MTG Salvation

Quote from TlbWars

So... do i build this deck or Belcher !?(competitive and fun point of view ) Some people say that this deck is just Worst than Belcher... :S
thx !:D

I can't really see that being true. Belcher has slightly more consistent mana generation, but this deck has Cabal Therapy and Chancellor of the Annex to protect the combo. It seem like it should be about on par with Belcher, or even better.

Quote from DanzBorin

Never noticed that this card looks like the polar bear is getting hit in the hind quarters with a giant gnarly snowball. I always thought it was something in the background, but upon closer inspection, it looks like it's colliding...

I always assumed that the Winter Orb was in the foreground, above the carcasses, and that the polar bear was roaring at it.

I recently pulled an Unlimited Nether Shadow out of my collection to put into a sideboard and I noticed something odd about it. There are very thin, but noticeable, lines of grey ink (the color around the skulls, one line from each mana symbol) running from the mana symbols down the card, about 1/2 or 3/4 inch in length. I am not familiar with Unlimited and I don't have any cards on hand to reference it with, is this a common occurrence or is this a minor misprint?

I would post pictures but the lines don't show up well on camera, and I don't have access to a scanner right now.

Quote from 5damage1mana?!?!

There is a huge difference between 4 and 5 mana and being in the tribe that just happens to have haste as a common lord effect.

If something like goblin warchief comes along the window where m12 and m13 is legal could be very interesting.

You still have Goblin Chieftain. You could go turn 1 Goblin Arsonist, turn 2 Krenko's Command, turn 3 Chieftain, turn 4 Krenko and make 5 2/2s with haste, bringing you up to 9 2/2 goblins and the 4/4 Krenko. I know this is goldfishing, but that seems pretty powerful.

For people splashing red, is Hellrider an option? He's a decently big body and pushed through extra damage.

I went 4-0 at a local tournament last night with this list:



I played against Solar Flare, RDW, R/W Tokens and G/W Ramp, winning all of my match-ups 2-0 except for G/W Ramp. I should have 2-0'd that match too, but I made a play error that cost me game 2. I'll post more information on my match-ups when I get the chance later today.

While the deck I used wasn't actually a Lash based build, I went 3-1 last night at my weekly local tournament with U/G Infect. I hadn't been looking around for lists online, so mine was admittedly a little lackluster, but it gave me a good starting point to work with. I was running this list:



13 pump spells was too many. I think I'm going to cut the Unnatural Predations all together, they were never particularly useful. The Flail was also less useful than I had thought, and the Lash is infinitely better. I also think that I need to add one more land, and I would like to fit in another Ponder as well. I am also playing with the idea of adding in 2x Corrupted Resolve, as I was often looking for a hard counter late game, and there were very, very few situations where my opponent was not already poisoned when I needed the hard counter.

I ran the list that I posted a couple of pages back at GenCon this weekend. I was 0-4 in matches for the day. I lost to Shrine Red twice, Pyromancer's Ascension, and Caw-Blade. I always felt like I was playing catch-up. Like I never had the answer that I needed at exactly the right time. I think I want to up the number of counterspells, maybe another Mana Leak and a pair of Stoic Rebuttal? I also think that a control build needs something like Into the Roil to deal with problem permanents. There were a lot of instances where a Roil would have been able to allow me to stabilize.

I think part of my problem was low threat density. I picked up a Wurmcoil Engine this weekend that I'll definitely be maindecking. I also want to fit a smaller 2 or 3 CMC creature into the build somewhere. I'll probably just move the Spellskite's mainboard. I also think that this deck doesn't have enough draw power, so I'm going to be experimenting with some alternative draw spells.

I had a great time playing with Thada Adel, Acquisitor. She stole a pair of Sword of Feast and Famine, one of which got countered (Yay 2 for 1!) and even got ahold of a Shrine. I think that in this metagame, with Caw-Blade, Tempered Steel, and Tezzeret being decks, she deserves some serious consideration.

