Why wouldn't you just play Astral Slide and a bunch of Cycling cards?
Apparently it was already suggested, and dismissed for taking up too much room. As opposed to the 16 slots you have for "Blinks," and the 16 slots you have for Scathe Zombies.
...ermm, no offense, but I think you've kinda missed the point here. Considering that the 16 Morph creatures are the whole reason the deck exists.
I am trying to make an aggro deck. How would Astral Slide and a bunch of cycling cards make a better aggro deck than this?
Slide is a great control card. But don't you think that by the time I've forked out 3 mana for the slide, and some more mana for the cycling, that I might have lost just a *bit* of the "speed death aggro KILL" focus of the deck?
To reiterate: if I was trying to build Rifter, this thread wouldn't exist.
However: if you have any constructive suggestions about utilising Slide in an aggro deck such as this, I'm all ears.:hifive:
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Johnny (with a touch of Spike)..
Creator of Thoughtless Sensei and Morph Aggro
Gaymer Raccoons please My artworkz
"We've made OVER NINE THOUSAND unique cards."
- MaRo, October 8th, 2007 IT'S OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAND!!!!!
Slide provides you a recurrable way to un-Morph your creatures, at no card disadvantage. It also allows you to run more specific utility spells that have a purpose when not particularly relevant to the current gamestate (see Gilded Light), which can allow you to generally have better overall matchups. You can use Eternal Dragon to fix your mana, while maintaining the same speed you currently have (Turn 2-3 morph, next turn flip it). You also get to slide out your opponent's guys (Piledriver), and make your own better in combat. Basically, it does everything the blink spells do, and then some. I'm not saying turn your deck into Rifter. I'm saying you gain a lot, and lose little more than a bunch of potentially dead cards.
Ok, good points. But if I were to cut most of the blink effects for Astral Slide and cyclers, I would still have to run tutors, or some other way of getting the Slide consistently. Without the ability to consistently un-morph my creatures, I really am Scathe Zombie Beats
I see where you're coming from, but the issue I have with it is that it effectively turns a modular strategy into a single-card strategy. Astral Slide leaves no room for other blinks in the deck; which means if my opponent counters or otherwise deals with the Slide, I am left in the lurch. Whereas if they counter Flicker or whatever, there is always another one on its way.
Another point is, that the one-shot blink effects are very rarely dead. cards. As long as you have a creature on the board they can be used:
-to unmorph a creature
-to save a creature from removal
-to save your creature from combat damage while letting yours go through.
It is unfortunate to not be able to run a lot of utility cards, but there have been many competitive decks with similar strategies. For instance, in the past, Reanimator decks have been strong in various formats, despite the necessity of running a lot of potentially dead enabler cards.
Reanimator needs
a: Fatties
b: ways to discard them
c: ways to bring them back
leaving no room at all for any utility, usually.
Whereas my deck simply needs
a: Fatties
b: blinks
I like the consistency of always seeing both of those in my opening hand: consistency that Reanimator lacks.
However, I will probably test a version with Slide alongside my build. I just think that, in trying to be more versatile, it leaves the overall core of the deck somewhat less robust.
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Johnny (with a touch of Spike)..
Creator of Thoughtless Sensei and Morph Aggro
Gaymer Raccoons please My artworkz
"We've made OVER NINE THOUSAND unique cards."
- MaRo, October 8th, 2007 IT'S OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAND!!!!!
This brings into question the overall core of the deck (Which is what I was getting at by referencing 16 Scathe Zombies). That's a discussion I'm not going to participate in. I've got you thinking about Slide, that's enough for me to call it a day. Let us know how it goes!
My greatest concern's is the Krosan Colossus. I would say OUT and make the deck WU in play.
Now that we have cleared some dust... that leaves us with 23 slots to work with and to fill with nice stoof!
Now that's done, take 4 slots for that Astral Slide.
