Thanks. I will put your knowledge to use. The theory behind Bident sounded good and I'm glad to hear someone is having success with it.
One thing I thought I would pass on to the community was my switch from 4 x Garruk, Caller of Beasts to 2 x Garruk, Caller of Beasts and 2 x Jace, Architect of Thought.
I've really liked it so far. Jace comes down earlier and gives you a little more time against aggro and he's also great in the control matchups. The other thing I've liked about Jace is he doesn't pass by your Cyclonic Rift like Garruk does. Obviously, more testing is required, but early results are encouraging.
Jace is -meh. I've ran him for a week; Garruk is better.
Another issue is sweeps for GU DEVOTION. Had my butt handed to me with a RWB deck, anger of the gods
That's were the deck needs protection; any suggestions?
I was watching Friday Night Magic tonight and a card caught my eye: Golgari Charm. -1/-1 to all creatures for the 16 one drop decks and regenerate all of your creatures for the Supreme Verdict decks and Anger of the Gods. Very interesting. Now to see if I can get the mana to work.
Well I think you have come to right place. I've been destroying Mono Black Control. It hasn't even been close.
Do you mind sharing your list along with sideboard strategies? I crafted a green deck that I thought was well positioned against mono black but i got absolutely crushed last night.
Correct me if I'm wrong, exile takes the ability away to regen? Anger of the gods goes through. Pumps are the only thing that works or bigger guys. Golgari works with SV...
I was watching Friday Night Magic tonight and a card caught my eye: Golgari Charm. -1/-1 to all creatures for the 16 one drop decks and regenerate all of your creatures for the Supreme Verdict decks and Anger of the Gods. Very interesting. Now to see if I can get the mana to work.
Choose one — Exile all artifacts; or exile all creatures; or exile all enchantments; or exile all planeswalkers.
they just get exiled, no damage dealt, so regeneration has no effect toward the exile portion.
Was out of town this weekend, seen toward the end of last page somebody wanted to put Sylvan Primordial back in their deck. If your looking for it as a sideboard, you can take out the two Bident of Thassa for two Primordials. It looks like you have plenty of card draw mechanics in the deck with 4 Garruks and 3 Prime Speakers. Unless you desire to utilize the ability on the trident to have creatures attack into your wall of fatties(??).
I have not tested with Primevil Bounty since Theros rotated in, but it just appears the deck is "clogged" for 6+ CMC spells. Prime Speakers, Garruks, Bounties, and Rifts (normally desired to be cast for overload cost) may cause for clunky hands at times, especially vs RDW/WW. I could be totally wrong though, I haven't played Simic for a while, but will put a deck together for next weekend.
To close, I been fiddling with this Dimir midrange deck for some reason and found that I'm totally in love with Thassa herself. Even if she isn't active, being able to scry every turn allows me to push the unwanted land, duplicates, and other crap to the bottom of the library. Soon as i get a deck together, Ill post it and hopefully have some test results shortly afterward. Good luck everybody and thanks for keeping all the Green threads going!
The other thing I wondered is the following: Assuming I have Nylea, God of the Hunt out plus another card that gives two devotion, does Prime Speaker Zegana turn Nylea into a creature "in time" to give Zegana counters?
No, Zegana is not in play when she checks the highest power, that check happens as part of whatever effect that put her into play resolves.
You cast Zegana. She resolves, makes her check, nylea is still "not a creature", enters the battlefield with her +1/+1 counters, State based effects are checked, you have 6 devotion, Nylea is a creature. Zegana's ETB effect triggers and gets put on the stack.
Sadly, this last Monday, I went 0-3 with the deck. I lost to Boros Agrro, Black/White Control and White Weenie.
Brave the Elements destroyed me in the Boros and White Weenie matchups and Merciless Devotion blew me out in the Black/White Control matchup.
The ability of Brave the Elements to negate all of your blocking creatures is devastating. It was frustrating playing 12 mana acceleration creatures and I still was not fast enough to cast a Cyclonic Rift to reset their board before being dealt lethal damage.
