Hey there! I'm hoping to get input into making my deck better, remind me of cards I may have forgotten, and help me make a better Arcanis deck. First of all: NO I wont be switching generals to Azami since I am making this more of a turbo draw style deck where I can find my combos quickly. Secondly cost is no issue so suggest only the best cards, the deck is around 2 grand anyways because its all foils/betas/promos
Right now the deck wins about 3 out of 4 games either by dropping a fast Blightsteel or assembling my darksteel>disk combo. I was thinking of adding Power artifact combos and draw spells to deck out opponents but not sure what to take out. Thanks for the help!
5, you always gain the Lifelinker's power in line unless his power is somehow reduced to 0, say that 2/2 had indestructable, or was removed from combat after blocking is declared but before damage say by Restoration angel.
It is ultimately a competition, and there are ultimately prizes. Do not fault people for playing to win, even if doing so is "uncreative" or "boring" by your definition. They are playing to win, they have brought what they believe to be the best tool for the job.
The type of magic you are looking for is played around kitchen tables, by groups of friends who share a similar definition of what makes magic fun and play by that. When you open something up to public registration and offer prizes, expect to see people who are playing to win.
I cant tell you how many times players have come to a FNM with decks that werent competitive and Ive heard 'well I beat my friends a lot' Casual magic is fun but unless a store sets up something for that specifically there is an entry fee on the line and I cant say that I play to have fun, I play to win and hone my skills to prep for the next major tournament. Even free tournaments with only promos on the line will not even ensure a casual game however, not too long ago the store owner said 'free Friday and 7 of you brought delver decks? You all should be ashamed'
Bottom line is if you go to a store to play expect the best, magic in my day (revised) was about having fun but now its about spending money for the best cards to make the best decks, and winning!
I played a rather traditional list at SCG Sacramento and went 7-2 (26th place) and only lost to a mirror match due to keeping bad hands, and a wolf's run because the player had nuts both games. I think the deck is still very competitive but you have to have a combo of skill and luck to get there all the time. I would not suggest planeswalker.deck because I always run that over, one match I happened to look in this guy's graveyard after numerous counters and creature beats... there was 14 of them in the yard when I won lol
I would say it would be Wolf's Run, a resolved Slagstorm to wipe you or Primeval Titan is pretty nasty and hard for the deck to deal with. Once they get Wolf's Run and an Inkmoth out if you dont play Spellskites in the side its a miserable game for us...
I am still running an old version of the deck (no geists or lingerings) but instead run 4 hauntings, 2 saint traft and 2 swords of body and mind, and I must say I've crushed all versions of this deck Ive played against. With all these spirit/delver builds plus the rise of green and wolves run I feel B&M is the best sword for the meta atm
After a sad game of 2-3 this Sunday for a championship tournament (which should have been 0-5 due to deck check and a friend throwing me the game but beating me for fun) I have no idea how this deck gets there. I am really not happy with the lack of answers but I guess its a combo deck, you are all in or you brick, well this was bricking season for me. Allow me to share what I learned...
1)Any white player will always have StP, ALWAYS! Taking the turn two Jin risk is always met with a StP and I never have a damn counterspell
2)How many %&^* Karakas draws can you have opening hand??
3)Ive never respected anyone who uses Jace, because he is an auto win and requires no skill to play(He might as well said 4mana win the game) yes I know we have shroud targets but I didnt get any
4)Never count on plan B, if your first target is destroyed you most likely wont be able to reanimate a second
5)Archangel never seems like a good choice, I think I lost 5 games to "Ok I swing at you for 8"
6)Grabbing your combo is quite hard, a lot harder then I would have imagined!
Between 3 Jins and 1 Iona, you already have enough top targets against combo.
Your number one target against most combo decks is Jin rather than Iona, unless you are sure they have zero outs to Iona.
Reanimating Jin forces them to try to go off next turn while you have a full grip of 7 to stop them, and puts them in topdeck mode for the rest of the game (which is virtually GG against everything but Past in Flames). Plus, you can typically get Iona out the turn after.
