You have until the 10th of Juli 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: ChefStiX, ExpiredRascals & rchrhds. 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, ChefStiX, 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.
I couldn't get a build that I was satisfied with. There was a lot of potential, and with time, I feel I could get and tune something solid, but I just couldn't get there this week.
For those interested, the concept was to let the blood funnel trigger counter your spell, then mishra's trigger would search your graveyard for it and put it into play.
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.
Intro Because I'm Bored: One day Urza was planeswalking, and he began to get really hungry. He had heard of the Bloody Funnelcake baked in the Great Furnace of Mirrodin, and decided to planeswalk there. Inside the furnace, Urza came across someone who looked like a baker, Koth of the Hammer. "It is my Burning Wish to eat the legendary Funnelcake," said Urza. "Alas, fellow Planeswalker, the Cake Is A Lie. There's only a Funnel here," responded Koth. Urza raged. He raged, raged, and raged, and Urza's RageObliterated everything around him. When Urza regained his senses, he saw that Koth's Planeswalker spark had awakened thanks to his rage, and the Blood Funnel started to glow. Fortunately, Obliterate didn't destroy Planeswalkers and Enchantments. With his new Planeswalker powers, Koth was able to bake the legendary Bloody Funnelcake with Urza, and everybody lived happily ever after. The end
Deck Concept:Blood Funnel is a very quirky card...reducing each spell's by means you are forced to chain certain spells after another, as otherwise it becomes a really bad Sol Ring. But it also requires you to play creatures - and finding the right balance between creatures and noncreatures is a difficult one indeed. So on the creature-side, the deck abuses Bloodghast and persist critters to have consistent fuel for Blood Funnel. On the non-creature side, the deck takes advantage of uncounterable spells like Urza's Rage and Banefire, Enchantments and Planeswalkers which survive through the gamebreaking Obliterate, and a Wishboard to break Blood Funnel via Multiple-spells. The synergy between everything may not be clear at first glance, but I assure you, this deck is quite a powerhouse.
Individual Card Explanations:
- Blood Funnel - This functions as both mana-engine and sac-outlet, which is quite ridiculous in enabling combos. For Banefire, Urza's Rage and Obliterate, it acts as a Sol Ring that can be played in multiples without worry. You can drop Koth for only 2 mana, giving room to play another spell to protect him with, and also allows you to reuse Recurring Nightmare for only 1-mana. Lastly, you can choose to sacrifice even with an Uncounterable spell - for example triggering Persist on an opponent's turn by playing Urza's Rage w/ Funnel when you have Puppeteer Clique out could be a good combat trick. I've designed the deck so that you are often able to drop this on Turn 2/3/4 without worrying about the drawback, but you should be careful - don't play it just because you can.
- Recurring Nightmare - Besides the obvious synergy with Bloodghast, this becomes a broken combo piece when played with Blood Funnel and 2 Murderous Redcap. Have the Funnel and Redcap out, then play Recurring Nightmare for 1-mana. Blood Funnel forces you to sac a creature, persist then triggers, returning the Redcap. Then you activate Recurring Nightmare, return it to your hand and sacrifice Redcap. You do need another Redcap in the graveyard to target with Recurring Nightmare, but you can repeat it as long as you want. Basically, it's :symb:: Deal 1 damage to target creature or player, then 2 damage to target creature or player. Reusable Black Lightning Bolt is rather gamebreaking. Nightmare is a good card even without this combo, so don't hesitate to play it simply to recur your creatures and abuse ETB abilities.
- Bloodghast - The only downside to this card is that it can't block to protect Koth. Otherwise, it's amazing support for Blood Funnel. The order in which you play your spells is extremely important when you have Funnel and Bloodghast out! Do not drop the land until you absolutely must (after Combat, for instance), lest the landfall trigger go to waste. It can be recurred twice in one turn w/ Bloodstained Mire, so take advantage of that when you get the chance.
- Murderous Redcap - Great creature for removal + comboing as mentioned above. Persist means double sac-fodder for Blood Funnel.
- Puppeteer Clique - You can also do a Recurring Nightmare + Blood Funnel combo with this card, so that it reads :symb::Return 2 target creatures from an opponent's graveyard to your battlefield. As with the Bloodcap combo, you do need another creature in your graveyard to target with Recurring Nightmare. This shouldn't be a problem with Entomb and Burning Wish for Buried Alive. Also, your opponent's creatures only last 1-turn and then get exiled, but you can circumvent that by sacrificing it to Recurring Nightmare. It's really an amazing combo combined with our removal.
