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| Felipe Musco |
![]() Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 10:48 am |
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Joined: 18 May 2006
Posts: 2434
Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
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| Btw, I’ve made a mistake! About the Time Spiral’s timeshifted cards, they SHOULD be allowed, but considered as being the same rarity as they were in their last printing. So, Akroma would be rare (thus, you’d not bea llowed to add her in anyway), but Disenchant would be a common! |
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| Felipe Musco |
![]() Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 1:37 pm |
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Joined: 18 May 2006
Posts: 2434
Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
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Ok, let’s get back to stripping down the Theme Deck! For now, I’ll just make the first cuts, ’cause I don’t know yet how many points you’ll get for customizing the deck, aside from the ones from cutting creatures. So, here it is:
1 Keldon Marauders
2 Mogg War Marshall
2 Lavacore Elemental
1 Avalanche Riders
1 Children of Korlis
2 Icatian Javelineers
2 Errant Doomsayers
3 Whitemane Lion
1 Soltari Priest
3 Aven Riftwatcher
2 Stonecloaker
1 Riftmarked Knight
2 Calciderm
1 Dust Elemental
2 Stormfront Riders
2 Jhoira’s Timebug
2 Brute Force
1 Fatal Frenzy
2 Timecrafting
1 Dead//Gone
1 Sunlance
1 Dawn Charm
10 Mountain
11 Plains
3 Terramorphic Expanse
Ok, so what’s coming out? Let’s check it, and how many points that gives us:
1 Keldon Marauders = 0.5 points: I’m not that confortable with the low advantage range he offers, and also not sure on how important killing weenies is gonna be in the format, so he’s out FOR NOW. He MAY come back later, though.
1 Children of Korlis = 0.5 points: Does not fit with the whole rescuing strategy, as you can’t rescue a sacrificed creature.
2 Errant Doomsayers = 1 point: Seriously, he’s just plain bad forthe strategy. If it’s that low on toughness, it will either be shot down by Javelineers, or not strong enough to stop your main beaters.
1 Riftmarked Knight = 1 point: I won’t lie to you, I like this guy. However, suspend-theme is off, he’s a little... "off-topic".
2 Stormfront Riders = 2 points: Just costs too much, I’d rather be playing Dust Elemental or Calciderm a turn earlier.
2 Jhoira’s Timebug = 1 point: Seriously, the rescue plan is a whole lot better than having to keep a creature around just for upping the count one by one. THey’re DEFINITELY out.
2 Brute Force = 1 point: No trampling, no use for damage bonuses. Ok, so big’ol Dusty has fear, big seriously, pumps for a single creature? Not to mention, you second-to-best creature (actually, the best in my book) can’t be targeted by it anyway.
1 Fatal Frenzy = 4 points: Can’t target Calciderm, which is the big staple of the deck. Looks good with the rescuing plan, surely, just too limited.
2 Timecrafting = 2 points: Suspend is out, and it can’t target Calciderm. Could come in the sideboard, but for now, it’s as good as gone.
1 Sunlance = 0.5 points: Too limited. Can come into the sideboard, but for now, let’s worry about the maindeck.
3 Terramorphic Expanse = 1.5 points: What’s the use, if we can’t add in another color anyway?
Now, at first, I’m ALSO inclined to cut Dawn Charm, but I’ve been saved in Limited tournaments a fair share of times by that 8th pick Angel’s Grace that no one wanted, so let’s leave it in for now, right?
Ok, so after some minor calculations, we have... 15 points, aside from the ones you’ll all get already, so let’s assume you’ve gone with the rules I suggested. That means we have 20 points to work with, no rares allowed to come in, and a 18 card gap. However, the usual land count for a 60-card deck, nowadays, borders 22, so for now, let’s just add in another Mountain (since lands have the same cost, we can sort out the quantities later, let’s start with 50-50, although it won’t end up like this, surely), so that leaves us at:
(-17 cards; 19.5 points)
2 Mogg War Marshall
2 Lavacore Elemental
1 Avalanche Riders
2 Icatian Javelineers
3 Whitemane Lion
1 Soltari Priest
3 Aven Riftwatcher
2 Stonecloaker
2 Calciderm
1 Dust Elemental
1 Dead//Gone
1 Dawn Charm
11 Mountain
11 Plains
Let’s start with what we want maximized:
Whitemane Lion (needs 1 copy): Fits perfectly with the rescueing theme and is a nice card on its own.
