Red/black/white madness

Well we’ve been here for 3 weeks and the feedbacks been great. So I did a bit of listening and it turns out a lot of folks want the same thing; something competitive and something cheaper than the tier. Well i 'm not sure how competitve this one is but its a lot of fun..

This deck is unusual in that it uses s few higher price cards, but as the game has changed these cards have dropped in value and the very idea that you could create a budget deck featuring them would have  been a joke three weeks ago.. Ladies and gentlemen this deck uses Baneslayer Angels and in a previously unheard of fashion. Before you say I’ve gone corporate, remember that a month ago these cards were £30/$45 and now you can pick them up on ebay ‘buy it now’ for £13/20 (just to prove my point look here). This deck also uses the planeswalker that proliferate was so clearly aimed at.... Sarkhan The Mad. You can currently pick one up for just £6.99 and by now you might be thinking ... ‘Oh yeah... I get it...’  Well good but we’ve got more to add, but these two cards have a natural synergy which this deck will exploit to the nines.   I call it.

Scars Tech 2- The Wrath of Sarkhan

You will need

4 Dragonmaster Outcast

4 Baneslayer Angel

4 Sarkhan the Mad

4 Act of Treason

3 Liquimetal Coating

3 Throne of Geth

2 Everflowing Chalice

1 Elixir of Immortality

3 Mimic Vats

4 Ratchet Bomb

4 Condemn

Lands, well I am open to suggestions ... right now I’m running 4 terra morphics and 4 evolving wilds and a mix of basics 

Ok basically this is red black control with a double splash of white for the Angels and condemns. The condemns will keep out early threats and defend well against dragons.  In fact most things in the deck will do well against dragons, which is also lucky because you are going to be facing lots of dragons. Why? Because you’re going to be giving them away like they are going out of fashion.

Ok so in what universe is it a good idea to give away dragons? Well it all depends on planning, let’s say you knew there would be dragons and maybe you had planned ahead and ordered the industrial size tins of wieners and a great big dragon cake for the party... and basically set your deck up around that fact... Well surely that would be better than having just anything turn up and try and eat you... and besides... you might be giving your opponent dragons, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to let them keep them.

So what’s the plan, well first things first, you’re not going to be giving away anything unless you a) need to and b) can handle it.

So here’s the general plan...

Early game you’ll be looking for the outcasts and condemns  to get in the way of early attacks. Then the game can run two ways, firstly use Sarkhan to make your opponent sac their biggest threat and give them a dragon, which will just bounce off your angels until you’re ready to steal them back and swing. Then either sac them to Sarkhan, to get a dragon all of your own or you can get Sarkhan to make it deal damage equal to its power to your opponent or their biggest threat before turning in to an artifact and sacking it to the throne to proliferate Sarkhan back up...

...Or you can steal their creatures, or even just sac an outcast, to make a dragon and swing through the air for massive damage... Obviously their dragons will just bounce of your Angels which have the all important ‘protection from Dragons’. Andif one does get through, don’t worry, that turn two ratchet bomb can take them out at instant speed.

Late game the outcasts will conjure up all sorts of chaos and give Sarkhan more fuel for the fire...  

Use the Chalices and the throne to ramp and you should be able to keep pace with most decks. 

Sarkhan can take out most threats and as long as you can deal with the dragons you are going to give your opponents you can mix up their strategies and confuse their game. Use the mimic vat to steal their sacked creatures and keep swinging.

Dependent on which of the tier you’re up against your play will vary, against Eldrazi Ramp don’t be afraid to blow up overgrown battlements with Sarkhan and obviously any actual Eldrazi, against Red Deck blow up your own outcasts and against elves blow up the mythic regenerator and the archdruids.

In testing it’s proving pretty capable, but as always I’d love to hear some suggestions...

News just  in fromn Karchev.... Bloodghast is a good additon to the gang maybe over the thrones ???  anyway keep em coming...

Polymorph Redux..

We’re going to have a look at an old friend this week... There once was a time when polymorph was the fringe deck to watch. It made a show at a few tournaments and it also made an appearance as the sideboard for Pyromancer’s Ascension. You might think that with the advent of Mass polymorph we might see a resurgence, but we’re hitting the border of Mirridon Besieged soon and we haven’t even had a postcard. 

So no one’s playing it and it’s in the card shop bargain bucket, sounds like the perfect time for a rethink.  Ladies and Gentlemen I give you a twist on a classic...

I call it 

Critical Mass

 The problem with polymorph was always the reliability, left unchecked and if you were lucky a turn 3 Iona or Emrakul was probably game however if it went wrong, and it so often did, you could spend the entire game with an Emrakul in your hand and no way in hell of getting it out... or worse yet, lay token after token and not catch a sniff of an actual polymorph and trust me numerous as they are eldrzi spawn do not an army make.

