v1: Inkmoths slaughter each other. Or not. But don't get through.
v2: On the draw, memnite gets there. On the play it gets blasted. Inkmoth gets eaten.
v3: On the draw, Lotus comes down, puts down nevermore on invigorate, shop puts out choker. You pass me a choker. I take 1, play a land, pass you the choker. You take 2, play cavern, pass choker. I take 3, play a land, pass you choker. You pay 2, pass choker. I take 5, play a land take a counter off the choker, pass choker. You pay 4, pass choker. (12-11) I take a counter off choker, take 5 (12-6) You pay 6 pass choker (6-6) i take a counter off, still take 6 for lethal.
On the play, I throw down tiaga. You cast lotus, I counter, you shop choker, pass choker. I take one, play inkmoth, pass choker (20-19). You take 2, do nothing (18-19) I take 3, play my last land, (swing in for 2 infect) pass it. (18-16) You take 4, play chasm (14-16) I take a counter off, take 4 (14-12), pass it back. You pay 4 pass the choker (10-12) I take a counter off, take 5 (10-7) You pay 6, pass the choker (4-7) I take a counter off, take 6 (4-1) You have choker trigger resolve before chasm upkeep, pass it back, I die in upkeep.
v5: flying faster clock gets there
v6: I can kill one with invigorate, make another a 1/1, but there's too many of them too big.
7WhammeWhamme : blightzkrieg
Black Lotus / Dust Bowl / Sneak Attack / Mercadian Bazaar / Blightsteel Colossus
im really pleased with that deck name. oh, and infect damage.
v7: fast and agressive, details tbd.
v8: on the play you've got enough to close the game out before I have defenses. On the draw, I get to block with a 5/5 to take geist, going to 14. I then get to race (5 swings to win as opposed to 7). If you don't alpha strike on turn 2, and wait for me to swing, I take 3 swings to kill, and get to start swinging first. You take 3 swings to kill as well, so I win.
Okay, how does NerdyJoe's deck ever beat one of the goldfishes? Can't ever get hellbent, so isn't legal, right?
Also, is there a reason there's no deck 3?
i believe it wins with oath of mages and some damage prevention from lich
and because i suck at counting. ill fix it
Surely Oath of Mages can't ever reduce an opponent's life below 1?
well yeah but you can use keldon immediately after they get to one and then before oath of mages can trigger, they're dead, so, whatever. But how can he get hellbent with lands in his opening hand and a draw land rule? Actually, for that matter, how can any of the keldon megaliths hands actually get hellbent since they all HAVE a land, and it's draw land rule? unless they can discard one or two lands somehow and I don't think any of them can do that without drawing past 7. This applies especially to cruel bargain because you're drawing even MORE lands. Okay I see how frazier's deck works cus Eureka will get rid of the extra land but the others, idk. Can someone explain this for me if I'm missing something?
Yep, absolutely totally missed the draw land rule. Can't get hellbent ever. Whoops. Deck fails to be legal.
Yeah, I didn't realize the cascading effect of not playing lands. I wanted one deck to be spell-free (for desecration elemental style builds) and win-con-free, for slowness.
I'm totally fine with the test decks changed to allow lands to be played by both hands.
vs 1: You can play Rofellos, you can have as much as 5 mana in your pool, but you can't do anything else. Your best option is to race, but I kill turn 8. Blocking doesn't help. 6-0
vs 2: On the play I can drop my sol ring. Turn two bounce the island, discard it to cast land equilibrium, and stick you on one land. You get to play the tiger, but I get to slam cutthroat on turn 3, discarding from empty hand. You can't sever the bloodline, and I kill in 4 swings, leaving you the opportunity to swing only 5 times. If you instead hold up ritual to sever the bloodline, I lose. 0-6
vs 3: I can't keep you from casting the bloodline, but I can pinch you on colors. There may be a way for me to get a big old deathtoucher. I'll come back to this.
