A Dreadnought thread! Haven't seen one of these pop up in a while and it's one of my favorite cards. I actually try to take a different approach by not playing blue. Here's what mine looks like at the moment
Here's my attempt at making Isochron Scepter viable in Legacy. The deck was very vulnerable to Abrupt Decay until 4 Apostle's Blessing were put in the mainboard, which also helps creatures be unblockable when you're trying to actually kill them. The dream is to have a Isochron Scepter/Silence lock with a Monastery Mentor and two Sensei's Divining Top in play to have as many Prowess triggers as you have mana. Other cards that I still might want to fit somewhere in there is Swords to Plowshares and Porphyry Nodes. I know that when Unexpectedly Absent is imprinted, I can't pay anyting to X, but even putting something on the top of their library every turn is pretty sweet, or even on my Scepter or Mentor to save it. It'd be great to hear what you guys think about the list and what could make it better for performing at large tournaments like GP Seattle late this year. Thanks!
I'm glad I can help. How are those vindicates, etc. working?
Basically Avatar of Discords got replaced with Vindicate which was an amazing decision. You were pretty spot-on when you said it was a good "save your ass" card. Ancient Tombs are really nice if I'm going up against a deck that will not counter me for a turn 1 torpor orb, turn 2 dreadnought/horror. The only problem I can find is statistically I practically have to mulligan 9 out of every 25 hands, which is kinda alot
Well, Build it as you desire. You need to playtest it, it's just my logic: between 4 Torpor Orb, 2 E.Tutor, 2 Divining Top, 1 illusionary mask, you should have the means of which having it within your grasp by turn 2. I suppose you can drop the Tops for additional tutors, but Tops are very versitile to dig. Etutor, is not only for finding Orbs, but other artifacts as well, namely Dreadnought.
I would suggest maybe -1 Top +1 Tutor, so that if you have an extra tutor, you can get Top if you feel like your draws are stale.
Reason why i chose Vindicate, is because it seemed like the deck didn't have a "Cover my butt" card for something unexpected. Like an unexpected Moat or ensnaring bridge.
Mox Diamond allows for a turn 1 Hymn to tourach (with a scrubland for turn.) This is a very good play. Downside of Diamond is that you need plenty of land to make it work. Sometimes you'll get the god hand: Ancient Tomb, Mox Diamond, Torpor Orb, random Land, and Phyrexian Dreadnought. Assuming nothing is countered, which in some matches, your Orb/dreadnought may in fact be countered, that may be GG. This is the reason for the Thoughtseize and Hymn to tourach. This gives you proactive answers to try and rip forces and dazes from your opponents hands before you attempt to play an orb. Mox Diamond also Mana fixes so that you can run colorless 2-mana lands (ancient tomb) and still get that turn 2 Hymn/Hunted Horror.
Bob+Top will let you pretty much deck for a lot of your deck.
Vindicate/Stp will take care of online problems.
Also, Defense Grid is really nice, if you have 4 E. Tutor in your 75, it's NP running a 1-of in your board for the tempo matches.
The other big thing you lose from U is Ponder and Brainstorm. E.tutors, + Top can be used to give you that missing CA.
So I've been playtesting the last week using a version of the edited version of my B/W list you gave me. At first I tested exactly what you gave me, and made some adjustments:
I kept Dark Ritual in there because it lets the deck be really explosive. Wasteland is a type of card where you have to have 4 or 0 because either you want to efficiently wreck their lands or you don't, and running 2 would be just about pointless. So I decided on 0 Wasteland because having room for Enlightened Tutor, Sensei's Divining Top and Dark Ritual was good, and the deck really only needs 21 lands, even 20 If I wanted. A friend of mine highly protested Volrath's Stronghold, but I do see the merit in its ability even though most of the time I can only tap it for colorless. Illusionary Mask works wonders if my opponent also runs Pyhrexian Dreadnought in their deck I figured out, so I may want more than 1 in my Sideboard or something like that. Overall, thanks for the help, the deck already looks a lot smoother than it was
So things I changed from your most recent list:
- 4 Vampire Nocturnus will make this deck sick.
- Probably only need to run 3 Highborns instead of 4.
