| Author |
Message |
Rate this article!
| 5 (Best) |
| [ 1 ] 50% |
| |
| 4 |
| [ 1 ] 50% |
| |
| 3 |
| [ 0 ] 0% |
| |
| 2 |
| [ 0 ] 0% |
| |
| 1 (Worst) |
| [ 0 ] 0% |
| |
Total Votes : 2 |
|
| BrianBoitano |
![]() Posted: Tue Jun 20, 2006 3:27 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 16 Jun 2006
Posts: 124
Location: Houston, TX
|
--- description ---
Trying desperately to break Necroplasm.
--- end description ---
Well, as the description suggests, I saw Necroplasm and thought "Hmm, how can I use this to my advantage?" First off, he begins by politely destroying every token on the board his first turn out. He then works his way up the ladder until he eats himself. That last part isn’t necessarily ideal, so we have to find a way to manipulate those +1/+1 counters. A preview article at the Wizards site pointed out an obvious answer: the new Simic Guildmage! I took this basic concept, and looked around for some other useful interactions, and wound up with a deck something like this:
Hunted Necroplasm {60 cards}
Creatures {20}
4 Necroplasm
4 Hunted Horror
4 Simic Guildmage
4 Dark Confidant
4 Birds of Paradise
Deck Thinners {4}
4 Rampant Growth
Other Spells {16}
4 Putrefy
4 Last Gasp
2 Utopia Sprawl
4 Voyager Staff
2 Crime / Punishment
Land {20}
11 Swamp
9 Forest
Step 1: Thin it!
Ever want to make a deck with only those cards you want, but that pesky 60 card minimum got in your way? Increase the quality of your draws by thinning out your library with Rampant Growth, and draw more cards with Dark Confidant
Step 2: Use it!
The star interaction here is Necroplasm/Punishment with Hunted Horror. Suddenly, BB for a 7/7 Trampler seems like a sweet deal! The idea is to get the Horror and the Necroplasm or Punishment out on the same turn so that they don’t get to use their tokens, but this requires 1BBBB or BBBG to pull off. You’ll want Necroplasm to either eat 0cc creatures, 1cc creatures, or himself. If you let him end your turn with 2 +1/+1 counters on him, your Hunted Horror is toast. You either have to move the counters off of him with Simic Guildmage, or reset his counters with Voyager Staff (wait as long as possible on this). Worst-case scenario you can even Putrefy or Last Gasp
Step 3: Protect it!
Voyager Staff serves as a reset for Necroplasm, but also as a protector of your creatures. Make sure you have another Necroplasm before you use the staff on the Hunted Horror, though!
Necroplasm can also be used to deal with pesky opposing creatures, provided you have enough control over the +1/+1 counters. If, say, you can bump Necroplasm over 3 counters so he doesn’t eat himself, you can start taking out fatties without targeting and efficiently, all while swinging for 7 trample each turn (more with +1/+1 counters!)
Sideboarding options:
Vore/Land destruction:
They want to destroy your lands while filling their graveyard with sorceries.
4 Shred Memory (Remove sorceries and Transmute for Horror and Guildmage)
4 Life from the Loam (Don’t worry about dredging, Necroplasm has it too!)
Ghazi-Glare:
They won’t be able to keep tokens around to completely control the board, but the Glare will present problems with getting your Horror through.
2 Privileged Position (sunglasses vs glare).
4 Naturalize (Kill Glare and Fetters)
Burn Decks:
Necroplasm doesn’t mind dying, and Hunted Horror is too big for most spells. Dredge Necroplasm when you need him, and chew through his low-cc aggro army. Don’t be afraid to drop a Necroplasm to buy time.
Ghost Husk
Try to chew through his food before he can, and let your Necroplasm take out both of them. Husk decks can usually recover, but you’re just one dredge from another Necroplasm.
Well, there it is, along with my first attempt at a matchup analysis. Let me know which dangerous decks I’ve overlooked, and I’ll look into them and find some solutions if I can. Enjoy! |
| Last edited by BrianBoitano on Sat Jun 24, 2006 12:59 pm; edited 3 times in total |
|
| Back to top |
|
| La_Sin_Grail |
![]() Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 9:05 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 14 Aug 2005
Posts: 806
Location: Maryland
|
No land base written... only room for 20 land which isn’t quite enough.
