I started to play Pox because of your build some pages ago I thought it was pretty easy to get and not too expensive. And it was.
Well, now I spent a lot more money than I intended to, but it was worth every cent.
I still like your list though. It's pretty straight and more aggro-based. But have 4 big Pox been working for you? I can't imagine 4 of them being too good. I'd think you pitch them a lot to other discard spells/effects?
How is the single Nether Spirit working for you? Have you considered playing Filth instead for more aggressiveness? Well, you might have to add some Urborgs if you want to play it, but Urborg just does not seem that nice, at least not 4. Speaking of which, how do you get along with Factories without Urborg?
And if you're playing a Rack list with 3(!) Dakmor Salvage, you should probably try Raven's Crime if you haven't already. Maybe you should try Entomb for access to Raven's, Syphon Life and Darkblast (and even Necroplasm if you want it). It could also get your Nether Spirit and works very well with the Dredgers, since they also get your Ghasts (and maybe the Filth) in the Graveyard.
I also think you should add another Liliana, it's pretty much standard to play four. But I can also see the point of running only three. Nevertheless, you probably want her in every game.
I suppose you're not playing Wastelands because of money?
Overall, if you want to add Entomb, this is how I would do it (just a suggestion!):
- 2 Pox
- 1 The Rack (it does nothing in the early game)
- 1 Innocent Blood (you get a Darkblast)
+ 2 Entomb
+ 1 Darkblast
+ 1 Raven's Crime
maybe also make some room for a 4th Lilly
And for the SB then:
- 1 Darkblast
- 1 Syphon Life
+ 1 Necroplasm (if you want to)
+ 1 Pithing Needle / Engineered Plague OR maybe add another Entomb
A downside to playing Entomb is that many opponents will add GY-hate after G1. If it isn't Leyline of the Void, it's not that problematic, but if it is, Entomb becomes quite useless. I don't see lots of Leylines in my meta, so it is not a problem here. I just read you have a GY-heavy meta, well then just ignore the part about Entomb :P.
Also, a question for the others: Do you prefer Engineered Plague or Infest? (This probably has already been discussed?).
Thanks for the critique and suggestions Geist! I'd like to take a moment to talk about some of the points you mentioned regarding my list =)
First off, the 4 big Pox. I love em. The big Pox probably does more work for me to win games than anything else in the deck, and I never mind drawing multiples because I can/will cast 2 of them in a game if given the opportunity. The effect is just backbreaking for the opponent, the only time I'll ever side any of them out is against Burn or the rare Zoo matchup, there are a few people in my meta still playing Zoo. The 4 big Pox is part of the reason I run 3 Dakmor Salvage. Being able to Pox, dredge back your land, then Pox again is enough to stop most decks cold in their tracks, especially if you had any kind of disruption beforehand. In short, I love the 8 Pox effects and would never even consider cutting any of them. They're the heart of the deck IMHO.
Regarding Nether Spirit, I like him a lot and I've actually already tried cutting various things from the deck for Entombs to increase my consistency of getting him. Unless the opponent has Swords he's pretty much a never ending blocker, and the Entombs did help me get him more frequently. However I never liked having to cut things that I felt made the deck function optimally to fit in the 3x Entomb with maindeck Syphon Life + Raven's Crime + Darkblast plan. The one thing I felt least awkward about cutting to fit in the Entomb package was the 2x Cursed Scroll and 4x Inquisition of Kozilek. Inquisition can be pretty critical for combo and control matchups though, and I found myself never feeling quite comfortable not being able to peek at my opponent's hand and take things I didn't want to see.
I did try it for a while, playtesting for a few weeks against various decks and then hitting up a few Legacy tournaments, and ultimately I ended up preferring to just leave the drawing of Nether Spirit and sideboard tech more up to chance. I just wasn't willing to reduce the deck's consistency by cutting the numbers of other important cards to fit the Entomb package in. Also, in a meta filled with an over abundance of graveyard hate I think reducing my graveyard interactions is a good thing.
About Lili, I have tried running 4x Liliana and honestly I just didn't like it. Way too many times I'd encounter two or even three copies of her in game. Sure, you can always pitch the extra to the one you play, but that extra could have been a different card that might have been useful. She does do a lot of work for us (Liliana + The Rack usually seals most games for me) but I don't think we ever need her to win the game, so I'm quite content with 3 of her. I think if I wasn't running an 8 Pox build I might want 4 Liliana, but the 8 Pox effects do most of the work for the deck and Lili just tidies things up afterwards if she comes along. Plus I think running any more than 7 three cost spells would be just a bit too much for the deck's mana curve to handle, even with Dark Ritual and the ability to dredge back some of the lands.
Lastly, regarding Wasteland and Urborg, the reason I don't run them isn't a monetary cost issue. I just don't like them lol I tried playing with 4x Wasteland and 3x Urborg for quite a while and to me they just ruined the deck's consistency. Even with 3x Urborg, having 8 of your mana sources only tap for colorless made it impossible to consistently get BBB for big Pox. I think if I wasn't running big Pox it might be feasible to run the 4x Factory + 4x Wasteland + 3x Urborg plan, but if you're trying to cast big Pox it just makes the mana base way too inconsistent running that many colorless sources. Even with Dark Ritual I found that mana base setup to be totally unworkable.
It's not that I don't like doing techy control things like running an Entomb package and Wasteland, it's just that I've yet to play a list incorporating those things that I felt performed as consistently as the rather simple mono black list I've been running for a long time. It does a very good job of completely wrecking the game state and then mopping up with some small creatures and artifact damage, and any time I tried bringing some other techy strategies into the mix I felt like the deck's consistency went way down. I've been trying to come up with a 8 Pox list with Crucible or Loam involved for a long time (you have no idea how much I'd like to play with Tabernacle and some other neat 1-of lands) but every list I tried never seemed to perform as consistently and brutally as my basic mono black list. All the Crucible/Loam lists I've tried seemed like they just durdled around too much and my tournament results were never as good with them. So I play what works for me and wins, even if it doesn't seem quite as techy or cool as some of the other lists out there. My mono black list may be comparatively cheap and simple but it's very fast and efficient at wrecking the opponent's hand, creatures, and land base and doesn't durdle around.
And oh! I tend to swap between 3x Engineered Plague and 3x Infest in my board depending on the meta. I like Infest better against Merfolk and aggro Elves, but E. Plague really seals the game against Goblins, combo Elves, and Bitterblossom decks once it hits the board. And right now there are quite a few of those latter decks in my meta. If I felt like the deck's mana curve could support a couple Damnation I'd be running them, but 4 mana is just too much for a 8 Pox build to consistently get to. It's the same reason I don't run The Abyss or Nether Void. They're good cards with powerful effects, but 4 mana is too steep for an 8 Pox build to hope to reach. And I don't think there's anything that could convince me to cut the 4 big Pox. Again, IMHO they're the heart of the deck.
