Ye Olde Deckbuilding Challenge #13- Mirage
Challenges and Articles forum
Posted on Aug. 20, 2013, 2:10 p.m. by doinitwrong
This challenge is for two types of people: the Old Fogey that soothly misses the good olde days of Magic, before the mischievous age of Miracles, Infect, and Annihilator, and the Young Whippersnapper that wants to know what the game was like when artifacts were brown.
First, let me congratulate fluffybunnypants for winning Ye Olde Deckbuilding Challenge #12- 2003 with his deck Midnight City.
Want to request a challenge? Visit the YODBC Request Page.
For this challenge, we shall be looking back at Mirage Block, the first sets specifically designed as a block of three.
What to do:
- Build up to two 60-card decks (Thou shalt not count to 61, nor to 59).
- At least 8 cards must be from Mirage.
- At least 8 cards must be from Visions.
- At least 8 cards must be from Weatherlight.
- The rest may be from any of those three sets.
- No Sideboard will be used.
Post your deck here by Sunday, August 1st, at which time I shall take all submissions and have a tournament to determine the superlative one. The tournament will be a few rounds of swiss, with the top 4 (or 8 if enough submissions are made) doing single-elimination afterwards.
Restricted List- Fie upon the miscreant to post hither a deck whereinsoever contains a quantity in excess of one copy of a card mentioned forthwith:
Good luck to all and may the best antiquarian win!
P.S. If anyone wants me to ping them when I post a new challenge so you don't miss out, let me know.
fluffybunnypants says... #6
Aw, aw, aw before I read Vamp Tutor was restricted.
August 20, 2013 2:30 p.m.
doinitwrong says... #7
fluffybunnypants Squandered Resources is restricted as well. I didn't want to restrict it, but it's flat-out banned in Mirage Block constructed...
August 20, 2013 2:34 p.m.
for future references there is a subscribe button under comment :)
August 20, 2013 5:22 p.m.
potatoedoughnut says... #11
Wow you're right! It's hiding over on the right side though, very sneaky.
August 21, 2013 12:32 a.m.
atreyujames says... #12
Man, this format is hard to build a deck with. Or maybe its just me. Anyways, the second deck should be done in a few days
August 21, 2013 7:19 p.m.
Absinthman says... #15
Thanks for letting me know, doinitwrong. I wasn't playing MTG during these old days and I will need to familiarize myself with all cards from these sets. This will be a challenge indeed.
August 25, 2013 2:59 p.m.
doinitwrong says... #16
If we end up with an odd number of submissions, I'll add Not All Decks Can Be Interesting.
August 26, 2013 1:22 p.m.
potatoedoughnut says... #17
Ok, I have a deck. We'll see if it does things or not.
August 26, 2013 5:03 p.m.
potatoedoughnut says... #19
I made another one because no one had used Spirit of the Night yet.
August 27, 2013 6:09 p.m.
Okay, here are my Home-brew entries:
Entry #1: Gaea's Light
Entry #2: Scorched Chimera
August 28, 2013 6:49 p.m.
doinitwrong says... #21
It's Thursday, so that means 3 days left before the deadline!
Just a heads up guys, I'll be out of town from tomorrow to Sunday, so forgive me if I'm out of touch this weekend.
August 29, 2013 1:48 p.m.
doinitwrong says... #22
I'm back, and the deadline has arrived! Let the games begin!
September 1, 2013 7:13 p.m.
doinitwrong says... #24
Round 1 Results:
atreyujames's All In vs. sewellius's Gaea's Light:
G1: River Boa 's islandwalk makes for some quick damage until Nekrataal kills it. A stalemate develops until Crypt Rats kills everything but Ertai's Familiar . With 1 life left, Gaea gets River Boa to stop the Familiar from attacking, but All In replies with Necratog . Gaea can't block them both and dies.
G2: River Boa s and card advantage from Femeref Enchantress /Substance enchantments (WoTC needs to make more of these!) quickly overwhelm All In, and Gaea forces game 3.
G3: Llanowar Sentinel s and Scalebane's Elite hold All In at bay. The card advantage from the Sentinels and Femeref Enchantress prove too much for All In to handle yet again as Gaea maintains solid defense while attacking from the skies for the victory.
