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| physcosick |
![]() Posted: Mon Aug 28, 2006 1:40 am |
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Venture deep into the current status of one of the best formats ever. Learn a little about background, get advice for competitive play, and start building your deck with this new article by the newly un-retired Physcosick.
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Extended: The Coolest Format
A Cobracards article from physcosick
I. Introduction
II. Banned/Restricted List
III. Tournaments
IV. Must haves for noobs
V. Decks
VI. Conclusion
I. Introduction
Hello everyone, I am physcosick and I’m about to take you on an extended adventure! Excited? You should be because extended is awesome. My article can only go so far but to truly enjoy this format is to get out there and start playing. My job right now is to provide those of you who that are interested in playing extended with a little extended background; for the veterans, this will provide a nice refresher course or you could technically just skip to section V  . Extended is a constructed format that is played with a pre-made deck that must contain at least 60 cards with an optional sideboard of 15 cards. Like any normal constructed format, all cards, except for those listed on the banned/restricted list and basic lands, are limited to 4 copies. First of all, lets go over what sets are current legal for extended decks/tournaments:
· Seventh Edition
· Eighth Edition
· Ninth Edition
· Invasion
· Planeshift
· Apocalypse
· Odyssey
· Torment
· Judgment
· Onslaught
· Legions
· Scourge
· Mirrodin
· Darksteel
· Fifth Dawn
· Champions of Kamigawa
· Betrayers of Kamigawa
· Saviors of Kamigawa
· Ravnica: City of Guilds
· Guildpact
· Dissension
· Coldsnap
· Time Spiral [effective Oct. 20]
II. Banned/Restricted List
Now that is one hefty card pool, if you ask me, which offers a lot of playable decks, variety, and room for Extension, but with such a large card pool, there has to be some cards that are unbelievably broken, right? Of course, it’s what keeps the format as balanced as possible:
· Aether Vial
· Disciple of the Vault
· Entomb
· Skullclamp
The cards listed above (as of August 23, 2006) are banned (illegal to play) in Extended tournaments. There are, however, no restricted (limited to one copy in any combination of deck and sideboard) cards. But what makes these cards so great that they are banned? Well let’s take a look!
Aether Vial: this little one-drop artifact is a must for any, or at least most, aggro decks. To be able to power out turn 2 and 3 with little guys is a powerful way to start applying early pressure. It was this particular card that made decks like Goblins extremely powerful. Even without Aether vial, Goblins is still good, just not as playable as it once was.
Disciple of the Vault: This tiny 1/1 made many a people cry home when it ran wild through type 2 in Ravager Affinity decks. Because of its pure dominance, the banning of Disciple (as well as arcbound ravager and all of the artifact lands) was announced; however, it was a little late for type 2. During its reign in standard, many extended players took the hint and built affinity for extended. Soon after, Disciple was banned but other aspects of the deck are still roaming around.
Entomb: Now entomb is just ridiculous. You may not think so at first but with cards like wonder, Life From the Loam, Deep Analysis, Ichorid, Golgari Grave-troll, Recoup, etc, etc, Entomb can be completely broken in the right hands. I didn’t even mention any possible reanimator decks.
Skullclamp: Oh wow, what could I possibly say about this card that isn’t completely obvious? I would like to start of with asking: What was Wizards thinking? Not only did they print this amazing equipment, they put it in pre-cons for easy accessibility. For those of you who don’t know, this equipment gives the equipped creature +1/-1, which makes it perfect for killing small creatures in aggro decks and creating a nice draw engine. Not only does it offer an insane draw engine, it also creates a scare tactic to force opponents to not block or to not attack. Skullclamp should have never have seen printing.
III. Tournaments
Like I said above, Extended is a 60-card minimum constructed format. Unless your Meta-game contains several extended players, you’re most likely not going to be playing in many extended tournaments. However, you can still play in Pro Tour Qualifiers, with a small group of friends, or just any random person for fun. The tournaments are usually Swiss style. For those who don’t know, Swiss means you play 4-8 rounds (depending on the number of registered players and tournament type) and you do not get eliminated for losing a match but you can always drop from the tournament whenever you want. Rounds are best out of 3 matches and the top players receive prizes. Before you go to a tournament, make sure you squeeze in several weeks of play testing against many, if not all, of the current top decks so you have time to refine your list and become familiar with how to play against other decks.
