Focus on Legacy: Creature Combo Decks (that aren't Elves)
Yesterday on Twitter, Jacob Kory mentioned he'd like to see a write up of the Nivmagus Elemental combo deck that Gerry (was / is) in love with.
He played it a few weeks ago in this incarnation:
3 Misty Rainforest
1 Taiga
2 Tropical Island
2 Volcanic Island
3 Wooded Foothills
4 Kiln Fiend
4 Nivmagus Elemental
4 Lotus Petal
2 Apostle's Blessing
4 Berserk
4 Brainstorm
4 Daze
4 Flusterstorm
4 Force of Will
2 Gut Shot
4 Gitaxian Probe
1 Ground Rift
4 Land Grant
4 Ponder
Sideboard
2 Sylvan Library
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Gut Shot
2 Talrand, Sky Summoner
4 Cabal Therapy
1 Pyroclasm
1 Bayou
1 Dryad Arbor
When I look at this deck, what I really see is an update to Quirion Dryad / Gro-style esque decks that were played about 11 years ago (http://sales.starcitygames.com/deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=37621 for an example) (straight down to the Land Grants and low land count). I would guess that you probably have to mulligan somewhat aggressively with this deck since you only have '8' win conditions, although finding one on time shouldn't be too tough with the number of cantrips.
Berserk seems interesting, as does Apostle's Blessing. I do wonder if he ever tried Misdirection (probably bad but I'm not 100% sure on that).
Some cute tricks:
Brainstorming away all of your lands (if you don't have a fetch) and casting Land Grant as a shuffle effect.
Flusterstorming a spell of theirs with Nivmagus Elemental in play and hoping they just choose not to pay for the first one, so you can exile the remaining copies.
Ground Rift is almost always lethal in conjunction with a Nivmagus (Falter your squad, take a million).
I would guess the matchup profile is somewhat similar to RUG Delver's matchups although this deck is way more explosive and probably can kill on t3/4 a reasonable amount of the time, and is also capable of just putting huge roadblocks in play versus any deck that doesn't have a lot of removal.
An earlier build of Nivmagus that Josh Cho played is as follows:
2 Clout of the Dominus
4 Brainstorm
4 Daze
4 Flusterstorm
4 Force of Will
2 Gut Shot
4 Snuff Out
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Thoughtseize
4 Death's Shadow
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Nivmagus Elemental
1 Island
1 Swamp
1 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
3 Scalding Tarn
4 Underground Sea
2 Watery Grave
Sideboard
3 Pithing Needle
3 Tormod's Crypt
1 Clout of the Dominus
1 Echoing Truth
1 Ensnare
2 Ghastly Demise
4 Erayo, Soratami Ascendant
I have personally played with Death's Shadow before, and it's quite an entertaining (if not very dangerous) experience. A lot of games you play come down to razorthin edges since you do want to make a big Shadow, but you can easily just play a fast Delver or Nivmagus (and grow the Nivmagus).
I do like the fact that both of these decks are relatively strong versus spell-based combo such as ANT or Show and Tell decks, since a: you are fast and b: you have a lot of disruption (almost as much as 'the Wall' from RUG). I personally prefer the U/B build at the moment, even though it's a bit more dated.
The last deck that I want to cover in this blogpost is UG Infect (played by Olle Rade on MTGO recently):
1 Forest
4 Inkmoth Nexus
2 Pendelhaven
4 Tropical Island
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Blighted Agent
4 Glistener Elf
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Berserk
4 Brainstorm
2 Crop Rotation
4 Daze
3 Gitaxian Probe
1 Groundswell
4 Invigorate
4 Might of Old Krosa
3 Vines of Vastwood
Sideboard
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Faerie Macabre
2 Force of Will
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Karakas
1 Mindbreak Trap
1 Pithing Needle
3 Spell Pierce
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Viridian Corrupter
This is a very familiar shell for those of you who have played Modern recently.
Of course in Legacy, you gain a lot of powerful tools (Berserk and Invigorate come to mind). I like his focus on just 'trying to kill' our opponent, instead of dicking around with more than 7 cantrips (it's similar to why Ari Lax played Giant Growth in PT:RTR instead of Serum Visions). Vines of Vastwood is a good 'counter' to Abrupt Decay, since basically no one playing against you will Decay on your turn. It lines up poorly versus Wasteland (on your Inkmoth Nexus) however.
I really do like this deck, and I expect it has a lot of play in terms of forcing people into awkward positions, and it can certainly race combo decks with t1 Glistener Elf, t2 pump spells + Berserk.
