Johnny is teaching class today.
Features
squire1
28 April 2011
4639 views
28 April 2011
4639 views
So just in case you have never read any of my articles, let me introduce myself and my philosophy. I am squire1
and I am a Johnny (Click here for details about what a Johnny is). And when I say I am a Johnny, I mean it. I do not play competitively at all. I don't own paper cards. I build decks based as an expression of what can be done in MTG. I like to win with my crazy concepts, but just making them work is great. Seriously, check out my decks.
Whenever a new set comes out, people gravitate toward the pieces that will alter the competitive meta. Which cards are breakable? How efficient are the cards in limited? These are the questions typically asked. I am of course (as a formerly competitive player) able to conjecture about such things as well; however, for many years, I have tried to think about MTG as a game not a competition. Why, you might ask? Ah...because games are supposed to be fun. There is no World Series of Magic that I will win $10 million from. It will not make me rich, so why not have fun with it?
Well now that that is out of the way, lets talk about the new set. So since I take MTG from a creative stance, I look for the cards that get my creative juices flowing. I love spoiler season as much as everyone else, I like to see what cards I am going to tinker with for the next couple of months. So I have thrown together the cards that I think are my top 10 Johnny cards for me from New Pherexia.
Before I get to my top ten I wanted to give my runners up some credit.
Runners up
Karn Liberated - I have to give Karn a shout out here. I love any card that is most likely to be banned/restricted from some format at some point. And really, this plus Shahrazad in one deck will at least make players scoop and possibly make them stop playing you all together.
Hex Parasite - This little one drop beasty has gotten tons of attention ever since it was spoiler in Japanese. A one drop that kills planeswalkers with a Howl from Beyond will clearly get some sideboard play and maybe some mainboard play. But what people don't think about is how this will play with Near-Death Experience and Angel's Grace. This is also true of any of the other phyrexian symbol pumpers. It is an easy life outlet. Could be fun.
Birthing Pod - It's not Aether Vial but you'll do pig, you'll do. Combine this with a bunch of haste creatures and you have a low mana way to keep biggering and biggering (a Lorax reference, really?) your creatures every turn. Add Voltaic Key and it gets crazy. creature selection will be super important here though. Just seems like a fun card, that can work in a mana restricted deck
Torpor Orb - Screw you soul sisters! Screw you Squadron Hawks! Actually I dont care about that stuff. I am just down with the thought process in designing this card. It is unique. Other cards don't do this. That gets an A, just like I love Crucible of Worlds
Omen Machine - in the right deck, this card will own. Ramp/thin to this, drop bombs all day. Not much more to say
Bludgeon Brawl - I don't have a vision for this card yet either, but I know I can break it. It likely involves PureSteel paladin]] though
Alright not for the top 10.
My Top 10 Johnny cards from New Pherexia
| 10.) Slag Fiend | |
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This seems a bit more of a spike card but it is definitely a Johnny card too. Lotus Petal makes this a 1/1 for 1, but this could be followed by playing a Great Furnace and Kuldotha Rebirth, which will make you already have a 2/2 and three 1/1s on turn 1. Not bad really. Add in some Ornithopters, Memnites, and Phyrexian Walkers for defense. Then sprinkle the rest of your deck with some cheap creatures that play on the concept like Archbound Ravager, Salvage Slasher, Lithatog, or Atog. This is a much more fluid and straightforward build than I usually do, but I like it. I think it works. |
| 9.) Glistening Oil | |
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OK I have to admit that I thought this was pretty 'eh' at first. Then Battlecry1986 posted a comment about it on an article I wrote that got me excited. I mean think about dropping this on Carnifex Demon. He now has infect and became a really harsh version of psetilance. So thank you Battlecry1986. But that can't be it right? Oh it's not, Grim Poppet becomes a better version of Serrated Arrows that is refilable. So good that I would use it over Triskelion. It turns Morselhoarder into a constant mana source, combos well with Neurok Invisimancer and quilspike, makes Wickerbough Elder and Mycosynth Lattice/Liquimetal Coating a beast, and a ton of other ideas. This is a solid combo piece that I can use for years. Great card. |
| 8.)Invader Parasite | |
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This is a rare for sure. It will not be played that much, but it follows a great tradition set by Ankh of Mishra in Alpha. This card is easily pigeon-holed, which will at least keep the price down. This goes great in a deck with Tunnel Ignus, Zo-Zu the Punisher, and Ankh of Mishra making any land drop more painful than it should be. All of that combined with Armegeddon, Crucible of Worlds, Manabarbs and Tamanoa could combine to be an epic deck. Like I said a pigeon hole, but a pigeon hole that I would like to play with (that doesn't sound right, hrm). But like I said this is a low impact card on the meta, i mean it will hurt valakut but it is also a bit slow to do so. |
| 7.) Phyrexian Ingester | |
