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By: Sirskills, Mitch Somes
Aug 31 2010 12:00am
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 Hello everyone,

Today I will give you a match report of one of my favourite decks to date. After witnessing all the control, and seemingly slow starts with most of the decks today I decided late one night to try and make a deck based around pure speed and aggression.     

Here is the list I came up with:

               This deck has seen play before in one form or another, but I did throw this version together by myself without looking hitting the net deck lists. I have seven game reports to give you. . I would have made videos but I didn't record any sounds so they would be boring to watch. Next article I'll try to add a soundtrack of some sort.

The deck has incredible speed and power and I found myself shrugging off the complete lack of main-deck removal most of the time. Additionally, I only ran one comes into play tapped land, which allows the deck to purr along and rarely misses a beat.  I will let you know some of the changes I would make after giving you my match reports. Also, to borrow an idea I've seen around, I will simply refer to my opponents as "Villain".

Match 1 vs Valakut Ramp

Valakut, the Molten PinnacleCultivateKhalni Heart Expedition

               Now admittedly he had a poor man's version of Valakut Ramp, but this match shows how explosive Mythic Conscription can be if left unchecked. Here we go.

My hand:

Misty RainforestBirds of ParadiseforestKnight of the ReliquarySovereigns of Lost AlaraBloodbraid ElfLotus Cobra

Turn 1: I play a forest into a Birds of Paradise. Villain opens mountain into Expedition Map.

Turn 2: Draw Bloodbraid Elf. I play Lotus Cobra followed by the Misty Rainforestwhich I crack for an island but not before adding green and white mana in order to cast the Knight of the Reliquary. Villain plays a Jund Panorama and cracks it for a forest.

Turn 3: Draw Fauna Shaman. I tap out, use the Knight of the Reliquary to sac my forest for a Misty Rainforest which allows to produce enough mana to cast both a Bloodbraid Elf and a Fauna Shaman. my Bloodbraid Elf hits another Lotus Cobra. I swing for 5 making life totals 18-15. Villain plays a mountain then Cultivates.

Turn 4: draw Noble Hierarch. I tap my forest, sacrifice it with Knight of the Reliquary fetching a Misty Rainforest  for two mana from my cobras. I crack the misty for another forest and two more mana from my cobras. I now have seven total mana so I cast a Sovereigns of Lost Alara and Noble Hierarch. An attack from my Bloodbraid Elf leads to an Eldrazi Conscription and two exalted triggers for exactly 15 damage and a turn four win.

I change nothing and I'm off to game 2.

My Hand:

forestEldrazi ConscriptionBirds of ParadiseDauntless EscortArid MesaKnight of the Reliquary Knight of the Reliquary

Turn 1: Villain leads with a mountain after mulliganing to 6. I draw an island and lead with forest into Birds of Paradise.

Turn 2:  Villain plays Jund Panorama and cracks it for a forest. I draw a Sunpetal Grove play it and decide to protect my team with Dauntless Escort.

Turn 3: Villain plays a Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle and a Rampant Growth  for a mountain. I draw a Birds of Paradise, play it and my Arid Mesa for a Mountain and cast my first Knight of the Reliquary. I swing for 3 with Dauntless Escort 19-17.

Turn 4: Villain plays a Mountain and THEN his Khalni Heart Expedition OOPS! I draw a Bloodbraid Elf play my island, second Knight of the Reliquary, use the first to sacrifice my forest to get another so I can cast the Bloodbraid Elf which cascades into a third Knight of the Reliquary. I attack for six, 18-11.

Turn 5: Villain plays a Terramorphic Expanse cracks it for a mountain then casts Rampant Growth and cracks his Khalni for two mountains targeting my escort and a bird. I sacrifice the escort and earn the concession as villain is staring down three 5/5 Knight of the Reliquarys.

               Wow a turn 4 and 5 win on the play and draw. I am feeling good about this deck. I am going to start using short forms for some of my cards to save space and time.

Match 2 vs: Vampires

Gatekeeper of MalakirDoom BladeVampire Nocturnus

My hand Rootbound CragSejiri SteppeFauna ShamanBloodbraid ElfLotus CobraBirds of Paradise Birds of Paradise

Turn 1: Villain leads swamp into Vampire Lacerator. I draw a forest and play my first BoP.

