This is the first Standard deck I have made in years- normally I play Modern or EDH. My buddy, on the other hand, has been getting really stoked about FNM which is Standard and wants me to come. He offered to let me use one of his other decks, but I kinda wanted to make on myself using some cards that are just a bit too expensive to get much use in Modern. I generally tend towards control decks, and looking at what I had and some cards that had seen play, I figured BG would be a good base. From there I thought about splashing for Dreadbore, but then I saw some white cards that were seeing play and decided on BGW.
Metagame: I was told that the meta is mostly aggro with some midrange, and some UWx Control.
I don't know...it has lots of cards that seem strong and tough to deal with, but at that same time it also feels very unfocused. I am not sure why basic deck building tenants are not gelling with me when I look at standard. My buddy is loaning me three of the mana dorks, and I will have to pick up a couple Underworld Connections, a Reaper of the Wilds, and a couple of Devour Flesh, but otherwise I have the cards. My buddy said that aggro has been picking up and that he is running Golgari Charm MD, so I added some. I have some foil scry lands I pulled, and if I can trade them for Temple of Silence I will bump up the number in the deck.
Note: This deck is only 56 cards. I originally had 4 Duress in the MD, but I actually mixed it up with Despise in my mind, and after getting it straight I think it is a bad call. It was in as a budget replacement for Thoughtseize, which I will not be buying for some time, but what I really want to force them to discard are creatures. I would really love a little cheap proactive control here, but may just use the slots for removal.
I think your land count is a bit high for a deck that draws, ramps, and has a steady enough curve. I'd consider some early threats to speed bump aggro and make sure that you don't have to plain burn all your removal in the process of getting to turn 3-4 with a decent amount of life left (3 if you have caryatid).
I think your land count is a bit high for a deck that draws, ramps, and has a steady enough curve. I'd consider some early threats to speed bump aggro and make sure that you don't have to plain burn all your removal in the process of getting to turn 3-4 with a decent amount of life left (3 if you have caryatid).
Yea, with my 4 slots I was thinking of adding the two Fleecemane Lions I have and the one Voice of Resurgence I have, then just upping the removal with the last slot.
My experience has always been that if you plan on playing the control game you should generally run at least 24 land (even with a mana dork), and since my land base is not quite optimal I added one for good measure.
Except that you're playing control without a board wipe (golgari charm only qualifies as a one in certain matchups). That makes it a whole different ball game. Control with draw and wipes for single card stabilization can run tons of land because they can take those 4 or 5 land hands. Your deck probably wouldn't do well in such a situation. You need enough to play your cards but not more. Not to mention that you have all of one meager sink to dump mana into (scavenging ooze and that's just for green, limited by creatures in graveyards to gobble up). It isn't like sphinx's revelation, blue sun zenith from scars, an X burn, etc. It is also different from last format with farseek since farseek resulted in one less land in the library to draw while caryatid doesn't. You prettymuch curve out at 6 or 7 and you're golden and any excessive land is simply bad to have since you won't have abundant use for it. Too few land is bad but too much land is tantamount to agreeing to draw land more often as time goes on. A control deck has to grind out an advantage somewhere but I don't see where this one does a bunch of that aside underworld connections, making this feel more like a midrange deck than a control one.
I could not find any Underworld Connections locally so I added in Read the Bones instead. The deck was fun to play, but the meta was not in my favor. I went 0-2 drop, both matches against Boros Aggro.
The first game of the first match went pretty well, actually. I ground it out to late game with removal and decent threats that had to be answered and was in a good place with a monstrous Lion and BBoV in play, but then my opponent dropped Elspeth and I did not draw an answer, and before long I was just swarmed. Game two I sided in Pithing Needle, two more charms, and Smiter, but this game I saw a ton of Ash Zealots, Reckoner, and Chandra's Phoenix (along with Chandra). My removal was not as plentiful this game and I got stuck at 5 lands after my Caryatids were swept and the only threat I had that would change things was Reaper. My opponent had several cards in hand and so I knew that Reaper would not stay in play.
The second match was an embarrassment. First game I stayed with a two land hand (which was dumb of me), and got stuck with a mitt full of cards that needed green to cast, while I drew no lands that could produce green. Game two I sideboarded and shuffled my library, but when I was done shuffling I noticed a small pile of cards that had not been shuffled in. I grabbed them and mashed them in, shuffled several more times, then began the game. Just as I had dealt my last card face down for my opening hand I realized what I had done- I had shuffled my entire SB into my deck. The result was pretty predictable, with me stuck at one forest for the entire (very short) game.
My buddy faced aggro for his first two matches too and then went on to face it a third time. His luck was pretty bad, but he also had a bad game against aggro to begin with as well. All and all it was a bit disappointing, but I had a good time anyway. Clearly aggro is something I need to work on dealing with, though I am not sure how yet without scrapping the deck completely or spending money I don't have.
When you shuffled your sideboard in, you hadn't looked at your hand. I would have politely asked my opponent (since I hadn't seen my cards yet) if I could take it out, shuffle, and redraw.
I think that experiment one is essential in this sort of deck. A lot of people disagree with me but I feel it works well with the natural curve up, taking advantage of the presence of sylvan caryatid and potentially growing into a threat that can outsize aggro's creatures and apply pressure. Another thing you can do is ease your mana base by tilting your cards towards green and away from white. And you can scrap your guildgates in favor of basic land. The hardest thing for your deck is hitting double black for hero's downfall and underworld connections. 1-2 whip of erebos belong mainboarded and if aggro really bothers you that much, you can sideboard some shrivel in addition to the golgari charms.
