Wow I am really impressed by the effort you are all putting in. Thank you for your contributions.
The Battle Box in the OP is my Battle Box and I will keep that one updated and continue to try and make it as balanced as possible. Everyone else is encouraged to post their own decklists and any ideas they may have.
The decklists posted throughout this thread are great and I like to see them. Everyone has a different price point they want to hit and that is fine. I keep mine fairly budget, but every budget is different. Keep playing, keep posting, and thanks for all your work!
These all sound pretty cool. You've got some good variety.
Spell Queller would be really good in Jeskai. Reflector Mage is pretty good too lol. For Bant, I've been enjoying the Bant Blink deck. The old version was pretty cool too. Turn 2 Rhox War Monk is nice. Bant control from RTR standard with Thragtusk and Prime Speaker Zeganna could be fun.
So a lot of cards were included in those decks so that I didn't forget them. They are mostly rough drafts.
For Mardu, I have a couple things going on in my head. First is that Boros is probably ending up as Sligh so I need to rework it. Second is I was Butcher of the Horde to be in the box. Third, Mardu is probably the best bet for Haakon. The looting is also great to abuse Demigod, so I am leaning towards the Demigod Haakon version. The Haakon Vamps could be good, or terrible. There is a lot of synergy there, but it could be a bust and I don't want to build it and find out it is terrible. The Blighning/GV version is probably really good, but both of those cards can find different homes and Demigod will be sweet in Mardu. I'll have to rework Mono Red, but I figure without Figure of Destiny, it doesn't have the same long game that the standard version did.
I agree on Abzan. The Ohran Viper Doran Version of the deck seems best to me. I'll have to work on tweaking the numbers. All of these lists will get tweaked before I officially add them.
Temur Sabertooth would be good in the Temur Fires Deck. I saw Temur Ascendency when I was building the Gruul Version and thought it was awesome. I like the current version of Temur Ninjutsu more, but it is a cool backup if I ever need it.
I'm torn on Gruul. I think I want the madness deck but Fires looks fun. I'm leaning towards Madness. Faithless Looting will be in Mardu most likely, but some overlap between decks is fine. Especially when they are enabling cool synergy.
I also prefer the populate version of this deck. Populating 5/5s will be good. It also has so many two for ones. Some of the one ofs are there just so I remember them, there will definitely be some trimming. Cast Out does seem good here. I probably need a little bit of removal.
Orzhov is almost for sure Zombies. It will benefit from a smoother manabase since it is so black heavy. Losing Putrid Leech is tough because it is such a good early card, so the deck is a little slower, but the new lord helps. I'll definitely be playing with the numbers here.
Simic should definitely have probe and vapor snag. Do you think I should be adding 4 more cantrips to the deck, or remove one of the other ones? I'm not sure if the deck is fast enough to take full advantage of vapor snag, so some of the enchantments might be necessary. Snag should be included in some number though. Perhaps Simic Charm also.
Boros should be sweet. A lot of good attackers and the battle cry will add up.
Mono Blue Devotion should be a fairly fast deck, so it will need the two drops. The Weird might be better off as something else that costs UU. I'll just have to figure out what. However it is a good early blocker and then can finish quickly. But control magic would definitely fit nicely in this deck.
Mono Black infect came together pretty quickly, I think it will work well. I'm not sure if I got it perfect, but with a few tweaks this should be great.
Mono Green is nothing fancy but fills a niche. Prey Upon is probably great and gives the deck some play. Good suggestion.
For the walkers deck, Oath of Ajani is actually cheap, it just doesn't color fix so I'm not sure how good it will be. It depends on the manabase. It's really good if I can make the mana work. I am concerned about the price of the deck. All these walkers are the cheap ones, but still 2-4 dollars. It adds up. Oaths are really cheap though, so maybe I trim to less walkers and take advantage of the Oaths.
Walls is another deck that will really be shaped by how the mana works. I might choose to make it 4 colors just to help with that. That's also part of the reason I chose colorless walls where I could. Assault Formation is really good with the fliers. Assualt Formation into Wall of Denial will be very strong. Akroan Horse is a weird choice. I put it there because it is easy to cast and because if this deck stalls out the board, the horse will end up making a lot of tokens. Probably better as something else though, you're right.
Domain is a little weird. I think it should work well. The creatures are efficient if I have the lands out. It has good removal, accel, Counterspells, and card selection. I'm thinking it will play kinda like a tempo deck but with a really powerful top end. Draco is really good if I have domain where he only costs 6 and Ordered Migration is pretty good. I could see adding the enchantment if I needed to slow the deck down. I'm hoping I will assemble domain consistently. A Rhox War Monk or something similar could be good, I was also considering Savage Knuckleblade.
I'll be finalizing archetypes soon and then start tuning the individual decklists.
Right now I'm looking at:
Mardu Demigod Haakon
Abzan Doran with Viper
Gruul Madness
Selesnya Populate
Boros Sligh
Simic Grow
Orzhov Zombies
Mono Blue Devotion
Mono Black Infect
Mono Green Stompy
The rest of the mono, bi, and trim color archetypes would remain the same.