vs 5: When I'm on the play, you don't cast spells besides rakdos charm. When I'm on the draw, you can mardu charm some dudes, then naya charm back mardu charm, then mardu charm my blocker. There may be better lines for you, but you win with that one. 3-3
vs 6: When I'm on the play, you only get a chronmaton, which matches poorly against my threat. When I'm on the draw, You then also get a bloodmad vampire which kicks me down. I can trade, clearly, but then the chronomaton gets there. 3-3
vs 7:
When you're on the play:
y1: island
m1: island sol ring
Y2: island anvil
m2: discard cavern, Island equilibrium
Y3: discard kozilek.
m3: discard cutthroat
Y4: discard kozilek, float U, play island, wipe away equilibrium
M4: discard equilibrium
you get to close out with kozilek eventually.
When you're on the draw:
m1: Island sol ring
Y1: Island
M2: float U, cavern bounce island, equilibrium
Y2: anvil
M3: discard island, play cutthroat
Y3: discard kozilek
I get to level up cutthroat, kill on turn 8.
3-3
This was a pretty agro heavy meta. I didn't expect 2-3 mana wincons.
Nonbasic permanents have "If this card would leave the battlefield, exile it instead putting it anywhere else" and "Exile this card a the beginning of the cleanup step".
If a card would be put into a library or graveyard from anywhere, exile it instead.
Instants and sorceries gain "Exile this spell" at the end of their text.
We've had 1-use style formats before, I thought I'd push it to the limit. You could win with 5x Ball lightning, but that might not be the best idea. Doubling Season + Oath of Gideon + Domri Rade + Two dumb fatties might be a more fun alternative, but loses to Ball Lightning. Counterspells are good, Boomerang might be better. Rainbow Efreet and Aetherling work just fine. Burn is solid, as long as there's 4 points or more on each card. I think it has the same feel as standard style formats while giving lots of room for creativity.
I like to keep the number of formats I suggest on the poll to a minimum, so this can replace the "thoughtsized" format, even though there was some moderate amount of support for it.
Lotus Monkey R
Creature -- Ape Shaman
1: Destroy target noncreature artifact with converted mana cost 0. Players can't activate abilities of that artifact while this ability is on the stack.
1/1
Crazy that Lotus wasn't played, but its banned anyway. I wanted to Twister / Twister / Lotus / Pact of the Titan to get a massive army that kills me the following turn. Sundial of the infinite in a 5 card hand could make that an interesting/cool deck. (you can cast it off the last lotus, then activate it to sweep away the "lose the game" triggers, then you don't get to attack with your golems until your third turn, following the rules.
Player 1: Darksteel Relic / Darksteel Relic / Darksteel Relic / Darksteel Relic / Darksteel Relic and never plays the lands they draw, instead discards them.
All spells gain cascade, and players may cast spells without paying their mana cost.
Players don't draw cards during their draw step.
Deck Size: 1 card in your hand, and any number of up to 1000 cards in your library.
Land Rule: Basic Land Rule
Additional Banned list: Mindbreak Trap, Stifle, and any other spell which disables triggered abilities. Also please remember to check the land rule banned list in addition to the regular banned list
Yes, having a library doesn't always happen (usually not).
This round is extra nuts. Normally there are two broad categories: Basic Land Rule and No Land Rule
With no land rule, what you take is what you get. Black lotus, Mishra's Workshop, storage lands tend to make an apperence here, with top deck archetypes being:
Shelldock Isle / Lions Eye Diamond / Emrakul
Urborg, Tomb of Yaugmoth / Thesbian Stage / Dark Depths
Leyline of Singularity / Karakas
With Basic Land Rule, you can play a basic land from outside the game any time you could play a land. You can play bigger spells in this format, but to compensate, usually the hand size is smaller. Top archetypes are:
Beast Within / Elixir of Immortality
Shelldock Isle / LED / Emrakul
Leyline of Singularity / Karakas
Mayor of Avabruck
Warden of the First Tree
In this round, there is a land rule, but (at the moment) spells are free, so it's not that relevant. The most important thing in this round is to have instant speed interaction (so you can respond to your opponent trying to win/ lock you out of the game). Since spells are free, you might as well play an instant with X as the card in your hand, so you can cascade into anything in your deck. Deck structure/stacking is important, you want to do as many things with that as you can. There are few simple examples earlier in the thread of decks that people (including myself) think are good. You have to pick and choose and adapt to what you think other people will play to try and beat the most other submissions.
