Its very user-friendly and provides a lot of features. I am speaking of Cockatrice which is basically an “open-source multiplatform software for playing card games, such as Magic: The Gathering, over a network. It is fully client-server based to prevent any kind of cheating, though it supports single-player games without a network interface as well.“

In my own view it got some features which make it superior compared to MWS:

• A lobby system which shows running games and players.  Its easier to find games since you can chat whit people.

• Easy reconnect after a crash (not that many crashes occur but also if you got disconnected from the internet) through the lobby system.

• Deck can be saved on the server and are accessible from everywhere.

• Nearly bug-free even though it’s still in development.

• Observer function which allow players to join running games and watch other people playing.  It’s even possible to see their hands or chat with other observers (based on the game settings).

• You can play multiplayer games. I tested it with four players so far but it’s even possible to play with more.

Apart this the whole interface is customizable and can be simply modified by the user. The developers are open- minded and want the community to bring their ideas and suggestions.

The program is still in the development but as far as I can tell it already surpassed MWS and is maybe an upcoming replacement for the old buggy program we used so far.

And of course you can use the old MWS-pictures and import all your mws.decks.

So visit their site today at: www.cockatrice.de

Download Link PC:  http://www.cockatrice.de/files/cockatrice_win32_20101110.exe

Download Link MAC OS X: http://www.cockatrice.de/files/cockatrice_mac_20101110.dmg.zip

Linux (you have to compile the source code): http://www.cockatrice.de/index.php?a=download

]]> http://blog.magicplayer.org/2010/12/21/alternative-to-magic-workstation-cockatrice/feed/ 3 http://blog.magicplayer.org/2010/11/25/rgw-nayazoo/ http://blog.magicplayer.org/2010/11/25/rgw-nayazoo/#comments Thu, 25 Nov 2010 14:24:05 +0000 Tabris http://blog.magicplayer.org/?p=384 Today I present a deck which is very popular and a constant force in the highlander meta. Many people know that archetype as Zoo but since the release of Shards of Alara its also called Naya which is one of the Shards which rely on massive creature power. This deck trys to combine all the good quality/aggro creatures and mix it up with the best burn we´ve got in magic. It also have three of the best planeswalker (in terms of cost-effect relation) to support the fast aggro strategy.

There are many different builds out there and since the release of SoA its quite ususal to mix it with blue to get all the good bant creatures too. Even five colour aggro decks are quite usual nowadays and it seems they will replace this kind of deck. But I think a huge advantage this build got is the pure speed it can provide with such a low mana curve. As I said there are many choices to make. You can even make this deck faster or stick with more quality spells. Even more burn is possible.

Here is the list:

RGW-Naya/Zoo

• Lands
• Creatures
• Spells

Matchups

Control: It depends on the control deck and on their draw. If you are opposing a standard UW/UB/UWB version you have a good matchup depending on their removal count. Since this deck is able to get a quite aggressive start they are simply to slow. Even for cards like Vedalken Shackles or Moat you got all the answers. If the meta got a lot of recursion based control decks you can easily implement Loaming Shaman. A card like Back to Basic can easily crush you so if possible try to get some basic lands against blue based control decks since they will run this card!

If you got a realy control/combo heavy enviroment try to add spells like Ravages of War, Tangle Wire or Frost Bringer.

Aggro: There are different kind of aggro decks. Boros, White Weenie, RG/Beasts, RDW, Goblin, Elves and even Black Suicide. So it depends which kind of aggro you are facing. Most of the time you got the better creatures and better spells. But the advantage they have is either speed or consistence. A RDW or WW can easily crush you in turn four or even get you in turn 10 with a price of progressorBlood Moon. To avoid such devastation its not a bad call to implement cards like Loxodon Hierarch, Obstinate Baloth and of course more basic lands On the long run I would say its quite balanced betweend this deck and other aggro versions.

AggroControl: They got all the good control cards and run Tarmogyof,Rhox War Monk, Kitchen Finks,Shriekmaw etc. so you need quite aggressive starts to beat them. The will simply control (obv.) the game and beat you down with the same good creatures you are running or even better ones. Most of the time it depends on the draw of both players. Planeswalker and removal are difficult to handle and you need always the pressure on the battlefield to win the game.

