I've been playing the same MD for the last few days and have some MU information. If anyone has been playing with the sideboard above, some information would be helpful.
This deck plays like control. It's generally draw-go Turn 3 - 6 to represent stoic rebuttal.
B/G Infect -- Very Favorable
Clasps always kill something, and your artifact removal is active due to Corpse cur, if not as valuable. Darksteel sentinel is weaker than normal, but will normally trade with 1 or two infect guys. Active Argent sphinx can block Plague stinger and skittles (they normally only run one copy) all day. Save your rebuttals for Putrefax and untamed might. Trinket mage into chimeric mass for 3-5 (on the following turn) is a strong preemptive play against putrefax.
B Infect -- Favorable
Mono-black infect has a better game, believe it or not. More of their creatures live through clasp, to start. Their mana is much more stable, which in turn allows grasp of darkness and Skinrender to be much more consistent. You would catch up eventually, of course, but sometimes they have too much tempo. Playing out a mage to block is likely to fail because of the removal, but holding on with a counterspell is just a little too slow. Contagious Nim is actually really hard to deal with.
UW control -- Unfavorable
Reins are nearly useless due to venser, Glimmerpoint stag, their own reins, and revoke existence. At best, steal a fully charged venser and take his emblem (Be aware that they might play around this, and that you can proliferate venser from 7 to 8 with clasp!). Most of the MD artifact removal is dead; save slice in twain for their volition reins. Contagion clasp is weak. Sentinel can normally kill Glimmerpoint stag if they don't have a rebuttal. My advice is to try to get out a quick sphinx to hold off any walkers (or even win if you can get two), bait counterspells with sentinels or a big chimeric mass, and try to reins a walker for the win. I find that the person with the most counterspells tends to win this match.
Big Red - Very Favorable
You need to counter or reins Koth. If he's reins'ed keep him on the field so they can't play a second. Your clasps are active on both Iron myr and Spikeshot elder. Sentinels kill Scrapmelters, and are then impossible to answer. Don't get blown out by Kudoltha Phoenix. It's hard for them to answer a sphinx, and impossible if you have metalcraft. Watch out for liquimetal coating. If necessary, play out trinket mage or argent sphinx as bait to keep them from shattering your lands.
Architect Blue: Horrible (EDIT: Slightly Unfavorable)
In the beginning, if you don't have rebuttal for Grand Architect, you lose. Late game, if you don't have Halt order with rebuttal/reins backup, you lose. They need to play Architect around your rebuttals for you to have a chance, but they don't have to if they go first. The best plan may be to try to get a sphinx active as soon as possible, even if it means wasting clasps and spellbombs. Active sphinx beats a wormcoil, but you still need slice or reins for myrball.
EDIT:
Architect Blue isn't as bad as I first thought; however, it is highly dependent on the number of counterspells you draw. If they have one threat, they will wait until they can play it with counter backup. If they have two threats, they'll just play them out. The point is that you need to have two counters to make keep anything bad off the field. Engulfing slagwurm is a superior threat to anything they can present. Resolving a slagwurm will give you a very good chance of winning the game. Living until you draw it is not very difficult.
WW (Glint Hawk Aggro): Unfavorable
This deck seems to be gaining popularity. A lot of it's strength comes from myrsmith, Glint Hawk Idol, and Tempered Steel. It's very hard to keep up if they get a good draw.
I (EDIT: still) don't have any information about R/W control or B/R midrange at the moment, but based on the decklists, I would guess R/W - even (because of their walkers, but no reins or counterspells), and B/R - good.
Some facts of magic:
-Terror is an emotion which, when experienced, results in death.
-The pox was a disease notorious for having killed one-third, rounded up, of Europe’s population. Smallpox, on the other hand, killed only a single person.
-A person riding a horse cannot be stopped by foot soldiers, large animals, walls, archers, or even catapults.
