There are plenty of Classic decks that you can play without Force of Will, although it IS obviously a powerful card used in a ton of decks. Check out the deck supplement from this article, you can play several of these without Force of Will:
As a long-time limited player who would like to get into classic constructed, I own many of the bigger money cards but certainly not all of them (example: I've got 3 necro's, so I could put together a slightly underpowered version of the deck without too much trouble).
However, I don't own any Force of Will's (and at 200+ bucks for a playset, I'm not likely to get them anytime soon).
So my question is: without FoW's should I even bother trying to play in the eternal formats or should I just forget about it? Again, I'm highly unlikely to ever convince myself (or the wife) into paying the price for FoW's, so would I ever stand a chance or just give up on eternal and play pauper?
This is totally where I thought it ended. It made sense to me to end with a decklist and thought we would be getting a second part with games and such.
i have been working on an article detailing necro and am more then halfway through it. since ive all ready put a lot of time and effort into it im not going to scrap it. suffice it to say though i feel as though mine is a little more detailed and it should be up soon.
as for for mr anon, i agree post your name or dont post at all as you will easily be forgotten since you dont have the gumption to back yourself up with a name . and java is a fine player and when he speaks (espicially about combo) you should take note and not dismiss just because you think a statement is given such as consultation is dangerous.
I think the best permanent the deck can face over a large set of games is Runed Halo naming Tendrils; obviously not many decks can achieve this. The other good ones are turn one Needle (on the play), Amethyst of Thorn, and Trinishphere. All of these are going to need counterspell backup and some kind of active gameplan.
My uneducated impression is that the best list has one or more copies of Gush. The thing this article most needs is a gameplan of relevant mirror strategies.
All in all, thanks for writing this for us and keeping us informed!
"Can we get an actual good player to write these articles? :P"
Sounds like you have a personal bias against Java, don't hide behind your anonymous tag. Come out and say something meaningful like a man and post your sn. If you are just now reading how to play NecroSpike something tells me you might not be the most accomplished player around yourself, so don't throw stones from that little glass house....
(P.S. - he is right - Demonic Consultation shouldn't be used unless you need to, althought I believe 17-19 is alot to pay for a t1 activation)
I always try to CTRL-A and save to Word before submitting - but I think I forgot this time. I only have an intermediary version. However, it may be on my desktop at home. Maybe.
Short version: I played against RG (won), MBC Corrupt (lost, mainly because I drew all four cycling lands, and was a step behind all game), played Bant draft deck (close, but won), some MUC (my creatures were better than the opponent, and I won game one, game two my opponent was ahead on the board, but Spire Golems were staring at each other and my opponent had 7 cards and 4 minutes left on the clock when he "lost the connection.) I also beat red aggro (yay Hydroblast) and lost to a red storm deck when my strategic Hydroblast on his second Rite of Flame - leaving him at one avaiallbel mana - was followed by his third Rite, Seething Song, Grapeshot, Empty the Warrens and Goblin War something for the turn three win.
I also linked to the various archetypes at PDCMagic.com. YOu can also find good examples in the deck database at MTGOTraders.com. Just search for Pauper / PDC. Those decks appear in timestamp order, so jump straight to the last pages.
Nice Article I enjoyed it. If your looking to make a counter deck all I can say is Faeries. You should be able to build a really good U/B Faerie deck, and if you want one to mirror check UB Faeries http://www.pdcmagic.com/gatherling/deck.php?mode=view&id=6665.
I was insanely hitting F5 to reload the page, thinking that there was something wrong with my browser or Internet connection :) "Where's the rest of the article?!", I was thinking.
Btw, Spell Snare is an uncommon. It would probably see heavy play if it was common.
The "pauper" filter in the deck editor is amazingly useful in this part of the deck building stage, and it handles proxies/reprints properly as well. The worst feeling I've head in pauper deckbuilding is getting my hopes up about a card/deck and realizing that it's not legal for the format. :(
Pete were you able to back it up? I also should mention that Jamuraa is totally redoing this site so this type of thing should not EVER happen again. Should be done sometime in January.
Pete, It's great to see you come back to the format you visited briefly during SCGs daily series. I was the guy you smashes with an adapted WW deck- I was running a Trinket Mage Zoo deck at the time and go my keister handed to me. I like your take on Mono-Blue Control as it seems much better suited for the current field (lots of Burn and Storm) that the more accepted build.
A few questions (that may have answered in the other half): No Ninja of the Deep Hours? With that much evasion, he seems pretty good and the card advantage gained from a Mulldrifter Ninja'd back is pretty sick. If you don't want the tempo loss, have you considered Ophidian?
Stick around the format, should be a good time with the coming PEs and what not.
Wow - about half the article is missing. I played a number of games against various decks, rebuilt the deck a bit, then taslked about checking out the various writers on this site and PDCMagic for more on the format.
I'll try to see if I can recreate / rebuild the rest.
How does this deck change post Tempest? 4x Lotus Petal is an auto-include right?
