Hey guys. I'm thinking of building a deck which combines 2 different sets of cards which I think might work well together. My aim is to make a 60 card deck which will include throne of empires, crown of empires, and scepter of empires in combination with bogbrew witch, bubbling cauldron, and festering newt. I don't know whether this is going to work and I don't know exactly how many of each of the aforementioned cards to use in this deck. Ideally one would like to run a playset of each, but if I run 24 lands, and I have a playset of each of those cards, then I'm left with only 12 slots in my deck. What sort of cards would you guys suggest I use for the remaining 12 slots? I'm thinking of cards like diabolic tutor, and recover for starters. Please bare in mind that I'm on a budget, so I can't afford stupidly expensive cards for this deck, but I am willing to fork out a bit of money if the deck is going to be really fun to play with.
I'm my opinion, you are better off playing a budget combo deck; there are some which are actually pretty good and can beat some tier 1 strategies. What you are presenting here is jamming a bunch of absolutely terrible cards (and there's no way around it - none of these cards are remotely playable in a competitive environment) that aren't even that powerful even if you assemble the 3 or 4-card combo! Compare it to Twin, which was a 2-card combo which instantly won
Now, if you are past that and really want to make it as a casual deck, I would recommend not playing all 4 of them because you will never have any interaction against anyone, but instead some Transmute cards (like Muddle the Mixture) which fetch for the appropiate CMC while being decent. Also, you could try a Traverse the Ulvenwald shell to fetch for the creature part of the deck.
The best advice is to don't do it. If you're assembling a 3 card combo it should be instantly winning the game, not just making each card a little more powerful. Spending money on these cards just puts you that much further away from having something playable in the format.
Hey guys. I'm thinking of building a deck which combines 2 different sets of cards which I think might work well together. My aim is to make a 60 card deck which will include throne of empires, crown of empires, and scepter of empires in combination with bogbrew witch, bubbling cauldron, and festering newt. I don't know whether this is going to work and I don't know exactly how many of each of the aforementioned cards to use in this deck. Ideally one would like to run a playset of each, but if I run 24 lands, and I have a playset of each of those cards, then I'm left with only 12 slots in my deck. What sort of cards would you guys suggest I use for the remaining 12 slots? I'm thinking of cards like diabolic tutor, and recover for starters. Please bare in mind that I'm on a budget, so I can't afford stupidly expensive cards for this deck, but I am willing to fork out a bit of money if the deck is going to be really fun to play with.
Such a deck will never even be remotely competitive, but maybe it's just meant as a fun casual deck. But even for a fun casual deck, I'd suggest only sticking with the Empire cards. Those actually accomplish fairly powerful things and repeatedly, whereas Bogbrew Witch/Bubbling Cauldron/Festering Newt's effects are fairly one shot and the whole thing is much more vulnerable to removal.
If going with the Empire cards, it would probably be better as part of a more artifact-based deck, so you can run something like Fabricate to be able to search up the pieces but also search up other things as necessary. Welding Jar seems good as a way to save those cards if an opponent does have an artifact removal spell.
It seems you're excited about building the deck anyway, so go ahead and build it with casual fun in mind.
It's harsh but everyone else who posted is absolutely right. Anyone telling you otherwise is likely just trying to be nice.
If you can't truly see yourself building toward assemblage of an expensive popular top deck then save yourself the time and energy.
That being said, there's no reason you can't invest time and energy into an enjoyable strategy if that's what you're looking for in the game.
Find other people who'd be interested in casual Modern play, which you could ask for at a local store that does Magic events. Casual crowds come and go at those places, sometimes they join in on draft nights. Just ask around!
Beacon of Unrest is one of the few ways to recover destroyed artifacts in black. It also shuffles itself back in the deck for possible reuse.
Phylactery Lich is a very low cost indestructible 5/5 to give you some good fat and muscle. Keep in mind your deck is full of 1-power creatures so far, and in a mono black deck with a lot of artifacts, the Lich will fit right in.
