I think going 4C is a mistake. Splashing into a 2C deck is one thing, but I think adding blue (even if it is "almost" free) is a trap. Our mana base isn't spectacular as is, and we would be missing our one and two drops too often (on turn one, we have 7 ways to get green and 5 ways to get black in the above deck), and the last thing we want to do is get behind his WR aggro deck.
My plan is to keep it simple, and try to dominate the midgame with equipment, removal, and Erratic Portal (which is great for us and against him):
The good news is that we have ways to deal with his creatures, artifacts, and planeswalkers, and he has many less answers to our threats. The bad news is, his deck has more synergy, and the burn to finish us off.
I don't see the point in weakening (and expanding) our manabase for this:
Well tbh, Im running three colours, the other decks are just the same Jund, or four colours.
1 Fume Spitter
Its an early creature, that can block and then used as removal, its great against Pork Leg, and just a generally good card.
1 Twisted Abomination
Well this fixes fom mana issues. And is good late game, easy to cast, survives most of magicmerls deck, its a bomb imho.
1 Oona Queen of the Fae
I dont see the problem here except the restrictive cost, but its a great card, it would just be nice to be able to cast it a bit easier. It this wasnt happening I would play Silent Spectre as the other finisher. Dont like Spectre v much, but yeah its prolly easier to cast in this situation.
1 Duress
This destroys most of magicmerl's deck, this is a great proactive distruption card.
in order to leve these in the sideboard:
1 Kargan Dragonlord
Hard to cast 2/2? I dont think I could reliably cast this, and then it just dies to everything.
1 Erratic Portal
Its a considerable investment in mana to bring it on board, once its running sure, it works okay with this deck.
1 Hero of Oxid Ridge
It doesnt do anything, and has 2 toughness.
1 Koth of the Hammer
Not in this environ is it great. Then its terrible against the match-up. Like I like Kothoth, but its not the right meta for him to work, and difinately didnt get the support this draft.
1 Starstorm
Double red? No I think I keep Pyroclasm as my sweep thanks, Redundancy would be good, but we passed EQ, and REQ, and then it doesnt even touch Gideon, finish the game. Awkward control spell, that is to expensive to cast.
1 Hurricane
He doesnt have flying creatures to worry about.
1 Loxodon Warhammer
I would run Sylvok Lifestaff/ Basalisk Collar gladly. Prohibatively expensive card, I just dont see how this can convert a game-state against magicmerl's deck. We dont have the right creatures to support this.
No love for Silent Specter?
Also, I know what decks I can and cant play against magicmerl, like Ive never gotten manadenial.dec or Upheaval.dec to work against him. So this is the build I would go for. Maybe swap Oona for Spectre/ Nekrataal idk?
@magicmerl
My computer has no love for me atm, but should be MWS soon.
Well tbh, Im running three colours, the other decks are just the same Jund, or four colours.
The is a difference between RGB and RGb. You are wasting slots on a ton of swamps for a few black cards that are easily replaced. Supporting all three colors is causing you to run way too much land for that curve too.
1 Fume Spitter
Its an early creature, that can block and then used as removal, its great against Pork Leg, and just a generally good card.
We will not cast him turn one reliably with 6 turn one black sources, making him pretty bad.If you think it is worth it even without T1 support, then run it in my build.
1 Twisted Abomination
Well this fixes fom mana issues. And is good late game, easy to cast, survives most of magicmerls deck, its a bomb imho.
A 6CC (7 if you want regen) 5/3 with no evasion is never a bomb, even with regeneration.
1 Oona Queen of the Fae
I dont see the problem here except the restrictive cost, but its a great card, it would just be nice to be able to cast it a bit easier. It this wasnt happening I would play Silent Spectre as the other finisher. Dont like Spectre v much, but yeah its prolly easier to cast in this situation.
I love Oona, but I think we need to focus on the early and midgame. Additionally, casting it will be awful.
1 Duress
This destroys most of magicmerl's deck, this is a great proactive distruption card.
Again, if we had a good shot to cast it reliably turn 1 without destroying our manabase, I'd run it.If you think it is worth it even without T1 support, then run it in my build.
in order to leve these in the sideboard:
1 Kargan Dragonlord
Hard to cast 2/2? I dont think I could reliably cast this, and then it just dies to everything.
