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Deck Reviews / [Standard] Orzhov Knights

« on: April 03, 2018, 03:50:49 am »

Deck: Orzhov Knights

This deck can consistently go lethal on turn 4-5.

Turn 1: Dauntless Bodyguard
Turn 2: Knight of Grace or Knight of Malice, Attack for 2. (18)
Turn 3: Anything in the deck for 3 or less, attack for 4 or 5. (11)
Turn 4: Kwende, Pride of Femeref or Benalish Marshal, attack for 8 or up to 10. (1-3)
Turn 5: Kill

Danitha Capashen, Paragon helps stall out the game with her lifelink, and she's a removal magnet. Benalish Marshal and Radiant Destiny give you a ton of power on the board for cheap. you should always be able to cast Benalish Marshal on curve because every source of mana in the deck makes White mana. With 8 black sources that are also white, you should rarely be unable to cast Aryel, Knight of Windgrace on curve if she does come up, and she offers you a way to both go wider, and to use your available knights to mow down an opposing large creature.

I don't know if I need a way to get rid of some larger creatures maindeck, (the mass amounts of removal in the sideboard should help, though), and I'm not sure Forebear's Blade is necessary (I included it because it's a nice way to get in for some damage, gets cheaper with Danitha on the board, and will just move around the board against targeted removal). I think replacing it with perhaps Fatal Push or Dub in the main deck might serve me better, unless another 2-3 drop Black Knight creature is available later in Dominaria spoilers. Karn, Scion of Urza is also questionable, but with virtually no card draw, I felt he was necessary. However, this being an aggressively-oriented deck, more creatures or easy removal might be better, with Karn in the sideboard?

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Deck Reviews / Re: [Standard] Trick Room

« on: September 14, 2015, 04:39:55 am »

The problem I see with your deck is that you have compiled two halves of different decks, resulting in something less than cohesive.

For Assault Formation and toughness, you only have two creatures that efficiently take advantage of its Replacement effect (Guardians of Meletis and Sidsi's Faithful). The instansts provide effective combat tricks on top of that, but the rest of you're creatures don't benefit.

For Willbreaker, using Disciple of the Ring as your targeting method requires both 5 cmc cards be in play, and that you have cards in the graveyard to power Disciple of the Ring. Given the time in the game where they both be in play and Taigam's Scheming, it is a fair bet filling your graveyard is less of a burden. Aside from Disciple of the Ring, you only have Shape the Sands and Bounding Krasis to use for targeting. The issue is the efficiency of targeting effects: you don't have a way to get more than 1 steal per card.  Consider Aerial Volley, Icy Blast, Briber's Purse, Rogue's Passage, and Yasova Dragonclaw.

Well, I feel like the deck leans more aggro-Midrange than control. Would it be more worthwhile to exchange the Willbreakers and the other niche stuff for a full Assault? I could add some burn and add in mana fixers to splash red, and go proper Temur Midrange? The basis of the deck is cheap, so I have room in my budget for some bigger bombs.

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Deck Reviews / [Standard] Trick Room

« on: September 13, 2015, 09:45:32 am »

Trick Room

Essentially the deck is a midrange deck. It can win in a few ways, from simply holding ground with high toughness guys against aggro until you can drop Assault Formation and turn the game with high-toughness beaters, using Shape the Sands or Glint for pump, taking advantage of Assault Formation's first effect.

Alternatively if your opponent is playing the long game, Willbreaker and Disciple of the Ring make a great team in the mid-late game, cherrypicking your opponent's best creatures to add them to your own team. There are several counter-spell and bounce effects to protect Willbreaker once he comes down, and Disciple himself does a great job of that as well, repurposing your graveyarded spells from the early game for cheap and versatile power. Bounding Krasis is a great 3/3 body for 3 that can leverage Willbreaker's effect, lock down an opposing heavyweight for a turn, or even give you a surprise double block by untapping one of your toughies. Taigam's Scheming allows you to tailor your draws, tweaking things in your favor if you're worried about what's in your future.

The sideboard is mainly to grant more options. If your opponent's deck was spellheavy and light on creatures, there is even more counter-spell power in the sideboard to answer any number of threats from your opponent, and fuel your Disciple of the Ring-based control shenanigans. Talent of the Telepath will let you dig through your opponent's deck and cast their spells as well, giving you gas for Disciple of the Ring, and giving you extra effects you couldn't normally get from your own card pool. It's in the side mainly because after Game 1, you'll have a better grasp of your opponent's list and you'll know more about what spells you might rip to benefit your own game. (Using their own spell to target their creature(s) to rip them with Willbreaker is immensely satisfying.)

Definitely open to suggestions on the sideboard, I feel there's a lot more that could be done with it.

This deck is mainly designed to stay within Khans of Tarkir/Fate Reforged/Dragons of Tarkir/Magic Origins

4

Deck Reviews / [Standard] U/R Heroic Triton Crusaders

« on: May 20, 2014, 08:11:56 am »

U/R Heroic Triton Crusaders

The general strategy is to use Heroic triggers to storm up a game win using a low curve.

The deck can win multiple ways, from just swinging at face with Tromokratis, making tons of tokens with Akroan Crusader, then turning them all into copies of Spellheart Chimera with a few spells in the grave, a fat Spellheart to the face, or pinging to face with Keranos' effect.

Solid defenses with Wavecrash Triton/Triton Fortune Hunter and combat tricks with growing beaters like Satyr Hoplite.

My main worries are whether the deck is consistent enough, or if I'm spreading myself too thin on win conditions. My goals were to make sure I had a few different ways to win, even if the game ran long.

I feel like Tromokratis was an effect I sort of wanted to find a way to break, but that I haven't succeeded here. I feel like he slows down the curve too much, and perhaps I would benefit from either more Heroic triggering spells, (Perhaps Ordeal of Thassa or Ordeal of Purphoros, both of which are carried well by Satyr Hoplite in this deck)

I feel like I would probably benefit more from running more Heroic beaters and enablers, and just dumping Keranos, God of Storms Tromokratis, and maybe even Polymorphous Rush.

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General Magic / Re: Strive and Heroic question.

« on: May 12, 2014, 06:25:00 pm »

You cannot.

Heroic effects trigger when the spell goes on the stack targeting the Heroic creature; A spell cannot go on the stack until all targets have been chosen, so even if you have paid your (0) for spare Strive targets, they haven't come into play yet for you to target them with your spell.

The spell order would look something like this:

Launch the Fleet targeting infinity creatures (All targets are chosen during this step.)
All Heroic effects trigger on the stack in whichever order you choose (1/1 red Haste Solder tokens appear and Thaumaturgist gains Hexproof)
Your opponent gains priority and can put instant effects on the stack

LIFO from there.

Keep in mind that even if your opponent destroys your Crusaders, you will still get your new Haste soldier tokens, but they cannot have the effect of Launch the Fleet in this case.