// DECK STRATEGY:
The deck strategy is fairly simple; early-game (1)hand-disprution, followed by some (2)land-disruption and (3)creature beatdown for the win!
It is basically a BW control/aggro (in that particular order) deck. If you don't got any hand-disruption in your first 7, you should probably consider a mulligan.
Deadguy has been a competitive Legacy deck for years now. However, the current meta is a pretty good fit for a deck that can put a Jitte or SoXaY on a flyer. With many combo decks being of the slower 2-card variety (usually Show & Tell and X) it gives a deck like this that relies on discard for disruption a chance to make a mess of the opponent's hand and beat down before they recover.
A common question that I've seen is "how is this different from BW Stoneblade?" The short answer is Chrome Mox. A somewhat more in depth answer is that Stoneblade is usually trying to stabilize and stick a Batterskull, while Deadguy has that option but in my experience we tend to go for Jitte or the utility Sword in order to continue disrupting the opponent while getting into the red zone.
Deadguy also comes in three color combinations. The most popular (with regards to the classic Deadguy's ale build) is to splash green for Tarmogoyf, Maelstrom Pulse and Pernicious Deed. Splashing green also opens up for sideboard cards like Krosan Grip and Nature's Claim. Adding a third color also improves the utility of using Engineered Explosives either as a main deck or sideboard card. The printing of Stoneforge Mystic opened up for a whole new twist in the deck-construction, and the need for huge body critters were lessen due to the almost guaranteed back-up of your choice equipment. One can almost argue that you don't even really need Dark Confidant anymore as SFM gives you card advantage as well. Personally, I say play them both! SFM has got an archetype named after her, but the BW/x variant is pretty similar to Deadguy's Ale. On a general note, the classic Deadguy's Ale build plays 16+ creatures.
The deck draws its strength on its ability to foil your opponents strategy by disrupting his/her hand early in the game. Deny them from playing their first few key spells, and try to remove their creature removals from their hand so that you can get a few cards out of a Dark Confidant , whom is one of your key cards to succeed. If you can manage to exploit the advantage you get from having Dark Confidant in the battlefield, you are on a good path to securing a game win.
On the flip-side, the deck is usually not a very efficient finisher. With its many 2/x creatures, it takes some time to kill your opponent. This is why Dark Confidant is such a key card in the deck. It makes sure you can keep your opponents threats at bay as well as reinforcing your attack force as you go along. Now, this issue can be solved in many ways. This includes using creatures like Abyssal Persecutor, Tarmogoyf or Jötun Grunt. In general, creatures who TKO your opponent within a few strikes.
Other issues you might come across, are cards like Chalice of the Void and Leyline of Sanctity. Although these cards may seem quite harmless at first glance, they actually reduce your plan A, namely, hand disruption. Late game, these cards won't be that big of a hassle for you. What these cards are good at however, is to be played very early in the game. The latter might even be played before the game starts (which is kind of cheating if you think about it). Chalice of the Void also shut down your acceleration if you are using Æther Vial or Dark Ritual, basically shutting down a good chunk of your main deck. Counterbalance is also not a very good friend of yours, but if you keep a good first 7, you should be able to prevent this card from hitting the board too early. If you keep having trouble against this card, consider using Æther Vial and splash green to access Krosan Grip for game 2 and 3.
// BUILDING THE DECK:
This is the core of the deck, the XO skeleton, the cards that define this archetype.
4 Dark Confidant
This guy just fuel your hand and keeps the pressure up on your opponent.
4 Stoneforge Mystic
Modern builds include these. Obviously awesome with the right mix of equipments.
4-8 Thoughtseize/Inquisition of Kozilek/Cabal Therapy
These cards make sure your opponent gets disrupted and slow things down enough for your small men to seal the deal.
4 Swords to Plowshare/Path to Exile/Smother
These come in handy when or in case your opponent manage to drop down a blocker larger than 3/3 body is usually a problem that needs to be solved.
1-3 Liliana of the Veil
This girl is a beast. She takes over games against creature strategies, keeps combo decks down after your initial discard, kills Hexproof or otherwise untargetable dudes, and let's you cast Lingering Souls for 1B instead of 2W if you're tight on mana.
4 Wasteland
There is a reason why almost all Legacy decks run this land. Its just that good.
2-3 Vindicate
This is sort of an all-purpose-answer-to-anything. It's land disruption, creature removal AND removal to whatever comes down the opposing side.
8-10 more creatures/creature generating spells
These are the ones that do the heavy lifting, the ones that get the job done. Of course, nice if you can find men with some deck synergy. Thalia, Phyrexian Revoker, Tidehollow Sculler, Lingering Souls, and Bitterblossom are solid choices.
6-8 Fetch-land
The deck runs on low mana curve, so the fewer land you draw mid- to late game, the better.
2-3 Equipments
Usually Umezawa's Jitte, Sword of Fire and Ice, and Batterskull, but you can play around with it. The Sword is the flex slot, it can be a second Jitte, another Sword meta dependent Sword, or you can rock with just 2 equips.
EDIT: January, 2012. Stoneforge Mystic has only grown in popularity within the Legacy scene. The card has had several "Archetypes" called after it for quite some time now, and the borderlines between Deadguy, BW/x Stoneblade and Hybrid Gate builds is getting pretty vague. All these decks have a pretty similar game-plan. Naturally, the core cards of each of these decks follow as well. Call it whatever you want. For me, its all BW/x decks. Traditional DGA builds run 16+ creatures. Æther Vial builds run perhaps closer to a minimum of 18. Stoneblade variants run less because of its tutorable living weapon. All of which have their strength's and weaknesses in different MU's and Meta-games, so choose your version accordingly or per personal taste.
EDIT: August, 2012
Tokens, gain more popularity and you often find both Bitterblossom and Lingering Souls paired up in the same build. Zealous Persecution and Liliana of the Veil has also established themselves as first choices in recent builds, with good reason. Tokens gives the deck evasive creatures for equipments, they can also swarm the board for protection and counter retaliation attacks. Because of its flashback ability, Lingering Souls also comes with a board sweeper damage mitigation. Watch out for cards such as Dread of Night, Sulfur Elemental and opposing Zealous Persecutions
EDIT: September, 2012
This primer is now officially a collaboration between D3@D and evilGod. The Match-up section (along with several other sections) has been greatly renewed thanks to evilGod.
// OTHER CARD CHOICES:
Other commonly played cards, or, viable card choices depending on metagame or personal preferences. Obviously not a complete list, so I'll just have to update whenever something new comes up.
Mirran Crusader - Double-Strike is a very good ability with Jitte and Sword triggers, and blocking Goyf, KotR and Germ tokens for free isn't bad. Wanting double white for him and double black for Liliana can stress your mana some, but he can be incredible depending on your meta.
Mother of Runes - Everybody loves their mom. She's not necessary if you go the token route because you care less about targeted removal, but some people have an almost irrational fear of her. I've played Mom first turn (I was on the play) to have her met with Force of Will. However, most of our weaker matchups have us losing to combo or sweepers, which she's not great against.
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben - She was mentioned above, but running her means making some tough choices. Vindicate, Lingering Souls, and Liliana get much worse, and I'd only consider Thalia in heavy creature builds, probably centered around Æther Vial.
Abyssal Persecutor - I haven't ever felt the need for a big finisher, but if you want one this is your guy. Just make sure you've got a Cabal Therapy in the graveyard for when you're done.
Tombstalker - He's big, and potentially cheap, but he's dangerous with Bob, and doesn't have synergy with Lingering Souls or Cabal Therapy.
Tidehollow Sculler - This is my favorite discard spell right now. Against decks that drop their hand, he's still a body that holds a sword. Against combo, he's disruption and a clock (most combo decks can't meaningfully interact with creatures) and even if he just forces your opponent to kill him for their card back, you still got to peek and make them play differently than they were planning on.
Phyrexian Revoker - If you're heavy on creatures and running Thalia this guy is pretty nice disruption. Naming Deed, any Planeswalker, Cranial Plating, Lion's Eye Diamond… he's got plenty of applications.
Obviously there are plenty more viable creatures out there. But I hope you get the picture by now on what sort of creature the deck wants to have.
Enlightened Tutor - Gives you the option of having a toolbox sideboard searching for whatever enchantment/artifact you want.
Extirpate - Usually seen in the sideboard, but can have its uses in the main deck as well. Takes out scetchy mana-bases, combo pieces and other annoying things for good. Can be a game-breaking spell if played and timed correctly.
Zealous Persecution - Often seen in builds with a focus on tokens. Great combat trick, and provides a bit of damage reach.
Midnight Haunting - Instant speed is nice, but it's not quite good enough for its cost.
Path to Exile - We run Wasteland for a reason, and unlike Zoo we don't put out enough early damage for the land not to matter. If you feel the need for more cheap removal, I'd look into the multiple 1 and 2 CMC options available in black. Diabolic Edict perhaps.
Duress - It's best against combo decks, but probably best regulated to the sideboard.
Hymn to Tourach - A former staple, the current meta doesn't allow us the luxury of not playing a threat or removal turn two. Very good against control and 'critical mass' combo decks (High Tide, TES). It runs the risk of whiffing on relevant cards, and you don't gain information on their hand. Still a very solid option, and one I honestly consider bringing in every week.
Cabal Therapy - Useuful hand disruption option. Can be quite a gamble the first time, but has loads of potential as the game goes on.
Lingering Souls - One of the new staples for token builds. Can summon evasive equipment bearers, twice!
Sinkhole - One of the best land disruption spells in the game. Solid if you want to max out on land disrution. However, the card can often be useless late in the game.
Smallpox - A sort of Jack of all trades card. Not seen much use in Deadguy builds, but this card is definetly a choice.
Bitterblossom - Still really good, but getting the tokens right now from Lingering Souls is huge. Definitely an option if you're grinding out more of your games, or if you just really enjoy putting out tokens.
Elspeth, Knight-Errant - I stopped running her when Lingering Souls came out. Getting flying blockers and costing 1 less was a big factor for me. She's obviously a very powerful card, and jumping a guy can get in for big damage, but Bob doesn't really like her, and she's slow. If you are considering running her, you might be happier with B/W Stoneblade, it's a more grindy deck that I think she shines in.
