Other cards that I think would fit perfectly with this archetype of Gravecrawler are Diregraf Ghoul and Zombie Infestation. One card is another aggressive beater that can come into play early in case you don't have other ones in your hand, and he can actually have Gravecrawler's ability actually come into play, and the other card is a good discard outlet and lets you play him from the graveyard, yay!
What about a couple copies of Burning Vengeance? Then you can Faithless looting, discard a phoenix and a zombie (ideal situation) and cast the zombie, return phoenix to hand, plus you've shocked them. mmm card advantage
Until your opponent cast Day while your Hex Parasite was out...
Then you activate it in response (if you didn't activate it for the swing already/have mana up) and use something like Buried Ruin or Sun Titan to get it back. Even getting 2 recursions off a board of undying creatures is pretty powerful board advantage. You've just neutralized 2 of their sweepers. How many could they possibly get? Considering you're now beating their face.
I think something like BSZ and Contagion Clasp and that other one, to cancel out a counter on one creature and pump the rest is probably a better strategy. You'll beat face harder and force a sweep if they have it, and if they do you'll still keep a creature out. I'm sure there will be more cards to support this too that haven't been spoiled yet.
Also Rooftop Storm...although steep, makes free casting costs. So basically...get Heartless Summoning on the table with Rooftop Storm and Burning Vengeance and this in the graveyard = free infinite shocks. It's a 4 card combo, but B/U with a Red splash already has plenty of control, add Snapcaster for more triggers. And even without Rooftop Storm it's still 1 for a recurrable shock. (Let's face it, at 6 mana Rooftop Storm is hardly playable, even in a control deck - by that turn you'd have enough to recur the zombie many times over already)
If you could somehow give him flash so you could Draw-Go with it....would be terribly broken I think.
I feel like Dismember has fallen out of favor because of the prevalence of Illusions. The four life is way too much to lose against a tempo deck.
Agreed. I run 2 in the sideboard and 2 Fiend Hunter main. I've only played once tourney with it and I never had to side in the dismember's, but in some casual games against MBI I brought it in obviously; but I would have hate it against Illusions. It's a good sideboard card but I don't value it enough to MB it.
What about swapping the Probes for Vapor Snag? Gives you another instant, and a way to handle creatures that have already hit the field. That or Disperse, which will grab any non-land.
I've just never found Probe that useful in relation to what can take that spot.
Also you might want to sideboard some of the swords, run multiple copies of one of them. Maybe try Silver-Inlaid dagger too?
Vapor snag will help reach your goal of killing them and make a critter open to a counter spell again. It also deals with a lot of turn 1 critters and ruins illusions.
I've won games with Vapor Snag. It's a pretty nice card - with all the counters and bounce you have, it allows you a lot of board control. It also allows you to consider dropping a stalker on turn 3 if you really need to keep counter mana open (if you're thinking creatures) since you can bounce the creatures and counter them the next turn.
Although I'm running 4 snags and 2 disperse, I may change it to 3 and 3 (swap the snag into the sideboard for one of the disperse...I find sometimes I'm holding multiple snags when I need to bounce a sword or something.
Can anyone share a deck list for the best rdw? I am rather new to mtg and the only deck I have is a white/green all humans deck. I googled rdw but every one was different and didn't really have the cards mentioned.
Under "Competitive" there's a whole subforum for RDW chock full of discussion and decklists for RDW. There are always variations though. I would start reading there and you'll get a feel for not just the card choices in the deck, but why people are making the choices.
This is the build I had on a different thread I ad started before. I found the Revival very helpful because it allows you to get back what is most useful. The Viridian Emissary was very helpful too because it slows down people when it trades and helps you mana ramp. Slagstorm was also useful to stop all in aggre decks.
Land (23)
8x Forest
7x Mountain
4x Rootbound Crag
4x Copperline Gorge
Sorcery (14)
4x Rampant Growth
3x Slagstorm
3x Into the Maw of Hell
4x Bramblecrush
Into the Maw of Hell is dangerous since if your deck is working, they won't get any creatures out and then you're stuck killing your own creature. And it's expensive as LD. I think there are better options.
