I saw Nettle Drone in my pack and it just begged to have its untap trigger abused. So I started with a quick card search on my phone and put together a common and uncommon $20 shell to flesh out my thoughts and added some goods when I got home.
A second Nettle Drone or Molten Nursery will be an arbitrary number of damage. And Elusive Spellfist is a shot at attacking with an X/3 unblockable critter.
From there I've been trying to knock together a deck that can pull these things together reliably and try to pull off a combo.
At the moment my budget to get cards to work with is somewhere between $100 and $200. Honestly not sure because it's mostly from stuff I have that I could trade.
Another fellow brewer, eh? I do believe there was an article on DailyMTG, amd I would link to it if Android devices didn't hate links. I can't recall the name of the article, but I've seen it. Anyway, this deck is really sweet! Does it ever feel a little too "all-in"? Maybe it's just me, but this deck feels like it's can't bounce back from early aggression. But than again, combo decks aren't my forte, so take my words with a grain of salt.
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Found the article. Gives a few interesting ways to go with the deck.
Battered Golem has a similar untap clause to Nettle Drone and also triggers Nettle Drone and Molten Nursery on cast. Though based on the article I think I like Zephyr Scribe more because of its loot draw ability.
Also, I'm torn between Eye of Ugin and Eldrazi Temple. Both in essence provide an extra mana for my Eldrazi creatures, but is the Temple's ability to help pay for the handful of non-Eldrazi guys better?
I'm not exactly a fan of the 0 cost artifacts in the article (Welding Jar and Herbal Poultice)and I plan to stick to non-creature ones as I'm already neck deep in creatures, is there a better choice than Paradise Mantle? From the little playtesting I've been able to do (mostly against casual jank my friends play) I like the dual use for Everflowing Chalice and plan to stick with it.
So, thinking
-3 Battered Golem
+3 Zephyr Scribe
-2 Eye of Ugin
+2 Eldrazi Temple
I'm not exactly a fan of the 0 cost artifacts in the article (Welding Jar and Herbal Poultice)and I plan to stick to non-creature ones as I'm already neck deep in creatures, is there a better choice than Paradise Mantle?
Well, there's Mox Opal, but we're not talking about a budget deck at that point. You can do fancy (instant-speed) things with Tooth of Chiss-Goria and Scale of Chiss-Goria. Both of those are committing you more to artifacts, but Tooth in particular would let you win by attacking with whatever you've got rather than Sentinel or Spellfist.
Not interested in splashing green for stirrings when I can still add Serum Visions and keep the mana base simpler (and cheaper).
Given the options, I kinda like the idea of Tooth of Chiss-Goria, but is it batter to keep Battered Golem and probably find a way to stick a couple extra artifacts or 2 more Herald of Kozilek or go with my first idea and switch the Battered Golems for Zephyr Scribe. Is it possible to stuff both ideas in there?
With combo decks in general it is a good idea to build them on top of an archetype. I've built this with a focus on blue control/draw and it's ok.. Tier 2 or 3 but still good for a turn 4 kill. Combo decks that get to tier one need many lines of play. For this reason, I'd focus on glimmervoid + nettle drone + affinity as the base. You can have a turn 2 nettle drone and turn 4 combo from many different lines and you can still threaten with early game mnmite and signal pest and ornithopter nonsense.
The alternative would be to stick it on a red/blue eldrazi deck, utilizing the pain version of glimmervoid (I forget it's name) and keeping only a few (6-8) of each part of the combo if you lose game one. You can adjust the combo out or in based on your side boarding.
In my experience I typically find 6-7 retraction helix/banishing knack to be sufficient. I will also not hesitate to use two banishing knacks to bounce any hate cards in order to clear the way I r the combo.. I/e bounce after they target nettle drone for removal.
This is a fun combo idea that is a little brewing away from being really tier 1.5 or better and the budget version is fun as hell. Enjoy!
One more thought: best line is to nettle drone and then drop a Molten nursery/banishing knack on subsequent turns. It is worth exploring using expedite to speed things up
The core of the engine is Nettle Drone or Battered Golem targeted with Banishing Knack or Retraction Helix. Then you need a second Nettle Drone or Molten Nursery or a ready to attack Elusive Spellfist. Then you play a Everflowing Chalice or Paradise Mantle or bounce one with Banishing Knack or Retraction Helix and replay it. Either way, if unanswered you can now play and bounce the free artifact an infinite number of times.
A second Nettle Drone or Molten Nursery will be an arbitrary number of damage. And Elusive Spellfist is a shot at attacking with an X/3 unblockable critter.
From there I've been trying to knock together a deck that can pull these things together reliably and try to pull off a combo.
At the moment my budget to get cards to work with is somewhere between $100 and $200. Honestly not sure because it's mostly from stuff I have that I could trade.
3x Battered Golem
3x Kozilek's Sentinel
3x Elusive Spellfist
2x Herald of Kozilek
4x Retraction Helix
4x Everflowing Chalice
3x Paradise Mantle
3x Molten Nursery
3x Negate
4x Sleight of Hand
7x Island
7x Mountain
2x Eye of Ugin
Battered Golem has a similar untap clause to Nettle Drone and also triggers Nettle Drone and Molten Nursery on cast. Though based on the article I think I like Zephyr Scribe more because of its loot draw ability.
Also, I'm torn between Eye of Ugin and Eldrazi Temple. Both in essence provide an extra mana for my Eldrazi creatures, but is the Temple's ability to help pay for the handful of non-Eldrazi guys better?
I'm not exactly a fan of the 0 cost artifacts in the article (Welding Jar and Herbal Poultice)and I plan to stick to non-creature ones as I'm already neck deep in creatures, is there a better choice than Paradise Mantle? From the little playtesting I've been able to do (mostly against casual jank my friends play) I like the dual use for Everflowing Chalice and plan to stick with it.
So, thinking
-3 Battered Golem
+3 Zephyr Scribe
-2 Eye of Ugin
+2 Eldrazi Temple
Well, there's Mox Opal, but we're not talking about a budget deck at that point. You can do fancy (instant-speed) things with Tooth of Chiss-Goria and Scale of Chiss-Goria. Both of those are committing you more to artifacts, but Tooth in particular would let you win by attacking with whatever you've got rather than Sentinel or Spellfist.
Thoughts about venturing into green to run Ancient Stirrings?
Given the options, I kinda like the idea of Tooth of Chiss-Goria, but is it batter to keep Battered Golem and probably find a way to stick a couple extra artifacts or 2 more Herald of Kozilek or go with my first idea and switch the Battered Golems for Zephyr Scribe. Is it possible to stuff both ideas in there?
The alternative would be to stick it on a red/blue eldrazi deck, utilizing the pain version of glimmervoid (I forget it's name) and keeping only a few (6-8) of each part of the combo if you lose game one. You can adjust the combo out or in based on your side boarding.
In my experience I typically find 6-7 retraction helix/banishing knack to be sufficient. I will also not hesitate to use two banishing knacks to bounce any hate cards in order to clear the way I r the combo.. I/e bounce after they target nettle drone for removal.
This is a fun combo idea that is a little brewing away from being really tier 1.5 or better and the budget version is fun as hell. Enjoy!
4x nettle drone
4x molten nursery
4x mirrian spy
4x battered golem
4x retraction helix
4x banishing knack
4x ornithopter
2x accorder's shield
2x spellbook
2x scroll rack (just for fun)
13x islands
13x mountains
built it, played it 4 times in group battle with 4+ people, immediately retired it