- Entomb - At first I was going the Vintage route with Vampiric Tutor and Demonic Tutor, but then I realized I was usually just tutoring for Bloodghast. The recently unbanned/unrestricted Entomb enables a free Turn 2 Bloodghast, and thus allows you to also drop Blood Funnel on the same turn without losing any tempo. This is the reason why it's in the MB whereas Buried Alive is in the SB. It also fetches other creatures to the graveyard for combo purposes w/ Recurring Nightmare, and as a last resort, can put Dakmor Salvage in the graveyard if you're desperate for a land. It's a very important card, but only run at 2 as one of our key plays is Burning Wish into Buried Alive.
- Banefire - Early-game removal before Blood Funnel lands, and a late-game finisher afterwards. With Blood Funnel, you can use this as early as Turn 4, (X=5), and often hits for huge damage if you decide to stack Blood Funnels.
- Urza's Rage - With the Funnel, this becomes an Uncounterable Lightning Bolt, and the 12-mana Full-Kicker is easily reachable with Koth of the Hammer's 2nd ability and Blood Funnel.
- Obliterate - Sweeper for almost everything, and Uncounterability means using this w/ only 6 land when combined with Blood Funnel. As it avoids Enchantments and Planeswalkers, we're at a huge advantage after it sweeps, not to mention Persist/Bloodghast come right back anyway.
- Absorb Vis - This may seem like a random inclusion, but I found myself stalled early at 2-mana even with 24 land. This is an early game smoother, and late-game assistant finisher with Blood Funnel.
- Ill-Gotten Gains - The reason I wanted to abide by the Vintage list at first was so I could use Yawgmoth's Will. However, Ill-Gotten Gains is a suitable replacement for this deck. It dumps creatures into the graveyard if you need them there, and returns spells to be combo'd off Blood Funnel. The deck is 100% Legacy-legal, if anyone cares.
- Koth of the Hammer - It's mainly in here for the -2 ability to pump out large Banefires, Urza's Rage and Obliterate. However, the +1 ability helps out immensely when you need that extra 1 mana, or a creature to sacrifice to Blood Funnel/Recurring Nightmare. A 4/4 beater is nothing to laugh at either.
The sideboard is extremely crucial here to smooth out plays on Turn 2. The deck lacks draw power since I didn't want to include the Dark Confidant and Sensei's Divining Top combo or go Vintage for Skullclamp/Wheel of Fortune, and the deck sometimes stalls on 2-land. Therefore we have access to draw early on, and then utility spells for the late-game survival so we don't burn out. Burning Wish with Blood Funnel means saving in total, so it's not a bad discount, but ideally you should play Wish before dropping Blood Funnel to avoid a double sacrifice. The deck should have no problems dealing with Control, so most of the utility is for going against Aggro and Combo.
- Night's Whisper, Tezzeret's Gambit - Whisper is for when you're stuck early on 2-land and need to draw as you have no other plays in your current hand. Likewise, Gambit is for when you're stuck at 3, or works as late-game draw + proliferate on Koth.
- Buried Alive - This is one of the main things to fetch with Burning Wish on Turn 2. A Turn 3 Buried Alive for 3 Bloodghasts means not having to worry about Blood Funnel's drawback for the rest of the game. Three recurring 2/1 beaters is not something to be taken lightly.
- Perish, Virtue's Ruin - Perish destroys green aggro like Elves, Virtue's Ruin destroys White Weenie decks. Turn 2 Wish into Turn 3 one-sided sweeper curves very well. It allows you to safely drop Koth turn 4, amongst other things.
- Anarchy - Only way to get rid of problematic White Permanents like Planeswalkers/Enchantments. While Banefire and Urza's Rage already deal with the prevention, there are still cards like Harsh Judgment, Justice, Worship which are all problematic for this deck.
- Damnation - Best Generic Sweeper there is. Our creatures are resilient, so don't be afraid to play this aggressively.
- Void - Artifact Destruction, Creature Destruction, and Hand Destruction all rolled into 1-card. Useful as a 1-sided Token sweeper too.
- Bitter Ordeal - Gravestorm means not having to worry about the drawback of Blood Funnel as the copies won't be countered. Get it early for going against Combo, or in mid-late game you can abuse it with the Recurring Nightmare/Blood Funnel combo to ramp up the Gravestorm count.
- Thought Hemorrhage - Another card to battle combo decks, with the possibility of dealing more damage.
