Ran this deck 2 weekends ago at a GPT for New Jersey and missed top 8 by 1 win (ended up 3-2). But the deck seemed to run solid against most of the meta that I came up against. Lost the 2 games I did to some really nutty combo hands that killed me on like t2. But anyways on to the good stuff...here's the decklist I ran:
The 2 decks I lost to were MUD (turn 2 hard casted Emrakul is kind of hard to beat) and Elves (combo-ed turn 2 and then turn 3 on me before I could setup my pillow fort). I did come out ahead against Miracles, UR Delver, and Death and Taxes.
I'm toying with some changed to this list currently and will re-post once I have some results to go with the changes. Most of my changes I'm thinking are sideboard and stem from the fact that I haven't seen Jund in months lol.
Original post by ruckus:
I recommend anyone playing Tin Fins to start with my list, play it until you're familiar with what hands to keep and how to play matchups. Then, if you're still unsatisfied (which I still haven't been), feel free to tinker with the list. Versions with Careful Study are inherently weaker and slower. Versions with 2 Children of Korlis are still using it as a crutch. Versions with Pull from Eternity in the SB need to stop looking at March 2013 results for a basis of a decklist.
I don't understand how you figure Careful Study just makes the deck weaker? I assume your pushing for ponder over it, which isn't a bad choice but I don't see how it makes the deck so much more powerful? Also not sure why but the remark came across as condescending...the Pull from Eternity was something a friend of mine brought up so I was exploring the idea...was actually thinking about dropping it after the tournament but as I wanted to represent what I ran accurately I wanted to give the actual list instead of something that I might've ran knowing what I knew after the event. I would also like a little more explanation how running 2 Children of Korlis over 1 is a crutch?
Original post by Acclimation
The "multiple" in my original post should be "more than 2." I run 2 Griselbrand in my list, any more is overkill.
Ah ok, sorry about that I misunderstood. Yea when I first built this for play testing I had 3 Griselbrands in it and was not happy with that number at all. I would agree that anything over 2 is overkill.
Original post by luklinda
Personally - I don't think bringing in GY hate is the way to go against reanimator - play aggressively and use exhume/show and tell to your advantage. Also - discard >> permission that reanimator opts for.
This actually worked out well. I ended up playing my friend a few games with his reanimator list and just changing my play strategy a bit seemed to really up the chances of winning if I just played more aggressively and try to limit the ways he can reanimate profitably. Thanks for the advice.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rukcus View Post
Leyline is lackluster when Surgical Extraction and Extirpate both exist. I 1000000% DO NOT RECOMMEND FAERIE MACABRE. It interacts very very poorly with Shallow Grave. Surgical and Extirpate are identical, but I do prefer to be able to "Hail Mary" Brainstorm into Surgical in those matchups where I need it, and it being a "free" spell makes up for that type of play. In most situations, the 2 life won't matter. In some games, you can swap Probe for Surgical Extraction (Tempo & GY dependent decks) as it still provides knowledge of the hand while still being a free spell.
So, ummm...... Reanimator doesn't run shallow grave and he was posting for shoring up the reanimator match up not the tin fins one. Reading is OP but thanks for the caps lock bolded scream chat.
Also - Faerie Macabre is only weaker than extirpate/surgical when they have an extra entomb and mana to cast it - doesn't seem like there would be many cases where that'd be relevant from a Tin Fin's player perspective as you're more likely to go off before your reanimator opponent - who is for some reason running shallow grave - has 3+ mana available to them AND a spare entomb in hand. Playing around Force, daze, spell pierce seems more relevant than the extra entomb scenario.....
Also - surgical and extirpate aren't identitcal at all - one is uncounterable and the other isn't - which again seems more relevant against reanimator (much less likely for turn 1 shenanigans) than the turn 0 appeal of surgical. when talking about reanimator.
I think what he meant is that if you're running Faerie Macabre that it interferes with casting Shallow Grave afterwards.
Other thoughts, how do you like the deck without Ponder? It seems weird to not run it, and instead have Careful Study and an extra Children of Korlis. Careful Study seems pretty bad with 2 Griselbrand (even then, running multiple Griselbrand seem bad), and the selection that Ponder gives us is too good to ignore. Children of Korlis, while amazing when we get it mid combo, makes me sad every time I see it outside of the combo turn- a lot of us have been playing with 1 with success.
Keep in mind I'm running a 61 card deck, since the 61st card is either the 4th Probe or 14th land (I prefer both).
I didn't miss the ponders too much. The Careful Studys helped with getting guys in my graveyard really often. I debated a lot on how many Children to run, I kinda wanted to go 1 but at the same time I really liked being able to hit them. They also really helped in the storm matchup to help buy time since they couldn't just tendrils me for the win. I'm not sure I understand why running more than 1 Griselbrand is bad, like for me running it as a 2 of seems right to help up your chances of finding one to get in your graveyard somehow. Several games I've ended up with him in my hands and just making myself discard him to combo off.
I also agree that Silence is better than Orim's Chant. I had a friend running my other Silences in his deck so I had to improvise lol.
What do you guys do for the reanimator matchup? That one seems to just be almost like we can't win that one if they're on the play or they keep a decent counter hand. Do we just hope they don't have the nuts?
