Home Editorial Balance Magic 2014 Deck Pack 1 delivers “Unfinished Business” and “Bounce and Boon”...

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Just when you were getting bored of having only 13 ways to lose to Avacyn’s Glory, Wizards of the Coast comes to the rescue with two brand new decks. Deck Pack 1, which releases on all platforms next week (see dates below) will give players the option of either Dimir-fueled reanimation hijinks or an ETB-based bounce machine.

Below, you’ll find the full deck list for the blue/black deck Unfinished Business. Stay tuned for the Bounce and Boon decklist!

 

Magic 2014 Duels of the Planeswalkers Deck Pack 1 Announcement

Unfinished Business

Wake the dead! The creatures of the blue and black “Unfinished Business” deck refuse to rest in peace. Your spells will bring them back from beyond the grave to exact vengeance against your enemies.

Bounce and Boon

…keeps your opponents on their heels with a constant stream of life gain and battlefield manipulation. Summon creatures that enter the battlefield with a bang—then summon them again and again! I’ll post the decklist here in the forums tomorrow!

Magic 2014 – Deck Pack 1 will roll out across all platforms accordingly:

  • PSN (North America) – November 5
  • Steam – November 6
  • Android (Amazon & Google app stores) – November 6
  • iPad (Apple App Store) – November 6
  • PSN (Europe) – November 6
  • PSN (Asia/Japan) – November 7

 

Unfinished Business decklist

Deck Unlocks

  1. Reanimate
  2. Doom Blade
  3. Cerulean Sphinx
  4. Windfall
  5. Accumulated Knowledge
  6. Undermine
  7. Extractor Demon
  8. Fool’s Demise
  9. Dimir Doppelganger
  10. Accumulated Knowledge
  11. Silent-Blade Oni
  12. Body Double
  13. Gather Specimens
  14. Consult the Necrosages
  15. Diabolic Tutor
  16. Decree of Pain
  17. Victimize
  18. Oona’s Prowler
  19. Accumulated Knowledge
  20. Doomed Necromancer
  21. Wrexial, the Risen Deep
  22. Reanimate
  23. Undermine
  24. Accumulated Knowledge
  25. Tidespout Tyrant
  26. River Kelpie
  27. Doomed Necromancer
  28. See Beyond
  29. Living Death
  30. Ghastlord of Fugue

Promo Unlocks

 

Bounce and Boon decklist

Deck Unlocks

  1. Dust Elemental
  2. Urbis Protector
  3. Goldnight Redeemer
  4. Kemba’s Skyguard
  5. Archon of Redemption
  6. Ancestor’s Chosen
  7. Flickerwisp
  8. Urbis Protector
  9. Blade Splicer
  10. Light from Within
  11. Sun Titan
  12. Ancestor’s Chosen
  13. Kemba’s Skyguard
  14. Proper Burial
  15. Mantle of Leadership
  16. Flickerwisp
  17. Solemn Simulacrum
  18. Welkin Guide
  19. Valor
  20. Myojin of Cleansing Fire
  21. Oblation
  22. Flickerwisp
  23. Proper Burial
  24. Court Street Denizen
  25. Cathars’ Crusade
  26. Goldnight Redeemer
  27. Urbis Protector
  28. Light from Within
  29. Ancestor’s Chosen
  30. Sunblast Angel

Promo Unlocks

  1. Sun Titan
  2. Sunblast Angel
  3. Myojin of Cleansing Fire
  4. Archon of Redemption
  5. Dust Elemental
  6. Cathars’ Crusade
  7. Valor
  8. Ancestor’s Chosen
  9. Restoration Angel
  10. Solemn Simulacrum
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59 replies to this post

  2. So, in order to combat the “remove everything” deck that dominatrixes DotP14 right now, Wizards plans to introduce a deck focused on slight self mill and reanimation, in a format where non-destroy removal is about as plentiful as nun cleavage shots?
    FUCKING GENIUS! Worked with putting in removal spam to combat the weenie decks which ran rampant through a sweeperless environment, too, right? And once it’s winter, the snakes will die. Simple as that.

    Oh well. I’ll probably end up going back on my word, but I’m absolutely calling dibs on Unfinished Business. Because shotgun rights.

  3. Sooo a 3rd attempt at Dimir and they still manage to make something… Odd… Actually looks pretty good without being OP. Hopefully giving Lords of Darkness and Dodge and Burn a tough time.

    I’m calling it now, similar problems as Masks but not as big of a problem; decent card draw with decent discard but only ‘really’ effective at turns 6-8+ without a lot to get it there (if you’re unable to pull off some recurring tricks). The big plus side over Masks I’d say is the recurring effects with its good card draw, effectively being able to pull out some big guys by turns 2-3. Looks like Dimir and Liliana fused together, I was wondering where Living Death went.

    Fool’s Demise is going to play its part this time I see. Yay 1 Cutpurse made it through I can stop bitching. Doppelganger seems pretty cool and good. A slightly better Mindleech Mass too. Doomed Necromancer, can’t miss out that one, can serve as an infinite blocker too so to speak. The one I’m looking forward to the most is Oona’s Prowler but of course “There can be only one.” Couple other cool combos to pull off which should be interesting to see.

    Good luck stealing wins via cheating death guys (literally). Can’t wait.