Now for some listing of cyclers that migth come in handy: Cloud of Faeries, now you can play that second cycler or turn that first one face up plus have a nice little critter. Dragon Wings: insistant to keep that huge fat in there? Why not grant it a bit of flying AND something to cycle it up with? Guilded Light: sideboard material... but never bad. Renewed Faith: we all know this one Rescind: well well, something to either clear the way or to cycle. Utility abound.
and then im omitting stuff like the cycle lands and various fabulous red cards that can be used.
I just saying, is it worth sacrificing a bit of speed for a bit of control/consistency? In my eyes, yes.
My cuttings were a bit drastic, but they didnt look like anything more then random support cards that could have helped anywhere.
Well, thats all fun and all, but all the creatures are threats in the making, so a smart opponent will know fully well to remove as much as possible. And since you cant randomize your cards whereabouts... that loses the fun a bit.
But it made me think, some fun cards with morph like Willbender and Vesuvan Shapeshifter can be included to have even more tech. I attack with my morph and a Exalted angel, turn morph over TADAAA 2 angels!
I am dead against turning this into anything resembling an aggro-control deck, as any movement in that direction should (rightly) elicit the response "why don't you just play Rifter?" When people start suggesting such things as Renewed Faith, Cloud of Faeries, I have to ask: Can you see Vial Goblins splashing for life gain? Morph Aggro's matchup against Goblins (and other aggro in general) is favourable anyway, so why?
The deck is fine as an aggro deck, and has the menudos to deal with most of the stuff Goblins, Threshold, Angel Stompy, Faerie Stompy et al can throw at it. And it wouldn't be the only deck around with a weakness to combo. Saying it runs 16 Scathe Zombies is like saying Sneak Attack or Reanimator run 20+ uncastable cards, or that Honeycombs is mostly a pile of worthless cardboard - its true, but its not going to stop them beating you. I'd like to add that the deck can regularly unmorph Exalted Angel on turn 3 without using a blink.
And Dragon Wings is silly when nearly all my creatures have flying.
I'll repeat it for the umpteenth time: the deck's name is Morph Aggro. Utility is all well and good, but consistent, early threat density must always come first.
So an Astral Slide build is fine only if it gets a massive threat onto the table by turn 3, 10 games in a row. I can't see that happening if we take out most of the enablers and replace them with stall cards. You just end up with a control deck with a quirky kill condition.
Viroid, I say again; what does the deck do if it doesn't find the Astral Slide?
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Johnny (with a touch of Spike)..
Creator of Thoughtless Sensei and Morph Aggro
Gaymer Raccoons please My artworkz
"We've made OVER NINE THOUSAND unique cards."
- MaRo, October 8th, 2007 IT'S OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAND!!!!!
Then the deck still has 8 other forms of blinking 4 momentary blink and flicker. Im not trying to turn your deck, but there are times where you have to think beyond turn 4. Because that phatty angel you got there is bound to meet some resistance in the form of either removal or chumpers. I did not do anything to threat density. Im all for to have 10 normal flicker spells in there, preferably the 8 insta-flickers and 2 Otherworldly Journey. But adding cycle tactics, eventhough it only has to exist as 1/3 or even 1/4 of the deck, makes for a smoother draw to begin with.
In my view, the original list has the menudo's to cope with it for a turn or 2 by flickering their creatures.
And MORPH AGGRO is all fun and all, but youre talking to someone who refuses to acknowledge that the borders of archetypes are that black and white.
But heck, im not asking you to turn this into an aggro/control deck. Heck, where did you get that idea? Do you see Astral Slide solely as that? I see it as a great polyvalent tool to clear the way and construct big beasties at the same time using cards that otherwise would have been slightly usefull but can serve a better purpose by getting rid of em (looking at CLoud of Faeries and Rescind here). Sigh... it is hard to type up what i have in mind. I just hope you understand.
Im not trying to turn your deck, but there are times where you have to think beyond turn 4. Because that phatty angel you got there is bound to meet some resistance in the form of either removal or chumpers.
Please understand that this was exactly the reason that Sword of Fire and Ice was added to the deck, which you dismissed pretty quickly. It grants protection from a lot of stuff, kills creatures, draws cards...basically gives the deck the kind of reach you're trying to give it with the Slide.
