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By: Flippers_Giraffe, Simon Smith
Sep 22 2009 12:03am
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Welcome back there are a few points I want to pick up on from my last article before I let rip with this weeks budget deck.

1. The ME3 card prices have taken a huge dive a lot sooner than expected. “MED3 sold more on day 1 of its release events than either Conflux or Alara Reborn” taken from Hamtastic’s state of the program article. Due to this I’ll be building round ME3 cards this time rather than looking at Kaleidoscope, don’t worry that’s for the next article I promise.

2. There was some interest in regards to my pauper article where people thought it would be interesting to see how my decks faired in the two man queues / daily events. I had a long hard think about this and wasn’t really sure if I was up to the challenge, I’ve never thought one of my decks would be up to the caliber required but then again I haven’t tried either. I will expand on the article with practice results from the TP room and then if the decks good enough try the 2 mans and see how it goes from there. Which one will I use…..find out in a few articles time.

I’m hoping it will be interesting for you the readers to track the progress of a deck on its rise out of the casual room into a tournament level deck. Then again it could fall over flat on its face but that’s all part of the learning curve.

I'm only going to be showing you one deck this week due to work constraints and the extra time it took to manually link every ME3 card in this article.

Ok now that’s out of the way, let’s start this article off, Hi Ho Silver is the title but am I referring to the song or the Lone Ranger you may be thinking. Well it’s the Lone Ranger or in the articles case Horsemanship.

ME3 has brought us loads of lovely cards to play with that are mostly affordable all ready. The first deck I bring to you today or tonight if you've had a close encounter with Vampire Nocturnus is going to be based on Horsemanship but I’m not going to be playing White I’m going for the Black Wei with back up from Rolling Earthquake. I decided to add a splash of green as well so I could include some nice ME3 legends like Vaevictis Asmadi this also puts us in Jund as well.

Let’s have a look at what we can include to bolster out are forces

Creatures

I was surprised to see a lack of green creatures with Horsemanship so I had a look at the Portal 3 Kingdoms set and there was one present just not included in ME3, which is sad. Will we get Lady Zhurong, Warrior Queen in ME4 with her strange Antennas? Green is actually the anti Horsemanship colour in the P3K set.
 

Bartel Runeaxe $0.04 He’s big and he's bad
Broodmate Dragon $1.15 We all know how good this dragon is
Carrion Ants $0.04 Expensive to cast and there are better alternatives, but it’s a classic
Kresh the Bloodbraided $0.80 If we can keep him out of the way of Rolling Earthquake he could grow very fast
Livonya Silone $0.05 I’m not sure about her legendary landwalk ability
Sprouting Thrinax $0.35 Just shows how creatures have advanced since Legends
Vaevictis Asmadi $0.25 The original dragon of Jund, Karrthus eat your heart out!
Wei Night Raiders $0.04 Expensive to cast but horsemanship could be worthwhile
Wei Strike Force $0.02 I done well with these guys in my draft, they are very nice
Xira Arien $0.25 The card draw ability could be very useful
Xira Arien

Spells

Let's see what we can use to support our old timers.

Ashes to Ashes $0.12 5 life for 2 creatures that’s really not that bad
Blood Lust $0.03 I would only ever use this card if my opponent was tapped out
Chain Lightning $0.50 You can now have 8 Lightning Bolt’s in your deck at a slight disadvantage
Desert Twister $0.08 kills anything dead, planeswalkers included
Fire Ambush $0.03 It's another standard 3 damage spell
Ghostly Visit $0.02 Odd picture in this one, your standard Terror effect
Grim Tutor $2.00 This was at $3 when I made the deck so was slightly out of budget
Mind Twist $2.00 Dropped to $2 a bargain in the format that brings you Dark Ritual
Putrefy $0.15 I can’t play jund without this card it just rocks
Rolling Earthquake $0.50 An auto include as it’s what the deck is based around
Putrefy

Deck

Deck total as of 14/09/09 at MTGOTraders $9.20

 

Deck Goal

The idea of the deck is to bring out the Wei with their horsemanship ability to get in some early beats while backing them up with the excellent Rolling Earthquake. The Sprouting Thrinax is also an excellent choice in this deck it may die to Rolling Earthquake but it's saporling’s will live on to fight another day.

Games

Game 1 vs seyfert1
My starting hand is mountain, forest, Savage Lands, Sprouting Thrinax, Adun Oakenshield, Wei Strike Force and Lu Bu,Master-at-Arms.

The first non land card to be played is Sprouting Thrinax on my third turn.

