I jungle with him, Flash+Smite, 21-9-0, MS/ArPen Quints, ArPen Reds, AS Yellows, MRes Blues
R>Q>W>E
I usually start with Cloth+5, Into Wriggles and Merc Treads, then a Phage and a Hexdrinker. From there you can either finish your ballet or go for your Bloodthirster, depending on how well you're doing. Either way, your next step is (finish the Mallet if you haven't first) then make the Hexdrinker into a Maw of Malmortius. 6th item could be a Force of Nature, a Guardian Angel, or a Last Whisper, depending on what you think you should build.
Am I doing it wrong? Because I've had good success with this build (or maybe it's just Darius.)
I also don't think he's very overpowered, as his ulti is his main source of damage and early on you get choked hard by your mana. Unless you get a Banshees or something like that you still get choked hard by your mana late game. He's also very team dependent, something that a lot of champions I've seen him compared to aren't.
So, I've been staring nonstop at the PCHII spoilers in my dank, dark basement from the moment Maelstrom Wanderer was spoiled. Then, today, I saw that 9/21 and knew that some good news was coming my way. There's many, many fun, good cards that have been spoiled so far. The self-bouncing Cascade for 6, the tailor-made for Shield of the Oversoul General. But this? This tasted a little too much like Sygg at first to be very fun.
Then, I realized my good lady Vela was the exact opposite of Sygg. Rather than incentivizing evasive creatures by rewarding damage, she encourages running creatures that do ball-crushing mean things when they hit, by granting evasion. So why not run creatures that smash the opponent's face into a desk-corner when they hit? This is a similar, but distinct philosophy when compared to Sygg, and a slightly less passive one with more room for flashy creatures.
I felt that I'd found the general I was looking for for my 2nd IRL build. Right now, for me, it's between Vela, Gisela, and a host of lesser alternatives for what deck I'm going to build. I really like how this looks (and how my limited playtesting has gone). Being a first draft, I'd really enjoy looking for some suggestions, or if you could point out the plain horrible cards I'm running, that'd also be good
Sheoldred, Whispering One and Havengul Lich: Reanimation engines. Havengul Lich in particular is a badass necromage on crack. I've done so many great things with him (Hint: Snapcaster Mage ;))
Frozen Aether: Helps me keep a leg up on opponents that go crazy with explosive plays.
Sadistic Sacrament and Curse of the Cabal: Mean, mean cards that serve no purpose other than to be the least political, hate-spewing daisy-cutters they're meant to be in this deeck.
Trinket Mage and his associated "package" : For obvious reasons. I included a number of utility and power cards for him to fetch.
Cards that may not look so budget: I own Snapcaster, Consecrated Sphinx, SoWaP, and Sensei's Divining OP. I'd recommend if they're within your reach to fetch them, because Sphinx and the Top add much to your consistency, and Snapcaster and SoWaP are very versatile, powerful cards.
PLAYSTYLE:
Vela is the focus of this deck, but not it's crutch. The deck can do lots of goodstuff kinds of things without her, but with her, it becomes a very very mean affair. Landing a hit with Phage is a player out of the game. Her 2nd effect makes Wraths hurt everyone very badly. It focuses more on her Intimidate granting rather than her damage dealing, which is probably the less effective of the two paths, although Bloodghast and Skeleton with Clamp is very mean. Deadeye Navigator pings constantly with her effect, and can save creatures from removal.
Using her in conjunction with fatties, especially those that trigger effects on damage is this decks main pain condition. It complements this with a hefty suite of control and beat spells. Most of my creature removal lies in the realm of creatures that kill things, so don't expect to see many kill-spells.
This deck is meant to be fun. You can add money, and make this deck very powerful, or even switch directions and make it a global ping deck with creature recursion and mass sacrifice. That's a very viable route, and one I'll be exploring in the near future. Do not think you are not using Vela to her full potential without these kinds of interactions though, giving creatures like Mindleech, Phage, and Scion evasion is just a very very mean, very very evil thing to do, and can win games fast.
I'm working on this just for some lulz. And to unleash my inner Timmy.
1 Omnath, Locus of Mana
Friends: 20
1 Dosan the Falling Leaf
1 Verdeloth the Ancient
1 Brutalizer Exarch
1 Ant Queen
1 Tajuru Preserver
1 Craterhoof Behemoth
1 Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger
1 Seedborn Muse
1 Acidic Slime
1 Thornling
1 Indrik Stomphowler
1 Patron of the Orochi
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
1 Artisan of Kozilek
1 Terastodon
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
1 Sakiko, Mother of Summer
1 Magus of the Candelabra
1 Yavimaya Elder
1 Night Soil
1 Primal Surge
1 Bear Umbra
1 Nature's Will
1 Rancor
1 Helix Pinnacle
1 Vernal Bloom
1 Gaea's Touch
1 Greater Good
Tricks: 18
1 Hunting Wilds
1 Praetor's Counsel
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Rude Awakening
1 Early Harvest
1 Cultivate
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Vines of Vastwood
1 Beast Within
1 Bramblecrush
1 Crumble
1 Deconstruct
1 Desert Twister
1 Krosan Grip
1 Overwhelming Stampede
1 Gleeful Sabotage
1 Genesis Wave
1 Harmonize
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Sol Ring
1 Spine of Ish Sah
1 Doubling Cube
1 Caged Sun
1 Gauntlet of Power
1 Extraplanar Lens
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Sword of War and Peace
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Swiftfoot Boots
Places: 40
37 Forest
1 Hall of the Bandit Lord
1 Homeward Path
1 Reliquary Towereliquary Tower
I jungle with him, Flash+Smite, 21-9-0, MS/ArPen Quints, ArPen Reds, AS Yellows, MRes Blues
R>Q>W>E
I usually start with Cloth+5, Into Wriggles and Merc Treads, then a Phage and a Hexdrinker. From there you can either finish your ballet or go for your Bloodthirster, depending on how well you're doing. Either way, your next step is (finish the Mallet if you haven't first) then make the Hexdrinker into a Maw of Malmortius. 6th item could be a Force of Nature, a Guardian Angel, or a Last Whisper, depending on what you think you should build.
