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By: Flippers_Giraffe, Simon Smith
Dec 15 2010 2:42am
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This week I decided to expand on one of the cards from last week's article Isochron Scepter, I'm going to show you two decks that I built round the card one based in Legacy and the other in Classic. The third deck I have for you this week is my current Commander deck which I have been having lots of fun with over the last few months.

Before the decks though there are a few other things that have come up. The first is the loss of www.deckcheck.net which was the place to go if you were looking for deck lists from any format or event in the paper world. I used it a lot for deck ideas and have just found out that it's no longer being run which is quite sad as there isn't anywhere else I've found that is as good and friendly to use.

On the tribal front the format has now gone into Legacy and Moat has now been added to the banned list which gives fast aggro decks like Elves and Goblins an extra edge. The Tribal Apocalypse prize payout has also changed to a percentage payout structure based on the top four players of the event decided by DCI-r which is the tool I'm now using to record the match results. This does mean that the event has a higher payout as an example this week's event payed out 9, 7, 5 and 2 credits on www.mtgotraders.com so prepare for more competitive decks. I'd also like to mention that on January the 29th Tribal Apocalypse will be combining forces with the Heirloom format so watch out for that one as well as the joint BYOS event on the 2nd of January.         

Now let's move onto the decks.... 

 

After last week's article I was looking to build further on the Isochron Scepter / Orim's Chant combo and make it into a more competitive deck. I decided the best format for this would be Legacy as it can be a slower format compared to classic, this gives us more of a chance to get our lock on.

There are a number of options in the choice of colour for the deck I wanted to build, you could go with  and go heavy on the control side which is an option but I feel that would require the Mind Sculptor and Force of Will if I wanted to go all out, but I don't even think selling my soul would net me enough tickets to buy a playset of both. 

The next option would be to go  and run a Tarmogoyf build with Qasali Pridemage and Knight of the Reliquary but I would end up taking out the scepters for more aggro based cards.

The last option was to go with a mono white build. We can still run down the aggro route with mono white and white has a nice selection of options to it. I expect you may also aware of the Death and Taxes deck or Wizards version Elixir which is very similar but without the Wastelands, well if you have either version then it won't be too far away to convert the deck to my Scepter/Chant deck.

For those of you not familiar to the decks mentioned above they are both mono white decks based around abusing Mangara of Corondor with Karakas and return to hand cards like Flickerwisp. The Elixir build is missing the Wastelands but apart from that they are almost similar, of course that's not to say my deck is a netdeck rip off far from it you should know me by now. 

So what does my deck share with the above two decks, there are a number of cards that I couldn't leave out as they are that good. I'm running Stoneforge Mystic and a number of equipment cards the first is a hated card among casual players Umezawa's Jitte, the reason it's hated is because it's an excellent card turning any attacker into a very powerful threat if not dealt with. The other two pieces of equipment I'm running is Sword of Body and Mind and Sword of Fire and Ice. I'm starting to find the Sword of Body and Mind a better card than the other two at present, although this depends on the colour of the deck you are playing against.

Stoneforge Mystic Umezawa's Jitte Sword of Body and Mind Sword of Fire and Ice

The other creatures I'm running in the deck will mostly be played the turn before you cast your Scepter which are Isamaru, Hound of Konda, Soltari Priest which I will add is an excellent card in most decks. They can't be killed by burn or blocked by Tarmogoyf if they are equipped with any of our equipment in the deck then your opponent is in deep trouble. Another early hitter is Student of Warfare which I found very useful on turn two if pumped she's a 3/3 with first strike which is a nice edge. The last creature is for the late game which is Sun Titan, his comes into play/attacking ability will bring you back most of the cards in your deck. The is another creature which I saved to last as its one of the best in the deck which is Linvala, Keeper of Silence she shuts down so many cards, I tend to include her in any mono white deck I play at the moment.

Soltari Priest Student of Warfare Sun Titan Linvala, Keeper of Silence       

The other cards in the deck are Enlightened Tutor as another source to search for artifacts or Enchantments. Chrome Mox and Tithe for mana acceleration. On the removal front we have four copies of Swords to Plowshares and two Wrath of God's.

