Ok well it does make more sense to have a draft + match report all in the same article, I'll have to fine tune them to be a little shorter, just long enough to fit in one article.
I wasn't sure if anyone actually read/cared about the artist/book/tv/movie but I can bring it back if there is interest.
awesome article. jam packed with content. i quite like this format, thought could go either way. just don't end your articles with cliff hangers anymore *sob*
I agree with gwheiss, and brett. You should really start listening to the pro's on this one. Sandstorm does little to nothing. It was a good try, but it's about just not as effective against Storm or Mirror as Fog. Which brings me to my question.. What about Choking Vines as an alternative to Fog?
Oh, and Echoing Truth is simply not needed. This deck did not lose to Storm on Sunday. It lost to Goblins. Which again I ask... Choking Vines?
Look, if you are going to report on the whole format and analyze tournament results, you'd do yourself and your readers a favor by taking some hints from the people who actually won with the decks. You might even consider doing that before writing these articles.
I don't mean to speak for BrettwJayne, but the way you are telling him how to build and play his own deck (after 2 great finishes in a row) is just embarrassing. Susceptible to Benevolent Unicorn? Please.
And re: Stompy, "there simply isn't enough pump to plan on it being available in response to direct damage"? According to whom? People who just throw away their pump spells by casting them mainphase as Lava Spikes? Trust me (if you can handle giving up the reigns), the only deck that overloads Stompy's pump spells is a dedicated burn deck. In the Stompy mirror, both players have pump spells in hand a majority of the time - unless they are playing poorly. It is also the case that rarely more than 2 creatures attack together, and VERY rarely do ANY of them have a toughness of 1. Seismic Shudder is a different story, because it also kills non-attackers like Quirions, Plant tokens, and Rootwallas that you want to discard to Mongrel in response.
Sorry for the tone of this post, but I already tried the carrot :/
I've tested putrid imp and it's not that good, the deck isn't really lacking ways to discard and it's its only use (of course it can make for some broken hands like putrid imp/dark ritual/exhume/crusher, but that doesn't happen that often, trust me). As for Tolarian winds, it's an interesting card, but it might be too narrow (it's only good when you are digging for exhume, it does more arm then good if you have exhume and are digging for crusher).
Strategic planning on the other hand I like a lot and I'd like to make room for it to see how it works out.
You should give dark ritual a try, it's really great with shred memory and the discard spells. The deck needs to be fast, attacking on turn five or six isn't good enough.
Also, a small update on the list:
-1 Hand of Emrakul
-1 Dragon Breath
-1 Lotus Petal
-1 Ideas Unbound
-1 Stinkweed Imp
With 4 Duress 2 distress main it's a lot easier to find protection for Crusher, and distress can be fetched with shred memory and used to discard the big guy. Cabal ritual helps going for big turns like transmute shred memory + distress or exhume. It can also be used to hard cast one of the fatties.
And the sideboard now looks like that:
4 Ponder
4 Dispel
1 Boomerang
1 Shred Memory
1 Distress
1 Dragon Breath
1 Stinkweed Imp
1 Echoing Truth
1 Ideas Unbound
while going off theres no rush to bounce the unicorn and for the most part you never need the full 4 snaps to finish going off. and with the clock that this deck has winning t 4-5 consistently the storm decks dont usually have the luxury of waiting to the point where theyll be able to double grape shot, making them settle for etw
Green definitely needs some help, thanks for sharing.
I like aggressive strategies mainly because the games are faster. Either you take people out quickly, or they hang up on you and take you put. This deck is definitely not like that. Its the only deck where I was almost decked in a commander game.
I don't know why I chose damnation over wrath. You make a good point about land tax though. Definitely something to consider, but it would feel strange to get rid of lands in a deck based around Dakkon.
The choice of dakkon was to stay under the radar. He is clearly not as powerful as zur, sharuum, or the triplets. But he does get cool points and can lay the smack down late game so that's why I went with him.
If you're truly going for the fastest possible combo then I'd agree with the use of Putrid Imp. You could attack with an 8/8 before your opponent even took their first turn. I like the idea of the deck and I'm definately looking forward to the next iteration of the deck.
First - congratulations on your success with the deck.
