Proliferhate...

As it’s nearly Christmas you may have noticed we haven’t been as prolific as usual. So apologies if we’ve been a bit slack, but we’re going to make it up to you now with a brand new deck. It’s quick, it’s brutal and the entire thing will cost less than a single ‘Jace The Pocket Melter.’

I have to give a nod to my good friend Jim for the foundations of this deck. He’s still promising to submit his original list and when he does I’ll stick it up, but Adventures in the Meta can’t wait forever so I’ve decided to make my own version with a few twists....

I call it Proliferhate... but I’m open to better names...

You will need

4 Triskelion

4 Grafted Exoskeleton

4 Throne of Geth

4 Steel Overseer

4 Everflowing Chalice

3 Ortnithopter

3 Darksteel Myr

3 Etched Champion

4 Voltaic key

3 Contagion Clasp

1 Elixir of Immortality

8 Mountains

8 Islands 

4 Mystifying Maze

4 Dread Sanctuary 

As the deck is entirely colourless why not have some fun and play some Jedi Mind Tricks on your opponent. I've gone for blue and red so they'll be more likely to play with caution. 

The Mazes will take out dragon lords and superpumped unblockable posoinous monkeys. whilst you can actually pump the sanctuaries with the overseers and then proliferate the counters.  

So what does it do? 

Well this deck is really three decks in one.  It’s one part ramp, one part aggro and one part control and the key to the deck is proliferation.  

So what’s the plan ?

Start as you mean to go on with an early Ornithopter and either the Elixir or preferably a Voltaic Key. Turn two either drop a Chalice for 1 or the Overseer. The Thopter will get in the way of any early beats with its 2 toughness and because it flies, if it needs to get in the way of a Plague Stinger it can. By the third turn you have many options.  

What you are ultimately trying to do is to swing in with artifact creatures and to use proliferation and Voltaic Keys to mega charge all your attackers. There’s also a couple of sneaky tricks hidden in the deck and  with any luck your opponent will be too busy dealing with 6/7 flying thopters to notice them. 

Grafted Exoskeleton may seem an odd choice for the deck, but not only does it give your critters a +2 +2 bonus, it’s also fuel for the throne and more importantly it can be a single turn win. If you can get it on Triskellion not only does it turn him into a virtual Contagion Engine, but you can simply give your opponent poison counters with his ability  add some proliferation and you could easily take game in a single turn... 

EG. Let’s say he comes in with 3 counters, you have the throne, 2 keys, an overseer and the exoskeleton play.  First equip it with the Skeleton and give your opponent a poison counter, next tap the overseer and reset Triskellion  to 3 counters , next sac the overseer to the throne  and proliferate Triskellion up to 4 and give your opponent another counter.  Next untap the throne with a key and tap it again this time saccing the key. Your opponent will now be on 3 counters and Triskelion will have 5 counters use the last key on the throne and boom!  Your opponent will have 4 poison counters and Triskelion will have the last 6 he needs to finish the game. Ok it’s unlikely, but this is the one turn version, if you do it over a few turns and you’ll find it’s easy, and don’t forget you can swing with him too and use the counters to take out any defenders.

Grafted ExoSkeleton really? None of my other creatures have infect? 

Why not and it doesn’t matter that your other creatures don’t have infect.  By the time you can equip and play the ExoSkeleton, you’ll either be pinging with the toxic Triskelion or swinging in with a massive flying thopter. Either way it’s bad news for the other side, and don’t forget with the ExoSkeleton on Triskelion, the counters will stick and with the amount of proliferating you’ll be doing, walls and titans will fall by the wayside while you ramp into the Stratosphere and push your opponent to the limit. 

We all have to make sacrifices and this deck is no different and you may have to chuck everything in the bin to get what you want, but don’t worry too much about it, because your deck is running a natural safety net. With the Elixir of Immortality, your deck is a never ending loop of little martyrs, all ready to bounce back out of the graveyard and pick up the banner once again.

Match ups? 

V’s elves – With double tapping Overseers and Indesctructible mega charged Myrs and Pro green Champions, yYou should be able to hold own until Triskelion’s big guns come out. In stalemate the Exo Skeleton could easily give you the win.

  

V’s Eldrazi Ramp. – Go in fighting and don’t be afraid to throw away triskelion in an attempt to stop your opponent from ramping.  If you’re iucky you can pull off the ultimate nose rubs and kill Emrakul with a 15/16 Ornithopter ( I haven’t quite pulled this off but I did manage to kill one with two 9/10 thopters.)  

V’s Valakut -  Agaiin it will be down to pace. Keep your creatures massive and swing swing swing...

V’s Blue Whte Control – Your Myrs will beat Day of Judgment and the Champions will beat Jace and Gideon.  And don’t forget Infect works on Walkers too.  

