Commander game, here's the situation:
Me; Szadek, Lord of Secrets vs. Scion of the Ur-Dragon and Korlash, Heir to Blackblade.
The Korlash player has been hit hard: has mana but one card in hand and only Korlash on the board. I know the bottom card on his deck is Horrifying End, so I can mill him out with Tunnel Vision if I can get to that stage of the game.
The Scion player has been having some trouble but, despite having an empty board, has Greater Good and Survival of the Fittest in play. He does some shenanigans and ends up with Keiga, the Tide Star and Hellkite Overlord. So he's rolling now.
In my hand is Vampiric Tutor, Traumatize and something that doesn't matter.
I Vampiric Tutor for Control Magic.
Now, I don't know what Korlash is doing but I've clearly seen the goal of Scion; he wants to dump dragons in his graveyard and recur them making everybody miserable.
My thought process? Steal Keiga, keep him off my back, Traumatize the Scion player, grind him down, win with Tunnel Vision on Korlash.
So I Tutor right past Leyline of the Void. The one card that nixes the whole strategy of the Scion player.
I cast Control Magic, the Keiga is sacrificed to Greater Good and he steals the only other creature on the board, Korlash.
Next turn, I cast Traumatize anyway, blindly following a strategy that I'd laid out, despite my initial plans not working out so well.
Later,later being the next turn, when the Scion player drew and cast Twilight's Call and swung at everyone for lethal damage, we laughed and I shrugged and that was that. I left, a nagging feeling that I'd blown it and not played my best at all, just unsure why.
Until I was driving home and realized; I had a chance to get Leyline of the Void, which means I totally fucked that game up. I lost because I was inflexible and didn't give myself enough time to work out what I needed. I had the tools, I just refused to use them.
One good thing that came from this is that I remembered that Twilight's Call exists, which is just the kind of thing that I want to remember.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Killed By Killers Who Kill Each Other
That's a mouthful of a title. You can thank the now defunct Planes Mistaken For Stars.
Being a blue deck, draw spells are always nice but since Tyranny works on both players, I need spells that put cards in my hand, instead of drawing them. Fact or Fiction neatly gets around this, along with being a huge skill tester for my opponents. They have to give me something-what are they going to do? And even if I get five lands (which happens) I've also just moved five cards closer to something better in my deck.
Since there is a 'taxation' element to the deck with Propaganda and Phyrexian Tyranny, Demolish and Rhystic Tutor get the nods over Pillage (which requires RR to cast and in a three-color deck that's just insane, unless I want to spend thousands on lands. And My Money > less of My Money.) or Diabolic Tutor (has BB in the CMC.)
There's also a bit of misdirection in the form of Well of Knowledge. Should you pay for more cards? That seems really good, right? In my case, I'm using Thran Turbine as a workaround in addition to being a way to pay for the Tyranny's costs but hopefully my opponents are having to make choices between drawing cards and attacking. The more time they give me, the better.
5 Swamp5 Mountain2 Cephalid Coliseum4 Grixis Panorama8 Island
2 Powder Keg4 Thran Turbine2 Well of Discovery
3 Fact or Fiction3 Wheel and Deal
4 Phyrexian Tyranny4 Megrim4 Propaganda2 Disintegrate
3 Rhystic Tutor1 Kaervek's Torch4 Demolish
I built this deck well before Liliana's Caress came out and now...I don't feel the need to purchase the cards to replace it. Sure, if some fall into my lap, Caress > Megrim because it's got a cheaper converted mana cost (CMC) but My Money > less of My Money so there.
The premise behind this deck is to combo the opponent out, using Phyrexian Tyranny to make drawing cards hurt, Megrim to make discarding suck and Wheel and Deal to have the opponent(s) take it from both ends.
One of the critical points for making this deck was that it is creatureless. I don't have too many decks like that and while some very good creatures have been suggested by friends, I always stay away from those because having a creatureless deck does something really crucial to most decks out there:
It blanks all the opponent's cards that exist to deal with creatures. Most decks run a suite of Doom Blade or Wrath of God or more and I don't care about that.
On the other hand, I do have to make some concessions to what most decks do run, hence the Propaganda and the Powder Keg. Powder Keg may not look like much but I had a couple so I went with it. Back in the day, that card was critical in control matchups.
