Binary Brutality

I got to play a few games with Matt and he was messing around with a couple new decks. I got beat pretty good; they were combo decks using Creative Technique and Maelstrom Wanderer, the other Sunbird's Invocation, Panantir of Orthanc and Approach of the Second Sun. 

What I learned from those games was that my sideboards wasn't quite where it needed to be. If I was going to deal with Storm decks like this, I needed Mindbreak Trap to help. And I know that the cards listed don't say Storm on them, but they work the same way and I believe if I am able to remove spells from the stack, that should put a big monkeywrench into the plans. 

But I will say that the Urza's Saga addition has been great, and Lavaspur Boots a very helpful addition to the deck. With those changes, I got some games against Fuz and the deck did very well. 

Here's the list:

2 Mishra's Bauble
4 Urza's Bauble
1 Aether Spellbomb
3 Barbed Spike}
1 Lavaspur Boots

3 Sai, Master Thopterist
3 Emry, Lurker of the Loch
2 Master of Etherium
4 Ethersworn Canonist
4 Patchwork Automaton
3 Kappa Cannoneer
2 Syr Ginger, the Meal Ender

3 Dispatch
1 Swords to Plowshares

3 Seat of the Synod
3 Ancient Den
4 Razortide Bridge
1 Plains
2 Island
1 Otawara, Soaring City
4 Mystic Gate
4 Urza's Saga

2 Thoughtcast

15 Sideboard|
SB: 4 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 1 Pithing Needle
SB: 1 Sunbeam Spellbomb
SB: 2 Hydroblast
SB: 1 Swords to Plowshares
SB: 2 Blue Elemental Blast
SB: 2 Metallic Rebuke
SB: 2 Archive Trap

Finally, I'm going to be on the road this weekend so no Tuesday post, but hopefully I'll have some cool things to talk about on Thursday. Cheers!

An Execution in Fury

I'm going to let Hunter-Killer rest now. Playing this deck has been interesting, but more importantly, exposed me to the joys of an incredibly focused deck. That focus has allowed me to get out of situations I was not certain I could escape. When my opponent is attacking for 10 on turn three, I definitely felt the pressure.

But topdecking answers is a hell of a way to win.

I stuck with Bedevil as the sideboard option but it didn't come up. I think it still would've been useful in this matchup, as I'd swapped them out for Sphere of Resistance, a card that Fuz's deck didn't care about.

But it's time to work on something else. Ikoria is nearly out in paper form, with lots of cool things to try, there are any number of decks in The Retired timeline and I've been messing with multiple decks in the Transformers game.

I've been able to play OCTGN lately to test some ideas, and I've really started to lean into some odd concepts. We'll see how those play out-but at another time. For now, I leave you with this:

4 Sphere of Resistance
4 Cranial Plating
4 Aether Vial
2 Ghostfire Blade
4 Ornithopter
4 Disciple of the Vault
4 Etched Champion
3 Arcbound Ravager
1 Hope of Ghirapur
2 Bomat Courier
3 Fling
3 Galvanic Blast
3 Swamp
4 Darksteel Citadel
4 Great Furnace
4 Vault of Whispers
3 Mountain
4 Spire of Industry

SB:
3 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Tormod's Crypt
3 Red Elemental Blast
4 Bedevil
3 Duress

Powered by an angry mind

I believe it was Cedric Phillips at Starcity Games who pointed out that playing Affinity can feel like you've got a fairy godmother in your corner. It didn't matter how badly things were looking, you always had a shot at winning.

There have been a few games that have felt like this: even when my opponent established parity of some kind, I have topdecked my way into a win. In this instance; with Fuz at six and me at three, drawing a Galvanic Blast meant that I was able to attack, taking out his two blockers and kill his remaining creature. Which, I don't mind telling you, feels pretty good.

More often, I find myself presenting an overwhelming rush that just wins straight up, or I stall and that's it. Hunter-Killer can feel very combo-deck in this regard and without moving into card draw, I'm not sure what can be done about that.

If there are turns where I get to transform an Ornithopter into a 8/2 flier with Cranial Plating by turn 3, maybe there isn't anything I need to do about that.

However, part of my metagame is lifegain decks. I know that's not the standard-and dealing with some kind of Blue based (likely Delver-ish) deck is also part of my group, I think I need to look at the sideboard now with that in mind. Space is going to be very tight so I'll have to be smart. And, although Companions haven't set things on fire in my meta yet, I am pretty sure they will, so I'll need a way to manage that.

Currently, I'm looking at this
4 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Tormod's Crypt
2 Scrapheap Scrounger
3 Red Elemental Blast
4 Bedevil

Bedevil is my catchall spell: Planeswalkers, artifacts and creatures are all a problem-why not hit them at instant speed? It's likely too expensive (crazily enough!) at three mana but it does do all the tricks.

