I tried out Shattered Perceptions and I never wanted to cast it. I thought it would be sweet, fill your graveyard with stuff and get closer to enchantments, but I never wanted to use it.
Secrets of the Dead is sweet. It can deck you, but a good player shouldn't suffer that fate.
I'm thinking about dropping some combination of 1 Secrets, 1 Slagstorm, 1 Blasphemous Act, and/or 1 Forbidden Alchemy for 2-4 Snapcasters.
The deck is pretty effective at stalling armies, that's what I have the most testing against. Thoughts?
I'm on an iPhone so posting my list would be a PITA, but I am toying with W/u/g using lead the stampede, mana leak, Geist, and then a bunch of white weenie beaters. Also, Mentor and Bladehold have amazing synergy. Just my 2 cents on the convo
In a deck that runs so many creatures, have you considered splashing green for Lead the Stampede? Many lists are already running fetchlands for Ponder, so swapping out two islands for two forest and getting Lead the Stampede in there could be really strong.
- Birthing Pod - If it hits the board, how to get rid of it? The creature disadvantage gets huge and if clone type creatures/creature killing creatures can be generated it was gg very fast most of the time.
- Sword of Feast and Femine - It's hard to control when you have to dump your cards.
- Gideon Jura (and other planeswalkers) - I know the 2/1 vamp can get rid of em, but they cost so much effort any opponent dropping em gets a huge advantage.
- Decks with Blue - Card advantage and lots of counterspells are hard to overcome.
Valakut and Tempered Steel i wasnt doin bad against even though i suck..
I hope someone got the answers or remember them from this thread cause i only sold my Obliterators
I haven't had a problem with Pod in play. They're feeding the pod and then I kill their stuff with my oodles of removal, something every MBC deck should have.
The Sword is difficult to deal with once it is in play. I try my best to make them discard it and if it hits play, I'll do what I can to clear the rest of their creatures and use Gatekeeper to make them sac their sword equipped guy. But it's really a wrecker for me.
Decks with blue can out-card advantage you, but use your discard to nail their control and make your best use of your threats that you can. I would suggest Duress somewhere in your list, MB or SB, for any blue match-up.
Gideon is a pain, but I've found that Wurmcoil is his undoing. He's gaining life to stall just like Gideon is doing for them, and if Gideon -2's him, we get replacements. Grave Titan can be good too, he creates 4 zombie before Gideon can death stroke him. And again, discard can nip him in the bud. Despise and Duress both get him.
I just like that there is totally going to be werewolves. Does that mean Threshold is coming back with flashback? Will Madness finally make a triumphant return?
Round 1: This was more or less a bye. It was a little girl with an event deck. Yay FNM.
1-0
Round 2: U/R Splinter Twin
Game 1: I did what I could to disrupt his plan but eventually I ran out of cards and he combo-ed off.
Game 2: +3 Memoricide, +2 Duress, +1 Despise, -4 Gatekeeper, -2 Wurmcoil Engine.
I was able to play around and draw out his counters, then turn 5, dropped swamp #5, duress, nail his mana leak, then Memoricide for Splinter Twin. I ended up drawing my other two Memoricide and nailed 2 Inferno Titans and 1 Frost Titan, gimping him and leaving him with just 1 Consecrated Sphinx left in the deck. It wasn't long after that I won.
Game 3: By the sounds of it, he kept a hand I woudn't keep. After the match, he told me that by turn 3 he had all 4 exarchs and 2 splinter twins in his hand. I used memoricide to nail the twins and I beat face with Obliterator and Lashwrithe.
2-0
Round 3: U/W Caw Blade
Game 1: He played really, really slow, but the judge was watching our game, sitting next to us on his break, so I figured if slow play was a legit call, he would have said something. We have 50 minute rounds and he dragged out the first game to over 30 minutes. He used his Squadron Hawks to get me to 6, but Lashwrithe combined with Wurmcoil Engine, the tokens, and Nighthawks got me up to 51 or 56 or something. I kept up the pressure and eventually a Grave Titan resolved, and he scooped.
