|
1 year ago ::
May 10, 2012 - 12:09PM
#131
|
|
|
So here's a list I've been cooking lately. Creatures - 7 4x Phyrexian Crusader  3x Whispering Specter  Spells - 29 3x Homicidal Seclusion  3x Barter in Blood  3x Black Sun's Zenith  3x Contagion Clasp  4x Virulent Wound  3x Sever the Bloodline  3x Despise  3x Distress  1x Life's Finale  3x Liliana of the Veil  (Maybe should be Tribute to Hunger  or Geth's Verdict  ?) Lands - 24 4x Inkmoth Nexus  20x Swamp I got the idea from thinking about how cool the Loner strategy from AVR is to play in limited, along with the Jund all-removal-all-the-time deck from Block. Stripping every card from your opponent and then beating with a 5/3 First Strike, Lifelink, Pro-Red, Pro-White, Infect guy seemed like a winning strategy to me, but then, I mostly play limited so I don't really know how this would play out against most other decks in standard. I understand that I should probably make room for Lashwrithes/Metamorphs, but I like the amount of removal in the deck as it is. Maybe cut Whispering Specters? That guy is such a house when he hits though.
|
|
|
|
1 year ago ::
May 11, 2012 - 5:04AM
#132
|
|
|
I admit, this idea seems very, very interesting. However, Whispering Specter needs to go. He's very frail, and with the abundence of lingering souls in the current meta he dose not get through all that easily. I'd probally replace him with either tripple lashwrithe or tripple skithiryx. If you choose to go skittles over lashwrithe, however, I would probally still fit the lashwrithe in...but not sure how. My first inclination was for contagion clasp to be put in the sideboard in favor of maindeck lashwrithes, but I am now not sure since contagion clasp is a form of removal, although a very weak one. Also, Lillina, while nice, dose not really seem that great for this deck. Since your a control deck and the vast bulk of your removal dose not have flashback, there is going to be very few cards you want to discard. Your going to want to have removal in hand so you can respond to your opponent's plays and thus Lillina's + loyalty ability will not be something you really want to use. Thus, you will never really get her ultimate either, making her a three mana, sorcerery speed edict effect. Tribute to hunger is the same thing, but with added lifegain and a more flexable instant speed. Geth's verdict is the same effect for one less mana, also with the more flexable instant speed and a ping that won't matter to you. So I'd probally cut her for either of those. Which one you choose comes down to personal prefrance. Do you prever the lifegain(and thus suvivability) that Tribute to Hunger presents or would you rather have the lower cost(and thus the ability to react easier and cheaper curve) of Geth's Verdict? Finally, the singleton Life's Finale seems a bit odd, though I could see it being of some use. Try it out, and if you like it, keep it. However, if it proves to be dead weight I'd probally cut it in favor of moving your future lashwrithe count from 3 to 4. Anyway, this is just my imput. I would like for others to chime in since I have always been interested in more controlling infect builds and I'd both for the poster above me and myself get some good advice on this idea. With these sugjestions, you would get something that looks kinda like this... Creatures: 4x Phyrexian Crusader Enchantments: 3x Homicidal Seclusion Sorceries/Instants: 1x Life's Finale 3x Black Sun's Zenith 3x Sever the Bloodline 3x Barter in Blood 3x Distress 3x Despise 3x Geth's Verdict 4x Virulent Wound Artifacts: 3x Lashwrithe  3x Contagion Clasp Lands: 4x Inkmoth Nexus 20x Swamp  I know this probally is not perfect, but it's a general idea. Any help or input would be appreciated.
|
|
|
|
1 year ago ::
May 11, 2012 - 5:53AM
#133
|
|
|
Life's Finale is a total blowout when it goes off, but it's so expensive you don't EVER want to be holding multiple copies. I've had a lot of success with having one mainboard with B/x control builds in the past, so I usually like to toss one in if I have the room.
