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By: kalandine, Mike Mullins
Mar 25 2010 12:51pm
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March Madness is underway and the NCAA tournament highlights the one of the biggest differences between college basketball and other sports – the stars of the sport are the coaches, not the players.  In most sports, the biggest stars are the players (LeBron James, Peyton Manning, Sidney Crosby, Derek Jeter), but there are always a few exceptions (Phil Jackson, Bill Belichick).  In NCAA basketball, however, many of the best players only enter college for the one year required to be eligible for the NBA draft.  This transience of the best players leaves most casual fans knowing only the coaches (Mike Krzyzewski, Rick Pitino, Jim Calhoun) who repeatedly place their teams in the upper echelons of NCAA basketball.  Filling out a bracket based on these coaches is a good starting point, but in the end, it is the players that win championships.  While great coaches can succeed with moderate talent, they will need great players to win championships.

Just as the players win games in sports, the best cards in Magic: The Gathering win duels.  Certainly the best players can take mediocre cards and use them to defeat less talented players, but they are unlikely to take a deck containing average cards and defeat an equally skilled player that is using the best cards available.  Simply put, using the best cards available increases your chances to win games.  While some cards are more powerful in combinations, there are cards that are simply good in any deck with the mana to support them.

Focusing on the pauper format, it is hard to argue that Counterspell and Lightning Bolt are not powerful cards in blue and red decks, respectively, regardless of the other contents of the deck.  So, when I decided to build a black and red deck, I knew I needed to start with the best cards to support that deck.  Blightning and Terminate are two very powerful spells that encourage the use of these two colors together, but both cards leave open a wide door for the development of the remainder of the deck.  Requiring only a single colored mana from each color, both Blightning and Terminate allow for a deck with a nearly even split of black and red cards, a black deck with a splash of red, or a red deck with a splash of black.  Given my annoyance at opponent’s extending games through Tendrils of Corruption and Corrupt, I decided to angle for a black deck that splashed red. Win or lose, you should always be open to learning from your opponents.

The deck went through a number of iterations before I settled on the version that will be provided in this article.  As such, I am going to go over not only the cards to make it into the deck, but some of the cards that I tried during the build and test process.  At the end, I will let you know what made the cut and why.

Blightning is a card I have previously called unfair.  It deals three damage and it forces the discard of two cards for a reasonable price.  In contrast to Mind Rot, the alteration of the casting cost to change 1 colorless mana to 1 red mana has allowed the card to always remain useful and not a meaningless draw later in the game when an opponent has an empty hand.

Augur of Skulls provides a 2-cost option for forcing the discard of two cards.  In tandem with a Blightning, this can reduce the opponent’s hand by four cards on turn three.  Later in the game, this creature can act as a durable blocker with its regeneration.

Ravenous Rats acts as another 2-cost option to work with the Blightning inspired discard theme.  Even with its 1/1 body, the rats can occasionally trade with an opposing creature or, at the very least, act as a chump blocker.

Chittering Rats is a 2/2 variation of Ravenous Rats which slows down an opponent from drawing a card they need from their deck.  With a bit of recursion, Chittering Rats can lock an opponent down for enough time to create a detrimental game position.

Unburden acts as backup for Blightning but is more comparable to Consult the Necrosages.  Against discard decks, most players will avoid keeping cards in hand, and as such, discard effects can be wasted as a game extends into later turns.  Unburden provides the option to turn an otherwise useless card into card draw through a reasonable cycling cost.

Duress provides the 1-cost discard spell that can be extremely disruptive to combo decks by eliminating deck lynchpins such as Tortured Existence and Grapeshot.

Tendrils of Corruption is a frequent inclusion in black decks due to its ability to provide creature elimination that scales during the game.  Without the familiar "non-black" creature restriction (or any other odd constraint such as "non-Elf" or "3 toughness or less") found on many creature destruction spells, Tendrils of Corruption is universal in application and scales as the duration extends.  The provision for life gain simple raises Tendrils from a good card to an excellent spell.

