Westvale Seige

[skeri]

In this deck I focused on alluding to the Westvale Abbey in the card art and themes, so it looks very attractive in the visual spoiler I think. There are lots of architectural elements in the cards' themselves.

The strategy is kind of a mid-rangey one. You are going to hold your enemy under seige. Cut off their resources by tapping their creatures, chipping away at their life, and being faster than they are. Bolster your own resources with life gain, counters, and synergy. When the time comes, call forth Ormendahl, Profane Prince and Odric, Lunarch Marshal for truly overwhelming odds.

Have fun! Let me know if you have any suggestions, but respect my theme or the illusion will be shattered!

https://deckstats.net/decks/63728/508698-westvale-seige?lng=en

[skeri]

So this post got kind of buried (or this deck is just that unappealing) but I have a question on it that I could use some help on if someone has the answer. I want to try this deck out at Standard soon.

Can I combo Murderous Compulsion with Stern Constable? If I discard Murderous Compulsion to trigger Stern Constable to tap an opponent's creature can I tap the creature, pay the madness cost on compulsion, and destroy a creature? Or do I have to discard compulsion, pay the madness, and use the spell before I can tap an opponent's card? 

[Jabilac]

Looking over Gatherer on Murderous Compulsion:

4/8/2016   If you discard a card with madness to pay the cost of a spell or activated ability, that card’s madness trigger (and the spell that card becomes, if you choose to cast it) will resolve before the spell or ability the discard paid for.

So in this case I interpret the rules as: The discard required by Stern Constable is a cost that has to be paid so the madness trigger will activate before the ability can resolve. You can not destroy the target of Stern Constable ability because the ability hasn't resolved yet.

On the topic of your deck. I like what you are going for here. I think you could use Bound by Moonsilver or Tenacity. Avacynian Missionaries could be a useful card for your sideboard along with Neglected Heirloom its almost like they were made for each other

[Mnemosyne]

So this post got kind of buried (or this deck is just that unappealing) but I have a question on it that I could use some help on if someone has the answer. I want to try this deck out at Standard soon.

Can I combo Murderous Compulsion with Stern Constable? If I discard Murderous Compulsion to trigger Stern Constable to tap an opponent's creature can I tap the creature, pay the madness cost on compulsion, and destroy a creature? Or do I have to discard compulsion, pay the madness, and use the spell before I can tap an opponent's card?

Jabilac is correct, but there are ways to get around it. I assume that your opponent would attack with more than one creature or hold a blocker back. So you can use the madness trigger to destroy a creature already tapped (the attacker) and then tap another the (blocker).

Or, you could use the discard/madness trigger to utilise Gisa's Bidding, From Under the Floorboards giving you tokens to sacrifice for Westvale Abbey.

I like the premise of your deck, Odric is a card that doesn't see much play in Standard, and using him with a card like Ormendahl, Profane Prince is inspired. There, however, is a lot going on in your deck, and you need to decide whether you focus on one aspect of play, or another... (control/token gen/ability triggers/madness/discard/aggro) if there isn't a clear strategy you might find yourself struggling.

Personally, the best way for you, rather than to go about tapping creatures is to make your opponent discard cards, which would cripple them, like Duress, Thought-Knot Seer, Transgress The Mind, Remorseless Punishment, Vessel of Malignity, Pick the Brain.
Or removal like Silkwrap, Quarantine Field,  or Stasis Snare, whilst you generate enough creatures for Westvale Abbey.

You would also do well to make use of cards that generate tokens, and complement cards like Hanweir, Militia Captain and Westvale Abbey. Secure the Wastes, Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, Hangarback Walker, Oath of Gideon, Sorin, Grim Nemesis are some examples.

I know you seem to be using SOI cards only, but you might want to look at other standard legal sets.

 

[skeri]

Thank you guys for the input! My strategy on this deck is all over the place, I haven't really been able to narrow it down so I know I need to do so if it's going to be competitive.

I have only been playing Magic for three months so the cards I own are mostly from SOI and that's why I use them in my decks. I'm also your standard broke college student so buying expensive or large amounts of cards isn't always an option. Deck building has been something that is super hard for me. I have seen tons of people just slap together a deck that does really well and I'm just not experienced enough to wrap my head around that yet. I lean on this forum for tips and advice typically because I just don't have a clue on some stuff, so I always appreciate it when people can break things down for me!

[robort]

So this post got kind of buried (or this deck is just that unappealing) but I have a question on it that I could use some help on if someone has the answer. I want to try this deck out at Standard soon.

Can I combo Murderous Compulsion with Stern Constable? If I discard Murderous Compulsion to trigger Stern Constable to tap an opponent's creature can I tap the creature, pay the madness cost on compulsion, and destroy a creature? Or do I have to discard compulsion, pay the madness, and use the spell before I can tap an opponent's card?