Turn 4 and I play Wei Strike Force and attack with the Thrinax. In seyfert1’s turn he plays Sporeback Troll.

My turn and I attack with my two creatures taking seyfert1down to 12 life and pass.  seyfert1 plays Assault Zeppelid grafting it making it 4/4.

In my turn I send in the Strike force as it can’t be blocked. seyfert1 plays a second  Assault Zeppelid and grafts it again sending one in for four damage.

Down go both the Assault Zeppelid’s from my Ashes to Ashes, two more attacks and I win.

Win 1

Lost 0

Ashes to Ashes

Game 2 vs Drewsclue
My starting hand consists of 2 mountain, 2 swamp, 1 forest, Rolling Earthquake and Wei Strike Force.

Drewsclue starts out with Volcanic Island and Leyline of the Void, I’m thinking ok this doesn’t look casual from the first turn but you never know. 

I manage to get three lands down a mountain, swamp and forest and play Wei Strike Force before Drewsclue plays his second land Strip Mine followed by Impulse.

My turn sees me drawing and playing Wei Night Raiders and attacking with the strike force. Drewsclue plays Plateau and then Tithe for Tundra and another Plateau.

I draw and play Savage lands and I’m hoping not to lose a land to Strip Mine so I can play Lu Bu,Master-at-Arms next turn. I send in my two Wei taking Drewsclue down to 14 life. Drewsclue plays Tundra and passes.

My turn comes round and I play Lu Bu,Master-at-Arms and Drewsclue plays a kickered Orim's Chant. I really did think about bringing up the points in Splendid Belts casual debate but I manage to keep myself calm. I don’t attack this turn because of Orim's Chant. In Drewsclue’s turn he plays Scrubland and Vampiric Tutor and passes.

My guys are ready for action this turn so I send them in Lu Bu,Master-at-Arms  is taken out by Swords to Plowshares and I take Drewsclue down to 8 life. I play Rolling Earthquake for 6 but it’s stopped by Counterspell. In Drewsclue’s turn he plays Moat which cancels out most of my creatures in my deck and I have no enchantment removal, great!

I draw Rolling Earthquake and the only land Drewsclue has untapped is Strip Mine with one card in hand so no chance of Force of Will. I cast it and take him down to 2 life. In Drewsclue turn he taps out for Privileged Position.

My turn and I cast Fire Ambush taking him out. It’s not every day you win in casual vs a deck like that.

Win 2 

Lost 0

Rolling Earthquake

Game 3 vs CBR600RR
I start off with 1 forest, 1 mountain Savage Lands, Ashes to Ashes, Fire Ambush, Broodmate Dragon and Bartel Runeaxe.

I play a second turn Three_Visits to catch up on the land front as CBR had a Wayfarer's Bauble.  CBR plays Lightning Greaves and passes.

Turn four and I play Wei Strike Force and pass. CBR plays Death Baron and equips it with the greaves and send him I trade it for my Wei Strike Force.

I play a land and pass, while CBR plays Rise from the Grave on the Death Baron and equips it again hitting me for two this time.

My next turn sees Broodmate Dragon grace the table. The Death Baron attacks and I let it through.

I go both the Broodmate Dragon and the token dragon for eight damage and I play Bartel Runeaxe to hopefully put the Death Baron of attacking, which worked.

Again in go the dragons this time the Broodmate Dragon is taken out by Sudden Death but the token connects for four damage taking CBR down to 8 life. I play Wei Strike Force and CBR cycles Jhessian Zombies at the end of my turn. CBR passes again.

This time round I send in my dragon token and the strike force, the dragon is returned to my hand (killed) by Wipe Away and the strike force take CBR down to 6 life. I play my Wei Night Raiders and pass. CBR plays Vengeful Dead and a second Lightning Greaves and equips but doesn’t attack.

My turn sees both the Wei attack and I finish off with Fire Ambush.

Win 3
 

Lost 0

Fire Ambush

Game 4 vs Mishras_Sweatshop
My starting hand consists of 2 swamps, 1 forest, Savage Lands 2 Fire Ambush and Sprouting Thrinax.

I start off with a tapped Savage lands and Mishras_Sweatshop plays Bloodstained Mire into a swamp and casts The Rack ahh another tournament deck I’m thinking at this moment.

A forest from me and Mishras_Sweatshop plays a swamp and Hymn to Tourach I lose a swamp and one of my Fire Ambush’s. A lot of people in casual would quit right about now. But no on we go.

My turn and I play Sprouting Thrinax, Mishras_Sweatshop plays Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Pox, I lose the swamp and Thrinax from play and a mountain from my hand. But I gain 3 saporling tokens.

