Try to play around making survive Koth. You can gain good tempo with contagion clasp as lot of people is running myr to accelerate. Play control placing well timed efficient drops. The build has 15 artifacts so you can easily get the metalcraft. 13 artifacts are cost 3 or less.
I like the equipments, but in this format i wouldnt use any artifact (besides mana accel) that can be destroyed without being used at least once.
Small nitpick; TheKid is Charles Gindy and the avg player is not close to Gindy. Not that it can't be done, but hard to use him as an example if that is the sole player to do so.
The Sword of Body and Mind is for the Mono Blue matchup. Having them not be able to Disperse or Reins your biggest threat is really good. Masticore is for any random aggro deck, Myr, Infect, WW. I can't think of a matchup where I'd really want a 4th shatter. I also don't like liquimetal coating. I only have 4 artifact destruction main deck, it's way to narrow. I've always valued consistency over splashy combos.
Certainly welcome brother. I really like the structure of the league myself. The games almost feel like casual magic sometimes.
@ brandonQDSH
I suppose it would depend on the format the walkers were printed in. In a format with birds in it I can see "Lyt-Hand-Feat, the Commander" being overpowered but in a format without consistent enough mana to get him off before turn 4 usually I don't know that he'd be all that bad compared to current walkers. "Sek-you-up-Deathkeeper, Graveborn" seems really good, the vindicate portion would be more expensive color wise, but option wise probably a better card, again it's the kind of card you wouldn't want to print alongside birds. The constructed event this weekend is on Sunday to avoid New Years Eve as much as possible.
Nicely laid out. I actually think it would have been cool to delve into the budget mana bases vs spike mana bases that you mentioned, because the costs you listed are scary to some people. So I'm just going to mention a few things:
*Red Deck Wins can win with nothing but basic Mountains (thekid has reached Top 8 with all snow basics twice)
*White Weenie mana can be done for 6 tickets: Horizon Canopy, Tectonic Edge, Karakas, Flagstones, and a Plains. Skipping the Wasteland is an obvious choice if ~30 tickets is the difference between having a deck or not.
*This week is the time to buy a Wasteland if you plan on getting one at some point in the next year or so. The TSE Nix Tix drafts are in the process of dumping 400 or so Wastelands into the system, which has been lowering the market price somewhat. At this moment, it's at Buy 25 / Sell 27. That's still ridiculous for an uncommon, but it's a card you would want in nearly every competitive 100CS deck.
*You can string together a budget mana base for cheap if you just want to play casually. Five tickets gets you the common/uncommon lands that you'll need. It can be upgraded gradually from there. There are mid-priced options if you're interested in 100CS to the tune of $40 mana but not $150 mana. Actually, you can make a really consistent mana base for $40.
*Elves is not as inexpensive a deck as it might seem. I've messed with budget versions, and it's hard to come up with something really good for under 200 tickets. On the other hand, you can do a fun casual Elves deck for 10 or 20 tickets.
Great article, and a very useful tool for those looking jump into the world of commons-only. One feature I think could make it even better, and also supports the rest of the article, is a summary of the matchups - be it via a complete matrix showing what beats what, or simply a third box below each archetype ordering into two brackets: those at 50% or higher, and those at less than 50%. That way the article also becomes a nice go-to reference for metagame shifts.
It's not quite so bad when you realize that the mana base is probably around 40%-70% of the cost of the deck. It's closer to 40% if you're playing blue, but closer to 70% if you're playing other colors.(Jace, Force of Will being the primary problems)
Also there are some easy substitutions that can save you a lot without missing much, such as cutting Mutavault in favor of Mishra's Factory and/or Blinkmoth Nexus. There are also specialized decks such as Elves and Goblins which have a reasonably cheap mana base.
100cs is not a cheap format to play. It's roughly equivalent in price to standard but your collection retains its value much better over time.
They are probably worth mentioning for budget reasons but I felt I had to draw the line somewhere. The problem is if I added the Tri-Lands as a budget option, I would feel like I have to talk about all of the other roughly equivalent budget options as well. Then, if I included those budget options into the my templates, I'd basically need to make two separate lists, one budget and one Spike version, and I felt that would make this article too long. If you want to add budget substitutions, you certainly can and they aren't hard to find.