Scrapheap Scrounger is probably a mistake. It's there to be a recursive threat against decks that have a lot of removal but...do those decks really exist? Unlike Bedevil, I think that the Scrounger might be a solution looking for a problem. Abrade is the most likely fix there but I'll keep my options open, for now.

A Delinquent Survivalist

Hunter-Killer has been doing good work for me lately; pulling off a win in a three player game was a great surprise!

It only happened once but that it happened at all is good.

The MVP however is Sphere of Resistance. Sphere punishes most of the manabases in Magic, without using land destruction. And since my cards can shrug off the tax of the Sphere, I have an opportunity to win while my opponent struggles.

Of course, the next game (not pictured), Noah was able to ramp up and I could not find a Sphere of Resistance so things went a little differently. 

Multiplayer games are generally not kind to the all-in aggro player. That I could get it to work once is a testament to the strength of the affinity archetype.

That said: Sphere is probably something I would need to sideboard out against 'big mana' decks. Maybe swapping in a card like Bedevil would be appropriate, trying to keep their big creatures from functioning before I can get the win.

Ghostfire Blade has been an excellent addition: one frequent event playing H-K is to have an Omnithopter and no reason to attack. Ghostfire Blade has helped shore that problem up. All in all I feel I've improved the aggressive qualities, which is great.

Hunter-Killer (formerly The Mechanix)

Originally named after a Megadeth song, that song is...creepy. Bad creepy. But Fear Factory's H-K is way better and so we're renaming it!

2 Chromatic Star
4 Aether Vial
4 Sphere of Resistance
4 Cranial Plating

4 Myr Enforcer
4 Disciple of the Vault
3 Atog
4 Etched Champion
2 Glaze Fiend
4 Ornithopter

3 Fling

5 Mountain
5 Swamp
4 Great Furnace
4 Vault of Whispers
4 Darksteel Citadel

It's pretty basic and has some old tech but I'm proud that the first time I build this deck, I included Sphere of Resistance, because this was well before anyone else was doing it. I'm inclined to keep that, since HK is so low to the ground it can operate with one out. Plus, Sphere is such a pain for so many decks.

Still, it's past time to update this. The existence of Kaladesh block along suggests I need to revisit this. I know Disciple of the Vault has fallen out of favor, but the chip damage it can do with Chromatic Star and Atog...wait. Atog?

OK, so first thing's first, swap Atog for Arcbound Ravager. I don't even know where my brain was there. Probably using Atog because I didn't have Ravagers at the time, but now I do so let's fix that.

Next up, let's see where we go!

Kick You In The Shins

I think it's safe to say I've hit Stage One. That means: against other weird casual decks, Need Machine has got some legs and I'm taking it in the right direction. I'm not sure this can hit the level of being a good Jason deck or even a solid deck but at the very least, I can hammer away at other odd decks well enough.

I got to play the Need Machine against Matt's new, weird, Equipoise/Sands of Time deck and did pretty well against it: the slow combo lock it presented gave me plenty of time to get things set up/draw into a Reaper King.

At that point, if I destroy one of this two lock pieces-

Aside: the lock works because Phasing happens at the untap step, which Sands of Time has you skip. That means that if Equipoise can phase out a permanent, it will be gone forever.

-the combo is merely annoying. Because I've been dealing with weird and/or obscure stuff for a long time now, I've learned how to be patient and hit combos like this where I can. Having a gameplan is always better than not having one and in this instance, my brain doesn't freak out. I just play things out until it's clear I can smash what I need to smash to win, or I'll never have another land in play again.

That feels good, mentally.

I also went up against Caitlin's improved scarecrow deck and went 2-3 in our games. What it came down to? Who cast Reaper King first.

She also revealed some pretty spicy tech in our final game, showing Call to the Kindred and dropping a Reaper King for free. I couldn't hide behind Collective Restraint as a result!

But dang, if I didn't like Call to the Kindred there. I don't think I have the creature density to make it work but I really wish I did.

Buckshot Methodology

So, the first thing to do is figure out what changes should be made. In the last post, I noted that yeah, the protection-bears needed to be cut but, then what?

2 Wild-Field Scarecrow, because it's a scarecrow and helps fix mana.
Eerie Interlude, but only one of because it's a glory of cool things moment.

And, well, this is a little embarrassing, because...

Not that long ago, I was mocking Worldly Counsel. I mean, who runs that card?

Turns out, I do.

Yeah, yeah: look, I'll just admit that I threw it in on a lark. I needed a card to fill slots, card draw is traditionally good, instant card draw is better so why not? I was certain I would find something better pretty quickly. And with only two copies of Collective Restraint in my deck, I was pretty sure that having a way to dig for those cards would be very, very useful.

So I ran two.

Whoa.

Seeing three cards for two mana at instant speed isn't bad but if you get to look at four or five? That is pretty dang good.

