Magic the Gathering

Lol, my friends and I are actually working on a Shrapnel-Doom deck of our own, but adding green to make te deck more defensively stable. We'll also be running Ugin's Nexus as another funny Shrapnel Blast fodder.

I'm still working on lists for the control deck I'm trying to think up (still unsure whether I'll be MonoU, UB, or Esper, but now I'm leaning toward Esper. I'm really confused rofl), and my Temur deck.
I had some amazing pulls during my prerelease, and 4-0'd it, defeating my friend in the finals, but we split the packs anyways. I pulled four fetchlands (2 Polluted Deltas, 1 Wooded Foothills, 1 Windswept Heath), along with a lot of really good Temur cards like Sagu Mauler and Savage Knuckleblade.
I also discovered how good Trail of Mystery actually is. It carried a lot of my games during my Sealed Games, and I suspect it could actually be pretty good in Constructed. I definitely will be trying to brew some sweet deck built around it one of these days.

Lol, my friends and I are actually working on a Shrapnel-Doom deck of our own, but adding green to make te deck more defensively stable. We'll also be running Ugin's Nexus as another funny Shrapnel Blast fodder.

I'm still working on lists for the control deck I'm trying to think up (still unsure whether I'll be MonoU, UB, or Esper, but now I'm leaning toward Esper. I'm really confused rofl), and my Temur deck.
I had some amazing pulls during my prerelease, and 4-0'd it, defeating my friend in the finals, but we split the packs anyways. I pulled four fetchlands (2 Polluted Deltas, 1 Wooded Foothills, 1 Windswept Heath), along with a lot of really good Temur cards like Sagu Mauler and Savage Knuckleblade.
I also discovered how good Trail of Mystery actually is. It carried a lot of my games during my Sealed Games, and I suspect it could actually be pretty good in Constructed. I definitely will be trying to brew some sweet deck built around it one of these days.

I missed all of the prerelease events because of work... The military curfew took away my midnight release chance and every other venue was either booked full, too far away or at an hour which I'm working. ;__________;

I think we should keep ShrapDoom U/R because you can defend yourself from early aggro with Lightning Strike, fight the 4s with Stoke the Flames and just win out of nowhere (all it takes is one Howled Shrap out of a Scuttles and it's 21 to the face) while being consistent-- especially playing Ensoul Scissors and Ghostfire Blade. I took that list and replaced the Chief Engineers with Generator Servants, and the Daring Thief's with more burn.

As for Temur... I feel that I also want Generator Servant into Surrak, (the soul with trample), Sagu, or even Sarkhan/Stormbreath (yeah the haste is redundant but ramp). Would you play Temur Ascendancy?

Except when the burn is bad, it's pretty horrible. I'd imagine that some things you'd absolutely need to kill might come out at even higher than four toughness. At least, we just felt like the Courser-Caryatid combination is already great defense, so it'd be worth putting in green for em. Besides that, It opens up more options in the sideboard. too. I think Generator Servant probably a good add, since it increases the deck's explosiveness.
In the end, we wanted to make this deck as consistent as possible, as opposed to being fast. While it is funny to simply deal 21 damage immediately, 11 damage, or 5 damage plus an extra turn is funny enough, and with other things to keep the board stable, we think it can actually be fairly competitive.

Yeah, Generator Servant, as I mentioned before, sounds broken to me, since you ramp to 5 immediately, and there's a lot of swag in the 5 slot. Surrak is awesome, because it makes all your threats even harder to stop, and having early dragons is very hard to deal with. They'd need the End Hostilities fast, and even if your opponent was on the play, they'd need two more turns if they don't have ramp in their deck.

I actually don't like Temur Ascendancy, because the way I think Temur should be built involves laying on constant pressure on your opponent, casting an oversized creature EVERY TURN, or keeping open some kind of trick or counterspell to protect your dudes while you pummel your opponent. The turn you cast Ascendacy, you do neither of those things. It doesn't pressure the opponent, and it doesn't protect your guys. The card is alright in sideboard perhaps, if you need to become more midrangey and grind out a control opponent, but otherwise, it has too little impact on the game.

RUG in general always was about the mid-range/tempo. Look at any RUG deck, such as Canadian Threshold for legacy or RUG vial for modern, they always play threats, and I love that about the color combination.

