This thread is for the discussion of my latest article, MTGCast #142: Conflux Cooldown. We would be grateful if you would let us know what you think, but please keep your comments on topic.
the point is to play out some early (well, turn 3 on) beasts (all of which have a high amount of power, especialy compared to their toughness), tutor/get mark of asylum, and use continuous Arena-style effects to attrition your opponents through multiple soul's fires on their creatures.
Also (possibly) of note, while the mana base is definitely not casual, what with fetchlands and shocklands, everything is extended-legal
Ashling is AMAZING with Mark, and so is the sunflare shaman. Rakka-mar pops out 4/2s with Soulstoke out, and Smokebraider ups the ante all over the place. Ridiculously strong with Jaya and Pyrohemia sweeping the board, turn after turn.
good show guys, im glad tom is back. interesting about the having to use a special thing with your xbox to play the duels of the plainswalker promo. i had made a deck, but its basically above, so i desided it was not worth posting. have fun to all
Great show guys! Its always great to see tom back on the show again as we missed him for a good while.
The deck i've created to interact with Mark of Asylum abuses both sunflare shaman, and the high efficiency removal spells in the format(volcanic fallout and firespout). The deck powers sunflare shaman to lethal levels by playing 11 "burn" elementals that die at end of turn. Incandescent soulstroke also allows you to quickly get elementals into the graveyard, increasing the damage output of your shamans. So without further ado:
Casual type 1 legal deck. No one else used black, so I decided to give it a go with 3 different pestilence effects as well as the vampire which works nice with Spiteful Bully.
Crypt Rats can get out of control and the life link enchantments should keep you within a healthy life zone.
It is nice to have the Dynamic Duo back again. Holy comment contests Batman!
Nice show as always.
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I am looking for Date Stamped promos from Khans of Tarkir block so I can finish my set. Check my wants if you have any.
Currently offering 2 non-foil Kolighan's Command for a Date Stamped foil!
The deck plays like a Pestilence-based deck where you wipe the board with Last Laugh which grows exponentially larger with each creature it kills. Forbidden Orchard gives them fodder to blow up, Death Pits of Rath kills any creature when damage is dealt to it, Cataclysm provides a reset button that can ultimately kill in one shot with Last Laugh. Sun Droplet and Auriok Champion are the main ways to gain life while Endless Whispers provides a way to get their creatures after they die. Plus with Mark of Asylum, they won't really be dying all that often on your side of the board. Ghostly Prison stops the horde from attacking you, especially post Cataclysm. Claws of Gix can be tutored up to help you gain some life and trigger Last Laugh at instant speed.
On a side note, relating to the two worst cards in Conflux, I'd have to disagree quite a bit. Canyon Minotaur and Suicidal Charge are really bad. Like unplayable bad. Suicidal Charge, I guess I could see being somewhat useful for limited but for 5 mana and 2 colors, it blows. And don't get me started about another Hill Giant reprint. At least Bone Saw can be used with Esperzoa and Reliquary Tower is better than Telepathy and is a land so at least you're not losing tempo to play it. Plus it's ability can be relevant in some decks that draw a lot.
Bananananananananananananana Bananaman! I'm trying that email right after this.
Long time listener, first time poster. Finally a deck challenge I can get behind! Enchantments are my life's blood.
I started off with the Mark/Pestilence thing, but started moving away from that (though I left a couple in since it's fun) and went for Dolmen Gate, so that effectively your creatures can't be damaged unless they're blocking. But who blocks?
So since your attackers don't take damage, I went for creatures with high power to toughness ratio. Interestingly enough, Bog Hoodlums now has a home!:toot:
And I'm always on the lookout for decks to put Caltrops in, so here's one more. Same with Soltari Champion, solely for the reason that he looks like that one Orcish General in Lord of the Rings, and I'll never get over it.
