Pagoda of Gaming

I couldn’t for the life of me pick a Card of the Week. I tend to talk about a lot of cards in these articles, and I can’t seem to pick one that I have thought about outside of the pool of cards I’d be using to build the deck. It’s senseless repetition really.

This week I revisit an old deck I built on the high of a really fucking awesome metal album, and if I seem somewhat unenthused at any point, assume that my original intention to rebuild came 4 weeks ago, and since then the lust has lessened, but nevertheless, it is complete…
======================================================================= Concept

Remember a while back when I mentioned that a deck can be built on any concept beyond the magicverse? Be it movie, TV show or song can most of the time be translated into a deck concept. Some concepts write themselves.

Many years ago I discovered Metalocalypse. a flash animated TV show based on the fictional lives of the most amazing metal band in existence: Dethklok. My first encounter with them was actually in song form, on the track list of the original Guitar Hero in the form of Thunderhorse.

Their music is comical though masterfully sewn together by the melodic death metal of the show’s creators; this in turn spawned the Dethalbum, which brings us to the first song on it’s track list, and the song on which our deck will be built. Murmaider. Lyrics HERE. Take a listen:

 

Merfolk and Equipment with a hint of death. Perfect. Just like This:

 

But that was all a couple of years ago and since then I’ve already put together a Murmaider deck, and you know what: it tested pretty well. It was mono-blue, every Merfolk in the deck was also a Rogue, allowing for some of the subtype trickery from Morningtide, and adds to the dark flavour. And it had some nice generators of colourless mana to speed up the equipmenting, with a minor theme around Artifacts.

Not to say that the deck didn’t have it’s problems, It’d often get flooded of colourless mana and It’d be a struggle to keep the card advantage going once my hand was empty.

Now it’s 2009, Zendikar is in our grasp, and now I have a bounty of cards from an old Timespiral/Lorwyn standard legal Merfolk deck to cannibalize and integrate, along with whatever has come out since then. There’s also the inspiration from the new Dethalbum II song, Murmaider II: The Water God. Take a listen:

So to add to the original concept I’d like add a Water god to the deck, something that causes utter pain when it hits the table but only to my opponent, only one or two off for the funsies, check the Card pool for my options.

======================================================================= Card Pool

The Murmaiderers

Sygg, River CUTTHROAT

Sygg is a perfect 1 or 2 off that really helps the card advantage when I’m able to swing for more than 3 unblockable per turn, which the deck should manage no bother. I really like the hybrid mana ‘Folk in the card pool, they add that nice touch of death metal to the proceedings.

Rootwater Thief

He’s an oldie that got an upgrade to Merfolk Rogue status in a recentish oracle update. Rather deadly in against some control decks if he gets through, and uses up some excess colourless mana to activate his ability.

Wanderbrine Rootcutters

In the original deck he was a bit of a placeholder for future ‘folk, but nowadays he’d sit nicely in the sideboard against any heavy green decks. He’s got a pretty high power and toughness for a Merfolk too.

Riptide Pilferer

Like the thief, can be really good against certain control decks. All she needs is a little evasion and she’s as good as a hyppie. The morph is pretty useless, but it doesn’t hurt.

Cold-Eyed Selkie

Just imagine this dude equipped with a loxodon warhammer. I draw 4 cards, gain 4 life and you take 4 damage. Also ties into a minor Islandwalk theme I could implement.

Merrow Witsnipper

I suppose it’s the best ‘folk-rogue the deck has access to. But I doubt I’d manage a milling subtheme in the deck.

Merfolk Looter

Builds up some card advantage, but doesn’t really fit with the theme, and I don’t think I’d be able to use the graveyard to any great effect. Also isn’t a great attacker.

Inkfathom Infiltrator

An absolute star, 4-off for sure. Probably the best thing to equip with absolutely anything.

Deepchannel Mentor

Interesting finisher, but by the time I’ve hut 6 mana, all my dudes should be evasive enough as it is.

Lord of Atlantis

Not a Rogue, but he boosts up the other dudes in the deck, and with him I can get some epic evasion down if I play off an Islandwalk subtheme.

Merrow Reejerey

Like the Lord, does the business pretty well of boosting my dudes, But he’s a Soldier and not a Rogue, which keeps him off the shortlist. Tap ability is pretty good too, tapping blockers or untapping land.

The Water Gods

Ghastlord of Fugue

Probably the top contender, he’s blue/black, he’s unblockable without assistance, and he hits my opponent’s hand. Plus he looks really badass.

Overbeing of Myth

I like her more for the extra card draw than her potential power/toughness. The only thing being that the previous incarnation of the deck emptied it’s hand rather fast, so she might hit the table at low or even no power/toughness at all.
Dominus of Fealty

A very manipulative dude, but I dunno, I’m just not feeling it with him.

Godhead of Awe

I kind of see her hurting my side of the table as much as my opponents, more so if I’m playing against a creatureless deck.
The Unspeakable

Highly flavourful, but costs too much and his effect on Arcane magic is something I don’t think I could fit into the deck, unless I add in the cards for his mini-combo (Reach through Mists, Peer Through Depths, Sift Through Sands). Too Much.

Avatar of Will

With a little bit of discarding on my behalf she probably wouldn’t be without her reduced cost. But she’s pretty flavourless, a 5/6 flyer may be pretty good but I don’t think it fits the theme.

Artifacts

Adventuring Gear

Overall a very cheap card, one to play, one to equip. It doesn’t boost on my opponents turn, and I’d have to make sure I could drop at least one land a turn to make it worthwhile. 2 land would be rather impossible in this deck.

Cloak and Dagger

One of the reasons there are so many Rogues in the deck. Shroud and a power boost is a great thing to give what should be an already unblockable creature. In the deck for sure.

Loxodon Warhammer

It would be easy to argue this as one of the best pieces of equipment ever printed, so this is in for sure. The trample doesn’t matter so much as the power boost and the utterly invaluable Lifelink, and all for a rather manageable price.

Skullclamp

A well and truly banned card in many formats for it’s sheer power in weenie decks of any colour to provide massive card advantage. Another top contender for the best piece of equipment ever printed, but I’d rather my creatures survive the equipment process. You can’t argue with this card much though.

Spectre’s Shroud

Provides the Riptide Pilferer ability to any creature for a relatively cheap cost. doesn’t grant evasion, but that shouldn’t be a major problem.

Tatsumasa, the Dragon’s Fang

Probably my most favourite piece of equipment, just for the sheer flavour of the card. One off for sure. May also take the place of the Water God if it turns out to be rather clunky.

Trusty Machete

I used a lot of Bonesplitters in the old deck, but I’d easily pay an extra mana for a small boost of toughness. Best dropped on turn 1, followed by an equip-ee on turn two.