Now, the Lich itself is indestructible but still vulnerable to exile effects and artifact destruction.
To help that a little, you can pack a couple of Darksteel Axe. These will make your Phylactery Lich even stronger at 7/5 and way tougher to deal with. Darksteel Axe can also be lying around for you to put on a Festering Newts or Throne of Empires token.
A little more protection can come in a big package with Soul of New Phyrexia. Once active, it can save your artifacts from big destructive stuff like Obliterate. Soul of New Phyrexia can also secure a game against a similar strategy that likes to gum up the board, like token-heavy decks. It can trample over tokens and make your side of the field indestructible for safe all-in attacks.
Since the deck is about putting together combinations of key pieces, Diabolic Tutor is a good idea. Still, we can think about what exactly it is you'd be searching for and what alternatives you have for black searching cards.
If you think about it, none of the main combo pieces in your deck cost more than 4 mana. Further, you can actually cut a couple of copies from the pieces you need the least of on the field.
For instance, in the mix of Festering Newt, Bogbrew Witch and Bubbling Cauldron, you only generally need a single cauldron and witch out, to which you feed a bunch of newts. It doesn't do you much good to draw three Bubbling Cauldrons early in the game, for instance.
Add to the fact that Bogbrew Witch can actually fetch you newts and cauldrons, and you can trim the number of witches and cauldrons in a way that gives the deck a much better flow and lets you avoid clogs.
Similarly, Scepter of Empires and Throne of Empires can do a lot of work in multiples. Tons of damage and tons of tokens, good stuff. You just don't need to go overboard with how much of each piece you're packing.
For instance, the crown is a lot more situational than the Scepter or Throne. You actually need to see a creature you'd want from an opponent to put mana into its ability over anything else you could be doing.
Remember that unless you actually have one of each of the Empires artifacts assembled they just don't do that much, and that's especially true for Crown of Empires which will simply tap a creature.
Now, tapping down a creature every turn for 3 mana isn't the worst, and can make for some nice stall, but you can easily imagine how clogged you'd be if you were stuck on only crowns in the early game.
Four of any of these pieces can be overkill and I think that's especially true for the crown. Again, you just need one of each to be in business, and you will naturally draw a couple of pieces over the course of the game. You want to avoid getting too many double-ups and you can rely on your sorcery to get you a missing piece.
Now that we've examined the nature of what you're searching for in the deck, you can think about what specific cards will help get them beyond Bogbrew Witch.
Check out Beseech the Queen. As noted earlier the highest cost of your combo cards is four. At four lands, Beseech the Queen works just as well as a Diabolic Tutor for a whole mana less.
Beseech the Queen can also be used on turn 3, unlike Diabolic Tutor. It can be used on turn 3 to get you a Crown of Empires, Bubbling Cauldron or even a Phylactery Lich.
You can even use Beseech the Queen to find you a Darksteel Axe in a pinch to play on turn 4 to go with a Phylactery Lich in your hand, which you can drop and immediately equip on turn 5!
That's a lot of flexibility, and though Beseech the Queen can't get you Bogbrew Witch on turn 3, it can still search her out for you on turn 4 the way Diabolic Tutor would anyway.
You can run an extra copy of the Witch over the cauldron and add a couple of Read the Bones to help your consistency here too.
Finally, your main interest in Recover seems to be the ability to re-use your Festering Newts once you get your combo assembled.
To that end, go for a couple of Palace Siege. You're probably not going to want to use Recover until you're all set up anyway, so you can go for a higher cost version that will do a lot more to keep you in the game once you're there.
Beware that while you dominate the ground, none of your own creatures can fly. Crown of Empires and Festering Newts recycled with Palace Siege should help you there and since you're a slow starting-starting combo deck, the alternative mode on Palace Siege should be nice against aggressive decks.
Consider Qarsi Sadist as a buffer against aggressive decks. Remember the Qarsi Sadist can also exploit itself if you need to close out a game against an opponent on 1/2 life or if you desperately need the health.
