Joined: Mar 18, 2016 Posts: 5365 Location: Anyway the wind blows
Identity: doesnt really matter
Preferred Pronoun Set: to me
Round 1 deck thoughts.
I'll be giving my first vote to the deck I think is Best. My second vote will be to the build I think has the greatest cool/clever ideas, even if it's not the most effective (more likely to be a janky build getting the 2nd vote). I'm thinking of doing Round 2 as an elimination round with the final deck getting 1st vote.
Kitchen Sink This build played better than I expected. I never got to emerge a Maw or even make a Hapatra snake, but Belcher and Exemplar are a strong pair of beaters if played out early. This is my least favorite one to play tho. I messed around quite a bit with -/- counters decks early in the season and just burned out on them. Now it feels like a chore to play them...
Life Comes At You Fast This build is very fun. I liked what the various mini-synergies do. It really makes me want to build with Wharf Infiltrator - and I've never actively wanted to build around him before. A spicey aggro brew that's surprisingly effective (especially considering it runs 0 removal).
Mono Black Lifegain/Lifeloss Effective Midrange deck. I didn't have notible mana issues in games I played, but do wonder if 23 Land is enough considering the various 5+CMC spells it runs. I had fun playing it tho. Like Defiant Jank, this deck tries to do something with the lifegain that isn't just a defensive resource - using it to more safely cash in on lifeloss spell/ability penalties. Unlike some others the lifegain didn't feel incidental, or that it was just watering down a better build to meet challenge requirement.
Grim Nemesis This build is almost identical to the list I wanted to submit originally - so of course it's a build I think is pretty good quality. It had the most epic come-from-behind win for me. Being able to turn around a match where I was facing Kytheon, Sorin, Ormendahl, Sandwurm Convergence, Sigil of the Empty Throne, and Evolutionary Leap at the same time - and around a dozen 5/5 Wurm tokens over the course of the game (as many as 6 at once) is pretty amazing. Arguably the best build from a deck strength standpoint.
Monumental Lifegain This deck has some serious weaknesses, playing slower like a Midrange build but being very light on removal. That said, it has some really clever ideas and can do some really fun things. Mechanic shenanigans are a blast, and it was cool to see a card I never thought I'd play with being so useful. I love being surprised by cards like that. The nailbiter game I pulled off vs RDW where I was hanging on by a thread at 2 life gained by Steppe was very enjoyable to pull off.
Defiant Jank I'm really happy with how this turned out. The deck went through 3 or 4 major overhauls in the run up to submissions (at one point running Tainted Remidy and some spells that give Target Creature lifegain, then through a more ramp heavy overhaul with Retreats to Kazandus, then a more control heavy version with more black sweepers - and maybe another spin I can't recall at the moment) before finally coming together on the last day before the lists were posted. I racked my brain pretty hard trying to get a decent shell together for Bloodlord, and the results have been pleasing. I wish someone else had used him so I could see takes that I didn't consider. Because it's my own list I'm not going to give it any votes unless I end up doing Round 2 eliminations like I'm considering and it happens to come out on top. Otherwise it feels cheap to vote for myself.
On the whole after round 1, I don't think any of the lists are terrible. They all seemed either reasonably effective and/or fun. Nice work fellas.
The Secret of TIMH's Defiant Jank Record: 3-4 Notes: I think the problem here is it kinda ramps to nowhere. A big portion of the lifegain is baked into the ramp cards (and the pulses), so it's likely been played already by the time you get to bloodlord. Getting the array of good 5cc stuff early with GOP is nice, but not critical cause we aren't exactly racing here, and there isn't a top end of threats that justify the card/turn expenditure needed to get there early. At the very least I think the Nissa's Renewals would be better as something more helpful in the early/mid game, Glory-Bound Initiate or something.
Game Logs
1: mono Green goodstuff (play): a good match, power cards galore. Opp starts with a copter, crews it with a duskwatch recruiter and runs it into blessed alliance. I play lily T4 and shrink the recruiter, they respond with tracker, land and kill lily with a Primal bellow on the recruiter, too bad. I play a Yahenni's expertise + a sage to kill their clue. They get a ballista and that looks like trouble; I only have a Rider in hand and three man lands in play after they ping the sage, so they can sit and build. A perfect draw gives me a declaration though, so ballista's gone, play the rider, and next turn I get an advocate and land #6 so I can attack with a big shambling vent and flip the rider. A couple turns with those three is game, they play big Nissa a turn too late to help.
2: wb lifegain (draw): Opp gets a stronger board and earlier gain, mainly a Yahenni and ayli that make things really difficult. Bloodlord and Kalitas come out but can't stick, then they have an avacyn that flips and wipes the rest of the board for the win.
3: gu ramp (play): advocate, GOP, then of course I draw a rider the next turn. doesn't really matter though cause I stall at 5 mana with a bunch of 6cc stuff in hand while they go Druid, vegetation, hydra, convergence. Bummer.
