Building CS Today (scroll down)

[Hi-Val]

I realized the other day the sheer enormity of the "Decks" folder in Apprentice on my computer.

I use Apprentice for any goldfishing, because I hate waiting five seconds for the reg screen on MWS to disappear and Apprentice runs faster on my computer anyway.

Today, I'm going to take a look at some of the decks that I've got stashed away and why they might be there. I won't bother people with lists because almost all of them are outdated or public. The purpose is more to show what has been going through my head with them.

First, I see that I've got at least six Legacy Affinity decks made up, each with subtle tweaks. I do this a lot-- change things up on a deck a little bit, mix it around, then maybe come back to it later. That way, I have a history of what I've been up to.

I have an entirely separate folder for Slaver decks, with at least twenty lists in there. Blood Moon Slaver, Goth Slaver, TurboTitan, Crucible Slaver, etc. It's the chaff from three years of testing the deck and making tweaks to it. All of the lists are obsolete now but it's nice to go back and look at my thought processes when I put three Gorilla Shamans in the deck, for example.

There's an attempt to port Walamies' Dumbo Drop Extended deck into Legacy; I learned a lot more about the format when I did that, and how hard it is for actual control decks to function. I actually try porting a lot of decks around. I have a Momentary Blink deck I tried for Legacy, along with the red Ritual/Fecundity/Goblins deck that was cool for a day or two in Extended.

I've got the Shallow Grave/Jar Magus deck that Becker cranked out in Legacy, and then I have its analogue in Vintage. Neither were ultimately worth playing.

Importantly, I have extended Gifts Tron, Desire and Breakfast together. I think it's critically important to be playing other formats, if it's just goldfishing. It makes you a better player and it keeps ideas floating in your head. It's also good to dig up those old, obsolete decks on Apprentice and play them a bit more to get the mind cranking and bring back older strategies.

Ultimately, don't throw anything away.

[Hi-Val]

[Cute Title About Flash]

I am really looking forward to the Legacy GP this weekend. The biggest reason is because of Flash. I was fortunate enough to get my cards before everything spiked in price, which means that obviously, I'll be playing the deck at the GP. The reason I love Flash is because it opened up a lot of new deckbuilding and tuning work.

Look how the deck has evolved in two weeks! It started out as speed-combo with Disciples, and now the list has been refined by many people towards a more stable and disruptive list. Big things have happened in the metagame! I've heartily enjoyed tuning and poring over old cards and hidden tech for little advantages for the deck. Tuning and adjusting are where I find the most pleasure in Magic. Getting that edge over someone else because you remembered a card from Fallen Empires and they didn't is satisfying to me.

While Flash is degenerate and probably will die on 1 June, it'll be a fun ride until then. I enjoy playing broken decks for a little while. Sixty days of this should be a good time. With all the doomsaying about the format right now, please know that there are some people who are really enjoying it.

[The Atog Lord]

Hello Hi-Val,

I hope that this comment is not a distraction from your own writing; of course, feel free to remove it if it is. However, I wanted to comment briefly on the matter of organizing folders for MWS/APPR. I use MWS myself, but that's neither here nor there for the present matter.

I have my "decks" folder organized by format: Type One, Type Two, Future Sight Block, etc. Therein, I have a number of folders which each correspond to deck types. "Control Slaver," "Stax," "Ichorid," etc. Moreover, I have in each format folder a folder marked as "old." In this folder I store all those decks which existed in the past, prior to some format change. For example, I would have a "Pre_PLC" folder which holds all those decks I used prior to the release of Planar Chaos. I also have a similar system to archive decks from older formats such as Invasion Block Constructed.

This system enables me to remain quite organized, not get bogged down by overly numerous decks, while retaining the older lists for reference. As anyone who knows me can tell you, staying organized is key to how I operate.

[Anusien]

I group by format, but I also have subfolders:
Secret/
Testing/
Trinisphere/
Time Vault/

whatever.  I also have a Crap/ folder for the junk that I'm never going to look at again, but for reference as failed experiments.  In the base folder for each format I only keep decklists I consider playable, as in: "There's a T1 tourney in 2 minutes; grab the latest CS list."

[Hi-Val]

On a quick little update, Matt's thread about oldschool decks makes me remember my awesome Shandalar Keeper deck that used things like Detonate and JMD Tome. I'd like to throw it together IRL and play against people. The problem, as I see it, is that there's really no way to make it casual while keeping it fun. I'll make the deck to run all these sweet oldschool cards like Serendib Djinn and other people will play to win and just STP that guy outta town. Who knows...

