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Deepblue706
2007-02-09, 11:54 AM
Gfaw!

Egads!

Another MTG thread.

While I know little of what other players enjoy doing most when playing MTG, I find it most entertaining to pull a 180 on everyone I sit down with, doing what appears to be amazingly dumb, but in the end doing something fairly effective.

Really, I build about 90% of my decks based around this concept. I really enjoy seeing the attitudes I notice go from "Haha, you're an idiot" to "WTF!"

For instance, my longest running deck is a "Re-animator". The basis of the deck, for those that do not know, is to put (big) creatures into your graveyard, and then put them into play via necromancy spells. Right well...I don't use any big creatures. I use ANNOYING creatures.

There's this old card from Visions called "Necromancy", which is an enchantment (2B) that revives a creature, keeping it alive so long the enchantment itself remains in play.

Now, some might say it's not so good, because 1) It's slower than Reanimate (B, pay life equal to converted mana cost) and 2) It's an enchantment, which can easily be disposed of in a number of ways.

So, when I play it, most of those I play with seem to be thinking "Wow, ghetto".

There's a neat little attachment to the spell, which says it can be played instantly - however, the enchantment would then be destroyed at end of any turn.

Now, why would anyone do that? Unless the creature had haste, it couldn't attack. Well...I found a nice use for it.

See, this Re-animator of mine is Black/Blue - it has a lot of draw cards, and counterspells!

I run 4 Dazes ( 1B or return an island to hand, counter unless caster pays 1), and 4 Forbids (1BB counter target spell, buyback - discard two cards: This lets me drop creatures from hand to graveyard for reanimation).

Counterspells are something I love - and they're very important if I want to live long enough to deal the proper amount of damage (as I said, it's harder because I don't run big creatures).

And so, I added a Mystic Snake (1GBB).

How do I use it without the green mana? First, it needs to be in my discard pile (which first time witnesses are seemingly always appauled at) - from there, Instant Necromancy. At end of turn, it dies, and so does the enchantment. Now, if I stopped there, I still have over 10 counterspells in the deck, that means. Which, is quite annoying, especially considering the fact that the deck can deal significant amounts of damage quickly, despite not being absolutely amazing at it.

There's a card called "Tidespout Tyrant" from Dissention: 5BBB, 5/5, flying, whenever you play a spell, return target permanent to owner's hand. I added this card IMMEDIATELY upon discovering it in my small collection. And, well, this is annoying for many reasons - which is why it's always the first creature I go for.

First, I can return enemy lands to their hand, slowing them down quite a bit (considering how many low-cost draw spells I run in the deck). But more importantly, I can retrieve the Necromancy enchantments before they are destroyed from being played instantaneously. All I need is a Telling Time, or Truth or Tale - heck, I'd even burn a Dark Ritual to take it back, if necessary.

And, in return, I get another counterspell for 2B...much to the dismay of my friends. 4 Necromancy cards with Mystic Snake, 4 Daze, and 4 Forbid = 12 counterspells, not considering the buyback of Forbid, and the retrieval of Necromancy. I love it!

It's now common for those that I play with to refer to my little technique as "Snaking".

"Look out, he might SNAKE ya."

Because it sounds a little ambiguous, it adds even more humour to the table. But even so, it is actually regarded as a fair tactic among my fellow players, if a little...odd.




So that's my tale. I'm curious, has anyone else managed to pull anything like this out to the gaming table?

Artanis
2007-02-09, 01:31 PM
I once built a white not-quite-weenie deck for free-for-all Genocide* games me and my friends had all the time. It revolved around staying out of the way long enough to put together my game-winner combo, them pummel the other guy to death with it. It was by far the weakest of the three decks, but since it was a free-for-all, I actually won a few games!

(*Note: "Genocide" was a variant where everybody played a "race" deck: the only cards allowed in a deck were basic lands and cards explicitly related to one specific race.

i.e. I had a deck with nothing but Plains and Soldiers (this was during the Urza's block, when Soldiers were still nothing special), one friend had nothing but Swamps, Thrulls, and a couple Thrull-related spells like Breeding Pit, and the other friend had nothing but Mountains, Goblins, and a couple Goblin-related spells like Goblin Grenade.)

Basically, every game came down to seeing which would happen first: the Breeding Pits outproducing the Goblin Warrens by 25ish, or the Goblin player drawing his fourth Goblin Grenade. Meanwhile, I would just sit back and wait for three key cards: Kjeldoran Skyknight, Icatian Lieutenant, and Kjeldoran Royal Guard. Neither friend could block the Skyknight, so once one of them was taken out, the Icatian Lieutenant would buff him as high as possible and he'd go in and pound the survivor. The Kjeldoran Royal Guards, in the meantime, were sacrificed to keep me alive long enough to finish the guy off. Literally the entire rest of my deck existed for the sole purpose of keeping me alive long enough for the Goblin/Thrull stalemate to ensue.

Erloas
2007-02-09, 02:31 PM
Although I haven't played in years... I think Exodus was the last set I collected any reasonable amount, though I think I have a little bit up until Invasion. Looking at their site now it looks like they've released a ton of expansions since then.
So I only have a vague idea of what 99% of the cards anyone mentions now actually do.

I ran a lot of random decks that weren't really built do stomp on someone, but just to be annoying and hope to come out on top.

Though my favorite deck and the one I used most of the time was a red destroy everything deck. Its goal was to destroy as much as possible and make sure I came out a little ahead in the end. Things like Nevyrils Disk and Joghulhops (no idea on spelling at all), earthquakes, infernos, that sort of thing. The best times were when someone thought they had me beat and decided to toy with me just a little too long (the liked to do that since I was hard to beat) and I would turn the game around and kill them in very short order. Or at very least kill us both at once.
My favorite part was always "pick your death" when I knew I had it won and had my opponent randomly choose which way (usually between 3-5) I would kill them.

