Also, I prefer to play Trinket Mage and Dagger instead of Darksteel Axe. I don't think that being indestructible is relevant enough int the current meta, at least in my LGS. Also, I have enough Humans to use it properly.
I'm also trying Chimeric Mass and Volition Reins. Maybe gonna cut the Reins, I don't know. The splashed colors are mostly used for sideboarding.
Oh, and I only had 1 Nexus at hand, sure thing I'm gonna upgrade to at least 3.
1. Good Decks Play With Good Cards
2. Good Decks Have Good Plans
3. Good Decks Have Good Mana Bases
4. Good Decks Respect Their Opponents
5. Good Decks Have 75 Cards
6. Sometimes Even Good Decks Are Bad Choices
7. Sometimes Your 'Good Deck' Isn't
Also, I prefer to play Trinket Mage and Dagger instead of Darksteel Axe. I don't think that being indestructible is relevant enough int the current meta, at least in my LGS. Also, I have enough Humans to use it properly.
I'm also trying Chimeric Mass and Volition Reins. Maybe gonna cut the Reins, I don't know. The splashed colors are mostly used for sideboarding.
Oh, and I only had 1 Nexus at hand, sure thing I'm gonna upgrade to at least 3.
I'm loving where this deck is going... I may borrow/steal and tweak it, as my current list is... inadequate (to be nice to it )
After a lot of testing Delver of Secrets can actually be good in the right deck. There's even a fairly recent archtype named after it. It runs a lot of instants & sorceries but may also work with fewer. Who knows maybe someone can make an effective GA decklist that's got it.
And you're right, it's not a good plan in such aggro meta (we still have 2-3 Tempred Steels around, some RDWs and Humans Aggros) but I don't have any other plan in my head which would use GA to it's advantages.
There's always infect. Or you can try going head to head via Illusions while trying to out-tempo with bounce. There's also the Heartless build. And finally there's this list which looks like it's going for a U/b control GA hybrid.
Anyway if you decide to put in 1cmc creatures in your deck you could try replacing Darkslick Drake with Stitched Drake. It's not really that hard to cast.
Ran Nick's build on workstation, and it ran good. at first you think you seem a bit light, but it seemed to work out fine. Ill test more, but I think if hes gonna splash black for just forbidden alchemy and dismember life loss reduction there is probably something else that could be ran.
SoW&P is a nasty thing on Wurmcoil. Swing for 8 gain 8, he takes another bit, and I gain another bit. It's pretty silly. I think the only change I would make thus far in the main is
-1 Snapcaster Mage
+1 Wurmcoil Engine
In his build if wurmcoil resolves its game, and I've found myself in a few bad situations where Snapcaster was not optimal because of how many targets...I would reduce to 3...pretty sure that is a better count. I played one early for no value, and in that case I would have rather had something else, or be running Gitaxian Probes at the very least.
So, I'll be honest. Architect hasn't really crossed my mind in a while since I'm pretty much convinced that green and white are the colors I'm playing this Standard. However, if Architect has a place in the meta, and he might just, it as a blue lord and not as an artifact ramping engine. A mono-blue human deck abusing Trinket Mage and Silver-Inlaid Dagger is, IMO, the way to go at the moment. Curve out at 3, use Architect as a lord and as a means to bring in Adaptive Automoton and various equipments for cheap. So, fish basically.
Hmm, the idea of Chimeric Mass and Silver-Inlaid Dagger has me thinking of adding Trinket Mages as well. I'll probably try this at my next FNM. There's technically 18 creatures in the deck.
After a lot of testing Delver of Secrets can actually be good in the right deck. There's even a fairly recent archtype named after it. It runs a lot of instants & sorceries but may also work with fewer. Who knows maybe someone can make an effective GA decklist that's got it.
I know about him but he doesn't really seem to work for GA he is great in UR and UB decks, but GA doesn't actually run a lot of instants and sorceries since you need creatures for the artifact ramp.
