Under the Radar decks, Summer 2011 Edition

[Amon Amarth]

But you wouldn't say a deck that just recently won a high profile tournament is flying "under the radar", would you?

People, most anyways, are very slow to adjust. It's not like any of these decks are unknown quantities. Besides that was the 4 color version which I would never, ever play. Such a terrible manabase.

[Octopusman]

There is some subjectivity when calling something under the radar. Unless something is defined, people will always have differing viewpoints.


I do play Dragon Stompy. I also feel that it is well positioned right now. I am going to continue to play it until I feel that it is once again in bad shape. However, I do feel that it will only get better. I feel that it's only a matter of time before they print a fantastic hoser (likely against tribal or mono colored decks with basics in my dreams) at 2R. A fantastic creature at 2R or 3CMC wouldn't hurt either.

Typically, I would keep my trap shut since forums influence peoples' decisions about what to play. However, I feel that you don't care about Dragon Stompy if you never play against it. For the time being, it is played by an extremely small number of players (likely due to no exciting finishes). Therefore, it's just going to be a deck certain decks fold to.

It already has a great game one and with misstep, that's up to 4 more dead cards for them as others have mentioned. People are very greedy with their manabases right now which is why I'm surprised I don't see more stifle (if I'm missing something, I would love someone to explain why tempo decks aren't running stifle - wasteland stifle has traditionally been on a roller coaster coming in and our of favor as people tune their decks back and forth against this package).
It's true that SnT has been hard on Dragon Stompy but if you think you might face SnT at least DS has metamorph now.
Anarchy has already been a great out versus prog, moat, peacekeeper, etc.

I'm hopeful that there will be some top finishes with it sooner or later.

[ivanpei]

I think countertop is playable but only in the form of countertop thopther. In other builds, as mentioned before, counterbalance is just too easy to play around/through. In countertop thopther, the combo is more efficient because you have etutor to assemble it quickly. Also, it is the protection piece of choice once you have bridge down. You can't sandbag counterspells to protect bridge because that allows creatures through. Jace/counterbalance top are permanent based protection which do an excellent job of protecting your lock piece.

I also think countertop thopther is extremely underplayed. People are dropping grips from the board. I see stuff like needle/natures claim/ancient grudge replacing the grip spots. This is a good time for countertop thopthers. Countertop thopthers also mds 4 missteps (well at least I do) so it's a fair fight. Being able to run peacekeeper optimally G2 is also extremely awesome.

[bruizar]

Not so much a deck as it is a completely nuts card at the moment: Misdirection is underplayed.

[nayon]

Not so much a deck as it is a completely nuts card at the moment: Misdirection is underplayed.

Nowadays some people aren't playing 4 forces, and against Natural Order and Show and Tell decks, most people would rather have Forces than Misdirection. It's true that sometimes you can get insane value by misdirecting a Hymn or a Visions, but statistically it's probably not worth running more than 1.

[Shawon]

I think Elves Combo is underplayed. It was going uphill in popularity until Mental Mistep became legal, but then again Mistep makes going off with Glimpse a little harder. Still, the aggroish Elves combo decks could conceivably see more play.

[(nameless one)]

I think Elves Combo is underplayed. It was going uphill in popularity until Mental Mistep became legal, but then again Mistep makes going off with Glimpse a little harder. Still, the aggroish Elves combo decks could conceivably see more play.

I think you just explained why Elves Combo is underplayed.

I still think any Chalice based deck are underplayed. There are a lot of important spells out there that has a converted mana cost of 1.

I remember reading an article on how at the advent of Mental Misstep, decks are running more 1CC spells. Chalice based decks not only shuts down these spells it also shuts down Mental Misstep. I think its really good for Chalice decks right now that Force of Wills are getting switched with Mental Missteps.

[troopatroop]

I think you just explained why Elves Combo is underplayed.

I still think any Chalice based deck are underplayed. There are a lot of important spells out there that has a converted mana cost of 1.

I remember reading an article on how at the advent of Mental Misstep, decks are running more 1CC spells. Chalice based decks not only shuts down these spells it also shuts down Mental Misstep. I think its really good for Chalice decks right now that Force of Wills are getting switched with Mental Missteps.

