7 replies to this topic

[WhiteLeo]

Hey all you fellow Magic players. I just put togher a new Casual/Vintage Deck. One I am very proud of. A lot of these cards are old school. Any thoughts or suggestions.

3 Meekstone
4 Hymn to Tourach
3 Icy Manipulator
3 Countersquall (Gold version of Counterspell, only you loose 2 life as well)
4 Nettling Imp
4 Counterspell
2 Voldalian Mage
4 Drowned
4 Drudge Skeletons
4 Unholy Strength
2 Feedback
3 Flight

3 Underground Sea
1 Watery Grave (Dual land from Rivanica)
8 swamp
8 Island

The whole point of the deck is to keep them off balanced with the counterspell, squall and Mage. While using the Meekstone and nettling Imp, and Icy to tap and destroy creatures. I also have small creatures with regeneration.

Would love to hear some thoughts from the other fellow players. I have not played this deck yet I am going this Thursday to play it.

WhiteLeo

[BaltanII]

I have to imagine that in your collection, there are definitely much better creatures to use than Drudge Skeletons and Drowned. I'm iffy on Unholy Strength and Flight too - enchant creature spells have gotten much better these days. What the heck is with Feedback?!

It'd be hard to use an "old-school" justification to keep them, if you're running stuff like Countersquall, after all.

My suggestion: dump your current creatures except the Imp (I can't think of a better replacement right now), go Wizard-heavy, and use Voidmage Prodigy. Much more reliable countering that way. The other wizards you use, whatever color they are, should have cantrip abilities or something so they're not wasted when they're sacrificed.

Edited by Boaconda, 31 March 2009 - 07:37 AM.

[WhiteLeo]

Yeah, but Drudge Skeletions and Drowned are cheap creatures with regeneration. And the unholy strenght isn't for me it is for the opponant. It will pump up weenie creatures so I use my Icy, Meekstone, Nettling combo. I am not sure about the flying though. Just through those in for people that have flying creatures.

I get what you are saying though Boa.

[BaltanII]

Okay, I'm seeing a bit more of what you want to do.

However, your Feedback combo doesn't work. Feedback deals damage to the controller of the enchantment. However, that's still YOU even if your opponent's creatures are targeted by Unholy Strength or Flight. Ditch that combo.

Also, your means of increasing the power and reducing the defense of your opponent's creatures is inefficient. There has to be a better way of dealing with it. I know of easy ways to reduce defenses, but not something global that does both. I'm still rusty on my Magic in some respects.

Edited by Boaconda, 31 March 2009 - 12:26 PM.

[TheOrgg]

First things first: What enviroment are you playing in? If it's a casual enviroment with many people at your skill level and tech level (from this deck, your tech level looks as if it's about 1996-97), then your deck is fine.

If it's at a store, you've got a little work to do.

First, your mana base is twenty lands. That, assuming you don't 'mana weave' or other manipulation* and shuffle the appropriate 27 riffle shuffles to completely randomise your deck, twenty is woefully low. Twenty-four lands are the minimum for most decks, and some decks can run up to 28 lands. Onto the main deck:

Disruption
3 Meekstone
4 Hymn to Tourach
3 Icy Manipulator

While Hymn is one of the most powerful disruption cards ever printed, it doesn't match the control focus of your deck. Try four Capsizes instead. Building up to twelve mana and capsize locking your opponent wins you the game. You might also want to include four Black Vises as well since you seem to want to win via damage. I do like Icy here, though. Icy is very useful. Expecially when it taps the Howling Mines that you probably want to be playing when you don't have them under the Vise.

Permission
3 Countersquall (Gold version of Counterspell, only you loose 2 life as well)
4 Counterspell
2 Voldalian Mage

While I LOVE Vodalian Mage in a casual multiplayer deck, this deck doesn't look like it knows multiplayer. One on one the chance someone will forget the mage is slim to none. Drop it in favor of Dismisses, as well as two of the Countersqualls-- noncreature is a BIG downside sometimes, expecially in casual environments. An Ertai, Wizard Adept (Tempest rare) might also help here in place of one of the mages.

Defense
4 Drowned
4 Drudge Skeletons

Whoof. That's definatly old school. I'd go a little newer-but-still-VERY-oldschool Propaganda in multiples, two Morphlings, a Brivery, and three Treachery.

