Date: Wed, 9 Apr 1997 15:59:58 -0400 From: Gundo Narkksen Subject: Re: Pillaging Tactics In a message dated 97-04-08 01:27:55 EDT, Jeff Boes wrote: < All right, Pillage being the new 4-in-a-deck card for mono-Red (OK, so < it's right behind Incinerate, but it moved up there because of the < retirement of the Bolt), how does one use these things? < Speak out on how (and why) you would handle the following situations. < < 1. Your opponent, drawing first, has just played his second Land (a < Forest) and taps it and a Plains to put out a Marble Diamond. You < have already played two Mountains and an Ironclaw Orc (you're playing < Sligh, can't you tell?), and on your third turn you draw Pillage with < an extra Mountain in hand (plus an assortment of the likely suspects < for a Sligh deck: Incinerate, Orcish Artillery, Death Spark, and < Hammer). I begin by assuming my opponent is playing Erhnam/Maro-Geddon. This means his deck really gets rolling at 4 mana (i.e., the flashpoint). It also means the Diamond is much more important to his long-term plans than either land. Plus it means he's probably packing Wraths. His plans are likely to (a) Swords my Orc (it *is* still April, isn't it), then (b) Wrath if played another critter, or Ernie if I didn't, followed finally by the Geddon. Therefore, I play my Mountain and Pillage the Diamond (after first attacking with the Orc, of course). This delays his development one turn, giving me another draw or two before he brings out Ernie or Maro. I'd like to avoid playing my last land against a Geddon deck, but I'll need at least three mana on the table to deal with the threat he's going to play the turn before the Geddon. My "extra" draw will hopefully net me that extra land, plus giving me another hit or two (hopefully) with the Orc. < 2. Midgame now, where two of your Pillages went to destroy annoying < Artifacts earlier (does it matter what they were?). You and your < opponent each have 4 Lands in play. You have an Wildfire Emissary; he < has a River Boa. < a. The Lands he controls are two Forests, two Plains. I don't use the Pillage yet. First, his deck apparently has some artifacts that bother me, so there may be better targets than land. Second, I want to save the Pillage (if it's going to be used for land destruction) to take out his only untapped forest whenever that situation arises, so I can get rid of the @#$% regenerator (a Major Sligh Annoyance). He's not likely to Geddon in this situation, nor does Ernie/Maro scare me as much in the midgame, so keeping him below 4 mana is no longer as crucial to me. < b. The Lands he controls are two Forest, one Plains, and an Outpost < (duh! but for completeness...) No brainer. Off the Dude Ranch. Now. < c. The Lands he controls are *one* Forest, two Plains, and an < Outpost. Remember, the Boa needs G to regenerate. Much tougher call, but I'd still go for the Dude Ranch PDQ. As soon as he casts any type of green spell, I'll take out the Snake, so targetting the Forest in order tolet me do that a bit sooner just can't compare to the long-term problems the Outpost can cause me. Now, if my deck happens to be packing Earthquakes or Tremors ... < d. The Lands he controls are two Forests, one Plains, and one < Karoo. Same as (a) above, do nothing yet. Karoo does not, IMX, significantly change the scenario from a normal Plains. < 3. As above, but neither of you have creatures. Well, it makes the decision to kill the Outpost in (b) and (c) even easier. =) My answers in (a) and (d) now depend on what else is in my hand. If I don't have the direct damage to deal with an Ernie or Maro, then it's much more important for me to keep him below 4 land, because I'm probably only two turns away from a Geddon if he holds the combo. < 4. Now the endgame: both of you are down below 10 life, but not very < far below. You have a couple of creatures (an Emissary and < Ironclaws), he has a Nettletooth and a Wall of Roots. He has four < lands (2 P, 2 F) in play, you have 4 and one in hand, as well as < another Emissary. Do you Pillage or summon another Wilfie? Standard answer -- it depends on the rest of my hand. The present board situation looks to be basically a stalemate. This is generally A Bad Thing for offensive decks like Sligh, but as long as he's taking one per turn from the Djinn... Thing is, he's primed for a Geddon, which will prevent my Wilfie from being able to kill the Djinn, so I'd probably use the Pillage first. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 9 Apr 1997 16:52:43 -0400 From: Nat Fairbanks Subject: Re: Pillaging Tactics As you said, pillage is a card that is often wasted. I consider Pillage to be there to take care of dangerous lands. If you are running a deck where you have a sub theme of land destruction, you also run stone rains. Only in the case of 8+ LD spells do you destroy an opponents basic land. Even then it's better to use LD selectively rather than indiscrimately in all but the most focused (~16) LD decks. Only after a few turns of play should you destroy basic lands and only if they are mana or color screwed. >1. Your opponent, drawing first, has just played his second Land (a >Forest) and taps it and a Plains to put out a Marble Diamond. You >have already played two Mountains and an Ironclaw Orc (you're playing >Sligh, can't you tell?), and on your third turn you draw Pillage with >an extra Mountain in hand (plus an assortment of the likely suspects >for a Sligh deck: Incinerate, Orcish Artillery, Death Spark, and >Hammer). It's impossible to know if the opponent is color screwed, so I'd attack, lay the mountain, and cast an artillery. That way I can destroy 99% of their threats next turn, and still attack for 2. Only after their fourth turn would I consider destroying the forest, if they didn't play another source of green before then. I'd also hold back lands and creatures, because of Wrath of God and Armageddon. 3 lands is enough until the hammer starts rolling. >2. Midgame now, where two of your Pillages went to destroy annoying >Artifacts earlier (does it matter what they were?). You and your >opponent each have 4 Lands in play. You have an Wildfire Emissary; he >has a River Boa. > a. The Lands he controls are two Forests, two Plains. Incinerate the boa, attack. This is a tough call on the Plains. I'd hold the pillage, unless I was confident he didn't have an outpost left in the deck. If I thought no outpost then I'd pillage the plains IF I had no creatures in hand, and suspected he didn't have a plains in hand, for the Wrath of God. > b. The Lands he controls are two Forest, one Plains, and an Outpost >(duh! but for completeness...) Pillage outpost. Lay mountain. Incinerate Boa. Attack. Done. > c. The Lands he controls are *one* Forest, two Plains, and an >Outpost. Remember, the Boa needs G to regenerate. Pillage outpost. Lay mountain. Incinerate Boa. Attack. Done. Incinerates Kill Boas dead. Outposts kill players dead. > d. The Lands he controls are two Forests, one Plains, and one >Karoo. Incinerate Boa. Attack. Done. Karoo isn't that big of a land, Thawing Glaciers and Outpost are. obviously B, C and D require you to have an incinerate, but I'd have hung onto them as soon as I saw a regen creature. >3. As above, but neither of you have creatures. Midgame, no creatures. Kill any outposts in sight, otherwise hold the pillage unless I can make him color screwed in his creature color. Play creatures slowly so he wastes wraths in 1-1 mode. >4. Now the endgame: both of you are down below 10 life, but not very >far below. You have a couple of creatures (an Emissary and >Ironclaws), he has a Nettletooth and a Wall of Roots. He has four >lands (2 P, 2 F) in play, you have 4 and one in hand, as well as >another Emissary. Do you Pillage or summon another Wilfie? How about none of the above? Summoning a Wild Fire means Wrath of God time, but waiting for the nettletooth to kill him most likely means armageddon time. So if I had an incinerate + flare in hand I'd lay the mountain, and wait for armagedon, then kill the nettletooth. If I had to double incinerate it I wouldn't play the mountain. ------------------------------- Date: Wed, 9 Apr 1997 14:25:40 -0800 From: Arthur Kimes Subject: Pillaging Tactics Jeff Boes quizzed ... ] ... Pillage being the new 4-in-a-deck card for