Im curious to know if you guys have any advice about the basics of running the deck, suggestions on building it, and what you think of a green splash utilizing Hornet nest?
This might work in a low sweeper’s build but in a heavy sweepers build I feel like deading your draw’s in this deck is very hard to manage mid-game.
My advice is to pick your favorite win condition and to build towards that. I like Koth & Wurmcoil, so I run Mind Stone to ramp to my mid-game and lots of sweepers in my main to stall until I get them online.
If you want to run a faster dragons build then maybe Simian Spirit Guide and cheaper single target burn.
I feel the Key & Peele is a little win more and easy to disrupt, but then again it’s kinda like a SG Commander, who is awesome, so maybe I’ll test it as a 1 of. I run a ton of artifacts main.
So my strong, simple plan is to lock everyone out of traditional EDH win conditions and beat everyone to death with my general. This is obviously an unconventional Voltron deck and seems like a pile, but my light playtesting against common generals and cards has proven really fun so far (for me at least). Zurgo Helmsmasher gives me lots to work with in terms of colors and abilities and i had fun building around him.
Obviously I'm in a non green deck with no ramp, so my curve has to stay very low and my land count has to stay high. I really struggled to not put nombos into the deck to avoid clumsy playing, and I've already lost a game to my own Blood moon (poor sequencing, easily winnable game lol).
By clogging my deck with these effects, I'm guaranteed to slow down a table and hopefully bum rush the more threatening players and then regroup and deal with the runts.
Anyone have any thoughts or comments? What are your experiences with table prison? Can I do this without blue?
I need a deck i can play with randos at my local game store and not have them complain about "OP BLUE" or "Combo!" or "Ramp!" (they are bad players) and this seems like a nice way toe ven the playing field (hugely in my favor).
Yeah the wurmcoils get boarded out for white match ups and I see that command is like the new Cryptic around here, but just so many decks cannot beat a resolved wurmcoil, and getting one early off a mind-stone or koth when your opponent taps on on T3-4 because they don't think you have that kind of gas is so choice.
I was running Sarkhan, Dragonspeaker in the Stormbreath slot but he was consistently underwhelming, while Stormbreath himself is a G and pushes people around.
People in the thread, listen up! Reckoner on board during a sweeper is the sauce! Don't forget! I have won many games by sweeping with multiple reckoner's in play and just putting all the trigger damage to their face!
When I get a chance to play this at a PPTQ i'll let you guys know how it goes! Thanks for keeping Skred alive!
I've been piloting this deck for just over a year. I took a break for the summer from May until last week, but seeing as I live across the street from my LGS and I was itching to Skred some mahfkahs I put on some fresh sleeves and was pretty much delighted at how my meta has shaped up to roll over and die to my Icy Flames.
Last week I went 2-2 in a room of 34, losing to Twin because I had never played that match before and misplayed a Boil (I waited to be reactive when I could have been proactive). I resolved to not make that mistake again!
This week, I went 4-1, placing first out of 36!
R1: G1: I know my opponent is on Elves. I sweep G1 hard, he draws light on Collected Company. G2 He runs me over really quick. G3 I mull to a 6 land hand with two sweepers and he doesn't draw the sideboard hate in time.
R2: G1: Mull to 5 rip, 7 lands in a row, die to goyf. G2 He leads off with Thoughtsieze your Blood Moon, Inquisition your Skred, I die to Goyf. I beat this guy last weak on Nightmare jund and just think the free G1 is what got me here.
R3: G1: I have no idea what my opponent is doing, but once I realize it's a Living End combo deck I just start aggressively cracking my Mind Stones until I hit a Relic of Progenitus. G2 He gets me because I don't realize how his combo works and crack my Relic prematurely. G3 I lead with double relic into Wurmcoil Engine, he Ingot Chewers both of them but it isn't enough and I win.
R4: It's Jund here, G1 I just roast his board and he never sticks a threat. G2 I don't see anything that beats his Goyf, Lili, Goyf. G3 I rip a Relic at the right time to neuter his pair of goyfs and sweep them.
R5: Grixis Twin! G1 I just have all the removal and get a Koth emblem very early. G2 He suicides into twin after he had inquisitioned away my answers. G3 he leads with his Inquisition to take my volley, but I draw another one the turn before he goes for it. He lands a 2nd Deciever exarch and I respond to it's trigger by Boiling, this brings him down to a swamp and a mountain and I win.
My thoughts on the deck:
Reckoner seems weak sometimes, but he is a skill intensive card with a lot of decisions to make, and I win the games that I pilot him correctly in.
My Pyroclasm suite seems very well suited for my meta, I don't think I'd change it around at all.
I don't run the Chandra or the Siege because I don't want to risk losing my reactive cards to exile. Having Skred or Fallout exactly when you need them is paramount to victory in my experience and these cards don't work for me as a reactive control deck. I could see their value in a tap-out control build but I am rarely that aggressive.
4 Relic in the main is why I won. Every deck has Snapcaster Mage, Tarmogoyf or Delve, at least, and lot's of other incidental stuff besides. Always having the ability to neuter the GY and filter my draws is super clutch.
