General The Constructed thread

Dom Harvey

Dom Harvey

Contributor
^went 7-0-2 with the Ooze deck at a pretty tough Modern event to win a crate (6 boxes) of Shadows over Innistrad, the deck felt very good and I'm eager to shake it up even more when Eldrazi leaves

for my next trick, I'll cast Goryo's Vengeance on this:

635943240181652195.png
 
Goldenpineapple

Goldenpineapple

I like brewing new standard decks instead of waiting for Saitou, but I haven't had much time to test these days- got about six rounds in with an esper control deck starring the absence of vryn's prodigy and dragonlords- because those were a friend's parameters. Didn't drop a match, but two rounds were vs. budget brews.

SOI Esper, no dragons no prodigy

Planeswalkers (6)
2 Jace, Unraveler of Secrets
2 Ob Nixilis Reignited
2 Sorin, Grim Nemesis

Other Spells (29)
4 Clash of Wills
4 Anticipate
2 Ultimate Price
2 Immolating Glare
4 Painful Truths
3 Scatter to the Winds
3 Anguished Unmaking
2 Ruinous Path
3 Languish
2 Descend Upon the Sinful

Lands (25)
4 Prairie Stream
4 Sunken Hollow
4 Choked Estuary
4 Shambling Vent
2 Port Town
2 Caves of Koilos
3 Island
2 Swamp

Sideboard (15)
3 Negate
3 Surge of Righteousness
2 Duress
2 Infinite Obliteration
2 Confirm Suspicions
2 Self-inflicted Wound
1 Sphinx of the Last word

I didn't do land math, just knew I wanted to play the full number of vents and eyeballed the rest. The new lands are very odd. I want to call them bad but they entered untapped when I needed them (turns two and three) often enough that I can't hate them. Needing an untapped land and anticipating into two and a shambling vent was awful, though. Still had to take one over the vent on the chance I drew a land to reveal for it- didn't get there.

Deck leans heavily on clash and ultimate price to keep up early- I originally wanted to play grasp of darkness, but {B}{B} on turn 2 every game seemed a bit of a stretch. Price turned out to be fine regardless, killing sylvan advocates and a few biggies made of counters. Main downside was being unable to kill manlands in basically any capacity. Painful Truths is definitely another key card, and anguished unmaking played a nice "no matter what they resolve I can untap and kill it" role. Having three different planeswalkers that + to draw felt great- both ob nixilis and jace being able to clear the board of a single threat was amazing every time.

Biggest problem I had was dealing with manlands people lands autonomous lands anilands(?)- my only spell for them was immolating glare, and I was usually forced to block with my own or just take it if I had none. I probably would have lost a game or two more if my opponents simply animated and attacked instead of playing into my spells. Not sure what my best option for those is- probably grasp of darkness? I picked Descend Upon the Sinful over Planar Outburst because I (incorrectly) expected more awakening effects- would probably swap those at this point. Having a small threat to board into (or play with ojutai's command) and go under the thousand duresses I experienced would be nice too, but I haven't found one on the level of soulfire grand master or pack rat or something.
 
Kirblinx

Kirblinx

Developer
Staff member
I guess we of the cube-folk don't care too much for constructed but how about that Banned and Restricted Announcement?

Lodestone Golem restricted in Vintage. What a surprise! What is a poor shops man to do now?

I think something might have happened in Modern too, but no one plays that format.
 
safra

safra

Yeah, the vintage players are flipping out almost as much as i am about thopter/sword coming off the list in Modern. I played a Bant thopterblade list in legacy so a lot of the cards carry over!
 
MCMcEmcee

MCMcEmcee

I worked on a bunch of GW shells for new standard, and they all seem to be fine but nothing too crazy. Eldrazi might be a better "second color."

BW played a lot worse than it looks on paper. Doesn't have a good brick wall to put in front of crappy creatures so you have to actually kill everything. It's not like casting some removal into avacyn/planeswalkers is going over the top of casting creatures that curve out into avacyn/planeswalkers, and the creature plan works way better with Westvale Abbey.

Ramp feels way worse without Ugin to clean up even the worst board positions.

Hidden Dragonslayer is pretty good at killing Avacyn, as well as actual dragons, the 4+ cmc eldrazi, Goldnight Castigator, etc. Too bad Ormendahl doesn't care.
 
Meltyman

Meltyman

In a moment of weakness i purchased 99% of the cards that probably will be included in a Black/Red vampire deck in standard, if it will ever be a deck.
There is a Finnish Championships coming up where i will pilot that deck be it a real deck or not mainly because it looks so cool.
My reasoning is, that the deck will live long in terms of standard, since you could have that deck only from Shadows Over Innistrad and it would still be competitive.

