I'm hesitantly agreeing with Flayer Drone. Though in saying it I'd much rather be taking Holdout Settlement, for future fixing, mini-combo with Envoy, and of course it's a colorless source should we need it.I figure if we were ore aggressive I'd say 100% on bushwhacker.
I think for me this is a rather simple Vampire Envoy. We have 2 Tar Snare but no creatures, and even though it's no 'bomb' it's a solid blocked, and everytime its tapped it nullifies 1 damage (theoretically) an opp does to us. I think we'll be able to either get small fixing, or more removal down the line. I'd rather focus on a few creatures myself for a bit (besides we can still jump ship on R, and B seems open if we're going aggressive).
Off color choice would be Spawnbinder Mage again, its got a big butt, but the ability can be useful as well.
So starting out, and building a deck I find it a bit more tedious (where it resets the fields once you add X copies of a card), but it's fine. Also it auto sorts backwards (alphabetically it goes z-a, rather than a-, same with other sorting options).
I haven't got to battle yet (still tossing 2 decks on here first and I'll gladly give you some test files if you need. Edit: Not sure yet if online battling is doable? But still looks nice, would love to be able to do a draft vs Ai (asking alot though likely bahaha) but I digress. Very nice/simple/Smooth to set up and go, seems to have little to no issues with creating tournaments/such (will likely need to test further about the tourn feature)
Also I'll happily test other features/such for you (I use TheUndeadDwarf for alot of things, so I should be easy to find)
I doubt Foundry's really needed as 4x, but I feel they're slightly better than Biovac's, since they can provide some Ojutai blockers. I'm going to see how V2 does later today, and after that I'll be reworking the deck to fix any 'weak spots' (on the plus side, with 10 g1 games vs mono-R, I've got a 80% win rate <.< Molten Vortex is a beating for them)
That's fair about the Hydra, but since I don't know the 'new' meta of my group (quit mid dragons standard, and never paid attention) but I know theres 5/26 people on mono-R, 2 on mbc/mbd (mono black control/devotion), 1 on Gr Ramp, 1 on temur dragons, 1 UR thopters, 1 UB control, 1 turbo fog. Other than that, all unknown and for all I know I've got mis-information haha.
I would normally agree 100% on the incarnate, but even with a hammer out, it's still a vanilla X/4 that doesn't do anything minus chump rhinos, fish, and banana lords. I suppose it's better with Bow of Nylea out, then with Hammer of Puphoros... Perhaps a drop of 4 lands (frontier's), for 4 Incarnates.
Ramp and bolt is fine, but I still dislike Atarka's Command in this deck, from testing it just didn't do enough to be worthwhile. I agree with the Hydra, but I'm still not sure about the sideboard slot(s). Gaea's Revenge is a card that's back in standard... I just feel it's better then the hydra.
I'm actually interested in building this very same deck, and possibly looking for a Modern port. I just really feel like it needs Atarka's Commands to get off the ground.
I'm not sure how I feel about Atarka's Command in this, as 3 damage for 2, could easily be 2 'discarded' lands, reach/opp not gaining life don seem important, and putting 1 land out a instant speed is the only good bit, but I'm fine with not doing it. I disagree with the deck /needing/ the command to get going, but I'm fine with being proven wrong (I haven' tested Commands for more than 5 games, where they didn't do much).
Hammer of Purphoros is something to test, forgot it existed honestly, and Ugin has to + to deal with tokens,so may be able to sneak out a few more tokens.
Mistcutter in the board would be fine, but U is splashing colors with removal, if there was a U devotion deck still, than sure, but sadly this hydra doesnt seem better than Genesis.
I have made a small change though (I tossed a small edit onto the first post, and will continue to do so with card choices/such as time goes on) which was:
-1 Temple of Mystery, from main
+1 Crater's Claws, moved from sideboard to main
+1 Alhammarret's Archive, to the board (Mostly for lifegain, could be maindeckable to make Mining better/riskier haha, sac a colorless land, draw 4 cards)
I'll start this with a warning: This deck does NOT plan on winning quickly.