No matter how competitive the tournament you are attending is, make sure you have all of your cards in sleeves. Sleeves are good because they will make you look more respectable as a player, will get you in less trouble than playing without sleeves, and will protect your cards from many damaging situations. But do not buy just any sleeves, make sure you get one’s that do not have art on them (the sleeves must be plain and only one color) and make sure there are no errors, such as creases or folds, on the sleeves that will cause the sleeve to look any different than any other random sleeve in your deck. Also, make sure your deck is complete with at least 60 cards in the main deck and 15 sideboard cards. Your first few tournaments can be a little rough and intimidating, but the more you participate in these events, you become less nervous, gain more experience, and hopefully, the better you’ll rank at the end of the tournament. After all, confidence, clear thinking, and psychology are huge factors for winning in Magic tournaments.
IV. Must haves for Noobs
I don’t mean to offend anyone by using the word “noob”, but lets face it: if your new to extended, you’re a noob no matter how long you have been playing. I have been playing for around 3 years and I have just recently graduated from extended noob status. For those of you who are interested in becoming an extended Magic player, you must start with examining many different deck types. Once you explore the many decks that extended has to offer, you can choose a deck that fits your play style and budget. But if you don’t have an idea of exactly what u want to play, there are certain types of cards that are played in many extended decks that you should pick up. Whether or not you play with them in your deck, they always have high trade value so you can get your money back whenever you want to:
- Fetch Lands (Polluted Delta, Bloodstained Mire, Wooded Foothills, etc, etc)
- Wishes (Cunning Wish, Burning Wish, etc)
- Shock Lands (Temple Garden, Overgrown Tomb, Stomping Grounds, Godless Shrine, etc, etc)
- Discard (Duress and Cabal Therapy)
- Solid Creatures (Braids, Cabal Minion, Withered Wretch, Eternal Witness, Grim Lavamancer, Savannah lions, Isamaru, Hound of Konda, Wild Mongrel, Psychatog, etc, etc)
Granted, just because I say to “net deck” does not mean that your only options are the main competitive decks. However, I recommend you use those decks and build one to become comfortable with the format, the decks being played, and the wide card pool available. Eventually, once you start playing more, you may want to try some new ideas and make a “rogue” deck for yourself that suits you. Your options are very broad so do not get frustrated after a couple failed ideas; if I got upset after everyone of my bad ideas, I’d be suicidal. But the most important part is practice. The more you practice, the better you’ll be; you will be a smarter player and a slightly better deck builder.
V. Decks
Now I could sit here all day and type these words on my keyboard all I want, but let’s face it, it gets boring. Talking all about the procedures and giving advice gets tired rather quickly; the real fun is the decks and playing. So I helped you guys out so far with your extended journey, so I might as well give you a few current decks that are really popular and perform well in tournaments. Now I can’t go through and post every deck list out there. What I am going to do is give you a few decks that will be attractive to many different types of players whose skills range from beginner to advanced. The deck lists I am providing are not of my own; I found them on other forums and tournament results/coverage. All lists are either top decks that performed quite well in tournaments or a new twist on an old deck that is quite interesting and fun.
a. Boros Deck Wins (BDW)
BDW is a RW agro deck that uses efficient, high-quality weenie creatures that put on the early pressure. If a few attacks from those little guys don’t kill you the burn to the face will! One of the coolest parts of this deck is how versatile it is for being an aggro deck. In one game it can have a lot of efficient removal via the burn spells, in other a creature aggro rush, and in a third it could be a frustrating control deck from the turn 2 Land Destruction Spells. BDW is currently one of the most consistent decks and puts many people into top 8s on Magic Online PEs. The lists vary slightly from person to person, but a decent base list looks as follows:
Lands: 21
1 Mountain
2 Windswept Heath
3 Plains
3 Mountain
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Flooded Strand
Creatures: 18
3 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
3 Silver Knight
4 Goblin Legionnaire
4 Grim Lavamancer
4 Savannah Lions
Other: 21
3 Pillage
4 Molten Rain
3 Chrome Mox
4 Lightning Helix
3 Lava Dart
4 Firebolt
Sideboard: 15
3 Pithing Needle
4 Shattering Spree
3 Fledgling Dragon
4 Disenchant
1 Silver Knight
The main deck is really adjustable, mainly when it comes to the Chrome Moxes and the lack of Barbarian Rings. The problem with Barbarian Ring is that it has bad synergy with Grim Lavamancer, which is a reason why some do not play them; however, I like having both as an option because Grim Lavamancer doesn’t always stay out long enough to become effective. However, the sideboard is a decent start but can and should be changed based on your meta-game. BDW is one of the most popular decks right now because it is fast, cheap, easy to play, and good. It’s for those same reasons that I suggest this deck to any one who doesn’t like to play long games, play inconsistent decks, and/or think much while playing magic.
