Latest posts of: agesga

Thanks to meadbert for the corrections/proposals.

Of course brainstorm was on the first written list but somehow i forget it when posting. Obviously is a must.

I won't be able to discuss the list until next weekend, so don't worry if my response is delayed.

Thinking about arcane denial and its usability, I started thinking about including it in Oath.
This list has not been tested (it's just an idea, so feedback is more than welcome).

Let's call it arcane oath:

The junk (10)
1 Mox jet
1 Mox Shapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
3 Chrome Mox

The business (8)

4 Oath of Druids
3 Tidespout Tyrants
1 Brain Freeze

The Engine (14)

1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Imperial Seal
1 Ancestral recall
4 Thirst for knowledge
1 Yawgmoth will
1 Necropotence
4 ManaMorphose

Countermeasures (13)

4 Mana Drain
4 FOW
4 Arcane Denial
1 Balance

Lands (15)
4 Forbiden Orchad
4 Tropical Island
4 Fetch
1 Island
2 Underground Sea

Sideboard (depending on the meta)

Some comments:

Manamorphose: it's a cantrip that allows a first turn mana drain. I thought that necropotence could be another great addition with manamorphose.

Arcane Denial: the number of 0cc artifacts has been reduced, but in emergency situations (and plenty of mana) you can feed it with a second oath, or manamorphose

Chrome mox: help oath out fastly; natural food for thirst for knowledge/arcane denial

Balance: I love this card.

Other options that I keep in mind to experiment:
1 Enlightened tutor
1 krosan reclamation
1 time walk
1..3 hellkite overlord

Expecting your improvements.

Do you think that chrome mox could fit some 0cc slots in this deck now that has been unrestricted?

One question about using arcane denial. Please tell me if I'm wrong
My turn:
I cast a 0cc artifact, then as I have the priority i must cast arcane denial to counter the artifact and pass the priority. Now the other player would think about countering denial.

First of all, congratulations for this deck.

One question related with the may draw

Just imagine that your opponent casts in his turn a spell (let's invent it): you may draw up to 3 cards and then discard 3 cards.
While casting it, must he anounce if he is going to draw? or can he wait until the spell resolves on the stack?

I don't know if the same applies at the beginning of someone's upkeep if arcane denial was casted on the previous turn.

Thanks.

I have always enjoyed the idea of including aether vial in stax.
Well, obviously the kind of stax that ran creatures like welders/ bobs / grim lavamancers / arcbounds / etc
A few ideas:
*With vial out you can cast those creatures despite being shocked by chalice of the void. So 'don't worry' when casting your own chalices.
*A typical first turn could include workshop --> vial + sphere of resistance/thorn/chalice@1
*With vial out, you can keep abusing Crucible + wasteland/strip mine while bringing out creatures.
The problem as always is what shoud removed from Stax to let vial get in. Anyway I would cut -1 smokestack, -1 tanglewire and -1 other to introduce at least 3 vials.

I don't know if Vial has been discussed/tested previously with stax.

Imagine you were playing a deck with 4 duress and 4 thoughtseize.
You decide to keep and opening hand with 1 duress and 1 thoughtseize, which one should be played first?
(Providing that you can't cast both in the same turn and you don't know what deck is running your opponent).

Has anyone tested this deck agains't Vroman's 5C Bhagdad Bob?
Seems quite an intetesting matchup.

What does Tang means? (from the title)

Quote from: kobefan on October 11, 2007, 02:06:56 pm

I've decided Mishra's Factory is really problematic for the Wizards. I'm not sure how to address it totally either. Basically, factory wins in combat vs. all of my guys.

Consider sideboarding back to basics for many reasons:
- you are using basic lands
- additionally you have gush
- even more: you have another way to play creatures rather than paying the mana cost (by vial)

It could be a way to stop mishra's factory and slowing down other decks.

