Saturday 7 April 2012
Argh!
Life is getting in the way of blogging. Yesterday's post will be a few days late I'm afraid, sorry guys.
Saturday 31 March 2012
Standard Constructed - Cultivamp
Greetings all. This
week I went to my first standard constructed event at my local game shop. I wanted to take something a bit more
competitive than my casual decks: Mind for Mayhem and Lather the Townsfolk so
I’ve put together a new deck using cards from last week’s Inistrad draft and
supplemented by cards bought on eBay and from scrolltrader. I also traded my Sorin, Lord of Innistrad for a
number of cards too.
The deck
I wanted to build a deck around the Markov Blademaster
. I’ve used him in DA Pack wars and the booster
draft and like the way he plays. At
first I was thinking of including cards Pyreheart Wolf
and Crossway Vampire
to make blocking difficult for my opponent, but it didn’t quite feel
right so I did some research on decks with the Blademaster in, made a few
changes, and ended up with this.
The sideboard is a work in progress. At the moment it consists only of cards from
my collection that may be helpful. I’ll
work on a proper sideboard in the near future.
Creatures
Other
Lands
8 Mountain
2 Swamp
2 Island
Sideboard
2 Executioner’s Hood
2 Cobbled Wings
1 Shock
1 Gut Shot
1 Crush
1 Shatter
Unfortunately one of the
Spellskites didn’t turn up in time so I put a Mana Leak in to cover for him.
As always I need a catchy name
for the deck. Since it revolves around
growing vampires I shall call it: Cultivamp.
The games
How will it fare? Let’s find out.
Game 1
0-2 Loss
0-2 Loss
My opponent was playing UWb
control. In the first game I had mulliganed down to five and even then had mana
issues. My deck never really got going
and I was finished off with a Lingering Souls and Intangible Virtue
. My deck fared much better in the second
game. I had a Stromkirk Noble, Rakish
Heir, Curse of Stalked Prey out whilst my opponent only had 2 human
tokens. Stromkirk was able to hit a few
times and grow substantially.
Unfortunately my opponent was able to gain life with Sword of War and Peace
which kept him
at a comfortable life total and wittered my life away until he was able to
Lingering souls + Sorin’s Emblem to finish me off.
Game 2
0-2 Loss
0-2 Loss
This guy was playing with an
aggressive Human deck using cards like Mayor of Avabruck
, Champion of the Parish
and
Hero of Bladehold
. I didn’t manage to
get many threats on the board and when I did get a growing vamp down he usually
had the removal to take it out. I also
suffered for having so many dual lands as I was rarely able to get a basic land
down first.
Game 3
2-0 Win!
2-0 Win!
Hurrah I won something. This opponent was using a deck that ramps
with Birds of Paradise
, Llanowar Elves
, Mulch and many others whilst looking to mill a Liege of the Tangle
and cast him with a milled & flashbacked Unburial Rites. His deck (like mine) leaves out any removal/
control in pursuit of the win, in fact the only early defence he used against
me was a Kuldotha Rebirth
. In both games
I was able to grow a Marvok Blademaster with Curse of Stalked Prey &
Darksteel Axe and send him through with Artful Dodge for lethal. In the second game my opponent was able to
cast Liege of the Tangle (with plenty of land ready to take advantage). I had a recently grown a Blademaster to a
7/7. Not quite enough to fend of the
Liege but luckily I had another Blademaster ready in hand to provide 8 points
of first strike damage. My opponent held
back the liege and I top decked an artful dodge for the win.
With a win under my belt I head
in to game four with renewed optimism.
Could I net another win?
Game 4
0-2 Loss
0-2 Loss
HA, nope back to my old
ways. In this game I encountered the joy
of facing a playset of Huntmaster of the Fells and was on the receiving end of
a playset of Celestial Purge
from my opponent’s sideboard. I reckon I would have won the second game if
my fourth land drop wasn’t a tapped dual land.
I had a blademaster with 2 Curse of stalked prey. My opponent had enough defense to block but I
had a Executioner’s Hood in hand. Had I
been able to use that fourth land I could have cast/equipped it and grown the Blademaster
to a 7/7. Way beyond the reach of my
opponent’s subsequent Huntmaster of the Fells.
I chose to send the blademaster in next turn to trade with the
huntmaster but alas another Huntmaster took it’s place and that was game.
Fedger’s Thoughts
A thoroughly enjoyable evening
and a great learning experience for this format. My deck was mostly an unstable engine often
refusing to start no matter how hard I turned the key. When it did start all it
took was a knock from my opponent to shut it down again. I still really enjoy the deck and love
watching those +1/+1 counters add up when the Vamps hit home.
At the moment it keeps its head
down and just charges for victory not bothering to try and disrupt any of my
opponent’s plans. My second opponent said
this:
“It’s
all well and good being able to win, but you have to be able to not-lose as
well”
Future changes
I’ll probably move the spellskites
to the sideboard (they’re reactive and might be redundant in some matchups) and
maybe the darksteel axes too. In their
place I’ll probably include some Olivia Voldarens
.
For 4 she’s a 3/3 flying vamp (already good in my deck), but if I have
some extra mana knocking about then she acts as some much needed removal too; a
great 2 for 1! Also I cannot deny the
appeal of a Bloodline Keeper
(or 4) in the deck. He’ll keep churning out those evasive vamps
which will hopefully be hitting home and growing more often than not. At the very least, Olivia and the Bloodline
keeper will direct my opponent’s removal away from the Bladesmaster.