I know snap can be good against Beneveloent Unicorn, but I suspect that having to use a Snap on a Unicorn can be disruptive to the overall engine behind Twiddle storm in producing the mana required to build the storm count. In addition, if a deck can get multiple Unicorns in play, Echoing Truth would be more efficient at removing them than Snap.
I know that Echoing Truth (like Echoing Decay) is very effective against a resolved Empty the Warrens. I just never see Storm win by Goblins in the replays I have watched. Usually they manage to get off two copies of Grapeshot. While the RBU Storm has trouble hitting the 20 spell storm count, they seem very decent at developing sufficient mana and card draw to reliably drawing and casting two Grapeshot with at least ten spells already resolved in the turn. Maybe my random viewings of matchups simply has not been reflective of the true performance of Storm.
I will agree that For or Moment's Peace is a better option for the Stompy mirror, but I have watched quite a few stompy decks, and almost none of them ever use pump to save their creatures. Looking at your deck list, as while as Stompy lists from aclog and specks (sp?), there simply isn't enough pump to plan on it being available in response to direct damage. Also, while I haven't seen Sandstorm resolved in the mirror, I have seen Seismic Shudder devastate a Stompy deck taking out three 1 toughness attackers. I don't see why Sandstorm could not be as effective, though it would not be nearly as good against your versions of Stompy (the more versions of 1 toughness creatures being run, the more effective these 1 damage sweepers can be, obviously).
Strategic Planning, Tolarian Winds and maybe putrid imp should be in the deck.
The mana acceleration isn't really needed, maybe a set of lotus petals instead of some lands but i can't see the use of dark ritual.
I will only fate seal myself if I know my opponent is not playing control. If I suspect they are playing with burn, vengevines, or bloodbraids, I feel awkward leaving Jace at 3. The reason I fate seal myself when they have a hand full of cards is that I am not sure what they have in hand and what would be best to put on the bottom of their library. And this is only to get me to 5 loyalty. This gives me some options as to what is best for me. Once he is at 5 then brainstorming it is!
against control I just brainstorm, even when he is at three, until I have card advantage.
As far as the colonnades go, I don't mind using them as long as I have the mana leftover to protect it with counters.
I look forward to seeing your deck and videos you will be posting. My only suggestion is to turn off the in game sound effects.
I'm glad you were forthright about witnessing only 3 of the 4 principles/examples given here, because the 4th one is quite imaginary. Sandstorm doesn't do anything in the Stompy mirror. Even if you find an opponent with terrible cards like Jungle Lion/Scryb Sprite/Ledgewalker, he can just pump his guys in response to your Sandstorm (which is his plan in the first place, not something he needs to try very hard to set up). Quirion Ranger rarely attacks, and Basking Rootwalla should be sided out in some quantity (as should Jungle Lion, if somehow that is in the maindeck).
Sandstorm is strictly for Empty the Warrens, and it is a desperate/ineffective answer at that (I chose not to play any copies).
The single most effective sb card for the Stompy mirror is Fog (or whichever equivalent).
As someone that's been thinking of trying the player-run tournaments your article is very useful.
But mostly I'd just like to say that the graphical presentation of the article is very, very good. The chapter titles, the archetypes' graphs, etc. Great work!
Yep, I'm also sitting at 3x JMS, without a whole lot of inclination to buy a 4th.
It also seems that while our decks are nearly identical, our playstyles are very, very different. With Jace 2.0, for example, I'll almost always brainstorm out of the gate, unless my opponent only has 0-2/3 cards in hand. I don't +2 myself unless it's very situational, as by brainstorming I'm guaranteed value even if Jace gets dead next turn. Also, I run 6x Jace so I'm not too worried about losing a couple!
I play very heavy permission, and as a result play very conservatively as well. However, being the kind of player I am I'm really only interested in the long game. I seldom activate my Colonnades and generally just take my time in winning. But, that's just my Draw-Go style.
I appreciate the comments! I am going to try your Titan list as I have yet to play an esper list. When ever I see one I think some Persecutors would be great in this, but that would change the whole point of the deck. Must resist. I guess I am mostly a control player who still likes to turn creatures sideways!
I look forward to seeing your other article on sun titan. I hope you build with ember hauler as I think that would be a great interaction. I think I will start brewing that one myself!
