Update: I still love this deck and have been meaning to play it more. I went 3-1 at FNM using the list in the first post...
Match 1 vs GR Tron
1: Turn 2 Smallpox and turn 4 Blood Moon, but I couldn't finish him off before Oblivion Stone destroyed Blood Moon. Thoughtseize showed me a hand full of Karns and I scooped.
2: Boarded in Hex Parasites worked with Death's Shadow to kill on turn 4.
3: 2x Shocklands, 2x Bolt myself, 2x Death's Shadow followed by Thoughtseize to attack with 5/5s on turn 4. He was a little too slow this game.
Match win
Match 2 vs Merfolk
1: He got me down to 1 before I stabilized with Vampire Nighthawk.
2: An early Spreading Seas disrupted my mana base and he overwhelmed me.
3: I started stabilizing, dropping two Death's Shadows, but when he tried to press the advantage me I topdecked a Hex Parasite and attacked for 20 damage in one turn.
Match win
Match 3 vs Jund
1: I got an early Blood Moon, which shut down his manlands, and he drew a whole lot of lands, but I couldn't damage him much. We traded removal until he stuck a Liliana of the Veil which I couldn't deal with.
2: We had plenty of removal for each others' creatures, but he stuck another Liliana. When our hands were empty his Raging Ravine finished me off.
Match loss
Match 4 vs Bogles (budget)
1: He had enough non-hexproof creatures that my removal could deal with them all.
2: He had a fast start on a hexproof creature that I couldn't stop.
3: After a war of attrition, he couldn't topdeck another aura for his Silhana Ledgewalker and my Death's Shadow killed him.
Match win
Death's Shadow is definitely an MVP, I'm considering adding a 4th. Maybe swap out the Terminates for more Dismembers and Dreadbores.
It's fine to refer to generic mana as a cost. It does exist as an abstract, even if it can't tangibly be created. The key is that 'generic' is not a type of mana but just a description. You could say "any old mana" in reference to a mana cost and your meaning would be clear.
The hard part for me, assuming I'm right about <> mana, will be to start saying "This spell costs a green and 2 generic" rather than "green and 2 colorless" when I'm casually describing a card's mana cost.
I think every point that can be made has already been made several times. With all the users posting, I'm not sure who misunderstands the positions and who simply disagrees. I think this post from page 31 sums up the situation best:
Just to summarize everything we agree to:
a) <> is some kind of mana that can bei added to the mana pool and kann be used as a cost.
b) <> has no color. (Frame of Kozilek)
There are more or less three theories floating around here about it:
1. <> is a new kind of mana that behaves as a new color.
2. <> is a new color, but costs can be paid with either <> or something else (e.g. 2)
3. <> is a new symbol for colorless mana to differentiate it from generic mana in costs.
EDIT: Removed the quote's commentary on each theory. Subjective arguments will just invite rebuttals.
Mostly I want an article explaining the new mana symbol to be published so we can move from misunderstanding to complaining. At least then we'll be on the same page.
vs Titan Bloom:
After game 1 where my opponent comboed into a turn 1 Hive Mind/Pact of Negation, I decided to go more aggressive. Aside from Thoughtseize and Blood Moon, there's very little I can do to stop Hive Mind, so I boarded in the Hex Parasites to go for Death's Shadow beatdown. I gambled by keeping a six-card hand with those two creatures and four lands. I didn't draw another spell all game, but the 11/11 on turn 2 was too fast for him to deal with. Game 3 was more a battle of attrition, as I Thoughtseized his Amulet of Vigor but couldn't stop him from ramping into a Primeval Titan. From then on I struggled to find enough removal to destroy any number of Titans he threw at me, while putting pressure on him with Desecration Demon. I got him down to 10 for Hidetsugu's Second Rite, but held onto it for a long time because I was afraid he was holding Pact of Negation. I finished him off with the rite when I topdecked a Thoughtseize that showed me he didn't have it.
vs Martyr Proc:
1-2 loss
Got me with Serra Ascendants. I have graveyard removal but can't stop Ranger of Eos.
vs Merfolk:
0-2 loss
I got stomped game 1. In game 2 Spreading Seas put me off Damnation mana.
vs American Twin:
2-1 win
MVPs: Imp's Mischief, Suffer the Past, Stensia Bloodhall
vs Restore Balance:
2-0 win
MVPs: Thoughtseize, Death's Shadow
vs Burn/Aggro:
2-1 win
MVPs: Grim Lavamancer, Anger of the Gods
I really like playing this deck. Death's Shadow is a great defense against aggressive decks and Imp's Mischief is better than Remand in certain matchups. Its main weakness is an inability to draw cards, and if it can't generate card advantage with its Commands and sweepers it could run out of removal. The mana base is also somewhat greedy. I have Blood Moon maindeck but it hurts me too.
