Community

Ok, so here's a thread focused solely on determining which 8 decks to use for the Standard portion of the event.  If you got a post in the original thread on the topic, copy it on over here, as it's too hard to discuss amidst the username posts.

Probably start by discussing archetypes and posting decklists.  Don't worry about overlap in the decklists for now.

Also any team members who are heavy constructed players, please post any deck/archetype preferences, you guys are the ones playing them.

Inserted on behalf of bubba0077:

I have copied all of the relevant posts from the original thread here for continued discussion.  If you want to comment on one of the other events, or on the CCC in general, please use the appropriate thread.

Oct 12, 2009 -- 6:07PM, theauthenticsimpsonian wrote:

Oct 12, 2009 -- 5:55PM, Walkerdog wrote:

Oct 12, 2009 -- 4:55PM, WotC_Eric wrote:

Your Community representatives need your help! Post here to give them your advice and be elgible for either a special Momic Basic event OR a Gleemox.

Don't know what I'm talking about? Read all about it here.

So do we get any assurance that we're not just building decks for the WotC guys?  This seems like they're getting all of our research, building and strategy while also doing their own.

Well he asked people not to read the thread, so I guess that's as good as we'll get.

Also, someone play Time Sieve for Standard. It uses a ton of cards that none of the other decent decks would want to use. The only things it might want are Day of Judgement, some copies of Jace and Tezzeret and some Negates. Here's a sample list taken from another forum.

“Lands”:24
7x Island
4x Marsh Flats
4x Fieldmist Borderpost 
4x Mistvein Borderpost
4x Plains
1x Swamp

Creatures:5
3x Etherium Sculptor
2x Glassdusk Hulk

Spells:31
4x Kaleidostone 
4x Time Warp
4x Open The Vaults
4x Howling Mine
4x Obelisk of Esper 
3x Day of Judgement
3x Time Sieve
2x Tezzeret 
2x Silence
1x Font of Mythos 


SB, based on what i feel the meta will be like...

3x Meddling Mage (mirror/rock)
4x Tidehollow Sculler (control)
3x Relic of Progenitus (mirror)
3x Safe Passage (RDW, Blightning)
1x Silence (control)
1x DoJ (aggro)

You can also choose to run more fog effects main if you don't want to play Day of Judgement and I'm not sure how good Etherium Sculptor is, but this is a start.

Oct 12, 2009 -- 6:24PM, Khelek wrote:

It seems like finding as many good monocolored decks as possible might be good so that the remaining decks can put dual lands to their best use.

 

mtgo: Aziridine

Oct 12, 2009 -- 6:38PM, middleman35 wrote:

For Standard:

Time Sieve (as suggested above), Mono-Black Vampires or Mono-Red would provide 3 competitive decks without costing that much in terms of card overlap.

The next contenders after that would be some form of 5c Control or Wx Baneslayer as control decks, and Jund or Cascade for a midrange option.

5C/Baneslayer would have to share DoJ with Time Sieve, but that's certainly possible as some combination of Earthquake, Fallout, Infest or Pyroclasm can substitute.

Jund/Cascade would share some fixing with 5C, but there should be enough fixing for 2 multi-color decks considering the first 2 shouldn't need much.

 

EDIT: Reading is tech! We need 8 decks, that's quite a bit tougher.

 

 

 

MTGO username: middleman_35

Oct 12, 2009 -- 6:49PM, Sivakov wrote:

hi...