- Sign in Blood will help you a lot more on turn 3 or 4 then Phyrexian Arena will, I think Arena could be a sideboard card, but Sign in Blood seems like the best maindeck.
- Eldrazi Monument will win you the game when you play it on turn 5. Definitely worth running.
Also I think Deathmark would be good to have in your sideboard.
I would suggest adding U, mainly for Stifle. Hunted Phantasm is also better than Avatar of Discord at the moment. I don't really think you need 16 Creatures in this type of deck, Especially if you add U.
I created some BUG/Team/Dreadstalker lovechild that I piloted to 4-0 last weekend. It was clunky at best, but it still got the job done. Including beating RUG Tempo, Dredge, Show and Sneak.
Not suggesting you change colors, just wanted to prove that if you have enough Tempo, you don't need 16 creatures. You normall are going to want to drop 1-2 Threats at a time, and control your opponents hand with this sort of deck.
What's great is that Torpor is actually relevant in the meta, such as "stifling" Snapcaster Mage's ability to gain CA.
Board in 2 Etutor and "silver bullets" or Leyline + Helm of Obedience for an alternate combo win, or just leyline for Reanimator/Dredge matches.
So I'm thinking that I should explain why I built the deck B/W initially instead of U at all. Not because I thought U was bad, I knew if I added blue the deck would be better, but that's the deck a buddy of mine was building. At first he had this U/B deck with dreadnought and stifle and trickblind, etc. and I thought, nah all you need is torpor orb and enlightened tutor, you don't even need blue! So to troll him, and give everyone at the shop a surprised look on their face when I showed up to legacy saying I have B/W Torbor Orb and do awesome with it, I totally build what is at the original post. I don't want to add blue because it would ruin the reasons that predicate on why the deck was built in the first place.
Though thank you for making that B/W list arronc, it has given me some perspective on what I can do with this deck beyond what I have. Some card choices seem quite interesting, I would really have to playtest this to know what is going on I suppose, but Mox Diamond? Vindicate? These are cards I never thought of putting in here, and maybe I should. Some cards I definitely want to incorporate somehow, like Illusionary Mask because it seems to already fit in with how my deck plays now, but again, that could drastically change.
I do think if I were to build your list, wouldn't I want to mainboard 4 Enlightened Tutors not 2? Just seems like the deck would be more effective with more tutors *shrug*.
You might need illusionary mask as an extra way to hack dreadnoughts into play
I've never seen that card before... thank you for showing it to me. I see that it would make sense to put in the deck, because if my opening hand doesn't consist of either Torpor Orb or Enlightened Tutor I'm practically forced to mulligan. Possibly putting in four Illusionary Masks will help that, though what to take out... maybe I don't need 20 lands, possibly a few less like 18? also cards like Dark Confidant I could probably run 3 of instead of 4, yeah?
Hey MTGS, I've played Magic for almost three years now and I've decided to make an account because I want to be more involved in MtG. I've already posted a few decks of mine, and would appreciate it if you checked them out:
Also, I have a Marrow-Gnawer EDH deck, and I've refined it over the course of some time now. I see that there a number of Marrow-Gnawer decks here, but no primer... I think I may make one in the near future because I think I have played the deck enough to make a good one.
Just started here at MTGS and decided to first share my Legacy deck with you that I have built and played with since New Phyrexia introduced Torpor Orb. This deck is a bit off-the-wall from others that use Phyrexian Dreadnought, but it has been doing fairly well at the local tournaments. Any thoughts or suggestions would be highly appreciated!
A lot of cards went in and out of this deck, such as Oona's Prowler, Altar's Reap and Oblivion Crown because they weren't quite strong enough, and this seems like the correct build for getting Evershrike out with an aura on turn 3 consistently.
