Scroll is cheaper than Jitte-it's a turn 1 "I'll Hymn you and cast Scroll". It's also colorless damage, and doesn't need a creature on the board. By taking out Scroll, you'll let a single white knight kick your ass game one. How chump blocking a Jitte-equipped creature in Legacy is too easy="Block with my Fanatic(or Legionarre)-before damage, I'll sac and hit you." As for Jitte being 'Life, in a pinch', there's Gerrard's Verdict, which is a) A 2 for 1. b) Able to call out land bluffing. c) Allows for self-targeting, enabling life gain in a 'pinch'.
Go ahead and test Jitte. Against everything. Just please, do me a favor, and next post, use capitalization. Once again, this isn't the magic.com's boards, where every deck is made better by "+4 x JITTE cuz it pwnzzz".
Thank you.
First of all: The deck is not new, it is called Yin/Yang and it is a quite old Archetype. So don't call it Pikula.dec, call it YinYang like you don't say Threash-Gro but NQG.
Jitte is really, really bad in this kind of Deck. Your creatures are all great threats to your opponent even without the Jitte. Every control deck must get rid off any Creature on the Board, if it wears a Jitte or not. Combo gets crushed by Confidant and Specter, Jitte or not. And vs. Goblins it is okay, but you just don't have the time to equip Jitte, and if they shoot the equipped creature you lose about 2 turns, don't play Jitte in this Deck.
It may be insane, if you play cards like Mesmeric Fiend and Black Knight, but then you have a different deck. This deck is good too, but it is different. You have to concentrate on 1 strategy, beatdown/Discard or resource denial.
Cursed Scroll domes the player, Jitte does not. This is key in the control match. 11 Creatures, by testing mind you, is far too low to support equipment like Jitte. You'd need more to be able to reliably have a creatures + Jitte that way if your 1 creature gets iced you don't have a useless Legendary permanent. If you follow the game plan of the deck, you shouldn't have the available mana to play and equip a Jitte because you will be casting disruption. If you do, then something is wrong.. Either you are winning and in control, or losing horribly and have run out of gas (which means you likely have no creatures anyway.)Originally Posted by effang
Edit: Btw, I refuse to call it Yin-Yang, no matter how old the archtype is. Deadguy Ale is just a much cooler name.
Edited By CorruptedAngel on 1132270328
Team Albany: What's Legacy?
You cannot know the sweetness of Victory, without first dwelling in the agony of Defeat.
Obviously everyone likes this deck, since it placed second and is so cool. However, I think even Pikula would agree that some changes could be made.
First, I think Gerrard's Verdict and Cursed Scroll should be taken out of the deck. Verdict is not a good discard spell, and it isn't a good lifegain spell; rather it's in between these two. For a tempo-oriented deck, this kind of dilution is unacceptable. Scroll, while a good source of recurring damage, soaks up three mana per turn. This is not efficient use of mana, especially in a deck that is trying to swing the game very early on.
For replacements, StP is the first obvious card. Either three or four of these maindeck will basically finish up any problems with the Goblins matchup, and take care of Werebears and Mystic Enforcers. (Additionally, StP can function as bad lifegain if Bob is going to kill you). Secondly, I think the fourth Shade and two Jittes should be included. Jitte is powerful removal - in my opinion better than scroll, because it activates for free. Additionally, it can finish a damage race quickly once active (and offers lifegain to offset Bob).
My proposed changes:
-2 Engineered Plague
-2 Gerrard's Verdict
-2 Cursed Scroll
-1 Tainted Field
-1 Swamp
+1 Shade
+2 Jitte
+3 StP
+2 Polluted Delta
SB:
4 Engineered Plague
4 Withered Wretch
3 Pithing Needle
3 Seal of Cleansing
1 Swords to Plowshares/Darkblast
The sideboard is pretty open. I can easily see Null Rod making an appearance in the future.
You just contradicted yourself. You said that in a tempo oriented deck that Verdict is too diluted and that Cursed Scroll is an inefficient manasink. So is Jitte. In a Tempo oriented deck you should be tapping out every turn to disrupt them with 1for1 and 2for1 trades. Verdict is good in this case because it is a 2for1 trade with your opponent, or you sacrifice some cards to gain life if Bob will kill you. Jitte requires mana to play and equip to one of the (with your suggestions) 12 creatures in the deck and then requires you to actually connect. I honestly would much rather be playing disruption and creatures every turn, than essentially wasting a turn or two to play/equip Jitte. I do, however agree that Cursed Scroll isn't optimal, but it's better than Jitte in this scenario.
