So, I recently got my siblings into magic and have decided to build them decks for Christmas. We started with the Game Night box to find out what everyone liked and now we're ready to move on to real decks. My brother is going to be playing G/B Saprolings and I'll be playing R/B Madness Vampires. My sister liked the board wipes in blue, enchants in white, and the big creatures in green, namely, hydras. With this in mind, I thought I'd try to build a midrange G/W hydra deck after realizing G/R hydras was no go and that G/W control would be too oppressive for our playstyle. The idea was to use elves to ramp into hydras, and use the other creatures and enchants to generate draw/protect the hydras.
Since it's just kitchen table magic, I'm trying to keep everyone's deck relatively equal in power and cost (30-40$) Unfortunately, I'm not great at deckbuilding. I haven't played since college and I only ever made a handful of decks for casual play. I know my focus is too broad but it feels like all of these cards are necessary and I can't figure out how to narrow it down. I'm open to any and all suggestions on what to do about it, changing colors, themes, etc. Here's what I have so far:
You should probably do one or the other. Saprolings and Madness Vampires both are easy one-theme strategies, but aura hydras is two and that could put her at a big downside. Mostly because getting a creature blown up when it has auras on it hurts far more than newer players can ever know.
I recommend going either Bogles(which could easily be the best deck at the table) or hydra themed counters(which can also be huge).
Given she's newer, she should probably use counter-based hydras. Managorger Hydra is the absolute best here, especially if you're playing more than 1v1. This is mostly because it can be played on t2 w/elves, and it's also just a fun card, which should be one of the focuses for this sort of playgroup.
If she still wants enchantments, cards like Hydra's Growth and Forced Adaptation provide counters to go with the Hydra theme, but they're still auras so be careful. Colossal Majesty and Journey to Nowhere are still fine cards without an enchantment them, though, and should be played regardless.
From your list, I'd keep:
Avacyn's Pilgrim
Banishing Light
Colossal Majesty
Death's Presence is a fine card for table, keep it if you want
Dromoka's Command
End Hostilities as a panic button
Frontier Siege is fine if you want it
Journey to Nowhere
Llanowar Elves
Loxodon Smiter
Managorger Hydra
Prey Upon's fine
Protean Hydra
Shalai is great
Solidarity is fine with enough counters.
That leaves 28 cards, probably want ~7 more. for 25 or so lands. Hydras can use that mana, and Colossal Majesty can keep your hand full later on.
Hydra's Growth seems like a super flavorful card to add here, and it'll get out of hand really quick. You can find them at your local game store, they're from the last set printed so whichever store you choose should be guaranteed to carry them. Probably ~$0.50. Sphere of Safety in some number would also be great, because her massive hydras will make her a target. Again, about 50 cents apiece.
If it helps at all, remember to choose one them and go with it. When deciding what cards to use, make sure they fit the them. For instance, if you choose Madness Vampires, you would play mostly Madness because the Vampire half is incidental, and also SOI and EDM gave a lot of support for the combined strategy. In essence, it's one theme because of the card support. In contrast, Hydras and Auras don't really complement each other, nor are they combined in any way. It's one or the other. However, there are still plenty of non-aura enchantments that can help out the hydra gameplan.
Good luck, and I wish you great times with your siblings.
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Since it's just kitchen table magic, I'm trying to keep everyone's deck relatively equal in power and cost (30-40$) Unfortunately, I'm not great at deckbuilding. I haven't played since college and I only ever made a handful of decks for casual play. I know my focus is too broad but it feels like all of these cards are necessary and I can't figure out how to narrow it down. I'm open to any and all suggestions on what to do about it, changing colors, themes, etc. Here's what I have so far:
2x Ancestral Mask
2x Avacyn's Pilgrim
2x Banishing Light
2x Boar Umbra
2x Canopy Cover
2x Colossal Majesty
1x Death's Presence
2x Dromoka's Command
1x End Hostilities
1x Frontier Siege
2x Gift of Orzhova
2x Heliod's Pilgrim
2x Herald of the Pantheon
2x Journey to Nowhere
4x Llanowar Elves
3x Loxodon Smiter
3x Managorger Hydra
2x Prey Upon
3x Protean Hydra
1x Shalai, Voice of Plenty
2x Solidarity of Heroes
2x Spider Umbra
You should probably do one or the other. Saprolings and Madness Vampires both are easy one-theme strategies, but aura hydras is two and that could put her at a big downside. Mostly because getting a creature blown up when it has auras on it hurts far more than newer players can ever know.
I recommend going either Bogles(which could easily be the best deck at the table) or hydra themed counters(which can also be huge).
Given she's newer, she should probably use counter-based hydras. Managorger Hydra is the absolute best here, especially if you're playing more than 1v1. This is mostly because it can be played on t2 w/elves, and it's also just a fun card, which should be one of the focuses for this sort of playgroup.
If she still wants enchantments, cards like Hydra's Growth and Forced Adaptation provide counters to go with the Hydra theme, but they're still auras so be careful. Colossal Majesty and Journey to Nowhere are still fine cards without an enchantment them, though, and should be played regardless.
From your list, I'd keep:
Avacyn's Pilgrim
Banishing Light
Colossal Majesty
Death's Presence is a fine card for table, keep it if you want
Dromoka's Command
End Hostilities as a panic button
Frontier Siege is fine if you want it
Journey to Nowhere
Llanowar Elves
Loxodon Smiter
Managorger Hydra
Prey Upon's fine
Protean Hydra
Shalai is great
Solidarity is fine with enough counters.
That leaves 28 cards, probably want ~7 more. for 25 or so lands. Hydras can use that mana, and Colossal Majesty can keep your hand full later on.
Hydra's Growth seems like a super flavorful card to add here, and it'll get out of hand really quick. You can find them at your local game store, they're from the last set printed so whichever store you choose should be guaranteed to carry them. Probably ~$0.50.
Sphere of Safety in some number would also be great, because her massive hydras will make her a target. Again, about 50 cents apiece.
She also might like Glare of Subdual, Brave the Sands, and Wellspring might be pretty funny.
If it helps at all, remember to choose one them and go with it. When deciding what cards to use, make sure they fit the them. For instance, if you choose Madness Vampires, you would play mostly Madness because the Vampire half is incidental, and also SOI and EDM gave a lot of support for the combined strategy. In essence, it's one theme because of the card support. In contrast, Hydras and Auras don't really complement each other, nor are they combined in any way. It's one or the other. However, there are still plenty of non-aura enchantments that can help out the hydra gameplan.
Good luck, and I wish you great times with your siblings.