Thanks for the comments! I would love to be able to use Jace 2.0's ultimate, but it seems like I may be to conservative in my play style. I have fate sealed when my opponent had 0 cards in hand, but still won before I got the ultimate off. When the opponent has a handful of cards, I tend to fate seal myself, then use brainstorm to get card advantage until I at least have two counterspells in hand. At that point I am usually bashing with some Elspeth powered fatty!
I actually just acquired the third Mind Sculptor this past week so it may all change now that I almost have a playset. I do enjoy playing Jace Beleren though and I am seeing him a lot from opponents as well.
Cool. I have been waiting for this. Wrath of God is just as effective as Damnation so I am assuming you omitted it for art and space reasons. FYI there is a really good reason for taxing for 3 basics. You thin your deck enormously. Sure you might have to dump some cards but it can pay huge dividends later as you draw into gas and the only lands you see are the special ones you might have included for various reasons (Volrath's Stronghold, Academy Ruins, etc). Of course in this deck with only a few basics I can see why you wouldn't want to waste them. Dakkon Blackblade is definitely not the general I expected. Looks like the myriad tactics worked to protect you from the vile planar invaders.
Somehow Ive been getting more and more into Commnader the past couple weeks and I have to agree with you, I can't stand playing control/ So far Ive figured out my 'method' to improving my commander collection. I started anew with a R/G Stonebrow deck, and now have built a Jund Karrthus deck. I love just beating face. Especially turn 6 14/14 Kilnmouth Dragon.
If we're talking about ways to deal with eldrazi in green, ignoring the various critters with deathtouch which'll do for all the legends except ulamog, I've found Lignify to be a pretty sweet answer.
It amuses me to think that if the Eldrazi were to invade Lorwyn that the treefolk would just turn them all into trees! Sure beats the crazy elaborate three planeswalker, hedron, colourless-fire trap Sorin came up with!
Why didnt S sacrifice the targeted spawn token to counter the Echoing Decay.
Ok well it does make more sense to have a draft + match report all in the same article, I'll have to fine tune them to be a little shorter, just long enough to fit in one article.
I wasn't sure if anyone actually read/cared about the artist/book/tv/movie but I can bring it back if there is interest.
also, no book/movie/song?
awesome article. jam packed with content. i quite like this format, thought could go either way. just don't end your articles with cliff hangers anymore *sob*
I agree with gwheiss, and brett. You should really start listening to the pro's on this one. Sandstorm does little to nothing. It was a good try, but it's about just not as effective against Storm or Mirror as Fog. Which brings me to my question.. What about Choking Vines as an alternative to Fog?
Oh, and Echoing Truth is simply not needed. This deck did not lose to Storm on Sunday. It lost to Goblins. Which again I ask... Choking Vines?
Nice to see the hydra getting some love. Interesting deck. What would your updated list look like? Any additional side boarding tips?
Look, if you are going to report on the whole format and analyze tournament results, you'd do yourself and your readers a favor by taking some hints from the people who actually won with the decks. You might even consider doing that before writing these articles.
I don't mean to speak for BrettwJayne, but the way you are telling him how to build and play his own deck (after 2 great finishes in a row) is just embarrassing. Susceptible to Benevolent Unicorn? Please.
And re: Stompy, "there simply isn't enough pump to plan on it being available in response to direct damage"? According to whom? People who just throw away their pump spells by casting them mainphase as Lava Spikes? Trust me (if you can handle giving up the reigns), the only deck that overloads Stompy's pump spells is a dedicated burn deck. In the Stompy mirror, both players have pump spells in hand a majority of the time - unless they are playing poorly. It is also the case that rarely more than 2 creatures attack together, and VERY rarely do ANY of them have a toughness of 1. Seismic Shudder is a different story, because it also kills non-attackers like Quirions, Plant tokens, and Rootwallas that you want to discard to Mongrel in response.
Sorry for the tone of this post, but I already tried the carrot :/
Very good read, I really enjoyed the part about sideboarding.
Keep up the good work !
Thanks for the feedback !
