Maindeck: Doomblade vs. Go for the Throat vs. Dismember
Deck Help forum
Posted on Feb. 2, 2012, 9 a.m. by HoneyBadger
You get 6 slots for maindeck kill spells. Your choices are doom blade, go for the throat, and dismember. What numbers of each do you run and why?I have been running 2 of each, but its just a theoretical deck with no field testing and I was thinking of subbing either a doom blade or a go for the throat for a 3rd dismember, giving me a 3,2,1, but I wanted some opinions from people with experience in the current metagame. If it helps, here is the deck they are going indeck:i-hope-you-didnt-want-creatures
edit: I said 3 to 1 because I thought you were going to say 4 slots lol. Never edited it out when I saw 6.
February 2, 2012 9:23 a.m.
Epochalyptik says... #4
Each has obvious limitations, but I'd probably lean toward Go for the Throat. The only threats it can't really hit are Phyrexian Metamorph and Wurmcoil Engine. Doom Blade can kill most Titans, but falters on Grave Titan and some other key creatures (Havengul Lich, Massacre Wurm, Rune-Scarred Demon, Olivia Voldaren). Dismember is good, but it can't deal with Titans at all unless you're willing to sacrifice a chump blocker or you can pay for Olivia to shoot them before/after.
Tragic Slip has a lot of potential in kill spell decks. It has its own limitations, but I think you'll be able to get it to full force rather frequently.
February 2, 2012 9:24 a.m.
Epochalyptik says... #5
As Cableguy said, Geth's Verdict is also good. You shouldn't run all targeted removal because hexproof creatures will wreck your day. Verdict stops Geist of Saint Traft and Invisible Stalker.
February 2, 2012 9:25 a.m.
Exactly in mono black for me it would look like:
3 Doom Blade
3 Geth's Verdict
2 Black sun's zenith
1 tragic slip (maybe 2)
February 2, 2012 9:31 a.m.
rckclimber777 says... #7
I'd go go for the throat over doom blade. as Epochalyptik said it has more versatility in general. Then I'd probably go with 2x geth's verdict maybe 1 tragic slip. So 3x go for the throat.
Doom blade isn't bad but lots of people are running black especially with esper control and undying pod coming out.
February 2, 2012 10:44 a.m.
Doom blade still targets more meta than go for the throat if not just for tempered steel decks and that random wurmcoil
February 2, 2012 11:19 a.m.
rckclimber777 says... #10
doom blade can certainly take care of an artifact creature, but typically you'll want a board wipe for a tempered steel deck. tbh the only card I would use doom blade for that I couldn't use gftt on would be wurmcoil. Just my opinion though. Granted I run 2 doom blades and 2 gftt in my esper blade deck anyway lol
February 2, 2012 11:53 a.m.
Now, come tomarrow when DKA is legal I would use more go for the throat :P
February 2, 2012 12:50 p.m.
At most, I would run 2x Dismember. It doesn't kill titans, and you rarely want to run into 2x. The life loss really hurts. :/
February 2, 2012 1:26 p.m.
MasterFlinter says... #13
Not that the situation comes up a lot anymore but Go for the Throat is also immune to Spellskite. Dismember is great when you are fighting decks that rely on only a few threats, like Delver, but with the meta becoming a little more aggro-ish I'm going to stick with other options.
February 2, 2012 2:55 p.m.
HoneyBadger says... #15
Thanks for the insight guys, it was all very helpful!
I never really gave Geth's Verdict much credit as a viable kill spell as I've never made a deck were almost everything but the lands can kill a creature (if they have 2 creatures, the spell loses a lot of it's value). But let's be honest, if you look at the decklist, the likelihood of them having more than one creature for very long is quite low.
But geth's verdict gives me an answer to Thrun, the Last Troll in the early game. Besides geth's verdict, I would have to hope for my only Phyrexian Metamorph, stack 2 Whipflares (which I'd hate to do as that would kill most of my own creatures) or wait for Balefire Dragon to start swinging (which can be as early as turn 5, but that requires Urabrask the Hidden and Heartless Summoning to be on the board, which isn't too often).
So here's my new removal spell list (excluding my creatures, which are almost all removal spells in their own right)
2x Dismember (takes down indestructible)
2x Go for the Throat (I have Manic Vandal if artifacts are troubling me, but fewer options vs black creatures)
1x Doom Blade
1x Geth's Verdict (indestructible & hexproof removal)
2x Whipflare (for geist, stalker, and tokens)
1x Slagstorm (for when whipflare doesn't work, though I prefer whipflare as it doesn't threaten as many of my own creatures)
3x Galvanic Blast <- Not sure if I like this one as much, but its nice for turn 1 removal, which I otherwise lack and can be combined with dismember to take down 6-7 power creatures)
I thought Tragic Slip was interesting, I might throw one in in place of a galvanic blast to try it out, but I don't think it will be consistently useful, but who knows...
Cableguy says... #2
usually 3 to 1
3 Doom Blade
3 Geth's Verdict
February 2, 2012 9:22 a.m.