Sunday, January 31, 2016

[Standard] Three more variations of the mono Wastes deck

This deck is still just an experiment. I have not included the money cards that make it stronger because I am either passing on them or waiting for them to be budget-friendly. Here is another variation.




Here I was able to offer up enough creatures to have them temporarily exiled.


Yet I was still able to have a dominant presence.


My opponent was able to mount a valiant rebound.


But chomp-blocking could get them only far enough before I prevailed.


I lost many games with the previous variant, especially to Zulaport Cutthroat decks. Here is the final variation with the current card selection at my disposal. It forgoes lording the artifact creatures and sticks to mana-dorking ramp and simple drops. It lacks flyers... I need to fix that. It does cleverly use Ugin's Construct because I don't have any permanents with color!



Here is a rare instance in which I outran a Zulaport Cutthroat deck.


Walker of the Wastes has trample, and that is awesome!


And, yes, there are several players testing tournament decks in Just-for-fun: no fun!


Here is yet another (a third!) variation of the mono Wastes deck.



The two most-fun games were losses, and this is when I know I am beating a dead horse. Here Omnath places 5/5 tokens with land drops.


I have a lot of power on my side at this point in the game.


But with six 5/5 tokens now, I know I am done.


In this second loss I had all of my creatures enchanted to not attack, sigh!


OK, I am done with this concept. The mono Wastes deck is a great Johnny experiment, and I am moving on.


[Standard] Mono Wastes Deck

Another early draft. I plan to make a few substitutions (Desolation Twin does nothing in this deck!).



I am surprised at how good this deck is. Here is a game where my opponent just never took off. If my creatures are not removed, once I equip they become even more difficult to remove.


Flyers helped me win consistently.


Here is another situation where my opponent did not remove my flyers. Look at that 11/11 Walker of the Wastes!


This game was a little closer because my opponent did have a flyer.


I had a 9/9 Walker of the Wastes.


I removed my opponent's Dimensional Infiltrator, and it was gg after that.


Saturday, January 30, 2016

[Standard] White Green Support

This is an early draft. I am still buying cards from the bots and will wait until some of the OGW cards have settled to lower prices. The manabase needs a little help: too many of the dual lands enter the battlefield tapped.




The sideboard also needs work. Its not good to have only green cards in the sideboard. I need to have a balance of the two colors of this deck.


Here is a win against a Black/Green deck.


Here I lose a Managorger Hydra to target removal.


I had a beefed-up flyer and my opponent had no flyers: gg.


This second win is similar: I had the lone flyer early enough to wing for the win.


Oath of the Gatewatch Online Prerelease Draft

Here is my pool. I went Black/Red/Colorless, though mostly Black and Colorless.






Here is the deck I went with.




I played against a control deck.


I could swing with my flyer but my opponent was able to make many land drops while I wasn't.


And I could have done a better job picking bombs while I was picking Wastes.


By this stage in the game its pretty much gg.


Final swing.


I won the second game as a blow-out with a Sludge Crawler.


I kept winging.


Here I have it quipped and hitting for 6.


Its gg by now.


Variance is a thing, and I got really lucky with the second game.


Here are the standings after the second game in the match.


I wasn't as lucky during the third game of the match.


Eldrazi Mimic is definitely a fun creature, but its just as good as your last creature to enter the battlefield or as good as its base values.


I need to learn to pick tappers for limited. My opponent did...


I was able to remove one of my opponent's creatures, but this is not an efficient way to do that.


We took turns at swinging.


I was going to cause a discard but I miss-clicked and did not cause this discard... ouch.


Drafts are lost when the card pool is chosen. My lesson learned here is to pick some bombs and some tappers. I got too trigger-happy picking Wastes!