The first literary reference to Hippogriff that I can cite is from the Compleat Enchanter a book by L'Sprague De Camp and Fletcher Pratt. I read it in the late 70s but the stories range from the 1940s forward. Funny stuff by the way. Anyway that provides some provenance for the odd bird I hope.
Did a Lammasu Tribal deck once back when Moat was legal: The horror token doesn't have flying. 'Hippo' is Latin for 'Horse' (Hippopotamus being 'horse of the river'), although what a griffin is doing with one, eh, just blame a wizard.
I'm interested to see where you go with immortal servitude, I havent seen a block deck use it and I'm not sure the card pool is big enough to really exploit it. I feel like servitude is pretty much a combo piece and it'd need a critical mass of synergistic one or two drops to really be able to go off. happy to be proven wrong though if you've unlocked the code!
If you're looking for an interesting build around me card, I'd be more tempted to look at consuming abberation and other mill-based cards (psychic strike, grisly spectacle, balustrade spy, death's approach etc.). I think there's a fringe playable dimir deck out there waiting to be built.
Yeah, funny how quickly things can change in the MTGO market.
I think Ledgewalker does potentially have a place in this deck. I've certainly seen a lot of decks taking that approach. I think it's the obvious substitute for Kor Spiritdancer if you are going to cut some number of those. Adding Ledgewalker seems a fine way to make sure you have a Hexproof guy in your opener. The downside is that drawing a lot of Hexproof guys is pretty redundant and Ledgewalker doesn't do anything particularly different to your 8 1-mana hexproof guys.
The evasion of Ledgewalker isn't completely irrelevant but at the same time I can't see it being massively significant. It might help you win a turn quicker now and then but when your opponent is chump blocking you are usually in the ascendancy. Also, cards like Lingering Souls will still be an issue if you don't give your Ledgewalker trample. If I was running Ledgewalker I might be tempted to cut some Spirit Mantles as protection from creatures matters a little less on Ledgewalker but not sure what I would substitute it for. I've seen some people running Fists of Ironwood but not sure how good that is, at the very least it's another source of trample.
The situation I was thinking of was actually when you target a creature other than Spiritdancer, that way you get the Aura and draw a card while only losing the Spiritdancer. However, I admit it still isn't an amazing play. I take your point that making your opponent just redundant is perhaps better than giving them targets. I haven't tried cutting Spiritdancer so I can't say for sure if one strategy is superior to another. Personally, I think I prefer keeping Spiritdancer but it has come back to bite me on occasion.
Heh, daybreak coronet was literally a 10c card in December last year.
Does Silhana ledgewalker have any place in the deck? Is the evasion relevant?
And I see your justification for spiritdancer, but it just seems a bit odd to have a card which turns on all of your opponent's bolts and paths. Yes, it wins the game if unanswered but spot removal that hits an X/2 isn't exactly uncommon. You say that if you play it + an aura on the same turn you "draw" card even if they respond with removal, but you're not actually drawing, you're just cantrip-ing the aura you lost. You're still down a card from the spiridancer, the cantrip means that the removal has become a 1-for-1 rather than a 2-for-1.
Peasant has been around for a long time, much longer than pauper.
We were originally going to make PDC a Peasant Deck Challange, and that is what it was originally was posted as, but the fact we could not limit it down to 5 uncommons and have someone cheat as aforementioned by another poster. Peasant was growing in popularity as a fringe format at the time, but died out soon after I think because of some of the uncommons that people really disliked. This was right after darksteel came out, and skullclamp was everywhere, as was brainfreeze, and I think tendrils was starting to popup.
I suggested all commons, then we playtested it. It took a week or two before the other people involved in testing also agreed commons was easier logistically as well. Fecundity was also something in testing that appeared to be just bonkers.
Tharionwind looked up peasant in a thesaurus and then coined the format pauper, with Pauper's Deck Challenge.
I like the idea of Silverblack more than pauper, because of it is actually introducing alot more to a format. Most peasant decks are pauper decks, with some uncommons. Some new decks appear, though they are mostly combo decks I would imagine, but I haven't really looked into the peasant metagame, so my thought there could definitely be way off base.
That Gruul deck looks like a lot of fun, I will deffinatly have to work on a build for it.
I do disagree with you on Shadowborn Apostle though. I feel like with the ability to grab Grislebrand, and Immortal Servitude being able to get a huge number of these back, it feels like the start of a real combo deck for the few months that those are in Standard together.
