Ice Age Block Event

[T00L]

maybe you should build more fun decks <3<3<3 

[Purple Hat]

my deck is lots of fun to play, I havent' been taking notes, but I remember the matches pretty well since I'm not really testing anything at the moment because I'm gonna be missing SCG indy.

[desolutionist]

So who are we waiting on?

[Hi-Val]

Me to get pairings up again : )

Code:

Table	 No.	 Player 	 Res	 No.	Player
  1	  5	Desolutionist	 	  8	Anus
  2	  1	fubar     			Purple Hat
  3	  6	t00l	   		  2	Veggies
  4	  7	Enialis Liandon	   	  3	JeremM

I hope you can make sense of that table! This will be the final round, good luck!

[Jacob Orlove]

Fixed your table. The [code] tag is awesome.

[Hi-Val]

Jacob Orlove is el three three tee.

[Vegeta2711]

I beat Tool 2-0

<Veggies> lawl quad borael centaur ftw
nice shuffler MWS. NICE SHUFFLER.

[Disburden]

What did these crazy Ice Age decks look like? I am more than curious!

This reminds me of ripping boosters back when I started playing when Ice Age was out (without Snap, of course).

[Anusien]

I won 2-1 after the weirdest string of horrible luck for both of us.  It made up for all the sackery I did in rounds 1-2.

Is it over?  Should we show lists and all that now?

[desolutionist]

Bleh, it's over. GG Anusien.

4 Scrying Sheets
21 Snow-Covered Island
4 Force of Will
4 Rune Snag
4 Counterspell
2 Power Sink
1 Controvert
4 Brainstorm
2 Browse
4 Surging AEther
3 Icy Manipulator
4 Phyrexian Ironfoot
1 Heidar, Rimewind Master
2 Rimefeather Owl
------------------------
1 Heidar, Rimewind Master
3 Krovikan Whispers
1 Controvert
1 Rimefeather Owl
3 Hydroblast
3 Mystic Remora
2 Commandeer
1 Frozen Solid

[T00L]

Bleh, it's over. GG Anusien.

4 Scrying Sheets
21 Snow-Covered Island
4 Force of Will
4 Rune Snag
4 Counterspell
2 Power Sink
1 Controvert
4 Brainstorm
2 Browse
4 Surging AEther
3 Icy Manipulator
4 Phyrexian Ironfoot
1 Heidar, Rimewind Master
2 Rimefeather Owl
------------------------
1 Heidar, Rimewind Master
3 Krovikan Whispers
1 Controvert
1 Rimefeather Owl
3 Hydroblast
3 Mystic Remora
2 Commandeer
1 Frozen Solid

[Vegeta2711]

//NAME: White Cops Beat Black
// Protection
        4 Circle of Protection: Black
// Other
        4 Coldsteel Heart
        3 Sleight of Mind
// Removal
        4 Swords to Plowshares
        3 Gelid Shackles
// Creatures
        3 Brooding Saurian
        3 Phyrexian Ironfoot
        4 Ohran Viper
        4 Boreal Centaur
        4 Boreal Druid
// Land
        3 Scrying Sheets
        2 Adarkar Wastes
        4 Brushland
        5 Snow-Covered Plains
        10 Snow-Covered Forest
// Sideboard
SB:  4 Thermokarst
SB:  4 Disenchant
SB:  3 Jotun Grunt
SB:  3 Justice
SB:  1 Sleight of Mind

I screwed up pretty badly with deck construction (4 scrying sheets is a must, into the north would've been better than heart and should've built the removal different), but all I knew was I wanted to play G/W that smashed Necro. Unfortunately I got to play mono U twice. Lame.

[Jacob Orlove]

Man, this format was *all about* Coldsnap. Boo.

[Anusien]

// Lands
    2 Lake of the Dead
    18 Snow-Covered Swamp
    2 Snow-Covered Mountain
    4 Sulfurous Springs

// Creatures
    4 Stromgald Crusader
    4 Knight of Stromgald

// Spells
    4 Soul Burn
    4 Necropotence
    4 Dark Ritual
    4 Soul Spike
    4 Demonic Consultation
    2 Lava Burst
    4 Incinerate

// Sideboard
SB: 2 Lava Burst
SB: 4 Jester's Scepter
SB: 4 Skred
SB: 3 Dystopia
SB: 2 Withering Wisps

The maindeck was awesome; the sideboard was ultimate shit.  I'll edit this post or post again later to talk about deck selection and report.

