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Post by Travis Lannoye on Jul 15, 2010 9:00:33 GMT -5
Call it boredom or whatever, but I've been playing a few games of New Extended online. I started out trying to play with Reveillarks, but I gave up on that for several reasons (awful mana base, needing absurd draws to win games, etc). I'm currently trying to make Merfolk work in the new Extended format. So far, it looks like either U/R or U/W is a good color combination. Red allows access to Volcanic Fallout, Fulminator Mage, Bolts, and the Punishing Grove combo. White allows access to a man-land, Path, Wrath, and a larger variety of sideboard options. Below are the two lists I'm working on: Fire Fish 4 Coralhelm Commander 4 Lord of Atlantis 4 Silvergill Adept 4 Merfolk Sovereign 4 Merrow Reejerey 4 Ancestral Vision 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Mana Leak 4 Punishing Fire 4 Scalding Tarn 4 Cascade Bluffs 4 Grove of the Burnwillows 4 Mountain 8 Island White Fish 4 Coralhelm Commander 4 Lord of Atlantis 4 Silvergill Adept 4 Merfolk Sovereign 4 Merrow Reejerey 4 Ancestral Vision 4 Path to Exile 4 Mana Leak 4 Cryptic Command 4 Wanderwine Hub 4 Mystic Gate 4 Celestial Colonnade 4 Plains 8 Island When Time Spiral block is no longer legal in this format, Lord of Atlantis will probably become Stonybrook Banneret (unless they print some new Merfolk that is better), and Ancestral Vision will become a combination of Sage's Dousing or Harm's Way. On a side note, another reason why I'm at least a little excited about playing New Extended is the fact that it covers all of the sets I've played in since I got back into the game with Lorwyn block (I still remember me and John cracking four boxes of Lorwyn just to get our set of Cryptic Commands). Since I still have all of my cards from those sets, and they are all still pretty familiar to me, it makes it much easier to try and understand the format. Then again, it's probably a waste of time to post something like this on a forum that has only half a dozen active members and is dominated by GOLF threads.  |
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Post by JediCheese on Jul 15, 2010 10:00:07 GMT -5
Seriously, I've been worrying about Faeries in extended but I realized that RDW is such a hot deck in this extended format that Faeries can't survive. In the land of the lightning bolt and hellspark elemental, taking 1 damage per turn and trying to shut off the opponent doesn't win games. So I'm finished with why Faeries is bad (yet it will still dominate for some inexplicable reason ), I must say I like the U/r list. I must say that you are missing an awesome card: Ponder. Another creature you might want to think about is Scroll Thief. It only costs 3 and is very good in something like the mirror where you can give your guys islandwalk (unblockable essentially). Plus he's ok vs some aggressive decks. |
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Post by Travis Lannoye on Jul 15, 2010 10:12:28 GMT -5
I thought about Scroll Thief, but he seems out-classed by Cold-Eyed Selkie in mirror matches.
I forgot about Ponder. I'll give it a shot in place of Ancestral Vision.
Believe it or not, I have seen a fair number of Fae online, but I have yet to see a single RDW deck.
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Post by JediCheese on Jul 15, 2010 11:32:33 GMT -5
Cold-Eyed Selkie is excellent in the mirror (or vs Fae). The thing with Scroll Thief is he can also block for you against aggressive decks. And a 1/3 body can block many creatures all day long.
If there is any tournaments for extended, I think I will be sleeving up RDW. Bolt, Flame Javelin, and Staggershock makes a very powerful burn suite. Add in Hellspark, Ball Lightning and Ghitu Encampment and we have a very aggressive deck. You might also be able to splash green and play Raging Ravine and BBE.
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Post by Travis Lannoye on Jul 15, 2010 12:19:59 GMT -5
@rdw: Don't forget about Hell's Thunder, Kargan Dragonlord, Goblin Guide, Searing Blaze, Punishing/Grove combo, and Burst Lightning. However, the new white Leyline is another excellent anti-red card.