With that being said, I do agree with Blink in that it should be always playing threats, and having combat tricks to back it up, whether it be counter-spells or just protection for your creatures.

as for my reanimator deck, I'll be removing that one Meandering Towershell for a Necropolis Fiend. Also found out that Sidisi only triggers for one zombie, and not for each creature revealed. sadfaic.jpg.

I understand your points on Ascendancy and I respect them. I was looking at the fact that we could Ascendancy on the second turn and give all of our fatties haste (let's not forget, Fires of Yavimaya) and it gets enabled with like 1/3 of the deck, so it wouldn't be such a big issue. Also, in the latelategame you can have an Ascendancy in play and farm it out with Knuckleblade's bounce ability.

I gotta say, the more I hear about Courser going into more decks in the format, the more I want to use Polis Crusher in Temur. I've seen lists running him instead of the 4th Polukranos and I have to agree, he's a beating. I've also been looking at Crystalline Nautilus and holy shit. You can just go balls to the wall offensive with a package like:



I took out the Fanatic of Xenagos but I'll add them back if Nautilus doesn't work out. If we're running Ascendancy we're never getting tribute, and if we don't get tribute it won't enable Ascendancy because the +1/+1 happens after it's already entered as a 3/3...

Don't worry, once I get all the cards, I'll be posting weekly (well, as often as I can) results. :)

That second-turn Ascendancy sounds like a best case scenario type deal, and even then, I'd rather be applying pressure by casting Knuckleblade or morphing Sagu Mauler. Once again, it's a turn that you were unable to put pressure on your opponent. In this case, however, it is getting you a lot of advantage, as the game goes on, so I suppose it'd be useful there.

Polis Crusher is definitely underplayed. I was surprised that not every deck ran at least one or two back in this Standard, not just because of Courser, but D-Sphere and such.


On another note, I wonder how far each new deck will spread. If i settle on my control deck, I think I will need to be Esper, because i feel as though I'm gonna need that wrath, End Hostilities, maindeck. Having a ton of removal may not be enough.
I may be donating my Temur deck to a friend of mine, so that's why I'm so back and forth on this, lol.

I'm dumb. I talked about Ascendancy T2 and I don't have Mystics, LOL

I suspect the decks with Thoughtseize and Brain Maggot will be very widespread for a while as they figure out people's decklists (since no one will netdeck proper until events start to happen) but once it settles down, I feel that we're gonna look at a very creature-heavy Standard... Siege Rhino gives me a headache.

I'm inclined to try to fuse U/R ShrapDoom with Temur Monsters like you suggested. Let me know how that works out.

EDIT: wtf Terra Stomper is Standard Legal? And we have Generator Servant and Temur Ascendancy? WTF AM I DOING

So excited to get to Japan. I miss playing FNMs. TTwTT

\o/

I tried checking in with my counterparts up north but none of them play MTG... I asked the question for them to research though, but hey, if you're into playing Pathfinder or DnD, you won't find a shortage of people to play with, haha. As soon as I get something I'll let you know.

I'm looking forward to grinding FNMs as well in this new standard, and I'm glad that I won't need as many cards once the set releases and my preorder stuff arrives. I do want foil Knuckleblades though, so hook me up! ;)

EDIT: Got to test a list at my LGS today when I went to pick up my box: pulled a foil Clever Impersonator, a regular one, a foil Crackling Doom, Anafenza, and five fetches. But anyway, tested against Abzan with a side of Chromanticore (!).