It's not all bad either to just play the sadist on turn 2 as a naked 1/3 against certain decks. It's enough to put an early lone Kird Ape in check, for instance.
You'll find this budget deck has good consistency, yet several lines of play to it. Lots of little synergies with some early stall that builds up to a strong, stubborn endgame to overwhelm opponents.
You don't call "dying to removal" if the removal is more expensive in resources than the creature. If you have to spend BG (Abrupt Decay), or W + basic land (PtE) to remove a 1G, that is not "dying to removal". Strictly speaking Goyf dies to removal, but actually your removal is dying to Goyf.
That sounds like good advice. I went to our local card shop yesterday and got play sets of each card in the Empire combo. I managed to get a play set of festering newt, 3 x bogbrew witch, but only managed to get 1 x bubbling cauldron. I agree with you that this probably won't be super competititive, but I'm intrigued by the idea of actually getting both combos out onto the battlefield and seeing them in action simultaneously. I also discovered a card called semblance anvil which should work well in playing throne of empires, crown of empires, scepter of empires as well as bubbling cauldron earlier in play.
Another nice combo that I discovered while going through my files was the combination of a card called hex and battlefield thaumaturge. This would allow me to use hex far sooner than I normally could. I agree with you that I should include Blue into this deck. welding jar and fabricate does make a lot of sense. Perhaps a couple of blue counter spells would assist me during the early game to assist me with some board state for later in the game.
Well, I'm going to test drive this deck tonight for the first time. I guess this is the only way to see whether it will be at all effective or not. Will give you some feedback.
Hi Sphynx. I was just busy telling a mate of mine about your in-depth response. I absolutely love the way you worked through it, step-by-step. The world needs more people like yourself.
And don't worry, no offence taken. I think it has already dawned on me that the combination of the Empire combo and the Bogbrew Witch combo together will be a bit of a challenge in the early game. But boy-oh-boy, how fun it will be if I can actually get both combos out on the battlefield.
I agree 100% with you that I don't need to run playsets of each card. The advantage of this is that I can then open up a few more slots for other cards that will assist me towards achieving my goal. A card that I'm definitely considering is semblance anvil in order to get the artifacts out cheaper, which will leave me some mana to spare for some other spells. I'm not sure whether I want to go mono black / artifact with this deck yet as I like the idea of adding some blue into the mix, because out of the 6 decks that I have built so far, not one of them run blue cards. It's time I gave blue a chance.
I spent some time putting this deck together last night, but after reading through your ideas, I'm definitely going to tweak it before we play tonight. I'll send you a list the final cards that I have chosen for the deck after I have tweaked it. Your opinion and/or suggestions for further tweaking will be appreciated.
Thank you for your honest input. Much appreciated. Reading through the responses so far, it is apparent that search cards as well as counter spells will be necessary for this deck. As for playing competitively, I most certainly will refrain from using this deck. But for a casual fun deck, I think it's worth a try. I haven't decided on which cards to put into my "final" deck for tonight's game, but I will most certainly take your advise into account when choosing cards for this deck. If I can even win 1 game tonight, it would be worth it for me. It's the first time that I'm actually moving away from the old fashioned Mono Green big creature decks, and Mono White Lifelink decks. In fact, this is the first time I'm trying a deck with so many artifacts in it. I'm pretty sure I'm going to get my bu-tt dealt to me tonight, but as long as I have fun while doing it
btw, Hex needs a full six targets -- you can't cast it without a full 6 distinct targets. If you and your opponent only have 5 creatures between you, you can't even start to cast it. (Probably know this already, just thought I'd point it out.)
Actually, that's a pretty cool idea with Battlefield Thaumaturge, and potentially much more Modern-viable...
In any case, good luck with your deck! As others said: not competitive, but sounds fun
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"It is better for all the world if, instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the Fallopian tubes... Three generations of imbeciles are enough."
--Buck v Bell, 1927. This case, regarding the compulsory sterilization of inmates at mental institutions, has -- somehow -- never been overturned. Just a wee PSA for ya.
