Discussion Forum

If you didn't already know i am a sub-par deck builder who writes really bad articles on these forums that only help the occasional limited/standard players, but for the most part do absolutely nothing.

I am writing this because recently i have been swayed by a deck idea spawned from one of the columns at the official MTG website (this being from my favorite of the selections) that involved an infinite combo that i have figured out has a small range of abilities with there only being a few combo finishers to the entire piece. This is the original posting of it, and i have taken the deck to my own standards and have been working the deck out since yesterday at my local FNM. I see this as revenge of the commons (considering i held my own against jund and polymorph until they played a huge threat such as broodmate or jace 2.0). The entire deck is based off of these two cards:
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=176456&type=cardhttp://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=193474&type=card

If you look closely the combo is when a Fatestitcher with a Splinter Twin enchanted to it has the Fatestitcher tap to put a copy of it onto the battlefield with haste, and using the copy's ability to untap target permanent, you untap the original Fatestitcher and repeat the process. But this combo is limited in the fact that it can only be done during your main phase and an end phase and does nothing without another card in addition to the two previously stated. I so far have found three cards(four if you count the two cards different) that work with this combo somewhat effectively. Which can bee seen here:
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=198180&type=cardhttp://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=179505&type=cardhttp://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=190571&type=card]

With the fourth being Soul Warden's twin sister Soul's Attendant.
From here I differ on the deck variation i make. With the somewhat limited resources i had i came up with this for FNM yesterday:

4x Fatestitcher
4x Splinter Twin
4x Soul Warden
4x Gleam of Resistance
1x Wall of Omens
3x Perimeter Captain
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Oblivion Ring
4x Divination
4x Spreading Seas
4x Terramorphic Expanse
4x Sejiri Refuge
6x Mountain
5x Island
5x Plains
Sideboard:
4x Kor Firewalker
4x Goblin Ruinblaster
3x Deft Duelist
2x Celestial Purge
2x Volcanic Fallout

And the limitations were on the fact that I still wanted to have the four wall of omens instead of the captains. But this deck performed poorly with the fact that I had these match-ups in this order: 1) Jund, 2) Polymorph, 3) The Rock, 4) some B/R build. I went 3-1. But using this information i saw how useless the combo is when it can be stopped essentially by just killing the soul warden (yes they did that instead of the Splinter Twin usually.) And how my Spreading Seas was my MVP of the whole tournament next to Fatestitcher tapping things down whenever. So I have made what i would call improvements based off of a more solid kill condition being Nomad's Assembly. So after about 2 hours of deliberating what would be in this semi-budget deck i came up with this:

4x Perimeter Captain
4x Wall of Omens
4x Spreading Seas
4x Convincing Mirage
2x Ajani Vengeant
4x Fatestitcher
4x Surreal Memoir
4x Splinter Twin
4x Time Warp
2x Nomad's Assembly
4x Sejiri Refuge
6x Plains
8x Island
6x Mountain

This version should be realistically better with any match-ups against a deck with blue and another color Spreading Seas is still good, and Convincing Mirage is overkill on the land screw-age. With a realistic hand ending up as: Spreading Seas, Convincing Mirage, Surreal Memoir, Mountain, Plains, Island, and Wall of Omens. Which is a solid hand to keep with (if you count them) 2 removal spells and one of the best cantrips in standard. I used the Vengeant to keep the Fatestitcher targets tapped, and as you can see i have Surreal Memoir for some recursion (it even has recursion itself!) to get back Time Warp and Nomad's Assembly. I look forward to playing this deck next FNM and getting at least a 2-2 or better record.

I called this Article "My Magic, My Deck" because i tend to make weird turns in how i make my deck compared to the thing that i practically hate most, net-decking. And when I make these decks they end up as semi-winning fun to play with decks rather than no fun feel like a jerk Jund (i borrow my friends when i don't have a finished deck.) And I have been thinking about other deck ideas that i think are original for Standard that i have not seen such as a Fish deck that currently consists of four of every card in it except basic lands which are; Merfolk Sovereign, Coralhelm Commander, Lullmage Mentor, Enclave Cryptologist, Sejiri Merfolk, Cancel, Deprive, Negate, and Unified Will.
I see this deck as having essentially three lords all together being:
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=191087&type=cardhttp://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=193651&type=cardhttp://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=190404&type=card
and of course the deck would boast Halimar Depths and a couple of plains and fetches for said plains. But i liked where I am going with this deck so far with Lullmage Mentor being the entire basis of the deck, and Enclave Cryptologist being a strictly better Merfolk Looter, and Sejiri Merfolk becoming unblockable and usually being a 4/3 with first strike and lifelink.
But currently my deck that I am making that is a level up based theme is a culmination of these cards; Lightning Bolt, Banefire, Comet Storm, Surreal Memoir, Archive Trap, Training Grounds, Champion's Drake, Venerated Teacher, Lighthouse Chronologist, Echo Mage, and one of my favorites Brimstone Mage. For this i still do not have a completed list but those for now are the spells that i am likely to be using, along with some utility lands.

I start to build my decks off a few cards that I like or an overall theme for the deck, then using the usual procedures going through finding nine cards and making a 36-24 deck. Making adjustments, and constantly looking at all standard cards in the gatherer. After that i test it out with friends and some of the top decks (mws is a divine gift!) until it leads up to an FNM where i show off my crazy cards that are usually crazy weird and bad. But hey i play for the love of the game (and the awesome foils!). I dragged two friends into this and have dumped around 5 years of my life into it.

So that is my love affair with standard, with myself never having money and using limited resources to make the best of it. I wish i knew of a place near my area that plays EDH because that is way better than standard. Legacy and vintage are too expensive, and Extended is just eww. Which is why I love limited more than anything and play in drafts when i have the money. Please comment on these ideas and decks for some opinions on finishing these or not. So with that i leave you showing you off what i do and somewhat why. I am DreadWaffle and that is the Insight.