So, with that out of the way lets go.
Intro/Card Choices:
When M15 came out, with Aggressive Mining as a card, I got somewhat excited that Loam Assualt may get a new card, but I couldn't make it work well enough in a list. Now with Orgins printing Magmatic Insight, Animist's Awakening and a few other toys... Now we're talking!
But, what can we do with all this mana? Well, as I hinted earlier, Orgins printed a (Better/Worse, you be the judge) Seismic Assault, in the form of: Molten Vortex, turn all those topdecks (or Mining lands away, and getting value there) into damage/removal spells. But that's not all! We've also got Genesis Hydra, Doesn't a possible turn 5 6/6 Hydra, or a turn 5 8/8 seem fun? (Sure it dies to removal but pfft, you can possibly get 2 things for the price of 1). Sure you're likely thinking "Ok and? Still not good enough..." Well then how about 1x Dragonlord Atarka. Still not good enough? Fine. We have Crater's Claws for you! Turn 8+ you can deal 12+ damage potentially. Just need to survive to that point, but how?
Well to start, lets bring back our friend,Courser of Kruphix, play lands form the top of the deck, gain life, hold lands to discard to Vortex's. Still not enough? Then how about Rugged Highlands or Radiant Fountain?
Not exactly perfect, sure but how about a real gem, Bow of Nylea. Feeling neglected? Give that Couser a +1/+1 counter. Got annoying buzzing Thopters? Shock 'em! Whats that? A bolt of lightning to the face, fine gain 3 life back. Playing against some Sphinx? Start puttin cards back into your deck! That's right, for 2 mana, this bow'll solve all your issues.*
More to come, especially after Game Day, when I put this deck through the gauntlet! Another note, most of the sideboard is theorycraft, so feel free to question me on it!
I think it's also worth pointing out: We don't have a reliable sac outlet to make use of Blood Artist, unless your someone running Viscera Seer, bu even still, it's hurting our gameplan, unless your saccing gravecrawler(a decent target)/dredgevines (only due to having haste when they return), and Burn won't overly care about it. Blood Artist just isn't working fast enough in my opinion, so I fired him from my early bits of testing (Not that it matters, but Artist is a big threat vs control "Wrath board, lose anyways, g2?")
Well, last night I got to run cruel again. Still no changes to my original list (I want to have a 25 game min record with the deck first so I have an idea of what's working/not working, and if that's what people are more interested in, I'll relay my findings...)
Round 1 - Naya Burn - 2-0
Game 1 - countered enough stuff to get Keranos out, then snap cryptic, Cruel Ultimaium, Snap bolt basically sealed the deal.
Game 2 - similar to game one, cept turn 6 is when I cast Keranos holding a snare up... Luckily it paid off while I was at 3 life, and Keranos didnt give me too much land that I couldnt also counter stuffs.
Round 2 - Living End - 2-0
Game 1 - Got living ended, then cast cryptic to tap dudes/draw, damantion my turn, he just proceeds to flop around.
Game 2 - Still not 100% he's not Twinning End, but I side in Rakdos Charm just the same, Proceed to win via exiling his yard.
Round 3 - Infect - 2-0
Game 1 - Opp decided to try all inning... I had the terminate.
Game 2 - Board wipes are friends, and thankfully opp couldnt dig a man land out.
Round 4 - Gixis Delver - 2-0
Game 1 - Gurmag meets mana leak on turn 2, then 1 for 1 as much as possible.... Opp DID get to remand a Cruel Ultimatium.... then roceeded to cast a asigur with no counter backup.
Game 2 - Opp made a few misplays, and I was able to win because of it.
So today I had a small magical get together. Sadly, due to me drinking, I wasnt playing top notch lol
Round 1 - Ad Naus (I frigging HATE this deck...) - 1-2
Game 1 - Got land screwed, he combo'd
Game 2 - Got the Snapcaster beats for awhile, then he tried to combo and forgot to keep an extra 2 mana for Monastery Siege, since he used a spirit guide to block my snapcaster.
