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BMoor's Magic The
Gathering
Deck Garage Before I start in on today's deck fix, a few announcements regarding the Five Colors, Six Choices Deckbuilding Contest.
First, entries haven't been coming in as fast as I had originally hoped. I guess Stuffy Doll was just more interesting. So to make sure we get enough entries to make things interesting, I'm pushing the deadline back. You now have until Midnight, July 14 (when the 14th becomes the 15th). That's right, all the way until Bastille Day. I'm kinda hoping that most folks are just taking their time, but I figure it can't hurt to give you more of it.
Second, after giving it a lot of thought, I've decided that outright banning all monocolored cards was a bit too restrictive. But at the same time, what's the point of having a contest if it's not a challenge? So, I've decided to make the following exceptions.
1) Since I said hybrid was allowed, Spectral Procession, Advice from the Fae, Beseech the Queen, Flame Javelin, and Tower Above are legal.
2) Since the whole theme is five-color, Dragonsoul Knight, Fleshformer, Paragon of the Amesha, and Worldheart Phoenix are legal.
3) By special consideration, Quirion Dryad and All Suns' Dawn are legal.
Now, as of this writing, four people have
And finally, the fine folks at Wizards have agreed to spring for prizes! They're sending us some DCI prints of Path to Exile and Hellspark Elemental. Each of the six winners will receive two copies of each-- four cards total. These are the same cards that you can win at FMN's at your local card game store, direct from Wizards of the Coast.
For that reason, include a mailing address with your entry. If you don't I'll E-mail you back to notify you that you won and ask where to send them to, but it'll be easier on both of us if I don't have to. I promise you that nobody but me will see your address, and I won't use it for anything but sending you the prizes.
Okay, that's out of the way, on to the real business.
> Hello Bmoor. My name is Daniel. I started in 2000, quit til 2006, then quit again and started playing again a few weeks ago. I'm still pretty experienced and ok at building decks but I"m never to prideful to ask for help. Ok so here's the deal. I run currently a red elemental deck consisting of: > > LAND (19) > Mountain x 19 >
> CREATURES(24) > > Hellspark Elemental x4 > Spark Elemental x4 > Smokebraider x4 > Flamekin Harbinger x3 > Incandescent Soulstoke x3 > Ashling the Pilgrim x2 > Flamekin Bladewhirl x2 > Hostility x1 > Taurean Mauler x1 > > SPELLS(17) > > Incinerate x4 > Flame Javelin x4 > Banefire x2 > Shock x2 > Fossil Find x2 > Chandra x1 > Heat Simmer x1 > Fists of Anvil x1 > > Ok the basis of my deck is pretty simple, hit hard and fast. Hellspark > Elemental is probably my favorite in here because he only costs 2 > mana, has haste, and I can unearth him for 2 as well. Along with him, > I’d say make my deck most fearsome. > > After I came up with the elemental strategy, I thought it would be valuable to have > cheap burn spells as well thus shocks, incinerates, and flame > javelins. Not only are they cheap, but they do quite a bit of damage
> in a short amount of time. > > Chandra is great for end game. It comes in handy if > either the game began to slow down or I got myself in a stick situation. With it, in 3 turns, I’m able to do 10 damage to a player and every creature they control. > I’m not sure it’s a necessity but I really like it. > > The Banefires that are in here I was just thinking of keeping on my side board because it isn’t as heavy of a hitter until I have 4 plus mana. I must say though, it does come in handy against control decks because it can’t be prevented. As great of a card that it is, I am still in search of something faster. > > Smokebraider and Incandescent Soulstoke seem to me like necessaries in an elemental deck. I don’t have to worry about ever getting mana starved for creatures with Smokebraider and Incandescent Soulstoke not only buffs my elementals but his activated ability works great with bigger elementals. > > The Fossil > Finds > are there for the hope for bringing back Hellspark Elemental so I can > save the unearth or Spark Elemental for a quick hit but a burn spell > works nicely too. The rest of the cards I’m sure you can tie in. > > Ok on to the problems. As great as this deck works, I struggle a bit against control decks. > It’s primarily their ability to counter my burn spells and get
> rid of my creatures with something as
little as a terror or a shock. > just haven’t found one yet. I was thinking of maybe trying to expand it to more than one > color in hopes of being to either gain life or return the counters but I don’t know. > > Another issue is that some games I’ll start off really well but some decks > gain life before I can beat them and I’m setback because I have little to no > cards in my hand. Not having a way to draw cards isn’t a huge > issue but with the ability of control decks to drag out the > game, it can be sometimes. > > Along with recommendations on this, do you think you could help me > with my sideboard. It consists of at the moment: > > 1x Hostility > 1x Chandra > 1x Banefire > 1x Dawnfluke > 1x Wispmare > 1x Font of Mythos > 2x Ingot Chewer > > The Font of Mythos is for the potential problem with drawing > cards. Ingot Chewer for destroying artifacts. The extra Banefire for more direct damage and the rest were the “I’m lost and have not Idea what to put in but that looks good” cards. I was also looking into Vivid Crag and Primal > Beyond. I was told that having all basic
> lands isn’t such a good idea. > Please lend me any recommendations that you can. Thanks.
With all the multicolor craziness Alara block has brought, it's good to get back into one color. Let's see what we can do for your deck.
I want to start by focusing on the issues you
say you have,
As for control decks, I can tell you that Font of Mythos is not the answer here. Control decks win by gaining card advantage, and therefore having more cards available than you. Font of Mythos doesn't put you any less behind, because it gives them as many cards as it gives you. You are not going to out-draw a control deck. And if you try, you're just going to water down the things your deck is good at.
So what do you do? Well, you're on the right track with Hellspark Elemental. Anything that lets you re-use cards can help weaken the control deck's efforts to make you run out of cards. Hell's Thunder is another good Unearth elemental. You could also look into Shadowmoor's retrace; Flame Jab and Call the Skybreaker both work well with your goals, and help alleviate the "out of cards" issue by giving you something else to do with your lands. I also want to direct your attention to Thunderblust, an elemental with Persist. Yes, that low toughness means it'll die to a blocker pretty easy, but your opponent will need two blockers/kill spells to make it go down for good, and the second time it had trample, so you probably still got in there for a few points. Your deck may be red, but that doesn't mean you can't go green and reuse your cards instead of throwing them off to the landfill. Red also tends to get ways to recycle its burn spells. Look into Rekindled Flame and Thunderblade Charge and see if they interest you.
Finally, a weapon that might help you against
That should do wonders to tighten up your game, Daniel. When you can get a second use out of enough of your cards, it's like you never stop drawing more.
Oh, and also forget about Vivid Crag and Primal Beyond. Having nonbasic land only matters if you're playing a lot of different colors, and you're not. There's nothing wrong with Mountains.
Good luck!
~BMoor
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submitted
entries. I haven't read any of them yet, since I want to be
surprised come judging time, but I understand that having
the rules change after submission might upset these folks,
especially if any of the cards I just unbanned would've
helped them. So I will allow them to take a mulligan. In
fact, I'll extend that courtesy to everyone: only one
OFFICIAL entry per person, but if you want to edit or revise
your submission, you may do so, and only your latest-mailed
entry will be judged.
