How to Build a Combo....

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
Standard, yes. But also, oddly enough, draft. That highlights what I really like about this block, even if the power level isn't quite up to the point that I would like. The interaction between cards is pervasive enough that combo even has a kind of presence in Limited formats. It's a step in the right direction and I hope that there is more progress on allowing combo decks a niche in the game.
 

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
There was also a How to Build a Control... but no one seems to be as an advocate for that deck type as you are for combo :)
 

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
You know, I guess control was my first love, but that was a long time ago. Lately, I haven't seen a control archetype that captures what I remember of the kind of control deck I was really fond of from back in the day. I know we used to have our control fans here. Maybe we still do. Will anyone admit to it?

I guess I thought of Killer Joe as being the CPA's biggest control enthusiast, but he hasn't really been around...

On a somewhat related note, I have a totally speculative theory that, if there were no baggage of perception, no difference in accessibility, and no difference in average win/loss performance between archetypes, that the most popular style of deck would be aggro-combo and the least popular would be midrange. Of course, I can't support that conclusion with anything substantial (and the world in which all those variables could be eliminated doesn't exist), but it's what I've come to suspect from watching people.
 

TomB

Administrator
Staff member
Everyone wants to create their own unbeatable combo build, but most either settle for playing other people's ideas or they build their own deck that has cards with synergy in it but no combo auto-win lock condition, I think...:)
 

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
I agree. To be fair to deck-brewers, I should note that Standard is the sort of environment with pretty limited options for big, auto-win synergies. Sometimes it just doesn't seem to have the cardpool to support them. And when people do come to the table with their own unusual combo concoctions, you usually won't hear about them.
 

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
I'm actually a big fan of control. My first tourney deck was a Manabarbs deck. I still love train's control deck that he posted a long time ago (I actually had the cards to make and play it in real life! :) ) But I haven't seen others be such a "rabid" :) advocate of it as you (Oversoul) are with control to post stuff about it.
 

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
Oh, that one! We used it in one of the first times I played here as a forum game, maybe the very first time? It was a very cool concept. No non-land permanents so it could blank most targeted removal and play a grindy, proactive control game. I remember using a beatdown deck against it and I was getting amazing value off Cursed Scroll. The control deck was just a bit too soft against that list (which was already a bit old at the time, but efficient with its threats and probably much more tournament-ish), but definitely had potential. Perhaps it could be updated, now that so many years have passed...
 
R

rokapoke

Guest
I'd been a fan of control decks. I ran a near-creatureless R/W deck forever and a mono-blue control deck too. I probably still have both of them in the basement.
 

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
R/W, huh? Not a color combination known for its creature-light control decks. Of course, monoblue with lots of countermagic was a classic approach that popped up everywhere. I even posted a "Forbidian" deck I was using here. The casual control deck I used the most was a Necropotence list that evolved over time. When I first threw it together in 1998, it was an aggressive deck that used Necropotence to churn out threats. I shifted to monoblack control, then to a U/B control prison deck with Zur's Weirding. Even when I was playing control, I steered toward combos. :p
 

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
Hmm... that may not have been it after all. I remember some enchantments in there... unless it was later revised. I'll look some more...
 
R

rokapoke

Guest
R/W is fun because of Wrath of God and the embarrassment of riches in terms of damage-dealing spells from the red side. If I can find the deck at home I'll write up the list. Just note that it's very old and almost certainly wasn't even optimal for its time, so it's probably long since obsolete.
 

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
R/W is fun because of Wrath of God and the embarrassment of riches in terms of damage-dealing spells from the red side. If I can find the deck at home I'll write up the list. Just note that it's very old and almost certainly wasn't even optimal for its time, so it's probably long since obsolete.
Oh, I totally get it. I wonder if I could dig up any of my old decklists from 1999 or so just to show how bad they were. Sometimes I'd only use one or two of a card just because that was all I had. I was able to fit my entire card collection into a few tupperware containers shoved into a duffle bag, so deck construction was based on what I could get, rather than on testing for optimal performance. Oh, here's a R/W deck that I used to have.

Hmm... that may not have been it after all. I remember some enchantments in there... unless it was later revised. I'll look some more...
Yeah, the idea behind that one was a "theme deck" with no non-land permanent cards (Krosan Tusker was there to be cycled, not played). I suggested the possibility of adding black creatures meant to die on purpose and have some effect, like Abyssal Gatekeeper, but really, that ran counter to the theme. It would be way easier to make such a deck work with other permanent types, especially now that there are planeswalker cards.

Hm, I just found the one I first thought of. Train's "Wildcard" deck is in post #7 of this thread. Since he apparently had a Tabernacle (something that was possible to obtain back then without having to drop a thousand dollars), I'm not sure why he wouldn't use it in the B/G creatureless deck. I'd totally throw that in with Crop Rotation and use it to slow opposing creature production down to a crawl.

My Manabarbs deck started out R/W before I added green...
I remember you being a Manabarbs fan, although I don't actually remember seeing your decklist...
 

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
That may be closer but I still don't think it was the version I ended up with; I don't remember playing with the Aegis of Honor or Vorroc. I may have the decklist (and the Manabarbs) one around on my computer somewhere...
 
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