MTG Salvation

This type of thing runs rampant at the local Walmart. I've stopped buying mtg from Walmart altogether.

They do this with intro decks and Duel Decks. I got burned one time. Quickly grabbed a Elspeth vs Tezzeret Duel Deck, bought it and when I got home I found out someone had resealed the box and shrink wrapped the cards after taking out the Planeswalkers, Swords to Plowshares, etc. I called Wizards immediately, they had me send the whole thing back to them. A few days later I received a package from them with a replacement dual deck and 3 Scars of Mirrodin boosters for my trouble (one had a foil Wurmcoil Engine).

TLDR: People of Walmart can be scummy.

The SHP did pretty good, unexpectedly he did a number against hexproof. He gave me the means to race with a 5/5 flyer swinging on turn 4 and provided a nice threat. I like to keep asking my opponents questions to see if they can come up with the answers, enough questions going unanswered equates to a win.

I went 7-2 to finish 13th out of 281 at the SCG Classic in Albany this weekend.
Here is my list



I won against
2x UWR Control
2x Bant Hexproof
1x Bant Control
1x Jund
1x B/R Zombies

I lost against
1x U/W Control
1x G/R Aggro

I feel this deck still has life left in it. It has some nice nut draws, good wipe recovery, and late game reach.

I used each of the cards in my sideboard at least once. War Priest of Thune was an all-star against hexproof. The least useful card in the sideboard would have to be the Blood Baron, I didn't see any junk aristocrats or any other aristocrat decks for that matter.

Quote from malthrin

That seems very top-heavy. 7 4s and 3 5s?

Cutting Cartel Aristocrat is always wrong.

I always seem to be flooding out with this deck and having a high impact 5 drop off of the top seems better to me than a one or two drop. Perhaps I should cut a doomed traveler instead of the cartel?

Playing in a PTQ this weekend.
I wanted to try out Warleader's helix as extra removal/life gain against naya/gruul. Also I like the idea of Knight of infamy, it seems to have enough advantage in this format to include it in the 75 somewhere, but I have no idea where.

Comments ideas?


Link to deck @ TappedOut.net

I'm wierd,

If I tap lands they go right.
I tap creatures to the left when they attack.
If I use an ability on a creature or artifact that requires a tap, I tap right.

I don't know.

Vexing devil is actually one of the first cards on the chopping block in order to fit the new 2 drop. I only saw him once all day and that was against the jund midrange and the guy was already at two. He just came down on a well developed board to evolve experiment one. Underwhelming all around, just felt he was a better late game top deck than rakdos cackler.

Played in a SCG IQ this weekend with this list.
Went 4-3 to finish 27th out of 106


Round 1 vs Bant Turbo Fog
2-1

Round 2 vs Jund Midrange
2-0

Round 3 vs Junk Reanimator
2-1

Round 4 vs American Flash with Reckoner
1-2

Round 5 vs Junk Reanimator
2-0

Round 6 vs Aristocrats with Thundermaw
1-2
Game 3 he got out Ghost Dad with an active skirsdag high priest and two cartel aristocrats. I was able to chump/regen the dad with the crimson muckwader as I tried to find an answer, it never came. Sometimes you really hate ultimate price.

Round 7 vs American Flash with Reckoner
0-2
Missed several plays that could have given me a chance of winning, but after the rough loss from last round I was tilting and scrubbing.

Things I'm going to try out next time.

-Changing Ultimate Price for Murder
The casting cost is going to be a little more prohibitive but the things that murder kills should be worth it. IE Boros Reckoner, Obzedat, Ghost Council, Olivia Voldaren

-Better two drop
Crimson Muckwader does experience moments of unmitigated glory in battle, but most of the time he is underwhelming. I don't like Mogg Flunkies as I hate it when they are standing there looking dumb on an otherwise empty field.
In my mind Ash Zealot or Strangleroot Geist would be perfect but the stress they put on the mana base and incompatibility with Burning-Tree Emissary make me cringe.
Gore-house Chainwalker, Gastaf Shepherd, Darkthicket Wolf,...

Here is the deck I took to FNM last week, went 4-1. I started with the Ari Lax list and tweeked some here and there.
Added


Removed


I removed the Cacklers because I felt that they were getting outclassed too quickly and were a terrible top deck. I opted for more utility against Reanimator while still being able to evolve an experiment one with Deathrite shaman. I added the vexing devils to force some tough decisions and at the very least be able to evolve experiment one late game.

Lightning mauler was a nod towards curving out and getting 6 damage on my opponent by turn 2. After sideboard it helps with giving wolfir silverheart haste. Mogg Flunkies is a nice body but in certain situations his drawbacks can hurt in all the wrong ways.

During FNM I faced mostly Naya or boros aggro. Sticking points I noticed were terrible attacks into a boros reckoner, turn 2 Loxodon Smiter, Aurelia and generally anything with 4+ toughness.

I have been thinking about adding Pyreheart wolf as a two of to help break up board stalls, although it would mean sacrificing some power and toughness to do so. Maybe add a number of Stromkirk nobles to help with the Boros/ Naya match ups.

Quote from Pint of Lager

Why the main deck underworld connections? UC as a 2 of in the sideboard seems fine, for the control mu. But you do not want to see UC against anything else.

In my meta there is enough control that I feel it was warranted, also was testing it out. I found myself puttering out of gas in the late game and just drawing into a ton of lands. In the original version of this deck I used to run 2x sign in bloods.

Split a 14 player win-a-box with a friend last Friday.



