Welcome everyone to my first article here on PureMTGO. A little about myself, before this article, I was blogging on my own site. After realizing it was a little difficult to accumulate the traffic I had hoped for, I pulled the site and tried branching into other established sites (which is how i ended up here!). I enjoy playing competitive magic as well as building rogue decks because of the expressions people give when they lose to something unexpected. Anyways...
First, I have a confession: I am in love with broken decks.
About 2 months ago when Rise of Eldrazi was released, I was looking for some odd way to abuse these giant alien creature thingys. The first event they were legal was at a SCG 10k event weekend. I watched GGSlive on Saturday for the Standard portion, but it came up pretty empty in terms of new decks or ideas. Then the fun began; Sunday was the legacy tournament and they sponsored a deck on GGSlive that ran all the big Eldrazi and Sneak Attack. The deck seemed like fun and it looked like it could be innovated into a better, more consistent deck. My friend ,Luke, and I starting brewing not even 10 minutes after the deck had been "spoiled."
So far I have tested about 200+ games and had 40+ turn one kills. If that doesn’t get your attention, the deck goes off consistently on turn 3. Another selling point of the deck is, you are never completely out of a game even when things are dealt with via countermagic or other shenanigans. It feels like your always one good topdeck away from getting back in the game. So here it is:
The Game Plan is to smack down a Sneak Attack or Through the Breach and toss an Annihilating Alien or Hellcarver Demon at your opponent as soon as possible. Also, in 200+ games, I’ve used Hellcarver Demon about 40% of the time and never missed(always hit an Eldrazi or another Hellcarver). Even if I was to miss, just hitting a Sneak Attack leaves you in the game.
Sideboard:
-Vexing Shusher is kind of a given if you just read him.He helps stop countermagic from disrupting you easily. Another nice bonus is that he can some times become a win condition too. Paired with some Simian Spirit Guides and your good to go.
-Pyrostatic Pillar pretty much shuts off ANT. Which by the way, is not a great match-up. From Thoughtseize to Duress, to consistently going off a turn earlier than you. Pillar will usually buy you enough time to get your combo assembled.
-Shattering Spree for cards like Ethersworm Canonist and Pithing Needle. It also just so happens that it hoses Affinity, but that’s not as important seeing as you already have a good match-up against them. It doesn’t hurt to bring them in though.
-Pyroclasm for cards like Gaddock Teeg and Ethersworm Canonist. It’s also not bad against Gobos.
Other Considerations:
Mishra’s Factory – This would be over Ancient Tomb. As much as I love the acceleration that Tomb possess, you need another way to win after Through the Breaching an Eldrazi and this helps quite a bit.
Blood Moon – This would go in place of Gamble in the main. It looks good so far, but I’m going to test it a bit to see how much I like it.
Match-Ups:
Affinity
Game 1 - Toss an Eldrazi at them ASAP and they lose.
Games 2 and 3 - They will normally board in Pithing Needles and Ethersworn Cannonists.
In: +4 Shattering Spree
Out: -3 Gamble -1 Desperate Ritual
ANT
Game 1 - I'm not sure how fast this deck can now go off due to the banning of their Tutor, but if they get a quick start your done for. Just hope they stumble until turn 3 or 4 so you can toss an Eldrazi at them and they are so far set back that they can't win.
Games 2 and 3 - Again, if they get a fast start, your gone. But laying a pillar down will slow them down enough to let you win.
In: +4 Pyrostatic Pillar
Out: -3 Gamble -1 Desperate Ritual
Goblins
Game 1 - This is pretty much a bye. You just need to slam down an Eldrazi by turns 3-4 and your golden.
Games 2 and 3 - Same thing as game 1. I usually board in a few shattering sprees for Pithing Needles and Vials and pyroclasms to reset the board.
In: +3 Shattering Spree +3 Pyroclasm
Out: -3 Gamble -3 Desperate Ritual
Decks with Counter Spells(Bant, Merfolk, Reanimator, ...anything with Daze and Force of Will)
Game 1 - This game is very rough. I always play around Daze, but it's impossible to play around Force unfortunately. Just try and go off quickly.
Games 2 and 3 - Countermagic sucks, bring in the big guns.
In: +4 Vexing Shusher
Out: -3 Gamble -1 Desperate Ritual
Death and Taxes
Game 1 - This is in your favor. If they don't know what your trying to do, they will tap their Karakas and you can punish them for doing so.
Games 2 and 3 - Bring in some more shattering sprees and clasms because in comes their cannonists. If they're green they will bring in gaddock teegs too.
In: +3 Shattering Spree +3 Pyroclasm
Out: -3 Gamble -3 Desperate Ritual
Enchantress
Game 1 - They can rarely stop you from slapping down an Eldrazi. So just do so ASAP and you should have the game locked up.
Games 2 and 3 - They don't really have much to stop you... so just in case, bring in something to get rid of annoying artifacts.
In: +3 Shattering Spree
Out: -3 Gamble
Zoo
Game 1 - This is an easy win for you. They have little to no disruption to deal with you. Just like all the others, slap down an Eldrazi and watch for profits.
