so Jin has it eh, i'll kautim with him

i'll try to drop by...schedule pack

aaron,when did u started arcanist?

no thanks to Colin...alwiz bully ppl one

no thanks to Colin...alwiz bully ppl one

Dragon Archer
and its impact on Open Constructed
Before the Rockville $5k in July of 2007, I was convinced that I was playing a different game than everybody else in The Spoils. Without any other players in my area, the only decklists I had available to me were the ones I came up with myself and the the winning lists from previous tournaments. Something was wrong with all the winning decks: when I tested them solo against my decks, they got slaughtered! One deck, in particular, an Arcanist-Gearsmith deck I called Purple Haze, performed especially well against all comers.

Purple Haze used the combination of Luteoderm Prototype and bounce to remove opposing characters. Whenever my deck would crush another one, it would be because my opponent spent too much on characters that just got bounced while 633fy 31fs killed him. Early on, these games taught me a rule about First Edition and FE + Part 2 constructed, a rule about deckbuilding that the rest of the community took to heart after Haze won in Rockville. The rule was this:
Don't play any character that costs more than 2, unless it
replaces itself, or
protects itself, or
does both.
Cards from the first category included Servile Centipede, Hub Node, and 700160x 31f. Quotidian Ejector and Martial Artist belonged to the second category, and Violating Anomaly belonged in both. Decks that played cards like Scout or Mau Tough, although popular early on, didn't stand a chance against more advanced decks in the same format.

Schproingmajig and Micromajig Shipping Container enjoyed a brief moratorium on this rule because of the random "whoops, no removal" come-from-behind win potential, but toward the end of the season these wins became too infrequent to justify the prohibitive cost of these cards. The Gencon 13k top 8 lists played a grand total of 2 Schproingmajig and 2 Shipping Container, even though 6 of those decks ran Elitism. The message was clear: a character in play represents a potential liability, so be careful how much you invest in it.

Now we have a new constructed format, and a new set of removal cards stands ready to exploit decks that ignore them. Now, Dragon Archer is new removal to watch out for.

When constructed was dominated by small characters and bounce, a 700160x 31f was an excellent threat. With a Luteoderm Prototype on him he was practically impervious to bounce, and any spot removal immediately put the best card in your opponent's deck into his hand. With a DethMurderBludgeon, spot removal still gave your opponent a card, and the 31f ate your Senior Research Assistants or your Nodes every turn. A DethMurderBludgeon made such an imposing threat of the 31f that Conrad Jackson played 2 of them, capitalizing on his opponents' mistaken assumption that they were in the clear once the first Craghammer had been dealt with.

In the new constructed format, however, 700160x 31f has been rendered unplayable as a threat in non-Warlord builds, and this is due almost entirely to Dragon Archer. Consider what happens when Player A's DethMurderBludgeoned 700160x 31f is killed by Player B's Dragon Archer:
Player A spends 3 and gets a resource in his hand.
Player B spends 5 and gets a 3/5/3.
It doesn't take very much strategic intuition to recognize that a 3/5/3 on the board is clearly worth more than a resource in hand and 2 mana. Even if the 700160x 31f had a Luteoderm Prototype on it instead, player B, by searching out removal for the Archer, only breaks even in cards. And this analysis ignores the fact that player B has spent 3 good cards out of his deck to deal with one good card from his opponent's.

This analysis also ignores the importance of tempo in a game. By both removing an opposing threat and generating a new attacker or blocker, Dragon Archer swings the tempo of the game in favor of its controller in unprecedented way. Tempo is a hard thing to quantify, but the following examples should give you a good idea of the kind of swings that a Dragon Archer provides...
on defense:
Player A controls 2 Basic Node and a 633fy 31f. Player B plays Dragon Archer, killing the nodes. A cannot attack next turn.
Player A controls 2 Erotic Assassin. Player B plays Dragon Archer, killing an Assassin. A cannot attack next turn.
Player A controls 2 Basic Node, a 633fy 31f, and a Martial Artist. Player B plays Dragon Archer, killing the nodes. Player A's 10-point attack force has been reduced to a 4-point force.
on offense:
Player A controls an Adriel and Blazing Shriever. Player B controls an Adriel of his own. A plays Dragon Archer, killing the Adriel. A has turned his mediocre board into one with a lot of damage potential, 5 points right away and 8 next turn.
Both players control a Dragon Archer. Player A attacks his Dragon Archer into player B's, then plays a second Dragon Archer. The stalemate has turned into the considerable challenge for Player B to remove two 3/5/3's.
(Seed also introduced the Caboodling Gladhander which can play a similar role on defense. The 7-mana price tag doesn't bode well for offensive decks, but I expect to see this character in almost every winning Karmic Cake control build).