    • The problem is, U/B played right is INSANE. There’s plenty of meanieness to be had in both colours, making it easy to make the game plain not fun if Dimir gets the upper hand. Of course, being a major dick to everybody is kind of Dimir philosophy.

      That’s why I’m near certain that Wizards is VERY careful on its balancing. Of course, that I say with a tournament-level rush deck and one with TWENTY sweepers already in the game.
      If nothing else, you get demon ninja. DEMON. NINJA. Just savour that for a moment.

  6. I’m a little put off by the new Dimir deck-it’s a little too odd for my tastes, though I’ll probably play it for a few days, figure out how it works, and make my DnB kill it easy or figure out some way to make EtD work so that I can smirk as Jund Charm goes off and the tears roll down your face… priceless. The Bounce and Boon seemed weird until I saw that it has 4 Soul Warden at the start, 2 Solemn Simaculrum and a goshdarn Duplicant. A Duplicant, one of my favorite cards of all time. This is going to be fun… and Toraka, Myr Battlesphere does fit. Imagine having 2 Soul Warden in play… yeah, 10 life for playing it. Then bounce it for another 10 life, and a 12/7 Battlesphere upon attacking. I’m just curious why they decided not to use Devout Invocation when it’s in almost every other white deck that they have.
    But, BnB should have been U/W, and UB could have been fun as B/U/G. Alas, my wishes for a B/U/G reanimator go unfulfilled.

    • This is why we can’t have fun things!

      On second thought, agreed. Hell, even without bouncing you’d get an 8/7 that Slashes your opponent directly to the face. I just want to see it in a Myr deck which makes it 24/7, I suppose.
      The deck has a lot of bomb ETBs, the only question is whether it’ll manage to stay alive long enough to use them. You can’t always have 3 Soul Wardens. Thinking back of what dickery Karn did with Duplicant back in the day though, I’m certain stuff will happen.

      I think they just wanted to make a UB deck called UB. Sad that they forcibly stick to colour identity too, since I would just love to take in a Sun Titan or so. Casting? Who needs that, smother it in its crib and revive it ready to go.
      I suppose there’s discard for something. Thanks for that free titan, BnB!

  7. Maybe I am just being a spoiled brat, but I have to express my extreme satisfaction that this comes out first on PSN rather then XBLA. I know for most things XBOX gets the realeses sooner then most consoles. This how ever is not a CoD game or anything with millions of players on each console to warrant an early release. This game has more of a cult following then anything.

    //Rant Complete

    • Now I have to express my extreme dissatisfaction with my own grammar. To clarify I am not happy with the earlier release on the PSN.

      • Like I said, I might be a spoiled brat; I realize this. So is the XBLA coming out tomorrow then? I really havent seen a release date…

      • Whenever it comes out I’ll be all over it like a rash over the weekend.

        Hey iMeetch, now that we have each other added you could be my test subject, *demonic laughter* I mean partner for my builds which I already have planned and see what you think of them.

        I have a feeling the decks will still be fairly decent at 1v1 but shine so much more at 2HG. Oona’s Prowler + Exhume is stuck into my mind for good fun all round. Even some Eldrazi or Demons with Reanimate etc doesn’t seem too bad; not to mention bouncing things around like Titans and the Avenger of Zendikar. Tons of choices.

      • Careful, Evil. Keep in mind that the Prowler would allow any player to discard at instant speed, meaning that your opponents could respond to Exhume by pitching their own bombs. And since Exhume is a sorcery, you’d have to be facing an instantly un-sick It That Betrays plus a BS Angel. If you wanted to combo like that, perhaps the best way would be to let your partner draw to 8 cards while only you are playing lands, then Exhume turn 2. Alternatively, you could Distress her. Or yourself, of course. Fun to be had all around. (It’s more evil if you show your opponent the Exhume while Distressing yourself.)

        That being said, I just noticed that Exhume is NOT a may effect. Unfortunately, there’s nothing like Phage in this game, is there?
        I feel like that may have been intentional. To prevent zombies players from getting instakilled in three turns (rather than winning in three turns as they always do), as well as that Zombies really don’t need fucking Phage.

      • I am aware, that’s why I said good fun all round however if you do choose to go down that route just keep in mind what deck(s) you’re playing against, simples. Dodge and Burn shouldn’t trouble you so much seeing as they lack creatures.

        Just though of something that deserves a slap. Get to 7 land or so and cast Exhume and pick your worst creature while your opponent picks their better one then cast Living Death. One way to get their stronger creature(s) out of their graveyard before you cast Living Death.

        Phage would be too fun, death by Flickerwisp. =)

      • Then again, I literally can’t think of another way to make the fucking game progress faster. YOU get your bomb on turn 3, and YOU get yours on turn 3! Bombs for everyone! I got extra lifes to spare ’cause I’m just that generous.
        Now there’s a sentence certain to send the NSA after me…

        Btw: Oh, you get Living Death. Two of them. Well, there’s literally no way this could go wrong in a deck filled with super high cost high effect guys that are put in for the sole purpose of self-mill and reanimation.
        Oh Mother, what are Wizards thinking. Sometimes, I think they just spread all the deck styles they want to use onto a dart board, then all the ones they hit get filled with bomb cards that haven’t been legal for over ten years FOR A REASON. I mean, this one even has Living End to reference it in Time Spiral, because dropping a board wipe as well as half your library as a surprise should cost around ten mana, NOT FIVE. Not in the superlimited environment of Duels, where graveyards will often be empty unless you mill stuff into there.