- Ill-Gotten Gains - As I said before, late-game refuel to get back cards played earlier, or a way to discard creatures from your hand into the graveyard.
- Persecute - Just a great card to battle monocolored decks, and curves well into the Turn 5 Puppeteer Clique.
Well I hope it was informative as always. I think it's one of my best submissions to date, and I hope you enjoy playing with it as much as I did. Until next time, may your Urza's Rage always be kicked!
Had little time to write the deck up, so I'll do this briefly: The idea is to produce lots of tokens, so getting the discount is easy. In the mean time, the sacrifices might get useful in order to get a big zombie out.
Another thing I'd like to point out is that, if you have a ton of mana availabe but not much storm count, you can cast Cunning Wish to get back a Wish you already cast before. With that Wish you can get back the first one and so on. Baiscally reads: "U: storm +1".
Nice deck hamsta. But I'd like to point out that the "Wish-Cycling" trick doesn't work anymore due to M10 Rule Changes with the 'Exile' zone.
Ok, so hopefully this works. If you have Guile out and cast a spell, say Brain Freeze, you can generate infinate storm then pay the (2) and mill them to death. Other cards of note are Faerie Tauntings, which allows Guile, Blood Funnel, and any instant to be an instant kill.
Hopefully I understand that correctly, Guild seems to break Blood Funnel if I do.
EDIT: Oops forgot to comment and explain the thing
Ok so the goal of the deck is to get Dragons, but mostly the Thralls into the Graveyard, once the thrall are there, returning them to the battlefield is easy and then it's child's play to get around Blood Funnel's drawback.
Corpse Dance is the way to go for bringing the Dragons in, hence the name of the deck (also nice segway into plugging my favorite book series and the upcoming novel :embarrass:). Corpse Dance also is nice with Blood Funnel since cost reductions applies even to buyback costs (when 2 Blood Funnels are out for example).
You have 2 main ways to win, Dragon beatdown (always fun), or using Corpse Dance + Bladewing shenanigans.
I'll explain the shenanigans: See when you have a Bladewing ETB and another one is in the grave and you have a sac outlet (Blood Funnel or Phyrexian Altar) you can some looping with some funky trigger work; just add a Kokusho or a Bogardan Hellkite and you can kill a player pretty quickly with Corpse Dance.
Support cards:
Frantic Search: With Blood Funnel out, this actually means mana acceleration!!
Grave Pact: Surprised no one picked this one, make the opponent pay for the Funnel's drawback as well ! (with the manabase that I put there, I think I can manage triple B well.
Spellbound Dragon: Fits the deck like a glove with some high-powered Dragons to discard and reanimate.
Merfolk Looter: only non-dragon and a late addition, fits the theme of the deck and can be sacrificed early if I would want to play the Funnel earlier.
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.
It is dissapointing - but Blood Funnel is definitely not for everybody. It's clearly a Johnny card only... Still, there are many unused combos and synergies that haven't been incorporated into the submissions so far. They're there...you just have to look a little harder this round.
This Myr based deck tries to get the most out of Blood Funnel's Bonus by using "non-creature" spells that create creatures. Namely Living Weapon and Master's Call. Myr Moonvessel is a great early drop that earns it's death which can be used with Myrsmith to create another sacrifice. Brass Squire can be used to combine or reattach the Living Weapon Equips. Myr turbine can keep the sacrifices coming until a Skinwing/Batterskull hybrid can be built to grab a win. Artifact lands are purely for flavour and can be scrapped, but hey, it's the Myr's homeland, so why not!
The deck has a clear goal. Donate blood funnel to your opponent and watch it ruin his game. Finishers are the planewalkers, summoning station (together with servitors) and Call to the grave. Myr servitors and bloodghasts create a good recursion so that Call to the grave and Blood funnel dont ruin your own game.
Bazaar Trader doesn't allow you to give away Enchantments.
So much for making the top 8... Now I feel silly for not reading the deck. But then, the decission to approve it should not be dependant on its content.
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.
Here are the scores I gave for everyone with some comments:
ArcLogger: 0 (doesn't work)
Arca: 10 (Creativity: I hate tribal decks)
Hamsta: 10 (Countertop..come on..yeah I know I used it before but I would have gave myself a zero for creativity too)
Fdtori: 11 (not many non creature spells in deck)
Gaea's Regent: 13 (Very creative...should have Beacon of Creation and Howl of the Night Pack instead of some of the other cards)
DLink123: 14 (The first idea I thought of was very similar to this so gave a 1 for creativity but deck was very synergetic)
rchrhds: 14
kiljo: 14
PeterRiviera: 15
maserati: 19 (very creative and like the way Blood Funnel was used)
wingedkagouti: 19 (very very interesting, uses card well, just well made overall)
You didn't read the rules on how to judge?
you should've sent me the names of the people submitting the 9 lists you like the most. after we have all judges' votes on that I post the top 8, then we test these decks, then we fill out that nice form, you should know if you followed the contest. these scores can not be accepted like this.