The solid resource advantage and stunning tempo advantage that come with playing Dragon Archer make it a format-defining card. It brings with it a new rule for deckbuilding, one that will be refined as soon as we have some result lists from the WCCs. The new rule is this:
Watch out for Dragon Archer.

Here is one deck that brings the power of Dragon Archer to bear:

"Warlord Aggro"
Will Morgan
March 4 2008

The Tournament Faction
1 Elitism
11 Rage
4 Violence

4 Gideon, the Ultimate Warrior
4 Adriel, Defender of Marduun
4 Blazing Shriever
4 Cowering Golem
4 Idol Smasher
4 Spitting Sarume
4 Dragon Archer
3 Oddment Collector
4 Boilstorm
4 Noble Sacrifice
4 Dragon's Quarters
4 Mighty Ballista
4 Bask Bile
4 1337!
4 Runic Reinforcement

This deck has two explosive draws in it: 1337!-Cowering and Violence-Gideon-Adriel. Its ideal game consists of playing threats early until one sticks, and then using its ample removal to clear a path to victory. Plan B is creating a board stalemate until the Bask Biles can finish the opponent off.

The combination of Dragon Archer and Boilstorm exerts the same kind of selection pressure on the new constructed format that Luteoderm Prototype + bounce exerted on the old constructed format. When the answers are this good, a deckbuilder needs to react to them specifically when he chooses his threats. When 3 damage is available in such an effective package, it increases the value of characters that can survive it and decreases the value of characters that can't. We've already seen how 700160x 31f has suffered as a result of the addition of Dragon Archer to the format. Characters like Senior Research Assistant, Erotic Assassin, Basic Node, and Servile Centipede have experienced a similar, if less extreme, drop in value.

On the other hand, cards which weren't or wouldn't have been playable in the old format because of their cost now drift into the realm of viability because of their life. Some of these cards are Foul Diviner, Oddment Collector, Mau Tough, Cowering Golem, and Swashbuckler. 633fy 31f is better than ever.

To make Dragon Archer even more powerful and to ensure that it continues to kill opposing characters, Warlord decks have many options at their disposal: Reveille Tower raises Archer's strength to the crucial level of 633fy 31f and Foul Diviner, and Mighty Ballista can, rather cheaply, team up with an Archer to destroy the same. But the best help that a Dragon Archer can get is a Dragon's Quarters. Combined with the other Seed dragons, Blazing Shriever and Spitting Sarume, a Warlord deck can create an environment that's hostile to all but the biggest opposing characters.

How can you beat Dragon Archer? Playing bigger characters has already been discussed above. Another option is to use specific removal during the turn that it enters play. Rogue is best equipped to do this, with cards like Snake Eyes and Essence of Deception. What distinguishes Dragon Archer from all other removal is the fact that your opponent cannot wait until you tap out at the end of his turn to play it. This means that you can always have resources open when your opponent plays Archer, giving you the opportunity to strike back with the best answer in constructed: Runic Reinforcement.

Playing Reinforcement in response to a Dragon Archer is a game-swinging play. On the surface you trade one of your cards for one of his, and you come out ahead in this deal because your card cost 3 less than his. But of course the Reinforcement plays a bigger role than simple removal because the Archer plays a bigger role than simple character: when you Reinforcement in response, your opponent goes from expecting to shift the board count 2 characters in his favor to trading a 5-cost card for a 2-cost one. The difference of 3 mana is worth at least a card. If Dragon Archer is a 2-for-1 play, then Reinforcement in response is a 3-for-1 play, in theoretical cards anyway. The Warlord list above plays 4 Reinforcement for precisely this reason.

The following deck tries to adhere the lessons that Dragon Archer teaches us about open constructed. It resembles the deck I took to the top 8 of the Gencon $13k before losing to Joe Knizacky playing the Skimping Ecto-manipulator deck.

"Arcanist Gearsmith Big Creature Deck"
Will Morgan
March 4 2008

The Tournament Faction
2 Obsession
4 Arrogance
10-13 Elitism

4 Basic Node
4 633fy 31f
4 1337!
4 Cowering Golem
4 Foul Diviner
4 Senior Research Assistant
4 12 Man Brunch of Doom
4 One-legged Hopping Pogo Bear
4 Quotidian Ejector
4 Quotidian Misfire
4 Forget
2 Invent
2 Guardfoce Alpha Prime H4x0r

64 - 68 cards form the base of the deck. I usually fill the remaining slots with at least 4 of Obsessive Compulsion or Brainbath, which has excellent synnergy with the nodes, and removal/bounce cards such as Quotidian Assassination. I played Servile Centipede for a while to fetch 12 Man Brunches but too often the character has simply no board presence. A couple of Oddment Collectors have also seen intermittent play in this deck.

