RD 1 Affinity 2-0
Game 1- He gets stuck on Glimmervoid for several turns and doesn't have me under any pressure. Eventually I have him holding back blockers until I find Apostle's Blessing.
Game 2- Vines of Vastwood MVP. I cast it targeting his Inkmoth Nexus in response to his Arcbound Ravager sac, making a one-mana Creeping Corrosion + Angel's Grace.
RD 2 Mono-Black Infect 2-1
I was kind of interested in this match-up. I don't think it's favorable, but I won the die roll, which helps.
Game 1- An attrition war results in me topdecking Groundswell (with no landfall) around turn 9, after trading Necropedes for Phyrexian Crusaders and discarding a lot of cards.
Game 2- He gets 3 Night's Whispers and Phyrexian Arena, making his 1-for-1 removal/discard superb.
Game 3- I side out all non-gas and win on turn 4.
RD 3 UW Tron 2-1
Game 1- I forget. I think he was durdling for Tron pieces, and I made him have Path to Exile. He didn't.
Game 2- Without a single Urza land, he casts Gifts and gets Elesh Norn out on turn 5.
Game 3- Again, sided out all non-gas and go for the early kill. I keep a questionable hand with 1 Glistener Elf and a bunch of pump, trying to get a turn 2/3 kill. I get him to 8 poison counters turn 2, and he repeals the Elf, then Mana Leaks it. Later I get a Myr and win with exalted.
RD 4 Ad Nauseam 1-2
Game 1- He wins the die roll. That pretty much decided the match, as this game and game 3 I was within a turn.
Also I didn't know how to side here. I only brought in 4 Nature's Claim, thinking I could kill a Lotus Bloom and buy some time. I didn't see Claim in games 2-3 though.
Game 2- I'm faster on the play. Neither of us interact.
Game 3- He Echoing Truths my Elf on turn 2, then plays a Simian Spirit Guide, buying him two turns to assemble the combo.
Thus ended my experiment playing 4 Noble Hierarch in Mono-G Infect. I'm not convinced they were better than Rancor, but I know they're better than 2 Forest.
I think anyone bringing 4 Dismember to maindeck is making a mistake. I sided them out all of these matches because I didn't care about their creatures. I only care against Pod, so it's clearly a sideboard card. Next daily I make I'll play -2 Dismember, +2 Rancor main.
The most interesting points of discussion for me are what matchups you "make them have it" and sideboarding plans.
What I mean by "make them have it" is this. In two games against Pod today, I lost because I was being too careful about Abrupt Decay, Slaughter Pact, etc. I could have won if I played Vines kicked, but instead I held it back to avoid a blowout. I think it was the right call, but perhaps I've misidentified my role.
rd 1 vs. Bizarre Pod 2-1
I kept misidentifying this deck.
G1- All he shows me is a fetch, Temple Garden, Stomping Ground, Scavenging Ooze. He gets stuck on the second land, and I have Glistener Elf with Rancor and pump.
G2- I thought he was Zoo, so I side in Spellskite and Ranger's Guile to beat the burn and Paths only to see a crazy brew in front of me. He plays Fiery Justice on Hierarch and Spellskite (btw you can't use Spellskite to edirect ALL damage to itself), but I save the latter with Vines. Then he lays a Cunning Sparkmage so I realize it's Caleb Durward's Blinky Naya. Later on he plays a Pod and Zealous Inquisitor tokens run me over.
G3- Only Glistener Elf in hand but have the pump and Exalted triggers to win with it, so I go for it. Again he Fiery Justices the Elf and a Necropede I draw later. I get another Necropede and Dismember his Restoration Angel he plays to save himself.
Rd 2: W/B Soul Sisters/Tokens variant 2-1
G1- His 2 Path to Exile, 1 Squadron Hawk vs. my Glistener Elf, Nexus, Apostle's Blessing, 3 Rancor. I win.
G2- He gets THREE Zealous Persecutions on me, all in instances when I "made him have it" but had protection against Path To Exile etc. (vines and blessing).
G3- He never gets a swamp for Persecution, but I had the pump anyway if he did. Rancor + Ichorclaw Myr are better than tokens.
Rd 3: 4color burn 2-0
G1- He gets greedy and doesn't activate Grim Lavamancer to kill my Necropede when I'm tapped out (I guess he wanted to keep his Lavamancer). I Might, Might, Rancor and win.
