I definitely think you made the right play with the shepard of the lost over a steppe lynx, because like I said in your last week's post, I've never really been a fan of the lynx in drafts as they are useless on your opponents turn where the sheppard is just a great all round creature on both yours and his turn. The Ior ruin Expedition and the Kabira are both marginal at best in my opinion and I would avoid playing either but I would probably run the kabira for life gain as the format is fast. I would pick the Gomozoa as well because it can slow a bomb creature your opponent may have and i have found it decently useful. The one change I would make to the deck that you made was I would have played the devout lightcaster instead of the cliff threader because so much black is played (not to say red isn't) but the added ability to remove a black permanent is key. The casting cost is heavy but your main colour is white already and come mid game you will likely have three white available.
In 8-4s I also see that everyone knows that aggro r/b is the elephant in the room, thus that 'nut' isn't achieved very often, so I rarely need a kraken hatchling (though the player passing to you probably has gotten something pretty crazy). I would have taken the cleric, but would not have been happy about it (which would have lead me to take the cartographer in the next pack to stay tight; then finally - pack 7 - having a real decision; the magma rift or anti-black SB taters? I take the tatters, but swing in the U direction with Sky Ruin Drake next pick, take the wings over the map, and the scholar. [which would have left me more likely to try mono white, or a different, smaller splash later)
With your build, I also would have ruled out the tapped land for curve reasons with 17 land (which I believe is the correct amount). I would have dropped the Ior expedition, the Kraken, and the Cancel for the Ox and the Lightcaster(I know that is 3 for 2). I might have tried an 11th plains with only 6 islands (with the expedition map as card 40?). Obviously my preferences are not yours so my choice of a likely 40th card from your pool - if I chose the non 11/6 + map route - give me a headache. I think I'd be better off adding an 18th land (the tap land) instead of the deulist or the cleric. Yes. 12/6 with 6 one-U-mana-blue cards.
No, wait, thats dumb. The scholars help a lot. 11/7. Whew! That actually made me sweat. But I wouldn't feel good about my chances vs the guy on my right if he isn't awful. And I'd be happy to make the finals with this even if I didn't win.
Great as always. Looking forward to the match analysis.
I get how UW can beat Vamps with Mind Sludge (counter) but how does RG Valakut? I guess I just dont understand how it can lose 5+ cards turn 5 and still win when it has no early game cards except getting land into play.
Do not think by any chance I wanted to insult you or your article in any way. I just stated what I think, but your article was by far good.
I also didn't express myself right. I didn't just meant "tournament practice" room, I meant against anything I play. And again, Vampires are still popular, they just (luckly) aren't what they used to be :)
Here's a fact:
Conquer's Pledge + Eldrazi Monument = Win
Conquer's Pledge + Armament Master + (easily gained) one or two equips = most likely win
Since I was last online was about a week ago, since I'm having a school project and I really don't have time, but then noone has known WW (kor) deck, and it was owning any control or vampires deck in 2 man tournaments. Dailies and such I didn't yet try and hopefuly when I come back WW deck will still be a "secret", hehe ;)
fair point, but ive beaten alot of vampire decks with allies through protection. im not very good at writing articles so AS A PLEED would any of you more experienced writers please make a report on allies. get back to me if youve got the time to, much appreciated thankyou.
Thanks for the replies guys. I'm sure you can find a game in TP if you just post one and wait for a bit. The format's pretty slow and most decks have card advantage generators so it's a bit more forgiving.
Javier: a friend of mine actually gave me that exact suggestion. I've removed Ice Cage for now, though its original job was to deal with Thornling and Ant Queen, which Burst doesn't do, and I just recently acquired a Sphinx which I've added to the deck. Look forward to a more bombtastic list for next week's SS challenge :D.
I'll just say that Aaron's deck (U/W Control + combos) was absolutely brutal. Also, I don't think that the WotC team played their decks against each other very much. From the sounds of it they had Aaron build and test them for the most part and he was spotted quite frequently playtesting the 100CS decks online.
A good read, now it makes me want to play. And not just because your cataloging of errors makes it sound forgiving. :)
It actually sounds like control, interactions, and big spells are possible, which we really don't get in real Standard. (Or pauper Standard for that matter.)
I'm definitely going to try to put something together. Is it possible to find Standardton (hey I liked the name) games in TP or Cas? Or does it only really come out at the tournament?
Both very true, however I find this is often not enough to regain tempo once you lose it. And in fact trying to set up for Land Tax can cause you to be unable to deal with threats on the table. Not saying it isn't a good strategy. I've used it often enough, but it can be risky.
