Not sure if I read too fast and missed it, but a reminder never hurts. The creatures you get are tokens, which makes bounce removal, which is why Gale Powdermage and Hoverguard Sweepers such a beating. It also makes sunburst, and hydra type guys = 0. My last ditch effort is usually for a Sweeper. You also did not go deep on Azorius Guildmage, which says, I keep 3 mana open and you never get another creature all game.
That is probably true. Strangely this week I felt no compulsion to comment at all, but yours evoked a need to agree. Will is a really amazing card but I wonder if they chose it for that reason knowing that they will probably end up restricting it or even banning it some formats? Food for thought.
Hi. Thanks a lot for your article. It's really interesting. Can you write down a sideboarding guide for the common matchups please? I find it difficult just from your video. Thanks!
MOCS January promo is YAWGMOTH'S WILL! That card won't see "print" until March. Having the card a month early will affect Classic for February, demand a high price, and possibly cause the card to devalue in Urza's Saga. In my opinion, everyone will be trying to crack Tolarian Academy, Gaea's Cradle, Sneak Attack, and Yawgmoth's Will. But with Will coming out two months prior, it'll be past the initially-high-price phase, and it'll surely be restricted, so it might not be a money rare. (Other restricted cards devalue.) So with one fewer money rare in US, the others might go up more. Kind of like how in Exodus we have Oath/Nightmate/Fittest and then the 4th most valuable card is about 2 tickets. And there will be a lot of Urza's cracked, certainly.
It'll also be funny to see a card that is available in promo form only be pre-restricted on Jan 4th. I think this is even more of a "they just have to" than Balance was.
Nice, was looking for a good run down on the format before the tourney.
Regarding 0-mana creatures, they seem like a decent response to your opponent going for a 1-mana guy. Unless they hit a 2-power drop or elf, they'll have a random 1/1. If you respond by going for a 0-mana play, you have a 4/9 chance of either nullifying any early aggro they could apply (Ornithopter, Shield Sphere, Walker) or of getting ahead with a Dryad.
Regarding prizes, what would people think of choosing oddly enough, Momir Vig Avatars themselves? Presumably the price of most of the rare Avatars are going to tank, and Vig is the only Avatar who is (or will be soon at least) supported in Sanctioned play. Depending on how many Vig Avatars are given out for CC participation, and how great the demand for Sanctioned Momir Basic is, picking up a handful of Vig Avatars as your prize could pay off in the long term.
I don't see way to message you here, so I hope you're alerted to replies to this older article.
You're article about Core Set Constructed got me hooked on the format. I bombed out in my first event, but came back a couple weeks later to earn my first ever MTGO Premier Event Top 8! Since then I've revamped my deck to the point where it is winning plenty of two-player qeues. I wanted to share it with you:
4 Black Knight
4 Doom Blade
4 Duress
8 Forest
4 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Great Sable Stag
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Llanowar Wastes
2 Loxodon Warhammer
4 Master of the Wild Hunt
8 Swamp
2 Terror
4 Treetop Village
4 Troll Ascetic
I don't see way to message you here, so I hope you're alerted to replies to this older article.
You're article about Core Set Constructed got me hooked on the format. I bombed out in my first event, but came back a couple weeks later to earn my first ever MTGO Premier Event Top 8! Since then I've revamped my deck to the point where it is winning plenty of two-player qeues. I wanted to share it with you:
4 Black Knight
4 Doom Blade
4 Duress
8 Forest
4 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Great Sable Stag
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Llanowar Wastes
2 Loxodon Warhammer
4 Master of the Wild Hunt
8 Swamp
2 Terror
4 Treetop Village
4 Troll Ascetic
this was a great article.. up until this point I had passed by Zen block articles because I've never been a fan of block, but I decided to read one and I'm glad this was it. Your videos are so awesome in so many ways, they were so helpful in understanding the decks. Also the deck lists were great, after reading this I'm starting to understand there sure seems to be a lot of depth to the deck choice instead of the usual one deck that dominates. I may have to drop some money and give some of these a try. Can't wait until part 2
Never seen that guy. However, I have seen multiple Solarions. Well, I never actually SEE my Solarions. I just spend 7 mana to conjure up the text: "Katastrophe puts a token copy of Solarion into play."
