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1  Eternal Formats / Creative / [ card discussion ] What are the good type 1 cards from 5D? on: July 18, 2004, 02:24:54 pm
Crucible's been recycling Wasteland/Strip Mine turn after turn lately, so obviously that's in the good category.  I haven't seen anyone try the Zuran Orb/Fastbond combo with much success, but it's still too early to tell on that.

Serum Visions and Night's Whisper have been in a lot of GAT builds lately.  Helping to keep the AK wars mostly to Hulk mirrors.  Whisper's better until the third AK, and Serum Visions is at least arguably better than Sleight.

Also, Staff of Domination has been showing up in some MUD builds lately.  I haven't seen it played myself, but I've heard it's pretty ridiculous, what with the possible infinite mana with Metalworker and all.

And of course there's the speculation around Ironworks.  I have no idea how well that is or isn't working, but I know lots of people are fiddling with it.

That's the best off the top of my head, but I'm sure there's some other stuff I'm not thinking of.
2  Eternal Formats / Miscellaneous / [Deck] tweaking EBA on: May 05, 2004, 11:17:42 am
I haven't got the Library or Mana Crypt in mine, but I don't own either of them, so I'm making do.  The rest of it is surprisingly stable, especially with Brainstorm/fetch to smooth out the mana.  Opposing Strips can be a problem obviously, but that's true of almost any deck.

As far as running all the black, it's simply because all of it is insane and can be fit in fairly easily.  Without Duress and Twist, the disruption would fall to just Mage and strips, which would force the deck to turn more into Keeper and play reactive.  And I don't think there any explanation necessary for Demonic Tutor or Yawgmoth's Will.

Simply put, you keep running so much black just because you can.  Twisted Evil
3  Eternal Formats / Miscellaneous / [Deck] tweaking EBA on: May 04, 2004, 08:07:41 pm
Thanks for all the attention and advice everyone!

I think I've basically decided on the build.  I've tested several suggestions, and I've pretty much settled on a build:

Counter:
4x Mana Drain
4x Force of Will

Disruption:
4x Meddling Mage
4x Duress
1x Mind Twist
2x Damping Matrix
1x Strip Mine
4x Wasteland

Draw/Search:
4x Brainstorm
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Demonic Tutor
2x Skeletal Scrying

Broken:
1x Time Walk
1x Yawgmoth's Will

The Win:
4x Exalted Angel

Mana:
1x Black Lotus
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mox Jet
4x Tundra
4x Underground Sea
4x Flooded Strand
1x Polluted Delta
3x Island
1x Plains

This one is a big departure from where I started, but in testing it's proven to be much better against a lot of decks.  The mana base is still fairly solid, and either Damping Matrix or an Angel or two seems to solve most any problem I have with opposing creatures, so the loss of StP isn't a big one.  Duress and the Strip Mine and Wastelands have helped shore up against the Tog match.

I never thought I'd go up to four Angels, but during testing I found out that lack of one was the thing that killed me the most.  Hence, the full set.

I plan on building a sideboard to help against Stax/Mud variants, although Matrix and Workshop killers are doing their part.  The Dragon match is weaker now, with my lack of Stifle or Swords main deck, but Duress and counters are often enough to hold them off.

I miss having Fact or Fiction main deck, but I found that if things were going my way with the Angel beats, I just pitched FoF to Force most of the time anyway, so better to add Duress for preventative medicine.

I'll keep posting updates, and anyone else feel free to throw in your two cents.
4  Eternal Formats / Miscellaneous / [Deck] tweaking EBA on: May 04, 2004, 10:08:23 am
Latest version is testing much better against Tog and Slaver both.  Still haven't made the move to Duress/Wastelands, but I'm testing those some as well.

Counter:
4x Mana Drain
4x Force of Will

Draw/Search:
4x Brainstorm
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Fact or Fiction
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Demonic Tutor
2x Skeletal Scrying

Disruption/Removal:
2x Swords to Plowshares
2x Damping Matrix
4x Meddling Mage
1x Mind Twist
1x Strip Mine

Brokenness:
1x Yawgmoth's Will
1x Time Walk

The Win:
3x Exalted Angel
1x Decree of Justice

Mana:
7x SoLoMoxen
4x Tundra
4x Underground Sea
4x Flooded Strand
1x Polluted Delta
2x Plains
4x Island

The mana base is still rock solid.  The one Strip does come up often enough to be of some use, but I've found with a little testing that adding Wastelands leaves me woefully unable to find the WW to flip Angel up at the worst possible times, and City of Brass just rubs me the wrong way.  

The second Scrying has worked out quite well.  Rarely do I end up with both of them in hand, and it has helped quite a bit in keeping up draws.

The extra Damping Matrix has been HUGE in a lot of matches, but limiting it to two doesn't make it a terrible nuisance in matches when I don't need it.  Definitely staying.  

