I agree with pretty much everything else. I do like Dismember but I don't think it will see much Legacy play. If you're already running black why would you play this over Snuff Out unless your meta is infested with Tombsalkers, Phyrexian Obliterator, and to a lesser extent Bob? Yes you don't have to pay the four life to play it and having that option is nice, but you also have to have at least one mana open to play it. You only take one less off a Bob reveal but it isn't gauranteed to kill the most commonly played fatties, Goyf and Knight, and it doesn't kill some of the more fringe threats like Dreadnought and Wurmcoil Engine.
Decks that don't play black can, and do, very easily splash white for StP which solves all your problems for 1 mana and no life, although it's likely to lose some power due to MM. I think most current decks have better removal than this.
I like Dismember, too...it's a solid removal spell, and remember the whole reason behind the phyrexian mana symbols: they gel with any deck that can spare a few life points. You're looking at any deck being able to play a better Snuff Out...they just have to pay 1 generic mana for it now.
It hits black creatures and it nails up to x/5 creatures, which is incredibly relivant. It hates on indestructables, too, which is great. If the phyrexian mana symbols made the card colorless if you paid life...holy shit, BROKEN. Alas, the card is still black even with life payment instead of mana.
My prediction on Mental Misstep is that it will fall in-step with tempo oriented decks in the format (decks already packing Daze and Force) like Bant, Tempo Faeries, and Tempo Thresh. The reason? No card disadvantage, all you do is pay 2 life instead of 1 life and pitch a blue card. I'm not saying it will replace Force of Will...what it will do is lower the DEPENDANCY on Force of Will. Now you can use MM and actually CAST YOUR BRAINSTORMS!!! WOO HOO! Brainstorm goes from fodder back to cantrip on a more regular basis. Temp decks MAY (I'm going out on a limb here) replace 1-2 Forces with Mental Misstep and put the remaind Forces in the sb.
Budget guys like me are going to be including Mental Misstep in their maindeck instead of Force of Will...because I don't have them, lol.
Enough about MM...Surgical Extraction. I like it. I like it a lot. Potential for some insane turn 1 plays like this:
Duress, find Force of Will/Counterbalance/Swords to Plowshares. Cast Surgical Extraction = ahh, what a sigh of RELIEF!!! Extirpate is uncounterable, but cannot effectively show up to rumble turn 1 like SE can. I've always been a big fan of Faerie Macabre for what it can do, and this is roughly the same thing only it hits all copies of a card rather than just 2 targeted cards.
Brainstorm Realist
I close my eyes and sink within myself, relive the gift of precious memories, in need of a fix called innocence. - Chuck Shuldiner
I dunno safety - the need to discard and extirpate in the same turn just isn't there IMHO. Besides with uncounterable extirpate you aren't dodging countermagic, so you can cast it on any turn. The only time you'd really want to hit thoughtsieze extirpate in the same turn is when you were facing a double Force hand or a situation where you were taking their next relevant 1 drop (on the go) or their relevant 2 drop (on the play) - like if you were trying to get rid of all of their goyfs before they could have a chance to play one. But, realistically you aren't boarding in extirpate type effects against decks that run aggro-type cards anyway. I guess against Thresh or Team america you may want to remove their threats rather than their countermagic...but I'm not sure I'd be reaching for extirpate in these situations. Hard to say.
This deck is quite different from "Deadguy", but I figured it's the closest thread.
4 Mother of Runes
4 Dark Confidant
4 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of War and Peace
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Go for the Throat
2 Diabolic Edict
4 Brainstorm
3 Ponder
4 Spell Snare
4 Mental Misstep
4 Flooded Strand
3 Marsh Flats
3 Polluted Delta
4 Tundra
2 Scrubland
3 Underground Sea
1 Island
1 Plains
Sword of War and Peace seems perfect for sustaining Confidants, and Mother of Runes/Stoneforge Mystic supports that strategy. Blue gives you the draw and manipulation, and the Misstep/Snare combination has a very minimal blue requirement! The only card I miss is Hymn to Tourach, but I've got alot more lategame after trading things with the blue. Thoughts?
I'll probably be shunned for only playing 8 black cards :D
Heres the thing about your deck. Sword of War and Peace is absolutely terrible in your build.