I've tested putrid imp and it's not that good, the deck isn't really lacking ways to discard and it's its only use (of course it can make for some broken hands like putrid imp/dark ritual/exhume/crusher, but that doesn't happen that often, trust me). As for Tolarian winds, it's an interesting card, but it might be too narrow (it's only good when you are digging for exhume, it does more arm then good if you have exhume and are digging for crusher).
Strategic planning on the other hand I like a lot and I'd like to make room for it to see how it works out.
You should give dark ritual a try, it's really great with shred memory and the discard spells. The deck needs to be fast, attacking on turn five or six isn't good enough.
Also, a small update on the list:
-1 Hand of Emrakul
-1 Dragon Breath
-1 Lotus Petal
-1 Ideas Unbound
-1 Stinkweed Imp
+2 Distress
+1 Twisted Abomination
+2 Cabal ritual
With 4 Duress 2 distress main it's a lot easier to find protection for Crusher, and distress can be fetched with shred memory and used to discard the big guy. Cabal ritual helps going for big turns like transmute shred memory + distress or exhume. It can also be used to hard cast one of the fatties.
And the sideboard now looks like that:
4 Ponder
4 Dispel
1 Boomerang
1 Shred Memory
1 Distress
1 Dragon Breath
1 Stinkweed Imp
1 Echoing Truth
1 Ideas Unbound
while going off theres no rush to bounce the unicorn and for the most part you never need the full 4 snaps to finish going off. and with the clock that this deck has winning t 4-5 consistently the storm decks dont usually have the luxury of waiting to the point where theyll be able to double grape shot, making them settle for etw
Green definitely needs some help, thanks for sharing.
I like aggressive strategies mainly because the games are faster. Either you take people out quickly, or they hang up on you and take you put. This deck is definitely not like that. Its the only deck where I was almost decked in a commander game.
I don't know why I chose damnation over wrath. You make a good point about land tax though. Definitely something to consider, but it would feel strange to get rid of lands in a deck based around Dakkon.
The choice of dakkon was to stay under the radar. He is clearly not as powerful as zur, sharuum, or the triplets. But he does get cool points and can lay the smack down late game so that's why I went with him.
If you're truly going for the fastest possible combo then I'd agree with the use of Putrid Imp. You could attack with an 8/8 before your opponent even took their first turn. I like the idea of the deck and I'm definately looking forward to the next iteration of the deck.
First - congratulations on your success with the deck.
I know snap can be good against Beneveloent Unicorn, but I suspect that having to use a Snap on a Unicorn can be disruptive to the overall engine behind Twiddle storm in producing the mana required to build the storm count. In addition, if a deck can get multiple Unicorns in play, Echoing Truth would be more efficient at removing them than Snap.
I know that Echoing Truth (like Echoing Decay) is very effective against a resolved Empty the Warrens. I just never see Storm win by Goblins in the replays I have watched. Usually they manage to get off two copies of Grapeshot. While the RBU Storm has trouble hitting the 20 spell storm count, they seem very decent at developing sufficient mana and card draw to reliably drawing and casting two Grapeshot with at least ten spells already resolved in the turn. Maybe my random viewings of matchups simply has not been reflective of the true performance of Storm.
I will agree that For or Moment's Peace is a better option for the Stompy mirror, but I have watched quite a few stompy decks, and almost none of them ever use pump to save their creatures. Looking at your deck list, as while as Stompy lists from aclog and specks (sp?), there simply isn't enough pump to plan on it being available in response to direct damage. Also, while I haven't seen Sandstorm resolved in the mirror, I have seen Seismic Shudder devastate a Stompy deck taking out three 1 toughness attackers. I don't see why Sandstorm could not be as effective, though it would not be nearly as good against your versions of Stompy (the more versions of 1 toughness creatures being run, the more effective these 1 damage sweepers can be, obviously).
Is there any reason why the podcast is no longer going up on Mtgcast?
Strategic Planning, Tolarian Winds and maybe putrid imp should be in the deck.
The mana acceleration isn't really needed, maybe a set of lotus petals instead of some lands but i can't see the use of dark ritual.
I will only fate seal myself if I know my opponent is not playing control. If I suspect they are playing with burn, vengevines, or bloodbraids, I feel awkward leaving Jace at 3. The reason I fate seal myself when they have a hand full of cards is that I am not sure what they have in hand and what would be best to put on the bottom of their library. And this is only to get me to 5 loyalty. This gives me some options as to what is best for me. Once he is at 5 then brainstorming it is!
against control I just brainstorm, even when he is at three, until I have card advantage.