The one nice thing I found is when I played last (about a year ago, while on a trip back) against my younger brother and his friends, even with all the new and more powerful cards they release with every expansion I was still able to beat them a good portion of the time.

Reinforcements
2007-02-09, 07:01 PM
I haven't played since Kamigawa started, but I still have two good decks lying around.

The first is an Affinity deck - which is terribly boring, but also really good. Ambushing people who don't know what to expect with Broodstar is tons of fun.

The other (my favorite) is an elf deck that was Type-2 legal during the Mirrodin block. One word - Skullclamp. What? That's one word.

Erloas, I think you would like
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y63/Reinforcements/21369918.jpg
The made-up Magic card I'm most proud of.

Tor the Fallen
2007-02-16, 09:16 AM
Rats. All black.
Terror'd any creatures that the opponent played, then just played one or two rats a time with strength buffs. Mostly feast of the unicorn or unholy strength. Tiny deck, at 40 cards, could end someone in 3-5 turns. I think.

Tor the Fallen
2007-02-16, 09:17 AM
Hey deepblue, you might want to try using some sort of card that 'bounces' permanents back to your hand, so instead of losing that enchantment, it goes back to your hand and the creature goes to the graveyard wher eyou can easily reanimate it again.

Douglas
2007-02-16, 05:10 PM
I've only ever actually played this deck in a computer game and with fake cards, but it's entirely legal, often effective, and a bit unusual. It revolves around four cards and variants on them: Stasis, Kismet, Black Vise, and Rescue. If you can survive long enough to get stasis out (I used counterspells to help with this), you can usually get the full combo in play and win.

For those not familiar with those specific cards, here's how it works:
Stasis is a blue enchantment that makes everyone (including you) skip the untap phase. It has an upkeep cost of one blue mana.
Kismet is a white enchantment that makes all your opponents' permanents come into play tapped.
Black Vise is an artifact that damages an opponent by one for each card more than four in his hand at the end of his turn.
Recall is a blue instant with only 1 mana cost that returns a permanent you control to your hand.

1) Get Stasis on the field. Now no one can untap anything. This means, among other things, most creatures can't attack more than once and lands can only produce mana once before becoming useless.
2) Get Kismet on the field. Now your opponent(s) don't even get to tap their lands and other permanents once before they're useless.
The above combination means, among other things, your opponents have no mana. No mana => no casting spells => no getting cards out of hand => hand size grows.
3) Get Black Vise on the field. Your opponent(s) should have pretty large hands by now, so they'll be taking damage every turn.
4) When you're running low on mana to maintain Stasis, use Recall to return it to your hand at the end of the turn just before yours. Stasis is no longer in play, so you get to untap everything. Now cast it again. You got to untap, but no one else did.
5) Watch as everyone in the game but you sits by helplessly as their life points diminish every turn until they die.

I know of at least one near equivalent for each of Black Vise (Iron Maiden) and Recall (Boomerang), but Stasis and Kismet are unique as far as I know. You should have four of each, of course, and any card that lets you search your library for Stasis is also a good idea. I haven't really tried too many variations on it, but lots of lands make maintaining Stasis long enough to make sure you get a Recall easier.

ilovefire
2007-02-16, 07:44 PM
Oooh, I've got a really nice combo deck, a UWG. Blue, White, and Green all in one deck? three colors of mana? *GASP!* you say!

But I Only have 4 forests and 4 plains, the rest of my mana consisted entirely of islands. Why did I include forests and plains? Well, I had some enchantments with costs including W or G mana... but I hardly ever had to use more than my blue mana.

Why, do you ask? Academy Researchers. Followed Footsteps. AR, when played, allows you play any enchant creature card from your hand onto them. FF creates copies of the enchanted creature (exact copies, down to the ability text).

Of course, it dosent' actually work all that well, but hey. it's a cool deck.

Mr. Moon
2007-02-16, 08:30 PM
Amazingly dumb? Yes. All my decks have been amazingly dumb. Effective? Erm... No. Somehow, the concept of me and a good deck is, well, unplausible. Sure, they all sound good. (My current deck is a Shadow/Flying mix, for example.) They have a great concept, but when put into play... *winces*

That Lanky Bugger
2007-02-16, 11:39 PM
I think my most effective deck was my Sliver deck (because I had the cards to get that infinite Sliver combo going, where the only real limitation to the number of creatures I could field was my imagination), but my favorite (which was also fairly effective) has always been my deck based around the artifact card which allowed you to give a creature +1/+1 and flying, in exchange for killing it.

As I recall, I basically loaded my deck up with buffs, large creatures, and four of those cannons. The basic strategy was actually pretty simple... Because a lot of creatures which fly are small, by deploying LARGE flyers as part of my army I could get around those annoying blocking rules! Plus, the imagery of a bunch of goblins shoving a Giant Growthed, (Whatever Green Instant Grants Trample) Craw Wurm into a giant cannon and launching it at my foe was too funny to pass up.

Deepblue706
2007-02-17, 12:36 AM
Hey deepblue, you might want to try using some sort of card that 'bounces' permanents back to your hand, so instead of losing that enchantment, it goes back to your hand and the creature goes to the graveyard wher eyou can easily reanimate it again.

I explained that I already do that, retrieving the Necromancy enchantment via casting a simple spell, which activates Tidespout Tyrant's ability to bounce a permanent.

