Messages

31

Deck Reviews / Re: [Standard] Izzet Wizard Blitz

« on: September 22, 2018, 06:19:52 am »

Revision 3

Added/removed cards:
+2 Radical Idea
+3 (SB) Siren Stormtamer

Changed amounts:
-1 Thousand-Year Storm
-1 Wizard's Retort
-1 (SB) Spell Pierce

32

Deck Reviews / [Standard] Izzet Wizard Blitz

« on: September 22, 2018, 05:48:30 am »

Izzet Wizard Blitz

Trying to resurrect an old archetype in the new Standard with prowess creatures and lots of cheap spells.  Luckily, all creatures except Fire Urchin are wizards, so we can take advantage of the wizard synergy there as well. (Discounted casting cost on some of our instants and they get pumped by Adeliz, the Cinder Wind.)  Cast a creature or two and then cast a hasty Adeliz and an instant or two and she acts a bit like a bushwhacker effect to surprise your opponent.   

I want to try out maximum altitude because of the ability to jump-start it again later.   Crash through seems kind of weak because most creatures already are flyers or have trample. I have it main deck now for the card draw and prowess trigger.  Depending on how the meta shapes up, this may become dive down or maybe a mix of dive down and straight card draw spells. 

Thoughts?  I'm excited to play it!

33

Deck Reviews / Re: [Modern] Oh Rats

« on: August 30, 2018, 09:23:28 pm »

Holy smokes!  This deck was under $100 when I built it in '13 or so originally.  Thrumming stone was like $6-7 and swarmyard was around $2.50.   I was all-in for <  $100.   It was expensive (for me) for kind-of a gimmicky deck.   Not sure I'd pay 200 today for it.  It's a blast for 5-6 tix online though! Should be a bit more competitive in this configuration than the original.   

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Deck Reviews / Re: [Modern] Oh Rats

« on: August 30, 2018, 09:15:15 pm »

This was my first mtg deck and was a little all over the place.   Revisiting it to swap in fatal push and round it out a little bit.   

Revision 12

Added/removed cards:
-2 (SB) Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
-2 (SB) Mutilate
+2 (SB) Call to the Netherworld
+2 (SB) Gray Merchant of Asphodel

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Deck Reviews / Re: [Pauper] Goblin Impact Tremors

« on: August 28, 2018, 02:59:45 am »

Yikes, tough call. Maybe the sledders? Hordeling outburst is the slowest of your token generators (highest CMC), so maybe look there if you like the boost from the sledders and bring down your overall CMC?   Maybe go down one of each and see which ones but the biggest smile on your face after you've played a few games and then put those back in and go down on the other?

If you curve it down by pulling the outbursts and you have the rituals, you could experiment with dropping to 16 lands and that gives you one slot back.  Play with it and see!

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Deck Reviews / Re: [Pauper] Goblin Impact Tremors

« on: August 27, 2018, 06:02:59 pm »

Awesome!  I play a very similar deck and love having 2-3 brightstone ritual. It lets you cast tokens and kick a bushwhacker on the same turn as early as t3.     Also, goblin caves is huge for the sideboard. Basically any red deck will side in electrickery / blazing volley or other one drop hate, and w/o a way to refill your hand, those can be devastating, so this is a good way to protect them.  I've hit that reanimator deck a ton on MTGO lately, so graveyard hate for the sideboard might come in handy too. (relic of progenitus, etc.) 

Have fun!! 

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Deck Comments / Re: MonoG Infect - Comments

« on: August 23, 2018, 09:13:37 pm »

Awesome! You're welcome! Have fun!  (I scratched my head at first on the token generators and then was like, ahhh edicts... )     

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Deck Comments / Re: MonoG Infect - Comments

« on: August 23, 2018, 06:19:37 pm »

Looks fun!!       I play a mono G infect list as well. Great to see a new twist on it!   YMMV, but I found rot wolf to be a bit slow. I dropped him to a couple of copies for a while and then had him in the sideboard, thinking I'd want him for creature decks or vs. electrickery, but ended up not ever playing it so finally pulled him out completely. (It was the only card in the deck that would consistently make me groan when I would draw it.  I didn't replace him, just ended up running only 12 critters. Seems to work, you just have to be picky about hands you keep.)   5 tap lands might be a bit clunky, so keep an eye on that.  (I didn't try them in Pauper, but I tried running 5 in a budget modern version and ended up cutting them back because of the inconsistency on T1. I'm still at 4 in that deck since I'm running cathedral of war and like the exalted trigger, but was planning on pulling it to 3 or 2 to get the mana a turn sooner more consistently.     Since the modern gitaxian probe banning, it's gotten much cheaper (especially online)  and is a great add here. It gives you an extra card for "free") and lets you know if you can go for it or if you need to try and bait out a counter first.  Pulling out a rot wolf or two could free up room.  I ended up with apostles blessing over rangers guile (main board) because it can make your guys basically unblockable and untargetable.     If you find that you can't go off on t3, maybe add one of the asynchronous pumps like llanowar augur or seal of strength.   I had been running augur, since it gives you trample as well, but you're telegraphing your attack if you go ahead and sac him on your upkeep.   That wasn't a huge problem for me, but the idea of the flexibility seal provides had me switch it.  I haven't played a lot since the switch, so can't really report on the difference yet.

