Decktech: “Errotic Scepter Explosion.dec”

[RiQuSP]

Decktech: “Errotic Scepter Explosion.dec”
By Rikus Pilat

As I promised earlier in my PTQ Report article, I would write something about the deck and his choices, changes, plan’s, matchups etc. As me being a real man never breaking his promises, I will take you through 4 steps about Errotic Scepter Explosions:

1. The list and it’s mom
2. Deck breakdown
3. Changes after the PTQ
4. The future of Exploding…


1. The list and it’s mom
This time I don’t really have a nice intro about how snowy it was, the travelling or anything else. That’s why I start right away with the decklist I used at the PTQ:

Rikus Pilat
PTQ Utrecht 24-03, Extended

Lands
4x Blinkmoth Nexus
4x Mutavault
4x Wooded Foothills
4x Bloodstained Mire
3x Sacred Foundry
2x Blood Crypt
1x Godless Shrine
1x Mountain
1x Swamp

Creatures
4x Mogg Fanatic
4x Dark Confidant
1x Draco

Artifacts
4x Chrome Mox
4x Isochron Scepter
4x Sensei's Divining Top

Instants
4x Orim's Chant
4x Lightning Helix
4x Insidious Dreams
3x Shrapnel Blast

Sorcerys
1x Erratic Explosion



SB: 3x Dwarven Blastminer
SB: 3x Vindicate
SB: 3x Thoughtseize
SB:3x Tormod's Crypt
SB: 3x Extirpate

Obviously you have seen it in the other article. Now I will try to explain about how the deck works and the choices I’ve made to come up with this final list.

First let’s take a look at the deck which gave birth to the pile I chose to play:

Coimbra, Andre
GP Vienna 08

Lands
4x Blinkmoth Nexus
4x Mutavault
4x Wooded Foothills
4x Bloodstained Mire
3x Sacred Foundry
1x Stomping Ground
1x Blood Crypt
2x Mountain

Creatures
4x Mogg Fanatic
4x Grim Lavamancer
1x Draco

Artifacts
4x Chrome Mox
4x Isochron Scepter
4x Sensei's Divining Top

Instants
4x Orim's Chant
4x Lightning Helix
4x Insidious Dreams
3x Shrapnel Blast

Sorcerys
1x Erratic Explosion



SB: 2x Ancient Grudge
SB: 3x Krosan Grip
SB:4x Gaddock Teeg
SB: 3x Tormod's Crypt
SB: 3x Genju of the Spires

The maindeck didn’t have a lot of changes. A bit of lands, removing the green which in my opinion made the deck only worse. You already run 8 lands which provide you with only colorless mana and the green is only for sideboarding. In testing it was very hard to resolve a turn 1 Gaddock Teeg and then proceed to get red and black mana for your other spells. I decided to make the deck more consistant and completely remove green for powerfull black cards like Dark Confidant in the maindeck and Extirpate, Vindicate, Thoughtseize in the sideboard. I really did like the Grim Lavamancers at first sight, but the fact that without confidants you were unable to cast a big dreams (X=3 or more) which I really liked to do. Remember, with Confidant you must cast them for 3 since the last card put on top will be the one you flip with him. You run 8 cards that require imprint and Confidant gives you back which was taken from you, costing only a small amount of lifepoints (oops, Draco). The odds of flipping Draco are really small and I love playing with that risk since it keeps me focused every game. Coimbra’s sideboard features a lot of cards that can get rid of the hate for your Scepter. Since I didn’t expect people to run a lot of Scepter hate, it was easier to go for 3 color’s instead of his 4.


2. Deck breakdown

Lands
4x Blinkmoth Nexus
4x Mutavault
4x Wooded Foothills
4x Bloodstained Mire
3x Sacred Foundry
2x Blood Crypt
1x Godless Shrine
1x Mountain
1x Swamp

A quick breakdown shows us: 8 Fetch, no need to explain anything here. 6 Ravnica shockduals, same story. 2 Basics, pretty clear to me. But then, 4 Mutavault, 4 Blinkmoth Nexus! When I tried to find Coimbra’s list I was very surprised about his 4 color (my 3 color) pile running 8(!) only colorless producing lands. To be very short about this, since it’s not really an exciting part of this article, the lands are AMAZING. They won me the the games I didn’t win on Explosion + Draco or they were able to set up the first points of damage to let the 2R sorcery finish it off. Especially against decks like NLB/PLB and UG or UW tron they shine like no other card in the deck. Even against Goblins, where you definitely don’t wanna be Earwig Squaded you can block his early ugly’s with a Mutavault. Don’t forget that you’re able to pump Mutavaults with Nexus’ pumping ability. These lands are involved in a big part of your gameplan vs. decks that run counterspells etc. Keep swinging with your lands till you force them to take action. Then you strike and win. The question of why the deck is not running artifact lands: the mana is screwed up as much possible, making it even worse with non-fetchables is not a very good idea.