I played Tezzeret for the first time last night in my LGS's weekly competitive tournament. It has been a long time since I've played a tempo/control deck like Tezzeret, and I was not familiar with all of the interactions, so I know that I made some misplays. I was surprised by the flexibility of the deck, I had games won in 5 turns, and others that were drawn out nearly into overtime. Here's my decklist:



I played against:

U/R Twin (Win 2-0)
B/G Birthing Pod (Win 2-0)
B/R Vampires (Loss 0-2)
Shrine Red (Win 2-0)

I don't have comprehensive notes from my matches, so I won't write up a full tournament report, just some thoughts. I was never in a bad spot against Twin, game 1 I won on turn 5 with Inkmoth + Tezzeret beats after clearing his hand with an Inquisition. My second game against B/G Pod took us nearly to overtime, but I came back from 5 life and my opponent staring me down with a pair of Wurmcoil Engines and a Massacre Wurm thanks to proliferate, Batterskull, Tumble Magnet and Tezzeret's -4 ability. Shrine Red was really close game 2, as he had landed two Shrines and got one up to 14 counters. Spellskite really shines in that match-up.

I could not gain any tempo against Vampires. I kept a hand with both spot removal and BSZ, but I just couldn't stop him from chipping away at my life total. Game two I sided in 10 cards from the board, but I still didn't gain enough traction to stop him. He did land double Bloodghast both games though, which seems difficult to deal with anyway.

Overall, I think I'm going to cut the Mindslaver, it just didn't do enough. I might add in something like Contagion Engine, or perhaps a third Tumble Magnet.

Quote from extremeicon

Germany does have quite a few nice beers, but the best beer in the world comes from Belgium. And if I had to name a second best, the U.S., with all the great craft breweries popping up in the last several years, might just edge out Germany.

I agree. I live in Michigan and we have a bevy of great breweries producing world-class beer. Bell's in Kalamazoo produces Hopslam, which is one of the best beers I've ever tasted, Two-Hearted Ale which is also excellent, and many more quality beers. Founders in Grand Rapids has their Breakfast Stout and the similar but definitely different and even better Kentucky Breakfast Stout, Centennial IPA, and Nemesis Barleywine. There are tons of great beers made in the U.S. now. Great Lakes Brewing Company in Ohio makes a ton of great beers, Sierra Nevada in California is good too.

I picked up a set of Japanese Commander decks at a good price, and I am thinking about selling some of the singles to recoup the cost. I just don't know what to price them at. I see Flusterstorm, Chaos Warp, and the Spymaster are going for $20 a piece on SCG in English, and there are some others worth $10+. How much does having these in Japanese add to the value?

Quote from DingoDan

I would just think that there are better low-cmc creatures out there, that doesn't neccesarily all spit out mana? It would seem like some kind of creature removal and your screwed, since your curve looks like this:

1drop: 13
2drop: 4
3drop: 8
4drop: 6
5drop: 5

Meaning that your hand will dump quickly, and thus making you more vulnerable to removal, or mass removal even, since a t2 pyroclasm would be pretty devastation to you on the play.

My own advice would be to spread out a few creatures to the 2drop slot, making you a bit more resistant. A few of the mana dorks could be replaced by other onedrops as well, as about 8 should be more than enough to be quite consistant.

1drops could be things like:
Copperhorn Scout
Signal Pest
Hex Parasite (mostly a SB card, but depends on your meta)

2drops could be:
Garruk's Companion
Bramblesnap
Spellskite (again a SB card)

Just throwing ideas out there.

Your suggestions are definitely worth considering. I ran JVL's list just to get an idea of what the deck was doing, and now it's definitely time to sit back and examine what cards were underperforming and what cards would make the deck more powerful overall. I was generally underwhelmed by Joraga Treespeaker, so I think that swapping her for Signal Pest would be a good idea. Bramblesnap seems like a excellent two-drop.

Quote from DingoDan

You're playing with 13 mana dorks, 20 lands, eldrazi spawns, but nothing really to ramp up to? The singleton monument, acidic slime?

Yeah, the point is just to spit dudes out. This deck wants to land a turn 2 Awakening Zone, a turn 3 predator and then either a turn 4 Beastmaster Ascension or Monument or even Fresh Meat. I think I'm actually going to cut a Treespeaker for an Arbor Elf, and I want to find room for the other Monument mainboard. I might also try running a big dude like Gaea's Avenger or Terastodon mainboard.

Tonight I ran a mono-green list, very similar to JVL's "Building on a Budget" list, at a local tournament. Went 3-1 on the night. My list was:

My match-ups were:
U/W Control: 2-0
U/B Control: 0-2 (But close games.)
U/R Exarch Twin 2-0
BUG Control 2-0

I will update with more notes about the matches tomorrow, as it is late here. I feel like this version of the deck is very powerful, but it takes a lot of practice/skill to know how far to extend and what opening hands to keep.

These are a Magic Online only product, though, correct?