Decklist - GW 'Walkers

Another free Standard ReConstructed challenge. Also what I played with last week, finishing eleventh after a 3-2 run.

Basic premise, as usual; Planeswalker it up.


GW 'walkers
---Land (23)---
2 Gavony Township
3 Razorverge Thicket
4 Sunpetal Grove
10 Forest
4 Plains

---Creatures (16)---
4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
3 Solemn Simulacrum
3 Strangleroot Geist
2 Sun Titan
4 Viridian Emissary

---Planeswalkers (8)---
1 Elspeth Tirel
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
3 Garruk Relentless
1 Gideon Jura
2 Karn Liberated

---Artifacts / Enchantments (6)---
4 Abundant Growth
2 Mimic Vat

---Nonpermanents (5)---
1 Creeping Renaissance
4 Day of Judgment
2 White Sun's Zenith


General Breakdown:
The Land: Pretty straightforward, I think. Gavony's are for the unusual times in which I have open mana.

The Creatures: Pilgrims are for mana fixing and early aggression. Later on they become fuel for flipped Garruks. Emissaries and Simulacrums are for ramp and early aggro trade-off. Let them die. Strangleroot's emphasize early aggression, later on becoming bodyguards for the walkers. No complaints there. Unlike with Sun Titan. I need to test him more, since he hasn't been out with any graveyard targets yet. Considering the amount of games I've played with the deck and how many appealing <4 drops are in the deck, I'm on the fence with him.

The Planeswalkers: Garruk Relentless is mostly burn in green. Otherwise, his purpose as well most of the rest is token generation. Gideon takes special note as a control card, especially when paired with the awesome might that is Karn.

Abundant Growth:  For the low price of 'GGGG,' I'm playing a 56-card deck. Better yet, those 'G's only need paying when I run into one of these bad boys. Also, they mana fix. And if I'm having trouble taking out cards when sideboarding, I can easily go back up to a sixty card deck. In summary, I love this card.

Mimic Vat: For dead creature abuse. I like stealing creatures, and I like wiping the board. That's why you'll see this in most of my decks until it rotates out. Savvy?

Day of Judgment: Speaking of board-wipe, here it is. I'm not the biggest fan of white weenie and variants of it running around. So a playset of these badboys and planeswalkers who don't mind it should help display my displeasure for the current meta.

White Sun's Zenith: Late game token generation. Think I might mix it up with one Entreat the Angels. See how well it can rival my Rain of Kitties.

Creeping Renaissance: A one-of for the late game, to restock my hand with creatures and planeswalkers. I've dropped this down in one game only to see my opponent concede on the spot. That said, current board state  has a lot to do with how much I appreciate drawing this card.


Sideboard:
2 Ratchet Bomb: For eating tokens and anthem-effects.
2 Nihil Spellbomb: Anti-graveyard shenanigans.
3 Oblivion Ring: General control
3 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Vorapede
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons

The last bit is what I call a transformational sideboard. I can switch out cards weak against particular decks. Like Elspeth Tirel when facing a burn deck. This switch, especially the addition of Green Sun's Zenith, can greatly improve the speed of my deck.


Changes: 
 - Next time I try the deck, I want to replace the Sun Titans with Primeval Titan / Wurmcoil Engine or 2 Wurmcoils. Like I said earlier, still on the fence there, considering his post-board worth.
 - In favor of turn two Stranglegeists, I'm wanting to switch out the Pilgrims for either Llanowar Elves or Birds of Paradise. Probably going to lose the one-mana drop aggro at the end of that decision tree.
 - One Thrun's coming out in favor of an Oblivion Ring, I think. With the Green Sun's, I think I can warrant the extra control.
 - Might play with the lands a little more, too. If I keep the Sun Titans around.
 - One Garruk Relentless might come out for something. Assuming I can figure out what that something is.

Think that's about it!
 

Commander Decklist - Iname, Death Aspect [B]

Once again a ReConstructed entry, calling for unbarred Commander entrants.

So I choose to pull out my strictly casual one.
Goal of the deck is simple; get out Iname, then abuse that graveyard.