V’s Infect – Block everything and you’ll win... Save Triskellion for anything that gets a distortion strikeor use your Mazes

The End of the Madness and We announce our winner....

We’re ending the week of madness with one last desperate play. We’ve had a blast at the past with our lunatic one turn legacy trick and we dabbled in the murky world of extended, but now it’s time to take a look at Standard.

There’s been a lot of speculation over one card in particular in the Scars set and for good reason. I’ve made at least three decks around it myself. It’s not really played yet, but I’m certain it will be, because Grand Architect is just too good to ignore.

This is our chatotic Standard Deck and we call it...

Defcon 1 – Because it's all about blowing up the world...
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You will need.

4 Grand Architects

3 Kraken Hatchling

3 Enclave Cryptologists

2 Kuldotha Forgemaster

2 Kuldotha Phoenix

1 Platinum Emperion

1 Wurmcoil Engine

4 Everflowing Chalice

4 Khalni Gem

4 Destructive Force#

4 Prophetic Prism

3 Dreamstone Hedron

1 Elixir of Immortality

4 Wind Zendikon

Land? well we''re going to leave that to you... but we will admit that the deck needs Scalding tarns (come on guys... the rest of it is  really cheap)

So what does it do?  Well it’s simple really, instead of using the Grand Architect to play early game threats like Wurmcoil Engine or do anything tricksy with liquimetal coating, what your are trying to do is get ahead by playing mana creating artifacts.

Why?

Well if all goes well, on turn 4 you are going to blow up the world, by casting Destructive Force

But why on Earth would you do that?

Well the theory is most decks these days use fetch lands to thin out their decks and a lot of decks also use creatures to ramp....  So if you were able to force your opponent to sacrifice all their lands and destroy all their creatures while you retained some artifact based mana production, you should be able to keep ahead of your opponent for the rest of the game.  Of course it will decimate your lines too, but that’s ok because now you have the advantage.

Advantage?

Well yes, firstly your opponent tried to get ahead early game by using fetch lands and therefore will now have less lands in his deck, besides some of your lands are also Zendikons so when you sacrifice them, they actually go back to your hand..   Secondly since this s your plan, you… well planned for it. Your creatures fall into five categories and each has a special part in the plan.

a. Sacrificial lambs there to help you ramp into destructive force and then die horribly to its terrible effect.

b. Game winning bombs designed to survive the blast and to beat face. 

c. Creatures that rise from the grave to swing in again and again and again

d. A great big encyclopedia of what do I need next.

e. enchanted man lands that force the lands back to your hand when they die....

What happens if it all goes wrong?  Don’t worry... You’ve got a plan B.

Remember the 'ramp into massive artifact creatures,' comment earlier? Well we lied, because this deck can do that too, if the cards come out in the wrong order for plan A then go down the artifact beat down route until destructive force does show up. And remember you’ll always have elixir of immortality to reset your deck..

So what’s the perfect play…   

Ideally you want an architect and destructive force in your hand, any mana producing artifacts, oh and some land.

First turn you want to drop land and either a Wind Zendikon or another one turn blue critter. 

Turn two, you want to start the ramp. Drop an everflowing chalice or another blue critter and on turn 3 you want to lay the architect and another blue critter if you didn’t play one last turn.

Now you want to use anhy blue creatures and the Architects ability, to play the likes of Khalni Gem and Dreamstone Hedron or even just another super pumped Chalice. You’ll want to have enough artifacts to blow up the world on turn 4 and still have some mana left to cope with a mana leak. Basically if you've got this far you're going to have little problem taking home the prize.

Use the Forgemaster to get the elixir or other cards you need and if you need cards don’t be afraid to sac a Dreamstone.   

I haven’t had a chance to rigourlsy test this deck, so if you do build it, let me know how it plays... I can tell you how it’s supposed to play however so here goes...

V’s Elves- So long as you can get to the destructive force before Elves can drop Ezuzi and the mana to regenerate all the rest, you should wipe the floor with them… 

V’s Eldrazi Ramp – unless they pull a luck y turn 4 Ulamog you should eat them too

V’s Blue White Control – this will be your nemesis, if you can resolve Destructive Force before they drop a Jace, you should have them 

 V’s Red Deck – Again this will depend a little on the version you’re playing,. Being less dependent on land, Red Deck will be able to recover quickly...

V’s Vampires – Well you’ll be seeing a lot of Bloodghasts and this deck has a lot of graveyard recurrence, but then they don’t know what you’re planning, so keep your eyes on the prize and wait till they target before you tap to the architect....

Anyway despite being part of our Madness series, I sincerely think that this deck in particular has some hope.... So sleeve it up and let us know how you get on...

So on to our Competiton...

Unless you've been in hiding this month you will know tjhat we'd anniunced the first round in a great competition.... I have to say, I was really impressed...There was some awesome concepts and I shall be giving more than one of the decks a trial in my upcoming FNM...

