Decklist - Your Deck.dick [BU]

Well look at that. Six posts in one month. Well, I'd say these ReConstructed submissions have done the trick. Afterall, we're matched with total posts in 2010 now. Now to match 2011. What to post now... what to post n- AH! My deck from two weeks ago. It didn't do so hot then, but it wasn't this close to finished then either! Here it is in untested current form:


Your Deck.dick [BU]
---Lands (24)---
4 Drowned Catacombs
4 Evolving Wilds
4 Shimmering Grotto
1 Forest
5 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
4 Swamp

---Creatures (13)---
4 Cryptoplasm
1 Dark Imposter
3 Evil Twin
2 Phantasmal Image
3 Phyrexian Metamorph

---Noncreatures (4)---
2 Mimic Vat
2 Mind Control

---Spells (19)---
2 Black Sun's Zenith
1 Cackling Counterpart
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Ponder
4 Praetor's Grasp
4 Stolen Goods


General Breakdown:
The Lands: Have the potential to simulate any color, while hopefully leaving our Dimir needs fulfilled. Hopefully an upgrade from my unshared, earlier version.

The Creatures: Simulate my opponent's stuff. Evil Twin is underrated, Cryptoplasm is annoyingly useful, and Imposter takes advantage of late game mana supplies. I don't foresee any problems against anything Legen-wait for it-dary.

Black Sun's Zenith: Because I can't easily simulate craptons of tokens outnumbering my field.

Cackling Counterpart: Usually reads, "Get out of jail free, Mr. Cryptoplasm."

Gitaxian Probe and Ponder: Because this kind of deck needs some digging.

Praetor's Grasp: Rather underrated, in my opinion. It usually reads: "Choose one--Setup your next turn's strategy; or steal target opponent's Sword of X and X. If this is your fourth turn, entwine." The sad thing is, I'm not joking. Upped from three in the former version.

Stolen Goods: It could be a boat.



"What deck are you playing?" "I don't know, you tell me."

Brainstorming - Bits and Pieces

Those of you who use a fairly current version of Windows might know of an application called Sticky Notes.

Kind of like that, except mine's much less organized.... and mostly "stacked" on the bottom right of my screen.


So for the sake of my desktop, I'll be clearing off anything slightly-worth keeping here.


Bounceplay [W]
Just playing around with all that flickering...
Lands:
20 Plains
4 Seraph Sanctuary
Creatures:
3 Leonin Relic-Warder
4 Fiend Hunter
2 Sun Titan
4 Emancipation Angel
4 Restoration Angel
1 Avacyn
3 Suture Priest
Not Creatures:
2 Bladed Bracers
4 Scroll of Avacyn
1 Defy Death
0 Divine Reckoning
0 Divine Reflection
4 Cloudshift
3 Oblivion Ring
1 Gideon Jura


Future Deck Idea: Surgeatron
 A Primal Surge deck that gets up to ten with Urza Lands.


Eternal
A broken list of pieces to consider for an Eternal Dominion deck.
Eternal Dominion x4
Paradox Haze x4
Chalice x4
Surge Node x4
Cycling
Cloud of Faeries
Complicate
Decree of Silence
Dragon Wings
Miscalculation
Vedalken Shackles
Propaganda
High Tide
Copy Enchantment
Drift of Phantasms


Empires Deck
An unfinished concept for the respectively named artifacts.
4 buried ruin
22 land
4 crown of empires
4 scepter of empires
4 throne of empires
4 forbidden alchemy
4 faithless looting
4 ponder
2 batterskull
2 wurmcoil engine


Mental Note: Make a Myr deck soon.


Random R/G Deck Concept
4 noxious revival
4 reclaim
4 thunderous wrath
4 faithless looting
4 vexing devil
4 risky bet
4 stormblood beserker
4 strangleroot geist
1 red sun's zenith
3 Phyrexian Metamorph
2 galvanic blast
1 thrun
23 land


Ah, that's a bit better. Maybe there's a little purple weight off my mind, too.

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....