After a flashback to the early days of our beloved game, we return back to the future.
Please omit jokes about wether this round's cards is NSFW, because it's about a guy with a whip, tentacle alien monsters and mechanically of masochistic nature.
You have until the 17rd of April 11pm GMT+1 to submit decks.
Good luck to all !!
1) Main rules - Any member of the MTGSalvation forums can submit a deck for the contest, including judges. - A submitted deck has to contain the card of the current round and has to be built around the card in some way. While no negative points are given for an uncommented deck, giving judges insight on your ideas and tricks improves their understanding of your deck. - Contestants can only submit one deck per round. But as long as judging has not started yet, you can edit your deck, change it alltogether or withdraw it. - This is "Casual". -> Only the cards banned in Vintage, silver bordered & celebration cards are banned. There is no Restricted list. If you want to add four Black Lotus, go for it - it should be noted though, that some of the judges might not be too keen on seeing too many broken cards in decks.
- The cards to build around in the ten rounds have already been selected.
2) Time - Contestants have seven days to build and post their decks for each round.
- Judges consult to select the top 8 decks that will be judged for that round during the next day. - The next six days, judges will test and rate the top 8 decks. - A ranking of the contestants’ scores will be posted and the winner will be announced.
3) Judging
- There are four judges. The three volunteer judges are: Bustin, Captain Salty & ExpiredRascals. And me.
- From the time the entry period ends in a given round, the other three judges have 24 hours to PM me their top 9 (most likely the top 8 plus their own =P) submitted decklists of the round. I will then announce the top 8 decklists elected for rating (accroding to the matrix below). - A judge cannot rate his or her own entry. -> If a judge's deck made a round's top 8, he or she will refrain from rating that particular deck and only rate the other decks. - Judges are encouraged to add some comments as to why they gave a certain score to a certain deck. - A deck's four (/three) scores will be arithmeticaly averaged.
- Judges are out-of-contest for the final-ranking.
Each judge awards up to 25 points to each top 8 deck he or she is allowed to rate, based on the following system:
Creativity/Originality: 0 to 5 points How creative and original is your deck. Effectiveness/Card adherence: 0 to 5 points How well does it use the selected card? Synergy/Tuning: 0 to 5 points How well do the cards combine in the deck; elegance and card selection. Power/Capacity to win: 0 to 5 points Can the deck deliver the goods? Interaction/Protection: 0 to 5 points How well does the deck interact and deal with other decks.
Format/Thematic: up to 2 points bonus (can't go over 25) 1 point for any format adherence other than Vintage/Legacy; 1 point for incorporation of theme/flavour.
Interpretation of this is up to the judges, individually.
4) Championship rules - As with the first season, ten rounds will be played. - To be included in the final ranking, a player has to make the top 8 in atleast four of the ten rounds. (If no player meets this criteria, it will be lowered accordingly.) - At the end of the season, the player within the final ranking having the highest arithmetical average of top 8 scores becomes the Champion. Example: Xanth participates in all ten round, makes it to the top 8 five times and gets f.e. 24 points each round. Mindslavor participates in three rounds, makes it to the top 8 in all of these three rounds and gets trice 25 points. All other players have an average < 24. -> Despite having a lower average than Mindslavor, Xanth wins, because Mindslavor hasn't met the criteria of having atleast four top eight scores.
tl;dr: For each round, a card is scheduled. Anyone can enter the contest and submit a deck using that card. Contestants can post their decks during an entry period of seven days. In the following seven days the judges (Bustin, Captain Salty, ExpiredRascals and me) will elect the eight best decks submitted, to test and rate these decks. After (planned) ten rounds the contest will have a winner.
For my deck this round I went with the often powerful combination of B/W for colours. These two colours paired together offer great control/hand disruption options to disrupt my opponent while I get Near-Death Experience online.
Playing the deck:
The easiest way to win with this deck is to get a Near-Death Experience and a Wall of Blood in play together. While this isn't necessary it is by far the easiest way to get to 1 life. Remember: your opponent's goal is the same as yours. Instead of blocking as you normally would, take the damage when you can. There are lots of ways to lock out your opponent and keep yourself at 1 life. If you have the cards in hand to keep it alive, Solitary Confinement is game over. You don't take the damage from Caves of Koilos when it's in play, so trying to ping yourself to 1 doesn't work with Solitary Confinement. The rest of the cards are very self-explanatory in that they disrupt your opponent. Castigate takes away any problem cards. Oblivion Ring and Mortify deal with what's already on the board.
Sideboarding:
The original make-up of the deck tries to have an answer to everything, but sometimes you come up against hyper-aggressive decks, counter decks, or burn decks. These are just recommendations, feel free to S/B as you see fit:
Burn: -4 Kami of False Hope, -2 Ghostly Prison, +4 Thoughseize, +2 Story Circle
Counter: Similar to burn, don't necessarily need Story Circle
Aggro: -2 Oblivion Ring, -3 Mortify, +3 Black Sun's Zenith, +2 Wrath of God.
Mid-Range Aggro (Bant/Exalted, Jund, etc.): Similar to normal aggro, but put in all your Wraths - you get more value out of them than the Zenith
Graveyard Strategies: Tormod's Crypt
Castigate: Who doesn't want to exile problem cards from an opponent's hand? I also experimented with Conjurer's Ban in this slot and the added draw was nice, but it didn't actually remove the problem card.
Night's Whisper: Easier to cast than Sign in Blood and you pretty much only want to target yourself in this deck. Nice draw option in B/W decks.
Swords to Plowshares: Strictly better than Path to Exile in this deck since you won't be beating face. Let them gain 1 or 10, it doesn't matter.
Mortify: More instant-speed creature and enchantment removal.
Wall of Blood: Combo enabler, though not necessary - remember your opponent wants to kill you so they'll often do your work for you. Wall of Blood is an easy way to get those last few points. It's often over-looked by your opponent. I recommend blocking with it and paying the life, save your removal for fliers/evasion creatures.
Kami of False Hope: Also often ignored by your opponent, this let's you decide when you take damage. Math skills are appreciated in this deck. Sideboard out for Thoughtseize if you're playing a creature-light deck.
Near-Death Experience: Your win condition. Your opponents love helping you win. Play it when you can, you should have the disruption to avoid it being destroyed. Tutor it up if you need to win!
Oblivion Ring: Try to use this on Planeswalkers, Encantments and Artifacts. Creatures are your opponent's main source of damage, and that helps you win. You also have 7 other spot removal spells to deal with creatures so don't waste your O-rings on them. Can be tutored up with Idyllic Tutor.
Solitary Confinement: MVP of so many games. Drop this when you're at 1-4 life with the cards to discard to it and ping yourself down to 1 with Wall of Blood. You can sacrifice it during your upkeep and ping yourself with Caves of Koilos, just make sure they're not holding a Lightning Bolt when you do. Absolutely stomps direct damage decks, and well, most decks. Tutor for the win.
Phyrexian Reclamation: This card can pull some sweet shenanigans with Kami of False Hope and Street Wraith. It's pretty clutch in high-aggro situations where you actually might need a Kami every turn. It can also pull off huge life deductions with Street Wraith while digging through your library. It's also fun to sac a Kami and return it to your hand just for the life loss (hint: do it at the end of your opponent's turn when you have 3 life).
I really enjoyed building around this alternate-win condition card. It's always a good time when your opponent "LOLs" when you steal the win with 1 life. Hope you guys enjoy playing the deck, feel free to ask any questions, can't wait to hear your comments and feedback! The title of the deck comes from a hidden flavour I noticed while playing it. I dropped a Ghostly Prison then a Solitary Confinement and then a Near-Death Experience for the win. I locked myself out of the game in a prison-like fashion, then was sent to Solitary Confinement which was a Near-Death Experience and came out of it enlightened and more powerful than ever.
I don't know...I was on another plane if you catch my drift...
Well, might as well participate, seeing as I've been back to the site for a couple of weeks now. How's everyone doing?
Ok on to the deck...
They say a near-death experience can be religiously profound.
Here is the story of a peculiar cult of tribesmen that - with the help of a bored planeswalker (you) - convince simple-minded folks of different planes to join them on their quest to not-quite die...
The "Edgewalkers" (as they were known in their time) were later discovered to be the ancestors of the Jackass creators...
Ok, first for the cards that didn't make it but might have been obvious choices.
- You can't play chicken without some risks, where would be the fun in that? so I say phooey on Angel's Grace :cool2:...
- I always have my multiplayer casual group in mind when I make a deck these days. In our midst, "Win the Game" cards are somewhat frowned upon so when I saw Plunge into Darkness, I elected to go without. It would have made the deck too much combo for my taste.
Onto the cards I did choose (besides the round's card which needs no explanation... I hope):
- Academy Rector: Yawn right? In any other setting maybe, but here he fits also because he is a cleric (notice that the only way to sac him is with Starlit Sanctum).
- Battletide Alchemist: She's the one allowing me to not-die at my own pace thank you. Bonus is she can help any of my teammates if playing in that type of setting (which happens a lot for us). One is enough for any and all Pestilence activations.
- Daunting Defender: He takes care of my creatures. I had hired Hedron-Field Purists at some point, but the Purists have taken the hypocrathic oath it seems and they clearly indicated that they want nothing to do with me damaging myself, so I had to ditch them.
- Monk Idealist: Since I designed this for multiplayer, recursion is important; everybody I play with packs some hate and since my deck is not designed to win quasi-instantly once NDE is out, it's bound to be targeted. Also with Rector/Idealist/Patriarch's Bidding/Volrath's Stronghold, I've got me a pretty efficient enchantment toolbox and that's always nice.
- Weathered Wayfarer: You could say I'm a sucker for toolboxes in decks, here's one for lands which complements what my other toolbox might miss. Wayfarer is also a pretty good fixer and sometimes preventer of mana screw.
- Edgewalker: Self explanatory, plus the name fits with the flavor of the round's card, yeah...
- Oblivion Ring/Seal of Cleansing/Seal of Doom: You could say to yourself, why 2 of each? Let's just say I'd rather have the Seals do the job, but alas there are some creatures Seal of Doom can't deal with, hence the O-ring (plus it gives me something vs Planeswalkers).
- Pain's Reward might not be as quick as Plunge but it generates better card advantage over a longer-run game imho.
- Pestilence: In conjunction with my clerics, it gives me a way to control the game and I also believe in alternate win-cons. I can use it to kill the Rector if Daunting Defender isn't in play... (Ahh, if only Defender had a "may" clause like with the Alchemist, oh well).
- Patriarch's Bidding: Resets are kind of annoying in multiplayer aren't they?
- Starlit Sanctum: Auto-include in most Cleric decks, here it fits to fetch me NDE in conjunction with the Rector. On top it allows me some control over my life points in crucial moments + it gives me an additional win-con.
- Bojuka Bog: Auto-include in all my multiplayer decks with B, but here it also allows me to be more liberal with the Bidding. Notice also the Basilicas that allow me to recur it.
- Glacial Chasm: Gives me an ultimate back-up, in case my clerics aren't feeling up to it. Also useful if playing VS red and I have a feeling some big DD spell is heading my way.
- Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: Most of the deck is white, Pestilence needs some support if I decide to "go to town" with it.
Primary and only casual rule: "any rule that is fine for the most part of the playgroup, is a fine rule". So any further thread with: "if somebody uses/does .... in a casual game, is it ethical/ok?", read the answer above.
- Being a "Johnny/Spike" means you like self-torture. You win often in casual, so everybody hates you; you loose often in competitive, so you hate yourself.
