My targets for this deck are RDW and UW/Esper as those are both extremely powerful at the moment (and look to be for some time).
To explain some of the odd choices:
Tajic -- always survives verdict and anger of the gods. Pretty much impossible for RDW to answer. Is turned on by 1/x tokens even after Jace, architect get's +1
frontline medic -- counter revelation. Swing with 2 tokens/creatures then play anger of the gods with all my creatures indestructible
precinct captain -- more consistent than young pyromancer. Stops RDW with first strike (or token after cracking back)
legion's initiative -- buffs white heliod and precinct captains butts so they survive electrickery and similar. Makes assemble the legions tokens 2/2. Allows me to survive verdict (I don't care too much about tokens since all the token engines in this deck are infinite -- that is, unlike young pyromancer, they don't require me to play a limited resource)
heliod -- gives vigilance. Allows me to have 2 huge indestructibles rather than one. Most control can't deal with 5 indestructible gods. 2/1 tokens can kill jace. (probably needs to be a 1-of)
From the top:
1 - Heliod, God of the Sun. For four mana, he does nothing the turn he comes into play. You only have 22 cards in your deck that contain white mana symbols to make him active, and many of them cost more than him or are creatures that will likely die soon. Sure for 4 mana you get a token, but you aren't doing anything during the earlier turns to make it relevant. Your best hope for Heliod is to play him on turn 4 and make a token on turn 5. That's a 9 mana 2/1.
2 - Purphoros, God of the Forge while I do apprechiate the synergy he has with Assemble, you only have one. If your main focus is to try and get Heliod+Purh instead of Purph+Elspeth or Purph+Assemble you need to realize that Heliod takes 4 mana a turn to make a single token whereas the other two costs zero additional mana after they come into play and churn out many many tokens which is way more powerful and worth the risk of a dead card. Also, like Heliod, in your list Purph will never be active. You have 13 cards to try and activate it with.
3 - Precinct Captain sure he makes tokens but he's not coming down until turn 3 with your mana base and by then a 2/2 first striker is just irrelevant. You don't have a high number of other weenies to support him so he's just kind of there. As for a comparison to Young Pyromancer, he isn't even in the updated lists in this thread.
4 - Tajic, Blade of the Legion is a terrible terrible card. You are right that he'll never die against RDW but against them he's a 2/2 for four. They're just going to kill you anyway by attacking around him, or faltering him with their various 2 drops. Against U/W control (since you mentioned verdict) you still have to worry about detention sphere, celestial flare, Azorius Charm, Essence scatter, syncopate, dissolve, and last breath. Each of those cards were multiples in U/W lists that did well last weekend.
5 -Aurelia, the Warleader you only have 16 creatures, and none of them are particularly powerful or have fun saboteur abilities. Therefore I'm not sure what you're trying to accomplish.
6 - Boros Reckoner good card is good, but is he defensive? offensive? Your deck isn't really focused enough to use him effectively.
9 -Legion's Initative Again, you only play 16 creatures. Crusade works best when swarming which is something you just aren't dong.
10 - Assemble the Legion This card will win you the game if you can stall an aggressive opponent long enough or manage to land it against a control deck. Unfortunately you only play 1, don't have enough tools to stall out aggro or enough true threats to run a control deck out of answers.
11 - Mizzium Mortars Again, a good card, but your deck isn't really doing anything to capitalize on it. Is it there to remove a blocker while you're being aggressive? No, you can't really be aggressive. Is it there to clear the board against an aggro opponent so your more powerful cards can take over? No, you aren't really playing inevitability and probably can't survive to 6 mana.
12 - Anger of the Gods of the 16 creatures you play this kills 11. You really aren't ever getting to a devotion of 5.
13 - Flames of the Firebrand is a solid card which can 2 for 1 weenie decks, be they white or sligh. Yet you don't really have a means to stabilize against anything else they play.
14 - Warleader's Helix While it is a strong card, with your mana base it's probably either coming out on turn 5 or only gaining you 2 life. Both are too slow against aggro.
15 - Mana You have 8 lands which have to come in tapped and 4 which you probably want, with a near even split of basics. Your deck isn't focused either on white or on red so you need to split it this way which means sometimes you draw well but most of the time you will either a) get a glut of dual lands and be 1-2 turns behind an opponent's curve because of tapped ness or b) will draw a bunch of basics and not have the colors you need.
16 - Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx I don't think you'll ever have devotion higher than 2-3 which makes this card dead and not producing any colored mana.
