Magic: The Gathering,GO TEAM MS!

[Debonair Danny DiPietro]

I've been playing a Modern Allies deck on XMage and the deck gets stomped by things like Infect and Twin and most of the tier 1 strategies but dear lord is the deck king of every single tier 2 and 3 deck; my most recent obliteration was milling out Storm but I've trucked mono-Black, TWoo's UG Extra turns deck, and a bunch of other random things.

Also I love 2HG so pleased with this news.

[Debonair Danny DiPietro]

Follow-up, have since beaten Bloom Titan, Lantern Control (awful pilot), and the old Goryo's Vengeance deck; is this deck for real (for some definition of real).

[bv310]

Yeah, I'm a big fan of Allies. What list are you running? http://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/342724#online is my current one.

[Debonair Danny DiPietro]

It's funny how completely different out builds are; we share literally two creatures because mine is a completely combo-centric build. In my last game I just cast Bring to Light to get Rite of Replication and then kick it targeting Kalestria Healer putting 30 drain 1/gain 1 triggers on the stack.

[Debonair Danny DiPietro]

So here's the list: http://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/342771#paper; it's based around a Standard deck my brother played back in Zendikar with Harabaz Druid + Halimar Excavator + Rite of Replication updated with new tools. Some number of Skyrider Elves, Veteran Warleader, and Kabira Evangel should be copies of Mirror Entity and it could probably use a sideboard.

[chamber]

This deck has to get free wins just on people not understanding what's going on. It seems a little discordant.

[Debonair Danny DiPietro]

This deck has to get free wins just on people not understanding what's going on. It seems a little discordant.

Yeah, the Goryo's Vengeance player didn't respect the instant speed mill so in both games he went to Goryo's and so I'd Vial/Collected Company in an ally and mill him 10 or so and mill an Emrakul thus resetting his yard leaving him with no target and then proceed to poke him to death with my tiny attackers. Like I said, I haven't exactly faced the top tier of decks with this thing and the XMage player base seems pretty low quality but it's a funny deck and it keeps winning.

I don't know if I'd describe the deck as discordant; the two primary attack lines of Healer/Excavator don't play particularly well together on their own but you need them both to make sure you have a way to win the game so they're discordant but also important redundancy (I'd say like Primetime/Hive Mind for Bloom Titan), the only card that doesn't really fit with the gameplan is the Skyrider Elf who is an ally, a two drop and makes use of the four color mana base but plays very poorly with Vial/Company and doesn't do anything other than provide a mild to decent flying threat and like I said, some number of them should be cut for Mirror Entity to have yet another way to make use of Harabaz Druid's big mana.

[bv310]

That sounds rad. I'm going to play around with it a bit,

[chamber]

This deck has to get free wins just on people not understanding what's going on. It seems a little discordant.

Yeah, the Goryo's Vengeance player didn't respect the instant speed mill so in both games he went to Goryo's and so I'd Vial/Collected Company in an ally and mill him 10 or so and mill an Emrakul thus resetting his yard leaving him with no target and then proceed to poke him to death with my tiny attackers. Like I said, I haven't exactly faced the top tier of decks with this thing and the XMage player base seems pretty low quality but it's a funny deck and it keeps winning.

I don't know if I'd describe the deck as discordant; the two primary attack lines of Healer/Excavator don't play particularly well together on their own but you need them both to make sure you have a way to win the game so they're discordant but also important redundancy (I'd say like Primetime/Hive Mind for Bloom Titan), the only card that doesn't really fit with the gameplan is the Skyrider Elf who is an ally, a two drop and makes use of the four color mana base but plays very poorly with Vial/Company and doesn't do anything other than provide a mild to decent flying threat and like I said, some number of them should be cut for Mirror Entity to have yet another way to make use of Harabaz Druid's big mana.

I wasn't talking about the 2 different combo plans, that made sense. You have a set of creatures(elf and warleader) that seem to want to promote some sort of alternate beatdown secondary win con, but it just doesn't seem supported anywhere else (other than maybe the ally clone and protect ally which are clearly there for other reasons primarily).

[Debonair Danny DiPietro]

I wasn't talking about the 2 different combo plans, that made sense. You have a set of creatures(elf and warleader) that seem to want to promote some sort of alternate beatdown secondary win con, but it just doesn't seem supported anywhere else (other than maybe the ally clone and protect ally which are clearly there for other reasons primarily).

Well sometimes you do need to beat down to finish off a fair game that involves Healer triggers and I think the Warleader is reasonable at that and can also play some important defense for you. And I did just discuss why I think Skyrider Elf is the weak spot in the deck and my latest version pulls them for two Phantasmal Image and two copies of Mirror Entity.

[chamber]

Any worry that too many clones hurts the CC's?

[Debonair Danny DiPietro]

Any worry that too many clones hurts the CC's?

Not really, they both get put into play off CC. Jawari SS can be awkward if you're say casting a t3 CC off a t2 Harabaz Druid because "all" you're getting is another HD but at least it locks you into big mana and Phantasmal can copy their creatures as well so that gives you a safety net for not having a target and the deck really starts thrumming when you get two or three copies of Healer/Excavator and you can start stacking triggers so it's worth the slight risks.

[chamber]

I more meant that they are blanks into an empty board.

In other news, I just beat bdm by pyromancers goggling a cruel ultimatum in the legendary cube.

[Debonair Danny DiPietro]

I more meant that they are blanks into an empty board.

The odds of not having a Druid or Healer or Excavator on the play on turn 2 is 14.7% and 11.3% on the draw and some of those percentage of hands would be mulligans anyways due to land issues. I think that percentage is solid enough especially when there aren't really any other good options (see previous Skyrider Elf discussion) unless you think Shapesharer's delayed/temporary cloning is that much better.

[chamber]

I've never played the deck, I just assumed some % of the time they kill your first guy and then you cc with nothing hoping to reestablish.

[DeathNote]

New basic land?

Wastes.

[bv310]

Meh, I'm withholding judgement until they actually confirm those. I hate getting hyped only to be let down.

[Debonair Danny DiPietro]

I've never played the deck, I just assumed some % of the time they kill your first guy and then you cc with nothing hoping to reestablish.

The odds of hitting at least two non-clones on a CC ignoring that we've already gone through some cards is 72.5%. That being said, yes, that's how the deck loses and why it's not and basically cannot become a tier 1 deck, instead it is simply the king of second and third tier nonsense.

[Klazam]

I'm considering moving to playing on MTGO exclusively, due to scheduling. worth it to play standard there or nay?

and for those who know, what's the entry price point for standard on mtgo?

[bv310]

Several hundred dollars less than Paper. www.mtggoldfish.com has a good metagame analysis, if you're looking for prices on everything.

[chamber]

I find magic much less fun on MTGO. I don't know if the same will be true for you but it lacks the same level of social interaction. Maybe dip your toes before diving in.

[Natirasha]

Anyone in Pitt for the GP?

[Debonair Danny DiPietro]

Anyone in Pitt for the GP?

Was eliminated from D2 relatively early but ground out a 6-3 record. My brother went 7-1-1 so I'm waiting for a draft to fire while he plays round 10.

[Natirasha]

Ah, damn. I would have come down if I knew people were in town.

Although I've heard that it's about the worst GP ever?

[bv310]

Apparently the company running it are really terrible. Capped a Modern GP at like 2500 players, which is really low. According to Twitter, people were scalping tickets to get in to the main event.