My spells all performed well, but viscerid deepwalker left a lot to be desired as a win condition, and led to
a few draws that might not have happened otherwise
Pretty much everyone had some sort of answer to your lone ornithopter. You just weren't very resilient at all. You
pulled out a few draws by blocking and pumping though
3. Feyd_Ruin - Balance
Sacred Foundry / Restore Balance / Greater Gargadon / Leyline of Singularity / Path to Exile
The leyline only came into play in the one match it was (presumably) intended for, and might have been better as
another card, but restore balance and path together did a lot of work. And gargadon was almost too slow, but usually
showed up in the nick of time
4. LSK - Moonstone Cannon Fire!
Mountain / Rite of Flame / Rite of Flame / Magus of the Moon / Ratchet Bomb
I expected this deck to do a bit better, but I had forgotten that the interaction between magus of the moon
and urborg is not in your favor
5. Reyemile - Shining Shadows
Chancellor of the Annex / Shining Shoal / Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth / Hex Parasite / Death's Shadow
Congratulations! Your deck was both powerful and interesting. I really like seeing the chancellors used for some
effect or another, so they don't just sit in your hand after you reveal them. And death's shadow + hex parasite is
a great combo!
6. Heart of Draco - Dark Depths
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth / Dark Depths / Vampire Hexmage / Pithing Needle / Vendetta
It appears a decent amount of people were prepared for dark depths, but it's clearly still a very viable strategy.
Pithing needle actually turned some losses into draws
Commandeer was usually a little clunky, but that's because most of the spells played this week were creature spells,
or ones where it didn't matter who controlled them. Also, you were particularly vulnerable to chancellor of the
annex
8. Shogun17 - The Bad Guys
Chancellor of the Forge / Chancellor of the Forge / Chancellor of the Forge / Leyline of the Meek / Leyline of the Meek
I figured someone would run this deck, and apparently so did everyone else. A decent majority of the decks submitted
had a way to combat this deck. Maybe some other time when no one expects it this deck will shine again
9. ced395 - If it weren't for those meddling kids...
Ancient Den / Chancellor of the Annex / Engineered Explosives / Meddling Mage / Mox Opal
Your combination of disruption and removal worked out pretty well over all, although if you used chrome mox and a
blue land instead of mox opal and ancient den you'd get the same effect, but could cast engineered explosives on 2
10. Parsley - Annex Depths
Dark Depths / Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth / Vampire Hexmage / Chancellor of the Annex / Brain Pry
Hexmage depths is always good, but your lack of a way to deal with things that were already in play was your biggest
weakness
Next week is another normal week, entries due by 12:00 am Tuesday the 26th, but assuming all the decks aren't posted by then I'll still accept late entries
Modern 5CB is identical to vintage 5CB, except for the following:
-The cardpool is limited to cards that have been printed since 8th edition and mirrodin (counting both of those), ie anything printed in the new card frame (but also including timeshifted cards, and not including cards printed in duel decks or the from the vault series)
-No one may submit a deck that can cause their opponent to move a card in their hand to a different zone before that player's first turn. That is, no turn 1 discard. And, I don't believe that it's possible, but if so, no one can submit a deck that can win on its first turn
Think I only 3-3 against Reyemile. With him on the play he can feed Shoal to my Chancellor, cast Hex Parasite, then either put Death's Shadow down before I can Mage it, or can remove the counter from Explosives to stop me nailing his Shadow. Either way, I can't deal with Shadow.
Hex parasite can indeed remove counters I was expecting this to be relevant against storage lands, but it works on explosives too.
Turn 1 me: Shoal (countered), Urborg, Hex
Turn 1 you: Den, Opal, tap den to not get countered.
Turn 2 me: Go to 10 life, Death's Shadow, attack w/hex.
Turn 2 You: Meddling Mage does nothing, Explosives for 1 gets the counter eaten by hex next turn. Lose.
Edit: Also, I think I 6-0 forge-leyline (deck 8)
The lines of play are really complex, but I'm pretty sure I can force the win even on when he's on the play.
On the play, he starts by attacking me to 11. I play Death's Shadow.
He attacks again. I block with Shadow, go to five, and Death's Shadow doesn't die because it's power/toughness increase before state-based effects are checked.
My turn, I attack with my 8/8 Shadow, he's at 12. I play Parasite.
