Bad Block Constructed (BBC)

[Alfred]

In magic, there are three sets that stand apart from the rest as being truely terrible sets. These of course are homelands, fallen empires and the dark in no particular order. I started collecting magic cards at around the time of the dark, so I own quite a few cards from these "bad" sets and I was thinking that perhaps combining these sets into a block would be fun for deck builders!

The rules are:

1. You are allowed to use any card from homelands, fallen empires and the dark, with the exception of Timmerian Fiends.

2. You must have at least 6 cards from each set maindecked.

Here is a deck that I came up with:

3x Abbey Gargoyles
4x Death speakers
4x Aeolipile
3x Icatian Infantry
4x Icatian Javelineers
3x Icatian Town
4x Order of Lietbur
3x Preacher
3x Serrated Arrows
4x Mesa Falcon
3x Maze of Ith
22x Plains

SB:
4x Exorcist
4x Serra Bestiary
4x Aysen Bureaucrats
3x Apocalypse Chime

I think this is probably the optimal WW deck.

Can your deck beat mine? Post your decklist!

[Razvan]

I don't know, but there's a lot of Goblins from that set, including the Goblin Warrens and Grenade.

Tivadar's Crusade and Apocalypse Chime should be banned, otherwise... Well, maybe just the Chime.

[Ephraim]

This is just something I threw together. I have no idea whether it's optimal or not. When you said Fallen Empires, the first things I thought of were Order of the Ebon Hand and Hymn to Tourach, which set me down the path of mono-black. Unfortunately, black isn't particularly deep in these sets. Ghost Hounds is nice, but to finish out the compliment of low casting-cost creatures, I ended up using Bog Rats and Initiates of the Ebon Hand - clearly sub-optimal cards. Word of Binding, Broken Visage, Ashes to Ashes, and Maze of Ith give the deck a sort of control-ish feel. Fellwar Stone serves as valuable acceleration, since the deck has a large gap between stuff that has a converted mana cost of 2 and stuff that has a converted mana cost of 5 (although enough spells have a converted mana cost of 2 that it shouldn't stall often.) I've also always wanted to try Conch Horn, since it seems to have a useful effect, despite being tied to an activated artifact.

Creatures (18)
4 Initiates of the Ebon Hand
4 Ghost Hounds
4 Bog Imp
4 Order of the Ebon Hand
2 Eater of the Dead

Artifacts (7)
3 Conch Horn
4 Fellwar Stone

Spells (12)
4 Hymn to Tourach
3 Word of Binding
2 Ashes to Ashes
3 Broken Visage

Land (23)
3 Maze of Ith
20 Swamp

[Alfred]

That is a pretty cool deck! Personally, I would ditch the initiates for Basal Thrulls. The thrulls, are a 1/2 for BB and can act as acceleration in the late game. In this format, the mana curves are probably going to be pretty terrible, so having a bunch of spells at 2cc isn't going to be THAT bad.

I would up the Ashes to ashes count to 3, so that you can reliably draw them, take out some words of binding for them. Ashes has a game swinging effect that easily makes up for the 5 life cost. Conch horn may be alright in this deck, but you might want to try out derelor. Turn 2 Basal thrull to turn 3 eater/derelor is TECH.

[Alfred]

THE ROCK:

4x Elves of Deep Shadow
3x Dark Heart of the Wood
4x Ashes to Ashes
4x Hymn to tourach
3x Autumn Willow
3x Broken Visage
3x Spore Cloud
4x Derelor
4x Maze of Ith
4x Lurker
12x Forest
12x Swamp

[Fëanor]

Oh, wow what a fun idea. But I wonder, what exactly makes The Dark such a bad set??? I can think of worse. If you're going for vintage style flair then I can understand it, but IMO the worst sets don't involve TD at all. Fallen Empires is also a pretty stable set. Homelands I think we can all agree has about....oh....1 card(s) that's any good(Autumn!!!). :lol:

I think the three worst sets are Homelands, Stronghold, Torment. Please understand my intention is not to change the initial idea. I just think some wickedly powerful decks are to be made from your sets. In any case, I'll be tink'ring with my dust covered TD box and posting my own deck hopefully soon.