On another note, I found some old 0 casting cost artifacts of some use, and added them in for the possibility of getting a storm of spells going (play a 0 casting artifact, return a 0 casting artifact to hand, repeat). With that, I can now use stuff like Tendrils of Agony as another win-condition.

Evil_Pacifist
2007-02-17, 10:27 AM
I play this deck:


I play a Johnny-ish Wirefly Hive (http://www.findmagiccards.com/Cards/DS/Wirefly_Hive.html) deck. I use Krark's Thumb (http://www.findmagiccards.com/Cards/MI/Krark_s_Thumb.html) + the hive, and turn my opponents creatures into wireflies using Unnatural Selection (http://www.findmagiccards.com/Cards/AP/Unnatural_Selection.html) so that the hive kills them if I fail to make a guy, then I Skullclamp (http://www.findmagiccards.com/Cards/DS/Skullclamp.html) my wireflies for the cards, defend myself primarily with Steel Walls (http://www.findmagiccards.com/Cards/MI/Steel_Wall.html) and the thumb + Impulsive Manuevers (http://www.findmagiccards.com/Cards/OD/Impulsive_Maneuvers.html), then Enrage (http://www.findmagiccards.com/Cards/SC/Enrage.html) a wirefly (Plus double damage!) for the win. In theory. Plus, of course, I have other annoying coin flipping based cards, such as Planar Chaos (http://www.findmagiccards.com/Cards/JU/Planar_Chaos.html) and Fiery Gambit (http://www.findmagiccards.com/Cards/MI/Fiery_Gambit.html), and Transmuting spells as well.


It's quite dumb, very fun, but not so successful on the "Winning" front.

Lord Iames Osari
2007-02-18, 06:21 AM
I play with a crappy all-color deck. Well, actually, I'm doing it a disservice... it's not that bad, just slow to build up.

Aidan305
2007-02-18, 09:57 AM
I have many decks. My favourite is my Boros Ravnica, but another deck I play involves a fun little combinaiton of Stuffy Doll and Pariah's Shield. It's great fun in multiplayer.

Another one I like is a black rat deck. Crypt rats, Marrow-gnawer, Scythe of the Wretched and Loxodon Warhammer.

Dhavaer
2007-02-18, 04:12 PM
The dumbest deck I ever used was a 75 card booster, straight from the pack. I didn't even look through it. It won, too.

StevieWonderMk2
2007-02-19, 08:01 AM
My mates and I did a bunch of nuerotic proxy decks, we came up with two amazing weenie decks.

I had a White Weenie deck. Bunch of plains, 4 howling mines (draw an extra card each turn), 4 glorious anthems (enchantment: all your creatures get +1/+1) , the rest white weenies costing less than 2 mana.

The other one was a saproling deck. Normal saproling stuff, rith,maybe riptide replicator, and coat of arms.

I got killed by 83 83/83 saproling tokens.

Tekar
2007-02-19, 09:14 AM
Lol, I'm currently trying to make a deck revolving around sleight of mind work. In theory it should work well with cards like insight, chill, ... but it's proving rather dificult to support those 'combos'.

Exachix
2007-02-20, 01:42 PM
I play some silly decks.

I played in a booster draft once, dissension prerelease. I played R-B. (Red-Black). With 1/2 Azourious Signets so I could play Overrule =).

I lost, spectacularly. Usual really, I usually only win Byes.
I got a Rakdos the Defiler from that though.

Deepblue706
2007-02-20, 08:34 PM
I didn't like the Ravnica block too much. A lot of cards really seem limited in regards to creative usage (I would say the Azorious and the Simic are the only exceptions).

Aside from my Reanimator mentioned above, I'm making another silly deck using a card called Celestial Convergence (2WW enchantment...prophecy set?). Has 7 "omen" counters, remove one during you upkeep. Once the last one is removed, whoever has the most life wins.

I'm making it a white/blue deck, with lots of life gain and lots of counterspells. Win without killing.

--------------------------------------------------------

Also working another deck out, based around a card called "Pygmy Hippo", (Visions set). GU, 2/2, if attacks and is not blocked, you may deal no damage, and instead tap all of your opponent's lands and gain one colorless for each land tapped. Drop a Winter Orb (2, players may not untap more than 1 land during their untap step), and use a Magus of the Candleabra (G, 1/2, X: Untap X lands). Plenty of counters (I dunno, I just love 'em), too.

------------------------------------------------------------

And lastly, I've recently begun cooking up something involving removing creatures from the game and returning them to gain their benefits multiple times (inspired by the Time Spiral block). Lots of like gain, lots of drawpower, and lots of damage.

The Glyphstone
2007-02-20, 08:59 PM
I know of at least one near equivalent for each of Black Vise (Iron Maiden) and Recall (Boomerang), but Stasis and Kismet are unique as far as I know. You should have four of each, of course, and any card that lets you search your library for Stasis is also a good idea. I haven't really tried too many variations on it, but lots of lands make maintaining Stasis long enough to make sure you get a Recall easier.

Actually, that deck is even easier now with Planar Chaos. They "reality-shifted" Kismet as a Blue enchantment called Frozen Aether, with exactly the same effect, and same cost (but blue, not white). Now you can focus your mana base more.

Galorien
2007-02-21, 12:47 AM
I didn't like the Ravnica block too much. A lot of cards really seem limited in regards to creative usage (I would say the Azorious and the Simic are the only exceptions).

Aside from my Reanimator mentioned above, I'm making another silly deck using a card called Celestial Convergence (2WW enchantment...prophecy set?). Has 7 "omen" counters, remove one during you upkeep. Once the last one is removed, whoever has the most life wins.

I'm making it a white/blue deck, with lots of life gain and lots of counterspells. Win without killing.


