Since someone claims to have some testing, I updated the list. I added the Crib Swap as the only white card so far, as it works well with Ward of Bones.
Its hard to work. Maybe a GW version can be more reliable with Wrath's and Temporal Isolation to lock.
The best you can get is T4 Bones and it stills allows one creature to get in not to mention Bitterblossom and Flash creatures that will still play when you activate your man lands.
Also, without Ward in your first 12 cards you're pretty much dead. Building a deck around one single card is 2 hard...
actualy you can turn 3 bones
T1 birds T2 Relic T3 ward (dont'cha just love *skiping* turns? )not to shabby i used to use the birds relic tric to get oros into play T3 this could be amusing. abviously unstable against counters but yey wizzards for making blue hate via Gutteral. lol.
Birds kind of hurts the aspect of using bones effectively.
Bones works really well with enchantment control.
If you happen to use something like Prison term you can lock people down pretty fast leaving them 1 creature that can't do anything.
Fast accel for the ward could come in the form of Rite of Flame or a mana producer that bounces itself- Grinning Ignus.
Its hard to work. Maybe a GW version can be more reliable with Wrath's and Temporal Isolation to lock.
The best you can get is T4 Bones and it stills allows one creature to get in not to mention Bitterblossom and Flash creatures that will still play when you activate your man lands.
Also, without Ward in your first 12 cards you're pretty much dead. Building a deck around one single card is 2 hard...
I don't think you can say it is too hard, and I can't say it isn't until it is put through paces. The game can be controlled with 8 cards, not 4, which increases its effectiveness over what you are proclaiming. Also, you are incorrect that flash creatures will just win here, because they can be played around using land destruction and removal. The presence of Bitterblossom is precisely the reason this deck would be better not to run enchantments at all, and this deck can still beat that card. Wrath? Evacuation is far superior to Wrath here, what are you thinking? As was pointed out, T4 Bones is not the ideal play, though there isn't anything wrong with that. The nutz play is a turn 3 Bones or a turn 3 Bust.
T1 birds T2 Relic T3 ward (dont'cha just love *skiping* turns? )not to shabby i used to use the birds relic tric to get oros into play T3 this could be amusing. abviously unstable against counters but yey wizzards for making blue hate via Gutteral. lol.
Permission is an issue, but luckily, this still has reasonable strategy against permission decks. I haven't really thought on a sideboard, as that is more of a competitive exercise, where this is just introductory hand waving.
Birds kind of hurts the aspect of using bones effectively.
Bones works really well with enchantment control.
If you happen to use something like Prison term you can lock people down pretty fast leaving them 1 creature that can't do anything.
Fast accel for the ward could come in the form of Rite of Flame or a mana producer that bounces itself- Grinning Ignus.
At first I thought Birds would hurt too. But it doesn't. At all. If you can get an early Bust going, Birds really helps lock down the game quickly, and if the path is Ward of Bones, Firespout or Evacuation will quickly stifle the opponent's plans. If artifacts work perfectly well, why would you want to allow the opponent the opportunity to play enchantments? Also, cards like Prison Term and Temporal Isolation give the opponent more outs than simply removing creatures from the board. This deck can already handle creatures. What is really unique about it is that it also has a couple of methods to control lands, which is really crippling to most strategies. I'm not sure why you would suggest playing with fast red mana accelerators rather than more stable mana-fixing artifact sources. This deck is going to need a lot of sustainable mana sources to succeed, which red won't give you.
Another approach that could be effective with Ward of Bones is by increasing the amount of bounce, but I would caution trying to use white enchantment control here, as it usually just doesn't compare to straight removal.
If you played back in the 90's you probably saw Wrath decks that used cards like Jade Statue and Mishra's Factory to obtain board advantage. Artifact mana back then was more limited (Sol Ring, Felwar Stone), and so you wouldn't see a lot of Armageddon running around in that deck. This time around, however, the sheer number of artifact sources that accelerate and mana-fix allow Bust to be played in the same theme without even batting an eye. It's impressive. It probably won't fully compensate for the power creep in Magic since then, but it's worth noting the added dimensions given to those old, slow, powerful control decks. Ward of Bones also gives these decks a lock along the lines of Stax, Stasis, and Winter Orb decks. Though the cards have changed, the idea is still the same. Bore your opponent to death. Or, as in my case during a large tournament way back in 1995 or so, get told, "If you play Stasis one more time I'm going to break both your #$%ing legs!" How do you answer that? With a lethal fireball to the dome, of course.;)
Anyways, here's to the rise of another boring control deck!
i played an opponent in Apprentice last night who played some sort of UR control with Ward of Bones. he had no creatures, and killed my lone Chameleon Colossus with a Flame Javelin. next turn i cast another one... he died shortly.
its difficult to use imho, especially against Mana Ramp where they can keep playing 1 giant creature and beat face. i would use Wall of Roots here. i have some other ideas for it. i'll try to build a deck around it and create a thread later.
i played an opponent in Apprentice last night who played some sort of UR control with Ward of Bones. he had no creatures, and killed my lone Chameleon Colossus with a Flame Javelin. next turn i cast another one... he died shortly.
its difficult to use imho, especially against Mana Ramp where they can keep playing 1 giant creature and beat face. i would use Wall of Roots here. i have some other ideas for it. i'll try to build a deck around it and create a thread later.
