Sunday, April 3, 2011

April 3rd - Legacy MUD Poison

Hello everyone and welcome to my deck primer on Legacy MUD Poison.

A brief introduction - My name is Stu Parnes, and I work at a gaming store in Ann Arbor, MI called “Get Your Game On”. I have been playing Magic the Gathering for a number of years now, and am currently a member of Team MeanDeck. I enjoy Booster Drafting, Legacy and Vintage, and most importantly designing new decks. The most recent deck I have been working on is an artifact only Legacy poison deck, which I would like to share with you.



















What this deck does – This deck incorporates two different strategies. First, you have Cranial Plating and other equipment that let you have a blazingly fast start, and second, you have many prison pieces that lock your opponent down, and make their deck not able to function correctly.

First we will discuss the aggressive side of the deck. You have 12 poison 2 drops, as well as 8 (yes EIGHT) manlands. Since you also have 8 lands that produce 2 mana each, and Mox Diamonds, it is very realistic to cast one of these creatures on turn 1. These creatures paired with your equipment make for a threat that must be answered immediately. Cranial plating is obviously insane with poison creatures, and will often kill your opponent in 2 swings. The fact that most of your deck is artifacts, and that you have 8 lands that can animate into artifacts is a huge boost for your creatures power with cranial plating. The other important equipment is Umezawa’s Jitte. This is a must for the tribal decks that have a lot of creatures such as Goblins, Merfolk, and Elves. I have yet to lose a game against one of these decks where I have attacked with a Jitte. The pump bonus also lets you kill your opponent much quicker then normal, remember you only have to do 10 damage to them! I play one Sword of Feast and Famine, because it gives protection from Tarmogoyf, and it lets you untap all your lands post combat. This is very important with Rishidan Port, and your manlands, so you can interact with your opponent on their turn.

The prison side of the deck includes cards such as Chalice of the Void, Tangle Wire, and Crucible of Worlds. These cards all interfere with your opponent’s ability to play their deck correctly. If you notice, there are no 1-mana cards in this deck, so a Chalice of the Void at 1 does not hurt you at all. It does lock out many format staples such as Swords to Plowshares, Brainstorm, and Dark Ritual for example. Tangle Wire buys you time, and can also be used to tap down an opposing blocker. Since you have many artifacts in play such as equipment and other prison pieces, you rarely have to tap a land or creature to your Tangle Wire. Crucible of Worlds is one of the best cards in the deck because it lets you replay your manlands if they get killed. It also lets you Wasteland lock your opponent, or mana boost with City of Traitors.

The lands in this deck are very important. Wasteland and Rishidan Port do an amazing job at disrupting your opponent’s mana. The goal is to cast something on turn 1, and then harass your opponent’s mana for the next few turns, putting them behind, while you are gaining board presence. Tangle Wire, Rishadan port, Wasteland, and Chalice of the Void, make casting spells very hard for many legacy decks. The fact that you have 8 manlands is also hugely important. Many decks cannot beat creatures they cannot counter, and sorcery speed removal cannot kill these guys. They are also great because Blinkmoth Nexus can pump Inkmoth Nexus to get in that extra point of poison damage. Again Crucible of Worlds is very important with this deck, because of the high quality of the lands you are getting back.

A brief discussion of match-ups.

Against Control - I have yet to lose a game to a Blue/White based control deck (out of about 25, and no I am not exaggerating this). Your mana disruption along side of uncounterable threats usually kills these decks quite easily. Crucible of worlds is the MVP in this match up. Sometimes I board in Phyrexian Revokers to stop cards like Thopter Foundry or Jace the Mind Sculptor, if it is necessary.

Against Combo – You are very fast if the other deck does not interact with you (you can kill on turn 2 with the nuts). You have mana disruption, and post board you have Trinisphere, Sphere of Resistance, and Phyrexian Revoker (to stop cards like Lion’ Eye Diamond). Chalice of the Void and Cranial Plating are the MVP’s in this Matchup.

Against Goblins – This is kind of a rougher match up because they can generate a lot of creatures to block you with. If they do not have a turn 1 Aether Vial you are in much better shape, because you can fight their mana to keep them off spells. After board you get another Jitte, and Contagion Clasp. Clasp is great for killing the weaker goblins, and can also scramble Aether Vial with its proliferate ability. The MVP’s in this match up are Umezawa’s Jitte, and Ichorclaw Myr (he becomes 3/3 if he is blocked, so it is very hard for them to fight this guy in combat).

Against Merfolk – This match up is pretty even. It is a big grinding battle to see who can get more into play. The good news is their guys will never have islandwalk. The bad news is if they get a few guys out, they become huge. You end up grinding them out most of the time, and using cards like Crucible of Worlds + Manlands to block with can generate enough time to kill them. A funny note, Cursecatcher has ZERO cards it can counter against you. Umezawa’s Jitte is obviously the MVP in this match up.

Zoo and Bant – These decks are the biggest problem for this deck. The fact that they have huge guys, removal, and main deck Qasali Pridemage can often do you in. If you get a good opener with a Chalice of the Void, you can slow them down drastically, sometimes enough to seal the game for you. Wastelands are the MVP against these decks because they play a lot of non-basics, and sometimes you can just harass their mana enough that they cannot cast spells.

Against Show and Tell – You have cards like Tangle Wire to keep them off mana, and Chalice of the Void for 1 stops all of their Brainstorm, Ponder, and Preordains. Because you are very fast, and they typically don’t have creatures in play, you can usually just kill them unhindered. I have had games where my opponent cast Show and Tell putting out an Emrakul the Aeons Torn, I put out Cranial Plating. On my turn I cast a Tangle Wire, tapping their 3 lands and their Eldrazi, and then killed them on my turn with my Cranial Plating and guy. Tangle wire is the MVP here, and out of the board you get Ensnaring Bridge, so they cannot attack you with their big guys!

Notes – Pro Player, Conley Woods played a version of this deck recently at the SCG open in L.A. He made some changes to my list, and I would like to briefly talk about those. He cut Rishadan Port completely out of the deck. This I think is a terrible mistake, as this card is amazing at interacting with your opponent’s mana. Because you are mono artifacts, you don’t need to worry about color screw, and the more lands that deny your opponent mana the better. I would never even consider cutting this card, EVER.

Conley added in Arcbound Ravager, which on the surface seems like a reasonable choice, but I personally have had a huge level of success with the deck as is, and don’t think I would include it. I prefer Sword of Feast and Famine because it is so good with Rishadan Port, but if you are cutting Rishadan Port then picking a different sword seems like a good choice. He swapped one Mox Diamond for one Mox Opal, again with the cutting of 4 lands, Mox Diamond loses a lot of power. Conley also cut one Umezawa’s Jitte for one Throne of Geth. I initially had this card in the deck, and did like it a lot, and if I ever moved into a more Smokestack version I would totally play Throne of Geth. I personally think the Jitte is too important to cut, because it is a way to interact with creature decks, and to clear out blockers for your guys.

Overall this deck is a lot of fun to play, and can be very explosive and catch your opponents off guard. I have played in a few local tournaments with this deck, splitting top 4, and top 8. The local tournaments here have very fierce competition, including many pro players, and are not your usual show up and win kind of local events.

If you like to play a deck that is a little different, give this one a try! Also we have a whole new set coming out called “New Phyrexia” that I am hoping will add a new card or two for this deck.

Thanks for reading, and please let me know if you have any questions, you can message me on Facebook, or email me at StuParnes@gmail.com

-Stu

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