Flippers_Giraffe's picture
By: Flippers_Giraffe, Simon Smith
Jun 10 2010 2:37am
5
Login to post comments
3946 views


 

Welcome back to Tribal Hell with myself Flippers_Giraffe and Liliana Vess, this week we are going to pick up on the challenge set by Lord Erman in our last article. Lord Erman set the challenge of building a tribal deck around the card Dream Halls. Dream Halls is from the Stronghold set which is part of the Rath Cycle. 

Let's have a look and see what we have been given to work with this week.  

The card has a high mana cost of 3 ManaBlue ManaBlue Mana so we will be looking at ways to bring into play earlier or a tribe that can keep us alive long enough to play it and for it to still be useful.

The card is an enchantment with the following ability

Rather than pay the mana cost for a spell, its controller may discard a card that shares a color with that spell

This is a very powerful effect and has been used in competitive Legacy decks, in Tribal though its severely limited if we want to use it with spells as we won't have many slots after our creature and land base.

I like to dream of death and decay

It's nice to see you join us Liliana

You mentioned Dream Halls being used in Legacy but failed to show the deck list so I'm going to show the readers it for their reference.

Now look at the power in this deck the main card that drives the deck other than Dream Halls is Nicol's powerful Conflux spell, he's not a dragon to be messed with, I've had a few dealings with him in the past.

Thanks Liliana now let's see how this deck works then. The main idea once Dream Halls is in play is it to cast Conflux with this you can search for another Conflux and three Progenitus and Bogardan Hellkite, then use the second conflux from a Progenitus to search for three Cruel Ultimatum's and another Progenitus and Conflux. Use the three Progenitus and Conflux to cast the three Cruel Ultimatum's and Bogardan Hellkite for the win. When playing the deck it will be easier as you will have other coloured spells to help cast the Cruel Ultimatum's with the backup of Force of Will.

This deck also has the ability to cast a turn two Progenitus via Show and Tell

Dream Halls
by Jonas Harbili (1st place GermanMagic I - Legacy)
Creatures
1 Bogardan Hellkite
4 Progenitus
5 cards

Other Spells
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Lim-Dul's Vault
4 Conflux
3 Cruel Ultimatum
4 Ponder
4 Show and Tell
4 Thoughtseize
4 Dream Halls
3 Lotus Petal
38 cards
 
Lands
3 Ancient Tomb
4 Flooded Strand
5 Island
1 Polluted Delta
2 Scalding Tarn
2 Underground Sea
17 cards

 
Conflux

 

Now our version of the deck can not be as spell heavy due to it having to be tribal legal. Dream Halls will be the main card to build round and we will use Cruel Ultimatum as the finisher card.

I like to be cruel to my adversaries, it brings a smile to my face.

Liliana's happy with the choice as well, which is good so now we have the combo but we need a tribe to help fulfill its capabilities. A tribe that can help manipulate our library, I'm sure you will like that idea Liliana.

Yes I do like library manipulation it's a very strong part of the game, there's nothing better than knowing the next few cards and how they will bring your opponent grovelling to his knees, pleading for mercy.

I had a look and the best tribe to fit our combo is the bird tribe.

Birds I hope your joking, the only good bird is the one on your plate.

Well I wasn't talking about Chicken's that's for sure. The first of the birds I'm thinking of is Sage Owl which lets you reorganize the top four cards of your library like a Ponder effect. The second is a bit expensive in the dollar department but well worth it for this deck which is Raven Familiar, this card lets you look at the top three cards of your library and put one into your hand which is great when playing a Dream Halls deck. The other advantage this card has is its echo cost, strange you may be thinking why would echo be useful. The reason is by not paying its cost it goes into the graveyard which in turn can be brought back by Cruel Ultimatum along with a further three cards, giving you the possibility of casting another Cruel Ultimatum or the Raven Familiar again to search the next three cards of your library.       

We are going to need a few more birds to fulfill the tribal theme.

We should really have bats you know, they are much more prettier than those feathered freaks.

I'm afraid they don't quite fulfill the searching criteria for the deck Liliana.

