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C-Notes Building Aggro-Control
Part 1: Water/Nature Splash "Ill-Folk Style" Here's a dirty little secret about me: sometimes I compete with janky decks. The decks are rooted in solid concepts, but I'll run some cards that don't have high utility or I'll do something silly to mess up a deck's pacing. I don't run janky decks at major events like the 5 Civilizations. I'm not that crazy. But, sometimes I like to run decks for fun or test wacky stuff at low-key events. Tooling around with casual & serious decks sparked a column idea, "From The Battle Zone." The column's articles will be tourney reports that include in-depth explanations of the casual & competitive decks that my meta-mates or myself play. Today I'll share a tourney report highlighting a casual deck that I recently ran in a sanctioned tourney. The deck blends 4cc with Bliss, Thrash, Mystic and several metagamed choices. It's not very original, having borrowed core concepts from other 4ccs, but it has enough "extra additives" to be different. Here's the deck rundown & tourney report: H.A.L.F B.A.K.E.D (Having A Little Fun Because All Kids Enjoy Dat) 3x Meteosaur 60 cards The Deck It's a control strategy that recycles cards to keep options in hand. Thrash and Mystic act like tutors for the mana zone, getting back whatever expensive card I pitched as mana or the cards that Bliss funnels into the mana zone. The abusive stuff happens if I can recycle key cards. Let's look at the deck's possible moves at each mana drop & when I'd play one card over another: 2 drop 3x Emeral In the early game, this deck has a glaring disadvantage because I don't have enough defense or creatures to drop. If I'm playing against a Rusher or any deck that drops 1-2 threats by that time, then I want Hammer or Emeral in hand. An early Faerie Life usually is dropped if I'm playing a staller. 3 drop 4x Bronze-Arm Tribe If I've dropped Faerie in the early game then I'll most likely opt for playing Hulcus. Hulcus is nice to hit tapped Rushers since BAT will die no matter what is out. If I really need to get to 5 mana quickly to pop off the removal in my hand, then I'll drop Bronze. Either option sets up later plays. Cutthroat Skyterror is teched weenie/Barkwhip/Paladin/etc hate. 4 drop 3x Mystic Dreamscape Dreamscape is not an early game or early-mid game play. If it comes from my shield zone or is in hand early, then it sees my mana zone. Smoke is the 4th turn play of choice. I might play Thrash to answer Bakwhip and those 3-5 mana Speed Attackers. If I have a Wave in my mana zone, then I'll drop Thrash to snag Wave for a next turn play. Also, Thrash & Mystic are great if my opponents pitch creatures into my mana zone with Snare. 5 drop 3x Meteosaur Not getting some type of removal in hand or played by turn 5 equals death versus many decks. That makes Searing Wave a valuable turn 5 play. Saucer-Head is a metagame choice, and I can bounce my own guys with it. If I'm not in a hard place, then Merfolk and Terahorn go online. With Terahorn I mostly search out Twin-Cannon, Fighter Dual Fang or Silphy. I can also search for the other Terahorn. Terahorn allows me to see what options I have in my deck and shield zone, so many times it's more valuable for me to play than Merfolk. Merfolk & Thrash help me recover from hand control tactics. This deck has too many 5 mana plays, which is bad. Some of these choices should have been 2 or 3 mana plays. 6 drop 2x Fighter Dual Fang At the 6 drop I'm more inclined to play Thrash Crawler, but any of these cards will do for plays. I'd like to drop a creature more than having to freeze up mana to deal with one creature. But, this is also the time when I can see creatures like Lancer, Fighter, or Twin hit. Having kill in hand that can deal with fatties is good. Bliss gets dropped depending on what's happened so far in the duel. If my opponent's field isn't too big a threat, then I drop Bliss to recycle kill spells first and then creatures. That sets up my mana zone for Thrash and Mystic. 7 drop 3x Twin-Cannon
