| New Age Bottle Deck!; The Perfect Bottle Deck | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jun 16 2013, 11:40 AM (656 Views) | |
| Nerafim | Jun 16 2013, 11:40 AM Post #1 |
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Having not seen anyone really showcase the Bottle deck improvements or to innovate it further with the new set, figured I should post it for the community to enjoy. This is about as good and as improved as Bottle decks can generally be right now so here are all the critical card choices that set it above and the detailed explanation. Herald of Herafter! Play this deck on TCO. 3x Andromeda of the Citadel 3x Lyra, the Blazing Sun 3x Keeper of Dawn 3x Lux 3x Infernus the Immolator 3x Infernus the Awakened 3x Herald of Infernus 3x Overcharge 3x Homunculon the Blaster 3x Gorim the Striker 3x Fullmetal Lemon 3x Piercing Judgement 3x Bottle of Wishes 3x King Tritonus 3x Logos Scan 1x Crystal Memory 3x Kurragar of the Hordes 3x Mana Storm TOTAL: 52 As is well known, with Bottle it's easy to incredibly increase the quality of the card it plays by just keeping your deck smaller and packing it full of high level creatures with absurd effects and Herald doubled that chance by giving you an alternate progression. With Clash you now have Tritonus and Immolator to go on top of Awakened and Andromeda, which already doubles up the danger of Bottle and I also added Kurragar for that extra increase in Critical Strike. As I've said in my previous deck article's intro that I've done on Bottle for the first time, a really high level creature is the ideal play you can get from a Bottle for a lot of reasons. Creatures are just more important. The fundamental cards and amounts are the same ones you see all the time because those work best, but should be noted that Dawn must now be included in it, mainly because it helps your Bottle against the Mesmerize counter very well. Plus it will always be strong to reload cards you just used instead of depending on second copies in a large deck when you only got 3x of them, and he's even better in this deck by being a creature with all the Battle powerups. However the Tried-and-True method always delivers because the core progressions win you the game if they happen, yet both in deck building and playing the REAL challenge is the secondary strategies, the support of your main cards and what you can do when not all goes as planned, manipulating the Odds, etc. So... Structure Since so much of this strategy depends on that ideal turn 5 lead in to the high level cards, the best stability is given by having another alternate progression, and fortunately Mana Storm does just that. So with 9x cards, turn 5 is an almost guarantee into higher level plays, and if one fails you can play a different one right next turn. The Battlemages are the REAL innovation into perfection for the deck. I'm honestly shocked they aren't abused the hell out of in this new meta for removal, my only explanation is a lack of people doing tactical calculations. Gorim and Homunculon are practically kill cards any time you have a creature out, and they usually let you take out the biggest creature on the field if you have one close in Levels too. The greatest strength of this deck are the large, nearly unstoppable creatures you can play with Bottle, and one of their greatest advantages is the sheer power they have. The Battlemages not only give you battle initiation, but they also increase your field size. In such a stapled meta, they make your cards fight their mirror: Herald, Lyra, Andromeda, Infernus, Tritonus, etc. So they are a MUST for winning over other Bottle decks. One of the BIGGEST mistake these decks make is to not have any combat initiation for Herald (except Lyra); huge oversight cause then he can easily be played around. And the Battlemages are the best of all because they let Herald stomp over anything the opponent can do to counter him like waiting only for turn 5 for a creature (which will be of approximate power), counter-blockers (Twilight, Wave Lancer, etc.), not to mention if you want to use it at later turns. The Battlemages with Lyra and Overcharge give you 12 cards in the deck; a guaranteed initiation to have/draw into the turn after you played Herald. Overcharge looks superfluous but it's actually mass removal since this deck can swarm up a field wall fairly easy, making it very important turnaround in any kind of stall battles (again, especially against other Bottle decks). Let's your creatures fight their mirrors at every turn, synergy with Dawn, Fire Civ. balance and very importantly, early game removal, only the 2nd T4 removal aside Piercing. Piercing Judgement is just too good at any point and against any deck but it's mostly important against the Bottle matchups, it's the only thing you can do to stop a perfectly rolled Bottle play with these Civs. Playing Early game is your weakest phase, but especially if your opponent builds up a field, you do so too. At least one creature early makes all your battle initiation worth while to do on turn 5. Play Lux only if Herald or Lyra is coming, but don't try to play it at exactly turn 2 (unless you need it to attack something). Don't be afraid to set up a T4 Overcharge to take out one of their creatures. Play Piercing Judgement against their perfect Bottle pulls or to take out Lux/Keeper of Laws. At turn 5 you should have a lead in to your big plays or Keeper of Dawn. Bottle->Mana Storm->Herald is your ideal priority because in my experience, Herald consumes too much and unlikely to get a Dragon you want whereas Mana Storm actually lets you manipulate your options better. When you get a huge creature there are two approaches to it: start using your battle initiation to take out their field OR build up your field of high level creatures more. Almost always the second approach is better because it helps you be protected against bounce+discard, removal in general, and you can mix in shield attacks and force your opponent to handle your breaking creatures rather than the high level summoning sickness ones (talking moreso about controls). The goal of this deck isn't actually to rush some big creature and start causing havoc; the Bottle play just helps you to really buy great time as you reach high mana, at which point A LOT of your top decks would be huge creatures, and you just overwhelm your opponent with a field they don't have enough of to take out. The ideal card you can play in this deck, either with Bottle or paying the price is Tritonus, because the huge hand he gives helps you feed both your hand AND mana at the same time, and