You couldn't reliably cast it, but drop the heavy black support, and we can get it out fairly fast. It plays into our midrange theme by being a cheap blocker if needed, and a great beater later.
1 Erratic Portal
Its a considerable investment in mana to bring it on board, once its running sure, it works okay with this deck.
It is amazing in our deck, letting us dodge his sweepers and bounce our Slinger, Vigalante, Elder, Nekratall, Centaur, Chewer. We are going to need a TON of artifact kill to beat him, and this gives us another tool for it. It also destroys his tempo when left up.
Haste > Plasewalkers (and all his sorcery removal). Plus, we have 7 creatures that come down before him, so the battle cry is not meaningless.
1 Koth of the Hammer
Not in this environ is it great. Then its terrible against the match-up. Like I like Kothoth, but its not the right meta for him to work, and difinately didnt get the support this draft.
Again, drop the heavy black and we'll get enough mountains. He isn't busted as hell here, but gets us some nice hasty mountains, some decent ramp, and the occasional backbreaking ultimate.
1 Starstorm
Double red? No I think I keep Pyroclasm as my sweep thanks, Redundancy would be good, but we passed EQ, and REQ, and then it doesnt even touch Gideon, finish the game. Awkward control spell, that is to expensive to cast.
(Again, drop the heavy black and we'll get enough red) but Starstorm is amazing for us, whereas Clasm is good but not great, as it screws us too. It really is incredibly cheap for an instant sweeper, and is versatile as all get out thanks to cycling.
1 Hurricane
He doesnt have flying creatures to worry about.
Finisher + planeswalker kill.
1 Loxodon Warhammer
I would run Sylvok Lifestaff/ Basalisk Collar gladly. Prohibatively expensive card, I just dont see how this can convert a game-state against magicmerl's deck. We dont have the right creatures to support this.
We run 7 creatures that cost 3 or less, and we are playing against a WR aggro deck with burn finishers. Plus, the trample lets us unexpectedly kill PWs.
No love for Silent Specter?
It's a solid card against control, so not at the top of my list.
Originally Posted by Ponder
Well tbh, Im running three colours, the other decks are just the same Jund, or four colours.
The is a difference between RGB and RGb. You are wasting slots on a ton of swamps for a few black cards that are easily replaced. Supporting all three colors is causing you to run way too much land for that curve too.
>I might have one too many swamps, but I like the high concentration of mana, it lets me get four mana turn four, I dont like missing land drops, and am happy going down to 6.
1 Fume Spitter
Its an early creature, that can block and then used as removal, its great against Pork Leg, and just a generally good card.
We will not cast him turn one reliably with 6 turn one black sources, making him pretty bad.
>What?? That is ~1:7 ratio, thats pretty good odds.
1 Twisted Abomination
Well this fixes fom mana issues. And is good late game, easy to cast, survives most of magicmerls deck, its a bomb imho.
A 6CC (7 if you want regen) 5/3 with no evasion is never a bomb, even with regeneration.
> Regen is what makes him great here, he survives a lot of combat, and cards.
1 Oona Queen of the Fae
I dont see the problem here except the restrictive cost, but its a great card, it would just be nice to be able to cast it a bit easier. It this wasnt happening I would play Silent Spectre as the other finisher. Dont like Spectre v much, but yeah its prolly easier to cast in this situation.
I love Oona, but I think we need to focus on the early and midgame. Additionally, casting it will be awful.
>Disagree, we need some cards that act as finishers, and this survives EQ, though not REQ.
1 Duress
This destroys most of magicmerl's deck, this is a great proactive distruption card.
Again, if we had a good shot to cast it reliably turn 1 without destroying our manabase, I'd run it.
>Well I have a good mana base, tbh.
in order to leve these in the sideboard:
1 Kargan Dragonlord
Hard to cast 2/2? I dont think I could reliably cast this, and then it just dies to everything.
You couldn't reliably cast it, but drop the heavy black support, and we can get it out fairly fast. It plays into our midrange theme by being a cheap blocker if needed, and a great beater later.