Combo Piece w/ Icy Manipulator
4 Nettling Imp

There's better ways to kill creatures nowdays. Try Damnation.

Creature Enchantments
4 Unholy Strength
2 Feedback
3 Flight

First, creature enchantments are bad card economy. Read Oscar Tan's "Ten Second Card Advantage Solution" Part 1 Part 2 (OR this basic summary-- Card Advantage) to try and understand the current theories on card advantage and why creature enchantments (or 'auras') arn't too good.

I also assume that you have Unholy Stregnth as an aide to Meekstone. Beef Meekstone up to four copies, and use Thran Weaponry (Urza's Legacy Rare, probably about $2 or less at starcitygames.com) to have all creatures affected by the meekstone.


Also, if it sounds like I'm being dickish, I apologise. If you're asking "who the hell are you to tell me all this stuff, effhead!" (which has happened before when I'm on non-Magic message boards), I'll post this (from www.thedci.com ratings and rankings):

DCI & RPGA Rankings and Ratings
Jensen Bohren (PERSONAL INFO REMOVED)
These pages contain rankings for all games, formats, and geographic areas. Click on the ranking value to see the list of players ranked near you. Please note that your event and match counts will be updated on a daily basis as the DCI loads results into the database. Ratings will be updated every week as we calculate ratings. Do not be alarmed if your match and event counts change without a change being reflected in your rating. If you do not appear in an age group or metro area, your records are probably incomplete. You may update your personal information through the Personal Stats sidebar button.

Magic
Composite (as of 2009-03-23)
1642 rating 270 matches 78 events
43464 All 18658 North America 16816 United States 75 US-Mississippi 18 Jackson, MS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Constructed (as of 2009-03-23)
1561 rating 30 matches 7 events
114718 All 50220 North America 45396 United States 171 US-Mississippi 36 Jackson, MS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Eternal (as of 2009-03-23)
1712 rating 26 matches 7 events
2947 All 1296 North America 1172 United States 7 US-Mississippi 3 Jackson, MS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Limited (as of 2009-03-23)
1724 rating 240 matches 71 events
17410 All 7605 North America 6830 United States 39 US-Mississippi 11 Jackson, MS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total (as of 2009-03-23)
1764 rating 296 matches 85 events
21973 All 9260 North America 8343 United States 43 US-Mississippi 11 Jackson, MS


My DCI number is 612282 if you want to recheck this, and I havn't played a constructed game in eleven years or so. I also am a Level 1 DCI certified judge, but I cannot find where the Judge database that doesn't require a password is currently on the wizards site.


*if it helps you, you're TECHNICALLY cheating; if you shuffle sufficiently after 'weaving' the deck it's legal, but pointless because the deck was shuffled sufficiently.

Edited by theorgg, 31 March 2009 - 03:22 PM.

[Scumdogg]

Nnnnnnneeeerrrrdddddsssss!!!!

Just kidding man, i love Magic. I just wish i could afford cards and had people to play with. I'm not good enough anymore to look at a deck and say it's bad, but what you've got going there with creature regeneration and what have you reminds me of decks i tried running when i first started to play back in the early days. They never worked, i was usually still trying to get enough land around to run everything while my opponent was busy beating me down by turn three or four.

[WhiteLeo]

Also, if it sounds like I'm being dickish, I apologise. If you're asking "who the hell are you to tell me all this stuff, effhead!" (which has happened before when I'm on non-Magic message boards), I'll post this (from www.thedci.com ratings and rankings):

In no way did I think you where being Dickish. I am open to all opions. For I myself haven't played well....96-97ish. I am not sure what environment I will be playing. This will be my first time playing since 96-97. I have been collection since then but only Quinton Hoover Cards. I wanted to start playing again and well Tomorrow I will try my deck out. I took some suggestions from everyone and will be on the lookout for some of those cards.

If only us NERDS lived closer together we could get together once and awhile and play.

WhiteLeo

[WhiteLeo]

Ok changed my deck some thanks to theorgg's suggetions. Here it is as it stands. I only need one more Morphling to complete it.

4 Meekstone
4 Black Vise
4 Icy Manipulator
2 Morphling
2 Vesuvan Doppelganger
4 Cancel
4 Counterspell
2 Thran Weaponry
4 Howling Mine
4 Propaganda
4 Capsize

3 Underground Sea
1 Watery Grave
18 Island

Completely blue control now. What do you guys think.

WhiteLeo