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By: ShardFenix, Thomas Rayne
Jul 21 2010 1:37am
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Welcome back faithful readers.  This week amidst the chaos of oral, written and final exams in Spanish 2 and Modern Problems with Beliefs we were still able to host a highly successful event with a good crowd and a variety of creative and inventive decks.  Also I will take a look at the offerings M11 has from the Red, Black, and Artifacts sections.  Also a personal rant on the lack of any serious entertainment during the summer.  Though I just saw the trailer for Starcraft 2 on tv...wow...ok, back to the article.  Don't forget I host Tribal Apocalypse every Saturday at 12:30 EDT in /join tribal. More Info Here  Lets kick it off with some decklists,

2-1 Decks

 

Everyone have seen the old-school Squirrel-Opp or has hopefully heard of the idea.  jnr91 took it one step farther with using Fungi.  When one of your creatures, Sporesower Thallid, speeds up your own production and can be tapped to keep your opponents off of mana, there aren't many options.  The real kick in the teeth is when he casts Ravages of War or Armageddon then you're really locked out.

Shuyin actually called this out the other week.  Using Buried Alive to dump any 3 of Vengevine or Bloodghast into the graveyard and bringing them back.  To back up this plan Shuyin has also packed in the typical vampire beaters, the only one missing would be Vampire Nighthawk though he had to make room for the Vengevines somewhere.

Meow, meow, meow, meow....weird the jangle isn't as catchy without actual music.  Anyways jhoke had a Cat-Zoo deck this weekend with a little variance for Tarmogoyf, the "alleged" best 2-drop ever.  I say alleged since I never like him to begin with mainly as he is just a vanilla dude.  Jhoke's mana allowed with to abuse the power of Steppe Lynx which can take out about half of an opponent's life before turn 4.  Sarkhan Vol is a nice surprise as planeswalkers don't see a ton of play in Classic Tribal Wars as compared to other formats.

You know there is an old adage about "When war is in your blood, killing is as easy as breathing."  Or it's from a Rambo film.  Either way it applies.  Melissafey built this to be about one thing.  Dealing damage and dealing it as fast as possible.  The double pump of Agrus Kos, Wojek Veteran and Glory of Warfare allow her double strikers to deal massive damage in one turn.  A single Boros Swiftblade hits for ten with both pumpers in play.  Definitely requiring you to leave back blockers just to not die.

Ranth came in much to my dismay with a Hypergenesis build.  Dismay, only because I was going to bring my own version of this deck, but opted out last minute, like as I sat down to face Ranth round 1.  Talk about an explosion of nerd rage.  To get beat by the deck I was going to play and ugh, well let's see what I can say about Ranth's build.  I'm going to say he went with what he had judging by a lack of Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund or a full playset of Hellkite Overlord.   The Planar Chaos dragons are a nice touch though I would have liked to see all 5.  The inclusion of non-cascade removal is a great plan for those games when mana or the card draw just doesn't cooperate.

Yes, I played Goblins.  Although they were fun black Goblins.  Sure a handful of red guys made it in, but come on, who plays goblins without Siege-Gang Commander.  The best creature though was probably Facevaulter.  I would attack and use him to sac the new and improved fanatic, Goblin Arsonist, pinging a blocker or the player, pumping the Facevaulter and pumping the Knucklebone Witches.  The deck was fast enough to win against all but the speediest opponents.  It was a fun little distraction taking a red tribe and playing it mainly black.

Champion

 

JustSin took Faeries to the top this week.  The deck isn't actually annoying, I just ran out of interesting names and me and faeries have a history from standard.  It's a Faerie deck.  I wish I could say more, but we should all be familiar how it works.  Faeries top point is it lets you play everything as an instant, which greatly  impacts the amount of control you can exert over an opponents turn seriously limiting their options and advancement.

Final Thoughts on M11

Captivating Vampire- Captivating Vampire is obviously one of the first stand out cards in black.   It gives vampires a second lord creature, and this time places it at the normal spot on the mana curve.  This stealing creatures ability?  It's probably never...ever...going to matter.  Just saying.

Nantuko Shade- Insects already see play.  Will the reprint of Nantuko Shade make it in?  I don't know, but the reprinting certainly lowers the cost of acquiring a playset.  Now to see if people give it a shot.  Or maybe Shades?  Chilling Shade fits in the curve nicely and has the benefit of flying.

