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First let’s look at all the race-class combos that entered to show you just how varied the decks really were when some initially questioned me about how narrow this contest would be. Also, for those naysayers at home—you two who kept telling me it would be nothing but Goblin tribes—I only have to say: Not a single one. It was a total shock for me as Goblin Warriors are massively strong, but hey the people proved me right. Elves and Humans ended up being the most popular tribes while Druids and Wizards took home most popular classes.
There were a few other decks submitted, but they made invalid tribes and never got back to me to correct them. As some contestants will attest, I was very nice allowing them to fix decks after the deadline instead of disqualifying them. The decks that didn't make it at all most likely would have ended up in the pile of other decks that just didn't quite make it to tonight's presentation of winners as none were particularly inspiring or powerful. I highly encourage you to check out the non-winning decks if you haven't seen them yet, the purple ribbon contestants and the runner-up's, as most decks were entertaining at the least. However, I'm done talking about them now because it's time for the winners.
Maleficent approached me as I was just sitting down and getting all the results organized and asked if it was too late to submit a deck. I took pity on him and allowed him to do it, then he brought me this and I regret any compassion I've ever shown in my life. This deck is an annoying recursion machine that doesn't win by killing an opponent, but wins by constantly gaining mass life. It's a deck I've had the displeasure of experiencing more than a few times in my life, and a deck I was not fond to see again. You could deal 40-50 damage a turn and still struggle to whittle away this kind of deck's life advantage when it kicks into full gear as Martyr of Sands recurs over and over to gain life.
The deck works because Martyr of Sands can gain so much life at such a cheap cost, while the other cards provide control and stave off any attempt to take down your already ridiculous life total. As the deck plays out the Swords and Cemeteries help to recur the sacrificial Clerics enabling even more life gain or locking an opponent out of the game entirely with Oriss' grandeur. The deck makes game play very passive and very boring for the other player, which is why this deck is the most annoying deck in the contest, and very similarly the most likely to garner a whack to the noggin. Here it is straight from the horse's mouth:
So thanks Maleficent for annoying me with a tribe. I can't count the number of times I've had to deal with Clerics let alone the Martyr of Sands. I do kind of question where a few staples of the Cleric tribe are, like the always helpful Edgewalker and the annoying recursion of Doomed Necromancer. Other thematic and staple choices include Starlit Sanctum, Gravepact and Enduring Renewal—uh hello? While the deck is already annoying, it could have gone into the hundreds of life points a turn if built more annoyingly - if that is even a word. Alas, this deck does work and it's worth mentioning, especially since the deck W/x Martyr & Co. is a current Standard issue.
While Maleficent's Clerics did use Test of Endurance to win the game, there was a deck that outshone it by far in terms of winning in a non-life manner. Niv-Mizzet's Merfolks created a super powerful Tribal Mill engine that did it the old fashioned way—one card at a time with the potential for infinite mill.
The deck essentially works off the concept of "Tap: I win". Sure, it’s more complicated than that, but look at the Merfolk—one enables tapping for a mill, while three others generate effects when tapped. There is card bouncing, card milling, life gaining, and token creation for just mere taps! Then it gets worse when you look at the spells—Merrow Commerce and Intruder Alarm untap, while Summon the School helps tap and make more tapping! Tap Tap Tap Tap Tap Tap Untap! With Intruder Alarm + Drowner of Secrets + Stonybrook Schoolmaster in play you go infinite mill! Although NMR didn't quite express it as infinite, the exact quantification was a 15,673,902,427 combo. I commend the man for his commitment to getting carpal tunnel's syndrome with that much physical tapping per game.
I didn't expect to see a powerful milling deck in this format, but here it is. It's not even the slow painful mill that makes this deck powerful or even the chance infinite mill; it is the sheer obnoxiousness of the Merfolk as a whole. They merely tap and do stuff, then you go and make them all untap letting them tap again! And they're doing far more than merely milling an opponent, they protect each other and inflate life totals, while generating massive card draw. The deck is vulnerable to card removal such as Extirpate and Cranial Extraction to remove the tap engine, but not much more besides constant Wrath of Gods and Pyroclasms will really phase it. Except maybe a powerful creature with a Loxodon Warhammer. As far as card choice, the only thing this deck really needs is some tutoring to enable the combos - if it had the tutoring it may have just won best overall as this is a killer-fun deck.
