So here are my options, and my thoughts on each deck.
B/R Zombies
I was captivated by Tom Ma's stream playing B/R Zombies. I learned at GP Anaheim how powerful bonfire truly is by going 6-3, and having to read my opponents cards every round. This is what Tom was playing.
--- B/R Zombies: Tom Ma build ---
4x Blackcleave Cliffs
4x Dragonskull Summit
12x Swamps
3x Mountain
3x Tragic Slip
4x Diregraf Ghoul
2x Fume Spitter
4x Gravecrawler
3x Geth's Verdict
3x Blood Artist
4x Highborn Ghoul
2x Walking Corpse
4x Brimstone Volley
4x Geralf's Messenger
2x Falkenrath Aristocrat
2x Bonfire of the Damned
---- Sideboard ----
2x Pillar of Flame
2x Ratchet Bomb
2x Shrine of Burning Rage
2x Crypt Keeper
2x Manic Vandal
1x Sever the Bloodline
1x Skinrender
2x Zealous Conscription
1x Bonfire of the Damned
* Deck copied off his stream, might be 2 mountains not 3, unsure as I couldn't see it all.
Two issues. The deck is aprox 200 tickets. Quite a steep price. Even after selling my JTMS's online I'm still quite short. Bonfire is 30 each alone, plus the Aristocrats are 20/each. Everything is manageable. I cannot commit to this deck with a sound mind purely because I truly don't believe either one of those cards is worth it. The second reason is, B/R zombies is not a "deck" yet. Its Tier 1.5 at best. Now while I advocate in my Scrub column to never consider cost if you're trying to play your best, cost for me is a major factor in my decision simply because I'm not trying to give my self the best shot at winning a PTQ and getting on the next pro tour. My goal is small, win some tickets and get back into magic.
Now with rotation happening online tomorrow, my deck selection has gone up. A few new arrivals have shown up, most notable mono-u wizards. Looking at the top 8 for the StarCityGames.com Standard Open tournament in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States on 2012-07-22 I noticed a trend from the previous weeks. B/R Zombies is now a real deck, took not only 1st place, but another similar build took 3rd. 8th and 13th we're also Zombie builds of some sort. Thats a huge step above the previous weeks. Zombies is now a real deck! My choice has been made!
Only one problem, I have a personal dislike when grinding for tickets on MTGO. I hate the mirror. I hate playing mirror matches like I hate trimming my ear hair. (I'm getting older, what do you want) When I'm grinding for tickets, I want fast, effective decks that require little to no thought from myself once I'm familiar with the deck. I don't want to think about, "Is this card better now, or this one" i want to go, oh, this setup, I play card X because of Y and Z. Mirror matches are all about thought process. Who can process the game state better while reading their opponents better. I bring this up because, now that Zombies is on the scene, people will play it online. Sadly my search continues.
Next deck: Delver.
Take a look at this bad boy here. Pretty sexy isn't it. Sadly this is the style of deck I can't grind with at this time. If, by chance I had been playing since Innistrad came about I would have no issue with grinding with an aggro control deck. It's my style. It's what I do best. The problem stems from, I haven't been playing long enough with or against it to understand the deck. It would take me a month of solid play to really feel comfortable with the deck and format to be able to make tickets online. That leaves me with only 2 months of pure grinding. While this deck remains in my top choices (I may even be able to borrow it completely which negates the cost issue, granted I have 2 snapcasters and 3 Restoration angels from Inn drafts last week now) I want to give myself the most possible time grinding as possible before rotation so I can be up on the cards and meta and dive right into my favorite time of magic, a set rotation.
Round 2: G/R Aggro
So beautiful, So wonderful, so Aggro. I have had a leg up on this deck by being dragged to standard daily tournaments by my best friend with this deck. (He handed it to me, told me to play, went 4-0 five days in a row). This deck is the best grinding option for me. It's powerful, its fun, and requires little thought once I get use to it. I've watched Cedric Phillip's streams religiously since he began and I love the deck. Even playing against it during GP Anaheim gave me respect for the deck. This is my #1 option. The problem? Sadly cost.
Most lists run 2-3 swords, 4x Bonfires and 4x Huntsmaster of the Fells. Thats $300 in JUST those cards. When we factor in new 'hot' cards for the deck like Thundermaw hellkite and Thragtusk, the price will skyrocket tomorrow. Sigh.
A new Contender: frites
Seen here. I love me reanimator in legacy and vintage. (One of the few Vintage decks I own is a JTMS Reanimator hybrid, down to 8 proxies). I just have one answer to this deck: Grafdigger's Cage. Normally I would say this isn't a card. Same with Surgical Extraction. These aren't magic cards. They're trap filler cards. Except in this context. I'm grinding on MTGO. Someone WILL intentionally hate me out with this card. They'll lose, during the match modify their deck, and rejoin the queue when I do. It happened a lot when I was grinding with Time Sieve. (Side note: Don't grind with a heavy trigger based combo deck on MTGO.. its a bad idea) It will happen again with Frites. I love the deck concept, but I dislike the MTGO queue players.
Honorable Mention: Esper Aggro.
I'll admit this deck intrigues me. I have some of the cards already and it seems easy enough to play. I'll seriously look into this deck in the next few days.
So for now, I'm deckless. My time is running shorter for grinding season every day I linger my soul on this decision. Maybe the Day of judgement will come soon for my decision...
... I've been reading too many LSV articles.
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