Neo SilverBlack
The Kitchen Table forum
Posted on June 25, 2020, 12:33 p.m. by RoCueto
My playgroup has grown tired of the constant power creep, bans and drama of normal Magic formats. But when we tried Pauper we found it to be stale and unfriendly for brewing. So we decided to go one step further and are trying to renew the defunct SilverBlack.
Our goal is to have the best balance between the simplest legality check, cheapest card pool, largest card pool and smallest ban list possible. That's why we've chosen cards that have been printed as Common or Uncommon in the M15 frame as the legality check.
Why? Without limitation cards like Library of Alexandria and Bazaar of Baghdad would be legal by default, beating either the cheap card pool goal or the small ban list goal, and nobody likes banning cards based on secondary market price rather than power. On the other hand limiting the card pool to one of the current formats felt like we were just playing a neutered version of the parent format.
Using Un/Common printing in the M15 border as a legality check without restricting the pool to Standard sets introduces many powerful and interesting cards like Animate Dead, Ashnod's Altar, Baleful Strix, Blood Artist, Crystal Vein, Eternal Witness, Goblin Bombardment, Mother of Runes, and many more. This helps the format feel like it's own entity distinct from both Pauper/Peasant and Frontier/Pioneer.
So far we've banned only four cards: Demonic Tutor, Skullclamp, Sol Ring and Windfall. Eldrazi Temple and Fireblast are in the watch list.
Here are the decks we've built so far if you're interested https://tappedout.net/mtg-deck-folders/neosilverblack/
For the full card pool: https://scryfall.com/search?q=%28set%3Agvl+OR+set%3Addn+OR+set%3Ae01+OR+set%3Agn2+OR+set%3Agk2+OR+set%3Ag18+OR+set%3Agnt+OR+set%3Agk1+OR+set%3Ae02+OR+set%3Ag17+OR+set%3Ac20+OR+set%3Ac19+OR+set%3Ac18+OR+set%3Acm2+OR+set%3Ac17+OR+set%3Acma+OR+set%3Ac16+OR+set%3Ac15+OR+set%3Ac14+OR+set%3Apca+OR+set%3Ajmp+OR+set%3Aw17+OR+set%3Aw16+OR+set%3Acp3+OR+set%3Acp2+OR+set%3Acp1+OR+set%3Am21+OR+set%3Am20+OR+set%3Am19+OR+set%3Aori+OR+set%3Am15+OR+set%3A2xm+OR+set%3Auma+OR+set%3Aa25+OR+set%3Aima+OR+set%3Amm3+OR+set%3Aema+OR+set%3Amm2+OR+set%3Amh1+OR+set%3Abbd+OR+set%3Acn2+OR+set%3Ags1+OR+set%3Addu+OR+set%3Addt+OR+set%3Adds+OR+set%3Addr+OR+set%3Addq+OR+set%3Addp+OR+set%3Addo+OR+set%3Ajvc+OR+set%3Aevg+OR+set%3Advd+OR+set%3Aiko+OR+set%3Athb+OR+set%3Aeld+OR+set%3Awar+OR+set%3Arna+OR+set%3Agrn+OR+set%3Adom+OR+set%3Arix+OR+set%3Axln+OR+set%3Ahou+OR+set%3Aakh+OR+set%3Aaer+OR+set%3Akld+OR+set%3Aemn+OR+set%3Asoi+OR+set%3Aogw+OR+set%3Abfz+OR+set%3Adtk+OR+set%3Afrf+OR+set%3Aktk%29+%28rarity%3Ac+OR+rarity%3Au%29&unique=cards&as=grid&order=name
I would also have to disagree with that statement on Pauper, but regardless. You might want to use a Tinyurl for that link.
There is serious potential here, for cheap decks that are not super restrictive and limiting it to more modern cards means the format is super accessible. I will build a deck for the format as an exercise.
Since you probably cannot post links, here the links in a more concise format:
June 26, 2020 3:30 a.m.
The cardpool is over 6000 cards and includes hits like Basalt Monolith, Laboratory Maniac, Path to Exile, Boros Charm, Priest of Titania, Buried Alive, Palace Jailer, Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Lava Spike, Goblin Grenade, Grapeshot, Young Pyromancer, Lightning Helix...
And that is just from the first 4 pages on Scryfall, when set to price.
There are way too many broken cards in this format.
June 26, 2020 4:01 a.m. Edited.
Thanks for the links and yes, there's lots of power and keystone cards for brewing beyond just building the best combo/control/aggro/tempo deck.
June 26, 2020 9:51 a.m.
ClockworkSwordfish says... #6
How many of your friends even have a Library or a Bazaar?
June 26, 2020 7:25 p.m.
A couple do, and half of us have FoW, Wasteland, Cabal Coffers, etc. We want new players to be able to approach our playgroup (once we can go back to the LGS) and not get scared away by $50+ cards without having to have a massive banlist and/or ban cards based on secondary market price because in our experience a lot of people react badly to that and think budget=bad/not competitive.
June 28, 2020 2:21 a.m.
Fireblast and Gush have been added to the banlist and my folder now has 80 decks compiled so far thanks to the brewing and playtesting of not only my playgroup but people who've caught on through MTGO, imageboards and social media.
July 9, 2020 10:18 p.m.
I loved looking through your deck archive. You have some deck building skills. I have been brewing in Silverblack for my own amusement for 6 years now. I just uploaded my decklists and would love some feedback. https://deckstats.net/decks/183308/f89553/
June 18, 2021 6:21 a.m.
Thanks, when my group gets to hang out again we'll get back to brewing, there's lots of new cards we haven't explored yet. I really liked a lot of your decks too, we restricted ourselves to newly printed cards to avoid having to hunt for scarce items but it's great seeing the larger potential of SilverBlack/Artisan. I particularly liked your take on Hammer, Atog, Populate and Dredge. Shame they'll never ever let Sylvan Library be uncommon again so I can put it in my Dredge deck. My friend will also try to build something around Rite of Raging Storm after I show them your list. Cheers!
TonyStark9001 says... #2
how is pauper unfriendly for brewing? i use nothing but brews and end up stomping my friend and his brother who only use netdecks.
June 25, 2020 2:13 p.m.