TOURNAMENT REPORT
Round 1 VS Mono Blue Stasis
Not much to tell on this one. Game 1 I went for it and on turn 2 and he had a Daze to stop me from going off. Then on turn 3 I went for the combo again and he had nothing to stop me so I won on that turn. Game 2 I probed his hand and say that he had 6 lands and 1 Stasis in had, so I combo-ed on turn 1 and finished this one up quickly.
WIN 2-0
Round 2 VS Led-Dredge
I cast Thoughtseize on turn 1 and pulled his LED out of his hand, which slowed him way down and I was able to combo on turn 3 and won game 1. Game 2 went pretty much the same way with Thoughtseize slowing him down enough for me to get my combo going.
WIN 2-0
Round 3 VS ANT Storm
Both games here were really short. I won the dice roll and probed his hand game 1 to see he was on storm, then proceeded to combo turn 1 and proceed to win the game. Then game 2 was basically the same as he played probed my hand and passed turn and then I combo-ed turn 1 and won the game.
WIN 2-0
Round 4 VS ANT Storm
We agreed to draw this as it would lock both of us into the top 8
Round 5 VS LED-Dredge
We agreed to draw this as it would lock us into the top 4 seats of the top 8.
Quarterfinals VS LED-Dredge
Game 1 I was able to combo in the early turns and just win the game straight out. Game 2 he drops Leyline of the Void and starts dredging and using Cabal Therapy to pull Entombs out of my hand. After a kind of long game I end up finding my combo pieces and use Chain of Vapor to bounce the leyline and proceed to grab Emrakul and swing for the win.
WIN 2-0
Semifinals VS ANT Storm
Game 1 I end up comb-ing on turn 1-2 and win the game quickly. Game 2 he ends up using therapys to keep pulling combo pieces out of my hand until he goes for Empty the Warrens (because I had Children of Korlis in play to prevent him from going for Tendrils of Agony) and aggros me out for game 2. Game 3 I combo on turn 3 and after probing my hand he scoops and says good game.
WIN 2-1
Finals VS Reanimator
My friend was the one playing reanimator and due to a mixture of being tired and starving lol, he decided to scoop to me so that we could go ahead and get out of there.
THOUGHTS/CHANGES:
Against Dredge and Storm I think we're just a lot faster combo deck so we should be able to just win before they can. Against the counter decks I think we may have a bit of an uphill fight but if you have the turn 1 I think you go for it and see if they fail the Force of Will check. Reanimator is a bit of a bad matchup I think, or at least from the testing my group has done it seems that way. The main reason I think behind this is that they can reanimate Griselbrand and then more or less just dig for a counterspell when we try to combo on our turn. I'm thinking about seeing if I can fix this by going with -1 Pithing Needle, -2 Surgical Extraction and adding 3 Leyline of the Void to the deck. This would force them to go the show and tell route, which I think is just better for us. Although I am a little bit worried that by cutting the Pithing Needles that Deathrite Shaman may become a giant threat. I'm definitely open to any suggestions or ideas about this one.
Couple of things to note about the above list that I found out from running it.
-> Sword of Mind and Body seemed to be very lackluster and will/should probably be cut from the deck. I didn't come into an instance where it was worth sinking the mana into fetching it and playing/equiping it and suffering the speed loss. Which probably means if I cut it there's not point in the Stoneforge Mystic sticking around either.
->I did have some minor issues with my mana base. I'm thinking about reworking it as: -2 Island +2 Misty Rainforest
->The sideboard still needs a little work. The Priest of Thune is a great card but since it only hits enchantments I'm thinking I'll drop him and instead rely on the Kor Sanctifiers to take care of that role alone. Not sure what should fill the 2 slots that this leaves empty yet.
->Renegade Doppleganger was a huge hitter in my play. Turning 2 dopplegangers into Sun Titans or Baneslayers won me several matches.
->One of my concerns with this deck is the Titan Valakut/Titan Force matchup. I've not had a chance to play test it against one of those decks yet but would be interested to hear if anyone has. I can say that against control this deck rolls face, and against mid-range this deck can usually just outrace them.
Hope this helps out and any suggestions for improvements are always welcomed.
~MTGhillbilly
Couple of things to note about the above list that I found out from running it.
-> Sword of Mind and Body seemed to be very lackluster and will/should probably be cut from the deck. I didn't come into an instance where it was worth sinking the mana into fetching it and playing/equiping it and suffering the speed loss. Which probably means if I cut it there's not point in the Stoneforge Mystic sticking around either.
->I did have some minor issues with my mana base. I'm thinking about reworking it as: -2 Island +2 Misty Rainforest
->The sideboard still needs a little work. The Priest of Thune is a great card but since it only hits enchantments I'm thinking I'll drop him and instead rely on the Kor Sanctifiers to take care of that role alone. Not sure what should fill the 2 slots that this leaves empty yet.
->Renegade Doppleganger was a huge hitter in my play. Turning 2 dopplegangers into Sun Titans or Baneslayers won me several matches.
->One of my concerns with this deck is the Titan Valakut/Titan Force matchup. I've not had a chance to play test it against one of those decks yet but would be interested to hear is anyone has. I can say that against control this deck rolls face, and against mid-range this deck can usually just outrace them.
