1st Place Retailer Invitational's Constructed Deck

[Ruiner EX]

This is less to brag and more to get advice and criticism. I won the tournament at the I'm Game store in North Olmsted Ohio today with 7 people. I have not played in a few months and am not familar with all of the cards, but here is what I ended up running, with a few brief comments if my friend picking me up is late :P

4 Flaming Barduse
4 Quotidian Ejector
4 Plodding Brute
4 UMMM 2 cost dude who puts tokens on cards ( arcanist )
4 Servile Centipede

4 Target practice
4 Quotidian Assassination
4 Dragon Catheter
4 Remember
4 Forget
1 Air Travel
1 Eye Gouge
1 Shriever Attack
1 Tactical Vacation
4 Voidal Perversion
1 Dragon Strategy
1 12 Man Brunch of Doom
4 Lubicirigubruiouswhatever Finger Trap

18 Obsession
2 Rage

1 Faction

Basic idea is a bit of bounce thrown in with some fairly quick aggression. Mulligan condition was Dragon Catheter and either an Ejector or Brute. NOW, let me explain that I know the Brute doesn't normally seem optimal. But I found it to be really strong as your follow up to the Catheter. It lets you almost guarantee that they can't top your power, and the low speed is fairly irrelevent when you bounce whatever they have anyways. I love the synergy behind the 2 cost guys and the Ejector when used with the Catheter as they replace tokens AND make bigger guys. Same with the Perversions.

I ran a bit of a toolbox as well, with the Centipedes ( who could also be bounced to research the deck ) and 4x Remember to get up to 5 copies of answers. In retrospect, some form of answer to Items would be ideal, as I had to lose tempo and a turn getting Forget with a Centipede to deal with a Runic Cannon?? which was crippling my board. Some form of effecient kill card would be nice as well. Perhaps a good back up 4 drop if I dont get the brute. I had Reckless Challenger but the 1 life makes it so easy to poke to death, and I fear Shriever Attack badly.
But yeah I'll post more later, thats the list, help me with it, its near untested and not by any chance a great build, just a start.

[Great White Nothing]

The card who's name you could not think of is Skimping Ecto-Manipulator

[Ruiner EX]

Yeah! Thats the dude :P

He was pretty hardcore.

ANYWAYS, I need 2 more creatures. Cutting the Eye Gouge ( aka last panic addition when I realized I was under cards ) for sure, probably adding Hammer Smash to deal with pesky items. I need to cut 2 cards to add 2 more aggressive attackers. Any suggestions? Is 18 too many Obsessions? All I need is two, than I can simply place any card. I rarely go beyond 6 resources anyways. Perhaps I cut two for characters? What characters?

I also wouldn't mind knowing what some of the "archetypes" are currently so I know what sort of standards I have to play against as local tournaments are never the best bar to judge a deck against.

[Tempest]

So this is a build i threw together. i didnt put much work into it but i think it works real well. you're going to notice i start with rage instead of obsession. I like it that way because it lets me use rudo mangod, who's real good. The issue i had with your build is that you rely on ejector like ALOT. in this build ejector is still there, but if you dont draw him the enitire game you can still do great. So umm, yea. Give this build a try let me know how it works




Lands
16 [STP] Rage
2 [STP] Obsession

4 [1ED] Skimping Ecto-Manipulator
4 [1ED] Servile Centipede
4 [1ED] Quotidian Ejector
4 [1ED] Flaming Barduse
4 [1ED] Rudo Mangod
4 [1ED] Scout
4 [1ED] Hidden Sniper
4 [1ED] Plodding Brute

4 [1ED] Lugubrious Finger Trap
4 [1ED] Quotidian Assassination
4 [1ED] Forget
4 [1ED] Remember
2 [1ED] Tactician Vacation
4 [1ED] Target Practice
1 [1ED] Bask Bile
2 [1ED] Hammer Smash

[Ruiner EX]

Oh man, yeah I really like the option to run Rudo, and thats alot closer to the previous build that I was running. It was more smash, less bounce/combo, and it played very well too.

I normally would start arcanist myself, BUT I really like the strength of Dragon Catheter. With the chance to look thru 16 cards to draw into it, it becomes feasible to get it consistantly each game. Whether its used with an Ejector or just a normal creature they get bigger. It works really well with the bounce as the momentary tempo not only makes them on the defensive but also makes my creatures large enough to really escape them ever tying or beating my high strength.

I remember a fun point in the day today in the tourney was I had a plodding brute and I was stallmating this Banker deck and neither of us could get anywhere ( he had pettifogger UGH and like a full board of stuff ) so I just drop a 2nd Catheter, and we pass a few turns back and forth. In other words, my Brute gets 10 tokens. So hes a 25/3. I centipede, gank Air Travel, and win. No, no real relevence to the story I just really like talking about 25/3s. Alot.

Ugh I dunno, while my build seems like it relies on the Ejector alot ( its one of my fav cards ) theres a bunch of hidden synergies as well. The Ecto Manipulators and the Perversions also are so strong with the Catheter. Portecting them with bounce and other tricks is just so strong.

I will try the other build and proxy some Rudo tho, the rest I have. I do like how low on rares this deck is though. I'm also positive I love this combo of Warlord and Arcanist. I have another tournament next week, but it is Draft, so we will see how that goes, plus another constructed the weekend after that, I'm probably going to use the same deck, but I got the invite so I'm just playing for packs unless we get 8+ people I guess.

[Falsesanity]

I like, I am in the middle of testing a Dragon Cathater deck but the low life... I never thought about air travel... I might drop that in, but essentually my idea is the same, I just like the idea of having a 25/1/3 ejector, I attack.. bounce whatever is assigned to block and let the rest go through....