I dropped a single Halt Order in the main and a Forest for a Darksteel Axe and Quicksilver Gargantuan. Reasoning is Halt Order is more dead than usual with the meta shifting to less artifacts in the main. The Darksteel Axe makes it easier to achieve Metalcraft. I like to have a sphinx with metalcraft mor than anything. The shapeshifter is a really decent finisher that can copy your sentinels and any bomb finishers your opponent can get down and is like s pseudo mind control.
I want to put switch out Tumble Magnet with Contagion Clasp, but it really bulks up the 3 drop slot and leaves nothing in the 2 drop slot. Clasp just doesn't do enough for me. Maybe even see how Disperse works, hopefully stall until you can get to the Reins.
I still don't know what purpose Wurmcoil Engine serves in the SB, so I been using 3 copies of Tumble Magnet for 3 Wurmcoil Engine.
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I like current block formats the most.
Its so limited to its power scale against other formats.
Block constructed should be a more competitive format like it was back in Champions or Ravnica.
I've been messing with the sideboard too. Right now I'm trying Liquimetal coating. Some of the Red and B/r decks have had success using it to answer planeswalkers and architects; I feel like it would work here too. It has the additional bonus of being TWO artifacts to turn on the sphinx. My current SB looks like this:
I bring in the replica with the liquimetal to make sure I have 8 MD artifact destruction spells. As a bonus, I also have 8 enchantment destruction spells for Arrest and Volition reins
Some facts of magic:
-Terror is an emotion which, when experienced, results in death.
-The pox was a disease notorious for having killed one-third, rounded up, of Europe’s population. Smallpox, on the other hand, killed only a single person.
-A person riding a horse cannot be stopped by foot soldiers, large animals, walls, archers, or even catapults.
I've been playing the same MD for the last few days and have some MU information. If anyone has been playing with the sideboard above, some information would be helpful.
This deck plays like control. It's generally draw-go Turn 3 - 6 to represent stoic rebuttal.
B/G Infect -- Very good
Clasps always kill something, and your artifact removal is active due to Corpse cur, if not as valuable. Darksteel sentinel is weaker than normal, but will normally trade with 1 or two infect guys. Argent sphinx can block Plague stinger and skittles all day. Save your rebuttals for Putrefax and untamed might. Trinket mage into chimeric mass for 3-5 (on the following turn) is a strong preemptive play against putrefax.
UW control -- Tough
Reins are nearly useless due to venser, Glimmerpoint stag, their own reins, and revoke existence. At best, steal a fully charged venser and take his emblem. Most of the MD artifact removal is dead; save slice for their volition reins. Contagion clasp is weak. Sentinel can normally kill Glimmerpoint stag if they don't have a rebuttal. My advice is to try to get out a quick sphinx to hold off any walkers (or even win if you can get two), bait counterspells with sentinels or a big chimeric mass, and try to reins a walker for the win. I find that the person with the most counterspells tends to win this match.
Big Red - Very Good
You need to counter or reins Koth. If he's reins'ed keep him on the field so they can't play a second. Your clasps are active on both Iron myr and Spikeshot elder. Sentinels kill Scrapmelters, and are then impossible to answer. Don't get blown out by Kudoltha Phoenix. It's hard for them to answer a sphinx, and impossible if you have metalcraft. Watch out for liquimetal coating. If necessary, play out trinket mage or argent sphinx as bait to keep them from shattering your lands.
Architect Blue: Horrible
In the beginning, if you don't have rebuttal for Grand Architect, you lose. Late game, if you don't have Halt order with rebuttal/reins backup, you lose. They need to play Architect around your rebuttals for you to have a chance, but they don't have to if they go first. The best plan may be to try to get a sphinx active as soon as possible, even if it means wasting clasps and spellbombs. Active sphinx beats a wormcoil, but you still need slice or reins for myrball. Beatdown, slice and halt relevant threats, and volition reigns their last blocker.
I don't have any information about R/W control or B/R midrange at the moment, but based on the decklists, I would guess R/W - even (because of their walkers, but no reins or counterspells), and B/R - good.
