CUT #27 Finals - Ellie and Alan vs Ellie and Alan
Hello everyone, and welcome to Jurassic...I mean CUT #27 Finals! Last time on CUT, we had three fantastic deckbuilders constructing decks around legends from The Lost Caverns of Ixalan; let's see how they did:
Congratulations to Beth and Christian! Looks like Vampires and Merfolk won this fight, but Camden, your deck was still pretty sweet, and I would love to have you back on sometime in the future! Big thanks goes to you for participating in this round of CUT!
This week the challenges that Beth and Christian will face are:
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Must use a commander from LCC or a Jurassic World commander
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Must have 10 cards with either explore or discover
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Max 15 rares/mythics (not including your commander)
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Must play 5 Caves
Let's go and explore their decks and see what they discovered on their deckbuilding journeys!
First up, we have Beth, also known as Queen of Cardboard, let's see what she brought this week!
What if, after the disasters of Jurassic Park, Ellie and Alan went on to explore the universe of Magic, discovering new planes, avoiding big creatures and checking out caves on a wild adventure? This deck uses the card Ellie and Alan, Paleontologists
When initially given my requirements for this CUT, I built a Pantlaza, Sun-Favored
To make Ellie and Alan really work, you need to put some stuff in the graveyard, and you'll potentially want to be able untap them as much as possible to get more value. To get stuff in the graveyard, we've got a little bit of discard, a little bit of evoke, and a little bit of cycling. Cards like Krosan Tusker
In addition to discard and cycling, there's also an Ashnod's Altar
To activate E and A as much as possible, I've made sure that a lot of your permanents are going to allow us to untap them at least once a turn. Derevi, Empyrial Tactician
The biggest limitation of the deck was being unable to put more than 15 mythics or rares. I wanted to load up on Magic bad boys, but ultimately I had to make some big cuts because there just wasn't enough room. This deck still feels incredibly fun to play and a board full of Dinosaurs or Koma
Great deck, Beth! Ellie and Alan, Paleontologists
Next, we have Christian!
Hey everyone! I'm currently working on lots of decks right now from The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, but one that definitely caught my eye, and was perfect for this challenge, was Ellie and Alan, Paleontologists
I knew that, regardless of the conditions, I was going to stay true to the characters and make it as Dinosaur-focused as possible. However, I did choose some important key pieces to make use of the dynamic duo's ability to discover. I always like to break my decks into three core components, and this is no different!
- Descending: Despite not having any cards with Descend from the set, descending is really crucial for triggering their ability. Luckily, we can get there through exploring, self mill, and especially cycling! There are a few great Dinosaurs that you can send to the graveyard, and immediately tap and exile it to discover!
- Discovering shenanigans: similar to my Kumena, Tyrant of Orazcadeck, repeatedly untapping Ellie and Alan just means even more value as long as there are cards in the graveyard! To this end, cards like Kiora's Followerare fantastic, and the deck would not be complete without Intruder Alarm! In addition, several of the Caves and the discover/explore requirement of this challenge have given us lots of ways to discover outside of their ability!
- Big dinos: Now that you have cards in the graveyard and you have ways to repeatedly use Ellie and Alan's ability, you need some big creatures to follow through with! Luckily, most of the rares have been devoted to big Dinosaurs that, if destroyed, can be exiled to discover into MORE big Dinos! (Or other value spells).
This was a really fun restriction to add to a deck I was already working on and looking forward to building! When first looking at this challenge and while building, I thought I would probably make a lot of changes outside of the constraints, especially in rares and mythics. However, looking at the final list, I think this is a really fun-looking deck, and I may not make many, if any changes!
Looks like Ellie and Alan, Paleontologists
Big thanks to the both of you for participating in this round of CUT, and may the best Ellie and Alan, Paleontologists
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