Today Fountain of Youth games gave away a Timetwister and a Badlands in a legacy tournament. This is the tournament for which I've been preparing my goblins. Here's the final decklist:
Creatures:
4 Goblin Guide
3 Tattermunge Maniac
4 Mogg War Marshal
3 Stingscourger
4 Warren Instigator
4 Goblin Chieftan
2 Siege-Gang Commander
Spells:
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Goblin Grenade
4 Goblin Incinerator
2 Warren Weirding
Lands:
4 Wasteland
4 Auntie's Hovel
2 Wooded Foothills
2 Blood Crypt
2 Teetering Peaks
2 Smoldering Spires
1 Bojuka Bog
5 Mountain
Sideboard:
2 Leyline of the Void
2 Relic of Progenitus
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Earwig Squad
1 Fodder Launch
Ok, so the Incinerators are creatures and not kill spells, but it's very rare that they act like actual creatures.
If you're looking at that list closely, you'll notice some odd numbers. 2 teetering peaks, 2 smoldering spires, 1 bojuka bog? I never got any actual playtesting games in. When I went into the store the wednesday previous I found out it was actually D&D night (which is also cool), and FNM was much more about EDH games. What I ended up running was actually my playtest list. Partly because I didn't know what was worth cutting and partly because I thought the tournament was starting an hour later than it did so I only got to sign up at the last minute. But anyway, let's get on with the tournament.
Round one: Cheyenna with Squirrel Nest combo
In the first game I get a goblin guide to her wind zendikon. She makes a couple squirrel tokens, forgets a number of guide triggers, and generally gets run over by goblins. In a last ditch effort she drops an intruder alarm to hopefully keep me tapped down, but my deck is providing me with plenty of goblins. Game two goes much the same. No sideboarding, I figured I was at enough of an advantage already.
I feel sort of bad about this match, because plainly she's here with a boyfriend, not really that great at the game (Goblin Guide is much worse when it's faced with brainstorm, unless you horribly misplay brainstorm. Which she did.) and just looking to have fun. Not bad enough to intentionally drop a game or anything, but I do try to make things pleasent for her. Reminding her of guide triggers and so forth.
1-0
Round two: Katie with Affinity
Katie, on the other hand, makes a fearsome opponent. She wins the die roll, lays a first turn Great Furnace, memnite and mox opal, into frogmite and springleaf drum, if I remember correctly. Yeah, Scars of Mirroden printed some stuff that powers up Affinity; who would have thought? I start with a goblin guide to stay in the race, and finish off her creatures. She doesn't have enough gas to say in the race, and I win the first game.
I sideboard in two Umezawa's Jitte for two Siege-gang commanders. I figure Jitte will take over the game only it won't have to wait for five mana to do it. I want to keep in all my removal, since affinity very definetly works with a critical mass of artifact creatures. This was never relevant in the match.
The second game goes similarly, except she's got double myr enforcer. I'm handling it just fine, getting damage in, using smoldering spires to make sure I can still race past. I go for an alpha strike, knowing she doesn't have enough creatures to kill me off and that I'll be able to finish her next turn. The goblin guide flip reveals Shrapnel blast. I go to -1.
Game three ends after she gets Engineered plague on turn three and Engineered plague on turn four. I suggested she name elves, but despite a mutual disdain for them she persisted in locking me out of the game.
1-1
Looking around after the game, I see Enchantress playing Doomsday combo. Enchantress is sitting behind two sterling groves and an enchantress's presence and doomsday combo is resolving it's namesake card. I flit back and forth between this game and Aluren combo facing Merfolk across the way. Doomsday makes his stack. Enchantress spends a turn cantripping wild growths. Doomsday combo plays out Shelldock Isle, looks through the remaining four cards of it's stack and puts Emrakul underneath it. Enchantress sacs a sterling grove to get Runed Halo, naming Emrakul. Ermakul comes out, Aeons are torn, an extra turn is taken, and the swing comes in. Enchantress sacs six permanents, but doesn't take any damage. Doomsday can't make enchantress sac runed halo before running out of cards in library, and concedes. Doomsday indeed.
Across the way Merfolk succumbs to cavern harpy bouncing Parasitic Strix. That card did real good things for the Aluren deck.
Round three: Jonathan with Lightning Rift
Jonathan is going for the mad control route, with all sorts of fun things like humilty and engineered explosives and eventually cycling lands into burning out whatever goblins I get. Unfortunately, my goblins are fast enough to keep him off that eventuality. Again, I get goblin guides on turn one both games (my deck loves me almost as much as I love it.) While he had answers, they didn't come down quick enough, and weren't enough to fight past my burn. I finish him with Goblin Grenade and say "Goblin Grenade! Nobody even remembers that card exists!", at which point the store owner walks by and says "Goblin Grenade? I love that card!"