        …

        Yeah, I’ll have fun guiding this one.

  8. Evil,
    I should be on majority of the weekend, may switch between 2014, D3, or Payday 2.
    And probably CoD: Ghosts (if my brother ends up over-nighting it.)

  9. Unfinished Business is hilarious against Chant.

    This will teach the many many noobs in 2014 not to blindly run Chant OR at least pair up with another deck that can consistently draw 1-3 cost removals.

  10. First feelings, first deckbuild and only about 5 games with each:

    I feel both decks suffer from bad average play, in UB’s case it almost quick win or quick lose and in B&B’s the theme-mechanic is TOO central that become hard to balance.

    UB:
    I feelt like I knew if I would win or lose entirely on the dealt starting hand, it clearly has both strong and cheap combos that only blue counterspell or white exile can really stop. But when it don’t have them from the start, it hard to draw into them.

    B&B:
    You could take out all the mana-ramping from Chant and it would still do alright after 6 turns… you could take out the exile from Avacyn (Path to exile, Oblivion ring, Fiend hunter) and it would still outrush most early and overpower most lategame… you could take out the dodge from “Dodge and burn” and just be “Draw and burn” and it would still be one of the better Izzet decks in history.
    But there not a single thing “Bounce and Boon” could do better then other decks if take out the blink.
    I love blink but it a effect that you can easily drown in and this deck can’t afford to starve either, so it kind of crave the perfect amount.
    Also the card-draw is near none, so you can’t really draw into blink if you don’t have it, and it equaly if not worse to try draw out of it if you have to much.

    I couldn’t find a good 1-drop and that lead me to next problem, the first blink. I find myself playing creatures I don’t want to play, like the 2/2 that give +1/1 to end of turn because all other decent 2-drops are blinks that would only blink themselfs back to my hand…
    Altho later the self-blink can create great loops it does demand a certain board and seem to shine only when low on cards.

    Maybe a mather of taste but when I think blink I think the Flickerwhisp kind, this unsummon way is overall less tactical and less powerfull. All it really give you is the ability to pick When to replay things but the anser to that is almost always instantly or next turn.

    Last and least I abit unhappy about the best combos, these are the two best I could find anyway:
    Tactical = Blink the Rhino that remove opponents next battle-phase over and over, suicide the blink creatures and get them back with “SunTitan” while hit for small amount with flying creatures.
    Power = Enchantment that give one +1/1 counter to all creatures when creatures enter, and play the “Watch Commando” that normaly is 3/3 with three 1/1 tokens but here becomes 7/7 with three 6/6 tokens + four counters to any creature you already out there.

    Want to end like I started, to clarify that it only my feelings after five games with each deck so it not based on fair amount of experience or knowledge of the decks.

    • Is that with all cards unlocked or are you currently unlocking them?

      So far I feel that both decks can be built at least two ways:

      UB seems to have the obvious black centered theme of discard > pull it out of the graveyard > win. The other is a more blue focused style where you use Doom Blade, Undermine and maybe Decree of Pain (ok partly black there) to remove a few threats to push yourself to around 5-6 land where you cast things like Body Double, Fool’s Demise, Keiga, Doppelganger, Gather Specimens etc. A style more focused on using their own creatures from both their summoning and their graveyard, I haven’t tried it yet but it seems interesting enough. UB can dominate still in a late game by the way.

      B+B isn’t quite so interesting on its styles but still fun to play as, just plain and simple life gain bounce and re-summon which would probably be more suited to a 2HG focus of keeping you and your teammates life total up but still being capable by itself. The other would be the more common bouncing with benefits getting more out of your ETB effects with a little life gain I guess to keep you alive (also a target to bounce).
      A 2/3 flying for 2 CMC isn’t bad at all even if you do have to target a land to keep it down, I wish they too had flash though but that would be a bit overkill, I’m currently using Lone Missionary’s as a 2 drop option, 4 life and an 2/1 annoying thing to block with that probably won’t see so much removal and an easy target option to keep my other creatures down. The +1/+1 effect doesn’t really do much for me at all. Cathar’s Crusade is godly if you’re able to play it, Mantle of Leadership can be pretty mad too, I had both down after casting Mantle at the end of my opponents turn, I swung in with 2 2 power creatures my opponent didn’t block so I summoned Whitemane Lion three times bouncing itself doing a total of 16 damage winning the game. I’m not even going to mention the 6 CMC creatures. =)

      Also somebody tell me I’m not the only one that finds it absolutely hilarious that Unfinished Business gets 1 star rating for deck speed? Sure if you can’t Reanimate straight away it’s not that fast but still… That’s mostly the main focus of the deck… A deck that can pull out ANY 2 bombs on turn 2 provided you have the right cards.

    • Pretty much agreed. You either kill in three turns, or let them live long enough to see your villain.

      In other news, Dick’n’Balls is STILL FUCKING OVERPOWERED. UB was literally made to hardcounter it, and often it does. However, let me begin from the right point:

      Since I am still really sick, I figured I’d just write some, wrap things up, mostly go to sleep. Then I found out that Wizards released the deck pack earlier than I thought they would. So I bought it and sat down to play a few matches for a first impression, against AI.
      That was two fucking hours ago, 90% of which were taken by TWO matches against said non-existant deck. Normal AI, mind you. It could at least do something instead of literally just sitting there passing turns and timewalking whenever you try to play a spell. Wizards, can we please have a “MAKE THE FUCKING GAME PROGRESS” button, which removes the arbitrary pauses and timers during AI turns and bounces right back to your turn, when you’ll get counterspammed yet again. Deck design by the very best, ladies and gentlemen.