Battlecruisers
3 card Land rule.
Every card submitted must have a cmc of 5 or more. No lands, no leylines, just big old fashioned battlecruisers.
The things that get around the rule (chancellor of the forge, Assault // Battery, big morphs) don't kill in time for turn 5 to roll around.
4nerdyjoe : nexa survive
Pendelhaven / Taiga / Artifact Blast / Inkmoth Nexus / Invigorate
X | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 | PT | Points
4 | 2 1 0 X 6 0 ? 3 |
v1: Inkmoths slaughter each other. Or not. But don't get through.
v2: On the draw, memnite gets there. On the play it gets blasted. Inkmoth gets eaten.
v3: On the draw, Lotus comes down, puts down nevermore on invigorate, shop puts out choker. You pass me a choker. I take 1, play a land, pass you the choker. You take 2, play cavern, pass choker. I take 3, play a land, pass you choker. You pay 2, pass choker. I take 5, play a land take a counter off the choker, pass choker. You pay 4, pass choker. (12-11) I take a counter off choker, take 5 (12-6) You pay 6 pass choker (6-6) i take a counter off, still take 6 for lethal.
On the play, I throw down tiaga. You cast lotus, I counter, you shop choker, pass choker. I take one, play inkmoth, pass choker (20-19). You take 2, do nothing (18-19) I take 3, play my last land, (swing in for 2 infect) pass it. (18-16) You take 4, play chasm (14-16) I take a counter off, take 4 (14-12), pass it back. You pay 4 pass the choker (10-12) I take a counter off, take 5 (10-7) You pay 6, pass the choker (4-7) I take a counter off, take 6 (4-1) You have choker trigger resolve before chasm upkeep, pass it back, I die in upkeep.
v5: flying faster clock gets there
v6: I can kill one with invigorate, make another a 1/1, but there's too many of them too big.
7WhammeWhamme : blightzkrieg
Black Lotus / Dust Bowl / Sneak Attack / Mercadian Bazaar / Blightsteel Colossus
im really pleased with that deck name. oh, and infect damage.
v7: fast and agressive, details tbd.
v8: on the play you've got enough to close the game out before I have defenses. On the draw, I get to block with a 5/5 to take geist, going to 14. I then get to race (5 swings to win as opposed to 7). If you don't alpha strike on turn 2, and wait for me to swing, I take 3 swings to kill, and get to start swinging first. You take 3 swings to kill as well, so I win.
Yep, absolutely totally missed the draw land rule. Can't get hellbent ever. Whoops. Deck fails to be legal.
I'm totally fine with the test decks changed to allow lands to be played by both hands.
X | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 | PT | Points
4 | 6 0 ? X 3 3 3 | 12 | 200
vs 1: You can play Rofellos, you can have as much as 5 mana in your pool, but you can't do anything else. Your best option is to race, but I kill turn 8. Blocking doesn't help. 6-0
vs 2: On the play I can drop my sol ring. Turn two bounce the island, discard it to cast land equilibrium, and stick you on one land. You get to play the tiger, but I get to slam cutthroat on turn 3, discarding from empty hand. You can't sever the bloodline, and I kill in 4 swings, leaving you the opportunity to swing only 5 times. If you instead hold up ritual to sever the bloodline, I lose. 0-6
vs 3: I can't keep you from casting the bloodline, but I can pinch you on colors. There may be a way for me to get a big old deathtoucher. I'll come back to this.
