Here is the thing about Goblins: Sparksmith *can* hurt you but only if he comes out early and in conjunction with bolts or trades that pare down your number of attackers.
Evasion is key to get your pump through as damage, which then means that Sparksmith becomes dual-edged for Goblins at best, ESPECIALLY because they have to win by swarming which means that they need to commit a bunch of goblins on the board (and them taking 4+ damage from Sparksmith is pretty good from the Stompy perspective)
As for evasion you have options: scryb sprites and silhana ledgewalker or shinen of life's roar or both.
Combine that with Fog for their Buishwhacker turns and you should be winning > 50%. There are still a number of Goblin draws that Stompy can't beat but that works both ways, remember.
I've always kind of felt that the Goblin players who are really good at managing Sparksmith have an advantage, but in general Goblins is not a losing matchup.
And, yeah, Faeries is pretty favorable BUT you don't really want to play Sprites or Ledgewalker vs them. OTOH, I still think that Shinen of Life's Roar puts you into a more controllish role vs Goblins which *can* work but doesn't make much sense to me given that Goblins is clearly the deck that wants to play control and slow the game down.
Why do you like Nest Invader btw? I thought about it once, but there just aren't enough places to spend colorless mana and its a really awkward turn 2 play.
(PS and welcome to the club because ghweiss thinks we're both horrible ;))
good article, but as we all know, the selling price and buying price is way different, i dont think anyone will buy your digital cards for less than 75% real value, well for the most part, i try to play the trends, but its not easy by any means.
Crystal Ball with Dark Tutelage (plus Jace v.2) are already in Cruel Control decks and I've seen how amazing they both together are. The Grixis player always draws a land with Tutelage (and I mean ALWAYS), and then Cruel Ultimatum-s you to death. If not, then it's a Grave Titan. Brutal!
To be honest I never thought of using the Lich in a Control deck. Your version looks interesting but I wouldn't run 3x Doom Blade in the main because there are still very powerful Black creatures out there. You already have the RB Borderpost and therefore Terminate would be a wiser decision in my opinion.
I think there must have been something a bit strange going on when I took my paper prices as I seem to have captured foil prices for a lot of cards which is something I would have noticed if there were multiple choices for each version.
I also agree Cape Fear is the cheapest place I have found online that sell Magic paper singles and I've looked at a lot of sites.
You're reading things a little wrong, I'm definately going to need to make a little guide.
The rows left-to-right give you the win/loss record and win % for the deck, in this case Burn is 20% against MUC/Fae, 40% against Affinity, 50% against Goblins, etc. Reading top-to-bottom down a column will actually give you a decks LOSING % against each deck. Because the results at the bottom of each column are the overall results for that deck, the win/loss numbers are the reverse of the column above it. What you're counting in the column are wins AGAINST Burn
Kalandine has it right. Reading the rows left to right will give you a decks win/loss ratio vs each other deck, with the row below it giving the win % vs that deck. At the bottom of each column are the overall results for the deck. These might work a little better at the far right of each row, but width has been an issue in keeping everything legible.
I'll make brief guide to reading the table to go with the next article.
Well so you know a phylactory is a religious item used to store 'essences' and in the case of liches in aD&D it was defined as being where they store their lifeforce so that they can't be killed. A smart lich made more than one just in case some nosy adventurers found the first and destroyed it. Otherwise bye bye lichy poo.
By the way the lich itself is a construct of the AD&D universe (or rather the twisted minds of Dave Arneson and E.Gary Gygax (both rip and possibly liches themselves. :p))
You would be surprised at how many people say "Like" instead of "Litch".
One thing magic is good for and thats vocabulary. I ahve seen a lot of spell and land names thinking it's a made up word to olnt come across it in the future and see it has a real meaning.
I recently got back into paper magic doing the FNM thing like most people. I decided to build the cheapest deck I could think of that would be competitive. I went to capefeargames.com and bought all the RDW goodies. I am amazed at how cheap Heath's prices are vs the 3 other stores I checked out. Every card I bought from him was cheaper than starcity, there wasn't one card higher which I find amazing. While I don't know the paper prices like I do online, I did research 2 other online stores and still his prices were cheaper.
As far as I'm concerned, unless he doesn't have the card I need in stock, I will always be buying from Heath and the rest of the awesome staff at capefear. One thing I would like to see Heath make available (plug plug) is allowing us to use credits for our articles at capefear games as well as mtgotraders. This would help curb both my digital and paper addictions!