Icatian Javelineers (needs 2 copies): AMAZING one-drop with the whole rescueing strategy, and it’s considered a COMMON! SOOO much cooler than Keldon Marauders!
Calciderm (needs 2 copies): The best card in the deck, by a landslide.
Dead//Gone (needs 3 copies): Great card for the format, really versatile! They’re gonna pump a creature? You 2-for-1 them! The creature is too big to deal with? You bounce it, and at least get rid of the pump effect (not to mention saving some precious life-points!).
So, that leaves us at:
(-9 cards; 14.5 points)
2 Mogg War Marshall
2 Lavacore Elemental
1 Avalanche Riders
4 Icatian Javelineers
4 Whitemane Lion
1 Soltari Priest
3 Aven Riftwatcher
2 Stonecloaker
4 Calciderm
1 Dust Elemental
4 Dead//Gone
1 Dawn Charm
11 Mountain
11 Plains
Now, if you start thinking "hey, that’s a whole bunch of points left!", remember, you still have to buy a sideboard!
Let’s take a look at the mana curve, for now:
1cc: 8 cards (but 4 of them are burn spells, usually meant for later)
2cc: 8 cards (including the charm, which is also meant for later, and FOUR "bounce" creeatures)
3cc: 11 cards
4cc: 5 cards
The top curve of the deck is low, I like that, but there’s just too much bouncing! Sorry, Whitemane, but you just cost too much. Let’s keep 2 of him around, and start messing with another card that "cheats" echo and saves creatures, WITHOUT bouncing them back to your hand: Momentary Blink (also, note that this card COULD "blink" tokens before, but the new ruling states it can’t do it anymore). So, it’s 2 commons for 2 commons, so no cost change whatsoever.
(-9 cards; 14.5 points)
2 Mogg War Marshall
2 Lavacore Elemental
1 Avalanche Riders
4 Icatian Javelineers
2 Whitemane Lion
1 Soltari Priest
3 Aven Riftwatcher
2 Momentary Blink
2 Stonecloaker
4 Calciderm
1 Dust Elemental
4 Dead//Gone
1 Dawn Charm
11 Mountain
11 Plains
Forcing damage early is always good, since you’ve got a lot of late-game beaters, so let’s add in 3 more Soltari Priest (3 points). Also, a bit of removal never hurts, so 4 Rift Bolt come in at the bargain or 2 points. Also, I wanted to use Revered Dead, to stop early beatings, but he does nothing against trample, shadow or flying, so instead, let’s take a look at an old card... Squall Drifter! Let’s swap Lavacore Elemental for 3 copies of this little guy, and one more copy of Mogg War Marshall, for the same points (gives us more guys out, which could prove to be useful, if you need to stop a flyer or trampler, Squall locks your mana, if you need to stop a Bear, a Goblin token gets the job done). So, where are we at now?
(-0 cards; 9.5 points)
3 Mogg War Marshall
3 Squall Drifter
1 Avalanche Riders
4 Rift Bolt
4 Icatian Javelineers
2 Whitemane Lion
4 Soltari Priest
3 Aven Riftwatcher
2 Momentary Blink
2 Stonecloaker
4 Calciderm
1 Dust Elemental
4 Dead//Gone
1 Dawn Charm
11 Mountain
11 Plains
I wanted to further tweak the deck, but for now, let’s make a sideboard, which should be a priority, as the deck looks nice as it is.
Now, we have five big creatures without trample, so if we need to force damage through a wall of blockers, we’ll need a board-sweeper. Rares are out, so that leaves us with red sweepers, and what good surprise, our Soltari Priests all have protection from red! How convenient! Since you SHOULD expect to face off against Watchwolves and Scab-Clan Maulers, let’s start with 2 copies of Sulfurous Blast (2 points). Then, what good is ONE Dawn Charm, right? So, let’s add in another one, for now (0.5 points). Then, if you need to deal with VERY large beater, specially in a match-up against the reanimator deck, there’s a fairly forgotten white card that comes in VERY hand with the amount of tokens and creatures you have: Devouring Light. It’s a bit intensive, so 2 copies should do it (after all, you DO have Squall Drifter, right?). Then, we have the mirror-match. How do you stop Calciderms? Well Revered Dead, of course! They also stop Watchwolves, and they survive Sulfurous Blast, so they are GOOD. 4 of them, for 2 points.