b. Heartbeat
Heartbeat is a very skill intensive deck that I do not recommend to beginners. If you have a good grasp on how the Standard version of heartbeat works, than you may be able to play this deck after watching a few games of someone who actually knows how to play the deck. The general idea is to play Heartbeat of Springs and Early Harvest(s) in order to produce a lot of mana to play several spells. Once you get your spell count up, Mind’s Desire starts going CRAZY. Your best-case scenario with your Mind’s Desire is to reveal one or more Mind’s Desires. Eventually, your storm count will be so high that you can cast Brain Freeze for the win. The coolest part about this deck is it has many options available to deal with disruption. The biggest problem is a resolved Cranial Extraction naming Mind’s Desire, if your not playing red for Burning Wish, or Heartbeat of Springs, it gets rough after that. Here is a good list that will do quite well in any tournament as long as its controller is skilled enough to play it:
Lands: 22
10 Forest
12 Island
Creatures: 4
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
Spells: 34
1 Revive
3 Early Harvest
3 Fact or Fiction
1 Brain Freeze
2 Moment’s Peace
1 Echoing Truth
4 Nostalgic Dreams
1 Deep Analysis
2 Rampant Growth
4 Heartbeat of Spring
4 Cunning Wish
4 Gifts Ungiven
4 Mind’s Desire
Sideboard: 15
2 Moment’s Peace
3 Brain Freeze
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Naturalize
1 Stifle
1 Words of Wisdom
1 Memory Lapse
1 Early Harvest
3 Mana Short
The only difference I would suggest with this deck is the possible addition of Remand to deal with some game altering cards, specifically something like Cranial Extraction. But other than that, this is a very solid list. I wouldn’t play Heartbeat unless you have experience with the Standard version of Heartbeat and you have a general idea of how the deck works. Without a lot of knowledge, thinking, concentration, and practice you will fail horribly with this deck.
c. Tooth and Nail (T&N)
A very popular deck that originated from a Type 2 deck, T&N has grown to prove it self worthy in extended. Although most lists do not show a significant difference between the old Standard versions and the current extended decks. The deck utilizes mana acceleration like Sakura-tribe elder, Reap and Sow, and Sylvan Scrying (although Sylvan Scrying isn’t technically mana acceleration) and Urza Tron (Urza’s Tower, Urza’s Power Plant, and Urza’s mine) to reach 9 mana to play Tooth and Nail to search for 2 creatures and put them into play. Usually the game is over once Tooth and Nail resolves. There are many options for searchable creatures in T&N such as Kiki-jiki, Mirror Breaker, Darksteel Colossus, Sundering Titan, Mephidross Vampire, Sky Hussar, Duplicant, Platinum Angel, and even Leonin Abunas!
Lands: 23
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
5 Forest
1 Tranquil Thicket
4 Urza’s Mine
4 Urza’s Power Plant
4 Urza’s Tower
4 Windswept Heath
Creatures: 11
1 Darksteel Colossus
2 Eternal Witness
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Sundering Titan
1 Triskelion
1 Sky Hussar
Other: 26
2 Mindslaver
3 Moment’s Peace
3 Oblivion Stone
4 Reap and Sow
4 Sensei’s Divining Top
4 Sylvan Scrying
2 Talisman of Unity
4 Tooth and Nail
Sideboard: 15
1 Mindslaver
1 Moment’s Peace
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Sundering Titan
1 Duplicant
1 Leonin Abunas
1 Mephidross Vampire
2 Naturalize
1 Plains
1 Platinum Angel
4 Plow Under
The deck is a lot of fun because once you obtain 9 mana, which isn’t that hard, you practically win out of nowhere! The Tooth and Nail search combinations are a lot of fun and creative.
a. Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Darksteel Colossus = an automatic 11/11 trampler followed by 2 11/11 tramplers next turn.
b. Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Sundering Titan = I just wrecked your mana base.
c. Kiki-jiki, Mirror Breaker + Sky Hussar = Infinite Sky Hussars with haste.
d. Triskelion + Mephidross Vampire = One sided Wrath of God.
e. Leonin Abunas + Platinum Angel = A card that reads “I can’t lose” and it can’t be targeted.