I'm seeing less Jeskai control than i did a few months ago, so maybe taking out one of the tec edges is OK, but my non-basic suite is just gas/money.
Anyone's thoughts on my Big Skred build? (My LGS clerk named it Snowjob and I'm gonna start calling it that now, lol).
I changed my Godo split into some Boils and added the other Wurmcoil Engine.
R1 (Death & Taxes):
G1: I kept a shaky 2 land hand and he opened with Leonin Arbiter//Ghost Quarter and lost.
G2: He boarded in The best red hate (Firewalker) and I just luck into Wurmcoil Engine and swing 3 times before he draws the path and burn him out.
G3: I didn't really understand exactly how Burrenton Forge-Tender worked and 2-1'd myself. Also boarded out my Anger of the Gods and then got smashed by Blade Splicer tokens.
This was my first time seeing this deck in modern and I wasn't ready for it. I think my match is great here if I board correctly.
R2 (Boggles & Blouses):
G1: We both mull to 5. I keep what looked like a sweet one land hand with a pair of pyroclasms (I know she is on boggles) and then didn't draw a land for 6 turns and died with 4 sweepers in hand.
G2: Sweep her dudes and Koth.
G3: See above.
R3 (Jeskai Control):
G1: He burned me out and I never connected with a Reckoner.
G2: T3 Blood Moon-> T4 Koth, no plays.
G3: Relic of Progenitus ruins his heavy snapcaster hand and I just burn him out.
R4 (Jund):
G1: I cannot answer a very fast Goyf draw and die horribly.
G2: T3 Koth, T5 Emblem, he is doomed.
G3: We draw in turns because I almost kill him and then he batterskulls himself into a draw.
T8:
Vs Seige Rhino
G1//G2: Shred my hand with thoughtseize and Knight of the Reliquary goes unanswered both games.
I really think Mind Stone is the best ramp. I really don't play this deck as a fast deck at all and would rather have the hard ramp//draw all the time. The SSG is only so good if you have the nuts blood moon opening and is just a completely dead draw I think. Coldsteel is weak compared to mind stone, even in scrying sheets builds.
Hiya! I've been piloting this deck for just over a month at my local modern weekly. It averages between 16-25 players and I've T8'd twice and T4'd this past week.
I attribute my success of 2/24 to 3 things:
The correct number of Blood Moon
Changing my mana base to go up to 23 lands and 3 Mind Stone
Wurmcoil Engine (this card is the truth)
My meta is:
Jund, Zoo, Boggles, Reanimator, Jeskai Control, Pod, Tron (U & R/G) and then a pile of jank (Sundial of the Infinite Midrange, lol). Nobody plays Splinter Twin and I've never seen scapeshift but it might be there.
The Inferno Titan is either becoming a 2nd Wurmcoil (leaning heavily this way) or I'll move just the Batterskull to the main and ditch Godo because I want to run two other cards in my board instead of additional threats. the WC Engine has proven to be utterly bananas and lets me win all kinds of crazy games. Sarkhan is fun, I honestly don't draw him that oftern but he is reliable and cool. I just board him out in any white match ups and don't miss him.
How are people managing the Relic of Progenitus/Demigod of Revenge lists? Those seem really clunky.
Tectonic Edge was an all-star this week and I used Mouth of Ronom successfully more than a few times so I really need to leave it in for another week. I had no problems in games but didn't really have any Reckoner openers.
Round 1 Sundial of the Infinite Midrange:
G1: He plays Sundil of the Infinite and I have no MD artifact hate so he gets me with cheap giant dudes. He also has a transmute package.
G2: I have Pithing Needle and Smash to Smithereens and he just dies horribly.
G3: He plays a bunch of 7/7's and I have to burn them all away unfavorably. I land a Wurmcoil engine and it keeps me afloat long enough to get a Koth online. At the end of the game my final play is Koth on 2 loyalty-> Koth down for 7 Red Mana-> Play a koth make a 4/4, play a 2nd Koth make another 4/4 and swing for the win.
Round 2 Jund:
G1: A long grindy attrition match where i misplay my lone tectonic edge and it maybe costs me the game.
G2: I lucksack draw a 2nd Anger of the Gods when I am dead on board against a 5/6 goyf then I manage to murder an active liliana with a perfect koth topdeck and beat him down
G3: I slam a blood moon and its GG
Round 3 4-Color Pod:
R1: I get a T3 Koth, T5 Emblem after having burn for his first three turn creatures. He dies quickly.
R2: He grinds me down with some beats and then a murderous redcap gets me.
R3: I get a Pithing Needle on Birthing Pod and just burn every creature he has to death. Sarkhan closes the game out.
This deck rules extra hard. I'm glad that people know that its good, i'm sad because people might ever have sideboard hate now.
Having only started M:tG during Time Spiral I missed the heyday of classic elves. I used to play Duel Commander with my friends basically every day but we took a 6 month break after Derevi got banned and I just recently got an urge to rush over to people with some elves.
My Ezuri, Renegade Leader is primarily an elf deck but I run a wide range of strong green effects and non-elf creatures. I think of my deck as being a green deck first and foremost.
