I love the scenario! I always wonder if I'm making the right plays.
- Yes I'd keep the hand.. it's got creatures, an Aether Vial, and Daze to protect it.
- Turn 1: Island, Aether Vial (Daze if they show you a Force of Will)
- Turn 2: 1 counter on Vial, pass and bring out Cursecatcher through Vial on their end step (or during their turn if needed as a counter)
- Turn 3: 2 counters on Vial, play Mutavault, attack with Cursecatcher if possible, cast Silvergill Adept revealing Merrow Reejerey (yes, they know you've got another 2-drop because you're keeping Vial untapped, but no need to prove it to them), Coralhelm Commander through Vial on their end step
- Turn 4: keep the Vial at 2 and use it for Lord of Atlantis before the attack. Attack with Cursecatcher, Silvergill Adept, Coralhelm Commander and Mutavault. (if they've got blockers instead use the lands to level up Coralhelm and fly over them).
first of all. " Yup, 26 + 5 does equal Good Game!" fantastic. loved it.
2nd, when a card is as good as jace, and blue, and at the top of the curve, and wins the game, its good in all decks. seriously, i know you dont have them, but they are really good and fill a huge role in the modern day legacy. mark my words, jace will be even better in the future.
3rd, commander imo is far superioer to soverign, and thats the one i would cut in sbing if i were u. 1st of all, he is 2cc which is light years better then 3 with vial. 2nd he is a lord that has evasion. none of the other lords can attack a cluttered board, they all require another creature to attack, this one swings w/ the army.
i like the 16 lord list because it knows that it needs more mana and plays a hefty 22 lands. makes your wastelands better as "spells" and the lack of spells means that you are always using your mana efectivly in concert with vial, allowing you to get better agressive starts.
absolutly keep that hand. t1 play vial. turn 2 gives you the option to counter unless they pay 2, from there you pretty much layed out the game with your draws, but it would be t3 sivelgill hardcast showing commander. and start chuging out commanders. seriously better then soverign in that scenario right? u would have to move up vial shutting you out of LoA
Strangely enough the Unlimited Booklet I have in front of me makes NO recommendation at all but merely mentions you need 2 decks of a min 40 size and 20 life counters of some kind (Back when lifegain was scarce and hardly worth thinking about. :p)
I've been around since Alpha baby, I'm an OG mtg player
fenix is right, I have an iceage booklet with 20/40 rules and i remember Inquest promoting that ideal.
I see decks nowadays running extreme llanowar elves and their ilk and running 16 lands. it's all perspective. I personally have tested each of these decks. Sometimes I need to mulligan, but sometimes I need to mulligan in a deck spouting 26 lands. :)
my black gobbo deck never needs more than 21 lands to run smoothly, but as I've said, I would love it if folks just took my deck ideas and made them their own. I'll do my best to make the next article seem more mana proportionate friendly for the masses. I hope the mtgo player who originally commented on my lack of land at least read the whole article, and didnt just skim the deck lists and pop off a comment.
I appreciate all of you guys who leave positive comments for me! The beauty of magic is concocting your own twist on things.
Distortion Strike is deceptive in that respect. You definitely remember all those games in which it won you the game by making a guy unblockable, but how many games where you have a huge guy with mammoth umbra are you going to lose anyway? Especially if you put the umbra on a flier, which this deck has plenty of access to.
What you don't remember as easily are all those games in which the strike was sitting in your hand basically as a mulligan because the board was never right to use it. I definitely see this card as a cornerstone, not a fork. It IS good in the Kiln Fiend deck, but that's pretty much it. Everywhere else it's almost always a win more card.
What day was that? One of the first things I learned about deck building was the 40%/60% rule. I didn't really start building decks until late 94 but still...
I agree sphinges isn't really a viable tourney deck outside (MAYBE) of tribal wars classic, where big fatties flying overhead spell doom.
The 8th birthday of mtgo celebrations (http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/other/060...) show them having nix tix events (pack sink!) with the pax available in the store... This kind of move is good.. Since it is, in that period of time, possible to find packs to play limited events in easily.
Hopefully they pick up some hints on how to handle the eternal limited formats and implement it in the long run.. =)
I won't say they should control the prices but they should take some notice of them so that they can get their business running better. (Since it's not about singles but packs) I was playing in 100c singleton 2 mans for awhile when Uz were 4 each. Now it's just not worth it.