T&N doesn’t require a lot of thought so it’s perfect for many players out there. But I wouldn’t suggest playing T&N if you like to play control decks or aggro decks. After all, T&N is a combo deck. You spend the whole game finding Urza Tron in order to play Tooth and Nail and win the game. It is exciting for many players but there are even more players that find it kind of boring.
d. UG Madness
UG Madness has been a staple deck in Extended for quite some time now. It’s simple yet effective strategy of exploiting the madness ability with all of its discard abilities. The deck has not recently put many people into top 8s in recent Magic Online PEs but it is consistent, reliable, viable, and cheap which makes it the perfect deck for beginners!
Lands: 21
4 Breeding Pool
4 Polluted Delta
2 Windswept Heath
1 Cephalid Coliseum
1 Forest
5 Island
1 Centaur Garden
1 Tranquil Thicket
1 Lonely Sandbar
1 Overgrown Tomb
Creatures: 19
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Basking Rootwalla
3 Aquamoeba
3 Arrogant Wurm
1 Wonder
3 Vexing Sphinx
1 Genesis
Spells: 21
2 Gifts Ungiven
1 Life from the Loam
4 Circular Logic
2 Deep Analysis
4 Careful Study
3 Umezawa’s Jitte
3 Chrome Mox
2 Roar of the Wurm
Sideboard: 15
4 Naturalize
1 Overgrown Tomb
4 Pithing Needle
4 Smother
2 Carven Caryatid
First of all, before some of the older players start bashing me, I came across this list a little over a week ago and I was very intrigued. Personally, I can’t stand Coldsnap, many of you guys know that, but using Vexing Sphinx as a draw engine as well as a discard outlet is something I was thinking about since the card was previewed; I just never had the initiative. If the Vexing Sphinx proves to not be playable, there are many options out there for replacement cards. The sideboard is sort of rough, but like always, it depends on meta-game, so I can’t critique it myself, it’s just there for an example. I do like several sideboard choices, though. Carven Caryatid is quite good against aggro decks, pithing needle is good against many things, and naturalize is always a viable option. My only problem with the sideboard is the lonely overgrown tomb. What I would recommend is to add a third Carven Caryatid to the sideboard, take out a forest from the main deck, and replace it with that second Overgrown Tomb. It looks fun though, which, in my opinion, is the point of UG Madness. So if you have Breeding Pools and you want a fun, cheap, aggressive deck that will win games but not necessarily tournaments, than UG Madness is your deck.
Cobra’s edit:
Due to phpBB’s character limits, this article is continued below. |
| Last edited by physcosick on Mon Aug 28, 2006 3:13 pm; edited 3 times in total |
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| physcosick |
![]() Posted: Mon Aug 28, 2006 1:45 am |
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Joined: 18 Oct 2005
Posts: 229
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e. Ravager Affinity
Ravager Affinity was first introduced as an archetype in type 2. Its pure dominance in the format lead to an even better version for extended. Affinity was the top dog in standard until DCI announced the banning of many cards that were the core of the Affinity deck. The dominance was still displayed in extended, but DCI lower that slightly by banning Disciple of the Vault. The things that make this deck work are the cheap/free artifacts like the lands, Ornithopter, Chromatic Sphere, etc all adding up to a lot of artifacts out, rather quickly. Many cards in the deck have a mechanic known as “affinity for artifacts” which causes the spell to cost 1 less for each artifact you control, so your playing some nice cards like Myr Enforcer or Thoughtcast for cheap/free. The lists are pretty much straight forward: play artifacts, play cards with “affinity for artifacts”, hopefully play Cranial Plating at some point, and just go crazy!
