Topics

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Deck Reviews / [Standard] Teferi, Aprentace of Bolas

« on: June 27, 2020, 06:27:49 am »

Teferi, Aprentace of Bolas

I love the new Teferi.  Love, love, love.  and it is shocking how many people scoop when you +1 him on their turn.  Just unrelenting joy. 

Also, for the paper people, "phasing" does *NOT* cause ETB effects to trigger. 

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Deck Reviews / [Standard] Esper BowlAss

« on: April 19, 2020, 06:47:28 am »

Esper BowlAss

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Deck Reviews / [Standard] Ashiok's Rule of Fancies

« on: January 17, 2020, 12:43:30 am »

Ashiok's Rule of Fancies

Ashiok Mill deck.  Again.  I frikken love him.  Couple things:

The new Ashiok is kind of dirty if you can get him down.  there are not a lot of flying creatures around atm, so his token is really good protection + milling. 

Rule of Law is pretty crippling in this format if you can get it out.  It has stolen many, many games. 

Likewise, Ashiok's Erasure is pretty devastating.  I know people say it's too slow for standard.  But in a deck that is designed to slow your opponent, it comes down and just ruins day. 

Folio of Fancies is a card I found while idly searching for mill cards.  I'd not seen it before.  It's pretty fun.  Adds some consistency, and a mill card when you have nothing else to do. 

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Deck Reviews / [Standard] Grixis Control (Cruel Control)

« on: July 15, 2019, 08:32:57 pm »

Grixis Control (Cruel Control)

I ran a mill deck with Nicol Bolas.  It didn't work.  at all.  BUT, Nicol Bolas + a ton of destruction/sacrifice spells REALLY worked.  so I thought I'd try that out. 

The deck is basically a ton of destruction spells + Nicol Bolas/Chandra.  It's pretty fun when it works.  It'd nice to play red.  I don't usually play it in decks. 

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Deck Reviews / [Standard] Grixis Mill

« on: July 11, 2019, 04:27:12 am »

Grixis Mill

Trying to find a way to get Nicol Bolas, Dragon God into my Esper Mill deck.  4 colors was a bit much, so I ended up cutting out white for red.  you lose some board wipes, but you gain some pretty good creature destruction.

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Deck Reviews / [Standard] Esper Burn (aka Mill)

« on: July 06, 2019, 09:00:55 pm »

Esper Burn (aka Mill)

First standard deck. 

I hate mill in modern.  Hate it.  It's so stupid.  But There is an Ashiok card in War of the Spark, and he/she is my favorite planeswalker.  I wanted to make a mill deck with the new card and, oddly enough, I don't hate it.  Mill is a lot more bearable when you're not milling 12 for free (Archive Trap) or milling stupid amounts of cards searching for a land (mind grind). 

No idea about the side board.  I'm not really good at these. 

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Deck Reviews / [Modern] UW Ponnza (Modern Horizons)

« on: June 04, 2019, 07:56:50 pm »

UW Ponnza (Modern Horizons)

This is an update to my "Venzer's Ponza Scheme" deck, which is a UW Ponza deck.  modern horizons gave us a lot of cool stuff, but it gave us two really good cards for this deck.  they are the following:

Replaced Monastery Siege with Unsettled Mariner.  Although I don't really like the concept of mariner over siege in a vacuum, Mariner works a lot better with Trinisphere.  because siege makes a spell "cost 2 more," it's tax isn't cumulative with Trinisphere.  However, because Mariner counters unless 1 is paid, Trinishpere brings the total cost up to 3, and then they have to pay another 1. 

Removed Remand, added Force of Negation.  Why?  because I want the turn 1 counter.  Right now, the deck (with the London Mulligan rule, which will ruin modern) is pretty consistently able to get two mana when your opponent wants to fetch land so you can stop them from searching.  or bouncing a land.  But i wanted a way to counter something the opponent might cast. 

(Original Deck Description)

love, love, LOVE land control decks. I know, i'm sorry. I have a Mono Red, several R/W, a R/B, and a UB. I made a mono-blue deck, since that's all the rage now, and I really liked how it ran. Monastery Siege being a card that I'm shocked nobody runs in it, but that proves utterly devastating. But I really, really wanted to squeeze white into the deck so I could run my second favorite planeswalker card, Venser, the Sojurner (the first being, of course, Ashiok, the Nightmare Weaver). Venser's ULT is just so perfect with the deck (whenever you cast a spell, exile a permanent). The addition of white makes the game plan change a little bit.