Turn 2: Villain plays a swamp and doom blades my BoP. He attacks me down to 18. I draw a KotR and play my crag into Fauna Shaman.

Turn 3: Villain plays a fetch land and a Hexmage declining to attack with his lacerator. I draw another KotR and play my cobra then the steppe, accidentally choosing black mana when I wanted protection from black so I have to ship the turn back with my second BoP still in hand.

Turn 4: Villain casts Feast of Blood targeting my shaman misses his land drop and attacks with the team. I block his Lacerator with my cobra and the life stands at 21-16 in his favour. I draw a Noble Hierarch and decide to play it and my BoP.

Turn 5: Villain plays a swamp and two Bloodghasts. He attacks and its 20-14. I draw Vengevine play it and leave it untapped for defense.

Turn 6:  Villain casts a gatekeeper and I sacrifice my BoP. He attacks with the bloodghasts I block one and its 20-12 in villain's favour. I draw Eldrazi Conscription and play my first KotR.

Turn 7: Villian plays a Guul Draz Vampire and another gatekeeper, I sacrifice my noble. Villain attacks with the team and I block his hexmage with my Vengevine and his gatekeeper with my KotR killing both. 20-10 which turns on the unblockable guul draz. I draw an Arid Mesa and roll out BBE who cascades into a hierarch, I attack with BBE 16-9 villain's favour.

Turn 8: Villain plays a swamp getting back his Bloodghast. he attacks with everything except his gatekeeper so I block both Bloodghasts losing my noble in the process. 16-6. I draw Sovereigns and play out my KotR, attacking with both the Vengevine and BBE. Villain declines to block, 9-6 in villain's favour.

Turn 9: Villain  plays a Lacerator emptying his hand and swings with just his intimidator 9-3. I draw an ever so sweet forest, play it, use KotR to help cast Sovereigns who fetches a Conscription to enchant my Vengevine for a tramply win.

Phew, that was too close. In: 4 sparkmages, 2Stoneforge Mystics, 2 Basilisk Collar. Out: 1 sovereign,1 cobra, 1 shaman, 1 bbe, 2 KotR and 2 Dauntless Escort.

I keep a hand of:

Bloodbraid ElfStoneforge MysticCunning SparkmageVengevineforestArid Mesa Glacial Fortress

Turn 1: Villain leads out a swamp and tries to duress me but I only have creatures. I draw a steppe and lead out with my fortress.

Turn 2: Villain plays a swamp and passes the turn. I draw a Sunpetal Grove and I play my forest into a mystic fetching a collar. Villain doom blades my mystic at the end of my turn.

Turn 3: Villain plays a swamp and again duresses me and gets my collar. I draw another mesa and play it to fetch a mountain for my sparkmage.

Turn 4: Villain  Doom blades my sparkmage and its 19-19 with villain down to two cards in hand. I draw another mystic but play my Vengevine off the grove and attack. 19-15 for me.

Turn 5: Villain plays a swamp and a Captivating Vampire. I draw another Vengevine play it and the steppe out and attack for 8. 19-7.

Turn 6: Villain plays a Vampire Nocturnus revealing a Sign in Blood on top of his library and empties his hand playing his last swamp, declining to attack. I draw a BoP and attack with both Vengevine. Villain blocks 1 making it 19-3. I play out my mystic fetching a collar and ship it back.

Turn 7: Villain uses his sign in blood dropping him to 1 life. I earn the concession.

Match 3: I played another game against vampires but I earned quick concessions in both after explosive openings and since this will be a long enough article as it is I will skip the details of this match.

Match  4:

I have a great starting hand with 4 land 2 KotR and a Fauna Shaman.

Turn 2: Villain cast an Explore and I cast a Fauna Shaman.

Turn 3: Villain  is up to four land and casts a Wall of Omens. I play a KotR.

Turn 4: Villain casts Day of Judgment. I play another KotR.

