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My affinity deck got to 49 out of 50 in gauntlet mode, losing with a ridiculously bad draw in the 49th round.

I regularly get into the 30s with affinity, slivers and elves, and have recently got into the 40s a few times with elves. I Don't even play type 1 with the elves; no moxen or lotus!

The affinity deck I got to round 49 with is slightly unusual. I call it beserker affinity:
(edited; extra lotus petal is soon to be replaced)
4 mishras factory
4 vault of whispers
4 tree of tales
4 seat of synod
2 tropical islands
4 thoughtcast
1 ancestral recall
1 timewalk
4 beserk
4 frogmite
4 myr enforcer
2 lotus petal (should only be using one, my bad)
1 black lotus
5 moxen
4 cranial plating
4 ornithopter
4 arcbound ravanger
4 arcbound worker


No disciples in that one, but 4 beserkers, for the one turn kills.

Elf deck (record: round 45. not bad for a deck i only made two days ago):

16 Forests
3 Gaes cradle
4 elvish champion
2 fyndohorn elves
4 imperious perfect
4 llanowar elves
4 wren`s run vanquisher
3 elvish visionary
2 priest of titania
4 nettle sentinel
2 heritage druid
4 glimpse of nature
4 wilt-leaf liege
3 coat of arms


I have several sliver decks, can't be bothered to look one up now.

BTW have you noticed that it tends to be your own decks that do you over in the gauntlet??

FYI, Lotus Petal is restricted in Vintage, if you want to follow that rule set.

Thanks for the info. I just realised that I actually had two tropical islands and two lotus petals, not four lotus petals in the deck. Maybe I'll swap one out for a city of brass, or a naturalise.

I've just beaten gauntlet mode, all 50 levels, with my new counter tarmogyf deck! Sweet! Here is the decklist:

4 tropical islands
2 polluted deltas
4 flooded strands
4 volcanic islands
4 strip mines
4 ponders
1 time walk
3 dazes
4 force of wills
4 force spikes
4 mana drains
4 brain storms
1 ancestral recall
1 wheel of fortune
4 lightning bolts
4 nimble mongoose
4 tarmogyf
1 terravore
3 fire//ice

Tactic: counter anything threatening, dd any creatures that you need to, search your deck for the land/cards you need. All this fills the graveyard, so you are ready to drop a tarmo or terra, with nimbles supporting. Works like a charm.

Now I want to build another deck. I already have sliver aggro, counter sliver, elves aggro, and a few affinity decks that work well. I'd like to make a deck based around sundering titan, but my effort so far lacks any synergy...I basically just power through with artifacts, using workshops for speed. I must admit I'm pretty bad at coming up with original deck ideas, although I love tinkering/adapting other builds. So, does any one have a nice sundering titan deck?

Ponder , Brainstorm and Strip Mine are T1 restricted.

Really? I've seen plenty of deck lists with multiple ponders/brainstorms. Were when were they restricted?...............

just googled it. about a year ago apparently.

As for strip mine, I guess that's been banned for a while.

Anyway, I'm off to make a deck based around serra avenger. Maybe I'll beat the 50 rounds without accidently breaking t1 rules!

EDIT: Damn, misread serra avatar as serra avenger.

jackthelad wrote:So, does any one have a nice sundering titan deck?

I haven't built the deck, but my list would probably start:

4 of each Urza land
4 Tropical Island
8 Fetch Lands
4 Crop Rotation
4 Sundering Titan
4 Force of Will
A bunch of restricted cards.

You can cast Titan turn 3 every game, probably.

Strip Mine was restricted when I was in either junior high or high school :p So unless they unrestricted it and then rerestricted it while I wasn't following the community, it's been restricted since the late 90s.

jackthelad wrote:I've just beaten gauntlet mode, all 50 levels, with my new counter tarmogyf deck! Sweet! Here is the decklist:

Unfortunately, gauntlet mode's difficulty is super-reliant on what decks you have saved in your folder. It is a nice accomplishment to win 50 in a row regardless (even the best deck can give you a terrible starting hand, even if you mulligan a few times), although if you have a bunch of combo or control decks like I do, you get plenty of free wins. Lemme send you a Goblin deck, however, and if you put a couple of renamed copies of that in your folder, you may not be so quick to get 50 in a row again. =P

And Crop Rotation is currently Restricted in T1, although that's actually coming off the list soon.

Well, I have 3 affinity decks, an elves deck and a few sliver decks (aggro and counter sliver) that are all in the gauntlet. They are usually the decks that cause me problems in gauntlet mode.