This deck can be so fast and explosive that I believe it can easily overwhelm control decks. It is more than capable with correct play to bounce back from board wipe and can also play a very strong Land Destruction game with some draws.
I've had this deck built for a year and a half and I've been playing it and tuning it for a meta of Geist, Skullbriar, Edric, Derevi, Zur, Malestrom Wanderer, Krenko, Marath, Sygg, and 5 color combo. The last 10 cards that I changed haven't gotten a ton of testing and I'd love for some feedback and experience from other Ezuri players.
So it comes out super fast and puts an enormous amount of fat on the table. It has a fun toolbox of huge things to drop into play and occasionally you get support in the form of planewalkers or equipment. The critical mas of tutors ensures a ton of consistency in your explosiveness.
Concordant Crossroads: Too much aggro in my meta, this murders me if I don't hold it for a late game wombo-combo play and i'd prefer to not have nasty surprises in the control match. Mirri's Guile: Not great late game, not a dude early game. Elvish Skysweeper: Too specific, too many conditions that are easy to disrupt. Boreal Druid: Not green mana. Seeker of Skybreak: Bad on it's own, unlike every other elf. Crushing Vines: Too narrow. Caller of the Claw: Not even that great in the situation it is best in. Viridian Shaman: Outclassed by reclamation sage and zealot. Viridian Corrupter: The infect plan is cute but wasted resources and it is easily disrupted. Wirewood Channeler: Costs too much to be good. Argothian Elder: Same here. It is possible that these last 2 go in the build with concordant crossroads and maybe also Swiftfoot boots, but that build also runs 2-CC elves that tap for 1, which is a different deck that runs bad elves instead of good green cards and I just think that isn't good enough to compete.
VS. Geist of St. Traft: This comes down to 3 things: A) Removal for Geist pumps for a manageable clock, B) Slow rolling your threats to bait Mass Removal too early and C) Winning the mana war.
Sometimes C) means having the LD to keep them off of white and sometimes it means just ramping every turn you can before slamming 5 & 6 CMC dudes every turn. This match is hard because sometimes they have it all, but Cavern of Souls can help push through a Regal Force or Thragtusk in a pinch. Sometimes they just don't keep 2 white up and you can basically rampage all over them.
VS. Krenko, Mob Boss:
This is basically a combo race, and many games come down to a die roll. If you can take out his haste enablers somehow your chances improve, but there is very little you can do about dudes on the ground if he elects not to attack with them. This match is like the cleanest 50/50 in the format, possibly depending on their LD suite compared to yours.
VS. Skullbriar, the Walking Grave: This match up can be very difficult if they find the sweetspot for their removal. The targeted removal in this format is very strong and the X sweepers let him play out his x/3s and x/4s and then wipe my x/1s and x/2s and go for the alpha. Disrupt his black mana as best you can and focus on getting difficult to manage threats in play. (Extrememly difficult for him to get around chameleon colossus and a little elf to protect him from edicts. Don't worry about skullbriar and focus on beating his attrition/draw engines like Phyrexian Arena and Vengevine.
VS. Maelstrom Wanderer: My worst match-up. The specific build I play against runs a good amount of burn and Inferno Titan and I just sort of get wiped out in most games. If he keeps a hand of super fast ramp with no removal my chances go up but he can always just wander into Titans or extra turns and just steal the game from you. Do you best to keep him off of red, and blow up their mana rocks.
VS. Marath, Will of the Wild: So if they assemble bomberman and you don't have Krosan Grip you lose, but otherwise you can try to race them. It can be very hard to play around Marath but sometimes you can assemble lord pumps enough to buy your elves enough time to drop some fatties into play.
VS. Sygg, River Cutthroat: This match up is about removal, specifically whether or not they draw into the right removal for the right situations. Your best bet is to actually go all in on one big threat time after time and exhaust their denial resources. Over-committing to this board will get you wiped hard.
Also if you want tips on running the deck feel free to ask about game states or other situations. I haven't playtest much with Gyre Sage, Nissa or Thragtusk, but I really like them in this format and suspect they will be very strong for me. Hope to see other elf players check it out!
EDIT ::FRIDAY JULY 18th 2014:: - Heart Warden + Wickerbough Elder. More removal over my now worst elf. the 4 mana to draw a card for no body is not worth it, and tapping her for 1 is lame. There are many other builds that focus more on comboing out and using all of the 2-CC elves that tap for 1 or 2 but I don't think they are good and like my more beats oriented build.
This sounds like a fun challenge but can you post the actual rules? I have no idea what you mean when you say "Combo" and so it is hard to suggest win cons other than the "WIN THE GAME" spells posted above.
Why no attacking? There are so many easy ways to wipe out a table in G/W (or at least 1-2 players) if you are playing the good pumps. What LD is particularly frowned upon/penalized?
B) Why build a 2nd deck when you can just tune your goblin deck to beat their control decks? If you are G/R, then I agree that LD in all forms is the absolute best strategy for blowing up their ramps or hurting their ramps. If you are B/R then I think just going hard suicide is the correct moon and just run a ton of aggro and stax effects that tax their lives. Mana Barbs can straight ruin people and you can also runs stuff like Stranglehold and Maralen of the Mornsong.
