Creatureless Feature -- format

[Notepad]

Anybody ever hear of "Creatureless Feature"? If you've heard of Creature Feature, you'd know all it allows you to play with is critters and basic land. Well, Creatureless Feature allows you to play with any card except critter cards.

There was such a tourney at the localest card shop on Saturday. Out of the eight participating players I took second place. Surprisingly, I cheated the system and used a mono-green flashback deck to ride to victory against creatureless opponents. Only lost one round, and that was all due to my total stupidity in a play, and not a fault in the deck. Even more surprisingly, some opponents still had anti-critter cards in their sideboards, and some in the maindeck.

I'm gonna name the deck "Mr. Chippie" after the squirrel tokens that helped me ride to victory in many of the games.

I expected to see a lot of red direct damage decks, but didn't see a one. When I mentioned the oddity of it, someone commented that nobody would play red because of CoP: Red. I countered that it was true for any color, and that there weren't any white decks around, anyway. Most people went mixtures of blue and black, many trying to win through Station combos.

Boy, am I glad green is able to maindeck both enchantment and artifact removal, and so easily, too.

 

[Gaea'sSaproling]

heh

 

[Oversoul]

TPS would probably be godlike in this format...

 

[Chaos Turtle]

Do you mean to say that no one other than yourself thought that playing Call of the Herd would be amazing in such a format? I'd have expected that, Centaur Glade and Stalking Stones just for a start, unless there are some rules which forbid them.

Actually, it seems so obvious that I would have loaded up on bounce spells and that card that kills token creatures, as a metagame decision.

Seems like I might not have done so well, though.

 

[Oversoul]

What about cards that are restricted in Vintage? They're still restricted, or what?

 

[Spiderman]

Even more surprisingly, some opponents still had anti-critter cards in their sideboards, and some in the maindeck

Maybe they were expecting other players to do as you did and play flashback critter cards/token generators?

 

[Notepad]

Actually Spidey, I talked to one who put Engineered Plague in his sideboard, and he said he did so because be expected Myr token generation. Nobody ever dreamed of flashback tokens.

Oversoul, it used vintage cards. One guy showed up with a really mean nearly Power Nine -stuffed deck relying on Tendrils of Agony. He only lost to the guy I lost to, but rather than out of stupidity, he lost because the deck was totally overpowered by the guy who beat me. (Nice note is that I got to play against the guy who beat me, in the elimination, and went 2-0 against him, showing the token generation was the best strategy in that metagame, and that my earlier loss was due to my stupidity)

Chaos Turtle, you know, I had the same though. But I only have two Call of the Herds. The elephants were dealt with when they got in play half the time. You want to know my true MVP card of the day? Chatter of the Squirrel. Yes, casting it turn one and recasting turn two was often the key to victory in many, many games. Mr. Chippie the squirrel was my key for knocking the opponents down to kill range for my elephants or beasts before they set up their combos. Very funny. Games were over before Glades or Stones would get going, and I had a hunch about that earlier, which is why I left them out of my deck. Of course, Chippie alone didn't do it all. He was backed up by friends Sword of Fire and Ice (a virtual +4/+2 plus Magpie ability for such a cheap overall cost) and Naturalize, which I usually drew into with help from the swords.

I hope to be doing an article at PoD about this, in case anybody wants to read more about my little walk into the format.

By the way, it was very fun. Encourage your group or store to try a creatureless format sometime. Its a blast.

 

[Oversoul]

I would expect something like...

4 Duress
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
1 Necropotence
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Windfall
1 Time Spiral
1 Timetwister
2 Tendrils of Agony
1 Mind's Desire
1 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Rebuild
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
1 Frantic Search
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
4 Dark Ritual
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Diamond
1 Chrome Mox
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Library of Alexandria
2 Swamp
2 Island
4 Underground Sea
2 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta

...to do pretty well here. There are no cards that TPS loses, and it loses its worst matchups, which rely on creatures of some sort...

 

[Rooser]

Wow, just wow.

I probably would have played some weird blue-green-white concoction that had land acceleration and Rout. I would have figured half the creatures in play would have been man-lands and an insta-WOG would have been the best course of action. Either that or I would have played Pernicious Deed figuring it could blow up everything anyway - creature or not.

No - I'll be honest. I would have done exactly what Seffy did and played with flashback critters. I might have been fancy and splashed blue for counters, but that's it.

If you're playing Squirrel Nest Seffy, you should have considered Smokestack.

 

[Oversoul]

That would have been cool, Smokestack and Squirrel Nest...

 

[Force of Will Smith]

lemme get this straight.. You participated in a local tournament based around creatureless decks where Type 1 through type 2 were allowed, and you almost one with a flashback deck??!! BS

Many combo decks are creature light or creatureless.
You either have creatures, or answers for them...
if you have removal as well as teferi's box+breathstealer's crypt.. you dont need creatures..

If you have a T1 kill, you dont need creatures..
Gawd... *sigh* you can even kill with white on T1, with the salvagers...

I think your talking out your rear..

Cute story though..

Creature feature sounds like something they actually would run.. since it would push magic back into more of what it used to be, before the infinites and locks of the Rath Cycle, and the card drawing from Urza.

Creatureless feature sounds like something you made up.

you could have just said.. ooh. wouldnt it be cool if they had a tournament like this? i think this type of card would get around that..

 

[Oversoul]

So you're saying you think he just made the whole thing up?