Hope this helps out and any suggestions for improvements are always welcomed.
~MTGhillbilly
Saw some recent activity on this thread so figured I'd come post this just to help keep the deck idea alive.
I recently played this deck in a Gran Prix Trial that was held locally. Ended up placing 8th in the event, entirely due to bad play on my part.
Ended up defeating:
U/G/R Scapeshift, Multiple Thephs decks, and an Extended Merefolk deck.
Ended up losing to:
A Thepths deck(due to horrible play mistakes on my part)
Elf-ball
Here's the decklist I ran. Its modified some from the original but it started out as Roflthopter and as far as I'm concerned it will always be Roflthopter lol.
Been playing the following decklist for a while. At the past 3 or 4 FNMs it has finished with either a 4-0, 3-1, or 3-0-1 record. Usually ends up getting me somewhere in the top 4 for the night. The Basilisk Collar and Blade of the Bloodchief have great synergy together.
Was reading over this thread and noticed that some people were talking about using KCI and Time Sieve combos with the Sword + Foundry combo. There is already a thread on these forums called Roflthopter that has been going for a while that actually uses these are key parts of the combo to win. Given I understand this is the version that won worlds but just wanted to point out that I've been running the KCI and Time Sieve setup for a while now and it is pretty powerful. I see that your calling it a win more combo but it does ensure a win either way as oppose to something possibly throwing part of your combo off track. But that's just my 2 cents and just wanted ppl to be aware that there's already a great discussion about the Sword + Foundry + KCI or Time Sieve combo on salvation (why its not been listed as competitive I'll never know :P). For reference purposes the link to the thread is below:
Well the catch with that is the Mechanist is there to help refill your hand with more artifacts to drop. I would agree in a normal scenario that he is sub-par but in this deck I think he becomes alright. He's an artifact so it doesn't trigger the limitations from the Canonists nor is he destroyed when Scourglass goes off. Also he becomes a 3/3 flyer with Master of Etherium plus he still pumps MoE. I would pick him over the Stormblade because of his putting an artifact card into my hand, basically replacing himself when he's played.
Borderposts I'm not sure about. I don't like that they come into play tapped. I'm afraid that that would make this deck take a huge speed nerf by losing that. Ideally you need to deal as much damage as you can before you hit Day of Judgement range at 4 mana. The Outlander might be good in your meta but so far in mine I haven't really seen anything red that worries me with this deck. Most of what I've seen is either control builds or vampires. But that's just my thoughts.
I've been playing with this idea since before Zendikar came out and have finally got it evolved into something I think I like and wanting to opinions on what you guys think of it as a competitive deck.
Ideally what happens it that you get the Etherium Sculptor and the Glaze Fiend out early. Using the reduced cost of artifacts to pump the Fiend and swing for high damage early on in the game. The Ethersworn Canonist is also one that you want to try and drop early. This will slow down any other aggro deck to a crawl while your still running at full speed and can also have an impact on some control decks once you sideboard in some of the counter game.
The Ethersworn Shieldmage should ideally be held in hand until either you need to do a big block or they drop an Earthquake or Volcanic Fallout. This helps to keep your side of the board in play while helping you take out some of their creatures once the dust settles from combat. This combo's very well with Esperzoa. What you would do is basically bounce the shieldmage at the begining of your upkeep and then hold it until either you have a need to prevent all damage to your creatures or at the end of your opponents turn, whichever comes first. This way you keep Esperzoa in play as well as preventing damage to your creatures.
The Faerie Mechanists and the Sphinx Summoner both serve the same purpose in this deck. They both will help you keep artifacts in your hand to keep playing them. Given this won't instantly refill your hand but I think it will give you enough fuel to keep the engine running. Also since the sphinx lets you go get a specific artifact that I believe would help make the deck adaptable to what is going on currently in any game.
Scourglass I feel is kinda self explanatory. Basically kills anything non-artifact or land which this deck runs no permanents that don't fit into one of those categories. So with this you can wipe out their side of the board while having no impact on your side.
The Path to Exile are there for anything that surprises the player or is too big to be handled through another means.
Most of the rest of the maindeck I don't think requires much explanation. The Master of Etherium is there to pump the other creatures while also becoming huge himself. The Tidehollow Strix is there for early flying damage as well as a good flying defense with his deathtouch.
The sideboard is fairly simple too. The counter spells are in there incase you get into a control match or have a need to prevent things like Day of Judgement and Planar Cleansing. The Tidehollow Sculler is also there to help the deck deal with these threats and other control threats as well. Open the Vaults is there just incase you find yourself in a situation where you can't side in enough to prevent your creatures from being destroyed. This way if they are destroyed then you can simply bring them all back into in one move.
Any thoughts or suggestions are more than welcomed and very much appreciated.
I've been playing with this idea since before Zendikar came out and have finally got it evolved into something I think I like and wanting to opinions on what you guys think of it as a competitive deck. I do apologize if this deck idea has already been discussed some where, I search the forums but didn't come up with anything. So here it is and a little explanation below the decklist:
Ideally what happens it that you get the Etherium Sculptor and the Glaze Fiend out early. Using the reduced cost of artifacts to pump the Fiend and swing for high damage early on in the game. The Ethersworn Canonist is also one that you want to try and drop early. This will slow down any other aggro deck to a crawl while your still running at full speed and can also have an impact on some control decks once you sideboard in some of the counter game.
