The articles have been put together well. I must express some amusement at one judge finding Eliana's secondary ability too cheap, and the other finding it 'way too weak for the cost', and likewise with the third. Still, good work on the contest.
The real minus to this card is there is no negative counter ability. Had the second ability been a minus 2 that allowed the player to pick a card from opponent(s) hand(s) and discard it. The third ability maybe should have included creatures as well.
There is a negative counter ability, it's the last one. I decided to leave the third ability at only players since I thought it would be broken otherwise.
largebrandon's Comments:
Originality - It is nice to see smaller walkers with very black abilities. Templating - Worded very well, but you missed an endmark in the first ability. Balance - The second ability completely overshadows the first ability, so noone will want to use the first one. Also, there isn't any BIG ability, so I think that its novelty as a planeswalker has decreased. Synergy - The second two abilities have somewhat something in common - they try to hurt your opponent. One pumps the other's loyalty. However, the first one seems quite out there and useless, especially when most want to use it first turn it is out. Appeal - This just seems like what a common Planeswalker would look like, if there is one, and doesn't belong in the Rare slot. The third ability is nothing more than Chandra's second ability, so why not just play her. She actually has something to work for.
I can say for absolute certain that the 1st ability would be played all of the time. I can't remember the last time someone played a Mind Stone on the first turn in MBC. Early acceleration in MBC is not ueless and is very synergetic with the rest of the card and what it would be used within. Look at Dark Ritual, Cabal Coffers, Phyrexian Totem... Also, you can't play Chandra in Mono black. That is what the card was intended for, hence the double black.
Pyrosin's Comments:
The first ability feels like it should belong on a green card, not a black card. The Ultimate provides an obvious route to victory, but its just an unsurprising Consume Spirit that your opponent can try to play around.
Principle 10) Each has a +N ability, a -N ability, and a -BIG N "Ultimate" ability.
Where's the -N ability?
Principle 8) The abilities should have some cool synergies.
I don't see any synergy between the abilites of the Planeswalker. It doesn't feel like he does a whole lot.
I've address a couple of these items already. As for the -N ability. Those rules applied only to WotC with their initial cycle of Planeswalkers. They were not stipulated within the rules during the contest (when it was introduced, at least I don't think they were) and should have subjective bearing on submissions. I don't understand the play around comment either, that doesn't make sense. If your opponent has to "play around" a card, then it must be doing something right.
Overall, I think you guys missed a lot here. The first ability is to get you going similar to the examples I've already provided. The second ability is to help you control the board. and the third ability is icing on the cake, when used in conjunction with a card like corrupt or profane command to win the game.
"I get the second ability, as that's him studying, but I would have made that the +N loyalty ability, as that's how he gets "stronger" in the story. I don't get why your opponents get the Demon creatures. Mephistopheles is under Faustus's control (or so he thinks). I would have made it a -N loyalty ability something like put a legendary 5/5 black demon creature named Mephistopheles into play. And then the Ultimate, it actually has what I would consider negative synergy with the first ability. You give your opponent creatures he can use to knock down the loyalty, and then if you ever use the Ultimate, he can sacrifice those tokens as part of the cost. How does that help you win?"
I saw it like he summons these demons to make himself stronger (+N), but in the end they come for him and take his soul to Hell. I agree that it does have negative synergy with the ultimate, but that was my way to balance it (your opponent will have at least 2 extra permanents to sac when you get enough loyalty to use the ultimate, making it not as devastating as it otherwise would be). The brainstorm ability, in terms of flavor, should make him more powerful, but I thought that infinite brainstorms was kind of broken. I sacrificed flavor for mechanics there.
Thanks for the judging, everyone, this was a lot of fun. I hope my next card does better!