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Ever wonder what happens when that beasty with fading has to go away, your Lord of the Pit or Force of Nature is getting ready to slap you? Well here is your answer. Luckily you played Primal Rage on turn 2, then dropped Blastoderm. Now you have lanowar elves ready for ramp and Drop this guy to be an 8/8 trample. I mean really though, with planning this guy can be a real terror with cards like Lavacore Elemental, Maelstrom Djinn, and Waning Wurm. He can also be a great way to take advantage of graveyard triggers while getting a large body. Imagine Deathrenderon a 1/1 and you have a few of these in your hand. They keep stacking as you drop new ones, each devouring the last. Now you have a huge creature. |
| 6.) Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite | |
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Yeah yeah, good finisher and all that. No good way to dominate in cool ways. This card is epic. I mean you could have it exhumed on turn 1 or 2, then get out living plane. Your opponent can no longer have lands out and yours are an army. Even better with Nature's Revolt. Or you can hold people off with Godhead of Awe, till you drop Elesh Norn and wipe their board, then alpha strike. Other applications are that Elesh Norn makes Serendib Sorcerer, Sorceress Queen, Diminish, and Ovinize kill spells. It makes Sudden Spoiling a sweeper and Skittering Invasion an instant army. |
| 5.) Viral Drake | |
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First thought I had here was darksteal reactor. Basically get out Viral Drake, Darksteel Reactor and infinite mana combo of your choice. Then win the game. I just could not help it. OK OK, how about the infinite mana combo of your choice and, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, then win. How about the infinite mana combo of you choice and bane fire... oh wait that does not use this card, Helix Pinnacle...hmm. Ok so it is not that useful, but it is pretty cool, that it could work. Shut up its awesome! |
| 4.) Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur | |
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At first I thought this guy was silly because of the casting cost, but $ªmHεiπ set me straight as usual. This guy is flat out mean if you cheat him in with Animate Dead or Polymorph or some other such nonsense. Get out a couple of Jace's Erasure for s super quick mill or deal big damage with Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind or Psychosis Crawler. i am sure that people will be brewing with this soon. It is an easy and malleable build. it could really do some cool stuff. Beyond all the cool triggers though, you force all of your opponents (great in multiplayer) to top deck for the rest of the game and basically never have a hand on your turn. This kills the possibility of counterspells. Awesome! |
| 3.) Suture Priest | |
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So soul sisters married each other (yes same sex marriage is legal in New Pyrexia) and had a baby that makes Clive Barker nervous, by the way it looks. That is how Suture Priest came about. If you already read my article on this card Combo Craziness 5 I go into great detail there about how this card could be used. Most of the ideas revolved around handing opponents creatures with a variety of cards and then keeping them under control with weenie sweepers. Which has them lose a lot of life in the meantime. Since soul sisters was playable. This card may see actual play our there, not just in Johnny brews. But this is a nice card. It is OP for a common, but I am glad they printed it. |
| 2.) Phyrexian Unlife + Melira, Sylvok Outcast | |
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So yeah this is a double, because someone in R & D loves me. They built a beautiful combo right in the set. With a bit of protection, its a win. Basically fill you deck with Eternal Witness to pull pieces back Asceticism to protect your Melira, Sylvok Outcast, Sterling Grove to protect your Phyrexian Unlife, Elixir of Immortality so that you don't get decked. Now just get your pieces out and protect your stuff. If they can't get rid of it, they will lose by slow mill or get DQ'ed for stalling or scoop. Any of those are ok, since my deck wins. Yeah! I have to say, that both cards are great designs. Though Phyrexian Unlife really feels like a new life total (what R & D said they did not want). Interestingly Leeches was not to be reprinted because it transferred poison counters for life and that felt like a second life total. Hmm, so i guess that is ok all of a sudden. Both cards are very creative though. I really like the design. I think that the design team did a brilliant job in making these. Melira, Sylvok Outcast is a way better infect NERF than Leeches anyway. |
| 1.) Psychic Surgery | |
| The best card of the list? No. The missing piece to my Soldier of Fortune deck? Hell YES!!This can go with so many cards to selectively mill people its great. The best choices are cards like Jester's Cap, Extract, Cranial Extraction, Sadistic Sacrament, Memoricide, Shimian Specter route so that you pick through their cards after you pick though their cards. Of course you can have fun and splash in some Psychogenic Probe, Cosi's Trickster, bogart forager, Lantern of Insight, and Visions to make the pain last a bit longer. How would anyone not love this card? I know I do. Unfortunately it is mail and we do not life in New Phyrexia, so I can't marry it. DAMN you new phyrexia! DAMN you all to hell! |
Torpor Orb only a runner up? Don't forget possible applications in deck:phyrexian-dreadnaught decks. Another card I think deserves to make the cut is Chancellor of the Tangle . There's a lot you can do with extra mana turn 1.