Games 2 and 3 - I've seen a lot of Zoo decks bring in Cannonists and Gaddock Teegs so again...
In: +3 Shattering Spree +3 Pyroclasm
Out: -3 Gamble -3 Desperate Ritual
There are a lot more decks to get into, but most of them can’t deal with an early and unexpected Eldrazi. Also, if you suspect Pithing Needles, when in doubt Spree them out.
The deck is broken, consistent, and fun. As well as cheap in terms of a Legacy deck. Also, with the speed of normal "Combo" decks decreasing, this may be a good contender. There is a couple of other direction the deck could go in, but I will save that for another article.
If you have any questions on a specific match-up or anything in general, feel free to comment.
* David Barberie
* MTGO-SudekiCd
* Email: BarberieDavid@yahoo.com
24 Comments
Haha! Epic :) Getting a huge creature in like that to smash your opponent and probably annihilate all of his lands :) Reminded my of Hypergenesis.
Great article.
When in doubt, spree them out........LOL, nice!
A well done first article! Glad to see other Legacy content on here. I am curious as to where your testing comes from. Is it from Tourney Practice room? 2mans? While I love the deck concept I wonder how viable it is in a tournament. I could be wrong, but I don't remember it placing in any recent Daily Events.
You mentioned a tough matchup in bant/thresh type decks. Most of these decks run Krosan Grip sideboard. Has this been a problem in testing?
Any thoughts of slowing it down, maybe going with a discard package? Any other cards you considered or any base shell you considered?
Thanks for the great feedback! :)
I've done about 100 or so games testing with Friends who have well built decks (I.E. Goblins, ANT, Fish, Reanimator, and a few others). The rest has been in the Tournament Practice room. I have not taken it to a Daily yet since I've been trying to rework it. Also, it wasn't in a great position before because most decks were either faster or they just have countermagic.
Now that ANT has slown down quite a bit, it is finally up to par with the speed.
I've only seen Krosan Grip hurt a few times, but at that point you have Through the Breech to help out.
It's funny you bring up a discard package. That is the direction I recently moved towards. Initially, that was going to be apart of another article (probably the next one I submit). So I will just touch up on it in the next one. :)
On another note...not sure exactly how to contact the person who puts up the articles, but I had named it "Sudo Infinity" on purpose(my username is SudekiCd and it's been a nickname). If it could be changed back to that, it would be great! Thanks! :)
With the decimation of ANT and Reanimator,(supposedly) your deck should have much more merit imo.
Actually if those decks become obsolete, you may not even need to go the discard route. Your worst matchup would probably be something counter related like Thresh/Bant/New Horizons.
I see the meta going in the direction of lots of aggro. I'd think this would make you smile quite a bit!
Aggro match-ups are great. :) So I hope so! Can't wait to see how the Meta turns out. Either way it will be great and I will still be playing this deck.
How can you pass up casting Emrakuls, Ulamogs, and Kozileks OH MY!
It's also nice to know that Hellcarver Demon actually has a deck it's insane in.
I haven't the foggiest about Legacy in general but doesn't Enchantress run Oblivion Ring main? Doesn't that just erase the Eldrazi you so painfully brought into play? Just sayin' it doesn't seem like a cake walk as you described. Also if I were playing Zoo I'd be running SOME form of exile removal. Seems like common sense since there is so much that can stop a Zoo deck if a big creature resolves. Again No idea about Legacy at all just curious what you think of these things.
Breaches gives it haste, so ring is no good there. Also Emrakul can't be targeted by colored spells, so ring isn't good there. Elephant Grass, Runed Halo and Solitary Confinement would be better cards. Although, I'm 98.7% sure Runed Halo still doesn't stop the trigger effect, just prevents the damage. Anyone know if that is correct?
I think Pridemage can kill Emrakul though, maybe someone else can comment on that as well.
Just like any reanimator type decks, you need to select the best possible target, the demon would be terrible vs. Zoo as it runs Path to Exile Main.
"Also Emrakul can't be targeted by colored spells, so ring isn't good there."
Just FYI, although Emrakul can't be targeted by colored spells, it can be targeted by effects. This means that Oblivion Ring, Royal Assassin, Ethersworn Adjudicator, even Scepter of Dominance, can all take out or deal with Emrakul. Not that you will see most of these cards in Legacy, but wanted to make sure you guys knew the rulings.
So Pridemage works like I thought. Thanks for clearing that up. If we start seeing Royal Assassin in Legacy I would laugh for at least a few hours before gathering my thoughts on the magnitude of the new Tech lol.
How does pridemage hurt Emrakul? He's no artifact or enchantment. Though he does hit Sneak Attack.
Oblivion Ring is is not an instant. So it does just about nothing against the deck. So most Enchantress decks are a cake walk as I described, yes. ;)
Zoo can't deal with an Emrakul. Once they sacrifice 6 permanents the game is pretty much over. Yes, the other Eldrazi and Hellcarver are dealt with via Path to Exile or Swords of Plowshares, but they usually tap out a lot, which leaves you with a lot of open opportunities to toss a big guy at them. Game one is usually easy because they're not sure exactly what your trying to accomplish. Games 2 and 3 are a little more difficult, but do able.