G2-We get into a war over my creature that I save with Ranger's Guile and Mutagenic Growth (his bolt+Lavamancer), and I win on the next turn with Vines, Might, Exalted. Interestingly, this is a game I couldn't have won without Hierarch's Green mana production and Exalted trigger.
Rd 4: Storm 0-2
He wins the die roll.
G1-I mull to 5. All I have are Necropedes with little pump. With all the time in the world, he wins on turn 5.
G2-Looks better, and I get him to 9 poison. If I had a Forest instead of Cathedral, an Apostle's Blessing a turn earlier, or a Mutagenic Growth in hand, then I would've won. I don't mind that number of outs in a loss like this.
The only 2 dailies I've been in with it, I've cashed with this deck. It's the real deal.
Hey guys I went 2-1 with a budgetversion of this deck. (beating tron NOT BUDGET, and American control *so not budget its not even funny*)
I have 1 problem with a deck archtype called robots.
on my first turn I usually throw a glistener elf out.
however on their turn they can manage to dump their entire hand, or have more than enough chump blockers to get me into some serious trouble.
the memnites tend to chump block, and they have more than enough artifacts to cause protection from everything on
Etched Champion.
meaning I tend to lose to this deck before I even start the game.
I do run artifact hate in the side board, but it's usually a wash between destroying artifacts, or pumping creatures. as I only have 2 forests on the field on my second turn I can't really do much in the way of clearing enough artifacts, especially when their lands count as one.
any other hate I have for the robot deck, just runs into more redundancy as the affinity mechanic is designed for it.
so just to be clear, everyone on the same page. dismember cannot target etched champion, you can't block it, you can't gut shot it, you cannot bolt it, you cannot summnoer's pact it
Swap the maindecked Unnatural Predations for SBed Rancors, Predation is too low-impact to be worth the slots. That gives you more space in the SB. Oxidizes should be Nature's Claim.
The way your deck is set up, Creeping Corrosion hurts you too because you have 6 artifact creatures. Avoid playing Corrosion. Try something like Viridian Corrupter instead. Try a SB of at least 4 Nature's Claim + 2 Viridian Corrupter.
I have 1 problem with a deck archtype called robots.
...
so just to be clear, everyone on the same page. dismember cannot target etched champion, you can't block it, you can't gut shot it
Just a note you can block Etched Champion with any of your artifact creatures, including Inkmoth Nexus, since they are colorless.
The main strategy with Affinity is you want to hold on until you can make one big swing with Apostle's Blessing, since it can give your creature protection from artifacts making it unblockable. Also, putting a Rancor on Ichorclaw Myr can quite often provide a way through, since the myr gets +2/+2 when blocked. It is also vital to remember that you can use Vines of Vastwood on their creature to stop the counters from Arcbound Ravager when it dies, and you can even stop Cranial Plating from being equipped to a creature this way too (use only in an emergency though!).
It can be a tough match up, but I find that I stomp Affinity easily sometimes and they get me easily at other times, which is quite often the case with aggro vs. aggro match ups.
to stop lethal I sometimes chump with blight mamba then regen.
should I SB out the mamba for more necro so the chump gets em -2/-2? then claim their cranial?
seems like a 3 for 1 deal that is more glass cannon than my deck.
usually they just win by infect believe it or not (their own inkmoths )
Honestly, infect itself is such a glass canon, that you should pick your best win~con and stick to it.
It's really, really not. "Glass Cannon" refers to something like Dredge because it depends on something that is commonly hated or receives splash hate. If, for instance, we were to make a turn 2/3 combo depending on an activated artifact ability, provided that we draw the card in those turns, then we could expect to receive a lot of hate already targeted at affinity et al.
This deck, though, has a lot of defenses built in to its combo. All pump spells protect from a lot of removal. There are 8 hexproof effects maindeck.
Here's a fun play for you all. I have a Rancor'd Glistener Elf, and my Tron opponent is at 7 Poison counters (Rancor, Elf's 1 power, Might of Old Krosa). He casts Pyroclasm, so I Nature's Claim the Rancor and activate Pendelhaven to save it. On the next turn, I replay Rancor and swing for lethal.
Keys against Affinity are Vines of Vastwood, Spellskite, and Necropede. Necropede holds down the ground fort. If your opponent attacks with Signal Pest and anything on the ground, Necropede kills it (eg Memnite) and Signal Pest with the triggered ability. You're probably faster than most Etched Champion shenanigans.
