Argothian Treehouse

with Andy Van Zandt

Extended Stuff

Ok, everyone's all up in arms about the current extended season,  demanding
emergency bannings and the like.  I, personally, am tired of them banning
mana sources/cards which put things out cheaper rather than the problem
cards,  and basically I think that's what would end up happening in this
case.  So I want to play in a few of the qualifiers while I can,  partially
because I think there's still potential for innovation,  and partially
because even if there's not,  how often do you get to play decks that
consistently go off turn 3, outside of type 1?  fun fun fun!

So here's the deck I want to try out first,  before defaulting to just
modifying an existing deck:  Lightning greaves suicide black.  This idea I
like for several reasons.  1- lightning greaves is one of my favorite new
cards.  It makes every creature into an untargettable green creature, PLUS
haste.  Any creature can be a pincher beetle with haste!  yay!  2- you get
to play hand disruption.  I like duress.  3-when negator is untargettable
AND hasty,  you've shored up 98% of his drawbacks.  4- I like playing
tutors.  I feel they give a lot of decks redundancy/consistency that they
need.  Vampiric tutor is, of course, one of the best for this.

Now keep in mind that I haven't played a single game of post-mirrodin
extended,  so everything, like most magic for me, starts out purely
theoretical.  Here's my rudimentary decklist:

4 lightning greaves
4 vampiric tutor
4 duress
4 unmask
4 cabal therapy
4 phyrexian negator
4 bane of the living
4 grinning demon
1 mutilate
1 damping matrix
1 hatred
1 promise of power
1 masticore
1 loxodon warhammer

3 city of traitors
3 ancient tomb
3 peat bog
13 swamp

Now to explain a couple more concepts-  the bane of the livings are 4 mana 4
power creatures,  which is indeed (despite being efficient) slower than I'd
like.  However,  I think they're kind of necessary in order not to scoop to
goblin decks.  The warhammer (which also may seem out of place) also helps
this match, plus it turns the bane into a 3 turn clock, gives grinning demon
trample, AND it recoups some of your lost life...  and this deck should lose
you a lot of life.  It may turn out the deck needs two or three to not kill
itself.  It may also turn out that it's a dead card too often (at 6 mana
total to generate an in-game effect) and need to be dropped for say, another
promise of power (or two, or three).  Promise I can see needing to be in
multiples as well,  because it provides two things (dual purpose,  not
expecting to entwine them):  a flier, which the deck doesn't have otherwise,
and a refuel of cards.  However, it is fairly pricey, and may end up costing
you  a third of your life for 5 cards (if you're running on an ancient
tomb).  Mask of memory, as dumb as it sounds, may be a better choice for
this.  I just feel gimpy putting so much equipment in a deck...  maybe
because I'm still used to creature enhancers being bad card economy.

I've already been told "turn 6 kills are too slow",  but I contend that each
piece of hand disruption -should- buy you an extra turn.  I think in a lot
of cases, if you use two pieces during the first couple of turns, it should
put tinker decks into topdecking mode, while you hopefully start going to
work about their head and shoulders with a fatty.  That's the theory at
least.  Now to try it out...  and if anyone wants to give me some input, or
try it out themselves and tell me how it's worked for them, feel free to
shoot me an email.
 

You can reach Andy at: andyvanzandt@hotmail.com