Showing posts with label Constructed. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Constructed. Show all posts

6.13.2014

Luyman's Terms #6: The Evolution of a Deck, Part 2

If you're just now joining us, read part one here

The feedback I received on the deck from part one was pretty consistent. Those who commented were mostly in the camp that the deck was not so good, and cited reasons ranging from "looks to be a slow deck" and "too many lands" to one Reddit user commenting that "sh*t deck remains a sh*t deck."

Turns out, the deck fared pretty well, I won probably 65-70% of my total matches with this deck. That percentage goes up to around 80% if you exclude matches against control decks, and jumps up again to around 85-90% if I drew into 2 Plains and 2 Forests (since a third of my spells have double colored pips).

While it is true that the main goal of my deck was to draw the game out (my two favorite win-cons were bestowing a Boon Satyr onto a Dawnbringer Charioteer and, of course, activating Elspeth's ultimate ability), the deck was no slouch in the early game, and had no trouble being aggressive if it needed to be. In matches against other slow (non control) decks, I would often have a Boon Satyr and a Master of Diversion on the battlefield after turn 4 and then bestow another Boon Satyr onto one of those creatures on turn 5 and swing for lethal on that same turn or the next.

In games against aggressive decks board stalls were not uncommon. Pacifism and Ajani's Presence were incredibly useful in these situations, and I decided to bring in Archetype of Courage for it's first strike ability to help in those situations as well. These are the matches where I could play the long game and bestow any enchantment creature onto my Dawnbringer Charioteers and swing away happily.

The only games I was losing consistently were against Esper Control decks, and a Mono Black deck a buddy of mine ran which featured creatures with lifelink, Staff of the Death Magus, and Sanguine Bond. While beating the Mono Black was a simple matter of swapping out the 4 Sedge Scorpions for 4 Naturalize in the sideboard, Esper Control has proven to still be a problem (Supreme Verdict was pretty much a game ender). Here is the updated deck:
  • Artifact (2)
    • 2 Bow of Nylea
  • Creature (24)
    • 2 Archetype of Courage
    • 4 Boon Satyr
    • 4 Dawnbringer Charioteers
    • 4 Elvish Mystic
    • 2 Hopeful Eidolon
    • 4 Leafcrown Dryad
    • 4 Master of Diversion
  • Enchantment (4)
    • 4 Pacifism
  • Instant (4)
    • 4 Ajani's Presence
  • Land (26)
  • Planeswalker (2)
    • 2 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
  • Sideboard (12)
    • 2 Angelic Wall
    • 2 Hopeful Eidolon
    • 2 Oreskos Sun Guide
    • 2 Battlewise Valor
    • 4 Naturalize
I was stuck here for about a week, and I was pretty happy with my results. The only bad match up I had was against the before mentioned Esper Control deck, and I was OK with that. I think it's best to just stay vulnerable to one deck and good to most others, as opposed to having a deck that is mediocre against all decks.

As for my new creatures, I was decidedly underwhelmed. The Elvish Mystics we fine if I needed an extra green mana source in the early game, but once I drew my third forest they became useless in the late game. Archetype of Courage was nice to have in games against aggro decks, but did next to nothing in any other situation. While my deck wasn't doing any worse with my new creatures, it wasn't doing any better either. I thought I had hit the peak with this deck, and started on something else.

While trying out my new deck, I was looking around for cards that it would be weak to. As I was doing that, the card that I needed for this deck revealed itself to me: Fleecemane Lion. I have not had a chance to really play with it yet, but it looks good on all fronts. It's great in an aggro game since it's a 3/3 for 2. It can get bigger with its monstrous ability, and with that same ability can stay on the battlefield even after Supreme Verdict.

I'm incredibly excited to get back out to the shop and play with this new deck. How do you guys think it will do? I'm thinking about cutting down to 24 lands and swapping out another Forest and 2 Plains for 3 more Temple of Plenty. Do you guys think it would be worth the money?
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6.11.2014

Luyman's Terms #5: The Evolution of a Deck

If only these were still available!

As of today, there are around 1,500 unique cards in standard (with that number set to grow by 250+ late next month). That number grows and grows as you begin to look at different MTG formats culminating at just under 14,000 total unique cards in all of MTG! This means there is practically an endless amount of ways to construct a deck and, as a result, is not an easy thing to do. I thought I would tell you about my first foray into deckbuilding, and how my deck has evolved. While I wasn't naive enough to think that I knew what I was doing, I did think that my deck would be able to hold its own. Here is that deck:

My theory behind the deck was to burn my opponent directly early, and block my opponents creatures with the Sedge Scorpions. I could then get a Bladetusk Boar or 2 onto the battlefield, and swing in for the last 6-9 points of damage. If the game ended up going long, I would cast Portent of Betrayal and kill my opponent with his/her own creatures

No surprise that I was wrong. With 28 lands, mana flood was not uncommon. Not only would I usually not last long enough to get a have a boar swing for more than two turns, I simply played the deck wrong, and used my burn spells to always attack the player as opposed to using them as removal, which is what I probably should have been doing. I was incredibly vulnerable to creatures with flying, and pretty much any creature with power > 2 (spoiler alert: there are a lot of them). 

I also learned that only one legendary-subtype card of a given name can be on a players side of the battlefield, so I had to rethink how many copies of the Bow of Nylea were worth running. This was also the point where I decided I really wanted to get into MTG, and allowed myself to splurge on a couple cards. That lead to this deck:

I ran with this for about two hours before I realized how terrible it was. My thought was that if I could stall until I get to Elspeth, I could just keep generating soldier tokens and then give them flying after 3 or 4 turns. This turned out to be a viable strategy when in games in which I both had Elspeth in my hand and the mana to cast her. However, that just didn't happen very often, and this deck just did what my first deck did and I lost a lot. I decided R/G was not working out for me, and that I needed to try something different.

I decided that neither the Sedge Scorpions nor the Nyxborn Rollickers were pulling their weight. While having a 1/1 for 1 with some upside is a nice creature on turn one or two, but neither deathtouch nor a cheap bestow that essentially just gives a creature a counter were all that great in the late game when I was ready to be on offense. I knew I liked Elspeth, and the Boon Satyr was quickly becoming a favorite of mine, so I decided to go G/W. That decision yielded the following deck:

I brought in the Hopeful Eidolon to fill in the void that taking the Sedge Scorpions and Nyxborn Rollickers left behind. I really like being able to play a creature on turn one, and I thought that the Hopeful Eidolon's bestow ability would be enough to make it relevant in the late game. How do you guys think this deck performed? What changes do you think should be made? I'll tell you how the deck actually performed and what changes I made in my next post. 
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