Here's a fun play for you all. I have a Rancor'd Glistener Elf, and my Tron opponent is at 7 Poison counters ... He casts Pyroclasm, so I Nature's Claim the Rancor and activate Pendelhaven to save it. On the next turn, I replay Rancor and swing for lethal.
Nice play! I will have to remember that trick. I have on occasion used Nature's Claim to gain life by destroying my own Rancor to survive for one more turn and then gone on to win.
I know I gave up on the BUG Infect version because of the prevalence of Blood Moon in my meta. A resolved Blood Moon plays hell with that deck, and it gets tiresome to pray for hands that can withstand Lightning Bolt, Snapcaster Mage, Lightning Bolt. All that and it's still not that great against a good Melira Pod deck and player and the deck hasn't gained much/anything from the latest Standard block. Increased Thoughtseize supply. That's about it.
I think I'm going to give a mono-green list a try. I have all the cards and it looks like fun. I do think Spellskite is a worthy addition to almost any deck's sideboard. It's cost is irrelevant. It's just a great hoser card in general and also protects our dudes like a champ from spot removal.
The mono-green list looks a little slower than others. I also saw some lists with Livewire Lash. Have people given up on that? And Swords in general?
Yeah it is quite amazing how good the mono green list is at closing out games with Cathedral of War and Pendelhaven, as your tiny infect creatures start to get much bigger the longer the game goes. It doesn't seem to run out of gas so easily, and I am finding you can quite often just keep mana open to protect your creature and let the land buffs do the work.
Livewire Lash from the early lists has been replaced now by 2 Dismember to help with main deck Spellskites and Melira, Sylvok Outcasts, and is good at disrupting the splinter twin and pod combos, which are everywhere at the moment.
Didn't see B/G in the primer list. Here is the version I'm currently running, I have done well with it in the past. The Phyrexian Crusaders are a recent addition, they are so hard to kill.
The sideboard you can modify to taste.
One swamp used to be a Cathedral of War until I put the Phyrexian Crusaders in.
IMO this is still a budget deck that can be very competitive. It has shocks and other budget lands, obviously fetches would improve the percentages but are not necessary at a FNM level, and more importantly I don't own the fetches. Having main deck removal in Doom Blade/Abrupt Decay is very useful. I sometimes try 1 Dismember main instead of a Doom Blade.
Honestly, infect itself is such a glass canon, that you should pick your best win~con and stick to it.
It's really, really not. "Glass Cannon" refers to something like Dredge because it depends on something that is commonly hated or receives splash hate. If, for instance, we were to make a turn 2/3 combo depending on an activated artifact ability, provided that we draw the card in those turns, then we could expect to receive a lot of hate already targeted at affinity et al.
This deck, though, has a lot of defenses built in to its combo. All pump spells protect from a lot of removal. There are 8 hexproof effects maindeck.
Here's a fun play for you all. I have a Rancor'd Glistener Elf, and my Tron opponent is at 7 Poison counters (Rancor, Elf's 1 power, Might of Old Krosa). He casts Pyroclasm, so I Nature's Claim the Rancor and activate Pendelhaven to save it. On the next turn, I replay Rancor and swing for lethal.
No, you'r mistaken. "Glass Canon" refers to a ploy which relies heavily on dealing as much damage (in our case, 'poison counters') as possible in 1 turn. If this ploy fails, then more than likely, your game is lost. Which is precisely what this deck is. At least, the mono~green iteration which I pilot.
I'm not dismissing the deck, as I've piloted it to at least 2 out of 4 wins every time I've used it in a tourney, but I am admitting its faults. Which is mainly that it needs to be able to win, in as few turns as possible, which it does, admirably well most of the time.
If I swing for what I assume will be lethal poison, and exhaust my resource of pump and protection, and it doesn't win me the game, then more than likely my opponent will win in the following number of turns. The decks alpha swing consumes too many resources to be able to duplicate in the same duel sufficiently.
Which is what makes it a "glass canon" deck. Common hate, and splash hate have nothing to do with a deck being a glass canon.
Honestly, infect itself is such a glass canon, that you should pick your best win~con and stick to it.
It's really, really not. "Glass Cannon" refers to something like Dredge because it depends on something that is commonly hated or receives splash hate. If, for instance, we were to make a turn 2/3 combo depending on an activated artifact ability, provided that we draw the card in those turns, then we could expect to receive a lot of hate already targeted at affinity et al.
