I've seen many versions of the Child, and one of the things that makes this deck different from others is that the Child is able to explode consistently every round with a handful of answers to anything that opposes you.
What I found, is in multiplayer or one on one, the deck is fast and aggressive with enough control to take the game in your hands. I'll illustrate some of the combos that makes for the instant win conditions with a breakdown of many of the lockdown and control cards.
Since my deck is geared more towards green, I chose dual lands that fetch as anything/forests. I don't have fetchlands so it's a bit pointless there.
Utility lands: These have several traits, either they are manlands, or they serve a specific purpose. I find the manlands as being highly efficient because the deck does not have a strong creature presence. So I took out several duals to put these to use.
These lands form a solid core of recursion and sac outlets. Petrified Field is highly useful to get back a land that was destroyed, while Volrath's Stronghold, Miren, and Keldon makes for one of the cheaper recursion abilities for constant destruction.
Now to the tutors and land grabbers, which are the most important ways to get the engine running. A lot of the spells are instant speed and can grab an answer to draw to counter, time stop, etc... With a way to immediately draw the card you can have an answer to anything your opponent plays at your fingertips:
Diabolic Intent and Primal Growth are my favorite sacrifice outlets, one's a tutor, the other is an instant that fetches two basic lands and puts them in play. Both very good IMHO.
Sacrifice Outlets:
The deck's based on killing the Child many times, so this section is devoted to the many other ways to kill her off. The best part is that most of these outlets are all instant speed too. Being an instant is one of the most important things to the deck because sorceries are just too slow.
These cards are great in the following respects: Altar's Reap draws 2 cards and sacs a creature while Perilous Research draws two cards and sacs a permanent. Worthy Cause sacs for life and is a buyback. Momentous Fall sacs a creature for life and card draw. Greater Gargadon has suspend 10 - R and can get time counters removed by sacrifice. So the worthy candidate is the Child. Most excellent. With all the sac outlets, it doesn't mean Volrath's Stronghold is the only way for me to recur the Child. So on to my recursion tools:
Fool's Demise - This is probably my most favorite recursion ever. Enchant Alara, blow her up, she comes right back into play and Fool's Demise comes right back in my hand to be played on her again. Genesis -Second best creature recursion next to the stronghold.
Entomb has more uses than by being a tutor. This is by far the best use. For one black mana and being an instant you can pull an eldrazi into the grave and shuffle your grave back. The reason to do this is because if you have recursion tools in play or in the graveyard you're more likely to be bojuka bog'd or something similar to that. I'd rather shuffle my grave back up than allow a bojuka bog to target my toys.
Now for my ways to protect myself or to stop something from occuring. Counters and removal:
These spells are easily tutored and drawn up with the many devices I use. And Forbid's nice for its buyback. Time Stop and Mindbreak exiles cards. Trickbind has split second and stifles triggered or activated abilities so once it goes on the stack is will stop any and all responses. Spell Crumple's highly useful for its ability to recur itself over and over again.
All Is Dust is my only other mass removal in the deck to get rid of annoying things that are colored indestructibles or a creature that can shut the deck down. Return to Dust is another one of my favorites for removal, it gets rid of artifacts or enchantments that could cost me the game and it's an instant with an added bonus of a casting during main phase = 2 exiled artifacts or enchantments. And Capsize is probably one of the most efficient removal spells of my arsenal. Return permanent to owner's hand and buyback. Recursion of Bojuka Bog, Mystic Snake, and Eternal Witness for starters. The Witch is very efficient to disappear creatures for a turn. And Legacy Weapon wins games.
Which leaves me with the final cards, the instant wins and other stuff:
Umbral Mantle pay 3 mana, untap and get +2/+2. Better than Freed from the Real. If this equipment resolves and Bloom Tender or any combination of the cards below is on the table, it's GG. Aggravated Assault Rude Awakening - These two cards together will end the game. Turnabout - It serves a dual purpose to untap your stuff or tap their stuff during your turn or their upkeep. Reiterate - copy counters, copy draws, copy any spell, plus it's buyback. Best Card... Ever..... Swiftfoot Boots - Better than Greaves. Cromat - Used to be my general, but he's my favorite difficult to kill creature now.
I think the only difficulties this deck has is if someone uses massive land destruct or you tap out at a critical moment. The trick of the deck is to keep constant vigilance and know when to counter things or set off your bombs. The deck's main expenses is the land base, which is critical for the deck to be potent. Most spells are cheap, so one should never have trouble casting the spells they need to when they need to. The way the deck can constantly wipe the board you will be able to set yourself up to your win condition. It may seem drawn out, but it's needed to in order to be able to. The deck lashes out fast and doesn't stop until it's done, and trust me on this, the deck won't stop recurring wrath, unless its tools are ripped away and that in itself is very hard to do. Drop Ulamog in the grave and watch that grave reshuffle itself and your recursion engine will most certainly stay intact. Fool's Demise is by far my top favorite recursion tool for the Child.
