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By: whiffy, Georgios Efelis
Mar 26 2009 12:11pm
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Hello again and welcome back to the Box. This week I have some deliciousness in the from of a few decks and some news that had me super duper excited and forced my proverbial quill to the electronic medium. First off in the responses from Conflux for Classic there were some requests for more of an effort to incorporate some of the outlier cards into decks. So for today I have a few and would like to share them with you guys.



First up is a deck from a few weeks ago. It was first brainstormed by a pair of my clannies (Kaxon & Country_Hillbilly). Hot off the first few days of drafting Conflux we all wanted to try and make Noble Hierarch good enough. They came up with what I would most likely call an agro fish list and when a few days later I eye-balled an almost duplicate legacy winning decklist I was hooked too. Kaxon and I took it into the first PE that fired after the Conflux mania had started, I secured a top 8 berth while Kax took it all the way to the W. (no not the former president of the United States W) Here is my current version which is not a great deal off from my PE decklist which can be found on WotC's decks to beat, in their archives.


 

As you can see there are a few head scratchers in there most notably the rhino and the gold instant. Trygon has always been given a minimal amount of attention up until GP Chicago that is, but he is consistently amazing.  The reason I enjoy this deck so much is that it just has it over on so many decks with a lot of its spells being synergistic with each other. First of all the deck only needs one of each colored mana to function and with the addition of hierarch its quite easy to have all your colors consistently. The fact that the deck is so cost effective when it comes to particular colors makes it so that you are almost immune to Wasteland and can get around moon effects with relative ease.



The creature base is very good to say the least. Noble will as I said last time, ramp your mana into 3-drops, avoid Daze, let you win Tarmo wars, work around Waste and Moon, and finally pump up your life linking rhino for a +2 point life swing. Speaking of the Monk, wow is all I can say after playing with him. He is often the biggest thing on the table in the first few turns and if you have a Hierarch it most assuredly will be. Life link is no joke either being able to outrace agro is one thing but putting your life in the mid to high twenties will win the game against Necro and other Storm strategies. During my PE play the rhino won  a game one against Necro and Classic Teps all by himself after casting it on the second turn. Before I move away from the War Monk it's nice that RDW has to blow 2 burn spells on him or risk losing the game. Meddling Mage is an all star tempo tool in this deck as most times you will be laying him down to time walk someone or make sure they can't stop one of your monsters from getting at their face. An example would be that in a Dreadstill match Mage bought me a million turns in both games. Game one a Phyrexian Dreadnought was Trinket Maged up and my Meddling came to the rescue on the 3rd turn. In game two after a 1st turn Sensei's Divining Top I plopped him down naming Counterbalance much to my opponents chagrin. Besides tempo he is an excellent way to fight combo and when the board comes in you have  a very high likely hood of just stopping them on turn 2. Trygon Predator is very nice because he will just off so many problem cards for you like Moat, Counterbalance, Umezawa's Jitte, and more. Last and certainly least is Tarmogoyf, man what a sub par card but essential to winning in this deck. The reason I say this is that often he is only a 2/3 with the occasional 3/4 depending on your opponents yard, this is because our deck is all intents creatures and lands with nary a +1/+1 inducing Ponder to be seen.


 



As for the rest of the deck. You have your typical Thresh control package with the addition of Jitte which makes sense as all 18 of your dudes can carry the bloody fork of doom and its a straight beating against Zoo, Merfolk, and Elves!. The real Star is Bant Charm making it so that you have 7 removal spells, 7 hard counters when pushing through a threat or subduing there's and it can kill any random artifacts on the table if you need it to do that. The versatility of all 3 modes makes this my favorite card to topdeck in just about any situation.



