Well the last few weeks haven't been kind to me in the land of MTGO. I've had the dreaded you can't win to save your life disease so I took some time out and have started to recover. Whiffy's article on classic ignited my planeswalker spark again and brought be back online. I loaded up my second Classic pet deck and crushed all those who stood in my way in the casual room.
Which brings me on to my second problem of the day what do you do with your decks that are really too good in the casual room? I tend to take mine into the tournament practice room to see how they fair, in this case the deck performed very well and was beating most of the decks I played against. While I was in a game I was told that my deck wouldn't be good enough in an actual classic event which is fair enough although I wasn't doing that bad to be honest but deep down I knew it was true. The deck needed a few more cards which I was working on but in general it may never live up to the rest of the top classic decks in the format.
So where should I play the deck it's hard to find other decks up to this level in the casual room and I don't want to waist peoples time in the TP room. So I embarked on a mission to try and build a deck that's competitive but without a huge budget ie: no Force of Wills.
Now here's where the story began I'll show you the deck and its components so you can see what I'm referring to. It's a two part deck one side is aggro and the other combo. The aggro route beats down with Kird Ape, Bloodbraid Elf, Deus of Calamity and Giant Solifuge. To speed these cards into play I'm using Tinder Wall, Elvish Spirit Guide and Simian Spirit Guide.
The combo in the deck is Banefire and Channel in the side board which is wished for via Burning Wish. The deck can combo out on turn two as it stands currently although watch out for Force of Will. Which is where another sideboard card comes in handy Pyroblast.
In the main deck I'm running two Blood Moon's and Magus of the Moon to shut down non basic decks like dredge and Oath.
Here's the deck list.
Now this is the point in time when I wasn't sure what to do with the deck so I wondered over to www.classicquarter.com for some advice and I got loads of useful information and ideas, thanks all.
I wanted to play a classic deck and the best way at the moment is to build a deck that can win vs Oath 1st and then Dredge, Fish and finally storm.
So now we know what we need to beat and I have a three day weekend to get lots of play testing in.
Let's look at the options for beating each archetype that we could include in the deck.
Oath
This is the deck of the hour at the moment the first threat is Iona and for her we can use Karakas putting us into the possibility of playing white. We can also play Oath at it's own game by including our own Forbidden Orchard to give them more creatures so we can use Oath to pull something big and nasty from our deck like Emrakul, the Aeons Torn or Platinum Angel now if you're playing other Oath decks they may also be packing Karakas so its best to have a non legend card to bring into play instead of Iona, I choose a card from M11 as strange as it may seem but Angelic Arbiter looked playable.
Dredge
Now the best way I know to fight dredge is with Leyline of the Void and if you are playing this then there's no reason not to play Helm of Obedience as well for an instant win. Its always good to use Mana Drain with this card as well.
Fish
I always have a problem with fish, you need to shut down vial as soon as possible so we will need Pithing Needle in the side board. Remember Fish decks use Daze and Force of Will so always have a mana spare to pay the price for Daze. There's not much you can do against Force of Will unless you are playing red and can include Pyroblast or of course you have your own.
Storm
The answer to Storm comes in the form of the new white leyline, Leyline of Sanctity. It shuts down the deck completely. Some decks in Legacy run Empty the Warrens but I've not seen this in classic so I'm hoping I've not missed anything.
With all that in mind the below deck was built.
For the main deck I went with disruption in the form of discard with Hymn to Tourach and Gerrard's Verdict, to make the most of this I also added a play set of The Rack. The helm/line combo was also included and a number of tutors to find any missing parts. You need to be careful when fighting Oath and need removal in two colours I included Balance but wasn't sure if it was enough. For the sideboard I included my anti oath plan in the form of Forbidden Orchard and my own copy of Emrakul, I did try running the orchards main deck but it didn't work out very well of course I could have solved this by including my own Oath of Druids but then I may as well have just net decked which for me isn't going to happen.
How did the deck perform you may be wondering, well it really was the business I was winning most of my games over Saturday. I had an issue with Pulse being too slow but the discard/rack combo was winning me lots of games. On Saturday night I bumped into Whiffy and he offered to play test the deck and he crushed me in every game with a good selection of decks. I was ok vs aggro but anything else and it was a massacre, which just goes to show if you can beat the TP crowd there is another step in your journey you must take before you join an event and that's when you will face the real decks of classic.