Sorin, Lord of Innistrad - A worse Elspeth. Tons of fun though, and the -2 is great if you go for a full on token build. Unfortunately, he's outclassed by Elspeth pretty much everywhere.
Crucible of Worlds - Can come unexpectedly and wreck havoc on opponents mana-base. It also makes your own more resilient to disruption.
Cursed Scroll - Was used in the older builds. Good source of damage for late-game to give the deck some reach.
Engineered Explosives - Solid board sweeper. Its colorless and can take care of a lot of problems for you.
Liliana of the Veil - Another planeswalker for the deck, however, does not give you too much on board presence when you need to push on the last bit of damage. But, she does everything else this deck wants. Awesome, solid staple.
Pernicious Deed - Awesome board sweeper if you're running green. Good if you're getting swarmed by creatures or vs. other permanent based decks.
Sensei's Divining Top - Good card choice IMO, some like it alot, some don't. It works well with your Bobs and gives you an advantage when in top deck mode.
The Rack - Another colorless source of damage. Good if you can keep the opponent from rebuilding their hand. Good together with Hypnotic Specter.
Umezawa's Jitte - One of the best equipments in the game. Good choice in some meta-games and in builds running a good number of creatures or using Stoneforge Mystic
Æther Vial - Its an option if you're creature heavy and in a counter heavy meta as well. But counter spells shouldn't be an issue for your creatures though.
// SIDEBOARD OPTIONS:
There is too much viable choices here for me to cover them all. So I'll just go through the most common choices that I have not yet mentioned.
Circle of Protection: Red - Burn can be difficult for us, but this wrests things back into out favor. With the fall of Progenitus it's lost a lot of its 'splash hate' value, so if you'd rather play Warmth or Kor Firewalker those are more than adequate choices.
Cursed Totem - I've had games where I landed it turn two and the game was effectively over. Most Maverick decks can't remove it, and a lot of Elves players just won't be able to generate enough mana to cast Krosan Grip with how few lands they run. It turns off your Stoneforge Mystic's cheat equipment in ability, but any matchup that this comes in for you probably want Jitte anyway.
Disenchant - Old standard. Still, instant speed removal for whatever's bothering you. Can't really argue against that.
Engineered Plague - Amazing or useless. It does pretty much beat Elves and Goblins on it's own, and has value against Merfolk. If you've got a tribal theme running through your shop, I'd run it.
Enlightened Tutor - Great for all the space it gives you. You can run 2-3 and one-of 'silver bullet' cards and have an effective 3-4 cards for any matchup.
Ethersworn Canonist - Combo hate with a clock. It can slow you down too, but don't forget you can still cast Tidehollow Sculler or an equipment and another spell.
Extirpate - I prefer it over Surgical Extraction for the split-second. Taking out Life from the Loam, all of a RUG deck's red mana and even Bridge from Below or 4 Dredge cards can win games.
Nihil Spellbomb/Relic of Progenitus/Tormod's Crypt - We can actually use our graveyard some, but against Tarmogoyf nuking all 'yards is better. All have pros and cons which have been discussed to death elsewhere, just choose your favorite if you decide to go with artifact gravehate.
Oblivion Ring - With Show and Tell variants being popular, saying no to Omniscience or Emrakul seems pretty good.
Perish - As long as Maverick and Thresh are in the meta, 2 or 3 of these need to be in the sideboard. Also, it's not bad against Nic Fit. They always assume Thrun will get there for some reason.
Pithing Needle - There's always something you want off. Very versatile, just don't name things with mana abilities. It's not Revoker.
Serenity - Board wipe that takes out Affinity (including lands!) and Enchantress (including mana enchantments!). It's not ideal with the equip package, losing a Sword vs losing the game seems like it might be ok.
Sword of X and Y - If you've got a common matchup that you can improve with one of these, go for it. It doesn't even dilute your strategy.
// DECK SAMPLES:
Samples are taken from the most recent top 8's posted on deckcheck.net. I don't really see any point in posting older deck lists as they are clearly out dated.
// MATCH UP ANALYSIS
Work in progress... First of all, I would like to point out that these match-up (MUs) analysis are by no means the general rule, or, straight forward as in "the Holy Bible" of how these match-ups are played out. There are loads of variables and factors that influence a game of magic, so keep in mind that these are just a taste of how certain MUs can be approached when playing Deadguy's Ale. Also, depending on your deck configuration, these MUs may vary a lot in results. I will try to keep this as general as possible knowing that Deadguy configurations are highly variable and can be tweaked in all sorts of ways.
Game 1: Generally , I find this MU to be highly in our favor. We have just as many creatures as they have, more removals as well as better disruption. Equipments are key in this MU and managing to resolve one and get in a few swings with an equipped creature almost guarantees your victory. You are actually the control player here. Play it safe to begin with, keep hands with at least 1 or 2 outs to disrupt your opponents hand. A turn 1 Inquisition of Kozilek followed by a Hymn to Tourach is going to hurt your opponent. Often though, depending on what you see in your opponents hand from your t1 IoK, you might consider playing t2 Dark Confidant rather than Hymn as it might be more beneficial to start drawing cards as early as possible.
Game 2/3: Board in what you got of back-up removals, and Pithing Needle can be solid in this game, as they often rely on their Aether Vial, Wasteland and Mutavault. Watch out for Back to Basic, as this card might slow you down enough to win them the game. If you got some unused Umezawa's Jitte in your board, bring them in here as well.
Merfolk decks can always pull out a win out of nowhere, so try to force them into top-deck mode, and drop a Dark Confidant to make sure you draw more cards then him/her, at least for a few turns. Try to kill their creatures almost on sight, and swing in for whatever amount of damage you can manage when possibilities arise. These 2 dmg here and there is what wins you the game in the end.
Game 1: I would say that this MU is about 50/50. If you can manage to keep the game going for more than 5-6 turns, chances are you will win the game. Unlike the Merfolk MU, Zoo got better creatures and better removal (generally speaking) than Deadguy. What we lack in power though, we gain in endurance. Again, Dark Confident is key. And an aggressive hand disruption first draw 7 is very good. If you deny them their explosive start, and wither away as much of his 1 and 2 drops as soon as possible, you got one step in the right path to victory. Play your important creatures as late as possible. That means Dark Confidant and Vampire Nighthawk. Why? Because you want to make their chances of surviving for 2+ turns as high as possible. If you can attack with Nighthawk for 2 turns and gain 4 life? GOOD! Draw two cards with Bob? AWESOME!
Game 2/3: At this point, things get a bit more tricky. Depending on how prepared your sideboard is for this MU, things can either go really down the drain, or make things almost as easy as a walk in the park. Mass removals such as Perish is MVP here, unless you are facing a Cat-based Zoo, in which case you can board in Engineered Plague. Relic of Progenitus sometimes help if you are having issues with dealing with Tarmogoyf, but most of the time that should not be an issue. In general terms, just pack as much removal as you can afford to.
Game 1: Just to say things directly, this is one of the worst MUs I personally have experienced playing with Deadguy. It might be my limited knowledge about the opposing deck, but so far, I find it quite difficult to win 2 out of 3 games against Enchantress on a regular basis. The main issue I see is that we aren't nearly as fast enough, or, threatening enough to seal the deal as quick as we should want to in this MU. As the turns goes on and time pass by, slowly but surely, Enchantress will manage to build up their defense and win.
Game 2/3: My take post board on this is to board in Extirpates and/or other Graveyard removals. This is to weaken their late-game, and perhaps nab some really important cards, like their few kill-conditions, or main defense mechanism. If you can drop down an early Bob and equip him with Jitte or whatever sword/armory you got for him, and start swinging while keeping their hands on the low side, you got a shot at stealing the game. The trick here is to be as aggressive as possible. Take out most of your target removal as they are often useless in this MU, Add whatever you got that might be helpful, such as graveyard hate and enchantment removals.
Game 1: Believe it or not, this MU is actually in favor of us. The first round might be a coin flip, but disrupt their hand, and keep Gatekeeper of Malakir in handy in case they sneak a Reanimate spell past you. Once you get past the first few crucial turns, keep up the push with Dark Confidant, Vampire Nighthawk equipped with swords.
Game 2/3: Board in Diabolic Edicts (or other similar type of removals) and what you pack of Extirpate, Relic of Progenitus or Tormod's Crypt etc. Make sure you always have mana open for Extirpate whenever you pass the turn, as they might nab one from your hand if you're tapped out with their own discard spells.
Game 1: Although it might resemble a mirror match in terms of the type of cards played in both decks, playing against it is a slightly different ball game than the mirror. The MU is in most cases, in favor of the Deadguy player. We got more creatures, and better removals. Deadguy builds packing Abyssal Persecutor have an even greater chance in this MU as this guy just boss around whatever they drop down into the battlefield. He has also often built-in protection from Snuff Out which is one of their most used removal.
Game 2/3: Same thing, but different. You still got the upper hand, but you need to be more cautions of what they decide to board in against you. Watch out for Pernicious Deed. Pithing Needle and Extirpate can come in handy. Their mana-base are often a bit shaky, so you got a potential target for Extirpate there, or their few but powerful creatures. If you get the chance, don't hesitate to take out their Tombstalker.
Game 1: This game can be quite frustrating sometimes, but generally speaking, Deadguy should be well prepared to deal with this MU. You got all the removals you need as well as Wasteland to take out their fragile mana-base. The hand-disruption package is a hit or miss. If you are on the play, make sure to keep hand with a few of these bad-boys. On the draw however, chances are they will be more or less dead cards. If you can manage to keep their creatures on the low side, and prevent them from punching you in the face with Cranial Plating, you got your self a victory point. Zealous Persecution is huge here, as it kills all of their flyers allowing Vindicate and StP to take out Master of Etherium and Jitte or SoFaI can take down Etched Champion being colorless.
Game 2/3: Again, creature removal is highly desirable in this MU. Extirpate might be useful if you got no other options. And if you splash green, make sure you got some Pernicious Deed ready for action. Otherwise, Engineered Explosives and other board sweepers can also do some damage. If you have artifact hate bring it in, but game two tends to be a little easier since they have to bring in cards like Nature's Claim, slowing down their clock. Serenity blowing up all their lands and creatures is pretty good.