First off, no path to exile. The whole point is you don't want your opponent getting land.

Compared to the mono-blue version that everybody probably is familiar with, the things I do different are: First, I got rid of Frost Titan and replaced it with Venser, Shaper Savant. its ETB is another bounce that can hit any permanent, as well as a pseudo-counter in a pinch. With Venser, you do his +2 and flicker, allowing you an additional bounce every turn. Or you can bounce him back with Jace and have a counter up for the next turn, should you need it.

Your wincons are:
1. Beats with Colonnade
2. Beats with Venser
3. Jace
4. scooping to an empty board

Some Card Explanations:
Monastery Siege: Siege is here for protection. It makes your opponent's spells that target you "or a permanent you control" cost more. It makes any of your opponent's single-mana answers cost 5. Typically what would happen is is they were able to get 3 lands, they'd just cast something to destroy trinisphere or my creature/manland. Siege makes it almost impossible for the opponent to get out from under your lock.

Venser, Shaper Savant is here as kind of a "budget" version of Snapcaster mage. for the same CMC as Snap+Bounce or Snap+Counter, Venser will bounce a land or a spell (even uncounterable spells). He puts your opponent on the same two-damage-per-turn clock, but with the added bonus of being able to be flickered by the Venser-Walker to give you an extra bounce every turn. Or he can be bounced back to hand with Jace so you can cast him on your opponent's turn if you need to.

Suppression Field: basically Siege but to protect your stuff from activated abilities.

Trickbind: I run trickbind because I find it does a really good job of hosing a lot of the permanent-based combo decks. It shuts off the permanent, entirely, that turn. So if you counter an infinite mana engine, it stops the engine completely. It's important to note that you can't target a mana ability with Trickbind, but if you hit an ability on a card that also has a mana ability, that ability is stopped. So, for example, if you trickbind Faerie Conclave's ability to turn into a creature, and trickbind resolves, then faerie conclave can't tap for mana that turn. Trickbind is also basically uncounterable. ALSO, and this is important, Trickbind counters storm, and they can't counter you in response (split second).

Disclaimer: I stole the sideboard from a bunch of Mon-Blue ponza decks that I've seen over the months. I'm so bad at sideboards, and this is far faaaaaaaaaaaar better than the one I originally had.

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Deck Reviews / [Modern] Venser's Ponza Scheme

« on: April 25, 2019, 06:36:13 am »

Straight up, better name.

Venser's Ponza Scheme

I love, love, LOVE land control decks.  I know, i'm sorry.  I have a Mono Red, several R/W, a R/B, and a UB.  I built a mono-blue land control deck ( I guess they're called "Ponza" decks?), which I really like.  But I really, really wanted to squeeze white into the deck so I could run Venser, the Soujurner.  Venser's ULT is just so perfect with the deck (whenever you cast a spell, exile a permanent).  The addition of white makes the game plan change a little bit. 

First, I got rid of Frost Titan and replaced it with Venser, Shaper Savant.  it's ETB is another bounce that can hit any permanent.  With Venzer, you do his +2 which will essentially blink Vanser, allowing you an additional bounce every turn.  It also lets you run Mainboard Leyline of Sanctity. 

Your wincons are:
1. Beats with Colonnade
2. Beats with Venser
3. Jace

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Deck Reviews / [Modern] Some of that Azorious BullSh*t

« on: April 24, 2019, 09:30:10 pm »

Some of that Azorious BullSh*t

I love, love, LOVE land control decks.  I know, i'm sorry.  I have a Mono Red, several R/W, a R/B, and a UB.  I built a mono-blue land control deck ( I guess they're called "Ponza" decks?), which I really like.  But I really, really wanted to squeeze white into the deck so I could run Venzer, the Soujurner.  Venzer's ULT is just so perfect with the deck (whenever you cast a spell, exile a permanent).  The addition of white makes the game plan change a little bit. 

First, I got rid of Frost Titan and replaced it with Venzer, Shaper Savant.  it's ETB is another bounce that can hit any permanent.  With Venzer, you do his +1 which will essentially blink Vanzer, allowing you an additional bounce every turn.  It also lets you run Mainboard Leyline of Sanctity. 

