Deckbuilding for interesting formats

[Simon O'Keeffe]

Hi all,

Both Glenn and I qualified for the XGL end of year invitational happening next weekend in Colchester. Unfortunately I can't attend but thought that the formats were interesting and might scratch some deckbuilding urges for those who want to try their hand. Formats are:

15-card Standard Highlander - players must have decks of 15 cards and a sideboard of 3 or 0 cards. Players may only have 1 copy of any standard legal card in their deck and sideboard. The banned list is as follows:

Mind Funeral, Hedron Crab, Archive Trap, Sadistic Sacrament, Memory Erosion, Tome Scour.

Standard Rainbow Stairwell - players must have a constructed deck of 56 cards consisting of the following:

20 basic land (4 of each)
6 of each coloured card (White, Blue, Black, Red, Green)
6 artifacts

Each set of 6 coloured/artifacts must consist of mana costs of 1 - 6 e.g. white could be 1: Elite Vanguard, 2: Kor Skyfisher, 3: Devout Lightcaster, 4: Day of Judgment, 5: Baneslayer Angel, 6: Felidar Sovreign.

There are no banned cards for this format.

Have a crack at constructing some decks, I'm sure Glenn will appreciate the help as he is on holiday most of this week and will have little time to build something.

[Tom Reeve]

Only problem is that Cobra is going to die 100% of the time against any red or black deck, while blue decks will probably have things like Negate and Flashfreeze for your big spells :(

Warren Vonk said:

It seems Lotus Cobra might actually have a place here... (brainstorming)

Saclands
Basics
Noble Hierarch
Lotus Cobra
Harrow
Kalni Expedition
Violent Ultimatum
Baneslayer
Jwar Jwar Sphinx
Inkwell Leviathan
Chandra (the new one)

[Dan Barrett]

Disappointed but unsurprised decking is not an optional, until i saw that i had a nice little U/R brew involving Jace, Call to Heel, Burning Inquiry, Howling Mine, Reckless Scholar, etc

[Simon O'Keeffe]

Dan Barrett said:

Disappointed but unsurprised decking is not an optional, until i saw that i had a nice little U/R brew involving Jace, Call to Heel, Burning Inquiry, Howling Mine, Reckless Scholar, etc

Well decking doesn't mean you lose, but milling away someones library very quickly can leave them with only half a deck to use, so you might well have something there. Still have to kill them, so maybe a Jwar Isle Sphinx

Hmm started to build something, but not sure there is any other draw/discard cards like Burning Inquiry you can use early enough to make a difference.

[Simon O'Keeffe]

A few more ideas:

RW Planeswalker

Ajani Vengeant
Elspeth
Chandra Nalaar
Luminarch Ascension
Lightning Bolt
Burst Lightning
Oblivion Ring
Path to Exile

Jungle Shrine
2 Mountain
3 Plains
Gargoyle Castle

SB. Pithing Needle, Relic of Progenitus, Baneslayer/Worldqueller?


A Jund like anti-control deck:

Duress
Blightning
Mind Rot
Lightning Bolt
Terminate
Maelstrom Pulse
Chandra Nalaar
Broodmate Dragon

Savage Lands
Dragonskull Summit
Rootbound Crag
3 Swamp
1 Mountain

SB. Pithing Needle, Relic of Progenitus, ????

Or blue control?

Spell Pierce
Negate
Essence Scatter
Mind Control
Path to Exile
Oblivion Ring

Elspeth
Sphinx Jwar Isle

Glacial Fortress
Gargoyle Castle
3 Island
2 Plains

SB. Pithing Needle, Relic of Progenitus, ????

[Nick Lovett]

Needs more Obelisk of Alara - Bolas might be too much as you need 8 lands to play him, although stealing their Baneslayer seems sooo much fun!

[Charlie Grover]

Mind control, planeswalkers, and discard all seem really good in this format. Some deck with blightning, mind rot, nyxathid, and removal spells feels nice. Liliana doubles up interestingly as a discard spell and a way to break stalemates :S

[wv]

WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?!?!!?

That Ginger One said:

Mind control, planeswalkers, and discard all seem really good in this format. Some deck with blightning, mind rot, nyxathid, and removal spells feels nice. Liliana doubles up interestingly as a discard spell and a way to break stalemates :S