Cockatrice Reddit League Results!

Bovine073, 7 years ago

Hey all! Just wanted to share how the Cockatrice Reddit League went this month, signed up for it after learning about it (will post link at bottom). Anyways, I went 11-3 throughout the whole month (without having any byes), for a total of a 79% match win percentage, with a 66% game win percentage. Made a lot of changes to the deck in this time, and had some lucky wins for sure, but the deck is doing great. I also placed 1st overall for the entire month with about 12-13 players. Some of the decks I played against were very interesting, such as the Mono-B Eldrazi deck that has done quite well throughout the league. (https://www.reddit.com/r/mtgfrontier/comments/5kkp3v/weekly_cockatrice_frontier_league/)

Removing Cards

Uberbyte, 7 years ago

Removed Melek, Izzet Paragon for Metallic Mimic and Impetuous Devils for Dimir Signet

haynesking, 7 years ago

Island

VeggiesaurusRex, 7 years ago

-1x Plains

+1x Island

GoldenCapitalist, 7 years ago

Moved to Sideboard: Venser, Shaper Savant

Added: Living Wish

Notes: I have decided to run Living Wish in the deck. This is a meta call, and some groups won't allow me to play with a 10-card sideboard. However, in those that do, I believe it may be beneficial to have access to a slew of other cards that are useful in the deck that I don't necessarily need in the deck itself. Quick rundown through the current sideboard:

Venser: Wins me the game by bouncing everyone's permanents. Probably the least important piece of the infinite mana sink, so I can afford to move him elsewhere (since the same effect can be achieved through Cyclonic Rift).

Tajuru Preserver: Something to get whenever I'm playing against a Thrax deck or other decks that like Grave Pact and such. There are a number of decks in my meta that like those. Living Death is a very popular card too.

Consecrated Sphinx: One of those cards to get when I may simply need to turn my Living Wish into something, anything useful.

Deadeye Navigator: Redundancy. If someone exiles my Temur Sabertooth, I can go and get this guy.

Riftsweeper: Gets my important things out of exile. If I already have infinite mana and need to recycle my Living Wish, it also gets the Wish back, letting me use it multiple times.

Homeward Path: Gilded Drake and Treachery make a number of appearances, as well as Chainer and other means of stealing people's creatures. Would sometimes like my stuff back.

Vesuva: When I need that extra mana and have drawn Living Wish early, lets me copy value lands such as Nykthos or Cradle.

Walking Ballista: This one is in consideration, but it's an infinite mana outlet to win the game with on the spot. Probably used as a backup wincon in case I don't have time/access to Shaman of Forgotten Ways for any reason.

A couple of edits

emester, 7 years ago

Made a handful of slight changes to the deck in order to accommodate my playgroup a bit. I felt Sorin Markov was a bit cruel, despite the deck being overall quite nasty to begin with.

Also I want to state that this is a deck made for multiplayer, as it is a little slow to take off.

Breif Card Edit

SHMOSES, 7 years ago

Removed Quicksilver Amulet as it voids the cascade effect. Added in Etched Monstrosity as a replacement

02/28/17 Update

JaceTheSwagSculptor, 7 years ago

• Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, and Carpet of Flowers were added to the testing list.
• Sol Ring could replace Font of Fertility, but I am unsure of what to replace for Mana Crypt when testing.
• Aven Mindcensor was removed from Testing List. Its lockdown effect was not powerful enough for its CMC.

Complete and Done

DarkJunderMaster, 7 years ago

So Kaalia of The Vast is my VERY FIRST edh deck. I have been fine tuning this deck for the past five years now. She is now FINISHED. Every card I wanted to place in this deck has been aquired. She is my first tricolored aggro deck and she just wins. If you can not deal with her right out she walks over you. Kaalia is for sure one of the most aggressive aggro decks out there. Casting Angels, Demons, and Dragons for free is just brutal. I was going to work on foiling this entire deck, but it is WAY to expensive.

Tightening It Up

villon, 7 years ago

Added the new Expertise cards as well as some Mirage Tutors for consistency.

2-1 FNM

usurphling, 7 years ago

Did another adjustments that lead to this current decklist.

Round 1: 1-2 Grixis Improvise

First game I won in fashion by using Stormchaser Mages plus spells but in games 2 and 3 I didnt get the right answers.

Round 2: 2-1 UBr Zombies.

First game I won due to mana screwed. Second game he overwhelmed me with zombies and zombies (Prized Amalgams, Stitchwing Skaab, anyone?) Third game, I sideboarded Radiant Flames and played my cards carefully. I did my best not to put his creatures in the graveyard. Eventually, Torrential Gearhulk changed the tempo of the game and finished it with Kari Zev's Expertise and Goblin Dark-Dwellers

Round 3: 2-1 GW Aggro

First game he dominated me with mass creatures. Second game, I SB Radiant Flames and added Arborback Stomper and call it a day. Third game, I did the same thing and eventually win the game with Rashmi.

This deck is doing well. I hope this will go better in upcoming weeks.

Cards On the Watchlist #2

wkli6, 7 years ago

Trygon Predator Thalia, Heretic Cathar Frontline Sage Ethercast Knight Sigiled Paladin Angelic Benediction

AER tweaks

griz024, 7 years ago

Terastodon for Woodfall Primus

Angel of Serenity for Swords to Plowshares

MImic Vat for Farhaven Elf

Tragic Arrogance for Chord of Calling

Plains for Forest

Mirrorpool for Forest

Brutalizer Exarch for Reclamation Sage

Mind Stone for Fiend Hunter

Thragtusk for Sea Gate Oracle

Update - More Competitive Direction

Liquidbeaver, 7 years ago

I made quite a few changes to make the deck much more competitive in my playgroup (and outside of it), while also focusing more on utilizing Ib to the fullest extent.