Sword of Light and Shadow / Sword of Fire and Ice

They’re abilities work pretty well against control decks, Fire and Ice inparticluar. But they’re rather expensive and I don’t have any sitting in my folder. Would certainly like to try them both out as one-offs.

Umezawa’s Jitte

A truly fearful piece, and has been restricted in a couple of formats. Should work really well in a deck that bypasses the creature line of defence. I’d almost want to put two into the deck despite it’s legendaryness.

Whispersilk Cloak

You know, I don’t think the deck really needs this.

Other Helpful Spells

Aquitect’s Will

Easily sideboarded against a true blue opponent, and should draw me a card most of the time. Works better than any land type changing Aura.
Notorious Throng

An utterly amazing finisher If I can pull one off for 6 mana, otherwise it should make a bunch of blockers to give me some more time.

Fabricate

Might be good as a one/two off to search out an Artifact, or even an Artifact Land if I’m desperate.

Cryptic Command

You can’t build a mono-blue deck without even contemplating a Cryptic command or two. It’s power is maximum.

Piracy Charm

Like a Mini Cryptic Command it does many useful things. Forces a discard,  Kills or Boosts a creature, and enables evasion all for the budget price of one blue mana. It tested well in the old Murmaider deck, so it might make a repeat appearance.

A Trove of Card Advantage Generators

In addition to what my Merfolk can give me, it would be great to have an additional source of card draws. Ancestral Vision is a great investment for later, but an utterly dead card in the late game, the same goes for Ior Ruin Expedition. Jace Beleren ensures you an extra card a turn and also distracts opponents. Mind Spring might be a fun one-off for the deck. Think Twice is a favourite of mine, and I’ve mentioned it many a time. Thirst for Knowledge works well in a deck full of artifacts. And Treasure Trove, whilst pricey, sticks around for use whenever the mana is available.

A Selection of Boomerangs

There are plenty of blue spells across the game that bounces a permanent to it’s owners hand. Into the Roil is my current favourite, since it can draw me an extra card if need be. Echoing Truth works very well against token generating decks and many rush decks that play often plays a lot of the same creatures. Boomerang is the original and works on everything, whilst Unsummon does creatures for just one blue mana. Æther Burst gets better over time, but only if you run a playset. And Repeal may cost allot, but also draws me a card and can target any permanent. Any of these cards are worth some slots in the deck. It’s a cheap way to get rid of something that’s in your way.

A Small Countersuite

Again, another staple of a mono-blue deck are counterspells. For this deck I’d like them to be cheap and create a bit more of an advantage for myself. Remand is my favourite, but looses juice as the game goes on. Essence Scatter and Negate are straight and to the point, albeit rather situational. Delay hits everything, but it assures a return in a three turns. And Broken Ambitions also hits everything, and the deck should make enough colourless mana to support it.

Psionic Blast

The best direct damage spell a mono-blue deck has access to. Mostly to take care of pesky creatures.

Land

Minamo, School at Water’s Edge

I keep bringing it up in my blue decks because it’s basically an island anyway, except that it can untap a Sygg in a pinch.

Oboro, Palace in the Clouds

Works best with landfall decks to make sure there’s at least one drop a turn. Otherwise, like Minamo it’s an island

Academy Ruins

One off. Good against those rare pesky red or white deck that packs a lot of artifact hate.
Cloudpost

An amazing source of colourless mana. A little better now that mana burn doesn’t exist.
Dreadship Reef

Storage for later.
Soaring Seacliffs

Grants a little evasion, but hits the table tapped. I’m unsure about this land’s usefulness.
Temple of the False God

Another source of colourless mana, but can be a pain in the ass if you’re mana screwed.
Vesuva

Basically considered as additional access to a Cloudpost or otherwise hits the table as a tapped island.

Seat of the Synod

An island that is found by Fabricates and saved by Academy ruins. Why not?

=======================================================================

So let’s throw something together and get playtesting.

"Murmaider" Version 2.0 Mono-Blue Tribal - Vintage Legal

Land x22 1x Minamo, School at Water’s Edge 4x Cloudpost 3x Vesuva 14x Island Creatures x17 1x Ghastlord of Fugue 3x Cold-Eyed Selkie 4x Lord of Atlantis 2x Sygg, River Cutthroat 3x Riptide Pilferer 4x Inkfathom Infiltrator Instants and Sorceries x10 3x Aquitect’s Will 2x Notorious Throng 3x Cryptic Command 2x Ancestral Vision Enchantments and Artifacts x11 3x Trusty Machete 1x Tatsumasa, The Dragon’s Fang 1x Umezawa’s Jitte 3x Cloak and Dagger 3x Loxodon Warhammer

The thing I know that is going to suffer in this build is the lack of support cards, only 8 slots are available due to the high content of equipment. But if I see any immediate change it would probably be the creature board, which might need to be a little closer to 20. The question is what cards will need to be cut to achieve this.

Nevertheless, let me do some playtesting and get back to you.

=======================================================================

So I did my usual playtesting rounds with the Planechase decks and some of my other more powerful decks. The thing that shined through to me the most is that V2.0 has alot of problems with decks hosting alot of spot removal a hefty dose of Shroud should help this in the long run. Secondly, I would need to cut down on a whole bunch of the more expensive cards in the deck – specifically Cryptic Command and the Ghastlord. Finally, The deck needs an overall better board of support cards – specifically for removal.

But what about the positives? For starters Aquitect’s Will is alot better than I initially thought. specifically to do with turning my Cloudposts into also Islands, which helps so much with the heavy Blue Mana requirements of some of the cards. Cold Eyed Selkie can be an absolute monster card-drawing machine with a simple attachment of a Cloak And Dagger, it’s the perfect turn 3 play (if I can go Turn 1: Aquitect’s Will, Turn 2: Cloak And Dagger, Turn 3: Selkie). Tatsumasa was alot more useful than the Ghastlord in every way – so he gains reigning title of Water God. A near unkillable 5/5 flyer with easy access to a Loxodon Warhammer isn’t so hard to get out when I’ve got Cloudposts out the wazoo.

Let’s take a look at the current-final version of the deck:

"Murmaider" Version 2.1 Mono-Blue Tribal - Vintage Legal

Land x21 1x Minamo, School at Water’s Edge 4x Cloudpost 2x Vesuva 14x Island Creatures x17  4x Cold-Eyed Selkie 4x Lord of Atlantis 1x Sygg, River Cutthroat 3x Riptide Pilferer 4x Inkfathom Infiltrator Instants and Sorceries x10 3x Aquitect’s Will 3x Notorious Throng 3x Into The Roil  3x Piracy Charm Enchantments and Artifacts x11 2x Neurok Stealthsuit  1x Tatsumasa, The Dragon’s Fang 1x Umezawa’s Jitte 4x Cloak and Dagger 3x Loxodon Warhammer

 

The only new card on this list, that I haven’t mentioned so far is Neurok Stealthsuit. It acts as a just in case if I don’t happen to be drawing into any Cloak and Daggers. Their alternative equip cost also works well as a minor counterspell, providing I have enough Blue mana – and they cheaply attach to a Lord of Atlantis, who doesn’t benefit from the free equip of the rogue equipment, and he’s usually such a blatant target I couldn’t not aim to shroud him.