Have fun with it!    

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Deck Reviews / [Pauper] goblin tokens ftw

« on: August 18, 2018, 09:39:07 am »

goblin tokens ftw

Only about 10 matches in with this one, so still tuning, but lots of fun so far! Wanted to get it up here and get some feedback.

Strategy: Go wide with goblins, then use spells that benefit from their numbers to generate tons of mana and then hit them with direct damage via goblin war strike (I play MTGO, so no Goblin Grenade :-/... definitely make room for that if you play paper) or make a huge foundry street denizen and reckless bushwack them all in.   This is similar to an old one I made a couple of years ago, but now has artifacts to trigger kuldotha rebirth as a much more efficient token generator than say, hordeling outburst. Goblin instigator is also a nice add (having one of the bodies being non-token has proven great against snap or unsummon over something like dragon fodder since you can replay it when it gets bounced to your hand.) 

I was running 4 more colorless artifact lands to sac to kuldotha rebirth, but it made the manabase a bit inconsistent. Had some cycling lands in there too, same deal.  16 lands seems ok with the spring leaf drum and rituals, but I have gotten mana screwed a couple of games. I added a couple of basic mountains back in over artifact lands and went with the bone saw as a zero cost artifact instead to sac to kuldotha rebirth. There are some neat plays there.  Several times now, I've gotten 3 tokens out on T1. Mountain + bone saw, sac it to kuldotha rebirth. Etc.   I've had some crazy plays like T1: mountain + spring leaf, T2: mountain, foundry street denizen,  tap him to spring leaf to generate mana, sacing the drum to kuldotha rebirth to get 3 tokens on the board, then playing a brightstone ritual to get out an instigator and pay to kick a bushwhacker and swing for like 12 on T2!  After hitting delver like 4 matches in a row, may switch to ornithopter over bone saw to clog up the skies. Saving the life from fairies chipping away might be better than the point or two you might deal with an equipped bone saw before you sac it.

I love/hate faithless looting.  It's helped me dig for missing pieces, but has also time locked me out of turns when I used its flashback. (flashback is the only reason I chose it over other ones that provide card advantage... might swap it out.)

I had played with impact tremors in decks previously, but it didn't click for me. It's been a huge workhorse for me in this deck! Made room for all 4. It's absurd with multiples out!

Rites of initiation is a huge suprise! They will block your pumped denizen and leave the tokens unchecked. If they're bushwhacked, it only takes 2 cards to make them all 4 power!  It's like fireblast in that you're putting your eggs in one basket there, so I'm not sure I'd run a lot of them, but I will find room for at least another 1-2 main or sideboard.

I've hit the new reanimator deck and token decks a lot lately, that's why my sideboard looks the way it does. Will add in pyroblast soon.

It's tons of fun!!   Let me know what you think!

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Deck Reviews / Re: [Casual] Mono White Allies

« on: August 05, 2018, 02:56:11 am »

sweet!  I played a version of that one when it was in standard.  https://deckstats.net/decks/56090/632173-budget-w-r-equipment-allies-/en
It didn't beat too many tier 1 decks at the time, but sure was fun!

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Deck Reviews / Re: [Modern] pack rat madness

« on: August 04, 2018, 08:20:22 pm »

Went down a land and a rat colony to make room for key to the city.

the CMC is much lower than it shows here, since most of the madness cards would never be played for their madness cost.  It's more like 1.6x, so even 22 is a lot. I haven't been brave enough to go much lower since it does take 4 mana to really get the machine going. (3 to clone and leave up swarmyard or pay madness cost.)  Won against a mill deck and burn with it likes this.  Call to the netherworld was brutal on the mill deck since I got to pull back pack rats

Revision 15

Added/removed cards:
+2 Key to the City

Changed amounts:
-1 Rat Colony
-1 Swamp

42

Deck Reviews / Re: [Casual] Mono White Allies

« on: August 03, 2018, 08:24:10 pm »

Dangit, now you guys have me wanting to build a green one.  Oran-rief survivalist, sylvan advocate, etc.