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.
Here are the scores I gave for everyone with some comments:
Fdtori: 11 (not many non creature spells in deck)
mmmhhh, I don't really cast much of my creatures, I put them into the battlefield via the recurrable Corpse Dance (you did see the buyback?), so that means the thing I'll be casting most each and every turn is a non-creature spell right?
Plus this is not a pure combo machine that feeds on storm or doesn't care about it's spells being countered, this means I need creatures to sac to Blood funnel.
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.
Sorry Blutsau I was just thinking that some people have said things like they want to know what the judges thought about their decks when they weren't in the top nine so I just posted my feedback of all the decks. Didn't mean to do that my bad, honest mistake.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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"STAY CLEAR OF WHITE POWDER"
311 "Who's Got the Herb"
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Sorry Blutsau I was just thinking that some people have said things like they want to know what the judges thought about their decks when they weren't in the top nine so I just posted my feedback of all the decks. Didn't mean to do that my bad, honest mistake.
Did you actually get in any testing in this short window?
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.
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.
Here are the scores I gave for everyone with some comments:
ArcLogger: 0 (doesn't work)
Arca: 10 (Creativity: I hate tribal decks)
Hamsta: 10 (Countertop..come on..yeah I know I used it before but I would have gave myself a zero for creativity too)
Fdtori: 11 (not many non creature spells in deck)
Gaea's Regent: 13 (Very creative...should have Beacon of Creation and Howl of the Night Pack instead of some of the other cards)
DLink123: 14 (The first idea I thought of was very similar to this so gave a 1 for creativity but deck was very synergetic)
rchrhds: 14
kiljo: 14
PeterRiviera: 15
maserati: 19 (very creative and like the way Blood Funnel was used)
wingedkagouti: 19 (very very interesting, uses card well, just well made overall)
yeah I've played actually played my deck, DLink123's, Gaea's Regent, and hamsta's.
I'm very confused here - are these actually your final scores or an initial guess? You say you only played 4 people's decks, so what are the other scores based on? First glances through the decklists?
I don't know why you would give Arc-Logger an automatic 0 - his deck works even without the Bazaar Trader + Blood Funnel combo. There's still Bloodghast and Myr Servitor to work things out - so it's a matter of having a 2 mana 1/1 Goblin that won't do much in the deck or is just another creature to be sacrificed.
It would also seem your creativity scores are way too extreme. It's like everybody either got a 0, 1 or a 5 with nothing in between. Just because someone incorporates Tribal or a well-known combo doesn't mean the rest of the deck is not creative. You're really discounting the rest of hamsta's deck just because he used Countertop? When you used Countertop in CDCC #8, you stuck it in your basic U/W control shell - and that's nowhere near creative as what hamsta did here. Some decks require strong combos like that to function on a basic level.
I can also say the same thing about my deck. While Banefire/Urza's Rage are obvious additions, I know you didn't think of Entomb since you hate the card, I'm pretty sure you would never take a Burning Wish route, nor use a Recurring Nightmare combo. I've seen enough of your decklists to know what kind of decks you like to create, so please don't discount the rest of the deck's creativity because of an obvious inclusion. My deck's creativity is more subtle than that.
Another thing about the creativity score that doesn't make sense from you is that you love Maserati's use of Blood Funnel - with Multani's Presence. Let's face it, the step-by-step method by which you come across this card is by running a search on the term "countered". This essentially leads to 4 choices: Banfire, Bound//Determined, Multani's Presence, and Vexing Shusher. It's not something hidden away in obscurity. All of these are equally well-explored on combo-posting sites, and it's fairly obvious as to what you would do with each card. I wouldn't really call Multani's Presence combo any more creative than a Bound//Determined combo, whatever the creativity score may be. It seems you're evaluating a deck's creativity on a single combo w/ the week's card, and I think it's extremely unfair to the creators who worked very hard to make the entire deck work creatively.
Again an enchantment, again Ravnica. Oh well... Blame the dices. Insert gory wanna-be-witty intro.
You have until the 10th of Juli 11pm GMT+1 to submit decks.