Another one deck "uses a ton of cards that none of the other decent decks would want to use". Mono W control sample list:

Creatures: 10
4x Mesa Enchantress
4x Knight of the White Orchid
2x Baneslayer Angel

Enchantments: 19
4x Journey to Nowhere
4x Oblivion Ring
4x Luminarch Ascension
3x Sigil of the Empty Throne
4x Sunspring Expedition

Spells 10
2x Pacifism
4x Day of Judgment
4x Path to Exile

Lands 21
2x Emeria, the Sky Ruin
3x Kabira Crossroads
16x Plains

WBR, Sivakov Konstantin

mtgo: sivakov

P.S. About "Time Sieve deck"... what about Thopter Foundry? Hit fix, good synergy whith Hulk, tonk attaker at last turn ^-) 

Oct 12, 2009 -- 8:18PM, natedawg wrote:

Oct 12, 2009 -- 7:40PM, middleman35 wrote:

Strongest Preliminary line-up IMO:

Aggro:
Mono-Black Vampires
Mono-Red RDW
Mono-White Soldiers

Combo:
Time Sieve

Control:
Esper Baneslayer
Grixis Cruel Control

Mid Range:
Jund Cascade
Naya Planeswalker

I agree, this is a good starting point, we should start working on the decklists.

mtgo=nateetan

Oct 12, 2009 -- 8:36PM, natedawg wrote:

Decklists:

Vampires

4 Duress
23 Swamp
4 Vampire Nocturnus
3 Sign in Blood
2 Doom Blade
4 Tendrils of Corruption
4 Guul Draz Vampire
4 Vampire Lacerator
4 Bloodghast
4 Vampire Hexmage
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir

Sideboard
2 Deathmark
3 Mind Sludge
4 Black Knight
4 Vampire Nighthawk
2 Malakir Bloodwitch

 

Jund

4 Forest
4 Swamp
2 Mountain
4 Putrid Leech
4 Bloodbraid Elf
3 Bituminous Blast
2 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
3 Dragonskull Summit
4 Rootbound Crag
4 Terminate
4 Sprouting Thrinax
3 Broodmate Dragon
4 Blightning
4 Savage Lands
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Verdant Catacombs

Sideboard
1 Bituminous Blast
1 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Anathemancer
1 Thought Hemorrhage
4 Great Sable Stag
4 Jund Charm

 

Time Sieve

7 Island
4 Marsh Flats
4 Fieldmist Borderpost 
4 Mistvein Borderpost
4 Plains
1 Swamp
3 Etherium Sculptor
2 Glassdusk Hulk
4 Kaleidostone 
4 Time Warp
4 Open The Vaults
4 Howling Mine
4 Obelisk of Esper 
3 Day of Judgement
3 Time Sieve
2 Tezzeret 
2 Silence
1 Font of Mythos 

Sideboard
3 Meddling Mage
4 Tidehollow Sculler
3 Relic of Progenitus
3 Safe Passage
1 Silence
1 Day of Judgement

 

Red (This is a goblins version, maybe there's room for 2 red decks?)

17 Mountain
4 Goblin Chieftain
2 Gargoyle Castle
4 Siege-Gang Commander
4 Dragon Fodder
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Goblin Guide
4 Goblin Ruinblaster
4 Warren Instigator
4 Burst Lightning
1 Eldrazi Monument
4 Teetering Peaks
4 Goblin Bushwhacker

Sideboard
4 Volcanic Fallout
3 Chandra Nalaar
4 Act of Treason
1 Eldrazi Monument
3 Mark of Mutiny

Oct 12, 2009 -- 8:48PM, bjbrains wrote:

There's also a solid burn-based one, running a virtual 12-14 ball lightnings (the original, zektar shrine expedition, hellspark elemental, elemental appeal), multiple fetches, and plated geopede along with the burn package.

 

Also, don't forget about Boros Bushwhacker (The 2nd place deck from the SCG 5K). Every deck in this format needs to have a plan versus the aggressive decks.

 

MTGO username: Bjbrains2002

Oct 12, 2009 -- 9:01PM, Seeker_after_Chaos wrote:

It's possible that this deck is resilient enough to stand up to the worse half of whatever Standard decks are presented, and it began its life as Zendikar Block Constructed so you certainly aren't infringing on anything but fetchlands:

7 Forest
3 Swamp
3 Mountain
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Marsh Flats
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Arid Mesa

4 Rampaging Baloths
2 Terra Stomper
4 Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
4 Lotus Cobra
4 Hellkite Charger
4 Summoning Trap

4 Khalni Heart Expedition
4 Harrow
4 Marsh Casualties..."Hover.show('http://www.wizards.com/global/images/magic/general/marsh_casualties.jpg', 17);" onmouseout="Hover.hide();">

Admittedly, it's weak to a lot of stuff... but there's the germ of an idea there. Adapting Block Constructed decks, that is. If you're confident in Hedron Crab living, and can spare the fetches, Mill might be better. Think about it.