Do not know if this was already posted but: http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=42689
This was first place at charloette invitational. When I read the cards, I thought wow only like 2 are over 13 dollars. I have not done the math yet but this MIGHT be in your budget
1.) This deck is aggro U/W Humans. Don't ever think otherwise.
2.) Invisibe Stalker is just a card people should run, both for his self-preservation, as well as the sudden eye-raising your opponents give you when you play him. They will not expect it, and in many cases will overreact.
1.) Leonin Arbiter serves little purpose in this meta. Last season when Caw-Blade and Valakut were running around, he saw a lot of play. However, there isn't a whole lot of library searching going on. Grand Illusion, Birthing Pod decks, and Wolf Run Ramp are the only ones running a lot of tutoring effects. As such, unless you get him out early to counteract all the tutoring - and he will eat many a kill spell/direct damage spell - he is useless.
2.) Shrine of Loyal Legions is one of those recovery cards. If you're playing against a Solar Flare, Wolf Run Red, and in some instances Tempered Steel deck, it's to get back from the board wipes. I'm not sold completely on it, but it has saved me in a few games.
1) Yea I was at work and I kept thinking of the other deck posted after the OP. What I meant was the more standard aggro humans with all white.
2) It's very enticing, I may try and sneak him into my deck in place of something else.
I'm very happy to see you went 8-0 (I'm assuming you mean 4-0 for matches) today with my decklist!
I'm going to be trying a more regular build on Saturday for the standard tourney at my LGS - but I haven't gone before so I'm not sure what the meta is like. After I have that info I'll be able to determine what the best option is. I really like the way this deck looks though and I want to give it a try..I should have most of the cards available to me with the regular shell anyways. I just built the more aggro UW humans though so I need to get a chance to play with it.
I love Invisible Stalker though, so the thought of using him is very attractive especially if he can be effective - whether winconning on his own or forcing a board wipe early.
I do have a question though - why no Leonin Arbiter in the sideboard? And I question the Shrine of Loyal Legions too, what's your reasoning on that? What matchups do you side that in for?
I don't think so - all it does is do some fixing and a cantrip. I don't see it being useful for the space it would take up.
Also, keep in mind the number of blue land being run - I'd hate to see a ponder in my opening hand and not have a blue source to use it - it's a dead card at that point.
Plus you're going to be wanting to drop either a Lawkeeper, Doomed Traveler or a Champion first turn (depending on what you're running) So you're not casting Ponder there, second turn you're either dropping 2 more 1 drops or a 2 drop (which vary from builds - but either an abolisher or something else) then 3rd you're dropping a crusader or a geist (if you have it and a blue source)...after that you've got your four drop which is, if you have it - AD or Hero...or any of the above drops. I don't see a spot for it on the mana curve, it's strictly a subpar card for this deck.
Now, if you follow the more control-ish form that someone posted in another thread, where he's running a lot more spells and only a couple creatures (stalkers) then it comes in useful since there aren't as many drops and you're likely to not have something for every mana source every turn - but I see his variant as more of a stalkerblade to be honest.
Just my thoughts, I could be wrong...but while ponder is a great card, I don't see it being too useful here relative to all the other choices. Variants already choose between Champion and Lawkeeper generally.
Maybe they made him take it down because they want to use it as art for a future set or reprint (Liliana's Caress in M13 maybe?!) Wishful thinking...
What about a couple copies of Burning Vengeance? Then you can Faithless looting, discard a phoenix and a zombie (ideal situation) and cast the zombie, return phoenix to hand, plus you've shocked them. mmm card advantage
Then you activate it in response (if you didn't activate it for the swing already/have mana up) and use something like Buried Ruin or Sun Titan to get it back. Even getting 2 recursions off a board of undying creatures is pretty powerful board advantage. You've just neutralized 2 of their sweepers. How many could they possibly get? Considering you're now beating their face.
I think something like BSZ and Contagion Clasp and that other one, to cancel out a counter on one creature and pump the rest is probably a better strategy. You'll beat face harder and force a sweep if they have it, and if they do you'll still keep a creature out. I'm sure there will be more cards to support this too that haven't been spoiled yet.