If you don't know they're on Belcher, not much you can proactively do. If you did scout (or it's a local and you just know) you want a hand with Zealous Persecution or Stoneforge. Stoneforge -> Batterskull can actually gain enough life to beat up to 12 Goblins if you're on the play (only 8 on the draw). Then hope they go for the Empty kill. If they are going for Belcher, play it out. You could get amazing luck and make it to 3 mana for the Vindicate.
Games 2/3: Bring in Needle effects for Goblin Charbelcher, and Ethersworn Canonist just in case they pass the turn without going off. Also, 4x Hope//Pray never hurts.
On the draw, the only thing scarier than first turn Land Grant is Mountain -> Goblin Guide. Once you drop a plains, you and you're opponent both know what you're goals are and which cards matter. While its very easy to tweak and beat burn with the plethora of playable (if somewhat marginal) life gain cards in B/W, most of us rely on Batterskull/Jitte. Get those out, make smart blocks, and fetch basics. They can run out of gas, and if you can hold out and connect with a Jitte even once you'll probably get there.
Games 2/3: Whatever red hate you have, pull it in. Be aware of Smash to Smithereens and/or Shattering Spree, but if you think there's a window, take it.
We have all the tools we need to take this deck. StP for early Delver/Goyf, Vindicate and Liliana for later threats, and Liliana takes out Mongoose. Wasteland to keep them off a color, Lingering Souls to buy time and clog the skies until any equipment gets online. Game one they can't answer a resolved Batterskull without having a bigger Goyf. With discard on the play, taking a creature is usually the correct play. With only 12 threats and some burn in the whole deck losing that tempo allows us the time to get our advantage engines online and create enough inevitability.
Game 2/3: Perish comes in for the ability to kill Mongoose and Goyf. If you run Extirpate you can potentially take them off a color, but don't hesitate to rip all copies of a creature either. Watch out for Sulfur Elemental, I usually take out 1-2 Lingering Souls to make room for Perish without ramping up my curve too much.
It's been seeing play off and on, but they almost can't win through the amount of disruption we run. Zealous Persecution is a one-sided Wrath, Jitte is Jitte, discard is highly relevant (they are a combo deck). And StP on Heritage Druid can be backbreaking if correctly timed. You do need to get one of those going early though, they can kill turn 3/4 fairly consistently.
Games 2/3: Cursed Totem, Perish, Pithing Needle still hits Wirewood Symbiote and Quirion Dryad, while Revoker shuts down everyone else. Ethersworn Canonist stops them from combing or swarming too. Make sure you don't side in too much, you still want your deck to work. 3 drops tend to be the first to go for me in any fast(ish) combo match just because won't necessarily get that many turns without disruption.
When the deck first came out this was a difficult matchup, but now that we know to prepare for it you should easily come out on top. Zealous Persecution is again huge here, sweeping up Mom, Noble Hierarch, Thalia, and Dryad Arbor. Save Swords to Plowshares and Vindicate for Knight of the Reliquary if you can, and if you get a Jitte to connect, which Lingering Souls is pretty good at, you can usually sweep up from there.
Game 2/3: Adding Perish and Cursed Totem to your already impressive removal suite is backbreaking. As long as you don't get mana screwed (watch out for Wasteland/Thalia) you're golden. Usually you can take out some discard, as with the mana ramp they drop their hand pretty quickly. Batterskull also loses some effectiveness with Stoneforge potentially losing the ability to cheat things into play. Most Maverick decks are extremely soft to Totem, although some have to play against it enough that they'll have an Harmonic Sliver or Uktabi Orangutans to get through it. Don't panic, you probably bought yourself enough time to finish the game even if they can nuke it.
This is a rough matchup, but doable. Discard their Counterbalance if you can, but even if it resolves with Top, Vindicate and Lingering Souls can get through, especially if you can bait them into countering something else first. Remember, they only have 2-4 cards at 3CMC, but if you wait too long they'll just draw into real counterspells. If you resolve a Stoneforge, get a Sword. Fire and Ice is best because it protects against Jace bounce, and gives an effective +4/+2 to the Spirit tokens that should be online at some point. As long as you're not using Feast and Famine you get some protection. Don't overextend into Terminus, and if you can keep their mana low with Wasteland do it. Jace is slightly easier to beat than 4+ Angel tokens.
Games 2/3: Any Needle effects you have come in. Naming Top or Jace helps so much. Extirpate has some potential, to remove all Counterbalance/Tops if you can get one in the grave, but it's more consistently used to mess with Snapcaster Mage after they choose a target, or to make them shuffle after they put a 2 or 3 on top to counter a spell you need to resolve. Some chance > none.
Pernicious Deed is really well positioned in the meta right now, and we're no exception. The longer the game goes the better off they are, so any discard you have has to be used to disrupt their tempo, not take the best thing in their hand. I've won games by discarding Veteran Explorer turn one (I was on the play) and letting them keep a Recurring Nightmare. He ended up stuck on 2 lands with a Cabal Therapy in the 'yard for a few turns, long enough for me to get the beats in and by the time he played his third land and started playing magic, he was too far behind. Oh, and if you find that Deadguy isn't quite what you're looking for (and you like having fun) I highly recommend Nic Fit.
Games 2/3: Basically the same, except now you can combat the graveyard tricks somewhat. What comes in and out is tricky, since Nic Fit and Deadguy are both pretty customizable decks. Perish is good, but unlike against Maverick you can't just play it "whenever" because they can rebuild and are more likely to land a Thrun. The longer the game goes, the more reliant you are on Liliana and Batterskull, because everything else dies to top deck Deed.
Omniscience has become the big thing deck for 'slow combo with protection'. This is a pretty rough matchup for us, just because they have so much redundancy and we run so many cards that are dead against them game 1.
Games 2/3: You need to have some sort of early discard because they can combo off as early as turn 2 and there's no reason for them to hold back and wait for protection. If you run Oblivion Rings (and this deck is big now so you should have it), bring them in and hope that they can't keep the combo in hand with a Trickbind.
// END NOTE: This primer is still a constant work in progress. Feel free to add to the discussion whatever you feel is missing or whatever needs adjusting. I will try to update this primer whenever we as a community (more or less) agrees to something that will either improve this archetype and/or primer. Anything from card choices, updated deck lists, deck strategies and match-up analysis. Speaking of which, MU's will be added when anyone got something regarding a particular MU. Just post them in this thread.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Hakai Studios for providing us with this awesome banner
Couldn't you use the decklist from GP Columbus? Guy who lost too Saito in the quaters happened to be playing a form of Deadguy Ale. He had some nice tech. I don't think he ran Sinkhole though.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
In case I didn't tell you, I don't care about your opinion I just want your facts. And not the facts that make you seem smart. I want the ones that are actual facts.
Deadguy isn't really competitive at this point in my opinion. It got killed by Tarmogoyf and the return of Big Red damage to play in the form of Goyf Sligh and then Zoo. The decks that Deadguy really dominated, the midrange semi-control decks like The Rock and slower aggro-control like UGw Threshold, were largely pushed out of the meta when it speeded up to the current pace.
The lists that have won recently, in small tourneys, have all had Sensei's Divining Top to try to even out the randomness that Deadguy has always kind of suffered from in comparison to the blue-centric meta that is Legacy.
The next incarnation of Deadguy is going to need to find something new and terrible to inflict on the meta before it really arrives as a highly competitive archetype. It's possible that the banning of Mystical tutor has reset the meta enough for midrange control to make a return and if so then there is a corresponding opening for Deadguy to come back and prey on those decks again.
I don't think it is completely dead (pun intended :P). Top and Sinkholes both need to find their way into the deck in my opinion. Bob obviously makes the cut, and I am a fan of the 2 Nantuko Shade to gas it out as potential late gamers. Dark rits to crank out the ever coveted Hymn and thought seize is so saucy. Lastly, Tombstalker and Bob is a bit too greedy, and not worth it... Maybe a jitte or 2?
How about the rack It sees some play and in heavy discard decks its amazing. Its won me many games. Also Mishra's factory sees some play in Dead Guy.
EDIT: @ RootaVootaZoop: Dead guy still places highly and regularly in top tournies, and has the ability to beat any match up with fairly high consistency.
Originally Posted by fearmeordie View Post
"HAI GUISE I PLAYZ T2 AND WANT TO PLAY LEGACY BUT NO HAZ CASHZ"
Originally Posted by Sir Aureus View Post
I don't see why everyone is so confused about the (SoM)expansion symbol. It's clearly a croissant. A metal croissant.
All hail croissant block.
EDIT: @ RootaVootaZoop: Dead guy still places highly and regularly in top tournies, and has the ability to beat any match up with fairly high consistency.
Deckcheck.net disagrees with you. It has a few 5th place finishes in relatively small tournies, under 40 players or so, but the last win streak was last November to December and even those were small tournies.
Deadguy hasn't top 8'd a major event since GP Chicago in March of 09. That's fifteen months at this point.
I think Deadguys main problem today is the current powerlevel/popularity of Zoo and red aggro strategies. When both players go into top deck mode, the deadguy player will be drawing a whole lot more useless cards.
The key ingriedient really is to disrupt your opponents hand early then kick their face while their still down. If you can't keep up the steam after the first wave of discard spells, things will be a lot more difficult for you. So having a late-game reach type of card like Elspeth, Cursed Scroll, Equipment does help things a lot in my opinion. Lets just hope that Mid-range will be back in full force to level out the aggro decks again.
Btw, if anyone got the deck list from GP Columbus, just post it here and I'll add it to the primer.
EDIT:
Just for the sake of discussion, I'm posting my build. The cards listed in ()'s are the changes I'd do if I were to splash green into the mix.
Yeah new primer and we are in proven competitive, thanks D3@D
@ D3@D why not run thoughtseize? you have Unlmited Duals so life loss shouldn't be a problem?
and I also think that the rack and Misra's Factory should be included in the primer.
Originally Posted by fearmeordie View Post
"HAI GUISE I PLAYZ T2 AND WANT TO PLAY LEGACY BUT NO HAZ CASHZ"
Originally Posted by Sir Aureus View Post
I don't see why everyone is so confused about the (SoM)expansion symbol. It's clearly a croissant. A metal croissant.
All hail croissant block.
I think Deadguys main problem today is the current powerlevel/popularity of Zoo and red aggro strategies. When both players go into top deck mode, the deadguy player will be drawing a whole lot more useless cards.
