GUw ChordGlare

Jeyo- · Guest

I'm posting a deck that I've designed that attempts to abuse the synergy between Patagia Viper and Chord of Calling. I haven't tested much RBC so feedback where you think my deck is lacking in certain matchups is welcome along with any suggested changes to the main and sideboard.

Viperchord

4x Birds of Paradise
4x Elves of Deep Shadow
4x Civic Wayfinder
4x Coiled Oracle
4x Patagia Viper
4x Selesnya Guildmage
4x Chord of Calling
4x Glare of Subdual
1x Loxodon Heirarch
1x Sky Hussar
1x Indrik Stomphowler
1x Tolsimir Wolfblood
1x Simic Sky Swallower

6x Forest
6x Island
2x Plains
4x Temple Garden
4x Breeding Pool
1x Hallowed Fountain

Card Choices:
Birds and Elves just simply accelerate mana wonderfully. Good with glare, also helps get out turn 2 wayfinder.
Wayfinder is there to insure turn 3 or 4 land. The 2/2 body doesn't hurt either.
Coiled Oracle can either help me find my bombs.. glare/chord and also powers both. For 2 mana, can sometimes accelerate to turn 3 viper or glare which is great.
Patagia Viper is the workhorse of the deck, powering out 3 creatures for glare or chord and giving me a flying attacker in the process. Also the blue/green snake tokens can be used to draw extra cards with the forecast ability of Sky Hussar if you happen to draw him.
Selesnya Guildmage is just bomboriffic with all the cheap creatures.. can power out an army with spare mana late game and pumps all your creatures for lethal swings. Can produce tappers for your glare, or the creatures needed to chord out a sky swallower or wolfblood. Thought about using 1-2, but redundant copies are never bad to have incase your opponent has lots of removal. Also found I was chording for him more often than not.
Chord of Calling is the shizzat. Making all your creatures elves for a turn to power out a huge beastie or find a utility creature at the right time. Didn't play any non-creature spells besides chord and glare for the express purpose of abusing both.
Glare of Subdual is retarded. I would play less, but drawing one will usually win the game if not removed. If it is removed, then have 4 copies means I have a better chance of getting another in play to replace it.
Loxodon Heirarch is one of my singletons because, although great.. it doesn't help me abuse glare or chord very well.
However, sometimes you need the life.. especially if you get a heavy shockland draw, and the 4/4 body is sometimes necessary against aggro decks. The ability to regenerate all your creatures is also big and chording him out in response to a savage twister in order to save your swarm is another good reason to have him main. Testing will show whether or not more maindeck copies are needed.
Indrik Stomphowler is a decent card that becomes great if it kills a glare or knell. The 4/4 body is a boon if you are getting raped by watchwolves/shamans and thus gives me two mid-range creatures to defend against beatdown strategies.
Sky Hussar is included because if drawn can help me break a stalemate. Pagia viper gives me the necessary blue creatures to use his forecast ability, as well as selesnya guildmages and coiling oracles being there to support it as well. Sometimes chord into hussar will suprise your opponent in combat as your creatures all untap when he comes into play. Chord into hussar, and then another chord into guildmage can be a very solid move as well.
Tolsimir Wolfblood is, in theory, amazing in this deck. Pumps every creature that the deck plays and doubly pumps your guildmages while giving you a 4/4 that can comeback every turn. I wanted to put something in the 6cc slot to chord for, and this won out over experiment kraj and gleancrawler.
Simic Sky Swallower is fantastic. Heavy price tag, although not unreasonable for a 6/6 untargettable trampling flyer. With all the the mana generation, you should be able to cast him fairly easily if drawn, however is mainly included as a chord target with the broken bird/elf/oracle/viper/chord draw.

SB:

4x Vedalken Plotter
2x Orzhov Pontiff
2x Spawnbroker
2x Veteran Armorer
2x Loxodon Heirarch
1x Simic Guildmage
1x Azorius Guildmage
1x Cytoplast Manipulator

Plotter if for the glare matchup incase of karoolands and city trees. Went 4 because they wreck decks with karoo lands and can steal city tree if necessary. Comes out turn 2 with birds or elves.
Pontiff is also for token generating decks.. I can get the black off my birds or elves or just chord it out
Spawnbroker is for trading oracles and wayfinders for cheap utility creatures - guildmages, birds, confidant, etc..
Veteran Armorer is for protection against pontiff/electrolyze
Heirarchs come in against aggro beats as I'll probably need some beef/life to weather the storm
Simic Guildmage vs Graft/Bloodthirst
Azorius is just good utility against certain decks
Manipulator is good vs graft or decks with limited removal

Comments and Opinions welcome

Guest · Posted: Thu May 18, 2006 8:50 pm Post subject:

Hi. Your deck is bad. Hussar, admittedly, is not something I had thought of so I will add it to my build. Tolsimir is very bad, I prefer having the SSS in almost every situation. Needs Moar Court Hussar, he deals with land-light hands. EDOS is terrible. Chord is pretty suboptimal in general, even, Congregation is 7 times better. Patagia Viper...snrk.