I haven't posted another sideboard because I've been reworking it, based on the changes MD.  There are few things I ever want to board out, so I'm trying to find a few silver bullets for bad matches and keep the boarding each round to a few very strong cards.
5  Eternal Formats / Miscellaneous / [Deck] tweaking EBA on: May 04, 2004, 03:05:56 am
I proxied up the Library and tested some, and it's working quite well.  Even if I can only get a card or two off it, that's still nothing to scoff at.

Vindicate wasn't so hot, since black is really my off color and it's at sorcery speed.  Most of the time, it was something of a win-more card.
I find the mana base to be remarkably stable, with as many basics as I run.  I originally ran two Cities of Brass, but I've decided to cut down on the pain stuff as much as possible since every point is less that a Tog player has to deal.  If I can't get the angel going, City damage adds up quickly.  That's also why I cut to one Scrying.  I haven't ever had a time that I wanted to cast another one, unless I was already well ahead from Angel gains.  With the loss from six fetches, 4 Forces and a Scrying already, I'm working on minimizing any more.

The basic land count is insurance against Blood Moon and Back to Basics as well as Wasteland.  With 6 white-producing lands, 6 fetches, Pearl and Lotus going, I haven't had any problems getting the WW to turn Angel up.

As far as a drawing engine, I've been fiddling around with running 3-4 Shadowmage Infiltrators.  They're slow against a lot of things, but between  evasion, dealing damage with drawing (not hindered by Damping Matrix like Phid) and being pitchable to Force of Will, they seem worthy of consideration.

I'm still debating on those.  I'm testing running three, cutting one Swords to Plowshares, the one Scrying and a Meddling Mage.  I'll post on how that works out.   Alas, would that Finkel could dodge the infernal Tog.     Crying or Very sad
6  Eternal Formats / Miscellaneous / [Deck] tweaking EBA on: May 03, 2004, 11:17:42 pm
I haven't had a lot of time to test yet, with school and all, but over the summer I plan on getting to some local Type I events.  A buddy and I are going to try to make the drive to the New England area to play a time or two, but from Georgia it's going to take a while.  Sad

Anyway, on to the deck.  Based on experience from a few months ago, I'm expecting a partially powered metagame (Tog, Slaver, etc), with some random aggro stuff (Yes, maybe even .. *gasp* .. sui black!).  The build I'm working with is a more control type, since I don't think anything I do can make me go pure speed and outrun the likes of TNT or Mas.  Here goes..

Counter:
4x Force of Will
4x Mana Drain

Draw/Search:
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Fact or Fiction
1x Skeletal Scrying
4x Brainstorm

Broken stuff:
1x Mind Twist
1x Yawgmoth's Will
1x Time Walk

Disruption/Removal:
1x Damping Matrix
3x Swords to Plowshares
1x Dismantling Blow/Seal of Cleansing
4x Meddling Mage

The Win:
3x Exalted Angel
1x Decree of Justice

Mana:
1x Black Lotus
1x Sol Ring
5x Moxen

4x Tundra
4x Underground Sea
4x Flooded Strand
2x Polluted Delta
2x Plains
4x Island

Possible SB:
1x Damping Matrix
3x Energy Flux
1x Decree of Justice
1x Exalted Angel
1x Swords to Plowshares
2x Stifle
2x Maze of Ith
4 open

Card Choices (I'm only going into the possibly questionable stuff, since things like Mana Drain need no explanation)

Damping Matrix - I fear Slaver ang Tog, probably because I have little experience with Slaver, and Tog is just Tog and you have to prepare for that.

Meddling Mage - Quick threat, albeit not terribly threatening, and stopping AK or Welder or something early on can be good.

Dismantling Blow vs. Seal of Cleansing - Seal is some good, there's no debating.  One mana less is good, but the kicker on Dismantling Blow is nice.  
 Smile

What about Library?  I don't have one, and I'm not sure it would really help much.  I could probably get one, but I'd rather not it it won't help anything.

I was also thinking about Vindicate, but I don't own any, so I haven't tested them yet.

SB possibilities:

Damping Matrix - see above

Maze of Ith - Helps stop Tog/Mask/FEB

Energy Flux - If I can get it quick, this thing has smashed up Stax and MUD and isn't too bad against TNT

StP - Dragon or aggro stuff

Stifle - Dragon or Slaver in case I can't get Matrix

extra Angel/Decree are really just because I'm still fiddling with numbers of each MD

I've been thinking of anything else for SB.  Tormod's Crypt?  Moat?  Smother/Edict?  Duress?  Negators?

So far in testing, I've been able to handle most aggro stuff fairly well.  I haven't had any really horrible matches, although Madness is a rough one sometimes.  

Thanks very much for any input!  I'll come back with anything else I find out, changes I make, testing/tournament results, etc.
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