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Way back in the annals of MDV's history (okay, back in February), Death_By_Beebles and I partook in a little contest where we each built an Extended Peasant legal deck with only $10. Last time around we went through the steps of actually building our decks and left it with us about to engage in mortal battle (see original article here). Well the results are in and now we're here to give you an update. There is but one way I can describe how my deck faired in that match:
I’d like to say that it was purely the luck of the draw or poor decision making on my behalf, but the truth is this deck doesn’t quite get the job done. It gets all dressed up, pulls out its best lands and then simply sits there for three turns waiting for my opponent to end the brutality (hopefully swiftly). It does do some very nice things; the interaction between the Wanderer's Twig and Leonin Squire drove the mana engine to amazing heights, almost comparable to a mono-Green deck—by turn six I was on average sitting on eight to nine mana, even if I missed a land drop in the first three turns! But the problem was that I had this huge, phenomenal amount of mana to play around with… and absolutely nothing to play with it! It simply wasn’t happening, and the deck mana flooded itself—even when I managed to pull twelve of my lands out it just kept delivering more means to get mana. Now as most forum goers can testify I like lands more then the average player, but this deck has made me sick to death of the images on the Unglued Forests and the Unhinged Plains (yes, those beautiful pieces of artwork). Another issue that came up was that I simply could not hold the field and dominate it. I could stall it ‘till the cows came home and I’ve managed to grow, shave and re-grow a beard, but I simply could not punch back. All I could do was delay the inevitable in a vain hope that the next card I would draw might just be the one card that could turn the tides. Sideboarding didn’t really help me here either; although the Armadillo Cloaks could have helped me in combat, I simply couldn’t draw a creature or keep one long enough to use it—in the end I used it to stall DBB’s Flametongue Kavu from crossing the field. In the end, I lost to a far superior deck because I concentrated on one thing, which in itself is not a bad thing, but I concentrated on the wrong thing. All too often when I’m running a dual color deck I run into mana screw; I can sense it coming as the deck starts to falter and then shuts down. In my fear of being waltzed over by DBB and his vanilla creatures I built to grab mana, not to beat him down. Therein lies my downfall. Changes to Make
With these things in mind, I’m going to suggest some changes I would make to the deck that will still fall under Extended Peasant rules and within the budget of $10. Now unfortunately it appears that the site we used last time has not been fully updated with the cards that I need price tags for; as such all prices I quote will either be lifted from the previous article or from www.mtgfanatic.com.
In the end, I rarely if ever needed to regain my Twigs or my enchantments, and if I did it was simply to have something to do in my turn or to slow my opponent down that extra turn. In short, these guys are pointless. Whilst the s=Squire’s 2/2 body made for a great chump blocker it made no serious attempts to attack back and the Auramancer always arrived too late to be of any help regardless of stats.
The Pages didn’t quite do what they were supposed to. Instead of offering me some measure of combat prowess they simply made it possible for me to trade one of my monsters with one of my opponent’s whilst the other three went merry on by.
This card was actually more painful for me, simply because it meant I got to sit back and watch while DBB carefully maneuvered everything at his end of the game, ready for my crushing defeat whilst I simply drew mana after mana after mana; straight out, no questions asked.
So having now dropped cards from my deck and having both re-evaluated my budget allowance and the space left in my deck, I can now consider my options and suggest my changes. Within The Budget
These guys were suggested to me by a new-comer to the forums by the name of Drathro, and never being one to shy away from advice when it’s offered I decided to check it out. Now whilst a little steep on the mana curve, the deck builds to that effect and the stall allows me to take my time; even without the immense mana pulling engine in one piece anymore. Throw in the fact that this guy is flash equipped and ready to trample across most creatures my opponent will field it makes an excellent addition to the deck.
I’ve always liked this card, both because it allows me to plow through for that little extra damage but also because it nets you an extra card, improving your chances of pulling an answer to your opponent’s threat or simply thinning your deck, making it quicker and smoother to run. I had at one point considered Fistful of Force but the conditional bonus of trample topped off with clash, my least favorite of the new mechanics, held me back.
With so much mana floating around in the late game and still feeling the need to draw more cards into my hand, I again fall back to the advice offered to me by Drathro (thanks man, you really were on the money with some of these). Acting both as a great land-blocker for the few creatures that actually could manage to make it past the Prisons and as a means to nab cards in the late game through use of the excess mana, these guys make a fine addition to the deck.
Now whilst this card draws us back towards the days of wasted mana it also allows us to make better use of it. Far slower then both the Twigs and the Reaches, Reap and Sow allows us not only to search for mana but to deprive our opponent of it as well while in the late game allowing us to achieve a two land swing. Now whilst Mwonvuli Acid-Moss can achieve the same goal quicker (and at the same price if you can believe that), it’s harder to play off of a mixed mana base and I’m not looking for speed anymore. Now with these changes a change in mana base is needed. Luckily, since lands are easy to come by and all cost the same ($0.10), it’s simply a matter of changing a few of them around.
