Option number one is the obvious choice. Making your guys unblockable is pretty key and is likely a strategy that should fit into this deck regardless of which overall tactic you end up taking. However, you have to ponder the upsides of it; it's an effect just as easily achieved by Spreading Seas, after all.
Option two sounds great at first, but you have to remember: even if you're not running any real islands, the Fountain effects all players. Your lands will become islands in short order as well, so that idea is out.
My first instinct was a lot more like number three. Unfortunately, it turns out that there's no card in magic that just destroys target island that's especially good. Active Volcano is as close as it gets and that's just no bueno.
There are a number of cards you could run for a fun mana denial sort of deck, with effects like Spreading Seas. The problem you'll run across here is that sometimes people actually don't reeeaaally mind having islands (or swamps, as most other cards like this turn the land into a swamp).
I'll keep thinking on this one, but so far every idea I've come up with either falls flat or doesn't particular need Fountain to work.
Thanks for taking a look at my ideas. It's indeed a tricky card to build around.
For option 2, typhoon only affects opponents but yeah most of the spells do hit me as well. The idea would be to play llanowar elf, elvish mystic, etc. early game to mitigate the land loss / tapping.
Does someone have a few card suggestions for a deck around Deathbringer Thoctar and similar cards?
I don't have a deck list, but I've given him some thought beofre: personally I would go with Phyrexian Devourer and Necrotic Ooze (but I'm a jerk like that). Probably GB (You wouldn't need R since you would not plan to cast the Thoctar). Run Green for some ramp/early protection in Wall of Blossoms. Use Buried Alive to get the Thoctar and Devour into your GY. Resolve the Ooze and win.
I don't have a deck list, but I've given him some thought beofre: personally I would go with Phyrexian Devourer and Necrotic Ooze (but I'm a jerk like that). Probably GB (You wouldn't need R since you would not plan to cast the Thoctar). Run Green for some ramp/early protection in Wall of Blossoms. Use Buried Alive to get the Thoctar and Devour into your GY. Resolve the Ooze and win.
URGImperial AnimarGRU BRGProssh, Tokenmaker of KherGRB WURNarset NostalgicRUW UBR"I like your deck better" JelevaRBU UBlue BraidsU GAzusa, Lost but RampingG
WUHanna, Pillowfort's NavigatorUW WBRAleshacratsBRW UBRGrixis Pew PewRBU URGYasova the ThreateningGRU BGGlissa the ArticiferGB WUSygg MerfolkUW RSquee, Value NabobR
It's more like aggro-control burn, but it is dynamic, budget, pretty strong and very fun to pilot. It uses a number of looting effects to quickly browse through the deck while casting madness cards and thus gaining lots of card advantage. The graveyard quickly fills up, making Grim Lavamancer a beast. The deck wins by attacking, using burn spells and by generally burning away opponents creatures.
Pretty solid build and cheap as all get-out. If you're not a fan of Syncopate then I can see using Counterflux instead, as it's a great hard counter that wins you the counter war pretty handily.
URGImperial AnimarGRU BRGProssh, Tokenmaker of KherGRB WURNarset NostalgicRUW UBR"I like your deck better" JelevaRBU UBlue BraidsU GAzusa, Lost but RampingG
WUHanna, Pillowfort's NavigatorUW WBRAleshacratsBRW UBRGrixis Pew PewRBU URGYasova the ThreateningGRU BGGlissa the ArticiferGB WUSygg MerfolkUW RSquee, Value NabobR
I always though Ghave, Guru of Spores would be a cool card to build around. Sadly there only seem to be Commander/EDH Lists that use him. So I don't quite know where to start. If anyone has some ideas I'd appreciate it.
I normally don't think of a guy like Ghave as much of a build around dude, but I did a little searching on gatherer and came up with something I actually enjoyed goldfishing:
I normally try to shy away from decks that are so creature heavy, but Ghave really calls for a lot and you can play a few creatures that are basically just spells themselves.
For starters, you've got plenty of Persist/Undying in Butcher Ghoul, Safehold Elite, and of course Kitchen Finks. They're all wonderful road blocks if nothing else. They allow for counter and sacrifice shenanigans alongside the next group of creatures.
So you've got your enablers in Carrion Feeder, Spike Rogue, and Ghave, Guru of Spores. Obviously Ghave is the strongest one here and you should aim to get him out ASAP. Spike Rogue comes in second and is basically there for redundancy; because of Green Sun's Zenith, he may even prove to be completely unnecessary. Goldfishing made him appear not so useful, but I think it's best to keep him in until the deck can actually be tested. Carrion Feeder is the worst, but I included him so that Bloom Tender could actually hit the black mana, as just the 4 Butcher Ghoul early on may not have been enough. Cartel Aristocrat might be a suitable replacement as she just does more, but that mana intensiveness might be rough on a budget mana base.
If the game goes well, Champion of Lambholt basically just makes your guys unblockable and gets huge. You can do a lot of silliness with her, I think. Bloom Tender and Rampant Growth are obviously for ramp, and damn is Tender good at it. Shriekmaw is in there for some removal and you can sacrifice it in response to its enter the battlefield ability, before you'd have to sacrifice it to its own Evoke trigger. Green Sun's Zenith does whatever you want it to, but its usually getting a Ghave.
I avoided Doubling Season because it's too cliche and quite expensive. It's an obvious include if you feel like going that route. Like I said, Cartel Aristocrat could be a reasonable replacement for Carrion Feeder if you can pull together a nice enough land base. Alternatively, I think Blood Artist would be amazing in that slot as well.
Lastly, Deathrite Shaman would be all manner of sweet in this deck, but unless you feel like sticking a bunch of fetchlands in there he's not going to be worth it.
URGImperial AnimarGRU BRGProssh, Tokenmaker of KherGRB WURNarset NostalgicRUW UBR"I like your deck better" JelevaRBU UBlue BraidsU GAzusa, Lost but RampingG
WUHanna, Pillowfort's NavigatorUW WBRAleshacratsBRW UBRGrixis Pew PewRBU URGYasova the ThreateningGRU BGGlissa the ArticiferGB WUSygg MerfolkUW RSquee, Value NabobR
His plus ability makes people want to use her to mill, but she's terrible at milling. Since he's exiling and not just putting into the graveyard, there's no way to interact with these cards outside of the minus ability. So that blows.
His minus ability is decent, but is a tad unreliable. It too has no way to interact with anything except for his plus ability.
At least hit ult is going to win the game, probably, unless you're really behind on board.
What it comes down to is that the only way to "interact" with Ashiok is through creatures blocking for him and using cards with Proliferate. So I look at Ashiok not so much as a build around card as one to put into a control deck that might help you finish. Ordinarily I'd shy away from using a walker that doesn't have blatant card advantage (like any version of Jace) in a control deck, but I do see the potential in her minus ability if you can protect her.
