purkle

Hey there.

yes. Double strike is probably the best infect buff in the game. First strike is crazy, but double trike give first strike anyway so it's just mad. Shrink their creatures before they even strike? Haha.

I'm just working off my phone at the mo so i'm not gonna start looking up cards, but the one you suggested rings a bell. It's possible, i'll ask my brewing buddy what he thinks.

anyway thanks for the praise :)

Those are high praises indeed. Many thanks.

I will check out your decks, when I get back to my computer- at the moment i'm limited to my phone wchich is ok for comments but not much else :).

and yeah, i've slowly developed a keen eye for deckbuilding, over the life of magic. Started when I was 7 in alpha, so my skill has run the whole gamut over the years. Now I think I underatand the nuances of efficiency and synergy enough to make a 'good deck'. I've become the go-to guy for brewing with my mates. If I was to offer any advise it's to try weird unexpected stuff and throw anything into a deck that looks like it may improve it.

also, cards which work both defensively and offensively are really key to a strong deck.

Hi there. Got some words for your face :).

it's fine having two-ofs in a deck that aims to control the game. In a more aggressive decks you definitely want to have more 4-ofs. For the most part I think you've made a good compromise and it seems to all hold together nicely.

however, I reckon you need one more tumble magnet. They are great if you are trying to push through the last 5 or 10 damage from two 'tezzed' artifacts. And also for tapping down your opponent's threts.

in other words they are great both offensively and defensively, and cards which can do double duty only make your decks stronger.

It's all about efficiency :)

Just an update, peeps.

mimic vat is an all-star card. Use it wherever possible, seriously.

also, don't underestimate tumble magnet; if a game only lasts 7 or so turns, you're going to have tapping ability for half the game.

lastly, a word on ajani goldmane. He's like a better steel overseer. You get to pump immediately, and vigilance is a massive bonus. Also, his lifegain is not to be underestimated.... After testing this deck a great deal I can say with authority that the lifegain has won me games on more occasions than you'd expect.

Watch out for ajani. He creeps up on you :)

Hihi. Thanks for commenting on my deck.

this seems like a solid list. Nice to see venser in here doing some nice stuff.

however, dropping the tempered steel for mimic vat or perhaps tumble magnet might be a better idea.

Haha yeah. Thanks!

tempered steel is SO much better than the janky steel overseer. It's on the board and instantly boosting your position.

It's important to judge the right number of them for your deck though. For this build I found 2 was a good amount. In a different deck you may even want 4 of them if you have lots of 1-drops.

Heyhey. Thanks for your suggestion. I toyed with the idea of adding something liike that to the deck, but after trying a couple of similar creatures (admittedly not the archangel, but hey) I found that they sort of wrecked the tempo of the deck.

drawing one in your opening hand, especially when creature and artifact destruction is so prevalent and the fact that infect and grasp of darkness ignore indestructibility, and you need all the infect dudes you can get... Means that it effectively losess you the game lol.

shame but true!

Considered splashing blue/red/green for a variety of reasons but each time I experimented with a splash it only weakened the deck for what was essentially a 'trick', rather than a solid choice such as tumble magnet which can work both offensively and defensively.

in your average casual deck, sure... But I was trying my darndest to make it as tournament-worthy as possible.

But yeah, I get what you're saying and actually tried a few different variations.

Haha dude, tumble magnet is one of the most important cards in the deck!

for three mana, you get to protect your board position by tapping down their attackers, or your planeswalker, shut down their guys with abilities, AND tap down their blockers to push through your last few points of poison.

and with proliferate effects, they are even better.

i've won more games because of the magnet than any other card in the deck.

The one thing ajani has that elspeth doesn't do, is generate persisten threat from all your dudes.

if ajani dies, those counters stay there, on all your creatures. On infect that's a big thing.

That's probably worth running a slightly inferior planeswalker, just for that. He isn't a wasted play if he dies.

still, I do like elspeth here. Tell you what, i'll test it with my buddy and let you know the results!

The guy who suggested it is a buddy of mine. :)

we tested it out and unfortunately it ended up being a pain to cast - you need more than just a splash to make him work consistently. I do think it's an awesome card though and I promise to make a re-worked version of this deck with vengeant in, and maybe a couple lightning bolts.

anyway, goldmane is cheaper :)

well seeing as extended is now a proper bona-fide honest-to-goodness tournament format i thought i would get in there and make a few decks!

standard is pretty stale anyway, lol. you either can afford the good cards (i.e. jace and primeval titan) or you can't.

i, personally, can't.... so extended is more my cup of tea =D

hi there. i did a load of testing with this deck and found that having the chalices to accelerate and combo with contagion clasp proved a better general strategy than just running 4x tempered steel.

drawing a hand with 2x steel (happens more often than you'd think) with no creatures shouldn't happen, as far as i'm concerned. it's just bad deckbuilding.

with this in mind, i dropped it to 2x steel to have a good chance of drawing one each game without needlessly doubling up.

yes indeed, i like it when someone does that too. it's pretty much my aim as a deckbuilder... to try new ideas and brew up new takes on things.

it's good to have a bunch of friends i can brew stuff with as well. it makes a big difference to get the range of opinions.

thanks!

thanks for the praise! means a lot to get my ideas seen and criticized.

*bows*

any card suggestions?

oh man that would be some seriously sweet tech right there!

hmm... i like it!

it sort of does the job of a tumble magnet, and with proliferate i'm likely to be able to one-sided armageddon them, which is frankly a bit nuts.

the lightning helix ability would be nice for keeping the board clean of dudes. probably wouldn't need the lifegain although i'm sure sooner or later it would make a difference.

hmmm.... HMMMM.... damn you've got me thinking now.

also i'm liking your decks.

it's nice to see some innovation around once in a while. i don't see the need for hundreds of people posting essentially the same decks over and over..

cheers again for your comment m8.

hi there! thanks for the praise my friend.

thanks for your suggestions as well. journey to nowhere seems like a good pick and i'll see if i can work it in there for sure.

i've got oblivion ring in the sideboard, and for one mana more you get more variation in your removal than journey. in most cases i think it's worth it, i think you'll agree.

still; 3x O-ring and 1x journey would be a nice number i think.

i actually tried infiltration lens when testing the deck.... it was a good play about half the time, and the other half it was just dead.... kinda depends on whether you draw it in your opening hand or not.... shame really because the card's flavour is awesome.

cloudpost would actually end up replacing plains in this deck, which would make playing WW cost cards more difficult, like ajani and day of J.
also another awesome flavour card but doesn't quite cut it.


cheers though =). i'm loving that people are digging this deck!

haha you read my mind dude. i'ma raid the card-bin.

checked it out. nice deck, i have to say.

would be interesting to see how it stacks up against a really aggressive deck such as valakut.