I am one of the people who thought that Counterspell was not overpowered. Too many of you whined about control. I think that you whined because you couldn’t adapt, and you were too in love with your little fatties to try to adapt. Well, guess what? Control is more than just blue counters. I’m going to feel really good when I start using other control methods to kill you precious fatties.
>Elske van der Vaart’s article reminded me of one very important point that I only barely touched on in my original article, Counter This! I would have been content to leave it at that – but a second opinion has come to light, making the statement that Elske and I were bashing counterspells in multiplayer games, particularly free-for-all games. So it’s time once again to defend myself – and moreover, further expand on a previous idea.
A long time ago, Mike Flores wrote what is, perhaps, one of the most influential articles ever written -“Who’s the Beatdown?” where Mike said that all decks played either Beatdown or Control, and if you assign your deck the wrong role in a match, you will lose. Multiplayer is a different environment, so I tried to look at multiplayer from a Beatdown and Control angle and see how it applied. As it turned out, there’s Beatdown, Control… And a third, equally important, role your deck must learn to play.
Even in multiplayer, Stifle will save your butt. The most promising use I can think of is to counter one of your own activated or triggered abilities. Notably, consider that this ability counters upkeeps and cumulative upkeeps, as well as 187 abilities, morph abilities (obviously), cycling abilities (either the card draw or any triggered abilities, but not both). It will save you from Pernicious Deed, Powder Keg, Strip Mine, creature-based abilities such as Willbender and many others. Most notably, casting this in response to putting Phage the Untouchable into play other than from your hand would, as it currently reads, counters the”you lose the game” clause. Moreover, this can counter the”return to play” trigger on cards like Astral Slide. Can you seriously ask for more?
Yes, it is a combo deck. The pieces are cheap; the deck is a blast to play. The niftiest thing is nailing someone with a Head Games. Not bad for a $1 rare, if it resolves! It can completely screw with someone’s hand and game plan – and even with the minute amount of mana acceleration, comes out on turn 2 with disturbing frequency. Turn 2 Blood Oath happens, too… And that’s a lot of fun. It’s playable in both multiplayer and dueling, but what’s really nifty about this deck is how it takes very different roles in multi and duels….
I met jeers of”you suck” and”You have no skill.” People were furious, ready to slap me across the face, fuming in frustration. I definitely felt unwelcome, and I wanted to leave as quickly as possible to avoid any confrontation or possible problems. People were screaming, angry. All because I tapped two Islands, played a card and said,”No.”
If the DCI can ban cards, why can’t we ban comments? I for one no longer want to hear”You know, several spells later, realizing that the spell you cast about three or four priority passes earlier would put me in a very bad position. I am turning back time and countering/responding/preventing that spell” or”That wasn’t a real win; if I had drawn card X you would have lost so badly” ever again.
This deck is a mid-to-early late game beatdown deck. The strategy of this deck is to survive the first few turns, laying down a few creature-improving enchantments and playing the angels. Pumped, non-tapping angels combined with the nifty effects of Exalted and Blinding Angels will let you attack with less fear of retribution. What are the strengths of this deck? And will it work?
I’ve been inspired by the enthusiasm that Skirk Fire Marshal has encouraged in my fellow StarCity gamers. The new version of Goblink sports more benign-looking monsters, quality spells – and this time, a fighting chance. It’s still got the problem factors that plagued the original Goblink, but this is hopefully the start of Goblink’s revival.
In the end, this deck is a good choice for creature-heavy games, and it teaches you very quickly when to hold ’em and when to fold ’em, getting the most bang for your buck. Multiplayer isn’t always about being conservative, but it is about making the right friends. Be careful about how you wave My Big Black Weapon around.
My Skirk Fire Marshall deck should have worked without a charm… But even though it was a simple two-card combo that I needed to go off, I needed so much more. Are you making a mistake in not seeing the (over)complexities of your deck?
But it’s my opinion that you shouldn’t stop building fun deck just because you have cards of an obscene power level. In fact, those cards allow you to power ridiculously-strange decks that will cause people to laugh. And how can you not laugh when you get taken out by Laccolith Whelp and Skyshroud Ridgeback?
That’s right; there’s nothing too earth-shattering. It’s blue, right? Blue sucks in multiplayer. No, there’s nothing too powerful – at least, until you play the Galina, shortly followed by the Unnatural Selection next turn, followed by the red burn to destroy anything I don’t like.
Most combo decks don’t do well in multiplayer for two reasons. Firstly, they get you bashed around next game, unless it’s a small group, and you can survive one player to get the combo out again. Related to that is that it’s hard to get the combo off multiple times. Donate-Illusions of Grandeur is kinda tough to do the second time. Pray to God that you can pull it off a third.
That seems to be the issue at this point, doesn’t it? How do casual groups, which tend by nature to be fluid and harder to define, decide how to be rigid and strict? How does a diverse group decide on a simple, solid guideline? The answer’s pretty simple: They can’t. And you can’t save everyone from bad deckbuilding.