the mana in turn makes your hand cards more accessible. Infernus the Awakened is the second best play because it shuts down the control matchup SO hard (and other Battlemage abuse strategies). Don't forget you can pull some sick combos like a Battlemage helping you get two kills at once or Piercing Judgement+Recycle Battlemage for a double battle initiation, Dawn+Piercing Judgement for infinite tapping loop and so forth. Versions I consider the absolute "must have" core of this entire strategy to be the 45 cards you have left without the 3x Piercing Judgement/Overcharge, 1x Crystal Memory and 3x Fullmetal Lemon. And then these that were added are the ideal improvement as far as Civilization amounts and low level cards/plays matter go (Lemon is great at any turn, so is Overcharge, Memory is what you get when you didn't draw important Turn 5s). Any version or changes are entirely super meta/matchups determined. The only place this deck really needs improvements imo is early game (up to turn 4), highly important against fast rush/aggro. It could use more low level creatures like Blockers (Jade Monitor) or counter-attackers (Sword Horned) so you have a guarantee draw into them early when those matches happen, and with Battlemages you also get more early kill. Other alternate improvement is Energize, speeds you through the early game while conserving your hand and makes better use of Dawn. Very good choice against control matchups and the extra powerup can be very helpful too. Dragon Theme: I really don't like to use Nix, because she's only worth it if you have other 5 cost Dragons in the deck, and the only other one that is worth it is Twin Cannon Maelstrom. This is a valid version however, if you keep Overchage, because it gives you some amazing early game fighting ability. And if you do that then some other midd-game Dragon is best to have too, like Tatsurion the Unchained. I wouldn't know how to fit that tbh (especially if one wants to keep Logos Scan), so I consider that build a luxury. Kurragar is the only thing here that might just be my own preference (over Root Trap). Using Trap is nice and standard, all good there, but having Kurragar balance the Civ. instead increases your Bottle Critical Strike which is the key of the whole deck and also gives more Odds with Herald. If you can get it early, since you intend to reach high mana anyway, it's basically a free creature every turn. Most likely you won the game every time you pull it off, and I value those odds more than a standard issue risk dampener. Darkness I feel is unnecessary. It only has some cards that would be great versus certain matchups (mainly Skull Shatter and Dark Return versus REALLY strong controls, Terror Pit isn't even first on the list) but I feel trying to fit an entire Civ. just for that is very contrived as opposed to just playing/teching this deck better. Deck can also easily go up to 54-55 cards but I like to keep it small if I can, for that Critical Strike theme. Conclusion This is the perfect Bottle deck. Has absolutely EVERYTHING you need against any other deck pairing, the only thing that matters and decides it here is the piloting and the once in a while toss of the luck. Have fun with the deck and let me know how it does for you. -Nera |
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| ZeroVash | Jun 16 2013, 02:03 PM Post #2 |
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I just came here to say: Fullmetal Lemon F* Yeah! |
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| Aiden_Thorne | Jun 16 2013, 03:48 PM Post #3 |
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7 triggers, 52 cards, no removal. =/ |
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| Nerafim | Jun 16 2013, 04:50 PM Post #4 |
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It's how I roll! Perhaps a now unhealthy DM habit of trying to be practical and/or outplay instead of resorting to staples. I haven't yet felt the need for direct removal too much (of a huge kind, I have others clearly), the Battlemages are just amazing. I prefer them over flat removal because they have better synergy and progressions. Overall I gain stability elsewhere. Altho' as I said, Kurragar is preference, anyone can just run Root Trap instead and it's enough. You may be right about the triggers however; matchups versus offense I think are my weakest ones and I didn't manage to test enough there. But I also believe that against great offense, triggers alone never save you (unless it's Tendrils), so it still comes down to having blockers/low levels to live it out. That being said I am always open to suggestions, making deck choices past the point where everything you can add is pure advantage/synergy is always a painstakingly detailed job. ;p |
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| Sacramento Tzar | Jun 16 2013, 09:23 PM Post #5 |
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It seems to me that the battlemages are best when they are played after another creature is out there first, but this deck doesn't have that many cheaper creatures. I'm sure this deck does well against other bottle decks and control decks, I just wonder how it handles an aggressive deck. It seems this deck doesn't do much during the first 4 turns other than perhaps draw a few additional cards and perhaps get one of it's fullmetal lemons into play. Obviously the meta is control focused, but I think there is enough aggressive decks in the format that you have to plan for them. |
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Play and Promote Poorman's Format Check out Tzar's Poorman Decklist. Please use card tags when you post in the deck deposit. Using color tags just makes your deck harder to read and harder for people to give you feedback. Not to mention it makes it harder for newer players to see what types of decks are being played. | |
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| Nerafim | Jun 22 2013, 08:41 AM Post #6 |
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Yep haven't really played against offense, so I wasn't sure how to time it there properly, but it's also partly a meta decision, i.e. they might be lower in numbers or they make mistakes in early game (all except mono-red rush). At least it lucks well enough against them when I played it lol. But the important part is how the strategy works and is thought, it can always be adapted as I mentioned above. UPDATE: Took out 1 Crystal Memory and added 3 Cloud Kraken making it up to 54 cards. GO Hybrid balance ftw. |
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8:53 AM Jul 11