syssc9
03-30-2010, 05:06 PM
With many thanks and acknowledgements to rodgon666
I apologize up front for any glaring mistakes or misconduct. I am writing and posting this at work in stolen moments while glancing over my shoulder and also working to fix end-user PC issues. Mea culpa.
[Aw Shucks! This was supposed to go into Cavius. Casual and Budget Forum. Sorry. Can a MOD please move it for me? Thanks!]
Since the BIG WIN at the LARGEST MAGIC TOURNAMENT EVER, and with all the discussion going on elsewhere, I thought a casual multiplayer discussion might be fun. I don’t have Entombs, nor am I likely to purchase them anytime soon, so this discussion is for possibilities without them. I do have Underground Seas and lots of fetches so it’s not exactly a budget deck. This work in progress is geared more towards the big table.
First, a list of what I currently have assembled:
3 Buried Alive (was Intuition)
4 Careful Study
4 Exhume
4 Hapless Researcher (Could also be Putrid Imp or Oona’s Prowler)
4 Reanimate (3 are proxies at this point)
2 Animate Dead
2 Necromancy
2 Echoing Truth
4 Mystical Tutor
4 Brainstorm
1 Inkwell Leviathan
1 Simic Sky Swallower
1 Sundering Titan
1 Kederekt
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1 Bringer of the Blue Dawn
1 Kokusho, the Evening Star
1 Phantom Nishoba
1 Garza Zol, Plague Queen
4 Underground Sea
4 Polluted Delta
4 flooded Strand
3 Island
3 Swamp
Without Entomb the deck is slower, but that fits fine with the general nature of casual multiplayer games. The most glaringly obvious difference from tournament oriented duel decks is the nearly complete lack of dedicated disruption – no discard or permissions - relying instead on its primary objective: totally outrageous huge creatures with ridiculous special abilities that have devastating consequences for the rest of the table! The only spot removal is Echoing Truth, at a mere 2 copies. Permission and Discard work great against a single opponent, but often prove inadequate when facing a whole table, or so it has always seemed to me. Replacing the disruption are more creatures and more reanimation. Focus, focus, focus.
Card Choices
The above list is far from optimal, but not without some interesting twists.
I have tried both Buried Alive and Intuition and have had better luck with the former. Maybe I just can’t pick a group of 3 correctly for Intuition in this deck. What always seemed to work best was just pulling 3 of whatever I really needed, and then dumping 2 of them in the yard. That’s really supposed to be Mystical Tutor’s job.
Brainstorm, Careful Study, Mystical Tutor and Exhume all work fine and are auto-includes.
Hapless Researcher, Putrid Imp, Oona’s Prowler - With the increased number of creatures I find myself drawing singletons at random and need a way get them into the yard easily. A cheap early game blocker is also useful. An empty board on turn 2 or 3 is an open invitation to a whole table round of attacks. I am leaning towards Hapless Researcher, but am still on the fence. I would love to hear your arguments about which is best and why. What other choices might also be good in these slots?
Reanimate is fast and efficient, but its life loss is troubling to me, and way more dangerous at a big table than in a duel. Since I only have one, I may drop the proxies and up the count of Animate Dead to 4 and Necromancy to 3. Gotta leave one in though, it’s the deck’s namesake!
Necromancy may be too slow for a tourney level duel deck, but here it works fine. In fact it’s a gas when used as an instant to pull up Kokusho as a surprise blocker, then letting it go to the graveyard with all the attendant mayhem and life gain. Fun! I know, I know – danger of cool stuff – but casual multiplayer is the place for it!
Echoing Truth is my only spot removal.
THE BIG BOYS and GIRLS
Inkwell Leviathan, Simic Sky Swallower and Akroma are the primary beaters. Big and with varying combinations of Flying Haste, Shroud and lots more, what’s not to like? Kederekt and Sundering Titan are lesser beaters but are really gargantuan disruption. Either one on around turn 4 should just about clinch the game for you. It will also put a big target on your forehead but you can handle that. Bringer of the Blue dawn was mentioned in rodgon666’s thread over in the Established Decks Forum (along with a lot of other good stuff that sparked me to begin work on this thing) and even though it is kinda putzy compared to these others, if it stays on the table just a very few turns it puts everyone else at extreme card disadvantage. Other than that it usually just handles blocking chores, as does Kederekt once he’s in play. Kokusho and Phantom Nishoba are not only big, but chosen for their ability to gain life, extreme life, quickly. Kokusho is so cool… That leaves only Garza Zol, Plague Queen. I chose her based on a combination of Haste and card draw. Haste becomes really important when everyone is running scared (gunning scared?) from/for your giant beaters. If they don’t fall prey to instant removal, they often die to some other removal before they ever get over summoning sickness. She is, however, my most likely candidate for replacement.
That’s the current line-up. Some cards I don’t yet own, but plan to acquire soon include Sphinx Sovereign, Windbrisk Raptor, and perhaps even Sphinx of the Steel Wind. The Raptor’s global lifelink makes it a good candidate to replace the Nishoba and the “each opponent looses 3 life” clause of the Sovereign sounds really good for multiplayer. Other possible choices might include Blazing Archon or Platinum Angel, or even a 2nd Kokusho. Kukosho is so… wait, I said that already.
I am open to any suggestions, with the understanding this deck is meant for casual multiplayer and is specifically constructed to operate without Entomb.