Lands: 20
4 Vault of Whispers
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Great Furnace
2 Glimmervoid
2 City of Brass
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
Creatures: 20
4 Ornithopter
4 Myr Enforcer
4 Frogmite
4 Arcbound Worker
4 Arcbound Ravager
Other: 20
4 Thoughtcast
4 Shrapnel Blast
4 Pithing Needle
4 Cranial Plating
4 Chromatic Sphere
Sideboard: 15
3 Pyroclasm
4 Overload
4 Darkblast
4 Cabal Therapy
Like I said before, this list is pretty much straight forward and there isn’t much room for change and the sideboard is quite solid. But as I look at this list I remember something rather clear: Affinity is dead! Amazingly so, Ravager Affinity is slowly getting less popular because of its lack of ability to beat Pernicious Deed and Kataki, War’s Wage. The good thing about this list, however, is that it has answer to what is killing the archetype! As if Darkblast isn’t enough of an answer for Kataki, War’s Wage, the deck also runs Pyroclasm in the board to go along with it. The Pernicious Deed can be easily answered via Pithing Needle in the main deck; however, Pithing Needle is not always a permanent solution to the threat, especially when BG decks also run things like Putrefy. Even though ravager is dieing, this is a very excellent attempt to save it. So if you are desperate enough to build ravager or perhaps you already have the cards for it, than run something similar to this list.
f. Aggro Rock
The Rock was an original deck named after the former WWE Wrestler, The Rock. Throughout the years with this archetype available, it has gone through many changes. Pretty much, as of right now, Rock is technically any Black and Green (sometimes with a white splash) deck that uses the best creatures in the color pie. The original Recurring Nightmare + Deranged Hermit deck is now an inspiration to one of the newer versions of the deck: Aggro Rock. Unlike its ancestor, Aggro Rock uses a lot of efficient, cheap creatures to quickly put pressure on the opponent and hopefully for the win.
Lands: 20
4 Brushland
3 Llanowar Wastes
1 Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree
4 Godless Shrine
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Temple Garden
Creatures: 21
3 Withered Wretch
3 Dark Confidant
2 Anurid Brushhopper
2 Loxodon Hierarch
4 Troll Ascetic
3 Llanowar Elves
4 Birds of Paradise
Other: 19
3 Cabal Therapy
2 Chrome Mox
3 Sword of Fire and Ice
3 Armadillo Cloak
4 Duress
2 Mortify
2 Putrefy
Sideboard: 15
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
2 Cranial Extraction
3 Pernicious Deed
1 Cabal Therapy
4 Condemn
1 Withered Wretch
3 Naturalize
There is not much right now that I can say about the deck. It’s just a regular aggro deck with a good amount of disruption against control decks (Duress, Cabal Therapy, etc) and aggro decks (Mortify, Putrefy, etc). If you are use to playing with aggro decks and the list appeals to you, than this is a solid choice for an extended deck.
g. UB Psychatog
Psychatog, much to the joy of several and dismay of thousands, has been a staple archetype for years. The deck is as good as it is because of its consistent ability to control the board in many ways. Whether it’s through their counter spells, Vedalken Shackles, Darkblasts, etc, Psychatog loves to control games. After board position starts swaying towards Psychatog’s advantage, a nice Psychatog with a nice size hand and graveyard nearly spells the end for any hope of your opponent.
Lands: 24
2 Blinkmoth Nexus
2 Cephalid Coliseum
4 Polluted Delta
4 Watery Grave
2 Swamp
10 Island
Creatures: 4
4 Psychatog
Other: 32
3 Vedalken Shackles
1 Deep Analysis
2 Fact or Fiction
3 Cunning Wish
4 Standstill
3 Opt
2 Darkblast
4 Circular Logic
3 Mana Leak
4 Counterspell
3 Force Spike
Sideboard: 15
1 Echoing Truth
1 Mana Short
1 Coffin Purge
1 Rushing River
1 Stifle
1 Hideous Laughter
1 Ghastly Demise
3 Engineered Plague
4 Duress
1 Fact or Fiction
The one thing I like about this list the most is the Vedalken Shackles. When Fifth Dawn previews revealed this creature control artifact, I instantly fell in love. I picked up 4 copies immediately and started playing with them. Then, when I decided to move on, I traded them away at high value for a couple Pithing Needles, among other things. Anyways, not all decks play Vedalken Shackles. I miss not having a Wonder mixed into the deck to compliment Psychatog by practically making him unblockable, but the deck is still good. The amount of card advantage that will develop over the course of a few turns will keep you in control for the rest of the game. A potential problem for this deck in the form of Leyline of the Void practically kills your win condition. Instead of dropping a Psychatog for a, for example, 4-turn clock with Leyline of the Void out it’s now a 15 turn clock. If you are confused why it would be a 15-turn clock instead of a 20-turn clock, it’s rather simple; players take a good amount of damage from lands in extended so I simply estimated that this particular player has paid 5 life for lands, which alters depending on your opponent’s deck. The only answer the deck has is Cunning Wish for Echoing Truth. Withered Wretch is often preferred over Leyline of the Void for several good reasons, but I go on the record in disagreeing with those people. Withered Wretch is not a problem for Psychatog since it has many ways of dealing with creatures. Overall, this is a very solid deck; however, I do not suggest anyone playing it unless you like control decks, your good at playing control decks, and make sure you are very patient.
