Sealed Deck Practice #2

Beyond Dominia: The Limited Magic Mill: Sealed Deck Practice #2

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By Nevyn, the Village Idiot (Nevyn) on Wednesday, January 10, 2001 - 06:59 pm:

Well, since I would rate the last practice deck as a tough build, as evidenced by the many arguments that accompanied it (because of the sketchy mana involved and a needed 3 - way splash). I thought I would go for something a little easier for people to practice on this time around. I consider this one a near no-brainer, and it forms a pretty powerful deck (with a somewhat sketchy mana curve). But aside from land distribution, everbody's build should be relatively close for this deck (3 cards or so). Hopefully, this will help us get down to a nuts-and-bolts card-for-card discussion (deck tuning).


Here is the card pool:

LANDS(other than basic):

2x Ancient Spring
Elfhame Palace
Geothermal Crevice
Tinder Farm

ARTIFACTS:
Bloodstone Cameo
Drake-Skull Cameo
Troll-Horn Cameo

GOLD/SPLIT CARDS:
2x Aura Shards
Barrin's Spite
Charging Troll
Frenzied Tilling
Shivan Zombie
Wings of Hope
Assault/Battery

BLACK:
Bog Initiate
Defiling Tears
Exotic Curse
Phyrexian Battleflies
2x Phyrexian Reaper
Phyrexian Slayer
2x Tainted Well
Twilight's Call
Urborg Shambler

BLUE:
2x Dream Thrush
2x Faerie Squadron
2x Exclude
Manipulate Fate
Metathran Zombie
Probe
Repulse
2x Shimmering Wings
Stormscape Apprentice
Tower Drake
Vodalian Hypnotist
Vodalian Merchant
Wash Out
Well-Laid Plans

GREEN:
Llanowar Elite
Molimo, Maro Sorcerer
2x Nomadic Elf
Tranquility
Vigorous Charge
Whip Silk

Red:
Ancient Kavu
Crown of Flames
Kavu Runner
Maniacal Rage
Overload
Pouncing Kavu
Savage Offensive
Scarred Puma
Scorching Lava
Slimy Kavu
Thunderscape Apprentice
Viashino Grappler

WHITE
Dismantling Blow
Holy Day
2x Prison Barricade
Protective Sphere
Razortooth Griffin
Sunscape Apprentice
Teferi's Care
Winnow


Limmerick of the day (aka space to think)

There was an old lady of Rhyde,
Who ate some green apples and died
the apples fermented
inside the lamented
Made cider inside 'er insides!


Enough of that fun. Anyway, I'll skip through some of the early analysis here because it doesnt take long with a list like this to figure one's colours out, so most of your alloted time should be used figure out the curve and the last few cuts.

Here is the short analysis;

Imperatives (must-use cards):
none. this is actually sometimes a good thing, as nothing lures you away from your deepest colours.

Best colour for removal : blue
for creatures: blue
runners up: black and red


Goodie, that was quick, now we can move on to building. Very quickly we learn that we can't make a 2 colour with enough creatures, so 3 colour it is. To keep things short, I'll post my final listing, then discuss why a couple of choices were made.

1cc:

Stormscape Apprentice
Assault/(battery)

2cc

2x Dream Thrush
Vodalian Hypnotist
Metathran Zombie
Scorching Lava

3cc

Tower Drake
2x Exclude
Repulse
Exotic Curse
Probe
Viashino Grappler

4cc

Ancient Kavu
Kavu Runner
Phyrexian Slayer
Wash Out
Barrin's Spite

5cc

2x Faerie Squadron
Phyrexian Reaper
Pouncing Kavu

8x Island
5x Mountain
4x Swamp

notes on cards:

Viashino Grappler: inserted to lower the curve, took the second reaper's spot. I almost cut the RR Pouncing Kavu, but went for power over consistency.

Shivan Zombie: Looks like a great way to bring down the curve, right? Actually, not really. Being in your two off colours, this is more like a 3-4 drop. I can see people playing this, but I planned this deck to use its tempo cards to hold down the fort until bigger cards arrive.

Urborg Shambler: He's good, but he's BB.

17 lands: With 2 dream thrushes and few double coloured spells, this isnt a big problem for colour. As for quantity and your high curve, remember your 3 cantrips and your probe.

Cameos: Just no room. I wanted all 23 slots for cards, and Im not going to 16 land. Also, count your 3-drops. With repulses and excludes, you don't want to be accelerating at this part o the curve, you want to be casting.

Other notes: So you're deck built itself ( with the exception of the last few picks which you agonised over). You have lots of time left before round 1, what do you do. How about making some sideboard plans. When you have a set plan , you are less likely to forget to bring something in , and you know which cards are coming out.

so, let's plan a little; first, we have the obvious:

vs white: shivan zombie (take outhypnotist or reaper, depending on opposing deck speed)

vs black: urborg shambler (it means trade around some mana too, plan that as well. take out pouncing kavu (it's RR) )

now, for the slightly less obvious: vs mirror, take out wash out for shambler

anyway, we should be pretty happy with this deck. It won't guarantee us a top 8 spot, but with a reasonable curve, great removal base, and 6 evasion creatures, we should be able to compete in any matchup.