Also, I strongly, STRONGLY disagree with the removal of Engineered Plagues from the maindeck. In a heavy Goblin environment (which this deck was metagamed for), E.Plagues are an excellent way of giving you a better shot game 1 than you typically would have. Removing them when Goblins doesn't seem to be going anywhere seems highly suspect. If you are going to make changes I would believe they'd be more along the lines of taking out scrolls for perhaps STP. In my testing I've just found Verdict to be too good as essentially Hymn 5 and 6. 2 For 1's are some good.
Team Albany: What's Legacy?
You cannot know the sweetness of Victory, without first dwelling in the agony of Defeat.
Jitte takes 4 mana to cast and then activate. Cursed Scroll takes 4 mana to cast and activate.Originally Posted by CorruptedAngel
After that, Jitte requires no mana, while cursed scroll takes 3 mana for every subsequent activation. Jitte can act like a Cursed Scroll by killing a 2 toughness creature every turn, or it can do 4 extra damage per turn, or it can gain life. I think the lifegain is actually important with Bobs in the deck. Jitte isn't well curved for this deck, but they are versatile and powerful and I think 2 is the right number.
Regarding the Verdicts: I don't think you need more than 8 discard spells. The deck already runs 4 duress, 4 hymn, and 4 hippie. That is already a huge amount of hand disruption. Verdict just isn't that strong of a card. It certainly doesn't match the power level of the other cards in the deck.
I'm also not sure about plague. I don't think two plagues maindeck is the right number. If you are really worried about Goblins, play three or four, and you have to take out something else. The plagues are pretty bad against most other decks which is why I am hesitant to run them. Goblins can easily smash through 1 Engineered Plague, so I don't agree at all with only two maindeck. I would rather run then in the side and rely on other removal like StP and Jitte.
Jitte also requires a creature to be equipped on, as well as successful swings to make it worth while. We can all agree that the currect format is flooded with creature based decks, and therefore, powerful instant speed creature removals.Originally Posted by Machinus
If you taken a look at Akki's post in the Tournement report, you'll see how painful a virtual Time Walk created by Lynx is. Same thing happens to you when you equip the Jitte and swing, only to have it Natrualized, creature StPed, etc. These are virtually mana and tempo wasted.
The whole arguement about late game reach is also flawed. If both players are top decking, 90% of the times you will not have a creature on the board, top decking a Jitte in that situation does aboslutely nothing.
Also, on the slim possiblity of drawing both, at least Scroll can be both activated, where the second Jitte is sitting dead. The situation amplifies if there is no creature to even put the Jitte on.
With all that in mind, I completely agree with CorruptedAngel that Scroll is much better than Jitte in this particular instance. Again, Jitte is not an auto-inclusion in every deck under the sun that runs creatures.
Side note, if Wombat and this deck are both gaining popularity, it wouldn't be long before facing multiple of those damned RoP: Black. Scroll is so infinintely better in that situation, but that's a couple of month down the road.
Nothing witty to say.
This makes sense when you look at it that it's 4 and 4 for the playing and first activation. You are correct that Scrolls would cost 3 for every subsequent activation, Jitte still costs 2 for every subsequent activation. You only have 11-12 Creatures, and the odds aren't that shabby for your opponent having some or topdecking some form of removal for your creatures. Darkblast, for example, can kill every single one of your creatures except for a Shade that's been pumped more than once by making use of it's Dredge ability. This essentially requires you to make subsequent activations of the Jitte to equip it over and over. If you have no creatures, it sits idle like a Scroll might in parts of the game, but it also makes the other Jitte a dead card in your deck. The only true benefit of the Jitte over Scroll is the lifegain, but again it requires your creatures surviving to put counters on the Jitte... and from my experience with the deck, if your creatures are surviving and connecting, you are winning... regardless of the Jitte.After that, Jitte requires no mana, while cursed scroll takes 3 mana for every subsequent activation. Jitte can act like a Cursed Scroll by killing a 2 toughness creature every turn, or it can do 4 extra damage per turn, or it can gain life. I think the lifegain is actually important with Bobs in the deck. Jitte isn't well curved for this deck, but they are versatile and powerful and I think 2 is the right number.