4 Hunted Horror
2 Hushwing Gryff
4 Torpor Orb
4 Enlightened Tutor
4 Mana Tithe
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Thoughtseize
4 Dark Ritual
3 Surgical Extraction
4 Scrubland
6 fetches
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Vault of Whispers
2 Fetid Heath
4 Ancient Tomb
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Karakas
1 Sinkhole
1 Ghostly Prison
1 Ethersworn Canonsist
2 Rest in Peace
2 Illusionary Mask
2 Aven Mindcensor
1 Toxic Deluge
2 Spirit of the Labyrinth
2 Vindicate
4x Gitaxian Probe
Instants
2x Angel's Grace
4x Apostle's Blessing
4x Enlightened Tutor
4x Mana Tithe
4x Orim's Chant
1x Reknit
4x Silence
4x Unexpectedly Absent
Artifacts
4x Isochron Scepter
4x Sensei's Divining Top
1x Myth Realized
Creatures
3x Monastery Mentor
Lands
1x Ancient Den
4x Ancient Tomb
1x Arid Mesa
1x Flooded Strand
1x Karakas
1x Marsh Flats
4x Plains
1x Plateau
2x Tundra
1x Windswept Heath
4x Abeyance
2x Blood Moon
1x Ghostly Prison
1x Grafdigger's Cage
4x Leyline of Sanctity
1x Pithing Needle
2x Rest in Peace
Here's my attempt at making Isochron Scepter viable in Legacy. The deck was very vulnerable to Abrupt Decay until 4 Apostle's Blessing were put in the mainboard, which also helps creatures be unblockable when you're trying to actually kill them. The dream is to have a Isochron Scepter/Silence lock with a Monastery Mentor and two Sensei's Divining Top in play to have as many Prowess triggers as you have mana. Other cards that I still might want to fit somewhere in there is Swords to Plowshares and Porphyry Nodes. I know that when Unexpectedly Absent is imprinted, I can't pay anyting to X, but even putting something on the top of their library every turn is pretty sweet, or even on my Scepter or Mentor to save it. It'd be great to hear what you guys think about the list and what could make it better for performing at large tournaments like GP Seattle late this year. Thanks!
4x Ninja of the Deep Hours
4x Mistblade Shinobi
4x Spellstutter Sprite
4x Cloud of Faeries
4x Quickling
4x Signal Pest
4x Judge's Familiar
4x Daze
12x Island
4x Mutavault
4x Cloudpost
4x Glimmerpost
4x Vesuva
4x Gemstone Mine
4x Karplusan Forest
4x Primeval Titan
3x Sundering Titan
2x Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
Artifacts [15]
4x Expedition Map
4x Amulet of Vigor
4x Prophetic Prism
3x Doubling Cube
4x Crop Rotation
4x Sylvan Scrying
4x Reap and Sow
4x Banefire
Basically Avatar of Discords got replaced with Vindicate which was an amazing decision. You were pretty spot-on when you said it was a good "save your ass" card. Ancient Tombs are really nice if I'm going up against a deck that will not counter me for a turn 1 torpor orb, turn 2 dreadnought/horror. The only problem I can find is statistically I practically have to mulligan 9 out of every 25 hands, which is kinda alot
So I've been playtesting the last week using a version of the edited version of my B/W list you gave me. At first I tested exactly what you gave me, and made some adjustments:
3x Ancient Tomb
4x Scrubland
4x Marsh Flats
4x Verdant Catacombs
3x Swamp
1x Plains
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Volrath's Stronghold
Creatures [11]
3x Dark Confidant
4x Hunted Horror
4x Phyrexian Dreadnought
4x Torpor Orb
2x Sensei's Divining Top
Instants and Sorceries [22]
4x Hymn to Tourach
3x Thoughtseize
3x Vindicate
3x Sword to Plowshares
1x Go for the Throat
4x Enlightened Tutor
4x Dark Ritual
4x Duress
4x Path to Exile
3x Perish
1x Ethersworn Canonist
1x Defense Grid
1x Dark Confidant
1x Illusionary Mask
I kept Dark Ritual in there because it lets the deck be really explosive. Wasteland is a type of card where you have to have 4 or 0 because either you want to efficiently wreck their lands or you don't, and running 2 would be just about pointless. So I decided on 0 Wasteland because having room for Enlightened Tutor, Sensei's Divining Top and Dark Ritual was good, and the deck really only needs 21 lands, even 20 If I wanted. A friend of mine highly protested Volrath's Stronghold, but I do see the merit in its ability even though most of the time I can only tap it for colorless. Illusionary Mask works wonders if my opponent also runs Pyhrexian Dreadnought in their deck I figured out, so I may want more than 1 in my Sideboard or something like that. Overall, thanks for the help, the deck already looks a lot smoother than it was
22x Swamp
Creature [26]
4x Blood Ghast
3x Vampire Hexmage
4x Vampire Lacerator
4x Vampire Nighthawk
4x Vampire Nocturnus
4x Gatekeeper of Malakir
3x Kalastria Highborn
4x Doom Blade (or Go for the Throat)
3x Smother
Sorcery [4]
4x Sign in Blood
Artifact [2]
2x Eldrazi Monument
So things I changed from your most recent list:
- 4 Vampire Nocturnus will make this deck sick.
