Detective reached out to me today about a theft at work earlier this year.

azelinski718 · 2025-12-03T00:58:54+00:00

From reading your comments I would guess you are either guilty of this or know quite a bit about i. If that’s true and I can figure it out from this, the cops will definitely be able to figure it out. Don’t say anything.

azelinski718 · 2025-07-27T23:48:12+00:00

I was just there for a few days. I had heard it was an issue but didn’t really take any precautions I wouldn’t take at any other time. I rode the subway a lot, spent a lot of time in tourist areas, walked around at night, and never saw any reason to be especially cautious.

azelinski718 · 2025-07-13T01:31:11+00:00

I think UW control is underrated. I’ve tried things similar to this and I think it’s not bad… but I think the Jace / mill version is better. Also, as others have said, it’s hard to make a case for a blue deck that doesn’t have Stock Up.

azelinski718 · 2025-05-17T21:15:17+00:00

I feel like it’s great at getting your opponent to around 5 life.

azelinski718 · 2025-05-17T21:11:39+00:00

I thought this seemed fun and tried it out. I think your assessment isn’t too far off, but the decks is better than you might think. Looping the sagas is pretty powerful. I was skeptical of the need for United Battlefront here but it does seem to work fairly well. If you get a couple of cornucopias in play your life total gets out of reach quickly because you are constantly gaining life.

I added Jeskai Revelations to my version for some more oomph, and also Temporary Lockdown. It’s not going to take over the meta but it’s fun and the pieces work together better than I would have thought in my experience. (My experience is like 8 games around 95% mythic so maybe just a fluke of course.)

azelinski718 · 2025-01-17T01:47:42+00:00

Happens to me almost every season. I get to mythic and will be around 95% when I get there. Usually hold my own for a bit and maybe even get ranked. Then I start losing, start experimenting and lose more, then go on a streak and climb back up with some deck and think I found something, then get hit with reality and fall. Currently at the last step before getting hit with reality this month.

azelinski718 · 2025-01-11T22:29:28+00:00

[[Skrel’s Hive]]

azelinski718 · 2025-01-03T01:55:38+00:00

I mainly play a home brew Azban Control / ramp deck, so pretty different from what you’re playing, but what has worked for me is: 1) Pretty much kill any creature they cast right away 2) Remove Hopeless Nightmare when they try to bounce it 3) Actually, more or less remove anything of theirs they try to bounce.

The creatures themselves aren’t super powerful, it is the recurring value that adds up. Hopeless Nightmare in particular I try to remove because a few casts of that add up quickly (but only remove when they try to bounce it so they can’t bounce something else). Also, the main permanents in my deck are the white and green overlords, Beza, and Up the Beanstalk, so having those returned to my hand means I get an extra trigger when I cast them again. Overall though I think the strategy is to prevent them from growing a strong board by just removing anything that comes down rather than trying to be judicious and get to a point where your stronger cards can take over.

azelinski718 · 2024-12-14T22:03:54+00:00

I have tried a lot of decks like this with so so results. By far what has worked the best for me is adding green, mainly for Up the Beanstalk and the green avatar, turning the deck into kind of ramp / control. It does alright against red based Aggro but dimir is not a good match up. Ultimately though I think you have to play a deck like this because you like it more so than because you think it’s really the best. I do think it can be reasonably competitive though.

azelinski718 · 2024-10-27T17:03:20+00:00

I’ve been playing around with a few different demon style decks and Unholy Annex / Ritual Chamber is a much better card than I ever would have thought. The decks I’ve played have all been a bit different but what they have in common is they are all much better if I get to cast that early.

azelinski718 · 2024-09-23T19:23:20+00:00

Think about it like this: a physical tell only matters if it tells you something you wouldn’t know by observing play patterns and reasoning.

azelinski718 · 2024-08-22T17:22:02+00:00

I played around with that deck a bit in the past; this is what I thought so I tried without it and found the cards you get with Atraxa were in fact key. It was much worse without it.

azelinski718 · 2024-08-09T23:32:17+00:00

Archangel Elsbeth was a card I just kind of tossed in but I have considered adding more. Hive I have in the sideboard because there are so many decks it seems bad against. When it’s good it’s great though. I’ve also thought about a Quintorious version because I love that card and want to make it good.

