I have an Intet deck that's all about cheating stuff into play. Some top of deck manipulation for Rashmi, Intet, Djinn of Wishes, Call of the Wild type stuff. Then of course cheat from in hand things, Sneak Attack, Through the Breach, Elvish Piper, Quicksilver Amulet. And even some randomized things like Temporal Aperature and Unexpected Results. It can be really good sometimes or it can start slow and fight to get back into it. But it's fun to have goofy interactions like that. And of course I run all the big baddies to cheat into play(except I won't run Blightsteel, infect is no fun in EDH).
My true top of deck manipulation is my 5-color deck I refer to as the Deck of Lies. The deck is a commanded by Karona, False God. The goal of the deck is to generate tokens and then find and cast Deceiver of Form. Once in play there are multiple ways to manipulate top of library to put something vastly overpowered on top. Examples are Biovisionary to win in your next end step, Utvara Hellkite attack and X times X 6/6 dragons where X is the number of tokens you have in play, Omnath, Locus of Rage all but one die to legend rule and see eachother die, then you get X times X-1 triggers of 3 damage where X is the number of tokens you had, Pathbreaker Ibex all attack triggers go on the stack then resolve individually giving a massive bonus to each creature (8 * 2^X where X is number of attackers is the final trigger's plus of P/T), Hero of Bladehold get a bunch of attackers with a bunch of Battle Cry triggers. There's a few more options too. In case the Deceiver is killed I have graveyard recursion, exiled I have exile recursion, all else fails I just run anthem effects and have a bunch of powerful tokens. Some of my friends hate the deck because if Deceiver resolves I almost always win. But it's a fun deck that has many surprise concepts of winning that most people never think about.
I would say the single most unfun things people can do in games is anything that removes your opponents ability to do things or massively delays their turn. By that I mean and situation where you lock down mana such as Winter Orb or mass land destruction. Board wipes are fine and often necessary, but sometimes people play Narset and then swing with her casting Armageddon and now nobody is really in the game. That's unfun because the game isn't over, but it basically is for everyone else.
I've joked about building a deck with the idea of ramping up then tutoring for 2 cards, Mycosynth Lattice and Enduring Ideal. Then the first card you get with Enduring Ideal is Stony Silence. It would lock the board except for triggered abilities and then you can search for enchantments each upkeep to eventually win. However, I would never build the deck because it would be miserable for everyone else to play against since once Ideal resolves they're basically locked out of the game.
The other extremely unfun thing to play against is someone taking multiple turns in a row. This is especially true if playing in a 4 person EDH pod where you're already waiting for 3 turns to complete before you get your own again, now someone is taking multiple in a row and you're spending 20 minutes between each of your turns. It's extremely unfun for everyone else at the table.(as I tell people who do that "If you want to masturbate, please don't do it while I'm sitting at the table").
There used to be a guy at my local game store who was infamous for quitting any game in which anything happened he even remotely didn't like. I remember one game where a player cast Mesmeric Orb on turn 2, then this quitter took his turn 2 and scooped because "he doesn't like playing against mill". I destroyed the orb on my turn 2 afterwards.
I did fast quit myself a couple months ago. I was playing my Sharuum deck that is no combos and heavy equipment. Another player turn 2ed an Aura Shards and by turn 5 had destroyed 4 of my permanents (including an artifact land) with it and then cast Return to Dust eliminating 2 more and I just quit as I was now so far behind and couldn't possibly catch up with Aura Shards in play
anyone playing with The Gitrog Monster who tells you they're not running infinites they try to do ASAP is a liar.
Funny thing is that I actually pulled the no mana repeatable discard outlets from my The Gitrog Monster deck because it was going infinite too easily and my friends were starting to be unwilling to play against it. So now my version has no way to go infinite. I still have them in the deck box in case I want to slap it back together to play more competitively. Even without those cards, the deck is still very effective.