Turn 4 and we are both on 12 life, it’s going to be a race against the The Rack now. I draw a Savage lands and attack with the saporlings taking Mishras_Sweatshop down to 9 life. In Mishras_Sweatshop’s turn he plays Mishra's Factory and Smallpox I lose a saporling token my forest and Fire Ambush from my hand.

I draw Wei Strike Force and attack taking Mishras_Sweatshop down to 6 life. Mishras_Sweatshop plays a swamp and passes.

I draw a swamp this turn and send in my two tokens Mishras_Sweatshop activates his Mishra's Factory and blocks, I take it out with Putrefy taking him down to 6 life. Mishras_Sweatshop passes this turn keeping a card in hand.

I attack in my turn with my saporling tokens taking Mishras_Sweatshop down to 3 life and cast Sprouting Thrinax, I’m now on 6 life from rack damage. Mishras_Sweatshop plays a second The Rack.

My turn and I go down to 2 life and attack for the win.  

Win 4
 

Lost 0

Sprouting Thrinax

Game 5 vs Geostar
I mull to 6 cards from no land to 2 mountains, 2 forests 1 swamp and Fire Ambush. I decide to keep it as my first creature won’t see play to turn three as long as I draw some that is.

My first play on turn 3 is Wei Strike Force, turned out just right. On Geostar’s third turn he has a plain 2 Firewild Borderpost’s and a suspended Greater Gargadon.

I attack on turn 4 with the Wei Strike Force and play a mountain and pass. Geostar plays an Island and then Ardent Plea which cascades into Restore Balance. Geostar sacrifices both of his lands to the Greater Gargadon leaving me with nothing in play.

A few turns later I have two forests in play and this time it’s Violent Outburst into Restore Balance I never recover and get taken out by the Greater Gargadon.

I must say that is a very nice deck indeed when it cascades the only card under the casting cost of 3 is Restore Balance.
 

Win 4
 

Lost 1

Restore Balance

Thoughts

The deck played very well indeed in fact it played better than I thought it would,  horsemanship is a great ability and I will look at building a deck around the white creatures in ME3 that have it at some point as well. The fact that I beat a pox and another high powered deck shows what potential is hidden away in this budget deck.


Until next time have fun with your ME3 cards and good luck in any drafts you participate in, I've tried a swiss draft and it was the most fun I've had in ages using all the old cards from when I started playing paper.

There was a second deck that I was going to include in this article that was inspired by a conversation I had with AJ_Impy I have purchased the cards needed and will include it in another article in the not too distant future.

 

3 Comments

nit pick by whiffy at Tue, 09/22/2009 - 04:12
whiffy's picture
4

the game 2 opponent was most asuredly a casual deck. it may have been very expensive but given the plays you say he made, if it were tournament worthy he would have won the game the turn after vamp tutor. no that was deff casual as all he did was play a string of defenceve elements that would have put him in a great position....if he could make the game drag on 20 turns.

game 4 was deff a tourny deck, good job beating it

game 5 im surprised that you complemint this actual non casual deck. this is a focused combo deck that is looking to stop you from doing anything of value. yet i suspect that the fact that the deck dose not cost 600 dollars you write it off as casual.

this is why people debate endlessly about what is and what isnt casual. they dont know them selfs.

I like the deck horsey and quake is deffenatly a strong back bone.

I agree mostly with Wiffy's by Paul Leicht at Tue, 09/22/2009 - 06:14
Paul Leicht's picture

I agree mostly with Wiffy's comments. The 2nd deck might not have been tourney at all. Or the pilot might just have copied a net deck and not known how to play it. Cascading Balance is a netdeck by now and while it is an elegant combo solution it requires some small amount of luck to get it to line up properly for the win. I guess it is sort of between a tourney deck and a casual deck. If it doesn't get the pieces it falters badly.

Good Games. Horsemanship will definitely be a factor in determining creatures in future decks. Rolling Earthquake is certainly an interesting choice as most players will not have a horsemanship deck yet to evade the sorcery's damage. I'd been interested in seeing more games. 5 seems too small a sample to really see how the deck does.

I must admit I wasnt sure by Flippers_Giraffe at Tue, 09/22/2009 - 13:21
Flippers_Giraffe's picture

I must admit I wasnt sure what was going on in game 2 from the lands played I expected a non casual deck but it never went off. I wish now I had asked what the deck actually was about.

In regards to game 5 I'd never seen this combo before which is strange as I've been playing a lot of classic games in the TP room latley trying to find a deck that I would like to play in a daily event...I've still not found one I'm happy with that dosent include FoW.