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The Vampire Onslaught Event deck is strikingly close to an actual competitive deck, however, most retailers have learned this and hiked the price on it. The other event deck, Illusionary Might, is also decent and pretty cheap, with a few additions it can be made into a competitive deck.
Friday Night Magic is pretty much exclusively Standard tourneys, so the duel decks are never legal as they contain cards from older sets (all of the Ajani vs Bolas ones are from Alara block). For casual play with a friend, however, they are strikingly well-balanced to keep things on an even level.
I had a bunch of fun with this deck from Building on a Budget, and it was super cheap (all the cards are less than $1 as singles). But standard is rotating in ~3 weeks and will lose 90% of the deck. You're probably better off waiting until Innistrad is released (go to the Prerelease, they're FUN) then buying one of the event decks from there, as it's looking like a set that's easy to build (it focuses on tribals so sticking a bunch of zombie/vampire/human/werewolf cards together seems like a good idea.)
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Wow that deck is impressive. I'll probably continue trying to create rareless decks, they're super fun
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On September 05 2011 22:14 deth2munkies wrote:The Vampire Onslaught Event deck is strikingly close to an actual competitive deck, however, most retailers have learned this and hiked the price on it. The other event deck, Illusionary Might, is also decent and pretty cheap, with a few additions it can be made into a competitive deck. Friday Night Magic is pretty much exclusively Standard tourneys, so the duel decks are never legal as they contain cards from older sets (all of the Ajani vs Bolas ones are from Alara block). For casual play with a friend, however, they are strikingly well-balanced to keep things on an even level. I had a bunch of fun with this deck from Building on a Budget, and it was super cheap (all the cards are less than $1 as singles). But standard is rotating in ~3 weeks and will lose 90% of the deck. You're probably better off waiting until Innistrad is released (go to the Prerelease, they're FUN) then buying one of the event decks from there, as it's looking like a set that's easy to build (it focuses on tribals so sticking a bunch of zombie/vampire/human/werewolf cards together seems like a good idea.)
Thanks for the response.
So how does Illusionary Might fare against Vampire Onslaught? I might try picking those up instead of the duel decks because of their tournament potential. But if the matchup is painfully imbalanced then maybe it's not worth it. Would it be easy to balance those decks up with a couple good additions?
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On September 06 2011 05:57 Divergence wrote:Show nested quote +On September 05 2011 22:14 deth2munkies wrote:The Vampire Onslaught Event deck is strikingly close to an actual competitive deck, however, most retailers have learned this and hiked the price on it. The other event deck, Illusionary Might, is also decent and pretty cheap, with a few additions it can be made into a competitive deck. Friday Night Magic is pretty much exclusively Standard tourneys, so the duel decks are never legal as they contain cards from older sets (all of the Ajani vs Bolas ones are from Alara block). For casual play with a friend, however, they are strikingly well-balanced to keep things on an even level. I had a bunch of fun with this deck from Building on a Budget, and it was super cheap (all the cards are less than $1 as singles). But standard is rotating in ~3 weeks and will lose 90% of the deck. You're probably better off waiting until Innistrad is released (go to the Prerelease, they're FUN) then buying one of the event decks from there, as it's looking like a set that's easy to build (it focuses on tribals so sticking a bunch of zombie/vampire/human/werewolf cards together seems like a good idea.) Thanks for the response. So how does Illusionary Might fare against Vampire Onslaught? I might try picking those up instead of the duel decks because of their tournament potential. But if the matchup is painfully imbalanced then maybe it's not worth it. Would it be easy to balance those decks up with a couple good additions?
As is, Vampire Onslaught would utterly and totally wreck Illusionary Might. If you were willing to put like $30-40 into Illusionary Might, it'd be a better deck than pretty much any vamp deck.