I mostly agree with this. Deadguy is strong in matchups where the opponent wants to hold non-instant cards for the right moment and weaker in matchups where they pluck cards off the top and play them right away or have a lot of instants that can be played in response to sorceries. Sorcery speed discard is valuable on a continuing basis against the former and almost useless against the latter.
One of the things that defines Legacy right now is that topdeck aggro is stronger than it's ever been, with Zoo and Goblins effectively making discard a fairly sad panda as they supress the midrange control that discard dominates.
Yeah new primer and we are in proven competitive, thanks D3@D
@ D3@D why not run thoughtseize? you have Unlmited Duals so life loss shouldn't be a problem?
and I also think that the rack and Misra's Factory should be included in the primer.
Edit: 100, woop!
Done!
And the Top 8 GP deck list has been added as well.
RE: Thoughtseize. I've been testing IoK lately, and I must say I'm very happy with its performance. Its kind of like the best of two worlds. You don't lose life like Duress, and you can now choose to discard opponents creatures like Thoughtseize. The can't target anything above 3cc is mostly irellevant, at least from what I've experienced now. The higher cc cards can be taken by Hymn or Tidehollow Sculler.
RE: trouble against zoo/burn.
I think if these are dominating your metagame, try packing Cop: RED, Gerrard's Verdict and Vampire Nighthawk etc. Stuff that gains you life and/or prevents them from targeting your face. Or just not play this deck. Because, clearly these MU's are making life hard for deadguy players right now.
And I think that creatures such as Goyf, Tombstalker, Nyxathid etc. are crucial in these MUs as they got a body thats not directly into bolt range. Maybe an aproach more similar to Eva Green is the way to go these days. Pack more muscle over Dark Confidant's card drawing?
Just a slight nit pick, but Brad Nelson's deck that went into the top-8 of Grand Prix Columbus 2010.... is actually a Rock deck, not a Deadguy Ale deck. At least that is how I assess it. The two types of decks play very differently. Deadguy Ale is traditionally BW Suicide / Aggro. Where as The Rock can more accurately be considered BG (sometimes with a splash of White) Aggro-Control with more leanings on Control than Aggro.
The strategies of the decks are very different and one plays slower than the other. Considering Brad's deck a part of this primer is confusing to me at the least and downright wrong at the most.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"As the size of an explosion increases, the number of social situations it is incapable of solving approaches zero." -- Varsuvius, Order of the Stick
Just a slight nit pick, but Brad Nelson's deck that went into the top-8 of Grand Prix Columbus 2010.... is actually a Rock deck, not a Deadguy Ale deck. At least that is how I assess it. The two types of decks play very differently. Deadguy Ale is traditionally BW Suicide / Aggro. Where as The Rock can more accurately be considered BG (sometimes with a splash of White) Aggro-Control with more leanings on Control than Aggro.
The strategies of the decks are very different and one plays slower than the other. Considering Brad's deck a part of this primer is confusing to me at the least and downright wrong at the most.
Nelson's list is definitely a hybridization of several different archetypes. It has features of The Rock, features of Deadguy/Sui and features of Aggro Loam. The 10 discard spells are a huge part of the build though so I don't have a problem with it winding up being discussed in a Deadguy thread. It really doesn't fit here but it has components that are central to the theme.
Knight of the Reliquary is never going to be part of Deadguy Ale. It's got two off-colors in it and it's undependable in a Deadguy manabase unless the deck opens itself to Wasteland in a way no pure aggro deck can afford.
RE: trouble against zoo/burn.
I think if these are dominating your metagame, try packing Cop: RED, Gerrard's Verdict and Vampire Nighthawk etc. Stuff that gains you life and/or prevents them from targeting your face. Or just not play this deck. Because, clearly these MU's are making life hard for deadguy players right now.
And I think that creatures such as Goyf, Tombstalker, Nyxathid etc. are crucial in these MUs as they got a body thats not directly into bolt range. Maybe an aproach more similar to Eva Green is the way to go these days. Pack more muscle over Dark Confidant's card drawing?
Agreed, you just have to adapt slightly, not that the match ups will be amazing but they can be won.
Edit: Though I'm not sure about dropping Bob, he is amazing!
Originally Posted by fearmeordie View Post
"HAI GUISE I PLAYZ T2 AND WANT TO PLAY LEGACY BUT NO HAZ CASHZ"
Originally Posted by Sir Aureus View Post
I don't see why everyone is so confused about the (SoM)expansion symbol. It's clearly a croissant. A metal croissant.
All hail croissant block.
What do we board inn and out vs Mono Blue Merfolk? its tough MU with their counter magic and massive amount of critters that are generally larger than ours.
And the more I play with the deck, the more I want to splash green for Goyfs. Jötun Grunt just seems to die whenever I need him the most.
What about Solitary Confinement as a sideboard card for things like Zoo, Burn, Merfolk, Goblins, etc? Or would it be better to dedicate 8 slots to CoP: Red and Engineered Plague?
I think it would be hard to keep it online. Missing draw step and discard a card each turn is a steep price when you often find yourself already in top deck mode by turn 4.
4x Engineered Plague + 2x Pithing Needle/COP: RED should be sufficient maybe? What creature type do we give the Plague to vs. Zoo?
Sorry, didn't mean side in plague vs Zoo. I thought there was a possibility Confinement could work for all the MUs and free up SB space. I figured it could be kept online with Confidant and SDT fairly well, though thinking about it now, you probably won't have the board position to make that kind of commitment.
It would be interesting to try an all-flyer version of Deadguy (Tombstalker, Vampire Nighthawk, Hypnotic Specter, with maybe Abyssal Persecutor or Bitterblossom) with Moats as the aggro answer for things like Goblins and Zoo.
It would be interesting to try an all-flyer version of Deadguy (Tombstalker, Vampire Nighthawk, Hypnotic Specter, with maybe Abyssal Persecutor or Bitterblossom) with Moats as the aggro answer for things like Goblins and Zoo.
That could be a good idea. I think I subconsciously made myself forget about that card because of its price tag Tutors could replace Bob since CA won't be completely necessary if an entire deck shuts down. Turn 4 REALLY worries me though. I mean, at least against Goblins and Merfolk you can turn 1 an Engineered Plague.
That could be a good idea. I think I subconsciously made myself forget about that card because of its price tag Tutors could replace Bob since CA won't be completely necessary if an entire deck shuts down. Turn 4 REALLY worries me though. I mean, at least against Goblins and Merfolk you can turn 1 an Engineered Plague.
The :symw::symw: in Moats casting cost makes the turn 4 worries even more valid. It'd probably be too slow against the decks you really need it against but a bomb against some of the midrange decks Deadguy slaughters anyway. Switching to Mox Diamond instead of Dark Ritual takes you a whole different direction with the deck and probably moves it off of Deadguy completely.
This game is just so amazing in terms of the variety of options it offers and the tradeoffs they create.
The :symw::symw: in Moats casting cost makes the turn 4 worries even more valid. It'd probably be too slow against the decks you really need it against but a bomb against some of the midrange decks Deadguy slaughters anyway. Switching to Mox Diamond instead of Dark Ritual takes you a whole different direction with the deck and probably moves it off of Deadguy completely.
This game is just so amazing in terms of the variety of options it offers and the tradeoffs they create.
I agree, Mox Diamond does open up doorways for this deck. However, I don't feel the Moat path is viable when using Mox Diamond. The reason being, Mox Diamond complements creatures like Tarmogoyf and KotR very well, none of which have flying. If used without such cards, I feel the full potential of the card isn't being drawn out, and it would be better in most cases to just run Dark Ritual due to the theory of stock mana.
Looking at the first 3 turns of 2 different decks:
[Dark Ritual]
Turn 1: Land, Dark Ritual (4 SM)
Turn 2: Untap Land, Land Drop (6 SM)
Turn 3: Untap 2 Lands, Land Drop (9 SM)
[Mox Diamond]
Turn 1: Land, Mox Diamond (2 SM)
Turn 2: Untap Land/Mox, Land Drop (5 SM)
Turn 3: Untap 2 Lands/Mox, Land Drop (9 SM)
So the Mox Diamond doesn't catch up until Turn 3, at which point it will pass Dark Ritual (Barring no more Dark Rits). However, when running Mox Diamond, you run the risk of missing a land drop because of it. Thinking about this, let's look up to turn 5:
[Dark Ritual]
Turn 1: Land, Dark Ritual (4 SM)
Turn 2: Untap Land, Land Drop (6 SM)
Turn 3: Untap 2 Lands, Land Drop (9 SM)
Turn 4: Untap 3 Lands, Land Drop (13 SM)
Turn 5: Untap 4 Lands, Land Drop (18 SM)
[Mox Diamond]
Turn 1: Land, Mox Diamond (2 SM)
Turn 2: Untap Land/Mox (4 SM)
Turn 3: Untap Land/Mox, Land Drop (7 SM)
Turn 4: Untap 2 Lands/Mox, Land Drop (11 SM)
Turn 5: Untap 3 Lands/Mox, Land Drop (16 SM)
In general, the person who spends more stock mana will be the winner. Dark Ritual allows you to spend more stock mana faster than Mox, and in a fast format, that is something valuable to take into consideration. But, to bring this full circle, I am not saying Mox Diamond is worse than Dark Rit. I am looking at the use of Mox Diamond when its full potential is not being reached. The concept of stock mana is applied to actual card costs as well, meaning that all these numbers do change when bringing in other cards to the mix like Tarmogoyf and KotR.
What do we board inn and out vs Mono Blue Merfolk? its tough MU with their counter magic and massive amount of critters that are generally larger than ours.
And the more I play with the deck, the more I want to splash green for Goyfs. Jötun Grunt just seems to die whenever I need him the most.
I have no problem with merfolk. I can usually win game 1 and then game two I alwasy side in engineered plague. Vampire nighthhawk is great against them, especially with jitte
Originally Posted by fearmeordie View Post
"HAI GUISE I PLAYZ T2 AND WANT TO PLAY LEGACY BUT NO HAZ CASHZ"
Originally Posted by Sir Aureus View Post
I don't see why everyone is so confused about the (SoM)expansion symbol. It's clearly a croissant. A metal croissant.
All hail croissant block.