One of the critical points for making this deck was that it is creatureless. I don't have too many decks like that and while some very good creatures have been suggested by friends, I always stay away from those because having a creatureless deck does something really crucial to most decks out there:
It blanks all the opponent's cards that exist to deal with creatures. Most decks run a suite of Doom Blade or Wrath of God or more and I don't care about that.
On the other hand, I do have to make some concessions to what most decks do run, hence the Propaganda and the Powder Keg. Powder Keg may not look like much but I had a couple so I went with it. Back in the day, that card was critical in control matchups.
The upside of this deck is that is can win in one turn and getting the components out isn't hard. It's also difficult to defend against because both Megrim and the Tyranny can win games for me and most opponents can only take out one.
What could this deck use?
Probably red damage spells, especially sweepers. The ones in there are in there to help me finish off games where Wheel and Deal just didn't do enough, or to take out the individual creatures that need to go. But those spells aren't the most efficient choices. That said; they hurt and that's what I really want from them.
Being a blue deck, draw spells are always nice but since Tyranny works on both players, I need spells that put cards in my hand, instead of drawing them. Fact or Fiction neatly gets around this, along with being a huge skill tester for my opponents. They have to give me something-what are they going to do? And even if I get five lands (which happens) I've also just moved five cards closer to something better in my deck.
Since there is a 'taxation' element to the deck with Propaganda and Phyrexian Tyranny, Demolish and Rhystic Tutor get the nods over Pillage (which requires RR to cast and in a three-color deck that's just insane, unless I want to spend thousands on lands. And My Money > less of My Money.) or Diabolic Tutor (has BB in the CMC.)
There's also a bit of misdirection in the form of Well of Knowledge. Should you pay for more cards? That seems really good, right? In my case, I'm using Thran Turbine as a workaround in addition to being a way to pay for the Tyranny's costs but hopefully my opponents are having to make choices between drawing cards and attacking. The more time they give me, the better.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
D'oh!
I double posted on Tuesday.
Fortunately, there's a kick ass retro article at SCG by the legend John Rizzo. Check it out.
Fortunately, there's a kick ass retro article at SCG by the legend John Rizzo. Check it out.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Who holds the hand of doom today?
The problem with considering changes to a long-standing deck is finding out if the new ideas are worth a damn.
Dilemma 1: Hull Breach vs. Indrik Stomphower.
Pros; Stomphowler is a large body that can win the game. Cons; it has to destroy something so if there are no other targets on the board, I lose an Aether Flash.
Dilemma 2: Kavu Lair vs. Garruk's Packleader.
I pretty much discussed this last time but it bears considering that both these 4/4 creatures are expensive and become difficult to evaluate in this deck's context; do I increase the threat density to just over 30% or do I keep the costs down?
For testing, it's probably not worth it to split the difference but I am anyway, trying on one Packleader and one Stomphowler, just to see.
Of course one change has already been made: while at Portal games yesterday, I found a Spellbreaker Behemoth for .50.
Two things here; 1) every store should have a .50 rare box. Seriously. 2) Spellbreaker Behemoth is going to be better in my deck than Rumbling Slum because having those creatures resolve is more important than doing 1 damage during my upkeep.
On to the matchups:
Mobile Shooting Gallery preformed as I expected it would; awesome against people who are playing little creatures and less awesome against cheap creatures with high toughness values.
But what creatures are cheap that have high toughness values?
Walls. That's right; part of my matchups was against Fuz's Wall-finity deck. His deck is pretty interesting because it skews the normal method of using creatures-attacking-in order to create a defensive zone long enough to blow his opponents out.
The games that I won vs the Wall-finity, I won because I had either a) a 5/5 on turn two or I hit six mana and was able to cast Crater Hellion.
But most games I noticed I was sitting at three or five mana. I could make four temporarily but doing so wouldn't move my board position so it was better to sit on the mana until I could hit six. Six mana was what I needed to clear the board and get going but I just couldn't do it.
So I'm not sure where to go from here; do I accept my good matchups and bad ones? That might be the best choice, in order to keep from going insane.
One bad thing; neither the Stomphowler or Packleader came up in any of the games, so I have no idea if they're effective, yet.
Dilemma 1: Hull Breach vs. Indrik Stomphower.
Pros; Stomphowler is a large body that can win the game. Cons; it has to destroy something so if there are no other targets on the board, I lose an Aether Flash.
Dilemma 2: Kavu Lair vs. Garruk's Packleader.
