Subject: thoughts on extended ertog
Date: 21 Sep 97 12:51:25 EDT
From: tjest@vms.cis.pitt.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy

Hi all,

A little ways back I posted an extended ertog deck for critique.

I would like to thank both csivils@hotmail.com and talvin69@aol.com for their
helpful suggestions.

Deck before:                    Deck after:

4 sewer rats                    2 sewer rats
4 shadow guildmage              4 shadow guildmage
4 black knight                  4 black knight
4 knight of stromgald           3 knight of stromgald
4 abyssal gatekeeper            4 man o war
3 fallen askari                 2 fallen askari
3 erg raiders                   4 barrow ghouls
4 necrotog                      3 necrotog
4 ertai's familiar              4 ertai's familiar
4 skulking ghost                4 skulking ghost
2 crypt rat                     2 crypt rat
                                2 nekrataal
4 dark ritual                   4 song of blood

                                4 underground sea
                                3 underground river
                                4 badlands
                                1 sulphurous springs
                                3 city of brass
                                2 swamp
                                2 quicksand

60 cards                        62 cards

The environment I play in is totally proactive.  The closest thing to a prison
anybody sees is wraths and geddons in a white weenie deck, though I did play
against (and lose) to a pretty offensive geddon deck with deadly insects and
dervishes standard.

My record in arena is 11-3 so far, and the times I have lost have been to mana
screw, particularly red mana screw, which is why I keep adding cities of brass
to the deck.

I lost to green weenie burn, thanks to him getting grangers and red mana before
I got the shadow guildmage and red mana twice, though I beat him later.

I lost to a prodigal sorceror deck because I couldn't get a shadow guildmage or
a crypt rat or a nekrataal or a man o war.

I lost to the armageddon deck closely in the 1st game, and due to 1 land screw
in the second.

Oh yeah, my sideboard

3 winter orb (mono red burn here is big, any other suggestions for it would be
                appreciated)
3 dystopia   (anti prot black, green enchantment)
2 disintegrate (to remove critters from the game, deal with river boas)
3 lightning bolt (anti hippie, dervish, prot black)
1 mind bend (if I play white, I will use this as anti armor, anti karma)
3 nevinyrral's disk (speaks for itself, but mostly to deal with hordes and
                aetherflash)

All in all I would say ertog is viable in my extended environment.  I have
gotten 4th turn kills and have also won late games with huge necrotogs removing
a blocker every turn.  I think it is just that nobody expects it and therefore
nobody's sideboard is designed to stop it.

Any comments, questions suggestions would be appreciated,

Tom