I included Whispering Specter for two reasons A) He's a total blowout if/when he manages to hit and B) I didn't feel confident running only 8 total creatures, and WS was evasive with upside. You are right, Skyth would probably be better, but I would need to actually get some to run him, haha. I'll try the build with 3 Lashwrithe and see how I like it.
Edit: Almost forgot to mention, was toying with the build last night, and ended up cutting a Virulent Wound mainboard for a Phyrexian Metamorph. I like having a clone around for Geist/Sigarda/Thrun, as well as to double up on Phyrexian Crusaders or whatever. The card is just too versatile to leave sideboard only (There's two more in my sideboard currently, fyi).
|
|
|
|
1 year ago ::
May 11, 2012 - 7:21AM
#134
|
|
|
Yeah, I have both skittles and lashwrithe, so I could actually run the build with three skittles over three lashwrithe if I wished. I am not sure which would work out better, and since I have the ability to run both it's a tough call for me to make and I would like some advice on the matter. As for metamorph, I can see it's usefulness and I may tinker around with him. I only own 2, though.
|
|
|
|
1 year ago ::
May 22, 2012 - 3:31PM
#135
|
Date Joined:
Jul 27, 2011
|
I'd like to make a contribution to this thread, this MBI (control) took 2nd at my last FNM (last Friday) losing only to the esper-miracle-PWers thing-magig after it being my only game 3. Creatures : 8 1x Plague Stinger  1x Whispering Specter 4x Phyrexian Crusader 2x Skittles  Instants/Sorceries : 24 4x Virulent Wound 4x Despise 1x Postmortem Lunge  3x Doom Blade  3x Go for the Throat  3x Distress 3x Black Sun's Zenith 3x Tribute to Hunger Artifacts : 6 2x Contagion Clasp 4x Lashwrithe Lands : 22 18x Swamp 4x Inkmoth Nexus As for a sideboard, I aim for some aggro if/when I face down a fellow control or a combo deck Sideboard : 15 1x Nihil Spellbomb  1x Postmortem Lunge 2x Corrosive Gale  (sometimes, I need yet more control for those darn Souls  ) 3x Spellskite  3x Plague Stinger 2x Geth's Verdict 1x Distress 2x Whispering Specter I chose to go control because of all the seemingly aggro decks in my meta (I fought a.... G/W with prot from stuff featuring cards like Sigarda, Host of Herons  , Mirran Crusader  , etc) a G/W Tempered Steel  (green for Gavony Township  ) can't remember my 3rd game, and my 4th game was, mono white I think? But he just twiced scooped to The-Crusader- Writhe Any ideas how this could be better as control?
Decks I run Spoiler:
Show
I currently run a deck for Standard, Modern, Commander and Legacy.
For standard, I have a typical, horribly budget Rakdos Deck Wins.
For Modern, I have a B/G/U/W Draw-go Reanimator featuring my favorite creature, Wurmcoil Engine  .
For Legacy, I'm trying too hard to break Pyromancer Ascension  . I also run a Naya Zoo with  all the  oldies  .
For Commander/EDH, I'm running The Mimeoplasm  .
A little morals thing about me, I like winning through combos, but not infinitely.
However quiet, I am a Christian, so feel free to tell me you are too, it's always a relief.Cheers!
|
|
|
|
1 year ago ::
Jun 02, 2012 - 4:34AM
#136
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1 year ago ::
Jun 02, 2012 - 9:09PM
#137
|
Date Joined:
Oct 29, 2010
|
|
|
|
|
1 year ago ::
Jun 03, 2012 - 3:18AM
#138
|
|
|
I would personally add more spot removal. My meta currently either flows towards the quick agro deck archetype or the reanimator/ramp stuff, having access to a wide variety of instant removal is really nice. I dont really like despise since it's sorcary speed, but then again getting rid of Gidion is very cool. I would at least add some more removal into your Sb.
Undying evil along with mutagenic growth seems overkill. Same with the seven equips. Mind explaining that?
but yea I agree on the position of this deck currently. It's REALLY under the radar and has thus improved greatly. Crusader can sometimes win on his own because of the protections.
