The Planeswalkers of the Multiverse: A Magic the Gathering Discussion Group

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Iona is run in Legacy dredge only...

Still very potent when dredged up and then reanimated...
 
I haven't posted in while, but I've got something interesting for you guys to look at. The following is the winning list from Star City Games open in Nashville, TN:

Brian Sondag's Wolf Run Ramp
Standard – Winner, StarCityGames Open in Nashville, Tennessee

Main Deck

60 cards

4 Copperline Gorge
9 Forest
4 Inkmoth Nexus
2 Kessig Wolf Run
3 Mountain
4 Rootbound Crag
26 lands

1 Acidic Slime
1 Birds of Paradise
3 Primeval Titan
3 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Viridian Emissary
3 Wurmcoil Engine
15 creatures

4 Beast Within
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Rampant Growth
3 Slagstorm
15 other spells

4 Garruk, Primal Hunter
4 planeswalkers

Sideboard
4 Ancient Grudge
1 Ratchet Bomb
1 Slagstorm
3 Sword of Feast and Famine
3 Thrun, the Last Troll
2 Tree of Redemption
1 Viridian Corrupter
15 sideboard cards

Some are speculating this to be the new Valakut. If you guys don't understand how it works, let me now. It is actually quite simple.
 
I almost went to that event, considering that I live in Nashville...
Wolf Run just spams out Inkmoth Nexi and Kessig Wolf Run in order to pump the infect given to your opponent by the Nexi.
Resulting lethal poison counters.

Correct?
 
I think it's a cool deck, and it's definitely powerful, but it isn't Valakut. The reason Valakut was so good was because it's win condition was a land, which was basically impossible to kill without Tec Edge and easy to search out. Wolf Run requires two different nonbasic lands in play, and one has to turn into a creature and get past blockers. Not only can Nexus be killed with Doom Blade and Dismember, it can be hit by Ghost Quarter, and if your opponent can get rid your Wolf Runs, you're basically dead. Not to mention lots of decks are running flying creatures, like Tempered Steel (arguably the best deck in Standard right now). They can chump the Nexus with a Signal Pest or trade with it via Glint Hawk/Idol/Vault Skirge/Spined Thopter.

/rant
 
Syneptus, you are correct. That is exactly how it wins games.

I share your sentiments nabby, but I think it's definitely the Valakut equivalent of this format.
 
Until it becomes the undisputable BDIF, I'm not calling it Valakut. I think too many things have to go right. Especially when you're only playing two copies of your namesake. Here are some commonly played cards that break the deck:

- Memoricide (for Titan/Nexus/Wolf Run)
- Dismember (played as at least a two-of in every single deck in the format)
- Doom Blade
- Dispatch (because most of us play Tempered Steel)
- Ghost Quarter (it's not Tec Edge, but it's close)
- Sever the Bloodline (Titans/Beast tokens)
- Oblivion Ring (for Garruk and Titan)
- Any of the 10 burns spells Mono-Red plays. Nexus still only has 1 toughness, so if you put 10 mana into Wolf Run and then they Geistflame/Shock/Galvanic Blast your guy... you lose a lot of tempo.
 
But yet, Valakut had similar problems.
People played tec edge like crazy and Valaramp still got the upper hand.
Why? Because of the many ways to win.
Valakut:
Primary goal: Valakut death
Secondary goal: Smash with Primeval or Avenger of Zendikar
Terciary goal: Kill with Wurmcoil

Wolf Run:
Primary goal: Inkmoth kill
Seconday goal: pumped or unpumped Titan or Wurmcoil kill

Similar, maybe I'm reading this deck incorrectly, but Wurmcoil and Titan cannot be dismembered, making your opponent have to make choices depending on what to kill.

Wolf Run is certainly a good deck.
Unfortunately for Tempered Steel, the card Ancient Grudge came into the format...
 
So I'm running Solar Flare now, here's my list:

3 Darkslick Shores
4 Drowned Catacomb
4 Glacial Fortress
3 Island
4 Isolated Chapel
3 Plains
3 Seachrome Coast
2 Swamp
26 Lands

1 Consecrated Sphinx
2 Phantasmal Image
3 Snapcaster Mage
2 Sun Titan
1 Wurmcoil Engine
9 Creatures

3 Day of Judgment
3 Doom Blade
4 Forbidden Alchemy
2 Mana Leak
2 Oblivion Ring
3 Think Twice
2 Timely Reinforcements
2 Unburial Rites
21 Other spells

4 Liliana of the Veil
4 Planeswalkers

I haven't got the Sideboard quite fleshed out yet (hoping that's where you all come in). What do you guys think? Are my counts alright?
 
Seems pretty nice...
Try it out, if you can.
Solar Flare works against some decks, but you should try to see what matches up...

Sideboard:
Any swords?

I'm pretty bad with sideboards, so sorry...
 
Doom Blade kills Titan, Wurmcoil, and Nexus. Also, Valakut didn't run any Wurmcoils, and only ran Avenger half the time.

