A friend of mine has asked me to build her a deck. She's getting lazy again!
She wants to play with big X-spells but as yet hasn't told me what colours she wants to play with.
Now she did say she wanted to be able to chuck in whatever she felt like playing with.
I'm assuming that means green and one or two other colours, possibly a tri-land theme for cheap mana-fixing.
I'm thinking the best way of tackling this might be to start with green for land(ing) and X-spells for some control.
Green also gives us Hornet Nest which loves Earthquake and friends.
Thing is, the nature of large mana makes me wonder if Protean Hydra, Primordial Hydra etc. might be a better way to go.
(I'll have to see if that's what she's wanting)
Has anyone built a deck just concentrating on X-spells before?
How did it look?
I have a red one, with a list floating around somewhere. The basic idea is 12-Post, Doubling Cube, a lot of red X spells and large dragons, along with a couple of defensive critters to stay afloat until the deck redlines.
If you're heading down the green route, I strongly recommend turning this into a Genesis Wave deck. If you have massive gobs of colourless mana thanks to the Posts, this is by far the best thing I can think of doing with it all (unless you want to go for the janky Helix Pinnacle win).
Trying to play 12-Post in a tricolor deck seems pretty stinkin' greedy to me. Personally, I wouldn't go any more than 2 colors - you really only have 14 or so land slots after the posts for colored mana.
I would go either green or blue. I agree with Bloom... 12-Post green, to me, equals Genesis Wave. Throw any and every big fatty in the deck you want, spew it out with Genesis Wave. Get the wave back with Eternal Witness, rinse, repeat, etc... TLDR: cast your whole deck, and then kill the table.
Bloom;
How useful is Doubling Cube? Is it necessary for the deck to do it's thing well, or is it kinda win-more?
EDIT: How good is the mono-red route? Is it a case of taking down the whole table while you commit suicide via Molten Disaster etc., or could you actually survive pretty well?
Bloom;
How useful is Doubling Cube? Is it necessary for the deck to do it's thing well, or is it kinda win-more?
EDIT: How good is the mono-red route? Is it a case of taking down the whole table while you commit suicide via Molten Disaster etc., or could you actually survive pretty well?
Doubling Cube is just an accelerant, really. You need 7 mana before you start making gains with it, but you can get from 7 mana to KILL RANGE very quickly after that. If you're winning via X spells, it's probably worth it (just because you'll go from 0 to 100 faster).
Going completely off the top of my head, my mono-red deck is currently looking something along the lines of:
Basic idea is to turn the mana up to 11 very quickly with Posts, Doubling Cube and Soulbright Flamekin (which is actually secretly quite good in this build... I've been stuck with nothing but three posts before, and it ramps and colour-fixes my lack of red to boot). And then blow people off the table one by one. It's actually really fun to play. I definitely recall a five-player game once where I gave each of the other four a lethal Banefire to the head, one at a time.
There are obviously better things to run in some of the slots. Aetherflame Wall is a complete meat shield here, and there are probably better options (Aether Membrane springs to mind... I don't have any copies of that... maybe Wall of Tanglecord too). There are probably a few better finisher creatures out there too (my cube stole a couple of them... I'd probably run Utvara Hellkite if I had my pick... it's not the most efficient, but it's definitely the most fun). There's probably a fair argument to throw Dragon Whisperer in here too.
If you want the balls-and-all, win-at-all-costs version, swap the burn for blanket damage (e.g. Earthquake, Fault Line) and insert Glacial Chasms to taste.
EDIT: Because our card linker can't understand "AE", for the record, Aetherflame Wall is 1R 0/4 wall with firebreathing that can block shadowers. Nothing more. It's as common as the weeds in my garden.
Depends on which turn it is, IMHO. More Posts accelerate faster earlier, Doubling Cube accelerates faster later. I like to take a bet each way.
I've also been surprised by the fact that, now that I've had the red build together for quite a while, my playgroup fears an early Doubling Cube, even when it's obviously going to be useless to me for the first few turns. They will go out of their way to remove it, even while I am laying down Expedition Maps and ramping with more Posts anyway. It's like having two separate ramp methods in the one deck, and using one of them as a decoy.
