Hello. My playgroup is having a Two-Headed Giant tournament (Legacy restrictions) and I've been tinkering with decks that had the power to eliminate both opposing heads. I have a very small budget (no actual money, just trades) and wouldn't mind having suggestions.
The ideal hand would be:
Bloodchief Ascension, Burst Lightning, Volt Charge, Mindcrank, Swamp, Mountain, Mountain, then drawing into any discard spell. This hand allows the deck to achieve infinite awesomeness. What do you think?
*Dear Mods, if this is in the wrong section, I apologize.*
Countermagic is the smell before rain, the sun on the horizon and the chocolate chips in my mint chocolate chip ice cream. It's the first time I saw a woman naked and the first time I smelled perfume. It's that feeling you get when you know you're right.
But most of all; it's the feeling of playing Magic
Demonic Tutor isn't legal. You'll need to consider some other tutors instead. That being said, you don't have access to many great options. Diabolic Tutor I guess. Plunge into Darkness and Spoils of the Vault are also viable since you do start with much more life actually. Beseech the Queen is also very good, but requires a heavy Black commitment.
Consider adding Ankh of Mishra to the deck. It's very good at triggering your Ascension. Hideous End might also be better than Doom Blade since it deals 2.
Tormented Shade isn't a card, did you mean Tormented Soul? If so, I wouldn't use him since he only deals 1 damage. That doesn't seem ideal.
Burn is fine but consider some Black options like Syphon Soul, Blood Tithe and Exsanguinate. They all deal at least 4 damage, and they'll also give you a life boost to possibly fuel your tutors and keep you in the game.
Twin Bloodcrank (Each head playing the STD version in the wizzo's article)...
Aren't you only allowed to play 4 copies of any given card (other than basic lands) total between both heads? Can each head really play the exact same cards?
Personnaly a Mindcrank/Bloodchief Ascension was better in BU.
You play some control like counter/discard/some removal and with blue you have access to better tutor. Muddle the Mixture can be a interested one. Can tutor Mindcrank and it's can be use for counterspell if someone try to break your combo. For Tutoring Bloodchief you will only find lowcost tutor in white: Enlightened Tutor but it's a expensive one. Maybe with some draw filter in blue you can be good to found it really fast.
So your deck will be control/combo and your teamate will help you to set the combo with the damage.
I should clarify: I do not know who my partner will be, as pairings are random. Also I like the B/U version as well, but figured this one would go off faster, as I have a strong feeling that I will be going against Pyromancer Ascension deck, and players with bigger wallets. I will post my B/U version later to see what you think. Thanks for the input.
Countermagic is the smell before rain, the sun on the horizon and the chocolate chips in my mint chocolate chip ice cream. It's the first time I saw a woman naked and the first time I smelled perfume. It's that feeling you get when you know you're right.
But most of all; it's the feeling of playing Magic
Here's the rough skeleton of my old B/U Bloodchief deck (it did not have Mindcrank though). This is all from memory so some cards can be mixed up or entered wrong.
Countermagic is the smell before rain, the sun on the horizon and the chocolate chips in my mint chocolate chip ice cream. It's the first time I saw a woman naked and the first time I smelled perfume. It's that feeling you get when you know you're right.
But most of all; it's the feeling of playing Magic
The problem I see with B/R deck was your didn't care about your teamate. Your deck was focus arround something he cannot really help you. In experience, 2-Head was win by deck that complete each other. If you get a partner with a I control focus your pairing will be good but if you get a partner really aggro or with a other combo deck. Both of you will focus in a different plan and it's will be easier for the ennemie to stop you.
One of my best pairing was Merfolk heavy control (My deck) with Mono Green elf. I control the board and slowly get a board with Aether Vial. I drop Standstill at the end of our turn to refill my hand of counterspell and the hand of my friend. With this type of synergie, it's pretty hard to stop.
What I'm seeing with your deck, it's the small group of deck you will have a good pairing. With Blue/Black you can be heavy control and combo was a win condition if the game was hard. In my experience it's pretty rare your opponents cannot deal damage to your opponents. And if you really need to deal damage to trigger Bloodchief use Dauthi Horror or Inkfathom Infiltrator.
This his the type of deck I will run for BU deck with Mindcrank and Bloodchief Ascension. I didn't put manabase I only fill with 24 land and split 50-50 but it's depend the budget you can add a lot of think. It's a typic draw Landfall Go deck with a combo in win condition. I didn't had tutor because the deck have enough draw to find the card to combo otherwise I will change the deck and add some white in it for 4 Enlightened Tutor but the mana base will be expensive for being playable.
