You can cast it on t1 with a tron land
Less likely to get it countered on the play (which is relevant)
Get to crack it when you see fit, not having to waste your turn to do it
Spell Snare.
Perhaps 'strict' was a bit hyperbolic? But I would posit an upgrade nonetheless.
Yes, there's no shatter effects, and no naturalize. Given that there's only 6 artifacts and 5 of them suck, there wouldn't be many targets and that may be why they left 'em out. Naturalize could at least hit Pacifism and Blanchwood Armor as well, giving it 3 solid targets. Indrik Stomphowler could have gone in the set I suppose, or Manic Vandal.
It's an odd little format. I think Green/White, a pretty weak combo in many core sets, might even be good here.
I did see someone beat Loxodon Warhammer in two out of three games by hitting his opponent with Flame Wave in one of them, and TWO copies of Flame Wave in another. The Hammer isn't very good if you can't keep any creatures in play, right?
You are right. You use Walls (Vine Trellis used to be the Go to, but I think Wall of Roots and/or Battlement are fine/better). Primeval is a new addition.
Expedition Map is a strict upgrade from Sylvan Scrying.
The old versions used to grab Kiki-Jiki and Sundering Titan primarily, but it also had fun combos like Mephidross Vampire and Triskelion.
I actually played against a Tooth and Nail version of this deck yesterday. It was quite good. He got me game 2 with Kiki-Jiki/Pestermite...
I had never heard of this format before. Having looked through your card lists, am I correct in saying that Planar Cleansing is the only way of getting rid of a loxodon warhammer? Because that seems....... broken!
Thanks for your answers above (I think the Alien Queen doesn't reside within the program, but somewhere in the way you jack the mic to your PC -- it gets interferences from other sources).
As for Tooth and Nail, I built one post-banning, and didn't even think about including Urzatron (but I know I did it once long time ago for a colorless tribal ramp deck I believe). You have to ramp "just" to 9, and with 12 mana walls (including the lesser one, Vine Trellis -- all of them able to survive your own Pyroclasm and Firespout), plus Oracles of Mul Daya and Primeval, it's a turn-5 thing consistently enough. You don't need to spend more than 2 slots for targets: Emrakul and Urabrask. (And you want to put Blightsteel Colossus and Madrush Cyclops in the sb, for redundance and to nullify Cranial Extraction type of shenanigans on game 2). Urzatron would need dedicated slots to find it (Sylvan Scrying, Expedition Map), which in my feeling would weaken the deck, depriving it of too many of those sweet control slots.
Sorry the precon I am thinking of came out after that, right after the ban announcement which was not planned to coincide with its release. (The ban was an emergency declaration.)
Agree on all points, and I'll be sure to write down some conclusions after the videos.
White splash seems fine, for Path and Wrath. With Path to Exile, I don't think you want Spell Snare as much. The board definitely needs work, but I don't know what the post-ban meta will be like. Definitely Katakis need to go in there because Affinity lost nothing, but other than that, I'm not sure. I definitely need something for control matchups, which I didn't really consider at all in the sideboard.
Exarch was summoning sick.
Alien Queen whispers me strategy advice, I need her. (Also I don't know how to get rid of her; it has something to do with how the program records. I record in a room without any background noise)
Condescend is in there! Spell Burst is an option, but not one I'm fond of. It just feels very resource intensive and completely dead if you don't have Tron.
A Tooth and Nail deck would be a different deck. There are tons of different flavors of Tron decks; I just decided I wanted to win with Mindslaver in this one. I might do a T&N deck sometime in the future; getting out big creatures is fun.
Thanks for illustrating that; you're exactly correct.
And I did actually play a ton of Ravnica standard, but my skill level was about on-par with any random newbie you just taught how to play Magic, so I didn't necessarily grasp all of the intricacies of nested Remands.
Maybe the cards were literally hot! I imagine after being shuffled, touched, and rubbed all day they could have heated up a bit. Heck, I'm a little warmer right now just thinking about it.
I thought about Master Warcraft, but for some reason I thought it had to be cast during combat, and I didn't want something that couldn't be cast when Basandra was out. Worth a shot though, even if it is only a one shot effect.
Great article though walkerdog, i always hate the few weeks after rotation because Im torn over what to buy. I think i'm going with Mono-red vampires because i like crappy tier-two decks, but then my fnm isn't too competitive anyways so it works.
When your opponent remands your remand in match 1 game 2, you should have remanded your remand instead of his.
Okay, too many remands, CONFUSING.
Here are some plays, with their end result.
Basic stack:
Exarch
Your Remand (targeting exarch)
Here, the opponent goes for the better play, his own exarch.
