Testing this one out... 15-4 on Cockatrice btw.
I'm tempted on trying either Xenagos Planeswalker or Elspeth on this list but it seems so good right now.
The only real tough matchup it seems to have are the burn-based decks such as Red Devotion or Boros.
Ladies & Gentlemen.
I present you Chromantic Midrange. have been 7-2 with it on Cockatrice, losing to a Phenax Mill Deck and Rw Devotion.
Overall it has been working pretty awesome and I love people's reactions to when I bestow the Core
Current MU results:
2-0 vs. GW Hexproof
2-0 vs. Some weird combo deck running Ajani's Chosen and Inspired creatures that puts tokens
1-2 vs. Phenax mill
2-1 vs. Esper Ephara (The one Mihara built)
0-2 vs. Rw Devotion
2-0 vs. RG Monsters
2-1 vs. Naya Midrange/Monsters
2-1 vs. Rakdos Midrange/Control
The idea actually began when Chromanticore was revealed. I thought I could make a deck that could use it nicely and then I began to build a 5 Color Midrange/Goodstuff deck with a bunch of good creatures, removals and disruptions. But the deck proved itself rather too slow to keep up with most aggro and Midrange decks.
The more I tweaked the decklist and tested it, more Control-oriented it got and then i finally decided to cut most creatures in favor of powerful removal and disruption spells. Also, a control deck made the best use of what then I realized to be the only thing that makes multicolored decks viable: Scry lands.
The ability to scry when you drop a land is amazing on this deck: It keeps you from getting mana screwed, it lets you dig for the card you want and so it goes.
Basicly this deck is very Esper-oriented, adding both red and green for goodstuff cards such as Mistcutter Hydra and Rakdos's Return. I decided to cut counterspells in favor of draw spells and mana fixing. With that being said, I present you my take on 5 Color Control.
Suggestions are welcome.
Negate maindeck seems pretty strong to me cause of the chance of dealing with Ashiok MD. I believe Esper MU is pretty though because of Ashiok and tends to go worse with Jace, MA. Gainsay surely helps on both cases though. Would you put in Slaughter Games on your SB?
Yes, i think on the current meta the control version is weaker, you end up getting outraced , but i personally like this one and wanted to know if someone else works on it.
If u don't mind i'm gonna try ur build on my wednesday night magic
Oh, and which cards from BNG you think are worth trying ?
Well the best card vs this deck is mutavault and I needed a card that could take care of it but needed to able to deal with obzedat as well and turn and burn is the nuts. it can kill master of wave tokens if need be as well, and kill gods.
as far as the card draw i never like sphinx revalation at all. you had to play it way aggresivly mostly for 2 or 3 and that means that i didnt really either fog or activate mazes end and then replay it for the turn.
Divination is something i'm looking at i never really thought about azorius charm tho its not a bad idea thanks. I'll more about it all this week sometime once I finish the article.
If anyone has anymore questions about card choices thoughts on the gp and stuff please post here cause this helps me to remember to address the issues in it since i'm quite scatterbrained at times.
Do you think 2 draw spells were too few?. Do u think your results would've been worse if u faced more blue-oriented control decks ?
So, i've been trying to play Maze's End since it was released and I am happy to see it gain some attention on a GP. Congrats to its pilot for the results.
I have two questions:
Did any of you guys tried out a control version? less fog-centered and more removal-oriented on the shapes of the one that existed on PT: Dragon's Maze ??
And how do u guys deal with Asphodel ? I see the fog version having an almost perfect MU vs. MBD if it isn't for Gray Merchant, so, do we have anyway to deal with life loss? any kind of repeteable and faster lifegain perhaps?
Mono black has a LOT of bad matchups in the meta right now, and it is growing worse since even decks which it is usually really good against are sideboarding mainly against it. Either a new incarnation has to emerge, or it needs to sleep for 1-2 more weeks until all the black hate dies and midrange sweeps away the aggro storm.
Yeah, i may be either getting pretty lucky, playing against bad players or i have made a new incarnation for MBD myself. Yeah, i don't run the usual list that everyone plays, although i do run the classic shell and base of this deck, i've changed a coulpe things on the deck that makes it run pretty different from what it's supposed to run on the classic lists when needed, it gave my deck a lot of versatility, something that classic MBD lacks.