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// DECK STRATEGY:
The deck strategy is fairly simple; early-game (1)hand-disprution, followed by some (2)land-disruption and (3)creature beatdown for the win!
It is basically a BW control/aggro (in that particular order) deck. If you don't got any hand-disruption in your first 7, you should probably consider a mulligan.
Deadguy has been a competitive Legacy deck for years now. However, the current meta is a pretty good fit for a deck that can put a Jitte or SoXaY on a flyer. With many combo decks being of the slower 2-card variety (usually Show & Tell and X) it gives a deck like this that relies on discard for disruption a chance to make a mess of the opponent's hand and beat down before they recover.
A common question that I've seen is "how is this different from BW Stoneblade?" The short answer is Chrome Mox. A somewhat more in depth answer is that Stoneblade is usually trying to stabilize and stick a Batterskull, while Deadguy has that option but in my experience we tend to go for Jitte or the utility Sword in order to continue disrupting the opponent while getting into the red zone.
Deadguy also comes in three color combinations. The most popular (with regards to the classic Deadguy's ale build) is to splash green for Tarmogoyf, Maelstrom Pulse and Pernicious Deed. Splashing green also opens up for sideboard cards like Krosan Grip and Nature's Claim. Adding a third color also improves the utility of using Engineered Explosives either as a main deck or sideboard card. The printing of Stoneforge Mystic opened up for a whole new twist in the deck-construction, and the need for huge body critters were lessen due to the almost guaranteed back-up of your choice equipment. One can almost argue that you don't even really need Dark Confidant anymore as SFM gives you card advantage as well. Personally, I say play them both! SFM has got an archetype named after her, but the BW/x variant is pretty similar to Deadguy's Ale. On a general note, the classic Deadguy's Ale build plays 16+ creatures.
The deck draws its strength on its ability to foil your opponents strategy by disrupting his/her hand early in the game. Deny them from playing their first few key spells, and try to remove their creature removals from their hand so that you can get a few cards out of a Dark Confidant , whom is one of your key cards to succeed. If you can manage to exploit the advantage you get from having Dark Confidant in the battlefield, you are on a good path to securing a game win.
On the flip-side, the deck is usually not a very efficient finisher. With its many 2/x creatures, it takes some time to kill your opponent. This is why Dark Confidant is such a key card in the deck. It makes sure you can keep your opponents threats at bay as well as reinforcing your attack force as you go along. Now, this issue can be solved in many ways. This includes using creatures like Abyssal Persecutor, Tarmogoyf or Jötun Grunt. In general, creatures who TKO your opponent within a few strikes.
Other issues you might come across, are cards like Chalice of the Void and Leyline of Sanctity. Although these cards may seem quite harmless at first glance, they actually reduce your plan A, namely, hand disruption. Late game, these cards won't be that big of a hassle for you. What these cards are good at however, is to be played very early in the game. The latter might even be played before the game starts (which is kind of cheating if you think about it). Chalice of the Void also shut down your acceleration if you are using Æther Vial or Dark Ritual, basically shutting down a good chunk of your main deck. Counterbalance is also not a very good friend of yours, but if you keep a good first 7, you should be able to prevent this card from hitting the board too early. If you keep having trouble against this card, consider using Æther Vial and splash green to access Krosan Grip for game 2 and 3.
// BUILDING THE DECK:
This is the core of the deck, the XO skeleton, the cards that define this archetype.
4 Dark Confidant
This guy just fuel your hand and keeps the pressure up on your opponent.
4 Stoneforge Mystic
Modern builds include these. Obviously awesome with the right mix of equipments.
4-8 Thoughtseize/Inquisition of Kozilek/Cabal Therapy
These cards make sure your opponent gets disrupted and slow things down enough for your small men to seal the deal.
4 Swords to Plowshare/Path to Exile/Smother
These come in handy when or in case your opponent manage to drop down a blocker larger than 3/3 body is usually a problem that needs to be solved.
1-3 Liliana of the Veil
This girl is a beast. She takes over games against creature strategies, keeps combo decks down after your initial discard, kills Hexproof or otherwise untargetable dudes, and let's you cast Lingering Souls for 1B instead of 2W if you're tight on mana.
4 Wasteland
There is a reason why almost all Legacy decks run this land. Its just that good.
2-3 Vindicate
This is sort of an all-purpose-answer-to-anything. It's land disruption, creature removal AND removal to whatever comes down the opposing side.
8-10 more creatures/creature generating spells
These are the ones that do the heavy lifting, the ones that get the job done. Of course, nice if you can find men with some deck synergy. Thalia, Phyrexian Revoker, Tidehollow Sculler, Lingering Souls, and Bitterblossom are solid choices.
6-8 Fetch-land
The deck runs on low mana curve, so the fewer land you draw mid- to late game, the better.
2-3 Equipments
Usually Umezawa's Jitte, Sword of Fire and Ice, and Batterskull, but you can play around with it. The Sword is the flex slot, it can be a second Jitte, another Sword meta dependent Sword, or you can rock with just 2 equips.
EDIT: January, 2012.
Stoneforge Mystic has only grown in popularity within the Legacy scene. The card has had several "Archetypes" called after it for quite some time now, and the borderlines between Deadguy, BW/x Stoneblade and Hybrid Gate builds is getting pretty vague. All these decks have a pretty similar game-plan. Naturally, the core cards of each of these decks follow as well. Call it whatever you want. For me, its all BW/x decks. Traditional DGA builds run 16+ creatures. Æther Vial builds run perhaps closer to a minimum of 18. Stoneblade variants run less because of its tutorable living weapon. All of which have their strength's and weaknesses in different MU's and Meta-games, so choose your version accordingly or per personal taste.
EDIT: August, 2012
Tokens, gain more popularity and you often find both Bitterblossom and Lingering Souls paired up in the same build. Zealous Persecution and Liliana of the Veil has also established themselves as first choices in recent builds, with good reason. Tokens gives the deck evasive creatures for equipments, they can also swarm the board for protection and counter retaliation attacks. Because of its flashback ability, Lingering Souls also comes with a board sweeper damage mitigation. Watch out for cards such as Dread of Night, Sulfur Elemental and opposing Zealous Persecutions
EDIT: September, 2012
This primer is now officially a collaboration between D3@D and evilGod. The Match-up section (along with several other sections) has been greatly renewed thanks to evilGod.
// OTHER CARD CHOICES:
Other commonly played cards, or, viable card choices depending on metagame or personal preferences. Obviously not a complete list, so I'll just have to update whenever something new comes up.
Mirran Crusader - Double-Strike is a very good ability with Jitte and Sword triggers, and blocking Goyf, KotR and Germ tokens for free isn't bad. Wanting double white for him and double black for Liliana can stress your mana some, but he can be incredible depending on your meta.
Mother of Runes - Everybody loves their mom. She's not necessary if you go the token route because you care less about targeted removal, but some people have an almost irrational fear of her. I've played Mom first turn (I was on the play) to have her met with Force of Will. However, most of our weaker matchups have us losing to combo or sweepers, which she's not great against.
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben - She was mentioned above, but running her means making some tough choices. Vindicate, Lingering Souls, and Liliana get much worse, and I'd only consider Thalia in heavy creature builds, probably centered around Æther Vial.
Abyssal Persecutor - I haven't ever felt the need for a big finisher, but if you want one this is your guy. Just make sure you've got a Cabal Therapy in the graveyard for when you're done.
Tombstalker - He's big, and potentially cheap, but he's dangerous with Bob, and doesn't have synergy with Lingering Souls or Cabal Therapy.
Tidehollow Sculler - This is my favorite discard spell right now. Against decks that drop their hand, he's still a body that holds a sword. Against combo, he's disruption and a clock (most combo decks can't meaningfully interact with creatures) and even if he just forces your opponent to kill him for their card back, you still got to peek and make them play differently than they were planning on.
Phyrexian Revoker - If you're heavy on creatures and running Thalia this guy is pretty nice disruption. Naming Deed, any Planeswalker, Cranial Plating, Lion's Eye Diamond… he's got plenty of applications.
Obviously there are plenty more viable creatures out there. But I hope you get the picture by now on what sort of creature the deck wants to have.
Enlightened Tutor - Gives you the option of having a toolbox sideboard searching for whatever enchantment/artifact you want.
Extirpate - Usually seen in the sideboard, but can have its uses in the main deck as well. Takes out scetchy mana-bases, combo pieces and other annoying things for good. Can be a game-breaking spell if played and timed correctly.
Zealous Persecution - Often seen in builds with a focus on tokens. Great combat trick, and provides a bit of damage reach.
Midnight Haunting - Instant speed is nice, but it's not quite good enough for its cost.
Path to Exile - We run Wasteland for a reason, and unlike Zoo we don't put out enough early damage for the land not to matter. If you feel the need for more cheap removal, I'd look into the multiple 1 and 2 CMC options available in black. Diabolic Edict perhaps.
Duress - It's best against combo decks, but probably best regulated to the sideboard.
Hymn to Tourach - A former staple, the current meta doesn't allow us the luxury of not playing a threat or removal turn two. Very good against control and 'critical mass' combo decks (High Tide, TES). It runs the risk of whiffing on relevant cards, and you don't gain information on their hand. Still a very solid option, and one I honestly consider bringing in every week.
Cabal Therapy - Useuful hand disruption option. Can be quite a gamble the first time, but has loads of potential as the game goes on.
Lingering Souls - One of the new staples for token builds. Can summon evasive equipment bearers, twice!
Sinkhole - One of the best land disruption spells in the game. Solid if you want to max out on land disrution. However, the card can often be useless late in the game.
Smallpox - A sort of Jack of all trades card. Not seen much use in Deadguy builds, but this card is definetly a choice.
Bitterblossom - Still really good, but getting the tokens right now from Lingering Souls is huge. Definitely an option if you're grinding out more of your games, or if you just really enjoy putting out tokens.
Elspeth, Knight-Errant - I stopped running her when Lingering Souls came out. Getting flying blockers and costing 1 less was a big factor for me. She's obviously a very powerful card, and jumping a guy can get in for big damage, but Bob doesn't really like her, and she's slow. If you are considering running her, you might be happier with B/W Stoneblade, it's a more grindy deck that I think she shines in.
