Cagebreakers.dec… Could It Be Real?

I was FINALLY allowed to go out to a few magic tournaments last week to test “the deck”. It actually performed pretty well, which was surprising!

Here is the current list:

4x Mindshrieker

4x Mayor of Avabruck

4x Skinshifter
4x Boneyard Wurm
4x Splinterfright
4x Kessig Cagebreakers
= 24 Creatures

4x Dream Twist
3x Think Twice
3x Forbidden Alchemy
2x Bonehoard
= 12 Spells

2x Inkmoth Nexus

22x Other Lands

= 24 Lands

So in this list we can see that all of the cute little tricks have been replaced with creatures. Now when I Dream Twist, I actually GET creatures in the graveyard, which is a BIG change from its previous alliteration. It’s also a lot faster, almost always playing out a T2 creature. Kessig Cagebreaker is AMAZING and whenever I got to swing with him, I won (once I even swung and made 22x 2/2 wolves!). Splinterfright is also ridiculous since he tramples over any little blockers and gets into the 40/40’s pretty easy when he’s wielding a Bonehoard.

The deck is REALLY missing removal. I’m thinking of just adding it to the board where it can come in against creature based decks, but still feel like having SOMETHING main would be beneficial. Silent Departure seems like it would fit the bill, as it’s removal even when I mill it!

I’m putting a pick-up call out on the following cards which are part of this deck, as with the right spells coming out in the next 2 sets it could be REALLY good!

·         Splinterfright

·         Kessig Cagebreakers

I like some of the other cards (Mindshrieker / Mayor) but don’t see them as critical to the deck like those above. A little more graveyard manipulation and we’ve hit the bigtime!

Here are the decks I played against:

1)     Mirror Match: Win 2-0

2)     B/U Control: Lose 0-2

3)     W/U Control: Win 2-1

4)     Tokens: Win 2-1

5)     Wolf Run Green: Lose 0-2

6)     Mono Red Aggro: Win 2-1

These are fairly promising results! A lot of decks that don’t play a ton of removal just can’t deal with a 10/10 Wurm. The U/B control match is almost impossible since after they board ½ their deck is removal. Wolf Run Green just gets out big guys faster and more reliably right now, and can win with pumped Inkmoth Nexus which I really don’t have an answer for right now (Ghost Quarter?). Red decks literally have no way to deal with the fatties either. Slagstorm is fairly ineffective against creatures > 10/10, and every time they burn out one of our guys they just make the rest of them bigger.

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Other exciting news! Looks like a website called: www.quietspeculation.com has taken notice of this humble blog and has asked if I’d like to write for them! Obviously I can’t say no to that, as it would be a REAL writing gig! Awesome!

What does this mean for Don’t Train My Orgg? Probably nothing except for a few less updates than regular. The really hard-core financial articles will be shipped to them but the fun-loving local stuff will stay here. I’ll try and link to any of the Quiet Speculation articles I write if I’m able to! On a side note Quiet Speculation is a great site filled with a LOT of financial / trade data. Since that’s what I specialize in, it’s a perfect fit for me J.

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How about that contest? Not many entries this time so if you DO post something, the odds are high that you may come out a winner! I’m going to do the draw from Imperial Hobbies this Friday to mix it up a little. Since I’m more of a trader than a player I think I really should try and go to multiple different locations to “do my thing”. Do YOU do this, or are you loyal to one store, and one store alone?

You can refresh yourself as to how to enter the contest HERE: Another Contest & The Worst Deck Ever!

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Tomorrow I hope that we can take a look at some of the newer decklists and see how the meta is evolving and if there are any new cards we should be looking to pick up. It appears as though Wolf Run Green has been dying down as of late, so who’s the new front runner?

Find out tomorrow on: Don’t Train My Orgg!

Cheers,

Carl Szalich