Decklist - Metakiller [B/W]

So what did I want to talk about that one week? A deck I devised to take on the current meta.

Do realize this was literally made the night before New Phyrexia Game Day, so Big Boy Jace and his Stoneforge Waifu were still around in T2.


Metakiller
---Lands (22)---
x6 Plains
x8 Swamp
x3 Marsh Flats
x1 Mystifying Maze
x4 Terramorphic Expanse

---Creatures (23)---
x2 Abyssal Persecutor
x3 Baneslayer Angel
x4 Leaden Myr
x2 Leonin Relic-Warder
x3 Myr Battlesphere
x3 Palladium Myr
x2 Sun Titan
x4 Wall of Omens

---Artifacts (7)---
x2 Everflowing Chalice
x3 Myr Reservoir
x2 Prophetic Prism

---Spells (8)---
x3 Dispense Justice
x3 Go for the Throat
x2 Smother


---Sideboard (15)---
x4 Sadistic Sacrament
x3 Memoricide
x4 Celestial Purge
x4 Divine Offering


This one kinda looks like a mash between the Myr and Phylactery Lich decks. Suppose if you play with the parts long enough, you'll figure out if they can help in a particular situation or not. The situations aimed for, in this case, are Exarch Combo and Cawblade.

Breakdown:
- Marsh Flats, Prophetic Prism and Terramorphic Expanse: Mana fixing. Purely. Said it before with Liches, but this time I purely want them for Sadistic Sacrament. And my usual bad luck.
- Everflowing Chalice, Leaden Myr, Myr Reservoir, and Palladium Myr: Ramp. The Reservoir is aimed at Myr Battlesphere, but we can't forget the disentomb effect.
- Celestial Purge, Divine Offering, Go for the Throat, Leonin Relic-Warder, and Smother: For getting in the way of Exarch Combo as well as Stoneforge Mystic and her weird collecting hobby.
- Dispense Justice: Mostly aimed at Abyssal Persecutor, but I won't complain about slowing down a Batterskull or Blightsteel Colossus with it.
- Abyssal Persecutor, Baneslayer Angel, Myr Battlesphere, and Sun Titan: Win conditions. Sun Titan particularly enjoys long frolics in Zendikar with the Marsh Flats, Relic-Warder, and Wall of Omens. Strange tastes indeed.
- Memoricide and Sadistic Sacrament: Love these things. A 'Sad Sac' eats all the single artifacts those pesky Quest and Cawblade decks. Memoricide, good against combos. One murders Valakut almost completely.



But yeah, that's it. Shame I only got to test it out at one FNM, and not even against the decks it was aimed for. Afterall, a few of these require the little ramp doing their thing to get the drop on or a little luck to turn up, or so I suspect. Oh well, happens.

Recap - Walled Up [G/W] (3-0)

Right, I tell you to expect a post later in the week, and I post a whole month later. I'm so good at this... <.<

Anyways, let's get something up here.

Built this deck a bit before New Phyrexia released. Objective is simple: Ramp into something dangerous. Whether it be a single-serving angel, or a pack of wolves. NPH gave it something fun, though: Beast Within. It eats whatever is a real threat, turning it into something my ten walls can handle.


Walled Up
---Lands (23)---
x8 Forest
x7 Plains
x4 Razorverge Thicket
x4 Sunpetal Grove

---Creatures (24)---
[Walls]
x2 Perimeter Captain
x4 Overgrown Battlement
x4 Wall of Omens
[The rest]
x3 Baneslayer Angel
x1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
x2 Sun Titan
x2 Terastodon
x4 Wolfbriar Elemental
x2 World Queller

---Spells (13)---
x4 Beast Within
x4 Explore
x3 Summoning Trap
x2 White Sun's Zenith [a.k.a. Rain of Kitties]


Summary time!

Forenote: This tournament had a smaller-than-expected turn-out; Six people. Thank you, Independence Day. What this meant was that it wasn't a sanctioned tournament, and therefore we were allowed to use any deck we had. Sucks to not have brought anything other than T2 with me!
Also, I didn't have most of those fancy lands today, so those were substituted by three Terramorphic Expanse and four Forests, respectively. Happens.