So here's a little something casual that I think is very fun. Cascade has always been one of my favorite, albeit overpowered, mechanics and I love using the ones that never saw play (which is basically anything other than Bloodbraid Elf and Bituminous Blast).
Kathari Remnant and Deny Reality are both Cascade and stall. Remnant blocks and survives almost everything while DR sets your opponents back and nets you a card.
Counterspells are a little awkward in decks with Cascade, so each counterspell in the deck needs to be able to do something if you accidentally cascade into it. The worst Dimir Charm will do is ruin your opponent's draws or set up your own, which is actually pretty cool; you might even get lucky and have it kill a creature. Soul Manipulation just ends up being a Disentomb, which doesn't sound exciting, except that all of your creatures are pure value. Spiketail Drakeling is my favorite, 'cause you get a 2/2 flier until you need to counter something.
Hymn to Tourach is kind of your ideal cascade, especially early. It's also the only card in the deck that isn't modern legal, so if you ever wanted to play some casual modern you could swap it out for Rise // Fall, which is also really decent.
Finally, Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver is there as an additional win-con. Nobody can ever say that cascading into a walker isn't REALLY powerful (I ran a casual standard deck with a similar shell back in the day, but with Jace, the Mind Sculptor). His presence, if left unchecked, will be scary and can cause your opponents to shift focus onto him instead of you. With a +2 and all your stall in the way, they might find it pretty difficult to take him down. Grabbing the occasional creature with his -X is just gravy.
URGImperial AnimarGRU BRGProssh, Tokenmaker of KherGRB WURNarset NostalgicRUW UBR"I like your deck better" JelevaRBU UBlue BraidsU GAzusa, Lost but RampingG
WUHanna, Pillowfort's NavigatorUW WBRAleshacratsBRW UBRGrixis Pew PewRBU URGYasova the ThreateningGRU BGGlissa the ArticiferGB WUSygg MerfolkUW RSquee, Value NabobR
You have been very helpful and creative in the past, so I would like to present you with a new challenge: I've always liked Champion of the Parish and Silverblade Paladin, so I bought a set of each when the prices dropped around the Standard rotation. I have had a hard time coming up with a satisfactory deck build for them though. I know the obvious thing to do is to put them in a simple mono W or GW human tribal deck, but I am convinced that a deck like that would bore me in no time. I have had lots of simple tribal decks in the past, and they just aren't exciting enough to play anymore. I like tricks, synergies, interaction and flavor, so mindlessly turning creatures sideways until I win or lose is too simple and easy. If you have any ideas for a more exciting but still solid human deck featuring a number of CotP's and SP's, I would be very grateful.
URGImperial AnimarGRU BRGProssh, Tokenmaker of KherGRB WURNarset NostalgicRUW UBR"I like your deck better" JelevaRBU UBlue BraidsU GAzusa, Lost but RampingG
WUHanna, Pillowfort's NavigatorUW WBRAleshacratsBRW UBRGrixis Pew PewRBU URGYasova the ThreateningGRU BGGlissa the ArticiferGB WUSygg MerfolkUW RSquee, Value NabobR
Hey everyone, I'm back from being MIA and ready to brew. Feel free to post your requests and I'll see what I can do!
Welcome back! I have a deck request to get you started. Recently I've been trying to make a cool deck revolving around Slag Fiend and sacrificing artifacts/getting loads of artifacts in the yard. My first build (that I haven't had the chance to play test yet) looks like this:
The deck aims to cycle, discard og sac artifacts to get them in the yard while powering up Greater Gargadon's and (obviously) Slag Fiend. Goblin Welder makes a number of the artifacts cantrip while returning cycled hulks or architects to play.
My problem with the build is, that it seems a bit messy. I considered going mono red for a more linear artifact aggro deck with Slag Find, Atog, Shrapnel Blast, Scrapyard Salvo etc. or blue for a more controllish build. Black has Salvage Slasher, but it seems too weak IMO.
Hey everyone, I'm back from being MIA and ready to brew. Feel free to post your requests and I'll see what I can do!
Welcome back! I have a deck request to get you started. Recently I've been trying to make a cool deck revolving around Slag Fiend and sacrificing artifacts/getting loads of artifacts in the yard. My first build (that I haven't had the chance to play test yet) looks like this:
The deck aims to cycle, discard og sac artifacts to get them in the yard while powering up Greater Gargadon's and (obviously) Slag Fiend. Goblin Welder makes a number of the artifacts cantrip while returning cycled hulks or architects to play.
My problem with the build is, that it seems a bit messy. I considered going mono red for a more linear artifact aggro deck with Slag Find, Atog, Shrapnel Blast, Scrapyard Salvo etc. or blue for a more controllish build. Black has Salvage Slasher, but it seems too weak IMO.
What would you do?
First off, I really enjoy this idea. I'm so happy you thought to include Glassdust and Architects, I probably would have missed that. All in all you've got a great framework set up, here's what I settled on:
So as you can see, I added white. I think Ranger of Eos is the best way to hit Slag Fiend consistently and in goldfishing it has proved VERY strong to fetch two of them. In light of Ranger's inclusion, I've bumped Goblin Welder down to a singleton and added a one-of Salvage Scout for corner cases. Welder is a relatively slow card and more often than not going for the kill is better, but I like the to have the option.
Arcbound Ravager is so ridiculously strong in this deck. He's the best sac outlet for the Wellsprings and Stars when you don't need the mana fixing any longer. He'll get big with no problem and just gets rid of lands you don't need anymore. Basically I'm using him in lieu of Greater Gargadon and found it so strong that I decided to fit in Atog as a two-of. The whole artifact section is a little bit of a mess. Stars are necessary for early-game fixing as the colors can be a bit awkward, much like Mycosynth Wellspring. Origin Spellbomb gets an effect even if you're not sacking it to itself and Pyrite Spellbomb is just a nice bit of removal. Unfortunately, the red and blue Spellbombs from Scars aren't that useful. Ichor Wellsprings are just your standard draw.
Now really, we're basically just running blue for Thoughtcast. Worth it? Every bit. It's also nice to have justification to run another 4 artifact lands. The card is the absolute nuts, you're rarely paying more than one mana to draw two. It does make the mana shaky, but as mentioned I've included Stars and Wellsprings for exactly that. Plus, the mana base I've put together is VERY budget (all non-artifact lands are basics) and could be improved significantly with fetches/shocks/whatever.
So while the deck looks like a bit of a mess, in goldfishing I ended up being very happy with it. You basically draw a lot of cards and get some board presence, eventually building up to one explosive turn where suddenly you're swinging with two or three Slag Fiends and a BIG Arcbound Ravager/Atog after sacking your lands and spare artifacts. It's reminiscent of the red/blue pauper affinity deck, but overall less annoying.