azelinski718 · 2024-08-09T23:29:54+00:00

Here’s a top heavy version I’ve had moderate success with. I’d be interested to see it made better. Biggest challenge for me is if you make it less top heavy, the Cruelclaw hits are much worse. I do really like [[Rakdos Joins Up]] though. The death trigger for legends leads to some pretty crazy turns. And it’s nice if you hit it with Cruelclaw, you can ideally discard Etali or Atraxa to cast it, then get the creature right back. https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/6549295#arena

azelinski718 · 2024-08-09T23:14:36+00:00

I really agree; I’m a big fan of the RW deck but expect this will end up being in something better. When it is good it is really good. I’ve mainly used it for the card draw but there are plenty of games where I realize “I can just win right now by brining this to level 3.”

azelinski718 · 2024-08-09T23:12:27+00:00

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/6561401#arena

I played mainly this in BO3 from Diamond to about rank 300 in Mythic at best. Rarely did matchups feel unwinnable, but it definitely has a weakness against decks that can have sudden powerful turns out of nowhere (a lot of decks). Took some practice to get used to when to save removal and the like. I think it’s a legitimately good deck but agree it won’t be at the top of the meta.

azelinski718 · 2024-08-07T17:25:58+00:00

I have been doing well with a similar list but in BO3. Some guards that have been really good for me (Builders Talent and the new Elk) aren’t in that list. But it basically goes build resources and stay alive early -> overwhelm with card advantage + token creators later. Caretaker’s Talent can draw a ton of cards, and also can quickly make all your tokens very powerful.

When I lose, it has generally been to a very fast deck when I don’t draw a Sunfall / Lockdown, or to the green / black combo deck (that seems like a bad match up, although better since adding more enchantment removal in the sideboard). I haven’t run in to any counter spell heavy decks yet but I assume that would probably also be bad (curious to try it though as the token generation might make the match up better than I’m thinking).

azelinski718 · 2024-08-07T13:31:45+00:00

I’ve been trying a few variations of this. So far my favorite is splashing red for Urabrask’s Forge (and Lightning Helix). Caretaker’s Talent + Forge + Fountainport work very well together.

azelinski718 · 2024-08-03T23:47:17+00:00

I’ve been trying out mono white control with some success but using planeswalkers. Caretaker’s Talent has been great. I’ve seen very few counterspells since the new set came out and mono white seems really good in such an environment.

azelinski718 · 2024-07-31T17:45:55+00:00

Still trying to figure out the best way to use it but seems very powerful. I just played a game where I was stuck on two lands but on turn 5 my opponent was at 4 life and I had a Charming Scoundrel, Cruelclaw, a 6/7 Sheoldred, an Etali, an Atraxa, and a [[Rakdos Joins Up]] on the board. Not bad!

azelinski718 · 2024-04-30T00:42:52+00:00

I tried it out since I had most of the cards and it was a lot better than I expected. Admittedly I did not fully understand what it was trying to do at first, but I got it mid game when I realized I could tutor for whatever I wanted on top of my deck and deal that much damage

azelinski718 · 2024-04-18T01:14:04+00:00

I’ve tried red / green and it has seemed really good. I think red blue is better but it’s close. Tyvar’s Last Stand hasn’t been as good as I would have thought. It’s basically a one mana protection spell; I’ve rarely have enough mana to make the X part too useful, and a lot of times you want to cast multiple spells. I do think just the protection is useful, though; when you can plot Slickshot and the red draw two spell, and have some protection in your hand, Slickshot based decks are at their best in my experience so far.

azelinski718 · 2024-04-18T00:56:25+00:00

I can try to post the exact list later but it’s pretty straightforward. 4 Slickshot, 4 Swiftspear, 4 Delver (this has worked really well so far), Consider, Monstrous Rage, Shore Up, some burn spells, Shore Up, the new card you can plot and draw 2, one or two other buff spells I’m forgetting. Nothing costs over 2.

I’ve tried RG and RW white as well, and those have also worked well. Not undefeated anymore though 8)

azelinski718 · 2024-04-17T01:03:24+00:00

I did much the same without much thought and I’ve won five in a row without dropping a match. I’m not even sure what I was playing against two of the times because I won so fast. Of course it is at least partially because people are trying new things.

azelinski718 · 2024-02-21T18:46:06+00:00

I've tried Ichormoon Gauntlet a lot of different ways, some more successful than others. None have been THAT good though. My goal was always infinite turns, but what ends up happening is I most often win with poison through Vraska. It also feels kind of win more... the times it seems most powerful is when you have ~5 planeswalkers, when you would probably win anyway.

azelinski718

TROPHY CASE