I think the reason behind the multiples is that you get to activate him multiple times because really he is just a kill spell with legs. Im curious to see what people think about running a 1-of In Garruk's Wake.
Edit: By multiples, what I mean't to say was 4-of.
I figured I would post my list I've ran into alot of success with since the release of M15. Its a little different than most lists ive seen listed, so feel free to discuss.
Ive piloted this list in 2 big FNM's, a couple of Saturday Night Magics, and a SCG event at out LGS for a free entry into SCG open Indy. Ive went 7-0-1 in the FMNs, and the SCG trial, and 6-0 in both saturdays. I havent made very many changes to the list due to the success ive had with it. Nissa is a all star, and I've won every game I played her. Garruks a beast if you ever drop him, and yes ive lived the dream of answering an elspeth with a garruk!
What inspired me to make this list is i wanted to take the best of green, and best of mono black and meld it together for a pure value deck. You move away from playing low value cards in place of high impact cards. You have mono blacks control and CA (and yes, pack rat) to smooth out draws, and greens stability, ramp and over all high quality beats. With the inclusion of the walkers we now have late game staying power, and the ability to take control decks by the throat. Mono black, and rev decks have a very tough time dealing with a resolved Nissa, and are constantly put under the gun since you come out faster, and have a higher consistancy rate due to the green splash. A light touch of ramp puts you ahead, and courser keeps you ahead. Forcing Mono black to deal with low value threats to not fall behind, and end up getting thwarted with a real threat.
Any questions feel free to ask, or comment!
Why 4 polukranos? I figured drawing multiples of him would hurt you.
After playign a stretch of Jund monsters, Ive come to learn something about Polukranos. He's a beast of a card, and incurs alot of hate. The reason I feel no harm in jamming 4 into a deck is for several reasons.
1) I always want one
2) He's a house against all aggro decks
3) He dies to nearly all removal in the format
4) You play pack rat, so its not nearly as bad to see extra's when you dont need it.
Thats one of the major reasons I included pack rat into the list. You find sometimes that your hand doesnt mesh well, or you end up with some not so great draws. (Aka mystic off the top on turn 7). Pack rat helped make things alot more consistant, and even if you're dead drawing 1 pack rat can turn everything into live draws.
Another view would be 4 demons instead, or possibly 4 reapers. I've tried both, and in the end Polukranos is the winner in the end. I like him more vs elspeth, I like him more against aggro, and I like him more against devo / midrange decks. Demon keeps you ahead when you're ahead, and never catches you up when behind. Reaper is great against mono black, but average against everything else.
Edit: Side note on Polukranos. I also like to lean more on green to help make Nissa a little better. She is overall the best card in the deck in my honest opinion. Everything else is just gravy over the biscuit.
Here's my more control-ish take on this deck. Suggestions welcome. The new Garruk is a HOUSE here but sadly I don't think I could support running more than one copy. Sideboard is WIP.
Here's my more control-ish take on this deck. Suggestions welcome. The new Garruk is a HOUSE here but sadly I don't think I could support running more than one copy. Sideboard is WIP.
I am not impressed with hornet queen and soul of innistrad in this deck. My question for you is how do you plan on winning? Garruk will do it for you, as will Nissa. But you don't have a ton of creatures so the Soul doesn't make much sense to me. Also, a 7 drop should win you the game, which is why I am not impressed with hornet queen. In limited it is a bomb, but there are some many cards in standand now that will kill all your tokens and the queen super fast. I would rather see some demons or polukranos and maybe an Ooze or two.
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I am not impressed with hornet queen and soul of innistrad in this deck. My question for you is how do you plan on winning? Garruk will do it for you, as will Nissa. But you don't have a ton of creatures so the Soul doesn't make much sense to me. Also, a 7 drop should win you the game, which is why I am not impressed with hornet queen. In limited it is a bomb, but there are some many cards in standand now that will kill all your tokens and the queen super fast. I would rather see some demons or polukranos and maybe an Ooze or two.
