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3 years ago ::
Nov 02, 2010 - 5:37PM
#1
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Date Joined:
Jun 24, 2008
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This thread is for discussion of this week's Building on a Budget, which goes live Wednesday morning on magicthegathering.com.
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3 years ago ::
Nov 02, 2010 - 10:43PM
#2
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Date Joined:
Oct 27, 2007
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The main problem with Bloodcheif Ascension is that the two things it wants you to do (burn the opponent for 2, and put cards in their graveyard) are, generally speaking, rather different things. A friend suggested using it in 2hg, with one side playing burn and the other side mill. Then it goes turn 1, land from both sides, ascension, shock. turn 2, land from both sides, shock, glimpse the unthinkable, 8 life left. Any 1cc spell that deals at least 2 damage will work for shock, I just named the one that they used at the time.
It could count as another megrim, combined with lilana's megrim, and the new "whenever an opponent plays a card, that player either discards a card or loses 5 life". This uses lilana's megrim to trigger the bloodchief counters. This'd be u/b, so you could use bounce/card draw to give more things to make them discard.
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3 years ago ::
Nov 02, 2010 - 11:21PM
#3
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Date Joined:
Oct 15, 2007
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"I drew Smoldering Spires, played it, prevented Fauna Shaman from blocking, cast Groundswell on my Blight Mamba, cast Assault Strobe on the Blight Mamba, and attacked for ten poison counters." Is that cool or disgusting? Well, I'm glad the deck went from: 1. Search "Infect" 2. Select: Play all. Thumbs up:-) "Here's how I sideboard in specific match-ups:"
Good, sir...I SALUTE you. NICE.
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3 years ago ::
Nov 03, 2010 - 1:12AM
#4
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Date Joined:
Apr 17, 2010
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I've had a lot of fun with infect decks on MTGO since SoM's online release. I've found, though, that the lands that ETB tapped often hurt you more than they help - the curve is pretty tight and not having enough mana to play strobe and vines on turn 3 can make the difference between winning and losing. Some cards I've found helpful: Infiltration Lens - This is the least helpful but great with Ichorclaw Myr , opponent's don't want to block it and give you two draws, then lose their blocker to a 3/3 or better. It's all downside, so they often let it through... then you hit it with a pump spell... Also pretty good with Blight Mamba and Necropede but not as daunting. Panic Spellbomb and Flight Spellbomb - Both and the lens are great when you can cast them turn 1, because there are no 1-drops in the deck (except pump spells, which are useless without a creature). Both get you past one or more blockers without tying up mana, and if you have an extra R the panic button doubles as card draw. Canopy Cover - The sleeper star of the deck. Gives your creature "troll shroud" so you can cast spells on it but your opponent can't. Gets past most blockers, too... does slow you down a little but buys time to draw enough pump spells to win if you don't draw a strobe. I would suggest cutting back a little on the pump spells (especially Giant Growth it's just outclassed by the others 90% of the time) for one or more of these. Against decks with a lot of blockers or removal spells, it can be hard to get a creature through and have a pump spell to use on it. You can end up drawing *too many* pumps and have no creatures to use them on, these help make sure your creatures stick around a little longer.
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3 years ago ::
Nov 03, 2010 - 2:08AM
#5
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Date Joined:
Oct 11, 2004
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Burn is particularly useful with Bloodchief Ascension as it allows you to get a counter on your opponents turn. Once you have an active Ascension, you can use the burn to kill creatures while killing the opponent and boosting your life. Staggershock is particularly good at getting an Ascension active, and Searing Blaze and Hideous End get it active while also killing creatures. Also, if you don't draw the Ascension, you can always just burn them out.
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3 years ago ::
Nov 03, 2010 - 4:07AM
#6
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Date Joined:
Mar 14, 2010
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I'm a bit confused as to why Lightning Bolt would make a bad compliment to this deck. Granted, burning to the dome isn't as viable, but how does a four-tougness creature stop you from using this? It's infect: the counters last. The wall is a speedbump at best. Maybe the deck really needs that extra turn, that would understandable.
Also, I've mentioned Bloodchief before, and I'll repeat my sentiments here:
-Staggershock and the new Arc Trail can both accrue card advantage and charge up the Ascension.
-Slavering Nulls, Liliana's Spectre and the new Skinrender can keep supplying the damage whilst dumping cards in the 'yard. Regular discard spells are also nice, but I'm guessing burn will be the major focus of the deck, so it might be best to only use discard that has damage already attached.
-Contaminated Ground shuts down manlands and Valakuts, and it can lead to the rather sick turn three full-charge. Not sure if you should try Tectonic Edge or Goblin Ruinblaster, since the mana base for Slavering Nulls would require mostly search-lands and Edges could skew your numbers. But definitely try Ground, since mana ramp is so keen on their key turns.