4: rdw (play): six card hand has mana, no creatures. Proceeds to draw ramp spells. And recursion. Impetuous devils foils my plan to knock out Hanweir Garrison with blessed alliance pre-token on its first attack. Garrison attacks a million more times.
5: rg energy (play): they let a Yahenni's expertise knock out a voltaic Brawler and a cub with energy open, so I think this must be a Fling combo or something. Instead I see a Rhonas that I unmake, another Brawler, a trio of harnessed lightning on a rider, a caracal and a cat, a glorybringer knocking out ayli, and a Kari Zev's Expertise stealing a flipped rider to finish me off.
6: rw aura jank (play): neither of us has a fast start, and baby lily slows it down even more so I can find a fourth land for Kalitas. By then opp has an enchanted flame-kin at 4/3 thanks to lily, swinging into her along with a sacred cat. I say goodbye to lily and block the cat for a token, next turn attack with both and bait Opp into attacking with the flame-kin and a champion of arashin, and a blessed alliance turns their champion into my zombie and untaps my other token to block and kill the flame-kin. That's the turning point; they get down a Hazoret and a topan freeblade with nimbus wings and there's a little standoff while I build wider. I get down both stompers and draw ever after for insurance, then swing with all for the win.
7: ur tokens (play): mulligan to 6, start with advocate and wait. They have a slow build (sky skiff?) so I just survive and hit land drops till six, then throw down Yahenni's expertise with sage to wipe out their entire board. Have to unmake a Chandra cause they keep throwing up blocking tokens, but shambling vent + advocate gets my life back up quickly, and they can only chump their way to a slow death.
So final thoughts: I went back and played a few more matches with both mono black and grim nemesis. Black definitely needs more land; the shorts I magically sailed through in my initial testing wrecked me a few times here. The croc remained pretty meh too. On the other hand, nemesis needs more creatures. Sitting with a hand full of removal while a single aetherborn tries to ping its way to victory is above all really dull to play. I'm giving Haven's Mono-black lifegain/lifeloss and my Life Comes at You Fast my votes this time around.
Big storm yesterday over this latitudes, that turn into black out, so I end up playing hand shadows with the little ones Today I must catch up with GOT or the mother of dragons will burn me down. I will squeeze the remaining trials ASAP but I guess the reports will suffer.
Mono Black Lifegain/Lifeloss G1 Against RDW rank 32 On the draw I stuck on 3 lands for a while holding Ob Nixilis in hand, so I play defence casting my instant speed removals right when he pumped his guys, then he run out of gas, so I took the iniciative and the game 1-0.
G2 draw 36 I dunno what this was but we win T1 Wanderer T2 Scrapy T3 Yahenni GG
G3 Draw Grixis Control 34 Sad story... Jace ultimate, Lily ultimate, Dynabolt tower... GG 2-1
The Secret of TIMH's Defiant Jank Record: 3-4 Notes: I think the problem here is it kinda ramps to nowhere. A big portion of the lifegain is baked into the ramp cards (and the pulses), so it's likely been played already by the time you get to bloodlord. Getting the array of good 5cc stuff early with GOP is nice, but not critical cause we aren't exactly racing here, and there isn't a top end of threats that justify the card/turn expenditure needed to get there early. At the very least I think the Nissa's Renewals would be better as something more helpful in the early/mid game, Glory-Bound Initiate or something.
I did have G-B Initiate for a couple incarnations of the deck during pre-submission testing. He was a good as usual when you play him T2 then Rider + flip T3, but he got cut when I tried a more removal heavy version with Languishes plus Expertises. I didn't work him back in to the final version because he's not a good defensive card and my focus was more on trying to survive long enough to find Bloodlords.
N.Renewal is probably the worst card in this version of the build. I ended up keeping 1 in just for the splashy 7 life drain play w/ Bloodlord out (my thinking was I can cast it pre Bloodlord to get more mana for eventual Lord plus a lifegain spell same turn, along with life padding to buy time for that - then fetch it back later with Greenwarden if I wanted), but in hindsight it would have been better off being a different spell in that spot.
Big storm yesterday over this latitudes, that turn into black out, so I end up playing hand shadows with the little ones Today I must catch up with GOT or the mother of dragons will burn me down. I will squeeze the remaining trials ASAP but I guess the reports will suffer.
Mono Black Lifegain/Lifeloss G1 Against RDW rank 32 On the draw I stuck on 3 lands for a while holding Ob Nixilis in hand, so I play defence casting my instant speed removals right when he pumped his guys, then he run out of gas, so I took the iniciative and the game 1-0.
G2 draw 36 I dunno what this was but we win T1 Wanderer T2 Scrapy T3 Yahenni GG
G3 Draw Grixis Control 34 Sad story... Jace ultimate, Lily ultimate, Dynabolt tower... GG 2-1
One of my losses was to a very similar deck. Its a bad match-up, kind of why I included Skysovereign, because you only have 2 nevers. Only chance is recurring the Scroungers and Wanderers, but you have to get lucky... Mono-black has absolutely no answers for Dynavolt Tower.