- 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: ChefStiX, ExpiredRascals & rchrhds. 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, ChefStiX, 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?
- The current season's rounds 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ...
Placeholder for mishra blood funnelI couldn't get a build that I was satisfied with. There was a lot of potential, and with time, I feel I could get and tune something solid, but I just couldn't get there this week.
For those interested, the concept was to let the blood funnel trigger counter your spell, then mishra's trigger would search your graveyard for it and put it into play.
Body Count: GRRRUUUUUUUUUUU
إن سرقت إسرق جمل
Level 1 Judge
My Cube for use with 6th ed. Rules
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Badlands
4 Blood Crypt
5 Mountain
1 Swamp
1 Graven Cairns
2 Dakmor Salvage
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Kher Keep
Creatures 10
4 Bloodghast
4 Murderous Redcap
2 Puppeteer Clique
4 Banefire
4 Urza's Rage
1 Obliterate
2 Entomb
3 Burning Wish
1 Absorb Vis
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
Enchantments 6
4 Blood Funnel
2 Recurring Nightmare
Planeswalkers 4
4 Koth of the Hammer
1 Night's Whisper
1 Tezzeret's Gambit
1 Buried Alive
1 Perish
1 Virtue's Ruin
1 Anarchy
1 Damnation
1 Void
1 Life's Finale
1 Decree of Pain
1 Obliterate
1 Bitter Ordeal
1 Thought Hemorrhage
1 Persecute
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
Deck Concept: Blood Funnel is a very quirky card...reducing each spell's by
Individual Card Explanations:
- Recurring Nightmare - Besides the obvious synergy with Bloodghast, this becomes a broken combo piece when played with Blood Funnel and 2 Murderous Redcap. Have the Funnel and Redcap out, then play Recurring Nightmare for 1-mana. Blood Funnel forces you to sac a creature, persist then triggers, returning the Redcap. Then you activate Recurring Nightmare, return it to your hand and sacrifice Redcap. You do need another Redcap in the graveyard to target with Recurring Nightmare, but you can repeat it as long as you want. Basically, it's :symb:: Deal 1 damage to target creature or player, then 2 damage to target creature or player. Reusable Black Lightning Bolt is rather gamebreaking. Nightmare is a good card even without this combo, so don't hesitate to play it simply to recur your creatures and abuse ETB abilities.
- Bloodghast - The only downside to this card is that it can't block to protect Koth. Otherwise, it's amazing support for Blood Funnel. The order in which you play your spells is extremely important when you have Funnel and Bloodghast out! Do not drop the land until you absolutely must (after Combat, for instance), lest the landfall trigger go to waste. It can be recurred twice in one turn w/ Bloodstained Mire, so take advantage of that when you get the chance.
- Murderous Redcap - Great creature for removal + comboing as mentioned above. Persist means double sac-fodder for Blood Funnel.
- Puppeteer Clique - You can also do a Recurring Nightmare + Blood Funnel combo with this card, so that it reads :symb::Return 2 target creatures from an opponent's graveyard to your battlefield. As with the Bloodcap combo, you do need another creature in your graveyard to target with Recurring Nightmare. This shouldn't be a problem with Entomb and Burning Wish for Buried Alive. Also, your opponent's creatures only last 1-turn and then get exiled, but you can circumvent that by sacrificing it to Recurring Nightmare. It's really an amazing combo combined with our removal.
- Entomb - At first I was going the Vintage route with Vampiric Tutor and Demonic Tutor, but then I realized I was usually just tutoring for Bloodghast. The recently unbanned/unrestricted Entomb enables a free Turn 2 Bloodghast, and thus allows you to also drop Blood Funnel on the same turn without losing any tempo. This is the reason why it's in the MB whereas Buried Alive is in the SB. It also fetches other creatures to the graveyard for combo purposes w/ Recurring Nightmare, and as a last resort, can put Dakmor Salvage in the graveyard if you're desperate for a land. It's a very important card, but only run at 2 as one of our key plays is Burning Wish into Buried Alive.
- Banefire - Early-game removal before Blood Funnel lands, and a late-game finisher afterwards. With Blood Funnel, you can use this as early as Turn 4, (X=5), and often hits for huge damage if you decide to stack Blood Funnels.
- Urza's Rage - With the Funnel, this becomes an Uncounterable Lightning Bolt, and the 12-mana Full-Kicker is easily reachable with Koth of the Hammer's 2nd ability and Blood Funnel.