>Yes, it doesnt work so well in Jund, thank you.
1 Erratic Portal
Its a considerable investment in mana to bring it on board, once its running sure, it works okay with this deck.
It is amazing in our deck, letting us dodge his sweepers and bounce our Slinger, Vigalante, Elder, Nekratall, Centaur, Chewer. We are going to need a TON of artifact kill to beat him, and this gives us another tool for it. It also destroys his tempo when left up.
>Wait, what Phantizel, how does this work with Sakura Tribe Elder, have I missed something?
1 Hero of Oxid Ridge
It doesnt do anything, and has 2 toughness.
Haste > Plasewalkers. Plus, we have 7 creatures that come down before him, so the battle cry is not meaningless.
>Battle-cry is good, its just he is very vulnerable, and I dont think we have a fast enough clock to utilize him, and we dont need him v Defenders etc. I think Nekrataal is better here though, First Strike is awesome.
1 Koth of the Hammer
Not in this environ is it great. Then its terrible against the match-up. Like I like Kothoth, but its not the right meta for him to work, and difinately didnt get the support this draft.
Again, drop the heavy black and we'll get enough mountains.
>No, I did not mention mountains. It has *nothing* to do with mountains. The only card that cares for mountains is Fireblast, imho, thats the only card Im missing by running Jund.
>the problems with Kothoth
A) Meta - Wichester-104: not great.
B) Environ - magicmerl's 504: nope.
C) Draft - went horrible for Kothoth, no supporrt or synergy.
D) Match-up - just would not do it. Like, imho, this is Kothoth's WCS.
1 Starstorm
Double red? No I think I keep Pyroclasm as my sweep thanks, Redundancy would be good, but we passed EQ, and REQ, and then it doesnt even touch Gideon, finish the game. Awkward control spell, that is to expensive to cast.
(Again, drop the heavy black and we'll get enough red) but Starstorm is amazing for us, whereas Clasm is good but not great, as it screws us too. It really is incredibly cheap for an instant sweeper, and is versatile as all get out thanks to cycling.
>4 mana to get Pyroclasm, no thanks thats just a terrible waste of mana. Doesnt mess with his man-lands either. Even at R1X and not RRX I still wouldnt run it.
1 Hurricane
He doesnt have flying creatures to worry about.
Finisher + planeswalker kill.
>We dont get to use this as a finisher, magicmerl does. At best this helps us draw games, and thats not my intention this scenario.
1 Loxodon Warhammer
I would run Sylvok Lifestaff/ Basalisk Collar gladly. Prohibatively expensive card, I just dont see how this can convert a game-state against magicmerl's deck. We dont have the right creatures to support this.
We run 7 creatures that cost 3 or less, and we are playing against a WR aggro deck with burn finishers. Plus, the trample lets us unexpectedly kill PWs.
>Prohibatively expensive. Dont think it would connect. I just wouldnt run it, sorry.
No love for Silent Specter?
It's a solid card against control, so not at the top of my list.
>Honestly Im just posting *my* deck from the pool. Not telling anyone how to build to their play style.
I would have picked so so much diferent from the start of the draft, like how good is Bob Mayer Confidant now compared to both Pork Leg and Mutavault? Eathquake would have been nice too. White would have set us up for Gideon.
I honestly do intend to play these with magicmerl, next time we MWS, like we have decklists already. Maybe Oona, isnt the best card, but otherwise I think Ive made the best of a bad situation. Prolly will run Nekratall in the final build, and maybe add Wild Mongrel in as a 41MD card, just to increase the density of early threats.
1 Erratic Portal
Its a considerable investment in mana to bring it on board, once its running sure, it works okay with this deck.
It is amazing in our deck, letting us dodge his sweepers and bounce our Slinger, Vigalante, Elder, Nekratall, Centaur, Chewer. We are going to need a TON of artifact kill to beat him, and this gives us another tool for it. It also destroys his tempo when left up.
>Wait, what Phantizel, how does this work with Sakura Tribe Elder, have I missed something?
You may want to check the deck for the other elder...
1 Hero of Oxid Ridge
It doesnt do anything, and has 2 toughness.
