Great article. Good to see you posting on puremtgo again. Can you tell me where I can go to play this format? Also, would Rule of Law have much impact as a sideboard card in this format?
Here are the amended rules (so far) for the Springtime Special:
Both team members may not play the same tribe.
Unified Deck Construction rules apply for registering teams:
With the exception of basic land cards, a team's combined decks may not contain more than four of any individual card, counted by its English card title. This includes non-basic lands, such as fetches and duals, as well. (For example, if one player is using four Arid Mesa in a Multiplayer Constructed event, no other player on that team may have an Arid Mesa in his or her deck.)
UDC will not be strictly enforced for single registrants. Single registrants, while trying to conform with UDC as much as possible, will be paired semi-randomly.
¤ EVENT BANNED LIST ¤
Glistener Elf
Inkmoth Nexus
Luminarch Ascension
Magister Sphinx
Phyrexian Swarmlord
Serra Ascendant
Sorin Markov
(more cards may be added)
(this is IN ADDITION TO the regular Tribal Apocalypse banned list)
I don't like random pairing because it takes out the strategic aspect of 2HG deckbuilding. You have to build two decks that work together. With random pairing, you just have to be lucky enough in getting a strong partner, and not mess him up during the games.
Thanks for that link, I forgot to mention that first experiment during the glorious Shardfenix Era (a salute to Shardfenix, as always!). I end up paired with him, btw, and we did very badly. I was entirely 100% Spike-free at that time, so that was probably my fault more than everything else.
The Stoneforge ruling was really a great thinking by Blippy.
"A challenging deck, worth it for the one match where the right things came together"
Every player should write this on a post-it and stick it on their screens.
OK - Did more testing last night with more mixed results.
1) The RW version is very good. Hellrider is better than Bloodgift Demon in this deck (as a double secondary casting cost creature), and I'm not sure Garruk is doing enough right now (especially if you aren't getting additional mileage from your G sources by running township). While it is nice for one Ray to be able to trump two enchantments it isn't the only white answer available to enchantments. The range red adds is also pretty huge.
2) Tragic Slip feels like it does not do enough. The -1/-1 at instant speed is usually only relevant if you can lead off with an untapped black source *and* they play into it with captain/noble. Its nice that you can fizzle a Sever with it sometimes - but alot of the time the -1/-1 isn't even enough to kill one of our tokens. The STP upgrade after morbid is great, but often not super relevant either. Unfortunately, I'm not 100% sure that dead weight does enough either. I tested the 2/2 split last night and was a little happier with dead weight. That said, it deals with some of the tier two threats in the format (Zombies/werewolves) more easily. I'm leaning towards 3 dead weight, 1 slip main with 1-2 slip coming out of the board. Slip is very nice to have against UG. Maybe this changes if the format see more Demons.
3) Graveyard hate: Is Grafdiggers cage better than Purify the Grave in a deck with this many flashback spells? I'm not sure yet - I almost lost what should have been an unlosable game against 4color control because I couldn't access my yard. The fire and forget nature of the cage is nice - especially with as many utility lands as I run. But Purify is an option that seems worth exploring.
Thanks for the comments guys. The budget thing is kind of tricky. Usually I don't mention it unless I'm getting bludgeoned right out the gate. Like I said, Azami can be target number 1 at most tables. Of course lots of people know that I write stuff so they figure that I can take the punishment, and that's fine. The decks are meant to be played out "in the wild" after all. I try not to lean on budget as a crutch but it is a nice political tool
The Rayne thing makes complete sense now. I was just surprised no one had broken her in half yet, and now I know why.
Lich was a fun one to do, and is interesting in that every single lich wants completely different things. Havengul wants dead creatures, Dralnu wants instants and sorceries, Phylactery lich wants artifacts, Lich lord of Unx wants zombies in play, Scornful Aether-lich wants an enemy colour mana pair. A challenging deck, worth it for the one match where the right things came together to roll over my opponent twice.
I concur on the Stoneforge ruling: She's still in the format for shenanigans, but seeing monoblack decks splash for her and her alone just seemed abusive.