I pretty much discussed this last time but it bears considering that both these 4/4 creatures are expensive and become difficult to evaluate in this deck's context; do I increase the threat density to just over 30% or do I keep the costs down?
For testing, it's probably not worth it to split the difference but I am anyway, trying on one Packleader and one Stomphowler, just to see.
Of course one change has already been made: while at Portal games yesterday, I found a Spellbreaker Behemoth for .50.
Two things here; 1) every store should have a .50 rare box. Seriously. 2) Spellbreaker Behemoth is going to be better in my deck than Rumbling Slum because having those creatures resolve is more important than doing 1 damage during my upkeep.
On to the matchups:
Mobile Shooting Gallery preformed as I expected it would; awesome against people who are playing little creatures and less awesome against cheap creatures with high toughness values.
But what creatures are cheap that have high toughness values?
Walls. That's right; part of my matchups was against Fuz's Wall-finity deck. His deck is pretty interesting because it skews the normal method of using creatures-attacking-in order to create a defensive zone long enough to blow his opponents out.
The games that I won vs the Wall-finity, I won because I had either a) a 5/5 on turn two or I hit six mana and was able to cast Crater Hellion.
But most games I noticed I was sitting at three or five mana. I could make four temporarily but doing so wouldn't move my board position so it was better to sit on the mana until I could hit six. Six mana was what I needed to clear the board and get going but I just couldn't do it.
So I'm not sure where to go from here; do I accept my good matchups and bad ones? That might be the best choice, in order to keep from going insane.
One bad thing; neither the Stomphowler or Packleader came up in any of the games, so I have no idea if they're effective, yet.
Roundup
For $300, I went with Radiant's Blessing. Killing a large creature if needed or getting rid of the Blessing for another card was too valuable than playing a more reactionary card like Smite. The testing was imperfect; Fuz was working out a new deck and Jason was playing something non-interactive and slower-much slower-than I was, so games would end when I'd hit turn four and swing for 11, with more on the way for turn five.
Still, so far, so good.
Slamdance worked well with the Inferno Titans. While they don't mesh with the theme in the same way that Frost Titan would, Inferno Titans did something very similar; made the resources that my opponent played go away, boosting the tempo that I had, giving me more time to find cards/win out/make my conditions inevitable. While they may not mesh as well as other win conditions I can't argue the effectiveness they had when they appeared.
Fun times with this deck: on turn three Jason cast a Show & Tell dropping Darksteel Colossus. My drop: Avalanche Riders. I lost that game. However, in that matchup, once I realized I needed to keep him off white mana so he couldn't cast Cataclysm, games 2 and 3 were about putting Inferno Titan out, getting it bounced, and recasting it until the game was won.
So I guess the changes stand. Until I get sick of them...
Still, so far, so good.
Slamdance worked well with the Inferno Titans. While they don't mesh with the theme in the same way that Frost Titan would, Inferno Titans did something very similar; made the resources that my opponent played go away, boosting the tempo that I had, giving me more time to find cards/win out/make my conditions inevitable. While they may not mesh as well as other win conditions I can't argue the effectiveness they had when they appeared.
Fun times with this deck: on turn three Jason cast a Show & Tell dropping Darksteel Colossus. My drop: Avalanche Riders. I lost that game. However, in that matchup, once I realized I needed to keep him off white mana so he couldn't cast Cataclysm, games 2 and 3 were about putting Inferno Titan out, getting it bounced, and recasting it until the game was won.
So I guess the changes stand. Until I get sick of them...
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Patience, practice and patientpractice
Or something clever like that.
Anyway, new changes to Zx means that Oona's Grace is now the card drawing engine and so far I like it but what it means is that using Life from the Loam is now more important than ever and that patience is critical to this deck.
I need to stall until I can absolutely, 100%, no questions asked, go off and get as many turns as I want in a row.
I was playing Fuz and sadly, I don't remember his deck, only that I was holding out fairly well but I was also starting to get panicky. I had drawn over half my deck and blown two Walk the Aeons to buy time and I still didn't have the cards required to combo out.
So I started dumping all my mana into drawing cards via Oona's Blessing and doing it on my turn.
The first problem is that I got worried about something I shouldn't have. The board state was bad but it wasn't dire; I had a turn, likely more if I played it right, to get what I needed.
The second problem is that I violated the advice I give nearly every new player to Magic; only play the spell you need to, at the last possible moment you can play it. Since Oona's Blessing is an instant, the time to play and replay that spell was on Fuz's turn and keep mana up in the meanwhile to threaten a counterspell or Venser, which he knew I had because Oracle of Mul Daya was in play allowing him to see my draws.