Reid Duke posted a list that looks like this (looks to be a gauntlet list, not a finished list by any means):

Standard B/R Vampire Madness

Creatures (33)
4 Falkenrath Gorger
2 Indulgent Aristocrat
2 Zurgo Bellstriker
4 Heir of Falkenrath
4 Heir to the Night
3 Ravenous Bloodseeker
4 Asylum Visitor
2 Olivia's Bloodsworn
2 Incorrigible Youths
3 Olibia, Mobilized for War
2 Drana, Liberator of Malakir
1 Elusive Tormentor

Other Spells (8)
4 Fiery Temper
4 Lightning Axe

Lands (23)
4 Foreboding Ruins
4 Smoldering Marsh
9 Mountain
6 Swamp

Sideboard (15)
1 Kolaghan's Command
1 Roast
3 Self-Inflicted Wound
2 Fiery Impulse
1 Boiling Earth
1 Rending Volley
1 Ultimate Price
2 Duress
1 Transgress the Mind
1 Remorseless Punishment
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet


I have been out from standard a long time, last time i played standard i was resolving Sphinxs's Revelation's, so no clue what the new standard looks like.
At the moment i'm thinking about a list that looks something like this:

Standard B/R Vampire Madness

Creatures (27)
4 Falkenrath Gorge
2 Zurgo Bellstriker
4 Heir of Falkenrath
2 Ravenous Bloodseeker
4 Asylum Visitor
2 Olivia's Bloodsworn
3 Incorrigible Youths
3 Olivia, Mobilized for War
1 Drana, Liberator of Malakir
2 Goldnight Castigator

Other Spells (10)
4 Fiery Temper
3 Lightning Axe
3 Alms of the Vein

Lands (23)
4 Foreboding Ruins
4 Smoldering Marsh
9 Mountain
6 Swamp

Sideboard (15)
1 Kolaghan's Command
1 Roast
3 Self-Inflicted Wound
2 Fiery Impulse
1 Boiling Earth
1 Rending Volley
1 Ultimate Price
2 Duress
1 Transgress the Mind
1 Remorseless Punishment
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet


If this deck tries to be balls to the walls, then i think Indulgent Aristocrat is in here in vain and Alms of the Vein is more what this deck tries to go for.
Goldnight Castigator seems crazy good in this deck since it hits for 4 in the air AND survives Languish and Kozilek's Return, which by the way hoses everything else in this deck.

Ravenous Bloodseeker seems so bad, but i guess it might be just a necessity if this deck tries to go full madness. Alms in the Vain again makes it seem a little better though.

Incorrigible Youths might even be a 4-of in this deck, since it this 7 dmg on turn 3 with Heir of Falkenrath, which seems pretty good. Also it survives Kozilek's Return. Not the worst top deck either !

Sideboard i just pasted, because i don't know the format that well at the moment.

Anyone have experience from Remorseless Punishment in the sideboard?
How good is it and against what ?

Some other notes:

Avacyn's Judgment, Chandra, Flamecaller and Call the Bloodline could also be included in the main deck/sideboard
 
Goldenpineapple

Goldenpineapple

I've been diddling with a mono red version for a budget friend (sub-$40 USD I believe) and the madness 'combo' turns are definitely house, but it's a little more madness-focused than the BR builds. Incorrigible Youths is the key to all (or most of) your most explosive plays and I'm surprised Reid didn't have four. Ravenous Bloodseeker plays very well when you're sitting on a lightning axe and no target or an olivia but no more creatures to trigger her discard. You just want a critical mass of madness enablers for the youth plays. Having a bunch of 2/xs and no atarka's command-type effect isn't great when your world is flooded with sylvan advocates and thing in the ice.

I'm really not a big fan of alms of the vein- I'd never want it in my opener, really.

Remorseless Punishment never does what I want it to- there are too many knobs to twist to get this card to do what you want. The most powerful I've seen it be is my opponent tapping out for gideon with three cards in hand at 13 life (gasp) or something. They agonized over discarding to one card, sacing his token (gideon would die to combat) and dropping low- I think they eventually sacrificed Gideon and took five. Then I lost. Not pleased with the card.