I sideboarded in the cabal therapies, figuring that I might be able to stop a moat or a humility if I see it early with a Goblin Guide flip. I do get the option to use therapy out the second game, and I have a useful target, but for the life of me I can't remember the target's name. I could describe it, but the last time I wasn't precisely accurate in naming the card there was a judge call and an appeal to the head judge and a whole mess and so forth. So I took the other line of play, which still won me the game. Not the best reason, I really need to practice my therapy.
2-1
I look over and get to see Katie's Affinity sacrifice seven permanents with double Disciple of the Vault in play, finishing off her opponent. Half an hour for lunch. You know what else is good about Fountain of Youth? Convenient access to cheap tacos. Taco Johns it is!
Round four: Other Jonathan with Eva Green.
Eva Green is a green black deck with lots of discard, land destruction and tarmogoyfs and such. Game one he wins the die roll and makes a decent hand into a pretty bad one by getting both my turn two plays with a Hymn to Tourach. We spend some time trading resources back and forth, with me trying to bolt his Hypnotic Specters before they get my last cards in hand and him sinkholing me and so forth. He eventually drops a Tombstalker, I fail to draw any of my outs, and we go on into game two. Game two I keep a sketchy hand which he turns into a nigh unplayable one when his turn one thoughtseize takes my mogg war marshal. I end the game with three goblin grenades in hand, never getting enough board presence to use them.
2-2
After round four I wander towards the back of the store where I find Cheyenna matched up with her boyfriend. Apparently they misunderstood the time allotted for lunch, arriving back about six or seven minutes late. Oh, and they had a couple shots under their belt,which didn't make for tight play. They weren't going to make the finals, but on the other hand they were having a great time.
In the back I spotted a new section of the commons box. Very exciting. You see, they sell the commons for a penny apiece, whcih means that a lot of marginal cards are still worth that coin. And they aren't terribly discriminate about which cards go into it, so you can frequently find good uncommons and jank rares in there. Over the past month or so I think I've spent about $7.00 on penny cards. And I've pulled some decent stuff; A Zuran Orb, two Engineered Plagues, A double playset of Kird Ape, a set of Fyndhorn Elves, A couple Goblin Matrons, and stacks and stacks of decent, interesting, and maybe playable cards. On Wednesday, when everybody else was playing D&D (and not being associated with either of the groups myself), I dug through the penny box, sorting through roughly eight thousand commons, dumping it all back in and making sure it was well mixed.
Sarge, who owns the store, has a philosophy about his penny commons. He'll keep the box, but if you're going to look through it you're going to have to work for it. So he doesn't let anyone sort his box for him. I wanted to get through this new box before he digs it deep into the other one, just to spite me. (He says "I would, too."). The first card I pull out is an Ascendant Evnicar. The second one I pull is a Lin Sivvi. I say "Are you sure this is a penny box?", and point out that these cards are very playable in casual decks. After he checks the price online (about a buck fifty each) he says he'll have to take them out, and he'll sell them to me for .50 each since I found them in the penny box. I accept; they're worth it. I get another .82 cents worth of cards out of that box, finishing it before round 5 starts.
Round 5: ??? with Eva Green
This guy, whos name I can't remember, came from Michigan. Apparently they had no plans for the weekend and a friend in town, so they drove down from the UP for the event. Game one I steamroll him with goblins, he doesn't get much of a chance to do anything. I figure I'm out of contention anyways, so I sideboard in everything that might be useful; two Relics, four Cabal Therapy and that one Fodder Launch.
Game two he kills me with a Tarmogoyf and a Putrid leech that I'm unable to deal with. I spend some time holding up the bolt and trying to force him to pump so I can kill it in response, but I don't manage it. In this game he forced me to discard a cabal therapy. I play a mogg war marshal and flash it back, not knowing what is in his hand. I'm not sure what to guess, so I eventually guess tarmogoyf, even though he would have cast it that turn if he had it. I was considering naming Tombstalker, even though I hadn't yet seen it in his deck. I figured he might have it, and it'd be a problem for me if he did. But no, I play like an idiot, and I get to see the tombstalker in his hand. And the double Sinkhole. Did I mention how I didn't have the mana to play much this game?
Game three is a knock down, drag out affair. We trade resources until neither of us has anything, and I'm leading on board advantage with a relic of progenitus in play. I play a goblin guide, he smothers it. He topdecks a Hypnotic Specter and I topdeck a bolt for it. We both land flood, and I'm removing his graveyard one card at a time, which has little more effect than annoying him. Eventually, I topdeck a goblin and he doesn't have an answer, and I take him down. It didn't take that long; all his free smothers and fetch lands and such had him down to eight life.
