I was playing around on a deckbuilding program during my lunch break, and I might have stumbled on a neat combo: Archive Trap and Maralen of Mournsong. Basically, you force them to search their deck and mill them with the trap, which you search out every turn with Maralen. It's usually a three turn clock, between a Mind Funeral and their own previous draws. Someone else has probably spotted this interactions, and if so, kudos! If not, woo! I feel sort of special
Right now there are two major flaws in the deck's functionality: dwindling life totals, and an unsteady manabase. I could probably rework the mana to be a bit more efficient, but I am much more worried about the low life than the lands.
So far the weak match ups have been mostly along the lines of aggro and weenie decks. It's beaten all of the mid-range, most of the combo(post board), and a lot of the control decks I've been able to test it against. I've been using this side board:
4 Extirpate
4 Chrome Mox
3 Thoughtseize
4 Sadistic Sacrament
Honestly there's a lot of cards I'd like to see in the deck (Mindbreak Trap, for instance), but I'm not entirely sure what to take out. There's a small chance the deck is competitive, and I'd like to explore that option.
i probebly wouldnt even go for the combo part of it. id try 2 go straight mill, relying on ur paths and their fetchlands 2 spring the trap. id put in the crab, glimps, twincast, maybe howling mine, and main deck extirpate. maralen is just too fragile in my opinion. but it is a cool idea
I dropped the white because it was just muddying up the manabase, and it really didn't help me all that much. I must say that I miss the O-rings sometimes...
However, the deck is a fair bit more consistent, and while I haven't had the opportunity to test it against any Aggro decks, it has managed to handle a couple of mid-range decks rather nicely.
how do you get rid of the maralen? she searches for cards, sure, but the problem is in that if you can't draw cards, then is hard to lose that way, too.
how do you get rid of the maralen? she searches for cards, sure, but the problem is in that if you can't draw cards, then is hard to lose that way, too.
Just finished playing against a Zoo deck, my worst match up, and actually won 2-1. The first match basically came down to a top deck of Archive Trap after they Path'd my Maralen and a Jace at 11 loyalty. I had enough terrors and slaughter pacts to hold them off while I made him remove the top 33 cards in his deck. I'm somwhat surprised he didn't attack into my Jace, but the fact that I was at 7 life must have made me a better target. Game two both he and I got horrendously mana screwed, both getting stuck at two lands. Thing is, he had a Temple Garden and a Stomping Grounds, where as I had two islands. I'd sided out the Scepter of Fugues for Mind Funeral, since from what I saw in his graveyard, he wasn't running a whole ton of lands. The third game ended when I managed to draw into three archive traps by turn three, drop a Maralen, and took 39 cards off the top of his library. He path'd my Maralen again, I countered it, he bolted her, on my fifth turn I cast Damnation. We then spent the remaining turns drawing lands, until I got a Mind Funeral.
After that match, I sat down and reworked the deck, again.
Here's my idea deck:
4 Archive Trap
4 Mind Funeral
4 Remand
4 Path to Exile
4 Oblivion Ring
2 Damnation
4 Wall of Denial
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Marsh Flats
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Watery Grave
2 Arcane Sanctum
5 Island
2 Plains
2 Swamp
Right now there are two major flaws in the deck's functionality: dwindling life totals, and an unsteady manabase. I could probably rework the mana to be a bit more efficient, but I am much more worried about the low life than the lands.
So far the weak match ups have been mostly along the lines of aggro and weenie decks. It's beaten all of the mid-range, most of the combo(post board), and a lot of the control decks I've been able to test it against. I've been using this side board:
4 Extirpate
4 Chrome Mox
3 Thoughtseize
4 Sadistic Sacrament
Honestly there's a lot of cards I'd like to see in the deck (Mindbreak Trap, for instance), but I'm not entirely sure what to take out. There's a small chance the deck is competitive, and I'd like to explore that option.
Please, help me!
Sales
Legacy
Punishing Depths :symg::symu::symr:
Faithless Dredge :symb::symu::symr::symw::symg:
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=189479
Here's the version I'm running now:
3 Maralen of the Mornsong
4 Thoughtseize
3 Scepter of Fugue
4 Perplex
3 Cryptic Command
3 Countersquall
3 Slaughter Pact
3 Terror
2 Damnation
4 Archive Trap
4 Peel from Reality
3 Swamp
4 Watery Grave
3 Drowned Catacomb
3 Jwar Isle Refuge
3 Ghost Quarter
2 Sunken Ruins
4 Extirpate
3 Mindbreak Trap
4 Sadistic Sacrament
4 Mind Funeral
I dropped the white because it was just muddying up the manabase, and it really didn't help me all that much. I must say that I miss the O-rings sometimes...
However, the deck is a fair bit more consistent, and while I haven't had the opportunity to test it against any Aggro decks, it has managed to handle a couple of mid-range decks rather nicely.
Please, tell me your thoughts!
Credit to DolZero for this awesome sig!
Pretty simple actually. Damnation, Peel from Reality, Cryptic Command, and playing another Maralen all work.
Just finished playing against a Zoo deck, my worst match up, and actually won 2-1. The first match basically came down to a top deck of Archive Trap after they Path'd my Maralen and a Jace at 11 loyalty. I had enough terrors and slaughter pacts to hold them off while I made him remove the top 33 cards in his deck. I'm somwhat surprised he didn't attack into my Jace, but the fact that I was at 7 life must have made me a better target. Game two both he and I got horrendously mana screwed, both getting stuck at two lands. Thing is, he had a Temple Garden and a Stomping Grounds, where as I had two islands. I'd sided out the Scepter of Fugues for Mind Funeral, since from what I saw in his graveyard, he wasn't running a whole ton of lands. The third game ended when I managed to draw into three archive traps by turn three, drop a Maralen, and took 39 cards off the top of his library. He path'd my Maralen again, I countered it, he bolted her, on my fifth turn I cast Damnation. We then spent the remaining turns drawing lands, until I got a Mind Funeral.
After that match, I sat down and reworked the deck, again.
3 Cryptic Command
3 Jace Beleren
3 Maralen of the Mornsong
3 Slaughter Pact
3 Terror
2 Damnation
4 Archive Trap
4 Watery Grave
4 Drowned Catacomb
2 Ghost Quarter
4 Peel from Reality
4 Island
3 Swamp
3 Countersquall
4 Sunken Ruins
3 Glimpse the Unthinkable
4 Duress
4 Extirpate
4 Sadistic Sacrament
4 Mind Funeral
Tell me what you think!