Been working on this deck for the past week and I've been amazed at the results. Humans (WW/WR) is the only match up that gives me a hard time (GW Tokens, CoCo and Control decks tend to be highly favorable).
Stitchwing Skaab The MVP of the deck. It's the main discard outlet. Lets you play your madness cards for cheap and brings your Amalgams into play at the end of your opponent's turn. Is also a great discard target. Did I mention it has flying?
Geralf's Masterpiece In case you can't get the Skaab into the graveyard, this card will help with discard. The cost of bringing it into play from you graveyard is a little high and won't let you play madness cards early on the came, so this is a last resort card. It can be a great finisher if the game goes too long.
Prized Amalgam The main reason to make this deck. It makes Skaab/Masterpiece two or three times better since you get another beater into play (sometimes more).
Thing in the Ice This card has been so good, I can't believe it took me a lot of days to include it. It's a great blocker early on and can be flipped very easily with so many 1 and 2 cost spells. Not to mention it won't bounce your horrors (Skaab/Masterpiece). It will bounce your Amalgams, but most of the times it's gonna be favorable to have more discard targets. Worst case it's a removal target so your main beaters aren't killed so easily.
Fiery Temper The other cheap discard/madness target. It removes early beaters (hello Sylvan Advocate and Tireless Tracker) or just burn down control players. Not to mention this can hit planeswalkers.
Lightning Axe The greatest removal spell in standard. I might be exaggerating, but it basically kills 90% of the creatures at instant speed. Not to mention is a discard enabler which in this deck it would be a drawback if it wasn't.
Tormenting Voice If the Skaab is the MVP, this card is the reason for that. You only need this card plus 2 lands in your opening hand to keep it, no matter what the rest of the cards are. It keeps you hand full all game long, and that's the most important thing with this deck.
Pieces of the Puzzle Like Thing in the Ice, this is another card I discovered late (3 or 4 days into testing). It's so good in this deck I don't know where to start. It's another reason to keep an opening hand, but it's not as deciding as Tormenting Voice (Removal and low on creatures are preconditions). Fills your hand with spells and the ones you can't get into you hand you want in your graveyard anyways (Thing in the Ice and Fevered Visions being the only exception, but you can live with that). Most of the time you get two spells that will help flip Thing in the Ice or get Skaab into play, not to mention disrupt your opponent's side of the board.
Fevered Visions I've hyped so many cards, I just don't know what to say about this one. Against slower/controlling decks, this card absolutely wrecks. It keeps your hand full and slowly kills your opponent. Most of the time you can turn 3 this blindly since you'll probably just kill most threads when you untap. The only downside is that game one it's a discard target at best against highly aggressive Humans decks (WW/WR). Did I mention it hits planeswalkers?
Land choice is pretty basic, only two things to mention here:
First, no black sources. If you're ever in the need of hard casting Prized Amalgam, you might as well concede. After adding Thing in the Ice and Pieces of the Puzzle I've never had this predicament so no need to complicate your mana base.
Second, more red sources than blue sources. Even thought the deck has more blue spells, you only really need one blue source early on and that might be on turn three. Being able to cast Tormenting Voice or Lightning Axe + Fiery Temper by turn two can turn the tide of the game in your favor.
I'll have a match up report later, all I'll say for now is that I got into a top 4 in my last FNM (never been beyond 10th place before) and that's considering I'm still learning the deck, made some big mistakes and I was missing some cards from my sideboard (Avacyn's Judgment/Displacement Wave) and main (Thing in the Ice).
So, what do you guys think? Any suggestions or comments?
Edit: I've played 30 games (I know it's not much), most of them against GB/GW/Mardu/Abzan/Sultai Midrange/Control decks. It's 50/50, after sideboard it all comes down as to what can they Duress/Transgress the Mind away.
The deck performs really well against GW/GWR Tokens, UR Control/ramp and most Collected Company decks (4c Rites, Bant Company, Abzan Company, etc.).
Bant Humans, Mono White Humans, WR Humans and UR Flyers are absolute nightmares no matter how I sideboard.
Only played one GR Ramp player and he crushed me, but I think it had more to do with bad vs very-good draws.
