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| ure_d_best |
![]() Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2006 10:01 am |
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Joined: 02 Apr 2006
Posts: 43
Location: Kelowna, BC
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--- description ---
I called this deck the “BioFlex”. This came from the card “Biorhythm” and word “Flexibility”. The sheer power of Biorhythm when combined with great flexibility and synergy... You win!!!
--- end description ---
I called this deck the “BioFlex”. This came from the card “Biorhythm” and word “Flexibility”. “Biorhythm” seems to be under estimated by some players in Standard metagame and never seen the sheer power of this card when combined with great flexibility and synergy. This deck offers a lot of flexibility and you may find playing FNM in your area using this deck to consistently say to your opponent “I win unless you can do something”.
This will be my first article, thus would like to thank you now in advance for reading this and hope you find this interesting and play the deck in your area...
This introduces a new deck to beat in the metagame, at least in our area for winning FNM week after week constantly with great matchup on the current standard.
I will start with the deck list:
Non-Creatures (11)
3 Biorhythm
4 Evacuation
3 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Glare of Subdual
Creatures (27)
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
4 Wood Elves
4 Coiling Oracle
4 Carven Caryatid
3 Plaxmanta
2 Trygon Predator
1 Indrik Stomphowler
3 Meloku the clouded mirror
2 Kodama of the North Tree
Lands (22)
2 Temple Garden
2 Overgrown Tomb
4 Breeding Pool
7 Forest
7 Island
Sideboard:
(This always depend on your metagame, but here are recommended sideboards. Also, since you have land searches in your deck, it is very flexible to splash White and Black to combat other decks that can potentially give you challenge to your Biorhythm plan.)
Cranial Extraction –
Always good to play against combo decks or decks with few win conditions and to remove opponents Cranial Extraction if any
Indrik Stomphowler or Trygon Predator –
Good against Dovescape decks hanging around or to kill enchantments or artifacts
Boseiju, who shelters all or Leyline of Lifeforce –
When Counter spells deck are many in your metagame
Life from the Loam –
Good against Land destruction decks or Vore decks
Silklash spider or Needle Storm –
Good against Flying decks, potentially when Azorius aggro becomes big in your metagame.
Sundering Vitae –
More to problem enchantments or artifacts, convoke always help when you have many creatures.
Mimeofacture –
This is another great card of my choice, kill your opponents legend permanent or just copy their win conditions in their board and beat them with their own stuff. You will find that you can always run replicate with all the mana acceleration you have and nets you 2 permanents.
Circle Of Protection: Red –
I personally used this to play against Burn decks.
Transformational sideboard -
If you want more fun, this can go easily with this deck.
To describe the deck’s flexibility and synergy. The strength does not rely only on Biorhythm, but looking at mana accelerations, with Meloku the clouded mirror and Kodama of the North Tree is something that your opponent needs to answer already. Sensei’s divining top with the shuffle effects and card draws in form of Carven Caryatid and Coiling Oracle. Then, all comes into play effect combined with Evacuation describes the great synergy to make this deck interesting and competitive. The deck also less care of your opponent’s life total, they can gain as much life they can, but when biorhythm hits the table, it’s a good game. The deck is great against aggro decks with you having Carven Caryatid, you will be just sitting behind your defender and gives you a card.
How To Play The Deck or Win Conditions:
#1. On opponents end of turn, create tokens first via Meloku put in the stack, then play Evacuation on the stack, Evacuation resolves first, all creatures come back to owners hand and all tokens via Meloku comes to play. In your turn – play Biorhythm… You win!!! Trust me, you will not lose, either you win or it’s a draw if they killed your creature(s) while Biorhythm on stack.
#2. On opponents end of turn, play Plaxmanta, then Evacuation while Plaxmanta on the stack, Evacuation resolves first, no creatures on board then Plaxmanta hits the board. In your turn – play Biorhythm… You win!!! You got the picture by now.
#3. Cast Evacuation on opponents end of turn. Play creature on your turn and play Biorhythm... You win!!!
#4. Just having creatures with evasion or a lot of your 1/1s or Meloku or Kodama of North Tree or Trygon on your board and opponent does not have many creature. Play “Biorhythm”, then attack with you creatures… You win!!!
#5. Using Glare of Subdual, you will always have creatures to tap your opponents creature at end of their turn. Play “Biorhythm”, then attack with you creatures… You win!!!
