Return of the MTG: Vanishing Three Card Blind - Once upon a time there was a 3CB

[Bucky]

Gauntlet comes out with the first contraption deck which seemed to work a lot like a Words of Wilding deck, except with menace and slower token generation. Still good enough for 3rd though.

The big perk of his build over a Words of Wilding deck is the Cavern of Souls, which happened to completely whiff this round.

Wrench-Rigger was the new premium 1-drop I mentioned coming across in the first round, btw.


For adversaries that would distinguish between ben-zayb's deck and the one I ended up submitting, I judged untargeted discard like b_jonas's Liliana's Specter deck from last round to be most likely. In that case, the Cheese can't be cast but the Maniac deck can discard Street Wraith and win on its second turn's draw step. Going the other way is targeted creature hate, but it needed to be either proactive (e.g. Despise) or Split Second (e.g. Sudden Shock) or else the Wraith would get cycled in response.

[b_jonas]

Interesting. I specifically thought that Black Lotus, Black Lotus, Barren Glory wouldn't work well. (That was for round 2, but I still thought the same for round 3.) I was wrong.

And I did think that there'd be more disruption, which is why I built a deck that works well against Force of Will and Pyrokinesis. But now nobody played either of those cards. Dismember is the closest thing to that. I am satisfied that my deck still worked so well despite that.

Ooh! Bucky found a way to make Laboratory Maniac work: the Street Wraith lets him draw a card early without spending mana. That's beautiful.

I'll have to think through some of those matches later, because right now I don't understand how some of them work.

[Bucky]

And I did think that there'd be more disruption, which is why I built a deck that works well against Force of Will and Pyrokinesis. But now nobody played either of those cards.

TBH, it wasn't a good round to play either. A basic Force of Will (+Ch-Forge) deck would go 4-2-5 for 28 points; Pyrokinesis builds vary more but, barring something clever, I think they top out at 6-5.

[Eurus]

Man, I just never learn, do I...

[Tom the Mime]

TBH, it wasn't a good round to play either. A basic Force of Will (+Ch-Forge) deck would go 4-2-5 for 28 points; Pyrokinesis builds vary more but, barring something clever, I think they top out at 6-5.

That's one of the problems with Force of Will decks. It's great against a narrow range but the meta has to be very favorable to it to win and that's trickier the more players there are. Even moreso with lotuses gone.

[Fable Wright]

Thank goodness, the Lotuses are gone. And it looks like Lab Maniac as well.

We can start playing actual magic now! \o/

[Ninjaman]

Looks like everyone played around disruption instead of playing disruption. At least the lotuses and labmen are gone now.
I find it funny that my deck lost to everyone who did better than me and won over everyone who did worse.

[Fable Wright]

Wait. Does Korith's deck actually do anything? I'm not seeing a way to have a Bloodghast in the bin and Aqueduct in hand.

[Korith]

Wait. Does Korith's deck actually do anything? I'm not seeing a way to have a Bloodghast in the bin and Aqueduct in hand.

I included a note on that in my deck submission actually.

T1 Bazaar
T2 Aqueduct, with bounce trigger on the stack activate Bazaar, then resolve trigger bouncing Aqueduct.
T3+ Keep bringing back Bloodghast by playing/bouncing Aqueduct

Seems that didn't work out for me too well though.

[Tom the Mime]

The updated ban list and puns are a bit late but here they are:

Gold: ben-zayb, Bucky
What's this new-fangled contraption: Gauntlet
Don't judge the squirrel: b_jonas
Overseeing the city: Ninjaman
I think people anticipated this: Eurus
The suspense isn't killing me this time: Fable Wright
Graceful in defeat: unavenger
Paper tiger: Quiddle
Could in fact be touched: personification
Didn't haggle well: Korith

Ban list:

Spoiler: Ban list: Round 4

Show

Land: Empty

Artifact: Blacker Lotus, Black Lotus

White: Chancellor of the Annex, The Cheese Stands Alone

Blue: Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Laboratory Maniac

Black: Street Wraith

Green: Crashing Footfalls

Red: Empty

Gold: Empty

I've got some already but if you haven't submitted them already, submit your decks for Round 4. Judging will be sometime this weekend.

Also, what are people's opinions regarding banning a specific card just for a special round? Thinking in terms of Karakas for a commander round, more because it largely invalidates the difference of the special round just being there.

Finally, given I was looking to switch out for judging after 5 rounds, is anyone interested in judging rounds 6-10? Or further?

[Ninjaman]

Also, what are people's opinions regarding banning a specific card just for a special round? Thinking in terms of Karakas for a commander round, more because it largely invalidates the difference of the special round just being there.

I'm cool with the challenge specifying that you can't use a specific card, as long as you don't overdo it.

For the normal rounds, are conspiracies legal?