As I was saying we need more BIRDS, The first two I picked are very useful against red and black decks as they both have either protection from black or red, they are Duskrider Falcon and Freewind Falcon. The second can really mess up decks that run lots of fetch lands or tutor effects which is Aven Mindcensor which limits your opponents searching down to the top four cards. I also included a few one offs Major Teroh as an anti black threat, his card text reads

3 ManaWhite ManaWhite Mana, Sacrifice Major Teroh: Remove all black creatures from the game.

The second is one of our hard hitters Rimefeather Owl who gains power from the number of snow-covered lands in play. I'm also going to include another bird to win via the beat down route if required which is Swans of Bryn Argoll, they may give your opponents a card advantage but they are immune to direct damage which lets them stay on the table for a long time.

Now let's move on to the other cards in the deck, I've noticed Liliana is a bit quite I don't think she approves of this week's tribe.

Watch it Giraffe or I'll have your head on a spike, I'm still here.

Oh dear moving swiftly on. To help find our Cruel Ultimatum's we are going to run three copies of Mystical Tutor and also a single copy of Wrath of God to be tutored up for those desperate moments when you need to clear the field. Another one of which can be tutored and cast via Dream Halls is an old favourite from The Dark Amnesia which empty's your opponents hand of non land cards.

I think Amnesia is what you had when you picked birds as a tribe

Now the insults start

Also on the tutor side we are going to include two copies of Enlightened Tutor and an Idyllic Tutor to search for Dream Halls. As we have Enlightened Tutor in the deck and our tribe is flying based we may as well squeeze in a few copies of Moat which can cripple an opponent's attacking capability's if they are not running disenchant effects.

The last card I want to mention that really helps speed up the casting of Dream Halls is a land Ancient Tomb which at a price of two life can give you access to two colourless mana. 

The final deck list is below the current cost from MTGOTraders as of the 8th of June 2010 is $245.99. If you swap the Tundra's for Boreal Shelf's it drops the price down to $97.00.

Note Raven Familiar is only available online in the commander decks at the time of writing this article.

 

You have to be cruel to be kind

 

Game 1 vs physcogoat367

I start off with Ancient Tomb, 2 Tundra’s, Azorius Chancery Duskrider Falcon, Dream Halls, and oh what was the last card….oh yes it’s Amnesia.

I play Tundra into Azorius Chancery while physcogoat367 plays Jungle Shrine and a mountain into Wolf-Skull Shaman.

I re-play the Tundra in my turn keeping the Aven Mindcensor to hand. physcogoat367 plays a second Jungle Shrine and Bosk Banneret. He then attacks for two damage with the Wolf-Skull Shaman.

In my turn I play my second Tundra and play Idyllic Tutor for a Moat and pass. Wolf-Skull Shaman. Play s a mountain and attacks with both of his shaman, Wolf-Skull Shaman. Plays Colossal Might on each of his attacking creatures dropping me from eighteen life down to seven. I’m not so worried as I know how good my board position will be at the end of my next turn.

I play a Snow-Covered Island in my turn and Dream Halls, I discard Duskrider Falcon and cast Moat and then discard my Mystical Tutor to play Amnesia discarding physcogoat367.’s hand apart from a single mountain. physcogoat367 plays a mountain and passes.

I play my main attacker of the deck Swans of Bryn Argoll and Ancient Tomb and pass. physcogoat367 doesn’t draw anything to stop Moat or the Swans as you can’t take them out with direct damage.

The Swans took physcogoat367 from 20 to 0 life for the win.

Win 1

Lost 0

Game 2 vs Draegas

I start off with Ancient Tomb, Tundra, 2 Raven Familiar, Idyllic Tutor, Cruel Ultimatum and Enlightened Tutor.

I start off with Tundra followed by Ancient Tomb on turn two. I then cast Raven Familiar, I’m given the choice of three cards Dream Halls, island and Tundra. I take the Tundra to build up my mana base. Draegas plays Molten Slagheap and a mountain into Sootstoke Kindler.

On turn three I don’t pay the Echo cost of the Raven Familiar. I play my second Tundra and Moat to stop all the non flyers, when playing against Black and Red there are not many options the player has to destroy enchantments so it could very well be game over at this point in time.  Draegas carries on though and adds a counter to the Slagheap.

