[NEW DECK] New Age Rock

[Neuad]

http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/deck.asp?deck_id=612680

MAIN DECK

4 Dark Confidant
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Tarmogoyf
Creatures [12]


2 Engineered Explosives
2 Ghastly Demise
4 Hymn to Tourach
3 Life from the Loam
4 Mox Diamond
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Vindicate
Spells [23]


1 Badlands
4 Barren Moor
2 Bayou
1 Forest
1 Horizon Canopy
3 Marsh Flats
1 Plains
2 Scrubland
2 Secluded Steppe
1 Swamp
2 Verdant Catacombs
1 Volrath's Stronghold
4 Wasteland
Lands [25]



SIDEBOARD
4 Ethersworn Canonist
4 Extirpate
3 Firespout
3 Kitchen Finks
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
Sideboard [15]



MY good matchups are against anything control. Decks playing counterbalance style builds tend to just lose. I have some problems with aggro and sometimes combo. I say sometimes combo because first turn hymn can be a bitch for them. Probably the worst matchup for me is against zoo, that's why I have in the finks and firespouts help in that matchup too. Obviously the firespouts are good against goblin/merfolk too.

I've been tinkering with it a lot and trying different styles or the rock control part and this is what i'm currently at. I often find myself pulling out the EE for sideboard cards, so that kinda tells me that it's the weakest link. The hymn to tourachs I've been told is only been doing good because of our local metagame. I could try to fit thoughtseize in there somewhere but I can't seem to find anything to swap because it seems if I play thoughtseize it seems it needs to be a 4x. Goblins sometimes poses a problem too that's why I have a pretty high number of spots dedicated for it. With the current build my reanimator matchup isn't too bad. It's roughly 50% and a little better after sideboard.

The current manabase seems really solid despite how crazy it looks. Even when somebody is trying to wastelock me, it's not a problem to work around.

I was doing really well with the build till lately. I'm just looking to take it to the next level. Anyone have any good ideas/tips or tricks for me. Also possible sideboard cards too as my sideboard seems to change every week. Thanks in advance for any help!

[Neuad]

No input? Please :(

[Tammit67]

Sec, people are flipping out about the bannings/unbannings. Just at first glance, it seems confidant might be a bit of a liability, without a good way to manipulate the top of your deck.

[Finn]

Lavafrogg used to play a deck that was very close to this. I have played against it many, many times. It is pretty good against much of the field. He used Thoughtseize in your the Vindicate spot, and he still had some trouble with combo. So I think you will have serious issues with that. Burn is also going to be an issue. And therefor so is Zoo. But it stomps aggro control and random stuff.

[Boogie]

I think that eternal witness should seriously be looked at. It is great card advantage tacked on to a creature. And sexy artwork too.

[cranksmith]

I know somebody in our area here who plays a similar list, but I am not sure how he builds his manabase.

This is his creature and spells package, it might help:

4 Dark Confidant
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Tarmogoyf

2 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Smother
4 Hymn to Tourach
2 Thoughtseize
4 Sinkhole
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Vindicate

It has a lot of spot removals and discard, with Vindicate to solve some pesky permanents instead of engineered explosives.

This might give you some ideas on your templating.

[Magicsk8ngenius]

Thanks cracksmith. This was actually my deck i put up here on a friend's account because i was too lazy to register at this site. but anyways...

Dark Confidant is a bit of a liability with no deck manipulation but with an average cc of 1.71, it's not that big of a deal. Also there are a lot of matchups where he just wins by my simply playing him. It's difficult to fit sensei's divining top in here anywhere as i feel it's almost a waste of a slot.

Eternal witness i messed around with for a bit and the results were so so. She is great for card advantage and control, but she is slow. This deck already packs large amounts of card advantage with hymn, loam and bob. I cut the witness a while back and it seems to help with the speed issues.

I've been realizing the weakest link in my build is the engineered explosives. I'm thinking they might both just have to come out in favor of either 2 thoughtseize, or 2 kitchen finks. The life gain from finks is necessary in some matchups, and with the hopeful shot of being able to recur finks via stronghold, might end up helping out.

