I keep thinking about this, stupid brain...
Juzám Djinn was good, right?
Well, Phyrexian Vatmother is kindof like Juzam, with a few differences:
1) It has 8 power instead of 5.
2) It doesn't deal damage to you.
3) It is $5 instead of $150
4) It is legal in standard.
Juggernaut is a 10/5 for 6 now, but that's probably too slow when you have a 8/4 flying regenerator (with maybe haste)for 5.
There is also a new ultra-grey-ogre that is immune to all sorts of removal (StP-2.0, 3.0, Bolt 1.0-n.0, Terror-2.0, etc), blocks and attacks very well, (have to have a 4+/3+, non-red, non-white, creature to trade with it...), and is hard to block to begin with. (~35% unblockable)
Mishras Factory 2.0 is a 2/1 flyer instead of a 2/2 ground-y now. It's not as good of a blocker, but it is a similar attacker.
Black still has good discard and creature removal to draw off. Pumping these guys up with new fangled equipment is the trend now, and these have ~double effectiveness with this strategy. (2-mana
+4/+2, or +8/+4 (fetchland), OR 5-mana +4/+2 with double-protection + 2 abilities)
The new Paralyze-variant works on all their creatures (but only for one of yours), twice, and does 4
damage over those two turns. It requires going into a new color, but there are a few lands
to support that..
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Sideboard into mill against control/ramp?
Burn is not an amazing strategy against ramp and control. They don't have (credible) small creatures to get 2:1 card advantage. They don't have medium sized creatures, to 1:1 with cards like bolt or kicked burst. They do have large creatures, that would require multiple spells to take down, or planeswalkers which often require multiple burn spells to answer. All you can do is throw some burn at them, and hope it's enough before you are burned out yourself from their nonbasic lands or 6/6s.
Currently, I'm siding out Lightning Bolts and Arc Trails, to bring in countermagic. I leave in Staggershock, because:
1) It's an instant
2) It does the most damage per card
3) It does the best job charging up an Ascension. (1 card charge)
One strategy certain other people advocated just playing a milling strategy main-deck, over the burn strategy.
This involves playing a kill package of:
4x Archive Trap (3UU, instant, mill 13. Trap cost: 0. Trap condition: they searched their library)
4x Trapmaker's Snare. (1U, instant, tutor for a trap)
1-2x Ravenous Trap (2BB, instant, remove a graveyard from the game. Trap cost: 0. Trap condition: they had 3 cards go to their graveyard from anywhere)
This can kill through anything, including reshuffle effects(Eldrazi). They are milled before the trigger goes onto the stack, so you do all your milling, then Ravenous Trap them in response (with the reshuffles on the stack). Then they reshuffle their empty graveyard into their (empty?) library.
One advantage of this plan is that a single Trapmaker's Snare is lethal with a charged PA. You search for two Archive Traps, then cast the two archive traps, which are doubled, giving you a mill for 52, which is plenty to kill anyone.
Valakut gets alot less dangerous when there are suddenly 2-3 valakuts, and 6-8 mountains in your deck.
Mindbreak Trap, which I'm already sideboarding, and bringing in for these matchups, is a trap, which gives some minor utililty with Trapmaker's Snare.
Currently, I have to resolve 5 burn spells to kill my opponent. (4 damage each). With Archive Trap, I'd have to resolve perhaps 3, depending on the game state.
Archive Trap does cost 5 to hardcast, instead of 3 for Staggershock, but the trap cost for Archive Trap is not that hard to trigger.
UW Control: Trinket Mage, Squadron Hawk, typically 1-4 fetchlands.
UB Control: Trinket Mage, typically 1-4 fetchlands.
RG Valakut: Every spell in their deck other than Explore? 8-12 fetchlands, Cultivate, Growth Spasm, Khalni Heart Expedition, Primeval Titan, Green Sun's Zenith.