MTGO Username: Seeker

Oct 12, 2009 -- 9:48PM, RurouniJoe1 wrote:

I don't know how much advise a scrub like me could give you, but for the Standard Unified Constructed I'd go with:

Time Sieve combo, Vampires, mono White beat down, discard, all in Red, green ramp-stompy, green-black control, and Cascade.

As for 100 Card Unified Signleton Constructed, I've never played Singleton but the best advice I can give is stick to themes such as Elves, Goblins, White beats, Black control, etc.

Good luck.

MTGO ID - RurouniJoe1

Oct 12, 2009 -- 10:00PM, Inferno_Inc wrote:

In my opinion, vampires - the best!

B\R deck would be awesome.

 

P.S.: thanks for event - gerat idea.

 

MTGO Username: Inferno.

Oct 12, 2009 -- 10:05PM, tehwyn wrote:

I'm definitely interested in this event, especially for the Standard Unified portion. Like many have said, mana fixing will definitely be limited, so the mono colored aggro decks seem like a step in the right direction. We definitely want Cruel Ultimatums and Baneslayer Angels in the decks though.

MTGO username: w455up

Oct 12, 2009 -- 10:47PM, LatentSanity wrote:

Oct 12, 2009 -- 9:01PM, Seeker_after_Chaos wrote:

If you're confident in Hedron Crab living, and can spare the fetches, Mill might be better. Think about it.

Only problem I see is that rather than the average Standard environment, in which people can be expected to play fetchlands where applicable, there are only 20 to go around between 8 decks, so Archive Trap gets substantially worse.

That, and using the blue fetches up just to improve Hedron Crab a bit seems like an awfully poor use. Since there are a full 8 decks we have to build, I feel like they would be better used in 2 or 3 color decks to help smooth out the mana or trigger the more broken Landfall cards (Ob Nixilis/Lotus Cobra come to mind.)

The big thing in this kind of Standard format is to pinpoint decks that hinge on specific subsections of cards and use them to free up the staples for the other decks. The Esper Stoneblade block deck was mentioned, and doesn't share a single card in common maindeck with the majority of other decks in the format. (Some Vampires! lists play Mistvein Borderposts to help turn on Vampire Nocturnus, but this format's version could easily just stick with Veinfires only, and some BWG Rock-like decks might run Tidehollow Sculler, but it's easy for them to do without.) Sideboard Path to Exiles can be replaced pretty easily.

A definite consideration for the format, for sure.

There are a few Crypt of Agadeem-based decks running around with 4x each of Architects of Will, Monstrous Carabid, Igneous Pouncer and Viscera Dragger, as well as Expedition Map; all cards that wouldn't see any play at all in other decks. They tend to be RB, running Consume Spirit/Banefire as the kill, with either Fleshbag Marauder or Gatekeeper of Malakir and Earthquake handling opposing creature duty. Terminate seems a good bet too, as does Liliana Vess as a secondary use for the creatures in the yard, as well as a reusable tutor for your X spells.

I have been trying to make a Grixis version that runs Soul Manipulation, Esper Sojourners (to untap Crypt) and Mind Spring, as well as versions trying Rite of Replication as the kill but haven't exactly had the time to test how to make it work.

Latentsanity on MTGO.

Oct 12, 2009 -- 10:59PM, SilkDragon wrote:

Personally I think going 8 stable decks would be the way to go.