Thought I'd toss in the mono black list that's been performing for me very well lately. It's a little different than the list I had been running the last year or so in that I swapped out the 2x Tombstalker I had maindeck for 2x Cursed Scroll to give me some recurring targeted removal for the currently more creature (and graveyard hate) heavy meta. It also serves nicely as an additional win condition and when coupled with 4x The Rack gives me 6 ways to hit planeswalkers maindeck. Since I'm now running Scrolls I also pulled the 3x Null Rod out of the sideboard and replaced them with 2x Pithing Needle and an additional Ratchet Bomb. That all said, here's the list that's been doing well for me...
I'd go with Tabernacle as well. It's a unique effect and the biggest entry barrier to playing Lands, which IMHO is a very (very) cool and fun to play deck. Tabernacle also fits nicely into a few other control decks like Pox, if you ever want to use it outside of Lands.
I've been playing Dredge again for a few weeks now (I played it for a short time in the past but never got enough practice with it to consider myself very experienced as a Dredge player). At this point I've yet to play in any big tournaments and have just been playtesting lots of sideboarded games against friends running Nic Fit and Maverick mainly. One of the things this playtesting has led me to wonder is if running a Non-LED list with both Ichorid and Bloodghast might be favorable in the current meta.
I've been playing around with Bloodghasts for a few days now and I've been finding that while they do reduce the explosiveness of the deck in Game 1 somewhat, they make grinding out the cripple fights that games 2 and 3 often become much easier. Here's the non-LED list with Bloodghast that I've been testing...
The Bloodghasts make a great threat multiplier when your ability to dredge freely is limited by the frequent occurrence of graveyard hate, but they do make for more complicated decisions when dredging and sideboarding as well. Situations like, "Do I dredge my Grave-Troll to try to get more cards in the yard and hope I hit a Bridge or a Narcomeoba or do I dredge my Dakmor Salvage to get my Bloodghasts back?". Or other situations like not being able to lay and activate a Cephalid Coliseum on turn 2 because your Undisovered Paradise bounced itself back to your hand at the beginning of the turn. So you have to lay your Coliseum on turn 2 then wait until turn 3 to drop the Paradise again and activate the Coliseum. The bounce factor of Paradise can definitely slow you down a turn sometimes, even though it consistently returns your Bloodghasts.
Then there's the matter of sideboarding being a bit tricker since the addition of Bloodghasts makes the deck might tighter in terms of flex spots, resulting in the only options for things to take out for games 2/3 to bring in the default anti-hate package of 3x Nature's Claim and 2x Chain of Vapor without damaging the deck's consistency of having discard outlets and dredgers being 4x Breakthrough and 1x Careful Study. Which is a shame since Careful Study is so useful in digging for answers to hate in sideboarded games. On a related note, against decks packing Scavenging Ooze and other creature based hate I've been taking out the 3x Tireless Tribe to bring in 3x Firestorm, though I'm not sure if Tribes are the optimal things to board out for Firestorm or not.
In any case, I'm still weighing the pros and cons of a combination Ichorid & Bloodghast list. The Bloodghasts do seem to make grinding out the sideboarded games a bit easier but they also reduce the deck's explosiveness, redundancy, and effectiveness at digging for answers to hate. They make great additional fuel for your Bridges and can be a real force multiplier when coupled with Ichorid, but weaken the Dread Return plan just due to having to cut DRs and targets to fit them in.
Alternately, if you're curious, here's the list I was running before I started toying around with Bloodghasts...
What do you guys think about this matter? Also, I've been considering trying out Flayer of the Hatebound in place of Angel of Despair in my sideboard. A lot of decks seem to be packing Ensnaring Bridge out of the board these days and I'm starting to wonder if the direct damage plan might be a better option than trying to blow up the Ensnaring Bridge and swing through. Flayer seems especially good in a list with Bloodghasts as well. Any thoughts on that?
To me Barbarian Ring is an excellent uncounterable finisher, best when coupled with Fireblast. It can be hard to get threshold sometimes until you float two red mana and Fireblast, but dumping 3 more cards in the yard from Fireblast will usually give you threshold on turn 3 or 4. I've been playing burn for about 2 years and gone through many lists, but Barbarian Rings have won me way too many games to ever play a list without.
That said, here's the list I've been running for a few months and have been very happy with.
Thanks Fluff!
Though I'd still contest that if you're going to play blue Ponder is a superior choice to Preordain, your logic of scrying away lands does make sense and if it works for you than that's the most important thing.
I did some initial goldfish testing of my original 5 color version of Sac Land Tendrils and my new 2 color variation this afternoon and thought you might find the results interesting. These results came from goldfishing 10 games with each deck...
Original 5 Color Sac Land Tendrils
(Most expensive variant in the primer)
========================
Average "go off" turn : 3.8
Tendrils/Grapeshot kill rate : 80%
Empty the Warrens rate : 0%
Fizzle rate : 20%
Mulligan rate : 33%
New Black/Red Sac Land Tendrils
=====================
Average "go off" turn : 2.9
Tendrils/Grapeshot kill rate : 80%
Empty the Warrens rate : 10%
Fizzle rate : 10%
Mulligan rate : 10%
Based on goldfish testing the new Black/Red variant is performing just as I had originally thought. It's about 1 turn faster than the original 5 color deck, fizzles half as often, and mulligans less than 1/3 as much as the original. The only variable left to test before I consider it the superior version is how well it can power through counter magic and deal with hate post-board. So far though it's out performing the original in almost every way.
The one change I'm currently considering making to the Black/Red list above is swapping out the 2x Geothermal Crevice for 2x Gemstone Mine. In the 10 games I tested this afternoon there were 2 of them that I could have successfully gone off on Turn 2 rather than having to wait until Turn 3 if those Geothermal Crevices had been Gemstone Mines or any other land that could tap for Red or Black mana the turn they came into play. This new variant really wants to lay a sac land Turn 1 followed by a regular single mana land Turn 2 and go off. So I'll be doing some more testing replacing the 2x Geothermal Crevice with 2x Gemstone Mine to see how that goes. At this point I'm not sure the deck really needs more than 8 sac lands. You want to lay one the first turn but past that all you generally need to go off is a land that produces a single B/R mana.
Hey guys and gals, it's the OP here once again!
I'm really pleased to see that you all have continued to enjoy this deck and kept it going. The primer hasn't been updated in a while but the Innistrad block has provided us with some interesting new options for card choices, many of which you may already be experimenting with.
Looking over this thread it seems there's been a trend going as of late to cut the deck down to less colors. The original builds presented in the primer are 5 color decks, and they still function extremely well IMHO. If we were to stick with 5 colors, playing blue draw spells main deck (it's really hard to beat Ideas Unbound in terms of draw efficiency or Ponder for card selection) and white protection such as Silence in the sideboard (which I continue to think is the best protection available for us against blue decks) than I don't think I'd change a thing about the decks lists in the original post. They're resilient, redundant, capable of producing all their colors in effective amounts, and have an answer for just about any situation you might find yourself in by using Burning Wish to tutor up solutions in your sideboard. The only complaint I could really make about the deck is that it's a touch slow, generally requiring you to wait until turn 3 or 4 to combo off with most hands. Other than that I think the original lists in the primer are still just about as good as they can be.