Well, it is a creature. Human, too which makes it relevant for anyone wanting to use Silver-Inlaid Dagger. IMO including Ponders 12-16 instants/sorceries is enough. He's better than Certarch early, but definitely bad draw late. And with that new list that's sporting a lot of instants/sorceries..
1. Good Decks Play With Good Cards
2. Good Decks Have Good Plans
3. Good Decks Have Good Mana Bases
4. Good Decks Respect Their Opponents
5. Good Decks Have 75 Cards
6. Sometimes Even Good Decks Are Bad Choices
7. Sometimes Your 'Good Deck' Isn't
Invisible Stalker for sure if you're not running any kind of good proliferate engine as it is also hexproof. But if you're running inkmoth nexus, contagion clasp and/or contagion engine try the Blighted agent in some playtest.
IMHO, you should focus in infect or normal damage. Having both isn't the best strategy.
Invisible Stalker for sure if you're not running any kind of good proliferate engine as it is also hexproof. But if you're running inkmoth nexus, contagion clasp and/or contagion engine try the Blighted agent in some playtest.
IMHO, you should focus in infect or normal damage. Having both isn't the best strategy.
Do you think that running 4 Inkmoth Nexus is enough as an alternate win-con in the form of infect ?
1. Good Decks Play With Good Cards
2. Good Decks Have Good Plans
3. Good Decks Have Good Mana Bases
4. Good Decks Respect Their Opponents
5. Good Decks Have 75 Cards
6. Sometimes Even Good Decks Are Bad Choices
7. Sometimes Your 'Good Deck' Isn't
Do you think that running 4 Inkmoth Nexus is enough as an alternate win-con in the form of infect ?
Yes, I've won games alone just with Inkmoth Nexus, but that's with Swords/Batterskull. SoFaF is so incredibly powerful that it gives pseudo-vigilance when Inkmoth connects.
Heck all the WRR decks has Inkmoth as an alternate-win con.
Invisible Stalker for sure if you're not running any kind of good proliferate engine as it is also hexproof. But if you're running inkmoth nexus, contagion clasp and/or contagion engine try the Blighted agent in some playtest.
IMHO, you should focus in infect or normal damage. Having both isn't the best strategy.
To be honest, I'm actually planning on running both of them. Although one does normal and one has infect, what matters is that those two are most likely the best blue creature 2-drops the GA deck has. Of course the only creatures with infect would be Agent and an animated Inkmoth. So the infect plan is a true plan B. Besides, when you run the dagger, you'd be crazy not to run Agent. It gives your opponent a 2-3 turn clock.
I'm planning on trying a 3/3 split. Everything should run well and hopefully the deck will be a lot more balanced than my previous one.
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Type 2 WUR American Allies UB Twinsanity (Retired)
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I know about him but he doesn't really seem to work for GA he is great in UR and UB decks, but GA doesn't actually run a lot of instants and sorceries since you need creatures for the artifact ramp.
Unless you abandon the artifact ramp plan, which honestly might be a reasonable idea now. Really, I think most of Architect's value at this point is being a blue (and artifact if you spend U) lord and just tapping him to bring in cheap 2 mana artifacts or paying equip costs.
Seriously, Human Aggro is the way to go with Architect right now. Delver of Secrets, Invisible Stalker, Trinket Mage, etc. Any evasive Human with a Dagger is pretty nuts.
I'd run Snapcaster Mage or Spellskite over Invisible Stalker. He isn't doing much here. Also, Buried Ruin in the mana base, especially with Forbidden Alchemy in the deck.
I'd run Snapcaster Mage or Spellskite over Invisible Stalker. He isn't doing much here. Also, Buried Ruin in the mana base, especially with Forbidden Alchemy in the deck.
I considered Snapcaster, but I just...I can't fathom using him in the deck. I've been going back to the drawing board recently. I feel like the equipment and aggro human strategy is okay, but it's a whole other strategy. With its own weaknesses as well, the strategy requires a lot more card draw and instants to make it work. Without a suitable amount of gas tanks to get you back in the fight, the unblockable/human aggro strat just doesn't hold up. That really means one or the other.
Now again, I'm not attacking the strategy. I think it'd be good. It's hard to really get behind it because I'm not passionate about the strat.
