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.

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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.

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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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