badjuju
09-03-2008, 04:27 PM
Hey guys,
This is my first post on the forums. A friend referred me here saying that I'd find a great casual forum.
I've always been interested in playing prison-type decks (ie. stax) and wanted to take a softer lock to the casual tables with a few non-hardcore friends. After searching for a long time, I came across a Masques block deck titled "Rising Waters", featuring a lock using Rising Waters and Rishadan Port. How does the deck create an advantage out of this situation? The deck then uses cards such as Thwart, Daze, and Gush to return Islands to hand to ensure that you'll always be one step ahead of your opponent. The rest of the deck revolves around various cantrips, counterspells, bounces, and efficient/evasive creatures to round off a win.
Here is an early decklist:
RISING WATERS
// Lands
18 [PT] Island
4 [MM] Rishadan Port
// Creatures
4 [MM] Waterfront Bouncer
4 [MM] Ribbon Snake
4 Floodbringer
// Spells
4 [MM] Eye of Ramos
4 [NE] Rising Waters
3 [MM] Thwart
2 [PY] Foil
4 [MM] Gush
3 [NE] Daze
3 [MM] Counterspell
3 [NE] Seal of Removal
[B]CARD BREAKDOWN
Mana Production
-Islands: are important to work with Gush, Daze, Foil, Thwart, Waterfront Bouncer, and Stinging Barrier.
-Rishadan Port: creates a soft-lock on your opponent's mana base. As long you have a port and ways to create +1 mana each turn, your opponent will always have 0-1 mana (granted they don't have miscellaneous accelerants).
-Eye of Ramos: is alright. The original build runs this. Since several cards in the deck actually require U in the CC, Ramos is better than it seems. The sacrifice ability could come in handy.
-Sky Diamond : comes into play tapped, but a turn earlier.
-Talisman of Dominance : probably the best idea here. What do you guys think?
Creature Selection
-Waterfront Bouncer (utility): is excellent for constantly sending your opponent's creatures back where they came from. Not only does this create tempo, but will completely stall your opponent once you get Rising Waters out. The extra cards can be gained later on from the use of the "return island" cards.
-Stinging Barrier (defense/removal/dome): solid body and an ability that can go a long way in several matchups. The main problems with this card are its somewhat steeper mana cost, the U cost in the activation, and it's relative weakness in the late game.
-Floodbringer (utility/dome): acts as a second piece to the Rising Waters soft lock. The returning of a land to hand means you will be able to use this ability every turn. Since the ability also doesn't require you to tap Floodbringer, you can go ahead and swing with her every turn straight to the dome. Her weakness is a rather small body.
-Ribbon Snake (defense/dome): a 2/3 body with flying for 2U is very strong (in fact, the only one of its kind). The "pay 2 to remove flying" becomes less relevant when the lock pieces are out, making this a solid choice for a very cheap price.
-Drake Hatchling (defense/dome): weaker version of Ribbon Snake. The ability to pump once is actually inferior to the drawbacks of Ribbon Snake imo.
-Rainbow Efreet (dome): this is probably one of the better creatures for the deck, just based on the fact that it can protect itself (pretty damn relevant in casuals, never know what sorts of random stuff you'll run into). However, the UU cost of phasing out can take its toll on the mana.
-Rishadan Airship (dome): cheaper than Rainbow Efreet, but cannot block or protect itself.
-Wall of Air (defense): great power/toughness for its cost. Problem? Doesn't do much m else. I'd probably pair this one with Rainbow Efreet (since it doesn't have an activation cost, comes out earlier to buy time for Efreet mana, and allows me to use that extra mana for Efreet).
- Meloku, the Clouded Mirror(everything): perfect for the deck. Unfortunately, mana cost is a bit too steep for my tastes.
-Troublesome Spirit and Chimeric Idol : work well if you don't even plan on untapping (and work even more well with the return island spells).
The creatures in this deck want to stay clear of heavy casting costs for obvious reasons. Therefore, finding the largest top and bottom ends for the cheapest prices becomes pivotal to create a mana-efficient clock. Rising Waters relies on tempo advantage and land-locking to win, which is why I believe cards like Meloku are best reserved for decks that have mana to spare (because Rising Waters will not allow us to be so carefree about what we spend with our mana). The Troublesome Spirit / Chimeric Idol offers the least amount of utility (kills the soft lock), but is definitely a beefy combo worth mentioning.
Spells
-Rising Waters: the soft lock of the deck. Combined with Rishadan Port, Floodbringer, and various return Island to hand spells, creates an advantageous rift in tempo.
-Daze: early soft counter, returns an island, becomes a near-hard counter with the Rising Waters lock out. All around solid.
-Thwart: this doubles as a way to keep up your mana once Rising Waters is out. Returning Islands to hand becomes much less of a disadvantage in this scenario (also allows for cards to pitch to Waterfront Bouncer).
-Gush: the ultimate card-draw spell in this deck for the same reasons as the previous latter two.
-Foil: is terribly disadvantageous, but you will find that the deck will have tons of cards in hand from the previous mentioned spells. With all of these alt-cost counterspells, you'll have your opponent guessing to no end. Only two because it's for emergencies, not particularly for constant use.
-Seal of Removal: cheap bounce, turn 1 play. I don't think anything beats what it does for that cost.
-Boomerang: would be more ideal since it gets rid of more things. Its competition is with Seal of Removal, and Seal has the "drop this turn 1 and save it for when I need it" whereas Boomerang requires the spell to be cast later.
-Counterspell: self explanatory hard counter.
-Brainstorm: a bit weak in testing. No deck manipulation really just makes this one a cantrip/card hiding/stack thing. Still really good, but probably not in this deck.
Let me know what you guys think!
