will be moving on to nexus. Better to be at a more stable place.
alhtough will still keep my account here semi-active
- The Fluff
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Member for 13 years, 10 months, and 22 days
Last active Fri, Oct, 13 2023 04:59:16
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May 28, 2019The Fluff posted a message on The End of an Eranice to hear that. Will be following you there. Have been here for more than 8 years.Posted in: Articles
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May 28, 2019The Fluff posted a message on The End of an Eraoh no... did not expect this to happen. Well, nothing is forever.Posted in: Articles
Thanks for everything mtgsalvation staff and owners. -
Jun 2, 2017The Fluff posted a message on The Rise of New PhyrexiaThanks for the writeup. Good read.Posted in: Articles
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May 1, 2017The Fluff posted a message on The World of Mirrodin II: Darksteel and the Fifth DawnThank you for the effort in writing this. Enjoyed it.Posted in: Articles
I quit during Onslaught block and resumed playing in Zendikar, but have a very keen interest in knowing about Mirrodin + the adventures of Glissa and friends. - To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Top 8 out of 42 players this time.
2 Memnite
4 Etched Champion
4 Frogmite
4 Master of Etherium
4 Ornithopter
4 Signal Pest
4 Vault Skirge
Sorceries [4]
4 Thoughtcast
3 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
Artifacts [13]
1 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Cranial Plating
4 Mox Opal
4 Springleaf Drum
Lands [14]
2 Ancient Tomb
4 Darksteel Citadel
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Vault of Whispers
2 Annul
2 Tormod's Crypt
2 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Pithing Needle
2 Dispatch
1 Rest in Peace
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Grafdigger's Cage
http://www.thecouncil.es/tcdecks/deck.php?id=9537&iddeck=69602
Ok, I take your points too. I think we shouldn't be arguing on Preordain vs. Ponder anymore, since it seems we're just going by personal preferences here. You like the peek at the third card (Ponder), I like the scrying away of lands (Preordain).
Rather, I would explain why I opted more for the EtW route. In my meta, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben is being kept in the main by several decks. Thankfully, Teeg is rare over here. Assuming I won the die roll, and there's an EtW in an opening hand that looks like it could storm for at least 8-10 goblins - I'd often let out the goblins rather than risk the opponent casting a Thalia on their turn 2. For game 2, I have Pyroclasms and Dread of Night.
Did 11 more goldfish hands, since I wasn't able to meet with my group for some playtesting.
One more Night's Whisper from SCG arrived a few days ago.
4 Dark Ritual
4 Rite of Flame
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Pyretic Ritual
4 Manamorphose
2 Chromatic Star
3 Preordain
4 Faithless Looting
4 Gitaxian Probe
2 Sign in Blood
2 Night's Whisper
4 Empty the Warrens
4 Geothermal Crevice
4 Sulfur Vent
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Duress
4 Tomb of Urami
1 Crucible of Worlds
4 Dread of Night
2 Pyroclasm
1. 1 Preordain, 1 Cabal, 1 Pyretic, 1 EtW, 1 Star, 1 Sulfur, 1 Night's Whisper = 34 goblins + 36 damage with ToA on T3
2. 2 Petal, 1 Dark Ritual, 1 Faithless, 1 Sign (mull to 5) = Fizzle on T2, on the draw.
3. 1 Sign, 2 Probe, 2 Pyre, 1 Rite, 1 Petal = Fizzle on T1, on the draw. Realized too late that I can't cast the Sign in Blood.
4. 2 Manamorphose, 1 Faithless, 1 Petal, 1 Dark Ritual, 1 Rite, 1 Sulfur = 20 damage with ToA on T2
5. 1 Geo, 1 Dark, 1 Cabal, 1 Manamorphose, 1 Star, 1 Rite, 1 Faithless = 22 damage with Toa on T2
6. 1 Pyre, 2 Rite, 1 Manamorphose, 1 Probe, 1 Faithless, 1 Geo = 16 goblins on T2
7. 1 EtW, 2 ToA, 1 Night's Whisper, 1 Pyretic, 1 Petal, 1 Gemstone = 10 goblins on T3
8. 2 Manamorphose, 1 Pyre, 1 Cabal, 1 Geo, 1 Rite, 1 EtW = 20 damage with ToA on T2. Have both ToA and EtW, but can only cast one of them.
9. 1 Petal, 1 Pyretic, 1 Sulfur, 1 Dark Ritual (mull to 4) = 8 goblins T2. Lucky that the card I've drawn on T2 is an EtW.
10. 2 Gemstone, 1 Night's Whisper, 1 Lotus, 2 Dark Ritual, 1 Cabal Ritual = 20 damage with ToA on T3
11. 1 Sign, 1 Preordain, 1 Cabal, 1 Dark, 1 Rite. 1 Manamorphose, 1 Geo = 10 goblins on T2
Using IC's means the deck would have little life points left in case of a fizzle, but I guess the high ToA success rate makes up for that.
It's nice to see that the thread creator is back.
Perhaps it might be that my deck has shifted from the one hit finish ToA plan (I still have 3 ToA in the main), to an early as possible EtW plan. Comboing at turn 2 on the play allows the deck to bypass annoying creatures like Thalia and Teeg. I can't consider Ponder anymore for the build I've been enjoying, because Preordain provides better filtration in setting up a decent EtW by scrying away lands.