Another card worth considering for the green build - Gelatinous Genesis. I've seen X=33 before. It was fun.
Also, I managed to find my Blue Eldrazi 8-Post thread. It's a somewhat durdly deck on purpose, but the thread has some pretty good ideas on how to take it from Durdle to Spike.
I've suggested a few things, see where we go from here. She's done the whole Mono-Green Eldrazi thing (P-titan) before but wants something different.
In my mind, the fastest way to get massive mana is thru Sylvan Scrying & Expedition Map with Trinket Mage in support.
I'm thinking U/G will be the best way here.
With multiple ways to land tutor, Trinket Mage here must serve as a lategame option, so I'd thinking Orochi Hatchery. Any other options here for Trinky?
I also suggested a colourless path with Doubling Cube and All is Dust, Spine of Ish Sah etc. with Prisms to get mana for Bish-Bosh to use Spines forever more.
I'm not sold on Doubling Cube, but I'll see what my friend wants to do.
Regardless of which way she wants to do it, I'm convinced she's going to need some hardcore lifegain to survive aggro.
I'm thinking Phyrexian Metamorph's to get to 6mana+ is a decent option.
The posts help here, but I'm gonna be asking her if she owns any Wurmcoil Engine's, Pelakka Wurm's etc.
Any other suggestions here boys and girls?
Another card worth considering for the green build - Gelatinous Genesis. I've seen X=33 before. It was fun.
That's one of the cards I suggested to her too. I love the card. It's so much better than Goblin Offensive!
Here's the rough shell I suggested to her;
1x Academy Ruins
1x Alchemist's Refuge because dropping Disk before your turn starts.
4x Cloudpost
4x Glimmerpost
4x Vesuva
10 U/G lands (like Thornwood Falls) for a total of 24.
That's ~48 cards.
After this it will quickly fill up with removal (other than Disk), draw, creatures like Phyrexian Metamorph &/or Mulldrifter or hydra-types, and maybe even a couple win-more choices like Sigil of Distinction or Stream of Life (stream unlikely ha ha).
One card that grabbed my attention was Krakilin, as it's able to survive a Disk!
The reason why I'm suggesting Disk to regain some lost tempo, is that I know she has them (and likes using them) and that she owns Academy Ruins already.
Cloud of Faeries is one I can't make my mind up on.
It's a creature, kind of a draw spell, and can also act as ramp by untapping cloudposts. But do we have room for it? Hush could fit here too.
With multiple ways to land tutor, Trinket Mage here must serve as a lategame option, so I'd thinking Orochi Hatchery. Any other options here for Trinky?
I've used Snake Basket in that slot before, too. It's not too bad.
The other thing Trinky would love to fetch in this deck is probably Amulet of Vigor, but those things are worth a pretty penny now. It'd bring all of the Posts in untapped, but it would probably also tap out your wallet getting a playset.
The other card you'll really want Trinky to fetch is Skullclamp, especially if you're planning on spamming the board with snakes. Insert two further paragraphs here from Prid3, drooling over how utterly broken Clamp is and why you should have four in the decklist.
Finally, the classic combo with Trinky is Riptide Laboratory. Again, not the cheapest of cards, although it has dropped in recent years.
A friend of mine has asked me to build her a deck. She's getting lazy again!
She wants to play with big X-spells but as yet hasn't told me what colours she wants to play with.
The obvious plan to me would be these below as I know she already has them;
Glimmerpost
Cloudpost
Vesuva
Sylvan Scrying
Expedition Map
Now she did say she wanted to be able to chuck in whatever she felt like playing with.
I'm assuming that means green and one or two other colours, possibly a tri-land theme for cheap mana-fixing.
I'm thinking the best way of tackling this might be to start with green for land(ing) and X-spells for some control.
Green also gives us Hornet Nest which loves Earthquake and friends.
Thing is, the nature of large mana makes me wonder if Protean Hydra, Primordial Hydra etc. might be a better way to go.
(I'll have to see if that's what she's wanting)
Has anyone built a deck just concentrating on X-spells before?
