Of course, as soon as you get your hands on some Snapcaster Mage, you can throw those in, but that is a deck I would be proud of playing on a budget.
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I actually like this idea. I may consider building something like this and running it in my next FNM. My Tempered Steel was beaten pretty badly by a deck very similar to this one despite quick starts on my part.
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Thanks for the compliments guys, always appreciate it. It's a huge compliment when someone says they'd like to play your deck, too
Snapcaster I'm not even sure if the deck needs. Often times I only draw 3-4 lands in a game, so I'm often just tapping out for my Hauntings and Captains towards the end of the game. Most of the time Mage doesn't have all that many impressive targets anyway.
Also, I know I really need some Glacials. I'll definitely try and get my hands on some. Maybe in a few weeks I could fund a couple copies. Until then I'll need to borrow them from my friend.
On the subject of Snapcaster Mage:
If you ever play around with him, you'll find he's really fricken' useful. Flashing back Mana Leak or Midnight Haunting (assuming you make it to 5 mana) are both really useful, just for themselves.
Of course, your decklist looks pretty tight already.
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All MtG tokens. Need 8 WotC tokens and 88 handmade tokens.
1 EDH for each color combination. Complete: C, U, G, UB, WB, UR, GU, BRG, WBG, RWU, BRW, WUBRG
Wow,I really like this deck. Think I am going to try something similar to it. Except I am going to replace the hotp and the fiend hunters with dungeon geist,runechanters pike and snapcaster mage and throw in some glacial fortress'.
I'm a bit dubious on Cackling. It works well with Delver, but I'm sure a lot of the time I'd just be copying a 1/1. It's also another 3 mana card which I have plenty of already.
I've done minor testing on cockatrice and at FNM with proxies and it works rather well for it's price. Works even better with glacial fortresses. Runechanters is an interesting card which I like a lot. I'll try 2 over a couple HotP
@almost sorry: Yeah, if you have the option of helping out the mana base it's worth it.
I tested a slightly changed version of the deck on MWS. I took out the Fiend Hunters, the Honor of the Pures, added Lingering Souls and changed the manabase to flashback them. Looks like this. No sideboard yet
Given your less-than ideal manabase, I'd go up to a full 4 Evolving Wilds. I'm running 2 in the expensive version of this deck, and I'm running 12 duals in that. Wilds is a very cheap, commonly available card, and it should do a decent job of mana fixing when you need it.
Go with 4 Vapor Snag. Bounce spells are very effective in this format, and they're cheap both in mana and dollars. Also, if you're going to put black mana in here, run 4 Lingering Souls. Even if you come up empty on black mana, it's still roughly as good as Midnight Haunting.
It really is that huge, especially since the flashback is just two mana. There's just so much you can do with that. Opponent casts Corrosive Gale or Day of Judgment? It's okay, you have two more guys ready to go, plus mana for another spell! Or if you know you're not facing sweepers, put out four guys with one card! It's pretty much insane. There's a reason we like to splash B for it.
I might try Wilds in my 2 color list. There are very few two drops so I could theoretically go:
Turn 1: Land, guy, go
Turn 2: Wilds, crack, guy go
I don't know if you really need it in two-color, but in three-color I have found it to be a solid T2 play. I'm running a lot of nonbasics, so I'm often using it to get the basic land I need to bring in a Glacial Fortress or Drowned Catacomb untapped. In a more budget build, you'll just use it to get whatever color you don't already have. I generally crack Wilds at the end of my opponent's turn, though. That said, if you have Ponder, remember that Wilds will force you to shuffle, so be sure to play around that interaction. You don't want to crack Wilds and lose your prepared Delver flip. In other situations, you might want to Ponder for the card you want, then crack Wilds to essentially pitch the other ones.
I'd add in a full set of Glacial Fortress and Evolving Wilds and a single Swamp to support Lingering Souls. Then, I'd max out on Mana Leak, Ponder, Vapor Snag, and Gitaxian Probe.
I can't really get the Fortresses yet, like I said. I will probably try out a black splash once I have them, though.