The problem I see with B/R deck was your didn't care about your teamate. Your deck was focus arround something he cannot really help you. In experience, 2-Head was win by deck that complete each other. If you get a partner with a I control focus your pairing will be good but if you get a partner really aggro or with a other combo deck. Both of you will focus in a different plan and it's will be easier for the ennemie to stop you.
One of my best pairing was Merfolk heavy control (My deck) with Mono Green elf. I control the board and slowly get a board with Aether Vial. I drop Standstill at the end of our turn to refill my hand of counterspell and the hand of my friend. With this type of synergie, it's pretty hard to stop.
Pardon me, but I think you missed the post where I said that I had no control over what deck my teammate will use. The tournament organizer came up with randomized partners as a way to mitigate a team from running combo decks like this. I understand that it seems like I'm trying to control the match, but when I find out my partner's deck, things may change. I choose this deck because it seemed like a great way to ensure victory if my partner's deck is to slow or underperforming. In my playgroup, we tend to do "character/skill building" tournaments, like playing someone else's deck or building color specific decks. This tournament is to see how well players can work together. That is hard for me as I am mainly a control player that wants thing done very specifically, so my decks tend to lean toward the "lone-wolf" style.
Countermagic is the smell before rain, the sun on the horizon and the chocolate chips in my mint chocolate chip ice cream. It's the first time I saw a woman naked and the first time I smelled perfume. It's that feeling you get when you know you're right.
But most of all; it's the feeling of playing Magic
I didn't missed the part you didn't have control over the deck your teammate. But with my experience people play a little bit more aggro deck 2-Head because it's easier to pair with a other deck. So with a high control deck that can shut down a deck early game and stop it if he didn't have enough card advantage. You gain time for comboing off and you stay in the game. With the Red/Black version you didn't have enough card advantage to still control and activated Chief.
It's my vision and what I understand of my experience. We didn't have the same metagame and players.
I perfectly understand you can be pair with a really bad guys but that's part of the game. I have a experience like that and that's scrap my tournament. I finish 3th on 10 because I can play a by myself. It impossible even with a top tier 1 Legacy deck to win vs 2 players.
Can you choose your deck after pairing???
What's your metagame type of deck???
I don't know if I can change my deck (I think I can), though I'm unsure if the other players will come with extra decks. It's been a long time since I've done Two-Headed Giant in my playgroup (I've been testing my standard decks), but our standard/casual meta is basically werewolves (G/R super aggro), my U/W Invisi-Blade (invisible stalker Caw blade hybrid), Shadowmoor Elementals, vampires, pretty much any working deck (usually extended cards). Also, I choose this deck because its possible to charge the ascension by your third/fourth turn, then start the combo and win. Any lightning bolt that kills a creature can start the combo. I don't think I will be going against any super strong decks as the wallets in the group aren't very big, though there are some players who can bring Pyromancer Ascension and Lhurgoyf decks, which present the largest problem.
Countermagic is the smell before rain, the sun on the horizon and the chocolate chips in my mint chocolate chip ice cream. It's the first time I saw a woman naked and the first time I smelled perfume. It's that feeling you get when you know you're right.
But most of all; it's the feeling of playing Magic
Creatures (6) 2 Vampire Nighthawk - Crazy creature 3 or 4 if it's possible 2 Pulse Tracker - It's deal 2 damage but 1 to each so it's not trigger Bloodchief maybe you can find a better creature like Dauthi Horror 2 Child of Night - Didn't understand why you will need this
Hellspark Elemental can be interested early game you put pressure and last game you can unearth it when the board was empty. It's a supprise card because a lot of people didn't remember you have this into your grave late game.
One thing you need was card advantage. You didn't draw enough card. Card like Night's Whisper and Sign in Blood can be really interested to refill your hand because you will cast your card really fast.
A card that you will maybe like will be Punishing Fire it's give you the possibility to gain a certain type of card advantage after you play it because you can get it back if your opponent gain life.
Countermagic is the smell before rain, the sun on the horizon and the chocolate chips in my mint chocolate chip ice cream. It's the first time I saw a woman naked and the first time I smelled perfume. It's that feeling you get when you know you're right.
But most of all; it's the feeling of playing Magic
Shock can be cut for 2xTerminate
For the sign in Blood it's your choice. Personnaly you have 16 spells if I didn't count creature that can deal 2 or more damage to trigger Bloodchief. You can lower a little bit this count for 4 Sign in Blood. In this process you get a better Card advantage to draw you deck and the better card of your deck.