3-2
At this point there was a cut to the finals, with Goblins, Goblins, Katie with Affinity, and I believe another green black deck getting in. Katie and her boyfriend (playing goblins) split in the finals, for a badlands and a timetwister between them.
You know what I love about legacy? How you can't at all properly predict the metagame. Remember that neat chart I stole from Starcitygames? Yeah; I didn't face a single deck on it all day. There was a large presence of goblins, and a large presence of green black, which means that my metagame call of more aggressive goblins didn't play out that well. Also a lot of combo, but largely creature based combo so less threatening. The guy playing Ad Nauseum went 0-2 drop. I think, for the next tournament in January, I should bring some other deck, better positioned against the actual metagame and not a supposed metagame.
As for the deck itself, well, it needs more goblins. Most decks do. And possibly some Ninja. No; I think more goblins will do it. Specifically, I think I should kick Warren Weirding to the board. While it's good to have options against Natural Order Progenitus, I think i'd do better leaving it in the side (in place of Fodder launch and... I don't know.) This sort of deck really runs off of a critical mass of goblins; I'm not sure what I want to put in it's place but two more goblins might make the difference between running out of gas and having enough carriers for Goblin Grenades.
As for mana, I could use another black source or two; I need more support for early Cabal Therapy after boarding. The singleton Bojuka bog never kicked me in the teeth, but on the other hand I never got a surprise win out of it either. The taplands didn't give me much trouble, but I still don't know if they're justified. I'm thinking of cutting out wasteland too, actually. On the one hand, you can steal wins with it. On the other hand, I don't have the ports, Aether vials or lackeys to back it up, so those wins aren't that common. I'm already being greedy on land only running 22, and legacy tends to have a lot of wastelands and sinkholes to punish low lands. Still, I never ran up against a Maze of Ith or a Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale.
All in all, it was all kinds of fun, and I'd do it again tomorrow if they were holding it. I'm definetly excited for the next one.
Showing posts with label Legacy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Legacy. Show all posts
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Further Talk on Goblins
As I write this, it's Tuesday, November 30th. The tournament begins Saturday, Dec 4th. I've got to nail down a decklist.
Last time we wrote, I figured I'd end up playing Goblins, because 1) they're reasonably well positioned in the metagame and 2) I always play Goblins anyway. Let's take a look at a current Legacy Goblins list:
It's a fairly standard list, looking at the goblins. Unfortunately, I don't have access to all the legacy goblins that I would like, so my options are a bit narrower:
-4 Goblin Lackey
-4 Goblin Piledriver
-4 Aether Vial
(Not looking at manabase or sideboard right now.)
This, as they say, constitutes a problem. Without the lackeys and the vials the deck becomes much less tenable, as you can't drop the occasional free siege gang commander. While I certainly wouldn't be adverse to picking up a few extra goblins my budget would be. I'm going to look into lackeys though.
Without the free goblins a lot of your plays become much less powerful. Dropping a Matron on turn three gets you an extra goblin, sure, but to your hand. Meanwhile you're just spent your entire turn for a 1/1. If you drop a ringleader next turn you could fill your hand, but what hope do you have of getting those goblins to play in time to actually hurt someone with them?
My chances of winning with that sort of deck get better if I can substitute in some Warren Instigators, which aren't as good as Lackey by a darn site, but there's a lot of room to be not as good as Lackey and still be pretty good. It might be worthwhile to set up one of these decks to work with both lackey and instigator. A quick rundown of relevant goblins:
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Warren Instigator
4 Gempalm Incinerator
4 Goblin Warchief
2 Goblin Chieftan
4 Goblin Matron
4 Goblin Ringleader
2 Siege-Gang Commander
3 Stingscourger
3 Warren Weirding
4 Mogg War Marshal
(22 lands)
I'm adding in some more war marshals and an extra stingscourger for the piledrivers. If you can get a lackey or a instigator down on turn one or two and connect you're golden. Which is an if or two too many. Let's say you get it down on turn two. How are you going to swing past that tarmogoyf? Unless you've got a turn three warren weirding and he's got nothing else you'll be waiting while you scramble for enough goblins in play to take it out with an incinerator. At which point you really have to be asking, "what's the point of that instigator?"
Goblin Lackey is better than Aether Vial (in this deck) precisely because it starts it's action on turn two. You can often steal games merely by them not having an immediate Force of Will or Swords to Plowshares to answer it. Giving them until turn three to come up with an answer gives them entirely too much time and too many options. Not that Instigator is entirely a loss; it's still an "answer this or lose" card, it's just that you don't gain anything against a common category of answers; (Tarmogoyfs).