I'd like to call that my pacifism deck, works nice with angels and congregate :D

Tyas
2007-02-21, 09:40 PM
I had two decks that everyone thought were dumb but effective.
The first was the 'banzai!' deck. Every card was one that 'encouraged' attack. Juggernaughts and Erg raiders were a couple I remember most (It's been a long time since I played... sorry I can't remember well). It was an interesting deck because it had little real defense, but became effective because most players couldn't handle the constant attack (with modifier cards to give 'walks', fly, etc...) I rarely had double digit hp at the if I won though.


My 'cutthroat deck' (playing for ante, none of those silly 'tournament' card restrictions) was like 50 cards. 25 mountains, 25 lightning bolts. People laughed at it. No monsters. All red. Easy to beat...
iirc I averaged about an 80%-90% win rate with that deck. A wining game rarely lasted more than 6 rounds.
And I had plenty of mountains and lightning bolts to drop back in the deck if I lost. I think that deck won me two clones one night.

tgva8889
2007-02-22, 08:47 PM
I have a few decks, but my favorite deck, which some people just laugh at the existance of, is my Chance Encounter deck. You see, Chance Encounter is a card that gets a luck counter for every coin flip you win. And at the beginning of your turn, if there are 10 counters, you win. So, this coin-flipping deck does some stupid things, like play Krark's Thumb, a card that increases the chances of you winning a flip by letting you flip 2 counts and choosing which result to use. The deck has yet to win any games, but it's pretty funny that it works.

The second deck that I've been currently playing is a somewhat competitive deck based around the Suspend cards from Time Spiral and Planar Chaos. It is a rather fun deck that shouldn't be competitive, yet can pull off quite powerful turns. I dealt 20 damage in one turn with the deck. My opponent was at 24 (stupid Faith's Fetters), but that damage is impressive.

I love making fun, exotic decks. Whenever there is a card I think is interesting, I try to figure out how to turn that card into a useful game-winning deck idea. For example, I had a Knight deck based around Haakon, Stromgald Scourge, a Zombie Knight which can only played from the graveyard, instead of the hand, and allows you to play Knights from your graveyard while he's in play.

And actually, Necromancy is considered a quite good card. Ever heard of Worldgorger Dragon combo? Well, Necromancy is a part of that combo deck, as an alternate Animate Dead.

Deepblue706
2007-02-22, 08:58 PM
Ah... Knights. I remember having a White/Green deck that ran Knights and Lure, combined with stuff to give creatures trample, and rampage...adding more mayhem to their already powerful Flanking.

Really, it should never have won. But it did. Somehow. Fairly often.

Yeah, I remember making another silly little deck based entirely off the idea of only have 1 or 2 mana cost spells. All blue. The Unstable Mutation and Cunning enchantments gave a pitiful 1/1 quite a punch. Yeah, my friends who played decks based around "Tinker" and "Darksteel Colossus" were pissed about losing to it...

I mean, not only because I threw it together in about 10 minutes, but because decks like theirs actually cost money. Gyahyahya!

Thervold
2007-02-27, 11:36 AM
Wow, I feel old when a card from Visions is considered an "old card" (That's about when I stopped playing). I've used the Stasis/Kismet combo mentioned above (add critters who don't tap when attacking to make it even more fun).

My combo back in the day was a 0-cast artifact critter like Ornathopter, Enduring Renewal, and Ashnod's Alter (I think that was the name of it). Basically, if you get all these down, you have infinite mana to play with. While the RX burn cards work here, there are many many other ways to use this to finish your opponents.

My other combo was Armageddon Clock, Armageddon, Dingus Egg, CoP:Artifacts (with a Sol Ring to power it). I only got it once, but in a multi player game, it can easily kill off everyone else, as nobody has the the land to get the clock down.

Note that I have no clue what cards are out there now, so these combos might easily be countered now. But they were fun back in the day.

TheThan
2007-02-28, 02:03 AM
I have a few decks, but my favorite deck, which some people just laugh at the existance of, is my Chance Encounter deck. You see, Chance Encounter is a card that gets a luck counter for every coin flip you win. And at the beginning of your turn, if there are 10 counters, you win. So, this coin-flipping deck does some stupid things, like play Krark's Thumb, a card that increases the chances of you winning a flip by letting you flip 2 counts and choosing which result to use. The deck has yet to win any games, but it's pretty funny that it works.


accually i use that combo, take a look:

4 mana clash
4 fiery gambit
3 stitch in time
3 wall of stone
4 goblin bookie
2 urza’s armor
2 chance encounter
2 library of leng
2 squee’s revenge
4 brain storm
4 repeal
2 fabricate
4 shock
4 izzet chronarch
2 krank’s thumb
2 spellweaver helix

The idea behind this deck is to:
1. Burn them with fiery gambit and the mana clash/urza’s armor combo
2. throw 10 counters on the chance encounter before I die


Now the cool thing is the krank’s thumb lets me flip any coin flip twice, while the bookies (I know their unglued) let me reflip any bad coin tosses. A side effect of the fiery gambit is it fills my hand, combined with my ability to draw cards like a madman, its easy to set up the combo. Repeal, shock, wall of stone stitch in time all hold off the enemy until I can set up the kill with the mana clash/urza’s armor combo. The funny thing about mana clash is that each time you flip that coin the rules count it as a new instance of damage, so urza’s armor takes into effect each and every time I flip a coin ( I had this confirmed by the judge on the magic website). Meaning that with an urza’s armor out I’m immune to the side effects of mana clash. Unfortunately mana clash doesn’t affect chance encounter because mana clash doesn’t state win conditions.

edit
It's won a few games here and there, but never when I'm playing it (bad luck I guess), my freinds hate it when i pull it out becuase it's really annoying.

