Thanks for reading guys! In regards to the card choices, I'm currently trying different options in the places of Liliana and Interpret, just didn't want to propose my (not certainly superior) choices over Adrian's. A maindeck copy of Disdainful Stroke or another Jace's Ingenuity were working quite well. I'm not sure about Weave Fate and how much better is it than Jace's Ingenuity, probably should test it out. Also, difficult aggro match-ups are always a concern, but good midrange match-up balances it out.
To Psychobabble, for some reason people dislike UB, but they don't give this deck enough credit. It looks underpowered on paper and can possibly lose a long game, but it can win enough to be a viable choice. Maybe, you should try it out to see it, or maybe I just got lucky and became biased.
Titania seems like a fun addition to tribal, I really like the pairing of it with Vengevine. I wonder if there is some sort of Loam/Dredge deck with the graveyard synergy between those two, (or if really want to get adventurous a 5 color deck with those and Horde of Notions to cheat fattie Elemental from the yard.)
I couldn't disagree more that this deck is well positioned. There's a reason why it's sub-2% of the online meta and has barely made an appearence in the top tables of paper events since the pro tour, it just gets run over by so many decks in the format so easily. And it's late game is bad enough, and the threats that it has to prepare against diverse enough, that it's frequently the case that the deck manages to stabilise but still loses the topdeck war becuase it's stuck with a disdainful stroke in hand when getting beaten down with Anafenza or you have the downfall but are facing a whip or something.
You can certainly win some games because variance and when your opponent stumbles and you fire you feel like a god, but across the board it needs far more tools to be able to compete with the variety of decks in the format. This deck is certainly not a 100% favourite against RW heroic across a sufficient number of games though, it's more like a 30/70 unfavourable.
Marcus, content aside I can't say I much enjoyed trying to slog through your walls of text. Some carriage returns are definitely in order here. Please take some care when submitting articles as it takes 5 minutes to do the basic formatting required to make it presentable.
Yea, I was super close to just hopping on delver. We had it built, sleeved up, and in my bag. Death and Taxes is just the deck I have been playing for years. I think I may be be giving into brainstorm in the future though. I know blue has a lot of power and playing with permission is something I have missed. Also an unfortunate side effect of all these delver decks is the uptick of combo which is not the best match up for D&T.
Yeah, that makes a lot more sense. See, bad on me for forgetting that the Sword gives the Protection. :)
By the way, it was good that instead of just hopping on UR Delver you could admit to yourself "Haven't Brainstormed in years". Being less practiced with BS than your opponents is putting you at a disadvantage. (Of course, you could argue that not playing a card as powerful as BS is also a disadvantage, but that's a different story). D&T has proven its chops, so no reason not to run that.
The potential negative interaction of the pro blue is such an easy thing to forget about.
I won a cube draft the last time it was up after an opponent cast a mind control enchantment on my stormbreath dragon, then equipped his sword to the hijacked dragon without thinking it through.
I like the article - I have actually just moved into standard and this deck has been my archetype of choice.
I have found favorable matchups across the board - however, as you stated - I find myself in the worst positions against straight red sleigh or UW heroic when they overwhelm you before you have a chance to reset or have unlimited god's willings...
I much prefer sullivan's build, however early on I adopted a singleton Font of Fortunes over Interpret the Signs.
I'd rate the deck very highly - I began with Abzan Midrange (Ari Lax's build) but I have found much more success with this.
Sorry, maybe I didn't make it very clear. Everything is blue but the creature does not gain protection from blue until the sword is equipped. So when I paid to equip I was forced into that line and the equipment just falls off. Which just ends up being a wasted turn. I did call a judge over to clarify though and that was the explanation I received.
Would Adrians list be stronger with 2x Weave Fate instead of the singletons Interpret the Signs and Divination? The fact that it is an instant should be more important for a control deck.
So if I'm reading it correctly, Painter turned everything Blue and you tried to move Sword, then realized you couldn't because it was Blue but then still paid the mana? If that is the case, it was an illegal action - No Valid Target - and the game state would go back to before you attempted it, which should include the mana too. If you never had a target, you'd never pay the cost.
Somebody like Pete would be better equipped to answer that, but the second that happened, you should have called a judge to clarify it.