Turn 5: Things are looking bad as villain casts a Sun Titan bring back his wall. I follow it up with another 4/4 KotR and a BoP leaving me with 2 BBE in hand. Villain has 4 cards in hand, 8 land in play and life is 21-18 in villains favour.

Turn 6: Villain casts a Sword of Vengeance and Cultivate. I make my knights into 6/6s and attack with one KotR. I cast a BBE which unspectacularly hits a BoP, this does happen frequently in the deck but is a necessary evil.

Turn 7: Villain adds an Eye of Ugin and an Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre to the team. All I can do is make my last KotR into an 8/8 before one bites the dust. I draw another BBE and cast both that are in my hand hitting a Hierarch and a cobra. I ship the turn back.

Turn 8: Villain equips and attacks. I sacrifice 4 land but since it now has trample I decline to block. 21-8. I draw a blank and decide there is nothing I can do, to stop the bad ass indestructible, first striking, Vigilant,  Trampling , Annihilator that is Ulamog so I prepare for game 2.

I side in my 3 Oblivion rings and 3 Path to Exiles for a Ranger of Eos, a sovereign, a cobra, a shaman a BoP and the Sejiri Steppe.

I keep a mediocre hand with 5 land , BBE and O-Ring.

It's land and go for the first 2 turns for me while villain plays an explore. I draw 2 more lands...

Turn 3: I play a land, Villain plays a Nest Invader and a Wall of Omens.

Turn 4: I play my BBE who cascades into a Dauntless Escort. Villain adds another Nest Invader and casts a Rampant Growth.

Turn 5: I play a land and ship the turn back with an untapped escort and BBE. Villain untaps, plays an Eye of Ugin and uses his 2 tokens to cast a Kozilek, Butcher of Truth.

Turn 6: I draw something useful in Eldrazi Conscription. I O-Ring the Kozilek play a land (I have 6 now with 3 left in hand).

Turn 7: Villain attacks with his 2 Nest invaders and I block both losing my BBE. Villain casts a cultivate upping his available mana to 10 for next turn he uses a tectonic edge. I draw to bring me down to 5 land.  I draw a Vengevine and attack with both critters getting 4 through. 18-16 for me.

Turn 8: Villain plays a Mystifying Maze, which pretty much ends my hopes as any conscripted creature is now useless. I draw another conscription and now have 7 land in play. I attack again and villain uses his eye to find an Ulamog.

Turn 9: Villain casts Ulamog destroying my Escort. I play my 8th land and attack with a conscripted Vengevine getting 4 damage through and forcing villain to sacrifice a land and his wall.

Turn 10: Villain attacks with Ulamog and I'm forced to sacrifice 4 land and take 10 damage.

Turn 11: I play a second Vengevine but sadly that would be my last play as I take villain down to 4 life as he is able to maze away my conscripted vengevine. Ulamog's 10/10 body hits me again and I die.

               If it weren't for that maze I might have had a chance. Clearly this kind of ramp/control strategy is not good against that match-up. I will have to think of something (see my comments at the end of the reports).

Match 5: Mono White Lifegain

Ajani's Pridematesoul wardensoul's attendant

This was a great match.

I keep a 1 land hand of

fauna shamannoble hierarchnoble hierarchbirds of paradiseknight of the reliquaryEldrazi Conscriptionforest

Turn 1: Villain open plains into Elixir of Immortality. I draw a Dauntless Escort and lead forest into hierarch.

Turn 2: Villain plays a plains and Ajani's Pridemate. I draw a KotR and play a hierarch and a BoP missing my land drop.

Turn  3: Villain plays a (Kabira Crossroad) and plays an attendant and attacks me for 3. 22-17 villain. I draw a Lotus Cobra and play it and my Fauna Shaman. Villain gains 2 life and his pridemate is a 5/5. He paths my cobra at the end of my turn fetching me a plains.

Turn 4: Villain plays a Lone Missionary and his pridemate is now a 7/7 and the life after an attack is 29-10 villain. I draw another cobra, play it and my first KotR.