Stack:
Exarch
Your Remand (targeting exarch)
Opp's Remand (targeting exarch)
Which leaves you three choices
1) Target Opp's remand (let's you draw two cards, remands the exarch, gives your opponent a remand, lets you keep 3 mana up)
2) Target Exarch (let's you draw one card, opponent is down a remand lets you keep 3 mana up)
3) Target your remand, then remand exarch again. (Let's you draw two cards, opponent is down a remand, only lets you keep 1 mana up)
I think 3) is clearly the superior play, as the only downside to it compared to the others is that you won't have 3 mana up. However, there is nothing in your hand that is useful at 3 mana, and your opponent has no dangerous plays on his turn (can't cast exarch+kiki-jikki, even untapping his own land with the exarch). Exarch+splinter twin isn't dangerous because of summoning sickness, and you have 2 repeals.
(Clearly, you haven't played a lot of Ravnica-era standard)
Is there some reason that a green shell with Tooth and Nail wasn't considered? Or was it and proved not to be good enough?
I am working diligently on UB. So far it seems good, but I have a bunch of x/1 and x/2 creatures which suck against Punishing Fire + Grove Engines. That engine might not be good enough, however and I could be lucky.
They're Red cards. Literally hot! Not in the first definition listed in most dictionaries, but since it's the color of burn, I'm okay with it! Okay, so that's mostly figurative. I love nitpickers!
"The first big Standard tournament post-rotation is in the books! Come see the hot (literally!) new tech."
Actually the cards are played pretty much at room temperature. So they're not literally! hot. They're figuratively hot. Unnecessary and unliteral uses of the word literally are ftl.
This post for example is figuratively hot because I'm flaming you lol
You can cast it on t1 with a tron land
Less likely to get it countered on the play (which is relevant)
Get to crack it when you see fit, not having to waste your turn to do it
Spell Snare.
Perhaps 'strict' was a bit hyperbolic? But I would posit an upgrade nonetheless.
How is Expedition Map a strict upgrade form Sylvan Scrying in a green deck? Expedition map costs 3 mana over two turns, Sylvan Scrying costs 2.
Yes, there's no shatter effects, and no naturalize. Given that there's only 6 artifacts and 5 of them suck, there wouldn't be many targets and that may be why they left 'em out. Naturalize could at least hit Pacifism and Blanchwood Armor as well, giving it 3 solid targets. Indrik Stomphowler could have gone in the set I suppose, or Manic Vandal.
It's an odd little format. I think Green/White, a pretty weak combo in many core sets, might even be good here.
I did see someone beat Loxodon Warhammer in two out of three games by hitting his opponent with Flame Wave in one of them, and TWO copies of Flame Wave in another. The Hammer isn't very good if you can't keep any creatures in play, right?
I think you have an eye for what is ACTUALLY good. I especially like your reviews on Skaab Ruinator, Garruk 3, Forbidden Alchemy, and Snapcaster Mage.
Good work, sir.
You are right. You use Walls (Vine Trellis used to be the Go to, but I think Wall of Roots and/or Battlement are fine/better). Primeval is a new addition.
Expedition Map is a strict upgrade from Sylvan Scrying.
The old versions used to grab Kiki-Jiki and Sundering Titan primarily, but it also had fun combos like Mephidross Vampire and Triskelion.
I actually played against a Tooth and Nail version of this deck yesterday. It was quite good. He got me game 2 with Kiki-Jiki/Pestermite...
I had never heard of this format before. Having looked through your card lists, am I correct in saying that Planar Cleansing is the only way of getting rid of a loxodon warhammer? Because that seems....... broken!
Thanks for your answers above (I think the Alien Queen doesn't reside within the program, but somewhere in the way you jack the mic to your PC -- it gets interferences from other sources).
As for Tooth and Nail, I built one post-banning, and didn't even think about including Urzatron (but I know I did it once long time ago for a colorless tribal ramp deck I believe). You have to ramp "just" to 9, and with 12 mana walls (including the lesser one, Vine Trellis -- all of them able to survive your own Pyroclasm and Firespout), plus Oracles of Mul Daya and Primeval, it's a turn-5 thing consistently enough. You don't need to spend more than 2 slots for targets: Emrakul and Urabrask. (And you want to put Blightsteel Colossus and Madrush Cyclops in the sb, for redundance and to nullify Cranial Extraction type of shenanigans on game 2). Urzatron would need dedicated slots to find it (Sylvan Scrying, Expedition Map), which in my feeling would weaken the deck, depriving it of too many of those sweet control slots.
Sorry the precon I am thinking of came out after that, right after the ban announcement which was not planned to coincide with its release. (The ban was an emergency declaration.)
