Haunted Necropolis4
Artifact T, Exile a creature card from your graveyard: Put a 1/1 white and black Spirit creature token with flying onto the battlefield.
Sacrifice five spirits, Sacrifice Haunted Necropolis: Put a 10/10 white and black Spirit creature token with flying and "Whenever this creature becomes the target of a spell or ability, this creature deals 5 damage to target creature or player." named Vengeful Abberation onto the battlefield.
IIW: A card that acts as a win condition when an investment is paid or used with synergy EX. Dark Depths.
Planar Sundering3WR
Sorcery
Destroy all planeswalkers and creatures.
Each player sacrifices 3 lands and Planar Sundering deals 4 damage to you. "I was assisting Ajani in a battle when all of a sudden the plane we were on appeared to shatter right between us..." -Gideon Jura
IIW: Design a card that would be a great addition to standard in the current environment.
Vincent, Lord of the Pit7BBB
Legendary Creature - Demon
Flying, Trample, Deathtouch
At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice two creatures other than Vincent, Lord of the Pit. If you can't, Vincent, Lord of the Pit deals 10 damage to you.
"The last fool who summoned me was unable to unable to pay my debt... His mistake cost him seven years and seven days. What will it cost you?"
7/7
Personally I'm not a fan of midnight haunting. It doesn't do a whole lot in our type of deck. Sure- you can flash it back with snaps but, When your dedicating slots in your sideboard you need something that REALLY devistates them. I've been using Curse of Death's Hold for my limited use SB card and it has done wonders! If you drop it on MBI they have no way of getting rid of it and it causes the only creature you need to worry about then is Skithyrx and Phyrexian Crusader. It effectively shuts down all but 6 creatures in their deck and halves 4 while weakening the other 2.
Midnight Haunting only really delays their game plan or trades/chumps. You also probably need to dedicate 2 or 3 slots to it to ensure that you have one in the game. So even though it is working I think you should re-evaluate it. MBI isn't really our worst match up imo.
Creatures on the battlefield lose all abilities and are 2/2 black zombies.
When a creature dies, exile it.
3, Exile a creature card from your graveyard: Put a 2/2 black zombie token into play. Any player may activate this ability.
"What was originally invented as a cure. Turned into one of the most potent toxins ever developed."
I ran Sheoldred in my list for a long time but, I eventually cut her. In solar flare we only want to run a maximum of 2 7 drops- most I've seen only run 1. This spot falls mostly onto Elesth Norn since she shuts down so many aggro decks and protects you from wolf run's alternate win condition while being a great assault and defense creature. Since aggro is one of our harder matchs Sheoldred will more than likely turn into a less glamorous sac spell or a 3/3 beast. At best she will reanimate a Sun Titan but, she draws more hate than Sun Titan and if your playing her to draw hate you may as well run a better creature that gets value when it hits the field.
Keep Elesth Norn since she acts as a 6/9 wall and a 4/9 attacker that pumps your other attacks as well. Sheoldred also doesn't answer temporary creatures like Inkmoth and Glinthawk or hasters like Skittles. While Elesth Slows or prevents them from even attacking or blocking.
My friend and I played a lot of games in testing this match up and I feel he is a better player than I am. I'm also average or higher skilled myself to most- In our matchs with U/B life totals sometimes became the secondary win condition. With our amount of milling and draw our librarys would always be the weakest part of our defense. Nephilia Drownyard will turn into U/B's greatest weapon so using Ghost Quarter on it when you have 7+ lands is a good idea. Also running a Drownyard yourself is a great way to combat them.
Resolving Liliana will be very difficult to do and sometimes impossible but, against a U/B control player playing her turn 3 isn't a bad idea since you can force pressure on their hand and board at the sametime without feeling threatend by a turn 4 or 5 counter assault with you tapped out. However, keep in mind that if your going to be playing the mill strategy out on them that you need to keep your resources up and know when to allow them to build theirs and when not to. Even though Forbidden Alchemy mills up 4 it is greatly benefital but, try not to cast it more than 5 times otherwise you turn the resource gathering into a negative.
Matchs with U/B: 13 in Total
Wins: 9
Loss: 4
Over 3/4 of my wins were due to mill. This means that we need to win game 1 at all costs since our game 2 will probably be short on time and we have few things to really disrupt them with heavily- Unless you run Surgical Extraction but, even then you can't really disrupt their kill spells and board wipes- only their counters which, may not do as much help as you think.
THE TutorB
Instant
Search your library for a card and put that card on top of your library. Then, shuffle your library. "Where did it go? I could swear it was right here at the top!"