I swapped Soul for Restock, which has been much stronger. It's nearly a 2-card tutor, and lets me fetch my planeswalkers again if they die. As for Hornet Queen, I think it belongs in here, but it might need to go to the board. While it doesn't immediately win the game, it does SWING the game by completely stalling the board. Beside Bile Blight, Drown in Sorrow or Anger of the Gods, you are just not going to go get attacked while your hornet shield is still up. You can also get some damage in by swinging with some of the hornets and holding others back. But since this is most effective against midrange and lower-curve decks, perhaps I'll side it out against mono-black and the like.
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I mainly play Standard and Modern.
MTGO Nick: neonordnance
LGS: Dream Wizards in Rockville, MD
My experience at FNM has been OK, even though I've only played one full night with 85% of this deck. I won 1 Round 2-0, then went 1-2 for the other 3 rounds, losing the last game of each round due to rookie mistakes, so I have faith my deck has some promise. If you guys see anything that needs adjusting, let me know. I don't have a legit win condition except for: Having a lot of creatures out and blasting away + any of those planeswalkers backing me up (except for maybe Garruk, Caller of Beasts, who will just help me get beasties down quicker. Thanks!
I ran this list at a local win a box tournament and ended up going 3-1. I was 3-0 against 3 Mono Red decks and was one of 3 undefeated Players at the tournament. Round four comes around and I was the lucky one who got paired down and had to face the fourth mono red deck of the day (I counted 6 mono red decks at the entire tournament of 20 players). I feel a little unlucky for getting paired down and facing 4 mono red decks. But I thought I had a solid chance, with the coursers, ooze and drown in sorrow backing me up. The match ended up going to game 3, but I ended up losing when 2 demons ended up being the only creatures I saw that game. The opponent ended up at 8 life at the end of the round, but considering it was the boss sligh variant, he had too many creatures and lava spikes to deal with. After that tournament, I'm seriously considering replacing the demons with polukranos. He would have been an absolute bomb against the sea of red decks I faced.
I ran this list at a local win a box tournament and ended up going 3-1. I was 3-0 against 3 Mono Red decks and was one of 3 undefeated Players at the tournament. Round four comes around and I was the lucky one who got paired down and had to face the fourth mono red deck of the day (I counted 6 mono red decks at the entire tournament of 20 players). I feel a little unlucky for getting paired down and facing 4 mono red decks. But I thought I had a solid chance, with the coursers, ooze and drown in sorrow backing me up. The match ended up going to game 3, but I ended up losing when 2 demons ended up being the only creatures I saw that game. The opponent ended up at 8 life at the end of the round, but considering it was the boss sligh variant, he had too many creatures and lava spikes to deal with. After that tournament, I'm seriously considering replacing the demons with polukranos. He would have been an absolute bomb against the sea of red decks I faced.
The thing I always ask myself when I compare the two is. Demon doesnt catch me up when im behing, he's just win more when im already ahead. Polukranos is capable of catching me up when im behind, and able to push me further ahead when im ahead. Against elspeth control i want Polukranos, againt aggro I want polukranos, against midrange I want polukranos.
I have recently dropped the blue from my BUG midrange/control deck for a more reliable deck. I haven't had a chance to play it in a proper tournament yet but so far in the testing against my friends decks it has been pretty solid (like a rock tehehe). The 1 of demon is there because I wanted one more removal spell or a fairly big body and I thought that maybe he can just be both. I have tried the deck with 3x connections and 4x Pack Rat but even though it is a good card I was always disappointed with it in almost every game, I think it is probably due to the lack of redundancy in the deck perhaps. Either way I dropped them for some more 4 drops and later dropped a connections for the demon because I found in almost every game I would just be drawing too many connections and not enough remove/threats.