TheOOB
2007-02-28, 02:33 AM
I acually had a pretty successful five color deck using invasions domain mechanic. Global Ruin wins when you have all five land types out.

Talyn
2007-03-02, 04:29 PM
Hehe... I loved playing defense. I also went "theme," so my favorite deck was called "Desperate Crusade."

For footsoldiers I used the standard white weeny soldiers - Pikeman x2, Ication Infantry x2, Benalish Hero x2, Icatian Javilineers x2, Crossbowman, D'Avenant Archers, Sacred Longbowmen, Heavy Ballista, Icatian Phalanx, Standing Troops x2 and whatever the buffed Standing Troops card (2-6 white, attacking does not cause it to tap.)

Then, I had my specialists and hitters. Abbey Gargoyles, White Knight, Northern Paladin, Angry Mob (Power and toughness equal to 2+ number of swamps opponents control!) and, of course, the Lancers en-Kor x3.

The Lancers en-Kor allowed me to redirect damage however I wanted. This was useful because I then specced clerics - Combat Medic, Master Healer, Sanctum Custodians x3, whatever that super-common 1/1 white healer is called.

Finally, I rounded out my force with Congregate, Crusade (all white creatures get +1/+1), Glorious Anthem, and, the real kickers, Divine Sacrifice (remove target artifact from the game, gain life equal to that artifact's casting cost) and Allay (WW, Buyback 3, destroy any enchantment). Those two allowed me to keep the blue uberenchant decks and artifact juggernaut decks from eating me.

I won more than I lost - but then, I never went against people who were nuts about the game, either (no major tournaments or league stuff).

tgva8889
2007-03-04, 01:50 AM
I acually had a pretty successful five color deck using invasions domain mechanic. Global Ruin wins when you have all five land types out.

My brother has a 5-color Slivers deck based around the Elder Dragon Highlander format, an insanely fun format which I could explain if anyone wants to hear about it. The deck is so awesome because it has Coalition Victory as an alternate win condition.

He also had a Domain deck with Collective Restraints, Allied Strategies, and various other good Domain cards. It was a cool deck, to say the least.

Right now, the deck I'm currently trying out is a deck based around the Words cycle from Onslaught (Words of Worship, Winds (I think), Waste, War, and Wilding) and Psychic Posession/Mind's Eye. You see, with this, I can supposedly lock down my opponent's draws, destroy their board positions, and gain tons of life (I don't use the Red or Green ones currently). The deck is still in the works, because it's, well, totally worthless right now. It's a fun idea, though, and I plan to test it more.

Jade_Tarem
2007-03-04, 02:19 AM
I more or less stopped playing halfway through Ravnaca, but I have a surprising number of Mirrodin Block Cards - here's my "stupid but ridiculously effective" deck idea.

Blue/Artifact - all lands are islands or darksteel citadel.

There are 20 myr in the deck - in short, all the myr that can create a point of normal mana. i.e. Iron myr, silver myr...

There are two platinum angels in the deck, as an afterthought thier job is to keep me alive. The same is true for darksteel forge.

I play these cards quickly because of an old rare called Tinker. Tinker lets me sacrifice one of my cheap mana mongering myr and pay 3 mana to take even the most retardedly powerful artifact from my deck and put it directly into play. I also have four reshapes to do the same thing, but there I have to pay the card's mana cost +2 blue, which isn't nearly as good. Tinker usually goes to darksteel forge. The second goes to platinum angel. Now the angel is surprisingly hard to kill. Indestructability goes a long way.

With that out of the way I concentrate on my big combo

Mycosynth Lattice + Blinkmoth Urn + Door to Nothingness.

When I play the Door to Nothingness, I usually get laughed at. After all, you have to pay 2 mana of every color to get the ability to work. Problem is, Mycosynth Lattice makes all mana into rainbow mana. Blinkmoth urn gives me a bonus point of mana for, essentially, every permanent once the whole combo is out. I usually end up with a ridiculous amount of mana and paying the DtN cost is a snap. All those players who sneered at Door to Nothingness as infeasable and worthless are generally stunned.

It gets better. Blinkmoth Urn + Mycosynth Lattice can kill players all by themselves if my opponent doesn't have non-tap ability to dump his extra mana into. I've killed players with thier own mana.

For the final insult, sometimes Memnarch takes the place of Door to Nothingness. Since everything is an artifact I essentially pay 4 mana to take whatever I want from the opposing player(s).

So that's my silly deck.

Reinboom
2007-03-04, 05:14 AM
I played a deck during standard just before the major affinity ban that was both dumb, awkward, and won tournaments.
The deck's main driving force was Myconosyth Lattice and March of the Machines with a few select permission and board control (evacuation being the major anti creature force). The deck also ran an insane number of the talisman artifacts from mirrodin. The whole goal was to make a really funky army while denying everybody of land.
However, this is not at all why it was able to win tournaments. Only because the deck mainboarded March of the Machines (first 3 then 4 after its first tournament test run) with mana accelerators provided it's win since everybody played either ravager or affinity. In short, consistent 3rd turn March of the Machines = No lands for artifact heavy affinity decks.

Aside from this, I will once in awhile throw together an hilariously dumb deck, though not much any more sadly. I also tend to default more towards annoying decks than dumb.

Deepblue706
2007-03-04, 04:33 PM
annoying decks...yeah, I have one friend who has this really annoying blue deck - think Cloud of Faeries, Hide Tide, Mind's Desire, Brainfreeze....

Usually wins by 3rd turn.

SMEE
2007-03-04, 04:56 PM
I stopped playing Magic right before the last 4th edition expansion (I can't remember it's name now).

