Hi everyone. I am absolutely in love with the locust god. When I first read I thought "damn you could drop 1 CMC from it and it still would never see competitive play". Yet... far out it is a fun card. Just my opinion, but I think it is right up there in the best cards designed. (From a flavour, art. and enjoyment perspective)
Furthermore we play a lot of Two Headed Giant, and I thought about creating a deck who primarily tries to 'delay / control' the opponents early in order to set up their team mates. Fiddling with the deck for a few weeks I realised it really needed a little kick late game, if it gets there you need to exert some pressure. And it occured to me I would finally have a deck for my favourite god!
The decks is probably a 3/5 on the power scale, rated for casual two headed giant. I think you could make it 4/5 with a few substitutes, but in order to really boost it you'd probably need to add white and change the mechanic so much it wouldn't really be the same deck.
The idea is to counter and control early. You are just trying to stall things while your opponent gets his game up and running. It suits partnering with big mana or aggro decks.
Most cards lead to a draw which means the lands can be run quite low (plus your free mull in 2HG) as you will rarely miss a drop once you're away. Once you get towards the Locust God, things will hopefully fall into play. Each draw is another token which makes for a great stalling feature, and actually puts decent pressure on in the right board environment.
If you wanted to power this deck up you would add some better counters, like err, counterspell. Arcane Denial is obviously sort of rubbish, just very thematic. Keranos, God of Storms could be fun but I personally don't want them to know if I have counters. Isochron Scepter is a decent card that could easily make an appearance, and invoke the firemind is an ordinary card but could make an appearance.
This is not a suggestion based on power. I personally play with less counter, more bounce/mass removal, but that’s personal taste. With your Rhystic Study playset, bounce cards like Aetherspout in 2-HG could be devastating to a critter player, and fairly easy to get to with red acceleration like Seething Song, so you could stop an aggro attack pretty fast. Cards like Polymorphist’s Jest and Curse of the Swine give some nice mass-removal ways around troublesome creature assaults, making your locusts more than squash bugs. Them and Desert could be quite troublesome with some of blue’s removal.
My issue with more cyclone rift is that it isn't very thematic as it will return my opponents board as well! But I'll definitely think about the suggestions. Another issue is what to drop? I guess arcane Denial isn't too hard.. but the rest of the counters are generally how I get my draw. Less draw also makes an issue with 19 land.
What is the weak spot? I like the idea of more removal, maybe even with enough I could put one keranos on. But without lots of draw...
Counterspells are [i]super good[/i] in 2HG because you have:[numlist]
Thank for your extensive post. I agree that counters are better, though of course I am not trying to max the power of this thing out. Ever since we allowed proxies in our group (in line with WotC policy) there has been a bit of a power surge, and I'm aiming for a 3/5 at most a 4/5.
Overloading your mana is a real problem, which is why I like free counterspells like Daze, Force of Will, Pact of Negation and Mindbreak Trap. Just a few of those can really screw up your opponents' strategy. Daze works especially well with Rhystic Study (which is cheap enough that you can tap out for it and expect your teammate to handle the fallout.)
The problem with The Locust God is that it requires you to lower your shields. You don't actually ever want to give your opponents an opening to drive home their gameplan, but The Locust God costs 6 mana and doesn't have flash. You can't cast it expecting to get some use out of it and still keep up UU. You have to wait until you have 8 mana or your opponents are in topdeck mode, which may not happen soon enough or at all. Awkward.
Yes I agree. Those Force of Will's aren't very thematic to the deck I'm making, though they are super useful when trying to push out a Locust God. Even if you don't have one, your opponent doesn't know that. I certainly understand if you want to dial the power up you will need to remove the locust god and create a different format. Probably a pure blue would work very well. But this deck is around the Locust God. He's super fun.
The same applies to Alhammaret's Archive; you want to cast it as early as possible, but you can't afford to lower your shields.
This is actually harder imo as even though it is 5cmc it doesn't impact the board as much as The Locust God. Plus, people go bang on the locust god you are probably getting him back.
