Announcement: My long awaited (by me at least) third MMS list is now live. That means this format officially has its first trilogy! You can check the newest installment out here: MMS: Take That! (Which Was Taken)
And of course, my second MMS deck is still up if you've yet to see it.
A
Mana Maze Solitaire deck with the goal being to destroy the five "Mental Illness" enchantments from Torment Block. Most of the cards have some sort of quirky interaction with at least a few of the other ones to make sure that no move is ever independent of the rest of the board. I think I've got the difficulty level just about right now but suggestions are always welcome.
Cards currently in danger of being cut are:
Blood Knight: I was thinking about swapping him out for Goblin Outlander. This removes the first-strike interaction the knight has with Cairn Wanderer, but it adds another goblin for Sparksmith to use and keeps the protection. I'm just not sure whether I like that it's multicolored and whether I really want Sparksmith to deal more damage more often.
Xathrid Necromancer: Not only can he prove really difficult to play around (something which has its advantages and disadvantages) but I'm not sure how to rule his token ability. Placing the token on whatever pile I'd like makes him less back-breaking, but I'm not sure it's very "fair". I find that putting the token on whatever pile the creature just died from makes sense, but also means you have to kill 2 creatures to get one card further up in a pile.
I'm also looking to put in some more non-basics. Preferably ones which tap for a color and have some sort of interesting effect like Barbarian Ring.
I realize this is a format that almost nobody plays and for which there aren't many deck lists online. (AKA mine and one other) So, if anyone is interested in it and doesn't know where to start I'll try my best to help you if you leave a comment.
Updates:
December 2015:
-Basal Thrull +Basal Sliver
- The sliver has some nice interactions with the changelings and I prefer the art.
-Aftershock +Wild Swing
- Aftershock felt like an obstacle more than a resource a lot of the time. Swing isn't perfect, but it's still red creature removal and without the double red and damage I don't waste all that much if it goes awry.
-Forest +Meteor Crater
- I've been having problems finding out where to put colorless lands with unique abilities. Green is the color in which I have the fewest spells to cast so I'm going to try cutting a Forest for this one.
-Clergy of the Holy Nimbus +Mystic Familiar
- I noticed I had 2 cards that specifically interacted with flyers, but also only had two flyers (and one conditional flyer) in the whole deck. At the the same time I only had 2 cards that could actually kill clergy so I decided this swap would help cut down on two different kinds of stalls. It also knocks the human count for Necromancer down by one, which I'm not sure whether I like or not.
January 2016:
-Alhammarret's Archive +Magnetic Mine
- It's been a while since I've updated and in that time I've played more than a couple games where the double life off Archive means I don't have to worry about any of the life loss effects. I've also played more than a few games where Archive has no effect on the board at all. I'm pretty sure at this point that it flips between too good and worthless and never lands in between. So now I'm trying out Mine instead. It's far less forgiving than Archive, but doesn't have an effect that I have to overcome the second it gets revealed like Thorn of Amethyst.
February 2016:
-Shapesharer +Stitcher's Apprentice
- This might seems like an odd choice, seeing as Shapesharer has one of the most unique effects in this deck. While this is true, he also contributes to the tribal section of a deck that I never really wanted to have a tribal theme. This is what sparked my consideration for replacement, but what really sealed it was when I realized that his ability can target any Changeling. That means it can hit Cairn Wanderer and turn him from a difficult to remove obstacle into an asset. He just does a little too much to take the deck in a direction I'm not interested in. As far as his replacement goes: I like the idea of trading a very difficult to remove creature for a 2/2, but he has the chance of doing nothing at all. He also has the same token ruling issue as Xathrid Necromancer.
May 2016: (Sure are more updates than I thought there'd be)
I've decided that Unearth is on the whole more interesting than Necromancy. I find that stalling out due to lack of mana is boring and difficult to work around while stalling out due to a lack of targets is something that can be solved in creative ways. There are really only 2 good recursion targets Necromancy hits that Unearth doesn't (Glissa and Acolyte) so I'm not worried about it losing too much usefulness.
This swap does present one minor issue: I now have 9 enchantments and 7 sorceries, numbers which just aren't as appealing ad 10 and 6.
-Crippling Fatigue +Blood Funnel
Blood Funnel was suggested by a friend, and, while I think it might be a little too volatile, I'm willing to give it a chance. I believe that, at least a majority of the time, this card is going to be beneficial, and so I'm cutting a beneficial card for it. The ability to sacrifice a creature is quite strong and it'll only really hurt when I don't have any creatures. (a rarity as far as I can tell) Fatigue has been on the chopping block for a while now thanks to its difficult mana cost and the rarity of its flashback finding use. This also sets the number of enchantments and sorceries back to 10 and 6 respectively.
One problem though: Blood Funnel and Arcane Melee have very similar effects, so the latter is going to have to go.
-Arcane Melee +Parallax Tide
- Oh boy, am I excited to try this one out. I really want to discover how useful the ability to rearrange lands is in this format. It's mostly going to be relevant for getting the appropriate amount of mana floating to use Glissa, but I could see it interacting nicely with Reef Shaman or Elsewhere Flask. Plus it lets me get around not-always-usable lands like Barbarian Ring or Meteor Crater.
-Thorn of Amethyst +Cursed Totem
- I'll be honest, this is a change mostly driven by price. Thorn is the most expensive card in the deck by a pretty wide margin, and, even though it isn't some phenomenal sum, I'd like to keep this deck very cheap. Not only does it mean I save cash, but I think it matches the quirky flavor of the whole format. Plus, the sort of removal stalls totem causes are far more interesting than the sort of mana-stalls thorn causes.
-Borderland Behemoth +Coalhauler Swine
- With the removal of Shapesharer, Behemoth's ability will rarely ever be relevant. I didn't want a 4/4 that does nothing hanging around and so I'm trying out Swine. It also introduces one more damage effect, meaning that lifegain and lifedrain effects are again balanced at 5 to 5.
-Stitcher's Apprentice +Sphinx's Herald
I realized that, if I was going to play one of the heralds, Angel's was the worst one to choose. Two out of three of both my green and blue creatures are not things I'd like to sac, while my black and white creatures are generally more difficult to remove. This also drops the human count for Necromancer by one and adds an additional artifact to play around with. I'm a bit bummed to see apprentice go, but he's simply too similar to Herald to keep.
Obviously this necessitates getting rid of Angel's Herald and so...
-Angel's Herald +Nomads en-Kor
- Nomads is very likely not going to be the final inclusion for the third white creature spot. I wanted to replace herald with another beneficial creature, but couldn't find one that blatantly removed permanents without being overpowered and so settled. Still, Nomads offers an interesting ability that may allow me to get two-for-ones out of any of my spells which deal more than 1 damage.
June 2016:
-Nomads en-Kor +Elite Skirmisher
- I said Nomads wouldn't be sticking around long, but I didn't expect to find a replacement so quickly. Skirmisher serves a very similar purpose,(letting a single removal spell hit two creatures) but has around twice the number of spells which interact with it compared to Nomads.
October 14th 2016: At this point, this deck is pretty much locked in. That's not to say don't comment on it or anything, just that I won't probably won't be editing it anymore without outside impetus. I like where the difficulty level is at and think it's a great non-theme deck to introduce people to the format, so it's staying the way it is for now.
Since I'm no longer working on this deck, I'd love to make another MMS deck and get it on here for you to check out. I'm a bit busy with university, so when that deck will be complete is tough to say, but do look for it in the...eventual future.