Having to play around countermagic does things to the mental state of players and even I haven't gotten the hang of it. Of course, having to play countermagic is a pretty tricky beast too, so I suppose it works out, it's just that saying No in Magic is a lot more powerful than most other effects.
Because I rushed things, I ended up using all my resources and having no way to stop Fuz when he monkeywrenched my board and swung.
Zx is a deck that is going to take some practice to play with; twice now I have found myself in situations where the right play was to be patient and wait, read the cards, take in all the data and execute my masterstroke when it would actually BE a masterstroke.
Instead, I've ended up a Bond villain.
Anyway, new changes to Zx means that Oona's Grace is now the card drawing engine and so far I like it but what it means is that using Life from the Loam is now more important than ever and that patience is critical to this deck.
I need to stall until I can absolutely, 100%, no questions asked, go off and get as many turns as I want in a row.
I was playing Fuz and sadly, I don't remember his deck, only that I was holding out fairly well but I was also starting to get panicky. I had drawn over half my deck and blown two Walk the Aeons to buy time and I still didn't have the cards required to combo out.
So I started dumping all my mana into drawing cards via Oona's Blessing and doing it on my turn.
The first problem is that I got worried about something I shouldn't have. The board state was bad but it wasn't dire; I had a turn, likely more if I played it right, to get what I needed.
The second problem is that I violated the advice I give nearly every new player to Magic; only play the spell you need to, at the last possible moment you can play it. Since Oona's Blessing is an instant, the time to play and replay that spell was on Fuz's turn and keep mana up in the meanwhile to threaten a counterspell or Venser, which he knew I had because Oracle of Mul Daya was in play allowing him to see my draws.
Having to play around countermagic does things to the mental state of players and even I haven't gotten the hang of it. Of course, having to play countermagic is a pretty tricky beast too, so I suppose it works out, it's just that saying No in Magic is a lot more powerful than most other effects.
Because I rushed things, I ended up using all my resources and having no way to stop Fuz when he monkeywrenched my board and swung.
Zx is a deck that is going to take some practice to play with; twice now I have found myself in situations where the right play was to be patient and wait, read the cards, take in all the data and execute my masterstroke when it would actually BE a masterstroke.
Instead, I've ended up a Bond villain.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Mobile Shooting Gallery
Decklist!
Mobile Shooting Gallery (named after the brilliant opening song from Bill Ward's album) wants to win the game by killing everything that's small and mopping up with a really big 5/5 that can come down on turn 4.
So I have Tinder Walls in so I can get to turn 4 without being beat up by tiny creatures, either by dropping a Flash on turn 2 (which is the best play) or by putting out a large creature that has to be dealt with (suboptimal but sometimes you do what you gotta do.) There are 24 lands-more than I usually go for in a deck-because if the Tinder Walls don't appear, I want to be able to use my other tools and cast nasty creatures on turn 4.
With it's low threat density, an important question for this deck is; how do I keep the beats rolling? My answer was Kavu Lair. When every creature I cast, aside from Tinder Walls, can draw me a card and essentially 'replace' itself, having that creature get Doom Blade'd isn't so bad, although the creatures I had to work with initially were not fun. Funny thing happened through the years though; the 5/5s got a lot better. The initial creature selection included cards like Emperor Crocodile, Hunted Wumpus, Endangered Armadoon-an inspired choice if I do say so- and Jackalope Herd, which I really liked but...
Over many, many depressing games demonstrating that I had to have a way to get to the midgame where I could drop 5/5s and win, certain things became necessary. The other funny thing about taking a card and saying: this is key to the deck: my choices become a lot more focused, by necessity. If it can't survive coming out with at least one Aether Flash in play, potentially two, that creature is pretty much useless to me. If I can't survive to actually get an Aether Flash out, why am I playing that card?
Since this deck plays a bit more like a control deck: the opponent does stuff, I wipe the board with Pyroclasm or Firespout or best of all, Crater Hellion, then mop up, play Aether Flash to make small creatures dead draws and win on the back of one or two of my creatures, cards like Blastoderm or Hunted Dragon, the number of board resets, the aforementioned Pyroclasm and Firespout, had to go up. The always fun Relentless Assault is there to snatch victories from the jaws of defeat, which it does pretty well. You don't always need it but when you do, it's awesome.