Now we have the mana base which includes Wasteland and Mishra's Factory's and a lone Karakas for any legends that we don't want to face.

Wasteland Mishra's Factory

Lastly but not forgotten is the sideboard. I'm running an incomplete sideboard at this moment in time as I haven't played against all the various archetypes to work out what I will need in certain situations, to represent this I add basic lands until I realize what I need to overcome a certain type of deck. What I currently do have though is two copies of Disenchant for taking out opposing artifacts and enchantments like Jitte and Moat's. Leyline of Sanctity is a truly fantastic sideboard card vs red deck wins and also a lot of combo decks like Helm/Line (Helm of Obedience/Leyline of the Void), Painter's Servant/Grindstone and Tendrils of Agony storm based decks. I'm also running some serious graveyard hate for dredge decks as well in the form of Relic of Progenitus and Wheel of Sun and Moon.   

Here's the finished deck list.   

  Creatures   Artifacts   Sideboard
1  Isamaru, Hound of Konda 2  Chrome Mox 2  Disenchant
2  Linvala, Keeper of Silence 4  Isochron Scepter 4  Leyline of Sanctity
4  Soltari Priest 1  Sword of Body and Mind 3  Relic of Progenitus
2  Stoneforge Mystic 1  Sword of Fire and Ice 2  Wheel of Sun and Moon
3  Student of Warfare 1  Umezawa's Jitte    
2  Sun Titan   Land 4 Empty Slots
  Sorceries & Instants 3  Flagstones of Trokair    
2  Enlightened Tutor  1  Karakas    
4  Orim's Chant 4  Mishra's Factory    
4  Swords to Plowshares 12  Snow-Covered Plains    
2  Tithe 3  Wasteland    
2  Wrath of God        

If you are wondering how does it play well I've playing all the games with it in the tournament practice room and against the, I would say tear two decks like Elves and Vampires both mono black and black/red it's being doing well and winning a lot. The worst match up I've found so far is against the Death and Taxes/Elixir decks and full on aggro decks. The Elixir style deck is very strong and we share a lot of the same cards but the ability to keep playing cards via AEther Vial is a big issue as it gets round Orim's Chant, while I'm writing this has prompted me to think about adding Pithing Needle to the sideboard as a way to stop Vial. Aggro decks are a completely different ball game I think that with work and maybe another two Chrome Mox's to help speed the deck up it may be what it needs but as ever Qasali Pridemage will be our downfall.   

The decks not quite tier one yet but there is potential in it.

Here's a screen shot of a fully equipped Soltari Priest taking out a vampire horde.

 

 

Now we move on to the next deck of the article which again is based around Isochron Scepter but we will be sticking a different card down the end of the Scepter this time round instead of Orim's Chant we will be using Artifact Mutation, I expect a lot of you will be going oh well that's not a very interesting card and I also expect a lot of you may even not know what the card is so let's have a look.

Artifact Mutation 

So how can this card be of any good unless you're are playing against an artifact based deck you might wonder? Well the answer to that is to make your opponents deck an artifact deck. There are a number of ways but the card I'm going to be using is Liquimetal Coating from Scars of Mirrodin. It's a simple trick but one which catches players off guard.

Now let's look how we can get the most out of our combo. Voltaic Key is the first answer as it enables us to untap either artifact, there is also another card with a similar ability which has a personality all of his own Tezzeret the Seeker. Now the decks starting to shape up, I'm also going to include Trinket Mage so we can easily search for a Voltaic Key if the need occurs.

Liquimetal Coating Voltaic Key Tezzeret the Seeker

Next in the deck we have another form of artifact removal Glissa Sunseeker she is more of a fun card but first strike makes her very useful when she's not destroying artifacts. There are two more creatures not mentioned so far Phyrexian Ironfoot which for three mana is a good blocker and we can untap him with the Voltaic Key saving a point of mana. The other creature is Inkwell Leviathan which comes in a combo package with Tinker.