I love these zombies. I'm the URB zombies $50 guy. I've considered a more controlling deck, it's nice to see it built here. I've made a Thing in the Ice/horror control deck, I'm sure that thread is around here somewhere, but it was just mono blue.
I can't wait to read a FNM report from your deck.
I only have 2 suggestions.
Instead of Tormenting Voice I'd recommend Catalog. The main reason is because it's an instant and therefore can be used EoT. The other big advantage is it can be cast if it's the sole card in your hand. Tormenting Voice requires you to be holding 2.
The other adjustment I'd make is changing Just the Wind to Compelling Deterrence. I know it's not a madness card, but it hits all non-land permanents. It probably boils down to personal preference, but I think it's more useful. Especially against pesky enchantments or Planeswalkers that may be running around. It also has the side bonus of
Oh, a final comment about Ghoulsteed. He's not a horror so Thing doesn't really place nice with him.
Edit: I had Compelling Deterrence on the main and side (first 4 main, then 2), but they just became a little slow and situational. Ormendhal or manlands become a pain, haven't found any enchantments in my meta that are trouble. I'll keep an eye on it.
Compelling Deterrence doesn't work on Man-lands, but it does work on Ormendahl, Profane Prince you just have to wait until it's flipped. Plus like I said, it gets Planeswalkers and Enchantments too.
I stand corrected. You're right on Ormendahl, Profane Prince. Still not convinced on Compelling Deterrence, I don't see a place for it. Even thought I had it on the initial version and finally dropped it, I've never had a moment of "I wish I had Compelling Deterrence right now". Maybe on the sideboard? But I find the rest of the cards there to have a bigger role against most match ups.
I took your advice and tried Catalog, the card is the real deal! Made the deck more consistent.
+3 Catalog: At instant speed is a great draw spell AND discard outlet.
-1 Pieces of the Puzzle: Still a very important part of the deck, but needed space for catalog and they fill pretty similar slots (but still different enough to run both at a considerable number).
-2 Geralf's Masterpiece: Really wanted to like this card, but it's cost (3U and discard 3) is just way to prohibitive. The few times I did cast it didn't affect the board in a big way and sometimes I had to let go of good spells (or not have enough mana for all the madness costs).
-3 Avacyn's Judgment: Only wanted it for 'go-wide' strategies but it's not fast enough an requires a big mana investment to impact the game. If I had discard engines on a stick like Psychatog it would be a different story. Relying on Thing in the Ice and Displacement Wave for now.
Edit: Changed card order and fixed some spelling mistakes.
If you really really like Catalog and you decide you want more than 4, Artificer's Epiphany is functionally the same and can help you replace all of those Tormented Voices. You've read my thread, so I'm sure you know I'm all about the flash/instant aspect of these cards. I'd get rid of anything that doesn't get played on my opponent's turn. (except Fevered Visions. I love it lol)
Catalog is definitely in, but only as a 3 off because the 3 CMC is a little high. An opening hand with 2 lands and Tormenting Voice is a keeper no matter what (1 land if on the draw). Casting Tormenting Voice turn 3 can leave space for Just the Wind or Fiery Temper. Catalog and Artificer's Epiphany are "late game" cards, which are good don't get me wrong, but Tormenting Voice is one of the reasons for running Red because there's no substitute in other colors (the other one being Lighting Axe).
Thanks for all your input!
I'll keep updating my list once Eldritch Moon comes out, I've seen a couple of cards that might be good in this deck.
I'll post later on my changes and my FNM results from yesterday.
Edit: Report from my last FNM
I was missing 2x Thing in the Ice, but that didn't make a difference (on the contrary, the one I did have didn't help me at all).
Round 1 vs Naya Midrange:
Game one I won easily. His planeswalkers are too slow and between Stitchwing Skaab's evasion and Fiery Temper he didn't stand a chance.
Game two I didn't sideboard correctly (should've sided in Roast instead of Negate), I know this match turns into a more aggro one and I just wasn't thinking. Maybe it wouldn't have matter, 3x Reality Smashers later and I was dead (managed to hold off two, but the third one was too much).
Game three I was ready but 2x Reality Smasher was too much for me. I only drew into 1x Lightning Axe and never saw the rest or Roast. Good games none the less.
Round 2 vs Bant Company:
Game one I lost but don't remember much.