Orb has two functions, with the main one being to drop your land count to utilize Land Tax every turn. The other is get value from Armageddon (& Ruination)
Not really since you usually won't have more creatures due to the lack of good card draw. And with Emeria, the Sky Ruin out, you can bring them back again...
Again though it has plenty of good targets in the deck itself. It doesn't need to be used to copy opponent's cards to be good. You might be dismissing it because it doesn't hit the power level you want but I see it as another piece of the combo soup.
Id love to Tarmo if I had the tix. Not really sure I'd be top16ing but the experience would be nice. Steel has a lot of viable targets in that deck and also can be useful to make a double of a card an op plays such as duplicant etc.
edit: didnt catch this till 2nd read through
"Unfortunately, (Wanderer's Map) isn't in the list. That would have possibly made the deck more difficult to fight by giving easier access to Academy Ruins."
Looks odd there... Looking at the other 7 lists, if they tested their decks together, steel would probably be dead most of the time cos of there fact that there are only 2x swords and 1x duplicant running around all the decks combined. hmm...
Unfortunately, balance and crucible of worlds are banned. (Balance being banned is understandable cos of how powerful it is but crucible seems like a mistake that's been around for some time. At least Life from the loam shouldn't be banned.)
Balance in WW? Would't that self-wrath?
Idyllic tutor in WW?
Well, Idyllic is not a bad card. A possible reason why it's not in one of the lists could be that the UW deck (which has enlightened tutor), is centered more around artifacts. It might help in the rock deck with cards like Necromancy or Oversold cemetary but I suppose it wasn't really needed there too.
Balance is banned in the format as is Crucible. Orb is situational. You really don't want it when you are behind on tempo. It is best when you have the renewable lands (which you can't really get because Life from the Loam is also banned.) Idyllic Tutor for Land Tax though...That's a nice start. As is Enlightened Tutor.
Seems strange to me that none of the decks running white used Idyllic Tutor, or Balance. IMO, both of these, as well as Zuran Orb and Crucible of Worlds belong in the Weenie deck
I definitely think you made the right play with the shepard of the lost over a steppe lynx, because like I said in your last week's post, I've never really been a fan of the lynx in drafts as they are useless on your opponents turn where the sheppard is just a great all round creature on both yours and his turn. The Ior ruin Expedition and the Kabira are both marginal at best in my opinion and I would avoid playing either but I would probably run the kabira for life gain as the format is fast. I would pick the Gomozoa as well because it can slow a bomb creature your opponent may have and i have found it decently useful. The one change I would make to the deck that you made was I would have played the devout lightcaster instead of the cliff threader because so much black is played (not to say red isn't) but the added ability to remove a black permanent is key. The casting cost is heavy but your main colour is white already and come mid game you will likely have three white available.
You are correct, Ior expedition is not very good.
In 8-4s I also see that everyone knows that aggro r/b is the elephant in the room, thus that 'nut' isn't achieved very often, so I rarely need a kraken hatchling (though the player passing to you probably has gotten something pretty crazy). I would have taken the cleric, but would not have been happy about it (which would have lead me to take the cartographer in the next pack to stay tight; then finally - pack 7 - having a real decision; the magma rift or anti-black SB taters? I take the tatters, but swing in the U direction with Sky Ruin Drake next pick, take the wings over the map, and the scholar. [which would have left me more likely to try mono white, or a different, smaller splash later)
With your build, I also would have ruled out the tapped land for curve reasons with 17 land (which I believe is the correct amount). I would have dropped the Ior expedition, the Kraken, and the Cancel for the Ox and the Lightcaster(I know that is 3 for 2). I might have tried an 11th plains with only 6 islands (with the expedition map as card 40?). Obviously my preferences are not yours so my choice of a likely 40th card from your pool - if I chose the non 11/6 + map route - give me a headache. I think I'd be better off adding an 18th land (the tap land) instead of the deulist or the cleric. Yes. 12/6 with 6 one-U-mana-blue cards.
No, wait, thats dumb. The scholars help a lot. 11/7. Whew! That actually made me sweat. But I wouldn't feel good about my chances vs the guy on my right if he isn't awful. And I'd be happy to make the finals with this even if I didn't win.
Great as always. Looking forward to the match analysis.
I get how UW can beat Vamps with Mind Sludge (counter) but how does RG Valakut? I guess I just dont understand how it can lose 5+ cards turn 5 and still win when it has no early game cards except getting land into play.
-M
In the article editor, holding shift before hitting enter will prevent you from skipping a space.
Do not think by any chance I wanted to insult you or your article in any way. I just stated what I think, but your article was by far good.
