Member for 14 years, 4 months, and 26 days
I came with the mass exodus from 'News. I started as a lurker. Slowly began posting. Became a mod. Then back into obscurity I went. Sally will be missed. 14 years of me are here. Sad to see it go.
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- serrot_29
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Member for 19 years, 3 months, and 15 days
Last active Wed, Mar, 22 2023 00:01:04
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So far looks good. Can't wait to see more.
EDIT: Side note, I also work in IT and art/woodworking are my get away hobbies.
While I'm not fond of Mikokoro, Center of the Sea, Geier Reach Sanitarium on the other hand is fantastic. The discard is what makes it great. Empty hands remain empty and the discard helps us along. Though, I'd like to test it before calling it a 100% include.
geenome: ah, there we go. You could try the wheel core wrapped in a stax/pillowfort shell to slow the game down to a pace you can win at. Or just run as much arty/fast mana as you can to power out a fast nek and begin wheeling. The beauty of getting a fast first wheel is that you will destroy the carefully sculpted hands of your opponents.
Depending on your Artifact concentration, Mox Opalis better than Chrome Mox. I'm not fond of that potential 2-for-1 when they pop the Chrome.
Maze is a nifty card, worth running if you have one.
Meech hit Gamble, so no need to reiterate there.
Pyroblast is only really good when you have a blue heavy meta, even then is just meh.
Deluge is fantastic in my Mono-B deck. Not sure here. I'd rather bounce (a-la Cyclonic Rift) and wheel since that's just hilariously fun.
I'm honestly not sure on JTMS. I did test him in early builds of my Nek and he always felt underwhelming.
I'd like to touch on Force of Will for a sec. I run it, yes. It's not often that I get to pitch a card for it and cast it for free. Most of the time it's "3UU: Counter Target Spell". Counter magic just seems counter productive to the nature of the deck (hence why I have only 2 dedicated slots to counters). You want to use your counters as backup to your winning this turn. There is no need to use them all willy-nilly. Hard counters or "Place on bottom" counters are the best to use (none of this Remand, Mana Leak or Memory Lapse nonsense) to try and make sure your spell will be a success. The few times that I have hit FoW for free make the card, for my build, worth running. Otherwise, I'd say just run something else in that slot.
Changes:
Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre > Steel Hellkite (6/1) - Oldamog is great. I love the removal tacked on, since I can hit problem permanents. Mana is not an issue in the deck, so that was not the reason to drop Ula. Exile still drops Ula, which is the problem. I can't reuse Ula if he's exiled. Steel Hellkite, on the other hand - lower cost, though probably less effective. The potential for reuse over the course of the game makes for an interesting card. This is an iffy change but I want to test this out fully before thinking I'm wrong about this. With the titans, you want them to hit the grave for the reshuffle effect. The problem with Ula is that he WILL get exiled (if I don't kill him first) due to him having Indestructible.
Gate to Phyrexia > Malevolent Awakening (5/21) - Gate, while a fun card, is not really that great. Yeah, I can nuke an arty during my upkeep, but I have to wait so long to do it. The removal of this card was also part of the reason for the Ula/SH switch. Awakening was tested, and the first game it got played it earned its spot. As such, I'm not upset about this trade. Also, Gate was the weakest card in the deck so this cut was the easiest I've done since its current build.
Testing:
Charcoal Diamond > Jet Medallion - The goal of the deck is to play a few spells on its turn. While the diamond is nice, I'd rather see if the Medallion is better at allowing us some additional castings of things a turn. I like the Medallion as it has come out, only to come back in. This being the second time even as a test.
Shriekmaw > Liliana of the Dark Realms - Shriekmaw is nice but with Gate gone, it feels like the weakest card in the deck. Terror on a body via evoke is nice as I just Phyrexian Reclamation it to do it again. The issue being that my meta has quite a few black decks, so it's not as good. Since we want to play as a big mana deck for explosive turns, why not have Lili get us some swamps. *IF* I happen to get her to Ult (not likely), then a non-saccing Lake of the Dead is nothing to scoff at.
Considering:
Deserted Temple - I like being able to reuse Coffers/Nykthos. This may be going in (added in without testing) after this round of testing.
Lake of the Dead - I love this card. Not sure it belongs in this deck. I do really like that fact that my lands become a sacrificial resource, but I'm not sure I want it in here. This will probably be tested after this round of testing.
Black Market - Moar manaz! See a theme here. The deck is mana intensive when things get going. The problem here is that this is a double edges sword for me. On the one hand the mana allows the deck to do its thing. On the other hand, this card could maybe make the deck become fairly oppressive. This will most likely get tested in the next round of testing.
Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed - My issue is that if I lose my enchantments, the deck has a bit of a struggle. I really like that in this deck Xiahou is easily saccable/recurable. I like him a lot. I can't really come up with a reason to not put him in other than a monetary one. I may test with him since the Judge foils is not all that expensive.
Diabolic Intent - I would like to get my hands on one of these as it would easily replace Cruel Tutor. I don't think I need *another* tutor, but a better one that puts the card into my hand would be nice. 2 mana is the better than the 3 mana as well. Yes I can make a lot of mana, but the deck can chew through that.
So far, those are the changes. Not much was needed at the moment since the deck is rather tight in it's construction. There aren't very many cards that don't do anything to progress me forward. Everything has its place, so any other cuts will be hard.