Another interesting wizard to consider could be:
Rayne, Academy chancellor
it is only useful agains't certain matchups, so it might deserve a place on the sideboard.
(Decks abusing on recoursive strip mine / wasteland,
swords to plowshares
or boomerang-like effects).

As i have thought. I remebered the rule of cost modificacion from magic saturday school. The problem is when playing with MWS. There are some players who are very sure about their knowledge of Magic Rules. They never have even a little doubt.
Anyway thanks.

Quote from: Purple Hat on September 10, 2007, 09:07:51 am

flash was never restricted. it recieved power level eratta a while ago that was removed resulting in a "new" use.

Ok, as i was out of magic during many years I always thougth that flash wash restricted due to its power.

How does behave the force of will under an environment with
a) Trinisphere
b) Sphere of resistance
if the optional cost of fow (-1 life and RFG 1 blue card) is decided to be payed.
I think that under Trinisphere an additional 3 mana must be payed, but not sure about the sphere.
Thanks

One of the best policies about the B/R is reviewing the list to check which cards (that once were restricted) may be useful or playable again. I think that most of the unrestrictions succeed in the way that:
a) They are used again, but the current metagame makes them less broken than before they were restricted.
b) There is no place for them in current decks: probably because the strategy they were used to is no longer competitive. Perhaps they will make their way into future decks due to future release of card X.
The 'problem' is that if card X makes the unrestricted one broken again. As it seems to have happened with Flash (but in this case even more broken).
What should be done in this situations?
- Restrict it again? And restrict card X (if necessary)?
- Test periods as silvernail proposed?
Of course this is not a common situation, but it can happen again.

According to Implacable, who says that he hasn't seen a competent player going on the draw willingly, meditate about this:
Imagine you win the roll die so you decide to play (as usual); then your opponent says: How many cards should I let you draw in addition
to change your mind?

Personally I don't think that this kind of matter (playing vs drawing) could be modeled mathematically to extract conclusions. Other subject like playing vs drawing with 2 specific decks indeed can.

For the moment i only will let the opponent play first in test games.

Quote from: Glix on November 18, 2006, 12:10:58 pm

Dark Confidant, usually, is going to be far superior to Apprentice in that slot. It draws, but its faster, can't be needled, and its a better beater.

Fire Imp would be a good adition.

Colossus seems weak as a "silver bullet". It's only ever good in your deck, not in your hand.

Dups is a good creature to bring in, esspecially if you have shops and/or welders.

If you have maindeck silver bullets, Imperial Recruiter is a nice card to have, essentially pulling up any maindeck bullets you may have, and most of the ones on the list so far.

Trike is good w/ shops/welder.

Kinda hard to do this without some constraints.

Which cards are dups and trike?

Quote from: Demonic Attorney on November 18, 2006, 09:29:44 am

More details as to exactly what you're trying to do would help people to give you better responses.

Actually i'm working with oath. But i didn't wanted to mention it because the suggestions could be like:
Tydespout tyrant
akroma
or the artifact that can convert to/steal artifacts.
It's far better for me to "rediscover" cards like magus of the unseen, or other ones. Of course with living wish it will turn into
a slower strategy, and perhaps research/development could fit better in Oath.
Anyway thanks for your proposal. (Of course i wanted a reactionary strategy).

I'm not thinking about any particular deck in vintage, but I wanted to know your opinion
about which creatures could be included on the sideborad that are specially interesting due
to its abilities. "No problem" with casting cost or colors. The objective is to bring them to play
with living wish or similar spells. No specific meta.
One may propose the traditionals:
gorilla shaman
darksteel colosus
meddling mage
eternal witness
withered wretch
...
I would like to known your suggestions (not only "traditional" creatures).
Let's say that if you had to choose up to 7 creatures, which ones would you choose?

Quote from: Tbhiggins on October 28, 2006, 11:10:34 pm

Would Sterling Grove and Root Maze (and maybe even Enchantress's Presence, although that might be a bit of a stretch) be efective

May be a good idea. I'll try.

