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By: niabock, Derek Evanoff
May 17 2011 10:17am
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     Welcome to SilverBlack. I know its been awhile since the last article but I am going to work hard to try and get these out every other week from now on. The events themselves have been going very well. We have been averaging about 16 players each event. If we can try and bump that up to 24 players the events will start paying out to the top 8 instead of just top 4. So poke some of your friends, help them build a deck, and get them to show up. Today I'm going to review a deck that had several first place finishes and give my thoughts on how to improve it. Also, I will discuss my thoughts on the MBC situation as well as announce the next alternate event format.

The Little Red Men

      This deck was piloted to three first place finishes by Milegyenanevem. With some luck, the deck is capable of some insanely fast draws. The deck plays a bunch of 0/1/2 cc creatures hoping to drop a bushwhacker or two to win by turn 5 or 6. A few burn spells are thrown in if you come up a few damage short.

     It works pretty well against the slower aggro decks and against any control decks that can't find a sweeper in the first few turns. It does have a few bad matchups, but those decks haven't been seeing that much play allowing this to sweep through the field relatively unhindered. There are a few adjustments I think that could be made to make this deck run a bit smoother.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     I am just going to break this up into creatures, spells, and sideboarding. Lets start with creatures since that will make up the bulk of the deck. I think most of the creatures chosen are perfect fits in this deck. There are a lot of 1 and 2 cc creatures to choose from and a lot will have to do with the pilot's preference. With that in mind here is a list of the creatures that should be considered:

0cc

  • Memnite - Only 0cc creature to consider. Cheap and can be sacrificed to rebirth.

1cc

  • Goblin Arsonist - You get value out of his death.
  • Flayer Husk - Cheap 1/1, can pump your guys after it dies or be sacrificed to rebirth.
  • Intimidator Initiate - Allows you to get past a troublesome blocker pretty much every turn.
  • Jackal Familiar - 2/2 for 1cc with practically no drawback in this deck. Easy 4-of.
  • Signal Pest - By itself its not great, but in multiples or with other creatures it excels. It is hard to block as well so it should survive most combats. It can also be sacrificed to rebirth when necessary. 
  • Skitter of Lizards - Haste and can be bigger if drawn later. Probably not good enough to make the cut in most circumstances but possible.

2cc

  • Dragon Fodder - Two creatures for 2 mana. Definitely helpful when you have a Bushwhacker coming shortly.
  • Ember Hauler - Okay body, but allows you to throw a shock to the dome when he's no longer needed.
  • Goblin Bushwhacker - Easy 4-of as he makes the deck work. He also costs 2 because if you cast him for 1 you've lost.
  • Goblin Wardriver - Another source of Battle Cry. This one is definitely worse than pest. He has a lot lower chance of surviving his first combat and being just a 2/2 for 2 is only par. Still if you like Battle Cry you may find a place for him.
  • Mudbrawler Cohort - Haste on what will most likely be a 2/2. It's not a bad deal but once again it may be hard to find a place for him.

     You want to be playing between 32 and 34 creatures with not more than 10 costing more than 1cc. There may be a few other creatures you could consider but I think the above are pretty much the cream of the crop. The spells list is a bit shorter:

  • Flame Slash - It will kill pretty much anything, but I don't really care for this card since it only hits creatures. I think there are better options.
  • Galvanic Blast - Depending how many artifacts you play this could be really good or just alright. Still one of the better burn options.
  • Kuldotha Rebirth - Gives you three creatures at the cost of a card+creature. The number you can play will be determined by how many artifacts your running. Even with a lot though, I don't think I'd play the full playset.
  • Lash Out - I would play this over Flame Slash. Still kills pretty much all the same creatures but gives you a chance at an extra 3 damage as well as filtering your next draw.
  • Lightning Bolt - Easy 4-of. No explanation needed.
  • Panic Spellbomb - Card advantage, can stop a blocker, and can be sacrificed to rebirth.

     Depending on the number of creatures you played, you'll have room for 9 to 11 of the above spells. You're going to play 4 bolts and between 1 and 3 rebirths leaving you with 1 to 6 extra spots. I think Galvanic Blast easily earns the next spot. After that the spellbomb would be good in decks running a lot of artifacts / blasts. Otherwise I'd go with a couple Lash Out's. Lastly, we have our sideboard we need to fill out:

vs. Kor Firewalker

  • Moonglove Extract - Kind of on the expensive side. Not sure how far behind you'll be if you have to use this.
  • Perilous Myr - If they actually block it or you have a rebirth it is great. Otherwise it will be stuck pinging them while you can't get past Firewalker.

vs. Weenie Decks

  • Arc Trail - Good 2:1. Worst case you ping them for 2 and you take 1.
  • Forked Bolt - Pales in comparison to Arc Trail. Wouldn't play this unless you want more than just 4 Arc Trails.

