Its a brand new year, everyone! Perfect for a brand new round of Break the Card(s). Only this time, we're not breaking cards - we're breaking tribes! Well... Maybe "breaking" isn't the right word. But we're going tribal, much like US politics. What could go wrong?
Since we're working with tribes this time, the rules are a bit different. Also, please note the rules for judging have been updated as well. The rules: 0. The deck must contain 18 cards that either are of the same tribal type OR reference that tribal type in the rules text. For example, Essence Flux would count toward a Spirit tribal build since it has a clause that is specific to Spirits. 1. No Kool Kids Allowed! Zombies, Humans, and Vampires are pretty established archetypes for Duels so we don't need to be messing with those tribes for our contest, do we? You MAY use cards with those tribe types, but only as accessories - NOT as the feature tribe! 2. Speaking of accessories, creatures that do not belong to your tribe are still allowed. So long as the deck contains at least 18 cards from the chosen tribe, there are no restrictions on the rest of the deck contents. 3. The building part of the contest will last for a week. After that, I'll still consider submissions, but probably with some sort of late penalty. 4. Submissions must be sent by PM. For this round, submissions will NOT be anonymous. 5.a. Judging is open to anyone who tries each submission. Judges can use any pertinent scoring criteria they choose but must submit their final score in a ranking format as follows: Last place gets 0 points 2nd to last gets 1 point ... First place gets n-1 points where n is the number of submissions. In case of ties, add together the points for the ranks that the tied submissions would occupy if not tied and then split the results as follows: Tie for last place would get (0 + 1)/2 = 0.5 points each. After the judging period is over, I will tally all the points given and announce the winner(s). 5.b. Anyone who chooses to participate in the judging MUST PM me their final results. Additionally, I require that they list the decks in the same order that I post them, rather than ordered by their ranking. This is because trying to tally the scores is much simpler if the lists are all in the same order. When I post the decks to start the judging round, I typically list them in the order that I received them. I also update the OP with the same list in the same order. 6. The winner of each round gets to pick a card or theme for the next round (provided their choice doesn't totally suck).
The deadline for submissions for this round shall be... Sunday, January 14th. Walk in the Jank!
Mostly straightforward, but be real choosy if you don't see a clear line to 3 land and at least one green source in the opening hand. You're in for a real bad time if you get hung up there but there's enough flex/fixing/untap from there that it *tends* to work out beyond there.
Obviously fetch/fix to your hand (remember you'll need an extra blue or Kiora to power your man-land), but in the absence of a clear line I'd recommend G1->R1->U1->G2->R2.
Cucho Lambreta:
" I will come out with a better name dont worrry "
The greatest magician here is the Kor Castigator. He's going to come out T2 and your opponent is going to scoff and play their Cub or Snake or Selfless Spirit. They're going to exert their Crasher to avoid trading with it, they're going to hold their Fatal Push and Harnessed Lightning for something really valuable, and when it attacks them they're going to let it right by. Who plays with stupid Kor Castigator anyway? Then maybe you drop a River Marshal. Hey, that looks real! It draws the removal, and Castigator slips past again. Now they think it's time to block him, but a Reflector bounces that defender, and now he's taken half their life. What happens next is unclear- perhaps his fellow wizards continue to clear a path, perhaps he gains first strike and lays waste to armies in a final blaze of glory. Some even say he might transform himself into a giant octopus. The truth is elusive; these magicians are slippery like that.
That's the general plan anyway. This deck works through the subversion of your opponent's expectations. Phase 1: Simple creatures initially cloaked by your opponent's disregard for them. Who wants to bother with a Castigator or a Gust Walker really? Keep attacking as long as you can trade. I'll use Gust Walkers as plain bears as long as it isn't suicide, cause people will see you not exerting and expect a trick. Early damage is key. Phase 2: Disruption. They've started planning on you just playing bad aggro creatures, now you start bouncing and tapping and changing the shape of the board. If you're behind the Monument can be huge for locking their best creature down for a few turns. Don't overextend though (unless you're up against Simic Ramp or something where you just need to get in your damage before the bombs start dropping), as long as you can keep up a steady stream of damage while you mess with their tempo that's fine. Their natural inclination, now that you've revealed yourself to be a little tricky, is to over compensate and expect little tricks everywhere, so just let them play around counters you don't have. Phase 3: Plot twist! Unexpected radical departures from the game play to this point. Perhaps they've noticed the wizard tribal and Docent isn't really surprising. Deep Fiend likely is though; you see this mix and think counters, not emerge. And if you find an opponent who passes their last turn even thinking "well I just hope they don't have Open Into Wonder," I'll give you a dollar.
The land base isn't huge; there's a fair amount of double blue, but that's mostly later game stuff, so as long as you can at least get both colors to start you should be good.
Docent doesn't have a ton of spells available to trigger a flip, so plan carefully if that's what you're going for. And while you're at it plan around Glorybringer, cause that can roast your bugs with ease.
The whole thing largely focuses around those Kalastria Healers, using the many means of producing tokens as a damage source. There is a bit of lifegain as a subtheme, typically linked with damage through Cliff the Vampire or the Bloodbunny Vampire. Also, Ormendahl often stops by to say hello, while Gideon bakes delicious knight ally pies.
