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| La_Sin_Grail |
![]() Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2006 9:25 pm |
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Joined: 14 Aug 2005
Posts: 806
Location: Maryland
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--- description ---
Casual Ideas gone tournament possible. One sided Pyroclasm, beating for six turn three, thumping agro, and dodging counters all found in a crazy standard deck.
--- end description ---
Genju Control
While Osion and I were chatting in Calc, he said something about how with the +2/2 to all lands card makes genju of spires really cool.
Then, I thought of how I liked genjus in the dark ages when I was just picking up magic seriously, and they previewed and I thought about how cool they were with board clear.
After a while, I wanted to start playing a multi-color deck.
Finally, it all clicked, and the tri-color genju board control deck was born.
4 Genju of the Cedars
4 Genju of the Spires
2 Genju of the Fields
4 Earth Surge
4 Wrath of God
4 Pyroclasm
4 Lightning Helix
4 Savage Twister
4 Kodama’s Reach
4 Wood Elves
4 Stomping Ground
4 Temple Garden
8 Forest
4 Mountain
4 Plains
Sideboard- 4 Naturalize
4 Shattering Spree
4 Burning Tree Shaman
3 Shock
Genjus- the creatures in the deck. They are practically uncounterable because they come out turn one, they are immune to opposing sorceries, and they survive your board clearing spells.
Earth Surge- Just provided for an extra kick. Allowing Spires to live through getting blocked can be invaluable in the long run.
Wrath of God- People play it because it hurts them more than you. Now, it hurts them at no cost to yourself.
Pyroclasm- Once again, no negative reprecussions. One-sided pyroclasm is very cool, but remember you’ll want to wait until turn three most of the time to give them a chance to drop some more creatures.
Lightning Helix- Every deck playing red should play at least some sort of burn removal. And any deck playing red and white has access to an incredibly powerful card that helps you live and is cost effective removal. So, there’s no sense in not using it.
Savage Twister- Because when you play white and have no one drop, they assume you have wrath of god, typically your opponent will hold back some creatures for when wrath is over with. Which is right when you pop out savage twister and kill their biggest, middlest, and smallest beaters in one shot.
Kodama’s Reach- Utility in case you don’t get the land you are looking for.
Wood Elves- More utility, used to find the shocklands that count as the type of land the genju in your hand enchants.
Naturalize- Anti-jitte or anthem for weenie. Utility that works on pithing needle as well.
Shattering Spree- R: Destroy target umezawa’s jitte. Worth playing.
Burning Tree Shaman- Now you can let them play jitte, and laugh as it kills them. Works on meloku as well.
Shock- Hurray anti-weenie! Also works as a utility if they play more bops than you like etc.
Matchups
MUC- I made this deck for two reasons. One is I just wanted to try making a three color control deck without anything that costs more than four. The other is genjus cause headaches. The reason you win this matchup is the second one of these. Since genjus cost one mana, they can’t be countered. Playing one second turn is also cheap because if they remand it, you can play another copy without tempo loss. All in all, you need no help to win this matchup, because only if they draw tons and tons of bounce will they have any prayer at winning- counters, melokus, and keigas will do no good. Board out 2 genju of the fields and 4x pyroclasm for 4 burning tree shamans, 3 shocks, and a naturalize.
Success depends on build. Counter heavy, you win. Bounce heavy, it’s pretty even.
Weenie- Before sideboard, you have twelve spells that wipe their board and don’t lay a finger on yours. Board out genju of spires in for 2 naturalize, and 2 shock. Now you can focus firs their jittes and have some extra time to burn off blockers as you beat savagely with genju of cedars, and save yourself with board clear and white genju.
Best matchup. This deck was made to put the hurt on agro decks, and does so.
Critical Mass- No sideboarding needed. Clasm only on kudzu or two creatures. Remember that waiting for them to play a bomb or three before dropping Wog or Twister is a must. In the state-winning deck I’ve been using as a guide on StarCity (look under magic decks), there are nine threats, meaning about one to two per game. Blowing them up- blowing up their lone win condition- allows you time to beat down with genjus.
Good matchup, in general, if you can kill their fatties, you have clear coasting, but not drawing WoG or enough mana to Twister can cause problems.
Greater Good- One of your worse matchups. Simply put, you need to kill them before they can kill you. Board out 2x genju of the fields and all eight non-WoG board clearers, and insert 2 shock, 4 naturalize, and 4 burning-tree shamans.
Not a very good matchup; killing their creatures won’t hurt them much, rendering much of your boardclearing ineffective.