Peace

[RoadTrippin]

Why not include Legions? It only adds to the bad cards.

[Sytupal]

Naw Legions atleast has fat for type 2.     I agree that the Dark is a very unstable and bad set.   4 cards can be named.   Ball Lightning, Maze of Ith Tormod's Crypt, and Blood Moon.   The rest is crap.  ever seen a spoiler list? come on now.


Hrm.  I'd go with a red list looking something like this:

21 Mountains

4 Serrated Arrows (Homelands)
4 Aeolipile (Fallen Empires)

2 Inferno (The Dark)
3 Fissure(The Dark)
4 Ball Lightning (The Dark)
4 Goblin Chirurgeon (Fallen Empires)
4 Goblin Digging Team (The Dark)
4 Goblin Hero (The Dark)
4 Goblins of the Flarg (The Dark)
4 Goblin Grenade (Fallen Empires)
2 Eron the Relentless (Homelands)


Sideboard:

4 Blood Moon (The Dark)
3 Maze of Ith (The Dark)
3 Dwarven Catapult (Fallen Empires)
2 Reflecting Mirror (The Dark)
3 Barl's Cage (The Dark)


It's Relatively Speedy and get's angry when anyone says "Tividar's Crusade"

[Alfred]

I would use an-zerrin ruins. That could give you a good chance against a lot of decks. I would take out Goblin chirurgeon for come goblin warrens. Warrens would make sense for a fast deck such as yours. It's a good combat trick as well, saccing them with damage on the stack to make more critters.

My proposal:
-4 goblin churirgeon
+2 an-zerrin Ruins
+2 Goblin Warrens

Blood moon is also useless in the SB. Maybe more catapults, and mazes plus the other two an-zerrins.

EDIT: I apologize, blood moons would probably be pretty good at neutralizing mazes of Ith. Mazes will probably be the most common card in BBC.

[Suckamouf37]

I like playing it in Type 1, why not BBC?

Gay Fish
Mana
16 Island
4 Fellwar Stone

Creatures
4 Narwhal
4 River Merfolk
4 Sea Sprite
3 Vodalian Knights
3 Giant Albatross
2 Reveka, Wizard Savant
2 Vodalian War Machine

Control/Utility
4 Memory Lapse
4 Aeolipile
4 Chonch Horn
3 Maze of Ith
3 Sunken City

Sb:
3 Seasinger
3 Tangle Kelp
3 Riptide
3 Mana Vortex
3 Homarid Shaman


My sideboard is liable to change, I didn't put much thought into it.  I'd like to find a way to get Vodalian Mage and maybe a Homarid Spawning Bed into the main, as well as the 4th Maze, but I'm not sure what to cut.  *Sigh*

[Alfred]

Is 16 land enough?

[Sytupal]

That's why the list includes Fellwar stones  

[Fëanor]

Mana required to play the stone....

16:60 (2:7.5) is approx two lands in the opening hand including the draw, so the fellwar can be played quickly. It seems okay, but the lack of land does actually seem to slow the deck a bit as all that's being played is more mana source on turn two.

Peace

[rvs]

Homelands has more than just Autumn.

It has Merchant Scroll, Serrated Arrows and that dude that brings 3 0/1's with him. Sure, it's still a horrible set, but hey, those are some fine cards. The 3 I just mentioned surely saw a lot more constructed play than Autumn ever did.

[Suckamouf37]

@ MoreFling- I originally tried to put Merchant Scroll in the deck, but there were no blue instants worth fetching.

@ Alfred- Yeah, I think you're right.  For some reason or another, I thoguht that Narwhal only cost UU1 instead of UU2.  I'll post an updated list as soon as I test it against the other decks.

On another note, I think we should consider banning Maze of Ith.  I think that its too dominant and will probably cause stalemates.  I'm not saying it needs to be banned, just that we should just put it on the watch list.