Sorin, Lord of Innistrad - A worse Elspeth. Tons of fun though, and the -2 is great if you go for a full on token build. Unfortunately, he's outclassed by Elspeth pretty much everywhere.
Crucible of Worlds - Can come unexpectedly and wreck havoc on opponents mana-base. It also makes your own more resilient to disruption.
Cursed Scroll - Was used in the older builds. Good source of damage for late-game to give the deck some reach.
Engineered Explosives - Solid board sweeper. Its colorless and can take care of a lot of problems for you.
Liliana of the Veil - Another planeswalker for the deck, however, does not give you too much on board presence when you need to push on the last bit of damage. But, she does everything else this deck wants. Awesome, solid staple.
Mishra's Factory - If you don't run Wasteland, consider packing this instead. Works wonders together with Elspeth, Knight-Errant.
Pernicious Deed - Awesome board sweeper if you're running green. Good if you're getting swarmed by creatures or vs. other permanent based decks.
Sensei's Divining Top - Good card choice IMO, some like it alot, some don't. It works well with your Bobs and gives you an advantage when in top deck mode.
The Rack - Another colorless source of damage. Good if you can keep the opponent from rebuilding their hand. Good together with Hypnotic Specter.
Umezawa's Jitte - One of the best equipments in the game. Good choice in some meta-games and in builds running a good number of creatures or using Stoneforge Mystic
Sword of .... - Same as the above.
Æther Vial - Its an option if you're creature heavy and in a counter heavy meta as well. But counter spells shouldn't be an issue for your creatures though.
// SIDEBOARD OPTIONS:
There is too much viable choices here for me to cover them all. So I'll just go through the most common choices that I have not yet mentioned.
Circle of Protection: Red - Burn can be difficult for us, but this wrests things back into out favor. With the fall of Progenitus it's lost a lot of its 'splash hate' value, so if you'd rather play Warmth or Kor Firewalker those are more than adequate choices.
Cursed Totem - I've had games where I landed it turn two and the game was effectively over. Most Maverick decks can't remove it, and a lot of Elves players just won't be able to generate enough mana to cast Krosan Grip with how few lands they run. It turns off your Stoneforge Mystic's cheat equipment in ability, but any matchup that this comes in for you probably want Jitte anyway.
Disenchant - Old standard. Still, instant speed removal for whatever's bothering you. Can't really argue against that.
Engineered Plague - Amazing or useless. It does pretty much beat Elves and Goblins on it's own, and has value against Merfolk. If you've got a tribal theme running through your shop, I'd run it.
Enlightened Tutor - Great for all the space it gives you. You can run 2-3 and one-of 'silver bullet' cards and have an effective 3-4 cards for any matchup.
Ethersworn Canonist - Combo hate with a clock. It can slow you down too, but don't forget you can still cast Tidehollow Sculler or an equipment and another spell.
Extirpate - I prefer it over Surgical Extraction for the split-second. Taking out Life from the Loam, all of a RUG deck's red mana and even Bridge from Below or 4 Dredge cards can win games.
Nihil Spellbomb/Relic of Progenitus/Tormod's Crypt - We can actually use our graveyard some, but against Tarmogoyf nuking all 'yards is better. All have pros and cons which have been discussed to death elsewhere, just choose your favorite if you decide to go with artifact gravehate.
Oblivion Ring - With Show and Tell variants being popular, saying no to Omniscience or Emrakul seems pretty good.
Perish - As long as Maverick and Thresh are in the meta, 2 or 3 of these need to be in the sideboard. Also, it's not bad against Nic Fit. They always assume Thrun will get there for some reason.
Pithing Needle - There's always something you want off. Very versatile, just don't name things with mana abilities. It's not Revoker.
Serenity - Board wipe that takes out Affinity (including lands!) and Enchantress (including mana enchantments!). It's not ideal with the equip package, losing a Sword vs losing the game seems like it might be ok.
Sword of X and Y - If you've got a common matchup that you can improve with one of these, go for it. It doesn't even dilute your strategy.
// DECK SAMPLES:
Samples are taken from the most recent top 8's posted on deckcheck.net. I don't really see any point in posting older deck lists as they are clearly out dated.
4 Dark Confidant
4 Hypnotic Specter
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Tidehollow Sculler
Instant: 8
4 Dark Ritual
4 Swords to Plowshare
Sorcery: 12
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Inquistion of Kozilek
4 Vindicate
3 Sensei's Divining Top
Land: 21
4 Swamp
4 Wasteland
3 Bayou
3 Marsh Flats
3 Scrubland
3 Verdant Catacombs
1 Plains
4 Extirpate
3 Krosan Grip
3 Engineered Plague
3 Tormod's Crypt
2 Nantuko Shade
4 Dark Confidant
4 Hypnotic Specter
4 Tidehollow Sculler
3 Gatekeeper of Malakir
2 Vampire Nighthawk
Instant: 8
4 Dark Ritual
4 Swords to Plowshare
Sorcery: 16
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Sinkhole
4 Vindicate
3 Duress
1 Thoughtseize
5 Swamp
4 Scrubland
4 Wasteland
3 Bloodstained Mire
3 Marsh Flats
1 Plains
3 Extirpate
3 Ravenous Trap
3 Engineered Explosives
3 Thron of Amethyst
2 Umezawa's Jitte
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
4 Dark Confidant
4 Serra Avenger
4 Spectral Lynx
3 Tidehollow Sculler
Instant: 9
4 Extirpate
4 Swords to Plowshare
1 Enlightened Tutor
Sorcery: 12
4 Sinkhole
4 Thoughtseize
4 Vindicate
2 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Umezawa's Jitte
Land: 21
4 Marsh Flats
4 Scrubland
4 Wasteland
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Plains
2 Swamp
2 Windswept Heath
1 Bayou
3 Krosan Grip
3 Perish
2 Engineered Plague
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Circle of Protection: Red
1 Ghostly Prison
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Tormod's Crypt
5 Swamp
4 Marsh Flats
4 Scrubland
3 Polluted Delta
2 Bloodstained Mire
1 Plains
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Artifact: 6
3 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Dark Confidant
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Vampire Nighthawk
2 Stoneforge Mystic
Instant: 4
4 Swords to Plowshares
Sorcery: 12
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Vindicate
4 Engineered Plague
4 Relic of Progenitus
3 Oblivion Ring
3 Path to Exile
1 Sadistic Sacrament
4 Marsh Flats
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Wasteland
3 Scrubland
2 Bayou
2 Swamp
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Karakas
1 Maze of Ith
1 Plains
4 Dark Confidant
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Tarmogoyf
Artifact: 6
3 Mox Diamond
3 Sensei's Divining Top
Instant: 4
4 Swords to Plowshares
Enchantment: 1
1 Pernicious Deed
Sorcery: 14
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Thoughtseize
4 Vindicate
2 Gerrard's Verdict
3 Diabolic Edict
3 Duress
4 Engineered Plague
3 Extirpate
2 Pernicious Deed
4 Dark Confidant
3 Gatekeeper of Malakir
2 Hypnotic Specter
1 Nantuko Shade
3 Nyxathid
4 Tidehollow Sculler
2 Vampire Nighthawk
Instant 8
4 Dark Ritual
4 Swords to Plowshares
Sorcery 12
3 Gerrard's Verdict
1 Hymn to Tourach
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Unearth
3 Vindicate
1 Sensei's Divining Top
Land 20
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Godless Shrine
3 Marsh Flats
1 Plains
2 Polluted Delta
1 Scrubland
5 Swamp
4 Wasteland
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Hypnotic Specter
1 Nezumi Shortfang
1 Nyxathid
1 Orim's Chant
1 Snuff Out
1 Cabal Therapy
1 Duress
1 Gerrard's Verdict
1 Perish
2 Engineered Plague
1 Null Rod
2 Thran Foundry
4 Marsh Flats
4 Scrubland
4 Wasteland
2 Bloodstained Mire
Basic Land: 6
3 Plains
3 Swamp
Artifact: 7
4 Aether Vial
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Dark Confidant
4 Serra Avenger
4 Tidehollow Sculler
3 Mother of Runes
3 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Jotun Grunt
Instant: 6
2 Diabolic Edict
4 Swords to Plowshares
Sorcery: 7
4 Thoughtseize
3 Vindicate
3 Pithing Needle
3 Burrenton Forge-Tender
3 Extirpate
3 Path to Exile
2 Yixlid Jailer
1 Ethersworn Canonist
5 Swamp
3 Plains
Non-Basic Land: 14
4 Marsh Flats
4 Scrubland
4 Wasteland
1 Karakas
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Artifact: 3
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Dark Confidant
4 Mother of Runes
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Vampire Nighthawk
Instant: 5
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Diabolic Edict
Sorcery: 10
4 Thoughtseize
4 Vindicate
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Pithing Needle
4 Faerie Macabre
3 Engineered Plague
2 Duress
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Path to Exile
// MATCH UP ANALYSIS
Work in progress... First of all, I would like to point out that these match-up (MUs) analysis are by no means the general rule, or, straight forward as in "the Holy Bible" of how these match-ups are played out. There are loads of variables and factors that influence a game of magic, so keep in mind that these are just a taste of how certain MUs can be approached when playing Deadguy's Ale. Also, depending on your deck configuration, these MUs may vary a lot in results. I will try to keep this as general as possible knowing that Deadguy configurations are highly variable and can be tweaked in all sorts of ways.
Game 1: Generally , I find this MU to be highly in our favor. We have just as many creatures as they have, more removals as well as better disruption. Equipments are key in this MU and managing to resolve one and get in a few swings with an equipped creature almost guarantees your victory. You are actually the control player here. Play it safe to begin with, keep hands with at least 1 or 2 outs to disrupt your opponents hand. A turn 1 Inquisition of Kozilek followed by a Hymn to Tourach is going to hurt your opponent. Often though, depending on what you see in your opponents hand from your t1 IoK, you might consider playing t2 Dark Confidant rather than Hymn as it might be more beneficial to start drawing cards as early as possible.
Game 2/3: Board in what you got of back-up removals, and Pithing Needle can be solid in this game, as they often rely on their Aether Vial, Wasteland and Mutavault. Watch out for Back to Basic, as this card might slow you down enough to win them the game. If you got some unused Umezawa's Jitte in your board, bring them in here as well.
