[Primer] RW Artifact Control aka "Boros Kitty"

[zemanjaski]

Ah sorry.

Affinity is even to favourable, depending on their config. It certainly isn't bad.

Will look into the MBC hate card your recommended, thanks!!

[zemanjaski]

DromarX says Circle of Protection: Black plus the Gargoyle loop should be enough. Will test.

[zemanjaski]

Anyway, 8-0.

[magicdownunder]

DromarX says Circle of Protection: Black plus the Gargoyle loop should be enough. Will test.

I don't think Circle stops Loss of Life (can you confirm this), Gargoyle loop is good though.

[zemanjaski]

I'll need to test it on MODO, I suck at rules questions But yeah, if it works, you lock them out with Circle then just infinite recursion to kill them.

[hamfactorial]

Z:

I'll be home to test those changes tomorrow, but I like them. I have that same mana base right now, for whatever that's worth

With more Gargoyles, Looting and Atog become better, so I'm excited to test.

Did you ever feel like you need more direct damage? My inclusion of 2 Burst Lightning might be influenced by unfamiliarity with the format.

[zemanjaski]

I'm usually ok for spot removal. I did like having 3 Electrickey in the board though.

It's better to be conservative with removal; even a deck like Elves or WW only have a couple of targets worth killing; everything else gets stuck behind your 2/3s. I was definitely more aggressive with removal early in play testing while learning the format though. That's not to say more removal is bad; but creatures are typically removal that can win the game, so I prefer that.

Atog is ridic.

[hamfactorial]

I keep looking at Perilous Myr as a reusable Shock in a deck full of Atogs and Gargoyles. I will see if 4 Galvanic Blast and 4 Lightning Bolt is enough direct removal and run a few Myrs to test.

[zemanjaski]

Just to check, you're running 4 Journey to Nowhere?

[DarthStabber]

I keep looking at Perilous Myr as a reusable Shock in a deck full of Atogs and Gargoyles. I will see if 4 Galvanic Blast and 4 Lightning Bolt is enough direct removal and run a few Myrs to test.

At that point you may as well sleeve up burn, it's easy to do in pauper, and a pretty good deck in it's own right.

Either way I think I'm going to stick with mono-G infect, but my question is what are you going to do to deal with infect?

[zemanjaski]

Infect is pretty much the same as Stompy. So you beat it the same way. Just main phase all removal instead of being cute and play very conservatively intil you run them out of resources.

[hamfactorial]

Just to check, you're running 4 Journey to Nowhere?

Yes sir

[DarthStabber]

Infect is pretty much the same as Stompy. So you beat it the same way. Just main phase all removal instead of being cute and play very conservatively intil you run them out of resources.

You know I had not honestly considered infect to be all that similar to stompy (I considered it to be more like burn only all your burn required an unblocked creature), but I see the parallel. Actually though stompy has a much higher threat density than infect. Infect is generally running 12-16 total, as opposed to stompy's 28+.

[zemanjaski]

This deck is bananas. I have a screenshot vs. GW tokens of me killing 20+ creatures with an Electrickery.

Sanctum Gargoyle chains <3

[Jack]

...are almost as fun as Kor Skyfisher chains <3

[zemanjaski]

Adding a 3rd Gargoyle upgraded them from "bad Skyfisher" to "1 mana overcosted Skyfisher (fine) to sometimes busted".

There is no interaction Skyfisher has as powerful as Gargoyle return Gargoyle.

Deck just feels a lot better now.

[hamfactorial]

With 3 looting and 3 gargoyles, I'd want the 21st land. Is 20 working out with the card draw?

[zemanjaski]

Most of the time. I'm not against 21 land, but I find that I usually have enough draw to get to 4 in a reasonable time. After ~30 matches I'm ok with 20+ 2 Mycosynth, which is probably about as good as 22 land. Even if you stall, you've got mostly 1-2 cost cards anyway.

[hamfactorial]

I put the 2 Mycosynth back in, which might hedge against screw. Will test extensively <3

[zemanjaski]

If nothing else, they really fuel Looting late, and it's nice when your Gargoyle returns a draw 2. It's got to be better than Elsewhere Flask in the stock list.

[zemanjaski]

Look forward to your notes!!

[Jack]

This deck is just so awesome. I don't know why, but I just almost never lose with it. Maybe it's just that Pauper players on Cockatrice are really bad (more so than the ones in the competitive rooms), or that nobody really thinks, tests and innovates in that format as much as we're doing right now (not likely, but possible, since it can get stagnant at times), but this deck has been a huge boost to my confidence as a player.

[zemanjaski]

It's both. I know three of the "elite" pauper players.