Whilst through playtesting, pretty much every part of the deck got cards shifted in and out of it, but the Instants and Sorceries of the deck changed up the most. The Ancestral Visions are gone – because a Cold-Eyed Selkie can draw me many more cards, and usually without so long a wait. The Cryptic Commands are out due to their high cost – the deck doesn’t often see 4 open mana during my opponents turn, and the 1UUU cost is really colour heavy for this deck. The extra Notorious Throng helps as a finisher, I was tempted to put in 4, but I lacked the Room. The Piracy Charms are mostly used to get in a little discard, unless I know my opponent is rolling with some kind of epic weenie deck.

As for a sideboard, I’m pretty stumped. This is a super-casual deck in every sense, so a sideboard isn’t really needed. If there was one, I’d have to up the permission spell count a bit, and have an on hand set of Merrow Reejerys.

Adding a second colour, which I have contemplated somewhat, It would have to be Black. Whilst I wouldn’t be adding it for any creatures whatsoever, it would be great to have some removal of my own (besides the mini-removal of Piracy Charm) and I would completely add a stronger element of aggro-discard to the deck. Duresses, Doom Blades and Mind Shatters to be specific. Another boon of the colour – ressurection – would be welcome also, as Mass removal is even more devestating to the deck than spot, and all blue can do is hope to counter, and not even thing of dealing with the aftermath.

=======================================================================

So there you have it, Magic Morphed Murmaider. I apologise for both the lateness and the quality of this weeks (though it’s really this month’s) installment of my deckbuilding escapades. The reason being that It’s taken me a month to get round to starting it and finishing it, and there was a little sour patch in the middle there where I wanted to give up. But as you see I got round to it in the end.

I mentioned on another post, but I’ll reiterate. The Deck Chef is now going to be a Fortnightly thing from now until, well probably the release of the next set. This should give me some time to further refine my ideas and to de-saturate the content on the blog a bit, and maybe talk about some goddamn videogames for a change.

Regardless, to make up for a month of no Deck Chef, I’ll try and get one out next week if I can. Where I’ll be exploring the possibilities of pure Black Green putridity in the current standard environment – as suggested by reader Yanosh.
=======================================================================
Like what you saw? Want to Contribute? Then please send me your ideas, requests, or your experiences testing the decks that I’ve posted. I’ll be happy to cook up just about anything I’m asked, in any format - All I need is a decklist or an idea to start things off. Remember that I’m not building competitive decks here, I’m aiming for the fun and functional, or even the most budget of decks. email me at themissingnin@hotmail.com or leave a comment on this post (please remember that if you email me, please make it clear in the subject line what you’re emailing me about, or else I will kill it with my mighty delete button, and if you leave a comment on the site and it doesn’t appear immediately, know that it’s probably been picked up by the wordpress filter and I will approve your comment asap). Also, the more I’m sent the more I’ll have to talk about! ‘Nin Out!

you’ll always be tracked

I’ve got a whole bunch of news, opinions, and events to go through, so let’s hit it up like an SMG: Bullet point style pewpewpew!

Edinburgh

My holiday in Edinburgh felt to me like less of a holiday – more like living in the city for a week like an unemployed person. I didn’t do anything totally touristy: I did basically what I used to do at Uni. Wake up, eat, play games, buy crap, go to the movies, sleep. It was great fun. Though only a slight depressing reminder at the same time. In retrospect it was nice to get a way for a week.

It would’ve been better if the flat we were staying in had an internet connection, but the iPhone managed to keep me updated on the goings on and keep me constantly tweeted. For the gaming side of things, I spent a lot of time at The Ministry of Gaming, which is just an amazing place for any passing through gamer in Edinburgh. I spent two wholeish days at the place playing mostly WoW, but a bit of CoD4 and Left 4 Dead too.

Movies

I saw three movies down in Edinburgh. Zombieland was the overall best movie of the week. I felt it was more of a nerdy road trip movie than an outright Zombie movie, and in a scary way I totally identify with with the main character.

Dorian Gray was really… Dirty, like sexy dirty, like the kind of dirty your mother shouldn’t see. I felt throughout that it never totally touched on the curse that Dorian had enacted. Very good acting from Colin Firth and Ben Barnes, that really played up the overall darkness of the film throughout.

The bottom of the pile is The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus – It was just really lame throughout, and it felt really stitched together, especially at the end – quite possibly due to Heath Leger’s departure in the middle of filming. I would recommend avoidance.

A Dash of MTG

When I was away I got it into my routine to buy at least two boosters of Zendikar a day. This amounted to many many booster packs. And I got a bunch of great rares from it. A Foil Luminarch Ascension, three rare fetchlands, a Day of goddamn Judgement. Now I’m really jonesing for a booster box, and more importantly a Fat Pack, because none could be found of either on my trip. One of the days I tripped to Fundee for the day and played some magic for the first time since… the Zendikar pre-release. I got to test out a bunch of decks, and discovered some things I ought to clear up with some Deck Chef Desserts.

The Foods

Oh the food. It was delicious. One of the things I miss most about my time in Edinburgh was how wonderfully full and satisfied my belly felt, near 24/7. The steaks, the sandwiches, the near-daily morning fry up. The highlight meal of the week was certainly my trip to Tang’s sushi restaurant. I took a lot of pictures when I was there, via twitter and the iPhone, and you can see a bunch of the deliciousness via my yfrog feed. Like this one:

The Dedicated Server Debacle

So there isn’t going to be any dedicated servers and the like for Modern Warfare 2. Infinity Ward have taken it upon themselves to blow the old, dated systems of PC gaming out of the water and everyone (and by everyone I mean the vocal minority) is up in arms about it.

Down in Edinburgh, at The Ministry of Gaming, I tried CoD4 for the first time on the PC – a little multiplayer action. I felt reviled. Each server was populated with maxed prestige players and half of the servers were running crazy map mods that prevented any number of Perks and Weapons (I even found one blocking Deep Impact for fuck sake). There and then I revoked my acceptance that I would be buying two versions of the game this holiday season. But since this new info has come out, I’ve since changed my mind.

To get to the damn point. I’m happy that Infinity Ward has gone out of their way to make these changes, and what it accounts to is that they’ve basically took the multiplayer system from Halo 3 and ripped it right off, like so so SO many developers should have done already. It’s freaking great, you pick what kind of game you want to play and go – no worries about scrolling through an infinite list of servers looking for pings and dodging mods and custom maps3, no worries about your favourite weapon being denied, and especially no worries about vengeful Admins going into no-clip mode and ghosting you down like Bruce Willis.

