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kakeboy07
Guest
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« on: December 12, 2003, 06:59:36 pm » |
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In the wake of Spoils, Fever, Vengeur, Tainted, and Other forms of Mask Nought decks i give you::
-Long Mask-
Longestcock.dec
(aka Long-Nought.dec)
For help with this deck I would like to thank those who have playtested against me in the past couple of weeks, as well as those who have given me any bit of input that could help.
Props go out to everyone who established the long engine, as well as those who have stuck with mask decks despite type 1 not supporting creatures.
**= Denotes cards that are relatively new to my deck, they might change and they might make the cut.
61 Cards Maindeck, 15 Side-Board
Really Janky Mana Base that Changes like my underwear
This is by far the worst part of the deck, and honestly its better than it has been in the past right now.. i REALLY REALLY would like some help here you Paragons and n00bs
4 Polluted Delta
2 Badlands
2 Bayou
1 Island
1 Swamp
3 Underground Sea
1 Black Lotus
5 Moxen
1 Mox Diamond ** (was lotus petal, could be crome mox, IM stuck)**
1 Mana Vault
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Dark Ritual
<31>
Disruption:
4 Duress
1 Tendrils of Agony ( Its a solo win condition ) ** see explaination **
<5 :Technically 4 but I like having Tendrils in here>
Draw me cards:
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Timetwister
1 Memory Jar
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
1 Windfall
1 Necropotence
<7>
Find me cards:
1 Tinker
1 Demonic Tutor
3 Spoils of the Vault
1 Demonic Consultation
<6>
Nought:
4 Illusionary Mask
4 Phyrexian Dreadnought
3 Phyrexian Negator** (2 used to be wall of roots)
1 Time Walk
<12>
The Sideboard:
2 Coffin Purge
1 Planar Void
1 Gaea's Blessing**
2 Annul**
1 Phyrexian Negator
2 Wall of Roots
2 Rack and Ruin
2 Crumble
2 Pernicious deed
<15>
Cards that have been included/tested in the past, but did not work out
Anger
Cabal Therapy
Berserk *(in sb)
Cunning wish (and a wishable s/b)
Tempting Wurm
Mesmeric Fiend
Lion's Eye diamond
Chromatic Sphere
Wasteland
Yawgmoth's will
Tolarian Academy
Main Deck Discussions::
At first glance, you might look at this deck and say... Damn! this deck looks almost as powerful as long. Well youre right in all respects except for one. The kill condition is a two turn attack combo that absolutely cannot go off on turn 1 without a God hand and finding Tendrils. Surprisingly enough though, this deck does go off turn one almost 15% in games tested.
The second turn is really what this deck is all about. Its goal is to have 2 noughts in play on the first turn, and on the second turn swing for the game. This is actually not difficult considering the mana base and cards involved in the deck.
Lets review.
Draw in this deck is key. And not so much draw, but cycling through the deck, getting the combo into place and a stack of cards into your graveyard. Opening hands consisting of some form of disruption (duress), some form of draw (draw 7 or draw 7 fetch (tinker), and some form of acceleration are entirely likly. Still if a first turn force of will stops the first draw 7 from this deck, that can sometimes mean the game.
Yawgmoth's bargain comes into play often, however when i use it to set up my deck, I almost NEVER win with a nought Its just too easy to stack 10 spells turn 1 and say ... well thats the game. Tendrils is just a better early game victory, which is why it made the cut as the 61st card.
Why this deck can compete at a high (tournament) level.
This deck can, and will, stand a good chance at winning or placing high at tournaments for a couple of reasons.
1. Playing draw 7s can totally knock your opponents game plan off, and leave them with an unplayable hand of crap.
This is of course true of your deck as well, but using this over-powered and well fueled machine, youre normally left with at least something to do post draw 7 that can put your opponent up against the wall that much further early.
2. This deck can race with dragon. Dragon has fow, bazaar, and benefits from draw 7s, but what dragon doesnt have is... ummm... hmmm... well basically the pure speed that this deck has. Sure dragon is solid, and yes this deck has problems with it (see the sideboard). However it is not unlike this deck to race with dragon 50/50 in opening games, and in game 2, its more like a 60/40 adv in games (sure they have sliver queen, but that forces their deck to turn into an attack combo, and coffin purges tend to linger in my graveyard (because of draw 7s) until something worth stopping appears (ie queen).