Game 3 - Opp combo'd off turn 4 when I went to anticipate... I hate how I had counterflux in hand too...
Round 2 - Faeries - 2-0
Game 1 - Faeries died while having 2 bitterblossoms out...
Game 2 - Creeping Tar Pit just killed them.
Round 3 - Infect - 1-2
Game 1 - Turn 3 10 infect...
Game 2 - Opp couldnt keep creaures.
Game 3 - I forgot all about wild defiance... apparently tryig to terminate it / bolt it when opp can just take the bolt, then spell pierce the terminate, then mutagenic :/
Round 4 - Mono-U Tron - 1-2
Game 1 - 3 wormcoils by turn 6 plus an academy ruins spelled my demise..
Game 2 - Got him down to 3, swung with 2 snapcasters, then before blockers (hes got a platnium angel) I try a K-command, he counters, I terminate, he counters / taps out of blue, and I Away the Angel to win
Game 3 - Couldnt find a single sideboard piece.... and Sundering Titan on turn 4 when screwed on 3 land is not good for me...
Oh well, first night I've done poorly, and to be fair... I've had a "bit" to drink lol. On the plus side though, I've managed to snag 500 Nicol Bolas sleeves for fairly cheap, so I decided to run them with Cruel Control. Hopefully he deck picks itself back up now!
I haven't touched upon Modern's Dredge, tho I used to play Dredgevine, Loam decks, etc. My current top played decks are: Storm and Lantern.
So I've been glancing at a few (20 odd) lists and I found out I had every card to the deck, so.. I'm tossing it together!
Here's my current varient:
2 Blood Crypt
4 Bloodghast
3 Bloodstained Mire
4 Cathartic Reunion
1 Collective Brutality
3 Conflagrate
3 Copperline Gorge
2 Dakmor Salvage
4 Faithless Looting
1 Forest
1 Gemstone Mine
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Insolent Neonate
3 Life from the Loam
2 Mountain
4 Narcomoeba
4 Prized Amalgam
1 Rally the Peasants
1 Steam Vents
4 Stinkweed Imp
1 Stomping Ground
2 Wooded Foothills
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Bojuka Bog
2 Collective Brutality
1 Darkblast
2 Gnaw to the Bone
2 Golgari Charm
1 Lightning Axe
3 Nature's Claim
Any comments are welcome, I'm not 100% on the list or sideboard, so any way to ease my mind would be appreciated!
Off color choice would be Spawnbinder Mage again, its got a big butt, but the ability can be useful as well.
Otherwise great program (using it as a basic inventory system, not so much for deck editing haha)
So starting out, and building a deck I find it a bit more tedious (where it resets the fields once you add X copies of a card), but it's fine. Also it auto sorts backwards (alphabetically it goes z-a, rather than a-, same with other sorting options).
I haven't got to battle yet (still tossing 2 decks on here first and I'll gladly give you some test files if you need. Edit: Not sure yet if online battling is doable? But still looks nice, would love to be able to do a draft vs Ai (asking alot though likely bahaha) but I digress. Very nice/simple/Smooth to set up and go, seems to have little to no issues with creating tournaments/such (will likely need to test further about the tourn feature)
Also I'll happily test other features/such for you (I use TheUndeadDwarf for alot of things, so I should be easy to find)
and I'd either cut the Evolving Wilds for swamps, or Polluted Delta's or Bloodstained Mire's (I don't know if fetches are even needed though, honestly)
I'd also toss some Virulent Plague's in the board for any token strategies.
That's fair about the Hydra, but since I don't know the 'new' meta of my group (quit mid dragons standard, and never paid attention) but I know theres 5/26 people on mono-R, 2 on mbc/mbd (mono black control/devotion), 1 on Gr Ramp, 1 on temur dragons, 1 UR thopters, 1 UB control, 1 turbo fog. Other than that, all unknown and for all I know I've got mis-information haha.
Ramp and bolt is fine, but I still dislike Atarka's Command in this deck, from testing it just didn't do enough to be worthwhile. I agree with the Hydra, but I'm still not sure about the sideboard slot(s). Gaea's Revenge is a card that's back in standard... I just feel it's better then the hydra.