My choice will be Burst Lightning because it's the weaker IMO.
A other problem I see was Despise. You have a huge number of creature removal why do you want to target your opponents to discard a card. IMO Your true problem was spell that remove Artifact and Enchantment. The mana cost of those spells was 3 and lower so I recommand to play Inquisition of Kozilek. With that your are good to remove a huge number of artifact/enchantment spot removal and protect your combo.
The Dispise was, at the time, a back up for triggering the combo (force a discard to start the combo), but can be cut for the Inqusitions or even Duress. The Shocks were in as a removal/Bloodchief counter card (as I could get a counter on the enchantment in a pinch), but now that I look harder, I think you're right in saying it's just an unneeded extra.
Countermagic is the smell before rain, the sun on the horizon and the chocolate chips in my mint chocolate chip ice cream. It's the first time I saw a woman naked and the first time I smelled perfume. It's that feeling you get when you know you're right.
But most of all; it's the feeling of playing Magic
Here is my first idea (more will come soon):
Mindcrank Ascension
11 Swamp
11 Mountain
Enchantments and Artifacts (8)
4 Bloodchief Ascension
4 Mindcrank
Instants (18)
4 Burst Lightning
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Volt Charge
2 Terminate
2 Hideous End
2 Shock
2 Duress
2 Despise
2 Blightning
Creatures (6)
2 Vampire Nighthawk
2 Pulse Tracker
2 Child of Night
The ideal hand would be:
Bloodchief Ascension, Burst Lightning, Volt Charge, Mindcrank, Swamp, Mountain, Mountain, then drawing into any discard spell. This hand allows the deck to achieve infinite awesomeness. What do you think?
*Dear Mods, if this is in the wrong section, I apologize.*
Consider adding Ankh of Mishra to the deck. It's very good at triggering your Ascension. Hideous End might also be better than Doom Blade since it deals 2.
Tormented Shade isn't a card, did you mean Tormented Soul? If so, I wouldn't use him since he only deals 1 damage. That doesn't seem ideal.
Burn is fine but consider some Black options like Syphon Soul, Blood Tithe and Exsanguinate. They all deal at least 4 damage, and they'll also give you a life boost to possibly fuel your tutors and keep you in the game.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
Aren't you only allowed to play 4 copies of any given card (other than basic lands) total between both heads? Can each head really play the exact same cards?
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
You play some control like counter/discard/some removal and with blue you have access to better tutor. Muddle the Mixture can be a interested one. Can tutor Mindcrank and it's can be use for counterspell if someone try to break your combo. For Tutoring Bloodchief you will only find lowcost tutor in white: Enlightened Tutor but it's a expensive one. Maybe with some draw filter in blue you can be good to found it really fast.
So your deck will be control/combo and your teamate will help you to set the combo with the damage.
WBGhost Council of OrzhovaBW
GUBThe MimeoplasmBUG
RGWort, the RaidmotherGR
UGRRiku of Two ReflectionsRGU
Casual
WGBJunkStone DeckBGW
BMonoBlack VampireB
9 Islands
9 Swamps
2 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Jwar Isle Refuge
Enchantments/Artifacts (11)
4 Bloodchief Ascension
4 Memory Erosion
2 Necrogen Censor
1 Elixir of Imortality
2 Mana Leak
2 Mind Funeral
2 Cancel
2 Countersquall
3 Hideous End
2 Archive Trap
1 Traumatize
2 Tezzeret's Gambit
2 Counterspell
4 Hedron Crab
2 Living Tsunami
2 Phantasmal Soilder (the 2/2 1UU unblockable)
2 Parasitic Strix
1 Wrexial, the Risen Deep
One of my best pairing was Merfolk heavy control (My deck) with Mono Green elf. I control the board and slowly get a board with Aether Vial. I drop Standstill at the end of our turn to refill my hand of counterspell and the hand of my friend. With this type of synergie, it's pretty hard to stop.
What I'm seeing with your deck, it's the small group of deck you will have a good pairing. With Blue/Black you can be heavy control and combo was a win condition if the game was hard. In my experience it's pretty rare your opponents cannot deal damage to your opponents. And if you really need to deal damage to trigger Bloodchief use Dauthi Horror or Inkfathom Infiltrator.
Or if you want creature with a evasive ability and a protection use them: Thalakos Mistfolk, Thalakos Scout.