Last Night i ran this at a local "Win a Box" tournament and ended up taking it down and coming home with a sealed box of Journey into Nyx. It was a 5 round tournament and I ended up going 10-1 overall. The Deck feels really good, having only mulliganed 1 game. Going forward, Vraska will come out of the main and replace lili in the side. I never wanted to bring in the lili and i think vraska would just be better there. With vraska out of the main, I will most likely add another demon/polukranos. The 1 Golgari Charm MD did so much work!!! It killed opposing coursers, bidents, whips, and swept up mono red weenies and hornet queen tokens. I dont think i want more than 1 md though. The sideboard needs some more tuning. But overall, like i said, the deck feels really good when im playing it.
I took this list to my local FMN and in the 4 rounds I played I went 8-0. Bow of Nylea was a surprisingly good card, I used it to make a Darksteel Citadel into a 7/7, it helped me gain a lot of life after stabilizing against burn and at one point I attacked with Polukranos, World Eater then paid 7 mana to kill 3 of my opponents huge creatures. Silence the Believers was also a highly underrated card and I suggest everyone considers running 1 in the MB and maybe 1 in the SB, it was rare that I didn't strive it and I was never sad to see it. There was only a couple of times that I had mana issue with this deck but that was just down to keeping bad starting hands or poor shuffling (in 1 game I had 3 Polukranos in a row followed by 4 elvish mystic, luckily my opponent also kept a slow hand).
I haven't included a sideboard list yet because I didnt really have one at the time, it was just 4x Hornet Nest and 2x Perilous Vault plus 9 other random cards that I never brought in.
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Edit: By multiples, what I mean't to say was 4-of.
After playign a stretch of Jund monsters, Ive come to learn something about Polukranos. He's a beast of a card, and incurs alot of hate. The reason I feel no harm in jamming 4 into a deck is for several reasons.
1) I always want one
2) He's a house against all aggro decks
3) He dies to nearly all removal in the format
4) You play pack rat, so its not nearly as bad to see extra's when you dont need it.
Thats one of the major reasons I included pack rat into the list. You find sometimes that your hand doesnt mesh well, or you end up with some not so great draws. (Aka mystic off the top on turn 7). Pack rat helped make things alot more consistant, and even if you're dead drawing 1 pack rat can turn everything into live draws.
Another view would be 4 demons instead, or possibly 4 reapers. I've tried both, and in the end Polukranos is the winner in the end. I like him more vs elspeth, I like him more against aggro, and I like him more against devo / midrange decks. Demon keeps you ahead when you're ahead, and never catches you up when behind. Reaper is great against mono black, but average against everything else.
Edit: Side note on Polukranos. I also like to lean more on green to help make Nissa a little better. She is overall the best card in the deck in my honest opinion. Everything else is just gravy over the biscuit.
Here's my more control-ish take on this deck. Suggestions welcome. The new Garruk is a HOUSE here but sadly I don't think I could support running more than one copy. Sideboard is WIP.
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Courser of Kruphix
4 Reaper of the Wilds
2 Soul of Innistrad
2 Hornet Queen
Spells
4 Thoughtseize
2 Sign in Blood
3 Bile Blight
1 Ultimate Price
2 Devour Flesh
3 Hero's Downfall
2 Silence the Believers
1 Garruk, Apex Predator
1 Liliana Vess
1 Nissa, Worldwaker
Lands
4 Temple of Malady
4 Overgrown Tomb
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
7 Swamp
8 Forest
1 Bile Blight
2 Devour Flesh
4 Naturalize
3 Drown in Sorrow
1 In Garruk's Wake
1 Worst Fears
3 Whip of Erebos
MTGO Nick: neonordnance
LGS: Dream Wizards in Rockville, MD
I am not impressed with hornet queen and soul of innistrad in this deck. My question for you is how do you plan on winning? Garruk will do it for you, as will Nissa. But you don't have a ton of creatures so the Soul doesn't make much sense to me. Also, a 7 drop should win you the game, which is why I am not impressed with hornet queen. In limited it is a bomb, but there are some many cards in standand now that will kill all your tokens and the queen super fast. I would rather see some demons or polukranos and maybe an Ooze or two.