Game two I lost again. I've played this person before and from what I saw game one and what I've seen him play before I thought it was Bant Humans until it was too late. I also left Fevered Visions in, huge mistake.
Game two I lost again. I should've played more patiently. Mill decks tend to be a very favorable match against this deck, but even though he managed to get all 4x Prized Amalgams into my graveyard, he had 3x Engulf the Shores that bought him time to cast the third Startled Awake. Never drew into my Dispels and I didn't side in Negates in place of Thing in the Ice, I think it would've made all the different.
what was your list? I feel like having Geralf's maindeck would've helped in 2 of your match ups since a beefy flyer would have probably taken you over the top. 7/7 beats 5/5 (round 1) and it flies over Thing (Round 3).
For bant you need a sweeper. You're kinda limited in UR. If you had a 3rd color, Radiant Flames could help. Engulf the Shore could work, but honestly, I don't like my own zombies bounced. I'd much rather they were killed.
I agree with the bouncing zombies comment. If you already have a Skaab on your graveyard it's not a disadvantage, but that was not my case and it's hard for Mono-U to kill anything.
You're right that Geralf's Masterpiece would've help in round 1 since I had to discard so much to kill all those Reality Smashers. But then again, if I draw Roast on that last match it would've been game. I'll keep it in mind since if the deck doesn't run a lot of removal, like the one I played against, it can be a big help.
Against Collected Company decks I don't think it would help as much, they can bounce it with Reflector Mage, blink it with Eldrazi Displacer or kill it with Dromoka's Command if I'm in a bad spot (the deck in Round 2 had all of them, I saw 5 Reflectors in 2 matches). This match was lost because of mistakes I made.
Round 3 was a lost cause. He had Disperse and Engulf the Shore (4 of each since I traded them to him before the tournament). If I play more conservative (not blowing through all my Tormenting Voices and Catalogs so fast, maybe it would've been different).
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Here's my build:
2 Geralf's Masterpiece
4 Prized Amalgam
4 Stitchwing Skaab
4 Thing in the Ice
Instants (11)
3 Just the Wind
4 Fiery Temper
4 Lightning Axe
4 Tormenting Voice
4 Pieces of the Puzzle
Enchantments (4)
4 Fevered Visions
Lands (24)
7 Island
9 Mountain
4 Shivan Reef
4 Wandering Fumarole
3 Avacyn's Judgment
3 Crumble to Dust
3 Displacement Wave
3 Negate
3 Roast
This is how it works:
Stitchwing Skaab The MVP of the deck. It's the main discard outlet. Lets you play your madness cards for cheap and brings your Amalgams into play at the end of your opponent's turn. Is also a great discard target. Did I mention it has flying?
Geralf's Masterpiece In case you can't get the Skaab into the graveyard, this card will help with discard. The cost of bringing it into play from you graveyard is a little high and won't let you play madness cards early on the came, so this is a last resort card. It can be a great finisher if the game goes too long.
Prized Amalgam The main reason to make this deck. It makes Skaab/Masterpiece two or three times better since you get another beater into play (sometimes more).
Thing in the Ice This card has been so good, I can't believe it took me a lot of days to include it. It's a great blocker early on and can be flipped very easily with so many 1 and 2 cost spells. Not to mention it won't bounce your horrors (Skaab/Masterpiece). It will bounce your Amalgams, but most of the times it's gonna be favorable to have more discard targets. Worst case it's a removal target so your main beaters aren't killed so easily.
Just the Wind Cheap discard/madness target and most of the time it just says: remove target Ormendahl, Profane Prince or Gideon, Ally of Zendikar. Worst case it's a great tempo card.
Fiery Temper The other cheap discard/madness target. It removes early beaters (hello Sylvan Advocate and Tireless Tracker) or just burn down control players. Not to mention this can hit planeswalkers.
Lightning Axe The greatest removal spell in standard. I might be exaggerating, but it basically kills 90% of the creatures at instant speed. Not to mention is a discard enabler which in this deck it would be a drawback if it wasn't.
Tormenting Voice If the Skaab is the MVP, this card is the reason for that. You only need this card plus 2 lands in your opening hand to keep it, no matter what the rest of the cards are. It keeps you hand full all game long, and that's the most important thing with this deck.
