I actually answered that question during our conversation online but let me repeat it again here as well.
Heavy testing proved that Sculler doesn't add anything to the deck. On the other hand, Saffi in its spot works like a charm. To kill my Doran or Gaddock or Rafiq, one must first kill her and that means 2 removal for one creature. And that's fine with me.
necro is only not winning 100% of the time because merfolk is beating it in t8's merfolk is the only "bad" matchup necro has everything else is either 50/50 or with most decks godly in your favor. Sat no one ran folk and me/mox went 1/2 with our only loses being I lost to him in r5 he lost to me in finals. and ad naus finshed 3rd. If at bare minimum demonic isnt on the list in 2 days im considering quitting classic its just so boring.
I'm very interested in Block right now, but, well, I suck mightily. :D This article was very good and brought some good deck coverage of your choice. Thanks and best of luck in the PT!
I'd say that's about right The SELESNYA CONCLAVE only has a few answers w/ all the protection, regenerating creatures, and the one answer to Oversoul of Dusk is Mercy Killing which can be one of it's own tools. The aggro beat down probably has few answers such as discard, or blue/green control.
Very good article. I'm going to play PT too and haven't decided at all what I'm going to play. Keep doing 3-2; 4-2; 3-3 at mol daily events with almost every deck I play.
Thank you for your comment. You are exactly right, about what I was trying to get at with the section Cards that don't work with Hypergenesis. I merely meant, that this deck has a simple plan, play a Cascade spell, which 100% of the time will play Hypergenesis, play fat creatures, win.
Playing Split cards that will sometimes be played instead of Hypergenesis, don't further the goal of the deck, which is why they don't work here.
The same is true with Comes into play abilities and cards like Phage. The triggers will be put on the stack after Hypergenesis resolves. Thus, if you don't win the game from damage being dealt, Phage will kill you as it wasn't played from your hand, Mulldrifter will draw you cards, which are useless unless you cast a second Hypergenesis. It's all about the goal of the deck, to have a win condition on the board by turn 2-3.
Yes, the CIP effects always trigger when coming into play, Hypergenesis doesn't change this.
You are also correct in that Ancestral Visions works extremely well with Cascade, and is the reason why they won't print a 1 or 2 mana cascade card.
> about GY hate : you should mayby have mentioned Relic of progenitus as a GY hate card also. For many reasons, tormod is often a better choice (especially because to its lower CMC that allows you to play trinket>tormod>remove GY as a 2U spell). But relic could be a better choice if you are not running any Tarmo (remove your opponent GY with a tormod could not shrink tarmo because you have also some cards including an artifact in your own GY. Relic removes all cards in all GY, so for sure tarmo will be 0/1). Plus relic is good if you resolve it early : it is almost a permanent GY=0 cards effect).
> Sea drake vs Senrendib : this choice is really depending from the meta to me. Sea Drake seems to be a better choice (no real drawback if cast with mox/tomb and no loss of life) but it is also very sensitive to the common burn tools (bolt, incinerate ...). Serendib's toughness (4) is enough to resist to many removal of that type in the early games... Sea drake is more agressive but could be a bit weak in some case. Maybe a mix 2drake/2serendib?
> Erayo : in your build, as in some other affinity build, i think you could consider Erayo. This card is absolutly awesome when flipped, and in affinity the probabilities it flips are reasonnable. If it doesnt flip, it remains a little 1/1 with flying who could attack with a sigil or a plating, avoiding the rampant threats... Maybe a good option, but not sure.
Very good article. The best part is that while you're preparing for the most important tournament you ever played you're also making good guides for the soon available online full shards of alara block constructed.
GREAT article, explaining in detail all what matters. After seeing you play with that list, I find it quite amuzing and, yes, Finest Hour is a hell of a card, specially with rafiq or battlegrace angel (or both hehe)
Good luck to you in your preparation, Wanna see that name up there in hawai
A small correction: At the part where I talk about Loxodon Hierarch & Kitchen Finks, I wrote "life LINK" which of course should have been "life GAIN". Sorry for the confusion.
I fully agree with whiffy here : i am convinced Necropotence should be restricted as soon as possible to keep a various & fair meta. Demonic Consultation should be restricted also to avoid this kind of problem with ANT. I also think some part of this article were already published in your last wisdom series.
I'm unsure of the significance of your statement "Split cards such as Supply/Demand get both halves checked by Cascade.", although since it is the the section "Cards that don't work with hypergenesis" it sounds like you are saying that cascade will not play a split card unless both halves have a cmc less than the cascade spell. This is not the case.