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Deck Reviews / Re: [Casual] Mono White Allies

« on: August 03, 2018, 12:46:54 am »

Happy to help! I love the underdogs allies, so want to help others explore them if I can.    Bone saw and stoneforge masterwork were popular when allies were in standard, but I'm sure for casual, there are some better ones out there.  I haven't played them much outside of that.   I'd have to look. bonesplitter? I'm sure there are other decks here or google for that one.  The other equipment played then really wasn't very good, but a lot of the ally cards have abilities that boosted equipped creatures, so you wanted 1 and zero cost equipment to let them get the synergy from that. You weren't trying to be like a bogle/enchantment deck where the things you attach make 1 creature a giant beater.

Sigarda's aid is a great way to cheat them out.    It'll be fun as-is to play without going all-in on the equipment strategy. So try it out and see if you like it first. 

Allies can get pretty broken if you go multi color.  If you go red, you get reckless bushwhacker (one of my all time favorite cards) and akoum battlesinger for team pumping. If you go black, you get zulaport cutthroat, drana, liberator of malakir, drana's emissary (great life gain synergy with ondu and cutthroat) and bojuka brigand. Green has ramp and several big threats (I didn't play them at the time, since they were relatively expensive when they were standard legal)  It might not have been the most consistent (b/c I'm too cheap for an expensive mana base)  but my Mardu one (B/R/W) was the most fun and competitive.   

Lot's of choices there!    I tried for a long time to make one that was well-rounded and competitive in Modern like elves or goblins, but they just were never quite as good. (I played 4-5 different decks dozens of times each on MTGO)   They were pretty consistent, explosive, easy to learn and play, tons of fun and good enough to really win lots of games, but probably aren't going to take down a tournament anywhere.  I play 8 whack goblins and have played against a lot of elves, and both of those can win consistently on turn 4 (maybe sooner with the right draw) as to where allies are going to drag it out a turn or two longer and in Modern, most decks can stabilize or beat you by then (or they'll have mana to counter/wipe/remove everything you do.) 

My suggestion to go multicolor isn't to say you should do that vs. your white deck.   Just letting you know the others exist.  Your white deck has several things going on... guys that grow, guys that gain you life, guys that pump the team, etc.  If you like any of those in particular, pretty much each color has an ally that does that one thing, so if you want more of a particular synergy, you can really focus your deck on that play mechanic by adding more colors and focusing your strategy.     

They really are an under-rated tribe and you'll have a lot of fun with it though!   

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Deck Reviews / Re: [Casual] Mono White Allies

« on: August 02, 2018, 06:54:47 pm »

Looks fun!

I've played with a bunch of different Ally decks.  I've found that you need to keep them really fast so you may want to look at curving it down some and have more 1-2 drops than 3-4-5 drops.  (basically you might have too many finishers and not enough things to get you to where you can actually use them.  A big ally doesn't do you any good if you've lost all of your little guys and are trying to not die by turn 4-5 when you drop the biggie.   

You have a ton of creatures, maybe curve it down by yanking a few expensive CMC creatures and adding support cards? (removal/control/ramp/protection, etc.)   I tried to run retreat to emeria in my allies decks and very seldom found that it provided value because the game had already been decided pretty much by the time it came online, but it looked like it had potential.  Panharmonicon seemed cool too, but again, it comes in late.  (Either I'd be winning handily, or my board is taking a beating and top decking it was bad and chances were poor of me pulling it out.)   Captains claws were cool because they'd fire the Ally triggers every time you attack. (I never run more than a couple of copies.)  Oath of Gideon was good for ETB triggers. (or Gideon, ally of zendikar himself, now that the price has come way down since he rotated out of Standard)

Ally encampment is cool.  It's great if you're multicolored, because it can help with mana fixing, but still had value in mono white because you can sac it to return a creature to your hand to dodge removal or retrigger your ETB ally triggers.   (I ran a couple of copies of cloudshift for the same reason.)

Mine usually had an equipment slant as there are lots of good white ally/equipment synergies, but you could go with the standard white control bits to help you stabilize until you get your bigger guys online. Path to exile, etc

Westvale abbey is a great 1-of. You can sac your army to get Ormendahl out, then bring them all back with return to the ranks. 

I think you'll find that Hada and Ondu cleric will do most of your work, so I'd go 4 of on Ondu, and maybe brave the elements to protect them and/or prevent your herd from being blocked?

Have fun with it!

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Deck Reviews / Re: [Modern] pack rat madness

« on: August 01, 2018, 10:30:57 pm »

replaced swarm of rats with rat colony since it starts at 2 power, not *, so it's 1 better. Also took out rancid rats since it didn't add much value other than being a rat.  Really want to find room for key to the city to push damage through and drive card draw.

Revision 14

Added/removed cards:
-1 Rancid Rats
-4 Swarm of Rats
+5 Rat Colony