If it helps, get yourself a copy of Cockatrice (software) and load your deck into it along with whatever other deck lists other people are playing. With the tools available, you can see the statistical possibilities of drawing specific cards and hands and, this is really important, play games against yourself to see how much work would be needed to get your combos out or how slow the deck is or whatever.
The excellent posts above are chock full of information, but admittedly, the "aha!" doesn't happen until you experience it for yourself.
I would build a deck dedicated to each combo individually.
The Bogbrew deck wants creature sacrifice and reanimation; it's worth noting that the Cauldron can be used to defeat your opponents if you sacrifice the Newts to it, and Sanguine Bond turns even the regular lifegain into pain for the opponent. If you can get hold of Phyrexian Reclamation, that works wonders with the Newts. Also pack some creatures like Black Cat to provide the Cauldron with more fodder, and consider Shadows of the Past for top deck fixing and a means to close out the game once you've sacced some creatures.
Meanwhile the Empire artifacts deck has a few more angles. The Crown leans toward control, the Scepter towards burn, and the Throne aggro. Cards that untap artifacts, like Voltaic Key, Clock of Omens, and Unwinding Clock, give you extra uses of these artifacts. You'll want some card draw like Artificer's Epiphany and Comparative Analysis, as budget tutoring methods tend to be a tad slow. If you can get Master Transmuter, she can turn 0-drop artifacts like Memnite and Darksteel Relic into Empire artifacts easy.
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MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
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Hey guys. I'm thinking of building a deck which combines 2 different sets of cards which I think might work well together. My aim is to make a 60 card deck which will include throne of empires, crown of empires, and scepter of empires in combination with bogbrew witch, bubbling cauldron, and festering newt. I don't know whether this is going to work and I don't know exactly how many of each of the aforementioned cards to use in this deck. Ideally one would like to run a playset of each, but if I run 24 lands, and I have a playset of each of those cards, then I'm left with only 12 slots in my deck. What sort of cards would you guys suggest I use for the remaining 12 slots? I'm thinking of cards like diabolic tutor, and recover for starters. Please bare in mind that I'm on a budget, so I can't afford stupidly expensive cards for this deck, but I am willing to fork out a bit of money if the deck is going to be really fun to play with.
After running this deck, I soon realized exactly what all of you were saying. DON'T DO IT! It's better to build the Bogbrew Witch combo and the Empire's combo into their own and separate dedicated decks. I'm actually glad that I built and ran the 2 combo's together, because I learnt a lot about the do's and don'ts about deck building. I have now made very successful decks from using the combo's in their own decks. Thank you all for the input.
Well, I'm late to this party but was going to say to have separate Empire and Bogbrew Witch decks. That's what I've done and they're fun. Strictly casual, def not competitive.
Actually, the Bogbrew Witch/Bubbling Cauldron/Festering Newt combo is in my Macbeth deck. Very casual, great literary flavor (yes, I'm nerdy that way). If you want some Macbeth card ideas, just ask. There just aren't enough Shakespeare-flavored decks in the world!
