- FuneralofGod
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Member for 16 years, 4 months, and 19 days
Last active Tue, Oct, 6 2020 01:51:37
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Sep 29, 2011FuneralofGod posted a message on Neo Cawblade MillI originally ran Alchemy but every time I casted it I was always hoping for a counter, so instead I just replaced them with more counters. Dissipation Field is more useful here because it continually slows down opposing creatures, whereas DOJ only clears the field once. Also I have a couple DOJ in here already..Posted in: FuneralofGod Blog
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Sep 28, 2011FuneralofGod posted a message on "Junk" Birthing PodThe only reason I don't use the O-Ring is because of the manabase. I like Beast Within better anyway..as the 3/3 is rarely a problem. And the fact that it can hit lands is very important as well, since this deck has some amazing LD potential with the addition of Unburial RitesPosted in: FuneralofGod Blog
The Revoker may be coming out for another Spellskite, but currently I always find something useful for the Revoker. I only side it out against control deck with no swords and no planeswalkers. I take the LD/mana denial route often with this build, and I'll even drop the Revoker naming BOP if they play one -
Sep 21, 2011FuneralofGod posted a message on Mill - Block ConstructedI guess the main reason I want the bounce is because its reusable, and the fact that you aren't required to have the spell in your hand + mana open when they cast the creature. Both Grasp of Phantoms and Silent Departure have flashback, and I can even return them with Runic Repetition later. Although I'll probably use Visions of Beyond instead of Think Twice..yeah definitely.Posted in: FuneralofGod Blog
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Also, I think focusing on humans might work out.. So far I've only had problems against mono red with this build:
4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Mayor of Avabruck
4 Invisible Stalker
4 Mirran Crusader
2 Angelic Overseer
Artifacts:
4 Silver-Inlaid Dagger
2 Sword of War and Peace
Enchantments:
2 Angelic Destiny
Instants:
4 Mana Leak
3 Negate
4 Razorverge Thicket
3 Seachrome Coast
1 Sunpetal Grove
1 Hinterland Harbor
1 Moorland Haunt
1 Gavony Township
6 Forest
3 Plains
3 Island
4 Celestial Purge
4 Revoke Existence
3 Flashfreeze
3 Oblivion Ring
1 Sword of War and Peace
I recently changed to War/Peace in order to help my match-ups against red. Haven't tested it yet though..Feast/Famine may prove to be more useful still
~UPDATES~
-changed the manabase a little and added another dagger in exchange for one angel, which isn't that important
-added the sideboard
-Removed Hamlet Captain, as there aren't enough humans for him to be relevant. Replaced with 4x Birds of Paradise
I've been developing a mono blue control deck that focuses on Spirit creature and milling, but with a realistic way to kill opponents via damage as well. It has a similar shell to what you guys seem to be discussing here, but there are obvious key cards changed. Let me know what you think..
3 Snapcaster Mage
2 Lantern Spirit
2 Mindshrieker
1 Sturmgeist
Artifacts:
2 Sword of Body and Mind
1 Venser's Journal
Enchantments:
2 Dissipation Field
Instants:
4 Think Twice
4 Mana Leak
4 Dissipate
2 Stoic Rebuttal
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
1 Lost in the Mist
1 Memory's Journey
4 Ponder
1 Day of Judgment
Lands:
4 Shimmering Grotto
1 Nephalia Drownyard
1 Moorland Haunt
1 Drowned Catacombs
2 Hinterland Harbor
2 Glacial Fortress
14 Island
4 Flashfreeze
3 Naturalize
3 Surgical Extraction
3 Ratchet Bomb
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Day of Judgment
I'm not sure if Negate or Psychic Barrier would be better options than Stoic Rebuttal, mainly because they cost less.. The only problem with this deck is that the games take insanely long. I'm pretty every match in any tournament would be a draw, as the shortest game I've played so far was almost 30 minutes
Snapcaster Mage is definitely a must. At least 3-of if not 4
Also I would only run 1 Grave Titan and 1 Wurmcoil but that's just me
The card has no value, that's what I meant by vanilla. If it gets removed before it hit them, it provided nothing. As a matter of fact, if you cast it rather than podded it out, then losing it means you wasted resources. Resources of course meaning three creatures from your graveyard that should be instead reused with Memory's Journey.
I'm not sure how long you've been playing Magic, and I haven't heard this term thrown around on here in a while.. but do you know what a Timmy is? Skaab Ruinator is a Timmy card, most definitely.. The card isn't awful. And it might see play in the neo-dredge decks, but definitely not Tier 1 and probably not even Tier 2.
If I may quote the postal service..I feel I must interject here.
I opened one at the prerelease (and a Liliana and a Snapcaster actually)
and I sold it. because the card is crap. it's a huge chase rare that will drop in price heavily over the next few months. The card is not likely to make any Tier 1 decklists. You don't have to believe us, just wait and see. At the very least, it's not right for birthing pod. The pod decks of tomorrow will be about endless power (via Unburial Rites and Memory's Journey) and not about vanilla beaters, which actually waste resources.