You also wrote off CotV, which I would have to regard as one of the deck's greatest strengths.
-Chalice @ 1 is brilliant against everything.
-The deck can almost always drop Chalice @ 1 on the first turn due to the land base.
-The deck has no significant 1-drops to be disrupted by Chalice @ 1.
-It is one of the deck's main weapons against Solidarity, and it is much better in this respect than Gilded Light.
Also, as a note, I'd take Voyager Staff or Otherworldly Journey over Flicker; sorcery speed is a major disadvantage.
Also: A lot of my creatures (Akroma and Quicksilver) have a built-in defense against spot removal. Just a point.
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Johnny (with a touch of Spike)..
Creator of Thoughtless Sensei and Morph Aggro
Gaymer Raccoons please My artworkz
"We've made OVER NINE THOUSAND unique cards."
- MaRo, October 8th, 2007 IT'S OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAND!!!!!
I did not dismiss them actually, they are cards that do their job, but well, they do their job no matter what deck theyre in.. i just excluded them from the picture for me.
I see that the idea is to flick them over EOT of your opponents turn. Well, then boot flicker to two and upgrade that otherworldly journey.
The argument on SoFI is kind of meager. Grants protection from what? Lightning Bolt? boomerang? The protection is not the core of the card. THe additional two damage assigned as you wish is the core, draw and protection are delicious gravy.
But on my defense, you must agree a repeatable flicker > one shot flicker right?
Not to ruffle feathers, but after reading over the intense discussion that has been going on while I was at school, I have to say I agree with Xandercoon. I'm glad he has said what he did about the "aggro" point. Xandercoon, your last list is the one that I see as the most promising. I hope to be able to have some time on MWS for it this weekend if exams don't get in the way.
I wouldn't consider it a necro at all. Not only was the idea waiting for something to widen it a bit, but your thread is not that old. (I still have it in a Firefox Tab here with the old MTGS logo, christmas lights and all on the page :)) I was just mentioning it in the Prison Dancer thread when discussing Icy Prison with Exalted Angel and whether I should have taken the deck in the morph direction. I've decided that taking it in the morph direction would - in the most refined form it could get to - would be... your deck here. So instead I'll just help discuss it and test it
The argument for SoFI is that using the 8xDoubleLands-Chalice-and-Fat-Stompy Strategy is able to get out SoFI very easily. Like Xandercoon said, his creatures will have protection from... the "other" stuff. Pro RB is just icing (stops Gilded Drake and bounce, etc. - but Flicker effects already kill Hunted Horror) - and the +2/+2 is VERY important, on angel especially. The +2/+2 can turn a Gray Ogre into a threat too, most definitely. And then even more icing is the card draw, the reason it's in here, eh? Sorry if I seemed to be stating the obvious there
So, in closing, leave the deck how it is for now. Astral Slide slows it down considerably and makes it very distracted.
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While netdecking and testing VileHorror i thought about Biorhythm. Sure its really expensive, off-color and crappy but still you're always the one with creatures while playing VH. That made me think.
The argument on SoFI is kind of meager. Grants protection from what? Lightning Bolt? boomerang? The protection is not the core of the card. THe additional two damage assigned as you wish is the core, draw and protection are delicious gravy.
Protection from Goblins, mainly. Also, can stop Faerie Stompy in its tracks.
But on my defense, you must agree a repeatable flicker > one shot flicker right?
Yes. Respect, Viroid, but in a game that is going well it shouldn't be necessary to cast more than 2-3 blinks. I admit that a Slide engine would be an excellent thing for those games that don't go so well...
...but in this situation, 16 blinks means a good chance that there is one waiting on top of your library anyway.
@Isamaru: *L* you always agree with me. Thanks for the support. I am serious about testing with Astral Slide, as these folks have raised good points; but my build has given good results so far and I'm not willing to give it up yet.
In other news...the Orb gives back 10 results for Morph in Planar Chaos. If any of them are half as good as Akroma is this deck could be in for a wild ride these next weeks.