C) Beating them without joining them might just be as simple as building a good VOLTRON deck. Bruna, light Alabaster, Rafiq of the Many and Uril, the Miststalker are excellent options for incredibly hard to deal with monsters that just murder people in 1-2 hits.
I run Marath Super-Friends. I only run planeswalkers and Legendary creatures and the deck is incredibly fun. Finding the good planeswalkers in these colors is always an exciting challenge but I agree that white for removal is necessary. Red is weak but it has Sarkhan Vol and I like him a lot. The green is for draw mostly and also for ramping walkers.
I find Marath compliments all planeswalkers strategies in his own way and recommend him for someone who likes those colors.
New Year's Update:
So what I did was basically take out the durdles and just tried to up the ante of haymaker permanents. I found that I wasn't matching up against stronger control decks and wanted to level the playing field. I needed to increase the must-counter permanents.
The gods are frequently online because of the hybrid-mana symbols in Sygg and the strong number of mana intensive dudes. Every planeswalker is super strong and I find they just get me ahead when I wouldn't otherwise have gas.
I upped the lands by one and needed more draw so the impulse seemed good.
I have fewer dinky little dudes and have a smaller number of stronger peeps.
Here are the changes:
Tamiyo, The Moon Sage+
Gerart's Messenger+
Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver+
Thasa, God of the Sea+
Erebos, God of the Dead+
Toxic Deluge+
Umezawa's Jitte+
Heroe's Downfall+
Impulse+
Sword of Feast and Famine+
Temple of Deceit+
Herald of Torment+
True-Name Nemesis+
The joy of ezuri comes from rushing dudes with a million little men that can get big. The joy of Radha is dropping slammy whammy 4 drops on T3 every game. You could build Radha Sligh and just beat face with 2 and 3 drops too. I like ezuri but that deck folds very hard to sweepers and Marath. Radha is more resilient but less explosive.
This might work in a low sweeper’s build but in a heavy sweepers build I feel like deading your draw’s in this deck is very hard to manage mid-game.
My advice is to pick your favorite win condition and to build towards that. I like Koth & Wurmcoil, so I run Mind Stone to ramp to my mid-game and lots of sweepers in my main to stall until I get them online.
If you want to run a faster dragons build then maybe Simian Spirit Guide and cheaper single target burn.
I feel the Key & Peele is a little win more and easy to disrupt, but then again it’s kinda like a SG Commander, who is awesome, so maybe I’ll test it as a 1 of. I run a ton of artifacts main.
1 Command Tower
2 Reflecting pool
3 Opal Palace
4 Badlands
5 Arid Mesa
6 Marsh Flats
7 Bloodstained Mire
8 Terramorphic Expanse
9 Evolving Wilds
10 Battlefield Forge
11 Sulfurous Springs
12 Caves of Koilos
13 Fetid Heath
14 Rugged Prairie
15 Graven Cairns
16 Blood Crypt
17 Sacred Foundry
19 Godless Shrine
20 Ancient Tomb
21 Bojuka Bog
22 Smoldering Spires
23 Sejiri Steppe
24 Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
25 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
26 Rogue's Passage
27 Tectonic Edge
28 Mountain x3
31 Swamp x4
35 Plains x4
39 Phyrexian Revoker
40 Containment Priest
41 Grand Abolisher
42 Zo-Zu the Punisher
43 Magus of the Moon
44 Hushwing Gryph
45 Aven Mindcensor
46 Loxodon Gatekeeper
47 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
48 Urabrask, the Hidden
49 Aurelia, the Warleader
50 Ob Nixilis, Unshackled
51 Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
52 Sheoldred, Whispering One
53 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
Artifacts (8)
54 Grafdigger's Cage
55 Pithing Needle
56 Torpor Orb
57 Ankh of Mishra
58 Tsabo's Web
59 Cursed Totem
60 Null Rod
61 Damping Matrix
Enchantments (9)
62 Blind Obedience
63 Rest in Peace
64 Stony Silence
65 Everlasting Torment
66 Blood Moon
67 Rule of Law
68 Aura of Silence
69 Phyrexian Arena
70 Iroas, God of Victory
71 Swords to Plowshares
72 Path to Exile
73 Terminate
74 Rakdos Charm
75 Wear//Tear
76 Vindicate
77 Wrath of God
78 Damnation
79 Utter End
80 Return to Dust
81 Brainspoil
82 Cataclysm
Tutors & Draw (5)
83 Vampiric Tutor
84 Enlightened Tutor
85 Demonic Tutor
86 Painful Truths
87 Promise of Power
Buffs (6)
89 Psychotic Fury
90 Boros Charm
91 Seize the Day
92 Savage Beating
93 Unquestioned Authority
94 Battle Mastery
Planeswalkers (5)
95 Ajani, Caller of the Pride
96 Elspeth, Knight Errant
97 Gideon Jura
98 Liliana Vess
99 Ob Nixilis Reignited
So my strong, simple plan is to lock everyone out of traditional EDH win conditions and beat everyone to death with my general. This is obviously an unconventional Voltron deck and seems like a pile, but my light playtesting against common generals and cards has proven really fun so far (for me at least). Zurgo Helmsmasher gives me lots to work with in terms of colors and abilities and i had fun building around him.