Ponder gets to peek at a third card. But sometimes, I have no choice but to reshuffle lands back to the deck when I pondered. With Preordain, the lands that I see get put to the bottom - and those lands stay there, because I've specifically built my version to not include any cards that shuffle the deck. Of course, there's the argument that it's a lost game if all my 7 win cons are among the last 10 cards at the bottom. In answer to that, I've been testing for weeks and goldfished almost a hundred opening hands, and the fizzles because I haven't found a win-con are few. Here's some of the latest tests that I did.
Reforge the Soul? The new BR version looks interesting.
EDIT: Unfortunately, my playgroup isn't available for playtesting this weekend.
Referring to the parts I put in bold. I remember the time when everyone in my playgroup was very new to the game, and we only had slow aggro decks. Then there's this person who's more experienced than us brought his mono U control deck that has Propaganda, Snap, Capsize, Energy Vortex, and that counterspell with buyback. We all got totally trounced on by that deck, but no one made a complain that the mono u deck should be banned from the group. The situation where we can hardly beat the control deck went on for a few months - until we discovered that having Scragnoths, Pyroblasts, and a Boil in the sideboard help solve the problem.
Ok, I see that now. Seems manageable.
On another topic. Not promising that it's 100% certain.. but if I can meet my playgroup this weekend. I'll try testing my version of this deck with their legacy decks, and post results here. It's currently Thursday here, and we usually meet on Sundays.
Can the mana sources of your deck still handle that?
Seething Song is a good source of mana. But it felt too much of a counterspell magnet, so I didn't use any SS for my list.
I'd appreciate to know how your testing goes.
For builds that make use of Faithless Looting. I recommend not using spare rituals or petals in hand when there's already enough mana in the mana pool. Because those extra rituals and petals can be the ones you put in the grave when FL draws cards that are more useful to the current situation.
I see, that game is ok after all. You just wanted some backup.
Forgot to mention last night. You have 4 Wish, 2 ToA, and 3 EtW maindeck right now? Are those in the decklist you used for the last test result that you posted?
On another topic, I've read on your last post that you've Burning Wished for a Diminishing Returns. 2UU seems hard to cast. How about using Ill-Gotten Gains instead? Or does Diminishing Returns provide a much better effect for this deck than IGG?
This deck plays very similar to how TPPS (a combo deck in the pauper format) wins. However, unlike TPPS who typically has to cast 19 spells in order to win with a Grapeshot (19 spells + Grapeshot). The legacy version that we have here only has to cast 9 spells for a Tendrils of Agony (9 spells + Tendrils).
First of all when playing this deck you will need.. some dice. Yes, I'm serious, it's much easier to play the deck when you have a colored dice for each color of mana. They are for keeping track of how much mana is currently in the mana pool.
Lyracian already did some of the sample playstyle, so I'm not going to repeat that part anymore. On playing, the ideal combo turn is turn 3. Something like, turn 1 play a sac land, turn 2 play a sac land. Turn 3, sac the two sac lands and go at it with the cards that you have. However, in most games there won't be always 2 sac lands because there's only a few of them in the deck. A much faster way for me, is turn 1 Sac land, Turn 2 Gemstone Mine or Lotus Petal and then go at it (start the combo).
There are two kinds of this deck, one is the version with Burning Wish that Lyracian uses. Another is the lower budget one without the wishes that I use. In my opinion, and testing. Builds without the wishes should have at least 7 win conditions main deck (4 Tendrils of Agony and 3 Empty the Warrens, or 4 Empty the Warrens and 3 Tendrils of Agony). I prefer having the 4 Empty the Warrens + 3 ToA configuration, because EtW is often easier to succesfully cast on turn 2.
List I'm currently using.
4 Dark Ritual
4 Rite of Flame
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Pyretic Ritual
4 Manamorphose
2 Chromatic Star
3 Preordain
4 Faithless Looting
4 Gitaxian Probe
3 Sign in Blood
1 Night's Whisper
4 Empty the Warrens
4 Geothermal Crevice
4 Sulfur Vent
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Duress
4 Tomb of Urami
1 Crucible of Worlds
4 Dread of Night
2 Pyroclasm
Still waiting for the other Night's Whisper that I ordered from SCG.
Will replace the Sign in Blood with them.
I hope your wife gets well soon.
Ice Floe is 5th edition because I like the John Avon art.
As for Sword of Fire and Ice being too powerful.. it is indeed too powerful for the intended purpose of this ice deck. Well, I made it specifically for playing with cousins and friends who only have preconstructed decks - so it's using some underpowered cards on purpose. I got rid of the sideboard, simply because precons don't even have a sideboard.
Also now added the Mouth of Ronom previously suggested by other people who posted in this thread.
Thanks to the people who suggested it.
4 Phyrexian Ironfoot
4 Blizzard Specter
4 Frost Raptor
1 Rimefeather Owl
1 Balduvian Frostwalker
2 Rimewind Taskmage
3 Ice Cage
4 Frozen Solid
3 Chill to the Bone
3 Rime Transfusion
8 Snow Covered Island
8 Snow Covered Swamp
4 Frost Marsh
2 Scrying Sheets
1 Mouth of Ronom
1 Ice Floe
I have the same opinion. One reason for the recent placings is probably because most people don't have plenty of strong anti-artifact cards in the sideboard. Perhaps they're too busy dedicating sideboard slots against the more popular decks, like UGR Threshold and UW Miracle decks?
Well, on further observation. The two most recent lists that reached top 8 both look prepared to sideboard against storm combo. The one that got top 2 have two Canonist and two Spell Pierce, and the one that got top 4 in another event have two Canonist and three Thorn of Amethyst.