multiplayer U/B/R: Not Yet Named

[krichaiushii]

I had a brainstorm last night, and realized what might be a fairly amusing, and maybe victorious deck. Once again involving Varchild's Warriders, I do something a tad different with them than I did in Soul Burn.

Creatures:
4 Varchild's Warriders
3 Looming Shade
3 Dirtwater Wraith
2 Phryexian Marauder
1 Ascendant Evincar
1 Western Paladin
1 Eastern Paladin

Other:
4 Drain Life
4 Prosperity
4 Kaervek's Torch
4 Fireball
3 Lab Rats
3 Black Market
3 Engineered Plague

Land:
8 Swamp
4 Underground Sea
4 Badlands
3 Mountains
1 Island

The reasoning behind this deck is to use the Engineered Plague/Ascendant Evincar on Survivor Tokens, once the Warriders are out. Your Black Market will quickly grow very large, indeed, hence all of the X-spells and black mana dumps. This is just a rough draft, and probably will end up with a larger blue component for some type of counterspells. Any ideas? And a better deck name would be appreciated, too.

Opinions are welcome. Thanks.

 

[Mikeymike]

The first thing I would suggest would be to run Dungeon Shades also (or instead of the Marauder) b/c it has flying.

I would also run some artifact mana to get out the big spells (Sol Ring, Thran Dynamo, Grim Monolith, Basalt Monolith).

Pestilence would work very nicely also.

 

[krichaiushii]

I am banking on the Black Market providing massive mana amounts, so no need for artifact mana. Granted, Varchild's Warriders + Engineered Plague + Black Market + X spell is a tad unwieldy, but after a few turns, the Black Market is ungodly:

Varchild's Warriders Upkeep, turn 1: 1
turn 2: 2
turn 3: 4
turn 4: 16
turn 5: 32

After five turns of the above in play, there would be 55 mana on the Black Market. 6 consecutive turns would net me a whopping 119 mana -- ample for my casting needs.

Should some wise-arse play with either Cleanse or Eradicate, I'm in trouble... but still...

Good idea on the Dungeon Shades. Thanks.

 

[Mikeymike]

I think you might be measuring it wrong. In real life Cumulative is description of exponential growth but in magic I'm almost positive its really "accumulative", i.e. 1,2,3,4... The reason I think so is b/c when I first started I measured it as you are right now, and I was told by multiple players that I was doing it wrong.

I'll post a topic in the Rules Q. section to find out for sure and let you know.

Also, I was thinking about something else. Why not run Rolling Thunder instead of the Torches (even though I love its built in Defense Grid clause). You could potentially wipe out multiple opponents in one shot, that'd be a sweet power-trip.

Let me just say, I have seen about 6 or 7 of your decks now in this section and I was always impressed. Very nice use of "sub-par" cards and turning them into powerhouses. You're not from CT by any chance are you?

 

[krichaiushii]

That would be terrible if cumulative upkeep works your way instead of mine! I hope you are wrong (thereby justifying my English degree)... if not, it makes Glacial Chasm even more useful. And should I be right, well, the aforementioned Glacial Chasm may fit in this deck, or maybe Urza's Armor? (How does mana burn work? Is it one-point packets like Pestilence, or one big lump sum?)

Thank you for the compliment on my decks. I use the "subpar" cards due to the large trading advantage I get from offering up the "good" cards. It's amazing what kind of logic tournament-only players follow... Besides, the subpar cards have most of the best art!

As for my current residence, I am stationed in Texas, though they are trying to send me to Kuwait for Christmas... grrr...

 

[Mikeymike]

Check out the thread in the Rules Section on the Upkeep. Y the Alien pulled the ruling off of D'Angelo's (crystalkeep.com) ruling site.

A.10.2 - This ability means "At the beginning of your upkeep, put a cumulative upkeep counter on this card. You may <-pay cost-> for each cumulative upkeep counter on the card. If you don't, sacrifice it." [CompRules 99/04/23]


A.10.Ruling.1 - The cost to be paid is one times the cost the first time it is paid, two times the cost the second time, three times the cost the third time, and so on. See Rule A.10.2. [CompRules 99/04/23] For example, if a card has "Cumulative Upkeep: {B} and 2 life", you pay {B} and 2 life on the first upkeep, {B}{B} and 4 life on the next upkeep, {B}{B}{B} and 6 life on the next upkeep, and so on. [D'Angelo 98/02/03]

So, the CU is measured by counters, and it does go up in increments of the original cost, like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5....

Don't sweat it, the combo still works nicely. I thought about another wacky card. Mogg Infestation, kill all target opponents creatures and put 2 1/1 Goblin tokens in each creatures place, then shell them. Haha, that'd be funny. Fire Ants can wipe the board clean too.

Oh, if you have 1 Demonic Tutor (if you play restricted), run that sucker for the 1 Evincar and your kill spells.

 

[galtwish]

Dingus Staff works wonders with the Riders. Here's a deck that i built a while ago with some substitutes listed:

4 War Riders
4 Dingus Staff
3 Mogg Infestation/Anarchy/Disorder(super tech)
4 Wildfire Emmisary
3 Orgg
4 Pyroclasm
4 Earthquake/Pyrokinesis/Cave-In
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Mana Vault/Grim Monolith/Fire Diamond
3 Subterranean Spirit/Fire Ants
4 Ghitu Encampment
1 Shivan Gorge
18 Mountians

Erik

 

[Bladefall]

Why not kill black market for Subbstatearan Hangar (sp?). So that way you won't have to put ur creatures in ur Graveyard to get a charge counter. Just and idea...

 

[krichaiushii]

That ruling is grim news indeed... but a positive aspect is that I won't be viewed as too large a threat until too late!

Considering this I think I should drop some of the X spells (Fireball, most likely), and add more creatures. And tutors of some sort, most definitely.

Any ideas for deck names? I am thinking of some play on the phrase "the High Cost of Living", but am unsure.

I only have one more use for the Warriders, and that is to ensure my Defense of the Hearts go off (Hunted Wumpus works well for that, too). But that deck consists of naught but Warriders, Hearts, and scads of really, really big creatures.

And Galtwish -- my friend has a similar deck, but he runs it with Aether Flashes. When it works it is ugly... but methinks he will be upset when I point out the official version of Cumulative Upkeep.

Thanks for your assistance, all.

 

[Apollo]

I submitted a similar Dingus Staff deck to Dune echo's contest. I was informed by Gizmo, our resident pro, that my opponent would not take the damage because the tokens would go to my graveyard. Yet, now I read the Staff, and it says that the creature's controller takes the damage, not the owner, or the person who's graveyard it went into. So it seems like it should work. I'll post this in the Rules Forum and see what the Rules Gurus say about it.

Apollo

 

[Spiderman]

<my standard reply to someone using the Warriders>

Since NOW you're using back (as opposed to the other deck), could you throw in Pestilence to help sweep away the Survivor tokens? Or is that too mana intensive?

 

[galtwish]

Tokens get sent to the graveyard, they are just removed from the game when they get there. And i believe the Oracle Dingus Staff wording will have something to the equivalent of "...whenever a creature is SENT to the graveyard..."

Erik