EDIT:
Architect Blue isn't as bad as I first thought; however, it is highly dependent on the number of counterspells you draw. If they have one threat, they will wait until they can play it with counter backup. If they have two threats, they'll just play them out. The point is that you need to have two counters to make keep anything bad off the field. Engulfing slagwurm is a superior threat to anything they can present. Resolving a slagwurm will give you a very good chance of winning the game. Living until you draw it is not very difficult.
I suggest you look at Koth again if you really think you are going to manage to reins Koth :p.
Yep, koth can ultimate before reins come down if they get him out on turn 4, and they don't want to keep him around after turn 6. Mulligan hard for a rebuttal in this MU. Sphinx helps here too.
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Some facts of magic:
-Terror is an emotion which, when experienced, results in death.
-The pox was a disease notorious for having killed one-third, rounded up, of Europe’s population. Smallpox, on the other hand, killed only a single person.
-A person riding a horse cannot be stopped by foot soldiers, large animals, walls, archers, or even catapults.
Okay with experience I have found this deck to have troubles if it cant deny early and often.
It feels this deck was good before the Venser/Stag combo became a meta staple, back when Big Red was the deck to beat. It plays little artifact main deck and is really bad at manipulating the board position. It only has 4 non-situational counters not enough to your opponent at bay. Halt Order is practically only half a situational counter, but 8 counters don't feel like enough.
The deck can barely make metalcraft. The sphinx is very fragile with only 3 toughness and no phase effect. It just wont win the game for this deck, so there is no definitive win condition.
This deck needs to change...it was good against big red but it needs to adapt.
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():
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I like current block formats the most.
Its so limited to its power scale against other formats.
Block constructed should be a more competitive format like it was back in Champions or Ravnica.
DirtyDeeds said it very well. Both Weetbix and Cosmos42 did fairly well with it early on, but lately it hasn't really seen any results. it lacks the control of stag and Sunblast that U/W has and it lacks the Skinrender that uWB adds to the brew. It was built to beat artifacts, but with U/W not relying on artifacts as much and it having better overall control elements, you are really better off going with U/W or uWB.
Agreed. I've had the same experience. The deck is not as successful as it was 2 weeks ago. Unfortunately there aren't many answers to Grand Architect (or 3 toughness creatures in general), or planeswalkers. I toyed with liquimetal coating and sylvok replica in the sb, but it doesn't work here like it does for Big Red.
There just aren't enough answers in these colors. Perilous myr comes in handy against Infect and WW, but architect and UW control still just WIN if they can force a threat with counter backup. If the meta is moving away from MD artifact hate, then a more heavy artifact build with vedalken certarch and tumble magnet might be possible.
Another alternative might be to play better threats than Architect builds can. Engulfing slagwurm can block wurmcoil and myr battlesphere. Liege of the Tangle seems ridiculous. Quicksilver Gargantuan is guaranteed to be the best creature on the board.
Still, I think the best choice is to play another deck, since this one has its worst MU's against the two most popular decks.
Some facts of magic:
-Terror is an emotion which, when experienced, results in death.
-The pox was a disease notorious for having killed one-third, rounded up, of Europe’s population. Smallpox, on the other hand, killed only a single person.
-A person riding a horse cannot be stopped by foot soldiers, large animals, walls, archers, or even catapults.
Very good points. This deck could make a comeback. Viridian Emissary is decent as well. It seems like this deck could evolve into a UG ramp deck or something more midrange.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Some facts of magic:
-Terror is an emotion which, when experienced, results in death.
-The pox was a disease notorious for having killed one-third, rounded up, of Europe’s population. Smallpox, on the other hand, killed only a single person.
-A person riding a horse cannot be stopped by foot soldiers, large animals, walls, archers, or even catapults.
Why is this deck even called a midrange deck?? looks like control to me, but i am unfamiliar with it. anyone want to explain?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
The true mind can weather all the lies and illusions without being lost. The true heart can tough the poison of hatred without being harmed. Since beginning-less time, darkness thrives in the void but always yields to purifying light.