I believe tournaments firing should be one of their concerns and they shouldn't artificially control the prices... however, they can create sealed events for people to generate a decent amount of demand...
Useless cards aren't that big a concern I would think after looking at M10 which only has a few cards that are worth $.. (and I doubt people are training hard on m10 for any tournaments too.. maybe the cards are more relevant but just slightly)
back in the day it was 60 cards = 20 land, 40 cards. now we all run more land than that, but if the CMC of the creatures and spells is low enough, or you pepper in medallions, you don't need 24 or 23 lands. the only one I questioned myself is sphinxes, but that has medallions. Shapeshifters has medallions and 23 lands; goblins are such low casting costs that who needs more than 21 lands? spirits have a lot of low level cmc and also a lot of low level recursion to grab cards from the graveyard; spiders have evolution charms...
I also post decks not to be copied entirely, but for you to take and make your own. If you want, put in more lands; take some cards out. I also play in the casual room and haven't seen many folks who only run strict 60 card decks. Most folks run over 60 cards so feel free to chuck in some more lands in the build already there and you're good to go. If you're looking for tournament viable decks, I don't really think funsie all blue sphinxes is for you
as much as I've disagreed with the no sideboard rule the more I consider it the more I'm glad it doesnt have the side board... when you run tribal you usually hit the formula of 20 crits, 16 spells, 24 lands and with a 15 card sideboard you can simply change that entire list of noncreature spells and do something 100% different off of the same creature base and thats just weird
Great series of articles. I've played the UW leveler deck in draft and was able to win with it. I agree you have to be very careful with balancing bringing out new creatures and leveling ones that are already out. My rule of thumb is to try to get all my levelers to their middle power levels first. Then only if I have open mana do I try to level them further. At middle level they aren't easy to kill, but opponent's want you to pump them further before they commit a better removal spell.
I'd also add Distortion Spike as a fork. Once you have that leveler up all the way and cast Mammoth Umbra on it there's nothing like making it unblockable two turns in a row. Every time I cast a Distortion Spike I won the game.
That would lead to an entirely different format. No guarantee that anyone would be interested since it is mainly a casual fringe format not a staple format like pauper, or classic, or extended.
The tournament practice room does seem to be hit or miss when seriously trying to test a deck out. Writing a message for serious testing in the room chat box can sometimes get you speaking with people who are on the same page.
There are plenty of articles that boast about winning and I think an honest article about losing is fine. Sometimes the cards fall into place and sometimes they don't.
Similar to the author, I have won many more packs in limited formats than in Constructed. I think Limited Events are much more fun and give you that much more room to be creative when building your decks, compared with Constructed where it feels like you have to netdeck to be competitive.
It's ridiculous that tribal doesn't have a sideboard.
The argument I hear is that there is no way to know if a player's deck is tribal legal after sideboarding. Maybe that makes sense for paper magic, but MTGO could easily check decks before each game in a match to make sure it's tribal legal. MTGO validated deck submissions before each game of a draft, it wouldn't let you play a 39 card deck for example. The same thing should be done for tribal.
I think the reason Wizards doesn't do that is that they don't want the paper and digital formats to be different, so we're stuck with the drawback of a paper game. They should just implement a sideboard for online only, it would make matches much more fun and competitive.
I think the most important card for the leveler deck is time of heroes followed by narcolepsy. Time of heroes makes every leveler insanely awesome with just one counter, I will play it with as few as 5 levelers in the deck. Irkal outrider is under rated in my opinion. Cast it t2 or t3, level it on t4 an you have a creature that will hold the ground for a long time while you get in with your flyers.
For the same reason people don't always run sweepers like Volcanic Fallout instead relying on massive early damage (ala goblins). There are no guarantees to what you will face in a particular match up. People bring some crazy stuff. Imho moat is a staple for TWC where it might not be for classic.
I love the scenario! I always wonder if I'm making the right plays.
- Yes I'd keep the hand.. it's got creatures, an Aether Vial, and Daze to protect it.