There is some probability of having a turn 2-3 kill with this orientation. You can just have 4 Archive Traps, or 3 Archive Traps and one Trapmaker's Snare. Or probably even 2 Traps and 2 Snares. This is pretty unlikely, but it does just win the game. There is probably some interesting math here... To complicated for me to do in any reasonable time frame. Basically what we'd want to know is how many cards we have to see to see 4 of our 8 Archive + Snare, since that would give us how many cards we need in order to kill our opponent, without any Ascension help. A charged Ascension needs only 2 Traps, or 1 Snare, and you'll be saving these until that time.
The downside of these cards is that they have no effect on the board state. Burn can try to kill planeswalkers (and fail), but they do take up less space as a kill condition.
4x Archive Trap
4x Trapmakers Snare
3x Mindbreak Trap
1x Ravenous Trap
3x something (Pyroclasm, Flashfreeze, Mana Leak)
This lets me bring in 12 mill + counter for my 12 burn spells. having a sideboard against aggro could be good, and pyroclasm is pretty good at that. I don't have much else to take out against control/ramp, so i don't think I could use the 3-4 more counters I could want to bring in. (Bounce is not great against Ramp, but necessary against Control)
One advantage this plan has is that it is very blue. I swap out red for blue, and that is a plan that follows my current mana base quite well. Swapping out blue for red does not work terribly well with the mana base, which some other sideboard strategies employ.
I have quite a few potential sideboard strategies. I'm not sure which way to go.
Echo Mage in for PA(Blue vs. Red, Creature vs. Enchantment, can target their spells, can block KFW)
Kiln Fiend for PA (Ultra-aggro, creature vs enchantment, can kill quickly with burn support)
Sphynx for burn (creature vs non, blue vs red, non-targetable)
Counters for burn (current plan - losing the long game)
Mill for burn (blue vs red, instant vs enchantment, 1-3 spells to victory)
Land disruption (one of: spreading seas, demolish, tech edge) for burn.
What do you think?
Currently, I'm siding out Lightning Bolts and Arc Trails, to bring in countermagic. I leave in Staggershock, because:
1) It's an instant
2) It does the most damage per card
3) It does the best job charging up an Ascension. (1 card charge)
One strategy certain other people advocated just playing a milling strategy main-deck, over the burn strategy.
This involves playing a kill package of:
4x Archive Trap (3UU, instant, mill 13. Trap cost: 0. Trap condition: they searched their library)
4x Trapmaker's Snare. (1U, instant, tutor for a trap)
1-2x Ravenous Trap (2BB, instant, remove a graveyard from the game. Trap cost: 0. Trap condition: they had 3 cards go to their graveyard from anywhere)
This can kill through anything, including reshuffle effects(Eldrazi). They are milled before the trigger goes onto the stack, so you do all your milling, then Ravenous Trap them in response (with the reshuffles on the stack). Then they reshuffle their empty graveyard into their (empty?) library.
One advantage of this plan is that a single Trapmaker's Snare is lethal with a charged PA. You search for two Archive Traps, then cast the two archive traps, which are doubled, giving you a mill for 52, which is plenty to kill anyone.
Valakut gets alot less dangerous when there are suddenly 2-3 valakuts, and 6-8 mountains in your deck.
Mindbreak Trap, which I'm already sideboarding, and bringing in for these matchups, is a trap, which gives some minor utililty with Trapmaker's Snare.
Currently, I have to resolve 5 burn spells to kill my opponent. (4 damage each). With Archive Trap, I'd have to resolve perhaps 3, depending on the game state.
Archive Trap does cost 5 to hardcast, instead of 3 for Staggershock, but the trap cost for Archive Trap is not that hard to trigger.
UW Control: Trinket Mage, Squadron Hawk, typically 1-4 fetchlands.
UB Control: Trinket Mage, typically 1-4 fetchlands.
RG Valakut: Every spell in their deck other than Explore? 8-12 fetchlands, Cultivate, Growth Spasm, Khalni Heart Expedition, Primeval Titan, Green Sun's Zenith.