I made a deck similar to Illusionary Might, this is the list:
+ Show Spoiler +4x Phantasmal Bear
4x Phantasmal Image $10
4x Phantasmal Dragon
4x Lord of the Unreal $3
4x Grand Architect $2
22x Island
3x Mana Leak $.50
3x Ponder
2x Gitaxian Probe $.50
2x Wurmcoil Engine $7-10
3x Disperse
1x Caged Sun = $2
4x Unified Will
Sideboard:
4x Flashfreeze
4x Dismember $3
2x Vapor Snag
1x Mindslaver $2
2x Treasure Mage
2x Torpor Orb $2
I used the list because I had a bunch of the stuff already, I put some estimated prices on there too. As is, Illusionary Might is:
+ Show Spoiler +
1 Glacial Fortress
4 Glimmerpost
19 Island
4 Æther Adept
2 Grand Architect
1 Lord of the Unreal
4 Phantasmal Bear
3 Phantasmal Dragon
1 Phantasmal Image
4 Porcelain Legionnaire
1 Precursor Golem
4 Spined Thopter
1 Steel Hellkite
4 Mana Leak
3 Mind Control
4 Preordain X
11 other spells
Sideboard
2 Flashfreeze
2 Frost Breath
3 Master Thief
1 Mind Control
2 Negate
4 Neurok Commando
1 Stoic Rebuttal
Other evolving suggestions are found here.
Vampire Onslaught comes with:
+ Show Spoiler +23 Swamp
1 Verdant Catacombs X
2 Bloodghast X
4 Bloodthrone Vampire X
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir X
1 Kalastria Highborn X
4 Pawn of Ulamog X
1 Vampire Hexmage X
4 Vampire Lacerator X
2 Vampire Nighthawk X
3 Vampire Outcasts
4 Viscera Seer X
2 Blade of the Bloodchief X
4 Dismember
1 Mimic Vat
Sideboard
4 Distress
2 Go for the Throat
4 Skinrender
3 Vampire Hexmage X
2 Vampire Nighthawk X
For comparison, a competitive Vampires list looks like this:
+ Show Spoiler +4 Vampire Lacerator
4 Kalastria Highborn
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
4 Bloodghast
3 Viscera Seer
4 Pulse Tracker
3 Dismember
2 Dark Tutelage
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Go for the Throat
1 Incinerate
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
4 Dragonskull Summit
4 Lavaclaw Reaches
3 Verdant Catacombs
2 Marsh Flats
6 Swamp
Sideboard
3 Act of Aggression
1 Dark Tutelage
1 Demon of Death's Gate
4 Duress
3 Skinrender
2 Vampire Nighthawk
1 DIsmember
So it's already pretty damn close. The Verdant Catacombs, Bloodghasts, and Dismembers alone are worth almost the $20 of it's MSRP, which is why most card shops sell it for $30 or $40.
For your money, Vampires is more competitive, however, by September 30th, everything with an X after it will no longer be "Standard" legal, so you won't be able to play in Standard tourneys with the deck. By comparison, Illusionary Might only loses the 4 Preordains, and my version of the deck only loses the Unified Wills.
Also, the estimated prices are for 1 of the card.
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So, my Pro Tour went pretty terribly. I got the round 1 bye (!!) and then promptly went 0-4 with my Splinter Twin build, primarily by playing poorly with a small dose of drawing poorly. I lost to Robert van Medevoort playing Ascension (with Twin combo in the sideboard) round 2 (after playing him twice in the PTQ at GP Pittsburgh the previous weekend) due to some slight mistakes and drawing fewer lands despite having 4 more in my deck.
In round 3, I lost to Dan Jordan (a friend of mine who I know way back from when I went to college) playing BreachPost (with white) by absolutely punting both games. In game 1, I mulliganed to 5 on the draw but had the combo set up for turn 4. He has in play Amulet of Vigor and three Cloudposts when he taps all his mana except for one Post to cast Primeval Titan. The correct play is to tap his remaining Post in response. Instead, I let him get his lands, which conveniently gave him 15 mana for Emrakul. In game 2, he has Amulet in play and I have the combo ready, 4 mana, and an Echoing Truth. He taps all but one land for Green Sun's Zenith for 2. I know he has Combust and Qasali Pridemage in his sideboard and Sakura-Tribe Elder in his deck. I decided to play Exarch and untap a land to Echoing Truth his Amulet, which is dumb. I shut down the STE into Combust play, but I know he has Pridemage in his deck, which he obviously fetches, and I lose several turns later.
