hey guys, just want to share my take of cruel control - a cross with the UBx Tezz deck. The main game is Cruel Ultimatum, then switch in Tezz/Spellskite in sideboard game. It can also be the other way around.
Now this is probably a cute deck rather than an optimum deck. However simply casting instant then flashback with Snappy plus Vendillion disruption no longer suit my fancy, as I already have UB Fea, UW, and UR delver deck. I wanted something completely different in this deck. The trinket toolbox version in the primer instantly caught my eyes, and I always wanted a deck for Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas outside Affinity. And I strongly dislike the durdling version in UBx.
The result is this hybrid Cruel/Tezz/Trinket deck, in this deck I want more sorcery speed tools to control the games, while retaining some traditional control spells. The deck has a lot of decision points during the game, with knobs and switches you have to figure out the right way to operate. You will notice there are some walkers that are considered "weak" here, however each of them gains incremental advantage that turn the game in your favor subtly. Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver, the walker that is "too weak even in standard" is such an awesome card in this deck. This past weekend, Ashiok won me 1 games and another I could have won if I didn't get greedy with him/her (should've reanimate the Geist when I could against UWR).
I hope this can give people who enjoy the trinket version of the Cruel Control some ideas to tweak in their own version. You may not win as many games as when playing Tier 1 deck, but you will sure enjoying piloting this.
So the long tradition of Minotaur beating in MTG continues.
I love the concept of these mini-game decks, even though the Hydra deck wasn't fun as I hoped.
You can do so much of customization/house rules to create local casual formats with these.
I was given a Hydra deck free by my LGS, they don't even try to sell it as a product saying no one really care for it.
I play against it a few times, it is allright, no super fun the way it is currently.
The thing is there are so many mechanisms that does't work too well with Hydra, like drain life, burn to face, discard, counters, so only removal and creature cards are effective at dealing with Hydra, and you creature don't die except just that one mass Assassinate card. So you are limited to just one style of play and that is beats. The strategy is stablize then overwhelm, the game gets very monotonous quickly.
But I think the concept is great and has great potentials as a casual variant, with plenty of room for players customizing their own rule and playstyle.
If the hydra is given some "intelligence" and "choice", it would really spice up the game. Let the Hydra controller gets to interact rather than just flip the cards. For example, beside the initial 2-3 heads, the Hydra also get a starting hand. Whenever the top card of hydra is flipped over, if the Hydra does't like what it sees, it can substitute one card from its hand for the top card. This will turn the game in the Hydra's favor greatly, however, since the Hydra don't draw cards, only slowing use up the hand, it needs to ration its few chance of altering the game, use it wisely and only when it creates greatest impact.
Can some tell me is Hydra game just for Theros expansion or will there be subsequent challanges in the next two expansion as well?
hey, guys, just built this deck because I miss the feel of playing UW Delver in standard, and that UR Delver is my primary legacy deck after all.
A few thoughts about UR tempo decks in general first:
Creatures: it seems so far, there are two suites of creatures, one with Spellstutter Sprite, one with Young Pyromancer, and it is always either or among these two, with Pyromancer built having more Phyrexian spells.
Land count: It seems the land count varies quite a bit, from 19 to 23 lands.
I originally tried the Spellsutter built, found myself really not liking Mutavault. Activating Mutavault with the sprite to counter something some times results in two for one in the opponents favor, I hate that!:mad: Not to mention the weakened manabase.
Another thing I noticed when playing the sprite version was that I feel the creature counts is a little low, some times after my opponents manage to kill my earlier creatures, I have no more consistant output.
Here's a hybrid list I am playing now, mixing Spellstutter and Pyromancer together. The trade-off is a slightly reduced number of instant/sorceries from 26-27 range to 22, still a good third of the deck though.
No Pyrexian spells, if they kill Pyromancer the turn I tap out for it, so be it. Just like having a confidante killed the turn you play it, at least you trade 1-for-1 for their removal. And I doubt I will tap out for Pyromancer often. If they don't though, you probably will gain some token next turn. The consistant weapon carrier feels too good for me to pass. No mutavault, I am content with sprite being a two mana Mental Misstep.
I have no strong opinion on the weapons, picking the pike for reasons of tempo and raw beat power, neither BW nor UR sword on a 1/1 can fend off Gofy, only Pike can.
Please let me know what you think, especially combining the sprite and pyromancer.
This deck is a lot fun. I had it built since it was in T2. Although I never used it in any competitions, I never took it apart like other T2 decks either, improving upon it as one of the "pet deck".
Puresteel Paladin really gave the deck more late game, with card advantage and free equip.
I would suggest try to fit more artifacts (both creature and equipments) to better help the metalcrafty knight. Like Flayer Husk, which is a weak card by itself but just like 0 cost creatures, it makes the deck run more smoothly.(enabling metalcraft, occassional card draw, carry equipments..)
