Invasion Block

[Captain Caveman]

I've been thinking about Invasion Block as of late. So I proxied up some decks and here's what I got.

I doubt if the decks are any good so if you can think of some way to improve them please share
your thought.

Oh ya, If you have any Block ideas please share them as well.

Thanks,

Caveman


Fires
4 Utopia Tree
4 Quirion Elves
4 Kavu Chameleon
4 Kavu Titan
4 Hunting Kavu
4 Urza's Rage
4 Fires of Yavimaya
4 Scorching Lava
4 Assault/Battery
4 Skizzik
4 Shivan Oasis
8 Forest
8 Mountain


Mercy
2 Disrupt
4 Absorb
3 Prohibit
4 Exclude
2 Dismantling Blow
4 Repulse
4 Reviving Vapors
4 Angel of Mercy
2 Armored Guardian
2 Teferi's Moat
3 Rout
4 Coastal Tower
11 Island
11 Plains


Bruiser
2 Probe
3 Spite/Malice
4 Exclude
4 Undermine
1 Yawgmoth's Agenda
4 Urborg Emissary
2 Barrin's Spite
1 Wash Out
2 Lobotomy
4 Vodalian Zombie
4 Recoil
4 Repulse
4 Salt Marsh
11 Island
10 Swamp


B&R(a.k.a Machine Head)
4 Void
4 Crypt Angel
1 Agonizing Demise
3 Pyre Zombie
4 Blazing Specter
4 Skizzik
4 Urza's Rage
4 Scorching Lava
4 Cinder Shade
4 Urborg Volcano
12 Mountain
12 Swamp



I'm still working on the G/W deck. I was thinking that an Armadillo Cloaked Panther or Troll might be good. Backed
up by the Acolyte's, of course.


[Edited by Captain Caveman on 01-01-01 at 05:23 PM]

 

[Turtlewax Joe]

Cool decks...
I really like the G/W idea

 

[Duel]

I think the g/w deck is more practical too.

4 Utopia Tree
4 Quirion elves
4 Charging Troll
4 Noble panther
4 Armadillo cloak
4 Kavu Chameleon
4 Thornscape apprentice
3 Sunscape Master
4 Global Ruin (an almost-geddon)
4 Wax/wane
4 Elfhame Palace
10 forests
7 plains

 

[Captain Caveman]

Re: Turtlewax Joe

Thanks,
I thought they might be interesting enough to get a few replies.


Re: Duel

What!, no flame about terrible deck design(j/k)


There doesn't seem to be much interest in IBC. I thought Yellowjacket and a few others were working
on IBC a little awhile ago.

What about our resident, great deck builders(you know who you are)? Are they taking a break

Enough of the pleading for additional help.

Caveman

 

[Draconis]

Personally, I'm trying *not* to think about Invasion block constructed right now, because what I've seen of Planeshift tells me that IBC is going to be *very* different indeed after Planeshift...

 

[Griffith_se]

IBC after Planeshift Is going to be Gating'O'Rama.

Don't Ya think?

 

[Draconis]

Oh Yeah
Here was me saying, 'I'll play blue/black if it gets decent cards from Planeshift'...

Doomsday Specter - 2UB
Creature – Specter; 2/3
Flying. When Doomsday Specter comes into play, return a blue or black creature you control to its owner's hand. Whenever Doomsday Specter deals combat
damage to a player, look at that player's hand and choose a card from it. The player discards that card. R

 

[Azreal the Soulmaster]

Duel, why would you pick global ruin over rout?

 

[Draconis]

Global Ruin and Rout do very different things...
Global Ruin acts as a limited Armageddon, retarding your opponents ability to cast spells, while Rout sweeps the board clear of creatures, potentially at instant speed.

In the deck posted above, Global Ruin is cast after a large, possibly Cloaked creature has been cast, to reduce the opponents ability to remove the threat or cast a threat of his own that will trade with or outrace the Ruin-casters threat.

Basically, it functions like an old-school ErnhaGeddon deck, which aimed to cast an Ernham Djinn, and then cast Armageddon the following turn. This gave the player a number of turns of attacking with the Ernham before his opponent could recover enough to deal with it.
And, as such, I think that Harrow may be a better card for the deck than Utopia Tree, as it allows the sacrifing of Elfhame Palaces for either a Plain or Forest, if you only have one and wish to cast Ruin.
(And also allows for the possibility of red as a more stable third colour, for the Master activation and possibly Urza's Rage, Rith, etc.)

 

[Duel]

Possibly harrow works, but my worry is that it thins out your deck, meaning you are less likely to draw the land after you cast armageddon. Utopia tree is slightly less worrisome, though it does fall to removal.

 

[Captain Caveman]

"IBC is going to be *very* different indeed after Planeshift... "

Re: Draconis

Indeed, Planeshift looks to stir things up a little. When I first posted the decks there was some
talk about having an IBC tournament at our local shop so I thought if I post these decks I might get
some feedback on how to inprove them or someone
might post something really interesting to play.



Re: the gating issue

It will be real interesting to see what can be done with the mech. I can't think of to many permenants
with a CIP ability, in Invasion, but none the less the cards_look_powerful.

Will the gating effect of these cards overcome the retarding of a players development, since its only
for one turn?

Caveman

 

[Draconis]

While I'd agree that there aren't that many 187 effects in Invasion, there *are* a few strong ones.
For block, particularly, Emissaries may prove playable with Gating, and Silver Drake looks like a great way to reset Meddling Mage mid-game. Also, there are enough ways to exploit gating for advantage as it is, without even *needing* 187 effects...
Fleetfoot Panther is the most blatant example, resetting a Blastoderm or Meddling Mage, bouncing an Emissary, or saving a creature from a removal spell.
Doomsday Specter allows a Duskwalker or Faerie Squadron to be safely played on turn one for a couple of points of early damage, before being bounced and kicked. Also, in an appropriate deck, Vodalian Merchant may be an appropriate creature to bounce and replay.
And don't get me started on Llanowar Elves, Birds of Paradise etc...

 

[Mars]

Utopia Tree works better with gating. Plus, broken Shivan Wurm is quite broken in Fires, which will now be a turn slower but STILL the best deck methinks. Unless UW Aggro with flyers rules the day. BR gains great strength from broken Terminate and Lord of the Undead, and stupid Pyre Zombie looks better, unless of course Global Ruin crashes the party. In UB, Doomsday Spectre is indeed quite broken, along with Rav Rats and U & B weenies and dumb Sleeper's Robe. CounterRout is in no way as good as T2 CounterWrath, but should spoil some plans. Teferi's Moat is strong against Fires, but the many good fliers in other decks will delegate it to sideboards, I think. The gain of Fleetfoot Panther will not, in my view, make up for the loss of Parallax Wave in GW, but we'll know more this week as the full Planeshift spoiler begins to leak out. Magic is fun again. Ah.

 

[Mars]

UB can also go more controllish with Recoil and Phyexian Infiltrator, and there's always the 3-color Lairs and splashing in a third color. I don't think it's too early to start designing 2-color allied backbones, just avoid splashing a third color for now and worrying about sideboards unless the full Planeshift spoiler is known, would be my advice.