Iname's Army
General: Iname, Death Aspect
---Land (35)---
Barren Moor
Crypt of Agadeem
Dakmor Salvage
Ebon Stronghold
Polluted Mire
Spawning Pool
Temple of the False God
28 Swamp

---Spirits (25)---
Akuta, Born of Ash
Banshee
Cairn Wanderer
Cruel Deceiver
Deathknell Kami
Enemy of the Guildpact

Foul Familiar
Ghost Hounds
Gibbering Kami
Hyalopterous Lemure
Keening Banshee
Kemuri-Onna
Kuro, Pitlord
Lost Soul
Midnight Banshee
Moonglove Changling
Morkrut Banshee
Nether Shadow
Patron of the Nezumi
Revenant
Seizan, Perverter of Truth
Spirit of the Night
Thief of Hope
Wicked Akuba
Will-o'-the-Wisp

---Iname Abuse (11)---
Balthor the Defiled
Dread Return
Ghoul's Feast
Haunting Misery
Living Death
Living End
Mortal Combat
Patriarch's Bidding
Songs of the Damned
Stir the Grave
Zombify

---Odds and Ends (9)---
Beseech the Queen
Cruel Tutor
Dark Ritual
Demonic Tutor
Lightning Greaves
Nightmare Lash
Sensei's Divining Top
Temporal Extortion
Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre

---Kill Spells (9)---
Consume Spirit
Damnation
Devour in Shadow
Dismember
Eyeblight's Ending
Kiku's Shadow
Rend Flesh
Shriekmaw
Toxic Stench

--- Ramp Cards(10) ---
Charcoal Diamond
Coldsteel Heart
Darksteel Ingot
Fellwar Stone
Jeweled Amulet
Manakin
Mana Prism
Phyrexian Totem
Prismatic Lens
Sphere of the Suns


Totaling Up:
29 Creatures
1 Enchantment
1 General
8 Instants
35 Lands
12 Noncreature Artifacts
14 Sorceries


Pretty straightforward, I think. Only real thing to note is Ulamog, who mostly comes out with the help of Songs of the Damned or Crypt of Agadeem.

[witty ending remark here]

Deck Concept - Brain Surgery [BW]

Another ReConstructed submission, this one called for anything Standard.
Also, I'm highly tempted to test-run it at FNM for kicks.

The basis of the deck is proactive control; using effects that take out threats before they hit play. And in case I fail to neutralize a particular annoyance, nuke the field and see if they can try again. Here's how it looks right now:


Brain Surgery aka Lobotomies for Everyone!
---Lands (25)---
9 Plains
9 Swamp
4 Evolving Wilds
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Vault of the Archangel

---Instants / Sorceries (22)---
3 Black Sun's Zenith
3 Day of Judgment
1 Despise
4 Gitaxian Probe
2 Memoricide
4 Surgical Extraction
3 Timely Reinforcements
2 White Sun's Zenith

---Permanents (13)---
2 Batterskull
1 Gideon Jura
1 Karn Liberated
2 Mimic Vat
3 Nevermore
3 Oblivion Ring
1 Wurmcoil Engine


General Breakdown:
The Land: The most iffy part of the deck in my opinion, only because I lack Isolated Chapels. Ghost Quarter is against "shenanigan lands," though I do wish I had been able to squeeze in a Sun Titan to help abuse it. And Vault of the Archangel is kept to a minimum from my fears of mana fixing needs.

The Sweep: Black Sun's Zenith and Day of Judgment are my primary board controllers. Taking up a tenth of the deck, I rely on them to keep me around after my first few turns of setting up / information gathering.

The Recon: Despise and Gitaxian Probe let me know what's in their hand. I'd play more Despise if I could find room, but I can at least console myself with more on the imaginary sideboard. For now, shooting a Surgical Extraction at a random graveyard card will suffice while giving me a bigger picture.

The Removal: Memoricide and Surgical Extraction eat threats for good, and Nevermore curses them with having to stare at cards they can never play. Oblivion Ring takes care of confirmed one-of threats and more than likely early game annoyances. Karn gets the later threats (Fun Note: His +4 alleviates the earlier mentioned curse).

The Traders: Timely Reinforcements fit here, even though their main intention is to replace life lost from early aggro and phyrexian carelessness. The tokens can be used to hurt opponents, but hopefully will at least trade with other critters. Same with White Sun's Zenith (Rain of Kitties) and Mimic Vat, though both respectively without the life gain.

The Big Threats: Batterskull and Wurmcoil both damage people while putting Reinforcements' life gain to shame. Gideon Jura finishes this small section, complementing the lifelinker's evasive abilities with his post-wrath attacking. Or as I like to affectionately call it, "pulling a William Wallace."

Until next time!

Deck Concept - Red Deck Wins [Ru]

I've decided to try regularly submitting decks to the ReConstructed Column on Wizards' web site. Figured it'd be a good way to both get the Creative juices flowing and encourage at least weekly posts.

