Joined: Nov 25, 2015 Posts: 1431
Preferred Pronoun Set: Xhir/xhim, depending on Moon phase
Well, pity you flooded on Googles and Vehicles (3 in the deck) but at least you won one ...and all this is hilarious bwhahaha, I have to start asap, lol
Btw, a quick guide to my deck: you really need one creature in your starting hand and one removal too...and a 2º creature do wonders too
Against expected heavy removal, play first the Fireweavers...Chasers are much more important, you want them to attack and be blocked. Unless dry on lands, play t1 Google, and then, the creature...then Freighters, and later the Maps, Vials...try to keep Maps uncracked, of course. On the play, you can risk a Chaser for a fast Inventor...or if you expect little removal or defense based on bigger creatures, which is a better scenario for the deck
Mulligan if you have a crappy hand, even to 5...as Barney noted, with improvise decks you can flood on artifacts too...googled t4 Inventor hurts, much more with a passage. Also, don't do like Barney and keep a no-creature hand just because you already don't like the deck and want to play the RDWs... it's suicidal, obviously
All this is very evident and I should shut up now
Last edited by callmemaggit on Sun Apr 09, 2017 11:06 am, edited 3 times in total.
Joined: Feb 29, 2016 Posts: 2899 Location: Portugal
Now Playing: I MUST BE MAD TO PLAY THIS ON THE LADDER! - THEFLAKYMAGE
Pre-testing Analysis: The idea is interesting, but might be a bit too dependent on the alchemists. It probably has the same difficulties as sjokwaave's deck in dealing with bigger creatures, but if th draw is good enough I guess it can forget whatever op is doing and just go to face... Curve is low as well and very madness/discard based which can be powerful when you draw well, but when you don't, can leave you with hard to cast cards and no discard outlets. Creature count is low, but that's not really the deck's game-plan. Props to flaky for forgoing the rare lands and going 100% commons.
Game 1 AI - (Gruul)
Spoiler
On the draw. Keep a pretty god 3 lander with mountain, swamp, barrens, 2x neonate, alchemist and alms. T1 Hub + Oviya I drop mountain + neonate T2 Forest and attacks with oviya. I draw cathartic. I think it through and drop the barrens, the other neonate and attack for 1. T3 Forest and weldfast monitor (AI loves those guys) Draw another alms. I see a nice play here, so I drop the swamp and play the alchemist. I briefly think about attacking, but sacking the neonate now for alms won't trigger the alchemist so I pass. T4 Drops a tap-land, makes a servo with oviya and attacks with the monitor. I don't block. I draw a Mountain. So the big play's a go. Attack with the neonates for 2 (only 1 servo as a blocker). Now cathartic, discarding double alms and pinging with alchemist at every opportunity. Bamm! I'm at 23 life and he's at 8 and I drew 3 fresh new cards (swamp,temper,touch of the void). T5 He plays a scrapper champion. No prob. He attacks with the lizard and I take the hit. I draw a galvanic. I kill the champ with galvanic and ping with alchemist. I burn to face with touch and ping with alchemist. I sac a neonate and burn to face with temper and ping with alchemist and game over.
A T5 win is nothing to scoff at. A pretty decent start, but I got the idea I drew really well this time. WIN
Game 2 AI - (BUG)
Spoiler
On the Play. Mull a 1 lander. Keep a 2 lander with only red (2x mountain, 2x Alchemist, shock, twin-bolt, touch of the void) T1 Mountain, pass. AI plays UG tapland T2 I draw 3rd Alchemist. Play mountain and drop an Alchemist. AI drops a BU Tapland. T3 I draw cathartic. Drop 2nd Alchemist. AI drops an island and yahenni. Doesn't attack. (I forget to ping) T4 I draw Neonate (Where my lands at?). Double ping and kill yahenni with twin-bolt before it becomes a nuisance. AI drops another BU tapland and passes. (double ping eot) T5 I draw Swamp (finally!). I drop 3rd alchemist and hold up for shock. AI drops yet another tapland and play dukhara peafowl (another AI favorite). T6 I draw and play a cinder barrens. Triple ping and touch of void to face. AI plays universal solvent (lol). (EOT triple ping and I should have lethal next turn) T7 I draw a dragoon. Triple Ping and I shock to face, but... AI counters with Insidious Will and directs it at my face! (Wtf? double lol!). AI is at 2 life, so all I have to do is ping, but I play cathartic anyway... and game over.