Infinity Ward controls the game now – and I trust them. They’ve already been kind enough to offer Steamworks integration, and maybe with a closed system like this, they’ll be more forthcoming to release map packs and mini-expansions, without the fear of piracy. And for all the whining mapmakers and machinemists out there, I’m sure they won’t leave you hanging for long. But what do I care? I’ll be playing on my X-Box anyway.

Metro2033

It’s not really the time of the year to be announcing games, especially with the following calendar pretty full already. But THQ saw it fit to release a teaser trailer for Metro 2033. The short of it: It looks like =Fallout 3 – RPG elements + Russia. Looks interesting, I’ll certainly keep it on the radar. Check out the trailer below…

Cryptic & Star Trek Online

So Star Trek Online is supposed to launch in Q1 next year. After all the shit that went down, and is still going down with champions online, particularly my negative experience, I’m officially worried. Champions online sucks balls, to be completely blunt. It’s buggy, it’s very very laggy (especially considering there are only servers in America), and I don’t think it had enough time to simmer before it was served. Could the same happen to STO? You know, I actually think they might. And that makes me sadface.

Warcraft & Icecrown Citadel

A gigantic grats to me for finally Dinging a character to 80 in WoW. It only took… a year? Rin the Shadow Priest is now ready for the Cataclysm, whenever that might be. I was convinced that I wouldn’t need to login until then, but now I learn that the Dungeon in which we will face the Lich King will be a 5-man run.

I’m hoping that I don’t need to be epically geared to do the deed of sticking it to the Lich King – but I realise that Blizzard would probably like it to be that way. So it’ll probably be out of my reach in some kind of way. I’d totally play again if it were the case that I could do a bunch of quests in succession to gain access, or a couple of runs of the first two dungeons in the Citadel to get to what this expansion’s been about all along.

I love the shit out of WoW, always will, but it needs to cater the casual demographic a little more when it comes to the Endgame – It feels like too much of an investment to keep on playing for such sparse rewards past the cap.

Rock Band 2

A year later, I finally pick this up, along with a Mic and the Portable Drum Kit – a cheap option to the real drums, though no equal I’m sure. I haven’t really sat down to go through the motions of the career mode. It’s been a while since I’ve done any music game type thing and my bouts on the guitar a couple of weeks ago with Electric Six, assures me that my Hard level technique isn’t quite there anymore. Eye of the Tiger type montages of pain and sweat is required of me to be my own metal champ once again…. I just can’t find the time.

Uncharted 2

Everyone’s got a good opinion of Uncharted 2. I believe that is is also good, but frustrates me to the point that I don’t endeavour to play it much. For some reason I just cant take dying and replaying the same 10 minute section, so I turn it off. It’s probably the combat. The Gears of War series is probably the pinnacle of the 3rd person cover shooter genre, but it doesn’t have to deal with the tomb raider elements Uncharted presents, and I feel the pains of the two colliding too frequently.  I haven’t touched the multiplayer yet, that’s usually the final part of the process for me. I do not believe that this is the Saviour of the PS3. And that Batman is probably the Third Person game of the year.

Brutal Legend

I’m finding Brutal Legend to be utterly mediocre, which was not my expectation. There’s so much I have to say about that game, that could probably amount to a review of sorts. But for now you should know that the Demo isn’t indicative of the final experience. Fighting dudes and driving is all well and good, but getting other dudes to fight the dudes you should be fighting whilst trying to maintain captured points on a map is one hell of an other story. Be wary future purchasers.

Borderlands

I’m a couple of hours into Borderlands and I’m having a good time with it. The one negative thing I could say about it is the story and the characterisation. The game leaves them at the door, and to get much more out of it you have to turn to the quest dialogue. I’m also hoping that there’s much more enemy variety round the corner, as the dog-lizard hellions are starting to bore me a little. Borderlands is a tough game to describe, to say that it is simply a FPS would be a disservice – so I point you HERE to GiantBomb’s video review.

South Park: Let’s Go Tower Defence Play!

I bought it the instant I got home from holiday and I was not dissapointed. It’s a delightfully hard game – unlike uncharted which I cannot bear, this game expects try after try, and I gladly give it. There is a ton of content in this game, from the depth of the gameplay to the library of video content and unlocks you’re given at a very steady pace. I urge 360 owners to try the demo, especially south park fans. It wins extra points for the Japanese accent announcer (who is totally Trey Parker) “REVER COMPREETO!”

Now onto Christmas

It’s officially Q4 now, and that means that I’ll be blogging a little less about deckbulding and the like. I’m more than amazed at myself that I managed to do 7 entries of Deck Cheffery in a row. But it really bogged down the blog. Not that I’m going to stop, they’ll just be done fortnightly from now on. On other weeks I might get round to writing those reviews I’ve been thinking about. I’ve got some rather controversial opinions on alot of the high tier games that have come out the past while, and it’s been a while since I’ve done an out and out rage post.

Also, don’t expect a post the weekend MW2 comes out. But I don’t expect anyone to be reading that weekend either.

Helmet Frigid Wormhole

This should hopefully be a short one - it is a dessert afterall, a compliment to the main meal that was “Deck Chef #5: Flash Bears”. I’ll only do one of these every so often to showcase the major changes I’ve made to a deck due to epic playtesting or the release of a new set. Especially for some of those decks I build that I don’t get the oppertunity to playtest enough. Enjoy, and remember to leave some feedback!
=======================================================================

So here’s where the deck was at last time I checked in. It was in a rather experimental place, and if you’d like to know how this list materialized or have forgotten HERE is a link to my previous article.

“Flash Bears 2009″ Blue Green Control - Extended Legal - Version 1

Lands x20 8x Island 6x Forest 2x Simic Growth Chamber 2x Breeding Pool 2x Seaside Citadel Creatures x11 2x Simic Sky Swallower 1x Cloudthresher 1x Venser, Shaper Savant 3x Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir 4x Mystic Snake Instants & Sorceries x29 3x Search For Tomorrow 3x Harrow 2x Cord of Calling 3x Beast Attack 4x Remand 4x Rune Snag 3x Rewind 3x Voidslime 1x Pact of Negation 3x Sage’s Dousing

Sideboard x15 3x Quash 3x Negate 3x Essence Scatter 4x Gilt Leaf Ambush 1x Cloudthresher 1x Chord of Calling

=======================================================================
In the playtesting that I did, against decks all across the trinity, alot of the cards turned out to slow down the deck alot. I played about with it and shifted in some more cards here and there.

