Breaking our Extended Combo

There are many ways to skin a cat or so my Grandma used to say, not that I think she ever skinned a cat,. In magic if cat skinning was a game winning bomb or sorcery, you can bet someone, somewhere  will figure out a way to sneak it through on turn three. Well we at Adventures In The Meta like nothing more than a good tinker with the rules and we’ve been busy this week...

Ramp, is an essential part of the game it’s the ladder rather than the snake., the hare over the tortoise and while slow and steady may often win the race, ramp will win it a lot quicker so long as there’s something other than tunnel at the end of the well... tunnel.   

Back in the day when colour meant something, each colour had its strength and whilst red and black had pops at it, ramp was really the secret squirrel of Green. From the heady days of Channel to  Rampant Growths and fertile grounds and an army of elves  tap dancing back and forth to super pump some enormous great green fattie, green has always been the king of Ramp...  Now there are a million ways to ramp and with the advent of non basic lands, everflowing chalices, infinite Myr loops, Lotus Cobras and Prototypeportallingvoltaickeythroneofgethproliferation basically any one can have a go...But hey this is magic and there’s always another way to do something...

So ladies and Gentelmen We give you Titan ramp Vader style and this is an exclusive combo break... Just remember you heard it here first...

Before we give the game away we’d like to make the following statements...

1.       We are presenting the fastest version (which may not be the smartest play)

2.       If you play it this way you invite answers and despite it being brand new your opponent will spot it in seconds

3.       This combo is unstable and you can make it safer and indeed possibly quicker with money, but this is a budget blog so this is how we do it (and how anyone can )

Titan Ramp...

Ther three main combo pieces are...

Tiaining Grounds

Soulbright Flamekin
 

Inferno Titan  ( although this combo also works with any big red/colourless fattie... i.e. Wurmcoil Engine, Kargan Dragonlord (whom you can pump to madness with this trick)... Platinum Emperion... the list goes on... )

So turn by turn

Turn one lay an island – play the Training grounds

Turn Two – Drop a mountain and play the Flamekin

Turn three – Drop another mountain... because of training grounds you only need one mana to trigger the flamkins ability so  tap all lands to give the flamekin trample 3 times (it doesn’t say different targets) boom you get 8 red mana... use 6 to cast the inferno titan and the game is probably yours... You have so may options here it’s not funny...

If they have no blockers then as he comes in, direct the titan’s 3 excess damage to your opponent’s face, you can then give him haste with Burst of Speed for one extra red mana and double strike with Assault Strobe with the other red...  as he attacks deal the additional 3 damage to his face for 6 total then a 6/6 double striker and the 2/1 flamekin is game...

If he has blockers then do the same thing, but take out the defence as the titan comes in and use the additional 3 when he attacks to pick up the strays... They are still going to take 14 and they won’t have any creatures left...

Of course you could also give the titan trample instead of double strike or play any number of  1 or 2 point red instants.. . or any of the other fatties we mentioned above...

We haven’t printed a start hand or a deck list because this combo is really easy to play...it’s only two cards... build a deck with 3 or 4 sets of playable fatties and your chances of having the land , the training grounds, the flamekin and one of them is pretty good... So go wild...

This is a decent little trick and we know there are better ways to play it, but it’s fun and cheap and there is defiantly a strong extended deck in here somewhere so send us your lists and we’ll put them up...

Tomorrow we’re going to have a crack at standard and we’d love to hear your crazy ideas... Remember this is the week of madness and we want the barmiest suggestions ever We don’t want to know the deck’s deep analysis ...We want to know what madness was behind it... 

Does your deck win by losing... 

Do you have win a 4000/4000 ornithopteras a win condition?  

Can you win by forcing your opponent to scoop the first game and try to sideboard a solution for the second? 

Tell us how and why you’ve built your insane decks and we’ll share your ideas...

And one final word about our Krark’s Thumb deck... 

Thankyou for all the feedback... and we are glad you enjoyed the spirit of the build.... and thanks to Sarah form Ipswich for pointing out I misspelt Franc (a fact that will shortly be remedied. ) but it’s nice to have some girls following the blog.  We’ve actually got a special article coming up for girls who play magic, by a girl that plays magic, so keep your eyes out for that... Back to the comments though... Most of you seemed to notice our disclaimer at the bottom of the article, but a couple of you didn’t...

So for those that didn’t...

YES we know it’s still down to luck...

But having said that...

Although the deck is really cheap (which it is) and the one turn combo is unlikely (which it also is) it does do ok even in longer games because while the turn one kill may be unlikely...

Turn one... Thumb... Turn two... Game of Chaos is easy...

Also if you don’t get that... then turn one Planar Chaos will throw off most other legacy decks. 

Our week of madness begins!

We all love a trier and history is full of tales of brave folks doing mad things in a last ditch attempt to steal victory. Whether it’s a bunch of Greeks in a Wooden Horse, an African madman driving a herd of Elephants over a mountain range, some guys blowing trumpets at the walls of Jericho or even some farmers hiring a handful of cowboys or was that samurai? The point is, if it hadn’t worked, and let’s not pretend for a second that a million other fatally flawed plans didn’t, we’d never have heard of it. Conversely as they did succeed (even if only in the movies ) the modern world has such a soft spot for death defying feats of heroic lunacy, that these stories are immortalised. (usually by making movies)

So my friends in honour of the brave 300 we are going to investigate the world of do or die last ditch, million to one shots and general lunacy in the world of Magic...  Most times these decks and combos will do nothing, but fizzle out feebly, make you swear profusely and look like an idiot... but sometimes just sometimes... the little blue touch paper will ignite and your opponent will be able to do nothing but stare open mouthed as you utterly devastate his plans with what can best be described as a wooden horse and some trumpets...  