Another no sweat victory. Triple alchemists against a removal shy deck is always going to be easy pickings. WIN
Now onto the ladder. If only my opponents could see my deck name... Game 3 R34 (Dimir Artifacts... lol)
Spoiler
On the play. Mull a 2 lander with no black lands Mull a no lander Mull a 1 land with just a swamp Keep a 1 lander (Mountain, neonate, Dragoon, shock, temper) Starting off badly... T1 neonate He plays swamp + map T2 I draw cathartic. Attack for 1. He drops hub and passes T3 I draw ALchemist. Attack for 1. He drops a UB dual and casts trophy mage. I shock it for what that's worth... He gets a caravan. T4 I draw temper. Attack for 1 and decide that if I'm gonna stand a chance I need land now, so I temper to face and draw a card. A mountain! My luck may yet change (yeah right...) He plays caravan, sacs map and gets a swamp and plays another map. (take your time killing me...) T5 Draw Neonate. Play Alchemist. He Sacs Map for island and drops a 4/6 Marionette Master. (Here we go...) T6 Draw Dragoon. (Shuffler hates me) I ping, Play neonate and temper to face in hope of finding land (he's at 10 life now, maybe I can get lucky and burn him out). I draw another neonate. He plays another Hub and battle at the bridge on my alchemist. I ping in response but there go my hopes of a burn comeback... T7 I draw another Alchemist and play it. He promptly fatal pushes it, drops a foundry sentry, crews caravan a beats me hard. T8 I draw Twin-bolt. Fan-f@cking-tastic! I decide to check out my next cards with cathartic (dumping the 2 dragoons) and I draw cinder barrens (Yay! a tap-land), another dragoon and touch of the void (ouch!) He mercifully finishes me off.
That was a terrible start. My rank is at 34 right now. LOSS
Game 4 R32 (4 Color Artifacts??)
Spoiler
On the Play. Mull a 5 Lander. Keep a 3 lander (mountain, mountain, barrens, dragoon, alms, void) T1 Neonate He plays a B/U dual T2 I draw mountain. Attack and play barrens. He Plays evolving wilds, sacs it to get a mountain (?) and plays a dockhand. T3 I draw a twin-bolt. I attack and play dragoon He misses a land drop plays scrounger T4 I draw a distemper. I use void on scrounger to exile it and attack. I decide to keep the distemper for later. No land for him, he drops a Thraben Gargoyle (?). T5 I draw cathartic and decide to go for the value play and cast it discarding alms and distemper. He metallic rebukes it! (Sh|t!!), luckily the madness effects still work so I take a fair chunk out of his life total. He plays a land and unlicensed disintegration on my dragoon. T6 He's low on life, I have some burn but not enough... I pass he doesn't do much and passes. T7 I draw a temper. I decide I need to get that neonate through to do a couple of points of damage, so I twin-bolt his dockhand and attack. He cast UD Nº2 on neonate, I sac and temper to face, getting a void... (He's at 4, so close now!) He drops a second scrounger. T8 I draw alchemist. (oh yes, that's the last point of damage!) He casts UD Nº3 on alchemist (Really?) T9 I draw a Dragoon. (I think, what the hell... Go for it!) So I shoot touch of the void to the face, leaving him at 1. He somehow plays a tireless tracker, since I lost track of his land drops (??? Where did green come from and wtf is it doing in this deck?) T10 I top-deck another Touch of the void and yell out YYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! I throw the delicious burn at his face and rejoice at the victory!