Down goes the second Raven Familiar in my turn and I’m given the choice of 2 Azorius Chancery’s or Freewind Falcon, I take one of the lands and play it retuning Ancient Tomb to my hand.  In Draegas turn he plays a swamp and Emberstrike Duo and passes.

I pay the upkeep for the Raven in my turn and play a Snow-Covered Island. I then send the Raven in for a swift peck. Draegas plays Hit and I have to sacrifice my Raven dropping me down to eleven life. At the end of Draegas’s turn I use Enlightened Tutor to search for Dream Halls.

I play Dream Halls on my turn and then use it to cast Cruel Ultimatum, Draegas sacrifices a creature and drops to fourteen life. I draw three cards and play a second Azorius Chancery. Draegas adds a counter to his Slagheap and passes.

Another Raven Familiar from me this turn and I take the choice of Cruel Ultimatum and cast it via Dream Halls discarding Mystical Tutor. Draegas loses his last creature drops to nine life and his hand is emptied. I then play a second Raven Familiar and take the non land Aven Mindcensor.  Draegas concedes on his turn.

Win 2

Lost 0

Game 3 vs LOIS

My starting hand is 2 Snow-Covered Islands, Tundra, 2 Sage Owl, Cruel Ultimatum and Dream Halls.

I start off with A Tundra and LOIS plays a plains, Chrome Mox and then Ballyrush Banneret.

On turn two I play a Snow-Covered Island and Sage Owl and sort my library so Azorius Chancery is on the top of my deck followed by Wrath of God. LOIS plays Ancient Tomb and Enlistment Officer putting Intrepid Hero into his hand.

In my turn I draw and play Azorius Chancery. LOIS in his turn plays Field Marshal and the Intrepid Hero we saw last turn. He sends in two of his soldiers I take the damage from Ballyrush Banneret and chump block the Enlistment Officer with my Sage Owl.

A crack of thunder and Wrath of God clears the table on my turn. In LOIS’s turn he makes a comeback with Captain of the Watch.

I need an answer quick and draw Enlightened Tutor which could very well be what I was looking for. I cast a Sage Owl as a blocker for LOIS’s turn. LOIS casts Field Marshal boosting his forces. He then animates the Mutavault and sends in all his guys. I use the Sage Owl to block the Captain of the Watch and take thirteen damage from the Mutavault and three solider tokens leaving me on four life. At the end of the turn I use Enlightened Tutor to search for Moat.

Down goes the Moat in my turn turning off LOIS’s army. LOIS passes in his turn.

In my turn I play Dream Halls and pass. LOIS passes in his turn as well.

This turn I draw a second Dream Halls and discard to cast Cruel Ultimatum LOIS sacrifices a solider token an drops down to seven life emptying his hand. I draw three cards and play Swans of Bryn Argoll and Sage Owl revealing four land. LOIS isn’t drawing any answers and passes.

In my turn I attack taking LOIS down to two life. I then play a second Sage Owl all land again. LOIS doesn’t draw an answer to Moat and concedes.

Win 3

Lost 0
 

Game 4 vs Timonious

My starting hand is 2 Snow-Covered Plains, Ancient Tomb, 2 Dream Halls, Aven Mindcensor and Duskrider Falcon.

I’m not too keen on this hand due to the lack of blue and take a risk and mulligan.

I end up with 2 Snow-Covered Plains, Ancient Tomb, Tundra, Aven Mindcensor and Amnesia.

I’m off first with a Tundra and Snow-Covered Plains into Sage Owl. I reorganize my hand to put Swans of Bryn Argoll on top of my deck as I can play it next turn. Timonious plays two swamps and Chainer’s Edict killing my Sage Owl.

This turn I was going to play Swans of Bryn Argoll but instead go for a Snow-Covered Plains giving me the option of casting Aven Mindcensor to shut off any tutor effects.  Timonious passes.

I draw into another Tundra this turn and take the risk and play the Swans. Timonious plays a third swamp and another Chainer’s Edict and I lose my Swans.