Enduring Ideal- Board out all your board clear and white genjus for the sideboard minus one shattering spree. Once again, this is simply a race, except they can’t stop you from killing them with WoG because they can’t use it on your genjus. Try putting down as much damage as you can with no regard for your life total. If ideal lasts two turns, the game is over, so throw down as much as you can before that point, so you never find yourself in an ugly position.
Questionable matchup; if you get a R or G genju, you can usually beatdown pretty well with it, but it depends on the build. There are many variations of this deck, so it’s hard to generalize. WoG build means you win. Remove attacking creatures from game cards mean you lose.
Bob the Builder- like last week when I gave the “profound” statement that killing the most important card kills the deck, once again Bob is a very easy target, and becomes a pincoushin as soon as you get the chance. Once again, your life total won’t matter very much, so genju of white is far gone with two copies of savage twister, boarding in 4 naturalizes. Killing Bob and killing arena really messes up this deck. So does beating them for eight with a surged genju of spires, followed by some helixed headshots as they make it easier for you to kill them.
Good matchup. Would be great except game one phyrexian arena can cause some problems.
Agro- This applies to any sort of MGA, BWA, GWA or anything else that’s agro. You win. Clasm, use your burn, and kill multiple birds with one stone. Switch spires for naturalize for anti-jitte, and roll them over with style.
Very good matchup. This deck was made to beat creature decks and counter decks, and does both with alacrity.
Land Destruction published last month- 1) Manage to go first
2) Blow up anything that smells like it taps for mana
3) Play genjus really fast and beat
4) Get down as many lands as you can- the LD deck only has twenty, so searching for lands will make you have a chance.
Whoever goes first should win.
The Rock- Rock typically likes thinking they rock out because kodama of the north Tree is big and untargetable. Too bad Wog doesn’t target. Come to think of it, neither does twister. Hm…… Long story short, you should win against any creature-based or counter-based deck, and this is no exception.
Good matchup- creature based deck means you have a very good chance.
In general for matchups- you will beat anything that relies on consistant creatures or counterspells, and have trouble in decks that don’t. Typically, there aren’t very many decks that don’t use a lot of one or the other, so you should do well.
Things not to Forget
When you have extra mana, activate genju of white a few extra times. It does stack, and with earth surge, you can get eight life while you beat. Pure lifegain may be useless, but if it costs a grand total of zero cards, it’s pretty nice.
Your life total may end up getting used a bit in this deck. Play that dual down untapped for a turn one genju, let them beat you for a couple if it allows you to kill another creature with board clearing. Wizards gives you twenty life for a reason- use it!
This deck also works pretty well in the three man team format at PTQ’s; the only commonly used cards in here are WoG, Helix, and Clasm, and of those only helix is really important. Out of the most useful cards (Gifts, Cranial, Jitte, Pithing Needle, Kokusho, Helix, Isamaru, anthem, Hypnotic Specter, Birds of Paradise, Putrefy, Mortify, and more) only helix makes the list, and possibly shock, leaving open blue entirely, G/B Control, Critical mass, and many other decks. If you want to really make this obscure, use char over helix, making no real staples of your teammates decks in yours. |
| Last edited by La_Sin_Grail on Fri Feb 03, 2006 3:59 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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| inresponse |
![]() Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2006 10:32 pm |
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Joined: 18 Oct 2005
Posts: 162
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char and pyro are in many decks right now, claiming spots in most u/r control , japanese tron and red-r/w agro.
what are this deck's chances against individual archetypes? you say how to sideboard and play the match, but how well does it actually play out? |
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| La_Sin_Grail |
![]() Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2006 3:52 pm |
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Joined: 14 Aug 2005
Posts: 806
Location: Maryland
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| Good points, I'll add that. Clasm may be used, but not nearly so much as the other cards I've listed. Also, in looking at all the States winners, very few were part red control, the primary use of pyroclasm. |
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| Cobra |
![]() Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2006 8:36 pm |
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Joined: 12 Jul 2005
Posts: 1202
Location: Austin, TX, USA
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Good stuff as always Grail. And thanks for almost always using full, correct card names too... with the exception of some older stuff not in our DB, this article makes my auto-link code look pretty good.  |
| http://cobracards.com -- Web's best deals on Trading Card Games. |
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| inresponse |
![]() Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 5:16 pm |
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Joined: 18 Oct 2005
Posts: 162
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I feel like the metagame will shift towards red much more with the new guilds (u/R and (R/g). There are a lot of new decks since states as well.
the deck seems pretty solid, actually like this one =) |
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| Osion |
![]() Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 5:17 pm |
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Joined: 17 Dec 2005
Posts: 62
Location: MD
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Yeah good decklist Grail, and thanks for attributing me.