Zendikar Cards

Baloth Cage Trap
I flip-flopped between this and Beast Attack between playtests, but I never found myself taking advantage of the minimised Trap cost, and Beast attack could easily come back for a second helping, either post-discard or post-removal.
Into The Roil
This was really a surprise hit for me from the Zendikar list. In my mind it works like a Cryptic Command, four mana to bounce something and draw a card. But for two mana less you get a speedier spell. Love this spell so much.
Harrow
After a while of playtesting, I finally decided on Harrow as my mana accel/fixing of choise. It’s pretty fun to sit there with 3 open mana, cast Harrow and then cast a Counterspell with the two new lands. The Search for Tomorrows just weren’t working out as I’d like them to, and drawing one mid-game wasn’t so fun if I had to dedicate most of my mana for a turn to grab a new land.
Spell Pierce
I figured this was going to be a useful spell for turn one, now that a turn one suspend action was out of the deck. But I hardly drew it in my opening hand, let alone on time, and my ‘opponents’ could usually get past it with ease in the late game. Not to mention that aggro decks would probably rather cast creatures in the opeining turns.
Summoner’s Bane
I didn’t actually read this spell right until it I drew into it during a playtest. I thought it just countered everything, it doesn’t, and was quickly evicted from the deck. Mystic Snake does a good enough job in the same slot, especially if I can bounce it back to my hand to play it again. I just thought that with this card I’d be able to play a deck with 8 Mystic Snakes. I was wrong.

Other Additions

Minamo/Okina
I figure with atleast some Legendary Creatures in there that these lands might become useful. Otherwise they just function like a regular Island/Forest.
Think Twice
I discovered that the deck really needed some card draw outside of cantrips. I try to get alot of spells in the deck that can “replace” themselves when they’re cast - but when push comes to shove Think Twice works perfectly. It’s instant speed so I can use it anytime i need to, and it doesn’t always have to sit in my hand for me to have access to it.
Draining Whelk
The creatures in the deck weren’t really working out. Most of the time I’d draw them when I really didn’t want to, and teferi’s impact was pretty sub-par against combo and aggro decks. Draining Whelk fills a nice position of being a counterspell, like Mystic Snake, but a worthy, somewhat evasive finisher for the deck. I suppose that his greatest weakness is that he dies to pretty much all removal - but that shouldn’t be too much of a problem.
Cryptic Command
Yeah, I kinda took the plunge and tried a playset of these in the deck (proxies of course) I think I’m going to have to deconstruct my old Merfolk deck and use the commands in a better place - like this deck for example. It works great against pretty much everything, especially aggro.

=======================================================================
And here’s the state of the deck now, take a look and then I’ll explain some of the reasoning behind the changes.

“Flash Bears 2009″ Blue Green Control - Extended Legal - Version 2

Lands x22 11x Island 5x Forest 4x Breeding Pool 1x Minamo, School at Water’s Edge 1x Okina, Temple of the Grandfathers Creatures x7 3x Draining Whelk 4x Mystic Snake Instants & Sorceries x31 4x Harrow 2x Beast Attack 4x Remand 4x Rune Snag 3x Rewind 2x Voidslime 4x Cryptic Command 4x Into the Roil 4x Think Twice

Sideboard x15 2x Cloudthresher 3x Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir 3x Evacuation 4x Psionic Blast 3x Counterbore

I regiggered the basic land count a bit, so there’s a bit more islands than forests, that’s really to help with the 1UUU cost of the Cryptic Commands. I upped the land count by 2 to a healthier 22. Also all the land in the deck can now come into play untapped which helps with the overall speed of the deck.

The Creature board was probably the most changed overall, I dropped pretty much everything apart from the mystic snakes, and added in 3 Draining Whelks to be used as both counterspell and finisher. Atleast some of those more situational creatures I took out made a spot in the sideboard. Cord of Calling was out on account of there being less creatures in the deck, and with the extra room - thanks to the decreased creature presence, I got in full playsets of Cryptic Command, Think Twice, and Into the Roil, and now if you crunch the numbers, thats 12 cards in the deck that let me outright draw a card and do something else useful at the same time.

The Sideboard has changed alot too, I never sided out during my playtesting - to really test the initial holes in the deck, but I think the new cards I put in the Sideboard should help ease some situations. Teferi and Cloudthresher are in for control/counterdecks and flying swarm/lategame aggro decks respectively. Evacuation should help against swarm decks considerably, or get a second life out of my Mystic Snakes and Draining Whelks. Psionic Blast again helps with aggro, where a creature or two can slip through on the initial turns, plus it’s about the only effective direct damage card blue has - shame about the utterly lame art.. And Counterbore takes the place of Quash - which can target everything where Quash can only hit instants and sorceries.
=======================================================================
So there you have it. I really like these shorter posts, particularily if I’ve already covered a bunch of the subject matter already - saves me reiterating myself. A deck is never complete, or should never be. I can’t keep track of every little change, but this post shows what a little playtesting can do for any deck.

There’s not going to be a regular Deck Chef Article this weekend or maybe even the next. I’m off to Edinburgh for a Week’s holidays and I plan to have a rather leisurely time, and I won’t have that if I’m holed up writing about Magic all week. Not that I don’t enjoy doing this. It’s just that my obsession with this game lately hasn’t given me alot of time to do other regular nerdily things, like sleep, eat or play some goddamn Videogames. Leave your feedback and whatnot, blah blah blah.

Fall right into homicide

I think I remember writing somewhere that this website is about Videogames, and the worship of such. And yet all that I seem to be able to talk about is Deckbuilding and whatnot. So consider this post somewhat overdue, and you’ve probably heard about half the shit here by since it’s had enought time to make its way round the web. So as to not appear spiteful to my soul embued Deckbuilding Articles HERE is the link to this week’s offering, or you could just scroll down. The point is I’d really like it to be read since they each take about a week of planning and writing to accomplish… but I’d totally understand if you just straight up didn’t want to look at it.

Where was I? Oh yes, videogames. I haven’t really played much since my last non-TCG post. I did hop into the new Left4Dead campaign, dubbed “Crash Course”. Whilst I was somewhat dissapointed with the Length (only two chapters) I was delighted with a new piece of Vavle-made content for the game. I also hopped into a couple of games of Survival and I was blown away. I had to pry myself away from the Nintop, else I would’ve kept going all night. The relentless death that game mode throws at you is amazing.

I’m really happy to hear that Realtime Worlds is launching the APB Beta next week - maybe then the veil will be lifted and we’ll finally know what the hell is going on with that game. They continue to drip-feed their gameplay videos via their Podcast Feed. I just hope that there’ll be a spot in the Beta for me, and I’ll find a Key sitting in my inbox sometime next week. If that happens, not only will Christmas have come early, but also it will confirm that Dave Jones is infact Santa Clause. (Dave, dude, you really need to get a better picture into Wikipedia, srsly)

An amazing new look at Heavy Rain was released last week, and it continues to blow my mind. The sheer detail in that game astounds me. There were points in that trailer, where I glanced at the video and for a moment I thought it was all real. Check it out HERE, and I urge you to watch it in the highest quality possible.

