SAThrasher
03-25-2011, 05:13 PM
It's been about four years since I've played magic competitively, and I almost always played 1.5. I sold all my cards and am now regretting that decision, but there just wasn't any good place in Fort Worth to find regular 1.5 tourneys. Last I played, I was working on a b/w/g control deck of sorts that actually did pretty well against the big dogs of legacy, which apparently are still fairly similar to what it was some years ago. In other words, I've done fairly extensive playtesting with it, but felt like I'd be overstepping boundaries if I would've posted this in the 'finished decks' section. I'd like some feedback on whether or not a build like this could be competitive in today's game, or would it just be too slow? Also, since it's been quite a while, are there any newer cards I am unaware of that would be a good fit synergy-wise? Any thoughts would be appreciated.
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Cabal Therapy / Thoughtseize
4 Wall of Blossoms
4 Spectral Lynx / River Boa
3 Living Wish
4 Eternal Witness
3 Pernicious Deed
4 Parallax Wave
3 Exalted Angel
4 Windswept Heath
2 Verdant Catacombs
2 Marsh Flats
4 Savannah
3 Bayou
3 Scrubland
2 Forest
2 Plains
1 Swamp
The basic idea is to slow the opponent down with selective discard, swords to plowshares, wall of blossoms, etc., until you can get parallax wave in play, preferably with eternal witness in hand. Parallax wave has always been great at slowing down most creature decks, but it really shines when you start removing your own wall of blossoms, eternal witness, face-down angel, etc. When parallax wave goes to the graveyard, the walls, witnesses, angels, and anything you might have grabbed from the sideboard (such as uktabi orangutan or bone shredder/nekrataal) comes back into play, face up and with abilities triggering. Draw another card for the wall, return the wave with the witness, get ready to lay the beat down with the angel, and replay the wave. I've debated on whether or not to maindeck pernicious deed and if Spectral lynx/ river boa even have a place in the deck. I ended up going with this build after alot of playtesting, using cabal therapy maindeck (hence the desire for the lynx/boa) and pernicious deed to deal with loads of cheap threats, including affinity, goblins, etc., and most of the time my losses are minimal from a blown deed cuz of the wave and regen of the lynx/boa, not to mention if I'm planning on blowing a deed, a lot of times flashing back cabal therapy first is the correct move. Wasteland and vindicate are two cards I've also played around with in the deck, and every now and then you can start waving two eternal witnesses out every turn, often with a wall or two as well, and start recycling vindicate, wasteland, or both and go all land destro. Card drawing, disruption, creature control, and selective return from the graveyard - this is a good deck. It's been playtested against anything from goblins, vial and otherwise, even when goblin recruiter was still legal, landstill, ats, solidarity (which, admittedly, is a bad matchup game 1, but I'd sb heavily against it), affinity (one of the reasons deed ended up maindecked), traditional rock, and random zoo decks, alluren, not to mention others I've just plain forgotten. It can hold it's own against most of the bigger decks. Thanks for your time, and hopefully your comments... - Thrasher
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Cabal Therapy / Thoughtseize
4 Wall of Blossoms
4 Spectral Lynx / River Boa
3 Living Wish
4 Eternal Witness
3 Pernicious Deed
4 Parallax Wave
3 Exalted Angel
4 Windswept Heath
2 Verdant Catacombs
2 Marsh Flats
4 Savannah
3 Bayou
3 Scrubland
2 Forest
2 Plains
1 Swamp
The basic idea is to slow the opponent down with selective discard, swords to plowshares, wall of blossoms, etc., until you can get parallax wave in play, preferably with eternal witness in hand. Parallax wave has always been great at slowing down most creature decks, but it really shines when you start removing your own wall of blossoms, eternal witness, face-down angel, etc. When parallax wave goes to the graveyard, the walls, witnesses, angels, and anything you might have grabbed from the sideboard (such as uktabi orangutan or bone shredder/nekrataal) comes back into play, face up and with abilities triggering. Draw another card for the wall, return the wave with the witness, get ready to lay the beat down with the angel, and replay the wave. I've debated on whether or not to maindeck pernicious deed and if Spectral lynx/ river boa even have a place in the deck. I ended up going with this build after alot of playtesting, using cabal therapy maindeck (hence the desire for the lynx/boa) and pernicious deed to deal with loads of cheap threats, including affinity, goblins, etc., and most of the time my losses are minimal from a blown deed cuz of the wave and regen of the lynx/boa, not to mention if I'm planning on blowing a deed, a lot of times flashing back cabal therapy first is the correct move. Wasteland and vindicate are two cards I've also played around with in the deck, and every now and then you can start waving two eternal witnesses out every turn, often with a wall or two as well, and start recycling vindicate, wasteland, or both and go all land destro. Card drawing, disruption, creature control, and selective return from the graveyard - this is a good deck. It's been playtested against anything from goblins, vial and otherwise, even when goblin recruiter was still legal, landstill, ats, solidarity (which, admittedly, is a bad matchup game 1, but I'd sb heavily against it), affinity (one of the reasons deed ended up maindecked), traditional rock, and random zoo decks, alluren, not to mention others I've just plain forgotten. It can hold it's own against most of the bigger decks. Thanks for your time, and hopefully your comments... - Thrasher