Hi all! So here's my first attempt to brew with Moldgraf Scavenger: A port of the infamous Legacy deck Tempo Thresh, with Scavenger as a replacement for Tarmogoyf and Scythe Tiger as a replacement for Nimble Mongoose. Here's the list:
I know Scythe Tiger is a bad creature because it has 2 toughness and etc, but it's a good beater with Shroud that sends a land to the 'yard for delirium, and it's path can be easily cleared with the burn spells and some counters. Memory Lapse seems better than Mana Leak because it answers better the Delve cards while making them eat their fuel, while with Mana Leak they will more often than not resolve, so it kinda acts like Bounce + Delay a turn, which is pretty good for us since we're a tempo deck.
The counterspell set is designed to fight removal and protect my creatures: cheap, easy to cast counters that are great in the early stages of the game for fending off removal.
Ponder and Preordain are overall good cards that help me dig for counters, fix my mana, drop lands, find more threats, get answers, or simply rip a Bolt from the top to finish the job.
Flame Slash is a key card to the deck to deal with 4 toughness guys, and so, we run the full four. Lotus Petal fixes the otherwise shaky manabase.
Speaking of which, the manabase is a sorry mess. It's really generic, but I want to improve on it with the help of the cantrips and the Petals. I don't want to run more than 6 tapped lands due to us being a Tempo deck, and 4 of them need to be fetches to go alongside Scythe Tigers ability.
The mainboard could also use a bit of an adjustment: I'd mainly like to fit in a 3rd Daze and 2-3 Gut Shot, since free spells alongside our cheap beaters + petals accelerate our Tempo game a lot and compensate for the tapped lands. An argument could also be made for swapping Preordain with Gitaxian Probe in order to enable Scavenger really fast (Fetch / Tiger + Petal / Creature + Free Spells + Cantrips).
I've only goldfished for now and have yet to test against the meta, but since it runs universally good cards like Cantrips, Delver, Bolt & Slash, Gush, and a 3/4 for 2 I think I will be able to put up a fight with this.
Instead of trying to find the closest port of one card to another (and ending up with mediocre cards in the process), why don't you add some more powerful cards from the Pauper metagame? Werebear might not be such a bad card. Frostburn Weird could also yield some interesting results.
Memory Lapse and Remand are two very different cards, even if they somewhat similar things.
I like how Lotus Petal activates Moldgraf. Very nice interaction!
This deck wants to have lots of colour flexibility in order to cast cantrips and counters on one turn as well as creatures and Burn the next. This is why the Legacy deck runs 4 Volcanic Islands, 4 Tropical Islands, and stuff to fetch them (untapped). This also made Gush a potent card. With this in mind, I think Khans Duals are probably better than Fetch lands in this deck. If it weren't for Moldgraf, the switch would be simple.
I think this deck is trying too hard to do too many things at once, and will inevitably be faced with impossible circumstances through a strained Manabase and situational creatures and spells.
Obviously, I didn't consider any blue options for this deck, so it varies greatly from the OP. It goes a more aggressive route and went a bit more with a discard theme. Faithless Looting and Mongrel lets us handpick the cards going to the GY to give us a lot of control over triggering Delirium. Temur Runemark adds another card type to pitch as well as gives our Scavenger the edge it needs to out fight Marauders, Anglers, and Mandrills, which has been the cards main complaint. Rancor was considered, but it doesn't boost toughness and is somewhat anti delirium/threshold.
I think the deck would be a lot more consistent going BUG and using Dead Weight as a four of for delirium. Use vendetta and the like for cheap kill spells, toger and delver quickly beat them to death.
I like the tiger, I have experimented with a UG delver deck with it before. From that I might suggest you try to run Land Grant over some of your lands to better flip Delver of Secrets.
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Pauper: UB Wight Phantasm RB Burn UR Faerie Rites of Initiation
That's awesome, and even gives a way for Moldgraf Scavenger to eat up 4/4's and 5/5's. Black also opens up access to Putrid Leech, which I think is fine as creatures 14-15. I will test both versions and try to get the feel of them, then I'll decide on the splash. Black is a priori the clear winner with yet another type of card for Delirium and a second beater, but Red has the omnipresent Lightning Bolt, which is simply one of the top 10 best cards in each and every constructed format it's legal.
So far I think this is the basic UGx shell I want to be playing:
I wouldn't go below 7 Islands and even then I'm not sure if I can consistently cast Gush. I certainly have to rework some of the cards in order to fit the Burn or Black removal package + Memory Lapse. Land Grant could be interesting, and I can certainly see a low land count with it, Petal, and some number of Gitaxian Probe.
The free spells are a real boon because they help you maintain the Tempo, they don't care about having the right colors to play them, and they enable Delirium a lot faster than it should. If I finally go with Red, I think I will try at least 2 Sanguinary Mage, as it will sure benefit from the cheap spells + low creature count.
