frogboy
10-05-2008, 04:15 PM
Deck:
4 Brainstorm
3 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Gifts Ungiven
3 Intuition
1 Raven's Crime
1 Life from the Loam
3 Smother
1 Shriekmaw
3 Pernicious Deed
1 Engineered Explosives
4 Counterbalance
4 Force of Will
3 Demigod of Revenge
4 Tarmogoyf
1 Lonely Sandbar
2 Island
1 Swamp
3 Underground Sea
4 Tropical Island
4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Academy Ruins
1 Wasteland
3 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
SB:
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Tormod's Crypt
4 Blue Elemental Blast
3 Thoughtseize
2 Krosan Grip
This is the product of me and Anusien talking in IRC. I was pretty enthralled by the interaction of Intuition and Demigod, so I had him make me a deck that used it. We brainstormed a few times over a few weeks and ended up with this. He tested it a bit and we tweaked it further. I played a couple games with it and added a land.
As for that list, Anusien likes a Shackles over the third Deed. I don't think that's right given all the nonIslands you want to have in play, and thought about playing Damnation instead, but elected to go with the sweeper that also gets Counterbalance.
Gifts seems like it could be really awesome but it's probably better as Intuition #4. Breeding Pool over Trop #4 is probably a fine idea, but I couldn't be bothered to try to obtain one. Maindecking a Crypt is probably a good idea if you expect a lot of blue Loam control mirrors. Krosan Reclamation was also suggested by a friend of mine.
Essentially, most of the Counterbalance control decks have a long game that revolves around Counterbalance and removal. I've always considered that to be a little awkward, because when you say "let's make this about Counterbalance" and your opponent boards in a bunch of Grips, you might accidentally get blown out.
This attempts to address that by being a board control deck until the last stages of the midgame, at which point you have the ability to switch gears and come over for fifteen flying haste. This is particularly good against decks like Goblins, where the ground tends to stall, but is mostly a function of wanting to be more proactive in the long game.
Raven's Crime is pretty retarded, incidentally.
The matchups are pretty similar to ITF, although I think Demigods and Crime gives you an edge in game one loam-counterbalance mirrors. I haven't actually tested, though; I just really wanted to cast Intution for Demigods and wasn't concerned about particulars. I mean, if I tested and the deck sucked, how would I attack for fifteen?! Round one was playtesting. Speaking of which:
Round 1: Colin, UGR Thresh
Game one: He Snares my Counterbalance, I kill all his guys, he plays Fledgling Dragon, I play Demigod and get that going with Stronghold and Shriekmaw.
Game two: I punt by discarding fetchlands to Crime him so that I can hit drops around Stifle and then can't shuffle for Top while he beats me up with Nimble Mongoose and I have infinite lands :(
Game three: I make like fifteen million mistakes both tactically and strategically, but I kill all of his guys and then kill him anyway.
Round two: Kasey, mono black aggro
Game one: He sixes himself with Dark Confidant. At the end of his turn four, I Intuition for Demigods, untap, and fifteen him.
flexxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Game two: He runs out Carnophage + Rack and Hymns me a bunch. I draw a lot of land and die.
Game three: Pretty much the same as game two, except this time I had Top going and so it was a little more embarrassing to see twelve cards and only get one spell.
Round three: Painter
Game one: He goes all in on the combo and I Smother his Painter, untap, play Deed with one up, and start mashing him with Tarmogoyfs.
Game two: He as a turn two kill. I Brainstorm, draw my only remaining Force of Will* and a blue card, and counter it. Next turn he goes for it with a second Painter, and I Grip it. Then I play a Deed and show him a Demigod.
*they got boarded out for Thoughtseize because my blue cards are all sort of necessary for winning and I had to leave my clock and smothers in.
Round four: Giles, VoroshStill
Game one: I have Counterbalance/Top with an extra Counterbalance for his first EE. He eventually kills the second one, too, but I get him with:
<frogboy> Demigod
<giles> counterspell
<frogboy> trigger, five?
Game two: He has Top and I don't, but I have Intuition and hit on blind Counterbalance to resolve it through a Counterspell. I'm set up to rape him with Loam/Crime when I dredge into a Demigod with another one in my hand (!!!!!) and so instead of being potentially kold to Extirpate I go ahead and run out ten power and get there.
It's pretty hard to convey with words just how sick it is to dredge a demigod. Let's just say it would be socially awkward to stand up during the immediate aftermath of that.