702.32a Flashback appears on some instants and sorceries. It represents two static abilities: one that functions while the card is in a player's graveyard and the other that functions while the card is on the stack. "Flashback [cost]" means "You may cast this card from your graveyard by paying [cost] rather than paying its mana cost" and "If the flashback cost was paid, exile this card instead of putting it anywhere else any time it would leave the stack." Casting a spell using its flashback ability follows the rules for paying alternative costs in rules 601.2b and 601.2e-g.
Yes, Dread Return will always be exiled when it is flashbacked. If it is countered or not makes no difference to the location it ends up in.
Round 1- Red/Black "Spyro Brew"
-Game 1: [Rice Roll- He wins and plays, I mulligan once] From the get go it looked to me like he was playing RDW until he dropped a Dragonskull Summit and played Bump in the Nights and Diregraf Ghouls. He pushs me to 6 life with nobles and ghouls but, Doom Blades, Leaks, and my reanimated Sun Titan turn it to my favor. I eventually punish him and take the game easily.
Sideboarding: -2 Liliana of the Veil, -2 Dissipate, -1 Go For the Throat, -1 Doom Blade, -2 Phantasmal Image, -1 Consecrated Sphinx, +2 Dead Weight, +3 Timely Reinforcements, +2 Spellskite, +1 Celestial Purge, +1 Day of Judgement
-Game 2: [He mulligans once] I keep a very iffy hand of 2x Island, 1x Ghost Quarter, 1x Snapcaster Mage, 2x Timely Reinforcements, 1x Think Twice. It pays off and I hit my plains by turn 3 (as well as having a swamp drop on turn 2) and proceed to take the game into my favor by turn 4 and 5. Never dropped below 15 life and manage to make him deplete his hand without any trouble. I take the game easily from there.
1-0
Round 2- Tempersteel Variant
-Game 1: [Dice Roll- He loses and I play] He drops a turn 1 Signal Pest and Memnite, turn 2 he drops another memnite and Signal Pest. I manage to resolve a turn 4 Elesh Norn on him and then proceed to take the win from there. Even though it was a turn 4 boardwipe+body he managed to get me all the way to 8 life. I'm not looking forward to a second game.
Sideboarding: -2 Liliana of the Veil, -2 Dissipate, -1 Go For the Throat, -1 Doom Blade, -1 Grave Titan, -1 Consecrated Sphinx, +1 Divine Offering, +3 Timely Reinforcements, +2 Dead Weight, +2 Ratchet Bomb
-Game 2: [No Mulligans taken] His plays were much slower this game, getting only a turn 1 Vault Skirge. I Day of Judgement after a few turns to stabilize and cast a timely. He eventually gets a Shrine of Legions and a Hero of Bladehold which I need to content with. I eventually find a ratchet bomb and hold off shrine as well as begin to beat face with my sun titan. Not only that but, it seemed like he top decked a lot of lands also.
2-0
Round 3- UW Illusions
**SPLIT**
For an easy 3 round tournament that I didn't even want to play in I did fairly well going 2-0-1...
I think the thing to look at here are the cards: Forbidden Alchemy and Think Twice With these cards we can mainly search for a land much easier than most decks. I think what most lists do though is they end up cutting a think twice for another land for stability purposes. As I've seen most lists only run 3 think twices and 26 lands. It may be possible to run 4 think twices and only 25 lands but, at the moment I'd rather garuntee that I'm not mana screwed. Late game I think the think twice are definantly better over the land as they cycle for 2 and then still give value at 3 or forbidden lets you dump them and still get value.
Personally I love both- but, I'm also a glutton for utility and variety. Solar Flare allows you more options and can recover better when thrown behind. In my various matches vs U/B control I have commonly won by the simple that that Solar Flare can promote more board pressure and get more value out of their cards than U/B can.
Mainboard:
-1 Victim of Night
-1 Liliana of the Veil
-1 Grave Titan
-1 Swamp
-1 Glacial Fortress
-1 Day of Judgement
+1 Doom Blade
+1 Dissipate
+1 Day of Judgement
+1 Nephalia Drownyard
+1 Think Twice
+1 Snapcaster Mage
Sideboard:
-1 Purify the Grave
-1 Dissipate
-1 Gruesome Encore
-1 Revoke Exsistance
+1 Phantasmal Image
+2 Spellskite
+1 Day of Judgement
Mainboard:
-1 Oblivion Ring
-1 Victim of Night
+1 Doom Blade
+1 Grave Titan
I've run 3 in my list and have had issues in having one or not having one. She works very well with our engine and though not having her out makes me sad- having 4 causes clogging or unnecessary draws. I may actually cut a liliana into the sideboard since the likely hood of bringing her back with sun titan is so much that i could run another useful card or the like.
The first post says that there is only one mythic, and it's from the ALA block. No Sun Titan.
so.... Uril, the Miststalker? Yes- its baseless but- it does have some funny ironic interaction with animate dead... In either case, I'm still on the edge of my seat with the list of whats in this.