Gaea's Light wins 2-1
atreyujames's Phase 1 vs. fluffybunnypants's Horsepower!
G1: Phase gets a T3 Phyrexian Dreadnought and pummels Horsepower down the turn before he would have been able to try comboing out.
G2: Both players spend the early game sifting with Impulse and Teferi's Imp . Suddenly, everything happes at once Phase gets Phyrexian Dreadnought , Horsepower tutors for Squandered Resources . Dreadnought puts Horsepower 1 turn from death, then Horsepower combos off: Squandered Resources, sac all your lands for mana, Natural Balance , tap and sac your lands, Prosperity , 2x Dark Ritual , Cadaverous Bloom , 3x Infernal Contract , exile 12 cards, Drain Life for lethal.
G3: Horsepower mulligans to 5, but still gets a bad hand. Phase gets a T3 Phyrexian Dreadnought and puts Horsepower away.
Phase 1 wins 2-1
Azure124's Mirage tempo vs. potatoedoughnut's YODBC13 Spirit of the Night
G1: Both players have to mulligan to 5. Though a T1 Coercion hits the only spell in Tempo's hand (Impulse ), Spirit can't topdeck a creature to save his life. Tempo hits every landdrop, getting him a rather quick Firestorm Hellkite . Spirit can't topdeck a saving Nekrataal (or 4th land to cast it for that matter) and is defeated.
G2: Spirit gets a T1 Hidden Horror , and Tempo has to play catch-up right out of the gate. Tempo gets colorscrewed out of blue, so he can't play Boomerang or Man-o'-War as the Horror overwhelms him.
G3: Tempo puts on early pressure with Roc Hatchling and Sage Owl . Disrupt and Memory Lapse stall Spirit's attempts to Shallow Grave a Nekrataal . Spirit eventually successfully casts it and stops Tempo's attacks, but by then it's too late as Tempo has enough mana to Kaervek's Torch for lethal.
Mirage tempo wins 2-1
potatoedoughnut's YODBC13 CounterBurn vs. sewellius's Scorched Chimera
G1: Counterburn counters and burns a lot of Chimeras as he ramps up to Thundermare . Scorched can't keep a blocker alive and is beaten down.
G2: Counterburn doesn't have as much burn as game 1, which proves costly. Scorched quickly outmuscles Thundermare with a 6/6 Chimera with Trample, First Strike, and Vigilance. It, and 7 Snake Basket tokens, swiftly overrun Counterburn.
G3: Counterburn has an answer to nigh everything Scorched throws at him. He runs out of control, however, and Scorched cracks Snake Basket for 12. Counterburn tries valiantly, and manages to remove half of the tokens, but the remainder and Xanthic Statue pick up the match win.
Scorched Chimera wins 2-1
Round 2 Pairings:
September 3, 2013 1:21 a.m.
Those were some intense sounding matches!
As a prediction, I have a distinct impression that one of my decks will win next round... Though I suspect that one will lose too.
September 3, 2013 7:53 p.m.
doinitwrong says... #27
sewellius actually, I just finished your match and it was a draw*.
*No, not really, but that would have been cool.
September 3, 2013 8:30 p.m.
doinitwrong says... #29
Round 2 Results:
atreyujames's All In (0-1) vs. potatoedoughnut's YODBC13 Spirit of the Night (0-1)
G1: Spirit has to mulligan to 4, but still disrupts All In with a T1 Coercion . Nekrataal takes out Ertai's Familiar before All In's grave gets too big. Crypt Rats wipes the board, then Hidden Horror arrives for All In, and Spirit can't take it out in time to save himself.
G2: All in gets 2 quick Ertai's Familiar s, filling his grave. Spirit stuffs his own grave with 2x Buried Alive , but can only get a single Shallow Grave for recursion before the Familiars and Haunting Misery put him to an end.