So the deck beat a mana-screwed pile of jank? Awesome! So its currently tied with sjokwaave's deck. Let's see if it can go 1 better... WIN
Game 5 R31 (Mardu Walkers)
Spoiler
On the play. Mull a 1 lander. Mull a 1 lander. Mull a no lander. Keep a 3 Lander (Mountain, ,mountain, barrens, alms, temper)
(Another 5 land mulligan with a pauper deck... I'm in for a beating.) He mulled to 6, so maybe there's hope.... T1 Barrens. BW Dual. (hmm, life gain is bad news) T2 Draw void. Play mountain. He plays mountain and passes. (mardu? slow vehicles draw... not likely... Control... Probably) T3 Draw and play Swamp. Nothing better to do, so alms to face. He plays swamp and passes. T4 Draw shock. (he's at 17, I have enough burn to put him at 9... How to do the rest?) Drop Mountain and void to face. He plays RB dual and chandra. (Not good) He pluses and exiles a grasp. T5 I draw a dragoon. I play it (Good luck sticking around dude, that hand must be crammed with removal) He pluses chandra to ramp and... Drops f@cking Sorin. (OOOOh, I'm in a really bad beating...). -2 to sorin and bye-bye dragoon. I can't really do much... Worst is that he gained 2 life... T6 Draw mountain but keep it. Never know when a cathartic may show up. Pass He pluses sorin and gets a grasp. Pluses Chandra to ramp and plays a tower. (Great...) T7 Low and Behold, I draw cathartic! Yay! Now, lets ditch the land and temper to face and see what the shuffler gives me... I screwed up because I wanted to shock chandraso she didn't ultimate yet, but that nice auto-tapper thought otherwise... Maybe I'll get lucky and draw another mountain... Not! So I draw alchemist, shock and distemper. Alchemist will just die, because he has at least 1 grasp in hand and will only fuel his tower, distemper is useless, shock is too little too late. Chandra emblem here we come! Plus Sorin gets a swamp (Serves you right!). He thinks a while them ultimates chandra (Duh? What's to think?). T8 I draw a f@cking Mountain. As if chandra emblems aren't bad enough, he casts blessed alliance at my eot gaining 4 life and burning me for 5... (Ouch) He plusses sorin and gets Ob Nix... (Another PW to join the massacre?) Then plays lilly and burns me more 5 more. (Oh what fun this is!) I get pissed and double shock his face at eot. T9 I draw alms. Oh yeah, this one goes straight to face! He's at 10. Plus Sorin gets a hub (Hahaha! Loser!) Then plays nahiri. (Really? When's gideon gonna show up?) 5 burn to my poor, scorched face. Plus Nahiri and discards a mountain. T10 I draw another alms. Wham! Take that! He's at 7, I'm at 5. He plusses sorin and gets Big Chandra (I'd forgotten her! Sure, she can join the fun too!)
So it took 10 turns to defeat a mull to 5 pauper deck? Loser! I left him at 7, not bad in these circumstances and without the lifegain, he'd be at 1... 19 damage. A good effort, but against mythic PW value, Flaky's deck with only 5 cards never stood a chance.
LOSS
Final verdict:
Spoiler
2-0 / 1-2
Tied with sjok's deck... It's an interesting result for 2 decks with very different game plans. Flaky's deck beat the AI without breaking a sweat, with good draws, it just did its thing as planned. On the ladder things didn't go well. you can say the deck got screwed by the shuffler and its true. Having to mull to 5 cards when you are already by far the Underdog is just cruel, but it still put up a decent fight given the circumstances. The match-ups in the losses were horrible too. But, no excuses... On to the nitty-gritty analysis: The problem is the game plan. The burn is just too low quality for it to be enough and the Creatures are too few and fragile to be an alternate route. if your opponent plays a deck with low interaction, the deck can shine, but that's not the case with most of the meta decks. They'll make minced meat of the few creatures you play. If you do some math, the burn does 3 damage max, so it'll take at least 7 cards to win (not counting any possible lifegain), with the 4/5 Land you need to get going, we'll need to draw a huge amount of cards to win and the Cathartic Reunions just aren't enough. Often, those burn spells are going to have to be removal too, so that's even more cards you need. It all feels too inefficient. I like the idea though and the Reunions were very cool when you had tempers and Alms in hand, I may even try them out in my el loco Extreme. For this deck to work, it probably needs more creatures, but that's a tough call because you don't have all that many Common options that will improve the deck. I would try to ballance the damage game-plan 50% creature based and 50% direct damage. Lastly, the low casting costs make it seem like the deck doesn't need much, but I got very mana screwed in 2 games, so it could probably use 1 or 2 more, because you often want to cast more than 1 spell per turn. The deck was fun when it worked and I like the alchemists, its a shame they die to everything but shock.
I'll give scores only at the end when I test all the decks so I can make a more global assessment of the submissions.
Joined: Nov 25, 2015 Posts: 1431
Preferred Pronoun Set: Xhir/xhim, depending on Moon phase
I'm taking them directly to the ladder, 2 games each for the first round, as I see nothing that requires learning them, all very straightforward, as expected
Neonates:
First game WIN against a Rank 32 Jund Delirium which highlighted nicely the strenghts of being on the play with RDW and with a good hand. Still, he played so-so...having seen I play with Acts, he dropped a Verdurous being at low life...