[Hi-Val]

So Replenish is back.

It was suggested in the Opal Replenish thread in TML that Read The Runes could be a good card. The more I think about it, the more insane that card looks for Replenish. It's mainly because of the sacrifice effect. You get to blank the useless Seals and almost-dead Parallaxi for actual cards. How good! The reason I'd run Opal Replenish over Pandeburst or Enchantress follows:

-No dead combo pieces. Pandeburst is saddled with running stuff like Attunement and Careful Study to get rid of trash that it can't cast. A w/u Opalescence deck seems far superior because it can actually play its cards.
-No base-green deck like Enchantress. Enchantress seems really strong, but you don't adequately support FOW because of those clunky Enchantresses. Supporting FOW and Counterspell/Leak seems really potent; you can counter the Patrician's Scorn that'll blow you out otherwise.
-Worthwhile plan without Replenish. You can drop Opalescence and beat in with Parallax enchantments pretty well, I hear.

I'm going to do some research on historical Replenish decks and then post some preliminary lists for testing purposes.

[Hi-Val]

Building Control Slaver Today

I've noticed a lot of interest in CS these days, which is neat because it's a fun and challenging deck. If you're building CS, you've got a lot of must-includes, some possibles and some cards that I think should never appear in CS. Here's my shortlist of auto-runs, probables and nevers:

Always:

Tormod's Crypt: This card is a gigantic pain in the ass to sit across from, no matter what deck you're on. The ability to recur it is the duck's nuts, obv, but just being able to go get it is neat. Crypt is actually how you win CS mirrors, as well.

Gifts Ungiven: Every time this thing resolves, you will win. It's a finesse card, though. Knowing how to really force the cards you want into your hand is a real skill. When you play it, know that you can present cards to your opponents that will let them guess at what you want. The best example of this is Mystical Tutor. It represents everything terrifying that CS can make, but your opponent doesn't know what it will be getting. They'll fill in that blank with the worst card for them. I often toss it in my piles to force other cards into my hand, because opponents will usually bin MT. Similarly, Merchant Scroll can summon up a lot of great cards like Mana Drain, so consider putting it in your piles if you'd like to get something else. Ancestral Recall is like, the best card ever for forcing other cards into your grip. People are terrified of it resolving.

Echoing Truth: Ugh. I don't like it but you do need it as a general out against a lot.

Sometimes:

Vampiric Tutor: There's a paucity of draw in Slaver right now, and Tops don't make me want topdeck tutors any more. I don't want to get a Sea and then lose a draw for Vamp. About the only cards I would want to vamp for would be Tormod's Crypt and Academy. Both of these have little possibility of being countered/answered and put you waaaaaay ahead of who you are battling. Vamp really puts me in a bind if I'm going for something like Ancestral, because if the opponent has a counter, it's Battleship Sunk. You're out a bunch of draws and cards. If I played Vamp, I'd look to getting things like Crypt, Lotus, Academy, etc with it instead of going for THE BIG BOMBS.

Fact or Fiction: five cards, four mana. Mostly unimpressive but if you're looking at more draw, this is the next best option.

Merchant Scroll: I only put it on the sometimes list because there are conceivable situations where you will want to run something else over it. Otherwise, you'd better have good reasons to not run it.

Memory Jar: It's really good at times, and only pretty good at others. It's a good midgame spell; that said, Slaver doesn't hurt for the midgame. It's a dandy Tinker target in any case.

Night's Whisper: Meeeeeh. I can see why you would run it in some builds but getting a Sea early and tapping out on your turn can be a real painful scenario. Two mana, a card and life for two cards doesn't do it for me these days either.

Never:

Recoup: your Gifts is good enough without this.

Duress: hesitant to drop it here, but I haven't really wanted one ever.

Platinum Angel: CUTE CUTE CUTE. If you are Tinkering against Ichorid, get Tormod's Crypt and you'll be fine. Plat is a huge do-nothing. Okay, I suppose you can run it, but really? Do you want this over something else?



If you're looking to build slaver, DON'T BE CUTE. Be reasonable. Go back and do searches for Slaver in tournament results threads. Look at what won, and ask yourself why.

[Anusien]

Why Fact or Fiction instead of Skeletal Scrying?  In the past, Scrying was run because it could protect you from opposing Welders and because it was immune to Red Blast.

[Hi-Val]

List is incomplete.