Haste > Plasewalkers. Plus, we have 7 creatures that come down before him, so the battle cry is not meaningless.
>Battle-cry is good, its just he is very vulnerable, and I dont think we have a fast enough clock to utilize him, and we dont need him v Defenders etc. I think Nekrataal is better here though, First Strike is awesome.
No one is making him go up against Nekratall. His PWs are two of his best threats against us,
1 Koth of the Hammer
Not in this environ is it great. Then its terrible against the match-up. Like I like Kothoth, but its not the right meta for him to work, and difinately didnt get the support this draft.
Again, drop the heavy black and we'll get enough mountains.
>No, I did not mention mountains. It has *nothing* to do with mountains. The only card that cares for mountains is Fireblast, imho, thats the only card Im missing by running Jund.
>the problems with Kothoth
A) Meta - Wichester-104: not great.
B) Environ - magicmerl's 504: nope.
C) Draft - went horrible for Kothoth, no supporrt or synergy.
D) Match-up - just would not do it. Like, imho, this is Kothoth's WCS.
Would you care to explain any of this? Especially when you add in the second piece of equipment, manlands are great for us against his sorcery removal.
1 Starstorm
Double red? No I think I keep Pyroclasm as my sweep thanks, Redundancy would be good, but we passed EQ, and REQ, and then it doesnt even touch Gideon, finish the game. Awkward control spell, that is to expensive to cast.
(Again, drop the heavy black and we'll get enough red) but Starstorm is amazing for us, whereas Clasm is good but not great, as it screws us too. It really is incredibly cheap for an instant sweeper, and is versatile as all get out thanks to cycling.
>4 mana to get Pyroclasm, no thanks thats just a terrible waste of mana. Doesnt mess with his man-lands either. Even at R1X and not RRX I still wouldnt run it.
Huh? It totally rapes his manlands (unlike say...Pyroclasm). Instant speed, ramping, cycling sweepers are amongst the greatest things ever.
No love for Silent Specter?
It's a solid card against control, so not at the top of my list.
>Honestly Im just posting *my* deck from the pool. Not telling anyone how to build to their play style.
Fair enough, though telling me that a few posts ago would have saved me some typing, lol.
I would have picked so so much diferent from the start of the draft, like how good is Bob Mayer Confidant now compared to both Pork Leg and Mutavault? Eathquake would have been nice too. White would have set us up for Gideon.
Completely agree here. I was preaching versatility throughout the draft, and this draft really showed how valuable that is. I think a lot of people here had Winston experience and not Solomon.
Originally Posted by Ponder
1 Erratic Portal
Its a considerable investment in mana to bring it on board, once its running sure, it works okay with this deck.
It is amazing in our deck, letting us dodge his sweepers and bounce our Slinger, Vigalante, Elder, Nekratall, Centaur, Chewer. We are going to need a TON of artifact kill to beat him, and this gives us another tool for it. It also destroys his tempo when left up.
>Wait, what Phantizel, how does this work with Sakura Tribe Elder, have I missed something?
You may want to check the deck for the other elder...
>*facepalm* Right you are.
1 Hero of Oxid Ridge
It doesnt do anything, and has 2 toughness.
Haste > Plasewalkers. Plus, we have 7 creatures that come down before him, so the battle cry is not meaningless.
>Battle-cry is good, its just he is very vulnerable, and I dont think we have a fast enough clock to utilize him, and we dont need him v Defenders etc. I think Nekrataal is better here though, First Strike is awesome.
No one is making him go up against Nekratall. His PWs are two of his best threats against us,
>Well my comparison is CC2 casting cost creatures. I think his critical mass of cheap creatures. I would build magicmerls deck a lot diferently too though.
1 Koth of the Hammer
Not in this environ is it great. Then its terrible against the match-up. Like I like Kothoth, but its not the right meta for him to work, and difinately didnt get the support this draft.
Again, drop the heavy black and we'll get enough mountains.
>No, I did not mention mountains. It has *nothing* to do with mountains. The only card that cares for mountains is Fireblast, imho, thats the only card Im missing by running Jund.
>the problems with Kothoth
A) Meta - Wichester-104: not great.
B) Environ - magicmerl's 504: nope.