UPDATE
Several card suggestions:
-Winter Orb
-Rhystic Study
-Propoganda
This is my first post on the forums. A friend referred me here saying that I'd find a great casual forum.
I've always been interested in playing prison-type decks (ie. stax) and wanted to take a softer lock to the casual tables with a few non-hardcore friends. After searching for a long time, I came across a Masques block deck titled "Rising Waters", featuring a lock using Rising Waters and Rishadan Port. How does the deck create an advantage out of this situation? The deck then uses cards such as Thwart, Daze, and Gush to return Islands to hand to ensure that you'll always be one step ahead of your opponent. The rest of the deck revolves around various cantrips, counterspells, bounces, and efficient/evasive creatures to round off a win.
Here is an early decklist:
RISING WATERS
// Lands
18 [PT] Island
4 [MM] Rishadan Port
// Creatures
4 [MM] Waterfront Bouncer
4 [MM] Ribbon Snake
4 Floodbringer
// Spells
4 [MM] Eye of Ramos
4 [NE] Rising Waters
3 [MM] Thwart
2 [PY] Foil
4 [MM] Gush
3 [NE] Daze
3 [MM] Counterspell
3 [NE] Seal of Removal
[B]CARD BREAKDOWN
Mana Production
-Islands: are important to work with Gush, Daze, Foil, Thwart, Waterfront Bouncer, and Stinging Barrier.
-Rishadan Port: creates a soft-lock on your opponent's mana base. As long you have a port and ways to create +1 mana each turn, your opponent will always have 0-1 mana (granted they don't have miscellaneous accelerants).
-Eye of Ramos: is alright. The original build runs this. Since several cards in the deck actually require U in the CC, Ramos is better than it seems. The sacrifice ability could come in handy.
-Sky Diamond : comes into play tapped, but a turn earlier.
-Talisman of Dominance : probably the best idea here. What do you guys think?
Creature Selection
-Waterfront Bouncer (utility): is excellent for constantly sending your opponent's creatures back where they came from. Not only does this create tempo, but will completely stall your opponent once you get Rising Waters out. The extra cards can be gained later on from the use of the "return island" cards.
-Stinging Barrier (defense/removal/dome): solid body and an ability that can go a long way in several matchups. The main problems with this card are its somewhat steeper mana cost, the U cost in the activation, and it's relative weakness in the late game.
-Floodbringer (utility/dome): acts as a second piece to the Rising Waters soft lock. The returning of a land to hand means you will be able to use this ability every turn. Since the ability also doesn't require you to tap Floodbringer, you can go ahead and swing with her every turn straight to the dome. Her weakness is a rather small body.
-Ribbon Snake (defense/dome): a 2/3 body with flying for 2U is very strong (in fact, the only one of its kind). The "pay 2 to remove flying" becomes less relevant when the lock pieces are out, making this a solid choice for a very cheap price.
-Drake Hatchling (defense/dome): weaker version of Ribbon Snake. The ability to pump once is actually inferior to the drawbacks of Ribbon Snake imo.
-Rainbow Efreet (dome): this is probably one of the better creatures for the deck, just based on the fact that it can protect itself (pretty damn relevant in casuals, never know what sorts of random stuff you'll run into). However, the UU cost of phasing out can take its toll on the mana.
-Rishadan Airship (dome): cheaper than Rainbow Efreet, but cannot block or protect itself.
-Wall of Air (defense): great power/toughness for its cost. Problem? Doesn't do much m else. I'd probably pair this one with Rainbow Efreet (since it doesn't have an activation cost, comes out earlier to buy time for Efreet mana, and allows me to use that extra mana for Efreet).
- Meloku, the Clouded Mirror(everything): perfect for the deck. Unfortunately, mana cost is a bit too steep for my tastes.
-Troublesome Spirit and Chimeric Idol : work well if you don't even plan on untapping (and work even more well with the return island spells).
The creatures in this deck want to stay clear of heavy casting costs for obvious reasons. Therefore, finding the largest top and bottom ends for the cheapest prices becomes pivotal to create a mana-efficient clock. Rising Waters relies on tempo advantage and land-locking to win, which is why I believe cards like Meloku are best reserved for decks that have mana to spare (because Rising Waters will not allow us to be so carefree about what we spend with our mana). The Troublesome Spirit / Chimeric Idol offers the least amount of utility (kills the soft lock), but is definitely a beefy combo worth mentioning.
Spells
-Rising Waters: the soft lock of the deck. Combined with Rishadan Port, Floodbringer, and various return Island to hand spells, creates an advantageous rift in tempo.
-Daze: early soft counter, returns an island, becomes a near-hard counter with the Rising Waters lock out. All around solid.
-Thwart: this doubles as a way to keep up your mana once Rising Waters is out. Returning Islands to hand becomes much less of a disadvantage in this scenario (also allows for cards to pitch to Waterfront Bouncer).
-Gush: the ultimate card-draw spell in this deck for the same reasons as the previous latter two.
-Foil: is terribly disadvantageous, but you will find that the deck will have tons of cards in hand from the previous mentioned spells. With all of these alt-cost counterspells, you'll have your opponent guessing to no end. Only two because it's for emergencies, not particularly for constant use.
-Seal of Removal: cheap bounce, turn 1 play. I don't think anything beats what it does for that cost.
-Boomerang: would be more ideal since it gets rid of more things. Its competition is with Seal of Removal, and Seal has the "drop this turn 1 and save it for when I need it" whereas Boomerang requires the spell to be cast later.
-Counterspell: self explanatory hard counter.
-Brainstorm: a bit weak in testing. No deck manipulation really just makes this one a cantrip/card hiding/stack thing. Still really good, but probably not in this deck.
Let me know what you guys think!
UPDATE
Several card suggestions:
-Winter Orb
-Rhystic Study
-Propoganda