Wow, yea I am surprised there is even a debate about this. Hands down easiest deck to play in extended right now is Mono red burn. BTW I'm not trying to hate on it (I almost won a PTQ with it) and I've played hundreds of games this season with just about every other deck, and trust me on this - burns spells to the face, GG.
Well after a very long hiatus of not altering cards (busy finishing school, upcoming art show, etc) I have listed a couple cards. I think most people know me by my ebay name of ghastain, not g_crash. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoys these, let me know what you think!
Man, this thing is really cool! Thanks for taking the time to make it. It works fine and is really interesting, the only thing I wish was different is that it would be nice if the mouse scroll button worked to scroll up and down through opponents rather than changing the sort by option.
Le_Gambit, I really prefer painting with oil over acrylic (on canvas) but I was worried about oil paint cracking on cards. Like you said, the oil dries very stiff and hard. This not only changes the feeling of the card when it shuffles, but once the oil has dried completely, bending the card could easily crack the paint :-/. Acrylics however dry malleable, lightweight, and won't ever crack even when 100% dry.
Hi, I am the artist of the Duress and Brainstorm, they were my first cards and a lot of fun! Thanks Gavin for turning me onto all of this, it is a great way to kill spare time. I just finished a Garruk, here it is:
If anyone wants to find these cards on ebay, my ebay name is ghastain.
I completely agree about Desolation Giant being better than Magus. I really didn't like adding Magus, but just didn't see anything better and completely overlooked the Desolation Giants.
I guess if you don't plan to play in any block tournaments until all three sets are released you have no need to be concerned about the current TSP metagame.
I'm bored, so I'll help this deck out a bit although this
needs to be in the decks for critique thread... For starters, we do
have a pretty good idea of the format from MODO premier events. Decks
to deal with are UG morph, WW, BR and UR control, BR slivers and RG
scryb and force.
I'm not too sure splashing blue just for Lightning Angel is really
necessary, since Serra Avenger is a comparable if not superior win
condition, and we also have the bomb Sacred Mesa. As for Angels Grace...I generally don't like cards like this. It buys you a turn. Thats it. You would be better off advancing your board position than buying yourself a turn.
I'm a bit confused by the start of your decklist, you don't seem to
have any way to abuse either Momentary Blink or Lotus Bloom, so I'm
not sure why they are there. I'll start with a list of the best cards
for a WR control deck (including sb cards) and figure out a decklist
from that.
Sulfurous Blast
Magus of the Disk
Disintegrate - kills knight of the holy nimbus / opponents
Sudden Shock - kills pesky morphs
Disenchant
Temporal Isolation - early game aggro defense / Spectral Force answer
Evangelize
Serrated Arrows - kills soltari priest. good against aggro
Akroma
Bogardan Hellkite
Serra Avenger
Sacred Mesa
Opal Guardian - vs Aggro?
Jaya Ballard - vs....something?
Avalanche Riders
Wildfire Emmisary - vs WW maybe?
Fortune Thief
Candles of Leng
Prismatic Lens - acceleration is very important
Well, I think the best finishers for a deck like this are clearly
Akroma, Hellkite, Sacred Mesa, and Serra Avenger.
Mass removal is a MUST, so Sulfurous Blast and Magus of the Disk get
some room.
Sb:
3 Fortune Thief - Gaze of Justice gets a "little" play in WW, but
barring that I think they will have no way to win around this guy
3 Candles of Leng - I could be completely wrong, but I'm pretty sure
this will be a "decent" way to help you get card advantage in control
matchups. Playing against UR with Think Twice, Ancestral Visions, and
Careful Consideration is going to be rough...
3 Disenchant - For random Locket of Yesterdays, Gauntlet of Power, and
opposing sacred mesas...but I'm not really sure if these are needed
with Magus of the Disk in the MD...
4 Avalanche Riders - For anything mana hungry
2 Evangelize - Vs random reanimate decks/Spectral Force?
Overall the deck looks decent, for the record this has zero testing,
and most of the card ratios were just a guess at a starting point.
