PTQ is going to a PTQ, and I need your help, CPA!

[FoundationOfRancor]

I would think Mainly Mono-Black speed (Maybe a bit of white to take care of the other 50% of permanents black cant handle) would be at least a competitor.

The problem I see with alot of Domain decks is that they use alot of Domain cards. 5-Color with a couple Domain supports (Allied Strategies and maybe Ordered Migration), but with alot of other non-domain core cards is actually a pretty good deck. Alot of players (At least in my area) are focused way to much on the specific domain cards they give you, not on whats good.
Oh well, I'm probablly wrong.

 

[Neil Rigby]

People are always free to disagree with me, and even dislike me.

 

[Gizmo]

Oops, I was round at Neil`s when I posted that.

I also feel sorry for you if you are the sort of person to be offended when somebody expresses their personal opinion.
You said they were good. I said I disagreed and they were terrible. If you cant handle that I disagree then you have a problem.

 

[Spiderman]

I can see where Ransac might have taken offense, seeing that you said

IMHO I`ve never head any single person be quite so utterly wrong as Ransac was there.

I think it was the "utterly so wrong" part when you could have said "IMHO, I disagree". "So wrong" seems to imply that you're "so right" and not merely disagreeing.

Just my observation...

 

[PTQ]

Whoa! Take it outside boys. I need discusions on decks, not squables.

I don't want to get ripped apart at this tourny! I'm playing for the CPA!

 

[galtwish]

If you want to play something original and outside the metagame, here you go:

4 Addle
4 Shivan Zombie
4 Plague Spitter
4 Bloodfire Kavu
4 Trench Wurm
3 Lobotomy
4 Fact or Fiction
2 Crosis
4 Planar Dispair
3 Ghitu Fire
4 Urborg Volcano
3 Salt Marsh
2 Shivan Reef
3 Island
6 Swamp
6 Mountain

SB
4 Recoil
1 Lobotomy
3 Crypt Angel
3 Flametounge Kavu
4 Terminate

The Despair works with the Kavu and the Spitter to kill lots of bears, Wurm eats up mana and is a beast comparesd to bears, Lobotomy and FoF take care of a lot of threats, and Crosis kills real fast. Fire +Terminate& Recoil from the board help against non-U/W bear decks, and FTK is always good against somebody. More discussion to follow.

Erik

 

[Captain Caveman]

Playing outside the norm........

Penum-Obliterate
4 Thornscape Familiar
4 Kavu Titan
4 Elfhame Sanctuary
4 Urza's Rage
4 Breath of Darigaaz
4 Penumbra Bobcat
4 Penumbra Wurm
4 Obliterate
4 Geothermal Crevice
4 Tinder Farm
10 Forest
10 Mountain

 

[Lotus Mox]

I played the deck described in this Starcity article in an IBC online tourney and won that thing with a 10-1 games record .

4 Gaea's Skyfolk
4 Kavu Titan
4 Blurred Mongoose
4 Quirion Sentinel
4 Mystic Snake
4 Lay of the Land
4 Rushing River
4 Repulse
4 Temporal Spring
2 Exclude
4 Opt
7 Island
7 Forest
4 Yavimaya Coast

Sideboard:
3x Dodecapod
3x Gainsay
3x Penumbra Bobcat
2x Mask of Intolerance
2x Disrupt
2x Jungle Barrier

 

[Spiderman]

PTQ: Thanks

 

[PTQ]

Just trying to keep things on track.

I think I'm going to go with U/W/B, as there is going to be HUGE amounts of green. I think G/U will probably be the most popular, from what I've seen, and I think U/W/B is the most equiped to handle it due to spectral lynx, a couple voldalian zombie from the sideboard and better access to hard counters.

So, I am now torn between two builds of this colour combo...a faster, "bear"/tempo type thing, and a more traditional control build.

By the way...I'm not too sure about using Dromar's Cavern, what with 8 tapped lands in already. I don't want my land development to be too slow.

Tell me what you think.