I am going to have to disagree with you there raijinnfury, I think that Canyon Minotaur and Suicidal Charge are both great cards for any limited environment. Any 3/3 for 4 is very playable in many draft decks, and almost every sealed deck running his colors. It is absolutely true, it isn't a spanking new, super interesting card, but we have to realize that every card can't be. As for Suicidal Charge, I really like it. On a competitive level, it is playable, or at very least sideboard playble in many draft or sealed decks. It kills small guys, forces your opponent into bad attacks, often resulting in a 2-for-1, if not better. On a more personal level, I love it as a card. It is fun to play, and I am a big fan of any card that scares your opponent, often into playing poorly. It is cool flavorfully, I like the art, and in contrast to the Minotaur, it is really something that has never been done in magic (at least on one card). I think Conflux is a really fun set for casual, and has many powerful new cards for constructed. All in all, good job Wizards!
It's basically a pestilence strategy, but with CoP:Black and Simalucrum added to hopefully prevent you from doing yourself in just as badly as your opponent. The Pollen Lullaby's hopefully help you survive without taking too much damage until you can set up a lock with a damage dealing card, Mark, and Death Pits of Rath.
I don't know how good it'll be, but I am planning on building this for the local FNM.
Forgot to explain what it does. The basic idea is to buildup and swarm the opponent with a bazillion tiny critters. All the while nuking any creatures that my opponent tries to throw out and block.
Haven't yet managed to listen to the show as I have been saving it for a long train trip on Friday. But I could just not wait to comment on the deck challenge, as it again changed my view of a crap-rare to one I'm happy to have opened. (Ward of Bones -challenge also did the same for me.)
So with no further explanations my casual/multiplayer deck.
This deck is a spin-off of one rather old casual multiplayer deck, that has been kept intact for the last three years. Originally I had blue in the mix with Happless Researcher, Riptide Shapeshifter, Daring Apprentice and [card]Desecration Elemental] for the kill, but always had problems with people killing my Shireis after I had sacrificed a bunch of creatures.
While it's hard to let go of the blue and all the neat tricks of tutoring for nearly any creature either from your graveyard or from your deck. I believe that Mark of Asylum will make the deck more stable and having more Spore Fogs is always great. With the Mark in play Shirei is pretty well positioned to stay on the table at least for couple of turns, untill your opponents are suddenly facing a 22/22 Carrion Feeder and boatload of fogs on legs. If your playgroup allows Skullclamp the deck gets super-charged by it's inclusion.
Endless Whisper is a multiplayers nightmare as so many crazy things happen. The best part is that since you control the trigger, you can stack it before Shirei's triggers and keep your creatures while having other players handing creatures left and right. Lifeline is just too much fun in multiplayer not to include and works as Shirei number 5. Returning killed Shirei's back can also sometimes work well.
This deck is decent in duels but gets rather absurd with larger multiplayer games as you can sacrifice your creatures during each players turn and get them back with Shirei again. In a six player game you get six lands for each Sakura-Tribe Elder, so your draws will rarely be lands in the late game, just beware those Armageddons.
Reliquary Tower is a really interesting card. It's a land that doesn't come into play tapped and provides an effect that can be useful for some decks -- like playing it with Upheaval or Worldpurge. Personally, I think it's much more playable than Spellbook, which hopefully doesn't have to show up in the Core set now.
It's funny that you picked Bone Saw after the interviewee in BDM's column last Friday mentioned as one of the most important cards in Conflux for Pauper (to put in Affinity or Esper beatdown with Court Homunculus).
That said, I don't think any of the other cards in Conflux is completely useless. My less favorite would be the 0/3 for WValiant Guard. That along with all the (functional) reprints like the new hill giant and Unsummon just seemed like filler to me (reprints like Worldly Counsel that interact with the set mechanics are fine though).
On another subject, Gavin has commented a couple times recently that Wizards is focusing on acquisition this year. I'm sure acquisition is always important to Wizards but wasn't 2008 the year of acquisition?
