-
- Ganman
- Registered User
-
Member for 14 years, 4 months, and 12 days
Last active Sun, Aug, 13 2017 15:33:59
- 0 Followers
- 218 Total Posts
- 8 Thanks
-
Feb 3, 2014Ganman posted a message on Launch Giveaway!My favorite card is explore. I love the speed of it and the card advantage. Take that together with the fact that the dominant mechanic in the block was landfall and you have one crazy card.Posted in: Announcements
-
Dec 15, 2009Ganman posted a message on Need Help with angel deckIf you really want my suggestions, then here I go:Posted in: iona Blog
Platinum Angel is too vulnerable. It dies to a well-placed Burst Lightning with kicker cost paid in full, or a Path to Exile, Journey to Nowhere, or Oblivion Ring, (Path to Exile is majorly popular in white standard.)
Planar Cleansing is probably not something you really want. Consider Martial Coup instead. White is all about creature-advantage, and if you clear the field, you and your opponent are almost on equal levels (depending on what's in your hand.)
I will say that white lifegain has never been majorly popular in anywhere outside of casual. It tends to be slow, and lifegain tends to want to stall the game.
Find more honor of the pure. They're going to be what this deck ultimately needs. It's definitely a 4 of.
Consider removing the Gleam of Resistance in place of an Honor of the Pure. Its effect stays on the field longer, and ultimately it has more applications for your deck as a result.
Take out Kazandu. If you're only running a copy, his effect isn't going to benefit you (especially since you're running so few allies.)
Valiant Guard is probably not something you absolutely need.
I like World Queller, but he's just too darn vulnerable.
If you're on a lower budget, sigiled paladin is probably a 4 of.
Also, the Palace Guard can probably go...
your deck needs bigger threats than what it has now. Since lifegain is a plus for you, but not necessarily devastating to your opponent, you might want to focus on more than just lifegain as a strategy. I like that you've got O-ring and Path in there- that's the kind of thinking you need. Just try to focus on how you're going to stop your opponent as quick as possible, rather than stalling them, because ultimately, there are some really fast decks out there. - To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
The deck I'm running has very little trouble working with allies. If you're fast enough, there's not much your opponents can do with allies, and your creatures BECOME ally removal.
Hmm... that's very interesting. Your decklist looks somewhat similar to mine.
I'm glad to see that somebody other than me sees how useful Avenger is in the right situation.
I may have to consider making some quick changes just based on this deck list. Garruk maybe exactly what my deck needs.
No Wolfbriar, though?
I guess our decks have slightly different strategies. You still play the 3 Menace and the 2 Avenger, though. I guess it's also cool to see somebody else playing Cobra... though I don't doubt we MD him for different reasons.
The main reason I play Scute Mob is actually not for him to get big. I use Scute Mob to waste removal. That's actually one of the main reasons behind Lotus Cobra and Omnath as inclusions in this deck. The reason why I've filled this deck with so many instinctive "dies to removal" cards is so that they don't wind up using Terminates on my Avenger of Zendikars and larger threats. True, it takes a while for Mob to get big. Though I can also say with some certainty that lands aren't hard to come by in this deck, and Scute Mob is usually an immediate threat, if not a psychological turn one weapon.
Thank you. I'll file that one away. It's very useful knowledge, and I suppose it should have been somewhat intuitive.
-Wall of Denial is not a threat to me. I don't have much trouble working around it with all of the creature drops in this deck.
-I wouldn't hardcast Cobra Trap. The reason I considered it was because I misread it and thought it said "creature permanent" rather than "noncreature permanent". That being said, I realize Eldrazi Monument is now the only threat they could destroy, and have ultimately decided against it.
-I know I can't pick Menace. That much is fairly obvious. I wouldn't hardcast it, either. I'd only play it when they counter Omnath or some other early board threat I intend to die to removal and counterspells.
-I'll consider Thornling. However, my deck is all about spells that drop more creatures once they hit the board (Avenger of Zendikar, Wolfbriar Elemental, Bestial Menace, etc.) so running Thornling may go against my deck's strategy. However, I will playtest with him and give you my results. (At this point, I don't know what I would take out, however.)
So, my question is this- when you play a permanent, and the permanent includes a "creatures you control" clause, would the same rule apply? It sounds stupid, but their logic doesn't make much sense to me, because by their logic, permanents like Eldrazi Monument and Honor of the Pure would not affect creatures that were played after the permanent hit the field.
I know this is not the case. So, can somebody explain to me why Sarkhan does not work as a permanent? Is it because it's an ability rather than the effect of a permanent?
True. However, I don't want to have to squeeze in Acidic Slime and Pithing Needle. Acidic Slime is still necessary to take care of enchantment and artifact spells (Eldrazi Monument, to be precise. You don't want it used against you. Also, the occasional Luminarch Ascension.) With Mold Shambler, I can eliminate those threats while still taking down Planeswalker threats.