I'm not sure how I feel about Atarka's Command in this, as 3 damage for 2, could easily be 2 'discarded' lands, reach/opp not gaining life don seem important, and putting 1 land out a instant speed is the only good bit, but I'm fine with not doing it. I disagree with the deck /needing/ the command to get going, but I'm fine with being proven wrong (I haven' tested Commands for more than 5 games, where they didn't do much).
Zendikar Incarnate may be a beater, but with Languish/Exquisite Firecraft, Hero's Downfall, etc I dont feel he's good enough (Zendikar's Roil is in the board simply to hope opps side out Bile Blight, or vs Control)
Hammer of Purphoros is something to test, forgot it existed honestly, and Ugin has to + to deal with tokens,so may be able to sneak out a few more tokens.
Mistcutter in the board would be fine, but U is splashing colors with removal, if there was a U devotion deck still, than sure, but sadly this hydra doesnt seem better than Genesis.
I have made a small change though (I tossed a small edit onto the first post, and will continue to do so with card choices/such as time goes on) which was:
-1 Temple of Mystery, from main
+1 Crater's Claws, moved from sideboard to main
+1 Alhammarret's Archive, to the board (Mostly for lifegain, could be maindeckable to make Mining better/riskier haha, sac a colorless land, draw 4 cards)
I'll start this with a warning: This deck does NOT plan on winning quickly.
So, with that out of the way lets go.
Intro/Card Choices:
When M15 came out, with Aggressive Mining as a card, I got somewhat excited that Loam Assualt may get a new card, but I couldn't make it work well enough in a list. Now with Orgins printing Magmatic Insight, Animist's Awakening and a few other toys... Now we're talking!
But, what can we do with all this mana? Well, as I hinted earlier, Orgins printed a (Better/Worse, you be the judge) Seismic Assault, in the form of: Molten Vortex, turn all those topdecks (or Mining lands away, and getting value there) into damage/removal spells. But that's not all! We've also got Genesis Hydra, Doesn't a possible turn 5 6/6 Hydra, or a turn 5 8/8 seem fun? (Sure it dies to removal but pfft, you can possibly get 2 things for the price of 1). Sure you're likely thinking "Ok and? Still not good enough..." Well then how about 1x Dragonlord Atarka. Still not good enough? Fine. We have Crater's Claws for you! Turn 8+ you can deal 12+ damage potentially. Just need to survive to that point, but how?
Well to start, lets bring back our friend,Courser of Kruphix, play lands form the top of the deck, gain life, hold lands to discard to Vortex's. Still not enough? Then how about Rugged Highlands or Radiant Fountain?
Not exactly perfect, sure but how about a real gem, Bow of Nylea. Feeling neglected? Give that Couser a +1/+1 counter. Got annoying buzzing Thopters? Shock 'em! Whats that? A bolt of lightning to the face, fine gain 3 life back. Playing against some Sphinx? Start puttin cards back into your deck! That's right, for 2 mana, this bow'll solve all your issues.*
How do we GET to these cards? Well, we have 4 Temple of Abandon, and 1 Temple of Mystery, and even some Wooded Foothills! Lands not good enough for 'fixing draws'? how about chucking land for cards? That's where Magmatic Insight and Aggressive Mining.
*Sadly, can not bring back lost hair, my apologies.