All In wins 2-0
fluffybunnypants's Horsepower! (0-1) vs. potatoedoughnut's YODBC13 CounterBurn (0-1)
G1: In this battle of the netdecks, Horsepower has Squandered Resources in his opening hand but it gets countered. He tries playing Cadaverous Bloom and just comboing out that way, but it also gets countered. When Natural Balance tries shrinking CounterBurns mana base, it gets countered. Thundermare , Hammer of Bogardan , Incinerate , and Volcanic Geyser end the game.
G2: Horsepower gets a T2 Squandered Resources , but then hits a land pocket. Hammer of Bogardan wreaks havoc, meanwhile, and Counterburn is soon a turn away from victory. Horsepower then draws out CounterBurn's only counterspell with Infernal Contract , then plays Prosperity for 7. CounterBurn uses the last of his mana to try and stop the combo, only to get Dissipate d. After that, Horsepower goes to combo out. Unfortunately, he runs out of blue mana mid-combo, and consequently can't fill his hand with Cadaverous Bloom fodder. He can only Drain Life for 14, and Counterburn beats him down with Thundermare .
atreyujames's Phase 1 (1-0) vs. Azure124's Mirage tempo (1-0)
G1: Tempo Incinerate s Vodalian Illusionist in response to Phyrexian Dreadnought , making it be sacrificed. After that, 2x Roc Hatchling and Vaporous Djinn start beating away. Phase tries Ray of Command to make the Rocs fight, but it gets Memory Lapse d. Next turn, Phase tries the same thing, but Tempo Boomerang s the Roc in response, preventing a block and letting lethal damage through.
G2: Both players spend the early game sifting. Tempo's counters can only delay Phyrexian Dreadnought , and Phase keeps playing it over and over. After it lands, the only thing Tempo has to deal with it is Man-o'-War , which is only effective after he takes 12. Ray of Command makes sure Tempo doesn't have enough toughness to prolong the game a turn by blocking, and game 3 is forced.
G3: Phase plays Phyrexian Dreadnought T2. Tempo Boomerang s it, but doesn't have enough mana left over to counter the Vision Charm next time its played. He tries to bounce it again, but Phase laughs it off with Mystic Veil . Tempo runs out of tricks and succumbs.
Phase 1 wins 2-1
sewellius's Gaea's Light (1-0) vs. sewellius's Scorched Chimera
G1: Both sides build up forces quickly, and a stalemate develops. Scorched gets card advantage from Snake Basket /Phyrexian Vault , while Gaea gets it from Femeref Enchantress and Llanowar Sentinel . Scorched Ruins gets Scorched ridiculous amounts of mana, and he floods the field with Snake Basket tokens, recurring the Baskets with Argivian Find . He soon has 68 tokens (if he waited, he would have had many more) and overruns Gaea.
G2: Scorched mulligans to 5 and still gets manascrewed. Gaea's onslaught of River Boa and Freewind Falcon quickly topple him.
G3: Early Disenchant s from Gaea kill the early Chimeras, thus Scorched can't deal with the River Boa swarm and succumbs.
Gaea's Light wins 2-1
Round 3 Pairings:
September 4, 2013 1:46 a.m.
atreyujames says... #30
I'm pleasantly surprised Phase 1 beat the tempo, all that bounce and counters had me scared.
Also glad All In did well too
September 4, 2013 1:54 a.m.
fluffybunnypants says... #31
I figured that was going to be a rough matchup.
September 4, 2013 7:08 a.m.
potatoedoughnut says... #32
Mull to 4 is sadface, but I think the blame is on my poor deckbuilding skills. As long as spirit gets to reanimate its namesake once I'll be happy.
Glad the counter-burn did its thing.
September 4, 2013 10:45 a.m.
Ah hah! My prediction was correct, one deck lost, the other won. :)
In more seriousness, I probably would have guessed the Chimera would've won the matchup, but looks like Gaea's Disenchant pulled thru.
Interesting matchups for round 3. I see Chimera and Counterburn are getting a rematch. Now I just have to hope history repeats... Mwahaha!
September 4, 2013 12:58 p.m.
Ooh... looking at the upcoming match with Phase 1, it would be fun to Ward of Lights a Phyrexian Dreadnought , protecting it from blue for the turn. That would be some shenanigans!
September 4, 2013 1:14 p.m.
doinitwrong says... #35
sewellius... that it would. I'll keep that in mind.