I've been running a MBD variant (pure black, no splashes) and i'm 17-1 at Cockatrice against at least 15 competitive decks. Lost to a Boros Weenies decks pretty much for my mistake on trying to outrace him with my own Pack Rats
MBD is far from dead, he's still a decent deck with actually NO bad matchup when well built. The main problem on MBD is how to sideboard, you either have to prepare it for aggro or prepare it to have a better MU vs. control and mirror.
The only cards that really breaks the deck by half ATM are Assemble the Legion and Blood Baron of Vizkopa (the latter being kinda easy to answer on my list and i'm considering putting Illness of the Ranks on SB for assemble). Other than that, this deck has a pretty fair MU against most decks and only does badly against pretty fast weenie decks (RB Aggro is the best example of it, even though i've won 2 of them by 2-0 and 2-1), if you can prepare your deck to deal with these decks without losing an overall good MU against other decks, you're in a good shape running MBD in the format.
A friend of mine have made 5-0 twice at my local store with a MBD variant (last week's FNM and yesterday's local tournaments, both with at least 30 people).
I don't have his current list but as far as i've seen and talked ot him about it, he runs ZERO pack rats MD (2 or 3 SB), 1 MBCorrupt, Read the Bones MD and Underworld Connections on SB and both Lifebane Zombie and Nightveil Specter MD. Also the classic shell of 4 Seize, Garys and Demons. Not sure on his removal suite though.
The store's meta is pretty diverse so i belive this deck performs pretty well in an overall.
Any thoughts on Thrill-Kill Assassin ? Vs. Control it serves to put early pressure and vs. aggro it serves as pseudo-removal. I've been running BBD's list and i'm thinking on putting it maindeck (maybe taking off one or two removals and one Connections), any thouhgts?
Went 1-3 at FNM
Winning first game 2-0 against a bad deck than lost the next 3 rounds 1-2 each against RDW, GW Aggro and Jund.
But the thing is I lost every game because I had to mulligan at least 1-2 times and then still couldn't find my 4th land drop.
It was frustrating beyond belief, I was sure I had the best deck at the FNM, I just couldn't get a good draw to save my life. I lasted 10 rounds against RDW in both my losses but never could get to the 4th land drop.
Despite 25 lands I often ended up with just 1 land in hand or 2 Mutavaults.
It's so frustrating how random Magic can be at times.
The very same happaned to me at my LGS wednesday, it's completely weird how this deck gets mana screwed out of nowhere.
BTW, some pros have been making articles about how to beat Mono B Devotion and i think we can start assuming which are our deck's weaknesses and how to cover them up.
I played Br Devotion at a local tournament today and did pretty poorly and i believe it was pretty much bad luck on at least 2 matches.
Round 1 - BUG Control
Kicked his butt off with Seize and Return followed by demon and gary. Game 2 was piece of cake
Round 2 - Junk Midrange
Won game 1 by dropping multiple seizes / lifebanes (i run them MD) and killing the threats he dropped.
Lost Game 2, mulliganed to 5 with land land Gary Seize, Dreadbore and Downfall. Never made it to the third land and got crushed by a Baron.
Lost Game 3 after deciding to keep a hand of 4 lands, Seize and Mortars. Got flooded and disrupted a lot by his own seize and Sin Collectors
Round 3 - GW Aggro
Won game 1 pretty fast by outracing him with Demons and Gary
Lost game 2 and 3 after multiple mulligans (both i've mulled to 5) and getting bad draws, stuck on 2-3 lands the whole game and with nothing to do with caryatid + witchstalker
Round 4 - Monored Devotion
Lost both games, this one kinda intentionally since i was tired already and kinda mad for losing 3 matches for bad land draws. Kept hands without enough answers and got punished for it.
Score: 1-3 drop.
I'm tempted to try the monoblack version but I only have 2 Thoughtseizes and cannot get another two until next month. Any ideas of what I could put on its place ?