Precinct Captain also proved to be a very problematic creature. The 2/2 first strike with any pump effect meant I could no longer profitably block it because I needed all my creatures to pump up my devotion for Nykthos.
There were so many times if I just had one more mana or one more turn I would have turned the corner in this matchup. Three of my game losses were like that. I'm starting to wonder if Defend the Hearth might be a good option. They have to cast Brave the Elements to get through our blockers, we play Defend the Hearth, save ourselves about 8-12 damage and get an extra untap phase and force them to have another Brave the Elements to force their damage through.
I added black to the deck by dropping the basic forests and adding Golgari Guildgate and Overgrown Tomb to do some online testing with Golgari Charm main deck. It worked fine as long as all of their creatures only had one toughness, but they have a nice mix of two toughness creatures and pump spells like Ajani and Spear of Heliod so the Golgari Charms were not that effective. Also, other aggro decks like Red Deck Wins and Rakdos aggro have lots of two toughness creatures so Golgari Charm was not effective against them either.
If the Black/White decks are going to start using Merciless Devotion maindeck then that certainly becomes a huge problem for us. Negate or Plasm Capture might be some good options to try and protect against that spell and I think they could be viable sideboard options against Esper Control as well.
It appears the current type two environment is about hyper aggro (16 one drop.dec) or mega control (Esper) with not alot of room for mid range decks in the middle. If this deck can't shore up those matchups while maintaining our mid range superiority then there probably isn't a place for this deck in standard right now.
Ratchet Bomb was too slow too. I was just goldfishing Fog and it seems like it can get you the one extra turn you so desperately need against the hyper aggro decks.
I'm thinking Plasma Capture is going to be too slow as well. I'm going to try a 2 Negate/2 Dissolve split in my sideboard. I'll playtest it online and let you know how it goes.
Tested four main deck Fog today. They were working great. You have to play pretty tight to turn the corner, but once you do you just run away from the aggro decks. They also work nicely against mid range aggro decks.
Obviously, not so great against control, but Negate is an easy switch from the sideboard for those matchups. Also, you can occasionally scrye them away with your lands.
I'll do some more testing and post an updated deck list in the next couple of days.
It's been awhile since I've posted and mostly because the results haven't been spectacular. I started out playing the Stompy version with Kalonian Tuskers and Reverent Hunters. It performed well at first, but then White Weenie/Boros Aggro started invalidating our blockers with Brave the Elements, mono red started employing Madcap Skills and Firefist Strikers and Rakdos Aggro was using Mogis's Marauder. Needless to say, creatures became irrelevant for blocking purposes.
To remedy this situation I switched to a more controlling version. I started using Jace, Architect of Thought and Fogs to buy me the extra turns I needed to overload Cyclonic Rift. Unfortunately, those cards proved to be too weak against control decks and to be honest the Fogs are weak in general. I would have been better off having more threats.
After lots of playtesting and analysis I came to the conclusion that the deck was best built as a combo deck. As is the case with most combo decks, redundancy is the key. This sent me in a whole new direction. I kept track of the cards that were winning me games or blowing my opponents out and this is the list I came up with.
Initially, I thought four copies of Polukranos was too much, but ever since I have gone up to four copies it's greatly increased my win percentage against the White Weenie deck and other aggro decks.
I was also running only three copies of Cyclonic Rift. This card is good both early and late and it's completely back breaking in most matchups so four is the right amount.
In addition, I was running four Simic Guildgates and four Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. Eliminating the Simic Guildgates and adding basic Islands has increased the speed of the deck and running only two Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx has allowed me to further develop my mana.
A critical addition has been cutting Voyaging Satyr for Karametra's Acolyte. This creature is effectively Nykthos, Shrine to Nix 3-6 and it doesn't get passed over by Garruk, Caller of Beasts. I've found if the Acolyte lives to tap for mana you will most likely win the game.
The card is severely underestimated by opposing players (I guess if it's not in a net deck, it must not be good) and I've even had a few players LOL me in chat when I play it. Then I untap cast Arbor Colossus, Polukranos, monstrosity Colossus, kill their Demon and then get Player Lost, disconnected. That's when I LOL.