Here's a short list
Shards of Alara Tri-lands
Llorwyn Vivid Lands
Shards of Alara Panoramas
Zendikar Recluses
Coldsnap Snow Covered Lands and Into the North
Time Spiral Storage Lands
I'm not really much of a fan of any of these lands as I believe you can pretty easily get by without them. In fact In most cases I'd go for one dual land and the land-cycling creatures before I would use these lands, but to each their own.
Standard is just too competitive right now. The only players entering the queues are top players looking to qualify for season championship, and they all end up playing each other. Gone are the days of crappy Mimic Vat/Precursor Golem, and Poison.dek byes =/
Well I guess after some testing, I'm trying to figure out if the Goblin package is better than the Boros Landfall package, since the deck is now centered on Spikeshot Elder, Adventuring Gear, and Landfall. Steppe Lynx, Plated Geopede, Squadron Hawk, "equipment tutor guy", and Kor Skyfisher might be more consistent than the Goblins/artifacts.
Man, I feel bad for new players wanting to get in on some of these eternal formats. $80+ for a mono-colored mana base . . . ouch! Nice read though. This is a good resource for these formats that I'll probably come back to at some point.
The Planeswalkers look like a lot of fun. At first, I thought some of them were a bit under-powered, until I peaked at the casting cost!
The first one makes me the most nervous, since lands and ramp are a lot better these days, as long as you can get around his cost, all of his abilities are really broken: little Jace on storm steroids, and super Glorious Anthem plus the threat of Turn 4 Upheaval. I'm sure a Sea Stompy deck would have no problem getting that mana cost on Turn 3, so would any R/G deck running BOP.
The next one I think is fine, albeit a bit of a power creep over Vindicate. The last one I think is the most balanced, and could probably stand a bit of a power boost in making the [-1] ability a Volcanic Hammer instead of Firebolt.
Well, frankly speaking I don't know much about tactics so far, i'm just a beginner, but I can say for sure that Magic Online isn't the most visually stunning computer game available! Since I saw the video of the game, I already knew it was something special! But no one warned me that it isn't so much a game as it is a self-contained hobby. Those who entertain dreams of taking a shot at Wizards of the Coast's Pro Tour ranking system will need access to an absolutely huge collection of cards and very deep pockets;) But I am ready for this. Will read along, learn, practise and hopefully soon I'll be able to leave all emotions and discuss tactics)
What's the deal with the Sword of Body and Mind? Wouldn't that be better off as another Strata Scythe or possibly even a Darksteel Axe?
Also, seems like you have the Masticore in the board solely for Infect, which should already be a good matchup. I think another Shatter might be good in that spot, or another Dragon for the U/W matchup.
One last thing: I see a lot of lists with Liquimetal Coating. Have you tried it out, and if so, what did you think of it?
Hmm, I know you can't cover everything, and I know I know nothing about 100cs, but that said, I wonder why you didn't even mention the Shards block tri lands (surely better than the Ravnica bounce lands) or other budget options like the Zendikar and Invasion allied duals. Even if you didn't cover them in detail, at least mentioning them in passing would make the article a little more complete.
The tri lands and cheap duals may be better than the filter lands simply based on finances, especially at this moment in time. With Extended in full swing, those filter lands are insanely overpriced and will plunge in future. I mean, if someone is playing competitively then go for it. But if someone is just playing casual Commander, it's probably best to pay attention to trends to know when to acquire and when not to acquire mana bases.
Thanks a lot for the update and the background informtion.
I really love the league. It is really nice to be able to play good games during the week. Especially when you dont have that much time an weekends like myself. :)
It should be noted that our most excellent Mr Impy has had some trouble with his laptop and may be absent for a few weeks while waiting for that to be fixed.
No new information here, yet all the same it is a good reference that is missing from the library of magic articles available to builders. Good job in providing that.
let me get this straight, after you win a game off the back of a wurmcoil engine against infect, you board them out?
Gimlicolby. This is my take on the archetype
4 Iron Myr
4 Spikeshot Elder
4 Oxidda Scrapmelter
3 Palladium Myr
4 Kuldotha Phoenix
2 Precursor Golem
4 Galvanic Blast
3 Contagion Clasp
3 Tumble Magnet
4 Koth of the Hammer
25 Mountains
SB:
2 Arc Trail
2 Hoard-Smelter Dragon
2 Liquimetal Coating
3 Ratchet Bomb
4 Shatter
2 Wurmcoil Engine
Try to play around making survive Koth. You can gain good tempo with contagion clasp as lot of people is running myr to accelerate. Play control placing well timed efficient drops. The build has 15 artifacts so you can easily get the metalcraft. 13 artifacts are cost 3 or less.