As far as the colonnades go, I don't mind using them as long as I have the mana leftover to protect it with counters.
I look forward to seeing your deck and videos you will be posting. My only suggestion is to turn off the in game sound effects.
I'm glad you were forthright about witnessing only 3 of the 4 principles/examples given here, because the 4th one is quite imaginary. Sandstorm doesn't do anything in the Stompy mirror. Even if you find an opponent with terrible cards like Jungle Lion/Scryb Sprite/Ledgewalker, he can just pump his guys in response to your Sandstorm (which is his plan in the first place, not something he needs to try very hard to set up). Quirion Ranger rarely attacks, and Basking Rootwalla should be sided out in some quantity (as should Jungle Lion, if somehow that is in the maindeck).
Sandstorm is strictly for Empty the Warrens, and it is a desperate/ineffective answer at that (I chose not to play any copies).
The single most effective sb card for the Stompy mirror is Fog (or whichever equivalent).
As someone that's been thinking of trying the player-run tournaments your article is very useful.
But mostly I'd just like to say that the graphical presentation of the article is very, very good. The chapter titles, the archetypes' graphs, etc. Great work!
Yep, I'm also sitting at 3x JMS, without a whole lot of inclination to buy a 4th.
It also seems that while our decks are nearly identical, our playstyles are very, very different. With Jace 2.0, for example, I'll almost always brainstorm out of the gate, unless my opponent only has 0-2/3 cards in hand. I don't +2 myself unless it's very situational, as by brainstorming I'm guaranteed value even if Jace gets dead next turn. Also, I run 6x Jace so I'm not too worried about losing a couple!
I play very heavy permission, and as a result play very conservatively as well. However, being the kind of player I am I'm really only interested in the long game. I seldom activate my Colonnades and generally just take my time in winning. But, that's just my Draw-Go style.
I appreciate the comments! I am going to try your Titan list as I have yet to play an esper list. When ever I see one I think some Persecutors would be great in this, but that would change the whole point of the deck. Must resist. I guess I am mostly a control player who still likes to turn creatures sideways!
I look forward to seeing your other article on sun titan. I hope you build with ember hauler as I think that would be a great interaction. I think I will start brewing that one myself!
Thanks for the comments! I would love to be able to use Jace 2.0's ultimate, but it seems like I may be to conservative in my play style. I have fate sealed when my opponent had 0 cards in hand, but still won before I got the ultimate off. When the opponent has a handful of cards, I tend to fate seal myself, then use brainstorm to get card advantage until I at least have two counterspells in hand. At that point I am usually bashing with some Elspeth powered fatty!
I actually just acquired the third Mind Sculptor this past week so it may all change now that I almost have a playset. I do enjoy playing Jace Beleren though and I am seeing him a lot from opponents as well.
Cool. I have been waiting for this. Wrath of God is just as effective as Damnation so I am assuming you omitted it for art and space reasons. FYI there is a really good reason for taxing for 3 basics. You thin your deck enormously. Sure you might have to dump some cards but it can pay huge dividends later as you draw into gas and the only lands you see are the special ones you might have included for various reasons (Volrath's Stronghold, Academy Ruins, etc). Of course in this deck with only a few basics I can see why you wouldn't want to waste them. Dakkon Blackblade is definitely not the general I expected. Looks like the myriad tactics worked to protect you from the vile planar invaders.
Somehow Ive been getting more and more into Commnader the past couple weeks and I have to agree with you, I can't stand playing control/ So far Ive figured out my 'method' to improving my commander collection. I started anew with a R/G Stonebrow deck, and now have built a Jund Karrthus deck. I love just beating face. Especially turn 6 14/14 Kilnmouth Dragon.
If we're talking about ways to deal with eldrazi in green, ignoring the various critters with deathtouch which'll do for all the legends except ulamog, I've found Lignify to be a pretty sweet answer.
It amuses me to think that if the Eldrazi were to invade Lorwyn that the treefolk would just turn them all into trees! Sure beats the crazy elaborate three planeswalker, hedron, colourless-fire trap Sorin came up with!