However with that said i Can see a Green/Red landfall deck just be abused like no ones business if an opponent isnt ready for it. Same goes for mono black control. Imagine if you're paired against someone that isnt able to deal with the Blood Tribute combo! Also I think Blue/Black mill Might have a chance now. Lastly another combo people may not have thought of yet is Saruum the Hehemon + Blade of the Bloodchief.

 

MTGO ID : Ranth

Oct 12, 2009 -- 11:18PM, Ianonymous wrote:

TGO name: Ianonymous

I am really excited about this, it's just great when the MTGO team does something that really is all upside like this, really makes me feel good about the direction that game is taking and the team behind it.

 

Now, to strategy. A good(ish) combo-control deck for standard is right on the front page of the magic website right now. A lot of people have been working on Crypt control and it uses very few cards that any other deck would want, the only exception being probably the Gatekeepers of Malakir and the Sign in Bloods, which can be replaced in one of the two decks that want them without too much trouble.

 

Here's the link to the list www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.a...

 

One of the problem we're probably going to encounter in standard is that a lot of the lists will want to use the same non-basic lands, this is one where we can probably replace the Dragonskull Summits with Akuom Refuges.

For the Gatekeeper's replacement, maybe this deck can use the much-constructed-unloved Heartstabber Mosquito, since it'll be making absurd mana amounts anyhow.

As for the replacement for the sign in blood, maybe more copies of Diabolic Tutor? An Expedition Map or Two? What does everyone think?

 

Here's an altered list that shouldn't step on any other deck's toes:

4 Crumbling Necropolis
4 Crypt of Agadeem
4 Akoum Refuge
1 Jwar Isle Refuge
1 Island
8 Swamp

4 Architects of Will
4 Fleshbag Marauder
4 Heartstabber Mosquito
1 Jhessian Zombies
4 Monstrous Carabid
1 Vampire Hexmage
4 Viscera Dragger

2 Banefire
4 Consume Spirit
3 Diabolic Tutor
2 Earthquake
2 Expedition Map
3 Doom Blade

Oct 12, 2009 -- 11:27PM, Greedium wrote:

What an incredible idea they found !!! It make me hope I'd more time to write about MTG ...

Well, go go go Community !!!

As a matter of fact, I just tried a Casual mono-Black vampire deck with zendikar, and it reveals itself much more competitive and balance then I thought ! So it may be a good idea for the unified standard decks (obviously, not enought vampire for the 100-cards singleton ;-). The non-vampire cards that may have to be shared :

- Duress / Disfigure

- Doom Blade / Sign in Blood (quite effective !)

And don't forget the Vampire Nocturnus, because it's the core of the deck and will make you win in an eye's blink ! I tried the small casual combo of Explorer's scope with it (to get rid of land on the top of the library) and it proves to be powerful, enabling Nocturnus quite often ! But I don't know if it's competitive enough ... At worst, very enjoying to play !

I'll try to post a sample decklist later if I've got some time, but that's hightly unsure ...

Good luck community representatives !

____________________

MTGO account : greedium

Oct 13, 2009 -- 1:08AM, ShardFenix wrote:

UG landfall is definitely the nuts, so is mono red if you can force it.

 

As far as 8 standard decks with no overlap that gets tough.  I would go ahead and say any 5cc deck is almost automatically out of the question.

hmmm though this does allow for multiple decks  if i had to choose off the top of my head for decks i think i would play it out like this

monoblack vampires or b/r vampyres

monoblack control  (p.s. since each team is following this rule while the decks may not be as optimal as normal versions this could work)

WW-Soldiers

Monored Sligh

w/u control...i would put the baneslayers and day of judgments here obviously

blue/black mill

u/g tempo....not too sure here but this could be the place for landfalls and scute mobs with the cobra and harrows

the final deck sad to say may have to be a mish mash, though i think a version of either naya or jund is still available.  This all depends on the vampire choice, if you went mono black go jund here, if you chose vampyres(r/b) then naya would be the choice i made

some of the hardest choices though will be utility cards like sign in blood, lightning bolt, and path to exile