This deck, though, has a lot of defenses built in to its combo. All pump spells protect from a lot of removal. There are 8 hexproof effects maindeck.
Here's a fun play for you all. I have a Rancor'd Glistener Elf, and my Tron opponent is at 7 Poison counters (Rancor, Elf's 1 power, Might of Old Krosa). He casts Pyroclasm, so I Nature's Claim the Rancor and activate Pendelhaven to save it. On the next turn, I replay Rancor and swing for lethal.
No, you'r mistaken. "Glass Canon" refers to a ploy which relies heavily on dealing as much damage (in our case, 'poison counters') as possible in 1 turn. If this ploy fails, then more than likely, your game is lost. Which is precisely what this deck is. At least, the mono~green iteration which I pilot.
I'm not dismissing the deck, as I've piloted it to at least 2 out of 4 wins every time I've used it in a tourney, but I am admitting its faults. Which is mainly that it needs to be able to win, in as few turns as possible, which it does, admirably well most of the time.
If I swing for what I assume will be lethal poison, and exhaust my resource of pump and protection, and it doesn't win me the game, then more than likely my opponent will win in the following number of turns. The decks alpha swing consumes too many resources to be able to duplicate in the same duel sufficiently.
Which is what makes it a "glass canon" deck. Common hate, and splash hate have nothing to do with a deck being a glass canon.
the term "glass cannon" refers to anything that it extremely powerful while also being extremely fragile. as far as combo decks go i dont think infect is very fragile as you really only need to protect 1 combo piece and most infect decks run 8-12 ways to protect. you are confusing inconsistent and bad match-ups (or mis-plays) with fragile. and your statement "If this COMBO fails, then more than likely, your game is lost" applies to basically any dedicated combo deck in the format. look at scapeshift, if they dont successfully cast Scapeshift they lose. when built and played properly infect should be both powerful and resilient even though it is susceptible to hate
I'm not getting into this discussion. In my own personal experience, the mono~green build is extremely potent, yet extremely fragile, i.e. glass cannon.
I felt as if mono green infect is very fragile like MrENigmas said however going B/G gives you much more options. Having access to abrupt decay helps with threats that you might be facing. I myself, run B/G with the intent of turning it into BUG once I get the funds.
I feel monogreen is quite resilent, for the reasons stated. Cathedral of war and pendelhaven allows to have all your creatures from decent size and even say your spells for protections. As I said many times I play the long games vs several decks. My games vs UWR are generally very long and still get a win because the deck is solid. The only real problem of the deck imo is BG which just 8-2 imo. But that is not because the deck is fragile because that deck has a combination of cards that is just too strong vs the deck. I find fragile a deck that can win very easily but if you disrupt it a little it falls appart, that is not the case with monogreen infect, you need A LOT of disruption to make it fall. Sadly BG has that amount.
I'm completely with waterd here. Against UR delver and UWR control it's almost funny that I take the control route.
I'll go more into that in a second, let me post what I've been jamming with lately. I almost dislike this being called a 'budget' deck, because running it in this style actually has a lot of advantages of any of the other versions that cost more. Budget has such a negative connotation to me.
Now what I was saying earlier, any deck with bolts/blue tempo magic/paths in general has a pretty good game 1 matchup versus us in my opinion. That's when I go to board and completely hose them. The amount of snapcaster decks (god there are so many) that I know are audibly sighing when I drop a glistener and a free (the fact that is is free is more important than you can ever imagine) crypt turn 1 is hilarious.
Also let me go off on a tangent for a second, I believe that crypt is much better than cage ONLY and only because it costs zero mana. Considering half the games it seems like we are using our god damn lands to attack we truly, honestly really don't want to gimp our own plan by having to do nothing for a whole turn just to drop a cage. I'm dead serious, at least as monogreen we are so pressed for mana in the first third or so of the game it's wild.
I have a lot of questions and even advice actually for matchups, but I just got a bit more work to do (at work imagine that gasp) so I'll hit up another post soon.
4 Inkmoth Nexus
4 Cathedral of War
2 Pendelhaven
10 Forest
4 Glistener Elf
4 Ichorclaw Myr
3 Necropede
1 Blight Mamba
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Groundswell
4 Might of Old Krosa
2 Rancor
4 Vines of Vastwood
2 Dismember
4 Apostle's Blessing
2 Ranger's Guile
2 Spellskite
4 Tormod's Crypt
4 Nature's Claim
1 Viridian Corrupter
2 Dismember
RD 1 Affinity 2-0
Game 1- He gets stuck on Glimmervoid for several turns and doesn't have me under any pressure. Eventually I have him holding back blockers until I find Apostle's Blessing.