C) Draft - went horrible for Kothoth, no supporrt or synergy.
D) Match-up - just would not do it. Like, imho, this is Kothoth's WCS.
Would you care to explain any of this?
>
A) Meta - Winchester isnt the kind of format which I think likes this kind of card. Kothoth would rather the 8Man imo.
B) Environ - Kothoth isnt a great card in magicmerl's Cube, we have talked about it, and its a *poor* quality card.
D) Draft - We didnt draft well at all, people continually picked pet cards, and had no concept of this kind of draft. My limited experience is still experince, and I agreed mith a lot of decisions, but some picks were plain wrong.
E) Match-up - every card magicmerl has in his deck trumps Kothoth, its the worst possible scenario.
Especially when you add in the second piece of equipment, manlands are great for us against his sorcery removal.
>I dont understand this sorry, Im just naive here.
1 Starstorm
Double red? No I think I keep Pyroclasm as my sweep thanks, Redundancy would be good, but we passed EQ, and REQ, and then it doesnt even touch Gideon, finish the game. Awkward control spell, that is to expensive to cast.
(Again, drop the heavy black and we'll get enough red) but Starstorm is amazing for us, whereas Clasm is good but not great, as it screws us too. It really is incredibly cheap for an instant sweeper, and is versatile as all get out thanks to cycling.
>4 mana to get Pyroclasm, no thanks thats just a terrible waste of mana. Doesnt mess with his man-lands either. Even at R1X and not RRX I still wouldnt run it.
Huh? It totally [BADWORD] his manlands (unlike say...Pyroclasm). Instant speed, ramping, cycling sweepers are amongst the greatest things ever.
>At 4 mana, it does this, and I have to keep the mana open, no thanks.
No love for Silent Specter?
It's a solid card against control, so not at the top of my list.
>Honestly Im just posting *my* deck from the pool. Not telling anyone how to build to their play style.
Fair enough, though telling me that a few posts ago would have saved me some typing, lol.
>I gave no explination in my OP, as I thought it was just a given these were our preference for deck building and play style. It wasnt well thought out, but honestly I would go into G1 with less changes to the list than I would change magicmerl's.
I would have picked so so much diferent from the start of the draft, like how good is Bob Mayer Confidant now compared to both Pork Leg and Mutavault? Eathquake would have been nice too. White would have set us up for Gideon.
Completely agree here. I was preaching versatility throughout the draft, and this draft really showed how valuable that is. I think a lot of people here had Winston experience and not Solomon.
>Well Im glad this is something that I can 100% agre with you Phantizle, I did notice you actually used strategy and adaptive tactics, however there were voters picking for personal preference, with limited experience, rather than just asking question, or going along with the general concensus. I am in no way intending to imply or infer that you did any such of those things though, it was more of a general gripe to the internwebs, sorry.
Phantizle, your deck looks like the best build, although I think that your three most questionable cards are:
Nekrataal (in a deck with 1 swamp? really?)
Koth
Hero
In their place, I think that Twisted Abomination is better than any of them (the cycling is the primary ability, but he can be a bomby beatstick for value later on). He also lets you keep in Nekrataal, due to his extra swampiness. So a cut for Koth, which is a terrible card for playing defence.
Then Doom Blade should be in over Hero, but is also a slam dunk over Terminate.
And finally, Duress of Pyroclasm are the next best cards, depending on whether you fear the early beatdown or the late game wraths/planeswalkers more. But if you go for A-Bomb, then I think keeping Nekrataal is better.
My plan is to keep it simple, and try to dominate the midgame with equipment, removal, and Erratic Portal (which is great for us and against him):
1 Maze of Ith
[1]
1 Birds of Paradise
[2]
1 Kargan Dragonlord
1 Hearth Kami
1 Wild Mongrel
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Rakdos Signet
1 Terminate
[3]
1 Ghitu Slinger
1 Nantuko Vigilante
1 Krosan Grip
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Loxodon Warhammer
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Wickerbough Elder
1 Phantom Centaur
1 Nekrataal
1 Erratic Portal
1 Hero of Oxid Ridge
1 Koth of the Hammer
[5]
1 Ingot Chewer
[6]
1 Wurmcoil Engine
[X]
1 Starstorm
1 Hurricane
1 Mox Emerald
1 Ghitu Encampment
1 Wasteland
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Blood Crypt
1 Swamp
6 Forest
5 Mountain
The good news is that we have ways to deal with his creatures, artifacts, and planeswalkers, and he has many less answers to our threats. The bad news is, his deck has more synergy, and the burn to finish us off.