The second game was, funnily enough, with the same guy, now at Rank 31 haha...again on the play
But the guy learnt his lesson, and just dropped a couple of Moldgraf Scavenger without turning delirium on (oh, naughty boy) no Hulk this time hehe, and then proceed to beat me with a couple Scroungers, UDs, Ballista and even a late Hearth of K, lol...against which I was helpless, btw...
So LOSS
That nicely ilustrates the weakness of this build...a couple big blockers hurt you a lot, same as Hearts and let's not talk about Harversters...
...which takes me to the main problem I have with this buid: it's as stock as it gets. It's just all the direct damage we have with commons plus a bunch of cheap critters and Acts. It's almost exactly what I'd have built with that theme in mind...or anybody else. Well, I would have put just 3 Act effects, but that's minor.
Even more, it's a build a bit... lazy...I mean, why Acts instead of Hijack ?
In fact, take a look at a screen of the 2º game:
Spoiler
...not that Hijack would have saved me...but almost. In a pure red deck, Acts instead of Hijacks is just indolent
Don't take me wrong, the deck works, as any RDW, above all on the play...and I like the number of lands for the curve etc, it's well done...but pretty uninspiring imho from a builders point of view, I'm afraid.
Joined: Feb 29, 2016 Posts: 2899 Location: Portugal
This testing is actually a whole lot of fun.
I feel kind of detached, like a scientist performing an experiment, or like I'm watching a football/soccer game on TV or something and I'm rooting for one side but whatever the outcome, it's cool by me...
The write-ups are a lot of work, so I hope you enjoy them!
Joined: Nov 10, 2013 Posts: 17753 Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Round 3 playtesting has begun!
Insolvent Neonate just beat a rank 40 golgari delirium deck. And I did two MAJOR misplays too. It was the right amount of balancing the burn between creatures and face and being patient, yay. 3-0 on the ladder!
Let's try the other two finalists...
Safe and Scion wins against a rank 8 Simic mill deck. Borrowed Grace ftw. 3-0!! If El Loco loses the next match we will have our winners
El Loco wins again! Against another garbage simic energy deck. 3-0!
Top three decks are collectively 9-0 on the ladder. Barney is 12-3 on the ladder with Pauper, lol. That's a better record than when I try to use Secret of TImh's spikiest Tier 1 build with mythics!
Onto round 4!
Btw, el Loco has repeatedly given me many paths to win each game, it's remarkable
El Loco comes to a humiliating defeat in the fourth round to a very suboptimal Radkos Vehicle deck with tons of enchantments and pumps, and to put salt in the wound, it was an AI takeover match. Plus, El Loco came out perfectly on curve but still stood no chance. Let's see how the other two decks do this round. Any deck that wins becomes a winner. El Loco finishes 3-1 on the ladder.
Btw I loved Maggits earlier post, I forgot to give it propS
AHHHHHHHH!!!! guys! Guys!! Safe and Scion just beat a rank 40 really strong Abzan snek deck which did a T2 sylvan advocate (hard to deal with), T3 longtusk cub with fatal push, t4 tireless tracker with fatal push. The husk is now a 6/6. AND Barney got mana screwed bad with forest , evolving wilds and evolving wilds and that's it. Both my Druid of the cowl got fatal pushed. But blisterpods with topan free blades and two crappy three drops got the job done with a single borrowed grace. I killed the snek early with a might of the masses too. This is the first strong deck I've beaten I think. What a deck!!! 4-0! One of the winners for sure. If Insolvents Neonate wins its next match , it will share the crown... let's see.
Insolvent Neonate wins 4-0 as well, besting the worst Dimir graveyard deck I've ever seen. That's TWO Pauper decks that went 4-0 on the ladder!! Ladies and gentlemen, I am announcing the two winners of my vote, the very impressive Safe and Scion as well as the best mono red build, Insolvent Neonate. Congrats to our winners. Love these decks. I'll be playing them on Twitch in the future
I wonder what the high rank steam players think when they go up against these? Would prob be hilarious to see their faces, specially if they lose.
On xbone players prob don't even notice. At rank 40, I get paired up against R1 D card decks often enough I might not even think about it playing against these on the ladder.