I'd be happy to try out the goblin deck though. At the moment I've been playing around with isochrone scepter (well 4; might be too many, but they sure are fun):

4 tropical islands
3 polluted deltas
3 flooded strands
4 volcanic islands
3 mox (ruby, sapphire, emerald)
1 black lotus
1 ponder
1 time walk
2 boomerangs
4 dazes
4 force of wills
2 force spikes
4 mana drains
1 brain storms
1 thirst for knowledge
1 ancestral recall
1 wheel of fortune
4 lightning bolts
4 nimble mongoose
4 tarmogyf
4 isochron scepters
4 fire//ice

seems to work well; only had time to play about 15 rounds, but undefeated so far.....

I found a link to some interesting vintage decks, although they all break the current t1 rules. Some crazy combos going on there; fun, but just takes too long to win a game!

here is the link
http://forum.tcgplayer.com/archive/index.php/t-15715.html

Long.dec

4 City of Brass
4 Forbidden Orchard
1 Tolarian Academy
2 Underground Sea
1 Time Walk
1 Timetwister
1 Windfall
1 Tinker
4 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Necropotence
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
4 Duress or Thoughtseize
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Consultation
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Yawgmoth's Will
4 Dark Ritual
4 Burning Wish
1 Wheel of Fortune
3 Chromatic Star or Sphere
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Diamond
1 Memory Jar

Tutor for Yawgmoth's Will, Tendrils, or whatever you need at the time with the Burning Wishes. Lots of turn 1 and 2 kills, very, very rarely needs more than 4 turns to kill.

ScepterTitan

I borrowed some ideas from Jatill's Sundering Titan idea, but tweaked it into an Isochron Scepter Variation

Avatar: Serra Angel (Optional)
4 Underground Sea
4 Watery Grave
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Seat of the Synod
2 Mishra's Workshop
4 Polluted Delta

4 Merchant Scroll
4 Force of Will
2 Mana Drain
4 Cunning Wish
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Guardian Beast
4 Isochron Scepter
3 Lightning Greaves (Equipped on the Beast, it makes your artifacts VERY hard to destroy)
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Black Lotus
4 Sculpting Steel
4 Sundering Titan

The idea is to Wish up imprints for the Scepters to control the board and setup for the Titans to take out your opponent. The Guardian Beasts will protect your artifacts from Disenchant -like spells and mass removal like shatterstorms, etc.

long.dec

Brainstorm, Lion's Eye Diamond, and Burning Wish are all restricted.

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/A ... sfrvintage

Hmmm... dammit. Well, I'll try to find viable substitutes and I'll repost. I used to play with this deck ages ago but it was horribly broken, no wonder those things got restricted.

Ugh...

The Goblin deck I use is pretty simple.

4 Goblin Grenade
4 Goblin King
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Goblin Matron
4 Goblin Piledriver
4 Goblin Ringleader
4 Goblin Warchief
3 Siege-Gang Commander
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Skullclamp

1 Mox Ruby
1 Black Lotus
19 Mountain

This was before Living Death though, otherwise I'd probably have a black splash and Skirk Prospector in there. Still, the deck runs pretty fluently, although the AI doesn't know how to use Skullclamp, even for the +1 power.

I've actually noticed the AI not completely fail in places other than sheer aggro. It almost plays a Landstill type deck okay, but unfortunately has a tendency to tap animated lands instead of attacking with them. Plus, I've seen it Lightning Bolt a 1/1 Elvish Visionary instead of a 2/2 flying Gaea's Skyfolk when I had nothing to respond with. But one of the decks that almost runs itself that the AI isn't bad at piloting...

Creatures-
4 Shadowmage Infiltrator
3 Thieving Magpie
4 Hypnotic Specter
4 Blazing Specter

Spells-
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Repulse
3 Capsize
4 Recoil
3 Cruel Ultimatum

Non-mana Artifacts-
4 Meekstone
1 Sword of Fire and Ice

Mana-
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus
4 Volcanic Island
4 Underground Sea
4 Badlands
1 City of Brass
1 Reflecting Pool
3 Crumbling Necropolis
2 Polluted Delta

It's basically all about bouncing threats and using creatures that give you card advantage whenever they get a hit in. Plus, Cruel Ultimatum is such a massive bomb, and thanks to the mana base, is actually quite castable on turn 6-7 without needing to waste turns with mana-fixing spells. When the computer uses this, they can smash an aggro deck pretty consistently since the AI usually throws bounce spells at the largest opposing creature, although it usually fails against more combo/control type decks that throw out artifacts and enchantments, since the AI has a difficult time trying to decipher which one is the biggest threat. There's also the haste issue with casting Blazing Specter on main phase 2 and the conflict between the +2/+2 on Sword of Fire and Ice and Meekstone (if that comes up I'll reequip after combat to something untapped usually), but the computer doesn't know how to equip anyway, and there's only one copy to begin with.