So, the possible sideboard is at:
(3 points left)
2 Sulfurous Blast
1 Dawn Charm
2 Devouring Light
4 Revered Dead
This would leave us with space for 6 comon cards, and that’s it. However, I’ve been meaning to play a bit more with uncommons, so for now, let’s swap Devouring Light for the cheaper Condemn, and add a third copy of it.
(3.5 points left)
2 Sulfurous Blast
1 Dawn Charm
3 Condemn
4 Revered Dead
Now, I wanted to play a bit more with Avalanche Riders, it’s a cool card, it has haste, and if we can cheat his cost with Blinks and other stuff, he’s really neat. Also, with some 3-colored decks lying about, he could be good. So let’s add in one more, and move the maindecked Dawn Charm to the sideboard.
•Main Deck:
3 Mogg War Marshall
3 Squall Drifter
2 Avalanche Riders
4 Rift Bolt
4 Icatian Javelineers
2 Whitemane Lion
4 Soltari Priest
3 Aven Riftwatcher
2 Momentary Blink
2 Stonecloaker
4 Calciderm
1 Dust Elemental
4 Dead//Gone
9 Mountain
10 Plains
3 Boros Garrison (costs the same as a common land, anyway)
Four cards left in the sideboard, room for 1 Uncommon and 3 Commons.
•Sideboard:
2 Sulfurous Blast
1 Pyrohemia (works almost as Sulfurous Blast, without clogging your hand, and it’s reusable, could be cool since you gain some early life and deal some early damage)
2 Dawn Charm
3 Condemn
4 Revered Dead
3 Stone Rain (could come in handy)
And there it is, my take on this "challenge". Too bad Lightning Helix is expensive to fit in, but in case you decide to go with more points, you could try it. I hope this helps in some way, I believe you should be able to come up with these cards pretty easily, at least most of them anyway. I really hope this helps, and that you win a good amount of matches.
Just to maintain my style, here’s the final layout:
Carefully Monitored Evolved Theme Deck:
22 Lands:
10 Plains
9 Mountain
3 Boros Garrison
28 Creatures:
3 Mogg War Marshall
3 Squall Drifter
2 Avalanche Riders
4 Icatian Javelineers
2 Whitemane Lion
4 Soltari Priest
3 Aven Riftwatcher
2 Stonecloaker
4 Calciderm
1 Dust Elemental
4 Sorceries:
4 Rift Bolt
6 Instants:
4 Dead//Gone
2 Momentary Blink
15 Sideboard Cards:
2 Sulfurous Blast
1 Pyrohemia
2 Dawn Charm
3 Condemn
4 Revered Dead
3 Stone Rain |
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| Felipe Musco |
![]() Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 1:40 pm |
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Joined: 18 May 2006
Posts: 2434
Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
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| Sorry, double-post. |
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| bandfreak9 |
![]() Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 8:04 pm |
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Joined: 24 Jan 2007
Posts: 84
Location: Virginia
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WOW 
I must say I’am extermly impressed thanks so much I was truly not expecting someone to go through and make a deck
Another gold point
Hmm... this is just a card that would work with rescuing ummm Gustcloak Cavalier I think it might come in handy but it is uncommon and a little pricy  (not really sure if my ideas are good at all)
O yes and we are going to use the point scale from earlier
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| Felipe Musco |
![]() Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 8:20 pm |
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Joined: 18 May 2006
Posts: 2434
Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
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Hey, you’re welcome! After all, I LOVE going through stuff like this, and it helps gathering ideas for the article on building on a budget that I was requested to make for next month...
