Time to Duel: Mad Orrery

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ABadMagicPlayer100

26 October 2016

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Welcome once more into the world of Magic Duels! Today, I have a rather strange brew for your enjoyment. Our goal: discard our entire hand. Make sure to stick to the end of the article for some important news, as well as to vote in Time to Duel's first ever strawpoll.

What are we doing this time?

The goal of Mad Orrery is to discard our hand to the likes of Bomat Courier, Ravenous Bloodseeker, and Haunted Dead. We then use the card advantage provided by Ghirapur Orrery to win the game, or cash in on another payoff card such as Lupine Prototype, Asylum Visitor, or Bloodhall Priest to take advantage of being empty-handed, or "hellbent." While we are discarding all of our cards, we take advantage of the madness mechanic in order to keep some of our cards.

2x Cryptbreaker 2x Lightning Axe 2x Asylum Visitor 3x Heir of Falkenrath 2x Lupine Prototype 2x Smuggler's Copter 2x Key to the City 2x Avacyn's Judgment 2x Grasp of Darkness 2x Murder 1x Olivia, Mobilized for War 4x Fiery Temper 2x Collective Defiance 1x Liliana, the Last Hope 3x Haunted Dead 2x Bloodhall Priest 1x Ghirapur Orrery 4x Swamp 6x Mountain 2x Smoldering Marsh 2x Dragonskull Summit 2x Hanweir Battlements 2x Geier Reach Sanitarium 2x Evolving Wilds 4x Cinder Barrens

Strengths of the Deck

This deck has the strength of being fairly non-interactive. That is, we can interact with our opponent, but it's a 1-way street. If they make us discard, they're only helping us. Most of the time, removing creatures isn't enough because we can find more pretty easily with multiple ways to draw additional cards.

Weaknesses of the Deck

This deck runs into major issues if it can't find a way to benefit from being hellbent. When playing this deck, it's important to be extremely mindful of when you're discarding cards, and what you're discarding. If you are empty-handed with no payoff, drawing only one card per turn can become an agonizing path to defeat.

Pro Plays

#1: Watch your triggers

I've lost multiple games to not paying attention to trigger order. If you have a Key to the City untapping and a Ghirapur Orrery, make sure the draw three has already happened before you opt to pay to the key. Otherwise, you will have one card in hand and you will not draw three. Also note that if your opponent has a trigger on upkeep that draws them a card, this sequencing will happen automatically for them because of active player/nonactive player (APNAP). If you're planning on playing a Ghirapur Orrery, it's best not to have any Asylum Visitors in play if you can avoid it because you can't always tell what order the triggers will happen in. You only get one of them because you will not be hellbent after the first resolves.

#2: Use Geier Reach Sanitarium wisely

Geier Reach Sanitarium is in the deck because the ability to loot is super useful in a madness deck. However, you should usually activate it on your opponent's end step so you can benefit before they do. If you're significantly ahead on life, especially if they are at 3 life or lower, it's often correct to activate even if you have no cards in hand because you can potentially draw a Fiery Temper and then immediately discard for the win. Even if you miss, it'll get you one card closer to something that will help you win faster.

#3: SURPRISE!

If you have only one card in hand and a discard outlet, you can often get a surprise block with Lupine Prototype. It gets even better if you have two cards and a Haunted Dead in the graveyard because they are less likely to notice. Madness cards add extra surprise value. Make sure to let them attack, then discard before blocks. This can be a huge blowout, and can often win games on its own.

Potential Changes

This deck isn't complete, so here are some changes you could make to improve if you wanted to build it yourself. First, you could add the second Ghirapur Orrery, for obvious reasons. Second, Bomat Courier can get us empty-handed, full-handed, or anywhere in between, all for the low cost of . I'm definitely planning on putting them in my build when I get them in packs. Finally, Unlicensed Disintegration is strictly better than Murder. Since many of our win conditions are artifacts, it will often deal the three damage as well.

One Last Thing

Before I get to closing, I have important news regarding the future of this column. Based on the data collected in my survey and the number of views previous articles have gotten, as well as the fact that I just started college, I'm going to be continuing at a relaxed rate. I plan on recording a deck of my choice around the release of every set. I will then either put out a strawpoll in the accompanying article to determine what deck I will play next time (before the release of the next set), or if I'm pressed for time, I will ask you, the readers, to submit your own decks, one of which I will feature in the second article of the Duels season. This time around, I want to do a strawpoll because there are so many sweet decks in Kaladesh I want to build. It's at the end of the article, so don't forget to vote!

Wrapping Up

I hope you all enjoyed this article on Magic Duels. As always, drop a comment if you did. I've made some pretty big changes to the format of my videos for you guys, so let me know what you think of those. Once again, thanks for reading, and happy tapping.

This article is a follow-up to Time to Duel Poll: Are you Enjoying This Series?

TheRedGoat says... #1

Weakness #2 of the deck: Dragonskull Summit is not standard legal.

But, in all seriousness, I kinda like this idea. I love to see how each new set Wotc makes is able to interact with a previous set's cards almost as well as its own. So saying though, why no copies of Drownyard Temple? could that not synergize well as a "free" discard option?