The deck can and will take control easily, and once you have control it's hard to lose it. The deck's strength is in the recursion engine.
Wipe the board, get Bloomtender played with a haste ability (Boots) and Umbral Mantle... GG
Corpse Dance is eh (It doesn't do as well as what a great many other cards can do, I'd rather never let a creature in my graveyard go into exile if I have a say so in that matter)... Phyrexian Tower only gives 2 black mana. High Market is 1 life.
Capsize is in my deck. As are the answers to Capsize. The trick is to know when to play the cards.
I only play Aggravated Assault when I have a Rude Awakening in hand.
The cards do make sense in their own warped way Ever seen what would happen when I stormed for 50 beast tokens, wiped them out and bitter ordeal'd with a reiterate one time? Say bye to someone's library... I got rid of a few shenanigans but I kept my favorite styles, like Umbral Mantle with Bloomtender and Aggravated Assault with Rude Awakening, or Turnabout reiterated with a Cromat or Legacy Weapon on the table and I have a counter or two in hand or was able to tutor it up to react to my opponent. The deck works well... Except against mass land destruct.
I'm not saying the deck is better than everyone else's. I'm not saying anything except that the cards do make sense when pieced together to form the win condition after I resolve a Child explosion for the 5th or 6th turn in a row. Or else, I just keep clearing the board, attacking with Ulamog, and removing Ulamog from the game for a turn (or removing Eternal Witness to get a card lost in the grave). Point is, there's not a lot of board presence, which makes it easy to constantly hide creatures from removal with the Mistbound Witch and set up the wincons.
I think the point is that there are a couple cards that are only good with very particular cards (i.e. Bloomtender and Umbral Mantle). Neither of the cards are that good on their own, and are only really any good when you have both AND no one has any way to interact. Why not just play cards that are better all of the time?
Unburial Rites seems like an obvious inclusion, since it's two free rebuys of Child. I'd seriously consider changing the focus of the manabase from forest-duals and low-impact non-basics to Plains, so you can run Emeria, the Sky Ruin.
I'd cut your Oblivion Stone and All is Dust. The point of having Child as a general is that you don't have to run cards like that. It frees up slots.
The real problem that I see is that you don't have an end-game besides Ulamog and vulnerable two-card combos. Add something like Kessig Wolf Run so you can get in for general damage with Child of Alara or some such.
I think the point is that there are a couple cards that are only good with very particular cards (i.e. Bloomtender and Umbral Mantle). Neither of the cards are that good on their own, and are only really any good when you have both AND no one has any way to interact. Why not just play cards that are better all of the time?
Unburial Rites seems like an obvious inclusion, since it's two free rebuys of Child. I'd seriously consider changing the focus of the manabase from forest-duals and low-impact non-basics to Plains, so you can run Emeria, the Sky Ruin.
I'd cut your Oblivion Stone and All is Dust. The point of having Child as a general is that you don't have to run cards like that. It frees up slots.
The real problem that I see is that you don't have an end-game besides Ulamog and vulnerable two-card combos. Add something like Kessig Wolf Run so you can get in for general damage with Child of Alara or some such.
It's O Ring, not O Stone. And All Is Dust forces sacrifices, which gets around most indestructibles I can't target with spot removal. Shard grabs 4 lands, Conflux may seem inefficient but that's how I get a 'vulnerable' two card combo to finish the game off if nothing else. I have Top and Library, they're gold mines. Top will make Long-Term Plans, an instant mind you, very valuable.
And there's a lot more than those two cards for an endgame. Reiterate Turnabout unlimited times and drop Legacy Weapon on the field. GG. And best part of all is anything they try to target can be countered and reiterated etc.... The far easier combo is rude awakening and aggravated assault. Again, you say fragile, but do you think I will play this without having some sort of an answer in my hand or on the draw?
Yes the deck loses, it's fun to play even then. I don't care about things like tooth and nail or some other crazy stuff that's simply better, what I care about is that the deck is solid, it has quite a few tricks, and can take control very quickly with the blast effect of Child being sacrificed to any one of 10 outlets in the deck that's surprisingly easy to get to and set up. Although, Kessig sounds like a fun plan in and of itself too. I once ran Unburial Rights, but I like Nezumi, Volrath's Stronghold, Genesis, Fool's Demise, and Eternal Witness (especially when combo'd with Sun Titan or Mistmeadow Witch) for my recursion.