So I'm trying to find more consistent ramp choices.
Here's something a friend and I came up with after we talked about Delver, Daggers and GA (which is also my take on the deck Oathkeeper89/Reiki posted here)
It does fairly well so my friend decided to keep it, though it hasn't seen any competitive play so take that as you will. Also, the list was made with budget in mind (hence the absence of Snapcaster Mage) so there are definitely some holes in it:
No Snapcaster Mage: I think 2 or 3 would be good, but don't really know what to take out for him. 14 Instants/Sorceries is barely enough for Delver, and the creature slots are pretty tight as it is. Maybe Stitched Drake but it's been good in the deck so far.
Only targets for Treasure Mage are 2 coils: Definitely could use some improvement but again, don't know what to take out. Still torn between putting more targets in or taking 1 or 2 Treasure Mages out for Snapcasters. Maybe the latter would be better.
Instants/Sorceries package could use work: I want it upped to 16. I'll probably add Forbidden Alchemy because 3 Ponders feel inadequate for draw/dig. Then move Gut Shot SB. Maybe up Dismember count to 3. IMO this part of the deck is the hardest to optimize because it's very dependent on meta.
Round 1 : vs Entangling Webs (yes, the preconstructed from M12) (2-0)
No comments...
Round 2 : vs RDW (0-2)
Game 1 : I mulligan to 6, and got stuck with 3 lands : Inkmoth Nexus, Buried Ruin and Phyrexia's Core. I was able to survive a bit with Vault Skirge and Metamorph copying Chandra's Phoenix, but I hit my fourth land to late to reverse the red machine.
Game 2 : I side in Flashfreeze and Celestial Purge, as well as Elixir. I succeed to deal with a growing Noble using the Purge, but a was overwhelm by an army of Phoenix (3 !!!) while not drawing any Flashfreeze or Elixir/Trinket Mage.
Round 3 : vs MBI (0-2)
Game 1 : I died to Lashwrite turn 6 supported by Phyrexian Crusader while being mana screwed with only three lands. I was able to drop 3 GA before Inkmoth went out and flied over.
Game 2 : I side in Oblivion Ring, Dismember and Celestial Purge, but Phyrexian Crusader is pro-white... Again, I got Lashwrited to death.
So, this deck got real problem with competitive deck. I will probably take a more control approach, since I saw a lot of control decks having success friday night. The best games I had were the first 2, and not only because my opponent was never a real threat, but also because these were the only games I drew my deck in the right order : low cost cards in the beginning, followed by Trinket/Treasure Mage to tutor my threat.
I definitly need to change my approach of the deck. Any suggestions ?
1. Good Decks Play With Good Cards
2. Good Decks Have Good Plans
3. Good Decks Have Good Mana Bases
4. Good Decks Respect Their Opponents
5. Good Decks Have 75 Cards
6. Sometimes Even Good Decks Are Bad Choices
7. Sometimes Your 'Good Deck' Isn't
I'd have to say that your mana base. You really need blue and you have a lot of nonbasic lands. You have 1 inkmoth nexus and you're not really running proliferate poison. It can be an island. If you're seriously having issues with land, you should cut some of the nonbasic lands. For one, you don't need Drowned Catacombs. Most of the time, you're popping the 4 life for dismember or 2 life for Vault Skirge anyway. You're often times never playing these cards for their mana cost. You have 3 Treasure mages for 2 artifacts you often will never draw and most of the time do not need (If you needed them, you'd put in more). My suggestion, cut the smaller item package or cut the number of Trinket mages. Even with Nihil Spellbomb in sideboard, you don't have that many targets for it.
I feel like if you're going for Invisible Stalker as your 2 mana creature, you need to really put some work in for him. In that case, do you really need Venser? Venser's great if you build around him, but your choices in cards aren't consistent. You'll have to wait a few turns before you can start recurring something like Spine or Contagion Engine if it even resolves or sticks for very long. You don't have a lot of durable creatures to block with so he's gonna die a lot easier than turtle control decks. I'd pick Jace the Memory Adept. He's easier to cast, his 0 cost is threatening, and he can work with your deck in a psuedo mill fashion. Using swords like Sword of Body and Mind or Trepanation Blade will give you something to put on your stalker or other beaters. It's an idea for an alternate win con. I just feel you need to add more to Venser as a strategy or just cut him.