I totally agree with this, I tired to use Chancellor and I thought to myself, with a zero card hand from Jin (plus my potential to draw more counter spells) or Iona to stop the color of choice storm spell, Chancellor felt un-needed... not to mention its wording would do nothing against a Hivemind deck which I always seem to run into =/
I just dropped some serious cash on getting key cards for the deck. Even after owning a chunk of the cards, it's still a challenge to buy-out the rest financially. I would honestly opt to get all spells/critters prior to the lands. Fetch are also more important than duals. If you can't filter, you lose. You can realistically run appropriate fetchlands into basics/watery grave and get away with it. lacking entombs and fetch but having seas is worse imo.
I 'bought the format' too but it wasnt as difficult since I came from Merfolk (so already had forces) and collected 2 sets of revised back in the day. What turned the tide for me was the Graveborn set which I bought x4 for $118 and sold off what I didnt need to make about $50 back. Other then that I got a Sea for christmas and ebayed the last one at $81. I must say I love the deck and I do think the Zendikar fetches work as good as Deltas. (My package uses 3 Rainforests 3 Scalding Tarn 3 Marsh Flats) Islands are far more important then swamps since you can really go > End of turn fetch for a Sea with the threat of a wasteland when you have your package ready to go.
Trying out this deck, tell me what you think. First of all Im defending my inclusion of Emrakul in the main board for two reasons... I have found in several games the idea of 'Jin and win' doesnt always work, Ive actually ran into problems where I get chumped or thwarted and just deck out. A one of will help main board protection for this and also protect you g1 (and game 2) from painter servant combos. He is only bad if he is in your opening hand, but can be flushed away with brainstorms.
Also I like the idea of a few Lim Dul's vault for searching game 2 when the Show and Tells come in for Emrakul... just sayin!
Lastly I dont own any Polluted Delta, Im working on that!
How does Tempered Steel handle Wolf Run now that it appears it's the deck to beat in Standard right now?
I can see of no way to deal with the land itself unless I'm missing something. You can't use O-ring and everything else that white has is either creature, enchantment or artifact removal.
Suggestions?
Hold back your dispatches (and dismember) until thy activate Wolfs run for lethal, remember by assigning damage to you or saying 'no blocks' they can respond with it's activation, THEN you play your kill card.
Other than sideboarding Flashfreezes (since I'm pretty much the last person here who still believes in splashing blue), I'm not sure what we can do off the top of my head.
I've preached blue since the Scares set came out, its just so good at stopping problems. Mana Leaks, Negates, and Flashfreeze are the way to go
Right now the deck wins about 3 out of 4 games either by dropping a fast Blightsteel or assembling my darksteel>disk combo. I was thinking of adding Power artifact combos and draw spells to deck out opponents but not sure what to take out. Thanks for the help!
1 Arcanis the Omnipotent
Creatures (23):
1 Archivist
1 Blightsteel Colossus
1 Copper Gnomes
1 Dominating Licid
1 Duplicant
1 Ertai, Wizard Adept
1 Grand Architect
1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
1 Magus of the Bazaar
1 Magus of the Future
1 Master of Etherium
1 Master Transmuter
1 Memnarch
1 Platinum Angel
1 Platinum Emperion
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Sower of Temptation
1 Treasure Mage
1 Trinket Mage
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Vesuvan Doppelganger
1 Wurmcoil Engine
Planeswalkers (1):
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
Non-Creature Artifacts (19):
1 Basalt Monolith
1 Batterskull
1 Darksteel Forge
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Expedition Map
1 Grim Monolith
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Mycosynth Lattice
1 Nevinyrral’s Disk
1 Pithing Needle
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Sky Diamond
1 Sol Ring
1 Staff of Nin
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Vedalken Shackles
1 Brainstorm
1 Cancel
1 Counterspell
1 Deprive
1 Dismiss
1 Dissipate
1 Force of Will
1 Mana Drain
1 Misdirection
1 Negate
1 Pact of Negation
1 Whispers of the Muse
Enchantments (3):
1 Future Sight
1 Mind Over Matter
1 Pemmin's Aura
Sorceries (5):
1 Bribery
1 Fabricate
1 Gitaxian Probe
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Ponder
Land (37):
22 Island
1 Academy Ruins
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Bazaar of Baghdad
1 Cephalid Coliseum
1 Darksteel Citidel
1 Flooded Strand
1 Minamo, School at Water’s Edge
1 Mishra's Factory
1 Mishra's Workshop
1 Polluted Delta
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolaria West
1 Vesuva
1 Wasteland
I couldn't have said that any better my friend.