Reasons:
1) Protecting Confidant - this would mean that its past turn 4, and assuming you manage to get a Confidant in play, safely equip the sword on it. Then, Confidant is absolutely dead to black removal (GftT, Smother) because MoR can't protect him.
2) On soldier tokens - SoWaP on a soldier token makes it a 3/3. You will not be able to give it further protections from MoR or jump it with elspeth. That means a single tarmogoyf stalls your equipped creature.
3) Mental Misstep - You are already playing this card which is great protection against red/white removal against BoB.
SoWaP really does little in your deck and is too slow/clunky/useless to do its other job (protecting confidant) well.
Brace yourself for a wall of text...sorry, I probably got a bit carried away.
Ok, so a couple things here. First - you are right, it's not really deadguy. However, if we can all agree to try and not derail the thread, I think it's 'ok' to talk about it. I will throw up some caution flags here though, because so far every time one of us talks about something other than strictly B/w Confidant the thread is derailed for at least a couple of pages...lol. Essentially you've come into a thread about a Black/White deck and shown us a blue deck (15 blue cards) that splashes black (8 cards) and white (8 cards)...lol.
I'm not sure that Spell Snare and Mental Misstep gain you any more control than discard + wasteland, this is the fundemental difference between your deck and the "traditional Deadguy" builds. I think you are still vulnerable to a host of strategies that discard at least gives you a fighting chance against (challice, SnT, some other combo decks). Also, you loose the information that you would be gaining from looking at your opponent's hand - and to me, in a long game, that information is pretty key, it allows you to play more aggressively despite having minimal threats - which means you need less control and you are less dependant on topdecks.
That being said...
On the other hand, I've also repeatedly said that discard alone is not enough to control your opponent, so cramming blue into the deck would really give you the opportunity to back up your discard with countermagic. So fundementally, I'm not opposed to adding blue and ditching wasteland, I'm not just so sure that elliminating discard from the build is a sound strategy.
So if we continue on the premise that a U/b/w build is viable in the confidant shell, we can start choosing things like disruption and finishers.
On the topic of control, you're basically running 8 Removal spells and 8 Counterspells - similar in principle to the quanity of removal and quantity of discard in the traditional B/w builds. I think generally this is a Strong position of control, and reasonable in overall quantity - I may add up to 2 more control spells in the maindeck, depending on meta and playstyle, but 16 seems fine for a starting point. I think the type of removal you have is also at least a little problematic. 8 creature removal spells seems ok at first glance, but the reality is there is a reason why most decks only run 4 removal spells...they are dead in so many matches. This is one of the many reasons why vindicate is good. I'm not suggesting Vindicate in your build, as I'm not sure it's the right card for a 3-color deck that is simply splashing B/W. My point is that you have a lot of dead cards against a lot of decks. I think with the ammount of countermagic you have and the color scheeme you have chosen will probably be forced to reduce the number of removal spells in the deck, and you'll just have to use your countermagic as removal in some matches. Again, this doesn't mean just cut control, it just means that you may have to look for something other than removal as a form of control - maybe discard in the form of Duress, IoK or something similar.
With regards to finishers, you're basically devoting 6 spots to a SFM suite and 2 cards to elsepeth for finishers. This is 8 finishers, in a deck running roughly 15-20 control spells, it's probably too much. I think there is probably some room to trim this to 6 or 7, providing you add in some more creatures of some sort (bears or otherwise) to provide targets for equipment. As to which finishers to use...I think you could stand to look at this a bit. Personally, I don't like running more SFM than equipment, and I've found a 6 card package to be a bit much if you're also running other finishers. If you can shoe-horn in some other potential sword-wielders I'd probably go to a 3 or 2 equipment/2 SFM package. Also, there's the above post that details the downside of running Elspeth with a sword that grants Pro-White (especially in a deck that is running a suite of counters to defeat removal). Personally, I think if you need to gain life you go get Jitte, and if you need do do damage you go get SoFI. SoFI does the most damage consistently with the fewest drawbacks for you (SoWaP is probably faster in most cases, but the elspeth and mom bombo makes things a little awkward), and the additional card draw gives you an opporutunity to cut down on your 11 draw spells.