Pieces of the Puzzle Like Thing in the Ice, this is another card I discovered late (3 or 4 days into testing). It's so good in this deck I don't know where to start. It's another reason to keep an opening hand, but it's not as deciding as Tormenting Voice (Removal and low on creatures are preconditions). Fills your hand with spells and the ones you can't get into you hand you want in your graveyard anyways (Thing in the Ice and Fevered Visions being the only exception, but you can live with that). Most of the time you get two spells that will help flip Thing in the Ice or get Skaab into play, not to mention disrupt your opponent's side of the board.
Fevered Visions I've hyped so many cards, I just don't know what to say about this one. Against slower/controlling decks, this card absolutely wrecks. It keeps your hand full and slowly kills your opponent. Most of the time you can turn 3 this blindly since you'll probably just kill most threads when you untap. The only downside is that game one it's a discard target at best against highly aggressive Humans decks (WW/WR). Did I mention it hits planeswalkers?
Land choice is pretty basic, only two things to mention here:
First, no black sources. If you're ever in the need of hard casting Prized Amalgam, you might as well concede. After adding Thing in the Ice and Pieces of the Puzzle I've never had this predicament so no need to complicate your mana base.
Second, more red sources than blue sources. Even thought the deck has more blue spells, you only really need one blue source early on and that might be on turn three. Being able to cast Tormenting Voice or Lightning Axe + Fiery Temper by turn two can turn the tide of the game in your favor.
Sideboard is pretty straight forward: Negate against control/ramp. Crumble to Dust against ramp/eldrazi. Roast against eldrazi/jund. Avacyn's Judgment/Displacement Wave against highly aggro decks (mainly WW/WR Humans).
The only card I never considered because it never came up in my research is Ghoulsteed (just found it because of this thread: http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/standard-type-2/budget-standard/707481-urb-zombies-50). It might be the only reason to run black but after my testing I don't see the need for it. Might try it out and see.
I'll have a match up report later, all I'll say for now is that I got into a top 4 in my last FNM (never been beyond 10th place before) and that's considering I'm still learning the deck, made some big mistakes and I was missing some cards from my sideboard (Avacyn's Judgment/Displacement Wave) and main (Thing in the Ice).
So, what do you guys think? Any suggestions or comments?
Edit: I've played 30 games (I know it's not much), most of them against GB/GW/Mardu/Abzan/Sultai Midrange/Control decks. It's 50/50, after sideboard it all comes down as to what can they Duress/Transgress the Mind away.
The deck performs really well against GW/GWR Tokens, UR Control/ramp and most Collected Company decks (4c Rites, Bant Company, Abzan Company, etc.).
Bant Humans, Mono White Humans, WR Humans and UR Flyers are absolute nightmares no matter how I sideboard.
Only played one GR Ramp player and he crushed me, but I think it had more to do with bad vs very-good draws.
I can't wait to read a FNM report from your deck.
I only have 2 suggestions.
Instead of Tormenting Voice I'd recommend Catalog. The main reason is because it's an instant and therefore can be used EoT. The other big advantage is it can be cast if it's the sole card in your hand. Tormenting Voice requires you to be holding 2.
The other adjustment I'd make is changing Just the Wind to Compelling Deterrence. I know it's not a madness card, but it hits all non-land permanents. It probably boils down to personal preference, but I think it's more useful. Especially against pesky enchantments or Planeswalkers that may be running around. It also has the side bonus of
Oh, a final comment about Ghoulsteed. He's not a horror so Thing doesn't really place nice with him.
Really honored and happy to see you here. I saw your thread today and loved it! Didn't have much to add to it but you motivated me to post mine.
Thanks for the heads up on Ghoulsteed not being a Horror, I would've learned that the hard way...
Catalog is an interesting choice. I'll try it out (maybe in place of 1x Pieces of the Puzzle and 1x Tormenting Voice or 1x Thing in the Ice). It's a huge plus being able to cast it with no cards in hand, since Transgress the Mind/Thought-Knot Seer can really mess up my tempo. Instant speed is definitely big too.
Edit: I had Compelling Deterrence on the main and side (first 4 main, then 2), but they just became a little slow and situational. Ormendhal or manlands become a pain, haven't found any enchantments in my meta that are trouble. I'll keep an eye on it.