- Turn 1: Island, Aether Vial (Daze if they show you a Force of Will)
- Turn 2: 1 counter on Vial, pass and bring out Cursecatcher through Vial on their end step (or during their turn if needed as a counter)
- Turn 3: 2 counters on Vial, play Mutavault, attack with Cursecatcher if possible, cast Silvergill Adept revealing Merrow Reejerey (yes, they know you've got another 2-drop because you're keeping Vial untapped, but no need to prove it to them), Coralhelm Commander through Vial on their end step
- Turn 4: keep the Vial at 2 and use it for Lord of Atlantis before the attack. Attack with Cursecatcher, Silvergill Adept, Coralhelm Commander and Mutavault. (if they've got blockers instead use the lands to level up Coralhelm and fly over them).
first of all. " Yup, 26 + 5 does equal Good Game!" fantastic. loved it.
2nd, when a card is as good as jace, and blue, and at the top of the curve, and wins the game, its good in all decks. seriously, i know you dont have them, but they are really good and fill a huge role in the modern day legacy. mark my words, jace will be even better in the future.
3rd, commander imo is far superioer to soverign, and thats the one i would cut in sbing if i were u. 1st of all, he is 2cc which is light years better then 3 with vial. 2nd he is a lord that has evasion. none of the other lords can attack a cluttered board, they all require another creature to attack, this one swings w/ the army.
i like the 16 lord list because it knows that it needs more mana and plays a hefty 22 lands. makes your wastelands better as "spells" and the lack of spells means that you are always using your mana efectivly in concert with vial, allowing you to get better agressive starts.
absolutly keep that hand. t1 play vial. turn 2 gives you the option to counter unless they pay 2, from there you pretty much layed out the game with your draws, but it would be t3 sivelgill hardcast showing commander. and start chuging out commanders. seriously better then soverign in that scenario right? u would have to move up vial shutting you out of LoA
wow i dont ever remember 40 card decks being advocated outside of limited but then i started in 4th
Strangely enough the Unlimited Booklet I have in front of me makes NO recommendation at all but merely mentions you need 2 decks of a min 40 size and 20 life counters of some kind (Back when lifegain was scarce and hardly worth thinking about. :p)
Any way you can change "fairs better" to "fares better"? :(
Sadly i really dont know how i feel about FoW and Jace TMS being within $8.00 of each other. It just feels dirty.
I've been around since Alpha baby, I'm an OG mtg player
fenix is right, I have an iceage booklet with 20/40 rules and i remember Inquest promoting that ideal.
I see decks nowadays running extreme llanowar elves and their ilk and running 16 lands. it's all perspective. I personally have tested each of these decks. Sometimes I need to mulligan, but sometimes I need to mulligan in a deck spouting 26 lands. :)
my black gobbo deck never needs more than 21 lands to run smoothly, but as I've said, I would love it if folks just took my deck ideas and made them their own. I'll do my best to make the next article seem more mana proportionate friendly for the masses. I hope the mtgo player who originally commented on my lack of land at least read the whole article, and didnt just skim the deck lists and pop off a comment.
I appreciate all of you guys who leave positive comments for me! The beauty of magic is concocting your own twist on things.
Ive got that somewhere...Ill have to check it out.
that was a long time ago. I think in the original rules booklets that came with 4th edition it said 20 lands...
Distortion Strike is deceptive in that respect. You definitely remember all those games in which it won you the game by making a guy unblockable, but how many games where you have a huge guy with mammoth umbra are you going to lose anyway? Especially if you put the umbra on a flier, which this deck has plenty of access to.
What you don't remember as easily are all those games in which the strike was sitting in your hand basically as a mulligan because the board was never right to use it. I definitely see this card as a cornerstone, not a fork. It IS good in the Kiln Fiend deck, but that's pretty much it. Everywhere else it's almost always a win more card.
What day was that? One of the first things I learned about deck building was the 40%/60% rule. I didn't really start building decks until late 94 but still...
I agree sphinges isn't really a viable tourney deck outside (MAYBE) of tribal wars classic, where big fatties flying overhead spell doom.
The 8th birthday of mtgo celebrations (http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/other/060...) show them having nix tix events (pack sink!) with the pax available in the store... This kind of move is good.. Since it is, in that period of time, possible to find packs to play limited events in easily.
Hopefully they pick up some hints on how to handle the eternal limited formats and implement it in the long run.. =)
I won't say they should control the prices but they should take some notice of them so that they can get their business running better. (Since it's not about singles but packs) I was playing in 100c singleton 2 mans for awhile when Uz were 4 each. Now it's just not worth it.
