1st Place Winner

[Keith Katsikas]

Winner: Ricardo Garza

Playing: Lord Zycon

Main Deck:
4x Wizard Apprentice
3x Pyromancer
3x Knyles
3x Vorex
3x Draken
2x Illusionist
2x Wizard Recruiter
2x Morlock Debaine
2x Corpse Collector
4x Chain Lightning
4x Fireball
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Purify
4x Thoughtful Study (your best friend!)
4x Tranqul Touch
3x Heat Wave
2x Bibliotheque
1x Trade Agreement


Side Board: none

[redshirt]

I copied and pasted this from another thread to save Keith time.

Lord Zycon

4x Wizard Apprentice
3x Pyromancer
3x Knyles
3x Vorex
3x Draken
2x Illusionist
2x Wizard Recruiter
2x Morlock Debaine
2x Corpse Collector

4x Chain Lightning
4x Fireball
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Purify
4x Thoughtful Study (your best friend!)
4x Tranqul Touch

3x Heat Wave

2x Bibliotheque
1x Trade Agreement

Ok, so hold your laughter. I know some of the cards might seem weird, but I swear there's a reason for every one. I invite questions. But yes, this is the deck that swept all matches, including match-ups with Glye, Sutraps, and a mirror.

The concept of the deck is card advantage/creature control. Cards like Fireball and Lightning Bolt generate 2 for 1 or 3 for 1...that's huge! Chain Lightning is awesome because Zycon can do it solo, especially on turn 1 when you want them to go first and you smoke whatever creature they play, then on your turn you lay 2 creatures or 1 and a Bibliotheque. That is very tough to come back from. Oh, and don't worry about trading damage with those Chain Lightnings...often your opponent won't and if they do it's usually a mistake. You have Tranquil Touch anyway!

But basically, use this deck aggressively but intelligently. Control the tempo. You only need to deal half their life and then Heatwave, so sometimes you can ignore non-threatning creatures.

This deck doesn't have cards like Battlemonger or Goblin Archers because you generally don't attack. You want to use your creatures for control. Usually, you want to try to lay a wizard, then use another wizard and Zycon to cast Lightning Bolt or Fireball to kill 2 of your opponent's creatures. Rinse and repeat. Before you know, you have 5-6 creatures and they have none.

However, one card that I don't see in any wizard aggro deck is Draken. I think it's awesome. He can combine with Zycon to cast any spell in the deck, but he's also a 2 power flyer. In the early stages of the game, you should have your opponent engaged hiring creatures and trying to keep up, so Draken steals 2-8 damage a game. That's key!

The only loyalty issue is Vorex, but he's too useful not to risk. The reason I run 3 of him and all 4 Apprentice is because of the explosiveness they can provide. Even if you have creatures in play, often they have awesome abilities you may want to use to create control or tempo, and being able to hire disengaged creatures is huge. The Vorex in particular is awesome for his ability to interact with other creatures like Illusionist or whatever. It really wouldn't matter if he abandoned you the very next turn. You can afford or heal the 3 damage. Think of him as a super apprentice. And if he doesn't abandon, it's just nuts.

The reason the deck is built the way it is is to maximize Thoughful Study. THIS CARD IS RETARDED!!! Burn, burn, draw more burn. Tranquil Touch, Heatwave.

The Tranquil Touch, while not aggressive, is key. Sometimes you want to take that Sutraps or Glye beat and heal instead of chumping. Plus, it also helps to win the game with Heat Wave instead of drawing.

And finally the Corpse Collector(?). It seems odd, but he's an experiment for now. I mean for him to create zombies over several turns to chump Glye or Sutraps, and it has worked well so far.

I find I have awesome match-ups with control decks or slower decks. The decks that give you a harder match up are the ones with fat characters, but I've got this deck to about a 70% in my favor. It did hold them off this past weekend...

Please...feel free to comment or ask questions. But I do urge to consider fully the scope of how the deck works, especially in the first couple of turns. You need a certain discipline to make a deck like this work, but if you do...it's mean.

[Keith Katsikas]

Thanks red

[Deleted]

I did have a sideboard. I believe it was...

4 Wizard Battle
3 Condemn
3 Peacetime

That post was from when I had posted the deck the day after. I didn't know Keith was going to create this thread though or else I would have just waited. Sorry guys!