Yea I get Garruk Wildspeak confised with Joraga Treespeeker alot.
The earthquake is in there for my meta game. There are quite a few people who run agro decks. One guys seems to dominate with his goblin deck. It is also helpful to push through some last minute damage and keep planeswalkers under control.
I do plan to eliminate the earthquakes though for the Day of Judgement. Maybe only run two main board and two sideboard.
I don't recall being overly annoyed by all the cloudoosts but maybe that's just me. Of course I haven't played two headed giant since the eldrazi came on the scene so what do I know.
Is there anything people should watch out for now that posts are gone?
Cape Fear is Heath's store which because he lives in North Carolina and he runs it personally is 99% likely to be in North Carolina. Not sure how Florida got involved. (Must be a bad ballot.) I am guessing the mailing route goes through florida maybe? Anyway glad to know it isn't all THAT high. :p
But you get my point right? Economics vary from place to place and so do card economics.
I buy from their online store front. If I remember right the physical location of the store is Florida some where and I'm in San Diego. Booster boxes I buy from a store in Washington. Its all about cheap prices, free shipping and no sales tax!
EDIT: Just for the record it is another issue with a foil price. Cape Fear has the non-foil Cyclops for $1.49 which isn't that bad.
Funny how local economies change the way we look at Paper prices eh? I mean where YOU live the cyclops may be going for 20% of what it apparently is going for in NC. Or do you also live in North Carolina?
Deck one. The Lich is one of my favorite cards from M11. In Sealed I saw people putting Akroma's sword on the lich and beating face. It defenitly has a place. I was thinking ot should be in a suicide black deck. Reminds me of Phyrexian Negator decks. It will really shine when Scars comes out. Get your copies now.
Deck two. I can't say much about it other then I am not too sure on the Runeflare Traps. I would of probably ran four if I was running them. I would also probably include a Reverberate or Twincast in the deck to copy the traps or the Time Reversals.
Deck Three. I so love Destructive Force. Before Tim Berg took 4th place at the Amsterdam PTQ I had a R/G deck goin and I am glad we are on the simular page. After the 4th place deck came out though I was a little dishearted with the price tags of the Primeval Titans and the fact it had 2 Gideon Juras. I contact a deck builder who goes by the name of "The Innovator" for some suggestions and mentioned I was looking for a budget friendly deck. I provided my R/G decklist and he gave me a few suggestions on replacements. Here was my final decklist.
The only issue I had with the deck was with fast agro decks. I have since come to the conclusion I am going to need to add white for Day of Judgement. And while I am in there I will also add Ajani Vengent.
I'm not worrying about White removal. Because my other cards can win on their own without the Lich too. Bloodghast equipped with Collar basically means "block me if you dare" and I won quite a few games that way. I even won one game with Anathemancer. I played it, then at the end of my opponent's turn I Terminate'd it (yes, I killed my own creature), and then played it from the graveyard next turn and won.
So what I'm basically saying is that while the Lich is an excellent creature, my version can win without it as well. Phylactery Lich is surely the superstar but the deck can function without it too.
But I also liked your suggestions. As a matter of fact, I already saw a few players trying the Lich in an Esper deck with Foundry (plus Steel Overseer; it was brutal). I've seen it, even lost to it, so I know it works.
Hell's Thunder is going down not up. It peaked at $5 between your sample points and has been on the decline since.
If I was you I'd never buy cards from that paper source you quoted. Unless its another FOIL issue $3.75 for Cyclops Gladiator is ridiculous. My preferred store has them for $0.65 (that one stood out as way wrong because I just bought a play set).
Otherwise good work... I really appreciate the effort it must take to summarize all of that data.
Very nice. Keep writing these. There are a ton of cards out there that people have forgotten about. I miss those old articles.
Here is the thing about Goblins: Sparksmith *can* hurt you but only if he comes out early and in conjunction with bolts or trades that pare down your number of attackers.
Evasion is key to get your pump through as damage, which then means that Sparksmith becomes dual-edged for Goblins at best, ESPECIALLY because they have to win by swarming which means that they need to commit a bunch of goblins on the board (and them taking 4+ damage from Sparksmith is pretty good from the Stompy perspective)
As for evasion you have options: scryb sprites and silhana ledgewalker or shinen of life's roar or both.
Combine that with Fog for their Buishwhacker turns and you should be winning > 50%. There are still a number of Goblin draws that Stompy can't beat but that works both ways, remember.