Decklist:
1 Bow of Nylea
Creatures (8):
4 Courser of Kruphix
1 Dragonlord Atarka
3 Genesis Hydra
Enchantments (6):
2 Aggressive Mining
4 Molten Vortex
Lands (34):
4 Forest
4 Foundry of the Consuls
4 Frontier Bivouac
6 Mountain
4 Radiant Fountain
4 Rugged Highlands
4 Temple of Abandon
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Animist's Awakening
3 Crater's Claws
4 Magmatic Insight
1 Alhammarret's Archive
3 Destructive Revelry
4 Anger of the Gods
1 Bow of Nylea
1 Orbs of Warding
2 Zendikar's Roil
2 Gaea's Revenge
1 Hornet Queen
1 Bow of Nylea
Creatures (8):
4 Courser of Kruphix
1 Dragonlord Atarka
3 Genesis Hydra
Enchantments (6):
2 Aggressive Mining
4 Molten Vortex
Lands (35):
4 Forest
4 Foundry of the Consuls
4 Frontier Bivouac
6 Mountain
4 Radiant Fountain
4 Rugged Highlands
4 Temple of Abandon
1 Temple of Mystery
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Animist's Awakening
2 Crater's Claws
4 Magmatic Insight
1 Crater's Claws
3 Destructive Revelry
4 Anger of the Gods
1 Bow of Nylea
1 Orbs of Warding
2 Zendikar's Roil
2 Gaea's Revenge
1 Hornet Queen
More to come, especially after Game Day, when I put this deck through the gauntlet! Another note, most of the sideboard is theorycraft, so feel free to question me on it!
Haven' posted in this thread for some time, but I'm hoping for a little bit of last minute insight before a ptq this weekend.
Here's my list:
4 Gravecrawler
4 Bloodghast
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
3 Gurmag Angler
4 Lotleth Troll
3 Satyr Wayfinder
4 Vengevine
Insants/Sorceries (14:
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Darkblast
4 Faithless Looting
4 Grisly Salvage
2 Murderous Cut
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
2 Blood Crypt
2 Bloodstained Mire
1 Forest
3 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping Ground
2 Swamp
1 Twilight Mire
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Slaughter Games
3 Thoughtseize
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Golgari Charm
1 Scavenging Ooze
2 Spellskite
1 Rakdos Charm
I'm comfortable with the main, but just not 100% on the board, I'll try posting results after the event (Sun, as Sat will be with a different deck)
Round 1 - Naya Burn - 2-0
Game 1 - countered enough stuff to get Keranos out, then snap cryptic, Cruel Ultimaium, Snap bolt basically sealed the deal.
Game 2 - similar to game one, cept turn 6 is when I cast Keranos holding a snare up... Luckily it paid off while I was at 3 life, and Keranos didnt give me too much land that I couldnt also counter stuffs.
Game 1 - Got living ended, then cast cryptic to tap dudes/draw, damantion my turn, he just proceeds to flop around.
Game 2 - Still not 100% he's not Twinning End, but I side in Rakdos Charm just the same, Proceed to win via exiling his yard.
Game 1 - Opp decided to try all inning... I had the terminate.
Game 2 - Board wipes are friends, and thankfully opp couldnt dig a man land out.
Game 2 - Opp made a few misplays, and I was able to win because of it.
Nice little 4-0.
Round 1 - Ad Naus (I frigging HATE this deck...) - 1-2
Game 2 - Got the Snapcaster beats for awhile, then he tried to combo and forgot to keep an extra 2 mana for Monastery Siege, since he used a spirit guide to block my snapcaster.
Game 3 - Opp combo'd off turn 4 when I went to anticipate... I hate how I had counterflux in hand too...
Game 2 - Creeping Tar Pit just killed them.
Round 3 - Infect - 1-2
Game 2 - Opp couldnt keep creaures.
Game 3 - I forgot all about wild defiance... apparently tryig to terminate it / bolt it when opp can just take the bolt, then spell pierce the terminate, then mutagenic :/
Round 4 - Mono-U Tron - 1-2
Game 2 - Got him down to 3, swung with 2 snapcasters, then before blockers (hes got a platnium angel) I try a K-command, he counters, I terminate, he counters / taps out of blue, and I Away the Angel to win
Game 3 - Couldnt find a single sideboard piece.... and Sundering Titan on turn 4 when screwed on 3 land is not good for me...
Oh well, first night I've done poorly, and to be fair... I've had a "bit" to drink lol. On the plus side though, I've managed to snag 500 Nicol Bolas sleeves for fairly cheap, so I decided to run them with Cruel Control. Hopefully he deck picks itself back up now!