I'm going to have to run more. I also think that this card should get some more attention in any Eternal format deck that runs blue. Three or four color decks are commonplace there and good, instant speed card draw drops off rather quickly after Brainstorm.


I'm excited about where this might take me!

More Is More

I started off taking Matt's advice and looking for instants and sorceries that would benefit from casting under Fist of Suns.

There are some pretty flashy spells to cast there. Army of the Damned, Disaster Radius, Beacon of Immortality, Beacon of Tomorrows, just to start. 

Then there are the duds. Explosive Impact, Feral Incarnation, Govern the Guildless-the list is quite extensive.

There are the in-between cards, which are almost worse. Flying Crane Technique is just unnecessary,

It isn't a simple fix because so many big effects like that are symmetrical, which means I have to try and break that symmetry, which is not a good direction for a deck like this. Or the effects are unnecessary, such as "take an extra turn". I don't need extra turns from a spell, I have Emrakul.

Equally difficult are the spells that could be big if I spent the mana: anything with X as a cost or Kicker-type mechanics. Fist of Suns only takes care of the base cost of the spell.

Things get narrower though, given what the deck needs: card draw or destruction effects. That's where cards like Blasphemous Act or In Garruk's Wake come into play, although I will admit a soft spot for a card like Dichotomancy.

Obvious removal like All is Dust or Scour from Existence is there but I suppose the challenge is that I really don't know where Overkill needs shoring up.

More games.

Outliers

Vs Stasis

Playing Jason is always a good time. He knows the game, sees lines of play that I miss, and creates decks that just don't come at people along traditional lines of victory. This is why a holdover from all the decks I built while we were roommates is my inclusion of Disenchant or Naturalize effects. Every time.

I'm loath to give them up, too, because damnit, that effect is useful so often. Buuuut when it isn't useful it's a dead card and when I play against members of the newer playgroup, dead cards will cost you games a little more frequently.

Overkill is a deck that I made in the "modern" era of my deckbuilding, which means that I recognized that it was a combo deck and anything that didn't enhance the combo needed to be cut. Therefore, no Naturalize.

Which is a problem when you play against a Stasis/Kismet deck. I didn't have the disruption to get out from under the lock, which is what happens when there are no Naturalize effects and Stasis comes out on turn 3. Show and Tell doesn't really help because even if I reveal an Emrakul, if Jason reveals Kismet...well, my creature is tapped and useless.

The question is: do I really need to address that?

The answer, unfortunately, might be 'maybe'. Matt also has a Stasis deck, one that I've beaten because I had answers to enchantments and he didn't have answers to that. Buuuuut.

Do I need them? Or do I just accept that this is the kind of matchup where I have a disadvantage. I ask this question because I know there is no way to make one deck be good in all situations. Maybe I should go even further: perhaps this is just a card that has my deck's Achilles Heel.

Now, if that card made up a broad percentage of my field-or even of the Legacy metagame-I would definitely feel compelled to tweak Overkill in order to defeat this particular angle of attack. However, on the curve, how many decks do I deal with that come at me this way? That's the real question.

Because when I played against Jason's 5C sliver deck, he exclaimed: That deck is fast. That is not an adjective he uses for my decks very often.

I still think it's worth looking at some spells that are expensive-maybe one or two?-but perhaps it would be better to look at cards to help speed it up that were cheap.

Also, another copy of Show and Tell probably wouldn't suck.

Mission Completed, Commander Karn

(Sorry about the delay: I meant to have this up Tuesday and wanted to include the decklist-and just got preoccupied.)

Karn has started to knock it out of the park.

This was the end state of a game I played against Lauriel, playing Derevi, where I was able to get out a Darksteel Forge in response to the activation of a Nevinyarrl's Disk. Because I had a Vedalken Orrery out.

That's pretty bonkers. I think I may have screwed up and failed to remove my Kozilek, or she may have conceded in response as I was taking this picture. Either way, I had a pretty dominant board position at this point.

Games have repeatedly set out like this; slow builds but overwhelming deployment of resources. I'm actually pretty good with this. The deck has clearly improved since I started out and as a bonus, Kaladesh is there to provide some more toolbox opportunities.

I'm pretty pleased about it all, so here's the updated decklist.

