Evolving Precons - Eldritch Onslaught

[Prophylaxis]

One question, How are you playing against user made decks?

Yes, I am.

*How

Oops.

I use Cockatrice for these matchups.

[Appleguru56]

I like how much this deck has evolved! Here is my build:
3 {dragonskull summit}
3 {drowned catacomb}
4 {sulfur falls}
2 {shimmering grotto}
7 {island}
7 {mountain}

1 {inferno Titan}
2 {snapcaster Mage}
2 {merfolk looter}

4 {burning vengeance}
4 {think twice}
4 {mana leak}
4 {desperate ravings}
4 {forbidden alchemy}
2 {devil's play}
3 {dissipate}
2 {giestflame}
2 {rolling tremblor}

Sideboard:
2 giestflame
2 rolling tremblor
2 negate
2 devil's play
2 flashfreeze
1 dissipate
2 inferno Titan
2 frost Titan

This deck wrecks GW humans, illusions, all the blade variants, delver aggro, control variants, etc.

[Queezle]

What is cokatrice?

[Prophylaxis]

I like how much this deck has evolved! Here is my build:
3 {dragonskull summit}
3 {drowned catacomb}
4 {sulfur falls}
2 {shimmering grotto}
7 {island}
7 {mountain}

1 {inferno Titan}
2 {snapcaster Mage}
2 {merfolk looter}

4 {burning vengeance}
4 {think twice}
4 {mana leak}
4 {desperate ravings}
4 {forbidden alchemy}
2 {devil's play}
3 {dissipate}
2 {giestflame}
2 {rolling tremblor}

Sideboard:
2 giestflame
2 rolling tremblor
2 negate
2 devil's play
2 flashfreeze
1 dissipate
2 inferno Titan
2 frost Titan

This deck wrecks GW humans, illusions, all the blade variants, delver aggro, control variants, etc.

Want me to playtest it? It'll probably get wrecked, but Cockatrice is meant to playtest decks.

[Prophylaxis]

What is cokatrice?

A playtest program. I use it to playtest the decks.

[Greg54js]

Can it only be downloaded on a computer?

[Prophylaxis]

Can it only be downloaded on a computer?

http://cockatrice.de/

Yes, only on a computer. As long as you know what you're doing (use this guide http://www.eternal-central.com/?p=1115 for help) and are willing to make stuff up/fudge things, it's a very powerful playtester that's simpler than most other things.

Oh yeah, you can play other people on there too. I once drafted Innistrad using a draft simulator and built the decks on Cockatrice. Great times.

[Prophylaxis]

Should be done with this tomorrow. I'm conflicting between finishing this and playing Starcraft II.

[Prophylaxis]

Here is the long-awaited conclusion to this deck!


Eldritch Onslaught v. 1.4
Land
11 {Island}
13 {Mountain}
1 {Shimmering Grotto}
Creatures
4 {Delver of Secrets}
4 {Armored Skaab}
1 {Charmbreaker Devils}
Other Spells
4 {Burning Vengeance}
4 {Desperate Ravings}
4 {Dream Twist}
4 {Harvest Pyre}
3 {Rolling Temblor}
2 {Ancient Grudge}
2 {Devil's Play}
3 {Runechanter’s Pike}

See you guys next week! On the topic of Dark Ascension, I will possibly be revisiting the deck. I will construct a new poll - what Dark Ascension intro pack do you want me to tinker with? Leave your comments!

Welcome to the last stretch of “Evolving Precons - Eldritch Onslaught”! This week, I’m going to make a host of improvements - new Dark Ascension cards, sideboard, all that stuff. So, without ado, let’s go into the final set of games! I apologize for the delay.

Game 13 - Incubusgeek’s Liquid Destruction

I find this game to be one of the most depressing I have ever played.

The action starts early - I get out a {Delver of Secrets}, while my opponent finds a {Mycosynth Wellspring}, then brings out his signature card, {Liquimetal Coating}. He burns my Delver.

I get out a {Burning Vengeance}, but he then destroys it with help from his Coating. He then burns me with double {Galvanic Blast}s, putting me down to 12. I then destroy his Coating with an {Ancient Grudge} of my own. However, he finds another {Liquimetal Coating} and starts blowing up my lands.