Shub-Niggurath isn't a creation of mine; it's one of the Ancient Ones created by HP Lovecraft as part of his dark pantheon on the Cthulhu Mythos, as stated in the original post. I was going through art websites looking for ideas and stumbled with this piece of art depicting Shub-Niggurath, and thought how cool it would be to bring the Mythos to Magic cards... And the Ancient Ones could be no other cards than Planeswalkers, me thinked. :P
The Ancient Ones are entities totally alien to this plane of existence, and try to intervene, more or less subtly, with Earth's and mankind's destiny to their own incomprehensible plans and reasons. Usually they do that by influence, creating satanist and death cults around them, using wicked humans or other alien races to advance their agenda. Shub-Niggurath is also known as "The Black Goat on the Forest and Her (right, its a she) Thousand Minions", which partly explains her first and third abilities; that's why her name is Shub-Niggurath, hyphenized, and that's why the token is named The Black Goat. The first and third abilities were designed with flavor in mind, the first being she spreading her "children" on the earth to carry out her orders, and the third one would be a materialization of herself on this plane, if her plans gone right and given the right amount of time to the right stars to align, this kind of thing. The second ability was more mechanic-oriented, as a mean of giving utility to the little tokens and dealing with troublesome threats, buying time for she to arrive, but also has flavor as she simply drives her expendable minions against anyone she sees as a threat.
There is an issue with the templating of the first and third ability, right, I didn't see that one... :( More attention next time, I think =P I was mixing the numbers with starting loyalty and the costs for the abilities, and these numbers were the more balanced I could achieve, as I really didn't want the third ability to come out early - it takes a fair amount of time to bring an alien demongod to this plae, y'know... :P
Still scoring fourth for my third card is pretty nice ^^
I have attempted to talk to the adepts about the users online, and they consistently are saying there there is equal or more people on v3 than v2. Even though there is obviously less than half the people on. Its nice to see some actual numbers on this. Maybe if you could also show how many were generally on v2 at the same times.
I personally feel like the lack of users is the biggest problem with v3 right now.
A good article, Pete. This is along the lines of a Chris Romeo style article, and I've been missing that for a while. Suggestion (besides moarplz) - try Lash Out over Incinerate. It looks like Incinerate is there to kill weenies, which Lash Out is almost entirely better at, especially with a high curve. The first time you kill a dude, tutor up your fourth land, and burn the other guy for 3, you will be happy.
That whole cycle is pretty much ridiculous actually. There's a ton of hybrid guys that cost one less than their stupid enchantment that makes them insane.
Pick up/play scuttlemutts if you have them in your pool. I killed an attacking Augery Adept just today by turning it black and making it blockable in mid combat. Sweetness.
I maybe should add i only saw articles after i worked on the deck, but anyway i dont think i was the first one thinking of this combo, just the first one to give the people a list that actually works ;)
Yeah, the way you build the deck seemed like you're an artist, like a sculptor. :-)
As I just read the article about Morningtide becoming the 'new Invasion block', I found it funny that when you wrote that, you needed three more Mutavaults, and now got your second one. I'm still not having any of those (or other money cards of Morningtide, that is) and as I don't like the look and feel of MTGO v3 since I last tested it, I fear that you are very, very right. Once with v2.5 I was drafting several times a week but have stopped that since it didn't work anymore and I'm currently not missing it (drafting paper still works fine for me).
Finally, I wanted to share a slightly different approach to the Giant deck. I've put this decklist to standard tournaments, surprising many players but not winning more than half the duels. It's still fun in the Casual room in MTGO. Ok - it was fun, for my part... :-) http://www.couchmagic.de/deck.php?hid=126
By the way, I didn't say anything except that you were negative and still are. You didn't bruise my feeling in the least, like I said... the entire time we were playing I was wondering about Llanowar Mentor.
To clarify, I think I'd either play with Paragon or I'd splash for some blackness. In fairness, I would try testing Mentor out I suppose to try and understand the benefits too.
re: Doran deck -- regardless of what you think it worked well for me and has continued to do so. I like it and enjoy playing the deck.
considering 4 Tarmos currently cost 120+ dollars.. this deck is well in the confines of "budget" IMO.. to others looking to sub out some cards..