The alternative is to focus less on the midrange and more on the beatdown. Naturally, that'd work a lot better if I had the piledrivers, but I could make do. This side of the strategy is aided by the recent printing of some powerful goblins (the chieftans, and of course Goblin Guide) Goblin Guide in particular is much better in a burn or aggro type of deck as he tends to work against you if the game goes long. Another Sample List:
4 Goblin Guide
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Warren Instigator
4 Gempalm Incinerator
4 Goblin Bushwhacker
4 Stingscourger
4 Mogg War Marshal
4 Goblin Chieftan
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Goblin Grenade
(20 lands)
Still with the Lackeys and Instigators. Again, I'm assuming I can get my hands on some Lackeys. Instigator, while being less of an autokill if it connects, is still an decent offensive creature, thanks to double strike. Turn two instigator into turn three bushwhacker with kicker means swinging in for six assuming nothing else has happened this game. And even if a lackey trigger isn't as much of a mana advantage as it is in a deck with Siege-Gang Commanders in it, it can still be a crushing advantage. And when they use a first turn Force of Will on it they don't necessarily know that all you're gonna be able to drop with it is a Mogg War Marshal
On the other hand, instigator works uniquely well with Goblin Matron, allowing you to search something up with first strike damage, then drop it into play with normal damage. That turn two instigator might make for a turn three siege gang commander, with mana up to fling a goblin or cycle an incinerator or... or... Ok, putting away that line of thought. There's no way I could fit everything I wanted to in a 60 card deck, and it still has all the vulnerabilities that I previously mentioned.
Moving on, let's take a quick look at the manabase:
4 Wasteland
8 Mountains
4 Rishidan Port
3 Bloodstained Mire
3 Badlands
I don't have the fetches or the duals; I can manage two onslaught fetches and two ravnica duals.
2 Blood Crypt
2 Wooded Foothills.
That leaves me with much less ability to play any Warren Weirdings that make it into the maindeck, or black sideboard cards, or other things. (Cabal Therapy?) Luckily, I've got a playset of Auntie's Hovel I can substitute in. Also, I can manage the wastelands, but not the Rishidan ports, which is just as well, as I'll be needing more of my mana for casting things if I can't lay hands on lackeys. Revised Mana base:
4 Wasteland
4 Auntie's Hovel
2 Blood Crypt
2 Wooded Foothills
8 Mountains
Note that I also cut it down to 20 cards; the aggro list has 40 nonlands. i'm not very happy cutting down to this level, but with a max casting cost of 3 it might be viable. On the other hand, 20 with 4 wastelands.
Possible other lands:
Ghost Quarter. Depending on how heavily the metagame favors nonbasics it might act like strip mine. Would be a lot better if I went full on Rishidan Ports and Aether Vials. Not gonna happen.
Teetering Peaks: A tap land that also gives me two free damage. Good with Instigator, and getting someone from ten to eight life if so critical. On the other hand... tapland
Smoldering Spires. Really good if someone's relying on a Tarmogoyf to hold off attacks. Also a tapland.
Bojuka Bog: Also a tap land, in the wrong color even. On the other hand, a lot of cards and decks are screwed over by graveyard hate (Tarmogoyf, Life from the Loam, dredge, reanimator). I do like the idea of randomly winning games.
Which brings me naturally to a quick look at the sideboard. There are a couple things I'm looking to reposition myself against:
Bigger creatures
Combo Decks
Graveyards
Counterbalance/top
Essentially, I'm running a red deck wins, so really I only need to get them down to about eight life before the board state becomes much less relevant; a bolt plus a grenade, a hasty creature or two, a couple bolts, forget card advantage as long as I can get those last couple points in. The trouble is if they get a turn two tarmogoyf and sit behind him. I have to set up a massive alpha strike while they smile and slowly take the game away from me. Bolt, incinerator, don't solve goyf that much. Potential other solutions: Warren Weirding, Fodder Launch, temporary solutions such as Stingscourger and Smoldering Spires.
Combo Decks: These work out to storm decks and graveyard decks, for the most part. Storm decks (Ad Nauseum Tendrils, Goblin Charbelcher) don't interact very much with the board, which is where I'm hoping to dominate. Additionally they're very hard to race, as in impossible if I don't get a perfect draw and they don't get an abysmal one. I've got two options; to disrupt their hand with discard effects (Cabal Therapy, Duress, Thoughtseize) or their deck with Cranial Extraction Effects (Earwig Squad, Extirpate if I had any). Still not the greatest matchup
Graveyard decks; largely dredge, but also anything running life from the Loam, or other graveyard based threats. Aside from the Bog already mentioned, there are all sorts of graveyard hate cards being printed in increasing power levels over the recent years, some I can get my hands on (Relic of Progenitus), some I can't (Tormod's Crypt.)
And finally, Counterbalance/top. if I'm running a deck full of one drops, then I've got a hard time beating out someone with the combo. There are two ways of beating it though; either run some good disenchant effects (Krosan Grip, Indrik Stomphowler), or run odd casting cost cards (Earwig Squad, Fodder Launch). Since the disenchant effects don't actually advance my goals (dealing damage), and require a more difficult mana base, I'm leaning towards the other ones.