The following is a trailer for Gyromancer. Tycho described it as something like Pokemon + Puzzle Quest * Final Fantasy, that alone is an interesting concept. What is moreso fascinating is that the game is being joint developed by Square-Enix and PopCap and is being published on Xbox Live Arcade. I don’t know how to continue this paragraph, that just fills me with so much reverence and excitement. To get Square Enix to even touch an Xbox is an amazing feat in itself, but knowing that the makers of Peggle…. Fucking Peggle is sharing a table with the Final Fantasy guys is just…. I don’t know what to say. Watch the trailer:

I felt kinda bad about missing Battlefield Bad Company, I contemplated getting it the other day via the XBLM Direct Download thingy. But then I rememberd that there’s a sequal coming out and MW2 is just round the corner. The Sequal is hitting sometime next March and I figure that’s enough time to extract most of the joy from Modern Warfare 2, and is a nice time to be getting a new shooter in time for the summer. Some would bring up the similarities between Modern Warfare and Battlefield, but for me they are completely different games. Simply involving Vehicles and sprawling environments is enough to differentiate it. Bad Company 2, with additional environmental Destruction should be a blast when it hits. Check out the following Trailer:

THIS looks amazing.

On the non-gaming front I’m happy to be submerged in the american fall TV schedule. Out of all the shows, this new season of House has been a joy to watch - especially the opening dual-episode with House in the Asylum - which left me feeling rather emotionally fulfilled. Fringe is off to a nice start too, as is the Mentalist. On the opposite of the spectrum, Heroes seems to be epically failing. Noah and Peter seem to be the last surviving grounded characters of the show, and hopefully we’ll see alot of them in the rest of the season. Also, the ink thing, with the carnival people, is pretty retarded.

Musically, I’m happy that the new Dethklok album is finally out, and it’s blacker and brutaller than the last offering, and whilst still being utterly a treat to listen to, it has lost some of the comedic quirks that the first album had. I still aim to have Mermaider II to the top of my most listened playlist by the end of the weekend. Lost Prophets have a new Single out soon - and I’m not sure where I stand on it - I’ll wait for the album to save my judgement.

Finally, Electric Six are making a mark on Rock Band next week with three songs. The somewhat Expected Gay Bar will be available along with “Dance Epidemic” and “I Don’t Like You”. It is listed as “Track Pack 01″ which leads me to believe, and hope, that there will be more from the band to come soon, hopefully from their more recent albums. All of this music game business, with DJ Hero and all the talk about Rock Bands upcoming improvements, is really stoking my game-boner. So much that I’m considering grabbing those extra plastic instrument monstrosities sometime.

Genuflecting with a torch

You’d imagine that I spent alot of last week, my week off, not thinking about Magic at all. Well you’d be wrong, intrusively so. Magic can utterly absorb me sometimes, and the following article is proof of that. What you won’t see is the other half-article I wrote during this that I completely destroyed once I remembered that the combo I feature existed. And you wont see all the time I didn’t spend doing other enticing things like playing any videogame at all (well, just a little Left4Dead, but that contributed to the lateness of this article). For newbie players, I hope you enjoy my little Intoduction to Combo decks, and know that what I show you is only the tip of the iceberg. Dredging the depths of the Internet will show you alot more. But hey, maybe Combo decks aren’t your thing, read on and maybe you’ll find out.
=======================================================================
Big Pimpin’
No “Card of the Week” this week, instead there are a couple of websites that I’ve been meaning to talk about for a while now, for the record, but I always forget to bring them up. So here we go…

Cranial Insersion
An article written by Official Judges and rule gurus that answer a multitude of rule questions tailored to the current state of the game. Great for beginners, as it brings up some very interesting card interactions and it’s a great refresher for older players. Cranial Insersion comes out every couple of weeks, so keep an eye on MTGSalvation.com for this, other articles and see the Latest Cranial Insersion for some focussed questions on Zendikar.

MTGMintCard
Based in china (I can guess…) it offers a huge range of singles at nice $ sized prices. They offer a deckbuilder feature - where you plug in a decklist and it’ll show you what they have in stock and the price of everything on your list. Not so much offerings on the gaming supplies side of things (dice, deckboxes, deck protectors, that kind of thing) but you’ll probably have to pay through the ass for them to send it to you. I usually order from these guys in bulk, which offers the best deal in shipping costs.

MagicMadhouse
Like Videogames and alot of other things, we pay a whole lot extra on Cards in the UK - nearly double what the Yanks pay. But MagicMadhouse offers a decent range of singles, at a somewhat reasonable £ price. They are based in the UK, and ship rather quickly - I usually get stuff from them within the week, and I live in the arse end of nowhere. The offer a great range of supplies, and in particular - nicely priced deck protectors across all types of style and quality.

The Magic Show
Think PhillyD*MTG, this weekly webshow hosted by Evan Erwin, usually 10 to 15 minutes in length hits on pretty much anything to do with magic. Rumors, the current state of the metagame, and interviews with top tier players and somehow - people from R&D. It’s a great show and is well worth a watch by players new and old. This week the host sit’s down with Zendikar designer Ken Nagle and talks about various aspects of this amazing new set. CHECK IT OUT.

=======================================================================
An Introduction To Combo
Every deck I’ve posted in this feature so far has either been some combination of Aggro and Control, but there is a type of deck that I’ve yet to touch on, and that is Combo. When you see cards in Magic that work together, this is often called “Synergy”. A Kor Duelist and any piece of Equipment, or Spirit Link and Evershrike. That is a combo in it’s lowest form: 2 cards that do something togething to make something better. In Magic there are combos that come in all shapes and sizes, from two cards up to a whole deck, to splicing together a couple of cards out of the latest set, to digging up some ancient enchantment that makes the latest dumb looking creature into some beautiful angelic soul snuffing monster.

Most combo’s aim to win the game. Obviously, that’s the secondary point to any game of magic (the first being “Have Fun”). Equiping my Kor Duelist and swinging for 6 damage is a step in the right direction, but what if you could just end it there and then. You can, so to give a better idea, The following are some nice combos that I’ve come accross over the years. Firstly, imagine drawing this opening hand:

Mountain

Mountain

Goblin Guide

Myojin of Infinite Rage

Myojin of Infinite Rage

Blazing Shoal

Blazing Shoal

Can you see it? Make sure you do… Go in for a closer look… Yep! that’s right, this hand just won you the game - and on the first attack step of the entire game too. But swinging with a 22/22 hasty goblin on your first turn on 6 cards is a little farfetched if you expect to do this every game you sit down to play. It’s important when you find a combo to look at how probable it is that you could achieve combo within a sit-down 60 card deck situation. This combo is about as likely to go off as it is that I’d win £10 in the lottery this weekend. Granted, R&D do print cards that help combo decks, like they do with Control and Aggro naturally, but I think we’d need more than a playset of Serum Powders to get this one going.