I’m going to keep a close eye on
my land situation. Its early days at the
moment to see if the problem of dual before basic persists, but if it does I
may have to invest in some of these. They
rotate out in a few months so I may hold fire on that.
Seeing other players making good
use of their sideboards has shown me then importance of it. With experience I’ll come to know what sorts
of threats I should be facing so I’ll be able to build a sideboard accordingly.
Next week I’ll be putting
Cultivamp through a playtest and reporting on it in the usual fashion.
Catch you then!
Fedger
Saturday 24 March 2012
Lather the Townsfolk Playtest
Hey hey! Welcome to this week’s edition of Fedger’s Furnace. This week I playtested the changes I made to
Dark Ascension’s Dark Sacrifice. My
opponent this week is Mr Chris and he will be using a mono-black vampire deck
with a heck-of-a-lot of removal. Now, let’s get to it!
Round 1
I win the roll-off so I am to go first.
I end up mulliganing down to four here, my first two hands
contained 5 land and my third had none at all.
In the end I stick with 3 Swamps and a Doomed Traveler
as I really
don’t want to go down to three. Chris
mulligans down to six.
Turns 1-4
We exchange land drops on turn 1. Chris gets a Child of Night
on turn 2 and I
respond with a doomed traveler on turn 3.
Chris’s turn 3 yields no more land but he does get a Blood Seeker
. My turn 3 is a blank so back to Chris who
misses another land drop and summons another Blood Seeker. Chris opts not to attack and passes to me so
I summon a Falkenrath Torturer
which, because of the Blood Seekers, drops me to
18 life.
Turn 5
Chris finally hits his third land and celebrates with a
Markov Patrician
. I cut the celebration
short by plonking a Bonds of Faith
on said Patrician.
Turn 6
Bored of the stalemate Chris goes on the offensive, firstly
casting Sorin’s Thirst
on my Torurer and then attacking with his child of the
night. I accept the trade for the
traveler and get a spirit token which costs me 2 life thanks to the
Bloodseekers and Chris gains 2 life.
The score is 22-16. My turn is a
blank.
Turn 7
A bloodline keeper hits the field on Chris’s side, things
are kicking off! My turn is another
blank.
Turn 8
Turn 9
The bloodline keeper produces another vampire token and
transforms into the Lord of Lineage
giving all of Chris’s dudes +2/+2. The Blood Seekers attack, one of them gets
blocked by my spirit token and the other gets through taking me down to
11. After the combat phase I quickly
Tragic Slip
the Lord of Lineage. My turn
is my fourth blank in a row. With no
defence Chris finishes me off with an all-out attack followed by a Sorin’s Vengeance
.
Round one to the vamps.
Round 2
I’d prefer to draw
first so I give the first turn to Chris.
A much better opening hand this time – Skirsdag Flayer
,
Selfless Cathar
, Galvanic Juggernaut
, Falkenrath Torturer, 1 Swamp and 1
Plains.
Turn 1-3
For the first 3 turns we exchange land drops and creature
summons. All told I have a Selfless
Cathar, Skirsdag Flayer, Falkenrath Torturer.
Chris has a Blood Seeker, Markov Patrician.
Turn 4
Chris tries to kill my Flayer with a Sorin’s Thirst but the
Falkenrath torturer gets there just before and sacrifices it for a +1/+1
counter, countering Sorin’s Thirst and depriving Chris of the 2 life. No attack from Chris is forthcoming so it’s
my turn. I bonds of faith his markov
patrician for starters and attack with both my creatures for 4. Chris declines to block and goes down to 16.
Turns 5-6
A diabolic tutor is all Chris manages. I attack again with both creatures and again
Chris lets them through for 4. Next I
summon a Galvanic Juggernaut which loses me one life getting here and becomes a
victim the night on Chris’s turn 6. Chris
then adds a child of night to the team.
Back to me and I Gather the Townsfolk (losing 2 life to the Blood
Seeker), the Torturer gobbles up a human to gain flying and become a 4/3. I tap the Cathar and the Torturer and send
them at Chris who trades the Child of the Night for the Cathar. Chris takes 4 damage and gains 2 life back
putting the scores at 15-10 to Lather.
Turn 7-8
Another Diabolical tutor from Chris; stuck on four land this
is all he can do. I attack with my human
token and my Falkenrath Torturer putting Chris on 5 life. I follow up by adding another Falkenrath
torturer to the team. Chris adds a Child
of the Night on his turn but there’s nothing he can do to block my Falkenrath
Torturer when it sacrifices the last human token and attacks in the air for
fatal 5.
Game two to Lather the Townsfolk.
Final Round.
Chris opts to play first.
I stick with 2 swamps, a plains, Increasing Devotion, Falkenrath
Torturer, Galvanic Juggernaut and a Doomed Traveller. Chris mulligans to 6.
Turns 1-2
Chris opens with a swamp, I plains a Doomed Traveler who
becomes a Victim of Night
on Chris’s second turn. The Traveler’s spirit avenges its death by
attacking Chris for one and I add another freshly drawn Doomed Traveler.
Turns 3-4
A Markov Patrician joins the party on Chris’s side and gets
weighted down by the bonds of faith on my turn.
The traveler and the spirit attack a defenceless Chris putting him on
17. Back to Chris who summons a Child of
night and then back to me again for another 2 point attack from Traveler and
Spirit. I summon a Falkenrath torturer
and the score is 20-15.