Anyway, nice article. I like the cases you made for Psychic Surgery and Glistening Oil, although I'm still a bit disappointed with the latter.
Bludgeon Brawl could be interesting with Liquimetal Coating and Hammer of Ruin , but I don't think it would ever be something worth playing.
Other cards I am excited for are Rage Extractor and Geosurge . I'm just imagining running Geosurge in a Kuldotha red variant. Control the board with burn for the first few turns, then Geosurge into something ridiculous like 4 Signal Pest a Goblin Guide and a kicked Goblin Bushwhacker . You can also chain into more Geosurges using Priest of Urabrask .
April 28, 2011 8:51 p.m.
The Johnny in me (I'm a Spike/Johnny with a flair for the dramatic) is also particularly fond of Rage Extractor . It's not synergistic with other sets (duh), but within the set it's ludicrousness waiting to happen.
Then the Spike happened, and with any luck I'll take a Rage Extractor build to FNM this summer sometime :P
April 28, 2011 9:05 p.m.
What about Glistener Elf + Groundswell + Reality Strobe ?
April 28, 2011 10:21 p.m.
You mean Assault Strobe ?
Johnny players tend to be more interested in making interesting combos out of cards people might overlook initially. The turn 2 glistener elf thing is more of a Spike move.
April 28, 2011 10:48 p.m.
same here I must make some cheat cheat deck used to get the big boys out
April 28, 2011 10:51 p.m.
SwiftDeath says... #8
Calciderm cannot be used with Phyrexian Ingester because of shroud and the combo i thought of with Xenograft was with Anowon, the Ruin Sage you now have vamps weither your playing them or not either this or use the Phyrexian Unlife with Melira, Sylvok Outcast and then finish with Soul Conduit and my last combo would include Darksteel Relic with Goblin Gaveleer and Bludgeon Brawl for a free +2/+0 with an esentially free equipment thats indestructible add card:Accorder's Shield and Darksteel Plate and we have ourselfs a deck.
April 29, 2011 12:07 a.m.
"He can also be a great way to take advantage of graveyard triggers while getting a large body. Imagine Deathrenderon a 1/1 and you have a few of these in your hand. They keep stacking as you drop new ones, each devouring the last. Now you have a huge creature."
Phyrexian Ingester exiles for his imprint ability. The weenie with deathrender never goes to the graveyard.
April 29, 2011 1:40 a.m.
@crazy: thats another one, but the turntimber ranger combo makes all the wolves he makes allies, thus making a person auto mill out of their library if Halimar Excavator is in play, or lose a grip of life from Hagra Diabolist or just overwhelm the opponent with an attack.
April 29, 2011 2:11 a.m.
And let us not forget Bloodchief Ascension Mindcrank , eh?
:P
April 29, 2011 6 a.m.
Would Omen Machine negate Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur 's draw ability? Just want confirmation, fairly sure it's yes.
April 29, 2011 7:48 a.m.
Yes.
By the way, squire1 , Omen Machine is even odder than you thought it was. The player only casts the spell without paying its mana cost /if able/, which limits it to instants and things with flash. I think that it's still going to show up, but more likely to be in a Grand Architect deck that can pump it out on turn 3 against aggro and stop them from doing anything for the rest of the game.
April 29, 2011 7:53 a.m.
@user:crazykillsftw- you are totally correct about Calciderm I so missed that. I will edit the article later.
For the rest of your, great combos! love them. These were just my first impressions, but there are so many more
April 29, 2011 11:05 a.m.
JazzCrimes says... #15
Thank you for writing an article for the Johnny types of the world. It definitely made my day to see that other people design decks for the creative aspect (I probably don't have my best work posted yet, but I just joined like a week ago.) Can't wait for NPH. I like all the ideas you posted here!
April 29, 2011 11:37 a.m.
Painful Quandary and Omen Machine . There's so much room for disruption of this combo, but the possibility of making a player lose 5 life each turn because they drew into another Mana Leak makes me smile.
April 29, 2011 1:36 p.m.
I made a deck based on the Phyrexian Unlife /Melira, Sylvok Outcast combo: Unbreakable.