Phylactery Lich- He is a Zombie.  And quite an amazing zombie at that.  3 mana for a 5/5 indestructible?  I enjoy those stats.  Especially with the option of it hitting play turn one off of a Dark Ritual cast by a Chrome Mox or Vault of Whispers.

Ancient Hellkite- This is one beefy dragon.  The additional burn ability is a situationally better Flameblast Dragon.  Whenever we see big Mono-Red Dragon decks I fully expect this guy to make an appearance.

Arc Runner- In Mono Red Elementals it's basically Ball Lightning 5-8.  Sure it's one point less, but you're mono-red, you have this.

And nothing really new with artifacts.  I love red and black, but none of the creatures really stick out to me.  Some of them are great fillers, but no huge standouts.  Obviously the Titans, but they have been talked about more than JMS at this point.  My personal ranking would be Grave Titan, Primeval Titan, Inferno Titan, Sun Titan, and perennial loser Frost Titan.

Hmm...what's left?  Oh yeah summer movies this season suck.  Iron Man 2 wasn't a summer movie, but it was great.  I can't even think of many movies that came out this summer which should say something.  Let's see we've had The Last Airbender(horrible story), Eclipse(really), Inception(Looks like a good rent), and Expendables(you know its going to be bad, but you have to see it).  Yet known of these reach the level of horridness as Scott Pilgrim vs The World.  Yes I'm saying it I would rather watch Eclipse.  Am I the only one sick and tired of seeing Micheal Cera play the same awkward hipster role?  Maybe I just don't get the current "youth culture" or this popularity of the "hipster" movement.

Well that's it this week.  Hope you all enjoyed.

-Shard

18 Comments

sad i missed it. Seems like by endless at Wed, 07/21/2010 - 08:10
endless's picture

sad i missed it. Seems like hypergenisis could move from the watch to the ban list though. I can't really see how sneak attack isn't okay, but that isn't?

If Ranth went 3-0 with it I'd by Paul Leicht at Wed, 07/21/2010 - 08:57
Paul Leicht's picture

If Ranth went 3-0 with it I'd be inclined to agree but the fact is the deck is very hit or miss. I have several variants and none I would consider a reasonable idea for competitive tourney play. It's just not good enough.

I beg to differ with the by Flippers_Giraffe at Wed, 07/21/2010 - 09:24
Flippers_Giraffe's picture

I beg to differ with the correct dragons and a good mana base it is a tournament winner as I have proved in the past.

Sort of, you did do well, but by ShardFenix at Wed, 07/21/2010 - 09:41
ShardFenix's picture

Sort of, you did do well, but with Hypergenesis, you do need to actually draw a cascade spell...I forgot how many your ran, my build runs 9.

Add to the fact that even by AJ_Impy at Wed, 07/21/2010 - 10:00
AJ_Impy's picture

Add to the fact that even after resolution you're not guaranteed a win. Against another high cost tribe especially.

And you're very vulnerable to by ArchGenius at Wed, 07/21/2010 - 10:17
ArchGenius's picture

And you're very vulnerable to a counterspell on Hypergenesis.

It's definitely an all your eggs in one basket approach, which usually means you either generate an overwhelming victory or die without doing much of anything.

Therefore, when it works, it looks a lot more powerful than it is....

Shard would be correct by Ranth at Fri, 07/23/2010 - 09:20
Ranth's picture

I just played what i owned and could get for the 3 creds i earned the previous week :), But yes the deck could be made MUCH more lethal.

However i find it odd that once again my deck caused controversy when it even used its tribe but the combo vamps deck that didn't use its tribe got no fanfare at all. (i seem to recall another combo vamps deck recently that got tore into for that)

Also i fail to see how the vamps deck was legal with 18 listed vampires?

And regardless of a player goes 3-0 with a combo deck or not doesn't take away from what it is/can do especially when the top deck for the week was a counter/control deck ,thus of course it would tear apart any combo decks. So once again it's a matter of do we wish to allow such things or not.

Seems the consensus is there by Paul Leicht at Fri, 07/23/2010 - 10:07
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Seems the consensus is there is no controversy.

My deck can be found in this by Flippers_Giraffe at Wed, 07/21/2010 - 13:10
Flippers_Giraffe's picture

My deck can be found in this article.

