Sleeper Rare??

[Gary Lynch]

Its looking like control is going to be a thing in standard, this leads me to believe that Slaughter Games could be a sleeper rare. They are currently 99 cents on Starcitygames and could play a big part in control mirrors.

 

I can easily see adding black to my deck just for 4 of these out of the sideboard. Its uncounterable so you can just strip all your opponents win conditions.

 

I wouldnt be surprised if this happens before Gatecrash but I feel pretty sure it will when the next set of duals come out.

 

What do people think?

 

If I am right and it does become a staple for control mirrors how high can it go? My guess would be $5 max but probably about $4.

[Thomas David Baker]

Uncounterable Cranial Extraction seems like a tool against a combo deck with counterspells.  In the control mirror don't you want something more like Mind Games/Identity Crisis?

[Gary Lynch]

Rakdos Return could be the answer, deals damage as well as hitting their hand.

 

It seems most control decks are not running a lot of ways to win though and hitting 2 Slaughter Games could leave your opponent with 0 win conditions.

 

I guess if people start using it other control decks will just run a bunch of 1 of's to get around it but how many win cons dont die to Supreme Verdict?

[Peter Dun]

no

EDIT: sorry, let me explain. this card costs 4 mana, traditional counterspell decks are very very poor in this metagame, and the way control decks will win is via lots of removal + card advantage engines (preferably not planeswalkers due to dreadbore). unless you are advocating using slaughter games vs. card advantage engines, I don't see how this can work. I expect that the real sleeper cards are Staff of Nin and Underworld Connections, however, I wouldn't go out and buy 50 of them.

[Russell Davies]

The detain enchantment feels like a sleeper to me, if there are few other enchantments besides Sphere and O Ring worth killing, it might have a place, is cheap as chips. It's certainly good versus midrange in conjunction with Supreme Verdict...

Probably too slow for Zombies right now (but deals with Lotleth Troll nicely, in addition to whatever gets the +1/+/1 counters from Dreg Mangler so maybe...) but if midrange that can deal with Zombies surfaces and becomes part of the meta, then maybe.

Also good if control is a large part of the metagame, and is intending to go "over the top" with a big creature to win, like Wurmcoil/Titan used to do... probs not if Armada Wurm becomes everyones' best friend,  though.

[Peter Dun]

as an example for what I think will be the best deck in the format post rotation:

// Lands
    4 [RTR] Overgrown Tomb
    4 [DKA] Evolving Wilds
    4 [AVR] Forest (2)
    12 [AVR] Swamp (3)

// Creatures
    4 [WWK] Arbor Elf
    4 [M13] Thragtusk

// Spells
    4 [M13] Mutilate
    2 [RTR] Vraska the Unseen
    2 [M13] Liliana of the Dark Realms
    1 [M13] Staff of Nin
    1 [ISD] Army of the Damned
    4 [M13] Farseek
    1 [ISD] Liliana of the Veil
    3 [RTR] Underworld Connections
    4 [ISD] Victim of Night
    2 [ISD] Tribute to Hunger
    4 [RTR] Abrupt Decay

// Sideboard
SB: 1 [RTR] Underworld Connections
SB: 4 [RTR] Cremate
SB: 3 [M13] Vampire Nighthawk
SB: 3 [RTR] Lotleth Troll
SB: 4 [M13] Duress

probably 2/2 on ultimate price and victim of night...

[Gary Lynch]

Yeah I am putting 3 Martial Law in my sideboard for the midrange decks. I havent tested it but like you said I think its too slow against Zombies so cant be main deck.

Russell Davies said:

The detain enchantment feels like a sleeper to me, if there are few other enchantments besides Sphere and O Ring worth killing, it might have a place, is cheap as chips. It's certainly good versus midrange in conjunction with Supreme Verdict...

Probably too slow for Zombies right now (but deals with Lotleth Troll nicely, in addition to whatever gets the +1/+/1 counters from Dreg Mangler so maybe...) but if midrange that can deal with Zombies surfaces and becomes part of the meta, then maybe.

Also good if control is a large part of the metagame, and is intending to go "over the top" with a big creature to win, like Wurmcoil/Titan used to do... probs not if Armada Wurm becomes everyones' best friend,  though.

[Gary Lynch]

I kind of want them to ban Thragtusk.

 

Its good against agro because of the life gain and good against control because you get 2 threats. It just seems most decks nowdays should just jam 4 of them in their deck and that seems bad.

Peter Dun said:

as an example for what I think will be the best deck in the format post rotation:

// Lands
    4 [RTR] Overgrown Tomb
    4 [DKA] Evolving Wilds
    4 [AVR] Forest (2)
    12 [AVR] Swamp (3)

// Creatures
    4 [WWK] Arbor Elf
    4 [M13] Thragtusk

// Spells
    4 [M13] Mutilate
    2 [RTR] Vraska the Unseen
    2 [M13] Liliana of the Dark Realms
    1 [M13] Staff of Nin
    1 [ISD] Army of the Damned
    4 [M13] Farseek
    1 [ISD] Liliana of the Veil
    3 [RTR] Underworld Connections
    4 [ISD] Victim of Night
    2 [ISD] Tribute to Hunger
    4 [RTR] Abrupt Decay

// Sideboard
SB: 1 [RTR] Underworld Connections
SB: 4 [RTR] Cremate
SB: 3 [M13] Vampire Nighthawk
SB: 3 [RTR] Lotleth Troll
SB: 4 [M13] Duress

probably 2/2 on ultimate price and victim of night...

[Peter Dun]

he's actually pretty bad vs the UR delver decks and gw aggro/token decks.... I think he's a good card to have in the format, he is trumped by basically every other playable 5 drops out of midrange, but is solid vs the aggro decks and wraths. I like that I have to pick between thragtusk and geist honoured monk in my gw decks for instance

[Thomas David Baker]

Playing against Thragtusk with mono B control he really never scared me.  What I was planning to do a turn or two later was so much bigger and badder that he was just no big deal.  Karn and Griselbrand and Grave Titan all just laugh at Thragtusk.  (Unlike Primeval Titan.)

A lot of chat about Slaughter Games and how that UWR control list rolls over to it ... but I actually suspect they just Tamiyo ultimate on you and beat you anyway if you take all the Entreats.

[Russell Davies]

If people start playing (sideboarding) Slaughter Games, they will just diversify their fat OTT win condition cards into several different ones - doubt it will be a huge deal.

I always found "Cranial Extraction" type cards were only really scary if you were running a combo deck. A control deck, well built, shouldn't really be that worried about it.

[Gary Lynch]

I have seen discussion about Slaughter games elsewhere too, not just that a guy at my local store said he beat 5 people in the GPT last weekend by taking all their win cons with it.

 

Casting Slaughter Games one time wont win you the game, but if you have 3-4 in the side and have Snapcasters you can easy strip the UWR deck of any way of winning. The loss of tempo doesnt matter either as they are generally doing nothing.

 

Its good that I have been thinking about it though because it means I will run a few different win cons in the side incase I face him or someone else on the same plan.

 

The other one to watch out for is Psychic Spiral, apparently last week one guy had ultimated Tamiyo but his opponent kept playing. Eventually he drew his Psychic Spiral and milled the guy out. Dont see people with Tamiyo emblems lose often.

[Dan Barrett]

From Gerry T's analysis of it in the latest SCG newsletter:

Many people have talked about Slaughter Games to beat this deck, and that might work for a week or two. However, don't underestimate the planeswalkers. Each of them has the ability to win the game outright, so it's not like Slaughter Games on Entreat automatically beats you. Clever players will find another good win condition to play as well.