[Sytupal]

play bloodmoon and there'll be no issue     plus my 4 shock on an artifact stick and my 4 grenades say "no stalemates, not in this game"

[Alfred]

@Suckamouf

I really like the fish list, but I have a few suggestions. First of all, I would cut vodalian knight. Islandhome sucks BIG time, especially with blue probably being the worst color in the set. I would definately put in homarid spawning bed in it's place. Spawning bed is the blue equivalent of goblin warrens, except you only need to sacrifice one creature, which makes it a great combat trick and card advantage engine. Giant oyster also sounds tempting, it has a big back end and it's blue removal that excels at removing weenies (w00t).

@Sytupal

Goblins looks to be a very potent deck in the BBC environment. I think that this might make me have to sideboard Tividar's Crusade as a 4 of. Also, a red splash in most aggressive decks could allow for bloodmoons in the sideboard, which is something that I may do, with mountains going in for the mazes.

Closing out this post is something that would be a lot of fun. I propose that a tournament be set up to pit all the BBC decks up against one another. I encourage all interested parties to post their decklists and if there is enough support for this sort of thing, I will organize it.

[Suckamouf37]

After a little bit more testing, I think this is what I'll run:

18 Island
4 Fellwar Stone

Creatures
4 Narwhal
4 River Merfolk
4 Sea Sprite
4 Vodalian Mage
3 Giant Albatross
2 Reveka, Wizard Savant
2 Homarid Spawning Bed

Control/Utility
4 Memory Lapse
4 Aeolipile
4 Chonch Horn
3 Maze of Ith
 

Sb:
4 Homarid Shaman
4 Seasinger
3 Ghost Ship
3 Vodalian War Machine
1 Amnesia

Originally I was thinking I'd go with the V.Knights because they would never be dead with the War Machine.  Then I realized that War Machine kinda sucks.  It'll stay in the board as a 3-of for fast ground-based aggro(Red).  I think the rest of the board is pretty self explanitory, Ghost ship is the only thing that survives Abbey Gargoyles, plus its damn near impossible to kill.  Never in my 8+ years playing Magic did I ever think I'd have to board for Abbey Gargoyles, but here we are.  Seasinger is for the mirror and the one Amnesia is there for three reasons: to punish any slow deck, I needed one more card for the board, and it seems like a card that would be really fun when it resolves, like Decree of Savagery.

And Memory Lapse is t3h roxxxorzz. One.

As for a tourney, I'd love to play this thing.  Not sure when anyone else would be able to, just PM me when you want to get it started.  I'm pretty busy with work and school right now, but I will fit this one in somehow.

[Alfred]

Don't you think that ghost ship may be better than narwhal? It costs the same, and it has better abilities, not to mention it has more toughness. Other than that, a good deck all around!

[jCoKn]

Fallen Empires is also a pretty stable set. Homelands I think we can all agree has about....oh....1 card(s) that's any good(Autumn!!!). :lol:

I think the three worst sets are Homelands, Stronghold, Torment.

Peace

Feanor, man, no offense but what are you smoking?

a) Homelands has some pretty beast cards you may never have heard of (or maybe just overlooked):
       -Merchant Scroll
       -Baron Sengir
       -AEther Storm (well, maybe not but...)
       -Autumn Willow (as you said)
The set still sucks though.

b) Torment = bad???????? Maybe if you hate black with a passion, but as a person who once played Sui, Torment is the king of black sets.
       -Nantuko Shade (how could you forget that?)
       -Chainer's Edict
       -Ambassador Laquatus
       -Compulsion
       -Deep Analysis
       -Mutilate
       -Grim Lavamancer
       -Arrogant Wurm
       -Basking Rootwalla
       -Cabal Coffers

As you can see, Torment is one of (in my opinion) the better decks and holds key  cards to some mainstream decks.

Compulsion/Ambassador = Dragon
Mutilate/Shade/Chainer's/Coffers = Sui
Lavamancer = Sligh
Arrogant/Rootwalla/Deep Anal = Madness (and Deep Anal in some Tog)

Stronghold, admittedly, is bad.