Edit - As for notable disclusions: I felt Kuldotha Rebirth wasn't good as a one-shot; I liked the effect, but I needed it to be repeatable to make Slag Fiend really scary. Architects of Will was a tough cut because I love the effect, but a lot of the other cantrips are just better in the context of the deck. I kept Glassdust Hulk because he's just a better Goblin Welder target and a turn one cycle feels really, really good, not to mention even at five mana he can be a serious threat in this deck now that there's white to make him castable. In a world where you're super worried about creature decks, I can definitely see muscling Galvanic Blast or Shrapnel Blast back into the mix. Faithless Looting is a sweet card, no doubt, but the modifications I made make for much better ways to get artifacts into the grave.
Uber edit - Mr. Sinister, I noticed your post from before regarding Champion of the Parish and Silverblade Paladin. Sorry I didn't get to it before. I hope this makes it up to you, because I am geeking out about this deck. It's so much fun to goldfish, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
Seriously, I enjoy this deck design so much. It's all about misdirection and confusing your opponent. Combat becomes an impassable mess where attacking and blocking effectively basically can't be done. Sure, you're turning guys sideways, but it's so much more than that. You can use Momentary Blink, Ghostly Flicker, Cackling Counterpart, and Restoration Angel (she's the only non-human in the deck) to mess with your variety of soulbond creatures mid-combat. Suddenly your creature has double strike from Silverblade Paladin, a surprise +1/+1 buff from Trusted Forcemage, and of course Deathtouch from above via Nightshade Peddler (especially nice if you pair him with the double strike). By the way, all of those great flicker spells also counter basic spot removal.
There aren't a lot of green creatures, but Green Sun's Zenith is still just great. You'll pretty much always want a Nightshade Peddler and getting the singleton Champion of Lambholt, who benefits so ridiculously from all this flickering, is pretty clutch. There's even cute minor synergy between Lambholt and Trusted Forcemage.
My favorite piece of tech is Prodigal Sorcerer. Read Tandem Lookout carefully: "whenever this creature deals damage to an opponent, draw a card." No combat damage, no problem. God I love it. Then there's the obvious synergy with Nightshade Peddler. Thank God for their misunderstanding of the color wheel back in the day, there's just no way to muscle red into this deck for Prodigal Pyromancer.
Two negligible but fun cards are Wingcrafter and Dryad Arbor. Arbor is fetchable for one mana with Green Sun's Zenith and even with Misty Rainforest (assuming a non-budget mana base). I love the idea of somebody blocking an un-soulbound creature, only to have you crack Misty to find Arbor and have a surprise bond. Wingcrafter is really just quality evasion that you can move around as you see fit, including defensively when they attack with a flier.
My only regret is a complete lack of a good Heroic creature. Most of the white ones just get +1/+1 counters, useless with flicker effects. The green and blue ones are also just awful. The deck wanted Agent of the Fates pretty badly, but alas...
URGImperial AnimarGRU BRGProssh, Tokenmaker of KherGRB WURNarset NostalgicRUW UBR"I like your deck better" JelevaRBU UBlue BraidsU GAzusa, Lost but RampingG
WUHanna, Pillowfort's NavigatorUW WBRAleshacratsBRW UBRGrixis Pew PewRBU URGYasova the ThreateningGRU BGGlissa the ArticiferGB WUSygg MerfolkUW RSquee, Value NabobR
Thank you for the fast and overwhelmingly long response! I really appreciate it. I like your ideas for my Slag deck, especially Ranger of Eos, Arcbound Ravager and Thoughtcast. I generally prefer to stay away from three-colored decks unless green is involved for mana fixing. Besides, I'm kind of a neat freak, and two colors sort of seem more structured. I used the red and colorless part of your build as a shell and tried making a rakdos, an izzet and a boris build. Here they are:
This one has the best draw effects. Riddlesmith seems made for this deck and Etherium Sculptor should take the drawing, casting and filling the graveyard to a whole new level. Thoughcast is great as you said yourself.
This one has the strongest removal of the three.
Which one do you like the best?
Your idea for humans seem really cool, but does it actually work? Creatures can only bond with one creature at a time, and they can only unbound when one of them leaves the battlefield. Am I missing something?
There don't seem to be a large number of particularly interesting +1/+1 card tricks, most of the cards that take advantage of them are creatures and not spells (aside from generically putting them on creatures) and Mutant isn't a common creature type. I think Scarscale Ritual would be pretty cute since it's drawback is almost null for you. They're not mutants, but I think Sage of Fables and Etched Oracle could be really cute card advantage machines.
The White list is closest to my original suggestion. I still like Origin Spellbomb more than Dispeller's Capsule because the deck really wants card draw, especially without Thoughtcast. I'd also go for Galvanic Blast over Dispatch, it handles all but the biggest creatures and gives you that extra reach. I think it's best to include Glassdust Hulk over Porcelain Legionnaire simply because Goblin Welder is pretty unimpressive without him as a target and, again, gotta love that card draw. The inclusion of Ranger of Eos makes Slag Fiend just a whole lot better and for that reason, I think this is the list to go with. It's a strong mid-range choice that lets the inspiration card of the deck really shine.
As for the Human deck might look underwhelming, but it's been very successful in goldfishing. It's true that creatures can only bond with one at a time, but you have a lot of options for how you want to set up your bonds and you can instant speed change them via the multiple Blink spells. Blinks spells make every almost all of your creatures a combat trick in one way or another. It's just a deck with a lot of angles of attack that makes it so your opponent always has to be on his toes during combat. Giving it a second look, I would actually try to fit in more land and consider finding room for Fiend Hunter, maybe in place of Azorius Arrester, because his ability is really strong with so much blink.
URGImperial AnimarGRU BRGProssh, Tokenmaker of KherGRB WURNarset NostalgicRUW UBR"I like your deck better" JelevaRBU UBlue BraidsU GAzusa, Lost but RampingG
WUHanna, Pillowfort's NavigatorUW WBRAleshacratsBRW UBRGrixis Pew PewRBU URGYasova the ThreateningGRU BGGlissa the ArticiferGB WUSygg MerfolkUW RSquee, Value NabobR
@Brainz
Very cool, I happen to love Defender decks and Dragonshift is one of my favorite goofy win cons.
Your list of cards is a good start. First thing it needs is a collection of lower cost defenders; most of your guys aren't coming down until turn three and that's a problem against aggressive decks. Here's what I came up with:
It's pretty creature heavy, but you need to be dropping a guy every turn to keep up basically. I had considered trying to muscle in some counterspells, but unless you're worried about board wipes I wouldn't bother. Against creature-light control decks though, if you want a sideboard, I'd suggest siding in Counterspell and co. in place of the Mizzium Mortarss and Sleeps.