Against black, that's an odd match-up. Really, you want to make it painful for them to attack. Put in Perilous Myr in your sideboard for the black poison match-ups, same with the white double-beater match-ups. Those will save your life.
I prefer to have more tutors then targets for tutors. That's why I play 3 Trinket for only 2 1cmc artifacts. I got 4 additionnal targets in sideboard.
I cannot speak of Invisible Stalker, since I never drew it last FNM, and I side them out most of the time Game 2 because I was against aggro deck and I needed more control. I still like the Silver-Inlaid Dagger since it's tutorable.
Perilous Myr is a good idea, and I think this could be a maindeck card, since there is a lot of aggro deck in my meta. Worth a try !
As for poison strategy, I used to play Blighted Agent instead of Invisible Stalker, but hexproof is really relevant. Usually, if I succeed to put 1 poison counter on my opponent via Inkmoth, I just tutor Contagion Engine and proliferate to death.
I think it was only bad luck that I found myself with only 3 nonbasic lands producing colorless mana. It can happen.
What about adding Green ? This could become an hybrid Venser/Pod/Architect deck ... What cards would be good ?
1. Good Decks Play With Good Cards
2. Good Decks Have Good Plans
3. Good Decks Have Good Mana Bases
4. Good Decks Respect Their Opponents
5. Good Decks Have 75 Cards
6. Sometimes Even Good Decks Are Bad Choices
7. Sometimes Your 'Good Deck' Isn't
I will take any help I can get. We have a very strong group of players at my LGS. I've had some help from a few of them with this deck and I'm really liking how it goes. I went 2-2 on Sunday but would love to make this get better.
I really would like to try Mimic Vat as well as a Myr Battlesphere in this (would have to take out the images). And thinking of changing the Buried Ruin and maybe 1 Island for 3 Phyrexia's Core.
Would love to see this work. I also thought about splashing white, taking out some stuff to add Venser and Oblivion Rings. Thoughts?
Just can't get away from playing with this guy! I've been running with a grixis list online for a while, it's been a blast to play, and even got a couple 3-1s in dailies in the process. Perhaps it's a little greedy with 3 colours, but both the red and the black are very light splashes.
I think the red splash is profitable and definitely necessary in such an aggro dominated field. Blast killing the one drops, inkmoth nexus, planeswalkers, and being able to deal with some later game threats via metalcraft is pretty sweet, been very happy with it. I had fiddled with some arc trails and stuff, but I think the Act is a better aggro answer because of the applications against all the token and human decks that just vomit a bunch of creatures that can get too big too fast. Since you've got no other 1 CC spells, being able to interact on turn 1 is also sweet (if you've got one of 5 T1 red sources, not a given, but a nice bonus).
The illusions sideboard plan has also been great. I have it mainly for ub control, but I also just want more low drops in against mono red for example. Any deck that has access to ancient grudge I consider trimming my artifacts a little bit for, and tezz as a result. The Lords might be a little much (I originally just had bears and loved it) but since I was committing to bears I thought I'd try them out and they've been alright. I just don't really know what would be a better control strategy.
Anyone else trying out Grixis? I'll have to read through the thread a bit more, but I thought I'd throw this out here in the mean time.