How did it look?
CHeers!
If you're heading down the green route, I strongly recommend turning this into a Genesis Wave deck. If you have massive gobs of colourless mana thanks to the Posts, this is by far the best thing I can think of doing with it all (unless you want to go for the janky Helix Pinnacle win).
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I would go either green or blue. I agree with Bloom... 12-Post green, to me, equals Genesis Wave. Throw any and every big fatty in the deck you want, spew it out with Genesis Wave. Get the wave back with Eternal Witness, rinse, repeat, etc... TLDR: cast your whole deck, and then kill the table.
Obviously, with blue, you would replace Sylvan Scrying with Trinket Mage - and from there you ramp into Nevinyrral's Disk + Capsize, Inkwell Leviathan, Spell Burst, Sphinx's Revelation (if you take white too), Rite of Replication, etc...
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Bloom;
How useful is Doubling Cube? Is it necessary for the deck to do it's thing well, or is it kinda win-more?
EDIT: How good is the mono-red route? Is it a case of taking down the whole table while you commit suicide via Molten Disaster etc., or could you actually survive pretty well?
Doubling Cube is just an accelerant, really. You need 7 mana before you start making gains with it, but you can get from 7 mana to KILL RANGE very quickly after that. If you're winning via X spells, it's probably worth it (just because you'll go from 0 to 100 faster).
Going completely off the top of my head, my mono-red deck is currently looking something along the lines of:
4 Cloudpost
4 Glimmerpost
4 Vesuva
1 Thespian's Stage
4 Great Furnace
6 Mountain
Creatures - 10
2 Aetherflame Wall
2 Soulbright Flamekin
2 Steel Hellkite
2 Magmatic Force
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Shard Phoenix
4 Doubling Cube
4 Banefire
2 Comet Storm
1 Fanning the Flames
1 Red Sun's Zenith
1 Dragon Roost
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Elixir of Immortality
3 Molten Psyche
2 Reforge the Soul
1 Howl of the Horde
1 Wild Ricochet
1 Chaos Warp
2 Lightning Bolt
1 Chandra, the Firebrand
1 Chandra Nalaar
Basic idea is to turn the mana up to 11 very quickly with Posts, Doubling Cube and Soulbright Flamekin (which is actually secretly quite good in this build... I've been stuck with nothing but three posts before, and it ramps and colour-fixes my lack of red to boot). And then blow people off the table one by one. It's actually really fun to play. I definitely recall a five-player game once where I gave each of the other four a lethal Banefire to the head, one at a time.
There are obviously better things to run in some of the slots. Aetherflame Wall is a complete meat shield here, and there are probably better options (Aether Membrane springs to mind... I don't have any copies of that... maybe Wall of Tanglecord too). There are probably a few better finisher creatures out there too (my cube stole a couple of them... I'd probably run Utvara Hellkite if I had my pick... it's not the most efficient, but it's definitely the most fun). There's probably a fair argument to throw Dragon Whisperer in here too.
If you want the balls-and-all, win-at-all-costs version, swap the burn for blanket damage (e.g. Earthquake, Fault Line) and insert Glacial Chasms to taste.
EDIT: Because our card linker can't understand "AE", for the record, Aetherflame Wall is 1R 0/4 wall with firebreathing that can block shadowers. Nothing more. It's as common as the weeds in my garden.
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Depends on which turn it is, IMHO. More Posts accelerate faster earlier, Doubling Cube accelerates faster later. I like to take a bet each way.
I've also been surprised by the fact that, now that I've had the red build together for quite a while, my playgroup fears an early Doubling Cube, even when it's obviously going to be useless to me for the first few turns. They will go out of their way to remove it, even while I am laying down Expedition Maps and ramping with more Posts anyway. It's like having two separate ramp methods in the one deck, and using one of them as a decoy.
Another card worth considering for the green build - Gelatinous Genesis. I've seen X=33 before. It was fun.
Also, I managed to find my Blue Eldrazi 8-Post thread. It's a somewhat durdly deck on purpose, but the thread has some pretty good ideas on how to take it from Durdle to Spike.