Conclusion: Its realy fun to play this deck since it can win on so many different ways and its allways nice to play exciting cards like Ajani Vengeant and Knight of the Reliquary so it differs from pure aggro since it got a lot of quality spells. The matchups are quite balanced against other archetypes which makes the deck very strong. But as I said before its possible that the 4-5c aggro builds will replace this kind of deck since its not as fast as RDW or WW and trys to compensate this through quality spells but since the mana base is easy to establish in Highlander you can also play all five colours to get the best spells of each colour.

so far~

The result is the following text.

I got tempted to write a primer for the Highlander-Blog and chose a quite unusual, but effective deck. Some of the older players will remember the dreaded Stasis decks of old. First they counter/remove everything then you got no more untaps and finally they played Kismet and Feldon’s Cane and you died a horrible death of doing… nothing.

MonoU-Prison

• Lands
• Creatures
• Spells

A exact copy of such a deck is of course not possible, as there are too few equvivalents of the card Stasis.

I chose to keep it Mono-Blue, for the maximum power of Back to Basics, Vedalken Shackles, Thwart, Gush andSundering Titan. Splashes are of course possible, white and green would be the first choices for cards like: Freyalises Winds, Kismet, Hokori, Dust Drinker and such.

I omitted the namesake card, Stasis. As a one of Stasis is not very reliable, because you have to find some way to break the symmetry, which would necessitate more bounce spells and cards like Howling mine. In green splashed build with Garruk Wildspeaker it could be strong though.

Also a reason to play this deck is that you  get to slam down Mind Over Matter! Where else is that card played? It serves several roles in here: tapping threats, tapping Orbs, untapping Mana + Temple Bell.

Cards I am not really happy with: Rising Waters, Frozen Aether. Both are costly at 4 mana, are no artifacts (not being tutorable by Tezz or Fabricate) and the latter one can be utterly useless. I’d like to include one or two more early counters, but alas! There are only so many good ones. Memory Lapse/Negate / Arcane Denial would be possible candidates.

Matchups:

Let’s start with the bad ones:

RDW/Burn:

Well. There isn’t much you can do about that. They need only 2-3 mana to cast their burn spells, are Back to Basics proof, and you have zero lifegain. You really need to have the early counters ready to reach the midgame when you can establish a lock.

Zoo/Naya:

Also not too great, as they play huge early threats. But if you can land and protect one of your anti-aggro tools (Shackles, Propaganda, Tabernacle, Dream Tides, Bridge) they are often quite helpless since they run alot less burn spells. On the other hand be aware of Qasali Pridemage and Krosan Grip.

If your meta consists of mostly aggro you can tune this deck in that direction. A white splash with Wraths, Swords and such would be prudent.

Other control decks (3c-5c, Rock etc.):

These are quite good MUs. Often they run alot of dead anti-creature cards and a non-basic heavy manabase. The ample support of counterspells + Mana should enable this deck to comfortably outplay them. Once you can land a lockpiece it is mostly over for them.

An exception would be MUC/BlueStaxx. That deck looks almost like this only that they play no lockpieces but huge blue spells/Artifacts. This will often be a classic draw-go game, where the one moving first loses.

Combo:

Also quite favorable due to counters + mana denial. There are many combodecks out there but most of them need unhindered mana to operate, which makes the orbs prime threats to them.

Conclusion: If you want to play a different , pure control magic game, this deck is quite satisfying.

BUT: that might not be the case for your opponent, since games tend to go very long with them being able to do nothing. So you might get a win or two by just forcing the opponent to concede in agony(A/N I realy like that ). That actually happened to me in the online league.

As usual I’d be glad to receive every kind of constructive critics.