Basically, I chose the most effective defensive Defenders and generally maxed out on them. Not much will be able to effectively attack into Wall of Tears (basically better than Æther Membrane) and Wall of Razors very well, and obviously Fog Bank is basically impenetrable. Vent Sentinel is an insane win-con, you'll most likely find yourself winning off of him more often than Dragonshift. Of course, Drift of Phantasms is there to ensure you can hit your Dragonshifts easily enough.
Unfortunately, the Strionic Resonator + Lobber Crew combo doesn't work quite like you're thinking; Resonator copies the trigger and allows you to choose new targets if there are targets, but Lobber Crew's ability doesn't target, it just untaps itself, so you can't untap Vent Sentinel with it. I do like Braid of Fire as a ramp spell, but it's just such a bad top deck. This deck can ill afford poor top decks, it almost always wants to draw a Defender, a stall card, or a land to hit its land drops. Ramp in general doesn't prove to be necessary, as after landing a Vent Sentinel the deck functions quite well on just four mana. Hitting seven for Dragonshift is ideal in the long run, though.
Here's a spoiler containing a few other Defender decks I've designed in the past, in case you're interested:
Here's a budget deck I built around Sleeper Agent some time ago:
URGImperial AnimarGRU BRGProssh, Tokenmaker of KherGRB WURNarset NostalgicRUW UBR"I like your deck better" JelevaRBU UBlue BraidsU GAzusa, Lost but RampingG
WUHanna, Pillowfort's NavigatorUW WBRAleshacratsBRW UBRGrixis Pew PewRBU URGYasova the ThreateningGRU BGGlissa the ArticiferGB WUSygg MerfolkUW RSquee, Value NabobR
Hidden Strings is really unimpressive simply because you have no creatures to attach to it effectively. You'd need two Vent Sentinels on the field to make the effect worthwhile. If it were an instant I'd consider it more as it would have defensive uses, but really it just doesn't do much for you as is.
You can use Slagstorm or Pyroclasm as replacements for Mortars. Your Wall of Razors and Fog Banks will die to them, but they're a lot cheaper. Mortars is the only one that's one-sided, sadly. Except for Electrickery, but that won't kill much. Maybe run one of them as a two-of and up the Sleep count.
URGImperial AnimarGRU BRGProssh, Tokenmaker of KherGRB WURNarset NostalgicRUW UBR"I like your deck better" JelevaRBU UBlue BraidsU GAzusa, Lost but RampingG
WUHanna, Pillowfort's NavigatorUW WBRAleshacratsBRW UBRGrixis Pew PewRBU URGYasova the ThreateningGRU BGGlissa the ArticiferGB WUSygg MerfolkUW RSquee, Value NabobR
The White list is closest to my original suggestion. I still like Origin Spellbomb more than Dispeller's Capsule because the deck really wants card draw, especially without Thoughtcast. I'd also go for Galvanic Blast over Dispatch, it handles all but the biggest creatures and gives you that extra reach. I think it's best to include Glassdust Hulk over Porcelain Legionnaire simply because Goblin Welder is pretty unimpressive without him as a target and, again, gotta love that card draw. The inclusion of Ranger of Eos makes Slag Fiend just a whole lot better and for that reason, I think this is the list to go with. It's a strong mid-range choice that lets the inspiration card of the deck really shine.
As for the Human deck might look underwhelming, but it's been very successful in goldfishing. It's true that creatures can only bond with one at a time, but you have a lot of options for how you want to set up your bonds and you can instant speed change them via the multiple Blink spells. Blinks spells make every almost all of your creatures a combat trick in one way or another. It's just a deck with a lot of angles of attack that makes it so your opponent always has to be on his toes during combat. Giving it a second look, I would actually try to fit in more land and consider finding room for Fiend Hunter, maybe in place of Azorius Arrester, because his ability is really strong with so much blink.
As always you make some very good points. I liked the black version, but by making the suggested changes (and I think I should), it would look too similar to my Modular deck. Besides, I want Slag Fiend to shine more than it would in here.
I think I'll try out the blue one first, simply because Ranger of Eos is by far the most expensive card (I already own a set of Arcbound Ravagers and most of the other cards). Besides, I like dynamic decks that do a lot each turn, so cycling through my deck and casting and saccing lots of artifacts each turn really appeals to me. I think I'll remove two lands to up the Etherium Sculptor count to four, replace the Mycosynth Wellsprings with Ichor Wellsprings and add another Scrapyard Salvo. The CMC of the deck is really low, Etherium Sculptor further lowers it, and the massive amount of draw and looting should ensure that I hit most of my land drops. The Scrapyard Salvos should probably be Shrapnel Blasts, but I would like the artifacts in the yard to matter as much as possible to stay on theme. I might make the switch later on, if Scrapyard Salvo underperforms.
I am definitely tempted by the human deck, I'll experiment a little with the cards and numbers. I absolutely love blink-effects, but I already have an Esper blink deck, so if I build this one, I want it to work very differently from my current deck.
Thank you for all your guidance, it's much appreciated.
Hey this is my first post on these forums. I have been playing MTG casually for around 6 months playing mostly premade decks or decks that I have only added a few cards to. This is my first attempt at making a deck from scratch.
The objective of this deck is to DonateSteel Golem to your opponent and then use Reality Acid bouncing back and forth from your hand to the battlefield to destroy all their permanents. And then mill them via their draw step until they run out of cards or until they leave the game because they hate you.
Thanks for taking a look at my ideas. It's indeed a tricky card to build around.
For option 2, typhoon only affects opponents but yeah most of the spells do hit me as well. The idea would be to play llanowar elf, elvish mystic, etc. early game to mitigate the land loss / tapping.
And for option 3, I had thought about isochron scepter with active volcano, but that seems like a lot of effort.
EDH Decks
RGMarhault Elsdragon (A Touch of Rampage)RG
GWTrostani, Early Bird (Wurm Tribal)GW
RWAgrus Kos, Bumbat Drinkin' BadassRW
RDiaochan, Hateful BeautyR
I don't have a deck list, but I've given him some thought beofre: personally I would go with Phyrexian Devourer and Necrotic Ooze (but I'm a jerk like that). Probably GB (You wouldn't need R since you would not plan to cast the Thoctar). Run Green for some ramp/early protection in Wall of Blossoms. Use Buried Alive to get the Thoctar and Devour into your GY. Resolve the Ooze and win.
U FaerieNinjaStandstill U
B Swag Flu B
In Development
BG Nightmare Survival GB
B The Gate B
BRG Jund GRB
Giving it deathtouch would be good too. Basilisk Collar and Nightshade Peddler are great options.
