Dies to Removal

Slumbering Dragon is just Vexing Devil in disguise amirite?

Just saw the results from the SCG Invitational yesterday...only one aggro deck made Top8, and it is more of a big/hammer-style deck:

Gruul Aggro - Ross Merriam

[deck]23 LANDS
8 Forest
6 Mountain
4 Rootbound Crag
4 Stomping Ground
1 Kessig Wolf Run

29 CREATURES
4 Arbor Elf
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Flinthoof Boar
4 Ghor-Clan Rampager
4 Hellrider
4 Gyre Sage
2 Wolfir Silverheart
2 Thundermaw Hellkite
1 Borderland Ranger

4 INSTANTS and SORCERIES
4 Bonfire of the Damned

4 OTHER SPELLS
4 Domri Rade

SIDEBOARD
2 Thundermaw Hellkite
4 Strangleroot Geist
2 Ground Seal
1 Devil's Play
2 Mizzium Mortars
1 Cavern of Souls
3 Pillar of Flame[/deck]

Creature-only ramp, Domri as a 4-of, Bonfire as a 4-of with no other burn in the main. One Cavern in the side to go up to 24-land for full Hellkite Hammer.

Here's the top 8 field...

8 UWr Midrange Gerry Thompson
8 Gruul Aggro Ross Merriam
n8 UWr Midrange Phillip Lorren
8 Esper Control (Solar Flare) Shaheen Soorani
8 Jund Midrange Adam Prosak
8 Esper Control (Solar Flare) Michael Hetrick
8 Reanimator Brian Braun-Duin
8 Esper Control (Solar Flare) Ben Lundquist

I want to build something new...but I feel a bit like Dilbert in this strip.



I want it to be midrange...but I don't want to run Thragtusk. I want it to be fun and goofy, like my Master Bantomancer deck, but I want it to be competitive. I really want to put Geist of Saint Traft in it, but I don't own any, and ponying up now when they rotate out relatively soon just seems dumb.

Bottom line, why won't the rest of you Magic players just scoop when you see you're paired against me?!?

Actually, strike that. That wouldn't allow me to play anything fun.

Why won't the rest of you Magic players play extremely substandard decks, and just make stupid responses to my plays so my win is all but assured?!?

There. THAT'S what I want.

Any twitter users out there? Follow Paddy Considine (twitter://user?screen_name=PaddyConsidine). I'm laughing so hard that I'm crying at the pictures he's posting.

I think I'm going to try that list with hounds rancors over hellkites and bonfires.

its still my dream to soulbound a silverheart and hound

I want to build something new...but I feel a bit like Dilbert in this strip.



I want it to be midrange...but I don't want to run Thragtusk. I want it to be fun and goofy, like my Master Bantomancer deck, but I want it to be competitive. I really want to put Geist of Saint Traft in it, but I don't own any, and ponying up now when they rotate out relatively soon just seems dumb.

Bottom line, why won't the rest of you Magic players just scoop when you see you're paired against me?!?

Actually, strike that. That wouldn't allow me to play anything fun.

Why won't the rest of you Magic players play extremely
substandard decks, and just make stupid responses to my plays so my win is all but assured?!?

There. THAT'S what I want.

Here you go, it fits most of your criteria, but doesn't have Geist of Saint Traft in it. You might still have to buy Restoration Angels, but those are a better, smarter investment anyway.

Had a fun day of school work, house work, and tormenting my neighbors with riffs of sonic destruction!

I know we have some guitar players in the clan, but how many of you guys are "gear heads?" I shared my rig in the Rogue's Gallery, but I'm gonna post it here too. Anybody else have any cool toys they wanna show off? (Women count as cool toys too, just FYI)

My Guitar Rig of Doom:

Long time no see Flames, I'm just jumping aboard the new site.

Anyone else go to the TCG 5k in Providence this past weekend?

I brought this White-Weenie deck with a splash of red that Craig Wescoe came up with and did pretty decent going 7-2 for 21st place of 300, got $50 and a playmat so not too bad. For my standards at least I had been looking to get over the hump for bigger events and this is the best I've done at a 300+ person event.