Blue based control will probably be a nightmare, WW and slivers should
be pretty good matchups.
GOOD LUCK!
I made Belcher independent of these forums, it has been doing extremely well except for vs hosers like Cranial Extraction and Damping Matrix. I played the deck at my fnm and went 6-1, with a first round loss to WW (I could have won but I topped incorrectly) Vs just about everything else, the deck wins pretty consistently. I expected Mono U to be an auto-loss, but I am 8-0 in games vs mono U. Game 1 they (hopefully) have no idea what you are playing, and waste their counters on cards that aren't belcher. After game 1, I bring in 4 Dosan and 2 Defense Grid, which is ridiculously good vs Mono U (After sb, Witness, Shizuko, Dosan, Defense Grid, and Belcher are all must counters!)
After WW I played Mono Red aggro (w/ land destruction), mono black control, and mono blue control. Top 8 I played Mono red again, then 5 color green, and Flores Red in the finals (we actually split, but we both know how the matchup goes, Flores Red doesn't really start to do much until about turn 5, when belcher is killing you)
My version uses vial as a 1 drop mana accellerator, vial is easily one of the best cards in the deck, just because it costs only 1! It can fuel some crazy draws however; Shizuko has been known to pull off amazing comeback wins curteousy of Aether Vial, but even just a Vine Trellis or Sakura is v. nice.
Before the tournament I could only find 3 Fabricate, so I played an 8th land, and it worked out awesome, so I'm sticking with it for now. I also didn't play an Ensaring Bridge maindeck, but it seems good.
I've tried Cranial Extraction in the sb, but sometimes they just get theirs first, and you are left defenseless. I also tried Psychic Spear, but was unhappy with it, and Sideswipe may work out, but seems to have the same problem as Extraction. Right now I am trying out artifacts as alternate win conditions.
Note on Pithing Needle: Fabricate for Explosives for 1 is basically the best answer I could think of for Pithing Needle. If it becomes very popular a MD'd Explosives would probably be neccesary, although most opponents game 1 will name Sensei's Divining Top or Vial or something because they don't know you are playing Belcher.
Yea Liek knows whats up, you should be playing Aether Vial and Hearth Kami. Vial is really good in a two color deck like that because you can use the vial to play any color of creature. Not to mention the fatty accelleration you get from vial in later turns, the mono blue control player can't counter anything you put into play with vial. Turn one vial with Hearth Kami backup is going to be really bad for anyone playing MUC. A couple boils in the sb along with some of the land destruction you already have and you should be good to go.
If anyone watched coverage of PT NO, you would remember the announcers talking about the card he submitted (Randy Buehler being one of the announcers.) They all agreed that the card Maher submitted in the form you guys are talking about now is too powerful, so it is almost guaranteed to be neutered in some way or another.
If anyone wants to find these cards on ebay, my ebay name is ghastain.
Ok thats good to know. I was thinking that morph was an activated ability. Oops.
I guess if you don't plan to play in any block tournaments until all three sets are released you have no need to be concerned about the current TSP metagame.
needs to be in the decks for critique thread... For starters, we do
have a pretty good idea of the format from MODO premier events. Decks
to deal with are UG morph, WW, BR and UR control, BR slivers and RG
scryb and force.
I'm not too sure splashing blue just for Lightning Angel is really
necessary, since Serra Avenger is a comparable if not superior win
condition, and we also have the bomb Sacred Mesa. As for Angels Grace...I generally don't like cards like this. It buys you a turn. Thats it. You would be better off advancing your board position than buying yourself a turn.
I'm a bit confused by the start of your decklist, you don't seem to
have any way to abuse either Momentary Blink or Lotus Bloom, so I'm
not sure why they are there. I'll start with a list of the best cards
for a WR control deck (including sb cards) and figure out a decklist
from that.
