1st place - 20 entries. Online tournament: 6 - 0 - 1 (12 - 3)
5th place - 29 entries. FNM: 3 - 1 (7 - 2)
1st place - 14 entries. TNM: 3 - 0 (6 - 2)
5th place - 29 entries. FNM: 3 - 1 (7 - 2)
1st place - 14 entries. TNM: 3 - 0 (6 - 2)
So here's the deck I've fallen in love with. I've taken flak a lot already for not having JtMS in the list...or Primeval Titan, but I'll have my reasoning below.
First off, the deck is based around an amazing card that is the reason for its name, and function:
Obviously quite a powerful card. 5 damage to each creature, and each player sacrifices 5 lands? Usually it will clear the board, and reset manabases...but an equal Force is not what we want. We need to abuse this in some way so that it gives US the advantage. Thus:
Garruk, a bunch of other ramp and you have a great way of gaining a land advantage over your opponent before you drop that big deuce on their chest. But, what's the point of that if you don't have some way of finishing the game? It's important that you have a wincon (or multiple) and that those wincons can survive a Force or they're kind of useless!
Remember them Titans? Frost titan is the perfect finisher for this deck, and Inferno Titan isn't so bad himself. With those two together (a 4 - 2 split) you have enough finishers that even if you lose one you should be able to get one to stick before forcing your opponent out of the game. Then throw in a few card draw spells, some counters, and some burn...voila! You have an awesome deck.
DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards | ||
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Planeswalker 3x Garruk Wildspeaker Creatures 4x Frost Titan 2x Inferno Titan 2x Sylvan Ranger Spells 4x Mana Leak 4x Foresee 2x Into the Roil 4x Explore 4x Cultivate 3x Destructive Force 3x Lightning Bolt | Land 6x Island 1x Halimar Depths 6x Mountain 3x Raging Ravine 5x Forest 1x Khalni Garden 2x Terramorphic Expanse 1x Mystifying Maze | Sideboard 2x Volition Reins 4x Negate 4x Pyroclasm 3x Obstinate Baloth 2x Naturalize |
Alright, so like I said before I get flak for not running Jace or Primeval. Most people just assume it's a budgetary decision, but it's not. My reasoning for not using Jace is that the deck itself lacks the ability to actually protect Jace and you'll see that in a lot of the top match-ups pros end up siding Jace out anyway! So in a first round match-up I will 90% of the time find Foresee to be more useful because it allows you to dig a potential 6 cards deep. That's huge. Used the right way it can land you that needed threat before a D-Force, the bolt you were looking for, or the D-Force you need to wrap the game up. I just think it's invaluable.
Next is the Primeval Titan. What place does it really have in this deck? I understand that dropping it at 6 mana and then dropping D-Force the next turn is pretty badass. But most of the time you should be able to drop a 6 mana threat and then D-Force anyway. Frost Titan is just much, much better as a finisher for this deck. It's harder to remove, it taps down opposing lands if they have any left, or creatures if necessary. In any case that you have a Primeval down for this deck I would almost always rather have the Frost Titan.
So those are my two main changes from the 'typical' D-Force decks. However, I also can't decide between Rampant Growth and Sylvan Ranger. Ranger offers a chump blocker when necessary and helps make Explore better (as well as fixing, blah blah). Unfortunately the land goes to your hand and not to the field so it's slightly slower.
JtMS isn't just good because of his abilities either; keeping another Jace off the field is worth not digging 3 cards deeper a lot of times - those 4 mana leak probably won't save you from some mind sculpting, especially if you're spending the first few turns ramping.
I run them as 1 ofs because they aren't 'necessary' but they're ok to get. I was thinking about raising the Khalni Garden count to 2, and the Halimar Depths count to 2...but I'm a little hesitant. I do run 3 Raging Ravines now because it's another wincon. Thing is that I prefer to have lands that don't CIPT.
Anyway I'll probably be running this list for a while yet until the metgame settles and we know what we're dealing with. It's still going strong.
Never seen them used as 1-ofs without KoTR or Primeval Titan. I'm running your list with Fetches instead of those pretty much.
4x misty rainforest
2x scalding tarn
Because shuffling your deck doesn't guarantee that you are going to be changing the cards that you look at. You still have the same number of lands, and whatnot. Also, you are relying on other cards to make Jace's brainstorm better. Even assuming that Jace gets the shuffle mechanic in, it takes him 2 turns at least to do what Foresee does in one. Even still, 6 cards in 1 shot is better than what Jace can do in 2+ especially since by the time you play Foresee chances are that you've already done some thinning of the deck yourself. I run 6 Titans and 4 Destructive forces. The chances of my not running into one of them with a Foresee is very slim. By the time I've run Foresee I've gone through at least 10 cards, and a 1/5 chance is not a bad one (not to mention the chance of hitting another foresee to do the same thing the next turn.)
I agree on the Inferno Titan. Primeval is better for the right deck, but this isn't it. It kills threats after a D-force that Primeval titan cannot. Two lands are great after you blow all the lands away, but to clear the room of any big threat is just amazing.
I guess I was just trying to justify not having Jace by saying I couldn't really protect it -- but the reality is that I just think Foresee is a better fit for the deck. Digging 6 cards deep is nothing to scoff at, and I think Foresee as a card is generally undervalued.
Again, Inferno Titan just seems to me like the better option post DForce as a finisher than Primeval, he also helps a lot against aggro, and kills faster than any other Titan. The problem with Primeval is that I just don't see it being needed. If you throw a DForce you should already be in a position where you can ramp back up on your own, have Garruk out, or have a finisher like Frost/Inferno...and in that case Frost/Inferno both get the job done better than Primeval. What do you need the land for when you should be swinging for the kill? Nothing should be able to out-ramp you minus Valakut, and they don't have the removal for your Titans so you should always have something sticking before DForcing. Not to mention Inferno can make the difference between an opponent's creature surviving a Force and not surviving when it attacks post Force.
Also my only change post Scars so far is to insert 4x Naturalize somewhere in my sideboard, 3x Pyroclasm, and change my distribution to 2x Sylvan Ranger and 4x Explore.
You could easily protect jace in this build, but he isn't needed in it really, foresee is the better card for this deck.
Makes perfect sense.