This leads me to draw. You're currently dedicating 11 slots to draw. I think this is simply too much. I think you could achieve similar results with a Trinket mage/top package to compliment Bob and SFM and you could gain some significant versatility post-board to find things like Pithing needle, Crypt, EE, etc. I think if you were trying to shoe-horn FoW into the deck, then I'd probably say Brainstorm and Ponder were the way to go, but with 11(!) fetch lands in the deck I would say Top would be a no-brainer.
Lastly...Mom...oh how I hate thee. Where to start? Basically you've created a deck where you're trying to protect your card draw. I think that your build, as it stands, depends too much on bob. Generally, most decks only run 4 removal spells to start with, so if you just increase your threat density you won't need to worry about protecting Bob, because if they kill him, they just die to your threats. Also, you have (at least) as much countermagic as they have removal spells. So, even without Mom, Bob will probably live A LOT. Now, combine this to what you have to do to your mana base to force a first turn mom, in order to protect a turn 2 Bob...Frankly it's just awkward. Generally, in the current build you'd much rather Ponder/Brainstorm or leave mana open for counters on turn 1 than play Mom, so she's generally just sitting in your hand - basically you have 15 blue cards that you'd rather play on turn 1 rather than play mom. Turn 2...you want to play Bob, screw trying to play mom, then bob on turn 3 - it doesn't work. Because if you hold your bob on turn 2, you have to sit through turns 2 and 3 of people playing Goyf's and KotR's while you set up your card draw engine. Generally, playing bob on turn 2 is always going to be a better play, because then you not either get your draw engine set up a turn earlier oryou put pressure on your opponent to interact with you, rather than them setting up with win conditions.
So, if not Mom...then what? Well, personally I'm a fan of Tidehollow Sculler. He plays nice with SFM on offense, and combines nicely with your countermagic effects on defense, so he applies pressure and some measure of control...but his B/W casting cost may be a pain for your build. However, for you, there's also Vendilion Clique - This broad is a house with equipment or pumped by Elspeth, and flying is something that noone really has in legacy. Clique obviously isn't a 4-of, but once you add her you start knocking on the door of being able to run FoW - at least in the sideboard (and if you keep your blue draw spells). Also, aside from being a great finisher, she gives you some nice control as well, granting you that peek at opponents hands and taking away troublesome cards that your 1 cmc counters can't deal with. The downside of clique is obviously her casting cost, as the 2 Blue is a pain and if you choose to run a Trinket mage suite you could give yourself some issues with bob because of the number of 3-drops. However, I think either Sculler OR Clique are far superior to Mom because of their versatility....and neither card is dead against combo or control like Mom is.
So, here's a rough suggestion and complilation of my suggestions:
14 Dudes:
4 Dark Confidant
3 Tidehollow Sculler
3 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Vedilion Clique
2 Trinket Mage
3 Equipment:
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of Body and Mind(this and the 3rd SFM are kind of a flex spots, the deck probably needs more creatures to eqiup, I'd be more comforatable with 16)
4 Misc:
2 Sensei's Divining Top
2 Jace, The mind Sculptor (this could just as easilly be Elspeth, but I felt with the heavy Blue that Jace made more sense)
18 Card Control Suite:
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Diabolic Edict
4 Spell Snare
4 Mental Misstep
4 Duress (this spot is flex for control, but this card has some reach that your countermagic doesn't, compared to stuff like IoK)
21 Land
So...The synopsis is this, I've managed to sneak in 9 Discard spells (counting Clique and sculler), 6 Removal spells (a little lighter than what you had before, but it's 8 if you count Jace), and kept your 8 counterspells. The Ponder and Brainstorm were traded in for control elements, Jace, and Top. I managed to keep your 6-card Mystic Package (more or less), and I actually have more finishers when Clique and Jace are considered. I think that generally this provides a higher threat density than your theme of building around Bob, and I've still managed to be able to include more control elements simply by using cards with more versatility. I doubt that this is the eppiphany that will change dead-guy forever, but it seems ok (without goldfishing or playtesting it what-so-ever)...It probably needs more life-gain in there somewhere, and there are definately some card counts that should be looked at, in addition to mana base considerations and a host of other things...but I think it's a good rough-draft.