From the Alara Reborn FAQ: * If you remove a split card from the game this way, check if at least one half of that split card has a converted mana cost that's less than the converted mana cost of the spell with cascade. If so, you can play either half of that split card.
I think the point you were making was that split cards work TOO well with cascade in this case in that if either half of the split card has a valid cmc to cascade you must play that spell. Just wanted to point that out.
Also if hypergenesis resolves and then cip triggers are put onto the stack then you are saying that you would still draw 2 cards from mulldrifter, you would still lose the game from hypergenesising (!) Phage into play, etc. but only once all permanents have finished coming into play, correct? If so then it basically works very similarly to living death for example. Just asking to clarify the significance of this and whether you were saying the cip effects don't trigger or are just delayed.
Great article and it remains to be seen what effect the "0" cost suspend spells will have with cascade. Worst case scenario you can always get 3 mana or draw 3 cards.
Restrict the Skull! Seriously that stupid deck is making it impossible for new technology to shine unless it can beat the rather powerful deck. Further more necro is a very easy deck to pilot and very forgiving to player based mistakes, combined with out outright ridiculos it is and im not surprised its so dominating. Thank goodness that a "Good" copy of the deck hovers around 600 dollars or else there would be little to no reason not to run it.
Please for future entrys the deck is straight up gush atog. There is no dryad so its not "gro" persay and the fact that the majority of games are won with out lethal tog damage reinforces this.
also I may be wrong on this but i think you recycled some content from the last wisdoms. deck piolts and im almost positive the bant blurb is the same. this isnt so bad since your just looking for decks to show the public but a more accurate pilot would be nice, ie i dont think i played balance in the last month yet you have me as the lone balance pilot.
I actually answered that question during our conversation online but let me repeat it again here as well.
Heavy testing proved that Sculler doesn't add anything to the deck. On the other hand, Saffi in its spot works like a charm. To kill my Doran or Gaddock or Rafiq, one must first kill her and that means 2 removal for one creature. And that's fine with me.
LE
Great Article.
Tidehollow Sculler in the dark bant list is a little off?
necro is only not winning 100% of the time because merfolk is beating it in t8's merfolk is the only "bad" matchup necro has everything else is either 50/50 or with most decks godly in your favor. Sat no one ran folk and me/mox went 1/2 with our only loses being I lost to him in r5 he lost to me in finals. and ad naus finshed 3rd. If at bare minimum demonic isnt on the list in 2 days im considering quitting classic its just so boring.
I wish you all the best in the PT. I'm looking forward to reading your article about your tale of glory after it :).
LE
Great Block article!
I'm very interested in Block right now, but, well, I suck mightily. :D This article was very good and brought some good deck coverage of your choice. Thanks and best of luck in the PT!
I'd say that's about right The SELESNYA CONCLAVE only has a few answers w/ all the protection, regenerating creatures, and the one answer to Oversoul of Dusk is Mercy Killing which can be one of it's own tools. The aggro beat down probably has few answers such as discard, or blue/green control.
Very good article. I'm going to play PT too and haven't decided at all what I'm going to play. Keep doing 3-2; 4-2; 3-3 at mol daily events with almost every deck I play.
the first block article that i really enjoyed reading! Cya in hawai!
"Any act more complicated than rubbing sticks together is unaccepted."
Nice article, you made me laugh. Keep up the great work.
Hi Anon,
Thank you for your comment. You are exactly right, about what I was trying to get at with the section Cards that don't work with Hypergenesis. I merely meant, that this deck has a simple plan, play a Cascade spell, which 100% of the time will play Hypergenesis, play fat creatures, win.
Playing Split cards that will sometimes be played instead of Hypergenesis, don't further the goal of the deck, which is why they don't work here.
The same is true with Comes into play abilities and cards like Phage. The triggers will be put on the stack after Hypergenesis resolves. Thus, if you don't win the game from damage being dealt, Phage will kill you as it wasn't played from your hand, Mulldrifter will draw you cards, which are useless unless you cast a second Hypergenesis. It's all about the goal of the deck, to have a win condition on the board by turn 2-3.
Yes, the CIP effects always trigger when coming into play, Hypergenesis doesn't change this.
You are also correct in that Ancestral Visions works extremely well with Cascade, and is the reason why they won't print a 1 or 2 mana cascade card.