However, I am afraid this deck will never be viable in the current metagame.
Flashback to Saturday. Bennie Smith was gunslining with Emminent Domain, which feature almost exclusively the theft and sacrifice of lands in play, backed with beef and counters.
That deck is so good, in fact, that it has been posting a great deal of top 8s and event wins, kicking WWr to tier 2!
Your matchup analysis is outdated---
Induring Ideal has pretty much ceased to be, even if it still exists it is tier 3
Ditto for Bob the Builder. People have just lost interest in the deck I guess.
MUC isn’t really MUC, its now more like Ub Control.
posting an almost all favorable matchup against the metagame is always a risky move, because if the deck is so good, why hasn’t it been discovered yet? All the cards except Earth Surge and Savage Twister are already legal, and let’s face it. +2/+2 is awesome, but will sting you right back when they take your land with Annex or makes you sacrifice it with Wildfire.
Bennie didn’t lose a single standard match, by the way. |
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| La_Sin_Grail |
![]() Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 5:24 pm |
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Joined: 14 Aug 2005
Posts: 806
Location: Maryland
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Osion wrote: Yeah good decklist Grail, and thanks for attributing me.
However, I am afraid this deck will never be viable in the current metagame.
Flashback to Saturday. Bennie Smith was gunslining with Emminent Domain, which feature almost exclusively the theft and sacrifice of lands in play, backed with beef and counters.
That deck is so good, in fact, that it has been posting a great deal of top 8s and event wins, kicking WWr to tier 2!
Your matchup analysis is outdated---
Induring Ideal has pretty much ceased to be, even if it still exists it is tier 3
Ditto for Bob the Builder. People have just lost interest in the deck I guess.
MUC isn’t really MUC, its now more like Ub Control.
posting an almost all favorable matchup against the metagame is always a risky move, because if the deck is so good, why hasn’t it been discovered yet? All the cards except Earth Surge and Savage Twister are already legal, and let’s face it. +2/+2 is awesome, but will sting you right back when they take your land with Annex or makes you sacrifice it with Wildfire.
Bennie didn’t lose a single standard match, by the way.
All viable points I suppose- until the end. Do you really think people will play annex? And fires I will have enough that I don’t scrifice the genjud (spelling?) lands.
As far as I’m concerned, people will play agro decks no matter what "tier" they are. They still make up a fair chunk of players at tournies because they require little playskill.
Yes, my analysis is a little old, but there haven’t been any new decks on starcity past last year’s state championships, which is my usual source. If you have a question on a specific deck, let me know and I’ll get an analysis.
Also, in general, this deck either wins a matchup or loses a matchup hands down. It absolutely demolishes decks with high counterspell count or high screature count. And it has little shot against a deck that runs neither. It looks to me (in general) that only domain and BoW fall into the neither category, hence they are the worst matchups.
My main problem with domain is I was looking at the 3-man PTQ events. Domain takes all the best cards away, and this takes away very, very few. Jitte, meloku, putrefy, mortify, and more are a heavy price to pay when you think about the team as a whole. |
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| inresponse |
![]() Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 5:26 pm |
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Joined: 18 Oct 2005
Posts: 162
Location:
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people play a lot of annex, actually. It’s in one of the best decks in the format.
the current non creature non counter decks are:
greater good
gifts
heartbeat combo
B/W control
Emminent Domain
Hattori-Hanzo Tron |
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| La_Sin_Grail |
![]() Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 5:29 pm |
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Joined: 14 Aug 2005
Posts: 806
Location: Maryland
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| Ok, can I see a deck with annex in it then, so I can work up a plan of action? Thanks. Maybe I’ll need a Gruul guildmage or something if annex is too popular... |
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| Osion |
![]() Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 5:32 pm |
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Joined: 17 Dec 2005
Posts: 62
Location: MD
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Um Annex is already a 4 of in Emminent Domain
which also, with the use of artifact mana, casts Wildfire on Turn 5, 6, 7 or 8
Ideally you’ll want to keep the Genjued Land, but you’ll still need 2 to activate it and even then can’t play any more spells.
If you play first you can get some early beats in but if they Annex you’ll be down a land and a Genju.
If they play first they can plop down a Meloku quickly and chump block till there is no tommorrow --
then you’d wrath, tapping out or maybe leaving a land untapped
then they’d cast wildfire and the game will go downhill for you from there.
Emminent Domain is prepared to survive multiple boardclearers (heck, they run like 4 or 8 themselves) and can recover faster because it is designed to do so. |
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