Turn 5
Chris gets some air defence in the form of a Sangromancer
and
his child of the night attacks me. Not
wanting to trade I allow the damage through making the score 18-17 to
Lather. I cast Gather the Townsfolk
and
attack with the Torturer and the Traveler.
Chris blocks the Traveler and before damage is calculated I sacrifice said
traveler to the Torturer making him 3/2.
The death of the traveler also gives me another Spirit token and gives
Chris 3 life which effectively cancels out the Torturer’s attack. Another gathering of the townsfolk brings my
human token count to 4.
Turns 6-7
Chris’s only play is a Tribute to Hunger
, I sacrifice a
spirit token giving Chris 4 life all told.
Not wanting to give Chris anymore life I hold off the attack and summon
Ol’ Juggsey. A blank on Chris’s 7 and
its back to me. I open with an all –out
attack. Juggsey, 4 Humans, my 3/2
Torturer and the Spirit all hurtling towards Chris who chooses only to block
the spirit with his Sangromancer. Before
it can be killed I sacrifice the Spirit to an Altar’s Reap
to draw two cards,
give Chris 3 life, untap Juggsey and activate the Morbid effect on my
forthcoming tragic slip which takes out the Sangromancer. Damage happens and Chris takes 12 damage.
Turn 8
Chris, sensing the game is up attacks with the child of the
night who gets blocked and killed by Juggsey.
He adds a Bloodline keeper. On my
turn I add a Demonmail Hauberk
, equipping it to the Torturer and attack with
everything. Chris effectively scoops by
blocking one of the human tokens which gets sacrificed to feed the
torturer. The combined damage from
Jugsey, the torturer and the three remaining tokens is enough to finish Chris
off.
Game to Lather the Townsfolk.
Fedger’s Thoughts
I haven’t dramatically changed the flow of the deck so the Fedger’s Thoughts from the Dark Sacrifice playtest still apply. The deck is still fun and rewarding providing
you have had sufficient time to set up the components and are patient with
using the human sacrifices.
It’s a shame that we didn’t get to see Skirsdag High Priest
, Thraben Doomsayer
Increasing Devotion
or Ravenous Demon
though it’s
good to see the deck is effective without its four rares. I managed to cast Increasing Confusion in a
game against Kelly the other day. She
scooped after I flashbacked it.
Card of the playtest: Falkenrath Torturer.
It was through this guy that I was able to whittle Chris
down in the latter two games though we can’t give him all the credit. Without the doomed travellers and gather the
townsfolks he would have been useless.
Tragic slip is just superb in this deck, and bonds of faith is effective
and the art fits the deck thematically.
I’m really looking forward to getting more plays out of this
deck.
Next time
I recently went to another booster draft at Southsea
Models. This time it was 2 x Inistrad
and 1 x Dark Ascension. I ended up
drafting a Red/Black & Splashed white (for Sorin) Vampire Deck with Markov Blademaster
, Rakish Heir
, Stromkirk Captain
and quite a few other vampires. That’s
my second Blademaster (I got one in the Dark Ascension Pack Wars) so this week
I’m putting together a deck based around the blademaster. No Fedger’s Fiddling rules this time, I’m
filling it with as many rares as I like (can afford).
Next week I’ll probably be posting about how it performs at
FNM on Wednesday. (As long as the cards arrive in time).
See you then!
Fedger
See you then!
Fedger
Friday 16 March 2012
Scars Block Booster Draft
So myself and Mr Chris went to our first ever booster draft the other day. This was the first time I’d played in an
environment other than the kitchen table with mates. I was a bit apprehensive at first but they
were a great bunch of people, really friendly and forthcoming with advice. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and learnt a lot about
mtg etiquette.
The draft itself was scars block. New Phyrexia – Mirrodin Besieged – Scars of Mirrodin. I’ve an okay knowledge of New Phyrexia (it
was the first release after I started playing magic) but the other two were
fairly unknown to me. So I spent the two
days leading up to it reading up on booster draft hints for noobs and
practicing on here. Some things I
picked up on were to prioritise removal, evasive creatures and bombs. Think about what colour the players
to either side of you are playing, you want to be playing a different colour. At the event, the organiser gave me this advice: “Take the rare and play around it”.
On to the draft! Now
I can’t remember many other cards other than the one’s I took. I also can’t remember which order I took the
cards in – but I can remember a few key decisions I made starting with the
first pick.
The Draft
The Draft
New Phyrexia
The rare in my first booster was a Chancellor Of The Annex
which I took. I figured I’d want to play
a fast deck since this card would give me some early advantage if in my opening
hand (and provide an evasive finisher late game). My next pick was a Porcelain Legionnaire. I had wanted to avoid
artifact creatures (given all the artifact hate in the block) but I took the
legionnaire because his phyrexian mana ties in with the early advantage
theme. My next pick was another Porcelain
Legionnaire which cemented my approach.
At some point I grabbed a Master Splicer feeling a 4/4 and
1/1 for 4 mana is a solid deal. Also
adding to the speed theme I grabbed a Slash Panther. I got a Blinding Souleater to keep the
momentum going if I got ahead of my opponent.
I managed to get a Gremlin Mine, Whipflare and 2 Victorious Destructions
for removal. Looking at my picks so far
I have quite a few artifact creatures, so I grab Scrapyard Salvo and War Report. The other picks were off colour.
Mirrodin Besieged
I can’t remember what the rare was, but I know that I passed
it up for Burn the Impure, figuring that some removal that doesn’t mind burning
non-artifact creatures would come in handy.
