Tuesday, May 8, 2012

The Biggest Tokens You know

Hello again, Dear Reader.   Today I'm here to help out a new player at our LGS (wizardsnorman.com)!  Dalton (@JDaltonGregory) has asked me for some help tuning a deck he wants to take from casual Magic to FNM.  I accepted his invitation readily, as I won't ever turn down the chance to brew or to give advice!

Enough formalities, what did Dalton bring to the table?!  He brought a sweet Splicer deck:

Artifacts:

1 Conjurer's Closet

Enchantments:

2 Intangible Virtue
2 Parallel Lives

Creatures:

2 Dawntreader Elk
4 Blade Splicer
2 Wing Splicer
2 Vital Splicer
4 Solemn Simulacrum
2 Master Splicer
2 Restoration Angel
2 Precursor Golem
2 Maul Splicer

Planeswalkers:

1 Venser, the Sojourner

Spells:

3 Cloudshift
4 Sheltering Word

Lands:

4 Evolving Wilds
1 Gavony Township
9 Forest
2 Island
9 Plains

First, I like what this deck is trying to do: fill your side of the table with flying, first-striking, 4/4s.  I like how every creature you play is a literal 2-for-1.  I think this strategy has a lot of play in the currect field of creature decks and planeswalker decks.  So, my first task would be to make this deck more consistent.  And the easiest way to add consistency is to run 4 copies of all your best cards.  I also think the green splash in this deck is underwhelming.  "Alright smart-guy, how would this look if YOU wanted to take it to FNM," you ask gruffly?  How about something like this:

Enchantments:

3 Intangible Virtue

Creatures:

4 Blade Splicer
3 Wing Splicer
3 Master Splicer
3 Restoration Angel
3 Precursor Golem
3 Fiend Hunter
2 Stonehorn Dignitary

Planeswalkers:

3 Venser, the Sojourner

Spells:

3 Cloudshift
3 Negate
3 Think Twice

Lands:

3 Evolving Wilds
4 Glacial Fortress
3 Mooreland Haunt
8 Plains
6 Island

First, I know we don't all have infinity dollars or trade cards, so I tried to keep this as budget as possible while still bulking up the power level.  To go buy all the cards to make the difference between these two decks it will run you just over $40 on LegitMTG.com.  I added a few rares, but nothing too pocket-breaking.

As you can see, the deck is trying to accomplish the same basic goal, overrun the table with golem tokens and bash.  I added more copies of the key cards, a way to dig to the cards you need, and a new package to taking over a game.  More Venser, Splicers, and Intangible Virtue means you will have more and better golem tokens on any given board.  Think Twice gives you something new to do on turn 2, or at the end of any turn where you have mana sitting around.  Stonehorn Dignitary is quite the combo with Venser.  We have all heard of these soft-locks, and some of us have even played against them.  Well, in a deck with this much potential damage output, stalling your opponent until you find that Wing Splicer, or Intangible Virtue will easily win you more games.

Well, there you have it, my first deck-alter in article form.  Dalton, I hope this helps.  We are always welcoming new faces to the competitive side of Magic in our store, and I hope playing this deck makes you want to stick around!  And for the rest of you (and Dalton) let me know what you think of the article!  Do it here in the comments, or on twitter (@CapnTopDeck).

4 comments:

  1. Hey, this is Dalton. After last weeks FNM, I came to the conclusion that the deck definitely seemed to have the biggest weaknesses against Delver decks and burn-heavy decks. I attempted to make a sideboard, but it probably needs some work.

    Sideboard:
    1 Negate
    1 Think Twice
    1 Wing Splicer
    3 Oblivion Ring
    1 Stonehorn Dignitary
    1 Grafdigger's Cage
    1 Restoration Angel
    1 Cloudshift
    2 Peel from Reality
    3 Righteous Blow


    Most of the sideboard consists of ways for me to get 4-ofs if something seems particularly strong in my matchup. I feel like, if I'm going up against a burn heavy deck, Precursor Golem is the first to go, getting replaced with more cloudshifts/negate/restoration angel to dodge removal. If I'm going against Delver, I really like the idea of using Peel from Reality to return a flipped delver and get back a blade splicer for another golem. But that might be more cutesy than efficient, I don't know. Oh, and Righteous Blow pretty much reads "Destroy target Delver" - there's almost definitely a more efficient card for that slot. Grafdigger's cage is in there to obsolete the self-mill decks I saw floating around.

    Anyway, I'd love feedback. This is definitely baby's first sideboard, so I'm sure I'm not reading the meta correctly.

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  2. Oh, and for the record, I looooove this deck. It cost me 23 bucks to add what I didn't already own for it, and it's consistently beating my friend's $300 Tempered Steel deck. Frugality! It is really fun to play with and I got a lot of compliments on it at FNM. Thanks again!

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  3. Dalton,

    How does this look?

    3 Oblivion Ring
    3 Midnight Haunting
    3 Celestial Purge
    3 Timely Reinforcements
    1 Stonehorn Dignitary
    1 Restoration Angel
    1 Negate

    Bring in the life gain and Purges against red decks, the o-rings and Midnight Hauntings against Delver. The Hauntings should add a bit of SURPRISE! to cobbat after game 1. Those decks typically can't fight through Intangible Virtue and Tokens. The other 3 cards are Ramp mainly. Negate their board wipes, flash in Resto. Angel and kill them, and lock them out of their combat step.

    Your head was in the right place with O-Ring, I am kind of surprised I didn't put any in the main...I love that card! Anyway, these are just suggestions, feel free to use them, discard them, or take a mix of mine and yours!

    I am very glad you are enjoying the deck, doubly glad that it is also performing well! Keep practicing with it, and I will see you tomorrow!

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