This week's article (linked above), asked for Innistrad Block submissions. So with very little knowledge of the general metagame in the format, I threw this together:


Red Deck Wins (or at Least Draws a Lot)
---Lands (22)---
15 Mountain
2 Desolate Lighthouse
1 Island
4 Sulfur Falls

---Creatures (14)---
3 Lightning Mauler
2 Pyreheart Wolf
3 Reckless Waif
2 Torch Fiend
4 Vexing Devil

---Instants / Sorceries (21)---
1 Bonfire of the Damned
2 Brimstone Volley
4 Dangerous Wager
3 Desperate Ravings
1 Devil's Play
4 Faithless Looting
4 Pillar of Flame
2 Thunderbolt

---The Flourish (3)---
3 Runechanter's Pike


General Breakdown:
 The Land: Yeah, it strays from pure red. Thank Desperate Ravings for that. At least I didn't throw any blue in the deck. Suck on that Delver.

Faithless Looting, Desperate Ravings, Dangerous Wager: The draw. The idea's to empty your hand as fast as possible for the Gambit. Looting's for filtering into things you want to play, and Gambit's just more draw in general.

Pillar of Flame, Thunderbolt, Devil's Play, Brimstone Volley: The burn. Preferably on those annoying things that like to block your ever-aggressive minions.

Bonfire of the Damned: For erasing those little annoyances en masse.

Runechanter's Pike: See all those noncreature spells I just barely brushed over? Yeah, this if for taking advantage of their crispy shells. And it lasts longer than Harvest Pyre.

Vexing Devil: Ah, we've hit the meat of the deck. Somewhat. This minion acts a great burn spell or a soon-dead critter, depending on what's less inconvenient for your opponent. Still inconvenient.

Reckless Waif: The poor girl, this deck leaves her fairly conflicted. Early game she can be rather angry, but after the draw spells start up she'll probably calm down. Still pretty handy with a Pike.

Lightning Mauler: For giving things haste, I think. Meh.

Torch Fiend: Not a bad body. Kick this minion at any unpleasant artifacts your foes show you.

Pyreheart Wolf: Of course I'd save the most annoying creature for last. I'm sure a Pike on him will annoy most token decks.

"Oh noes, my ice cream!"

Deck Concept - Land Destruction [GR]

I don't usually pay attention to this kind of deck; not really interested in this kind of "solo play" deck. Considering the amount of early game plays going down in standard, it might prove interesting. And a friend's interested in it, so here's more or less the response I gave him:

After taking a look at land destruction in the format, here's a quick first draft deck. Feel free to tear it apart from here.

22 Lands
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Strangleroot Geist
4 Young Wolf
4 Viridian Emissary
2 Beast Within
4 Bramblecrush
4 Melt Terrain
4 Tectonic Rift
4 Invader Parasite
4 Acidic Slime

No big finishers, but it loves the early game setup. And could probably lose some destruction for more win condition if testing/desire dictates.

Or Demolishes...

Those never hurt....

Concept Decklist - Temporal Mastery [GRU]

EDIT: I need to learn how to read. Specifically, the exile portions on cards. Still, this can stand as an example on how easily Miracle can be broken.

Spoiler season for Avacyn Restored. I like most of what I see so far, but today my thoughts are focused on one previewed card so far; Temporal Mastery.



A marvelous plaything indeed.

Miracle has awesome flavor behind it, and must feel awesome to pull off when it happens. Shame I'm going to abuse it.

See, we've got a few things that ensure we know what our first draw is.
- Noxious Revival
- Reclaim
- Ponder

That strips away the divine sheen, doesn't it? But wait! Two out of three require a graveyarded / already cast Temporal Mastery, don't they?
- Faithless Looting

Nevermind! Actually, I'm certain anyone familiar with Standard knew that was coming. Here's where I note that Civilized Scholar and Merfolk Looter work decent without splashing a third color, but leave a gaping vulnerability to creature hate. Smallpox and Liliana of the Veil are excellent options for a heavy black splash... if one can afford a playset of Liliana. Speaking of black, Zombie Infestation can also be considered a legitimate option.

Anyways, now we've got some idea of how to abuse our timeplay. But think about it; when I'm Time Walking, my "first turns" are always going to be a miracled Temporal Mastery. Hard to explain what I'm trying to get at here, but I'm concerned about running out of land and hand quickly, which doesn't bode so well when a good amount of turns could be used merely setting up next turns. I need something to help combat that.
- Rites of Flourishing

Alright, sounds like a cool idea and all, but how am I going to win?
- Delver of Secrets

Why hello there. I dig the early game potential to be swinging even on turns I waste making more turns. Now to page through my trade bind and find a few other random win condition-makers. It's a concept deck anyway, and is bound to change after Avacyn Restored has bared a little more flesh.
- Jace, Memory Adept
- Sturmgeist
- Charmbreaker Devils
- Galvanoth

I'll admit, the last two weren't quite so random. Jace takes advantage of our multiple turngen potential and gives us more drawing if we really really needed it. Sturmgeist works decently with Rites of Flourishing. And the last two are meant to generate more absurdity, especially together. Charmbreaker Devils comes out late enough in the game to make hardcasting Temporal Mastery an easy possibility, and Galvanoth gives us card advantage through non-hand spellcasting. Combined, you could see a random chance miss the Mastery but hit a green spell to put said Mastery back on top of your deck, then the second critter casting it without breaking a sweat. Could be sweet.