It might not have mattered much, but at Comp REL, it's important to keep it all by the book.
I love that your version of D&T runs Sword of Fire & Ice. Other than the misplay that you stated you did with it, how would you rate the sword in the deck?
Hard to parse funny online. Especially when the tendency among some people is to be sarcastic. And since we don't know who you are (among the various hosts of YSO) I assumed you were going for sarcasm. Which seemed perfectly in character for the tone of the comments left by some people using the Clan Magic Eternal avatar. Forgive me for making the wrong assumption.
Some of the slump can be explained by the normal format rotation, but the rest of it is just V4. You can't make decks well in the deck editor. You can't look at your collection like in V3 or even V2. That means all the constructed formats have the 'V4-sucks-I'm-Fighting-The-Deck-Editor" barrier to entry. I've no personal interest in overcoming that barrier, so I haven't bothered to play constructed since V4 was released.
Heh! Serves me right for not looking at 6 month old article names. ;)
Great minds think alike, fools never differ. Ironically, my first thought for a title was ' A Vintage Performance', but we used 'Command Performance' at the end of last month, and repeat performances seemed off. (We also used 'Command Performance' back in October 2011, funnily enough.)
First time listening to the podcast, I enjoyed it.
A few other cheatyface/combo generals...
Narset: With a full combo Narset deck, they probably win as soon as attack. Sometimes they can set up infinite turns, sometimes just cast a game ending combo, but with amount of tutors to the top is pretty easy.
Animar: My go to Storm commander, in addition to letting you go off fast (turn 4-5 usually,) can help set up a ton of infinite combos with Cloudstone Curio and other similar cards.
Scion-of the Ur Dragon/any 5 color Commander: Hermit Druid is probably the easiest combo to pull off in the format, (being a one card combo,)and Scion is generally the Commander the most people play it with.
with the heavy blue meta, could Sudden Shock be a good replacement for Chain Lightning?
Thanks for reading guys! In regards to the card choices, I'm currently trying different options in the places of Liliana and Interpret, just didn't want to propose my (not certainly superior) choices over Adrian's. A maindeck copy of Disdainful Stroke or another Jace's Ingenuity were working quite well. I'm not sure about Weave Fate and how much better is it than Jace's Ingenuity, probably should test it out. Also, difficult aggro match-ups are always a concern, but good midrange match-up balances it out.
To Psychobabble, for some reason people dislike UB, but they don't give this deck enough credit. It looks underpowered on paper and can possibly lose a long game, but it can win enough to be a viable choice. Maybe, you should try it out to see it, or maybe I just got lucky and became biased.
Titania seems like a fun addition to tribal, I really like the pairing of it with Vengevine. I wonder if there is some sort of Loam/Dredge deck with the graveyard synergy between those two, (or if really want to get adventurous a 5 color deck with those and Horde of Notions to cheat fattie Elemental from the yard.)
I couldn't disagree more that this deck is well positioned. There's a reason why it's sub-2% of the online meta and has barely made an appearence in the top tables of paper events since the pro tour, it just gets run over by so many decks in the format so easily. And it's late game is bad enough, and the threats that it has to prepare against diverse enough, that it's frequently the case that the deck manages to stabilise but still loses the topdeck war becuase it's stuck with a disdainful stroke in hand when getting beaten down with Anafenza or you have the downfall but are facing a whip or something.
You can certainly win some games because variance and when your opponent stumbles and you fire you feel like a god, but across the board it needs far more tools to be able to compete with the variety of decks in the format. This deck is certainly not a 100% favourite against RW heroic across a sufficient number of games though, it's more like a 30/70 unfavourable.
Thanks Paul, I will keep your critique in mind for next time.
Marcus, content aside I can't say I much enjoyed trying to slog through your walls of text. Some carriage returns are definitely in order here. Please take some care when submitting articles as it takes 5 minutes to do the basic formatting required to make it presentable.
Yea, I was super close to just hopping on delver. We had it built, sleeved up, and in my bag. Death and Taxes is just the deck I have been playing for years. I think I may be be giving into brainstorm in the future though. I know blue has a lot of power and playing with permission is something I have missed. Also an unfortunate side effect of all these delver decks is the uptick of combo which is not the best match up for D&T.
Yea and it was also round 4 of a rough day. I should have just thought a few seconds longer about it that's all.