I've tried sinkholes many times before in similar builds, but it never does what I want it to when I want it to. There's a lot of times where drawing it makes me wish it was another card... any other card. I tend to find that when this happens it's best to cut the card.

What do you guys think about 1 main deck Nomad Stadium maybe in place of a secluded steppe? It would allow me to recur a life gain engine that i can find with knight. but at the same time, it could end up hurting me more than help if i get stuck with it as my only white source at some point. that wouldn't be fun :-x

Anyways thanks everyone for the input, let's keep the ideas flowing!

[Boogie]

Here is what I've been brainstorming as of late:

4 goyf
4 birds of paradise
3 knight of the reliquary
3 doran
3 confidant
2 stone-forge
2 quasali pridemage / teeg / witness

4 swords to plowshares
3 thoughtseize
3 cabal therapy
3 hymn to tourach
2-3 vindicate
2-3 equip

(total 20-21)
4 waste land
4 verdant catacombs
2-3 horizon canopy
2-3 bayou
2-3 scrubland
0-2 savanah
2-3 basics
0-1 tech land

As far as the equipment go, I'm not sure if I want to devote 3 slot to equipment. but I do run more than enough creatures to make it effective. I think that in this deck, sledge might be better than jitte. I want to run birds over hierarch, because of hymn and all of the black spells, and jitte sucks with birds, and is really only good with confidant if there are no blockers or there are already counters on it. Sledge makes confidant and birds threats, and makes knight, doran, and goyf gigantic tramply lifelink threats that shit on aggro. Plus, most of your big threats will come down out of bolt range, which is useful.

And, Doran makes goblin piledriver suck.

I haven't really dug into the mana base, but that is approximately what I would run. Actually, probably more fetchlands.

I really like all of the discard, and hymn is sweet card advantage.

As for tech lands, I'm not sure which to run, if any at all. there's sejiri steppe from standard, and that would allow something to punch through or blank removal. then theres karakas and maze of ith, and bojuka bog. I just don't know right now.

For the two last creature spots, teeg is obviously great at resolving your threats through force, and stopping fast combo for a while. Pridemage has it's uses for things like counterbalance and blowing equipment and stuff away. The exalted trigger is nice as well. Witness might be the best in a control-heavy meta, recuring just one hymn could spell game, and whatever else. Maybe in the side or something.

Also in the sideboard, 3-4 kitchen finks, they really put the hurt on aggro.

[MrShine]

How is this not The Rock? We already have a thread for it in Established Decks.

[Boogie]

I think that the biggest point is that there is no deed, and plays out a little quicker. And lots of dudes.

[danpo]

I was actually thinking about this earlier today while looking at the established Rock thread.
The Rock is currently at best vaguely defined, if not facing an outright fork in the evolutionary road.
To wit: some dudes want to slow-dance with Eternal Witness, Crucible of Worlds, Shriekmaw, Baneslayer Angel, Tombstalker, etc. Me? I just want to beat face in decent time and still have outs against dumb fatties on turn 3. (That means I play janky openings like T1 Mom, T2 Bob, T3 Basilisk Collar Equip I Hate You.)
The former deck wants to control the board and build up incremental card advantage, where the latter is essentially just a pile of scary two-drops plus support for said pile.
Oh, and then somewhere in between for our taxonomy of Rock you have decks that want to play dudes out fast, but then sack some of them to Cabal Therapy.
I guess my point is, Eternal Witness and Shriekmaw are fine for some builds, Qasali Pridemage and Serra Avenger work better in others. Insisting on lumping the two approaches together in one thread doesn't seem very helpful, but then, neither seems focused enough to partition off from the other. Yet.

[Boogie]

I think that there is definately a pretty clear separation. One is midrange and one is control. I usually just think of it as one that uses deed and one that doesn't. The one that doesn't (Main at least) doesn't because it runs 4 goyf, 3-4 confidant, pridemage, and other low-cost permanents. And deed variants like tombstalker a lot more, in combination with witness and junk.