1 Fume Spitter
1 Hearth Kami
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Ghitu Slinger
1 Nantuko Vigilante
1 Wickerbough Elder
1 Phantom Centaur
1 Ingot Chewer
1 Twisted Abomination
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Oona Queen of the Fae
1 Duress
1 Terminate
1 Pyroclasm
1 Doom Blade
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Krosan Grip
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Snuff Out
1 Mox Emerald
1 Rakdos Signet
1 Wasteland
1 Ghitu Encampment
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Blood Crypt
4 Swamp
4 Mountain
5 Forest
Magic Work Station Winston-180 http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=315755
1 Fume Spitter
1 Twisted Abomination
1 Oona Queen of the Fae
1 Duress
in order to leve these in the sideboard:
1 Kargan Dragonlord
1 Erratic Portal
1 Hero of Oxid Ridge
1 Koth of the Hammer
1 Starstorm
1 Hurricane
1 Loxodon Warhammer
No love for Silent Specter?
Also, I know what decks I can and cant play against magicmerl, like Ive never gotten manadenial.dec or Upheaval.dec to work against him. So this is the build I would go for. Maybe swap Oona for Spectre/ Nekrataal idk?
@magicmerl
My computer has no love for me atm, but should be MWS soon.
Magic Work Station Winston-180 http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=315755
Responses with the arrows.
Originally Posted by Ponder
Well tbh, Im running three colours, the other decks are just the same Jund, or four colours.
The is a difference between RGB and RGb. You are wasting slots on a ton of swamps for a few black cards that are easily replaced. Supporting all three colors is causing you to run way too much land for that curve too.
>I might have one too many swamps, but I like the high concentration of mana, it lets me get four mana turn four, I dont like missing land drops, and am happy going down to 6.
1 Fume Spitter
Its an early creature, that can block and then used as removal, its great against Pork Leg, and just a generally good card.
We will not cast him turn one reliably with 6 turn one black sources, making him pretty bad.
>What?? That is ~1:7 ratio, thats pretty good odds.
1 Twisted Abomination
Well this fixes fom mana issues. And is good late game, easy to cast, survives most of magicmerls deck, its a bomb imho.
A 6CC (7 if you want regen) 5/3 with no evasion is never a bomb, even with regeneration.
> Regen is what makes him great here, he survives a lot of combat, and cards.
1 Oona Queen of the Fae
I dont see the problem here except the restrictive cost, but its a great card, it would just be nice to be able to cast it a bit easier. It this wasnt happening I would play Silent Spectre as the other finisher. Dont like Spectre v much, but yeah its prolly easier to cast in this situation.
I love Oona, but I think we need to focus on the early and midgame. Additionally, casting it will be awful.
>Disagree, we need some cards that act as finishers, and this survives EQ, though not REQ.
1 Duress
This destroys most of magicmerl's deck, this is a great proactive distruption card.
Again, if we had a good shot to cast it reliably turn 1 without destroying our manabase, I'd run it.
>Well I have a good mana base, tbh.
in order to leve these in the sideboard:
1 Kargan Dragonlord
Hard to cast 2/2? I dont think I could reliably cast this, and then it just dies to everything.
You couldn't reliably cast it, but drop the heavy black support, and we can get it out fairly fast. It plays into our midrange theme by being a cheap blocker if needed, and a great beater later.
>Yes, it doesnt work so well in Jund, thank you.
1 Erratic Portal
Its a considerable investment in mana to bring it on board, once its running sure, it works okay with this deck.
It is amazing in our deck, letting us dodge his sweepers and bounce our Slinger, Vigalante, Elder, Nekratall, Centaur, Chewer. We are going to need a TON of artifact kill to beat him, and this gives us another tool for it. It also destroys his tempo when left up.