@scroll Thief: If he had any kind of relevant ability (landwalk, vigilance, anything at all), I would probably play him over the 1/1 Selkie. But a vanilla 3-toughness body will not block anything in Jund or Faeries, nor will it likely net me any extra cards without evasion from something else.
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Post by JediCheese on Jul 15, 2010 13:52:23 GMT -5
Hells Thunder is trash in a format with an enchantment that spits out 1/1 flying dudes. That was a $.50 rare until Fae rotated out.
I do like Kargan Dragonlord, Goblin Guide, Searing Blaze, and Punishing/Grove combo (grove rotates out this fall, so I wouldn't count on it being crazy good).
My only concern with Burst lightning is that you already have better burn and how much burn do you really need? Additionally, with the white leyline, you need creatures to push through damage and can't rely upon throwing burn to their face to win.
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Post by Travis Lannoye on Jul 15, 2010 14:17:09 GMT -5
Yeah, I always thought Hell's Thunder had trample. My bad.
Since the Grove is going to rotate out, I will probably go back to U/W Fish. The Grove combo and Volcanic Fallout were really the only reasons to run red over white, and white just has so many other options.
Once Time Spiral rotates, I will not be sad to see those stupid free cascade spells go away. All of them create annoying combo decks that I just don't have fun playing against.
- Restore Balance is easily the worst. I always have a problem with decks that try to prevent you from playing the game.
- Hypergenesis is probably next, because there's no reason to allow turn 2-3 Eldrazi.
- Living End is probably the dumbest...cycling Alara Reborn commons until you draw something that brings them all back seems a little off to me. But, I don't have nearly as big of a problem with it as the other two.
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Post by Zach on Jul 22, 2010 23:37:36 GMT -5
Once Time Spiral and that bs rotates, play U/W with Sovereign, and Coralhelm, along with Sejiri Merfolk. And if you're playing any combination of white, that's somewhat aggro, play Ajani Goldmane, the -1 is the shit. Or you could go with more Control, like you've been showing. Cryptic Command is still a house.
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Post by Travis Lannoye on Jul 23, 2010 11:42:28 GMT -5
Yeah, the more I think about it, the more I think that UW is the way to go. The red splash was really just for two cards (Punishing Fire combo and Volcanic Fallout), and white just has so many more options.
Not sure if Ajani Goldmane is the correct way to go. I think there are enough Lords in Merfolk to just play Fish and counter backup. A couple of equipment might also be worthwhile...the new Sword of Vengeance is really good.
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Post by Zach on Jul 23, 2010 22:34:52 GMT -5
So is Sword of Body and Mind... New Scars of Mirrodin card. HOT.
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Post by JediCheese on Jul 24, 2010 0:23:52 GMT -5
The new sword is retarded. The +2/+2 is hot, but where is the broken ability? Black gets a creature from the graveyard, White gains life (snooze), Blue gets to draw a card (!!!) and Red gets an artifact shock.
With a 0/1 creature and this new sword, you will do 10 damage before you mill them out. A 2/2 kills them before you win with mill. And if you are going mill, you don't play this equipment because you have no creatures worth equipping.
Plus the protection is useless. Pro green? OMG! You can't giant growth my creature!!! And pro blue is anti-capsize but other than Jace/Roil bounce doesn't get played (and Roil bounces the equipment, not the creature).
The 2/2 Wolf token is ok but it's going to get wrathed away in the end anyway (or you win due to crazy wolf token accumulation).
Plus, why so many wolves Wizards? It's like you have been pushing wolves down our throats for several sets now. We know, Wolves are the new 2/2 green token creature but couldn't you come up with something more interesting and flavorful? How about some elf love?
I would have loved to see unsummon on this artifact. It's a very blue ability and with BBE gone from the format, a big part of it's brokenness is gone (not a ton of CIP abilities lately other than allies and this is a card [with unsummon] that allies would love to play).
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