He played it a few weeks ago in this incarnation:
3 Misty Rainforest
1 Taiga
2 Tropical Island
2 Volcanic Island
3 Wooded Foothills
4 Kiln Fiend
4 Nivmagus Elemental
4 Lotus Petal
2 Apostle's Blessing
4 Berserk
4 Brainstorm
4 Daze
4 Flusterstorm
4 Force of Will
2 Gut Shot
4 Gitaxian Probe
1 Ground Rift
4 Land Grant
4 Ponder
Sideboard
2 Sylvan Library
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Gut Shot
2 Talrand, Sky Summoner
4 Cabal Therapy
1 Pyroclasm
1 Bayou
1 Dryad Arbor
When I look at this deck, what I really see is an update to Quirion Dryad / Gro-style esque decks that were played about 11 years ago (http://sales.starcitygames.com/deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=37621 for an example) (straight down to the Land Grants and low land count). I would guess that you probably have to mulligan somewhat aggressively with this deck since you only have '8' win conditions, although finding one on time shouldn't be too tough with the number of cantrips.
Berserk seems interesting, as does Apostle's Blessing. I do wonder if he ever tried Misdirection (probably bad but I'm not 100% sure on that).
Some cute tricks:
Brainstorming away all of your lands (if you don't have a fetch) and casting Land Grant as a shuffle effect.
Flusterstorming a spell of theirs with Nivmagus Elemental in play and hoping they just choose not to pay for the first one, so you can exile the remaining copies.
Ground Rift is almost always lethal in conjunction with a Nivmagus (Falter your squad, take a million).
I would guess the matchup profile is somewhat similar to RUG Delver's matchups although this deck is way more explosive and probably can kill on t3/4 a reasonable amount of the time, and is also capable of just putting huge roadblocks in play versus any deck that doesn't have a lot of removal.
An earlier build of Nivmagus that Josh Cho played is as follows:
2 Clout of the Dominus
4 Brainstorm
4 Daze
4 Flusterstorm
4 Force of Will
2 Gut Shot
4 Snuff Out
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Thoughtseize
4 Death's Shadow
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Nivmagus Elemental
1 Island
1 Swamp
1 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
3 Scalding Tarn
4 Underground Sea
2 Watery Grave
Sideboard
3 Pithing Needle
3 Tormod's Crypt
1 Clout of the Dominus
1 Echoing Truth
1 Ensnare
2 Ghastly Demise
4 Erayo, Soratami Ascendant
I have personally played with Death's Shadow before, and it's quite an entertaining (if not very dangerous) experience. A lot of games you play come down to razorthin edges since you do want to make a big Shadow, but you can easily just play a fast Delver or Nivmagus (and grow the Nivmagus).
I do like the fact that both of these decks are relatively strong versus spell-based combo such as ANT or Show and Tell decks, since a: you are fast and b: you have a lot of disruption (almost as much as 'the Wall' from RUG). I personally prefer the U/B build at the moment, even though it's a bit more dated.
The last deck that I want to cover in this blogpost is UG Infect (played by Olle Rade on MTGO recently):
1 Forest
4 Inkmoth Nexus
2 Pendelhaven
4 Tropical Island
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Blighted Agent
4 Glistener Elf
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Berserk
4 Brainstorm
2 Crop Rotation
4 Daze
3 Gitaxian Probe
1 Groundswell
4 Invigorate
4 Might of Old Krosa
3 Vines of Vastwood
Sideboard
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Faerie Macabre
2 Force of Will
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Karakas
1 Mindbreak Trap
1 Pithing Needle
3 Spell Pierce
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Viridian Corrupter
This is a very familiar shell for those of you who have played Modern recently.
Of course in Legacy, you gain a lot of powerful tools (Berserk and Invigorate come to mind). I like his focus on just 'trying to kill' our opponent, instead of dicking around with more than 7 cantrips (it's similar to why Ari Lax played Giant Growth in PT:RTR instead of Serum Visions). Vines of Vastwood is a good 'counter' to Abrupt Decay, since basically no one playing against you will Decay on your turn. It lines up poorly versus Wasteland (on your Inkmoth Nexus) however.
I really do like this deck, and I expect it has a lot of play in terms of forcing people into awkward positions, and it can certainly race combo decks with t1 Glistener Elf, t2 pump spells + Berserk.
posted by Jarvis Yu at 5:33 AM
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