The Dawn of a New Era...
Jun. 5th, 2004 08:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terryclothOr at least, a new set of magic cards. I picked up a bunch today (all the preconstructed decks, plus a dozen or so packs) and after playing the precons against each other to get the feel for the set, I started in on updating my decks.
The one deck that needed the most help was my Myr deck, which lost skullclamp AND as it turns out was based on an illegal combo (Disciple of the Vault + Talon of Pain). So I went to redo it with 5th dawn cards to help cover the missing parts, and... discovered that it sucked. Royally.
So I went down to the card shop, planning to stop by and pick up a few cards, and then see Harry Potter. Harry Potter was sold out, but I did get a couple Clocks of Omens and Blasting Stations, which were the main things I was missing. Subbing in those for the things that really weren't ever remotely comparable made it at least not suck *totally* -- that is, it could beat my other decks most of the time, although not as much as it used to with the clamps.
It's an Urzaland-powered ping deck based around Skeleton Shard. I wish it wasn't quite so skeleton-shard dependant, but I'm not sure what else I could use... Sword of Light and Shadow relies on attacking your opponent, which it can't do reliably, and Soul Foundry won't trigger the Genesis Chambers. And all the new Fifth Dawn artifact regrowth is restricted to artifacts of casting cost 1 or less, which is almost nothing in the deck. Gah.
Myr Scratch:
4xUrza's Tower
4xUrza's Mine
4xUrza's Power Plant
2xTree of Tales
3xVault of Whispers (artifacts can be untapped by the scorpion and the clock, or tapped for the clock, and will untap the stupid golem)
3xForest (I ran out of Trees of Tales)
4xReap and Sow (I've destroyed a land with this card exactly once, ever, in all the versions of the deck; it's there to fetch urzalands... and once I have the set, I can use it to fetch another tower for G)
4xCopper Myr (Mana acceleration that is also a creature -- I need both, even without clamps. And I need them to be artifact critters. So, myr.)
4xLeaden Myr (It's kind of nice to pay B instead of 3 for the skeleton shards, but not all *that* nice)
3xArcbound Stinger (it flies AND recharges your triskelion when it dies!)
2xBattered Golem (... ... ... well, it's kind of cute when equipped with a longbow, sometimes)
1xDross Scorpion (see above... I'm not sure if these three critters are the best to use here)
2xTriskelion (want more -- second most important card after skeleton shard)
3xViridian Longbow (ping of last resort)
2xTalon of Pain (it can sneak up on you)
1xGoblin Cannon (rocket launcher is still good even if it costs 4)
2xBlasting Station (I need to kill my own creatures, why not ping too?)
1xKrark Clan Ironworks (I need to kill my own creatures, mana doesn't suck either)
1xSpawning Pit (Wow, this works amazingly well -- why wasn't I using this earlier? Kill your own creatures, and get... more creatures!)
3xGenesis Chamber (everybody loves myr!)
2xClock of Omens (Sorry, NO MYR FOR YOU!)
1xStaff of Domination (It's... cute. And... versatile. And... godawful expensive to use. Yegads.)
4xSkeleton Shard (Thank you Lex! }:)
Cards notably not in the deck (anymore):
Rite of Passage -- I actually got two of them, and pulled off the infinite combo with Triskellion once, but other than that it kind of sucks in this deck. You're supposed to kill your own creatures a lot, so putting counters on them is a waste.
Disciple of the Vault -- The point of the deck is to kill its own artifact creatures, but if you don't get a skeleton shard you really don't end up doing that all that often, and the disciple goes mostly to waste. It was worth it when I thought it charged up the talon of pain. Damn it.
Energy Chamber -- Not *useless*, but not really worth it. I took it out in favor of the battered golems, which for all their faults are *creatures* and thus work with the rest of the deck.
Now on to other decks, for now at least... I think I'm going to turn the arcbound deck into something chromatic, to use the tasty-looking Etched Oracles, and there were a few cards to go in the red/white do-not-tap-to-equipment deck.
The one deck that needed the most help was my Myr deck, which lost skullclamp AND as it turns out was based on an illegal combo (Disciple of the Vault + Talon of Pain). So I went to redo it with 5th dawn cards to help cover the missing parts, and... discovered that it sucked. Royally.
So I went down to the card shop, planning to stop by and pick up a few cards, and then see Harry Potter. Harry Potter was sold out, but I did get a couple Clocks of Omens and Blasting Stations, which were the main things I was missing. Subbing in those for the things that really weren't ever remotely comparable made it at least not suck *totally* -- that is, it could beat my other decks most of the time, although not as much as it used to with the clamps.
It's an Urzaland-powered ping deck based around Skeleton Shard. I wish it wasn't quite so skeleton-shard dependant, but I'm not sure what else I could use... Sword of Light and Shadow relies on attacking your opponent, which it can't do reliably, and Soul Foundry won't trigger the Genesis Chambers. And all the new Fifth Dawn artifact regrowth is restricted to artifacts of casting cost 1 or less, which is almost nothing in the deck. Gah.
Myr Scratch:
4xUrza's Tower
4xUrza's Mine
4xUrza's Power Plant
2xTree of Tales
3xVault of Whispers (artifacts can be untapped by the scorpion and the clock, or tapped for the clock, and will untap the stupid golem)
3xForest (I ran out of Trees of Tales)
4xReap and Sow (I've destroyed a land with this card exactly once, ever, in all the versions of the deck; it's there to fetch urzalands... and once I have the set, I can use it to fetch another tower for G)
4xCopper Myr (Mana acceleration that is also a creature -- I need both, even without clamps. And I need them to be artifact critters. So, myr.)
4xLeaden Myr (It's kind of nice to pay B instead of 3 for the skeleton shards, but not all *that* nice)
3xArcbound Stinger (it flies AND recharges your triskelion when it dies!)
2xBattered Golem (... ... ... well, it's kind of cute when equipped with a longbow, sometimes)
1xDross Scorpion (see above... I'm not sure if these three critters are the best to use here)
2xTriskelion (want more -- second most important card after skeleton shard)
3xViridian Longbow (ping of last resort)
2xTalon of Pain (it can sneak up on you)
1xGoblin Cannon (rocket launcher is still good even if it costs 4)
2xBlasting Station (I need to kill my own creatures, why not ping too?)
1xKrark Clan Ironworks (I need to kill my own creatures, mana doesn't suck either)
1xSpawning Pit (Wow, this works amazingly well -- why wasn't I using this earlier? Kill your own creatures, and get... more creatures!)
3xGenesis Chamber (everybody loves myr!)
2xClock of Omens (Sorry, NO MYR FOR YOU!)
1xStaff of Domination (It's... cute. And... versatile. And... godawful expensive to use. Yegads.)
4xSkeleton Shard (Thank you Lex! }:)
Cards notably not in the deck (anymore):
Rite of Passage -- I actually got two of them, and pulled off the infinite combo with Triskellion once, but other than that it kind of sucks in this deck. You're supposed to kill your own creatures a lot, so putting counters on them is a waste.
Disciple of the Vault -- The point of the deck is to kill its own artifact creatures, but if you don't get a skeleton shard you really don't end up doing that all that often, and the disciple goes mostly to waste. It was worth it when I thought it charged up the talon of pain. Damn it.
Energy Chamber -- Not *useless*, but not really worth it. I took it out in favor of the battered golems, which for all their faults are *creatures* and thus work with the rest of the deck.
Now on to other decks, for now at least... I think I'm going to turn the arcbound deck into something chromatic, to use the tasty-looking Etched Oracles, and there were a few cards to go in the red/white do-not-tap-to-equipment deck.