By Rakso, the Patriarch and Rules Ayatollah (Rakso) on Thursday, January 11, 2001 - 01:56 am:

I have the same thing in mind, so I won't repeat stuff.

I will note that green is tempting because of Molimo, but you'll never have enough mana. You don't have enough forests to play Nomadic Elf early, so Charging Troll isn't worth it, either.

White simply has that griffin; otherwise, 2 Barricades with nothing else is not castable.

My deck:

1cc
Assault/Battery

2cc
2x Dream Thrush
Metathran Zombie
Scorching Lava

3cc
2x Exclude
Repulse
Tower Drake
Wash Out
Defiling Tears
Exotic Curse

4cc
Phyrexian Slayer
Kavu Runner
Barrin's Spite
Ancient Kavu

5cc
2x Faerie Squadron
Probe
2x Phyrexian Reaper
Pouncing Kavu

Mana:
Bloodstone Cameo
Drake-Skull Cameo
7 Island
4 Mountain
3 Swamp

Essentially, I went with 16 land and 2 Cameos, which should be good here with 3 cantrips and Probe and 2 Dream Thrushes to smooth everything.

I wanted 18 mana slots and go with a higher mana curve because I didn't think there were enough good early plays. You could stick in the red 3 cc, but I didn't think fixing the mana for that would be good.

The last card I cut was Vodalian Hypnotist since i wasn't sure what she'd really be doing, and if she wouldn't do more than discard a 6cc card in case it got stuck in the opponent's hand.

I also wanted Stormscape Apprentice but cut it, since I felt it would be optimal only with a Dream Thrush in play.


By Nevyn, the Village Idiot (Nevyn) on Thursday, January 11, 2001 - 08:25 pm:

The things that concern me about your build:

1- you are only running 12.5 creatures ( the .5 being an unlikely battery token )

2- You have only 4 creatures you can play in the first 3 turns

3- Defiling Tears. Are you kidding me? at 3 mana this is not a very good card, and you already have tons of removal effects. As a damage trick this is awful. Either Hypnotist or Stormscape in this slot for sure.

4- 2 Cameos: I understand your reasoning, but with 16 land there is a chance you'll never get to cast them, and this will leave you stuck quite often with the decision of cast the cameo or hold for exclude.

and to address a couple of your concerns, hypnotist combines pretty well with wash out and tends to force the opponent to either hold back lands or overcommit. Not to mention now and then you'll snag a dragon. And apprentice has 2 thrushes to make it a tapper, and it's drain ability is great for resolving deadlocks. Besides, you need early drops, and because of exclude, you would prefer them to be 1-2 drops.

Anyway, Im sure both of our builds would do fine, but have fun with the above challenge. Its just nasty.


By ATW on Friday, January 12, 2001 - 05:19 am:

I don't think the Cameos are worth the space in the deck. When I get to 3 mana, I need something better to happen than casting artifact mana.

I took the both Reapers, and the Hypnotist. I didn't use the Viashino Grappler and the Stormscape Apprentice.

I did take the Phyrexian Battleflies. I've found it to be something to do with my mana if I get stuck on 2 land and a handful of 3cc spells. The same with the Hypnotist when stuck on 3 land. Having a creature in play doing something that sucks up your mana makes your opponent think using those abilities are part of your strategy rather than being mana screwed. :-)

As for sideboarding, against 5cg you might consider adding both Tainted Wells. Their mana base is fragile usually depending on only a few land in a color plus elves. If you draw both Wells or a Well and a Dream Thrush, remove their elves and you have a good chance of denying them the colors they need.


By PredatorFlagship on Friday, January 12, 2001 - 04:21 pm:

Rakso: Your build only contains 14 lands. Which two did you forget? I know, probably just a typo, but I'm curious.

Also, Defiling Tears can be a great trick. It also removes 2 of the 3 common tappers and can save an important creature in the later game.


By Nevyn, the Village Idiot (Nevyn) on Friday, January 12, 2001 - 08:16 pm:

predator, we already have 8 BETTER removal effects in the deck, so I think squeexing in some room for removal may be a good thing, hmmm?


By PredatorFlagship on Saturday, January 13, 2001 - 03:38 pm:

I was merely adding a counter-comment to the "not a very good card" bit. Obviously, with higher quality removal available, Defiling Tears might not make the cut; While not a "bomb", it isn't trash either.

It would compare in quality to, say, Viashino Grappler, which somehow snuck into your build. The Grappler goes in not for it's quality, but to provide a necessary body. Tears fits the same role in a removal/trick-light deck.

You want bad, try Crown of Flames. Kudos for keeping the sorry entrashment out of your deck. ;-)


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