Game 2: +2 Duress, +1 GffT, +1 Doom Blade, -1 Liliana, -2 Sign in Blood, -1 Dismember
He swarmed me this time, with turn 2 squadron hawk, turn 3 splicer, turn 4 splicer, and more and more hawks.
Game 3: I realize in retrospect I should have made room for the Zeniths but I guess at the time I didn't think he could repeat his swarming success. He came out fast again. I got a much more aggressive draw and stabilized. When time was called, neither one of us was anywhere near winning. Tied.:-/
2-0-1
Round 4: Rogue Combo Deck
I didn't really get a feel for his deck until game 2. He was basically running like 5 different combos in the deck. Grand Architect, Birthing Pod, Myr Galvinizer, Rusted Slasher, Spine of Ish Sah, Deceiver Exarch, Splinter Twin, Plague Myr, Phyrexian Metamorph...the list goes on.
Game 1: Get got out a Birthing Pod early and did a lot of shenanigans with it, sacrificing creatures, getting Gravedigger to get the creature back, and on and on. He couldn't match my aggressive creatures though.
Game 2: I have to say, I thought a lot about sideboarding, and came up dumbfounded. I don't remember everything I boarded but I know I took out the Inquisitions for Memoricides, because at the time all I knew what that it was a Birthing Pod deck. I got Memoricide, and I named the Pod. After getting a good look through his deck, I realized it was a non-essential card and he used Grand Architect to make a lot of mana and beat me.
Game 3: Still not quite sure how to board against his plethora of combos, I stuck with what I had. I got stuck on 3 mana for a long time and when I finally got to 4 to Memoricide, I knew through one of my discard spells that he was a turn away from going infinite with Spine, galvanizers, and such. Instead of naming Architect like I felt was the strongest play, I had no choice but to name the Spine. He ended up using the Splinter/Twin combo to kill me.
2-1-1
In summary, I still feel strong about the deck. My SB is flux still, and I feel like I'm going to toy with my discard so I have access to 4 Duress between the MB and SB. Hope this helps someone.
@Omnious Shadow : have you had a chance to test the effectiveness of the 4 torpor orb im considering it vs valakunt, splicer and Pod-rock as a blanket answer instead of extraction effects that are almost always about as useful and narrow.
I didn't, that was my first tournament use of the deck. I'm actually revamping my sideboard based on what I saw at my store, dropping the orbs entirely. My SB is now going to be
3 Memoricide
2 Duress
1 Despise (2 MB)
1 Doom Blade - 1 Dismember - 1 GffT (1 of each MB)
3 Black Sun Zenith
3 Vampire Hexmage
So I went 4-0 at FNM last night with MBC. Obviously FNM isn't exactly the highest standard to measure by and my matchups all ended up pretty silly, but here it is. (Note: I'm not too familiar with this website, so I wasn't able to get the deck lists here exactly how I want. The second decklist is my sideboard.)
Match-Up One: Mono-Black Vampires
Won 2-0
Liliana Vess was the MVP in this battle. Both games, her discard was helpful and her ability to stack my deck was amazing. I'm not really sure what his gameplan was but he never really "swarmed" me.
Game 1 he got me really low but I stabilized thanks to Gatekeepers and exchanging Nighthawks, and eventually the Obliterator got there.
Game 2 he Memoricided my Obliterators and he played his own, but I used my nighthawk to hold it back until Liliana fetched a Dismember. I traded Nighthawks again, Dismembered his Obliterator, and double blocked his Bloodrage going at Liliana. He lost his board, and I ensured I drew Grave Titan. He couldn't keep up. In Game 2, I sided -1 Liliana, -1 Doom Blade, -2 Sign in Blood, +1 Go For The Throat, +1 Despise, +1 Dismember, +1 Vampire Hexmage.
Match-Up Two: RDW?
Won 2-1
He was playing some sort of metalcraft/mono red deck, with Koths, the Phoenix that returns to play with metalcraft, everflowing chalice, tumble magnets, some burn, brittle effigy, tezzeret's gambit, shrine of burning rage, and batterskull. I got lucky that in every single game, I got to use turn one Inquisition to knock out a Shrine.