There was a tribal 2HG run in the pre-Blippian era: It was great fun and the final became an international affair between team US and team UK, with Melissafey and I taking the glory back to Blighty with an Angel/Beast pairing. Details here: http://puremtgo.com/articles/tribal-apocalypse-ponderings
I normally Shy away from blue. Lately though I have been tinkering around with a mono blue beat down style deck that tries to avoid the " typical" blue cards. It is fun to see some of the same choices in your deck.
Cephalid constable might just be my all time favorite blue card. Connecting with a pumped one is just so sweet.
The more I play with sturmgiest the more I love it. It can get just plain huge and be such a beating, the card draw is just gravy.
I thing surge spanner is an under appreciated card that can provide a lot of value and versatility.
Good job as usual, I love to see budget decks. They usually contain some neat fresh ideas.
Cheese on a cracker. Am I going to have to enforce Unified Deck Construction (paper) rules for this event? Don't make me get naked. No one likes to see saggy old man bottom.
From the MTG 2HG page: "Two-Headed Giant uses the Unified Deck Construction rules. With the exception of basic land cards, a team's combined decks may not contain more than four of any individual card, counted by its English card title. (For example, if one player is using four Naturalizes in a Multiplayer Constructed event, no other player on that team may have a Naturalize in his or her deck.) Sideboards are not allowed in Constructed Multiplayer tournaments."
Personally I hate the way "premium cards" are implemented online. That said I think you should bling out your budget deck as much as you like. The player who objected to foil versions of those cards does not really understand the meaning of the term. If you were running foils of expensive cards I might see their point but even so the idea is to make a viable (successful) list with cards that have an inexpensive LOW end. In other words I can take your list, unbling it and play it for $x.xx. Where x is whatever your budget is.
Move out the Sever the Bloodlinex4 for 2 Keeper of the Bloodline and 2 doom blade. I think you will like the results. Maybe have Severs in the SB for the token matchups.
Township: The cost of the township is pretty low. I run two and have rarely had mana problems. This is basically a white deck with two splashes. The only mana troubles I have are count related, not color related (enough to consider running 27 lands). 2x Townships simply give another way to trump the other token decks.
Curse: I had been coming around to this viewpoint - plus its head to find room for it in addition to Disappearance. So thanks for helping convince me.
Tragic Slip vs. Dead Weight. This is the toughest card choice for me and am currently running a 2/2 split in the main. You really want dead weight vs. zombies and GR, but you definitely want Slip vs. tokens, UG, and anything throwing Sever at you.
The Hellrider threat: Haven't watched your vids yet but by far the scariest card in the format (with this deck) is Hellrider. I feel like I really want some number of Victim of Night to try and fight it. But that makes the mana rougher. Would appreciate your thoughts on it!
Only thing is, that Rayne interaction shouldn't work -
Whenever you or a permanent you control is the target of a spell or ability controlled by one of your opponents, you may draw a card, and if Rayne, Academy Chancellor is enchanted, you may draw another card.
So I'm thinking that was a bug :-D
As for the rest of the article, insightful and intriguing as always, and I may wanna take this deck up and try it out :-D
In the near future I think the hellrider version is going to become the top version, simply because its so devastating against planeswalkers, and we'll definitely see a lot more of Sorin in this format. I think that you'd be better off dropping the green splash for a red splash, and that gives you access to more burn in the sideboard to deal with non-token creatures, and maybe even some more mass removal, which would be very nice.
it'll be interesting to see how the 2hg event plays, can't wait to see it... def a good idea for partners not being able to use same tribe, but I still feel there has to be some way to abuse 2hg lol
edit: does this essentially mean that one person can run dragons, the other spirits and both sitting on a full set of Koku?
It must be pretty hard getting people to look at you with Azami and actually being successful in convincing them that your deck is budget. Kudos to you sir.
Great article. Good to see you posting on puremtgo again. Can you tell me where I can go to play this format? Also, would Rule of Law have much impact as a sideboard card in this format?
Here are the amended rules (so far) for the Springtime Special:
Both team members may not play the same tribe.
