Magic General: Khans of Turn Three

[Brikguy0410]

So yea, was looking through my green and red deck last night and came up with a stratagy I like, this plan revolves around the ember swallower card,which makes both players sacrifice three land when it enters the battlefield. basically the idea is I summon I bunch of less powerful monsters to act as a distraction while at the same time using spells that allow me to steal my enemies land, then later in the game, I bring in the ember swallower in to finish the job, but I will a lot of land by this time, so parting with a few won't hurt me, also the ember swallower is a pretty decent monster in itself (4/7 I think, but don't quote me on that) anyways, then I can use the ember swallower and my other monsters to power through and destroy my enemy, and because they will be getting little to no mana, there will be next to nothing he or she can do about it.

[IVhorseman]

What lets you steal land? I don't know any in standard. I wish I had some of the older cards so I could do fun goofy shit in other formats like this. Playing non-competitively among friends is always the best way to play.

Ember Swallower's monstrous could really dick over some three-color decks. Is it his time to shine in standard yet?

[Brikguy0410]

Well at least destroy your enemy's land

[IVhorseman]

Demolish is the card, right? There used to be Stone rain which costs one mana less and doesn't target artifacts, but it was too good. Demolish, on the other hand, is still too slow to be aggressive since you're already waiting till turn 4 to cast it. I wish there was something in between to really make the land destruction strategy viable, but right now it's tough.

[Zupponn]

Way back in the day there were decks that jammed all the land destruction spells they could. Stone Rain, Molten Rain, Demolish, and Rancid Earth are just a few of the main spells that were used.

[IVhorseman]

Did a draft not too long ago with some buddies and came in second (out of 6 of us). I thought I was gonna end up going Jeskai since I got the charm and the ascendancy super early followed by two windscouts, but as soon as I saw Butcher of the Horde in the second pack I knew what I had to do, and ponyback brigades just started magically wheeling after that. Here's what I ended up running:

1x War Name Aspirant
2x Leaping Master
1x Seeker of the Way
1x Bloodfire Expert
1x Summit Prowler
1x Salt Road Patrol
1x Butcher of the Horde
1x Mardu Rough Rider
2x Ponyback Brigade

1x Suspension Field
1x Ride Down
2x Act of Treason
2x Hordeling Outburst
2x Trumpet Blast
1x Mardu Charm
1x Mardu Banner
1x Smite the Monstrous
1x Arrow Storm

All in all super awesome, I only had one each of the healy dual lands though since two of the guys at my table have taken the "just grab all the mana fixing and pick the best stuff out of pack three" approach to Khans draft.

The only deck I lost to was my friend who went abzan and grabbed every outlast dude - I was lucky to get my hands on the salty road patrol. Nobody really had a chance against him, but at least I won a single round against it.

[Zupponn]

Very good. You got some great removal in that draft.

I finished in 13th place at the SCG Legacy Open this past weekend.

[IVhorseman]

Thanks, the acts of treasons i picked up when I thought I was going to be more prowess-heavy, but who am I to let good removal go to waste?

Nice job on the SCG. What'd you run and who gave you trouble?

[Zupponn]

This was my list.

I lost to Manaless Dredge and Omnitell.

I beat a Zoo deck, Reanimator, Elves, BUG Control, Merfolk, UG Infect, and 12Post.

[IVhorseman]

goddamn kiki-jiki.

[Arkbrik]

This is my current stupid combo.

[Zupponn]

Q: How do Planeswalkers cook their meals?

A: In Garruk's Wok.


Gary combos well with Pyxis:




Seeing Pyxis also reminds me of the Big Blue deck I built before the last rotation.

4x Pyxis of Pandemonium
4x Thassa, God of the Sea
4x AEtherspouts
4x Scourge of Fleets
4x Clone
4x Whelming Wave
4x Nightveil Specter
4x Frostburn Weird
4x Master of Waves
4x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
20x Island

I only ran it the last week of the format, but it managed to go 3-1 and take 3rd place at the FNM that night. One game I think I had like 28 4/3 Elemental tokens or something like that.

[IVhorseman]

4x Thassa, God of the Sea
4x Nightveil Specter
4x Frostburn Weird
4x Master of Waves

Guuuuuhhhh fuck you this is everything wrong with last standard.




What's the deal with Pyxis? As far as I or any of my friends could tell it was pretty much unplayable in standard constructed or in draft. Do you just use it to cheat in expensive/off-color permanents or something?

Meanwhile a modified version of my morph deck with aetherspouts seems pretty good, since I can consistently slam out 5 or more damage at a time starting around the 3rd or 4th turn. Trail of Mystery wound up being far more effective than I could ever hope, especially when I turn up something as shitty as a Temur Charger with a ghostfire blade strapped to it and two trails out as a 9/7 with trample.

[Arkbrik]

What's the deal with Pyxis?

The idea is to get to seven mana as fast as possible, get a couple NIghtmares and a couple more Swamps from the Pyxis (making the Nightmares 9/9 or thereabout) then play In Garruk's Wake to destroy all creatures the opponent gained.

King Macar the Gold-Cursed + Witches' Eye are also helpful.

[Zupponn]

What's the deal with Pyxis? As far as I or any of my friends could tell it was pretty much unplayable in standard constructed or in draft. Do you just use it to cheat in expensive/off-color permanents or something?

The two biggest problems with Pyxis are that it is slow and that what you get can be really random. On the other hand, every time you activate it, it's like drawing a card and then playing that card, but storing it up until later.

If you can manage to store a whole bunch of things like enchantments with constellation triggers or powerful enters the battlefield abilities like Master of Waves, Gray Merchant of Asphodel, or Fanatic of Mogis, cracking the Pyxis could potentially be game winning.

Think about cracking the Pyxis and you flip:

Master of Waves
Clone
Scourge of Fleets
Island
Island
Island
AEtherspouts

Since they all enter at the same time, you choose the order that they enter, so here we choose Island, Island, Island, Scourge, Master, Clone. This makes 7 Elemental tokens as well as bouncing most if not all of your opponent's board.

Then there's this:

Eidolon of Blossoms
Courser of Kruphix
Doomwake Giant
Forest
Swamp
Temple of Malady
Hero's Downfall

Here we can either start with Doomwake or Eidolon, whichever benefits you more, then go with Courser and then all the lands. You draw 2-3 cards, give all your opponent's creatures -2/-2 or -3/-3, and then gain 3 life and Scry 1.

And to think, both of these are pretty modest Pyxis drops.

Of course, the card gets much worse the later in the game you play it, but it can be fun to steal that awesome card from the top of your opponent's library that's being revealed by Courser of Kruphix.

It's a very interesting card, but probably a bit too slow and random for it to be super competitive.