Bang out a quick sideboard:
4 Earwig Squad
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Bojuka Bog
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Fodder Launch
Final Thoughts: If I shoehorn the bogs into the maindeck, I'll have another pair of sideboard slots to deal with. Also, I sort of need to get some Warren Weirdings in my deck somewhere.
The next step is to build the deck and test it out against someone. Anyone up for a game?
Last time we wrote, I figured I'd end up playing Goblins, because 1) they're reasonably well positioned in the metagame and 2) I always play Goblins anyway. Let's take a look at a current Legacy Goblins list:
| 4 | Wasteland | 20 of 20 (100.00)% | 4.0000 | 8.8000 |
| 8 | Mountain | 19 of 20 (95.00)% | 7.9474 | 9.0526 |
| 4 | Rishadan Port | 13 of 20 (65.00)% | 3.5385 | 8.6154 |
| 3 | Badlands | 13 of 20 (65.00)% | 2.9231 | 9.2308 |
| 3 | Bloodstained Mire | 13 of 20 (65.00)% | 2.9231 | 9.4615 |
| Spells | ||||
| 4 | Goblin Lackey | 20 of 20 (100.00)% | 4.0000 | 8.8000 |
| 2 | Siege-Gang Commander | 20 of 20 (100.00)% | 1.9500 | 8.8000 |
| 4 | Aether Vial | 20 of 20 (100.00)% | 4.0000 | 8.8000 |
| 4 | Goblin Ringleader | 20 of 20 (100.00)% | 4.0000 | 8.8000 |
| 4 | Goblin Warchief | 20 of 20 (100.00)% | 3.9500 | 8.8000 |
| 4 | Goblin Piledriver | 20 of 20 (100.00)% | 3.9500 | 8.8000 |
| 4 | Goblin Matron | 20 of 20 (100.00)% | 3.9000 | 8.8000 |
| 4 | Gempalm Incinerator | 19 of 20 (95.00)% | 3.6316 | 8.8947 |
| 2 | Stingscourger | 16 of 20 (80.00)% | 1.5625 | 8.6250 |
| 2 | Goblin Chieftain | 15 of 20 (75.00)% | 2.3333 | 9.5333 |
| 3 | Warren Weirding | 12 of 20 (60.00)% | 2.5833 | 9.4167 |
| 1 | Mogg War Marshal | 10 of 20 (50.00)% | 3.2000 | 8.9000 |
| Sideboard | ||||
| 4 | Pyrokinesis | 14 of 20 (70.00)% | 3.0714 | 9.0000 |
| 3 | Relic of Progenitus | 8 of 20 (40.00)% | 2.7500 | 10.5000 |
| 3 | Perish | 8 of 20 (40.00)% | 2.5000 | 10.3750 |
| 3 | Blood Moon | 7 of 20 (35.00)% | 3.0000 | 9.4286 |
| 2 | Tormod's Crypt | |||
It's a fairly standard list, looking at the goblins. Unfortunately, I don't have access to all the legacy goblins that I would like, so my options are a bit narrower:
-4 Goblin Lackey
-4 Goblin Piledriver
-4 Aether Vial
(Not looking at manabase or sideboard right now.)
This, as they say, constitutes a problem. Without the lackeys and the vials the deck becomes much less tenable, as you can't drop the occasional free siege gang commander. While I certainly wouldn't be adverse to picking up a few extra goblins my budget would be. I'm going to look into lackeys though.
Without the free goblins a lot of your plays become much less powerful. Dropping a Matron on turn three gets you an extra goblin, sure, but to your hand. Meanwhile you're just spent your entire turn for a 1/1. If you drop a ringleader next turn you could fill your hand, but what hope do you have of getting those goblins to play in time to actually hurt someone with them?
My chances of winning with that sort of deck get better if I can substitute in some Warren Instigators, which aren't as good as Lackey by a darn site, but there's a lot of room to be not as good as Lackey and still be pretty good. It might be worthwhile to set up one of these decks to work with both lackey and instigator. A quick rundown of relevant goblins:
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Warren Instigator
4 Gempalm Incinerator
4 Goblin Warchief
2 Goblin Chieftan
4 Goblin Matron
4 Goblin Ringleader
2 Siege-Gang Commander
3 Stingscourger
3 Warren Weirding
4 Mogg War Marshal
(22 lands)
I'm adding in some more war marshals and an extra stingscourger for the piledrivers. If you can get a lackey or a instigator down on turn one or two and connect you're golden. Which is an if or two too many. Let's say you get it down on turn two. How are you going to swing past that tarmogoyf? Unless you've got a turn three warren weirding and he's got nothing else you'll be waiting while you scramble for enough goblins in play to take it out with an incinerator. At which point you really have to be asking, "what's the point of that instigator?"