I would like to see last gasp, so after you kill the hunted tokens opposing you, you don’t lose the hunted horror. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| BrianBoitano |
![]() Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 11:06 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 16 Jun 2006
Posts: 124
Location: Houston, TX
|
Only 20 land isn’t enough? What is the deal with this nowadays? I mean I skip a block and the standard is 22 or 23 lands? Sure it’s a two color deck, but there are 12 mana fixers in there! There are a lot of colored mana requirements, but so far I haven’t had a problem.
Last Gasp saves the Horror? You mean by reducing the opposing fatty to less than 7 power?
I switched out the Cytoplast Root-Kins for 2 more Voyager Staves, they’re just pure utility. They can stall the Necroplasms long enough to get the Guildmage out and handling the counters, are much easier to use mana-wise, and have added utility. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| La_Sin_Grail |
![]() Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 11:38 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 14 Aug 2005
Posts: 806
Location: Maryland
|
Last gasp saves horror because it kills necroplasm before the necroplasm kills horror is what I meant.
Also, the mana fixing is too expensive- stick with birds of paradise instead. At one mana, he makes it a lot easier and smoother to get things into play more quickly, with the versatility of any color mana and the ability to block if the need arises.
As for 22 land.... I’m not going to say you need 22 land, but I am going to say there wasn’t a deck that made T8 in the last pro tour event with less. I’m sure some decks can run on less, but until I’m fully convinced (I even do it in mine when they have mana fixers), I recommend 22 land. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| BrianBoitano |
![]() Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2006 2:10 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 16 Jun 2006
Posts: 124
Location: Houston, TX
|
Right, Last Gasp is another good removal/leash for Necroplasm. Birds are killable, which is kind of fragile, but they are faster and so taking this gamble I’ll make the change.
Changes:
Creatures
+4 Birds of Paradise
Deck Thinners
-4 Farseek
-2 Dimir Machinations
[b]Other Spells
+4 Last Gasp
-2 Utopia Sprawl (Depends on land, usually doesn’t activate until next turn like birds)
This gives the deck a bit more control with the Gasps, a slightly faster start with the birds, but the deck thinners are less effective. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| La_Sin_Grail |
![]() Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2006 2:35 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 14 Aug 2005
Posts: 806
Location: Maryland
|
| yeah I think this looks pretty good for changes. but what do you do when you don’t draw the right cards? |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| BrianBoitano |
![]() Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2006 3:06 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 16 Jun 2006
Posts: 124
Location: Houston, TX
|
See section labeled "Deck Thinners"
There’s nothing in this deck that won’t get you closer to playing the Hunted Horror and Necroplasm, or controlling the Necroplasm. The creature destruction is never unwanted, so what’s the problem? All lands and no lands are the only two really bad hands with this deck, but that’s pretty universal. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| La_Sin_Grail |
![]() Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2006 5:08 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 14 Aug 2005
Posts: 806
Location: Maryland
|
| but diabolic is really, really expensive. I was looking for something more like phyrexian arena, actually... |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| BrianBoitano |
![]() Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2006 5:42 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 16 Jun 2006
Posts: 124
Location: Houston, TX
|
| Hmm, that’s a tough decision. The Arena comes out turn 2 (hopefully), but doesn’t give you card advantage until turn 4, after which it has earned its place in the deck. Given the same kind of opening hand, the Tutor comes out a turn later but fetches just what you need. Both can be countered, but the Arena can also be destroyed. Look again, and you’ll see that the Tutor is the most expensive play in the deck, so there’s not much worry about wanting to cast something else. Either you have the cards you need, so you play them, or you don’t, so you play the Tutor. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| La_Sin_Grail |
![]() Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2006 7:38 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 14 Aug 2005
Posts: 806
Location: Maryland
|
But look at the decklists form the last Pro Tour.
Take a good, long look.
Look at all the good cards played.
Look at all the lack of diabolic tutors.
Look at the amount of Bob (dark confidant) and phyrexian arena.
The best decks win because they play good cards with synergy. Bad cards with synergy, no matter how much, almost never win. If you were really tutoring for a win condition (say Tooth and Nail if that were still legal), I could understand, but it’s a total waste to tutor into a horror that gets fettered.
To tutor for a two mana card on turn three is just wasting your time. Even if you play a hunted turn four and a necroplasm turn five, you won’t win. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
Forum index » Magic: The Gathering » MTG Strategy Article Contest
