'Ey, guys. I've been working on this deck for a few weeks now, but it's still very much in its larval stage. I dub the strategy "aggrombax." It's mostly aggro (yet it's usually just a cheap way to feed the combo portion), a pinch of combo, and a moderate amount of taxation/denial. The main objective is to land Derevi turn two, then proceed to lock down the board while digging for a game-winning combo or Craterhoof/Beastmaster Ascension.
Current Concerns:
- It's come a long way from being a pure glass cannon deck, yet sometimes it still feels fragile. I'm wondering if it's just a weakness I need to accept for this particular strategy or if there are tiny ways to help alleviate it without losing too much value.
- Some utility creatures aren't pulling their weight nearly every game, and I'm wondering if I can just cut them for more tiny, evasive weenies.
- Its redundancy falls off every now and then, and most times it's when I don't get Edric out. I used to run a few "{T}: Draw a card (maybe discard one, too)" guys; maybe I should consider bringing one or two back.
I'd cut Pact of Negation for Flusterstorm. Pact is only good the turn you're going to combo, because otherwise it's a Time Walk in your opponent's favor. Gaddock Teeg hoses your Wargate, Chord of Calling, Planar Portal, Lux Cannon, Green Sun's Zenith - these cards are your bread and butter. He's hurting you more than your opponents. If you're in the mood for a hate bear, run something like Meddling Mage or Scavenging Ooze.
I've considered that Gaddock Teeg has the potential to either wreck my plans or be a dead card. On the flipside, though, I have consistent ways to make him not ruin everything for me. it's easy enough for me to land any of those beforehand (including Pod, allowing me to sac the ****er whenever I'm sick of him) or get rid of him with either of my altars. I'm also not too worried about what others can play that's more threatening than my weenie army while he's out. Your advice has merit to it, though; I'll hafta test him further and see if all I said holds up.
As for Pact, it's been surprisingly useful, since, in most cases that I use it, I have a developed boardstate and can untap my lands again post-combat. Of course, I'm not getting much value out of that; I'm just bringing myself down to a non-Derevi player's level, lol. So I'll definitely give Flusterstorm a shot, thanks.
The problem with that is that if you drop Teeg early, you're unable to drop Birthing Pod later and sac him. If you wait until the mid-late game to drop him, he's almost wasted as your opponents are going to have the resources to deal with him. In a tuned swarm list running very few noncreature spells, Teeg is a house. In your list I see him as more of a liability. On that note, how much testing have you gotten in with him in the list where you actually played him?
I can see pact being useful, but I'd almost never run it over a good, old-fashioned Counterspell, which you'll pretty much always have the mana for. There are just too many ways for people to **** with your mana base if you cast pact during their main phases. Pact of Negation is at home in fast, dedicated combo lists and it's best used as combo protection on the turn you combo off since you never plan on seeing another untap step.
You're right, Gaddock Teeg messes with me way too much. It's not often, but it's often enough to justify cutting his midget ass. He was a more recent addition that shined in a few games, but now he's just wearing out his welcome.
As for pact, I tried testing without it on Cockatrice, and I was really sad when I didn't have it handy and my combos were getting disrupted, which is usually along the lines of exiling a recur-enabler in the graveyard while I'm trying to loop stuff or responding to Deadeye's soulbond trigger. Not sure if it means that I need to bring it back, though, since the combos don't happen as often as a dedicated combo list's, or if I just need to pack some more cheap counters.
Edit: You're running a decent density of artifacts; how is Kataki working in your list? Do you ever run into trouble with it?
None so far. I've always gotten the better deal than any of my opponents, thanks to Derevi, and anytime I have more than a couple artifacts on the board, I'm comboing out.
If you still need to untap your artifacts on other people's turn, why not play both? The prophet is the true value-girl
Trust me when I say that Prophet's my homegirl. She performs admirably in my goodstuff deck, but I have many more guys that can give me tons of card advantage like Mulldrifter or Prime Speaker Zegana in that list that go well with her. In this, I have Coiling Oracle, and that's it. Everything else either tutors or gets me CA during the combat damage step, and in most cases I can dump every creature I drew right after.
Seedborn, as you suspected, untaps my artifacts and gives me enough mana for counters. I don't have a huge amount of rocks (or counters, but, as ajacobik suggested, I should run some more), but it gives Planar Portal and Lux Cannon some more pre-combo value. It also goes well with my land hate, and you could say the same for Prophet, but I just don't feel that I can spare the room.
Also, she's redundant with Derevi's activated ability, but that's a minor issue compared to the everything else. If this was a goodstuff list, I'd probably run her, even if Derevi was the general.
did u consider cards like : cowardice, nature's will, second sunrise/faith's reward/ghostway,..
Why don't you play glare of subdual/opposition and static orb/winter orb ?
I considered cards like faith's reward, but I just decided it wasn't worth the space.
By the way, I have winter orb on the list. That, Hokori, and Armageddon seems to be about all I need for land hate. I might try and find room for static orb, but I don't think I need much more denial than what I currently have.
To be honest, I don't think you really need much more than Hokori for land hate here. He does a good job at what he does and he's easily searchable and reusable thanks to green.
Criticism encouraged!