[b_jonas]

For the normal rounds, are conspiracies legal?

Ruling by Tom the Mime in this thread says they can't be used.

[Ninjaman]

Ruling by Tom the Mime in this thread says they can't be used.

Great, thanks.

[Tom the Mime]

Yeah, my thoughts are along the lines of the card needing to break the point of the special round and be reasonably obvious (someone having played it in a normal round counts as people would be aware). Karakas is the obvious one in a round where the difference is a legendary creature as commander (allowing planeswalkers like brawl might help) and the only other one I'd even consider is pithing needle in a planeswalker round but at least that can force discarded easier, can be countered and doesn't also provide mana.

I think for conspiracies, I said no but they're on the list for special rounds and it's one of the main ones I'm looking at for R5.

[Tom the Mime]

And now for the round 4 results. Card links should be up in the morning

Bucky: Wrench-rigger, Blackmail, Badlands, Contraption: Gnomeball Machine
Eurus: Plains, Inkmoth nexus, Consecrate land
ben-zayb: Maze of Ith, Wrench-Rigger, Cavern of Souls, Contraption: Rapid Prototyper
Ninjaman: Mishra's factory, Mishra's factory, Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
Fable Wright: Rushwood grove, Channel, Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
b_jonas: Irrigation ditch, Judge's Familiar, Form of the Squirrel
Quiddle: Pendelhaven, Meekstone, Utopia Mycon
Gauntlet: City of Traitors, Mana Crypt, Karn, the Great Creator, Sideboard: The Rack, Liquimetal coating, Lodestone Golem

X	G	B	bz	FW	N	bj	E	Q
Gauntlet	X	WL	WW	WW	WW	WW	WW	WW	39
Bucky	WL	X	WL	WW	WW	WW	WW	WW	36
ben-zayb	LL	WL	X	DD	DD	DD	WW	WW	21
Fable Wright	LL	LL	DD	X	WW	DD	WW	DD	18
Ninjaman	LL	LL	DD	LL	X	WW	DL	WW	15
b_jonas	LL	LL	DD	DD	LL	X	DD	WW	12
Eurus	LL	LL	LL	LL	WD	DD	X	WW	12
Quiddle	LL	LL	LL	DD	LL	LL	LL	X	2

Given how much racing with multiple tokens there was, I expect there to be a couple of mistakes but I don't think anything beats Gauntlet. Karn on it's own defeats contraption based strategies, mixed with liquisteel gives it land destruction, the rack gets around damage prevention methods and lodestone works a bit as disruption but more a threat to make them play something so they're vulnerable to rack. And Karn gets rid of the crypt when it's no longer needed. Being able to access your entire sideboard in one game is a big deal.

Not sure how this special round will go but it will be Commander. Karakas is banned for this round.

For those unfamiliar, you select a legendary creature (or a planeswalker that says it can be used as commander) as your commander (not included in your three cards) that starts in your command zone and can be cast from there. If your commander would go to the graveyard or be exiled, you may instead send it to the command zone. Each time it is cast from the command zone you must pay an additional 2 mana for each time it has been cast from the command zone previously. You start with 40 life but you also lose if your enemy's commander does 21 combat damage to you over the game.

Your deck can only have one copy of each card and can only contain cards with colour identities of your commander. For example, if Chromium the Mutable was your commander, Path to Exile is legal, Mox Pearl is legal but Mox Emerald is not as the text contains a green mana symbol which is not part of Chromiums colour identity.

If someone sends a deck without a commander, I'll add a commander containing the colour identities but that they cant actually play.

Also, still looking to see who might be interested in running the next set of 5 rounds.

[b_jonas]

Interesting decks this turn too.

TiaC: you dropped out after one game. Is everything all right?

Tom the Mime: can you be clear on the deck construction rules for round 5? How many cards can we have in our deck? Three including the commander (or partner commanders)? How many cards can our sideboard have if we use a wish effect?

Update. Decks of round 4, with cards linked to Scryfall. (Tom the Mime: do you prefer Gatherer links instead? I can post those instead the next time if you wish.)
Bucky: Wrench-Rigger, Blackmail, Badlands; contraption deck: Gnomeball Machine.
Eurus: Plains, Inkmoth Nexus, Consecrate Land.
ben-zayb: Maze of Ith, Wrench-Rigger, Cavern of Souls; contraption deck: Rapid Prototyper.
Ninjaman: Mishra's Factory, Mishra's Factory, The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale.
Fable Wright: Rushwood Grove, Channel, Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger.
b_jonas: Irrigation Ditch, Judge's Familiar, Form of the Squirrel.
Quiddle: Pendelhaven, Meekstone, Utopia Mycon.
Gauntlet: City of Traitors, Mana Crypt, Karn, the Great Creator; sideboard: The Rack, Liquimetal Coating, Lodestone Golem.

