| |
| Author |
Message |
Rate this article!
| 5 (Best) |
| [ 0 ] 0% |
| |
| 4 |
| [ 2 ] 100% |
| |
| 3 |
| [ 0 ] 0% |
| |
| 2 |
| [ 0 ] 0% |
| |
| 1 (Worst) |
| [ 0 ] 0% |
| |
Total Votes : 2 |
|
| The First |
![]() Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2007 5:28 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 07 Oct 2005
Posts: 195
Location: Anderlecht, Belgium
|
--- description ---
Thanks to The First, you did not read any other nonsense.
--- end description ---
1. Introduction, part 1
2. Introduction, part 2
3. Getting jiggy with it
4. Getting jigsaw with it
5. How to
6. Adding money to it
-----------------------------------------------
Introduction, part 1
I promised myself that I would make a decent article this week. An article about a home made Bl!nk deck. A deck that I have been building for some time now, but that, for some odd reason, does no get finished. So far I have;
Timbermare
Momentary Blink
Scryb Ranger
Vinelasher Kudzu
Coiling Oracle
…
Mystic Snake
Aven Riftwatcher
With an ocasional “To Arms” every now and then.
You do get the general idea right? Play Timbermare, untap Vinelasher Kudzu with the Ranger, play a forest – the one returned by the Scryb Ranger – enlarging the Kudzu and attack. Opponent’s turn, Bl!nk the Mare, pay upkeep and attack with everything.
The Coiling Oracle and the Aven Riftwatcher seem to be auto-includes (stapples) cards but the question is if they are better than the Loxodon Hierarch and Wall of Roots most decks tend to play.
-----------------------------------------------
Introduction, part 2
So forget about the decklist above. That will be for next month, hehe… Yeah right. Like that will happen. Pfff….
Instead, let us focus on a cool card that came back in Timespiral. A card that got a pretty decent boost from cards in Planar Chaos;
Pandemonium
Just like most cards that I wrote an article about, this card is cheaper, here at Cobracards, than 1 M:TG booster. And it has some cool potential in the Standard environment. Which does not mean it will ever become the most wanted card in standard or attain any gradation of brokenness, but you can make some very cool and/or combo decks with it.
-----------------------------------------------
Getting jiggy with it
The first creature which is called to the dancefloor, here at the Pandemonium Theatre of Death and Despair, to shake his insignificant booty is (and, no, there aint no good in him);
Norin the Wary
This guy is NUTS with Pandemonium out. While still not broken or anything, it does survive Wrath of God, Damnation or any other trick up your sleeve. Heck, the puny human will even dare to deal some damage. Just because he is not smart enough not to mess with Gods like U(rza).
Another beast on the dancefloor, is our blinking Timbermare. While he is soooo next months, he is pretty cool with Primal Forcemage and Pandemonium in Mono Green Haste. A mere 4 mana will translate into 16 damage. Might of Old Krosa FTW?
Mono (?) Green Haste
4x Llanowar Elves
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Primal Forcemage
4x Groundbreaker
4x Uktabi Drake
4x Timbermare
4x Giant Solifuge
4x Giant Growth
4x Might of Old Krosa
4x Pandemonium
Another great idea is to put it into a Rakdos/Mono black disruption deck. The loyal Houseguard can get cards like Damnation or the Pandemonium in question. Some heavy discard will do the rest. Play or reanimate a Mortivore FTW, or even Sengir Nosferatu (attack, deal 4 and at the end of turn, tap 4 mana to deal another 5 damage).
Now kids, do not do anything crazy, but consider Pandemonium, Saffi Eriksdotter and Crypt Champion… Get Saffi and Pandemonium out, play the Champion but do not pay 1 red. Sac the Champion (no red was payed), sac Saffi to get the Champion back. He will bring Saffi along with him. Pandemonium will deal 4 damage. Rinse and repeat. GG.
2x Forest
1x Plains
1x Pendelhaven
1x Selesnya Sanctuary
1x Orzhov Basilica
4x Temple Garden
3x Overgrown Tomb
1x Godless Shrine
2x Gemstone Mine
1x Brushland
2x Llanowar Wastes
1x Caves of Koilos
4x Birds of Paradise
2x Elves of Deep Shadow
3x Essence Warden
4x Dark Confidant
4x Saffi Eriksdotter
4x Wall of Roots
1x Orzhov Pontiff
2x Teysa, Orzhov Scion
4x Loxodon Hierarch
3x Crypt Champion
1x Ghost Council of Orzhova
3x Chord of Calling
2x Putrefy
3x Castigate
This deck was piloted into the top 8 at the GP Kyoto by Yuusuke Iwasaki. With 4 Birds and 4 Wall of Roots, it is not that difficult to add Pandemonium into the mix.