Obviously I'm in a non green deck with no ramp, so my curve has to stay very low and my land count has to stay high. I really struggled to not put nombos into the deck to avoid clumsy playing, and I've already lost a game to my own Blood moon (poor sequencing, easily winnable game lol).
By clogging my deck with these effects, I'm guaranteed to slow down a table and hopefully bum rush the more threatening players and then regroup and deal with the runts.
Anyone have any thoughts or comments? What are your experiences with table prison? Can I do this without blue?
I need a deck i can play with randos at my local game store and not have them complain about "OP BLUE" or "Combo!" or "Ramp!" (they are bad players) and this seems like a nice way toe ven the playing field (hugely in my favor).
I was running Sarkhan, Dragonspeaker in the Stormbreath slot but he was consistently underwhelming, while Stormbreath himself is a G and pushes people around.
People in the thread, listen up! Reckoner on board during a sweeper is the sauce! Don't forget! I have won many games by sweeping with multiple reckoner's in play and just putting all the trigger damage to their face!
When I get a chance to play this at a PPTQ i'll let you guys know how it goes! Thanks for keeping Skred alive!
LGS is in Philly, PA (Redcap's Corner!)
18 Snow-Covered Mountain
2 Scrying Sheets
2 Tectonic Edge
1 Mouth of Ronom
Artifacts (7)
4 Relic of Progenitus
3 Mind Stone
Creatures (8)
4 Boros Reckoner
2 Stormbreath Dragon
2 Wurmcoil Engine
2 Pyroclasm
3 Anger of the Gods
Instants (11)
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Skred
3 Volcanic Fallout
3 Blood Moon
4 Koth of the Hammer
2 Pithing Needle
3 Dismember
2 Boil
3 Rending Volley
2 Sowing Salt
1 Blood Moon
1 Volcanic Fallout
1 Anger of the Gods
I've been piloting this deck for just over a year. I took a break for the summer from May until last week, but seeing as I live across the street from my LGS and I was itching to Skred some mahfkahs I put on some fresh sleeves and was pretty much delighted at how my meta has shaped up to roll over and die to my Icy Flames.
Last week I went 2-2 in a room of 34, losing to Twin because I had never played that match before and misplayed a Boil (I waited to be reactive when I could have been proactive). I resolved to not make that mistake again!
This week, I went 4-1, placing first out of 36!
R1: G1: I know my opponent is on Elves. I sweep G1 hard, he draws light on Collected Company. G2 He runs me over really quick. G3 I mull to a 6 land hand with two sweepers and he doesn't draw the sideboard hate in time.
R2: G1: Mull to 5 rip, 7 lands in a row, die to goyf. G2 He leads off with Thoughtsieze your Blood Moon, Inquisition your Skred, I die to Goyf. I beat this guy last weak on Nightmare jund and just think the free G1 is what got me here.
R3: G1: I have no idea what my opponent is doing, but once I realize it's a Living End combo deck I just start aggressively cracking my Mind Stones until I hit a Relic of Progenitus. G2 He gets me because I don't realize how his combo works and crack my Relic prematurely. G3 I lead with double relic into Wurmcoil Engine, he Ingot Chewers both of them but it isn't enough and I win.
R4: It's Jund here, G1 I just roast his board and he never sticks a threat. G2 I don't see anything that beats his Goyf, Lili, Goyf. G3 I rip a Relic at the right time to neuter his pair of goyfs and sweep them.
R5: Grixis Twin! G1 I just have all the removal and get a Koth emblem very early. G2 He suicides into twin after he had inquisitioned away my answers. G3 he leads with his Inquisition to take my volley, but I draw another one the turn before he goes for it. He lands a 2nd Deciever exarch and I respond to it's trigger by Boiling, this brings him down to a swamp and a mountain and I win.
My thoughts on the deck:
Reckoner seems weak sometimes, but he is a skill intensive card with a lot of decisions to make, and I win the games that I pilot him correctly in.
My Pyroclasm suite seems very well suited for my meta, I don't think I'd change it around at all.
I don't run the Chandra or the Siege because I don't want to risk losing my reactive cards to exile. Having Skred or Fallout exactly when you need them is paramount to victory in my experience and these cards don't work for me as a reactive control deck. I could see their value in a tap-out control build but I am rarely that aggressive.
4 Relic in the main is why I won. Every deck has Snapcaster Mage, Tarmogoyf or Delve, at least, and lot's of other incidental stuff besides. Always having the ability to neuter the GY and filter my draws is super clutch.
I'm seeing less Jeskai control than i did a few months ago, so maybe taking out one of the tec edges is OK, but my non-basic suite is just gas/money.
Anyone's thoughts on my Big Skred build? (My LGS clerk named it Snowjob and I'm gonna start calling it that now, lol).