Tonight I went 3-0 with the deck (Timmy's Wet Dream, every deck needs a name and Timmy and Jamie Wakefield woud love this deck). The games were close, but I managed to squeak through. Games I used to lose, I'm now winning.
My wins were 2-1 Boros Aggro, 2-0 Red Devotion, 2-0 Bant Control.
I really don't change the sideboard much against aggro or mid-range, but against control decks I pretty much transform the deck. Every card from the sideboard comes in and Arbor Colossus, Karametra's Acolyte, Nylea's Disciple, 3 x Polukranos come out.
It seemed to work well against the Bant Control deck, but to be honest, both games he was missing a color so it's tough to evaluate how effective the sideboard was against that deck.
Finally, the other rewarding part of the deck is the crowds that gather around to watch it in action. Even my opponents were finding it entertaining to watch even though the game was slipping away for them.
Jace is -meh. I've ran him for a week; Garruk is better.
Another issue is sweeps for GU DEVOTION. Had my butt handed to me with a RWB deck, anger of the gods
That's were the deck needs protection; any suggestions?
STDRD: Orzhov Control
Do you mind sharing your list along with sideboard strategies? I crafted a green deck that I thought was well positioned against mono black but i got absolutely crushed last night.
Sideboard:
STDRD: Orzhov Control
Anger of the Gods
if you were to regenerate your creature/creatures, then they wouldn't "die this turn". So no exile for them
However, for cards like Merciless Eviction
they just get exiled, no damage dealt, so regeneration has no effect toward the exile portion.
Was out of town this weekend, seen toward the end of last page somebody wanted to put Sylvan Primordial back in their deck. If your looking for it as a sideboard, you can take out the two Bident of Thassa for two Primordials. It looks like you have plenty of card draw mechanics in the deck with 4 Garruks and 3 Prime Speakers. Unless you desire to utilize the ability on the trident to have creatures attack into your wall of fatties(??).
I have not tested with Primevil Bounty since Theros rotated in, but it just appears the deck is "clogged" for 6+ CMC spells. Prime Speakers, Garruks, Bounties, and Rifts (normally desired to be cast for overload cost) may cause for clunky hands at times, especially vs RDW/WW. I could be totally wrong though, I haven't played Simic for a while, but will put a deck together for next weekend.
To close, I been fiddling with this Dimir midrange deck for some reason and found that I'm totally in love with Thassa herself. Even if she isn't active, being able to scry every turn allows me to push the unwanted land, duplicates, and other crap to the bottom of the library. Soon as i get a deck together, Ill post it and hopefully have some test results shortly afterward. Good luck everybody and thanks for keeping all the Green threads going!
No, Zegana is not in play when she checks the highest power, that check happens as part of whatever effect that put her into play resolves.
You cast Zegana. She resolves, makes her check, nylea is still "not a creature", enters the battlefield with her +1/+1 counters, State based effects are checked, you have 6 devotion, Nylea is a creature. Zegana's ETB effect triggers and gets put on the stack.
Brave the Elements destroyed me in the Boros and White Weenie matchups and Merciless Devotion blew me out in the Black/White Control matchup.
The ability of Brave the Elements to negate all of your blocking creatures is devastating. It was frustrating playing 12 mana acceleration creatures and I still was not fast enough to cast a Cyclonic Rift to reset their board before being dealt lethal damage.
Precinct Captain also proved to be a very problematic creature. The 2/2 first strike with any pump effect meant I could no longer profitably block it because I needed all my creatures to pump up my devotion for Nykthos.
There were so many times if I just had one more mana or one more turn I would have turned the corner in this matchup. Three of my game losses were like that. I'm starting to wonder if Defend the Hearth might be a good option. They have to cast Brave the Elements to get through our blockers, we play Defend the Hearth, save ourselves about 8-12 damage and get an extra untap phase and force them to have another Brave the Elements to force their damage through.