I like the equipments, but in this format i wouldnt use any artifact (besides mana accel) that can be destroyed without being used at least once.
Give it a try, I enjoy a lot playing the deck.
Small nitpick; TheKid is Charles Gindy and the avg player is not close to Gindy. Not that it can't be done, but hard to use him as an example if that is the sole player to do so.
The Sword of Body and Mind is for the Mono Blue matchup. Having them not be able to Disperse or Reins your biggest threat is really good. Masticore is for any random aggro deck, Myr, Infect, WW. I can't think of a matchup where I'd really want a 4th shatter. I also don't like liquimetal coating. I only have 4 artifact destruction main deck, it's way to narrow. I've always valued consistency over splashy combos.
@ Jarunik
Certainly welcome brother. I really like the structure of the league myself. The games almost feel like casual magic sometimes.
@ brandonQDSH
I suppose it would depend on the format the walkers were printed in. In a format with birds in it I can see "Lyt-Hand-Feat, the Commander" being overpowered but in a format without consistent enough mana to get him off before turn 4 usually I don't know that he'd be all that bad compared to current walkers. "Sek-you-up-Deathkeeper, Graveborn" seems really good, the vindicate portion would be more expensive color wise, but option wise probably a better card, again it's the kind of card you wouldn't want to print alongside birds. The constructed event this weekend is on Sunday to avoid New Years Eve as much as possible.
@Nagarjuna
Ya that was fun heh, good times.
Nicely laid out. I actually think it would have been cool to delve into the budget mana bases vs spike mana bases that you mentioned, because the costs you listed are scary to some people. So I'm just going to mention a few things:
*Red Deck Wins can win with nothing but basic Mountains (thekid has reached Top 8 with all snow basics twice)
*White Weenie mana can be done for 6 tickets: Horizon Canopy, Tectonic Edge, Karakas, Flagstones, and a Plains. Skipping the Wasteland is an obvious choice if ~30 tickets is the difference between having a deck or not.
*This week is the time to buy a Wasteland if you plan on getting one at some point in the next year or so. The TSE Nix Tix drafts are in the process of dumping 400 or so Wastelands into the system, which has been lowering the market price somewhat. At this moment, it's at Buy 25 / Sell 27. That's still ridiculous for an uncommon, but it's a card you would want in nearly every competitive 100CS deck.
*You can string together a budget mana base for cheap if you just want to play casually. Five tickets gets you the common/uncommon lands that you'll need. It can be upgraded gradually from there. There are mid-priced options if you're interested in 100CS to the tune of $40 mana but not $150 mana. Actually, you can make a really consistent mana base for $40.
*Elves is not as inexpensive a deck as it might seem. I've messed with budget versions, and it's hard to come up with something really good for under 200 tickets. On the other hand, you can do a fun casual Elves deck for 10 or 20 tickets.
The Heirloom commander game was fun! Hope to get a better deck ready soon!!!
Great article, and a very useful tool for those looking jump into the world of commons-only. One feature I think could make it even better, and also supports the rest of the article, is a summary of the matchups - be it via a complete matrix showing what beats what, or simply a third box below each archetype ordering into two brackets: those at 50% or higher, and those at less than 50%. That way the article also becomes a nice go-to reference for metagame shifts.
It's not quite so bad when you realize that the mana base is probably around 40%-70% of the cost of the deck. It's closer to 40% if you're playing blue, but closer to 70% if you're playing other colors.(Jace, Force of Will being the primary problems)
Also there are some easy substitutions that can save you a lot without missing much, such as cutting Mutavault in favor of Mishra's Factory and/or Blinkmoth Nexus. There are also specialized decks such as Elves and Goblins which have a reasonably cheap mana base.
100cs is not a cheap format to play. It's roughly equivalent in price to standard but your collection retains its value much better over time.
They are probably worth mentioning for budget reasons but I felt I had to draw the line somewhere. The problem is if I added the Tri-Lands as a budget option, I would feel like I have to talk about all of the other roughly equivalent budget options as well. Then, if I included those budget options into the my templates, I'd basically need to make two separate lists, one budget and one Spike version, and I felt that would make this article too long. If you want to add budget substitutions, you certainly can and they aren't hard to find.