For reference, the mono-red build:

SOI Budget Mono Red

Creatures (29)
4 Insolent Neonate
4 Falkenrath Gorger
3 Skin Invasion
4 Ravenous Bloodseeker
4 Sin Prodder
4 Bloodmad Vampire
2 Goldnight Castigator
4 Incorrigible Youths

Non-creatures (8)
4 Fiery Temper
4 Lightning Axe

Lands (23)
23 Mountain


Just want to get a playable main since red's sideboard cards are pretty narrow right now. Bloodmad Vampire in particular seems gross, but it's really quite nice as 'bonus' to your lightning axe or similar- thing hits HARD.

Sketched up a list that actually wants Arlinn Kord- decks were coming out real weird; best one so far:

SOI GR Aggro

Creatures (22)
4 Sylvan Advocate
4 Tireless Tracker
4 Sin Prodder
2 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
4 Thunderbreak Regent
2 Mina and Denn, Wildborn
2 Goblin Dark-Dwellers

non-creatures (9)
4 Atarka's Command
2 Devour in Flames
3 Exquisite Firecraft

Planeswalkers (4)
4 Arlinn Kord

Lands (25)
4 Cinder Glade
4 Game Trail
4 Looming Spires
3 Westvale Abby
6 Forest
4 Mountain

I started with 4 Arlinn then tried to find a reasonable number of creatures to simply overpower the opponent. I started alright then felt a little lost until I remembered SIN PRODDER! This guy is sweet!

I wanted to play a couple dark-dwellers and was running out of 'bomb' creatures (with Mina and Denn being iffy) so I started looking for stuff they could flash back- Atarka's command seemed like a slam dunk at making our opponent dead, so I just threw it in. I started with roasts and epic confrontations (if there's any deck to use it, it's this one) but moved to devour and firecraft after a few games- Both murder planeswalkers and creatures! I could probably go the full 4 firecraft, really.

Poking around the lands that I could use to take advantage of a two-color deck with almost no double-color costs led me to looming spires, and it's better than I anticipated in this deck- You can swing your advocates into theirs without fear, among other things. I have atarka's commanded a looming spires into play for a huge blowout more than once!

Arlinn herself was bugged in the program I was using (xmage) and couldn't use her 0 without wigging out the program, so I just +d every game and she was STILL great! Late enough almost everything is a bomb, and making it bigger with haste is what the deck really wanted to do to begin with.

I started with 4 Westvale abby but drawing more than one actually gave me color problems more than once so down to three we go!

I originally wished the deck did more on turns one and two but after playtesting against a pretty diverse field it kinda seems like you're either vampire aggro or not doing anything until 3- haven't played against a SINGLE Jace, vryn's prodigy deck though.
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Holy cow, this Standard top 8 is so freaking epic!

http://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/ptsoi/top-8-decklists-2016-04-23

Yes there's a Bant Company deck and an Esper Dragons deck, but there's also two Pyromancer's Goggles decks! And a Seasons Past deck! And LSV is rocking a deck featuring such highlights as Cryptolith Rite and Loam Dryad... to fuel Westvale Abbey! And a green-white tokens deck and a pure Esper control deck to fill out the last two spots. And I haven't even talked about the names. That's one seriously star-studded t8!
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Goldenpineapple said:
I feel so stupid for not seeing the seasons past / dark petition interaction... I must have built four or five different decks attempting to get super-value with it but didn't see that.

Really impressed by dark petition in general this tournament.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I just watched Finkel vs Manfield in round 5, and Dark Petition for Seasons Past, recurring Dark Petition and putting Seasons Past on the bottom was brutal, just at the moment Manfield's deck was looking to pull ahead. Man that interaction is sweet! At least while it's novel :)
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Shit, Finkel's deck is so great it's finished 4 points ahead of the field and 7 points (that's more than two matches) ahead of the 7th and 8th seed o_O

Standings.jpg
 
Kirblinx

Kirblinx

Developer
Staff member
Onderzeeboot said:
Shit, Finkel's deck is so great it's finished 4 points ahead of the field and 7 points (that's more than two matches) ahead of the 7th and 8th seed o_O
Click to expand...

Be aware that there are 6 rounds of limited that points total. We have no idea how many of these points correlate to standard or not. But Finkel only having one loss (on the first day my guess as LSV and Brad Nelson were the only undefeated) and one draw OVER 16 ROUNDS shows a man at the top of his game.
 
sigh

sigh

will be trying this myself, but with Abzan colors, and more midrangey. Definitely every time I've been testing, and drawn a Greenwarden, I've rather wanted it to be a Seasons' Past. There might some weight to it being too good for cube, but definitely cool in constructed.