#6. Always have your “Plaxmanta” ready in case your opponent will respond to you playing Biorhythm to kill your creatures. This will prevent the Draw and… You win!!!
#7. With mana acceleration, you can just go with Meloku the clouded mirror and tokens beat or accelerating to Kodama of the North Tree will be often enough to win you the game.
#8. There are situations where you have multiples of Evacuation on hand, so don’t hesitate to play one if you have creatures in play that have the comes into play effect. This will give you card advantages.
Timing is Very Important! and plays a major role on playing the deck. Always keep this in mind when making decisions as to when and when not to cast Biorhythm.
Card Replacement:
Simic Sky Swallower –
Flying, Trample 6/6 untargetable is a power house. This is creature you can play now in replace to Kodama of the North Tree or Meloku the clouded mirror or you can use after the Kamigawa block rotates out of standard.
You will always find room to improve the deck, as you play this deck in your area, you will find how to tweak the deck and constantly win FNM. The only question left… does this deck have potential to play and compete in bigger tournaments? The only way to answer this is to play it out… so far it has great matchup on current standard metagame.
Thank you for being a great audience. Try it out, you will be impressed.
Your suggestion or feedback how we can improve are very much welcomed.
Good luck!
Andrew
Follow up - Match up for "BioFlex":
Match up for "BioFlex":
Selensya, Boros, Gruul, Zoo – This is where the “BioFlex” really shines. With all the small casting creatures you have in the deck and mana accelerations, combined with card draw for Coiling Oracle and Carven Caryatid, you will always have the time to stall the game until you cast your Evacuation at the end of their turn, then play your Biorhythm. Your MVP here will be Carven Caryatid a 2/5 defender where they will have hard time to pass through your defense and the Meloku the Clouded Mirror with that much mana, you will be able to create many token flyers. Do not hesitate to play Evacuation to take card advantages with all your creature with comes in to play effect. If you able to get Sensei’s Divining Top early, with shuffle effect and card draw, do your sensei’s trick. Plaxmanta can comes handy as well in this game, surprise them from creating an instant blocker or way to prevent your creatures from being targeted. Lightning Helix will not do much when you cast Biorhythm, if Biorhythm on stack and opponent play lightning helix, they will gain the life then lose after Biorhythm resolve, so it will be too late already for your opponent when you pull your combo.
Ghazi-Glare – Playing against this deck will be very tricky. When you pull your Evacuation and Biorhythm, make sure they don’t have enough mana to create token via Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree in response to you casting Biorhythm on your turn. Or you can go with your other win conditions, just play Biorhythm and then attack with your evasion creatures like Kodama of the North Tree, Trygon Predator, Meloku the clouded mirror, that should seal the deal. Kodama of the North Tree will be your MVP here as this can not be targeted by Glare of Subdual, the Trygon Predator and Indrik Stomphowler will also help to get rid of the enchantment. You don’t have to worry for them gaining the life with Faith’s Fetters or Loxodon Hierarch, because Biorhythm is the bomb that can suddenly pull you the win if you play your win conditions properly, remember timing is important.
Ghost Husk – This will be a tough match for you, but winnable. Play your creatures, will all the small casting cost creatures you have, you will be able to keep up with their aggro attacks. Plaxmanta will become very handy against this match, it can come as surprise to block the Dark Confidant aka Bob or Plaxmanta to waste their Mortify or Last Gasp. Accelerating to Kodama of the North Tree will be good play as it is untouchable. Ghost Husk is very explosive, make sure you are prepared to respond to lethal Nantuko Husk, this will be using Evacuation to return all creatures to hand, make sure you do this in response when they sacrificed their creatures to do lethal damage to you before the combat damage. Casting Trygon Predator early will also help, it’s a good 2/3 creature and this should hold your oppenent from playing their Promise of Bunrei if Trygon is in play. Think of your “BioFlex” win conditions and play it well.
Vore decks U/R or G/R – With all your mana accelerations on the deck, you should not have a problem with all the land destruction, however they can slow down your tempo and it will be very challenging to win. Also, if they are packing counter spells, it will be difficult to pull your combo. This is now where the Cranial Extraction comes in SB and as well as Life from the Loam. If you are lucky, accelerate to Cranial Extraction and get rid of their win condition Magnivore. (As per some player’s suggestion – might be better to use Swamp, instead of Overgrown Tomb. Just a note- Wood Elves can search Overgrown Tomb and when it comes to play, it will be untapped and you will not lose 2 life). Defending on your metagame, if this is a popular deck, SB against it very well as it is close to unwinnable for you. So one thing I can suggest is to SB the 0/6 artifact creature defender Junktroller that can remove card from graveyard. It has enough toughness to survive a wildfire and lessen the power of Magnivore.