I can see how 2 Colossi could be a problem. I think it would be wise to see a Ward or Bust in the starting hand, to avoid this problem. If that player had a Ward in play with no creatures, as soon as Colossus comes into play, Crib Swap.
I don't think Ramp is the main problem, I think Control is. Against ramp, you race to play Ward of Bones before they get too much on the table, although admittedly a tutor would help here. You can use Boom instead of Bust and Evacuation to lock the game out.
Control is a much bigger problem, as attempts to lock the game out will just be countered away, and Control can protect their finisher. I'm not sure about the sideboard, but I would guess it would focus mostly on beating control decks.
Wall of Roots isn't a bad way to go. Certainly would be safer against aggression. The deck model I proposed is simple in that it only wants to do a few things: Accelerate, mana-fix, gain board advantage, and lock the opponent's game down. Birds fits this better than WoR, but that doesn't mean there isn't an excess of mana-fixing or acceleration, in which case this could become something else.
It is a crudely cut sculpture that could likely use some refinement, though all the basic features are there. We could look to tutors, control cards, removal, and threats to give this some flavor, as long as the capability to lock the game down remains strong. The reason I stayed away from specifics is that each of these makes the deck both stronger and weaker, and in fact the best path will pretty only be found through testing against the meta, so I purposely left this generic. Personally, I would probably include a couple of bounce spells like Cryptic Command and another Boomerang-type spell because I have used these successfully in the past.
Your build moved away from the LD, instead focusing on traditional control elements, which is fine but rightly deserves its own thread, since it is completely different.
I wonder how Ward of Bones will ever compete with Merfolk and Fae? Especially Merfolk...
One of the guys that plays at my store(he got an invite to nats) built a Ward of Bones deck the other day and was testing it out against a lot of the better T2 decks. It played really well and I was suprised to see it actually winning most of the games it played... Basically it has 4-ofs of the best board sweepers(***/Spout), Harmonize, Ward of Bones, Boom/Bust, Terror/Slaughter Pact, Chandra, and it plays Rune Snag+Cryptic Command for control. It's basically an update of Quick'n Toast with a different endgame strategy. It also plays 1 or 2 copies of Oona's Grace, since the card is exactly what the deck wants to do once you get to 6 mana(i.e. stall on 6 mana and dig for Boom/Bust and Ward). Because once you have Ward of Bones and Chandra in play, you play Boom/Bust and just win. All they can play is 1 land and a 1-drop. And Chandra will kill all the 1-drops in the format unless she is on 1 loyalty counter(which doesn't happen that often). It seems like the better approach IMO, and I think you guys should try it out as an option for what direction to go in with the deck...
One of the guys that plays at my store(he got an invite to nats) built a Ward of Bones deck the other day and was testing it out against a lot of the better T2 decks. It played really well and I was suprised to see it actually winning most of the games it played... Basically it has 4-ofs of the best board sweepers(***/Spout), Harmonize, Ward of Bones, Boom/Bust, Terror/Slaughter Pact, Chandra, and it plays Rune Snag+Cryptic Command for control. It's basically an update of Quick'n Toast with a different endgame strategy. It also plays 1 or 2 copies of Oona's Grace, since the card is exactly what the deck wants to do once you get to 6 mana(i.e. stall on 6 mana and dig for Boom/Bust and Ward). Because once you have Ward of Bones and Chandra in play, you play Boom/Bust and just win. All they can play is 1 land and a 1-drop. And Chandra will kill all the 1-drops in the format unless she is on 1 loyalty counter(which doesn't happen that often). It seems like the better approach IMO, and I think you guys should try it out as an option for what direction to go in with the deck...
Can't argue with testing... List updated. Thanks for the input. I like Chandra here, but I'm surprised it works so well as it is essentially a 3-card combo. I added white for Crib Swap instead of black removal, since it has more synergy with Ward of Bones. Kept the card draw in blue instead of using Harmonize also.
It's not a Golden Jesus Cookie (with chocolate AIDS-vaccine frosting),(Note - Despite what your crafty opponents may tell you, rogue Tarmogoyfs ONLY have the creature type 'Lhurgoyf'. They will not enable them to Prowl out spells after dealing combat damage. If your opponent tries this trick on you, I suggest making his Tarmogoyf even more rogue...cover it with tasty peanut butter.)
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3 Oona's Grace
3 Rune Snag
4 Firespout
3 Crib Swap
4 Cryptic Command
3 Chandra Nalaar
4 Evacuation
4 Boom|Bust
4 Ward of Bones
4 Faerie Conclave
4 Mystic Gate
4 Vivid Creek
4 Vivid Crag
4 Reflecting Pool
2 Cascade Bluffs
Since someone claims to have some testing, I updated the list. I added the Crib Swap as the only white card so far, as it works well with Ward of Bones.
actualy you can turn 3 bones
T1 birds T2 Relic T3 ward (dont'cha just love *skiping* turns? )not to shabby i used to use the birds relic tric to get oros into play T3 this could be amusing. abviously unstable against counters but yey wizzards for making blue hate via Gutteral. lol.
