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Switch to Forum Live View 12/18/2008 TD: "... Almost Got There"
4 years ago  ::  Dec 17, 2008 - 2:43PM #1
WotC_Monty
Date Joined: Nov 5, 2003
Posts: 1,652
This thread is for discussion of this week's Top Decks, which goes live Thursday morning on magicthegathering.com.
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4 years ago  ::  Dec 17, 2008 - 9:30PM #2
Cerelius
Date Joined: Nov 1, 2007
Posts: 72
I think the widespread adoption of the planeswalkers is pretty interesting, proving that they are inherently powerful.

The thing that I find disappointing is the widespread adoption of Bitterblossom.

Sure, started with Faeries, then moved on to token decks, Red Aggro and now Five Color Control decks.

The placement of Bitterblossom in the Five Color Control decks feels a bit like the Monowhite decks that sideboarded in Skullclamp just so they could draw cards off dead Eternal Dragons and Silver Knights.

Blech, well, although standard will be stagnant until Bitterblossom rotates, at least Extended looks like it will be once again exciting!
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4 years ago  ::  Dec 17, 2008 - 9:58PM #3
Aggro_zombies
Date Joined: Mar 3, 2005
Posts: 25
Legacy player here. Flores, if you're reading this...

In the Dreadstill deck: turn two Standstill can be bad, yes, but it's generally not an optimal play. Threshold decks of most splash colors (white, black, five color, Swans of Bryn Argoll with red) can just Brainstorm into it at the end of the Dreadstill player's turn to force him to discard. Plus, most blue-based Legacy decks run four Daze, four Force of Will at a minimum, so it can be downright deadly for the Dreadstill player to go turn-two Standstill into the opponent's Brainstorm, then basically lose when the opponent untaps and drops a Counterbalance of his own with counter backup (or get forced into racing if Goyf comes down...2/3 Goyf at minimum, likely 3/4 due to high density of fetchlands).

In the Stax deck (the white one): Going to time is the biggest drawback of white Stax - well, that and the lack of card drawing and library manipulation in a format packed with it. Most good mono-white Stax decks run Exalted Angel to speed up the clock. Also, if you think that deck is cool, there's a blue version that uses Tezzeret as its win with Mana Vortex as its 'Geddon analog.

In the Aggro-Loam deck: well, you hit that one on the head, but I'd add that some of those numbers are downright weird by Legacy standards...shocklands? 3 Wasteland? 2 Confidant? Odd.

In the last deck: That deck goes by "Team America," and it's the tempo-oriented evolution of black Threshold. Snuff Out sees zero play in this format outside of just this deck, so Tombstalker being impervious to it is rarely relevant. Most commonly played removal spells either can't touch it because of its size (burn spells, Smother, Pernicious Deed, Engineered Explosives, etc.), or sweep it out of the way without a problem (Swords to Plowshares, Vedalken Shackles, bounce). It's still a good creature regardless, I just though I'd point that out.

The presence of these four decks in particular is certainly interesting. I'd like to know who told Paul Cheon that Dreadstill is a good deck...it puts up the numbers, but it has a reputation of being a bit of a joke deck. It's kind of unfortunate that the Aggro Loam deck didn't get anywhere, though. I don't think Stax is good for it, but it generally does well against everything but combo. Then again, with shocklands and only two Bobs, I can see why it lost.

It's also interesting that there was no straight Threshold, just Team America. Threshold is the best deck in the format despite every deck having a 60% or better Threshold matchup, even Threshold decks.* I'd be interested to know where these guys did their research.

Also, it was incredibly refreshing to see Paul Cheon admit he knew nothing about Legacy personally, and to just discuss the deck instead of pretending to be an expert on the format. BDM's "lol wut legacy u r such a joke format" attitude is always depressing though. Thanks for not doing the same here!

Just chipping in. I know jack **** about Standard and Extended since I don't play those formats (though I hear Faeries is where it's at?).