Spell that can deal 2 damage or your opponents lose 2 life: Countersquall, Undermine...
This his the type of deck I will run for BU deck with Mindcrank and Bloodchief Ascension. I didn't put manabase I only fill with 24 land and split 50-50 but it's depend the budget you can add a lot of think. It's a typic draw Landfall Go deck with a combo in win condition. I didn't had tutor because the deck have enough draw to find the card to combo otherwise I will change the deck and add some white in it for 4 Enlightened Tutor but the mana base will be expensive for being playable.
4 Bloodghast
Combo Piece (8)
4 Bloodchief Ascension
4 Mindcrank
Enchantment (4)
4 Standstill
2 Damnation
Instant (18)
2 Counterspell
4 Mana Leak
3 Countersquall
3 Undermine
3 Dismember
3 Steady Progress
12 Island
12 Swamp
PS: I know this deck isn't budget but it's can be a good base for a budget version.
With the help of your partner I pretty sure this deck can be good and the heavy control part can be usefull for any deck your partner will run.
WBGhost Council of OrzhovaBW
GUBThe MimeoplasmBUG
RGWort, the RaidmotherGR
UGRRiku of Two ReflectionsRGU
Casual
WGBJunkStone DeckBGW
BMonoBlack VampireB
Pardon me, but I think you missed the post where I said that I had no control over what deck my teammate will use. The tournament organizer came up with randomized partners as a way to mitigate a team from running combo decks like this. I understand that it seems like I'm trying to control the match, but when I find out my partner's deck, things may change. I choose this deck because it seemed like a great way to ensure victory if my partner's deck is to slow or underperforming. In my playgroup, we tend to do "character/skill building" tournaments, like playing someone else's deck or building color specific decks. This tournament is to see how well players can work together. That is hard for me as I am mainly a control player that wants thing done very specifically, so my decks tend to lean toward the "lone-wolf" style.
It's my vision and what I understand of my experience. We didn't have the same metagame and players.
I perfectly understand you can be pair with a really bad guys but that's part of the game. I have a experience like that and that's scrap my tournament. I finish 3th on 10 because I can play a by myself. It impossible even with a top tier 1 Legacy deck to win vs 2 players.
Can you choose your deck after pairing???
What's your metagame type of deck???
WBGhost Council of OrzhovaBW
GUBThe MimeoplasmBUG
RGWort, the RaidmotherGR
UGRRiku of Two ReflectionsRGU
Casual
WGBJunkStone DeckBGW
BMonoBlack VampireB
In this high creatures metagame i will go for 4x Terminate to be sure you got one when you need it.
You can upgrade your creature a little bit
2 Vampire Nighthawk - Crazy creature 3 or 4 if it's possible
2 Pulse Tracker - It's deal 2 damage but 1 to each so it's not trigger Bloodchief maybe you can find a better creature like Dauthi Horror
2 Child of Night - Didn't understand why you will need this
Hellspark Elemental can be interested early game you put pressure and last game you can unearth it when the board was empty. It's a supprise card because a lot of people didn't remember you have this into your grave late game.
One thing you need was card advantage. You didn't draw enough card. Card like Night's Whisper and Sign in Blood can be really interested to refill your hand because you will cast your card really fast.
A card that you will maybe like will be Punishing Fire it's give you the possibility to gain a certain type of card advantage after you play it because you can get it back if your opponent gain life.
WBGhost Council of OrzhovaBW
GUBThe MimeoplasmBUG
RGWort, the RaidmotherGR
UGRRiku of Two ReflectionsRGU
Casual
WGBJunkStone DeckBGW
BMonoBlack VampireB
For the sign in Blood it's your choice. Personnaly you have 16 spells if I didn't count creature that can deal 2 or more damage to trigger Bloodchief. You can lower a little bit this count for 4 Sign in Blood. In this process you get a better Card advantage to draw you deck and the better card of your deck.
My choice will be Burst Lightning because it's the weaker IMO.
A other problem I see was Despise. You have a huge number of creature removal why do you want to target your opponents to discard a card. IMO Your true problem was spell that remove Artifact and Enchantment. The mana cost of those spells was 3 and lower so I recommand to play Inquisition of Kozilek. With that your are good to remove a huge number of artifact/enchantment spot removal and protect your combo.
WBGhost Council of OrzhovaBW
GUBThe MimeoplasmBUG
RGWort, the RaidmotherGR
UGRRiku of Two ReflectionsRGU
Casual
WGBJunkStone DeckBGW
BMonoBlack VampireB