MTG Strategist

After playtesting last night, I found that a few cards needed to be traded out.  I removed Key to the City and added Tormenting Voice.  I added Dusk//Dawn and would routinely discard this to Tormenting Voice.  This would allow me the chance to retrieve all of my 2 drops from the graveyard and rebuild, which ended up being a good answer to control.  Fling also turned out to be a rock star.  My opponent would let me pump up a creature and would throw out a Fatal Push or some other removal as I moved to combat.  I would just Fling the creature and hit them for several points of life. Here's the final decklist as I continue to playtest. Creatures 3 Toolcraft Exemplar 4 Metallic Mimic 4 Aethergeode Miner 4 Ninth Bridge Patrol 3 Depala, Pilot Exemplar Artifacts 2 Aethersphere Harvester 4 Decoction Module Instant Fling Cast Out Sorcery Dawn//Dusk Land 4 Inspiring Vantage 10 Mountains 10 Plains Sideboard 2 Hour of Devastation 3 Sweltering Suns 3 Abrade 3 Savi

I think we're ready to playtest.  Here's what I worked it down to.  We had to lose a few items to fit the creatures, but I'm sure those numbers will shift as we test. It looks fairly low to the ground.  Has some flying...not bad.  But we will see.

It's time to narrow down the card selection.  With tribal decks, I like to think of the ultimate tribal deck (in my opinion) which is Elves.  The way elf decks use synergy to build massive armies is what every tribal deck strives for.  First we need to discuss win conditions in full: Win Conditions: 1. Traditional Tribal win: creatures get big and swing in. Key cards: Metallic Mimic and Depala. Mimic also triggers Toolcraft Exemplar.  A very nice turn 1,2 and 3.  The result is a turn 4 swing in for 11. 2. Bounce the Miner and make Ninth Bridge Patrol great again: Key cards: Aethergeode Miner, Ninth Bridge Patrol, Decoction Module and Decoction Module or Mirage Mirror.  Miner can pay 2 energy and bounce out of play into exile and then return to the board.  When it does, Ninth Bridge Patrol gets a +1/+1 counter.  If you have 2 Decoction Modules out, you get 2 energy and can repeat the process indefinitely.  Then you can either Fling the huge powered creature or swin

This is who we're picking from for our teams.  It's a typical tribal deck.  It uses Metallic Mimic and Depala, Pilot Exemplar to pump creatures.  Other special ways of winning are by utilizing Aethergeode Miner.  If you have 2 Decoction Modules out (or a Decoction Module and a Mirage Mirror), you can bounce your Miner in and out of play infinitely to pump your Ninth Bridge Patrol.  Once your creature has sufficient power, you can either Fling it or attack and give it trample.  The next step is to make cuts.  Your opinions are wanted. 

Here's our top 32 in Standard from the Denver GP: 1st Temur Energy Brad Nelson 2nd Temur Energy Brian Braun-duin 3rd Ramunap Red John Rolf 4th Temur Energy Corey Baumeister 5th Mono-Black Zombies Collin Rountree 6th Ramunap Red Sam Pardee 7th White-Blue Monument Gregory Michel 8th Ramunap Red Zachary Kiihne 9th White-Blue GPG Edwin Eng 10th Zomb-Emerge Ivan Espinosa 11th Jeskai GPG Corey Burkhart 12th Jeskai GPG Mike Sigrist 13th Ramunap Red Daniel Diaz 14th Mono-White Eldrazi Jonathan Job 15th Jeskai GPG Owen Turtenwald 16th Mono-Black Zombies Charles League 17th Mardu Vehicles Jonathan Coleman 18th 4C Energy Michael Jacob 19th Jeskai GPG Andrew Backstrom 20th Temur Energy Joby Parrish 21th Mono-Black Zombies Vidianto Wijay

I thought it would be cool to develop 10 Deckbuilding Commandments.  This was inspired by the song I was listening to as I drove into work today..."The 10 Crack Commandments" by Biggie Smalls.  Needless to say, my list won't mention "getting high on your own supply", but I hope to end up with something useful. Here's a partial list so far: 1. Your deck should strive to win by turn 5. 2. Your deck should be able to play every turn...even turn 1. 3. Your sideboard should hold answers for popular deck builds. 4. Your deck should have multiple win conditions. (At least 1...yes, I'm talking to you Mr. Control deck that has no win condition. And combo decks that need 4 or 5 cards to set off the combo...that's not a win condition, that's a penny in a well.) I will think about the next few rules...or if you have a suggestion...