The idea is to target Academy Rector with Polymorph, to fetch both Soulgorger Orgg and NDE at the same time. The rest of the deck is finding stuff and protection. Quicken should allow for opponent's EOT winning play.
Polymorph - It's accustomed to being a card that wins games, only this time it does it in an unheard of way.
Academy Rector - Recently released in MODO, it's one of the few enchantment tutors available. Targeting him with Polymorph allows to get NDE out and at the same time meet the 1-life requirement to win the game, with the help of...
Soulgorger Orgg - Insta-1-life when it hits the board, he's the perfect companion to NDE. See below for comments on putting a red creature in a deck.
Near-Death Experience - I'm a big fan of "you win" cards (check sig). This CDCC was very fun for me.
Quicken - At first I was sad that Polymorph is a sorcery, so I was concerned about surviving a turn with just 1 life, until I remembered this card. EOT is the best way to go with this deck!
Brainstorm - Besides the obvious card advantage, it's purpose is to put "fetchable" combo pieces back in the library. I had See Beyond at first, but since Brainstorm is not restricted in Classic (MTGO player here :embarrass:) I thought 1 less mana for 1 more card wouldn't hurt.
Gifts Ungiven - Very good for tutoring out defense, or Rector. I also like how you can get the second Rector (if you already drew one) out of the way from Polymorph.
Merchant Scroll - Besides Quicken, Brainstorm and Gifts are very important to the deck, so this is almost like copies 5-8 of each.
Angel's Grace - At first this was Holy Day. I was reluctant to include this (originality and all) but it's just plain better.
Swords to Plowshares - In this deck, strictly better than Path to Exile since you won't be caring about the other player's life total, like at all.
Oblivion Ring - Very good when the threat is not a creature you can StP out of the way, also fetchable with a spare Rector.
The mana base could seem out of place to some people. What is Tolarian Academy doing in a deck that doesn't have lots of artifacts? Artifact lands in a non-affinity deck?
Well, the thing is that I was concerned about having to hard-cast that nightmare orgg, but I didn't want to "actually" have to splash red. I figured a five-color land would be enough. And from all of the WUBRG producing lands out there, the one with the, IMHO, mildest drawback is Glimmervoid. No ETBT, no pain, no restriction on what you can cast. You just need to make sure you have an artifact out. And with a big part of the other lands being artifacts, this is easily met. It has its risks, but in all my playtests I didn't have to worry about it. That led to the Academy, which is not supposed to break the deck, but it gives a little ramp, enough to cast that Quickened Polymorph, for example. Sometimes it's an Island, or a Teferi's Isle without phasing. Sometimes it's a colored Mishra's Workshop with no restriction. If it gets better than that, you've probably had a long game. And with this land, I always add Minamo, as a "better" Island.
Finally, Karakas. It used to be Diamond Valley, as a secondary outlet for the Rector, but in more than one occasion I ended up wanting a Plains instead. So, Karakas is a better Plains, as it bounces other people's Emrakuls.
To be honest, I wasn't going to participate in this round after seeing the card choice. I thought it would be near impossible to create a truly original deck from Near-Death Experience, as all of these decks always boil down to [Insert Some Life Loss/Self-Damage Inflictor] + N.D.E, and I can't bring myself to build something not genuinely unique. Yet somehow, I think I managed to create the 1 deck that approaches a typical Near-Death Experience in a completely oddball manner. This is something I call Conceptual Magic - as in that the deck is much more based on theoretical Magic over practical applications since it's never really been done before. I'd like you to hear me out.
The Deck Concept:
So a normal Near-Death Experience deck faces 3 problems. First, you need to play it on your own turn at Sorcery speed, making it vulnerable for a turn to removal and such. Second, you need to be at 1-life before your upkeep, otherwise the Intervening-If-Clause of NDE won't trigger. Third, you need to have something to protect yourself and the combo before NDE hits, as it is an expensive enchantment. I believe my deck solves all of those problems.
I'm sure it's weird at first glance, as it doesn't seem to do anything. But let's take it card-by-card.
1. Enchant yourself with Paradox Haze, now you'll have 2 upkeeps per turn. This immediately solves the intervening upkeep-clause problem of Near-Death Experience. Normally, you would need to do something to modify your life total to 1 on your opponent's turn so Near-Death Experience triggers on your upkeep. This is dangerous and leaves you vulnerable, as your opponent knows you'll be doing this since normally Near-Death Experience is already out on the field. However, with Paradox Haze, you can modify your life total on your own turn (After You Untap!). So you can do various things to get to 1-life on the 1st upkeep, and then win on the 2nd upkeep.
2. Leyline of Anticipation - now Near-Death Experience has Flash. This means your opponent will never see it coming. The deck is purposefully designed to make it seem like we're not playing a Near-Death Experience deck. Seriously, who would expect that you are? Your opponent will think you're playing some weird Paradox Haze deck, and then once you're close to 1-life, Flash in Near-Death Experience, and then win out of nowhere!
With both Leyline of Anticipation and Paradox Haze, you can Flash in Near-Death Experience on your 1st Upkeep, and then win on your 2nd. Your opponent is much more likely to have tapped out on his turn since he can't anticipate Near-Death Experience, and you'll be more safe from disruption than normal. See what I mean by Magic Theory?
3. As I mentioned above, the deck is designed to make it seem like we're NOT playing a Near-Death Experience deck. The main sources of life-loss are the lands: Flooded Strand, Hallowed Fountain, Adarkar Wastes, Ancient Tomb. This is not much different than what a normal U/W Control deck plays. Same with Blood Clock - no one would ever think that we're using this to get to 1-life. So you see, it's all a big ruse to trick the opponent and surprise him at the very end
Individual Card Explanations:
Since the deck incorporates Paradox Haze and Leyline of Anticipation, I tried to include other cards that work well with these 2, yet don't need them to be good. I'll explain every card within the context of these 2 cards.
-Delaying Shield. This slot is probably going to be Worship in many other decks. However, Delaying Shield is far superior in my deck. This prevents damage until my Upkeep, and when I untap, I have control over how much life I lose. This is key to manipulating life-totals for Near-Death Experience. With Leyline of Anticipation, this is a surprise damage shield. With Blood Clock, it means you'll never take damage again - just make sure you stack the effects correctly so Blood Clock's resolves first.
- Blood Clock - Can you say Flavor? I think it goes along (thematically) well with Near-Death Experience. I originally split it 2/2 with Umbilicus, but I opted for Flavor here. Anyways, you can use this card in 2 ways with Paradox Haze. You can Enchant your opponent with Haze so they suffer from Blood Clock twice, and in the late game, you return Pardox Haze via Blood Clock's own ability since the core of the deck (as explained above) requires that we Enchant ourselves. Additionally, I included cards that benefit from "Enter the Battlefield" triggers and Multiple Returns via Blood Clock so we don't necessarily have to enchant the opponent all the time. This combos with almost everything in this deck - I'll explain each in their own card section below.
- Porphyry Nodes - One of the ways of stopping Aggro very early. Benefits from Paradox Haze with multiple upkeeps. Works with Blood Clock so that if there is only 1 creature on the field, we stack the upkeep trigger so that Blood Clock's resolves first, returning Porphyry Nodes while still destroying the creature. This also benefits from Leyline of Anticipation - normally if this is played at Sorcery Speed, your opponent won't drop a 2nd creature so this card can be destroyed. However, if you drop this via Flash after your opponent has dropped his 2nd creature, then it becomes a 1-mana 2-for-1. On top of that, it totally destroys their tempo as it means they'll be less inclined to play creatures until this goes away. The effect is also non-targeting! Can you really ask for more?
- Mark of Eviction - Alongside Porphyry Nodes, this is vital for holding back creatures. Normally, this can only be used once per turn, but with Paradox Haze + Leyline of Anticipation, it gets even better. With Haze/Leyline, you play this at the end of your opponent's turn. 1st upkeep, return the creature, and play Mark of Eviction again. 2nd upkeep, repeat. The tempo advantage this causes is HUGE. Even with just Leyline of Anticipation, Mark of Eviction is a big threat. Turn 0 Leyline + Turn 1 instant speed Mark of Eviction means reusable Unsummon every turn! And of course, Mark of Eviction is a good card, even by itself. Yes, it only stops the creature every other turn, but we actually do want creatures to attack us at some point to get to 1-life. We don't want to stop all damage (via Delaying Shield) until we have a good control over the board.
- Oblivion Ring - All-star removal, but serves other functions in here as well. With Leyline of Anticipation, this is also as a method of saving one of your non-land permanents from removal at Instant-Speed. Return it with Blood Clock to use again on a better target. There are no stack shenanigans to permanently remove something, but it's still good. It can also save Porphyry Nodes from being sent to the graveyard.
- Paradox Haze - One more thing I'll say about this card is that you can return this to your hand to target someone else. A backup plan for this deck in case Near-Death Experience doesn't work out is Blood Clock + Paradox Haze to overwhelm and kill a player. Not exactly the most reliable method around, but extremely funny, and doable.
- Reality Acid - I originally had more of these, until I realized they didn't work so well with Blood Clock. If you enchant an opponent's permanent with this while having Blood Clock out, they'll simply return the permanent and this will be unattached. However, the scenario becomes completely different if you have Leyline of Anticipation out. In that case, Blood Clock + Reality Acid is a reusable Vindicate. Flash Reality Acid on your opponent's turn, return it to your hand with Blood Clock on your turn. Repeat on the opponent's next turn. If Leyline of Anticipation isn't available, then it is possible to do this combo with Oblivion Ring:
Enchant something with Reality Acid. Next turn, use Oblivion Ring on Reality Acid. This makes Reality Acid's ability trigger, and the permanent becomes sacrificed. Then drop Blood Clock, and return Oblivion Ring each turn - causing Reality Acid to come back to be targeted by O-Ring, repeat, etc. A bit of a hassle, but it is a way of getting rid of resolved permanents forever, and I think the fact that it is resuable makes it good.
- Runed Halo - a silver bullet card against random cards. Reusable with Blood Clock, Flash it in with Leyline of Anticipation to surprise your opponent. Acts as a pseudo-counterspell. It's not a bad card to play even without all of the fancy stuff. Can serve as temporary protection against a creature.
- Sol Ring - In my 10 years of playing Magic, I've never, ever used this card in a single deck. I suppose it's a good time now, since it allows for a Turn 2 Paradox Haze and the deck is a bit mana hungry.
- Regarding Lands: Mana needs to be used carefully in the deck. It's the main source of damage, and it piles up quicker than one might think. Ancient Tombs and Adarkar Wastes should be controlled carefully alongside Delaying Shield to make sure we're at 1-life for Paradox Haze's 2nd upkeep trigger for Near-Death Experience.
- Serra's Sanctum is of course a no-brainer in a 25-Enchantment deck. It also helps with Near-Death Experience's Triple WWW cost. Also abusable with Blood Clock - Tap for mana in the Upkeep, Return it, play it again Untapped for more mana!
The sideboard choices are all Artifacts/Enchantments, so they can be tutored via Enlightened Tutor.
Powder Keg should be brought in against heavy Artifact decks and decks that abuse "Enter the Battlefield" triggers - where Mark of Eviction would be useless against. Works well with Paradox Haze to quickly accumulate counters.
Leyline of Sanctity is for against Burn, and in general, decks that use a lot of targeted effects to you. Even if the current setup has it to minimize the chances of disruption against Near-Death Experience, there is still a chance. This stops people from targeting you completely, so it makes winning a guarantee.