Glad to see you found your way over here, dpaine...I wondered if we would see you again after Dos Rakis fell from favor. Make yourself at home, we like it here.

Had a fun day of school work, house work, and tormenting my neighbors with riffs of sonic destruction!

I know we have some guitar players in the clan, but how many of you guys are "gear heads?" I shared my rig in the Rogue's Gallery, but I'm gonna post it here too. Anybody else have any cool toys they wanna show off? (Women count as cool toys too, just FYI)

My Guitar Rig of Doom:

---

Guitar: James Hetfield Custom LTD w/EMG 81/60 pickups
Amp: Jet City Amps
20 Watt Head (It sounds like an old 80's Marshall JCM800 single channel designed by Mike Soldano)
Cab: Marshall 4x12
Pedals: Dunlop Dimebag Crybaby -> Zakk Wylde Overdrive -> EVH Phase 90 -> Boss Super Chorus -> Boss Tuner -> all run through Monster Cables and placed on my custom homemade pedal board, "The Asshole" (The name plate was built from a discarded Marshall face plate sign and built into the board.).

I spy an EVH, a compressor(or chorus?), a tuner...eh. Just tell me, what's your
set up/signal chain?

I have a Line 6 M9 Stompbox Modeler going through a 30W Vox Tube amp. And way too many guitars for my feeble income. x.x

Yeah didn't get a lot of photos, the even degenerated way too quickly. Did get given some Decepticon cufflinks though ^^

Yeah didn't get a lot of photos, the even degenerated way too quickly. Did get given some Decepticon cufflinks though ^^

Looks like a lovely time was had by all.

I think I'm going to try that list with hounds rancors over hellkites and bonfires.

its still my dream to soulbound a silverheart and hound

That would indeed be a sweet dream...

The "All-In" red list has me thinking about all these BTE lists...should they be eschewing lots of standard burn in favor of Dynacharge? I mean, the whole point of those lists in this meta is to drop a swarm and run someone over before they can build up mana to board wipe or go big over the top. Is Dynacharge the card to get it done? It doesn't have trample and thus would not be as effective in the mirror, but it could be devastating against ramp and control. Add Electrickery to deal with LS
tokens and dorks and it could blow through Reanimator and Aristocrats as well.

Speaking of which, does Electrickery belong in the side with the upswing of LS-packing decks? It's more efficient than FotF and can come down earlier to deal with dorks and stop T3 Swagtusk.

Considering it more and more. So tired of dying to hardcast Craterhoof for lethal off of a bunch of dorks. Ugh.

I've been looking at the standard daily lists that 4-0 and 3-1 on mtgo for ideas...

what the hell is it with these mono red lists with 19-21 lands that run a full playset of hellrider? There's no way that can be the right choice... Lots of people having skullcrack in the board too. So strange

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Digital/Ma ... rn/5264115 (4th one down)

I've been looking at the standard daily lists that 4-0 and 3-1 on mtgo for ideas...

what the hell is it with these mono red lists with 19-21 lands that run a full playset of hellrider? There's no way that can be the right choice... Lots of people having skullcrack in the board too. So strange

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Digital/Ma ... rn/5264115 (4th one down)

They obviously have better luck than us. I want to live in Magical Christmas Land too!

Where was a Mono-Black Vampires list the 4-0'd too. What the hell?

I've been looking at the standard daily lists that 4-0 and 3-1 on mtgo for ideas...

what the hell is it with these mono red lists with 19-21 lands that run a full playset of hellrider? There's no way that can be the right choice... Lots of people having skullcrack in the board too. So strange

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Digital/Ma ... rn/5264115 (4th one down)

They obviously have better luck than us. I want to live
in Magical Christmas Land too!

Where was a Mono-Black Vampires list the 4-0'd too. What the hell?

I'm starting to wonder how much stock I can put in these lists they post... I know they're only a fraction of the lists that placed into money but still.

Right, I am playing Mono Black Vampires!

That vampires list looks interesting. Lots of removal backed up by creatures that complement each other well together. Hmmmm. Z, you created a vampire-centric version of Dos Rakis a while back.

DGM spoiler day! Looks like the guild champions are mostly 6cmc from the looks of it.