Eh, I got to rank 40 on steam with a mediocre GR Energy deck with half of Kaladesh. The talk of steam being so much harder is jokes.
Considering Gem did so well in their tourney with a werewolf deck built from a partial collection, maybe I should have figured as much. At least their matchmaking works at rank (at least it does when I'm watching gameplay videos). Xbone play might (?) be on par if rank pairing wasn't all over the place.
Top three decks are collectively 9-0 on the ladder. Barney is 12-3 on the ladder with Pauper, lol. That's a better record than when I try to use Secret of TImh's spikiest Tier 1 build with mythics!
Excuse me, sir. I never build the spikiest T1 decks (even Valor Blues was T0 x infinity, not T1). I always run at least one card choice that makes Spikes cringe. I won't stand for that sort of defamation. :shakes fist:
Modulo, when I have a might of the masses with a full board, say 7 creatures. Opponent blocks my 4/4 trample with his oblivion sower, should I pump one of the dudes that is hitting face , leaving opponent with 5 life but still the Sower and other blockers, or should I pump the trampler to kill the sower, save the trampler and hit face for just a little bit, I chose the latter and ended up winning but with a red deck, this would have been the wrong choice. I think I would have killed him sooner had I pumped someone hitting face instead but then his board is better
Depends on the exact situation, but in general I'd lean towards killing the Sower. The trampler likely has an easy enough time getting damage past the other blockers, and the deck does not have many ways to interact with a Sower. Also, you're only dealing 4 damage less while taking out the Sower (due to Trample).
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Joined: Nov 10, 2013 Posts: 17753 Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Timh I totally forgot Valor Blues was tier 0 x infinity, my apologies. That's how u got me to play it in the first place and it was one of my favourite decks for a while, if not my favourite.
Joined: Jul 11, 2015 Posts: 1082 Location: Somewhere in Time
I don't think my Neonate can claim insolvency anymore with all the gold he's won
I was honestly expecting straight loses from anyone who played it and for them to end up like this:
I put next to no thought into the deck because I didn't have time to brew/test. As people have noted I should have used Hijack but as none of my decks have had call to use the card I just fell back on what I knew. Can't believe I even have two votes lol.
Modulo, you read my write-up of being that Abzan deck? Can you believe I won that match against those drops? So awesome.
I did read it; nice job! Winning these kinds of matches with the deck I believe to be possible but unlikely; also it takes quite some skill and a lot of fighting spirit. Very satisfying if you manage to win, though.
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Joined: Nov 10, 2013 Posts: 17753 Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Sjok, thanks! I'll make the switch tonight.
Now I'm in a big of a conundrum. I want to play these two Pauper decks from time to time cuz it'll be fun. I'm TEMPTED to add in the uncommons, rares and mythics to make them much more competitive but then... what's the point? The whole idea is to humiliate the other person with an all-commons deck. I'm going to leave them as-is I think. But I will change the hijacks, thanks for that!
Modulo, like i can't explain how satisfying it was. He drops the T2 Sylvan Advocate which is EXTREMELY hard to deal with. I have a super slow start with two evolving wilds and one forest. He Fatal Pushes BOTH of my Druid of the Cowls which would have got me out of the jam. And he continues to drop a high quality creature each turn. I saved my creatures and only chump blocked once, and was very patient...waiting for that perfect moment. And then BAM, I take my shot when I'm down to 2-3 life and it pays off. He must have been certain he had the game in hand. And it's a rank 40 too! What a match. It made me love your deck. And when I won, i could have done it with either Might of the Masses or Borrowed Grace. Yay options!
great job both of you. You guys sure make some good decks
Joined: Feb 29, 2016 Posts: 2899 Location: Portugal
Now Playing: THAT COMMON TYPE OF MADNESS - SL33PHUMPER
Pre-testing Analysis: So, another madness deck... This time Grixis. The first thing that comes to mind is that this version has more land (yes!), so hopefully I'll be less mana screwed and then the other big difference is take inventory. Flaky's deck lacked draw, this one has a little bit more and TI certainly works well with Cathartic reunion, so the blue splash may just work. I also love the idea of dispel. EVery meta-deck is packing instant speed removal and like I said with Flaky's deck, the creatures are just too vulnerable, so dispel is a very cheap and interesting option. On the down side, 3 colors will make color-screw more probable, so let's hope the shuffler doesn't kick me in the groin. The rest? Well, the same difficulties with big creatures but it gains some versatility. I wonder if the pyre hounds can justify being a 4-of, they synergize, but seem slow as f@ck... So, onto the testing!