Defense Grid + In the Eye of Chaos - to come in against Control decks. With Ancient Tomb + Sol Ring or Enlightened Tutor, Turn 1 or Turn 2 Defense Grid is very possible. This should slow down any reactive control deck, especially MUC. One might be confused at the anti-synergy with Leyline of Anticipation here, but please remember that the Leyline was originally added to play cards on Instant-Speed on our own turn, so D-Grid shouldn't be hard to play around for us.
Wheel of Sun and Moon - comes in against Mill or Graveyard based decks, and also if one wishes, against decks with extremely counters/removal. This allows destroyed/countered cards to be put back into the library to be tutored/drawn again.
Opalescence - An alternate win-condition if you're facing a deck that's just Anti-Near-Death-Experience and you don't feel like sideboarding too much. I thought about putting Mirror Universe in here for the lolz, but I guess this is more reliable.
Please use Enlightened Tutor accordingly with the tips above. It's also very acceptable to tutor for Sol Ring if you find yourself stuck early. You will often be tempted to use Enlightened Tutor on Turn 1 - this is not always the right move. Don't use it to fetch something expensive on Turn 1 i.e. Blood Clock until you know you'll have the mana for it. Oftentimes, doing so leads to mana screw.
Final Edit: A Message to the Judges:
Whew, what a huge post. I hope it was informative, and I'd appreciate it if the judges could take a while to study my decklist as it is a little different from what anyone would normally play. The win-condition is tricky, then one has to be very careful and meticulous in setting up Near-Death Experience. But I've done it succesfully and it's quite an evil deck. There are lots of synergies in the deck and it is important to search up the right combinations of cards, so I'd be grateful if the judges can take the time out to read what I have wrote before playtesting. It runs quite smoothly in my own testing, but the deck can look like it's trying to do too many things at once if it isn't piloted properly. As a fair warning, there will be tons of upkeep triggers, so it may be a hassle to go through the motions.
Lastly, this deck is NOT a Paradox Haze deck. Paradox Haze makes the deck better in many ways, but the typical pieces for a Haze deck aren't here, like Suspend cards Chronomantic Escape and Reality Strobe. These are only good with Paradox Haze, and I don't want that. Each card must be able to stand on its own. Additionally, you'll sometimes feel like you want to draw more - especially if you have control over the field and you're repeating stuff ad-nauseam on the upkeeps. However, at this point you should have a good control over the board with damage prevention and bounce, so please be patient in drawing the win-condition. Yes, it's going to be slow. It's U/W control - what did you expect? I hope it's fun for you to pilot.
The idea is like everyone else. Try to get to 1 life. My deck trys to nickle and dime my life away, but has the big combo of Mischievous Poltergeist which is far better then Wall of Blood. Angel's Grace should be in every single deck this round, it is the most important card that protects from losing when your at 1 life, or allows you to win when your opponenet thinks they have you with a mass creature attack or large Fireball.
So I ended up still going with my original idea of a worship deck. Even if I think a few other people will do one. Hopefully my deck will shine in it's own way.
Quick Explanation
So the idea will be to try and survive long enough through my various lifegaining, kor haven, black counters, StPS, False Prophet and Worship. Once I have established Near-Death Experience if I am holding a Phyrexian Processor I can just cast it and pay the required life and win next upkeep. In case of shenanigans I can always StPS one of the tokens I make with it to gain all that life back. If I don't have the processor I can just shock myself down. This deck plays very straight forward and direct so I wont bother explains good ways to play it.
Card Explanations:
All creatures in this deck are defensive first. First strike and deathtouch scare away a lot of attacks. The lifelink creatures also keep me going long enough to establish the combo's needed. Mother of Runes to save my creature's skin. Also a big help keeping worship going. False Prophet as my last creature for worship is delicious. If I am unable to keep it alive at least it will protect me from being beasted on by creatures.
Worship will probably be in a few decks but I have a worship/false prophet/orim's prayer/humility deck IRL that is devilish. I have been at 1 life for long stretches before so it just makes sense with NDE. Especially nasty when you add in False Prophet
Umezawa's Jitte mostly for the life gaining and pseudo-removal. I would rather not win by attacking with this deck obviously.
Sol Ring helps power out NDE, Worship and the Phryexian Processor.
Phryexian Processor gets me some nice beast for alternate wincon. It also allows me to pay the necessary life when I play it to get to 1 for NDE. I can also StPS a token at any point to negate the life cost of it in case I want/need to.
Pretty straightforward. Oblivion ring for pesky need to deal with card decks. Basics for decks with non-basic hate.
Edit 1 :Played two games so far with it and it did very well. Changed the mana base slightly as Fetid Heath didn't make sense since everything I had was a duel with the exception of Urgorb. Also needed more white generation I think. Doubt I will change much on this. Also realized I'm an idiot and Withering Boon is for creatures only. Gone. Replaced with 2 Mother of Runes and an extra Angel's Grace
-4 Fetid Heath, +2 Karakas, +2 Flagstones of Trokair
-3 Withering Boon, +2 Mother of Runes, +1 Angel's Grace
Edit 2: Added Sideboard
Edit 3 (and possibly final edit): Needed some sweep shenanigans protection. -1 Karakas, -1 Urborg, -1 Trokair, +3 Blinkmoth Nexus
Final Edit: Added an instant speed life manipulator to add further utility. The ability to rapidly gain all my life back in case something bad happens to NDE or worship has saved my skin on more than one occasion. As such had a hard time making enough cuts for this but: -1 Angel's Grace, -1 False Prophet, +2 Plunge Into Darkness
Okay I went to Black, pondered about Teferi/Leyline of Anticipation (even though dlink is the originator of that one) or even tried the good old fashioned survive on 1 life for as long as you can. But I present to you a fairly consistant and I believe unique [RGW] Near-Death Experience.
The Combo is Volcano Hellion and Near-Death Experience. This deck will act as a Psuedo Ramp deck that has a way out in case you're doing something wrong... or your opponent knows what you're up to.
The Combo is the Following:
Get Academy Rector into play
Flash in Volcano Hellion with Winding Canyons or Scout's Warning at the end of your opponent's turn.
- Hit your Rector for your life total minus 1 and win the following turn.
Okay so the reasoning behind this deck is that I did not want to use Black, Worship or Angel's Grace.
The Combo is protected with Sterling Grove and hence I only have one Near-Death Experience, but make no mistake - the deck is based on the card. In any case the opponent decides to exile NDE off somehow then you'll always have the single copy of my 61st card: Golden Wish to get it back. Remember that Primal Command makes it so that I can use my library over and over again, I can also gain life in case something happens.
The deck also has a fallback plan or rather, it makes your opponent think that the deck is based on the Naya Titans so that might deter his or her mind away from the core of the deck being NDE.
Basic explanations:
Lands:
I have land grabbers to help me smooth the base out. I also have utility lands for out favourite Titan.
Creatures:
As you can see, the Rector and Hellion are for the combo and the Land grabbers help a lot to ramp into titans or power the combo faster.
Non-creatures:
we have tutors to get the combo or even be aggressive. The scout's warning and Winding canyons from the lands are there to ensure a surprise win. If all goes well the combo can execute in 4 turns.
Sideboard:
this is basically a toolbox set for living wish and it mostly handles other control decks, as combo decks should have. The krosan grips are for well... basically anything threatening and the NDE is there just in case.
I assure you that this deck is based around NDE and that is the primary win condition, please have a careful look at the interaction of making your opponent sweat while you set yourself up.
I decided to build the deck around card draw that drains my life in order to draw cards. Necrologia is such a card that used my friend in my playground when we started to play magic. Here we go.
Generally, this is a black control deck pepped up white to fuel near death experience. White opens up for great cards such Swords to plowshares to keep up the board clear of nuisances and weathered wayfarer which is an awesome card to keep my lands going. I added Angles grace but only as a small insurance in case my opponent would be able to blow me up using burn spells etc. The deck is played pretty slowly. I control the board, discard, until I hit necrologia. Usually, the first necro is not the one that wins the game. Since I use spellbook I can draw a reasonable amount of life and establish my possition even further. Then cast the 2nd Necro and win the game through near death experience ...i know its risky since I need to held up for my next upkeep but lets do it
Hope I'm not spamming this thread, but I'm very curious how you choose those cards for each round
Before opening season 4, I (we) made a list of possible cards based on more or less random choices. Now I'm 'rolling dice'. There isn't a system of fixed criteria that each card had to pass.
Also i would welcome links to the previous rounds, not just seasons - it's easier than to search for them. (If that's possible).
sure. I'll update the first post. (one of those things that are so obvious that I miss them.)
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Each reality is but the dream of another, and each sleeper a god unknowing.
We define the boundaries of reality; they don't define us.
1 Vampiric Tutor - Restricted. Gets me whatever I need next draw
1 Demonic Tutor - Restricted. Gets me whatever I need immediately
4 Enlightened Tutor - Grab the Sensei's Top first, then the Vial or the Experience
4 Ancestral Vision - Cheap early draw
4 Mischievous Poltergeist - Part 1 of the combo
-> Note: With Aether Vial - Free and instant speed just before the Experience triggers
4 Mana Leak - Cheap early counter
4 Counterspell - The best counter
4 Vindicate - Removal of pesky land, creature, enchantment, ...
4 Wrath of God - Puts all creatures in a better place
2 Near-Death Experience - Part 2 of the combo
-> Since you untap before you Aether Vial a Poltergeist in, you can counter to protect it
3 Aether Vial - A sneaky cheap artifact that makes all of the difference in the deck
1 Sensei's Divining Top - Grab it early to ensure correct draws
Land Base - 24 Sources of Blue, 20 Sources of White, 20 Sources of Black usable immediately
This deck doesn't really appear to be that original (mostly cause it is not) but the idea is pretty straight forward.
How it (hopefully) works:
You get out a Blood Celebrant or a combination of any en-kor and Tethered Skirge and a Near-Death Experience and then either at the end of your opponents turn or the end of your first turn get to 1 life.
Card decision reasons: Academy Rector is a pretty obvious card, but in addition to it potientally dying, you can use en-kor to redirect damage to it making it so your opponent doesn't want to hurt any of your creatures (yay). Blood Celebrant I believe uses a mana ability, and cannot be responded to? If so that is pretty awesome. Tethered Skirge with all the en-kor this works well, the only problem is that your opponent can target him when you are at 1 to kill you... Leyline of Sanctity is a pretty important card because you will be at 1 life. I think every red spell ever made would kill you if they could target you when you are at 1 life. Greater Auramancy is kind of an insurance card, it pretty much makes them disenchant something before being able to disenchant your Near-Death Experience. I would be pretty mad if my opponent sided in some Disenchants and got rid of my win condition when I was at 1 life. Second Chance/Savor the Moment are hopefully what makes this deck a slight bit original. If you are going to be at 1 life, you might as well use cards that profit from it. You can get a Second Chance out on turn 3, do other stuff on turn 4 including getting yourself to 5 life, then win turn 5/6. Savor the Moment works because you aren't taking the extra turn to do things, you are taking it to get an upkeep.
As for the lands, the shard land is in all of my colors so it was pretty easy to include. I don't really care about losing 1 or 3 life, the purpose of the deck is to get to 1 life. I used basic lands for the rest because if it was all non-basic I would get killed by a Blood Moon.
A friend of mine alerted me to this thread, and told me that I should post my Near-Death Experience deck on here, so here it is, with some minor tweaks of cards I've recently thought of to add.
