
Most versions of this deck play Fulminator Mage. The guy is a total house. Is there a reason in particular why you didnt play him? I can understand for budget purpose if that is the case.
Pale Recluse/Valley Rannet are old tech. From before the deck became popular. So is Architects. Avalanche Riders seems underrated/played. Good call. :)
Yeah, I didn't realise how strange it was until I'd played with the deck for a while. I just picked up a list I'd had on my account for a while and not so sure of the source now. I think I'd recommend just running Valley Rannets.
I've seen Architects of Will used also though I'd never thought of stacking their library so they can't find an answer, that seems like a nice interaction.
Fetches aren't strictly necessary but they can help you fix your mana which is helpful.
Spitebellows is a fine card to use. It fills a similar role to Shriekmaw in the sideboard but obviously a lot better at achieving a one-swing kill thanks to its high power.
Slaughter Games is definitely an issue but if it happens you just have to hardcast your creatures and hope that it's good enough. Surprisingly sometimes it is.
I've never seen Pale Recluse in this list...the player I came up against in a paper Modern event recently used Architechts of Will in that spot. It isn't castable, but it does let you mess around with their deck and put the sweepers two turns away. I don't know if fetches are needed for this deck or not. Whenever I played it, I found that you just need three lands you're good.
I've been wondering if Spitebellows is playable in this build...seems like it might be a good idea if your opponent brought back a lot of creatures from their graveyard too.
On the downside, Slaughter Games can kind of ruin your day. I'm not sure what you can do against that if a Jund player casts it. Cry? Stand on your head and do the Pennsylvania Polka?
Very nice read! One note regarding the Modern PTQ season: Modern PTQs are scheduled through March 17th. Still 3 weekends to go! (Including 4 online PTQs!)
I love your added input on the subject of the Dimir guild I might try doing a draft later to see how much of improvement your input could help me. I don't really think that doctor_anime is saying that people in swiss are softer magic players though. I believe he is saying that because winning in a single elimination game is harder and a better challenge. especially in 8-4 ques.
I didn't even think about that actually. I know that it would go into a deck that was either more voltron based, or artifact creature based. It would probably be pretty good in here too.
Glad you're doing these videos, happy to see Dimir getting some love. As for your comments early in the draft I have not had success with the Dimir "mill" deck. The trick is that you don't want to play any only mill cards (except mind grind). All of your mill is coming off incidental value (Grisly spectacle, Balustrade Spy, the Blue Denizen) and then if you stall out you can win the game with undercity informer.
P1P5 - I would not think of Balustrade Spy and the Blue Denizen as "fine, but only in the mill deck." I actually take Balustrade spy here over the cloudfin, just because I've found I'm not reliably evolving him in Dimir.
P1P7 - Definitely just slam the Denizen here. In my experience wer'e not going for the "cipher deck." You want to have a couple cipher cards tops. (And you already have two HoB, which you should be thrilled about and not looking for more cipher cards, really). The Blue denizen is just super solid as a 2/3 for 3.
P2P2 - As I said above... you want that Mind grind. It's the one exception to not wanting to play just "mill" cards. It's a fireball for their deck but better, and you always played that, even without incidental mill, right? Even if you don't believe me and dont' want mind grind, Bane Alley Broker just has to be the pick here.
P2P3 - Again, Death's Approach is not JUST good in mill. It's extremely good with extort, it's good with dinrova horror, it's good with blue denizen, it's good with balustrade spy, it's good with the edict. All cards that you actively want even if you're not all in for mill. It's a totally solid removal spell, I probably still take sapphire drake here but I'm not sure if it's right. Only gotten sapphire drake once and it was totally solid for me.
P2P4 - Yeah, I'm not sure how you can say you're forcing Dimir and then not take the guildmage. He is suuuuuper solid, and he's super solid even as just a grizzly bear! Dimir needs bear, and this guy has some very solid upside. You're looking at him as a mana sink late game to make your blue creatures (with blue denizen on the table) have a kicker of deal x damage to target player, or for your balustrade spies to have kicker, or for an EoT mill 2 to see if you get your Undercity informer closer to winning.
P2P5 - Mindeye Drake is not a mill card! It's a solid guy with mill upside!
P2P6 - As Matt said in his article Slate street ruffian, while being unexciting is not unplayable.