Game 1 AI - (Dimir Artifacts)
Spoiler
On the play. Keep a 3 lander (Mountain, mountain, swamp, 2x dragoon, alchemist, take inventory) with no blue land. T1 Swamp Hub T2 Draw Alms. Drop a mountain and cast Alchemist. BU tapland T3 Draw another TI. Drop mountain, play dragoon and pass. Another BU tapland. Plays merchant dockhand (AI loves that card too). T4 I draw cathartic (Gas!). I ping with alchemist and cathartic ditching a TI and an alms (madness to face), pinging an extra time. And I draw 3 lands (:\\ evoWilds, BR dual and BU dual). I play the BU one and attack with the dragoon. AI doesn't block. AI plays esperzoa (another AI classic card) and then an island. I ping EOT. T5 I draw a mountain. I play the RB dual, and ping with alchemist. I cast TI for 2, drawind dispel and shock. I play the second Dragoon, think a bit and shock the dockhand (pinging again), so esperzoa will return to hand and keep the AI busy replaying it. I skip attacking. AI plays heart of kiran and esperzoa. I ping EOT and AI responds by crewing the heart with esperzoa (Great move!) T6 I draw shock, so I ping, shock, ping and attack and its all over.
That was easy. The AI has some real piloting skillz! WIN
Game 2 AI - (Orzhov Artifacts)
Spoiler
On the Play. Keep a 3 lander (swamp, RB dual, BU dual, Pire Hound, shock, cathartic, Take Inventory) T1 BU dual BW tapland T2 I draw temper. I play RB dual and TI, drawing another Hound. AI plays and plains and underhanded designs. T3 I draw a dragoon. Play the swamp and drop the dragoon. AI plays a swamp and Foundry inspector. I shock it. T4 I draw an island, drop it and play pire hound. Attack for 2. AI plays defiant Salvager. T5 I draw another dragoon. I attack with all, AI trades the Salvager for my dragoon... (Fine by me, saves me some burn). I play the other Hound. AI plays implement of Malice, pings me with the designs then sacs it. I discard the dragoon. T6 I draw TI. I play TI, Drawing evoWilds and yet another hound and pumping the 2 hounds. I drop and sac the wilds, getting a mountain. Attack for 6. AI drops a plains, then plays angel of invention. (Yawn...) T7 I draw an alchemist. I cast cathartic, dumping the temper and hounds (pumping my bad boys up twice). Temper to the angel. I draw shock, void and another cathartic. I attack with my hounds and AI double blocks to only take 8 damage. AI untaps, draws and does nothing. T8 I have so many ways to win this... I decide to cast cathartic, dumping temper and void, temper to face.
So the decks stomps the AI and shows what it can do. It certainly has the drawing power Flaky's deck lacked, but I guess I've been drawing really well vs AI with all the decks so far.
WIN
Now onto the ladder. I wonder how this deck does... Game 3 R35 (Esper Control)
Spoiler
On the Play. I keep a 4 lander. (RB dual, 3xBU duals, Alchemist, shock, temper) T1 BU dual. BU dual (mirror match?) T2 I draw dragoon. Drop RB dual and alchemist. (Probably should have dropped the dragoon to bait removal, but I didn't know what I was up against at this point...) BU Dual. Grasp on my alchemist (:( boohoo) T3 I draw fumarole. I think a bit, then drop fumarole and dragoon. He thinks forever, drops a BW dual and passes... T4 I draw dispel (Oh yeah!). I drop a BU dual and attack for 2. He does nothing. I pass. He drops a WU dual and passes. (Holding up them counters huh?) T5 I draw a mountain and drop it. Attack for 2. He does nothing... (No removal huh?). Then he glimmers at my eot (I suddenly have an art of waresque brainstorm, so I decide to cut-off his supply line of cards and dispel his glimmer. I can only imagine how miffed he must have been. It was a risky play, because dispel could be useful for countering removal, but I decided on a more active approach that he probably wasn't expecting.) He drops another WU dual and does nothing again (either his hand is full of high cc stuff, counters or just land) T6 I draw another dispel (This is gonna come in handy). I drop a BU dual, activate fumarole and attack with it and dragoon, making it a 4/1 (I left an untapped just to mind-screw him as I was expecting removal right about now). He... does nothing. (sweeper now?) He thinks forever and decides to drop big Jace. (I can live with that, he tapped out so I can play freely and get another hit in). He pluses Jace and passes. T7 I draw alchemist. I activate fumarole and attack face for another 6 ignoring Jace. (Now that leaves him at 4... I have shock, temper and dispel in hand so next turn should be lethal with burn) He thinks for a really long time and bounces dragoon with Jace. (Fine). T8 I draw another dragoon. So... Bait time: I drop dragoon. He lets it through. I shock to face. He pauses and thinks again for a while and... casts telling time. (Gotcha!) Then lets it through (2 life). Here I nearly screw up with my excitement and hard cast temper, tapping out (oops, luckily I could still cancel). I then discard to dragoon and temper to face. He tries to shrivel it and the almighty DISPEL FTW!
