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03.08.04  -  Louis's Bloodshot Cyclops Deck

 

Welcome to this weeks installment of Jason’s Deck Garage. I am your host Jason and hope that you find yourself doing well today. I will be helping out a player with a casual deck and then will follow it up with a type 2 Tourney report from my local store. For those of you that have been reading the deck garage over the last few weeks you will have the surprise that I will not have a rant for this article. For those of you that aren’t regulars to the deck garage check out my previous articles for the nuggets of knowledge that I call rants. When you get thru with reading the deck fix don’t forget to read the tournament report that I thru in as an extra. Remember to send you deck for fixes and questions to me at pojojason@hotmail.com So on to the deck fix.

This is the email from Louis Park that I received this week.

Alright, I just started magic because my friend got me very hooked onto it. He built me a deck and told me to work on it. We came up with a Bloodshot Cyclops deck. Point is to do direct damage. Reviews, Criticisms (none taken, just want to know), and how to build a better deck ideas are thankfully accepted. Now, on to the deck

Mountain - 20
Bloodshot Cyclops - 4
Thran Dynamo - 4
Worn Powerstone - 4
Pyroclasm - 4
Jeska, Warrior adept - 2
Avatar of Fury - 3
Skizzik - 3
Mogg Fanatic - 4
Kamahl, Pit Fighter - 2
Lifeline - 4
Cave - In - 2
Lightning Dragon/Lithopage/Keldon Vandals - 4

Plz review my deck and tell me what I should add/take out.

Your Fellow Magic Player - Louis Park

----

Okay here is the deck list that I came up with that I would play. I tried to keep the deck as close to the original as possible so the theme of the deck could be kept.

Casual Red Version 2

19 Mountains

4 Ghitu Encampment

4 Bloodshot Cyclops

2 Jeska the Warrior Adept

2 Kamahl Pit Fighter

4 Ball Lightning

4 Mogg Fanatic

4 Grim Lavamancer

3 Skizzik

4 Fireblast

4 Seal of Fire

4 Lightning Bolt

2 Shock

Things that I added and why. The curve on the deck is a lot better now and will give you more early game spells and late game finishers.

+4 Ghitu Encampment

This card is just plain fun. It doubles as a creature and a land. The first strike ability is a great benefit. When running red sligh I always ran them.

+4 Ball Lightning

The original there are no substitutes kick in the butt red creature. It supplies you with a great surprise attack and can supply you with fuel for the Grim Lavamancers.

+4 Grim Lavamancer

A great creature that can deal damage in the late game and kill creatures that get in your way. He can be a great finisher.

+4 Fireblast

In a casual red deck this card is just a smashing. The alternate casting cost allows you to get in that extra punch. It also kills a lot of those larger creatures.

+4 Seal of Fire and +4 Lightning Bolt +2 shock

These three different cards are amazing for red decks and can kill your opponents as well as their creatures. The instant speed kill of Lightning Bolt and shock can just blast your opponents out of existence.

Well that’s all there is for this week and I hope that this will help you out Louis. Don’t forget that as a bonus this week you get a tournament report. Remember to send you decklist and magic questions to pojojason@hotmail.com and I will try to get back with you as best I can.

 ----

Game Closet Sunday Tournament Report

The Sunday tournament we hold at the Game Closet is a testing ground that the our team uses to test are deck in a more realistic tournament environment other than just play testing on our own. We find that it helps to have Dci points on the line and prizes up for grabs. This weekend the attendance was low and we had only had the minimum of 8 to pay with. With only eight players it would be three rounds of swiss followed by top four finals.

Here is the deck list I used.

Zvi Goblin Bidding

4 Gempalm Incinerator

1 Goblin Grappler

4 Goblin Piledriver

4 Goblin Sharpshooter

4 Goblin Sledder

4 Goblin Warchief

4 Siege-Gang Commander

4 Skirk Prospector

4 Patriarch's Bidding

4 Skullclamp

4 Bloodstained Mire

3 City of Brass

1 Forest

3 Mirrodin’s Core

7 Mountain

2 Swamp

3 Wooded Foothills

 

4 Naturalize

2 Pulse of the Forge

3 Pyroclasm

3 Eltro Static Bolt

3 Terror

Round 1

Lorenzo Porter

Memnarch Affintiy

Game 1

Lorenzo wins the die roll. He is one of our local players that is just starting to get a real feel for the game and is experimenting with using Memnarch. I get a very slow start with a Goblin Sledder followed by a Goblin Piledriver. Mean while Lorenzo slows me down with a Isochron Scepter imprinted to Mana Leak and accelerates into Mry Enforcers and Frogmites as well as numerous Aether Spellbombs. I get a Siege-Gang Commander down only to have it bounced and after replaying a goblin or two Lorenzo gets a Memnarch in play and tries to steel my Goblin Warchief but I sac it to a Goblin Prospector so I wont take two damage and it will hopefully fuel a Patriarchs Bidding. Unfortunately I don’t draw the bidding and even if I did he had me at four life and it was enough that my four blockers couldn’t stop him.

Sideboard out: 4 Skullclamp, 1 Siege GangCommander, 1 Goblin SharpShooter, 1 Goblin Grappler

Sideboard in: 4 Naturalize, 3 Electrostatic bolt

Game 2

I get a fair start with a couple of land while he plays a Pyrite Spellbomb followed by a second Pyrite Spellbomb. I play a Goblin Warchief send it for two and watch it die the next turn to one of the spell bombs. I untapped and played another Warchief and ran it thru the red zone for another two and watched it die on the next turn also. I know this seem like a strange idea to most but I like to deal with board threats like the Pyrite Spellbombs right away and I was holding a Patriarchs bidding. Things slowed down a little but I get a draw and play the freshly drawn Goblin Piledriver and Gempalm Incinerator who on the next turn send for five. From there it’s a simple Patriachs bidding and then I win.

