Hey, all. I recently played this in a Small Town Tournament where it did reasonably well. I had a few troubles against established decks, but still managed to go undefeated through the matches.
I'm not a big tourney, huge town FNM player or anything, but I'm looking for something a bit stronger than a casual deck too.
It's a decent decklist, and playing it intelligently and forcing counters at the end of their turn was a lot of what made it work so well, but I think there must be something more to throw to it.
Some people argued maindeck anti-counters, like Negate, would be a smarter choice. Someone else suggested having some sort of stronger first turn opening play to make, such as Sigarda's Aid so I could go off at the end of their turn and force the counter against a control oriented deck, or Essence Flux to protect against targeted removal. I'm not sure either of them would work well. A few others suggested Crush of Tentacles to add a "fifth" Paradoxical Outcome to reset the opponent's board too.
The one deck I had issues with was U/W Control, but I managed to play around them, and reward their overplays with random drops, like the Kingpin or Fireweaver, to set up to do something worse. Kingpin, in particular, kept my life going up with the equips a few times.
People also asked "Why only two Aetherflux Reservoirs," and I have no clue. It felt right using two rather than three, but if three (or four) would work better in most people's opinions I'd consider it again.
Is there a time where the End Step is overwritten by the returning creatures where I can tap them for Cryptolith mana before the end of my turn, or are they locked in place until the end of the turn? Say, someone tries to destroy the Cataclysmic Gearhulk, say, of them as they're coming back, and I have a counter in hand but no free mana. Can I tap the three returned dudes to cast an instant, or do I have to resolve their abilities first? This is assuming they were in play without Summoning Sickness.
Can I stack abilities to get only two of the Gearhulk's abilities to go off until the final resolution? For example, if I targeted Cataclysmic Gearhulk with Verdurous Gearhulk threw counters on him, then used Torrential Gearhulk to target the Eerie Interlude again, would I be able to stack up the one Gearhulk remaining (assuming I didn't remove it with the Interlude) with double the Tokens? Is there a way to save them, or do they all hit the play at the same time thus forcing me to sacrifice creatures?
What if I were to play or target a graveyard Essence Flux with Torrential Gearhulk? Can I return him to hand before he's caught by the cataclysm?
If I counter a spell with Reflector Mage then cast Eerie Interlude and removed the mage, would it remove the countered spell from the game like the old Bone Shredder "bounce" interaction?
Thank you so much for your time, hope there's a simple answer to my complicated questions.
I like the GB route, but I've been goofing around with a GRB build that plays around with Gutter Grime and Warstorm Surge, two cards which obviously don't get cheaper due to Heartless Summonings power, but which still work nicely to do massive amounts of damage.
I'm running Creeping Renaissance as well, another expensive green card that does nothing with Heartless Summoning, apart from making something like this happen:
Two Heartless Summoning, a Gutter Grime and a Warstorm Surge in play, huh? Okay, I'll recur all my artifact creatures with Creeping Renaissance, play them all for free, do free damage to you with Perilous Myrs, ruin your stuff stopping me with Acidic Slimes for GG, and get free lands and cards with Solemn Simulacrums. Oh, and I'll also hit you for however many points that Warstorm Surge scorched you for as the Gutter Grime spits out progressively bigger creatures from creatures dying constantly. Thanks.
Is it viable in a Tournament setting? Aaaaaaaaah... I dunno. Does it work? Yeah.
I understand it's only "half" an equipment, but does an equipment search still find it based on the transformed side?
I'm not a big tourney, huge town FNM player or anything, but I'm looking for something a bit stronger than a casual deck too.
Here's the decklist I played:
Lands (20)
4 Aether Hub
4 Choked Estuary
1 Geier Reach Sanitarium
2 Inventors' Fair
5 Island
4 Spirebluff Canal
Creatures (14)
4 Contraband Kingpin
4 Foundry Inspector
3 Glint-Nest Crane
3 Reckless Fireweaver
Instants and Sorceries (9)
4 Anticipate
1 Glimmer of Genius
4 Paradoxical Outcome
Artifacts (17)
2 Aetherflux Reservoir
4 Bone Saw
4 Cathar’s Shield
3 Metalspinner’s Puzzleknot
4 Prophetic Prism
It's a decent decklist, and playing it intelligently and forcing counters at the end of their turn was a lot of what made it work so well, but I think there must be something more to throw to it.
Some people argued maindeck anti-counters, like Negate, would be a smarter choice. Someone else suggested having some sort of stronger first turn opening play to make, such as Sigarda's Aid so I could go off at the end of their turn and force the counter against a control oriented deck, or Essence Flux to protect against targeted removal. I'm not sure either of them would work well. A few others suggested Crush of Tentacles to add a "fifth" Paradoxical Outcome to reset the opponent's board too.
The one deck I had issues with was U/W Control, but I managed to play around them, and reward their overplays with random drops, like the Kingpin or Fireweaver, to set up to do something worse. Kingpin, in particular, kept my life going up with the equips a few times.
People also asked "Why only two Aetherflux Reservoirs," and I have no clue. It felt right using two rather than three, but if three (or four) would work better in most people's opinions I'd consider it again.
Anyhow, thanks for your time, and for looking.
Is there a time where the End Step is overwritten by the returning creatures where I can tap them for Cryptolith mana before the end of my turn, or are they locked in place until the end of the turn? Say, someone tries to destroy the Cataclysmic Gearhulk, say, of them as they're coming back, and I have a counter in hand but no free mana. Can I tap the three returned dudes to cast an instant, or do I have to resolve their abilities first? This is assuming they were in play without Summoning Sickness.
Can I stack abilities to get only two of the Gearhulk's abilities to go off until the final resolution? For example, if I targeted Cataclysmic Gearhulk with Verdurous Gearhulk threw counters on him, then used Torrential Gearhulk to target the Eerie Interlude again, would I be able to stack up the one Gearhulk remaining (assuming I didn't remove it with the Interlude) with double the Tokens? Is there a way to save them, or do they all hit the play at the same time thus forcing me to sacrifice creatures?
What if I were to play or target a graveyard Essence Flux with Torrential Gearhulk? Can I return him to hand before he's caught by the cataclysm?
If I counter a spell with Reflector Mage then cast Eerie Interlude and removed the mage, would it remove the countered spell from the game like the old Bone Shredder "bounce" interaction?
Thank you so much for your time, hope there's a simple answer to my complicated questions.
I'm running Creeping Renaissance as well, another expensive green card that does nothing with Heartless Summoning, apart from making something like this happen:
Two Heartless Summoning, a Gutter Grime and a Warstorm Surge in play, huh? Okay, I'll recur all my artifact creatures with Creeping Renaissance, play them all for free, do free damage to you with Perilous Myrs, ruin your stuff stopping me with Acidic Slimes for GG, and get free lands and cards with Solemn Simulacrums. Oh, and I'll also hit you for however many points that Warstorm Surge scorched you for as the Gutter Grime spits out progressively bigger creatures from creatures dying constantly. Thanks.
Is it viable in a Tournament setting? Aaaaaaaaah... I dunno. Does it work? Yeah.