Merfolk decks can always pull out a win out of nowhere, so try to force them into top-deck mode, and drop a Dark Confidant to make sure you draw more cards then him/her, at least for a few turns. Try to kill their creatures almost on sight, and swing in for whatever amount of damage you can manage when possibilities arise. These 2 dmg here and there is what wins you the game in the end.
Game 1: I would say that this MU is about 50/50. If you can manage to keep the game going for more than 5-6 turns, chances are you will win the game. Unlike the Merfolk MU, Zoo got better creatures and better removal (generally speaking) than Deadguy. What we lack in power though, we gain in endurance. Again, Dark Confident is key. And an aggressive hand disruption first draw 7 is very good. If you deny them their explosive start, and wither away as much of his 1 and 2 drops as soon as possible, you got one step in the right path to victory. Play your important creatures as late as possible. That means Dark Confidant and Vampire Nighthawk. Why? Because you want to make their chances of surviving for 2+ turns as high as possible. If you can attack with Nighthawk for 2 turns and gain 4 life? GOOD! Draw two cards with Bob? AWESOME!
Game 2/3: At this point, things get a bit more tricky. Depending on how prepared your sideboard is for this MU, things can either go really down the drain, or make things almost as easy as a walk in the park. Mass removals such as Perish is MVP here, unless you are facing a Cat-based Zoo, in which case you can board in Engineered Plague. Relic of Progenitus sometimes help if you are having issues with dealing with Tarmogoyf, but most of the time that should not be an issue. In general terms, just pack as much removal as you can afford to.
Game 1: Just to say things directly, this is one of the worst MUs I personally have experienced playing with Deadguy. It might be my limited knowledge about the opposing deck, but so far, I find it quite difficult to win 2 out of 3 games against Enchantress on a regular basis. The main issue I see is that we aren't nearly as fast enough, or, threatening enough to seal the deal as quick as we should want to in this MU. As the turns goes on and time pass by, slowly but surely, Enchantress will manage to build up their defense and win.
Game 2/3: My take post board on this is to board in Extirpates and/or other Graveyard removals. This is to weaken their late-game, and perhaps nab some really important cards, like their few kill-conditions, or main defense mechanism. If you can drop down an early Bob and equip him with Jitte or whatever sword/armory you got for him, and start swinging while keeping their hands on the low side, you got a shot at stealing the game. The trick here is to be as aggressive as possible. Take out most of your target removal as they are often useless in this MU, Add whatever you got that might be helpful, such as graveyard hate and enchantment removals.
Game 1: Believe it or not, this MU is actually in favor of us. The first round might be a coin flip, but disrupt their hand, and keep Gatekeeper of Malakir in handy in case they sneak a Reanimate spell past you. Once you get past the first few crucial turns, keep up the push with Dark Confidant, Vampire Nighthawk equipped with swords.
Game 2/3: Board in Diabolic Edicts (or other similar type of removals) and what you pack of Extirpate, Relic of Progenitus or Tormod's Crypt etc. Make sure you always have mana open for Extirpate whenever you pass the turn, as they might nab one from your hand if you're tapped out with their own discard spells.
Game 1: Although it might resemble a mirror match in terms of the type of cards played in both decks, playing against it is a slightly different ball game than the mirror. The MU is in most cases, in favor of the Deadguy player. We got more creatures, and better removals. Deadguy builds packing Abyssal Persecutor have an even greater chance in this MU as this guy just boss around whatever they drop down into the battlefield. He has also often built-in protection from Snuff Out which is one of their most used removal.
Game 2/3: Same thing, but different. You still got the upper hand, but you need to be more cautions of what they decide to board in against you. Watch out for Pernicious Deed. Pithing Needle and Extirpate can come in handy. Their mana-base are often a bit shaky, so you got a potential target for Extirpate there, or their few but powerful creatures. If you get the chance, don't hesitate to take out their Tombstalker.
Game 1: This game can be quite frustrating sometimes, but generally speaking, Deadguy should be well prepared to deal with this MU. You got all the removals you need as well as Wasteland to take out their fragile mana-base. The hand-disruption package is a hit or miss. If you are on the play, make sure to keep hand with a few of these bad-boys. On the draw however, chances are they will be more or less dead cards. If you can manage to keep their creatures on the low side, and prevent them from punching you in the face with Cranial Plating, you got your self a victory point. Zealous Persecution is huge here, as it kills all of their flyers allowing Vindicate and StP to take out Master of Etherium and Jitte or SoFaI can take down Etched Champion being colorless.
Game 2/3: Again, creature removal is highly desirable in this MU. Extirpate might be useful if you got no other options. And if you splash green, make sure you got some Pernicious Deed ready for action. Otherwise, Engineered Explosives and other board sweepers can also do some damage. If you have artifact hate bring it in, but game two tends to be a little easier since they have to bring in cards like Nature's Claim, slowing down their clock. Serenity blowing up all their lands and creatures is pretty good.
If you don't know they're on Belcher, not much you can proactively do. If you did scout (or it's a local and you just know) you want a hand with Zealous Persecution or Stoneforge. Stoneforge -> Batterskull can actually gain enough life to beat up to 12 Goblins if you're on the play (only 8 on the draw). Then hope they go for the Empty kill. If they are going for Belcher, play it out. You could get amazing luck and make it to 3 mana for the Vindicate.
Games 2/3: Bring in Needle effects for Goblin Charbelcher, and Ethersworn Canonist just in case they pass the turn without going off. Also, 4x Hope//Pray never hurts.
On the draw, the only thing scarier than first turn Land Grant is Mountain -> Goblin Guide. Once you drop a plains, you and you're opponent both know what you're goals are and which cards matter. While its very easy to tweak and beat burn with the plethora of playable (if somewhat marginal) life gain cards in B/W, most of us rely on Batterskull/Jitte. Get those out, make smart blocks, and fetch basics. They can run out of gas, and if you can hold out and connect with a Jitte even once you'll probably get there.
Games 2/3: Whatever red hate you have, pull it in. Be aware of Smash to Smithereens and/or Shattering Spree, but if you think there's a window, take it.
We have all the tools we need to take this deck. StP for early Delver/Goyf, Vindicate and Liliana for later threats, and Liliana takes out Mongoose. Wasteland to keep them off a color, Lingering Souls to buy time and clog the skies until any equipment gets online. Game one they can't answer a resolved Batterskull without having a bigger Goyf. With discard on the play, taking a creature is usually the correct play. With only 12 threats and some burn in the whole deck losing that tempo allows us the time to get our advantage engines online and create enough inevitability.
Game 2/3: Perish comes in for the ability to kill Mongoose and Goyf. If you run Extirpate you can potentially take them off a color, but don't hesitate to rip all copies of a creature either. Watch out for Sulfur Elemental, I usually take out 1-2 Lingering Souls to make room for Perish without ramping up my curve too much.
It's been seeing play off and on, but they almost can't win through the amount of disruption we run. Zealous Persecution is a one-sided Wrath, Jitte is Jitte, discard is highly relevant (they are a combo deck). And StP on Heritage Druid can be backbreaking if correctly timed. You do need to get one of those going early though, they can kill turn 3/4 fairly consistently.
Games 2/3: Cursed Totem, Perish, Pithing Needle still hits Wirewood Symbiote and Quirion Dryad, while Revoker shuts down everyone else. Ethersworn Canonist stops them from combing or swarming too. Make sure you don't side in too much, you still want your deck to work. 3 drops tend to be the first to go for me in any fast(ish) combo match just because won't necessarily get that many turns without disruption.
When the deck first came out this was a difficult matchup, but now that we know to prepare for it you should easily come out on top. Zealous Persecution is again huge here, sweeping up Mom, Noble Hierarch, Thalia, and Dryad Arbor. Save Swords to Plowshares and Vindicate for Knight of the Reliquary if you can, and if you get a Jitte to connect, which Lingering Souls is pretty good at, you can usually sweep up from there.
Game 2/3: Adding Perish and Cursed Totem to your already impressive removal suite is backbreaking. As long as you don't get mana screwed (watch out for Wasteland/Thalia) you're golden. Usually you can take out some discard, as with the mana ramp they drop their hand pretty quickly. Batterskull also loses some effectiveness with Stoneforge potentially losing the ability to cheat things into play. Most Maverick decks are extremely soft to Totem, although some have to play against it enough that they'll have an Harmonic Sliver or Uktabi Orangutans to get through it. Don't panic, you probably bought yourself enough time to finish the game even if they can nuke it.
This is a rough matchup, but doable. Discard their Counterbalance if you can, but even if it resolves with Top, Vindicate and Lingering Souls can get through, especially if you can bait them into countering something else first. Remember, they only have 2-4 cards at 3CMC, but if you wait too long they'll just draw into real counterspells. If you resolve a Stoneforge, get a Sword. Fire and Ice is best because it protects against Jace bounce, and gives an effective +4/+2 to the Spirit tokens that should be online at some point. As long as you're not using Feast and Famine you get some protection. Don't overextend into Terminus, and if you can keep their mana low with Wasteland do it. Jace is slightly easier to beat than 4+ Angel tokens.
Games 2/3: Any Needle effects you have come in. Naming Top or Jace helps so much. Extirpate has some potential, to remove all Counterbalance/Tops if you can get one in the grave, but it's more consistently used to mess with Snapcaster Mage after they choose a target, or to make them shuffle after they put a 2 or 3 on top to counter a spell you need to resolve. Some chance > none.
Pernicious Deed is really well positioned in the meta right now, and we're no exception. The longer the game goes the better off they are, so any discard you have has to be used to disrupt their tempo, not take the best thing in their hand. I've won games by discarding Veteran Explorer turn one (I was on the play) and letting them keep a Recurring Nightmare. He ended up stuck on 2 lands with a Cabal Therapy in the 'yard for a few turns, long enough for me to get the beats in and by the time he played his third land and started playing magic, he was too far behind. Oh, and if you find that Deadguy isn't quite what you're looking for (and you like having fun) I highly recommend Nic Fit.
Games 2/3: Basically the same, except now you can combat the graveyard tricks somewhat. What comes in and out is tricky, since Nic Fit and Deadguy are both pretty customizable decks. Perish is good, but unlike against Maverick you can't just play it "whenever" because they can rebuild and are more likely to land a Thrun. The longer the game goes, the more reliant you are on Liliana and Batterskull, because everything else dies to top deck Deed.