Playing this past Saturday night. Three of us left in the pod. My board state is Scroll Rack, Coat of Arms, 6 Kobolds from Kher Keep, and a bunch of lands. I cast Deceiver of Form and use Scroll Rack to put Utvara Hellkite on top of my library, then move to combat. Deceiver triggers and all 6 kobolds become Utvara Hellkite, when I attack 6 Hellkites trigger 6 times to create a total of 36 dragons. Due to Coat of Arms being in play, all attacking Hellkites get +42/+42 swinging for easy lethal to both remaining players.
There's a guy who sometimes shows up to my LGS who is infamous for rage quitting whenever something doesn't go his way. I saw him quit a 4 person EDH pod on turn 2 because someone played a Mesmeric Orb and he "hates mill decks". He one time sold his GF's deck to the store because she beat him in a friendly game (shockingly she was no longer his GF after that). I was told he threw a deck across the store after he lost, a deck he was borrowing. He has a tendency to sell entire EDH decks to the store after losing once... Luckily he doesn't show up much anymore, but he was just the worst.
There was also one guy a few years ago that accused his opponent of trying to cheat him because he miscounted damage from multiple Battle Cry triggers at 4am because it was the midnight prerelease of Mirrodin Besieged. I called him out for being a dick to his opponent and then had to face him the next round where when I beat him he threw his pen at my face.
All other creatures he controls get infinitely larger. He gains infinite life (multiple of 2). Spike Feeder never gains net counters since it removes a counter to gain life then gains a counter when the life gain occurs resulting in net zero change in counter on Spike Feeder. Your creatures gain a counter per life gain event for Archangel, not per amount of life gained. The OP is correct his friend is not.
Some of these 1 offs are me testing cards out, some are just me using what I have instead of acquiring similar function cards.
First of thoughts. Thoughtseize - After playtesting I feel that Inquisition would be a better card and will be testing it next time I run this. The life loss for Thoughtseize hurts and often times I pick something 3 CMC or below anyway. Drown in Sorrow - Good against certain decks. Anything that swarms, this card is a blow out against. However it also can kill a bunch of my own stuff and misses some dangerous things. I'm considering a green splash and this being replaced by Abrupt Decay. Doom Blade - I like it over Go For the Throat because of the prevalence of Affinity in my local meta. ymmv Crypt of Agadeem - This has yet to be useful. Probably leaving soon. Cavern of Souls - Have yet to run into a control match up since I dropped this in. Seems it could be useful so I can guarantee Geralf's or Gray Merchant resolve by naming "zombie". Fume Spitter - Surprisingly useful little bugger. Blocker, removal, can negate the undying counter from Messenger so he can undie again.
Can anyone comment on playing the pyromancer version versus the spellstutter (Hoogland) version?
I'm playing the spellstutter version and I get that, aside from casting delvers, you're generally reacting to your opponent and playing on their turn.
How do you play the pyromancer version? Do you get delvers and pyro's out as quick as possible? Or do you deal with early threats and wait til you have the mana up to cast a pyromancer and protect it?
I play a pyromancer version. And from my experience almost every deck plays some kind of removal. So if you can't protect Pyromancer the turn you play it, then the odds of it surviving until your next turn are pretty low. And people will target pyromancer before anything else that I've seen.
I believe this is my mono white list as it stands now. Don't have it in front of me to verify. The Temples and Foundries are for red I have in board, I can't remember my exact board right now to post it. It's been working fairly well lately.
2 to the face especially in Game 1 can be very important.
Magma Spray is dead against too many decks for it to be played main deck (Twin, UWR, Tron, any Combo).
What about considering Burst Lightning. It's the same 2 to the face or creature as Pillar. You just sacrifice the exile effect for the Instant speed and Kicker. And with the Kicker it can take out more creatures or put a bigger dent if games draw out. It's rare I get to 5 mana but when I have being able to kick Burst has been very helpful.
if u have problems with mana, just play other dual lands + some more fetchlands. I don't like 3 copies of Maelstrom Pulse - u want to have cheaper responses. Maybe third Lilana in that place?
