This deck definitely has that thing going that we often see before a card gets banned, where it's a reasonable midrange deck that also can sometimes randomly combo the opponent to death on turn 4 or if they ever tap out. Winota does the same thing.
Already felt before the ban that Tibalt's Trickery was a bad one in a format with Thoughtseize and other 2 CMC reanimator spells (and yeah, most of the time the Trickery is 2 CMC + 1 other card reanimator spell). Needless to say that I've lost way more games to the Thoughtseize that to the Trickery. I'm still trying to figure out what I'm missing since I haven't seen the 4 mythic rare wildcard reimbursement for my 4 copies of the Trickery...
I'm gonna say what probably pisses everyone off. This and Winota are about the only things capable of contending with the surge of control decks in Explorer. Mono-Red while strong and fun as hell, absolutely folds to control way too frequently in my experience. Combo decks provide a buffer to let them do what they want with things like thoughtseize or destruction, but having ways to bring those cards back and draw lets you contend with them. Aggro doesn't regrettably since the powerlevel of control cards is out of line currently. (Doomscar turn 3-4, Meathook Massaccre). When control gets reminded of it's place and put in line, then we can take a look at decks like this and winota as problematic. But getting rid of this or winota will turn explorer into a control players mirror match unplayable experience.
Greasefang is definitely the next ban coming to explorer. She's too prevalent and hard to disrupt. BW staple on any color and throw in cheesefang+ good vehicles means you just basically win unless you just don't draw her or your opponent has a shitload of instant speed removal
Idk, I feel like no one was playing graveyard hate. Or exile removal. Issue with best of one maybe. I will say the format would be fine if lightning bolt were legal.
Any form of graveyard hate makes this into a completely disfunctional deck with cards not exactly competitive (bar the mirror breaker). How is it hard to disrupt?
I love this combo! Its the reason I play Explorer/Pioneer lite 😃 I hope with Dominaria United we get some amazing Artifacts for this combo to be in Standard!
32:02. By my math , it was exact lethal even if you didn’t draw land. You would have untapped with 4 reflections and 1 harvester (you were about to get 1 more reflection and then lose 1 before opponent conceded). Can push Kroxa, 3 reflections each copy a harvester, attack with 4 3/2’s plus a 2/2, 1 3/2 gets blocked, 11 damage through.
Magic... as Richard Garfield intended... Joking aside, historically this kind of deck (a game winning combo consisted of two unplayable cards in their expansion) usually happened in the edge of rotation, with one of the combo piece is almost rotated out, and the other piece is brand new. So Wizards won't need to use banhammer.
The turbo aggro was close but this deck is just too much for BO1. The only way to stop this is going for the graveyard. The current meta is only stoppable with black.
I play a lot of pioneer and Im a huge greasefang fan. I gotta say this deck seems borderline broken in explorer with the lack of phoenix and bo3 for sure. Against phoenix the matchup is very hard, against control is borderlien unwinnable and in a bo3 format the hate is very much real. For those reasons esper greasefang is picking up now with new capenna with alternative wincons like jace.
Love this! I knew the moment Greasefang was made Parhelion II was gonna go up! Good thing I got my playset in foil before the price increase! xD I'm currently using an Esper variant, but I LOVE this Mardu one too. Gonna have to try both :D Awesome work as always Luca
turn 4 is ok, not that broken, but ability to make it turn 3 is just nuts. nothing fair about it. i do wonder if wizards want every deck to mainboard either pithing needle or grave hate (and not just one or 2 of)
-So genuine question- Why stitched supplier for the mill? I understand she mills 6 throughout her life, and she can help crew vehicles. -However, wouldn't the typical red loot/rummage cards be better? They're either the same mana value or only one over and you get to select the cards that get pitched. You only really lose out on one or two cards getting tossed. -Maybe I'm stupid and she's just straight up better, but I'd think a split of her and the red rummage/loot might be better.
I realize that rare lands are necessary to compete in Explorer or Historic, but I never wanted to craft the Kaladesh land (like Inspiring Vantage or Concealed Courtyard). I had the other playing on Arena, but these I would have to specifically craft! It's ok to substitute them with other pathway or dual lands?
