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By: hipuncle, Matthew Pearce
Sep 18 2007 3:02pm
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Sorry about the long delay since the last time I posted. This is good news as you get two full weeks of information in two near back to back articles and it allows me to praise Leagues further on their flexible schedule. 

Before I start on the second deck, let me remind you about the deck we built last article, and show you how it did.

Creatures

1 Sage Owl
1 Spiketail Hatchling
1 Puppeteer
1 Aven Fisher
1 Aven Windreader
1 Rootwalla
1 Llanowar Sentinel
1
Giant Spider
1 Craw Wurm
1 Molimo, Maro-Sorcerer
1 Hate Weaver
1 Phyrexian Rager
1 Doomed Necromancer

13 Cards

Spells

1 Counsel of the Soratami
1 Sift
1 Tidings
1 Terror
1 Essence Drain
1 Aggressive Urge
1 Rampant Growth
1 Sylvan Scrying
1 Overrun
1 Jayemdae Tome


10 Cards

Land

8 Forest
6 Island
3 Swamp

17 Cards

Round 1 – Red Green

Game One:  My opponent played such powerhouse drops as Duct Crawler, Viashino Sandscout and Raging Goblin. He also only played Mountains. It seems as though green was lost in the programming, but my Rager, Puppeteer, and Windreader were good enough.  Sometimes you just do not need to draw that other color in order to win. 

Game two:  We both find our Forests. His Stalking Tiger and Treetop Village are ultimately beaten by Rootwalla and Molimo.  Molimo is just a bigger man than Treetop Village could ever dream of being! 

Round 2 – Green Blue red

Game one:  My opponent must have been mana flooded as he only played three spells; Llanowar Elves, Giant Spider and Arcane Teachings (which he targeted his Giant Spider with.).  I had the Terror and he had the concession.

Game two: My opponent’s deck played better, but my draw was shameful. Ever had one of the Sage Owl setups that has you wanting to say “good game”?  When I cast Sage Owl, it perfectly set up my couple of turns.  Phyrexian Rager came off the top, which got my Giant Spider into my hand.  Giant Spider was cast, than I took a turn off before casting Craw Wurm, than wrapping the game up with Overrun

Overrun

This card does say I win the game on it somewhere, I'm just not sure where!

Round 3 – Green White

This guy’s deck was amazing. It had powerful cards like Overrun, Troll Ascetic, and a lot of powerful early drops. (You know stuff like Wild Griffin, Spined Wurm, and Rootwalla.)

Game One:  His draw was solid not ridiculous. He played Llanowar Elves into Wild Griffins, Rootwalla, and a Spined Wurm. My draw was not as solid, but would have been great against a slower deck.  I took my hand of draw spells, and after casting them had more draw spells. He beats me pretty badly, but that was to be expected. 

This is a good time for me to mention how I handle every league. As I have infinite time to build the deck, I always take a second to analyze its weaknesses. I knew after building the deck that it would struggle against two things - Fast decks and Platinum Angel. Against fast decks I have too many dead cards when you would rather be playing early drops, and against Platinum Angel I just had no main deck answer. Knowing these weaknesses I always make a couple pre made sideboard decks to save on my computer. Against this deck I load the following saved deck

1 Aven Cloudchaser
1 Ghost Warden
1 Skyhunter Prowler
1 Hate Weaver
1 Venerable Monk
1 Wild Griffin
1 Youthful Knight
1
Field Marshal
1 Doomed Necromancer
1 Phyrexian Rager
1 Craw Wurm
1 Giant Spider
1 Llanowar Sentinel
1
Molimo, Maro-Sorcerer
1 Rampant Growth
1 Rootwalla

1 Hail of Arrows
1 Essence Drain
1 Terror
1 Aggressive Urge
1 Sylvan Scrying
1 Chromatic Star
1 Overrun

8 Forest
6 Plains
3 Swamp

As you can see it has more early drops. Also it has Hail of Arrows which can turn around even the most defensive struggles.

Game two:  After this game I was starting to think played the wrong deck main. Of course his draw was bad. He played his first creature turn five. On my fifth turn, I had five of my own creatures.  I won this one pretty easily.

Game three:  This game just a game of trading punches. My Youthful Knight and Llanowar Sentinel would swap hits with his Wild Griffin and Aven Cloudchaser. Then Overrun hit and I was the victor.

And the end of this game he clicked reveal hand. I saw Overrun and Troll Ascetic sitting in hand, than I see the lone forest in play.  I was pretty lucky to win this game. 

3-0

Round 4 - Blue White

Game One:  Where is my Dust Corona when I need it? Everything in his deck flies. I see Thieving Magpies, Wild Griffins, Prowlers, Patrols, and a Snapping Drake. Fortunately my Puppeteer and Windreader are able to hold them off long enough for my Molimo followed by an Overrun to let me win. On a fun side note this is the first game I was able to reanimate my Molimo with my Necromancer.

Game 2 – Why I didn’t think to sideboard I don’t know. But I didn’t. I don’t draw my Windreader and am destroyed.

I first try to sideboard in a couple of Wonders, but my hacking skills are just not that good. After that I decided to just change my splash to white. I took out the black, Jalem’s Tome, and Tidings for Hail of Arrows, Aven Cloudchaser, Skyhunter Prowler, Wild Griffin, Ghost Warden, Youthful Knight, and Chromatic Star.