I must say, combining Bogbrew Witch , Bubbling Cauldron , Festering Newt with Zombies that have undying abilities, such as Geralf's Messenger, and cards that are able to remove the counters from Geralf's Messenger, such as Retribution of the Ancient's, is a great way to go. Bubbling Cauldron is by far your most important card in this deck as you need its 1st activated ability to sacrifice Geralf's Messenger (usually after you've attacked with him during your attack phase), then gain your 4 life from Bubbling Cauldron, only to have Geralf's Messenger come back into play which will then activate his triggered ability dealing your opponent 2 direct damage. Once Geralf's Messenger is back in play, all you need to do is pay 1 black mana to remove the "undying counter" from him, and then just repeat the process. I've also incorporated a playset of Diregraf Captain which adds to the amount of direct damage you deal to your opponent when Geralf's Messenger does his "thing". As for dealing with your opponent's creatures, as you already know, Festering Newt is an excellent card for killing off your opponent's creatures 1 by 1, since it deals 4 damage to a creature when it dies (as long as Bogbrew Witch is on the battlefield). I've also included a play set of Bone Splinters which can be used on Geralf's Messenger, should you ever need Bubbling Cauldron to sacrifice Festering Newt in the same turn or vise versa. As for mana ramp and card search, I've included a play set of Altar's Reap, which I normally use on Geralf's Messenger in order to draw 2 cards, as well as a playset of Dark Ritual. In addition to this, I also have 2x Diabolic Tutor, should I ever need to search for a missing piece of my puzzle. I cannot begin to explain to you how successful this deck has been for me. It actually makes me happy. It's my version of a "Macbeth" deck. Super proud of myself! You are more than welcome to share some of your ideas with me. Deck building has become quite a thing for me and new ideas are always welcome.
Now, if you are past that and really want to make it as a casual deck, I would recommend not playing all 4 of them because you will never have any interaction against anyone, but instead some Transmute cards (like Muddle the Mixture) which fetch for the appropiate CMC while being decent. Also, you could try a Traverse the Ulvenwald shell to fetch for the creature part of the deck.
Cheers!
Decks I'm playing in Modern right now:
URB Grixis Reveler (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/modern-grixis-reveler/)
UB Faeries (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/ub-fae-2/)
UW Azorious Control (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/modern-ojutai-control-2/)
If going with the Empire cards, it would probably be better as part of a more artifact-based deck, so you can run something like Fabricate to be able to search up the pieces but also search up other things as necessary. Welding Jar seems good as a way to save those cards if an opponent does have an artifact removal spell.
It's harsh but everyone else who posted is absolutely right. Anyone telling you otherwise is likely just trying to be nice.
If you can't truly see yourself building toward assemblage of an expensive popular top deck then save yourself the time and energy.
That being said, there's no reason you can't invest time and energy into an enjoyable strategy if that's what you're looking for in the game.
Find other people who'd be interested in casual Modern play, which you could ask for at a local store that does Magic events. Casual crowds come and go at those places, sometimes they join in on draft nights. Just ask around!
As for specific card suggestions, you might like Beacon of Unrest and Phylactery Lich.
Beacon of Unrest is one of the few ways to recover destroyed artifacts in black. It also shuffles itself back in the deck for possible reuse.
Phylactery Lich is a very low cost indestructible 5/5 to give you some good fat and muscle. Keep in mind your deck is full of 1-power creatures so far, and in a mono black deck with a lot of artifacts, the Lich will fit right in.
Now, the Lich itself is indestructible but still vulnerable to exile effects and artifact destruction.
To help that a little, you can pack a couple of Darksteel Axe. These will make your Phylactery Lich even stronger at 7/5 and way tougher to deal with.
Darksteel Axe can also be lying around for you to put on a Festering Newts or Throne of Empires token.
A little more protection can come in a big package with Soul of New Phyrexia. Once active, it can save your artifacts from big destructive stuff like Obliterate.
Soul of New Phyrexia can also secure a game against a similar strategy that likes to gum up the board, like token-heavy decks. It can trample over tokens and make your side of the field indestructible for safe all-in attacks.
Since the deck is about putting together combinations of key pieces, Diabolic Tutor is a good idea. Still, we can think about what exactly it is you'd be searching for and what alternatives you have for black searching cards.
If you think about it, none of the main combo pieces in your deck cost more than 4 mana. Further, you can actually cut a couple of copies from the pieces you need the least of on the field.
For instance, in the mix of Festering Newt, Bogbrew Witch and Bubbling Cauldron, you only generally need a single cauldron and witch out, to which you feed a bunch of newts. It doesn't do you much good to draw three Bubbling Cauldrons early in the game, for instance.
Add to the fact that Bogbrew Witch can actually fetch you newts and cauldrons, and you can trim the number of witches and cauldrons in a way that gives the deck a much better flow and lets you avoid clogs.