Goblin Lackey is better than Aether Vial (in this deck) precisely because it starts it's action on turn two. You can often steal games merely by them not having an immediate Force of Will or Swords to Plowshares to answer it. Giving them until turn three to come up with an answer gives them entirely too much time and too many options. Not that Instigator is entirely a loss; it's still an "answer this or lose" card, it's just that you don't gain anything against a common category of answers; (Tarmogoyfs).
The alternative is to focus less on the midrange and more on the beatdown. Naturally, that'd work a lot better if I had the piledrivers, but I could make do. This side of the strategy is aided by the recent printing of some powerful goblins (the chieftans, and of course Goblin Guide) Goblin Guide in particular is much better in a burn or aggro type of deck as he tends to work against you if the game goes long. Another Sample List:
4 Goblin Guide
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Warren Instigator
4 Gempalm Incinerator
4 Goblin Bushwhacker
4 Stingscourger
4 Mogg War Marshal
4 Goblin Chieftan
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Goblin Grenade
(20 lands)
Still with the Lackeys and Instigators. Again, I'm assuming I can get my hands on some Lackeys. Instigator, while being less of an autokill if it connects, is still an decent offensive creature, thanks to double strike. Turn two instigator into turn three bushwhacker with kicker means swinging in for six assuming nothing else has happened this game. And even if a lackey trigger isn't as much of a mana advantage as it is in a deck with Siege-Gang Commanders in it, it can still be a crushing advantage. And when they use a first turn Force of Will on it they don't necessarily know that all you're gonna be able to drop with it is a Mogg War Marshal
On the other hand, instigator works uniquely well with Goblin Matron, allowing you to search something up with first strike damage, then drop it into play with normal damage. That turn two instigator might make for a turn three siege gang commander, with mana up to fling a goblin or cycle an incinerator or... or... Ok, putting away that line of thought. There's no way I could fit everything I wanted to in a 60 card deck, and it still has all the vulnerabilities that I previously mentioned.
Moving on, let's take a quick look at the manabase:
4 Wasteland
8 Mountains
4 Rishidan Port
3 Bloodstained Mire
3 Badlands
I don't have the fetches or the duals; I can manage two onslaught fetches and two ravnica duals.
2 Blood Crypt
2 Wooded Foothills.
That leaves me with much less ability to play any Warren Weirdings that make it into the maindeck, or black sideboard cards, or other things. (Cabal Therapy?) Luckily, I've got a playset of Auntie's Hovel I can substitute in. Also, I can manage the wastelands, but not the Rishidan ports, which is just as well, as I'll be needing more of my mana for casting things if I can't lay hands on lackeys. Revised Mana base:
4 Wasteland
4 Auntie's Hovel
2 Blood Crypt
2 Wooded Foothills
8 Mountains
Note that I also cut it down to 20 cards; the aggro list has 40 nonlands. i'm not very happy cutting down to this level, but with a max casting cost of 3 it might be viable. On the other hand, 20 with 4 wastelands.
Possible other lands:
Ghost Quarter. Depending on how heavily the metagame favors nonbasics it might act like strip mine. Would be a lot better if I went full on Rishidan Ports and Aether Vials. Not gonna happen.
Teetering Peaks: A tap land that also gives me two free damage. Good with Instigator, and getting someone from ten to eight life if so critical. On the other hand... tapland
Smoldering Spires. Really good if someone's relying on a Tarmogoyf to hold off attacks. Also a tapland.
Bojuka Bog: Also a tap land, in the wrong color even. On the other hand, a lot of cards and decks are screwed over by graveyard hate (Tarmogoyf, Life from the Loam, dredge, reanimator). I do like the idea of randomly winning games.
Which brings me naturally to a quick look at the sideboard. There are a couple things I'm looking to reposition myself against:
Bigger creatures
Combo Decks
Graveyards
Counterbalance/top
Essentially, I'm running a red deck wins, so really I only need to get them down to about eight life before the board state becomes much less relevant; a bolt plus a grenade, a hasty creature or two, a couple bolts, forget card advantage as long as I can get those last couple points in. The trouble is if they get a turn two tarmogoyf and sit behind him. I have to set up a massive alpha strike while they smile and slowly take the game away from me. Bolt, incinerator, don't solve goyf that much. Potential other solutions: Warren Weirding, Fodder Launch, temporary solutions such as Stingscourger and Smoldering Spires.