The deck can win using the aforementioned Plunge Into Darkness/Academy Rector for an instant win (was hoping I'd be the first to mention that :p) but beyond that is more of a controlling build, drawing cards and staying alive with fogging and combo protection until you can Necrologia, Pain's Reward, or Plunge down to 1 with at least one Angel's Grace in hand. Orim's Chant is good to slow the game down to your pace, stop disruption, and give you more time. Rebuff the Wicked can protect your Near-Death Experience from Naturalize/Disenchant, and even your Rector from unwanted exile effects (Path/Swords etc) The Oblivion Ring is there for utility against any problematic permanents if needed off a Rector trigger.
Sideboard: Silence alongside chant slows down decks and keeps control off your back when you want to go off, as well as keeping red in check early game, which is also backed by Kor Firewalker. Wrath is good protection to stay alive, and Intervention Pact gives the freedom to tap out every now and then in a tough match for any needed board position, and the lifegain can be negated by using painlands to pay the cost and generally ping you back down to 1. Gilded Light is just good to have in general against burn and the like, and cycles to boot.
And yes, I know I'm not running Necropotence. I thought long and hard about adding it, I did. However, I don't wanna use TOO too good cards because that takes the fun out of casual (aka anger my playgroup and get my decks hated out).
I was pretty happy when I saw the card for this round, my group had already been playtesting a build based around it for a month or so :).
So here's the build as it currently stands, I'll be making some tweaks to preference as the the week goes on and also add a small primer on how to play it.
This deck attempts to stall out the game with prolific removal removal, angel's grace, and/or worship + a manland and eventually land necropotence/Plunge into Darkness + NDE. We're packing a LOT of enchantments, so serra's sanctum becomes pretty key to the mana base. The elegance of this deck is that plunge and necro both attain NDE's requirement to win, and they help find it. This deck is entirely based around NDE, but it doesn't auto-lose from an extirpate, the manlands are a viable back-up.
Just got to say, you've definitely earned distinction as an MTGS hero
Quote from Stardust »
Because he's the hero MTGS deserves, and the one it needs right now. So we'll global him. Because he can take it. Because he's not just our hero. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector. An expired rascal.
Quote from LuckNorris »
ExpiredRascals you sir are a god-like hero.
Quote from Lanxal »
ER is a masterful god who cannot be beaten in any endeavour.
How to use it most effectively:
A)Use Bond of Agony to get you down to 1 life while you have near-death experience on the battlefield.
B)When an opponent deals you down to less that one life, use Angel's Grace while you have Near-Death Experience on the battlefield.
C) If things are looking Grim, play Voracious Hatchling to provide a strong defense.
D) Put Selenia back into your hand and play God's Wrath or Damnation.
E) Use Orzhov Guildmage to level your life total to 1 while you have Near-Death experience on the battlefield.
F) Use Diabolic Tutor to find Near-Death Experience.
G) When Accursed Centaur enters the battlefield, sacrifice Academy Rector to fetch Near-Death Experience.
The Deck is Called: Life and Death
Hope you like it!
This is definetly one of the weirdest decks I've ever made. Looking at Near-Death Experience, I wanted to do something that was out there and different while still keeping viability. I believe I've got that here.
The synergy in this deck is insane. On the surface, it looks like a random pile of red and white cards, but deeper down, it's a deadly and well-oiled machine. The path to the win is obviously Near-Death Experience, and there are three ways to get to the magic one life.
The first, and easiest way, is through Volcano Hellion. (There's actually a use for this card, would would've thought?) Play this guy and name however much damage it takes you to get to one life. As for the creature to target, it doesn't really matter what you pick (even the hellion itself).
The second path to victory is Pyrohemia. Now, you might be thinking, "Salty, what happens when all the creatures on the board die?" The answer lies in Darksteel Plate. Throw this crazy equipment on a Fortune Thief or even a hellion if you need to, and you've got a soft lock that's pretty hard to beat. Fortune Thief and Darksteel Plate can sometimes even be enough to win you games through concession, or be used as a safety net after you land a hellion. After you drop your indestructible creature, just burn to your heart's content.
The third pathway is, of course, getting your opponent to hit you. There's actually something to be said about dropping a late-game Near-Death Experience after your opponent has unknowingly hit you right into your trap. This is made easier with the inclusion of Sun Droplet. In this context, the use of it would be precise life adjustment. But on top of that, this along with Ghostly Prison ensures your survival into the late game so you can set up any one of the three win pathways.
Like my tower deck last round, this deck's path to victory might not be evident on paper, but take my word for it, it works in-game. I'd advise the other judges to make sure you have the synergy worked out before deciding upon a game plan while playing. I've been testing this all week, and I'm still finding some new interactions.
*In lack of a better deck name, I chose to name my deck based off of what I was listening to while I was playtesting.
I would like to know as well. I play-tested mine as well and it did just fine. It seems like the only decks that were picked were the first ones to post each unique idea. If it is a race to post ideas than this competition loses steam. In order to handle that better we need a way to post the decks so noone can see the posts until the contest is closed.
For instance, maybe send a message to Blut with the deck, then he sends them to the other judges. Once the round is locked, then they are posted and treated as if they came out at the same time.
If I find a great idea or synergy, I don't want to lose points if someone else posted early because they don't have a job or they live on this site 24/7.
I gotta be honest. I wasn't going to say anything as I wasn't sure if it was only me that thought this way but I really feel that the voting process is biased.
During the previous round I was told by blut that power can only count for a max of 5 in this the contest. Now not saying that build deserved a 5 for power but from my play testing it should have been a 4.5 if not a 5. It's record on MWS was along the lines of 14-1. Also, every other round where anybody has posted a broken, yet powerful, deck they haven't been voted into the top 8.
Now take into consideration that every single truly unique and original deck has been voted into the top 8. Some of those decks have later bombed(my moonfolk deck being one of them) in the scoring as the had little in the way of either card adherence, power, protection or synergy. Originality is also only worth a max of 5 but doesn't seem to be getting graded on the same level as power for instance. Am I the only one seeing this?
I also agree with King that I feel we need some other way to post the decks. I also work and can't post decks as fast as other people so I need to rush a deck when I get home Sunday nights (usually around 11pm) and throw a deck together to try and stake claim to some kind of idea.
My deck I felt has good protection as I was the only one in the group to be able to gain life back in case I lost it when I didn't want to. In addition there are many ways to keep my life at one once I'm there as well as running lots of removal (especially if you include the sideboard).
The deck won many times so there power is there.
I have multiple ways both sorcery and instant speed and through lands to lower my life to 1 so the synergy I felt is there as well.
Overall I felt it offered good card adherence as everything in my build worked towards getting NDE to work.
That means the only category I know I was weak in was originality.
Did I just do poorer in the rest of these categories than everyone else then?
I don't think it had anything to do with being the "first to post a unique idea". I can only speak for myself here, but this round in particular was harder to pick. There were only 3 or 4 decks that I thought were an absolute YES for the top 8, and all the rest were kind of in a middle ground for me, making it really hard to pick the rest. Without the time to play test every single deck, multiple times against multiple matchups, you kinda gotta go with a gut feeling on what you think would be fun and interesting to play.
(If you could break down any of the builds, without truly scoring of course, in each category briefly and explain how one of the absolute builds scores higher in each category than mine for instance I would appreciate it.)
After a flashback to the early days of our beloved game, we return back to the future.
Please omit jokes about wether this round's cards is NSFW, because it's about a guy with a whip, tentacle alien monsters and mechanically of masochistic nature.
- Any member of the MTGSalvation forums can submit a deck for the contest, including judges.
- A submitted deck has to contain the card of the current round and has to be built around the card in some way. While no negative points are given for an uncommented deck, giving judges insight on your ideas and tricks improves their understanding of your deck.
- Contestants can only submit one deck per round. But as long as judging has not started yet, you can edit your deck, change it alltogether or withdraw it.
- This is "Casual". -> Only the cards banned in Vintage, silver bordered & celebration cards are banned. There is no Restricted list. If you want to add four Black Lotus, go for it - it should be noted though, that some of the judges might not be too keen on seeing too many broken cards in decks.
- The cards to build around in the ten rounds have already been selected.
- Contestants have seven days to build and post their decks for each round.
- Judges consult to select the top 8 decks that will be judged for that round during the next day.
- The next six days, judges will test and rate the top 8 decks.
- A ranking of the contestants’ scores will be posted and the winner will be announced.
- There are four judges. The three volunteer judges are: Bustin, Captain Salty & ExpiredRascals. And me.
- From the time the entry period ends in a given round, the other three judges have 24 hours to PM me their top 9 (most likely the top 8 plus their own =P) submitted decklists of the round. I will then announce the top 8 decklists elected for rating (accroding to the matrix below).
- A judge cannot rate his or her own entry. -> If a judge's deck made a round's top 8, he or she will refrain from rating that particular deck and only rate the other decks.
- Judges are encouraged to add some comments as to why they gave a certain score to a certain deck.
- A deck's four (/three) scores will be arithmeticaly averaged.
- Judges are out-of-contest for the final-ranking.
How creative and original is your deck.
Effectiveness/Card adherence: 0 to 5 points
How well does it use the selected card?
Synergy/Tuning: 0 to 5 points
How well do the cards combine in the deck; elegance and card selection.
Power/Capacity to win: 0 to 5 points
Can the deck deliver the goods?
Interaction/Protection: 0 to 5 points
How well does the deck interact and deal with other decks.
1 point for any format adherence other than Vintage/Legacy; 1 point for incorporation of theme/flavour.
- As with the first season, ten rounds will be played.
- To be included in the final ranking, a player has to make the top 8 in atleast four of the ten rounds. (If no player meets this criteria, it will be lowered accordingly.)
- At the end of the season, the player within the final ranking having the highest arithmetical average of top 8 scores becomes the Champion. Example: Xanth participates in all ten round, makes it to the top 8 five times and gets f.e. 24 points each round. Mindslavor participates in three rounds, makes it to the top 8 in all of these three rounds and gets trice 25 points. All other players have an average < 24. -> Despite having a lower average than Mindslavor, Xanth wins, because Mindslavor hasn't met the criteria of having atleast four top eight scores.
For each round, a card is scheduled. Anyone can enter the contest and submit a deck using that card.
Contestants can post their decks during an entry period of seven days. In the following seven days the judges (Bustin, Captain Salty, ExpiredRascals and me) will elect the eight best decks submitted, to test and rate these decks. After (planned) ten rounds the contest will have a winner.
Did I mention the price for the Champ?
[official] CDCC 4 general discussion thread.
The current season's rounds 0, 1, 2, ...
Past seasons 1, 2 & 3.
3x Near-Death Experience
2x Solitary Confinement
2x Ghostly Prison
3x Oblivion Ring
2x Phyrexian Reclamation
Sorceries: 10
3x Idyllic Tutor
4x Castigate
3x Night's Whisper
3x Swords to Plowshares
3x Mortify
Creatures: 10
3x Wall of Blood
4x Kami of False Hope
3x Street Wraith
Lands: 22
3x Caves of Koilos
3x Fetid Heath
5x Plains
5x Swamp
4x Marsh Flats
2x Godless Shrine
4x Thoughtseize
2x Story Circle
3x Black Sun's Zenith
2x Wrath of God
1x Oblivion Ring
3x Tormod's Crypt
For my deck this round I went with the often powerful combination of B/W for colours. These two colours paired together offer great control/hand disruption options to disrupt my opponent while I get Near-Death Experience online.