When that came out Stoneforge was like a $2 card. That precon was suspiciously missing Mother of Runes though, which was like $10 at the time.
You mean like the Stoneforge Mystic in the Exiler precon?
Agree on all points, and I'll be sure to write down some conclusions after the videos.
White splash seems fine, for Path and Wrath. With Path to Exile, I don't think you want Spell Snare as much. The board definitely needs work, but I don't know what the post-ban meta will be like. Definitely Katakis need to go in there because Affinity lost nothing, but other than that, I'm not sure. I definitely need something for control matchups, which I didn't really consider at all in the sideboard.
Exarch was summoning sick.
Alien Queen whispers me strategy advice, I need her. (Also I don't know how to get rid of her; it has something to do with how the program records. I record in a room without any background noise)
Condescend is in there! Spell Burst is an option, but not one I'm fond of. It just feels very resource intensive and completely dead if you don't have Tron.
A Tooth and Nail deck would be a different deck. There are tons of different flavors of Tron decks; I just decided I wanted to win with Mindslaver in this one. I might do a T&N deck sometime in the future; getting out big creatures is fun.
Thanks for illustrating that; you're exactly correct.
And I did actually play a ton of Ravnica standard, but my skill level was about on-par with any random newbie you just taught how to play Magic, so I didn't necessarily grasp all of the intricacies of nested Remands.
SCG is introducing luxurious heated card sleeves.
Maybe the cards were literally hot! I imagine after being shuffled, touched, and rubbed all day they could have heated up a bit. Heck, I'm a little warmer right now just thinking about it.
I thought about Master Warcraft, but for some reason I thought it had to be cast during combat, and I didn't want something that couldn't be cast when Basandra was out. Worth a shot though, even if it is only a one shot effect.
A little short on cards that make the good archetypes...
I want to make UB (because I try to make UB in every format) but not sure how that will take shape right now...
Loving the Wolf Run deck.
I watched the Burning Vengeance feature match. "Durdling" is too fast to describe what that deck does. It seems better in modern...
wow, someone was bored last night...
Great article though walkerdog, i always hate the few weeks after rotation because Im torn over what to buy. I think i'm going with Mono-red vampires because i like crappy tier-two decks, but then my fnm isn't too competitive anyways so it works.
When your opponent remands your remand in match 1 game 2, you should have remanded your remand instead of his.
Okay, too many remands, CONFUSING.
Here are some plays, with their end result.
Basic stack:
Exarch
Your Remand (targeting exarch)
Here, the opponent goes for the better play, his own exarch.
Stack:
Exarch
Your Remand (targeting exarch)
Opp's Remand (targeting exarch)
Which leaves you three choices
1) Target Opp's remand (let's you draw two cards, remands the exarch, gives your opponent a remand, lets you keep 3 mana up)
2) Target Exarch (let's you draw one card, opponent is down a remand lets you keep 3 mana up)
3) Target your remand, then remand exarch again. (Let's you draw two cards, opponent is down a remand, only lets you keep 1 mana up)
I think 3) is clearly the superior play, as the only downside to it compared to the others is that you won't have 3 mana up. However, there is nothing in your hand that is useful at 3 mana, and your opponent has no dangerous plays on his turn (can't cast exarch+kiki-jikki, even untapping his own land with the exarch). Exarch+splinter twin isn't dangerous because of summoning sickness, and you have 2 repeals.
(Clearly, you haven't played a lot of Ravnica-era standard)
I like Tron in this new meta.
Where are Spell Burst and Condescend?
Is Remand even good any more?
Is there some reason that a green shell with Tooth and Nail wasn't considered? Or was it and proved not to be good enough?
I am working diligently on UB. So far it seems good, but I have a bunch of x/1 and x/2 creatures which suck against Punishing Fire + Grove Engines. That engine might not be good enough, however and I could be lucky.
Nice work.
They're Red cards. Literally hot! Not in the first definition listed in most dictionaries, but since it's the color of burn, I'm okay with it! Okay, so that's mostly figurative. I love nitpickers!
"The first big Standard tournament post-rotation is in the books! Come see the hot (literally!) new tech."
Actually the cards are played pretty much at room temperature. So they're not literally! hot. They're figuratively hot. Unnecessary and unliteral uses of the word literally are ftl.
This post for example is figuratively hot because I'm flaming you lol
thx for running this awesome Events so i can play classic on a nice level since i rarely got the Time for Daylis.
cg again Zach, even if my Heart bleeds while i see Game1 all again ^^
GoGo Season 3!
Hey I haven't complete abandoned it :p but yeah I agree. It is nice to have more people writing on the format.
Always glad to see someone take up the Tribal article baton. A fair assessment of my deck, and a solid article all round.