Yes, there were pros, without lots of creatures taking up your slots it had loads of room for answers. (if you’ve just started playing or just don’t know what I am on about... Polymorph was a deck build around the premise that you only had one or two creatures in the entire deck and the rest of it was token generation and ways to search for the elusive polymorph which itself was there to cheat one of your two horrendous fatties into play ) So with all those extra spaces you could add in all sorts of madness.. There was a blue/green version with Into the Roils and negates and ponders, there was a red/blue/green version with staggershocks and bolts and Sarkhan Vol and I as I mentioned above there was a blue/red limited edition hidden in the sideboard of Pyromancers Ascension...  The problem is sometimes it just didn’t work.   So I got thinking is there anything I could do to make it more stable, well... this is what I came up with....

You will need.

4 Mass Polymorph

2 Chimeric Mass

4 Squadron Hawk

3 Rusted Relic

3 Glint Hawk Idol

4 Liquimetal Coating

1 Indomitable Angel

1 Emrakul

1 Iona Shield of Emeria

1 Ulamog

4 Everflowing Chalice

4 Preordain

4 Revoke Existence

3 Contagion Clasp

1 Elixir of Immortality

Go the whole hog with Glacial Fortresses, Seachrome Coasts and Celestial Colonnades, which will give you another threat. You don’t need fetch lands, so save yourself the cash and besides the more decks that use fetch lands the sooner we’ll see main deck Leonin Arbiters, with this deck at least you’ll waste 4 spaces in their sideboard.

Ok what makes this deck different from polymorph is that is has actual threats rather than tokens. The Squadron Hawk is a test play, but it does give you decent targets and of course once you find the first one you can strip your deck of all creatures except for your fatties.  As neither Chimeric Mass, Rusted Relic or Glint hawk Idol actually count as creatures until they hit the open air and even then, two of them will need a nudge.

It might not seem like much but a 2/2 flyer is lightyears ahead of an Eldrazi Spawn and it won’t take long before your rusted relics are swinging in for 5 and you can lay the Chimeric Mass for as much as you can spare.  Meanwhile, preordain for the Mass Polymorph and use the liquimetal coating and revoke existence for the serious game threats. Use the clasps for light removal and to pump the chalices and the Chimeric Mass.

If you can resolve a Mass Polymorph for 4 and get the fatties, or as many as you can in, the end of the game can’t be far off...

So let’s look at the creatures one by one...

The four are a team and they’ll work like one too.. 

Emrakul, Ulamog and Iona need little explanation and unlike the original, this deck will actually let you to play them if you need them, but it could take a while, but why the others? well the angel is there to protect Emrakul or Iona, because with the liquimetal coating  you can turn them into artifacts at will and give them instant shroud, bouncing them with Jace was a favourite trick of Blue White Control and you don’t want to go to all that effort just to have the critters sent back to you hand. Keep Emrakul in play for just one turn and you’ll soon see why Eldrazi ramp is one of the top decks. The angel is also playable early gameand good for protecting your investments.

Competitive?  I think it’ll hold its own... It’s certainly a strong fringe/rogue deck, with careful play it could easily be a contender...it's definatelhy stronger than Polymorph, as it can win games without ever  pulling off the trick...And remember you don't have to animate the Mass or the idol, before you polymorph... unless you  need to...

Update

This is just the alpha list and I'm already thinking about dropping the clasps thanks to a suggestion I swap em for negates from a fella named 4 tens...  I reckon he could be right there.,..

New update...

Suggestions for a green blue version have been coming in and its not a bad play... green will give you ramp and more token generation and access to the possibly game swiinging Autumn's Veil and you can use nature's claim or naturalise inplace of revoke existence

Either way I'd strongly suggest swapping the clasps for See beyonds and not negates... as unlikely though it is to draw two or more of your fatties, fate would find it hillarious...

  

Big Blue Boom Button aka Grand Architect combo or Mono Blue Eldrazi Ramp

There was something niggling at me yesterday, I probably need to get out more, but instead I decided to build a deck. I’d been working on a blue deck recently and I had a look at some of my cards and a thought struck me...

There are some really broken cards in Scars and two or three cards keep jumping out at me.  So I decided to stick them together and suddenly... the entire game unravelled.

I guess its mono blue Eldrazi ramp?

Ladies and gentlemen, this one is going to raise eyebrows.

I call it... 

Big Blue Boom Button

You will need. 