-----------------------------------------------
Getting jigsaw with it
While the ideas above do seem to be powerful, there are 2 kinds of creatures that just shout to be used alongside Pandemonium; the Vanishing ones and the creratures with Flash that return other creatures to hand.
Take a look at the following deck;
4x Soul Warden
3x Keldon Marauder
4x Whitemane Lion
4x Aven Riftwatcher
4x Stonecloaker
3x Calciderm
2x Dust Elemental
4x Lightning Helix
4x Glorious Anthem
1x Ghostway
4x Pandemonium
23x Land
-----------------------------------------------
How to
This deck only contains 11 rares. 7 are easy to get (Pandemonium, Dust Elemental and Ghostway) And the other 4, the Anthems obviously, are not really necessary. But they do improve the overall performance though.
There is no real need for shock- or painlands in this deck. Just a splash of red will suffice.
Without Pandemonium, this deck does not look all that much fun. You do not have a “fun” card like Flanmetongue Kavu from back in the good ol’ days. The kavu is a 4/2 body for 4 mana, one of which is red mana, which will deal 4 damage to target player or creature when it comes into play. If only my precious Kavu could be played once again…
With Pandemonium out, you do get that Flametongue Kavu feeling about all your creatures. It is actually even worse. 2 mana for a 3/3 Kavu which deals 3 damage (and 1 to a player) is pretty nasty.
The problem is that your opponent’s critters will have the same flametongue feeling. That is where the rescue creatures come in handy. They rescue your creatures and take down some of your opponent’s creatures. The idea is to be able to keep playing creatures, over and over again. And now, they all are precious Kavus and they can be saved in a heartbeat.
The second option is that your opponent will throw Kavu damage to your head. That is not very good indeed. But no worries. That is why you pack life gain. Life gain is good. Especially if it is embodied into powerful cards like the Helixes and the Riftwatchers. The Wardens do get some credit as well. They are cheap and becuase the meaning of this deck is to play creatures and rescue them, the Wardens will prove to be low cost targets and they will gather a handsome pile of life for you.
Furthermore, the Anthems will make your creatures bigger, enabling them to survive more and to deal more damage. Ghostway is a long shot on the other hand. Ghostway is a typical one-off that can get you out of a tight situation or that can give you the win.
I do not think that there is much to explain about this deck. You try to get Pandemonium out asap, play the vanashing creatures and rescue them. Your opponent will use Pandemonium either for spot removal, no problem there as you have Rescue critters, or he will throw the damage on you but your Wardens and the life gain in this deck will prevent much of it though. The aim of this deck is to first kill as many creatures as possible and to kill your opponent asap afterwards.
-----------------------------------------------
Adding money to it
You COULD use pain- or shocklands if you want though 
Giant Solifuge might be a good alternative for the Calciderm. Remember; both Calciderm and the Solifuge cannot be targetted by spells or abilities, but they CAN and WILL BE saved by the Rescue team.
-----------------------------------------------
The End
----------------------------------------------- |
Last edited by The First on Mon Mar 26, 2007 6:11 pm; edited 1 time in totalGreat minds bleed alike.
Do not copy media. Support creativity. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| Felipe Musco |
![]() Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2007 6:00 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 18 May 2006
Posts: 2434
Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
|
Small mishap: 23 land, not 33.
I like the idea a lot. Back when I was playing my version of the Gruul in FNMs, I packed 2-3 copies of Pandemonium in my sideboard, since my meta was heavy on decks abusing Martyr of Sands combo. I even tried to build a Pandemonium deck ’round that time, too, but stumbled on the main issue: it costs a lot. Nope, not a lot of cash, but a lot of mana! In the build above, piloted in GP Kyoto, you ARE correct that Pandemonium could fit in, but you forget that the combos the deck featured were all creature-based, so Chord of Calling could get the missing piece, and COngregation at Dawn could set up quicker. Also, the creatures for the combo were relatively cheap, what with all the acceleration, so you could "go off" turn 3-4. If you had to wait ’till Pandemonium was out, it would delay the deck’s timing. The same applies for the build above. It’s most definitely fun, but really dangerous, since you may take a lot of damage! Perhaps packing maindecked Circle of Protection: Red (or at least in the SB) could solve the issue... Also, try out Sulfur Elemental and other flash creatures, they’re really cool. All in all, the Norin + Pandemonium combo is not that new (it’s been talked about ever since Norin himself came out, since EVERYONE was trying to "break" him, although the bottom line is, he’s just really really bad), but it IS fun. I was kind of hoping for a more playable version of it...