I swapped Soul for Restock, which has been much stronger. It's nearly a 2-card tutor, and lets me fetch my planeswalkers again if they die. As for Hornet Queen, I think it belongs in here, but it might need to go to the board. While it doesn't immediately win the game, it does SWING the game by completely stalling the board. Beside Bile Blight, Drown in Sorrow or Anger of the Gods, you are just not going to go get attacked while your hornet shield is still up. You can also get some damage in by swinging with some of the hornets and holding others back. But since this is most effective against midrange and lower-curve decks, perhaps I'll side it out against mono-black and the like.
MTGO Nick: neonordnance
LGS: Dream Wizards in Rockville, MD
4 Elvish Mystic
1 Typhoid Rats
2 Child of Night
1 Genesis Hydra
1 Nyxborn Eidolon
2 Sylvan Caryatid
1 Voyaging Satyr
1 Boon Satyr
2 Courser of Kruphix
1 Herald of Torment
1 Mogis's Marauder
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Desecration Demon
1 Nylea, God of the Hunt
2 Polukranos, World Eater
1 Reaper of Wilds
1 Indulgent Tormentor
1 Hydra Broodmaster
1 Nemesis of Mortals
1 Soul of Innistrad
1 Nissa, Worldwaker
1 Garruk, Caller of Beasts
1 Garruk, Apex Predator
Spells
2 Bile Blight
2 Doom Blade
2 Sign in Blood
1 Hero's Downfall
Lands
11 Forest
2 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
8 Swamp
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Mistcutter Hydra
2 Doom Blade
1 Feast of Dreams
1 Naturalize
1 Pharika's Cure
2 Plummet
1 Asphyxiate
1 Boon Satyr
1 Ob Nixilis, Unshackled
1 Pharika, God of Affliction
1 King Macar, the Gold-Cursed
1 Pharika's Mender
1 Scuttling Doom Engine
I just started playing Magic about a month ago, so this is still a work in progress. My friend told me I was basically building a Rock-esque build. Here are some cards I ordered today that will supplement/completely swap out some of these cards (any help with that would be sweet too): 4 Lannowar Wastes, 4 Temple of Malady, 1 In Garruk's Wake, 2 Golgari Charm, 2 Pack Rat, 1 Underworld Connections, 1 Vraska the Unseen, 1 Hero's Downfall, 1 Polukranos, World Eater, and 1 Whip of Erebos.
My experience at FNM has been OK, even though I've only played one full night with 85% of this deck. I won 1 Round 2-0, then went 1-2 for the other 3 rounds, losing the last game of each round due to rookie mistakes, so I have faith my deck has some promise. If you guys see anything that needs adjusting, let me know. I don't have a legit win condition except for: Having a lot of creatures out and blasting away + any of those planeswalkers backing me up (except for maybe Garruk, Caller of Beasts, who will just help me get beasties down quicker. Thanks!
4 Pack Rat
2 Scavenging Ooze
4 Courser of Kruphix
4 Desecration Demon
Removal
4 Abrupt Decay
2 Ultimate Price
2 Devour Flesh
4 Hero's Downfall
Other Spells
4 Thoughtseize
2 Sign in Blood
2 Underworld Connections
1 Vraska the Unseen
4 Swamp
3 Forest
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Mutavault
4 Temple of Malady
4 Llanowar Wastes
4 Overgrown Tomb
3 Duress
2 Golgari Charm
2 Drown in Sorrow
3 Lifebane Zombie
1 Underworld Connections
1 Doom Blade
1 Vraska the Unseen
1 Liliana Vess
1 Stain the Mind
I ran this list at a local win a box tournament and ended up going 3-1. I was 3-0 against 3 Mono Red decks and was one of 3 undefeated Players at the tournament. Round four comes around and I was the lucky one who got paired down and had to face the fourth mono red deck of the day (I counted 6 mono red decks at the entire tournament of 20 players). I feel a little unlucky for getting paired down and facing 4 mono red decks. But I thought I had a solid chance, with the coursers, ooze and drown in sorrow backing me up. The match ended up going to game 3, but I ended up losing when 2 demons ended up being the only creatures I saw that game. The opponent ended up at 8 life at the end of the round, but considering it was the boss sligh variant, he had too many creatures and lava spikes to deal with. After that tournament, I'm seriously considering replacing the demons with polukranos. He would have been an absolute bomb against the sea of red decks I faced.