The Ethersworn Shieldmage should ideally be held in hand until either you need to do a big block or they drop an Earthquake or Volcanic Fallout. This helps to keep your side of the board in play while helping you take out some of their creatures once the dust settles from combat. This combo's very well with Esperzoa. What you would do is basically bounce the shieldmage at the begining of your upkeep and then hold it until either you have a need to prevent all damage to your creatures or at the end of your opponents turn, whichever comes first. This way you keep Esperzoa in play as well as preventing damage to your creatures.
The Faerie Mechanists and the Sphinx Summoner both serve the same purpose in this deck. They both will help you keep artifacts in your hand to keep playing them. Given this won't instantly refill your hand but I think it will give you enough fuel to keep the engine running. Also since the sphinx lets you go get a specific artifact that I believe would help make the deck adaptable to what is going on currently in any game.
Scourglass I feel is kinda self explanatory. Basically kills anything non-artifact or land which this deck runs no permanents that don't fit into one of those categories. So with this you can wipe out their side of the board while having no impact on your side.
The Path to Exile are there for anything that surprises the player or is too big to be handled through another means.
Most of the rest of the maindeck I don't think requires much explanation. The Master of Etherium is there to pump the other creatures while also becoming huge himself. The Tidehollow Strix is there for early flying damage as well as a good flying defense with his deathtouch.
The sideboard is fairly simple too. The counter spells are in there incase you get into a control match or have a need to prevent things like Day of Judgement and Planar Cleansing. The Tidehollow Sculler is also there to help the deck deal with these threats and other control threats as well. Open the Vaults is there just incase you find yourself in a situation where you can't side in enough to prevent your creatures from being destroyed. This way if they are destroyed then you can simply bring them all back into in one move.
Any thoughts or suggestions are more than welcomed and very much appreciated. I haven't had a chance to test this fully yet but I feel like this can stand on its own even though it doesn't really play anything from Zendikar. I also think this deck's speed would be up there with vampire decks but just not sure how it would fair against them.
Here's what I think:
1) Hellspark Elemental should either be a 4-of or none at all. 3 is just a strange number really for the card.
2) Relying on Chandra's ultimate to cast those 2 Cruels is not a good idea as the ultimate will not go off every game so you'll be stuck with 2 dead cards. Might be a better idea to simply switch those for the Lavaball Trap in your SB.
3) Path To Exile should be a 4-of to deal with annoying annoyances like Sprouting Thrinax, Bloodghast, Baneslayer Angel, etc etc..basically anything that is currently inefficiently dealt with burn.
4) In relation to #3, 2(4) white mana sources is not enough to cast your Paths early enough. I understand Valakut's increasing potency with more Mountains, but you still need to survive the early game to get there. Also, your SB is filled with white cards so yea, 2 Plains won't be enough..
To address #4, I use 2 plains yes but i have an additional 4 ways to get to those plains. So essentially i have 6 ways to get a plains on the board and with path only taking 1 plains that should be more than enough. And to the cards in the sideboard. None of them require more than 1 plains to actually cast.
#1) I don't have a problem running 3 Hellsparks.
#3) With the amount of burn I'm running 3 paths should be plenty. 4 is nice yes but to cut down on total number of cards in all actually 3 is plenty. Might put a 4th in sideboard maybe to side in if a situation arouse where it was needed.
#2) Well really they're not dead cards ever unless Chandra gets countered which with the lack of massive counterspells that's not really a huge concern. I mean at the very least they'll be a 4 damage burn spell, and best case scenario they're a 4 damage burn spell plus the extra damage from casting the cruel.
I've been working on an idea with this a little bit and hopefully this is the right place to post it ( wasn't quite sure to post it here or under the R/W control variants lol but figured since chandra plays a big role this should be where it goes).
Thoughts? Suggestions? Likes? Dislikes? lol. I think going dual color control will work out better in the long run for this archetype.
The biggest threat to this deck is mass graveyard removal, however I think it can still push on and win simply by relying on burning your opponents life total down.
I also like using the Hellspark elemental in the deck since he's fuel for Chandra and a little extra damage to boot when you unearth him. I currently don't have Hell's Thunder or I might would consider them over the Hellspark.
Also in this deck I thought about running Howling Mine for the extra card draw and to try and keep my hand filled up. Any opinions on that?
The rest of the deck is self explanatory I think, but any questions or suggestions are more than welcomed or if anyone has played close to this and has some results that would be fantastic. Hopefully next week I'll be able to run this and come back with some results to relay.