      No, I’m not mad. All I feel of it is a light tingle, together with the knowledge that I wasted two hours of sleep because Duels decks get designed by mashing the nearest “person”‘s face against Gatherer and taking whatever comes out.

      So basically what I’m saying is that the deck gets played as AI by D(i)ck Fayden, a guy whose literally only character quality is being a major dick no one likes.

      Basically what I’m saying is that you might as well pass up this pack since it only contains Fragile Wars 2014 and yet another deck that’s just begging to be sweeped twenty times. Decks that don’t exist will still be the only ones ever played, until Wizards does the right thing and removes them entirely.

  11. Hmm, what happened to the reply-to-thread button?

    Personally, I found all U/B (dimir) decks to be awesome in 2v2 and just meh in 1v1. Then again, I set up my deck for 2HG games so maybe that’s why I get rushed down so often in 1v1s.

  12. I’m really disappointed with the decks in 2014…. Even after the expansion and deck pack, AG is still far and away the best. The new decks are just too inflexible. UB Reanimator, even when it works, burns through cards too quickly. You need a Putrid Imp or some way to get your fatties into the graveyard, and actual fatty, and a card to reanimate it plus one or two lands. That leaves you with nearly nothing left in your hand, and if your bomb gets removed or bounced usually you just lose the game right there. The chance that you have a second one ready to go along with the necessary utilities to discard and pull another game winner out of the graveyard are slim; and even if you do it’s likely your opponent has an answer or can draw one, considering how the creatures that are suppose to win you the game in this deck are so pathetically small they take 4 turns to actually kill someone if their attacks even make it through.

    The bounce deck would be nice, if you had some Aether Adepts or card draw, but seeing as it’s mono-white, all you really do is just gain life and pray you survive long enough to get something significant out. This is actually pretty hard even with the insane life gain because 1. your creatures are pathetic blockers with no toughness and 2. if one of your bounce creatures gets harassed in some way (they remove the only other bouncable creature on the board) you’ll be often forced to bounce the very creature you cast or a land and essentially set you behind an entire turn. Discard, counters, and bounces from your opponents are hard for this deck to handle as well. The late game bombs are pretty good, but making it there is difficult. I wish they had more Light from Withins. It might make a weenie version of this deck viable if they gave you 4 copies instead of just 2.

    • Agree on all of UB

      The bounce deck:
      * Yes card draw would be really nice.
      * I don’t agree it take that long to get something nice out, if you can curve into a dust elemental it is insane value. A 6/6 at turn four that is flying fear (might as well read “can only be blocked by demons”) with the penalty of having to return 3 creatures to your hand is fine in this deck.
      * I don’t mind the “pathetic blockers” atleast not the 1-3 cost since it a part of the deck to chump block and “bounce” them from the grave with Sun titans.
      * Light from Within is so good of a card that it almost sad this deck has it, it should be insane value to have chrome in any mono-creature-deck (I imagine this would skyrocket Garruks deck for example) but here we have the quite impressive achivement of 80% one white-mana and 20% two-mana making it swing between a expensive “Honor of the pure” or a two-for-one card at best.

      • Dust elemental is good, if you can even get it out. Having three creatures on the board by turn 4 in this deck is pretty hard considering how all your creatures bounce each other, and getting just one of them bounced/exiled/destroyed means you just played a one-sided Upheaval on yourself. Sun Titans are good, yes, if your opponent has no removal for them (which is highly unlikely by turn 6 and that’s assuming you even have enough lands by then) or doesn’t have 6 power worth of creatures to just block it with (in which case you probably already won). Also, the only form or removal you have at all in this deck is pacifism (only works on like 50% of the creatures out there) and that piece of shit duplicant (6 mana to exile a creature?). This means if your opponent resolves anything of value it will likely stay there forever. Combine that with your own low quality creatures and you have one of the worst decks in DotP 2014.

  13. We all agree (so far atleast) that the deck is really bad, exactly how much it suck aint that important for me.

    So I will go positiv again…
    It is quite fun to play, and since it is a bad deck it also abit of pride when manage to win.
    In that respect it might be the new “Dragomancer”

    Thanks to the many flyers it has a window to beat Chant…
    Thanks to the three flickerwhisps it has chance to blink away auras from Guardian of light or target Mind Maze illusions for removal…
    Several creatures with flash can outsmart limited removal like DeathWalkers or limited burn like Sword of the Samurai.

    Last but not least, if you happen to draw something cheap that you don’t want at all, you can get to draw two cards for the low price of playing two cards :) Let none say the deck have zero card-draw…

    • Anybody want to complain about UB? Now that is the new ETD. In fact, it isn’t. Because it’s even fucking worse.

