Post by midnight03 on Feb 13, 2013 0:58:22 GMT -5
With the introduction of Gatecrash online we decided that our Brew of the Month this time around would be a Blue/Black control deck for standard pauper.
Here is our first draft
Creatures: 14
Deathcult Rogue x4
Ogre Jailbreaker x4
Stitched Drake x2
Mist Raven x2
Archaeomancer x2
Spells: 23
Duress x3
Devour Flesh x3
Dead Weight x4
Murder x1
Hands of Binding x2
Essence Scatter x4
Negate x3
Altar's Reap x2
Amass the Components x1
Lands: 23
Dimir Guildgate x4
Evolving wilds x2
Haunted Fengraf x2
Islands x8
Swamp x7
Sideboard
Dispel x4
Devour Flesh X1
One-eyed Scarecrow x3
Negate x1
Cremate x3
Ravenous Rats x3
Deck Breakdown
Deathcult Rogue
Nate's been wanting to use this card ever since it was spoiled. This guy is our Noggle Bandit of the format and our usual target to encode Hands of Binding on and turn into a mini frost titan. One thing to mention however is that there are more rogues in our format than you think at first glance although as of now they still don't pop up as often but its only been a short period of time since Gatecrash's release it's likely we might being seeing more of them as people start to utilize the new cards
Ogre Jailbreaker
I'll admit I didn't this guy quite the credit he deserves. As Mike said the 4/4 body does a whole lot of work as he takes down basically every creature without flying in the format with the exception of Harbor Serpent in the MUC deck and the occasion Terrus Wurm. While the stipulation on needing a gate to attack seems a bit off putting, this really isn't a problem as there are four in the deck making it likey that you will see one early on or in the case you don't see one he still does a great job holding down the fort.
Stitched Drake
With air superiority being the name of the game against the White Weenie and Izzet Delver decks the necessity to have something that can flying and can avoid the vast majority of removal spells we have Stitched Drake to fit the bill however, the need to have a creature in the bucket and double blue makes him a tough cast so we've only put two in the deck as of now.
Mist Raven
Unfortunately two Stitched Drakes won't quite cut it to deal with the many flyer in the format so we opted to add two Mist Ravens. While the bird cost one more to case it's less restrictive in the sense that you don't need to have a creature in your grave to cast it and with it ability to bounce as well it helps deal with all those Seraph of Dawn with ethereal armor.
Archaeomancer
Pretty straight forward guy he helps you get back your counterspells and removal to keep the game going at the pace you want.
Duress
While not the best card against every deck in the format it does do a fair bit of work against the Junk enchantment decks getting rid of the opponents Ethereal Armors and Mark of the Vampire which the deck needs to have a serious bite. It also serves as a decent card in game one against the Izzet delver deck helping remove counterspells and giving your opponent less chances to say no to your Stitch Drakes and Orge Jailbreakers later. Other than these decks this card will often be the first to be sided out.
Devour Flesh
Again with Junk Enchantments and some more blue decks starting to add Elgaud Shieldmate to their decks the need for the ability to deal with hexproof is important. With Devour Flesh we have a nice eddict effect to deal with this and with pacifism being is prevalent in the meta as it is this allows you to net a bit of life off a pacified dude if needed.
Dead Weight
The need for cheap and efficient to deal with the early game agro deck is important. while the consideration to use tragic slip in this spot seemed enticing most of the decks are designing their creature base so that their creatures are two toughness or high so as not to get blown out by Electrickery and the creatures that do have one toughness are either a mana dude or a doomed traveler or young wolf who just comeback after dying anyways. While Tragic Slip has the ability to kill of everything if morbid activates, we do have a reliable why of making that happen and we don't want to recklessly lose one of the few creatures we have. The other advantage Dead Weight has over Tragic Slip here is that even if it can't kill the creature it will often leave the creature practically useless.
Murder
Because sometimes you just want shit dead. While Victim of Night may seem better here there are still some key creature that victim can't hit most notable one being Stitched Drake, but because of the heavy cost of three mana we've limited it to one.