Perhaps, and I welcome any testing that removes Verdicts for something else. I like them a lot due to the fact that it allows you another 2 for 1. There were times in testing when I needed a discard spell and drew Verdict. If Verdict was an StP, I probably would have lost those games. I agree they may not match the powerlevel of the other discard spells in the deck, but they serve a niche as two functions essentially; And that "dilution" is more of a Flexibility... hitting your opponent for 2 cards or discarding 2 lands to gain 6 life.Regarding the Verdicts: I don't think you need more than 8 discard spells. The deck already runs 4 duress, 4 hymn, and 4 hippie. That is already a huge amount of hand disruption. Verdict just isn't that strong of a card. It certainly doesn't match the power level of the other cards in the deck.
Two might not be the right number; but in any metagame where you are expecting Goblins to be in force, zero is definately the wrong number. Goblins have answers to Plague, so giving yourself even 2 cards advantage during Game 1 is a huge boon, as it allows you to either win game 2 or discover what answers were brought in for your plague and board accordingly. For example: Game 2 they bring in Patron or Fledgling Dragon and they beat you with it, you now have Game 3 to bring in StP for that threat. Honestly, 2 may feel too little, but I would much rather have 2 going into Game 1, than none at all. As a Goblin player, I can also say that I'd hate to see my opponent with ANY Plagues in their deck Game 1. As for it being bad against other decks, it's not as horrible as it seems:I'm also not sure about plague. I don't think two plagues maindeck is the right number. If you are really worried about Goblins, play three or four, and you have to take out something else. The plagues are pretty bad against most other decks which is why I am hesitant to run them. Goblins can easily smash through 1 Engineered Plague, so I don't agree at all with only two maindeck. I would rather run then in the side and rely on other removal like StP and Jitte.
Wombat/Rifter: You can name Soldiers to shut off Decree.
Fish: Trickier, but Wizards, Faeries, and Drakes are all options depending on their build.
Goblins: duh.
Tog: Okay fairly dead here, unless they are running the Combo version that has Zombie Infestation, then Zombie is a good call. In Game 1 you can stall by naming Atog to make them have to pitch/remove more cards and delay the innevitable, hopefully by long enough for you to get your win on.
Gro/NQG/Thresh: Decently dead, so if you Verdict yourself you can pitch it if you have only 1 land.
Elves: heh...
R/GSA: Elves, Birds... Game 1 It can keep them off acceleration.
Landstill: Soldiers, and the deck sucks. So be a good disruption player and beat the blue deck.
Solidarity: Dead along with every other creature hate card, this is obvious...
I mean, there honestly are a lot of targets that may not quite be crippling, but can deal damage to name Game 1 should the Plagues be drawn. It's enough of a boon vs. Goblins and can be a decent mitigation tactic against other decks that having 2-3 in your MD isn't really going to hurt you much unless you run into Solidarity every round.
Edited By CorruptedAngel on 1132278109
Team Albany: What's Legacy?
You cannot know the sweetness of Victory, without first dwelling in the agony of Defeat.
Test it. I've been playing it a bit, and A)Burning Wish isn't really that expensive. There are a lot of good targets that run 1 mana or have an alternate casting cost(Massacre is tech against WW and Goblins splashing white(and theoretically the mirror match vs B/W)), plus Therapy, Innocent Blood, and Unearth.Originally Posted by noobslayer
B)The deck can actually support more expensive Wish targets, due to Confidant and Dark Ritual ensuring more mana than most aggro decks.
C)Having 4x Lavamancer, 2-3x Scroll, and 3-4x Darkblast in the main is a ridiculous board control machine.
If you test it and can give me a good reason it's bad, then I'll listen, but test it first.
I swear to God, the next person who thinks they're clever because their pal Eddy the Cross-Dressing Hobo once built a deck with Hyppies and Vindicates so HA! iTz n0t n3W iTz KALD EDDY-ZOO n00bz!1!!one! will get a hammer in the kidney faster than you can say Putrid Warrior. Playing a somewhat similiar deck that sucked because you suck and your friends suck and your shitty meta-game is shit in no way mitigates the innovation of Pikula making a list that actually works.
Edited By SpatulaOfTheAges on 1132278639
Early one morning while making the round,
I took a shot of cocaine and I shot my woman down;
I went right home and I went to bed,
I stuck that lovin' .44 beneath my head.