Round 1 - [RW] Metalcraft Aggro (2-0)
Game 1 showed him a tad mana-flooded, and Wolfbriar was eager to get out there. Him and two wolves cleaned up the victory. Game 2, well, early Metalcraft and a pair of Galvanic Blasts ate both my World Quellers. My walls stopped any form of attack until Baneslayer did the heavy lifting.

Round 2 - [GRW] Slivers (2-0)
Well, I can't say I expected to face something like this. Fun. One main thought entered my head: I didn't want to hold anything back. Backing up this thought meant exposing my creatures to removal (A wolfbriar in hand restocks the field after a board wipe), but slivers in my experience tend not to play removal, opting for more slivers, preferably those that can do some removing other stuff. The slivers I saw him play; Bonesplitter Sliver (+2/+0), Fury Sliver (doublestrike), Pulmonic Sliver (Flying, "If this card would be put into a graveyard, you may put it on top of its owner's library instead."), Quilled Sliver (": This permanent deals 1 damage to target attacking or blocking creature."), Sidewinder Sliver (Flanking), Two-Headed Sliver ("This creature can't be blocked except by two or more creatures."), Venser's Sliver (), and Watcher Sliver (+0/+2). Make of that what you will (Slivers, on Gatherer).
Game 1 saw a few wolves, plus a baneslayer. The wolves held off the increasing amounts until a Baneslayer showed up. After two swings, He played Pulmonic Sliver. My response? A wisely-saved Beast Within. He poorly chose to play other slivers on his next turn, saving his Pulmonic for another turn. It fell again to Beast Within, and shortly after so did he. Second game, I saw another threat; Quilled Sliver. Gemhide's made sure he emptied his hand early, but is was the ping-ability that made him dangerous to another Baneslayer. He chose wisely to leave five untapped, buying him time, but a hard-casted Iona showed up, shutting down his white and giving him more to worry about, Quill-wise. Beast Within once again showed up, sabotaging his air defenses. He probably should have attacked more...

Round 3 - [B/U] Artifacts and Stuff (2-1)
Huh, how to describe this one. Had some artifacts, and a few creatures. Before we started, he asked what my favorite card in my deck was. I said Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre. A little fibbing never hurts when I suspect something going on. Game 1 saw him play a few minor critters, Golem's Heart, and Venser's Journal. Why were the latter two so important? They died to Terastodon, that's why. It and some wolves attacked him, until Terastodon got Mind Controlled. No worries, though, a heavilly kicked Wolfbriar afterwards kept up the critical mass I needed to take the win. Before I did though, he attempted a Memoricide, naming Ulamog. Poor guy... not really. Moving on! Game 2 kinda sucked. Sure, I had walls, but I only got a second white mana after, say, turn seven or so. Basically got my ass kicked by a Vampire Nighthawk rather well-equipped. World Queller proved itself worthy, even if it was too uphill to be won. All in all it murdered four creatures and one dangerous artifact. The upside to playing without planeswalker nor non-colored. Game three went quicker; he played little in the first few turns, so I wasted two Beast Withins on his lands. Proved to be for the better, as a Summoning Trap hit Terastodon and blasted more. Hard to win after that much mana-hurt. His elephant/beast combine defended as well as they could, but couldn't hold-up to the suicide pact forged by wolf and cat alike.


Glad I tried out the deck, even if a little hindered by lack of completion. Now to see how it'll fare at an FNM...

Over three months already? Fine, expect something later this week...

<.<

FNM Recap - White Monomyrs (3-2)

First night of constructed Beseiged. Kinda took me by surprise, actually. Thought it'd be next FNM. Not sure why. Anyways, I wasn't in the mood to break out the Lichery, so I pulled out one of the few decks still in the playtesting process and gave it a whirl. It did surprisingly well, considering my expectations for it.


