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Wallace
02-04-2008, 07:51 PM
The Severance Package!

So the deadline for entry into the CANGD 2 is all most here and I have a late addition. This deck “The Severance Package” is a combo control deck that uses the Counter Top lock to gain control of the game and Goblin Charbelcher to win it. Now you might be asking yourself; “How a deck that need to run mana to gain control of the game can support the Charbelcher”? Well there’s a card for Tempest that solves this problem and will let you win the first time you activate the Belcher, Mana Severance.

Mana Severance + Goblin Charbelcher = Win!!
http://resources.wizards.com/Magic/Cards/TE/en-us/Card4710.jpg (http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=4710#)http://resources.wizards.com/Magic/Cards/MRD/en-us/Card49771.jpg (http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=49771#)


Now at :1::u: this sorcery is easy to cast and allows you to leave mana open to keep control of the game.

The List:

4 Counterbalance
3 Sensei’s Divining Top
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Counterspell

2 Mana Severance
2 Goblin Charbelcher

3 Vedalken Shackles
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Wrath of God

4 Tundra
4 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
3 Tropical Island
5 Islands
3 Plains
1 Academy Ruins

Card Choices:

Counterbalance & Sensei’s Divining Top: These to cards were a simple addition to the deck. I needed heavy control to sit under and this combo fit perfectly, I know how much of a bitch the counter top combo can be.

Force of Will: This is a control deck and there’s really no better counterspell than FoW. The deck plays plenty of blue cards to feed the Alternative cost too, easy choice.

Counterspell: At :u::u: Counterspell has been a great answer for a long time now. I really didn’t want to run Daze and Spell Snare is to Situational, counterspell it is.

Brainstorm & Ponder: Much like FoW, brainstorm is a staple of any blue deck, drawing cards and setting up counterbalance in a pinch. Ponder was a late addition to the deck, I wanted another draw spell but couldn’t figure out which one. Ponder does what I need it to do, dig 3 cards deep searching for a Belcher or Severance when needed or shuffling away the crap on top of your deck. At :u: Ponder is cheep enough to allow your mana sources to stay open.

Vedalken Shackles: Shackles is a great answer to almost any creature, stealing that big Goyf or robbing your opponent of a creature just to use it as a blocker. The fact that all of the mana producing land in this deck (-Ruins) are islands make Shackles fit right in.

Swords to Plowshares: Another easy choice for me, STP has been king of the single creature removal spells since the beginning. :w: is all it costs to deal with any dude, then it also removes the creature from the game which can factor in later. The life your opponent will gain is really no big deal because when you activate belcher you should be doing at least 30 damage.

Wrath of God & Engineered Explosives: Wrath is a great answer to a fast start by an opposing Aggro deck. Wrath also answers the ETW combo if it manages to go off. Yeah at :2::w::w: it’s not really fast enough to beat ETW every time but it can help. Engineered Explosives however can beat a turn 1 or 2 ETW. EE is a great addition to the deck, providing a controlled board sweeper that can deal with permanents CC 0 to 3. The ability to be used multiple times via Academy Ruins is nice too.

Mana Severance & Goblin Charbelcher: Ok now to the combo and eventual win condition of this deck. Goblin Charbelcher is one of my favorite cards, I love playing CRET Belcher. The problem is that to many people are playing islands no days and belcher has a problem with that. We’ve tried to combat the problem with adding main deck blasts and packing 4 more in the board, Belcher has problems. With “The Severance Package” you can combat the control with well…more control. Setting up the board to drop belcher and if/when it hits you can protect it for almost anything (Stupid Grip).


Mana Severance is an old school card that has been around since Tempest. I used to rock this card in every deck from MBC to Burn, as a matter of fact I have been testing it in burn recently. That is really how I came across the idea for this deck, I was testing my burn list running severance and ran into a belcher deck. After losing to my worst match up (Any combo deck is my worst btw) I thought to myself “wow I wonder what would happen if I added Mana Severance to a Belcher combo Deck?” Well this is the result, after resolving belcher you simply cast a severance and ride your deck of all the land that would normally get in belcher’s way. The only problem is after you remove all the land from your deck you have to activate belcher rite away or you will risk no killing them with on activation (Due to the low number of cards that will be left in your Deck)

Academy Ruins: Ruins was an easy choice, it gets back EE and can bring back a countered or destroyed Belcher. Be in able to cast EE again and again is nice as is recasting belcher after its countered.

