I've been having some success with alluring scent out of the board for aggro match-ups, it's great for breaking through a stalled board, and if you have a sidewinder in play it also kills ALL their (untapped) x/1's. Could also potentially save you from empty the warrens that way.
Update to my stompy listing - Breaking news: Land Grant is INSANE. At first I tinkered with it and tossed the idea aside, but upon further research and a lot of test plays/logging of info, the card is amazing. I've tried youngwolf (cute but everyone now knows not to block) as well as Hunger of the Howlpack, which is amazing when it works, otherwise I overwhelmingly found I just wanted it to be another bonesplitter, which isn't situational, it just works...and that's the root of the problem I personally had with my style of play...Stompy is an active deck, waiting for a cute trick is folly imo - and will cause you to 'win more' in games your already winning and quickly becomes (both the above newcomers) AWFUL topdecks.
That aside, I asked a friend what they would think if Wild Mongrel was just printed...seriously, think about that. Just cause it's wellknown in our lexicon, does not demote its value. I've lost count of how many times a flying 4/4 mongrel takes the win with a sheild on its back, or how often opps forget doomblade doesn't work vs. it....or how happy I am to see his partner in crime Rootwalla in SO many matchups...vs. storm and infect, running the mongrel/root package gives you HUGE % increases vs. your two worst matchups, storm and infect. So without further adeu...
What an amazing effort! So many decklists to ponder...true, some may be a bit Tier 2, but the spark is there to improve upon if your readers wish. I've been having sucess with Jacob's Pox deck, if you haven't seen it, it's VERY fun to play and feels rogueish but is very powerful and has an answer for everything:
I've run into a lot of UR Delver Burn decks but they are generally built a bit differently than that. The deck does not have quite enough blue in it for Force of Will, if it uses counters they are usually Daze or Spell Pierce. Almost every build I have played against is also using Goblin Guide and Price of Progress to make the deck much more aggressive.
As i said in my article, delver is finding so many combinations to run it is rediculous. As you said its a pretty solid deck from the looks of it. If it don't kill you with the creatures, it iwll with the burn. Very nice, never saw that build for it!
Hey Belt, thanks :) Yeah I enjoy quirky cards like Snakeform. Unfortunately it is often overlooked but man when it is played it really changes the board. What baneslayer angel? nonflying snake 1/1 is more like it!
Battlement is ridiculous when you get 3-4 out, never had 45 mana worth out. :P Rite is in there for legend ruling stuff but also the occasional fun bit of stuff. :D Not quite the same as Spitting Image but certainly more powerful when kicked.
Great stuff Paul, and you used Browbeat and Snakeform in two of your decks, two of my all time favourite cards! Your Invisible Savagery deck is similar to one I've been tinkering with lately, although your list looks better. Incidentally, Rite of Replication + Overgrown Battlement for all the mana you could ever need (best I've managed is 45 mana by turn 6. Hardcast Emrakul, yum). But that's a different deck though, I just mention it because you added the Rite.
The only other thing we talked about was his idea for the ascensions. Blue and Red working together. As it turned out we couldn't quite get that deck to work as we wanted though it did have moments. So I'd say maybe that whole style of deck combo/control via Blue/Red enchants and instants. (Ala Splinter Twin, etc)
Good article, some of these decks look like a lot of fun. I worry a bit about the mix with casual decks and top of the line Classic decks, but as long as everybody remembers what the tournament is for and has fun it should be fine.
I wanted to add that I tried to look through some of Hamtastic's old articles for decks, but only came up with him liking RDW. If anyone that knew him well knows of a particular archetype that he enjoyed a lot, I would like to know to set a fun bounty.
@Levi I've seen Trea a few times online but I think he pretty much has taken a break. If there is anything specific you or anyone else does not understand in the tips please let me know so I can help clarify the tips for you. Usually when I am online I am available so feel free to pm me with questions.
@Gains I think there will be a mixture (49 players in just the US event so far) of casual and cut throat. My hope is the rogue strategies help against the set decks. Thanks for pointing out that Whiffy's articles can be of use to us in our quest to find the right sideboards for this.