Unified Deck Construction rules apply for registering teams:
With the exception of basic land cards, a team's combined decks may not contain more than four of any individual card, counted by its English card title. This includes non-basic lands, such as fetches and duals, as well. (For example, if one player is using four Arid Mesa in a Multiplayer Constructed event, no other player on that team may have an Arid Mesa in his or her deck.)
UDC will not be strictly enforced for single registrants. Single registrants, while trying to conform with UDC as much as possible, will be paired semi-randomly.
¤ EVENT BANNED LIST ¤
Glistener Elf
Inkmoth Nexus
Luminarch Ascension
Magister Sphinx
Phyrexian Swarmlord
Serra Ascendant
Sorin Markov
(more cards may be added)
(this is IN ADDITION TO the regular Tribal Apocalypse banned list)
Unfortunately for some of us that one match is quite rare indeed. Not worth wasting a post-it for. AJ is a legend for a reason.
I don't like random pairing because it takes out the strategic aspect of 2HG deckbuilding. You have to build two decks that work together. With random pairing, you just have to be lucky enough in getting a strong partner, and not mess him up during the games.
Yeah, absolutely. Do it, please. (The ruling part, not the naked part).
Thanks for that link, I forgot to mention that first experiment during the glorious Shardfenix Era (a salute to Shardfenix, as always!). I end up paired with him, btw, and we did very badly. I was entirely 100% Spike-free at that time, so that was probably my fault more than everything else.
The Stoneforge ruling was really a great thinking by Blippy.
"A challenging deck, worth it for the one match where the right things came together"
Every player should write this on a post-it and stick it on their screens.
OK - Did more testing last night with more mixed results.
1) The RW version is very good. Hellrider is better than Bloodgift Demon in this deck (as a double secondary casting cost creature), and I'm not sure Garruk is doing enough right now (especially if you aren't getting additional mileage from your G sources by running township). While it is nice for one Ray to be able to trump two enchantments it isn't the only white answer available to enchantments. The range red adds is also pretty huge.
2) Tragic Slip feels like it does not do enough. The -1/-1 at instant speed is usually only relevant if you can lead off with an untapped black source *and* they play into it with captain/noble. Its nice that you can fizzle a Sever with it sometimes - but alot of the time the -1/-1 isn't even enough to kill one of our tokens. The STP upgrade after morbid is great, but often not super relevant either. Unfortunately, I'm not 100% sure that dead weight does enough either. I tested the 2/2 split last night and was a little happier with dead weight. That said, it deals with some of the tier two threats in the format (Zombies/werewolves) more easily. I'm leaning towards 3 dead weight, 1 slip main with 1-2 slip coming out of the board. Slip is very nice to have against UG. Maybe this changes if the format see more Demons.
3) Graveyard hate: Is Grafdiggers cage better than Purify the Grave in a deck with this many flashback spells? I'm not sure yet - I almost lost what should have been an unlosable game against 4color control because I couldn't access my yard. The fire and forget nature of the cage is nice - especially with as many utility lands as I run. But Purify is an option that seems worth exploring.
I guess your other option is to make pairings random
Thanks for the comments guys. The budget thing is kind of tricky. Usually I don't mention it unless I'm getting bludgeoned right out the gate. Like I said, Azami can be target number 1 at most tables. Of course lots of people know that I write stuff so they figure that I can take the punishment, and that's fine. The decks are meant to be played out "in the wild" after all. I try not to lean on budget as a crutch but it is a nice political tool
The Rayne thing makes complete sense now. I was just surprised no one had broken her in half yet, and now I know why.
Lich was a fun one to do, and is interesting in that every single lich wants completely different things. Havengul wants dead creatures, Dralnu wants instants and sorceries, Phylactery lich wants artifacts, Lich lord of Unx wants zombies in play, Scornful Aether-lich wants an enemy colour mana pair. A challenging deck, worth it for the one match where the right things came together to roll over my opponent twice.
I concur on the Stoneforge ruling: She's still in the format for shenanigans, but seeing monoblack decks splash for her and her alone just seemed abusive.