Corrupt is the big brother to Tendrils of Corruption.  For two more mana, the damage inflicted can target a player as well as a creature.  There are few things that can change the momentum of a pauper duel as a Corrupt targetting an opponent when you have eight Swamp in play.

Terminate is the ultimate perfection of the orignal creature destruction spell, Terror.  With no limitations on legal targets, a converted mana cost of 2, instant timing, and a clause to prevent regeneration, Terminate is the perfect spell to destroy opposing creatures.  Because it is multicolored, even the normally survivable Guardian of the Guildpact can be sent to the graveyard.

Strangling Soot provides one option not found in most other creature destruction spells, reusability.  Overall, Strangling Soot compares favorably with its peers.  It doesn't kill your own creatures as does Evincar's Justice or carry converted mana costs of 6 and 9 like Morbid Hunger.  While Crippling Fatigue has a similar effect, Strangling Soot outright kills and does not cost life for its flashback cost.  In a deck using creatures capable of blocking evasive attackers, I would probably prefer Crippling Fatigue, but in a deck without them Strangling Soot seems the better option.

 

Monstrous Carabid may seem an odd inclusion, but it has a couple things going for it.  First, the 4/4 body is large enough to provide trouble for most opposing creatures (Blastoderm being the most likely exception).  Second, if it isn't what you need, Monstrous Carabid has a very friendly cycling cost to replace itself.

Lava Zombie is another creature which can attack for four damage each turn.  With a 4/3 body for a meager three mana, Lava Zombie also provides the opportunity to reuse the enters the battlefield effects of Ravenous Rats, Chittering Rats, or Phyrexian Rager.  As Momentary Blink and Kor Skyfisher have proved over and over, the potential for reusing enters the battlefield effects is an opportunity, not a drawback.

Grixis Grimblade ranges from a hard to cast (requires two colors) 2/1 to a 3/2 with deathtouch depending on what else you have in play.  In a deck running Veinfire Borderpost, Grixis Grimblade can enter play on the third turn as a 3/2, but when relying only on creatures such as Lava Zombie to keep the Grimblade at 3/2, the risk becomes substantial.  While deathtouch is a powerful effect that can change how an opponent plays, the 2 toughness limits the potential for Grixis Grimblade to escape more than one blocking situation without heading to the graveyard. 

Jund Hackblade is similar to Grixis Grimblade in that it requires another multicolor card in play to reach its potential.  The difference between the two is that Jund Hackblade gains haste instead of deathtouch.  In the end, deathtouch maintains relevance beyond the turn the creature comes into play, but haste allows for timing the casting of Jund Hackblade to ensure that he deals his 3 damage to the opponent.

Kathari Bomber provides for dealing damage to an opponent and developing an army of 1/1 goblin tokens.  The 2/2 flyer is flexible in that it is a reasonable blocker against an opposing Mulldrifter, but is outclassed by most other flyers in the format such as Aven Riftwatcher and Spire Golem.

Sign in Blood is almost as much of an automatic inclusion in decks that can support its BB casting cost as Counterspell is in decks that can reliably cast UU spells.  The ability to draw two cards for two mana is great even with the accompanying loss of two life, but the fact that Sign in Blood can target other players allows it to mimic Shock and end the game when you get an opponent down to 2 life.

Phyrexian Rager is a 2/2 bear that replaces itself with card draw.  As proven by many other control decks, bears can win games or they can trade with opposing creatures to buy time. 

Morsel Theft made it into the deck when I forgot that prowl costs required rogues to deal damage.  For two mana, this is a solid card given its ability to draw another card.  For four mana without the card draw, Morsel Theft is a poor man's version of Corrupt.

Veinfire Borderpost provides a dual color mana source that can be played on turn 1.  With enough basic lands in a deck, the borderposts are slightly riskier versions of dual lands, but that is sufficient for evaluation in a format such as pauper that has few options for lands that provide more than a single type of mana.

Rakdos Carnarium is the dual land that provides red/black mana.  Like Veinfire Borderpost, it enters play tapped, but its ability to provide two mana each time its tapped and its ability to bounce an already tapped land back to your hand instead of costing one mana, makes it a better choice except when a deck uses the multicolor permanent seeking creatures such as Jund Hackblade.