@Blippy $2500 just seems insane. From a germ to a seed to a frigging Red Wood eh? Good job! :D
Well that sure explains it then. I always felt badly for you, Pete. lol. "What a jerk he needs better manners!" is what I often thought while watching your past videos.
The odds are very good for picking up a prize, no matter how you finish! (Providing you finish, of course!) The first fifty players in each event are guaranteed at least 2 tickets bot credit, and the last twenty five players are guaranteed at least a PLC Booster. (These can overlap) Then, we have 25 Tickets to give away as door prizes to random people who didn't get anything else.
Right now, there are 49 players registered in the US Event, and 10 in the Euro Event. I can take registration information for the Euro Event, as well, if you can't find _Kumagoro_.
Shameless Plug: Updated Ham On Wry information will be presented in next week's Overdriven! article. :)
I like that you are throwing out casual deck ideas for the event to get people interested. The reality is that there will be tons of tier one decks playing and one of those will win it. But the prizes are so good and it's about getting together and having fun, I think casual players should be encouraged to play as well. First off, it's totally free. Second, you might win a door prize or "achievement" prize of some sort. Third, every now and then a casual deck can take down a tier one deck. Competitive decks are tuned to beat each other - they don't always have answers for unexpected strategies. Fourth, if enough casual players join up, they'll end up being paired against each other eventually and have some fun evenly-matched rounds.
Make no mistake, if you aren't prepared for Dredge or Oath or Shop, you will get beat by those decks very quickly. But those decks do have weaknesses that you can come prepared for with a good sideboard. Look up Penguin TV or Yawgmoth's Soap Opera on this site or classicquarter.com to see the types of decks you'll be facing. I hope lots of people of all skill levels and experience join up. Maybe I'll have to donate a casual door prize to encourage that!
I've tried multiplayer Commander, and I've often found that people would leave randomly- and often without explanation. I didn't like that. Sword of Body and Mind is in there in case I hit an interesting target that I use Animate Dead on.
Now that I think of it, Bloodline Keeper would be really good for this deck, as I can just keep sacrificing the token every turn. As far as the Warhammer, I just went ahead and bought the Knights vs. Dragons set. There's some fun stuff in there. :)
So many decks! Cool to see my old clan mate Japa_ getting a shout out. Not many of us are active any more (what's up Treamayne!). The article writing tips were strong and all useful (you lost me on the code stuff though, but that's just cuz I have no idea about all that stuff). I bookmarked this article just in case I ever wanted to do videos too:
Interesting deck. I didn't realize that it was made specifically for 1v1 play until I got to the videos, as that definitely makes a difference for deck evaluation. 1v1 is generally more cutthroat, with more combos and early land destruction. Seeing videos is always interesting though.
Why is Sword of Body and Mind in the deck? Seems to go against your Living Death plan. Cairn Wanderer seems like it could be really hit or miss, and probably could be replaced with a more consistently good creature, like Bloodgift Demon, Puppeteer Clique or that vampire that makes tokens. I do like some of your other more unusual creature choices, plus Night Dealings, though.
The Azami deck in your first video was definitely on the lower end of the power scale, as can be seen by the use of cards like Thousand-Year Elixir and Spell Burst, plus the fact that targeted your with Blue Sun's Zenith for 3 while still at 20 life. But it definitely showed the power of Living Death.
Having the Banefire get Swerve'd back at you after getting the Worldgorger combo off was pretty funny.
Edric's deck didn't get a creature out until turn 5? That's crazy. He obviously wasn't completely aggro, though, since he had Woodfall Primus. And I'm jealous that you have the Knights v. Dragons Warhammer, I've been looking all over for that.
I'm not a fan of 1v1 Commander, but take my decks in there to make sure that the mana base is doing ok so I don't waste my time in a 4 player game just to get mana hosed. Like I said, it's very cutthroat, at least compared to the multiplayer games. I know I am not going to write about it any time soon, so it's interesting to see your take.
That is one specific trend, yes. Not one I was thinking about/referring to, but nice try putting words in my mouth. If you think that is the only way to predict prices then well, that is just unfortunate for you.