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2 Vedalken Certarch
4 Blighted Agent
4 Grand Architect
3 Treasure Mage
3 Trinket Mage
Artifact Creatures (11)
4 Vault Skirge
3 Phyrexian Metamorph
2 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Myr Battlesphere
Artifacts (5)
1 Chimeric Mass
1 Silver-Inlaid Dagger
1 Contagion Engine
1 Mindslaver
1 Spine of Ish Sah
3 Venser, the Sojourner
Enchantments (1)
1 Volition Reins
Lands (24)
10 Island
1 Plains
1 Swamp
4 Glacial Fortress
3 Drowned Catacomb
1 Inkmoth Nexus
2 Buried Ruin
2 Phyrexia's Core
2 Dismember
3 Oblivion Ring
2 Celestial Purge
3 Flashfreeze
2 Elixir of Immortality
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Steel Hellkite
Also, I prefer to play Trinket Mage and Dagger instead of Darksteel Axe. I don't think that being indestructible is relevant enough int the current meta, at least in my LGS. Also, I have enough Humans to use it properly.
I'm also trying Chimeric Mass and Volition Reins. Maybe gonna cut the Reins, I don't know. The splashed colors are mostly used for sideboarding.
Oh, and I only had 1 Nexus at hand, sure thing I'm gonna upgrade to at least 3.
CB Black Edrazi BC
UW Steelshaper Delver WU
BGR Loam Pox RGB
Standard
BGR Cutthroat Aristocrats RGB
I'm loving where this deck is going... I may borrow/steal and tweak it, as my current list is... inadequate (to be nice to it
After a lot of testing Delver of Secrets can actually be good in the right deck. There's even a fairly recent archtype named after it. It runs a lot of instants & sorceries but may also work with fewer. Who knows maybe someone can make an effective GA decklist that's got it.
There's always infect. Or you can try going head to head via Illusions while trying to out-tempo with bounce. There's also the Heartless build. And finally there's this list which looks like it's going for a U/b control GA hybrid.
Anyway if you decide to put in 1cmc creatures in your deck you could try replacing Darkslick Drake with Stitched Drake. It's not really that hard to cast.
SoW&P is a nasty thing on Wurmcoil. Swing for 8 gain 8, he takes another bit, and I gain another bit. It's pretty silly. I think the only change I would make thus far in the main is
-1 Snapcaster Mage
+1 Wurmcoil Engine
In his build if wurmcoil resolves its game, and I've found myself in a few bad situations where Snapcaster was not optimal because of how many targets...I would reduce to 3...pretty sure that is a better count. I played one early for no value, and in that case I would have rather had something else, or be running Gitaxian Probes at the very least.
Check out my expected lands table at:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Airj6A6lYAz_dG05T2JETnVTak1xQ0tqOHNSdEJLWVE&hl=en_US#gid=0
Architect Equipment
1 Wurmcoil Engine
2 Trinket Mage
4 Grand Architect
2 Phyrexian Metamoprh
3 Snapcaster Mage
3 Spellskite
Equipment: (5)
2 Batterskull
2 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Silver-Inlaid Dagger
Spells: (16)
1 Chimeric Mass
2 Disperse
3 Dismember
4 Mana Leak
1 Negate
1 Stoic Rebuttal
4 Think Twice
4 Buried Ruins
2 Darkslick Shores
4 Drowned Catacomb
4 Inkmoth Nexus
10 Island
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Disperse
2 Flashfreeze
2 Azure Mage
1 Sword of War and Peace
1 Mindslaver
2 Nihil Spellbomb
3 Ratchet Bomb
2 Tribute to Hunger
1 Contagion Engine
Modern:
I know about him but he doesn't really seem to work for GA he is great in UR and UB decks, but GA doesn't actually run a lot of instants and sorceries since you need creatures for the artifact ramp.
Pioneer:UR Pheonix
Modern:U Mono U Tron
EDH
GB Glissa, the traitor: Army of Cans
UW Dragonlord Ojutai: Dragonlord NOjutai
UWGDerevi, Empyrial Tactician "you cannot fight the storm"
R Zirilan of the claw. The solution to every problem is dragons
UB Etrata, the Silencer Cloning assassination
Peasant cube: Cards I own
Which is better ?
CB Black Edrazi BC
UW Steelshaper Delver WU
BGR Loam Pox RGB
Standard
BGR Cutthroat Aristocrats RGB
Invisible Stalker for sure if you're not running any kind of good proliferate engine as it is also hexproof. But if you're running inkmoth nexus, contagion clasp and/or contagion engine try the Blighted agent in some playtest.