Yeah! Damn right! Grixis Pauper ownz you, you R35 esper-playing control-freak spike! (The only way this win would have been any more gratifying would be if it was vert piloting the esper deck... )
WIN
Game 4 R34 (Bant Tempo)
Spoiler
On the play. I mull a hand with 2 BU duals and red cards. I mull a no lander. I think about keeping a 1 lander with a dual and 3 black cards, but mull it. I keep a 5 card hand with (Mountain, swamp, 2x shock and pire hound) (So my mull to 5 saga continues...) T1 mountain, pass EvoWilds int o plains T2 I draw temper. Play swamp He drops a plains and does nothing (color screw?) T3 I draw a swamp and play it (At least I'm not totally mana screwed) and pass. He drops knight of the white orchid (that's why he did nothing T2... What a bad play, against someone who mulled to 5, he got really lucky I didn't miss a landrop for that payoff... Then again he could have just top-decked it, but I doubt it). He gets a dual, drops a forest and plays duskwatch recruiter, which I promptly shock. T4 I draw a Mountain, play it and drop the hound. He plays a dual, thinks a lot then passes. (5 untapped land I'm guessing avacyn...) T5 I draw TI. (Sh|t... No ) I could have used the draw... Looking at my hand and not seeing a way to deal with avacyn, I pass. He plays a forest and seems to be flooding heavily. Then passes. I shock the knight at eot, pumping my hounds. T6 I draws alms. (This is were I lost the game) I think what the hell, get aggressive with a fat trampling dog and alms to face. He responds by dropping Krasis and tapping my 4/5 hound. (I look at my temper, at think, no sweat... At least there's no avancyn...) Then he plays collective effort (This card just wrecked me... killed my doggie and pumped his Krasis beyond temper-reach). If I'd held out to temper instant-speed, I could have avoided the blow-out... He then dropped another Evowilds and got an island. T7 I draw another TI... Still no He drops another forest, hits me for 4 with krasis (he's at 8 land now, because of the knight and very flooded) and plays big Jace. He pluses him and I know I'm screwed and past the point of no return... T8 I draw alms. I'm thinking, screw it, I've lost so do as much damage as possible... Alms to face. (nothing better to do anyway) He pluses Jace and drops a plains (9 land). Hits for another 4 with Krasis. Then drops bygone bishop (oh great, more draw...) and lambholt pacifist. T9 I draw a dual... (Where's my at?)Play the dual and I temper his face so as to not flip pacifist and it would attack anyway, but flipped would be worse... He pluses Jace. Drops a dual (ulamog?) then lifecrafter's beastiary (Yeah, more draw is what this guy needs...) Then plays heron's grace... ( Is it just me or is this band deck really bad?) Then he plays Kytheon's tactics... (So it wasn't just me, this is a really bad bant deck...) Then attacks, gaining some life but fails to finish me off... T10 I finally draw a dual. I play it, cast TI and getting wandering fumarole. (I should have conceded here) (The guy shows me exactly how much of a dick he is, playing a terrible bant deck and doing a bunch of needless things to beat the mulled-to-5 pauper deck, instead of just killing me) I sat there watching him masturbate for 5 minutes... Geez: 1st: Ultimates Jace. (Yeah that emblem is really necessary) 2nd: Sacs a clue. 3rd: Plays Thalia's lieutenant. (bad deck is bad) 4th: Pops another clue. (why not draw cards with the beastiary? its cheaper?) 5th: Plays another Thalia's lieutenant. (very nesseary to do 2 damage) Then attacks, but leaves pacifist out... (why?)