Burn decks – Unless they have way to burn you quickly, then you have this game. Evacuation will be useless here if they don’t run much creature, so just go with U/G beats and use Evacuation to gain card advantage, again with all your creatures comes into play effect. This is where your deck shows it’s flexibility, with the land search for white mana, put in your COP: Red and it should be good game if they don’t have answer with the enchantment. They may bring Pithing Needle, but Trygon Predator will help you get rid of it. Kodama of the North Tree will be deadly here and will pull you the win. Again depending on your metagame, you may not need to bring COP: Red. |
| Last edited by ure_d_best on Wed Jun 07, 2006 9:28 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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| Cobra |
![]() Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2006 8:29 pm |
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Joined: 12 Jul 2005
Posts: 1202
Location: Austin, TX, USA
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That’s a nice combo there. Splashing Temple Garden and Overgrown Tomb, with those Wood Elves to pull them, is a pretty cool idea too.
I’d suggest that Glare of Subdual is too good of a card to have only one copy. It can be a win condition on its own, or can at least stall the game while you find all the pieces of your Biorhythm combo.
As far as the article itself goes, claims like "this introduces a new deck to beat the metagame" should always be backed up with specific evidence -- that is, matchup analysis. If you’ve played a lot of games with this deck, you’ve obviously gathered a lot of experience about it to share with us. 
Personally, I also like to read about the deck’s history. How did this idea come about? What did previous variants of the deck look like? What is the local meta that this deck is geared to beat? These sorts of things can help the reader understand where you’re coming from.
Very nice, hope to read more from you! |
| http://cobracards.com -- Web's best deals on Trading Card Games. |
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| Ilvaldi |
![]() Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2006 11:49 pm |
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Joined: 06 Dec 2005
Posts: 59
Location:
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Kodama of the North tree is deadly. Untouched by any kill spell or enchantments, the only thing that could stop it is a successful wildfire or wrath. With the acceleration in your deck, you should be able to play it quick. Don’t replace it with sky swallower, cause it’s a little more expensive.
However, Swallower is still good for consideration. Hmm...SB maybe?
Oh yeah, welcome!  |
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| ure_d_best |
![]() Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2006 10:34 am |
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Joined: 02 Apr 2006
Posts: 43
Location: Kelowna, BC
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Cobra  , thanks for the feedback on the article. This will help me improve and watch closely what our readers will be looking for. A lot more to learn, specially how to write match up analysis.
I will find time to write match analysis to follow up on this article.
Andrew |
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| ure_d_best |
![]() Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2006 12:09 pm |
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Joined: 02 Apr 2006
Posts: 43
Location: Kelowna, BC
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Cobra wrote: Personally, I also like to read about the deck’s history. How did this idea come about? What did previous variants of the deck look like? What is the local meta that this deck is geared to beat? These sorts of things can help the reader understand where you’re coming from.
Very nice, hope to read more from you!
How did I come up with this deck? I will start and call this the evolution of “BioFlex”. 
Long long time ago, in a far far away land…  hehehe… Seriously, when Ravnica just became legal in Standard, there were lots of Aggro decks evolve in our metagame. Here comes the Selensya, Boros, White Wenees and Dimir or Black Aggro. Some popular decks that wins in our metagame that time are decks with too much of gain life in any combinations of Faith’s Fetters, Lightning Helix, Loxodon Hierarch, Genju of the Fields, Peace of Mind and Firemane Angel.