@LakseKondi: The deck already has O-Ring, but the 4 Honors aren't necessary. Just add in some more Probes or something till you have them.
Reaver is just way too slow for this deck. I often don't draw more than 5 land, and this deck wants to play the tempo game. That is: Play cheap guys and knock your opponent back while you beat them down quickly.
Let's say i have evrything to support this deck, except i only have 2 honor of the pure? Would the Intangible Virtue do the job? Or is buffing the delver of secrets essential for the t2 and 3 flying attacks. Or would adding 2 Oblivion Ring be smarter? This deck seems very viable!
1 Q, wouldn't a single Drogskol Reaver be a great addition to this deck?
[card]
Doomed Traveler[/card]? Going turn 1 Traveler turn2 Virtue is a lot less powerful than Honor.
True, but unless you're playing against anything but aggro or control, chances are you're going to be blocking with Doomed Traveler unless they're on the play. True, though, Doomed Traveler is effected by the Honor of the Pure moreso than the Intangible Virtue when he hits the board.
Was also just saying that especially for budget purposes the Intangible Virtue could and does work pretty well.
-2 fiend hunter
-4 honor of the pure
+2 runechanters pike
+2 dungeon geists
+2 intangible virtue
+4 glacial fortress
I'll let you know how it plays tomorrow night at fnm. I was also thinking about trying niblis of the urn in there somewhere but I feel like that will screw up the mana curve.
Cool! Looks like a solid budget list. The sideboard could use some work, I think, but you have most of the essentials. Which card seemed to be good for you? Which matchups did you have success/difficulty against?
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EDIT: Updated list hereEDIT**2**: Updated deck list of mine can be found in post #137
This is the 2nd standard I've made. I mostly need some Glacial Fortress for it, otherwise I have everything for it.
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Doomed Traveler
4 Drogskol Captain
2 Fiend Hunter
4 Honor of the Pure
3 Oblivion Ring
Spells: 17
4 Mana Leak
4 Midnight Haunting
4 Ponder
3 Vapor Snag
2 Gitaxian Probe
10 Island
10 Plains
2 Moorland Haunt
As Scootaloo would say:
Of course, as soon as you get your hands on some Snapcaster Mage, you can throw those in, but that is a deck I would be proud of playing on a budget.
All MtG tokens. Need 8 WotC tokens and 88 handmade tokens.
1 EDH for each color combination. Complete: C, U, G, UB, WB, UR, GU, BRG, WBG, RWU, BRW, WUBRG
Snapcaster I'm not even sure if the deck needs. Often times I only draw 3-4 lands in a game, so I'm often just tapping out for my Hauntings and Captains towards the end of the game. Most of the time Mage doesn't have all that many impressive targets anyway.
Also, I know I really need some Glacials. I'll definitely try and get my hands on some. Maybe in a few weeks I could fund a couple copies. Until then I'll need to borrow them from my friend.
If you ever play around with him, you'll find he's really fricken' useful. Flashing back Mana Leak or Midnight Haunting (assuming you make it to 5 mana) are both really useful, just for themselves.
Of course, your decklist looks pretty tight already.
All MtG tokens. Need 8 WotC tokens and 88 handmade tokens.
1 EDH for each color combination. Complete: C, U, G, UB, WB, UR, GU, BRG, WBG, RWU, BRW, WUBRG
Maybe add 1 or 2 Runechanter's Pike.
I've done minor testing on cockatrice and at FNM with proxies and it works rather well for it's price. Works even better with glacial fortresses. Runechanters is an interesting card which I like a lot. I'll try 2 over a couple HotP
@almost sorry: Yeah, if you have the option of helping out the mana base it's worth it.