I'm confidant that acquisition is still forefront in Wizards' mind this year. Acquisition is by far the most important thing Wizards need to do from their perspective. If you just look at the moves they're making, acquisition is fueling a number of them and I don't expect that to change until there is a significant increase in the areas marketing and sales are looking for.
Oh, Nomad Peopled's post just reminded me -- Tom, the thing you were remembering during the podcast is Peasant Magic which allows up to five uncommons. The format supported on MTGOnline is Pauper Magic, which allows only commons.
Oh, Nomad Peopled's post just reminded me -- Tom, the thing you were remembering during the podcast is Peasant Magic which allows up to five uncommons. The format supported on MTGOnline is Pauper Magic, which allows only commons.
You are 100% right, we used to have Peasant tournaments at my local store.
I have been playing quite a bit of MTGO Pauper magic and having a pretty good time. Gotta love it sorting and filtering the cards so you can see only the valid cards for Pauper deck building.
As an aside, Peasant used to allow playing U1 as uncommons back in the days. Somebody allegedly played a deck with four Library of Alexandria, with some counters, lots of bounce, some walls and two or so creatures with evasion for the kill, just to prove that the U1 should not be allowed.
I might be mistaken, but i seem to remember there being an article on SCG a long time ago, around the time when we were playing some casual pauper with friends as a breather from our normal, rather rare heavy, decks.
The plan is simple: clear board, swing with negators. death pits of wrath is good with the mark and the rest is a tutor toolbox. originally had peacekeeper in here but they may negators useless. this deck is legacy legal
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just sayin'.
My Type 4 stack (Cube Tutor link)
4 Contested Cliffs
4 wooded foothills
3 temple garden
4 stomping grounds
3 sacred foundry
2 forest
1 mountain
4 shivan wumpus
4 fangren firstborn
4 leery fogbeast
4 woolly thoctar
4 ravenous baloth
4 mark of asylum
4 firespout
4 sylvan scrying
Also (possibly) of note, while the mana base is definitely not casual, what with fetchlands and shocklands, everything is extended-legal
4x Flamekin Harbinger
3x Ashling the Pilgrim
3x Rakka-Mar
4x Sunflare Shaman
3x Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
3x Incinerate
4x Banefire
3x Mark of Asylum
2x Pyroclasm
3x Rugged Prarie
18x Mountains
The deck i've created to interact with Mark of Asylum abuses both sunflare shaman, and the high efficiency removal spells in the format(volcanic fallout and firespout). The deck powers sunflare shaman to lethal levels by playing 11 "burn" elementals that die at end of turn. Incandescent soulstroke also allows you to quickly get elementals into the graveyard, increasing the damage output of your shamans. So without further ado:
4 Smokebraider
3 Flamekin Bladewhirl
3 Flamekin Harbinger
3 Hell's Thunder
4 Hellspark Elemental
3 Incandescent Soulstoke
3 Rage Forger
4 Spark Elemental
2 Firespout
4 Mark of Asylum
4 Battlefield Forge
4 Rugged Prairie
2 Plains
11 Mountain
2x Vampiric Link
2x Spirit Link
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Imperial Seal
1x Enlightened Tutor
2x Idyllic Tutor
2x Pestilence
2x Pariah
4x Thrashing Wumpus
4x Spiteful Bully
4x Mephidross Vampire
2x Evincar's Justice
4x Cabal Coffers
2x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4x Scablands
4x Godless Shrine
2x Polluted Delta
8x Swamp
Casual type 1 legal deck. No one else used black, so I decided to give it a go with 3 different pestilence effects as well as the vampire which works nice with Spiteful Bully.
Crypt Rats can get out of control and the life link enchantments should keep you within a healthy life zone.
It is nice to have the Dynamic Duo back again. Holy comment contests Batman!
Nice show as always.