I played a red splash variant on MTGO last night with Mono Blue and wrecked it. I think Mono Black is probably where you want to be, the splashes take away from what makes the deck function so well. I beat the splash variants almost every time, where I lose to the straight black variants a little more often.
I also feel like the Mono Black Aggro variant is where you probably want to be at this juncture, just because it offers the same game premise with a faster clock, which means your matches against Mono Black are a lot easier and it is not a complete grind or session of trading hay-makers back and forth.
Do you guys thought about any splash? I've been splashing red for Dreadbores, Slaughter Game on the SB and Anger of the Gods running a total of 12 red mana sources (8 duals, 4 mountains).
Do you guys think this is viable and if it does, what color would you splash for ?
I'm tempted on trying either Xenagos Planeswalker or Elspeth on this list but it seems so good right now.
The only real tough matchup it seems to have are the burn-based decks such as Red Devotion or Boros.
4 Stomping Ground
4 Overgrown Tomb
3 Blood Crypt
2 Temple of Malice
2 Temple of Plenty
2 Temple Garden
1 Temple of Mystery
1 Godless Shrine
1 Breeding Pool
1 Steam Vents
4 Courser of Kruphix
3 Voyaging Satyr
3 Polukranos, World Eater
3 Reaper of the Wilds
2 Stormbreath Dragon
2 Blood Baron of Vizkopa
2 Chromanticore
3 Putrefy
2 Golgari Charm
4 Dreadbore
1 Pithing Needle
2 Mistcutter Hydra
2 Blood Baron of Vizkopa
2 Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
2 Gruul Charm
2 Unravel the Aether
2 Rakdos's Return
2 Slaughter Games
I present you Chromantic Midrange. have been 7-2 with it on Cockatrice, losing to a Phenax Mill Deck and Rw Devotion.
Overall it has been working pretty awesome and I love people's reactions to when I bestow the Core
Current MU results:
2-0 vs. GW Hexproof
2-0 vs. Some weird combo deck running Ajani's Chosen and Inspired creatures that puts tokens
1-2 vs. Phenax mill
2-1 vs. Esper Ephara (The one Mihara built)
0-2 vs. Rw Devotion
2-0 vs. RG Monsters
2-1 vs. Naya Midrange/Monsters
2-1 vs. Rakdos Midrange/Control
4 Temple of Plenty
2 Temple of Malice
2 Temple of Mistery
3 Stomping Ground
3 Blood Crypt
3 Overgrown Tomb
2 Temple Garden
1 Breeding Pool
1 Steam Vents
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Courser of Kruphix
3 Voyaging Satyr
3 Polukranos, World Eater
3 Reaper of the Wilds
2 Chromanticore
2 Blood Baron of Vizkopa
2 Sylvan Primordial
1 Xenagos, God of Revels
1 Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
2 Putrefy
4 Domri Rade
2 Garruk, Caller of Beasts
1 Xenagos, the Reveler
3 Slaughter Games
2 Golgari Charm
2 Turn // Burn
2 Blood Baron of Vizkopa
1 Fog
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
Suggestions are Welcome
The more I tweaked the decklist and tested it, more Control-oriented it got and then i finally decided to cut most creatures in favor of powerful removal and disruption spells. Also, a control deck made the best use of what then I realized to be the only thing that makes multicolored decks viable: Scry lands.
The ability to scry when you drop a land is amazing on this deck: It keeps you from getting mana screwed, it lets you dig for the card you want and so it goes.
Basicly this deck is very Esper-oriented, adding both red and green for goodstuff cards such as Mistcutter Hydra and Rakdos's Return. I decided to cut counterspells in favor of draw spells and mana fixing. With that being said, I present you my take on 5 Color Control.
Suggestions are welcome.
4 Supreme Verdict
2 Jace, Architect of Thought
3 Sphinx's Revelation
3 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
4 Detention Sphere
3 Temple of Deceit
1 Temple of Mystery
2 Temple of Silence
3 Hallowed Fountain
1 Breeding Pool
1 Plains
1 Island
3 Cyclonic Rift
3 Blood Baron of Vizkopa
2 Temple Garden
2 Godless Shrine
1 Overgrown Tomb
4 Divination
1 Watery Grave
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Steam Vents
2 Rakdos's Return
1 Ætherling
1 Swamp
3 Far // Away
3 Temple of Enlightenment
1 Temple of Malice
1 Temple of Plenty
Yes, i think on the current meta the control version is weaker, you end up getting outraced , but i personally like this one and wanted to know if someone else works on it.
