Although budget is my primary concern, I am looking to optimise the deck as far as possible and would really appreciate any suggestions regarding sideboard or my maindeck choices.
Also, I'm considering going a more creature heavy build with Spark Elemental and Teetering Peaks. I'm not sure witch version is stronger.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions
Love Mikeaus, he'll turn Tooth and Nail into 7GG: You win the game. He's is so full of synergy and combo potential he deserves an EHD deck to himself.
How often do you play the mimeoplasm? In my version of the deck, I only ever reanimate my creatures because most of the time the game will be over before I get to cast say, Jin. (although I have done this once. Turn one: land, Sol Ring, signet. Turn two: land, Harrow, Coalition Relic. Turn four: Jin)
If you cast the mimeoplasm often, you may find Simic Sky Swallower or Inkwell Leviathan good targets for him once you have more ways of getting them to the graveyard. I find when I cast the mimeoplasm in a targettable (is that a word?) form such as Putrefax he dies before successfully doing any damage, but that depends on your meta.
Have you considered Hermit Druid? I know you're trying to stare away from mill, but you gotta get stuff to the graveyard somehow right? Hermit Druid is cheap, and, when you start running less basics, very effective. This doesn't have to be through expensive lands ether. There are plenty of cheap non-basic lands you don't have in yet (bounce lands, pain lands, refuges etc.). I even run some really terrible lands that are pretty much basics plus a really terrible effect that doesn't effect their price too much (e.g. Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers or Centaur Garden) as well as the artifact lands just to make Hermit Druid better.
Finally, if you do happen to have some money to spend on this deck, I recommend investing in Demonic Tutor and Survival of the Fittest. They're expensive for a reason.
All the reanimation is really good, but you need ways of populating the graveyard in order to fully abuse them. Living Death especially requires ways of making sure your graveyard is the fullest. Fauna Shaman is one of my personal favorites for the Mimeoplasm. It acts as a tutor while allowing you to dump creatures into your graveyard for reanimation as well as being much cheaper than Survival of the Fittest. True, this also helps the Teneb player, but you actually have the edge here: Your Commander is cheaper and doesn't take a turn to get online.
If you're looking for combo's, my Mimeoplasm list runs Necrotic Ooze, Triskelion and Phyrexian Devourer. This combo is easily enabled with Buried Alive or Fauna Shaman and ether the Mimeoplasm plus another creature in a graveyard, or another random reanimation spell. You simply reanimate the ooze and it gains the devourer's ability to remove the top card of your library from the game to put +1/+1 counters on it equal to that cards mana cost, and Triskelion's ability to remove those counters to deal damage to something. Because Phyrexian Devourer's "7 or greater" ability is triggered, not activated, this is not a problem for the ooze so you can repeat this until all other players are dead. This combo is not optimal however, because a card like devourer is a dead weight if you draw it and if the teneb player runs many non-taneb reanimation spells, this could just lead to him going off from your combo. It pays to wait until you can reanimate the ooze in the same turn before you entomb it.
Um... You forgot the final "]" in your deck tag.
Anyway, on to the deck: Doom Blade should be replaced by Go for the Throat. Minamo, School at Water's Edge Provides you with a way of untapping Grimgrin if you're out of creatures to sac, and try to get a Gravecrawler at the Dark Ascension pre-release
Omnath, Locus of Mana seems like he'd be good in this ramp style deck.
Also, have you considered Elvish Piper as a cheaper way of dropping your fatties?
@Donald:
I actually prefer Thelonite Hermit as hero requires attacking opponents and I tend to lay low in games until I can start to really dominate.
Will update list soon, but have to catch a plane now
[EDIT]: Ok, flight was canceled, so let's do this.
I've made a few changes biased on your susgestions:
- Mikaeus, the Lunarch (Laugh all you will, but the reason for this is I'm finding keeping track of which tokens have how many counters far too confusing)
I'd recommend cutting pacifism for arrest. Cutting off the creature's abilities is definitely worth the extra mana. Some of your lands, such as shimmering grotto and Cloudcrest Lake, could actually hold your mana back and might be better off as basics, and if budget isn't an issue you could do with a Maze of Ith and a Strip Mine. Also, have you considered Serra Ascendant? As a one-drop you don't get much better.
To those wondering about getting double activations, how does Fireshrieker sound? Explosive Vegetation is pretty good ramp and I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss Darksteel Ingot. Ramp is important to this deck for two reasons: The sooner we cast Intet the better, and we don't want a stray Hinder to leave us unable to cast our expensive spells.
Speaking of which, countermagic is always good, and Hinder is good disruption for very general centered decks
It seems so far that this deck is extremely focused on its commander and therefore could do with more ways to protect him. For one extra mana, Swiftfoot Boots acts as grieves mk. 2. Also, Whispersilk Cloak acts as both protection and a way of ensuring he hits!
Eternal Witness: Should I run this card? People in my playgroup call it a staple but I don't think it does anything for this deck. I'd rather have a useful spell than a card that will sometimes, but often not get back a useful spell. Of course there's always the fact that some of the spells in this deck are useless, so getting a second use out of one mightn't be a bad thing.
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I'm currently working on a budget version of this deck for MTGO, so I'm not splashing to save on lands. My current thoughts look like this:
Creatures:
4 Goblin Guide
2 Grim Lavamancer
4 Hellspark Elemental
4 Keldon Marauders
2 Ball Lightning
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Shard Volley
2 Searing Blaze
4 Magma Jet
2 Flames of the Blood Hand
4 Rift Bolt
Although budget is my primary concern, I am looking to optimise the deck as far as possible and would really appreciate any suggestions regarding sideboard or my maindeck choices.