Yeah, that makes a lot more sense. See, bad on me for forgetting that the Sword gives the Protection. :)
By the way, it was good that instead of just hopping on UR Delver you could admit to yourself "Haven't Brainstormed in years". Being less practiced with BS than your opponents is putting you at a disadvantage. (Of course, you could argue that not playing a card as powerful as BS is also a disadvantage, but that's a different story). D&T has proven its chops, so no reason not to run that.
The potential negative interaction of the pro blue is such an easy thing to forget about.
I won a cube draft the last time it was up after an opponent cast a mind control enchantment on my stormbreath dragon, then equipped his sword to the hijacked dragon without thinking it through.
I like the article - I have actually just moved into standard and this deck has been my archetype of choice.
I have found favorable matchups across the board - however, as you stated - I find myself in the worst positions against straight red sleigh or UW heroic when they overwhelm you before you have a chance to reset or have unlimited god's willings...
I much prefer sullivan's build, however early on I adopted a singleton Font of Fortunes over Interpret the Signs.
I'd rate the deck very highly - I began with Abzan Midrange (Ari Lax's build) but I have found much more success with this.
Look forward to your next article.
Zach
Sorry, maybe I didn't make it very clear. Everything is blue but the creature does not gain protection from blue until the sword is equipped. So when I paid to equip I was forced into that line and the equipment just falls off. Which just ends up being a wasted turn. I did call a judge over to clarify though and that was the explanation I received.
Would Adrians list be stronger with 2x Weave Fate instead of the singletons Interpret the Signs and Divination? The fact that it is an instant should be more important for a control deck.
So if I'm reading it correctly, Painter turned everything Blue and you tried to move Sword, then realized you couldn't because it was Blue but then still paid the mana? If that is the case, it was an illegal action - No Valid Target - and the game state would go back to before you attempted it, which should include the mana too. If you never had a target, you'd never pay the cost.
Somebody like Pete would be better equipped to answer that, but the second that happened, you should have called a judge to clarify it.
It might not have mattered much, but at Comp REL, it's important to keep it all by the book.
Thanks Scion, Sword is pretty fantastic especially equipped on a flier or Mirran Crusader :)
I love that your version of D&T runs Sword of Fire & Ice. Other than the misplay that you stated you did with it, how would you rate the sword in the deck?
Who's been using our account?
Liked the cast guys
MAKE THE RIGHT ASSUMPTIONS PAUL - CMON
Hard to parse funny online. Especially when the tendency among some people is to be sarcastic. And since we don't know who you are (among the various hosts of YSO) I assumed you were going for sarcasm. Which seemed perfectly in character for the tone of the comments left by some people using the Clan Magic Eternal avatar. Forgive me for making the wrong assumption.
I just thought it was funny Paul took it a different way apparently.
Some of the slump can be explained by the normal format rotation, but the rest of it is just V4. You can't make decks well in the deck editor. You can't look at your collection like in V3 or even V2. That means all the constructed formats have the 'V4-sucks-I'm-Fighting-The-Deck-Editor" barrier to entry. I've no personal interest in overcoming that barrier, so I haven't bothered to play constructed since V4 was released.
Heh! Serves me right for not looking at 6 month old article names. ;)
Great minds think alike, fools never differ. Ironically, my first thought for a title was ' A Vintage Performance', but we used 'Command Performance' at the end of last month, and repeat performances seemed off. (We also used 'Command Performance' back in October 2011, funnily enough.)
Did you just pop in to post that? Titles happen.
Great Article Name Guys (Yawgmoth's Soap Opera - Episode 132 - A Fine Vintage)
First time listening to the podcast, I enjoyed it.
A few other cheatyface/combo generals...
Narset: With a full combo Narset deck, they probably win as soon as attack. Sometimes they can set up infinite turns, sometimes just cast a game ending combo, but with amount of tutors to the top is pretty easy.
Animar: My go to Storm commander, in addition to letting you go off fast (turn 4-5 usually,) can help set up a ton of infinite combos with Cloudstone Curio and other similar cards.
Scion-of the Ur Dragon/any 5 color Commander: Hermit Druid is probably the easiest combo to pull off in the format, (being a one card combo,)and Scion is generally the Commander the most people play it with.