Mavlis

9 Decks, 8 Comments, 0 Reputation

I think Bloodchief Ascension and Pyromancer Ascension together is a little greedy (imo) - Pyro Ascent feels fairly out of place here.

As some others had suggested, I would probably go with Sign in Blood as a dual function card - to draw cards if you need it, or to trigger Bloodchief Ascension if you need it, too - probably at the expense of Dark Tutelage which isn't that great for this deck - 3 mana for later cards isn't quite as good as 2 mana for now cards - this deck is fairly dependent on getting a bit of an earlier start, in my opinion - you need your Bloodchief out asap.

I'd also say drop the Slagstorms so that you can go to all of your red mana being achieved through dual lands, and play a bit heavier black. You could potentially go with Pyroclasm in its place, serving a similar function of aggro reducing (I know that Slagstorm serves the dual function of triggering Bloodchief's, but I think with a deck that needs a quick start, it's too slow and you run risk of missing one of your colors) or something a little more aggressive like Pulse Tracker which is a fairly solid 1 mana card that's good for triggering Bloodchief as well. Play a pulse tracker turn 1, Bloodchief Ascent turn 2, and you've got a charge already.

Volt Charge also, honestly, may be a little overkill too. Yeah, it charges it twice by itself, but by that point, you might've been able to play other cheaper cards faster.

Other card suggestions might be Perilous Myr, Furnace Scamp, or Arc Trail for some early creature removal while triggering Bloodchief Ascension.

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Posted 02 June 2011 at 15:32 as a comment on Bloodcrank Combo

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This deck already relies heavily on a 2 card combo that's not even a win condition. The real issue I see is that your combo is more of a "draw" condition, and you honestly only have two cards that will conceivably win you games (and even those are iffy, because you can't spend yourself to negative life and you have such few ways of actually dealing damage to your opponent) - and even those are based on two card combos as well. If you don't get a Phyrexian Unlife, you're flailing in the water - all of your win cons are contingent on that card, but that card's only truly effective if you have Melria AND ways to protect her. Your ways of digging for the cards you need are, also, fairly limited. To effectively play a combo deck, you need to be able to reliably get out your combo. This deck doesn't achieve that because you spend so much time trying to preserve your combo WHEN you get it out.

I've played a deck in this similar theme several times, and have never lost. My wins usually hinge on the backs of a couple of cards:

Memoricide - This comes in game 2 obviously, but if I take out either your Meliras or your Unlifes, your ability to win games is almost nonexistent as you have no quick win cons and are, essentially, counting on getting this combo out to win.

Phyrexian Metamorph - The deck has no real mass-removal of any sort, put yourself in a creature-based position to win, and then before you attack, throw down a Metamorph (Clone serves a similar function, but half the decks in standard don't play Metamorph) copying Melira, and get 10 poison counters quick and easy. There's no real way for you to counter this, either.

Honestly, there are some other suggestions I would give:

Puresteel Paladin is hopelessly out of place here, in my opinion. With only 11 artifacts and only 4 equipment, the chances of you making any actual use out of Puresteel Paladin is very small, particularly for the 2W requirement. He's fairly weak even in decks built around him, in this deck he will be dead draw 90% of the time. I'd even suggest scrapping the equipment altogether, throwing in Canopy Cover to replace Whispersilk cloak (there's less Enchantment hate than Artifact hate anyways) - and, also, replace Darksteel Armor with Savage Silhouette or possibly even Snake Umbra - which gives you the opportunity to get some card draw out of Melira.

I'd also suggest going with G/W/U as some others have suggested. While it may not have some of the win-conditions that make your eyes wide, it will make your deck far more consistent - adding Blue for just some Preordains and Tezzeret's Gambits. You could also throw in a treasure mage or two for more reliability in getting out Soul Conduit - and it would allow you to stick a one of, of potentially another card to help you win the game if you don't hit your Melira or Unlife - maybe a one-of Wurmcoil Engine to help you stay in it a little longer while you wait for your combo to materialize.

Either way, I think what this deck is really missing is a win condition that isn't based solely around you hitting your combo, but can still benefit from the same cards. It's a combo that seems way more powerful than it truly is, and there are a fairly solid number of ways to beat it - the most understated of which is how difficult it is to actually get the combo out and protected reliably. This is a deck that some games you will win convincingly because everything just goes according to plan - and then there are games which you will just never be in, because you're sitting on 2 Meliras in your hand, 1 on the Battlefield, and have yet to see a Phyrexian Unlife.

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Posted 02 June 2011 at 15:21 as a comment on I can't Lose. No Plat Angel

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Updated with my experiences from FNM this week. It almost didn't seem to matter what deck I played, if I managed to get an Awakening Zone and a Furnace Celebration up at the same time, I won the game. Kul'dotha red, Caw-Go, B/W control, etc. If I didn't get them, however, I lost. That being said, I'm gonna try to update the deck a little more around that combination.