Creatures<5>
4x Argothian Enchantress
1x Dryad Arbor
Spells<4>
1x Enlightened Tutor
1x Green Sun's Zenith
2x Living Wish
Enchantments<30>
4x Elephant Grass
4x Utopia Sprawl
4x Wild Growth
4x Enchantress's Presence
4x Sterling Grove
3x Solitary Confinement
2x Rest in Peace
2x Oblivion Ring
1x Sphere of Safety
1x Words of War
1x Sigil of the Empty Throne
1x Mirri's Guile
1x Helm of Obedience
Lands<19>
4x Windswept Heath
2x Serra's Sanctum
2x Savannah
1x Tiaga
3x Plains
7x Forest
4x Leyline of Sanctity
2x City of Solitude
2x Choke
2x Karmic Justice
1x Emrakul, The Aeons Torn
1x Verduran Enchantress
1x Karakas
1x Eternal Witness
1x Runed Halo
The 2 decks I lost to were MUD (turn 2 hard casted Emrakul is kind of hard to beat) and Elves (combo-ed turn 2 and then turn 3 on me before I could setup my pillow fort). I did come out ahead against Miracles, UR Delver, and Death and Taxes.
I'm toying with some changed to this list currently and will re-post once I have some results to go with the changes. Most of my changes I'm thinking are sideboard and stem from the fact that I haven't seen Jund in months lol.
I don't understand how you figure Careful Study just makes the deck weaker? I assume your pushing for ponder over it, which isn't a bad choice but I don't see how it makes the deck so much more powerful? Also not sure why but the remark came across as condescending...the Pull from Eternity was something a friend of mine brought up so I was exploring the idea...was actually thinking about dropping it after the tournament but as I wanted to represent what I ran accurately I wanted to give the actual list instead of something that I might've ran knowing what I knew after the event. I would also like a little more explanation how running 2 Children of Korlis over 1 is a crutch?
Ah ok, sorry about that I misunderstood. Yea when I first built this for play testing I had 3 Griselbrands in it and was not happy with that number at all. I would agree that anything over 2 is overkill.
This actually worked out well. I ended up playing my friend a few games with his reanimator list and just changing my play strategy a bit seemed to really up the chances of winning if I just played more aggressively and try to limit the ways he can reanimate profitably. Thanks for the advice.
I think what he meant is that if you're running Faerie Macabre that it interferes with casting Shallow Grave afterwards.
I didn't miss the ponders too much. The Careful Studys helped with getting guys in my graveyard really often. I debated a lot on how many Children to run, I kinda wanted to go 1 but at the same time I really liked being able to hit them. They also really helped in the storm matchup to help buy time since they couldn't just tendrils me for the win. I'm not sure I understand why running more than 1 Griselbrand is bad, like for me running it as a 2 of seems right to help up your chances of finding one to get in your graveyard somehow. Several games I've ended up with him in my hands and just making myself discard him to combo off.
I also agree that Silence is better than Orim's Chant. I had a friend running my other Silences in his deck so I had to improvise lol.
What do you guys do for the reanimator matchup? That one seems to just be almost like we can't win that one if they're on the play or they keep a decent counter hand. Do we just hope they don't have the nuts?
DECK:
2 Griselbrand
2 Children of Korlis
1 Emrakul, The Aeons Torn
Instants x 26
4 Brainstorm
4 Shallow Grave
4 Entomb
4 Dark Ritual
4 Gitaxian Probe
3 Goryo's Vengeance
2 Lim-Dul's Vault
1 Silence
Sorcery x 10
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Thoughtseize
2 Careful Study
1 Reanimate
1 Tendrils of Agony
4 Lotus Petal
1 Chrome Mox
Lands x 14
4 Marsh Flats
1 Verdant Catacombs
3 Polluted Delta
2 Underground Sea
1 Scrubland
1 Tundra
1 Island
1 Swamp
3 Orim's Chant
3 Chains of Vapor
2 Serenity
2 Pull from Eternity
2 Massacre
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Pithing Needle
TOURNAMENT REPORT
Round 1 VS Mono Blue Stasis
Not much to tell on this one. Game 1 I went for it and on turn 2 and he had a Daze to stop me from going off. Then on turn 3 I went for the combo again and he had nothing to stop me so I won on that turn. Game 2 I probed his hand and say that he had 6 lands and 1 Stasis in had, so I combo-ed on turn 1 and finished this one up quickly.
WIN 2-0
Round 2 VS Led-Dredge
I cast Thoughtseize on turn 1 and pulled his LED out of his hand, which slowed him way down and I was able to combo on turn 3 and won game 1. Game 2 went pretty much the same way with Thoughtseize slowing him down enough for me to get my combo going.
WIN 2-0
Round 3 VS ANT Storm
Both games here were really short. I won the dice roll and probed his hand game 1 to see he was on storm, then proceeded to combo turn 1 and proceed to win the game. Then game 2 was basically the same as he played probed my hand and passed turn and then I combo-ed turn 1 and won the game.
WIN 2-0
Round 4 VS ANT Storm
We agreed to draw this as it would lock both of us into the top 8
Round 5 VS LED-Dredge
We agreed to draw this as it would lock us into the top 4 seats of the top 8.
Quarterfinals VS LED-Dredge
Game 1 I was able to combo in the early turns and just win the game straight out. Game 2 he drops Leyline of the Void and starts dredging and using Cabal Therapy to pull Entombs out of my hand. After a kind of long game I end up finding my combo pieces and use Chain of Vapor to bounce the leyline and proceed to grab Emrakul and swing for the win.
