I actually bet Karn on my second game against him.
First game he had his turn 2 Colossus out, and I couldn't really do too much.
I used the Vampire deck btw. Was quite interesting, game 2 he had a turn 2 or 3 Lodestone Golem, followed up by a Wurmcoil Engine on the next turn. He got me down to 1 life, but then I ended up lifelinking it all back up.
But Karns deck sure has a high powerlevel, I mean he had 4 moxes out against me >_>
He got T2 colossus against me also game 1! I was playing with gideon and then game 2 I got a turn 5 kill after him playing literally zero spells. Was an interesting turn around O_o...
I've had some success in testing with this card, it effectively allows you to run a one of for cards like pithing needle / O-ring (with more in the SB obviously) and a 4x set of wargate. Tutor an answer, ramp into a land or whatever you need.
I've been having great success using it to tutor up halimar depths for a land ramp / ponder, or to fetch a CIPT tri-land, combo-ing nicely with amulet of vigor.
I've actually played over 200 games with my current deck that is abusing this card in conjunction with others and I think it plays very very nicely, doesn't have any bleeding weaknesses, and is FUN to play. *shrug*
Just throwing it out there for any input I might not have thought of regarding the card, but whatever, I'm sure if a deck top 8s somewhere using it, every single one of you will be OMG WARGATE IS SO GOOD JIZZ... but we already knew that.
Have fun in magical christmas-land. In all seriousness though, what decks are playing against where you actually have time to do this and it's enough to swing the game for you at that point.
Unless you completely dedicate your SB to it there's no way it's going to be a favorable matchup. You're an aggro deck without burn, it's pretty much impossible, since they're loads faster than you and you don't have great disruption.
Wall of Denial: buys you time against the aggro decks, 2 of which are Decks to beat. Disagree, I just tested it yesterday because I thought the same as you and it sucked.
Deft Duelist: annoys aggro- double evasion
Tidehallow sculler: if they have no answer, he's information and disruption- if they have an answer- he's a removal magnet to drop before big threats.
Kor Skyfisher: strange when a 2/3 flyer for 1w isn't seeing play. His "drawback" is often a big bonus with any "CIP" themed critters like ruinblasters, BBelfs, gatekeepers, etc.
Day of judgement: for a card that got such huge pre-release hype, no decks of note are really packing it in a big way. A white mono is starting to see play and looks good. this might be going up soon.
Summoning trap:Brutal. The decks built around this are no more inconsistant then jund, and a trap into iona is game over 99% of the time. The deck gets to 6 mana in no time flat with ramp and harrow. Once again disagree. It causes you to focus your deck around something kind of underwhelming that just lets your opponent do what they want unanswered.
Chandra nalar:Eats a creature and comes back for more. Huge starting counters make it a pain in the ass. Still cheap to buy- and impacts well in what appears to be largely a mid-range meta. She's expensive for some bad abilities. Basically the only relevant ability is the second one, which will mean she ends up not having a lot of counters.
Overrated?
I think nissa and monument are WAY overrated- one win and then cards tripled in value- and don't break down well. These are two cards that are entirely useless without specific pieces- and that is never good. Garruk makes nissa look bad- and doesn't force you to run 4 subpar creatures to justify. Nissa's chosen are not subpar when you pump them out every turn and they get to 4/5, 5/6 from oran and archdruid.
The Dredge.Dec
yes i know everyone loves graveyard manipulation. No, it WON't work.
and- if it ever DID work- jund charm/relic of prog/ravenous something or other. I'm sick of people playing this on mtgo already. It's like my time sieve nightmares. I love to wait for your 15 minutes turns only to kill you anyway. People play dredge in standard!? If they do, I agree with you.
Goblin guide: underwhelming to me still. I know it fills a curve slot nicely for red that otherwise is pretty mediorce, but i'd rather leave 1c in red to bolts/bursts/sprays/whatever and skip him for hellspark. Yes! Very nice.
Ajani V: often turns into a 4 mana lighting helix. for 20 bucks. Awesome. First off he's not even close to 20 bucks. Second, he's amazing. I take it you've never played with him.
all the Ascentions: Not more then a couple times in 50+ games in the last few weeks have i lost to all these various pyromancers/buttcheek/luminarch nonsense. When you build your entire deck around a card, unless it's a brutal combo that goes off to win right there, it's bound for failure. time sieve was a vicious combo that once it went off, was almost always doom- the ascentions are too easy to remove or just stomp on through anyhow. You tried it- now cut it out. I agree, those are really bad.
Ones I didn't respond on I agree with, but nothing particularly exciting that needed commentary.
Honestly the biggest problem with Sphinx of Lost truths is that he is suppose to go in a control deck, baut when you put him in, he is suddenly one of the only creatures in the deck and now gets killed by your opponents seemingly useless removal. Plus he becomes a target for bituminous blast allowing them to cascade. Where as if you never played him and only Sphinx of Jwar Isle they can't play the card without hitting their own guys.
Then there's the point that kicking the sphinx of lost truths is basically the same cost as playing Cruel Ultimatum, which is just better. or Mind spring for 5 and since the sphinx will instantly eat removal being your only creature the body is irrelevant.
This. Especially that he will just get killed. Jwar Isle means all your opponents removal is dead. If the think about the amount of removal a lot of people run these days that's a lot of dead cards.
I do find it amusingly cool that Path to Exile becomes a 2 for 1 in a mill deck; even if it's ramping them. Or maybe even a 14 for 2, or a 1 for 1 instant speed removal spell with no drawback, for one mana, if they're playing around Archive Trap
Mill is not card advantage. In no way is it a 14 for 2 etc.
Seriously though, every single dredge player should be able to play around hate. If you're playing dredge and don't expect hate games 2 and 3 and don't know how to play around it, then you don't deserve to be playing it. It's as simple as that.
The elves stuff is kind of BS, though. Yes, it was the first place to have it as a major showing, but pretty much everyone already had the deck, it was just the first place for the tourneys.
I'm in, but I don't have an account on whatever Wizards calls their forum now. Is this OK?
Yeah, I would just register there. Because it's going to be hard to be active in the tourney without an account anyway. Thanks for the good responses, things are looking good. xpolosp0rtx, go organize your own entire tourney, which is time consuming in itself, and have free prizes then. I'll happily join.
He got T2 colossus against me also game 1! I was playing with gideon and then game 2 I got a turn 5 kill after him playing literally zero spells. Was an interesting turn around O_o...
I love playing decks that run BBB and UG at the same time. I've never even been mana screwed.
Have fun in magical christmas-land. In all seriousness though, what decks are playing against where you actually have time to do this and it's enough to swing the game for you at that point.
Repeal is infinitely better.
Ones I didn't respond on I agree with, but nothing particularly exciting that needed commentary.
This. Especially that he will just get killed. Jwar Isle means all your opponents removal is dead. If the think about the amount of removal a lot of people run these days that's a lot of dead cards.
Mill is not card advantage. In no way is it a 14 for 2 etc.
Yeah, I would just register there. Because it's going to be hard to be active in the tourney without an account anyway. Thanks for the good responses, things are looking good. xpolosp0rtx, go organize your own entire tourney, which is time consuming in itself, and have free prizes then. I'll happily join.