[Question 17] Favorite Deck

[Peter_Rotten]

Here's a question that a few members have asked:

What's your favorite deck to play? Why?

I hate to sound like some crappy version of a Magic work sheet from fifth grade, but I'd like to hear from some of the more obscure Adepts and Admins. For instance, I could guess that Nightmare might answer something longwinded about White thresh, gardens, breakfast, and then allude to some newer, secret-er Herbig Project. I might also guess that Di would talk about Gardens, Breakfast, Turboland, and... Thunderbluff? I saw his signed playset of Anaba Grunts once.

Sound off, maybe?

So, there you have it. What's your favorite deck to play and why? What is so appealing about that deck? Do you limit yourself to playing only the best deck at a competitive tournament even if it is not a fun deck for you?

[SpatulaOfTheAges]

I like to play Enchantress for a few reasons.

A)I like overkill. When I played Civilization, I liked playing well past the point where you've actually won, to get the most excessive score possible. More stuff = fun. So finesse decks like Thresh never appealed to me much.

B)I like doing stuff. I can't just draw-go-counter/dig, repeat. Enchantress is always building up its board. Pretty much every turn you're tapping out.

C)I don't like the obvious answers. Blue is way too obviously good. Red is too efficient. Black is too popular. Give me white and green, the unloved colors.

D)I like trumping people. Going one for two all days takes forever. I want to shut out your strategy. Cards like Solitary Confinement, that just shut out the opponent, are much more appealing to me than incremental card advantage.

Enchantress is a blast to play if you like turns that take 10 minutes, shutting out opposing strategies entirely, and drawing your entire library and dumping it into play. It's also filled with unorthodox cards. Who the hell plays Elephant Grass, Ground Seal, and Utopia Sprawl? And those are fairly standard MD options. Random SB stuff can get even more unique. Dovescape, Sacred Ground, Titania's Song. These cards don't see play in any other deck, and the nature of the deck makes them serious options. Even Solitary Confinement, that now sees play in other decks, didn't at the time it was introduced to Enchantress.

Unfortunately, the unorthodox nature of the deck is also its biggest drawback in gaining popularity. Of the cards for the deck, the only ones that really see play in any other strategy are the lands and Exploration. Everything else is pretty much unique to the deck, which can make actually purchasing Enchantress daunting to many people.

[Kadishack]

Personally, I love to play Landstill.

A) I love Counterspell and Force of Will.

B) I like to control most of the game and make my opponent play at a certain pace. I love board sweepers.

C) I love Crucible of Worlds mainly for the fact that Wasteland is awesome when you get to abuse it and the same goes for manlands.

D) l like card advantage.

I know that alot of people hate playing Landstill but I have a blast playing it and could do so for quite a while.

[Bryant Cook]

I play The EPIC Storm (T.E.S) for a few reasons.

1.) I created it.
2.) It's incredibly flexible.
3.) It's fast.
4.) I don't have unwinnable match-ups.
5.) Consistant.
6.) Can play through hate.
7.) Good combo mirror (Chant, Abeyance, Blasts).
8.) Good control match-up (Chant, Abeyance, Blast).
9.) Do I need to keep going?

[Deep6er]

Well, I could fairly obviously relate that I love playing Solidarity. Well, actually, that's only MOSTLY true. I have a fondness, for the "new shiny-ness" of decks that I newly create. I tend to play the decks that I create that seem to have potential a great deal more than I play other decks. I can, however, almost guarantee that the deck will have effects that I used to love to see played in other formats. My particular weakness is Gifts Ungiven and Eternal Witness. I've made SEVERAL DOZEN of those. Yeah, I have a problem.

[Bardo]

What's your favorite deck to play and why? What is so appealing about that deck? Do you limit yourself to playing only the best deck at a competitive tournament even if it is not a fun deck for you?

Well, Elder Dragon Highlander is my favorite format, and Vorosh (U/B/G) is my favorite EDH deck, but I think these questions pertains more to Legacy--this being a Legacy forum and all.

In Legacy, Gro-a-Tog is my favorite deck to play. It's proactive, fast, disruptive and uses my favorite colors in the game, the aforementioned Vorosh colors.

Why? Basically, I like interactivity and the attack phase; I loathe combination decks that are focused on self-fellation with minimal interaction--other than the death-blow. Yeah, double entendre there. So, I essentially like fast “mid-range”-ish decks that don’t fold to combo, because that’s just about what I like least in this game (i.e. losing to combo). The Gro variants satisfy this, like Threshold. I also like drawing cards and countering spells; and when you take card drawing, counters, removal and cram them in with a bunch of efficient creatures, voila! Threshold/Gro.

