Ok... so people have been hearing about this weird lock/control/mill deck that I ran last weekend at the Path of the Master tournament.

So a week later I finally have the promised article completed:

http://www.teamcanadaonline.net/index.php?page=211

Also cross posting in the turnament reports section.

i must build. Mill is back!

It's hot stuff.

Hmm, I realized something a moment or two ago; Shadow Flare, a crappy Cervantes attack that gives all checks -1 while its in the card pool. Probably not worth plopping into the deck outright (2cc) but being able to roll 5s (and all those good 5cc cards) all the time would be a big boon to the deck. On the other hand... yeah, it's not worth it with BRT and Akuma and Make a Difference and etc etc etc running around everywhere. Heck... if you get up to something like 50/50 split of 5+ and 4- CCs, you could probably still make it with Aurelia's to keep your cards from running out.

Wafflecopter said:

Now keep in mind - Current build can go off turn 2 best case, turn 3 more then often enough, and without the use of Aurelia's, was able to check its way through an 80 card deck, and still have breathing room, after playing itself halfway through the deck.

When you start adding in a 2 checks, it reduces the steadfastness of the deck. When you start increasing the 5 checks, you speed up how quickly you mill yourself.

Aurelia's also removes itself from the game as a cost. So even if it's negated, it's gone, and not coming back. With Chester's, Oral Dead, and a pile of other friends floating about, you can't be assured of it hitting the table.

The next questions become - what do you cut to add in these different cards? Or do you make the deck larger then 60? At which point, how much does that decrease your ability to fish through the deck?

Antigoth..Brian..

I'm just...amazed. And I mean that in the best of ways.

I'm very happy to see ANOTHER new, innovative deck enter the format. And not through something boring or broken. This deck is simply FUN!

This version of Dhalsim was always in the back of my mind as a kind of character that had something more to himself. Just could never place a finger on it. Here you come with this awesome deck, and with careful use of the Second Form on Self-Confidence (Macek said the card was going to do something awesome at some point in the future, but I never imagined it would be like this at all!), along with two other cards that fit into the something more to themselves scheme, and BAM.

I'll probably be seeing you at worlds (this time, I won't forget to come find you). I simply must play against this deck. I need to experience the awesome to fully appreciate it!

I can't find myself liking the deck. The thing with Waffle's idea is, you don't need to run as many 4 checks as you do. I think the combo is great, and I got a chance to playtest around and rarely lost with it, but anything that forces me to run certain checks to work I don't like... especially in a deck with so many high difficulties (and give you access to Repentance for ANOTHER free F: card to run vs. Self Confidence). Not to mention most of the block modifiers, any serious aggro deck would be able to just rip through it, though that's just my opinion.

and Astaroth.

That mill is good stuff. Although I spot some minor weaknesses, it's very crafty. Good job, bro.

I'm surprised someone else thought of this loop, I had it put together for SEC a few weeks back though I use mignon because she gives me the momentum I need to activate multihobbist without needing any other cards. My version could wreck anything except decks with more then like 70 cards and ira spinta just made it hard to get off, so it stayed on the sidelines and me and Ben ran more tested solid decks. It was fun to pull out against people though, no one expects it until you start doing it and they just go "whaaaaaaat?!!?!?!?!?"

The other problem with the deck is if your opponent knows whats coming its not that hard to stop, you have to run enough control to force it and thats not always easy, its a great deck to come out of nowhere but I guess now people know what it is so I cant use it at the next tournament like I wanted to >_>

FenMiHuo said:

When Scott Gains started talking about how good the deck was before I had even registered, I was all like "Oh CRAP! People know about the deck already." I think I felt the same sense of shock you might have had from reading about it.

Mignon is cute, and I like the free momentum generation, but at the same time I feel that the 19 health is fragile. Also because you're stuck with the conventional play into your card pool, then move it to your staging area, I think it actually slows down the set up somewhat. Sure this deck has to search for either a Meat Eater or a family heirloom, but usually I haven't found it a problem.

FenMiHuo said:

As I mentioned in my report, this version is easily able to handle 80+ card decks, and still come back for more. In testing this deck, I practiced against a Ninon that looped Sprinta that knew how to stop the deck, as well as chunners and some other stuff.

Multi-symboling for the Death/Void control pieces gives the deck some solid control options.

FenMiHuo said:

Heh... Sorry about that dude. At the same time I think someone else is going to take this and ramp it up just one more notch. There are a few decks that do cause this a problem, at the same time with the meta shifting, I think it throws one more viable deck type for people to think about.

It'll be interesting to see where it all goes.

This makes me wish my Instamill **Abyss** deck was still even close to legal. It was pretty awesome milling people for 138 cards, even if sometimes that wasn't enough.

Yeah, i miss mill yun-seong sometimes ;_;

Way to keep those Air Base prices up! A ture economist ladies and gentlemen.

'goth, I linked your deck to someone in the meta.

I think he's been scouring the interwebz for Self-Confidence and Family Heirlooms since then.

Antigoth said:

Yea the main reason none of us ran it was because we only built the deck at most a few days before SEC when ben came to me with a different combo (using charlie) and I realized you could use self confidence, the reason for mignon was the free momentum and speed, it wasnt by far a final build or anyhting, just really an idea thrown together in a fairly solid deck.

7HS and the momentum was really the only reason it was Mignon, mine also ran 4 chesters, 4 seals, 4 inhuman, caged arena and a bunch of random defensive cards so there was pretty much no way to stop the combo from going off and it never took longer then turn 2-3 to go off every time. Theres a lot of ways to build it and I'm sure they are all equally viable, its a very fun deck to use against people.

Yea Scott called Ben while we were at a different tournament saying someone was running our deck off dhalsim and we were like "CHARLES NOOOO"

Anyway nice job piloting it, I think it might actually be more viable with the new meta while people start to be forced away from slow hard control and into faster aggro decks

We shall see

thank god for Ira Spinta

I think bushyra ninpo (guy's 0/4 foundation) might fit well in all your base loop.

No. this is not milling. It is an insult to milling, which costs all of 2 generic mana, and tapping an old artifact to put cards FROM the DECK TO THE GRAVEYARD.

This is pumping your opponent's deck into his momentum.

i will not call this a mill deck.

I call it... goth-ing off. (tm-exclusive to UFS)

Wow... Just.... Wow.

*Grins*

frehocc said:

I wouldnt go as far as to say that this is the first deck ive ever seen do this.....in fact it was **Dhalshim that could do it with one armed manuvers

If anything i would call it Dhal-ing or something lol

Since we're coming up with wity names. I call it...

*touches index and thumb fingers on each hand together, waves arms above head while spreading legs wide and sliding back and forth*

YOOOOOOOOGAYOYOYOYOYOYOYOYOYOYO

I rather like All Your Base, imo. I still lol'd very hard at that Dhalsim bit, though xD

And why bother with Bushinryu when there's Lesser of Many Evils?

Billiard Player to stick checked Air Base into staging area, and yeah, you've a stupidly efficient deck.

My friend pointed out something to me today, can't you just also use Repentance as an alternate to Self confidence? Its another free F you can activate.

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starfleetjedi said:

yes you can, discarding 0 momentum. Problem is, it rolls a 5, which becomes a 6 under Multi-Hobbyist passing the check for Air Base and not giving them a momentum...

As mentioned earlier, this isn't mill. It's momentum stuffing. Call it Over-Powering your opponent if you like puns.