      It can do spectacular things, but you need at least four or five specific cards for it, two of which will be lands. Even if you take the tempo disadvantage of getting a free discard out of not playing anything turn 1 when going second, your guy will be at best ready on the platter to be Izzet’d on. Did I mention that I built an IRL version of that deck which utilises even more counters, where most of the extra also burn stuff, and bounce? Yep, the only way to make it even more fun-ruining.
      Back to the point, there goes a turn’s tempo, or rather three turns’, at least two of your cards, and your entire strategy. And that’s even assuming the best case scenario of discard, then Exhume. It could at least have been moderately better with stuff like Inkwell Leviathan. You know, stuff that doesn’t evaporate your entire game plan if it gets Unsummoned. Because it can’t be.

      While ETD doesn’t do much, at least it does that with surprising consistency. This? Either you draw a generic removal spell out of your opponent by turn 3 (which is when every method of removal that gets played can be) or you sit around playing nothing but utility (read: non-disposable) creatures all day. Until you finally revive something with a turn 5 cast, which then obviously also eats removal to the face. Humm.
      Not to mention that you could just as easily simply CAST most of the creatures in the deck for the same effort that it takes to reanimate them. Perhaps that is the way, I haven’t found another except for mulliganing four times without reducing hand size.

    • 1 vs 1 they both worse then most others, in a single game or best of 3 UB might prevail often with its huge knockout ability, but a best of 5 like in the tournaments its unconsistancy will make sure it don’t get near the finals.

      I have not played 2HG at all beside one game in Magic 2013 just to win the steam-achivement for it. But I have to agree that I can see both Bounce and UB fix alot of there weakness by tag-team with some other decks.
      I really want Bounce to be good, blink one of my favorite things, but I want it in the flickerwhisp way where you don’t have to re-play and re-pay.

      So I might actually start playing 2HG just so I can come back here and maybe tell you all how good it is there… or more exactly help Evil Mee tell it.

      (‘)__(‘)
      (=_=)
      (“)_(“)

      • Hehe no way in 1v1 they’re both really good and far beyond those “bad” decks like ETD. I haven’t tried 2HG too much although I did do a little vs bots with a friend to help him unlock some cards where he played Elves and I played B+B a pretty good combo tbh, ended each game at like 70+ life. I do have to say the people I’ve gone against online using the new decks have sucked badly with them, especially UB where they do literally nothing all game but so far I can gladly say I’ve not had any real problems and I am thoroughly enjoying them.

        I’m currently recording some footage of them both in 1v1 at the moment although I do admit as UB I did get the discard>summon monster>win pretty much all the time… But they were my first few games, that’s the style my current build is going for sue me and I’ll try out my other bluer style build for it another time. Wish I had my first game as B+B vs Demons recorded, it was constant removal but I just kept on playing creatures and he couldn’t keep up.

        I did have 1 hell of an insane 4 way FFA game with friends who played UB where my Diluvian Primordial from Dimir caused Living Death to trigger about 5 times which put arrows everywhere that my turns were sacrificed due to timing out and eventually decked myself out with Dire Undercurrents… lol.

        My only dislike about the new decks is that they’re the only decks that can REALLY counter my favourite deck Firewave properly if done right unless I get screwed, the rest I can handle because those two get out of burn range instantly or too many creatures come into play to burn (+ life gain).

      • Let me say it this way, dearest Evil:

        Let’s make a deck consisting of 55 basic lands and all five parts of Exodia. When you have all five parts of her in your hand at the same time, you may reveal them to instantly win the game. Yes, YGO is a bit odd with its combos.

        This is the sort of consistency UB is going for. It can do impressive things, but unless you literally draw four or five specific cards within the first 8, it’s not going to. Even if you manage something (often having to use higher cost resurrection), then your bomb is simply going to eat a Path or whatever and you’ll be set back three cards at least, plus all of your chances of victory, plus perhaps 6-9 life if you used Reanimate. (Protip: Don’t. It hurts, and only that specific scenario is going to happen from it.)

        But hey, I suppose contact me as usual. I’m a bit at an impasse here.
        By the way, that ETD comment wasn’t out of nowhere. Even with the best build I can manage, revenge AI ETD still stands a realistic chance of beating UB.

      • Okay, I take most things back. I have gazed upon perfection, and she smiled back at me. Sometimes, all you need is to change a little detail to set a calamity in wondrous light. Who ever said that nothing has another facet unlike what itself dreams?
        Meanwhile, in an alternate universe where I force myself to be comprehensible more often:

        I figured it out. It took thirty painful cards of unlocking and genuinely getting beaten by ETD (funnily enough, rarely due to Jund Charm), but I know how to do it. Of course it will still die horribly to Angels and Zombies and most other decks that play cards before turn 6, but otherwise it’s fine. I’ve found it to be a nice Izzetkiller, which I suppose is everything we asked of it. (Ha, see, Izzet is not in the list of decks that kill it as mentioned above.)
        I wonder if Wizards intentionally tosses in certain iconic cards like Extractor into most decks, then just… forgets about them and that they need backup to work.

        Anyway. I should get a guide done soon-ish, by which I mean maybe weekend at worst. College is hell.
        Also just had a fun game. Mirror matchup against someone who did the adorable little hand size discard trick plus Exhume… going first. See, people, this is why you DON’T run Exhume! Anyhow, I stayed calm and, before he could Exhume thanks to tempo loss, laid down a Hidden Horror to discard a Scion of Darkness much like the one already in her graveyard. Exhume comes out, and I’m left at a board disadvantage. Several turns later, just after he hardcasts a Ghastlord of Fugue, I Victimise a Hidden Horror to fetch (who guessed it) my own Ghastlord plus a River Kelpie (getting two cards in the process, mind you.) I can’t prevent his Ghastlord from swinging at me. Instead, I welcome him with open arms, saying, “Exile me, bitch!” and show him Distress, Consult the Necrosages, Hidden Horror, Sift, Body Double, and Rise from the Grave.