P2P7 - I definitely prefer dimir charm over psychic strike. It kills a lot of relevant stuff, esp. Simic before they get started and Boros.
P3P1 - Definitely prefer guildmage over rogue for reasons stated above.
P3P3 - Corpse Blockade is very important to the dimir deck. Sac outlets are good, and it lets you trade your SADs up if you need to.
P3P6 - Midnight Recovery is much better than Shadow Slice, FWIW.
P3P10 - "The [Keymaster] Rogue doesn't do too much." Except where hands of binding, trigger your blue denizen infinitely, bounce a dinrova horror, bounce a shadow alley denizen (which you have three of) for another extort trigger, get rid of One-Thousand Lashes, Infinitely evolve your simic manipulator...
My thoughts on the draft if those are helpful at all.
Also, I'm not sure if you were joking when you said this: "8-4 drafts only. All my drafts are 8-4, this challenge will be no different. I have a pet peeve when people say things like, "Guys! I discovered this super sweet strategy! Look how successful it is.. in this swiss draft." Nope" But, this is a Pet Peeve of MINE. I'm not sure where people get this idea that the competition in 84s is much higher than the competitoin in Swiss queues. I play exclusively swiss and see my share of good players AND bad players. I watch a lot of draft videos and see equal numbers of good and bad players (on the side of the villain.). I think there are a lot of not very good players with a high budget who play 84s because they can't stand the idea of "not being able to make their money back." People who buy into the logical fallacy are PROBABLY not going to be very good at magic... and I see a lot of people spouting this theory online. I'm not saying the competition in Swiss is easily the same as in 84 queues, but I don't understand where the assumption comes from that Swiss must be much softer queues than 84s.
I'm glad you liked it! The deck has a few board wipes, so there are tools to deal with hexproof creatures, but discard is indeed a problem beacuase the deck is slower.
I have some more ideas I want to ge to, but I'm also open to suggestions! The best thing for these decks is to find a powerful, yet cheap card and build around it.
Dribbling entirely the uncomfortable "Magic players are so stupid/out-of-date/pathetic that a woman pro player still feels like an event and triggers debates" topic, hey, I was playing with Amulet of Vigor and bounce lands years ago! :) I remember using that trick in Tribal and, I don't know, Extended, I guess? Zendikar was still fresh and for some reason I had Roil Elemental and Admonition Angel as finishers (I don't think I even owned Primeval Titan at the time.) Good memories. I need to try that deluxe Modern version. Seems a bit frail and easy to hate, but its successes might be worth the failures.
I started this challenge on monday and the next two drafts for next article were recorded this week. And yes, Dimir feels like it's been quickly rising in popularity. I've only felt like Dimir was underdrafted once, and the other times Boros was underdrafted twice and once Simic. Which is making my challenge more.. difficult.
Missed a duplicate by accident I apologize for the error. I wasn't actually going to play the event till I talked with Arcbound and realized his idea of a goblin/burn deck was really solid. Threw mine together in ~30m
Oh, I've been running a token deck (R/W) that can either win with creatures or burn at the stake. Pretty fun
Even in losing, they're some of the more enjoyable games. Today I had a game run down to me being at 1 life, and ultimately I dropped a Carnifax Demon and created 28 tokens. Good stuff!
Well, I've always wanted to see a fun deck utilizing Spellweaver Helix. I've seen very boring control shells where it pretty much only casts Cruel Ultimatum. I'd rather not be bored while playing.
Any of the Liege cards would be cool in a deck. Anything with Parallel Lives. That's it! Looking forward to this weeks article.
cheers
I was thinking of the 2/4, the Scab-Clan guy.
Awesome luck you got there Dr. Cat. I am pretty unlucky with winning in my last drafts I always get a money mythic card and then totally lost the game mostly by mana screws. Either that or flooded. it feels too weird especially when i know that the interaction of my picks are a tested combo. Hope I will see videos of your draft soon...
I think there is a missed name with Ghor-clan savage. It's suppose to be Ghor-clan rampager. But with that in mind the chances are you will be using a simic gruul deck and you might actually be seeing yourself being gruul instead of simic. I almost played a very good simic deck before the crash last thursday and it really sucks because i got a master biomancer and zegarna in that draft and have my first win already. Shambleshark is not really that good but frilled occulus is agood blocker and conditional attacker. The Krasis guys both the flying and the unblockable guy are the bomb in simic. Getting hands of binding will also make these guys stonger than they already are. Ivy lane denizen is also a good pick if you are going simic making the evolution of your creatures faster.