November's Challenge was to crreate a deck centred arround Ethched Champion... If you are reading this early Tues moring this means ki haven't had a chance to create links to the decks etc...so have a loook in our archives for the creatively titled thread "Our first Competition...."

You'll be pleased  to know I passed the judging on to a pro... DCI Judge Micheal Chamberlain...

Here's what he had to say about our finalists...

1st choice Brian Leahy:

Great list that abuses the metal craft wonderfully and the acceleration package is quite exciting too. A list I would happily pilot for s**** and giggles, it has enough play in it that a skilled player can really make it stand up and dance.

2nd choice Jordan Anderson:

Most of the Tempered steel decks were frankly dull, tedious and predictable. However this deck's inclusion of prototype portal and contagion clasp/engine elevated it to a level I would actualy be intersted in seeing. It had removal and it was funtional removal coupled with the fact that the maindeck tectonic edges don't disrupt the functionality of the deck was very pleasing to see.

So laides and gentlemen I hereby announce that winner of December's Deckbuilder of the Month and Gordon Vader's first  innovation award goes to Mr Brian  Leahy....

Once the Champange hangover has worn off, and the vertigo has faded from the dizzy heights of fame. We shall ask Mr Leahy to take his place amongst the great names in Gordon Vader's Hall Of the Mighty and then and only then, we shall ask him to pass on the mantle of innovation, by naming this month's competition card....

Anyway well done to the pair of you.... and you need only send us an email and you may collect your prize, as we mentioned earlier we shall be staging this competition every month so you better start thinking ladies and Gentlemen....

Our week of madness begins!

We all love a trier and history is full of tales of brave folks doing mad things in a last ditch attempt to steal victory. Whether it’s a bunch of Greeks in a Wooden Horse, an African madman driving a herd of Elephants over a mountain range, some guys blowing trumpets at the walls of Jericho or even some farmers hiring a handful of cowboys or was that samurai? The point is, if it hadn’t worked, and let’s not pretend for a second that a million other fatally flawed plans didn’t, we’d never have heard of it. Conversely as they did succeed (even if only in the movies ) the modern world has such a soft spot for death defying feats of heroic lunacy, that these stories are immortalised. (usually by making movies)

So my friends in honour of the brave 300 we are going to investigate the world of do or die last ditch, million to one shots and general lunacy in the world of Magic...  Most times these decks and combos will do nothing, but fizzle out feebly, make you swear profusely and look like an idiot... but sometimes just sometimes... the little blue touch paper will ignite and your opponent will be able to do nothing but stare open mouthed as you utterly devastate his plans with what can best be described as a wooden horse and some trumpets...  

We’re going to look at some crazy combos and decks for Legacy, Extended, EDH and not one, but 2 standard decks and one for them is brand new...

Today we’re going to have a look at Legacy and tomorrow we’ll look at Extended and then we’ll have a crack at standard for the weekend..
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So to our first deck and this one is the perfect example of what we’re talking about. Two parts jank 50c rare, one part combo ramp and one part madscience.  This is a legacy deck like no other, it has 4 cards that cost more than $1 and whilst they are pretty expensive they are by no means bank breakers. I won’t bore you with the whole deck, but the combo is pure cheek.   

This is the infamous Krark’s Thumb One Turn kill combo... (Now we mentioned on the blog that we’d offer a prize for anyone who guessed it, no one did, but we did get an alternative idea which was along the right line and would kind of still count from Brian Leahy...so well done to you sir) We’ll tell you Brian’s idea in a second, but here’s the combo we had in mind...

You will need the god hand (But hey his is legacy and who doesn’t... plus if you had the money you could probably make this more stable)

So this is it...

1 Chrome Mox (about $15/20)

1 Krark’s Thumb

1 Mountain

1 pyretic ritual

1 seething song

1 (any) red spell

1 Game of Chaos

If you go first and your opponent isn’t playing blue (and force of will... and has it in his opening hand... and you’re not seriously unlucky) you’ve won...

How?  Well imprint the mox with (any) red spell... lay the mountain... tap both for the ritual... use the 3 mana for seething song you can now play both Krark’s thumb and the Game of Chaos and all you have to do to win is flip and win FIVE coin flips and because of Krark’s Thumb you basically have 10 chances to do it...  Because Game of Chaos goes up geometrically it works like this...