It may not have the most optimum cards, but what it does have is the ability to do what it needs to when it needs to and have the ability to wrath multiple times before I act. Also, another thing to do with All Is Dust is to get the 0-ring or whatever off of the Child if you're not lucky to wrath with her anyways. There are times when I smile at my own deviousness when I reiterated someone's time stretch and I countered theirs afterwards. It's so much fun. Which is the point of my deck, is to blow stuff up and have fun doing it.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
What I found, is in multiplayer or one on one, the deck is fast and aggressive with enough control to take the game in your hands. I'll illustrate some of the combos that makes for the instant win conditions with a breakdown of many of the lockdown and control cards.
Since my deck is geared more towards green, I chose dual lands that fetch as anything/forests. I don't have fetchlands so it's a bit pointless there.
General is of course, the Child of Alara
First, the mana base:
3 Plains
3 Island
3 Mountain
4 Forest
2 Swamp
multicolored mana:
Utility lands: These have several traits, either they are manlands, or they serve a specific purpose. I find the manlands as being highly efficient because the deck does not have a strong creature presence. So I took out several duals to put these to use.
These lands form a solid core of recursion and sac outlets. Petrified Field is highly useful to get back a land that was destroyed, while Volrath's Stronghold, Miren, and Keldon makes for one of the cheaper recursion abilities for constant destruction.
Now to the tutors and land grabbers, which are the most important ways to get the engine running. A lot of the spells are instant speed and can grab an answer to draw to counter, time stop, etc... With a way to immediately draw the card you can have an answer to anything your opponent plays at your fingertips:
Instants:
Not instants:
Diabolic Intent and Primal Growth are my favorite sacrifice outlets, one's a tutor, the other is an instant that fetches two basic lands and puts them in play. Both very good IMHO.
Sacrifice Outlets:
The deck's based on killing the Child many times, so this section is devoted to the many other ways to kill her off. The best part is that most of these outlets are all instant speed too. Being an instant is one of the most important things to the deck because sorceries are just too slow.
These cards are great in the following respects: Altar's Reap draws 2 cards and sacs a creature while Perilous Research draws two cards and sacs a permanent. Worthy Cause sacs for life and is a buyback. Momentous Fall sacs a creature for life and card draw. Greater Gargadon has suspend 10 - R and can get time counters removed by sacrifice. So the worthy candidate is the Child. Most excellent. With all the sac outlets, it doesn't mean Volrath's Stronghold is the only way for me to recur the Child. So on to my recursion tools:
Fool's Demise - This is probably my most favorite recursion ever. Enchant Alara, blow her up, she comes right back into play and Fool's Demise comes right back in my hand to be played on her again.
Genesis -Second best creature recursion next to the stronghold.
Entomb has more uses than by being a tutor. This is by far the best use. For one black mana and being an instant you can pull an eldrazi into the grave and shuffle your grave back. The reason to do this is because if you have recursion tools in play or in the graveyard you're more likely to be bojuka bog'd or something similar to that. I'd rather shuffle my grave back up than allow a bojuka bog to target my toys.
Now for my ways to protect myself or to stop something from occuring. Counters and removal:
These spells are easily tutored and drawn up with the many devices I use. And Forbid's nice for its buyback. Time Stop and Mindbreak exiles cards. Trickbind has split second and stifles triggered or activated abilities so once it goes on the stack is will stop any and all responses. Spell Crumple's highly useful for its ability to recur itself over and over again.
Removal:
All Is Dust is my only other mass removal in the deck to get rid of annoying things that are colored indestructibles or a creature that can shut the deck down. Return to Dust is another one of my favorites for removal, it gets rid of artifacts or enchantments that could cost me the game and it's an instant with an added bonus of a casting during main phase = 2 exiled artifacts or enchantments. And Capsize is probably one of the most efficient removal spells of my arsenal. Return permanent to owner's hand and buyback. Recursion of Bojuka Bog, Mystic Snake, and Eternal Witness for starters. The Witch is very efficient to disappear creatures for a turn. And Legacy Weapon wins games.
Now to mana acceleration and card draw:
Which leaves me with the final cards, the instant wins and other stuff:
Umbral Mantle pay 3 mana, untap and get +2/+2. Better than Freed from the Real. If this equipment resolves and Bloom Tender or any combination of the cards below is on the table, it's GG.
Aggravated Assault
Rude Awakening - These two cards together will end the game.
Turnabout - It serves a dual purpose to untap your stuff or tap their stuff during your turn or their upkeep.
Reiterate - copy counters, copy draws, copy any spell, plus it's buyback. Best Card... Ever.....
Swiftfoot Boots - Better than Greaves.
Cromat - Used to be my general, but he's my favorite difficult to kill creature now.
