Dark Design

Wednesday 3 November 2010

Our First Competition

Now it's only for fun at this stage, well fun and glory, but we have begun pestering Wizards for prizes (and trust me there's only so many naked pictures of me they can take...)(update 23rd Nov WE HAVE PRIZES see the end of the thread)

But for now you'll have to content yourself with fame on our soon to be introduced Wall of Fame and because I'm also lovely, I will send you a handbuilt deck of my choice from the list of many on this site...

So here's the Challenge...

You must create a deck centered around a key card of our choice...

The deck must clearly use this card at it's core and we will judge the best suggestions and publish the winner's deck at the end of the month...

November's Card is... Etched Champion

So how would you make a deck based on this card?...

Either, Email me your deck entries, or Post them as comments to this page... The competition will run until the 1 st of December...

...and to clear a few things up, your deck should be standard legal...
If there is enough interest we might add other categories later, but right now its T2/standard only....

The first two decks are in the comments box following this article so get innovating... If you want to win you have to be in...

 Update Nov 23rd We Have Prizes....

Yep through our contacts on the Front Line of the Mirrin Conflict we've managed to get out hands on some very exclusive Mirrin and  Phyrexian Wristbands... and if that wasn't enough we're also throwing in a sealed playset of FNM Merrow Reejereys....


We have also secured some prizes through a new affilation which we will be announcing at the end of the month so there wil be Prizes every month... And we're gonna let the winner pick the next card..


The competion will be judged by a DCI judge and his decision will be final...


We asked him what he was looking for in entries and this was his answer...


"I'm looking for something new, something I haven't seen before. I know all about the current game and you won't be winning anything by slippimg him into a deck that already exists... Unless he really makes it his own..."


Look ar the pretty things...






These are rarer than golem droppings and you can't get them anywhere yet...









10 comments:

  1. I'm guessing you want it to be standard legal...

    Quest of the Champion

    18x Plains
    3x Tectonic Edge

    4x Memnite
    4x Ornithopter
    4x Glint Hawk
    4x Myrsmith
    3x Kor skyfisher
    4x Etched Champion

    4x Tempered Steel
    2x Glint Hawk Idol
    2x Mox Opal
    4x Journey to Nowhere

    I borrowed a shell of a similar deck in standard, but cut the Stoneforge Mystic/Kor Outfitter package because outfitter is a bad card and the mystic costs too much. Instead, Mysmith makes the repeated bouncings of memnite and ornithopter make more artifacts. Tempered steel then becomes our power card instead of argentum armor, and it is much more consistant.

    Etched Champion is our centerpiece, however. This hardy metalcraft guy becomes quite the beater whith a tempered steel in play. Save your journeys for those artifact creatures that could pose a threat like wurmcoil engine.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Our first entry and it's a strong one... Maraxas... The competeition will run until the 1 st of decmeber good luck...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Another deck list and another take on the challenge... Blue white agro...thankyou mr Turford...

    Proc from all colours? Awesome. But he's only a 2/2. That's not so hot.

    First thing is to boost his power: 4 tempered steel, 4 Steel Overseer

    (these rares can't be particularly bank-breaking) and equipment are the
    first thing the deck wants. The most efficient (and cheap) equipments are:
    darksteel axe, trusty machete and adventuring gear.

    Its already evident that this deck wants a trinket mage package: they can fetch equipments,
    voltaic key to make the overseer work overtime, they are metalcraft enabling, and they allow for huge flexibility ( 1 of brittle effigy, cup,
    map and mox to reduce land count, amd a chimeric mass for a big finisher).

    Obviously the deck wants all 8 on-colour mana myr as they enable the champion, benefit from the overseer and the enchantment, and allow a very
    low land count (the land count will be so that low that adventuring gear will miss out in favour of the axe and the machete).
    To finsh of the spells I've added mana-leaks and journey to nowhere (since in today's standard if you can't deal with primeval titan don't turn up, also mana leak is the easiest way of stopping a certain mind-sculptor ruining your day).

    I admit the land base has quite a lot of rares for a budget deck but other than the Celestial Colonnades they are fairly inexpensive and can be
    replaced with terramorphics/evolving wilds. The expedition map (enabled by the the trinket mage package) allows for a toolbox of 1-of lands: maze,
    tec-edge and dread sanctuary to be tutored when called upon. The sideboard is fairly self-explanatory: firewalkers and flashfreeze cos the deck will likely suck against red-decks (and the flashfreezes are good against any of the ramp decks), volition reins to steal planeswalkers, and the grindclocks + an extra voltaic key to sneak under the radar of control decks.

