Reagens
06-15-2010, 07:22 AM
Disclaimer: This deck was originally (to my knowledge) designed by Andrew Shugart and performed well with it at SCG Atlanta.
Since the price of Eureka skyrocketed I was interested myself.
The original deck by Andrew:
Maindeck:
Artifacts
4 Lotus Petal
Creatures
4 Noble Hierarch
Instants
4 Brainstorm
4 Daze
4 Force Of Will
4 Mystical Tutor
1 Wipe Away
Legendary Creatures
4 Emrakul, The Aeons Torn
4 Progenitus
Sorceries
3 Eureka
4 Ponder
4 Show And Tell
Basic Lands
1 Forest
3 Island
Lands
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Tropical Island
Sideboard:
3 Blazing Archon
4 Faerie Macabre
4 Form Of The Dragon
4 Mindbreak Trap
The deck functions fairly simple and is designed to cheat a fatty into play turn 2-3 preferably with counter back-up.
I started testing myself and found out several problems with the deck:
- sometimes you get flooded by 1 of the 2 combo pieces and can't get the other, despite the abundance in cantrips.
- especially finding a creature can be excruciatingly difficult
- once and a while aggro can race you
- the sideboard is underwhelming to say the least
- when pressured, the manabase can be flimsy
- if you lose the 'surprise' factor you have to play VERY differently. Daze is next to useless then
First testings indicated that daze was a hard counter since most opponents tap out in their turns 1-2 (definetly) and mostly turn 3 as well. In those cases daze was as good as (or even better then) force.
Alas if your opponent doesn't then the card is practically a blank and only nets you a little tempo.
Considering the above problems I have done the following:
-4 daze
+4 intuition
Intuition is in effect a tutor that sets up a win the following turn. The fact that you can tutor up anything from protection to a creature is a very big help. I think the added consistency is definetly worth the loss of daze.
The real problem is the sideboard and sideboarding itself.
Most people don't know how to board against this deck and it is very difficult to asses what they are sideboarding in/out. Because of that it is possible that your opponent still has some creature removal in his deck (rendering blazing archon a big liability) and even form of the dragon gets answered from time to time (I don't even understand what people are thinking boarding krosan grip in).
Both are also prone to bounce which is bad news as well.
On the other hand faerie macabre is a house against several difficult decks and 4 anti combo slots are useful as well. Though I doubt if trap is the best answer to combo.
There are several routes open to this deck and I'll discuss a few (but this is definetly where I am hoping to get some new input, because I have the feeling I am chasing my own tail solving this). The objective is to replace form of the dragon and/or Archon with better solutions)
Problem 1: creatures with a CiP ability (Sower of temptation, stingscouger)
This can really ruin your day and it happens quite often that you NEED the annihilator 6 to survive long enough. Progenitus sometimes isn't fast enough to win you the game.
Problem 2: mana disruption.
Like I said some people keep their creature removal and it's mostly still there because they figure that it is not entirely dead because they can always point it at hierarch. Combined with either stifle/wasteland you can get into trouble quite quickly. Mostly those are decks that also run daze (MD) and spell pierce (SB).
Problem 3: spells/abilities that require you to sac a creature (edict etc).
Although this problem is somewhat offset by hierarch I can assure you that since people tend not to board out al their spot removal, this can be a very big threat to the deck.
Solutions considered:
Enable a hasted Emrakul/Progenitus.
This can be achieved through concordant crossroads, but can this really be a good idea? Especially with progenitus you can be overrun by a hasted 'goyf or 2.
A completely different kill post-board, thus suprising your opponent.
Leyline of the void + helm of obedience comes to mind. There are several other options but most take too much time to set up.
The fact that you can't put planeswalkers into play with show and tell shuts you off from a very interesting option as well (bolas)
Protection against some of the more disrupting strategies:
Teferi's response comes to mind. You gain tempo, card advantage and is a must counter for your opponent.
Kira Great-glass spinner is another option that helps you protect your Emrakul from CiP abilities and from sac effects as well.
Stifle is an answer to both but requires you to have mana open the turn you 'combo'.
Match-ups:
Although I haven't been able to thouroughly test the deck some first results:
Merfolk: clock + disruptio + islandwalk = problems. I doubt this can become a positive match-up through sideboarding. If you can land a turn 2 progenitus/emrakul you stand a chance but past that you're in bad shape.
Bant: depending on the build this is a quite positive match-up (even if they are running progenitus). Their clock is not extremely fast and when you take your time to make their dazes useless you have the same countermagic but this deck has more ways to find counter-backup.
Ichorid: Litlle testing, but quite positive. If they can't disrupt you turn 1-2 they quickly face a fatty. Emrakul is game over in that case.
Goblins: If they don't have the turn 1 lackey then you should be fine. Always make sure to have counter-backup for their weirding.
Tempo-*****: Surprisingly even when they 'only' run stifle/waste/force/daze but once they have Jace, Mind sculptor/ Sower of temptation/Vendillion Clique. It becomes very difficult.
As a conclusion I would want to say that it's a very fun deck to play. It'll never be a Tier 1 deck but it can certainly surprise an unprepared metagame. Because of availability issues with Eureka people will have difficulty playing without mistakes against the deck which is of course a big advantage.