I played this last night.  Simple deck.  Big, strong creatures that can be made unblockable by Key to the City and be given double strike by Samut, the Tested. I quite enjoy this deck. Creatures 4 Hazoret the Fervent 4 Bloodrage Brawler 4 Bomat Courier 4 Rhonas the Indomitable Spells 1 Sweltering Suns 3 Tormenting Voice 4 Abrade 4 Key to the City 4 Blossoming Defense Planeswalkers 3 Samut, the Tested 1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance Lands 7 Forest 13 Mountain 4 Sheltered Thicket Sideboard: 2 Cartouche of Zeal 2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance 2 Hour of Devastation 4 Magma Spray 3 Samut, Voice of Dissent 2 Trial of Strength Turn 1: Bomat Courier Turn 2: Bloodrage Brawler or Key to the City Turn 3: Rhonas the Indomitable Turn 4: Hazoret the Fervent Attack for 9/10 Turn 5: Samut, the Tested WIN!! Let me know what you think.

Once we lose the guts from mono-black zombies (rotation), we need a suitable tribal replacement.  I have been working with a Construct Tribal deck that shows some promise.  I play The Scarab God to protect from board wipes and to bring back all of the creatures that my opponent destroyed with Abrade (no doubt).  I'm still refining it, but so far it has an incredible starting game.  With Metallic Mimic coming out early, I drop 4/3 Scrapheap Scroungers that Chief of the Foundry can add to.  Really fun deck.  I plan on narrowing it down over the next few weeks.  The answer to artifact hate...more artifacts. Creatures (23): 4 Chief of the Foundry 2 The Scarab God 3 Walking Ballista 4 Metallic Mimic 4 Noxious Gearhulk 2 Padeem, Consul of Innovation 4 Scrapheap Scrounger Instant (12) 4 Essence Scatter 4 Select for Inspection 4 Supreme Will Land (24) 10 Swamp 4 Fetid Pools 11 Island Sideboard: 4 Foundry Inspector 3 Lost Legacy 4 Pull from Tomorrow 4 Torment

I have been examining all of the current abilities available in standard (after Sept 17 rotation). -Deathtouch -Flying -First Strike -Double Strike -Vigilance -Haste -Trample -Eternalize -Embalm -Menace -Reach -Prowess -Afflict -Cycling -Energy Soon to be out of rotation: -Delirium -Surge -Madness -Emerge -Landfall -Escalate At the SCG Standard Classic Richmond this weekend, the following decks topped the winner's bracket: ( https://www.mtggoldfish.com/tournament/scg-standard-classic-richmond-2017-08-13#paper ) 1st Black-Green Constrictor Frank Skarren 2nd Temur Energy James O'Shaughnessy 3rd Mono-Black Zombies Zachary Plott 4th Temur Energy Brian Braun-Duin 5th W/R Midrange Raymond Tautic 6th Ramunap Red Abraham Stein 7th Mardu Vehicles Jeremiah Marchant 8th Mono-Black Eldrazi Yugo Sato 9th Temur Energy Dustin Elias 10th Mard

I just started playing with this one, and it seems to be pretty fun.  The point of this deck is to get your unblockable creatures down and use Samut, the Tested (yes!!!!!) to give them double strike and to offer some protection by destroying creatures before they become a problem. The link to the deck is : https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/728149#paper Let me know what you think.

I think this might be one of my favorite decks that I've made.  Sram provides lots of card draw from casting the Cartouches.  Bringing the Adorned Pouncers back later in the game really connects the early game to the late game.  My opponents seem to run out of removal quickly.  Overall, I think this one is a keeper. My final decklist: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/727965#paper

Game 1 went well. My opponent had lots of removal.  Fortunately, I drew lots of creatures.  Here's my starting deck. My starting hand: Exiling some of my creatures (Solemn Recruit and my cats). Multiple Cast Outs saving my hide.  I got ride of my opponents enchantments. Final surrender. More to come.