[Ruiner EX]

Yeah I am liking it alot so far. If you ever draw the second Catheter it just gets sick ( Theres good synergy with the Beserker Corps as well if anyone wants to try that, this build can't run them effectively but I believe there are builds that can...maybe Rogue or one of the others that has creatures that can be insta cast )

I want to max it to 4 copies of 12 Man Brunch of Doom. I realized how sick this card actually is in here. Theres so many smaller/weak creatures that can be used up for it. The Centipede being a crucial one IMO. The Ecto Manipulators and Centipedes or a used up Ejector...all useful to taking out key targets. So 4 copies of that go in.

I was looking at the 4 drops I could run and reached a conclusion out of the cards I own ( Is there an easy to use database of the full first set available online I could get a link to? ) Due to Threshold it came down to either Scout or the Swarm of Gnats. I actually went with the Gnats here. Sacrificing strength matters, but with the bouncing effects I can usually clear the way of other creatures. His life keeps him out of the way of Target practice and Shriever attack, which is key. So two of the most popular forms of removal ( warlords cant kill it without using 2 cards early and if arcanists bounce it they get punished HARD ) make it nice. Simple card advantage early game is great too. The longer this deck has to set up and establish control the better and just giving your opponent one or two less cards over the course of the game is useful. The coming and leaving play synergy with it and bounce is incredible too. Play it, they lose a card, bounce it they lose one, replay it. A three card swing with them having not even dealt with it seems really good. Maybe even maxing it with 4 of these guys seems good. It also makes me want to experiment with a pure discard based deck as well. So far my list of stuff to work on outside of this is a discard build, and a Gearsmith Arcanists Molestation combo deck. I own almost no Gearsmith stuff though, so that will need to wait hehe. I'll figure out exactly what I want to cut now. Lets try an updated list.

4 Quotidian Ejector
4 Plodding Brute
4 Skimping Ecto Manipulator
4 Flaming Barduse
4 Servile Centipede
2 Swarm of Gnats

4 Quotidian Assassination
4 Forget
4 12 Man Brunch of Doom
4 Voidal Perversion
3 Remember
4 Lugubrious Finger Trap
4 Dragon Catheter
4 Target Practice
2 Tactician Vacation
1 Air Travel
1 Shriever Attack
1 Hammer Smash


2 Rage
15 Obsession

1 Tournament Faction

Tacticion Vacation got upped by one because it seems like a MONSTER any time your opponent goes to play a game winning trick. I like it due to its potential game winning position swings, so it gets a second copy. Just the fact that it nuetralizes any kill tactic is great. Makes it so your opponent can't mess up your plans on the kill turn too. Definitely deserves 2 IMO. Hammer Smash is item hate. I lacked it before and regretted it. Fixed that. Shriever Attack is questionable. The Manipulators and Ejectors die to it, but thats why it is certainly a one of. There are bound to be board positions where I've lost control or they simply have alot of guys. Any situation where it hurts them more than me is a viable one for its inclusion as a lone copy in a deck that can reliably search for it ( I love the Centipedes ability to offer a toolbox engine. Echo Distillation seems interesting too ) Plus theres alot of really crazy Gearsmith token stuff that scares me, even though I don't know what it actually can do yet, so it seems like a nice answer vs a deck I'd likely not have answers to otherwise. Air Travel is the kill forcer, assuming bounces don't work, plus it cantrips. ( another reason for why Voidal Perversion is worth its weight in here )

I have finally gotten a copy of Voidal Poisoning this weekend and I am unsure of it being worth it in this. It seems as if it could be a bit of a " win more " card to me. If I have enough tokens available to make it really really useful, than I am already in such a strong position I have real reason to not win ANYWAYS. If I have enough tokens to make it useful, but not broken, its influence isn't nearly that strong, and I'm not really LOOKING to ditch tokens when they either provide bounces, or extra damage if not both. I am looking at running 1 copy of it though, as I do really like the ability to spread a large amount of damage around.

Thats all. I'm done. ( For Now )

[bic]

( Is there an easy to use database of the full first set available online I could get a link to? )

Athena, located on this site.

[strategin]

Athena, located on this site.

Actually, despite its official status, Athena is not located on this site. It can be found here:

http://metatime.net/athena

[strategin]

Lands
16 [STP] Rage
2 [STP] Obsession

4 [1ED] Skimping Ecto-Manipulator
4 [1ED] Servile Centipede
4 [1ED] Quotidian Ejector
4 [1ED] Flaming Barduse
4 [1ED] Rudo Mangod
4 [1ED] Scout
4 [1ED] Hidden Sniper
4 [1ED] Plodding Brute

4 [1ED] Lugubrious Finger Trap
4 [1ED] Quotidian Assassination
4 [1ED] Forget
4 [1ED] Remember
2 [1ED] Tactician Vacation
4 [1ED] Target Practice
1 [1ED] Bask Bile
2 [1ED] Hammer Smash

I think it's trying to be a Catheter deck, but if so, it does not have enough Dragon Catheters in it.

[Ruiner EX]

I really like the potential synergy between Dragon Catheter and a Warlord Arcanist build. The worst drawback of the Catheter is that it can backfire and benefit your opponent but in this situation those instances are kept in check by bounce entirely. Am I certain its the best approach? Hell no. It seems interesting and has worked well thus far. I really wouldn't mind trying a slightly more aggressive build to this too though ( probably cut the Voidal Poisonings, Catheters and Skimpings and toss in faster, stronger more aggressive creatures )

Thanks a ton for the link to Athena. I'll print off some stuff to read during the first day of classes tomorrow :P