He doesn't have a good attack anymore. If he attacks with one goblin, I take it, go to two, and threaten lethal with death's shadow; he has to chump, and can't kill me the next turn. If he attacks with two or three, I can stay alive with Shoal and chumping with Hex if necessary, using shoal to remove the last blocker and Hex to go to exactly 1 and make Shadow lethal. If he doesn't attack, I start swinging with my 8/8 and forcing the same choice on him.
You're right about the hex parasite removing counters, I totally forgot he could do that.
But I thought about how your deck does against the leyline deck for a while, so I figured out the trickiest lines of play. On the play, he only attacks you for 6 on his first turn, so you have to play hex parasite instead of death's shadow. Then, on his 2nd turn he attacks with all 3. Your best line of play is shoal-ing the token you block to kill another token, leaving you at 8. Then you cast death's shadow. He passes, and if you attack, he takes 5 down to 15, then attacks back. If you block you go to 5, then attack back for 8 leaving him at 7, and he kills you on the return swing. If you don't block you go to 2, and still can't kill him in one swing, so neither of you attacks and it leads to a draw
Also, once I'm sure the results are final, I'm going to start calculating a PotM, the same way it's calculated now in vintage 5CB
If he attacks me down to 14 and I play parasite, then he attacks me down to 5, I just take it. I play death's shadow as an 8/8.
If he attacks, I block one with shadow killing it, shoal one to death, go to two, swing for 11, chump the next attack with Hex, and counterswing for the win.
If he doesn't attack, I do on my next turn. He can't block cause I just kill his tokens by losing life to the Parasite, so he has to take 8 and go to 12. When he counterswings, I chump with hex, use shoal to redirect three from me to HIM, and Shadow is lethal. If he swings with two and holds black a blocker, then I take three from one goblin, kill the blocker by shoaling damage from Hex Parite blocking the other, go to two life, and counter-swing for exactsies with parasite and an 11/11 shadow.
1. knobbodi - MUC
Island / Viscerid Deepwalker / Sea's Claim / Snapback / Disrupting Shoal
My spells all performed well, but viscerid deepwalker left a lot to be desired as a win condition, and led to
a few draws that might not have happened otherwise
2. X-Scorpion - Infinite Rage
Ornithopter / Blazing Shoal / Blazing Shoal / Myojin of Infinite Rage / Myojin of Infinite Rage
Pretty much everyone had some sort of answer to your lone ornithopter. You just weren't very resilient at all. You
pulled out a few draws by blocking and pumping though
3. Feyd_Ruin - Balance
Sacred Foundry / Restore Balance / Greater Gargadon / Leyline of Singularity / Path to Exile
The leyline only came into play in the one match it was (presumably) intended for, and might have been better as
another card, but restore balance and path together did a lot of work. And gargadon was almost too slow, but usually
showed up in the nick of time
4. LSK - Moonstone Cannon Fire!
Mountain / Rite of Flame / Rite of Flame / Magus of the Moon / Ratchet Bomb
I expected this deck to do a bit better, but I had forgotten that the interaction between magus of the moon
and urborg is not in your favor
5. Reyemile - Shining Shadows
Chancellor of the Annex / Shining Shoal / Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth / Hex Parasite / Death's Shadow
Congratulations! Your deck was both powerful and interesting. I really like seeing the chancellors used for some
effect or another, so they don't just sit in your hand after you reveal them. And death's shadow + hex parasite is
a great combo!
6. Heart of Draco - Dark Depths
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth / Dark Depths / Vampire Hexmage / Pithing Needle / Vendetta
It appears a decent amount of people were prepared for dark depths, but it's clearly still a very viable strategy.
Pithing needle actually turned some losses into draws
7. WhammWhamme - POISON?!
Pendlehaven / Glistener Elf / Commandeer / Snapback / Mental Misstep
Commandeer was usually a little clunky, but that's because most of the spells played this week were creature spells,
or ones where it didn't matter who controlled them. Also, you were particularly vulnerable to chancellor of the
annex
8. Shogun17 - The Bad Guys
Chancellor of the Forge / Chancellor of the Forge / Chancellor of the Forge / Leyline of the Meek / Leyline of the Meek
I figured someone would run this deck, and apparently so did everyone else. A decent majority of the decks submitted
had a way to combat this deck. Maybe some other time when no one expects it this deck will shine again
9. ced395 - If it weren't for those meddling kids...