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Scythe Tiger
4 Moldgraf Scavenger
Artifact (3)
3 Lotus Petal
Sorcery (12)
4 Flame Slash
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Memory Lapse
3 Spell Pierce
2 Gush
2 Daze
4 Terramorphic Expanse
2 Rugged Highlands
7 Island
3 Forest
2 Mountain
I know Scythe Tiger is a bad creature because it has 2 toughness and etc, but it's a good beater with Shroud that sends a land to the 'yard for delirium, and it's path can be easily cleared with the burn spells and some counters. Memory Lapse seems better than Mana Leak because it answers better the Delve cards while making them eat their fuel, while with Mana Leak they will more often than not resolve, so it kinda acts like Bounce + Delay a turn, which is pretty good for us since we're a tempo deck.
The counterspell set is designed to fight removal and protect my creatures: cheap, easy to cast counters that are great in the early stages of the game for fending off removal.
Ponder and Preordain are overall good cards that help me dig for counters, fix my mana, drop lands, find more threats, get answers, or simply rip a Bolt from the top to finish the job.
Flame Slash is a key card to the deck to deal with 4 toughness guys, and so, we run the full four. Lotus Petal fixes the otherwise shaky manabase.
Speaking of which, the manabase is a sorry mess. It's really generic, but I want to improve on it with the help of the cantrips and the Petals. I don't want to run more than 6 tapped lands due to us being a Tempo deck, and 4 of them need to be fetches to go alongside Scythe Tigers ability.
The mainboard could also use a bit of an adjustment: I'd mainly like to fit in a 3rd Daze and 2-3 Gut Shot, since free spells alongside our cheap beaters + petals accelerate our Tempo game a lot and compensate for the tapped lands. An argument could also be made for swapping Preordain with Gitaxian Probe in order to enable Scavenger really fast (Fetch / Tiger + Petal / Creature + Free Spells + Cantrips).
I've only goldfished for now and have yet to test against the meta, but since it runs universally good cards like Cantrips, Delver, Bolt & Slash, Gush, and a 3/4 for 2 I think I will be able to put up a fight with this.
Thoughts?
Thanks to DNC from Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig
Check my Pauper Cube!
Memory Lapse and Remand are two very different cards, even if they somewhat similar things.
I like how Lotus Petal activates Moldgraf. Very nice interaction!
This deck wants to have lots of colour flexibility in order to cast cantrips and counters on one turn as well as creatures and Burn the next. This is why the Legacy deck runs 4 Volcanic Islands, 4 Tropical Islands, and stuff to fetch them (untapped). This also made Gush a potent card. With this in mind, I think Khans Duals are probably better than Fetch lands in this deck. If it weren't for Moldgraf, the switch would be simple.
I think this deck is trying too hard to do too many things at once, and will inevitably be faced with impossible circumstances through a strained Manabase and situational creatures and spells.
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
Here's where I was going with it.
4 Moldgraf Scavenger
3 Scythe Tiger
3 Werebear
2 Gathan Raiders
2 Rubblebelt Maaka
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Faithless Looting
3 Kuldotha Rebirth
3 Flame Slash
Instant
3 Fiery Temper
3 Lightning Bolt
Enchantment
3 Temur Runemark
3 Lotus Petal
Lands
4 Great Furnace
4 Tree of Tales
4 Evolving Wilds
2 Rugged Highlands
3 Mountain
3 Forest
Obviously, I didn't consider any blue options for this deck, so it varies greatly from the OP. It goes a more aggressive route and went a bit more with a discard theme. Faithless Looting and Mongrel lets us handpick the cards going to the GY to give us a lot of control over triggering Delirium. Temur Runemark adds another card type to pitch as well as gives our Scavenger the edge it needs to out fight Marauders, Anglers, and Mandrills, which has been the cards main complaint. Rancor was considered, but it doesn't boost toughness and is somewhat anti delirium/threshold.
I like the tiger, I have experimented with a UG delver deck with it before. From that I might suggest you try to run Land Grant over some of your lands to better flip Delver of Secrets.
UB Wight Phantasm
RB Burn
UR Faerie Rites of Initiation
Legacy:
R Burn
CG-Post
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
So far I think this is the basic UGx shell I want to be playing:
4 Scythe Tiger
4 Delver of Secret
4 Moldgraf Scavenger
Instant (11)
3 Daze
4 Spell Pierce
2 Gush
2 Gut Shot
3 Lotus Petal
Sorcery (8)
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
Land (18)
7 Island
4 Evolving Wilds
I wouldn't go below 7 Islands and even then I'm not sure if I can consistently cast Gush. I certainly have to rework some of the cards in order to fit the Burn or Black removal package + Memory Lapse. Land Grant could be interesting, and I can certainly see a low land count with it, Petal, and some number of Gitaxian Probe.
The free spells are a real boon because they help you maintain the Tempo, they don't care about having the right colors to play them, and they enable Delirium a lot faster than it should. If I finally go with Red, I think I will try at least 2 Sanguinary Mage, as it will sure benefit from the cheap spells + low creature count.
Thanks to DNC from Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig
Check my Pauper Cube!
“I once had an entire race killed just to listen to the rattling of their dried bones as I waded through them.”
—Volrath