In the end, here is the deck that has evolved:


A Blight of Red

  Lands (24)
     4x Mountain
  15x Swamp
    3x Terramorphic Expanse
    2x Rakdos Carnarium

 Creatures (17)
   4x Augur of Skulls
   4x Ravenous Rats
   4x Lava Zombie
   3x Phyrexian Rager
   2x Monstrous Carabid

 Non-Creatures (19)
   4x Sign in Blood
   3x Unburden
   4x Blightning
   2x Strangling Soot
   2x Terminate
   4x Tendrils of Corruption

Chittering Rats missed the cut because Blightning, Phyrexian Rager, Unburden, and Lava Zombie filled up the slot for spells costing three mana.  With Ravenous Rats at two mana, Chittering Rats became expendable.  Jund Hackblade, Grixis Grimblade, and Kathari Bomber were left out because Lava Zombie was a better thug in the deck and Monstrous Carabid provided a card draw option and 4-toughness to combat Lightning Bolt and Last Gasp.  Without the two blade creatures, Rakdos Carnarium was a better option than Veinfire Borderpost.

With the amount of discard in the deck, Duress seemed like a better option for a sideboard should I ever take the deck into a match.  The hardest card to cut was Corrupt, but the mana cost for Corrupt caused too many issues in too many practice games and I eventually removed it.  There are days when Corrupt goes back in for Monstrous Carabid and sometimes it works out and sometimes I am stuck holding it in hand waiting for enough mana to cast it.

I will however be the first to acknowledge that Monstrous Carabid is not what I would describe as a good card.  While it, however, seems to work in this deck, the insect will probably be the first card to be excised from the decklist to make way for better options from Rise of the Eldrazi.  The two Monstrous Carabid however, acts as an additional aggressive creatures to accompany Lava Zombie to provide for a quick clock for an opponent.

While I having been toying with this deck for over a month and have at least thirty games with various iterations of it, I headed to the casual room to capture the performance of this deck over five consecutive duels (note that opponent's names are reduced to initials to obscure their identities):

Game 1 vs. WB

My opening contains Terramorphic Expanse, two Swamp, Sign in Blood, Ravenous Rats, Augur of Skulls, and Lava Zombie.  With a solid mana base, a curve of creatures, and card draw, the hand is an obvious keeper.

WB elects to play first and opens with a Swamp while I follow with my Terramorphic Expanse which I turn into a Mountain after he plays a Plains and passes on turn 2.  I drop a Swamp and Ravenous Rats on turn 2 triggering the discard of a Terramorphic Expanse and he casts Disfigure to eliminate the rats.  On turn 3, he plays a Kabira Crossroads while I play a Swamp and the Augur of Skulls.  He responds with a Wretched Banquet to eliminate the Augur, drops a Kor Skyfisher allowing him to bounce and replay the Kabira Crossroads.  I draw and use a Strangling Soot to remove the Skyfisher after playing a Swamp.  My opponent passes the turn and I cast another Augur of Skulls leaving mana open for regeneration if necessary, but Journey to Nowhere exiles the Augur.  My opponent has obviously opened with a wide array of creature control and little else in his hand.

I draw and play Unburden before passing play back to WB.  He casts and attacks with Crypt Ripper for 3.  Life totals are his 24 to my 17 as we move to my seventh turn.  I cast my Sign in Blood and follow it with a Swamp and pass.  My opponent casts a Kor Sanctifiers and attacks with the Crypt Ripper which I Terminate after he pumps it twice.

I cast an Augur of Skulls and immediately cast a Lava Zombie returning the Augur to my hand.  WB draws and casts a Kor Skyfisher bouncing and replaying the Kabira Crossroads and stands pat.  I draw another Swamp and cast Strangling Soot from my graveyard to eliminate the flyer.  My opponent passes through turn 10, while I use turn 10 to attack for 4, cast Monstrous Carabid and Sign in Blood.  On his next turn, WB plays a Terramorphic Expanse and sacrifices it for a Swamp before passing the turn.  I play a Mountain and attack.  He blocks the Lava Zombie, sending his Kor Sanctifiers to the graveyard and goes to 18 life.  I cast the Augur of Skulls which is immediately returned to hand by a Lava Zombie.  A Wretched Banquet removes one Lava Zombie and my opponent draws two cards through Sign in Blood.  I respond with an Unburden, attack for 8, and WB concedes before I can play a Phyrexian Rager.