I always had stupid, useless decks. My aim was to have the perfect "draw game" deck.
The closest I got to it was a White, Blue, Red deck, with white walls, enchantments and circles of protection, blue for Tims, several tritons and red for Orcish Artillery and direct damage spells, should I need them.
Once I deployed it all, I could deal 12 points of damage to my opponent and take 12 myself.

If I recall correctly, I could tap them on my opponents turn, So, should he kill me, I'd tap them and try to take him with me. Used to work once in a while. :smalltongue:

Reinboom
2007-03-04, 05:31 PM
Fastest way to draw the game, hmm.
Power Conduit + Divine Intervention
Have the power conduit out, when you finally play Divine Intervention remove a counter from it with power conduit then wait 1 turn. Poof! The game is a draw!

Tobaselly
2007-03-08, 04:13 PM
I stopped playing MTG around 5th edition, I think. My deck was was pure type 1 awesomeness. My friends called it burn cheese, but it was a 5 color powerhouse. Counter spells, Direct damage, disks, angels and those lands that turned into little critters.

It won lots and lots of games and in the end I was able to sell it for enough cash to buy a used car.

MeklorIlavator
2007-03-09, 11:44 PM
My deck is currently a pretty effective White-Green token deck(casual, so any edition is in) with 2 privileged positions and 4 Doubling seasons.

Right before that, though, I had a Blue-Black deck focused on decking the other guy. Now, I made this the first time before Ravnica, so it was crazy at the time. Really, I had Celiphad Brokers (T:target draws 2 cards then discards to) and some other discarding effects, so I would get the person's hand two zero cards, and them ping away. Never actually decked a guy until Ravnica came out, but I won a couple of times because I took out almost every good card the guy had. Good times.

Of course, as soon as I had finished my latest deck, alll my friends stopped playing.:smallmad:

Hypothetical
2007-03-11, 08:41 PM
My favorite deck back when I used to play was a white-blue weenie shadow flying control deck.
10 Islands
10 Plains
4 Counterspells
4 Powersinks
4 Disenchants
4 Lost Order of Jarkled
4 Serra Angels
4 Tims
1 Soraya the Falconeer
1 Griffon Lord ( I can't remember the right name, but it gave Griffons +1/+1)

The rest of the cards in a 70 card deck were evenly split between white and blue, all creatures, none with a casting cost of more than 3, and all with either flying or shadow. ( Almost all of the flying were either Falcons or Griffons.)

If my opponet ( who was usually my cousin) concentrated on land or large creatures ( like he usually did) it worked pretty well.

potatocubed
2007-03-17, 03:09 PM
I haven't played Magic in a very long time, but the last time I did I built a humourous deck that always won the first match.

It was a black and red burn deck.
It had no permanents except for land.

Since everyone else's decks were set up with great care to cope with creatures, enchantments, and artefacts, they were left with a hand full of stuff with no targets while I neatly destroyed anything they played and chopped away at their life total with whatever direct damage I drew.

It always won the first match with new players because when you sit there and play nothing but land and the occasional zap spell, they assume your deck isn't working properly so they hang on to all the anti-artefact or anti-creature stuff they have.

The trick doesn't work very well after that, but the first time is always fun. :smallsmile:

EDIT: Oh, and I almost forgot The Fish Deck. It was mono-blue, and all the creatures were fish. It basically worked (sort of - I'll admit it wasn't very effective) by putting out undercosted islandhome/islandwalking monsters, then turning all the land into islands through a variety of methods (Quicksilver Fountain, Illusionary Terrain, Phantasmal Terrain, usw.).

I love silly theme decks.

tj_hammi
2007-03-25, 08:11 AM
what is everyones personal feelings on the Mirrodin block? i have a ridiculously illegal arcbound deck based around arcbound ravagers ability to sacrifice an artifact to add a +1+1 counter on target artifact. use this with in conjunction with a bunce of myr servitors arcbound servitors and a salvaging station and finally and arcbound crusher. you have perpetually powering units.

then when you attack your blocked creature you sacrifice and transfer his counters to an ublocked creature for the win! ha ha ha classic

OOO and i have a fifth dawn five colour bringer deck that is loads of fun. bringers have to be some of the most interesting fun cards to play

Deepblue706
2007-03-25, 12:02 PM
Mirrodin? How dare you mention that perverse, evil name here!

I have a couple of friends who some ridiculous mirridon-block decks...

I don't like it overall, but I DO like Platinum Angels :smallbiggrin:

Vonriel
2007-03-26, 12:25 AM
Heh, my favorite deck is one my brother made and passed on to me. I dunno if I'd consider it annoying, but it was fun to play. It was a black weenie deck centered around meekstones. The best part about it was the sorceress queen inserted into the mix, so any opponent who tried to simply outmuscle me with one hugely powerful creature would get it turned into a 0/2 until end of turn, then they couldn't untap it ^_^. Then it had millstones/specters (hypnotic and abyssal) to ruin any sort of strategy they would try and play. Overall, a fun deck, with a nice win rate. Sadly, somehow, his (my brothers) uber-awesome burn deck was lost about the time I inherited his cards.

One of my favorite decks I've played that I didn't actually own was a friend's deck. It was a blue/red burn deck, focused around forks/mana flares.

The only real problem I have with MtG (and really, most other trading card games) is that I have absolutely horrbile drawing luck. I could be playing a game, have 30 cards left in my deck, 28 of which would guarantee me a win, and I'd draw the one card that would cause me to lose.

