Kalastria Healer VS Strix : an additional point is that the strix is blue.
Aetherflux Reservoir & Nissa, Steward of Elements : I will quote Lord_Macdonalds : Too slow and clunky for a deck with a lot of clunky cards
Cascading into Nissa seems like a pretty bad thing to have happen.
Conversely though, Strix targets and Healer doesn'tOriginally Posted by Moneymakermich
Cockatrice: EMFry
Has anyone tried playing with Rishadan Cutpurse?
Seems like it could be brutal with Harpy, wiping the board with Aluren and Harpy. Also blue and lower value than other force pitches. T2 with DRS on T1 seems gross.
Goldfishing I've also noticed that my agents dig deeper through the deck now that it passes all the 3 drops and right into harpy, brainstorm, baleful, ponder, or cabal therapy.
Thoughts?
I don't see why wiping the board with Harpy would be better than having a Strix or Healer here. You could've won, but opted to rub salt in the wound of the other player while also managing to not guarantee a win. Presumably the things that keep you from winning when you have a card in hand that combos with Harpy, Aluren in play, etc.. is that they have a battlefield presence that stops the combo from working or a creature/counter/removal that stops it from working (Sudden shock, potentially Clique, force, Canonist, etc.)
Specifically, what is the difference between doing this and just winning, with respect to the reason you'd play this card over a card that wins? Leyline of Sanctity? Wouldn't Healer be sufficient?
Put another way, why is this in the deck instead of more combo pieces? Getting the occasional T2 "kill a permanent" will probably feel bad in a field of SFMs and Strixes, where you're merely cancelling CA by killing the bad part of the CA and getting a 1/1.
My thinking was that Strix is the awesome silver bullet but also tends to be hidden or protected in a sense. I don't want it going to the yard by putting it out early or having to exile it to Force. I don't mind blocking with cutpurse and certainly don't mind pitching it to Force. Just putting more Healers in might actually be a much better solution. I'll test with both and see... I'm just thinking of different things to play with that have interesting ETB effects and saw Cutpurse in a Leovold EDH deck with Aluren.
Interesting that no one commented on Cartesian's newest crazy card choices:
http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=15476&d=294275&f=LE
Viscera Seer + Marang River Prowler for infinite scries with Aluren?
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I'm sleeving Aluren back up now as my second deck and while I'm not going to use the above, I am gearing the decklist towards a lot of non-blue matchups (notably Lands, which is difficult to near-impossible for my normal deck choices like 4c Delver or 4c Control) and could use some advice on a really sturdy BUG decklist that isn't necessarily super fast (no storm in my meta or anything) and can hang in super grind fests.
Meta is: Lands, Loam, Stompy variations, Noble BUG, Sneak and Show, UB OmniTell, Burn, Elves.
This is what I'm likely going to start with, with a few changes I haven't decided on yet:
http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=15136&d=291715&f=LE
How is infinity scries better than draw? Dunno needs testing... Looks interesting though
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PTT (Formerly of MTT) - We make Champion
Maybe a response to a leovold-dominated meta? Can scry all you want, though.
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IMO it's not better. However it costs 0 life to do. We don't a actually get infinite draws with strix... We get a draw per life point. Usually enough... But that is s difference.
I think throwing more cards that need eacither to work in the deck is an awful idea. The nice thing now I'd the synergies of cards without an alluren while we play midrange, or setting up the combo. I already frown when stuck with a parasitic strix in hand and no alluren.
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Marang River Prowler was an experiment. The infinite scry is very powerful indeed, and Viscera Seer is actually a good creature, so there is that. I was hoping for the Prowler to be at least relevant outside of the combo, as an unblockable 2 power threat, or as a way to get Harpies into play if nothing else is at hand. But those things never really came up very often in testing, and the card is very slow, and can't defend. I have tried a slight red splash for Goblin Bombardment + Aluren + Marang River Prowler which is an alternative instant win that doesn't use Cavern Harpy, which is interesting, if nothing else. Maybe a consideration for the Imperial Recruiter version?
Right now with BUG Aluren, if Abrupt Decay is no longer necessary in the maindeck, I think a Living Wish version is where I want to be.
I think that given you have:
3-4 Baleful Strix
2-4 Cavern Harpy
2-4 Parasitic Strix
and others, wouldn't just doing 2x Jitte as a backup be fine? Parasitic wont' feel so bad if you just spam them and hit the person like normal when your combo fizzles. I could see just going for a beatdown plan with the deck by flying-equips being a main-plan and then just having Aluren be the thing that says "the game dragged out too long."
For only a couple card slots I think you could build a solid plan out of that idea. They can't even kill your primary sword carrier (Harpy) because you just bounce it. Going a step further, it makes your equips "must remove" reducing combo disruption maybe? And gives more removal for things like Canonist who goof up your flow.