And because I don't like all this early game mana-pickiness, a playset of Birds to smooth out some edges.


Timeplay
---Lands (24)---
4x Hinterland Harbor
4x Rootbound Crag
4x Sulfur Falls
7x Island
4x Forest
1x Mountain

---Creatures (11)---
4x Birds of Paradise
1x Charmbreaker Devils
4x Delver of Secrets
1x Galvanoth
1x Sturmgeist

---Noncreature Permanents (5)---
1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4x Rites of Flourishing

---Instants/Sorceries (20)---
4x Faithless Looting
4x Ponder
4x Noxious Revival
4x Reclaim
4x Temporal Mastery


And yes, if I ever put this deck together, I'll do some stencil-work on a blue deckbox.

Update - MonoPod [G]

With an added Top 8 (4-2), a near miss (3-1-1), and a casual standard (3-0) under the deck's collective belt, I've decided that this time around I'll skimp on the quick recaps.

The deck hasn't changed too much. Lent out one of the Wurmcoils, so the replacement has varied between tournaments (Creeping Renaissance, Increasing Savagery, and Steel Hellkite, respectably). After obtaining a Vorapede tonight, it's in the slot. Acidic Slimes have earned their keep enough to stick around. Considering how often I've sideboarded in Karn, he's replaced one of the Pods. So far, no complaints. Lastly, I've switched out a Forest for an Island. It's nice being able to fetch it up in non-Dungrove games in which I know they'll be a Phyrexian Metamorph coming soon.

So, in summary:
-1 Forest, +1 Island
-1 Wurmcoil Engine, +1 Vorapede
-1 Birthing Pod, +1 Karn Liberated


Monopod
---Lands (23)---
2x Kessig Wolf Run
18x Forest
1x Island
2x Mountain

---Creatures (32)---
2x Acidic Slime
2x Avacyn's Pilgrim
1x Birds of Paradise
4x Dungrove Elder
4x Llanowar Elves
3x Phyrexian Metamorph
1x Precursor Golem
1x Predator Ooze
1x Primevil Titan
3x Solemn Simulacrum
3x Strangleroot Geist
4x Viridian Emissary
1x Wurmcoil Engine

---Noncreatures (8)---
3x Birthing Pod
1x Garruk Relentless
1x Karn Liberated
2x Mimic Vat


---Sideboard (15)---
3x Autumn's Veil
2x Batterskull
3x Beast Within
3x Corrosive Gale
3x Surgical Extraction
1x Thrun, the Last Troll

Oh yeah, Beast Within in sideboard. Phyrexian Obliterator has been going around. It deals with him when I can't manage to copy it, in addition to having a little more control in the deck.

General Strategies
No recap, but I'll still go over a little of my local metagame/strategy.

Control: The hardest part of facing control are the variants going around. All I can really say is that tight play and timing my Autumn's Veils are key. Surgical Extractions go in if I see Dissipate or Phantasmal Image. Mana Leak's the easier play around. Dungrove Elder is key here, since Wrath-less variants have little solution to deal with him.

Zombies: Comes in two variants; Obliterator and non-Obliterator. Both I try to stay on the offensive with at all times. Metamorph gets saved for when Obliterator comes out, otherwise I try to make myself a Geralf's Messanger or big thing in general. Mimic Vat is boss here, giving some killed things chance for revenge, snatching a recurring zombie, or even catching the previously mentioned Obliterator.

French Rites: Are problematic, to say the least. Either I have to race them before Elesh Norn comes out, a hard task; or I have to catch her/it in a Mimic Vat. Post sideboard I can delay with Beast Withins and Surgical Extraction. Pods are out, given the abundance of Ancient Grudge. One of the best matchups to have a "Deus Ex Karn" in.

Red Deck Wins: Race race race. Bloodthirst is a bitch. Stormblood Berserker is hard to play against, when burn can eat my many little creatures. Dungrove is key, with Wurmcoil an objective in both stabilizing and turning the tide. Post sideboard, Beast Within cancels damage steps and Batterskull gives me a better chance of keeping my life up. If my mana dorks take hits to keep me from ramping, that's less burn for me to eat. As for Chandra's Pheonix, Surgical Extraction is too situational to deal with her, so I have to steal a red philosophy: Annoying things opponents have go away when they die.

Delver: I haven't seen it too much recently, but the goal is simple; Race, resolving a Dungrove if possible. The spirit-emphasized variants are where Corrosive Gale shines.

About all my mind can conjure up for now!