Game 1: This game was close, but in the end he was able to protect Koth enough get the emblem. I was at 9 on my turn, and he had 5 untapped mountains. I drew Swamp to accompany my 2 sign in blood. I sign in blood myself and draw two more swamps. No answers. Game.
Game 2: +1 Hexmage, +1 Parasite, +2 Duress, -2 Sign in Blood, -1 Liliana, -1 Ritualist (?) Game 2 was also close, but his small amount creatures ensured that I was always in control of the creature count. He tried stalling out my creatures with burn and tumble magnets, but in the end Wurmcoil tokens got there.
Game 3: +1 Doom Blade, -1 Sign in Blood. Slaughtered him this game. He was stuck on three for a few turns and what few creatures he got I killed. He got two shatters but I got dumb lucky and got 3 lashwrithes. I never missed a land drop and he never stood a chance.
Match-Ups 3 and 4 were mirror matches. They're running together in my memory and all I remember is that I felt the odds with 50/50. (shocking, I know). However, I came out on top and was awarded with a crappy Sheoldred promo and 5 packs with junk rares. Ah, victory tastes so good.
So yeah, my match-ups were favorable, and it's just an FNM, but I thought this information could help out.
What I really like about my deck is the number of threats that can win the game. It's a heavier creature count than most decks run but I like it. Obliterator, Grave Titan, and most of the time Wurmcoil can all win games, and Lashwrithe can not only win the game on its own, but makes my 9 creatures that are lesser threats into possible game winners. Every deck I faced just couldn't handle all the threats.
I've noticed on all those lists and on the last few pages of lists, people are not running Tech Edges. Is that safe with all the Valukut and Man-Lands running around? I'm currently doing 20 Swamp, 4 Techs and I always seem to draw 3 techs a game, screwing my mana base up.
Thoughts on tech edge being cut in all these lists?
Both Artworks have their merits. I'll just be happy when I see what she does and if she is going to be relevant to Standard. And her boobs are NOT too big. They are large, but hardly over sized.
On another not about this whole debate on art thing, let me enlighten you all. There is no debate happening. It's just suckers replying to trolls. Move on.
4 Mana Leak
1 Disperse
1 Fires of Undeath
3 Forbidden Alchemy
4 Geistflame
3 Think Twice
Sorcery (14)
2 Blasphemous Act
4 Faithless Looting
3 Silent Departure
1 Devil's Play
4 Slagstorm
4 Burning Vengeance
3 Secrets of the Dead
Lands (23)
3 Darkslick Shores
4 Sulfur Falls
4 Island
7 Mountain
1 Swamp
4 Evolving Wilds
3 Ancient Grudge
2 Phantasmal Image
1 Doom Blade
1 Go For The Throat
1 Deathmark
1 Forest
1 Blasphemous Act
3 Flashfreeze
2 Dissipate
I tried out Shattered Perceptions and I never wanted to cast it. I thought it would be sweet, fill your graveyard with stuff and get closer to enchantments, but I never wanted to use it.
Secrets of the Dead is sweet. It can deck you, but a good player shouldn't suffer that fate.
I'm thinking about dropping some combination of 1 Secrets, 1 Slagstorm, 1 Blasphemous Act, and/or 1 Forbidden Alchemy for 2-4 Snapcasters.
The deck is pretty effective at stalling armies, that's what I have the most testing against. Thoughts?
A 3/2 Flying for U is never going away.
Sun Titan also recurs lands
I haven't had a problem with Pod in play. They're feeding the pod and then I kill their stuff with my oodles of removal, something every MBC deck should have.
The Sword is difficult to deal with once it is in play. I try my best to make them discard it and if it hits play, I'll do what I can to clear the rest of their creatures and use Gatekeeper to make them sac their sword equipped guy. But it's really a wrecker for me.
Decks with blue can out-card advantage you, but use your discard to nail their control and make your best use of your threats that you can. I would suggest Duress somewhere in your list, MB or SB, for any blue match-up.