    Anyway, I've rambled on for f***ing ages now so I'll just present the deckist (which I've also attached as a word doc):

    4 Silver Myr
    4 Gold Myr
    4 Etched Champion
    4 Steel Overseer

    4 Trinket Mage

    1 Brittle Effigy
    1 Voltaic Key
    1 Expedition Map
    1 Everflowing Chalice
    1 Darksteel Axe
    1 Trusty Machete
    1 Chimeric Mass
    1 Memnite
    1 Mox Opal

    4 Tempered Steel
    4 Mana Leak
    3 Journey to Nowhere

    1 Mystifying Maze
    1 Tectonic Edge
    1 Dread Sanctuary
    3 Glacial Fortress
    3 Seachrome Coast
    2 Celestial Colonnade
    5 Island
    4 Plains

    SB
    3 Volition Reins
    4 Flashfreeze
    3 Grindclock
    1 Voltaic Key
    4 Kor Firewalker

    Deck Designer: Neil Turford

    ReplyDelete
  4. 4 Etched Champion
    4 Magma Phoenix
    2 Iron Myr

    3 Chain Reaction
    2 Chandra Nalaar
    3 Destructive Force


    4 Lightning Bolt
    4 Pyroclasm

    4 Everflowing Chalice
    2 Mox Opal
    3 Angelheart Vial

    ReplyDelete
  5. The field is gettinmg tronger by the day... here's another sent in by email...


    I've been thinking of doing something with Etched Champion and I came up with this:
    Green Champions
    4 Etched Champion
    4 Memnite
    4 Ezuri’s Brigade
    4 Carapace Forger
    4 Birds of Paradise
    4 Precursor Golem
    4 Ornithopter
    3 Overwhelming Stampede
    3 Mox Opal
    3 Sword of Body and Mind
    3 Misty Rainforest
    3 Verdant Catacombs
    4 Khalni Garden
    13 Forest
    Side Board
    3 Naturalize
    3 Asceticism
    3 Nihil Spellbomb
    3 Ratchet Bomb
    3 Vines of Vastwood
    deck by Kyle Hagberg

    ReplyDelete
  6. Sword of body and mind + active champion + active bloodchief ascension = 20 to the face :D (can only be countered by artifact creatures to block the champion..)

    ReplyDelete
  7. OK, since I can submit more than one, I will make something a little original:

    3x Ravaging Ravine
    4x Copperline Gorge
    9x Forest
    6x Mountain

    4x Carapace Forger
    4x Sylvok Replica
    4x Etched Champion
    4x Oxidda Scrapmelter

    4x Lightning Bolt
    2x Mimic Vat
    4x Liquimetal Coating
    4x Everflowing Chalice
    4x Pyroclasm

    Mimic Vat + Sylvok Replica + Liquimetal Coating = Pew pew.

    Liquimetal Coating also helps you turn on the etched champion, and all your dudes survive your pyroclasms with metalcraft turned on.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I actually made a deck with Tempered Steel when SoM first came out and completely missed Etched Champion until someone pointed it out to me. I feel like this white/blue version is the best I've got so far.
    It's really unfair to make two 5/5's for 1 mana with Memnite+Riddlesmith when you have two Tempered Steel in play (I've done it, against a red deck, too)
    The 1 toughnes on Trusty Machete outweighs the indestructibility of Darksteel Axe because I'm mostly seeing Revoke Existence played for artifact/enchantment removal in my local meta.

    Creatures (32)
    4 x Ornithopter
    4 x Memnite
    4 x Steel Overseer
    4 x Silver Myr
    4 x Etched Champion
    4 x Glint Hawk
    4 x Myrsmith
    4 x Riddlesmith

    Other (7)
    4 x Tempered Steel
    1 x Trusty Machete
    1 x Sword of Body and Mind
    1 x Sword of Vengeance

    Lands (21)
    10 x Plains
    4 x Seachrome Coast
    4 x Glacial Fortress
    3 x Tectonic Edge

    ReplyDelete
  9. Max fans deck list comes with a little disclaimer... After he sent it, I recevied an email from him suggesting the 21st land, a plains, should be swapped out for a voltaic key so that's the version we'll be judging...

    ReplyDelete
  10. And one final entry (we did get it in time i was just ;ame atputting it up... The Deck lists will all now be judged buy our Expeert DCI judge and we'll have the results by Next Tuesday night...

    Our last entry is from Jordan Anderson..

    and here it is...


    So this deck really uses Etched champion to further itself by trying to get it as the artifact for prototype portal once you get 3 in play other than board sweepers you have an army that gives itself metalcraft and can block almost anything. We have Indomitable Archangel to give are artifacts shroud. Then we have Steel overseer who can also use portal for tons of pumps or just powerup etched. Contagion Clasp can become a reuseable removal with portal or just be used with overseer to proliferate the +1/+1 pumps from Overseer. This deck has tons of interactions and being mostly colorless metalcraft is easy to get. Just try out the deck the more you play it the more you see that the cards interact so well that there are tons of combos. Thanks from MTGrathigod (screenname)

    4 x Memnite
    4 x Steel overseer
    4 x Etched Champion
    4 x Indomitable Archangel
    3 x Palladium Myr
    3 x Prototype Portal
    3 x Tempered steel
    3 x Mox Opal
    4 x Journey to Nowhere
    2 x Contagion Engine
    3 x Contagion Clasp

    19 x Plains
    3 x Tectonic Edge
    1 x Mystifying Maze

    ReplyDelete