What happens is an "activated" ability and then a spell.
You tap, discard,then choose a creature to activate Stern Constable.Then the discards activating the "static" ability of Murderous Compulsion. Wich states when you discard this card, discard to exile. When you do,"cast" it for it's maddening cost. So the saying goes "Last to First" Last thing that happened was Murderous Compulsion and the first was  Stern Constable. So anything on a stack goes off from last to first.

[Jabilac]

Thank you guys for the input! My strategy on this deck is all over the place, I haven't really been able to narrow it down so I know I need to do so if it's going to be competitive.

I have only been playing Magic for three months so the cards I own are mostly from SOI and that's why I use them in my decks. I'm also your standard broke college student so buying expensive or large amounts of cards isn't always an option. Deck building has been something that is super hard for me. I have seen tons of people just slap together a deck that does really well and I'm just not experienced enough to wrap my head around that yet. I lean on this forum for tips and advice typically because I just don't have a clue on some stuff, so I always appreciate it when people can break things down for me!

So In Magic when you cast something you are putting the card on what is called "The Stack" which is basically all the spells or abilities that are being activated or casted. So you might cast Angelic Gift on Grizzly Bears. When that happens the stack looks like this:

Beginning of Stack
Angelic Gift (Targeting Grizzly Bears)
End of Stack

So we work our way down from the beginning which is also the last spell or ability casted/activated, in this case it is just Angelic Gift, to the end. So, if nothing else happens, your spell will resolve (complete) and end up on Grizzly Bears but there are things called Instants that can be cast at any time. So lets go back to the first example real quick and say You are playing against Me and I don't want your Angelic Gift to get on your Grizzly Bears because I hate your bears with a passion This time after you say you want to cast Angelic Gift I decide I am going to destroy your Grizzly Bears with Ultimate Price. Then the stack would look like this:

Beginning of Stack
Ultimate Price (Targeting Grizzly Bears)
Angelic Gift (Targeting Grizzly Bears)
End of Stack

In this example your spell is targeting Grizzly Bears to make it have flying but my spell is also targeting your Grizzly Bears to destroy it. We work our way down from the top. Ultimate Price is the last spell cast so it will resolve first and destroy your Grizzly Bears then your Angelic Gift spell happens and tries to target your Grizzly Bears but they are destroyed so it Fizzles (fails to work and goes to graveyard) and nothing happens accept you wasted mana. Now Lets say you don't want that to happen and you really want Angelic Gift on your Grizzly Bears so you decide to counter (prevent from resolving) my Ultimate Price with Cancel. Then the stack would look like this:

Beginning of Stack
Cancel (Targeting Ultimate Price)
Ultimate Price (Targeting Grizzly Bears)
Angelic Gift (Targeting Grizzly Bears)
End of Stack

So in this example we start from the top.  First we have Cancel targeting Ultimate Price. When that spell resolves it counters Ultimate Price preventing that spell from destroying Grizzly Bears. Then Ultimate Price tries to resolve but it is effected by Cancel and is countered and goes to the graveyard. Finally Angelic Gift resolves (targeting Grizzly Bears) and your Bears get to fly

Edit:

So in your case you activate Stern Constable ability and pay the costs of that activation by tapping Stern Constable and discarding a card. Since a spell or ability can not be put on the stack until its costs have been paid the stack would look like this:

Beginning of stack
Murderous Compulsion (Madness cost)
Stern Constable
End of Stack

So Stern Constable ability will be after Murderous Compulsion on the stack and that means the creature that is the target of Stern Constable will not be tapped when Murderous Compulsion resolves.

[robort]

Jabilac yes that is correct and thus brings up cost.Stern Constable has an activated ability for a cost. Since tapping and discarding is a cost, then the ability goes off. Instead of tapping mana as a cost, we tap Stern Constable and discard.

So activated abilities have a colon between the cost and the effect.
112.3b Activated abilities have a cost and an effect. They are written as "[Cost]: [Effect.] [Activation instructions (if any).]

602.1a The activation cost is everything before the colon (. An ability’s activation cost must be paid by the player who is activating it.
The effect or ability comes after the colon wich then Murderous Compulsion's madness goes off wich makes it last to happen

[skeri]

Wow you guys really know the ins and outs of the rules! I like the "last to first" saying so I'll probably stick to that for awhile! Lol thank you so much for breaking it all down, it really does help for future card combinations as well.

[robort]

Wow you guys really know the ins and outs of the rules! I like the "last to first" saying so I'll probably stick to that for awhile! Lol thank you so much for breaking it all down, it really does help for future card combinations as well.

I forget where I got that saying from but by using it has made things always easier when using the stack.