Creatures
4x Mogg Fanatic
4x Dark Confidant
1x Draco

I’m not going to explain why Draco is in the deck. No really.. I’m not. Mogg Fanatic, the card I probably sided out in most of my games on the PTQ. It is still very good tho, versus Dredge it’s a nuisance and it takes care of other creatures like Grim Lavamancer, who is very annoying when you have Scepter + Chant. Dark Confidant, Birds of Paradise, Frogtosser Banneret, Skirk Prospector, a bunch of faeries and 2/2’s people don’t want to loose so they give you the space to attack and slowly beat them to 16 or less. I don’t know if it were my matchups which made me side him out a lot. I think I only kept him in vs. Dredge and wanted more powerfull cards for the other matches. Obviously he’s useless vs. Teps and NLB/PLB/TRON but vs. aggro it’s a solid card to slow them time and give you time to build up some serious spells. Dark Confidant is there to gain back some card’s you will lose while imprinting. Also a turn 1 Confidant is very solid against a whole lot of decks (again NLB/PLB/TRON). Those decks are probably your worst matchups and resolving a early Confidant makes it a lot better (do play around card’s like Force Spike, Spell Snare plz).

Artifacts
4x Chrome Mox
4x Isochron Scepter
4x Sensei's Divining Top

The moxes are simply there to give you access to a number of solid 2 drops. Turn 1 Scepter imprinting Chant, Helix or maybe even Shrapnel Blast, say go. Very solid against nearly every deck in the format. It’s a risky play vs. decks like Dredge who might have a Pithing Needle or Chain of Vapor. A lot of other decks (mostly combo) are not able to deal with a turn 1 Scepter. Against control decks you want advantage, so a turn 1 Dark Confidant is really nice as well (see the ‘Creatures’ section). Isochron Scepter, being one of the key cards in this deck, you should be able to win on this card combined with Orim’s Chant itself. Giving you time for the kill. Imprint it with Helix and you should beat all aggro decks. Randomly imprint it with Shrapnel Blast and put a (in this format with all the fetch/shockduals) 3 turn clock on them. It sounds like I’m only explaining what the card’s in this deck do and vs. what deck. But as I said earlier, I didn’t make most of the choices, Coimbra did. I don’t have his MSN, hyves or whatever so I’ll try to make the best of it.

Instants
4x Orim's Chant
4x Lightning Helix
4x Insidious Dreams
3x Shrapnel Blast

Besides the 11 Cards that can be put under a Scepter, there are 4 copies of Insidious Dreams. I would definitely put that card up as MVP of the deck. It has such raw power it’s ridiculous. 3B, instant, I win? Sounds like Frans Bauer in my ears! It’s not only able to fetch Explosion + Draco, also gives you access to Scepter + Chant/Helix/Blast next turn. This mostly happens if you draw the Draco, which is.. silly. I still think it’s weird there are only a few decks running Insidious Dreams, it’s just so damn good. Why Helix and no Fire/Ice? Since I wanted to play Confidant, the lifegain and 3 damage instead of 2 divided seemed better to me. Since it’s also an auto-win vs. Aggro I was sold.

Sorcerys
1x Erratic Explosion

Well well… 2R, target you, flip Draco, gg. Nothing to see here folks, let’s carry on.

Sideboard
SB: 3x Dwarven Blastminer
SB: 3x Vindicate
SB: 3x Thoughtseize
SB: 3x Tormod's Crypt
SB: 3x Extirpate

Since I removed green I had to search for other sideboard options. I was expecting a lot of Tron based decks and combo, so the Blastminer’s seemed like a good choice. Yes, seemed, they were to slow (only got to play 1 TEPS match) but I tried to side them in a lot just to see how they would perform. They are just to slow and I would probably replace them for something else, which will be shown later in this article. The Vindicates are just.. good. Randomly good vs. most decks, but just good vs. all the decks. It can kill the hate people would side in for your Scepter’s or maybe even Teeg to stop the Insidious Dreams. In this format people are able to mana screw as well, why not give them a helping hand by killing his splash color? Thoughtseize is mainly there to improve your match vs. blue and combo decks, I didn’t like it either so I decided to remove it as well. Crypt’s… Nice nice card, too bad I only used them once but since Dredge will be a competator in this meta I wouldn’t dare to remove them from the sideboard. The Extirpate’s are mostly there for the same reason Thoughtseize is there. Except that it’s better vs. a lot of other decks as well. Remove your Urza’s Mine/Plant/Tower, Cabal Ritual, Bridge From Below, you name it, he removes it.