Okay, Pikula did not reinvent the wheel here, he merely gave it some better treads so that it could grip the road better. This is partially because these treads were not around for the rest of us to build this deck before Ravnica came out. This archetype is not new, but it is viable now due to the printing of Confidant. Now I do concede that noone else built this deck, and so therefore Pikula gets props for innovating it and playing it.
Onto the deck: I believe the Gerrard's Verdict is VERY good in this deck. Redundancy is key. Having 10 discard spells is enough to disrupt, especially going 6x 2for1. If you think about it, whichever strategy this deck goes for, he has at least 10 ways to go about it, which is why the deck is so effecient. He has 10 discard spells, 14 w/ hippie, he has 12 land destruction, and 13 beatdown cards.
I believe that Plague is a very good card in this deck, as it can possibly clear the board against a lot of decks, while leaving your men standing.
Before we start breaking the deck apart it might be beneficial to make changes that fix the short comings, based on the play it has seen already.
I got a chance to talk to Pikula in between rounds (he is an awsome guy btw) and the one thing he kept mentioning was how he tended to bring in Withered Wretch in practically every matchup. He also admitted he was luck in drawing his Engineered Plagues in a timely fassion. I asked about jitte as well, just for the hell of it: He agreed that it had decent synergy with the deck, but greatly weakened the redundancy of the disruption.
Some food for thought, from the designer himself.
Quoted for truth. Pikula is the nicest Magic player ever. He also said that Negator seemed to be a dead sideboard card, and that he'd up the StP count.Originally Posted by Happy Gilmore
@Verdict: 6 2 for 1's are some good. In my opinion, it's a mental struggle as well when they have to choose(instead of random, when a good player will set their hand down).
@Scroll: Taking this out for Jitte? Let's say no. Once and for all.
@ Red splash: I would like to see the list, but I think a 3rd color makes for a tougher mana base to achieve-I could see running a few Badlands for choice cards (I saw Lavamancer mentioned, I'm not sure if that would be the correct choice, when you could just add more Scrolls for colorless damage).
It is important to note that Chris recommends leaving the Scrolls in. Feel free to read his SCG article about the GP and his deck. Scroll is an important win condition against control decks. It is distinctly a card that Landstill and other control decks hate to see. Plus, it's not too shabby against Goblins. Chris also mentions that the deck can not fully support Jitte because of the low creature count.
All of which we've discussed. What we haven't discussed is what Negator's slot would be better suited as. For now, I'm suggesting Phyrexian Scuta for two reasons-one, you can just let it be a chump blocker in times of need while all it will ever deal to you is 3 damage, two, Juzam Djinns are hard to come by.
I think he'd cut Negators for Plows.
Personally, I don't think that Jitte's anywhere near the level of that Cursed Scroll card. You have 11 creatures. Jitte won't stay attached to anything relevant, or be drawn at the right times. Scroll while a little mana-intensive is downright rude at both creature control and provides reach - something that Jitte singluarly does not do.
A few things:
More discussion should be had about running Therapy in the Verdict Slot. Hear me out before you get all up in arms. I agree with those that say the discard redundancy is important, particularly in control matchups. I also recognize that Verdict helps mitigate life loss from Confidant.
The pros of Therapy:
1. Great synergy with Duress. Is also often a two-for-1, or even more in certain circumstances.
2. It's 1cc. It has great synergy with Ritual, gives you another first turn play, and rounds out your curve better.
3. Hurts less when drawn with a Confidant.
4. Gives you a way to get rid of your own Confidants if they become a liability, which the deck is currently lacking, unless you include Vindicate, which I'd much rather be sending towards my opponent's side of the table. Turns your creatures into additional hand disruption when necessary.
5. Doesn't give your opponent the luxury of choosing what to discard. Therapy in conjunction with Hymn is savagely strong against the Burn matchup in particular, because they're so redundant. It's also a strong play after your Goblins opponent tutors up a card with Matron and passes the turn.
The obvious drawback is that it doesn't gain you life, but that's somewhat mitigated by the ability to remove your Confidants in a pinch. PLEASE NOTE: I'm not saying it's strictly superior, I'm just suggesting it deserves testing.