I wanted some low-costing creatures to keep the speed theme and found a
couple of Ardent Recruits. I have a fair
amount of artifacts so should be able to get metalcraft going too. Off of this I picked 2 each Spiraling Duelists
and Spin Engines and Some cheap artifact hate in the form of a Crush. I love combat tricks so took 2 Rally the Forces. Keeping in colour I picked an
Ogre Resister, Gore Vassal and Koth’s Courier.
One of my last picks was a Shriekhorn which was unlikely to make it in
to the deck as all it would effectively do is add to my metalcraft count.
Scars of Mirrodin
I passed up Kemba Kha Regent here since I had yet to pick
any equipment to take advantage of his ability.
Instead I think I took a Tumble Magnet.
A fair few of my creatures are 3/1 so Tumble Magnet would provide a
nice way of tapping down 1/1 potential blockers. The other key picks from this round were a
Glint Hawk Idol – providing an evasive attacker and three more removal spells –
Rust Tick, Shatter and Revoke Existence.
I took a Ghalma’s Warden as it’s a pretty darn good deal if Metalcraft
is active and Loxodon Wayfarer. I grabbed a Liquimetal Coating because I have
so much Artifact hate it would be nice to spread the love to Non-Artifact
Creatures.
The rest of my picks were Flameborn Viron, Golem Foundry,
Culling Dais, Panic Spellbomb, Flight Spellbomb and a Trigon of Thought.
The deck
Creatures
2 Ardent Recruit
2 Porcelain Legionnaire
1 Blinding Souleater
1 Rust Tick
Master Splicer
2 Spiralling Duellist
Ghalma’s Warden
Slash Panther
Chancellor of the Annex
Other
Crush
Gremlin Mine
Glint Hawk Idol
Liquimetal Coating
Burn the Impure
Whipflare
Revoke Existence
Shatter
Tumble Magnet
Rally the Forces
Scrapyard Salvo
War Report
Land
9 Mountains
7 Plains
The Games
Opponent One
I won this round 2 – 1.
My opponent was playing Red/Black with Geth, Lord of the Vault who made an appearance in
the second game. My opponent made a bit
of a misplay with Geth – I was keeping Geth tapped down with the Tumble Magnet and
my opponent didn’t realise that he could still activate Geth’s ability. I kept Geth at bay long enough to Whipflare
and Burn the Impure him away.
Opponent Two
I got thrashed 2-0 here.
This guy had done a brilliant job of drafting and had a deck so full of
synergy. Artifacts jumping from the
battlefield to his hand, his graveyard all the while activating numerous
abilities multiple times. He went on to
win the draft in the end.
Opponent Three
This was my favourite match-up as the games were so
close. My deck played its best in the
first game. Turn 1 – Ardent Recruit,
Turn 2 – Porcelain Legionnaire, Turn 3 – Blinding Souleater, Turn 4 Slash –
Panther. All the while my opponent had
only managed to assemble equipment. He
managed to stabilise at 7 life and get a couple of bigger creatures (one was a
big artifact creature golem) in the way to stall the game. I soon drew a Revoke Existence which allowed
me to attack for lethal. The other two
games were hard fought, I managed to get him to 1 life in the third before he
stabilised and eventually won and he won 2 -1.
After this match we had some time to kill whilst other matches
finished. Opponent 3 and 2 took a look
through my deck and suggested that I take out the Scrapyard Salvo and
Spiralling Duellists in favour of the Ogre Resistor and 2 Spin Engines. They had a good point so I obliged.
Opponent Four
I managed to win 2-0 against my fourth opponent who was wielding
a UW deck. A whipflare allowed me to win
the second game (taking out his two Suture Priest who were keeping his life
up). I could have kept my Master Splicer
alive if I had of remembered to activate Liquimetal Coating.
Fedger’s (briefest
of) Thoughts
Star Card: Glint Hawk Idol.
I drew it in most games and more often than not he was the only one able
to continuously hack away at my opponent’s life.
I really enjoyed my first taste of this format and will definitely
be heading to the next one. I’m more
fluent with Innistrad and Dark Ascension so hopefully next time we’ll be
drafting from that block.
Next time on Fedger’s Furnace: I’ll be play testing & reporting on Lather the Townsfolk.
Next time on Fedger’s Furnace: I’ll be play testing & reporting on Lather the Townsfolk.
See you then!
Friday 9 March 2012
Fedger's Fiddlin': Dark Sacrifice
Hi there. Welcome to
the second edition of Fedger’s Fiddlin’.
This time around I’ll be having a look at tuning up Dark Sacrifice’s
efficiency, focus and consistency. Like
last time, I follow 4 rules to keep the deck balanced at the Kitchen table:
1. The deck may contain up to 4
rares.
2.
Of the 4
rares, 1 may be mythic.
3.
Only a
single copy of each rare is allowed.
4.
The deck must be legal for Standard.
The cards in Dark Sacrifice can roughly be divided into three
groups; Fodder, Sac Outlets, Beneficiaries.
The fodder contains all creatures that give us a benefit when they die,
i.e. Doomed Traveler. Sac outlets are cards that allow us to ‘sacrifice a creature’ for benefit such as
the Skirsdag Flayer. Beneficiaries are
creatures that do not cause the deaths of our creatures but benefit from them
like Village Cannibals. Then there’s
everything else which can be put into a fourth group; ‘Support’.