Inkwell Leviathan Tinker

Moving on to the other spells we have Brainstorm to help sort our library. Cunning Wish to well wish for any of the cards in our sideboard when needed which include our fourth copy of Artifact MutationBoomerang for cards that cause us an issue that need bouncing quickly, Mana Drain if we are up against decks with big mana costs, all of these can also be printed onto the Scepter. The other instant is Krosan Grip to stop any combo artifacts. I'll go through the other sideboard cards shortly. Going back to the main deck we also have Giant Growth to help those saprolings that will be giving us the win and Mystical Tutor to look for any spells that are needed.

Brainstorm Cunning Wish Krosan Grip

The other sideboard cards are Tormod's Crypt for dredge and Wall of Blossoms to slow down aggro decks. I also added in three copy's of Leyline of Sanctity to combat combo decks as you will find a lot of these in classic, these are the only white cards in the deck and I adjusted the mana base so they can be cast if needed.

Below is the completed deck.   

  Creatures   Artifacts   Sideboard
2  Glissa Sunseeker 4  Isochron Scepter 1  Artifact Mutation
1  Inkwell Leviathan 4  Liquimetal Coating 1  Boomerang
4  Phyrexian Ironfoot 3  Voltaic Key 2  Krosan Grip
2  Trinket Mage   Land 3  Leyline of Sanctity
  Sorceries & Instants 4  Misty Rainforest 2  Mana Drain
3  Artifact Mutation 1  Scalding Tarn 3  Tormod's Crypt
4  Brainstorm 1  Snow-Covered Forest 3  Wall of Blossoms
2  Cunning Wish 7  Snow-Covered Island    
3  Giant Growth 1  Tolarian Academy    
2  Mystical Tutor 4  Tropical Island    
1  Tinker 3  Tundra    
  Planeswalkers 2  Volcanic Island    
2  Tezzeret the Seeker        
Tezzeret the Seeker

Now I've only been playing this deck in the casual room at present but the sideboard is ready for when I move into the TP room if I decide to do so with this deck. So how does it play. Well rather well having three cards as part of a combo may seem like it could present an issue but I found the combo came together when it was needed and Tezzeret really shines in this deck it's the first one I've built that really uses his ability's to their full potential.

Now there is a reason why the deck hasn't been tried in the TP room and that is because it's currently a card short of its full potential and that card isn't online until January. Can you guess what would make this deck even more deadly? No well the answer is Time Vault extra turns to destroy all your permanents well yes please sir I'll be having some of that. The deck is fully geared up to abuse it and I can't wait. You may see this deck again in a months time and I'll let you know how it fairs with its new toy. I may also dabble with replacing the Phyrexian Ironfoot's with Tarmogoyf's but I'm undecided yet.  

Time Vault Tarmogoyf

 

You know it's all over when Tezzeret is on the scene.

Turning Allies into saprolings, is the end upon us? It was in this game.

 

Lastly this week I have a Commander deck for you all, this deck is my current pride and joy at the moment, I tend to only play one Commander deck at a time which is different to my normal deck playing habits. My commander of choice is Mirri the Cursed the vampire cat. This means I'm running a mono black deck.

Mirri the Cursed

But why choose Mirri out of all the black legends? Well she fulfills all my needs in the deck, this deck is built for one thing and that's to hit hard and fast in Commander it might not be the best tactic, but it's fun and I really enjoy it.  Now the reason why I have chosen Mirri is firstly because of her cheap mana cost, in most games she's in play on turn two on the attack, yes every game I've played sine FTV Relics was released I've started with Sol Ring in my starting hand. To make Mirri a deadly kitty and a threat to all generals and well any blocker is the inclusion of a number of artifacts Basilisk Collar and Gorgon Flail which give her deathtouch, now when you consider she already has first strike anything she hits will die first unless it also has first strike. She is a Commander's worst nightmare no matter what you throw in front of her she will kill it and if you don't that's Commander damage from an early start.

As you may have guessed it doesn't take very long for the other players to start ganging up on me, they know one of them will die unless they can remove Mirri quickly and that is usually the case.

So how to survive and I will tell you now I haven't won a game yet with this deck as it runs out of power when it comes down to the last opponent. But it doesn't go quietly it's like a machine of whirling death.