So I lost against a really bad, but flooded bant tempo/humans something or rather deck after mulling to 5 yet again... That's Life.
LOSS
Game 5 R33 (Mono-White Humans)
Spoiler
On the play. Kept an interesting but greedy hand. (fumarole, dual, dual, 3x temper, cathartic) T1 fumarole plains T2 Draw swamp. PLay swamp Plains. Hanweir Militia captain. :\\ T3 draw alms. (oooohh!) Big mistake, played dual instead of dual. (Don't know why I did that...) Attacks for 2, plains + thalia (My impulse was to temper it, but... oh no, I only have 1 red mana mana and now my dual is coming into play tapped! Sh|t!) T4 I draw another alms. Drop my dual tapped and alms to face to keep my life total a little higher. Plains + angelic blessing on the captain (Damn, He's really rubbing my nose in that screw up with the lands...) Attacks for 9 T5 If I can draw another source, I may still have a chance. I draw a hound. I think about playing the hound and racing with the +3/+3 from the cathartic + 2x madness spells, but I can't really afford to take 9 more damage and the hound would probably just eat declaration of skywhaler's. I cast cathartic ditching a temper (to thalia) and alms (to face). I draw: Shock, void and another cathartic (no source ) He plays another plains and another thalia... And hits me for another 6 (great!). T6 I draw an alchemist. I didn't really do the math but just hoped that I could do massive damage with a big cathartic and alchemist, so I played it... tapped. I shocked thalia to take less damage, but wasted some burn... He drops a 6th plains and attacks for 6 (I'm left at 3) T7 I draw take inventory. I do the math and there's no way to do 6 damage without an extra source and I bet he's got some white combat trick to save his bear-with-angelwings. So, I just cast cathartic ditching temper and TI to see what came next. I drew alchemist, mountain, island... Dropped a the mountain and played Alchemist. (He could always misclick or something...) He just attacks and wins, not like the other douche... (thanks for making it quick!)
Should have won this one, but I didn't...
LOSS
Final verdict:
Spoiler
2-0 / 1-2
So all 3 tested decks are tied in results... Odd.
This deck pulled off the most satisfying win yet, which will make me have a soft spot for it. I think its more consistent than flaky's and works pretty well for a pauper deck. The hounds did not convince me at all. I might have liked neonates maybe, but something with a little more beef is necessary, so I get what the hounds are for... Still, the 2 losses on the ladder were due to opponents going too tall for my burn, just like I predicted in the pre-test analysis, so there's that. Maybe murderous instinct could have worked here for the critters with big butts, but that card seems to always show up when creatures with vigilance are beating on me... oh well.
I think it's the deck I liked the most so far, so congrats Sleep...
I'll give scores only at the end when I test all the decks so I can make a more global assessment of the submissions.
Joined: Nov 25, 2015 Posts: 1431
Preferred Pronoun Set: Xhir/xhim, depending on Moon phase
Yes, a bit, lol
Anyways, to the ladder with GW tokens...aaand WIN in the first game, after being Languished when I had overextended with 4 creatures, due to OP being (apparently) screwed at 3 lands for 3 turns (rank 30, Dimir control, semijanky build with Nihilis...)
After casting the 4º creature with abandon, he drawed or uncovered the 4 land and sweeped me...even so, eventually...
Spoiler
...being quite at the limit of my resources, my last Wildsize gave me the very lucky Might I needed to pull lethal, rofl! Instant ragequit the dude didn't even wait for the flashing Fatality! hahaha
And second game...WIN too, another at-the-limit one, against R32 RDW...which admitely, is a good game for us, but still...nice!
My conclusions:
* Plays way better than expected
* Plays way better than the Boros version I tried probably due to the green pumping being of better quality
* Tends to flood on mana in the mid-late game, both games have been a torture with draws of 3-4 lands in a row...which is probably due to variance in the most part, taking in account that the land count is even on the low side... but maybe the 4 druids allow 19?
* People isn't very acustomed to play against combat tricks, that play a HUGE part in every game
* All the victories at the very limit, not for the faint of hearth, lol
Let's see if another can pull a double win, 4 to go as I'm gonna play mine too as usual
And 3-1 overall in the mid-30's in the Steam ladder with commons
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