You mean trends like "Cards that are suddenly good in standard when they weren't before tend to spike in value" ? Yeah. That's kind of obvious. The problem is that the only way to predict that is to be the person making the decks that take the Pro Tour by storm. If I were the person doing that, then I would not worry about short trading on MTGO.
Whiffy took me down in round 1. Smoked me game 1 and then I had a pretty good advantage in two until I monumentally blew a divining top ordering during a panic. Oh well.
As for the singleton selections in my deck, I've been tuning the numbers for quite a while, mostly to go with the Confidant, and I just usually end up taking 5 from forces and 4 from jace, even with brainstorms and tops. I just leave 1 FOW in as a tutor target when I'm up on board. Probably wrong, but it's what's worked best for me. The deck was mostly tuned for game against Shops and Oath, which obviously isn't the best choice anymore. Hadn't played much since the winter, so I just submitted the deck I'm most familiar with.
Looking forward to seeing how the league goes!
And I agree on Temporal. It's huge and I'm kind of shocked they printed it, especially with the blue-bash they straight up admitted to in the preview for the new anti-counter land.
I've been having some success with alluring scent out of the board for aggro match-ups, it's great for breaking through a stalled board, and if you have a sidewinder in play it also kills ALL their (untapped) x/1's. Could also potentially save you from empty the warrens that way.
Update to my stompy listing - Breaking news: Land Grant is INSANE. At first I tinkered with it and tossed the idea aside, but upon further research and a lot of test plays/logging of info, the card is amazing. I've tried youngwolf (cute but everyone now knows not to block) as well as Hunger of the Howlpack, which is amazing when it works, otherwise I overwhelmingly found I just wanted it to be another bonesplitter, which isn't situational, it just works...and that's the root of the problem I personally had with my style of play...Stompy is an active deck, waiting for a cute trick is folly imo - and will cause you to 'win more' in games your already winning and quickly becomes (both the above newcomers) AWFUL topdecks.
That aside, I asked a friend what they would think if Wild Mongrel was just printed...seriously, think about that. Just cause it's wellknown in our lexicon, does not demote its value. I've lost count of how many times a flying 4/4 mongrel takes the win with a sheild on its back, or how often opps forget doomblade doesn't work vs. it....or how happy I am to see his partner in crime Rootwalla in SO many matchups...vs. storm and infect, running the mongrel/root package gives you HUGE % increases vs. your two worst matchups, storm and infect. So without further adeu...
12 land stompy by ME!
12 matching forests
4 land grant
4 (yes 4) Wild Mongrel
4 Basking Root
4 Skargan
4 Gather Courage
4 Groundswell
4 Rancor
4 Nettle
4 Ledgewalker
4 Q.Ranger
3 Vines
3 Bonesplitter
2 Shinnen
My sideboard:
4, Sporefrog (skirts dispel and hits in a pinch)
4 sandstorm
4 h.sting
3 shield of oversoul
What an amazing effort! So many decklists to ponder...true, some may be a bit Tier 2, but the spark is there to improve upon if your readers wish. I've been having sucess with Jacob's Pox deck, if you haven't seen it, it's VERY fun to play and feels rogueish but is very powerful and has an answer for everything:
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/boab/189
I've run into a lot of UR Delver Burn decks but they are generally built a bit differently than that. The deck does not have quite enough blue in it for Force of Will, if it uses counters they are usually Daze or Spell Pierce. Almost every build I have played against is also using Goblin Guide and Price of Progress to make the deck much more aggressive.
As i said in my article, delver is finding so many combinations to run it is rediculous. As you said its a pretty solid deck from the looks of it. If it don't kill you with the creatures, it iwll with the burn. Very nice, never saw that build for it!
Hey Belt, thanks :) Yeah I enjoy quirky cards like Snakeform. Unfortunately it is often overlooked but man when it is played it really changes the board. What baneslayer angel? nonflying snake 1/1 is more like it!
Battlement is ridiculous when you get 3-4 out, never had 45 mana worth out. :P Rite is in there for legend ruling stuff but also the occasional fun bit of stuff. :D Not quite the same as Spitting Image but certainly more powerful when kicked.