You may also consider Apostle's Blessing, in this deck, I often find the equipments more worthy of protection than creatures, the mother only does half of the job.
I don't think this deck is competitive, doesn't mean you can't win a game or two against some tier 1 decks (EDIT: tier 1 "fair" decks, that is). It just doesn't have the consistancy and good match-up ratios to win you enough to place.
New characters are fine, but Wizards should've have done a better job fleshing out these characters. For how special the walkers are, should they have some relevence to the block story?
I haven't been following the storyline as closely after SOM block, but the new walkers had negligible role in the story.
If you look back at SOM block walkers, Koth, Elspeth, Vensor, Karn, they are the protagonist of the story.
Even Tezzeret had a run-in with Glissa at least.
So what did Tibalt and Tamiyo do in their block? (Tibalt LEFT the plane in a hurry, and Tamiyo is just a tourist?) What did Ral Zarek and the gorgon walker do in Ravnica? ANYTHING? They may as well having a walker called Regular Joe, and give him a brief description that he has a loving wife and 3 beautiful children...
Regular Joe, Citizen of this plane
Cost 1W
Loyalty 2
+1 Put Joe's new 0/1 baby on the battlefield;
-1 Joe becomes a 2/2 human with haste;
Come on, Wizards, give the walkers a harder try storywise.
They didn't print them because of how overpowered they were during the original mirrodin block. Some people thought they might print artifact lands in scars a la coastal tower with the artifact type but that didn't happen. Probably made metalcraft 'too good' as well although as things stood then metalcraft was pretty bad.
Interesting, metalcraft was so bad, perhaps having made such land would be what would have made it just good enough to support some contructed decks.
No love for RUG Twin-Pod? that emerged toward the end of the season.
With the help of bird, EOT Exarch, 3rd turn combo win...so awesome. Loved the double-barrel feel of the deck.
Sorry for being semi off-topic, But yes, pod is an awesome design, an standard deck with an EDH feel to it.
I identify with Grixis the most, although I don't really have a Grixis deck. It's strange that of 40+ decks I own, I don't have even one deck with the shard I like.(unless you consider Affinity grixis...)
It's another set under NWO, the flavor and initial spoiler get people all excited, by the time all the limited fodder come out, it becomes all the same.
Now this is probably a cute deck rather than an optimum deck. However simply casting instant then flashback with Snappy plus Vendillion disruption no longer suit my fancy, as I already have UB Fea, UW, and UR delver deck. I wanted something completely different in this deck. The trinket toolbox version in the primer instantly caught my eyes, and I always wanted a deck for Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas outside Affinity. And I strongly dislike the durdling version in UBx.
The result is this hybrid Cruel/Tezz/Trinket deck, in this deck I want more sorcery speed tools to control the games, while retaining some traditional control spells. The deck has a lot of decision points during the game, with knobs and switches you have to figure out the right way to operate. You will notice there are some walkers that are considered "weak" here, however each of them gains incremental advantage that turn the game in your favor subtly. Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver, the walker that is "too weak even in standard" is such an awesome card in this deck. This past weekend, Ashiok won me 1 games and another I could have won if I didn't get greedy with him/her (should've reanimate the Geist when I could against UWR).
I hope this can give people who enjoy the trinket version of the Cruel Control some ideas to tweak in their own version. You may not win as many games as when playing Tier 1 deck, but you will sure enjoying piloting this.
3 Trinket Mage
Planeswalkers (5)
2 Jace Beleren
3 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
Sorceries (7)
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Thoughtseize
2 Cruel Ultimatum
2 Damnation
1 Dreadbore
Instants (13)
4 Mana Leak
2 Negate
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Hero's Downfall
1 Terminate
1 Devour Flesh
Artifacts (6)
1 Batterskull
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Pithing Needle
1 Executioner's Capsule
1 Nihil's Spellbomb
4 Darkslick Shores
2 Blackcleave Cliffs
2 Watery Grave
2 Steam Vents
1 Bloodcrypt
2 Drowned Catacomb
1 Dragonskull Summit
3 Creeping Tarpit
2 Lavaclaw Reaches
2 Swamp
2 Island
1 Inkmoth Nexus
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Dreadship Reef
1 Torpor Orb
1 Elixir of Immortality
2 Rakdos Charm
2 Slaughter Games
1 Grafdigger's Cage
3 Spellskite
3 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
2 Pyroclasm
Can't believe you left out City of Ass, shame on you!
I love the concept of these mini-game decks, even though the Hydra deck wasn't fun as I hoped.
You can do so much of customization/house rules to create local casual formats with these.
I play against it a few times, it is allright, no super fun the way it is currently.
The thing is there are so many mechanisms that does't work too well with Hydra, like drain life, burn to face, discard, counters, so only removal and creature cards are effective at dealing with Hydra, and you creature don't die except just that one mass Assassinate card. So you are limited to just one style of play and that is beats. The strategy is stablize then overwhelm, the game gets very monotonous quickly.
