Have you ever played?

[Peter_Rotten]

Here is a simple poll: Which deck builder's creations have you played? Your choices are as follows: Anusien, TheInfamousBearAssassin, Godzilla, an Epic deck, and a Mass creation. You may vote for more than one choice.

This is simply a survey and I want to avoid a populariy contest here. Here are the qualifications:

Have you ever looked at one of these builders' decks and been somehow intrigued, impressed, whatever by it and decided to not only build it, but also play it at a tournament? (I'm counting online and real life tournaments and it does NOT have to be recently)

Notes:

Link to a list of Anusien articles (http://www.starcitygames.com/pages/articlefinder.php?keyword=Kevin+Binswanger)
IBA decks include, but are not limited to TruffleShuffle and Rabid Wombat
Godzilla decks include Angelstompy, Zompy (pre-format rotation), and Zompy 2k
Epic decks include, but are not limited to TES and EATS (Epic ATS)
Mass creations include, but are not limited to Death and Taxes and Manaless Ichorid
Thread closely watched. This is a simple yes/no poll. Warnings will be issued for flames.
This is not a thread to argue about who actually created what or which deck builder is more creative. I have listed the person (or team/area) that is most closely assoiciated with the list. I will delete any whining about, "well actually, in 1995, Team WhoCares discoved the interaction between Survival and the Fittest and blahlblahablabh."

[marit]

I've played some BZK decks in tournes, mainly SI. That's about it though.

[DeathwingZERO]

I've played Rg Goblins, Rifter, RGSA, IGGy Pop, Solidarity, Deadguy Ale, Ankh Sligh, and URw Landstill. Any of those decks have names to them that are listed? Not sure, just figured I'd check.

[Bane of the Living]

I should change my vote to add IBA even though your not listing Jack Flash. I think he was on the forefront of that archetype regardless of the fact we werent playing legacy.

Ive proxied and sleeved pretty much all the EPIC decks aside from EATS.

You might consider adding Angel Stax as a mass/necro deck since its quite popular in our meta compared to others. I think I kinda started the white brown fad a year or two ago when it was my pet deck. Since then we have at least 3 other stax players amoungst our 3 local stores.

I find it interesting how you divided the origins regionally. I remember when Thresh used to be refered to as an east coast deck.

[Silverdragon]

You might consider adding Angel Stax as a mass/necro deck since its quite popular in our meta compared to others. I think I kinda started the white brown fad a year or two ago when it was my pet deck. Since then we have at least 3 other stax players amoungst our 3 local stores.


IIrc it was Machinus who brought this deck to the public in his SCG articles so I consider myself playing a deck invented by Chris Coppola.
(Although the lists I've been testing and playing over time were much closer to what Team Necro/Bane of the Living was playing)

Anyway before I built Stax I was playing Rabid Wombat so that is what I voted.

[Whit3 Ghost]

I play mostly my own creations and stuff from within the team.

Outside of that, because I talk to Bryant a lot, I play a lot of his stuff too.

[Sims]

Of the choices on that list I'm either playing a brew developed by what used to be Team Albany, or something based upon a VA work. So, since there is no VA as a whole, I'm voting Jack.

[TheInfamousBearAssassin]

True story: I was very influential to the development of Virginia Thresh. Here's how it went:


Anwar and Ian MacInnes are intensely testing a mirror of the still-developing Thresh. The Hatfields are seated near by, patiently stroking their hair and talking about how good Portent is. Enter Jack Elgin from the kitchen.

Jack: Rar, I'm a bear.

Jesse: Yeah, we know.

Jack: Hey, what are you guys playing?

Anwar: Threshold. It's based on the Gro concept, only we're not running Dryad because she's terrible against Goblins. We're still trying to find a replacement.

Alix: Ideally, it should be something nimble.

Ian: You know. Fast and deadly. Like a mongoose or something.

Jack: Hey! That gives me an idea! You should try running Symbiotic Wurm.

Jesse: Umm...

Jack: Actually, on second thought, don't run Symbiotic Wurm.

Alix: Okay.

And to this day, you can still see my influence as a deckbuilder in the various builds of Thresh that don't run Symbiotic Wurm.