I apologize up front for any glaring mistakes or misconduct. I am writing and posting this at work in stolen moments while glancing over my shoulder and also working to fix end-user PC issues. Mea culpa.
[Aw Shucks! This was supposed to go into Cavius. Casual and Budget Forum. Sorry. Can a MOD please move it for me? Thanks!]
Since the BIG WIN at the LARGEST MAGIC TOURNAMENT EVER, and with all the discussion going on elsewhere, I thought a casual multiplayer discussion might be fun. I don’t have Entombs, nor am I likely to purchase them anytime soon, so this discussion is for possibilities without them. I do have Underground Seas and lots of fetches so it’s not exactly a budget deck. This work in progress is geared more towards the big table.
First, a list of what I currently have assembled:
3 Buried Alive (was Intuition)
4 Careful Study
4 Exhume
4 Hapless Researcher (Could also be Putrid Imp or Oona’s Prowler)
4 Reanimate (3 are proxies at this point)
2 Animate Dead
2 Necromancy
2 Echoing Truth
4 Mystical Tutor
4 Brainstorm
1 Inkwell Leviathan
1 Simic Sky Swallower
1 Sundering Titan
1 Kederekt
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1 Bringer of the Blue Dawn
1 Kokusho, the Evening Star
1 Phantom Nishoba
1 Garza Zol, Plague Queen
4 Underground Sea
4 Polluted Delta
4 flooded Strand
3 Island
3 Swamp
Without Entomb the deck is slower, but that fits fine with the general nature of casual multiplayer games. The most glaringly obvious difference from tournament oriented duel decks is the nearly complete lack of dedicated disruption – no discard or permissions - relying instead on its primary objective: totally outrageous huge creatures with ridiculous special abilities that have devastating consequences for the rest of the table! The only spot removal is Echoing Truth, at a mere 2 copies. Permission and Discard work great against a single opponent, but often prove inadequate when facing a whole table, or so it has always seemed to me. Replacing the disruption are more creatures and more reanimation. Focus, focus, focus.
Card Choices
The above list is far from optimal, but not without some interesting twists.
I have tried both Buried Alive and Intuition and have had better luck with the former. Maybe I just can’t pick a group of 3 correctly for Intuition in this deck. What always seemed to work best was just pulling 3 of whatever I really needed, and then dumping 2 of them in the yard. That’s really supposed to be Mystical Tutor’s job.
Brainstorm, Careful Study, Mystical Tutor and Exhume all work fine and are auto-includes.
Hapless Researcher, Putrid Imp, Oona’s Prowler - With the increased number of creatures I find myself drawing singletons at random and need a way get them into the yard easily. A cheap early game blocker is also useful. An empty board on turn 2 or 3 is an open invitation to a whole table round of attacks. I am leaning towards Hapless Researcher, but am still on the fence. I would love to hear your arguments about which is best and why. What other choices might also be good in these slots?
Reanimate is fast and efficient, but its life loss is troubling to me, and way more dangerous at a big table than in a duel. Since I only have one, I may drop the proxies and up the count of Animate Dead to 4 and Necromancy to 3. Gotta leave one in though, it’s the deck’s namesake!
Necromancy may be too slow for a tourney level duel deck, but here it works fine. In fact it’s a gas when used as an instant to pull up Kokusho as a surprise blocker, then letting it go to the graveyard with all the attendant mayhem and life gain. Fun! I know, I know – danger of cool stuff – but casual multiplayer is the place for it!
Echoing Truth is my only spot removal.
THE BIG BOYS and GIRLS
Inkwell Leviathan, Simic Sky Swallower and Akroma are the primary beaters. Big and with varying combinations of Flying Haste, Shroud and lots more, what’s not to like? Kederekt and Sundering Titan are lesser beaters but are really gargantuan disruption. Either one on around turn 4 should just about clinch the game for you. It will also put a big target on your forehead but you can handle that. Bringer of the Blue dawn was mentioned in rodgon666’s thread over in the Established Decks Forum (along with a lot of other good stuff that sparked me to begin work on this thing) and even though it is kinda putzy compared to these others, if it stays on the table just a very few turns it puts everyone else at extreme card disadvantage. Other than that it usually just handles blocking chores, as does Kederekt once he’s in play. Kokusho and Phantom Nishoba are not only big, but chosen for their ability to gain life, extreme life, quickly. Kokusho is so cool… That leaves only Garza Zol, Plague Queen. I chose her based on a combination of Haste and card draw. Haste becomes really important when everyone is running scared (gunning scared?) from/for your giant beaters. If they don’t fall prey to instant removal, they often die to some other removal before they ever get over summoning sickness. She is, however, my most likely candidate for replacement.
That’s the current line-up. Some cards I don’t yet own, but plan to acquire soon include Sphinx Sovereign, Windbrisk Raptor, and perhaps even Sphinx of the Steel Wind. The Raptor’s global lifelink makes it a good candidate to replace the Nishoba and the “each opponent looses 3 life” clause of the Sovereign sounds really good for multiplayer. Other possible choices might include Blazing Archon or Platinum Angel, or even a 2nd Kokusho. Kukosho is so… wait, I said that already.
I am open to any suggestions, with the understanding this deck is meant for casual multiplayer and is specifically constructed to operate without Entomb.