Best wishes

This  build is mono green with a slighty white splash for Ravages of War and Armageddon since its obvious that a deck which got so many alternative mana sources can only benefit from such mighty spells. Additionally there are Mirror Entity and Ranger of Eos

Here is the list:

Gw Elves

• Lands
• Creatures
• Spells

As you can see a lot of the cards are meant to be synergetic which is not unusual for a tribal deck like this. Since elves are one of the oldest tribes in magic there are a LOT of options to put in. I saw many many builds over the years. Straight aggro, aggro-control and even combo elves (yeah nothing spectacular in extended). Patrik tried also some combo elements like staff of domination or Progenitus. But he came to the conclusion that straight aggro with a very aggressive curve is the best way to go.

It would be very easy to implement some black cards since the deck is capable to splash any kind of colour for cards like Maelstrom Pulse or Putrefy and Demonic Tutor. As far as I know Patrik was not satisfied with these cards so he was going back to a more creatures less non creature spells – build. To implement the mass land destruction is in my view a very good call to the actual meta game.

A lot of 4-5c aggro decks are going wild and have such strong cards from all colours. He´s able to finish the game with just one spell against these decks. And even against control its a game winning card. Since its not my deck I cant write as much as you guys would like but I´ve seen it a  lot in real life and think its one of the best tribal decks out there if not the best.

Its a force to reckon with. I lost on the last Grand Prix my only game in swiss against Gwb Elves and its insane what potential they have. I cant imagine any other deck which can get such explosives starts like elves. I hope you guys enjoy this list and feel free to ask.

so far~

MonoR-Red Deck Wins

• Lands
• Creatures
• Spells

As you can see there are a lot of obvious choices but of course as always there is a lot of space to implement personal favorites. The good thing about RDW is that you can easily modify it to your local meta. If there are many WW-Decks you can add Sulfur Elemental/Ghost Fire/Pyrite Spellbomb if your meta is dominated by control decks you can add The Rack and land destruction spells etc.

I would say that this kind of deck got a lot of good matchups. Sometimes its insanly fast and is able to kill an opponent on turn four. And even in a game where an opponent is able to stabilize you can end the game with spells like Price of Progress or Ruiniation/Blood Moon/Magus of the Moon

Against straight Aggro Decks like Gx Elves, WR Boros or Rx Goblins this deck is also performing very well. Its able to burn the small dudes which are essential since they use a lot of synergies and finish them off with his own haste creatures which are “immune” to spot removal or at least generating card advantage. I added in my build spells like Volcanic Fallout and Breath of Darigaaz for this kind of matchups.

Midrange Aggro Decks like GWR Naya, UGW Bant/UGWB Dark Bant or 5C Aggro Decks are the “worst” matchups. Since they got a lot of good cards against RDW. They play all the good removal + lifegain creatures and got counterspell backup. Sometimes you can mess with their manabase but if they are playing their second Kitchen Finks which got revived by an Eternal Witness or a Baneslayer Angel the deck simply cant beat this.

Against Control Decks you got a good chance since they need their anti-aggro cards right on time and dont have much time to develop their board. Some player add cards like Tangle Wire or Frost Bringer to get a better matchup against control/combo decks but In my build is no place for this kind of cards. I think its a viable strategy to add more mana denial to the deck but my deck is a hybrid between sligh and aggro so its crucial to have enough mana. Cards like Avalance Riders and Fulminator Mage are also a good option to think about.

As you can see my build is missing any artifact removal. This is a meta game call but if you whish to implement some cards against artifacts I would suggest those Pillage / Smash to Smithereens or Hearth Kami.

This type of deck is in my opionion a good benchmark for any deck which want to survive in the Highlander meta. Its an insanly fast deck and can check if the opposing deck is stable enough to stay in the meta. As far as I know its a very popular deck on MTGO and a lot of players mix it up with a goblin strategy or even more burn so if you planing to create a new deck check if its able to catch up with this kind of archetype.

so far~

Here is the list:

GWB Pattern-Rector

• lands
• creatures
• spells

How the combo works:

The combo itself might not be obvious just by looking at the list. It basically goes like this:

1)Get Hulk into play with an sacrifice outlet
2)Sacrifice it, and fetch karmic Guide (targeting Hulk) and one mana sacrifice outlet (just to be sure)
3)Sacrifice Hulk, fetch Saffi Eriksdottir, Tidehollow Sculler, and Mesmeric Fiend
4)Sacrifice the Sculler/Fiend duo while their abilities are on the stack so they remove the cards permanently (this step makes sure you don’t need to play around anything)
5)Sacrifice Saffi with her own ability, targetting the Karmic Guide and then sacrifice the Guide, which reanimates Hulk
6)Sacrifice Hulk, and get Reveillark
7)Sacrifice Guide and then Reveillark to reanimate Saffi and Guide (targetting Reveillark)
8)Sacrifice Saffi with her own ability, targetting the Karmic Guide and then sacrifice the Guide, which reanimates the creature whose ETB-ability you want to abuse

Rince and repeat.

With the current creatures in the deck, you are able to gain infinite life (Kitchen Finks, Obstinate Baloth), infinite power and toughness (Nantuko Husk, Carrion Feeder), infinite green mana (Wall of Roots), infinite card draw (Wall of Blossoms), infinite lockdown (Yosei), infinite hand disruption (Tidehollow Sculler), and infinite permanent destruction (Terastodon, Shriekmaw).

Even though you can’t usually win on the same turn, the game should be unloseable at this point.

How the deck compete with different decktypes:

The hand you looking for to mulligan to, is green one mana accelerant, sacrifice outlet, and either Natural Order/Pattern/Rector. Naturally, any tutor for those will do and against control, you want to see a discard spell or two, to make sure the coast is clear when you go off.

Against aggro, you pretty much want to go off as soon as possible. You do have the means to stabilize, though, but against evasion you have only limited answers, so safest bet is just go for the combo. The above mentioned “perfect” hand is the one you’ll be looking for.

Against control, you like to see the whole combo and some disruption. I am usually pretty happy to have some card advantage as well, like Yavimaya Elder, Night’s Whisper, Grim Discovery, Phyrexian Arena, and so on. You can outdraw blue decks, but that requires some luck. Although, when they need to tap for the card draw, you are free to combo off. This is a tricky matchup, and you have couple of ways to go here, as hitting them with your utility creatures is also a good idea.

If your field is full of aggro, consider switching Phyrexian Arena to Loxodon Hierarch. Obstinate Baloth, Tarmogoyf and Wall of Omens are mainly against aggro, so you might need consider taking these out for some card draw or disruption, if you find yourself playing against control all day long.

At the nationals, I expected more of midrange and control decks and thus this list is light on anti-aggro. I was really glad to see the meta filled with aggro as this is not very common thing in Finland, despite the fact my deck was not geared towards dealing with decks like Naya.

I had couple of good things going for me though: combo is traditionally good against field of aggro, and many game ones saw me combo off before opponent even realized they were in a short clock.

Landbase is far from perfect. Couple of the losses I experienced were caused by not being able to find green mana, or that at least decimated the rest of my chances to mount a comeback after an aggressive start from the opposition. I am unsure which direction to take the lands, or should I add nonland cards to combat the mana screw (e.g. Sylvan Ranger could be decent here). Needs more testing. There are good number of nonbasics as your mana dorks are able to get you out of the blood moon/back to basics range before it can be played, and sometimes you even have the luxury of fetching nothing but basics. You could probably squeeze one or two more of those though.

Last thoughts:

As you can see this list is very flexible. Many choices Tiggupiru made are not finally. Thats why the deck is so strong in my opinion. It provides a lot of answers to aggro, control or midrange and is also able to accomplish his own goal in a constant amount of time. As he mentioned you can try to add some other cards and adjust the deck just as you want on your local meta. I am very happy to see a viable combo deck again and hope this deck will get some attention. If you interested in the report from the tourney just click on the link and you can read how the deck fought his way to the 1st place.

so far~

Most builds run only G/W and have a token plan. I´ve tried to add U because of Copy Enchantment, Treachery, Attunement, Wargate, Propaganda and ofc the good stuff (Fact or Fiction , Gifts Ungiven, Intuition). So my idea was to stall the game and finish my opponent off with combo (Earthcraft+Squirrel Nest/Sacred Mesa/Fertile Ground etc.) or simply get a bunch of 4/4er flyers. Even Opalessence is a viable win condition.

