[Deck] Death and Taxes

[Penguinizer]

I'll have to test a build without it at some point. I don't really know what to run instead. It's worked well for me. It also gives me additional combo hate that still has function even if combo becomes rarer. As for Progenitus being a giant wall, that is hardly an issue. My ground dudes rarely attacked without a prot-sword.

The build I'm probably going to try out at the next tournament:

// Deck file for Magic Workstation (http://www.magicworkstation.com)

// Lands
4 [LG] Karakas
14 Plains
3 Mishra's Factory

// Creatures
2 Jotun Grunt
4 Serra Avenger
3 Mangara of Corondor
4 Mother of Runes
4 Flickerwisp
3 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Burrenton Forge-tender

// Spells
4 AEther Vial
3 Oblivion Ring
3 Runed Halo
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of Light and Shadow

// Sideboard
SB: 1 Jotun Grunt
SB: 1 Burrenton Forge-tender
SB: 3 Ethersworn Canonist
SB: 3 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 3 Wing Shards
SB: 4 ???? Used to be silence, I have no idea what to replace it with. I'm considering 3 Kami of Ancient Law and 1 Canonist, Grunt or something.


The reason I lack Wasteland is as I do not own any and I can't borrow 4 because the old person I know of who has any is usually using them. Same for the tutor package. I ran the same list with a different sideboard to a 4-0-1 victory at a 30-man tournament (I said 38 earlier, I remember wrong. Sorry) as I mentioned earlier. I think the deck worked fairly well, although the lack of wastelands was bothersome.

[Salogy]

I am not entirely sold on Runed Halo. Especially main decked. The card at best stalls out against a single card, which simply is not enough against things like Zoo or Goblins, and against decks like NO-Pro it simply prevents the attacks by Progenitus turning him into a giant wall that blocks all of your creatures save the ones with flying. I don't think the trade off is worth it. I would much rather be running Meekstone in its place, but certainly not main decked.

You should consider running Runed Halo in your main deck. I have had great results with this card as a singleton in my main deck. The card prevents your opponents from winning with a single card while you can continue winning.

Versus Zoo, I usually side it out (along with anything pridemages can blow up). Against goblins I keep it in depending on the build and name piledriver. The card is great vs NO-Progen, I can name Rhox War Monk, Progenitus and Tarmogoyf. Versus merfolk I'll usually name Mutavault or Lord of Atlantis. Tendrils of Agony is perfect to name versus ANT. Versus Canadian and New Horizons, I name one of their 2-3 creatures. Aggro Loam runs 2-3 big beats I can name with the halo. Grindstone or Jace MS are good cards to name in general. Finally the card is no good versus burn unless I want to name Fireblast =/

Runed Halo main decked is great because the card is so flexible. If you name the wrong card, use Flickerwisp to switch card names and keep going. You can do the same after you've removed a threat and a bigger one shows up. Running a single Runed Halo md is like running one Pithing Needle main decked. If you know what card to name, the card is never dead in game 1.

[chmoddity]

I think that Runed Halo as a card in the main goes directly against the primary focus of this deck. D+T works because you are disrupting the opponent's ability to get their game plan together. And when the opponent is finally able to get their game working, your offense doubles as defense.

Dedicating card slots (and mana) to stall tactics is not what an aggressive deck should be doing. I think I would be done with Swords to Plowshares and Oblivion Ring if there were creatures that could do the job.


0.02

[Penguinizer]

I belive that some stall tactics are necessary. We can not be faster than Goblins or Zoo, we need to slow them down. That's what I use Runed Halo for. It's also good against combo. I don't really know what to bring in if I cut it. BFT is NOT worth it as a 3-of main. Jötun Grunt might be, but that still leaves me with 1 extra slot.

[d0ner]

For slowing Aggro Decks down, i play Perimeter Captain. It blocks all his one drops successfull and gives 2 Live when chumpblicking a goyf!

[DalkonCledwin]

what happened to our Pro-Color cards in that they allow us to permanently chump block things. I mean Mother of Runes is not at all insignificant.

[Penguinizer]

It isn't when it always gets removed. Mother of Runes is not enough.

[DalkonCledwin]

It isn't when it always gets removed. Mother of Runes is not enough.

and what is going to stop your runed halo from getting removed?

[Penguinizer]

Zoo only runs 4 cards maindeck that can remove it compared to the 12+ cards that can be used to remove mother before it gets active. I also think that Jitte or SoLaS and SoFaI are much more likely to get removed.