In round 4 I lose to Jund because I can't find a Twin or Kiki-Jiki despite having approximately infinite turns to do so in both games 2 and 3. In round 5 I lose to Alex West playing Ascension (with Twin combo in from the sideboard) because I somehow don't know how Kiki-Jiki works, which is...awkward. I have 7 mana, Exarch, and Kiki-Jiki in hand, so I can just play Exarch, untap a land, and kill him with Kiki-Jiki if he has nothing. He has 3 open mana and I'm about 95% sure he has an Exarch and not something like Remand. Somehow, I decide his Exarch stops my kill (hint: it doesn't) and don't go for it. He plays his Exarch and then Kiki-Jiki on his turn and kills me, because Gigadrowse also does not stop a Kiki-Jiki kill.
I proceeded to 3-0 my completely irrelevant draft to finish 4-4 with breakers not nearly good enough for top 200 and the extra pro point.
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Your first PT? I remember playing horrible my first time around 
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On September 06 2011 10:07 deth2munkies wrote:I made a deck similar to Illusionary Might, this is the list: + Show Spoiler +4x Phantasmal Bear
4x Phantasmal Image $10
4x Phantasmal Dragon
4x Lord of the Unreal $3
4x Grand Architect $2
22x Island
3x Mana Leak $.50
3x Ponder
2x Gitaxian Probe $.50
2x Wurmcoil Engine $7-10
3x Disperse
1x Caged Sun = $2
4x Unified Will
Sideboard:
4x Flashfreeze
4x Dismember $3
2x Vapor Snag
1x Mindslaver $2
2x Treasure Mage
2x Torpor Orb $2
Thanks for posting this deck option, I had most of the cards online, except for 1 wurmcoil and a few of the images and lords. Got to play 1 game with it last night. I was stuck on 3 land, but ended the game on turn 5 or 6 with with 2 5/5 bears 1 lord of the unreal and 2 Images copied to lord of the unreal. Quite the beatdown deck.
I might try it out in a daily sometime this week and see how well it does against better constructed decks, than the casual room.
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Ponder and Probe seems like they don't do anything in a deck like that. Should probably be 1 Mana Lead and one more counterspell, maybe Cancel (or dismember och something that actually does something).
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On September 07 2011 01:19 Rygar wrote:
Ponder and Probe seems like they don't do anything in a deck like that. Should probably be 1 Mana Lead and one more counterspell, maybe Cancel (or dismember och something that actually does something).
You can almost never go wrong with ponder since it allows you sculpt a mediocre hand into something playable or in a hand full of gas you can use it to fish for something to help you put the nail in the opponent's coffin (i.e. a Mana Leak for their Black Sun or DoJ or a PI to copy their big dude or give you an extra Lord).
Probe is a little more debatable, but since you can cast it with Phyrexian mana all it's effectively costing you is the 2 life, and knowing if they have a board sweeper or counter in hand can be all the difference when you're playing aggro. It's really only bad against other aggro decks.
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On September 07 2011 01:19 Rygar wrote:
Ponder and Probe seems like they don't do anything in a deck like that. Should probably be 1 Mana Lead and one more counterspell, maybe Cancel (or dismember och something that actually does something).
It needs some card draw. Gitaxian Probe is somewhat important because you need to know if you can reasonably tap out for threats or if you need to hold a counter. Cancel is too expensive to hold mana open for in this deck. Ponder is there mainly if you don't have a turn 1 bear or if you need a lord.
Ideally, the ponders would be preordains and there'd be fetchlands, but they are both rotating out and the latter are very expensive. I wanted to make a deck that was resistant to the rotation (hence stuff like Disperse over Into the Roil), yet could probably win any casual tourney and do decently at high level events.
Dismember is in the sideboard almost exclusively for Splinter Twin as this has a bad matchup against it since I decided not to go with a bunch of Spell Pierces, in the maindeck it doesn't do much because either your creatures are going to be bigger or dismember wouldn't kill the creature in question anyway. Titans are usually outraced by images, especially Titans of the Sun variety that pretty much win you the game when you copy them.
A few disclaimers: This is the first standard deck I've ever built, so it's rough around the edges. Also, the cards are still in the mail and I don't have the full list on MTGO so I've only practiced it with proxies and it ended up doing fairly well, it needs more extensive testing, though, so don't pick it up and expect it to be amazing quite yet
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On September 07 2011 01:34 deth2munkies wrote:
Ideally, the ponders would be preordains and there'd be fetchlands, but they are both rotating out and the latter are very expensive. I wanted to make a deck that was resistant to the rotation (hence stuff like Disperse over Into the Roil), yet could probably win any casual tourney and do decently at high level events.