Living End Contributor and Enthusiast
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Rules Advisor
Modern: BRGLiving EndGRB
Legacy: UBGShardless BUGGBU
BRGProssh, Tokenmaker of KherGRB
WURNarset NostalgicRUW
UBR"I like your deck better" JelevaRBU
UBlue BraidsU
GAzusa, Lost but RampingG
WBRAleshacratsBRW
UBRGrixis Pew PewRBU
URGYasova the ThreateningGRU
BGGlissa the ArticiferGB
WUSygg MerfolkUW
RSquee, Value NabobR
This is my UR-deck. I call it Mad Looting:
4x Grim Lavamancer
4x Looter Il-Kor
2x Merfolk Looter
4x Reckless Wurm
3x Vexing Sphinx
2x Chandra Nalaar
Spells (18):
4x Arc Trail
3x Obsessive Search
3x Faithless Looting
4x Fiery Temper
4x Violent Eruption
7x Island
8x Mountain
4x Shivan Reef
4x Sulfur Falls
It's more like aggro-control burn, but it is dynamic, budget, pretty strong and very fun to pilot. It uses a number of looting effects to quickly browse through the deck while casting madness cards and thus gaining lots of card advantage. The graveyard quickly fills up, making Grim Lavamancer a beast. The deck wins by attacking, using burn spells and by generally burning away opponents creatures.
If you're looking for standard, this is what I suggest:
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Guttersnipe
3 Spellheart Chimera
4 Shock
4 Magma Jet
4 Lightning Blast
4 Izzet Charm
3 Dissolve
3 Syncopate
4 Steam Augury
23 Land
Pretty solid build and cheap as all get-out. If you're not a fan of Syncopate then I can see using Counterflux instead, as it's a great hard counter that wins you the counter war pretty handily.
If I were to tweak it for anything goes budget casual, I actually might not change much. Maybe use Fact or Fiction instead of Steam Augury, include Delver of Secrets instead of the Chimera. Obviously Lightning Bolt goes in in place of Shock. Staggershock is nice for double triggers on the Pyromancer and Guttersnipe, so I'd probably replace either Lightning Strike or Magma Jet with it. And of course, if I decided I did want a Lightning Strike effect in there I'd use Incinerate, 'cause occasionally that "can't be regenerated" thing might be worthwhile. I'd probably use Mana Leak and Counterspell instead of Dissolve and Syncopate.
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I normally don't think of a guy like Ghave as much of a build around dude, but I did a little searching on gatherer and came up with something I actually enjoyed goldfishing:
2 Carrion Feeder
4 Bloom Tender
4 Butcher Ghoul
4 Safehold Elite
3 Champion of Lambholt
3 Spike Rogue
3 Shriekmaw
3 Ghave, Guru of Spores
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Rampant Growth
Land (23):
23 Lands
I normally try to shy away from decks that are so creature heavy, but Ghave really calls for a lot and you can play a few creatures that are basically just spells themselves.
For starters, you've got plenty of Persist/Undying in Butcher Ghoul, Safehold Elite, and of course Kitchen Finks. They're all wonderful road blocks if nothing else. They allow for counter and sacrifice shenanigans alongside the next group of creatures.
So you've got your enablers in Carrion Feeder, Spike Rogue, and Ghave, Guru of Spores. Obviously Ghave is the strongest one here and you should aim to get him out ASAP. Spike Rogue comes in second and is basically there for redundancy; because of Green Sun's Zenith, he may even prove to be completely unnecessary. Goldfishing made him appear not so useful, but I think it's best to keep him in until the deck can actually be tested. Carrion Feeder is the worst, but I included him so that Bloom Tender could actually hit the black mana, as just the 4 Butcher Ghoul early on may not have been enough. Cartel Aristocrat might be a suitable replacement as she just does more, but that mana intensiveness might be rough on a budget mana base.
If the game goes well, Champion of Lambholt basically just makes your guys unblockable and gets huge. You can do a lot of silliness with her, I think. Bloom Tender and Rampant Growth are obviously for ramp, and damn is Tender good at it. Shriekmaw is in there for some removal and you can sacrifice it in response to its enter the battlefield ability, before you'd have to sacrifice it to its own Evoke trigger. Green Sun's Zenith does whatever you want it to, but its usually getting a Ghave.
I avoided Doubling Season because it's too cliche and quite expensive. It's an obvious include if you feel like going that route. Like I said, Cartel Aristocrat could be a reasonable replacement for Carrion Feeder if you can pull together a nice enough land base. Alternatively, I think Blood Artist would be amazing in that slot as well.
Lastly, Deathrite Shaman would be all manner of sweet in this deck, but unless you feel like sticking a bunch of fetchlands in there he's not going to be worth it.
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4 Bad River
2 Flood Plain
1 Marsh Flats
3 Watery Grave
3 Steam Vents
2 Hallowed Fountain
3 Drowned Catacomb
2 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
2 Elixir of Immortality
2 Call to Mind
//Miracles
4 Thunderous Wrath
4 Devastation Tide
3 Terminus
2 Reforge the Soul
//Dig & Arrange
4 Lim-Dul's Vault
4 Brainstorm
3 Ponder
3 Preordain
2 Muddle the Mixture
//Protection
2 Spell Pierce
2 Mana Leak
1 Sphinx's Revelation
Obviously the manabase is very budget, feel free to use real duals/fetches if you have them!
Any ideas?
For the record, I don't like Ashiok much.
His plus ability makes people want to use her to mill, but she's terrible at milling. Since he's exiling and not just putting into the graveyard, there's no way to interact with these cards outside of the minus ability. So that blows.
His minus ability is decent, but is a tad unreliable. It too has no way to interact with anything except for his plus ability.
At least hit ult is going to win the game, probably, unless you're really behind on board.
What it comes down to is that the only way to "interact" with Ashiok is through creatures blocking for him and using cards with Proliferate. So I look at Ashiok not so much as a build around card as one to put into a control deck that might help you finish. Ordinarily I'd shy away from using a walker that doesn't have blatant card advantage (like any version of Jace) in a control deck, but I do see the potential in her minus ability if you can protect her.
So here's a little something casual that I think is very fun. Cascade has always been one of my favorite, albeit overpowered, mechanics and I love using the ones that never saw play (which is basically anything other than Bloodbraid Elf and Bituminous Blast).
4 Fleshbag Marauder
4 Spiketail Drakeling
3 Abyssal Persecutor
4 Kathari Remnant
3 Shriekmaw
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Dimir Charm
3 Soul Manipulation
4 Deny Reality
3 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
Land (24):
24 Lands
I know it looks a bit goofy, but bear with me.
Kathari Remnant and Deny Reality are both Cascade and stall. Remnant blocks and survives almost everything while DR sets your opponents back and nets you a card.