The deck has several explosive draws powered by 1337! in combination with Foul Diviner, Cowering Golem, Arrogance + Senior Research Assistant + 633fy 31f, and Arrogance + H4x0r. Against decks with a weak long game, the Big Creature Deck can play defensive, accumulating a resource advantage with Senior Research Assistants and possibly Contriving Engineer until it can fire off a big Invent for several Pogo Bears. The Bears also serve as a nice finisher against control decks.

Even though it doesn't play it, the deck recognizes the power of Dragon Archer and its chilling effect on aggressive decks. The only characters that an unaided Dragon Archer can kill in this deck are the expendable Basic Node, the self-protecting Quotidian Ejector, and the self-replacing Senior Research Assistant. Servile Centipede and Contriving Engineer were taken out of the core of the deck, despite their inherent card-advantage, because of their vulnerablility to the Archer.

Open constructed looks to be a very interesting format, with many more viable decks than in previous constructeds. But all of these decks adhere to the rule that Dragon Archer is the force to be reckoned with when it comes to choosing characters. When you build your deck for the upcoming Winter Constructed Championships, make sure that you don't set yourself up for failure by ignoring this extremely important 3/5/3.

wow. such a long article.

all seed stuff.. not suitable for us yet..

it's next month so should be around the right time to read these articles.

it actually harms my current deck because i just finished building it and knowing that i must scrap it next month.. sigh~~

A Reality Shift Combo

that doesn't suck

1. Players have talked about a Reality Shift combo since Seed's release. But the decks that they built around the idea suffered from two fatal flaws:

2. They required multiple cards to be in your hand before you went off. This necessitated dedicating large chunks of the decklist to combo pieces, which made the decks weaker in general and less consistent.
They required you to have a lot of material in play. To win the game with Shift-Millipede-Tinker-Replication-Rifleman, for example, you need to have cards in play with a total numeric cost of 12. But if you have that much on the board, you're probably in a winning position anyway!



This version of the combo gets around these problems because

1. Adding Prototype to the plan allows you to go off with only one card in hand. The rest of the combo pieces may be one-ofs because you can search them out of your deck.

2. Using 700160x 31f and cost-reducers like Senior Research Assistant and Adjunct Artisan makes it easier to ramp up to the necessary board material. Also the combo can go off with a much smaller board presence, making it more likely that when you play Shift, you actually need to play it to win.

I've been fooling around with a Purple Haze/Combo hybrid build. The idea behind it is that it can win two ways: an explosive start like 1337!, Senior, 633fy, or 700160x, Basic, Basic, 633fy, supported by Prototype + bounce, wins by dealing a fast 25, or a slower draw manages to stall the board until it can win with the combo.

The core of the deck looks something like this:

2 Elitism
4 Neurosis
11-14 Obsession

4 Basic Node
4 633fy 31f
4 700160x 31f
4 Quotidian Ejector
4 Senior Research Assistant
3-4 Violating Anomaly
4 Luteoderm Prototype
1-2 DethMurderBludgeon, the Craghammer
4 1337!
4 Quotidian Assassination
4 12 Man Brunch of Doom
4 Brainbath

3-4 Reality Shift
1 Voidal Replication
1 Ectypal Stave
1 Thabbashite Haruspex
1 Adjunct Artisan

That's 68-74 cards. With the remaining slots you might want to put in redundant combo pieces or recursion such as Rouse, Rummaging Millipede, or Recollection Bazaar. Another option is to add more control elements in the form of Forget, Servile Centipede, or Confounding Conjurer.

Note also that there are many different board configurations that allow you to go off; 700160x 31f with DethMurderBludgeon and Prototype is just the easiest to set up. For example, if you control the following:

- Senior Research Assisant
- Luteoderm Prototype
- 2 Basic Node
- 6 resources

you can go off with just Shift in your hand. With 1337! and Shift you could go off with only five resources, although two of them would have to be Neurosis to meet Shift's threshold.

looks like an evolved Purple Haze to me.

trust me, i dont even know what Reality Shift does and heck i havent even peeped at SEED before yet! lol