I draw the exact card I needed in this situation Dream Halls and cast it, all I need next turn is to draw a blue card and I can cast Amnesia.  Timonious knows how Dream Halls works and uses it to cast Lord of the Undead and Call to the Grave.

Things have suddenly changed now for the worse I draw Freewind Falcon and pass.  Timonious uses Dream Halls to cast Undead Warchief and passes. This is not going to be easy to get out of.

I play Freewind Falcon in my turn and Timonious uses the Lord of the Undead to return Gloomdrifter to his hand. In Timonious’s turn he plays a second Lord of the Undead and attacks with the Warchief I use my Freewind Falcon as a chump blocker. At the end of Timonious’s turn I use Mystical Tutor to search for Wrath of God.

I cast Wrath of God in my turn Timonious uses Lord of the Undead to return Grave Defiler to his hand. In the end step Call to the Grave is sacrificed as there are no creatures in play. Timonious passes in his turn.

I pass my turn and Timonious casts Grave Defiler but it reveals no zombies.

This turn I draw another Dream Halls and use it to cast Amnesia Timonious discards the three cards in his hand. In Timonious’s turn he plays a kicked Phyrexian Scuta which is a 5/5 zombie. The Grave Defiler attacks taking me down to eighteen life.

On turn eleven I draw and cast Raven Familiar revealing Mystical Tutor, Sage Owl and Idyllic Tutor all good choices but which one would you take?

I go for the Idyllic Tutor and use Dream Halls to cast it discarding the Aven Mindcensor to shut down Timonious’s attackers. Timonious passes.
In my turn I don’t pay the upkeep of the Raven Familiar sending it to the graveyard. I draw and play Azorius Chancery. Timonious uses Dream Halls to play Diabolic Tutor but doesn’t play the card he drew.

In my turn I draw into another Raven Familiar and play it and take the pick of Mystical Tutor. In Timonious’s turn he plays a swamp and (Haunting Echos) stripping my deck down to twenty eight cards. I lose my most of my Birds leaving my feeling a bit helpless apart from the knowledge that I still have four Cruel Ultimatum’s in my deck. At the end of Timonious’s turn I Mystical Tutor for one of them .

This turn I pay the upkeep for Raven Familiar as it could very well be my main attacker. I discard Rimefeather Owl to cast Cruel Ultimatum taking Timonious down to twelve life and bring back the Rimefeather Owl from my graveyard. I don’t draw much and play another attacker Duskrider Falcon. My Raven swoops in over the Moat for a point of damage. Timonious plays (Tsabo’s Assassin) and passes.

I draw a Snow-Covered Island and play it then send in my two birds. I could play Rimefeather Owl but keep it in hand as I may draw another Cruel Ultimatum if I’m lucky. Timonious plays a swamp and passes.

This turn I attack with both birds again the Raven Familiar is killed by the Assassin but that could be to our advantage. Timonious plays Chanier’s Edict killing my Duskrider Falcon and passes.

Not much this turn as I’m in land drawing mode. Timonious passes his turn with a card in hand.

Yes another Cruel Ultimatum finds it's way into my hand this turn, I cast it with Dream Halls discarding the Owl. For some reason I take the Owl back into my hand when I should have taken the Raven. Timonious is left on three life. Timonious plays a swamp and passes.

Luck must be on my side as this turn I draw another Cruel Ultimatum for the win.

Win 4

Lost 0

Game 5 vs Soul_Eater

My starting hand this game is 2 Snow-Covered Island’s, Tundra, Duskrider Falcon, Enlightened Tutor, Dream Halls and Cruel Ultimatum.
Soul_Eater is off first with a plains into Mystic Penitent. I play a Tundra and pass.

Turn two Soul_Eater hits me for one damage with the Mystic Penitent. He then plays Secluded Steppe and Tireless Tribe. At the end of Soul_Eater’s turn I use Enlightened Tutor for Moat.  In my turn I play a Snow-Covered Island and Duskrider Falcon.