XenoGeno
2007-03-28, 06:37 AM
I'm normally a Johnny/Spike, but recently I've been playing with this crappy Goblin Tribal deck. It's not a good deck, but it can win with very little mana, due to the fact that I have only one 5-drop which I rarely get to play. I have a load of Burn, which is probably one reason it does so well, but the main reason is it's fast as hell. But right now I'm building a Chronozoa permission deck which looks promising. I've also thought of two Urborg decks, simply for the hell of it:

Replicate Urborg deck:

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth x4
Magus of the Coffers x4
Djinn Illuminatus x4
Funeral Charm x4
Midnight Charm x4
Soul Feast x4
Brainspoil x4
Simian Spirit Guide x4
Rite of Flame x4
Mountain x7
Swamp x15
Gauntlet of Power x2



Dark Depths Urborg deck:

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth x4
Magus of the Coffers x4
Dark Depths x4
Funeral Charm x4
Sedge Sliver x4
Gemhide Sliver x4
Seething Song x4
Simian Spirit Guide x4
Rite of Flame x4
Mountain x7
Swamp x8
Forest x7
Gauntlet of Power x4


I don't think either of those would do too well, but I thought they were interesting anyway. Especially the Dark Depths one. Everyone who participated in the Coldsnap release tournament got a Marit Lage token, and no one's ever been able to use it. (Almost did once, though. But the guy decided to not risk losing in the time neccessary to remove the last three counters.)

Were-Sandwich
2007-03-28, 10:31 AM
To the person with the Coin-Flipping deck: Have you considered some Clock-Spinning? U, adds or removes two counters from any permanent, of a type that are already on it.

tgva8889
2007-03-28, 10:01 PM
A), you have Clockspinning's text wrong, I happen to have memorized it, as it is in my Suspend deck, and B ), No, I didn't consider it. That's not a bad idea. Thanks. Hmm...

For my friend with the Urborg decks, Tendrils of Agony is a great card in combination with Urborg. Another nice card is one called Consume Spirit. Both are completely awesome when all your lands are Swamps, and thus, can generate Black mana.

XenoGeno
2007-03-29, 09:32 AM
Hmmm... This deck is for FNM which is standard, so Tendrils won't matter. I thought about Consume Spirit, but replicating Soul Feasts is more efficient. I also like it because it costs 3BB, and Brainspoil is used to transmute into either a Soul Feast or a Magus of the Coffers, which are both key parts of the deck.

Hey, just to be sure, if a Gauntlet of Power is used, then the extra mana produced by lands would be snow if they are snow lands, right?

Tekar
2007-03-29, 05:34 PM
I'm quite surprised that my stuffy doll deck is actually doing quite well atm.

Land: (and signets)
6 Mountain
4 Swamp
4 Terramorphic Expanse
4 Molten Slagheap
4 Tresserhorn Sinks
4 Rakdos Signet

Creatures:
4 Stuffy Doll
4 Aether Membrane
2 Volcano Hellion

Other Spells:
4 Shivan Meteor
4 Brainspoil
4 Seething Song
4 Mishra's Bauble
4 Rough//Tumble
4 Pyrohemia

Best play:
Turn 1: Land
Turn 2: Land
Turn 3: Land + Seething Song + Stuffy Doll
Turn 4: Land + Volcano Hellion for 19 + ping with Stuffy Doll
gg

ofcource the opponent should not have damaged you yet by then but that happens quite often.

Deepblue706
2007-03-29, 07:41 PM
How does Volcano Hellion work?

I was considering making a Stuffy-Doll deck, using a card called Fire Covenant (Ice Age).

1BR

Pay X life, deal X damage, divided as you choose, among any number of target creatures.

durrem
2007-03-29, 09:10 PM
I used to play MtG, but not for a long long time. I don't recognize most of the cards you guys are talking about. One of my favorite decks was a Titania's Song deck, with Mana Batteries, Winter Orbs, Howling Mines, Wrath of Gods, Armageddons, Swords to Plowshares, Disenchants, Kismets and a couple of Titania's Songs. It was lots of fun if you could survive a couple of turns. I also liked to play Blue/White stasis decks...

tgva8889
2007-03-29, 10:49 PM
Hey, just to be sure, if a Gauntlet of Power is used, then the extra mana produced by lands would be snow if they are snow lands, right?

Yes, indeed, as the lands are generating the mana.

Also, a single Consume Spirit couldn't hurt in the sideboard, since if your Soul Feasts get Extirpated, you are slightly screwed. Or you could try Soul Spike, which is like Soul Feast except more expensive and with a chance of killing creatures. Or you could try Ribbons of Night, which is basically like Soul Feast except you can pay U in the cost to draw a new card and it can kill creatures instead of players.

As for people who don't know cards, here's The Gatherer (http://ww2.wizards.com/Gatherer/Index.aspx), which is probably the best tool Wizards could have made, ever. You can use that to search for all the cards you don't get. If you don't find anything, we may have spelt something wrong, so you can ask.

XenoGeno
2007-03-30, 06:11 AM
Normally I use Gatherer to find cards, but right now I'm grounded at home and school computers won't let me access Gatherer. Also, I should mention that I don't plan on building the Urborg deck-- I'm currently working on an alternate of the Dralnu-permission deck I've seen, using Chronozoas as a win condition.

Wyrmslave
2007-04-05, 10:35 PM
The only immediate Magic Players around here use mostly Aggro-Combo, so I was thinking about using perhaps a W/U Permission/Control deck. Anyone know of any decent cards that I can probably consider adding to it (actually, start off with). I use mostly Type 2 (I mean the cards, not really the tourneys). Also, I can't decide between the Orzhov or the Izzet, as I like the idea of having a deck revolving around Niv-Mizzet (http://ww2.wizards.com/Gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=96952), but the Control/Combo ways of the Orzhov intrigue me...