Round five: ID
Quarters: Tosh, ITF variant
Game one: We both resolve Intuitions and get our engines going, but he got to Ruins first and has a Shackles in play. I Waste his Ruins to establish my own, and he puts Oracle on top. I Twist him with Raven's Crime and Wasteland my Urborg that is his only source of black. He can only get Oracle for three. I untap, get back Ruins, play it, Deed his board, and pass. He starts Loaming again, but I dredged a Demigod a while previously and had been holding one since he played his Shackles, so I Twist him again and ten him twice.
Game two:
cliffs notes: I spend about thirty minutes getting blown out the entire game.
<tosh> land go
<frogboy> land go
<tosh> wasteland
<frogboy, confused> land go
<tosh> loam
<frogboy> ...oh.
One of those days.
And he had Crypt, so the fact that I had rawdogged Loam wasn't helpful either. I pretty much lost this game by missing my third (fifth) drop to Grip his Crypt and start Loaming, but by the time I got there he had Counterbalance/Top going. It took him about thirty minutes to kill me because his win conditions didn't show up, but my only real out was him punting via fatigue. (it was like 2:30 at this point) Almost got him with Demigod trigger, but he remembered his Crypt :(.
Game three: He mulligans, I Seize him, play a Goyf, bash him around with that a bit. He has Crypt but no real action other than Plowing my Goyf once he's at nine. I Intuition up some dragons and run one out there. He Crypts two of them, but the third one kills him anyway.
Semis: Colin, UGR Thresh. Same guy from round one.
Game one: He goes Werebear, Goyf, Goyf. I have my own Goyf and Deed the board. He goes Fledgling Dragon. I play Demigod. He plays another Goyf (...) and I peel lands and die.
Game two: Very similar to game one; I get him on no board no cards. He draws Mongoose, I kill it with Deed and set up for Demigod next turn. He draws a 6/7 Goyf. It's embarrassing when your five drop is outclassed by their two, so I shuffle and try to blind Counterbalance. Miss. Top into lands, shuffle, Top into lands, concede.
Deck is a) good and b) awesome. everyone should get to experience the feeling of Intuitioning for Demigods at least once.
props: Volt and AngryTroll, for the ride there.
Erik Wong and crew, for the ride back.
Volt, AngryTroll, Tosh, and anyone else I borrowed cards from. Ship addresses so I can get them back to y'all.
Mind Shatter, for crushing AngryTroll's spirit in Highlander.
slops: the tournament, for starting at 8:30 and ending at 3:30.
4 Brainstorm
3 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Gifts Ungiven
3 Intuition
1 Raven's Crime
1 Life from the Loam
3 Smother
1 Shriekmaw
3 Pernicious Deed
1 Engineered Explosives
4 Counterbalance
4 Force of Will
3 Demigod of Revenge
4 Tarmogoyf
1 Lonely Sandbar
2 Island
1 Swamp
3 Underground Sea
4 Tropical Island
4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Academy Ruins
1 Wasteland
3 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
SB:
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Tormod's Crypt
4 Blue Elemental Blast
3 Thoughtseize
2 Krosan Grip
This is the product of me and Anusien talking in IRC. I was pretty enthralled by the interaction of Intuition and Demigod, so I had him make me a deck that used it. We brainstormed a few times over a few weeks and ended up with this. He tested it a bit and we tweaked it further. I played a couple games with it and added a land.
As for that list, Anusien likes a Shackles over the third Deed. I don't think that's right given all the nonIslands you want to have in play, and thought about playing Damnation instead, but elected to go with the sweeper that also gets Counterbalance.
Gifts seems like it could be really awesome but it's probably better as Intuition #4. Breeding Pool over Trop #4 is probably a fine idea, but I couldn't be bothered to try to obtain one. Maindecking a Crypt is probably a good idea if you expect a lot of blue Loam control mirrors. Krosan Reclamation was also suggested by a friend of mine.
Essentially, most of the Counterbalance control decks have a long game that revolves around Counterbalance and removal. I've always considered that to be a little awkward, because when you say "let's make this about Counterbalance" and your opponent boards in a bunch of Grips, you might accidentally get blown out.
This attempts to address that by being a board control deck until the last stages of the midgame, at which point you have the ability to switch gears and come over for fifteen flying haste. This is particularly good against decks like Goblins, where the ground tends to stall, but is mostly a function of wanting to be more proactive in the long game.
Raven's Crime is pretty retarded, incidentally.
The matchups are pretty similar to ITF, although I think Demigods and Crime gives you an edge in game one loam-counterbalance mirrors. I haven't actually tested, though; I just really wanted to cast Intution for Demigods and wasn't concerned about particulars. I mean, if I tested and the deck sucked, how would I attack for fifteen?! Round one was playtesting. Speaking of which:
Round 1: Colin, UGR Thresh
Game one: He Snares my Counterbalance, I kill all his guys, he plays Fledgling Dragon, I play Demigod and get that going with Stronghold and Shriekmaw.