But lets say for a minute that you didn't like the idea of running a 5 color deck. Maybe it's Wasteland being too heavily played in your meta, or maybe you just don't want to have to worry about keeping Red, Black, and Blue mana open at all times for whatever you might draw next. If this sounds good to you than I've got a crazy little idea you might enjoy... we're going 2 color.
I've been working with this concept for a few days now, and while I'm not 100% settled on everything in the 75 cards presented here, this list has shown great promise thus far. In goldfishing it is equally consistent to (if not more so than) my original list and 1 turn faster on average, allowing you to go off turn 2 or 3 at the latest with most hands. It packs just as many answers to problem situations you might encounter, though some of them are slightly more mana intensive than the original splash color ones. Another downside is that in comboing off you will end up paying a great deal more life to draw cards than in the original list. If there's a lot of Burn in your meta this may be problematic, but outside of the Burn matchup this shouldn't be an issue.
Let's take a look at what went out and what came in...
Now lets talk about the changes a little bit. First things first, everything that isn't red or black is gone gone gone. Because of this the Chromatic Stars and Spheres were no longer needed. When running 2 colors instead of 5 the fixing they provide becomes totally unnecessary. The deck does lose some very good card selection and draw tools as well as bounce tools in the sideboard when we cut out the blue, but fortunately there are on color card options that take their place quite nicely. Ponder is effectively replaced by Faithless Looting and the draw from Ideas Unbound is taken over by an even bigger powerhouse of card drawing in Infernal Contract, which our mana base can now support very well. And by giving up the Stars and Spheres we make room for a little free main deck protection and card draw in Gitaxian Probe and Seething Song to support the deck's now much larger need for red mana.
One of my biggest concerns in giving up blue was the loss of some tools in the sideboard. In the original list we had Diminishing Returns as our "hail mary" play for when we absolutely had to win that turn and our graveyard state wasn't such to make Past in Flames a viable option. Fortunately Reforge the Soul gives us an on color card that does almost exactly the same thing (better actually, since our graveyard gets to stay where it is) for just one more mana. We lose Eye of Nowhere, our all purpose Burning Wish-able bounce tool, but I was able to come up with a replacement option for it that gets rid of the one thing we tended to use Eye of Nowhere for 90% of the time. Leyline of Sanctity, meet Anarchy. Anarchy ends up being quite a bit more costly to cast than Eye of Nowhere, but it's the only Burning Wish tutorable option I could come up with that gets rid of that damn Leyline. If anyone else has any suggestions for Sorcery type red or black enchantment destruction options I'm all ears, but for now this is the best I could come up with. It's costly to cast, but still feasible with the new inclusion of Seething Song in the deck and a tutorable out to Leyline of Sanctity is necessary to have IMHO. Lastly in the blue department we lose Echoing Truth to deal with random permanent based hate but fortunately there's Chaos Warp to take it's place. The Warp will bounce anything that might be bothering us, but at the cost of one more mana and with the risk of the opponent getting another permanent out of it... possibly even the one we just bounced. It's not as ideal of a solution as I'd like, but it's on color and does the same job effectively.
The final note I'll make about the sideboard is that while we do lose our best protection tool when going 2 color, Silence, it's role is filled in by an additional copy of Duress (or Thoughtseize if you're feeling spendy and want the best protection) and two copies of Pyroblast for the blue matchups. The board plan for non-blue matches essentially becomes +3 Duress and +2 Chaos Warp, where as the blue matchup board plan is +3 Duress and +2 Pyroblast. Alternately you can always leave a copy of Duress in the board to Wish for if you like. As far as what to take out to optimally support the additions, more thorough testing will be required before I figure that one out. Though I think it will likely be along the lines of -1 Faithless Looting, -1 Infernal Contract, -2 Night's Whisper, -1 Seething song for most matchups. Again though, additional testing is required. Manamorphose might be an easy option to board out since the fixing is rarely ever required now that we're down to two colors.
The final note I'll make about this experimental new list is about the mana base. With the deck's more lax color requirements I no longer feel the need to run 12 sac lands in it. Going down to 10 sac lands means that we should see one sac land in every 6 cards, and this new list can very effectively combo off starting out with just 1 sac land and 1 single mana producing land or Lotus Petal. This allows us now run 4 lands that do not come into play tapped, greatly increasing our likelihood of being able to combo off on turn 2 or 3. The only part of the mana base I'm still uncertain about is the 2x Geothermal Crevice. They tap for red which is nice for Chaos Warp'ing something at the end the opponents turn or casting Burning Wish to nab something before you combo off, and the black they produce when sac'd is quite useful as well. The green is basically generic mana, though there has been times I've used it to cast Manamorphose. I really wish there was a sac land that made B/R when sac'ed, but for now this seems like the best option. I will be testing Peat Bog in place of the 2x Geothermal Crevice, though I feel the Crevice will likely be the ultimate winner until something better gets printed.
Soooo... what do you guys/gals think? Give the list a try and let me know! It's taken quite a while to come up with an effective 2 color Sac Land Tendrils list but I'm pretty happy with this one. Only time and additional testing will tell if it will be as resilient to counter magic as the lists in the OP, but initial testing has been very promising. It's certainly faster by 1 turn on average and is slightly more simple to play as well. On the downside it has many more obvious mana intensive targets for counterspells (such as Seething Song and Infernal Contract) so it's counter magic resistance may be quite a bit lower than the original 5 color list. It's going to take quite a bit more testing before I consider adding this as a new list option in the primer, but I am liking it so far
I've been out of Legacy for a while and am just about to get back into it. I was looking at buying a set of Burning Wish and noticed that they seem to have recently jumped from $8 to $12 up to $20 to $25. I was curious if anyone knew what the explanation for the sudden doubling in price of this card was?
After taking a break from Legacy for a few months I'm returning to the scene to play 2 of my favorite decks again, and one of them is Burn (the other is Pox, but I'll save that for the Pox thread). A few months back before I took a break my meta was just Maverick, Maverick, and more Maverick and my Burn deck just got rolled by this archetype 4 out of 5 games. It was a pretty much un-winnable match up most of the time. For reference, here's the deck I was playing...
This was a really virtual card advantage centered build, playing no main deck non-land cards that weren't guaranteed damage if they resolved. I even purposefully avoided running Goblin Guide since he was never guaranteed damage. This list served me well for several years and absolutely rocked during the Counterbalance era, it took me to well over a dozen Top-4s in local 30-40 person Legacy tournaments.
