badjuju
10-29-2008, 04:59 AM
Hey Source,
I am an avid combo player. Always have, always will be.
Today I present to you a very challenging format to combo out in - Dan Gray Highlander. It's a SoCal only format (I believe) that has a very unique
set of rules and a huge banlist. First and foremost, the big rules:
1. 100 card minimum
2. You must run at least 7 cards of each color (including multi-color).
3. You must run at least 5 non-mana producing artifacts.
4. You may only run one of each card.
5. You may run 3 basic lands of each basic land type.
The banlist is pretty big and kills off all the major tutor spells (including Demonic, Vampiric, Grim, Mystical, Wishes) as well as major fetch engines (including Intuition, Gifts Ungiven) and finally most graveyard fetching spells (including Eternal Witness, Regrowth). Most broken mana-producing artifacts are banned as well (including Lotus Petal). Basically, if it has some sort of real broken interaction, it's gone.
Hopefully I haven't killed our chances yet. From what I've written above, combo seems like a near impossibility. Also note that this format is generally played 2HG, so you will have 40 life and a teammate to support you. This makes a huge difference when constructing the deck because we can focus on assembling a combo instead of protecting ourselves. The other path to take the deck is to go control and have just a combo win. I'll explain the options a bit later.
In all honesty, I'm not sure this is going to work out, but maybe if we pool enough effort and knowledge, at least I can have something half-decent.
With the, ironically, limited cardpool, I did some brainstorming to see what engines I could come up with. The best engines so far have been -
Ad Nauseum + Angel's Grace
Engine: 2 card combo followed by Helm of Awakening + mana production spells
Winning Method: Tendrils of Agony (or other storm card)
Process: Cast the two cards together and draw the entire deck. The deck has several cheap artifacts as well as Elvish Spirit Guide, Simian Spirit Guide, Chrome Mox, Mox Diamond. These spells will be used as initial mana sources to play more acceleration spells as well as artifacts for free in conjunction with Helm of Awakening. Storm for 20 and Tendrils them out.
So What's the Problem?: Two card combo is pretty damn hard to assemble. Otherwise, this is an auto-win.
Doomsday (Breakthrough/Shallow Grave/Sutured Ghoul/Krosan Cloudscraper/Dreadnought)
Engine: 1 card combo
Winnning Method: 25/25 Sutured Ghoul
Process: Cast Doomsday, setup the stack as listed above, Breakthrough and swing for 25. Granted this won't kill the opponent outright (since they have 40 life in 2HG), it is a huge life swing that will generally guarantee victory. This is the combo I would consider running in a control shell, since it basically allows you to play control without dedicating too many slots to combo cards.
So What's the Problem?: It doesn't outright kill them. Even at the cost of half our life, 25 damage is nothing to scoff at though, so this could very well be the nail in the coffin.
Myr Incubator
Engine: 1 card + artifacts in deck
Winnning Method: large amount of 1/1 myr tokens
Process: Cast and crack Myr Incubator, removing all of your artifacts. Games go long, so 12 mana isn't hard to come by. Since the deck is running 25+ artifacts, you can easily just swing for a lethal blow.
So What's the Problem?: if for whatever reason you don't succeed in killing them asap (Pyroclasm anyone?), you are royally screwed.
Storm (Tendrils of Agony/Mind's Desire/Grapeshot/Empty the Warrens/Hunting Pack)
Engine: cantripping artifacts + mana producing effects
Winnning Method: storm card dependant
Process: The deck has a few mini-engines to produce mana as well as several +1/+2 ritual effects. Examples of this can be Heartbeat of Spring + Early Harvest/Turnabout, Magus of the Coffers + Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, or just general acceleration spells/artifacts (ie. Seething Song, Gilded Lotus, Lotus Bloom).
So What's the Problem?: You can't depend on having the right cards at the right times, which makes all of these "lesser" win conditions much less powerful.
NEW IDEA!
Dragonstorm
This could very well be my answer to most problems. 1 card that's tutorable, I can spend the rest of the game playing regulary, then spend one big turn just blowing the well out of my opponents with it. Maybe.