1 Ulamog the Infinite Gyre

4 Grand Architects

4 Kraken Hatchling

4 Trinket mage

4 Enclave Cryptologist

4 Liquimetal Coating

4 Everflowing Chalice

1 Expedition Map

2 Kuldotha Forgemaster

2 Wurmcoil Engine

1 Spawnsire Of Ulamog

1 Mindslaver

2 Elixir of Immortality

1 Platinun Emperium

1 Prototype Portal

1 Voltaic Key

1 Eye of Ugin

4 Eldrazi Temple

18 Islands

Ok this deck may take a few run-throughs, before it starts to make sense. At first glance the inclusion of the Eldrazi temple may seem unusual, but as it unfurls I hope you can see the method behind the madness and remember it still taps for one colourless...

This deck uses a few tricks, but where you’re headed is Spawnsire of Ulamog. We’ve seen ideas around this card before and its ultimate ability is so tempting, but equally too out of reach to be competitive. Well it was, this deck smashes that theory and not only makes it possible, it makes it easy... This is how it’s done...

You will need a few cards to make this happen, but they’ll come easy and you won’t even raise an eyebrow until it’s too late.

Big Blue Boom Button uses an engine not dissimilar to my mono nlack control deck The Dark Design. What you are looking for is an opening hand with a grand architect, any blue creature, liquimetal coating, a trinket mage an expedition map and a pair of islands.  I realise this is the god hand, but to be honest you can do this trick any number of ways so I’ll just skip to the end.

Once you have the Expedition Map ready to go, you’re looking for the Eye Of Ugin. Now it’s safe to assume that you’re going to have some blue creatures in play and if you have a Grand Architect and the liquimetal coating in play you’re probably going to win...

In your opponents turn, use the Liquimetal Coating to turn the Eye of Ulgin into an artifact (yep, you guessed it and it works) tap any blue creatures to tutor up the Forge Master, as the Eye OF Ulgin searches for colourless creatures not just Eldrazi.

In your turn play the Forgemaster and if you can, play the trinket mage and get the Voltaic Key if you don’t have it already.

Next you need to tutor up a Wurmcoil Engine, using the eye and the Architect’s trick again, play it in your turn. This will give you some defence until their next end step.

This time sac the wormcoil and a liquimetal coated land and drop a chalice for zero to sac to the Forgemaster and go get the portal.  As you already have the key, imprint this and make as many keys as you can by tapping blue creatures and un-tapping the portal. You should be able to make upwards of 6 and you can now sac 3, at instant speed at any time to tutor up the other Wurmcoil for defence or the Mind Slaver to steal your opponents next turn or the Platinum Imperium to stabilise your life.

At the end of your opponents next turn use the liquimetal coating and the Eye to look for the Spawnsire or Ulamog if you have enough mana to play him. If you need to, go find the elixir and replenish your library.  As soon as you find a Chalice you’ve won, quite literally.  

Remember! Whenever you have spare mana use it to generate keys.

The end game is simple, you use blue creatures to create huge kicked chalices and then the excess keys to un-tap them, this should enable you to play the Spawnsire in one turn and then all you need to do is use the Liquimetal Coating  to turn the Spawnsire into an artifact and then you can use your blue creatures to activate the ultimate ability and bring in your horde of Eldrazi from outside the game, or even just Emrakul and few other fatties.  

The synergy of this deck is incredibly fluid, once you have those keys in play you can tap and un-tap nearly everything by tuning everything into artifacts with the Liquimetal Coating and then using the keys to un-tap the coating and then moving on to the next one. You can even use the blue creatures to tap for 2 mana then use the Liquimetal Coating to turn them into artifacts and use 1 of the 2 to un-tap them so you can tap them again for 2, leaving 1 mana floating.  With enough keys you can achieve almost anything.

The Liquimetal trick also works on the Cryptologists which will help you dig deeper in the deck and once you have the portal and the key you can create enough keys to tap and unto the world...

Here’s an example....

Let’s say you have...  1 Eye Ugin and 5 islands in play...A Grand  Architect, a forgemaster and two hatchlings on the battlefield, a key on the portal and liquimetal coating and last turn you made 3 keys...

This turn you can... tap an island to make a key, tap a trickster to make 2 mana use 1 to untap the portal and make another key use the last to make another key... sac three keys to the Forgemaster go get Mindslaver, tap the other trickster and the architect for 4 mana and sac Mindslaver to take opponents next turn.  Use the liquimetal coating to make the Architect an artifact, tap an island for 1 mana, use a key to un-tap him, tap him for 2 mana, use 1 mana on another key to untap the portal and then make another key, keep using your islands to keep making keys until you have one key left and 3 mana, use this to untap the forgemaster, sac 3 keys to go get the Elixir of Immortatilty use 2 mana to tap and sac the elixir and reset your deck...

Next turn you can do the same thing again and your opponent... will never have another turn.