Aluminum Monomyrs
---Lands (22)---
x2 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
x3 Marsh Flats
x16 Plains
x1 Terramorphic Expanse

---Creatures (23)---
x4 Gold Myr
x2 Myr Sire
x1 Myr Battlesphere
x4 Myr Galvanizer
x2 Palladium Myr
x3 Perilous Myr
x4 Sun Titan
x3 Wall of Omens

---Artifacts (7)---
x4 Everflowing Chalice
x2 Myr Reservoir
x1 Myr Turbine

---Spells (8)---
x2 All is Dust
x2 Eldrazi Conscription
x4 Journey to Nowhere


---Sideboard (15)---
x1 All is Dust
x3 Day of Judgment
x3 Kor Firewalker
x4 Leyline of Sanctity
x4 Summoning Trap


The deck mainly evolved from a monoblue myr failure and the lack of Sun Titans I saw in Standard. Strategy's fairly simple; Ramp up to Titan while being aggressive with the Myr. Titan and Emeria provide card advantage long term, and if Conscription comes out, awesome.

The prototype also ran two Wurmcoil Engines and four Tempered Steel, but the Steel wasn't available at the time. They were replaced with 2 Titans (since deadcoils work best with them) and Journeys for some control. All is Dust replaced a fourth Wall that I couldn't find, and some other mysterious slot. Meh. Also, Myr Sire were playtest replacements of Myrsmith; I decided that a guaranteed two 1/1 myrs beat the "potential" of many, particularly when the 'Smith was least priority when having multiple turn 2 choices. Marsh Flats were a last second Expanse replacement, after figuring the "untappedness" would be of use. Sideboard aimed mostly at aggro in general, Valakut, and the Traps against control.

Summary time!

Round 1 - GUW Goo (2-0)
This round was, well, rather pathetic. Game 1 went by with him being mana screwed. Galvanizer beatdown did the trick. Could have played a Titan or the Battlesphere, but didn't want to reveal my deck too early. Game 2 saw more mana screw on his end. He got a Day of Judgment out, but a Titan fixed that rather quick. The one creature he saw went on a Journey. After the games I saw his deck. Singleton rares, rather money. But money can't compensate for a rather poor strategy and mana base. It's my belief the screw I saw him suffer was actually it running normally. ¯\o_0/¯

Round 2 - Ezuri Elfstomp (2-1)
Typical elf-deck; ramp fast, ramp hard with Elvish Archdruid. Lead the Stampede refills hands and both Ezuri, Renegade Leader and Garruk Wildspeaker fulfill overrun conditions. Game one saw just that, plus Eldrazi Monument to hit the point home. What was it, ninety-three damage while I was at ten life? I sideboarded in all my wrath. Game two saw a well placed All is Dust followed by a Battlesphere. Looking at his empty hand, he conceded. Game three saw more board wiping, with the end in my favor, two Sun Titans and a fulfilled Emeria. Regardless of my victories against them, elf decks still freak the heck out of me.

Round 3 - Valakut (1-2)
Won't spend much time here. Game one saw absurd mulligans on his side. I didn't take the advantage lightly, and neither did the Galvanizers. Game two, Sanctity came out. Primevals had to go the distance while Valakut fried my critters. Made me wish I had more wrath/control effects. Game three was fast. The difference was determined by not drawing one mana, which would have put Conscription on Sun Titan. The end result? Fried for 18 damage from Valakut. Here's where I realized the disadvantage of Marsh Flats. In a deck full of ramp, having six lands come into play tapped doesn't matter too much in the whole picture. Halving that number was really unnecessary and the life points do add up.

Round 4 - RW Battlecraft (2-0)
A very fun match against a friend. If I recall correctly, his turn one was Memnite, Memnite, Plains, Ornithopter, and Mox Opal. Turn two Tempered Steel. Sound fun, right? Well, cue two more Tempered Steel on the next turns. Somehow, the deities were on my side. All is Dust cleared them all, and I stabilized at 2 life with the help of Perilous Myr. Sun Titans appeared, and the game finished in my favor. Second game saw Turbine come out, into Battlesphere. A Reservoir and two Galvanizers meant for a lethal swarm. That first game... probably the most ludicrous I've had in a long while.

Round 5 - RW Steppefall (0-2)
Lost my favorite pen in between rounds. Quite the bad omen. So without paper-tracking life, my memory's not the best. But his deck played fairly straightforward; Steppe Lynx, Adventuring Gear, Spikeshot Elder, and fetchlands galore. You put the pieces together. Game two saw a Collar / Sparkmage lock after a wrath, and that kept me down in spite of playing Sun Titan again and again from turn four and up. Oh well.