IMHO, you should focus in infect or normal damage. Having both isn't the best strategy.
Do you think that running 4 Inkmoth Nexus is enough as an alternate win-con in the form of infect ?
CB Black Edrazi BC
UW Steelshaper Delver WU
BGR Loam Pox RGB
Standard
BGR Cutthroat Aristocrats RGB
Yes, I've won games alone just with Inkmoth Nexus, but that's with Swords/Batterskull. SoFaF is so incredibly powerful that it gives pseudo-vigilance when Inkmoth connects.
Heck all the WRR decks has Inkmoth as an alternate-win con.
To be honest, I'm actually planning on running both of them. Although one does normal and one has infect, what matters is that those two are most likely the best blue creature 2-drops the GA deck has. Of course the only creatures with infect would be Agent and an animated Inkmoth. So the infect plan is a true plan B. Besides, when you run the dagger, you'd be crazy not to run Agent. It gives your opponent a 2-3 turn clock.
I'm planning on trying a 3/3 split. Everything should run well and hopefully the deck will be a lot more balanced than my previous one.
Type 2
WUR American Allies
UB Twinsanity (Retired)
EDH
GU Experiment Kraj
RR Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
4 Grand Architect
4 Invisible Stalker
4 Treasure Mage
4 Phantasmal Image
4 Think Twice
4 Mana Leak
3 Disperse
2 Gitaxian Probe
22 Island
pewpewpew when it lands
Unless you abandon the artifact ramp plan, which honestly might be a reasonable idea now. Really, I think most of Architect's value at this point is being a blue (and artifact if you spend U) lord and just tapping him to bring in cheap 2 mana artifacts or paying equip costs.
Seriously, Human Aggro is the way to go with Architect right now. Delver of Secrets, Invisible Stalker, Trinket Mage, etc. Any evasive Human with a Dagger is pretty nuts.
Check out my expected lands table at:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Airj6A6lYAz_dG05T2JETnVTak1xQ0tqOHNSdEJLWVE&hl=en_US#gid=0
I'd run Snapcaster Mage or Spellskite over Invisible Stalker. He isn't doing much here. Also, Buried Ruin in the mana base, especially with Forbidden Alchemy in the deck.
I considered Snapcaster, but I just...I can't fathom using him in the deck. I've been going back to the drawing board recently. I feel like the equipment and aggro human strategy is okay, but it's a whole other strategy. With its own weaknesses as well, the strategy requires a lot more card draw and instants to make it work. Without a suitable amount of gas tanks to get you back in the fight, the unblockable/human aggro strat just doesn't hold up. That really means one or the other.
Now again, I'm not attacking the strategy. I think it'd be good. It's hard to really get behind it because I'm not passionate about the strat.
So I'm trying to find more consistent ramp choices.
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Grand Architect
4 Invisible Stalker
1 Phantasmal Image
2 Stitched Drake
2 Treasure Mage
2 Wurmcoil Engine
2 Disperse
2 Gut Shot
3 Mana Leak
2 Negate
2 Buried Ruin
3 Ghost Quarter
18 Island
It does fairly well so my friend decided to keep it, though it hasn't seen any competitive play so take that as you will. Also, the list was made with budget in mind (hence the absence of Snapcaster Mage) so there are definitely some holes in it:
No Snapcaster Mage: I think 2 or 3 would be good, but don't really know what to take out for him. 14 Instants/Sorceries is barely enough for Delver, and the creature slots are pretty tight as it is. Maybe Stitched Drake but it's been good in the deck so far.
Only targets for Treasure Mage are 2 coils: Definitely could use some improvement but again, don't know what to take out. Still torn between putting more targets in or taking 1 or 2 Treasure Mages out for Snapcasters. Maybe the latter would be better.
Instants/Sorceries package could use work: I want it upped to 16. I'll probably add Forbidden Alchemy because 3 Ponders feel inadequate for draw/dig. Then move Gut Shot SB. Maybe up Dismember count to 3. IMO this part of the deck is the hardest to optimize because it's very dependent on meta.