Similarly, Scepter of Empires and Throne of Empires can do a lot of work in multiples. Tons of damage and tons of tokens, good stuff. You just don't need to go overboard with how much of each piece you're packing.
For instance, the crown is a lot more situational than the Scepter or Throne. You actually need to see a creature you'd want from an opponent to put mana into its ability over anything else you could be doing.
Remember that unless you actually have one of each of the Empires artifacts assembled they just don't do that much, and that's especially true for Crown of Empires which will simply tap a creature.
Now, tapping down a creature every turn for 3 mana isn't the worst, and can make for some nice stall, but you can easily imagine how clogged you'd be if you were stuck on only crowns in the early game.
Four of any of these pieces can be overkill and I think that's especially true for the crown. Again, you just need one of each to be in business, and you will naturally draw a couple of pieces over the course of the game. You want to avoid getting too many double-ups and you can rely on your sorcery to get you a missing piece.
Now that we've examined the nature of what you're searching for in the deck, you can think about what specific cards will help get them beyond Bogbrew Witch.
Check out Beseech the Queen. As noted earlier the highest cost of your combo cards is four. At four lands, Beseech the Queen works just as well as a Diabolic Tutor for a whole mana less.
Beseech the Queen can also be used on turn 3, unlike Diabolic Tutor. It can be used on turn 3 to get you a Crown of Empires, Bubbling Cauldron or even a Phylactery Lich.
You can even use Beseech the Queen to find you a Darksteel Axe in a pinch to play on turn 4 to go with a Phylactery Lich in your hand, which you can drop and immediately equip on turn 5!
That's a lot of flexibility, and though Beseech the Queen can't get you Bogbrew Witch on turn 3, it can still search her out for you on turn 4 the way Diabolic Tutor would anyway.
You can run an extra copy of the Witch over the cauldron and add a couple of Read the Bones to help your consistency here too.
Finally, your main interest in Recover seems to be the ability to re-use your Festering Newts once you get your combo assembled.
To that end, go for a couple of Palace Siege. You're probably not going to want to use Recover until you're all set up anyway, so you can go for a higher cost version that will do a lot more to keep you in the game once you're there.
Beware that while you dominate the ground, none of your own creatures can fly. Crown of Empires and Festering Newts recycled with Palace Siege should help you there and since you're a slow starting-starting combo deck, the alternative mode on Palace Siege should be nice against aggressive decks.
Consider Qarsi Sadist as a buffer against aggressive decks. Remember the Qarsi Sadist can also exploit itself if you need to close out a game against an opponent on 1/2 life or if you desperately need the health.
It's not all bad either to just play the sadist on turn 2 as a naked 1/3 against certain decks. It's enough to put an early lone Kird Ape in check, for instance.
Here's a mockup list with my suggestions included
Creatures 13
4 Festering Newt
2 Qarsi Sadist
3 Phylactery Lich
3 Bogbrew Witch
1 Soul of New Phyrexia
2 Darksteel Axe
2 Bubbling Cauldron
2 Crown of Empires
3 Scepter of Empires
3 Throne of Empires
2 Palace Siege
Sorcery 8
4 Beseech the Queen
2 Read the Bones
1 Diabolic Tutor
1 Beacon of Unrest
25 Swamp
You'll find this budget deck has good consistency, yet several lines of play to it. Lots of little synergies with some early stall that builds up to a strong, stubborn endgame to overwhelm opponents.
"OH GOD MY BRAIN IS EXPLOADING AT HOW BAD THE ART IS ON MY OWN CARD"
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10/10, I tapped.
That sounds like good advice. I went to our local card shop yesterday and got play sets of each card in the Empire combo. I managed to get a play set of festering newt, 3 x bogbrew witch, but only managed to get 1 x bubbling cauldron. I agree with you that this probably won't be super competititive, but I'm intrigued by the idea of actually getting both combos out onto the battlefield and seeing them in action simultaneously. I also discovered a card called semblance anvil which should work well in playing throne of empires, crown of empires, scepter of empires as well as bubbling cauldron earlier in play.
