The problems with my deck are numerous, but I think the biggest one is that, other than their rad visual design, the Nephilim themselves just kind of suck. You'd think for something that has 4 different mana symbols in its cost you'd get a creature that's inherently pretty powerful but instead they're fragile, undersized, have next to zero immediate impact on the board and have no natural evasion (barring Witch-Maw's conditional trample). Their abilities are reasonably powerful if successfully triggered but the fact that they rely so much on the combat phase makes that very difficult to accomplish; the lack of haste means they have to survive a whole turn so they can't beat removal, the lack of evasion means they can't beat chump blockers and their small bodies mean they can't beat big creatures. Basically the only way they can win is if the opponent has nothing, which is exactly how I did win some games.
I built your version of the deck and have played a few games in the Just For Fun room. It is a fun deck to play and great when it gets going. Thanks for sharing it.
Yes, apologies about that, Brian. I lose the ability to make edits after publication on here, but if an editor sees this and could change that I would appreciated it.
Nicely done article and thanks for the shout out Wappla. My last name is spelled wrong though (Schlossberg). After "shops was dead", that ravager deck went on to take over @18% of the world meta in Q1 2016 according to Steve and Kevin's data.
So much so that you repeated it :p I kid. But really this a pretty great exposition of how to think about Vintage when building. It doesn't do it for you but it does give some tools that seem pretty useful. Impressed as per usual.
I absolutely dislike oath mirrors and I'm only slightly prepared for them. That's actually more preparation than most lists though.
Even in times where oath is not great it still has a lot of nut draw and free wins. Its just easier to get orchard oath MOX than almost any other combo In Magic. The opposite can frequently happen as well, you get a great match up and draw an opening seven with three griselbrands or whatever. Having a deck that contains cards you'd rather not draw makes that unavoidable.
I liked how you spoke of different t types of oath builds. That is spot on. My decks tend to play like a fast combo deck. Other people go for a slower build. There's a lot of variation.
Thank you for writing this. Even though I have very clear idea of what the Vintage format looks like and how it should look like I was not capable of voicing my thoughts well enough for others to understand. My own post actually made people write to me via instant messages and I can't seem to be able to explain myself. But after your introduction it seems I was trying to explain it wrong. People are blinded by what they think the format should be and can't look at how it looks like. Metagame changes because of what people play, that is how the cycle works. Now it is Oath time and Landstill time. People should adapt. With time it will move into another phase of Vintage metagame...You use velocity and synergy to show this but it can be shown in other ways as well. I was surprised that people do not see this... I thought that it is something that people see naturally.
It's my favorite too, but don't tell anyone that. Tezzeret would definitely be crazy on that deck, I might brew with him at some point and post an updated list. For now, just try that one out, it's crazy cheap (under 3 tix last time I checked, assuming you have none of the cards in your collection.
I really like the Soul to Squeeze deck. It looks like quite a fun and interesting deck and I'd be interested to try it out. As you mentioned I would be interested in using Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas as a finisher in the deck potentially - seems like a good fit for the deck and I like that Proliferate works well with Planeswalkers generally.
The lack of pictures...ack my eyes! No I kid. Though a wall of text is easily broken up. See the Unwritten is a great casual card, not sure it works in the hyper competitive world of Modern though. I was never a huge fan of shaman. The 4 cost to draw a card being conditional makes it less than exciting. Brutal Hordechief on the other hand is a great under appreciated card.
==edit== huh it seems the pics were a late loader. Odd.
I fall into the camp of buying them when they'r cheaper, but I kind of hate the way they look. There were a few cards that looked neat in foil when the animation was on, but I soon grew tired of it, especially as they don't match my other cards.
Yeah I wish that they'd fix them, I just got a set of expedition Wastelands to have the card again, and I got them because the most rare version of that card was also laughably the cheapest! SMH.
Hey we got a comment! Sure its from a spam bot and apropos of nothing but hey, a comment! Welcome commenter. And thanks for the 5 fireballs :D We were beginning to think there were no living souls in this place...
The problems with my deck are numerous, but I think the biggest one is that, other than their rad visual design, the Nephilim themselves just kind of suck. You'd think for something that has 4 different mana symbols in its cost you'd get a creature that's inherently pretty powerful but instead they're fragile, undersized, have next to zero immediate impact on the board and have no natural evasion (barring Witch-Maw's conditional trample). Their abilities are reasonably powerful if successfully triggered but the fact that they rely so much on the combat phase makes that very difficult to accomplish; the lack of haste means they have to survive a whole turn so they can't beat removal, the lack of evasion means they can't beat chump blockers and their small bodies mean they can't beat big creatures. Basically the only way they can win is if the opponent has nothing, which is exactly how I did win some games.