Both these decks are inconsistant. Why? Because they don't/can't play Brainstorm. You can say that these decks are underplayed, and it appears that way because they have very high power levels, but the reason they're not getting played is because they lose to themselves 1/7 times. Chalice decks are infamous for this, and people are tired of it. Also, Combo taking a back seat was not what Chalice wanted to see.

[Amon Amarth]

I'd hardly say Elves loses to itself. Even if you fizzle while comboing off you still have a bunch of dudes in lay and I've won more than my fair share of games just bashing in with mana dorks and Lords. You don't need Brainstorm because Green has a ton of playable tutors.

[DukeDemonKn1ght]

I'd hardly say Elves loses to itself. Even if you fizzle while comboing off you still have a bunch of dudes in lay and I've won more than my fair share of games just bashing in with mana dorks and Lords. You don't need Brainstorm because Green has a ton of playable tutors.

This. Elves isn't top tier right now, obviously, but it's still a very respectable deck. It's also annoyingly good at playing defense against most aggro decks with a massive wall of dorks while it sets up again.

I'm pretty sure this qualifies as an Under the Radar deck, although I haven't tested it enough to know how good it is (I'm betting it's a little too reliant on sticking its setup.) ...But I played against this kid who used Fluctuator to cycle about a bazillion large vanilla creatures into his graveyard for free (often using landcycling dudes, which was pretty sweet), then... You guessed it, Cascade into Living End. It was worth a few chuckles, if nothing else. But IMO, Living End is much more of a card to watch than Hypergenesis ever will be. (I mean, FFS, Eureka exists if you really want that effect-- break out the wallet people )

EDIT: Speaking of Eureka, why has no one jammed that in a deck with Show and Tell yet to see what hilarity ensues? Seems like Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker would be pretty spicy, since Eureka works with any permanents.

[evanmartyr]

Given how easy it is to play, cheap to build, and inherently powerful, I'm surprised more people don't play belcher or some other similar combo. It gets wrecked by some things, sure (frequently itself, even), but it's good, cheap, and simple. Merfolk is the same, really, and it's all over the damn place.

[Julian23]

To be fair, Merfolk is way more expensive than Belcher.

I guess Belcher is played so little because most people just don't want to be "that Belcher guy...".

[Beatusnox]

Given how easy it is to play, cheap to build, and inherently powerful, I'm surprised more people don't play belcher or some other similar combo. It gets wrecked by some things, sure (frequently itself, even), but it's good, cheap, and simple. Merfolk is the same, really, and it's all over the damn place.

One land Blecher costs 270 dollars(or did when I priced it out). And while it is a good deck, in the current formant where the most common decks are blue I cannot advocate running it, nor advising people to run it. Beyond that, if you try two land belcher which has more protection and less explosiveness, It is less consistent and not as good of a deck, and cannot advocate running it. Right now, none of the combo decks out there are 'cheap', not for one with any consistency.

[Gheizen64]

This. Elves isn't top tier right now, obviously, but it's still a very respectable deck. It's also annoyingly good at playing defense against most aggro decks with a massive wall of dorks while it sets up again.

I'm pretty sure this qualifies as an Under the Radar deck, although I haven't tested it enough to know how good it is (I'm betting it's a little too reliant on sticking its setup.) ...But I played against this kid who used Fluctuator to cycle about a bazillion large vanilla creatures into his graveyard for free (often using landcycling dudes, which was pretty sweet), then... You guessed it, Cascade into Living End. It was worth a few chuckles, if nothing else. But IMO, Living End is much more of a card to watch than Hypergenesis ever will be. (I mean, FFS, Eureka exists if you really want that effect-- break out the wallet people )

EDIT: Speaking of Eureka, why has no one jammed that in a deck with Show and Tell yet to see what hilarity ensues? Seems like Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker would be pretty spicy, since Eureka works with any permanents.

Fluctuator + Cascade = gigafail

If you use fluctuator, your win condition should be something on the lines of Songs of the damned + drain effect.

Living end as a deck is just a worse Hypergenesis, especially after the printing of the chancellor that allow you to go off T1 stupidly often.

[(nameless one)]

It would be hilarious to see someone cascade into a Fluctuator though.