BlackVise and Helldozer Deck

by **Chris H.** » 17 Nov 2008, 00:12

This is another deviant deck for you to try.

Keep yourself busy destroying the computer's land. The Black Vise with the Howling Mine will do some serious damage to the computer.

The Eternal Witness and the Helldozer appear not to be necessary in play testing. I did use an Eternal Witness once to brink back a previously cast Sinkhole. There may be better choices.

60 Total Cards

4 Creatures
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3x Eternal Witness
1x Helldozer

35 Spells
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4x Black Vise
1x Demonic Tutor
3x Howling Mine
4x Ice Storm
4x Lay Waste
4x Molten Rain
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Jet
1x Mox Ruby
4x Sinkhole
4x Stone Rain
4x Tendrils of Corruption

21 Land
--------
4x Badlands
4x Bayou
3x Blood Crypt
3x Overgrown Tomb
3x Stomping Ground
4x Taiga

by **GandoTheBard** » 17 Nov 2008, 01:01

Land destruction has always fascinated some people because it takes advantage of a built in flaw in the game...namely mana screw/top deck syndrome. But conventional wisdom (since the early 90s anyway) is that land destruction needs to be super efficient to be considered good. Sadly this is probably true with the computer too as the computer has an artificially smoothed land draw. You will have a hard time keeping their land down to nonthreatening levels. Also if you take out the Eternal Witnesses you lose the ability to recurse your Helldozer (1x fatty) should the computer find a way to kill it. If the same game also produces many ways to kill vises (note the insane draw bug associated with the vise btw) you could concievably end up with no way to kill your opponent since decking does nothing in MTG Forge. On the other hand vise by itself usually wins against the computer as it ends up taking 15-16 points of damage a turn. fun times if you get a first turn vise. Something akin to brutally mugging a baby for its lolipop.

Now what you really want is a red white deck with Armageddons, Pillages, Laywastes, Avalanche Riders (unimplemented as of yet for the reason that echo isn't done I assume) and other fun ways to hose your opponents land.

by **Chris H.** » 17 Nov 2008, 13:48

GandoTheBard wrote:On the other hand vise by itself usually wins against the computer as it ends up taking 15-16 points of damage a turn. fun times if you get a first turn vise. Something akin to brutally mugging a baby for its lolipop.

I play tested the deck again and discovered that the Black Vise bug does not effect the computer. I waited for a game with a black vise in my opening hand. I played the Black Vise on my first turn and the computer took only 3 points of damage on subsequent turns.

Granted, it still is a deviant sort of deck and I would not expect human opponents to enjoy being on the receiving end. At least I no longer feel like I'm stealing candy from that baby. :wink:

by **GandoTheBard** » 18 Nov 2008, 08:32

Chris H. wrote:
GandoTheBard wrote:On the other hand vise by itself usually wins against the computer as it ends up taking 15-16 points of damage a turn. fun times if you get a first turn vise. Something akin to brutally mugging a baby for its lolipop.
I play tested the deck again and discovered that the Black Vise bug does not effect the computer. I waited for a game with a black vise in my opening hand. I played the Black Vise on my first turn and the computer took only 3 points of damage on subsequent turns.

Well that's good...I have seen the computer take 15 card draws. Though when it does that it is usually on maximum cheat mode. (No there is no one way to force it into this mode...just does it randomly)

Granted, it still is a deviant sort of deck and I would not expect human opponents to enjoy being on the receiving end. At least I no longer feel like I'm stealing candy from that baby.

Well that's nice...hopefully the average player of the game has progressed to the point where a land deprivation strategy just fails 90% of the time. At least unless the deck you are running LD with is set up with maximum efficiency and card advantage. Even then you are as liable to poor draws as your opponent assuming they are playing a semi optimal deck...Now if they are running a net deck some are quite vulnerable to such strategies but again it is a matter of luck and efficiency.

I prefer to bet on a sure thing so LD seems weak to me. But the vises sure add strength to the mix...the problems youd face against swarm and weenie decks is numerous ...your sideboard would be your best resort after game 1. (Pyroclasm/Damnation/Earthquake/Hurricane etc).

Anyway I am sure the AI gets resoundly wooped by this deck just on the vise draw alone. Unless you get a really slow draw.