Overall good article Flashstorm. A few tips, at the beginning of each opponent, put what type of deck they are playing. It might also help to play matches instead of games, so you can see how these work out over a longer run and make sure you or your opponent didn't just get lucky. I found this helpful myself... when writing the recaps of games, replay the game for which the part of the article represents. It really helps to make a more complete analysis of a game. But like I said good article, just some tips to help you out. I look forward to seeing more.
First off, I liked your article, interesting stuff. Just wanted to point out some tips, first off, in this kind of deck I would highly suggest a liege of the pit or two, an easy way to wrap up a game by turn 4 or 5. Take out the phyrexians for them. Also consider using stromgald crusader in place of the withered though both are good ideas. Other than that, this is a standard beatem up fast deck. Works well. Good first article, can't wait to start up this summer myself.
Thanks for all the suggestions and critiques. You should know that I take each one of them into consideration. About the expensive part gnawph, I never claimed that I will be building budget decks that can win against tier1 decks. The slow part, yes it is true but then again as I said many times, I'm not an aggro player but rather control player as you can see in each article and each deck. Just wanted to make this part clear. Thanks again everybody.
Most of your "rouge" decks are just packing slow and expensive win conditions and filled with board clearing spells. Its not really original and barely rougue.
I was actually playing a deck like this a while ago online in 8-man events. I saw bloodsmurf playing it online. The main difference was it used 3dreams(great card) to tutor for enchantments and you had kami of the fields and 2confiscates. having 4copy enchantments seems to risky i'd play 2-3 maindeck
I really like these decks I'll definitely try the stuffy doll deck out. The black white red deck is a solid deck. There are a few people at my FNM that play the deck and are always in the top 8. I'd play it but I don't like mirror matches.
The copy enchantment deck is always good and catches people by surprise. I've walked into that deck my self only to be defeated by my own creature. If you really wanted Grand Arbiter Augustin IV in there, I think you would have to take out the wildfires as they lack synergy together. I guess what ever card you wanted to play would be a meta game choice.
The enchantment deck is cool. I've never experienced a deck like it. I'll have to try it out sometime.
kingritz had some very good comments. Especially about the skyhunter. Big time. Here's a few more:
- time ebb is not removal. It is a tempo card and is probably more suited for GU. It is a solid card, but I think you are overrating it.
- Dehydration IS decent removal for UW, a deck type that normally lacks such.
- UW needs some ground cloggers (the horned turtle cards kingritz alluded to). infantry veteran isn't any good here since most of your attackers are flying overhead anyway. There are a couple of other mistakes, I think, in the creature build.
- There are two few plains. Even though the 12/5 ratio is probably correct when you just consider mana costs in the deck, the fact is that you need plains early and you have the double white in WOG. In a two color deck like this I would never go less than 7 lands for a main color and think you would have been better off going 10/7 islands/plains.
Changes in the maindeck that I think would have helped:
-2 ebb
- infantry veteran
- sea monster (to be sided in versus an opponent with islands)
+ dehydration
+ boomerang
+ storm crow
+ mana leak
If you are on the play for a game I'd think about bringing in the second mana leak.
You can argue a bit about the suggested changes. But I think the land ratio was a big mistake, as you found out in game 2.
Oh, and if you splash a card, I think 2 mana sources are minimum, card draw or not.
All that said, you are a much better drafter than when you first started, for sure. Keep up the good work. Nothing wrong with 999 drafts, either.
Another great edition of Rouge Play. Nice to see that the PureMTGO community is starting to utilize each others best ideas and explore all the dynamics of 'getting better', be it casual, competition or otherwise! Regarding the state of deckbuilding (especially in competition), Outlaw mentioned a few days ago that “I'm suggesting that people are on auto-pilot. Load win.dec, click a few times and gg's all around.†I hope Lord Ermans spirit of deck building will help to change that!
This deck is a beast – and I mean that in a good way. My clan mates know what I fan I am of B/W/R control, and this deck has it all - removal (no explanation needed), flexibility ( Hide/Seek, Martyr, Knell), card advantage (WoG, Damnation, Sulfur Elemental), pace (short game Helix, Martyr, Mortify, Hide/Seek…long game Firebrand Angel, Rolling Horror, Knell) and sideboard tuning. Now, I love my MTGO just as much as the next guy, but I have to say that this deck is a bit out of my league price-wise. Other than that, however, it’s awesome!
I would definitely argue against adding Sacred Ground's to the sideboard just because there's definitely a school of thought out here which really believes this one true statement.... a 2 mana enchantment won't really stop an aggro deck from taking over. Add signets if you're in trouble.
I will not say much because you already know that I was expecting this article for a long time and that I'm a huge fan of this deck and that I'm already playing it :)))). Also from my own experience I can tell you that Dralnu is not invincible as long as you can Seek their Extirpate. Firemane Angel's ability to return to game is the key to victory. And just like you, I have Sacred Ground in the sideboard but even so, LD is the worst match up for the deck, even worse than Dralnu. Good article(and I said that I will not say much, eh?!).