Forget Sword of War and Peace. Batterskull is what you want. Batterskull is the replacement for vampire nighthawk.
Bless your heart, we must consider Blue/White Tempo's strategy and win percentages in an entirely different deck thread. -4eak
I should have qualified that...I most certainly meant it as a sideboard option in lieu of Extirpate.
I was mostly thinking of turn 1 Thoughtsieze + turn 1 Surgical Extraction for the combo matchup. If you can get rid of Lion's Eye Diamond/Orim's Chant/Silence/Ad Nauseum/Dark Ritual/Burning Wish/Living Wish/Glimpse of Nature/Life from the Loam...it's a way to shore up the combo matchup.
My experience with combo decks is that they mulligan aggressively in order to get their best shot at going off ASAP. This means a hand with targeted discard + Surgical Extraction becomes a REALLY STRONG PLAY, and one not dependant on also drawing a third card (like Dark Ritual so you can Extirpate the same turn)
Brainstorm Realist
I close my eyes and sink within myself, relive the gift of precious memories, in need of a fix called innocence. - Chuck Shuldiner
Cant really Decide wich version to play with or without Vial / Wastelands. Only tested without Vials so far. If running Vials is playing Serra Avenger really that good instead Gatekeeper of Malakir?
I have felt that the removal from Swords + Gatekeeper was really needed. So far i have been really enjoying playing Mirran Crusaders as my 3 dropp instead of the Nighthawk.
Have tested manabase with
4 Marshflats
4 Scrubland
4 Caves of Koilos
4 Wastelands
4 Samps
1 Plains
I would hesitate to run four of something that depends on another card to be playable.
On another note, had a though for Vial versions: Nether Void. In testing I keep having problems with a strong start that just can't close the deal before the opponent starts to recover (esp. those with library manipulation/draw). Void could be a nasty speed bump that comes down in the mid-game to give you enough time to seal the deal. Would be a 2 or 3-of at most, as you really don't care about seeing it early or grabbing multiples.
Also, for all it's hype, I think Mental Misstep is definitely a possible inclusion for Vial lists. The main problem with Vial is that it's slow, and it clogs up the CMC1 slot. Misstep would basically play the role of Daze in Merfolk, letting you drop Vial T1 and still interact with the opponent. I really don't like the "every deck will play Misstep to counter Misstep" argument, but in this case I think it does warrant some testing.
First of all, it's a 4/4 for 5 - we have access a host of creatures which either cost less for the same power, have more power for the same mana, or both. The interaction with SFM is cute and all, but to Cheese's point Pithing Needle, Phyrexian Revoker, and Stifle are all played cards that could easilly wreck it's day - much less something like Extirpate on SFM's. It's great in Standard with no needle or stifle in a slower environment, but in legacy I'm not sure it get's there. Oh, and there's also that pesky interaction with Bob.
I think there is probably a SFM based equipment deck out there somewhere that will probably run (or try to run) batterskull in some capacity, but I don't think it belongs in the B/w Shell without some significant adjustments to the deck - I don't think it's anywhere near as easy as just swapping a couple batterskull's in for a couple nighthawks. I think it's more likely to be something akin to the old U/w landstill builds with something like Vial and their own hatebears (meddling mage, revoker, cannonist, etc). I dunno, that's for someone else to figure out.
All of that being said, The deck needs a finisher, something bigger than 3 power generally. If you don't already run Persecutor or Tombstalker then this card is going to seem pretty awesome...lol. Also, I will say that getting to 5 mana is generally not an issue for this deck - especially after board with canonists against control - we pack so much discard and removal that we should never have an issue getting to turn 6 or 7, the problem is that we have to get there with a way to put on pressure - not start applying pressure on turn 6 or 7...
For big dudes, I think the new Myr Superion is nice with vial, not sure if it would be worth running without some other ways to get it into play though.
To the poster using Caves of Kolios:
I think 4 more fetches would be a better idea, and I think even Tainted Field would be a better fit.
Most Merfolk lists get away with 8 colourless lands in their deck and have a blue source for turn 1. Tainted Field would provide the same ratio of colourless for the first turn but wouldn't burn later.