*This is obviously false, despite what the non-Thresh decks' creators say.
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4 years ago  ::  Dec 17, 2008 - 9:59PM #4
Dragon_Bloodthirsty
  • Warm, wet and squishy inside
Date Joined: Apr 9, 2003
Posts: 364
Magma Spray is a great choice over any Shock variant against Finks. Not only does it kill the Finks, but for all intents and purposes it also went to the face, because the Finks don't come back for the extra two life, either.

Bitterblossom is a sick card. Oh yes, Ajani Vengeant is the best card in Standard. Look at all the decks he's in! Especially compared to Bitterblossom.

I am glad to see one very solid common, at least, in Blightning . I just hate how it feels like you need to spend so much to have a competitive deck these days.

Oh yeah, I had fun skimming through it too. One of the best articles all week.
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4 years ago  ::  Dec 18, 2008 - 12:40AM #5
BURNINATOR
Date Joined: Oct 25, 2003
Posts: 35
Anyone else got sick from all the pro-USA stuff in this article, beginning with title?

Otherwise solid stuff as usual.
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4 years ago  ::  Dec 18, 2008 - 1:57AM #6
fractal
Date Joined: Oct 23, 2003
Posts: 2,225

BURNINATOR wrote:

Anyone else got sick from all the pro-USA stuff in this article, beginning with title?


It seemed a bit over the top, but being from the USA, it didn't really bother me.

To be fair, there was similar stuff for Japan two years ago, when Japan swept Worlds (Individual, Team, and PoY). I don't think this was USA-related except insofar as that's the country that almost did it. (The pro-Finkel draft stuff, on the other hand, is typical Flores, and you shouldn't expect anything different at this point.)

Thanks to everyone who helped with the design of the plane of Golamo in the Great Designer Search 2!

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Unearth Aggro
Soul's Fire Vampires
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4 years ago  ::  Dec 18, 2008 - 2:58AM #7
Amarsir
Date Joined: Oct 28, 2006
Posts: 2,729
The USA stuff is the story. It was pretty close to a sweep, they talked about it a lot during the coverage, and it's an interesting angle. He didn't spend that much space on it.

It's nice that Flores covered Takakuwa's Magus deck, but he probably should have mentioned that it didn't win a single game all tournament. Because of the format, he got carried to the semis by the other two decks and the individual play.
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4 years ago  ::  Dec 18, 2008 - 7:39AM #8
orcishartillery
Date Joined: Jun 24, 2003
Posts: 1,259

Predator Dragon was the most popular kill in Berlin (assemble lots of Elves, Chord of Calling or Birchlore Rangers to make a Predator Dragon—which has both trample and haste—eat lots of little Elves and Insects, attack for ~200)




Predator Dragon

Creature - Dragon
Flying, haste
Devour 2 (As this comes into play, you may sacrifice any number of creatures. This creature comes into play with twice that many +1/+1 counters on it.)
4/4

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4 years ago  ::  Dec 18, 2008 - 8:26AM #9
Vyolynce
Date Joined: Mar 8, 2005
Posts: 647

orcishartillery wrote:



Predator Dragon

Creature - Dragon
Flying, haste
Devour 2 (As this comes into play, you may sacrifice any number of creatures. This creature comes into play with twice that many +1/+1 counters on it.)
4/4


To be fair, I keep thinking that Hell's Thunder has trample too. It's just sort of something we've been trained to expect from hasty red dudes more so than flying.

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4 years ago  ::  Dec 18, 2008 - 9:52AM #10
av.313
Date Joined: May 27, 2006
Posts: 98

BURNINATOR wrote:

Anyone else got sick from all the pro-USA stuff in this article, beginning with title?


Yes, but coming from Flores I wasn't a least bit surprised by it.

After the World Championships most writers would probably write a little bit more about... you know, the world champion. I guess Malin wasn't as interesting to him as an American or a Japanese player would have been. Or anyone a bit more "famous".

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