Fodder
I want cheaper and more numerous fodder. For this reason I
am losing both Elgaud Inquisitors, Mausoleum Guard and both Elder Cathars. The elder cathar does give a nice bonus on
his way out; but his price tag of three mana is enough to put me off. I don’t want to pay that much for a creature
I plan to sacrifice. The fodder must be
human so Lingering Souls is out.
To fill the gap in the Fodder package I’ll add a Gather the Townsfolk,
2 Doomed Travelers, Thraben Doomsayer, a Selfless Cathar and an Increasing Devotion. Selfless Cathar, although not technically
fodder, has been included as he’s so cheap.
1 Mana is a good price for fodder and his ability will come in handy on occasion.
Sac Outlets
Not too much change here as I’m mostly happy with it.
Dropping from this group will be the Fiend of the Shadows
(she’ll probably sit on the sideboard for playing against W/B decks) and Disciple Of Griselbrand (I’m not a fan of lifegain and would rather have aggressive sac
outlets.) I’ll also be dropping one
Falkenrath Torturer in favour of a Skirsdag Flayer.
Beneficiaries
Not much change here either; I’m happy with the Unruly Mobs and the
Village Cannibals. Galvanic Juggernaut performed
admirably in the playtest so he’s earned his spot for now. I will, after giving it much thought, be
dropping the Champion of the Parish.
He’s a great card and fits well from a purely mechanic viewpoint. You’ll never be disappointed to see him in
your opening hand, but for me he doesn’t quite fit with the feel of the deck. Plus I need him to make room for the Skirsdag High Priest! With the amount of sacrificing and tokens knocking about,
shouldn’t find it too hard to summon us a demon most turns.
Support
That just leaves support, for starters I’m getting rid of
the expensive Death’s Caresses, the unrelated Night Terrors and Avacyn’s Collar. I’ll also be dropping the recursion
(Unburial Rites, Gravepurge). In favour
of a playset of the brilliant Tragic Slip and a playset of Bonds of Faith. The latter being a nice flexible
Pacifism for our enemies or Giant Strength for our humans – though I’ll probably keep a playset of
pacifisms on the sideboard in-case my opponent uses a Humans deck.
Land
With no mana fixing I’m going to take out the Haunted Fengraf and make the land count 13 Plains, 11 Swamp.
The final list looks like this:
13 Plains
11 Swamp
There it is! I dub this deck: “Lather the
Townsfolk.” Not the soapy definition of
lather, the other one. (Look it up, I did).
I’ll be playtesting Lather the Townsfolk this week and will
post the results either next friday or the friday after. I recently went to my first draft event and want to write a post on that while it's still fresh(ish) in my mind - so that may come first.
Cheers for reading!
Cheers for reading!
Fedger
Saturday 3 March 2012
Dark Sacrifice Playtest
Oioi! Welcome back to
Fedger’s Furnace, where this week I’ll be playtesting Dark Ascension’s Dark
Sacrifice. My opponent today is Kelly
and her undead hoards from Relentless Dead.
For a detailed rundown on the cards in both decks, check out these
articles on Ertai’s Lament; Dark Sacrifice Review & Playtest, Relentless Dead Review & Playtest. The foremost
also contains a look at the history and controversy in games which have the
occult theme present like Dark Sacrifice.
A good read that.
Now, on to the playtesting!
Game One
No time for a warm up game to decide who goes first – so we roll off. Kelly wins the roll and goes first. I mulligan away my first hand – and then stick with the second; a Champion of the Parish, a Doomed Traveler, a Skirsdag Flayer, a Galvanic Juggernaut, a Plains, a Swamp and a Haunted Fengraf. Not too shabby!
Turns 1-2
Kelly opens
with a Swamp into a Diregraf Ghoul. I
hit back with a Plains into a Champion of the Parish. With the 2 humans in my hand, he’ll be
outclassing her ghoul in 2 turns. Kelly’s
turn 2 consists of her attacking me with her Ghoul, which I let through, and
then summoning a Screeching Skaab, which mills her two swamps. Over to me and I cast the Skirsdag Flayer
which pumps the Champion up to a 2/2.
Turn 3
Straight to
Kelly’s attack phase where she attacks me with both zombies for 4. I decline any sort of trade for my Champion
or Flayer and take the 4 damage which puts me on 14 life. She then adds a Walking Corpse to her growing
ranks of undead and passes to me. I draw
and play a Village Cannibals which pumps Champ to a 3/3 hopefully halting
Kelly’s advance for now.
Turn 4
Not
quite! Kelly summons a Diregraf Captain
who gives all of her zombies a power & toughness boost. Her three zombies are back on even footing
with my champion. She attacks with the
Skaab, the Ghoul and the Corpse for 9.
Not wanting to lose any of my creatures – who all have their part to
play – I decline the block and take 9 damage.
At the end of Kelly’s fourth turn she is winning 20-5. Something must be done. A plan formulates in my head and I lay the
groundwork with a Haunted Fengraf, and pass to Kelly.
Turn 5
Kelly heads
straight to her combat phase and attacks with 3 of her creatures (keeping the
Captain back out of harm’s way). I block
the Corpse, the Ghoul and the Skaab with the Cannibals, the Flayer and Champ
respectively. Before the damage step I
activate the Flayer’s ability (sacrificing himself) and destroying her Diregraf
Captain. This has a couple of knock on
effects:
1) Her
zombies revert back to their more manageable power 2 states.
2) My
village cannibals grow to a 3/3 as they feast on the fallen Flayer.