I played this deck some this weekend in 4-mans with Lotus Petals and Gush/Ponder instead of Daze. It performed very well. I think you're right about playing Daze instead of Gush. Maybe I was doing it wrong, but the only time I really Gushed was after "going off" and needing a little bit of extra oomph during the combo turn. I think the utility of turn one (or two) protection of Daze is generally more useful.
Also you are 100% correct about how dangerous Demonic Consultation is... It was the direct cause of the majority of my losses.
sure, wizards tried to sneak 4 changes by the players unannounced and failed, but who knows how many they tried to sneak by the players and were successful? the 4 failed attempts may very well have been worth it.
I'm not saying this is the best strategic deck in the world it is far from it, "I'm the poster" and I only use the Plague Wind in 2HG format and which I rarely get to use anyway. But this is not a tournament deck, and is only for casual games, this deck is very beatable, but it is very cheap to get and easy to play.
Guardian of the Guildpact, I am sure is a good card in certain decks. When it can take advantage of Cloak, or whatever pump spell it is, than sure, he's great, but in this build of WW, which looks to take advantage of a traditional sligh curve (low spells, lots of ways to use my mana every turn.) GotG just does not cut it. He's slow , he's not going to serve any real purpose in the deck, and he's going to keep me from casting something much more important.
also helps if they burn a counter letting you play another ivory giant hard card with the free mana. and as for guardian i seen many decks play out guardian and stick some kind of pump enchant on him like armadillo cloak and he pretty much becomes a 4/6 life gain unblockable beast. and what card out there can block guardian? as i have seen in meta game no one is really running hybrid creatures. odd doesn't let me reply so i started a new comment sorry
also helps if they burn a counter letting you play another ivory giant hard card with the free mana. and as for guardian i seen many decks play out guardian and stick some kind of pump enchant on him like armadillo cloak and he pretty much becomes a 4/6 life gain unblockable beast. and what card out there can block guardian? as i have seen in meta game no one is really running hybrid creatures
There are plenty of Classic decks that you can play without Force of Will, although it IS obviously a powerful card used in a ton of decks. Check out the deck supplement from this article, you can play several of these without Force of Will:
http://www.puremtgo.com/articledisplay.asp?AID=1375
Check out Dark Affinity, Rock, Burn, and Dredge.
As a long-time limited player who would like to get into classic constructed, I own many of the bigger money cards but certainly not all of them (example: I've got 3 necro's, so I could put together a slightly underpowered version of the deck without too much trouble).
However, I don't own any Force of Will's (and at 200+ bucks for a playset, I'm not likely to get them anytime soon).
So my question is: without FoW's should I even bother trying to play in the eternal formats or should I just forget about it? Again, I'm highly unlikely to ever convince myself (or the wife) into paying the price for FoW's, so would I ever stand a chance or just give up on eternal and play pauper?
If you would like to try you hand, we do accept submissions!
This is totally where I thought it ended. It made sense to me to end with a decklist and thought we would be getting a second part with games and such.
so java beat me to the punch here.
i have been working on an article detailing necro and am more then halfway through it. since ive all ready put a lot of time and effort into it im not going to scrap it. suffice it to say though i feel as though mine is a little more detailed and it should be up soon.
as for for mr anon, i agree post your name or dont post at all as you will easily be forgotten since you dont have the gumption to back yourself up with a name . and java is a fine player and when he speaks (espicially about combo) you should take note and not dismiss just because you think a statement is given such as consultation is dangerous.
I think the best permanent the deck can face over a large set of games is Runed Halo naming Tendrils; obviously not many decks can achieve this. The other good ones are turn one Needle (on the play), Amethyst of Thorn, and Trinishphere. All of these are going to need counterspell backup and some kind of active gameplan.
My uneducated impression is that the best list has one or more copies of Gush. The thing this article most needs is a gameplan of relevant mirror strategies.
All in all, thanks for writing this for us and keeping us informed!
"Can we get an actual good player to write these articles? :P"
Sounds like you have a personal bias against Java, don't hide behind your anonymous tag. Come out and say something meaningful like a man and post your sn. If you are just now reading how to play NecroSpike something tells me you might not be the most accomplished player around yourself, so don't throw stones from that little glass house....
(P.S. - he is right - Demonic Consultation shouldn't be used unless you need to, althought I believe 17-19 is alot to pay for a t1 activation)
"It then activates Necropotence either 17, 18, or 19 times."
"Not much more needs to be said, except to note that (Demonic Consultation) is very dangerous. I always try to find ways to not use it."
Can we get an actual good player to write these articles? :P
I always try to CTRL-A and save to Word before submitting - but I think I forgot this time. I only have an intermediary version. However, it may be on my desktop at home. Maybe.
Short version: I played against RG (won), MBC Corrupt (lost, mainly because I drew all four cycling lands, and was a step behind all game), played Bant draft deck (close, but won), some MUC (my creatures were better than the opponent, and I won game one, game two my opponent was ahead on the board, but Spire Golems were staring at each other and my opponent had 7 cards and 4 minutes left on the clock when he "lost the connection.) I also beat red aggro (yay Hydroblast) and lost to a red storm deck when my strategic Hydroblast on his second Rite of Flame - leaving him at one avaiallbel mana - was followed by his third Rite, Seething Song, Grapeshot, Empty the Warrens and Goblin War something for the turn three win.