The thing I always ask myself when I compare the two is. Demon doesnt catch me up when im behing, he's just win more when im already ahead. Polukranos is capable of catching me up when im behind, and able to push me further ahead when im ahead. Against elspeth control i want Polukranos, againt aggro I want polukranos, against midrange I want polukranos.
4 Elvish Mystic
2 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Courser of Kruphix
4 Polukranos, World Eater
2 Reaper of the Wilds
1 Shadowborn Demon
Planeswalkers
2 Nissa, Worldwaker
1 Vraska the Unseen
1 Garruk, Apex Predator
3 Thoughtseize
3 Abrupt decay
1 Doom Blade
3 Hero's Downfall
1 Silence the Believers
Other
2 Underworld Connection
1 Bow of Nylea
4 Temple of Malady
4 Overgrown Tomb
2 Llanowar Wastes
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Darksteel Citadel
8 Forest
4 Swamp
I have recently dropped the blue from my BUG midrange/control deck for a more reliable deck. I haven't had a chance to play it in a proper tournament yet but so far in the testing against my friends decks it has been pretty solid (like a rock tehehe). The 1 of demon is there because I wanted one more removal spell or a fairly big body and I thought that maybe he can just be both. I have tried the deck with 3x connections and 4x Pack Rat but even though it is a good card I was always disappointed with it in almost every game, I think it is probably due to the lack of redundancy in the deck perhaps. Either way I dropped them for some more 4 drops and later dropped a connections for the demon because I found in almost every game I would just be drawing too many connections and not enough remove/threats.
4 Pack Rat
4 Courser of Kruphix
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Polukranos, World Eater
2 Desecration Demon
Removal/Disruption
4 Thoughtseize
4 Hero's Downfall
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Devour Flesh
2 Ultimate Price
1 Golgari Charm
2 Sign in Blood
2 Underworld Connections
1 Vraska, the Unseen
Lands
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Llannowar Wastes
4 Temple of Malady
4 Mutavault
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Swamp
3 Forest
3 Duress
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Doom Blade
1 Golgari Charm
2 Drown in Sorrow
3 Lifebane Zombie
1 Liliana Vess
1 Vraska, the Unseen
1 Stain the Mind
1 Underworld Connections
Last Night i ran this at a local "Win a Box" tournament and ended up taking it down and coming home with a sealed box of Journey into Nyx. It was a 5 round tournament and I ended up going 10-1 overall. The Deck feels really good, having only mulliganed 1 game. Going forward, Vraska will come out of the main and replace lili in the side. I never wanted to bring in the lili and i think vraska would just be better there. With vraska out of the main, I will most likely add another demon/polukranos. The 1 Golgari Charm MD did so much work!!! It killed opposing coursers, bidents, whips, and swept up mono red weenies and hornet queen tokens. I dont think i want more than 1 md though. The sideboard needs some more tuning. But overall, like i said, the deck feels really good when im playing it.
I took this list to my local FMN and in the 4 rounds I played I went 8-0. Bow of Nylea was a surprisingly good card, I used it to make a Darksteel Citadel into a 7/7, it helped me gain a lot of life after stabilizing against burn and at one point I attacked with Polukranos, World Eater then paid 7 mana to kill 3 of my opponents huge creatures. Silence the Believers was also a highly underrated card and I suggest everyone considers running 1 in the MB and maybe 1 in the SB, it was rare that I didn't strive it and I was never sad to see it. There was only a couple of times that I had mana issue with this deck but that was just down to keeping bad starting hands or poor shuffling (in 1 game I had 3 Polukranos in a row followed by 4 elvish mystic, luckily my opponent also kept a slow hand).
I haven't included a sideboard list yet because I didnt really have one at the time, it was just 4x Hornet Nest and 2x Perilous Vault plus 9 other random cards that I never brought in.