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Gerry had been bragging about his recent Modern collection on the back of all the Standard with Illusions. I decided to see for myself if it was as good as he claimed in the article last week.
| Illusions Featured by Gerry Thompson on 2012-01-01 (Standard) | ||
Artifacts 2 Sword of War and Peace Creatures 4 Delver of Secrets 2 Merfolk Looter 4 Phantasmal Bear 4 Snapcaster Mage |
Instants 1 Disperse 1 Dissipate 4 Gut Shot 4 Mana Leak 2 Midnight Haunting 3 Vapor Snag Sorceries 4 Gitaxian Probe 4 Ponder Basic Lands 9 Island Lands 4 Glacial Fortress 4 Moorland Haunt 4 Seachrome Coast | Stats: Average mana: 1.00 Average creature mana cost: 1.43 Average creature power: 1.57 Average creature toughness: 1.29 Deck Composition: Artifacts: 3.33% Basic Lands: 15.00% Creatures: 23.33% Instants: 25.00% Lands: 20.00% Sorceries: 13.33% |
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| Download this deck in Apprentice format! |
Download this deck in Magic Online Text format! | |
OVERVIEW with two public service announcements at the end of this video
Round 1 Against Humans
Round 2 against Esper
Round 3 against Illusions
Round 4 against Wolf Run Ramp
SUPER SPECIAL BONUS:
Round 5 against Illusions
Now these rounds came from different events, and you may think that I cherry picked only my wins to make myself look awesome. While this is certainly a danger, I feel that the results speak otherwise. My record with this deck this past week is something like 36-4, similar to Gerry's win rate. My losses did not come from getting outplayed but mostly just keeping one-landers and losing or getting super flooded. Seeing these games from my perspective, you can see that a vast majority of my wins come from misplays on my opponent's part. The hardest decisions I had to make most games were whether to play Gitaxian Probe for two life or not.
The Merfolk Looter was not too impressive, as he was not part of any nut draw, and I very often attacked with it. That it was a two-drop was nice, so if anything I would try Porcelain if I was dissatisfied. Lord of the Unreal looked decidedly unimpressive on the other side of the table, so I would not want them in the deck at all.
Trinket Mage did seem pretty good in the mirror, at least against the Lord of the Unreal versions.
Pristine Talisman is a huge problem for this version, as there is a lack of heavy hitters like Porcelain Legionnaire, Geist, or Lord of the Unreal and company. I was also very fortunate that not once, in all those matches, did I play a Mono Red deck. This is not variance, however, as Mono Red is pretty poorly positioned against basic Plains, which comprises about half the format.
I'd recommend this deck to anyone who wants to play a high power, slightly higher variance deck with nut draws anyone can beat. You read that correct. Your super awesome Delver into Leak/Leak/Haunting/Sword loses to a Gut Shot and a Mana Leak.
No one can fight the tide forever.
DarkestMage