However, the format has changed and gotten a lot faster and more utility-creature based since then and my list wasn't doing so hot the last time I played a few months ago. So I took a look over the recent developments in this thread and revised it to what I think will be considered a more standardized build that isn't so concerned about virtual card advantage to see how it works.
After some limited playtesting I have concluded that this new list is indeed faster. It goldfishes Turn 4-5 on average with occasional Turn 3 kills, where as my old list was pretty consistent Turn 5 but rarely ever pulled off a Turn 3-4. I do like the speed boost Goblin Guide can provide under the right circumstances, and the addition of more one drops and less 2-3 drops definitely smoothes out the mana curve, but I'm still having some reservations about Vexing Devil. He seems like a real coin toss as to whether you get any damage for your R spent playing him. Sometimes he's 4 damage, other times he's just a target for your opponent's removal that would have otherwise been useless had you spent the mana on a spell rather than a creature. He (and Goblin Guide for that matter) seems rather terrible against any deck with 1 drop creatures to block with, which is a pretty huge percentage of the field right now with utility-creature and aggro based decks on the rise. So I'm still not too sure if this new list is actually an improvement over my old one or if it will fare any better against Maverick either. It's definitely a bit faster, but I'm a touch worried that I've traded consistency and resiliency for a speed boost.
Lyra Heartstrings is a background pony who appears in many episodes. You can see some pictures of her and find out more information about her here ---> http://mlp.wikia.com/wiki/Lyra_Heartstrings
She's been the subject of many memes by the brony fandom, the most frequent of which being the idea that she has an obsession with humans which came from the way she is seen sitting on the park bench "human style" in Episode 7 of Season 1 "Dragonshy". She's also most frequently seen with another background Pony named Bon Bon.
Lastly, a pony plushie maker named Hoppip on DeviantArt made and sold at auction (for a whopping $720) a plushie of Lyra that was lovable in ways that would not be appropriate to discuss on a forum that is supposed to be safe for work. This caused a wee bit of chaos in the MLP fandom for a short period of time and resulted in a nearly endless stream of art featuring Lyra plushies being used as oven mits, boxing gloves, slippers, beverage holders, and pretty much anything else you might be able to insert an object or appendage into.
And now you know about Lyra
On a completely separate note, I would take the time to read and critique your fanfic for your Lithl but I'm sad to have to say that I just can't bring myself to read fanfics anymore. I used to enjoy them now and then but then one day I decided to read "Bubbles" and proceeded to be totally psychologically messed up for nearly a week afterwords. After that I decided "no more fanfics for me". I do hope someone else who enjoys these sort of things gives you some good feedback though!
And for everypony who is into the new MLP trading cards and is trying to trade to complete a set (or just get more of a particular character they want) I now have a trading thread in the Non-MtG section of the Market Street. You can find it here (and linked to in my signature) so feel free to send a PM my way if you'd like to trade some ponies
Hey all!
I played Goblins (mono red) in Legacy a few years back, got out of Legacy for a while, and now I'm ready to get back in and rebuild Goblins. I've been doing a bit of playtesting and the deck seems to play quite smoothly, but I would like a critique on my build from those who have been playing in the current Legacy meta.
I'm pretty happy with the main, although I'm not sure if I should be running some more situational 1-ofs main (Tuktuk Scrapper and Goblin Sharpshooter in particular) or if it's fine as is. I know the general consensus is to cut the Goblin Chieftains for these 1-ofs (and probably max out on Mogg War Marshals) as well, but the Chieftains have won me so many games that I wouldn't have won without them that I'm really hesitant to go down to less than 3. Just having 7 haste enablers in the deck does wonders for the deck's consistency of pulling blowout wins out of nowhere.
On the "blowout win" note, am I the only one who feels like Krenko, Mob Boss is "win more"? I tried him for a dozen or so games and every time I had him in my hand I didn't want to cast him until I had a Warchief or Chieftain out to give him haste, and that didn't happen terribly often. And the few times it did come together with a haste enabler on the field and Krenko in hand I was already in good position to win without the need for extra tokens. So I ended up pulling Krenko out in favor of running 1 Stingscourger main to give me an extra way to clear the path for Lackey on turn 2 and have a maindeck out to Reanimator. Is it just plain wrong to not run Krenko, or is he really "win more" like I think he is?
Regarding the sideboard, I feel pretty content with it except for the fact that I'm not sure if I should be running Chalice of the Void or Thorn of Amethyst as combo defense. I like the fact that I can use Chalice at 0 on turn 1 to stop LED and Lotus Petal shenanigans and setting Chalice at 1 on turn 2 could be brutal against both combo and Burn decks. On the other hand, a single Chalice most likely won't stop Storm decks altogether whereas Thorn of Amethyst would (and could probably slow down Burn enough for me to win as well). I'm a bit nervous about the fact that I have to wait until turn 2 to play it though, which could be too late against some Storm decks.
Also, I'd really like to find a way to fit 2 Anarchy into the board. I'm not sure what I'd cut for it (1 Chalice and the 1 Stingscourger maybe?) but it seems great against Maverick, Enchantress, D&T, and a few other popular decks as well. Infact, it might be the only thing that could actually nab me a win against Enchantress once Moat hits the table (aside from Siege-Gang Commander) and I know there are a few people at my LGS that play Enchantress every week.
Do you think Anarchy is too narrow of a sideboard card or is there enough nasty white stuff going on in the meta right now to warrant it's use?
Anyhoo, that's probably enough babbling for now. Any thoughts/advice/criticisms would be much appreciated!
Wasteland, Wasteland, Wasteland, Wasteland. Even though it's a strictly worse Strip Mine the fact that it's legal in Legacy and Strip isn't has pushed it's price up to ten times that of Strip. Legacy is too expensive in general, but Wasteland is one of the worst offenders price wise. Makes me wish I would have held onto my set that I bought 3 years ago for $18 each (and thought I paid too much at the time so I eventually sold them).
Do MLP cards have the same size as MtG cards? I sure could use some Derpy tokens. Or Fluttershy tokens. Or Lyra tokens. Or Photo Finish tokens. Then I will have a photo shoot with my new tokens. In ze park. Wunderbar.
My box just came in today so I can tell you that they're almost the exact same size as MtG cards. The only real noticeable difference being that the corners are square rather than rounded and the pony cards are a bit thinner in terms of thickness.
Anyhoo, I was quite pleased to find that I got almost a complete set of the regular non-foil cards out of my box (76 of the 84) and exactly 50% of my packs (15 packs out of the box of 30) had foils in them. I even got that foil Twilight I was so hoping for and nabbed 3 Twilights in total! I'm a happy camper
On the downside, I didn't get any extra Fluttershys for you DakmorQueen (aside from the 1 I need to complete my set), but I did get quite a few duplicate other cards so I'll be posting my extras for trade in the Non-MtG section in the Market Street subforum later today. If anyone is interested in trading feel free to send a PM my way
Well, if Limited Edition Beta isn't an option than I'd have to go with Antiquities as my second choice followed by Portal Three Kingdoms in third. My primary reasoning for this being that I'd like to be able to afford a set of Mishra's Workshop and one Imperial Seal.