One night of FNM, I was trading cards with other players, one player showed me his binder with all the goodies and a deck box with all crappy rares as he called. Looking at his so called crappy rares. I saw the “Biorhythm” and while looking at it in my hand, he interrupt me and said that’s too crappy! and he selling me 2 Biorhythm for $1. At first glance I am hesitant to take it, as I am being convince by him that it is really crappy, but then I challenged him that next week in FNM that I will bring a deck built around “Biorhythm” and prove that it is a great card, proving it means win the FNM of course. Then, I took the 2 Biorhythm for $1, what an awesome deal I say… and he does not care at all…  hehehe
Back at home, thinking of making deck for Biorhythm, look for more Biorhythm and found 1 in my own collection, and I felt that 3 Biorhythm is good enough. Considering all the decks with gain life in our metagame and the aggro alike, I have to build the “BioFlex” to combat against these decks. So I came up with my list of card choices:
Biorhythm – Is for sure in as it this is where I need to build my deck. Very good against all the gain life, it does not care how much your opponents life. Although, it is mana expensive for having 6GG manacost. Well, I know it is something I have to solve as it may give me challenge against aggro decks. Also, of course have to consider building my deck on Green cards.
Carven Caryatid – To have way to stall the aggro decks from killing me quickly before I cast Biorhythm.
Sakura-Tribe Elder – Good as early blocker and helps for mana acceleration. One of the best common ever printed, there is nothing more to say about this card.
Wood Elves – Good as early blocker as well and again will help me accelerates my mana to able to play Biorhythm.
Viridian Shaman – Aggro players always have Umezawa’s Jitte out of their sleeves, so I selected Viridian Shaman to answer the Umezawa’s Jitte, it kills the artifact and give me 2/2 creature in my board.
Llanowar Elves – Thinking to solve my mana for Biorhythm, I selected this card. It’s a great way to accelerates mana as well as to cast Carven Caryatid, Wood Elves or Viridian Shaman in 2nd turn.
Ok it sounds like I’m in a good start. Now that I have my MVPs for Green, I have to choose supporting cards:
I have Sakura-Tribe Elder and Wood Elves for shuffling effect, so I have decided to include Sensei’s Divining Top and good way to find Biorhythm and good for 1st turn play.
There are 3 with comes into play effect, this is where I start to think of Evacuation, what a great card to provide synergy to the deck and Oh Yeah!… great combo for Biorhythm . Evacuate all creatures on opponents turn, cast a creature in my turn (e.g. Llanowar Elves) and play Biorthythm. Looks like I have a win condition now. 
However, if they stop my Biorhythm plan, I’m toast and it will be very challenging to win. I have to look now for other win conditions. If I cast Biorhythm, it will make the players life the total number of creatures they control, so if we both have creature then I can’t win. This is where I think now of evasion for creatures, Meloku the clouded mirror comes, flying and can create flying tokens, increase the number of creatures I have and dodge ground blockers. Also, it provide great synergy to the deck for Evacuation, create tokens on stack and play Evacuation while creature tokens on stack, then cast Biorthythm.
Now that I have Meloku the clouded mirror, what if they kill my creature when I cast Biorthythm, then it is a Draw. Well Draw is not good enough, one acronym I learned YPTWTG (You Play To Win The Game). So I have decided to get untargetable creature in form of Kodama of the North Tree, having Trample ability also helps to get that last of point life of your opponent when you cast Biorthythm luckily if they have a creature.
As you can see, “BioFlex” have great synergy and awesome win condition with Biorhythm. Any deck should have cards that support each other, this will provide you great fun on playing it and thus made it certainly competitive. Hopefully this demonstrates some insight on building a strategy.
There you have it folks, the evolution of “BioFlex” deck by yours truly.
Hope you enjoyed reading!
Thanks,
Andrew |
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| Osion |
![]() Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2006 10:23 pm |
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Joined: 17 Dec 2005
Posts: 62
Location: MD
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Welcome to our community!
Strategy discussion is always good. You could say that I’m a regular here, though because of other conflicts (cough *highschoolwithasianparents* cough) I post only every once in a while.
To Conor: Congrats! I notice many more writers and customers here now! It’s probably because of the awesome riddle game. That, and you advertised it on mtgsalvation.com. That was a really smart thing to do.
Anyways, about your deck:
This looks like a perfectly good form of UG Aggro. Had I not read your article and took only a passing glance at your decklist, I would never have dreamed that this deck contained Biorythm.
Several discussions:
1. Your decklist has quite a bit of pain attached to it. Is that lone Glare of Subdual really worth including 2 more shocklands for? You could save yourself some life (not to mention about $40) If you put in 2 more forests and another Sensei Top instead
2. Why do you use Overgrown Tomb? From what I could see, you don’t have a single black card maindeck. Is it worth all that pain (and all that $60) for the possibility of sideboarding into Cranial Extraction?