- Obliterate - Sweeper for almost everything, and Uncounterability means using this w/ only 6 land when combined with Blood Funnel. As it avoids Enchantments and Planeswalkers, we're at a huge advantage after it sweeps, not to mention Persist/Bloodghast come right back anyway.
- Absorb Vis - This may seem like a random inclusion, but I found myself stalled early at 2-mana even with 24 land. This is an early game smoother, and late-game assistant finisher with Blood Funnel.
- Ill-Gotten Gains - The reason I wanted to abide by the Vintage list at first was so I could use Yawgmoth's Will. However, Ill-Gotten Gains is a suitable replacement for this deck. It dumps creatures into the graveyard if you need them there, and returns spells to be combo'd off Blood Funnel. The deck is 100% Legacy-legal, if anyone cares.
- Koth of the Hammer - It's mainly in here for the -2 ability to pump out large Banefires, Urza's Rage and Obliterate. However, the +1 ability helps out immensely when you need that extra 1 mana, or a creature to sacrifice to Blood Funnel/Recurring Nightmare. A 4/4 beater is nothing to laugh at either.
- Kher Keep - Turn 3 token producer to consistently fuel Blood Funnel/Recurring Nightmare.
- Dakmor Salvage - After Obliterate, dredge this back to recur your Bloodghasts.
- Night's Whisper, Tezzeret's Gambit - Whisper is for when you're stuck early on 2-land and need to draw as you have no other plays in your current hand. Likewise, Gambit is for when you're stuck at 3, or works as late-game draw + proliferate on Koth.
- Buried Alive - This is one of the main things to fetch with Burning Wish on Turn 2. A Turn 3 Buried Alive for 3 Bloodghasts means not having to worry about Blood Funnel's drawback for the rest of the game. Three recurring 2/1 beaters is not something to be taken lightly.
- Perish, Virtue's Ruin - Perish destroys green aggro like Elves, Virtue's Ruin destroys White Weenie decks. Turn 2 Wish into Turn 3 one-sided sweeper curves very well. It allows you to safely drop Koth turn 4, amongst other things.
- Anarchy - Only way to get rid of problematic White Permanents like Planeswalkers/Enchantments. While Banefire and Urza's Rage already deal with the prevention, there are still cards like Harsh Judgment, Justice, Worship which are all problematic for this deck.
- Damnation - Best Generic Sweeper there is. Our creatures are resilient, so don't be afraid to play this aggressively.
- Void - Artifact Destruction, Creature Destruction, and Hand Destruction all rolled into 1-card. Useful as a 1-sided Token sweeper too.
- Life's Finale - In the late-game, this is much more useful than Damnation, as it combos with Puppeteer Clique, and acts as a black Bribery.
- Decree of Pain - Late game card-draw, or mid-game Uncounterable(!) -2/-2 sweeper cantrip.
- Obliterate - This wins games. Period.
- Bitter Ordeal - Gravestorm means not having to worry about the drawback of Blood Funnel as the copies won't be countered. Get it early for going against Combo, or in mid-late game you can abuse it with the Recurring Nightmare/Blood Funnel combo to ramp up the Gravestorm count.
- Thought Hemorrhage - Another card to battle combo decks, with the possibility of dealing more damage.
- Ill-Gotten Gains - As I said before, late-game refuel to get back cards played earlier, or a way to discard creatures from your hand into the graveyard.
- Persecute - Just a great card to battle monocolored decks, and curves well into the Turn 5 Puppeteer Clique.
Deck Changes Since First Post:
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
3 Sakura-Tribe Elder
4 Mitotic Slime
Enchantments
4 Quest for the Gravelord
4 Blood Funnel
3 Awakening Zone
3 Seed the Land
3 Doubling Season
3 Fable of Wolf and Owl
4 Might of the Masses
4 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Search for Tomorrow
3 Kodama's Reach
14 Forest
6 Swamp
My YouTube Channel
4 Underground Sea
4 Watery Grave
4 Polluted Delta
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Verdant Catacombs
5 Island
3 Swamp
1 Sol Ring
Creatures: 12
4 Fog Bank
4 Guard Gomazoa
4 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
Enchantments: 4
4 Blood Funnel
Instants: 9
1 Vampiric Tutor
2 Doom Blade
2 Go for the Throat
4 Brainstorm
4 Donate
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mind Twist
4 Thoughtseize
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Nice deck hamsta. But I'd like to point out that the "Wish-Cycling" trick doesn't work anymore due to M10 Rule Changes with the 'Exile' zone.