Karn, Silver Golem
1 All Is Dust 1 Scour from Existence	1 Phyrexian Processor 1 Soldevi Digger 1 Worn Powerstone 1 Mind's Eye 1 Puppet Strings 1 Thran Dynamo 1 Darksteel Forge 1 Nevinyrral's Disk 1 Planar Portal 1 Lux Cannon 1 Jayemdae Tome 1 Vedalken Orrery 1 Predator, Flagship 1 Mind Stone 1 Voltaic Key 1 Golem's Heart 1 Power Matrix 1 Lightning Greaves 1 Guardian Idol 1 Unwinding Clock 1 Hedron Archive 1 Sol Ring 1 Spine of Ish Sah 1 Argentum Armor 1 Candles of Leng 1 Everflowing Chalice 1 Urza's Blueprints 1 Aradara Express 1 Bomat Bazaar Barge
1 Myr Galvanizer 1 Myr Battlesphere 1 Myr Mindservant 1 Myr Matrix 1 Myr Reservoir 1 Myr Turbine 1 Triskelavus 1 Palladium Myr 1 Bottle Gnomes 1 Lodestone Myr 1 Golem Artisan 1 Steel Hellkite 1 Artisan of Kozilek 1 Shimmer Myr 1 Colossus of Sardia 1 Ferropede 1 Ulamog's Crusher 1 Mycosynth Golem 1 Serrated Biskelion 1 Thopter Assembly 1 Soul of New Phyrexia 1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger 1 Kozilek, the Great Distortion 1 Bane of Bala Ged 1 Endbringer 1 It That Betrays 1 Solemn Simulacrum 1 Platinum Emperion 1 Myr Retriever	1 School of the Unseen 1 Reliquary Tower 1 Ghost Quarter 1 Blinkmoth Urn 1 Blinkmoth Well 1 Zoetic Cavern 1 Blasted Landscape 1 Mishra's Factory 1 Mirrodin's Core 1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea 1 Quicksand 1 Dread Statuary 1 Stalking Stones 1 Tectonic Edge 1 Temple of the False God 1 Henge of Ramos 1 Urza's Mine 1 Urza's Power Plant 1 Urza's Tower 1 Urza's Factory 1 Desert 1 Crystal Vein 1 Darksteel Citadel 1 Springjack Pasture 1 Glimmerpost 1 Cloudpost 1 Gods' Eye, Gate to the Reikai 1 Miren, the Moaning Well 1 Tarnished Citadel 1 Petrified Field 1 Mirrorworks 1 Buried Ruin 1 Mage-Ring Network 1 Ruins of Oran-Rief 2 Wastes 1 Sea Gate Wreckage 1 Shrine of the Forsaken Gods 1 Phyrexia's Core

Karn Works The Format

The lastest games with Karn, vs Matt & Caitlin, went pretty well. It helped to have a slower start and thus get ignored for a few turns while I just built up mana, for the most part.

But the haymakers worked: I built up mana slowly and was able to use Unwinding Clock to build up an overwhelming amount of resources. Lux Cannon was particularly helpful and it didn't hurt that Caitlin's demon deck removal had a weakness to artifact creatures.

A similar scene played out in the second matchup, with giant Eldrazi saving the day.

So I may be coming to the end run with Karn, having truly tuned it up for the better.

But...Kaladesh is out now and I picked up some cards at the release event. I think I'm going to remove a couple cards that aren't really doing much and add in a Bomat Bazaar Barge and Aradara Express. The Barge replaces itself and the Express could be a 5/5 with Menace using Karn.

I can't wait to check them out.

Karn and the Matchups

"I want to test this deck I threw together," Jason texts me.

I should've known better than to think this would be a winning experience, but I was hopeful after the last round of changes! More card draw, better lands, more useful creatures...I really thought I had something!

Enter Nekusar, the Mindrazer to ruin those dreams.

And I didn't just lose. I lost badly. I don't care what that picture looks like, we played three matchups and I went 0-2 in all of them.

Sure, Jason got uncannily lucky, dropping a Sol Ring on turns one or two of nearly every matchup, getting Propaganda out in 3 of the 6 games and then there was the game with Vandalblast... But again, Karn had a whole bunch of not-stuff going on and Nekusar had a lot of redundancy and card draw.

I really need haymakers for Karn to work as I've currently structured it. This is clashing with my desire to keep cards like Yotian Soldier in the deck because when was the last time that card saw the light of day? It's a solid little role player, right? However, it may just be a poor fit. I really feel that Karn should be able to take on a deck like Nekusar and that it can't bothers me.

Especially when I look at times when Karn won: giant creatures or waves of Myr, as against Phenax, which Jason played later that evening.

If I want to say there's a Myr theme, then Yotian Soldier isn't as fitting as Myr Retriever is. Add in the fact that I want to add in Vehicles now that Kaladesh is on the scene, I'm going to have to make some stronger evaluations of cards that should or shouldn't make the cut.

So, I ought to take a step back. Some decks just have bad matchups against others and I know this as well as anyone. Any deck packing Vandalblast against me is going to have a Pretty Good Day. I've seen that Karn has some synergies to exploit and I'm steadily creating a better and better build to exploit them.

Karn-Revisions

I went poking about the Commander and Competitive Commander forums at Reddit and didn't find much. This was a bit disappointing because the hive mind is usually a great source of ideas! Alas, this time it's looking like I have to grind things out myself.

So I organized the deck into lands, artifacts, creatures and All Is Dust.

