Magic: The Gathering

**Tricen** · 2012-04-28 17:57

Do you have the rest of your cards? Some of the stuff you had there is sort of unplayable. What else was in B/R that you had? I pretty much just played 3 drops and then Cathar's Crusade and more dudes and my opponents died.

**Norellicus** · 2012-04-28 18:22

1-2 copies of all these: Demonic Taskmaster, Lightning Prowess, Necrobite, Unhallowed Pact, Rite of Ruin, Grave Exchange, Exquisite Blood, Demolish, Barter in Blood, Ghoulflesh, Banners Raised, Dangerous Wager, Malicious Intent

I literally had no useful cards in G/W/U, the three combined offered less creatures than I had in R/B and most of the cards were either auras (I have three Defang now) or utility spells (prevent damage, regain life, library fetch, etc). I think the only card that really even grabbed my attention (and even then ehhhhh) is Blessings of Nature. I have a Vorstclaw but 4GG for a vanilla 7/7 with no combat tricks to keep him rolling, combined with the severe lack of creature cards in those colors just didn't feel right.

The only Artifact I even considered playing was a Vanguard's Bulwark but I didn't have anything fat enough that I felt I could block 2+ with and keep the blocker standing. If I had some decent white I might have taken it since I snagged 2 Builder's Blessing. I thought about playing the Demonic Taskmaster but I felt comfortable in what I had and didn't like nuking my own battlefield to keep it on the field, even if it is 4/3. If I had more undying I might have considered it, though thinking about the games and the removal spells that were brought against me it wouldn't have mattered, as most of them were either direct destruction or getting Defanged, so it would have been dead on the field anyway.

What do you consider unplayable? The Gang of Devils and the Maalfeld Twins are the only cards I didn't like a whole lot, they felt outmatched by the time I hit 6 (when I actually got that far. I can't stress how many of the games I lost due to deck screw).

**Tricen** · 2012-04-28 18:57

Grave Exchange seems pretty bad, 6 mana for them to sack a dude they don't need and you get a guy back? It'd be much more profitable to play a creature over it. The Seraph Sanctuary's are kinda bad too. You really don't wanna get color boned for no reason. Uncanny speed seems pretty mediocre, a creature probably would have been better. I'm doin a LFR real quick and I'll look at the stuff you said you had

EDIT: Exquisite blood seems pretty ridiculous. Dangerous Wager might be playable. Getting stuck with lands in hand or nothing at all and it's an instant.

**Norellicus** · 2012-04-28 19:06

Well, I don't really know what I would have replaced the Grave Exchange with (I only ever saw it once and it was actually useful that time) based on the rest of that list

I had no other creatures that I felt comfortable playing to put in place of Uncanny Speed and it's a pretty amazing way to trip someone up (It could turn Malignus into a OHKO, for instance)

The Seraph Sanctuaries...eh. I should have adjusted for them better based on the color distribution (probably 9 Mountain/6 Swamp) but my hands being unplayable was never due mismatched colors. It's 1 free point of life when they enter, so that is inherently better than just a basic land in my mind, even if the mana is colorless. Also had the added benefit of potentially getting more life if I was fortunate enough to capture an Angel with my Dread Slaver (though this never did actually come up, mostly due to a lack of Angels played at my games, which was surprising considering we ran out of Plains from the store stockpile lol).

**Xerlic** · 2012-04-28 19:58

1-2 drop. Compleeeeeeeeeeeetely underestimated the speed of the format. I drafted WU fliers and was pretty confident after building the deck, but I was blown out by aggressive RW humans decks. My pool was pretty decent too, I think. Oh well, gonna try again tomorrow.

Spoiler: show

**Krandor** · 2012-04-29 04:37

Grave Exchange does very nice things. For the prerelease I went with a removal heavy Black/Red (2 barter in bloods sealed that route for me). Pairing barter up with the zombies that give -2/-2 on death is effectively a Damnation that more often then not still left me with something on the table. Answering their next creature with a grave exchange is money and usually left them unable to stabilize.

Just looking overall at what I saw, Elgaud Shieldmate, Riders of Gavony, Lightning Mauler, Cloudshift, and Homicidal Seclusion are going to be draft MVPs for their respective colors.

I was helping the owner at my local store run the event, and he passed me off a copy of all the oversized cards after it was over. Not useful, but having all five is pretty badass.