Skyterror Twin comes out to nail shields as the finisher, but often I'll wait until I have dwindled an opponent's field a bit so he doesn't overwhelm me with the new cards I give him. Lost Soul's an attempt to neutralize my opponent's chances of responding to my Twin drops and recovering from widespread kill. If I play Saucer-Head in the late game then I hope to follow it up with Lost Soul. If Bliss and the deck's other mana gain have been online, I usually can perform that play on the same turn. 8 drop 2x Vampire Silphy These guys are metagame choices. If little guy swarms are still online I go for Silphy. If I need to clear blockers for Twin and my other hitters then it's Skyterror. Both require consideration when playing because they can hurt my field too, but there's a chance to turn my sac'd guys into mana. There are some players at my store who run Syforce, Gran Gure and La Byle--silly fattie blockers that can attack--so that explains the outdated Scarlet. I coudl go with Paladin, but just like sac'ing stuff, lol. As you can see, the matchup I'm facing largely dictates when I play certain cards. Let's check out how the deck did in the tournament: The Tourney Report Dizzy
Dugout I'm only going to recount the tie breakers or second matches that I remember. It was a busy day for me, so I didn't take the best notes. The tourney consisted of 15+ bracket players since no little dudes showed up. Ah, no one yelling "Ike!" Match #1: Versus Jim, Light/Darkness/Nature/Fire Cards my opponent used: Essence Elf, Death Smoke, Marrow Ooze, Terror Pit, La Giga Ura, Shadow Moon, Gett, Snake Attack, Ghost Touch, Rikabu, Locomotiver, Poisonous Mushroom, Darkness Reversal, other stuff Winner: Me, 2-1 Jim plays a wierd weenie-ish deck that he has stuck with for ages. He supports a weenie build that's heavy Fire-Darkness with Nature for mana advantage, Shadow Moon to pump up his little Darkness hitters, and Light for some protection. The only thing that matters to me in this matchup is that his deck is faster than mine. That's troublesome given my deck's noticeable flaws. The tie-breaker match: Jim goes first and promptly lays down an Ooze. I build mana. Next turn he drops another hitter, Essence. I play a Hammer on Essence, smelling a cheaper Snake Attack in the future. He doesn't attack with Ooze, and this surprised me. He also pegs me with an early Ghost Touch, and it knocks out a Faerie Life. Going into the mid-game he's laid to waste some of my shields, but one was Faerie Life so I got mana out of the deal. I drop Cutthroat to kill one of his threats and slap it back to my hand. He plays Shadow Moon, making my Hammers, Sharks and Meteosaurs useless against his Darkness hitters. I really needed to slam Jim's field because he had around 4 creatures out. So, I dropped Wave laying to waste everything he had out. He recovered his field, nabbed another guy with Reversal, and I dropped Saucer Head Shark bouncing his weenie field and my Hulcus. In the late game, I was sitting with huge mana due to Bliss, my stalling tactics, and repeat slamming of his field. Plus, my hand was this 8 card beauty: 2 Twins, 1 Cutthroat, 1 Wave, 1 Hammer, 1 Snare, 1 Pit, and 1 Death Smoke, lol. I showed my hand to the new player whose name I can't remember, and we both chuckled. Anything but a Speed Attacker was going to die immediately. Jim's hand discard wasn't enough to keep me down when Bliss recycled kill and Thrash/Dreamscape put kill back into my hand. With my mana advantage I dropped removal and Twins in succession to win. Jim really needs to add more kill and Speed Attackers to his deck. Match #2: Versus "I'm Sorry I Forgot Your Name," Fire/Water Cards my opponent used: Lancer, Hulcus, Soldier, Gate, Gett, Deadly Fighter, Serum, Hammer, Rikabu, Vehicle, Guard, other stuff Winner: Me, 2-1 This match was against a new player. That's new to the store, not new to DM. I can't for the life of me remember his name. I think it was Randy. At the Release event he managed to put me on the ropes several times, and he placed 2nd. Before this tournament we both tested different decks with each other, and he won about half the matches, ouchies. He's