2 Scrying Sheets
2 Tectonic Edge
1 Mouth of Ronom
4 Relic of Progenitus
3 Mind Stone
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Pyroclasm
2 Volcanic Fallout
2 Anger of the Gods
2 Wurmcoil Engine
3 Blood Moon
4 Koth of the Hammer
2 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
1 Smash to Smithereens
2 Shattering Blow
2 Pithing Needle
2 Sowing Salt
2 Boil
1 Volcanic Fallout
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Blood Moon
I changed my Godo split into some Boils and added the other Wurmcoil Engine.
R1 (Death & Taxes):
G1: I kept a shaky 2 land hand and he opened with Leonin Arbiter//Ghost Quarter and lost.
G2: He boarded in The best red hate (Firewalker) and I just luck into Wurmcoil Engine and swing 3 times before he draws the path and burn him out.
G3: I didn't really understand exactly how Burrenton Forge-Tender worked and 2-1'd myself. Also boarded out my Anger of the Gods and then got smashed by Blade Splicer tokens.
This was my first time seeing this deck in modern and I wasn't ready for it. I think my match is great here if I board correctly.
R2 (Boggles & Blouses):
G1: We both mull to 5. I keep what looked like a sweet one land hand with a pair of pyroclasms (I know she is on boggles) and then didn't draw a land for 6 turns and died with 4 sweepers in hand.
G2: Sweep her dudes and Koth.
G3: See above.
R3 (Jeskai Control):
G1: He burned me out and I never connected with a Reckoner.
G2: T3 Blood Moon-> T4 Koth, no plays.
G3: Relic of Progenitus ruins his heavy snapcaster hand and I just burn him out.
R4 (Jund):
G1: I cannot answer a very fast Goyf draw and die horribly.
G2: T3 Koth, T5 Emblem, he is doomed.
G3: We draw in turns because I almost kill him and then he batterskulls himself into a draw.
T8:
Vs Seige Rhino
G1//G2: Shred my hand with thoughtseize and Knight of the Reliquary goes unanswered both games.
I really think Mind Stone is the best ramp. I really don't play this deck as a fast deck at all and would rather have the hard ramp//draw all the time. The SSG is only so good if you have the nuts blood moon opening and is just a completely dead draw I think. Coldsteel is weak compared to mind stone, even in scrying sheets builds.
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Windswept Heath
1 Taiga
1 Scrubland
1 Treetop Village
1 Ghitu Encampment
1 Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
1 Okina, Temple to Grandfathers
1 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Skaarg, the Rage Pits
4 Forest
3 Mountain
1 Strangleroot Geist
1 Keldon Maurauders
1 Skinshifter
1 Savageborn Hydra
1 Tarmogoyf
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Apocalypse Hydra
1 Burning Tree Emissary
1 Eidolon of Great Revel
1 Hellspark Elemental
1 Viridian Zealot
1 Goblin Rabblemaster
1 Boggart Ram Gang
1 Burning Tree Shaman
1 Vithian Renegades
1 Punishing Fire
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Magma Jet
1 Psychotic Fury
1 Chaos Warp
1 Chord of Calling
1 Domri Rade
1 Rancor
1 Sylvan Library
1 Fires of Yavimaya
1 Sulfuric Vortex
1 Bonesplitter
This deck seems like a ton of fun!
2 Scrying Sheets
2 Tectonic Edge
1 Mouth of Ronom
4 Relic of Progenitus
3 Mind Stone
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Pyroclasm
2 Volcanic Fallout
2 Anger of the Gods
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Inferno Titan
3 Blood Moon
4 Koth of the Hammer
2 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
3 Smash to Smithereens
2 Pithing Needle
2 Sowing Salt
1 Godo, Bandit Warlord
1 Batterskull
1 Volcanic Fallout
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Blood Moon
I attribute my success of 2/24 to 3 things:
The correct number of Blood Moon
Changing my mana base to go up to 23 lands and 3 Mind Stone
Wurmcoil Engine (this card is the truth)
My meta is:
Jund, Zoo, Boggles, Reanimator, Jeskai Control, Pod, Tron (U & R/G) and then a pile of jank (Sundial of the Infinite Midrange, lol). Nobody plays Splinter Twin and I've never seen scapeshift but it might be there.
The Inferno Titan is either becoming a 2nd Wurmcoil (leaning heavily this way) or I'll move just the Batterskull to the main and ditch Godo because I want to run two other cards in my board instead of additional threats. the WC Engine has proven to be utterly bananas and lets me win all kinds of crazy games. Sarkhan is fun, I honestly don't draw him that oftern but he is reliable and cool. I just board him out in any white match ups and don't miss him.
How are people managing the Relic of Progenitus/Demigod of Revenge lists? Those seem really clunky.
Tectonic Edge was an all-star this week and I used Mouth of Ronom successfully more than a few times so I really need to leave it in for another week. I had no problems in games but didn't really have any Reckoner openers.
Round 1 Sundial of the Infinite Midrange:
G1: He plays Sundil of the Infinite and I have no MD artifact hate so he gets me with cheap giant dudes. He also has a transmute package.