4 Doomed Traveler
4 Drogskol Captain
2 Dissipate
2 Gitaxian Probe
2 Lingering Souls
4 Mana Leak
3 Midnight Haunting
3 Oblivion Ring
4 Ponder
2 Runechanter's Pike
3 Vapor Snag
1 Evolving Wilds
3 Glacial Fortress
8 Island
2 Moorland Haunt
7 Plains
1 Swamp
Go with 4 Vapor Snag. Bounce spells are very effective in this format, and they're cheap both in mana and dollars. Also, if you're going to put black mana in here, run 4 Lingering Souls. Even if you come up empty on black mana, it's still roughly as good as Midnight Haunting.
So, I'd say:
-1 Island
-1 Plains
-3 Midnight Haunting
+2 Evolving Wilds
+2 Lingering Souls
+1 Vapor Snag
Cheap but effective sideboard options: Celestial Purge, Revoke Existence, Divine Offering, Flashfreeze, Negate
Turn 1: Land, guy, go
Turn 2: Wilds, crack, guy go
I don't know if you really need it in two-color, but in three-color I have found it to be a solid T2 play. I'm running a lot of nonbasics, so I'm often using it to get the basic land I need to bring in a Glacial Fortress or Drowned Catacomb untapped. In a more budget build, you'll just use it to get whatever color you don't already have. I generally crack Wilds at the end of my opponent's turn, though. That said, if you have Ponder, remember that Wilds will force you to shuffle, so be sure to play around that interaction. You don't want to crack Wilds and lose your prepared Delver flip. In other situations, you might want to Ponder for the card you want, then crack Wilds to essentially pitch the other ones.
This is what I'd recommend:
4 Drogskol Captain
4 Lingering Souls
4 Midnight Haunting
4 Mana Leak
4 Ponder
4 Vapor Snag
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Honor of the Pure
2 Oblivion Ring
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Evolving Wilds
5 Plains
6 Island
1 Swamp
@LakseKondi: The deck already has O-Ring, but the 4 Honors aren't necessary. Just add in some more Probes or something till you have them.
Reaver is just way too slow for this deck. I often don't draw more than 5 land, and this deck wants to play the tempo game. That is: Play cheap guys and knock your opponent back while you beat them down quickly.
The only thing that Honor of the Pure pumps that Intangible Virtue does not is the Drogskol Captain anyway, so in my opinion, this is a suitable replacement, or at least budgetwise decision.
Also, Drogskol Reaver seems like win more here. Doesn't really want to push the lategame to what I think.
On another note, Break of Day seems like a nice combat trick. Spare from Evil seems like a decent sideboard card at least.
[CARD]
Doomed Traveler[/CARD]? Going turn 1 Traveler turn2 Virtue is a lot less powerful than Honor.
True, but unless you're playing against anything but aggro or control, chances are you're going to be blocking with Doomed Traveler unless they're on the play. True, though, Doomed Traveler is effected by the Honor of the Pure moreso than the Intangible Virtue when he hits the board.
Was also just saying that especially for budget purposes the Intangible Virtue could and does work pretty well.
-2 fiend hunter
-4 honor of the pure
+2 runechanters pike
+2 dungeon geists
+2 intangible virtue
+4 glacial fortress
I'll let you know how it plays tomorrow night at fnm. I was also thinking about trying niblis of the urn in there somewhere but I feel like that will screw up the mana curve.
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Doomed Traveler
4 Drogskol Captain
2 Fiend Hunter
Spells: 19
4 Midnight Haunting
4 Mana Leak
4 Ponder
4 Gitaxian Probe
3 Vapor Snag
4 Honor of the Pure
3 Oblivion Ring
Land: 20
7 Plains
7 Island
4 Glacial Fortress
2 Moorland Haunt
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Doomed Traveler
4 Drogskol Captain
2 Fiend Hunter
Spells: 19
4 Midnight Haunting
4 Mana Leak
4 Ponder
4 Gitaxian Probe
3 Vapor Snag
4 Honor of the Pure
3 Oblivion Ring
Land: 20
7 Plains
7 Island
4 Glacial Fortress
2 Moorland Haunt
-3 Cards I can't remember
4 Timely Reinforcements
2 Dungeon Geists
2 Urgent Exorcism
1 Revoke Existence
1 Divine Offering
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Vapor Snag