My general is a vampire and that part you already know so of course I will be using a number of other vampires to make the most of it but this isn't a vampire based deck it's just that some of the more useful creatures are vampires. Now the vampires I'm running to get them out of the way are Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief which is the most common choice for a vampire Commander, Gatekeeper of Malakir as his removal ability is fantastic for a kicked . Then we have our first assassin Guul Draz Assassin our second incidentally is Royal Assassin. We have the greatest hits of the early game vampires which you will all know, Child of Night, Vampire Hexmage and Vampire Nighthawk. The last blood sucker of the bunch is the queen of shades Nirkana Revenant when she hits play if I'm not already the main target I will be after that.

Guul Draz Assassin Gatekeeper of Malakir Vampire Hexmage Royal Assassin

Now we have our vampires let's look at the other creatures that you may not of thought to include in your decks. The first is Corrosive Mentor which is a fantastic card in a mono black deck all your creatures have wither. Next up is the big bad Grave Titan this card has a very big deal with me now or die sign above his head. Gravedigger has always been a good card at returning creatures from you're graveyard but is sometimes missed when you are skimming through your collection looking for candidates. Now is a card that I've never seen anyone else play in Commander which is Soot Imp, it's a fantastic way to annoy the entire table of players but the strange things is due to its size no one will waste removal on it, but it does more than its fair share of damage. Yixlid Jailer is a great card to stop any graveyard funny business which there is a lot of in Commander in fact I have had a lot of complaints about using it's enchantment version Leyline of the Void but all is fair in love and war.

Corrosive Mentor Grave Titan Soot Imp Yixlid Jailer

A few more big hitters for you Ihsan's Shade is a good card some might disrespect him but a 5/5 protection from white has it's uses. Ink-Eyes is a good trick card that I like playing when attacking with the smaller vampires, I tend to Dark Ritual her out via Ninjutsu. Korlash, Heir to Blackblade and Nightmare are very similar and grow depending on the number of swamps you have in play.

Now I'm not going to go through all of the cards in the deck as the removal spells won't be a surprise for sure so let's look at a few other cards I want to mention and then I will show you the deck list. Sorin Markov is a card not many dare to play anymore but in this deck he is the planeswalker you most want to join you in battle after you have disposed of your first opponent. He can quickly drop the next player down to ten life giving you ample time to finish him before you are faced with the last player. Grave Pact is another card that has been worth its weight in gold in a lot of games as our creatures tend to die off quickly and this single enchantment has forced players not to attack me through fear of me losing a small vampire for their big hitter or commander. Next is an artifact Forcefield once a very expensive card in paper but it's a bargain online at $0.60 for a card that can stop so much damage. The last card I want to show you is Hatred from Exodus if Mirri gets through you could take down an opponent with one hit using this card to boost Mirri and I have done it and yes it feels good.

Sorin Markov Grave Pact Forcefield Hatred

Now the deck list, I've been playing round with different ways to show Commander and 100 singleton decks for a while now and this is the cleanest I've come up with yet. Let me know what you think.         

Commander

Mirri the Cursed

Mirri the Cursed

 Creatures 
Planeswalkers  Artifacts  Tutors 
1 Child of Night  1 Liliana Vess  1 Basilisk Collar  1 Demonic Tutor 
1 Corrosive Mentor  1 Sorin Markov  1 Blade of the Bloodchief 1 Vampiric Tutor 
1 Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief  2 cards 1 Forcefield  2 cards
1 Duplicant    1 Gilded Lotus   
1 Gatekeeper of Malakir  Enchantments  1 Gorgon Flail  Basic Lands 
1 Grave Titan  1 Eldrazi Conscription 1 Lotus Petal  28 Swamp 
1 Gravedigger  1 Grave Pact  1 Mox Diamond  28 cards
1 Guul Draz Assassin  1 Leyline of the Void  1 Nevinyrral's Disk   
1 Ihsan's Shade  3 cards 1 Relic of Progenitus  Non Basic Lands
1 Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni    1 Sol Ring 1 Ancient Tomb 
1 Korlash, Heir to Blackblade  Removal  1 Sword of Vengeance  1 Barren Moor 
1 Midnight Banshee  1 Chill to the Bone  11 cards 1 Bojuka Bog 
1 Nightmare  1 Consume Spirit    1 Cabal Coffers 
1 Nirkana Revenant  1 Corrupt  Other Spells 1 Crypt of Agadeem 
1 Ob Nixilis, the Fallen 1 Damnation  1 Ambition's Cost 1 Miren, the Moaning Well 
1 Platinum Angel  1 Dark Banishing  1 Dark Ritual 1 Mystifying Maze 
1 Royal Assassin  1 Diabolic Edict  1 Darkness 1 Polluted Mire 
1 Shriekmaw  1 Doom Blade  1 Exhume 1 Strip Mine
1 Soot Imp  1 Nameless Inversion  1 Hatred 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Vampire Hexmage  1 Smother  1 Persecute 1 Volrath's Stronghold 
1 Vampire Nighthawk  1 Terror  1 Rise from the Grave 1 Wasteland 
1 Yixlid Jailer  1 Urge to Feed  1 Sign in Blood 12 cards
22 cards 11 cards 8 cards  