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Johnny (with a touch of Spike)..
Creator of Thoughtless Sensei and Morph Aggro
Gaymer Raccoons please My artworkz
"We've made OVER NINE THOUSAND unique cards."
- MaRo, October 8th, 2007 IT'S OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAND!!!!!
So Viroid and I talked about SoFI on MSN today and I think it is that it looks better on paper than Astral Slide does, so do the testing, when you get a chance, with what you think.
Hopefully I can try out your page-2 version this weekend.
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While netdecking and testing VileHorror i thought about Biorhythm. Sure its really expensive, off-color and crappy but still you're always the one with creatures while playing VH. That made me think.
I find it very silly how some of you are arguing for the addition of slide and various control pieces.
The ONE REAL THING this deck has going for it is BIG CREATURES and FAST. And what's the other thing this deck does? PROTECTS THEM. Does it do anything else? No! Should it do anything else? No! What we have here is beautiful consitency, which is not as common in most decks. Want a good example of a CONSITENT deck that performs quite well? -Life.deck.
SoFI is nice, I can't help but notice though that Jitte cost 2 to play and 2 to equip while the sword cost 3 to play and 2 to equip. The difference there may often be the difference of a turn, especially with so many lands that tap for 2. Of course, Jitte doesn't initially protect your creatures.
I don't like how everytime you flicker one of your equiped creatures, the equipment will fall off; makes me want to find a substitute card that will simply pump all of your creatures. A Glorious Anthem-type effect, but preferably an artifact (I can't think of any)
Voyager Staff is nice, but it won't work for the "surprise save" since your opponent knows it's coming. And it costs a total of 3 mana, at which point I'd like to say: why not just run Ghostway, which saves everything/flicks everything at once.
Flicker is a sorcery. I'd try to get rid of these and up the instant-verisons to 4-ofs etc.
Aether Flash sure sucks for this deck.. not that it's any worry :-p
Have you tried running Trinisphere? A first/second turn one of those can slow down most threatening decks enough to allow you to pummel their faces in :-D
Here's to hoping we get some nice morphs to accompany Akroma in Planar Chaos!
I love the deck idea. Any deck that has 8 angels that can attack as early as turn 2 sounds great. How does the deck deal with a chalice of the void for 0 though? Morph spells are 0 costing spells, even if they cost 3 right?
Akroma I'm assuming is an automatic 4x? Akroma is immune to swords, singleton burn, but it might as well say immune to all your own flicker effects as well.
and what about Dream Chisel? I think that a B/W deck with dark ritual, the doulbe mana lands, the Chisel (with something to tutor for them) can get you 1, maybe 2 morphs on the first turn consistently, that's ´pretty sick. it's easy to flicker them from there.
Hello Maveric78f and welcome to the discussion. If you haven't already, check out the revised decklist on page 2. It answers many of the questions you raised about the original list from your first post.
A counter / draw package is an interesting one which I haven't really considered. It would preferably have to include only free counters i.e. FoW or Daze, as anything else would hinder development. If I wanted to move in an aggro-control direction it is arguably better than Slide, since it can be enacted without badly slowing down the aggro side of the deck.
Re landbase: Screw Wasteland. The deck runs on two land, or even one (Mox + City of Traitors), which is mana-efficient enough to not really care about land-d. I am considering increasing the number of ways to find white mana though. And Crystal Vein is admittedly annoying, but also often useful.
I am honestly not sure as to the ruling on Chalice of the Void vs. Morph. If it does stop morphs, I agree that a way out would be handy.
Dream Chisel - was considered and rejected due to the fact that it does nothing particularly wonderful, and costs more mana than it gives back. Any old mana artifact like Fellwar Stone would be just as good. Finding the mana to play morphs is rarely a problem. Finding white mana, on the other hand...
I am taking out the Voyager Staffs on reflection, mainly because it is hosed by your own Chalice for 1.
And yes, I am paranoid of Trickbind...
Hope you enjoy the deck Maveric...
Johnny (with a touch of Spike)..
