Blog Elemental – I Dub Thee…
August 9, 2004
As I expected, you all came up with lots and lots of great deck names. Here is (I think) a full list of suggestions, minus my Top 10:
Salvaging Victory, Glowing Urine, CaT (Cogs and Trinkets), Recycling Plant, Recycler, Cog Salad, Recurring Hardware, Blue Light Special, Junkyard Dog, Rustbelt, Messiah, Who Moved My Cheese, Bargain Bin, My deck Costs $11.23 and Still Kicked Your Butt, Kitchen Sink, Eco-Avenger, Recycling Can, Can Collector, Cognuts, Bobblehead, The Rube, Oscar, The Grouch, Crankshaft, Psycho-Cog, Clutch, The All Wise and All Knowing Trash Heap (Fraggle Rock), Litter Bug, New Jersey (The Garden State), Dumpster Diver, Wheel of Pain, Metal Gear Solid, Cog Day Afternoon, The Cog of War, Food of the Cogs, Cogs and Monsters, Squeal like a Cog, Heavy Metal, F.U.B.A.R., Steaming Pile, The Silver Bullet, Toolbox, Where’s Waldo?, Cog, Gear, Tin, Metal Gear, Gears of a Clown, Tested Mettle, Scrapheap, Cogs of War, The Machination, The Yardstick, Death by A Million Papercuts, Convergent Recursive Sequence, Cogality, The Construct Council, The Maddening Toolbox of the Manical Doctor Jay, The Answer, Cog Keeper, Keeper of Cogs, Doctorjay’s Wild Cogtacular Ride of Doom, Cognizance, PreCOGnition, Cogjunction, All The Small Things, Cognizant, Cogswell Cog, Toy Box, Cogffers, Cognate, Cognomen, Cognnossseur, Munchkin Control, Cognoscenti, Cog Advantage, CogVantage, Frankenstein, Cognivore, Cog Post, Lucky Cogs, Treasure Trove, Bringer of Cogs, Chutney, Rebels Revolt, and Aluminum.
I like”Aluminum” quite a bit, actually.
Here are my ten faves:
10. MacGuyver (cyrral)
9. Sanford & Son (konaboy)
8. Cogs and Blogs (ShaddyLogic)
7. Take Two (The_Zed)
6. Reservoir Cogs (bateleur)
5. Pre-Cog (MyFeetStillStink)
4. Plenty O’Tool (HuckmanT)
3. Salvage Yard (MyFeetStillStink)
2. Cogzilla (JHKlauk)
Although they may be obscure references for some people, I think MacGuyver, Sanford & Son, Plenty O’Tool, and Reservoir Cogs are brilliant. Take Two is a nice play on words, both with recursion and the multitude of two-power creatures. Pre-Cog and Cogs and Blogs both tie the deck to this deckbuilding experiment, same as the winner. Salvage Yard is probably the best descriptive deckname mechanically-speaking. Cogzilla just makes me smile, especially when I look at the art of Bringer of the White Dawn. In the end, though, the nod goes to…
The Winner: Cog Elemental (krzyzewski)
Sometimes simple is best, apparently. I like Cog Elemental because it ties the spirit of the deck directly to the spirit of this daily experiment in which I made the deck. I also think it’s catchy (but of course I would, having named my blog). Nicely done, krzyzewski. There’s a message in your Forum folder detailing how to claim your prize.
Which means…
(cue dramatic music)
I’d like to introduce you to…
(music reaches crescendo)
Cog Elemental!
Critters (18):
4 Leonin Elder
4 Leonin Squire
4 Trinket Mage
4 Auriok Salvagers
2 Bringer of the White Dawn
Non-Critters (19):
4 Aether Spellbomb
4 Chromatic Sphere
2 Thirst for Knowledge
2 Salvaging Station
1 Avarice Totem
1 Conjurer’s Bauble
1 Pyrite Spellbomb
1 Scrabbling Claws
1 Sunbeam Spellbomb
1 Tel-Jilad Stylus
1 Engineered Explosives
Land (23):
5 Plains
3 Island
4 Ancient Den
4 Seat of the Synod
2 Glimmervoid
2 Grand Coliseum
2 Great Furnace
1 Mirrodin’s Core
Will naming the deck change how it plays? Has my preconstructed karma been disrupted? Let’s peek in and find out during the last official five games…
Game 96: Mono-Red Aggro
It’s nice to have a deck that feels comfortable playing Mono-Red. My opponent plays an early Slith Firewalker, which I block with Leonin Squire. I take one hit from Blistering Firecat and my Leonin Elder dies a Magma Jet death. I’m able to stabilize thanks to another Leonin Squire and an Aether Spellbomb, which kills Viashino Sandstalker and keeps a second Firewalker in his hand. After that, it’s a string of three Trinket Mages who help to grab Engineered Explosives (for zero, killing an unmorphed Firecat and his Chrome Mox), a Great Furnace, and a Pyrite Spellbomb (to kill his critters before they can be equipped with Grafted Wargear). My 2/2s start to charge in, and my opponent grumpily concedes.