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
4 Guile
Enchantments: 12
4 Blood Funnel
4 Faerie Tauntings
4 Standstill
Spells: 19
4 Show and Tell
4 Brain Freeze
4 Brainstorm
2 Daze
2 Snuff Out
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Sol Ring
Lands:
4 Faerie Conclave
4 Underground River
12 Island
8 Swamp
Ok, so hopefully this works. If you have Guile out and cast a spell, say Brain Freeze, you can generate infinate storm then pay the (2) and mill them to death. Other cards of note are Faerie Tauntings, which allows Guile, Blood Funnel, and any instant to be an instant kill.
Hopefully I understand that correctly, Guild seems to break Blood Funnel if I do.
Cards for sale: Check them out!
I know Blood Funnel invites Storm decks, but :o...
Anyways, after skipping a couple of rounds, I've decided to submit a deck for the 9th round (have to make top 8 four times right?).
This is strictly casual, so don't look for turn 1-4 kill with this. I aim to please the Timmy/Johnny in all of us with the deck.
4 Bladewing's Thrall
3 Bladewing the Risen
3 Merfolk Looter
2 Spellbound Dragon
2 Steel Hellkite
1 Nicol Bolas
1 Bogardan Hellkite
1 Kokusho, the Evening Star
Spells (20):
4 Blood Funnel
4 Corpse Dance
3 Buried Alive
3 Grave Pact
4 Frantic Search
2 Phyrexian Altar
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Diamond Valley
1 Bojuka Bog
3 Blood Crypt
1 Rakdos Carnarium
1 Dimir Acqueduct
1 Izzet Boilerworks
2 Gravern Cairns
2 Sunken Ruins
2 Cascade Bluffs
2 Island
2 Swamp
2 Mountain
Explanations to come...
EDIT: Oops forgot to comment and explain the thing
Ok so the goal of the deck is to get Dragons, but mostly the Thralls into the Graveyard, once the thrall are there, returning them to the battlefield is easy and then it's child's play to get around Blood Funnel's drawback.
Corpse Dance is the way to go for bringing the Dragons in, hence the name of the deck (also nice segway into plugging my favorite book series and the upcoming novel :embarrass:). Corpse Dance also is nice with Blood Funnel since cost reductions applies even to buyback costs (when 2 Blood Funnels are out for example).
You have 2 main ways to win, Dragon beatdown (always fun), or using Corpse Dance + Bladewing shenanigans.
I'll explain the shenanigans: See when you have a Bladewing ETB and another one is in the grave and you have a sac outlet (Blood Funnel or Phyrexian Altar) you can some looping with some funky trigger work; just add a Kokusho or a Bogardan Hellkite and you can kill a player pretty quickly with Corpse Dance.
Support cards:
Frantic Search: With Blood Funnel out, this actually means mana acceleration!!
Buried Alive: pretty much a no-brainer.
Grave Pact: Surprised no one picked this one, make the opponent pay for the Funnel's drawback as well ! (with the manabase that I put there, I think I can manage triple B well.
Spellbound Dragon: Fits the deck like a glove with some high-powered Dragons to discard and reanimate.
Merfolk Looter: only non-dragon and a late addition, fits the theme of the deck and can be sacrificed early if I would want to play the Funnel earlier.
It is dissapointing - but Blood Funnel is definitely not for everybody. It's clearly a Johnny card only... Still, there are many unused combos and synergies that haven't been incorporated into the submissions so far. They're there...you just have to look a little harder this round.
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
Looking for Green friendly EDH players/groups in the Toronto area. PM me if this is you.
3x Blood Funnel
4x Bitterblossom
2x Fecundity
Creatures: 12
4x Sprouting Thrinax
4x Tukatongue Thallid
2x Mycoloth
2x Rhys the Redeemed
Sorceries: 11
2x Banefire
2x Crush of Wurms
2x Acorn Harvest
2x Absorb Vis
3x Night's Whisper
1x Sol Ring
2x Phyrexian Altar
2x Ashnod's Altar
Lands: 23
3x Savage Lands
2x Bloodstained Mire
2x Verdant Catacombs
3x Swamp
3x Mountain
4x Forest
2x Blackcleave Cliffs
2x Copperline Gorge
2x Twilight Mire
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
4x Blood Funnel
2x Parasitic Implant
Creatures
4x Myr Moonvessel
4x MyrSmith
4x Brass Squire
4x Myr Galvanizer
4x Master's Call
Artifacts
4x Myr Turbine
4x Skinwing
4x Sickleslicer
4x Batterskull
4x Godless Shrine
4x Vault of Whispers
4x Ancient Den
4x Darksteel Citadel
This Myr based deck tries to get the most out of Blood Funnel's Bonus by using "non-creature" spells that create creatures. Namely Living Weapon and Master's Call. Myr Moonvessel is a great early drop that earns it's death which can be used with Myrsmith to create another sacrifice. Brass Squire can be used to combine or reattach the Living Weapon Equips. Myr turbine can keep the sacrifices coming until a Skinwing/Batterskull hybrid can be built to grab a win. Artifact lands are purely for flavour and can be scrapped, but hey, it's the Myr's homeland, so why not!