I took your advice and tried Catalog, the card is the real deal! Made the deck more consistent.
This is my current list:
4 Prized Amalgam
4 Stitchwing Skaab
4 Thing in the Ice
Instants (14)
3 Just the Wind
3 Catalog
4 Fiery Temper
4 Lightning Axe
3 Pieces of the Puzzle
4 Tormenting Voice
Enchantments (4)
4 Fevered Visions
Lands (24)
7 Island
9 Mountain
4 Shivan Reef
4 Wandering Fumarole
3 Dispel
3 Crumble to Dust
3 Displacement Wave
3 Negate
3 Roast
Main:
+3 Catalog: At instant speed is a great draw spell AND discard outlet.
-1 Pieces of the Puzzle: Still a very important part of the deck, but needed space for catalog and they fill pretty similar slots (but still different enough to run both at a considerable number).
-2 Geralf's Masterpiece: Really wanted to like this card, but it's cost (3U and discard 3) is just way to prohibitive. The few times I did cast it didn't affect the board in a big way and sometimes I had to let go of good spells (or not have enough mana for all the madness costs).
Sideboard:
+3 Dispel: The perfect answer against Dromoka's Command, Collected Company and counterspells.
-3 Avacyn's Judgment: Only wanted it for 'go-wide' strategies but it's not fast enough an requires a big mana investment to impact the game. If I had discard engines on a stick like Psychatog it would be a different story. Relying on Thing in the Ice and Displacement Wave for now.
Edit: Changed card order and fixed some spelling mistakes.
Thanks for all your input!
I'll keep updating my list once Eldritch Moon comes out, I've seen a couple of cards that might be good in this deck.
I'll post later on my changes and my FNM results from yesterday.
Edit: Report from my last FNM
I was missing 2x Thing in the Ice, but that didn't make a difference (on the contrary, the one I did have didn't help me at all).
Round 1 vs Naya Midrange:
Game one I won easily. His planeswalkers are too slow and between Stitchwing Skaab's evasion and Fiery Temper he didn't stand a chance.
Game two I didn't sideboard correctly (should've sided in Roast instead of Negate), I know this match turns into a more aggro one and I just wasn't thinking. Maybe it wouldn't have matter, 3x Reality Smashers later and I was dead (managed to hold off two, but the third one was too much).
Game three I was ready but 2x Reality Smasher was too much for me. I only drew into 1x Lightning Axe and never saw the rest or Roast. Good games none the less.
Round 2 vs Bant Company:
Game one I lost but don't remember much.
Game two I lost again. I've played this person before and from what I saw game one and what I've seen him play before I thought it was Bant Humans until it was too late. I also left Fevered Visions in, huge mistake.
Round 3 vs Mono-U Thing in the Ice/Mill:
Game one I lost to a lot of bounce and 3x Thing in the Ice.
Game two I lost again. I should've played more patiently. Mill decks tend to be a very favorable match against this deck, but even though he managed to get all 4x Prized Amalgams into my graveyard, he had 3x Engulf the Shores that bought him time to cast the third Startled Awake. Never drew into my Dispels and I didn't side in Negates in place of Thing in the Ice, I think it would've made all the different.
For bant you need a sweeper. You're kinda limited in UR. If you had a 3rd color, Radiant Flames could help. Engulf the Shore could work, but honestly, I don't like my own zombies bounced. I'd much rather they were killed.
You're right that Geralf's Masterpiece would've help in round 1 since I had to discard so much to kill all those Reality Smashers. But then again, if I draw Roast on that last match it would've been game. I'll keep it in mind since if the deck doesn't run a lot of removal, like the one I played against, it can be a big help.
Against Collected Company decks I don't think it would help as much, they can bounce it with Reflector Mage, blink it with Eldrazi Displacer or kill it with Dromoka's Command if I'm in a bad spot (the deck in Round 2 had all of them, I saw 5 Reflectors in 2 matches). This match was lost because of mistakes I made.
Round 3 was a lost cause. He had Disperse and Engulf the Shore (4 of each since I traded them to him before the tournament). If I play more conservative (not blowing through all my Tormenting Voices and Catalogs so fast, maybe it would've been different).