skilled, so I'll have to keep my eye out for him at big events and remember his name, lol. The tie-breaker match: As I expect, he gets the early jump on shield hits with some Fire hitters and Vehicle. Braid Claw hit when I had Hammers in hand, so I killed it. I counter-attacked with Hulcus to hit a tapped power attacker, and advanced my mana. In the mid game he wisely drops a Soldier and a blocker. I starve off a round of attacks with Wave, killing all his evobait except for that darn Soldier. He's able to knock off another shield, trigger a Snare which hits Soldier. I basically kill what he drops. I'm able to build my mana and slow him down with plays like Corile, Smoke and Meteosaur. In the late game, I pop off Dual Fang, advance my mana, he blockes FDF, and I hit with one of my dinky creatures. He drops a Lancer on Guard and kills FDF. I play Emeral and Merfolk to net draw. His Lancer trips Pit (guess what dies) and Terahorn. I'm down to no shields, but I have Thrash out. I drop Twin to slam shields. All he can do is play some evobait and hitters. I drop Silphy sweeping his field, Soldier goes to his hand, and I hit with Twin again. He plays a few hitters. I drop another Twin, I swing, then he scoops. I think he should run some Jolters and Paladin, lol. Match #3: Versus Mr. Neumann, Fire/Light Cards my opponent used: La Byle, Giga, Deadly Fighter, Gett, Holy Awe, Emerald Grass, Hammer, Syforce, Diamond Cutter, other stuff Winner: Me, 2-0 I forgot the name of the Neumann brother I played, so I'll just call him Mr. Neumann. Both of the Neumanns are very hard to defeat in Inuyasha. I have only beaten them once each in that TCG, lol. This Neumann brother was the Inuyasha champion at the store for many weeks, so I'll admit that I enjoy pwning him in Duel Masters. : ) 2nd match: The one thing I like about facing non-Hydro Hurricane Light stallers is that you can build your mana to a comfortable level. Since he concentrated on classic Fire/Light with some Byle action there were no Hydros. My mana got up to 20 and I was able to do all sorts of degenerate things with Bliss Totem, Thrash and Dreamscape. In the early and mid game he basically put out some Fire hitters and blockers. I didn't attack him until the lategame. I simply bounced or killed what he put down and he squeezed in 2 shield breaks. In the lategame, I killed his Byle, Syforce and 2 little blockers with Scarlet. I also Lost Souled his hand of 4 cards. He had nothing out that could deal with 2 Twin Cannons & FDF, and I had a hand filled with kill. Triggered Awes didn't matter since he didn't have out the right blockers to kill my fatties. Basically, I pummeled him with my card advantage. Result: I won the tourney. I didn't face any Control decks, no Ill-folkies, so I got off rather easy. The decks I faced definitely weren't as strong as the ones I face when all of the regular DM players attend. But, hey, my deck wasn't strong either, lol. I'm sure folks at this store are going to wise up to Lost Soul sooner or later to 'tech' against me, lol. I think Daniel runs Lost Soul in his Blue/Black, but neither he nor his son who plays mono-Fire were at the tourney. I only got the JDC promos as prizes since this was a free tourney, but a foil Grave Worm Q promo ain't bad. : ) It was a good day because I was able to get the copies of Future Slash and Mystery Treasure Chest that I needed, plus all of the Invincible spells for collection purposes. All I need are 3 Bolly and 2 Craze Valkyrie and my post-Stomp life will be complete. What's Up Next? In my next tourney report, I'll share another semi-competitive deck featuring Craze Valkyrie, the Drastic, Future Slash or Phal Eega. It will be a Valkyrie deck if I can secure 2 copies of Craze Valkyrie before the weekend. For my return to Limited articles, my next topic will be going over my Stomp-a-trons Release event card pool. If you have any questions, want to see something covered in an article, or just want to chat, feel free to drop me a line at kaiserpso@hotmail.com. Yes, I'm still alive...but barely. |
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