[shockyakaglye]

good job winning

[Deleted]

Thank you. It sucked to have to get paired with fellow Windies in the last 2 rounds. We were in Indy, and there were only 4 of us Windy members out of the field. But I guess that means we all did well. We had a good time.

[spiller]

Q,
Any updates on your deck? I stole the draken idea for the deck i played at regionals as it fit in well with the evasion/casting theme. I was playtesting a modified version of your deck prior to the NE regional as well as a Phe Ronde/agro style which merged into the deck I played. It seemed to be a "best of both worlds" concept. The only issue I sometimes found with this build was drawing into too many spells and not enough casters. It also didn't fair to well against my final choice.
I still have this deck as a test deck. It does give a few decks problems that mine doesn't. Zycon/heatwave, Sutraps/agro, Glye/combo, Zycon/agro, Lady P/agro, and now a still developing builder deck are part of the equation. I am sure someone will have some form of funky that we will not be expecting by Gencon

[Deleted]

I did manage to cut it down to 50 cards. I did have it that way before my Regional, but in a lapse on our 2 hour drive there realized I didn't have Purify in my deck. I paniced and added them along with Trade Agreement. That's probably why you may have had the problems drawing too many spells and not enough creatures.

By your recommendation, I did add the Slavedrivers, which worked better than I had thought they would. They replaced the Corpse Collectors. I'm glad you liked the Drakes. They're awesome. When combined with the Vorexes they help build the creature count quickly so I never usually have a ratio problem.

I mean, I'll never have more than like 2-3 in play at a time because I don't like to overextend, but usually my opponents have none. I continue to hate the style of this deck, but I can't argue with the effectiveness. The deck that gives me trouble at times is Sutraps, but the SB usually deals with that. I continue to have spectacular results against Glye and even Phe-Ronde. There's not much more I can do with this deck anymore, and I think I'll retire it. I can't play this anymore since I gave the secret away, and I'm already looking for new styles.

[Deleted]

Thank you by the way for giving the deck at least a try and/or a little faith. It seems the other NE players quickly dismissed it. Alas, we're comfortable with being considered second-rate players...it'll be sweeter when we pull the red carpet right from under them. I'll try to protect you the best I can...

[spiller]

I am the old man than comes down from the mountains to give the kids a run for there money once in a while. I am not sure what they think of me, and really don't care...lol. In 3 official tournaments I have placed 1st, 2nd, and 2nd. At the prerelease of Reckoning, I beat both Chris and Jeff going 5-0 (draft). #2, I lost to Jay in the infamous GA turn 2 beatings but did manage to pull off a close one against Chris for an overall 3-1 match record. At New England regionals I went 3-0-1 and didn't get to play Jeff or Chris but did get redemtion against Jay . I guess I can throw down with the best of them.
This deck is solid. Those that don't think so need to build it and test it. While I made a few subtle changes (slavedriver is just too good), this is a deck that can win in the hands of a good player. I am sure you will see several decks like this in the Face off.

[redshirt]

Q, how often do you use Zycon's magical abilities? The reason I ask is I'm wondering if the same deck paired with Lady P-R would be better. I would think the extra card draw would compensate for having to use dudes to cast spells most of the time. But I haven't built this deck yet so I don't know.

[Deleted]

It's possible, but I wouldn't advise it, at least not in the same style. Spiller has a very good Lady P aggro magic deck, so check it out in the NE Regional thread.

Zycon is king for casting spells super early. The probability of removing creatures on your very first turn is like up in the high 90s. He's just nutty. With 2 Biblio and 4 Thoughtful study, I never seem to run out of steam.

One of this decks weaknesses IMO is Sutraps. While the match is winnable, it's difficult, and you have to be really good at what you do. I agree with Spiller that you have to be disciplined to be able to play this deck well...not just anyone can pick it up and do well, and enemy Sutraps will assuredly prove that to you. Back to the point, I'm not sure that Lady P helps with that issue.

[spiller]

Several spells require two caster (as long as one is Zycon). I tried just replacing Lady P for Zycon and it just doesn't work. With the speed of the agro decks, you just don't have time or the ability to keep 2 wizards on the board. That idea however is how I progressed to the deck I ended up playing.

[Deleted]

I wonder if the outlook will be different for the Chicago Regional...

[tirus]

Nice.