The card that's banned the next turn is Karakas, and the spy that somehow took over the diagonal of the results table is X.

[Tom the Mime]

4 cards - 3 main deck plus your commander. Or 2 main deck and partnered commanders. I don't think partnered commanders would make much difference even if it didn't take up a slot given they're probably a bit underwhelming for the issues gettimg them out in 3cb.

[Fable Wright]

Derp. I forgot that people can choose not to play into Ulamog. This is what I get for not using the Infinite Gyre.

[b_jonas]

Also, still looking to see who might be interested in running the next set of 5 rounds.

I won't judge, but I can host the next 5 or 10 rounds if you trust me enough for that. Hosting would mean that I collect decks that people send me in private message, then reveal the decks for the round in the thread soon after they're frozen. Someone else would then have to do the judging. I'd also announce the time when each round will be frozen. I don't submit a deck in rounds that I host.

[Tom the Mime]

Gold: Gauntlet
Gnomish blackmail: Bucky
Wrench in their plans: ben-zayb
Channeling make you hungry: Fable Wright
Factory settings: Ninjaman
Stuck in a ditch: b_jonas
All inky: Eurus
A little too meek: Quiddle


Ban list:

Spoiler: Ban list: Round 5

Show

Land: City of Traitors

Artifact/Colourless : Blacker Lotus, Black Lotus, Karn, the Great Creator, The Rack, Liquimetal Coating, Mana Crypt, Lodestone Golem

White: Chancellor of the Annex, The Cheese Stands Alone

Blue: Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Laboratory Maniac

Black: Street Wraith

Green: Crashing Footfalls

Red: Empty

Gold: Empty

Still only have 5 decks for the special round

[Gauntlet]

Ban list needs updating with City of Traitors, Mana Vault, Karn, Lodestone, Rack and Liquimetal.

[Tom the Mime]

Fixed. Posted it before I finished getting mixed up with messages at the time.

[b_jonas]

The ban list is wrong. Gauntlet's winning deck in round 4 has Mana Crypt, so that should be on the ban list, whereas Mana Vault is not yet banned.

[Ninjaman]

Karn technically isn't an artifact.

[Tom the Mime]

Crypt corrected and artifacts relabeled to include colourless.

[Gauntlet]

I won't judge, but I can host the next 5 or 10 rounds if you trust me enough for that. Hosting would mean that I collect decks that people send me in private message, then reveal the decks for the round in the thread soon after they're frozen. Someone else would then have to do the judging. I'd also announce the time when each round will be frozen. I don't submit a deck in rounds that I host.

I'm confident that between the various contestants we can get the judging part done without issues. Gives us something else to help keep the thread active, too.

[Ninjaman]

I agree with just posting the decks and let us all work it out together. I feel like there might be a way to do this where no one has to skip a round.
If not then we can always just say that the winner has to sit it out.

[b_jonas]

I agree with just posting the decks and let us all work it out together. I feel like there might be a way to do this where no one has to skip a round.

We talked about this in the previous thread. There are three ways to manage the submitted decks, and I recommend the current system with a host.

• There's a host who collects threads and publishes them at the freeze, and the host doesn't play in those rounds. I wouldn't mind to skip the next five or ten rounds, so I can serve as the host. I already said that this game is more interesting when we have a larger ban list, so it won't be interesting to me in the next ten rounds yet, and being a host, I can pressure the rounds to happen slightly faster. Note though that the host can cheat by altering or dropping decks, so you should only choose me as a host if you trust me enough that I won't cheat.
• There's a host who collects threads and publishes them at the freeze, the host doesn't read the decks and may participate. This is possible with some technological help. There are two drawbacks to this further from the previous model. Tom the Mime evaluates the submitted decks to catch stupid mistakes ("If your deck contains banned cards or relies on some rules misconception" in the rules), and notifies the submitter enough in time for this. He already caught two stupid errors for me in the rerun. If the host can't read the decks, then most such mistakes won't be caught (I could still catch banned cards of course). The second problem is that you have to trust the host even more, for now they can also cheat by secretly reading the submitted decks and choosing a winning deck for themself.
• The third method is that each participates posts twice: first any time before the freeze to secretly commit to a deck by submitting a salted cryptographic checksum of the deck, then after the freeze to reveal their deck. This would seriously slow down the rounds, which is why I'm very much against it.

[Gauntlet]

Cheating by altering or dropping decks seems pretty difficult, given that the people submitting would probably notice if one that they sent was altered. Also, if the host isn't participating, there isn't much incentive to change anything anyway.

[Ninjaman]

Note though that the host can cheat by altering or dropping decks, so you should only choose me as a host if you trust me enough that I won't cheat.

Not really, as people know what decks they submitted.