To dream the impossible dream…. Jim takes Sheng Hsun Hsai’s Taipei-winning Hunting Grounds deck and attempts to transform it into a new Standard Control deck. But we gotta be honest, Jim… Without the Snake, you’re battling uphill….
For the last four weeks, I have been stuffing myself with States information, and now I’ve reached my limit. I can’t hold any more tech; therefore, I’m going to turn purge mode: on and spew forth everything that I’ve learned in the last four weeks. Plus, some strange Finnish guy called”Tomi” emailed me to tell me what changes he’d be making to his Punisher build in light of Pyroclasms. But man, can you really listen to a guy who came in a paltry second place at the Invitational?
My basic advice is simple: Take your deck’s foundation, then add the details you might add in a regular deck. For now, ignore mana and cards to round out your deck – we are still working on the raw side of things. We want to take that skeleton and mold into a solid, well-rounded list of cards.
I haven’t yet had time to read the Onslaught spoiler. Usually, I print the new spoiler and take it around with me to read in my spare time in order to have it read as soon as possible. So why am I waiting for enough free time to read the spoiler directly from the computer? Because I don’t see the need to be on the cutting edge of the new environment.
Back in the days of Academy, Duress was a turn 1 Godsend, capable of grabbing the explosive turn 1 Dark Ritual, the largest monored burn spell, or Academy’s first Windfall. But in the new and much slower environment, is turn 1 Duress always the best play?
Budde said something that got my wheels turning when he said that the deck could create”infinite” elephant tokens. Well, when I think”infinite,” I jump straight to the phrase”game over” – so I asked myself if there was anyway to guarantee a one-turn kill. Turns out the answer is yes. Also, my Oversold Cemetery tech seems to be slugging it out at about 50/50 with U/G – better than most!
Ah, yes.”Draw X” always gets your attention, and Read The Runes caught my eye… But a small Read the Runes doesn’t look very impressive; compare this to a small Braingeyser or a small Stroke. So we end up with the question,”Can combo use this to set up the end game?”
So I opened my deck and North Korea called, asking me if they could maybe buy a few off of me – I had Visara, Jareth, AND Glarecaster. And I screwed the deck build. So after an ignominious defeat, I asked Alex Shvartsman and Gary Wise what I did wrong… And the answer was most distinctly NOT about the bombs. Plus, a possible Mobilization build that works? Check your States, man…
So I was rushing the edit job thanks to the fact that I needed content for Monday… And I missed a major error by an author big time. Big time. In the kind of error that Team Academy mocks other sites about. All I can say is that I’m sorry.
Have you got some extra money and were thinking,”Gosh, how could I blow $150 on a B/W Clerics deck?” Well, here’s your answer – along with a much cheaper one, for those of you who like that sort of thing. Also, I get to play with Shelter, which is sad because I can’t play with the Shelter chick. She’s hot.
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!
I watched Jensen play the deck at Grand Prix: Cleveland with my own two eyes, and I couldn’t resist trying to adapt it. I have gone through at least seventeen different versions of the sideboard, ranging from aggressive strategies to more control to just about fifteen different sorceries… And I feel that this is the best version.
StarCity’s latest Featured Writer attended the Onslaught prerelease – and he cracked the cards he wanted! Of course, Michael doesn’t play to win… He plays for pleasure, as he analyzes the prettiest cards he saw at his prerelease.
I see possibilities in unloved cards. I am a one-man Isle of Misfit Cards. For example, while everyone is going completely ape slick over the beef in Onslaught (yes indeedily-doodily, Silvos is block rockin’ beats), I have to wonder why people aren’t playing Gurzigost… But, alas, Gurzigost is from all the way back in Torment.