        In the resulting battle against AI, I simply traded Scions and Ghast’d and Distressed all reanimation out of its hand while leaving the creatures within alone. It did a nice play of Hidden Horror into Unearthed Extractor Demon which mildly hurt my face, but ultimately fell to me.

        Bottom line: Don’t play Exhume, kids.

      • Exhume is good, I use it at least. The odds are mostly in your favour when you can discard any bomb you have. Mirror matches do suck though.

      • Certainly Exhume is good, but so is playing Russian Roulette with your opponent, using a revolver with five loaded chambers. With you starting. In order for it to do as intended, you’ll need to saw atwin your own leg while jumping through a five meter high ring made of plasma. (The real, tens of thousands of degrees [either unit] hot kind of plasma.) It’ll also require using up deck slots on cards that you really don’t want except for that specific combo. I’ll prefer to use ridiculous control tools (how many cards will get past a turn 3 Hidden Horror?) and Oona’s Prowler (NEVER run this and Exhume, unless you want the game to go very very fast) and instead use five mana on something that will only benefit myself.

        Besides, what fun is necrophilia if you have to stick to your own toys?
        But don’t talk about it; I already see all the mildly informed and hardly grammatically correct comments that I’ll get upon posting a deck list without it.

  15. I see a Toraska ETD – Evil Mee UB match taking form…
    I will donate 20$ to the prize-pool if it get streamed -_-

    • Any day of the week. In fact, he’d be the only one between whom I don’t have to face a gigantic wall of timeshift for a match of Magic. (In less perfect, but more common grammar: The sun doesn’t rise ten hours earlier for him than it does for me.)
      The only problem is that he uses a welked piece of salad for a PC. However, we’re working on it.

      • Working hard indeed =) Leave my “potato” alone lol.
        I was actually going to order a new laptop last weekend but changed my plans to this weekend (hopefully). I have enough money saved up now so yay =), I should be available on Steam for some Magic eventually. Pain in the ass unlocking the cards again though but I’d definitely be up for some games with anyone.

        Just for the record last night I did a game as UB vs my friend who has a fairly decent ETD build and I destroyed him with Keiga. Kinda Ironic how a dragon won the game huh?

  16. I am becoming a giddy school girl waiting for the suggested deck builds, Toraka I saw you were going to be building one of them… Are you building both or by chance know when they will be up? So I can stop refreshing your webpage eating up your bandwith making the Host Gator – 500 page appear! :P

    • Seeing as I’m going to get flamed to hell for not going with the 10% win combo of Imp plus Exhume, I’m taking my time.

      Also, studying. I have no real problem staying up 18-20 hours a day (I transcended anything that would hinder me), but when 10-12 of those hours go into lectures (plus travel) alone, and each of my four courses thinks itself important enough to warrant demanding another six hours per week at least of time spent working at home, it’s hard to find time for TTT. Especially when you’re really fucking lazy like I and place staving off depression and insanity for that day longer as a higher priority.

      Regardless, I’m pretty sure I have the build about figured out, so it’s down to guide writing. Which takes more time than you might think, may I add. Anyway, enough self-pity. I’ll submit it in the next few days and I’m certain the other staff will be doing their best to get it published ASAP.

      • No I totally understand you guys have a life outside of TTT, I was just merely curious of a time frame. Though for those interested I did find a fairly nasty UF deck build that works well with my play style:

        60 Cards. 37 nonlands (16 creatures, 21 spells). 23 Lands (11 Swamp 10 Island; 2 other).

        Land
        2x Evolving Wilds
        cost
        4x Putrid Imp
        1x Reanimate
        cost
        4x Accumulated Knowledge
        2x Doom Blade
        4x Exhume
        1x See Beyond
        cost
        1x Dimir Doppelganger
        1x Consult the Necrosages
        cost
        1x Diabolic Tutor
        4x Sift
        cost
        1x Body Double
        1x Ghastlord of Fugue
        1x Beacon of Unrest
        2x Living Death
        cost
        1x Keiga, the Tide Star
        1x Sphinx of Magosi
        1x Wrexial, the Risen Deep
        cost
        1x Rune-Scarred Demon
        cost
        1x Scion of Darkness
        1x Tidal Kraken
        2x Tidespout Tyrant
        cost
        1x Demon of Death’s Gate

        Out of about ten game comprising of 2HG, 1v1, and FFA I have only lost once and that was a FFA match (I blame a bad pull should of mulligan’d but I am a firm believer in trusting your card… Damn you YU-GI-OH!).

      • Turn 2, Distress, I name Exhume and/or already have something juicy in my own yard. Deck countered.
        Not the type of build I’m doing.

      • Not worried about loosing one exhume with Living Deads, and Re-Animates in the deck build. Not stating you need to build a deck like this, just stating I found one that works with my play style and thought I would share.

  17. I wish Wizards had included mercenary knights instead of hidden horrors. Same thing, but only requires one black mana instead of two.