But I think the concept is great and has great potentials as a casual variant, with plenty of room for players customizing their own rule and playstyle.
If the hydra is given some "intelligence" and "choice", it would really spice up the game. Let the Hydra controller gets to interact rather than just flip the cards. For example, beside the initial 2-3 heads, the Hydra also get a starting hand. Whenever the top card of hydra is flipped over, if the Hydra does't like what it sees, it can substitute one card from its hand for the top card. This will turn the game in the Hydra's favor greatly, however, since the Hydra don't draw cards, only slowing use up the hand, it needs to ration its few chance of altering the game, use it wisely and only when it creates greatest impact.
Can some tell me is Hydra game just for Theros expansion or will there be subsequent challanges in the next two expansion as well?
A few thoughts about UR tempo decks in general first:
Creatures: it seems so far, there are two suites of creatures, one with Spellstutter Sprite, one with Young Pyromancer, and it is always either or among these two, with Pyromancer built having more Phyrexian spells.
Land count: It seems the land count varies quite a bit, from 19 to 23 lands.
I originally tried the Spellsutter built, found myself really not liking Mutavault. Activating Mutavault with the sprite to counter something some times results in two for one in the opponents favor, I hate that!:mad: Not to mention the weakened manabase.
Another thing I noticed when playing the sprite version was that I feel the creature counts is a little low, some times after my opponents manage to kill my earlier creatures, I have no more consistant output.
Here's a hybrid list I am playing now, mixing Spellstutter and Pyromancer together. The trade-off is a slightly reduced number of instant/sorceries from 26-27 range to 22, still a good third of the deck though.
No Pyrexian spells, if they kill Pyromancer the turn I tap out for it, so be it. Just like having a confidante killed the turn you play it, at least you trade 1-for-1 for their removal. And I doubt I will tap out for Pyromancer often. If they don't though, you probably will gain some token next turn. The consistant weapon carrier feels too good for me to pass. No mutavault, I am content with sprite being a two mana Mental Misstep.
I have no strong opinion on the weapons, picking the pike for reasons of tempo and raw beat power, neither BW nor UR sword on a 1/1 can fend off Gofy, only Pike can.
Please let me know what you think, especially combining the sprite and pyromancer.
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Young Pyromancer
1 Vendilion Clique
Artifact(1)
1 Runechanter's Pike
Instant(22)
4 Mana Leak
4 Remand
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Spell Snare
2 Magma Jet
2 Electrolyze
1 Burst Lightning
1 Spell Pierce
1 Echoing Truth
3 Scalding Tarns
3 Misty Rainforest
3 Steam Vents
1 Breeding Pool
2 Sulfur Falls
6 Island
2 Mountain
2 Negate
2 Hibernation
2 Firesprout
1 Pillar of Flame
1 Magma Spray
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Combust
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Dismember
1 Surgical Extraction
Puresteel Paladin really gave the deck more late game, with card advantage and free equip.
I would suggest try to fit more artifacts (both creature and equipments) to better help the metalcrafty knight. Like Flayer Husk, which is a weak card by itself but just like 0 cost creatures, it makes the deck run more smoothly.(enabling metalcraft, occassional card draw, carry equipments..)
You may also consider Apostle's Blessing, in this deck, I often find the equipments more worthy of protection than creatures, the mother only does half of the job.
I don't think this deck is competitive, doesn't mean you can't win a game or two against some tier 1 decks (EDIT: tier 1 "fair" decks, that is). It just doesn't have the consistancy and good match-up ratios to win you enough to place.
I haven't been following the storyline as closely after SOM block, but the new walkers had negligible role in the story.
If you look back at SOM block walkers, Koth, Elspeth, Vensor, Karn, they are the protagonist of the story.
Even Tezzeret had a run-in with Glissa at least.
So what did Tibalt and Tamiyo do in their block? (Tibalt LEFT the plane in a hurry, and Tamiyo is just a tourist?) What did Ral Zarek and the gorgon walker do in Ravnica? ANYTHING? They may as well having a walker called Regular Joe, and give him a brief description that he has a loving wife and 3 beautiful children...
Regular Joe, Citizen of this plane
Cost 1W
Loyalty 2
+1 Put Joe's new 0/1 baby on the battlefield;
-1 Joe becomes a 2/2 human with haste;
Come on, Wizards, give the walkers a harder try storywise.
Interesting, metalcraft was so bad, perhaps having made such land would be what would have made it just good enough to support some contructed decks.
With the help of bird, EOT Exarch, 3rd turn combo win...so awesome. Loved the double-barrel feel of the deck.
Sorry for being semi off-topic, But yes, pod is an awesome design, an standard deck with an EDH feel to it.