There is some probability of having a turn 2-3 kill with this orientation. You can just have 4 Archive Traps, or 3 Archive Traps and one Trapmaker's Snare. Or probably even 2 Traps and 2 Snares. This is pretty unlikely, but it does just win the game. There is probably some interesting math here... To complicated for me to do in any reasonable time frame. Basically what we'd want to know is how many cards we have to see to see 4 of our 8 Archive + Snare, since that would give us how many cards we need in order to kill our opponent, without any Ascension help. A charged Ascension needs only 2 Traps, or 1 Snare, and you'll be saving these until that time.
The downside of these cards is that they have no effect on the board state. Burn can try to kill planeswalkers (and fail), but they do take up less space as a kill condition.
4x Archive Trap
4x Trapmakers Snare
3x Mindbreak Trap
1x Ravenous Trap
3x something (Pyroclasm, Flashfreeze, Mana Leak)
This lets me bring in 12 mill + counter for my 12 burn spells. having a sideboard against aggro could be good, and pyroclasm is pretty good at that. I don't have much else to take out against control/ramp, so i don't think I could use the 3-4 more counters I could want to bring in. (Bounce is not great against Ramp, but necessary against Control)
One advantage this plan has is that it is very blue. I swap out red for blue, and that is a plan that follows my current mana base quite well. Swapping out blue for red does not work terribly well with the mana base, which some other sideboard strategies employ.
I have quite a few potential sideboard strategies. I'm not sure which way to go.
Echo Mage in for PA(Blue vs. Red, Creature vs. Enchantment, can target their spells, can block KFW)
Kiln Fiend for PA (Ultra-aggro, creature vs enchantment, can kill quickly with burn support)
Sphynx for burn (creature vs non, blue vs red, non-targetable)
Counters for burn (current plan - losing the long game)
Mill for burn (blue vs red, instant vs enchantment, 1-3 spells to victory)
Land disruption (one of: spreading seas, demolish, tech edge) for burn.
What do you think?
Monday, February 7, 2011
Mirrodin Beseiged - Whiff for the PA deck.
There are 91 cards that I could concievably play with R/U.
There are 16 instants or sorceries that I can play with my mana base.
Blue Sun's Zenith (UUUX, target player draws X cards, instant) is okay as a 1-of in the deck. It will only give PA counters if a previous one was countered, so it is pretty terrible at charging up PA. It's also not amazing post-ascending, but it is potentially better than Foresee as a topdeck on an open board, or as a way of punishing an opponent for tapping out. I was cautiously optimistic about this card for a while, but it is pretty hard to be better than Foresee, and I am not playing Foresee. I am already not playing Jace's Ingenuity, because Foresee is better, and less expensive, but BSZ could be draw-6 late-game against anyone, at instant speed.
I might play one. I won't play more than one. I'm may play 0.
Burn the Impure seems like a bad Searing Blaze. I do like me some Searing Blaze (incidental damage to them is great), but I'm not playing that, and if I'm not playing that, this is a non-starter.
Concussive Bolt is for a different deck. (Worse than Lava Axe, that's saying something?) I have considered playing Lava Axe, but I am not.
Crush is a bad Shatter.
Distant Memories is a card draw spell, sortof. Apparently you do have to reveal the card you are exiling (I wouldn't have thought that). A good way of thinking about this, is that it is Foresee, or a 4-mana draw one, whichever is worse for you. I can draw the best 2 cards out of the top 4-6 with Foresee, which is better than "draw 3" to me. Modal cards that give your opponent the choices are not good, period.
Fuel for the Cause seems inferior to Mindbreak Trap, and Steady Progress. Mindbreak Trap is a counter that does great things. Steady Progress is a cantrip one-card PA-charger, which this deck loves. Fuel for the Cause is a one-card (+1 in the graveyard) charger for PA, which is great, but it costs 4, and requires your opponent to do something in order for you to get a "charge" out of it. (and you need to cast another 4-mana counterspell beforehand). It is 4cc, so it dodges Inquisition, and it is a hard counter. So this may bear watching.