Thanks for the critique and suggestions Geist! I'd like to take a moment to talk about some of the points you mentioned regarding my list =)
First off, the 4 big Pox. I love em. The big Pox probably does more work for me to win games than anything else in the deck, and I never mind drawing multiples because I can/will cast 2 of them in a game if given the opportunity. The effect is just backbreaking for the opponent, the only time I'll ever side any of them out is against Burn or the rare Zoo matchup, there are a few people in my meta still playing Zoo. The 4 big Pox is part of the reason I run 3 Dakmor Salvage. Being able to Pox, dredge back your land, then Pox again is enough to stop most decks cold in their tracks, especially if you had any kind of disruption beforehand. In short, I love the 8 Pox effects and would never even consider cutting any of them. They're the heart of the deck IMHO.
Regarding Nether Spirit, I like him a lot and I've actually already tried cutting various things from the deck for Entombs to increase my consistency of getting him. Unless the opponent has Swords he's pretty much a never ending blocker, and the Entombs did help me get him more frequently. However I never liked having to cut things that I felt made the deck function optimally to fit in the 3x Entomb with maindeck Syphon Life + Raven's Crime + Darkblast plan. The one thing I felt least awkward about cutting to fit in the Entomb package was the 2x Cursed Scroll and 4x Inquisition of Kozilek. Inquisition can be pretty critical for combo and control matchups though, and I found myself never feeling quite comfortable not being able to peek at my opponent's hand and take things I didn't want to see.
I did try it for a while, playtesting for a few weeks against various decks and then hitting up a few Legacy tournaments, and ultimately I ended up preferring to just leave the drawing of Nether Spirit and sideboard tech more up to chance. I just wasn't willing to reduce the deck's consistency by cutting the numbers of other important cards to fit the Entomb package in. Also, in a meta filled with an over abundance of graveyard hate I think reducing my graveyard interactions is a good thing.
About Lili, I have tried running 4x Liliana and honestly I just didn't like it. Way too many times I'd encounter two or even three copies of her in game. Sure, you can always pitch the extra to the one you play, but that extra could have been a different card that might have been useful. She does do a lot of work for us (Liliana + The Rack usually seals most games for me) but I don't think we ever need her to win the game, so I'm quite content with 3 of her. I think if I wasn't running an 8 Pox build I might want 4 Liliana, but the 8 Pox effects do most of the work for the deck and Lili just tidies things up afterwards if she comes along. Plus I think running any more than 7 three cost spells would be just a bit too much for the deck's mana curve to handle, even with Dark Ritual and the ability to dredge back some of the lands.
Lastly, regarding Wasteland and Urborg, the reason I don't run them isn't a monetary cost issue. I just don't like them lol I tried playing with 4x Wasteland and 3x Urborg for quite a while and to me they just ruined the deck's consistency. Even with 3x Urborg, having 8 of your mana sources only tap for colorless made it impossible to consistently get BBB for big Pox. I think if I wasn't running big Pox it might be feasible to run the 4x Factory + 4x Wasteland + 3x Urborg plan, but if you're trying to cast big Pox it just makes the mana base way too inconsistent running that many colorless sources. Even with Dark Ritual I found that mana base setup to be totally unworkable.
It's not that I don't like doing techy control things like running an Entomb package and Wasteland, it's just that I've yet to play a list incorporating those things that I felt performed as consistently as the rather simple mono black list I've been running for a long time. It does a very good job of completely wrecking the game state and then mopping up with some small creatures and artifact damage, and any time I tried bringing some other techy strategies into the mix I felt like the deck's consistency went way down. I've been trying to come up with a 8 Pox list with Crucible or Loam involved for a long time (you have no idea how much I'd like to play with Tabernacle and some other neat 1-of lands) but every list I tried never seemed to perform as consistently and brutally as my basic mono black list. All the Crucible/Loam lists I've tried seemed like they just durdled around too much and my tournament results were never as good with them. So I play what works for me and wins, even if it doesn't seem quite as techy or cool as some of the other lists out there. My mono black list may be comparatively cheap and simple but it's very fast and efficient at wrecking the opponent's hand, creatures, and land base and doesn't durdle around.
And oh! I tend to swap between 3x Engineered Plague and 3x Infest in my board depending on the meta. I like Infest better against Merfolk and aggro Elves, but E. Plague really seals the game against Goblins, combo Elves, and Bitterblossom decks once it hits the board. And right now there are quite a few of those latter decks in my meta. If I felt like the deck's mana curve could support a couple Damnation I'd be running them, but 4 mana is just too much for a 8 Pox build to consistently get to. It's the same reason I don't run The Abyss or Nether Void. They're good cards with powerful effects, but 4 mana is too steep for an 8 Pox build to hope to reach. And I don't think there's anything that could convince me to cut the 4 big Pox. Again, IMHO they're the heart of the deck.
3 Liliana of the Veil
[5 Creatures]
4 Bloodghast
1 Nether Spirit
[24 Spells]
4 Dark Ritual
4 Innocent Blood
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Smallpox
4 Pox
4 The Rack
2 Cursed Scroll
[22 Lands]
4 Mishra’s Factory
3 Dakmor Salvage
15 Swamp
1 Darkblast
2 Pithing Needle
3 Ratchet Bomb
2 Syphon Life
3 Engineered Plague
4 Leyline of the Void
I've been playing around with Bloodghasts for a few days now and I've been finding that while they do reduce the explosiveness of the deck in Game 1 somewhat, they make grinding out the cripple fights that games 2 and 3 often become much easier. Here's the non-LED list with Bloodghast that I've been testing...
4 Putrid Imp
3 Tireless Tribe
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Stinkweed Imp
2 Golgari Thug
4 Narcomoeba
4 Bloodghast
3 Ichorid
1 Flame-Kin Zealot
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Breakthrough
3 Careful Study
2 Dread Return
[4 Enchantments]
4 Bridge from Below
[14 Lands]
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Undiscovered Paradise
4 Cephalid Coliseum
2 Dakmor Salvage
3 Nature’s Claim
2 Chain of Vapor
3 Firestorm
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Blazing Archon
1 Angel of Despair
4 Leyline of the Void
The Bloodghasts make a great threat multiplier when your ability to dredge freely is limited by the frequent occurrence of graveyard hate, but they do make for more complicated decisions when dredging and sideboarding as well. Situations like, "Do I dredge my Grave-Troll to try to get more cards in the yard and hope I hit a Bridge or a Narcomeoba or do I dredge my Dakmor Salvage to get my Bloodghasts back?". Or other situations like not being able to lay and activate a Cephalid Coliseum on turn 2 because your Undisovered Paradise bounced itself back to your hand at the beginning of the turn. So you have to lay your Coliseum on turn 2 then wait until turn 3 to drop the Paradise again and activate the Coliseum. The bounce factor of Paradise can definitely slow you down a turn sometimes, even though it consistently returns your Bloodghasts.