  18. Hey people, I would very much like your input on this bounce and boon build. I’m all set with 60 cards except for 1 problem: I can’t fit 2 Dust Elementals in! I really want to add these guys to save myself from mass removal and to re-use my flickerwisps and restoration angel. This build is a bit more offensive than usual, forsaking a bit of life gain for extreme focus on ETB token generation to trigger Cathar’s Crusade. It uses Duplicant and Sunblast Angels for mass removal. Light from Within can win it without Cathar’s Crusade, or just buy time to get some combos working. In the event that I don’t get some crazy combo going, I fall back on air superiority + tapping their air blockers to win it. I’ve found the only things missing are the Dust Elementals. Lords of Darkness’ Damnations and Mutilates constantly remind me of this weakness. Every time I look at these 60 cards, I think, “NO, this card is essential” for every single card! Here’s what I have now. Let me know your suggestions on how to fit in 2 dust elementals:

    60 cards, 29 creatures, 7 other, 24 lands

    1 CMC
    4x Soul Warden

    2 CMC
    3x Kor Sky Fisher
    2x Whitemane Lion
    2x Pacifism

    3 CMC
    3x Attended Knight
    1x Blade Splicer
    1x Court Street Denizen
    3x Emancipation Angel
    3x Flickerwisp
    2x Kemba’s Skyguard
    2x Kor Hookmaster
    1x Oblation

    4 CMC
    1x Resto Angel
    2x Light from Within

    5 CMC
    1x Cloudgoat Ranger
    2x Cathar’s Crusade

    6 CMC
    1x Duplicant (he’s definitely a Dupli-CAN)
    2x Sunblast Angel

    I’m eagerly awaiting your take on this.

    • Relatively similar to mine actually, but with a few differences.
      In short.

      I’d consider those 1/4 4CMC guys that skip an opponents attack phase because you can defend him well and some decks don’t have an answer for him. Definitely over Court Street Denizen who does a lot less.

      2 Dust Elementals is a bit overkill on bouncing I think 1 is enough.

      Attended Knights aren’t really all that, specially compared to the Blade Spicer so I kind of dislike them.

      I found Light from Within doesn’t really make much difference for me when you have things like Cathars’ Crusade.

      Oblation sucks in this deck.

      Sunblast’s are decent, I can’t fault them being in a build in this deck but I prefer the 2 Sun Titan’s, if you count how much 1-3 CMC bounce creatures you have he’s pretty much a recurring reanimation for your guys and can pull off some insane combos with Cathar’s Crusade and I tend to stall out to the point where they don’t attack often (for example that 1/4 and Kor Hookmasters) that the Sunblast’s ability isn’t always as efficient as hoped. Oh and don’t forget the Captain of the Watch.
      I currently use 1 Duplicant, 2 Sun Titan’s, 1 Sunblast Angel and 1 Captain of the Watch.

      Another card you may want to (re-)consider is Lone Missionary for many many reasons, I use all 3 at the moment. Now I know they’re not great but they fit pretty well with this decks early start giving a good life advantage and have kept me alive by themselves many times. You’ll usually have your Soul Warden’s so for 2 CMC you get 4-6 life and a 2/1 which most opponents won’t bother wasting too much removal on and serves as an annoying blocker for your opponent which can save more life stopping attacks going through, the fierceness of 2 power! The other other good thing about them is they’re decent cheap targets for your early bouncing creatures to actually get some board presence whilst gaining a ton of life because you’ll probably take a few early swings.

  19. I’m really hesitant to change anything about the build because it’s been the most consistent for me so far and makes for quicker games. That being said, what I did for now to test it is take out 1 Attended Knight for 1 Dust Elemental, even though that gives me less ETB combos with Cathar’s Crusade.

    About the Stoneheart Dignitary, I think he doesn’t fit the more offensive build that I’m going for here, and like most rhinos, he doesn’t fly. The games I played where I went with the Lone Missionary and Stoneheart Dignitaries tended to drag on forever if my cathar’s crusade was near the bottom of the deck, and sometimes I’d have an hour+ long game that I still lost. The main reason why I like Court Street Denizen over him is that she allows me to flash cat and pick up flash cat as many times as i can pay for it during his end turn phase to tap his blockers then either sunblast angel during my turn or just swing with mass flyers after tapping all his flying creatures. Otherwise, I have to have at least 9 mana and use hookmaster on only one creature to possibly only kill 1 with the Sunblast Angel, or have 13 mana to kill 2 creatures by using Resto Angel, a 1-of, on the Hookmaster after casting him then cast Sunblast Angel. With Court Street Denizen I get 3 guaranteed kills out of Sunblast and flash cat with 6 mana open at his end step or 2 guaranteed by recasting dust ele twice at his end step with 8 mana. I can get 4 kills for 11 mana with Cloudgoat Ranger + Sunblast Angel by using Court Street’s tapping effect. Court Street Denizen allows for tapping of multiple blockers with any token generating ETB effects and allows me to be more offensive with flyers.

    I like to have more flying creatures than they can deal with along with the life gain from Kemba’s Skyguard since I don’t run the Missionary. That’s another reason I use 2 Sunblast Angels, for air superiority. Kemba’s Skyguard is a 4/4 flyer and Sunblast Angel is a 6/7 flyer with Light from Within. The above build makes for much faster games. I played a game that lasted over an hour before trying this new build, and decided that IF I was going to keep playing this deck, something had to change about the game length. So if I don’t get either Light from Within (which I use because I don’t like relying on having to get Cathar’s Crusade, a 2-of) or Cathar’s Crusade fairly early, I can still chip away at his life total with flyers while locking him out of doing any serious damage to me through life gain, tapping creatures, and chump blocking + flash evacuation.