Other Random Cards

  • Runeflare Trap - Against blue or even MBC's Sign in Blood. You'll never be able to hardcast it but it might just give you that extra reach since they rarely do anything on T2 besides cast sign.
  • Shard Volley - Another 3 damage, 1cc spell. Might help end some matches faster when necessary.

     Options for taking out a Firewalker suck, to put it bluntly. If they land one or more your going to be in trouble. The Myr is cheaper, but not as easy to use. The Extract will easily kill the Firewalker but at 3cc it will be hard if you don't have the mana. Pretty much going to be player preference on that one. Against weenie decks both Arc Trail and Forked Bolt are good at taking out multiple targets. The other slots can be whatever you feel is necessary. I for one like having a few more creatures that would survive an unkicked Marsh Casualties available when needed. Taking all that into consideration here is the list that I would run if I decided to play this:

Red Assault
Milegyenanevem
Creatures
4 Goblin Arsonist
4 Goblin Bushwhacker
4 Intimidator Initiate
4 Jackal Familiar
4 Memnite
4 Signal Pest
24 cards

Other Spells
4 Dragon Fodder
4 Flayer Husk
4 Galvanic Blast
3 Kuldotha Rebirth
4 Lightning Bolt
19 cards
 
Lands
17 Mountain
17 cards

Signal Pest

     I added the four Signal Pests as I think he will definitely help the draws where you can't find a Bushwhacker. With the addition of the pests I also bumped the rebirths up to 3 copies.  Theres 12 artifacts main as well as 6 more in the side. Both rebirth and blast benefit from the increase in artifacts. The Rebirth's are also important against Firewalker, giving you an easy way to kill a Perilous Myr. I removed the Flame Slash's as I didn't feel they were necessary main deck.

     For the side, I included Lash Out inplace of the Slash's. I split the Extract/Myr for Firewalker and played the full playset of Trail's for the weenie decks. Lastly, I dropped in 3 Haulers for MBC. I figured it survives an unkicked MC and can be flung if it gets targeted with spot removal.

     This deck will struggle with MBC and anything with Kor Firewalker. The matches are not unwinnable but are probably 50/50 at best. Against most other decks though you will have an advantage making this a decent choice if you're looking for something to play. Definitely do some trial run throughs to get a feel for how it plays, as you'll often have to make decisions on when to attack, when to spend burn on creatures instead of the player, etc.

The MBC Dilemma

     Over these past 5 months Mono-Black Control has been an underplayed deck relative to its strength. It is probably the best deck in the format yet rarely do more than one or two people actually play it. When it does get played though, it almost always makes the Top 4 and wins a fair amount of the time. If it was played by more people, it would probably take up more and more of the top spots. This last event we had 3 players piloting MBC and all three of them made the Top 4. The deck is not unbeatable though. Some aggro decks can just overwhelm the Black player and finish them off before Corrupt/Tendrils become active and some control decks can prevent Corrupts from stealing the game. It does always seem to be an uphill battle though when you're facing MBC and thats because of the sheer quality of its cards. All of its creatures give some kind of card advantage and the lifegain it can generate is just nuts. It has access to card draw (Sign in Blood) and is one of the few decks that can easily play some of the colorless lands. It even has some of the best sideboard answers. Multiple sweepers in Infest and Marsh Casualties as well as excellent discard in Duress, IoK, and Mind Sludge.

     After several first places finishes there were requests (from both the players playing against MBC and the players piloting it) to ban something to bring it down a peg. Corrupt was the first card brought up for judgment. It was thought that banning Corrupt alone would be enough to bring MBC back down to everyone else's level. After giving this some thought, I don't think it would really do much. Consume and Tendrils fill the same role well enough, giving the player massive amounts of lifegain to keep them in the game. Corrupt is the best of the three, but banning it won't change the fact that the Black player can gain a quick 10 life off of Tendrils. So then, I guess we could ban Corrupt, Consume, and Tendrils. That rids the deck of the lifegain element. It makes things like Sign and Rager harder to justify playing against aggro/burn. Still, removing these spells means you're also removing the reason MBC plays all swamps. This leaves the deck open to splash whatever it wants. Go red for Blightning / Lightning Bolt, or blue for Sea Gate Oracle/Mulldrifter, or white for Kor Skyfisher/Lone Missionary. The deck is always going to be strong. Maybe moving it towards splashing would make for better games? At the moment, with the infrequency that it sees play I don't feel theres an immediate need to ban anything. If this changes though I'm open to whatever the players feel is best. Since this isn't a sanctioned format, the point of it is to be fun. If banning something would make the overall experience better than I will do that. If you have any thoughts on this please post below, post on the event threads, or come chat with me online. I'm willing to do whatever is necessary to keep this a fun event. And in the pursuit of fun, here is our next alternate event format.