After some review there are cards that I should pull:

Lumengrid Gargoyle: Too expensive for the payoff.
Myr Moonvessel: belongs in a combo deck
Myr Landshaper: also belongs in a combo deck
Omega Myr: no real payoff
Liquimetal Coating: doesn't do much else with the deck.
Welding Jar: belongs in a different deck. Commander has too much variance to get this to matter.
Rusted Relic: why play a vanilla 5/5?
Gemstone Caverns: Isn't awesome here.

Possible cuts:
Puppet Strings: doesn't do enough in multiplayer
Lightning Greaves: just not sure it does enough

Replacements:
Hedron Archive: mana + card draw is good.
Unwinding Clock: let's reuse my stuff.
Scour from Existence: removal isn't bad.
Endbringer: it's multifunctional
Kozilek, the Great Distortion: where else would this go? The card is pretty much terrible. But a 12/12 with Menace that can potentially draw me cards isn't bad. The countermagic ability is meaningless.
Bane of Bala Ged: removal isn't bad
It That Betrays: scary removal isn't bad
Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger: he's a dick.
Ruins of Oran-Rief: useful for every creature in this deck.

What I like about this selection is that it increases my creature count, which doesn't suck, boosts the mana possibilities, which doesn't suck, and has more removal possibilities, which doesn't suck.

So...I've basically spent time reducing the suck. I didn't want to remove weirdo cards like Yotian Soldier, Rocket Launcher, or even Phyrexian Processor. But there was enough chaff and solid replacements that I think I'm headed in the right direction.

Now that I've put in Unwinding Clock, however, Puppet Strings and Liquimetal Coating have more value. Liquimetal Coating turning a land into an artifact that I can destroy via Karn for one mana every turn is a pretty good deal. Puppet Strings to turn off the best creature every round is a pretty good deal.

So I'll be keeping them in the "maybe" pile. There are bound to be more cards that need to be cut as playtesting might show, and the ability to destroy lands like Maze of Ith or Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth can't be overlooked.

The Matchup I Win

Edit: I meant to post this on Thursday and somehow that didn't happen. Sorry!

Grindy games I can win.

Once again, I am playing Matt's Sands of Time/Equipoise deck and once again, I am very. slowly. winning it. Matt's added in some Swords to Plowshares to help give his deck more defense and I think that's a good idea but I'm still able to grind him out. Even through the Feldon's Cane Matt has in the picture, Tinkertoy is relentlessly milling (and then remilling) out his library.

I've been playing this Equipoise deck for a month now and I'm just not impressed by it. It's not that the lock can't work: it totally can. But because it's so slow and because Matt really wants to keep the deck 'old school' I don't think it has a lot of game against modern decks. I think he has issues against decks I play because I continue to run cards that take care of troublesome enchantments or artifacts, due to building decks to play Jason for so many years.

Matt had a suggestion for Tinkertoy which lead to me doing a search for something that may also fit in this deck.

Matt said Academy Ruins might be a good fit and since he saw me recur artifacts time and time again with, he probably has a point. He also suggested the Baubles, because they can be played for free and draw me a card.

The challenge is that they draw me a card on the next upkeep, so they don't help keep the cards coming when I'm trying to combo out, which I want to do in one turn.

Which had me thinking; are there cards that cost one mana, perhaps, that will allow me to draw cards for free?

Turns out, there is.

So I'm going to go big; cut down to 21 lands, adding two Conjurer's Baubles to see if that will help keep the deck moving. If the Conjurer's Baubles seem good, it may be worth going to 4, especially if I can get situations where they read: draw two cards for free.

That's a pretty good deal if you can get it.

Kneel Before Megatron

It hit me just before shaving, the day after the last post.

Steel Overseer. Or, as I said to Fuz in my best Samuel L Jackson, "Steel. Godamn. Overseer."

Now I know that not every idea that hits me while shaving is a good one. Friday mornings are full of inspiration and it's always a good idea to suss out which ones work and which ones are less likely to keep your insides inside.

Fuz liked the idea though, so that's a good sign. Later that evening, when I took Megatron up against a Bant golem deck, (including Blade Splicer, Wing Splicer and Precursor Golem) Noah saw the Steel Golem and also expressed some concern. (High point of that evening for me: casting Naturalize on a Precursor Golem with 5 total on the board. Booyaa.)

That concern manifested itself with the phrase "oh, shit" when I played Megatron against Noah on Monday. What you see in the picture is me snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, attacking with a 32/32 flying Arcbound Stinger. If I hadn't been able to do that, Noah would've overrun me the next turn with very large, vigilant golems. 

What does this mean? That I think I've got a deck I can be happy with. It plays a little oddly: I had been expecting to overrun opponents with indestructable creatures but instead I seem to want to overload one awesome creature, a flyer, a trampler, Triskelion, with counters and win there. It is a little 'eggs in one basket' drawback; Noah handily defeated this deck with a control deck that was designed to kill creatures, winning one game where I screwed up, tapping out instead of holding off to drop Darksteel Forge into play in response to a Supreme Verdict but nothing was going to save me from Terminus, which is just savage against this deck. 