vs 5: When I'm on the play, you don't cast spells besides rakdos charm. When I'm on the draw, you can mardu charm some dudes, then naya charm back mardu charm, then mardu charm my blocker. There may be better lines for you, but you win with that one. 3-3
vs 6: When I'm on the play, you only get a chronmaton, which matches poorly against my threat. When I'm on the draw, You then also get a bloodmad vampire which kicks me down. I can trade, clearly, but then the chronomaton gets there. 3-3
vs 7:
y1: island
m1: island sol ring
Y2: island anvil
m2: discard cavern, Island equilibrium
Y3: discard kozilek.
m3: discard cutthroat
Y4: discard kozilek, float U, play island, wipe away equilibrium
M4: discard equilibrium
you get to close out with kozilek eventually.
When you're on the draw:
m1: Island sol ring
Y1: Island
M2: float U, cavern bounce island, equilibrium
Y2: anvil
M3: discard island, play cutthroat
Y3: discard kozilek
I get to level up cutthroat, kill on turn 8.
3-3
This was a pretty agro heavy meta. I didn't expect 2-3 mana wincons.
Peering into the abyss
5 Card hand, Land rule.
Nonbasic permanents have "If this card would leave the battlefield, exile it instead putting it anywhere else" and "Exile this card a the beginning of the cleanup step".
If a card would be put into a library or graveyard from anywhere, exile it instead.
Instants and sorceries gain "Exile this spell" at the end of their text.
We've had 1-use style formats before, I thought I'd push it to the limit. You could win with 5x Ball lightning, but that might not be the best idea. Doubling Season + Oath of Gideon + Domri Rade + Two dumb fatties might be a more fun alternative, but loses to Ball Lightning. Counterspells are good, Boomerang might be better. Rainbow Efreet and Aetherling work just fine. Burn is solid, as long as there's 4 points or more on each card. I think it has the same feel as standard style formats while giving lots of room for creativity.
I like to keep the number of formats I suggest on the poll to a minimum, so this can replace the "thoughtsized" format, even though there was some moderate amount of support for it.
Creature -- Ape Shaman
1: Destroy target noncreature artifact with converted mana cost 0. Players can't activate abilities of that artifact while this ability is on the stack.
1/1
5 Card DLR Backbuild
Has to 6-0 one of the two following players:
Player 1: Darksteel Relic / Darksteel Relic / Darksteel Relic / Darksteel Relic / Darksteel Relic and never plays the lands they draw, instead discards them.
Player 2: Mishra's Factory / Evermind / Evermind / Evermind / Evermind
This doesn't set up very many restrictions, but keeps the format from being too silly.
Mindbreak Trap, Stifle, Trickbind, Voidslime, Time Stop
I think Sundial of the Infinite and Days Undoing get passes because they only end the turn on your turn.
Yes, having a library doesn't always happen (usually not).
With no land rule, what you take is what you get. Black lotus, Mishra's Workshop, storage lands tend to make an apperence here, with top deck archetypes being:
Shelldock Isle / Lions Eye Diamond / Emrakul
Urborg, Tomb of Yaugmoth / Thesbian Stage / Dark Depths
Leyline of Singularity / Karakas
With Basic Land Rule, you can play a basic land from outside the game any time you could play a land. You can play bigger spells in this format, but to compensate, usually the hand size is smaller. Top archetypes are:
Beast Within / Elixir of Immortality
Shelldock Isle / LED / Emrakul
Leyline of Singularity / Karakas
Mayor of Avabruck
Warden of the First Tree
In this round, there is a land rule, but (at the moment) spells are free, so it's not that relevant. The most important thing in this round is to have instant speed interaction (so you can respond to your opponent trying to win/ lock you out of the game). Since spells are free, you might as well play an instant with X as the card in your hand, so you can cascade into anything in your deck. Deck structure/stacking is important, you want to do as many things with that as you can. There are few simple examples earlier in the thread of decks that people (including myself) think are good. You have to pick and choose and adapt to what you think other people will play to try and beat the most other submissions.