Another Contest & The Worst Deck Ever!

“If you build it, they will come.”
… Sorry Kevin Costner, this last build was no “deck of dreams”.

My deck is worse than this card!

Sometimes you have to run with an idea to see if it’s truly as bad as you’d imagined it capable of being. For the past few weeks I’d been putting off building a standard deck. Not because I had no cards or ideas, but more so because the idea I had was terrible. Yet I lay awake, restless and hoping that I could get it to work.

Despite there not being ANY deck placing in the top 1000 that is using the ideas I had.
Despite the fact that I had to trade away Legacy staples for bad 5cc Jace.
Despite Dobbs laughter and head shaking whenever I told him about my “Awesome new Deck”.

I built it, and the only thing that came were taunts and humiliation :S.

Here it is. The first build of a self-mill / giant fatties deck. Please someone tell me it still has potential because I want to cling onto the hope that it will be great!! Lol

NOTE: This first build was NOT optimal. I was trying out different card combinations just to see if they were any good for testing purposes. I learned a lot about the deck in these first 50 games or so and will present an updated list after.

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4x Mindshrieker
4x Boneyard Wurm
4x Splinterfright
3x Laboratory Maniac
1x Moltentail Masticore
2x Mirror-Mad Phantasm
2x Kessig Cagebreakers
= 20 Creatures

4x Dream Twist
4x Think Twice
4x Forbidden Alchemy
2x Bonehoard
2x Jace, Memory Adept
= 16 Spells

+ 24 Land

Hold back the bile! I know this looks really, really bad… and it is.

The first thing that you may notice is the inclusion of Boneyard Wurm and Splinterfright. Theoretically, in a self mill type of deck, they should be great fits, becoming huge on T3 and beyond. Too bad there were only 20 creatures in the deck, eh? I would dream twist and mill only 1 creature or something equally improbable, or if I was lucky, hit 2 of them with the flashback. With only 1/3 of the deck being creatures, I guess it makes sense. Bad deckbuilding = bad results.

The flashback cards were all pretty good! I was never unhappy milling them away, and had plenty of opportunity to use them from the graveyard. The only thing was that they would stifle my board development. I would have to choose between dropping a Splinterfright or flashbacking a Think Twice. Since most of the time I didn’t even have a creature in my grave I would end up flashbacking the Think Twice and end up really far behind on threats.

So what worked out in the deck?

·         When the deck worked, it worked. A T1 Dream Twist dropping a creature or 2 into the grave followed by a T2 Boneyard Wurm into T3 flashback of Twist was nice.

·         The flashback cards were almost always available to be used.

·         Mindshrieker was consistent and did a LOT of damage on its own! It was also one of the only ways I had to get more creatures into the graveyard.

·         Kessig Cagebreakers were always GG when they weren’t answered.

·         Laboratory Maniac is a valid alternate win condition!

What didn’t work out in the deck?

·         Not enough creatures. The “get creatures into the GY” plan was a failure.

·         Mirror-Mad Phantasm was awful. When I had 7 mana up I’d rather be flashing back a Forbidden Alchemy or something. The toughness of “1” is what really killed it for me… MMP was never good, not even when he did what he was supposed to and milled a ton of cards into my GY.

·         The Moltentail Masticore was a nice “nonbo” and should be removed.

·         24 lands is waaayyyy too many, as they are about all that I milled and got stuck with. If I can reduce the CC significantly, I should be able to go w / 22-23.

·         The Bonehoard were cute little additions to go along with Inkmoth nexus but I never pulled off the “combo”, and the Bonehoard would have been better if they were creatures when they went into my grave.

So what should I change?

·         -2 Mirror-Mad Phantasm

·         -1 Moltentail Masticore

·         -1 Land

·         -2 Bonehoard

·         -1 Think Twice

·         -1 Forbidden Alchemy

·         +2 Kessig Cagebreakers

·         +1 Laboratory Maniac

·         +4 Skinshifter

·         +1 Jace, Memory Adept

These modifications would solve a lot of my problems.

It would give me more creatures that can both come out early, as well as fill my graveyard. I added the last Maniac and the other 2x Cagebreakers. The Cagebreakers will probably now serve as my #1 finisher in the deck. Jace was always fantastic, but I’m hesitant to add that 7^th 5cc spell to the mix since I’m taking away a land.

I guess this time when I test, I’ll even use sleeves! :O

What do you think? Does it at least have a chance?? Haha

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And now, a CONTEST!

Wow guys! 1000 hits! Thank you so much for visiting my blog!!

What better a time than now to start a new contest and give out a prize to all of my loyal readers!!

This contest will involve participation just as the last one did. Every reply that you post will earn you a ballot, and if you sign up to follow this blog, you'll earn another. Here is the twist: For every other person YOU get to follow this blog YOU will earn 3 ballots, and they will get the ballot for joining the site! You will also automatically get a ballot for being a “member”, regardless of your posts as a “thank you” for following ;).

So again, please try and keep your comments relevant to the post, but feel free to offer your input involving anything from site layout, to potential topics, to just your opinions on the article! Anything goes, really!

Last time I gave out Hero of Bladehold (which I told you all would be going up in price) which is now a $15 card. This time I’ll give out something with a little MODERN potential that hasn’t yet hit the big time… a Maelstrom Pulse! We’ve seen these get up to $15 before, and if there is a deck that uses it in Modern it will certainly go back up to or near its old value. It’s also AMAZING in EDH / Commander, so no matter the format, it’s a winner!

We’ll start the contest today (Oct 25 / 2011) and it will end on November 04 / 2011… just in time for the first FNM of the month!


Cheers and looking forward to your comments / suggestions!

Carl Szalich