I also linked to the various archetypes at PDCMagic.com. YOu can also find good examples in the deck database at MTGOTraders.com. Just search for Pauper / PDC. Those decks appear in timestamp order, so jump straight to the last pages.
Nice deck Erman, but does it really survive a Crypt Rats? I'ld probably side board [card]Crimson Acolyte[card], and [card]Obsidian Acolyte[card] imo.
Nice article I enjoyed it. If your wanting a good counter deck w/ creatures checkout UB Faeries http://www.pdcmagic.com/gatherling/deck.php?mode=view&id=6665.
Nice Article I enjoyed it. If your looking to make a counter deck all I can say is Faeries. You should be able to build a really good U/B Faerie deck, and if you want one to mirror check UB Faeries http://www.pdcmagic.com/gatherling/deck.php?mode=view&id=6665.
I was insanely hitting F5 to reload the page, thinking that there was something wrong with my browser or Internet connection :) "Where's the rest of the article?!", I was thinking.
Btw, Spell Snare is an uncommon. It would probably see heavy play if it was common.
What I've read so far, I've liked.
One thing to mention though, is this:
"I includedDeep Analysis, Thirst for Knowledge, a pair of Impulses and even my foil Counsel of the Soratami. "
Thirst for Knowledge is uncommon. :(
The "pauper" filter in the deck editor is amazingly useful in this part of the deck building stage, and it handles proxies/reprints properly as well. The worst feeling I've head in pauper deckbuilding is getting my hopes up about a card/deck and realizing that it's not legal for the format. :(
Le Sad.
Pete were you able to back it up? I also should mention that Jamuraa is totally redoing this site so this type of thing should not EVER happen again. Should be done sometime in January.
Pete,
It's great to see you come back to the format you visited briefly during SCGs daily series. I was the guy you smashes with an adapted WW deck- I was running a Trinket Mage Zoo deck at the time and go my keister handed to me.
I like your take on Mono-Blue Control as it seems much better suited for the current field (lots of Burn and Storm) that the more accepted build.
A few questions (that may have answered in the other half): No Ninja of the Deep Hours? With that much evasion, he seems pretty good and the card advantage gained from a Mulldrifter Ninja'd back is pretty sick. If you don't want the tempo loss, have you considered Ophidian?
Stick around the format, should be a good time with the coming PEs and what not.
-Alex
Wow - about half the article is missing. I played a number of games against various decks, rebuilt the deck a bit, then taslked about checking out the various writers on this site and PDCMagic for more on the format.
I'll try to see if I can recreate / rebuild the rest.
How does this deck change post Tempest? 4x Lotus Petal is an auto-include right?
I played this deck some this weekend in 4-mans with Lotus Petals and Gush/Ponder instead of Daze. It performed very well. I think you're right about playing Daze instead of Gush. Maybe I was doing it wrong, but the only time I really Gushed was after "going off" and needing a little bit of extra oomph during the combo turn. I think the utility of turn one (or two) protection of Daze is generally more useful.
Also you are 100% correct about how dangerous Demonic Consultation is... It was the direct cause of the majority of my losses.
sure, wizards tried to sneak 4 changes by the players unannounced and failed, but who knows how many they tried to sneak by the players and were successful? the 4 failed attempts may very well have been worth it.
seems ;ike spire golems block GoG to me.
I'm not saying this is the best strategic deck in the world it is far from it, "I'm the poster" and I only use the Plague Wind in 2HG format and which I rarely get to use anyway. But this is not a tournament deck, and is only for casual games, this deck is very beatable, but it is very cheap to get and easy to play.
Guardian of the Guildpact, I am sure is a good card in certain decks. When it can take advantage of Cloak, or whatever pump spell it is, than sure, he's great, but in this build of WW, which looks to take advantage of a traditional sligh curve (low spells, lots of ways to use my mana every turn.) GotG just does not cut it. He's slow , he's not going to serve any real purpose in the deck, and he's going to keep me from casting something much more important.
also helps if they burn a counter letting you play another ivory giant hard card with the free mana. and as for guardian i seen many decks play out guardian and stick some kind of pump enchant on him like armadillo cloak and he pretty much becomes a 4/6 life gain unblockable beast. and what card out there can block guardian? as i have seen in meta game no one is really running hybrid creatures. odd doesn't let me reply so i started a new comment sorry
also helps if they burn a counter letting you play another ivory giant hard card with the free mana. and as for guardian i seen many decks play out guardian and stick some kind of pump enchant on him like armadillo cloak and he pretty much becomes a 4/6 life gain unblockable beast. and what card out there can block guardian? as i have seen in meta game no one is really running hybrid creatures
Well, MUC blocks. At least, it does when I play it. However, it can also counter the Ivory Giant, making this moot.
Unless it happens to be out of counters when the giant comes off suspend.