Cryptic Commands could be subbed out for Cancel (i realize it doesn't serve muliple purposes as the other did, but it is comparable) .. outside of 4 dollar lands and another 3 dollar rare..(psionic blast) most arn't that hard to get.. as for the land situation.. you can use the Tap snow land from Coldsnap, the storage land from Time Spiral, even the Gemstone lands from Lorwyn..you can easily cut 2 Hub's for 2 Terramorph Expanse and be just as good off (well not really.. but it is comparable).. Faerie Conclaves are irreplacable.. but by and large you can sub out the other lands for other duals in the format.
Regardless of the amount of abuse that anyone dishes out, we're all here to play a game and have some fun. If you're not having fun playing the game, you need to check your priorities. There are various different ways to enjoy it, but in the end you need to be getting the value (and that means fun) out of the game. Insulting other players and being a general ass makes the game worse for you and for your opponent.
As far as playing Damnations in a Doran deck, there you need to make a metagame decision. If you are coming up against quite an aggroish metagame having a couple of damnations maindeck can be advantageous, because Doran is very much moving towards a mid-range deck with Oblivion Ring and Nameless Inversion being included in the main nowadays. If you can wreck your opponent, drop a Ohran Viper and then outdraw the guy who has everything on the table, it is a very powerful effect. I would be testing it first.
The upsides and/or downsides of Mentor are debatable, but it is the alternative card to Paragon, and it needs to prove it's worth, not the other way around. I've played the deck with them in and out - I think the deck might actually be a bit better with it because of the ability to create more tokens. On the other hand, the Paragon is quite a good card that you can get out on turn two with another mana elf drop. Lately I've been thinking about putting Wren's Run Vanquisher in the spot because it might give the deck a little more late-game push, and if you don't have a third elf in your hand on turn two you are in bad shape anyway.
Where are those articles?? I didnt saw them and i am working quite a while on that deck... But i would love to see them maybe i get some insperation. Would be interesting to see how your deck looks like.
Last time I checked, Doran was an aggressive beatdown deck that has a decent mid-game due to the size of the monsters and bitterblossom. Mass removal in the form of Damnation is not typically played in such decks, so I was certainly surprised to see it. Was I negative? most likely.
Now you admit to playing TWO damnations maindeck. This is another example that shows me you are amateur hour.
Check your feelings at the door when you play Magic. If I say something to you that seems offensive or rude, it is intended to put you on tilt, make you mad at me, and generally distract you from the business at hand.
Finally, you say Mentor is no good, but provide no example of a card that would be better. What a waste of space.
Hi i like the article, although i guess i am a bit partial. The decklist got updated tonight. Everyone who wants to join the discussion is welcome. Updated Decklist and discussion can be found here: http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=112292
Thank you for the detailed game logs, it made reading the article much easier to understand, and comprehension of the games was quite easy. Looking forward to Part 2!
I played against CavemanLawyer in a queue with my Doran deck. I wasn't really impressed with the inclusion of Mentor at all. He seems to slow for an aggro deck.
During our match, he was very negative too. Mostly due to me playing two Damanations main decked which has worked well for me so far (helped me win the game quite a bit). While the entire time I couldn't figure out why anyone would be playing with Mentor in standard.
"One of the new parts of this deck is the inclusion of Llanowar Mentor instead of the previous Bramblewood Paragon. The Mentor creates more elves, and gives you something to do with later-drawn lands which are basically useless in this deck after you hit about 4 lands. You can also pitch extra Coat of Arms when you already have one on the table or it is not advantageous for you to play it at the moment"
It seems to me like there could be a better card to place in the deck than for this, imo.
Another great write-up, I look forward to your articles every Wednesday. Elf Ball is definitely a great deck, in my casual testing, with the right opening hand you can consistently look for a turn 5 win. I go with the version with Bramblewood Paragon and the synergy it has with all promenades and hunting triads. With 2 paragons out, you can pump out 3/3 tramplers, which, when coupled with overrun or Garruk can provide that quick victory. I will try out the mentor version to see how that stands up.
I also really like the merfolk deck. I've played against it before in casual and it can be a veritable beast once the right cards in place. Removal seems to be a problem however though, and can hurt you badly if your key pieces get taken out early and you are top-decking for another combo piece. I will build it and try it out through, thanks for the list.