Hands of Binding
the build your own Frost Titan card. Early game this card can be back breaking however it quickly loses effectiveness against white weenie and Green White Smash Face as they have the ability to flood the board quickly and you don't have a deathcult rogue to encode this on so we've limited this to two as of now but the card shows promise and may add more copies later.
Essence Scatter
Pretty easy our permission card for creature
Negate
Counterpart to Essence Scatter however with creatures being the vast majority of threats in the format we're only using 3 main board.
Altar's Reap
I was looking for a way to draw cards and again with pacifism being so prevalent this allows us to sacrifice a creature net cards and get rid of a pacifism and lower the enchantment could for your opponents ethereal armor, also for against the junk enchantment deck this card allows you to declare block against a creature enchanted with Mark of the Vampire then sac denying them the life gain.
Amass the Components
I wanted another draw spell other than Altar's reap because i didn't want to be sacrifice all of our creatures away so i chose to go with this little number. I'm still uncertain if this best choice to go with in this spot so this one of the first cards up on the chopping block to see if it stays or goes.
Sideboard Breakdown
Dispel
pretty much for the control decks and against burn
Devour Flesh
Seeing as how all of our removal is pretty much useless against the Junk Enchantment deck a fourth of these in the side is needed so we can make sure to deal with their creatures
One-Eyed Scarecrow
Mainly for White Weenie as it turns the vast majority of their creatures into 1/x flyers and multiples just turn their creatures into gatecreaper vines. One-Eyed Scarecrow is also capable of taking down each one of White Weenie grounded creatures. Outside of White Weenie this card shows some merit against the Izzet delver deck but is easily dealt with by a searing spear so be mindful.
Negate
Again pretty much for Junk Enchantments and control decks
Cremate
Not entirely sold on this card but it does help allow you to deal with Seraphs and such in White Weenies grave so that they can't bring it back with Haunted Fengraf and can help get rid of some key target for an opponents Archaeomancer. these slots may be replaced with some answers to what ever new decks start to show up here in the next couple weeks with Gatecrash's release.
Ravenous Rats
I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to round out my sideboard with so i decided to go with something against the burn decks as well as something that gives you extra bodies to help deal with an opponents Devour Flesh's. Again these slot are very like going to be replaced with answers to what may show up.
Here is our first draft
Creatures: 14
Deathcult Rogue x4
Ogre Jailbreaker x4
Stitched Drake x2
Mist Raven x2
Archaeomancer x2
Spells: 23
Duress x3
Devour Flesh x3
Dead Weight x4
Murder x1
Hands of Binding x2
Essence Scatter x4
Negate x3
Altar's Reap x2
Amass the Components x1
Lands: 23
Dimir Guildgate x4
Evolving wilds x2
Haunted Fengraf x2
Islands x8
Swamp x7
Sideboard
Dispel x4
Devour Flesh X1
One-eyed Scarecrow x3
Negate x1
Cremate x3
Ravenous Rats x3
Deck Breakdown
Deathcult Rogue
Nate's been wanting to use this card ever since it was spoiled. This guy is our Noggle Bandit of the format and our usual target to encode Hands of Binding on and turn into a mini frost titan. One thing to mention however is that there are more rogues in our format than you think at first glance although as of now they still don't pop up as often but its only been a short period of time since Gatecrash's release it's likely we might being seeing more of them as people start to utilize the new cards
Ogre Jailbreaker
I'll admit I didn't this guy quite the credit he deserves. As Mike said the 4/4 body does a whole lot of work as he takes down basically every creature without flying in the format with the exception of Harbor Serpent in the MUC deck and the occasion Terrus Wurm. While the stipulation on needing a gate to attack seems a bit off putting, this really isn't a problem as there are four in the deck making it likey that you will see one early on or in the case you don't see one he still does a great job holding down the fort.
Stitched Drake
With air superiority being the name of the game against the White Weenie and Izzet Delver decks the necessity to have something that can flying and can avoid the vast majority of removal spells we have Stitched Drake to fit the bill however, the need to have a creature in the bucket and double blue makes him a tough cast so we've only put two in the deck as of now.