The sideboard is heavily slanted against combo and with the plethora of different threats you can attack many combos simultaneously since your maindeck can and should mop up all agro archtypes. The grips are a concession to some of the ridiculous cards that blue control decks employ. Lastly this deck is almost a natural enemy for cards that care about converted cc. Spell Snare, Engineered Explosives, and Counterbalance all have a hard time with this deck since its threats and answers are so varied in cost. All in all a fantastically fun deck to play and one that has some real teeth against the meta.


 



Next up is a new take on an old Legacy list that we are missing too many cards for a true port. As of the writing of this article it is completely theoretical but when the down time is finished I will purchase the last two cards I need to test it out as I see some potential in it and if it works properly it could very well be adjusted into a "budget" deck. Here it is and then ill go over why I think it could work and went to the trouble of putting it together.


 

This is in its rough stages still but I feel like it could have some explosive potential. For one thing its got the CotV and 3Sphere with lots of fast mana going for it to stall out any and all of your opponents with the exception of possibly rock type decks that usually play a higher curve then the rest of the format. On top of that it has 11 huge 'one' drops and then another nine pack of good disruptive and utility critters all of which also fly. Theoretically you should be able to start the game with either something gigantic or something that will slow down the opponent to the point that you can start casting your 3 drops the fair way on or after the third turn. There are a few nice synergies such as the (Esprezoa) bouncing a CotV to replay at a higher or lower mana cost every turn or you can bounce sphere on your own turn to power out a bunch of spells. With a CotV down you can pretty much go to town while your opponent looks helplessly at his StP's and Bolts sitting useless in his hand. The Sower is a nod to the fact that its mono blue and probably the best bet you have when it comes to critter control especially combined with the CotV. Riptide Laboratory in theory can set up some savage end games where you slowly steal all their guys or strip them of any valuable spells with the Sower and the Clique respectively. Mulldrifter may look out of place but for the price of 3 mana and at sorcery speed you get to keep the same amount of cards that a Thirst for Knowledge would net you in a deck like this and if you pay an extra 2 you get a 2/2 flying body to boot.



I have also gone about buying the necessary pieces to build Merfolk and two strands of Goblins and am planning on doing some heavy testing with these two agro decks so look forward to some future love of the oft maligned Classic tribe. The other thing to talk about today is where Classic  will be in a years time. In my mind I see a format split happening right around January of 2010. Here are my reasons.



1, Daze and Gush are added into a Duel Decks box set for no apparent reason other then the fact that the set these delicious spells come from are years away from online print.



2, The quickened pace of old sets. Tempest came out in December and Stronghold by all intents and purposes looks to be printed in April some time, a mere 4 months  difference in sets seeing print. On this time frame we will be getting Exodus around August with M10 and that would put the brokenness that is Urza's Saga on a December/January release right after Med III and the other 5 duals. Urza's block has a lot of ridiculous cards that will forever change Classic even with auto restrictions on the most heinous of offenders.



3, Sometime in April we get Divine vs Demonic which will contain at the very least Demonic Tutor which is the granddaddy tutor and possibly the best one as well.



4, From the Vault: Exiled is slated for an August release and in side it we get 15 previously banned cards and one of them is Balance.( This is not confirmed but going by the picture they popped out and the content of the box set it's a sure thing.)



5, The success of GP Chicago can not be overlooked and the largest American GP would probably have a voracious following online if something can be done to lower the price of FoW and the first 5 Duals.



6, WotC already tried to do it late last year but was met with a vehement backlash from the community.



7, There is currently a new pole on the Classic Quarter of, disregarding price and distribution would you want the power nine printed online, and at the moment it is a landslide yes. I account for this as, dangerlinto the original front man for Classic still has an active role with how Classic is seen by WotC and he even has the ear of a few people who have the power to see things happen. This could be market research do determine the pro's and con's of there release online.



So in a nut shell there it is, my reasoning for a format split and something that I think could be beneficial if we have a stronger player base at the time of the proposed split.



Elaborating more on reason 4 I want to give my List of 15 cards. Eliminating all dexterity cards and the ones that live on Wizards reserve list here is my prediction.