Game 2- Vines of Vastwood MVP. I cast it targeting his Inkmoth Nexus in response to his Arcbound Ravager sac, making a one-mana Creeping Corrosion + Angel's Grace.
RD 2 Mono-Black Infect 2-1
I was kind of interested in this match-up. I don't think it's favorable, but I won the die roll, which helps.
Game 1- An attrition war results in me topdecking Groundswell (with no landfall) around turn 9, after trading Necropedes for Phyrexian Crusaders and discarding a lot of cards.
Game 2- He gets 3 Night's Whispers and Phyrexian Arena, making his 1-for-1 removal/discard superb.
Game 3- I side out all non-gas and win on turn 4.
RD 3 UW Tron 2-1
Game 1- I forget. I think he was durdling for Tron pieces, and I made him have Path to Exile. He didn't.
Game 2- Without a single Urza land, he casts Gifts and gets Elesh Norn out on turn 5.
Game 3- Again, sided out all non-gas and go for the early kill. I keep a questionable hand with 1 Glistener Elf and a bunch of pump, trying to get a turn 2/3 kill. I get him to 8 poison counters turn 2, and he repeals the Elf, then Mana Leaks it. Later I get a Myr and win with exalted.
RD 4 Ad Nauseam 1-2
Game 1- He wins the die roll. That pretty much decided the match, as this game and game 3 I was within a turn.
Also I didn't know how to side here. I only brought in 4 Nature's Claim, thinking I could kill a Lotus Bloom and buy some time. I didn't see Claim in games 2-3 though.
Game 2- I'm faster on the play. Neither of us interact.
Game 3- He Echoing Truths my Elf on turn 2, then plays a Simian Spirit Guide, buying him two turns to assemble the combo.
Thus ended my experiment playing 4 Noble Hierarch in Mono-G Infect. I'm not convinced they were better than Rancor, but I know they're better than 2 Forest.
I think anyone bringing 4 Dismember to maindeck is making a mistake. I sided them out all of these matches because I didn't care about their creatures. I only care against Pod, so it's clearly a sideboard card. Next daily I make I'll play -2 Dismember, +2 Rancor main.
The most interesting points of discussion for me are what matchups you "make them have it" and sideboarding plans.
What I mean by "make them have it" is this. In two games against Pod today, I lost because I was being too careful about Abrupt Decay, Slaughter Pact, etc. I could have won if I played Vines kicked, but instead I held it back to avoid a blowout. I think it was the right call, but perhaps I've misidentified my role.
4 cavern of souls
2 pendelhaven
10 forest
4 glistener elf
3 necropede
1 blight mamba
4 ichorclaw myr
4 noble hierarch
4 vines of vastwood
4 might of old krosa
4 mutagenic growth
4 apostle's blessing
2 spellskite
1 ranger's guile
4 dismember
4 nature's claim
4 tormod's crypt
rd 1 vs. Bizarre Pod 2-1
I kept misidentifying this deck.
G1- All he shows me is a fetch, Temple Garden, Stomping Ground, Scavenging Ooze. He gets stuck on the second land, and I have Glistener Elf with Rancor and pump.
G2- I thought he was Zoo, so I side in Spellskite and Ranger's Guile to beat the burn and Paths only to see a crazy brew in front of me. He plays Fiery Justice on Hierarch and Spellskite (btw you can't use Spellskite to edirect ALL damage to itself), but I save the latter with Vines. Then he lays a Cunning Sparkmage so I realize it's Caleb Durward's Blinky Naya. Later on he plays a Pod and Zealous Inquisitor tokens run me over.
G3- Only Glistener Elf in hand but have the pump and Exalted triggers to win with it, so I go for it. Again he Fiery Justices the Elf and a Necropede I draw later. I get another Necropede and Dismember his Restoration Angel he plays to save himself.
Rd 2: W/B Soul Sisters/Tokens variant 2-1
G1- His 2 Path to Exile, 1 Squadron Hawk vs. my Glistener Elf, Nexus, Apostle's Blessing, 3 Rancor. I win.
