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Total Votes : 5
Cobra
Posted: Thu Feb 15, 2007 3:44 am
Joined: 12 Jul 2005 Posts: 1202 Location: Austin, TX, USA
That red deck looks pretty cool -- Stuffy Doll + Furnace of Rath + Lightning Axe is a sweet trick!

I agree that Kher Keep is a good choice for stalling and/or Cruel Edict protection. I do have to point out that Evangelize isn’t a threat by itself, though -- the Doll will still target the player you named (presumably your opponent) no matter who’s in control of it. I found that out the hard way the other day. Wink
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Felipe Musco
Posted: Thu Feb 15, 2007 11:13 am
Joined: 18 May 2006 Posts: 2434 Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
True, well pointed. So far, the worst trick pulled on me like this was my friend’s Gruul beatdown deck. He doesn’t have the good rares, so he builds around the meta, and when I played Stuffy against him, he calmly tapped five lands, and Word of Seizing! And then one more to sac it to Scorched Rusalka. That hurt. I’ve seen he pull this trick against COUNTLESS creatures, and even aginast Sacred Mesa once, AFTER End of Turn step, so he’d still have control of it during HIS upkeep to let it die. Cruel.
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The First
Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 6:58 am
Joined: 07 Oct 2005 Posts: 195 Location: Anderlecht, Belgium
Well, you put quite some time into this. I think it is only normal that at least 1 person should also put a lot of time into this to provide you with some feedback Wink

2.1. White

Aven Riftwatcher – While not bad in limited, I think it should be able to shine just a bit more in constructed. Its “come into play and out of play” ability is pretty cool. Combine it with some blinking mojo and it could be pretty darn great. Especially since it is G cheaper than our beloved Elephant and a lot more money wise. This should be the budget player’s choice in constructed.

Benalish Commander – He is not that bad indeed. I would not use him as a token generator but rather to get some tempo advantage/card advantage. Pay 1WW to suspend and get a guaranteed 2/2 that can attack on turn 4 and a 1/1 to boot. I’d use him in a WW deck.

Calciderm – Can you target him in a graveyard with resurrection?

I also thought, yeah, the good ol’ Blastoderm is back but he lacks the feeling that Blasto had. A good creature indeed but I prefer the Solifuge. White is just not his color and the two dedicated mana makes it harder to splash. But you never now. I’d like to test it in a more aggressive build of my control deck, running WoG, Calciderm and some spot removal.

Crovax, Ascendant Hero – Indeed, could be a good sideboard card. I don’t believe that he will make much difference against decks running Solifuge, Groundbreaker or Dark Confidant though, not with his massive cost of 4WW. I would have loved to see him with a morph ability instead of the “return to hand” ability.

Dawn Charm – Might be a good sideboarder. Might be useful against dragonstorm? Regenerating a creature is always a nice surprise, but all in all not that great.

Dust Elemental – When WoG is played, he will rescue 2 creatures + himself. How cool is that. Can also return vanishing creatures to hand like, let say, Calciderm. But I’d love to be able to play it on turn 3. A 6/6 attacking creature with quite some evasion? I’m there.

Heroes Remembered – Seems like a very good multiplayer card. You always have some extra time when playing multiplayer. But still I’d rather hardcast it than wait 10 turns... Maybe it could work with Clockspinning. But even then, what good will it do? I’d rather put 4 Fetters and 4 Benalish Commandeer in the deck.


Magus of the Tabernacle – I especially like the 2/6 body. It could be a great addition to a deck running Exhaustion, Timbermare and Gigadrowse.
A great weenie hoser indeed.

Mana Tithe – Apparently, there is a lot of love for this card. And with Damnation and Wrath of God in the environment, this could be a stapple – or at least good sider – for aggro decks. I don’t think that it will stop Dragonstorm decks though. Not with Gigadrowse in the arena.

Mantle of Leadership – Actually, I don’t see this one working out for any deck. An enchantment which costs 2 mana and which doesn’t do anything on its own… There are better cards than this one IMO.

Pallid Mycoderm – My friend has a thallid deck that isn’t that bad. But I agree that Thallids do not seem to be all that great.

Rebuff the Wicked – Hmmm… 1 mana to protect your land, totems, creatures and so on against spot removal. And it is a hard counter. It can even be a permanent under Enslave –ment. This card is very good.

Shade of Trokair – Horribly overcosted IMO. 4 for a 1/2…. And waiting 3 turn for it to come into play is a tad long.

Sinew Sliver – Nothing to sneeze at but only really useful in a sliver deck to state the obvious.

Stonecloaker – Pretty basic drawgo card. Play, return “come into play” utility creature and attack next turn. Cool with Ravenous Rats, Necrataal or even Uktabi Drake.

Sunlance – There is lots of good burn in red. So this card won’t be used in any deck that splashes red. It is also a sorcery and cannot target a player which makes it kind of limited.