Currently offering 2 non-foil Kolighan's Command for a Date Stamped foil!
convert bulk into good cards? PucaTrade - https://pucatrade.com/invite/gift/21195
Ebay - decks/Promos/DVDs
Trade thread (constantly updated)
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/trading-post/details/337-pokerbob1s-casual-trading-emporium
4 Stillmoon Cavalier
4 Auriok Champion
4 Plague Spitter
Spells:
3 Cataclysm
Artifacts/Enchantments:
3 Endless Whispers
3 Sun Droplet
4 Enlightened Tutor
3 Mark of Asylum
4 Last Laugh
3 Ghostly Prison
1 Death Pits of Rath
1 Claws of Gix
4 Forbidden Orchard
4 Flagstones of Trokair
2 Plains
4 Petrified Field
3 Peat Bog
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Scrubland
The deck plays like a Pestilence-based deck where you wipe the board with Last Laugh which grows exponentially larger with each creature it kills. Forbidden Orchard gives them fodder to blow up, Death Pits of Rath kills any creature when damage is dealt to it, Cataclysm provides a reset button that can ultimately kill in one shot with Last Laugh. Sun Droplet and Auriok Champion are the main ways to gain life while Endless Whispers provides a way to get their creatures after they die. Plus with Mark of Asylum, they won't really be dying all that often on your side of the board. Ghostly Prison stops the horde from attacking you, especially post Cataclysm. Claws of Gix can be tutored up to help you gain some life and trigger Last Laugh at instant speed.
On a side note, relating to the two worst cards in Conflux, I'd have to disagree quite a bit. Canyon Minotaur and Suicidal Charge are really bad. Like unplayable bad. Suicidal Charge, I guess I could see being somewhat useful for limited but for 5 mana and 2 colors, it blows. And don't get me started about another Hill Giant reprint. At least Bone Saw can be used with Esperzoa and Reliquary Tower is better than Telepathy and is a land so at least you're not losing tempo to play it. Plus it's ability can be relevant in some decks that draw a lot.
Great show as always guys. Keep it up!
Long time listener, first time poster. Finally a deck challenge I can get behind! Enchantments are my life's blood.
I started off with the Mark/Pestilence thing, but started moving away from that (though I left a couple in since it's fun) and went for Dolmen Gate, so that effectively your creatures can't be damaged unless they're blocking. But who blocks?
So since your attackers don't take damage, I went for creatures with high power to toughness ratio. Interestingly enough, Bog Hoodlums now has a home!:toot:
And I'm always on the lookout for decks to put Caltrops in, so here's one more. Same with Soltari Champion, solely for the reason that he looks like that one Orcish General in Lord of the Rings, and I'll never get over it.
Also, Magnetic Web causes chaos for all. And with Magnetic Web, comes Contempt.
So I guess this is more of a self indulgent tangent than an actual deck, but I felt like sharing.
3 Arena
2 Flood Plain
1 Island
5 Mountain
5 Plains
4 Rocky Tar Pit
5 Swamp
1 Scalding Salamander
1 Soltari Champion
1 Zur the Enchanter
3 Dross Crocodile
4 Mortipede
2 Incurable Ogre
1 Agrus Kos, Wojek Veteran
4 Bog Hoodlums
4 Enlightened Tutor
1 Contempt
3 Mark of Asylum
4 Dolmen Gate
1 Magnetic Web
2 Caltrops
1 Fervent Charge
2 Pestilence
4x Plague Spitter
4x Thrashing Wumpus
2x Dry Spell
3x Ghostly Prison
1x Death Pits of Rath
3x Simulacrum
1x Circle of Protection: Black
3x Mark of Asylum
4x Enlightened Tutor
2x Last Laugh
2x Pestelince
1x Idyllic Tutor
2x Pollen Lullaby
4x Scrublands
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3x Forbidden Orchard
4x Polluted Delta
4x Godless Shrine
2x Plains
2x Swamp
It's basically a pestilence strategy, but with CoP:Black and Simalucrum added to hopefully prevent you from doing yourself in just as badly as your opponent. The Pollen Lullaby's hopefully help you survive without taking too much damage until you can set up a lock with a damage dealing card, Mark, and Death Pits of Rath.