Great stuff Paul, and you used Browbeat and Snakeform in two of your decks, two of my all time favourite cards! Your Invisible Savagery deck is similar to one I've been tinkering with lately, although your list looks better. Incidentally, Rite of Replication + Overgrown Battlement for all the mana you could ever need (best I've managed is 45 mana by turn 6. Hardcast Emrakul, yum). But that's a different deck though, I just mention it because you added the Rite.
I faced U/R Delver in Legacy and it seemed very solid to me... the combo would be running 27 spells I guess (burn and counters)
19 LANDS
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Volcanic Island
4 Wasteland
2 Mountain
2 Island
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Wooded Foothills
14 CREATURES
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Grim Lavamancer
2 Vendilion Clique
27 INSTANTS and SORCERIES
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Brainstorm
4 Chain Lightning
3 Spell Snare
3 Gitaxian Probe
3 Force of Will
3 Fire / Ice
2 Ponder
1 Daze
OTHER SPELLS
SIDEBOARD
1 Force of Will
2 Hydroblast
3 Price of Progress
3 Pyroblast
3 Smash to Smithereens
3 Surgical Extraction
seems pretty well positioned in the current meta
The only other thing we talked about was his idea for the ascensions. Blue and Red working together. As it turned out we couldn't quite get that deck to work as we wanted though it did have moments. So I'd say maybe that whole style of deck combo/control via Blue/Red enchants and instants. (Ala Splinter Twin, etc)
Glad you liked it sort of lol!
Good article, some of these decks look like a lot of fun. I worry a bit about the mix with casual decks and top of the line Classic decks, but as long as everybody remembers what the tournament is for and has fun it should be fine.
I wanted to add that I tried to look through some of Hamtastic's old articles for decks, but only came up with him liking RDW. If anyone that knew him well knows of a particular archetype that he enjoyed a lot, I would like to know to set a fun bounty.
sharks in the water may be an understatement
good stuff, but... TMI lol
Thanks guys for your comments. :)
@Levi I've seen Trea a few times online but I think he pretty much has taken a break. If there is anything specific you or anyone else does not understand in the tips please let me know so I can help clarify the tips for you. Usually when I am online I am available so feel free to pm me with questions.
@Gains I think there will be a mixture (49 players in just the US event so far) of casual and cut throat. My hope is the rogue strategies help against the set decks. Thanks for pointing out that Whiffy's articles can be of use to us in our quest to find the right sideboards for this.
@Blippy $2500 just seems insane. From a germ to a seed to a frigging Red Wood eh? Good job! :D
Well that sure explains it then. I always felt badly for you, Pete. lol. "What a jerk he needs better manners!" is what I often thought while watching your past videos.
I do appreciate the content - keep it up, guys.
We have over $2,500 in prize support now!
The odds are very good for picking up a prize, no matter how you finish! (Providing you finish, of course!) The first fifty players in each event are guaranteed at least 2 tickets bot credit, and the last twenty five players are guaranteed at least a PLC Booster. (These can overlap) Then, we have 25 Tickets to give away as door prizes to random people who didn't get anything else.
Right now, there are 49 players registered in the US Event, and 10 in the Euro Event. I can take registration information for the Euro Event, as well, if you can't find _Kumagoro_.
Shameless Plug: Updated Ham On Wry information will be presented in next week's Overdriven! article. :)
I like that you are throwing out casual deck ideas for the event to get people interested. The reality is that there will be tons of tier one decks playing and one of those will win it. But the prizes are so good and it's about getting together and having fun, I think casual players should be encouraged to play as well. First off, it's totally free. Second, you might win a door prize or "achievement" prize of some sort. Third, every now and then a casual deck can take down a tier one deck. Competitive decks are tuned to beat each other - they don't always have answers for unexpected strategies. Fourth, if enough casual players join up, they'll end up being paired against each other eventually and have some fun evenly-matched rounds.