April 29, 2011 5:04 p.m.
mechanistorange says... #18
I think the Etched Monstrosity is another Johnny card that deserves some credit, although it leans toward Johnny/Timmy because its such a beast
April 29, 2011 7:57 p.m.
When I first saw Etched Monstrosity , I thought they were +1/+1 counters. A 15/15 for 5? Better even than Leveler , less drawback. By the way, what's the point of Leveler anyway? Was it printed before drawing a blank meant game over?
April 29, 2011 10:14 p.m.
I do indeed like Etched Monstrosity , but it is not really a 'build around me' concept to me.
As for Leveler , click on the card and see all the decks on this site made around it. It is an amazing Johnny card. And no it was not created before the drawing a blank rule. That rule started in alpha.
April 30, 2011 8:51 a.m.
What about Viral Drake + Training Grounds ? Possible blue/black or green/black infect deck combo? I will certainly be playing around with that possibility.
May 2, 2011 7:31 p.m.
Viral Drake + Training Grounds + Everflowing Chalice + Molten-Tail Masticore + Enclave Cryptologist + Coralhelm Commander + Rite of Replication + A helping of other creatures to feed off the Masticore = Interesting times... Or you could even splash black for the Necrotic Ooze
The one card you didn't hit which I'm surprised off is Phyrexian Metamorph ...
3 turn random combo:
Any of the Soul Warden type cards first turn.Leonin Relic-Warder on turn 2...
Then the very funny turn 3...Cast Phyrexian Metamorph and it come's into play as a copy of Leonin Relic-Warder as it enters play, you target Phyrexian Metamorph as the exile target.
If you have any gain life when creature enter's play effects, then they trigger.
When it leaves play, it comes back into play, hence you rinse and repeat, and because it's a "may" ability you can do it for as long as you like... The helerious thing is that this is actually a standard combo now. :)
May 7, 2011 3:23 a.m.
waitttt...loop the Phyrexian Metamorph around to target itself and exile/unexile itself an infinite number of times? really? are you sure that works? I feel like the return to battlefield won't work because it's exiled before it has a chance to trigger.
May 7, 2011 10:28 a.m.
Yup. It will work just fine.
Phyrexian Metamorph ETB's as a copy of the Leonin Relic-Warder It's ETB ability Triggers, and therefore you can target Phyrexian Metamorph .
Then when it leaves play it's second ability triggers, and you bring the artifact/enchantment back into play... therefore you are effectively able to loop the combo off.
Another card I'm surprised not to see up there in the top 10 or even mentioned is Xenograft . 2 words... Turntimber Ranger .
For those of ya's wondering uh??? Simples! You get Xenograft into play and chose Creature type Ally, then cast Turntimber Ranger to spawn as many 2/2 Green Wolf (Now Ally) tokens into play as you wish... If you happen to have a Halimar Excavator in play... Infinite Mill doom! With a host of 2/2 wolfs to follow up for those eldrazi annoyances... Guess Genesis Wave just got horibly broken... again! ;)
May 7, 2011 8:45 p.m.
There's a Leonin Relic-Warder on the battlefield. You cast a Phyrexian Metamorph choosing Leonin Relic-Warder . Metamorph enters the battlefield as an artifact creature - cat cleric, 187 goes on the stack, targeting Metamorph. 187 resolves, exiling Metamorph. Leaves-play goes on stack. resolves, returning...yup, it does work. That's sneaky.
I for some reason forgot that Faceless Butcher couldn't exile itself and that was why one couldn't loop itself indefinitely. That's a turn 3 infinite life combo...jebus. Pretty good, huh. Excuse me while I go make that into a deck.
May 9, 2011 1:48 p.m.
Leonin Relic-Warder + Phyrexian Metamorph + Pandemonium = win.
May 9, 2011 4:51 p.m.
HammerAndSickled says... #29
Just to correct some misconceptions: Omen Machine does allow you to play any non-instant spell from the top of your deck regardless of timing restrictions. It gives you a window in which to cast it without paying the mana cost, meaning "right now," as the trigger resolves. So it circumvents timing restrictions.
It does not, however, circumvent targeting restrictions, so examples in like the Painful Quandary combo post claiming that they would lose life or discard for flipping a Mana Leak are false. The spell cannot be cast because there are (presumably) no other spells on the stack to be countered, and therefore isn't cast at all.
Carn13 says... #1
I have to say, NPH has some stupid combo potential. Some of these will definitely see play. I will absolutely be using some roflable Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur deck in the months to come.
April 28, 2011 8:38 p.m.