Quote

In the previous post i mean a straight conversion into type 1.5

Quote from: netherspirit on October 25, 2006, 03:43:28 pm

@agesga: Do you have a current decklist? Btw, some Resets might be quite nice if you can find the room for them.

This is the current decklist

creatures 20

tradewind rider 3
birds of paradise 4
quirion ranger 4
eternal witness 2
ohran viper 4
pygmy hippo 3

mana 19 (birds not included)

polluted delta 4
tropical 4
breeding pool 4
flooded strand 2
forsaken city 1
forest 1
mox sapphire
mox emerald
black lotus

combo and protection 21

impulse 4
stasis 4
ancestral recall 1
daze 3
force of will 4
misdirection 2
cunning wish 1
chain of vapor 1
time walk 1

sideboard

root maze 3
tormod's crypt 2
swords to plowshares 1
stiffle 1
blue elemental blast 1
counterspell 1
mana leak 1
research/develop 1 -> in case of game "blocked" it will help running out of cards latter than the opponent
misdirection 1
chain of vapor 1
energy flux 2

That is the point where the deck has evolved to (now i'm trying switching pigmy <-> vinelasher kudzu)
I'm not sure about the usefulness of dark vise in t1.
I think (in my opinion) that chain of vapor is slightly better than reset for that deck, you can use it for
return stasis to your hand or maybe returning a creature (or permanent) from the opponent to hand.
Answering to rmn's: quirion ranger is not the classical option to keep the lock, but i have always thougth that the "typical"
deck that was to much difficult to play.
Providing that this deck doesn't deppend to much on P9 neither on restricted cards it may have a "straight" conversion to T1.
But anyway this was not the objective when building this deck.

Quote from: Zombie Shakespeare on October 23, 2006, 09:21:15 pm

Someone in our area has been working on a UG Statis deck with Vinelasher Kudzu as its primary win condition. It uses the Time Spiral card Scryb Ranger in addition to Quiron Rangers to help maintain the Stasis lock and keep the Vinelasher Kudzu swinging.

Interesting combination.
How does Vinelasher behaves when playing fetch land and then searching for a land?
+2 +2?

Quote from: netherspirit on October 21, 2006, 04:32:15 pm

Quote from: EnialisLiadon on October 21, 2006, 03:55:48 pm

Ebony Owl Netsuke is also a nice kill if you choose the vise-route.

Ebony Owl is cool and all but 1 Black Vise and 3 Iron Maiden should be enough.

Starting from rmn's idea i will try switching jynxed idol, black vise and iron maiden for the best results.
I've decided also to choose ohran vip rather than ophidian due to this additional hability.
This will require to add more UG "dual lands" (in this case the pseudo duals from Ravnica or dissension).
Another interesting addition i've considered is replacing two cards (perhaps 1 tradewind rider and other)
by two eternal witness. This will allow to recover cards from graveyard since tradewind is on play;
helping sacrifice creatures to jynxed idol, and allowing an addional combo:
time walk
eternal witness -> time walk
tradewind -> eternal witness
infinite turns;
I think it may be a good idea.
I will test other suggested options too.

Quote

The artifact you metioned maybe: Jinxed Idol (2)
During your upkeep Jinxed Idol deals 2 damage to you.
Sacrifice a creature: target opponent gains control of Jinxed Idos permanently.

Quote from: rmn on October 20, 2006, 05:05:49 pm

Feel free to mix and match, but I'll just put all my ideas into one decklist:

4 Birds of Paradise
4 Quirion Ranger
4 Tradewind Rider
4 Pygmy Hippo
4 Ophidian/Ohran Viper

4 Stasis
4 Force of Will
1 Ancestral
1 Time Walk
4 Impulse
3 Daze
2 Misdirection
2 *

1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus
4 Tropical Island
6 Blue Fetch
1 Forest
5 Island

This deck just tries to be a mass of synergy. As has already been noted, when someone realizes you play Stasis, they'll usually do whatever they can to make sure it doesn't stick around, so it's best if the other cards in the deck have uses beyond enabling Stasis.