    Oblation I try to always use in response to a doom blade or other targetted removal to gain card advantage in a big way. It has also saved my ass against Warsmith once. He attacked with two of those 5/5 Rusted Golems and one of those 2/2 double strike (with 3 or more artifact) guys. I used oblation on a Rusted Golem to drop his artifact count to 2. One golem got shuffled, one reverted to useless form, and the 2/2 guy’s double strike dropped off. I then blocked with a Kor Skyfisher and killed it. Without Oblation, that attack would have lost me the game. Many decks in this meta rely on synergy of creatures to buff each other. The way I look at it, it can save yours or your creature’s life and in a pinch at instant speed allows for some very nice combat tricks where they wish they wouldn’t have attacked you. Target a Jor Kadeen or one of the slivers or zombies that change all of their attacker’s stats, for example. Use it on a captain of the watch with tons of tokens attacking you then take out the weakened attack force. You can often get card advantage or at least card equity despite them drawing two cards. And, of course I’d rather give my opponent two cards than lose the game immediately. It’s this deck’s only card draw, as well.

    I really wanted to include Captain of the Watch and Sun Titan in this build, but I just couldn’t justify it because I can’t really take out much else and keep my singleness of purpose. The main weakness of my build is getting rushed early game. If I can make it to my 6 drops, I rarely have any problems. They don’t fly, cost 6, and I’d just rather have a Duplicant + 2 Sunblast Angels. I was a sad robot having to leave out Solemn Simulacrum as well, but I wanted to focus on ending the game in a reasonable amount of time.

    • That a thing does stuff in a certain scenario does not mean that thing is good, even if the stuff was impressive. My rule for deckbuilding: This thing needs to have a decent use in at least 75% of the matchups I can imagine, possibly more than one use to improve likelihood of use being found. Example: Charms. They don’t do much, but they’re great because they always do SOMETHING. If that thing has less of a use, I toss it for being too narrow unless I build my deck around it. (Stuff like Colossus of Akros comes to mind.)

      Also, you state yourself why you should use the Missionaries: Otherwise, you’re just not doing anything until turn 3, since all your stuff bounces other stuff. The Missionaries aren’t meant to be big and/or scary, they ward off attacks by threatening to trade with a lot of things while being a good early target for your bouncing, one that you don’t miss on the field and that also gains you a crapton of life.

      • Toraka, when you talk about stuff not being good except in very specific situations that don’t come up often or being to narrow to be of use, which card(s) in my build are you referring to? I’m guessing the Court Street Denizen, right? You can tap a lot of blockers with just her + flash cat targetting itself repeatedly which also procs your soul wardens and cathar’s crusades. Heck, any creature will allow you to tap one flying blocker which is really useful in an air beats build. It’s just really nice if you have Sunblast Angel to go with it. If anyone didn’t know, when you cast Sunblast Angel, she procs the Denizen’s tapping ability before her destroy all tapped creatures goes off, to guarantee at least 1 kill. I’m playing around with different builds, some using the missionary and some not to see how I like it. I’d like to see a guide for this deck. It seems like it can be built in a few different ways and I am faced with some tough decisions when building and playing it. I find myself second guessing myself a lot with my bounce and flicker targets and which cards to play in which order based on the situation. I think it takes skill to be good with this deck.

      • If you want I’ll play some games with you Sean if you want to test certain things out, I have Magic for both Xbox and Steam now. I think Toraka was talking about Oblation mostly and said pretty much everything I needed about Lone Missionaries.

        “The main weakness of my build is getting rushed early game. If I can make it to my 6 drops, I rarely have any problems.”

        This decks real strength seems to appear when you start to get your 6 drops. You said that in your build you want to be offensive yet half the creatures, tactics and combos you state require a fairly large sum of land to be aggro enough which is probably why you find early rushing a main weakness, also probably why you find the Sunblast’s more useful as it sounds like a way out from this.

        “About the Stoneheart Dignitary, I think he doesn’t fit the more offensive build that I’m going for here”

        I think of him as this: Vs aggro (your main weakness) you LOSE your whole attack while my flying creatures swing in for free, not much is going to stop them anyway, I get one step closer to my more powerful 6 drops and I didn’t lose any life which my Missionaries and Wardens gained for me.
        Next turn, Flickerwisp, oh look, you lose your whole attack again while I swing freely and gain more (flying) board presence. Yay, 6 land something more powerful can come down OR bounce and replay, ANOTHER attack phase skipped and so forth. I did this once to Eldrazi and the guy quit so I kept the AI sitting there for many many turns doing nothing, not even All is Dust could prevent it, my flash creature came down bounced it back and my Titan brought back my flash guy who took the hit and bounced my Titan to be repeated. If you’re smart/lucky enough you can protect him from removal with flash for a little extra which is where my Missionaries and Hookmasters come in early to keep me alive to build it up. This strategy is why I love my Sun Titan’s because I literally do not care if anything dies (except my Sun Titans, I like those). It just gives me more choices of headaches for my opponents while I don’t die.

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