2 Deck critiques for a semi-retired oldschool player (semi..

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Guest

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Archived from groups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy (More info?)

Well, I have been out of the game for a long time but recently took my cards
out of the box and started putting decks back together again. How would
these decks do in a tourney now days? I don't have many new cards (I have
only bought 4 or 5 packs in the past 4-5 years). Oh well, here I go with the
decks: Thoughts, ideas & comments are most welcome.

Deck 1 - Burried Alive - Mono Black - Type 1.5 - 60 cards

Creatures:
Fog of Gnats x4 - Just to block flying creatures. (Should these be replaced
with Will-O-The-Wisps?)
Crypt Rats x4 - Damage all players/creatures, send creatures to the
graveyard.
Skulking Ghost x2 - Fast 2/1 flier. Grave yard fodder.
Hidden Horror x4 - Fast 4/4. Discard a Nether Shadow or Ashen Ghoul.
Khabal Ghoul x4 - These get huge with recycling Nether Shadows/Ashen
Ghouls/Krovikian Horrors.
Nether Shadow x4 - Comes back from graveyard.
Ashen Ghoul x4 - See above.
Krovikian Horror x2- See above. Plus lets you sacrifice creatures to do
direct damage.
Phage the Untouchable - This guy is just wicked good fun. (Can be removed if
need be.)
Greel, Mind Raker - Discard your creature cards to make opponent discard
random cards.

Enchantments:
Grave Pact - When my creatures die, so do yours, and my Khabal Ghouls get
bigger.
Mortal Combat - 20+ creatures in my grave yard = Instant win.

Instants:
Hatred - You dont block? I'll pay 19 life...
Dark Ritual x4 - Fast mana, gotta love it.

Soceries:
Burried Alive x4 - Put those Nether Shadows/Ashen Ghouls/Krovikian Horrors
in the graveyard ASAP.

Land:
Swamp x 19

Deck 2 - Chains of Mephistopheles - Black/Blue - Type 1 - 62 cards - (This
deck is pretty)

Blue
Brainguyeser (beta) - Card advantage = win
Time Twister (alpha) - See above
Ancestral Recall (beta) - See above.
Time Walk (beta) - Turn advantage is almost as good as card advantage.

Black:
Chains of Mephistopheles (legends) x4 - Theme of the deck
Underworld Dreams x3 (legends) - The more you draw the more damage you take
Demonic Tutor (beta) - Get the card you need.
Dark Ritual x4 (need to get these in beta) - Fast mana = too good.

Artifacts:
Feldons Cane (antiquities) - Might need to get your graveyard back.
Mox Diamond - More fast mana.
Sol Ring (beta) - See above
Mirror Universe (legends) - Just incase me life gets too low.
Forcefield (beta) - Just so my life doesn't get too low.
Library of Lang - When the Chains make me discard, I can discard to the top
of my library.
The Rack x4 - The less cards you have the more pain you get.
Wheel of Torture x4 - See above
Howling Mine x4 - Draw more cards, take more Underworld Dreams damage,
discard more cards to Chains, etc...
Anvil of Bogardan x4 - Same as above but with more discarding.
Teferi's Puzzle Box x 2 - Same as above with even more discarding.

Land:
Reflecting Pool x2 - Multi colored land (in a way.)
Tolarian Academy - Lots of artifacts = lots of mana.
The Tabernacle at Pendrall Vale (legends) - Slow down opponents creature
casting by tying up his lands.
Maze of Ith - Keeps creatures at bay.
Library of Alexandria - More card advantage.
Underground Sea x 4 - Dual lands = twice as nice.
Swamp x 9
Island x 3
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy (More info?)

you will want to check up on the rules nowadays about replacement
effects and how chains and underworld
dreams interacts.

If a player doesn't have any cards in hand chains makes them mill
instead of drawing. If that happens, dreams doesn't trigger.
Similarly, the milling effect is not a discard.

A couple of other things:

[card=library of leng]library of leng[/card], [card=mirror
universe]mirror universe[/card], force field, the tabernacle, and
[card=feldon's cane]feldon's cane[/card] seem to dilute the content
of your deck. maybe you could find something a little more in-line
with your deck like [card=mind twist]mind twist[/card] and
[card=winds of change]winds of change[/card].

There are a lot of weenie type 1 decks running around, you'll want to
get some edicts and massacres to deal with them.

best of luck.
--
posted via http://www.mtgiowa.com
 
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Guest

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Archived from groups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy (More info?)