17 - For all intents and purposes your curve starts at 3. Even control decks right now are shoving as much action into the 2 slot as possible to try and keep up with aggressive decks, and they aren't usually succeeding. Your list isn't defensive enough to survive. Against a midrange opponent, such as B/W or B/W/R or Naya their cards just flat out outclass yours. Against control you don't have threat density, most of what you're doing they just don't care about. When building a deck you need to think about how you want games to play out and then try and create a list which follows your plan each and every game. This leads to more 4 ofs and many more cards which are redundant.
And I'm supposed to say that "it's good because he at least tried to create his own deck?" God, it hurts my eyes. Counterargument
You can't really support any god with devotion so it's NOT about having indestructible creatures. It's about having completely useless pernaments on the field. Counterargument
You play high-curve non interactive deck with combo wincon. Without any kind of draw or dig. Just BELIEVING you will cast it one day, without nearly any support plan. Refutation (not quotes, but this is basic strategy, aka common knowledge within our community so not needed.)
Cards like Precinct, Tajic, Legion's Initiative or Frontline Medic just don't belong in here at all. If you really like them, consider an Aggro deck. Counterargument
As overall, seriously, reconsider your philosophy of deckbuilding. It's NOT about slapping random cards one at each other and making sure their colors fit.Contradiction
It's worth noting gb zombies won the first major invitational of inn/rtr standard.
What I am excited about I'd there wasn't a deck in the top 16 that I would feel terrible sitting across. We have answers for everything but need to wait to know which ones to play
Why? iRebel hasn't even been here most of the game and has no interactions with anyone. We don't even learn anything from lynching him, AND I think he's Town.
What do we learn from lynching Karn - a neutral?
I said it before, but I'll say it more frankly. You have a chronic problem of lying to get what you want and won't share more information because "the mafia will know how to defeat [you]". This sounds like an attempt to handwave further inquiry away.
If you think iRebel is town, please explain your logic. If you want me to believe you, explain further.
He has a chronic problem of lying to get what he wants and killing scum because of it. Read Marvel Mafia as a great example of Asenion just going about lieing and handing the town an easy win out of it.
Hey Karn, do me a favor and don't shoot tonight. K?
ok.
Calling bs. He already told us he wasn't going to shoot (the whole 3 day truce) then a few days later flat out stated that not only was he going to shoot, but that he was going to shoot a player who at that time had no serious wagon or case on him.
Also there is the simple issue that ze mafia is now motivated to see me dead in order to clear up the serial killer to start lowering the lynch count in exchange for eliminating a protective role.
The two main synergies/ combo is infinite life and then multiple turns. Medomai+Aurelia or double strike from Boros charm is double time walk. If you have both, it is four turns.
And, no Gaidin I haven't. This is the busy season at work so I don't have time for much
I built the list before reading the thread as I like to make a deck blind first then see what other people are doing to see how far off base I am :rolleyes:. I don't have time to read atm but wanted to toss this out for now and will read/comment later today.
Oh I don't think MazeFog is a deck but decks of that nature are why I like having purph in the main. It is proactively powerful and something very few main decks can do anything about. Game 2 I can side out purph for the niche matchup related cards. Trying to answer everything on an undefined meta is impossible, but doing something strong yourself is more profitable.
Hey look, there's yarpus. Was wondering when he would comment.
From the top:
1 - Heliod, God of the Sun. For four mana, he does nothing the turn he comes into play. You only have 22 cards in your deck that contain white mana symbols to make him active, and many of them cost more than him or are creatures that will likely die soon. Sure for 4 mana you get a token, but you aren't doing anything during the earlier turns to make it relevant. Your best hope for Heliod is to play him on turn 4 and make a token on turn 5. That's a 9 mana 2/1.
2 - Purphoros, God of the Forge while I do apprechiate the synergy he has with Assemble, you only have one. If your main focus is to try and get Heliod+Purh instead of Purph+Elspeth or Purph+Assemble you need to realize that Heliod takes 4 mana a turn to make a single token whereas the other two costs zero additional mana after they come into play and churn out many many tokens which is way more powerful and worth the risk of a dead card. Also, like Heliod, in your list Purph will never be active. You have 13 cards to try and activate it with.
3 - Precinct Captain sure he makes tokens but he's not coming down until turn 3 with your mana base and by then a 2/2 first striker is just irrelevant. You don't have a high number of other weenies to support him so he's just kind of there. As for a comparison to Young Pyromancer, he isn't even in the updated lists in this thread.
4 - Tajic, Blade of the Legion is a terrible terrible card. You are right that he'll never die against RDW but against them he's a 2/2 for four. They're just going to kill you anyway by attacking around him, or faltering him with their various 2 drops. Against U/W control (since you mentioned verdict) you still have to worry about detention sphere, celestial flare, Azorius Charm, Essence scatter, syncopate, dissolve, and last breath. Each of those cards were multiples in U/W lists that did well last weekend.