[Tanarin]

Well if a Mother or a harrier is going to be eating one of their removal spells, it is still getting the job done since that is one less spell that a grunt or an avenger or a Mangora is gonna eat. Really though, Runed halo is much better off in the SB IMO.

[Dark Ritual]

Runed halo is better in the SB. As for it being harder to remove than mom, zoo runs 4 MD enchantment/artifact destruction dudes called qasali pridemage's. Mom getting removed I see as a victory since they then have one less removal spell for the real dudes like jotun grunt, mangara, and serra avenger. Zoo seems like a MU that is bad game 1, but can be improved via SBing games 2 and 3 because they are simply put really fast compared to us.

[DalkonCledwin]

I completely agree with everything that both Tanarin and Dark Ritual have said. Simply put, adding in Runed Halo in the main deck on top of the other things that this deck needs to be doing is simply going to remove your threat density or your removal density, and that is something that you don't want to do in my opinion.

[eq.firemind]

I agree with all of you who thinks Runed Halo is not MD card.
Here's my reason to not like it: After introduction of Stoneforge Mystic the deck starts to win with equipped dude far more often than before. Equips become a huge part of deck's strategy. Goldmeadow Harrier is as good as Halo in defence vs Zoo/Bant/Aggroloam creatures and almost as good vs Reanimator (tapping Iona/Sphynx is just ridiculous) but the little kithkin can all suddenly grab Jitte/Sword and ride it to the win. Halo can never do that.
Also, I'd like to remind one basic thing: you cannot win against everything, especially with maindeck. Halo is the card that screams "I try to answer everything".
And I agree with chmoddity about creatures: this deck wants many of them. First reason was mentioned above: Mystic is awesome and we need dudes to carry stuff. Second reason: Aether Vial is extremely powerfull card and we need creatures to maximize it.
See where it goes? Our good cards want creatures to become even better. Our main offensive strategy wants creatures to be effective.
Now, why don't run more creatures? IMHO there's no reason 'cause now (after the printing of fucking awesome Mystic) we finaly have enough good synergic creatures.

Now, there's another topic I'd like to discuss: Your predictions of metashift after banning MT.
I have a fear that our old enemy Landstill will show up again.
I guess this one will be a little easier 'cause we have 4 Sword-of-Protection-From-Spot-Removal maindecked, but it's still tough MU.
And I think our best bet here is to rely on manadenial plan (nothing new here) and diversify our threats' manacost to avoid 2-for-1 Engineered Explosives. I guess Mystic and more than 4 1-drop creatures will help the second part, but that's still not enough. If anyone have ideas, please share them.

[GooNaa]

I also had problems with Landstill decks.
First i played against a UW Version with Humility, WoG, Explosives, Jace and lost.
I thought a green splash for Gaddock Teeg could help. Knowing his decklist i knew Mother into Teeg to protect each other would have been game besides double swords.
The next time we tested he had switched to Ugb Standstill with Deeds, Innocent blood and i lost again.
The only wins i could steal were when i could lay a needle on deed.

Deed and to a bit Humility are the worst cards for us imo.
Right now i am back to Mono white.

My tournament experience so far with DnT is 17-3-3 but many wins fealt like they were stolen because the opponents did not know how to play against DnT and made several mistakes.

[Vacrix]

If Landstill does come back around, DalkonCledwin config. with MD Factories looks pretty good. You might want to throw in a Crucible post-board too.

[eq.firemind]

If Landstill does come back around, DalkonCledwin config. with MD Factories looks pretty good. You might want to throw in a Crucible post-board too.

Dunno, I always felt better with 10-11 manadenial cards (4 Waste, 3-4 Port, 3 Mangara)... Maybe it's playstyle, but Factories didn't work for me...

Ahh, totally forgot another old thing: resolved Cataclysm destroys slow control decks like Landstill, Trainwreck and so on. I guess I'll put 2-3 back in SB.

[GooNaa]

Elspeth is also a good thread against Landstill

[Vacrix]

Either way, Crucible should go in the board. Especially with the potential for Waste lock, I don't know why it isn't in there in the first place. Its bomb against control.

[AggroSteve]

i do not think that a wastelock would harm us much (at least not me, since i'm using the mono-white list), so i do not think crucible will be needed, but the idea of playing cataclysm again is much more to my liking

[Vacrix]

Well Crucible isn't used to prevent yourself from being wastelocked because you play basics. Rather, you use it to attack there mana base with your OWN wastelock, and you can get rid of their manlands that way you can attack under Standstill.