Then there's the matter of sideboarding being a bit tricker since the addition of Bloodghasts makes the deck might tighter in terms of flex spots, resulting in the only options for things to take out for games 2/3 to bring in the default anti-hate package of 3x Nature's Claim and 2x Chain of Vapor without damaging the deck's consistency of having discard outlets and dredgers being 4x Breakthrough and 1x Careful Study. Which is a shame since Careful Study is so useful in digging for answers to hate in sideboarded games. On a related note, against decks packing Scavenging Ooze and other creature based hate I've been taking out the 3x Tireless Tribe to bring in 3x Firestorm, though I'm not sure if Tribes are the optimal things to board out for Firestorm or not.
In any case, I'm still weighing the pros and cons of a combination Ichorid & Bloodghast list. The Bloodghasts do seem to make grinding out the sideboarded games a bit easier but they also reduce the deck's explosiveness, redundancy, and effectiveness at digging for answers to hate. They make great additional fuel for your Bridges and can be a real force multiplier when coupled with Ichorid, but weaken the Dread Return plan just due to having to cut DRs and targets to fit them in.
Alternately, if you're curious, here's the list I was running before I started toying around with Bloodghasts...
4 Putrid Imp
3 Tireless Tribe
4 Narcomoeba
4 Ichorid
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Stinkweed Imp
2 Golgari Thug
1 Flame-Kin Zealot
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Breakthrough
4 Careful Study
3 Dread Return
[4 Enchantments]
4 Bridge from Below
[14 Lands]
4 Gemstone Mine
4 City of Brass
4 Cephalid Coliseum
2 Tarnished Citadel
3 Nature’s Claim
2 Chain of Vapor
3 Firestorm
2 Ancient Grudge
3 Leyline of the Void
1 Blazing Archon
1 Angel of Despair
What do you guys think about this matter? Also, I've been considering trying out Flayer of the Hatebound in place of Angel of Despair in my sideboard. A lot of decks seem to be packing Ensnaring Bridge out of the board these days and I'm starting to wonder if the direct damage plan might be a better option than trying to blow up the Ensnaring Bridge and swing through. Flayer seems especially good in a list with Bloodghasts as well. Any thoughts on that?
That said, here's the list I've been running for a few months and have been very happy with.
4 Goblin Guide
4 Vexing Devil
4 Keldon Marauders
[25 Spells]
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Lava Spike
4 Rift Bolt
2 Flame Rift
4 Fireblast
3 Price of Progress
3 Sulfuric Vortex
[20 Lands]
17 Mountain
3 Barbarian Ring
3 Pyroblast
2 Smash to Smithereens
3 Volcanic Fallout
3 Faerie Macabre
4 Mindbreak Trap
Though I'd still contest that if you're going to play blue Ponder is a superior choice to Preordain, your logic of scrying away lands does make sense and if it works for you than that's the most important thing.
I did some initial goldfish testing of my original 5 color version of Sac Land Tendrils and my new 2 color variation this afternoon and thought you might find the results interesting. These results came from goldfishing 10 games with each deck...
Original 5 Color Sac Land Tendrils
(Most expensive variant in the primer)
========================
Average "go off" turn : 3.8
Tendrils/Grapeshot kill rate : 80%
Empty the Warrens rate : 0%
Fizzle rate : 20%
Mulligan rate : 33%
New Black/Red Sac Land Tendrils
=====================
Average "go off" turn : 2.9
Tendrils/Grapeshot kill rate : 80%
Empty the Warrens rate : 10%
Fizzle rate : 10%
Mulligan rate : 10%
Based on goldfish testing the new Black/Red variant is performing just as I had originally thought. It's about 1 turn faster than the original 5 color deck, fizzles half as often, and mulligans less than 1/3 as much as the original. The only variable left to test before I consider it the superior version is how well it can power through counter magic and deal with hate post-board. So far though it's out performing the original in almost every way.
The one change I'm currently considering making to the Black/Red list above is swapping out the 2x Geothermal Crevice for 2x Gemstone Mine. In the 10 games I tested this afternoon there were 2 of them that I could have successfully gone off on Turn 2 rather than having to wait until Turn 3 if those Geothermal Crevices had been Gemstone Mines or any other land that could tap for Red or Black mana the turn they came into play. This new variant really wants to lay a sac land Turn 1 followed by a regular single mana land Turn 2 and go off. So I'll be doing some more testing replacing the 2x Geothermal Crevice with 2x Gemstone Mine to see how that goes. At this point I'm not sure the deck really needs more than 8 sac lands. You want to lay one the first turn but past that all you generally need to go off is a land that produces a single B/R mana.
I'm really pleased to see that you all have continued to enjoy this deck and kept it going. The primer hasn't been updated in a while but the Innistrad block has provided us with some interesting new options for card choices, many of which you may already be experimenting with.
Looking over this thread it seems there's been a trend going as of late to cut the deck down to less colors. The original builds presented in the primer are 5 color decks, and they still function extremely well IMHO. If we were to stick with 5 colors, playing blue draw spells main deck (it's really hard to beat Ideas Unbound in terms of draw efficiency or Ponder for card selection) and white protection such as Silence in the sideboard (which I continue to think is the best protection available for us against blue decks) than I don't think I'd change a thing about the decks lists in the original post. They're resilient, redundant, capable of producing all their colors in effective amounts, and have an answer for just about any situation you might find yourself in by using Burning Wish to tutor up solutions in your sideboard. The only complaint I could really make about the deck is that it's a touch slow, generally requiring you to wait until turn 3 or 4 to combo off with most hands. Other than that I think the original lists in the primer are still just about as good as they can be.
But lets say for a minute that you didn't like the idea of running a 5 color deck. Maybe it's Wasteland being too heavily played in your meta, or maybe you just don't want to have to worry about keeping Red, Black, and Blue mana open at all times for whatever you might draw next. If this sounds good to you than I've got a crazy little idea you might enjoy... we're going 2 color.
4 Lotus Petal
4 Rite of Flame
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual
3 Seething Song
[20 Cantrips/Draw]
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Faithless Looting
4 Manamorphose
4 Night's Whisper
4 Infernal Contract
4 Burning Wish
3 Tendrils of Agony
[14 Lands]
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
4 Ebon Stronghold
4 Dwarven Ruins
2 Geothermal Crevice
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Grapeshot
1 Past in Flames
1 Reforge the Soul
1 Shattering Spree
1 Chain Lightning
1 Anarchy
3 Duress
2 Pyroblast
2 Chaos Warp
I've been working with this concept for a few days now, and while I'm not 100% settled on everything in the 75 cards presented here, this list has shown great promise thus far. In goldfishing it is equally consistent to (if not more so than) my original list and 1 turn faster on average, allowing you to go off turn 2 or 3 at the latest with most hands. It packs just as many answers to problem situations you might encounter, though some of them are slightly more mana intensive than the original splash color ones. Another downside is that in comboing off you will end up paying a great deal more life to draw cards than in the original list. If there's a lot of Burn in your meta this may be problematic, but outside of the Burn matchup this shouldn't be an issue.