In that build Fauna Shaman would be better, than in normal Dredge&Vine. It can tutor for more Vengevines, parts of Varloz combo or Graveclawler for CA. Still it can be bolted, but 6 discards help to protect toolbox guy.
I'm definitely on the fence about Fauna Shaman vs Grisly Salvage. I've stuck with Salvage so far because it's been faster. I very rarely have mana problems and have won games with nothing but 1 land and a Deathrite for mana. Maelstrom has been the top spot for replacement. I love its versatilty, I hate that it's 3 mana and a sorcery. I've considered Smother, Vendetta, and Hero's Downfall. For now I'm likely going to move a 4th Abrupt into main and drop Maelstrom to 2, possibly replacing it with something else.
My true top of deck manipulation is my 5-color deck I refer to as the Deck of Lies. The deck is a commanded by Karona, False God. The goal of the deck is to generate tokens and then find and cast Deceiver of Form. Once in play there are multiple ways to manipulate top of library to put something vastly overpowered on top. Examples are Biovisionary to win in your next end step, Utvara Hellkite attack and X times X 6/6 dragons where X is the number of tokens you have in play, Omnath, Locus of Rage all but one die to legend rule and see eachother die, then you get X times X-1 triggers of 3 damage where X is the number of tokens you had, Pathbreaker Ibex all attack triggers go on the stack then resolve individually giving a massive bonus to each creature (8 * 2^X where X is number of attackers is the final trigger's plus of P/T), Hero of Bladehold get a bunch of attackers with a bunch of Battle Cry triggers. There's a few more options too. In case the Deceiver is killed I have graveyard recursion, exiled I have exile recursion, all else fails I just run anthem effects and have a bunch of powerful tokens. Some of my friends hate the deck because if Deceiver resolves I almost always win. But it's a fun deck that has many surprise concepts of winning that most people never think about.
Most of my decks: http://tappedout.net/users/thraashman/
I've joked about building a deck with the idea of ramping up then tutoring for 2 cards, Mycosynth Lattice and Enduring Ideal. Then the first card you get with Enduring Ideal is Stony Silence. It would lock the board except for triggered abilities and then you can search for enchantments each upkeep to eventually win. However, I would never build the deck because it would be miserable for everyone else to play against since once Ideal resolves they're basically locked out of the game.
The other extremely unfun thing to play against is someone taking multiple turns in a row. This is especially true if playing in a 4 person EDH pod where you're already waiting for 3 turns to complete before you get your own again, now someone is taking multiple in a row and you're spending 20 minutes between each of your turns. It's extremely unfun for everyone else at the table.(as I tell people who do that "If you want to masturbate, please don't do it while I'm sitting at the table").
Most of my decks: http://tappedout.net/users/thraashman/
I did fast quit myself a couple months ago. I was playing my Sharuum deck that is no combos and heavy equipment. Another player turn 2ed an Aura Shards and by turn 5 had destroyed 4 of my permanents (including an artifact land) with it and then cast Return to Dust eliminating 2 more and I just quit as I was now so far behind and couldn't possibly catch up with Aura Shards in play
Most of my decks: http://tappedout.net/users/thraashman/
Most of my decks: http://tappedout.net/users/thraashman/
Most of my decks: http://tappedout.net/users/thraashman/
There was also one guy a few years ago that accused his opponent of trying to cheat him because he miscounted damage from multiple Battle Cry triggers at 4am because it was the midnight prerelease of Mirrodin Besieged. I called him out for being a dick to his opponent and then had to face him the next round where when I beat him he threw his pen at my face.