We’re going to look at some crazy combos and decks for Legacy, Extended, EDH and not one, but 2 standard decks and one for them is brand new...

Today we’re going to have a look at Legacy and tomorrow we’ll look at Extended and then we’ll have a crack at standard for the weekend..
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So to our first deck and this one is the perfect example of what we’re talking about. Two parts jank 50c rare, one part combo ramp and one part madscience.  This is a legacy deck like no other, it has 4 cards that cost more than $1 and whilst they are pretty expensive they are by no means bank breakers. I won’t bore you with the whole deck, but the combo is pure cheek.   

This is the infamous Krark’s Thumb One Turn kill combo... (Now we mentioned on the blog that we’d offer a prize for anyone who guessed it, no one did, but we did get an alternative idea which was along the right line and would kind of still count from Brian Leahy...so well done to you sir) We’ll tell you Brian’s idea in a second, but here’s the combo we had in mind...

You will need the god hand (But hey his is legacy and who doesn’t... plus if you had the money you could probably make this more stable)

So this is it...

1 Chrome Mox (about $15/20)

1 Krark’s Thumb

1 Mountain

1 pyretic ritual

1 seething song

1 (any) red spell

1 Game of Chaos

If you go first and your opponent isn’t playing blue (and force of will... and has it in his opening hand... and you’re not seriously unlucky) you’ve won...

How?  Well imprint the mox with (any) red spell... lay the mountain... tap both for the ritual... use the 3 mana for seething song you can now play both Krark’s thumb and the Game of Chaos and all you have to do to win is flip and win FIVE coin flips and because of Krark’s Thumb you basically have 10 chances to do it...  Because Game of Chaos goes up geometrically it works like this...

1^st  flip - they lose 1 - you gain 1 (19 v’s 21)

2^nd flip- they lose 2 – yiou gain 2(17 v’s 23)

3d flip – they lose 4 – you gain 4 (13 v’s 27

4^th flip –they lose 8 – you gain 8 (7 v’s 33)

5^th flip they lose 16 – you gain 16 (-9 v’s 39) of course if you lose the flip here you’re probably in trouble)

So there you have it. A cheap as chips (potential) first turn kill. I’m not for a second suggesting that you take this along to the world championships, but next time your beardy mate wants to play in a legacy tournament ask to borrow his chrome moxes (it can probably be done with mox opal too or perhaps some fancy lands) and hit the local traders 50p box in search of a Krark’s thumb or two...  You might not win any games, but you’ll have a blast and just maybe... yeah... just maybe...

Oh and before we forget, we got to say thanks to Brian for suggesting Mana Clash as an alternative. It could technically work too, but it would take at least 20 flips and maybe more and the chances of that happening, even with Krark’s thumb, are just a little too low...

If you want my exact Krark’s thumb decklist send me an email... but there are some great cards out there so If you just want to potter along on your own here are some suggestions to look out for... Planar Claos, Goblin bomb, Chance encounter ( imagine these last two with proliferate ) Bottle of Sulieman, Goblin Assassin (put in goblin assault too) and my favourite... Fiery Gambit (awesome card)   

Tomorrow we’re going to look at Extended.  It’s another nasty tricky combo deck and once again it’s great when it works and pants when it doesn’t... So what’s the plan this time?  Well there are less combo pieces but once again we’ll give you a teaser... How can you play a Titan, give it haste and double strike and wipe your opponent’s board all on turn three? And you can’t use any mirrors, cobras, polymorphs, pipers oh and you can’t use green at all...  

One final note of caution.... We recommend this deck as a casual or fun deck, but if you do take it to a tournament remember this very important rule...

You are not allowed to have any money on the table at any time (like a coin)  so use a coin that isn't legal tender.... (I use a french frank ...:if you think I'm being too cautious imagine you've just beaten a legacy player who has been playing foir 2o years and whose desk is worth £5000 and knows every rule... he;s gonna know this rule too and all he has to call a judge and pont at tjhe coin on the table... Would you really blame them? )

 

And yes we know its not guarenteed, but it also doesn't cost 2 grand...

Enttry for out first contest is now closed....

There will now be a short period of judging and a week today we'll announce the winner and ask them to generate a new key card for the next competion



Many thanks to everyone who took part.. Our judge this mointh I'm sure you'll be pleased to know is not I Gordon Vader, but Instead DCI Judge Micheal Chamberlain...  He will be appraisng all the ideas and will be offering feeback on all the decks.entered.  His decison willl be  impartial, but final...

On Adventures In the Meta this week we'll be looking at crazy combos, one turn wins and anything that falls into the realm of insanity... Do if you have a combo or an mad deck idea? Does you r deck win by dropping you;r life to -1000 or cby turning everthying into chickens?  If you do have any suggestions send them in...  I'll gve you a little taste and a teaser for now...

Can you think of a Krark's Thuimb first turn kill? there is a potential one... (maybe more ) we'll offer a special prize to anyone who can guess it before we post the article tomorrow....


Our email is Gordonvader@hotmail.co.uk