Also Rooftop Storm...although steep, makes free casting costs. So basically...get Heartless Summoning on the table with Rooftop Storm and Burning Vengeance and this in the graveyard = free infinite shocks. It's a 4 card combo, but B/U with a Red splash already has plenty of control, add Snapcaster for more triggers. And even without Rooftop Storm it's still 1 for a recurrable shock. (Let's face it, at 6 mana Rooftop Storm is hardly playable, even in a control deck - by that turn you'd have enough to recur the zombie many times over already)
If you could somehow give him flash so you could Draw-Go with it....would be terribly broken I think.
Agreed. I run 2 in the sideboard and 2 Fiend Hunter main. I've only played once tourney with it and I never had to side in the dismember's, but in some casual games against MBI I brought it in obviously; but I would have hate it against Illusions. It's a good sideboard card but I don't value it enough to MB it.
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I've just never found Probe that useful in relation to what can take that spot.
Also you might want to sideboard some of the swords, run multiple copies of one of them. Maybe try Silver-Inlaid dagger too?
I've won games with Vapor Snag. It's a pretty nice card - with all the counters and bounce you have, it allows you a lot of board control. It also allows you to consider dropping a stalker on turn 3 if you really need to keep counter mana open (if you're thinking creatures) since you can bounce the creatures and counter them the next turn.
Although I'm running 4 snags and 2 disperse, I may change it to 3 and 3 (swap the snag into the sideboard for one of the disperse...I find sometimes I'm holding multiple snags when I need to bounce a sword or something.
Under "Competitive" there's a whole subforum for RDW chock full of discussion and decklists for RDW. There are always variations though. I would start reading there and you'll get a feel for not just the card choices in the deck, but why people are making the choices.
Into the Maw of Hell is dangerous since if your deck is working, they won't get any creatures out and then you're stuck killing your own creature. And it's expensive as LD. I think there are better options.
There's like 120$ just in Snapcasters....
1) Yea I was at work and I kept thinking of the other deck posted after the OP. What I meant was the more standard aggro humans with all white.
2) It's very enticing, I may try and sneak him into my deck in place of something else.
I'm going to be trying a more regular build on Saturday for the standard tourney at my LGS - but I haven't gone before so I'm not sure what the meta is like. After I have that info I'll be able to determine what the best option is. I really like the way this deck looks though and I want to give it a try..I should have most of the cards available to me with the regular shell anyways. I just built the more aggro UW humans though so I need to get a chance to play with it.
I love Invisible Stalker though, so the thought of using him is very attractive especially if he can be effective - whether winconning on his own or forcing a board wipe early.
I do have a question though - why no Leonin Arbiter in the sideboard? And I question the Shrine of Loyal Legions too, what's your reasoning on that? What matchups do you side that in for?
I don't think so - all it does is do some fixing and a cantrip. I don't see it being useful for the space it would take up.
Also, keep in mind the number of blue land being run - I'd hate to see a ponder in my opening hand and not have a blue source to use it - it's a dead card at that point.
Plus you're going to be wanting to drop either a Lawkeeper, Doomed Traveler or a Champion first turn (depending on what you're running) So you're not casting Ponder there, second turn you're either dropping 2 more 1 drops or a 2 drop (which vary from builds - but either an abolisher or something else) then 3rd you're dropping a crusader or a geist (if you have it and a blue source)...after that you've got your four drop which is, if you have it - AD or Hero...or any of the above drops. I don't see a spot for it on the mana curve, it's strictly a subpar card for this deck.
Now, if you follow the more control-ish form that someone posted in another thread, where he's running a lot more spells and only a couple creatures (stalkers) then it comes in useful since there aren't as many drops and you're likely to not have something for every mana source every turn - but I see his variant as more of a stalkerblade to be honest.
Just my thoughts, I could be wrong...but while ponder is a great card, I don't see it being too useful here relative to all the other choices. Variants already choose between Champion and Lawkeeper generally.