Playing the deck:
The easiest way to win with this deck is to get a Near-Death Experience and a Wall of Blood in play together. While this isn't necessary it is by far the easiest way to get to 1 life. Remember: your opponent's goal is the same as yours. Instead of blocking as you normally would, take the damage when you can. There are lots of ways to lock out your opponent and keep yourself at 1 life. If you have the cards in hand to keep it alive, Solitary Confinement is game over. You don't take the damage from Caves of Koilos when it's in play, so trying to ping yourself to 1 doesn't work with Solitary Confinement. The rest of the cards are very self-explanatory in that they disrupt your opponent. Castigate takes away any problem cards. Oblivion Ring and Mortify deal with what's already on the board.
Sideboarding:
Burn: -4 Kami of False Hope, -2 Ghostly Prison, +4 Thoughseize, +2 Story Circle
Counter: Similar to burn, don't necessarily need Story Circle
Aggro: -2 Oblivion Ring, -3 Mortify, +3 Black Sun's Zenith, +2 Wrath of God.
Mid-Range Aggro (Bant/Exalted, Jund, etc.): Similar to normal aggro, but put in all your Wraths - you get more value out of them than the Zenith
Graveyard Strategies: Tormod's Crypt
Card Choices:
Castigate: Who doesn't want to exile problem cards from an opponent's hand? I also experimented with Conjurer's Ban in this slot and the added draw was nice, but it didn't actually remove the problem card.
Night's Whisper: Easier to cast than Sign in Blood and you pretty much only want to target yourself in this deck. Nice draw option in B/W decks.
Swords to Plowshares: Strictly better than Path to Exile in this deck since you won't be beating face. Let them gain 1 or 10, it doesn't matter.
Mortify: More instant-speed creature and enchantment removal.
Wall of Blood: Combo enabler, though not necessary - remember your opponent wants to kill you so they'll often do your work for you. Wall of Blood is an easy way to get those last few points. It's often over-looked by your opponent. I recommend blocking with it and paying the life, save your removal for fliers/evasion creatures.
Kami of False Hope: Also often ignored by your opponent, this let's you decide when you take damage. Math skills are appreciated in this deck. Sideboard out for Thoughtseize if you're playing a creature-light deck.
Street Wraith: Free Cycling! Chuck the wraith for 2 life, getting you closer to your win-con. Get it back with Phyrexian Reclamation!
Near-Death Experience: Your win condition. Your opponents love helping you win. Play it when you can, you should have the disruption to avoid it being destroyed. Tutor it up if you need to win!
Ghostly Prison: Slows down aggro decks and makes the math easier. Can be tutored for with Idyllic Tutor.
Oblivion Ring: Try to use this on Planeswalkers, Encantments and Artifacts. Creatures are your opponent's main source of damage, and that helps you win. You also have 7 other spot removal spells to deal with creatures so don't waste your O-rings on them. Can be tutored up with Idyllic Tutor.
Solitary Confinement: MVP of so many games. Drop this when you're at 1-4 life with the cards to discard to it and ping yourself down to 1 with Wall of Blood. You can sacrifice it during your upkeep and ping yourself with Caves of Koilos, just make sure they're not holding a Lightning Bolt when you do. Absolutely stomps direct damage decks, and well, most decks. Tutor for the win.
Phyrexian Reclamation: This card can pull some sweet shenanigans with Kami of False Hope and Street Wraith. It's pretty clutch in high-aggro situations where you actually might need a Kami every turn. It can also pull off huge life deductions with Street Wraith while digging through your library. It's also fun to sac a Kami and return it to your hand just for the life loss (hint: do it at the end of your opponent's turn when you have 3 life).
I really enjoyed building around this alternate-win condition card. It's always a good time when your opponent "LOLs" when you steal the win with 1 life. Hope you guys enjoy playing the deck, feel free to ask any questions, can't wait to hear your comments and feedback! The title of the deck comes from a hidden flavour I noticed while playing it. I dropped a Ghostly Prison then a Solitary Confinement and then a Near-Death Experience for the win. I locked myself out of the game in a prison-like fashion, then was sent to Solitary Confinement which was a Near-Death Experience and came out of it enlightened and more powerful than ever.
Multiplayer:
MonoBlack
Mono-Red
Cycling
Crush of Wurms
Zoo
Immortal Coil
Control
Reanimator
Mono-G
Cruel Ascension
Landfall
Esper Spirits/Tokens
Phantom Vigor
Not Explicitly Multiplayer:
Allies
Bant
Artifacts
Ok on to the deck...
They say a near-death experience can be religiously profound.
Here is the story of a peculiar cult of tribesmen that - with the help of a bored planeswalker (you) - convince simple-minded folks of different planes to join them on their quest to not-quite die...
The "Edgewalkers" (as they were known in their time) were later discovered to be the ancestors of the Jackass creators...
4 Academy Rector
3 Battletide Alchemist
3 Daunting Defender
3 Monk Idealist
3 Weathered Wayfarer
4 Edgewalker
Spells (18)
3 Near-Death Experience
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Seal Of Cleansing
4 Pain's Reward
2 Seal of Doom
3 Pestilence
2 Patriarch's Bidding
2 Starlit Sanctum
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Glacial Chasm
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Volrath's Stronghold
3 Orzhov Basilica
3 Fetid Heath
8 Plains
2 Swamp
Cleric Tribal!!
Ok, first for the cards that didn't make it but might have been obvious choices.
- You can't play chicken without some risks, where would be the fun in that? so I say phooey on Angel's Grace :cool2:...
- I always have my multiplayer casual group in mind when I make a deck these days. In our midst, "Win the Game" cards are somewhat frowned upon so when I saw Plunge into Darkness, I elected to go without. It would have made the deck too much combo for my taste.
Onto the cards I did choose (besides the round's card which needs no explanation... I hope):
- Academy Rector: Yawn right? In any other setting maybe, but here he fits also because he is a cleric (notice that the only way to sac him is with Starlit Sanctum).
- Battletide Alchemist: She's the one allowing me to not-die at my own pace thank you. Bonus is she can help any of my teammates if playing in that type of setting (which happens a lot for us). One is enough for any and all Pestilence activations.
- Daunting Defender: He takes care of my creatures. I had hired Hedron-Field Purists at some point, but the Purists have taken the hypocrathic oath it seems and they clearly indicated that they want nothing to do with me damaging myself, so I had to ditch them.
- Monk Idealist: Since I designed this for multiplayer, recursion is important; everybody I play with packs some hate and since my deck is not designed to win quasi-instantly once NDE is out, it's bound to be targeted. Also with Rector/Idealist/Patriarch's Bidding/Volrath's Stronghold, I've got me a pretty efficient enchantment toolbox and that's always nice.
- Weathered Wayfarer: You could say I'm a sucker for toolboxes in decks, here's one for lands which complements what my other toolbox might miss. Wayfarer is also a pretty good fixer and sometimes preventer of mana screw.
- Edgewalker: Self explanatory, plus the name fits with the flavor of the round's card, yeah...
- Oblivion Ring/Seal of Cleansing/Seal of Doom: You could say to yourself, why 2 of each? Let's just say I'd rather have the Seals do the job, but alas there are some creatures Seal of Doom can't deal with, hence the O-ring (plus it gives me something vs Planeswalkers).
- Pain's Reward might not be as quick as Plunge but it generates better card advantage over a longer-run game imho.
- Pestilence: In conjunction with my clerics, it gives me a way to control the game and I also believe in alternate win-cons. I can use it to kill the Rector if Daunting Defender isn't in play... (Ahh, if only Defender had a "may" clause like with the Alchemist, oh well).
- Patriarch's Bidding: Resets are kind of annoying in multiplayer aren't they?
- Starlit Sanctum: Auto-include in most Cleric decks, here it fits to fetch me NDE in conjunction with the Rector. On top it allows me some control over my life points in crucial moments + it gives me an additional win-con.
- Bojuka Bog: Auto-include in all my multiplayer decks with B, but here it also allows me to be more liberal with the Bidding. Notice also the Basilicas that allow me to recur it.
- Glacial Chasm: Gives me an ultimate back-up, in case my clerics aren't feeling up to it. Also useful if playing VS red and I have a feeling some big DD spell is heading my way.
- Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: Most of the deck is white, Pestilence needs some support if I decide to "go to town" with it.
4 Quicken
4 Polymorph
2 Academy Rector
2 Soulgorger Orgg
2 Near-Death Experience
Get the goods
4 Brainstorm
4 Gifts Ungiven
4 Merchant Scroll
3 Expedition Map
4 Angel's Grace
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Oblivion Ring
Land
4 Ancient Den
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Glimmervoid
3 Darksteel Citadel
2 Seachrome Coast
1 Karakas
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1 Tolarian Academy
The idea is to target Academy Rector with Polymorph, to fetch both Soulgorger Orgg and NDE at the same time. The rest of the deck is finding stuff and protection. Quicken should allow for opponent's EOT winning play.
Polymorph - It's accustomed to being a card that wins games, only this time it does it in an unheard of way.
Academy Rector - Recently released in MODO, it's one of the few enchantment tutors available. Targeting him with Polymorph allows to get NDE out and at the same time meet the 1-life requirement to win the game, with the help of...
Soulgorger Orgg - Insta-1-life when it hits the board, he's the perfect companion to NDE. See below for comments on putting a red creature in a deck.
Near-Death Experience - I'm a big fan of "you win" cards (check sig). This CDCC was very fun for me.
Quicken - At first I was sad that Polymorph is a sorcery, so I was concerned about surviving a turn with just 1 life, until I remembered this card. EOT is the best way to go with this deck!
Brainstorm - Besides the obvious card advantage, it's purpose is to put "fetchable" combo pieces back in the library. I had See Beyond at first, but since Brainstorm is not restricted in Classic (MTGO player here :embarrass:) I thought 1 less mana for 1 more card wouldn't hurt.
Gifts Ungiven - Very good for tutoring out defense, or Rector. I also like how you can get the second Rector (if you already drew one) out of the way from Polymorph.
Merchant Scroll - Besides Quicken, Brainstorm and Gifts are very important to the deck, so this is almost like copies 5-8 of each.
Angel's Grace - At first this was Holy Day. I was reluctant to include this (originality and all) but it's just plain better.
Swords to Plowshares - In this deck, strictly better than Path to Exile since you won't be caring about the other player's life total, like at all.
Oblivion Ring - Very good when the threat is not a creature you can StP out of the way, also fetchable with a spare Rector.
Mana Base - This requires a longer explanation:
The mana base could seem out of place to some people. What is Tolarian Academy doing in a deck that doesn't have lots of artifacts? Artifact lands in a non-affinity deck?
Well, the thing is that I was concerned about having to hard-cast that nightmare orgg, but I didn't want to "actually" have to splash red. I figured a five-color land would be enough. And from all of the WUBRG producing lands out there, the one with the, IMHO, mildest drawback is Glimmervoid. No ETBT, no pain, no restriction on what you can cast. You just need to make sure you have an artifact out. And with a big part of the other lands being artifacts, this is easily met. It has its risks, but in all my playtests I didn't have to worry about it. That led to the Academy, which is not supposed to break the deck, but it gives a little ramp, enough to cast that Quickened Polymorph, for example. Sometimes it's an Island, or a Teferi's Isle without phasing. Sometimes it's a colored Mishra's Workshop with no restriction. If it gets better than that, you've probably had a long game. And with this land, I always add Minamo, as a "better" Island.
Finally, Karakas. It used to be Diamond Valley, as a secondary outlet for the Rector, but in more than one occasion I ended up wanting a Plains instead. So, Karakas is a better Plains, as it bounces other people's Emrakuls.