G2- He gets THREE Zealous Persecutions on me, all in instances when I "made him have it" but had protection against Path To Exile etc. (vines and blessing).
G3- He never gets a swamp for Persecution, but I had the pump anyway if he did. Rancor + Ichorclaw Myr are better than tokens.
Rd 3: 4color burn 2-0
G1- He gets greedy and doesn't activate Grim Lavamancer to kill my Necropede when I'm tapped out (I guess he wanted to keep his Lavamancer). I Might, Might, Rancor and win.
G2-We get into a war over my creature that I save with Ranger's Guile and Mutagenic Growth (his bolt+Lavamancer), and I win on the next turn with Vines, Might, Exalted. Interestingly, this is a game I couldn't have won without Hierarch's Green mana production and Exalted trigger.
Rd 4: Storm 0-2
He wins the die roll.
G1-I mull to 5. All I have are Necropedes with little pump. With all the time in the world, he wins on turn 5.
G2-Looks better, and I get him to 9 poison. If I had a Forest instead of Cathedral, an Apostle's Blessing a turn earlier, or a Mutagenic Growth in hand, then I would've won. I don't mind that number of outs in a loss like this.
The only 2 dailies I've been in with it, I've cashed with this deck. It's the real deal.
I have 1 problem with a deck archtype called robots.
on my first turn I usually throw a glistener elf out.
however on their turn they can manage to dump their entire hand, or have more than enough chump blockers to get me into some serious trouble.
the memnites tend to chump block, and they have more than enough artifacts to cause protection from everything on
Etched Champion.
meaning I tend to lose to this deck before I even start the game.
I do run artifact hate in the side board, but it's usually a wash between destroying artifacts, or pumping creatures. as I only have 2 forests on the field on my second turn I can't really do much in the way of clearing enough artifacts, especially when their lands count as one.
any other hate I have for the robot deck, just runs into more redundancy as the affinity mechanic is designed for it.
so just to be clear, everyone on the same page. dismember cannot target etched champion, you can't block it, you can't gut shot it, you cannot bolt it, you cannot summnoer's pact it
2 Ghost Quarter
4 Inkmoth Nexus
2 Pendelhaven
10 Forest
4 Glistener Elf
4 Ichorclaw Myr
2 Necropede
2 Blight Mamba
4 Might of Old Krosa
4 Groundswell
4 Vines of Vastwood
4 Apostle's Blessing
4 Mutagenic Growth
2 Rancor
2 Dismember
2 Unnatural Predation
2 livewire lash
2 Dismember
2 Ranger's Guile
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Rancor
2 Creeping Corrosion
1 pithing needle
The way your deck is set up, Creeping Corrosion hurts you too because you have 6 artifact creatures. Avoid playing Corrosion. Try something like Viridian Corrupter instead. Try a SB of at least 4 Nature's Claim + 2 Viridian Corrupter.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
Just a note you can block Etched Champion with any of your artifact creatures, including Inkmoth Nexus, since they are colorless.
The main strategy with Affinity is you want to hold on until you can make one big swing with Apostle's Blessing, since it can give your creature protection from artifacts making it unblockable. Also, putting a Rancor on Ichorclaw Myr can quite often provide a way through, since the myr gets +2/+2 when blocked. It is also vital to remember that you can use Vines of Vastwood on their creature to stop the counters from Arcbound Ravager when it dies, and you can even stop Cranial Plating from being equipped to a creature this way too (use only in an emergency though!).
It can be a tough match up, but I find that I stomp Affinity easily sometimes and they get me easily at other times, which is quite often the case with aggro vs. aggro match ups.
should I SB out the mamba for more necro so the chump gets em -2/-2? then claim their cranial?
seems like a 3 for 1 deal that is more glass cannon than my deck.
usually they just win by infect believe it or not (their own inkmoths )
It's really, really not. "Glass Cannon" refers to something like Dredge because it depends on something that is commonly hated or receives splash hate. If, for instance, we were to make a turn 2/3 combo depending on an activated artifact ability, provided that we draw the card in those turns, then we could expect to receive a lot of hate already targeted at affinity et al.
This deck, though, has a lot of defenses built in to its combo. All pump spells protect from a lot of removal. There are 8 hexproof effects maindeck.
Here's a fun play for you all. I have a Rancor'd Glistener Elf, and my Tron opponent is at 7 Poison counters (Rancor, Elf's 1 power, Might of Old Krosa). He casts Pyroclasm, so I Nature's Claim the Rancor and activate Pendelhaven to save it. On the next turn, I replay Rancor and swing for lethal.