Alright...there's been alot of talk about this which is exactly what I wanted to accomplish. AHammer, first off, I deal with you...you're showing your backside as usual (what else is new?). I've been talking to players and sponsors alike about Mind's Desire for months now. Know what you're talkin about b4 you open your mouth. Second of all, Desire is unbanned. Kokusho and Erayo stays...reason being; Some cards just aren't meant for multiplayer play as Runeliger stated. Funny how when something isn't banned, that people cry constantly about it, then when it does get banned, more people complain. Go figure. But yeah Desire is unbanned, I had an incident happen tonight where people teamed in an event to rig the outcome...I'll be writing an aticle VERY soon. I didn't really want to ban it in the first place...I simply enforced a temp ban on it to alleviate some issues. You can take that for whatever you want...I could really care less right now. Meanwhile, I'll be working on my next pre article...sorry to come off so abrasive, but I am definitely NOT in a good mood right now lol. Just watch for my next article...you'll get a hint as to why :) Peace I'm out
Your pick of Time Ebb over Leonin Skyhunter at pick 5 was a mistake. Time Ebb is solid, but your characterization of it as removal is perhaps a bit strong; it is no more than a temporary solution to a problem, and really plays a different role than something like Pacifism or even Dehydration would. But aside from that, Skyhunter is fantastic, AND passing it almost guarantees that you put a player to your immediate left into white. The first player will be looking at a choice between Husk and Skyhunter, with Razortooth Rats and Infantry Veteran also in the pack. Even if that player goes Husk, the second player down would definitely snatch the 2/2 flier. Note when you ended up finding nothing for you and having to resort to hate drafting -- the middle of Pack Two, when cards were coming from your left. In particular, look at the white cards you got in Pack 2. Let's see.... Crossbow Infantry and.... NOTHING.This often indicates either bad signaling on your part or a bad player next to you who doesn't read signals.
As a minor point, the Sanctum Guardian at pick 4 deserved at least a mention. Horned Turtle-like cards are very important to UW air force type decks. They allow you to hold the ground long enough to get through in the air. Sanctum Guardian is a strictly better Horned Turtle, aside from a slightly more difficult mana cost. Would I still have taken the Infantry Veteran? Quite possibly. But I would have considered it a close pick, and I surely would have looked at (and mentioned) Sanctum Guardian over Bottle Gnomes and Highway Robber.
Finally, I actually didn't mind your Pegasus Charger pick at the start of Pack Three. Blaze is obviously insane, but it requires splashing (always a risk) and you had a very, very strong deck at that point. Charger is a great card, and it didn't compromise your mana base at all. On the contrary, it really helped your curve by fitting in the three-drop slot where you were looking shallow. Blaze, on the other hand, would have made a deck with an already high curve (three Windreaders, Tidings, etc.) even more top-heavy. With a particularly strong draft, you want to shift at least a little bit to favoring consistency over power, because the more you minimize luck the more your stronger deck will shine through. With a weaker deck, sure, take a shot and splash the Blaze (off TWO Mountains instead of one, please).
Notwithstanding these criticisms, congratulations on making substantial strides and becoming a far better drafter over the course of these articles so far. I'm looking forward to seeing more in the future.
Whoever said play goblins: We care about the best deck even less than we care about lands in this column.
And at the squire idea: I still can't come up with anything that Squire does that can't be done better by another card, and if you throw Squire into some W Soldier beatdown deck, say, that IMO doesn't count.
One comment on the draft. Mana Leak should always make the maindeck in 999 drafts and especially in UW. It allows you to counter their turn 3 spells like rootwalla going second (something you should always be doing unless you have an extremely aggressive deck). Mana leak is also sometimes your only way of fighting against cards like Royal Assasin and spells like Flamebreak.
One comment on the draft. Mana Leak should always make the maindeck in 999 drafts and especially in UW. It allows you to counter their turn 3 spells like rootwalla going second (something you should always be doing unless you have an extremely aggressive deck). Mana leak is also sometimes your only way of fighting against cards like Royal Assasin and spells like Flamebreak.
I remember playing versus those goblins, and landless decks are a very interessting concept, unfortunally not one of those that I can try to build myself. Enjoyed the article nontheless.
Your articles are awesome, i like all the detail in your work and the walkthroughs on every card choice. In my opinion your the best article writer on puremtgo.com. Keep up the good work!
Overall good article Flashstorm. A few tips, at the beginning of each opponent, put what type of deck they are playing. It might also help to play matches instead of games, so you can see how these work out over a longer run and make sure you or your opponent didn't just get lucky. I found this helpful myself... when writing the recaps of games, replay the game for which the part of the article represents. It really helps to make a more complete analysis of a game. But like I said good article, just some tips to help you out. I look forward to seeing more.