Gideon is a pain, but I've found that Wurmcoil is his undoing. He's gaining life to stall just like Gideon is doing for them, and if Gideon -2's him, we get replacements. Grave Titan can be good too, he creates 4 zombie before Gideon can death stroke him. And again, discard can nip him in the bud. Despise and Duress both get him.
Hope this helps.
(Note: I'm not too familiar with this website, so I wasn't able to get the deck lists here exactly how I want. The second decklist is my sideboard.)
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
4 Vampire Nighthawk
4 Phyrexian Obliterator
2 Grave Titan
2 Wurmcoil Engine
4 Sign in Blood
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Despise
1 Doom Blade
1 Go For The Throat
1 Dismember
1 Go For The Throat
1 Doom Blade
1 Dismember
1 Despise
2 Duress
3 Memoricide
3 Vampire Hexmage
Round 1: This was more or less a bye. It was a little girl with an event deck. Yay FNM.
1-0
Round 2: U/R Splinter Twin
Game 1: I did what I could to disrupt his plan but eventually I ran out of cards and he combo-ed off.
Game 2: +3 Memoricide, +2 Duress, +1 Despise, -4 Gatekeeper, -2 Wurmcoil Engine.
I was able to play around and draw out his counters, then turn 5, dropped swamp #5, duress, nail his mana leak, then Memoricide for Splinter Twin. I ended up drawing my other two Memoricide and nailed 2 Inferno Titans and 1 Frost Titan, gimping him and leaving him with just 1 Consecrated Sphinx left in the deck. It wasn't long after that I won.
Game 3: By the sounds of it, he kept a hand I woudn't keep. After the match, he told me that by turn 3 he had all 4 exarchs and 2 splinter twins in his hand. I used memoricide to nail the twins and I beat face with Obliterator and Lashwrithe.
2-0
Round 3: U/W Caw Blade
Game 1: He played really, really slow, but the judge was watching our game, sitting next to us on his break, so I figured if slow play was a legit call, he would have said something. We have 50 minute rounds and he dragged out the first game to over 30 minutes. He used his Squadron Hawks to get me to 6, but Lashwrithe combined with Wurmcoil Engine, the tokens, and Nighthawks got me up to 51 or 56 or something. I kept up the pressure and eventually a Grave Titan resolved, and he scooped.
Game 2: +2 Duress, +1 GffT, +1 Doom Blade, -1 Liliana, -2 Sign in Blood, -1 Dismember
He swarmed me this time, with turn 2 squadron hawk, turn 3 splicer, turn 4 splicer, and more and more hawks.
Game 3: I realize in retrospect I should have made room for the Zeniths but I guess at the time I didn't think he could repeat his swarming success. He came out fast again. I got a much more aggressive draw and stabilized. When time was called, neither one of us was anywhere near winning. Tied.:-/
2-0-1
Round 4: Rogue Combo Deck
I didn't really get a feel for his deck until game 2. He was basically running like 5 different combos in the deck. Grand Architect, Birthing Pod, Myr Galvinizer, Rusted Slasher, Spine of Ish Sah, Deceiver Exarch, Splinter Twin, Plague Myr, Phyrexian Metamorph...the list goes on.
Game 1: Get got out a Birthing Pod early and did a lot of shenanigans with it, sacrificing creatures, getting Gravedigger to get the creature back, and on and on. He couldn't match my aggressive creatures though.
Game 2: I have to say, I thought a lot about sideboarding, and came up dumbfounded. I don't remember everything I boarded but I know I took out the Inquisitions for Memoricides, because at the time all I knew what that it was a Birthing Pod deck. I got Memoricide, and I named the Pod. After getting a good look through his deck, I realized it was a non-essential card and he used Grand Architect to make a lot of mana and beat me.
Game 3: Still not quite sure how to board against his plethora of combos, I stuck with what I had. I got stuck on 3 mana for a long time and when I finally got to 4 to Memoricide, I knew through one of my discard spells that he was a turn away from going infinite with Spine, galvanizers, and such. Instead of naming Architect like I felt was the strongest play, I had no choice but to name the Spine. He ended up using the Splinter/Twin combo to kill me.