- Probably only need to run 3 Highborns instead of 4.
- Sign in Blood will help you a lot more on turn 3 or 4 then Phyrexian Arena will, I think Arena could be a sideboard card, but Sign in Blood seems like the best maindeck.
- Eldrazi Monument will win you the game when you play it on turn 5. Definitely worth running.
Also I think Deathmark would be good to have in your sideboard.
So I'm thinking that I should explain why I built the deck B/W initially instead of U at all. Not because I thought U was bad, I knew if I added blue the deck would be better, but that's the deck a buddy of mine was building. At first he had this U/B deck with dreadnought and stifle and trickblind, etc. and I thought, nah all you need is torpor orb and enlightened tutor, you don't even need blue! So to troll him, and give everyone at the shop a surprised look on their face when I showed up to legacy saying I have B/W Torbor Orb and do awesome with it, I totally build what is at the original post. I don't want to add blue because it would ruin the reasons that predicate on why the deck was built in the first place.
Though thank you for making that B/W list arronc, it has given me some perspective on what I can do with this deck beyond what I have. Some card choices seem quite interesting, I would really have to playtest this to know what is going on I suppose, but Mox Diamond? Vindicate? These are cards I never thought of putting in here, and maybe I should. Some cards I definitely want to incorporate somehow, like Illusionary Mask because it seems to already fit in with how my deck plays now, but again, that could drastically change.
I do think if I were to build your list, wouldn't I want to mainboard 4 Enlightened Tutors not 2? Just seems like the deck would be more effective with more tutors *shrug*.
but then the deck would be blue
if it were in the deck though, that means that dreadnought would come out on turn 4? seems late...
I've never seen that card before... thank you for showing it to me. I see that it would make sense to put in the deck, because if my opening hand doesn't consist of either Torpor Orb or Enlightened Tutor I'm practically forced to mulligan. Possibly putting in four Illusionary Masks will help that, though what to take out... maybe I don't need 20 lands, possibly a few less like 18? also cards like Dark Confidant I could probably run 3 of instead of 4, yeah?
[Legacy] B/W Torpor Orb
[Modern] Evershrike
Also, I have a Marrow-Gnawer EDH deck, and I've refined it over the course of some time now. I see that there a number of Marrow-Gnawer decks here, but no primer... I think I may make one in the near future because I think I have played the deck enough to make a good one.
Thanks for reading
4x Phyrexian Dreadnought
4x Hunted Horror
4x Avatar of Discord
4x Dark Confidant
Artifacts [4]
4x Torpor Orb
Spells [20]
4x Duress
4x Hymn to Tourach
4x Enlightened Tutor
4x Swords to Plowshare
4x Dark Ritual
4x Scrubland
4x Marsh Flats
4x Verdant Catacombs
8x Swamp
4x Dismember
4x Despise
4x Path to Exile
3x Cabal Ritual
4x Evershrike
4x Stinkweed Imp
4x Golgari Thug
4x Viscera Seer
4x Edge of the Divinity
4x Blessing of the Nephilim
4x Hyena Umbra
3x Zombie Infestation
4x Horrifying Revelation
Planeswalkers [4]
4x Liliana of the Veil
Lands [21]
4x Isolated Chapel
4x Marsh Flats
11x Swamp
2x Plains
A lot of cards went in and out of this deck, such as Oona's Prowler, Altar's Reap and Oblivion Crown because they weren't quite strong enough, and this seems like the correct build for getting Evershrike out with an aura on turn 3 consistently.