G2: I have Pithing Needle and Smash to Smithereens and he just dies horribly.
G3: He plays a bunch of 7/7's and I have to burn them all away unfavorably. I land a Wurmcoil engine and it keeps me afloat long enough to get a Koth online. At the end of the game my final play is Koth on 2 loyalty-> Koth down for 7 Red Mana-> Play a koth make a 4/4, play a 2nd Koth make another 4/4 and swing for the win.
Round 2 Jund:
G1: A long grindy attrition match where i misplay my lone tectonic edge and it maybe costs me the game.
G2: I lucksack draw a 2nd Anger of the Gods when I am dead on board against a 5/6 goyf then I manage to murder an active liliana with a perfect koth topdeck and beat him down
G3: I slam a blood moon and its GG
Round 3 4-Color Pod:
R1: I get a T3 Koth, T5 Emblem after having burn for his first three turn creatures. He dies quickly.
R2: He grinds me down with some beats and then a murderous redcap gets me.
R3: I get a Pithing Needle on Birthing Pod and just burn every creature he has to death. Sarkhan closes the game out.
This deck rules extra hard. I'm glad that people know that its good, i'm sad because people might ever have sideboard hate now.
My Ezuri, Renegade Leader is primarily an elf deck but I run a wide range of strong green effects and non-elf creatures. I think of my deck as being a green deck first and foremost.
This deck can be so fast and explosive that I believe it can easily overwhelm control decks. It is more than capable with correct play to bounce back from board wipe and can also play a very strong Land Destruction game with some draws.
I've had this deck built for a year and a half and I've been playing it and tuning it for a meta of Geist, Skullbriar, Edric, Derevi, Zur, Malestrom Wanderer, Krenko, Marath, Sygg, and 5 color combo. The last 10 cards that I changed haven't gotten a ton of testing and I'd love for some feedback and experience from other Ezuri players.
1 Misty Rainforest
2 Verdant Catacombs
3 Wooded Foothills
4 Windswept Heath
5 Centaur Garden
6 Pendelhaven
7 Cavern of Souls
8 Gaea's Cradle
9 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
10 Treetop Village
11 Dryad Arbor
12 Mutavault
13 Wirewood Lodge
14 Mouth of Ronom
15 Wasteland
16 Dust Bowl
17 Tectonic Edge
16 Snow-Covered Forest
Elves (32)
1cc
1 Arbor Elf
2 Birchlore Rangers
3 Copperhorn Scout
4 Elvish Mystic
5 Fyndhorn Elves
6 Heritage Druid
7 Joraga Treespeaker
8 Joraga Warcaller
9 Llanowar Elves
10 Nettle Sentinel
11 Quirion Ranger
12 Elvish Visionary
13 Fauna Shaman
14 Fierce Empath
15 Gyre Sage
16 Multani's Acolyte
17 Priest of Titania
18 Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
19 Talara's Battalion
20 Thornweald Archer
21 Viridian Zealot
22 Wirewood Herald
23 Wirewood Hivemaster
24 Wren's Run Vanquisher
3cc
25 Elvish Archdruid
26 Elvish Harbinger
27 Imperious Perfect
28 Reclamation Sage
29 Wood Elves
4cc
30 Chameleon Colossus
31 Masked Admirers
Dude Tutor (6)
1 Summoner's Pact
2 Worldly Tutor
3 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Survival of the Fittest
5 Chord of Calling
6 Birthing Pod
Non-Elf Creatures (12)
1 Wirewood Symbiote
2 Scavenging Ooze
3 Scryb Ranger
4 Eternal Witness
5 Wickerbough Elder
6 Acidic Slime
7 Thragtusk
8 Thornling
9 Primeval Titan
10 Sylvan Primordial
11 Regal Force
12 Craterhoof Behemoth
1 Skullclamp
2 Lightning Greaves
3 Umezawa's Jitte
Green Spells (8)
1 Glimpse of Nature
2 Sylvan Library
3 Beast Within
4 Krosan Grip
5 Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
6 Triumph of the Hordes
7 Primal Command
8 Plow Under
Planewalker (3)
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
2 Nissa, Worldwaker
3 Karn Liberated
So it comes out super fast and puts an enormous amount of fat on the table. It has a fun toolbox of huge things to drop into play and occasionally you get support in the form of planewalkers or equipment. The critical mas of tutors ensures a ton of consistency in your explosiveness.
Concordant Crossroads: Too much aggro in my meta, this murders me if I don't hold it for a late game wombo-combo play and i'd prefer to not have nasty surprises in the control match.
Mirri's Guile: Not great late game, not a dude early game.
Elvish Skysweeper: Too specific, too many conditions that are easy to disrupt.
Boreal Druid: Not green mana.
Seeker of Skybreak: Bad on it's own, unlike every other elf.
Crushing Vines: Too narrow.
Caller of the Claw: Not even that great in the situation it is best in.
Viridian Shaman: Outclassed by reclamation sage and zealot.
Viridian Corrupter: The infect plan is cute but wasted resources and it is easily disrupted.