Ancient Den / Chancellor of the Annex / Engineered Explosives / Meddling Mage / Mox Opal
Your combination of disruption and removal worked out pretty well over all, although if you used chrome mox and a
blue land instead of mox opal and ancient den you'd get the same effect, but could cast engineered explosives on 2
10. Parsley - Annex Depths
Dark Depths / Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth / Vampire Hexmage / Chancellor of the Annex / Brain Pry
Hexmage depths is always good, but your lack of a way to deal with things that were already in play was your biggest
weakness
X 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
1 X 2 6 6 2 6 6 0 3 4 34
2 2 X 0 0 0 0 2 6 0 0 10
3 0 6 X 2 0 4 0 6 2 0 20
4 0 6 2 X 0 0 0 6 3 3 18
5 2 6 6 6 X 4 4 6 3 4 40
6 0 6 1 6 1 X 4 3 6 2 28
7 0 2 6 6 1 1 X 0 2 0 18
8 6 0 0 0 0 3 6 X 0 6 20
9 3 6 2 3 3 0 2 6 X 6 30
0 1 6 6 3 1 2 6 0 0 X 22
Congratulations Reyemile!
Next week is another normal week, entries due by 12:00 am Tuesday the 26th, but assuming all the decks aren't posted by then I'll still accept late entries
Player of the Month Standings:
1. Reyemile (4.44)
2. knobbodi (3.77)
3. ced395 (3.33)
4. Heart of Draco (3.11)
5. Parsley (2.44)
6. Shogun17 (2.22)
6. Feyd_Ruin (2.22)
8. LSK (2)
8. WhammWhamme (2)
10. X-Scorpion (1.11)
Modern5CB rules:
-The cardpool is limited to cards that have been printed since 8th edition and mirrodin (counting both of those), ie anything printed in the new card frame (but also including timeshifted cards, and not including cards printed in duel decks or the from the vault series)
-No one may submit a deck that can cause their opponent to move a card in their hand to a different zone before that player's first turn. That is, no turn 1 discard. And, I don't believe that it's possible, but if so, no one can submit a deck that can win on its first turn
-The banned list is:
Ghost Quarter
Hex parasite can indeed remove counters I was expecting this to be relevant against storage lands, but it works on explosives too.
Turn 1 me: Shoal (countered), Urborg, Hex
Turn 1 you: Den, Opal, tap den to not get countered.
Turn 2 me: Go to 10 life, Death's Shadow, attack w/hex.
Turn 2 You: Meddling Mage does nothing, Explosives for 1 gets the counter eaten by hex next turn. Lose.
Edit: Also, I think I 6-0 forge-leyline (deck 8)
The lines of play are really complex, but I'm pretty sure I can force the win even on when he's on the play.
On the play, he starts by attacking me to 11. I play Death's Shadow.
He attacks again. I block with Shadow, go to five, and Death's Shadow doesn't die because it's power/toughness increase before state-based effects are checked.
My turn, I attack with my 8/8 Shadow, he's at 12. I play Parasite.
He doesn't have a good attack anymore. If he attacks with one goblin, I take it, go to two, and threaten lethal with death's shadow; he has to chump, and can't kill me the next turn. If he attacks with two or three, I can stay alive with Shoal and chumping with Hex if necessary, using shoal to remove the last blocker and Hex to go to exactly 1 and make Shadow lethal. If he doesn't attack, I start swinging with my 8/8 and forcing the same choice on him.
But I thought about how your deck does against the leyline deck for a while, so I figured out the trickiest lines of play. On the play, he only attacks you for 6 on his first turn, so you have to play hex parasite instead of death's shadow. Then, on his 2nd turn he attacks with all 3. Your best line of play is shoal-ing the token you block to kill another token, leaving you at 8. Then you cast death's shadow. He passes, and if you attack, he takes 5 down to 15, then attacks back. If you block you go to 5, then attack back for 8 leaving him at 7, and he kills you on the return swing. If you don't block you go to 2, and still can't kill him in one swing, so neither of you attacks and it leads to a draw
Also, once I'm sure the results are final, I'm going to start calculating a PotM, the same way it's calculated now in vintage 5CB
And next week's going to be another normal week
If he attacks, I block one with shadow killing it, shoal one to death, go to two, swing for 11, chump the next attack with Hex, and counterswing for the win.
If he doesn't attack, I do on my next turn. He can't block cause I just kill his tokens by losing life to the Parasite, so he has to take 8 and go to 12. When he counterswings, I chump with hex, use shoal to redirect three from me to HIM, and Shadow is lethal. If he swings with two and holds black a blocker, then I take three from one goblin, kill the blocker by shoaling damage from Hex Parite blocking the other, go to two life, and counter-swing for exactsies with parasite and an 11/11 shadow.