Sideboard Changes NOne

Game 3

This game is just plain unfair as all my opponent gets going is a couple of aether spell bombs and dies to the goblin rush. Poor guy only drew a single blocker and it died to Goblin Sharpshooter.

Matches 1-0 Games 2-1

Round 2

Carl Tamez(the evil one)

White Weenie

Carl is a team mate of mine and I know his deck fairly well and it is a goblin players nightmare. There are only a total of eight men in the tournament and I offer to draw with him because I know that my deck is extremely bad against his build. He laughs and away we go. He wins the roll and proceeds to show me the back of his hand by playing Silver night on turn 2 and silver knight on turn three I manage to overwelm him but he did have a bad draw other than the double silver knight.

I offer him the draw again and he actually considers it. But declines after I finish side boarding. As you can tell after reading my side boarding for this game you can tell I lost my mind.

Sideboard out: Goblin Grappler, 2 Siege-Gang commander, forest, 2 Patriarchs Biddings.

Sideboard in: Three Terrors, Three Pyroclasm

Whats that you say? I didn’t side in the naturalizes when white players obviously play cards like Circle of Protection red. Yeah I lost my mind in this game.

Game Two

The only thing I am going to talk about in this match is the fact that Carl is the devil and he should be burned like a witch. He keeps a one land hand played a land on turn one missed a land drop on turn two because he drew a Silver Knight. On turn three he played a land and a silver knight. On Turn four he played a land another silver knight. Turn four he played a land and a Glorius Anthem. Now I know your thinking what did you play Jason. Well I played a lot of goblins but couldn’t send into the Silver knights. when the Anthem hit he started sending and I did the same. I wondered why he was letting me send but on his turn five he played worship and I started wondering how I was going to draw one of the naturalizes that was in my Sideboard from where I lost my mind. Then he plays a Dawn Elemental and I am dead as dead can be.

Sideboard in: 4 Naturalize, forest

Sideboard out. 3 Pyroclasm out two other cards that were irrelevant.

Game Three

See game two but needless to say I wasn’t a happy camper and really wish Carl had taken the draw.

 

Matches 1-1 Games 3-3

Round Three

Scott Bovee

White Weenie

Well life is just grand. I have been helping Scott tune his deck and its got alll the usual suspects to make my life heck but what are you going to do. I sit down shuffle up and away we go. Scott gets a decent draw an plays a couple of creatures while I play a Warchief then a Piledrive and Sledder on the next turn dropping him to 13. He cast a pacifism on my piledriver and I have to sit back while he hold back with a silver knight and other dude. I then drops a anthem followed by a Dawn Elemental and I realize he can kill me on the next turn. I drop a siege gang and send in to his team put five damage on the stack from unblocked guys and shoot him four times with siege gang commander and actually end up with nothing on my side of the board when he dies.

Sideboard in 4 Naturalize 3 Terror

Sideboard out: 4 Skullclamp and three other cards my notes don’t say which

Game 2

This game is all about one mistake. I had a board position where I could have sent my team to drive him down to 8 and didn’t for fear of losing my Goblin Warchief. On the next turn I draw up land five and could have cast bidding for the win but I didn’t so I lost the game.

No side board changes.

Game three

This game I really don’t have much to say but I played a turn two Goblin Warchief and he played a turn two White Knight and we traded damage turn after turn and I killed his team with my terrors and Siege gang commanders then it was sharpshotter to the dome and he lost.

Matches 2-1 Games 5-4

With only eight people in the tournament we went into the finals with a top four.

So I go to see who I am going to play and low and behold it’s the evil one Carl Tamez. I swear I could here the theme to the Good the Bad and the Ugly playing in the background as I walked to the table.

Semifinals Game one

I play turn one prospector followed by turn 2 Warchief and send for 2 damage. Next turn I send for 2 damage again. Turn 4 I send a Siege gang in with the Warchief and drop him to 7 and he finally has blocker after I drop him to 2 on the next turn he untaps and cast Wrath of God. Yes I said Wrath of God in the main deck. I sit there stunned and look at the Patriarchs Bidding in hand and think surely I will draw another land so I can win. Heck no I am playing Carl the devil Tamez. Sometimes this game drives me crazy.

I sideboard while telling Carl I might just have to beat him with his crutches if I lose like that again. He laughs and wonder if he realizes I might just might catch him in the parking lot. Hes a team mate so Im allowed to beat him.

I sideboard correctly this time

Game two

This game I didn’t really keep track of what happened because Carl got land screwed and never got to more than two land. I killed around turn 8.

Game Three

I played turn two Piledriver followed by turn three Warchief and sent Carl down to 15. The next turn I drew a third Piledriver and played both to send for 23 damage but Carl is already packing and go into the finals.

Matches 3-1 Games 7-5

Finals

Shawn Moon

Elves

Well Shawn had to leave early so he just quits and goes home so I get the win and most people know that this matchup favors the Goblin Player. Well all and all the tournament was a low attendance and played three white weenie matches that was really a pain. I had fun but would wish that on any goblin player.

 

 

Pojo.com

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