You people need to learn the difference between "I like this card and think it's cool. I've even won some games with it" and "this card is actually good and seriously competitive"
-EDIT-
and for the record I sold the other chase rares as well, and rather than be bitter that I didn't open what I needed (2x Unburial Rites, 3x Woodland Cemetery) as you say..I went out of my way to buy all of them. Your post is one of the most gaudy, disgusting, back-handed comments I've ever seen. Who the hell are you to suggest that any of us are disagreeing with the use of a card because we don't have one yet and they might be expensive? It sounds like you're projecting some of your own lavish insecurities onto us. I know that when I post on here (and I'm sure I speak for others when I say) I give my complete objective opinion of what I think is optimal in the described situation during a game of Magic. I would never flame a card because I personally am too cheap to buy them or because I'm bitter than everyone has it and I don't.
Heartless is a decent card (and still yet to be broken) but the combo you mention here simply isn't as easy to pull as you might think. Myr Superion is subpar
4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
4 Hamlet Captain
4 Mayor of Avabruck
4 Invisible Stalker
4 Mirran Crusader
3 Angelic Overseer
3 Silver-Inlaid Dagger
2 Infiltration Lens
Enchantments:
2 Angelic Destiny
Instants:
4 Mana Leak
3 Dismember
Lands:
4 Razorverge Thicket
3 Seachrome Coast
2 Sunpetal Grove
2 Glacial Fortress
1 Gavony Township
1 Moorland Haunt
4 Forest
3 Island
3 Plains
I haven't had a chance to test against any notably fast aggro decks yet, but it beats thee pants off any control / Solar Flare variants I've played against.
..sigh.. I think I'll wait to post until we get our own spot in the competitive forum, unless of course my direct input is asked, and even then please just pm me. This thread is full of misinformation and non sequitors and is frankly a complete mess.
Why does the fact that another popular deck is using the card make it any less viable in this deck? That doesn't make any sense at all. I don't care how much everyone's talking about Solar Flare. My junk build has beaten Solar Flare 2-0 every single time. I've even used Unburial Rites to win against them. You're explanation is completely ridiculous. I'm not going out of my way anymore to explain how broken Unburial Rites is in Junk pod, because eventually the meta will establish that fact on it's own, and you will know that I was right. You probably won't even admit it to me when you realize it, whether it be by finally testing it yourself or by losing to it's effectiveness in Junk pod..but that's ok with me. Because I'm winning far more regularly with the inclusion of the card (only 2 copies even). That's all that matters to me.
Hey hey now I bet it's at least as viable as Bant or BUG! (which admittedly I don't think are tier 1 material)
What about something like this:
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Viridian Emissary
1 Spellskite
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Perilous Myr
3 Phyrexian Rager
1 Glissa, the Traitor
1 Viridian Corrupter
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Skinrender
1 Entomber Exarch
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Morkrut Banshee
1 Frost Titan
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Grave Titan
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
Artifacts:
4 Birthing Pod
Instants
3 Beast Within
1 Dismember
Sorceries:
1 Memory's Journey
1 Unburial Rites
4 Razorverge Thicket
2 Darkslick Shores
2 Hinterland Harbor
2 Woodland Cemetery
1 Drowned Catacomb
1 Isolated Chapel
1 Shimmering Grotto
5 Forest
4 Swamp
1 Plains
1 Island
Birthing Pod
I'm glad to see you're not using Ponder, as I feel it's a waste of space when you're not digging for a game-winning combo. Obviously the card itself is amazing (even banned in Modern) but it doesn't belong here. We have so little noncreature space in the deck, it can't be wasted on a trivial cantrip. If it were Brainstorm, I would be all for it.. but it's not.
I also like that you changed the manabase. I hope the additional forests help out.. Also how is Molten-Tail Masticore working out? I've heard some people say it's great but non one's given any practical examples of how the card is regularly useful. Personally I'd love it in my 4-drop slot in place of Peace Strider which is letting me down regularly.
Ponder isn't important and neither is Ruinator. Both can be good, in theory..but that's not what we're discussing. The cards aren't necessary and they differ from pod's general strategy. Bant is and was less effective against more decks than other pod variants. The main reason it was so successful was because it faired really well against Caw Blade. Losing Sea Gate Oracle and Obstinate Baloth hurt a lot too. You can't tell me that Skaab Ruinator in any way shape or form replaces the Oracle. SGO get's you out of a pinch early game, and digs you deeper (in the form of a creature, so don't say "Ponder!") while the Ruinator is a bomb that you hope you don't draw until much later in the game and even then doesn't do anything other than fly for 5/6. Which is respectable but it's just a flying 5/6. No manipulation, no value at all. As a matter of fact he wastes creatures from your graveyard that you could otherwise reuse with Memory's Journey.
Bant Pod supporters: stop thinking in last season. have you actually piloted Bant pod (at least online, or even with proxies) in the new standard with any serious success? If so I'd love to hear what match-ups you had and how you faired against them.