Wirewood Channeler: Costs too much to be good.
Argothian Elder: Same here. It is possible that these last 2 go in the build with concordant crossroads and maybe also Swiftfoot boots, but that build also runs 2-CC elves that tap for 1, which is a different deck that runs bad elves instead of good green cards and I just think that isn't good enough to compete.
VS. Geist of St. Traft: This comes down to 3 things: A) Removal for Geist pumps for a manageable clock, B) Slow rolling your threats to bait Mass Removal too early and C) Winning the mana war.
Sometimes C) means having the LD to keep them off of white and sometimes it means just ramping every turn you can before slamming 5 & 6 CMC dudes every turn. This match is hard because sometimes they have it all, but Cavern of Souls can help push through a Regal Force or Thragtusk in a pinch. Sometimes they just don't keep 2 white up and you can basically rampage all over them.
VS. Krenko, Mob Boss:
This is basically a combo race, and many games come down to a die roll. If you can take out his haste enablers somehow your chances improve, but there is very little you can do about dudes on the ground if he elects not to attack with them. This match is like the cleanest 50/50 in the format, possibly depending on their LD suite compared to yours.
VS. Skullbriar, the Walking Grave: This match up can be very difficult if they find the sweetspot for their removal. The targeted removal in this format is very strong and the X sweepers let him play out his x/3s and x/4s and then wipe my x/1s and x/2s and go for the alpha. Disrupt his black mana as best you can and focus on getting difficult to manage threats in play. (Extrememly difficult for him to get around chameleon colossus and a little elf to protect him from edicts. Don't worry about skullbriar and focus on beating his attrition/draw engines like Phyrexian Arena and Vengevine.
VS. Maelstrom Wanderer: My worst match-up. The specific build I play against runs a good amount of burn and Inferno Titan and I just sort of get wiped out in most games. If he keeps a hand of super fast ramp with no removal my chances go up but he can always just wander into Titans or extra turns and just steal the game from you. Do you best to keep him off of red, and blow up their mana rocks.
VS. Marath, Will of the Wild: So if they assemble bomberman and you don't have Krosan Grip you lose, but otherwise you can try to race them. It can be very hard to play around Marath but sometimes you can assemble lord pumps enough to buy your elves enough time to drop some fatties into play.
VS. Sygg, River Cutthroat: This match up is about removal, specifically whether or not they draw into the right removal for the right situations. Your best bet is to actually go all in on one big threat time after time and exhaust their denial resources. Over-committing to this board will get you wiped hard.
Also if you want tips on running the deck feel free to ask about game states or other situations. I haven't playtest much with Gyre Sage, Nissa or Thragtusk, but I really like them in this format and suspect they will be very strong for me. Hope to see other elf players check it out!
EDIT ::FRIDAY JULY 18th 2014:: - Heart Warden + Wickerbough Elder. More removal over my now worst elf. the 4 mana to draw a card for no body is not worth it, and tapping her for 1 is lame. There are many other builds that focus more on comboing out and using all of the 2-CC elves that tap for 1 or 2 but I don't think they are good and like my more beats oriented build.
Why no attacking? There are so many easy ways to wipe out a table in G/W (or at least 1-2 players) if you are playing the good pumps. What LD is particularly frowned upon/penalized?
B) Why build a 2nd deck when you can just tune your goblin deck to beat their control decks? If you are G/R, then I agree that LD in all forms is the absolute best strategy for blowing up their ramps or hurting their ramps. If you are B/R then I think just going hard suicide is the correct moon and just run a ton of aggro and stax effects that tax their lives. Mana Barbs can straight ruin people and you can also runs stuff like Stranglehold and Maralen of the Mornsong.
C) Beating them without joining them might just be as simple as building a good VOLTRON deck. Bruna, light Alabaster, Rafiq of the Many and Uril, the Miststalker are excellent options for incredibly hard to deal with monsters that just murder people in 1-2 hits.
I find Marath compliments all planeswalkers strategies in his own way and recommend him for someone who likes those colors.
So what I did was basically take out the durdles and just tried to up the ante of haymaker permanents. I found that I wasn't matching up against stronger control decks and wanted to level the playing field. I needed to increase the must-counter permanents.
The gods are frequently online because of the hybrid-mana symbols in Sygg and the strong number of mana intensive dudes. Every planeswalker is super strong and I find they just get me ahead when I wouldn't otherwise have gas.
I upped the lands by one and needed more draw so the impulse seemed good.
I have fewer dinky little dudes and have a smaller number of stronger peeps.
Here are the changes:
Tamiyo, The Moon Sage+
Gerart's Messenger+
Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver+
Thasa, God of the Sea+
Erebos, God of the Dead+
Toxic Deluge+
Umezawa's Jitte+
Heroe's Downfall+
Impulse+
Sword of Feast and Famine+
Temple of Deceit+
Herald of Torment+
True-Name Nemesis+
Delvers-
Prowler-
Illusory-
Wydwen-
Mirri-
Probe-
Sinkhole-
Remand-
Vapor Snag-
Devour Flesh-
Tribute to hunger-
LDV-
Shadow-