Creator of Thoughtless Sensei and Morph Aggro
Gaymer Raccoons please My artworkz
"We've made OVER NINE THOUSAND unique cards."
- MaRo, October 8th, 2007 IT'S OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAND!!!!!
Okay for some reason I've fallen in love with Loyal Sentry (found it on random card) and I think he's pretty good as a blocker (or even a 1/1 attacker for a simple W that you can put equipment on or whatnot) and get's a lot better if you flicker him in response to his blocking trigger.
EDIT: A second version of the card is Alaborn Zealot. Thanks, random card.
While netdecking and testing VileHorror i thought about Biorhythm. Sure its really expensive, off-color and crappy but still you're always the one with creatures while playing VH. That made me think.
This is a very noobish question in my opinion, but uh, if you remove a face-down creature with a flicker card, does it come back as the morphed creature or a 2/2 colorless?
I was thinking maybe some big beatdown like Krosan Cloudscraper. Also Fortune Thief as a nice worship. Or Weathered Bodyguards to stop an amount of damage from your opponent for a turn. Either way, that's my opinion on this deck =0)
This is a very noobish question in my opinion, but uh, if you remove a face-down creature with a flicker card, does it come back as the morphed creature or a 2/2 colorless?
I was thinking maybe some big beatdown like Krosan Cloudscraper. Also Fortune Thief as a nice worship. Or Weathered Bodyguards to stop an amount of damage from your opponent for a turn. Either way, that's my opinion on this deck =0)
Yes, flicker flips it up, which is the goal of the deck
Weathered Bodyguards sounds okay, but Cloudscraper has an upkeep and Fortune Thief doesn't seem worth it for this, I think.
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While netdecking and testing VileHorror i thought about Biorhythm. Sure its really expensive, off-color and crappy but still you're always the one with creatures while playing VH. That made me think.
While netdecking and testing VileHorror i thought about Biorhythm. Sure its really expensive, off-color and crappy but still you're always the one with creatures while playing VH. That made me think.
No no no, Krosan Cloudscraper has an upkeep of Two Green. That's really nothing if you ask me. To speed this deck you could splice green and add Birds of Paradise. So Turn three you could have a 14/14.
Turn 1 = Green Mana and Birds
Turn 2 = White mana and drop face down Krosan cloudscraper
Turn 3 = Otherworldly Journey
Turn 4...:-/
lol, maybe it's still turn four. Point is, you'll have the 2 green mana to pay for his upkeep and swing for 14!
...ermm, no offense, but I think you've kinda missed the point here. Considering that the 16 Morph creatures are the whole reason the deck exists.
I am trying to make an aggro deck. How would Astral Slide and a bunch of cycling cards make a better aggro deck than this?
Slide is a great control card. But don't you think that by the time I've forked out 3 mana for the slide, and some more mana for the cycling, that I might have lost just a *bit* of the "speed death aggro KILL" focus of the deck?
To reiterate: if I was trying to build Rifter, this thread wouldn't exist.
However: if you have any constructive suggestions about utilising Slide in an aggro deck such as this, I'm all ears.:hifive:
Creator of Thoughtless Sensei and Morph Aggro
Gaymer
Raccoons please
My artworkz
"We've made OVER NINE THOUSAND unique cards."
- MaRo, October 8th, 2007
IT'S OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAND!!!!!
I see where you're coming from, but the issue I have with it is that it effectively turns a modular strategy into a single-card strategy. Astral Slide leaves no room for other blinks in the deck; which means if my opponent counters or otherwise deals with the Slide, I am left in the lurch. Whereas if they counter Flicker or whatever, there is always another one on its way.
Another point is, that the one-shot blink effects are very rarely dead. cards. As long as you have a creature on the board they can be used:
-to unmorph a creature
-to save a creature from removal
-to save your creature from combat damage while letting yours go through.
It is unfortunate to not be able to run a lot of utility cards, but there have been many competitive decks with similar strategies. For instance, in the past, Reanimator decks have been strong in various formats, despite the necessity of running a lot of potentially dead enabler cards.