Ok Monumental Lifegain is on the seat! lets see how it goes
G1 W Something Rank 40 On the draw AGAIN!!!!! Mull to 6 this is not looking good He stucks at 2 lands, T3 we drop the trophy mage and T4 our monument, the board start going crazy. Both decks are pretty close to the ground. He flips Gideon and drops Gisela then cast collective effort making his guys bigger. I cast dusk to wipe his biard but Gisela survives coz Gid made her Indestructible. I have tons of tokens thanks to my two aviators so I flip Westvale, then I drop the angel of innovation. He drops an Eldrazi displacer and flickers my Ormendahl, I draw a reflector mage, I flip Ormendahl again I bounce his Displacer and recover my reflector mage with the aviator locking the board. GG
1-0 Great game!! The mother of dragon is giving me that look so I have to call it for the night to see GOT!
G2 Against RG Energy rank 37 We again mull to 6 he drops T2 Copter, T3 that guy that gives trample to other creatures, t4 two brawlers... we are in trouble. We dropped the priest, T3 Monument, and start making tokens like there was no tomorrow, he puts me down to 5 but I keep gaining life, I drop a Captain and my board gets to wide for him, he desperately attacks with everything but I block with everything also, he pumps his gusy but I´m left with two tokens on board + an aviatior and a reflector mage in hand, he has his copter and Longtusk cub, I bounce it, and again lock the board long enough to flip Westvale again and take the game.
2-0!
G3 Against BW Tokens Rank 40 He stucks at 2 lands for 5 turns with just a Priest on the board, then he cast that split card that creates two tokens, I catch it on the way down with Spell Queller, then he tries to Unmake my Monument, so I cast my second Spell Queller. We overwhelm the board in the meantime, piece of cake. 3-0
I really liked this deck, I would personally have drop the splash of green to smooth the manabase but overall the deck performed very consistently.
Joined: Nov 10, 2013 Posts: 17753 Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
I don't have a favourite episode yet, I think that's the sign of a really great tv series. It doesn't run hot and cold. Take Next Generation for instance, some episodes are real stand outs because there's so many trash episodes. Game of Thrones is consistently amazing (explains the Emmy count and such)
Drakaris! ---- Ok time for Defiant Jank let me try it against the ia first, we won T2 Rider T3 Gift from paradise it took a while but we pull it off
Ok ladder time On the play VS a rank 33 He stucks at 2 mana ... -sounds familiar- we T2 Rider T3 Blessed aliance coz he is dropped a Luxa to the GY and Im thinking ramp that got stuck on mana, lets be quick about it. T4 Lily TLH He still is at 2 mana... poor dude The fog starts, followed by Tutelage He is at 7 i´m at 41 He cast´s commit to mi Lily then Cast earth and wipes my board then the fogging continues!- I hate FOG- he is at 1 I´m at 48 and 28 cards on the library I manage to cast the warden to get Sorin and try to tick him to get that last point of damage, then he mills me leaving me with one card on the library... its a land. 0-1
On the draw vs rank 40 rakdosvamps -aristocrats type- radkos something weird ... Two Regal Caracal on the board eat all their threats little by little. 1-1
VS ArielBelkin! Playing Grixis control... T2 Advocate he drops Lily T3 gift of paradise t4 Gift of paradise T5 he radiant flames our Advocate, we cast pulse to recover it and attack Lily (we draw nothing but lands) T6 he fatal push the advocate... I dont see a way out ATM We dropped Kalitas he pull from tomorrow x 5 His Lily is at 7 loyalty we attack with Kalitas but he gets removed... He ultimate´s Lily, we still have a Yaheni´s expertise but its not enough, besides he counters everything we cast GG.
1-2
That closes it for me, Monumental life and Grim Nemesis gets my votes! Thanks everyone for this round!
Congratz to CardboardNomad for the victory Not sure when to start next round, i won't be a lot around this month and maybe other people here too. Maybe the last week of August, there are still lot of ideas in the other thread.
Joined: Nov 10, 2013 Posts: 17753 Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Nomad, I’m devastated to tell you that I’ve had to retire Life Cums at You Fast with a record of 64-14. The deck has been a total joy to play. Kel’s Cartouches ftw have been better for me with a 14-0 record so far. Your deck tho once had a 22 game winning streak, insane
Cucho, I’m glad to say I’m still playing Grim Nemesis with a record of 17-2
Joined: Nov 10, 2013 Posts: 17753 Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Cucho im sad to say Grim Nemesis has come to an end with a final record of 32-6, including a 13 and 12 win streak. Infuriating loss to low level Dimir Zombies where I let him keep a Shadows of the Past our as I killed all his creatures. He scyd all game long. I should have Anguished it early but it felt like a waste. Before that was Dimir Midrange who got Cruel Reality our and really massacred me.
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