[MattH]

I've run all sorts of Survival and Tog and Tendrils decks, spring tide way back in the day, gro-ish decks "recently" (months ago), Flash before that. I've borrowed Goblins...but the only time I can ever recall really netdecking is the time I played Slivers (though I added black for Hibernation Sliver so I don't know if that counts).

So, basically, none of the above.

[frogboy]

I get most of my lists from Zilla.

[Eldariel]

Out of that list, I've played Angel Stompy sometimes long, long ago. So Zilla's. Other than that, I just play my own decks, which should be rather obvious.

[Kadaj]

I ran Angel Stompy at the first Mana Leak tournament, so I've played a deck built by Zilla.

[Xenocide]

I've played AngelStompy tons, that was one of my first tournament caliber decks; I have TES and took it to a local tourney to play, but the tournament was canceled :( BTW, Death and Taxes looks like a blast to play, and I am slowly amassing cards for that deck.

[Deep6er]

I play almost exclusively decks that I build. But, I guess that was pretty obvious. :)

[Di]

I play almost exclusively decks that I build. But, I guess that was pretty obvious. :)

Same here. With the sole exception of playing TES at a local tourny a few weeks ago, a few months of Solidarity during its baby stages (technically my own list, as I was the first person to splash a color, use Force of Will, and fetchlands in the deck), and Flash, I have never played a deck I didn't build myself.

Regarding those EPIC decks, the only lists that are actually public (to my knowledge) are Survival (both my own and the Molotov list), TES, Ichorid, UgW Landstill, Ur Faerie Stompy, and Eternal Garden. I might be missing stuff, but it's surprising how little is on here compared to how much good stuff we actually have.

[Pale Moon FTW]

Only one of those I've played is AngelStompy so my vote's on Zilla. Damn who'd have tought that AS is so popular?

[Peter_Rotten]

Damn who'd have tought that AS is so popular?

Hell, who doesn't love his White Weenie?

[Illissius]

I don't actually play games :(. I did play a three color Landstill which was loosely based on the BHWC four color and Bardo's three color versions.

[URABAHN]

I took Rabid Wombat to GP Philly, how can I not vote for Jack?

[Bardo]

I only play other people's decks for testing purposes--otherwise everything I play has my own stamp of approval on it--be it Tog, Thresh, Landstill, etc.

So, none of the above.

(For reference. (http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/14037.html))

[CynicalSquirrel]

I've played EATS and Train Wreck on magic-league before, so I voted for IBA and EPIC. I usually take my list from high places at tourneys or make up my own though.

[Atwa]

The only deck listed here I've played at a tournament is Angel Stompy, for which props to Zilla. You've got to love a competive white weenie deck :)

Other than that I normally only play decks like Goblins, Survival, Enchantress and some homebrew and team-testing decks

[Jak]

I still play Rabid Wombat to this day, so my vote went to Jack. I do, however, play TES, but I love RW, so yeah...

[Aggro_zombies]

I play my own creations for the most part, but I do play Machinus decks every now and then.

[264505]

Manaless Ichorid FTW

[ClearSkies]

I played one of the decks by Epic, which was TES, several times in my local tournament. Sometimes I did well, sometimes, not so good.

I also tried the different variation of Armagedon/Angel Stax that is in the Established Deck Forums section of the forums. (The ones by Machinus and Bane of the Living)

[The Rack]

Sorry, but who/what is mass?

[Peter_Rotten]

Mass = short for the difficult to spell state of Massachussets. (I don't think I spelled it right).

[Whit3 Ghost]

Regarding those EPIC decks, the only lists that are actually public (to my knowledge) are Survival (both my own and the Molotov list), TES, Ichorid, UgW Landstill, Ur Faerie Stompy, and Eternal Garden. I might be missing stuff, but it's surprising how little is on here compared to how much good stuff we actually have.
Your missing Bryant's Breakfast list.

The last bit is true for a lot of teams, I know we have some random stuff sitting around the Team forums that is playable but unreleased, or still in development.

[Zach Tartell]

Your missing Bryant's Breakfast list.

The last bit is true for a lot of teams, I know we have some random stuff sitting around the Team forums that is playable but unreleased, or still in development.