I'm not worried about removal. The deck's plan is to kill you by turn 5. Despise and Distress are enough control to let you get there.
Undying Evil and Mutagenic both trigger Livewire Lash procs. Hence the reason I'm running 3. Lashwrithe and the Sword speak for themselves.
|
|
|
|
1 year ago ::
Jun 03, 2012 - 4:13PM
#139
|
Date Joined:
Oct 29, 2010
|
I would personally add more spot removal. My meta currently either flows towards the quick agro deck archetype or the reanimator/ramp stuff, having access to a wide variety of instant removal is really nice. I dont really like despise since it's sorcary speed, but then again getting rid of Gidion is very cool. I would at least add some more removal into your Sb.
Undying evil along with mutagenic growth seems overkill. Same with the seven equips. Mind explaining that?
but yea I agree on the position of this deck currently. It's REALLY under the radar and has thus improved greatly. Crusader can sometimes win on his own because of the protections.
I'm not worried about removal. The deck's plan is to kill you by turn 5. Despise and Distress are enough control to let you get there.
Undying Evil and Mutagenic both trigger Livewire Lash procs. Hence the reason I'm running 3. Lashwrithe and the Sword speak for themselves.
Hmm well I personally cant see how with so much discard you can reliably achieve a turn 5 win. You're either tapping out turn two for a creature or casting a discard, but only one of those swings for poisen, assuming your oppenent did not cast another threat. Maybe I'm just hung up on the sorcery speed haha, prefer to react on the oppenents turn rather then my own.
Now Livewire lash seems like an odd inclusion, 7 targetting spells seems to too little for it to be reliably good. But then again there is a lot of vapor snags and such in the format. That could be either really good or really bad in your case.
What match ups you see as favorable currently and what do you struggle against?
|
|
|
|
1 year ago ::
Jun 03, 2012 - 5:23PM
#140
|
|
|
I'm not worried about removal. The deck's plan is to kill you by turn 5. Despise and Distress are enough control to let you get there.
Undying Evil and Mutagenic both trigger Livewire Lash procs. Hence the reason I'm running 3. Lashwrithe and the Sword speak for themselves.
Hmm well I personally cant see how with so much discard you can reliably achieve a turn 5 win. You're either tapping out turn two for a creature or casting a discard, but only one of those swings for poisen, assuming your oppenent did not cast another threat. Maybe I'm just hung up on the sorcery speed haha, prefer to react on the oppenents turn rather then my own.
Now Livewire lash seems like an odd inclusion, 7 targetting spells seems to too little for it to be reliably good. But then again there is a lot of vapor snags and such in the format. That could be either really good or really bad in your case.
What match ups you see as favorable currently and what do you struggle against?
Despise is turn 1. Turn 2 I'd much rather Distress and pick a SoFaF over my 1/1 flyer. Basically turn 1 I take their Gideon, Geist, Image, Snapcaster, etc. Turn 2 I take their Sword, or whatever else presents itself as a problem. Now assuming I get both a Despise and Distress, They are down 2 cards, I have intel on the rest of their hand, and if they took a mulligan it's just icing on the cake.
Livewire Lash is HUGE in this deck. Don't forget you can Virluent Wound your own creatures to proc it. That brings it up to 11 targetting spells. It's great for forcing out spot removal. Either they're casting in-response to the equip, or they have none.
My biggest problems have been against Delver and Zombies. Delver has lots of control so it makes it difficult. Zombies are a real pain but I've adjusted a bit for them.
Favourable matchups is pretty much everything else. Wolf run doesn't pose much of a problem. R/G Aggro is a race game 1, game 2 that deck gets shut down by Grafdigger's Cage  . Anything with white or red is won on the back of Phyrexian Crusader . I've been seeing a lot of the new Wild Defiance  G/U Infect in my meta as well, but Curse of death's hold  deals with that.
|
|
|