Also, Ral Zarek is a cool card, though his +1 is not that too amazing. He's a virtually 3CMC card at times too!

also:

Looks like we just got us a nice burn spell.

On guitar rigs: I have a custom build semi-hollow Tele, a cable, and a Peavey transtube amp. My acoustic is an '86 Alvarez thinline.

Also own a guitar I restored myself (only don't play it because the ground keeps coming off), an Ibanez with a two-piece mahogany body, a Fender mexican standard Tele, and a cheap nylon string.

Anyone interested in buying a guitar? Really though. I have too many.

2R to deal 4+ isn't horrid I suppose.

They obviously have better luck than us. I want to live in Magical Christmas Land too!

Where was a Mono-Black Vampires list the 4-0'd too. What the hell?

That's actually not a bad list to drop into an unsuspecting meta...Mutilate to reset the board, lots of cheap spot removal, Keeper to pump out tokens. If they stick and keep Nocturnus with black up, they are spewing out 4-power tokens. Flip Keeper, and those tokens are then 6-power. SiB helps you dig or get a black card up for Nocturnus, Nighthawk can trade with anything without pump and is a monster with any lord effects. Blood Artist even gets scary if any of the lords come online, and with all that removal he can rack up substantial ping damage.

Obviously, the deck opens ready to deal with aggro and midrange. The deck is a pain for control as well because most of the aggression is going to come from tokens while the decked
creatures are going to hang back; thus, Azorius Charm is shut down as a tempo controller since tokens don't go back to the library. The sideboard is totally tuned for the meta.

As a lover of mono black vamps, I have to say that that is a pretty tight list. He should have run Caverns to foil creature counters (all lands are colorless so this doesn't impact Nocturnus in the least), and I would add Sorin to the list (at least in the side for control) to push it over the top. Olivia 2 and 3 could also play happily in this list, though I would hate to mess with that sideboard much because it is so well thought out for maximizing the effectiveness of the list's primary plan.

Hell, I might just run that for the heck of it this week at FNM.

Looks like we just got us a nice burn spell.

First Thespian's Stage, now Toil & Trouble...I didn't know that Shakespeare was from Ravnica!

I like T&T both for utility and to dig for late-game answers. This set looks fun!

Ral Zarek's +1 gets around Blind Obedience and screws with any mana they might be leaving up for spells.

For six mana, Toil/Trouble could conceivably do 11 damage if the opponent has 7 cards in hand. Draw 2, lose 2 life, then take 9 damage.

There's another artifact destruction card. Anyone else thinking that Theros is going to have some interesting artifacts?

So, Legacy Burn...

I might participate in a Legacy tournament next weekend, and I have basically two options: Legacy Burn and my counter-sliver deck. The sliver deck isn't really competitive, so that leaves me with one real option. So, I have this burn deck:

[deck]19 Mountain
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Lava Spike
4 Rift Bolt
4 Fireblast
4 Price of Progress
4 Goblin Guide
4 Hellspark Elemental
4 Keldon Marauders
3 Sulfuric Vortex
2 Magma Jet

SB
4 Smash to Smitereens
4 Pyroblast
4 Tormod's Crypt
3 Volcanic Fallout[/deck]

Looks pretty standard, but what about the sideboard? I just threw something in it right now. The metagame will be competitive, because it's a qualifier tournament for a local money event later in the spring.


Any good Legacy Gruul-based Zoo decks around? I might be able to put something like that together as well.

Edits: what's with the wierd deck tags?

The decklist looks reasonably good. I've found that it's better to be proactive with Vexing Shusher over being reactive with Pyroblast, although you'd rather have Pyroblast against permanent-based control decks.

Do you have an idea what the meta looks like?

EDIT: Formatting is as follows: [*deck]//A
1 Mountain

//B
2 Grim Lavamancer

//etc
1 Nameless One[/deck]

I like Wear and Tear (Someday that card tag will work!) 1R Destroy Target Artifact // W Destroy Target Enchantment, Fuse.

That vampires list looks interesting. Lots of removal backed up by creatures that complement each other well together. Hmmmm. Z, you created a vampire-centric version of Dos Rakis a while back.