Like I said, better than expected. Think I'd like to max out the Palladiums after seeing how well they did, maybe throw Dispense Justice in the sideboard while maxing out Day of Judgment, and replace that Turbine with another Battlesphere. Oh right, also nix the flats for expanses, and toss in Tectonic Edges at the expense of some plains.



And before I go, I'd like to note even though Besieged just came out, there was only one Infect player of the fifty or so players.

Besieged Midnight Sealed Tournament (3-1)

Mirrodin Besieged is here!
With this one, I had a rough time deciding on my faction. Eventually I went Phyrexia, mostly due to friends and the foil. I was rather surprised at the amount of Mirran players, with a roughly 50/50 split between the two groups. Either the Phyrexians around here tend to be the louder group, or I need more Mirran friends.

My last Sealed was a horrible memory. Opened a great infect deck, put itself together without much effort and all that jazz. Only problem was that I couldn't draw land. At all. The exception being a friendly few games with another player while we waited between rounds. I smashed him thoroughly. Oh yeah, he later won that tournament. Yeah. Moving on.

Here's a list of the deck I pulled together, the cards I ended up using in sideboard (in italics), and the "illegitimate" rest of the sideboard that only saw light of day while I opened my packs.


A Nightmare Awakens
---Lands (16)---
x9 Forest
x1 Glimmerpost
x6 Swamp

---Creatures (14)---
x1 Blight Mamba
x1 Blightwidow
x1 Corpse Cur
x2 Flensermite
x1 Flesh-Eater Imp
x1 Necropede
x1 Phyrexian Juggernaut
x1 Rot Wolf
x1 Rusted Slasher
x2 Viridian Corrupter
x2 Viridian Emissary

---Spells (4)---
x2 Morbid Plunder
x1 Untamed Might
x1 Virulent Wound

---Artifacts (7)---
x1 Grafted Exoskeleton
x2 Ichor Wellspring
x1 Infiltration Lens
x1 Mimic Vat
x1 Mirrorworks
x1 Spine of Ish Sah


---Sideboard (59)---
x1 Blackcleave Goblin
x1 Caustic Hound
x1 Corrupted Harvester
x1 Fume Spitter
x1 Gruesome Encore
x1 Phyresis
x1 Phyrexian Rager
x1 Carapace Forger
x1 Copperhorn Scout
x1 Creeping Corrosion
x1 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
x2 Glissa's Courier
x2 Unnatural Predation
x1 Viridian Revel
x1 Dross Ripper
x3 Flayer Husk
x1 Moriok Replica
x1 Mortarpod
x2 Panic Spellbomb
x1 Pierce Strider
x1 Saberclaw Golem
x1 Sylvok Replica
x1 Vector Asp
x1 Vulshok Replica
x1 Wall of Tanglecord
x1 Arrest
x1 Banishment Decree
x1 Choking Fumes
x1 Fulgent Distraction
x1 Glint Hawk
x1 Soul Parry
x2 Tine Shrike
x1 Bonds of Quicksilver
x1 Darkslick Drake
x1 Disperse
x2 Fuel for the Cause
x1 Inexorable Tide
x1 Riddlesmith
x1 Scrapdiver Serpent
x2 Serum Raker
x1 Sky-Eel School
x1 Thrummingbird
x1 Turn Aside
x1 Vault Skyward
x1 Vedalken Certarch
x1 Into the Core
x2 Kuldotha Rebirth
x1 Oxidda Scrapmelter
x1 Turn to Slag
x1 Swamp


The matches themselves were four rounds; here's a quick summary.

Round 1 - Monoblack Infect (2-0)
I can't say too much here. Game 1 ended prematurely to a Untamed Might 9/9 Rot Wolf poisoning the day. An enjoyable first poison win, even if it fell one power short of unlocking the Praetor's Pet achievement. Second game I felt like a douche-bag; Rusted Slasher + Spine of Ish Sah equals a recurring pay 7 mana to destroy a permanent. Now toss in Mirrorworks and for an extra 2 mana you can destroy a second permanent as well as keep regeneration fodder for the more vulnerable combo piece. That's a worthy recipe for making an Eldrazi, if I say so myself.