Make no mistake, if you aren't prepared for Dredge or Oath or Shop, you will get beat by those decks very quickly. But those decks do have weaknesses that you can come prepared for with a good sideboard. Look up Penguin TV or Yawgmoth's Soap Opera on this site or classicquarter.com to see the types of decks you'll be facing. I hope lots of people of all skill levels and experience join up. Maybe I'll have to donate a casual door prize to encourage that!
I've tried multiplayer Commander, and I've often found that people would leave randomly- and often without explanation. I didn't like that. Sword of Body and Mind is in there in case I hit an interesting target that I use Animate Dead on.
Now that I think of it, Bloodline Keeper would be really good for this deck, as I can just keep sacrificing the token every turn. As far as the Warhammer, I just went ahead and bought the Knights vs. Dragons set. There's some fun stuff in there. :)
So many decks! Cool to see my old clan mate Japa_ getting a shout out. Not many of us are active any more (what's up Treamayne!). The article writing tips were strong and all useful (you lost me on the code stuff though, but that's just cuz I have no idea about all that stuff). I bookmarked this article just in case I ever wanted to do videos too:
http://puremtgo.com/articles/semi-pro-videos-101-basic-recording-encodin...
Thought that might be useful. Thanks again for doing the banner!
Interesting deck. I didn't realize that it was made specifically for 1v1 play until I got to the videos, as that definitely makes a difference for deck evaluation. 1v1 is generally more cutthroat, with more combos and early land destruction. Seeing videos is always interesting though.
Why is Sword of Body and Mind in the deck? Seems to go against your Living Death plan. Cairn Wanderer seems like it could be really hit or miss, and probably could be replaced with a more consistently good creature, like Bloodgift Demon, Puppeteer Clique or that vampire that makes tokens. I do like some of your other more unusual creature choices, plus Night Dealings, though.
The Azami deck in your first video was definitely on the lower end of the power scale, as can be seen by the use of cards like Thousand-Year Elixir and Spell Burst, plus the fact that targeted your with Blue Sun's Zenith for 3 while still at 20 life. But it definitely showed the power of Living Death.
Having the Banefire get Swerve'd back at you after getting the Worldgorger combo off was pretty funny.
Edric's deck didn't get a creature out until turn 5? That's crazy. He obviously wasn't completely aggro, though, since he had Woodfall Primus. And I'm jealous that you have the Knights v. Dragons Warhammer, I've been looking all over for that.
I'm not a fan of 1v1 Commander, but take my decks in there to make sure that the mana base is doing ok so I don't waste my time in a 4 player game just to get mana hosed. Like I said, it's very cutthroat, at least compared to the multiplayer games. I know I am not going to write about it any time soon, so it's interesting to see your take.
That is one specific trend, yes. Not one I was thinking about/referring to, but nice try putting words in my mouth. If you think that is the only way to predict prices then well, that is just unfortunate for you.
You mean trends like "Cards that are suddenly good in standard when they weren't before tend to spike in value" ? Yeah. That's kind of obvious. The problem is that the only way to predict that is to be the person making the decks that take the Pro Tour by storm. If I were the person doing that, then I would not worry about short trading on MTGO.
Enjoyed the cast as always.
Whiffy took me down in round 1. Smoked me game 1 and then I had a pretty good advantage in two until I monumentally blew a divining top ordering during a panic. Oh well.
As for the singleton selections in my deck, I've been tuning the numbers for quite a while, mostly to go with the Confidant, and I just usually end up taking 5 from forces and 4 from jace, even with brainstorms and tops. I just leave 1 FOW in as a tutor target when I'm up on board. Probably wrong, but it's what's worked best for me. The deck was mostly tuned for game against Shops and Oath, which obviously isn't the best choice anymore. Hadn't played much since the winter, so I just submitted the deck I'm most familiar with.
Looking forward to seeing how the league goes!
And I agree on Temporal. It's huge and I'm kind of shocked they printed it, especially with the blue-bash they straight up admitted to in the preview for the new anti-counter land.
A slight nitpick... the 1v1 Modern Single Elimination event is called Overdrive!, and the column is called Overdriven! :) Good stuff, Maynard!
Recognizing patterns like this is the first step to being able to anticipate them in the future.