All in all, though, I am happy with where this deck has gone and I'm going to keep it in the box for a little longer.

Winnowing the Weak

The short version: 61 cards didn't matter.

It's a big deal, mentally, to go beyond 60 cards because all the math, all the research, is all based around having only 60 cards in a constructed deck that isn't using Battle of Wits. Cards are put in/duplicated based on this math, with the idea that we can gain a level of predictability to our randomized decks. New players are constantly hammered with this information, as they frequently build decks that are 70 or more cards, trying to cram as many good ideas as they can into play.

However, adding one single card? It didn't have a meaningful impact on my games. One was a multiplayer matchup, where I felt I had to add Lifeline to a board with Guttersnipe and Talrand. It was not my best idea but I was going for broke. Yes, I lost that one though I was able to use Fabricate to get a Lifeline so my idiot plan could happen. I'll chalk that one in the 'doing what I hoped' column.

In a R/G matchup, I got beat in game one--which isn't easy to tell by this crappy picture. Sorry: I'll try to do better next time. I won game two and then the pub closed.

But the extra card didn't do anything to make my chances better or worse.

What I did feel though, in both matches, was that I was paying too much for a pretty weak effect in Arcbound Reclaimer.

When I look at the mana curve for this deck, there's a huge glut of things at the two spot; a total of fifteen cards. There are two cards in the three spot and five at the four spot.

But of those cards at the four spot, Arcbound Crusher is able to grow big enough to become a problematic threat, as seen in the previous matchups. Arcbound Reclaimer is a tutor for a graveyard that I am not planning on filling and doesn't really help me after that. So I'm back down to 60 cards, cutting the Reclaimers and adding a third Fabricate. This means I essentially have access to six Darksteel Reactors, six Arcbound Overseers and five Lifelines. I'm comfortable with this level of consistency.

What I'm concerned about now is the Arcbound Sliths at the two spot. You can see it languishing there on the lower right corner in the photo. Again, the power/toughness for the cost isn't doing  much for me, at a spot that already has one of the most notorious creatures in the game and flyers that can be critical to defense (or attack) until I get to the end game.The logical thing: add in something at the 1 or 3 spot.

Unfortunately, there are no modular creatures at those casting costs to add which means it's time to do some research. Ideally, the replacements will be artifacts. I can hear Fuz now, telling me to add in Steel Wall...

61

Megatron's first test run was against a mono-B deck Jason was playing using Abyssal Demon and Hellcarver Demon! Oof. It did not go well; even when I was able to Darksteel Forge to keep a blocker up, taking 5 a turn just isn't going to save me. That said: I was very interested in the Hellcarver/Abyssal interaction. Sometimes I think that all the time I spend revising blinds me to exploring new interactions.

The demon deck was a new build for Jason, so we talked shop for a bit: turns out his plan A for the deck was Hellcarver Demon into Barren Glory, not 'Destroy you with Abyssal Demon and win' which is what I thought his plan A should be. As for me, I had a rough game 2 where I had to mulligan down to five cards. It wasn't a good test, but I still like where he's going with it.

So he moved on to his Aether Rift deck, which is always a little batty. But what happened next is what gives me hope for this deck. Check out this image from game two.

After hammered by Flametongues with Lifeline out (which, HOLY CRAP, creates a painful situation) I get a Darksteel Forge into play. Now it's a waiting game. I'm sacrificing creatures to make a larger Ravager and Crushers while trying to avoid taking 16 damage, 8 of it trample. I can't kill his creatures and the Eldrazi are starting to arrive, forcing me to sacrifice the creatures I've been using to build up my alpha-strike team. If I have to let go of my Arcbound Crushers or Ravager, then they come back as tiny 1/1s instead of Eldrazi-withstanding behemoths. I also have to not kill the Eldrazi because they will come back untapped which means I have to trample through more damage and I can tell, I'm running out of time.

Eventually, I've built up gigantic robots and I do a quick bit of math because I have to attack for the win when I do. An 18/18 trampler can be handled by 3 creatures but that still leaves a 17/17 trampler and a 15/15 Ravager.

All in all, I swung for 60 in that picture and I still only barely made it happen. But I made it happen!

Jason's advice: run more Fabricate to make sure you get Lifeline because that card is insane. I'm inclined to agree but I'm not sure what to cut. Also, I have a nagging suspicion that Lifeline and Darksteel Foundry together is overkill.

I'm just not sure that I should care. So I'm going to do something that people just don't do in this game.

I'm going to 61 cards.

Megatron

I know that it's Simic week back at the Mothership but after the past two weeks, I just can't muster the effort to grind through a U/G deck right now. Plus, I already did 1000 Shards early on and that's got to be the most Simicky Simic deck ever.

