Tools of the Trade - Ready, Aim, Combo! by Phil Cape

James was planning on playing one of the most savage metagame predators this game has ever seen, a deck that can auto-win against several popular strategies.

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80 Horde Priest - Tichondrius
80 Alliance Rogue - Icecrown

Nice article. Hit the nail on the head there, that a lot of decks simply can't deal with this one and are about as close to autowin as it gets.

That's the reason I wouldn't use this deck myself though. Assuming you know how to use it, whether you win or not is practically dependant on the matchup and not much else. It's a little less clear cut than Pinprik, but still.

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I wonder how people would rate it compared to Marlowe rip n flip combo decks?

Seems any auto win matches for morn are also auto wins for rip.

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Tournaments:
Australian Nationals 2008 -Top 4
Australian Realms Championship 2008, 2009 - Top 8

I played against this deck yesterday during our Battlegrounds here in Malaysia. It was a hoot to play against, eventually losing 2-1. Its one of those decks... that even when i lose, its fun to die just because of the way the death happens, lol.

However, i do have one question on the rules pertaining to the Mainstay.

Phil Cape used a similar example in his article as to the exact thing that happened to me yesterday.

Opponent plays Wing Clip.

Then, on the same turn, he plays Readiness, and proceeds to wallop me with the abilities he has in GY, including the Wing Clip he played prior to playing Readiness.

The text on Readiness says, "If an ability card were to enter your GY this turn, remove it from game"

It seems to me that the Wing Clip my opponent played "entered the GY this turn", therefore, shouldn't it be removed? Eventhough the power to remove if from the game came AFTER the card was already in the GY, but since it was played "this turn" as the card Readiness mentions.

Any rules gurus can help out on this?

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I played against this deck yesterday during our Battlegrounds here in Malaysia. It was a hoot to play against, eventually losing 2-1. Its one of those decks... that even when i lose, its fun to die just because of the way the death happens, lol.

However, i do have one question on the rules pertaining to the Mainstay.

Phil Cape used a similar example in his article as to the exact thing that happened to me yesterday.

Opponent plays Wing Clip.

Then, on the same turn, he plays Readiness, and proceeds to wallop me with the abilities he has in GY, including the Wing Clip he played prior to playing Readiness.

The text on Readiness says, "If an ability card were to enter your GY this turn, remove it from game"

It seems to me that the Wing Clip my opponent played "entered the GY this turn", therefore, shouldn't it be removed? Eventhough the power to remove if from the game came AFTER the card was already in the GY, but since it was played "this turn" as the card Readiness mentions.

Any rules gurus can help out on this?

well from what i could tell you, the card says specifically "if a card WOULD enter your graveyard this turn" this is future tense, therefore only applying to cards that enter the GY after readiness resolves until the turn ends. therefore, the wingclip would not have been affected.

As the creator of the deck, I feel obliged to reply. I played Morn at the Spectral Safari at DMF Singapore en route to a 2nd place finish, and my list is about 12 cards off the one in the article. In testing, Eagle Sight and Eagle Eye turned out to be situational at best in testing, and usually worse than a normal quest.

 

While Phil was mostly accurate where the matchups were concerned, druid is no longer the autowin it was before if you didn't construct your sideboard properly. Black ice is also uphill if they can get a Myriam down, but very winnable otherwise. You really shouldn't be losing to warlock at all - Damien Dufresne had me under Voidfire lock and Drain Mana for something like 10 turns and I still managed to pull it out. Likewise for Jonas, unless you have an absolutely terrible draw. Solo Rogue and Warrior tend to be tough matchups, depending on their lists.

 

To rantic : you kind of answered your own question there. Seeing as how Readiness says "were to", it refers to future tense ; That is, after readiness is played. It doesn't do anything to abilities previously played in the turn.

 

It's nice to see decks that originated in Asia get some attention in the Western hemisphere.

Phil is absolutely right.  In a metagame where interrupts and discard don't run rampant, the Hunter Combo deck, or rather, ANY combo deck can really dominate.  Too bad Mages dominate the Zangarmarsh Realm =P

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The problem I found with this deck, was not only does targeted discard and counterspells hurt, but also any deck that can pack a lot of equipment removal (like Lionar does after side) can just remove your Mainstay every time you cast it, and the deck cant win before about turn 9 (minimum) without hard casting a mainstay and getting it to stick for a turn. Thats not easy to do against an opponent that knows you need to stick a Mainstay to win.

So in conclusion:
-bad against counterspells
-bad against discard
-bad against equipment removal
-can also lose to aggro backed with a little bit of disruption on your defense

Not really sure what is a good matchup besides non-countering non-discarding control/midrange decks without too much equipment removal.

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Team Seattle - Choosing to go second since Realms 1.

wilfred's version which plays like 20x quests is not really bad against discard , u could check dmf:sg top 8 spectral safari for the decklist. the deck can win with or without the main stay, as long as the resource is enough , mainstay really is irrelevant.but yes , its ALMOST a sure lose against a deck that play huge number of counterspell..

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I guess that's why You, Robot is such an ideal quest. play mainstay end of turn and you can bypass most equipment removal cards.

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Tournaments:
Australian Nationals 2008 -Top 4
Australian Realms Championship 2008, 2009 - Top 8

2012483:

I guess that's why You, Robot is such an ideal quest. play mainstay end of turn and you can bypass most equipment removal cards.

Definitely, I think Phil's list with two of them is a good number to try and sneak it around sorcery speed equipment removal abilities.

And without the Mainstay it takes so much mana to go off that even Illidan decks have a shot at beating you before that happens.

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Team Seattle - Choosing to go second since Realms 1.

Weeeee!!! I have the same deck!!! Mine has a different build though :p

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I'm the war that comes to you.
The plague that follows through.

i need toronto top 8 decklist plz!!

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I like the updated version of the deck. I really like the deck for something like a Regional or a Realm Qualifier. Since the meta can be unpredicatable and the deck isn't incredibly well known, people may not know how to handle it. It sucks James couldn't make it, he's scary good with this deck and the new version is even better than one you guys had pre-BoG.

I've been playing this deck (well a variant using Shaii for Corki's and Crown of Earth) for a few months now. It's fun, I'll give it that, but I've tried it in several tournaments and friendly games, it just seems to fall down on its *** sometimes. I was suprised to see it's result in the last DMF actually.

If you don't see that Artor's Mainstay or it just gets popped as soon as it comes into play, it doesn't seem that strong. I think I managed only 1 win with the deck without the Artor's in play.

It's really fun to play, I enjoyed playing it throughly. Even losing with it wasnt an issue, cause it's a great thing to see your opponent's face when the combo goes off. If you just want a deck to have a laugh with, I'd say go for it. I'm not too sure on its competitiveness in the current environment though.

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