All around safest deck to play in extended right now?

beanbungo · Joined: 09 Oct 2005 Posts: 105

What do you think is the right call for the current meta?

Which is the safest pick going into a tournament where you don't know the meta?

Which deck has the most rounded game against everything?

Zoo?
Faeries?
Next Level Blue variants?
Burn?
Demigod Stompy?
Deathcloud?
Tron?
Swath Storm?
Swans?
Nasueum Storm?
TEPS?
Tezzerator?
Elves?
Doran?
Affinity?
Bant Aggro?
Slide?

Decide for yourself which is the best all around going into an unknown meta and explain Smile

My pick would be Zoo w/ 4x Ethersworn Canonist and 4x Tidescollow castigate guy main...

asamodious · Joined: 20 Sep 2005 Posts: 340

doran is pretty solid choice if your unsure of the more popular decks that will be played.

gypsy · Joined: 15 Jun 2007 Posts: 1264

elves for sure, its the best deck and the hate doesnt do anything when you kill them turn 2-3.

Markwerf · Joined: 20 May 2006 Posts: 44

elves, zoo or faeries. Elves has the most raw strength and beats anything that doesnt have enough hate for it. Zoo and fae are decent all around too though but both have some troublesome matchups that will randomly show up. They can however effectively hate elves between main and board by canonists/scullers/pyrocl/sl&dice etc. for zoo and counters/jitte/EE/thoughtseize etc. for fae.

If you dont know the meta elves is just the safest bet.

Edit:
the other decks just lack in raw strength and their ability to beat elves without making their other matchups much worse. Tezzeret, allin red and deathcloud would be my pick for the next 3 best decks.

alsorhombus · Joined: 26 Oct 2008 Posts: 58

burn burn burn.

no matter where you go, you will see elves. burn has a decent matchup against them.... dont forget to try and make them block spark elemental and magma jet mana elves... fanatic mana elves also... and side in 3 more sharpshooter, hope for the best. if you can a sharpshooter online, it shouldnt be that bad, but its really difficult to make it past turn 3 vs elves. id go with burn just cause its super cheap, and easy to play --- pretty good matchup vs everything also. i feel like burn is the "safest" deck to play mostly because of how inexpensive it is. how frustrating would be shelling out like 200-300 bucks for something like fae or whatever costs that much and getting trounced in round 1 to mana screw. at least with burn you only spent $40 on all the cards!

DESTRUCTOR · Joined: 28 Jun 2005 Posts: 117

if you are going to play zoo with Ethersworn Canonist and Tidescollow main deck you could just play doran/tarmofolk the marcio carvalho's version that he used on PT berlin (18º place 34 pts) looks good and solid against the field but you have to be prepare for hard matchups in every round

i think that faeries is a really good deck, but maybe elves is the "safest" choice

Timesplitta8 · Joined: 15 Sep 2008 Posts: 7

I would say the "safest" decks to play would be burn and Faeries because they can handle Elves with some of their control cards and are generally prepared for anything. Not to mention there is very little hate out there for those two. Zoo is also very strong but if you get a bad draw against Elves you are done for. And lastly, of course, playing Elves is just a whole lot of fun...

aldaryn · Joined: 02 Sep 2004 Posts: 501

I'd say Zoo. Elves and Burn are easily locked out by things like Chalice of the Void, and people are prepared for Elves especially right now. Zoo can be tuned to beat just about anything, and it still has an insanely fast clock.

I do think Swans is underrated though. Go look up the Day 2 lists that look like PV's... with 4 Glittering Wish, you've got basically 7 firespouts to hold people off, and you've got easy access to g1 hosers against dredge and affinity (wheel of sun and moon, fracturing gust) and the deck can also just beat down with a practically indestructible flyer. I could see it getting some awkward draws, but it's got potential.

Spyx · Joined: 31 Oct 2004 Posts: 1031

If you are feeling lucky play demigod stompy. It can get some unbeatable hands.

thranarama · Joined: 23 Apr 2005 Posts: 203

I think that in general the decks that have the most/best answers for Elves are in Red. Technically some of them are artifacts, but still, Red decks could run them, which is why they are relevant. Answers that are either red or artifacts include:

Ensnaring Bridge (Can't attack w/ huge dragon)
Chalice of the Void
Trinisphere
Engineered Explosives
Goblin Sharpshooter
Pyrostatic Pillar
Slice and Dice (Cycle)
Pyroclasm (Sorcery is not as good)
Firespout (See Pyroclasm)
Seal of Fire -----\ Turn 1 Spot removal for Birchlore/Hertiage Druid
Mogg Fanatic---/

There are others that are obviously relevant as well. Answers that are not colorless artifacts or red include:

Ethersworn Canonist
Tidehollow Sculler
Thoughtseize
Stifle
Leyline of Singularity

EDIT: Shock and Tarfire and Magma Spray fall under the same category as Seal of Fire and Fanatic, I just think that Fanatic and Seal are the most commonly played.

aldaryn · Joined: 02 Sep 2004 Posts: 501

lol @ Leyline of Singularity! That's actually not terrible.

You forgot Night of Soul's Betrayal though. Good vs. Faeries too.

beanbungo · Joined: 09 Oct 2005 Posts: 105

Yea i think im gonna avoid playing elves, although it was a great suprise at Burlin, it definately is not going to be a suprise in Florida lol especially after 6/8 top 8 decks were elf combo variants...

Losing to turn 1-2 Chalice for (1) or Ethersworn Canonist is very easy seeing that Demigod Stompy, Doran, Affinity variants, Tezzeret play either or of those cards....

I mean yes they have to have those cards in there hands for u to lose, but i just dont like it being an auto-lose until u either draw viridian shaman who takes 3 LANDS to play since u can't cast 1cc mana providing creatures, or draw chord of calling and cast for 6....which is basically impossible if ur not dead...

So i'm still up in the air about it, red does have a lot of good answers...Demigod Stompy seems it would be really good against most decks, so I think i'm tied between Demigod, Zoo w/ Canonist main, or Elves...

banksa85 · Joined: 05 Jun 2007 Posts: 12

gifts wish rock is great deck to play