Also would let me put the warden in the cube :)
 
Dom Harvey

Dom Harvey

Contributor
Dom Harvey said:
^went 7-0-2 with the Ooze deck at a pretty tough Modern event to win a crate (6 boxes) of Shadows over Innistrad, the deck felt very good and I'm eager to shake it up even more when Eldrazi leaves

for my next trick, I'll cast Goryo's Vengeance on this:

635943240181652195.png
Click to expand...

Won a tournament yesterday with this:











(SB in rightmost column)

This deck was so much fun and felt pretty good! It's a bit all over the place b/c I was just trying things out; I'd cut Traverses and try Commune with the Gods instead (digs for Assault, finds Loam/creatures), and it might be worth leaning on Gitrog more.
 
safra

safra

Beautiful deck; god bless. One Necrotic Ooze is seriously enough for the plan B? Just one Witness? I should probably just lean in to the GB-draw-7.

e: also, when are you bringing in Smallpox? if I played Modern I would play this deck +/- 2-3 cards
 
Peter LaCara

Peter LaCara

Onderzeeboot said:
Holy cow, this Standard top 8 is so freaking epic!

http://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/ptsoi/top-8-decklists-2016-04-23

Yes there's a Bant Company deck and an Esper Dragons deck, but there's also two Pyromancer's Goggles decks! And a Seasons Past deck! And LSV is rocking a deck featuring such highlights as Cryptolith Rite and Loam Dryad... to fuel Westvale Abbey! And a green-white tokens deck and a pure Esper control deck to fill out the last two spots. And I haven't even talked about the names. That's one seriously star-studded t8!
Click to expand...

Oh no. No no no. I shouldn't have looked at that list. I told myself coming back to Magic would be a limited/cube-only affair.

But those big red/goggles decks. I have a weakness. And Finkle's and LSV's decks...
 
Dom Harvey

Dom Harvey

Contributor
safra said:
Beautiful deck; god bless. One Necrotic Ooze is seriously enough for the plan B? Just one Witness? I should probably just lean in to the GB-draw-7.

e: also, when are you bringing in Smallpox? if I played Modern I would play this deck +/- 2-3 cards
Click to expand...


Ooze is kinda plan 2.5 after Assault/Loam and Vengeance, I wanted to be able to Traverse for a reanimation effect but not draw too many redundant copies. I had a second but cut it for the Witness, which can rebuy a Vengeance for the same effect and also get back Assault or let you reuse your SB cards. The mana requirements on Witness are awkward though.

I'm not sure Traverse can be made to work here, I thought Assault/Lili and Looting would make it easy to get delirium in the midgame but you rarely want to discard Assault or Vengeance so it can be hard to get beyond land/sorcery. I used it as manafixing more than anything else.

Smallpox was a late inclusion to cover a lot of bases with a few SB slots. Against Valakut/Tron it's an ersatz LD spell, against aggro decks (moreso Infect/Death's Shadow than Affinity/Burn/Zoo, but it's good against all of them on the play) it often takes three cards and the wind out of their sails, and against Jund you can remove their single threat (Bob/Ooze/Goyf) while cutting off their resources. It's generally good against any deck that relies on card quantity (blue Scapeshift), a single cheap creature, or a wicker furniture mana base. P.S. get fucked Bogles
 
Dom Harvey

Dom Harvey

Contributor
short report coming soon

also I want to try pushing Gitrog as hard as possible, no guarantees of quality but here's a first draft:










(rightmost column = possible inclusions)

- Assault + Gitrog + Salvage is a loop that kills on the spot
- Infestation + Gitrog + Salvage: with zero lands in your deck, this gives you 'discard a card: make a 2/2, Dredge 2' which is usually good enough by itself or sets up a kill on a future turn. On top of that, dredging a land means that you got a 'free' Zombie + dredge because you have the same number of cards as before; it's possible you want to go even harder with 4 Infestation + Golgari Grave-Troll, since then you can draw/dredge your entire deck (and Infestation + Griselbrand is pretty solid, especially as the tokens give you blockers to make the life loss less relevant)

- The downside to building around Gitrog is that it requires some setup; the big upside is that it's largely immune to removal, as any fetchland or instant-speed discard effect lets you go off again in response. Griselbrand's life payment is very taxing in a lot of matchups and situations, whereas with Gitrog you can be massively behind on board and on life total and steal a win from nowhere.
- Footsteps doesn't usually feature in decks like this because you can't do any Protean Hulk-style shenanigans and the lack of haste makes Griselbrand worse. In this deck, you just care about getting Gitrog in play and this is an on-curve way to do that. Footsteps on Griselbrand is a massive Painful Truths, which is fine since it can set up a combo for the following turn.
 
