The Trickster's Nine Lives [KLD]

Standard usurphling

SCORE: 19 | 15 COMMENTS | 9399 VIEWS | IN 2 FOLDERS


mikeb388 says... #1

besides the 1 outlaws merriment how do u win ? unless u granted something out of the sideboard i get the nine lives role reversal combo but seems like no win conditions.

July 10, 2020 10:12 a.m.

AjMcGamer says... #2

The alternate wincons seem to be in the wishboard.

Chandra, Acolyte of Flame, Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, Baneslayer Angel

They may not be the fastest but any of the three can get the job done if played at the right time.

July 10, 2020 10:20 a.m.

AjMcGamer says... #3

usurphling If I have the cards to throw this together on Arena I think I'll give it a shot. Seems like an interesting deck.

July 10, 2020 10:23 a.m.

mikeb388 says... #4

yea but the bad thing is one timely counter and it could be all over

July 10, 2020 10:29 a.m.

AjMcGamer says... #5

The same can be said for numerous decks though to be fair

July 10, 2020 10:34 a.m.

FSims81 says... #6

A good wishboard piece to include might be Discontinuity then. That way if the plan of sending Nine Lives over to your opponent is taking too long to set up and your counters are piling up, you wish it into your hand with the Fae to protect yourself from losing when that last timely counter hits.

July 10, 2020 11 a.m.

usurphling says... #7

Thanks for your comments and suggestions. Please take note that I made this deck tailored for a local FNM here in my place since I have one right now. Once I got enough wild cards, I will convert this deck to arena.

mikeb388 - My only purpose of Outlaws' Merriment is to stall the game and use the boys to swith with their big guys. Examples of those scenarios in my last friday's FNM are switching one of my human soldiers to a fully mutated Auspicious Starrix in my match against BUG mutate. Also, in my match against BG foods (which I am surprisingly lost against Rampage of the Clans), I swapped my soldier to his Feasting Troll King and eventually won against him.

FSims81 - Discontinuity was considered in the main board like what absurdheroine did on her video. Right now, I found Tale's End very useful for what I said in the guide above. In my match against BUG mutate, I countered their mutate trigger and their Illuna being a legendary creature. Once Tale's End rotates out, I will definitely use it.

ShiltonCDXX - feel free! I might make another changes since Temur Reclamation is a thing in my local FNM right now and I have a difficulty dealing with flash decks. And yes, those three helped me A LOT against grinding games. In my match again against BG Foods, he keeps using his foods until I cast Planar Cleansing then wished for Ugin, the Spirit Dragon and Chandra, Awakened Inferno. Unfortunately, Baneslayer cannot be wished so she shows up in games 2 and 3.

July 10, 2020 11:24 a.m. Edited.

dunecat says... #8

If they don't have any enchantments how do you give them Nine Lives?

July 21, 2020 11:36 a.m.

FSims81 says... #9

dunecat, One with the Stars turns any creature into an enchantment

July 22, 2020 9:56 a.m.

dunecat says... #10

Right, duh! Thanks.

July 22, 2020 11:17 a.m.

KeyBrains says... #11

Does it work??? I am searching for a deck to beat the Yorion punks and stuff their "Oops-Good Game" back up their butts.

February 19, 2021 12:34 p.m.

usurphling says... #12

I haven't deal with Yorion Decks yet but with midrange matches right now im 60% win rate. With sacrifice and discard cards, i put a lot of pressure on them thus forcing them to tapped out. Ill play more games and improve this deck more.

February 20, 2021 12:04 p.m.

I like the idea, but I have two problems.

  1. Your swaperoo spell is delayed. I've seen decks like this in Historic and it's hard enough to pull off the swap when you have immediate swapage like Harmless Offering . It's just so hard to find a turn where you can calculate "all right, so if he swings with all on his next turn and doesn't have burn/haste, he'll get me to exactly eight counters and I can swap" because you just lose to burn/haste and rarely will the math add up just right.

  2. How are you getting in for the final point of damage? After you give him Nine Lives with 8 counters, how do you make sure that you can damage him one more time? You have some maybes with like Fae of Wishes or Pharika's Libation, but it's not as reliable as burn or something like that.

Honestly, I think you need to kind of build around Trickster-god's Heist to make this work so you can have redundancy and something to do when you don't have the combo. I don't see what cards like Omen of the Sea are doing in the deck when there's better card draw and your only enchantment payoff is a two-of Idyllic Tutor that you'll likely be using to tutor up one of your combo pieces anyway.

I want the deck to be in red to have some burn, but it's already three colors and I feel a fourth would be stretching already-strained luck with a combo deck.

I like good jank, but this feels like it takes too many cards that aren't good in other situations to work.

March 26, 2021 1:11 a.m.

AjMcGamer says... #14

Hey just wanted to point out that Sorcerous Spyglass shuts Ugin off.

March 26, 2021 8:20 a.m.

usurphling says... #15

Sorin_Markov_1947

Swapping Nine Lives with another enchantment is always a challenge for me. Unlike before that we have Role Reversal in standard, you will need to decide when you will cast tricksters. In most cases, I would cast it if I have legal targets that are worthy to swap with. Also, a lot of meta decks right now are using enchantments which are legal targets to swap with Nine Lives using the second chapter of Tricksters. If you're worried about giving the last point of damage for nine lives, you don't need to worry about it because I have many ways to get rid of it without targeting - Cyclone Summoner , Pharika's Libation , Ugin, the Spirit Dragon , Ondu Inversion  Flip. Also, I dont really rely on Nine Lives comber per se that's why I have my wish board in different situations. There were times that Ashiok and or Kaya wins games for me without the combo.

ShiltonCDXX: that's a great addition to my wishboard. thanks for pointing me out!

March 28, 2021 4:49 p.m.

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