Forgot to explain what it does. The basic idea is to buildup and swarm the opponent with a bazillion tiny critters. All the while nuking any creatures that my opponent tries to throw out and block.
So with no further explanations my casual/multiplayer deck.
4 Mark of Asylum
Creatures/combo
4 Spore Frogs
4 Crypt Rats
4 Apprentice Necromancer
4 Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker
2 Kami of False Hope
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
2 Bottle Gnomes
2 Carrion Feeder
2 Ravenous Rats
to figure out what happens now
3 Endless Whispers
1 Lifeline
Lands to get with Mr Sakura.
5 Plains
12 Forest
7 Swamp
This deck is a spin-off of one rather old casual multiplayer deck, that has been kept intact for the last three years. Originally I had blue in the mix with Happless Researcher, Riptide Shapeshifter, Daring Apprentice and [card]Desecration Elemental] for the kill, but always had problems with people killing my Shireis after I had sacrificed a bunch of creatures.
While it's hard to let go of the blue and all the neat tricks of tutoring for nearly any creature either from your graveyard or from your deck. I believe that Mark of Asylum will make the deck more stable and having more Spore Fogs is always great. With the Mark in play Shirei is pretty well positioned to stay on the table at least for couple of turns, untill your opponents are suddenly facing a 22/22 Carrion Feeder and boatload of fogs on legs. If your playgroup allows Skullclamp the deck gets super-charged by it's inclusion.
Endless Whisper is a multiplayers nightmare as so many crazy things happen. The best part is that since you control the trigger, you can stack it before Shirei's triggers and keep your creatures while having other players handing creatures left and right. Lifeline is just too much fun in multiplayer not to include and works as Shirei number 5. Returning killed Shirei's back can also sometimes work well.
This deck is decent in duels but gets rather absurd with larger multiplayer games as you can sacrifice your creatures during each players turn and get them back with Shirei again. In a six player game you get six lands for each Sakura-Tribe Elder, so your draws will rarely be lands in the late game, just beware those Armageddons.
Set to default
It's funny that you picked Bone Saw after the interviewee in BDM's column last Friday mentioned as one of the most important cards in Conflux for Pauper (to put in Affinity or Esper beatdown with Court Homunculus).
That said, I don't think any of the other cards in Conflux is completely useless. My less favorite would be the 0/3 for W Valiant Guard. That along with all the (functional) reprints like the new hill giant and Unsummon just seemed like filler to me (reprints like Worldly Counsel that interact with the set mechanics are fine though).
On another subject, Gavin has commented a couple times recently that Wizards is focusing on acquisition this year. I'm sure acquisition is always important to Wizards but wasn't 2008 the year of acquisition?
It's great to have Tom back!
You are 100% right, we used to have Peasant tournaments at my local store.
I have been playing quite a bit of MTGO Pauper magic and having a pretty good time. Gotta love it sorting and filtering the cards so you can see only the valid cards for Pauper deck building.
Cheers,
Tom
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I might be mistaken, but i seem to remember there being an article on SCG a long time ago, around the time when we were playing some casual pauper with friends as a breather from our normal, rather rare heavy, decks.
Set to default
4x plague spitter
4x phyrexian negator
3x crypt rats
4x shriekmaw
4x phyrexian totem
2x pestilence
1x honden of cleansing fire
1x worship
2x death pits of wrath
4x mark of asylum
2x soul link
1x light of sanction
4x vindicate
4x enlightened tutor
5x swamp
4x reflecting pool
3x fetid heath
4x godless shrine
4x scrubland
The plan is simple: clear board, swing with negators. death pits of wrath is good with the mark and the rest is a tutor toolbox. originally had peacekeeper in here but they may negators useless. this deck is legacy legal