Reanimator needs
a: Fatties
b: ways to discard them
c: ways to bring them back
leaving no room at all for any utility, usually.
Whereas my deck simply needs
a: Fatties
b: blinks
I like the consistency of always seeing both of those in my opening hand: consistency that Reanimator lacks.
However, I will probably test a version with Slide alongside my build. I just think that, in trying to be more versatile, it leaves the overall core of the deck somewhat less robust.
Creator of Thoughtless Sensei and Morph Aggro
Gaymer
Raccoons please
My artworkz
"We've made OVER NINE THOUSAND unique cards."
- MaRo, October 8th, 2007
IT'S OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAND!!!!!
I dont do this often, but i must side with Mr. Nightmare here. Take out at least some of the Sword of fire and ice, Chalice of the Void and all of Liberate, Otherwordly Journey and the Voyager's Staff.
My greatest concern's is the Krosan Colossus. I would say OUT and make the deck WU in play.
Now that we have cleared some dust... that leaves us with 23 slots to work with and to fill with nice stoof!
Now that's done, take 4 slots for that Astral Slide.
Now for some listing of cyclers that migth come in handy:
Cloud of Faeries, now you can play that second cycler or turn that first one face up plus have a nice little critter.
Dragon Wings: insistant to keep that huge fat in there? Why not grant it a bit of flying AND something to cycle it up with?
Guilded Light: sideboard material... but never bad.
Renewed Faith: we all know this one
Rescind: well well, something to either clear the way or to cycle. Utility abound.
and then im omitting stuff like the cycle lands and various fabulous red cards that can be used.
I just saying, is it worth sacrificing a bit of speed for a bit of control/consistency? In my eyes, yes.
My cuttings were a bit drastic, but they didnt look like anything more then random support cards that could have helped anywhere.
But it made me think, some fun cards with morph like Willbender and Vesuvan Shapeshifter can be included to have even more tech. I attack with my morph and a Exalted angel, turn morph over TADAAA 2 angels!
The deck is fine as an aggro deck, and has the menudos to deal with most of the stuff Goblins, Threshold, Angel Stompy, Faerie Stompy et al can throw at it. And it wouldn't be the only deck around with a weakness to combo. Saying it runs 16 Scathe Zombies is like saying Sneak Attack or Reanimator run 20+ uncastable cards, or that Honeycombs is mostly a pile of worthless cardboard - its true, but its not going to stop them beating you. I'd like to add that the deck can regularly unmorph Exalted Angel on turn 3 without using a blink.
And Dragon Wings is silly when nearly all my creatures have flying.
I'll repeat it for the umpteenth time: the deck's name is Morph Aggro. Utility is all well and good, but consistent, early threat density must always come first.
So an Astral Slide build is fine only if it gets a massive threat onto the table by turn 3, 10 games in a row. I can't see that happening if we take out most of the enablers and replace them with stall cards. You just end up with a control deck with a quirky kill condition.
Viroid, I say again; what does the deck do if it doesn't find the Astral Slide?
Creator of Thoughtless Sensei and Morph Aggro
Gaymer
Raccoons please
My artworkz
"We've made OVER NINE THOUSAND unique cards."
- MaRo, October 8th, 2007
IT'S OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAND!!!!!
In my view, the original list has the menudo's to cope with it for a turn or 2 by flickering their creatures.
And MORPH AGGRO is all fun and all, but youre talking to someone who refuses to acknowledge that the borders of archetypes are that black and white.
But heck, im not asking you to turn this into an aggro/control deck. Heck, where did you get that idea? Do you see Astral Slide solely as that? I see it as a great polyvalent tool to clear the way and construct big beasties at the same time using cards that otherwise would have been slightly usefull but can serve a better purpose by getting rid of em (looking at CLoud of Faeries and Rescind here). Sigh... it is hard to type up what i have in mind. I just hope you understand.