Record: 1-0

Game 1 vs. MKS

I win the roll and choose to play first.  I keep my opening hand that contains three Swamp, Terramorphic Expanse, Augur of Skulls, Lava Zombie, and Strangling Soot.

We both open with Terramorphic Expanse, I crack mine for a Mountain while he eventually trades his for a Snow-Covered Island.  I play a Swamp and Augur of Skulls on turn 2 which is responded to with a Swamp, Innocent Blood, and Relic of Progenitus.

I spend turn 3 playing a Swamp and a Sign in Blood, while MKS plays another Snow-Covered Swamp.  I use an Unburden while my opponent does nothing on turn 4.  Sign in Blood draws me into an Augur of Skulls and I pass the turn to my opponent who sacrifices the Relic of Progenitus for the card draw.  Once again Innocent Blood removes my Augur.  I spend turn 6 repeating turn 5 with another Sign in Blood and another Augur of Skulls.  My opponent responds for the third time with an Innocent Blood and plays another Snow-Covered Swamp.  I play a Swamp and pass my seventh turn to watch my opponent to pass their seventh turn with a play.

A Ravenous Rats forces my opponent to discard a Consume Spirit and then I draw to drop a Lava Zombie only to see Echoing Decay remove the Rats, sending the Zombie back to my hand.  My opponent evokes a Mulldrifter and I respond with another Swamp.  A kicked Probe sends a Swamp and a Strangling Soot to my graveyard and I use turn 10 to Unburden my opponent of two cards.   A Mulldrifter brings my opponent’s hand back to 4 cards and I use the Strangling Soot in my graveyard to eliminate it.  A kicked Probe followed by a Distress eliminates my hand.  A top-decked Blightning sends my MKS down to 2 cards, but a Mulldrifter brings him back to 4 before he plays a Terramorphic Expanse.

I play a Ravenous Rats and he attacks for 2 and casts a Chilling Shade.  Over the next two turns, I draw into a Swamp and a Blightning which isn’t enough to hold off the Shade.

I ended this game with eleven land in play and two in my graveyard.  The high percentage of land drawn paired with his timely use of Probe led to the loss in an extended game.

Record: 1-1

Game 3 vs. DCK

He elects to go first and I keep three Swamp, Terramorphic Expanse, Ravenous Rats, Unburden, and Monstrous Carabid.  Another low cost creature would be nice, but the Carabid can be cycled if necessary.

My opponent opens with a Forest and Basking Rootwalla and I play a Terramorphic Expanse which I trade for a Mountain after DCK plays another Forest and an Elvish Visionary on his second turn.  I use my second turn to lay down a Swamp and cast a Ravenous Rats.   My opponent attacks with both of his creatures and I trade the Ravenous Rats for his Elvish Visionary, take 1 damage, and see a Deadly Recluse enter the battlefield.  I drop a Swamp and use Unburden to remove two more cards from my opponent’s hand. 

My opponent attacks for 4 damage and passes the turn back to me allowing me to play another Ravenous Rats and remove the last card from his hand.  He plays a Forest and attacks for another 4.  I use Strangling Soot to eliminate the Basking Rootwalla and attack for 1.  He plays a Wild Mongrel and attacks with the Deadly RecluseTerminate kills the Mongrel and I attack for 1 and then cast Sign in Blood

He attacks for 1 and casts Centaur Courser.  I play Monstrous Carabid and pass.
He attacks, I block the Courser with my insect and he uses Invigorate to save his Centaur and kill my blocker.  I draw a Strangling Soot and use it to eliminate the Centaur Courser and then play a Ravenous Rats.  Current life totals are my 5 to his 18.  