My two
remaining blockers outclass their zombie counterparts and when the dust settles
Kelly is left with just the Ghoul. Kelly
replaces her Screeching Skaab with a Headless Skaab one and ends her turn. Wary of my life total I opt to keep Champ on
defence and send in the Village Cannibals for 3. Kelly has no blockers and takes her first
damage of the game putting her on 17. I
then add a Doomed Traveler to my force. Champ, at 4/4, is happy to see him.
Turn 6
Kelly’s
sixth turn is a blank except that I activate the Haunted Fengraf’s ability at
instant speed to return the Skirsdag Flayer from my graveyard to hand. On my turn I summon both the Skirsdag Flayer
and an Elder Cathar. Champ is now a 6/6
so I send him in to the red zone to cause mischief. Kelly opts to gang block him with both
Headless and the Ghoul, and she casts Corpse Lunge flinging her fallen
Screeching Skaab at Champ. Champ bravely
fights on, taking down the headless skaab but succumbs to his wounds and heads
to the graveyard. On the plus side, he
makes a fine meal for the Cannibals (4/4 now).
Turn 7
Another
blank for Kelly. I activate Skirsdag
Flayer’s ability, this time sacrificing Elder Cathar (who adds three +1/+1
counters to the village cannibals all told) and destroying Kelly’s only
defender. The Cannibals take Champ’s
place as my offensive threat (now at 7/7) and together with the traveller
attack Kelly for 8. After turn 7 the
score is 9-5 to Kelly who needs an answer soon.
Turn 8
Kelly adds a
Cellar Door but alas, is stuck on 4 land and cannot try for a zombie
token. I attack with everything for 9 on
my turn and Kelly is unable to do anything about it. Round 1 to Dark Sacrifice.
Game 2
Having no swamps or white spells I mulligan. The next hand is a fair bit better; a Disciple Of Griselbrand, Galvanic Juggernaut, Unburial Rites, a Selfless Cathar and one each of a Swamp and Plains.
Turn 1 – 2
The first
two turns consist of both of us hitting our land drops, Kelly summoning a
Walking Corpse and me getting a Selfless Cathar and Skirsdag Flayer.
Turn 3
Kelly plays
Forbidden Alchemy discarding a Black Cat, a Swamp and a Diregraf Captain. She
then attacks wi- wait, a Diregraf Captain!!??
Whatever she kept must be pretty special. I’m slightly worried. Anyways, she attacks with the corpse what
walks and I’m down to 18. I return fire
with the Flayer and the Cathar taking her down to 18 also then, I add a Disciple
of Grieselbrand to the team.
Turns 4-5
Kelly
attacks once again with the corpse for 2, and adds a Makeshift Mauler to her
team. I answer her 4/5 Mauler with my
5/5 Juggernaut and pass back to Kelly who’s turn is a blank. I draw my foil rare: Fiend of the Shadows. Having
hit all of my land drops I have just the right amount of land for it. The Juggernaut attacks on its own volition,
there’s nothing I could do even if I wanted to stop it and gets blocked by the
Mauler. Kelly finishes my Juggernaut off
by Corpse Lunging her dead Diregraf Captain at it. I end the turn on a high and summon my Fiend
of the Shadows! The Shadow? The Shadow.
Turn 6
Kelly adds two
ready-tapped zombies in the form of a Diregraf ghoul and a Headless Skaab. I attack with the Fiend on my turn taking
Kelly down to 15 and making Kelly exiles a Moan of the Unhallowed from her
hand. I like the fiend’s ability; it’s
fun and can produce all kinds of random results. When it comes to Fiddling with this deck I
reckon she’ll be a sideboard though, brought in only if I’m playing against a
Black or White deck to get consistent results. If I was playing against an off
colour, I’d have to be lucky enough to get them to exile the correct land
first. After the fiend’s attack I bring
back my Juggernaut with Unburial Rights.
Turn 7
Kelly plays
an Endless Ranks of the Dead with much whimpering from me. I need to start whittling those zombies down
before it can have too much of an impact.
Currently she has 3 zombies which will net her one token next turn. I summon an Unruly Mob (just in-case something
dies) and the attack with my Fiend and Juggernaut for 8. Kelly gang blocks the Juggernaut with her
Headless Skaab and Diregraf Ghoul, currently forcing a trade (ghoul for
Juggernaut). The Selfless Cathar sees
this and says “No”. He valiantly sacrifices himself for the greater good and
gives everyone +1/+1. This makes all the
difference as now I can kill her headless Skaab and the Juggernaut lives to
fight another turn. A few other side
effect from the Cathar’s demise include:
1) The
Unruly Mob get a +1/+1 Counter.
2) The
Fiend hits for 4 rather than 3.
3) The
Juggernaut untaps
Thank you
Selfless Cather, you’ve done a great thing on this day.
Oh and the
Fiend makes Kelly exile a card from her hand!
At the end of turn 7, Kelly’s at 11 life and I’m at 16.
Turn 8
Kelly’s
Endless Ranks enchantment spawns a Zombie token. She then adds a Ghoulraiser to the
party. The ghoulraiser brings a zombie
back from the graveyard to her hand though she knows it will eventually fall
into my grasp via the Fiend. I opt to
attack with everyone bar the Skirsdag Flayer.
Kelly gang blocks the Unruly Mob with 2 of her zombies but the Skirsdag
Flayer evens up the score by Sacing off the Disciple. The mob grows to a 3/3 and dispatch the
remaining zombie with ease. Meanwhile,
the Juggernaut and the Fiend hit for 8, the Juggernaut untaps and the Fiend
forces Kelly to Exile a headless skaab from her hand. I end with a Gravepurge to return the
selfless Cathar and disciple to the top of my deck – ensuring I’ll have humans
to sacrifice for the next couple of turns.