I will say that with the arrival of Gatecrash, I've made a few tweaks to make Shards even more about the counters (Cloudfin Raptor for Gaea's Skyfolk, notably) and I'm considering Experiment One instead of Simic Initiate, because the Experiment can get bigger than the Initiate. But I am reluctant to replace anything with 0 toughness because of the 0 + Mirrorweave = everything else dies combo. Still, I may put this in the 'light testing' rotation to see what happens.

Since the Simic deck is mostly done (Noah asked me yesterday if a deck was 'finished' and I had to laugh. Nothing is ever finished.) let's go with a distinctly Simic-like deck.

5 Forest
4 Island
4 Darksteel Citadel
4 Seat of the Synod
3 Tree of Tales
3 Simic Growth Chamber 

3 Arcbound Crusher
3 Arcbound Overseer
3 Arcbound Ravager
2 Arcbound Reclaimer
2 Arcbound Slith
4 Arcbound Stinger
4 Arcbound Worker
4 Copper Gnomes
2 Etherium Sculptor
1 Triskelion

          3 Darksteel Forge
          2 Lifeline

1 Fabricate 

3 Naturalize 

I called this deck Megatron because of artwork on Arcbound Overseer. It's probably just me but I see a resemblance. The basic idea was to use the synergy between Arcbound creatures, Lifeline and Darksteel forge to create an overwhelming advantage.

Man, did I hate Lifeline back in the day. I would actively campaign against anyone playing that card, regardless of the board state. It was such a discouraging card to play against, and I have Jason to thank for brutalizing me with it. Cards like Lifeline are why I continue to run effects like Naturalize in nearly every deck I build. Between that and the use of Evolution Vat in the early build (I think there was even a Novijen, Heart of Progress) these were the only roles for green to play.

But, like I said, a good idea is a good idea and using Lifeline's ability to take Arcbound Ravager and repeatedly sacrifice creatures to make it huge, while not actually losing a creature falls under that. Darksteel Forge is an incredibly disheartening card to see from an opponent's point of view and Copper Gnomes allows me to cheat it, the Overseer, or Lifeline into play.

It's been a little while since I've played this deck so the tests should be interesting. The curve on this deck feels high, with plays coming in at 4+ mana that have a broad variance in strength. Arcbound creatures didn't get a boost from the Scars of Mirrodin block, but +1 counters certainly have become a thing in the past few years, especially in Green, so I look forward to seeing what happens!

Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda

The next eight games were an exercise in despair.

Here's a fine example of what happened: In Match 3 against Fuz playing a (very clever) U/G combo:
Turn 2 Battlement, against...Amoeboid Changeling? I have no idea what I'm in for.

Then the Ludvec's Test Subject appears. I cast the Lodestone Myr and wait. Changeling gives the Test Subject all creature types, Moonmist is cast and I take 13.

Fuck.

The dumbest board state ever.

In game 2, I end up with all three Tanglecords in hand. A good sign, right? I should be able to create time. The Amoeboid shows up, I drop the other two walls and have this thought; Seriously, this is the dumbest board state I may have ever seen. EOT Brainstorm from Fuz.

This leads to a Test Subject, Moonmist in the same turn.

Double Fuck.

I bring the deck to Jason to test. He's taken to riffing on my idea, playing W/G Exalted and games go a little like this:

Game 2: I have a Overgrown Battlement, no Forests, in my opening, so I keep, hoping Turn 2 Howling Mine will help. It doesn't: Aven Squire vs Furnace Celebration is the board. I get a Myr, he has a Sigiled Paladin to my Wall of Tanglecord (without G!) Then he has a Battlegrace Angel and I'm looking at 8 a turn in the air.

Match 2: vs Bloodchief discard, with U for special 'suck it, bitches.' A highlight:
Game 2: I get a Myr, which does some early work but soon the Recoils and Jace's Phantasms arrive and I get a solid kicking and die.

My frustration level is very, very high with this deck. Jason wants me to cut Slobad and put in Crawlspace, whack the Heretics so I can move up to four Hellkite Tyrants. I want to like his idea but I just don't see how it's going to help me. Am I being blind to new ideas because I'm that depressed?

It strikes me, after days of dwelling on it, that Bulletproof's redundancies don't help me. It's necessary to run four Mycosynth Lattices because I need them to show up. After the first one, though, they don't do anything. I am frustrated by drawing extra Krark-Clan Ironworks, because I only need one to win, whereas I would not be frustrated by drawing multiple Squires because they, at least, have a greater impact in multiples. My opening hands all suck: I haven't had one that I felt good about since I started this series.

What does adding more Crawlspace do for me? Adding in another Tyrant wouldn't suck of course but again: if I don't get enough time to win with one, how does adding a third or fourth help?

Is it time to give up and call this one a failure? There is a point of 'why bother'.