3. In some of the win conditions you described (like Kodama of the North Tree and Biorythm) you are using the 6GG sorcery like a really big burn spell. I don’t know why, but something about that seems extremely inefficient and disruptable.
4. I recommend transformational sideboard into pure UG Aggro:
-Evacuation
-Top
-Biorythm
-Wood Elves
+Trygon Predator
+Umezawa’s Jitte
+Silhana Ledgewalker
+Keiga, the Tide Star. |
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| Mono789 |
![]() Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 1:36 pm |
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Joined: 26 May 2006
Posts: 12
Location:
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| Finally, I see some use of Biorhythym! I truly believe it is an excellent card in a mana acceleraion deck. I put one into by Selesnya deck because of that, and the fact that I get many creatures out. Biorythym always takes my opponents by surprise. I congratulate you on your creative use of the unusual, but powerful card. |
I am always looking for more burns...
I am always looking for good mana accelerators...
I am always looking for good counters...
I am always looking for good kill spells...
I am always looking for good life gain cards...
And most of all, I like playing against people who don't cry and/or flip me off when I play Faith's Fetters on their best creature! |
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| ure_d_best |
![]() Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 3:19 pm |
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Joined: 02 Apr 2006
Posts: 43
Location: Kelowna, BC
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That is true, you can always have your opponent get surprised. Addition to this, in my experience it also make them worried and distracts their focus on the game. Player tends to focus counting your mana if you have 8 already and able to cast Biorhythm. This is also game breaking strategy as it distracts their focus to their own strategy.
With all the mana acceleration, mana is not a concern on this deck.
Also, sometimes when your life is very low and your opponent still at 20 or more... we think of what can we do to win the game? As you know, the game is not over until it is over. This is to me where Magic is a great game as there is always hope, there you have it the Biorhythm.
I will be preparing match analysis for "BioFlex" deck sooner. If you have some match analysis in mind, that will be great if you could provide your feedback. |
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| Felipe Musco |
![]() Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 4:03 pm |
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Joined: 18 May 2006
Posts: 2434
Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
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I liked the deck very much, I love unusual decks! But I think you may be trying to do too much. Since your deck seems to have A LOT of different strategies, but most or all of them revolve around Biorhytm, you could make the deck ALL about it, maybe adding some to fetch it faster, or even FIND it (Diabolic Tutor, anyone?), since it costs A LOT of mana to cast, you can afford to Tutor for it. Also, maybe some transmutables of Evacuation? This way, you could, at the worst scenario, transmute on turn 3, Tutor on turn 4, and you’re good to go!
Oh, and since it costs, like, A LOT to cast Biorhytm, shouldn’t you "guard" it agains wretched Mana Leaks or the like? Since most of the decked counters cost 2 mana, maybe adding Spell Snare will make it more likely you can protect your combo against U decks, so at least SB them? Also, write a "standard" sideboard, as you did with the deck, since it makes it easier to analyze it.
About the Circle of Protection: Red, I’d suggest Ivory Mask, instead, it’s more versatile, being usable against mill and/or discard. And for Mimeofacture, it is good to "steal" a card from your opponent, but you’ll never (ok, ALMOST never, since SOME things are pretty obvious) know if they ARE packing a copy of that card until you "waste" your mana AND a good card. However, even wothout the Replicate (let’s face it, that’s an awful lot of mana), I think Clone would do better... However, since it’s a SB card, it doesn’t really matter THAT much, anyway. |
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| La_Sin_Grail |
![]() Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 4:21 pm |
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Joined: 14 Aug 2005
Posts: 806
Location: Maryland
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I love the idea! I just think perhaps you could use a little bit more acceleration to get it going faster. Biorhythym can be a tough thing to cast.
Perhaps you could also consolidate your creature base a little bit? I don’t know that those one-ofs will see much play.
Also, you do add a lot of self-inflicted damage with all those duals. Is it really necessary to maindeck tombs for sideboarded extractions?
Loam will not beat vore, sorry. It will, however, help out quite a bit against wildfires.
Also, ivory mask would be better than CoP red because it will help against random things like milling in addition to burn.
I like your win conditions a lot, but do you have an answer to cranialed biorhythym? Game 2/3 I would expect to see a lot of that- it’s embarrasing to get beaten once by biorhythym, so they’ll try to make sure it’s not twice. Or perhaps there’s a nice way to tutor for it?
Very, very nice idea, good thoughts! |
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