Please understand that this was exactly the reason that Sword of Fire and Ice was added to the deck, which you dismissed pretty quickly. It grants protection from a lot of stuff, kills creatures, draws cards...basically gives the deck the kind of reach you're trying to give it with the Slide.
You also wrote off CotV, which I would have to regard as one of the deck's greatest strengths.
-Chalice @ 1 is brilliant against everything.
-The deck can almost always drop Chalice @ 1 on the first turn due to the land base.
-The deck has no significant 1-drops to be disrupted by Chalice @ 1.
-It is one of the deck's main weapons against Solidarity, and it is much better in this respect than Gilded Light.
Also, as a note, I'd take Voyager Staff or Otherworldly Journey over Flicker; sorcery speed is a major disadvantage.
Also: A lot of my creatures (Akroma and Quicksilver) have a built-in defense against spot removal. Just a point.
Creator of Thoughtless Sensei and Morph Aggro
Gaymer
Raccoons please
My artworkz
"We've made OVER NINE THOUSAND unique cards."
- MaRo, October 8th, 2007
IT'S OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAND!!!!!
I see that the idea is to flick them over EOT of your opponents turn. Well, then boot flicker to two and upgrade that otherworldly journey.
The argument on SoFI is kind of meager. Grants protection from what? Lightning Bolt? boomerang? The protection is not the core of the card. THe additional two damage assigned as you wish is the core, draw and protection are delicious gravy.
But on my defense, you must agree a repeatable flicker > one shot flicker right?
I wouldn't consider it a necro at all. Not only was the idea waiting for something to widen it a bit, but your thread is not that old. (I still have it in a Firefox Tab here with the old MTGS logo, christmas lights and all on the page :)) I was just mentioning it in the Prison Dancer thread when discussing Icy Prison with Exalted Angel and whether I should have taken the deck in the morph direction. I've decided that taking it in the morph direction would - in the most refined form it could get to - would be... your deck here. So instead I'll just help discuss it and test it
The argument for SoFI is that using the 8xDoubleLands-Chalice-and-Fat-Stompy Strategy is able to get out SoFI very easily. Like Xandercoon said, his creatures will have protection from... the "other" stuff. Pro RB is just icing (stops Gilded Drake and bounce, etc. - but Flicker effects already kill Hunted Horror) - and the +2/+2 is VERY important, on angel especially. The +2/+2 can turn a Gray Ogre into a threat too, most definitely. And then even more icing is the card draw, the reason it's in here, eh? Sorry if I seemed to be stating the obvious there
So, in closing, leave the deck how it is for now. Astral Slide slows it down considerably and makes it very distracted.
Celebrating 3 years of open-minded acceptance, indispensable help, great advice, and incalculably-creative deck-design... Thanks for all the magic!
Well, the idea is to have the flexibility to flick them in response to removal.
Protection from Goblins, mainly. Also, can stop Faerie Stompy in its tracks.
Yes. Respect, Viroid, but in a game that is going well it shouldn't be necessary to cast more than 2-3 blinks. I admit that a Slide engine would be an excellent thing for those games that don't go so well...
...but in this situation, 16 blinks means a good chance that there is one waiting on top of your library anyway.
@Isamaru: *L* you always agree with me. Thanks for the support. I am serious about testing with Astral Slide, as these folks have raised good points; but my build has given good results so far and I'm not willing to give it up yet.
In other news...the Orb gives back 10 results for Morph in Planar Chaos. If any of them are half as good as Akroma is this deck could be in for a wild ride these next weeks.
Creator of Thoughtless Sensei and Morph Aggro
Gaymer
Raccoons please
My artworkz
"We've made OVER NINE THOUSAND unique cards."
- MaRo, October 8th, 2007
IT'S OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAND!!!!!
Hopefully I can try out your page-2 version this weekend.
Celebrating 3 years of open-minded acceptance, indispensable help, great advice, and incalculably-creative deck-design... Thanks for all the magic!
The ONE REAL THING this deck has going for it is BIG CREATURES and FAST. And what's the other thing this deck does? PROTECTS THEM. Does it do anything else? No! Should it do anything else? No! What we have here is beautiful consitency, which is not as common in most decks. Want a good example of a CONSITENT deck that performs quite well? -Life.deck.