3. Changes after the PTQ

It’s really hard to change any cards in the maindeck. Also it’s not very usefull since all the Dutch PTQ’s have been played and next time there will be a major Extended event will be post rotation. Nevertheless I would really like to add a Reclaim to the deck, making it 4 colored again. It solves the only problem you can have with this deck, drawing your Draco. Get rid of it with an Insidious Dreams, draw a card, cast Reclaim, GG. Besides that you can actually cast your Erratic Explosion multiple times. In the worst case you can even use it to put a low mana cost card or even a land of top preventing taking a risk with Confidant. That is the only change I’d make besides some obvious changes in the manabase. The most changes would be made in the sideboard. The Thoughtseize’s and Blastminer’s didn’t turn out to be what I hoped them to be. You need something good vs. Faeries and Goblins and whattayakno’ they are both decks based on 1 creature type. I added Engineered plague to the sideboard for those matchups. Since I’m playing green again, the last 2 slot’s go to Krosan Grip which will help you against Pernicious Deeds, Counterbalance, Sensei’s Divining Top and maybe Isochron Scepter. But who plays that card these days so no worries there. I apologize for not having a lot of changes to tell you about, I really tried to come up with some but the deck as it is know feels really powerfull already. Adding only 1 card to the maindeck was all I could do. I even considered Academy Ruins for Draco or discarded Tops/Scepter’s but Reclaim seemed so much better when you can run Krosan Grips in that color as well.

Rikus Pilat
Errotic Scepter Explosion, post PTQ Utrecht 24-03

Lands
4x [autocard]Blinkmoth Nexus[/autocard]
4x [autocard]Mutavault[/autocard]
4x [autocard]Wooded Foothills[/autocard]
4x [autocard]Bloodstained Mire[/autocard]
2x [autocard]Sacred Foundry[/autocard]
2x [autocard]Blood Crypt[/autocard]
1x [autocard]Stomping Ground[/autocard]
1x [autocard]Godless Shrine[/autocard]
1x [autocard]Mountain[/autocard]
1x [autocard]Swamp[/autocard]

Creatures
4x Mogg Fanatic
4x [autocard]Dark Confidant[/autocard]
1x [autocard]Draco[/autocard]

Artifacts
4x [autocard]Chrome Mox[/autocard]
4x [autocard]Isochron Scepter[/autocard]
3x [autocard]Sensei's Divining Top[/autocard]

Instants
4x [autocard]Orim's Chant[/autocard]
4x [autocard]Lightning Helix[/autocard]
4x [autocard]Insidious Dreams[/autocard]
3x [autocard]Shrapnel Blast[/autocard]
1x [autocard]Reclaim[/autocard]

Sorcerys
1x [autocard]Erratic Explosion[/autocard]



SB: 4x [autocard]Engineered Plague[/autocard]
SB: 3x [autocard]Vindicate[/autocard]
SB: 2x [autocard]Krosan Grip[/autocard]
SB: 3x [autocard]Tormod's Crypt[/autocard]
SB: 3x [autocard]Extirpate[/autocard]


4. The Future of Exploding…

The future looks bad for this deck, very bad. When Extended will rotate you will lose the 3 best cards in the deck. No more imprinting Orim’s Chant, no more 3B instant I win, and last but not least, no more Draco sitting on the top of your deck waiting to be revealed. I really have no idea if the deck can handle those losses. I’m afraid not. Extended will change and this deck is not worth playing anymore. Sadly enough I was able to only play 1 PTQ with it. The deck gave me a big amount of pleasure while playing it and it really frustrates me that I have to let it go…

Your’s saddened truly,
Rikus Pilat

[Rhaksha]

Very well.. nice story.

nice deck explanaition's etc etc .. only ur SB should include exactly 15 cards.

( to be honest I did not read everything since it is 1:30 AM already )

rhaksha

[RiQuSP]

I think it is exactly 15..

[pi]

Oy,

RiQuSP, als je je autocard dingetjes vervangt door c en je /autocard dingetjes door /c dan werken de linkjes ook.

Ik lees je artikel later ivm nu op werk zijn.

mazzel

pi

[pi]

Oy,

ok, eindelijk gelezen. Leuk artikel en ene leuk deck. Wel een vraagje, heb je tussen fanatics, chant, helix en dreams niet genoeg om een paar creature based decks afdoende te stoppen? Ik vraag me een beetje af of die plague wel noodzakelijk is.

mazzel

pi