@Scroll:
I agree with Pikula on this one; Scrolls shouldn't be removed. They're a colorless lategame finisher that don't require use of the attack phase. This can't be stressed enough. The format is currently rife with decks that hate on decks that rely on the attack phase. This is a backlash from Goblins' immense popularity and is consequently why most aggro strategies simply aren't cutting it. Scroll keeps you from being one of them.
@Spatula:
In my experience with the B/x aggro-control archetype (and I've had lots and lots), the archetype's greatest weakness is a general inability to answer problematical artifacts and enchantments. The red splash gives you answers to artifacts, but none at all to enchantments. Problem enchantments include Survival, Worship, Moat, Lightning Rift, and Humility. Vindicate provides a remedy to these problem, while also acting as creature removal, and perhaps most importantly, as additional land destruction. The versatility of Vindicate alone makes the white splash unquestionably the best, in my mind.
My oppinion on Cabal Therapy...not enough critters to make it truly effective. There isn't one creature in the deck that I would want to sac to therapy, ever.See Scrolls. Anyway, has anyone bothered to figure out the average life loss Dark confidant will cause over the entire cc range of the deck. With 22 land and alot of cheap spells, How is confidant really a liability to anyone but the player on the other side of the table?Gives you a way to get rid of your own Confidants if they become a liability, which the deck is currently lacking, unless you include Vindicate, which I'd much rather be sending towards my opponent's side of the table.
When other people do not assert themselves, they may still have something to be proud of, something that they believe is unrivalled, but it is just that they have not got the same vulgarity of throwing their weight about and imposing themselves and their beliefs on other people. - Dunduzu Kalui Chisiza
If you think a topic is dumb, don't add to it. Pretty simple. - Bardo
This might be a logical argument if they didn't do anything on their own, which they do. Plus, there are only two in the deck.Originally Posted by umbowta
When I could be doming my opponent with them? No thanks. Scroll and Verdict targeting your own Confidant is -2 card advantage. Saccing Confidant to Therapy (assuming you hit at least one card) is -0 card advantage. Personally, I'm a fan of card advantage.See Scrolls.Gives you a way to get rid of your own Confidants if they become a liability, which the deck is currently lacking, unless you include Vindicate, which I'd much rather be sending towards my opponent's side of the table.
When you're at 3 or less life and you enter your draw phase. If you believe this is uncommon, you haven't tested the deck. No offense.With 22 land and alot of cheap spells, How is confidant really a liability to anyone but the player on the other side of the table?
I really can't argue too much with you on this. I've only tested the deck in 6 games so far and have not yet been in the situation where I saw Confidant as a liability.The only reason I mentioned this was because you commented that the deck had no way to remove the Confidant, if it becomes a liabilty, besides Vindicate. I assert that you simply overlooked the scroll. I understand your point about card advantage, but, in the situation you proposed, card advantage means nothing if you die in your upkeep. Don't let me convince you though. Do your own testing and make your own choice.Quote
Quote
Gives you a way to get rid of your own Confidants if they become a liability, which the deck is currently lacking, unless you include Vindicate, which I'd much rather be sending towards my opponent's side of the table.
See Scrolls.
When I could be doming my opponent with them? No thanks. Scroll and Verdict targeting your own Confidant is -2 card advantage. Saccing Confidant to Therapy (assuming you hit at least one card) is -0 card advantage. Personally, I'm a fan of card advantage.
EDIT know what? Heres the card advantage.
Gerards Verdict= 1 for 2
Scroll = We all know already of the advatage this card can create
Therapy
Cast it = maybe whiff, maybe get one, two or more if you're lucky
Flashback = - 1 good critter, in this deck, maybe whiff(you better not, noob) Maybe get two if you're lucky
Therapy is a gamble, Verdict and Scroll are consistent.
End EDIT
When other people do not assert themselves, they may still have something to be proud of, something that they believe is unrivalled, but it is just that they have not got the same vulgarity of throwing their weight about and imposing themselves and their beliefs on other people. - Dunduzu Kalui Chisiza
If you think a topic is dumb, don't add to it. Pretty simple. - Bardo
Quoted for truth. I think the sideboard needs more work than the actual deck. Mainly, the Negators. I'm sure more StP would fill the slot nicely, but is Withered Wretch really the best two drop available for Black? Off the top of my head, Black Knight, Hand of Cruelty, maybe even Fallen Askari?Originally Posted by umbowta
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