I've began playtesting this deck recently (again), and have picked up interest in it. In my mind, spoils mask is one of the better aggro decks out there. With everyone focused on GY hate (rightfully so, due to Dragon), Mask may have gotten a bit better. To start off, lets look at Smennen's list:
15 Swamp
7 SoLoMoxen
4 Dark Ritual
1 Mana Crypt
-27 Mana Sources
4 Dreads
4 Mask
4 Negator
-12 Threats
4 Unmask
4 Duress
4 Hymn
-12 Disruption spells
4 Spoils
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Consultation
-7 Tutors
1 Necro
1 Yawg. Will
-2 Broken spells
After playing an almost identical build for about a month, I've realized that it's got some major weaknesses that I'd like to address:
1) No removal and a weak back-up threat in the form of negator. With the rise of aggro (TnT, Madness, Oshawa Stompy), Spoils mask, IMO has gotten worse. These decks have the ability to deal 6+ damage in the first 2 turns and spit out 2+ critters, making spoils MUCH more risky. I've played games where I've actually gotten out a dreadnought, but had to sit there and not attack simply to hold off an opposing swarm that would have been lethal. I'm not saying Spoils is a bad card, I'm simply thinking removal or a better threat is needed. I've been toying around with these cards so far:
Oblivion Stone
Grid Monitor
Nantuko Shade
Obvilion stone, obviously was a replacement for P. Deed. As you know, I absolutely adore this card, and felt that with everyone playing stifles and wastes, that splashing may have been a bad idea. O-stone is very slow, and you will rarely ever get to put a fate counter on your permanents, but nonetheless, the threat of it on the table will buy you some turns.
As for Grid Monitor, I've had moderate success with the card. It does put stress on your illusionary masks, but even without them, a grid monitor is pretty impressive. Ofcourse it can't stand up to a tog (nothing outside of Dreads really can), but it holds off more creatures than you think...from Su-chis to Juggernauts, to small dryads, and pretty much all of weenie aggro's critters. They don't effect your dreadnoughts either way because you have to play them through Mask(altough I'm not sure about this...I think you can play dread under mask with monitor in play...correct me if I'm wrong). I like them so far, especially with the rise of fast aggro.
As for the shade, I've played with him in the past, but I don't know if he deserves a spot. he's way too mana intensive, and is only a real threat when you hit 4 mana. In a deck like this, you simply don't have the mana to use on him early game.
2) Number/type of disruption. It seems like in the face of aggro decks, the disruption hasn't been pulling its weight. Sure, sometimes you can landscrew your opponent with first turn ritual, duress, hymn, but most of the time, it just stalls out. So far, I've been toying with 4 Duress/4 therapy, and have had relative success. I cut Unmask simply because I was running a lot less black cards main, so pitching a spoils or tutor was rather painful for me. The 4 Therapies is more like 6, as in <a href="
http://0-2u.com?go=games" onmouseover="window.status = 'goto: games';return 1" onmouseout="window.status=''">games</a> vs. control, you may flash them back occasionally.
3) Lightning Greaves main. This point is a bit iffy. I haven't made the switch yet, but what are your opinions? Keeper and other decks are running more and more creature hate, so it seems like 3 Greaves may be a good call. It speeds up the kill to boot.
Anyways, I believe that spoils mask can really be a good contender in the current type 1 scene. The original spoils mask deck may be a bit out-dated (sorry Steve! :shock: ) due to the newer, more aggressive decks out there. I would love nothing more than to see one of my favorite decks make a strong showing in the T1 Meta. All criticisms/comments welcome. Discuss!
-Bob
Bob, I deleted some inserted taglines from your post becuase your webrowser has been hijacked. Whenver you type the word "games" the taglines are automatically inserted. Go download CW shredder. Look under point two for an example that I did not delete.
Steve
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