Into the Core may be a bad shatter/demolish. You have to have two targets to cast this, and the PA deck is not playing any artifacts to allow you to cast it in a worst-case scenario. Exiling is very good against Wurmcoil Engine, but that's about it. (ITR is very good against that "colorless titan")
Metallic Mastery is for a different deck. It is a 3-mana, Sorcery-speed, shatter against ratchet bomb. Seems strictly inferior to Mark of Mutiny in all cases. (Getting any creature(titan) > Getting any artifact)
Mitotic Manipulation is strange. It is the "Blue Rampant Growth", which seems like about all it'd do in this deck. The only perminant other than land we're playing is PA, and we don't need another out if we have one.
Quicksilver Geyser is higher-volume than ITR, in that it returns two perminants, but it costs 4U instead of 2UU, and doesn't draw a card (important for PA). It also doesn't have the option to be cast for 1U in an emergency. Combine that with the PA deck doing a pretty good job at perminant-control as-is, and this card is a downgrade to current cards in the deck.
Rally the forces: Aggro deck. Not great even for the KF sideboard (3 mana -> 4 damage is about as terrible as ratios get for KF)
Red Sun's Zenith is actually interesting. I am playing Mindbreak Trap, and bringing it in to deal with recursion creatures (Vengevine + Bloodghast). MBT also has secondary uses against things like Titans, non-counterable spells (Gaea's Revenge, Emrakul, Thrun), whereas this has a secondary use of "just killing them". It is a competitor for Mindbreak Trap in some roles, and like the Blue Sun's Zenith, charges PA poorly. (I will have 0 copies in the graveyard). If this could deal with Kor Firewalker, it might make slots just as a counter-hate-creature sideboard card. As is, it likely doesn't make it.
Slagstorm is the card most likely to make the deck. It is a 3 damage pyroclasm, for 3 mana, or it is a 3-damage-to-them spell in a control/ramp matchup. (against those decks, doing 3 to yourself is irrelevant). Unfortunately, Staggershock and Arc Trail already occupy slots as mass creature sweeping in the deck, and both are quite good. Less mana intensive (matters for the killing turn, and call to mind), less red mana intensive (end game I'll have 3-4 total red mana in play, with 10 blue), and sorcery speed are knocks agaisnt this card. However, it does do 3 damage, which is good against the green leyline, Kor Skyfisher, and doubled it kills everything (which pyroclasm can't claim). Probably not making the deck, but it's a card that warrants investigation.
Steel Sabotage. I do love me some ITR, but I don't need more ITRs that target less things than ITR (ITR is already somewhat problematic for not being able to target (man) lands - or valakut, that'd be sweet...). Countering less things than any other spell is also not a great mode. (Deprive, Cancel, Mana Leak, Mindbreak Trap, etc, are all pretty good, and/or better than Steel Sabotage). Getting the choice of which bad effect I want (and any time one effect is dead, the other is also dead) doesn't make this card any better. Meh, I say.
Turn the Tide. -2/-0 is kind of like a fog, but I'd rather Into the Roil to prevent creature damage. ITR prevents all the damage, and Pyroclasm kills all the creatures. I'm not sure which of these you're supposed to not play, in order to make this card make any kind of sense.
Vivisection: If i did have creatures, and didn't mind saccing them, I'd still rather cast Foresee, than Vivisection. Foresee draws something like 3.5 cards, for the same mana cost, and no drawback. I'd have to be saccing something for benefit on the sac in order to play this even in a creature deck, much less in mine.
So, overall, it seems like we got almost 100% inferior to currently played (or "better" yet unplayable) cards in this new set, as far as fueling the combo.
===============
Blue Sun's Zenith might be worth it as a 1-of, instant-cast, draw x.
Slagstorm might be worth it (over pyroclasm), as a versitile hate-card. It would be a fine main-deck card, but I already have Arc Trail main, which seems like a equally general-purpose card, that is easier to cast, gets in splash damage while killing their team, and kills their guys on turn 2, instead of turn 3 (turn dead). As a 3 damage sweeper, it starts to run into Chain Reaction, which is another slow creature-sweeper that could be great or terrible.