I also didn't express myself right. I didn't just meant "tournament practice" room, I meant against anything I play. And again, Vampires are still popular, they just (luckly) aren't what they used to be :)
Here's a fact:
Conquer's Pledge + Eldrazi Monument = Win
Conquer's Pledge + Armament Master + (easily gained) one or two equips = most likely win
Since I was last online was about a week ago, since I'm having a school project and I really don't have time, but then noone has known WW (kor) deck, and it was owning any control or vampires deck in 2 man tournaments. Dailies and such I didn't yet try and hopefuly when I come back WW deck will still be a "secret", hehe ;)
Well done guys, well done :)
Ivo.
fair point, but ive beaten alot of vampire decks with allies through protection. im not very good at writing articles so AS A PLEED would any of you more experienced writers please make a report on allies. get back to me if youve got the time to, much appreciated thankyou.
Against these kind of fatties, I like Slave of Bolas. Nicol Bolas Planeswalker even, but he's 1 mana too expensive IMO.
Thanks for the replies guys. I'm sure you can find a game in TP if you just post one and wait for a bit. The format's pretty slow and most decks have card advantage generators so it's a bit more forgiving.
Javier: a friend of mine actually gave me that exact suggestion. I've removed Ice Cage for now, though its original job was to deal with Thornling and Ant Queen, which Burst doesn't do, and I just recently acquired a Sphinx which I've added to the deck. Look forward to a more bombtastic list for next week's SS challenge :D.
Ice Cage makes me cringe... how about Burst Lightning in its place? And Djinn of Wishes seems ok but I'd rather have Sphinx of Lost Truths.
Great stuff as usual, Tarmotog!
I'll just say that Aaron's deck (U/W Control + combos) was absolutely brutal. Also, I don't think that the WotC team played their decks against each other very much. From the sounds of it they had Aaron build and test them for the most part and he was spotted quite frequently playtesting the 100CS decks online.
A good read, now it makes me want to play. And not just because your cataloging of errors makes it sound forgiving. :)
It actually sounds like control, interactions, and big spells are possible, which we really don't get in real Standard. (Or pauper Standard for that matter.)
I'm definitely going to try to put something together. Is it possible to find Standardton (hey I liked the name) games in TP or Cas? Or does it only really come out at the tournament?
Both very true, however I find this is often not enough to regain tempo once you lose it. And in fact trying to set up for Land Tax can cause you to be unable to deal with threats on the table. Not saying it isn't a good strategy. I've used it often enough, but it can be risky.
Orb has two functions, with the main one being to drop your land count to utilize Land Tax every turn. The other is get value from Armageddon (& Ruination)
Not really since you usually won't have more creatures due to the lack of good card draw. And with Emeria, the Sky Ruin out, you can bring them back again...
Yes lol *bangs head*
expedition map.
Again though it has plenty of good targets in the deck itself. It doesn't need to be used to copy opponent's cards to be good. You might be dismissing it because it doesn't hit the power level you want but I see it as another piece of the combo soup.
Id love to Tarmo if I had the tix. Not really sure I'd be top16ing but the experience would be nice. Steel has a lot of viable targets in that deck and also can be useful to make a double of a card an op plays such as duplicant etc.
edit: didnt catch this till 2nd read through
"Unfortunately, (Wanderer's Map) isn't in the list. That would have possibly made the deck more difficult to fight by giving easier access to Academy Ruins."
Explorer's Map I assume.
Looks odd there... Looking at the other 7 lists, if they tested their decks together, steel would probably be dead most of the time cos of there fact that there are only 2x swords and 1x duplicant running around all the decks combined. hmm...
Unfortunately, balance and crucible of worlds are banned. (Balance being banned is understandable cos of how powerful it is but crucible seems like a mistake that's been around for some time. At least Life from the loam shouldn't be banned.)
Balance in WW? Would't that self-wrath?
Idyllic tutor in WW?
Well, Idyllic is not a bad card. A possible reason why it's not in one of the lists could be that the UW deck (which has enlightened tutor), is centered more around artifacts. It might help in the rock deck with cards like Necromancy or Oversold cemetary but I suppose it wasn't really needed there too.
sculpting steel is a very versatile card, especially in 100cs, maindeckable in a few decks.
Balance is banned in the format as is Crucible. Orb is situational. You really don't want it when you are behind on tempo. It is best when you have the renewable lands (which you can't really get because Life from the Loam is also banned.) Idyllic Tutor for Land Tax though...That's a nice start. As is Enlightened Tutor.
Balance is banned, IIRC
Seems strange to me that none of the decks running white used Idyllic Tutor, or Balance. IMO, both of these, as well as Zuran Orb and Crucible of Worlds belong in the Weenie deck