SoFI is nice, I can't help but notice though that Jitte cost 2 to play and 2 to equip while the sword cost 3 to play and 2 to equip. The difference there may often be the difference of a turn, especially with so many lands that tap for 2. Of course, Jitte doesn't initially protect your creatures.
I don't like how everytime you flicker one of your equiped creatures, the equipment will fall off; makes me want to find a substitute card that will simply pump all of your creatures. A Glorious Anthem-type effect, but preferably an artifact (I can't think of any)
Voyager Staff is nice, but it won't work for the "surprise save" since your opponent knows it's coming. And it costs a total of 3 mana, at which point I'd like to say: why not just run Ghostway, which saves everything/flicks everything at once.
Flicker is a sorcery. I'd try to get rid of these and up the instant-verisons to 4-ofs etc.
Aether Flash sure sucks for this deck.. not that it's any worry :-p
Have you tried running Trinisphere? A first/second turn one of those can slow down most threatening decks enough to allow you to pummel their faces in :-D
Here's to hoping we get some nice morphs to accompany Akroma in Planar Chaos!
Akroma I'm assuming is an automatic 4x? Akroma is immune to swords, singleton burn, but it might as well say immune to all your own flicker effects as well.
Don't you love when people make such claims and are wrong?
A counter / draw package is an interesting one which I haven't really considered. It would preferably have to include only free counters i.e. FoW or Daze, as anything else would hinder development. If I wanted to move in an aggro-control direction it is arguably better than Slide, since it can be enacted without badly slowing down the aggro side of the deck.
Re landbase: Screw Wasteland. The deck runs on two land, or even one (Mox + City of Traitors), which is mana-efficient enough to not really care about land-d. I am considering increasing the number of ways to find white mana though. And Crystal Vein is admittedly annoying, but also often useful.
I am honestly not sure as to the ruling on Chalice of the Void vs. Morph. If it does stop morphs, I agree that a way out would be handy.
Dream Chisel - was considered and rejected due to the fact that it does nothing particularly wonderful, and costs more mana than it gives back. Any old mana artifact like Fellwar Stone would be just as good. Finding the mana to play morphs is rarely a problem. Finding white mana, on the other hand...
I am taking out the Voyager Staffs on reflection, mainly because it is hosed by your own Chalice for 1.
And yes, I am paranoid of Trickbind...
Hope you enjoy the deck Maveric...
Creator of Thoughtless Sensei and Morph Aggro
Gaymer
Raccoons please
My artworkz
"We've made OVER NINE THOUSAND unique cards."
- MaRo, October 8th, 2007
IT'S OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAND!!!!!
EDIT: A second version of the card is Alaborn Zealot. Thanks, random card.
Celebrating 3 years of open-minded acceptance, indispensable help, great advice, and incalculably-creative deck-design... Thanks for all the magic!
I was thinking maybe some big beatdown like Krosan Cloudscraper. Also Fortune Thief as a nice worship. Or Weathered Bodyguards to stop an amount of damage from your opponent for a turn. Either way, that's my opinion on this deck =0)
Yes, flicker flips it up, which is the goal of the deck
Weathered Bodyguards sounds okay, but Cloudscraper has an upkeep and Fortune Thief doesn't seem worth it for this, I think.
Celebrating 3 years of open-minded acceptance, indispensable help, great advice, and incalculably-creative deck-design... Thanks for all the magic!
Celebrating 3 years of open-minded acceptance, indispensable help, great advice, and incalculably-creative deck-design... Thanks for all the magic!
Turn 1 = Green Mana and Birds
Turn 2 = White mana and drop face down Krosan cloudscraper
Turn 3 = Otherworldly Journey
Turn 4...:-/
lol, maybe it's still turn four. Point is, you'll have the 2 green mana to pay for his upkeep and swing for 14!
I'm sorry Isamaru, we're you refering to the fact that it was going to be sworded on turn 4 by an opponent?