================
As far as creatures, Consecrated Sphynx competes in the Sphynx of Jwar Isle slot. 4/6 vs 5/5 is about the same. Both give some card advantage. (Saccing Fetchlands to shuffle, or Treasure Hunt hits) Combos well with little Jace on your side, and a brainstorming Jace on the other (draw 6? Okay...). I guess it is not terrible against big Jace, since they can only bounce after they draw their card for the turn, so you're still drawing 3 for every one they draw, and they're using jace's -1.
Neurok Commando is a better (?) Scroll Thief. But we're not playing Scroll Thief, and NC blocks poorly, and attacks just as bad into things that stop Scroll Thief.
Phyrexian Revoker doesn't stop PA, so that's a card that may take up sideboard slots to no benefit against PA. It also does almost nothing against valakut (shuts down KHE? ha?) Activated abilities require a : for the most part, so look for that when you consider how good this is. (It does stop planeswalkers, which can be a problem)
There are 16 instants or sorceries that I can play with my mana base.
Blue Sun's Zenith (UUUX, target player draws X cards, instant) is okay as a 1-of in the deck. It will only give PA counters if a previous one was countered, so it is pretty terrible at charging up PA. It's also not amazing post-ascending, but it is potentially better than Foresee as a topdeck on an open board, or as a way of punishing an opponent for tapping out. I was cautiously optimistic about this card for a while, but it is pretty hard to be better than Foresee, and I am not playing Foresee. I am already not playing Jace's Ingenuity, because Foresee is better, and less expensive, but BSZ could be draw-6 late-game against anyone, at instant speed.
I might play one. I won't play more than one. I'm may play 0.
Burn the Impure seems like a bad Searing Blaze. I do like me some Searing Blaze (incidental damage to them is great), but I'm not playing that, and if I'm not playing that, this is a non-starter.
Concussive Bolt is for a different deck. (Worse than Lava Axe, that's saying something?) I have considered playing Lava Axe, but I am not.
Crush is a bad Shatter.
Distant Memories is a card draw spell, sortof. Apparently you do have to reveal the card you are exiling (I wouldn't have thought that). A good way of thinking about this, is that it is Foresee, or a 4-mana draw one, whichever is worse for you. I can draw the best 2 cards out of the top 4-6 with Foresee, which is better than "draw 3" to me. Modal cards that give your opponent the choices are not good, period.
Fuel for the Cause seems inferior to Mindbreak Trap, and Steady Progress. Mindbreak Trap is a counter that does great things. Steady Progress is a cantrip one-card PA-charger, which this deck loves. Fuel for the Cause is a one-card (+1 in the graveyard) charger for PA, which is great, but it costs 4, and requires your opponent to do something in order for you to get a "charge" out of it. (and you need to cast another 4-mana counterspell beforehand). It is 4cc, so it dodges Inquisition, and it is a hard counter. So this may bear watching.
Into the Core may be a bad shatter/demolish. You have to have two targets to cast this, and the PA deck is not playing any artifacts to allow you to cast it in a worst-case scenario. Exiling is very good against Wurmcoil Engine, but that's about it. (ITR is very good against that "colorless titan")
Metallic Mastery is for a different deck. It is a 3-mana, Sorcery-speed, shatter against ratchet bomb. Seems strictly inferior to Mark of Mutiny in all cases. (Getting any creature(titan) > Getting any artifact)
Mitotic Manipulation is strange. It is the "Blue Rampant Growth", which seems like about all it'd do in this deck. The only perminant other than land we're playing is PA, and we don't need another out if we have one.
Quicksilver Geyser is higher-volume than ITR, in that it returns two perminants, but it costs 4U instead of 2UU, and doesn't draw a card (important for PA). It also doesn't have the option to be cast for 1U in an emergency. Combine that with the PA deck doing a pretty good job at perminant-control as-is, and this card is a downgrade to current cards in the deck.