Someone turning it off later inthe game by destroying your swamp would warrant playtesting.
ok...tourney report. I just took second in a 60+ person GPT, I actually scooped in the last round to a freind (and teammate) because I wanted the second place prize (trop's) because I actually just traded for the first place price (underground's), and we were both getting bye's anyway.
Let me preface all of this by saying that anyone that is under the illusion that I am good at deck constructor should at least be made aware that I'm an aweful player with just a huge ammount of luck on my side. Also, i would like to preface this report with the fact that I was at a 16 man local on Thursday and I went 1-3 with my only win coming from a solidarity deck against a relatively inexperienced pilot. My point is that my results are in no way an indication of the deck's power - but rather just more information to help you develop your own build and maybe you can gleen some information that I don't really see...lol.
To see my decklist, look a few pages back, and change the sideboard by going -3 Mindbreak Trap, -1 Ethersworn Canonist, -1 edict and replacing them with +2 Extirpate, and +3 Null rod. My team and I saw a lot of people testing affinity before the tourney started, and in previous testing affinity just curb-stomps my build, so I needed a plan, and Null rod seemed like a good one. I felt that reducing the number of mindbreak traps dilluted their effectiveness, but I felt I still needed at least 5 cards against combo...so I went to the 3/2 Canonist/Extirpate split. So...here's the report:
Round 1 Rock/Junk b/w/g whatever you want to call it. Generally I've felt that after board our M/U get's pretty awesome here, so I was hoping to sneak game 1 and play perish's in game 2 & 3 to blow him out. Game 1 he get's land screwed after a mull to 6 and I quickly establish a board position and set up Jitte+Nighthawk, but end up playing through 3 path to exile. At one point this game was 41 to 1. Then I drew Land+Dark rituals for about 8-10 turns straight (I had drawn 16 of my 24 cards that gave mana) and he drew gas like a champ - this game took about 30 minutes. Game 2 i drew removall and discard like a champ, and eventually blew him out with a perish as time was called in round. 1-1 Draw.
Round 2 I get paired up against the B/u reanimator build utilizing Necrotic Ooze. Let me preface this by sayign I have a ton of experince playing against reanimator - but I've played against a funky mono-black version that is completely different from this deck. Game 1 he's on the play and on turn 2 he plays lotus petal and burried alive for necrotic ooze, Phyrexian devourer and trisk. I play Turn 2 Phyrexian Revoker naming Necrotic Ooze and after the match he tells me he almost scooped until he relaized that he could just reanimate trisk, kill the revoker and then go off. I play T3 Swords on trisk, he kills it with it's own counter, so then I play sculler, and he responds with lim dul's vault. He get's his reanimation spell on top and proceeds to win. At this point I start boarding in my reanimation hate, and i had no idea that he boarded into show and tell. Game 2 I went T2 Sculler, and he pops a Lotus petal in response and casts lim Dul's Vault, then reveals double emmy and some other stuff (including Ancient tomb) then he goes T2 Show and Tell into emmy. 0-2 Loss
So at this point things start getting a little fuzzy, because i start caring a whole lot less about keeping track since I'm actually thinking about dropping to go watch a movie...lol. I remember spending a bunch of time in round 2 wathcing a solidarity Vs Time spiral matchup which was pretty hillarious. For the sake of information I'll post information I can remember. I remember thinking,"Why can't I just play Merfolk or Goblins, I love those matchups"...lol.
