badjuju
11-01-2008, 08:44 AM
Hey Source,
So I'm working on a 5C control deck (since my combo deck utterly failed) for 2HG Highlander, and I finally got to test it out tonight. I realized that a lot of cards just aren't good enough, and that there are several sleeper game-breaking spells. All in all, my deck performed at my expectations (especially since I was missing about 12-13 of the cards I needed), and I'm hoping to extract some ideas from you guys on ways to improve the brutality of my deck.
The idea: to play the best control spells available in the format and gain massive card advantage.
That's what I was doing all night. Draw spells and wrath effects, draw spells and some more wrath effects, drop a Sacred Mesa and go all the way. I seem to have undervalued instant speed spot removal as well as global removal (Starstorm went way up in my book), and overrated cards that maybe good in other constructed formats (ie. Brainstorm). My philosophy is that the cards in my deck should either net me cards when played, or set me up for that play. Greed is the name of the game. You don't need to win right away, you just need to put your opponent in a state where he's dead on board and you're overflowing with cards in hand (btw, I might have overrated Compulsion, as silly as that sounds. I just never wanted to pitch a card cause all of my cards are just too good!). Also note that I run very few creatures and just plan to win with creatures that my opponents cast. This eliminates a lot of Bribery/Control Magic/Reanimate shenanigans and allows me to play an excess of removal and good spells, gradually overwhelming my opponents with incremental card advantage.
Now I'll go ahead and explain some card choices for each color.
Creature Base
-------------------
Wood Elves
Etched Oracle
Drift of Phantasms
Anarchist
Scrivener
Izzet Chronarch
//
Liliana Vess
Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Jace Beleren
Creatures in this format are bane and blessing. The obviously best ones are the ones with "come into play" effects, granting auto two-for-ones (ie. FTK). I opted to exclude any large creatures with big effects. I just didn't feel the need for those kinds of win conditions, let alone expose myself to my opponents' creature-jack and reanimate effects. What I do have are creatures that abuse my amazing spells and chump block at the same time. I believe Etched Oracle speaks for itself and Drift of Phantasms transmutes for the nuts -- see multi-colored section. My planeswalker selection I'm very happy with, although Garruk can probably find a place here as well.
White Spells
------------------
Swords to Plowshares
Condemn
Wrath of God
Rout
Austere Command
Catastrophe
Akroma's Vengeance
Decree of Justice
Sacred Mesa
White's job is as blunt as ever. Wrath, wrath, wrath. I'm debating how many total wrath effects I do want, but having around 8-10 has served me well (not including the red, artifact, or multicolored board sweepers). Which wrath effects are better? Some are situationally better, others can be debated for contending slots. I'll list some runner-ups below. Decree of Justice and Sacred Mesa are amazing win conditions as well.
Black Spells
-----------------
Damnation
Decree of Pain
Dregs of Sorrow
Diabolic Edict
Diabolic Tutor
Beseech the Queen
Beacon of Unrest
Reanimate
Black offers more wrath effects and removal, the best and only available tutors of the format, and reanimate spells. I believe these are some of the best. Once again, tons of runner-ups which I will discuss later. If you have anymore house black cards, let me know!
Blue Spells
-------------
Compulsion
Fact or Fiction
Careful Consideration
Opportunity
Tidings
Merchant Scroll
Mystical Teachings
Bribery
Acquire
Govern the Guildless
Blatant Thievery
Blue is a house. Allowing me to draw an insane of bombs makes me feel dirty inside. There's a good mix of instant and sorcery draw spells as well. Note that this helps diversify what I can tutor for as well as bring back with Anarchist, Scrivener, and Izzet Chronarch. A resolved big draw spell will generally secure my safety for several turns ahead. Blue is also the source of many win conditions. I basically just jack whatever my opponents are using and beat them in the face with it. It's been working out pretty well. The only real card I'm considering cutting is Compulsion. You might call me insane but card quality is at an even insaner high in this deck that even with Compulsion out, I only ever cycle about 3-4 times per game.
Green Spells
-------------
Farseek
Kodama's Reach
Reap and Sow
Life from the Loam
Harmonize
Restock
Rude Awakening
Green is one of the more underwhelming colors in my deck. I never really want to draw these spells, but the format requires that I have at least 7 spells of each color. Mana fixing is fine, but the mana-base for the deck is so well off I hardly ever get color screwed. Life from the Loam has been important for getting back Strip Mined lands (like Mishra's Factory or Kor Haven), Restock is amazing on many different levels, and Rude Awakening is a tool that will just destroy an unsuspecting opponent (it's untested, but sounds decent at least - though an untimely anything could really mess me up. Might replace with Krosan Grip just to be safe :X ).
Red Spells
-------------
Pyroclasm
Slice and Dice
Starstorm
Urza's Rage
Wild Ricochet
Shunt
Red is a wild card here. I just need to have 7 spells again, and this is what I came up with. More global removal, a solid win condition, and two sleeper spells that are actually quite insane in this format. Wild Ricochet as single-handedly won several games and should be an auto-include in any deck running red. The effect that it creates is just too great to ignore. Pyroclasm and Slice and Dice are both fairly weak. I'm looking for better red cards to run overall.
