I know everyone and their mom is building a Melek deck this season, but I'm in love with Ral Zarek, so even though I'm hopping on the Melek bandwagon -- in spirit, Ral Zarek is the general of this deck.
My goal with this deck is to infuse it with the unique flavor of Ral and Ravnica. I essentially built it by brainstorming the different things I associate with Ral – so the decklist is packed with planeswalkers, Izzet spells, and thunder- and natural disaster-themed cards. And, of course, mazes! The deck also includes every card in the game I can think of with a picture of Ral on it, unless I've forgotten one of them.
The game plan here is to run out a ton of giant X spells and win by one of the many Fireball/Earthquake effects or by drawing a ton of cards with Psychosis Crawler out. Backup plan is to beat down with drakes or factory-workers.
I'd appreciate help on this. My main concerns are that this list seems a little unoriginal. There are a lot of powerful spells like Insurrection and Psychosis Crawler that I threw in to make sure the game didn't stall, but everyone else in the room is probably playing those. So I'm looking to maybe take out the staples and find lesser-played (and preferably inexpensive) cards to improve the deck a bit. I'm trying to stay away from bribery, obliterate, and time stretch type effects and prefer to minimize tutoring -- although it would be nice to find a way to reliably tutor out Ral. Any advice?
Thanks for the tip! Not sure if Cloven Casting fits my deck because I don't have many valid targets and it doesn't do much on its own. I can't find a slot for Reverberate but I'll test a bit more and see if maybe it's better than Increasing Vengeance in my meta.
I played this deck a bit and noticed that, while Djinn Illuminatus is potentially devastating, it doesn't combo with many cards in my deck and it draws removal like a lightning rod. Also, Mana Flare is a card that can potentially devastate me since I'm not packing enough countermagic backup. So I decided to go for a slightly more combo-ish approach:
I'm torn between running Turnabout, which plays well with my sorceries, and Reset, which turns Firemind's Foresight into a win con.
Currently considering cutting Insurrection since it's a big haymaker but has barely any synergy with the rest of the deck. The two pillow fort enchantments are also on the cutting block since they don't help me survive against Voltron decks, but I do need help not becoming a target of opportunity early game. Anyone have suggestions?
I know everyone and their mom is building a Melek deck this season, but I'm in love with Ral Zarek, so even though I'm hopping on the Melek bandwagon -- in spirit, Ral Zarek is the general of this deck.
My goal with this deck is to infuse it with the unique flavor of Ral and Ravnica. I essentially built it by brainstorming the different things I associate with Ral – so the decklist is packed with planeswalkers, Izzet spells, and thunder- and natural disaster-themed cards. And, of course, mazes! The deck also includes every card in the game I can think of with a picture of Ral on it, unless I've forgotten one of them.
The game plan here is to run out a ton of giant X spells and win by one of the many Fireball/Earthquake effects or by drawing a ton of cards with Psychosis Crawler out. Backup plan is to beat down with drakes or factory-workers.
I'd appreciate help on this. My main concerns are that this list seems a little unoriginal. There are a lot of powerful spells like Insurrection and Psychosis Crawler that I threw in to make sure the game didn't stall, but everyone else in the room is probably playing those. So I'm looking to maybe take out the staples and find lesser-played (and preferably inexpensive) cards to improve the deck a bit. I'm trying to stay away from bribery, obliterate, and time stretch type effects and prefer to minimize tutoring -- although it would be nice to find a way to reliably tutor out Ral. Any advice?
1 Melek, Izzet Paragon
Planeswalkers (6)
1 Chandra Nalaar
1 Chandra the Firebrand
1 Jace, Architect of Thought
1 Jace Beleren
1 Koth of the Hammer
1 Ral Zarek
Instants (17)
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
1 Brainstorm
1 Comet Storm
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Firemind's Foresight
1 High Tide
1 Hinder
1 Homing Lightning
1 Increasing Vengeance
1 Muddle the Mixture
1 Overwhelming Intellect
1 Prophetic Bolt
1 Reiterate
1 Spell Burst
1 Spell Crumple
1 Turn / Burn
1 Turnabout
Sorceries (14)
1 Blasphemous Act
1 Blast of Genius
1 Blatant Thievery
1 Fanning the Flames
1 Insurrection
1 Invoke the Firemind
1 Mana Geyser
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Mind Spring
1 Molten Disaster
1 Mystic Retrieval
1 Notorious Throng
1 Ponder
1 Rolling Thunder
1 Basalt Monolith
1 Crystal Ball
1 Doubling Cube
1 Dreamstone Hedron
1 Isochron Scepter
1 Izzet Signet
1 Mana Vault
1 Proteus Staff
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sun Droplet
1 Venser's Journal
Enchantments (5)
1 Collective Restraint
1 Iceberg
1 Mystic Remora
1 Propaganda
1 Rhystic Study
Creatures (8)
1 Charmbreaker Devils
1 Creepy Doll
1 Nin, the Pain Artist
1 Nivix Guildmage
1 Nucklavee
1 Psychosis Crawler
1 Stuffy Doll
1 Talrand, Sky Summoner
Lands (38)
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Halimar Depths
1 High Market
1 Izzet Boilerworks
1 Izzet Guildgate
1 Madblind Mountain
1 Maze of Ith
1 Mishra's Factory
1 Mystifying Maze
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Shivan Reef
1 Soldevi Excavations
1 Thawing Glaciers
1 Tolaria West
1 Urza's Factory
12 Island
11 Mountain
Thanks to Rivenor at Miraculous Recovery Signatures for this sick sig.
UGMomir Vig, Simic VisionaryUG
URBNicol BolasURB
BGWGhave, Fungus TribalBGW
WUBSydri, Galvanic GeniusWUB
Horde
Hydra Horde
Thanks for the tip! Not sure if Cloven Casting fits my deck because I don't have many valid targets and it doesn't do much on its own. I can't find a slot for Reverberate but I'll test a bit more and see if maybe it's better than Increasing Vengeance in my meta.
I played this deck a bit and noticed that, while Djinn Illuminatus is potentially devastating, it doesn't combo with many cards in my deck and it draws removal like a lightning rod. Also, Mana Flare is a card that can potentially devastate me since I'm not packing enough countermagic backup. So I decided to go for a slightly more combo-ish approach:
1 Mana Flare
1 Djinn Illuminatus
1 Merchant Scroll
I'm torn between running Turnabout, which plays well with my sorceries, and Reset, which turns Firemind's Foresight into a win con.
Currently considering cutting Insurrection since it's a big haymaker but has barely any synergy with the rest of the deck. The two pillow fort enchantments are also on the cutting block since they don't help me survive against Voltron decks, but I do need help not becoming a target of opportunity early game. Anyone have suggestions?