I've always kind of felt that the Goblin players who are really good at managing Sparksmith have an advantage, but in general Goblins is not a losing matchup.
And, yeah, Faeries is pretty favorable BUT you don't really want to play Sprites or Ledgewalker vs them. OTOH, I still think that Shinen of Life's Roar puts you into a more controllish role vs Goblins which *can* work but doesn't make much sense to me given that Goblins is clearly the deck that wants to play control and slow the game down.
Why do you like Nest Invader btw? I thought about it once, but there just aren't enough places to spend colorless mana and its a really awkward turn 2 play.
(PS and welcome to the club because ghweiss thinks we're both horrible ;))
its all about volume,
good article, but as we all know, the selling price and buying price is way different, i dont think anyone will buy your digital cards for less than 75% real value, well for the most part, i try to play the trends, but its not easy by any means.
Crystal Ball with Dark Tutelage (plus Jace v.2) are already in Cruel Control decks and I've seen how amazing they both together are. The Grixis player always draws a land with Tutelage (and I mean ALWAYS), and then Cruel Ultimatum-s you to death. If not, then it's a Grave Titan. Brutal!
To be honest I never thought of using the Lich in a Control deck. Your version looks interesting but I wouldn't run 3x Doom Blade in the main because there are still very powerful Black creatures out there. You already have the RB Borderpost and therefore Terminate would be a wiser decision in my opinion.
LE
Such a mistake from time to time is perfectly understandable :-)
I think there must have been something a bit strange going on when I took my paper prices as I seem to have captured foil prices for a lot of cards which is something I would have noticed if there were multiple choices for each version.
I also agree Cape Fear is the cheapest place I have found online that sell Magic paper singles and I've looked at a lot of sites.
You're reading things a little wrong, I'm definately going to need to make a little guide.
The rows left-to-right give you the win/loss record and win % for the deck, in this case Burn is 20% against MUC/Fae, 40% against Affinity, 50% against Goblins, etc. Reading top-to-bottom down a column will actually give you a decks LOSING % against each deck. Because the results at the bottom of each column are the overall results for that deck, the win/loss numbers are the reverse of the column above it. What you're counting in the column are wins AGAINST Burn
Kalandine has it right. Reading the rows left to right will give you a decks win/loss ratio vs each other deck, with the row below it giving the win % vs that deck. At the bottom of each column are the overall results for the deck. These might work a little better at the far right of each row, but width has been an issue in keeping everything legible.
I'll make brief guide to reading the table to go with the next article.
nice cat.
Enjoyed the article, but Lich and Tutelage are begging you to play Crystal Ball!
What do you think of this rough draft for a more controlling Lich deck?
4 Phylactery Lich
4 Abyssal Persecutor
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
2 Reassembling Skeleton
3 Dark Tutelage
2 Grim Discovery
3 Consuming Vapors
1 Consume the Meek
3 Doom Blade
1 Haunting Echoes
2 Liliana Vess
1 Sorin Markov
3 Crystal Ball
3 Everflowing Chalice
4 RB Borderpost
2 UB Borderpost
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Marsh Flats
12 Swamp
Well so you know a phylactory is a religious item used to store 'essences' and in the case of liches in aD&D it was defined as being where they store their lifeforce so that they can't be killed. A smart lich made more than one just in case some nosy adventurers found the first and destroyed it. Otherwise bye bye lichy poo.
By the way the lich itself is a construct of the AD&D universe (or rather the twisted minds of Dave Arneson and E.Gary Gygax (both rip and possibly liches themselves. :p))
You would be surprised at how many people say "Like" instead of "Litch".
One thing magic is good for and thats vocabulary. I ahve seen a lot of spell and land names thinking it's a made up word to olnt come across it in the future and see it has a real meaning.
I recently got back into paper magic doing the FNM thing like most people. I decided to build the cheapest deck I could think of that would be competitive. I went to capefeargames.com and bought all the RDW goodies. I am amazed at how cheap Heath's prices are vs the 3 other stores I checked out. Every card I bought from him was cheaper than starcity, there wasn't one card higher which I find amazing. While I don't know the paper prices like I do online, I did research 2 other online stores and still his prices were cheaper.
As far as I'm concerned, unless he doesn't have the card I need in stock, I will always be buying from Heath and the rest of the awesome staff at capefear. One thing I would like to see Heath make available (plug plug) is allowing us to use credits for our articles at capefear games as well as mtgotraders. This would help curb both my digital and paper addictions!