-Probably a bad idea if you go the really aggressive route: some form of milling and/or Haunting Echoes to supplement any discard and removal. Echoes is a decent five-mana sorcery, removes the graveyard, stopping some shenanigans, but also ensures that whatever you got rid of with discard or burn will not be getting its friends in.
-definite idea for both aggro and controlling versions: Magma Phoenix. Obviously not good against red decks, but you've already got the upper hand on those if you can get your Ascension online. Against everyone else... repeatable damage, card advantage, and breaking symmetry with the Ascension.
Remember: a Lightning Bolt from their end of the table will trigger the lifedrain. Counterspells, Cultivates...it doesn't matter where the card is coming from. Also, milling away Eldrazi does not stop the lifedrain, either. The cards hit the graveyard regardless. Not sure how you'd deal with the Titans or Wurmcoils, though. I suppose discard can get them before they land, and Magma Phoenix could trade with one in battle if not for their attack triggers... guess good old-fashioned Doom Blade will have to suffice.
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3 years ago ::
Nov 03, 2010 - 4:40AM
#7
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Date Joined:
Oct 31, 2007
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I played a deck similar to this one at Game Day, except I kept it mono-green (a la a tweaked-up version of the previous week's deck). Putrefax indeed was fairly useless, and I'm glad I kept him sideboarded. There was one U/B control deck for which siding it in was a correct decision, but I hit a land pocket for four turns anyhow... I actually maindecked 4 Prey's Vengeance , and it left me really wishing they were Primal Bellow s instead. +2 power is not really that helpful, and I saw so many Into The Roil s and Lightning Bolt s in response that the rebound never really mattered. Oh yeah, and Corpse Cur was pretty useless, but Cystbearer rocked the house. The latter is kind of lame-looking, but that third toughness is critical against all the Trinket Mage s and Goblin Guide s running around. It also means the bigger pump spells (>= +4) let you kill off Titans and such without losing your guy. Two cards I think really could help Jacob's deck: Livewire Lash and Asceticism . The deck's most painful matches are against Big Red and U/B control for their staggering amounts of removal, and Troll Shroud for Everyone is pretty much the best thing ever for those cases. I played the Lash instead of Boar Umbra , and it scared my opponents like you wouldn't believe. Groundswell on a Lash'd unblocked 2-drop infector becomes 9 poison. Critical Hit, yo. Sadly, I was only playing my single Asceticism, so I didn't get as good of a look at it as I'd like, but if it plays anything close to what little I saw there and at the prerelease sealed event (where I also played infect), it's a card that will cause some opponents to scoop. Between the mono-red decks and U/B control, their only hope seems to lie in counterspells. And those beat everything. I've considered Smoldering Spires in the mono green deck, but I'm a little squeamish about Primal Bellow getting depowered. Then I considered Panic Spellbomb but couldn't make a cut from the list. As Jacob said, though: with such a focused deck, it's always hard to decide what to cut. I'll definitely reconsider them, since they seem to win him so much... and Assault Strobe is looking pretty good now, too.
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3 years ago ::
Nov 03, 2010 - 4:50AM
#8
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Respectfully, I will add my rookie perspective and I would be happy to get any good advice for deck building.
After reading the Infect Week columns this week, I tested out my mono-black deck (fresh with many various Infect creatures from Scars of Mirrodin). It really is a tough deck to beat. It is also very fast.
My lament is that it forces all my other mono-decks to become very fast, just to defend against Infect. So, Infect seems to have taken over my deck building strategies, as if all decks now need to become fast Infect decks. No deck seems to last long enough to get to big, powerful creatures when Poison kills you after only 10 hits.
Maybe fewer Infect creatures need to be added in the next expansion, so that Infect does not become the only game in town.
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3 years ago ::
Nov 03, 2010 - 5:29AM
#9
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I'm a bit confused as to why Lightning Bolt would make a bad compliment to this deck. Granted, burning to the dome isn't as viable, but how does a four-tougness creature stop you from using this? It's infect: the counters last. The wall is a speedbump at best. Maybe the deck really needs that extra turn, that would understandable.
The issue with Lightning Bolt vs FLame Slash in this deck is simple. You aren't ever dealing damage to the player due to the fact that all of your creatures possess Infect. So even with 4 Lightning Bolts the most damage you could deal is 12. And as shown Lightning Bolt by itself will not necessarily kill all blockers. Overgrown Battlement and Wall of Omens come to mind. Since the goal of the deck is to deal 10 poison counters as fast as possible, wasting time "withering" a creature is not a good thing. Therefore the 4 damage for 1 mana beats 3 damage for 1 mana everytime.
I like fun, but competitive decks. So I might not play what is optimal but they have normally been tested to have a 2/3 winrate.
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3 years ago ::
Nov 03, 2010 - 6:38AM
#10
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Hang on he sideboards out 6 cards and only puts 4 back in for White/Blue control?
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