Added Stax effects to slow the game down, which will help protect me while I am building up my boardstate. Edit: This is going well, but it needs to be a little stronger.

It is really light on the instant spells (unintentionally), so looking for any suggestions on good includes, especially if they are X costed. I need a few more options for mana sinks and alternate wincons.

I'd really like to drop the CMC more. 3 or lower would be fantastic. Edit: GREAT SUCCESS!

Probably looking to stabilize the token generation next. As it stands it is huge bursts, with almost nothing inbetween. This will be better with Thornbite Staff in for FNM, but may also include Dragon's Fodder/Krenko's Command/etc..

The decklist of the extensive mayboard for this deck can be found here: Ib Halfheart (Maybeboard Overflow)

These are the cards that were in the deck at some point, or were considered, but ultimately cut.

I'm back.

redvenom21, 7 years ago

I haven't updated on here in quite a while. It's OK because I have been updating the deck irl. I have the mana base complete except for an alpha/beta/fbb bayou. I now have judge promo survival and demonic tutor. I have made a few meta changes.

• -Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger
• +Massacre Wurm

Vorinclex is out because with only 31 land he never gave me the boost I needed and was more of a win more card. Massacre wurm is back because it's a pet card and there are a bunch of token decks back in my meta.

• -Scavenging Ooze
• +Walking Ballista

Scooze is out because not much graveyard decks in my meta and he was very mana intensive or not impactful enough. Walking ballista is triskellion #2 that needs a sac outlet for mikaeus or does the same job with Necrotic ooze. Also can be played for zero as a free "discard" unlike trike.

Value and Efficiency

mookie990, 7 years ago

Mixing around cards a bit. My logic behind most of these changes is focusing on 'does this card make me win', opposed to 'does this card make me not lose' - the two are significantly different.

-Jester's Cap - I like the effect, but just doing it once often isn't enough - with 100 cards, most people run more problem cards than this can remove, and it only does so for one opponent at a time. Extremely potent when recurred though - better in a deck built around recurring artifacts for value (instead of the combo-first mentality of this deck).

-Meekstone - nice to have access to it in a tutor package, but it has some issues - it's only good when opponents are playing large creatures that want to tap/attack, and those creatures still get to attack at least once. A wrath is generally a cleaner way to manage the board. Better when you build around it, I suppose.

-Recurring Insight - extremely powerful draw spell, but it's also 6 mana at sorcery speed, and I'll often end up discarding. May come back someday, but I think I have enough other card draw.

+Merchant's Dockhand - a trinket that serves as a draw engine! Don't know how well it will perform in practice (4 mana is a nontrivial activation cost), but activating it even just once or twice should make it good.

+Trinket Mage - it has been on the edge of playable for a long time, and I think the Dockhand brings it over the edge. The main issue has been lack of high-impact targets, but being able to fetch a draw engine fixes that. Now, if only I could hunt down a Sensei's Divining Top...

+Phyrexian Metamorph - probably the single card whose absence has been most felt by the deck for a long time. I've relied on Mirrorworks for cloning Sharuum for years, and adding Metamorph makes many combos a lot more efficient. Putting it in, and can't see myself ever taking it out.

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v1.82 - Victory, and the Ideology Thereof

mookie990, 7 years ago

A few minor changes here, but ones which I hope will make the deck run a bit smoother.

-Warstorm Surge - it's been in the deck a long time, but I've never been that impressed with it - because of how small most of my creatures are, it never accomplishes enough to justify its cost, or the hate it draws. Only time it gets played is usually off Primal Surge, but I think I have enough other ways to win off it by now.

-Rupture Spire - I've been wanting to improve my lands, and this is currently the weakest. Tapping for three colors isn't enough to justify the cost (plus it looks terrible alongside Frontier Bivouac).

-Forest - cutting one land, but adding two mana creatures, so hopefully evens out.

+Wall of Roots - often effectively free, and it generates mana afterwards. Seems good!

+Rattleclaw Mystic - perfect fixing, and can even act as a ritual.

+Oran-Rief, the Vastwood - testing. Ideally will work similarly to Opal Palace to kick-start Animar counters, but can also pump other creatures at a reasonable rate.

Replacing Give // Take With Deadeye Navigator

Zolvahlok, 7 years ago

I have decided that Deadeye Navigator brings much more possibility to the deck as a whole than Give / Take. While Give / Take provides a slight buff to a creature and potentially massive draw advantage, Deadeye Navigator can trigger tons of ETB effects within the BIG TASTY BEATDOWN, such as being soulbonded with Deepglow Skate, Chancellor of the Spires, Clever Impersonator/Progenitor Mimic, Prime Speaker Zegana, or Phyrexian Metamorph (as a creature).

One can also reset the counters on a creature back to zero, should the need arise, such as Fathom Mage or Echo Mage. Rishkar, Peema Renegade can also be flickered in and out with Deadeye Navigator to bring a +1/+1 counter to each of your creatures, also bringing with it considerable ramp.

Another good thing -- Deadeye Navigator is the same CMC as Give / Take, so the CMC curve of the entire deck stays unchanged. Though it brings yet another blue mana symbol to the graph, and I may need to tweak the mana base, but this remains a trivial issue in the grand scheme of the BIG TASTY BEATDOWN.

An Eldritch Evolution

Trtl, 7 years ago

In the interest of being closer to budget and evolving on the frontier, I've replaced one of my Sylvan Messengers and my Chord of Calling for two copies of Eldritch Evolution.

Better

jeffthezombiejesus, 7 years ago

Went 2-0-1 at FNM still feels like it needs something