h. Ichorid
Ichorid is a deck that hasn’t been around long, but it has been making a huge impact. The general concept of the deck is to aggressively pile up your graveyard with cards like Putrid Imp, Zombie Infestation, and the many Dredge cards available. While the graveyard is building, you will soon have many recurring Ichorids attacking each turn, as well as many other threats such as Psychatog and Golgari-grave Troll.
Lands: 17
3 Riftstone Portal
4 Cephalid Coliseum
2 Swamp
4 Watery Grave
4 Polluted Delta
Creatures: 21
1 Wonder
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Ichorid
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
1 Golgari Thug
4 Putrid Imp
3 Psychatog
Other: 22
4 Zombie Infestation
4 Deep Analysis
1 Life from the Loam
1 Filth
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Tolarian Winds
4 Chrome Mox
Sideboard: 15
1 Riftstone Portal
3 Firemane Angel
3 Compost
3 Coffin Purge
4 Kataki, War’s Wage
1 Ray of Revelation
There isn’t much in this deck that appears to be off; it appears to be one of, if not thee, best version. This isn’t an easy deck to jump in and start playing with, but after a few games, you should have a good grasp on how to play it. Basically, you’re not going to be drawing many cards. Once you quickly drop those dredgers in the graveyard, you do not draw any more cards, pretty much. You simply build up your graveyard and look for Ichorids to blow your opponent out of the water. If you like to have the game be decided within the first few turns, you like to have to think (but not a lot), you like big graveyards and small libraries, and you like to have recurring threats from the grave, than try Ichorid, you won’t be disappointed.
i. Aggro Loam
Aggro Loam is my current pet project. I absolutely love its versatility and awesomeness. The deck has many different aspects and plays out totally differently depending on your opponent’s decks. Against aggro, it’s control and/or combo. Against control, it’s aggro. Against combo, it’s aggro. It has so many options for different types of decks. For those who don’t know, Aggro Loam manipulates the use of mana acceleration and early aggro creatures along with Thoughts of Ruin and Life From The Loam to set up a situation that is very hard to escape from. But that’s only one of the things this deck can do. Usually being able to Armageddon and recover quickly is enough of a strategy, but not for Aggro Loam. The addition of Terravore and Seismic Assualt offers several more options to take complete advantage over your land manipulation and dredge mechanic. The deck is relatively new and isn’t exactly “main stream” yet but it’s getting there. For those who play the deck, it is the best deck online right now. It currently has one of the highest decks to top 8 appearances ratio making it one of the most consistent decks in extended. I’m sure I might be lacking in the description aspect, but it’s only because I love this deck so much that I getting excited writing about it. This is my current list, which has proven to consistently be very reliable match after match:
Lands: 26
4 Tranquil Thicket
4 Forgotten Cave
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Bloodstained Mire
2 Windswept Heath
2 Stomping Ground
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Temple Garden
2 Mountain
2 Forest
1 Barbarian Ring
Creatures: 15
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Werebear
4 Wild Mongrel
3 Terravore
Other: 19
4 Burning Wish
3 Seismic Assault
3 Life From The Loam
3 Lightning Helix
3 Thoughts of Ruin
3 Firebolt
Sideboard: 15
3 Pithing Needle
3 Naturalize
3 Loxodon Hierarch
1 Life From The Loam
1 Pyroclasm
1 Thoughts of Ruin
1 Hull Breach
1 Nostalgic Dreams
1 Shattering Spree
I have heard some people at my local card store saying Aggro Loam is a difficult deck to play. I disagree; it’s pretty much straight forward. One of the biggest things you have to be aware of is that taking damage doesn’t really matter with this deck. Every game, if you do not take 2-3 damage from your lands and play a Birds of Paradise of cycle a Forgotten Cave or Tranquil Thicket, than you are playing the deck wrong. The cycle lands offer instant speed dredging to save your life from the loam and also could be used with Werebear to easily give him threshold. The deck is full of synergy and nice little tricks that you have to play to get use to, but it is a lot of fun and I wouldn’t want to play any other deck right now. It’s a rather good deck that requires minimal thought and it is a lot of fun to play. If you like to manipulate mana bases and have fun doing it, go with Aggro Loam.
j. I can’t find a deck I like, what should I do?