I invision a future where one is not mighty when he can silence a crowd with brutality,
but when he leaves them speechless with wisdom.
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SOM Block Constructed Daily #1733667 on 11/04/2010
15 Island
4 Argent Sphinx
3 Darksteel Sentinel
4 Trinket Mage
1 Chimeric Mass
4 Contagion Clasp
4 Halt Order
4 Horizon Spellbomb
4 Slice in Twain
4 Stoic Rebuttal
4 Volition Reins
2 Acid Web Spider
1 Darksteel Sentinel
2 Engulfing Slagwurm
4 Perilous Myr
2 Quicksilver Gargantuan
4 Wurmcoil Engine
This deck plays like control. It's generally draw-go Turn 3 - 6 to represent stoic rebuttal.
B/G Infect -- Very Favorable
Clasps always kill something, and your artifact removal is active due to Corpse cur, if not as valuable. Darksteel sentinel is weaker than normal, but will normally trade with 1 or two infect guys. Active Argent sphinx can block Plague stinger and skittles (they normally only run one copy) all day. Save your rebuttals for Putrefax and untamed might. Trinket mage into chimeric mass for 3-5 (on the following turn) is a strong preemptive play against putrefax.
B Infect -- Favorable
Mono-black infect has a better game, believe it or not. More of their creatures live through clasp, to start. Their mana is much more stable, which in turn allows grasp of darkness and Skinrender to be much more consistent. You would catch up eventually, of course, but sometimes they have too much tempo. Playing out a mage to block is likely to fail because of the removal, but holding on with a counterspell is just a little too slow. Contagious Nim is actually really hard to deal with.
UW control -- Unfavorable
Reins are nearly useless due to venser, Glimmerpoint stag, their own reins, and revoke existence. At best, steal a fully charged venser and take his emblem (Be aware that they might play around this, and that you can proliferate venser from 7 to 8 with clasp!). Most of the MD artifact removal is dead; save slice in twain for their volition reins. Contagion clasp is weak. Sentinel can normally kill Glimmerpoint stag if they don't have a rebuttal. My advice is to try to get out a quick sphinx to hold off any walkers (or even win if you can get two), bait counterspells with sentinels or a big chimeric mass, and try to reins a walker for the win. I find that the person with the most counterspells tends to win this match.
Big Red - Very Favorable
You need to counter or reins Koth. If he's reins'ed keep him on the field so they can't play a second. Your clasps are active on both Iron myr and Spikeshot elder. Sentinels kill Scrapmelters, and are then impossible to answer. Don't get blown out by Kudoltha Phoenix. It's hard for them to answer a sphinx, and impossible if you have metalcraft. Watch out for liquimetal coating. If necessary, play out trinket mage or argent sphinx as bait to keep them from shattering your lands.
Architect Blue: Horrible (EDIT: Slightly Unfavorable)
In the beginning, if you don't have rebuttal for Grand Architect, you lose. Late game, if you don't have Halt order with rebuttal/reins backup, you lose. They need to play Architect around your rebuttals for you to have a chance, but they don't have to if they go first. The best plan may be to try to get a sphinx active as soon as possible, even if it means wasting clasps and spellbombs. Active sphinx beats a wormcoil, but you still need slice or reins for myrball.
EDIT:
Architect Blue isn't as bad as I first thought; however, it is highly dependent on the number of counterspells you draw. If they have one threat, they will wait until they can play it with counter backup. If they have two threats, they'll just play them out. The point is that you need to have two counters to make keep anything bad off the field. Engulfing slagwurm is a superior threat to anything they can present. Resolving a slagwurm will give you a very good chance of winning the game. Living until you draw it is not very difficult.
WW (Glint Hawk Aggro): Unfavorable
This deck seems to be gaining popularity. A lot of it's strength comes from myrsmith, Glint Hawk Idol, and Tempered Steel. It's very hard to keep up if they get a good draw.
I (EDIT: still) don't have any information about R/W control or B/R midrange at the moment, but based on the decklists, I would guess R/W - even (because of their walkers, but no reins or counterspells), and B/R - good.