Game 97: 5-Color… Something
I don’t know quite what was up with my opponent’s deck. It was mostly Green and White, but he plays two Pentad Prisms, a Darksteel Ingot, and two Loxodon Warhammer. While he’s doing all of this, I’m attacking with two Leonin Elders and Trinket Mage and gaining a ton of life. I have Bringer of the White Dawn and the correct mana to cast him, but I want to see if he can deal with my little guys first, maybe with a Wrath of God or something. All he finds is Dawn Elemental, which I bounce twice for the win. It sounds fast and brutal and it was. He dies with me at forty-three life and I need neither the Bringer nor the Avarice Totem I draw in the final turn.
Game 98: Sunburst
Poor hokusa22. I almost don’t want to log a game that’s won due to manascrew. He’s been watching my last game and asks if I want to play his modified Sunburst deck. Sounds good, although I keep a suspect hand of five land, Leonin Squire, and Conjurer’s Bauble. My deck rewards me, though, as I draw Leonin Elder, Trinket Mage, Auriok Salvagers, and Aether Spellbomb in my next four turns. Meanwhile, he can only get out a Swamp, a Mountain, and a Darksteel Pendant. By the time he’s finally able to play Darksteel Ingot followed by Infused Arrows, I already have him to five life with Squire, Mage, Salvagers along with my Aether Spellbomb for backup. He tries killing the Salvagers, I bounce it, drawing cards from Chromatic Sphere and the Bauble to refill my hand. On the last turn I attack with my 1/1 and my 2/2, then Trinket Mage out a Pyrite Spellbomb for the last two points of damage.
Game 99: Mycosynth Golem Affinity
I should not have won this game. My opponent gets out two quick Frogmites with all artifact land. I play a first-turn Chromatic Sphere, then Leonin Squire, then Leonin Elder. He isn’t attacking with his Frogmites, which strikes me as odd. Then he plays Mycosynth Golem, Mycosynth Golem, Memnarch, Darksteel Colossus all at once to empty his hand. I respond the next turn with Bringer of the White Dawn, which starts to recycle an Aether Spellbomb aimed at his Colossus. He tries in vain to attack with everything, but I kill Memnarch with the Bringer and can absorb the rest of the damage thanks to Elder lifegain. What my opponent could have done is slowly steal all of my land and wait until he can swarm me for the win. Instead I’m free to play the Salvaging Station in my hand, then Trinket Mage for a second Aether Spellbomb. All of his creatures leap into his hand and even though he’s at sixteen life he concedes.
Game 100: Cranial Affinity (w/ bonus Archmage tech)
I had hoped my final game would be against either Chris Romeo, Ben Bleiweiss, or Mark Gottlieb, all of whom I see online from time to time. But after almost a day of checking in constantly, I got antsy to finish up. I can’t say I’m terribly disappointed by the result, although rushing to finish felt a bit like hubris at first.
He starts off with a barrage of artifact land, Chrome Mox, Arcbound Stingers, Myr Enforcer, and Cranial Plating. I get an early Leonin Squire, followed by Leonin Elder. On the fourth turn I’m able to Engineered Explosives for two, which kills his plating and two Stingers. He then plays Vedalken Archmage and start going into turbo-Affinity mode. For about two turns, I squeeze every ounce from my mana, able to bounce key threats and block others. When the dust settles I have a second Elder keeping his turbo-mode in check and giving me enough breathing room to cast Bringer of the White Dawn.
The Bringer nabs a Salvaging Station from my graveyard (thanks to Thirst for Knowledge), and now we both have the luxury of crazy turns. I recycle the Explosives via another Squire, blow it to kill two more Platings and another Stinger, my Station untaps like mad and I bounce almost his entire side of the board, gaining life back to twenty. He replays his hand, I draw Pyrite Spellbomb, and proceed to systematically destroy his side of the table thanks to Salvaging Station. He concedes at seventeen life when it’s clear that anything he plays I can either bounce or destroy.
As several people have pointed out, one of the neat things about Cog Elemental is that it can come back from seemingly unwinnable situations.
And so my game logs squeal to a stop. I’ll still be playing the deck online, of course, and I have two more days before I put a complete wrap on this deckbuilding experiment.
In fact, I think the immortal words of Bluto in”Animal House” express my feelings best…
D-Day: War’s over, man. Wormer dropped the big one.
Bluto: What? Over? Did you say”over”? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!
Otter: Germans?
Boon: Forget it, he’s rolling.
Bluto: And it ain’t over now. ‘Cause when the going gets tough . . . the tough get going. Who’s with me? Let’s Go! Come on! AAAAEEEEEGGGHHHH!!