Yea I get Garruk Wildspeak confised with Joraga Treespeeker alot.
The earthquake is in there for my meta game. There are quite a few people who run agro decks. One guys seems to dominate with his goblin deck. It is also helpful to push through some last minute damage and keep planeswalkers under control.
I do plan to eliminate the earthquakes though for the Day of Judgement. Maybe only run two main board and two sideboard.
I don't recall being overly annoyed by all the cloudoosts but maybe that's just me. Of course I haven't played two headed giant since the eldrazi came on the scene so what do I know.
Is there anything people should watch out for now that posts are gone?
Cape Fear is Heath's store which because he lives in North Carolina and he runs it personally is 99% likely to be in North Carolina. Not sure how Florida got involved. (Must be a bad ballot.) I am guessing the mailing route goes through florida maybe? Anyway glad to know it isn't all THAT high. :p
But you get my point right? Economics vary from place to place and so do card economics.
lol i know the lich part, thanks
Phyl = phil actor = actor y=ee so "phil actor ee" liche or lich is pronounced like itch.
The lich is fantastic and as a black mage I'm stoked, but can someone tell me how the hell you say his name? lol
I buy from their online store front. If I remember right the physical location of the store is Florida some where and I'm in San Diego. Booster boxes I buy from a store in Washington. Its all about cheap prices, free shipping and no sales tax!
EDIT: Just for the record it is another issue with a foil price. Cape Fear has the non-foil Cyclops for $1.49 which isn't that bad.
Garruk Wildspeaker? though treespeaker is definitely cooler. Earthquake? Hmmm Not sure about that one. Those seem more like sideboard to me.
Funny how local economies change the way we look at Paper prices eh? I mean where YOU live the cyclops may be going for 20% of what it apparently is going for in NC. Or do you also live in North Carolina?
I like all three decks.
Deck one. The Lich is one of my favorite cards from M11. In Sealed I saw people putting Akroma's sword on the lich and beating face. It defenitly has a place. I was thinking ot should be in a suicide black deck. Reminds me of Phyrexian Negator decks. It will really shine when Scars comes out. Get your copies now.
Deck two. I can't say much about it other then I am not too sure on the Runeflare Traps. I would of probably ran four if I was running them. I would also probably include a Reverberate or Twincast in the deck to copy the traps or the Time Reversals.
Deck Three. I so love Destructive Force. Before Tim Berg took 4th place at the Amsterdam PTQ I had a R/G deck goin and I am glad we are on the simular page. After the 4th place deck came out though I was a little dishearted with the price tags of the Primeval Titans and the fact it had 2 Gideon Juras. I contact a deck builder who goes by the name of "The Innovator" for some suggestions and mentioned I was looking for a budget friendly deck. I provided my R/G decklist and he gave me a few suggestions on replacements. Here was my final decklist.
4 Goblin Ruinblaster
4 Earthquake
4 Firewild Borderpost
4 Everflowing Chalice
4 Inferno Titan
4 Cultivate
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Destructive Force
4 Garruk Treespeaker
9 Mountain
7 Forest
4 Rootbound Crag
4 Raging Ravine
The only issue I had with the deck was with fast agro decks. I have since come to the conclusion I am going to need to add white for Day of Judgement. And while I am in there I will also add Ajani Vengent.
Thanks for the great article.
I'm not worrying about White removal. Because my other cards can win on their own without the Lich too. Bloodghast equipped with Collar basically means "block me if you dare" and I won quite a few games that way. I even won one game with Anathemancer. I played it, then at the end of my opponent's turn I Terminate'd it (yes, I killed my own creature), and then played it from the graveyard next turn and won.
So what I'm basically saying is that while the Lich is an excellent creature, my version can win without it as well. Phylactery Lich is surely the superstar but the deck can function without it too.
But I also liked your suggestions. As a matter of fact, I already saw a few players trying the Lich in an Esper deck with Foundry (plus Steel Overseer; it was brutal). I've seen it, even lost to it, so I know it works.
LE
Hell's Thunder is going down not up. It peaked at $5 between your sample points and has been on the decline since.
If I was you I'd never buy cards from that paper source you quoted. Unless its another FOIL issue $3.75 for Cyclops Gladiator is ridiculous. My preferred store has them for $0.65 (that one stood out as way wrong because I just bought a play set).
Otherwise good work... I really appreciate the effort it must take to summarize all of that data.