[EnialisLiadon]

I triumphed in the mirror.  Woowoo 1-2-0!

// Lands
    10  Snow-Covered Plains
    10  Plains

// Creatures
    4  Surging Sentinels
    4  White Shield Crusader
    4  Kjeldoran Warrior
    4  Order of the White Shield
    3  Jotun Grunt
    3  Ronom Unicorn
    4  Martyr of Sands

// Spells
    3  Disenchant
    4  Swords to Plowshares
    4  Call to Arms
    3  Gelid Shackles

// Sideboard
SB: 3  Green Scarab
SB: 3  Circle of Protection: Red
SB: 3  Reprisal
SB: 3  Black Scarab
SB: 3  Luminesce

I kind of threw the list together at the last minute, as I couldn't decide what deck to play.  The sideboard was trash, and was done in about fifty seconds.

Half and half on snow lands because I wanted snow mana for Shackles, but I didn't want to get reamed by Cold Snap or that one green enchantment that doesn't let snow lands untap.

Should another one of these be hosted, I would definitely play something that didn't suck.

[JeremM]

// Lands
    4  Kjeldoran Outpost
    18  Plains

// Creatures
    4  Field Marshal
    4  Jotun Grunt
    4  Martyr of Sands
    4  Order of the White Shield
    4  White Shield Crusader
    4  Ronom Unicorn
    3  Kjeldoran Outrider

// Spells
    4  Swords to Plowshares
    3  Cold Snap
    4  Call to Arms

// Sideboard
SB: 3  Disenchant
SB: 4  Royal Decree
SB: 4  Circle of Protection: Red
SB: 4  Circle of Protection: Black

If I had time to actually test this, I would go:

+1 Cold Snap
-4 Call to Arms
+4 Kjeldoran War Cry
-1 White Shield Crusader
-1 Ronom Unicorn
+1 Plains

18 land were too few, since I severely screwed up and counted Outposts towards my land total.  I forgot about Scrying Sheets and really should've added the 4th Cold Snap; it was golden every round.  Call to Arms was downright awful, since so few decks ran very many colored permanents.

I built my SB against Necrodecks, which was a tremendous error, since there was one in the entire tournament.  If I were to play this again, I'd definitely prepare more for G/x anything and the mirror, and less against Necro.

[Purple Hat]

I'll edit in my list later since I can't get in touch with fubar, but I just wanted to say that the reason that so many decks are so coldsnap heavy is that coldsnap is the only set in the format with "snow" perminants, which means that if you want to play scrying sheets, which is very solid, you have to use at least 50% or so cards from coldsnap.

on the whole I thought my deck was very solid and a lot of fun to play with decent game vs necro and any kind of board strategy, but I made some mistakes in deck construction as well that became quite obvious even in only 2 matches.

[zeus-online]

Was there really only 1 necropotence deck? That's weird, i'd definetly have gone with necro since it's clearly the most powerfull card in ice age.

/Zeus

[desolutionist]

Was there really only 1 necropotence deck? That's weird, i'd definetly have gone with necro since it's clearly the most powerfull card in ice age.

/Zeus

Maybe if this wasn't for fun.

[Anusien]

Was there really only 1 necropotence deck? That's weird, i'd definetly have gone with necro since it's clearly the most powerfull card in ice age.

/Zeus

Maybe if this wasn't for fun.

OMG Necropotence is so much fun to play!

[Jacob Orlove]

Maybe Scrying Sheets shouldn't be in the format, if it pushes people so hard to Coldsnap?

[Illissius]

Thawing Glaciers is banned.

[Purple Hat]

Maybe Scrying Sheets shouldn't be in the format, if it pushes people so hard to Coldsnap?

I don't really see it's existence as a problem....I nearly lost a match to coldsnap or whatever that hoser is called because I had to play so many snow perms.  and the necro deck doesn't even play it.  I think it's also a function of card design.  On the whole Ice age and Alliances aren't very good sets, but they've got some insane bombs and a few other solid cards.  I'm surprised the "giant creatures that cost 4" deck didn't show up, but basically the newer sets have better cards overall as R&D has learned what they're doing better. 