There are nine 0 mana plays. Two of them enter the battlefield dead. One is the Land Creature - Forest Dryad. The other six are Ornithopter (ok), Kobolds (bleh), Shield Sphere (nice), and Phyrexian Walker (meh). So you have maybe a 2/9 chance of beating the power of a one mana creature. Playing for 0 is definitely the best option to get an artifact creature. Maybe you need to chump block a guy with fear for the win? I'm surprised I never tried a 0-point play before. I forgot it was an option.
There are 26 creatures with a CMC of 9. Anyone who goes for Blazing Archon or bust is foolish. However, 9 mana is almost certain to give you a large body. BUT, and this is a major "but", the abilities on 9 mana creatures tend to be impossible in Mormir Basic. For example: "Soulshift 8", Reya Dawnbringer, Nullstone Gargoyle, Krosan Colossus, Iona, Grozoth, Furnace Dragon, Chromescale Drake, The Unspeakable, Suncrusher, Zodiac Dragon, and two of the 5 Bringers. That's a lot of "blank" french vanilla fatties. And if you score a non-blank then it could be Leviathan or Colossus of Sardia. In my opinion, CMC 7 and 8 are where it's at. If you're desperate and need a HAIL MARY play, forget Blazing Archon, and pray for a Platinum Angel at 7 mana. That's usually the last thing I do in every game before I die, even in Next Level Mormir.
My deck is half Mountains. The rest is a majority of swamps. In Next Level Mormir I play 6/6/6/12/30 (Swamps, Mountains) because domain effects are powerful. In in Basic, which I haven't played in a while, there's little advantage to diversifying.
i sold my momir avatar as soon as i heard it was the prize for the cc. Now I get a free one, how awesome is that!
Good article, i wanted to point out a few things you missed.
As a first turn play you can also go for 0 mana with momir and attempt to get the forestdryad land (better odds than an elf at 1cc).
And a particularly bad creature at 8 mana...a 1/1 morph wizard. doesnt kill you but may make you want to throw your computer.
The momir vig basic tourney being held in honor of the Community team winning the community cup challenge a while ago. Anyone who participated in the online forums discussion on deck strategies for the CC team will get an avatar tomorrow and the tournament is 12/27/09
It's a Momir basic tournament that awards free avatars of your choice based on how well you do. Unfortunately, I will be traveling over christmas and will NOT be able to participate (not like anybody here cares, but w/e).
Ya, I could see a pretty sick BG aggro list running avenging druid + rancor and tortured existence. There's alot of powerful cards to use there -- mongrel, putrid leech, shambling shell, golgari brownscale, some good stuff that won't worry about running out of steam.
Narrow Escape could work but would require a bit of play testing, as you say the main issue is the casting cost. With Into the Roil as well it could be a bit too much bounce.
What do you think about Narrow Escape over Shieldmate's Blessing in this deck. Granted it is not as cheap but you have a guaranteed save for you creature, gain 4 life (vs preventing 3 damage) and you get to drop your allies back in for the triggers. Considering that there are a few pump allies in the deck, this might be a worthwhile tradeoff for the increased casting cost. Your thoughts?
And after limited testing, I liked the bounce (gave a lot of game vs cards like DoJ where they kill their shrouded sphinx and you just bounce your turntimber ranger and umara raptor, or a Kicked rite of replication where it either basically counters the spell OR kills the tokens produced) Spell pierce is criminally underrated in this deck, although in block the opponent tends to have a few mana around to pay, unfortunately. Cancel might be a good option in the board. The clerics are just straight up good, as they will gain you about 10-15 life each at least if not answered, and if they are answered then they are serving as excellent removal sponges so that you can get your game plan going. Shieldmate blessing is just dead vs vampires and U/W control so its not worth even 1 slot IMO.
Yes and no -- the problem is that as White is the 'central' color in this deck, there's no fetch that lets you get it and any of your other colors (both W/G and W/U are allies). Misty Rainforest helps a bit in that you can trim both Forests and Islands for them, freeing up a couple of land slots for more Plains, but that's a somewhat marginal improvement; you're still not going to get above 4-5 Plains.
Other people have commented on Shieldmate's Blessing, but let me reiterate: ugh. :/ It's just dead far too often to be worth putting into your deck, and there are plenty of other cards that fill that slot nicely and are more utilitarian; I'd rather have either Vines of Vastwood or the highly underrated Spell Pierce.