Let's take a look at what went out and what came in...
=======
Main deck
=======
- 4x Chromatic Star
- 3x Chromatic Sphere
- 4x Ponder
- 4x Ideas Unbound
- 4x Sulfur Vent
- 4x Ancient Spring
- 2x Geothermal Crevice
- 2x Gemstone Mine
+ 3x Seething Song
+ 4x Gitaxian Probe
+ 4x Faithless Looting
+ 4x Infernal Contract
+ 4x Ebon Stronghold
+ 4x Dwarven Ruins
+ 4x Blackcleave Cliffs
=======
Sideboard
=======
- 1x Diminishing Returns
- 1x Eye of Nowhere
- 3x Silence
- 2x Echoing Truth
+ 1x Reforge the Soul
+ 1x Anarchy
+ 1x Duress
+ 2x Pyroblast
+ 2x Chaos Warp
Now lets talk about the changes a little bit. First things first, everything that isn't red or black is gone gone gone. Because of this the Chromatic Stars and Spheres were no longer needed. When running 2 colors instead of 5 the fixing they provide becomes totally unnecessary. The deck does lose some very good card selection and draw tools as well as bounce tools in the sideboard when we cut out the blue, but fortunately there are on color card options that take their place quite nicely. Ponder is effectively replaced by Faithless Looting and the draw from Ideas Unbound is taken over by an even bigger powerhouse of card drawing in Infernal Contract, which our mana base can now support very well. And by giving up the Stars and Spheres we make room for a little free main deck protection and card draw in Gitaxian Probe and Seething Song to support the deck's now much larger need for red mana.
One of my biggest concerns in giving up blue was the loss of some tools in the sideboard. In the original list we had Diminishing Returns as our "hail mary" play for when we absolutely had to win that turn and our graveyard state wasn't such to make Past in Flames a viable option. Fortunately Reforge the Soul gives us an on color card that does almost exactly the same thing (better actually, since our graveyard gets to stay where it is) for just one more mana. We lose Eye of Nowhere, our all purpose Burning Wish-able bounce tool, but I was able to come up with a replacement option for it that gets rid of the one thing we tended to use Eye of Nowhere for 90% of the time. Leyline of Sanctity, meet Anarchy. Anarchy ends up being quite a bit more costly to cast than Eye of Nowhere, but it's the only Burning Wish tutorable option I could come up with that gets rid of that damn Leyline. If anyone else has any suggestions for Sorcery type red or black enchantment destruction options I'm all ears, but for now this is the best I could come up with. It's costly to cast, but still feasible with the new inclusion of Seething Song in the deck and a tutorable out to Leyline of Sanctity is necessary to have IMHO. Lastly in the blue department we lose Echoing Truth to deal with random permanent based hate but fortunately there's Chaos Warp to take it's place. The Warp will bounce anything that might be bothering us, but at the cost of one more mana and with the risk of the opponent getting another permanent out of it... possibly even the one we just bounced. It's not as ideal of a solution as I'd like, but it's on color and does the same job effectively.
The final note I'll make about the sideboard is that while we do lose our best protection tool when going 2 color, Silence, it's role is filled in by an additional copy of Duress (or Thoughtseize if you're feeling spendy and want the best protection) and two copies of Pyroblast for the blue matchups. The board plan for non-blue matches essentially becomes +3 Duress and +2 Chaos Warp, where as the blue matchup board plan is +3 Duress and +2 Pyroblast. Alternately you can always leave a copy of Duress in the board to Wish for if you like. As far as what to take out to optimally support the additions, more thorough testing will be required before I figure that one out. Though I think it will likely be along the lines of -1 Faithless Looting, -1 Infernal Contract, -2 Night's Whisper, -1 Seething song for most matchups. Again though, additional testing is required. Manamorphose might be an easy option to board out since the fixing is rarely ever required now that we're down to two colors.
The final note I'll make about this experimental new list is about the mana base. With the deck's more lax color requirements I no longer feel the need to run 12 sac lands in it. Going down to 10 sac lands means that we should see one sac land in every 6 cards, and this new list can very effectively combo off starting out with just 1 sac land and 1 single mana producing land or Lotus Petal. This allows us now run 4 lands that do not come into play tapped, greatly increasing our likelihood of being able to combo off on turn 2 or 3. The only part of the mana base I'm still uncertain about is the 2x Geothermal Crevice. They tap for red which is nice for Chaos Warp'ing something at the end the opponents turn or casting Burning Wish to nab something before you combo off, and the black they produce when sac'd is quite useful as well. The green is basically generic mana, though there has been times I've used it to cast Manamorphose. I really wish there was a sac land that made B/R when sac'ed, but for now this seems like the best option. I will be testing Peat Bog in place of the 2x Geothermal Crevice, though I feel the Crevice will likely be the ultimate winner until something better gets printed.
Soooo... what do you guys/gals think? Give the list a try and let me know! It's taken quite a while to come up with an effective 2 color Sac Land Tendrils list but I'm pretty happy with this one. Only time and additional testing will tell if it will be as resilient to counter magic as the lists in the OP, but initial testing has been very promising. It's certainly faster by 1 turn on average and is slightly more simple to play as well. On the downside it has many more obvious mana intensive targets for counterspells (such as Seething Song and Infernal Contract) so it's counter magic resistance may be quite a bit lower than the original 5 color list. It's going to take quite a bit more testing before I consider adding this as a new list option in the primer, but I am liking it so far
4 Keldon Marauders
[33 Spells]
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Lava Spike
4 Rift Bolt
4 Magma Jet
2 Incinerate
4 Volcanic Fallout
4 Fireblast
3 Price of Progress
3 Sulfuric Vortex
[20 Lands]
17 Mountain
3 Barbarian Ring
3 Pithing Needle
3 Pyroblast
2 Smash to Smithereens
3 Faerie Macabre
4 Mindbreak Trap
This was a really virtual card advantage centered build, playing no main deck non-land cards that weren't guaranteed damage if they resolved. I even purposefully avoided running Goblin Guide since he was never guaranteed damage. This list served me well for several years and absolutely rocked during the Counterbalance era, it took me to well over a dozen Top-4s in local 30-40 person Legacy tournaments.
However, the format has changed and gotten a lot faster and more utility-creature based since then and my list wasn't doing so hot the last time I played a few months ago. So I took a look over the recent developments in this thread and revised it to what I think will be considered a more standardized build that isn't so concerned about virtual card advantage to see how it works.