Lessons learned from my games with Whiffy are The Rack isn't really as good as I thought it was and Pulse is way to slow. I also need to cut down on my colours and concentrate on speeding the deck up more at the risk of being FoW'd. I need to include two colours of removal to take out Iona in the Oath builds, Balance is not enough by itself.
So onwards and upwards with a new build this time concentrating more on speed to try and pull off a turn one/two win.
Now the deck is looking much more fluid. I've added mana acceleration in the form of Lotus Petal, Dark Ritual and Mana Crypt, I'll also be adding Sol Ring to the deck as well when its released. To help the combo come into play I added a play set of Serum Powder's which was Whiffy's idea and Spell Pierce to cast off the back of a Lotus Petal to counter Force of Will on turn zero.
The Forbidden Orchard's have gone back into the main deck as we should be wining in the first few turns all being well. There is also a backup plan of using Tinker with Inkwell Leviathan, I was going to use Darksteel Colossus but it's an easy target for Swords to Plowshares.
My only issue at the moment is my lack of Underground Sea's and my two missing Scrubland's although painful they can be lived with as long as you do win quickly. They also make the deck more budget friendly.
Sunday's games in the TP room were a bit of a failure I only bumped into one real classic deck all the rest were STD looking decks I did find it funny when one player played Blinding Mage vs my Helm/Line deck, that's not really going to help you now is it.
After a bit more testing Monday came round with FTV Relics and my deck changed around to include the mighty Sol Ring and Mox Diamond. It's now looking like this with lot's of input from Whiffy. If you're looking to pick this deck up it's current price as of the 31st of August 2010 is $220 from www.mtgotraders.com which isn't that bad for a competitive classic deck. The mana base could be upgraded to include the correct fetch lands and Underground Sea's but they are not a necessity as Watery Grave's do the job and save you a lot of cash.
Let's have a look at what's changed. Inkwell Leviathan has been replaced by Platinum Angel to give you a second out vs Storm and Dredge. I dropped two land for two copies of Mox Diamond, one of which was from my FTV Relics box the other I had to find cash for as it was the last card in the deck that I didn't have and I really didn't want to go any further without it. I swapped out an Enlightened Tutor for a Mystical Tutor to give me another access point to Tinker. Another card which I made the mistake of not including in a previous build is Brainstorm, it nearly made the cut a few times but as Whiffy pointed out if you are playing blue there is no reason to not include it as it's such a powerful card.
I knew the side board wasn't excellent and it's now been upgraded to include four copies of Leyline of Sanctity as it is such a good card vs other combo decks I also upped the count of my Disenchant's so I have the ability to take out other players leyline's and Pithing Needle's as well. I also added a single copy of Ensnaring Bridge as it's an excellent card vs a lot of decks like Oath and aggro decks using Tarmogoyf.
And this is where the story ends for me the deck is doing very well and it will take me a while to get used to playing all the other archetypes in the tournament practice room and you never know if time permits you may see me across the table from you in a classic event. I hope this encourages some players to take that extra step forward into the tournament practice room or from there in to an actual event in which ever format you enjoy playing. Everyone has to start somewhere and going in rogue I find is the best way you never know how your deck will change while it's adapting to the meta game and you may stumble on the next deck to beat. Classic is such an open field at the moment and with FTV: Relics and Masters Edition 4 joining the scene soon there will be lots of unexplored idea's to try out.
Next week I'll be back with the angels if anyone has any suggestions on what they would like to see after that please leave a comment if not I'll be looking at some budget decks for STD.
Thanks for reading FG
Again I'd like to thank the Classic Quarter crew for their advice and Whiffy for taking time out to help with play testing and deck advice.
Links
My PureMTGO Archive / The Rare Drafter - August / The Coalition League
12 Comments
I liked this article, in that it did a couple of things. First, it let people know that the tourney practice room is not a place to be feared. And in fact success there is not the best indicator of tournament viability.
You also did a good job of showing the steps you made in trying to make a more competitive deck. In addition a good playtesting buddy is very helpful when coming up with ideas.
I understand you were probably frustrated to be going up against modified "standard" decks later on in your playtesting, but I'm wondering how many of your opponents may have thought the same thing when going up against your first deck list. Until you beat them at least. I'm just saying that you shouldn't be too critical of these players as for many of them this foray into the tourney practice room is likely their first many steps into tournament play.
Good article.
hooray, i was glad you said u would write an article about your forray.