As I expected and as you can see from the prior entry, a lot of decks used major combos to win. However, one was so dedicated to the combo and so mind-blowingly original that I had to give it mention. Now mind you this is not a strong deck and is one of those "hah" I finally got you with it decks, but "C’est la Vie" that's a Johnny for you. So give it up for one of Streetz’ four entries:
Wait, what ... someone chose Orc? Are you kidding me? Well
let’s sit down and look at it. What we have here is a
While YWN's Faerie Rogues and Streetz’ Human Archers were huge contenders for this slot, Ryuzaki beat them out with his Giant Warriors. The deck easily had the highest average casting cost and made no qualms about it, utilizing some mana acceleration as really the only sort of non-themed cards in his deck. The theme wasn't his tribe though; it was for a video game as represented by his tribe. Even though I always thought the proper Shadow of the Colossus deck would be a Squire and a Jade Horse versus sixteen Darksteel Colossi, Ryuzaki makes his case with this deck:
I don't think I have to explain how to play this to you, do I? You pray for mana acceleration, then throw down some Giants and smash everything in sight. The thing about the Giants is that they are all ridiculous. The real star here is Titan's Revenge which was a last minute and very smart add by Ryu. The main reason? He's gonna win that clash almost every time and it will be vital in his early game if he manages to draw it for spot control. In case you're wondering, Shadow of the Colossus is a very artsy Playstation 2 game where a small boy has to destroy giant monsters called Colossi. Ryuzaki casts you as the boy, and his deck as the big bads. His tag for the deck?
There is no doubt that Giants are one of the slowest tribes in the game (outshone only really by Leviathans) and there's also no doubt that they are also some of the most powerful and difficult to deal with creatures. This deck, if it was in play, would be a monster to deal with, however therein lays the issue—getting it into play. Sure lots of mana acceleration helps, but at twenty lands it might be a problem still without a good opening hand. As a Standard deck, I'd recommend five more lands—four of them being Fungal Reaches and one being Kher Keep which not only ups the chance of drawing each crucial land, but also helps to take away the sting of not having mana acceleration in hand. Two other cards I would love to find a way to add are Pyroclasm and Loxodon Warhammer. They both increase survivability against the weenie match-up who would overwhelm Giants before one managed to stay in play—Hammer to me is a mainstay right now. If you're not rushing, you need it to counter the rush getting life back before they draw their finishing burner.
The next deck is something I want EVERYONE to pay attention to. What we have is a deck that is extremely powerful, easy to make, and can be built on a very small budget if done correctly. The deck that Hamsandwich submitted is Extended, but I will also present an even cheaper Standard version. Featuring Elf Warriors—I present Hamsandwich's Bramblewood Beatdown
This deck, as all Elf Decks do, plays very fast. The Elves come out and utilize Obsidian Battle-Axe to gain haste, which can open up some very strong starts. The weird part is that this deck plays more like a Soldier deck than an Elf or Warrior deck. The Elves become stronger with more and more Elves in play giving permanent bonuses to each other. This idea of building and supporting each other is more of a Solider thing, but Morningtide really gave Warriors a boost. This deck has an extremely fast tempo that will send many decks scattering to recover if they can even. It does have some issues with recovering itself from a mass wipe, but that's about it. Also, I swear I've seen something similar to this before—Getting Classy: Warriors. However, in all fairness this entry was submitted and accepted well before that mini-article actually came out. I just think the Elf Warrior deck is a powerful and easily drawn conclusion to make. Elvish Warriors, after Morningtide, are straight out ridiculous in power and ease of build. Unlike other powerful decks though, this one won't cost you an arm and a leg; you need very few rares to make it—if any. It could be stronger with the inclusion of Wren's Run Vanquisher and Loxodon Warhmammer, however. Using four Vanguards, I might have also run four Imperious Perfects or other token generators, but that is a small tweak. Good deck regardless, with some room for improvement. And now as promised—my budget no-rare Elf Warrior deck that any of you can build and win some games with (although it will cheat on the contest rules):
And finally we arrive at a winner; a deck that epitomized everything I thought the winner of this contest should. It's casual at its heart; it promotes a single race and class as a theme, not a restraint, and is built efficiently and powerfully. There were ten decks I seriously looked at to be in this coveted spot, but for one reason or another, all but this deck were eliminated. This was not an easy decision, and another deck was in the spot in fact until the final day of judging—yes I looked at almost all the decks on three different days to get a fresh look and perspective. So without any further wasting of time - congratulations to Shakadelic and his Elf Druids.
The major weaknesses of the deck, however, are fast Aggro decks, as there just aren’t any great ways to deal with them—so the Druids might suffer at the hands of Goblin, Human, Kithkin and Elf Warriors/Soldiers before the summoning ceremony takes place. Deserts do help stave off the weenie invasion, but some Druids will invariably fall before their Chameleon savior arrives. I do however thoroughly love Defense of the Heart as an ingenious solution to recoverability—punishing fast drop decks or decks that attempt to take over after a Wrath of God. That card, combined with lots of draw support, left me amazed at how well this deck could perform. The only things I could really suggest to improve the deck are Decree of Savagery to give the Druids a second method of finishing and a little recursion in case the Chameleon falls. Of course, as always with the Chameleon, trample is your friend and something like Loxodon Warhammer might have been nice. So there you have it; the great Class-Wars contest is over and done with. If you still need more contests, check out the ongoing contests in the forum which hopefully can stave you off until March and the launch of MDV Idol 3. ~Cashew~ P.S. Be sure and vote in the forum (poll) thread!
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Sacrifice
Children.