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4 Flooded Strand
4 Tundra
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Adarkar Wastes
4 Ancient Tomb
2 Serra's Sanctum
1 Halimar Depths
1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
Spells 6
4 Enlightened Tutor
2 Brainstorm
3 Near-Death Experience
4 Paradox Haze
4 Leyline of Anticipation
3 Delaying Shield
3 Oblivion Ring
4 Mark of Eviction
2 Porphyry Nodes
1 Runed Halo
1 Reality Acid
Artifacts: 5
4 Blood Clock
1 Sol Ring
4 Powder Keg
4 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Defense Grid
1 In the Eye of Chaos
2 Wheel of Sun and Moon
1 Opalescence
The Deck Concept:
The Core of the Deck is This: Paradox Haze + Leyline of Anticipation + Near-Death Experience.
I'm sure it's weird at first glance, as it doesn't seem to do anything. But let's take it card-by-card.
1. Enchant yourself with Paradox Haze, now you'll have 2 upkeeps per turn. This immediately solves the intervening upkeep-clause problem of Near-Death Experience. Normally, you would need to do something to modify your life total to 1 on your opponent's turn so Near-Death Experience triggers on your upkeep. This is dangerous and leaves you vulnerable, as your opponent knows you'll be doing this since normally Near-Death Experience is already out on the field. However, with Paradox Haze, you can modify your life total on your own turn (After You Untap!). So you can do various things to get to 1-life on the 1st upkeep, and then win on the 2nd upkeep.
2. Leyline of Anticipation - now Near-Death Experience has Flash. This means your opponent will never see it coming. The deck is purposefully designed to make it seem like we're not playing a Near-Death Experience deck. Seriously, who would expect that you are? Your opponent will think you're playing some weird Paradox Haze deck, and then once you're close to 1-life, Flash in Near-Death Experience, and then win out of nowhere!
With both Leyline of Anticipation and Paradox Haze, you can Flash in Near-Death Experience on your 1st Upkeep, and then win on your 2nd. Your opponent is much more likely to have tapped out on his turn since he can't anticipate Near-Death Experience, and you'll be more safe from disruption than normal. See what I mean by Magic Theory?
3. As I mentioned above, the deck is designed to make it seem like we're NOT playing a Near-Death Experience deck. The main sources of life-loss are the lands: Flooded Strand, Hallowed Fountain, Adarkar Wastes, Ancient Tomb. This is not much different than what a normal U/W Control deck plays. Same with Blood Clock - no one would ever think that we're using this to get to 1-life. So you see, it's all a big ruse to trick the opponent and surprise him at the very end
-Delaying Shield. This slot is probably going to be Worship in many other decks. However, Delaying Shield is far superior in my deck. This prevents damage until my Upkeep, and when I untap, I have control over how much life I lose. This is key to manipulating life-totals for Near-Death Experience. With Leyline of Anticipation, this is a surprise damage shield. With Blood Clock, it means you'll never take damage again - just make sure you stack the effects correctly so Blood Clock's resolves first.
- Blood Clock - Can you say Flavor? I think it goes along (thematically) well with Near-Death Experience. I originally split it 2/2 with Umbilicus, but I opted for Flavor here. Anyways, you can use this card in 2 ways with Paradox Haze. You can Enchant your opponent with Haze so they suffer from Blood Clock twice, and in the late game, you return Pardox Haze via Blood Clock's own ability since the core of the deck (as explained above) requires that we Enchant ourselves. Additionally, I included cards that benefit from "Enter the Battlefield" triggers and Multiple Returns via Blood Clock so we don't necessarily have to enchant the opponent all the time. This combos with almost everything in this deck - I'll explain each in their own card section below.
- Porphyry Nodes - One of the ways of stopping Aggro very early. Benefits from Paradox Haze with multiple upkeeps. Works with Blood Clock so that if there is only 1 creature on the field, we stack the upkeep trigger so that Blood Clock's resolves first, returning Porphyry Nodes while still destroying the creature. This also benefits from Leyline of Anticipation - normally if this is played at Sorcery Speed, your opponent won't drop a 2nd creature so this card can be destroyed. However, if you drop this via Flash after your opponent has dropped his 2nd creature, then it becomes a 1-mana 2-for-1. On top of that, it totally destroys their tempo as it means they'll be less inclined to play creatures until this goes away. The effect is also non-targeting! Can you really ask for more?
- Mark of Eviction - Alongside Porphyry Nodes, this is vital for holding back creatures. Normally, this can only be used once per turn, but with Paradox Haze + Leyline of Anticipation, it gets even better. With Haze/Leyline, you play this at the end of your opponent's turn. 1st upkeep, return the creature, and play Mark of Eviction again. 2nd upkeep, repeat. The tempo advantage this causes is HUGE. Even with just Leyline of Anticipation, Mark of Eviction is a big threat. Turn 0 Leyline + Turn 1 instant speed Mark of Eviction means reusable Unsummon every turn! And of course, Mark of Eviction is a good card, even by itself. Yes, it only stops the creature every other turn, but we actually do want creatures to attack us at some point to get to 1-life. We don't want to stop all damage (via Delaying Shield) until we have a good control over the board.
- Oblivion Ring - All-star removal, but serves other functions in here as well. With Leyline of Anticipation, this is also as a method of saving one of your non-land permanents from removal at Instant-Speed. Return it with Blood Clock to use again on a better target. There are no stack shenanigans to permanently remove something, but it's still good. It can also save Porphyry Nodes from being sent to the graveyard.
- Paradox Haze - One more thing I'll say about this card is that you can return this to your hand to target someone else. A backup plan for this deck in case Near-Death Experience doesn't work out is Blood Clock + Paradox Haze to overwhelm and kill a player. Not exactly the most reliable method around, but extremely funny, and doable.
- Reality Acid - I originally had more of these, until I realized they didn't work so well with Blood Clock. If you enchant an opponent's permanent with this while having Blood Clock out, they'll simply return the permanent and this will be unattached. However, the scenario becomes completely different if you have Leyline of Anticipation out. In that case, Blood Clock + Reality Acid is a reusable Vindicate. Flash Reality Acid on your opponent's turn, return it to your hand with Blood Clock on your turn. Repeat on the opponent's next turn. If Leyline of Anticipation isn't available, then it is possible to do this combo with Oblivion Ring:
Enchant something with Reality Acid. Next turn, use Oblivion Ring on Reality Acid. This makes Reality Acid's ability trigger, and the permanent becomes sacrificed. Then drop Blood Clock, and return Oblivion Ring each turn - causing Reality Acid to come back to be targeted by O-Ring, repeat, etc. A bit of a hassle, but it is a way of getting rid of resolved permanents forever, and I think the fact that it is resuable makes it good.
- Runed Halo - a silver bullet card against random cards. Reusable with Blood Clock, Flash it in with Leyline of Anticipation to surprise your opponent. Acts as a pseudo-counterspell. It's not a bad card to play even without all of the fancy stuff. Can serve as temporary protection against a creature.
- Enlightened Tutor - It gets every non-land card except Brainstorm for 1-mana. Enough Said.
- Brainstorm - Use with Fetches, and shuffle away the redundant enchantments like the 2nd Leyline of Singularity or Delaying Shield.
- Sol Ring - In my 10 years of playing Magic, I've never, ever used this card in a single deck. I suppose it's a good time now, since it allows for a Turn 2 Paradox Haze and the deck is a bit mana hungry.
- Regarding Lands: Mana needs to be used carefully in the deck. It's the main source of damage, and it piles up quicker than one might think. Ancient Tombs and Adarkar Wastes should be controlled carefully alongside Delaying Shield to make sure we're at 1-life for Paradox Haze's 2nd upkeep trigger for Near-Death Experience.
- Serra's Sanctum is of course a no-brainer in a 25-Enchantment deck. It also helps with Near-Death Experience's Triple WWW cost. Also abusable with Blood Clock - Tap for mana in the Upkeep, Return it, play it again Untapped for more mana!
- Halimar Depths has a nice effect, reusable with Blood Clock if necessary. Mikokoro, Center of the Sea was added to make up for the lack of draw power.
Powder Keg should be brought in against heavy Artifact decks and decks that abuse "Enter the Battlefield" triggers - where Mark of Eviction would be useless against. Works well with Paradox Haze to quickly accumulate counters.
Leyline of Sanctity is for against Burn, and in general, decks that use a lot of targeted effects to you. Even if the current setup has it to minimize the chances of disruption against Near-Death Experience, there is still a chance. This stops people from targeting you completely, so it makes winning a guarantee.
Defense Grid + In the Eye of Chaos - to come in against Control decks. With Ancient Tomb + Sol Ring or Enlightened Tutor, Turn 1 or Turn 2 Defense Grid is very possible. This should slow down any reactive control deck, especially MUC. One might be confused at the anti-synergy with Leyline of Anticipation here, but please remember that the Leyline was originally added to play cards on Instant-Speed on our own turn, so D-Grid shouldn't be hard to play around for us.
Wheel of Sun and Moon - comes in against Mill or Graveyard based decks, and also if one wishes, against decks with extremely counters/removal. This allows destroyed/countered cards to be put back into the library to be tutored/drawn again.
Opalescence - An alternate win-condition if you're facing a deck that's just Anti-Near-Death-Experience and you don't feel like sideboarding too much. I thought about putting Mirror Universe in here for the lolz, but I guess this is more reliable.
Blood Clock + Delaying Shield = Never take damage again.
Blood Clock + Porphyry Nodes = Destroy an opponent's creature, and Save Porphyry Nodes from being sacrificed.
Blood Clock + Serra's Sanctum = Tap it for mana on upkeep to play something or pay for Delaying Shield, then return, play again untapped.
Blood Clock + Paradox Haze = Overwhelm opponent early game, return Paradox Haze late game via Blood Clock's ability, and enchant yourself to use "Enter the Battlefield triggers" twice.
Leyline of Anticipation + Mark of Eviction = Unsummon every turn.
Leyline of Anticipation + Blood Clock + Reality Acid = Instant-Speed Vindicate every turn
Oblivion Ring + Blood Clock + Reality Acid = Slower Vindicate.
These are Technically Bombos...
Blood Clock + Mark of Eviction - your opponent will return the enchanted creature
Blood Clock + Reality Acid - your opponent will simply return the permanent
However, you can use them to force an opponent to return something he doesn't normally want to return via Blood Clock. Also, the bombos are fixed by Leyline of Anticipation - play Mark of Eviction and Reality Acid at Instant-Speed to get around your opponent's upkeep Blood Clock trigger.
Please use Enlightened Tutor accordingly with the tips above. It's also very acceptable to tutor for Sol Ring if you find yourself stuck early. You will often be tempted to use Enlightened Tutor on Turn 1 - this is not always the right move. Don't use it to fetch something expensive on Turn 1 i.e. Blood Clock until you know you'll have the mana for it. Oftentimes, doing so leads to mana screw.
Lastly, this deck is NOT a Paradox Haze deck. Paradox Haze makes the deck better in many ways, but the typical pieces for a Haze deck aren't here, like Suspend cards Chronomantic Escape and Reality Strobe. These are only good with Paradox Haze, and I don't want that. Each card must be able to stand on its own. Additionally, you'll sometimes feel like you want to draw more - especially if you have control over the field and you're repeating stuff ad-nauseam on the upkeeps. However, at this point you should have a good control over the board with damage prevention and bounce, so please be patient in drawing the win-condition. Yes, it's going to be slow. It's U/W control - what did you expect? I hope it's fun for you to pilot.