First off, I liked your article, interesting stuff. Just wanted to point out some tips, first off, in this kind of deck I would highly suggest a liege of the pit or two, an easy way to wrap up a game by turn 4 or 5. Take out the phyrexians for them. Also consider using stromgald crusader in place of the withered though both are good ideas. Other than that, this is a standard beatem up fast deck. Works well. Good first article, can't wait to start up this summer myself.
This is flashstorm's first article so leave him so feedback, if you liked/disliked and how to make it better.
Oops, should of been clearer. I meant expensive in terms of mana cost.
Thanks for all the suggestions and critiques. You should know that I take each one of them into consideration. About the expensive part gnawph, I never claimed that I will be building budget decks that can win against tier1 decks. The slow part, yes it is true but then again as I said many times, I'm not an aggro player but rather control player as you can see in each article and each deck. Just wanted to make this part clear. Thanks again everybody.
Don't listen to the haters they only want to net deck their way to the top. They just don't love the game enough to try new and different cards.
Erman, your articles are becoming boring.
Most of your "rouge" decks are just packing slow and expensive win conditions and filled with board clearing spells. Its not really original and barely rougue.
How can you claim to know every netdeck and not be familiar with annex-wildfire?
I was actually playing a deck like this a while ago online in 8-man events. I saw bloodsmurf playing it online. The main difference was it used 3dreams(great card) to tutor for enchantments and you had kami of the fields and 2confiscates. having 4copy enchantments seems to risky i'd play 2-3 maindeck
I really like these decks I'll definitely try the stuffy doll deck out. The black white red deck is a solid deck. There are a few people at my FNM that play the deck and are always in the top 8. I'd play it but I don't like mirror matches.
The copy enchantment deck is always good and catches people by surprise. I've walked into that deck my self only to be defeated by my own creature. If you really wanted Grand Arbiter Augustin IV in there, I think you would have to take out the wildfires as they lack synergy together. I guess what ever card you wanted to play would be a meta game choice.
The enchantment deck is cool. I've never experienced a deck like it. I'll have to try it out sometime.
kingritz had some very good comments. Especially about the skyhunter. Big time. Here's a few more:
- time ebb is not removal. It is a tempo card and is probably more suited for GU. It is a solid card, but I think you are overrating it.
- Dehydration IS decent removal for UW, a deck type that normally lacks such.
- UW needs some ground cloggers (the horned turtle cards kingritz alluded to). infantry veteran isn't any good here since most of your attackers are flying overhead anyway. There are a couple of other mistakes, I think, in the creature build.
- There are two few plains. Even though the 12/5 ratio is probably correct when you just consider mana costs in the deck, the fact is that you need plains early and you have the double white in WOG. In a two color deck like this I would never go less than 7 lands for a main color and think you would have been better off going 10/7 islands/plains.
Changes in the maindeck that I think would have helped:
-2 ebb
- infantry veteran
- sea monster (to be sided in versus an opponent with islands)
+ dehydration
+ boomerang
+ storm crow
+ mana leak
If you are on the play for a game I'd think about bringing in the second mana leak.
You can argue a bit about the suggested changes. But I think the land ratio was a big mistake, as you found out in game 2.
Oh, and if you splash a card, I think 2 mana sources are minimum, card draw or not.
All that said, you are a much better drafter than when you first started, for sure. Keep up the good work. Nothing wrong with 999 drafts, either.
Another great edition of Rouge Play. Nice to see that the PureMTGO community is starting to utilize each others best ideas and explore all the dynamics of 'getting better', be it casual, competition or otherwise! Regarding the state of deckbuilding (especially in competition), Outlaw mentioned a few days ago that “I'm suggesting that people are on auto-pilot. Load win.dec, click a few times and gg's all around.†I hope Lord Ermans spirit of deck building will help to change that!
This deck is a beast – and I mean that in a good way. My clan mates know what I fan I am of B/W/R control, and this deck has it all - removal (no explanation needed), flexibility ( Hide/Seek, Martyr, Knell), card advantage (WoG, Damnation, Sulfur Elemental), pace (short game Helix, Martyr, Mortify, Hide/Seek…long game Firebrand Angel, Rolling Horror, Knell) and sideboard tuning. Now, I love my MTGO just as much as the next guy, but I have to say that this deck is a bit out of my league price-wise. Other than that, however, it’s awesome!
I would definitely argue against adding Sacred Ground's to the sideboard just because there's definitely a school of thought out here which really believes this one true statement.... a 2 mana enchantment won't really stop an aggro deck from taking over. Add signets if you're in trouble.
Good article.