Most of my decks: http://tappedout.net/users/thraashman/
Most of my decks: http://tappedout.net/users/thraashman/
Most of my decks: http://tappedout.net/users/thraashman/
4 Nykthos
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Crypt of Agadeem
1 Cavern of Souls
15 Swamp
Creatures: 19
2 Fume Spitter
4 Bloodghast
4 Geralf's Messenger
2 Phyrexian Obliterator
4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
2 Vampire Nighthawk
2 Gatekeeper of Malakir
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
2 Drown in Sorrow
1 Whip of Erebos
2 Liliana of the Veil
2 Profane Command
3 Thoughtseize
2 Doom Blade
3 Geth's Verdict
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Underworld Connections
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Extirpate
3 Sudden Spoiling
3 Leyline of the Void
3 Spellskite
1 Sadistic Sacrament
1 Mutilate
1 Black Sun's Zenith
Some of these 1 offs are me testing cards out, some are just me using what I have instead of acquiring similar function cards.
First of thoughts.
Thoughtseize - After playtesting I feel that Inquisition would be a better card and will be testing it next time I run this. The life loss for Thoughtseize hurts and often times I pick something 3 CMC or below anyway.
Drown in Sorrow - Good against certain decks. Anything that swarms, this card is a blow out against. However it also can kill a bunch of my own stuff and misses some dangerous things. I'm considering a green splash and this being replaced by Abrupt Decay.
Doom Blade - I like it over Go For the Throat because of the prevalence of Affinity in my local meta. ymmv
Crypt of Agadeem - This has yet to be useful. Probably leaving soon.
Cavern of Souls - Have yet to run into a control match up since I dropped this in. Seems it could be useful so I can guarantee Geralf's or Gray Merchant resolve by naming "zombie".
Fume Spitter - Surprisingly useful little bugger. Blocker, removal, can negate the undying counter from Messenger so he can undie again.
Most of my decks: http://tappedout.net/users/thraashman/
I actually run Spell Snare in side of my Affinity deck too. It counters Kataki, War's Wage, Stony Silence, and Hurkyl's Recall, all of which can seriously screw the deck if resolved. It even counters Ancient Grudge including on flashback.
Most of my decks: http://tappedout.net/users/thraashman/
I play a pyromancer version. And from my experience almost every deck plays some kind of removal. So if you can't protect Pyromancer the turn you play it, then the odds of it surviving until your next turn are pretty low. And people will target pyromancer before anything else that I've seen.
Most of my decks: http://tappedout.net/users/thraashman/
Wasn't Onslaught set on Dominaria like most of the early magic sets?
Most of my decks: http://tappedout.net/users/thraashman/
3 Nykthos
11 Plains
4 Sacred Foundry
3 Temple of Triumph
Creatures - 26
4 Soldier of the Pantheon
3 Banisher Priest
4 Fiendslayer Paladin
2 Heliod, God of the Sun
2 Archangel of Thune
4 Boros Reckoner
2 Imposing Sovereign
3 Precint Captain
2 Dryad Militant
4 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
3 Spear of Heliod
3 Brave the Elements
2 Ajani, Caller of the Pride
I believe this is my mono white list as it stands now. Don't have it in front of me to verify. The Temples and Foundries are for red I have in board, I can't remember my exact board right now to post it. It's been working fairly well lately.
Most of my decks: http://tappedout.net/users/thraashman/
What about considering Burst Lightning. It's the same 2 to the face or creature as Pillar. You just sacrifice the exile effect for the Instant speed and Kicker. And with the Kicker it can take out more creatures or put a bigger dent if games draw out. It's rare I get to 5 mana but when I have being able to kick Burst has been very helpful.
Most of my decks: http://tappedout.net/users/thraashman/
I'm definitely on the fence about Fauna Shaman vs Grisly Salvage. I've stuck with Salvage so far because it's been faster. I very rarely have mana problems and have won games with nothing but 1 land and a Deathrite for mana. Maelstrom has been the top spot for replacement. I love its versatilty, I hate that it's 3 mana and a sorcery. I've considered Smother, Vendetta, and Hero's Downfall. For now I'm likely going to move a 4th Abrupt into main and drop Maelstrom to 2, possibly replacing it with something else.
Most of my decks: http://tappedout.net/users/thraashman/