Some combos make “Silver Bullets” better. I’ve been playing with Phage, The Untouchable for years, and I haven’t found a better combo than this one. Sure, I could just shove a Whispersilk Cloak on her and swing for the win, but what if an Ensnaring Bridge is in my way. Endless Whispers lets you gift Phage to an opponent when she dies, and that would be a great thing for your opponent - except it triggers that first block of text in her box - killing off your opponent as soon as she hits the battlefield. In multiplayer for extra luls, simply play a second phage. The legend rule triggers killing off the both of them - and you get to instakill two opponents during the end phase.

R&D sometimes prints obvious combos - one of these is the “Stations” from Fifth Dawn. The Four of them act as some kind of maniacal production line of death, where you “go infinite” - continuously milling your opponent and pinging things for one into infinity. Go take a good read of them, it might take a moment to click.
=======================================================================
The Firemind Combo
The combo I’m going to build around in today’s article is like my last example - a combo that ends up in a somewhat of an infinite loop, loopy enough to deal a sweet 20 and walk away with little hassle: It should only at least 2 active permenants to work. It began with me wanting to build a deck around this card:

I built a Niv-Mizzet centric deck around the time of Ravnica’s reign of standard, not for myself, but I liked the card enough to draw up a list and pass it onto someone that could afford to put it together. It worked out rather well alongside other Red/Blue cards at the time, especially with some from Kamigawa. But I never got to play the deck for myself, and I’ve always meant to revisit it. So for this article I began getting my card pool together as I usually do, and I discovered these blasts from the past:

Either of these allong with Niv will generate the same effect: Draw a card, Deal 1 Damage, repeat as many times as your opponent has lifepoints. I remember hearing about this combo back in the day, but the deck I originally built didn’t use this combo because most of the pieces lay outside the Standard format boundaries, so I never got to see it in action, until now. Let’s hit the pool and get a feel for what I’m about to build.
=======================================================================
Card Pool

Creatures

Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
It would be a weird Firemind deck without him. So yes, 4-off, despite his legendaryness.
Body Double
Can count as essentially another Niv - should an actual one hit the graveyard before combo. Or usable on opponent’s dead stuff for some interesting defensive manuvers.
Jushi Apprentice
Card draw on a cheap creature that doesn’t have a drawback like his “draw a card and discard a card” bretheren. Also flips to really fucking sort out your hand. He runs a bit on the expensive side however.
Vedalken Æthermage
Really here for the Wizardcycling, but subsequent copies can be used to insta-chump block incoming assholes.
Djinn of Wishes
A bit pricey for this deck - should be using turn 5 for Niv or a Body double. But can really sort things out with his Free Spells.
Prodigal Pyromancer
Can be used earlier with Coastal Piracy than Niv can and as such can be used to draw cards for a couple of turns before activating the combo - worth a try anyways.

Sorceries and Instants

Burning Inquiry
If it weren’t a random discard, this’d totally be in the deck. I was going to originally use this with the non-combo build of the deck, to get Niv to basically throw a Lightning Bolt. But without chosen discard can utterly rape a hand.
Polymorph
In a more creature-centric version of the deck, I’d use this (along with alot of token generators) to morph out a Niv from the deck a little earlier. But I think the deck won’t be using alot of creatures in general.
Pyroclasm
Sideboard card for sure, utterly magical against aggro/rush decks.
Sleep
late game time maker - pads out the turn between dropping a Costal Piracy and Niv. Good against aggro decks and control to some extent.
Electrolyze
It’s red and blue, it deals damage and replaces itself with a card draw. Awesome card - and one of my all-time favourites.
Gifts Ungiven
This card is used in many a Vintage and Extended combo decks. Basically finds a bunch of pieces for your combo - but I don’t think this deck will be able to deal with the half that lands in the graveyard, as other decks can.
Cryptic Command
SWISS ARMY DEATHCARD! Will certainly playtest with these, but if I build the deck for reals, I won’t be able to afford another playset.
Repeal
I often think that my opponent would have something REDONK’ to prevent me fireminding them to death, boomerang+ does a good job of getting rid of them for a turn. Also pretty good against aggro. Better than a plain boomerang for it’s “Draw a card”.
Wipe Away
Like before, but trades in a card draw for extra assurance. Split second makes this uncounterable, and shuts down any combos my opponent might try to pull.
Lightning Bolt
Yes please! In for sure - but would definitely side out against creatureless decks.
Remand
Great spell for the earlygame, not so much for the late - but if we’re smart, the opponent shouldn’t get a lategame. Also, card draw.

Artifacts, Enchantments and Land

Costal Piracy
4-Off, it’ll need to be since I need to draw one every game.
Curiosity
A little more clunky than Costal Piracy, I can’t just leave it to sit there all global enchantmentee effecting all my creatures. Might take this out if it gets in the way, but will try it out as a 4-off anyway.
Ophidian Eye
Same effect as the previous two cards, but at a weird mana cost. For 2 less I can use Curiosity to the same effect. The flash makes little difference in this combo, as I imagine it’s mainly used to flash onto an unblocked attacker. Or for one more mana I get a Costal Piracy that works on many creatures and doesn’t “fall off” since it doesn’t attach in the first place.
Sensei’s Divining Top
Utterly amazing in combo decks, drop one early and you can fix your hand for the rest of the game. 3-off at most, since drawing into a second Top is really lame.
Izzet Signet
Nice bit of a mana boost, well worth the 4-off.
Sigil of Sleep
Like boomerang, but attached to a Niv that is effected by some Costal Piracy and we’ve got an epic boomerang machine. But most likely it would be drawn as an utterly dead card.
Lightning Greaves
Niv+Piracy and a pair of greaves gives Niv haste for the turn he hits play and Shroud aswel to fend off some pesky removal.
Feldon’s Cane
There are many other ways of achieving the same effect, but the cane does it faster, and at the cheapest cost. Plus, it can be used mid-combo to restock the library if your opponent is a running a mill deck, or in multiplayer to make sure there’s enough cards to draw.
Minamo, School at Water’s Edge
Why not? it’s basically a island that can untap our favourite Dragon Wizard in a pinch.

Zendikar Cards

Archmage Ascension
On closer inspection, this card is really lame. It needs to hit the table super-early to give enough time get it’s quest counters. But our deck will probably go off before this becomes useful. In a non-combo Niv deck, would be pretty sweet.
Ior Ruin Expedition
Kinda useful card draw, but I’d rather spend my second turn dropping something a little more useful.
Spell Pierce
The jury’s out on this card for the moment, but a one-mana counterspell that hits such a wide range can be pretty useful. This deck has limited spots for counterspells and I’d rather use something that gives card draw or can hit a wide range of spells.
Pyromancer Ascension
Like the other ascension in pretty much every way.
Into The Roil
Strictly better than Repeal - Lesser cost, but can only draw a card at 4 mana. I do like this card alot though, and I think we’ll see it alot in competative play.