Now, this deck is going have fun against a few matchups but is really there to stop weenie hordes. Decks that don't want to interact on the battlefield are going to give me a lot of trouble with and my thin layer of threats it may very well be time for a makeover, putting in Garruk's Packleader as a Kavu Lair with legs. The pros: the Packleader can win games. The cons: everyone has ways to kill creatures; enchantments, less so and the Packleader costs 5. I want to cast the nasty creature on turn 4 and draw something off that, so I'm reluctant to add them in.
Which leads me to the next problem; generally, a big creature that is undercosted will come with some sort of drawback (see Hunted Wumpus or Shah of Naar Isle) which leaves the obvious difficulty of how I get around that drawback and still push MSG's theme. In addition, because there are so many ways to kill creatures, the ones I run have to be pretty good-and not leave me in an unwinnable situation if I use them and they die.
So we'll see how things go.
1 Spellbreaker Behemoth1 Iwamori of the Open Fist1 Rumbling Slum4 Tinder Wall3 Blastoderm2 Shivan Wurm3 Hunted Dragon2 Argothian Wurm2 Crater Hellion
4 AEther Flash
2 Relentless Assault
3 Kavu Lair
3 Hull Breach
3 Firespout
2 Pyroclasm
A very early deck whose origins are a little unclear to my memory but was inspired by the card Aether Flash and my love of big green creatures.
4 Taiga
1 Hickory Woodlot1 Sandstone Needle1 Grove of the Burnwillows1 Skarrg, the Rage Pits7 Mountain9 Forest
Mobile Shooting Gallery (named after the brilliant opening song from Bill Ward's album) wants to win the game by killing everything that's small and mopping up with a really big 5/5 that can come down on turn 4.
So I have Tinder Walls in so I can get to turn 4 without being beat up by tiny creatures, either by dropping a Flash on turn 2 (which is the best play) or by putting out a large creature that has to be dealt with (suboptimal but sometimes you do what you gotta do.) There are 24 lands-more than I usually go for in a deck-because if the Tinder Walls don't appear, I want to be able to use my other tools and cast nasty creatures on turn 4.
With it's low threat density, an important question for this deck is; how do I keep the beats rolling? My answer was Kavu Lair. When every creature I cast, aside from Tinder Walls, can draw me a card and essentially 'replace' itself, having that creature get Doom Blade'd isn't so bad, although the creatures I had to work with initially were not fun. Funny thing happened through the years though; the 5/5s got a lot better. The initial creature selection included cards like Emperor Crocodile, Hunted Wumpus, Endangered Armadoon-an inspired choice if I do say so- and Jackalope Herd, which I really liked but...
Over many, many depressing games demonstrating that I had to have a way to get to the midgame where I could drop 5/5s and win, certain things became necessary. The other funny thing about taking a card and saying: this is key to the deck: my choices become a lot more focused, by necessity. If it can't survive coming out with at least one Aether Flash in play, potentially two, that creature is pretty much useless to me. If I can't survive to actually get an Aether Flash out, why am I playing that card?
Since this deck plays a bit more like a control deck: the opponent does stuff, I wipe the board with Pyroclasm or Firespout or best of all, Crater Hellion, then mop up, play Aether Flash to make small creatures dead draws and win on the back of one or two of my creatures, cards like Blastoderm or Hunted Dragon, the number of board resets, the aforementioned Pyroclasm and Firespout, had to go up. The always fun Relentless Assault is there to snatch victories from the jaws of defeat, which it does pretty well. You don't always need it but when you do, it's awesome.
Now, this deck is going have fun against a few matchups but is really there to stop weenie hordes. Decks that don't want to interact on the battlefield are going to give me a lot of trouble with and my thin layer of threats it may very well be time for a makeover, putting in Garruk's Packleader as a Kavu Lair with legs. The pros: the Packleader can win games. The cons: everyone has ways to kill creatures; enchantments, less so and the Packleader costs 5. I want to cast the nasty creature on turn 4 and draw something off that, so I'm reluctant to add them in.
Which leads me to the next problem; generally, a big creature that is undercosted will come with some sort of drawback (see Hunted Wumpus or Shah of Naar Isle) which leaves the obvious difficulty of how I get around that drawback and still push MSG's theme. In addition, because there are so many ways to kill creatures, the ones I run have to be pretty good-and not leave me in an unwinnable situation if I use them and they die.
So we'll see how things go.
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