Sign the official petition to BAN Bloodbraid Elf here: http://www.petitiononline.com/BanBBElf/petition.html
OK, so a few weeks ago, a few of us on Twitter made a pact.
(by the way, if anyone is wondering why this blog isn't frequently updated, I feel like, between Twitter and our podcast, Yo! MTG Taps! I get most of my blog-worthy topics sufficiently off of my chest. Still, I plan on posting more blogs when I deem it appropriate, so don't give up on me! Patience, Young Padawan!)
I tweeted about my desire to build an old school, monogreen list similar to the one I had in 1995 when I first started playing and traded my Birds of Paradise for Llanowar Elves because I only needed green mana and those fools had ONE POWER. Several of my followers posted similar sentiments in response to my original post. This evolved into a pact on Twitter that we were all going to play monogreen stompy lists on 2/26/2010 at FNM. The people who made this pact, to call them out and make sure they keep up their end of the offer, were @fatecreatr @stupiddeck and @tigerbreak
So, after a few days of testing and a few different versions of the deck, here is the final list that I am going to war with on Friday Night!
A Wolf Shirt, In Deck Form
FIRST, a confession.
I am turning into a Spike.
Despite my Timmy deckbuilding tendencies, I am really starting to want to just play the best cards, and smash my opponent without remorse in every single way imaginable. This deckbuilding exercise was a lot of fun, but you will notice that some of my card choices strayed from the spirit of the original exercise. Noticeably absent from the list is Terra Stomper. I originally included the card, but I wasn't enjoying spending 6 mana to have the creature killed by removal. True, it can't be countered, but I really just wanted to kick a Wolfbriar Elemental twice instead of playing this card. This deck is just a placeholder until I can run my W/U control list with 4 copies of the Mind Sculptor next week.
A few notes about the specific card choices:
Master of the Wild Hunt: MVP. This card is such a blowout if you untap with it, especially if you have a Basilisk Collar to attach to any of the wolves. With 3 different ways to generate Wolf tokens, this card gets more mileage in this deck than any other deck running it.
Vines of Vastwood: Saves a creature from spot removal, protects Master of the Wild Hunt, and can sometimes be used to keep your opponent from targeting his/her own creature in a pinch. Also, +4/+4 on a creature at instant speed has so many fun uses.
Scattershot Archer: Oh Jesus, Scattershot Archer + Basilisk Collar = <3 Thanks @blairwitchgreen
Pitfalls:
Sometimes you get an opening hand with 1 land and 5 4+ CC spells. Not fun. A Mulligan to 6 is not uncommon, although in my brief testing with the deck a Mulligan to 5 is rare. This is definitely a mid-range deck, so some aggro strategies decimate it, and sometimes control decks get enough time to stabilize before you can get your Masters etc. online. Also, Iona exists. She is a right bitch.
That's all I got for now. I will post a tournament report sometime next week, if I take decent enough notes and I don't misplace them.
If you have a monogreen list that you want to post, post it in the comments for comparison purposes.
Thanks for reading! Get out to FNM, and watch out for wolves...
Bigheadjoe
Podcast: Looking Back at 2011 with Top8Magic
1 month ago
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5 comments:
Now that I think about it, I might cut vines to 2 and put in another Arbor Elf...
Hey this guy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAMU0PMiqaM signed your petition. Guess he plays Magic and hate BBE
I want to be down for green beats day but I might not have the ability to pull a deck together in one and a half days.
Keep us updated on how you do tonight.
Yeah, to be fair, I had about a week to trade for all the stuff for the deck, and concentrated my trading on doing so.
I just wanted to point out that, just because you're turning into a spike doesn't mean you can't be the rogue deckbuilder you've always been (think Conley Woods).
Monogreen beatdown is most certainly a rogue list right now, and I think you're onto something that's worth exploring and fine tuning. Maybe it will eventually involve another color (if only a splash), but—take it from me—playing against your deck was sometimes like fighting a battering ram. Think about this: Chapin said green creature decks were the best matchup for his UW Control list, yet I still found myself struggling against you. You can probably attribute this to several things, such as my inexperience with Chapin's deck when you and I first played, or the fact that your deck (at the time) had several anti-blue cards maindeck (as I mentioned on episode 12). But I still think you should Explore (pun intended) the strategy a bit further.
There are a lot of GOOD options for a monogreen deck right now. You saw how Matt's deck went in another direction entirely. I started to tell you about this, but I think you were distracted. In Game 2, Matt played a turn 1 Llanowar Elves, nothing relevant on turn 2 (I think he attacked), and then on turn 3 he cast Oracle of Mul Daya, which I countered with a Flashfreeze (tapping out in the process). He plays Summoning Trap into Avenger of Zendikar, and I'm suddenly in deep shit. My turn 3, I drop a land and can't even play Jace to bounce his Avenger, because unlike him, I didn't accelerate; I've only got 3 mana. I can't remember what I did, nothing relevant. I pass the turn, he plays a land (adding a counter to each of his 3 plant tokens), plays Beastmaster Ascension (for which I don't have a counterspell), and attacks with 5 creatures (Avenger, 3 plants, Elf). It's Day of Judgment or nothing for me, and I don't have it. He played literally THREE spells not counting the Summoning Trap (he didn't have to pay for it, so I'm not counting it): Elf, Oracle, Beastmaster Ascension. RIDICULOUS!!
Not to say you should do something like that, but there are a lot of good green cards to consider, and the deck seems very "you"—so make it into a Spike deck!
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