Combo Decks: These work out to storm decks and graveyard decks, for the most part. Storm decks (Ad Nauseum Tendrils, Goblin Charbelcher) don't interact very much with the board, which is where I'm hoping to dominate. Additionally they're very hard to race, as in impossible if I don't get a perfect draw and they don't get an abysmal one. I've got two options; to disrupt their hand with discard effects (Cabal Therapy, Duress, Thoughtseize) or their deck with Cranial Extraction Effects (Earwig Squad, Extirpate if I had any). Still not the greatest matchup
Graveyard decks; largely dredge, but also anything running life from the Loam, or other graveyard based threats. Aside from the Bog already mentioned, there are all sorts of graveyard hate cards being printed in increasing power levels over the recent years, some I can get my hands on (Relic of Progenitus), some I can't (Tormod's Crypt.)
And finally, Counterbalance/top. if I'm running a deck full of one drops, then I've got a hard time beating out someone with the combo. There are two ways of beating it though; either run some good disenchant effects (Krosan Grip, Indrik Stomphowler), or run odd casting cost cards (Earwig Squad, Fodder Launch). Since the disenchant effects don't actually advance my goals (dealing damage), and require a more difficult mana base, I'm leaning towards the other ones.
Bang out a quick sideboard:
4 Earwig Squad
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Bojuka Bog
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Fodder Launch
Final Thoughts: If I shoehorn the bogs into the maindeck, I'll have another pair of sideboard slots to deal with. Also, I sort of need to get some Warren Weirdings in my deck somewhere.
The next step is to build the deck and test it out against someone. Anyone up for a game?
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Silly Deck Idea
This started as an off the wall deck idea. Then I heard someone took a similar deck to decent results in Legacy: Link!
The deck is based around doing broken things with Dream Halls. Like putting it into a deck. Dream halls lets you cast a card by discarding a card that shares a color. The other major parts of the combo came from the set Conflux; the legendary Progenitus and the eponymous Conflux. Having Dream Halls in play lets you cast Conflux on the cheap, searching up your playset of Progenitus and another Conflux; use the progenitus to cast each other, and if they get counterspelled or wrathed away you've got backups, and an extra Conflux to repeat with.
Which is all well and good if you don't mind waiting until turn seven or eight to finish them off. If you want to speed things up you need a quicker way to get Dream Halls into play, or Progenitus. Show and Tell is made to fit the bill; For three mana you and him both get to drop something into play, and the only way he can beat your Dream Halls or straight up Progenitus is if he drops an Aluren and combos you out in response. After that we can add in some mana accelerants, like Lotus Petals or Elvish or Simian Spirit Guides to shave the occasional turn off of it. Let's bang out a rough draft list:
4 Dream Halls
4 Conflux
4 Progenitus
4 Show and Tell
4 Lotus Petal
~16 other cards, ~24 lands.
In the 16 other cards we can slot Brainstorm, Ponder, Force of Will and either another cheap cantrip, some more acceleration or maybe some more countermagic. What we end up with is a mono blue combo deck that's not that quick and not that impossible to disrupt; killing them by turn five is still a turn or too too late, and they can counterspell your Conflux or Dream Halls right off the bat. Or rip them, with duress or Thoughtseize. Yeah, Force of Will is nice, but you can't rely on always having it in hand. So how do we make this deck better?
I'mma gonna take a look at the back end first. There's a very handy piece of disruption for practically anything they might be doing: Obliterate. If you destroy all creatures, artifacts and lands, then they can hardly have a better set of enchantments in play than your dream halls. And obliterate is even uncounterable. Inasmuch as progenitus can dominate a clean board, we can still speed the kill up some.
If you search up False Cure, Beacon of Immortality, force of will and two Progenitus, then you can pitch the Progenitus to play False cure and Beacon to kill them regardless of their life total, with Force of Will backup. Can't ask for a much nicer kill than that.
I'd really like more than 4 Brainstorm, 4 Ponder as card drawing/digging. I'm not sure what else would be good in this slot though; There are a number of good blue draw spells out there. The linked article uses Ancestral Memories, which I guess is good if you've gotten dream halls out, but it doesn't help you find dream halls itself, which is a major minus. yeah, you can play it on it's own, but only if you're sitting around until turn five anyway.
On the other hand, this deck doesn't necessarily have to be mono blue anyway; if we went into Black, we could use Duress and Thoughtseize instead of Force of Will, and get your card drawing through things like Sign in blood. If you're brave, you can run Dark Confidant, but the occasional Progenitus flip will appraise you of costs not even Bob Maher would be willing to pay. You lose out in that being blue black makes you run those expensive expensive duals and fetches. And the card drawing isn't as good. You could also run green for the spirit guides and maybe Natural Order as well. Or... Or...