// Deck file for Magic Workstation (http://www.magicworkstation.com)
// NAME: GWU Chord/Glare

// Lands
1 [RAV] Plains (1)
4 [RAV] Forest (1)
4 [RAV] Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree
4 [DIS] Breeding Pool
4 [DIS] Hallowed Fountain
4 [RAV] Temple Garden

// Creatures
4 [DIS] Court Hussar
4 [RAV] Birds of Paradise
4 [RAV] Loxodon Hierarch
4 [RAV] Selesnya Guildmage
1 [DIS] Simic Sky Swallower
1 [DIS] Indrik Stomphowler
1 [DIS] Sky Hussar

// Spells
4 [RAV] Farseek
4 [RAV] Faith's Fetters
3 [RAV] Congregation at Dawn
2 [RAV] Chord of Calling
4 [RAV] Glare of Subdual
3 [DIS] Supply/Demand

// Sideboard
SB: 1 [RAV] Nullmage Shepherd
SB: 4 [RAV] Fists of Ironwood
SB: 3 [RAV] Hour of Reckoning
SB: 4 [RAV] Seed Spark
SB: 1 [RAV] Congregation at Dawn

If you can find something better than fists, play it, but it seemed like the choice for the spot. Anything you say other than that is wrong.

Fayul · Joined: 26 Feb 2005 Posts: 9

Damnable site needs to keep me logged in.

Also, since it cut off, add

SB: 1 [DIS] Azorius Guildmage
SB: 1 [DIS] Supply/Demand

to the end of the SB.

edit: also, nice play with the "that I designed" comment.

Jeyo · Joined: 03 Dec 2005 Posts: 42

First off, you're an asshat. Second, I did design the deck, as in, I looked at the available cards to build with and designed a deck to abuse viper/chord. There are only so many cards in a given format, so if some, or even many cards appear in decklists of anothers design then it's usually because they are the better cards in the format. Sure, some of the ideas are a hybrid with other archetypes, however what in this Universe isn't? Asshat.

You stick to your crappy tempo-losing congregates and I'll play chords. I may test court hussar in place of wayfinder though. I never thought of it.

Fayul · Joined: 26 Feb 2005 Posts: 9

http://www.magic-league.com/deck/18979/ravnica_block_constructed.html#GWU%20Glare11164

hi

Guest · Posted: Fri May 19, 2006 9:59 pm Post subject:

That's great. Dude, your deck uses similar cards and may employ a similar strategy.. but until you posted it on my thread, that is the first time I've seen your deck. Is your ego so threatened by somebody claiming "designer's rights" to a deck that uses similar cards to a deck you built that you feel the need to make sure everyone knows you built a deck around glare? Dude, so did the Japanese. So did R&D when they designed and playtested. I don't really give a shit who did it "first", but my build came from my card selection. Does your build use elves to ramp out turn 2 wayfinder consistently? Do you use viper to cheat out three creatures for 4 mana? Our decks may use similar cards, and at certain points may employ similar strategies.. but my early game is generally going to be more proactive as I'm not sitting with shit that I can't use early like congregation at dawn and supply/demand. I do have a few late game cards, like tolsimir and SSS, but that is just risk vs. reward. My early game will be much more consistent than yours, and barring rain of embers after a viper drop, will give me board advantage much earlier than your build. But thanks for coming out... asshat.

Fayul · Joined: 26 Feb 2005 Posts: 9

Your deck doesn't have enough aggro power to actually -win- in the early game though. Sure, you'll get a few snake beats in, but then the game starts to get locked down.

By the way, your adversary is Rolling Spoil and Orzhov Pontiff, not Rain of Embers.

I'm curious: How much testing have you done with this in a competetive environment?

Insanity · Joined: 11 Apr 2006 Posts: 164

Uh... am I the only one that realized that Chord of Calling + Patagia Viper is retarded? You don't pay U to play the Viper (even if you paid U for the chord), you simply put it into play. So you basically pay triple green and 4 more for two tokens.

SECRET TECH!

Guest · Posted: Mon May 22, 2006 2:02 pm Post subject:

You don't chord for viper, you use viper to get a better effect for the chord.

Fayul - you're right, I haven't tested much which is why I posted the deck for feedback. I'm beginning to agree with you on many points after playing a few matches and being raped by pontiff and electrolyze. I'm sorry if we got off on the wrong foot before, after reviewing you list again and seeing your card choices.. especially your one of's, I can see where you got the impression that I was copying your deck... and probably making it worse. Still, I assure you that my build was not based off yours. I was trying to build around a curve, utilizing 1 drop mana producers to start the ball rolling.. but with all the mass kill for 1 toughness creatures, chord becomes less than optimal.. especially as a 4 of, and your version seems to have much less holes in it. I still think that perhaps there is a deck to use viper, but this one isn't going to be competitive enough to do it. Thanks for your feedback, even if it was a bit snarky at times, it helped me re-evaluate my deck. Peace

dawnyoshi · Joined: 01 Jan 2005 Posts: 7

A lot of your creatures just get rolled by Rolling Spoil. That seems really hazardous in this format, since Tempo-Gain off of blowing up Karoos and the prospect of hitting multiple guys has been an encouragement to run Spoil for the past few months on MODO lately.

If you want to generate things for Chord, just stick with Guildmage and add in Vitu-Ghazis. Also, despite Spoil-threat, I still think karoos are a necessary mana-fixing investment. I'd be running a Selesnya Sanctuary and Growth Chamber.

I'd also only be running Tolsmir in plain GW with chord. In GWU, just go with the second Swallower like Fayul suggested. His build seemed good, so try that out. Supply//Demand is pretty good I heard.