Balance


Black Vise


Land Tax


Tinker


Skullclamp


Berserk


Yawgmoth's Bargain


Strip Mine


Necropotence


Yawgmoth's Will


Oath of Druids


Hermit Druid


Tolarian Academy


Memory Jar


Entomb



I chose these because I feel that it's got a proper mix of broken and nostalgic components. Notice all the Urza's cards? I have a full 3rd of my list as the broken block. Speaking of which it seems like this product is geared heavily to the Vintage and online community with a fraction of Wotc's interest going to kitchen table magic as well. I mean the premise of the set is banned cards, so logically there will be cards only available in Vintage and Classic play. And for the eternal player with everything the only thing to excite them is a new way to jazz up the way your deck looks.(Seriously I know a few paper players whose decks are worth new cars because of all the foreign, black bordered, and promo cards in the deck.) I would be surprised if i was wrong on more then half of the set.



(Author's note: When I originally set up this list I didn't realise that the reserve list included Urza's block. To this I'm sorry, I should have looked closer at the list. However there seems to be some confusion on weather or not reserved list cards are allowed to be printed if they are promotional or foiled. If its true that you are allowed to print them in this manner then hooray for modo as we will possibly get some Urza's stuff sooner then expected if not  I would change the 4 Urza's rares to the foll wing cards- Windfall, Flash, Sol Ring, and Goblin Recruiter.)



Before I go I have a little something special that  I wanted to share as I'm excited to see some of these these new cards in my virtual grip.


 

A pair of mock ups with some Original flavor text.


 

Pretty sweet huh? Well that's it for this one I hope you all enjoyed it until next time whiff is out!



George Efelis


whiffy penguin on modo and most boards


Member of Clan Magic Eternal




P.S. I had JxClaytor ship my article back to me on Sunday afternoon so that I could fix the mistake with my Exiled list, but I just wanted to mention that I talked TheUsualSuspect into playing Bant Whammy! on the 3/22 PE and he was able to 5-0 the swiss portion. I'm not sure about how he finished over all but it is nice to see that this deck is actually as good as I claim lol. Oh and my version of Sea Stompy needs an overhaul to make it playable. I tried it out in about 5 matches and i had 2 games in the set of 12 that I was actually able to do anything worth while, I still really like the idea and will try to figure out how to make it better.


 

12 Comments

Brilliant by under_the_hammer at Thu, 03/26/2009 - 15:23
under_the_hammer's picture

Simply Brilliant Article. The amount of work that has gone into this article is immense and I enjoyed reading ever word. There is so much useful information in this gem.

Good job keep them coming!

Excellent by LOurs at Thu, 03/26/2009 - 16:10
LOurs's picture
5

gold for classic player

if your list about exiled is verified, this would be one of the best playable pack ever

Top 8 by TheUsualSuspect at Thu, 03/26/2009 - 19:38
TheUsualSuspect's picture

Actually I lost in t8 to a landstill with proteus staff progenitus combo in t8. I got screwed g1 and g2 got horrible draws. but even with good draws he had everything to stop me. even threads so I was pretty much dead even had I got good draws.

7. Nope by dangerlinto at Thu, 03/26/2009 - 20:53
dangerlinto's picture

It's not market research. It has nothing to do with anyone at WoTC (though they are free to use it), and it was entirely a coincidence I put it up the same day as the Exiled announcement

Liked the article. You were by paul7926 at Fri, 03/27/2009 - 05:42
paul7926's picture
5

Liked the article. You were one of the people I'm blaming for getting me interested in Classic enough to try and build a deck. I picked goblins not because I thought it would be competative but because I've always had a soft sport for them and it looked like one of the cheapest ways to put together 60 cards so I could play. Looking forward to reading about your exploration of them.