In general, though, I think this deck just has too much of The Fear. Bounce is useful in a tempo deck, but seven bounce spells is an overload, and the plethora of blue spells is really pulling awkwardly at this deck. Your creature base costs 2W, WW, 1G, 2G, 3GG, and then a small 2U slot -- but your spells cost 1UU, 2UU, 1W, W (provisionally), and 3UU! I think you're better off with just a small splash for Umara Raptor if you feel you need to, but building a deck that can comfortably cast its two big aggressive cards more consistently and then just tries to back them up with a support plan and protective spells. Something like: Kazandu Blademaster, Oran-Rief Survivalist, Turntimber Ranger, Ondu Cleric, Kabira Evangel, Kor Skyfisher (not an ally, but does a fine job of bouncing guys like Evangel and Cleric), and *maybe* Umara Raptor or one or two Sea Gate Loremaster (as the deck really wants to be able to draw a couple of cards in the midgame) as your creature base; and then Journey to Nowhere, Brave the Elements, Vines of Vastwood, and *maybe* Spell Pierce or Into the Roil for your spells. The raw capability and resilience certainly isn't as good as the heavy-blue versions -- but you trade that off with being able to get solidly aggressive starts much more often and not having to juggle your mana nearly so badly. I think you underrate the job of Ondu Cleric; gaining six or eight life off of him will do more to beat a Vampire deck than virtually any amount of bounce will. I may have to experiment with something like this myself, but I think this is closer to where Allies want to be with the current cardpool than the stretched version.
Not sure if I read too fast and missed it, but a reminder never hurts. The creatures you get are tokens, which makes bounce removal, which is why Gale Powdermage and Hoverguard Sweepers such a beating. It also makes sunburst, and hydra type guys = 0. My last ditch effort is usually for a Sweeper. You also did not go deep on Azorius Guildmage, which says, I keep 3 mana open and you never get another creature all game.
So, are we allowed to choose 25 Serra Angel avatars or do they have to be all different?
So, a while ago Momir Basic was allowing snow-covered basic lands. Are the still allowed or was this changed?
Ill have the games and sideboard plans in part 2 of the article, they were a lot of videos for just one article.=)
Yes, please, write a sideboarding guide THANKSSS AND GOOD ARTICLE
"And lastly, Flippers_Giraffe (Simon Smith) made the top 4 of the SCG legacy, well done!"
I'm afraid that wasn't me, unless I've been cloned!
What's Next Level Momir?
That is probably true. Strangely this week I felt no compulsion to comment at all, but yours evoked a need to agree. Will is a really amazing card but I wonder if they chose it for that reason knowing that they will probably end up restricting it or even banning it some formats? Food for thought.
Hi. Thanks a lot for your article. It's really interesting. Can you write down a sideboarding guide for the common matchups please? I find it difficult just from your video. Thanks!
No comments? Oh well. Thanks for the news.
MOCS January promo is YAWGMOTH'S WILL! That card won't see "print" until March. Having the card a month early will affect Classic for February, demand a high price, and possibly cause the card to devalue in Urza's Saga. In my opinion, everyone will be trying to crack Tolarian Academy, Gaea's Cradle, Sneak Attack, and Yawgmoth's Will. But with Will coming out two months prior, it'll be past the initially-high-price phase, and it'll surely be restricted, so it might not be a money rare. (Other restricted cards devalue.) So with one fewer money rare in US, the others might go up more. Kind of like how in Exodus we have Oath/Nightmate/Fittest and then the 4th most valuable card is about 2 tickets. And there will be a lot of Urza's cracked, certainly.
It'll also be funny to see a card that is available in promo form only be pre-restricted on Jan 4th. I think this is even more of a "they just have to" than Balance was.
Nice, was looking for a good run down on the format before the tourney.
Regarding 0-mana creatures, they seem like a decent response to your opponent going for a 1-mana guy. Unless they hit a 2-power drop or elf, they'll have a random 1/1. If you respond by going for a 0-mana play, you have a 4/9 chance of either nullifying any early aggro they could apply (Ornithopter, Shield Sphere, Walker) or of getting ahead with a Dryad.
Regarding prizes, what would people think of choosing oddly enough, Momir Vig Avatars themselves? Presumably the price of most of the rare Avatars are going to tank, and Vig is the only Avatar who is (or will be soon at least) supported in Sanctioned play. Depending on how many Vig Avatars are given out for CC participation, and how great the demand for Sanctioned Momir Basic is, picking up a handful of Vig Avatars as your prize could pay off in the long term.