Build Your Own Standard

     Build Your Own Standard is just want it sounds like. You pick two blocks and one core set and build your deck from them, essentially creating your own Standard. The blocks have to be from Ice Age forward and the core sets from 5th edition forward. A cards rarity is determined by its rarity in the set. So Loxodon Warhammer is legal if you chose Mirrodin block but is not legal if you chose 10th edition. This also means if you choose Ice Age block you could play Force of Will since it was uncommon in Alliances. Don't worry though, FoW was legal in Block Wars and no one played it. I doubt anyone will this time either. Full details can be found on the event thread. I will probably run this event for two weeks just like I did for Block Wars. I think sometimes players see someone else play something they would of liked to or just changes they would like to make to their deck. When these alternate formats are only for one week you won't get another chance for a long time. I think giving it a two week run will make the majority of players happy. If you disagree with this, let me know so I can adjust for future alternate weeks. If you choose to play this week (and I hope you do) make sure to have a plan for this deck as it may rear its ugly head:

      The combo pieces are banned but the artifact lands are legal so the aggro version still exists. Have fun deck building. I can't wait to see what you all come up with.

 The Event
 

     Same day, same time. Every Wednesday at 6:30pm EDT (22:30 UTC) in "/join SilverBlack". Registration starts then with games starting 30 minutes after that. Event is free with prizes to the Top 4 (8 if we reach 24 players) along with a door prize. Here is a link to the event thread on the wizards forum for the May 18th BYOS event. Get to deckbuilding and come to the event to have some fun. I will be around Monday and Tuesday nights if you'd like to play some test games. Just send me a PM, I'll be glad to play anything. That is all for me today, hope to see you there.

- Niabock

9 Comments

MBC dominance by browndr at Tue, 05/17/2011 - 13:32
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I think that the problem with MBC's dominance is that it is a midrange control deck in a mostly aggro field. There really isn't and hasn't been much of a control presence at these events. The week I beat MBC with Grixis, I knew what was coming. Game one he was manascrewed and my burn + his 3x Sign in Blood caused a quick game, and Game 2 I just held counters for the life gain spells. It's not an impossible matchup, but there isn't a strong enough true control deck yet to complete the triangle of balance in the format.

Ghostfire by Elbinac at Tue, 05/17/2011 - 14:53
Elbinac's picture

Ghostfire is probably a better option than Moonglove Extract I would think.
fairly sure that one isn't a rare...

It also isn't in extended. by browndr at Tue, 05/17/2011 - 16:18
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It also isn't in extended.

Defining the format? by one million words at Tue, 05/17/2011 - 17:06
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It would be helpful to include a paragraph on the rules of the format, for new readers, or those who have forgotten what it was (like me.) Doing it in a opdown / hide box would be cool.

Just my $.02.

Good idea. by niabock at Tue, 05/17/2011 - 17:46
niabock's picture

I will definitely do that from now on. Thanks!

For now, it's simply any number of commons and uncommons.

You should clarify by grandpoobah at Tue, 05/17/2011 - 21:34
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You should clarify whether you use paper rarities or not. Since you have to play regular classic games anyway, there's nothing stopping you from using paper rarities.

For the BYOS I stated the by niabock at Tue, 05/17/2011 - 22:12
niabock's picture

For the BYOS I stated the card uses the rarity of that set regardless of MTGO rarity (for example FoW). Normally we play Extended so theres no difference between paper and online.

Hello by Jeketerri at Wed, 05/18/2011 - 12:15
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Hey Niabock, really I think MBC need a serious cut, the life gain probably is the best option.

Thanks for hosting, check the problems and make regular alt formats. :)

Sorry with my bad english :(

Hey, thanks for reviewing my deck by milegyenanevem at Wed, 05/18/2011 - 17:32
milegyenanevem's picture

I want to mention a couple things about my deck (actually, it won only two tournaments). I had a fairly simple pauper goblin deck and had to modify it for extended, using my already owned cards. Unfortunately the goblin theme has basically disappeared, so the Caterwauling Bogarts don't make too much sense :)

Signal Pests and Goblin Wardrivers are obvious additions, but I don't have any. Skitter of Lizards is a good idea, but it's important to forget about the kicker and play it ofr 1 most of the time. But I don't think Lash Out is good, you rarely win the clash and let the opponent filter too. That is really bad, as the opponent probably gets more value when filtering. In this deck you will get a Goblin Arsonist instead of a Flayer Husk, but the opponent might get closer to the Pyroclasm, or avoid a card which costs more mana than what he has. Searing Blaze is a better choice. I wouldn't use Panic Spellbomb, as it sosts 2 to get back another card, so it is too slow in the beginning of the game.

Most of the sideboard suggestions are good, but I definitely wouldn't play the trap. Too much risk that it doesn't do anything. Shard Volley should be tested, but probably I wouldn't play it before the third land, which makes it too slow. But your final decklist seems to be strong, definitely stronger than the original.