September 4, 2013 1:36 p.m.
doinitwrong says... #36
Sorry, guys. Today's been really busy and I won't be able to finish round 3 until tomorrow.
September 4, 2013 11:52 p.m.
doinitwrong says... #37
Oh dear, I just now noticed there was a rematch scheduled. This will not do. Sorry, guys, Round 3 probably won't be done until tomorrow.
Round 3 Pairings (Take 2):
- Horsepower! vs. YODBC13 Spirit of the Night
- All In vs. YODBC13 CounterBurn
- Mirage tempo vs. Scorched Chimera
- Phase 1 vs. Gaea's Light
Sorry this is taking so long, guys. I'll go ahead and put up the next challenge later today so it doesn't get affected by the delay.
September 6, 2013 12:25 p.m.
doinitwrong says... #38
Ye Olde Deckbuilding Challenge #14- Combo Winter is up if anyone wants to get to work on that while I work on this.
September 6, 2013 2:11 p.m.
doinitwrong says... #39
Well, some results are better than no results...
Round 3 Results (part 1):
fluffybunnypants's Horsepower! (0-2) vs. potatoedoughnuts YODBC13 Spirit of the Night (0-2)
G1: A T1 Coercion messes with Horsepower's mana, and Spirit manages a T3 Aku Djinn . Horsepower rituals into Cadaverous Bloom and draws some cards with Prosperity . Spirit is a turn away from beating Horsepower down with the Djinn and a reanimated Spirit of the Night when Horsepower tries comboing out. Exiling the cards he drew the previous turn, he Prosperities for 13, goes to 1 life with Infernal Contract , finally draws Drain Life , draws the rest of his deck with another Prosperity, and hits spirit for 49 damage.
G2: Spirit gets a fast start, and by turn 4 is a turn away from getting the win with Hidden Horror and Spirit of the Night . Horsepower, however, has other plans. He got a T3 Cadaverous Bloom and T4 goes Vampiric Tutor , Infernal Contract , Squandered Resources , Natural Balance , Prosperity , Drain Life for an obscene amount.
Horsepower! wins 2-0
atreyujames's All In (1-1) vs. potatoedoughnut's YODBC13 CounterBurn (1-1)
G1: CounterBurn either counters or burns out all of All In's early creatures, but he manages to get out Necratog while Counterburns tapped out. After it takes about half his life, CounterBurn manages to Boomerang and Dissipate it. After that, Hidden Horror is played, but promptly Volcanic Geyser ed. That, however, gets All In just enough cards in grave for a lethal Haunting Misery , and CounterBurn is out of counterspells.
G2: CounterBurn plays very defensively, opting for counterspells rather than Thundermare
from his Impulse
s. None of All In's early creatures live to attack except for a single Fog Elemental
. CounterBurn lets some late Daring Apprentice
s to do some damage, but then takes them out with a recursive Hammer of Bogardan
which I completely forgot about before now. A would-be lethal Haunting Misery
gets countered, and a pair of Volcanic Geyser
s for 10 each ends it.
G3: CounterBurn gets an early Thundermare and beats away. All in tries killing it with Nekrataal , but CounterBurn Boomerang s it, plays it, and swings for game.
YODBC13 CounterBurn wins 2-1
September 9, 2013 3:16 p.m.
potatoedoughnut says... #41
Sounds like close games for my decks. Couldn't quite get there against combo, but glad the control plan worked this time.
Not sure if Thundermare can ever counts as "early," but no complaints :) This deck also needs the Hammer of Bogardan recursion for card advantage because there wasn't a lot of card draw in this block (just Inspiration for this deck) despite all the awesome filter/tutor spells.
September 9, 2013 5:42 p.m.
doinitwrong says... #42
potatoedoughnut it felt early because it was the first creature to not get countered or burned to death the turn it was played.
September 9, 2013 7:11 p.m.
potatoedoughnut says... #43
doinitwrong - exactly the way it should be :)
September 9, 2013 7:15 p.m.
doinitwrong says... #44
Round 3 Results (part 2):
Azure124's Mirage tempo (1-1) vs. sewellius's Scorched Chimera (1-1)
G1: Memory Lapse holds Scorched back early as Tempo waits for his Roc Hatchling s to hatch. Scorched eventually gets a pair of Chimeras out, but Tempo 2-for-1s them by flashing Kaervek's Torch in response to ones sac effect. Relentless Assault ends the game before Scorched can try to save himself again.