My favorite part about Extended is the large card pool offered. With so many cards to choose from and so many viable decks, there are several options out there (some of which have yet to be discovered) that have insanely large amounts of potential for extended play. If you didn’t like any of the lists above you have two options:
a. Look on other forums or Extended tournament results for other decks
b. Figure out an idea and go with it!
Sure I didn’t really give much help for option b, but what do you want? Me to hand you the deck that isn’t supposed to be net decked? That doesn’t make any sense! But I will give you some ideas of where to look. You should check out other formats; standard is a good start. Look at current and even past decks from Standard and explore possibilities for it in extended. For example, Mono Blue Tron was rather popular about a year ago. If you consider it’s viability in extended you may also consider the extra card draw available, as well as the additional counters. But as far as an awesome control deck win condition goes, you could play UW Control Tron for Decree of Justice. But don’t just stop at Standard, check out legacy! Believe it or not you can find a few decent ideas from checking out some legacy decks and making specific changes to make it playable in extended. If all else fails, just go with the easiest way: figure out what your favorite card or style is and build a deck around it. It may or may not be competitive, but it will be a lot of fun for you, plus it will be your own.
vi. Conclusion
I hope my article has helped you all in some way with Extended. Even more so, I hope all of you seriously consider building an extended deck and playing as much as possible. As a magic player, if you want to get any better, you need to broaden your horizons. If you’re a standard genius, than you’re a standard genius. You’ve spent all your time learning everything about standard but if you are forced to play or talk about another format, you will more than likely be completely lost. The best way to become a well-rounded, intelligent magic player is to play various formats. The more formats you play, the more you will be required to think and the more situations you will be involved in which will help you out in future situations.
A lot of you guys out there are thinking that Extended is too expensive to play because of fetch lands and other really good cards. But what you all may not realize is that Extended is cheaper than Standard. Extended will require an initial deposit that is larger than the one required for Standard deck building. But in extended, you will be playing with the cards for at least 3 years where as Standard rotates every block. So within a couple of years, you will be spending less money on Extended than you would have with Standard. Plus, extended staples will always have high trade value! Fetch lands, Meddling Mage, Dark Confidant, Shock Lands, etc, etc will always be high because of Legacy and Vintage. Standard, however, values many cards highly because of its playability in Standard, but once it rotates out of standard the value plummets. So not only would you spend less money over the course of a couple years, but your trade values will remain consistent and the quality of your collection will not be negatively effected.
Thank you all for reading my article and I truly hope everyone was benefited from it. If you have any questions about extended or you want some personal help building a deck or maybe you want to play test online with someone, simply PM me and I’ll be happy to help. Please leave comments for any critiques, questions, or concerns and don’t forget to vote!
Thanks again,
physcosick |
| Last edited by physcosick on Mon Aug 28, 2006 3:15 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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| Felipe Musco |
![]() Posted: Mon Aug 28, 2006 12:21 pm |
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Joined: 18 May 2006
Posts: 2434
Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
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Can’t really say anything else. I’ll vote as soon as I can finish reading it. Just one thing, before each item, to emulate roman numbers, the letters should be capitolized, so it should read I, II, III, IV, V and so on. Also, some minor spelling errors, perfectly understandable in an article this big. And, of course, well done! 30 dollars well deserved, from my point of view.
EDIT: And I’m glad to have you on board of our little Community Group. Disseminate your article, I’ll spread the word ’round here, too. Hopefully, it will attract some members. I’ll write one on Time Spiral, too, like I did with Coldsnap, when it’s released. You keep writing for the other formats, I keep writing "spoiler" articles and standard, if we can get people to read it, we can really build up our ranks here!  |
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| physcosick |
![]() Posted: Mon Aug 28, 2006 5:13 pm |
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Joined: 18 Oct 2005
Posts: 229
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Thank you very much, Felipe! Yeah, I worked very hard on it; I just wish there were no character limits... 