Looking forward to the next installment of Std.Dev (Sigma!?)
Cavemanlawyer here, nice to see you wrote up the deck. It certainly has a lot of explosive potential, but as you said, I think the key is recognizing which hands are keepers and which to throw away. Ideally I like to see 2-3 1 drops, 1-2 token producers, 1 win con, and 2-3 land.
The deck can win without the combo, but it is much more difficult. As you point out, once the deck loses a certain amount of tempo advantage, its best to just pack em in.
Regarding Door of Destinies: this card is pretty insane and necessary as sb material. Against anything with red based board sweeping and removal (Sulfurous blast etc.) I will often drop a mana producer turn 1, then nothing until I get my door out, this makes every threat I drop a must answer and makes me much less vulnerable to their mass removal.
Good writeup, I am glad you are trudgin along even with the instability on the v3 client and lack of replays. We need more people in the community to share info and get more of these types of articles up!
"i know it seems that i speak only about some cards like "net-deckers" do (the most powerful cards in the set or in the format) but, it's not because I'm aiming to build a "net-deck", but simply because the other card choices coming with shadowmoor are bad; so i'm not choosing kitchen finks or the vigilant elf because everybody else chooses them, but simply because there is a giant gap between those two 3cc drops and the other 3cc drops the set brings except, maybe, shield of the oversoul (that is an aura, then bad by itself). So, unless i want to play a super-johnny-casual game, i'm not chosing bad cards just because the good cards are autoincluded in "net decks" "
Sorry i'm not english, maybe something was not clear
The articles have been put together well. I must express some amusement at one judge finding Eliana's secondary ability too cheap, and the other finding it 'way too weak for the cost', and likewise with the third. Still, good work on the contest.
verbage2's Comments:
The real minus to this card is there is no negative counter ability. Had the second ability been a minus 2 that allowed the player to pick a card from opponent(s) hand(s) and discard it. The third ability maybe should have included creatures as well.
There is a negative counter ability, it's the last one. I decided to leave the third ability at only players since I thought it would be broken otherwise.
largebrandon's Comments:
Originality - It is nice to see smaller walkers with very black abilities.
Templating - Worded very well, but you missed an endmark in the first ability.
Balance - The second ability completely overshadows the first ability, so noone will want to use the first one. Also, there isn't any BIG ability, so I think that its novelty as a planeswalker has decreased.
Synergy - The second two abilities have somewhat something in common - they try to hurt your opponent. One pumps the other's loyalty. However, the first one seems quite out there and useless, especially when most want to use it first turn it is out.
Appeal - This just seems like what a common Planeswalker would look like, if there is one, and doesn't belong in the Rare slot. The third ability is nothing more than Chandra's second ability, so why not just play her. She actually has something to work for.
I can say for absolute certain that the 1st ability would be played all of the time. I can't remember the last time someone played a Mind Stone on the first turn in MBC. Early acceleration in MBC is not ueless and is very synergetic with the rest of the card and what it would be used within. Look at Dark Ritual, Cabal Coffers, Phyrexian Totem... Also, you can't play Chandra in Mono black. That is what the card was intended for, hence the double black.
Pyrosin's Comments:
The first ability feels like it should belong on a green card, not a black card. The Ultimate provides an obvious route to victory, but its just an unsurprising Consume Spirit that your opponent can try to play around.
Principle 10) Each has a +N ability, a -N ability, and a -BIG N "Ultimate" ability.
Where's the -N ability?
Principle 8) The abilities should have some cool synergies.
I don't see any synergy between the abilites of the Planeswalker. It doesn't feel like he does a whole lot.
I've address a couple of these items already. As for the -N ability. Those rules applied only to WotC with their initial cycle of Planeswalkers. They were not stipulated within the rules during the contest (when it was introduced, at least I don't think they were) and should have subjective bearing on submissions. I don't understand the play around comment either, that doesn't make sense. If your opponent has to "play around" a card, then it must be doing something right.