Round 3 Paired down against Thresh (Ug/r), he's running Clique, 'goyf and Trinket mage (for EE) as his only creatures. Generally he just can't get through removal+discard against his minimal threats. I just overpower him in a couple of long games. 2-0 Win
Round 4 Paired up against Solidarity, this is the one guy I beat on Thursday and another fairly accomplished player told him on thursday "well, he runs more combo hate than anyone in town and he runs discard, you're just going to randomly loose to him, but it will be rare that you face him or anyone playing that much combo hate" Game 1 I went T1 Thoughtsieze into T2 Ritual + Persecutor, I then made a savage misplay on T3 by Vindicating an island before i attacked with persecutor - he twincasted my vindicate (targeting persecutor) and I thought for sure that I lost, but i ended up landing a second persecutor and putting on a decent clock. I ended up getting him to 7 and getting ready to attack (he had a fetch land on the board as well) when he tried to go off - he ended up using all of his wish's to sustain his combo so he couldn't get a draw spell to accompany his brainfreeze, to which I responded by attacking him, putting him at -0- and casting one of the cabal therapies that he put in my grave with the freeze. Game 2 I kept a 1 land hand and i went dark ritual, Thoughtseize (revealing no relevant countermagic) then casted a second dark ritual and casted Persecutor which drew audible groans from everyone withing 3 tables of me. i never drew another land, but i casted cabal therapy on T2 and just won...lol. 2-0 Win
Round 5 paired down against Elves. This match was hillarious. I drew my maindeck Revokers in Game 1 to back up my removal and discard, good times. Game 2 I brought in Plague and Perish - Blow out. Win 2-0
Round 6 Paired down against Merfolk, he can't get into top-8 and I need to win and still may not get in. He steps up to the table and I say "so, are you going to dream-crush me?" to which he responds, "well, we have to play". I keep some aweful hands, he counters my discard spells and has more lords than I have remvoal in both games we play...he absolutely crushes me, it really wasn't close. At that point I figure I'm all done...and he hands me the match slip saying that I won 2-0 and tells me "good luck, hope you make top-8" Loss 0-2, Turned Win 2-0
Little did I know that the guy that I lost to was 3-2 and was also was paired up against another x-1-1, the guy I tied to in the first round, and he scooped totry and get HIM in. I barely won tie breakers and snuck in.
Quarterfinals Merfolk, the match I wanted all day I was now dreading a bit. game 1 I end up getting through Tripple Lord of atlantis and double curse-catcher on the board with 2 Nighthawks Bob, and Revoker. God bless Vampire Nighthawk, I blocked one LoA with my untapped 'Hawk (I attacked with the other) and double blocked another lord with Revoker and bob, putting me at 1. I proceeded to play gatekeeper the next turn off the top-deck and squeek it out. I ended up winning this game at 3 life, but that includes 2 That I gained from nighthawk's lifelink. Game 2 I Seize his opener and he has 2 land, 4 lords, and Sower....he goes on to win this game pretty handilly. Game 3 I open 2 gatekeeper of Malakir, 2 Engineered plague, dark Ritual, Bob, and a fetchland. Since I'm on the draw, I figure my chances of getting a land on 2 to play bob is pretty good, or I could draw one of 6 1 cmc discard spells with bob on turn 1...so, I decide I keep - probably an aweful decision. He mulls and plays Vial on the mull to 6. I draw Dark Ritual and laugh a little and pray a little that he doesn't have Force of Will in his remaining 4, but not really caring since that would leave him with 2 cards against my relevant 6, including bob and a way to play him. I Play Engineered Plague and he just shrugged - it turns out that he had no creatures other than cursecatcher in hand. I draw another land on turn 2, cast a second plague and absolutely decimate him. Win 2-1
Semi-finals goblins...love this matchup. I loose game one, board in Engineered Plague, missplay horribly at least a dozen times, and still win. My opponent probably would have scooped to me on several occaisons in both games if I didn't keep making horrible mistakes. It was a long day and I don't play that well when i haven't played magic for 8 hours straight. In both of the second 2 games I end the games with 3 Persecutors in hand....yes really.
Scoop the finals to a friend and on I go, Byes, trops, and 2 Savannah's which I gave to the fish player that scooped to me in round 6 (He didn't ask for them, but I was appreciative to say the least).
Wasteland wasn't relevant all day, and I almost never saw equipment all day (until I played against goblins - which was a blow-out). Mostly I had to win the hard way - on the back of nighthawk and control through discard...although I occainsonally got to get some beats in with persecutor. It was a long, nerve-wracking day, my clocks were generally pretty slow and I spent an aweful lot of time writing down people's hands and playing around soft-counter magic, and in many games I felt like I was Playing Suicide (between Thoughtseize, fetches and bob). It was definately the hard way.
Congrats Bok on the win. I recently read an article on fanatic about sharing your booty to those who scoop, that if you mention you'll compensate to the player you actually can end up with a DQ. No es bueno.
Nice job!
What was your list?
-Matt
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