Here's a short list
Shards of Alara Tri-lands
Llorwyn Vivid Lands
Shards of Alara Panoramas
Zendikar Recluses
Coldsnap Snow Covered Lands and Into the North
Time Spiral Storage Lands
I'm not really much of a fan of any of these lands as I believe you can pretty easily get by without them. In fact In most cases I'd go for one dual land and the land-cycling creatures before I would use these lands, but to each their own.
Standard is just too competitive right now. The only players entering the queues are top players looking to qualify for season championship, and they all end up playing each other. Gone are the days of crappy Mimic Vat/Precursor Golem, and Poison.dek byes =/
Well I guess after some testing, I'm trying to figure out if the Goblin package is better than the Boros Landfall package, since the deck is now centered on Spikeshot Elder, Adventuring Gear, and Landfall. Steppe Lynx, Plated Geopede, Squadron Hawk, "equipment tutor guy", and Kor Skyfisher might be more consistent than the Goblins/artifacts.
Man, I feel bad for new players wanting to get in on some of these eternal formats. $80+ for a mono-colored mana base . . . ouch! Nice read though. This is a good resource for these formats that I'll probably come back to at some point.
The Planeswalkers look like a lot of fun. At first, I thought some of them were a bit under-powered, until I peaked at the casting cost!
The first one makes me the most nervous, since lands and ramp are a lot better these days, as long as you can get around his cost, all of his abilities are really broken: little Jace on storm steroids, and super Glorious Anthem plus the threat of Turn 4 Upheaval. I'm sure a Sea Stompy deck would have no problem getting that mana cost on Turn 3, so would any R/G deck running BOP.
The next one I think is fine, albeit a bit of a power creep over Vindicate. The last one I think is the most balanced, and could probably stand a bit of a power boost in making the [-1] ability a Volcanic Hammer instead of Firebolt.
Are there any Heirloom events this weekend?
Im game...show me your list?
Well, frankly speaking I don't know much about tactics so far, i'm just a beginner, but I can say for sure that Magic Online isn't the most visually stunning computer game available! Since I saw the video of the game, I already knew it was something special! But no one warned me that it isn't so much a game as it is a self-contained hobby. Those who entertain dreams of taking a shot at Wizards of the Coast's Pro Tour ranking system will need access to an absolutely huge collection of cards and very deep pockets;) But I am ready for this. Will read along, learn, practise and hopefully soon I'll be able to leave all emotions and discuss tactics)
What's the deal with the Sword of Body and Mind? Wouldn't that be better off as another Strata Scythe or possibly even a Darksteel Axe?
Also, seems like you have the Masticore in the board solely for Infect, which should already be a good matchup. I think another Shatter might be good in that spot, or another Dragon for the U/W matchup.
One last thing: I see a lot of lists with Liquimetal Coating. Have you tried it out, and if so, what did you think of it?
Thorough and beautifully organised, your series on 100CS is one of the reasons I got into the format, and you've outdone yourself yet again.
Hmm, I know you can't cover everything, and I know I know nothing about 100cs, but that said, I wonder why you didn't even mention the Shards block tri lands (surely better than the Ravnica bounce lands) or other budget options like the Zendikar and Invasion allied duals. Even if you didn't cover them in detail, at least mentioning them in passing would make the article a little more complete.
The tri lands and cheap duals may be better than the filter lands simply based on finances, especially at this moment in time. With Extended in full swing, those filter lands are insanely overpriced and will plunge in future. I mean, if someone is playing competitively then go for it. But if someone is just playing casual Commander, it's probably best to pay attention to trends to know when to acquire and when not to acquire mana bases.
Perfect, thanks!
Thanks a lot for the update and the background informtion.
I really love the league. It is really nice to be able to play good games during the week. Especially when you dont have that much time an weekends like myself. :)
It should be noted that our most excellent Mr Impy has had some trouble with his laptop and may be absent for a few weeks while waiting for that to be fixed.
No new information here, yet all the same it is a good reference that is missing from the library of magic articles available to builders. Good job in providing that.
http://jamuraa.com/pure/deck_new.php this?
Great article! What's the URL for the site where we can make formatted decklists, by the way?