Overall, I think you guys missed a lot here. The first ability is to get you going similar to the examples I've already provided. The second ability is to help you control the board. and the third ability is icing on the cake, when used in conjunction with a card like corrupt or profane command to win the game.
Pyrosin wrote:
"I get the second ability, as that's him studying, but I would have made that the +N loyalty ability, as that's how he gets "stronger" in the story. I don't get why your opponents get the Demon creatures. Mephistopheles is under Faustus's control (or so he thinks). I would have made it a -N loyalty ability something like put a legendary 5/5 black demon creature named Mephistopheles into play. And then the Ultimate, it actually has what I would consider negative synergy with the first ability. You give your opponent creatures he can use to knock down the loyalty, and then if you ever use the Ultimate, he can sacrifice those tokens as part of the cost. How does that help you win?"
I saw it like he summons these demons to make himself stronger (+N), but in the end they come for him and take his soul to Hell. I agree that it does have negative synergy with the ultimate, but that was my way to balance it (your opponent will have at least 2 extra permanents to sac when you get enough loyalty to use the ultimate, making it not as devastating as it otherwise would be). The brainstorm ability, in terms of flavor, should make him more powerful, but I thought that infinite brainstorms was kind of broken. I sacrificed flavor for mechanics there.
Thanks for the judging, everyone, this was a lot of fun. I hope my next card does better!
Shub-Niggurath isn't a creation of mine; it's one of the Ancient Ones created by HP Lovecraft as part of his dark pantheon on the Cthulhu Mythos, as stated in the original post. I was going through art websites looking for ideas and stumbled with this piece of art depicting Shub-Niggurath, and thought how cool it would be to bring the Mythos to Magic cards... And the Ancient Ones could be no other cards than Planeswalkers, me thinked. :P
The Ancient Ones are entities totally alien to this plane of existence, and try to intervene, more or less subtly, with Earth's and mankind's destiny to their own incomprehensible plans and reasons. Usually they do that by influence, creating satanist and death cults around them, using wicked humans or other alien races to advance their agenda. Shub-Niggurath is also known as "The Black Goat on the Forest and Her (right, its a she) Thousand Minions", which partly explains her first and third abilities; that's why her name is Shub-Niggurath, hyphenized, and that's why the token is named The Black Goat. The first and third abilities were designed with flavor in mind, the first being she spreading her "children" on the earth to carry out her orders, and the third one would be a materialization of herself on this plane, if her plans gone right and given the right amount of time to the right stars to align, this kind of thing. The second ability was more mechanic-oriented, as a mean of giving utility to the little tokens and dealing with troublesome threats, buying time for she to arrive, but also has flavor as she simply drives her expendable minions against anyone she sees as a threat.
There is an issue with the templating of the first and third ability, right, I didn't see that one... :( More attention next time, I think =P I was mixing the numbers with starting loyalty and the costs for the abilities, and these numbers were the more balanced I could achieve, as I really didn't want the third ability to come out early - it takes a fair amount of time to bring an alien demongod to this plae, y'know... :P
Still scoring fourth for my third card is pretty nice ^^
I have attempted to talk to the adepts about the users online, and they consistently are saying there there is equal or more people on v3 than v2. Even though there is obviously less than half the people on. Its nice to see some actual numbers on this. Maybe if you could also show how many were generally on v2 at the same times.
I personally feel like the lack of users is the biggest problem with v3 right now.
Great job as always ham
A good article, Pete. This is along the lines of a Chris Romeo style article, and I've been missing that for a while. Suggestion (besides moarplz) - try Lash Out over Incinerate. It looks like Incinerate is there to kill weenies, which Lash Out is almost entirely better at, especially with a high curve. The first time you kill a dude, tutor up your fourth land, and burn the other guy for 3, you will be happy.
That whole cycle is pretty much ridiculous actually. There's a ton of hybrid guys that cost one less than their stupid enchantment that makes them insane.
Pick up/play scuttlemutts if you have them in your pool. I killed an attacking Augery Adept just today by turning it black and making it blockable in mid combat. Sweetness.