Cyclonic Rift is a good card, but overloading it costs 7 mana and also affects your teammate. I actually also love Snap in 2HG because it can ramp your teammate. You throwing an opponent off-curve and your teammate casting a 4-drop two whole turns ahead of schedule can really put you ahead.
Yes Cyclonic Rift isn't very thematic. Thanks to everyone's input the deck is looking roughly like:
Gone are the lightning bolts and snapcaster mages (on the grounds of theme / power)
I decided to put in a Thought Reflection instead of a second archive - worth a stupid 7cmc but they can both come out and play off each other. Brainstorm will equal 12 cards and 12 insects! Also Commit is there so I don't deck myself, and also might be useful against all the black I run into.
List tags are malformed.
This deck is becoming one of my favourite to play. I recently decided to turn this into a stand alone deck, rather than have it strictly as a support for 2HG. Also as my meta runs a lot of surgical extraction and uhh... (the other one that does something similiar), it's a bit risky to run a single creature.
It might need another land and isochron sort of jars a bit with its speed... but anyway, I decided it wasn't very fun. Young Pyro detracted from the fun of the Locust God, and I feel dirty about running a proxied skullclamp.
So I decided to lower the power a little and try to make something a bit more fun. One idea I've always wanted to try was a deck over 60 cards. I thought this was perfect since it has got to as low as 10 cards before in a 3 player game, plus the only thing I used to run 4 of was remand and sulphur falls. I thought that Nin was an awesome and flavoursome substitute for skullclamp. Anyway, here it is:
If anyone is interested in this sort of deck, I recommend to give it a try. You basically stabalise until The Locust God can do some serious work, with the awesome alt conditions of flying drakes doing damage. It is a really fun deck, I'd rank its power around 3/5.
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Furthermore we play a lot of Two Headed Giant, and I thought about creating a deck who primarily tries to 'delay / control' the opponents early in order to set up their team mates. Fiddling with the deck for a few weeks I realised it really needed a little kick late game, if it gets there you need to exert some pressure. And it occured to me I would finally have a deck for my favourite god!
The decks is probably a 3/5 on the power scale, rated for casual two headed giant. I think you could make it 4/5 with a few substitutes, but in order to really boost it you'd probably need to add white and change the mechanic so much it wouldn't really be the same deck.
So here it is:
2x Arcane Denial
3x Brainstorm
2x Cryptic Command
2x Cyclonic Rift
3x Disrupt
2x Electrolyze
2x Force of Will
2x Into the Roil
2x Izzet Charm
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Remand
5x Island
1x Izzet Boilerworks
3x Mountain
2x Spirebluff Canal
4x Steam Vents
4x Sulfur Falls
Creature (7)
4x Snapcaster Mage
3x The Locust God
4x Rhystic Study
Artifact (2)
2x Alhammarret's Archive
The idea is to counter and control early. You are just trying to stall things while your opponent gets his game up and running. It suits partnering with big mana or aggro decks.
Most cards lead to a draw which means the lands can be run quite low (plus your free mull in 2HG) as you will rarely miss a drop once you're away. Once you get towards the Locust God, things will hopefully fall into play. Each draw is another token which makes for a great stalling feature, and actually puts decent pressure on in the right board environment.
If you wanted to power this deck up you would add some better counters, like err, counterspell. Arcane Denial is obviously sort of rubbish, just very thematic. Keranos, God of Storms could be fun but I personally don't want them to know if I have counters. Isochron Scepter is a decent card that could easily make an appearance, and invoke the firemind is an ordinary card but could make an appearance.
Any suggestions or comments let me know.
Counters are fine, too, though.
My issue with more cyclone rift is that it isn't very thematic as it will return my opponents board as well! But I'll definitely think about the suggestions. Another issue is what to drop? I guess arcane Denial isn't too hard.. but the rest of the counters are generally how I get my draw. Less draw also makes an issue with 19 land.
What is the weak spot? I like the idea of more removal, maybe even with enough I could put one keranos on. But without lots of draw...
Bugs, bugs, bugs, bugs...
