Sunday, 28 November 2010

Deckbuilding Challenge - PTQ Manchester *9th*

By Wagz

Hi all, another PTQ gone - 9th this time unfortunately. It was by a whole point to, so I don't even get to complain about tiebreaks. I beat everyone who hadn't driven over from Leeds that day though so I can see a pattern. Today I went to the win-a-mox Legacy tourney as well and went 4-0-2 with the UG Survival-Vengevine deck, losing to Tomas Sukaitis in the quarter finals to get a sweet 5 boosters. Props to Jules Parker for lending me infinite cards for the deck :). Anyway, what I have to ask about today is my sealed pool from the PTQ. I feel I made the best of it I could but a quick glimpse from Mick Edwards and a claim of me "horribly misbuilding it" led me to want more opinions - it's a hard one when you get into it. So, enjoy the challenge of this one: (copy the cardname into http://deckbox.org/mtg/cardnamehere for a picture)

White:
Abuna Acolyte
Arrest
Glimmerpoint Stag
Glint Hawk
Indomitable Archangel
Revoke Existence
2 Salvage Scout
Soul Parry
Sunspear Shikari
Whitesun's Passage

Blue:
Darkslick Drake
Lumengrid Drake
Neurok Invisimancer
Plated Seastrider
Sky-Eel School
Steady Progress
Trinket Mage
2 Vedalken Certarch

Black:
Blackcleave Goblin
2 Blistergrub
Carnifax Demon
Corrupted Harvester
Flesh Allergy
Moriok Reaver
Necrogen Scudder
Painful Quandary
Psychic Miasma

Red:
Assault Strobe
Barrage Ogre
Flameborn Hellion
Melt Terrain
Molten Psyche
Oxidda Daredevil
2 Scoria Elemental
Tunnel Ignus
Turn to Slag
Vulshok Heartstoker

Green:
Carrion Call
Copperhorn Scout
Ezuri's Archers
Ezuri's Brigade
Lifesmith
Tel-Jilad Defiance
2 Tel-Jilad Fallen
Untamed Might
Viridian Revel

Artifact:
Barbed Battlegear
Bladed Pinions
2 Chrome Steed
Contagion Clasp
Corpse Cur
Darksteel Sentinel
Echo Circlet
Flight Spellbomb
2 Glint Hawk Idol
Golden Urn
2 Golem's Heart (1 foil!)
2 Grafted Exoskeleton
3 Ichorclaw Myr
2 Necrogen Censer (1 foil!)
Panic Spellbomb
2 Razorfield Thresher
2 Saberclaw Golem
2 Sylvok Lifestaff
2 Sylvok Replica
Trigon of Thought
Wall of Tanglecord

Land:
Island (foil!)



Decklist:




3 Ichorclaw Myr
1 Sunspear Shikari
1 Tel-Jilad Defiance
1 Revoke Existence
1 Contagion Clasp
1 Bladed Pinions
2 Sylvok Replica
1 Arrest
1 Ezuri's Brigade
1 Indomitable Archangel
2 Tel-Jilad Fallen
1 Corpse Cur
1 Glimmerpoint Stag
1 Carrion Call
2 Grafted Exoskeleton
1 Trigon of Thought
1 Darksteel Sentinel
1 Untamed Might
10 Forest
7 Plains






Discussion:





My first instinct was obviously "sweet, 2 Chrome Steed and some good Metalcraft rares!" However, after a scout around of my zero mana myr and mostly awful metalcraft artifacts I had to have a rethink. A check of my poison cards conjured up some strong ones, but not quite as many as I'd have liked. Carnival Demon is a sweet one though, so maybe a GB Infect deck was present. Double Grafted Exoskeleton made any potential hybrid Infect deck a lot more forgiving so I looked at that route. After the Demon and Necrogen Scudder the black cards were a bit light, but white offered me a splash of Arrest and Revoke Existence. The more I looked, though, the more I saw that I was playing 2 white cards and 2 black cards - this isn't GB splash white, more Green splash white and black. Was there a better way? White did offer some more nice cards, the 4/4 Angel being huge, Stag working nicely with a couple of my cards (Clasp, Cur, Trigon) and something to go very well with my 2 Exoskeletons... enter Shikari :). I think this was about the best I could do with it all - not enough 2 drops and too many 4 drops but addressing my curve would mean a big hit in terms of power and I wasn't prepared to not go big in a 66-man PTQ (5-2 almost definitely not making it). I know I'll probably get flak for playing what looks like a janky build, but I'd like to see a better deck out of that pool.


Posted by at 22:16
Labels: , ,

2 comments:

  1. Eiphel28 November 2010 at 23:35

    Disclaimer: I have no clue about sealed.

    Poison seems like the best option. I came up with something much like yours, except I'd have run the Lifestaffs and maybe Wall. (Lifestaff is great in infect, I find, and Shikari wants more equipment.) I guess I cut the Defiance, not sure what else.

    Alternatively, I'd probably have shunned raw power in favour of an aggro-y sort of thing with more consistency. On the other hand, I'm not sure how consistent it can really claim to be with double-coloured in three colours. I have an irrational dislike of poison though, and I'd hate having to rely on exoskeleton.

    Glint Hawk
    Lifesmith
    Oxidda Daredevil
    Sunspear Shikari
    Vulshok Heartstoker
    2 Sylvok Replica
    2 Chrome Steed
    Ezuri's Brigade
    Glimmerpoint Stag

    Revoke Existence
    Arrest
    Turn to Slag

    Barbed Battlegear
    Panic Spellbomb
    2 Sylvok Lifestaff
    Bladed Pinions
    2 Glint Hawk Idol
    Contagion Clasp

    7 Plains
    6 Forest
    5 Mountain

    - Phil

    ReplyDelete
  2. Richard Smith29 November 2010 at 21:01

    Hey Rob. Certainly an odd pool. I might have tried pairing the white and the black.

    1 Glint Hawk
    1 Sunspear Shikari
    2 Glint Hawk Idol
    1 Necrogen Scudder
    1 Moriok Reaver
    2 Blistergrub
    2 Chrome Steed
    1 Glimmerpoint Stag
    1 Indomitable Archangel
    1 Carnifex Demon
    1 Darksteel Sentinel

    2 Sylvok Lifestaff
    1 Revoke Existence
    1 Contagion Clasp
    1 Barbed Battlegear
    1 Arrest
    2 Necrogen Censer
    1 Flesh Allergy

    10 Plains
    7 Swamp

    Yes, it has some issues, but it also has some upsides. Glint Hawk and Glimmrpoint Stag have great synergy with your Clasp and Necrogen Censers, Carnifex Demon is a bona fide bomb, and you have enough fliers (plus Shikari) that the equipment is going to be highly effective. Also, I quite like Blistergrub. People rarely want to trade for him, and he just wins some matches on his own. Combined with the reach that the Censers and equipped fliers give you, he becomes better than 'just' a Grey Ogre.

    The main downside is that you're running double Chrome Steed and only 12 artifacts (though 12 is enough, just). I'm not sure which build is more powerful, though with triple Myr, I imagine there are some games you just drop one on turn two, one on turn three and just roll over people. I'm a bit more conservative though when it comes to poison in sealed, so I'd probably have run with the more consistent WB deck.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)