But still, kudos on the article! Pandemonium DOES rock, and it’s a REALLY cool sideboard card for budget aggro players, in the control match-up! Instead of splashing white, perhaps you could focus on RG with all the acceleration you can get, Primal Forcemage and hast fatties. Picture this: Pandemonium + Groundbreaker = 12 damage. Pandemonium + Timbermare = 10 damage. Etc. You could use my Monogreen Beats deck from my article on Planar Chaos, and tweak it to make a RG Pandemonium build! I used Greater Good and pumps to deal a chunk of damage, perhaps you could use Pandemonium to do the same. Problem is, as soon as opponents figured it out, they’d torch your accelerators... Bizarrely, I think your first idea was the best one, splashing it into the MGA. |
| I don't like YOU. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| The First |
![]() Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2007 6:27 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 07 Oct 2005
Posts: 195
Location: Anderlecht, Belgium
|
Small mishap: 23 land, not 33.
Thx, corrected it.
Indeed, Pandemonium costs 4 mana. But that is not "all that much" in a casual environment. I would not take this to a FNM. This is meant to be a fun deck, just like all my other decks.
The deck from GP Kyoto is pretty cool -and would not expect it to go off at turn 3-4 though- and I would indeed not just drop Pandemonium into it. I do like the combo between Saffi, Champion and Pandemonium though. I just added that deck for extra flavor. Maybe I’d better make my own build with the combo.
CoP:R did cross my mind. But you can play the Pandemonium when you are ready for it. The same deck without Pandemonium is good but a bit dull. So I adapted it to work with Pandemonium. The problem is that I do not have means to get it nor to play it before turn 4. A Rakdos deck could solve both problems. On the other hand, it would not have the huge Life Gain this deck has.
I have 10 Flash creatures in my deck Sulfur Elemental is probably the last Flash creature I should add into this deck.
I did not know that someone already invented the the Norin & Pandemonium "combo" but even if someone did, I just HAD to put it into my article. It is too much fun not to mention it.
I do think that a Gruul or MGH deck with Pandemonium could be sweet. However, It just seems to fit better into this deck. The problem is that MGH and Gruul don’t really need this card. MGH is tech all by itself. And Gruul is savage and has its own pet cards with Browbeat to name 1. But maybe I will add a Rakdos and a Gruul deck to my article in a few days. Could be fun! |
Great minds bleed alike.
Do not copy media. Support creativity. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| Felipe Musco |
![]() Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2007 9:07 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 18 May 2006
Posts: 2434
Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
|
| You could also try to use Howling Mines, and add in anything in-between Wild Cantor, Simian Spirit Guide, Rite of Flame and Seething Song, and also Signets, Coldsteel Heart, and green acceleration. |
| I don't like YOU. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| The First |
![]() Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 12:26 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 07 Oct 2005
Posts: 195
Location: Anderlecht, Belgium
|
Felipe Musco wrote: You could also try to use Howling Mines, and add in anything in-between Wild Cantor, Simian Spirit Guide, Rite of Flame and Seething Song, and also Signets, Coldsteel Heart, and green acceleration.
Why Howling Mines? I can get creatures back with the Rescue creatures. Howling Mine would give more advantage to my opponent than to me imo.
I could use a 1 drop accel. card. I prefer the Spirit Guide over the Cantor and the Rite of Flame over both. So I guess I know what to add.
Everything else is 2-drop or more. That slot is filled up already. |
Great minds bleed alike.
Do not copy media. Support creativity. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| Felipe Musco |
![]() Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 3:33 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 18 May 2006
Posts: 2434
Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
|
Howling Mine was a long shot to try and get a one-shot accelerator faster, thus having Pandemonium out faster, but yeah, I guess it’s very suboptimal in your build.
I’ll check your new version once it’s up. |
| I don't like YOU. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| Cobra |
![]() Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 8:16 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 12 Jul 2005
Posts: 1202
Location: Austin, TX, USA
|
Congratulations to The First on taking second place (and $25 store credit) in March’s Magic: The Gathering Strategy Article Contest!  |
| http://cobracards.com -- Web's best deals on Trading Card Games. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
All times are UTC - 4
|
|
Forum index » Magic: The Gathering » MTG Strategy Article Contest
