Dark Design

Thursday 20 January 2011

Some words with the Wonderful Wizard from Oz


Today we’re going to take a look at a deck that I happened to meet in combat. I’ve seen lists like this before, but there was a trick here I had not seen and that plus some great piloting by Aussie player Gazz gave me a real run for my money. Anyway after a post game chat I asked Gazz to send in the list and he did.  Now I know we are a budget blog and there are a few pricier cards in Gazz’s list, but if you haven’t got the cash then I’m going to offer up some alternatives to a few of these cards (I’m sure Gazz wouldn’t mind that…but this is his list as he sent it first...)



So here's the list: 

// Lands
    2 [ZEN] Misty Rainforest
    2 [ZEN] Scalding Tarn
    4 [WWK] Stirring Wildwood
    3 [SOM] Seachrome Coast
    1 [M10] Glacial Fortress
    4 [SOM] Razorverge Thicket
    2 [SOM] Plains (3)
    3 [SOM] Island (4)
    3 [UG] Forest

// Creatures
    4 [M11] Squadron Hawk
    4 [M11] Fauna Shaman
    1 [SOM] Memnite
    4 [ROE] Vengevine
    4 [7E] Birds of Paradise
    3 [ROE] Nest Invader
    4 [ZEN] Lotus Cobra
    1 [M11] Frost Titan
    3 [ROE] Sea Gate Oracle
    1 [WWK] Stoneforge Mystic
    1 [FD] Trinket Mage

// Spells
    2 [SOM] Culling Dais
    3 [ZEN] Eldrazi Monument
    1 [V10] Sword of Body and Mind

As you said, i need to fit at least one acidic slime in there, and I've got to work out the sideboard at some point too.

But there are some cool tricks too, the culling dais/vengevine combo is great.  They bolt vengevine? sac it, draw into two creatures, play them, get vengevine back.  (this is a great play and it was the combo that prompted me to ask hm to send it in, it also saves vengevine from its natural nemesis Journey to Nowhere)

The fauna shaman/vengevine thing is obvious too, say you pitch vengevine and grab a squadron hawk, rather than paying 4 for vengevine, you're paying 4 for vengevine and two flying 1/1s.
Pitching for trinket mage to get memnite works in a similar way.  

The sword of body and mind can and will win you games that you can't otherwise win, (such as when you had emperion out :P) but shaman obviously can't grab it, so a stoneforge mystic makes it easier to grab.  

The mana base is a bit sketchy because i built it out of the lands i had available to me, and decided to use the same lands on MWS

So if anybody has any suggestions I'd be very interested, I want to see this deck do well, even if it's not me playing it :D

Ok so the original list does run a few pricier cards and whilst you can’t exactly replace some of them you can get pretty close for less.   
So if budget is a problem then you can get away with 2 vengevines rather than 4, if you can’t afford any then Cudgel Troll is a pretty good poor man’s version. Ok he doesn’t have haste, but he does regenerate and therefore once you’ve got him, he’ll ‘keep coming back’ like the vines..(I know it’s not a perfect replacement, but it also doesn’t cost £15… You can use Overgrown Battlements for lotus cobras once you’ve tutored a few of them into play you’ll be ramping all over your enemy. Add another trinket mage and an elixir of immortality and then you can get al your discarded critters back…  

1 comment:

  1. I actually found a cool little trick that I missed before when playing at FNM tonight. (came 2nd)
    If your opening hand has a squadron hawk and a vengevine in it, you can turn two play squadron hawk, searching for 2-3 squadron hawks, 2 if you have 1 vine and 3 if you have 2, bumping your hand size up to 8 or 9, and then ending your turn and discarding your 1 or 2 vengevines.
    You then play the squadron hawks you just grabbed at turn 4, to get the vengevine/s back.
    Following with a turn 5 monument is pretty much good game unless they remove your vengevine in response, but playing 2 creatures the next turn shouldn't be too hard for this deck.

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