Voidstone Gargoyle – Reminds me of Meddling Mage. Only the mage was a lot cheaper. Still a 3/3 flyer with such an ability can be ennoying. I wouldn’t play it though.

Whitemane Lion – For me, this is a “meh” card. Not that bad, but not very useful either. At turn two, what are you going to take back? What will you do with a 2/2 with no evasion? This seems to be a bit counterproductive.
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2.2. Black

Big Game Hunter – Huh? I love this card. Creature removal with a body attached. What’s wrong with that? And if you are able to discard it, lets say, with an Itican Crier or Urborg Syphon Mage for instance, you get a 1/1 for 1 and a free though somehow restricted removal card.

Damnation – This card makes it possible to play mono-black control and any other version like GB, UB or RB. This card is amazing. Just like the shock-lands, even non-standard players are going to want this card.

Dash Hopes – This card is bad according to me. In control builds, you want hard counters. Reliability. You don’t want spells to slip through your fingers. Your finishers will bring in the damage. In aggro builds, you don’t want to keep the mana available. The reason why Browbeat is that good, is that you will play it when you want it. You don’t have to keep mana available and wait for your opponent. No, you take the initiative. It is your opponent’s choice to choose which advantage Browbeat will bring to you.

Dunerider Outlaw – There are better 2 drops for mono black aggro. And against other aggro decks, he might be a good blocker but he won’t kill anything or have much chance to grow.

Enslave – I like it a lot. Ok it is no confiscate but for mono black control, it could be useful.

Imp’s Mischief – It is versatile. But is it useful? Can be handy in control builds. It reminds me of shining shoal, only shining shoal could be played for free and redirected damage. This card is more versatile but you need some co-operation from your opponent. That’s never good.

Mirri the Cursed – I have mixed feelings about Mirri. In general, you want your creatures to hit. But Mirri is only a 3/2 flyer with first strike. Mortivore is probably better in control builds – and also fetchable with the House Guard. In aggro builds, she could shine though. But she can also be killed quite easily by a 4/4 flyer or a shock… She is a bit too fragile for my taste.

Null Profusion – I agree. Why is this card in the list??

Temporal Extortion – I like this card a lot better in the 4 mana card slot that Mirri. It has the same aggressive win – win feeling as Browbeat. And most important, with this card, YOU take the initiative.

Waning Wurm – Hmmm… I wouldn’t play this card. Ok it has nice stats but vanishing 2 and no trample or haste… no thanks.
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2.3. Red

Akroma, Angel of Fury – I have mixed feelings about her too. She looks pretty amazing but she is expensive, and black can kill her quite easily. Even red can destroy her. The flying, trample and firebreathing can be a lethal combination though.

Battering Sliver – I love the Gemhide Sliver. Especially along with the Reflex Sliver and a bunch of cheap other slivers. This sliver does seem to be overkill.

Brute Force – Gruul is packing this card 4x. Why? It can both save your creature in combat or deal 3 extra damage when a creature comes through. So why not. With Rift Bolt, Gruul is leaning more towards the savage side of aggro. Deal lots of damage asap and for the least mana possible. Then why has no-one been using Giant Growth? I don’t know. I presume because Gruul is shifting more towards Red than Green.

Dead//Gone – I LOVE this card. Thrown it in my Gruul the moment I saw it.

Detritivore – I agree that Shivan Wumpus is the better creature card. But the Detritivore would be a cool LD card if his suspend cost would have been a bit lower. 3R to start with… Still, would be in SB if the cost were lower.

Fatal Frenzy – Just not good enough.

Keldon Marauders – Great card if combined with the “return to hand” creatures in white section. Still, a possible 5 damage for 2 mana is not THAT bad.

Lavacore Elemental – Hmmm… Were are the brothers Tim when you need them. I don’t actually think that this creature is that bad or risky to play. With Tims, Keldon Marauder, Rumbling Slum…

Rough//Tumble – Great card.

Shivan Wumpus – The best thing about it, is actually that it keeps coming back when a land is destroyed instead. Great card. I wouldn’t call it the best creature but it sure makes top 10 I think.