Classic definitely needs a ME5 of reprints and a few unreleased, and might make the perfect backdrop for the power 9. Power 9 aside, as a player, I desperately want this. Alpha-Masques, new artworks would be another twist. With enough EV, I would pay even more for the packs than the standard 4 tix. I'm also in the Masques-limited-was-great camp. The only classic draft format I didn't like was ME2 and ME3, with Skull Catapult as an unanswerable uncommon and boring legends, respectively.
Don't worry, I will personally make sure that the challenge will be fair. Like, no Ayanam1 using some mad anti-artifact deck with 4 Fracturing Gust against his Constructs. :) They'll be allowed to use any of their previously established decks, not something built ad hoc for fighting the other deck but that they wouldn't play otherwise in a tournament.
The alternative would be just, "Hey, end X-1 with a strong deck that's likely to end X-1. Then see if you can use this strong deck to beat one of these guys, who you possibly already beat several times." Since the prize is NOT 1 tix, and the whole challenge is thought for Spike players who want to prove themselves (that's why it's about playing skills, not deckbuilding skills: deckbulding is entirely out of the equation here), there needed to be some difficulty factor.
The Champions have been asked to play ruthlessly, but I'm confident they won't play too dirty against their own creations. After all, they may still be glad to see their decks succeed while piloted by others. :)
Great, glad you found it helpful. Keep an eye out for next weeks article where I'll cover another pretty cheap aggro deck (apart from the mana base) which I'm really excited about.
Good article. I have been thinking about coming back to MTGO after a 4 year hiatus and was not sure how to approach it. After reading your article I will focus on block constructed for awhile. Thanks for the idea!
I like the idea of qualifying with the champions deck, it seems like a fun challenge, especially when one of the decklists looks very familiar to me. Having to use the deck against someone that can use whatever they want seems very rough though (especially when 2 out of the 3 decks are very easy to hate out.)
That was the joke :)
The first literary reference to Hippogriff that I can cite is from the Compleat Enchanter a book by L'Sprague De Camp and Fletcher Pratt. I read it in the late 70s but the stories range from the 1940s forward. Funny stuff by the way. Anyway that provides some provenance for the odd bird I hope.
"My new animal is going to be called a felinegriff, and it's a combination of a dog and a hippogriff, how about that"
That would be a cat (feline) cross not a dog (canine)
Alluring siren should be a merfolk ala Seasinger.
Just to be an ass, I have to point out that "hippos" means 'horse' in *Greek*, not Latin.
Mistype.
Did a Lammasu Tribal deck once back when Moat was legal: The horror token doesn't have flying. 'Hippo' is Latin for 'Horse' (Hippopotamus being 'horse of the river'), although what a griffin is doing with one, eh, just blame a wizard.
Thanks for the vids. Your thoughts on the deck's linearity pretty echo mine in my article last week:
http://puremtgo.com/articles/around-block-1-introduction-rtr-block-mono-red
I'm interested to see where you go with immortal servitude, I havent seen a block deck use it and I'm not sure the card pool is big enough to really exploit it. I feel like servitude is pretty much a combo piece and it'd need a critical mass of synergistic one or two drops to really be able to go off. happy to be proven wrong though if you've unlocked the code!
If you're looking for an interesting build around me card, I'd be more tempted to look at consuming abberation and other mill-based cards (psychic strike, grisly spectacle, balustrade spy, death's approach etc.). I think there's a fringe playable dimir deck out there waiting to be built.
yup, there is only 11 cards in SB
Aww, I was going to suggest vitality charm which does what fists does but at instant speed, but It's not modern legal.
Yeah, funny how quickly things can change in the MTGO market.
I think Ledgewalker does potentially have a place in this deck. I've certainly seen a lot of decks taking that approach. I think it's the obvious substitute for Kor Spiritdancer if you are going to cut some number of those. Adding Ledgewalker seems a fine way to make sure you have a Hexproof guy in your opener. The downside is that drawing a lot of Hexproof guys is pretty redundant and Ledgewalker doesn't do anything particularly different to your 8 1-mana hexproof guys.
The evasion of Ledgewalker isn't completely irrelevant but at the same time I can't see it being massively significant. It might help you win a turn quicker now and then but when your opponent is chump blocking you are usually in the ascendancy. Also, cards like Lingering Souls will still be an issue if you don't give your Ledgewalker trample. If I was running Ledgewalker I might be tempted to cut some Spirit Mantles as protection from creatures matters a little less on Ledgewalker but not sure what I would substitute it for. I've seen some people running Fists of Ironwood but not sure how good that is, at the very least it's another source of trample.