Thanks Wappla. are you on facebook?
I built your version of the deck and have played a few games in the Just For Fun room. It is a fun deck to play and great when it gets going. Thanks for sharing it.
thanks!
I believe it has been updated to correct the spelling, sorry about that Brian!
Yes, apologies about that, Brian. I lose the ability to make edits after publication on here, but if an editor sees this and could change that I would appreciated it.
It seemed wrong to me as well, but it was what TCDecks (http://tcdecks.net/deck.php?id=18901&iddeck=143426) had as the spelling and I couldn't refer to the tourney report on the old TMD to confirm.
Nicely done article and thanks for the shout out Wappla. My last name is spelled wrong though (Schlossberg). After "shops was dead", that ravager deck went on to take over @18% of the world meta in Q1 2016 according to Steve and Kevin's data.
So much so that you repeated it :p I kid. But really this a pretty great exposition of how to think about Vintage when building. It doesn't do it for you but it does give some tools that seem pretty useful. Impressed as per usual.
I absolutely dislike oath mirrors and I'm only slightly prepared for them. That's actually more preparation than most lists though.
Even in times where oath is not great it still has a lot of nut draw and free wins. Its just easier to get orchard oath MOX than almost any other combo In Magic. The opposite can frequently happen as well, you get a great match up and draw an opening seven with three griselbrands or whatever. Having a deck that contains cards you'd rather not draw makes that unavoidable.
I liked how you spoke of different t types of oath builds. That is spot on. My decks tend to play like a fast combo deck. Other people go for a slower build. There's a lot of variation.
I absolutely dislike oath mirrors and I'm only slightly prepared for them. That's actually more preparation than most lists though.
Thank you for writing this. Even though I have very clear idea of what the Vintage format looks like and how it should look like I was not capable of voicing my thoughts well enough for others to understand. My own post actually made people write to me via instant messages and I can't seem to be able to explain myself. But after your introduction it seems I was trying to explain it wrong. People are blinded by what they think the format should be and can't look at how it looks like. Metagame changes because of what people play, that is how the cycle works. Now it is Oath time and Landstill time. People should adapt. With time it will move into another phase of Vintage metagame...You use velocity and synergy to show this but it can be shown in other ways as well. I was surprised that people do not see this... I thought that it is something that people see naturally.
Good article. Thanks for sharing.
It's my favorite too, but don't tell anyone that. Tezzeret would definitely be crazy on that deck, I might brew with him at some point and post an updated list. For now, just try that one out, it's crazy cheap (under 3 tix last time I checked, assuming you have none of the cards in your collection.
It is really hard to get even one of those. Most especially that everybody is aiming to earn more from it. - Marla Ahlgrimm
I like how everyone put too much effort on the game. Most especially that it is not as easy at it would be. - Marla Ahlgrimm
I really like the Soul to Squeeze deck. It looks like quite a fun and interesting deck and I'd be interested to try it out. As you mentioned I would be interested in using Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas as a finisher in the deck potentially - seems like a good fit for the deck and I like that Proliferate works well with Planeswalkers generally.
The lack of pictures...ack my eyes! No I kid. Though a wall of text is easily broken up. See the Unwritten is a great casual card, not sure it works in the hyper competitive world of Modern though. I was never a huge fan of shaman. The 4 cost to draw a card being conditional makes it less than exciting. Brutal Hordechief on the other hand is a great under appreciated card.
==edit== huh it seems the pics were a late loader. Odd.
I'll consider it on the merit of what you post. ;)
I fall into the camp of buying them when they'r cheaper, but I kind of hate the way they look. There were a few cards that looked neat in foil when the animation was on, but I soon grew tired of it, especially as they don't match my other cards.
Yeah I wish that they'd fix them, I just got a set of expedition Wastelands to have the card again, and I got them because the most rare version of that card was also laughably the cheapest! SMH.
Certainly :D
IF I start commenting will that be merry welcome too ?
Hey we got a comment! Sure its from a spam bot and apropos of nothing but hey, a comment! Welcome commenter. And thanks for the 5 fireballs :D We were beginning to think there were no living souls in this place...
Opportunities come and go. That is why there is a need to grab them if you feel that you will succeed in it. - Fred Wehba
Games are not more on winning. Sometimes it requires a better fight. - Fred Wehba
This kind of game can also be called as business. That is usually the aim of a lot of people. - Timothy Singhel
Many of the gamers are capable of winning. That is why the competition here is so close. - Bath Planet