Mezzel ~ 1700 rated player
DromarX ~ 1750 member of FOS
Cweaver ~ 1650 former FOS member

They're good players, but those are very low ratings for the better players in a format.

Also most lists I see aren't good, like MUC running Brainstorm and Spellstutter Sprite; both of which suck in the format. Also Ninja is terrible. So many blowouts when they Unsummon their Delver for it on turn 2 and I bolt it; WTF.

The only other deck is play is MUC and it wouldn't look anything like the decks that see play.

[zemanjaski]

Gorilla Shaman is a joke. Turn 4, blow up 3 lands you say??

[zemanjaski]

Maybe 5 mountain, 3 plains? You never need turn 1 white.

[Jack]

Definitely should be swayed towards red. You only need white for your creatures, and you pretty much only play them if you have an artifact out, and 6 of your artifacts fix your colors for you.

[zemanjaski]

Agree. I fucking love this deck now.

[zemanjaski]

Went 3-0 in an 8-man for testing tonight:

2-0 vs MUC
2-0 vs the mirror (he was using the standard list with Crossroads, Rebirth etc; but no Journey and more burn. Atog got him both games)
2-0 vs Mono Green Stompy

Not much to report, deck ran well and all the parts interacted well together. Did kill someone from 19 with 2 Galvanic Blast into sac. everything to Atog, which was fun.

[hamfactorial]

I take it back, Mycosynth Wellspring is a great addition to the deck

I ran this to a 4-0 record in 2-mans tonight -

[deck]
Lands:21
4 Boros Guildgate
4 Great Furnace
4 Ancient Den
6 Mountain
3 Plains

Creatures:14
4 Glint Hawk
4 Kor Skyfisher
3 Atog
3 Sanctum Gargoyle

Artifacts:10
4 Ichor Wellspring
4 Prophetic Prism
2 Mycosynth Wellspring

Enchantments:4
4 Journey to Nowhere

Instants and Sorceries:11
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Galvanic Blast
3 Burst Lightning

Sideboard:15
4 Pyroblast
2 Circle of Protection: Black
2 Circle of Protection: Green
3 Circle of Protection: Red
2 Gorilla Shaman
2 Electrickery[/deck]

Won in matches against UR DelverFiend, GW Auras, GW Hexproof and MBC.

Highlight of the evening was holding off a 15/15 Slippery Bogle with a single Atog and a field full of
artifacts while he died to Glint Hawks and EOT burn.

[zemanjaski]

Hahaha those Circle of Protections!

I am running COP: Black in my board and an extra Gorilla Shaman; at -1 COP:Red and -2 Kor Sanctifiers.

[hamfactorial]

COP: Green is the best way I've found to deal with Hexproof Auras, since their dudes are all green and I can't deal with all the enchantments.

I'm basically splashing pillow fort

[zemanjaski]

Its probably better than my Celestial Purge. COP: Red shuts out the Kiln Fiend deck hard enough anyway.

[hamfactorial]

Circle of Protection: Green doesn't target, so it gets around hexproof like a champ. It's vulnerable to disenchant effects, which the GW decks usually pack.

I ran up against a MBC deck in the 2-mans just now and found that my COP: Black didn't do a lot against him since most of their spells were targeted creature removal and I could easily kill whatever creature he did manage to stick. Will consider cutting the COP: Black entirely or running as a singleton.

[DarthStabber]

Why not run disenchant yourself? It's not quite as strong against hexproof, but it packs serious utility for a lot of match ups. It has play against affinity, it gets rid of jace's erasure, it blows things up in the mirror, and more.

[hamfactorial]

I don't have a good handle on the format yet, so I don't know what I might face in a typical game. A narrow effect like Disenchant doesn't seem as good on paper until I become more familiar with the meta.

[DarthStabber]

In pauper disenchant is less narrow than you might think. Look at the popularity of shatter effects, and extapolate that to include enchantments. I'm enjoying [card]nature's claim[/card] in infect, and until I got ahold of them I was getting plenty of utility from naturalize.

[zemanjaski]

Kor Sanctifiers...

[hamfactorial]

Kor Sanctifiers was fine, but getting 1 use out of them vs. Hexproof was making me teh sadz

[DarthStabber]

Expensive, does what you need, but costs twice as much. Maybe i'm being overly sensitive to costs, considering I play mostly aggro.

[hamfactorial]

High variance morning, I kept blanking on my draws against an Affinity deck and a GW Hexproof Auras deck. My COP: Red was nowhere to be seen vs. him Flinging an Atog, and my Gorilla Shamans were also absent vs. his board full of artifact lands.

Drew 30 cards in the hexproof match and no COP: Greens.

Still love the deck though