The situation I was thinking of was actually when you target a creature other than Spiritdancer, that way you get the Aura and draw a card while only losing the Spiritdancer. However, I admit it still isn't an amazing play. I take your point that making your opponent just redundant is perhaps better than giving them targets. I haven't tried cutting Spiritdancer so I can't say for sure if one strategy is superior to another. Personally, I think I prefer keeping Spiritdancer but it has come back to bite me on occasion.
Tyler where are these Sphinx's Revelations you keep referring to? Were they supposed to be in board?
Heh, daybreak coronet was literally a 10c card in December last year.
Does Silhana ledgewalker have any place in the deck? Is the evasion relevant?
And I see your justification for spiritdancer, but it just seems a bit odd to have a card which turns on all of your opponent's bolts and paths. Yes, it wins the game if unanswered but spot removal that hits an X/2 isn't exactly uncommon. You say that if you play it + an aura on the same turn you "draw" card even if they respond with removal, but you're not actually drawing, you're just cantrip-ing the aura you lost. You're still down a card from the spiridancer, the cantrip means that the removal has become a 1-for-1 rather than a 2-for-1.
Peasant has been around for a long time, much longer than pauper.
We were originally going to make PDC a Peasant Deck Challange, and that is what it was originally was posted as, but the fact we could not limit it down to 5 uncommons and have someone cheat as aforementioned by another poster. Peasant was growing in popularity as a fringe format at the time, but died out soon after I think because of some of the uncommons that people really disliked. This was right after darksteel came out, and skullclamp was everywhere, as was brainfreeze, and I think tendrils was starting to popup.
I suggested all commons, then we playtested it. It took a week or two before the other people involved in testing also agreed commons was easier logistically as well. Fecundity was also something in testing that appeared to be just bonkers.
Tharionwind looked up peasant in a thesaurus and then coined the format pauper, with Pauper's Deck Challenge.
I like the idea of Silverblack more than pauper, because of it is actually introducing alot more to a format. Most peasant decks are pauper decks, with some uncommons. Some new decks appear, though they are mostly combo decks I would imagine, but I haven't really looked into the peasant metagame, so my thought there could definitely be way off base.
Just FYI, your name gets mentioned a couple of times in our new ShufflerDaemon tutorial update.
Thank You for all your hard work. I am an old school player that gave it all up in 2006. This article has me playing again!
That Gruul deck looks like a lot of fun, I will deffinatly have to work on a build for it.
I do disagree with you on Shadowborn Apostle though. I feel like with the ability to grab Grislebrand, and Immortal Servitude being able to get a huge number of these back, it feels like the start of a real combo deck for the few months that those are in Standard together.
Classic definitely needs a ME5 of reprints and a few unreleased, and might make the perfect backdrop for the power 9. Power 9 aside, as a player, I desperately want this. Alpha-Masques, new artworks would be another twist. With enough EV, I would pay even more for the packs than the standard 4 tix. I'm also in the Masques-limited-was-great camp. The only classic draft format I didn't like was ME2 and ME3, with Skull Catapult as an unanswerable uncommon and boring legends, respectively.
A fairer competition would make the challenged also play with the same deck.
Don't worry, I will personally make sure that the challenge will be fair. Like, no Ayanam1 using some mad anti-artifact deck with 4 Fracturing Gust against his Constructs. :) They'll be allowed to use any of their previously established decks, not something built ad hoc for fighting the other deck but that they wouldn't play otherwise in a tournament.
The alternative would be just, "Hey, end X-1 with a strong deck that's likely to end X-1. Then see if you can use this strong deck to beat one of these guys, who you possibly already beat several times." Since the prize is NOT 1 tix, and the whole challenge is thought for Spike players who want to prove themselves (that's why it's about playing skills, not deckbuilding skills: deckbulding is entirely out of the equation here), there needed to be some difficulty factor.
The Champions have been asked to play ruthlessly, but I'm confident they won't play too dirty against their own creations. After all, they may still be glad to see their decks succeed while piloted by others. :)
FWIW, I will use the same deck I'll play with that day (or, if I won't be there, the deck from the previous week).
Great, glad you found it helpful. Keep an eye out for next weeks article where I'll cover another pretty cheap aggro deck (apart from the mana base) which I'm really excited about.
Good article. I have been thinking about coming back to MTGO after a 4 year hiatus and was not sure how to approach it. After reading your article I will focus on block constructed for awhile. Thanks for the idea!
It seems easy to set up for failure without being particularly obvious about it.
I like the idea of qualifying with the champions deck, it seems like a fun challenge, especially when one of the decklists looks very familiar to me. Having to use the deck against someone that can use whatever they want seems very rough though (especially when 2 out of the 3 decks are very easy to hate out.)