Game two: I punt by discarding fetchlands to Crime him so that I can hit drops around Stifle and then can't shuffle for Top while he beats me up with Nimble Mongoose and I have infinite lands :(
Game three: I make like fifteen million mistakes both tactically and strategically, but I kill all of his guys and then kill him anyway.
Round two: Kasey, mono black aggro
Game one: He sixes himself with Dark Confidant. At the end of his turn four, I Intuition for Demigods, untap, and fifteen him.
flexxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Game two: He runs out Carnophage + Rack and Hymns me a bunch. I draw a lot of land and die.
Game three: Pretty much the same as game two, except this time I had Top going and so it was a little more embarrassing to see twelve cards and only get one spell.
Round three: Painter
Game one: He goes all in on the combo and I Smother his Painter, untap, play Deed with one up, and start mashing him with Tarmogoyfs.
Game two: He as a turn two kill. I Brainstorm, draw my only remaining Force of Will* and a blue card, and counter it. Next turn he goes for it with a second Painter, and I Grip it. Then I play a Deed and show him a Demigod.
*they got boarded out for Thoughtseize because my blue cards are all sort of necessary for winning and I had to leave my clock and smothers in.
Round four: Giles, VoroshStill
Game one: I have Counterbalance/Top with an extra Counterbalance for his first EE. He eventually kills the second one, too, but I get him with:
<frogboy> Demigod
<giles> counterspell
<frogboy> trigger, five?
Game two: He has Top and I don't, but I have Intuition and hit on blind Counterbalance to resolve it through a Counterspell. I'm set up to rape him with Loam/Crime when I dredge into a Demigod with another one in my hand (!!!!!) and so instead of being potentially kold to Extirpate I go ahead and run out ten power and get there.
It's pretty hard to convey with words just how sick it is to dredge a demigod. Let's just say it would be socially awkward to stand up during the immediate aftermath of that.
Round five: ID
Quarters: Tosh, ITF variant
Game one: We both resolve Intuitions and get our engines going, but he got to Ruins first and has a Shackles in play. I Waste his Ruins to establish my own, and he puts Oracle on top. I Twist him with Raven's Crime and Wasteland my Urborg that is his only source of black. He can only get Oracle for three. I untap, get back Ruins, play it, Deed his board, and pass. He starts Loaming again, but I dredged a Demigod a while previously and had been holding one since he played his Shackles, so I Twist him again and ten him twice.
Game two:
cliffs notes: I spend about thirty minutes getting blown out the entire game.
<tosh> land go
<frogboy> land go
<tosh> wasteland
<frogboy, confused> land go
<tosh> loam
<frogboy> ...oh.
One of those days.
And he had Crypt, so the fact that I had rawdogged Loam wasn't helpful either. I pretty much lost this game by missing my third (fifth) drop to Grip his Crypt and start Loaming, but by the time I got there he had Counterbalance/Top going. It took him about thirty minutes to kill me because his win conditions didn't show up, but my only real out was him punting via fatigue. (it was like 2:30 at this point) Almost got him with Demigod trigger, but he remembered his Crypt :(.
Game three: He mulligans, I Seize him, play a Goyf, bash him around with that a bit. He has Crypt but no real action other than Plowing my Goyf once he's at nine. I Intuition up some dragons and run one out there. He Crypts two of them, but the third one kills him anyway.
Semis: Colin, UGR Thresh. Same guy from round one.
Game one: He goes Werebear, Goyf, Goyf. I have my own Goyf and Deed the board. He goes Fledgling Dragon. I play Demigod. He plays another Goyf (...) and I peel lands and die.
Game two: Very similar to game one; I get him on no board no cards. He draws Mongoose, I kill it with Deed and set up for Demigod next turn. He draws a 6/7 Goyf. It's embarrassing when your five drop is outclassed by their two, so I shuffle and try to blind Counterbalance. Miss. Top into lands, shuffle, Top into lands, concede.
Deck is a) good and b) awesome. everyone should get to experience the feeling of Intuitioning for Demigods at least once.
props: Volt and AngryTroll, for the ride there.
Erik Wong and crew, for the ride back.
Volt, AngryTroll, Tosh, and anyone else I borrowed cards from. Ship addresses so I can get them back to y'all.
Mind Shatter, for crushing AngryTroll's spirit in Highlander.
slops: the tournament, for starting at 8:30 and ending at 3:30.