Running at a cost of $9.96 this deck is still within the budget (though no celebratory coke this time I’m afraid). Whilst having a different style and pace to it, the deck still keeps true to the original concept: Stall the opponent out of the game and then plow through with everything you’ve got and don’t let up for a minute. A huge amount of thanks goes out to everyone that voted for me in the polls; your support means a lot to this Vampire and a great amount of thanks also goes to Drathro; whilst I didn’t take everything you had to offer, what you did put me on the path towards a better deck and helped me to make some of my own choices. As always comments and reviews are always appreciated; either post a comment in the provided thread, send a message via PM or Email or you can grab me on MSN or Skype, whatever is more comfortable and easy for you. Before I leave you this time I have one question that I would greatly appreciate if you’d answer: Do you like this style of article where we build, play test and re-evaluate our decks? As always we are trying to give you, the viewing public, what you want, so if you like what you see please let us know. Alright, well that’s enough out of this wounded Vampire; time for me to go lick my wounds and plot the downfall of my adversary…. Of course I mean congratulate DBB, yes of course…. Until Next Time Friends, This is Luthervamplord, Signing Off
So, Luther is defeated, no garlic or crosses needed. We played a solid few matches, and each time I was victorious. (Note that I also won the popular vote in the article’s poll, 57 to 32!) Bwahahaha! Not that that’s any spite to Luther’s ability to play the game. He made all the right plays, and did all the right things, but in the end his deck just couldn’t do all that much. I’m looking forward to our next match up with his proposed changes. Although Luther’s deck had quite a few problems, mine definitely wasn’t perfect. I had some good cards, but my curve was TERRIBLE. Oftentimes, I had to sit there holding Scriveners and Silver Drakes for the entire game. I also had some mana problems, which caused me to mulligan a bit more than I like to. Let’s take a look at the deck as it stands now.
Next up is Peel from Reality. It’s a instant spell, but it’s just too time intensive for this deck. Peel from Reality needs creatures on both sides to bounce, and half of the time Luther had no creatures to bounce, or I couldn’t afford the time to bounce them! With Silver Drake and Momentary Blink, I had all the slots I needed with bounce effects. The deck needs to be utilizing the mana it gets each turn by attacking or abusing its comes into play effects, not dorking around playing Peel from Reality to do cute tricks. Creatures win games!
Okay. Now let’s take a look at how this deck could get better. I think that, after a few plays, Vodalian Merchant is quite marvelous for this deck. It’s a two mana guy that has a good ability. It allows me to get better card quality by letting me sift through a card in my library, and it fits the curve better than Scrivener ever will. Because of his ability to help me out both in the late game and early game, I'm going to change him from a 2x to 4x.
Silver Drake was immensely helpful against Luther, and he ended up winning more than a few games against my nocturnal opponent. Three power for three mana, especially when it’s a flyer, is a good deal. When every one of your creatures has a comes into play ability, that’s a pretty amazing deal. I especially loved bouncing Mulldrifter with the Drake, and Vodalian Merchant makes this a perfect turn three play. Up to 4x he goes.
Another card I wanted to increase a bit was Aven Riftwatcher. Every time this creature gets Momentary Blinked, it nets you 4 life, and it’s a great flyer. To top it off, if you’re ever worried about losing him, you have Silver Drake to come to the rescue to gain you even more life. Against more aggressive decks, this guy is sure to be my savior. I need to get all the stalling I can pull out of him, and still get some good attacks in. Plus, my three drop needs to get a little more love. It's not looking that great right now, so to give my curve a bit of a bolster, I’m upping him to 4x.
To help fix my mana problems, and hopefully give me more consistent draws, I’ve decided that possibly the best card to add to the deck list is Ponder. I know I could have fiddled around with the land, but to be honest, I just felt that I wasn't drawing the right things at the right time. Ponder, at just U, is a spectacular card, it replaces itself and fixes your next few draws. It can turn a mediocre hand into a very powerful one. If you can play it, you probably should, and since it's so much like Brainstorm (and is actually Extended legal), I think it's a powerful addition to the deck.
I’m still in my budget, and I think the deck is quite a bit better with these changes. Here’s the new deck list.
‘Till next time,
You can discuss this article in the MDV forums
here.
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Now
before I can begin, I will of course need to drop those cards which are of no
use to me so as to make room for my new cards. I have decided also that to fall
more in line with the average casual gamer and his game that I’ll be dropping
the sideboard. Alright, I’ll admit it’s also because it gives me more budget to
play with as well.
As
already mentioned I simply drew far too much mana, and with the Twigs running
earlier and being far easier to run on a less dependable mana base it seems only
logical to drop one of these cards. Now to drop the sideboard:
Whilst
this card didn’t actually help me too much against DBB in the long run, it did
help the deck stall him for a few turns and against other decks that I knew I
would suffer against, such as Swarm and RG Aggro. It’s just too handy to pass
over.
Deck. 
Out
of my original ten dollar budget, I had a remaining $0.47 to work with, so I
don’t have a lot of wiggle room to make adjustments with. In order to free up
some more money, let’s cut out the chaff in this deck and start adding some
better cards; first to go is Scrivener. It’s a good card because it gets back my
Momentary Blinks and Peels from Reality, but in all honesty it’s not doing
enough for its hefty five mana cost. It just sits in your hand. Half of the time
you need to play a creature, and you loathe to play Scrivener because there are
never any instants in the graveyard! I need to slim down the curve so I can get
some better plays, so Scrivener, you have to go. It was good while it lasted…
well, actually, it wasn’t. Don’t come back.
With
my deck better than ever, I’ve only got one question. Luther, are you ready for
another match?