It should be fine until you get to a certain level, the pathways will be great 95 percent of the time until you need triple of one color to double/triple spell, but it's usually fine until its not
I wonder how one might go about nerfing greasefang. Maybe it's power makes crewing the vehicles too easy? Then again, it seems flavorful to have greasefang crew their own vehicles.
I always played standard in MTG Arena, my first game in explorer was against a Tibalt's Trickery deck wich played Ulamog on turn 2, i couldn' t believe the balance team decided that was fine, the rest were just Winota and Greasefang. Two broken deck gone one remains...
@@LegenVD Ok thanks. Btw just to share some numbers, I found this Spanish MTG streamer on twitch who played Mardu Greasefang on ranked for ~100 games. His final standing was 74-25. Pretty solid winrate imho.
I'm tempted to build Greasefang, now that Winota is banned, but I'm really worried he'll get banned and I lose all my wildcards to crafting the lands I'm missing, which may not be too horrible
Thoughtseize can be hit or miss when you're playing a combo deck like this. Ideally you want cards to contribute to your own gameplan, but a little interaction is usually needed. So it comes down to wether you want removal or discard, and I prefer the former.
March only hits grease if you go first. On the draw you need 4 mana with both the black and white marches to get rid of grease but she comes down turn 3.
Winota is temporarily banned because the opposing decks that could combat it aren't really there on Arena yet. They said they were going to unban it ASAP. (Assuming it stays unbanned in Pioneer!)
I see Legend is playing this deck to showcase the brutality of Greasefang. I would like to know however how you guys deal with such a card when you dislike it a lot. Do you still play it becsuse of the easy wins or do you just refuse to play these kinds of broken cards? For my part, when i dislike a card or there is a broken combo going on, i simply dont play it.
I think a big reason Winota saw a ban over greasefang is because of bo3. Winota is far more resilient to hate, while greasefang folds pretty quickly to the right sideboard.
I tried this deck and it seems the weakest deck I've ever played. Any aggro or control decks easily beat this deck, because you never can play combo at turn 3. At least 10 I need to achieve the goal of the deck. By that time you almost every time is dead. I don't understand why people complain about it.
Stats don't lie and this is still a Tier 1 deck based on winrate, although people are slowly starting to adapt to it by including more graveyard hate and relevant interaction.
@@LegenVD Maybe it's just not my type of deck. I like the deck to be working in every situation, like control or aggro, or even midrange decks that don't need certain conditions to win
As if we haven't got enough greasefang in the format. Though mardu Greasefang is quite a bit stronger than Esper Greasefang. Weathered Runestone destroys these decks eitherway.
Greasefang is the best example for bad card design that was obvious from the beginning. There is a reason why every creature ever printed before Greasefang that reanimated any type of card regardless of mana cost while being able to stay on the board in mtg costs 6 or more mana. It was so incredibly obvious that doing that at half the cost would be unhealthy for the game...
This deck definitely has that thing going that we often see before a card gets banned, where it's a reasonable midrange deck that also can sometimes randomly combo the opponent to death on turn 4 or if they ever tap out. Winota does the same thing.
Yup, that's how it felt playing the deck.
Already felt before the ban that Tibalt's Trickery was a bad one in a format with Thoughtseize and other 2 CMC reanimator spells (and yeah, most of the time the Trickery is 2 CMC + 1 other card reanimator spell). Needless to say that I've lost way more games to the Thoughtseize that to the Trickery. I'm still trying to figure out what I'm missing since I haven't seen the 4 mythic rare wildcard reimbursement for my 4 copies of the Trickery...
@@JohnDoe-xk2sj Well, Trickery is a rare, so you'll be waiting a long time for those mythic rare wildcards...
@@JohnDoe-xk2sj You don't get a reimbursement if you already had those copies of Trickery before the Historic ban, so it might be that.
@@PeterFlash Oh, thank you for your reply. I indeed had those copies since before the historic ban.
I'm building Greasefang as a commander deck for my friend, I'm delighted to see your input. (Obviously I will ignore the red cards 🤣)
Why?