I have major troubles with Naya Midrange and anything that can untap with a Niv-Mizzet. Naya just gets so much value out of their creatures and bonfires it is ridiculous.

Something I was thinking about was a R/X midrange/control deck that used heretic's punishment and high CMC cards such as blasphemous act and blightsteel collosus.

Fill it in with flashback spells, some burn, sweepers and off you go.

I tweaked my sideboard a little, removed the lock and put in some more spirit hate. Also added a Mindslaver.


Here is how I plan to sideboard. What do you guys think?

WRR

-3 Whipflare
-1 Ratchet bomb
-1 Contagion Engine
-1 Mortarpod
+2 Flashfreeze
+1 Oblivion Ring
+1 Pacifism
+1 Stonehorn Dignitary
+1 Mindslaver

Zombies

-1 Mortarpod
-1 Contagion Engine
-1 Solemn Simulacrum
+1 Oblivion Ring
+1 Pacifism
+1 Ratchet Bomb

RDW

-1 Contagion Engine
-1 Ratchet Bomb
-1 Spine of Ish Sah
+2 Diving Offering
+1 Oblivion Ring

Tempered Steel

-1 Spine of Ish Sah
-3 Whipflare
+2 Divine Offering
+1 Oblivion Ring
+1 Ratchet Bomb

Frites

-1 Contagion Engine
-1 Solemn Simulacrum
-3 Spellskite
+1 Grafdigger's Cage
+1 Nihil Spellbomb
+1 Trinket mage
+1 Oblivion Ring
+1 Pacifism

U/B Control

-3 Whipflare
-1 Contagion Engine
-1 Ratchet Bomb
+1 Mindslaver
+1 Oblivion Ring
+1 Grafdigger's Cage
+1 Nihil Spellbomb
+1 Trinket Mage

Spirits

-1 Mortarpod
-1 Oblivion Ring
-1 Spine of Ish Sah
-3 Whipflare
+2 Divine Offering
+1 Ratchet Bomb
+3 Corrosive Gale

Quote from Narvuntien

@couscous: how about Spined Thopter instead of Hovermyr it costs you 2 extra life... it is blue so it counts for Grand architechs effects and can trade with a flipped delver.


I am a personal fan of Prototype Portal I am running 3 not the full 4..... anything you put under it is insane to be honest.... any of your 6+ mana artifacts.. I put a Caged Sun under it once things got stupid fast. Myr Battlesphere makes a swarm of Myr tokens.

Putting Tumble magnets can just lock down an opponent. Sphere of suns is mana ramp. Silver Myr.... chump blockers and mana. I won a game with Mass Produced Spined thorpters once.

Mindslaver lock is still the best use for it though... beat a friends mono green aggro deck by top decking Grand architect after just barely hanging on all game chump blocking and using tumble magnets to hold his fatties down.... then bamn... 14 mana mindslaver lock... its the best feeling.

It would be something you sideboard out against Wolf Run and other R/G decks. Mana leak and negate is only going to save it once.

I have thought about spined thopter before but the issue I with it is that it costs blue mana to cast and not just a tapped grand architect.

Protoype portal sounds like fun but I'm worried about the mana investment and the extra turn required to set it up.

I used to have tumble magnets in my Zendikar deck but I feel with all of the hexproof creatures running around they would be useless.

Silver myr being a chump blocker on the ground is not as relevant as sphere of the suns being able to produce red white and blue mana.

While this archetype can get rolling fairly quickly with powerful fatties, it just seems that the artifacts lack that extra oomph of enter the battlefield abilities to provide value even if they are vapor snagged.

I am going to start testing a version that goes all in on the Curse of Exhaustion/ Knowledge Pool lock.

I used to run U/W Architect back in Zendikar/Scars standard. After a break from the deck I decided to update it.

Here is what I played last Friday.



I finished 3-2
Won against
U/W Humans homebrew
RDW
U/B Zombies

Lost against
Mono Black artifacts homebrew
Esper spirits


I felt like if I had playtested a little more I could have won the two games I lost. I had added in Hovermyr to help my spirits matchup as I could turn it blue to attack and block and still have it produce mana for artifacts in the 2nd main phase. Had I actually play tested against spirits I would have quickly realized that the real issue was a Drogskol Captain and the Phantasmal Image copying it. As it turned out the myr was never big enough to do anything more than chump and after the captain/image combo Whipflare could not do enough damage. The Mono black game was rough as after my opening had I only drew 1 or 2 actions spells and 6 or lands.

Here are the changes I've made.


Removed
2 Hovermyr - Did not provide the answer that I needed for Spirits
2 Mortarpod - While great to be bounced by Venser really only played a part against RDW

Added
1 Spellskite - The bodyguard worked hard all night, wish I had one on board at all times to protect architect and finishers
3 Galvanic blast - Wanted something for low mana that I could respond to an Image copying a captain. Not relying on it to have metalcraft but I can see it being useful late game to finish some games out.

Random Thoughts
If my meta was not full of humans and zombies I would even consider changing the Whipflares for Corrosive Gales, maybe if I take the Knowledge Pool/Curse of Exhaustion lock out of the sideboard I can fit them in.

As it is I never had color screw, but I am afraid if I made the Whipflares into Slagstorms I could get myself into trouble, also it would hurt my acceleration.

I would like to find some room main board for a Phyrexian Metamorph to either be a cheaper Spine of Ish Sah, copy an opponents sword or any other utility that could be provided by a clone that can be bounced. Only reason why he is not in already is his lack of synergy with Sun Titan and the graveyard.