Yeah so anyways, I editted my post to make the sections more easily identifable. So thanks again to felipe and Cobra with some advice for posting my deck. |
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| Felipe Musco |
![]() Posted: Mon Aug 28, 2006 5:59 pm |
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Joined: 18 May 2006
Posts: 2434
Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
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| Btw, I’m working on a Extended deck packing counters, card-drawing power, burn-removal, Niv-mizzet, the Firemind and Curiosity. Basically, stay alive with counter and burn, draw Niv-Mizzet, play Curiosity on him. Protect him with counters for one turn, tap him, game. I LOVE extended! Card pools that big make me go nuts! So many card-drawing, so many burn! After 10th Edition is released and Incinerate is back, burn is going to be CRAZY! |
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| La_Sin_Grail |
![]() Posted: Mon Aug 28, 2006 8:52 pm |
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Joined: 14 Aug 2005
Posts: 806
Location: Maryland
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Hey man this stuff looks cool to me! Looks like you put a lot of time and effort into this. I just personally don’t know much about extended, so I can’t really comment too much..
My standard instincts say you should play more 4 ofs, and I assume that would be the case in extended, too(?) but I could be wrong. I’m a standard guy almost pure out. |
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| Felipe Musco |
![]() Posted: Mon Aug 28, 2006 10:29 pm |
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Joined: 18 May 2006
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Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
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| Yep, you’re wrong on this one, Grail. See, in Extended, your possibilities are much larger, so you can do a fairly huge amount of actions with a deck. That’s why the deck does not need too much 4 ofs, it opens more possibilities when you play some 2 of and 3 ofs. But I think you’d like Extended, check out what you can do with your standard decks and the new pool it opens to you! |
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| physcosick |
![]() Posted: Mon Aug 28, 2006 11:15 pm |
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Joined: 18 Oct 2005
Posts: 229
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/\/\/\Agreed/\/\/\
There are some decks that require many 4 ofs and some 3 ofs like BDW, UG Madness... Aggro Loam... etc. A lot fo them do. However, some decks like Heartbeat run short on some cards just because it’s not needed. Like running 3 ofs of some instants and running the 4ths in the Sideboard for Cunning Wish targets. It really depends on the deck and what the deck wants to do. The more testing you do with your deck, the more odd it may look. When you look at a list and see "these cards or four ofs... but those are 2ofs, he only runs 1 copy of that" etc than that usually means that that deck builder did a lot of testing and refining with new/good ideas mixed with his knowledge of what is needed on the deck and it’s consistancy factors.
So you’ll prolly start off with a lot of 4ofs and 3 ofs until you start testing more and than your list will become much more detailed. |
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| r2d2quino |
![]() Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 12:15 pm |
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Joined: 29 Aug 2006
Posts: 49
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Now, this is a pretty big article! Well done! Now, on with the critics:
This Article, I believe, is directed at newbies and experienced players alike, so I think you’ve missed some hooks, to get’em to play Extended.
You see, when you started giving decklists, that’s for newbies, so explain why those decks ae good. Since you suggest they netdeck some of’em, teach’em how to play with them! Go deeper in the analysis, I mean, the article is already big anyway, might as well cover the whole thing.
For the experienced players, you say there is a huge card pool to choose from (and that’s true), so show’em! Take the best Standard builds, and show how to make’em stronger with the cards available in Extended! Also, talk about Extended tournaments. Are there any? Are they good? Are the prizes worth the trouble? Why are some cards banned in Extended? I saw this article, and I thought "this is it", but I don’t know, it just seems... half-baked. I know it must have been really exhaustive to make it, though, so I can’t decide wether to give it an average 3 (for all I missed while reading it) or a 4 (for all your trouble, and because it just doesn’t feel right giving it the same stars I gave to that bizarre Muse Vessel build). But reading this article, the other one about Shoals, Jittes and Remand, and the one about Coldsnap (although I think this one’s missed some nice cards, like Martyr of Ashes) made me love this site! I’m posting my decks for review here, you all seem to be very good players! |
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| Felipe Musco |
![]() Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 12:38 pm |
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Joined: 18 May 2006
Posts: 2434
Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
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Wow, a new Magic player! I saw a post by you at the Member’s Lounge, but didn’t expect you to play Magic (statistics, you know...).
Welcome to our humble Community! (and believe me, it IS humble!) I hope you stick around for longer than most our members usually do, and I hope you write stuff, too! |
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