#1...bears

4 Stormscape Aprentice
4 Meddling Mage
4 Spectral Lynx
4 Galina's Knight
4 Absorb
4 Undermine
2 Dromar's Charm
4 Fact or Fiction
4 Vindicate
4 Rushing River
4 Salt MArsh
4 Coastal Tower
4 Caves of Koilos
6 Islands
4 Plains
____________________________________________________


#2...control

4 Meddling MAge
4 Voice of All
4 Absorb
4 Undermine
4 Dromar's Charm
4 Route
4 Fact or Fiction
4 Vindicate
4 Rushing River
4 Salt MArsh
4 Coastal Tower
4 Caves of Koilos
6 Islands
5 Plains
1 Swamp

 

[rkoelsch]

I like deck 1. You could drop 1 coastal tower and 1 salt marsh and add 2 caverns. But you may be right with all the bounce the caverns are probably not worth it.

 

[PTQ]

Ok...and now for sideboard ideas...

I'm looking at the following:

ORDER/Chaos...for regenerators, and I know someone will bring Penumbra critters.

Voldalian Zombie...I expect to see lots of Green.

Gainsay...I also expect to see lots of Blue, but what else is new?

Dodecopods...I don't think that there will be much B/W discard, but you never know.

Slay...for obvious reasons

Maybe Orim's Chant as extra CounterSpell protection? Or Anti beat-down?

What else?

 

[PTQ]

All righty then, going by what I've been reading all week about this enviorment, I now have this deck...

Please tell me what you think and any more ideas for improvement and sideboard.

Thanks!

3 Stormscape Aprentice
4 Spectral Lynx
4 Galina's Knight
4 Meddling Mage

3 Dromar's Charm
4 Absorb
4 Undermine

3 Fact or Fiction
3 Rushing River
3 Vindicate
2 Repulse

4 Salt MArsh
4 Coastal Tower
4 Caves of Koilos
6 Islands
5 Plains

 

[Gizmo]

IMHO there is no real excuse for only carrying 3 Vindicate except that you only have 3 Vindicate. If you are playing three for some other reason then I`d reconsider.

Same goes for Dromar`s Charm, only more so. Maybe drop a Galinas Knight.

No Disrupt? Disrupt is good. Much better than Rushing River anyway.
Repulse >>> Rushing River.
Lots of things >>> Rushing River.

3 Stormscape, 4 Lynx, 4 Mage, 3 Knight (14 guys), 12 Counters, 4 Vindicate, 2 Disrupt, 4 Fact or Fiction, 1 Spite/Malice. (23 spells) then 23 land with AT LEAST one Dromar`s Cavern.

I think you are getting tricked into seeing this deck as a tempo deck. This ISN`T a white version of GU beats - it`s a control deck, it`s Countersliver not Skies.

 

[PTQ]

OK then, I think I see your point.

I plan on seeing most of the feild turn out to be U/G, so I was looking for a race. I know U/W/B can eaisily out-counter them, so I have no excuse for not running all 12 of the best hard-counters in the enviorment.

I also keep forgeting the ability of the Charm killing one of the many, MANY bears that I'll be facing.

I still like Rushing River's virtual 2 for one, and I think in a deck where there are only four cards with a mana cost of more then three, I can easily sac the land every time. But, knowing that you have more expeirence in all of this then me, I'll go for 1 Spite/Malice and 2 Repulse for a total 13 counters/ 11 spot removal. I'll hold off on Disrupt until I test the following. 13 counters should be plenty.

How does this look, then?