Over the next few turns I get out two Lava Zombie while he plays a Civic Wayfinder and gets stuck with drawing nothing but Forests.  A Tendrils of Corruption removes his Deadly Recluse and brings my life to 9.   Using a flashbacked Strangling Soot to remove his Civic Wayfinder, I manage to power 9 damage through, leaving my opponent at 5. Even though he draws into a blocker, I still have an unblocked Lava Zombie and Augur of Skulls to end the game.

Record: 2-1

Game 4 vs. C1

I get to play first and keep Terramorphic Expanse, Mountain, Swamp, Ravenous Rats, Augur of Skulls, and two Tendrils of Corruption.  Overall a very solid hand.

I open with the Terramorphic Expanse which I will exchange for a Swamp at the end of my opponent’s turn.  He opens with a Bojuka Bog and passes.  I drop my second Swamp and cast Augur of Skulls.  My opponent lays down an Island and passes.  I sacrifice the Augur of Skulls to force the discard and then play an Unburden.

C1 plays an Island and passes.  I drop a Ravenous Rats my opponent responds with a Pestermite tapping my last Swamp and then I play a Rakdos Carnarium.  After four turns, I have forced my opponent to discard five cards, that is a lot for anyone to overcome.

My opponent attacks for two and passes the turn back to me.  I cast Augur of Skulls which is countered by a Spellstutter Sprite and then I play my Phyrexian Rager.  My opponent attacks for three and passes the turn.  I play a Swamp, make my own attack for three damage, cast Sign in Blood, and then cast Unburden to which my opponent responds with a Pestermite tapping my only untapped land.  My opponent attacks for five, leaving me at 7 life, and keeps one card in his hand.  I attack for three and use Tendrils of Corruption to eliminate a Pestermite, bringing my life up to 11.  My opponent attacks for 3 leaving me with 8 life to his 13 life.

I Play a Swamp, attack with a Ravenous Rats and a Phyrexian Rager, and then cast a Tendrils of Corruption to remove the remaining Pestermite, but my opponent uses an Agony Warp to kill off the faerie first.  We trade attacks for two turns and I cast an Augur of Skulls.  I lead life totals 6 to 4 when my opponent concedes.

Record: 3-1

Game 5 vs. M

I win the roll and choose to go first with three Swamp, Terramorphic Expanse, Ravenous Rats, Tendrils of Corruption, and Augur of Skulls.  This makes the fifth game in a row where a mulligan isn't worth contemplation.  I would say that I mulligan about one in five games with this deck usually do to mana issues, but the deck is relatively forgiving as long as I draw two lands in the opening hand.

My first turn Terramorphic Expanse becomes a Mountain during my opponent’s end phase after he plays his own Terramorphic Expanse.  I use turn 2 to play the Augur of Skulls.  My opponent plays a Forest and leaves his Expanse in play.  I sacrifice the Augur of Skulls and cast Ravenous Rats.  M casts a Borderland Ranger and puts a Plains in his hand.  I play another Ravenous Rats and then a Sign in Blood.  My opponent is clearly playing a domain deck and has now discarded a Swamp, Island, and Plains.  Domain decks can be very unforgiving once a player has four or five different basic lands in play, but I have seemingly dodged that bullet with my opponent choosing to keep his spells over his lands.

M plays a Matca Rioters and attacks with his 2/2 Ranger on his turn, while I use a Strangling Soot to eliminate the 2/2 Rioters on my turn before attacking with both of my Ravenous Rats.  He casts a Wickerbough Elder and I play a Mountain, and cast Tendrils of Corruption to destroy the Elder.  I then attack for 2 leaving myself at 18 life to my opponent’s 16 life.  After attacking with the Borderland Ranger, my opponent brings out another Matca Rioters which succumbs to a flashbacked Strangling Soot on my turn before I attack for another 2.

Another attack from the Borderland Ranger edges me down to 14 life.  I respond with Augur of Skulls and Sign in Blood before attacking for 2.  He uses my end phase to cast Lightning Bolt and Puncture Blast, dropping me at 6 life.  He then casts another Puncture Bolt on his turn to drop me to 3 life before I Strangling Soot his Borderland Ranger.  With one card in his hand, I attack for 3, cast Lava Zombie bouncing a Ravenous Rats.  I recast the Rats to force the discard of another Puncture Bolt and pass the turn.   He draws and casts a Borderland Ranger which I eliminate with a Terminate drawing the concession.