Sideboard:

To me sideboards are very Meta dependant, for this deck I wanted to include an alternate win condition in the board. The deck runs 3 Tropical Islands for 2 reasons, Tarmogoyf and Mongoose in the board and Krosan Grip. By siding in the creature you may catch your opponent off guard and with no removal. The Grips are a staple in almost every sideboard now days and combat so many different cards. Other cards I would look at for the board are Spell Snare, Chill, Stifle, and Moat. I really wouldn’t run any Red Elemental or Hydro Blasts, the Counter/Top lock will do the job, most of the time. Here is a possable SB, prob. what I would play if I were going to play this deck right now.

4 Tarmogoyf
4 Nimble Mongoose
4 Krosan Grip
3 Chill

I really haven’t done any play testing as of yet but would imagine that the match ups would be similar to MUC or a straight counter/top deck. I will post some results when I have them, until the let me know what you think!!!

Bovinious
02-04-2008, 07:58 PM
If only Portent was an instant lawl.

Tacosnape
02-04-2008, 09:28 PM
You need a sideboard.

You also probably need an alternate kill condition. You're a Thoughtseize/Extirpate or 2 Needles away from scooping.


And as far as getting over myself goes, I just let my ratings do the talking.

All this nonconstructive flame-style criticism doesn't help. The judges are perfectly capable of determining how new something is. Your point might be valid, but it's not helping discussion of the deck.

Also, when your rating passes mine, then you can talk.:tongue:

Wallace
02-04-2008, 09:40 PM
You need a sideboard.

You also probably need an alternate kill condition. You're a Thoughtseize/Extirpate or 2 Needles away from scooping.



All this nonconstructive flame-style criticism doesn't help. The judges are perfectly capable of determining how new something is. Your point might be valid, but it's not helping discussion of the deck.

Also, when your rating passes mine, then you can talk.:tongue:


SB added and thank you for repeating that... "The judges are perfectly capable of determining how new something is." A main board win may help but doesn't most of the hate you mentioned come in after game 1? I know there are some decks that run Extirpate in the MB but not many...

Cavius The Great
02-05-2008, 10:06 AM
Enlightened Tutor and Mystical Tutor?

Wallace
02-05-2008, 10:40 AM
Enlightened Tutor and Mystical Tutor?

I thought about both of these but couldn't decide which one to use. Which one do you think would be a better choice and how many do you think I should run. The tutor(s) would go in the ponder slots, right?

Nightmare
02-05-2008, 11:43 AM
Look here for some insight.

Bob the Belcher (http://mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2619)

insertnamehere
02-05-2008, 11:48 AM
I thought about both of these but couldn't decide which one to use. Which one do you think would be a better choice and how many do you think I should run. The tutor(s) would go in the ponder slots, right?

Test them both, see what one works better, my guess is with mystical.

diffy
02-05-2008, 12:13 PM
I thought about both of these but couldn't decide which one to use. Which one do you think would be a better choice and how many do you think I should run. The tutor(s) would go in the ponder slots, right?

I think that you could play a split seeing how Mystical can fetch Enlightened if need arises. The tutors could prove a brilliant addition to this deck though as they give a more comboish feel while still being awesome with Counterbalance or by fetching a bomb/good card.

Suggested Changes:

-1 Vedalken Shackles
-4 Ponder
+1 Polluted Delta
+3 Mystical Tutor
+1 Enlightened Tutor

With Ponder out of the deck, I can't trust a control deck with 22 lands so I think you should add one. Another Fetchie seems best as it provides build-in synergy with CounterTop.

Tacosnape
02-05-2008, 12:17 PM
SB added and thank you for repeating that... "The judges are perfectly capable of determining how new something is." A main board win may help but doesn't most of the hate you mentioned come in after game 1? I know there are some decks that run Extirpate in the MB but not many...

The alternate kill in the SB is probably fine. Your threshold transition is actually a very interesting option that may catch some people off guard.