Try not to make them too popular before I've picked up all the cards I need and the prices rocket!

gobbo's by whiffy at Fri, 03/27/2009 - 11:09
whiffy's picture

i am liking goblins especially since you can just vomit guys onto the table. in a recent match i broke through a turn 3 plague on gobbos to still take the match. theya r that good.

Esperzoa, FTW! Hehe, this is by Bazaar of Baghdad at Fri, 03/27/2009 - 08:58
Bazaar of Baghdad's picture
4

Esperzoa, FTW! Hehe, this is another solid addition to the series; thanks for keeping us up to date with the Classic news.

About stompy by LOurs at Fri, 03/27/2009 - 09:07
LOurs's picture

Just a comment about stompy deck : i tried to adapt Fred Chang's deck (http://www.deckcheck.net/deck.php?id=23972) which obtained good results recently. This deck is pretty close to stompy version you explained here. However, it uses more artifact to increase creature power with additional effects (he ran x3 Sword of L&S + x3 sword of F&I) . I tested his version and had good result in classic (only in TP which is however pretty different than a PE). Your list is really interesting because you put Esperzoa into (i really like this creature), but vs a strong defender, you have only jitte to up your creature power which could be risky vs team america for example.
Did you try the both versions ? What is your compared diagnostic Whiffy House Dr ?? :)

still tweaking by whiffy at Fri, 03/27/2009 - 11:07
whiffy's picture

i saw that list as well and while it looks really goof i have 0 swords of anything. if i had some swords i would deff try this list.

Exiled by Turuphantom at Fri, 03/27/2009 - 10:30
Turuphantom's picture

I think that your FTV: Exiled list is probably a bit off.

1) Balance (we know this one)
2) Goblin Lackey (really good info that this will be there)
3) Channel
4) Black Vise
5) Skullclamp
6) Doomsday
7) Strip Mine
8) Regrowth
9) Burning Wish
10) Land Tax
11) Flash
12) Gifts Ungiven
13) Maze of Ith
14) Voltaic Key
15) Zuran Orb

I use this list because I think that they are going to take cards from the history of the game and not aim for just cards that were in Urza's block.
I do like Entomb in your list and I could also see Imperial Seal get reprinted since it is so rare in paper and really worth a lot more than it's power level.

great article whiffy. I do by Anonymous (not verified) at Fri, 03/27/2009 - 13:12
Anonymous's picture

great article whiffy. I do agree with the poster about the exiled list a bit. firstly I believe Yawgmoth's will and bargain ARE on the reserved list (http://wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/149) so, unfortunately or otherwise, we will have to wait. I think those will be replaced by Maze of Ith and some other small impact card (such as zuran orb, key, ect), this just seems like the perfect time to print maze of ith. On a side note, I just really hope wizards doesn't print strip mine online. There are plenty of cards that seem perfectly balanced with strip mine, that would otherwise be restricted or fearsome with even a singleton in the deck (I'm primarily concerned about crucible obv). Controlling the craziness of some of the broken lands that exist in paper and will likely come online seems fine, but for goodness' sake leave the basics alone wotc! Other than that I think the list (and deck lists are great). I especially like the nod to Sower in the stompy list, as it seems strong against those decks where the next best thing (threads of disloyalty) struggles so mightily. Also I can say from having been rocked by it, the bant list is a beast.

exiled list by menace13 at Fri, 03/27/2009 - 15:33
menace13's picture

i think it will be more of a compilation of older cards from before revised edt.

Black Vise
Regrowth
Sol Ring
land Tax
Strip Mine
Maze of Ith
Channel
Fastbond
Mana Vault
Mind twist
Wheel of Fortune

reason i think is theyll(wotc) leave the urzas alone and try to get out all the missing cards. wether these appear in exiled or med3 i am pretty sure they will be online either way .

as for these cards i would love to see

tabernacle,fork,sinkhole,chain lightning,elemental blasts,library of alex.bazaar of baghdad,time vault,mana drain,mishras workshop,karakas,

im sure im missing some . great article way to get those intrests up