Volcano Hellion –Stuffy Doll Wink

Other colors will follow...
Great minds bleed alike.
Do not copy media. Support creativity.
Felipe Musco
Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 2:18 pm
Joined: 18 May 2006 Posts: 2434 Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
Thanks for the feedback so far, although we seem to agree in most of the points anyway! Laughing About Calciderm, although it says "target creature" in Resurrection, Claciderm’s game text is only active when it’s in play (as with Solifuge), so yeah, Resurrection can target it. Also, about the color-intensive thing, well, Boros Deck Wins uses Giant Solifuge x4 with no green mana aside from Gemstone Mine (which can also make red, so no point), meaning it costs 2 red, WHILE white IS the dominant color in the deck, due to the early drops being all white except for Rusalka, and red being only for burn. Besides that, with the insane amount of early swinging and burn you’ll be doing,, I don’t think Trample would be THAT necessary, so I’d gladly play Calciderm over Solifuge main. I’d prolly still keep’em in the SB, though.
Rebuff the Wicked has finally won my trust after seeing it being put to some good use.
Last, about Mana Tithe VS. Dragonstorm, my point is exactly this: D-Storm simply does not have enough time to prepare against Boros Deck Wins, meaning they HAVE to go off as soon as possible (same thing with control builds with Wrath of God, Damnation and/or Wildfire), meaning they won’t have all that mana available, and that they may even not have Gigadrowse (or enough blue mana or life to spend with painlands) to play before that, so you could really hurt them with one of those cast at the right time (usually when they’re tapping out for raising the mana/storm count). Also, in the course of 3 matches, where you’ll usually have a slight edge on game one, this makes for TWO games (at least) where they HAVE to build up REALLY fast AND stop the bleeding, or you can stop them right on their tracks.
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c3poquino
Posted: Fri Feb 23, 2007 10:39 am
Joined: 04 Sep 2006 Posts: 47 Location:
I liked the review on Mana Tithe, personally, and I think it is gonna be a great card indeed. Also, I liked the Monogreen Beats very much, seems weird at first, but it’s really cool, and it actually works. Problem is, if you can’t make Greater Good stick, you’re pretty much doomed, from my point of view. I agree with La_Sin_Grail here, where Idon’t think the Weenies can deal 20 to the head, although the white version might. But the green one definitely won’t. I’d suggest splashing in Urborg, in order to let Mire Boa landwalk, but I’m not sure this would be enough.
One last thing, don’t underestimate Serendib Sorcerer! I’m currently working on a very cool deck to lock down opponents, playing white and blue, by means of Wrath of God and counters, but also using (and relying on) Serendib Sorcerer alongside Merfolk Thaumaturgist, Saltfield Recluse and Ovinize to get rid of whatever they might have.
Oh, yeah, great effort on the article, though, looks way better than last month indeed. I actually felt kind of bad for giving you a 5, seeing as the others did raise a valid point about the match-up section, it really felt kind of subpar after comparing with even your own other articles, but there was no way to undo it. However, this month I can see no reason as to which you shouldn’t get one, but I’ll wait to see what the others have to say about it.
One more thing: bro’ loved that monored deck. Too bad for him, although I think it is funny, and probably as good as it gets with Stuffy Doll, I’m gonna crush him with Boros... It’s got a great match-up against your Orzhov Control I’ve been playing lately, though (by the way, I’ve split the 4 copies of Wrath of God into 2/2 with Damnation, and it seems better).
Felipe Musco
Posted: Fri Feb 23, 2007 12:55 pm
Joined: 18 May 2006 Posts: 2434 Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
Yeah, that’s the problem with "old" decks, we never remember to update them (or at least try to)! If you’re playing Standard, just swap all four Wraths for Damnation, and elave 2 in the sideboard, but if it’s Extended, go for the 2/2 proportion, and keep a 1/1 proportion at your sideboard. Cranial Extraction and Cabal Therapy can hurt a lot. About the Weenies, well, as I said, they’re not all supposed to be tier 1, they’re ALSO a way to show what the colors can do by themselves. And I believe it’s pretty ok for an eventual match at the casual room of mtgoline...
And... Serendib Sorcerer? Really? Are you SURE it’s gonna work? I’d like to see that... Post the decklist after it’s finished, I jut got another one out of a booster pack and could certainly use some help making it useful! Laughing
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The First
Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2007 7:54 am
Joined: 07 Oct 2005 Posts: 195 Location: Anderlecht, Belgium
Serendib Socerer is in fact a great card.

However, I would not use it in combo with other cards like Thaumaturgist. It is not efficient. I’d use him in some kind of aggro control. There is nothing cooler than to attack with a Solifuge with a Sorcerer out. It will deal damage and it won’t die except if it is blocked by 2 creatures with the sorcerer out.

The sorcerer is also a perfect "blocker" in the way that he does not even has to block to prevent damage.

However, he does lack the element of surprise which Ovinize brings with.
Great minds bleed alike.
Do not copy media. Support creativity.
Felipe Musco
Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2007 10:00 am
Joined: 18 May 2006 Posts: 2434 Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
Hey, Cobra, what happens if I go unrated for the month? Laughing
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physcosick
Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2007 10:33 am
Joined: 18 Oct 2005 Posts: 229 Location:
I must say this is the worst article this month Wink


Cool Cool Cool Cool Cool Cool
Felipe Musco
Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2007 10:54 am
Joined: 18 May 2006 Posts: 2434 Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
Hehehe, thanks, physcosick! I was already worried I’d go unrated for a full month, I was actually writing a PM to you! Laughing Hope you liked the read, or at least some of the decklists! Wink
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