There were a few other ideas, but I don't think they're as good. If you have any other combos that are one-card or two-card (easily fetched), please list them here!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
I don't think I will have a decklist for now, but I'll just list cards that I think should be considered:
Initial Mana Sources
-----------------------
Simian Spirit Guide
Elvish Spirit Guide
Chrome Mox
Lotus Bloom
Mox Diamond
Mana Producing Spells
-----------------------
Tinder Wall
Rite of Flame
Desperate Ritual
Seething Song
Channel the Suns
Culling the Weak
Dark Ritual
Cabal Ritual
Gilded Lotus
Grim Monolith
Worn Powerstone
Magus of the Coffers*
Cabal Coffers*
Mana Enablers
-----------------
Heartbeat of Spring
Voltaic Key
Early Harvest
Turnabout
Helm of Awakening*
Tutors
--------
Diabolic Tutor
Beseech the Queen
Diabolic Intent
Tainted Pact
Demonic Consultation
Lim-Dul's Vault
Merchant Scroll
Fabricate
Spoils of the Vault
Plunge into Darkness
Transmute Artifact
Reshape
Liliana Vess
Cantrips (Artifact Engine)
-----------------------------
Manamorphose*
Chromatic Star
Chromatic Sphere
Darkwater Egg
Skycloud Egg
Shadowblood Egg
Sungrass Egg
AEther Spellbomb
Pyrite Spellbomb
Necrogen Spellbomb
Sunbeam Spellbomb
Lifespark Spellbomb
Pentad Prism
Conjurer's Bauble
Card Draw
------------
Tidings
Concentrate
I don't know, anything else that draws a crapton of cards
Noteworthy Minor-Engines
-------------------------
Second Sunrise
Roar of Reclamation
Combo Cards
-------------
Angel's Grace
Ad Nauseum
Myr Incubator
Tendrils of Agony
Grapeshot
Hunting Pack
Empty the Warrens
Mind's Desire
*cards with obvious situational applications.
...and that's just the combo portion. The rest of the deck can be control cards, such as Wrath of God, Damnation, or even Pernicious Deed.
I have no idea whether or not this deck has a snowball's chance in hell of working, but I'm asking you all to put in your 2 cents and see if we can come up with something!
I am an avid combo player. Always have, always will be.
Today I present to you a very challenging format to combo out in - Dan Gray Highlander. It's a SoCal only format (I believe) that has a very unique
set of rules and a huge banlist. First and foremost, the big rules:
1. 100 card minimum
2. You must run at least 7 cards of each color (including multi-color).
3. You must run at least 5 non-mana producing artifacts.
4. You may only run one of each card.
5. You may run 3 basic lands of each basic land type.
The banlist is pretty big and kills off all the major tutor spells (including Demonic, Vampiric, Grim, Mystical, Wishes) as well as major fetch engines (including Intuition, Gifts Ungiven) and finally most graveyard fetching spells (including Eternal Witness, Regrowth). Most broken mana-producing artifacts are banned as well (including Lotus Petal). Basically, if it has some sort of real broken interaction, it's gone.
Hopefully I haven't killed our chances yet. From what I've written above, combo seems like a near impossibility. Also note that this format is generally played 2HG, so you will have 40 life and a teammate to support you. This makes a huge difference when constructing the deck because we can focus on assembling a combo instead of protecting ourselves. The other path to take the deck is to go control and have just a combo win. I'll explain the options a bit later.
In all honesty, I'm not sure this is going to work out, but maybe if we pool enough effort and knowledge, at least I can have something half-decent.
With the, ironically, limited cardpool, I did some brainstorming to see what engines I could come up with. The best engines so far have been -
Ad Nauseum + Angel's Grace
Engine: 2 card combo followed by Helm of Awakening + mana production spells
Winning Method: Tendrils of Agony (or other storm card)
Process: Cast the two cards together and draw the entire deck. The deck has several cheap artifacts as well as Elvish Spirit Guide, Simian Spirit Guide, Chrome Mox, Mox Diamond. These spells will be used as initial mana sources to play more acceleration spells as well as artifacts for free in conjunction with Helm of Awakening. Storm for 20 and Tendrils them out.
So What's the Problem?: Two card combo is pretty damn hard to assemble. Otherwise, this is an auto-win.