A couple other thoughts that came up; remember the Shoal cycle from Kamigawa? Blazing shoal discarding Progenitus gives you ten damage right there; if you ran it with man lands you could run that almost as a seperate combo. probably start your manlands count with Mutavault; the merfolk subtype might be important in case your opponent's Lord of Atlantis gives you islandwalk. The other thought I can't get out of my mind is Shining Shoal; the white one. If you can redirect ten damage, you can almost kill somebody. Not that many sources in legacy will do ten damage at a time (tendrils, for example, does it in increments of two).
I suppose I should bang out an actual list before I go...
4 Conflux
4 Progenitus
4 Dream Halls
4 Show and Tell
4 Force of Will
4 Obliterate
1 Beacon of Immortality
1 False Cure
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Lotus Petal
2 Pact of Negation
4 Crystal Vein
4 Scalding tarn
12 Island
A little land light, and definitely a first draft, but that's all I've got. What, you expect me to actually test my bizarre deck ideas? The nerve...
The deck is based around doing broken things with Dream Halls. Like putting it into a deck. Dream halls lets you cast a card by discarding a card that shares a color. The other major parts of the combo came from the set Conflux; the legendary Progenitus and the eponymous Conflux. Having Dream Halls in play lets you cast Conflux on the cheap, searching up your playset of Progenitus and another Conflux; use the progenitus to cast each other, and if they get counterspelled or wrathed away you've got backups, and an extra Conflux to repeat with.
Which is all well and good if you don't mind waiting until turn seven or eight to finish them off. If you want to speed things up you need a quicker way to get Dream Halls into play, or Progenitus. Show and Tell is made to fit the bill; For three mana you and him both get to drop something into play, and the only way he can beat your Dream Halls or straight up Progenitus is if he drops an Aluren and combos you out in response. After that we can add in some mana accelerants, like Lotus Petals or Elvish or Simian Spirit Guides to shave the occasional turn off of it. Let's bang out a rough draft list:
4 Dream Halls
4 Conflux
4 Progenitus
4 Show and Tell
4 Lotus Petal
~16 other cards, ~24 lands.
In the 16 other cards we can slot Brainstorm, Ponder, Force of Will and either another cheap cantrip, some more acceleration or maybe some more countermagic. What we end up with is a mono blue combo deck that's not that quick and not that impossible to disrupt; killing them by turn five is still a turn or too too late, and they can counterspell your Conflux or Dream Halls right off the bat. Or rip them, with duress or Thoughtseize. Yeah, Force of Will is nice, but you can't rely on always having it in hand. So how do we make this deck better?
I'mma gonna take a look at the back end first. There's a very handy piece of disruption for practically anything they might be doing: Obliterate. If you destroy all creatures, artifacts and lands, then they can hardly have a better set of enchantments in play than your dream halls. And obliterate is even uncounterable. Inasmuch as progenitus can dominate a clean board, we can still speed the kill up some.
If you search up False Cure, Beacon of Immortality, force of will and two Progenitus, then you can pitch the Progenitus to play False cure and Beacon to kill them regardless of their life total, with Force of Will backup. Can't ask for a much nicer kill than that.
I'd really like more than 4 Brainstorm, 4 Ponder as card drawing/digging. I'm not sure what else would be good in this slot though; There are a number of good blue draw spells out there. The linked article uses Ancestral Memories, which I guess is good if you've gotten dream halls out, but it doesn't help you find dream halls itself, which is a major minus. yeah, you can play it on it's own, but only if you're sitting around until turn five anyway.
On the other hand, this deck doesn't necessarily have to be mono blue anyway; if we went into Black, we could use Duress and Thoughtseize instead of Force of Will, and get your card drawing through things like Sign in blood. If you're brave, you can run Dark Confidant, but the occasional Progenitus flip will appraise you of costs not even Bob Maher would be willing to pay. You lose out in that being blue black makes you run those expensive expensive duals and fetches. And the card drawing isn't as good. You could also run green for the spirit guides and maybe Natural Order as well. Or... Or...
A couple other thoughts that came up; remember the Shoal cycle from Kamigawa? Blazing shoal discarding Progenitus gives you ten damage right there; if you ran it with man lands you could run that almost as a seperate combo. probably start your manlands count with Mutavault; the merfolk subtype might be important in case your opponent's Lord of Atlantis gives you islandwalk. The other thought I can't get out of my mind is Shining Shoal; the white one. If you can redirect ten damage, you can almost kill somebody. Not that many sources in legacy will do ten damage at a time (tendrils, for example, does it in increments of two).
I suppose I should bang out an actual list before I go...
4 Conflux
4 Progenitus
4 Dream Halls
4 Show and Tell
4 Force of Will
4 Obliterate
1 Beacon of Immortality
1 False Cure
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Lotus Petal
2 Pact of Negation
4 Crystal Vein
4 Scalding tarn
12 Island
A little land light, and definitely a first draft, but that's all I've got. What, you expect me to actually test my bizarre deck ideas? The nerve...
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