I’m attacked by both of the nomad’s in Soul_Eater’s turn I block the Mystic Penitent with the falcon and they both die, I don’t want Soul_Eater to have access to too many potential flyers. Soul_Eater then plays a Mystic Visionary before passing. I play Raven Familiar in my turn and pick the wrong card by mistake I was supposed to pick the Snow-Covered Island but instead picked Rimefeather Owl this mistake could set me back a few turns.

In Soul_Eater’s turn he attacks with the Mystic Visionary taking me to sixteen life and then casts Pianna, Nomad Captain which is the nomad lord. In my turn I don’t pay the upkeep of the Raven Familiar so it goes to the graveyard. I do however play Moat this turn grinding Soul_Eater’s army to a halt unless he has some disenchant effect in his deck somewhere.

Soul_Eater passes his turn after playing a plains. I don’t draw that fifth land and pass as well.

Another pass from Soul_Eater. In my turn I draw and play Wrath of God clearing the board, Soul_Eater makes a mistake here and casts Shelter giving Pianna, Nomad Captain protection from white but it one help him here.

Soul_Eater plays another Tireless Tribe this turn and Windswept Heath. I draw and play Azorius Chancery.

This turn Soul_Eater plays Nomad Decoy and passes. I play Dream Halls kicking my deck into action.  I discard Rimefeather Owl to cast Cruel Ultimatum dropping Soul_Eater down to fourteen life, emptying his hand and killing the Tireless Tribe. I draw three cards and get back the Raven Familiar from my graveyard. I then discard Dream Halls to play Raven Familiar grabbing Swans of Bryn Argoll, I cast the Swans by discarding Enlightened Tutor.

Soul_Eater passes his turn without playing the card he just drew, at the end of the turn I play Mystical Tutor for another Cruel Ultimatum. In my turn I don’t pay the upkeep for Raven Familiar I play Cruel Ultimatum by discarding Sage Owl, in response Soul_Eater Disenchant’s Dream Halls and taps my Swans with the Nomad Decoy. Cruel Ultimatum comes into effect dropping Soul_Eater to nine life and killing the Nomad Decoy. I take back the Raven Familiar again and cast a second Swans of Bryn Argoll by paying mana this time.

In Soul_Eater’s turn he plays Ray of Distortion destroying my Moat. I attack with my Swans taking Soul_Eater down to one life and Idyllic Tutor for Dream Halls so I have the potential to play Mystical Tutor for Cruel depending on what Soul_Eater does in his turn and then drop Dream Halls on my turn and cast it.

Soul_Eater plays a plains and the swans fly in for the win.

Win 5

Lost 0

Thoughts

While Flippers_Giraffe is being occupied with my Rack I'm going to give you my thoughts this week. We really did have a pitiful tribe this week to work with which is nothing to do with me. Some of you may like those little squawking freaks but I expect you also enjoy playing with white mana as well.

Now the real power of the deck which was Dream Halls and Cruel Ultimatum was an excellent idea, I love casting a spell and ripping my opponents hand out from under him while he sacrifices a creature and gets hit round the head for his troubles. Now that is the sort of card that brings a tear to my eye.

Now before you all go there is one thing that only one player noticed while playing this deck out of the twenty or so players that Flippers_Giraffe played, which I'm going to give to you to spite Flippers_Giraffe choosing birds as a tribe. Which is that you as the opponent can also cast spells by using Dream Halls as well like Timonious did in game four . Yes that's right go back up and read the card text again.

I won't be along in next week's article so may all your spells contain black mana and your creatures be brought back from the dead. 

Until next time Liliana x


Links

My PureMTGO Archive / The Rare Drafter Ma   

20 Comments

"Now the real power of the by StealthBadger at Thu, 06/10/2010 - 09:44
StealthBadger's picture

"Now the real power of the deck which was Moat and tutors to get Moat was an excellent idea"!

Fixed that for you!

Seriously though, it's a cool deck, but reading your reports, it's moat that wins you every game?

I can honestly say I have by Raddman at Thu, 06/10/2010 - 10:07
Raddman's picture
5

I can honestly say I have never read a complete tribal article. I am usually consumed with most of my free time spent on Legacy. When I saw you writing about Dream Halls (something near and dear to my heart) I figured I would start to read and see where it went. Great article, I read the entire thing which is not a small feat for me and my attention span.