WIN 2-0
Semifinals VS ANT Storm
Game 1 I end up comb-ing on turn 1-2 and win the game quickly. Game 2 he ends up using therapys to keep pulling combo pieces out of my hand until he goes for Empty the Warrens (because I had Children of Korlis in play to prevent him from going for Tendrils of Agony) and aggros me out for game 2. Game 3 I combo on turn 3 and after probing my hand he scoops and says good game.
WIN 2-1
Finals VS Reanimator
My friend was the one playing reanimator and due to a mixture of being tired and starving lol, he decided to scoop to me so that we could go ahead and get out of there.
THOUGHTS/CHANGES:
Against Dredge and Storm I think we're just a lot faster combo deck so we should be able to just win before they can. Against the counter decks I think we may have a bit of an uphill fight but if you have the turn 1 I think you go for it and see if they fail the Force of Will check. Reanimator is a bit of a bad matchup I think, or at least from the testing my group has done it seems that way. The main reason I think behind this is that they can reanimate Griselbrand and then more or less just dig for a counterspell when we try to combo on our turn. I'm thinking about seeing if I can fix this by going with -1 Pithing Needle, -2 Surgical Extraction and adding 3 Leyline of the Void to the deck. This would force them to go the show and tell route, which I think is just better for us. Although I am a little bit worried that by cutting the Pithing Needles that Deathrite Shaman may become a giant threat. I'm definitely open to any suggestions or ideas about this one.
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Fauna Shaman
4x Renegade Doppleganger
4x Vengevine
4x Squadron Hawk
3x Trinket Mage
2x Memnite
1x Sun Titan
1x Baneslayer Angel
1x Kor Sanctifier
1x Kor Skyfisher
1x Stoneforge Mystic
3x Jace the Mind Sculptor
2x Garruk Wildspeaker
Artifacts[1]
1x Sword of Mind and Body
Lands[24]
5x Forest
5x Island
2x Plains
4x Glacial Fotress
4x Sunpetal Grove
2x Misty Rainforest
1x Celestial Collenade
1x Stirring Wildwood
4x Leyline of Sanctity
3x Kor Firewalker
3x Journey to Nowhere
2x Priest of Thune
1x Kor Sanctifiers
1x Linvala Keeper of Silence
1x Baneslayer
Couple of things to note about the above list that I found out from running it.
-> Sword of Mind and Body seemed to be very lackluster and will/should probably be cut from the deck. I didn't come into an instance where it was worth sinking the mana into fetching it and playing/equiping it and suffering the speed loss. Which probably means if I cut it there's not point in the Stoneforge Mystic sticking around either.
->I did have some minor issues with my mana base. I'm thinking about reworking it as: -2 Island +2 Misty Rainforest
->The sideboard still needs a little work. The Priest of Thune is a great card but since it only hits enchantments I'm thinking I'll drop him and instead rely on the Kor Sanctifiers to take care of that role alone. Not sure what should fill the 2 slots that this leaves empty yet.
->Renegade Doppleganger was a huge hitter in my play. Turning 2 dopplegangers into Sun Titans or Baneslayers won me several matches.
->One of my concerns with this deck is the Titan Valakut/Titan Force matchup. I've not had a chance to play test it against one of those decks yet but would be interested to hear if anyone has. I can say that against control this deck rolls face, and against mid-range this deck can usually just outrace them.
Hope this helps out and any suggestions for improvements are always welcomed.
~MTGhillbilly
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Fauna Shaman
4x Renegade Doppleganger
4x Vengevine
4x Squadron Hawk
3x Trinket Mage
2x Memnite
1x Sun Titan
1x Baneslayer Angel
1x Kor Sanctifier
1x Kor Skyfisher
1x Stoneforge Mystic
3x Jace the Mind Sculptor
2x Garruk Wildspeaker
Artifacts[1]
1x Sword of Mind and Body
Lands[24]
5x Forest
5x Island
2x Plains
4x Glacial Fotress
4x Sunpetal Grove
2x Misty Rainforest
1x Celestial Collenade
1x Stirring Wildwood
4x Leyline of Sanctity
3x Kor Firewalker
3x Journey to Nowhere
2x Priest of Thune
1x Kor Sanctifiers
1x Linvala Keeper of Silence
1x Baneslayer
Couple of things to note about the above list that I found out from running it.
-> Sword of Mind and Body seemed to be very lackluster and will/should probably be cut from the deck. I didn't come into an instance where it was worth sinking the mana into fetching it and playing/equiping it and suffering the speed loss. Which probably means if I cut it there's not point in the Stoneforge Mystic sticking around either.
->I did have some minor issues with my mana base. I'm thinking about reworking it as: -2 Island +2 Misty Rainforest
->The sideboard still needs a little work. The Priest of Thune is a great card but since it only hits enchantments I'm thinking I'll drop him and instead rely on the Kor Sanctifiers to take care of that role alone. Not sure what should fill the 2 slots that this leaves empty yet.
->Renegade Doppleganger was a huge hitter in my play. Turning 2 dopplegangers into Sun Titans or Baneslayers won me several matches.
->One of my concerns with this deck is the Titan Valakut/Titan Force matchup. I've not had a chance to play test it against one of those decks yet but would be interested to hear is anyone has. I can say that against control this deck rolls face, and against mid-range this deck can usually just outrace them.