I cant tell you how many times players have come to a FNM with decks that werent competitive and Ive heard 'well I beat my friends a lot' Casual magic is fun but unless a store sets up something for that specifically there is an entry fee on the line and I cant say that I play to have fun, I play to win and hone my skills to prep for the next major tournament. Even free tournaments with only promos on the line will not even ensure a casual game however, not too long ago the store owner said 'free Friday and 7 of you brought delver decks? You all should be ashamed'
Bottom line is if you go to a store to play expect the best, magic in my day (revised) was about having fun but now its about spending money for the best cards to make the best decks, and winning!
1)Any white player will always have StP, ALWAYS! Taking the turn two Jin risk is always met with a StP and I never have a damn counterspell
2)How many %&^* Karakas draws can you have opening hand??
3)Ive never respected anyone who uses Jace, because he is an auto win and requires no skill to play(He might as well said 4mana win the game) yes I know we have shroud targets but I didnt get any
4)Never count on plan B, if your first target is destroyed you most likely wont be able to reanimate a second
5)Archangel never seems like a good choice, I think I lost 5 games to "Ok I swing at you for 8"
6)Grabbing your combo is quite hard, a lot harder then I would have imagined!
I totally agree with this, I tired to use Chancellor and I thought to myself, with a zero card hand from Jin (plus my potential to draw more counter spells) or Iona to stop the color of choice storm spell, Chancellor felt un-needed... not to mention its wording would do nothing against a Hivemind deck which I always seem to run into =/
I 'bought the format' too but it wasnt as difficult since I came from Merfolk (so already had forces) and collected 2 sets of revised back in the day. What turned the tide for me was the Graveborn set which I bought x4 for $118 and sold off what I didnt need to make about $50 back. Other then that I got a Sea for christmas and ebayed the last one at $81. I must say I love the deck and I do think the Zendikar fetches work as good as Deltas. (My package uses 3 Rainforests 3 Scalding Tarn 3 Marsh Flats) Islands are far more important then swamps since you can really go > End of turn fetch for a Sea with the threat of a wasteland when you have your package ready to go.
I wouldn't recommend it, legacy duals are the only way to play legacy
Also I like the idea of a few Lim Dul's vault for searching game 2 when the Show and Tells come in for Emrakul... just sayin!
Lastly I dont own any Polluted Delta, Im working on that!
3 Misty Rainforest
3 Marsh Flats
2 Scalding Tarn
3 Swamp
2 Island
3 Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Inkwell Leviathan
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Empyrial Archangel
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
3 Daze
2 Lim-Dul's Vault
3 Reanimate
4 Exhume
4 Careful Study
3 Duress
4 Animate Dead
4 Show and Tell
2 Surgical Extraction
3 Echoing Truth
1 Duress
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
1 Chancellor of the Annex
1 Blazing Archon
1 Angel of Despair
Hold back your dispatches (and dismember) until thy activate Wolfs run for lethal, remember by assigning damage to you or saying 'no blocks' they can respond with it's activation, THEN you play your kill card.
I've preached blue since the Scares set came out, its just so good at stopping problems. Mana Leaks, Negates, and Flashfreeze are the way to go