Flippers Out

 

10 Comments

deckcheck.net has died a by Lord Erman at Wed, 12/15/2010 - 03:43
Lord Erman's picture

deckcheck.net has died a while ago. But there is a new site: http://www.thecouncil.es/tcdecks/. It's no less than deckcheck.

LE

Thank you LE by Flippers_Giraffe at Wed, 12/15/2010 - 09:00
Flippers_Giraffe's picture

Thank you LE

deckcheck.org by Etriol at Thu, 12/16/2010 - 03:16
Etriol's picture

I think, that site moved to deckcheck.org

Great article as always, I by Xaoslegend at Wed, 12/15/2010 - 04:09
Xaoslegend's picture
5

Great article as always,

I read articles like this one and just think to myself: this guy just plays on a whole different level than I have in a long long time. I used to be a sort that would make these kinds of decks all the time, but alas I just don't have the time these days. It's nice to be a voyeur reading the article though.

I like that you decided to go aggro with this commander deck. It's a hard spot to be in in group game, but as you say, a lot of fun.

X-

There is definitely an by Paul Leicht at Wed, 12/15/2010 - 09:56
Paul Leicht's picture
5

There is definitely an opportunity in commander for an aggro player to set up early kills but the problem is with 3 opponents (typically 2 are developing normally and one is hampered by land problems) you will be faced with multiple methods and attempts to remove the offender. As black some of the worst neutralizers keep your commander on the table where you can't just recast her and start again. If I were you I would run not only the disk but also Oblivion Stone.

Also perhaps Ratchet Bomb. And definitely both Masticore and Molten-tail Masticore if you have them. I realize those two cards might hurt your aggro strategy a little as they are more controlish but they can be fine face smashers given a decent amount of mana. And more importantly they remove potential blockers. Also think about Nim Deathmantle and the Infect equipment. Also with all your nonbasic lands you really should be running Expedition Map. And because you are mono black why not run Corrupt and Tendrils of Corruption. All in all you will probably keep tuning and tuning the deck and still rarely win vs 3 others because you aren't doing as much broken stuff as most commanders do. That said I hope it continues being fun and worth playing.

there's also deckcheck.de by DH at Wed, 12/15/2010 - 12:50
DH's picture

there's also deckcheck.de

Fun article ... Was wondering by Mr Littlejeans at Wed, 12/15/2010 - 15:53
Mr Littlejeans's picture

Fun article ...

Was wondering if you tried Echoing Courage over Giant Growth in the Artifact Mutation deck.

No I never thought of using by Flippers_Giraffe at Wed, 12/15/2010 - 16:16
Flippers_Giraffe's picture

No I never thought of using Echoing Courage. I might have to give it a try, looks like it will be of more benefit than Giant Growth with all the saporlings.

Any chance... by radman99 at Sat, 01/01/2011 - 12:53
radman99's picture
4

for a new Rare Drafters article? I am using the last one from Sept. and I imagine the prices have changed. Thanks!

I did do a Rare Drafter by Flippers_Giraffe at Mon, 01/03/2011 - 06:09
Flippers_Giraffe's picture

I did do a Rare Drafter article for November but sadly there were complications and I'm unable to save the article due to it having too much data.

I don't have a solution on how to fix this at present.