I seem to be lost until I find my {Shimmering Grotto} and flashback the Grudge, killing the Coating. He is then mana-flooded, while I go on the offensive with a transformed Delver. He then finds a very scary {Kuldotha Phoenix}, then nips at my life total, me going to 8. I then try a gambit with the {Runechanter’s Pike} - I play it but don’t equip as I don’t have the mana. I go down to 4. I then equip the Pike - making my transformed Delver a very scary 11/2 flying. I burn out the Phoenix with a {Devil’s Play}, and I swing at my opponent for him to go to 4 also. He then pulls out a lifesaver - {Buried Ruin}, {Ichor Wellspring}, {Phyrexia’s Core} for him to go to a {Oxidda Scrapmelter}, killing my Delver with a Coating he had cast before. I cast a {Burning Vengeance}, hoping to burn him out next turn, but he then draws a {Buried Ruin} and the same thing happens all over again. This time, it’s an {Ancient Grudge}, that kills the Pike, then the Vengeance.

I then burn the Scrapmelter with a {Devil’s Play}, but he keeps drawing {Buried Ruin}s. Eventually, he hits the gold mine and shows me a {Galvanic Blast}. So close!

0-1 (4-9)

Game 14 - Kingkrank’s Sorin Vamp

I get out an early {Burning Vengeance}, which is important to ward off Vampires. My opponent gets out his {Bloodline Keeper}, which is also his first-turn play. He attacks with it, putting me down to 17. I then play my fourth land, then flashback two {Dream Twist}s, killing the Keeper.

He then vomits out three cards from his hand, two {Stromkirk Noble}s and a {Stromkirk Captain}. I then luck out and draw a {Rolling Temblor}, {Plague Wind}ing my opponent’s board. I keep pinging my opponent with the Skaab and shoot a couple burn spells at him, and he just durdles and does nothing, knowing that if he gets out anything he’ll be instantly burnt.

I equip my {Runechanter’s Pike} to the Skaab and rip my opponent apart. That’s basically it. Note to self: {Burning Vengeance} + cheap flashback spell = doom for aggro.

1-1 (5-9)

Game 15 - Macleod’s Blue/black Zombies

This game was a sad one. He got out right with a {Gravecrawler}, {Diregraf Ghoul}, and {Diregraf Captain}. I play an {Armored Skaab} and get color-screwed. That’s basically it.

1-2 (5-10)

...and that concludes the rest of the game reports. I’m actually disappointed by the 5-10 score. It just got 1-2s every week. This made me seriously reconsider the effectiveness of a budget deck in today’s day and time. I believe that the deck is competitive and got hurt by bad matchups, but I still feel that it might work.

Oh well, on to the aftermath!

Eldritch Onslaught v. 1.4
Land
11 {Island}
13 {Mountain}
1 {Shimmering Grotto}
Creatures
4 {Delver of Secrets}
4 {Armored Skaab}
1 {Charmbreaker Devils}
Other Spells
4 {Burning Vengeance}
4 {Desperate Ravings}
4 {Dream Twist}
4 {Harvest Pyre}
3 {Rolling Temblor}
2 {Ancient Grudge}
2 {Devil's Play}
3 {Runechanter’s Pike}

Now that Dark Ascension is out, I can reap the benefits of the new set as well as Innistrad. Great!

OUT: 1 {Burning Vengeance}
I said that this deck doesn’t really rely on the Vengance, and it doesn’t. I cringe every time I mill away a Vengeance, and the Vengeance doesn’t really do anything when it hits the board, which is huge. I always find myself casting another spell rather than Burning Vengeance.

OUT: 2 {Devil’s Play}
I’ve found that I’ve been finding small weenie decks a lot more prevalent than big creature decks, and the Play doesn’t really help there. I’ve never really used it to burn down an opponent, and the flashback cost is way too insurmountable.

OUT: 2 {Island}
Can you believe that there are only 3 blue spells in the entire deck? I can’t. Red is becoming a very large part of the deck. I think that we need to trim the amount of Islands for that reason.

OUT: 1 {Runechanter's Pike}
The Pike is good, but I don't want to mill it away or let it get destroyed by artifact hate. Also, we only have ten creatures.
Let’s see what we can do here to spice the deck up:

IN: 3 {Faithless Looting}
Seven draw spells is a lot, but this deck thrives on card advantage with flashback and draw. Faithless Looting is a neat way to “keep the spells you want, ditch the flashback spells”. Plus, you can even flashback it. It is extremely powerful and exactly what we want.

IN: 1 {Shimmering Grotto}
I was debating whether to include {Evolving Wilds} and one {Forest}, but that seems too clunky in this deck. I like the Grotto. It’s a cool way to splash flashback costs and to fix the mana problems with this deck.

IN: 1 {Charmbreaker Devils}
I still like the Devils. It’s exactly what we want in a flashback deck. They haven’t been showing up a lot since I ragekilled my opponent with them in Game 10.