I added black to the deck by dropping the basic forests and adding Golgari Guildgate and Overgrown Tomb to do some online testing with Golgari Charm main deck. It worked fine as long as all of their creatures only had one toughness, but they have a nice mix of two toughness creatures and pump spells like Ajani and Spear of Heliod so the Golgari Charms were not that effective. Also, other aggro decks like Red Deck Wins and Rakdos aggro have lots of two toughness creatures so Golgari Charm was not effective against them either.
If the Black/White decks are going to start using Merciless Devotion maindeck then that certainly becomes a huge problem for us. Negate or Plasm Capture might be some good options to try and protect against that spell and I think they could be viable sideboard options against Esper Control as well.
It appears the current type two environment is about hyper aggro (16 one drop.dec) or mega control (Esper) with not alot of room for mid range decks in the middle. If this deck can't shore up those matchups while maintaining our mid range superiority then there probably isn't a place for this deck in standard right now.
I'm thinking Plasma Capture is going to be too slow as well. I'm going to try a 2 Negate/2 Dissolve split in my sideboard. I'll playtest it online and let you know how it goes.
Obviously, not so great against control, but Negate is an easy switch from the sideboard for those matchups. Also, you can occasionally scrye them away with your lands.
I'll do some more testing and post an updated deck list in the next couple of days.
To remedy this situation I switched to a more controlling version. I started using Jace, Architect of Thought and Fogs to buy me the extra turns I needed to overload Cyclonic Rift. Unfortunately, those cards proved to be too weak against control decks and to be honest the Fogs are weak in general. I would have been better off having more threats.
After lots of playtesting and analysis I came to the conclusion that the deck was best built as a combo deck. As is the case with most combo decks, redundancy is the key. This sent me in a whole new direction. I kept track of the cards that were winning me games or blowing my opponents out and this is the list I came up with.
4 x Elvish Mystic
4 x Sylvan Caryatid
4 x Nylea's Disciple
4 x Karametra's Acolyte
4 x Polukranos, World Leader
4 x Arbor Colossus
4 x Prime Speaker, Zegana
4 x Garruk, Caller of Beasts
11 x Forest
3 x Island
4 x Temple of Mystery
4 x Breeding Pool
2 x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
4 x Skylasher
2 x Aetherling
4 x Negate
1 x Mending Touch
Initially, I thought four copies of Polukranos was too much, but ever since I have gone up to four copies it's greatly increased my win percentage against the White Weenie deck and other aggro decks.
I was also running only three copies of Cyclonic Rift. This card is good both early and late and it's completely back breaking in most matchups so four is the right amount.
In addition, I was running four Simic Guildgates and four Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. Eliminating the Simic Guildgates and adding basic Islands has increased the speed of the deck and running only two Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx has allowed me to further develop my mana.
A critical addition has been cutting Voyaging Satyr for Karametra's Acolyte. This creature is effectively Nykthos, Shrine to Nix 3-6 and it doesn't get passed over by Garruk, Caller of Beasts. I've found if the Acolyte lives to tap for mana you will most likely win the game.
The card is severely underestimated by opposing players (I guess if it's not in a net deck, it must not be good) and I've even had a few players LOL me in chat when I play it. Then I untap cast Arbor Colossus, Polukranos, monstrosity Colossus, kill their Demon and then get Player Lost, disconnected. That's when I LOL.
Tonight I went 3-0 with the deck (Timmy's Wet Dream, every deck needs a name and Timmy and Jamie Wakefield woud love this deck). The games were close, but I managed to squeak through. Games I used to lose, I'm now winning.
My wins were 2-1 Boros Aggro, 2-0 Red Devotion, 2-0 Bant Control.
I really don't change the sideboard much against aggro or mid-range, but against control decks I pretty much transform the deck. Every card from the sideboard comes in and Arbor Colossus, Karametra's Acolyte, Nylea's Disciple, 3 x Polukranos come out.
It seemed to work well against the Bant Control deck, but to be honest, both games he was missing a color so it's tough to evaluate how effective the sideboard was against that deck.
Finally, the other rewarding part of the deck is the crowds that gather around to watch it in action. Even my opponents were finding it entertaining to watch even though the game was slipping away for them.