I would just like to point out again, that classic is very narrow with what is winning events, this is the perfect time for people to brew and bring it. As long as you know how your opponent is going to kill u, and how the format works in term of card symetry, and speed, you will be able to brew up nearly anything and compete. I thought flippers showed this progression from good casual deck to competent event deck perfectly.
Flippers final deck is at an acceptable level for eventing, if i didnt have the collection that i do have i would gladly play something very simmilar to it.
Classic is fun and its awesmoe to do busted things, or just as awesmoe to deny your opponent the option of busted things. wont you all come out and bust something, skulls or dreams?
@leviathan, while i agrre with what you say, there is no reason not to be critical with opponents who bring teir 1 std decks to a classic match. they know full well that their deck is not classic, but their either board or just want to see how the deck fairs with the "1st turn kill format". Normally this would not be so bad, accept for when your trying to test, it serves no purpose for either player in terms of results, and the classic deck will normally lose if its something new, as its built to play and beat a completely different game then std decks are.
-----start rant, Also while im on the topic, if you are in the TOURNAMENT PRACTISE room and lose to a TOURNAMENT deck this does not give you liscense to offend the other player in any way. Stupid people join my match and lose then call me rich boy or net decker, so rediculos.---end rant
How perfectly odd. You would expect people in the tourney practice room to a) have skillz, b) be smarter than average, c) expect the worst from their ops decks, d) have a thicker skin since losing bites but you are bound to lose if your deck isn't top notch when facing tier 1-2 decks.
This bit about "rich boy" is very odd indeed. Seems like a casual player mistakenly entered the wrong room and then was seriously and severely frustrated by what he encountered.
Completely agree 100%. I think the "Tournament" "Practice" room should be used to "Practice" for "Tournaments" and the aforementioned examples are just a waste of time for both parties. Also true is what you said about Classic decks losing to Standard decks. Decks are tuned to their format, and there's nothing more obnoxious than some kid gloating about beat some ZOMG classic deck with his "crappy" Standard deck.
And lol at your rant, that's annoying as well. I don't enter any match in the TP room without expecting to see at least 5 copies of every card I can't afford XD
I said it before and I'll say it again: The TP room is the MTGO equivalent of WoW's Trade Chat. Really, make a trial account and stand in a major city for a few minutes. It'll all make sense.
Im all for crappy standard decks beating classic decks. I think the term is "bring it!".
For my next article I'll be play-testing the following deck
59x Mountain
1x Fireball
No pop culture references, no pictures, no funny anecdotes... Just 1000+ words on the success of that deck. There will be videos. I'm going to rock face!
gl with that. My next article will be ...never.
Fun article, I enjoyed it and share your sentiments in regards to the TP room, but you knew that XD. It wont be long until I start dabbling in the black arts of Classic, and reads like this make me all the more anxious.
I understand everyones issues with going up against jank in the TP room and I certainly am not defending sore loosers. I'm just remembering my first foray into that room during Rav era Standard. I took a token based deck using Teysa that had been tearing up the casual room and wanted to see what it needed to play with the big boys. The attitudes of the players there were discouraging to say the least. After dealing with immediate concessions and name calling for "wasting my time" with my deck I quickly gave up. And I haven't really been back since. So that's where I was coming from.
That's fair, and you're not really the kind of person I was talking about. I'm all for rogue decks, or decks that throttle casual/competitive.. really anything with any amount of thought put into it. It's the "my first deck.dec" matches that are awkward. I wont quit on them, but I don't feel all that great about pummeling them either. Just one of those things, I guess.
Oh man...
I played Classic for the first time last night... Some weird UB Control deck with Sygg and Tinker and Sol Ring and whatever other crap I could fit into it... So fun... couldn't stop... Gah! Erg! Bleg! /dead
Well Flip great read and yes made me rebuild a classic and a few Legacy decks last night and also spent some time in the TP room playing them.
What I found was I had forgotten how to play the Classic format, may sound strange but after playing STD for the last few months I just forget how to play the decks... argh rambling
As for the TP room never really suffered from the points made so far and I have played rogue decks and T1 decks in classic/STD/EXT and Legacy, maybe as mentioned people have been kind and not said anything but if people didn’t play rogue we would have no new decks and the formats would become very stale.
So I would never knock a guy/girl for a rogue deck as it brings fresh ideas and once they have it tuned maybe the next T1 deck that everyone wants
What I do find that makes me smile is the amount of people that watch your games; you can spend a couple of mins waiting for a opponent and as soon as your game starts there 3-10 people watching
Well hope that all makes sense ... one reason i never write articles i say never makes sense :)