This is a draw-go/tempo build. Try to play on your opponent's turn where possible, holding up mana for answers, using Nebelgast/spirits to lock down opponent's creeps, etc. Collective Effort is a great toolbox card - don't be afraid to use it with just one option if the situation warrants it (I won a game by casting 2 back to back giving counters and then swinging for lethal). Maybe hold onto them vs ramp since its one of the only answers this deck has to Sandwurm Convergence. Flux is awesome in most cases, but not so great on Queller (unless you just cast it for a surprise block and it doesn't have a spell already under it) since it lets them cast whatever you countered. If you need to protect a Queller, try to flicker a Rattlechains instead.
Lets say 2 weeks for testing? I can always call it sooner if it looks like everyone is done. So Sunday, Jan 28th.
And the results are in. The tallies have been tallied. A winner is crowned! Haven_PT takes this round with a whopping 28 points! Congrats, Haven, you are in charge of picking the card or theme for next round.
Here are the final scores: Bearing the Elements: 2.5 - Barney 4.0 - Mowie666 4.0 - bzzt 5.0 - Nomad 4.0 - Cucho 3.0 - Soup Total: 22.5
I Will Come Up With a Better Name Dont Worry : 4.5 - Barney 3.0 - Mowie666 2.0 - bzzt 3.0 - Nomad 2.0 - Cucho 2.0 - Soup Total: 16.5
D0rk Alliance: 0.5 - Barney 0.0 - Mowie666 0.0 - bzzt 0.0 - Nomad 0.5 - Cucho 1.0 - Soup Total: We'll just pretend this never happened.
Spirits in the Sky 0.5 - Barney 1.0 - Mowie666 1.0 - bzzt 4.0 - Nomad 5.0 - Cucho 6.0 - Soup (who is clearly a far more competent judge than Barney, I might add) Total: 17.5
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The greatest blessings in life are the hardest ones to lose. Godspeed little girl. We miss you.
Last edited by TheFlakyMage on Wed Jan 31, 2018 12:58 am, edited 3 times in total.
It would need 18 dwarves or 18 pilots... and thats a whole different deck... 18 is a loooot it actually makes wizards suck big time.. I think this time the jank will prevail.
Joined: Feb 29, 2016 Posts: 2899 Location: Portugal
Yeah, I'm having a hard time with demons too, I'm gonna have to play way too many of the -1/-1 counters guys.
Actually, it looks like there are only 17 valid cards in the cardpool, unless you consider cards with Demon in the cardname or consider Ob nix a Demon...
And don't tell Pilgrim's Eye that Thopter is not a legitimate creature type.
Funny you should mention that. I was going Artificers, but I may end up with a deck that qualifies as Arificers AND Thopters.
Artful Thopters
Creature(24) 2x Bomat Courier 4x Aether Swooper 3x Chief of the Foundry 3x Thopter Engineer 2x Pia Nalaar 3x Whirler Virtuoso 3x Whirler Rogue 2x Padeem, Consul of Innovation 2x Pia and Kiran Nalaar
So far, this type deck is the best I have tested. Elvees can probably be okay, but the decks is kinda boring and prebuilt (Not that this isn't prebuilt as well). Wizards I think falls short. Clerics has promise, and may be my back up. Warriors and Soldiers are pretty much just regular aggro, so I was not interested, but I think there are decks there. Werewolves and Spirits could be good. Makes me think of Lights Spirits and Gem's WW deck. Eldrazi doesn't fit my style. Not sure there is much else interesting, so Artificers it probably is. There are other builds besides this for Artificers though. This just seems the best from what I have tested so far. (Still needs some tweaks. Testing things like confiscation and Bomat as well as the Swoopers.)
Hey, Haven, have you thought about adding Skyhunter Skirmisher? It’s a cat and it can give you a flier that gets buffd by the Caracal.
Actually, I did. My building process was to add every cat in Duels, some random goodstuff, then progessively remove the jank (from most janky, to least) until I was at 60 cards and met the requirements. Skyhunter didn't make the cut... Hopefully, I was left with something that vaguely resembles a playable deck.
I just chewed up a mook with a wagging pack of flea-baits.
IDK why that feels like an achievement - the only thing I saw in his deck that remotely resembled a win con was TitI. Still super satisfying.
So now I’ve got 3 lists that I think are good enough to run this round, and one that truely walks in the jank (in other words has no shot of winning). This is going to be tough!
Speaking of satisfying, Artificers just scalped a R40 turbo-fog deck (dude up and quit when I cracked Fair at his eot to find Throne.)
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The greatest blessings in life are the hardest ones to lose. Godspeed little girl. We miss you.
Go Goblins, Go! I wanted to find a way to shoot Goblins at people but flinging Goblins sucks... But the only other way I could remember was with Blazing hellhounds, but I didn't want to go rakdos, so screw it.
Just remember that Goblin lifespans are very short.
Right now, I think this is my strongest build. Werewolves and Artificers are about on the same level with each other and a little worse than this one, tho Werewolves seems especially fun for some reason.
The biggest problem with above deck is obviously the lack of 1-drops, but there just aren’t any good value plays there. Topplegeist is the only relevant spell and it just sucks here. T1 is for playing taplands, hopefully. But the draw go style and hefty control suite give the deck good game, starting t2.
_________________
The greatest blessings in life are the hardest ones to lose. Godspeed little girl. We miss you.
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