 

If anyone is interested in proposed decklists i will be checking this thread let me know and i can parse this out for you. or speak with me on MTGO

MTGO: ShardFenix

Oct 13, 2009 -- 8:28AM, hibikir wrote:

SpikeBoy, you better be running a pauper standard deck on unified standard, to show them how it's done! Maybe then we'd get the format supported

If I was building a deck for that format, I'd play som aggro goblins with a black splash:

Goblin Bushwhacker

Dragon Fodder

Kathari Bomber

Vampire Aristocrat

Hissing Iguanar

thorn thrash viashino

Some removal

Attack, Attack, then sack your little goblins. As an added bonus, chances are that nobody would want to use any of those cards for any other deck.

mtgo - hibikir

Oct 13, 2009 -- 8:47AM, natedawg wrote:

Oct 12, 2009 -- 11:44PM, Katastrophe wrote:

Oh wow. I just noticed that the Classic unified pool is a 1x set of every card released on MTGO.

But the Standard unified pool is a 4x set of Standard! Reading is tech. Since the format is singleton anyway that means we can use Sunpetal Grove in 4 of the 8 Standard decks! Yes!

I just realized that WotC is flying a few MTGO players over to their HQ to challenge them to a Zendikar draft.

Yes, 4/8 of the decks can use 1 Sunpetal Grove each.  Only 1/8 can use 4x Sunpetal Grove.

It might be useful to have threads for each of the formats, so good discussion can occur for them without getting lost in the username posting.

Oct 13, 2009 -- 8:57AM, SpikeBoyM wrote:

Oct 13, 2009 -- 8:28AM, hibikir wrote:

SpikeBoy, you better be running a pauper standard deck on unified standard, to show them how it's done! Maybe then we'd get the format supported

If I was building a deck for that format, I'd play som aggro goblins with a black splash:

Goblin Bushwhacker

Dragon Fodder

Kathari Bomber

Vampire Aristocrat

Hissing Iguanar

thorn thrash viashino

Some removal

Attack, Attack, then sack your little goblins. As an added bonus, chances are that nobody would want to use any of those cards for any other deck.

mtgo - hibikir

 

I have volunteered to do just that if that is how the cards fall!

I am going to do whatever is in the teams best interest to win and have a great time!  Too often, when playing non-Pauper constructed I get blinded by fun commons I want to play (I almost ran Umara Raptor in a constructed event IRL) , so I might have to leave all those rare and uncommon decisions to my capable and awesome teammates!

 

-Alex

Oct 13, 2009 -- 10:49AM, corran34 wrote:

For the standard deck I would bring the a cascade combo. it is pretty crazy when it goes.

 

mtgo username: corran_34

Oct 13, 2009 -- 1:01PM, millhill wrote:

I think the standard decks should be something like:

Time Sieve, Vampires, MonoR Goblins, WGb Knight of the Reliquary Control, Jund Cascade... After that it get a bit tougher, maybe a janky allies deck or a landfall deck, though then the Knight deck would likely lose Harrow which would suck. Gotta think more about this, it sure is a tricky format.

As for the drafts don't really know the spesifics though it never hurts to agree on some color preferences within your team.

 

millhill on MTGO

Oct 13, 2009 -- 10:06PM, The_Great_Galendo wrote:

I haven't played a game of tournament Magic in quite a while, so my strategic advice is limited, but I would say that one of the decks ought to be mono-black vampires, because what other deck is going to play Vampire Nocturnus or Child of the Night or Tendrils of Corruption?  If the "better" black removal doesn't find a home elsewhere, it can go here; otherwise this deck could even get by with playing Consume Spirit, if necessary.

 

I'd suggest Time Sieve as another deck for the same reasons.

 

That pretty much is the limits of my contribution, beyond hoping that you guys win.  Best of luck.

