block metagame

emeraldemon · Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 2

I've been playing a lot of block lately, and although my jank combo decks all perform miserably (immortal coil + lich's mirror anyone?) I've had some time to think about the metagame and what I think are the decks to beat. So here's my guess at what's top tier, for anyone who finds it amusing:

Naya Aggro
Wild Nacatl, Ranger of Eos, Elspeth, Woolly Thoctar, Path to Exile, Oblivion Ring. The best deck in format, with the most efficient creatures and the best removal in the format. I'm not sure what ARB adds, maybe Glory of Warfare or Naya hushblade?

Bant Aggro
Shares the same spine as Naya aggro, loses wild Nacatl & woolly thoctar, but gains the amazing Jenura, meddling mage and possibly Rafiq of the Many.

Cruel Broodmate
This deck may already have a name I don't know, but it's a 4 color control deck that tends to win with Cruel Ultimatum and Broodmate Dragon. With white removal the way it is, Goblin Outlander is huge. This deck gains terminate and maybe bituminous blast or thought hemorrage.

Esper artifacts
This deck is slightly worse than the 3 above I think, but still wins pretty often. The idea here is to use sanctum gargoyle, sphinx summoner, and master transmuter for card & creature advantage. sanctum gargoyle and sharuum both combo with courier's & executioner's capsules, and it can play all the white removal naya & bant decks get. I think what makes this deck slightly worse is the easy anti-artifact sideboard. My picks for this deck from ARB are Sen Triplets (at least in sideboard), meddling mage, and maybe mask of riddles.

Any thoughts?[/b]

JayBeezy · Joined: 07 Jan 2008 Posts: 1

isnt immortal coil and lichs mirror just infinite combo time out?

Quetzilla · Joined: 29 May 2005 Posts: 63

The main decks I've seen:

Jund Aggro

Main Cards:
Bloodbraid Elf
Jund Hackblade
Putrid Leech
Sprouting Thrinax
Terminate

Occasionally has more 3-mana cascade, hellspark e/hell's thunder, or more removal like Resounding Thunder or Bituminous Blast.

I think it's the main aggro deck just because it has good speed and good card advantage with cascade, as well as decent burn to finish the job.

4-5c Control with Broodmate Dragon/Cruel Ultimatum

Sometimes these try to mix in a cascade theme, but they basically play the 2 namesake cards + a lot of removal and Esper Charms. Countermagic main or in the side.

Other than those two I've seen a load of various decks which are usually pretty bad when faced with the above two decks. Naya/Bant aggro both seem underpowered compared to Jund aggro since Jund cards either have haste and/or card advantage which really gives them the leg up, plus jund gets better removal vs control (terminate+maelstrom pule > path to exile + oblivion ring)

Trizzy60 · Joined: 04 Oct 2004 Posts: 101

play elspeth or lose

Quetzilla · Joined: 29 May 2005 Posts: 63

Trizzy60 · Joined: 04 Oct 2004 Posts: 101

Elspeth is played in every deck with white in block. It breaks ground wars with naya mirrors. Kills other planeswalkers. Kills other elspeths. Also constant threats vs the control decks.

Quetzilla · Joined: 29 May 2005 Posts: 63

venom_aa · Joined: 08 Sep 2004 Posts: 82

I play my naya deck without elspeth and never had any troubles, had instead ajani and vol in but even those are out of my final version.

Im not saying theyre bad but it depends on the deck i guess.

And in my testings with planeswalkers against jund most of the times they were dead draws. vol and ajani would die in 1 turn. Same would go for elspeth.

onecleanceli · Joined: 27 Mar 2005 Posts: 395