What do you guys think about a port of this abortion into Classic?: http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/rc/236
I mean you could add those other colors but the real point of the deck is dropping something fat turn 3 or 4. This relies on making as much use of the mana as possible. The more colors you play the more shocklands you need which can get spendy on the lfe totals. Also branching out from more than 3 colors seems risky against LD and overall just makes the deck less consistent. If you had some specific cards in mind that would be worth adding another color to please share them. On the 62 cards thing... I cut the Farseeks but accidentally left them in because the total # was 75. I forgot to add the 2 obstinate baloths to the actual list. Sorry for the bad editing; I stay up way too late when I write.
Yes. I think I wrote in the article somewhere that Molten Rain is filling in for Fulminator Mage in my list. The only reason I am not playing it is for budget purposes. It's dropped in price quite a bit recently but at the time I built this deck it was too expensive.
Most versions of this deck play Fulminator Mage. The guy is a total house. Is there a reason in particular why you didnt play him? I can understand for budget purpose if that is the case.
Pale Recluse/Valley Rannet are old tech. From before the deck became popular. So is Architects. Avalanche Riders seems underrated/played. Good call. :)
Yeah, I didn't realise how strange it was until I'd played with the deck for a while. I just picked up a list I'd had on my account for a while and not so sure of the source now. I think I'd recommend just running Valley Rannets.
I've seen Architects of Will used also though I'd never thought of stacking their library so they can't find an answer, that seems like a nice interaction.
Fetches aren't strictly necessary but they can help you fix your mana which is helpful.
Spitebellows is a fine card to use. It fills a similar role to Shriekmaw in the sideboard but obviously a lot better at achieving a one-swing kill thanks to its high power.
Slaughter Games is definitely an issue but if it happens you just have to hardcast your creatures and hope that it's good enough. Surprisingly sometimes it is.
Thanks for the info Blippy! I guess it's coming to the end at least. Seems like Modern prices are dropping at any rate.
I've never seen Pale Recluse in this list...the player I came up against in a paper Modern event recently used Architechts of Will in that spot. It isn't castable, but it does let you mess around with their deck and put the sweepers two turns away. I don't know if fetches are needed for this deck or not. Whenever I played it, I found that you just need three lands you're good.
I've been wondering if Spitebellows is playable in this build...seems like it might be a good idea if your opponent brought back a lot of creatures from their graveyard too.
On the downside, Slaughter Games can kind of ruin your day. I'm not sure what you can do against that if a Jund player casts it. Cry? Stand on your head and do the Pennsylvania Polka?
Very nice read! One note regarding the Modern PTQ season: Modern PTQs are scheduled through March 17th. Still 3 weekends to go! (Including 4 online PTQs!)
I love your added input on the subject of the Dimir guild I might try doing a draft later to see how much of improvement your input could help me. I don't really think that doctor_anime is saying that people in swiss are softer magic players though. I believe he is saying that because winning in a single elimination game is harder and a better challenge. especially in 8-4 ques.
I didn't even think about that actually. I know that it would go into a deck that was either more voltron based, or artifact creature based. It would probably be pretty good in here too.
Your tribal dedication and research are always appreciated by this Johnny.
with all the fetches and Cobra, I would try splashing W and/or B as well. Also, why 62 cards?
Glad you're doing these videos, happy to see Dimir getting some love. As for your comments early in the draft I have not had success with the Dimir "mill" deck. The trick is that you don't want to play any only mill cards (except mind grind). All of your mill is coming off incidental value (Grisly spectacle, Balustrade Spy, the Blue Denizen) and then if you stall out you can win the game with undercity informer.
P1P5 - I would not think of Balustrade Spy and the Blue Denizen as "fine, but only in the mill deck." I actually take Balustrade spy here over the cloudfin, just because I've found I'm not reliably evolving him in Dimir.
P1P7 - Definitely just slam the Denizen here. In my experience wer'e not going for the "cipher deck." You want to have a couple cipher cards tops. (And you already have two HoB, which you should be thrilled about and not looking for more cipher cards, really). The Blue denizen is just super solid as a 2/3 for 3.
