I played an updated (and final) version of the Beasts deck at Wisconsin States, ending up 5-3. Only one of the losses was a blowout; the other two were very close. I lost, I think, because I made minor mistakes.
I have a couple of really good decks – decks that almost work well enough for eight rounds of Swiss and a Top 8.
Almost.
In each case, the decks revolve around an enchantment that is pretty solid and does a very good job of controlling the game if you get it in play and keep it there. However, that’s a good description of Opposition as well – and Opposition decks run much better searching and card drawing.
It’s fun to play with creatures like Phantom Nishoba, Hypnox, and Verdant Force, but they’re too expensive to play…. So what’s the solution? Simple – don’t cast them. There are plenty of other ways of getting fatties into play without paying all that mana. It’s like being the Hulk after an injection of Super Soldier serum and wearing Iron Man’s outfit!
It’s nice to see T2 and limited catching on – but multiplayer deckbuilders have been doing tribal all along. Looking back over my past articles, I see fun decks built around sea creatures, elves, zombies, soldiers and more. It’s a common multiplayer idea – but I want to talk about how to build such decks in general, not about any specific tribal deck.
Imagine sitting back with a half dozen lands, a Prodigal Sorcerer, Words of Wilding, Sindbad, a Quirion Elf, and four 2/2 bears in play. Pretty harmless – even an Overrun won’t do all that much. Oh, and two Arcane Denials, a Jungle Barrier and Force of Will in hand – because you are about to tap three mana and play a card that says”game over.”
Jay Schneider starts every new Constructed season with a mono-red Sligh or beatdown deck; Zvi starts with a new version of Turboland. I start with some overpriced fatties build – mainly to get it out of my system. And this time, I wanted to work with Contested Cliffs.
A lot of Onslaught drafts are going to see a lot of creatures, and not a lot of removal. That means that when drafting Onslaught, people will hate draft all the bombs and good cards in any color.
For multiplayer, I see a lot of interesting cards, although I am depressed about Insurrection. Altar of Dementia and Reins of Power was a powerful, but reasonable, deck. Altar of Dementia and Insurrection is pretty awful – it just wins in way too big a style. A few other cards have similar impacts – and I hate to see any simple combo that just wins too easily.
There must be a card that changes all creature types. Yup – Standardize. Let’s see – I have more creatures than anyone else. I have six mana, three of it blue. I have Force of Will backup. Standardize, Peer Pressure… I now own all creatures in play, permanently. Want to concede now?
You can have a lot of fun with Arcane Teachings on some of those old cards that say”whenever ~this~ deals damage to a player,” do something interesting. And do you want to know how to deal infinite damage in a casual deck with a ping combo?
Discussions of Worlds and what was fun to play, OBC and what’s not fun to play, and a look at why you probably shouldn’t unban all the Type One cards unless you really, really trust your playgroup.
Remember – in Type One, the Power Nine aren’t what kill you; it’s what you cast with the Power Nine that destroys. Want to know the most common cards that can turn any losing proposition into a rout?
Here’s another card I figure could be broken… But what colors work best with it, and what prevents the much-hyped Constable lock from being a Tier 2 Standard deck?
This is a primer. It discusses some basic theory; the fact that bluffing is good, revealing your hand is bad, and the main reason you should never – well, almost never – play anything during your first main phase. If you know this theory – really know it – then it won’t be much more than a refresher course, but with decklists.
It was a strange Invitational tournament, where I got terribly luck-screwed at 5-Color and familarity-screwed by Draft… But I did get to see the future of Extended as seen by some of the top pros, my friends, and let me tell you that the future is base-blue.