I like the Solar Flare list, although in testing it is ridiculously hard to get the mana for a turn 3/4 Liliana, so you might want to cut one. Your manabase seems a bit dual-heavy. 12 M10 duals with only 8 basics? I'd run 6 Scars duals, 9-10 M10 duals, and 10 basics. You might want another Sun Titan in there, he's pretty ridiculous.

As for the sideboard, dedicate as much as half to Tempered Steel. I've been testing the deck, and even with 3 Days, 3 Timely's, a Wurmcoil Engine, 2 Doom Blades, 2 O-Rings and 2 Gideons (along with some artifact hate - I think it was Revoke) they get destroyed. My testing looked something like this:

2-1 Tempered Steel
2-0 Tempered Steel
2-1 Tempered Steel
2-1 Solar Flare
2-0 Tempered Steel

Steel went 4-1 (9-4), boarding out Dismember and Vault Skirge for O-Ring and Shrine.


But back to the Wolf Run topic - this weekend, Wolf Run took 4 out of 8 spots in the Top 8 for GP something-or-other. But people will adapt, and it will probably do something similar to Mono-Red (amazing results, and then dropped off). If not, I might consider moving to EDH until Primeval Titan rotates. I have a very deep hatred for decks like these, and if this stays big I will dedicate almost my entire sideboard to fighting it (I'm testing the matchup against Tempered Steel tomorrow).
 
EDH...sigh...
so much fun...
I played a 10-player FFA in EDH the other day and got second. (Took 3 hours)

My EDH general is Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund, I spam dragons, and then I take them. You wanna Bribery me? That's cute, I ONLY HAVE DRAGONS and Karrthus STEALS dragons, and then hits you with them.
Sarkhan the Mad kills players with his ultimate, and destroys giant broken things with his -2...

Sorry, derail.

Tempered Steel is good, but not good enough IMO...
 
What does Tempered Steel not beat? It destroys Solar Flare, it's slightly better than Mono-Red (55-45), it beats up any G/W Humans/tokens deck. Against Wolf Run it's generally a toss-up - Tempered Steel wins if they get a turn 3 Steel, Wolf Run wins if they untap with a Titan. People are running SoFaF > SoWaP, so they can't really hurt us. The main problem for the deck is Phyrexian Crusader, and there still aren't many decks playing him, even though he's possibly the most powerful three mana creature in Standard.

For EDH, I'm not sure who to run as my Commander. I kinda like Sygg, River Cutthroat, but I also like Riku, and Olivia Voldaren. Who do you guys think I should play? I'm leaning towards Riku right now, because of the awesome interaction with Evoke creatures and such. If I do play Riku, I would probably try to abuse his creature duplicating ability rather than his spell one, just because I think it would be more fun. Any other suggestions for Generals/Commander?
 
Voldaren = no go...
Too inflexible.

Sygg = great. Abuse him.

Riku = great color combination. Abuse him.

Tempered Steel, at least my stupidly limited experience with it has been: o-ring, ancient grudge, revoke existence, naturalize, creeping corrosion, acidic slime...
I probably just have an awful time with it...
 
Thanks for the improvements, here is the updated list and sideboard for your critique:

3 Darkslick Shores
4 Drowned Catacomb
3 Glacial Fortress
4 Island
3 Isolated Chapel
4 Plains
3 Seachrome Coast
2 Swamp
26 Lands

1 Consecrated Sphinx
2 Phantasmal Image
3 Snapcaster Mage
2 Sun Titan
1 Wurmcoil Engine
9 Creatures

2 Day of Judgment
3 Doom Blade
4 Forbidden Alchemy
4 Mana Leak
2 Oblivion Ring
3 Think Twice
2 Timely Reinforcements
2 Unburial Rites
22 Other spells

3 Liliana of the Veil
3 Planeswalkers

Sideboard
2 Day of Judgment
2 Dissipate
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
2 Revoke Existence
2 Stony Silence
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Timely Reinforcements
2 Wurmcoil Engine
15 Sideboard Cards

Any thoughts (in particular, of the Sideboard)?

As far as EDH generals go, my group has had fantastic results with her, but even better results with Grim-Grim, Corpseborn. Those two cards have some fantastic interactions in EDH.
 
My only suggestion.

-1 Day of Judgment (move the third one to the side, possibly replacing an Elesh Norn)
+1 Mana Leak (4 is basically manditory in the deck)
 
Cool. I've been looking at the different Commanders, and I find Riku isn't really as good copying creatures as spells, and spells aren't as fun for me. Sygg decks generally just play a bunch of small evasive creatures, but don't seem to have many win conditions (yes, I know you can draw into them). Olivia is okay, but seemed sub-par. Any other suggestions for Commanders? Grimgrin is cool, but sacrificing creatures isn't really my forte.
 
Thraximundar has always been good. Really good. In the right deck he's a win condition by himself.
 
I did try and make a deck around Thrax before. Do you think he'd be better in a full on sacrifice theme (Geth's Verdict, Chainer's Edict, Butcher of Malakir, etc), or as a secondary theme?
 
I've seen both used for great effect, but Thrax does much better with a sacrifice-theme going on in my opinion. It really makes him that much more of a pain for your opponents when people are losing creatures left and right.
 
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