I ran 10 cascade cards, the intention is to win on the turn Hypergenesis resolves. Otherwise you are asking for a beating next turn in tribal.

Yes the deck is vulnerable to counterspells but I've not seen many of those in the games I've played to see it as a major threat.

Hyper Dragons by Lythand at Wed, 07/21/2010 - 18:11
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Wasn't the Hyper Dragons deck and extended tournament deck a while back?

Hypergenesis
Suggested by Manuel Bucher on 2009-10-18 as a potential deck for Extended
As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/extended/18145_Positive_EV_Austin_Ext...
Print this deck!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Maindeck:

Artifacts
4 Serum Powder

Artifact Creatures
4 Magister Sphinx

Creatures
4 Angel of Despair
4 Bogardan Hellkite
4 Hellkite Overlord
4 Simian Spirit Guide

Enchantments
4 Ardent Plea

Instants
4 Violent Outburst

Legendary Creatures
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1 Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund

Sorceries
3 Demonic Dread
3 Hypergenesis

Lands
4 Forbidden Orchard
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Pillar of the Paruns
2 Reflecting Pool
4 Tendo Ice Bridge

Legendary Lands
2 Gemstone Caverns
Stats:
Average mana: 3.20
Average creature mana cost: 6.68
Average creature power: 5.13
Average creature toughness: 5.13

Deck Composition:
Artifacts: 6.67%
Artifact Creatures: 6.67%
Creatures: 26.67%
Enchantments: 6.67%
Instants: 6.67%
Lands: 30.00%
Legendary Creatures: 3.33%
Legendary Lands: 3.33%
Sorceries: 10.00%

Playing a deck in a main by Paul Leicht at Wed, 07/21/2010 - 20:45
Paul Leicht's picture

Playing a deck in a main format means you aren't restricted towards the types of creatures played. This may seem like a small thing but it isn't. In addition while it was a tourney deck (so were many others that have appeared in tribal apoc, it was never top of the tiered decks. As much as I respect Manuel Bucher's deck building skills, he tends to build decks that are more fun than good. (For a pro that is.)

On this one point I favor by AJ_Impy at Thu, 07/22/2010 - 06:26
AJ_Impy's picture

On this one point I favor consistency: Shoehorned decks do not earn my approval in this tournament.

My feeling is, if it's legal by Paul Leicht at Thu, 07/22/2010 - 06:33
Paul Leicht's picture

My feeling is, if it's legal it shouldn't matter. I haven't felt the urge to play the PRE because I know the odds are I will face a tier 1 shoehorn deck and that IS a turn off but at the same time I think it is a fault of the format and not the players. I know if I owned the right cards I might bring (my version) of RecSur, etc. I prefer to win, have fun and earn respect while doing so but mostly that is preference. The only requirement I consider essential is players don't be rude, don't cop out in the middle of a match just because they aren't having enough fun and don't act like the end all and be all of the format because that doesn't exist. Other than that I could care less what people bring EVEN when I get annoyed about facing heinous decks in opposition. Bring what you want, it is on me to be able to deal with it. Afaik no one needs my approval (or anyone else's) to be able to play magic.

i was planning on rhinos this by JustSin at Wed, 07/21/2010 - 18:18
JustSin's picture

i was planning on rhinos this week, but couldn't get the deck right in time so i brought fae even tho they are boring just so they could finally have their day at 3-0

Rhinos are cool by Melissafey at Thu, 07/22/2010 - 05:09
Melissafey's picture

Rhinos are pretty cool, I have a Bant rhino deck which is fun to play. I hope that a block at some point has Rhino's and Elephants again as sentient beings again like those seen in Mirrodin, Alara and Ravnica.

I like to play the tribes by Flippers_Giraffe at Thu, 07/22/2010 - 08:14
Flippers_Giraffe's picture

I like to play the tribes like rhinos in their raw form rather than their sentient half. It would be interesting to see a rhino vs sentient rhino deck play each other.

Yeah that would be a by Melissafey at Thu, 07/22/2010 - 08:55
Melissafey's picture

Yeah that would be a intriguing matchup

that's deep, but im not sure by JustSin at Fri, 07/23/2010 - 19:19
JustSin's picture

that's deep, but im not sure they could remain competitive