>Wait, what Phantizel, how does this work with Sakura Tribe Elder, have I missed something?
1 Hero of Oxid Ridge
It doesnt do anything, and has 2 toughness.
Haste > Plasewalkers. Plus, we have 7 creatures that come down before him, so the battle cry is not meaningless.
>Battle-cry is good, its just he is very vulnerable, and I dont think we have a fast enough clock to utilize him, and we dont need him v Defenders etc. I think Nekrataal is better here though, First Strike is awesome.
1 Koth of the Hammer
Not in this environ is it great. Then its terrible against the match-up. Like I like Kothoth, but its not the right meta for him to work, and difinately didnt get the support this draft.
Again, drop the heavy black and we'll get enough mountains.
>No, I did not mention mountains. It has *nothing* to do with mountains. The only card that cares for mountains is Fireblast, imho, thats the only card Im missing by running Jund.
>the problems with Kothoth
A) Meta - Wichester-104: not great.
B) Environ - magicmerl's 504: nope.
C) Draft - went horrible for Kothoth, no supporrt or synergy.
D) Match-up - just would not do it. Like, imho, this is Kothoth's WCS.
1 Starstorm
Double red? No I think I keep Pyroclasm as my sweep thanks, Redundancy would be good, but we passed EQ, and REQ, and then it doesnt even touch Gideon, finish the game. Awkward control spell, that is to expensive to cast.
(Again, drop the heavy black and we'll get enough red) but Starstorm is amazing for us, whereas Clasm is good but not great, as it screws us too. It really is incredibly cheap for an instant sweeper, and is versatile as all get out thanks to cycling.
>4 mana to get Pyroclasm, no thanks thats just a terrible waste of mana. Doesnt mess with his man-lands either. Even at R1X and not RRX I still wouldnt run it.
1 Hurricane
He doesnt have flying creatures to worry about.
Finisher + planeswalker kill.
>We dont get to use this as a finisher, magicmerl does. At best this helps us draw games, and thats not my intention this scenario.
1 Loxodon Warhammer
I would run Sylvok Lifestaff/ Basalisk Collar gladly. Prohibatively expensive card, I just dont see how this can convert a game-state against magicmerl's deck. We dont have the right creatures to support this.
We run 7 creatures that cost 3 or less, and we are playing against a WR aggro deck with burn finishers. Plus, the trample lets us unexpectedly kill PWs.
>Prohibatively expensive. Dont think it would connect. I just wouldnt run it, sorry.
No love for Silent Specter?
It's a solid card against control, so not at the top of my list.
>Honestly Im just posting *my* deck from the pool. Not telling anyone how to build to their play style.
I would have picked so so much diferent from the start of the draft, like how good is Bob Mayer Confidant now compared to both Pork Leg and Mutavault? Eathquake would have been nice too. White would have set us up for Gideon.
I honestly do intend to play these with magicmerl, next time we MWS, like we have decklists already. Maybe Oona, isnt the best card, but otherwise I think Ive made the best of a bad situation. Prolly will run Nekratall in the final build, and maybe add Wild Mongrel in as a 41MD card, just to increase the density of early threats.
Magic Work Station Winston-180 http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=315755
Originally Posted by Ponder
1 Erratic Portal
Its a considerable investment in mana to bring it on board, once its running sure, it works okay with this deck.
It is amazing in our deck, letting us dodge his sweepers and bounce our Slinger, Vigalante, Elder, Nekratall, Centaur, Chewer. We are going to need a TON of artifact kill to beat him, and this gives us another tool for it. It also destroys his tempo when left up.
>Wait, what Phantizel, how does this work with Sakura Tribe Elder, have I missed something?
You may want to check the deck for the other elder...
>*facepalm* Right you are.
1 Hero of Oxid Ridge
It doesnt do anything, and has 2 toughness.
Haste > Plasewalkers. Plus, we have 7 creatures that come down before him, so the battle cry is not meaningless.
>Battle-cry is good, its just he is very vulnerable, and I dont think we have a fast enough clock to utilize him, and we dont need him v Defenders etc. I think Nekrataal is better here though, First Strike is awesome.