Counterspells are a little awkward in decks with Cascade, so each counterspell in the deck needs to be able to do something if you accidentally cascade into it. The worst Dimir Charm will do is ruin your opponent's draws or set up your own, which is actually pretty cool; you might even get lucky and have it kill a creature. Soul Manipulation just ends up being a Disentomb, which doesn't sound exciting, except that all of your creatures are pure value. Spiketail Drakeling is my favorite, 'cause you get a 2/2 flier until you need to counter something.
Hymn to Tourach is kind of your ideal cascade, especially early. It's also the only card in the deck that isn't modern legal, so if you ever wanted to play some casual modern you could swap it out for Rise // Fall, which is also really decent.
Abyssal Persecutor is a finisher in case Ashiok can't deliver. You've got 8 ways to get him out of play, either with Fleshbag Marauder (who can play as just an expensive Diabolic Edict if need be) or Deny Reality. Shriekmaw's place in this deck is pretty obvious.
Finally, Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver is there as an additional win-con. Nobody can ever say that cascading into a walker isn't REALLY powerful (I ran a casual standard deck with a similar shell back in the day, but with Jace, the Mind Sculptor). His presence, if left unchecked, will be scary and can cause your opponents to shift focus onto him instead of you. With a +2 and all your stall in the way, they might find it pretty difficult to take him down. Grabbing the occasional creature with his -X is just gravy.
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You have been very helpful and creative in the past, so I would like to present you with a new challenge: I've always liked Champion of the Parish and Silverblade Paladin, so I bought a set of each when the prices dropped around the Standard rotation. I have had a hard time coming up with a satisfactory deck build for them though. I know the obvious thing to do is to put them in a simple mono W or GW human tribal deck, but I am convinced that a deck like that would bore me in no time. I have had lots of simple tribal decks in the past, and they just aren't exciting enough to play anymore. I like tricks, synergies, interaction and flavor, so mindlessly turning creatures sideways until I win or lose is too simple and easy. If you have any ideas for a more exciting but still solid human deck featuring a number of CotP's and SP's, I would be very grateful.
Since we're talking budget ........ and I know it's terrible but have you ever considered Soothsaying?
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Welcome back! I have a deck request to get you started. Recently I've been trying to make a cool deck revolving around Slag Fiend and sacrificing artifacts/getting loads of artifacts in the yard. My first build (that I haven't had the chance to play test yet) looks like this:
4x Architects of Will
4x Glassdust Hulk
4x Goblin Welder
4x Greater Gargadon
3x Perilous Myr
4x Slag Fiend
4x Chromatic Star
4x Ichor Wellspring
4x Pyrite Spellbomb
Spells (10):
3x Faithless Looting
4x Galvanic Blast
3x Kuldotha Rebirth
4x Great Furnace
4x Island
4x Mountain
4x Seat of the Synod
The deck aims to cycle, discard og sac artifacts to get them in the yard while powering up Greater Gargadon's and (obviously) Slag Fiend. Goblin Welder makes a number of the artifacts cantrip while returning cycled hulks or architects to play.
My problem with the build is, that it seems a bit messy. I considered going mono red for a more linear artifact aggro deck with Slag Find, Atog, Shrapnel Blast, Scrapyard Salvo etc. or blue for a more controllish build. Black has Salvage Slasher, but it seems too weak IMO.
What would you do?
Being sticky'd would be pretty wicked cool. Feel free to request, I'd feel a little full of myself asking for it.
First off, I really enjoy this idea. I'm so happy you thought to include Glassdust and Architects, I probably would have missed that. All in all you've got a great framework set up, here's what I settled on:
4 Slag Fiend
1 Goblin Welder
1 Salvage Scout
4 Perilous Myr
4 Arcbound Ravager
2 Atog
2 Ranger of Eos
4 Glassdust Hulk
4 Chromatic Star
2 Origin Spellbomb
4 Pyrite Spellbomb
2 Ichor Wellspring
2 Mycosynth Wellspring
Spells (4):
4 Thoughtcast
4 Ancient Den
4 Great Furnace
4 Seat of Synod
2 Island
3 Mountain
3 Plains
So as you can see, I added white. I think Ranger of Eos is the best way to hit Slag Fiend consistently and in goldfishing it has proved VERY strong to fetch two of them. In light of Ranger's inclusion, I've bumped Goblin Welder down to a singleton and added a one-of Salvage Scout for corner cases. Welder is a relatively slow card and more often than not going for the kill is better, but I like the to have the option.
Arcbound Ravager is so ridiculously strong in this deck. He's the best sac outlet for the Wellsprings and Stars when you don't need the mana fixing any longer. He'll get big with no problem and just gets rid of lands you don't need anymore. Basically I'm using him in lieu of Greater Gargadon and found it so strong that I decided to fit in Atog as a two-of. The whole artifact section is a little bit of a mess. Stars are necessary for early-game fixing as the colors can be a bit awkward, much like Mycosynth Wellspring. Origin Spellbomb gets an effect even if you're not sacking it to itself and Pyrite Spellbomb is just a nice bit of removal. Unfortunately, the red and blue Spellbombs from Scars aren't that useful. Ichor Wellsprings are just your standard draw.
Now really, we're basically just running blue for Thoughtcast. Worth it? Every bit. It's also nice to have justification to run another 4 artifact lands. The card is the absolute nuts, you're rarely paying more than one mana to draw two. It does make the mana shaky, but as mentioned I've included Stars and Wellsprings for exactly that. Plus, the mana base I've put together is VERY budget (all non-artifact lands are basics) and could be improved significantly with fetches/shocks/whatever.
So while the deck looks like a bit of a mess, in goldfishing I ended up being very happy with it. You basically draw a lot of cards and get some board presence, eventually building up to one explosive turn where suddenly you're swinging with two or three Slag Fiends and a BIG Arcbound Ravager/Atog after sacking your lands and spare artifacts. It's reminiscent of the red/blue pauper affinity deck, but overall less annoying.
Edit - As for notable disclusions: I felt Kuldotha Rebirth wasn't good as a one-shot; I liked the effect, but I needed it to be repeatable to make Slag Fiend really scary. Architects of Will was a tough cut because I love the effect, but a lot of the other cantrips are just better in the context of the deck. I kept Glassdust Hulk because he's just a better Goblin Welder target and a turn one cycle feels really, really good, not to mention even at five mana he can be a serious threat in this deck now that there's white to make him castable. In a world where you're super worried about creature decks, I can definitely see muscling Galvanic Blast or Shrapnel Blast back into the mix. Faithless Looting is a sweet card, no doubt, but the modifications I made make for much better ways to get artifacts into the grave.