@@Kalenz1234 Because in Commander, the colors of the cards you can use are limited to the colors of your commander.
Greasefang being a thing is part of the reason why I prefer to play best of 3. Really easy to deal with her if you have a decent sideboard
The speed of the concede tells me that first match was against exactly the deck you said it was
I'm gonna say what probably pisses everyone off.
This and Winota are about the only things capable of contending with the surge of control decks in Explorer.
Mono-Red while strong and fun as hell, absolutely folds to control way too frequently in my experience. Combo decks provide a buffer to let them do what they want with things like thoughtseize or destruction, but having ways to bring those cards back and draw lets you contend with them.
Aggro doesn't regrettably since the powerlevel of control cards is out of line currently. (Doomscar turn 3-4, Meathook Massaccre).
When control gets reminded of it's place and put in line, then we can take a look at decks like this and winota as problematic. But getting rid of this or winota will turn explorer into a control players mirror match unplayable experience.
Merfolks are good vs control now with the addition of hexcatcher. Been having a great time in explorer with them
Greasefang is definitely the next ban coming to explorer. She's too prevalent and hard to disrupt. BW staple on any color and throw in cheesefang+ good vehicles means you just basically win unless you just don't draw her or your opponent has a shitload of instant speed removal
Rest in peace aka rip greasefang
Idk, I feel like no one was playing graveyard hate. Or exile removal. Issue with best of one maybe. I will say the format would be fine if lightning bolt were legal.
Ray of enfeeblement also answers greasefang. And Winona for that matter.
please consider having a sideboard. not trying to be too snark, but for real
Any form of graveyard hate makes this into a completely disfunctional deck with cards not exactly competitive (bar the mirror breaker). How is it hard to disrupt?
Was just thinking if vehicle decks were any good. This isn't what I was expecting but DAMN. Looks fun.
Holy smokes that's a lethal deck, DAMN!!!
Why is this card only three-mana again? >.< Repeatable Goryo's Vengeance has to be worth around 6-mana or 7-mana as an effect, right?
FIRE.
I love this combo! Its the reason I play Explorer/Pioneer lite 😃
I hope with Dominaria United we get some amazing Artifacts for this combo to be in Standard!
32:02. By my math , it was exact lethal even if you didn’t draw land. You would have untapped with 4 reflections and 1 harvester (you were about to get 1 more reflection and then lose 1 before opponent conceded). Can push Kroxa, 3 reflections each copy a harvester, attack with 4 3/2’s plus a 2/2, 1 3/2 gets blocked, 11 damage through.
Love this. More explorer content please.
as someone who plays a reflection of kikijiki deck thanks for that trick that you did in game 7 might come in handy
Loving the videos my dude! Hoping for more Explorer decks from you (or whatever your Patreons votes for) :D
that is one nasty combo and quick too.
Two cards that were virtually unplayable in Standard coming together to stomp people in Explorer...great!
Magic... as Richard Garfield intended...
Joking aside, historically this kind of deck (a game winning combo consisted of two unplayable cards in their expansion) usually happened in the edge of rotation, with one of the combo piece is almost rotated out, and the other piece is brand new. So Wizards won't need to use banhammer.
The turbo aggro was close but this deck is just too much for BO1. The only way to stop this is going for the graveyard.
The current meta is only stoppable with black.
29:25 wouldnt be better to sac the harvester token to kill one of the creatures so opp cant double block?
Makes sense
I play a lot of pioneer and Im a huge greasefang fan. I gotta say this deck seems borderline broken in explorer with the lack of phoenix and bo3 for sure. Against phoenix the matchup is very hard, against control is borderlien unwinnable and in a bo3 format the hate is very much real. For those reasons esper greasefang is picking up now with new capenna with alternative wincons like jace.
