macfluffers
I play all colors, though I seem to gravitate towards white. That said, my main deck (and my current favorite) is a red/blue defender deck. It's based around this card. I have a some direct damage spells and counters buy time until I have a good set of defenders. I also have four lava axes, in case I need a bit of a push to dry out the opponent's life total.I also have two recently made decks based on the new Besieged cards. One's a battle cry deck, and it's pretty nice, I managed to get my hands on three Heroes of Bladehold. I need to get some good token spells before it'll really be good, but at the moment it's pretty fun, especially with the first strike I've slid in.. The other is a surprisingly efficient metalcraft deck. The new cards make metalcraft easier (especially Master's Call, it's a fun way to cause metalcraft in the middle of combat).I also have an exploitive landfall deck. It's basically a ridiculous combo deck I use against my friends' when they use ridiculous combo decks.What about everyone e
EternalLurker
Wizards guy 1: "Oh, hey, White is a pretty independent color by its flavor. Let's make it the only color that can actually be played well on its own!"Wizards guy 2: "Yeah, great idea! So that means we should give it sweepers, spot removal, card draw, life gain, protection, finishers, ramp, the absolute best weenies ever...hell, there isn't anything it shouldn't have, and have better than the other colors!"Wizards guy 1: "WE'RE BRILLIANT!"Why anyone spends real-life money on this I will never understand, especially after the creation of Mythic Rarity which basically says "This card will cost you your life savings and be necessary for tournament-level play.&q
macfluffers
Heroes of Bladhold for going to prereleases. I might just sell them in a while, I don't know. They're probably worth more than the normal one I have.Now that I think of it, which some exceptions, I generally avoid rares in my decks. My main neck (the blue/red defender one) uses one rare, the rest are just commons and uncommons. I still think it's my strongest deck. The rare isn't even a necessary part of the deck, I could pull it out if I wanted to. Here's the decklist if you want to see.Forget White, Blue still remains the best color, but they've done a few things to fix that. At the same time, Black remains the worst, but they haven't done to much to help i
EternalLurker
What are you smoking? You talking about Standard, right?Blue cannot possibly play on its own post-Lorwyn. Its blockers die immediately to aggro, its finishers don't really finish, and its only playable answer is Jace, the Wallet Emptier.Black, on the other hand, has excellent card draw (Dark Confidant, Sign in Blood), the best spot removal in the game post-Alara (where White had the best), at least three excellent finishers, and ridiculous disruption.Red has spot removal, sweepers, and so goddamn much player-or-creature burn you can pretty much run a deck with nothing but that and win.White has...pretty much all of the above plus first strike and lifelink and protection and lots of cheap shit, because Wizards is stupid.Your casual decklist has almost no low-cost cards. You'd die to RDW before turn 5. And never run Lava Axe. Seriou
macfluffers
I find blue to be the strongest because counters and field-to-hand cards can handle almost any problem. Cards like confiscate and mind control (not to mention ridiculous cards like "Follow Footsteps") can easily make an opponents greatest strengths into their worst weaknesses.My deck may not be tourney-quality, but it works well for me considering it has only a single rare. BTW, I run Lava Axe just to finish off the enemy if I need to. If I have Fire Servant out, I only need two to win, period, and if I have a Mnemonic Wall, I can use the same one twice. I know it's expensive, but I've never found it to be a big prob
EternalLurker
In essence, with reference to your deck...Lava Axe <<< Burst LightningProdigal Pyromancer <<< Cunning SparkmageFire Servant <<< Kiln FiendMnemonic Wall <<< damn near anythingetcIf you want to build a Defender deck around Vent Sentinel, try playing RW instead of UR and running Stalwart Shield-Bearers and Perimeter Capt
macfluffers
I like my Mnemonic Walls a lot though. It's saved me a few times when I needed a burn spell or counter, but didn't have one.If I take out the blue, I'll need to replace the Gomazoas with other flying defenders. White has a few, so I guess it wouldn't be a problem, I just don't have
EternalLurker
But Wall of Omens is sooo much better for a card advantage 0/4 defender, because Wizards is stu
macfluffers
But yes, Wall of Omens looks pretty nice for it's cos
animemaster
I kinda got lost after so many new versions of the card came out...Well I just kinda stopped caring after my uncle gave me a black lotus + golden lotus... So imba with a sunburst deck sometim
EternalLurker
QUOTE (macfluffers @ Feb 8 2011, 09:35 PM) quotecCall to Mind would be better just for Mnemonic Wall's effect, but it also has the added benefit of being a defenderQuoteEndQuoteEEndWhich is irrelevant since you're dead by the time you can cast
macfluffers
o you say, but as I've said, Mnemonic Wall's cost has never been that big of a problem for