So, this is a straight up control deck. It runs the opponent out of answers and finishes them off with a medium-sized Death's Shadow, Desecration Demon, or even Stensia Bloodhall. So more than half the spells are answers themselves. Death's Shadow - This guy is great when defending against aggro. Against slower decks, I'll turn him on myself by fetching untapped shocklands. Vampire Nighthawk - He trades with most creatures or deals some damage if I can protect him. Not always useful. Once I did accidentally kill my Death's Shadow with his lifelink, but normally if I need both creatures I don't need to worry about that. Faithless Looting - I love casting this on turn 2. I thought I wouldn't like the card disadvantage from casting this, but there are enough situational cards in the deck that it's rarely a problem. I wish I'd added a third. Imp's Mischief - The only reason there's just one of these in the main is because it's simply dead in some matchups. I'd say you want a 4:1 ratio of targetable spells in your opponent's deck. Great against Auras (including Splinter Twin), discard (especially Thoughtseize), countermagic, and removal. Stensia Bloodhall - This is a control deck, so you need some non-creature finishers! Against some really slow decks, this can put a little pressure on them to push through your defenses.
I don't think a basic land for colorless needs to have a type. It can just have the ability "T: Add 1 to your mana pool." It would be searchable with Wayfarer's Bauble or Solemn Simulacrum, it wouldn't be destroyed by Ruination, it wouldn't affect domain cards at all.
The deck is pretty scattered. I'd like to have more changelings AND more lords - with the best in all five colors to choose from, I ran out of space quickly. The mana base could use a lot more spicing up, and I'm still missing choice cards like Dragon Tempest and Return of the Nightstalkers. The deck has some choice lines of play, depending on which tutors are drawn:
These serve to distract the other players while Mogis whittles down their life. You'd be surprised how seldom anyone sacrifices a (non-token) creature even when they have one to spare.
This happened in a recent game between me (Reaper King), Nekusar, the Mindrazer, Marath, Will of the Wild, and Marchesa, the Black Rose. I had been more aggressive than usual, destroying Nekusar's enablers and other players' stuff, but I had run out of changelings and hid Reaper King under a Changeling Titan in anticipation of a board wipe. Meanwhile the life totals had been dropping steadily due to Nekusar's shenanigans. Finally Nekusar had a big turn, casting Spiteful Visions followed by Molten Psyche. I removed the Visions in response and Marath pinged his Kederekt Parasite, but could not stop the wheel from resolving. The fallout killed Marchesa and brought me down to 4 life. After I drew on my turn, I was at 2 life without enough creatures to kill both opponents--they were both tapped out, but if Marath didn't simply shoot me in his upkeep, Nekusar would surely be able to kill me.
I thought for a few minutes about which opponent I would try to kill, then slivercycled Homing Sliver to find some kind of edge. While searching through my deck, I stumbled onto Changeling Berserker and realized I could combo out! The Molten Psyche had drawn me the other champion (Changeling Hero) and I had just enough mana to cast both the Hero and the Berserker, setting up a loop of champion triggers that in turn triggered Reaper King to destroy all of my opponents' permanents.
It was my first time pulling that combo off, and it was the best game ending I've had in months!
This is always what I come back to when I think of hilariously bad cards. Even Great Wall could be fun to build around, and Pale Moon can have a measurable impact on the game, but Farmstead is simply throwing lots of mana into tiny lifegain. Is there any effect more negligible than "gain 1 life"?
thing is, in my mind, lets say we have joven as a commander, the way how i see it is that he understands red mana and artifact deconstruction, and not much else. that i think almost everyone can agree on.
but what i dont get is why he can't call upon the services of say armorer guildmage. he costs R, so surely joven can understand how to call upon the power of the R mana cost. mr armorer guildmage would, however, have difficulty using his amazing toughness-pumping abilities under the employ of lord joven, since lord joven can't give mr armorer guildmage his much-needed G, no amount of convincing could possibly get it to work.
and on the same kinda lines of thought, lord joven (kinda) knows of a mate Cultbrand Cinder, but mostly just gets his 'red' half. whats all this black side of the cinder he doesn't care, but since mr cinder here isnt fussy; he can use either B or R, he's kinda cool with heeding lord joven's call.
the thing is, as much as i think it works flavour-wise that way, i think that the way the rules are now works for the sake of limiting choices in deckbuilding, and i think thats brilliant.
