archive - Hatching Plans

Note that I have an updated version =)


Hatching Plans - MTG Article
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This is going to be kind of like my evaluation of Guildpact.



It will be in sections.

The first section is to tell you why the leylines are not really so great, plus
a cool deck built with the best of the leylines.


The second section will deal with why hatching plans are good and should really
buy them from me [I did'nt say that, my evil twin did...]




Capish?





Good.



Lets move:

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Leylines and The Coolest Deck!



First off here is the decklist for those only interested in what I
have been fiddling with :)



// Deck file for Magic Workstation (http://www.magicworkstation.com)

// Lands
4 [RAV] Temple Garden
3 [RAV] Watery Grave
1 [RAV] Selesnya Sanctuary
2 [RAV] Forest (3)
2 [7E] Island (1)
2 [4E] Plains (1)
1 [RAV] Swamp (2)
4 [6E] Brushland
3 [6E] Adarkar Wastes
1 [AP] Yavimaya Coast

// Creatures
1 [RAV] Dowsing Shaman
4 [CHK] Kami of Ancient Law
4 [CHK] Sakura-Tribe Elder
3 [RAV] Hunted Phantasm
3 [RAV] Loxodon Hierarch
1 [CHK] Hana Kami
1 [FD] Eternal Witness
1 [9E] Clone

// Spells
1 [RAV] Copy Enchantment
4 [GP] Leyline of Singularity
4 [9E] Mana Leak
4 [GP] Hatching Plans
4 [RAV] Devouring Light
1 [SOK] Death Denied
1 [CHK] Kodama's Reach
1 [OD] Zombie Infestation

// Sideboard
SB: 1 [OD] Zombie Infestation
SB: 1 [LG] Hell's Caretaker
SB: 4 [CHK] Isamaru, Hound of Konda
SB: 1 [SOK] Presence of the Wise
SB: 1 [RAV] Hunted Lammasu
SB: 1 [SOK] Celestial Kirin
SB: 1 [SOK] Nikko-Onna



61 cards total.






The Leylines and what you should know about them.














First off... There is only one good leyline.





























Popular convention would tell you that it is Leyline of the void.

























I tell you today, dear reader, that it is Leyline of Singularity.




Why is that?
[well.... I bought quite alot of it off ebay and I am really trying to make a profit... !?!]

Ahem.. aside from that stray thought.


Why is leyline of Singularity the best?


Well first of all why does Leyline of the Void suck? Well same reason Life From the Loam sucks.


...





It is not extended season people :)

If it is extended then maybe the void would be good, even then only marginal.

Not pithing needle good.

Heck not even Ink-eyes good. [Ink-eyes????]



For comparison there is planar void. 1 cc enchantment. The only strong point I can think of is whether the leyline can be countered by a Force Of Will. Even then it is specific to only a certain enemy player (the graveyard slinging dudes).


On the other hand, Leyline of the Void is asymmetric in its effect. So that might be put to good use! :)




Actually that is another point. Oki I am losing my focus here.. FOCUS DAMNMIT!

Oki.. [cools down]


Anyway pumping for the Void was not today's plan, we'll leave that for later... probably extended later...



Anyways...





The leylines can be divided into two kinds (yes two :))

Those whose effectiveness depends on your opponent and those that depend on you.



Those that depend on you :

Leyline of Lightning
Leyline of the Meek


Those that depend on your opponent :
Leyline of Lifeforce
Leyline of the Void (it is too heavily reliant on the opponent playing grave related strategies)


Where is Leyline of Singularity???

Well Leyline of Singularity falls somewhere midway. (well actually leyline of the void too if you want to abuse your grave while neutering your opponent's... but if your opponent does'nt give a rat's ass about his/her grave, then your plan of having the advantage with Leyline of the void pretty much ends there...)

It is something that you as a player can build around, but at the same time the amount of pain it causes your opponent highly depends on the streamliness and redunency of your opponent's deck. Weenies tend to fall into this category, 4 of some knight, 4 of some clerics etc etc.


Now why do Lifeforce and Void suck? For Lifeforce it is really only pertinent to blue and for the void only really pertinent to graveyard players. (if they made the leylines give haste or trample that might be something worth crowing for green!! or maybe untargetability.... but uncounterability???)