What this deck would need for decks like mono-white would be some form of mass regeneration. However, I can't think of a utility that exists along those lines at the moment.
3 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
20 Forest
Creatures-25
4 Lotus Cobra
4 Noble Hierarch
3 Omnath, Locus of Mana
3 Scute Mob
2 Avenger of Zendikar
4 Leatherback Baloth
4 Wolfbriar Elemental
4 Explore
4 Harrow
3 Bestial Menace
2 Eldrazi Monument
4 Windstorm
4 Mold Shambler
3 Slingbow Trap
4 Summoning Trap
I choose Mold Shambler over Acidic Slime despite the cost because this deck has some difficulty against control (specifically Ajani Vengeant.)
ALSO: Considered Cobra Trap before I realized the card reads "if a noncreature permanent under your control was destroyed...". I thought by mistake that it was the perfect tool because my deck has trouble against mass removal, and I was looking for a card to sideboard in against Day of Judgment. Sure, Monument makes my creatures indestructible, but I have trouble when it comes to white mass removal.
Do you think I could still be justified in running Cobra Trap? This deck is all about board control.
I think Summoning Trap works nicely in here. I don't want my creatures countered.
I'll look into sideboard options. For now, this is what I'll be running at FNM when the cards are shipped in from Card Kingdom.
As for close calls, I went to my first prerelease in Kansas City, and had a great time- except when I found out my prerelease sideboard and fat pack full of cards were missing. I was more worried about the box- which contained a playset of Garruk, about seven fetchlands, a playset of Lotus Cobra, and basically my entire playing career's worth of valuable cards. Fortunately, there are still honest people in the world, because I did get the box back. As for the prerelease cards- in my leather jacket pocket. I had forgotten I had put them there because I was wearing two coats. I went around the entire room and must have asked two-hundred people if they had seen anyone using a Sorin Markov- it wasn't life-breaking, but I wanted my sideboard back, and I figured whoever had my Sorin had the rest of my cards.
I work at the college newspaper where I get paid $120 for two weeks of work IF I'M LUCKY. I try to invest half of that toward an emergency account, and half of it goes to cards.
My dad also helps me out with money once in a while, and I usually keep about 20 of that for laundry, then sometimes save some of the rest, depending on what I intend to buy in singles. I don't spend a ton of money- I think I've made two single purchases in my life- the first time, I bought four Demigod of Revenge for $50 (poor condition- used a check. He said that's the only check I'll be able to use.) The second time I bought four Lotus Cobra and three Garruk for a little under a hundred dollars because I had, and still have, a good idea for a mono-green build. Then I've got about $220 on hold for Card Kingdom. I intend to send them a check. I bought a playset of the manlands, more cards for my green deck, playsets of the allies (I know they're not going to be hot stuff, but at the time I felt it was a good investment,) and some Kalastria Highborn.
Most of my stuff I got from packs because I have a lot of money in my checking account and my local card shop won't take checks. I don't think I'll be buying any more packs, though.
All the new blue/white/red control builds I see don't play Wall of Denial anymore, though I suppose they'd still frequent FNM scenes.
I agree with you on the Spires though. It's decent casual, but I don't see it making too big a difference in the metagame. I'd rather play Teetering Peeks. Ideally, in a red build, Peeks would be hitting the field early in the game so you could dish out your big damage with a single creature. When there's a very good chance they're not going to have significant creatures hit the field turn 1 or 2 (unless you're playing Eldrazi Green) the Smoldering Spires wouldn't hold the same board position early game, and is less versatile. The only time it would really be game-breaking would be in the later game, and in an ideal world, the red build would have won before the other T1 decks have hit their stride.
I playtest online too see if the cards are worth buying before I go out and spend a ton of money on a deck. I don't have the deck at the moment.
I will play with it a little when I'm sure that it's going to work, though.
Maybe that's a bad strategy. I don't know. But I don't have a lot of the cards this deck needs, and I need to know if it's a sound investment. Can't go forking out $45 on Hierarch on a whim.
The green deck I playtest I playtest on MWS online, not against my friends. It's got some seriously expensive cards in it. I've got the cards on preorder, but am not certain whether I'll send in a check or cancel (payment is already overdue, but for the life of me, I don't have any envelopes of stamps right now.)
Thanks, everybody. This has been truly enlightening. I suppose I'm not the only person who experiences these questions and frustrations. Every player who wants to become serious about the game probably faces questions just like these.
(Sorry... a generic statement. I just appreciate your help, guys.)
I was so close to being dead...
Yet I find it too tedious to sort out all the lands when I'm done at a prerelease/draft.
So, no. Unfortunately, I don't put back the lands.
Maybe I should start doing that...