I stumbled upon a build last night that, while it needs some work, was actually pretty effective.  Here are the candidates for inclusion in my Double Double deck: I figured, after the Samut the Great OTK deck, that if one double strike creature was good, then 12 would be better.  This deck is simple.  Drop your double striking creatures and attach the assorted Cartouches to them.  This will trigger card draw from Sram.  Double strike is a very interesting ability.  It protects you from most Deathtouch.  When it makes it through, it usually delivers an enormous amount of damage.  If you can get Adorned Pouncer on the battlefield and attach Consuming Fervor to it, you really have something that can disrupt an opponent's early game.  Of course, there will be some removal added to the deck, but this is a good place to start.

I think all tribal decks have a few things in common. 1. Quick early game board presence- you see it with zombies, you see it with cats--there was no difference with artificers.  Small creatures suddenly become large creatures on turns 2 and 3.  2. Springboarding into a large mid game-once the opponent gets his/her act together and starts putting down creatures that are more powerful than your early game creatures, you have to have a big monster (this includes monster removal spells) waiting in the wings. 3. Mana dependence- you have to make your land drops...at least until you reach your curve.  This empowers any deck, but if you lose early game momentum in a tribal deck...everything could stall for you.  Luckily, the mana curve on these decks is usually fairly low.  Time to move on to the next deck.  I'm thinking I need a deck with a lot of discard triggers. I'm heading to Blue/Read Discard.

The next set of games I won 2-0.  I played against a control deck. I see that we can get a quick board presence.  The balance of land seems right.  The control deck seemed to have a hard time getting rid of my creatures.  I think they expected to counter every creature and take a few hits early from the one or two that made it through, but with the Artificer's Goggles out, those small creatures really poured on the pressure.  By the time the control deck got around to establishing a win condition, I had them down into the single digits. Here's a couple of screen captures to get an idea. Game 1 opening hand: Game 1 end: Game 2 opening hand: Game 2 end:

First game seemed to go well.  Here's the deck I was using: I removed a lot of the clutter that would block Hazoret from dropping on time. We'll pick up at turn 3.  I got a pretty good draw and got a Metallic Mimic and a couple of creatures out early. My opponent was playing what looked like an aggressive red black deck.  I knew there was some hate on its way.  By turn 3 I was attacking hard. I lost a creature to an Unlicensed Disintegration along with my Cartouche of Zeal, but they had already served their purpose. After this turn, my opponent starts to drop some larger creatures. Neheb hits the table and I drop Dusk//Dawn, knowing that Hazoret would be unaffected and I could get my Metallic Mimic back with the Aftermath on Dusk//Dawn. I swing in with Hazoret and Bomat Courier blocks. After this, my opponent plays Chandra, Torch of Defiance and Disintegrates my Servo.  On the 6th turn, my opponent manages a Torment of Hailfire for 6 repeats.  This to

The initial look is promising.  The turn 3 attack looks really nice, if you have all of the parts.  If not...there are other choices. Here's the list so far that have made the cut: Creatures Toolcraft Exemplar Metallic Mimic Inventor's Apprentice Instant/Sorcery Abrade Enchantment Cartouche of Zeal Equipment Inventor's Goggles Since we are playing a lot of low powered creatures, we should definitely add Dusk//Dawn.  This will refill our hand.  I think too we should have a win condition.  So...Hazoret the Fervent... Since I hate getting cursed, I'm definitely putting in Forsake the Worldly. The cycling is nice.  If you don't need it...cycle it.  Now for card draw... And some board wipe... And maybe some real board wipe... Okay...that'll get us started.  Time to work with the numbers and playtest.  I'll let you know what happens.

The question arose by someone on Twitter as to what tribes are out there.  I thought about it and remembered that Artificers are a real thing.  So here is the beginnings of my Artificer Tribal Deck.  This is just off the top of my head with no real research.  If you've read any of this blog, you know I like to propose a deck, playtest it, refine it and then present my findings.  I'm on step 1. Here are the candidates for this deck: If you can play Toolcraft Exemplar on turn 1, Metallic Mimic on turn 2 and you're in good shape. Inventor's Apprentice on turn 1 or 2 would be good as well.  This is a good start.  Time to break down the turn by turn plays.