I will not say much because you already know that I was expecting this article for a long time and that I'm a huge fan of this deck and that I'm already playing it :)))). Also from my own experience I can tell you that Dralnu is not invincible as long as you can Seek their Extirpate. Firemane Angel's ability to return to game is the key to victory. And just like you, I have Sacred Ground in the sideboard but even so, LD is the worst match up for the deck, even worse than Dralnu. Good article(and I said that I will not say much, eh?!).
Alright...there's been alot of talk about this which is exactly what I wanted to accomplish. AHammer, first off, I deal with you...you're showing your backside as usual (what else is new?). I've been talking to players and sponsors alike about Mind's Desire for months now. Know what you're talkin about b4 you open your mouth. Second of all, Desire is unbanned. Kokusho and Erayo stays...reason being; Some cards just aren't meant for multiplayer play as Runeliger stated. Funny how when something isn't banned, that people cry constantly about it, then when it does get banned, more people complain. Go figure. But yeah Desire is unbanned, I had an incident happen tonight where people teamed in an event to rig the outcome...I'll be writing an aticle VERY soon. I didn't really want to ban it in the first place...I simply enforced a temp ban on it to alleviate some issues. You can take that for whatever you want...I could really care less right now. Meanwhile, I'll be working on my next pre article...sorry to come off so abrasive, but I am definitely NOT in a good mood right now lol. Just watch for my next article...you'll get a hint as to why :) Peace I'm out
Your pick of Time Ebb over Leonin Skyhunter at pick 5 was a mistake. Time Ebb is solid, but your characterization of it as removal is perhaps a bit strong; it is no more than a temporary solution to a problem, and really plays a different role than something like Pacifism or even Dehydration would. But aside from that, Skyhunter is fantastic, AND passing it almost guarantees that you put a player to your immediate left into white. The first player will be looking at a choice between Husk and Skyhunter, with Razortooth Rats and Infantry Veteran also in the pack. Even if that player goes Husk, the second player down would definitely snatch the 2/2 flier. Note when you ended up finding nothing for you and having to resort to hate drafting -- the middle of Pack Two, when cards were coming from your left. In particular, look at the white cards you got in Pack 2. Let's see.... Crossbow Infantry and.... NOTHING.This often indicates either bad signaling on your part or a bad player next to you who doesn't read signals.
As a minor point, the Sanctum Guardian at pick 4 deserved at least a mention. Horned Turtle-like cards are very important to UW air force type decks. They allow you to hold the ground long enough to get through in the air. Sanctum Guardian is a strictly better Horned Turtle, aside from a slightly more difficult mana cost. Would I still have taken the Infantry Veteran? Quite possibly. But I would have considered it a close pick, and I surely would have looked at (and mentioned) Sanctum Guardian over Bottle Gnomes and Highway Robber.
Finally, I actually didn't mind your Pegasus Charger pick at the start of Pack Three. Blaze is obviously insane, but it requires splashing (always a risk) and you had a very, very strong deck at that point. Charger is a great card, and it didn't compromise your mana base at all. On the contrary, it really helped your curve by fitting in the three-drop slot where you were looking shallow. Blaze, on the other hand, would have made a deck with an already high curve (three Windreaders, Tidings, etc.) even more top-heavy. With a particularly strong draft, you want to shift at least a little bit to favoring consistency over power, because the more you minimize luck the more your stronger deck will shine through. With a weaker deck, sure, take a shot and splash the Blaze (off TWO Mountains instead of one, please).
Notwithstanding these criticisms, congratulations on making substantial strides and becoming a far better drafter over the course of these articles so far. I'm looking forward to seeing more in the future.
Whoever said play goblins: We care about the best deck even less than we care about lands in this column.
And at the squire idea: I still can't come up with anything that Squire does that can't be done better by another card, and if you throw Squire into some W Soldier beatdown deck, say, that IMO doesn't count.
great article, ill be toying around with it tonight!
One comment on the draft. Mana Leak should always make the maindeck in 999 drafts and especially in UW. It allows you to counter their turn 3 spells like rootwalla going second (something you should always be doing unless you have an extremely aggressive deck). Mana leak is also sometimes your only way of fighting against cards like Royal Assasin and spells like Flamebreak.
One comment on the draft. Mana Leak should always make the maindeck in 999 drafts and especially in UW. It allows you to counter their turn 3 spells like rootwalla going second (something you should always be doing unless you have an extremely aggressive deck). Mana leak is also sometimes your only way of fighting against cards like Royal Assasin and spells like Flamebreak.
Pretty sure it's a Blue color, hence cards like Azure Drake....
I remember playing versus those goblins, and landless decks are a very interessting concept, unfortunally not one of those that I can try to build myself. Enjoyed the article nontheless.
Creativity at its finest as always. Awesome.
Your articles are awesome, i like all the detail in your work and the walkthroughs on every card choice. In my opinion your the best article writer on puremtgo.com. Keep up the good work!