I've had success with Ghoultree in this spot: great synergy with Gravecrawlers (it is a Zombie Threefolk after all), 10/10 and quite easy to cast for G with this shell. Also, you don't have to exile your creatures to get it out there. Thoughts?
Tried Vexing Devil in place of the Bolts last night... It was neat! Got two Devils in my opening hand, my opponent takes 4 on turn one and sends the Devil to the bin (he was probably reading Burn at this point). Takes 4 on turn two and then... I show him what's up Gonna proper test in an 8-man / Daily tonight.
Drinkard: I think you are right about Lotus Bloom (drawing a brick later in the game), Could argue Leyline of Sanctity but it does suffer from the same (too late unless on opening hand). Also have to agree about overwhelming Jund / Junk / Abzan with creatures as a response to Liliana's ability. This cost me a match in the GPT this weekend.
Vismal, I would look into:
Lightning Berserker: tell me if this doesn't look awesome? Dash, pump, hit... back to hand for safety.
More Monastery Swiftspear: upped the numbers on her and she is the bomb, can't argue with hasty one mana. Loam Lion and Kird Ape: these complement our lands well. Plated Geopede: Landfall, effectively a 5/5 when fetching. Lotus Cobra: one mana of any color on landfall? sounds good to me... might be too slow, but who knows. Kiln Fiend: we may be running too little spells for this to count but he is beastly.
SIDEBOARD Leyline of Sanctity is for Burn and Scapeshift mainly... I wanna be in control of my life loss Thoughtseize is for Twin and Combos... works wonders with Probes and Baubles to keep them off their combo pieces. Nourishing Shoal is for anything aggressive and I save it to the last moment usually.
The Hooting Mandrills come in whenever facing creature heavy decks... Ancient Grudge + Ray of Revelation are there for Chalice, Spellskite, Blood Moon, that nasty green enchantment infect uses, etc. (I have yet to use either)
REPLACEMENTS
I used to run Inquisitions online, like Thoughtseize better because of the life loss. Similarly, used to run Phyrexian Unlife instead of Leylines... they both work just fine. In my opinion, Nourishing Shoal is the must-have card in the 'board. I've goaded opponents a few times now where they think they have me beat, attack with everything (while my creatures are tapped) and BOOM life gain before damage, swing for the kill next turn.
Alright fellow thrill seekers, this list has only lost one match today in Tourney Training (11 games so far) I will try it on 8-mans and dailies this coming week:
While testing with friends, I got Blood Mooned and took a pretty hard beating. Tried replacing lands for basics but felt this slowed life loss a bit and also left me wanting a different color (i.e. Swamp vs Godless Shrine). Lotus Bloom circumvents the potential mooning and also gives 3 of any mana on turn 3 (when we would ideally like to go off). I feel this makes one landers more keepable and also enables further degeneration
Give it a go and let me know your thoughts! I'll update with a report after Dailies sometime this week.
PS: ran 3 Wisps + 3 Blooms, keep on getting more Blooms than I could use so dropped it to two for an extra haste / card drawer.
Well... let me tell you: I beat an Elf deck thanks to Nourishing Shoal just now at a GPT... He was at 26 life, had me at one and I had two Death's Shadows in play with Hooting Mandrills, Become Immense and two Temur Battle Rages in hand... He had 5-6 elves, one or two lords, in two turns I won the game, because of the life gain and managed to save one Death's Shadow for the win...
Nourishing Shoal is the real deal
EDIT: few more things to note:
- Ran 4 Thoughtseizes mainboard instead of the bolts... tons of Twin / Scapeshift in my area
- I want to try Crimson Wisps in place of the Lightning Bolts as these haste our Death's Shadows / Hooting Mandrills and give us card
- I did not see one Swiftspear in 5 rounds (was running 2)
Vismal, I would look into:
Lightning Berserker: tell me if this doesn't look awesome? Dash, pump, hit... back to hand for safety.
More Monastery Swiftspear: upped the numbers on her and she is the bomb, can't argue with hasty one mana.
Loam Lion and Kird Ape: these complement our lands well.
Plated Geopede: Landfall, effectively a 5/5 when fetching.
Lotus Cobra: one mana of any color on landfall? sounds good to me... might be too slow, but who knows.
Kiln Fiend: we may be running too little spells for this to count but he is beastly.
Reasoning behind 2CMC creatures above: Chalice of the Void
Thoughts?
EDIT: removed Mardu Scout as a suggestion... two red is too much.
SIDEBOARD
Leyline of Sanctity is for Burn and Scapeshift mainly... I wanna be in control of my life loss
Thoughtseize is for Twin and Combos... works wonders with Probes and Baubles to keep them off their combo pieces.
Nourishing Shoal is for anything aggressive and I save it to the last moment usually.
The Hooting Mandrills come in whenever facing creature heavy decks...
Ancient Grudge + Ray of Revelation are there for Chalice, Spellskite, Blood Moon, that nasty green enchantment infect uses, etc. (I have yet to use either)
REPLACEMENTS
I used to run Inquisitions online, like Thoughtseize better because of the life loss. Similarly, used to run Phyrexian Unlife instead of Leylines... they both work just fine. In my opinion, Nourishing Shoal is the must-have card in the 'board. I've goaded opponents a few times now where they think they have me beat, attack with everything (while my creatures are tapped) and BOOM life gain before damage, swing for the kill next turn.
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Windswept Heath
2 Verdant Catacombs
1 Blood Crypt
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping Ground
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Temple Garden
1 Godless Shrine
1 Forest
BEATERS
4 Death's Shadow
4 Steppe Lynx
4 Wild Nacatl
1 Hooting Mandrills
4 Become Immense
4 Mutagenic Growth
4 Temur Battle Rage
4 Crimson Wisps
DRAWERS
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Street Wraith
4 Mishra's Bauble
MANA
2 Lotus Bloom
4 Leyline of Sanctity
4 Nourishing Shoal
4 Thoughtseize
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Ray of Revelation
1 Hooting Mandrills
While testing with friends, I got Blood Mooned and took a pretty hard beating. Tried replacing lands for basics but felt this slowed life loss a bit and also left me wanting a different color (i.e. Swamp vs Godless Shrine). Lotus Bloom circumvents the potential mooning and also gives 3 of any mana on turn 3 (when we would ideally like to go off). I feel this makes one landers more keepable and also enables further degeneration
Give it a go and let me know your thoughts! I'll update with a report after Dailies sometime this week.
PS: ran 3 Wisps + 3 Blooms, keep on getting more Blooms than I could use so dropped it to two for an extra haste / card drawer.
Nourishing Shoal is the real deal
EDIT: few more things to note:
- Ran 4 Thoughtseizes mainboard instead of the bolts... tons of Twin / Scapeshift in my area
- I want to try Crimson Wisps in place of the Lightning Bolts as these haste our Death's Shadows / Hooting Mandrills and give us card
- I did not see one Swiftspear in 5 rounds (was running 2)