IN: 1 Mountain
Less color-screw!

I’m comfortable calling this the final version:

Eldritch Onslaught v. 1.5 (final)
Land
9 {Island}
14 {Mountain}
2 {Shimmering Grotto}
Creatures
4 {Delver of Secrets}
4 {Armored Skaab}
2 {Charmbreaker Devils}
Other Spells
3 {Faithless Looting}
3 {Burning Vengeance}
4 {Desperate Ravings}
4 {Dream Twist}
4 {Harvest Pyre}
3 {Rolling Temblor}
2 {Ancient Grudge}
2 {Runechanter’s Pike}

Sideboarding

I admit that I am not an expert on sideboarding. The nature of sideboards means that you must change the sideboard depending on what other decks your opponents are playing. However, I feel like my sideboard will provide a decent jumping off point for you to modify.

IN: 2 {Ancient Grudge}
I wish I had added Ancient Grudge earlier. It would make a real difference in the artifact-laden environment I have been fighting through. Sideboard these in if you’re seeing tons of artifacts.

IN: 4 {Mana Leak}
This came as a last-minute thing: How come you don’t have any countermagic? I can see a place for it in the main but I simply don’t have anything to remove. I could see subbing this in for quick aggro decks if you don’t draw your {Burning Vengeance}.

IN: 3 {Devil’s Play}
Somedays you’ll have to aim a big burn spell in the face. Somedays your opponent will be playing mono-green and get out a huge fatty. You know what to do with those moments.

IN: 3 {Geistflame}
I originally said that Geistflame was going to make main-deck. Well, I haven’t really found that many situations where the ‘flame is always useful, so board them in if you’re facing Illusions or Delver {flashback = kill an Insectile Aberration}

IN: 2 {Secrets of the Dead}
In today’s environment, you want 2 damage more than a cantrip. However, Secrets of the Dead still has it’s uses - for example, against control decks you can often deluge them in a mountain of card advantage. This deck has way too much card advantage, methinks.

IN: 1 {Increasing Confusion}
This card is very versatile. Early game, a casting of this allows you to mill your deck a bit for flashback and {Runechanter’s Pike}. Late game, this can deck your opponent.

Adding Money

{Snapcaster Mage}

This is easily the most high-profile inclusion to the deck. This deck virtually begs for it. In this deck I really wanted for {Harvest Pyre} to have flashback and I was always sad to see them milled. The ‘Mage recurs your most important spells and is an early beatstick.

Dual Lands

Here’s a heads up. In every single “Adding Money” section, I will say dual lands. Why? Because they are relatively cheap (~$3 is a bit too much for this deck, but reasonable) and they do so much for the deck. {Sulfur Falls} and {Rootboung Crag} are the ones you want to track down.

{Slagstorm}

A superior alternative to {Rolling Temblor}. The extra red is iffy but we can make it work.

{Grim Lavamancer}

It’s a Burning Vengeance on steroids. I can see this being very powerful.

{Phantasmal Image}

This is another important card. In this case, this card deals with {Thrun, the Last Troll} and basically makes the deck more versatile.

Alternate Routes

There are many ways to go with this deck if you want to spin it off. Here are some of my favorites.

Grixis Tempo
This is basically the core list splashing black. Key cards include {Olivia Voldaren}, {Go for the Throat}, and {Bump in the Night}

U/R Burn
This deck includes more burn than usual and {Chandra’s Phoenix}.

Mill
This deck basically aims to mill opponents fast with {Increasing Confusion} and {Shriekgeist}. A meh archetype.

Pike Combo
An alternative and highly competitive route is to use {Invisible Stalker}, {Blighted Agent}, and {Inkmoth Nexus} to fuel {Runechanter’s Pike}. Quite strong and this is where I would take the archetype.

Closing Notes

I have to say that this has been quite a fun deck to do. Of course, I took some breaks (which resulted in 2 weeks without an article, sometimes) but I am looking forward to tinkering with Dark Sacrifice.

I was a bit disappointed with the 5-10 result, but the fact that we were against some really powerful cards {Sword of Feast and Famine}, coupled with the fact that the deck hasn’t wore a 0-3 record gives me hopes that this deck can perform decently well. I will be revisiting this deck in the near future (possibly with the release of Avacyn Restored) if this continues to do well.

I was also sad about the feedback. Comment on the deck! Give me some interesting card choices! Your say is valuable to me. I will be posting the final decklist on Standard soon.

Onto a new decklist - Dark Sacrifice. From flashback parlor to human sacrifice.

[Nikhandy]

I enjoy reading this, keep doing it