October 26, 2016 11:57 p.m.

TheRedGoat says... #2

Also, as a follow up if you had a milling, reanimator strategy (probably Sultai, Dimir, or Golgari) as a voting option that would be my true choice over any of the ones listed.

October 26, 2016 11:59 p.m.

TheRedGoat, this deck is not Standard. It is built in Magic Duels, which has it's own construction rules.

October 27, 2016 1:09 a.m.

TheRedGoat says... #4

Ah, my mistake. But still, what would you say about that land card/ suggested deck idea?

October 27, 2016 1:12 a.m.

I don't play Drownyard Temple because I often want to be empty handed when I'm low on lands. I'd rather cast my spells and stay empty handed then spend most of the mana on getting a land back.

As for the deck idea, I don't plan to add more options to the poll for logistical reasons, however, the Mardu reanimator deck has a similar strategy to what you described. In my personal opinion, the deck is incredibly fun win or lose, and as I get more cards the quality will improve substantially.

October 27, 2016 1:56 a.m.

brokendwarf says... #6

What would adding white enable the UR artifact deck to do better? I know I've tested with that, but it was mainly for Thunderclap Wyvern to buff the thopters and different removal like Reprisal and Planar Outburst.

October 27, 2016 2:52 a.m.

brokendwarf says... #7

Wait, that says Esper artifacts, nevermind.

October 27, 2016 12:28 p.m.

apaz says... #8

Aren't Olivia's Dragoon and Scrapheap Scrounger a thing? More Smuggler's Copter, Insolent Neonate, Unlicensed Disintegration, Incorrigible Youths/Prized Amalgam and Alms of the Vein are crying out to me too. Seems like so much lost opportunity. Mardu would probably be better, for access to Thraben Inspector, Shambling Vent, Anguished Unmaking, Declaration in Stone, and better sideboard options like Gideon's Reproach and Fragmentize. Then, get rid of the cards that make other cards bad, like Asylum Visitor. Go to four Ghirapur Orrery, it's the name of the deck and you need to get to one. Since there's so many things that you want in the yard, I also recommend Cathartic Reunion/Tormenting Voice

October 27, 2016 6:38 p.m.

apaz: This deck is not standard. It is built in Magic Duels, which uses 1-2-3-4 deckbuilding, meaning only one of each mythic, two of each rare, and so on. As discussed in the video, Olivia's Dragoon is an option I considered. I have a standard version of this deck if you are interested: Mad Orrery (Budget). Also, just as a side note, Alms of the Vein and other life gain cards are rarely good in any situation.

October 27, 2016 6:54 p.m.

apaz says... #10

Aah. Suppose I should watch that. I'm working on my own version. Alms isn't for life gain, it's really just another Fiery Temper to attack their life total with.

October 27, 2016 7:39 p.m.

rorzor says... #11

The beginning of your turn goes untap, then upkeep, then draw - strictly in that order. If you choose not to pay during your untap phase when Key to the City untaps, you can't choose to do it again later during your upkeep when Ghirapur Orrery triggers.

It might work in duels for now because they dumb down the rules a bit (or they just havent fixed it) but in true MTG rules this is the way it goes.

That being said, nice deck and explaination. +1

November 1, 2016 8:39 p.m.

rorzor good catch. I missed that rules subtlety because I just noticed that happening in the gameplay. Interesting that they dumbed down the rules engine like that. I will edit a note regarding that topic now.

November 1, 2016 8:48 p.m.

StormAzure says... #13

Anything that triggers during the untap step waits until the upkeep step to go on the stack so Key to the City and Ghirapur Orrery trigger at the same time allowing you to choose the order the triggers go on the stack. If you put key's trigger on the stack first and then orrery's trigger on top, orrery's trigger will resolve first, see that you have no cards in hand so you draw 3, then key's trigger will resolve allowing you to pay to draw a card.

Note that if your opponent controls a key, as active player they must put their trigger on the stack first then (if they have no cards in hand) you put orrery's trigger on the stack above the key trigger. This means opponents will automatically have the sequencing described above.

November 9, 2016 5:01 p.m.

StormAzure says... #14

Relevant rules:

1) Key trigger waiting until upkeep to go on the stack.

502.3. No player receives priority during the untap step, so no spells can be cast or resolve and no abilities can be activated or resolve. Any ability that triggers during this step will be held until the next time a player would receive priority, which is usually during the upkeep step. (See rule 503, Upkeep Step.)

2) Adding multiple triggers to the stack.

603.3b If multiple abilities have triggered since the last time a player received priority, each player, in APNAP order, puts triggered abilities he or she controls on the stack in any order he or she chooses. (See rule 101.4.) Then the game once again checks for and resolves state-based actions until none are performed, then abilities that triggered during this process go on the stack. This process repeats until no new state-based actions are performed and no abilities trigger. Then the appropriate player gets priority.

November 9, 2016 5:16 p.m.

StormAzure Thanks. Magic rules can be dumb sometimes.

November 9, 2016 5:23 p.m.

rorzor says... #16

My mistake! Thanks for the correction :)

November 14, 2016 7:44 p.m.

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