 

MTGO: Galendo

People keep mentioning the Time Sieve Deck - I like it because it appeals to the Vintage/Classic player in me.  I suppose you might even say if we go with that deck, it will be my *responsibility* to play it, becasue I very much doubt I'll be able to successfully pilot anything else in Standard.  We'll see.

However, because of the Vintage/Classic in me, I might get really frustrated too.  What do you mean I can't run Mana Crypt?!?!?

Oct 13, 2009 -- 2:00PM, Fraterpotens wrote:

this thread is a great idea, maybe hamtastic can link to it from the second post in the usernames thread? come to think of it, maybe getting WotC_Eric to link to it is the best approach. (A paralell and linked thread on the singleton format might be good too).

 

edit: no idea why the formating got crazy there

Bubba stated that he was going to be divvying up posts in the original thread out to format specific threads.  Hopefully CS will get it done for him soon.

Oct 13, 2009 -- 3:29PM, middleman35 wrote:

 The results from the SCG Phil 5k are up, with Jund Aggro taking a dominating 4/8 placings including the win.  I think that should cement Jund as one of the decks.  Usefully Jund also only overlaps with Lightning Bolt, Garruck, Duress and a little of the mana.  The winning list:

4 Bloodbraid Elf
3 Broodmate Dragon
4 Putrid Leech
4 Sprouting Thrinax

Instants
3 Bituminous Blast
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Resounding Thunder
2 Terminate

Planeswalkers
2 Garruk Wildspeaker

Sorceries
4 Blightning
3 Maelstrom Pulse

Basic Lands
4 Forest
2 Mountain
4 Swamp

Lands
3 Dragonskull Summit
4 Rootbound Crag
4 Savage Lands
4 Verdant Catacombs

Sideboard:
4 Goblin Ruinblaster
4 Jund Charm
4 Duress
1 Pyroclasm
2 Thought Hemorrhage

Bolts can probably get exchanged for a combination of the 4th Pulse, possibly another Thunder and 2 Burst Lightning?

How about Pulse, Thunder and the other two Terminates?  I think the red deck will probably need the Bursts.

Third placing RDW:

Maindeck:

Creatures
4 Ball Lightning
4 Goblin Guide
4 Hell's Thunder
4 Hellspark Elemental
1 Obsidian Fireheart
4 Plated Geopede

Instants
4 Burst Lightning
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Resounding Thunder

Sorceries
3 Earthquake
3 Elemental Appeal

Basic Lands
12 Mountain

Lands
4 Arid Mesa
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Teetering Peaks

Sideboard:
4 Goblin Ruinblaster
4 Unstable Footing
2 Chandra Nalaar
2 Act Of Treason
1 Earthquake
2 Mark Of Mutiny

The burn spells and fetches look like the biggest issue to me.  If we go with giving this deck the Lightning Bolts (it probably needs them most), do we think it could make do with Punishing Fire?

The fetches are only really there for the 5 landfall cards, could we replace these and cut the fetches for Mountains + 2 Valakut?

Yeah, I don't think it's a good idea to give any of the mono-colored decks the fetches without being certain they won't be needed for the other decks.

7th Place Vampire deck:

Maindeck:

Artifacts
1 Eldrazi Monument

Creatures
4 Bloodghast
4 Gatekeeper Of Malakir
3 Malakir Bloodwitch
3 Vampire Hexmage
4 Vampire Nighthawk
4 Vampire Nocturnus

Instants
3 Disfigure
4 Tendrils Of Corruption

Sorceries
2 Mind Sludge
4 Sign In Blood

Basic Lands
16 Swamp

Lands
4 Marsh Flats
4 Verdant Catacombs

Sideboard:
1 Malakir Bloodwitch
1 Vampire Hexmage
1 Disfigure
3 Deathmark
4 Duress
3 Marsh Casualties
2 Mind Sludge

Apart from the fetches and SB Duress this deck should be almost good to go as is.  Losing fetches will be a slight loss for Bloodghast and Nocturnus, but the deck should be able to handle that.

Agreed.

A hard call is going to be who gets the Day of Judgments.