Round 2 -Red/White Battlecry (0-2)
My first exposure to what the Mirrans had to offer. Would have gone better if I saw better draw during both games, but oh well. At least verified battle cry in my mind as being more than a "meh" ability.

Round 3 - Black/Green Geth (2-1)
Another Untamed Might gave Rot Wolf another player kill. Loved it. Geth, Lord of the Vault saw play in game two, which took up the majority of our match time. Ish Sah killed it eventually. Eventually. But after being milled twenty or so cards, he had the creature advantage to seal the deal. Game 3, however, saw me with more infect creatures than I could shake a stick at. Helps when Phyrexian Juggernaut has Infiltration Lens on him and whatnot.

Round 4 - White/Red Battlecry (2-1)
I was nervous this time around. Games for all the beans can do that sometimes. Particularly after the first Mirran bout. Game one started, and a bad omen Mulligan gave me a worse hand than the first. Kept it, eventually popping my two Viridian Emissaries a total of five times thanks to Morbid Plunder. Mostly it was done to avert the total lack of land I was drawing early game, and to help stem the tide of double Master's Call (two 1/1 Myrs each) followed by Kuldotha Rebirth (-1 Myr, +3 1/1 Goblins). Seemed pretty good, but he wasn't seeing more than one mountain. By the time he could play his battle cry red creatures, I had enough mana to fuel my Mirrorworks and Spine of Ish Sah. Without my Slasher, I had to use my mirrorwork copy to destroy the original so I could recur it. Oh well. Eventually, Grafted Exoskeleton on none other than Viridian Emissary went the distance. Game two I got to see battlecry go to town. My blockers helped a ton, but a well-placed Arrest on my Juggernaut kept me from stabilizing. Awfully quick game. The third game saw us going past the round time limit into five-turn draw mode. I can't recall all of what happened there; happened too quickly, but I can say is that Koth was involved, Juggernaut saw me drawing lots and lots and lots off Infiltrator Lens, and we both had Mimic Vats out at any given time, even two in my possession at one point. Crazy stuff, even if I didn't get to combo. In the end, lack of flying on his part let Flesh-Eater Imp go the distance.

So yeah, five prize packs to me next week. Hope they are worth the wait!

Phylactery Dick

First deck post of the new year, and I misspell the title? Nah, totally intentional.

Here's a deck I've been playing around with since roughly mid-October. Started with me looking at a Phylactery Lich and thinking, "Gee, there sure are a lot of artifacts in the new set." First iteration came about around the same time Liquimetal Coating was popular. While people built destructive decks around it, my mindset was more towards aiming the effect at a Land or existing Lich before dropping a second one. Darksteel Axe seemed to be an obligatory include, considering it nearly erased the Lich's main weakness. And Prophetic Prism gave me mana fixing with the added bonus of filling up the hole it left in my hand. Early versions also played with Darksteel Juggernaut for both the amount of artifacts in the deck (A few myr and vampire-favoring equipment can boost numbers) and my inclusion of a certain white spell.

Anyways, here's what it looks like at the moment;


Phylactery Dickery
---Land (23)---
x3 Marsh Flats
x4 Plains
x12 Swamp
x4 Terramorphic Expanse

---Creatures (17)---
x2 Abyssal Persecutor
x3 Baneslayer Angel
x2 Darksteel Myr
x4 Leaden Myr
x4 Phylactery Lich
x2 Wall of Omens

---Artifacts (8)---
x4 Darksteel Axe
x4 Prophetic Prism

---Spells (12)---
x4 Day of Judgment
x4 Dispense Justice
x4 Journey to Nowhere


---Sideboard(15)---
x3 Kor Firewalker
x4 Leyline of Sanctity
x4 Memoricide
x4 Sadistic Sacrament