Sulfurous Blast
Magus of the Disk
Disintegrate - kills knight of the holy nimbus / opponents
Sudden Shock - kills pesky morphs
Disenchant
Temporal Isolation - early game aggro defense / Spectral Force answer
Evangelize
Serrated Arrows - kills soltari priest. good against aggro
Akroma
Bogardan Hellkite
Serra Avenger
Sacred Mesa
Opal Guardian - vs Aggro?
Jaya Ballard - vs....something?
Avalanche Riders
Wildfire Emmisary - vs WW maybe?
Fortune Thief
Candles of Leng
Prismatic Lens - acceleration is very important
Well, I think the best finishers for a deck like this are clearly
Akroma, Hellkite, Sacred Mesa, and Serra Avenger.
Mass removal is a MUST, so Sulfurous Blast and Magus of the Disk get
some room.
3 Bogardan Hellkite
2 Sacred Mesa
4 Serra Avenger
3 Magus of the Disk
3 Temporal Isolation
4 Sulfurous Blast
4 Sudden Shock
4 Disintegrate
3 Serrated Arrows
4 Prismatic Lens
2 Fungal Reaches
11 Plains
7 Mountain
3 Fortune Thief
3 Candles of Leng
3 Disenchant
4 Avalanche Riders
2 Evangelize
Sb:
3 Fortune Thief - Gaze of Justice gets a "little" play in WW, but
barring that I think they will have no way to win around this guy
3 Candles of Leng - I could be completely wrong, but I'm pretty sure
this will be a "decent" way to help you get card advantage in control
matchups. Playing against UR with Think Twice, Ancestral Visions, and
Careful Consideration is going to be rough...
3 Disenchant - For random Locket of Yesterdays, Gauntlet of Power, and
opposing sacred mesas...but I'm not really sure if these are needed
with Magus of the Disk in the MD...
4 Avalanche Riders - For anything mana hungry
2 Evangelize - Vs random reanimate decks/Spectral Force?
Overall the deck looks decent, for the record this has zero testing,
and most of the card ratios were just a guess at a starting point.
Blue based control will probably be a nightmare, WW and slivers should
be pretty good matchups.
GOOD LUCK!
After WW I played Mono Red aggro (w/ land destruction), mono black control, and mono blue control. Top 8 I played Mono red again, then 5 color green, and Flores Red in the finals (we actually split, but we both know how the matchup goes, Flores Red doesn't really start to do much until about turn 5, when belcher is killing you)
My version uses vial as a 1 drop mana accellerator, vial is easily one of the best cards in the deck, just because it costs only 1! It can fuel some crazy draws however; Shizuko has been known to pull off amazing comeback wins curteousy of Aether Vial, but even just a Vine Trellis or Sakura is v. nice.
Before the tournament I could only find 3 Fabricate, so I played an 8th land, and it worked out awesome, so I'm sticking with it for now. I also didn't play an Ensaring Bridge maindeck, but it seems good.
I've tried Cranial Extraction in the sb, but sometimes they just get theirs first, and you are left defenseless. I also tried Psychic Spear, but was unhappy with it, and Sideswipe may work out, but seems to have the same problem as Extraction. Right now I am trying out artifacts as alternate win conditions.
Here's the updated decklist:
// Lands
7 [IN] Forest (2)
1 [TE] Island (1)
// Creatures
4 [7E] Birds of Paradise
3 [FD] Eternal Witness
4 [CHK] Sakura-Tribe Elder
3 [BOK] Shizuko, Caller of Autumn
4 [8E] Vine Trellis
3 [8E] Wood Elves
4 [DS] AEther Vial
4 [MR] Chrome Mox
3 [MR] Fabricate
4 [MR] Goblin Charbelcher
3 [CHK] Kodama's Reach
4 [TE] Rampant Growth
4 [CK] Sensei's Divining Top
4 [MR] Sylvan Scrying
1 [7E] Ensnaring Bridge
Note on Pithing Needle: Fabricate for Explosives for 1 is basically the best answer I could think of for Pithing Needle. If it becomes very popular a MD'd Explosives would probably be neccesary, although most opponents game 1 will name Sensei's Divining Top or Vial or something because they don't know you are playing Belcher.