I’m sorry, is this bugging you?
Yes I like the bug pun. Something about my team mate, like "Don't bug that guy!". Hmmmm.
Thank for your extensive post. I agree that counters are better, though of course I am not trying to max the power of this thing out. Ever since we allowed proxies in our group (in line with WotC policy) there has been a bit of a power surge, and I'm aiming for a 3/5 at most a 4/5.
Yes I agree. Those Force of Will's aren't very thematic to the deck I'm making, though they are super useful when trying to push out a Locust God. Even if you don't have one, your opponent doesn't know that. I certainly understand if you want to dial the power up you will need to remove the locust god and create a different format. Probably a pure blue would work very well. But this deck is around the Locust God. He's super fun.
This is actually harder imo as even though it is 5cmc it doesn't impact the board as much as The Locust God. Plus, people go bang on the locust god you are probably getting him back.
Yes Cyclonic Rift isn't very thematic. Thanks to everyone's input the deck is looking roughly like:
2x AEtherspouts
4x Brainstorm
1x Commit
2x Cryptic Command
4x Disrupt
2x Electrolyze
3x Force of Will
4x Into the Roil
2x Izzet Charm
4x Remand
2x Snap
2x Mountain
2x Spirebluff Canal
2x Steam Vents
4x Sulfur Falls
4x Rhystic Study
1x Thought Reflection
1x Alhammarret's Archive
1x Isochron Scepter
3x The Locust God
Gone are the lightning bolts and snapcaster mages (on the grounds of theme / power)
I decided to put in a Thought Reflection instead of a second archive - worth a stupid 7cmc but they can both come out and play off each other. Brainstorm will equal 12 cards and 12 insects! Also Commit is there so I don't deck myself, and also might be useful against all the black I run into.
List tags are malformed.
Do not try to pass them as real (aka counterfeit)
Do not use them in competitive tournaments
These are the two big no-no's. Additionally, they don't like you reproducing their copyrighted art, so even a colour photocopy is not cool.
Slips of paper with the card rules on them used privately is fine.
Edit - here
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/proxies-policy-and-communication-2016-01-14
My first attempt produced a very good deck:
3x Brainstorm
2x Commit
3x Cryptic Command
2x Exclude
3x Force of Will
3x Izzet Charm
4x Manamorphose
4x Remand
3x Snap
1x Cascade Bluffs
7x Island
2x Mountain
4x Spirebluff Canal
4x Sulfur Falls
Sorcery (2)
2x Faithless Looting
2x Snapcaster Mage
2x The Locust God
4x Young Pyromancer
Artifact (5)
3x Isochron Scepter
2x Skullclamp
It might need another land and isochron sort of jars a bit with its speed... but anyway, I decided it wasn't very fun. Young Pyro detracted from the fun of the Locust God, and I feel dirty about running a proxied skullclamp.
So I decided to lower the power a little and try to make something a bit more fun. One idea I've always wanted to try was a deck over 60 cards. I thought this was perfect since it has got to as low as 10 cards before in a 3 player game, plus the only thing I used to run 4 of was remand and sulphur falls. I thought that Nin was an awesome and flavoursome substitute for skullclamp. Anyway, here it is:
4x Brainstorm
4x Cryptic Command
2x Cyclonic Rift
2x Electrolyze
3x Exclude
4x Force of Will
4x Into the Roil
4x Izzet Charm
4x Remand
2x Cascade Bluffs
8x Island
3x Mountain
4x Spirebluff Canal
2x Steam Vents
4x Sulfur Falls
Creature (13)
2x Crackling Drake
2x Goblin Electromancer
2x Nin, the Pain Artist
4x Pteramander
3x The Locust God
4x Ancestral Vision
Artifact (2)
2x Alhammarret's Archive
Planeswalker (2)
2x Dack Fayden
If anyone is interested in this sort of deck, I recommend to give it a try. You basically stabalise until The Locust God can do some serious work, with the awesome alt conditions of flying drakes doing damage. It is a really fun deck, I'd rank its power around 3/5.