I'm not proud of having taken so long to fix
a deck since my last one, and I'm not proud
to have kept Hardy here waiting so long. I
am, however, very proud of Hardy, for
finding a potential combo piece I missed in
my original Card of the Day review of Shape
Anew, and building a deck around it.
Greetings!
The name’s Hardy. After reading your reviews
about the “Shape Anew” card, I realized that
there actually is a card that is not an
artifact, but creates one. Courtesy of red,
we have a Stone Idol Trap! After letting
your opponent attack with multiple
creatures, you may trap him and instantly
produce a 6/12 trampler. During your turn,
say after attacking for 6, sacrifice it for
Shape Anew and out comes a Bone Wand or even
a Steel Hellkite! The problem is that it
can’t find the right cards at the right
time. And before I can manage to get ahold
of the combo, I already find myself in front
of a horde of unstoppable creatures! I would
gladly appreciate your help. Here’s the deck
list by the way:
Lands (21x)
1 Forest
9 Island
6 Mountain
2 Kazandu Refuge
1 Terramorphic Expanse
2 Mystifying Maze
Creatures (1x)
1 Stell Hellkite
Other Spells (39x)
2x Naturalize
2x Ancient Stirrings
4x Shape Anew
4x Stone Idol Trap
2x Prophetic Prism
2x Sphinx Bone Wand
4x Cancel
4x Into the Roil
2x Arc Trail
3x Punishing Fire
2x Cerebral Corruption
2x Treasure Hunt
2x Spell Contortion
2x Call to Mind
1x Surreal Memoir
1x Preordain
Hoping for your help.
Hardy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I have to say, I'm especially embarrassed
for forgetting about Stone Idol Trap, since
I myself used it in my U/R Polymorph deck a
year or so ago. Stone Idol Trap's biggest
strength is its tendency to be forgotten by
everyone, meaning players will frequently
play right into it. Good catch, Hardy!
Unfortunately, your card choices haven't
been so spot on for the rest of your deck.
We've got a lot of chaff to skim off,
starting with Prophetic Prism. The whole
point of needing Stone Idol Trap, a
nonartifact card that creates an artifact
token, is so that you're not at risk of
Shape Anew flipping over another copy of the
cheap throwaway artifact you sacrificed to
Shape in the first place! Your giant,
game-winning artifacts need to be the ONLY
artifacts in your deck, or else why bother
with a Stone Idol token at all? If you need
color fixing, or a cantrip card, we'll find
other options.
There's plenty of other suboptimal spells in
here as well. Spell Contortion costs too
much, doesn't make the opponent pay enough
to ever successfully counter anything, and
doesn't even draw you enough cards to be
worth it unless you've got nine mana or so
to spare, and you won't. Mana Leak is a much
better option, and if you've already got a
playset of Cancel you may not even need it.
Punishing Fire isn't enough burn for its
cost-- unless you frequently find yourself
up against Ajani's Mantra, you're better off
with a playset of Lightning Bolt. Yes, Bolt
is one of the rarest commons there is right
now, but it'll be worth it. You barely even
need Arc Trail. And Cerebral Corruption, or
Cerebral Eruption as I assume you
meant, most often won't do enough damage to
justify its 2RR cost. For the same mana you
could have an Earthquake for 3, which is
guaranteed to hit for the amount you want to
hit. Or you could run Pyroclasm or Slagstorm
if so inclined. But since Stone Idol Trap
gets cheaper the more creatures attack you,
I'm not sure if blowing up all your
opponent's small critters is a good idea.
And finally, I would completely remove green
from your deck. All it's giving you is
Ancient Stirrings and Naturalize. You don't
want to put your artifacts into your hand,
so Ancient Stirrings is just a less powerful
Treasure Hunt that guarantees you
a land instead of a spell, and not even that
if there is none in your top five. And Into
the Roil should handle any noncreature
permanent you can't burn down, so don't
worry about Naturalize.
So what do we add in place of green? Well,
in a way, it's convenient that it took me so
long to get to your deck, Hardy. Now that
Mirrodin Beseiged has been released, Stone
Idol Trap is no longer the only nonartifact
card that makes a Shape Anew target. Replace
your Kazandu Refuges with Sejiri Refuges,
and your two pair of green cards for a
playset of Master's Call.
Adding white opens up a whole slew of other
options. Instead of hoping for a lucky
topdeck off the opponent's deck with
Cerebral Eruption, you can sweep the board
definitely with Day of Judgment, if you so
choose. Instead of relying on Prophetic
Prism's cantrip, Wall of Omens will get you
a card deeper, hold off smaller attackers to
buy you time, and encourage your opponent to
overextend on attacks to try and get through
the Wall, only to further reduce the cost of
your Stone Idol Trap. (Opponents never see
it coming) Survival Cache could provide
extra life and extra cards if you're good at
keeping your life total up, or if your
opponent is playing infect.
Though if you want to dig through your deck,
your best option is likely Foresee. Then
again, in order for Foresee to function, you
need at least one gane-winner artifact still
in your deck. This is why most Polymorph
decks, including the one I ran, use See
Beyond-- that way if you accidentally draw
your heavy hitter, you don't have to
hardcast it.
But on the other hand, both your
Shape Anew targets aren't even that hard to
hardcast. Which raises the question of why
bother with Shape Anew at all? If you're
going to cheat out an artifact, make it a
big one. Wurmcoil Engine would be a nice
choice, likely better than Sphinx-Bone Wand.
But, you're in luck thanks to Beseiged's
release. I am of course referring to that
12-mana juggernaut, Blightsteel Colossus.
Now THERE'S an artifact to Shape Anew into!
Even if your opponent manages to answer it,
it just shuffles itself back into your
library ready to be shuffled back into your
deck. If Blightsteel Colossus is too rich
for your blood, than you could try Platinum
Empirion. That's a pretty hefty artifact
that never really caught on.
As a matter of fact, Shape Anew has already
started to shake up tournament scenes thanks
to Mirrodin Beseiged. But not because of
Master's Call. The real strength of Shape
Anew is that the already-well-established
Jace the Mind Sculptor control builds can
easily become Shape Anew decks simply by
adding a playset of Shape Anew and a
singleton Blightsteel Colossus to the spell
slots, and to the land base, a few of
today's Card of the Day-- Inkmoth Nexus.
Yes, the man land is yet another nonartifact
card that becomes Shape Anew fodder. And
this one is not only colorless, but it costs
a mere one mana to be eligible for Shape
Anew for the turn, and takes the place of a
land instead of a spell. Sure, the 1/1 has
infect, and you're looking to win on regular
damage, but so what? When are you gonna
swing with the Inkmoth? For you it's just
there to enable the combo, and maybe chump
block if you get desperate.
Inkmoth Nexus reminds me that Worldwake's
Dread
Statuary would work too, but then you'd have
to pay 4 to animate (and artifactize) the
land, and another 3U for the Shape Anew.
Already that's more mana than Steel Hellkite
or Wurmcoil Engine would ask for. Stick with
Inkmoth Nexus.
But then you seemed awfully concerned with
getting the proper colors of mana, didn't
you? What can we do to help you with that,
especially after removing green? The Refuge
was a good choice. You could try
Terramorphic Expanse or Evolving Wilds--
both are Standard-legal, but I doubt you
want a full 12 of your lands entering the
battlefield tapped.
All I can really say to that is to bone up
on card draw-- Foresee, See Beyond, Wall of
Omens, and whatever else you've got room
for. If you draw a lot of cards, you'll get
the lands you need more regularly.
Good luck!
~BMoor