Uber edit - Mr. Sinister, I noticed your post from before regarding Champion of the Parish and Silverblade Paladin. Sorry I didn't get to it before. I hope this makes it up to you, because I am geeking out about this deck. It's so much fun to goldfish, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
4 Champion of the Parish
2 Wingcrafter
2 Azorius Arrester
3 Snapcaster Mage
2 Nightshade Peddler
4 Silverblade Paladin
2 Tandem Lookout
3 Prodigal Sorcerer
1 Champion of Lambholt
2 Trusted Forcemage
2 Restoration Angel
2 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Momentary Blink
4 Ghostly Flicker
2 Cackling Counterpart
Land (21):
2 Plains
2 Island
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Hallowed Fountain
2 Temple Garden
2 Breeding Pool
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Seaside Citadel
Seriously, I enjoy this deck design so much. It's all about misdirection and confusing your opponent. Combat becomes an impassable mess where attacking and blocking effectively basically can't be done. Sure, you're turning guys sideways, but it's so much more than that. You can use Momentary Blink, Ghostly Flicker, Cackling Counterpart, and Restoration Angel (she's the only non-human in the deck) to mess with your variety of soulbond creatures mid-combat. Suddenly your creature has double strike from Silverblade Paladin, a surprise +1/+1 buff from Trusted Forcemage, and of course Deathtouch from above via Nightshade Peddler (especially nice if you pair him with the double strike). By the way, all of those great flicker spells also counter basic spot removal.
Azorius Arrester is an actual beating here. In goldfishing there was a turn I got to Ghostly Flicker him and Restoration Angel together, giving me a double arrest plus double triggers on my Champion of the Parish. Snapcaster Mage lets you re-use your blink spells, not to mention the instant speed Champion buffs and soulbonds. And seriously, how good is Cackling Counterpart in this deck? It just does everything.
There aren't a lot of green creatures, but Green Sun's Zenith is still just great. You'll pretty much always want a Nightshade Peddler and getting the singleton Champion of Lambholt, who benefits so ridiculously from all this flickering, is pretty clutch. There's even cute minor synergy between Lambholt and Trusted Forcemage.
My favorite piece of tech is Prodigal Sorcerer. Read Tandem Lookout carefully: "whenever this creature deals damage to an opponent, draw a card." No combat damage, no problem. God I love it. Then there's the obvious synergy with Nightshade Peddler. Thank God for their misunderstanding of the color wheel back in the day, there's just no way to muscle red into this deck for Prodigal Pyromancer.
Two negligible but fun cards are Wingcrafter and Dryad Arbor. Arbor is fetchable for one mana with Green Sun's Zenith and even with Misty Rainforest (assuming a non-budget mana base). I love the idea of somebody blocking an un-soulbound creature, only to have you crack Misty to find Arbor and have a surprise bond. Wingcrafter is really just quality evasion that you can move around as you see fit, including defensively when they attack with a flier.
My only regret is a complete lack of a good Heroic creature. Most of the white ones just get +1/+1 counters, useless with flicker effects. The green and blue ones are also just awful. The deck wanted Agent of the Fates pretty badly, but alas...
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Cloudfin Raptor
Simic Initiate
Aquastrand Spider
Renegade Krasis
Cytoplast Root-Kin
Cytoplast Manipulator
Master Biomancer (not a mutant, but highly synergistic with the previous cards)
Any idea of support cards I could use? Anything related to or abusing +1/+1 counters?
4x Arcbound Ravager
4x Architects of Will
2x Atog
2x Glaze Fiend
4x Perilous Myr
4x Slag Fiend
2x Vault Skirge
4x Chromatic Star
3x Faithless Looting
3x Galvanic Blast
3x Pyrite Spellbomb
3x Ichor Wellspring
2x Scrapyard Salvo
4x Great Furnace
4x Mountain
4x Seat of the Synod
4x Swamp
4x Vault of Whispers
This is the most aggressive build. I also considered Painsmith and losing Architects of Will for something else.
4x Arcbound Ravager
2x Atog
3x Etherium Sculptor
4x Perilous Myr
3x Riddlesmith
4x Slag Fiend
4x Chromatic Star
3x Galvanic Blast
3x Pyrite Spellbomb
2x Ichor Wellspring
2x Mycosynth Wellspring
2x Scrapyard Salvo
4x Thoughcast
4x Great Furnace
2x Island
2x Mountain
4x Seat of the Synod
4x Shivan Reef
4x Vault of Whispers
[/deck]
This one has the best draw effects. Riddlesmith seems made for this deck and Etherium Sculptor should take the drawing, casting and filling the graveyard to a whole new level. Thoughcast is great as you said yourself.
4x Arcbound Ravager
2x Atog
1x Goblin Welder
4x Perilous Myr
4x Porcelain Legionaire
2x Ranger of Eos
1x Salvage Scout
4x Slag Fiend
4x Chromatic Star
4x Dispatch
2x Dispeller's Capsule
2x Pyrite Spellbomb
2x Ichor Wellspring
2x Mycosynth Wellspring
2x Scrapyard Salvo
4x Ancient Den
4x Battlefield Forge
4x Great Furnace
2x Mountain
2x Plains
4x Seat of the Synod
This one has the strongest removal of the three.
Which one do you like the best?
Your idea for humans seem really cool, but does it actually work? Creatures can only bond with one creature at a time, and they can only unbound when one of them leaves the battlefield. Am I missing something?
There are the easy ones like Bioshift. Incremental Growth, Doubling Season, and Vorel of the Hull Clade. Green Sun's Zenith fits well into the deck, though it's not particularly interesting.
There don't seem to be a large number of particularly interesting +1/+1 card tricks, most of the cards that take advantage of them are creatures and not spells (aside from generically putting them on creatures) and Mutant isn't a common creature type. I think Scarscale Ritual would be pretty cute since it's drawback is almost null for you. They're not mutants, but I think Sage of Fables and Etched Oracle could be really cute card advantage machines.
@Mr. Sinister
I think the B/R list could be viable, though I'd lose the Vault Skirges and Glaze Fiends in favor of a set of Disciple of the Vaults and definitely use Sharpnel Blast on top of Galvanic Blast, probably in place of Scrapyard Salvo. It would be brutal, but wouldn't show off Slag Fiend's potential as much.
I enjoy the Blue list, Riddlesmith is a sweet guy. I'd max out on Ichor Wellspring before going to Mycosynth Wellspring since the deck's CMC is so low. It really maximizes Etherium Sculptor's potential; sadly, this is the deck where Glaze Fiend would really shine.
The White list is closest to my original suggestion. I still like Origin Spellbomb more than Dispeller's Capsule because the deck really wants card draw, especially without Thoughtcast. I'd also go for Galvanic Blast over Dispatch, it handles all but the biggest creatures and gives you that extra reach. I think it's best to include Glassdust Hulk over Porcelain Legionnaire simply because Goblin Welder is pretty unimpressive without him as a target and, again, gotta love that card draw. The inclusion of Ranger of Eos makes Slag Fiend just a whole lot better and for that reason, I think this is the list to go with. It's a strong mid-range choice that lets the inspiration card of the deck really shine.