5 -Aurelia, the Warleader you only have 16 creatures, and none of them are particularly powerful or have fun saboteur abilities. Therefore I'm not sure what you're trying to accomplish.
6 - Boros Reckoner good card is good, but is he defensive? offensive? Your deck isn't really focused enough to use him effectively.
7 - Frontline Medic you play 16 creatures. He's a Gnarled Mass in a world of Watchwolf.
8 - Chained to the Rocks Dead card. You only have 9 mountains in your deck.
9 -Legion's Initative Again, you only play 16 creatures. Crusade works best when swarming which is something you just aren't dong.
10 - Assemble the Legion This card will win you the game if you can stall an aggressive opponent long enough or manage to land it against a control deck. Unfortunately you only play 1, don't have enough tools to stall out aggro or enough true threats to run a control deck out of answers.
11 - Mizzium Mortars Again, a good card, but your deck isn't really doing anything to capitalize on it. Is it there to remove a blocker while you're being aggressive? No, you can't really be aggressive. Is it there to clear the board against an aggro opponent so your more powerful cards can take over? No, you aren't really playing inevitability and probably can't survive to 6 mana.
12 - Anger of the Gods of the 16 creatures you play this kills 11. You really aren't ever getting to a devotion of 5.
13 - Flames of the Firebrand is a solid card which can 2 for 1 weenie decks, be they white or sligh. Yet you don't really have a means to stabilize against anything else they play.
14 - Warleader's Helix While it is a strong card, with your mana base it's probably either coming out on turn 5 or only gaining you 2 life. Both are too slow against aggro.
15 - Mana You have 8 lands which have to come in tapped and 4 which you probably want, with a near even split of basics. Your deck isn't focused either on white or on red so you need to split it this way which means sometimes you draw well but most of the time you will either a) get a glut of dual lands and be 1-2 turns behind an opponent's curve because of tapped ness or b) will draw a bunch of basics and not have the colors you need.
16 - Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx I don't think you'll ever have devotion higher than 2-3 which makes this card dead and not producing any colored mana.
17 - For all intents and purposes your curve starts at 3. Even control decks right now are shoving as much action into the 2 slot as possible to try and keep up with aggressive decks, and they aren't usually succeeding. Your list isn't defensive enough to survive. Against a midrange opponent, such as B/W or B/W/R or Naya their cards just flat out outclass yours. Against control you don't have threat density, most of what you're doing they just don't care about. When building a deck you need to think about how you want games to play out and then try and create a list which follows your plan each and every game. This leads to more 4 ofs and many more cards which are redundant.
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Oh! Argument Analysis!!! Let me! Let me! I am a phil minor after all. *dusts off degree*
?? What is there to be honest about? I'll target who I think will be killing and try to stop them.
You would rather lynch town than a hitman...
What I am excited about I'd there wasn't a deck in the top 16 that I would feel terrible sitting across. We have answers for everything but need to wait to know which ones to play
He has a chronic problem of lying to get what he wants and killing scum because of it. Read Marvel Mafia as a great example of Asenion just going about lieing and handing the town an easy win out of it.
Calling bs. He already told us he wasn't going to shoot (the whole 3 day truce) then a few days later flat out stated that not only was he going to shoot, but that he was going to shoot a player who at that time had no serious wagon or case on him.
Also there is the simple issue that ze mafia is now motivated to see me dead in order to clear up the serial killer to start lowering the lynch count in exchange for eliminating a protective role.
And, no Gaidin I haven't. This is the busy season at work so I don't have time for much
3 Experiment One
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Gyre Sage
4 Loxodon Smiter
4 Boon Satyr
4 Polukranos, World Eater
2 Fathom Mage
3 Prophet of Kruphix
2 Prime Speaker Zegana
2 Angel of Serenity
2 Sphinx's Revelation
2 Garruk, Caller of Beasts
Land
4 Breeding Pool
4 Temple Garden
4 Temple of Mystery
4 Hallowed Fountain
8 Forest
Side
3 Swan Song
3 Negate
3 Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
1 Garruk, Caller of Beasts
1 Sphinx's Revelation
1 Fathom Mage
3 Cyclonic Rift
I built the list before reading the thread as I like to make a deck blind first then see what other people are doing to see how far off base I am :rolleyes:. I don't have time to read atm but wanted to toss this out for now and will read/comment later today.
I don't think rev should be a consideration for control matches. Ub is just better than uw.
As for BBoV we have more than mortars. Ember Swallower / Elspeth / Renounce/ Celestial Flare all smack him