Now I quite like the Lightning really, it is a trend that i have seen in past set up to now. WOTC is trying to make red the colour of control. Leyline of Lightning is one such effort. To those who say the lightning is more burn, I can only say this: the leyline is useless to weeenie decks that want to hit fast hit hard and win. The lightning basiv=cally allows the red player to pick his/her opponent to death. It's cost, keeps it from being prime finisher for red weenie (see cursed scroll). But I expect the price of Lightning to stay low as it is hard to build a good Red control deck.. and when you do? The leyline is only a good supporting cast.

The leyline of the meek is really for token decks. But anyone seen any counterpost-esque decks running about?

Good.


Lets move on.

[Beside, you are never going to be producing tokens fast and hard and EARLY, so the leyline capability is utterly
useless.]



Now the Singularity.


It is no panacea.


But it ain't shabby.


As long as your opponent play more than one of a certain type of card, the leyline has done its job.

Also because YOU are playing the deck. You can build your deck such that it is asymmetrical in terms of the effect it imposes on players.


What does that mean?


Think hunted phantasm.

Think hatching plans.



AWWWWW WE ALL KNEW THAT!!!!!


Yes yes, stay with me.



Think Kami of Ancient law
Think Drowsing Shaman.

Heck throw in the panacea!

loxodon Hierarch!

Now throw in Devouring Light, Celestial Kirin and you got a real WUG monster going!

During play the "Kami of ancient law/ hatching plans" trick was quite nice actually.

The much maligned hatching plans and leyline trick is really just support.

Dowsing Shaman keeps the goodness flowing.


The death denied and hana kami combo is really to pick up the eternal witness to
keep everything running. :)


overall, I do not think it is a win all deck, but it is rather robust!


And when the plans hatch, they really burst forth! (this was the reason for
zombie infestation)


The



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Why is the hatching plans good?
_______________________________



Was Ancestral recall good?

Now you might say that it is not a fair comparison, but really it is just one mana more and is an enchantment. And the draw effect is conditional.


It is NOT ancestral recall.


or is it.


Many say a better benchmark would be Standstill.


Standstill forces you to play control. Specifically counter style control.


Hatching plans however is a different kettle of fish.

The lack of a built in stimulus to burst the bubble is both a bane and a boon.

It is a bane because now you need to build your deck in such a way that it destroys the enchantment.

It is a boon because now your playstyle and indeed your deck can be much freer in terms of what it can do.


Standstill forces you to wait for your opponent. It is reactionary.

Hatching plans lets you choose how and when you want to burst your bubble.



It is no ancestral recall, true, but it is close.


But the trick is to make the "destroy enchantment" effect virtually free.


That is where the leyline and kami of ancient law come in.

In effect, with a kami of ancient law and hatching plan in play, you have a moat.

You make your opponent think obout his attack, if he bites you draw three, if he does'nt bite, you are holding fort just fine.

Of course relying on just the Kami to do the job is not very reliable so an alternative way is to use the leyline. :)


But if the leyline is only utilized for that, then of course one will have to say... Leyline of Singularity and Hatching plans a combo does not make.


But you can use the leyline of Singularity to your advantage. Chief of all is the use of the Hunted Phantasm.


Note that the legend rule change that came with Kamigawa makes this effect very nice.


All the little red gobbos go bye bye :)


Also the Phantasm is a good sucker punch, being unblockable and all.

So you can hold fort with the Loxodon and punch with the Phantasm.

One problem is aerial defense.

Originally I used the lammasu. But the 4/4 horror can be just that, a horror :)

I replaced the lammasu with a clone as a catch all.


You also notice there are many spirits in this deck :)


Yes that is the other beautiful thing about the phantasm.



IT IS A SPIRIT!



Whoo hoo!!!!!!!!!!


With a Celestial Kirin, you can really mop the floor with weenies.

The original make of the deck had, 1 3cc arcane, 4 2cc spirits, 4 3cc spirits.

You could have some major culling sun action going!


But in the end I took out the Celestial Kirin. I had that combo in another deck. I would squeeze it in this deck, but there is really no space :(

But it might be a good sideboard though. :)


Another reason for not playing the Kirin is that the interaction between Kami of the ancient law and hatching plans will be quite different.


You also realise the power of convoke when you need to play "Devouring light" but you only have 1 white mana producing land.


A blocking Kami of Ancient Law:
After declaring attackers and blockers and assignment
=> Block
Before damage is assigned
=> Tap to power up convoke for Devouring Light
Before Damage is dealt
=> sac to break the hatching plans

Nuff Said :)






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