On 28 Apr 2004 23:00:14 GMT,
daoist@bellybuttonporn-dot-com.no-spam.invalid (daoist) wrote:

>[card=library of leng]library of leng[/card], [card=mirror
>universe]mirror universe[/card], force field, the tabernacle, and
>[card=feldon's cane]feldon's cane[/card] seem to dilute the content
>of your deck. maybe you could find something a little more in-line
>with your deck like [card=mind twist]mind twist[/card] and
>[card=winds of change]winds of change[/card].
>
What's this format? I think maybe it only works from the website
you're posting from. Please don't do it, as no one else benefits from
it, and it's annoying.

-- pseudosoldier
 

Doyle

Distinguished
Apr 13, 2004
28
0
18,530
Archived from groups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy (More info?)

Welcome back!

> Deck 1 - Burried Alive - Mono Black - Type 1.5 - 60 cards
>
> Creatures:
> Fog of Gnats x4
> Crypt Rats x4
> Skulking Ghost x2
> Hidden Horror x4
> Khabal Ghoul x4
> Nether Shadow x4
> Ashen Ghoul x4
> Krovikian Horror x2
> Phage the Untouchable
> Greel, Mind Raker
> Grave Pact
> Mortal Combat
> Hatred
> Dark Ritual x4
> Burried Alive x4
> Swamp x 19

Around the kitchen table, this might be a good deck. If you are
talking about a tournament, this is going to be too slow. By a lot. If
you take some of the current standard decks as a benchmark, turn five
kills are not uncommon. With this deck's best draw (Hatred aside), you
are at least that far away from winning. This deck wants to play
control and doesn't have any of the cards to do it.

Some obvious cuts - Phage, Greel, Grave Pact, Mortal Combat. Likely
cuts - Crypt Rats, Fog of Gnats, Khabal Ghoul, Ashen Ghoul. The
strongest part of this deck is the Hatred. You can build a suicide
black deck around it. But the rest of it won't make a competitive
deck.

> Deck 2 - Chains of Mephistopheles - Black/Blue - Type 1 - 62 cards - (This
> deck is pretty)
>
> Brainguyeser (beta)
> Time Twister (alpha)
> Ancestral Recall (beta)
> Time Walk (beta)
> Chains of Mephistopheles (legends) x4
> Underworld Dreams x3 (legends)
> Demonic Tutor (beta)
> Dark Ritual x4 (need to get these in beta)
> Feldons Cane (antiquities)
> Mox Diamond
> Sol Ring (beta)
> Mirror Universe (legends)
> Forcefield (beta)
> Library of Leng
> The Rack x4
> Wheel of Torture x4
> Howling Mine x4
> Anvil of Bogardan x4
> Teferi's Puzzle Box x 2
> Reflecting Pool x2
> Tolarian Academy
> The Tabernacle at Pendrall Vale (legends)
> Maze of Ith
> Library of Alexandria
> Underground Sea x 4
> Swamp x 9
> Island x 3

This is again an interesting kitchen table deck. However you have too
many resources devoted to not losing. I would remove anything that
protects you from dying and replace it with something that makes your
opponent die. You can't go into a serious tournament with a combo deck
and expect to win without going balls to the wall. Obvious cuts -
Library of Leng, Maze of Ith, Mirror Universe, Forcefield. Replace
some of these with card drawing, discard, or counters.

I don't mean to be rude about it, but your decks are much too slow for
competition. Do yourself a favor and take some old commons and proxy
up any deck that is currently being featured in 1.5. Play it a dozen
times or so with no opponent to get a feel for it. Then play it
against your decks another dozen times a piece. You'll come out with a
new-found feel for how fast you need to be.

mypetrock
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy (More info?)

Thank you to both Dacist and Doyle. The help is much needed, and I will take
it into consideration.

I think I can take the library of langs out of the Chains deck now that I
see that it just acts like a Mill Stone if there are no cards in hand. I
will probably throw in Arcane denials (counter plus the draw will trigger
chains/Underworld Dreams)

I guess I have been out too long to know what is popular in tourneys now
days. That and it was a while before I quit that I quit playing tourneys and
got used to "kitchen table" and group games.

Oh well, I just took 2 shots of Nyquil and I'm about to fall asleep, so c-ya
later.

Zzzzz....