Nice play! I will have to remember that trick. I have on occasion used Nature's Claim to gain life by destroying my own Rancor to survive for one more turn and then gone on to win.
I think I'm going to give a mono-green list a try. I have all the cards and it looks like fun. I do think Spellskite is a worthy addition to almost any deck's sideboard. It's cost is irrelevant. It's just a great hoser card in general and also protects our dudes like a champ from spot removal.
The mono-green list looks a little slower than others. I also saw some lists with Livewire Lash. Have people given up on that? And Swords in general?
Livewire Lash from the early lists has been replaced now by 2 Dismember to help with main deck Spellskites and Melira, Sylvok Outcasts, and is good at disrupting the splinter twin and pod combos, which are everywhere at the moment.
4 Glistener Elf
4 Plague Stinger
3 Ichorclaw Myr
3 Phyrexian Crusader
Spells
2 Rancor
4 Might of Old Krosa
3 Vines of Vastwood
4 Groundswell
4 Mutagenic Growth
3 Doom Blade
2 Abrupt Decay
3 Apostle's Blessing
4 Inkmoth Nexus
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Woodland Cemetery
2 Llanowar Wastes
2 Swamp
3 Forest
2 Pendelhaven
2 Spellskite
2 Pithing Needle
1 Grafdigger's Cage
3 Duress
2 Dismember
1 Putrefy
4 Nature's Claim
1 Wild Defiance
The sideboard you can modify to taste.
One swamp used to be a Cathedral of War until I put the Phyrexian Crusaders in.
IMO this is still a budget deck that can be very competitive. It has shocks and other budget lands, obviously fetches would improve the percentages but are not necessary at a FNM level, and more importantly I don't own the fetches. Having main deck removal in Doom Blade/Abrupt Decay is very useful. I sometimes try 1 Dismember main instead of a Doom Blade.
No, you'r mistaken. "Glass Canon" refers to a ploy which relies heavily on dealing as much damage (in our case, 'poison counters') as possible in 1 turn. If this ploy fails, then more than likely, your game is lost. Which is precisely what this deck is. At least, the mono~green iteration which I pilot.
I'm not dismissing the deck, as I've piloted it to at least 2 out of 4 wins every time I've used it in a tourney, but I am admitting its faults. Which is mainly that it needs to be able to win, in as few turns as possible, which it does, admirably well most of the time.
If I swing for what I assume will be lethal poison, and exhaust my resource of pump and protection, and it doesn't win me the game, then more than likely my opponent will win in the following number of turns. The decks alpha swing consumes too many resources to be able to duplicate in the same duel sufficiently.
Which is what makes it a "glass canon" deck. Common hate, and splash hate have nothing to do with a deck being a glass canon.
I'll go more into that in a second, let me post what I've been jamming with lately. I almost dislike this being called a 'budget' deck, because running it in this style actually has a lot of advantages of any of the other versions that cost more. Budget has such a negative connotation to me.
My current list.
4 Glistener Elf
4 Ichorclaw Myr
4 Necropede
Spells
4 Rancor
4 Might of Old Krosa
4 Vines of Vastwood
4 Groundswell
4 Mutagenic Growth
4 Apostle's Blessing
2 Dismember
4 Inkmoth Nexus
4 Cathedral of War
12 Forest
2 Pendelhaven
2 Spellskite
3 Tormod's Crypt
2 Dismember
4 Nature's Claim
2 Wild Defiance
2 Ranger's Guile
Now what I was saying earlier, any deck with bolts/blue tempo magic/paths in general has a pretty good game 1 matchup versus us in my opinion. That's when I go to board and completely hose them. The amount of snapcaster decks (god there are so many) that I know are audibly sighing when I drop a glistener and a free (the fact that is is free is more important than you can ever imagine) crypt turn 1 is hilarious.
Also let me go off on a tangent for a second, I believe that crypt is much better than cage ONLY and only because it costs zero mana. Considering half the games it seems like we are using our god damn lands to attack we truly, honestly really don't want to gimp our own plan by having to do nothing for a whole turn just to drop a cage. I'm dead serious, at least as monogreen we are so pressed for mana in the first third or so of the game it's wild.
I have a lot of questions and even advice actually for matchups, but I just got a bit more work to do (at work imagine that gasp) so I'll hit up another post soon.