Because Mr. Joven is not an equal-opportunity employer, he's a member of the Red Cards union. He won't have any green or black cards under his command. It's in his contract.
Match 1 vs GR Tron
1: Turn 2 Smallpox and turn 4 Blood Moon, but I couldn't finish him off before Oblivion Stone destroyed Blood Moon. Thoughtseize showed me a hand full of Karns and I scooped.
2: Boarded in Hex Parasites worked with Death's Shadow to kill on turn 4.
3: 2x Shocklands, 2x Bolt myself, 2x Death's Shadow followed by Thoughtseize to attack with 5/5s on turn 4. He was a little too slow this game.
Match win
Match 2 vs Merfolk
1: He got me down to 1 before I stabilized with Vampire Nighthawk.
2: An early Spreading Seas disrupted my mana base and he overwhelmed me.
3: I started stabilizing, dropping two Death's Shadows, but when he tried to press the advantage me I topdecked a Hex Parasite and attacked for 20 damage in one turn.
Match win
Match 3 vs Jund
1: I got an early Blood Moon, which shut down his manlands, and he drew a whole lot of lands, but I couldn't damage him much. We traded removal until he stuck a Liliana of the Veil which I couldn't deal with.
2: We had plenty of removal for each others' creatures, but he stuck another Liliana. When our hands were empty his Raging Ravine finished me off.
Match loss
Match 4 vs Bogles (budget)
1: He had enough non-hexproof creatures that my removal could deal with them all.
2: He had a fast start on a hexproof creature that I couldn't stop.
3: After a war of attrition, he couldn't topdeck another aura for his Silhana Ledgewalker and my Death's Shadow killed him.
Match win
Death's Shadow is definitely an MVP, I'm considering adding a 4th. Maybe swap out the Terminates for more Dismembers and Dreadbores.
The hard part for me, assuming I'm right about <> mana, will be to start saying "This spell costs a green and 2 generic" rather than "green and 2 colorless" when I'm casually describing a card's mana cost.
EDIT: Removed the quote's commentary on each theory. Subjective arguments will just invite rebuttals.
Mostly I want an article explaining the new mana symbol to be published so we can move from misunderstanding to complaining. At least then we'll be on the same page.
vs WU Control:
In game 1 I dropped an early Blood Moon that put him off his mana, and he was somewhat mana screwed. I protected a Grim Lavamancer by Imp's Mischiefing a Remand and prevented him from getting enough card advantage to take control of the game. He scooped when he was facing Liliana of the Veil with no cards in hand.
I boarded in Imp's Mischief, Blightning, and Suffer the Past; and out Anger of the Gods, Damnation, a Lightning Bolt and a Terminate.
In game 2 I tried to remove his removal, taking Azorius Charm with Thoughtseize and removing his Meddling Mage with Liliana of the Veil before she was Celestial Purged. We both had plenty of land; he hit me with his Celestial Colonnade after he tapped it to Dispel my Terminate. But since he was tapped out, I was able to Blightning the last two cards from his hand and follow up with Desecration Demon. He was not able to recover; I responded to a last-ditch Sphinx's Revelation with Suffer the Past to kill him.
vs Affinity:
I played two matches against Affinity and won both. One of them didn't have Galvanic Blast and seemed to rely more heavily on Blinkmoth Nexus and Inkmoth Nexus. Blood Moon was great against him. Hex Parasite was impressive in both matches, killing Arcbound Ravagers and powering up my Death's Shadows. In one game I used the two to pump a Death's Shadow to 11 and finished my opponent off with Hidetsugu's Second Rite!
vs Titan Bloom:
After game 1 where my opponent comboed into a turn 1 Hive Mind/Pact of Negation, I decided to go more aggressive. Aside from Thoughtseize and Blood Moon, there's very little I can do to stop Hive Mind, so I boarded in the Hex Parasites to go for Death's Shadow beatdown. I gambled by keeping a six-card hand with those two creatures and four lands. I didn't draw another spell all game, but the 11/11 on turn 2 was too fast for him to deal with. Game 3 was more a battle of attrition, as I Thoughtseized his Amulet of Vigor but couldn't stop him from ramping into a Primeval Titan. From then on I struggled to find enough removal to destroy any number of Titans he threw at me, while putting pressure on him with Desecration Demon. I got him down to 10 for Hidetsugu's Second Rite, but held onto it for a long time because I was afraid he was holding Pact of Negation. I finished him off with the rite when I topdecked a Thoughtseize that showed me he didn't have it.
vs Martyr Proc:
1-2 loss
Got me with Serra Ascendants. I have graveyard removal but can't stop Ranger of Eos.
vs Merfolk:
0-2 loss
I got stomped game 1. In game 2 Spreading Seas put me off Damnation mana.
vs American Twin:
2-1 win
MVPs: Imp's Mischief, Suffer the Past, Stensia Bloodhall
vs Restore Balance:
2-0 win
MVPs: Thoughtseize, Death's Shadow
vs Burn/Aggro:
2-1 win
MVPs: Grim Lavamancer, Anger of the Gods
I really like playing this deck. Death's Shadow is a great defense against aggressive decks and Imp's Mischief is better than Remand in certain matchups. Its main weakness is an inability to draw cards, and if it can't generate card advantage with its Commands and sweepers it could run out of removal. The mana base is also somewhat greedy. I have Blood Moon maindeck but it hurts me too.
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Thoughtseize
3x Terminate
3x Anger of the Gods
1x Languish
1x Dismember
3x Kolaghan's Command
3x Faithless Looting
2x Smallpox
1x Blood Moon
1x Imp's Mischief
Creatures (9)
3x Death's Shadow
1x Desecration Demon
1x Olivia Voldaren
2x Vampire Nighthawk
2x Grim Lavamancer
4x Blood Crypt
4x Bloodstained Mire
2x Dragonskull Summit
2x Tectonic Edge
1x Blighted Fen
2x Stensia Bloodhall
4x Mountain
6x Swamp
2x Blightning
2x Hex Parasite
1x Blood Moon
2x Crumble to Dust
2x Imp's Mischief
1x Suffer the Past
1x Languish
1x Desecration Demon
2x Rakdos Charm
1x Rakdos's Return
I'm playing this in a modern league at work. I'm 5-1 so far. I'll edit in more details later.
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Thoughtseize
4x Terminate
3x Anger of the Gods
1x Damnation
3x Kolaghan's Command
2x Faithless Looting
2x Liliana of the Veil
2x Blood Moon
1x Imp's Mischief
3x Death's Shadow
2x Desecration Demon
2x Vampire Nighthawk
2x Grim Lavamancer
Land (25)
4x Blood Crypt
3x Bloodstained Mire
3x Dragonskull Summit
2x Graven Cairns
2x Stensia Bloodhall
4x Mountain
7x Swamp
3x Blightning
2x Hex Parasite
2x Blood Moon
2x Slaughter Games
2x Imp's Mischief
2x Suffer the Past
1x Damnation
1x Hidetsugu's Second Rite
So, this is a straight up control deck. It runs the opponent out of answers and finishes them off with a medium-sized Death's Shadow, Desecration Demon, or even Stensia Bloodhall. So more than half the spells are answers themselves.
Death's Shadow - This guy is great when defending against aggro. Against slower decks, I'll turn him on myself by fetching untapped shocklands.
Vampire Nighthawk - He trades with most creatures or deals some damage if I can protect him. Not always useful. Once I did accidentally kill my Death's Shadow with his lifelink, but normally if I need both creatures I don't need to worry about that.
Faithless Looting - I love casting this on turn 2. I thought I wouldn't like the card disadvantage from casting this, but there are enough situational cards in the deck that it's rarely a problem. I wish I'd added a third.
Imp's Mischief - The only reason there's just one of these in the main is because it's simply dead in some matchups. I'd say you want a 4:1 ratio of targetable spells in your opponent's deck. Great against Auras (including Splinter Twin), discard (especially Thoughtseize), countermagic, and removal.
Stensia Bloodhall - This is a control deck, so you need some non-creature finishers! Against some really slow decks, this can put a little pressure on them to push through your defenses.
It's only a matter of time.
1x Reaper King
Changelings
1x Amoeboid Changeling
1x Avian Changeling
1x Changeling Berserker
1x Changeling Hero
1x Changeling Titan
1x Fire-Belly Changeling
1x Mirror Entity
1x Mothdust Changeling
1x Shapesharer
1x Skeletal Changeling
1x Taurean Mauler
1x Woodland Changeling
Tribal Tutors
1x Cateran Summons
1x Goblin Matron
1x Higure, the Still Wind
1x Homing Sliver
1x Moggcatcher
1x Seahunter
1x Sliver Overlord
1x Vedalken AEthermage
Tribal Lords
1x Drogskol Captain
1x Knight Exemplar
1x Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero
1x Lord of the Unreal
1x Lovisa Coldeyes
1x Master of the Pearl Trident
1x Merrow Reejerey
Tribal Utility/Value
1x Cryptic Gateway
1x Krenko, Mob Boss
1x Mana Echoes
1x Necrotic Sliver
1x Sigil Tracer
1x Sea Gate Loremaster
1x Wort, Boggart Auntie
1x Angel of Glory's Rise
1x Crib Swap
1x Crux of Fate
1x Endemic Plague
1x Harsh Mercy
1x Harmonic Sliver
1x Peer Pressure
1x Tuktuk Scrapper
1x Whelming Wave
Tribe Manipulation
1x Artificial Evolution
1x Blades of Velis Vel
1x Mistform Sliver
1x Runed Stalactite
1x Shields of Velis Vel
1x Unnatural Selection
1x Xenograft
Ramp
1x Burnished Hart
1x Commander's Sphere
1x Manaweft Sliver
1x Springleaf Drum
1x Fellwar Stone
1x Boros Signet
1x Izzet Signet
1x Gilded Lotus
Not Tribal Removal
1x Lightning Bolt
1x Oblation
1x Rapid Hybridization
1x Return to Dust
Tribal Lands
1x Mutavault
1x Riptide Laboratory
1x Swarmyard
1x Sliver Hive
1x Boros Guildgate
1x City of Brass
1x Command Tower
1x Evolving Wilds
1x Forest
1x Frontier Bivouac
5x Island
1x Jungle Hollow
5x Mountain
1x Mystic Monastery
1x Opal Palace
5x Plains
1x Sandsteppe Citadel
1x Seaside Citadel
1x Simic Growth Chamber
1x Swamp
1x Terramorphic Expanse
1x Vivid Crag
1x Vivid Creek
1x Vivid Meadow
1x Wanderwine Hub
The deck is pretty scattered. I'd like to have more changelings AND more lords - with the best in all five colors to choose from, I ran out of space quickly. The mana base could use a lot more spicing up, and I'm still missing choice cards like Dragon Tempest and Return of the Nightstalkers. The deck has some choice lines of play, depending on which tutors are drawn:
1. Get the three Champion changelings - Changeling Hero, Changeling Berserker, and Changeling Titan - to loop into unlimited ETB triggers. With Reaper King out you'll basically win on the spot.
2. Mirror Entity + Lord of the Unreal makes your creatures effectively 1/1s with hexproof. Add Master of the Pearl Trident or Goblin King for an unblockable army.
3. If you have Sliver Overlord, use it to tutor for Amoeboid Changeling and start stealing opponents' creatures.
4. Krenko, Mob Boss is in there for pure value, but if you have Xenograft or Artificial Evolution he can trigger Reaper King for Violent Ultimatums for days.
5. Shapesharer is super useful if you have plenty of mana. It can become a second Myr Galvanizer, which can create infinite mana combos. Combined with Unnatural Selection you can turn an opponent's creatures into copies of their Commander.
There are so many ways to build Reaper King, even if you're set on a changeling deck. It's awesome!
Lifeline
Lethal Vapors (but also Torpor Orb)
Bearer of the Heavens (but also Void Maw)
Endless Whispers
Spreading Plague
Abyssal Persecutor (and Assault Suit)
Boldwyr Heavyweights
Horobi, Death's Wail and Cauldron of Souls
These serve to distract the other players while Mogis whittles down their life. You'd be surprised how seldom anyone sacrifices a (non-token) creature even when they have one to spare.
I thought for a few minutes about which opponent I would try to kill, then slivercycled Homing Sliver to find some kind of edge. While searching through my deck, I stumbled onto Changeling Berserker and realized I could combo out! The Molten Psyche had drawn me the other champion (Changeling Hero) and I had just enough mana to cast both the Hero and the Berserker, setting up a loop of champion triggers that in turn triggered Reaper King to destroy all of my opponents' permanents.
It was my first time pulling that combo off, and it was the best game ending I've had in months!
http://www.tappedout.net/mtg-decks/the-trouble-with-tribals/
Because Mr. Joven is not an equal-opportunity employer, he's a member of the Red Cards union. He won't have any green or black cards under his command. It's in his contract.