So here's your problem.. How many turn 1 green sources do you have? Only seven. In my setup there are 11, and I'm even running less mana dorks than you are. You have less than a 30% chance of having the mana to play a dork on turn 1, which isn't nearly high enough for me to consider that landbase viable. In order to support the turn 1 dork you would need at least 10 forests. My build works with only 7 forests because I have Razorverge Thicket as a dual land, which acts as my early game green and my late game white if I need to hardcast Elesh Norn. The bottom line is that you have 6 spells that you ideally want to play on the first turn, and only 7 lands that let you do that. It's just not a good ratio. If you read my BUG comment from before, you'll notice I mentioned the importance of relations between the colors. Green is the alien color in BUG and that makes the manabase very difficult because most of your important spells are black and blue, and you don't have the deck space for many lands that produce both black and blue, only space for lands that produce green and something else. Since you compared my landbase to yours, I'll do the same. Let's break them down:
4 Woodland Cemetery
1 Buried Ruin
7 Forest
6 Swamp
1 Plains
That's 11 turn one green sources, along with 13 lands that (if played first) will prevent the Cemetery from ETB tapped, and only 10 lands that (if played first) will force my Cemetery to ETB tapped. Total of 10 black producing lands and 12 black mana symbols in my deck. Total 5 of white lands and 4 white mana symbols in the deck. My black is a little sketchy..
4 Woodland Cemetery
4 Darkslick Shores
7 Forest
2 Island
2 Swamp
That's 7 turn one green sources, 9 lands that prevent the Cemetery/Harbor from ETB tapped, and 14 lands that (if played first) will force it to ETB tapped. Assuming you have roughly the same number of U/B mana symbols as I do W/B (factoring in the Image and Sheoldred)..we can estimate 10 black lands and about 14 black mana symbols in your deck. And also 10 blue lands with about 10 blue mana symbols in your deck (not counting Phyrexian Metamorph). Your blue is decent, especially since those are late game cards, like you said. But your black is even sketchier than mine.. BOP is not a valid back-up since you will land one on turn one maybe a quarter of the time, if you're lucky.
And this is all comparing your manabase to Junk, which has a very difficult manabase itself. When you really crunch these numbers, you can see..the manabase is difficult.
You make some good points though, and I feel I should specify that in my write-up I wasn't trying to say BUG pod isn't viable, but rather that I wasn't interested in testing it specifically because of the manabase. I will concede that B/G pod splashing blue for the Image and Frost Titan might be viable (especially because I love the land descrution option so much) but I feel that if you're going to build it that way you shouldn't use so many colored mana symbols in your deck. Also, I might try to play 24 lands, but that's just me..
I think you and I need to come up with a functional BGWU list, because I want Phantasmal Image (and maybe even Frost Titan) but I'm not giving up my Elesh Norn or Unburial Rites. I'm almost thinking of something with a land destruction shell, and one could just bring it the utility from the sideboard.. I don't know maybe my imagination is just getting the best of me..
It's going to depend heavily on how many mana symbols of each color are in your deck. Overall, it looks like a nice spread but I might remove one Chapel and one Swamp in place of two more forests. The turn one dorks are really important
I wouldn't argue with a B/G pod build that splashes blue for Phantasmal Image and Evil Twin. I don't think Frost Titan is that important either, but people are running it whether you agree with them or not, so I used it as an example.
If you want to make a pod deck that uses Skaab Ruinator with no blue then go right ahead, but it doesn't sound like a very good idea to me. It's really important to be able to hardcast all of your creatures in case you draw them. And even in BUG pod with a solid balanced manabase it is near impossible to cast the Ruinator for the first 5 or 6 turns of the game.
The point of my giant analysis was not to say any build is bad or good, but to give people who are new to pod an idea of what they should expect when piloting each deck. And in BUG they should expect a really difficult manabase. So instead of just saying that you disagree, why don't you provide some analysis and explanation of what makes BUG so viable? I'd be interested to see what you have to say.
Is Deceiver Exarch better than Blade Splicer? No he's not. Not in any way. Jumping to CMC 4 isn't nearly as valuable as it looks on paper or in your head. Half the time you just end up paying lots of extra life for Birthing Pod and you just get beat down. If you could jump from 4 to 6 it would be a whole different story, but jumping from 2 to 4 isn't as important.
Is Fiend Hunter better than Phantasmal Image? Are you joking? Fiend Hunter is barely playable in this deck, while lots of people are splashing blue as a fourth color just to run the Image, that's how good he is. Fiend Hunter stops your chain and dies to just about anything that could theoretically kill a creature (combat damage, spells, etc).. Once you pop him to exile something, he can do nothing but sit there with a giant target on his head.
Is Unburial Rites better than Memories Journey? Yes it is. Is the Journey viable in a pod deck using both blue and green? Absolutely. I love the card, and if I was playing G/U/x pod I would definitely maindeck at least 2. But you can't say that it's better than Unburial Rites. The fact that Rites is useful without pod is the key..