Nightmare
02-05-2008, 12:39 PM
Also, curve.

0cc - 24
1cc - 15
2cc - 10
3cc - 3
4cc - 4
5cc - 4

etrigan
02-05-2008, 12:50 PM
There's also a number of Gifts Ungiven piles that will give you both pieces. However, this might be too expensive for Legacy.

For reference: http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/9130.html

freakish777
02-05-2008, 02:54 PM
There's also a number of Gifts Ungiven piles that will give you both pieces. However, this might be too expensive for Legacy.

For reference: http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/9130.html

Yeah, they're all basically too expensive, the best Gifts pile in Legacy involving Belcher is:

Belcher
Mystical (Mystical for Severance or Argivian Restoration, saving mana over Recollect/Recoup, and costing you a draw step instead)
Severance
Regrowth (Relearn if you want to avoid green).

Wallace
02-05-2008, 03:01 PM
I can see how Enlightened Tutor will benifit this deck, it fetch's: Shackles, Belcher, Engineered Explosives and Top in a pinch. Running E. Tutor may make it possible to drop Charbelcher to a 1 of and open another slot in the MB. I think 3 is the right number for E. Tutor and I will add 1 Mystical Tutor, fetching the Mana Severance when needed will be nice. So the New list will look like this:

4 Counterbalance
3 Sensei’s Divining Top
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Counterspell
3 Enlightened Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor

2 Mana Severance
2 Goblin Charbelcher

3 Vedalken Shackles
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Wrath of God

4 Tundra
4 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
3 Tropical Island
5 Islands
3 Plains
1 Academy Ruins

Thats: -4 Ponder, +3 Enlightened Tutor, +1 Mystical Tutor.

I really think the Shackles needs to stay as a 3 of, with no creature in the MB this deck really needs all the help it can get. Shackles also gives you a 3 drop to use with counterbalance. I really don't think an extra land is needed, I will have to test the new list minus the Ponders and let you know...

Nightmare
02-05-2008, 03:41 PM
4 Counterbalance
3 Sensei’s Divining Top
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Counterspell
3 Enlightened Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor

2 Mana Severance
2 Goblin Charbelcher

3 Vedalken Shackles
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Wrath of God

4 Tundra
4 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
3 Tropical Island
5 Islands
3 Plains
1 Academy Ruins


4 Brainstorm
4 Sword To Plowshares
3 Orim's Chant
4 Enlightened Tutor
2 Mana Severence
2 Isocron Scepter
3 Standstill
4 Counterspell
2 Crucible of Worlds
1 Vedalken Shackles
3 Wrath of God
1 Goblin Charbelcher
4 Force of will

3 Island
1 Plains
4 Flooded Strand
4 Mishra Factory
3 Farie Conclaive
4 Tundra
4 Wasteland

Differences:
3 Orims Chant |
2 Isocron Scepter |-----> CounterTop + EE
3 Standstill |

2 Crucible of Worlds --> Shackles

1 Wrath of God --> Goblin Charbelcher

Landstill Land --> TEC land

That's basically taking a new "lock" combo into consideration and tweaking a few card choices. This is why they mentioned that Bob has been playing this since before the format change. I remember playing against it at Big Arse II. Not knocking it, as I played it for a while, and it was fine, but it's an old theme.

Wallace
02-05-2008, 03:48 PM
Differences:
3 Orims Chant |
2 Isocron Scepter |-----> CounterTop + EE
3 Standstill |

2 Crucible of Worlds --> Shackles

1 Wrath of God --> Goblin Charbelcher

Landstill Land --> TEC land

That's basically taking a new "lock" combo into consideration and tweaking a few card choices. This is why they mentioned that Bob has been playing this since before the format change. I remember playing against it at Big Arse II. Not knocking it, as I played it for a while, and it was fine, but it's an old theme.

Well like I said before, I was not aware of this deck being played before, I took 2 years off from magic and really didn't follow it during that the time off. If my list isn't diffrent enough than just move the whole thread to the New and Developmental Decks Forum and we can discuss it there.

Nightmare
02-05-2008, 03:49 PM
I don't give a shit either way. Let the judges do it.