Date: Tue, 12 Aug 1997 14:42:53 -0700 From: Michael Golden Subject: hammerpost dead? why? soliciting opinions... Thinking about card advantage and type II today, I'm curious as to why nobody is playing hammerpost decks today. IMO, hammerpost combines three of the most (if not *the* most) potent card advantage methods available in t2 today: hammer, outpost, glaciers. Granted, counterpost employs two of the three and a number of decks employ at least one, but why not all three? I don't have time fully to explore the issue right now, but I'm curious at to what list members think. My opinion, briefly, is that hammerpost died because of geddon, and counterpost survived because of geddon (or its ability to prevent the geddon). Further, it seems that blue's catch-all reactive ability is more powerful against a variety of deck types than red's dd and finishing support abilities. Today, however, I don't see as much geddon in the landscape and I think diamonds and m.stones provide an adequate way of proactively guarding against the devastation of an advantageous geddon. Thus, I am interested to hear opinions on why hammerpost has faded into the sunset, while counterpost remains strong. I have more developed strategic opinions re: this evolution, but am interested in your comments. As a corollary to my inquiry, I present to the list a deck that has proved quite successful in my informal playtesting (which is not exhaustive, I readily admit). My second question, then, is what decks will give my version of hammerpost the most problems? Cunctator 4 abeyance 4 swords 4 incinerate 2 earthquake 2 torch 4 hammer 3 disenchant 1 pillage 1 j's cap 1 blinky 3 outpost 4 glaciers ------------- 33 non-mana (55%) 2 mindstone 2 fire diamond 2 marble diamond 2 city o' brass 11 mountain 8 plain ------------- 27 mana (45%) Sideboard i won't post, because it is very area-determinant. A couple of quick notes: Obviously, I have the standard creature control fare (swords, incin.). I also chose the quake to deal with untouchables, card advantage, possible finisher. The torches of course deal with fatties; I chose these over fireballs for the anti-blue element and the fact that I think the posts and quakes obviate the need for further multi-target ability. I think artifact control is relatively important in the current environment, thus I'm running 4 anti-arti standard. I chose the single pillage in place of the fourth dis. simply for anti-post work. The final two cards, the cap and the blinky, are very much up in the air. The cap is designed primarily to eliminate proactively severe disruption (e.g., geddon) and it is generally useful against u/w and decks with few roads to victory. The blinky is there as an alternate road to victory (I couldn't decide what to do with the last slot, so...). As far as I'm concerned, the last two slots are open, and this is where you could help. I'd like to toss in a couple cards that will minimize the deck's weaknesses against others. I have considered, among other things, tossing in furnaces or more anti-arti, tossing in a couple illicit auctions (serisously!), or tossing in a couple staples (icy, serrated). I would put in a couple chimeric spheres, but I really want to capitalize on card disutility by allowing my opponent to use creature kill on the post tokens only. As I said above, I don't want to waste card advantage anywhere in the deck. What is your opinion on abeyance in the deck? I don't believe the card is a 4-in-a-deck no-brainer at this time, but I am quick to accept that I probably haven't had enough experience with it to say for certain. As far as the mana goes, I felt 6 arti sources weren't overkill, especially considering the way geddon just obliterates this deck. Further, the stones are pretty flexible given their cantrip ability. I am considering replacing some of the basics with a couple quicksands. However, I really like the mana consistency this deck provides, and I am hesitant to disrupt the balance just to add some more creature kill. Well, I look forward to your comments re: hammerpost in general and on the cunctator specifically. Thanks in advance for any/all replies on the subject.