I can thumbs up comments but how do I thumbs up the article? Another great article Nick, I love the honesty that comes through in your writing. You do a great job of not sounding arrogant and avoiding that cliquey, 'holier than thou' voice that a lot of internet writers use.
well of course the later turns get stronger, genesis wave is pretty much the most powerful thing you can do with one card at 8+ mana in standard. I guess the question I was trying to pose is really, "Does increasing the power of the late game make this a better overall deck than RUG?" I feel like the late game of that deck is powerful enough that adding even more bombs at the top hurts it more than it helps it. for example, like you said, no mana leak? Similarly, is it really rogue? On the one hand, there is a little bit of all in ramping going on with treespeaker and no permission, but on the other hand, Oracle + cobra + jace + frost titan + battlement/explore ramp form the core of both this and RUG so now we're talking about maybe 10 customizable slots where it's primeval/wave/treespeaker vs mana leak/lightning bolt/preordain. They are both clearly trying to take advantage of the same engines which leads me to believe that they are really in the same family of decks.
This list seems miles better than the first one you posted, my biggest hangup for a deck like this is simply, it's so similar to the RUG cobra/oracle/jace deck that does wave really add enough to this deck? that engine seems powerful enough to not need wave so does this just start becoming a worse RUG deck at that point?
Nick, your articles have almost been as good as your run! I love your attitude and hope to keep seeing new stuff from you.
This list has no way around counter magic either... I don't see your argument. I have more must counter threats in my deck also which means I'm more likely to exhaust a control players counters and get a spell through than this list as well. Also I have summoning traps out of the board which let me be more aggressive post board and not have to leave extra mana up to respond with negate when I go to cast a titan or whatever.
Yeah, he should have done a little research and found there were at least 3 dedicated ramp/wave decks in states top 8 and started there. The waves in his deck seem so very underpowered and the whole deck just scoops to day of judgment even after a wave
commentors are right. I started with the lock in the deck (salvage scout) but found it was just taking up room since going - wave, flip slaver + avenger + lands, take your next turn, meant that the only way to lock someone out involved not killing them with my redwood tree sized plants. :-)
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