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Kieranwolf
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« Reply #35 on: December 06, 2005, 12:31:18 am » |
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Ok, ok. Enough of that.
Here's some of my experience with green-related locks.
Basically, what could be considered a 'hard' mana lock against a blue-based control deck would be something like Root Maze, Choke, and Null Rod. Keep in mind that untapped islands on the control player's board could stil cost you the game, because they only have to cast Tinker for a big, big creature to win early on. So even though it would lock all of say, CS's, Gifts, or Psychatog's mana after that, you may still need to do it when their islands are tapped.
Now let's think about this for a moment. How often would you be able to resolve all three of these permanents against a control deck? Force of Will would get rid of at least one. They could float mana to bounce any of them (choke or null rod, probably), and still win with just one untap step. Also, having any one of these spells targeted with Mana Drain could lose you the game (especially choke), so perhaps if you drew Lotus first turn, you could resolve all three barring Force of will. Not a very good chance of it, is there?
What I've found is that it's impossible to shut down Gifts or Slaver from winning indefinitely. What if they draw Tolarian Academy when you have all three of the above in play? They could still go digging for Academy, too, if they have Library of Alexandria.
So, even though you have Choke, Root Maze, and Null Rod in play, you'd still need to strip their lands or they may still win. Why even bother with the full lock at all? No one who considers the most popular current decks would, if they wanted to win.
Going aggro is so much more satisfying, anyway.
At the very least, I would drop down the mana curve. Uba Stax still uses Workshops to drop Mask turn 1. Tomb hurts against aggro, and you'd still need to drop more than a mox to have Uba turn 1. I feel that adding Spheres totally pollutes the deck, even with Tombs in there. Also, as I may have hinted at, I detest Root Maze. You can't run fetches with it, and just who is the aggro deck here, anyway? Most of the time, with Mono green, you are. Root Maze can make you several turns late in winning, while many of your opponents have much more efficient win conditions that might just take a few mana on their side (for Flame Vault, or even Psychatog).
Fetches, too, help you win the game by reducing the number of lands you draw, and by shuffling your deck. When you shuffle you deck after removing a land, you're more likely to top-deck a business spell afterward.
What I'd like to see is whether or not this deck can outrace red Sligh. If it can do so consistently, then it's definitely playable. If not, it probably still needs work. As an aggro deck, even with control elements, you need to win within the first five turns. Mongrel will let you do that, especially with Sylvan Library and Rootwalla.
You need ESG, IMO. Having multiple threats turn 1 should be one of your biggest goals. This deck can't deal with a resolved Tinker for Colossus yet, but STP may be a step in the right direction. Also, I think that Chalice < Null rod in this list. Rod stops the terrible things that CS does to people on a regular basis. It stops Pentavites from chumping all of your non-trampling threats. It stops Triskelion from picking off your green men. It stops Mindslaver from taking your turn. Last, but not least, it destroys the mana advantage that fully-powered decks most certainly would have against you.
Furthermore, don't forget that even with Chalice out, Gifts can still kill you with Tendrils (even with a Chalice for four), or even Tinker -> Time Vault, Flame Fusillade.
A final note on Uba Mask: Um, all a blue deck has to do against you is cast Tinker, dude. They can still play it with Uba on the board. I tried using Chains of Mephistopheles as a four-of, and it never helped once my opponent realized that Colossus totally owned me.
It still looks like you're totally going the slow route, while blue control decks are getting faster and faster. No workshops=no Sphere, no Uba, no Chalice (unless you always set it to zero). Abundance? If I were running Drains, I'd counter that one just for the immense amount of mana it would provide. Otherwise, it does very little to win you the game, other than get you a card that you could have top-decked anyway. Speed is your friend. Stomping with big creatures is great and all, but you need early threats, and not the low-power mana-producing kind.
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