-Terror is an emotion which, when experienced, results in death.
-The pox was a disease notorious for having killed one-third, rounded up, of Europe’s population. Smallpox, on the other hand, killed only a single person.
-A person riding a horse cannot be stopped by foot soldiers, large animals, walls, archers, or even catapults.
More facts of magic
I want to put switch out Tumble Magnet with Contagion Clasp, but it really bulks up the 3 drop slot and leaves nothing in the 2 drop slot. Clasp just doesn't do enough for me. Maybe even see how Disperse works, hopefully stall until you can get to the Reins.
I still don't know what purpose Wurmcoil Engine serves in the SB, so I been using 3 copies of Tumble Magnet for 3 Wurmcoil Engine.
I like current block formats the most.
Its so limited to its power scale against other formats.
Block constructed should be a more competitive format like it was back in Champions or Ravnica.
Sig by DD Awie by CC
4 Liquimetal coating
4 Sylvok Replica
4 Tumble Magnet
3 Engulfing slagwurm
I bring in the replica with the liquimetal to make sure I have 8 MD artifact destruction spells. As a bonus, I also have 8 enchantment destruction spells for Arrest and Volition reins
-Terror is an emotion which, when experienced, results in death.
-The pox was a disease notorious for having killed one-third, rounded up, of Europe’s population. Smallpox, on the other hand, killed only a single person.
-A person riding a horse cannot be stopped by foot soldiers, large animals, walls, archers, or even catapults.
More facts of magic
I suggest you look at Koth again if you really think you are going to manage to reins Koth :p.
New to Commander? Read the Above article.
-Terror is an emotion which, when experienced, results in death.
-The pox was a disease notorious for having killed one-third, rounded up, of Europe’s population. Smallpox, on the other hand, killed only a single person.
-A person riding a horse cannot be stopped by foot soldiers, large animals, walls, archers, or even catapults.
More facts of magic
It feels this deck was good before the Venser/Stag combo became a meta staple, back when Big Red was the deck to beat. It plays little artifact main deck and is really bad at manipulating the board position. It only has 4 non-situational counters not enough to your opponent at bay. Halt Order is practically only half a situational counter, but 8 counters don't feel like enough.
The deck can barely make metalcraft. The sphinx is very fragile with only 3 toughness and no phase effect. It just wont win the game for this deck, so there is no definitive win condition.
This deck needs to change...it was good against big red but it needs to adapt.
I like current block formats the most.
Its so limited to its power scale against other formats.
Block constructed should be a more competitive format like it was back in Champions or Ravnica.
Sig by DD Awie by CC
New to Commander? Read the Above article.
There just aren't enough answers in these colors. Perilous myr comes in handy against Infect and WW, but architect and UW control still just WIN if they can force a threat with counter backup. If the meta is moving away from MD artifact hate, then a more heavy artifact build with vedalken certarch and tumble magnet might be possible.
Another alternative might be to play better threats than Architect builds can. Engulfing slagwurm can block wurmcoil and myr battlesphere. Liege of the Tangle seems ridiculous. Quicksilver Gargantuan is guaranteed to be the best creature on the board.
Still, I think the best choice is to play another deck, since this one has its worst MU's against the two most popular decks.
-Terror is an emotion which, when experienced, results in death.
-The pox was a disease notorious for having killed one-third, rounded up, of Europe’s population. Smallpox, on the other hand, killed only a single person.
-A person riding a horse cannot be stopped by foot soldiers, large animals, walls, archers, or even catapults.
More facts of magic
-Terror is an emotion which, when experienced, results in death.
-The pox was a disease notorious for having killed one-third, rounded up, of Europe’s population. Smallpox, on the other hand, killed only a single person.
-A person riding a horse cannot be stopped by foot soldiers, large animals, walls, archers, or even catapults.
More facts of magic
I invision a future where one is not mighty when he can silence a crowd with brutality,
but when he leaves them speechless with wisdom.