When Iso said he wanted to help test Obby out in his meta, I packed the deck up and shipped it to him as soon as I could. My meta is soft, while his is not. This was a chance to get Obby out there and see what he can do. The second half of this experiment was to have Iso have no clue how the deck worked. I wanted him to pick it up and play it without any prior knowledge of what it’s supposed to do; I even asked him to not read this thread so as to not spoil anything. Not long after he got the deck he had 2 reports for me:
Those last two lines struck me the most. While the devotion can seem a bit weak, the deck is not meant to draw a big target. I want to look like I'm durdling whilst getting my "machine" going. If I'm draining 10-15 life from each opponent too soon then I'm no longer a non-threat but a target. So I'm rather Ok with that assessment. Another bit that I gathered was it looked like a big mana black deck that durdles instead of wins, even though it won. The titans are in there because they change the game when they stick. Annihilator just wrecks shop with an active Eldrazi.
So, big mana? Check. Nykthos getting 5 mana is odd, but keep in mind, this is only his second time playing the deck so he's making up how its supposed to play as he goes. 60 mana in a turn is nothing to scoff at. Grave Titan doing his thing, pooping out 2/2 zombies and Obby giving some life as well as pooping out 5/5 demons. So it's doing its thing. While it should be obvious, Phyrexian Tower + Skullclamp is a fun interaction I'd not thought about. The observation about Shriekmaw is how I feel about it. I find it more useful than Gate to Phyrexia, but not by much. It is probably the next thing I cut if I find something else to put in its spot. All that manaz and nothing to use it on? Ur doin it rong! In any case, he's been playing it like a big mana deck, which at it's core, it is not. So, the pile feels like a pile of sub-par cards that do nothing other than make manaz and doods. Nothing scary. So, I got what I wanted out of the initial playtests. Now to discuss Phyrexian Altar. It and cards like it will not make their way into Obby. The reason being that I don't want anything in here to be able to go infinite. With the right setup, Altar allows that to occur. With the amount I tutor in this deck, that "right setup" is not hard to pull off.
Brainstorming begins and we bounce ideas off of each other (Iso has yet to see me pilot the deck, thus revealing the combo-y nature of the durdles). Gate to Phyrexia was the first card we really discuss. Option are Viscera Seer, Carrion Feeder, Ob Nixilis, Unshackled, Grave Pact, Dictate of Erebos, Indulgent Tormentor, one-sided wraths, Bitter Ordeal (for Drana shenanigans), Black Market, and a few others. Iso has the following observation for me "It certainly excels at doing nothing until it has the resources for such :p". Which is partially true. I reply "The object is get all your resources and such. Then get the machine, then go off. Incremental gains to not be considered a threat." I've been vague about "the machine" so as to not give anything away as to what the combo really is. He guesses rather close, but leaves out the main tutor that gets the whole thing going, Sidisi, Undead Vizier + Nim Deathmantl. He is able to find a lot of the little complex pieces that i've smattered in the deck as support or win-cons. He decides to pull the deck apart and starts finding weird card choices (Sword of Feast and Famine, Vedalkin Orrey, etc). Seeing someone going through my deck like this makes a small part of me happy. "So yeah, the more I look at the deck, the more I understand how the cards work together. You've obviously put a lot of thought into making this work." A durdly complex deck that really does nothing but build resources.
Tossing Obby into the deep end. Sweet. Mana, mana, mana. So far so good. The most important part is "Yeah, it was a fun game - mostly because it felt like I was constantly on the verge of getting smashed but held on." This is how the deck usually plays out. Keeps your head in the game. Fun to pilot is my main concern. So far, so good.
This is also the point that I let Iso in on the basics of "the machine". Not sure how this will change how the plays the deck, but it's fun to have Obby being piloted by another person. This also gives me time to work on some decks. I'll for sure be posting one later since, like Obby, it will be going through my personal changes to fit my play style.
It seems Anafenza, the Foremost is just bad for us. Still, we have ways around that but it definitely hamstrings the deck. This game, it seems, Obby was the target due to "oh noez all da manaz". Which can happen with newer players not being able to correctly assess the threat. It does show what a deck can do when targeted like that, and Obby, while he lost still, seemed to have held out like he does.
My thoughts: I find this deck to be nearing a place where i can call it complete. I has a focus (get "The Machine" online), it's currently not oppressive, and it is rather fun to pilot. Since it is becoming more and more difficult to cut cards for other cards, I feel that "room for improvement" will only come with cards from new sets. I'm ok with this. I enjoy the deck currently and hope to keep it enjoyable for all parties involved. In any case, I do hope to make more updates as it gets played physically and online. Since this list is tighter than my Selenia list, I'm not personally concentrating on this pile. I may do so when i get it back, but for now I'm ok with watching someone else offer up thoughts on it. Since the list has been out of my hands, I feel that it is becoming a tighter and tighter list (for what I want it to do).
Edit: FYI there was not an M12 Sleep. But it is in M11 and M13 so
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Personal Tutor
1 Ponder
1 Preordain
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Impulse
1 Lim-Dûl's Vault
1 Scroll Rack
1 Cruel Tutor
1 Dack Fayden
1 Rhystic Study
1 Temple Bell
1 Otherworld Atlas
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Consecrated Sphinx
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth and Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind were also in there. The object is to dig as deep as you can with as little mana as possible. Impulse is a nice choice, as is Lim-Dûl's Vault. I also think Spiteful Visions is a bad card. Rhystic Study is fantastic as both a tax and draw. Mind's Eye would be sorta similar, but worth looking into if you want some decent draw.