=======================================================================
Here’s my initial list, before I started playtesting sans Sideboard.

“Power of the Firemind” Version 1.0 Red/Blue Combo - Vintage Legal

Land x20 7x Island 7x Mountain 4x Cascade Bluffs 1x Minamo, Shool at Water’s Edge 1x Shinka, The Blooksoaked Keep Creatures x10 4x Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind 4x Vedalken Æthermage 2x Body Double Instants and Sorceries x12 4x Burning Inquiry 4x Remand 4x Electrolyze Enchantments and Artifacts x18 3x Sensei’s Divining Top 4x Costal Piracy 4x Curiosity 1x Feldon’s Cane 2x Lightning Greaves 4x Izzet Signet

I found it to be really basic, and alot of the cards that I thought would’ve worked well ended up being really dead draws. The most important thing I found out was the combo’s timing. Essentially the deck should begin working the turn Niv hits the table, so that’s turn 6. Curiosity really got in the way of this. I’d have to wait until turn 7 to summon Niv, Enchant him, then throw on the Lightning Greaves if I had them out. But if I cast Niv a turn earlier, and I equiped him with Greaves to protect him for a turn or until I drew a Curiosity, the problem would be taking the greaves off of him, enchanting him, then putting them back on - a hefty task if I didn’t have an extra creature out, which I never usually had. Then I discovered that Niv doesn’t really need haste. He just has to be in play, and the instant he’s either Enchanted or affected by Costal Piracy, I just have to find a way to draw a card really fast and the combo goes off. To give you an idea, the basic “turn schedule” goes like this:

Turn 1: Land, Sensai’s Divining Top.

Turn 2: Land, Izzet Signet.

Turn 3: Land, Costal Piracy.

Turn 4: Land, Deal with incoming creatures/Wizardcycle.

Turn 5: Land, Summon Niv, use the Divining Top’s second ability to draw a card. And the Combo Begins.

Ofcourse, this is rarely the case - I don’t take into account anything that my opponent does to screw me over and there’s no mana left over to use the Top’s first ability - something that I did very often to much success during playtesting. The it actually took me a while to remember that simply drawing a card. And whilst it really does suck when a second Top is sitting in the top three cards of the deck, perpetually slowing things down, the best option is to do a Wizardcycle to get the deck shuffled.

So I played against a bunch of my other decks, mostly Aggro and Tribal decks, and I tailored the deck to suit. As you will see, there are some drastic changes that have been made to that initial list, but the deck operates in much the same way. I’ll still have to do some more playtesting against more control-oriented decks to see how that works out, but in that case I expect to be utilising alot more cheap counterspells - that’ll probably come from the sideboard. Take a look…

“Power of the Firemind” Version 1.1 Red/Blue Combo - Vintage Legal

Land x22 10x Island 6x Mountain 4x Cascade Bluffs 1x Minamo, Shool at Water’s Edge 1x Shinka, The Blooksoaked Keep Creatures x9 4x Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind 3x Vedalken Æthermage 2x Body Double Instants and Sorceries x14 4x Think Twice 4x Lightning Bolt 3x Into the Roil 3x Electrolyze Enchantments and Artifacts x15 3x Sensei’s Divining Top 4x Costal Piracy 4x Lightning Greaves 4x Izzet Signet

Sideboard x15 3x Feldon’s Cane 3x Remand 3x Mana Leak 2x Dream Fracture 4x Pyroclasm

The maindeck has changed considerably. I’ve completely dropped the Curiositys since they were getting in the way most of the time. Same goes for the Burning Inquirys, which were pretty much the first card to be removed from the deck. I tried out alot of other things inbetween this list and the previous, Prodigal Pyromancers, more counterspells here and there. Into the Roil was a big hit against most decks that sported big swingy creatures, and Lightning Bolt jumped in rather quickly aswel. The Think Twice’s are one of my favourite card draw spells and went into the deck relatively recently - it’s important that they’re best played at instant speed, same goes for flashing it back aswel.

You’ll also notice that there are no counterspells in the main deck - this probably stems from my heavy aggro playtesting, but I’ve set up the sideboard to take care of this should the need arise. I’ve moved the Feldon’s Cane to the sideboard too, since it’s particularily situational, but still important enough to be available. Most of the counterspells are cheap too, mostly about 2-mana. This is simply by choise - I reckon that the deck shouldn’t need some of the ultimate counterspells, all I should need to do, in theory, is counter in the early-mid game, and I don’t need any Last Words for that.

There are still some changes that might be made, but that’s pretty mutch it for now - this deck will probably sit mildly proxied for the time being, as with most combo decks, after a while they lose their charm - unless you are a rabid johnny.

=======================================================================
I hope you enjoyed my little trip into the weird world of Combo decks. I don’t normally build combo decks - they take up so much of my time, and I often fail at building wholly successful ones. Whenever I do build combo decks it’s nothing like some of the crazy shit that the community can come up with, take the Sunny Side Up deck - which evey card in the deck contributes to a single turn combo. Check out the following video to have your mind utterly blown…

I’ll get to building that Vampire deck sooner or later, I’d just really like the current standard environment to settle a little, and well, for Zendikar to actually be released. To make up for my week off, there were a whole heap of changes that have been to my Flash Bears decklist that I posted a couple of weeks ago, some Zendikar stuff and some other changes here and there to make the deck run smoother. I may punningly call a “Deck Chef Dessert”, and most certainly wont be over 3000 words… Like this article already is.

I’m going to go and enjoy the rest of my weekend, since I’ve spent the entirety of today writing this up and watching half a season of Supernatural and listening to the Dethablum II. Next Week, join me in the Blackened Deep. Because one day, we will all go into the water…
=======================================================================
Like what you saw? Want to Contribute? Then please send me your ideas, requests, or your experiences testing the decks that I’ve posted. I’ll be happy to cook up just about anything I’m asked, in any format - All I need is a decklist or an idea to start things off. Remember that I’m not building competative decks here, I’m aiming for the fun and functional, or even the most buget of decks. email me at themissingnin@hotmail.com or leave a comment on this post (please remember that if you email me, please make it clear in the subject line what you’re emailing me about, or else I will kill it with my mighty delete button, and if you leave a comment on the site and it doesn’t appear immediately, know that it’s probably been picked up by the wordpress filter and I will approve your comment asap). Also, the more I’m sent the more I’ll have to talk about! ‘Nin Out!

He’ll lacerate the other murder mermaids with the blacked tears