I maybe should add i only saw articles after i worked on the deck, but anyway i dont think i was the first one thinking of this combo, just the first one to give the people a list that actually works ;)
you for forget Runes of the Deus.
Yeah, the way you build the deck seemed like you're an artist, like a sculptor. :-)
As I just read the article about Morningtide becoming the 'new Invasion block', I found it funny that when you wrote that, you needed three more Mutavaults, and now got your second one. I'm still not having any of those (or other money cards of Morningtide, that is) and as I don't like the look and feel of MTGO v3 since I last tested it, I fear that you are very, very right. Once with v2.5 I was drafting several times a week but have stopped that since it didn't work anymore and I'm currently not missing it (drafting paper still works fine for me).
Finally, I wanted to share a slightly different approach to the Giant deck. I've put this decklist to standard tournaments, surprising many players but not winning more than half the duels. It's still fun in the Casual room in MTGO. Ok - it was fun, for my part... :-)
http://www.couchmagic.de/deck.php?hid=126
The biggest problem was cutting cards - I could have added Avain Changeling, Berserker, Taurean Mauler, etc. Even Crib Swap.
Avian Changeling is best early, but white was more of a splash than a main color.
Tauren Mauler would have been great, but I don't have them.
The real reason, however, is that I already had so many cards (158 giants) and so many cuts, I just didn't want to add more playables. :)
Hi Pete, liked this article.
One question, did you never consider any changelings for use as giants. If not what was the reasoning behind that.
I agree with Jam here.
By the way, I didn't say anything except that you were negative and still are. You didn't bruise my feeling in the least, like I said... the entire time we were playing I was wondering about Llanowar Mentor.
To clarify, I think I'd either play with Paragon or I'd splash for some blackness. In fairness, I would try testing Mentor out I suppose to try and understand the benefits too.
re: Doran deck -- regardless of what you think it worked well for me and has continued to do so. I like it and enjoy playing the deck.
considering 4 Tarmos currently cost 120+ dollars.. this deck is well in the confines of "budget" IMO.. to others looking to sub out some cards..
Cryptic Commands could be subbed out for Cancel (i realize it doesn't serve muliple purposes as the other did, but it is comparable) .. outside of 4 dollar lands and another 3 dollar rare..(psionic blast) most arn't that hard to get.. as for the land situation.. you can use the Tap snow land from Coldsnap, the storage land from Time Spiral, even the Gemstone lands from Lorwyn..you can easily cut 2 Hub's for 2 Terramorph Expanse and be just as good off (well not really.. but it is comparable).. Faerie Conclaves are irreplacable.. but by and large you can sub out the other lands for other duals in the format.
Regardless of the amount of abuse that anyone dishes out, we're all here to play a game and have some fun. If you're not having fun playing the game, you need to check your priorities. There are various different ways to enjoy it, but in the end you need to be getting the value (and that means fun) out of the game. Insulting other players and being a general ass makes the game worse for you and for your opponent.
As far as playing Damnations in a Doran deck, there you need to make a metagame decision. If you are coming up against quite an aggroish metagame having a couple of damnations maindeck can be advantageous, because Doran is very much moving towards a mid-range deck with Oblivion Ring and Nameless Inversion being included in the main nowadays. If you can wreck your opponent, drop a Ohran Viper and then outdraw the guy who has everything on the table, it is a very powerful effect. I would be testing it first.
The upsides and/or downsides of Mentor are debatable, but it is the alternative card to Paragon, and it needs to prove it's worth, not the other way around. I've played the deck with them in and out - I think the deck might actually be a bit better with it because of the ability to create more tokens. On the other hand, the Paragon is quite a good card that you can get out on turn two with another mana elf drop. Lately I've been thinking about putting Wren's Run Vanquisher in the spot because it might give the deck a little more late-game push, and if you don't have a third elf in your hand on turn two you are in bad shape anyway.
Where are those articles?? I didnt saw them and i am working quite a while on that deck... But i would love to see them maybe i get some insperation. Would be interesting to see how your deck looks like.