This deck also has solid defence from the one drop 0/4 hatchlings and once the Forgemaster is in play you should be able to tutor up anything you need rather than play them, so counter spells will have limited effect on your deck. It’s a blue deck, so sideboard counter spells for game two because whilst it may be funny to have 15 Eldrazi marching out of the sideboard in the middle of the game, there’s really no need, as an Emrakul will pretty much win the game for you.

 I’ve tested it against most decks and its pretty quick and left unchecked, this deck will eat pretty much anything, although it is weak against memoricide in game two, hence the counter spells. In the first game unless your opponent has a great start or main deck artifact hate, they are going to really struggle to compete.

  

This deck is really fun to play and it will leave your opponent scratching their heads and looking like you’ve just punched their favourite puppy.  

 Now I feel I should say that this deck also works with pretty much any artifact you can think of..  I have gone for the cheapest options, but you could swap out the Platinum Emperium for the Masticore and of course you could have a horrid amount of Eldrazi in your sideboard and if you can afford the Big Three (Kozilek, Ulamog, Emrakul) then they would be worth including... but it also works with out them and come on guys whens the next time you're actually going to play any Artisans of Kozilek. Pathrazers of Ulamog or It That Betrays?


UPDATE 

Nov 12th

Ok after some playtesting I reccomend that the following changes are made to make the deck even more playable.

 You can drop the Trinket mages because the forgemasters can find all the combo pieces a lot earlier and you really need the spaces for more portals and voltaic keys, you can also drop a chalice and an islond for more expedtitoin maps...

In yoir sideboard you really only need three emrakuls to win the game and use the other spaces to safety proof the deck...  

As soon as you reach Spawnsires ultimate ability, play Emerakul.  In your second turn swing with him, after combat play the second one, which will give you another turn and destroy the pair of them . In your next turn play the last one...If you don't win, your opponent is somehow cheating or you don't deserve to win..

Update Nov 13th

Ok now I call the deck Eldrazi ramp, but to be honest that's not really the trick...
What this deck is really trying to achieve is a forgemaster in play (Easy enough!) and then to tutor a portal  and imprint the key... with any blue creatures and an architect (or even without) this deck can do increadible things... 

Lets say the erchitect is in play...  and just one other blue creature 1 liquimetal coating and I've made 2 keys and I  have 4 lands...

Watch this for card advantage...

In your turn I can make 7 voltaic keys...

...on my turn I can  sac and use the remaining mana to tap and untap the forgemaster enough times to play both my wurmcils,  my emperion, sac both my wurmcoils,  tutor up an elixir tap and sac it (gain 5 life potentially... ) and then retutor both the wurm coils back into play...

thats 4 lands for 2 x 6/6 deathtouch/lifelinkers 2 x 3/3 lifelinkers and 2 x 3/3 deathtouchers  and an 8/8 thats says my life doesn't change...oh and I gained 5 life...
oh actually I don't do I? or do I?... because I can make one of the tokens blue and then sac the emperium in response before gainng the life and then retutoring the Emperium...Also remember that most permanents can be turned into artifacts and thus become viable targets for the grand architects... Celestial Colonnade,  Dawnglare invoker,  air servent etc etc etc....  

Here's the match ups...


Eldrazi ramp.... If you can get the portal and the key on turn 4/5 and then tutor for the Emperion... There is little they can do to beat you.... Even if they Ulamog they Emperion you can just tutor up the elixir tap sac it and use another key on the forgemaster and re tutor the Emperion again... all in the same turn... with the amount of keys you can generate each turn Annihilator just tickles and because Empoerion and portal are colourless they can't all is dust it...


Elves - use the Kraken hatchlings early game turn 2/3 to stop early damage, but don't let them die.  Then when you get the architect/ eye get the forgemaster and portal… if you can survive until the Emperio is out you should win... a really funny way to finish elves is to mindslave them late game and genisis wave them to death... as they MAY choose to put any cards revealed by the wave onto the battlefield and you will chose not to and therefore mill them to death with their own card… if they are running ulamog, play him and take out their biggest threat with him as you can make any number of keys each turn it won’t matter...

Valakut  because Valakut is such a one trick pony as soon as you can, tutor up a mindslaver and just ruin their game by using all their explores, cultivates and tap and sac the shrines to bring in all the mountains you can because when those mountains are on the field and they run out there deck is useless... 

Red deck will probably eat you

Blue white control  - you'll need to keep recurring mindslaver and doing the wrong things with their planeswalkers... fate seal them with jace and bounce jace with venser to keep him down, use gideon to blow up their creatures...If they wrath you could be n trouble..


That’s about it... It’s a fun deck, but needs some work...

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