From that control list, you could splash red in an aggro-heavy meta to add Bonfire or other burn; In a tusk-heavy field, blue for Snaps and Evil Twin. Again, this is about making a party-crasher deck, not something that's going to become an established bastion of the meta. It really sounds pretty fun...

I like Wear and Tear (Someday that card tag will work!) 1R Destroy Target Artifact // W Destroy Target Enchantment, Fuse.

I love it as well because it effectively doubles sideboard slots and increases the likelihood that you're going to hit the hate card that you sided in (assuming keeping 3-4 copies of this rather than 2 copies of each solution).

2R to deal 4+ isn't horrid I suppose.

Toil/Trouble is a possibility in Br Control against Sphinx's Rev...for that matter just Trouble for red decks to combat Sphinx's is a thing. They tap out and fill their hand, then you level them. It would be MUCH better as an instant to match SR when it's cast on your EOT, but that would be asking too much I suppose...

I like Wear and Tear (Someday that card tag will work!) 1R Destroy Target Artifact // W Destroy Target Enchantment, Fuse.

I love it as well because it effectively doubles sideboard slots and increases the likelihood that you're going to hit the hate card that you sided in (assuming keeping 3-4 copies of this rather than 2 copies of each solution).

Agreed. Looks pretty good to me. I'm going to go out on a limb and say as long as your mana can cast it, it's better than Disenchant.


This is an odd question, but can anyone explain the CURRENT trigger rules for REL and Comp. REL and the differences? They were updated again of February 1st and I got caught with my pants down on Friday because there are two sets of rules. Before 02/01 I was under the impression that you had to announce all your triggers, which I always do now. Now it seems you don't have to announce them in either REL.

Examples:

FNM (Non-competitive REL) My opponent did not announce his battalion trigger. I blocked, and then he informed me his attackers were indestructible. I was not trying to be a douche bag, I honestly forgot the trigger and would not have blocked if I'd known it was indestructible. I called the judge, he informed me he doesn't have to declare it in regular REL events. My blocks happen. I lose the following turn for match.

PT: Gatecrash (Professional REL) Sam Black beats Martin Juza by not declaring his exalted trigger (43:30).

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIW0Y6-ggSg[
/youtube]

Help?

Ral Zarek seems fun.
UWB needed a good planeswalker, indeed.

Played some games with the Mono Black Vampire deck. Blood Artist was horrible, but the rest of the deck was REALLY good. With some small changes to the removal package, the deck was winning most of the games I played. Oh, and it crushes UWx Control, so there is that. Staff of Win indeed.

Played some games with the Mono Black Vampire deck. Blood Artist was horrible, but the rest of the deck was REALLY good. With some small changes to the removal package, the deck was winning most of the games I played. Oh, and it crushes UWx Control, so there is that. Staff of Win indeed.

I had doubts about the usefulness of Artist in a deck that is not actively sacrificing its own creatures--no surprise there. So what do you think in its place? LS or TKA for blocking/board presence? Or splash blue into snaps for more removal? I'm ready to roll on this...

EDIT: Oh duh...senior moment. LS or Sorin would require splashing into white...I really need to stop posting on the fly when my attention is elsewhere.

So, Legacy Burn...

I might participate in a Legacy tournament next weekend, and I have basically two options: Legacy Burn and my counter-sliver deck. The sliver deck isn't really competitive, so that leaves me with one real option. So, I have this burn deck:

[deck]19 Mountain
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Lava Spike
4 Rift Bolt
4 Fireblast
4 Price of Progress
4 Goblin Guide
4 Hellspark Elemental
4 Keldon Marauders
3 Sulfuric Vortex
2 Magma Jet

Sideboard
4 Smash to Smitereens
4 Pyroblast
4 Tormod's Crypt
3 Volcanic Fallout[/deck]

Looks pretty standard, but
what about the sideboard? I just threw something in it right now. The metagame will be competitive, because it's a qualifier tournament for a local money event later in the spring.

Any good Legacy Gruul-based Zoo decks around? I might be able to put something like that together as well.

Edits: what's with the wierd deck tags?