4 Goblin Guide
4 Vexing Devil
4 Keldon Marauders
[25 Spells]
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Lava Spike
4 Rift Bolt
2 Flame Rift
4 Fireblast
3 Price of Progress
3 Sulfuric Vortex
[20 Lands]
17 Mountain
3 Barbarian Ring
3 Pithing Needle
2 Smash to Smithereens
3 Volcanic Fallout
3 Faerie Macabre
4 Mindbreak Trap
After some limited playtesting I have concluded that this new list is indeed faster. It goldfishes Turn 4-5 on average with occasional Turn 3 kills, where as my old list was pretty consistent Turn 5 but rarely ever pulled off a Turn 3-4. I do like the speed boost Goblin Guide can provide under the right circumstances, and the addition of more one drops and less 2-3 drops definitely smoothes out the mana curve, but I'm still having some reservations about Vexing Devil. He seems like a real coin toss as to whether you get any damage for your R spent playing him. Sometimes he's 4 damage, other times he's just a target for your opponent's removal that would have otherwise been useless had you spent the mana on a spell rather than a creature. He (and Goblin Guide for that matter) seems rather terrible against any deck with 1 drop creatures to block with, which is a pretty huge percentage of the field right now with utility-creature and aggro based decks on the rise. So I'm still not too sure if this new list is actually an improvement over my old one or if it will fare any better against Maverick either. It's definitely a bit faster, but I'm a touch worried that I've traded consistency and resiliency for a speed boost.
What do you guys/gals think?
She's been the subject of many memes by the brony fandom, the most frequent of which being the idea that she has an obsession with humans which came from the way she is seen sitting on the park bench "human style" in Episode 7 of Season 1 "Dragonshy". She's also most frequently seen with another background Pony named Bon Bon.
Lastly, a pony plushie maker named Hoppip on DeviantArt made and sold at auction (for a whopping $720) a plushie of Lyra that was lovable in ways that would not be appropriate to discuss on a forum that is supposed to be safe for work. This caused a wee bit of chaos in the MLP fandom for a short period of time and resulted in a nearly endless stream of art featuring Lyra plushies being used as oven mits, boxing gloves, slippers, beverage holders, and pretty much anything else you might be able to insert an object or appendage into.
And now you know about Lyra
On a completely separate note, I would take the time to read and critique your fanfic for your Lithl but I'm sad to have to say that I just can't bring myself to read fanfics anymore. I used to enjoy them now and then but then one day I decided to read "Bubbles" and proceeded to be totally psychologically messed up for nearly a week afterwords. After that I decided "no more fanfics for me". I do hope someone else who enjoys these sort of things gives you some good feedback though!
And for everypony who is into the new MLP trading cards and is trying to trade to complete a set (or just get more of a particular character they want) I now have a trading thread in the Non-MtG section of the Market Street. You can find it here (and linked to in my signature) so feel free to send a PM my way if you'd like to trade some ponies
I played Goblins (mono red) in Legacy a few years back, got out of Legacy for a while, and now I'm ready to get back in and rebuild Goblins. I've been doing a bit of playtesting and the deck seems to play quite smoothly, but I would like a critique on my build from those who have been playing in the current Legacy meta.
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Goblin Piledriver
3 Mogg War Marshal
4 Goblin Matron
4 Goblin Warchief
3 Goblin Chieftain
4 Goblin Ringleader
2 Siege Gang Commander
4 Gempalm Incinerator
1 Stingscourger
4 Aether Vial
[23 Lands]
4 Wasteland
4 Rishadan Port
4 Cavern of Souls
11 Mountain
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Tormod’s Crypt
3 Pyrokinesis
2 Tuktuk Scrapper
1 Stingscourger
1 Goblin Sharpshooter
1 Goblin King
I'm pretty happy with the main, although I'm not sure if I should be running some more situational 1-ofs main (Tuktuk Scrapper and Goblin Sharpshooter in particular) or if it's fine as is. I know the general consensus is to cut the Goblin Chieftains for these 1-ofs (and probably max out on Mogg War Marshals) as well, but the Chieftains have won me so many games that I wouldn't have won without them that I'm really hesitant to go down to less than 3. Just having 7 haste enablers in the deck does wonders for the deck's consistency of pulling blowout wins out of nowhere.
On the "blowout win" note, am I the only one who feels like Krenko, Mob Boss is "win more"? I tried him for a dozen or so games and every time I had him in my hand I didn't want to cast him until I had a Warchief or Chieftain out to give him haste, and that didn't happen terribly often. And the few times it did come together with a haste enabler on the field and Krenko in hand I was already in good position to win without the need for extra tokens. So I ended up pulling Krenko out in favor of running 1 Stingscourger main to give me an extra way to clear the path for Lackey on turn 2 and have a maindeck out to Reanimator. Is it just plain wrong to not run Krenko, or is he really "win more" like I think he is?
Regarding the sideboard, I feel pretty content with it except for the fact that I'm not sure if I should be running Chalice of the Void or Thorn of Amethyst as combo defense. I like the fact that I can use Chalice at 0 on turn 1 to stop LED and Lotus Petal shenanigans and setting Chalice at 1 on turn 2 could be brutal against both combo and Burn decks. On the other hand, a single Chalice most likely won't stop Storm decks altogether whereas Thorn of Amethyst would (and could probably slow down Burn enough for me to win as well). I'm a bit nervous about the fact that I have to wait until turn 2 to play it though, which could be too late against some Storm decks.
Also, I'd really like to find a way to fit 2 Anarchy into the board. I'm not sure what I'd cut for it (1 Chalice and the 1 Stingscourger maybe?) but it seems great against Maverick, Enchantress, D&T, and a few other popular decks as well. Infact, it might be the only thing that could actually nab me a win against Enchantress once Moat hits the table (aside from Siege-Gang Commander) and I know there are a few people at my LGS that play Enchantress every week.
Do you think Anarchy is too narrow of a sideboard card or is there enough nasty white stuff going on in the meta right now to warrant it's use?
Anyhoo, that's probably enough babbling for now. Any thoughts/advice/criticisms would be much appreciated!
My box just came in today so I can tell you that they're almost the exact same size as MtG cards. The only real noticeable difference being that the corners are square rather than rounded and the pony cards are a bit thinner in terms of thickness.
Anyhoo, I was quite pleased to find that I got almost a complete set of the regular non-foil cards out of my box (76 of the 84) and exactly 50% of my packs (15 packs out of the box of 30) had foils in them. I even got that foil Twilight I was so hoping for and nabbed 3 Twilights in total! I'm a happy camper
On the downside, I didn't get any extra Fluttershys for you DakmorQueen (aside from the 1 I need to complete my set), but I did get quite a few duplicate other cards so I'll be posting my extras for trade in the Non-MtG section in the Market Street subforum later today. If anyone is interested in trading feel free to send a PM my way