@ Stealth, while Moat stops the ground game, it is cruel that sets up the card advantage. Cruel is the MVP most times, you draw three, they discard 3 lose 5 life and sac a creature, that is a huge huge swing.

While you do have the right by ShardFenix at Thu, 06/10/2010 - 12:27
ShardFenix's picture
5

While you do have the right idea behind cruel raddman, I feel you are discounting the sheer power of Moat in the tribal environment. Very few people tend to run decks with flyers(i.e. Angels, dragons, demons, birds, spirits). They also neglect to run any enchantment/artifact destruction the majority of the time. The only reason I can think for this is because of the percentages of times that its a dead card. Personally I recommend creature based destruction like Indrik Stomphowler or Kor Sanctifiers if you can fit it. But Moat will win games own it own's with or without the cruel ultimatum advantage.

@Flippers, while I think the deck is great, Im going to have to question the use of birds. Dont get me wrong it did work for you. I just feel there are better tribes that could have been used. Some to consider off the top of my head...
U/B/r Elementals
U/B or U/R Humans
U/B/r Dragons

Just some ideas to consider if birds aren't your thing.

I particularly like the U/B/r dragons since you can now cast free Kokusho's and Keiga's

The problem with any other by Flippers_Giraffe at Thu, 06/10/2010 - 12:54
Flippers_Giraffe's picture

The problem with any other tribe is card advantage Sage Owl and Raven Familiar are one of the best cards in the deck as there is no room for Ponder and Brainstorm effects as those spaces are already used up.

I feel other tribes would be a lot slower and have less chance of winning in time before you get a Dream Halls down.

Sphinges ftw! :D Not THAT by Paul Leicht at Thu, 06/10/2010 - 13:33
Paul Leicht's picture

Sphinges ftw! :D Not THAT slow with turn 3 vexing or turn 4 SoLTs (assuming help from Chalices or Cloudposts) or even Dreamhalls itself. Some spot removal as back up and all is well for the early game.

Moat is powerful, I totally by Raddman at Thu, 06/10/2010 - 13:44
Raddman's picture

Moat is powerful, I totally understand how impressive it is. I don't play tribal, but it doesn't take brain surgery to figure out how awesome it is.

However......Moat doesn't win games, it stalls them. It might be the reason for a game one victory, but much like dredge, people should be prepared in the sideboard.

Cruel wins games period......I've played so many Legacy matches which I've written about and trust me when I say this, Cruel is all that and a bag of chips! Players usually can't recover from a 6 card swing.

It might of appeared that Moat was the superstar, but playing single matches tends to skew the overall data.

ahh the sideboard by ShardFenix at Thu, 06/10/2010 - 14:36
ShardFenix's picture

ahh the sideboard argument...I assuming that you don;t play much tribal which is cool, but tribal does not have the benefit of a sideboard. Hence any deck that can win game 1 off of a moat, can do it games 2 and 3 as well. Im not saying cruel is bad, it's a great card. But the bird deck probably would have won just as often with different cards in the cruel and dream halls slots.

Actually, I don't play tribal by Raddman at Thu, 06/10/2010 - 15:10
Raddman's picture

Actually, I don't play tribal at all which is exactly what I stated in my post, but thanks for reading it :) I didn't realize tribal didn't have sideboarding, that seems weird to me. If hardly anyone plays flying creatures then why doesn't everyone just run moat?

For the same reason people by Paul Leicht at Thu, 06/10/2010 - 16:16
Paul Leicht's picture

For the same reason people don't always run sweepers like Volcanic Fallout instead relying on massive early damage (ala goblins). There are no guarantees to what you will face in a particular match up. People bring some crazy stuff. Imho moat is a staple for TWC where it might not be for classic.

themonkey's picture

It's ridiculous that tribal doesn't have a sideboard.

The argument I hear is that there is no way to know if a player's deck is tribal legal after sideboarding. Maybe that makes sense for paper magic, but MTGO could easily check decks before each game in a match to make sure it's tribal legal. MTGO validated deck submissions before each game of a draft, it wouldn't let you play a 39 card deck for example. The same thing should be done for tribal.