Runed Halo only prevents the damage. The triggered ability still goes on the stack and they still have to sac permanents.
Eldrazi are not Artifacts, they are just colorless creatures. So Pridemage will be Annihilator fodder.
Flickerwisp begs to differ :p but seriously though I'd forgotten about the hastiness. As far as Zoo goes, games 2-3 might see Preserver tech if the Eldrazi make a dent in the meta. Not saying that's a perfect answer mind you, just a piece of the puzzle I am thinking.
How quickly I forget they aren't artifacts......STUPID Coloring!
interesting deck i must admit, and something i could see trying. Heres what i want to know though. How often can you reliably get to 5 mana on turn 2 or 3? The deck looks really nifty, but then again decks like this end up sucking pretty bad when in tournament play. Look at the blue grren showand tell/eureka deck. That has 7 ways to get a fatty into play plus 4 tutors + 8 card draw and its still wildy inconsistent.
If your trying to claim this is a tournament deck i would like to see some tournament results. Not bashing you, or your firends, but playing in the tp room and playing in a daily event, you get vastly different matchups. For instance, i usally play my teir 2 or fun decks in tp room, and leave my tuned tourny decks for the events.
Would like to see more please, much more as this is at best half an article.
You get 5 mana easily on turns 2 and 3. I've just been testing it lately to see what direction I should go in. Which I believe I have found the best possible way...but that is for my next article. So your "half an article" comment is close seeing as this was just an introduction to the deck.
This could be a tournament deck, I would have to say this build probably would not do so hot right now because of the exuberant amounts of blue mages. There are a lot of players in Daily Events that own Force of Wills. I realize Daily Events and the Tournament Practice room are two different levels. I just have not done any DEs with the deck yet because it didn't feel close to being finished yet.
I plan on doing some tournaments with it soon, so hopefully I can get some results to support this topic. After the banning of Mystical Tutor, this deck gets a little better since most of the combo decks relied on it, so making them slow down is a nice thing.
Not to mention, Show and Tell wasn't that good seeing as ReAnimator was an amazing deck that saw quite a bit of play.
Nice deck i will have to get Sneak Attack and try it out looks fun and should have some good match ups and silly factor. There a versions of this using Trinisphere,Chalice and other staxx peices too. I could not see this having a close to decent MU with Animator even w/o Mystical Tutor. Disrupt,Counters and your lack of any GY hate for Iona on red. You have no outs to Humility for Landstill decks that will be drawing 3 t2-3. Death and Taxes has StP if you go Emrakul you have to have more mana up for Karakas to use SA again or you have to play around Mangara.
Curfew,Spellbomb, Executioner's Capsule will also answer Emrakul if played preemptively or in Curfew's case instant speed. The beginning of combat step is where the bounce is limited to use and this gets worse if there is mana for Sneak Attack or Through the Breach played after.
I'm not stating that there aren't ways to deal with the deck or outs to almost everything.
Yes, the ReAnimator deck is a bad match-up. It has countermagic... I covered that. :) Your sideboard is for your worst match-ups and your Meta-Game. I put Vexing Shushers in there to help out against "ALL" countermagic decks. I also did not put any graveyard hate because I haven't played against it often enough. With ReAnimator probably going down in popularity I don't see a need. But we will have to see what the new Meta will look like.
The versions that use Trinisphere, Chalice, and Staxx Pieces are Dragonstompy decks. They attempt to slow down their opponent so they can do dumb lategame things. This version of the deck tries to go off as fast as possible. Two different decks. :)
I see you mentioned running blood moon's instead of gamble, have you decided which is better? When looking at your sideboard decisions, you take out gamble against every matchup. It seems like Gamble shouldn't be in the deck at all, do you still believe blood moon is the best card to take it's place?
Gamble is a necessary evil it seems in game 1s. It's an unreliable tutor, but still a tutor. I wasn't too impressed with Blood Moon because I was trying to go off quickly, not stall the board.
I take out gambles because there are cards you want in certain match-ups, so it's no longer needed. It's just more reliable to have the cards in your deck then to gamble for them, especially when all your board cards are all 3 and 4 ofs.
Hopefully that made sense.
All in all, Blood Moon is not worth it in my opinion.
Grim Tutor is unbanned in Legacy right? Have you considered that option in a black/red discard build? Or, is that discussion for the next article lol.
Very enjoyable, it's nice to see other decks creeping into the realm of viability now that ANT and Reanimator have been slowed down. If this deck catches on I'll have to make some adjustments to my Enchatress deck... hmmm
Also, welcome to PureMTGO!
It feels good enough now that the other combos have slowed down, but I guess we will see. <3 Enchantress
Also, thanks! :D I hope I can get some more articles flowin' because this is a lot of fun.
The feedback on this site is much better ever since they got rid of the annons.