Both sets are repeatable, hard to remove creature killing engines that can grind out decks. Is there any competitive value here?
At the highest level of play no, for a few reasons, first it takes a lot more hoops to jump through to get it going. Second its much more vulnerable to graveyard hate (they likely need two spells/abilities to actually stop a P. Fire). Finally it only kills creatures, which is fine but Punishing Fire is actually a legitimate way of killing your opponent so you really don't actually need any more pieces to end the game. Also against creature light strategies, Nameless Inversion is pretty much a blank, whereas Punishing Fire can still ping your opponent.
That being said, I'm sure you could build something with the combo in an environment that isn't quite so powerful such as an FNM. I think there is a Knight Tribal list floating around somewhere that has the combo in it.
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On Mono Black in Commander:
Quote from BlackJack68 »
But whomever your commander is, Cabal Coffers is really in charge.
Finally it only kills creatures, which is fine but Punishing Fire is actually a legitimate way of killing your opponent so you really don't actually need any more pieces to end the game
Beating with a 3/3 isn't a legitimate way to kill your opponent?
If your brew was control heavy enough, it could be worth a shot.
You would need a build that's an absolute grind fest. It would also probably help to use other cards that were good on their own while still synergizing with Haakon. Liliana of the Veil seems legit.
Overall though test it out, it has the potential to vomit card advantage against creature decks.
It's not awful, but it'll never be as powerful as punishing grove.
The only thing you need to make punishing grove good is grove and punishing fires. Both of these cards are actually pretty decent in their own right, making this an easily splashable "combo" that has very little drawback.
Haakon + Inversion requires a graveyard intensive deck with plenty of ways to get Haakon into the yard. This relegates it to dredge / loam strategies for the most part, sometimes with smallpox. It's not bad, but it's also very vulnerable to graveyard hate & leads to more awkward draws since you can potentially draw Haakons without any way to put them into your yard. Also, as it's been mentioned, inversion simply isn't as strong as fires since it can't be used to deal 2 damage to your opponent. Another relevant facet to grove is that it's a very strong way to deal with opposing planeswalkers. Back when it was legal, punishing fire was hands down the best card to pitch to a Liliana +1, but was also the best way to deal with opposing Lilianas. In super early modern, it was the easiest way to beat caw-blade, since it would burn out Jaces, kill mystics, and eventually kill Batterskulls as well.
So overall, it's a good little combo, and I've seen players use it to great success. But it's much more restrictive in how you build a deck, and isn't going to be as universally good against the metagame as grove/fire would be. Punishing grove is a legitimately tough thing for slow control decks to deal with, as Jund would often lose the battle of resources early on, then just slowly burn the opponent out by pinging them to death with groves.
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Both sets are repeatable, hard to remove creature killing engines that can grind out decks. Is there any competitive value here?
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At the highest level of play no, for a few reasons, first it takes a lot more hoops to jump through to get it going. Second its much more vulnerable to graveyard hate (they likely need two spells/abilities to actually stop a P. Fire). Finally it only kills creatures, which is fine but Punishing Fire is actually a legitimate way of killing your opponent so you really don't actually need any more pieces to end the game. Also against creature light strategies, Nameless Inversion is pretty much a blank, whereas Punishing Fire can still ping your opponent.
That being said, I'm sure you could build something with the combo in an environment that isn't quite so powerful such as an FNM. I think there is a Knight Tribal list floating around somewhere that has the combo in it.
Beating with a 3/3 isn't a legitimate way to kill your opponent?
You would need a build that's an absolute grind fest. It would also probably help to use other cards that were good on their own while still synergizing with Haakon. Liliana of the Veil seems legit.
Overall though test it out, it has the potential to vomit card advantage against creature decks.
The only thing you need to make punishing grove good is grove and punishing fires. Both of these cards are actually pretty decent in their own right, making this an easily splashable "combo" that has very little drawback.
Haakon + Inversion requires a graveyard intensive deck with plenty of ways to get Haakon into the yard. This relegates it to dredge / loam strategies for the most part, sometimes with smallpox. It's not bad, but it's also very vulnerable to graveyard hate & leads to more awkward draws since you can potentially draw Haakons without any way to put them into your yard. Also, as it's been mentioned, inversion simply isn't as strong as fires since it can't be used to deal 2 damage to your opponent. Another relevant facet to grove is that it's a very strong way to deal with opposing planeswalkers. Back when it was legal, punishing fire was hands down the best card to pitch to a Liliana +1, but was also the best way to deal with opposing Lilianas. In super early modern, it was the easiest way to beat caw-blade, since it would burn out Jaces, kill mystics, and eventually kill Batterskulls as well.
So overall, it's a good little combo, and I've seen players use it to great success. But it's much more restrictive in how you build a deck, and isn't going to be as universally good against the metagame as grove/fire would be. Punishing grove is a legitimately tough thing for slow control decks to deal with, as Jund would often lose the battle of resources early on, then just slowly burn the opponent out by pinging them to death with groves.
4 Eternal Witness
4 Haakon
4 Cryptic Command
4 Abrupt Decay
4 Nameless Inversion
4 Thoughtseize
4 Aether Vial
Then you go from there. Probably only need 2-3 Abrupt Decay. Also finding more 3 drops for Vial (Vendillion Clique is probably the best one).
Hope that helps.
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=519290