-Temur Ascendancy is 100% a build-around card: you either drop it early and start pulling value from it, or you drop it late and use it to catch up with the rest of your team. Makes Terra Stomper scary as fuck. As soon as you add more than a couple instants/sorceries, it starts to belong to the sideboard.
-Temur Charm belongs to lists with few creatures where you can take a more controlling aspect, leaving mana up for responses like bounce, denial and such. You would play beefier creatures like Polukranos to take better advantage of the fighting.
-Lightning Strike is super important as it takes care of morphs before they become an issue: Grim Haruspex, Sagu Mauler, Rattleclaw Mystic, even Hooded Hydra and the spell stealer guy. Also gives you reach and keeps planeswalkers low and away from their ultimates.
-Crater's Claws is definitely a 1-of in Temur lists if you're focused on Ascendancy triggers. Need a way to deal with Rhino, Deathdealer, Roc and other such troublesome things. BLAST TARGET ASHIOK, NIGHTMARE WEAVER.
-Speaking of fliers, Arbor Colossus is almost a necessity: Stormbreath, Roc and the other 5/4 flying guy are going to be everywhere and you need a way to deal with them in the main board other than Plummets or Windstorm on the side.
-Xenagod is absolutely ridiculous if you drop him and then follow up with a Terra Stomper. 16/16 trampler with haste? If they don't have the Downfall or the Crackling, gg.
-Holy shit the mana in Standard is painful!! Pain lands, fetches and Confluence, shit. I almost want to play Courser just to fix it but you can get away with being more aggressive.
-Speaking of more aggressive, Clever Impersonator deserves a spot. He can copy the most troublesome thing on the board, including but not limited to: Elspeth, Stormbreath, Sarkhan, Ashiok, Nissa, Polukranos, Rhino.....
-Nylea gets the nod over Surrak on the main because Indestructible.
-Don't forget Keranos!!! He's better than ever right now, especially when you just want to draw gas and burn them off.

Just a few observations from like 4 hours of straight games. More to come, of course. Young format.

Lol, I haven't practiced the new format yet, considering it just came out today for me and I just woke up, but I knew from a friend that you actually need don't need to max out on painlands. Even if they're taplands, he'd much rather play a ton of scrylands since the pains are now very relevant in terms of life loss.

I've officially decided on UB control for now. As much as I wanted to be an Esper beatdown deck, I can't afford a set of Brimaz... I could consider being some kind of Sultai control, but other than Courser-Caryatid, there's not much I actually want from green.

Finally been play-testing the reanimator deck on Cocatrice as of right now, and I think this will be my final list :

http://deckstats.net/deck-4958668-983cb34e5170ef4e76200983999a7838.html

Necro Fiend wins games. Blocks so much in this format, and with the milling mechanic of the Sultai, it's so easy to hard-cast it as well as it to block a lot of aggro stuff out there that also kills when needed.

Also added 2 Prognostic Sphinx since it's such a good enabler as well as real good evasion.

Ashiok is going to give you so many free wins... Brimaz is only going to become more and more expensive though, so it would be better to grab them as early as you can. >:



Yes. Yes. This is nice. :)
I would max out on Coursers if you can, though. No real reason not to, especially vs. Rabblered and mono-black. Staying alive longer helps you mill more and get there.

Indeed. Only wincons are Ashiok and Prognostic Sphinx. Before that is just counterspells, removal, and card draw.
I have roughly 60% of a list now, but I'm on a pretty good track of finishing it. Wanna fine tune it well.

Well, he's already 25 bucks... a bit out of my price range, and if it's just gonna go up, I might as well forget about it, as sweet as my list was gonna be. I thougt the Esper beatdown would be insanely good.


Here's what I'm thinking about so far for my UB. To note, it's not gonna add up to 60. I'm still deciding what else I want. It's always hard for me to build decks right as a new Standard format comes out because I'm super picky.

Definitely in the deck:


What I'm also considering:



I'll consider my sideboard after I finish my main. I already have some ideas of situational cards for it.

Brimaz has a lot of value in Modern as well, that's the main reason he's so expensive-- the fetches are coming down for a while but when Khans is out of print, they will increase again to the over $30-40 mark. More than likely.

About the cards you mentioned: if you're going straight instants / minimal sorceries until you stabilize, Aetherspouts will be your best friend. I also think you can get away with running Ingenuity, but definitely at LEAST 1 Dig Through Time. Card is sick. You know what other card is sick? Treasure Cruise. Unfortunately, you gotta commit your Delves to Murderous Cut or you're gonna get eaten by fast aggro decks...

Speaking of dealing with fast aggro decks, won't you consider the red splash (Bloostained Mire and Mana Confluence in the format) and go Grixis? You'll have access to Lightning Strike, Anger of the Gods and Keranos. ;)

Yup. I'd like to get my hands on the blue fetches at least as soon as possible.