I have a Relic in the SB but the issue with both Relic and Needle is that they conflict with the Chalice of the Void on 1 plan.
i really enjoyed this article, where you well explained the method you are using to analyze the current meta.
gl & ty
interesting approach
just some comments
> about GY hate : you should mayby have mentioned Relic of progenitus as a GY hate card also. For many reasons, tormod is often a better choice (especially because to its lower CMC that allows you to play trinket>tormod>remove GY as a 2U spell). But relic could be a better choice if you are not running any Tarmo (remove your opponent GY with a tormod could not shrink tarmo because you have also some cards including an artifact in your own GY. Relic removes all cards in all GY, so for sure tarmo will be 0/1). Plus relic is good if you resolve it early : it is almost a permanent GY=0 cards effect).
> Sea drake vs Senrendib : this choice is really depending from the meta to me. Sea Drake seems to be a better choice (no real drawback if cast with mox/tomb and no loss of life) but it is also very sensitive to the common burn tools (bolt, incinerate ...). Serendib's toughness (4) is enough to resist to many removal of that type in the early games... Sea drake is more agressive but could be a bit weak in some case. Maybe a mix 2drake/2serendib?
> Erayo : in your build, as in some other affinity build, i think you could consider Erayo. This card is absolutly awesome when flipped, and in affinity the probabilities it flips are reasonnable. If it doesnt flip, it remains a little 1/1 with flying who could attack with a sigil or a plating, avoiding the rampant threats... Maybe a good option, but not sure.
good article man :)
Very good article. The best part is that while you're preparing for the most important tournament you ever played you're also making good guides for the soon available online full shards of alara block constructed.
Good article...explaining very well the defferent decks in block!!!
Good luck to the PT!!!
5*****
GREAT article, explaining in detail all what matters. After seeing you play with that list, I find it quite amuzing and, yes, Finest Hour is a hell of a card, specially with rafiq or battlegrace angel (or both hehe)
Good luck to you in your preparation, Wanna see that name up there in hawai
5*
A small correction: At the part where I talk about Loxodon Hierarch & Kitchen Finks, I wrote "life LINK" which of course should have been "life GAIN". Sorry for the confusion.
LE
pretty nice article.
I fully agree with whiffy here : i am convinced Necropotence should be restricted as soon as possible to keep a various & fair meta. Demonic Consultation should be restricted also to avoid this kind of problem with ANT. I also think some part of this article were already published in your last wisdom series.
take care
These articles are quickly becoming my Clasic bible. Keep up the good work.
I'm unsure of the significance of your statement "Split cards such as Supply/Demand get both halves checked by Cascade.", although since it is the the section "Cards that don't work with hypergenesis" it sounds like you are saying that cascade will not play a split card unless both halves have a cmc less than the cascade spell. This is not the case.
From the Alara Reborn FAQ: * If you remove a split card from the game this way, check if at least one half of that split card has a converted mana cost that's less than the converted mana cost of the spell with cascade. If so, you can play either half of that split card.
I think the point you were making was that split cards work TOO well with cascade in this case in that if either half of the split card has a valid cmc to cascade you must play that spell. Just wanted to point that out.
Also if hypergenesis resolves and then cip triggers are put onto the stack then you are saying that you would still draw 2 cards from mulldrifter, you would still lose the game from hypergenesising (!) Phage into play, etc. but only once all permanents have finished coming into play, correct? If so then it basically works very similarly to living death for example. Just asking to clarify the significance of this and whether you were saying the cip effects don't trigger or are just delayed.
Great article and it remains to be seen what effect the "0" cost suspend spells will have with cascade. Worst case scenario you can always get 3 mana or draw 3 cards.
Yeah, wow, Pyromatics is a great suggestion. Virtually unpreventable, uncounterable, unstoppable... all at only 2 cents.
Restrict the Skull! Seriously that stupid deck is making it impossible for new technology to shine unless it can beat the rather powerful deck. Further more necro is a very easy deck to pilot and very forgiving to player based mistakes, combined with out outright ridiculos it is and im not surprised its so dominating. Thank goodness that a "Good" copy of the deck hovers around 600 dollars or else there would be little to no reason not to run it.
Please for future entrys the deck is straight up gush atog. There is no dryad so its not "gro" persay and the fact that the majority of games are won with out lethal tog damage reinforces this.
also I may be wrong on this but i think you recycled some content from the last wisdoms. deck piolts and im almost positive the bant blurb is the same. this isnt so bad since your just looking for decks to show the public but a more accurate pilot would be nice, ie i dont think i played balance in the last month yet you have me as the lone balance pilot.
He calls it leyline of the void because it is extremely narrow, but cheaply hoses an entire deck.
He calls it leyline of the void because it is extremely narrow, but cheaply hoses an entire deck.
I knew I sold my Hypergenesis too early!