Dom Harvey

Dom Harvey

Contributor
report:


I made a thread recently about a Goryo's Vengeance/Necrotic Ooze deck I'd been doing well with. I had a smaller local event coming up and wanted to have fun and test a few things out, plus I was hypnotized by the all-powerful Gitrog. Here's what I registered:



[see above]

With Jeskai becoming popular again, Necrotic Ooze became much less reliable as they could fight over your 'Griselbrand' activations with Bolt/Helix/Path. I wanted to try Seismic Assault as a threat that could be deployed early against control decks and warp the game around itself while promising a lot of free wins against creature decks - Abzan Company, Affinity, Infect, Elves, and so on - and I was running Life from the Loam anyway so I didn't have to reconfigure the deck too much.

I tried a small Traverse package as you often wanted to find exactly Griselbrand (or Gitrog, as it turns out) and the 1 Ooze let you find the other half of the combo; it also gave you more consistent access to your SB bullets. It didn't work out as planned, but more on that later.

R1 - Tron G1: Both of us do nothing for a long time; I play Liliana and get to the ultimate before he assembles Tron, then wait around for a bit longer before drawing a way to finish him.
G2: I have Loam + Ghost Quarter but have to bob and weave around multiple Relics. I make a mistake that forces me to give him a turn with Tron online and he finds Ugin. With me at 6 he has the choice of +1ing and forcing me to find something that turn or using the -X to sweep away my Seismic Assault + Eternal Witness. He chooses -X, I play Gitrog and survive a turn to attack down Ugin. O-Stone kills Gitrog and my library is getting very thin, but with only two cards left I hardcast Borborygmos and throw a handful of lands at him.

R2 - Grixis Control G1: I land an early Assault that he has no way to remove but don't have much else. He starts taking aggressive lines to put me in burn range, but when he taps out of blue to Clique me I respond with Goryo's Vengeance on Gitrog and win during my end step.
G2: I make a really dumb error and decline to -2 Liliana to kill Kalitas. He rips Terminate for my Ooze and Kalitas gets out of control.
G3: I sneak through an early Vengeance on Griselbrand

R3 - Abzan Company G1: This plays out how the matchup normally does: he has nothing to stop a quick Griselbrand
G2: I mulligan and my draw is a bit dodgy, he capitalizes on it
G3: I keep a hand that's perfect if I find a black source but too slow otherwise, I miss and he has Thoughtseize + infinite life by T3

R4: Grixis Delver G1: I play Assault, it resolves, it kills all of his creatures and then him
G2: He taps out on T2 and gets Griselbranded

R4 - Elves G1: I have Seismic Assault but no Loam and my hand is full of spells. I spend my turns digging for lands just to tread water but it's not enough and double Shaman of the Pack seals it.
G2: It was a little unnerving to lose to one of my best matchups despite T3 Assault, but this game goes according to plan as I get Griselbrand in play and draw an obscene number of cards.
G3: This features maybe my most interesting decision of the tournament. I can play a T3 Assault with Loam in the tank for next turn but she has a fast draw with Spellskite and Archdruid and her board could easily get out of control; alternatively, I can Vengeance back Borborygmos and get to kill Archdruid if I hit a land, but if I miss then it will take another turn cycle to get Assault online and it might be too late. I play Assault and cross my fingers, and thankfully I don't get punished.

R6 - ID

QF - Abzan Company G1: I mull to 5 and get run over
G2: I have Assault and Loam but my life total is getting low and he keeps drawing persist creatures so I'm not making any progress. Redcap puts me in an awkward position since I have to kill it but that puts me dead to anything that finds Witness. Thankfully I find Gitrog and Vengeance it for the loop.
G3: T2 Griselbrand, Modern is fun

QF - Rw Burn G1: Axe and Assault takes down his attackers, and Assault/Loam outraces the top of his deck.
G2: He has a very quick start and I'm forced to try Vengeance before I can play around anything; he has the Bolt.
G3: I Axe his Goblin Guide discarding Borborygmos, he takes another 3 on his next turn to play a second Guide and a Swiftspear, so I Vengeance Bobo and win on T3.

Final - Affinity (split)
We split the final as he wanted the packs and I wanted the invite (this was a satellite for a larger end-of-year tournament), but we played it out for fun and I won in two non-competitive games.

The deck felt strong even for a rough draft. Traverse didn't work as well as I'd hoped: you have a good spread of card types, but you rarely want to discard Assault or Vengeance so you often get stuck on land + sorcery (+ creature). There's room to work with this list, and you can try a more all-in combo list based around Gitrog too; either way, I firmly believe some version of this shell has the potential to be one of the best decks in Modern.
 
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