Hope this helps out and any suggestions for improvements are always welcomed.
~MTGhillbilly
I recently played this deck in a Gran Prix Trial that was held locally. Ended up placing 8th in the event, entirely due to bad play on my part.
Ended up defeating:
U/G/R Scapeshift, Multiple Thephs decks, and an Extended Merefolk deck.
Ended up losing to:
A Thepths deck(due to horrible play mistakes on my part)
Elf-ball
Here's the decklist I ran. Its modified some from the original but it started out as Roflthopter and as far as I'm concerned it will always be Roflthopter lol.
4 Glimmervoid
4 Underground River
4 Vault of Whispers
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Sunken Ruins
2 Dark Depths
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Academy Ruins
// Creatures
2 Vampire Hexmage
// Spells
4 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Remand
4 Boomerang
4 Sword of the Meek
4 Muddle the Mixture
4 Thopter Foundry
2 Krark-Clan Ironworks
2 Time Sieve
2 Chrome Mox
2 Tezzeret the Seeker
2 Chalice of the Void
1 Chalice of the Void
2 Thoughtseize
2 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
3 Damnation
3 Hurkyl's Recall
4 Extirpate
4x Bloodghast
4x Vampire Nighthawk
4x Vampire Nocturnus
4x Malakir Bloodwitch
4x Gatekeeper of Malakir
4x Kalastria Highborn
2x Anowon, the Ruin Sage
3x Urge to Feed
3x Tendrils of Corruption
3x Sign in Blood
2x Blade of the Bloodchief
2x Basilisk Collar
Lands
15x Swamp
4x Marsh Flats
3x Crypt of Agadeem
3x Consume Spirit
3x Bloodhusk Ritualist
3x Nemesis Trap
3x Sadistic Sacrament
3x Smother
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=161164&highlight=roflthopter
Personally I prefer this version just cause I think its competitive and also a load of fun to play.
Well the catch with that is the Mechanist is there to help refill your hand with more artifacts to drop. I would agree in a normal scenario that he is sub-par but in this deck I think he becomes alright. He's an artifact so it doesn't trigger the limitations from the Canonists nor is he destroyed when Scourglass goes off. Also he becomes a 3/3 flyer with Master of Etherium plus he still pumps MoE. I would pick him over the Stormblade because of his putting an artifact card into my hand, basically replacing himself when he's played.
Borderposts I'm not sure about. I don't like that they come into play tapped. I'm afraid that that would make this deck take a huge speed nerf by losing that. Ideally you need to deal as much damage as you can before you hit Day of Judgement range at 4 mana. The Outlander might be good in your meta but so far in mine I haven't really seen anything red that worries me with this deck. Most of what I've seen is either control builds or vampires. But that's just my thoughts.
4x Glaze Fiend
4x Master of Etherium
4x Ethersworn Canonist
4x Etherium Sculptor
3x Tidehollow Strix
3x Ethersworn Shieldmage
3x Esperzoa
3x Sphinx Summoner
3x Faerie Mechanists
4x Path to Exile
3x Scourglass
LANDS[23]
6x Island
5x Swamp
4x Plains
4x Glacial Fortress
4x Drowned Catacombs
4x Punish Ignorance
4x Countersquall
4x Tidehollow Sculler
3x Open the Vaults
Ideally what happens it that you get the Etherium Sculptor and the Glaze Fiend out early. Using the reduced cost of artifacts to pump the Fiend and swing for high damage early on in the game. The Ethersworn Canonist is also one that you want to try and drop early. This will slow down any other aggro deck to a crawl while your still running at full speed and can also have an impact on some control decks once you sideboard in some of the counter game.
The Ethersworn Shieldmage should ideally be held in hand until either you need to do a big block or they drop an Earthquake or Volcanic Fallout. This helps to keep your side of the board in play while helping you take out some of their creatures once the dust settles from combat. This combo's very well with Esperzoa. What you would do is basically bounce the shieldmage at the begining of your upkeep and then hold it until either you have a need to prevent all damage to your creatures or at the end of your opponents turn, whichever comes first. This way you keep Esperzoa in play as well as preventing damage to your creatures.
The Faerie Mechanists and the Sphinx Summoner both serve the same purpose in this deck. They both will help you keep artifacts in your hand to keep playing them. Given this won't instantly refill your hand but I think it will give you enough fuel to keep the engine running. Also since the sphinx lets you go get a specific artifact that I believe would help make the deck adaptable to what is going on currently in any game.
Scourglass I feel is kinda self explanatory. Basically kills anything non-artifact or land which this deck runs no permanents that don't fit into one of those categories. So with this you can wipe out their side of the board while having no impact on your side.
The Path to Exile are there for anything that surprises the player or is too big to be handled through another means.
Most of the rest of the maindeck I don't think requires much explanation. The Master of Etherium is there to pump the other creatures while also becoming huge himself. The Tidehollow Strix is there for early flying damage as well as a good flying defense with his deathtouch.
The sideboard is fairly simple too. The counter spells are in there incase you get into a control match or have a need to prevent things like Day of Judgement and Planar Cleansing. The Tidehollow Sculler is also there to help the deck deal with these threats and other control threats as well. Open the Vaults is there just incase you find yourself in a situation where you can't side in enough to prevent your creatures from being destroyed. This way if they are destroyed then you can simply bring them all back into in one move.