**Myrrh_Quetz** · 2012-04-29 06:50

I went 1-3 in the pre-release before I dropped and went home. 6 of my game losses were I'd get 2-4 land in my opening hand and I'd get nothing but land for the entire game or I'd be close to winning then my deck would just stop giving me anything helpful and just give me all land for 7 turns in a row.

I don't know why I keep getting Mana fucked on shit in magic lately. I don't run lots of land in my decks. I had 17 land in my Pre-release Decks and I run 24 land in my standard deck. This shit keeps happening on anything that matters.

**Ragnus** · 2012-04-29 21:57

Eh, it's pretty much what I told my girlfriend when she started playing. Your deck's shuffle is a larger enemy to you than your opponent.

**Krandor** · 2012-04-29 23:38

Yo, Griselbrand. What a fucking house. I tore apart my two standard legal decks (BW tokens and BU control) and was putting stuff together with all the AVR stuff I picked up.

Made BW control/unburial rites rocking Griselbrand/Elesh Norn/Sheoldred and goddamn. A resolved Griselbrand is 90% of the time a win. Even if they burn a removal on him, the instant 7 card draw will usually pull up another fatty or unburial rites and leave them just as screwed.

Other deck I made was straight up Pure aggro Boros humans. Sadly rocking a lot of proxies in there since I'm still short 2 caverns, 1 hero of blade hold, 3 Silverblade paladins and 2 lightning maulers.

**Myrrh_Quetz** · 2012-04-30 00:59

Any ideas for Token decks? I know a lot of cards in this set shit on Tokens but there has to be something good to add.

**Krandor** · 2012-04-30 02:03

BW tokens might be toast simply based on the fact that it wasn't really a dominating deck before, and didn't get anything new really (outside of Entreat the Angels).

GW tokens could be solid, Cathar's Crusade and Champion of Lambholt could both be awesome, especially if you're tossing Parallel Lives into the mix for an army of unblockable monsters. Blue might also end up being a competitive token deck option as well, with the anthem for fliers being tacked on top of options already available with the Drogskol Captain and Geist. Dropping counter spells from the equation in the brave new post Cavern of Souls world could lead to a really, really aggressive build for WU tokens.

**Krandor** · 2012-04-30 02:07

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/griselrites/

BW deck I threw together from AVR prerelease stuff and what I had lying around. In testing even hardcasting all the fatties isn't out of the question with Lingering Souls, Liliana, and Timely Reinforcements dragging the games out. That being said, using Zombie Infestation on turn 4 to dump Griselbrand and Unburial Rites into the graveyard for a turn 4 Gris is awesome.

**Norellicus** · 2012-04-30 07:09

Isn't Lingering Souls banned now? (Only asking since the rest of the deck appears constructed legal, wasn't sure if that's what you were going for)

**Ragnus** · 2012-04-30 07:16

Lingering Souls is still legal in all formats.

**Xerlic** · 2012-04-30 07:47

Lingering Souls and Intangible Virtue are banned in block constructed only. They're legal in standard constructed.

**Ragnus** · 2012-04-30 08:15

http://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/Ca...verseid=262695

?

**Xerlic** · 2012-04-30 08:19

Either Gatherer needs to be updated or the ban list needs to be updated cos one side is incorrect.

Announcement: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazin...y/feature/187a

List of banned cards by block: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/TCG/Res...urces/sfrblock

Magiccards.info: http://magiccards.info/query?q=linge...v=card&s=cname

**Ragnus** · 2012-04-30 09:43

Hmm. I'm going to guess that gatherer just needs to update.

**Hank** · 2012-05-01 10:41

I've been in a deck building frenzy. I made several tweaks to my Kiln Fiend deck on your suggestions and it was very successful.

Now I'm making a green/blue:

60 cards, 0 sideboard
8 Forest
9 Island
4 Terramorphic Expanse
21 lands

4 Hedron Crab
4 Undead Alchemist
4 Invisible Stalker
4 Nulltread Gargantuan
4 Coiling Oracle
20 creatures

4 Ponder
4 Preordain
3 Trepanation Blade
4 Into the Roil
4 Rampant Growth
19 other spells

Edit: never mind, I'm dumb.

**Ragnus** · 2012-05-01 10:50

Well, at the same time, Rampant Growth allows for mana acceleration and advantage over your opponent since you can still play a land the same turn you play Rampant growth. However, if you're just looking for a card to feed Hedron Crab, go with the evolving wilds.

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