No Obzedaddy? That card is sick, especially if you have a Whip out. Then you can just start hurling him at the opponent for 14 point life swings every turn. That synergy really only loses out to ooze and charm
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Metagame: I was told that the meta is mostly aggro with some midrange, and some UWx Control.
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Hero's Downfall
2 Ultimate Price
3 Devour Flesh
2 Golgari Charm
3 Underworld Connections
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
2 Vraska the Unseen
Creatures 13
4 Sylvan Caryatid
3 Scavenging Ooze
2 Desecration Demon
2 Reaper of the Wilds
2 Blood Baron of Vizkopa
4 Overgrown Tomb
2 Godless Shrine
2 Temple of Silence
2 Temple Garden
2 Selesnya Guildgate
4 Golgari Guildgate
4 Forest
4 Swamp
1 Plains
3 Pithing Needle
2 Golgari Charm
10 Other Cards
I don't know...it has lots of cards that seem strong and tough to deal with, but at that same time it also feels very unfocused. I am not sure why basic deck building tenants are not gelling with me when I look at standard. My buddy is loaning me three of the mana dorks, and I will have to pick up a couple Underworld Connections, a Reaper of the Wilds, and a couple of Devour Flesh, but otherwise I have the cards. My buddy said that aggro has been picking up and that he is running Golgari Charm MD, so I added some. I have some foil scry lands I pulled, and if I can trade them for Temple of Silence I will bump up the number in the deck.
Note: This deck is only 56 cards. I originally had 4 Duress in the MD, but I actually mixed it up with Despise in my mind, and after getting it straight I think it is a bad call. It was in as a budget replacement for Thoughtseize, which I will not be buying for some time, but what I really want to force them to discard are creatures. I would really love a little cheap proactive control here, but may just use the slots for removal.
Reprint Opt for Modern!!
FREE DIG THOROUGH TIME!
PLAY MORE ROUGE DECKS!
My experience has always been that if you plan on playing the control game you should generally run at least 24 land (even with a mana dork), and since my land base is not quite optimal I added one for good measure.
Reprint Opt for Modern!!
FREE DIG THOROUGH TIME!
PLAY MORE ROUGE DECKS!
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Putrefy
2 Hero's Downfall
2 Ultimate Price
3 Devour Flesh
2 Golgari Charm
1 Underworld Connections
2 Read the Bones
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
2 Vraska the Unseen
Creatures 13
2 Fleecemane Lion
1 Voice of Resurgence (because it is the only one I have)
4 Sylvan Caryatid
3 Scavenging Ooze
2 Desecration Demon
2 Reaper of the Wilds
2 Blood Baron of Vizkopa
4 Overgrown Tomb
2 Godless Shrine
4 Temple of Silence
2 Temple Garden
2 Selesnya Guildgate
4 Golgari Guildgate
3 Forest
3 Swamp
1 Plains
3 Pithing Needle
2 Golgari Charm
2 Loxodon Smiter
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Putrefy
1 Whip of Erebos
4 Duress
I could not find any Underworld Connections locally so I added in Read the Bones instead. The deck was fun to play, but the meta was not in my favor. I went 0-2 drop, both matches against Boros Aggro.
The first game of the first match went pretty well, actually. I ground it out to late game with removal and decent threats that had to be answered and was in a good place with a monstrous Lion and BBoV in play, but then my opponent dropped Elspeth and I did not draw an answer, and before long I was just swarmed. Game two I sided in Pithing Needle, two more charms, and Smiter, but this game I saw a ton of Ash Zealots, Reckoner, and Chandra's Phoenix (along with Chandra). My removal was not as plentiful this game and I got stuck at 5 lands after my Caryatids were swept and the only threat I had that would change things was Reaper. My opponent had several cards in hand and so I knew that Reaper would not stay in play.
The second match was an embarrassment. First game I stayed with a two land hand (which was dumb of me), and got stuck with a mitt full of cards that needed green to cast, while I drew no lands that could produce green. Game two I sideboarded and shuffled my library, but when I was done shuffling I noticed a small pile of cards that had not been shuffled in. I grabbed them and mashed them in, shuffled several more times, then began the game. Just as I had dealt my last card face down for my opening hand I realized what I had done- I had shuffled my entire SB into my deck. The result was pretty predictable, with me stuck at one forest for the entire (very short) game.
My buddy faced aggro for his first two matches too and then went on to face it a third time. His luck was pretty bad, but he also had a bad game against aggro to begin with as well. All and all it was a bit disappointing, but I had a good time anyway. Clearly aggro is something I need to work on dealing with, though I am not sure how yet without scrapping the deck completely or spending money I don't have.
Reprint Opt for Modern!!
FREE DIG THOROUGH TIME!
PLAY MORE ROUGE DECKS!
I think that experiment one is essential in this sort of deck. A lot of people disagree with me but I feel it works well with the natural curve up, taking advantage of the presence of sylvan caryatid and potentially growing into a threat that can outsize aggro's creatures and apply pressure. Another thing you can do is ease your mana base by tilting your cards towards green and away from white. And you can scrap your guildgates in favor of basic land. The hardest thing for your deck is hitting double black for hero's downfall and underworld connections. 1-2 whip of erebos belong mainboarded and if aggro really bothers you that much, you can sideboard some shrivel in addition to the golgari charms.