The decklist looks reasonably good. I've found that it's better to be proactive with Vexing Shusher over being reactive with Pyroblast, although you'd rather have Pyroblast against permanent-based control decks.

Do you have an idea what the meta looks like?

EDIT: Formatting is as follows: [*deck]//A
1 Mountain

//B
2 Grim Lavamancer

//etc
1 Nameless One[/deck]

I can probably dig up some info about the decks used in the last local GP Trial which was held some weeks ago. It didn't have many participants (about 16), though. This
upcoming event will probably be bigger, since it's a trial for a bigger local money event.

Vexing Shushers would be cool, but I don't have them right now. Might be able to borrow a few.

As for the deck tags, I used the button above the editing box. I don't know why it cuts the "Mountain" in half though. That's really odd.

Edit: So this seems to be the decks in the local GP Trial held on 23rd of March:

Jund x2
UR Delver x1
Mono-R Burn x1
Fish x1
Junk x1
UB Reanimator x1
Death & Taxes x1 (Top 4)
Robots x1 (Top 4)
Esper Control x1
High Tide Storm x1
BUG Control x1
Maverick x1
UW Miracle x1 (Winner)
Show and Tell x1
RUG Midrange x1 (Top 4)

Should be pretty standard decklists I guess. Honest question, how competitive is a burn deck really? I had a hard time finding any in the decklist section at SCG for the latest Legacy Open events. So, which is more true: 1. burn decks don't stand a chance, or 2. nobody plays them because they're, well you know, stupid/silly
burn decks?

I don't expect winning the event, there will be very good players there with good decks. So I'm mainly interested in the experience, but having a somewhat decent deck would be nice.

Had a fun day of school work, house work, and tormenting my neighbors with riffs of sonic destruction!

I know we have some guitar players in the clan, but how many of you guys are "gear heads?" I shared my rig in the Rogue's Gallery, but I'm gonna post it here too. Anybody else have any cool toys they wanna show off? (Women count as cool toys too, just FYI)

My Guitar Rig of Doom:

---

[b:
nbh0kcff]Guitar:[/b] James Hetfield Custom LTD w/EMG 81/60 pickups
Amp: Jet City Amps 20 Watt Head (It sounds like an old 80's Marshall JCM800 single channel designed by Mike Soldano)
Cab: Marshall 4x12
Pedals: Dunlop Dimebag Crybaby -> Zakk Wylde Overdrive -> EVH Phase 90 -> Boss Super Chorus -> Boss Tuner -> all run through Monster Cables and placed on my custom homemade pedal board, "The Asshole" (The name plate was built from a discarded Marshall face plate sign and built into the board.).

I spy an EVH, a compressor(or chorus?), a tuner...eh. Just tell me, what's your set up/signal chain?

I have a Line 6 M9 Stompbox Modeler going through a 30W Vox Tube amp. And way too many guitars for my feeble income. x.x

My chain starts with the guitar (...duh...lol) and goes into the Dime Wah, then the Overdrive, Phase 90, Super Chorus, and Tuner. All of that is fed into the Jet City head. It's only 20 watts, but I've been told that tubes are somewhat louder than their soldi-state counterparts and I believe them. Damn thing was making my whole apartment rattle. It was awesome.

Voxes are sweet. They have the best clean sound I've ever heard. The only thing that may come close to the Vox sound would maybe be a Fender Twin.

As for guitars, I'm down to just one electric (the Hetfield
Truckster) and one acoustic (an early 80's Fender Dreadnaught. I used to have a Gibson Explorer and a Flying V but I had to part with them many moons ago. Oh, how I miss them.

Toil / Trouble being a sorcery really hurts it against Revelation decks

Toil / Trouble being a sorcery really hurts it against Revelation decks

Yeah...them getting to Rev then untap and have counter mana up pretty much sucks. Would the spells have really been too OP as instants? It would have been balanced if they had to consider keeping counter mana up when they Rev to keep them less greedy, but getting to blow their load EOT then untap...bleh. I suppose one could bait a counter from them and then drop Trouble, but that's getting outside of practicality.

Still, the spell pair gives black a SiB that may be able to double as
a finisher in some cases, and Trouble will still have application. That's something...