I'm also updating it to assume non-Infect by default, (ie putting healing into the deck normally, as I never lost a long game) and taking it out if I do go against infect.

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Posted 12 March 2011 at 15:46 as a comment on Eldrazi Spawning Celebration!

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I'd suggest dropping the Leyline of the Void, and then replacing a Tectonic Edge or two for a Bojuga Bog to achieve a similar effect. Maybe put the Leylines in your sideboard if you play against a Graveyard digging deck, but that Leyline may wind up being a waste against a lot of opponents and cost you an early card.

You may also want to drop down to 2 Archive Traps, sideboard the other 2 - it's possible that you may go against someone with little-to-no deck searching and these cards get stuck in your hand because you can't afford the 5 mana to play it.

Shriekhorn is really weak by itself - 3 turns later you have an artifact that is floating around essentially useless. If you could squeeze in a Screeching Silclaw or two, you might be able to make an opponent have to waste a removal on a Shriekhorn to make you lose Metalcraft.

It probably goes without saying, but stick a sword of body and mind in there if you have it as well.

I'd also suggest tossing in some discards to complement your deck and let you get out ahead - as you're liable to run out of removal before your opponent runs out of cards - maybe look at Horrifying Visage as it makes your opponent discard one and mill one.

One last suggestion is using Haunting Echoes, maybe in place of one Memoricide. Using it mid-game could be pretty devastating to a slightly milled deck.

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Posted 10 March 2011 at 20:58 as a comment on Standard Legal Mill/Control U/B

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I would definitely love to - however, unfortunately the only land that fits this is the fetchland Verdant Catacombs... There are literally no other Green/Black lands in standard. It seems really odd to me, considering that Red/White and Black/Green would make the most sense in the Scars block, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

I don't have any fetchlands and as I'm relatively new to magic, I don't have them and am just focusing really on building up the good Scars-block cards I don't have and letting the Zendikar-cards sort of stand at what I have and hopefully be in a lot better shape when the next block comes out.

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Posted 10 March 2011 at 09:08 in reply to #139794 on Standard - Infect Aggro

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Splashing blue I may get rid of, I'm not sure on yet. It may be where I play, but in standard I go against a ton of control decks - my worry is when I get like a couple of awakening zones out, my Mul'Daya Oracle out, and I have the lands... but none of my win conditions are in the game - I've had it happen a few times, but I suppose no pre-ordain still lets me fish, it just makes it wait one more turn.

Beastmaster Ascension sounds interesting - I'm concerned a little about the synergy with raid bombardment, but if I get a fully charged Beastmaster I probably don't need raid bombardment, do I? Hah.

I may try it without the blue (as I'm a little iffy about it myself) and stick in a Beastmaster and Skittering invasion or two.

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Posted 09 March 2011 at 10:46 as a comment on Eldrazi Spawning Celebration!

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I think Liliana might be a better Planeswalker than Garruk for this. Also, I think 4 Wurmcoils might be a little much since you can look for it with Green Sun.

As one other mention - you may want to swap the Swords of Feast and Famine for Body and Mind - I think you have more to gain from the Wolves than you have to gain from the mana/discarding.

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Posted 03 March 2011 at 14:19 as a comment on Glissa-ing All Over the Place

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There are a lot of somewhat useless cards in here. Elixir of Immortality really doesn't do anything for you. You have no way to draw, and with Emeria, you could shoot yourself in the foot in a long game by taking away your ability to bring back cards.

Brave the Elements would, 99% of the time, be far better than Safe Passage - it would protect you from Day of Judgement, and offer all of the other protections for your creatures that Safe Passage does (except against colorless) - and it only costs 1 mana instead of 3 - a far better card for your deck, imo. It would also be a much better finisher as you could use it to prevent your opponent from blocking too.

Emerge Unscathed would also be better than Soul Parry - costs 1 less mana, has rebound... The only situation that would be better is, again, against artifacts, unless your opponent is out-creaturing you (but you're already in deep trouble if that happens anyways).

I'd also side Leyline of Sanctity - most decks aren't going to directly target you with anything, as well as True Conviction - 6 mana is too expensive for a deck that is really an aggro deck.

I'd suggest sticking in Accorder Paladin and Hero of Bladehold and taking out White Knight, Elixir of Immortality, Leyline of Sanctity and True Conviction - and with the last 4 maybe throw in Kemba's Skyguard for a little healing + flying, or Student of Warfare so you can dump some mana if you get flooded.

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Posted 03 March 2011 at 14:09 as a comment on Hot Knights!

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