Rally the forces: Aggro deck. Not great even for the KF sideboard (3 mana -> 4 damage is about as terrible as ratios get for KF)
Red Sun's Zenith is actually interesting. I am playing Mindbreak Trap, and bringing it in to deal with recursion creatures (Vengevine + Bloodghast). MBT also has secondary uses against things like Titans, non-counterable spells (Gaea's Revenge, Emrakul, Thrun), whereas this has a secondary use of "just killing them". It is a competitor for Mindbreak Trap in some roles, and like the Blue Sun's Zenith, charges PA poorly. (I will have 0 copies in the graveyard). If this could deal with Kor Firewalker, it might make slots just as a counter-hate-creature sideboard card. As is, it likely doesn't make it.
Slagstorm is the card most likely to make the deck. It is a 3 damage pyroclasm, for 3 mana, or it is a 3-damage-to-them spell in a control/ramp matchup. (against those decks, doing 3 to yourself is irrelevant). Unfortunately, Staggershock and Arc Trail already occupy slots as mass creature sweeping in the deck, and both are quite good. Less mana intensive (matters for the killing turn, and call to mind), less red mana intensive (end game I'll have 3-4 total red mana in play, with 10 blue), and sorcery speed are knocks agaisnt this card. However, it does do 3 damage, which is good against the green leyline, Kor Skyfisher, and doubled it kills everything (which pyroclasm can't claim). Probably not making the deck, but it's a card that warrants investigation.
Steel Sabotage. I do love me some ITR, but I don't need more ITRs that target less things than ITR (ITR is already somewhat problematic for not being able to target (man) lands - or valakut, that'd be sweet...). Countering less things than any other spell is also not a great mode. (Deprive, Cancel, Mana Leak, Mindbreak Trap, etc, are all pretty good, and/or better than Steel Sabotage). Getting the choice of which bad effect I want (and any time one effect is dead, the other is also dead) doesn't make this card any better. Meh, I say.
Turn the Tide. -2/-0 is kind of like a fog, but I'd rather Into the Roil to prevent creature damage. ITR prevents all the damage, and Pyroclasm kills all the creatures. I'm not sure which of these you're supposed to not play, in order to make this card make any kind of sense.
Vivisection: If i did have creatures, and didn't mind saccing them, I'd still rather cast Foresee, than Vivisection. Foresee draws something like 3.5 cards, for the same mana cost, and no drawback. I'd have to be saccing something for benefit on the sac in order to play this even in a creature deck, much less in mine.
So, overall, it seems like we got almost 100% inferior to currently played (or "better" yet unplayable) cards in this new set, as far as fueling the combo.
===============
Blue Sun's Zenith might be worth it as a 1-of, instant-cast, draw x.
Slagstorm might be worth it (over pyroclasm), as a versitile hate-card. It would be a fine main-deck card, but I already have Arc Trail main, which seems like a equally general-purpose card, that is easier to cast, gets in splash damage while killing their team, and kills their guys on turn 2, instead of turn 3 (turn dead). As a 3 damage sweeper, it starts to run into Chain Reaction, which is another slow creature-sweeper that could be great or terrible.
================
As far as creatures, Consecrated Sphynx competes in the Sphynx of Jwar Isle slot. 4/6 vs 5/5 is about the same. Both give some card advantage. (Saccing Fetchlands to shuffle, or Treasure Hunt hits) Combos well with little Jace on your side, and a brainstorming Jace on the other (draw 6? Okay...). I guess it is not terrible against big Jace, since they can only bounce after they draw their card for the turn, so you're still drawing 3 for every one they draw, and they're using jace's -1.
Neurok Commando is a better (?) Scroll Thief. But we're not playing Scroll Thief, and NC blocks poorly, and attacks just as bad into things that stop Scroll Thief.
Phyrexian Revoker doesn't stop PA, so that's a card that may take up sideboard slots to no benefit against PA. It also does almost nothing against valakut (shuts down KHE? ha?) Activated abilities require a : for the most part, so look for that when you consider how good this is. (It does stop planeswalkers, which can be a problem)
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