Magic: The Gathering

[Chowlett]

8 Plains, 6 Forest, 4 Elhame Palace, 3 Meteor Craters
Tigereye Cameo
2 Arrogant Wurm
4 Basking Rootwalla
3 Confessor
1 Devoted Caretaker
3 Fleetfoot Panther
4 Mystic Penitent
3 Patrol Hound
1 Serra Angel
3 Standard Bearer
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Armadillo Cloak
4 Pacifism
1 Narcissism
4 Disenchant

[Velociryx]

Chowlett: Thus far, what is your impression of the deck? How does it play? Does it seem fast? Slow? How many rounds (in general) until you can begin to develop your position? Are you finding yourself holding onto certain cards that you just don't seem to be able to use readily?

Do you have problems with color-specific mana (ie - find yourself holding a card that costs 3w simply because you can't seem to draw that third plains).

As I see it (and admittedly, I've not played with the majority of the cards that currently make up your deck), it's probably on the slow side. I'd guess 3-4 rounds of play before you're really in a position to start developing the deck. If that's the case, what defenses do you have against weenie decks and pure burn (don't know how powerful red is in this latest incarnation, but when I played regularly, the real powerhouse decks were black speed and burn decks, with white weenie making a strong showing as well).

On the surface, it looks like a pretty stable, solid deck, that would be greatly aided by the addition of some card drawing ability (howlers, jayemdae tomes, or whatever else you could put together).

I would imagine your worst nightmares to play against though, would be decks relying on raw speed (decks that have 1-4 casting cost creatures, backed up by stat-bumping instants and burn). Also, how many spells in your current arsenal have a casting cost of 3+ color specific mana. If you have too many of these, you open yourself up to vulnerability to land destruction decks.

What I would recommend would be to play this deck against a deck say....black/green, composed of nothing but 1-4 casting cost creatures (just whatever you happen to be able to lay your hands on)...exactly 60 cards, 18 land, the rest creatures. (when I was playing regularly, I'd test my decks against a 60 card "rat deck" (18 land, 42 rats) (I forget the name of the rats in question, but they were */* creatures, where * = the number of rats in play) When you can beat that deck regularly, you're there.

-=Vel=-

[Jon Miller]

try it out!!

6 midsize creatures
22 small creatures
4 creature control
5 creature boost (enchantments)
4 enchantment/artifact destruction

the Tigereye is questionable (what land search do you have??)

I am unsure about meteor crater, I would probably decrease the number of those down to 1 or so

it should be a decent weeny deck

you should be near winning by the time you attack with a Serra

oh, and stick in Pianna (you have a weeny deck)

try to pull out a few things to get down to 60 cards

Jon Miller

[Jon Miller]

Originally posted by Velociryx
Chowlett: Thus far, what is your impression of the deck? How does it play? Does it seem fast? Slow? How many rounds (in general) until you can begin to develop your position? Are you finding yourself holding onto certain cards that you just don't seem to be able to use readily?

Do you have problems with color-specific mana (ie - find yourself holding a card that costs 3w simply because you can't seem to draw that third plains).

As I see it (and admittedly, I've not played with the majority of the cards that currently make up your deck), it's probably on the slow side. I'd guess 3-4 rounds of play before you're really in a position to start developing the deck. If that's the case, what defenses do you have against weenie decks and pure burn (don't know how powerful red is in this latest incarnation, but when I played regularly, the real powerhouse decks were black speed and burn decks, with white weenie making a strong showing as well).

On the surface, it looks like a pretty stable, solid deck, that would be greatly aided by the addition of some card drawing ability (howlers, jayemdae tomes, or whatever else you could put together).

I would imagine your worst nightmares to play against though, would be decks relying on raw speed (decks that have 1-4 casting cost creatures, backed up by stat-bumping instants and burn). Also, how many spells in your current arsenal have a casting cost of 3+ color specific mana. If you have too many of these, you open yourself up to vulnerability to land destruction decks.

What I would recommend would be to play this deck against a deck say....black/green, composed of nothing but 1-4 casting cost creatures (just whatever you happen to be able to lay your hands on)...exactly 60 cards, 18 land, the rest creatures. (when I was playing regularly, I'd test my decks against a 60 card "rat deck" (18 land, 42 rats) (I forget the name of the rats in question, but they were */* creatures, where * = the number of rats in play) When you can beat that deck regularly, you're there.

-=Vel=-

his deack is mostly small creatures

arround 2 manna or less

Jon Miller

[Velociryx]

If the spells are that cheap, then I'd heartily recommend stripping out two lands and that tiger's eye thing, to bring it down to sixty cards even. I assume the mulligan rule is still in force, and if so, you get a reshuffle if you get screwed on land.

At that point, the only thing you have to worry about is your lack of card drawing ability. Fortunately, IIRC, Howler's are universal (you gain the card drawing benefit too, if the other guy lays one down...and if weenie decks are still all the rage, then a lot of the people you'll play against will be sporting them....that's good for you).

And considering the cheap price of many of your cards then, your biggest trouble will come from being able to empty your hand all too easily. Looks like card drawing is your only real weakspot in the deck....well, that and, if I'm understanding the definitions of most of these cards, you've got precious few stat-bumpers, meaning that you'll need high survivability among your creature suite in order to get the kill. From some of the specials that have been discussed, it looks as though you DO have a measure of durability there tho, so that shouldn't be debilitating.

-=Vel=-
(a pity Feldon's Cane is, in all probability, a goner....would be worth making it 61 cards just to include it...)

[Chowlett]

It plays reasonably well atm, it's putting up at least a 50/50 win/loss ratio. I'll chuck in Pianna, and remove the cameo and the meteors and see what it's like. What do people reckon on a hurricane, since I don't have much flying?

[Chowlett]

Ok, I howked out the cameo, the meteors and the Standard bearers, and put in 2 Pianna's, a plains and a forest. 60 cards, and we'll test it tomorrow.

[Velociryx]

Personally, I think Hurricane would be a good addition to the deck. IIRC, the Armadillo thingy plays like a Spirit Link with stat-bumping effects, meaning life for you. Hurricane's groovy, in that it's very mana-efficient when you're up against a deck with lots of fliers, and even when you're not, it's a good way to nail down the kill, if you don't mind getting buffetted a bit yourself (which you shouldn't, given the Armadillo things). It's also a nice way around the fact that you don't really have a lot of stat-bumping.

Good fix, and gives you something to do with all that land you've got in the deck, considering that your critters are, by and large, cheap to cast. How many do you have? If you can find two cards to squeeze out, adding two in might not be a bad thing.

-=Vel=-

[Chowlett]

I have 1. I don't know what I'd throw out for it though, it's tricky. Any thoughts anyone?

[Velociryx]

If it was me, I'd start by ditching a Disenchant for it.

See how that plays....

-=Vel=-

[MrFun]

I feel like a misplaced MTG orphan now.

I need to get back into the game that I enjoyed so much.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Jon Miller
ok, here is an example of what ou can do know

Okay, so instants now resolve like interrupts (LIFO) instead of first-in-first-out.

So that means if you want to lightning bolt a creature of mine, I can put giant growth on it so it doesn't get smeared?

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by MrBaggins
My type1 now (on MTG:IE) back in the day I was missing the mox pearl and mirror universe.

Why don't you go with a more counter/denial deck? Even my old type II blue/white control deck got 12 counters (4 each of counterspell, power sink, and spell blast) plus some critters with power spikes.

Arcane Denial and Quash are powerful cards.

[Urban Ranger]

What, they banned swords? Sheesh!

[Urban Ranger]

Whoa, they banned dark rituals.