Any thoughts or suggestions are more than welcomed and very much appreciated.
4x Glaze Fiend
4x Master of Etherium
4x Ethersworn Canonist
4x Etherium Sculptor
3x Tidehollow Strix
3x Ethersworn Shieldmage
3x Esperzoa
3x Sphinx Summoner
3x Faerie Mechanists
4x Path to Exile
3x Scourglass
LANDS[23]
6x Island
5x Swamp
4x Plains
4x Glacial Fortress
4x Drowned Catacombs
4x Punish Ignorance
4x Countersquall
4x Tidehollow Sculler
3x Open the Vaults
Ideally what happens it that you get the Etherium Sculptor and the Glaze Fiend out early. Using the reduced cost of artifacts to pump the Fiend and swing for high damage early on in the game. The Ethersworn Canonist is also one that you want to try and drop early. This will slow down any other aggro deck to a crawl while your still running at full speed and can also have an impact on some control decks once you sideboard in some of the counter game.
The Ethersworn Shieldmage should ideally be held in hand until either you need to do a big block or they drop an Earthquake or Volcanic Fallout. This helps to keep your side of the board in play while helping you take out some of their creatures once the dust settles from combat. This combo's very well with Esperzoa. What you would do is basically bounce the shieldmage at the begining of your upkeep and then hold it until either you have a need to prevent all damage to your creatures or at the end of your opponents turn, whichever comes first. This way you keep Esperzoa in play as well as preventing damage to your creatures.
The Faerie Mechanists and the Sphinx Summoner both serve the same purpose in this deck. They both will help you keep artifacts in your hand to keep playing them. Given this won't instantly refill your hand but I think it will give you enough fuel to keep the engine running. Also since the sphinx lets you go get a specific artifact that I believe would help make the deck adaptable to what is going on currently in any game.
Scourglass I feel is kinda self explanatory. Basically kills anything non-artifact or land which this deck runs no permanents that don't fit into one of those categories. So with this you can wipe out their side of the board while having no impact on your side.
The Path to Exile are there for anything that surprises the player or is too big to be handled through another means.
Most of the rest of the maindeck I don't think requires much explanation. The Master of Etherium is there to pump the other creatures while also becoming huge himself. The Tidehollow Strix is there for early flying damage as well as a good flying defense with his deathtouch.
The sideboard is fairly simple too. The counter spells are in there incase you get into a control match or have a need to prevent things like Day of Judgement and Planar Cleansing. The Tidehollow Sculler is also there to help the deck deal with these threats and other control threats as well. Open the Vaults is there just incase you find yourself in a situation where you can't side in enough to prevent your creatures from being destroyed. This way if they are destroyed then you can simply bring them all back into in one move.
Any thoughts or suggestions are more than welcomed and very much appreciated. I haven't had a chance to test this fully yet but I feel like this can stand on its own even though it doesn't really play anything from Zendikar. I also think this deck's speed would be up there with vampire decks but just not sure how it would fair against them.
To address #4, I use 2 plains yes but i have an additional 4 ways to get to those plains. So essentially i have 6 ways to get a plains on the board and with path only taking 1 plains that should be more than enough. And to the cards in the sideboard. None of them require more than 1 plains to actually cast.
#1) I don't have a problem running 3 Hellsparks.
#3) With the amount of burn I'm running 3 paths should be plenty. 4 is nice yes but to cut down on total number of cards in all actually 3 is plenty. Might put a 4th in sideboard maybe to side in if a situation arouse where it was needed.
#2) Well really they're not dead cards ever unless Chandra gets countered which with the lack of massive counterspells that's not really a huge concern. I mean at the very least they'll be a 4 damage burn spell, and best case scenario they're a 4 damage burn spell plus the extra damage from casting the cruel.
3x Hellspark Elemental
2x Magma Phoenix
Spells[26]
3x Punishing Fire
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Burst Lightning
3x Quenchable Fire
3x Spire Barrage
3x Earthquake
3x Path to Exile
2x Cruel Ultimatum
3x Chandra Ablaze
3x Ajani Vengeant
Lands[24]
15x Mountain
2x Plains
4x Arid Mesa
3x Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
3x Oblivion Ring
3x Celestial Purge
3x Volcanic Fallout
3x Lavaball Trap
3x Intimidation Bolt
Thoughts? Suggestions? Likes? Dislikes? lol. I think going dual color control will work out better in the long run for this archetype.
The biggest threat to this deck is mass graveyard removal, however I think it can still push on and win simply by relying on burning your opponents life total down.
I also like using the Hellspark elemental in the deck since he's fuel for Chandra and a little extra damage to boot when you unearth him. I currently don't have Hell's Thunder or I might would consider them over the Hellspark.
Also in this deck I thought about running Howling Mine for the extra card draw and to try and keep my hand filled up. Any opinions on that?
The rest of the deck is self explanatory I think, but any questions or suggestions are more than welcomed or if anyone has played close to this and has some results that would be fantastic. Hopefully next week I'll be able to run this and come back with some results to relay.