Your wincons are:
1. Beats with Colonnade
2. Beats with Venser
3. Jace

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Deck Reviews / [Modern] Mono-U ponza control

« on: April 22, 2019, 02:36:11 am »

Mono-U ponza control

Mono blue control deck based on land control. I guess land control decks are called "ponza"? Anyway, The new mulligan rules make it really easy to have gemstone mine turn 1, which means it is very easy to start the land denial as early as your opponent's first turn.

Your win on is basically beats. Or jace.

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Deck Reviews / [Modern] Azusa the Arbiter

« on: March 23, 2019, 05:34:11 am »

Azusa the Arbiter

The deck is built around the interaction of Azusa, Lost but Seeking + Ramunap Explorer + Ghost Quarter.  Basically Azusa + Ramunap lets you play 3 ghost quarters in a turn.  Play one and sac it. then play it from the GY, sac it.  Then again from the GY. Sac it.  So each turn you can essentially burn three lands from your opponent.  This combo has been around a bit.  I've kind of spiced it up with Leonin Arbiter.  Makes it a lot harder for your opponent to keep up with the sac machine. 

Sun Titan lets you get basically anything from the GY. 

Knight of the Reliquary helps filter and thin the deck.

Ramunap Excavator has the same effect of Crucible of Worlds, only it's on a creature so you can hit it off of Collected Company.

Turntimber Basilisk is a card I like a lot that works well with all the land drops we'll be doing.  Helps you take care of a utility creature. 

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Deck Reviews / [Modern] Mycosynth Silence

« on: March 20, 2019, 06:32:44 am »

Mycosynth Silence

This deck.  This deck.  This is the ultimate prison deck.  Worse than lantern. I promise, PROMISE, you can't find a more oppressive prison. 

the idea of the deck is to get Mycosinth Lattice and Stony Silence on the battlefield at the same time.  Lattice turns all permanents into artifacts.  This includes lands.  Stony Silence prevents the activated ability of artifacts. 
tapping for mana is an activated ability. 
Silence does not specify that it doesn't affect mana abilities (unlike, say, Pithing Needle). 

So now, neither you NOR your opponent can tap anything for mana.  What does that mean?  Well, you can't cast spells. 

You can't pay 2 to attack through Ghostly Prison

You can't pay 1 to block with Archangel of Tithes.

So you can win, uninterrupted, with either Amor's Elocutors just adding counters.  OR you can attack with archangel. 

The rest of the deck is just a hardcore stall package to give yourself enough time.  Mana tithe to counter, Inquisition of Kozilek and Thoughtsieze to hand disrupt, and some removal to clear the board. 

It is filthy.  Filthy, filthy, filthy.

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Deck Reviews / [Modern] Ashiok's Afliction (UB 6-Rack)

« on: March 16, 2019, 02:13:33 am »

Ashiok's Afliction (UB 6-Rack)

Been a looooooong time since I've made a magic deck.  Trying to get back into it.

At it's core, it's an 8-Rack deck.  BUT, with the added twist that you can mill with Ashiok. 

I like the concept of adding a mill engine into the deck.  Ashiok can also be a win con if you mill a creature and they somehow stop your discarding.

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Deck Reviews / [Modern] Eldrazi and Staxes (UW Eldrazi & Taxes)

« on: July 06, 2018, 10:15:04 pm »

Edited the name because the "&" symbol wasn't appearing right

Eldrazi and Staxes (UW Eldrazi & Taxes)

It's like a UW Eldrazi & Taxes.  I hate eldrazi & taxes.  Like a lot. But I like the *pieces* of E&T.  I also like Spell Queller and Reflector Mage.  I figure you can combine the two.  Sideboard is stolen from a friend whose been playing around with the deck. 

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Deck Reviews / [Modern] Eldrazi & Staxes (UW Eldrazi & Taxes)

« on: July 06, 2018, 10:22:04 am »

Eldrazi & Staxes (UW Eldrazi & Taxes)

It's like a UW Eldrazi & Taxes.  I hate eldrazi & taxes.  Like a lot. But I like the *pieces* of E&T.  I also like Spell Queller and Reflector Mage.  I figure you can combine the two.  Sideboard is stolen from a friend whose been playing around with the deck.