I believe tournaments firing should be one of their concerns and they shouldn't artificially control the prices... however, they can create sealed events for people to generate a decent amount of demand...
Useless cards aren't that big a concern I would think after looking at M10 which only has a few cards that are worth $.. (and I doubt people are training hard on m10 for any tournaments too.. maybe the cards are more relevant but just slightly)
back in the day it was 60 cards = 20 land, 40 cards. now we all run more land than that, but if the CMC of the creatures and spells is low enough, or you pepper in medallions, you don't need 24 or 23 lands. the only one I questioned myself is sphinxes, but that has medallions. Shapeshifters has medallions and 23 lands; goblins are such low casting costs that who needs more than 21 lands? spirits have a lot of low level cmc and also a lot of low level recursion to grab cards from the graveyard; spiders have evolution charms...
I also post decks not to be copied entirely, but for you to take and make your own. If you want, put in more lands; take some cards out. I also play in the casual room and haven't seen many folks who only run strict 60 card decks. Most folks run over 60 cards so feel free to chuck in some more lands in the build already there and you're good to go. If you're looking for tournament viable decks, I don't really think funsie all blue sphinxes is for you
as much as I've disagreed with the no sideboard rule the more I consider it the more I'm glad it doesnt have the side board... when you run tribal you usually hit the formula of 20 crits, 16 spells, 24 lands and with a 15 card sideboard you can simply change that entire list of noncreature spells and do something 100% different off of the same creature base and thats just weird
Great series of articles. I've played the UW leveler deck in draft and was able to win with it. I agree you have to be very careful with balancing bringing out new creatures and leveling ones that are already out. My rule of thumb is to try to get all my levelers to their middle power levels first. Then only if I have open mana do I try to level them further. At middle level they aren't easy to kill, but opponent's want you to pump them further before they commit a better removal spell.
I'd also add Distortion Spike as a fork. Once you have that leveler up all the way and cast Mammoth Umbra on it there's nothing like making it unblockable two turns in a row. Every time I cast a Distortion Spike I won the game.
That would lead to an entirely different format. No guarantee that anyone would be interested since it is mainly a casual fringe format not a staple format like pauper, or classic, or extended.
The tournament practice room does seem to be hit or miss when seriously trying to test a deck out. Writing a message for serious testing in the room chat box can sometimes get you speaking with people who are on the same page.
There are plenty of articles that boast about winning and I think an honest article about losing is fine. Sometimes the cards fall into place and sometimes they don't.
Similar to the author, I have won many more packs in limited formats than in Constructed. I think Limited Events are much more fun and give you that much more room to be creative when building your decks, compared with Constructed where it feels like you have to netdeck to be competitive.
It's ridiculous that tribal doesn't have a sideboard.
The argument I hear is that there is no way to know if a player's deck is tribal legal after sideboarding. Maybe that makes sense for paper magic, but MTGO could easily check decks before each game in a match to make sure it's tribal legal. MTGO validated deck submissions before each game of a draft, it wouldn't let you play a 39 card deck for example. The same thing should be done for tribal.
I think the reason Wizards doesn't do that is that they don't want the paper and digital formats to be different, so we're stuck with the drawback of a paper game. They should just implement a sideboard for online only, it would make matches much more fun and competitive.
none of those decks run enough lands.
I think the most important card for the leveler deck is time of heroes followed by narcolepsy. Time of heroes makes every leveler insanely awesome with just one counter, I will play it with as few as 5 levelers in the deck. Irkal outrider is under rated in my opinion. Cast it t2 or t3, level it on t4 an you have a creature that will hold the ground for a long time while you get in with your flyers.
Forgot to choose a rating
Kokusho+Buried Alive+ Patriarchs Bidding calling dragons.
A good arrticle. I liked the decks. It seems though I have been seeing a lot on the Sphinges lately.
hmmm yosei and rite of replication...tap 30 target permanents, and wouldn't they skip the next 6 untap phases? mwahahahahahahaha
For the same reason people don't always run sweepers like Volcanic Fallout instead relying on massive early damage (ala goblins). There are no guarantees to what you will face in a particular match up. People bring some crazy stuff. Imho moat is a staple for TWC where it might not be for classic.
Or are arguing for argument's sake to show how smart you are? :)