Well, the whole deck above was assembled using that point scale, so it’s all good (that is, assuming you’ve decided to allow timeshifted cards as having their last rarity).
bandfreak9 wrote:
Hmm... this is just a card that would work with rescuing ummm Gustcloak Cavalier I think it might come in handy but it is uncommon and a little pricy (not really sure if my ideas are good at all)
Gustcloak Cavalier does not help the whole rescueing theme very much, because he only removes a creature from combat, rather than removing it from the game (either by returning it to hand, or by means of a Momentary Blink). Why the main point is to remove it from the game? Because time counters are restocked, "come into play" abilities trigger again, etc. Also, you can’t play Momentary Blink targetting Calciderm, but you can get it back into hand with Whitemane Lion or Dust Elemental. So, why doing all this? You get fully healed Calciderms, you get to shoot again and again with Icatian Javelineers (since every time it leaves the game, it’ll return with a fresh javelin counter, even if you spent the last one); it resets the count on Aven Riftwatcher (and also, you gain life each time he comes into play or leaves play, so if you play him, you gain 2 life; play a Momentary Blink on him, you gain FOUR MORE life and all time counters are reset!); Avalanche Riders will destroy another land (not to mention, since he has haste, if you blink him during your first upkeep with him in play, you postpone having to pay for echo for another turn, AND destroy another land, WHILE still being able to attack with a 2/2 - in fact, you can play him, destroy a land and attack, and with the same amount of mana that would pay for echo, play MOmentary Blink, destroy ANOTHER land, attack for 2 more, and play Whitemane Lion at the end of your opponent’s turn, returnig him to your hand, just to play him AGAIN next turn, destroy ANOTHER land and swing for 2 more, all without worrying about echo not even ONCE!); and Stonecloaker not only plays a role at rescueing a creature, while ALSO hosing down reanimator decks, since you can play him in response to Dread Return or Resurrection, AFTER they have decided which creature to bring back, and remove it from their graveyard before the effects resolve, thus countering their spell! Oh, yeah, and if you still remember WHY this whole topic started (Gustcloak Cavalier, remember?  ), he just costs too much. Your most expensive creatures cost 4, and are REALLY good. He’d be cool as a one-of in Flanking decks, getting a big blocker out of the way, leaving only the weaker ones for the flankers to kill! |
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| bandfreak9 |
![]() Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 8:32 pm |
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Joined: 24 Jan 2007
Posts: 84
Location: Virginia
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| I thought he was too expensive but it’s one of my favorite cards but anyway thanx again |
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| bandfreak9 |
![]() Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 9:28 pm |
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Joined: 24 Jan 2007
Posts: 84
Location: Virginia
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Just found the perfect card for this deck if I were allowed more points Flickerform perfect
noob question does this work on Calciderm |
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| Felipe Musco |
![]() Posted: Fri Feb 23, 2007 10:04 am |
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Joined: 18 May 2006
Posts: 2434
Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
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| Unfortunately, no, it doesn’t. When you play an Aura (and enchantment on a creature is, now, called an aura), you have to assign a legal target. Then, when the spell resolves, it comes into play enchanting that creature. That’s the reason why, if you play Moldervine Cloak on a Llanowar Elves, the opponent can Shock it in response. It HAD a legal target when played, but when it resolves, there’s no legal target anymore, so that’s why the spell is countered. But anyway, back to your question, when you play the aura, you have to assign a legal target, and Calciderm, much like Giant Solifuge and others like it, can’t be the target of spell or abilities. Another common question, while we’re on the subject: if a spell affects ALL creatures at once, it CAN (and WILL) affect Calciderm (so yes, a Damnation destroys it). Also, with the recover creatures like Whitemane Lion, it says "return a creature you control", so, since there’s no targetting, it can affect Calciderm (unlike Momentary Blink, careful with that). |
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| c3poquino |
![]() Posted: Fri Feb 23, 2007 10:34 am |
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Joined: 04 Sep 2006
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| I like the idea, but wouldn’t it be better (and way cooler, too) to just buy 3 booster packs apiece and play draft? Winner gets the rares? |
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| Felipe Musco |
![]() Posted: Fri Feb 23, 2007 11:16 am |
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Joined: 18 May 2006
Posts: 2434
Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
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Yeah, I was gonna suggest that, too (although I had a blast going through the process of making this deck), but with a slight difference. After playing the draft, ALL the opened cards would be put on the table, including rares, foils, commons, etc. Then, the first place would select ONE, and so on, so forth. By doing this, you’d all have quite a lot of fun, learn a Pro Tour format, still walk away with, basically, your 3 boosters, although with 3 boosters YOU selected the cards (most of them, anyway). Neater for begginers.
Oh, and also, get a trading thread up soon, even if you feel you don’t have a lot of cards, you never know what people might be wanting, or willing to get in excess (ask corvus about it). |
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