+2/-2 Ancestral Vision (added and taken out again), +2 Brainstorm, -1 Halimar Depths, +1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea, -2 Everflowing Chalice, -3 Reality Acid, + 3 Oblivion Ring, -2 Porphyry Nodes, +1/-1 Declaration of Naught, +1 Sol Ring, +1 Runed Halo
R: Copypasta Sauce {Browbeat}
UR: Mana Cache , One Spell to Bind them All {Magnetic Theft}
UG: Epic Struggle , All-In-Poison {Metamorphosis}
UW: Planar Overlay , Decree of the Bailiff {Saprazzan Bailiff}
BG: Thought Gorger , Dark Chroma {Umbra Stalker}
UBR: Dwarven Shrine
WUBRG: Dissipation Field , Maelstrom Nexus
1x Plains
1x Swamp
4x City of Brass
2x Flooded Strand
1x High Market
4x Marsh Flats
2x Underground Sea
2x Tundra
4x Scrubland
4x Academy Rector
4x Mischievous Poltergeist
4x Wall of Denial
Artifacts:
2x Talisman of Dominance
2x Talisman of Progress
1x Sol Ring
Enchantments:
3x Near-Death Experience
1x Propaganda
1x Ghostly Prison
1x Greed
4x Angel's Grace
1x Skeletal Scrying
1x Mystical Tutor
4x Swords to Plowshares
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Flash
1x Demonic Tutor
2x Night's Whisper
1x Wrath of God
1x Damnation
The idea is like everyone else. Try to get to 1 life. My deck trys to nickle and dime my life away, but has the big combo of Mischievous Poltergeist which is far better then Wall of Blood. Angel's Grace should be in every single deck this round, it is the most important card that protects from losing when your at 1 life, or allows you to win when your opponenet thinks they have you with a mass creature attack or large Fireball.
The deck also tries to cheat out Near-Death Experience with Academy Rector. Flash is for Rector, so you can cheat NDE into play as soon as turn 2 similar to Protean Hulk & Flash. Also picked High Market for a Rector sac. However, I kind of want it to be Diamond Valley if im in a pinch.
BUWGRChilds PlayGRWUB
BUWGR Highlander GRWUB
UBSquee's Shapeshifting PetBU
BW Multiplayer Control WB
RG Changeling GR
UR Mana FlareRU
UMerfolkU
B MBMC B
2x Angel's Grace
4x Swords to Plowshares
4x Enlightened Tutor
2x Plunge Into Darkness
Artifacts (5)
2x Phyrexian Processor
2x Umezawa's Jitte
1x Sol Ring
Enchantments (6)
3x Worship
3x Near-Death Experience
Creatures (13)
4x Vampire Nighthawk
3x False Prophet
4x Knight of Meadowgrain
2x Mother of Runes
1x Karakas
1x Flagstones of Trokair
4x Godless Shrine
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2x Kor Haven
4x Scrubland
4x Caves of Koilos
4x Marsh Flats
3x Blinkmoth Nexus
4x Oblivion Ring
6x Plains
5x Swamp
So I ended up still going with my original idea of a worship deck. Even if I think a few other people will do one. Hopefully my deck will shine in it's own way.
Quick Explanation
So the idea will be to try and survive long enough through my various lifegaining, kor haven,
black counters, StPS, False Prophet and Worship. Once I have established Near-Death Experience if I am holding a Phyrexian Processor I can just cast it and pay the required life and win next upkeep. In case of shenanigans I can always StPS one of the tokens I make with it to gain all that life back. If I don't have the processor I can just shock myself down. This deck plays very straight forward and direct so I wont bother explains good ways to play it.Card Explanations:
Worship will probably be in a few decks but I have a worship/false prophet/orim's prayer/humility deck IRL that is devilish. I have been at 1 life for long stretches before so it just makes sense with NDE. Especially nasty when you add in False Prophet
Umezawa's Jitte mostly for the life gaining and pseudo-removal. I would rather not win by attacking with this deck obviously.
Sol Ring helps power out NDE, Worship and the Phryexian Processor.
Phryexian Processor gets me some nice beast for alternate wincon. It also allows me to pay the necessary life when I play it to get to 1 for NDE. I can also StPS a token at any point to negate the life cost of it in case I want/need to.
Angel's Grace is obvious
Enlightened Tutor for utility. Helps if you need a piece of your wincon/protection, which are all fetchable.
Plunge Into Darkness for instant speed life manipulation.
The mana base should be pretty straightforward.
Sideboard Explanation:
Edit 1 :Played two games so far with it and it did very well. Changed the mana base slightly as Fetid Heath didn't make sense since everything I had was a duel with the exception of Urgorb. Also needed more white generation I think. Doubt I will change much on this. Also realized I'm an idiot and Withering Boon is for creatures only. Gone. Replaced with 2 Mother of Runes and an extra Angel's Grace
-4 Fetid Heath, +2 Karakas, +2 Flagstones of Trokair
-3 Withering Boon, +2 Mother of Runes, +1 Angel's Grace
Edit 2: Added Sideboard
Edit 3 (and possibly final edit): Needed some sweep shenanigans protection. -1 Karakas, -1 Urborg, -1 Trokair, +3 Blinkmoth Nexus
Final Edit: Added an instant speed life manipulator to add further utility. The ability to rapidly gain all my life back in case something bad happens to NDE or worship has saved my skin on more than one occasion. As such had a hard time making enough cuts for this but: -1 Angel's Grace, -1 False Prophet, +2 Plunge Into Darkness
The Mimeoplasm
Maga, Traitor to Mortals
Rhys the Redeemed
Merieke Ri Berit
Nekusar, the Mindrazer
Cromat Wurm Tribal
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
Looking for Green friendly EDH players/groups in the Toronto area. PM me if this is you.
The Combo is Volcano Hellion and Near-Death Experience. This deck will act as a Psuedo Ramp deck that has a way out in case you're doing something wrong... or your opponent knows what you're up to.
1 Winding Canyons
1 Skarrg, the Rage Pits
4 Horizon Canopy
1 Arid Mesa
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Sejiri Steppe
3 Plains
4 Forest
3 Mountain
1 Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
1 Windswept Heath
Creatures: 19
3 Academy Rector
1 Sun Titan
3 Volcano Hellion
1 Inferno Titan
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
4 Yavimaya Elder
3 Primeval Titan
1 Near-Death Experience
3 Scout's Warning
1 Golden Wish
2 Worldly Tutor
4 Living Wish
4 Primal Command
4 Sterling Grove
1 Academy Rector
1 Volcano Hellion
1 Sun Titan
1 Inferno Titan
1 Primeval Titan
1 Winding Canyons
4 Vexing Shusher
3 Krosan Grip
1 Near-Death Experience
1 Xantid Swarm
The Combo is the Following:
Get Academy Rector into play
Flash in Volcano Hellion with Winding Canyons or Scout's Warning at the end of your opponent's turn.
- Hit your Rector for your life total minus 1 and win the following turn.
Okay so the reasoning behind this deck is that I did not want to use Black, Worship or Angel's Grace.
The Combo is protected with Sterling Grove and hence I only have one Near-Death Experience, but make no mistake - the deck is based on the card. In any case the opponent decides to exile NDE off somehow then you'll always have the single copy of my 61st card: Golden Wish to get it back. Remember that Primal Command makes it so that I can use my library over and over again, I can also gain life in case something happens.
The deck also has a fallback plan or rather, it makes your opponent think that the deck is based on the Naya Titans so that might deter his or her mind away from the core of the deck being NDE.
Basic explanations:
Lands:
I have land grabbers to help me smooth the base out. I also have utility lands for out favourite Titan.
Creatures:
As you can see, the Rector and Hellion are for the combo and the Land grabbers help a lot to ramp into titans or power the combo faster.
Non-creatures:
we have tutors to get the combo or even be aggressive. The scout's warning and Winding canyons from the lands are there to ensure a surprise win. If all goes well the combo can execute in 4 turns.
Sideboard:
this is basically a toolbox set for living wish and it mostly handles other control decks, as combo decks should have. The krosan grips are for well... basically anything threatening and the NDE is there just in case.
I assure you that this deck is based around NDE and that is the primary win condition, please have a careful look at the interaction of making your opponent sweat while you set yourself up.
4 marsh flats
4 bloodstained mire
4 godless shrine
4 plains
4 swamp
4 necrologia
4 Angel's Grace
2 rhystic Tutor
2 near-Death Experience
Support: 20
4 dark ritual
4 diabolic edict
4 swords to plowshares
4 duress
2 hymn to tourach
2 spellbook
4 weathered wayfarer
4 Vampire Nighthawk
Generally, this is a black control deck pepped up white to fuel near death experience. White opens up for great cards such Swords to plowshares to keep up the board clear of nuisances and weathered wayfarer which is an awesome card to keep my lands going. I added Angles grace but only as a small insurance in case my opponent would be able to blow me up using burn spells etc. The deck is played pretty slowly. I control the board, discard, until I hit necrologia. Usually, the first necro is not the one that wins the game. Since I use spellbook I can draw a reasonable amount of life and establish my possition even further. Then cast the 2nd Necro and win the game through near death experience ...i know its risky since I need to held up for my next upkeep but lets do it
Before opening season 4, I (we) made a list of possible cards based on more or less random choices. Now I'm 'rolling dice'. There isn't a system of fixed criteria that each card had to pass.
sure. I'll update the first post. (one of those things that are so obvious that I miss them.)
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Enlightened Tutor
DRAW
4 Ancestral Vision
CREATURES
4 Mischievous Poltergeist
COUNTERS
4 Mana Leak
4 Counterspell
4 Vindicate
SWEEP
4 Wrath of God
ENCHANTMENTS
2 Near-Death Experience
ARTIFACTS
3 Aether Vial
1 Sensei's Divining Top
LAND
4 Tundra
4 City of Brass
4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Underground Sea
Card Choice Descriptions
1 Vampiric Tutor - Restricted. Gets me whatever I need next draw
1 Demonic Tutor - Restricted. Gets me whatever I need immediately
4 Enlightened Tutor - Grab the Sensei's Top first, then the Vial or the Experience
4 Ancestral Vision - Cheap early draw
4 Mischievous Poltergeist - Part 1 of the combo
-> Note: With Aether Vial - Free and instant speed just before the Experience triggers
4 Mana Leak - Cheap early counter
4 Counterspell - The best counter
4 Vindicate - Removal of pesky land, creature, enchantment, ...
4 Wrath of God - Puts all creatures in a better place
2 Near-Death Experience - Part 2 of the combo
-> Since you untap before you Aether Vial a Poltergeist in, you can counter to protect it
3 Aether Vial - A sneaky cheap artifact that makes all of the difference in the deck
1 Sensei's Divining Top - Grab it early to ensure correct draws
Land Base - 24 Sources of Blue, 20 Sources of White, 20 Sources of Black usable immediately
4 Tethered Skirge
3 Blood Celebrant
4 Nomads en-Kor
2 Shaman en-Kor
4 Academy Rector
4 Near-Death Experience
3 Greater Auramancy
3 Leyline of Sanctity
4 Second Chance
Spells: 8
4 Savor the Moment
4 Mana Leak
4 Arcane Sanctum
4 City of Brass
4 Tarnished Citadel
3 Island
4 Plains
2 Swamp
This deck doesn't really appear to be that original (mostly cause it is not) but the idea is pretty straight forward.
How it (hopefully) works:
You get out a Blood Celebrant or a combination of any en-kor and Tethered Skirge and a Near-Death Experience and then either at the end of your opponents turn or the end of your first turn get to 1 life.