After pouring through cards for a few hours, I think I'm going to remove 2 Slobad, 2 Heretic, up the Shattering Spree by one and add in 3 Mizzium Mortars. If time is what I need and mana is something I have in abundance, then the Mortars may be my best shot at getting there. Useful in the early and late games and my creatures don't die to it, I am hard pressed to think of a better solution.

For the time being, I'm going to set this aside. It'll stay in the box for me to play against the crew but I'm going to let it go as far as the blog is concerned, at least for now. Current decklist:

4 Furnace Celebration

4 Krark-Clan Ironworks

4 Mycosynth Lattice

4 Howling Mine

4 Lodestone Myr

2 Hellkite Tyrant

3 Wall of Tanglecord

4 Overgrown Battlement

1 Viashino Heretic

1 Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer

3 Shattering Spree

3 Mizzium Mortars

10 Mountain

5 Forest

4 Great Furnace

4 Tree of Tales

Kevlar Central

My first tests did not go well. Against a R/G Aether Rift deck (which works better than you might think) that Jason was piloting, I just got spanked in game 1, paying life to keep cards like Pathrazer off the table, I lose to Gamekeeper and Arrogant Wurm.

Game 2, I kept a not so awesome hand, playing a turn 2 Howling Mine which was responded to with an Aether Rift. I was able to build up mana and drop a Mycoslynth Lattice: the question is can I race to the finish? 

My first step was to destroy Aether Rift with Echoing Ruin. My next turn involves Hellkite Tyrant and Slobad. He concedes next turn.

Game 3: An opening hand of 2 Mountain, Tree of Tails, Furnace, Heretic, Lattice. It's potentially workable so I keep it. He discards an Aether Rift on turn 1 so I know he's got a second. But despite two Faithless Lootings, his 3rd land isn't coming. This means I get the Lattice online before he has Aether Rift functioning. His Ulamog's Crusher comes out for free and I hit it with Echoing Ruin, then cast Furnace Celebration and then use Heretic to eat his Aether Rift. At this point, I am able to cast a Krark-Clan Ironworks and combo out, sacrificing everything for 12 damage. (It was a little overkill.)

That game I got lucky at: if there had been pressure, I don't know that I would have gotten the win. Wins because they got mana screwed are still wins but they don't generally provide meaningful data about my deck working. Jason likes the overall idea, which is always a good sign but we don't talk about what to do to make this better. Fortunately, my next matches with Fuz, playing a G/R/W humans aggro deck would give me that.

Game 1: turn 2 Skarrg Guildmage. I respond with the turn 3 Elder, ready for turn 4 Lattice but I'm taking beats...and then a Truefire Paladin appears. More beats and then I get the Lattice down.

Fuz's response to Lattice: "Things...are gonna get kinky, right?"

I'm down to 7 life when I drop the Hellkite. And it would've been OK if I had read what Truefire Paladin did. Sigh. But I died to the Guildmage at the prerelease, so I'm worried about and chose to block that...then die to a pumped Paladin. A perfect case of not living in the now and recognizing the board.

Game 2 I mulligan to 5 and die to the creature rush, including Madcap Skills on a Wasteland Viper. Fuz asks if I'd like to try the matchup again and I would.

Game 1.2 I have an open of 5 lands, Slobad, Lattice. Oof. I keep this because I can do things. Slobad turn 2, turn 3 has and Elder and then....

Truefire Paladin, which swings for 2 and a Boros Elite follows, with a Viper

I take 9 next turn and Slobad gets Pathed.

I cast a Growth Spasm and once again, feel a level of hate for that card. It is not helping me and has not helped me in any game I've managed to cast it.

I draw a 3rd Lattice and wither beneath the beats.

Game 2.2: 3 lands, Lodestone Myr, Ironworks. I see another turn 2 Viper, turn 3 Paladin. For the first time, I do not have a turn 3 Elder, instead casting Growth Spasm for another Mountain: I can now cast the Ironworks. I shove the Token in front of the Paladin, desperate for time.

I put the Ironworks out, hoping that the Furnace Celebration can take out enough creatures to make my life better. I have to jump the gun a little early, when a Naturalize hits my Ironworks. I take out the Paladin in response but die to another Madcap'd Viper.

Things did not go well so it was clearly time to move to the next step. It's always best to collaborate on decks and this is why:

I show my lumbering build to Fuz who instantly suggests Shattering Sphere instead of Echoing Ruin. The light goes off in my head and I make that change. I tell him the Growth Spurts are maddening and he says: "Wall of Blossoms? Because you need more time and walls can give them to you. I know that I love walls and all..."

And I hate walls. But a good idea is a good idea and I seem to hate Growth Spurt more. Wall of Tanglecord is an artifact, has a great ass, and can block flying creatures for a mere green. Plus, it comes out a turn sooner so I have a blocker that can extend my time, as well as feed into my combo with both Lodestone Myr or Furnace Celebration, should the Lattice not appear. That's the next change, and we're off to testing again.