There was a tribal 2HG run in the pre-Blippian era: It was great fun and the final became an international affair between team US and team UK, with Melissafey and I taking the glory back to Blighty with an Angel/Beast pairing. Details here: http://puremtgo.com/articles/tribal-apocalypse-ponderings
I normally Shy away from blue. Lately though I have been tinkering around with a mono blue beat down style deck that tries to avoid the " typical" blue cards. It is fun to see some of the same choices in your deck.
Cephalid constable might just be my all time favorite blue card. Connecting with a pumped one is just so sweet.
The more I play with sturmgiest the more I love it. It can get just plain huge and be such a beating, the card draw is just gravy.
I thing surge spanner is an under appreciated card that can provide a lot of value and versatility.
Good job as usual, I love to see budget decks. They usually contain some neat fresh ideas.
You are aware this is a block deck right?
No doom blades, and Severs are a critical part of this format.
Cheese on a cracker. Am I going to have to enforce Unified Deck Construction (paper) rules for this event? Don't make me get naked. No one likes to see saggy old man bottom.
From the MTG 2HG page: "Two-Headed Giant uses the Unified Deck Construction rules. With the exception of basic land cards, a team's combined decks may not contain more than four of any individual card, counted by its English card title. (For example, if one player is using four Naturalizes in a Multiplayer Constructed event, no other player on that team may have a Naturalize in his or her deck.) Sideboards are not allowed in Constructed Multiplayer tournaments."
Well, the link DOES bring you to the Tribal Apocalypse forum, just one click away from the right page. :)
And what about a Kor/Artificer teamup with 8 Stoneforge? :)
Right, of course! I was looking and not seeing. :)
Personally I hate the way "premium cards" are implemented online. That said I think you should bling out your budget deck as much as you like. The player who objected to foil versions of those cards does not really understand the meaning of the term. If you were running foils of expensive cards I might see their point but even so the idea is to make a viable (successful) list with cards that have an inexpensive LOW end. In other words I can take your list, unbling it and play it for $x.xx. Where x is whatever your budget is.
Move out the Sever the Bloodlinex4 for 2 Keeper of the Bloodline and 2 doom blade. I think you will like the results. Maybe have Severs in the SB for the token matchups.
Township: The cost of the township is pretty low. I run two and have rarely had mana problems. This is basically a white deck with two splashes. The only mana troubles I have are count related, not color related (enough to consider running 27 lands). 2x Townships simply give another way to trump the other token decks.
Curse: I had been coming around to this viewpoint - plus its head to find room for it in addition to Disappearance. So thanks for helping convince me.
Tragic Slip vs. Dead Weight. This is the toughest card choice for me and am currently running a 2/2 split in the main. You really want dead weight vs. zombies and GR, but you definitely want Slip vs. tokens, UG, and anything throwing Sever at you.
The Hellrider threat: Haven't watched your vids yet but by far the scariest card in the format (with this deck) is Hellrider. I feel like I really want some number of Victim of Night to try and fight it. But that makes the mana rougher. Would appreciate your thoughts on it!
Only thing is, that Rayne interaction shouldn't work -
Whenever you or a permanent you control is the target of a spell or ability controlled by one of your opponents, you may draw a card, and if Rayne, Academy Chancellor is enchanted, you may draw another card.
So I'm thinking that was a bug :-D
As for the rest of the article, insightful and intriguing as always, and I may wanna take this deck up and try it out :-D
In the near future I think the hellrider version is going to become the top version, simply because its so devastating against planeswalkers, and we'll definitely see a lot more of Sorin in this format. I think that you'd be better off dropping the green splash for a red splash, and that gives you access to more burn in the sideboard to deal with non-token creatures, and maybe even some more mass removal, which would be very nice.
it'll be interesting to see how the 2hg event plays, can't wait to see it... def a good idea for partners not being able to use same tribe, but I still feel there has to be some way to abuse 2hg lol
edit: does this essentially mean that one person can run dragons, the other spirits and both sitting on a full set of Koku?
The link to the 2HG announcement appears to be broken. For those that are interested:
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75846/27012861/Tribal_Apocal...
I really enjoy your content.
Thanks again for doing these video series and sharing them with all of us.
Wonderful article as always, Leviathan. :D
It must be pretty hard getting people to look at you with Azami and actually being successful in convincing them that your deck is budget. Kudos to you sir.