Artifact
T, Exile a creature card from your graveyard: Put a 1/1 white and black Spirit creature token with flying onto the battlefield.
Sacrifice five spirits, Sacrifice Haunted Necropolis: Put a 10/10 white and black Spirit creature token with flying and "Whenever this creature becomes the target of a spell or ability, this creature deals 5 damage to target creature or player." named Vengeful Abberation onto the battlefield.
IIW: A card that acts as a win condition when an investment is paid or used with synergy EX. Dark Depths.
Sorcery
Destroy all planeswalkers and creatures.
Each player sacrifices 3 lands and Planar Sundering deals 4 damage to you.
"I was assisting Ajani in a battle when all of a sudden the plane we were on appeared to shatter right between us..." -Gideon Jura
IIW: Design a card that would be a great addition to standard in the current environment.
Legendary Creature - Demon
Flying, Trample, Deathtouch
At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice two creatures other than Vincent, Lord of the Pit. If you can't, Vincent, Lord of the Pit deals 10 damage to you.
"The last fool who summoned me was unable to unable to pay my debt... His mistake cost him seven years and seven days. What will it cost you?"
7/7
Midnight Haunting only really delays their game plan or trades/chumps. You also probably need to dedicate 2 or 3 slots to it to ensure that you have one in the game. So even though it is working I think you should re-evaluate it. MBI isn't really our worst match up imo.
World Enchantment {R}
Creatures on the battlefield lose all abilities and are 2/2 black zombies.
When a creature dies, exile it.
3, Exile a creature card from your graveyard: Put a 2/2 black zombie token into play. Any player may activate this ability.
"What was originally invented as a cure. Turned into one of the most potent toxins ever developed."
IIW: A card with Transfigure.
Keep Elesth Norn since she acts as a 6/9 wall and a 4/9 attacker that pumps your other attacks as well. Sheoldred also doesn't answer temporary creatures like Inkmoth and Glinthawk or hasters like Skittles. While Elesth Slows or prevents them from even attacking or blocking.
Resolving Liliana will be very difficult to do and sometimes impossible but, against a U/B control player playing her turn 3 isn't a bad idea since you can force pressure on their hand and board at the sametime without feeling threatend by a turn 4 or 5 counter assault with you tapped out. However, keep in mind that if your going to be playing the mill strategy out on them that you need to keep your resources up and know when to allow them to build theirs and when not to. Even though Forbidden Alchemy mills up 4 it is greatly benefital but, try not to cast it more than 5 times otherwise you turn the resource gathering into a negative.
Matchs with U/B: 13 in Total
Wins: 9
Loss: 4
Over 3/4 of my wins were due to mill. This means that we need to win game 1 at all costs since our game 2 will probably be short on time and we have few things to really disrupt them with heavily- Unless you run Surgical Extraction but, even then you can't really disrupt their kill spells and board wipes- only their counters which, may not do as much help as you think.
You sir- Made me laugh diabolically outloud...
Moar please!
Yes, Dread Return will always be exiled when it is flashbacked. If it is countered or not makes no difference to the location it ends up in.
3x Darkslick Shore
2x Seachrome Coast
4x Drowned Catacomb
3x Isolated Chapel
3x Glacial Fortress
1x Ghost Quarter
1x Nephalia Drownyard
3x Island
2x Plains
3x Swamp
Creatures:
3x Snapcaster Mage
2x Sun Titan
2x Phantasmal Image
1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1x Rune-Scarred Demon
1x Consecrated Sphinx
1x Grave Titan
2x Liliana of the Veil
Enchantments:
1x Oblivion Ring
Sorceries:
2x Day of Judgement
2x Unburial Rites
Instants:
4x Forbidden Alchemy
4x Think Twice
2x Doom Blade
1x Go For the Throat
4x Mana Leak
2x Dissipate
1x Gideon Jura
1x Curse of Death's Hold
2x Ratchet Bomb
2x Dead Weight
3x Timely Reinforcements
1x Sever the Bloodline
1x Day of Judgement
1x Divine Offering
1x Celestial Purge
2x Spellskite
Round 1- Red/Black "Spyro Brew"
-Game 1: [Rice Roll- He wins and plays, I mulligan once] From the get go it looked to me like he was playing RDW until he dropped a Dragonskull Summit and played Bump in the Nights and Diregraf Ghouls. He pushs me to 6 life with nobles and ghouls but, Doom Blades, Leaks, and my reanimated Sun Titan turn it to my favor. I eventually punish him and take the game easily.