Breakdown:
- Marsh Flats / Terramorphic Expanse: I'd up one and lower the other, but one must have before one can do. Anyways, they fix up the mana base quite well, considering how important it can be to have that third swamp or that first plains.
- Abyssal Persecutor: Another thing I'd probably play four of. This demon's downside is rarely an issue when 20% of my deck is capable of buggering off the minion when he's no longer needed.
- Darksteel Myr: Indestructible artifacts are great with Phylactery Lich, and this one makes a great wall. Not as good as the Axe, considering the expanded selection of vulnerabilities.
- Leaden Myr: Ramp! I'd rather not risk sticking a Phylactery counter on him, but he fixes black as well as help with a turn three Persecutor.
- Phylactery Lich: The main attraction. 5/5 Indestructible is rather awesome, particularly when most methods of dealing with him aren't too mainstr- metastream? Eh, um... yeah. And with a deck packing maximum Day of Judgment, it can spell "direct damage" to an opponent. As it hits it. Preferably repeatedly. With an Axe. Moving on <.<
- Wall of Omens: I'd replace the Darksteel Myr with two more of these cantrips, if only I took the time to acquire two more. With Besieged coming out, 0/1 buy less time to infect than a 0/4.
- Darksteel Axe: Suck on this, Liquimetal Naturalize decks! Also, a more effective weapon than a Bone-Wand.
- Prophetic Prism: My first non-Darksteel choice for the Lich's weakness. It cantrips, and it filters in ways I could only have dreamed of if only I weren't playing since, ever. But for Standard, it's the only mana filter I have available, and fortunately it rarely lets me down. As a turn two play, it can allow for a turn three Lich and turn four DoJ without annoying things like mana-Myr or say, green. All in all keeps the chroma in check. That metaphor works, right?
- Dispense Justice: Catches offensive creatures off-guard. Metalcraft isn't too important, but can happen. Honestly, the card I'm most displeased with. Used to be Sunspear Shikari's back when there were more equipment. I'm thinking about changing them to Reassembling Skeleton, considering my lack of Bloodghasts and love of post-wrath board recovery. What do you think?

Sideboard:
- Firewalkers: Actually thinking about taking them out, but Red Aggro seems a tad high in the current meta.
- Leyline of Sanctity: Can severely hinder mill, direct damage (including Valakut), discard, and other random shenanigans. A shame it can't deal with Venser.
- Sadistic Sacrament, Memoricide: Almost obligatory includes in games two and three. Basically takes potshots at my opponent's strategy, particularly Valakut and Relic Weenie. And in my opinion, this is where a consistent solid turn three black mana pays off the most.

So, that's about it. There's little doubt in my mind that it'll need some adjusting before using it after Besieged. Industructible more useful for surviving wrath effects than it is at enduring -1/-1 counters, afterall...

Update

So it's been a little over five months since my last update. My bad.

Time can go quickly, and laziness can be a factor. And honestly, I've had a lull in crazy ideas. September was a mixture of anguish and anticipation. For the former, I had to part with my Warp World deck on the months end. I'll admit I'm rather fond of the deck; a rare trait that only two of my Standard decks had managed to possess until that point (A Mirrodon/Kamigawa block Leveler deck, and a consistant top 8ing Ravnica/Time Spiral block "Zombify" deck). As with the previous two, a new block was arriving, hence the anticipation. When Mirrodin (my first block being a competitive player) left I was introduced with Ravnica, reveling the Golgari guild. I moved on fairly easy, and hardly missed the artifact-heavy sets when the Orzhov came around. Hell, even Dissension's Nephilim kept me entertained. When the time came for Lorwyn to kick out all my fun creatures in Ravnica, I don't feel like I was compensated for the loss. To this day I keep bitter feelings towards those storybook sets. And then came Scars of Mirrodin.

I savored the final FNM before the transition. Warp World almost possessed a will of it's own, giving me good draws the whole night. Even legitimately massacring the rare Valukut match I encountered. It was good times to Top 8 once again; the last time being the first time I tried out the deck.

As for Scars itself, it was good to see Mirrodin again. Old friends. Like Time Spiral was for me. I won't go into an in-depth review of the set; too late in the game I'd say, but also because critique of it can easily be found in abundance elsewhere. I will say though, as someone who never saw Affinity as an actual threat back in the day, I found Metalcraft to be quite underwhelming.

So I've been here and there, mostly playing with one deck that I've tinkered with on and off. I'll post it a bit later. Tempted to play it again tonight, but I'm considering another deck to try toying with before MtG goes full WoW and Besieged brings about the Infected Horde.

Here I'm almost on the eve of another set release, and I'm surprised to see myself dreading Infect's spotlight. Mayhaps the Phyrexians are coming back to their old selves. We'll see.