Then the extra 5 decks including the ones already in the box I'm thinking:
Tempered Steel
Cascade
Domain
Walls
And Superfriends if the cost is reasonable. Otherwise I'll need soemthing else. Perhaps a 4 color Fires deck.
I am in the process of adding ten decks to the box. There will be one of each color, the Ravnica Guilds, the Wedges and Shards, then 5 additional decks for a total of 30. The second post of the thread has been updated with possible decks to add to the box.
If you have any deck ideas, please feel free to make a suggestion. All feedback is welcomed and appreciated.
That is how my box started. It was a lot of scraps leftover from years of drafting and collecting. I just level it up over time. It's nice because I can always find something to work on in the decks.
Yeah 30 sounds sweet. I like the idea of all the mono, two, and three color combinations plus 5 of whatever. I will probably work on getting 10 added once I get these ones all finalized. The key is making sure they are all competitive and that there is good variety.
What sort of decks are in your box? Anything cool?
Updated a bunch of decks. Shuffling some things around for various reasons. Small Improvements too. Removed all proxies from decks. As a result, Naya could no longer remain the same deck. I've made it into a Big Zoo.
Polymorph
In:
Beast Attack
2 Swords to Plowshares
Planar Collapse
Valorous Stance
Vivid Grove
Opt
Miscalculation
Deck generates a lot of value, so it has a strong late game. I wanted to remove the reanimate a fatty gameplan to strengthen the early to mid game allowing it to pull ahead late.
I agree that Polymorph needs some work. I have been trying to figure out how to improve it. It definitely needs a bigger payoff. I'm just not sure what that giant creature is right now. Emrakul, The Aeons Torn would be perfect but costs too much. I'll look into other Eldrazi.
Thanks for the input worldleviathan, I will look into some cube lists. I've actually been slowly developing these decks for 2-3 years. It is a wonderful time sink.
We mostly play best 2 of 3 matches. Sometimes we will run one deck against 5 other decks, kind of like a gauntlet or mtgo league. We usually play a few match ups so a lot of time it is best 2 out of 3 matches rather than games, similar to what you suggested BlazingRagnarok.
Also if you put Hollow One in the thread name, I think you will get more traffic.
Fairie Macabre was a great suggestion.
Is this the deck Tibalt is good in?
The Battle Box in the OP is my Battle Box and I will keep that one updated and continue to try and make it as balanced as possible. Everyone else is encouraged to post their own decklists and any ideas they may have.
The decklists posted throughout this thread are great and I like to see them. Everyone has a different price point they want to hit and that is fine. I keep mine fairly budget, but every budget is different. Keep playing, keep posting, and thanks for all your work!
Spell Queller would be really good in Jeskai. Reflector Mage is pretty good too lol. For Bant, I've been enjoying the Bant Blink deck. The old version was pretty cool too. Turn 2 Rhox War Monk is nice. Bant control from RTR standard with Thragtusk and Prime Speaker Zeganna could be fun.
For Mardu, I have a couple things going on in my head. First is that Boros is probably ending up as Sligh so I need to rework it. Second is I was Butcher of the Horde to be in the box. Third, Mardu is probably the best bet for Haakon. The looting is also great to abuse Demigod, so I am leaning towards the Demigod Haakon version. The Haakon Vamps could be good, or terrible. There is a lot of synergy there, but it could be a bust and I don't want to build it and find out it is terrible. The Blighning/GV version is probably really good, but both of those cards can find different homes and Demigod will be sweet in Mardu. I'll have to rework Mono Red, but I figure without Figure of Destiny, it doesn't have the same long game that the standard version did.
I agree on Abzan. The Ohran Viper Doran Version of the deck seems best to me. I'll have to work on tweaking the numbers. All of these lists will get tweaked before I officially add them.
Temur Sabertooth would be good in the Temur Fires Deck. I saw Temur Ascendency when I was building the Gruul Version and thought it was awesome. I like the current version of Temur Ninjutsu more, but it is a cool backup if I ever need it.
I'm torn on Gruul. I think I want the madness deck but Fires looks fun. I'm leaning towards Madness. Faithless Looting will be in Mardu most likely, but some overlap between decks is fine. Especially when they are enabling cool synergy.
I also prefer the populate version of this deck. Populating 5/5s will be good. It also has so many two for ones. Some of the one ofs are there just so I remember them, there will definitely be some trimming. Cast Out does seem good here. I probably need a little bit of removal.
Orzhov is almost for sure Zombies. It will benefit from a smoother manabase since it is so black heavy. Losing Putrid Leech is tough because it is such a good early card, so the deck is a little slower, but the new lord helps. I'll definitely be playing with the numbers here.
Simic should definitely have probe and vapor snag. Do you think I should be adding 4 more cantrips to the deck, or remove one of the other ones? I'm not sure if the deck is fast enough to take full advantage of vapor snag, so some of the enchantments might be necessary. Snag should be included in some number though. Perhaps Simic Charm also.
Boros should be sweet. A lot of good attackers and the battle cry will add up.
Mono Blue Devotion should be a fairly fast deck, so it will need the two drops. The Weird might be better off as something else that costs UU. I'll just have to figure out what. However it is a good early blocker and then can finish quickly. But control magic would definitely fit nicely in this deck.