Aetherspouts is decent. It's a major blowout the first time, the issue is that it falls off the moment your opponent knows about it, which is why I'm considering a lesser amount, maybe only 2, but probably 3. It's probably my only chance against the balls-to-the-wall aggresive Warriors deck that I've seen a bunch of people start off with just because it's really fast and relatively simple to build, but still fairly diverse because there is a lot of good directions to take the deck.
I think Ingenuity will be quite decent, since it is a good chunk of instant-speed card draw. The amount I'd actually want will vary. It is a 5 mana spell after all.
As much as I like Tresure Cruise, Dig Through Time is SO MUCH BETTER. Instant speed, cheaper delve, and it lets you look at so many more cards. And since I'm already playing Murderous Cut along with some number of these and no real mill, I can't really have anymore Delve cards.

Believe me, I've considered it. I have mentioned that I love me a Grixis deck. It would definitely make the aggro matchup a joke, way too easy (in theory, anyway), but again, I'm worried about X/4s in bigger aggro or midrange. I usually make my removal package in Grixis a series of burn, and if my burn can't one-shot things, it becomes really bad.

I could always wait a bit for some kind of metagame to actually appear, see what the most popular decks are, and adjust accordingly. When Innistrad cycled out, and Theros was the new thing, I didn't know what to do, until it was realized devotion was the real thing, and I built a sweet UR control deck that wrecked devotion pretty hard... except Lo and behold, in my shop at the time, everyone played some kind of tri-color midrange (something I should of expected. No one actually netdecked in that store, most people in that store was skilled enough to build their own really good decks).

EDIT: With cards like these, I'd think it's safe to say my draft deck was relatively good, isn't it? Should mention that one of the Abzan charms and one of the Rocs were actually in my prize packs, but details. Also, the Savage Knuclblade wasn't in my deck, but I took it anyways because value xP

That looks very sexy. Japanese drafts, though... everyone has to give up their pulls, and the event WINNERS get the picks first in order. Everything else is just like usual.

I agree, the abundance of 4+ toughness creatures in the format really puts a strain on burn's effectiveness. Anger will still be necessary as long as RabbleRed and Warriors are a thing, though, not even mentioning mono-b. :( I want to make a Modern deck with Villainous Wealth and another Standard deck with Shrapnel Blast... ugh. Wallet.

EDIT EDIT EDIT: Holy shit Jeskai Ascendancy decks. Scary as fuck. That's it, I'm maindecking Eidolon of the Great Revel.

I might just drop my UB altogether since there doesn't seem to be enough cards unless I dip into a third color. I have all the stuff together in case some kind of inspiration strikes, but until then, no dice.

Considering that I have a ton of stuff from recent drafts for Abzan, I was considering building that... but it built itself so quickly that it was boring... The only way I really differentiate myself from SCG decks that was typical was Fleecemane Lion, Wingmate Roc, and Ajani. Other than those, everyone plays Caryatids, Coursers, Brimaz's, Siege Rhinos, etc.

I suppose Plan C is a Temur deck... except I loaned ALL my Temur cards to my sempai.
Thankfully, I'm gonna be in brew mode, and thus, won't actually need many of those cards. I'm gonna try out that Trail of Mystery deck I said I was gonna build. Still a work in progress, but it should be sweet, at least for fun value.
Either that, or I might work on my "team's" deck, the RUG ShrapDoom deck I mentioned before.
Regardless, I get to be the Johnny I haven't been in a while. Gonna be great! =D

Make a deck with Villainous Wealth!

Or if you go Temur Shrapnel Blast, it would be extremely interesting, since you have more than enough support IMO.

All I'd do is throw a bunch of ramp cards together, make X as big as possible, and hope my opponent flips enough sweet stuff...

Already have a shell for both the Mysterious Plans deck (Temur Trail of Mysteries + Secret Plans morph deck), and my "team's" deck, the Temur ShrapDoom deck I mentioned before, but have not actually filled out the rest.

I actually finished my UB control deck today, and it seems to work solidly, though I'm not liking Bile Blight, and might switch it to Silence the believers. I find my myself often with much more mana than I can efficiently use. I can actually see myself playing four copies of it, too, though I'd need to find more space since there's only two Bile Blights