Also, I'm considering going a more creature heavy build with Spark Elemental and Teetering Peaks. I'm not sure witch version is stronger.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions
Love Mikeaus, he'll turn Tooth and Nail into 7GG: You win the game. He's is so full of synergy and combo potential he deserves an EHD deck to himself.
How often do you play the mimeoplasm? In my version of the deck, I only ever reanimate my creatures because most of the time the game will be over before I get to cast say, Jin. (although I have done this once. Turn one: land, Sol Ring, signet. Turn two: land, Harrow, Coalition Relic. Turn four: Jin)
If you cast the mimeoplasm often, you may find Simic Sky Swallower or Inkwell Leviathan good targets for him once you have more ways of getting them to the graveyard. I find when I cast the mimeoplasm in a targettable (is that a word?) form such as Putrefax he dies before successfully doing any damage, but that depends on your meta.
Have you considered Hermit Druid? I know you're trying to stare away from mill, but you gotta get stuff to the graveyard somehow right? Hermit Druid is cheap, and, when you start running less basics, very effective. This doesn't have to be through expensive lands ether. There are plenty of cheap non-basic lands you don't have in yet (bounce lands, pain lands, refuges etc.). I even run some really terrible lands that are pretty much basics plus a really terrible effect that doesn't effect their price too much (e.g. Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers or Centaur Garden) as well as the artifact lands just to make Hermit Druid better.
Tunnel Vision. Again, I know you don't want to mill, but who doesn't want to Tunnel Vision into Living Death?
Finally, if you do happen to have some money to spend on this deck, I recommend investing in Demonic Tutor and Survival of the Fittest. They're expensive for a reason.
Fauna Shaman is one of my personal favorites for the Mimeoplasm. It acts as a tutor while allowing you to dump creatures into your graveyard for reanimation as well as being much cheaper than Survival of the Fittest. True, this also helps the Teneb player, but you actually have the edge here: Your Commander is cheaper and doesn't take a turn to get online.
If you're looking for combo's, my Mimeoplasm list runs Necrotic Ooze, Triskelion and Phyrexian Devourer. This combo is easily enabled with Buried Alive or Fauna Shaman and ether the Mimeoplasm plus another creature in a graveyard, or another random reanimation spell. You simply reanimate the ooze and it gains the devourer's ability to remove the top card of your library from the game to put +1/+1 counters on it equal to that cards mana cost, and Triskelion's ability to remove those counters to deal damage to something. Because Phyrexian Devourer's "7 or greater" ability is triggered, not activated, this is not a problem for the ooze so you can repeat this until all other players are dead. This combo is not optimal however, because a card like devourer is a dead weight if you draw it and if the teneb player runs many non-taneb reanimation spells, this could just lead to him going off from your combo. It pays to wait until you can reanimate the ooze in the same turn before you entomb it.
Anyway, on to the deck:
Doom Blade should be replaced by Go for the Throat.
Minamo, School at Water's Edge Provides you with a way of untapping Grimgrin if you're out of creatures to sac, and try to get a Gravecrawler at the Dark Ascension pre-release
Also, have you considered Elvish Piper as a cheaper way of dropping your fatties?
Also, the following cards off the top of my head are worth considering:
Ant Queen is a powerful token machine who works well with skullclamp and can go infinite with Earthcraft and ether Parallel Lives, Doubling Season, Mana Reflection or Mirari's Wake.
As win conditions, Kamahl, Fist of Krosa and Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite are both very powerful.
Mass removal is one of white's strength's in EDH, so in addition to martial coup, I'd recommend a selection of: March of Souls, Hour of Reckoning and Austere Command as they allow you to destroy your opponents board while leaving your side fairly intact. As protection against mass removal, Dauntless Escort has saved the butt of my Rhys deck countless times.
Finally, Glare of Subdual is insane in any token deck. I's not Opposition by any stretch of the imagination but many decks find this card very hard to beat.
Also, have you considered Sorin Markov?
I actually prefer Thelonite Hermit as hero requires attacking opponents and I tend to lay low in games until I can start to really dominate.
Will update list soon, but have to catch a plane now
[EDIT]: Ok, flight was canceled, so let's do this.
I've made a few changes biased on your susgestions:
- Mikaeus, the Lunarch (Laugh all you will, but the reason for this is I'm finding keeping track of which tokens have how many counters far too confusing)
- Squirrel Nest (Mild synergy with Seedborn Muse and Garruk, and a combo with Earthcraft is not enough to disguise the fact that this is a horrible card on its own.)
- Deranged Hermit (To balance the cost of Eternal Witness)
+ Overwhelming Stampede (This is a temporary addition until i find a replacement. I did find it to be a useful win condition)
+ Eternal Witness
+ Hero of Bladehold
Have now updated original post.
Also, could you please put you deck in tags? you can find instructions for this at http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=12129
Am confused: How can you agree with me about trinket mage when I never mentioned it?
Explosive Vegetation is pretty good ramp and I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss Darksteel Ingot. Ramp is important to this deck for two reasons: The sooner we cast Intet the better, and we don't want a stray Hinder to leave us unable to cast our expensive spells.
Speaking of which, countermagic is always good, and Hinder is good disruption for very general centered decks