2 Vedalken Certarch
4 Invisible Stalker
4 Grand Architect
3 Treasure Mage
3 Trinket Mage
Artifact Creatures (11)
4 Vault Skirge
3 Phyrexian Metamorph
2 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Myr Battlesphere
Artifacts (5)
1 Chimeric Mass
1 Silver-Inlaid Dagger
1 Contagion Engine
1 Mindslaver
1 Spine of Ish Sah
3 Venser, the Sojourner
Enchantments (1)
1 Volition Reins
Lands (24)
10 Island
1 Plains
1 Swamp
4 Glacial Fortress
3 Drowned Catacomb
1 Inkmoth Nexus
2 Buried Ruin
2 Phyrexia's Core
2 Dismember
3 Oblivion Ring
2 Celestial Purge
3 Flashfreeze
2 Elixir of Immortality
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Steel Hellkite
Round 1 : vs Entangling Webs (yes, the preconstructed from M12) (2-0)
No comments...
Round 2 : vs RDW (0-2)
Game 1 : I mulligan to 6, and got stuck with 3 lands : Inkmoth Nexus, Buried Ruin and Phyrexia's Core. I was able to survive a bit with Vault Skirge and Metamorph copying Chandra's Phoenix, but I hit my fourth land to late to reverse the red machine.
Game 2 : I side in Flashfreeze and Celestial Purge, as well as Elixir. I succeed to deal with a growing Noble using the Purge, but a was overwhelm by an army of Phoenix (3 !!!) while not drawing any Flashfreeze or Elixir/Trinket Mage.
Round 3 : vs MBI (0-2)
Game 1 : I died to Lashwrite turn 6 supported by Phyrexian Crusader while being mana screwed with only three lands. I was able to drop 3 GA before Inkmoth went out and flied over.
Game 2 : I side in Oblivion Ring, Dismember and Celestial Purge, but Phyrexian Crusader is pro-white... Again, I got Lashwrited to death.
So, this deck got real problem with competitive deck. I will probably take a more control approach, since I saw a lot of control decks having success friday night. The best games I had were the first 2, and not only because my opponent was never a real threat, but also because these were the only games I drew my deck in the right order : low cost cards in the beginning, followed by Trinket/Treasure Mage to tutor my threat.
I definitly need to change my approach of the deck. Any suggestions ?
CB Black Edrazi BC
UW Steelshaper Delver WU
BGR Loam Pox RGB
Standard
BGR Cutthroat Aristocrats RGB
I feel like if you're going for Invisible Stalker as your 2 mana creature, you need to really put some work in for him. In that case, do you really need Venser? Venser's great if you build around him, but your choices in cards aren't consistent. You'll have to wait a few turns before you can start recurring something like Spine or Contagion Engine if it even resolves or sticks for very long. You don't have a lot of durable creatures to block with so he's gonna die a lot easier than turtle control decks. I'd pick Jace the Memory Adept. He's easier to cast, his 0 cost is threatening, and he can work with your deck in a psuedo mill fashion. Using swords like Sword of Body and Mind or Trepanation Blade will give you something to put on your stalker or other beaters. It's an idea for an alternate win con. I just feel you need to add more to Venser as a strategy or just cut him.
Against black, that's an odd match-up. Really, you want to make it painful for them to attack. Put in Perilous Myr in your sideboard for the black poison match-ups, same with the white double-beater match-ups. Those will save your life.
I prefer to have more tutors then targets for tutors. That's why I play 3 Trinket for only 2 1cmc artifacts. I got 4 additionnal targets in sideboard.
I cannot speak of Invisible Stalker, since I never drew it last FNM, and I side them out most of the time Game 2 because I was against aggro deck and I needed more control. I still like the Silver-Inlaid Dagger since it's tutorable.
Perilous Myr is a good idea, and I think this could be a maindeck card, since there is a lot of aggro deck in my meta. Worth a try !
As for poison strategy, I used to play Blighted Agent instead of Invisible Stalker, but hexproof is really relevant. Usually, if I succeed to put 1 poison counter on my opponent via Inkmoth, I just tutor Contagion Engine and proliferate to death.