Card decision reasons:
Academy Rector is a pretty obvious card, but in addition to it potientally dying, you can use en-kor to redirect damage to it making it so your opponent doesn't want to hurt any of your creatures (yay).
Blood Celebrant I believe uses a mana ability, and cannot be responded to? If so that is pretty awesome.
Tethered Skirge with all the en-kor this works well, the only problem is that your opponent can target him when you are at 1 to kill you...
Leyline of Sanctity is a pretty important card because you will be at 1 life. I think every red spell ever made would kill you if they could target you when you are at 1 life.
Greater Auramancy is kind of an insurance card, it pretty much makes them disenchant something before being able to disenchant your Near-Death Experience. I would be pretty mad if my opponent sided in some Disenchants and got rid of my win condition when I was at 1 life.
Second Chance/Savor the Moment are hopefully what makes this deck a slight bit original. If you are going to be at 1 life, you might as well use cards that profit from it. You can get a Second Chance out on turn 3, do other stuff on turn 4 including getting yourself to 5 life, then win turn 5/6. Savor the Moment works because you aren't taking the extra turn to do things, you are taking it to get an upkeep.
As for the lands, the shard land is in all of my colors so it was pretty easy to include. I don't really care about losing 1 or 3 life, the purpose of the deck is to get to 1 life. I used basic lands for the rest because if it was all non-basic I would get killed by a Blood Moon.
Cards for sale: Check them out!
4 Academy Rector
4 Angel's Grace
4 Orim's Chant
3 Rebuff the Wicked
3 Necrologia
2 Pain's Reward
3 Plunge Into Darkness
3 Holy Day
3 Darkness
3 Angelsong
2 Oblivion Ring
9 Plains
9 Swamp
4 Wrath of God
3 Kor Firewalker
3 Silence
3 Intervention Pact
2 Gilded Light
The deck can win using the aforementioned Plunge Into Darkness/Academy Rector for an instant win (was hoping I'd be the first to mention that :p) but beyond that is more of a controlling build, drawing cards and staying alive with fogging and combo protection until you can Necrologia, Pain's Reward, or Plunge down to 1 with at least one Angel's Grace in hand. Orim's Chant is good to slow the game down to your pace, stop disruption, and give you more time. Rebuff the Wicked can protect your Near-Death Experience from Naturalize/Disenchant, and even your Rector from unwanted exile effects (Path/Swords etc) The Oblivion Ring is there for utility against any problematic permanents if needed off a Rector trigger.
Sideboard: Silence alongside chant slows down decks and keeps control off your back when you want to go off, as well as keeping red in check early game, which is also backed by Kor Firewalker. Wrath is good protection to stay alive, and Intervention Pact gives the freedom to tap out every now and then in a tough match for any needed board position, and the lifegain can be negated by using painlands to pay the cost and generally ping you back down to 1. Gilded Light is just good to have in general against burn and the like, and cycles to boot.
And yes, I know I'm not running Necropotence. I thought long and hard about adding it, I did. However, I don't wanna use TOO too good cards because that takes the fun out of casual (aka anger my playgroup and get my decks hated out).
Thanks to mchief111 for the signature
Standard:
UWG Control (changes from week to week)
RU Pingerator
EDH:
WBTeysa, Orzhov Scion
GRWKresh The Bloodbraided
RWRazia, Boros Archangel
The Mimeoplasm
Maga, Traitor to Mortals
Rhys the Redeemed
Merieke Ri Berit
Nekusar, the Mindrazer
Cromat Wurm Tribal
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
Looking for Green friendly EDH players/groups in the Toronto area. PM me if this is you.
So here's the build as it currently stands, I'll be making some tweaks to preference as the the week goes on and also add a small primer on how to play it.
4 Worship
4 Angel's Grace
4 Oblivion Ring
4 Journey to Nowhere
3 Plunge into Darkness
4 Necropotence
3 Dark Ritual
4 Greater Auramancy
2 Damnation
2 Wrath of God
4 Fetid Heath
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Scrubland
4 Serra's Sanctum
2 Marsh Flats
1 Plains
1 Swamp
3 Second Sunrise
2 Replenish
3 Mana Tithe
3 Orim's Chant
3 Gilded Light
This deck attempts to stall out the game with prolific removal removal, angel's grace, and/or worship + a manland and eventually land necropotence/Plunge into Darkness + NDE. We're packing a LOT of enchantments, so serra's sanctum becomes pretty key to the mana base. The elegance of this deck is that plunge and necro both attain NDE's requirement to win, and they help find it. This deck is entirely based around NDE, but it doesn't auto-lose from an extirpate, the manlands are a viable back-up.
Body Count: GRRRUUUUUUUUUUU
إن سرقت إسرق جمل
Level 1 Judge
My Cube for use with 6th ed. Rules
x2 Acolyte of Xathrid
x2 Putrid Warrior
x1 Accursed Centaur
x3 Academy Rector
x3 Voracious Hatchling
x2 Orzhov Guildmage
x1 Selenia, Dark Angel
Lands:
x4 Orzhov Basilica
x8 Plains
x12 Swamp
Instants and Sorceries:
x1 Batwing Brume
x4 Bond of Agony
x3 Diabolic Tutor
x4 Angel's Grace
x1 Damnation
x1 God's Wrath
Enchantments:
x4 Near-Death Experience
x1 Martyrs' Tomb
x1 Pillory of the Sleepless
Artifacts:
x1 Vectis Dominator
How to use it most effectively:
A)Use Bond of Agony to get you down to 1 life while you have near-death experience on the battlefield.
B)When an opponent deals you down to less that one life, use Angel's Grace while you have Near-Death Experience on the battlefield.
C) If things are looking Grim, play Voracious Hatchling to provide a strong defense.
D) Put Selenia back into your hand and play God's Wrath or Damnation.
E) Use Orzhov Guildmage to level your life total to 1 while you have Near-Death experience on the battlefield.
F) Use Diabolic Tutor to find Near-Death Experience.
G) When Accursed Centaur enters the battlefield, sacrifice Academy Rector to fetch Near-Death Experience.
The Deck is Called: Life and Death
Hope you like it!
4x Plains
4x Mountain
4x Boros Garrison
4x Rugged Prarie
4x Battlefield Forge
4x Sacred Foundry
4x Fortune Thief
4x Volcano Hellion
Artifacts:
4x Darksteel Plate
3x Sun Droplet
4x Boros Signet
3x Pyrohemia
3x Near-Death Experience
Instants/Sorceries:
4x Path to Exile
4x Idyllic Tutor
3x Ghostly Prison
This is definetly one of the weirdest decks I've ever made. Looking at Near-Death Experience, I wanted to do something that was out there and different while still keeping viability. I believe I've got that here.
The synergy in this deck is insane. On the surface, it looks like a random pile of red and white cards, but deeper down, it's a deadly and well-oiled machine. The path to the win is obviously Near-Death Experience, and there are three ways to get to the magic one life.
The first, and easiest way, is through Volcano Hellion. (There's actually a use for this card, would would've thought?) Play this guy and name however much damage it takes you to get to one life. As for the creature to target, it doesn't really matter what you pick (even the hellion itself).
The second path to victory is Pyrohemia. Now, you might be thinking, "Salty, what happens when all the creatures on the board die?" The answer lies in Darksteel Plate. Throw this crazy equipment on a Fortune Thief or even a hellion if you need to, and you've got a soft lock that's pretty hard to beat. Fortune Thief and Darksteel Plate can sometimes even be enough to win you games through concession, or be used as a safety net after you land a hellion. After you drop your indestructible creature, just burn to your heart's content.
The third pathway is, of course, getting your opponent to hit you. There's actually something to be said about dropping a late-game Near-Death Experience after your opponent has unknowingly hit you right into your trap. This is made easier with the inclusion of Sun Droplet. In this context, the use of it would be precise life adjustment. But on top of that, this along with Ghostly Prison ensures your survival into the late game so you can set up any one of the three win pathways.
Like my tower deck last round, this deck's path to victory might not be evident on paper, but take my word for it, it works in-game. I'd advise the other judges to make sure you have the synergy worked out before deciding upon a game plan while playing. I've been testing this all week, and I'm still finding some new interactions.
*In lack of a better deck name, I chose to name my deck based off of what I was listening to while I was playtesting.
If you suggest a card to add to a deck, suggest one to take out as well.
kiljo
King T
1) CorwinOfAmber 2
2) ChefStiX 2
3) Captain Salty 2
4) eclipseverity 2
5) fio 2
6) Wingedkagouti 2
fdtori 3
PeterRiviera 3
expiredrascals 3
urweak 4
DLink123 4
Gaea's Regent 4
The Mimeoplasm
Maga, Traitor to Mortals
Rhys the Redeemed
Merieke Ri Berit
Nekusar, the Mindrazer
Cromat Wurm Tribal
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
Looking for Green friendly EDH players/groups in the Toronto area. PM me if this is you.
Damn dude me too... What defines "Casual"
For instance, maybe send a message to Blut with the deck, then he sends them to the other judges. Once the round is locked, then they are posted and treated as if they came out at the same time.
If I find a great idea or synergy, I don't want to lose points if someone else posted early because they don't have a job or they live on this site 24/7.
Make sense?
flame warning.
blut
During the previous round I was told by blut that power can only count for a max of 5 in this the contest. Now not saying that build deserved a 5 for power but from my play testing it should have been a 4.5 if not a 5. It's record on MWS was along the lines of 14-1. Also, every other round where anybody has posted a broken, yet powerful, deck they haven't been voted into the top 8.
Now take into consideration that every single truly unique and original deck has been voted into the top 8. Some of those decks have later bombed(my moonfolk deck being one of them) in the scoring as the had little in the way of either card adherence, power, protection or synergy. Originality is also only worth a max of 5 but doesn't seem to be getting graded on the same level as power for instance. Am I the only one seeing this?
I also agree with King that I feel we need some other way to post the decks. I also work and can't post decks as fast as other people so I need to rush a deck when I get home Sunday nights (usually around 11pm) and throw a deck together to try and stake claim to some kind of idea.
My deck I felt has good protection as I was the only one in the group to be able to gain life back in case I lost it when I didn't want to. In addition there are many ways to keep my life at one once I'm there as well as running lots of removal (especially if you include the sideboard).
The deck won many times so there power is there.
I have multiple ways both sorcery and instant speed and through lands to lower my life to 1 so the synergy I felt is there as well.
Overall I felt it offered good card adherence as everything in my build worked towards getting NDE to work.
That means the only category I know I was weak in was originality.
Did I just do poorer in the rest of these categories than everyone else then?
The Mimeoplasm
Maga, Traitor to Mortals
Rhys the Redeemed
Merieke Ri Berit
Nekusar, the Mindrazer
Cromat Wurm Tribal
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
Looking for Green friendly EDH players/groups in the Toronto area. PM me if this is you.
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
(If you could break down any of the builds, without truly scoring of course, in each category briefly and explain how one of the absolute builds scores higher in each category than mine for instance I would appreciate it.)
I want to improve my builds but seek guidance.
The Mimeoplasm
Maga, Traitor to Mortals
Rhys the Redeemed
Merieke Ri Berit
Nekusar, the Mindrazer
Cromat Wurm Tribal
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
Looking for Green friendly EDH players/groups in the Toronto area. PM me if this is you.
Multiplayer:
MonoBlack
Mono-Red
Cycling
Crush of Wurms
Zoo
Immortal Coil
Control
Reanimator
Mono-G
Cruel Ascension
Landfall
Esper Spirits/Tokens
Phantom Vigor
Not Explicitly Multiplayer:
Allies
Bant
Artifacts