Game 3 – Now that my air force is able to match up well with his, I get to be more aggressive. My attacks quickly get him down to nine life and there is a one sided board position. I have Ghost Warden, Youthful Knight, and Giant Spider. He has no creatures until he untaps and casts Kjeldoran Royal Guard. That slowed me down. That puts the following turns in stalemate mode. I only play Prowler as he plays Skyhunter Patrol and Snapping Drake. I ripped a 8/8 Molimo. He rips a 5/6 Mahamoti. With the Aggressive urge in hand I swing with Molimo. He blocked with four of his men. I killed the Patrol and the Royal guard. Next turn I go Overrun FTW! 

4-0

Round 5 – Red Green

Game one:  Once again I face a turn one raging goblin, which I managed to overcome somehow. He played two other hasty creatures in Lightning Elemental and Thundering Giant, which trade with Rager and Essence Drain. I win after soon after that, because I have superior men. 

Game two:  Another sideboard mess up. Going first he plays a similar creature base, but this time I don’t have the ready blockers. It takes me a long time stabilize. Board position is finally stabilized with Sentinel and Spider on my side and a Lightning elemental and Spider on his side. He is at nineteen life and I am at seven. He only had five land in play.  I seemed to be at the advantage because I had five cards in hand to his one.  It seemed like I was going to be able to take control of the game.  I never expected the Manabarbs. I tried to get a Molimo into play as it was the only creature that outlasted his duo. I could not cast him, because the Manabarbs would kill me.  I was in quite the pickle.  However, it was not meant to be, he eventually dropped Artillery and it was all.

pic=(Molimo, Maro Sorcerer)

This guy happened to be my only out, but I could not cast him due to the Manabarbs in play. 

Game three – I board in the Green White black deck listed above to counterbalance his fast deck. He takes a mulligan to five. Good right. Not really by turn 7 I had only drawn 4 non land spells, Chromatic Star, Skyhunter Prowler, Llanowar Sentinel, and Hail of Arrows. He won when he had both Giant Growth and Aggressive Urge to effectivly counter my Hail of Arrows.

4-1

Four and one is a fine start to a league. It is nine points and I have seen people get first place with thirty nine points.  More importantly I find I like playing this deck, as it is almost always interactive. I played four extra games which I never take seriously. You should have seen my Blue Red Sudden Blast, Raging Goblin deck. I lost.  I was playing for tiebreakers though, so I could afford to be a little silly. 

Before I get lost in my own musings, let me address my second deck list. Before you send my obvious replies, I know I built it wrong at first. Yet another good thing about leagues, you can rebuild your deck after you make mistakes.

Deck 1:

1 Icatian Priest
1
Loxodon Mystic
2 Skyhunter Prowler
1 Steadfast Guard
1
Venerable Monk
1 Wild Griffin
1
Cloud Elemental
1 Merfolk Looter
1 Sage Owl
1 Snapping Drake
1 Flamewave Invoker
1 Thundering Giant
1 Viashino Runne)

1 Persuasion
1 Remove Soul
1 Sift
1 Beacon of Destruction
1 Spitting Earth
1 Icy Manipulator
1 Mind Stone
1
Warrior's Honor

1 Battlefield Forge
1 Forbidding Watchtower
6 Plains
5 Island
5 Mountain

I built the deck this way because of two things. For one I did not know how good the Priest was. I still don’t know. Any thoughts out there in regards to the Priest? Second I over valued Skyhunter Prowler. Now they are proudly seated in the “if I have to” column. After going one and one with this deck I reconsidered the deck list and came up with this deck list

1 Giant Spider
1 Hunted Wumpus
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Llanowar Sentinel
1
Rootwalla
1 Seedborn Muse
1 Skyshroud Ranger
1
Cloud Elemental
1 Merfolk Looter
1 Sage Owl
1 Snapping Drake
1 Flamewave Invoker
1 Viashino Runner

1 Persuasion
1 Remove Soul
1 Sift
1 Beacon of Destruction
1 Spitting Earth
1 Icy Manipulator
1 Mind Stone
1
Aggressive Urge
1 Giant Growth

7 Forest
6 Island
5 Mountain

Guess what?  Seedborn Muse along with Flamewave Invoker is a solid limited combo. This deck let me end the week three and one. This means that in both of my leagues I ended four and one. Now you know why I keep tell myself 4 and 1 is good end record.

Join me next time when I add I few more packs to both of my league pools and give my updates on to how I am doing!  Thanks for reading!

4 Comments

by hipuncle at Wed, 09/19/2007 - 10:14
hipuncle's picture

I'm sorry, this is a continuation from the article League 101 - The Full lists were posted there. Thank you for your comments about the Priests.

by Anonymous (Unregistered) 69.180.70.236 (not verified) at Tue, 09/18/2007 - 15:16
Anonymous (Unregistered) 69.180.70.236's picture

some love the priest, some say it's a skilltester

Priest??? by Gameben23 at Tue, 09/18/2007 - 20:29
Gameben23's picture

I always thought that priest was awful, then again I'm not a fan of white in 10ed limited, as I have stated in my articles...Anywho, priest is a 1/1 for 1 with an ability that is mediocre at best. I would almost play tundra wolves over it, or better yet soul warden. So all in all, I'd say Ication Priest is stricty sb, and by sb I mean dont even play it. Lastly, in your future articles I would like to see your full card poll, you cant expect us to be able to critique you without adequate info.

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seooseoo's picture

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