Amonkhet Minotaurs

Modern Argy

SCORE: 175 | 214 COMMENTS | 39233 VIEWS | IN 83 FOLDERS

Deck works, knew it would. 2nd place at FNM 3-1 —May 5, 2017

Deck worked exactly how I knew it would.

Only lost one match, due to two games with bad draw.

2-0 Zombies

Have to say this guy wasn't the best Player, although his deck was quite sound.

He telegraphed whenever he had a bad draw, and when he had a Counter spell.

I had to work a bit to get him in the first game, but the second game was a pushover.

Both games were very fast.

In the first I was able to pump Minotaur Sureshot up to get a lot of mid to late damage through.

After our match he remarked that Throne of the God-Pharaoh was a good card.

I said, "I know!"

1-2 Creatures

Really not sure how to describe this deck. Guy threw it together just before FNM, using only Amonkhet cards.

It had a bunch of different Creatures leading up to Glyph Keeper.

I got no decent cards in hand for the first game. Basically only Zulaport Cutthroat and a couple of Metallic Mimics. He ran me over very quickly.

I was able to kill his Glyph Keeper by attacking with Metallic Mimic. He took the bait and blocked. Then I played Supernatural Stamina, targetting my Mimic. His Creature died and mine survived.

Game 2 HE had the bad draw. I beat him on Turn 4.

Turn 1: Foreboding Ruins
Turn 2: Mountain + Bloodrage Brawler
Turn 3: Hanweir Battlements  ^Meld + Bloodrage Brawler
Hit for 5
Turn 4: Mountain + Bloodrage Brawler
Use Hanweir Battlements  ^Meld + Mountain to give Bloodrage Brawler Haste
Hit for 15 and game

Game 3 I kept drawing removal and hand disruption and he overran me with Creatures before I could set myself up.

In hindsight it might have been better for me to play Creatures that I had in hand first, and use disruption and removal second.

2-0 Servos

I built a similar deck to this once, on Tappedout.

The strategy is to go wide, and keep hitting the Opponent until you wear them down.

Unfortunately Neheb, the Worthy kept hitting he field early, forcing my Opponent to have to choose between taking damage, or losing Creatures.

He did take down one Neheb, the Worthy early on, but then I got another one in hand.

By then everything also had +2/0.

He resorted to chump blocking, trying to hold on until an answer fell into his hand.

Then I played Ondu Champion, which ruined that strategy, followed by Zulaport Cutthroat on the next turn.

Having five Minotaurs hit with +2/0, First Strike, and Trample proved too much.

The fact that I had no cards in hand, and he had to discard when Neheb, the Worthy connected, made things worse.

He did get a bit confused at one point as to why I said Metallic Mimic was getting +2/0 and First Strike from Neheb, the Worthy. I had to explain to him that, because I had chosen "Minotaur" when it entered the field, that had made it a Minotaur, as well as a Shapeshifter.

I Sided out 2x Minotaur Sureshot and 1x Throne of the God-Pharaoh, and put in 3x Cut / Ribbons.

They basically just made things faster, as I was able to remove a Creature, then Exert Ahn-Crop Crasher, basically leaving no blockers.

2-1 Vehicle Control

This was two deck archetypes mashed together. What was left of Control, and 1-mardu-vehicles.

First game he came in swinging hard and fast, and overran me convincingly with fliers.

I Sided out 2x Minotaur Sureshot, and 1x Ondu Champion, and put 3x Cut / Ribbons in.

That turned out to be the right call, as I was able to pick off Spell Queller early on.

He was going to kill me on the next go. I did a calculation that if I hit with everything, and Exerted Ahn-Crop Crasher to stop Toolcraft Exemplar from blocking, I would win.

I also had Zulaport Cutthroat attacking, which was the only Creature that one of his would kill. It would net me an extra point of damage, which would be lethal.

I won that game by the skin of teeth. How I like it.

I now knew that he had Heart of Kiran, so I Sided out two more Ondu Champions and put in two Lay Bare the Heart.

I know it doesn't remove Heart of Kiran, but it can take away one of the Crew members. Or Spell Queller.

On the last play he had Scrapheap Scrounger out, which couldn't block, Heart of Kiran, and Toolcraft Exemplar.

I had no cards in hand.

I hit with two Metallic Mimics, one with a +1/+1 Counter, a Neheb, the Worthy with two +1/+1 Counters, and an Ahn-Crop Crasher with two +1/+1 Counters.

I Exerted the Ahn-Crop Crasher so the Toolcraft Exemplar couldn't block.

My Opponent used it to Crew the Heart of Kiran. He was on 11 life.

I pointed out to him that if he blocked my biggest Creature, the Ahn-Crop Crasher, I still had 15 damage coming through.

He looked quite shell-shocked, as he realised that he had lost the game, and the match.

That happened all night.

People kept expecting the games to go for a couple more turns, but then just realised it was over, and there was nothing they could do about it.

Most matches reached a stage where the Opponent had to spend a long time thinking about a play, because my board state was so crazy.

The deck is fun, and unlike anything I've ever played before.

The Trample aspect is REALLY important, especially against decks that go wide. Otherwise they could just keep blocking all night.

I never got to cast the Afternath side of Cut / Ribbons. Basically because games didn't go long enough for that to happen.

Meta Predictions

• No one played Control

• Snek Deck was played

• One Zombie deck was played, even though people had been talking about Zombies since before the set had dropped.

• No Gods were played against me, but my partner faced the one.

• 1-mardu-vehicles won the night. I wished I had faced off against that as I'm sure I can outrace it. At least one other Player was also piloting it. Coz they are sad little shits who don't know how to build a decent deck.

There was a bit of a stuff up after the first round, where I had been recorded as a loss, rather than the win I scored.

I shouldn't have ended up playing against the deck where I had two bad draws.

It may have been why I didn't get to face off against the top deck.

Only the cool people were playing Amonkhet Minotaurs. So, basically, just me. Everyone thought I was crazy for playing that, at the start of the night.

Not by the end.

I think I will move Lay Bare the Heart out of the Sideboard and put By Force in, as it can help against both 1-mardu-vehicles, and
Control, which I'm sure someone will eventually end up playing.

I may need to put Lay Bare the Heart back in later, if people start Siding in Sweltering Suns against me.