 

[Killer Joe]

Not likely. SeFro has a good reputation around here and HAS credibility with us, he has yet to prove otherwise.

You know, it IS hard to beileve that there ARE folks out there who play in tounament or semi-tournament environments that aren't always interested in playing Type I or net.decs, but I'm not one of them, but I DO play in a monthly tournament where such an environment exists.

 

[Oversoul]

My thoughts exactly, while an optimal TPS build could probably plow through just about anything in this creatureless format, it's a hard deck to build. In a budget environment, token generating decks are sure to see use...

Personally, I think this format would be improved by using the Raisin banned list instead of the Vintage lists. But I think Force of Will Smith's post is uncalled for though...

 

[Rooser]

Wow, FoW Smith. It's accusations like that coupled with your penchant for bombos that make me a little sad that this is a flame-free board.

Sorry if you live in Boringsville, USA, but shops and/or local groups tend to hold events of all kinds of wackiness all the time. To borrow Killer Joe's sarcasm - believe it or not, there are groups of people who get together sometimes and play for fun, not profit.

If you have a hard time believing something as simple as "Creatureless Feature" then you'd probably crap a brick when I told you about the nutty theme tournaments I've been to.

 

[Spiderman]

I don't see why it's so hard to believe. Besides, maybe the majority of playrs didn't have access to the power cards aside from that one player, and most appeared to take out most creature removal because they knew the format beforehand and prepared accordingly.

 

[Oversoul]

I am not bragging by saying this...

I wouldn't get caught in the trap of thinking there would be no need to worry about creatures (flashback token generators, man-lands, or otherwise). I really don't think I'd forget about it. I might be more worried about Mishra's Factories than Squirrel tokens. But I'd be expecting some attackers one way or the other...

I am not sure what I would play though, probably some boring deck like Burn, because of my budgetness. If I could get a Tendrils combo deck working, that would be my optimal choice.

But I am sure that there are tons of players who would make that horrible mistake (and to be fair, they might dodge certain mistakes I could make). They would be worried about sorceries and artifacts and stuff, leaving themselves open to some token beatdown. Which seems to have been exactly what SeFRo took advantage of in this case.

 

[Notepad]

Wow, I never thought we'd ever have an infestation of flaming little trolls around here. If you see one, there's probably at least a dozen more back at the nest. Gee golly.

This reminds me of another little flame where some random punk decided to just blast with a short piece of fiction. This time around its the same thing. Some guy who's actually mad at himself, but can't handle his own problems so he just blasts on the internet. And where's he go? My thread about creatureless format. Puts me on blast because he has a problem with the fact girls won't date him or the players in his circle shun him...or something.

The article and the topic starter post were not made up. Duh. A casual group of players without the budget to put together an evil net deck. If you read the article, I make mention of the fact that the players won't have access to the T1 bombs. Plus, I suggest at the end that a TO run this with the T2 or Extended card list instead.

Read before you put someone on blast, please. And when you put someone on blast, make sure its worth it. We had a fun little gay marriage debate in another sub-forum and people got all up in arms over it. Think about it: They got riled up over a gay marriage debate. Makes sense. Now, just busting out with flames for my play circle not having Power Nine decks...go get some therapy, dude.

To everyone who could understand the post and article, thanks. And thanks much for sticking up for me while I was off wandering.

Your ever-missing scribe,
-Sefro

 

[Oversoul]

Originally posted by Rooser
Wow, FoW Smith. It's accusations like that coupled with your penchant for bombos that make me a little sad that this is a flame-free board.

Ooh, burn!

 

[Force of Will Smith]

I've actually played in a lot of different formats. Local card shops around my town do tend to be strictly type II.

My fav shop did an illegal commons tournament about a year ago, in which you were allowed to use any number of commons. Not since then has their been a "fun" tournament aside from being type II. Two headed giant games can be fun, but can also be a lock. "Walls" is pretty cool, mental magic is equivical to playing a type 1 deck. Im not a fan of the 200+ dex, or 5 color magic, but im all about anything goes decks, unless your proxies look awful.


I just thought it sounded preposterous that a flashback deck could even stand a chance against a type I deck. Most people in my area where type I is allowed, people usually break out the big guns.

The idea of a creatureless deck or a tourney is viable, but him placing 2nd against the competition he described was hard to believe.

I play specifically for fun. I usually play silly, fun decks that are all or nothing instead of tried and true, solid, consistent decks. I usually break them out when I'm trying to play good decks i know will perform, as opposed to testing new ideas.

But whatever, you wanted to take someone named "force of will smith" seriously. I guess if my original grafted head of will on the card was next to my name it might be different.

Man text so doesn't translate well.

You guys are hilarious. I love how one concept is immediately related to another.. Like i don't like to play for fun, or that there's an issue with my fiance.

This is solely what i was going from
"Oversoul, it used vintage cards. One guy showed up with a really mean nearly Power Nine -stuffed deck relying on Tendrils of Agony."

Secondly, it just sounded like he was telling a story.
Read over his article and honestly tell yourself it doesn't sound fake.
But whatever, up in arms is right.

My combos rock, btw , and i havent really seen decks youve done, *not sarcastic*

Besides i make decks for fun. I had no idea people on here were so sensitive to any sort of opinion.

Guess i know now.
Welp, Glad you felt some comraderie from the other users after my "flame" towards you.

L8r