Sideboarding: -2 Liliana of the Veil, -2 Dissipate, -1 Go For the Throat, -1 Doom Blade, -2 Phantasmal Image, -1 Consecrated Sphinx, +2 Dead Weight, +3 Timely Reinforcements, +2 Spellskite, +1 Celestial Purge, +1 Day of Judgement
-Game 2: [He mulligans once] I keep a very iffy hand of 2x Island, 1x Ghost Quarter, 1x Snapcaster Mage, 2x Timely Reinforcements, 1x Think Twice. It pays off and I hit my plains by turn 3 (as well as having a swamp drop on turn 2) and proceed to take the game into my favor by turn 4 and 5. Never dropped below 15 life and manage to make him deplete his hand without any trouble. I take the game easily from there.
1-0
Round 2- Tempersteel Variant
-Game 1: [Dice Roll- He loses and I play] He drops a turn 1 Signal Pest and Memnite, turn 2 he drops another memnite and Signal Pest. I manage to resolve a turn 4 Elesh Norn on him and then proceed to take the win from there. Even though it was a turn 4 boardwipe+body he managed to get me all the way to 8 life. I'm not looking forward to a second game.
Sideboarding: -2 Liliana of the Veil, -2 Dissipate, -1 Go For the Throat, -1 Doom Blade, -1 Grave Titan, -1 Consecrated Sphinx, +1 Divine Offering, +3 Timely Reinforcements, +2 Dead Weight, +2 Ratchet Bomb
-Game 2: [No Mulligans taken] His plays were much slower this game, getting only a turn 1 Vault Skirge. I Day of Judgement after a few turns to stabilize and cast a timely. He eventually gets a Shrine of Legions and a Hero of Bladehold which I need to content with. I eventually find a ratchet bomb and hold off shrine as well as begin to beat face with my sun titan. Not only that but, it seemed like he top decked a lot of lands also.
2-0
Round 3- UW Illusions
**SPLIT**
For an easy 3 round tournament that I didn't even want to play in I did fairly well going 2-0-1...
3x Darkslick Shore
2x Seachrome Coast
4x Drowned Catacomb
3x Isolated Chapel
3x Glacial Fortress
1x Ghost Quarter
1x Nephalia Drownyard
5x Island
2x Plains
2x Swamp
Creatures:
3x Snapcaster Mage
1x Sun Titan
1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1x Wurmcoil Engine
2x Grave Titan
2x Liliana of the Veil
Enchantments:
2x Oblivion Ring
Sorceries:
3x Day of Judgement
2x Unburial Rites
Instants:
4x Forbidden Alchemy
4x Think Twice
1x Doom Blade
1x Dismember
1x Go For the Throat
4x Mana Leak
2x Dissipate
1x Gideon Jura
1x Curse of Death's Hold
1x Nephilia Drownyard
1x Dead Weight
3x Timely Reinforcements
1x Phantasmal Image
1x Negate
1x Divine Offering
2x Flashfreeze
2x Spellskite
1x Disperse
Deck Made: 11/10/11
Update Changes:
-1 Victim of Night
-1 Liliana of the Veil
-1 Grave Titan
-1 Swamp
-1 Glacial Fortress
-1 Day of Judgement
+1 Doom Blade
+1 Dissipate
+1 Day of Judgement
+1 Nephalia Drownyard
+1 Think Twice
+1 Snapcaster Mage
Sideboard:
-1 Purify the Grave
-1 Dissipate
-1 Gruesome Encore
-1 Revoke Exsistance
+1 Phantasmal Image
+2 Spellskite
+1 Day of Judgement
Mainboard:
-1 Oblivion Ring
-1 Victim of Night
+1 Doom Blade
+1 Grave Titan
Sideboard:
-1 Phantasmal Image
-1 Revoke Existence
+1 Divine Offering
+1 Celestial Purge
Mainboard:
-1 Grave Titan
+1 Snapcaster Mage
Mainboard:
-1 Snapcaster Mage
-1 Rune-scarred Demon
-1 Phantasmal Image
-1 Doom Blade
+1 Day of Judgement
+1 Dismember
+1 Unburial Rites
+1 Grave Titan
Sideboard:
-1 Day of Judgement
+1 Negate
Mainboard:
-1 Phantasmal Image
-1 Unburial Rites
-1 Swamp
+2 Island
+1 Oblivion Ring
Sideboard:
-1 Ratchet Bomb
-1 Sever the Bloodline
+1 Phantasmal Image
+1 Disperse
Mainboard:
-1 Concecrated Sphinx
-1 Sun Titan
+1 Wurmcoil Engine
+1 Grave Titan
Sideboard:
-1 Dead Weight
+1 Nephilia Drownyard
Sideboard:
-1 Ratchet Bomb
-1 Celestial Purge
+2 Flashfreeze
so.... Uril, the Miststalker? Yes- its baseless but- it does have some funny ironic interaction with animate dead... In either case, I'm still on the edge of my seat with the list of whats in this.