I am going to miss Into the Roil so much =((. I can't count anymore the number of times I've returned my Gideon to my hand after an attack that would kill him then draw into a Day of Judgement.
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On September 07 2011 01:34 deth2munkies wrote: A few disclaimers: This is the first standard deck I've ever built, so it's rough around the edges. Also, the cards are still in the mail and I don't have the full list on MTGO so I've only practiced it with proxies and it ended up doing fairly well, it needs more extensive testing, though, so don't pick it up and expect it to be amazing quite yet
I think it has a great base to it already. I chose to spend some tickets on it because like you said earlier after September all you lose in Standard is the Unified Wills. I wanted to use a constructed deck, but I was not willing to make a deck with the fact we are near a new block being released and a block being phased out. This one provided a decent looking deck without losing too much when Innistrad is out.
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Qty,Card Name
4,Chandra's Outrage
4,Ember Hauler
4,Goblin Arsonist
4,Goblin Fireslinger
4,Goblin Grenade
4,Gut Shot
4,Incinerate
4,Lightning Bolt
20,Mountain
4,Shrine of Burning Rage
4,Stormblood Berserker
Qty,Card Name
4,Arc Trail
4,Crush
1,Into the Core
2,Manic Vandal
1,Metallic Mastery
3,Shatter
Main deck, sideboard. Looking for advice. I'm thinking of main arc trail side chandra's. There's so much arty hate in my side b/c that and vamps seem to be the only thing I've lost to consistently (and a fluke quicksilver deck that dropped an emrakul T5)
Edit: Also thinking of splashing blue into this deck for card draw which seems to be a big problem. Get villain to 3 life and cry as you draw land type shit.
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On September 07 2011 01:00 Rygar wrote:Your first PT? I remember playing horrible my first time around
Third. Playing so poorly was pretty upsetting because in general I've been playing very well lately. Bad time for an off day.
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Happened to everyone else I knew that went. Of the 7 people that sent went with death cloud this weekend, My 3 friends were the idiots to lose with it lol. Either way, modern shall be fun.
Also, Plainswalker points. My Rating now has a name and shows how big my e-penis is.
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I hope the modern metagame doesn't stay the way it is.. I mean a format of all combo decks with a couple aggro decks thrown in isn't exactly that exciting.. I like watching games that go beyond turn 5 or 6 heh..
I kinda wish the shoal infect deck won (forget the dude's name.. sam black?) since it was the most unique and innovative..
at the end of the day though it's just another lame unfair combo deck..
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On September 07 2011 04:55 stk01001 wrote:
I hope the modern metagame doesn't stay the way it is.. I mean a format of all combo decks with a couple aggro decks thrown in isn't exactly that exciting.. I like watching games that go beyond turn 5 or 6 heh..
I kinda wish the shoal infect deck won (forget the dude's name.. sam black?) since it was the most unique and innovative..
at the end of the day though it's just another lame unfair combo deck..
I kind of feel the same way. I know Modern is still young but, I think, WotC should really consider unbanning Jace and mayyyyyybeeee Stoneforge Mystic; though the combination of having the Mirrodin Swords(Light and Shadow/Ice and Fire) and the Scars swords + Batterskull and Jace might make Caw-Blade dominating- ala standard.
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His deck is just as stagnant is the rest of the format. Find 3 cards win game. The only difference is that even with dudes in play he still wins. Modern will be this way just like Legacy was before people realized that had to hate dredge or they lost to it (oh wait).
Edit: If we unban jace or stoneforge then what was the point of this last PT? They were banned because the card pool they were in would have led to such a firm grip of top 8 that it's unreal. Stoneforge has too many good targets to let it just sit around.
If anything, jitte needs an unbanning.
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So I'm a lvl 34 invoker... Hopefully they keep regular ratings on mtgo.
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I'm trying to log in and find out mine. My password is so old I don't remember it lol. I hope to be somewhere around there >.>
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EPT