Just a thought
Is there a consensus on not needing maindeck Decay anymore?
Does this only hold true for MTGO meta, or for paper as well? (given that there's a difference between the two usually, with both more random janky decks IRL (in my experience) and almost no DnT online (whereas in my paper meta it can be like 10-15% depending on the tourney).
I won't say Decay is particularly *good* against DnT by the way, but apart from having FOW in your opening hand, a resolved/Vialed Mom, Thalia and Revoker are all very annoying and impossible to deal with.
(actually without Decay Thalia might not even be that annoying anymore, as it'll only hit Aluren/Ponder/BS anymore)
And isn't it also a necessary evil against Leovold? Even if we don't need Strix to draw into a wincon, they'll still draw like 7-8 cards off Parasitic to get them a Fow for the Harpy/Strix.
(agreed we'll be ahead on board + life total by that time usually, but if they've drawn 7 extra cards chances are reasonable they can find an out to your boardstate like a Deluge or so)
I don't think there is a consensus on not running Abrupt Decay in the main, but I do think it is a possibility, and something we need to consider now.
I have been running my Decays in the SB since the Miracles ban.
Leovold is mostly a problem because it shuts down Baleful and Brainstorm. It usually isn't a problem when comboing off, as long as you can manage to find Parasitic (via Glint-Nest, Living Wish, or somehow), because: 1) You might just have your own Leovold, and 2) Unless opponent's life total is more than twice your life total, you can respond to each Leovold trigger with a new Parasitic trigger. Once you have a lethal amount of triggers on the stack, they will draw a lot of cards, but by then it will be too late.
I am running 2 decays and am very happy with it at the moment. It gives outs to opponents' G1 Leos, back to basics, etc. I have 2 thoughtseize and only one parasitic strix.
Who has tried living wish? How many main? What does your sideboard look like?
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I was playing the BUG version of this deck a couple of months ago and throught the deck felt really good. However, I kept on losing against UR Delver and Burn. I know Burn is a bad matchup to begin with but I thought I'd do better against Delver decks. I was wondering if I could get any advice on what the game plan is against the heavy burn delver decks? I was boarding out 3-4 Alurens since I felt like I couldn't combo as my life total is always under pressure so I was just trying to flood the board but then I'd get wrecked by sideboard cards like Pyroclasm or Sudden Demise. Should I just try to jam Alurens as soon as possible in the post board games and try to build up a big board that way? I find that I usually win game 1s without casting Alurens at all but lose miserably in the sideboard games.
When piloting BUG Aluren, I found that the BUG and Grixis Delver matchups are extremely good, RUG is close, and UR is negative, as you described.
First thing is to play around price of progess as much as you can by getting your basics or holding open fetches, then focus on creatures. It is ok to force a swiftspear, delver, or storm chaser mage. Your first strix will usually eat a removal spell, so you need to get to the second one before you can expect to trade with their creatures. Decays are outstanding, when targeting creatures use them during combat for maximum value. Good opponents won't throw spells during combat for extra damage when you have decay mana open, but unless your life total is very high you can rarely afford to take the hit. Waiting until combat at least gives the opponent the chance to waste a spell.
Post-board I have tried going max-combo and max-disruptive. I like the disruptive route. Post-board I want to do a few things. 1) board down on Aluren because it is slow. 2) bring in all of my disruptive spells (decay, edict, duress, mindbreak, cabal therapy, etc - whatever I have that day) 3) bring in any life gain (I run a second parasitic strix in the board), and 4) improve my cascades. This latter one means I often trim 2-3 cavern harpy, since cascading into them on an empty board sucks, especially when your opponent is trying to burn you and you need a clock. A dead cascade can cost you 4+ damage. With my current build I go -3 aluren, -2 harpy, -1 Ponder, -1 bayou, + 1 p. strix, +2 duress, +1 decay, +2 therapy, +1 edict. Of note, in my experience the UR players typically remove 2-4 daze and 3-4 forces post-board, opting for only a couple pierces, blood moon, and/or burn. For this reason, if I draw my post-board aluren with any value in hand, I cast it with little fear, and almost never try to find protection for it first. Occasionally the board is close enough that you can hold it in favor of other value plays from your hand, but if you are behind it is a good, and normally safe last ditch effort. Despite their more limited disruption post-board, I favor siding out alurens because drawing multiple alurens caused me several losses when I could not get enough business to stabilize.
So after some time has passed, I've really liked maindecking Thoughtseize. Might go to 3 copies by cutting the 2nd Parasitic.
This.
I always go with 4 Cabal Therapy, 2 or 3 Thoughtseizes.
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