When the game ended, I had a total of seven power among all of my creatures and led the life total race 9 to 3.  I was out of range of winning on my next turn, but my opponent still could have won if he drew a direct damage spell on his next turn.

Record: 4-1

Overall I enjoy this deck as a diversion from my other decks with its control via discard.  This deck definitely has some bad matchups, but is not completely outclassed by the decks that show up in the Casual room.  I have faced Goblins, White Weenie, MBC, and Dead Dog, but Goblins and Dead Dog seem to be the worst matchups.  I think the Goblins matchup is resolvable through a sideboard with more cheap creature kill such as Disfigure or Diabolic Edict, but I haven't faced Dead Dog enough to come to a conclusion of what else the deck needs to win that matchup (Bojuka Bog in the sideboard might help).

Until next, good luck and enjoy the game.

 

22 Comments

i like the article by danielrbalderas at Thu, 03/25/2010 - 15:24
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3

but what about tom izzo? he's like the best college coach of the last decade and is certainly one of the best known college coaches.

Tom Izzo is great. I almost by kalandine at Thu, 03/25/2010 - 15:32
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Tom Izzo is great. I almost listed him and Calipari, but decided to only list 3 examples. Even if Izzo is better than Pitino or Coach K, I think those 2 are better known to people who do not closely follow college basketball.

personally i find Izzo while by ShardFenix at Thu, 03/25/2010 - 17:01
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personally i find Izzo while a good coach to also be somewhat of a douche. I remember watching at the beginning of this season when MSU played my team the Florida Gators. During halftime MSU was losing and when they interviewed Izzo he made rather disparaging comments of his own team. Maybe thats just how he is, but I would like some decorum when talking of his own players.

Resource denial like discard by sanhedrin at Thu, 03/25/2010 - 15:48
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Resource denial like discard and land destruction isn’t control. A control deck has answers, resource denial just keeps your opponent from playing. An important distinction for the casual room.

Lava Zombie gets far too little play for how good it is.

I'm not sure I agree with by JustSin at Thu, 03/25/2010 - 17:10
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I'm not sure I agree with that... I've always thought of control as a deck that "controls" the tempo of the game and that can be done with LD and discard as well as counters and creature kill

Yeah that's really stretching by Paul Leicht at Thu, 03/25/2010 - 19:13
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Yeah that's really stretching the definition of the term. Board control and denial are two different things. Often they go hand in hand but serve different functions. Discard limits your opponent's resources but does not affect the board. Land Destruction deals with lands which are on the board but does not generally affect anything else on the board. In fact most of the good players I've known (Pros for example) eschew LD entirely unless it is super efficient (armageddon) and or has some other benefit/mode (pillage, lay waste etc).

Some would even go so far as to count LD as anticontrol, since you are really trying to stop the nonaggro strategies with LD. Aggro just shrugs off land destruction and beats you down. Combo and Control are the types that need their land and in large amounts. Midranged fits more towards Control in this area as well. This is why Ponza is a mono red ld strategy. I understand the confusion since sometimes control strategies also include some land/mana denial. (Annex, Spreading Seas, etc) But that is still really not control.

Now tempo is an entirely different concept than what kind of deck you are playing. Though there are types that are centered around building up lots of tempo they are not in themselves control, aggro or combo but any of the above. (Amulet of Vigor + bounce lands = an example of tempo building.) Land destruction is definitely anti tempo. Hopefully more so for your opponent than you.