1^st  flip - they lose 1 - you gain 1 (19 v’s 21)

2^nd flip- they lose 2 – yiou gain 2(17 v’s 23)

3d flip – they lose 4 – you gain 4 (13 v’s 27

4^th flip –they lose 8 – you gain 8 (7 v’s 33)

5^th flip they lose 16 – you gain 16 (-9 v’s 39) of course if you lose the flip here you’re probably in trouble)

So there you have it. A cheap as chips (potential) first turn kill. I’m not for a second suggesting that you take this along to the world championships, but next time your beardy mate wants to play in a legacy tournament ask to borrow his chrome moxes (it can probably be done with mox opal too or perhaps some fancy lands) and hit the local traders 50p box in search of a Krark’s thumb or two...  You might not win any games, but you’ll have a blast and just maybe... yeah... just maybe...

Oh and before we forget, we got to say thanks to Brian for suggesting Mana Clash as an alternative. It could technically work too, but it would take at least 20 flips and maybe more and the chances of that happening, even with Krark’s thumb, are just a little too low...

If you want my exact Krark’s thumb decklist send me an email... but there are some great cards out there so If you just want to potter along on your own here are some suggestions to look out for... Planar Claos, Goblin bomb, Chance encounter ( imagine these last two with proliferate ) Bottle of Sulieman, Goblin Assassin (put in goblin assault too) and my favourite... Fiery Gambit (awesome card)   

Tomorrow we’re going to look at Extended.  It’s another nasty tricky combo deck and once again it’s great when it works and pants when it doesn’t... So what’s the plan this time?  Well there are less combo pieces but once again we’ll give you a teaser... How can you play a Titan, give it haste and double strike and wipe your opponent’s board all on turn three? And you can’t use any mirrors, cobras, polymorphs, pipers oh and you can’t use green at all...  

One final note of caution.... We recommend this deck as a casual or fun deck, but if you do take it to a tournament remember this very important rule...

You are not allowed to have any money on the table at any time (like a coin)  so use a coin that isn't legal tender.... (I use a french frank ...:if you think I'm being too cautious imagine you've just beaten a legacy player who has been playing foir 2o years and whose desk is worth £5000 and knows every rule... he;s gonna know this rule too and all he has to call a judge and pont at tjhe coin on the table... Would you really blame them? )

 

And yes we know its not guarenteed, but it also doesn't cost 2 grand...

BUDGET LEGACY IT EXISTS

 So we've got ourselves some legacy!  This deck idea and indeed article comes from Max Fan and I for one tip my hat to the man... It's all very well making a decent standard deck on a budget, but it takes some deep thinking to make a playable  legacy deck... Mr Maxfan I salute you!

And here it is...


I've been working on this list for Legacy for a while, it doesn't use a card over $12 except the fetches which anyone playing a Legacy tournament should own sets of anyway, and All Is Dust which is not an absolute must and was actually only $6 when I bought it.

Maindeck beats match-ups like Stifle-Naught, Enchantress, hands that are not the absolute fastest from Goblins/Zoo/Merfolk.

Sideboard has cards to win the creature matches, Engineered Plague is awesome, and then anti-combo cards.  It's surprising how many combo decks fold to Dark Ritual into Sadistic Sacrament.

So what's with the All Is Dust?  Well, when a blue deck runs out of counterspells, but has Jace down and keeps bouncing your creature, All Is Dust away Jace and proceed to beat face.

This deck uses creatures as a win con, but it is NOT a beatdown deck, it's really disruption/control.

Against decks where I expect to play the long game, I side in Leyline+Helm of Obedience.  For those unfamiliar with this combo, let me explain.  If you resolve the activated ability from Helm of Obedience with X=1 while Leyline of the Void is in play, you will exile your opponent's entire library.  This works because Leyline's replacement effect exiles the card attempting to go to the graveyard, then Helm checks and sees that no card has yet been put into a graveyard, and repeats the process.

Even Wheel of Sun and Moon isn't effective against this combo, because it only creates an infinite loop if your opponent keeps making the choice to put their card on the bottom of their library.  The rules force them to make the other choice even though it's not in their interest simply because they can to break the loop, so you get to exile their whole library.

I have yet to face a deck where I go "Man, I can't win this matchup" when I sit down in around 25 matches.

Creatures (15)
4 x Gatekeeper of Malakir
4 x Nantuko Shade
4 x Vampire Nighthawk
3 x Tombstalker

Other (23)
4 x Dark Ritual
4 x Duress
4 x Hymn to Tourach
4 x Diabolic Edict
3 x Phyrexian Arena
4 x Nevinyrral's Disk

Lands (22)
4 x Verdant Catacombs
4 x Marsh Flats
2 x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 x Bojuka Bog
8 x Swamp

Sideboard (15)
1 x All Is Dust
3 x Chalice of the Void
2 x Helm of Obedience
4 x Leyline of the Void
3 x Engineered Plague
1 x Sadistic Sacrament
1 x Extirpate


And there we have it our first budget Legacy deck... I for one can't wait to sleeve this bad boy up and test it out... I hope we'll be hearing more from Maxfan and I just want to say thanks again for sharing your deck ideas...