I don't see way to message you here, so I hope you're alerted to replies to this older article.
You're article about Core Set Constructed got me hooked on the format. I bombed out in my first event, but came back a couple weeks later to earn my first ever MTGO Premier Event Top 8! Since then I've revamped my deck to the point where it is winning plenty of two-player qeues. I wanted to share it with you:
4 Black Knight
4 Doom Blade
4 Duress
8 Forest
4 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Great Sable Stag
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Llanowar Wastes
2 Loxodon Warhammer
4 Master of the Wild Hunt
8 Swamp
2 Terror
4 Treetop Village
4 Troll Ascetic
SB
3 Choke
3 Haunting Echoes
3 Naturalize
3 Persecute
3 Vine Trellis
Thanks for the great article! You turned my attention to a format which has given me a lot of enjoyment and even some success :)
I don't see way to message you here, so I hope you're alerted to replies to this older article.
You're article about Core Set Constructed got me hooked on the format. I bombed out in my first event, but came back a couple weeks later to earn my first ever MTGO Premier Event Top 8! Since then I've revamped my deck to the point where it is winning plenty of two-player qeues. I wanted to share it with you:
4 Black Knight
4 Doom Blade
4 Duress
8 Forest
4 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Great Sable Stag
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Llanowar Wastes
2 Loxodon Warhammer
4 Master of the Wild Hunt
8 Swamp
2 Terror
4 Treetop Village
4 Troll Ascetic
SB
3 Choke
3 Haunting Echoes
3 Naturalize
3 Persecute
3 Vine Trellis
Thanks for the great article! You turned my attention to a format which has given me a lot of enjoyment and even some success :)
this was a great article.. up until this point I had passed by Zen block articles because I've never been a fan of block, but I decided to read one and I'm glad this was it. Your videos are so awesome in so many ways, they were so helpful in understanding the decks. Also the deck lists were great, after reading this I'm starting to understand there sure seems to be a lot of depth to the deck choice instead of the usual one deck that dominates. I may have to drop some money and give some of these a try. Can't wait until part 2
Never seen that guy. However, I have seen multiple Solarions. Well, I never actually SEE my Solarions. I just spend 7 mana to conjure up the text: "Katastrophe puts a token copy of Solarion into play."
There are nine 0 mana plays. Two of them enter the battlefield dead. One is the Land Creature - Forest Dryad. The other six are Ornithopter (ok), Kobolds (bleh), Shield Sphere (nice), and Phyrexian Walker (meh). So you have maybe a 2/9 chance of beating the power of a one mana creature. Playing for 0 is definitely the best option to get an artifact creature. Maybe you need to chump block a guy with fear for the win? I'm surprised I never tried a 0-point play before. I forgot it was an option.
There are 26 creatures with a CMC of 9. Anyone who goes for Blazing Archon or bust is foolish. However, 9 mana is almost certain to give you a large body. BUT, and this is a major "but", the abilities on 9 mana creatures tend to be impossible in Mormir Basic. For example: "Soulshift 8", Reya Dawnbringer, Nullstone Gargoyle, Krosan Colossus, Iona, Grozoth, Furnace Dragon, Chromescale Drake, The Unspeakable, Suncrusher, Zodiac Dragon, and two of the 5 Bringers. That's a lot of "blank" french vanilla fatties. And if you score a non-blank then it could be Leviathan or Colossus of Sardia. In my opinion, CMC 7 and 8 are where it's at. If you're desperate and need a HAIL MARY play, forget Blazing Archon, and pray for a Platinum Angel at 7 mana. That's usually the last thing I do in every game before I die, even in Next Level Mormir.
My deck is half Mountains. The rest is a majority of swamps. In Next Level Mormir I play 6/6/6/12/30 (Swamps, Mountains) because domain effects are powerful. In in Basic, which I haven't played in a while, there's little advantage to diversifying.
i sold my momir avatar as soon as i heard it was the prize for the cc. Now I get a free one, how awesome is that!
Good article, i wanted to point out a few things you missed.
As a first turn play you can also go for 0 mana with momir and attempt to get the forestdryad land (better odds than an elf at 1cc).