Any deck that abuses the Juniper Order is interessting, of course that omes from a guy who already abused it in two different articles... *cough*
Last time I checked, Doran was an aggressive beatdown deck that has a decent mid-game due to the size of the monsters and bitterblossom. Mass removal in the form of Damnation is not typically played in such decks, so I was certainly surprised to see it. Was I negative? most likely.
Now you admit to playing TWO damnations maindeck. This is another example that shows me you are amateur hour.
Check your feelings at the door when you play Magic. If I say something to you that seems offensive or rude, it is intended to put you on tilt, make you mad at me, and generally distract you from the business at hand.
Finally, you say Mentor is no good, but provide no example of a card that would be better. What a waste of space.
Hi i like the article, although i guess i am a bit partial. The decklist got updated tonight. Everyone who wants to join the discussion is welcome. Updated Decklist and discussion can be found here: http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=112292
KeySam
Thank you for the detailed game logs, it made reading the article much easier to understand, and comprehension of the games was quite easy. Looking forward to Part 2!
Can we get some graphics in part II to spice up your next installment?
I played against CavemanLawyer in a queue with my Doran deck. I wasn't really impressed with the inclusion of Mentor at all. He seems to slow for an aggro deck.
During our match, he was very negative too. Mostly due to me playing two Damanations main decked which has worked well for me so far (helped me win the game quite a bit). While the entire time I couldn't figure out why anyone would be playing with Mentor in standard.
"One of the new parts of this deck is the inclusion of Llanowar Mentor instead of the previous Bramblewood Paragon. The Mentor creates more elves, and gives you something to do with later-drawn lands which are basically useless in this deck after you hit about 4 lands. You can also pitch extra Coat of Arms when you already have one on the table or it is not advantageous for you to play it at the moment"
It seems to me like there could be a better card to place in the deck than for this, imo.
I liked the article though
Another great write-up, I look forward to your articles every Wednesday. Elf Ball is definitely a great deck, in my casual testing, with the right opening hand you can consistently look for a turn 5 win. I go with the version with Bramblewood Paragon and the synergy it has with all promenades and hunting triads. With 2 paragons out, you can pump out 3/3 tramplers, which, when coupled with overrun or Garruk can provide that quick victory. I will try out the mentor version to see how that stands up.
I also really like the merfolk deck. I've played against it before in casual and it can be a veritable beast once the right cards in place. Removal seems to be a problem however though, and can hurt you badly if your key pieces get taken out early and you are top-decking for another combo piece. I will build it and try it out through, thanks for the list.
Looking forward to the next installment of Std.Dev (Sigma!?)
Jamurra,
Cavemanlawyer here, nice to see you wrote up the deck. It certainly has a lot of explosive potential, but as you said, I think the key is recognizing which hands are keepers and which to throw away. Ideally I like to see 2-3 1 drops, 1-2 token producers, 1 win con, and 2-3 land.
The deck can win without the combo, but it is much more difficult. As you point out, once the deck loses a certain amount of tempo advantage, its best to just pack em in.
Regarding Door of Destinies: this card is pretty insane and necessary as sb material. Against anything with red based board sweeping and removal (Sulfurous blast etc.) I will often drop a mana producer turn 1, then nothing until I get my door out, this makes every threat I drop a must answer and makes me much less vulnerable to their mass removal.
Good writeup, I am glad you are trudgin along even with the instability on the v3 client and lack of replays. We need more people in the community to share info and get more of these types of articles up!
the meaning was this:
"i know it seems that i speak only about some cards like "net-deckers" do (the most powerful cards in the set or in the format) but, it's not because I'm aiming to build a "net-deck", but simply because the other card choices coming with shadowmoor are bad; so i'm not choosing kitchen finks or the vigilant elf because everybody else chooses them, but simply because there is a giant gap between those two 3cc drops and the other 3cc drops the set brings except, maybe, shield of the oversoul (that is an aura, then bad by itself). So, unless i want to play a super-johnny-casual game, i'm not chosing bad cards just because the good cards are autoincluded in "net decks" "
Sorry i'm not english, maybe something was not clear