In my opinion, the worst sets of all time are Homelands, Stronghold, and Mirage (exc. Lion's Eye)

[Alfred]

Personally, I'm sure that I picked the worst sets of all time. Fallen empires is probably the best of the three, but only because it has 3 times as many cards as the others. Read the spoilers. Even though some cards may be bad in those sets, the overall card quality is vastly superior to the dark, homelands and fallen empires. Want proof? Look at Legend's "Battle of the Sets" article lower down on the casual list. Mirage has some pretty wicked creatures, in the flanking department, as well as 2 X damage spells that can target opponents.

[Alfred]

Stompy:

4x Thallid
4x Thallid Devourer
4x Lurker
3x Feral Thallid
4x People of the Woods
4x Scavenger Folk
4x Spitting Slug
2x Autumn Willow
3x Joven's Ferrets
4x Leaping lizard
3x Serrated Arrows
21x Forest

Little to no disruption in this deck. The point is to get as many under-costed creatures into play as possible, and hope to overwhelm your opponent. Green as always probably has the best creatures in this block as well.

[Matt]

Stronghold, bad? What the fuck? Not only did it feature more restricted-caliber cards than the entire Invasion block combined, Stronghold was home to:

Acidic Sliver
Awakening
Crystalline Sliver
Dream Halls
Ensnaring Bridge
Hermit Druid
Hibernation Sliver
Horn of Greed
Mana Leak
Mogg Flunkies
Mox Diamond
Sacred Ground
Shard Phoenix
Shock
Sliver Queen
Spike Feeder
Volrath's Shapeshifter
Volrath's Stronghold
Wall of Blossoms

have all played a big part in dozens of top decks in a number of formats. This is not even to touch on the numerous great-but-overshadowed cards like Flowstone Hellion (FEB), Grave Pact, Megrim (casual player's delight and part of the short-lived T2 Jar decks), Pursuit of Knowledge, Stronghold Taskmaster (anti-Aluren SB card), and Tidal Warrior (old Fish decks).

Anyone who thinks Stronghold is bad is as laughable as the guy who said Torment was bad. Possibly more so.

Honestly, every expansion set since Alliances has been stronger than every set before it, with the possible exceptions of Prophecy and Ice Age.

[Togran]

This deck sorta almost has a mana curve, can be aggressive and can also live a little in the long game.

Goblins 14
4 Scarwood Goblins
4 Goblin Digging Team
4 Goblin Hero
2 Goblin Warrens

Big Creatures 7
4 Eron the Relentless
3 Orgg

Removal 9
4 Fissure
2 Inferno
3 Serrated Arrows
 
Accessories 7
4 Fellwar Stone
3 Conch Horn

16 Mountains
7 Forests

The numbers of lands/fellwar stones and conch horns probably needs some messing with, as I've never actually played this deck.  

The benefits of this deck is that it has some actual synergy.  Both Orgg and Eron are gigantic and actually very cost effective in any format.  Cards like the Serrated Arrows and Fissure can clear them a path so they can smash.  The Goblins and the warrens double as early game fodder and late game army.   With only 12 goblins in the deck I'd suggest trying to keep the ones you have on the table to sacrifice to the warrens.  Inferno can deal those last 6 points of damage or wipe the board clean.  Fellwar stone and Conch horn can smooth the deck through to it's bigger spells.  [/i]

[Suckamouf37]

derf derf derf
Gay fish maindeck:
-4 Narwhal
+4 Ghost Ship

Board:
-3 Ghost Ship
+3 Narwhal/Giant Oyster

[Upinthe]

Creatures:

4 Thallid
4 Thallid Devourer
4 People of the Woods
3 Spore Flower
3 Autumn Willow
3 Feral Thallid
3 Thelonite Monk

Spells:

4 Spore Cloud
3 Fungal Bloom
2 An-Havva Inn
2 Hidden Path

Artifact:

2 Serrated Arrows

Land:

22 Forest
3 Maze of Ith

I couldn't resist posting this. The idea is to eventually drop a Hidden Path and forestwalk your way to victory. Thelonite Monk will take care of non green players and Maze of Iths. The dreaded Scarwood Hag might prove to be troublesome, though.