Am I doing it wrong? Because I've had good success with this build (or maybe it's just Darius.)
I also don't think he's very overpowered, as his ulti is his main source of damage and early on you get choked hard by your mana. Unless you get a Banshees or something like that you still get choked hard by your mana late game. He's also very team dependent, something that a lot of champions I've seen him compared to aren't.
There's tons of religious people here.
I'm Solbrave.
Darius. Is really really effing good.
7 CMC, 6 Ninjutsu. 6/5 Mindleech Mass.
-1 Mistblade Shinobi
+1 Cephalid Constable
+1 Silent-Blade Oni
Working on slotting them in. Evaluating the others.
-1 Ponder
+1 Coastal Piracy
+1 Recurring Insight (HOW DID I FORGET UGH)
Are some suggestions I'd give.
It's definitely a good card if you can get it.
Stole the formatting, especially the float tags (very versatile BBCode, props MTGS) from DeadManSeven. I'm actually quite impressed.
So, I've been staring nonstop at the PCHII spoilers in my dank, dark basement from the moment Maelstrom Wanderer was spoiled. Then, today, I saw that 9/21 and knew that some good news was coming my way. There's many, many fun, good cards that have been spoiled so far. The self-bouncing Cascade for 6, the tailor-made for Shield of the Oversoul General. But this? This tasted a little too much like Sygg at first to be very fun.
Then, I realized my good lady Vela was the exact opposite of Sygg. Rather than incentivizing evasive creatures by rewarding damage, she encourages running creatures that do ball-crushing mean things when they hit, by granting evasion. So why not run creatures that smash the opponent's face into a desk-corner when they hit? This is a similar, but distinct philosophy when compared to Sygg, and a slightly less passive one with more room for flashy creatures.
I felt that I'd found the general I was looking for for my 2nd IRL build. Right now, for me, it's between Vela, Gisela, and a host of lesser alternatives for what deck I'm going to build. I really like how this looks (and how my limited playtesting has gone). Being a first draft, I'd really enjoy looking for some suggestions, or if you could point out the plain horrible cards I'm running, that'd also be good
CARD CHOICES:
Mistblade Shinobi and Throat Slitter: Evasion means I can ninjutsu them in easy, and trigger them multiply. Advantage.
Scion of Darkness, Mindleech Mass, and Wrexial, the Risen Deep: Big Fatties that hit hard and do very good things when their fist smashes their face in. Advantage.
Bloodghast and Reassembling Skeleton: Clamp clamp clamp, cla-clamp clamp clamp, cla-clamp clamp cla-cla-cla-cla-clamp clamp clamp.
Sheoldred, Whispering One and Havengul Lich: Reanimation engines. Havengul Lich in particular is a badass necromage on crack. I've done so many great things with him (Hint: Snapcaster Mage ;))
Frozen Aether: Helps me keep a leg up on opponents that go crazy with explosive plays.
Sadistic Sacrament and Curse of the Cabal: Mean, mean cards that serve no purpose other than to be the least political, hate-spewing daisy-cutters they're meant to be in this deeck.
Trinket Mage and his associated "package" : For obvious reasons. I included a number of utility and power cards for him to fetch.
Cards that may not look so budget: I own Snapcaster, Consecrated Sphinx, SoWaP, and Sensei's Divining OP. I'd recommend if they're within your reach to fetch them, because Sphinx and the Top add much to your consistency, and Snapcaster and SoWaP are very versatile, powerful cards.
PLAYSTYLE:
Vela is the focus of this deck, but not it's crutch. The deck can do lots of goodstuff kinds of things without her, but with her, it becomes a very very mean affair. Landing a hit with Phage is a player out of the game. Her 2nd effect makes Wraths hurt everyone very badly. It focuses more on her Intimidate granting rather than her damage dealing, which is probably the less effective of the two paths, although Bloodghast and Skeleton with Clamp is very mean. Deadeye Navigator pings constantly with her effect, and can save creatures from removal.
Using her in conjunction with fatties, especially those that trigger effects on damage is this decks main pain condition. It complements this with a hefty suite of control and beat spells. Most of my creature removal lies in the realm of creatures that kill things, so don't expect to see many kill-spells.
This deck is meant to be fun. You can add money, and make this deck very powerful, or even switch directions and make it a global ping deck with creature recursion and mass sacrifice. That's a very viable route, and one I'll be exploring in the near future. Do not think you are not using Vela to her full potential without these kinds of interactions though, giving creatures like Mindleech, Phage, and Scion evasion is just a very very mean, very very evil thing to do, and can win games fast.
He almost won
Wat