I think the reason Wizards doesn't do that is that they don't want the paper and digital formats to be different, so we're stuck with the drawback of a paper game. They should just implement a sideboard for online only, it would make matches much more fun and competitive.

That would lead to an by Paul Leicht at Thu, 06/10/2010 - 20:39
Paul Leicht's picture

That would lead to an entirely different format. No guarantee that anyone would be interested since it is mainly a casual fringe format not a staple format like pauper, or classic, or extended.

as much as I've disagreed by JustSin at Thu, 06/10/2010 - 22:02
JustSin's picture

as much as I've disagreed with the no sideboard rule the more I consider it the more I'm glad it doesnt have the side board... when you run tribal you usually hit the formula of 20 crits, 16 spells, 24 lands and with a 15 card sideboard you can simply change that entire list of noncreature spells and do something 100% different off of the same creature base and thats just weird

I absolutely agree with you by StealthBadger at Fri, 06/11/2010 - 03:40
StealthBadger's picture

I absolutely agree with you 100,000,000,000% (non-mathematical shenanigans added for effect)

As it is, I find it's pretty much only viable to run decks with flying tribes, counterspells, a playable anti-enchantment creature (i.e. stomphowler, zealot, KOALa and maybe harmonic sliver), maelstrom pulse or mortify.

Moat is such a powerhouse in this format because you generally only have ~15 non-creature spell slots, and because each deck will involve at least 20 creatures, you want most of those to interact with creatures in some way, so it's difficult to justify just sticking naturalize or something in there.

Fun deck though a bit too by Paul Leicht at Thu, 06/10/2010 - 12:28
Paul Leicht's picture

Fun deck though a bit too pricy for me. The dream halls alone run $24 a play set, never mind the tutors. It is funny that the win con is one of the cheaper cards in the deck at less than a ticket each.

"@ Stealth, while Moat stops by Flippers_Giraffe at Thu, 06/10/2010 - 12:57
Flippers_Giraffe's picture

"@ Stealth, while Moat stops the ground game, it is cruel that sets up the card advantage. Cruel is the MVP most times,"

I agree Cruel is the better card to cast than Moat if you can play it early enough in the game due to its card advantage, Moat is just a stalling effect to gain you time.

But in every single one of by StealthBadger at Fri, 06/11/2010 - 03:47
StealthBadger's picture

But in every single one of your games, the opponent does absolutely nothing relevant post-moat. IMHO you could've probably won with any random win condition post-moat in these games. Using a non-creature is neat because it prevents your opponents killing your condition (giving themselves more time to draw some kind of answer to moat), but it could've easily just been some kind of shroud-monster or x-spell or something?

As I said, it's a neat deck, and a cool win condition, I just think you're understating how cold most of the decks you faced were as soon as you dropped a moat.

Very nice Flippers, very by Lord Erman at Thu, 06/10/2010 - 13:49
Lord Erman's picture
5

Very nice Flippers, very unexpected. Birds eh? That was good.

The only criticism I have is this: Birds are very interesting but I'm sure they aren't the only option. You could have showed us a few other options too. Ah well, maybe a Part II?

This was good, thanks.

LE

Yes birds are not the only by Flippers_Giraffe at Thu, 06/10/2010 - 14:31
Flippers_Giraffe's picture

Yes birds are not the only option there are many others but with game reports there is only enough room for a deck an article.

A part II is a possibility for a future article.

Coalition League by Katastrophe at Thu, 06/10/2010 - 14:28
Katastrophe's picture
5

You should promote your Coalition League at the end of each of your articles. It's only a month away. I just joined the MTGO group today. At first I was unsure if it would be fun, and four+ boosters is kind of expensive, but then again it also gives me an excuse to crack some obscure packs. And I get to sit and think for an hour about which packs are best to buy/use.

Hi Katastrophe the next by Flippers_Giraffe at Thu, 06/10/2010 - 14:36
Flippers_Giraffe's picture

Hi Katastrophe the next article will be all about the Coalition League, I've just started writing it. I'll link it to the bottom of my articles after that, I made sure there was enough space for an extra link.

Great to have you on board.