If there were truly a “best deck” in Legacy and said deck happened to be a largely non-interactive combo deck, I would play something less than the best deck. This is a game after all a game, and, ultimately, I’m playing for fun—even if I am usually having fun by trying to win.

[MattH]

My favorite decks ever have been, in increasing order, Tendrils, Tog, Tide, and Survival.

The storm decks are just fun to play. There's always a lot of mind games going on. I find it fun to work through and figure out, "Can I win from this position?" Tide has the extra excitement of the possibility of fizzling. The best part of Tendrils is putting the burden of proof on the opponent: it's fun to watch them be the one to worry, "How can I beat this deck?" instead of me.

Incidentally, I have probably tested the Sligh vs. Prosperity-Tide matchup more than any other in the game. Irrelevant but true!

I like Tog so much because of all the search and draw. Every game, I can see most of my deck, and I filled my deck with cards I like, so seeing more of them is more fun. Plus there's nothing like Tog math to force your opponent to spend their mental resources. :D

Survival has much the same appeal, but more so. It's even more customizable, and one card slot's difference can make or break an entire matchup. Plus there's the fun of digging up some random tech from ten years ago that no one ever heard of. This also sort of happens in Enchantress decks, which is why that deck gets my runner-up vote.

[Lukas Preuss]

My favorite deck has always been some form of combo.

I started with Prosbloom as my first real deck in Mirage block constructed, played High Tide after that and finally came to Legacy and played Solidarity, Spring Tide, and lately started to like Tendrils, Ichorid, and other combo decks as well. Sometimes I play Threshold at tournaments, because it is just so much easier (in my opinion) to play right, but my favorite deck is basically the combo archetype.

This is mainly because I like the mind games and the taxing descisions that I have to make. I also like to abuse combinations between cards that were never intended by the creator. I like to break rules. For example Ichorid plays completely different than a normal magic deck. Solidarity completely abuses the stack (which was never the intension of the stack). And so on.

Also, since I have not as much time as I used to, I noticed that I have become a really bad Magic player in general (don't get me wrong, I'm still good, but not as good as I used to be... or maybe everybody else just got better ;) ). I'm just not top notch when it comes to combat math and so on. I basically hate creatures (maybe that's why Threshold is the only creature based deck I like - it only runs vanilla creatures, which make it much easier for me). Since I have been playing combo almost exclusively for the last few years, I tend to be a lot worse with creature based decks under tournament circumstances. But with combo, I always know completely what I'm doing since I know my deck better than anybody else (and how to handle hate accordingly).

[Tacosnape]

The four decks I've played since before Legacy existed have been decks built around Survival, decks built around Standstill, Goblin decks, and aggressive black discard decks. In modern Legacy, this translates to Survival, Landstill, Goblins, and Suicide Black.

If I have to pick a favorite, it depends on if I'm in a tournament or not. I

I'd pick Survival in a tournament, as it's my second favorite overall and more fun when there's a time limit. I love having decks that have some form of answer for almost everything, and Survival appeals to me in this regard. It also appeals to my secret innate love of Card Advantage (Squee, Genesis), and Utility/Toolbox approaches. Plus, in my BGW build, I get to run both Cabal Therapy and Swords to Plowshares, my two favorite cards on their respective colors, in the same deck.

In any circumstance without a time limit, I'd pick Landstill, as it relaxes me to sit there and quietly defend against any threat and play a nice, long, leisurely game. I can play Landstill incredibly well while tired or unfocused, which I can't say about any other deck (If very tired, I'll forget a Squee with Survival at a crucial time or tap the wrong land or something equally stupid.)

I never limit myself to playing any deck at a tournament, though every deck I take into a tournament I take in with the complete intention of winning the whole thing. I have won Legacy tournaments with over 10 different decks (Solidarity, Landstill, 3 completely different Survival Builds, Goblins, U/W Fish, U/W/R Fish, Doomsday, Suicide Black, Gamekeeper Salvagers, Threshold, etc.) I tend to make my deck selections on a whim rather than with much advanced preparation, as the more I think about what can go wrong with a deck, the more I fall into the trap of thinking the deck has more weaknesses than it really does.

[Artowis]

What's your favorite deck to play?

Any sort of red deck that's competitive. My favorite deck to play of all time is probably Food Chain Goblins, but as for a deck that's currently legal, Red Deck Wins will have to do.

As for why... basically they were the first decks I ever seriously practiced with and actually figured basic concepts out from. With the progression of red decks over the years, I learned much more about card advantage, maximizing damage, optimizing resource use, the idea of an 'ideal' mana base and curve, etc.

Plus I mean the decks are just fun. Fireblast - Dome Ya never got old for me. Although Goblins got old in this format because of how little the list actually changed over the years. Otherwise, red decks are quite testing to tweak and optimize in different formats. Different challenges to meet and different cards available makes for interesting deck design.