Omniscience has become the big thing deck for 'slow combo with protection'. This is a pretty rough matchup for us, just because they have so much redundancy and we run so many cards that are dead against them game 1.
Games 2/3: You need to have some sort of early discard because they can combo off as early as turn 2 and there's no reason for them to hold back and wait for protection. If you run Oblivion Rings (and this deck is big now so you should have it), bring them in and hope that they can't keep the combo in hand with a Trickbind.
// END NOTE:
This primer is still a constant work in progress. Feel free to add to the discussion whatever you feel is missing or whatever needs adjusting. I will try to update this primer whenever we as a community (more or less) agrees to something that will either improve this archetype and/or primer. Anything from card choices, updated deck lists, deck strategies and match-up analysis. Speaking of which, MU's will be added when anyone got something regarding a particular MU. Just post them in this thread.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Hakai Studios for providing us with this awesome banner
Regards
D3@D and evilGod
Cockatrice username: Blackcat77
^ I think I just missed that on the ggslive. Link or list?
Legacy: Pox | Tiny Leaders: Thalia Hatebears
The lists that have won recently, in small tourneys, have all had Sensei's Divining Top to try to even out the randomness that Deadguy has always kind of suffered from in comparison to the blue-centric meta that is Legacy.
The next incarnation of Deadguy is going to need to find something new and terrible to inflict on the meta before it really arrives as a highly competitive archetype. It's possible that the banning of Mystical tutor has reset the meta enough for midrange control to make a return and if so then there is a corresponding opening for Deadguy to come back and prey on those decks again.
EDIT: @ RootaVootaZoop: Dead guy still places highly and regularly in top tournies, and has the ability to beat any match up with fairly high consistency.
:symb::symw::symb:Deadguy Ale:symw::symb::symw:
EDH
:symb::symb::symb:Ink-eyes:symb::symb::symb:
Deckcheck.net disagrees with you. It has a few 5th place finishes in relatively small tournies, under 40 players or so, but the last win streak was last November to December and even those were small tournies.
Deadguy hasn't top 8'd a major event since GP Chicago in March of 09. That's fifteen months at this point.
The key ingriedient really is to disrupt your opponents hand early then kick their face while their still down. If you can't keep up the steam after the first wave of discard spells, things will be a lot more difficult for you. So having a late-game reach type of card like Elspeth, Cursed Scroll, Equipment does help things a lot in my opinion. Lets just hope that Mid-range will be back in full force to level out the aggro decks again.
Btw, if anyone got the deck list from GP Columbus, just post it here and I'll add it to the primer.
EDIT:
Just for the sake of discussion, I'm posting my build. The cards listed in ()'s are the changes I'd do if I were to splash green into the mix.
3 Swamp
1 Plains (Swamp)
Non-Basic Land: 16
4 Marsh Flats
4 Scrubland
4 Wasteland
2 Bloodstained Mire (Bayou)
2 Verdant Catacombs
Artifact: 2
2 Sensei's Divining Top
Creature: 16
4 Dark Confidant
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
4 Jötun Grunt (Tarmogoyf)
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Dark Ritual
4 Swords to Plowshare
Planeswalker: 2
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant (Umezawa's Jitte/Pernicious Deed)
Sorcery: 12
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Vindicate
3 Aura of Silence (Krosan Grip/Pithing Needle)
3 Engineered Plague
3 Extirpate
3 Perish (Choke/Cop: Red/Enlightened Tutor)
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 Relic of Progenitus
(Siggy adapted, DarkHunter1357 (deviantART))
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Karakas
4 Marsh Flats
1 Maze of Ith
1 Plains
3 Scrubland
2 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Wasteland
4 Dark Confidant
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Hymn to Tourach
3 Mox Diamond
1 Pernicious Deed
3 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Thoughtseize
4 Vindicate
3 Duress
4 Engineered Plague
3 Extirpate
2 Pernicious Deed
@ D3@D why not run thoughtseize? you have Unlmited Duals so life loss shouldn't be a problem?
and I also think that the rack and Misra's Factory should be included in the primer.
Edit: 100, woop!
:symb::symw::symb:Deadguy Ale:symw::symb::symw:
EDH
:symb::symb::symb:Ink-eyes:symb::symb::symb:
I mostly agree with this. Deadguy is strong in matchups where the opponent wants to hold non-instant cards for the right moment and weaker in matchups where they pluck cards off the top and play them right away or have a lot of instants that can be played in response to sorceries. Sorcery speed discard is valuable on a continuing basis against the former and almost useless against the latter.
One of the things that defines Legacy right now is that topdeck aggro is stronger than it's ever been, with Zoo and Goblins effectively making discard a fairly sad panda as they supress the midrange control that discard dominates.
Done!
And the Top 8 GP deck list has been added as well.
RE: Thoughtseize. I've been testing IoK lately, and I must say I'm very happy with its performance. Its kind of like the best of two worlds. You don't lose life like Duress, and you can now choose to discard opponents creatures like Thoughtseize. The can't target anything above 3cc is mostly irellevant, at least from what I've experienced now. The higher cc cards can be taken by Hymn or Tidehollow Sculler.
RE: trouble against zoo/burn.
I think if these are dominating your metagame, try packing Cop: RED, Gerrard's Verdict and Vampire Nighthawk etc. Stuff that gains you life and/or prevents them from targeting your face. Or just not play this deck. Because, clearly these MU's are making life hard for deadguy players right now.
And I think that creatures such as Goyf, Tombstalker, Nyxathid etc. are crucial in these MUs as they got a body thats not directly into bolt range. Maybe an aproach more similar to Eva Green is the way to go these days. Pack more muscle over Dark Confidant's card drawing?
D3@D
The strategies of the decks are very different and one plays slower than the other. Considering Brad's deck a part of this primer is confusing to me at the least and downright wrong at the most.
Nelson's list is definitely a hybridization of several different archetypes. It has features of The Rock, features of Deadguy/Sui and features of Aggro Loam. The 10 discard spells are a huge part of the build though so I don't have a problem with it winding up being discussed in a Deadguy thread. It really doesn't fit here but it has components that are central to the theme.
Knight of the Reliquary is never going to be part of Deadguy Ale. It's got two off-colors in it and it's undependable in a Deadguy manabase unless the deck opens itself to Wasteland in a way no pure aggro deck can afford.
Agreed, you just have to adapt slightly, not that the match ups will be amazing but they can be won.
Edit: Though I'm not sure about dropping Bob, he is amazing!
:symb::symw::symb:Deadguy Ale:symw::symb::symw:
EDH
:symb::symb::symb:Ink-eyes:symb::symb::symb:
And the more I play with the deck, the more I want to splash green for Goyfs. Jötun Grunt just seems to die whenever I need him the most.
Legacy:
RBDark BurnBR
4x Engineered Plague + 2x Pithing Needle/COP: RED should be sufficient maybe? What creature type do we give the Plague to vs. Zoo?
Legacy:
RBDark BurnBR
That could be a good idea. I think I subconsciously made myself forget about that card because of its price tag
Legacy:
RBDark BurnBR
The :symw::symw: in Moats casting cost makes the turn 4 worries even more valid. It'd probably be too slow against the decks you really need it against but a bomb against some of the midrange decks Deadguy slaughters anyway. Switching to Mox Diamond instead of Dark Ritual takes you a whole different direction with the deck and probably moves it off of Deadguy completely.
This game is just so amazing in terms of the variety of options it offers and the tradeoffs they create.
I agree, Mox Diamond does open up doorways for this deck. However, I don't feel the Moat path is viable when using Mox Diamond. The reason being, Mox Diamond complements creatures like Tarmogoyf and KotR very well, none of which have flying. If used without such cards, I feel the full potential of the card isn't being drawn out, and it would be better in most cases to just run Dark Ritual due to the theory of stock mana.
Looking at the first 3 turns of 2 different decks:
[Dark Ritual]
Turn 1: Land, Dark Ritual (4 SM)
Turn 2: Untap Land, Land Drop (6 SM)
Turn 3: Untap 2 Lands, Land Drop (9 SM)
[Mox Diamond]
Turn 1: Land, Mox Diamond (2 SM)
Turn 2: Untap Land/Mox, Land Drop (5 SM)
Turn 3: Untap 2 Lands/Mox, Land Drop (9 SM)
So the Mox Diamond doesn't catch up until Turn 3, at which point it will pass Dark Ritual (Barring no more Dark Rits). However, when running Mox Diamond, you run the risk of missing a land drop because of it. Thinking about this, let's look up to turn 5:
[Dark Ritual]
Turn 1: Land, Dark Ritual (4 SM)
Turn 2: Untap Land, Land Drop (6 SM)
Turn 3: Untap 2 Lands, Land Drop (9 SM)
Turn 4: Untap 3 Lands, Land Drop (13 SM)
Turn 5: Untap 4 Lands, Land Drop (18 SM)
[Mox Diamond]
Turn 1: Land, Mox Diamond (2 SM)
Turn 2: Untap Land/Mox (4 SM)
Turn 3: Untap Land/Mox, Land Drop (7 SM)
Turn 4: Untap 2 Lands/Mox, Land Drop (11 SM)
Turn 5: Untap 3 Lands/Mox, Land Drop (16 SM)
In general, the person who spends more stock mana will be the winner. Dark Ritual allows you to spend more stock mana faster than Mox, and in a fast format, that is something valuable to take into consideration. But, to bring this full circle, I am not saying Mox Diamond is worse than Dark Rit. I am looking at the use of Mox Diamond when its full potential is not being reached. The concept of stock mana is applied to actual card costs as well, meaning that all these numbers do change when bringing in other cards to the mix like Tarmogoyf and KotR.
Edit: Here are some articles on the matter;
http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=8394
http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=8547
http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=8738
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/misc/18988_Fishing_Lessons_The_Purpose_of_Theory.html
Legacy:
RBDark BurnBR
I have no problem with merfolk. I can usually win game 1 and then game two I alwasy side in engineered plague. Vampire nighthhawk is great against them, especially with jitte
:symb::symw::symb:Deadguy Ale:symw::symb::symw:
EDH
:symb::symb::symb:Ink-eyes:symb::symb::symb: