Jesusfan: Yeah, the deck is built to be all permanents. The main concept of the deck is to use the pro-red/black/blue along with shroud to restrict the effectiveness of spot removal spells in the opponents's deck, forcing the opponent to rely heavily on board sweepers. With careful play, you want to hold a few creatures back and force the opponent to deal with what is already out. You should be able to read the opponent's deck for what kind of board wipe spell they run. You can the play around them using cards like Knight of New Alara (Volcanic Fallout, Pyroclasm) and Meddlng Mage (Earthquake, Day of Judgement). Once you hit five or six lands, you should be good to go on casting the Sages of the Anima in order to auto-win against mill and fill your hand in preparation for a possible board wipe.
Jankyfly: I had considered a version that uses the Jund cascade concept for more card advantage, but decided against it and decided to use Sages of the Anima as a card engine instead. I'm not saying that a cascade version will not work, but I feel that the reason why Jund cascade works so well is because the cascade cards that are run are good, as are the cards that are cascaded into. Ardent Plea isn't that great of a card, and it's only purpose would be to replace itself and to deal one extra damage per turn. I don't count it as a card that gives the Hushblade shroud because all of the other nonland cards do that already.
styx: I've been thinking the deck over this morning, and I think I'll put the Meddling Mages maindeck and stick the Great Sable Stags sideboard. This way I can name spot removal with them in order to better ensure the survival of the creatures that are left. I'm not too worried about the Knights becoming lightning rods otherwise, because the rest of the targetable creatures are such great threats that it comes close to a lose/lose situation. If they Bolt my Knight (if a Meddling Mage isn't already out) then my War Monks, Avengers and Sages stay alive, and each of them are good threats themselves. The deck really is built for my own meta, but if your meta runs more black and blue than red and white, then you could keep the Stags maindeck and have them help you win game 1's, or swap them out for the Meddling Mages maindeck if you have more red and white in your metagame. Honestly, I prefer the Meddling Mages, because they can be used stop either spot removal or board wipes (if you have 2 opening hand, you could possibly stop both)
Indeed it would, as would all other creatures that are targetable. That takes a lot of heat away from me, sort of the same way that the planeswalker decks use plainswalkers as lightning rods.
This past FNM I ran a vampire deck with 20 lands, all swamp, the rest vamps and 4 zombie quest. I did rather well, never got landscrewed. The highest casting cost card in the deck were the 4 Nocturnus, which his play just about every game. 20 lands work fine, so long as you forego anything that costs 4 or more other than Nocturnus. I put a few swamp in the sideboard for my sideboarded Marsh Casualties and Malakir Bloodwitch(?). Even with 23 swamp, I was able to drop the witch every game that I drew it, no mana problems. I suppose eventually I'll get a manascew, but the chances of manascrew vs. chances of bad mana flood with my Nocturnus out make my current build optimal.
Jesusfan: You know that Giltspire deals with any creature threat that can be targeted and that deals damage to me, correct? I do agree, I would like more, but there isn't much to choose from as far as creature based creature removal at the moment. The strategy that I've chosen, then, is to have large threats of my own (any of the multicolored creatures along with Knight of New Alara) or using the Giltspire to make enemy creatures one-time-use spells. Again, my meta runs light on white, but if you play in a meta that sees common amounts of Baneslayers, I suppose you could maindeck the Meddling Mages to help deal with them.
Jesusfan: Giltspire Avenger is the only removal I have listed. I suppose you could also use that white creature that exiles vampires and whatnot.
neo_altoid: What is wrong with the manabase, exactly? Do you feel that you will not draw the mana you need when you need it? I figured the mana should be fine, considering the Ancient Ziggurats and Seaside Citadels. I suppose it could also use with Misty Rainforest, but I didn't feel that they were absolutely necessary. Also, I don't really consider this budget, I only posted it as something that seems to work. Lastly, the Giltspire Avengers are excellent removal creatures. I would run Path to Exiles, Oblivion Rings, etc., but those aren't creatures, and therefore do not work at all with the Sages of the Anima. The main concept of the deck is to build around permanents. While non-permanent spells can be good, like Blightning, Lightning Bolt, Path to Exile, and so on, they are one time use sort of things. What I am doing here is making it so that my opponent has to answer my permanent threats, not that I have to answer my opponent's. The more my opponent has to focus everything on the my permanents, the less the opponent can focus towards me, sort of the same concept of the Plainswalker deck that is seing some play lately.
I recently got back into playing standard and bought a good amount of commons and uncommons from a local friend and player. I built a deck using those cards that did pretty well, but I learned one thing that I found extremely important.
I'm sure that we all know the concept of the two advantages you can attain in Magic. First, card advantage, and second, tempo advantage. The reason why decks like Jund are so great is because they play to attain both of those advantages. Jund does it with cascade cards and getting multiple creatures into play at minimal cost.
The deck that I put together had one card that won me nearly every game in which it saw play at the table. That card was Vedalken Outlander. I realized something after I noticed this trend. Another way to attain card advantage isn't to simply draw the cards or cascade into the cards, but to nullify the opponent's ability to effectively use his or her cards. The protection from red nature of Vedalken Outlander nullified Lightning Bolts, Volcanic Fallouts, Earthquakes, red creatures, Terminates, and so on.
Using this knowledge, I'm creating another deck to try to take advantage of this concept. There are a few reasons why I've made the card choices that I have, and I will explain each one.
So the basic concept is to use creatures that either have shroud or are pro-red/black/blue to render cards in an opponent's library useless. The deck is made up of all permanents, and all creatures at that, to force the opponents to make best use of whatever instants and/or sorceries that they have in the deck. Cards that are usually mainboarded in my meta, like Disfigure, Hideous End, Doomblade, Terminate, Bituminous Blast, Lightning Bolt, Maelstrom Pulse, etc., are rendered useless by a good amount of creatures in the deck. I still have to worry about cards like Path to Exile, Oblivion Ring and Day of Judgement. The deck is mainly built to play in my own personal meta, but if your meta runs more white decks, then you could swap the Meddling Mages into the maindeck to help deal with that. In my own meta, white isn't as big, and thus I can get away with putting the Mages into the sideboard.
After getting a couple of creatures on the board that will most likely be virtually indestructable, you can start playing cards like Knight of New Alara to give your creatures a nice boost, Giltspire Avenger to deal with creatures that you might have problems with (Baneslayer?), and Sages of the Anima to start filling your hand just in case your opponent topdecks an answer to your horde. I would highly suggest not putting more than one of each creature into play that can be targeted, holding the rest in case of a mass removal spell like Day of Judgement or Marsh Casualties (unless you have a card in play that will answer it, like Knight of New Alara in the case of Marsh Casualties).
Once you get five or six mana into play with a Sages of the Anima, you should be able to draw fresh threats at an alarming rate. If you can afford to buy the Misty Rainforest to put in the deck, have at it. The Quest for Ancient Knowledge is in the sideboard for mill decks, which have become increasingly popular in my meta. The Qasali Pridemage are in the sideboard for artifact/enchantment hate, of course. I personally don't have much of that to worry about in my meta, but I can see it being useful in a meta full of Luminarch decks, artifact combo decks and Pyromancer's Ascension combo decks.
I'm still debating on the last card for the sideboard. I'm open to suggestions.
I'm attempting to build a deck that will play well against my local meta. The meta is full of Jund and WW, and I'm expecting a good showing of Vamps at the next tourney. It seems to work well, but I think I could use some advice. Couldn't hurt, could it?
I had a Stasis build at one time that was UWG. I used most of the same cards you guys seem to favor for the most part, but there were a couple that I used that I haven't seen mentioned. One is Crop Rotation. I ran the Forsaken City's like some of you, but I also ran Glacial Chasm once I got the Chronatog in play, or if I was playing against a combo deck that wasn't able to take out the Chasm, or if I needed a way to survive an extra turn or two. The Crop Rotation would get me either the Forsaken City I needed or the Glacial Chasm. Thoughts?
How can a mono black deck be run without Dark Ritual?
The control variant of Pox is made worse with Dark Ritual. This goes back on theory of advantage. The main two advantages in the game are tempo and card. Using a Dark Ritual for cards that are not permanents is generally bad. For example, if you play a first turn Swamp, Dark Ritual, Duress (or Thoughtseize) and Hymn to Tourach, you will have three cards in hand and one permanent at the end of the turn, and your opponent will have four cards in hand. This does nothing for your card advantage, because you are equal to what you would have had otherwise if you had just played the Duress (or Thoughtseize). Now, if you use a Dark Ritual for a first turn Hypnotic Specter, then you can see the immediate advantage, as this gives you a tempo advantage and a potential card advantage to match the following turn when you attack with the Specter.
Thus, if you play a permanent light deck that runs very low mana costs then running Dark Ritual is most likely a waste. My Pox deck runs only two cards that cost three, none that cost more (four Pox, three Nether Spirits, which I normally discard for the Smallpox or Pox). The only permanents I run in my Pox are the Nether Spirits, Swamps and The Rack. Thus, Dark Rituals are a waste for me. Therefore, just because a deck runs black spells doesn't mean that Dark Rituals would make it better.
neo_altoid: What is wrong with the manabase, exactly? Do you feel that you will not draw the mana you need when you need it? I figured the mana should be fine, considering the Ancient Ziggurats and Seaside Citadels. I suppose it could also use with Misty Rainforest, but I didn't feel that they were absolutely necessary. Also, I don't really consider this budget, I only posted it as something that seems to work. Lastly, the Giltspire Avengers are excellent removal creatures. I would run Path to Exiles, Oblivion Rings, etc., but those aren't creatures, and therefore do not work at all with the Sages of the Anima. The main concept of the deck is to build around permanents. While non-permanent spells can be good, like Blightning, Lightning Bolt, Path to Exile, and so on, they are one time use sort of things. What I am doing here is making it so that my opponent has to answer my permanent threats, not that I have to answer my opponent's. The more my opponent has to focus everything on the my permanents, the less the opponent can focus towards me, sort of the same concept of the Plainswalker deck that is seing some play lately.
I recently got back into playing standard and bought a good amount of commons and uncommons from a local friend and player. I built a deck using those cards that did pretty well, but I learned one thing that I found extremely important.
I'm sure that we all know the concept of the two advantages you can attain in Magic. First, card advantage, and second, tempo advantage. The reason why decks like Jund are so great is because they play to attain both of those advantages. Jund does it with cascade cards and getting multiple creatures into play at minimal cost.
The deck that I put together had one card that won me nearly every game in which it saw play at the table. That card was Vedalken Outlander. I realized something after I noticed this trend. Another way to attain card advantage isn't to simply draw the cards or cascade into the cards, but to nullify the opponent's ability to effectively use his or her cards. The protection from red nature of Vedalken Outlander nullified Lightning Bolts, Volcanic Fallouts, Earthquakes, red creatures, Terminates, and so on.
Using this knowledge, I'm creating another deck to try to take advantage of this concept. There are a few reasons why I've made the card choices that I have, and I will explain each one.
4 Vedalken Outlander
4 Valeron Outlander
4 Great Sable Stag
4 Deft Duelist
4 Naya Hushblade
4 Rhox War Monk
4 Giltspire Avenger
4 Knight of New Alara
4 Sages of the Anima
4 Ancient Ziggurat
4 Seaside Citadel
4 Greypelt Refuge
4 Sejiri Refuge
1 Island
3 Plains
4 Forest
4 Quest for Ancient Secrets
4 Meddling Mage
4 Qasali Pridemage
3 ???
So the basic concept is to use creatures that either have shroud or are pro-red/black/blue to render cards in an opponent's library useless. The deck is made up of all permanents, and all creatures at that, to force the opponents to make best use of whatever instants and/or sorceries that they have in the deck. Cards that are usually mainboarded in my meta, like Disfigure, Hideous End, Doomblade, Terminate, Bituminous Blast, Lightning Bolt, Maelstrom Pulse, etc., are rendered useless by a good amount of creatures in the deck. I still have to worry about cards like Path to Exile, Oblivion Ring and Day of Judgement. The deck is mainly built to play in my own personal meta, but if your meta runs more white decks, then you could swap the Meddling Mages into the maindeck to help deal with that. In my own meta, white isn't as big, and thus I can get away with putting the Mages into the sideboard.
After getting a couple of creatures on the board that will most likely be virtually indestructable, you can start playing cards like Knight of New Alara to give your creatures a nice boost, Giltspire Avenger to deal with creatures that you might have problems with (Baneslayer?), and Sages of the Anima to start filling your hand just in case your opponent topdecks an answer to your horde. I would highly suggest not putting more than one of each creature into play that can be targeted, holding the rest in case of a mass removal spell like Day of Judgement or Marsh Casualties (unless you have a card in play that will answer it, like Knight of New Alara in the case of Marsh Casualties).
Once you get five or six mana into play with a Sages of the Anima, you should be able to draw fresh threats at an alarming rate. If you can afford to buy the Misty Rainforest to put in the deck, have at it. The Quest for Ancient Knowledge is in the sideboard for mill decks, which have become increasingly popular in my meta. The Qasali Pridemage are in the sideboard for artifact/enchantment hate, of course. I personally don't have much of that to worry about in my meta, but I can see it being useful in a meta full of Luminarch decks, artifact combo decks and Pyromancer's Ascension combo decks.
I'm still debating on the last card for the sideboard. I'm open to suggestions.
Thanks for your time.
4 Kabira Crossroads
1 Soaring Seacliff
2 Teetering Peaks
1 Turntimber Grove
5 Island
4 Plains
1 Piranha Marsh
2 Forest
4 Kor SKyfisher
4 Kor Sanctifiers
4 Great Sable Stag
4 Vedalken Outlander
4 Journey to Nowhere
4 Oblivion Ring
4 Expedition Map
4 Into the Roil
4 Doomblade
4 Celestial Purge
4 Deathmark
1 Swamp
2 Path to Exile
The control variant of Pox is made worse with Dark Ritual. This goes back on theory of advantage. The main two advantages in the game are tempo and card. Using a Dark Ritual for cards that are not permanents is generally bad. For example, if you play a first turn Swamp, Dark Ritual, Duress (or Thoughtseize) and Hymn to Tourach, you will have three cards in hand and one permanent at the end of the turn, and your opponent will have four cards in hand. This does nothing for your card advantage, because you are equal to what you would have had otherwise if you had just played the Duress (or Thoughtseize). Now, if you use a Dark Ritual for a first turn Hypnotic Specter, then you can see the immediate advantage, as this gives you a tempo advantage and a potential card advantage to match the following turn when you attack with the Specter.
Thus, if you play a permanent light deck that runs very low mana costs then running Dark Ritual is most likely a waste. My Pox deck runs only two cards that cost three, none that cost more (four Pox, three Nether Spirits, which I normally discard for the Smallpox or Pox). The only permanents I run in my Pox are the Nether Spirits, Swamps and The Rack. Thus, Dark Rituals are a waste for me. Therefore, just because a deck runs black spells doesn't mean that Dark Rituals would make it better.