3 Derevi, Empyrial Tactician
Creatures: 35
0 Dryad Arbor
1 Arbor Elf
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Cursecatcher
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Judge's Familiar
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Mother of Runes
1 Noble Hierarch
1 Serra Ascendant
2 Bloom Tender
2 Cloud of Faeries
2 Coiling Oracle
2 Erayo, Soratami Ascendant
2 Kataki, War's Wage
2 Looter il-Kor
2 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Saffi Eriksdotter
3 Aven Mindcensor
3 Edric, Spymaster of Trest
3 Eternal Witness
3 Trygon Predator
4 Glen Elendra Archmage
4 Hokori, Dust Drinker
4 Tradewind Rider
4 Venser, Shaper Savant
5 Karmic Guide
5 Peregrine Drake
5 Reveillark
5 Seedborn Muse
6 Deadeye Navigator
6 Sun Titan
7 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
8 Craterhoof Behemoth
0 Mana Crypt
0 Mox Diamond
1 Skullclamp
1 Sol Ring
2 Altar of Dementia
2 Lightning Greaves
2 Nim Deathmantle
2 Winter Orb
3 Ashnod's Altar
4 Bident of Thassa
4 Birthing Pod
4 Lux Cannon
6 Planar Portal
Enchantments: 6
1 Burgeoning
1 Utopia Sprawl
1 Wild Growth
2 Survival of the Fittest
2 Sylvan Library
3 Beastmaster Ascension
Instants: 5
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Worldly Tutor
2 Arcane Denial
2 Remand
3 Chord of Calling
Sorceries: 6
1 Gitaxian Probe
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Sylvan Tutor
3 Wargate
4 Armageddon
7 Tooth and Nail
Lands: 34
0 Arid Mesa
0 Breeding Pool
0 Brushland
0 Command Tower
0 Flooded Grove
0 Flooded Strand
0 Gaea's Cradle
0 Glacial Fortress
0 Hallowed Fountain
0 Hinterland Harbor
0 Marsh Flats
0 Misty Rainforest
0 Polluted Delta
0 Razorverge Thicket
0 Savannah
0 Scalding Tarn
0 Seachrome Coast
0 Sunpetal Grove
0 Temple Garden
0 Tropical Island
0 Tundra
0 Verdant Catacombs
0 Windswept Heath
0 Wooded Foothills
0 Forest (5)
0 Island (3)
0 Plains (2)
Current Concerns:
- It's come a long way from being a pure glass cannon deck, yet sometimes it still feels fragile. I'm wondering if it's just a weakness I need to accept for this particular strategy or if there are tiny ways to help alleviate it without losing too much value.
- Some utility creatures aren't pulling their weight nearly every game, and I'm wondering if I can just cut them for more tiny, evasive weenies.
- Its redundancy falls off every now and then, and most times it's when I don't get Edric out. I used to run a few "{T}: Draw a card (maybe discard one, too)" guys; maybe I should consider bringing one or two back.
Out:
- Cloudgoat Ranger
- Daze
- Gaddock Teeg
- Pact of Negation
In:
+ Burgeoning
+ Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
+ Glen Elendra Archmage
+ Venser, Shaper Savant
I've considered that Gaddock Teeg has the potential to either wreck my plans or be a dead card. On the flipside, though, I have consistent ways to make him not ruin everything for me. it's easy enough for me to land any of those beforehand (including Pod, allowing me to sac the ****er whenever I'm sick of him) or get rid of him with either of my altars. I'm also not too worried about what others can play that's more threatening than my weenie army while he's out. Your advice has merit to it, though; I'll hafta test him further and see if all I said holds up.
As for Pact, it's been surprisingly useful, since, in most cases that I use it, I have a developed boardstate and can untap my lands again post-combat. Of course, I'm not getting much value out of that; I'm just bringing myself down to a non-Derevi player's level, lol. So I'll definitely give Flusterstorm a shot, thanks.
You're right, Gaddock Teeg messes with me way too much. It's not often, but it's often enough to justify cutting his midget ass. He was a more recent addition that shined in a few games, but now he's just wearing out his welcome.
As for pact, I tried testing without it on Cockatrice, and I was really sad when I didn't have it handy and my combos were getting disrupted, which is usually along the lines of exiling a recur-enabler in the graveyard while I'm trying to loop stuff or responding to Deadeye's soulbond trigger. Not sure if it means that I need to bring it back, though, since the combos don't happen as often as a dedicated combo list's, or if I just need to pack some more cheap counters.
If you still need to untap your artifacts on other people's turn, why not play both? The prophet is the true value-girl
None so far. I've always gotten the better deal than any of my opponents, thanks to Derevi, and anytime I have more than a couple artifacts on the board, I'm comboing out.
Trust me when I say that Prophet's my homegirl. She performs admirably in my goodstuff deck, but I have many more guys that can give me tons of card advantage like Mulldrifter or Prime Speaker Zegana in that list that go well with her. In this, I have Coiling Oracle, and that's it. Everything else either tutors or gets me CA during the combat damage step, and in most cases I can dump every creature I drew right after.
Seedborn, as you suspected, untaps my artifacts and gives me enough mana for counters. I don't have a huge amount of rocks (or counters, but, as ajacobik suggested, I should run some more), but it gives Planar Portal and Lux Cannon some more pre-combo value. It also goes well with my land hate, and you could say the same for Prophet, but I just don't feel that I can spare the room.
Also, she's redundant with Derevi's activated ability, but that's a minor issue compared to the everything else. If this was a goodstuff list, I'd probably run her, even if Derevi was the general.
I was speaking of her activated ability that cheats her in, not the triggered one.
I'm definitely adding burgeoning, though. Seems like a better exploration, which I recently cut.
It has a better chance to remain useful when you start getting buttloads of card advantage, which usually happens mid-game.
I considered cards like faith's reward, but I just decided it wasn't worth the space.
By the way, I have winter orb on the list. That, Hokori, and Armageddon seems to be about all I need for land hate. I might try and find room for static orb, but I don't think I need much more denial than what I currently have.
I don't know if you're looking for them but Azami, Lady of Scrolls, Arcanis the Omnipotent and Thawing Glaciers are all really awesome with Derevi. You're running around four wizards already so Azami's not terrible.
Captain Sisay looks cool too. You're running at least six other legendary permanents and she can be found by sacrificing Deveri to Birthing Pod.