Love this! I knew the moment Greasefang was made Parhelion II was gonna go up! Good thing I got my playset in foil before the price increase! xD
I'm currently using an Esper variant, but I LOVE this Mardu one too. Gonna have to try both :D
Awesome work as always Luca
Nice to see an explore video, please make some more🙏
Loved that final mirror match, whoever blinks first loses.
turn 4 is ok, not that broken, but ability to make it turn 3 is just nuts. nothing fair about it. i do wonder if wizards want every deck to mainboard either pithing needle or grave hate (and not just one or 2 of)
Oh, look, it's Cheesefang. Love me some Greasefang play.
I knew and claim all the gressefang esper combo. SO Lucky
-So genuine question-
Why stitched supplier for the mill? I understand she mills 6 throughout her life, and she can help crew vehicles.
-However, wouldn't the typical red loot/rummage cards be better? They're either the same mana value or only one over and you get to select the cards that get pitched. You only really lose out on one or two cards getting tossed.
-Maybe I'm stupid and she's just straight up better, but I'd think a split of her and the red rummage/loot might be better.
Faithless Looting isn’t legal in Explorer
@@LegenVD Ok that definitely answers it haha. Without that I totally understand Stitcher supplier. I haven't played explorer yet and didn't know.
I realize that rare lands are necessary to compete in Explorer or Historic, but I never wanted to craft the Kaladesh land (like Inspiring Vantage or Concealed Courtyard). I had the other playing on Arena, but these I would have to specifically craft! It's ok to substitute them with other pathway or dual lands?
It should be fine until you get to a certain level, the pathways will be great 95 percent of the time until you need triple of one color to double/triple spell, but it's usually fine until its not
If you regularly play Brawl I would invest in one copy at least, but the deck is functional without them.
Shocklands are better
Grease fang is much easier to deal with 3 toughness than Winota’s 4
Danke!
Coming across a few main-boarded Leyline of the Void and Rest in Peace on the ladder, perhaps worth trying a couple Vanishing Verse in the main?
Seems reasonable, although depending on how often it happens it could be fine to just take those losses.
Faster and more consistent with better defense and less vulnerability.
Better ban Winota!
BASED.
I cant wait till shes unbanned and we come back with a vengeance.
@@anannoyedpanda When they banned winota in historic but left muxus alone we all knew they have no idea what they are doing.
I wonder how one might go about nerfing greasefang. Maybe it's power makes crewing the vehicles too easy? Then again, it seems flavorful to have greasefang crew their own vehicles.
3 power would have been more appropriate, im glad this bullshit is not in standard
I always played standard in MTG Arena, my first game in explorer was against a Tibalt's Trickery deck wich played Ulamog on turn 2, i couldn' t believe the balance team decided that was fine, the rest were just Winota and Greasefang. Two broken deck gone one remains...
What's your average winrate with mardu greasefang?
You should check out the data on Untapped for accurate numbers.
@@LegenVD Ok thanks. Btw just to share some numbers, I found this Spanish MTG streamer on twitch who played Mardu Greasefang on ranked for ~100 games. His final standing was 74-25. Pretty solid winrate imho.
I'm tempted to build Greasefang, now that Winota is banned, but I'm really worried he'll get banned and I lose all my wildcards to crafting the lands I'm missing, which may not be too horrible
If you craft her and it gets banned you get the wildcards back
@@Kalenz1234 its the wildcards I use for the other cards in the deck that had me on the fence
Missing Thoutseize man, when i think i ll march the greasedude, the opp had a thoughtseize to make me discard and win.
Thoughtseize can be hit or miss when you're playing a combo deck like this.
Ideally you want cards to contribute to your own gameplan, but a little interaction is usually needed.
So it comes down to wether you want removal or discard, and I prefer the former.
March only hits grease if you go first. On the draw you need 4 mana with both the black and white marches to get rid of grease but she comes down turn 3.
@@Kalenz1234 You forget i van exile cards from my hand to pay for march
@@marcelopiccoli1446 The value player in me suppresses the sheer notion of going two for one >
@@Kalenz1234 Should value your life total XD
I dont think its ban worthy, the whole deck is easily countered with some gy hate
Try to hit diamond with a deck full of graveyard hate.
Imagine not winning a game on turn 3. OMEGALUL.
Why would winota be banned in explorer if it’s not in pioneer??