And a particularly bad creature at 8 mana...a 1/1 morph wizard. doesnt kill you but may make you want to throw your computer.
The momir vig basic tourney being held in honor of the Community team winning the community cup challenge a while ago. Anyone who participated in the online forums discussion on deck strategies for the CC team will get an avatar tomorrow and the tournament is 12/27/09
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/other/120...
It's a Momir basic tournament that awards free avatars of your choice based on how well you do. Unfortunately, I will be traveling over christmas and will NOT be able to participate (not like anybody here cares, but w/e).
Ya, I could see a pretty sick BG aggro list running avenging druid + rancor and tortured existence. There's alot of powerful cards to use there -- mongrel, putrid leech, shambling shell, golgari brownscale, some good stuff that won't worry about running out of steam.
Thanks for the comment.
I've not tried Vines of Vastwood out yet maybe its worth considering. Kor Skyfisher is another card that I will look into as it could be very useful.
I'm still not sold on Ondu though but will give him a chance.
With regards to Whiplash Trap I plan on mainly casting it for its trap price of U rather than 3UU.
Narrow Escape could work but would require a bit of play testing, as you say the main issue is the casting cost. With Into the Roil as well it could be a bit too much bounce.
What do you think about Narrow Escape over Shieldmate's Blessing in this deck. Granted it is not as cheap but you have a guaranteed save for you creature, gain 4 life (vs preventing 3 damage) and you get to drop your allies back in for the triggers. Considering that there are a few pump allies in the deck, this might be a worthwhile tradeoff for the increased casting cost. Your thoughts?
And after limited testing, I liked the bounce (gave a lot of game vs cards like DoJ where they kill their shrouded sphinx and you just bounce your turntimber ranger and umara raptor, or a Kicked rite of replication where it either basically counters the spell OR kills the tokens produced) Spell pierce is criminally underrated in this deck, although in block the opponent tends to have a few mana around to pay, unfortunately. Cancel might be a good option in the board. The clerics are just straight up good, as they will gain you about 10-15 life each at least if not answered, and if they are answered then they are serving as excellent removal sponges so that you can get your game plan going. Shieldmate blessing is just dead vs vampires and U/W control so its not worth even 1 slot IMO.
What tournament are we talking about?
Yes and no -- the problem is that as White is the 'central' color in this deck, there's no fetch that lets you get it and any of your other colors (both W/G and W/U are allies). Misty Rainforest helps a bit in that you can trim both Forests and Islands for them, freeing up a couple of land slots for more Plains, but that's a somewhat marginal improvement; you're still not going to get above 4-5 Plains.
Other people have commented on Shieldmate's Blessing, but let me reiterate: ugh. :/ It's just dead far too often to be worth putting into your deck, and there are plenty of other cards that fill that slot nicely and are more utilitarian; I'd rather have either Vines of Vastwood or the highly underrated Spell Pierce.
In general, though, I think this deck just has too much of The Fear. Bounce is useful in a tempo deck, but seven bounce spells is an overload, and the plethora of blue spells is really pulling awkwardly at this deck. Your creature base costs 2W, WW, 1G, 2G, 3GG, and then a small 2U slot -- but your spells cost 1UU, 2UU, 1W, W (provisionally), and 3UU! I think you're better off with just a small splash for Umara Raptor if you feel you need to, but building a deck that can comfortably cast its two big aggressive cards more consistently and then just tries to back them up with a support plan and protective spells. Something like: Kazandu Blademaster, Oran-Rief Survivalist, Turntimber Ranger, Ondu Cleric, Kabira Evangel, Kor Skyfisher (not an ally, but does a fine job of bouncing guys like Evangel and Cleric), and *maybe* Umara Raptor or one or two Sea Gate Loremaster (as the deck really wants to be able to draw a couple of cards in the midgame) as your creature base; and then Journey to Nowhere, Brave the Elements, Vines of Vastwood, and *maybe* Spell Pierce or Into the Roil for your spells. The raw capability and resilience certainly isn't as good as the heavy-blue versions -- but you trade that off with being able to get solidly aggressive starts much more often and not having to juggle your mana nearly so badly. I think you underrate the job of Ondu Cleric; gaining six or eight life off of him will do more to beat a Vampire deck than virtually any amount of bounce will. I may have to experiment with something like this myself, but I think this is closer to where Allies want to be with the current cardpool than the stretched version.