Thursday, January 24, 2008

I <3 EDH and a vintage update

So the constructed flavor of the month is Elder Dragon Highlander, that most casual yet powerful of formats. Wanna play Nath of the Gilt-Leaf and Unnerve together? Now you can. I have played against Fugie's Dakkon deck several times. It seems really really good, though extraordinarily susceptible to Jokulhaups. He plays a bunch of powerful nonbasics, in-color planeswalkers and the best cards from 3 colors. He has smoked the group with it every time I have failed to resolve Jokulhaups. The other day, he won a 6-man, having been Black Braids-ed down to a single permanent. It's that good. The thing that makes it really good though, is the deck doesn't stick its neck out. One of the decks was recursing Black Braids. Everybody ganged up. I cast a 14/14 GGT and got my head cut off. Somebody else cast Austere Command, Profane Command and Damnation. Gang tackle. I thought it was a fun demonstration of why the most powerful deck rarely wins in multiplayer.

I was playing Experiment Kraj that day. I had managed to misbuild the deck. Apparently, Experiment Kraj only gets activated abilities of each creature with a +1/+1 counter on it, not all abilities. Thank goodness for my neighbors Triskelion (and holy crap, do I need to get me one a doze...). I think it needs a little more of a toolbox approach, but man oh man, I think I played every Simic card from Dissension except maybe Simic Initiate. Also, random Keiga is just randomly good. The deck probably needs more Spikes. Those are all activated right?

Interest in the Wort deck has waned a bit. The goblin theme is a little random. The giant dragons are fun, and boy does B/R have a ton of massive board affecting spells. For whatever reason, I haven't enjoyed playing it nearly as much as the Kraj deck. Probably because Kraj has a bunch of neat, Johnny-ish interactions, with a very Timmy endgame. Giant Trolls! Oozes the size of your living room! See, here I am talking about Experiment Kraj in a paragraph ostensibly about Wort.

Anyways, so I am going to dip my toe in the Vintage waters this Sunday. I am going to a mox tourney with a simple to play if underpowered deck. It'll be fun to try something new but my expectations are low. I am going to be running R/g Goblins. Should I post my list? I guess it doesn't matter. It's not like people will metagame against me.

4x goblin lackey
4x mogg fanatic
4x goblin warchief
4x goblin piledriver
4x goblin ringleader
3x tin street hooligan
1x gempalm incinerater
1x stingscourger
4x goblin matron
4x aether vial
2x wasteland
1x strip mine
4x wooded foothills
2x bloodstained mire
3x taiga
4x mountain
4x thorn of amethyst
1x mox emerald
1x mox ruby
1x black lotus
1x lotus petal
1x mana crypt
2x siege-gang commander

I don't know if I should say who gave me the list. What is the protocol here? Anyhoos, testing tomorrow! Woohoo!

2 comments:

TooSarcastic said...

Methinks I see a stingscourger main. Seems like a certain someone with black lotus helped with the deck.
T

Tabasco said...

Lol... it is a better fit in Goblins than it is in R/G beats. It was also played in Goblins before R/G "borrowed" the tech Stingscourger is tutorable (matron) in this deck which makes it even stronger!