I think the only difficulties this deck has is if someone uses massive land destruct or you tap out at a critical moment. The trick of the deck is to keep constant vigilance and know when to counter things or set off your bombs. The deck's main expenses is the land base, which is critical for the deck to be potent. Most spells are cheap, so one should never have trouble casting the spells they need to when they need to. The way the deck can constantly wipe the board you will be able to set yourself up to your win condition. It may seem drawn out, but it's needed to in order to be able to. The deck lashes out fast and doesn't stop until it's done, and trust me on this, the deck won't stop recurring wrath, unless its tools are ripped away and that in itself is very hard to do. Drop Ulamog in the grave and watch that grave reshuffle itself and your recursion engine will most certainly stay intact. Fool's Demise is by far my top favorite recursion tool for the Child.
The deck can and will take control easily, and once you have control it's hard to lose it. The deck's strength is in the recursion engine.
Enjoy it! ^.^
+Corpse Dance
+Phyrexian Tower
+High Market
+Mind Warp (an opponent with Capsize can ruin your day)
+Mind Twist (an opponent with Capsize WILL ruin your day)
Azusa - Derevi - Glissa - Mizzix - Sharuum - Wanderer - Wort
Wipe the board, get Bloomtender played with a haste ability (Boots) and Umbral Mantle... GG
Corpse Dance is eh (It doesn't do as well as what a great many other cards can do, I'd rather never let a creature in my graveyard go into exile if I have a say so in that matter)... Phyrexian Tower only gives 2 black mana. High Market is 1 life.
Capsize is in my deck. As are the answers to Capsize. The trick is to know when to play the cards.
I only play Aggravated Assault when I have a Rude Awakening in hand.
The cards do make sense in their own warped way Ever seen what would happen when I stormed for 50 beast tokens, wiped them out and bitter ordeal'd with a reiterate one time? Say bye to someone's library... I got rid of a few shenanigans but I kept my favorite styles, like Umbral Mantle with Bloomtender and Aggravated Assault with Rude Awakening, or Turnabout reiterated with a Cromat or Legacy Weapon on the table and I have a counter or two in hand or was able to tutor it up to react to my opponent. The deck works well... Except against mass land destruct.
I'm not saying the deck is better than everyone else's. I'm not saying anything except that the cards do make sense when pieced together to form the win condition after I resolve a Child explosion for the 5th or 6th turn in a row. Or else, I just keep clearing the board, attacking with Ulamog, and removing Ulamog from the game for a turn (or removing Eternal Witness to get a card lost in the grave). Point is, there's not a lot of board presence, which makes it easy to constantly hide creatures from removal with the Mistbound Witch and set up the wincons.
Unburial Rites seems like an obvious inclusion, since it's two free rebuys of Child. I'd seriously consider changing the focus of the manabase from forest-duals and low-impact non-basics to Plains, so you can run Emeria, the Sky Ruin.
I'd cut your Oblivion Stone and All is Dust. The point of having Child as a general is that you don't have to run cards like that. It frees up slots.
I'd also cut the less efficient tutors, like Shard Convergence, Conflux, and Long-Term Plans. YOu can do better with cards like Sylvan Library and Sensei's Divining Top.
The real problem that I see is that you don't have an end-game besides Ulamog and vulnerable two-card combos. Add something like Kessig Wolf Run so you can get in for general damage with Child of Alara or some such.
It's O Ring, not O Stone. And All Is Dust forces sacrifices, which gets around most indestructibles I can't target with spot removal. Shard grabs 4 lands, Conflux may seem inefficient but that's how I get a 'vulnerable' two card combo to finish the game off if nothing else. I have Top and Library, they're gold mines. Top will make Long-Term Plans, an instant mind you, very valuable.
And there's a lot more than those two cards for an endgame. Reiterate Turnabout unlimited times and drop Legacy Weapon on the field. GG. And best part of all is anything they try to target can be countered and reiterated etc.... The far easier combo is rude awakening and aggravated assault. Again, you say fragile, but do you think I will play this without having some sort of an answer in my hand or on the draw?
Yes the deck loses, it's fun to play even then. I don't care about things like tooth and nail or some other crazy stuff that's simply better, what I care about is that the deck is solid, it has quite a few tricks, and can take control very quickly with the blast effect of Child being sacrificed to any one of 10 outlets in the deck that's surprisingly easy to get to and set up. Although, Kessig sounds like a fun plan in and of itself too. I once ran Unburial Rights, but I like Nezumi, Volrath's Stronghold, Genesis, Fool's Demise, and Eternal Witness (especially when combo'd with Sun Titan or Mistmeadow Witch) for my recursion.
It may not have the most optimum cards, but what it does have is the ability to do what it needs to when it needs to and have the ability to wrath multiple times before I act. Also, another thing to do with All Is Dust is to get the 0-ring or whatever off of the Child if you're not lucky to wrath with her anyways. There are times when I smile at my own deviousness when I reiterated someone's time stretch and I countered theirs afterwards. It's so much fun. Which is the point of my deck, is to blow stuff up and have fun doing it.