So far this variant has left me wanting. Granted, I have yet to draw into a Phantasm.. so that may very well change how I feel; however, Copy Enchantment has been lackluster. The enchantments already in the build are ones that attract removal (and I've seen some very crafty ways to remove them) which means they have to survive long enough for me to copy them. I'm going to test more until I draw a Phantasm, but I think ultimately I need to push blue just a little bit harder.
Permalink
In both of my attempts I have to agree, that a third color does spoil the synergy. I thought for sure the blue variant would be more successful than the red, as it's a less radical change, however play testing has (thus far) proven otherwise. The abundance of Contaminated Bond like auras seems to vastly outweigh a circumstantially beneficial Copy Enchantment (which requires another enchantment to be present, mind you, and these enchantments attract a lot of removal) Only more testing will tell, though. I think blue will have more SB tech to push the deck competitively.
The reason I don't mind straight net decking is because, using this deck as an example, it may come to the point where I realize that your WB design is as best refined as it can get. Granted, if that were the case, it'd be my own play testing that lead me to those same conclusions. But still, I prefer an individual touch to decks as well.
The cost is entirely why I am only running two Dragons. Pretty much just ignore haste on the guy unless your opponent is already at six or less life and you can swing for the kill. He adds an entirely different threat to the deck, though, in addition to giving the opponent more creatures to kill them with. I found that 3x 2/2's can out pace Hissing Miasma or Contaminated Bond, et al., ergo holding him back as a blocker. Again, that's circumstantial based on the opponent's deck as well. Another build I tried was with the white Hunted creature and Mercy Killing. It's too circumstantial but when it's pulled off it works like a charm. I'm very back and forth between Nettling Curse and Lust for War. I find myself often conserving a Batwing Brume for when my life is a bit lower and the opponent controls more creatures, and often wind up tapping Forbidden Orchard even when I have nothing to cast. Other fog spells I tend to conserve as well, in case its needed to stall for that extra turn. One thing I do like about this build in general is that games are always close, but Stronghold was going to win from the beginning :P
I never mind if people use ideas presented in decks I post, or even copy the deck directly. I always think its better for people to personalize their decks; however, there's no reason that one person should monopolize a design just because they posted it first. Having said that, however, credit for this deck has to go to DedWards for building the deck that inspired this one: Stronghold on Discipline (link posted in description if you haven't seen it).
And so they have been built. They are still just rough designs, and I will refine them with playtesting; however, I'm afraid by the looks of it, it'll be difficult to refine the decks any more than the original W/B build. But we shall see :) Stronghold on Blue: http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=246769 Stronghold on Red: http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=246756
So. I just netdecked this on Cockatrice and played two games against a $700 modern zoo deck, and they were some of the best games I've played in a long time. First game I won with 3 life to Stronghold, and second game I lost due to a missplay -- if I had played a Bloodseeker instead of Pillory, I would have won with 1 life. But don't confuse this comment as praise, it's not. It's actually full of curses -- because this deck was so fun to play that I now have to design my own variant of it. You're making me spend money, Ded, damn you! :P I think I may try to tackle WUB with Phantasm for modern. Despite my absolute displeasure with you right now, I do have to give this deck credit for being /the/ best budget deck I've seen. So, there's that :P
That is why I am running a pair of Grim Discoveries. As opposed to Noxious Revival, Discovery returns a Myr and a land directly to my hand, or if need be, Snapcaster or Venser.
I have not tested this yet. I did finally download Cockatrice, but have been testing standard with friends. I'll be testing this soon though :) I can tell you right now, though, Perplex is in line to replace Mana Leak as my third favorite counter spell, right behind Undermine and Pact of Negation (which has just experienced an /insane/ price hike!). @Dag, that's why I included just a pair of Snapcasters, for the slower game where I have to spend my control shell to tutor for the combo.
Woops, good catch!
Agreed. Wheel of Fate/Fortune would be amazing here.
I think I'm going to run tempered affinity in standard with HS, and make a dirt or filth deck separate (I'm loving the synergy between Sun Titan, Splinterfright, and Unburial Rites, lack the cards and $$ to run blue though, so I'm going with green). I'd like to run Vault Skirge in mine, but Pierce Strider in place of the Legionnaire. My concern is the Skirge being too dependent on Tempered Steel to survive HS, while the deck already runs Superion being dependent upon HS to cast.. is that too many potentially dead cards or does the Skirge actually fare well in the deck? Also, I'm currently lacking the Wurmcoil Engines.. what do you think of Thopter Assembly as a budget replacement until I can trade for them?
Heartless Summoning reduces Myr Superion's mana cost to 0. Having no mana cost bypasses the creature-generated mana stipulation.
Blightsteel won't work. "If Blightsteel Colossus would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, reveal Blightsteel Colossus and shuffle it into its owner's library instead." He never reaches the graveyard.
Yes. If he has no mana cost, he is free to cast; ergo, you do not need to spend any mana, let alone mana generated by creatures, to cast him.
Melira prevents -1/-1 counters from being placed on your creatures; Heartless Summoning gives a static -1/-1 to all of your creatures. Now, if Heartless Summoning read "Creatures you control enter the battlefield with an additional -1/-1 counter on them." then Melira would be relevant. As it stands she'd just be a 1/1 for {G} with no relevant abilities.
I'm going to like thrash's comment just because it made me chuckle :)
Btw, how does Mentor of the Meek play in this? Seems like it would compete with Tempered Steel, or do you run him to help dig for it?
I just picked up 3x Heartless Summoning for a considerable discount :) Woot! Problem I have with Tempered Steel is that it disrupts your shock-myr combo. IMO, seems best to either run affinity with white, or abuse Glissa with filth.
Edit: Not quite my original idea, added Falkenrath Noble to combo with recursive Myr-Shocks and Thopter Assemble. This build it more-so just for fun since in the meantime I don't have much time to contemplate refining this much.
121-140 of 354 items