EDIT: Screw the 7th edition, I'm broke. Also, I'm going with Permission/Control for my WU deck. Still interested in my UR Izzet Draw-Burn, though

Douglas
2007-04-06, 02:21 AM
Oh my. Try pairing that with Curiosity (http://ww2.wizards.com/Gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?name=Curiosity). Damage and card drawing at will limited only by how many cards you have in your deck.

Dhavaer
2007-04-06, 07:55 AM
Oh my. Try pairing that with Curiosity (http://ww2.wizards.com/Gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?name=Curiosity). Damage and card drawing at will limited only by how many cards you have in your deck.

That's evil. Exceeded only by Stuffy Doll + Guilty Conscience.

tgva8889
2007-04-06, 07:05 PM
That's evil. Exceeded only by Stuffy Doll + Guilty Conscience.

Ah, except that Niv-Mizzet + Curiosity is Type 2 legal.

The better combos are those that you discover yourself, I think. Granted, any combo's good for me.

My favorite combo is Reality Acid + Tolarian Sentinel or another repetable bounce effect. Totally broken.

Were-Sandwich
2007-04-07, 10:02 AM
I found that one as well. It also works sort of well with Mog War Marshal, for a lot of 1/1s very quickly.

ilovefire
2007-04-07, 03:04 PM
I say the best combo is Auratouched Mage, or Academy Researchers, with Followed Footsteps and a deck chock full of the most awesome Enchant Creatures--excuse me, Auras-- you can find.

tgva8889
2007-04-07, 03:52 PM
Well, they do have to be enchant creatures...

The Glyphstone
2007-04-09, 07:46 PM
Ah, except that Niv-Mizzet + Curiosity is Type 2 legal.

The better combos are those that you discover yourself, I think. Granted, any combo's good for me.

My favorite combo is Reality Acid + Tolarian Sentinel or another repetable bounce effect. Totally broken.

That's why you don't use Curiosity, you use Ophidian Eye from Time Spiral instead. Just like Curiosity, but costs 2U instead and can be played at Instant speed. :)

My current concoction, which is fun and somewhat effective, is a R/B/U with Psychic Possession, Underworld Dreams, Niv-Mizzet, and Teferi's Puzzle Box. They take damage when they draw, take damage when I draw, and if somehow that's stopped, Aeon Chronicle/Spellbook gets huge and beats them around a bit. And with Wheels of Fate, the Puzzle Box, and some other draw/discard spells like Wistful Thinking, somebody WILL draw.

tgva8889
2007-04-09, 09:06 PM
That's why you don't use Curiosity, you use Ophidian Eye from Time Spiral instead. Just like Curiosity, but costs 2U instead and can be played at Instant speed. :)

Not sure why that makes sense, I said Curiosity was legal in Type 2...

Yeah, I have a deck based around Psychic Possession and the Words enchantments: Words of Wisdom, Words of War, Words of Waste, Words of Winds, and Words of Wilding. They allow you to replace draws with beneficial effects. The combo never works, but it is pretty hilarious.

Anyone want to get together a Magic game on the boards? I'd work out details and stuff, being that, while I'm not officially a judge, I did technically pass the level 1 judge's test.

ilovefire
2007-04-09, 09:11 PM
I'd be willing, though none of my decks are T2 legal, and even fewer are T1... plus most of mine are full of utter suck against most everything played in today's tournament setting (I HATE control/mill decks with a passion.)

tgva8889
2007-04-09, 09:19 PM
I'd be willing, though none of my decks are T2 legal, and even fewer are T1... plus most of mine are full of utter suck against most everything played in today's tournament setting (I HATE control/mill decks with a passion.)

Eh, I was planning on playing my deck for the Elder Dragon Highlander format (which is really awesome, you should look it up), except without Elder Dragon Highlander rules. It's really fun, to me, anyways. You might hate it when I bounce lots of your stuff.

Scudboy
2007-04-24, 11:43 PM
Ah, Magic. I fondly remember my browse/manaflare deck, which had 3 or 4 flares, 3 or 4 browses, a couple soldevi diggers, a bunch of cheap damage/destruction spells to keep alive until the mana started flowing, and then a handful of whatever I felt like killing my opponent with that game (red x spells, a shivan dragon, sometimes a mahamoti just in case a CoP:Red slipped by me (silly enchantments), occasionally an alladin's ring, just because. I never owned a jester's cap, which is too bad, because one of those puppies would have been endlessly amusing once I got down to the 1-card library stage.)
I also remember my verduran enchantress deck, which basically worked by drawing half my library into my hands with an ivory tower and library of leng in play, then sending out a massively-enchanted wombat to do the dirty work. Got totally pwn'd by anything with good creature control capabilities, but still fun when it got going.

The Glyphstone
2007-04-25, 06:45 AM
Not sure why that makes sense, I said Curiosity was legal in Type 2...
Anyone want to get together a Magic game on the boards? I'd work out details and stuff, being that, while I'm not officially a judge, I did technically pass the level 1 judge's test.

But it's not...Type 2 (Standard) is currently 9th, Ravnica, and Time Spiral...Curiosity was last reprinted in 8th Edition Core. It stopped being T2 legal when 9th came out after Kamigawa block (a truly awesome set, BTW).

I would totally play Magic on the boards, if we could find a suitable way to prevent cheating/deckstacking...

tgva8889
2007-04-25, 07:23 AM
Huh. For some reason I thought it was. Go with Ophidian Eye, then. Much better.

Well, except cheating doesn't really make the game fun for anyone, and if you're testing a deck, really doesn't help you, either, so there's really no reason for anyone to cheat. That's my opinion on that subject, though.