As for the Human deck might look underwhelming, but it's been very successful in goldfishing. It's true that creatures can only bond with one at a time, but you have a lot of options for how you want to set up your bonds and you can instant speed change them via the multiple Blink spells. Blinks spells make every almost all of your creatures a combat trick in one way or another. It's just a deck with a lot of angles of attack that makes it so your opponent always has to be on his toes during combat. Giving it a second look, I would actually try to fit in more land and consider finding room for Fiend Hunter, maybe in place of Azorius Arrester, because his ability is really strong with so much blink.
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Very cool, I happen to love Defender decks and Dragonshift is one of my favorite goofy win cons.
Your list of cards is a good start. First thing it needs is a collection of lower cost defenders; most of your guys aren't coming down until turn three and that's a problem against aggressive decks. Here's what I came up with:
4 Shield Sphere
4 Wall of Tears
4 Fog Bank
4 Wall of Razors
2 Drift of Phantasms
4 Nivix Cyclops
4 Vent Sentinel
2 Mnemonic Wall
4 Mizzium Mortars
3 Dragonshift
2 Sleep
It's pretty creature heavy, but you need to be dropping a guy every turn to keep up basically. I had considered trying to muscle in some counterspells, but unless you're worried about board wipes I wouldn't bother. Against creature-light control decks though, if you want a sideboard, I'd suggest siding in Counterspell and co. in place of the Mizzium Mortarss and Sleeps.
Basically, I chose the most effective defensive Defenders and generally maxed out on them. Not much will be able to effectively attack into Wall of Tears (basically better than Æther Membrane) and Wall of Razors very well, and obviously Fog Bank is basically impenetrable. Vent Sentinel is an insane win-con, you'll most likely find yourself winning off of him more often than Dragonshift. Of course, Drift of Phantasms is there to ensure you can hit your Dragonshifts easily enough.
Mnemonic Wall is for Mizzium Mortars and Dragonshift recursion; I only put in two because that five mana cost is really quite prohibitive. I wanted to put Wall of Frosts in where Nivix Cyclops is, but he's so cute with an overloaded Mizzium Mortars or a Sleep. It's a shame you can't stack his trigger so he gets his +3/+0 after Dragonshift has resolved.
Unfortunately, the Strionic Resonator + Lobber Crew combo doesn't work quite like you're thinking; Resonator copies the trigger and allows you to choose new targets if there are targets, but Lobber Crew's ability doesn't target, it just untaps itself, so you can't untap Vent Sentinel with it. I do like Braid of Fire as a ramp spell, but it's just such a bad top deck. This deck can ill afford poor top decks, it almost always wants to draw a Defender, a stall card, or a land to hit its land drops. Ramp in general doesn't prove to be necessary, as after landing a Vent Sentinel the deck functions quite well on just four mana. Hitting seven for Dragonshift is ideal in the long run, though.
Here's a spoiler containing a few other Defender decks I've designed in the past, in case you're interested:
Here's a budget deck I built around Sleeper Agent some time ago:
4 Sleeper Agent
4 Perimeter Captain
4 Wall of Omens
4 Wall of Souls
3 Ranger of Eos
4 Lingering Souls
4 Doom Blade
2 Imps' Taunt
Enchantments (8):
3 Oblivion Ring
3 Bloodchief Ascension
2 Sanguine Bond
11 Plains
12 Swamp
And a goofy Doran, the Siege Tower / Rolling Stones deck:
4 Treefolk Harbinger
4 Perimeter Captain
4 Wall of Omens
4 Wall of Blossoms
4 Wall of Reverence
4 Doran the Siege Tower
4 Path to Exile
3 Doom Blade
2 Idyllic Tutor
4 Rolling Stones
Land (21):
21 Land
Lastly, my personal Boros Defender deck I used to play at the kitchen table:
4 Perimeter Captain
4 Wall of Omens
2 Stun Sniper
3 Stalwart Shield-Bearers
4 Rage Nimbus
4 Vent Sentinel
4 Path to Exile
4 Pyroclasm
Enchantments (5):
3 Luminarch Ascension
2 Oblivion Ring
3 Ajani Vengeant
Land (23):
23 Land
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You can use Slagstorm or Pyroclasm as replacements for Mortars. Your Wall of Razors and Fog Banks will die to them, but they're a lot cheaper. Mortars is the only one that's one-sided, sadly. Except for Electrickery, but that won't kill much. Maybe run one of them as a two-of and up the Sleep count.
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RSquee, Value NabobR
As always you make some very good points. I liked the black version, but by making the suggested changes (and I think I should), it would look too similar to my Modular deck. Besides, I want Slag Fiend to shine more than it would in here.
I think I'll try out the blue one first, simply because Ranger of Eos is by far the most expensive card (I already own a set of Arcbound Ravagers and most of the other cards). Besides, I like dynamic decks that do a lot each turn, so cycling through my deck and casting and saccing lots of artifacts each turn really appeals to me. I think I'll remove two lands to up the Etherium Sculptor count to four, replace the Mycosynth Wellsprings with Ichor Wellsprings and add another Scrapyard Salvo. The CMC of the deck is really low, Etherium Sculptor further lowers it, and the massive amount of draw and looting should ensure that I hit most of my land drops. The Scrapyard Salvos should probably be Shrapnel Blasts, but I would like the artifacts in the yard to matter as much as possible to stay on theme. I might make the switch later on, if Scrapyard Salvo underperforms.
I am definitely tempted by the human deck, I'll experiment a little with the cards and numbers. I absolutely love blink-effects, but I already have an Esper blink deck, so if I build this one, I want it to work very differently from my current deck.
Thank you for all your guidance, it's much appreciated.
The objective of this deck is to Donate Steel Golem to your opponent and then use Reality Acid bouncing back and forth from your hand to the battlefield to destroy all their permanents. And then mill them via their draw step until they run out of cards or until they leave the game because they hate you.
I am trying hard to keep cost at a minimum, hence Cancel instead of Dissipate or Counterspell.
The mana curve is really low. I am not sure if I should add something larger up top (Frost Titan or Thassa, God of the Sea?)
So I am just looking for some advice; maybe some basic tips on deckbuilding. Thanks
18 Island
2 Halimar Depths
Creatures
4 Steel Golem
2 Vedalken Mastermind
2 Floodtide Serpent
2 Wall of Frost
2 Augury Owl
4 Donate
4 Reality Acid
4 Mana Leak
2 Cancel
2 Reminisce
2 Political Trickery
2 Brainstorm
2 Æther Tradewinds
2 Propaganda
2 Dissipation Field
2 Claustrophobia