Another nice combo that I discovered while going through my files was the combination of a card called hex and battlefield thaumaturge. This would allow me to use hex far sooner than I normally could. I agree with you that I should include Blue into this deck. welding jar and fabricate does make a lot of sense. Perhaps a couple of blue counter spells would assist me during the early game to assist me with some board state for later in the game.
Well, I'm going to test drive this deck tonight for the first time. I guess this is the only way to see whether it will be at all effective or not. Will give you some feedback.
And don't worry, no offence taken. I think it has already dawned on me that the combination of the Empire combo and the Bogbrew Witch combo together will be a bit of a challenge in the early game. But boy-oh-boy, how fun it will be if I can actually get both combos out on the battlefield.
I agree 100% with you that I don't need to run playsets of each card. The advantage of this is that I can then open up a few more slots for other cards that will assist me towards achieving my goal. A card that I'm definitely considering is semblance anvil in order to get the artifacts out cheaper, which will leave me some mana to spare for some other spells. I'm not sure whether I want to go mono black / artifact with this deck yet as I like the idea of adding some blue into the mix, because out of the 6 decks that I have built so far, not one of them run blue cards. It's time I gave blue a chance.
I spent some time putting this deck together last night, but after reading through your ideas, I'm definitely going to tweak it before we play tonight. I'll send you a list the final cards that I have chosen for the deck after I have tweaked it. Your opinion and/or suggestions for further tweaking will be appreciated.
Until then. GG
Actually, that's a pretty cool idea with Battlefield Thaumaturge, and potentially much more Modern-viable...
In any case, good luck with your deck! As others said: not competitive, but sounds fun
--Buck v Bell, 1927. This case, regarding the compulsory sterilization of inmates at mental institutions, has -- somehow -- never been overturned. Just a wee PSA for ya.
The excellent posts above are chock full of information, but admittedly, the "aha!" doesn't happen until you experience it for yourself.
I would build a deck dedicated to each combo individually.
The Bogbrew deck wants creature sacrifice and reanimation; it's worth noting that the Cauldron can be used to defeat your opponents if you sacrifice the Newts to it, and Sanguine Bond turns even the regular lifegain into pain for the opponent. If you can get hold of Phyrexian Reclamation, that works wonders with the Newts. Also pack some creatures like Black Cat to provide the Cauldron with more fodder, and consider Shadows of the Past for top deck fixing and a means to close out the game once you've sacced some creatures.
Meanwhile the Empire artifacts deck has a few more angles. The Crown leans toward control, the Scepter towards burn, and the Throne aggro. Cards that untap artifacts, like Voltaic Key, Clock of Omens, and Unwinding Clock, give you extra uses of these artifacts. You'll want some card draw like Artificer's Epiphany and Comparative Analysis, as budget tutoring methods tend to be a tad slow. If you can get Master Transmuter, she can turn 0-drop artifacts like Memnite and Darksteel Relic into Empire artifacts easy.
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
pucatrade
big receipts
alpha mox emerald
beta time walk
4 goyfs received
3 liliana of the veil
4 karn liberated
3 force of will
4 grove of the burnwillows
snapcaster mage
3 horizon canopy
2 full art damnation
Actually, the Bogbrew Witch/Bubbling Cauldron/Festering Newt combo is in my Macbeth deck. Very casual, great literary flavor (yes, I'm nerdy that way). If you want some Macbeth card ideas, just ask. There just aren't enough Shakespeare-flavored decks in the world!
I have Diabolic Tutor in my Macbeth deck as well. Some of the others that really bring out elements of the play are Hero's Downfall, Stab Wound, Murder, Wretched Banquet, and Royal Assassin. Less useful but still fun for flavor are Bloodied Ghost, Dark Prophecy, and Accursed Spirit. Finally, I couldn't resist adding Thespian's Stage, for a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more.