Justin: In that case, Aggro by sanhedrin at Fri, 03/26/2010 - 07:48
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Justin: In that case, Aggro is Control because it “controls” your opponent’s life total.

you seriously use the worst by ShardFenix at Fri, 03/26/2010 - 08:10
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you seriously use the worst arguments of all time...i mean you make palin look intelligent

Shard... that's a bit harsh. by Anonymous (not verified) at Fri, 03/26/2010 - 08:39
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Shard... that's a bit harsh. Seriously ...Palin?! And Izzo might be playing Jackson-esque mind games to make his team respond.

ok palin may have been a by ShardFenix at Fri, 03/26/2010 - 09:01
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ok palin may have been a stretch, but stretching an argument to its most abstract point to make an argument is not a good idea...and i dont know about Izzo...but then i also dont know if the players get to watch the ESPN Halftime report which was where the comments were made

tardfenix strikes again. you by Anonymous (not verified) at Fri, 03/26/2010 - 13:48
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tardfenix strikes again. you need to get hit by a car immediately. (see tardfenix re: hoarding)

lol, sadly the quotes of by ShardFenix at Fri, 03/26/2010 - 14:17
ShardFenix's picture

lol, sadly the quotes of anonymous simply will be attributed some sad sad fattie in his mom's basement who does not have the balls or motivation to actually post under a real name...

Welcome to the internet. by sanhedrin at Fri, 03/26/2010 - 15:58
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Welcome to the internet.

Just Sin thanks by JustSin at Fri, 03/26/2010 - 09:17
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Just Sin thanks

My apologies. by sanhedrin at Fri, 03/26/2010 - 15:59
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My apologies.

Except for the awkward by deluxeicoff at Thu, 03/25/2010 - 21:05
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5

Except for the awkward art:article layout...I really liked this. One of the few decklists where I personally wouldn't change anything. If my opinion matters, well then I think you really nailed it. Lava Zombie is some standout tech!

Yes, a fun article. My by JMason (not verified) at Fri, 03/26/2010 - 07:26
JMason's picture

Yes, a fun article. My experience with the Lava Zombie is that it can be very hard to keep one on the battlefield; the number of times my other red or black creature is removed in response is ridiculous.

Can I trade you my shuffler by FierceTable (not verified) at Thu, 03/25/2010 - 21:19
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Can I trade you my shuffler for yours? I wish I could start every game with at least three lands in hand. Nice article by the way.

Pros eschew ld? Hardly. Pros by Anonymous (not verified) at Fri, 03/26/2010 - 06:20
Anonymous's picture

Pros eschew ld? Hardly. Pros eschew any bad cards for good cards and unfortunatly for ld there have been very few good ld printed in a while and few that were standard legal (or extended for that matter) in a long time. Remember wildfires? Bounce plus decent ld spells created a decent deck that many pros played for a while. In the days of sinkhole, dark rit, and stripmine ld was a very common part of decks. Heck today we still see a lot of wastelanding in legacy. In standard we use the spreading seas (which is like killing 1/2 a land)

Context of course is by Paul Leicht at Fri, 03/26/2010 - 14:29
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Context of course is everything :) As I said super efficient and or with other benefits/modes. Wildfire is crazy efficient as a sweeper and ld rolled into one and Strip Mine is free, and can tap for mana. Bounce for tempo setbacks isn't quite the same thing but yeah that is also multiuse. Sinkhole was super efficient. It helps to read the whole sentence. :D

Example, if blightning was by Anonymous (not verified) at Fri, 03/26/2010 - 06:30
Anonymous's picture

Example, if blightning was 1RB deal 3 to opponent and destroy target land it would make jund that much more dominant. That would be a crazy good spell that would see extended play where blightning as is (being discard) does not.

Also pros don't play competitive pauper either from what I can tell so who cards. Discard is powerful in pauper because card draw is much weaker overall. Outside blue it's hard to gain card advantage. Discard and ld are disruption which can make you the contrl player when you are the one also touting creature kill. You are controling the board thru many avenues. Blue often has been paired with white in control because blue has counter but little way to recover against resolved threats. So white controls the board via mass removal, and targeted hate while the blue controls what resolves and creates card advantage. It's a lot the same except you aren't as reactive

Pros play pauper by Deckwizard (not verified) at Fri, 03/26/2010 - 09:36
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I've seen LSV play the weekend challenge, and I'd be willing to bet a bunch of other pros have as well. Pros like prizes and the weekend challenges have some of the best MTGO has to offer.