So its more like a synergetic combo/control deck than a classic G/W token Enchantress deck. The goal of this deck is to generate a huge card advantage with enchantress effects and sabotage the opponent until the combo or own kill options are assembled. Even after a board sweeper like Akromas Vengeance this deck can easily recover with replenish or Open the Vaults. With Attunement its even possibile to get the whole deck in the graveyard and recur them with the same spells.

So I build this  deck as a multiplayer deck but since its performing so well (which means its like a combo deck at a certain point and its just playing with its own cards) I wanted to establish a solid 1v1 deck. So as a result this deck was created.

GWU Enchantress

• Lands
• Creatures
• Non-Enchantments
• Enchantments

Some remarks

Lands:

Not much to say except I run the filter lands because the deck need a lot of coloured mana. Also Dust Bowl have found his way in because of Crucible of worlds and Exploration shenanigans. Tolaria West finds me Serras Sanctum which is a key land for this deck (I am also thinking about Engineered Explosives but it could destroy also a lot of my stuff too because I run a lot of cheap  enchantments). Horizon Canopys is also a very nice land in combination with Crucibile of worlds.

Creatures:

Well pretty standard choices for an enchantress deck. I am missing Eternal Witness because I want to keep my enchantment count as high as possible. And since I´ve got a lot of mass resurection (Replenish, Open the Vaults) + Holistic Wisdom I dont think I need her.

Non-Enchantment Spells:

Most of the cards are self explaining. Jace and Garruk are just great of their own so I had included them. What I am missing here is graveyard removal. I thought about Ground Seal because its an enchantment and also a cantrip instead of the usual stuff (Tormods Crypt, Phyrexian Furnace).

Warportal finds me often the Serras Sanctum and if I have it allready a Future Sight or something similiar strong (Sigil of the empty Throne or combo parts)

Enchantments:

There are some sub groups.

Removal // Oblivion Ring, Seal of Cleansing, Journey of Nowhere

Kill // Sigil of the empty throne, Opalessence, Squirrel Nest + Earthcraft

Utility// Sterling Grove, Copy Enchantment, Attunement

Stalling// Propaganda, Humility, Solitary Confinement

Most of the cards are pretty obvious for an enchantress deck. Cards like Lignify are not. I like this card because its an cheap good creature removal since it “answers” every problematic creature (except with shroud which is a big issue for this deck). Mind harness and Confiscate are some weird cards too for a competetive deck but since Holistic Wisdom cycles 2/3 of my deck and makes nearly every card a regrowth I have no problems running them. Of course it depends on your meta. Here I ´ve got a very heavy aggro meta.

So I would suggest to add Counterbalance or City of Solitude if you have an heavy control meta. Also mystic remora, which I am running in the multiplayer version of this deck ,is very good. Spreading Seas is just awesome. I liked this sideboard tech from Type 2 and added it to my deck since it draws a card anyway or even two if you have an enchantress effect on the board. You can colour screw your opponent or answer problematic lands (most of the time man lands or in the past LoA).

Finaly there are the kill options.

Opalessence is pretty obvious a no brainer same is true for Sigil of the empty throne. The squirrel/earthcraft combo is also very neat. Easy to assemble and you dont need all the time your nest. A Fertile grounded land + Earthcraft + Sacred Mesa are also doing the job. Hoofprints of the Stag looks realy bad on paper but they are just insane once you get your draw engine online.

So far thats my list. I want to remind you the core of this deck was created for multiplayer and on a heavy aggro meta. But I played some tourneys and was very satisfied by the performance.

so far~

]]> http://blog.magicplayer.org/2010/07/11/gwu-enchantress/feed/ 14 http://blog.magicplayer.org/2010/07/08/hl-gp-vii-place-9-timo-barwisch-bant/ http://blog.magicplayer.org/2010/07/08/hl-gp-vii-place-9-timo-barwisch-bant/#comments Thu, 08 Jul 2010 17:10:13 +0000 malz77 http://blog.magicplayer.org/?p=282 After some requests and personal messages here is my Bant-list played at GP 7: