Below is my overly long thoughts on this deck so far... enjoy the read.
General Thoughts:
I'm not quite sure how the deck came about, and it's gone through some changes over the couple of years that I've had it together. It was originally intended to focus on quick mana acceleration into infinite combo with the Yawgmoth's Bargain and Words of Worship and/or Mind Over Matter. Over the last couple of years, it's sort of morphed into what you see here. For the most part it's actually very effective at winning...
Which might seem strange, given that there's virtually no removal (outside of Balance) or creatures to keep me alive in the early game. Honestly, I'm not sure how I actually pull it off with this deck as often as I do... as far as I can tell, this deck should get absolutely murdered by any deck running creatures, period.
I think the reason that it holds together is there's a pretty solid land base to the deck, plus a good amount of acceleration, and (most importantly for this deck) a ton of cards that tutor.
The only reason that I would see this deck as being "casual" is because I really didn't intend for it to feel like a degenerate deck... and I play it in a casual environment, most of the time. I think this deck would get absolutely schooled in a Type 1 environment. At the end of the day, the deck really is all about having as much variety and fun as possible.
2. Playing a Diabolic Intent on the Academy Rector will put me into almost any combo I'd care to play. A lot of the time I wind up putting the Genju of the Realm into play and then dropping playing Balance, wiping the board and cleaning up with the Genju after the fact.
I really enjoy playing this deck. First-hand draws are almost always full of crazy options and that's what really does it for me with this deck.
Problem is, given all of the one-ofs, it just isn't very consistent. I can't decide if I want to keep it that way or pull stuff out and make it as tight as possible.
The other glaringly obvious bit would be what I said earlier about no defense/removal.
So my question to you folks would be:
Given the typical combos that I've outlined above, what would you change if you were playing the deck (whether out of personal preference or just to make the deck all around better)?
Looking at the build it reminds me a lot of the a Vintage style pitch deck that builds from throwing down a lot of spells than using Tendrils of Agony to destroy people. Seeing as you are missing a few mox and other things I doubt that is the way you want to go with things.
Next I have a question, about one of your combos, in your first one, the one involving Bargain, and WoW, do you just do that at the end of the turn with excess mana, or how exactly do you use that little combo?
No, definitely not the way I was planning on going with it... I could try it, but as you said, I'm missing a whole lot of free artifacts there.
Although it might not hurt to toss one in, just to do 8 or 10 points of damage and gain some life. Problem there is, I think it's that thought process that's made the deck into it's current form...
in your first one, the one involving Bargain, and WoW, do you just do that at the end of the turn with excess mana, or how exactly do you use that little combo?
EoT definitely works, yeah... any excess mana can be dumped to either draw 4 cards per mana, or gain 4 life per mana, or mix and match... works nicely either way.
If I get the Mind Over Matter out while the WoW and Bargain are in play (typically not at all difficult to do), it pretty much becomes "gain as much life as I want or draw as many cards as I want"... which is enough to end the game.
Well from what I see, I think the deck may lack focus, or a specific function, it seems to want to do a lot of things at once, I'm not sure what to suggest, but maybe narrow down a few of the win conditions you have for the deck.
As for earlier defense, how does it fair against more aggresive creature based decks?
I can fairly regularly get a second or third turn (very rarely first turn) Darksteel Colossus out, which is usually too much of a threat to overcome for most casual decks (not exactly fair, and I kinda feel bad whenever I do it... what's a guy to do? Smoke em if you got em.) Still, anybody packing Swords to Plowshares or Path to Exiles (or any "sac a creature" cards) should be able to deal with that no problem...
So yeah. Bottom line? Not so hot against aggro/critter decks. Thought about dumping four Wrath of God in there just for control...
I also thought about something like Fog Bank. The only problem with doing anything like that is, given that they'll be the only real targets for removal, they're pretty much guaranteed to bite it.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
4x Gemstone Mine
4x City of Brass
4x Grand Coliseum
4x Mirrodin's Core
4x Dark Ritual
1x Lotus Petal
1x Mox Diamond
1x Sol Ring
1x Mana Vault
1x Grim Monolith
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Enlightened Tutor
1x Merchant Scroll
1x Time Spiral
1x Mind Twist
1x Wheel of Fortune
4x Diabolic Intent
4x Academy Rector
4x Impulse
1x Yawgmoth's Bargain
1x Yawgmoth's Will
1x Regrowth
1x Balance
1x Mind Over Matter
1x Words of Worship
1x Power Artifact
1x Genju of the Realm
1x Darksteel Colossus
1x Stroke of Genius
Below is my overly long thoughts on this deck so far... enjoy the read.
General Thoughts:
I'm not quite sure how the deck came about, and it's gone through some changes over the couple of years that I've had it together. It was originally intended to focus on quick mana acceleration into infinite combo with the Yawgmoth's Bargain and Words of Worship and/or Mind Over Matter. Over the last couple of years, it's sort of morphed into what you see here. For the most part it's actually very effective at winning...
Which might seem strange, given that there's virtually no removal (outside of Balance) or creatures to keep me alive in the early game. Honestly, I'm not sure how I actually pull it off with this deck as often as I do... as far as I can tell, this deck should get absolutely murdered by any deck running creatures, period.
I think the reason that it holds together is there's a pretty solid land base to the deck, plus a good amount of acceleration, and (most importantly for this deck) a ton of cards that tutor.
The only reason that I would see this deck as being "casual" is because I really didn't intend for it to feel like a degenerate deck... and I play it in a casual environment, most of the time. I think this deck would get absolutely schooled in a Type 1 environment. At the end of the day, the deck really is all about having as much variety and fun as possible.
Notable plays for the deck:
1. Yawgmoth's Bargain + Words of Worship = draw a bunch of cards and/or gain a bunch of life.
2. Playing a Diabolic Intent on the Academy Rector will put me into almost any combo I'd care to play. A lot of the time I wind up putting the Genju of the Realm into play and then dropping playing Balance, wiping the board and cleaning up with the Genju after the fact.
3. The obvious Tinker into Darksteel Colossus... what else needs to be said here?
4. Going infinite with the Power Artifact on either the Grim Monolith or the Mana Vault and then decking my opponent with the Stroke of Genius.
5. Mind Over Matter + Yawgmoth's Bargain + any of the mana-producing artifacts = tons/"infinite" mana plus a lot of board control.
Room for Improvement
I really enjoy playing this deck. First-hand draws are almost always full of crazy options and that's what really does it for me with this deck.
Problem is, given all of the one-ofs, it just isn't very consistent. I can't decide if I want to keep it that way or pull stuff out and make it as tight as possible.
The other glaringly obvious bit would be what I said earlier about no defense/removal.
So my question to you folks would be:
Given the typical combos that I've outlined above, what would you change if you were playing the deck (whether out of personal preference or just to make the deck all around better)?
Looking at the build it reminds me a lot of the a Vintage style pitch deck that builds from throwing down a lot of spells than using Tendrils of Agony to destroy people. Seeing as you are missing a few mox and other things I doubt that is the way you want to go with things.
Next I have a question, about one of your combos, in your first one, the one involving Bargain, and WoW, do you just do that at the end of the turn with excess mana, or how exactly do you use that little combo?
No, definitely not the way I was planning on going with it... I could try it, but as you said, I'm missing a whole lot of free artifacts there.
Although it might not hurt to toss one in, just to do 8 or 10 points of damage and gain some life. Problem there is, I think it's that thought process that's made the deck into it's current form...
EoT definitely works, yeah... any excess mana can be dumped to either draw 4 cards per mana, or gain 4 life per mana, or mix and match... works nicely either way.
If I get the Mind Over Matter out while the WoW and Bargain are in play (typically not at all difficult to do), it pretty much becomes "gain as much life as I want or draw as many cards as I want"... which is enough to end the game.
As for earlier defense, how does it fair against more aggresive creature based decks?
I played against a creature deck a few weeks back (Wild Nacatl, Woolly Thoctars, etc.) and tutored into a Balance + Genju of the Realm (Academy Rector + Diabolic Intent the turn earlier, turn three) for the win. But I'd call that luck, really...
So yeah. Bottom line? Not so hot against aggro/critter decks. Thought about dumping four Wrath of God in there just for control...
I also thought about something like Fog Bank. The only problem with doing anything like that is, given that they'll be the only real targets for removal, they're pretty much guaranteed to bite it.