No one is making him go up against Nekratall. His PWs are two of his best threats against us,
>Well my comparison is CC2 casting cost creatures. I think his critical mass of cheap creatures. I would build magicmerls deck a lot diferently too though.
1 Koth of the Hammer
Not in this environ is it great. Then its terrible against the match-up. Like I like Kothoth, but its not the right meta for him to work, and difinately didnt get the support this draft.
Again, drop the heavy black and we'll get enough mountains.
>No, I did not mention mountains. It has *nothing* to do with mountains. The only card that cares for mountains is Fireblast, imho, thats the only card Im missing by running Jund.
>the problems with Kothoth
A) Meta - Wichester-104: not great.
B) Environ - magicmerl's 504: nope.
C) Draft - went horrible for Kothoth, no supporrt or synergy.
D) Match-up - just would not do it. Like, imho, this is Kothoth's WCS.
Would you care to explain any of this?
>
A) Meta - Winchester isnt the kind of format which I think likes this kind of card. Kothoth would rather the 8Man imo.
B) Environ - Kothoth isnt a great card in magicmerl's Cube, we have talked about it, and its a *poor* quality card.
D) Draft - We didnt draft well at all, people continually picked pet cards, and had no concept of this kind of draft. My limited experience is still experince, and I agreed mith a lot of decisions, but some picks were plain wrong.
E) Match-up - every card magicmerl has in his deck trumps Kothoth, its the worst possible scenario.
Especially when you add in the second piece of equipment, manlands are great for us against his sorcery removal.
>I dont understand this sorry, Im just naive here.
1 Starstorm
Double red? No I think I keep Pyroclasm as my sweep thanks, Redundancy would be good, but we passed EQ, and REQ, and then it doesnt even touch Gideon, finish the game. Awkward control spell, that is to expensive to cast.
(Again, drop the heavy black and we'll get enough red) but Starstorm is amazing for us, whereas Clasm is good but not great, as it screws us too. It really is incredibly cheap for an instant sweeper, and is versatile as all get out thanks to cycling.
>4 mana to get Pyroclasm, no thanks thats just a terrible waste of mana. Doesnt mess with his man-lands either. Even at R1X and not RRX I still wouldnt run it.
Huh? It totally [BADWORD] his manlands (unlike say...Pyroclasm). Instant speed, ramping, cycling sweepers are amongst the greatest things ever.
>At 4 mana, it does this, and I have to keep the mana open, no thanks.
No love for Silent Specter?
It's a solid card against control, so not at the top of my list.
>Honestly Im just posting *my* deck from the pool. Not telling anyone how to build to their play style.
Fair enough, though telling me that a few posts ago would have saved me some typing, lol.
>I gave no explination in my OP, as I thought it was just a given these were our preference for deck building and play style. It wasnt well thought out, but honestly I would go into G1 with less changes to the list than I would change magicmerl's.
I would have picked so so much diferent from the start of the draft, like how good is Bob Mayer Confidant now compared to both Pork Leg and Mutavault? Eathquake would have been nice too. White would have set us up for Gideon.
Completely agree here. I was preaching versatility throughout the draft, and this draft really showed how valuable that is. I think a lot of people here had Winston experience and not Solomon.
>Well Im glad this is something that I can 100% agre with you Phantizle, I did notice you actually used strategy and adaptive tactics, however there were voters picking for personal preference, with limited experience, rather than just asking question, or going along with the general concensus. I am in no way intending to imply or infer that you did any such of those things though, it was more of a general gripe to the internwebs, sorry.
Magic Work Station Winston-180 http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=315755
Nekrataal (in a deck with 1 swamp? really?)
Koth
Hero
In their place, I think that Twisted Abomination is better than any of them (the cycling is the primary ability, but he can be a bomby beatstick for value later on). He also lets you keep in Nekrataal, due to his extra swampiness. So a cut for Koth, which is a terrible card for playing defence.
Then Doom Blade should be in over Hero, but is also a slam dunk over Terminate.
And finally, Duress of Pyroclasm are the next best cards, depending on whether you fear the early beatdown or the late game wraths/planeswalkers more. But if you go for A-Bomb, then I think keeping Nekrataal is better.