mono-Red ... ] ... how does one use these things? ] 1. Your opponent, drawing first, has just played his second Land (a ] Forest) and taps it and a Plains to put out a Marble Diamond. You ] have already played two Mountains and an Ironclaw Orc (you're playing ] Sligh, can't you tell?), and on your third turn you draw Pillage with ] an extra Mountain in hand (plus an assortment of the likely suspects ] for a Sligh deck: Incinerate, Orcish Artillery, Death Spark, and ] Hammer). Being unable to reliably deal with an Ernham (or is this meant to be new Type II?) I'd pillage the Green. You might say that I could play an Artillery instead of the Pillage (setting up the artillery/incinerate kill) but I don't expect my first artillery to live. Under the new Type II rules I might prefer to hold back the Pillage and play the Artillery instead. Under those conditions Armageddon is NOT going to be played until my creatures are dealt with. Wrath of God is a possiblity, but I should have 20-22 more creatures in the deck - risking 2 creatures is normal stuff for Sligh. If I've played this deck before and I know he has dangerous spells with GG in the casting cost then I'd kill the forest. Leaving the opponent with no G on the table and GG spells in his hand is the kind of disruption that has won a lot of games for me when playing Sligh in tournaments. ] 2. Midgame now, where two of your Pillages went to destroy annoying ] Artifacts earlier (does it matter what they were?). You and your ] opponent each have 4 Lands in play. You have an Wildfire Emissary; he ] has a River Boa. You didn't mention life totals. I'll assume both players are in the teens. ] a. The Lands he controls are two Forests, two Plains. Wait for direct damage so I can Pillage a forest, attack and after the boa regenerates, kill it with the DD. Until then, wait. Chances are you won't see another Pillage this game - use the one you have for something clutch! ] b. The Lands he controls are two Forest, one Plains, and an Outpost ] (duh! but for completeness...) The Outpost. ] c. The Lands he controls are *one* Forest, two Plains, and an ] Outpost. Remember, the Boa needs G to regenerate. Here's a situation where the lifetotals are important to know. Will my Wilfie have to be held back to block or can it (doing at least 4 damage a turn) out run the tokens. Note that the opponent might not block with the boa after you kill the forest so he'll have an extra 2/1 attacker after you move over to offense. And that nothing says he won't draw another forest the turn after you kill it. Hmmm. Better play it safe and kill the outpost. An incinerate or other source of DD (for the same kill in the solution for "a.") will show up eventually. ] d. The Lands he controls are two Forests, one Plains, and one ] Karoo. Same as A unless you know that he has some TERRIFYING 5 mana spell. ] 3. As above, but neither of you have creatures. a. nothing. b and c. kill outpost dd. nothing ] 4. Now the endgame: both of you are down below 10 life, but not very ] far below. You have a couple of creatures (an Emissary and ] Ironclaws), he has a Nettletooth and a Wall of Roots. He has four ] lands (2 P, 2 F) in play, you have 4 and one in hand, as well as ] another Emissary. Do you Pillage or summon another Wilfie? Armageddon seems to be a real threat here. If all the lands are gone he can attack and you can't block effectively. His Nettletooth will be attacking for 4 a turn and you'll only deal 3 (Wilfie blocked by wall, Orc delivers 2, his Nettletooth delivers 2). This scenario is risky for the G/W player (one bolt would put him behind in the race) but he'll surely die to 'tooth damage if he doesn't force the issue. If you Pillage anything he can still 'Geddon next turn. If you summon the Wilfie and he 'geddons then both Wilfies can block the 'tooth and he can kill only one - even with a Giant Growth backup! ( Does it sound like I'm obsessed with Armageddon? I see more Armageddons than Dark Rituals in tournaments! ) Summoning the 2nd Wilfie leaves you vulnerable to a Wrath - but that would just even things up while a 'Geddon with only 1 Wilfie out would put you well behind.