3. This deck has s/b slots that can be finely tuned to any meta. going to see alot of blood moon come jan first? well this deck has the ability to run 4 blue blasts. worried about pesky artifacts? Wall of roots, annul, rack and ruin, crumble, and meltdown to the rescue. Know the best part about those cards i just listed ... 2cc, 1cc, 3cc, 1cc, X+1 cc, meaning that avoiding chalice isnt necessarily a big deal.
Problems
Null rod and fish tend to be a problem As does long.dec, however this deck is Jan 1st ready,while long must merge into TpS or Dutch Tendrils. (I actually have a Pre-Jan 1 version of this deck using 4 Lion's eye diamonds, and it was great in the fact that it could abuse anger/berserk for turn 1 swings of 24 or even 36.
Some things that I think this deck could use
1. Some more focus I asked Steven Menendian what he thought of this deck, and that was his echo, which i agree with to an extent. I think that due to the fact that there are better win conditions than mask/nought, it would be johnny of me to play with anything other than Tendrils of Agony for the win.
My reply to this is that while i had long together, there was sparked a new craze for a 1 mana counter, that while not easy to cast amongst a cloud of disruption, can still cause problems for the Tps/long player.
That card :: STIFLE
Stifle is the reason that i play this deck, because I've run into recent problems with players dropping an island, and then playing both a fow and stifle during my first turn, basically numbing the explosive start that my version of jan 1 long has had.
I have also felt discouraged that people have felt that Nought cannot keep up with the metagame. Especially with a fundamental turn II on the clock. This simply motivated me to basically turn out an OVER-powered decklist that could do more turn 1/2 than any nought deck ever before.
2. Why then use a sub-par kill thats easily hated out?
I think that while any kill that utilizes creatures is inherantly weak, masknought has an advantage. It is not at all unlikly that a first turn duress and laying of an illusionary mask and dreadnought will seal the game. You have the ability to strip the opponent of any card in their had that could have either fetched an answer or been an answer to nought right off the bat, and on top of that, you have just changed their frame of mind from playing their game, to stopping you from playing your own timmy game.
I like to think of that as a form of disruption, and alot of playing this deck revolves around measuring your opponent.
To be quite honest, this deck packs some cards that actually would promote you having a poker players skill at reading people before playing them.
For example, you have a wheel of fortune in had and the mana on the board to cast it turn 2, you just swang with nought and your opponent took 12, their land is a tundra, which they tapped turn 1 for ancestral, and they have a full hand of cards. Knowing if wheel will discard their stp from their hand, or if it will cause them to draw into a desperately needed stp is a learned (poker player's) skill.
3. Can you find a way to add more disruption or at least some form of counter?
I think that this deck would benefit from mana drain amazingly well. Additionally Force of Will always seems to be a good choice if the right # of blue cards are in the deck. Misdirection could be another great choice for this deck, as it allows for some nought protection (or even negator protection). However i think this deck wants to be in charge and controling the first 2 turns more than anything.
This deck wants to leap out of the gate, and show the opponent that the opening hand that they drew isnt going to help them, and as the first draw 7 resolves, they should be shocked to see first an Ancestral Recall, followed by an Illusionary Mask, and then, (with all your lands/moxen, already tapped out) to be followed by finally removing Elvish Spirit Guide from the game, and placing a card (or maybe even 2) face down with the mask.
A first turn like that, where you are able to cycle through cards, play threats, and maybe even drop a tendrils that is close to 20, causes your opponent to worry mentally about the game. It can make your opponent worried to accomplish something quickly, or else risk being run over without being able to do anything about it, and this can cause mistakes and misplays against some opponents.
I have had 4-5 people target my face-down nought, after being Agonizingly Tendrilsed for 8-14 damage turn 1, with an artifact removal spell, just because they were so delighted that they had the answer. Even Ju-Ju (who played in a tmd mini this week did it (I allowed him to retarget, but pointed out that the nought was indeed a vanilla and couldnt be destroyed, or targeted with rack and ruin while face down)).
Well thats the first part that i have to mention about this deck. I have some match notes and what not, but I will save them until i can complete another weekend's worth of playtesting
If anyones around this weekend and wants to play some MWS or Appr just IM me (kakeboy07) or drop me a line on IRC.
I should be around most the night tonight (doing biology homework for my final most of the night), and tomorrow I will check in periodically while studying for Biochemistry and Bio-Computing.
Please leave your thoughts and comments, as I'd love to hear them
Edit: Clarity/Gmar (pm me if you find typos/mistakes plz)
anyone have thoughts on "good buddy" lord of tresserhorn? he could actually be hardcasted if need be, and hes a beast at 10/4 for 4 mana under mask
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