Turn 5: Villain plays 2 maindecked Kor Firewalkers emptying his hand while making his pridemate an 11/11. If it gets through I die. Villain attacks with his missionary and his pridemate so I throw a cobra in the way to chump block and take 2. life is 33-8 villain. I draw another Eldrazi Conscription and play out my Dauntless Escort and use my KotR to fetch another forest to play my second KotR. My board is 2 Noble Hierarch, 1 Birds of Paradise, 1 Lotus Cobra, 2 Knight of the Reliquary and 1 Dauntless Escort.

Turn 6: Villain draws and plays a plains. He attacks with just the pridemate. I send BoP in for a chump block. I draw a forest and thanks to my cobra and help from a KotR I cast my first Conscription on my untapped KotR. I send my 18/18 annihilator 2 into the red zone, villain declines a block and sacrifices 2 plains. I have an untapped cobra and escort. life is 24-6.

Turn 7: Villain draws and plays another plains then sends his team into the red zone. I block the 15/15 pridemate with my escort and a firewalker with my cobra. I sacrifice the escort to save my cobra. I take 5 and the life is 24-1. I draw and play a Lotus Cobra leaving me with 5 untapped creatures to his 4 after I send my conscripted KotR in for another 18 and 2 more sacrificed plains. 7-1 life in favour of villain.

Turn 8: Villain plays a soul's attendant and declines to attack. I use my KotR to fetch a Sejiri Steppe to send in my conscripted KotR with protection from white through his line of defences for the win.

Sideboarding:  I bring in the 4 Cunning Sparkmage, 2 Basilisk Collar, and 2 Stoneforge Mystic for 2 Dauntless Escort, 1 Eldrazi Conscription, 2 Sovereigns of Lost Alara, 1 Lotus Cobra and 1 Vengevine.

As a no-brainer I keep a hand of 2 Noble Hierarch, 1 Birds of Paradise, 1 Lotus Cobra, 1 Knight of the Reliquary and 2 lands.

Turn 1: Villain leads a plains and Soul Warden. I draw a Vengevine and play a Noble Hierarch.

Turn 2: Villain plays a Kabira crossroads and another Soul Warden and attacks for 1. I draw a Fauna Shaman, play my cobra, and the shaman. Life 28-19 villain

Turn 3: Villain plays a plains and a Survival Cache. I draw a Glacial Fortress. I ship my Vengevine to the graveyard with Fauna Shaman and make the mistake of getting BBE instead of a sparkmage. I play out my BoP and my hierarch to bring back the Vengevine and I attack for 6. life 30-19 villain.

Turn 4:  Villain rebounds the cache, and plays an Ajani's Pridemate and a Lone Missionary. His pridemate is already a 7/7 and he is at 40 life, scary. I draw a Sejiri Steppe. I play out my KotR.

Turn 5: Villain plays another pridemate and sends his now 11/11 pridemate into the red zone. I chump with Vengevine and at the end of his turn use Fauna Shaman to discard my BBE for a sparkmage. I draw a hierarch, discard it with Fauna Shaman for a Stoneforge Mystic. I play the mystic fetching a collar, play the collar, then use my KotR to generate 3 more mana by sacrificing a forest for a fetch land in order to play the sparkmage and equip it with the collar. All in one turn, wow that was productive. I also recur the Vengevine. life 50-19 villain.

               At this point, I think Villain must not have had an answer for that because he decides to concede even though he has a 17/17, a 10/10 and 50 life. This might have been a little hasty on his part but I do see inevitability if he boarded out any answers he might have had.

               This is getting long so I won't give you full match reports of the last 2 matches. A summary version of my match against white knights is that he got a Baneslayer Angel out the turn before I cast a sovereigns. I attacked and the following turn he DoJ but I save my sovereign with my escort that was conscripted. I attack him down again and the turn after am able to hardcast a conscription for the win. I board in a small sparkmage package. Game 2 he spends his time removing my mana dorks with enchantments and paths a KotR. I eventually force him to DoJ with the life at 7-7. I draw Vengevine and he has to scoop at 3 life after I play an escort.