Turn 9
Kelly gets
another zombie token from her enchantment and adds a Havengul Runebinder. Over to me, I re-summon the selfless Cathar
and attack with the Mob, the Fiend and the Juggernaut. Kelly scoops.
Game 2 and
set to Dark Sacrifice.
Game 3
Relentless dead is down two, can Kelly pull one back and avoid a 3-0 defeat? I mulligan my first hand again and stick with a Doomed Traveler, Skirsdag Flayer, Gravepurge and Unburial Rights figuring I could probably use the recursion to keep sacing the traveler for removal. Kelly starts.
Turns 1-2
Kelly has no
one-drop so the first play is my Doomed Traveler. Kelly sees my traveler with a Black Cat and
declines the trade when the traveler attacks next turn. Then, I summon my Skirsdag Flayer.
Turn 3
Kelly
counters with the Cat for one and summons a walking corpse. She’s not willing
to face a 1/1 flyer so she lets my traveler through again for 1.
Turn 4
Kelly hits
back with both the cat and the corpse, hitting me for three, and Dead Weights
my Flayer. Unwilling to let him die for
nothing I cast Altar’s Reap and get two cards for him (regrettably more
land). My turn 4 is a blank.
Turn 5
The Walking
Corpse and pet zombie cat both attack me again for 3. I block the cat with the
traveler hoping that the random discard will be one of the many lands occupying
my hand. Alas, Gravepurge hits the
graveyard. A 1/1 Spirit is my
consolation prize. Kelly ups her board
position and zombie making potential with a Havengul Runebinder – uhoh! I attack with the spirit on my turn and
needing to answer that Runebinder sooner rather than later I reach for the only
removal available to me, the Skirsdag Flayer via Unburial Rights. The actual removing will have to wait one
turn unfortunately. The score is 17-14
to Kelly.
Turn 6
The
Runebinder performs his Necromancy and brings forth a Zombie token and buffs
both zombies to 3/3. The Corpse then
hits me for 3 reducing my life to 11.
Facing two 3/3 zombies is bad enough, I really don’t want to be facing
three plus 4/4 Zombies so the Flayer bites the sacrificial dagger and takes
Kelly’s necromancin’, runebindin’ wizard down with him. My life isn’t looking too great so I keep my
Spirit back for defensive duties.
Turn 7
Without
hesitation Kelly attacks with both zombies, one of them gets chumped by the spirit,
the other gets through putting me on 8.
Horrifyingly she casts Endless Ranks of the Undead. I respond with a Fiend of the Shadows.
Turn 8
The hoard
begins to grow as Kelly gets a free zombie token from the Endless Ranks
enchantment. The 3/3 zombies hit me for
six which I allow through putting me on 2. Relentless dead lives up to its name when a
Moan of the unhallowed is cast adding two more zombies to the rapidly
increasing horde. My turn and what I
wouldn’t give for a Fateful Hour Gather the Townsfolk or two. All I can manage is flashbacking unburial
rights to return Doomed traveller and playing a Lingering Souls to get two
spirit tokens.
Turn 9
The ranks of
undead swell to 7, 5 of which can attack and with only four blockers 2 damage
gets through and Kelly wins.
Fedger’s Thoughts
Wow, I
friggin’ love this deck – it’s so fun to play!
I’m always going to enjoy a deck with synergy, and this deck oozes the
stuff. Setting up big plays like on Game
2 Turn 7 is both satisfying and rewarding, where just the activation of the Selfless
Cathar’s ability had so much knock-on effect – providing you have the time to
set everything up!
In the first game, Kelly had me down to 5 life before the Sacrifice engine started moving. One turn longer and the outcome would have been completely different. Game three also demonstrated well what happens when you don’t quite have the right components in place.
The star of
the playtest for me was the Skirsdag flayer; his repeatable removal is a bit
pricey but worth it given the environment he is performing his rituals in. More often than not, activating his ability
will be doing more than just destroying an opponent’s creature.
Timing is everything in this deck. You really need to squeeze as much as you possibly can out of each sacrifice. One can’t just go activating sac effects willy-nilly. If you can use them at instant speed, then wait until the sac’d creature chump blocks an opponent’s beater or sac a creature that has been targeted by an opponent’s removal.
Another card I really enjoyed was the Galvanic Juggernaut. Firstly he’s a 5/5 for 4 colourless mana; a great deal! Secondly, given that we frequently have the ability to sac on demand we have control over his taps/ untaps. Even when he’s tapped an opponent will think twice before counting him out of a block if they suspect we have some instant speed sac ability lurking in our hands (or in plain sight on the battlefield).
Fiend of the Shadows worked well against Relentless dead. Our colour in common meant that (had I needed to) I could have cast the exiled cards. Relentless Dead doesn’t have much in the way of anti-air so she was sailing over the zombies, combat phase after combat phase. I’m not sure she would be as good against other decks so she’s likely to live on the side board in the future.
All in all, this deck is both fun and tactically rewarding. I look forward to tweaking the deck list to really tighten up the synergy between the cards. I’ll post the results next week.
See you
then!
Fedger.
Friday 24 February 2012
Dark Ascension Pack Wars
Hello everyone!
Welcome to this week’s Fedger’s Furnace.