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I've suggested a few things, see where we go from here. She's done the whole Mono-Green Eldrazi thing (P-titan) before but wants something different.
In my mind, the fastest way to get massive mana is thru Sylvan Scrying & Expedition Map with Trinket Mage in support.
I'm thinking U/G will be the best way here.
With multiple ways to land tutor, Trinket Mage here must serve as a lategame option, so I'd thinking Orochi Hatchery. Any other options here for Trinky?
I also suggested a colourless path with Doubling Cube and All is Dust, Spine of Ish Sah etc. with Prisms to get mana for Bish-Bosh to use Spines forever more.
I'm not sold on Doubling Cube, but I'll see what my friend wants to do.
Regardless of which way she wants to do it, I'm convinced she's going to need some hardcore lifegain to survive aggro.
I'm thinking Phyrexian Metamorph's to get to 6mana+ is a decent option.
The posts help here, but I'm gonna be asking her if she owns any Wurmcoil Engine's, Pelakka Wurm's etc.
Any other suggestions here boys and girls?
That's one of the cards I suggested to her too. I love the card. It's so much better than Goblin Offensive!
Here's the rough shell I suggested to her;
1x Academy Ruins
1x Alchemist's Refuge because dropping Disk before your turn starts.
4x Cloudpost
4x Glimmerpost
4x Vesuva
10 U/G lands (like Thornwood Falls) for a total of 24.
4x Sylvan Scrying
4x Expedition Map
1x Orochi Hatchery
4x Trinket Mage
3x Nevinyrral's Disk
1x Mind's Eye
2x Steel Hellkite
1x Planar Portal
2x Gelatinous Genesis
2x Rite of Replication
1x Spitting Image
1x Wurmcalling
That's ~48 cards.
After this it will quickly fill up with removal (other than Disk), draw, creatures like Phyrexian Metamorph &/or Mulldrifter or hydra-types, and maybe even a couple win-more choices like Sigil of Distinction or Stream of Life (stream unlikely ha ha).
One card that grabbed my attention was Krakilin, as it's able to survive a Disk!
The reason why I'm suggesting Disk to regain some lost tempo, is that I know she has them (and likes using them) and that she owns Academy Ruins already.
Cloud of Faeries is one I can't make my mind up on.
It's a creature, kind of a draw spell, and can also act as ramp by untapping cloudposts. But do we have room for it?
Hush could fit here too.
Thoughts?
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I've used Snake Basket in that slot before, too. It's not too bad.
The other thing Trinky would love to fetch in this deck is probably Amulet of Vigor, but those things are worth a pretty penny now. It'd bring all of the Posts in untapped, but it would probably also tap out your wallet getting a playset.
The other card you'll really want Trinky to fetch is Skullclamp, especially if you're planning on spamming the board with snakes. Insert two further paragraphs here from Prid3, drooling over how utterly broken Clamp is and why you should have four in the decklist.
Finally, the classic combo with Trinky is Riptide Laboratory. Again, not the cheapest of cards, although it has dropped in recent years.
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You've likely used Snake Basket in place of Hatchery before, but you haven't used it as a Trinket target.
Ha! Good point!
More coffee for me...
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1x Academy Ruins
1x *Special Land* like Alchemist's Refuge, Glacial Chasm, Yavimaya Hollow etc.
4x Cloudpost
4x Glimmerpost
4x Vesuva
U/G lands for a total of 24 lands.
2x Explore
4x Sylvan Scrying
4x Expedition Map
1x Orochi Hatchery
3x Trinket Mage
1x Treasure Mage
3x Phyrexian Metamorph
3x Nevinyrral's Disk
1x Mind's Eye
3x Mulldrifter
1x Crystal Shard
2x Wurmcoil Engine
2x Steel Hellkite
2x Gelatinous Genesis
2x Rite of Replication
1x Spitting Image
1x Wurmcalling
1x Darksteel Colossus
My Stupidly Large Number of Current Decks
PucaTrade with me!
The Multiplayer Power Rankings
Cube: the Gittening (My Multiplayer Cube) - MTGS Cube List | @ CubeTutor
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