3 Stormscape Aprentice
3 Galina's Knight
4 Spectral Lynx
4 Meddling Mage

4 Undermine
4 Absorb
4 Dromar's Charm
1 Spite/Malice
4 Vindicate
4 Fact or Fiction
2 Repulse

4 Salt Marsh
4 Coastal Tower
4 Cave of Koilos
5 Islands
4 Plains
2 Dromar's Cavern

Sideboard
4 Dodecapod
1 Galina's Knight
3 Slay
4 Gainsay
3 Order/Chaos

 

[Gizmo]

I`m not sure about the SB. The SBs over here for this deck are more like 4 Night/Day, 3Gainsay, 2 Dismantling Blow, 2 Unnatural Selection ... that sort of thing. I`d have Disrupt in the SB if not maindeck. You`ll want it vs the tempo decks.
But SB is very hard to really make, I rarely give Sb advice and I`ll always say to feel free to ignore it. I`m generally weak at Sbing, personally.

The main deck now looks very tight indeed.


We now really like, in addition to the UBW Lynx deck:

Prof.dec (played by Craig 'Prof' Jones to win the first UK PTQ)
Looks a pile but is actually a straight up beating.

3 Addle
4 Gerrards Verdict
4 Vindicate
3 Bog Down
4 Death Grasp
3 Rout

4 Spectral Lynx
4 Phyrexian Rager
3 Voice Of All
2 Desolation Angel

4 Ancient Springs (bust out cheap Angels)
4 Caves Koilos
8 Swamp
10 Plains


And two of our own.

Furiously Fast Beats
As fast as IBC can get, really.

4 Thornscape Familiar
4 Quirion Sentinel
4 Kavu Titan
4 Yavimaya Barbarian
3 Rage Weaver
4 Raging Kavu
2 Flametongue Kavu

3 Wax/Wane
4 Assault/Battery
4 Scorching Lava
4 3 Urza`s Rage
1 Meteor Storm

1 Rith`s Grove
4 Battlefield Forge
4 Shivan Oasis
3 Mountain
8 Forest


BRU Beats
We think Urborg Drake and Rakavolver have everything you look for in an IBC creature - a toughness > 2, Flying, and U in their casting cost.

4 Shivan Zombie (my GOD some Lynx decks just fold to this spell)
3 Vodalian Zombie
3 Hate Weaver
4 Phyrexian Rager
4 Urborg Drake
4 Rakavolover

4 Terminate
4 Repulse
3 Urza`s Rage
3 Ghitu Fire

2 Crosis`s Catacombs
4 Shivan Reef
4 Salt Marsh
4 Urborg Volcano
1 Island
4 Mountain
5 Swamp

 

[PTQ]

I really like the U/B/R one, and toyed with a similar idea briefly.

What do you think of the prospects of a U/R/B Zombie deck? Both Blue and Red have some decent cross-colour zombies. Along with the Lord to back them up and some removal....I don't know, but I might have to try it out.

 

[Gizmo]

Me and Neil both played the BRU beats deck, but Neil made some LAST minute revisions (like, walking to table for round one) that made his deck a bit better than mine. He swapped out 3 basic land for 2 Caves Of Koilos and a Battlefield Forge, thus letting him pay the W1 kicker on Rakavolver occasionally.

My SB was better than his though, I played:
4 Addle
2 Jilt
2 Planar Overlay
4 Flametongue Kavu
3 Crypt Angel

Richard Hagon swiped all the good BW cards to play Prof.dec. All three of us made the Top-8, Rich went 5-0-2 (2 draws) and Neil and me both went 5-1-1. In the Top-8 Rich crushed me by twice drawing x Vindicates, where x = # of land I drew , and Neil lost out as well to Gordon Benson`s slightly more controlly URB build (maindeck FTK, FoF, no Drakes or Volvers) in two close games. Rich then lost an incredibly close Semi-Final against Chad`s RWG deck (SB Goblin Trenches were key), and Chad took the slot.

 

[Gizmo]

oh, forgot to mention that the beats dekc is called URB.org
Did you see what I did there? Cos it`s got URB spells in, and if you put .org after it, then it says Urborg, and some of mty cards are from Urborg.
Clever eh?

 

[PTQ]

This may be a silly idea, but what about the blue Weaver that is "2: Target White or Black creature gains Flying unti end of turn"? It's yet another 2 power creature for cc2, and sending a pro-colour guy or a regenerator to the air may be usefull.

...just a thought.