Bazaar Trader doesn't allow you to give away Enchantments.
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
ArcLogger: 0 (doesn't work)
Arca: 10 (Creativity: I hate tribal decks)
Hamsta: 10 (Countertop..come on..yeah I know I used it before but I would have gave myself a zero for creativity too)
Fdtori: 11 (not many non creature spells in deck)
Gaea's Regent: 13 (Very creative...should have Beacon of Creation and Howl of the Night Pack instead of some of the other cards)
DLink123: 14 (The first idea I thought of was very similar to this so gave a 1 for creativity but deck was very synergetic)
rchrhds: 14
kiljo: 14
PeterRiviera: 15
maserati: 19 (very creative and like the way Blood Funnel was used)
wingedkagouti: 19 (very very interesting, uses card well, just well made overall)
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you should've sent me the names of the people submitting the 9 lists you like the most. after we have all judges' votes on that I post the top 8, then we test these decks, then we fill out that nice form, you should know if you followed the contest. these scores can not be accepted like this.
mmmhhh, I don't really cast much of my creatures, I put them into the battlefield via the recurrable Corpse Dance (you did see the buyback?), so that means the thing I'll be casting most each and every turn is a non-creature spell right?
Plus this is not a pure combo machine that feeds on storm or doesn't care about it's spells being countered, this means I need creatures to sac to Blood funnel.
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311 "Who's Got the Herb"
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Did you actually get in any testing in this short window?
Body Count: GRRRUUUUUUUUUUU
إن سرقت إسرق جمل
Level 1 Judge
My Cube for use with 6th ed. Rules
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311 "Who's Got the Herb"
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we don't even have a top 8 yet, and you have already put in ~40 games?
Body Count: GRRRUUUUUUUUUUU
إن سرقت إسرق جمل
Level 1 Judge
My Cube for use with 6th ed. Rules
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I'm very confused here - are these actually your final scores or an initial guess? You say you only played 4 people's decks, so what are the other scores based on? First glances through the decklists?
I don't know why you would give Arc-Logger an automatic 0 - his deck works even without the Bazaar Trader + Blood Funnel combo. There's still Bloodghast and Myr Servitor to work things out - so it's a matter of having a 2 mana 1/1 Goblin that won't do much in the deck or is just another creature to be sacrificed.
It would also seem your creativity scores are way too extreme. It's like everybody either got a 0, 1 or a 5 with nothing in between. Just because someone incorporates Tribal or a well-known combo doesn't mean the rest of the deck is not creative. You're really discounting the rest of hamsta's deck just because he used Countertop? When you used Countertop in CDCC #8, you stuck it in your basic U/W control shell - and that's nowhere near creative as what hamsta did here. Some decks require strong combos like that to function on a basic level.
I can also say the same thing about my deck. While Banefire/Urza's Rage are obvious additions, I know you didn't think of Entomb since you hate the card, I'm pretty sure you would never take a Burning Wish route, nor use a Recurring Nightmare combo. I've seen enough of your decklists to know what kind of decks you like to create, so please don't discount the rest of the deck's creativity because of an obvious inclusion. My deck's creativity is more subtle than that.
Another thing about the creativity score that doesn't make sense from you is that you love Maserati's use of Blood Funnel - with Multani's Presence. Let's face it, the step-by-step method by which you come across this card is by running a search on the term "countered". This essentially leads to 4 choices: Banfire, Bound//Determined, Multani's Presence, and Vexing Shusher. It's not something hidden away in obscurity. All of these are equally well-explored on combo-posting sites, and it's fairly obvious as to what you would do with each card. I wouldn't really call Multani's Presence combo any more creative than a Bound//Determined combo, whatever the creativity score may be. It seems you're evaluating a deck's creativity on a single combo w/ the week's card, and I think it's extremely unfair to the creators who worked very hard to make the entire deck work creatively.
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