G2: Tempo gets a T1 Roc Hatchling and disrupts Scorched's early game. Vaporous Djinn arrives and a Relentless Assault and Incinerate later, the game is over.
Mirage tempo wins 2-0
atreyujames's Phase 1 (2-0) vs. sewellius's Gaea's Light (2-0)
G1: Phase gets a T2 Phyrexian Dreadnought . Gaea lacks the white for Disenchant and is clobbered.
G2: Phase sifts for the first few turns. He finally plays Phyrexian Dreadnought , but Ward of Lights keeps it from being phased. A second gets Disenchant ed. Sage Owl and Teferi's Imp , however, do a good deal of damage on their own. Gaea stays alive with Vitalizing Cascade and starts generating some card advantage with Femeref Enchantress and Llanowar Sentinel . Phase stalls against them, but can't do anything against River Boa and succumbs.
G3: Gaea gets manascrewed and can't Disenchant a T2 Phyrexian Dreadnought .
Phase 1 wins 2-1
The Top 4:
September 13, 2013 10:33 a.m.
potatoedoughnut says... #45
In set 1, game 1: Kaervek's Torch is a sorcery, how was it cast in response?
Too bad about the mana in set 2, but game 2 sounds like it was a good one.
September 13, 2013 10:58 a.m.
Well, at least I got to Ward of Lights a Dreadnought at least once. Mana screw is always a bummer though. Good job everybody!
September 13, 2013 12:56 p.m.
doinitwrong says... #47
potatoedoughnut oops, just realized I misread Kaervek's Torch . Thought it had Ghitu Fire 's ability. I'll redo G1 from that match, and do game 3 if necessary.
September 13, 2013 10:36 p.m.
doinitwrong says... #48
Oh, it's Wednesday? so I'm... 2 weeks behind schedule. Swell. Ok, I'd best get this finished ASAP
Azure124's Mirage tempo (1-1) vs. sewellius's Scorched Chimera (1-1) (Redoing game 1)
G1: Roc Hatchling has time to grow thanks to Memory Lapse and Disrupt . Incinerate deals with any Chimeras that resolve as Roc and Vaporous Djinn beat Scorched down for the win.
Mirage tempo wins 2-0
Top 4 standings are the same as the last post.
Top 4 Results
sewellius's Gaea's Light vs. Azure124's Mirage tempo
G1: 3x early River Boa s swarm the field early. A few Incinerate s dispose of them, after they do about 16 damage to Tempo. Ward of Lights on a Llanowar Sentinel , however, finishes Tempo off before he can do anything to Gaea.
G2: Tempo gets all the right answers to Gaea's threats. Gaea can't answer Tempo's T1 Roc Hatchling and succumbs.
G3: Both players get stuck with somewhat slow hands after mulligans. Roc Hatchling gives tempo a slight advantage, and Firestorm Hellkite seals the deal.
Mirage tempo wins 2-1
atreyujames's Phase 1 vs. potatoedoughnut's YODBC13 CounterBurn
G1: Phase sifts through about half his deck, but can't find Phyrexian Dreadnought . He tries stalling, but Thundermare and Volcanic Geyser overwhelm him.
G2: This time, Phase manages to sift into Phyrexian Dreadnought and plays it. CounterBurn tries removing it, but Mystic Veil and Vision Charm keep it alive as it bashes CounterBurn to death.
G3: Phyrexian Dreadnought gets countered. Multiple Reality Ripple s slow Thundermare down, but Volcanic Geyser still manages to go for lethal damage.
YODBC13 CounterBurn wins 2-1
September 18, 2013 2 p.m.
Just curious, has Gaea's Light ever gotten any Freewind Falcon on the board? I keep wondering if the pro red would come into any of the matches.
fluffybunnypants says... #2
One of my favorite decks coming right up!
August 20, 2013 2:26 p.m.