2-1-1
In summary, I still feel strong about the deck. My SB is flux still, and I feel like I'm going to toy with my discard so I have access to 4 Duress between the MB and SB. Hope this helps someone.
I didn't, that was my first tournament use of the deck. I'm actually revamping my sideboard based on what I saw at my store, dropping the orbs entirely. My SB is now going to be
3 Memoricide
2 Duress
1 Despise (2 MB)
1 Doom Blade - 1 Dismember - 1 GffT (1 of each MB)
3 Black Sun Zenith
3 Vampire Hexmage
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
4 Vampire Nighthawk
1 Bloodhusk Ritualist
4 Phyrexian Obliterator
2 Grave Titan
2 Wurmcoil Engine
4 Sign in Blood
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Despise
1 Doom Blade
1 Go For The Throat
1 Dismember
1 Doom Blade
1 Dismember
1 Despise
2 Duress
4 Torpor Orb
2 Hex Parasite
1 Vampire Hexmage
2 Surgical Extraction
Match-Up One: Mono-Black Vampires
Won 2-0
Liliana Vess was the MVP in this battle. Both games, her discard was helpful and her ability to stack my deck was amazing. I'm not really sure what his gameplan was but he never really "swarmed" me.
Game 1 he got me really low but I stabilized thanks to Gatekeepers and exchanging Nighthawks, and eventually the Obliterator got there.
Game 2 he Memoricided my Obliterators and he played his own, but I used my nighthawk to hold it back until Liliana fetched a Dismember. I traded Nighthawks again, Dismembered his Obliterator, and double blocked his Bloodrage going at Liliana. He lost his board, and I ensured I drew Grave Titan. He couldn't keep up. In Game 2, I sided -1 Liliana, -1 Doom Blade, -2 Sign in Blood, +1 Go For The Throat, +1 Despise, +1 Dismember, +1 Vampire Hexmage.
Match-Up Two: RDW?
Won 2-1
He was playing some sort of metalcraft/mono red deck, with Koths, the Phoenix that returns to play with metalcraft, everflowing chalice, tumble magnets, some burn, brittle effigy, tezzeret's gambit, shrine of burning rage, and batterskull. I got lucky that in every single game, I got to use turn one Inquisition to knock out a Shrine.
Game 1: This game was close, but in the end he was able to protect Koth enough get the emblem. I was at 9 on my turn, and he had 5 untapped mountains. I drew Swamp to accompany my 2 sign in blood. I sign in blood myself and draw two more swamps. No answers. Game.
Game 2: +1 Hexmage, +1 Parasite, +2 Duress, -2 Sign in Blood, -1 Liliana, -1 Ritualist (?) Game 2 was also close, but his small amount creatures ensured that I was always in control of the creature count. He tried stalling out my creatures with burn and tumble magnets, but in the end Wurmcoil tokens got there.
Game 3: +1 Doom Blade, -1 Sign in Blood. Slaughtered him this game. He was stuck on three for a few turns and what few creatures he got I killed. He got two shatters but I got dumb lucky and got 3 lashwrithes. I never missed a land drop and he never stood a chance.
Match-Ups 3 and 4 were mirror matches. They're running together in my memory and all I remember is that I felt the odds with 50/50. (shocking, I know). However, I came out on top and was awarded with a crappy Sheoldred promo and 5 packs with junk rares. Ah, victory tastes so good.
So yeah, my match-ups were favorable, and it's just an FNM, but I thought this information could help out.
What I really like about my deck is the number of threats that can win the game. It's a heavier creature count than most decks run but I like it. Obliterator, Grave Titan, and most of the time Wurmcoil can all win games, and Lashwrithe can not only win the game on its own, but makes my 9 creatures that are lesser threats into possible game winners. Every deck I faced just couldn't handle all the threats.
Thoughts on tech edge being cut in all these lists?
On another not about this whole debate on art thing, let me enlighten you all. There is no debate happening. It's just suckers replying to trolls. Move on.