Any comments/suggestions are welcome of course!
Well that's it for me.
Since the price of Eureka skyrocketed I was interested myself.
The original deck by Andrew:
Maindeck:
Artifacts
4 Lotus Petal
Creatures
4 Noble Hierarch
Instants
4 Brainstorm
4 Daze
4 Force Of Will
4 Mystical Tutor
1 Wipe Away
Legendary Creatures
4 Emrakul, The Aeons Torn
4 Progenitus
Sorceries
3 Eureka
4 Ponder
4 Show And Tell
Basic Lands
1 Forest
3 Island
Lands
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Tropical Island
Sideboard:
3 Blazing Archon
4 Faerie Macabre
4 Form Of The Dragon
4 Mindbreak Trap
The deck functions fairly simple and is designed to cheat a fatty into play turn 2-3 preferably with counter back-up.
I started testing myself and found out several problems with the deck:
- sometimes you get flooded by 1 of the 2 combo pieces and can't get the other, despite the abundance in cantrips.
- especially finding a creature can be excruciatingly difficult
- once and a while aggro can race you
- the sideboard is underwhelming to say the least
- when pressured, the manabase can be flimsy
- if you lose the 'surprise' factor you have to play VERY differently. Daze is next to useless then
First testings indicated that daze was a hard counter since most opponents tap out in their turns 1-2 (definetly) and mostly turn 3 as well. In those cases daze was as good as (or even better then) force.
Alas if your opponent doesn't then the card is practically a blank and only nets you a little tempo.
Considering the above problems I have done the following:
-4 daze
+4 intuition
Intuition is in effect a tutor that sets up a win the following turn. The fact that you can tutor up anything from protection to a creature is a very big help. I think the added consistency is definetly worth the loss of daze.
The real problem is the sideboard and sideboarding itself.
Most people don't know how to board against this deck and it is very difficult to asses what they are sideboarding in/out. Because of that it is possible that your opponent still has some creature removal in his deck (rendering blazing archon a big liability) and even form of the dragon gets answered from time to time (I don't even understand what people are thinking boarding krosan grip in).
Both are also prone to bounce which is bad news as well.
On the other hand faerie macabre is a house against several difficult decks and 4 anti combo slots are useful as well. Though I doubt if trap is the best answer to combo.
There are several routes open to this deck and I'll discuss a few (but this is definetly where I am hoping to get some new input, because I have the feeling I am chasing my own tail solving this). The objective is to replace form of the dragon and/or Archon with better solutions)
Problem 1: creatures with a CiP ability (Sower of temptation, stingscouger)
This can really ruin your day and it happens quite often that you NEED the annihilator 6 to survive long enough. Progenitus sometimes isn't fast enough to win you the game.
Problem 2: mana disruption.
Like I said some people keep their creature removal and it's mostly still there because they figure that it is not entirely dead because they can always point it at hierarch. Combined with either stifle/wasteland you can get into trouble quite quickly. Mostly those are decks that also run daze (MD) and spell pierce (SB).
Problem 3: spells/abilities that require you to sac a creature (edict etc).
Although this problem is somewhat offset by hierarch I can assure you that since people tend not to board out al their spot removal, this can be a very big threat to the deck.
Solutions considered:
Enable a hasted Emrakul/Progenitus.
This can be achieved through concordant crossroads, but can this really be a good idea? Especially with progenitus you can be overrun by a hasted 'goyf or 2.
A completely different kill post-board, thus suprising your opponent.
Leyline of the void + helm of obedience comes to mind. There are several other options but most take too much time to set up.
The fact that you can't put planeswalkers into play with show and tell shuts you off from a very interesting option as well (bolas)
Protection against some of the more disrupting strategies:
Teferi's response comes to mind. You gain tempo, card advantage and is a must counter for your opponent.
Kira Great-glass spinner is another option that helps you protect your Emrakul from CiP abilities and from sac effects as well.
Stifle is an answer to both but requires you to have mana open the turn you 'combo'.
Match-ups:
Although I haven't been able to thouroughly test the deck some first results:
Merfolk: clock + disruptio + islandwalk = problems. I doubt this can become a positive match-up through sideboarding. If you can land a turn 2 progenitus/emrakul you stand a chance but past that you're in bad shape.
Bant: depending on the build this is a quite positive match-up (even if they are running progenitus). Their clock is not extremely fast and when you take your time to make their dazes useless you have the same countermagic but this deck has more ways to find counter-backup.
Ichorid: Litlle testing, but quite positive. If they can't disrupt you turn 1-2 they quickly face a fatty. Emrakul is game over in that case.
Goblins: If they don't have the turn 1 lackey then you should be fine. Always make sure to have counter-backup for their weirding.
Tempo-*****: Surprisingly even when they 'only' run stifle/waste/force/daze but once they have Jace, Mind sculptor/ Sower of temptation/Vendillion Clique. It becomes very difficult.
As a conclusion I would want to say that it's a very fun deck to play. It'll never be a Tier 1 deck but it can certainly surprise an unprepared metagame. Because of availability issues with Eureka people will have difficulty playing without mistakes against the deck which is of course a big advantage.
Any comments/suggestions are welcome of course!
Well that's it for me.