[Anusien]

Maybe Scrying Sheets shouldn't be in the format, if it pushes people so hard to Coldsnap?

I'd rather look at unbanning ZOrb and Thawing Glaciers.  Zuran Orb feels fine, especially in a world with White Martyr.  Thawing Glaciers is probably slower than Scrying Sheets, and Scrying Sheets is definitely fair.

Also, for what it's worth, my Ur list I almost ran was snow for lands, Coldsteel Heart, Phyrexian Ironfoot and Rimeheart Owl.  In other words, not dominated.  Ditto on Necro, which touched Snap for a handful of cards (Spike and Jump Knight are it in the maindeck).

[desolutionist]

Was there really only 1 necropotence deck? That's weird, i'd definetly have gone with necro since it's clearly the most powerfull card in ice age.

/Zeus

Maybe if this wasn't for fun.

OMG Necropotence is so much fun to play!

We all knew that Necropotence was OBV OBV the best deck, but I think you were the only one that didn't predict the mirror match to be incredibly stupid and NOT fun. 

[Hi-Val]

For the record, the deck I had picked as the best in the format was the following:

// Lands
18  Swamp

// Creatures
4  Knight of Stromgald
4  Stromgald Crusader
4  Haakon, Stromgald Scourge

// Spells
4  Pox
4  Demonic Consultation
4  Contagion
4  Urza's Bauble
4  Mishra's Bauble
4  Barbed Sextant
4  Coldsteel Heart
2  Icy Manipulator

// Sideboard
SB: 4  Garza's Assassin
SB: 4  Swords to Plowshares
SB: 3  Phyrexian Ironfoot
SB: 4  Stromgald Cabal

Pox blows out Necropotence and Haakon (the pronunciation rhymes with "broken" in Scandanavian and it's an accurate description of what it is in this deck) allows for crazy recursion and card advantage that Necro wish it had. You have potentially infinite creatures and the sac-artifacts let you avoid Pox and keep cards in hand.


I'm surprised we didn't see more Icy Manipulator.

[Anusien]

I'm surprised we didn't see more Icy Manipulator.

Probably because it's a 4.

Any reason not to play Necro in that deck?  I get the Pox life loss, but playing 4 Necro and 4 Soul Spike or Drain seems better than Baubles.

[Hi-Val]

I suppose because there's little need to. Pox takes 7 life/cards from you and it's the way to beat other Necro decks. Spike needs 2 more cards to fire off, meaning that you've likely spent at least 3 life to get the cards needed for it. Spike is great when you're using Necro to fuel more beats but relying on it to get more life and pull through after a Pox seems like a losing or break-even proposition. Often after Poxing, I'd just need to Haakon a couple Knights out and never need to really see lots more cards.

Also, no Martyr of Sands and Adarkar Valkyrie decks? : (

[Vegeta2711]

I suppose because there's little need to. Pox takes 7 life/cards from you and it's the way to beat other Necro decks. Spike needs 2 more cards to fire off, meaning that you've likely spent at least 3 life to get the cards needed for it. Spike is great when you're using Necro to fuel more beats but relying on it to get more life and pull through after a Pox seems like a losing or break-even proposition. Often after Poxing, I'd just need to Haakon a couple Knights out and never need to really see lots more cards.

I expected some amount of Pox, but I'll admit I didn't see that many cantrip cards fitting into the deck. No Icequake seems scandalous as well considering how slow everything is.

The problem with Icy Manipulator is it just costs infinite to get it down and start tapping that whole one creature a turn. It's good when a deck is crapping out one creature every like 10 turns like my deck was at times (cough shuffler cough), but is otherwise quite weak.

Also, no Martyr of Sands and Adarkar Valkyrie decks? : (

Valkyrie ended up being terrible for me when I tried it. I had some luck with Sands + Grim Harvest decks just because they were more flexible, but ultimately I was like 'meh necro rulez' and dropped the idea. I am surprised nobody tried out a Thrumming Stone deck, just because with Consult it isn't unrealistic to get it online anymore. Anyway, I think there's still plenty of design space left in the format.

[Vegeta2711]

So when we rolling out a new one of these?