Tradewind Rider: Good with birds and ranger. Creates infinite Stasis, just like the Ranger, while still being infinitely useful without Stasis. Downside: cost.

Pygmy Hippo: Janky. Still, attacking with him is a perfect setup for Stasis against players with land and he'll help you cast Tradewind while simultaneously protecting him from Mana Drain.

Ophidian/Viper: This deck needs some sort of draw engine, and these guys help out Tradewind. Ophidian is probably better due to the colorless cost.

*: I believe there's an artifact which does 2 damage to its controller during upkeep, and whose controller may sacrifice a creature to give it away. Sorry, I don't have the name.

Free counters: Are there any other kind?

18 Mana sources: With 12 mana-making creatures, this is probably enough. With a Ranger, your mana base is entirely safe from Wasteland. Tha'ts why I don't use Forsaken Outpost; it's just too vulnerable, which is deadly in a deck like this.

Like the idea. I'll test it.
Thanks also to:

netherspirit
AmbivalentDuck
Lochinvar81
EnialisLiandon

i take into account all your proposals.

Quote from: netherspirit on October 20, 2006, 10:34:07 am

Why no Fastbond beings you're running 4 Explorations?

Do you mean adding fastbond ? or substituting exploration?

It has been one of my favourite decks, the following list is my particular version
of the deck. I have always thought that the "classical" strategy for playing it
was a bit difficult. This version depends on quirion ranger.

Mana (still working) (-14 lands -7 alternative + help of quirion)

2 - Underground sea
1 - Taiga
1 - Bayou
1 - Savannah (will stay if i include balance on the deck)
3 - Polluted delta
1 - Wooded foothills
1 - Volcanic island
4 - Tropical island
1 - Black lotus
4 - Birds of paradise
1 - Mox Sapphire
1 - Lotus petal

Protection - 14

4 - Force of Will
4 - Mana drain
2 - Duress
2 - Fire/ice
1 - Misdirection
1 - Chain of vapor

Combo (12)

3 - Stasis
4 - Quirion ranger
4 - Exploration
1 - Tangle wire

Draw (11)

4 - Brainstorm
1 - Ancestral recall
1 - Demonic tutor
1 - Vampiric tutor
3 - Meditate
1 - Mystical tutor

Other(2)

1 - Yawgmoth's will
1 - Regrowth

Sideboard (working)

What i see:
For the moment the winning strategy (attacking with quirion) is too weak.
Possibility of substituting mana drain by mana leak (of course not due to economical reason)
Meditate maybe too dangerous.

Let me know what you think about it, and suggest me other cards that may fit on the deck.
Thanks.

Slack confirmed what I supposed: additional mana obtained from mana drain helps casting gifts (or any other card)
for "free".
Thanks to Slack and President Skroob.

Hi everyone, this is my first post here, on the mana drain forum.
An important type 1 (proxy 10) tournament is going to take place in Valencia (Spain).
The most important in the country ever; with 8 black lotus for the 8 firsts classifieds
and 8 mana drains for the next 8 classifieds. And other prices. So, a lot of people expected
(over 300 and a meta unpredictable).

Looking for info about recent t1 tournaments and winning decks, i have decided to
try a gifts deck.

My first decision is which card use as a proxy: I have no p9 nor mana drain or library

The question here is : Is mana drain so critical on this deck ? (let's say compared with counterspell)

I can purchase mana drain (is probable that i will get them sooner or more late).

After this, looking at the main diferences between decks we have many cards like:

dark ritual
fact or fiction
memory jar
repeal
burning wish
duress
library of Alexandria
skeletal scrying
... (any other that you may propose)

I need your opinion about this cards, and a particular one: research/development
(this would imply adding G to the deck). What about balance on the sideboard?

Just a curiousity: Which is the reason many players include one or various snow covered islands on the deck?

Thanks in advance.