I think it was only bad luck that I found myself with only 3 nonbasic lands producing colorless mana. It can happen.
What about adding Green ? This could become an hybrid Venser/Pod/Architect deck ...
CB Black Edrazi BC
UW Steelshaper Delver WU
BGR Loam Pox RGB
Standard
BGR Cutthroat Aristocrats RGB
4 Grand Architect
2 Phantasmal Image
4 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Precursor Golem
1 Steel Hellkite
3 Treasure Mage
2 Wurmcoil Engine
Artifacts: (4)
1 Mimic Vat
1 Mindslaver
2 Ratchet Bomb
1 Spine of Ish Sah
3 Doom Blade
4 Mana Leak
4 Ponder
Planeswalker: (3)
3 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
Lands: (24)
3 Phyrexia's Core
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Drowned Catacomb
11 Island
2 Swamp
3 Flashfreeze
1 Mindslaver
2 steel sabotage
3 vapor snag
2 spellskite
2 volition reins
2 tribute to hunger
I will take any help I can get. We have a very strong group of players at my LGS. I've had some help from a few of them with this deck and I'm really liking how it goes. I went 2-2 on Sunday but would love to make this get better.
I really would like to try Mimic Vat as well as a Myr Battlesphere in this (would have to take out the images). And thinking of changing the Buried Ruin and maybe 1 Island for 3 Phyrexia's Core.
Would love to see this work. I also thought about splashing white, taking out some stuff to add Venser and Oblivion Rings. Thoughts?
http://www.youtube.com/user/wizardsmtg?blend=3&ob=4#p/u/36/OMSKJansKcI
4 Drowned Catacomb
4 Swamp
8 Island
4 Darkslick Shores
CREATURES:
4 Treasure Mage
4 Grand Architect
4 Phantasmal Image
4 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Myr Superion
4 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Steel Hellkite
3 Wurmcoil Engine
4 Ponder
4 Heartless Summoning
ARTIFACTS:
1 Mindslaver
1 Prototype Portal
1 Spine of Ish Sah
1 Contagion Engine
3 Master Thief
1 Steel Hellkite
4 Flashfreeze
3 Negate
2 Ratchet Bomb
2 Contagion Engine
4 Grand Architect
4 Spellskite
3 Treasure Mage
3 Phyrexian Metamorph
3 Solemn Simulacrum
2 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Myr Battlesphere
1 Steel Hellkite
Spells
4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
4 Galvanic Blast
4 Sphere of the Suns
1 Ratchet Bomb
2 Nihil Spellbomb
4 Sulfur Falls
2 Drowned Catacomb
4 Darkslick Shores
2 Blackcleave Cliffs
8 Island
1 Swamp
3 Mountain
3 Lord of the Unreal
1 Phantasmal Image
4 Phantasmal Bear
1 Doom Blade
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Ratchet Bomb
1 Wurmcoil Engine
2 Blasphemous Act
I think the red splash is profitable and definitely necessary in such an aggro dominated field. Blast killing the one drops, inkmoth nexus, planeswalkers, and being able to deal with some later game threats via metalcraft is pretty sweet, been very happy with it. I had fiddled with some arc trails and stuff, but I think the Act is a better aggro answer because of the applications against all the token and human decks that just vomit a bunch of creatures that can get too big too fast. Since you've got no other 1 CC spells, being able to interact on turn 1 is also sweet (if you've got one of 5 T1 red sources, not a given, but a nice bonus).
The illusions sideboard plan has also been great. I have it mainly for ub control, but I also just want more low drops in against mono red for example. Any deck that has access to ancient grudge I consider trimming my artifacts a little bit for, and tezz as a result. The Lords might be a little much (I originally just had bears and loved it) but since I was committing to bears I thought I'd try them out and they've been alright. I just don't really know what would be a better control strategy.
Anyone else trying out Grixis? I'll have to read through the thread a bit more, but I thought I'd throw this out here in the mean time.
"All my life I've fought these monsters. Today I finish that fight." -Barrin