P2P2 - As I said above... you want that Mind grind. It's the one exception to not wanting to play just "mill" cards. It's a fireball for their deck but better, and you always played that, even without incidental mill, right? Even if you don't believe me and dont' want mind grind, Bane Alley Broker just has to be the pick here.
P2P3 - Again, Death's Approach is not JUST good in mill. It's extremely good with extort, it's good with dinrova horror, it's good with blue denizen, it's good with balustrade spy, it's good with the edict. All cards that you actively want even if you're not all in for mill. It's a totally solid removal spell, I probably still take sapphire drake here but I'm not sure if it's right. Only gotten sapphire drake once and it was totally solid for me.
P2P4 - Yeah, I'm not sure how you can say you're forcing Dimir and then not take the guildmage. He is suuuuuper solid, and he's super solid even as just a grizzly bear! Dimir needs bear, and this guy has some very solid upside. You're looking at him as a mana sink late game to make your blue creatures (with blue denizen on the table) have a kicker of deal x damage to target player, or for your balustrade spies to have kicker, or for an EoT mill 2 to see if you get your Undercity informer closer to winning.
P2P5 - Mindeye Drake is not a mill card! It's a solid guy with mill upside!
P2P6 - As Matt said in his article Slate street ruffian, while being unexciting is not unplayable.
P2P7 - I definitely prefer dimir charm over psychic strike. It kills a lot of relevant stuff, esp. Simic before they get started and Boros.
P3P1 - Definitely prefer guildmage over rogue for reasons stated above.
P3P3 - Corpse Blockade is very important to the dimir deck. Sac outlets are good, and it lets you trade your SADs up if you need to.
P3P6 - Midnight Recovery is much better than Shadow Slice, FWIW.
P3P10 - "The [Keymaster] Rogue doesn't do too much." Except where hands of binding, trigger your blue denizen infinitely, bounce a dinrova horror, bounce a shadow alley denizen (which you have three of) for another extort trigger, get rid of One-Thousand Lashes, Infinitely evolve your simic manipulator...
My thoughts on the draft if those are helpful at all.
Also, I'm not sure if you were joking when you said this: "8-4 drafts only. All my drafts are 8-4, this challenge will be no different. I have a pet peeve when people say things like, "Guys! I discovered this super sweet strategy! Look how successful it is.. in this swiss draft." Nope" But, this is a Pet Peeve of MINE. I'm not sure where people get this idea that the competition in 84s is much higher than the competitoin in Swiss queues. I play exclusively swiss and see my share of good players AND bad players. I watch a lot of draft videos and see equal numbers of good and bad players (on the side of the villain.). I think there are a lot of not very good players with a high budget who play 84s because they can't stand the idea of "not being able to make their money back." People who buy into the logical fallacy are PROBABLY not going to be very good at magic... and I see a lot of people spouting this theory online. I'm not saying the competition in Swiss is easily the same as in 84 queues, but I don't understand where the assumption comes from that Swiss must be much softer queues than 84s.
I'm glad you liked it! The deck has a few board wipes, so there are tools to deal with hexproof creatures, but discard is indeed a problem beacuase the deck is slower.
I have some more ideas I want to ge to, but I'm also open to suggestions! The best thing for these decks is to find a powerful, yet cheap card and build around it.
Didn't you read my article on the very subject?
Some small countries in Europe (the highly technological Estonia, for instance) even have high-speed wi-fi everywhere and free for everyone. :)
Dribbling entirely the uncomfortable "Magic players are so stupid/out-of-date/pathetic that a woman pro player still feels like an event and triggers debates" topic, hey, I was playing with Amulet of Vigor and bounce lands years ago! :) I remember using that trick in Tribal and, I don't know, Extended, I guess? Zendikar was still fresh and for some reason I had Roil Elemental and Admonition Angel as finishers (I don't think I even owned Primeval Titan at the time.) Good memories. I need to try that deluxe Modern version. Seems a bit frail and easy to hate, but its successes might be worth the failures.
I started this challenge on monday and the next two drafts for next article were recorded this week. And yes, Dimir feels like it's been quickly rising in popularity. I've only felt like Dimir was underdrafted once, and the other times Boros was underdrafted twice and once Simic. Which is making my challenge more.. difficult.
Missed a duplicate by accident I apologize for the error. I wasn't actually going to play the event till I talked with Arcbound and realized his idea of a goblin/burn deck was really solid. Threw mine together in ~30m