Doomsday (Breakthrough/Shallow Grave/Sutured Ghoul/Krosan Cloudscraper/Dreadnought)
Engine: 1 card combo
Winnning Method: 25/25 Sutured Ghoul
Process: Cast Doomsday, setup the stack as listed above, Breakthrough and swing for 25. Granted this won't kill the opponent outright (since they have 40 life in 2HG), it is a huge life swing that will generally guarantee victory. This is the combo I would consider running in a control shell, since it basically allows you to play control without dedicating too many slots to combo cards.
So What's the Problem?: It doesn't outright kill them. Even at the cost of half our life, 25 damage is nothing to scoff at though, so this could very well be the nail in the coffin.
Myr Incubator
Engine: 1 card + artifacts in deck
Winnning Method: large amount of 1/1 myr tokens
Process: Cast and crack Myr Incubator, removing all of your artifacts. Games go long, so 12 mana isn't hard to come by. Since the deck is running 25+ artifacts, you can easily just swing for a lethal blow.
So What's the Problem?: if for whatever reason you don't succeed in killing them asap (Pyroclasm anyone?), you are royally screwed.
Storm (Tendrils of Agony/Mind's Desire/Grapeshot/Empty the Warrens/Hunting Pack)
Engine: cantripping artifacts + mana producing effects
Winnning Method: storm card dependant
Process: The deck has a few mini-engines to produce mana as well as several +1/+2 ritual effects. Examples of this can be Heartbeat of Spring + Early Harvest/Turnabout, Magus of the Coffers + Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, or just general acceleration spells/artifacts (ie. Seething Song, Gilded Lotus, Lotus Bloom).
So What's the Problem?: You can't depend on having the right cards at the right times, which makes all of these "lesser" win conditions much less powerful.
NEW IDEA!
Dragonstorm
This could very well be my answer to most problems. 1 card that's tutorable, I can spend the rest of the game playing regulary, then spend one big turn just blowing the well out of my opponents with it. Maybe.
There were a few other ideas, but I don't think they're as good. If you have any other combos that are one-card or two-card (easily fetched), please list them here!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
I don't think I will have a decklist for now, but I'll just list cards that I think should be considered:
Initial Mana Sources
-----------------------
Simian Spirit Guide
Elvish Spirit Guide
Chrome Mox
Lotus Bloom
Mox Diamond
Mana Producing Spells
-----------------------
Tinder Wall
Rite of Flame
Desperate Ritual
Seething Song
Channel the Suns
Culling the Weak
Dark Ritual
Cabal Ritual
Gilded Lotus
Grim Monolith
Worn Powerstone
Magus of the Coffers*
Cabal Coffers*
Mana Enablers
-----------------
Heartbeat of Spring
Voltaic Key
Early Harvest
Turnabout
Helm of Awakening*
Tutors
--------
Diabolic Tutor
Beseech the Queen
Diabolic Intent
Tainted Pact
Demonic Consultation
Lim-Dul's Vault
Merchant Scroll
Fabricate
Spoils of the Vault
Plunge into Darkness
Transmute Artifact
Reshape
Liliana Vess
Cantrips (Artifact Engine)
-----------------------------
Manamorphose*
Chromatic Star
Chromatic Sphere
Darkwater Egg
Skycloud Egg
Shadowblood Egg
Sungrass Egg
AEther Spellbomb
Pyrite Spellbomb
Necrogen Spellbomb
Sunbeam Spellbomb
Lifespark Spellbomb
Pentad Prism
Conjurer's Bauble
Card Draw
------------
Tidings
Concentrate
I don't know, anything else that draws a crapton of cards
Noteworthy Minor-Engines
-------------------------
Second Sunrise
Roar of Reclamation
Combo Cards
-------------
Angel's Grace
Ad Nauseum
Myr Incubator
Tendrils of Agony
Grapeshot
Hunting Pack
Empty the Warrens
Mind's Desire
*cards with obvious situational applications.
...and that's just the combo portion. The rest of the deck can be control cards, such as Wrath of God, Damnation, or even Pernicious Deed.
I have no idea whether or not this deck has a snowball's chance in hell of working, but I'm asking you all to put in your 2 cents and see if we can come up with something!