               The last match was against Mono Black Control and was a good match even though I lost. I mulliganed a 5 land hand with 2 BoP and he starts off drawing cards with sign in blood. An early (Natuko Shade) brings pressure. I can't find a white mana source and my shaman doesn't get to stick around. I find mana to start casting my Vengevines. I get mind sludged and attacked down to 1 life. Off the top I draw a BBE which gets me back my 3 Vengevines. I attack 2 in order to leave 3 creatures back on defence. 11-1. I run in 2 VV and villain double blocks without pumping his creature,  he tendrils' my shaman and I retrieve another BBE for a useless KotR that I have no white mana for. I cast BBE and swing with the team dropping him to 1 life. 1-1. A corrupt to the dome ends it for me on his turn. That was close. I bring in a small sparkmage package. I get a good start to game 2 with Fauna Shaman and basilisk collar. I am able to get a Vengevine into the graveyard before it dies  and bring life totals 18-14 in my favour. I equip a cobra with the collar and swing with the team into a Vampire Nighthawk. A tendrils on my 5/5 KotR hurts but a sovereigns fetching conscription onto my Vengevine next turn is enough for villain to concede on his turn. Game 3 wasn't very close because of Mystifying Maze. Since I was at -5 life (thanks to Abyssal Persecutor) I wasn't able to pay 1 life for my fetch lands which hurt my mana development. Even through all that I might have had a fighting chance if I could equip my big KotR with the collar and attack but the maze held me back and he was eventually able to remove his own persecutor. Oh well.

               The deck went 5-2 with its losses coming both to mystifying maze at the hands of Mono Black Control and GW Eldrazi. This has led me to add one Tectonic Edge main-deck in place of an Arid Mesa. Against Eldrazi and Titan Ramp I think I would add a realm razor to the main-deck and another to the sideboard to lock them out of lands early. I would take out the lone Ranger of Eos and a Birds of Paradise. It is at this point where I look at the nationals and see Mythic Conscription on top in the U.S.. All the planeswalkers would be nice but I just don't have them. All in all I like how the deck performed and would play it again with these few minor adjustments.

               I hope you enjoyed reading about the matchups as much as I enjoyed playing them. I had tested out a couple Eldrazi builds before this deck but the lack of Primeval Titan was just too much of a hindrance. Besides this deck has raw power and speed. Speaking of speed I think it will be making a comeback (if it hasn't already) thanks to all the ramp strategies doing very little in their first few turns.

               Thanks for reading! Comments are welcome.

               Thanks to the Editor: Quagmire11

 

 

 

6 Comments

Ancient Ziggurat by dude at Tue, 08/31/2010 - 05:00
dude's picture

Hi there,

I hear that you're on a budget regarding the planeswalkers you don't play. This is fine and all but please, please, play Ancient Ziggurat in your deck. It should be fantastic, the only disadvatage being that it's useless when trying to hardcast a conscription.

cheers!

If you can afford it, I by BradWoj at Tue, 08/31/2010 - 11:41
BradWoj's picture

If you can afford it, I recommend Linvala somewhere in your 75 (probably over the Ranger main). I recently started playing 3 main in Mythic and 1 in the side, and they are fantastic. Plus, it's a card that shuts you down pretty bad, so you could take advantage of the legend rule and play your own.

The above poster is right about the Ziggurat; typically the reasons not to run it are manlands and planeswalkers, which you have left out (which I like, by the way).

Thanks for the article, enjoyed it.

I've always loved extreme by deluxeicoff at Tue, 08/31/2010 - 12:07
deluxeicoff's picture
4

I've always loved extreme focus in deck construction, well done. - I know Stompy (In pauper anyways) does it via evasion and Shinen of Life's Roar acting as a lure. If a deck can manage it, it sure does 'pump it up' in a testosterone sort of way...

58 card deck? by whiffy at Tue, 08/31/2010 - 12:18
whiffy's picture

like i said 58 card deck?

34 creatures + 24 lands + 2 by kalandine at Tue, 08/31/2010 - 13:52
kalandine's picture

34 creatures + 24 lands + 2 other spells = 60

Linvala and zigs by Sirskills at Wed, 09/01/2010 - 10:10
Sirskills's picture

Hey thanks for the comments, I do have 1 linvala and I see the reasoning behind more for sure, I will try that. The ancient zig is not in there because of the conscription like you said but probably could be, I just think it would be frustrating to not be able to cast it with 8 land in play.