Because Explorer isn't Pioneer. Smaller card pool means certain strategies are more viable than they are in larger formats (see Standard vs Modern)
Winota is temporarily banned because the opposing decks that could combat it aren't really there on Arena yet. They said they were going to unban it ASAP. (Assuming it stays unbanned in Pioneer!)
I see Legend is playing this deck to showcase the brutality of Greasefang.
I would like to know however how you guys deal with such a card when you dislike it a lot. Do you still play it becsuse of the easy wins or do you just refuse to play these kinds of broken cards?
For my part, when i dislike a card or there is a broken combo going on, i simply dont play it.
its nice, but not broken
Opponent: Black, white, or red mana
Legend: Is this a mirror match?
Really enjoy the fast win combos for daily wins.
Is the version with a lot more looting cards better or worse? Not running faithless looting just feels wrong in this kinda of decks
Looting isn't legal in Explorer.
Oh, rip
Yes, more decks with greasefang! He’s so busted
Isn't greasefang a she?
@@xblful it's preferred pronouns are xim/xer
@@sniff494 Pretty sure Greasefang identifies as an apache attack helicopter.
This deck is the epitome of cringe :)
(love you LVD)
Why?
Would it really trigger skysovereign twice though? I watched the whole thing hoping to see this moment...but it never came up :(
Both when it enters and when it attacks.
Next ban announcement
Why can't we live in a world where people like me can just cast Parhelion II?
And 4C or Naya Winota is like a zombie of a loved one coming back
I dont get the point of introducing explorer and not adding any old sets into arena at the same time.
Slower historic format rn. That's the point. You get to play cards that were or became not viable in historic.
greasefang in every opening hand. not staged at all
What does that even mean?
That's just how Greasefang works, they never don't have it
@@LegenVD I reckon he means you only uploaded the games where you always drew Greasefang ;)
Yo
how tf was this not banned lol
Where is Priest of Fell Rites you gotta have it in that deck 🤔
Not legal in Explorer and wouldn't work with Vehicles either way.
@@LegenVD I get not legal in explore. That deck is the bane of my life and the priest works very well in it.
I think a big reason Winota saw a ban over greasefang is because of bo3. Winota is far more resilient to hate, while greasefang folds pretty quickly to the right sideboard.
This is a compltely incorrect statement.
Both get disrupted by instant creature removal don't they? Winota has 1 more toughness but it also costs 1 more mana.
@@Kalenz1234 by resiliency I mean how good their game is if their combo is disrupted. Winota's fair game is a lot stronger than greasefang's.
damn what a troll deck lol
decks like this are exactly why I don't play historic formats
I tried this deck and it seems the weakest deck I've ever played. Any aggro or control decks easily beat this deck, because you never can play combo at turn 3. At least 10 I need to achieve the goal of the deck. By that time you almost every time is dead. I don't understand why people complain about it.
Stats don't lie and this is still a Tier 1 deck based on winrate, although people are slowly starting to adapt to it by including more graveyard hate and relevant interaction.
@@LegenVD Maybe it's just not my type of deck. I like the deck to be working in every situation, like control or aggro, or even midrange decks that don't need certain conditions to win
As if we haven't got enough greasefang in the format. Though mardu Greasefang is quite a bit stronger than Esper Greasefang. Weathered Runestone destroys these decks eitherway.
That and graffdiggers cage. Think for best of 1 I would opt for the latter. Especially if you’re running Karn.
@@dudeofvalor9294 Cage doesn't stop Greasefang from getting back Vehicles.
@@LegenVD whoops my bad.
Greasefang is the best example for bad card design that was obvious from the beginning. There is a reason why every creature ever printed before Greasefang that reanimated any type of card regardless of mana cost while being able to stay on the board in mtg costs 6 or more mana. It was so incredibly obvious that doing that at half the cost would be unhealthy for the game...
I love your content but this deck isnt that much fun...its effective but damn I see why people call it cheese fang.
Hate this, your content is amazing, just hate that this deck exists and seems to be so consistent
This has to be banned in Bo1. W sideboard sure... But this is way too unfaire
1st
No one cares
Don't do this.