Taste the Rainbow! *pew pew*
Bones works really well with enchantment control.
If you happen to use something like Prison term you can lock people down pretty fast leaving them 1 creature that can't do anything.
Fast accel for the ward could come in the form of Rite of Flame or a mana producer that bounces itself- Grinning Ignus.
I don't think you can say it is too hard, and I can't say it isn't until it is put through paces. The game can be controlled with 8 cards, not 4, which increases its effectiveness over what you are proclaiming. Also, you are incorrect that flash creatures will just win here, because they can be played around using land destruction and removal. The presence of Bitterblossom is precisely the reason this deck would be better not to run enchantments at all, and this deck can still beat that card. Wrath? Evacuation is far superior to Wrath here, what are you thinking? As was pointed out, T4 Bones is not the ideal play, though there isn't anything wrong with that. The nutz play is a turn 3 Bones or a turn 3 Bust.
Permission is an issue, but luckily, this still has reasonable strategy against permission decks. I haven't really thought on a sideboard, as that is more of a competitive exercise, where this is just introductory hand waving.
At first I thought Birds would hurt too. But it doesn't. At all. If you can get an early Bust going, Birds really helps lock down the game quickly, and if the path is Ward of Bones, Firespout or Evacuation will quickly stifle the opponent's plans. If artifacts work perfectly well, why would you want to allow the opponent the opportunity to play enchantments? Also, cards like Prison Term and Temporal Isolation give the opponent more outs than simply removing creatures from the board. This deck can already handle creatures. What is really unique about it is that it also has a couple of methods to control lands, which is really crippling to most strategies. I'm not sure why you would suggest playing with fast red mana accelerators rather than more stable mana-fixing artifact sources. This deck is going to need a lot of sustainable mana sources to succeed, which red won't give you.
Another approach that could be effective with Ward of Bones is by increasing the amount of bounce, but I would caution trying to use white enchantment control here, as it usually just doesn't compare to straight removal.
If you played back in the 90's you probably saw Wrath decks that used cards like Jade Statue and Mishra's Factory to obtain board advantage. Artifact mana back then was more limited (Sol Ring, Felwar Stone), and so you wouldn't see a lot of Armageddon running around in that deck. This time around, however, the sheer number of artifact sources that accelerate and mana-fix allow Bust to be played in the same theme without even batting an eye. It's impressive. It probably won't fully compensate for the power creep in Magic since then, but it's worth noting the added dimensions given to those old, slow, powerful control decks. Ward of Bones also gives these decks a lock along the lines of Stax, Stasis, and Winter Orb decks. Though the cards have changed, the idea is still the same. Bore your opponent to death. Or, as in my case during a large tournament way back in 1995 or so, get told, "If you play Stasis one more time I'm going to break both your #$%ing legs!" How do you answer that? With a lethal fireball to the dome, of course.;)
Anyways, here's to the rise of another boring control deck!
its difficult to use imho, especially against Mana Ramp where they can keep playing 1 giant creature and beat face. i would use Wall of Roots here. i have some other ideas for it. i'll try to build a deck around it and create a thread later.
I can see how 2 Colossi could be a problem. I think it would be wise to see a Ward or Bust in the starting hand, to avoid this problem. If that player had a Ward in play with no creatures, as soon as Colossus comes into play, Crib Swap.
I don't think Ramp is the main problem, I think Control is. Against ramp, you race to play Ward of Bones before they get too much on the table, although admittedly a tutor would help here. You can use Boom instead of Bust and Evacuation to lock the game out.
Control is a much bigger problem, as attempts to lock the game out will just be countered away, and Control can protect their finisher. I'm not sure about the sideboard, but I would guess it would focus mostly on beating control decks.
Wall of Roots isn't a bad way to go. Certainly would be safer against aggression. The deck model I proposed is simple in that it only wants to do a few things: Accelerate, mana-fix, gain board advantage, and lock the opponent's game down. Birds fits this better than WoR, but that doesn't mean there isn't an excess of mana-fixing or acceleration, in which case this could become something else.
It is a crudely cut sculpture that could likely use some refinement, though all the basic features are there. We could look to tutors, control cards, removal, and threats to give this some flavor, as long as the capability to lock the game down remains strong. The reason I stayed away from specifics is that each of these makes the deck both stronger and weaker, and in fact the best path will pretty only be found through testing against the meta, so I purposely left this generic. Personally, I would probably include a couple of bounce spells like Cryptic Command and another Boomerang-type spell because I have used these successfully in the past.
Your build moved away from the LD, instead focusing on traditional control elements, which is fine but rightly deserves its own thread, since it is completely different.
I wonder how Ward of Bones will ever compete with Merfolk and Fae? Especially Merfolk...
Have/Want List
Can't argue with testing... List updated. Thanks for the input. I like Chandra here, but I'm surprised it works so well as it is essentially a 3-card combo. I added white for Crib Swap instead of black removal, since it has more synergy with Ward of Bones. Kept the card draw in blue instead of using Harmonize also.