Mono Black infect came together pretty quickly, I think it will work well. I'm not sure if I got it perfect, but with a few tweaks this should be great.
Mono Green is nothing fancy but fills a niche. Prey Upon is probably great and gives the deck some play. Good suggestion.
For the walkers deck, Oath of Ajani is actually cheap, it just doesn't color fix so I'm not sure how good it will be. It depends on the manabase. It's really good if I can make the mana work. I am concerned about the price of the deck. All these walkers are the cheap ones, but still 2-4 dollars. It adds up. Oaths are really cheap though, so maybe I trim to less walkers and take advantage of the Oaths.
Walls is another deck that will really be shaped by how the mana works. I might choose to make it 4 colors just to help with that. That's also part of the reason I chose colorless walls where I could. Assault Formation is really good with the fliers. Assualt Formation into Wall of Denial will be very strong. Akroan Horse is a weird choice. I put it there because it is easy to cast and because if this deck stalls out the board, the horse will end up making a lot of tokens. Probably better as something else though, you're right.
Domain is a little weird. I think it should work well. The creatures are efficient if I have the lands out. It has good removal, accel, Counterspells, and card selection. I'm thinking it will play kinda like a tempo deck but with a really powerful top end. Draco is really good if I have domain where he only costs 6 and Ordered Migration is pretty good. I could see adding the enchantment if I needed to slow the deck down. I'm hoping I will assemble domain consistently. A Rhox War Monk or something similar could be good, I was also considering Savage Knuckleblade.
I'll be finalizing archetypes soon and then start tuning the individual decklists.
Right now I'm looking at:
Mardu Demigod Haakon
Abzan Doran with Viper
Gruul Madness
Selesnya Populate
Boros Sligh
Simic Grow
Orzhov Zombies
Mono Blue Devotion
Mono Black Infect
Mono Green Stompy
The rest of the mono, bi, and trim color archetypes would remain the same.
Then the extra 5 decks including the ones already in the box I'm thinking:
Tempered Steel
Cascade
Domain
Walls
And Superfriends if the cost is reasonable. Otherwise I'll need soemthing else. Perhaps a 4 color Fires deck.
If you have any deck ideas, please feel free to make a suggestion. All feedback is welcomed and appreciated.
What sort of decks are in your box? Anything cool?
Cascade
In: Ydris, Maelstrom Wanderer
Out: Tower Gargoyle
I've wanted this guy in there for a while. He's cheap enough now.
Tempered Steel
In: Ancient Den, Metalwork Colossus
Out: Tree of Tales, Glint Hawk
Finally got the Den. We will see how Colossus is.
Elves
In: Masked Admirers, Imperious Perfect
Out: Wiredwood Herald, Rhys the Exiled
Perfect is great. Admirers is great. May try to fit more. Rhys is not very good. Wirewood is poor without a way to reliably trigger it.
I got more than those in the mail, but I need to figure out the changes to make.
I have a Worldspined Wurm now. I need to decide which creature to cut from Polymorph.
I am also considering adding Spellstutter Sprite and Faerie Miscreant to Rogues to give it some more interaction.
Polymorph
In:
Beast Attack
2 Swords to Plowshares
Planar Collapse
Valorous Stance
Vivid Grove
Opt
Miscalculation
Out:
2 Delay
Whelming Wave
4 Growth Spasm
1 Sejiri Refuge
Small improvements. Streamlining with cantrips. Has no trouble making tokens, Growth Spasm has been poor. More efficient removal.
Grixis
In:
Vivid Marsh
Vivid Crag
Spitebellows
Man-o'-War
Mnemonic Wall
Whelming Wave
Out:
Evolving Wilds
Swamp
Frost Titan
Nicol Bolas
2 Frantic Search
Deck generates a lot of value, so it has a strong late game. I wanted to remove the reanimate a fatty gameplan to strengthen the early to mid game allowing it to pull ahead late.
Rogues
In: Smother
Out: Ruinous Path
Smother is good. I wanted 4 RP in Jund.
Jund
In: 3 Ruinous Path
Out:
Heroes Downfall
Branching Bolt
Roast
Streamlining decks. I want to have more 4 ofs.
Bant
In:
2 Fyndhorn Elves
Avacyns Pilgrim
Plains
Sunpetal Grove
Out: 3 Birds of Paradise
2 Windswept Heath
Removing fetch proxies. Birds went to Naya.
Elves:
In: 4 Elvish Mystic
Out:
2 Llanowar Elves
2 Fyndhorn Elves
Making 4 of where I can.
Jeskai
Out: 4 Battlegrace Angel
In: 3 Lightning Angel
1 Prognostic Sphinx
BGA went to Naya. Lightning Angel and Prog Sphinx are more on theme.
Naya is pretty much all new. Check it out.
OP updated to reflect these changes.
We mostly play best 2 of 3 matches. Sometimes we will run one deck against 5 other decks, kind of like a gauntlet or mtgo league. We usually play a few match ups so a lot of time it is best 2 out of 3 matches rather than games, similar to what you suggested BlazingRagnarok.