If u don't mind i'm gonna try ur build on my wednesday night magic
Oh, and which cards from BNG you think are worth trying ?
Do you think 2 draw spells were too few?. Do u think your results would've been worse if u faced more blue-oriented control decks ?
I have two questions:
Did any of you guys tried out a control version? less fog-centered and more removal-oriented on the shapes of the one that existed on PT: Dragon's Maze ??
And how do u guys deal with Asphodel ? I see the fog version having an almost perfect MU vs. MBD if it isn't for Gray Merchant, so, do we have anyway to deal with life loss? any kind of repeteable and faster lifegain perhaps?
Yeah, i may be either getting pretty lucky, playing against bad players or i have made a new incarnation for MBD myself. Yeah, i don't run the usual list that everyone plays, although i do run the classic shell and base of this deck, i've changed a coulpe things on the deck that makes it run pretty different from what it's supposed to run on the classic lists when needed, it gave my deck a lot of versatility, something that classic MBD lacks.
MBD is far from dead, he's still a decent deck with actually NO bad matchup when well built. The main problem on MBD is how to sideboard, you either have to prepare it for aggro or prepare it to have a better MU vs. control and mirror.
The only cards that really breaks the deck by half ATM are Assemble the Legion and Blood Baron of Vizkopa (the latter being kinda easy to answer on my list and i'm considering putting Illness of the Ranks on SB for assemble). Other than that, this deck has a pretty fair MU against most decks and only does badly against pretty fast weenie decks (RB Aggro is the best example of it, even though i've won 2 of them by 2-0 and 2-1), if you can prepare your deck to deal with these decks without losing an overall good MU against other decks, you're in a good shape running MBD in the format.
I don't have his current list but as far as i've seen and talked ot him about it, he runs ZERO pack rats MD (2 or 3 SB), 1 MBCorrupt, Read the Bones MD and Underworld Connections on SB and both Lifebane Zombie and Nightveil Specter MD. Also the classic shell of 4 Seize, Garys and Demons. Not sure on his removal suite though.
The store's meta is pretty diverse so i belive this deck performs pretty well in an overall.
Any oppinions about it ?
Any ideas on how we can deal with both of those things ?
The very same happaned to me at my LGS wednesday, it's completely weird how this deck gets mana screwed out of nowhere.
BTW, some pros have been making articles about how to beat Mono B Devotion and i think we can start assuming which are our deck's weaknesses and how to cover them up.
Round 1 - BUG Control
Kicked his butt off with Seize and Return followed by demon and gary. Game 2 was piece of cake
Round 2 - Junk Midrange
Won game 1 by dropping multiple seizes / lifebanes (i run them MD) and killing the threats he dropped.
Lost Game 2, mulliganed to 5 with land land Gary Seize, Dreadbore and Downfall. Never made it to the third land and got crushed by a Baron.
Lost Game 3 after deciding to keep a hand of 4 lands, Seize and Mortars. Got flooded and disrupted a lot by his own seize and Sin Collectors
Round 3 - GW Aggro
Won game 1 pretty fast by outracing him with Demons and Gary
Lost game 2 and 3 after multiple mulligans (both i've mulled to 5) and getting bad draws, stuck on 2-3 lands the whole game and with nothing to do with caryatid + witchstalker
Round 4 - Monored Devotion
Lost both games, this one kinda intentionally since i was tired already and kinda mad for losing 3 matches for bad land draws. Kept hands without enough answers and got punished for it.
Score: 1-3 drop.
I'm tempted to try the monoblack version but I only have 2 Thoughtseizes and cannot get another two until next month. Any ideas of what I could put on its place ?
You mean the one running humans and Xathrid Necromancer ?
Do you guys think this is viable and if it does, what color would you splash for ?