This time around, Mr Chris and I played a best-of-3 pack wars with Dark
Ascension booster packs. For those that
don’t know, pack wars is where you make a deck out of a single booster pack
plus 3 of each basic land without looking at what’s in the booster. Here’s how it went
Game 1
I mulligan once and then I get an excellent second
hand: I have a Pyreheart Wolf, Markov Blademaster, Soul Seizer, 2 mountains,
a swamp and a forest. From my experience
in pack wars, one is lucky to have two cards that you can play from your
opening hand. Not only can I play two
cards, but they both have an excellent synergy and one is my rare! Feeling confident I stick with it.
Turns 1-4
Chris wins the roll off and goes first. The first play of
the game comes on turn three when he plays a Warden of the Wall (after laying 2
Plains and a Mountain). My first play
is a pyreheart wolf on my third turn (after laying 2 mountains and a
plain). Turn 4 Chris lays a Forest and
Summons a Niblis of the Mist who taps my wolf.
Not to worry, he untaps on my next turn.
I opt to attack with the Wolf. Chris could block with both but would
lose his Niblis and give my wolf a +1/+1 counter so he lets it through for
one. I lay a swamp and play my rare;
Markov Blademaster.
Turn 5
Chris attacks with his Niblis for 2 and passes to me. I play and equip a Heavy Mattock to my
Blademaster making him a 2/2. I attack
with both of my creatures, Chris has no choice but to let them through since he
only has one blocker. The Blademaster’s
first attack pumps him in time for his second so when the dust settles Chris
has taken 6 damage (putting him on 13) and the Blademaster is a 4/4.
Turn 6
Chris’s turn 6 is a blank.
I attack with both creatures once more and Chris gang blocks my wolf
with his two defenders. The Blademaster
deal a whopping 9 damage to Chris (growing to a 6/6 in the process) and I opt
to damage the Niblis with my wolf. Both
creatures die, the only difference being that the wolf comes back, and in
greater power. At the end of turn 6 it’s
looking grim for Chris who is losing 18-4.
Chris’s next turn is a blank and with one creature remaining he’s unable
to block the next attack. One – nil to
me.
Game 2
Turns 1-3
Chris lays a plains and mountain on his first two
turns. I Evolving Wilds a swamp and then
play a Forest followed by a Dawntreader Elk on my first two. On turn three Chris plays an Island and gets
a Screeching Skaab out - milling his Silverclaw Griffin and a Forest. I attack with the Elk & Chris takes the
damage after which the Pyreheart wolf from game one makes a triumphant return.
Turn 4
Chris attacks with his Skaab and my wolf loyally blocks its
path. The Skaab dies and the wolf
returns as a 2/2. Chris taps 4 lands and
summons a Nearheath Stalker. On my turn,
I attack with both creatures for 4, taking Chris down to 14. I then add a Somberwald Dryad to the team.
Turn 5
Chris’s Stalker makes its way into the red-zone and I accept
the trade for my Dryad…except it’s not a trade and I forgot about the Stalker’s
undying ability – whoops! The stalker returns
as a 5/2. Chris adds a Drogskol Captain
to the proceedings which (unfortunately for Chris) does not have any fellow
spirits to buff. My turn to attack and I
hit Chris with both creatures again for 4, he’s on 10 now. I pass to Chris.
Turn 6
Chris targets my only island with a Scorch the Fields,
luckily the only card I need it for has flash so in response to Chris’ play I
cast Nephalia Seakite getting a quick use from the island before it is
destroyed. Chris then attacks with the
his stalker and I accept the trade for my Seakite. I hit Chris for another 4 with my creatures
(he’s on 6 now) and summon a Gavony Ironwright.
Turn 7
Warden of the wall, remember him? Chris summons him this turn. I activate the Elk’s ability in Chris’s turn,
adding a Mountain to my land reservoir in preparation for a Markov Blademaster,
which I cast on my turn.
Turn 8-10
Chris adds a Loyal Cathar to his board and passes to
me. I bust out a Screeching Skaab of my
own milling a Black Cat and Drogskol Captain then pass to Chris whose turn 9
is a blank. I decide that now is the
time to send my forces into the red zone and tap everything. Chris can only block one because of the
Pyreheart Wolf’s ability and he opts to take out the Blademaster. Meanwhile the Ironwright, the Skaab and the
Wolf take Chris down to 1 life. The
Loyal Cathar returns as a Unhallowed Cathar.
Chris can’t find an answer next turn and when my combat phase rolls
around he can’t stop my creatures coming in for lethal.
I win the set 2-0 – woot woot!
Fedger’s Thoughts
I definitely had the Lion’s share of the luck in these games. Mana fixing’s very helpful in this format and
I was blessed with an Evolving Wilds and a Dawntreader Elk. Also my rare was cheap and had great synergy
with the Pyreheart wolf included in the pack.
I won the third game thanks to this (but unfortunately failed to
hit record and thus couldn’t report on it).
Chris’s rare was a Fiend of the Shadows which he had in his
hand the first game but just couldn’t find the swamps to cast it.
Seeing the Markov Blademaster and the Pyreheart wolf work in tandem has made me want to create a red/black vamp deck similar to Carnival of
Blood. It would be filled with Vampires that get bigger
when they hit directly and the means to get them through the red zone
unhindered with the cards like Pyreheart wolf, removal, auras that give them evasion and a few Onyx Mages to make an opponent think twice about gang-blocking. I’ll put this idea on the back burner for a
while as the next three weeks of blogs will be dedicated to the playtest,
fiddling and re-playtest of Dark Ascension’s Dark Sacrifice.
I’ll see you then!
Fedger
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