Multi-Colored Spells
---------------------
Vindicate
Terminate
Putrefy
Mortify
Pernicious Deed
Bant Charm
Esper Charm
Firespout
Hull Breach
Voidslime
(Perplex)
Crime/Punishment
Debtor's Knell
Oh boy. The cream of the crop. There are so many other cards that should be in here that aren't, but some of the best shit ever is in this pile. This is my golden toolbox (literally) and answers just about anything out there. What's even more surprising is that my mana base rarely has trouble casting anything, so I can be as happily greedy as I want. Note that most of the spells are tutorable via Mystical Teachings, Drift of Phantasms, and possibly Perplex.
Artifacts
-------------
Engineered Explosives
Oblivion Stone
Sensei's Divining Top
Three strong spells here. Questions?
So that's the basic outline of my deck. I'm about 3 cards over, so I do need to cut things. It's difficult because I've got a list of 20 other cards that definitely want to see the light of day. I'll go ahead and list them here.
More greedy cards!
----------------------------------
Allied Strategies
Perplex
Prophetic Bolt
Hoofprints of the Stag
Nucklavee
Final Judgement
Cruel Ultimatum
Hallowed Burial
Nevinyral's Disk
Krosan Grip
Suffocating Blast
Absorb
Undermine
Last Word
Rewind
Time Stop
Savage Twister
Plague Wind
Hex
Concentrate
Vedalken Shackles
Recoup
Barter in Blood
Dralnu, Lich Lord
Toshiro Umezawa
Ray of Distortion
Spell Jack
Commandeer
Persuasion
Control Magic
Treachery
Desertion
Frantic Search
Compulsive Research
Fireball
Demonfire
Resounding Silence
Resounding Thunder
Mobilization
Pestilence
Retribution of the Meek
Orim's Thunder
Necrogenesis
Pulse of the Fields
That's an abridged list too, but not much else makes the cut. I'm looking for really powerful spells (that aren't creatures), with really game-breaking effects. As it stands, I believe I have already picked out the best of the bunch and am going to run with it.
While playing the deck, I noticed that instant speed removal is huge. I'm not sure what else is good in that department. Unmake maybe?
Also, most Regrowth effects are banned. This includes Regrowth, Reclaim, Recollect, and Eternal Witness. Restock is a rare exception.
Buyback and Retrace are both banned. Flashback is NOT banned(cmon guys, give me some more good ideas!)
If you have any insight or suggestions, I am 100% open to them all. Thanks for reading and hope to hear from you soon!
So I'm working on a 5C control deck (since my combo deck utterly failed) for 2HG Highlander, and I finally got to test it out tonight. I realized that a lot of cards just aren't good enough, and that there are several sleeper game-breaking spells. All in all, my deck performed at my expectations (especially since I was missing about 12-13 of the cards I needed), and I'm hoping to extract some ideas from you guys on ways to improve the brutality of my deck.
The idea: to play the best control spells available in the format and gain massive card advantage.
That's what I was doing all night. Draw spells and wrath effects, draw spells and some more wrath effects, drop a Sacred Mesa and go all the way. I seem to have undervalued instant speed spot removal as well as global removal (Starstorm went way up in my book), and overrated cards that maybe good in other constructed formats (ie. Brainstorm). My philosophy is that the cards in my deck should either net me cards when played, or set me up for that play. Greed is the name of the game. You don't need to win right away, you just need to put your opponent in a state where he's dead on board and you're overflowing with cards in hand (btw, I might have overrated Compulsion, as silly as that sounds. I just never wanted to pitch a card cause all of my cards are just too good!). Also note that I run very few creatures and just plan to win with creatures that my opponents cast. This eliminates a lot of Bribery/Control Magic/Reanimate shenanigans and allows me to play an excess of removal and good spells, gradually overwhelming my opponents with incremental card advantage.
Now I'll go ahead and explain some card choices for each color.
Creature Base
-------------------
Wood Elves
Etched Oracle
Drift of Phantasms
Anarchist
Scrivener
Izzet Chronarch
//
Liliana Vess
Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Jace Beleren
Creatures in this format are bane and blessing. The obviously best ones are the ones with "come into play" effects, granting auto two-for-ones (ie. FTK). I opted to exclude any large creatures with big effects. I just didn't feel the need for those kinds of win conditions, let alone expose myself to my opponents' creature-jack and reanimate effects. What I do have are creatures that abuse my amazing spells and chump block at the same time. I believe Etched Oracle speaks for itself and Drift of Phantasms transmutes for the nuts -- see multi-colored section. My planeswalker selection I'm very happy with, although Garruk can probably find a place here as well.
White Spells
------------------
Swords to Plowshares
Condemn
Wrath of God
Rout
Austere Command
Catastrophe
Akroma's Vengeance
Decree of Justice
Sacred Mesa
White's job is as blunt as ever. Wrath, wrath, wrath. I'm debating how many total wrath effects I do want, but having around 8-10 has served me well (not including the red, artifact, or multicolored board sweepers). Which wrath effects are better? Some are situationally better, others can be debated for contending slots. I'll list some runner-ups below. Decree of Justice and Sacred Mesa are amazing win conditions as well.