Mist Raven
Unfortunately two Stitched Drakes won't quite cut it to deal with the many flyer in the format so we opted to add two Mist Ravens. While the bird cost one more to case it's less restrictive in the sense that you don't need to have a creature in your grave to cast it and with it ability to bounce as well it helps deal with all those Seraph of Dawn with ethereal armor.
Archaeomancer
Pretty straight forward guy he helps you get back your counterspells and removal to keep the game going at the pace you want.
Duress
While not the best card against every deck in the format it does do a fair bit of work against the Junk enchantment decks getting rid of the opponents Ethereal Armors and Mark of the Vampire which the deck needs to have a serious bite. It also serves as a decent card in game one against the Izzet delver deck helping remove counterspells and giving your opponent less chances to say no to your Stitch Drakes and Orge Jailbreakers later. Other than these decks this card will often be the first to be sided out.
Devour Flesh
Again with Junk Enchantments and some more blue decks starting to add Elgaud Shieldmate to their decks the need for the ability to deal with hexproof is important. With Devour Flesh we have a nice eddict effect to deal with this and with pacifism being is prevalent in the meta as it is this allows you to net a bit of life off a pacified dude if needed.
Dead Weight
The need for cheap and efficient to deal with the early game agro deck is important. while the consideration to use tragic slip in this spot seemed enticing most of the decks are designing their creature base so that their creatures are two toughness or high so as not to get blown out by Electrickery and the creatures that do have one toughness are either a mana dude or a doomed traveler or young wolf who just comeback after dying anyways. While Tragic Slip has the ability to kill of everything if morbid activates, we do have a reliable why of making that happen and we don't want to recklessly lose one of the few creatures we have. The other advantage Dead Weight has over Tragic Slip here is that even if it can't kill the creature it will often leave the creature practically useless.
Murder
Because sometimes you just want shit dead. While Victim of Night may seem better here there are still some key creature that victim can't hit most notable one being Stitched Drake, but because of the heavy cost of three mana we've limited it to one.
Hands of Binding
the build your own Frost Titan card. Early game this card can be back breaking however it quickly loses effectiveness against white weenie and Green White Smash Face as they have the ability to flood the board quickly and you don't have a deathcult rogue to encode this on so we've limited this to two as of now but the card shows promise and may add more copies later.
Essence Scatter
Pretty easy our permission card for creature
Negate
Counterpart to Essence Scatter however with creatures being the vast majority of threats in the format we're only using 3 main board.
Altar's Reap
I was looking for a way to draw cards and again with pacifism being so prevalent this allows us to sacrifice a creature net cards and get rid of a pacifism and lower the enchantment could for your opponents ethereal armor, also for against the junk enchantment deck this card allows you to declare block against a creature enchanted with Mark of the Vampire then sac denying them the life gain.
Amass the Components
I wanted another draw spell other than Altar's reap because i didn't want to be sacrifice all of our creatures away so i chose to go with this little number. I'm still uncertain if this best choice to go with in this spot so this one of the first cards up on the chopping block to see if it stays or goes.
Sideboard Breakdown
Dispel
pretty much for the control decks and against burn
Devour Flesh
Seeing as how all of our removal is pretty much useless against the Junk Enchantment deck a fourth of these in the side is needed so we can make sure to deal with their creatures
One-Eyed Scarecrow
Mainly for White Weenie as it turns the vast majority of their creatures into 1/x flyers and multiples just turn their creatures into gatecreaper vines. One-Eyed Scarecrow is also capable of taking down each one of White Weenie grounded creatures. Outside of White Weenie this card shows some merit against the Izzet delver deck but is easily dealt with by a searing spear so be mindful.
Negate
Again pretty much for Junk Enchantments and control decks
Cremate
Not entirely sold on this card but it does help allow you to deal with Seraphs and such in White Weenies grave so that they can't bring it back with Haunted Fengraf and can help get rid of some key target for an opponents Archaeomancer. these slots may be replaced with some answers to what ever new decks start to show up here in the next couple weeks with Gatecrash's release.
Ravenous Rats
I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to round out my sideboard with so i decided to go with something against the burn decks as well as something that gives you extra bodies to help deal with an opponents Devour Flesh's. Again these slot are very like going to be replaced with answers to what may show up.