Mauler Sleeperhold

Standard* Nigeltastic

SCORE: 24 | 55 COMMENTS | 4600 VIEWS | IN 10 FOLDERS


LMCDaSniper says... #1

I, personally, would not run Master of the Feast. That is counterintuitive to your strategy as you want gain card advantage and make your opponent run out of cards not give them more. I would run more Prognostic Sphinx or Sagu Mauler especially with the rise of Mardu and their use of Crackling Doom

December 2, 2014 11:23 p.m.

LMCDaSniper says... #2

Sorry for the second comment, but also I would replace Crippling Chill with Courser of Kruphix for the lifegain and it does keep early attacks away.

December 2, 2014 11:24 p.m.

Nigeltastic says... #3

LMCDaSniper - add all the comments you like! I'm not terribly happy with the Master of the Feast in that slot, I think you're right. I am testing with the big tempo gain that Crippling Chill gives me, and will report back. Courser of Kruphix would never be a bad addition though I think.
ToastyWaffle - thanks for the kind words and up vote. Bow of Nylea also really helps with all of the burn and aggro matchups.

December 3, 2014 11:59 a.m.

In my opinion, your deck has to focus on it's "entire-game plan." You have some unconventional cards (e.x. Nylea's bow) that may seem sweet, but really don't have the power to justify their position in the 75. This comment ended up being much longer than I intended, but I had some time and decided to go through your picks individually as well as what cards I would recommend replacing them with. While in my opinion the deck would improve if you take all of my suggestions, I understand if you favor some over others. However, I must caution that some of my recommendations are contingent upon others. For example, adding Perilous Vault without adding enough early game control will (in most cases) destroy your chances against decks that thrive in the early game. That being said, I invite you to consider my suggestions. As this ended up being fairly lengthy, I would read it one section at a time and consider the changes individually in relation to your deck.

The changes I would make to this deck are as follows:

-2 Whelming WaveRight now in standard, there are no good wrath effects. While whelming wave may do a good job at buying you some time, drawing one late game typically means sending your own creatures back too.

+1 AEtherspouts This would be considered a replacement for whelming wave. While only having one may seem like a shoddy defense, you only really need to utilize it once in a match to change the way your opponent plays. The first time you get them with it, it's typically a blowout. If it's late enough for you to have stabilized, winning can be very easy after this point. Going forward, your opponent makes your job easier by sequencing their plays around the AEtherspouts blowout.

-2 Bow of NyleaLike I said before in my example, Nylea's bow may seem like a cool include, it does many jobs in a mediocre fashion. Investing the 1GG to cast, in addition to the 1g to activate, leads to a lot of sunk mana early to mid game (5 for one activation, 7 for two, etc). Placing +1/+1 counters on creatures in a control deck is fairly useless, as your creatures are supposed to win games on their own. There are no 2 toughness flyers you are likely to encounter, so dealing 2 damage to a flyer will most likely not accomplish much. Gaining three life is simply not worth the mana investment. Putting 4 cards back on the bottom of your library is semi-useful, but like all of the other options the activation cost does not justify the ends.

-4 Dissipate While whip decks are becoming more popular, hedging against one matchup leaves you weaker in all of your other matchups. However, I can see this pick being justified if your meta has a majority of players on the whip deck.

+4 Dissolve Just an add-on to the previous comment. The card selection offered by dissolve trumps the exiling effect of dissipate in most instances.

-2 Silence the BelieversSilence the Believers can be a great 2-for-1 late, or hero's downfall 5 in the early-mid game. But having three makes the deck overall a bit slower than it needs to be.

+4 Disdainful Stroke (to main)This card is phenomenal in almost every matchup (other than maybe jeskai or aggro). It stops pretty much anything that's looking to threaten us, for a very cheap cost.

+4 Bile Blight (to main)Bile Blight helps us against troublesome early game threats like Sidisi, Rabblemaster, and can occasionally 2-for-1 in the matchup against U/W heroic. Also, with tokens becoming more popular, it helps us deal with Hornet Queen and Hordeling Outburst before siding in Down In Sorrow.

-2 Extinguish All Hope (in side)+2 Down in Sorrow (in side)Unless you can stem the bleeding against the faster decks of the format (U/W heroic, Jeskai Tokens, Rabblemaster), they almost have a free game. Even with a sweeper like Extinguish All Hope hitting, chances are they're still able to outpace you. Siding in a full set of Drowns makes the early game much easier to control in games 2 and (hopefully) 3.

-4 Crippling ChillCrippling Chill is by no means a bad card to stall with. But in practice, its fairly black and white: you either have the answer for the target, or you dont. If you have the answer, you as a player must decide the sequencing which allows you to successfully remove the threat and transition the gamestate to one which you have more control, and are able to play a wincon. The 1-2 turns gained by freezing one of your opponent's threats is not on the same level as the spell I recommend you replace it with.

+4 Perilous VaultIn Crippling Chills place, is (at least in my opinion) the best of the bad sweepers in our colors. 9 mana may be a lot to invest into a wipe, but the Vaults two-step activation process proves beneficial in a match you intend to draw out. If you opponent has built up a strong boardstate, great! You get to wipe it the following turn (or at the end of their turn, if you have 9 mana!). If you have been able to control your opponents plays and they only have one or two minor creatures, your other cards should support you in controlling the boardstate further.

And thats about it! I would like to hear what changes you end up making (if any) and how you do in future sanctioned events.

December 23, 2014 2:59 p.m.

Reviewing my comment, I noticed that I suggested you add three more cards than I had you remove! In order to maintain a 60 card deck I would cut down the Sultai Ascendancy, Sagu Mauler, and Prognostic Sphinx by 1. You may think this is limiting your winconditions, but a very controll-y deck (like the one you have) does not need more than 3 defensible winconditions. I also apologize for the formatting errors, TappedOut does a strange thing with removing an intentional line-break.

December 23, 2014 3:08 p.m.

Please login to comment