Black Spells
-----------------
Damnation
Decree of Pain
Dregs of Sorrow
Diabolic Edict
Diabolic Tutor
Beseech the Queen
Beacon of Unrest
Reanimate
Black offers more wrath effects and removal, the best and only available tutors of the format, and reanimate spells. I believe these are some of the best. Once again, tons of runner-ups which I will discuss later. If you have anymore house black cards, let me know!
Blue Spells
-------------
Compulsion
Fact or Fiction
Careful Consideration
Opportunity
Tidings
Merchant Scroll
Mystical Teachings
Bribery
Acquire
Govern the Guildless
Blatant Thievery
Blue is a house. Allowing me to draw an insane of bombs makes me feel dirty inside. There's a good mix of instant and sorcery draw spells as well. Note that this helps diversify what I can tutor for as well as bring back with Anarchist, Scrivener, and Izzet Chronarch. A resolved big draw spell will generally secure my safety for several turns ahead. Blue is also the source of many win conditions. I basically just jack whatever my opponents are using and beat them in the face with it. It's been working out pretty well. The only real card I'm considering cutting is Compulsion. You might call me insane but card quality is at an even insaner high in this deck that even with Compulsion out, I only ever cycle about 3-4 times per game.
Green Spells
-------------
Farseek
Kodama's Reach
Reap and Sow
Life from the Loam
Harmonize
Restock
Rude Awakening
Green is one of the more underwhelming colors in my deck. I never really want to draw these spells, but the format requires that I have at least 7 spells of each color. Mana fixing is fine, but the mana-base for the deck is so well off I hardly ever get color screwed. Life from the Loam has been important for getting back Strip Mined lands (like Mishra's Factory or Kor Haven), Restock is amazing on many different levels, and Rude Awakening is a tool that will just destroy an unsuspecting opponent (it's untested, but sounds decent at least - though an untimely anything could really mess me up. Might replace with Krosan Grip just to be safe :X ).
Red Spells
-------------
Pyroclasm
Slice and Dice
Starstorm
Urza's Rage
Wild Ricochet
Shunt
Red is a wild card here. I just need to have 7 spells again, and this is what I came up with. More global removal, a solid win condition, and two sleeper spells that are actually quite insane in this format. Wild Ricochet as single-handedly won several games and should be an auto-include in any deck running red. The effect that it creates is just too great to ignore. Pyroclasm and Slice and Dice are both fairly weak. I'm looking for better red cards to run overall.
Multi-Colored Spells
---------------------
Vindicate
Terminate
Putrefy
Mortify
Pernicious Deed
Bant Charm
Esper Charm
Firespout
Hull Breach
Voidslime
(Perplex)
Crime/Punishment
Debtor's Knell
Oh boy. The cream of the crop. There are so many other cards that should be in here that aren't, but some of the best shit ever is in this pile. This is my golden toolbox (literally) and answers just about anything out there. What's even more surprising is that my mana base rarely has trouble casting anything, so I can be as happily greedy as I want. Note that most of the spells are tutorable via Mystical Teachings, Drift of Phantasms, and possibly Perplex.
Artifacts
-------------
Engineered Explosives
Oblivion Stone
Sensei's Divining Top
Three strong spells here. Questions?
So that's the basic outline of my deck. I'm about 3 cards over, so I do need to cut things. It's difficult because I've got a list of 20 other cards that definitely want to see the light of day. I'll go ahead and list them here.
More greedy cards!
----------------------------------
Allied Strategies
Perplex
Prophetic Bolt
Hoofprints of the Stag
Nucklavee
Final Judgement
Cruel Ultimatum
Hallowed Burial
Nevinyral's Disk
Krosan Grip
Suffocating Blast
Absorb
Undermine
Last Word
Rewind
Time Stop
Savage Twister
Plague Wind
Hex
Concentrate
Vedalken Shackles
Recoup
Barter in Blood
Dralnu, Lich Lord
Toshiro Umezawa
Ray of Distortion
Spell Jack
Commandeer
Persuasion
Control Magic
Treachery
Desertion
Frantic Search
Compulsive Research
Fireball
Demonfire
Resounding Silence
Resounding Thunder
Mobilization
Pestilence
Retribution of the Meek
Orim's Thunder
Necrogenesis
Pulse of the Fields
That's an abridged list too, but not much else makes the cut. I'm looking for really powerful spells (that aren't creatures), with really game-breaking effects. As it stands, I believe I have already picked out the best of the bunch and am going to run with it.
While playing the deck, I noticed that instant speed removal is huge. I'm not sure what else is good in that department. Unmake maybe?
Also, most Regrowth effects are banned. This includes Regrowth, Reclaim, Recollect, and Eternal Witness. Restock is a rare exception.
Buyback and Retrace are both banned. Flashback is NOT banned(cmon guys, give me some more good ideas!)
If you have any insight or suggestions, I am 100% open to them all. Thanks for reading and hope to hear from you soon!