And EPIC enchantress? Which is just NoVa enchantress, switched around to be less efficient. But more better. Excellent English. Awesome alleteritation.

That's all I can think of.

[troopatroop]

IBA- TrainWreck

Zilla - Angelstompy and Zilla Stompy way back when

Epic - ATS and EATS

[Parcher]

I've played Jack Black in Extended. But only so as to watch Shaheen weep like a little girl. I'll always have some love for IBA for that.

[emidln]

Your missing Bryant's Breakfast list.

The last bit is true for a lot of teams, I know we have some random stuff sitting around the Team forums that is playable but unreleased, or still in development.

And by development, he means someone saying "remember this deck?" with furious work for about a day and then we all go back to playing Stax/Deadguy/Tendrils/Thresh (depending on the player).

The last time I played a deck that wasn't almost exclusively my own was TES (epic) around December of last year. Before that, it was SI (we're talking diabolic intent builds here from team ogre and team bzk (before I joined)), Angel Stax (machinus), Iggy Pop (meandeck), and Flame Vault Stasis Stax (anusien). A recurring theme was that I put a lot of work into each list until my build was either mainline (TES, SI, FVSS) or my changes made it unrecognizable (Iggy Pop, Angel Stax, Wildfire Tron in T2, TEPS in Extended). I simply can't play a list that I haven't at least tweaked a little bit.

[Bane of the Living]

Sorry, but who/what is mass?

For all intents and purposes PR probably could've put Necro.

I wasnt implying at all that I designed Angel Stax but I sure as hell was the one to bring it to real life. Ill never steal credit for Chris's design but I made white stax popular in mass. I dont think its players even go on the source.

[Nightmare]

I can honestly say that I've only ever played EPIC decks. I wonder why...

[noobslayer]

Oh, I forgot, I have played an EPIC deck. I played Caulyn's EPIC flash in the trial at Columbus.

[Bryant Cook]

I voted EPIC because we're awesome.

[Tacosnape]

We should add me to the poll just to see if a virtual no-name can beat out Anusien.:P

On second thought, don't. I might have to commit seppuku if I didn't.

Anyhoo, I voted Godzilla/IBA/Epic, since various people on our team have run creations of all said. Train Wreck's still one of the top decks in our metagame, actually, partly because the guy piloting it has been playing black-based control almost since Legacy began and has become incredibly good with the deck.

[advisory6000]

IBA all the way, I've been playing Trainwreck for over 15 months and 90% of the time come in the 3 at my local tourneys.

[clavio]

Only wombat.

[Pinder]

I voted EPIC because we're awesome.

And humble, too.

[Bryant Cook]

How did I forget that?

[Tacosnape]

How did I forget that?

You left it out because you were too humble to list it among your good qualities, remember?

[AngryTroll]

Zilla Stompy out of the decks listed.

I played Bardo Thresh back when it was new...now I basically play Bardo Thresh.
However, I played the deck with Portents, Predicts, Counterbalances, Werebears and Goyfs, extra Enforcers, EEs when Bardo cut EEs, Spell Snares before and after he officially moved to Spell Snares, and....

Well, basically, that man knows his Thresh list. I played the deck almost exclusively for ages, and tested every change I could think of, and ended up back at a list within 2 or 3 cards of his newer lists. Oh, and Portent over Visions. But that's no biggie.

I guess the point is that when I do take a list, I play with it until I'm comfortable playing the deck, then start changing the deck until I feel that its done. See: RGBSA, 4 and 3 color Landstill, Thresh, Affinity, etc.

[Cait_Sith]

All of the above for me. I have never been much impressed for Anusien's decks, but they are off beat, which I like.

I've played TES and EATS.

I've played all sorts of Mass junk (probably because its good)

Hell, I think I've played almost every deck out there in small scale online tournaments just to try them out.

[calosso]

I have played a blue/white control deck built by IBA and I got 11th on breakers in VA Champs, I have played TES in local events.

[DragoFireheart]

For the longest time I have played Burn/Sligh variants back in the day.

As of recently I have been working on a R/G aggro deck which I call Smashy. It got me 3rd place at a local tourney.