EternalLurker
Your 1-drops-Lightning Bolt: Good, obviously.-Heat Ray: This isn't actually a 1-drop, since it does 0 damage at 1 mana. Furthermore, it is useless in the vast majority of cases: it doesn't hit players and it costs too much to deal with creatures. Are you planning on spending 6 mana to kill a Baneslayer Angel or something? Seriously?Summary: You have 4 potent 1-drops in Lightning Bolt. THAT'S IT.Your 2-drops-Into the Roil: Solid card, though not really a 2-drop when you'd prefer to cast it.Summary: You have 4 potent semi-2-drops in Into the Roil. THAT'S IT.Your deck is doing nothing until 3 mana and has no way to accelerate into that 3 mana. Considering the fact that 3 mana is your ANSWER stage rather than your THREAT stage, what with Cancel and the Prodigal Pyromancer that should obviously be a Cunning Sparkmage, this means your deck is going to die to aggro's 1-drops and 2-drops before you can do anything, and it means control is going to have a field day crushing your finishers once it's established its card advantage+quality in the 1-drop and 2-drop stage.And I've already talked about how bad the 5-drops in that deck are.The 4-drop is the card around which you're building, so no complaints there, aside from maindeck x1 Leyline of Punishment being a waste of space.(Btw, I don't think x8 Prodigal Pyromancer is legal. :P Fix up your sideboard.)Suggestion: Get on Magic Workstation and try your deck online against Standard (which is the format you're usi
macfluffers
And the heat ray is there to deal with threats that can't be handled by a single lightning bolt. It's less cost effective, but it can do more damage.Though I guess burst lightning would be more versatil
EternalLurker
If you want to go for defenders, I highly suggest running yet another wall instead of the fairly bad Prodigal Pyromancer. Then you can swap out Lava Axe or something for Pyroclasm, since you won't be running anything that can die to 2 damage. Pyroclasm is incredible.So, as you can see, I'm not trying to ruin your deck's theme. Defender decks are pretty amusing no matter on which side you're playing. Just try to fit in more synergies like t
EternalLurker
Here, I've whipped up a simple RW defender deck for ya, using Standard rules. (Your deck seems to be Standard-legal, but the 4x KotVT confuse me <_< I'll assume they're another sideboard accident.) Perhaps this'll illustrate my issues.1-drops4x Lightning Bolt - Duh.4x Burst Lightning - Pretty much can't hurt to run Burst Lightning.4x Perimeter Captain - Cute in a defender-themed deck. Synergy with Rage Nimbus.2-drops4x Wall of Omens - Stupidly good defender.4x Pyroclasm - In a deck where your creatures can't die to it...4x Journey to Nowhere - Because White is now the color of spot removal. WotC is full of idiots.4x Stalwart Shield-Bearers - More defender cutesy-ness.3-drops3x Act of Treason - So good.3x Rage Nimbus - Similarly cute in a defender-themed deck.Finisher+Centerpiece3x Vent Sentinel - The star of the show.Lands4x Arid Mesa - Mana fixing necessity.10x Mountain - Need more mountains than plains due to Vent Sentinel, Rage Nimbus and co.9x Plains - So if you don't have Arid Mesas make it 13 Mountains and 10 Plains.I'm admittedly terrible at building sideboards, but threats against which to build include Grotag Siege-Runner (obviously wrecks defender decks) and Koth.deck (can't see a good way for a defender deck to handle him, but you may have an id
macfluffers
But yeah, I like the deck. A friend has been suggesting that I change it to a RW deck like you have, so I think I'll do that once I get enough cards for it.And about the Kaijin--I wasn't really thinking about deck legality when I first made this deck, and I like the kaijin, so I threw them into the deck before I got other cards to replace t
EternalLurker
But in general RW will work better, mainly because anything in Standard will work better with White, because Wizards is stupid.I don't think I've made that clear enough yet, have I? I'll keep trying.Anyway, my point was that dropping your curve helps against both the aggro match (which will run over you before you can throw your walls up) and the control match (so you don't get your fatties countered and leave your opponent at a mana advantage). High-cost cards are fine, but you either need to control into them (which means you need to run much more control than you were running) or you need to ramp into them. And since more control is expensive in Standard, requiring cards like Jace the Wallet Emptier and co, well....you're better off with something that curves out at 4 mana instead of 5, and has a higher concentration of two-drops than anything else to make your opponent's Mana Leaks dead late-g
macfluffers
only have two Guard Gomazoas, actually. The sideboard just represents what I'd to have. But yeah, Guard Gomazoas are awesome, I wish I had m
EternalLurker
Phantasmal Abomination and Wall of Frost are also necessities.Again, you should download Magic Workstation and/or Cockatrice. Online Magic doesn't cost money and is thus the only reasonable way to play. <_< But even if you do like shelling out real cash for this unbalanced game, playing online as well is good practice, so check 'em
