Hello, Signed up for the forum just so I could post this deck I have been brewing. Its a RW Heroic/Prowess deck based on the one by Yoshihiko Ikawa at the Honolulu Pro Tour.
The main idea behind the deck is to be super aggressive and beat everything before they can establish. I haven't gotten a chance to actually test this deck, but in mock games against myself it seemed to win pretty consistently between turns 4 and 6.
I am not entirely sure how you are doing the prices, but when I did the mass entry, I got $14.49 for the item value.
However, When I just looked at the low price for each card and multiplied that by the number of that card in the deck I got $7.60.
Either way I am well under budget.
Timestamp: 10-28-14
Here is the use breakdown:
Monastery swiftspear: Is just really good, fast, and will almost always be trading up
Seeker of the Way: This guy is so amazing, he is often swinging on turn 3 as a 5/5 lifelink or 5/4 lifelinking first striker.
Phalanx leader: the main target for all the instants you have. massive team buffs happen so often.
Akroan crusader: probably the secondary target for most spells, or just the other half of coordinated assault. Even if you draw him "late"(like turn 6) you will likely have enough spells to target him precombat and still get in a hasty attacker.
Defiant strike: the bread and butter spell, so much value in this deck.
Coordinated assault: also super effective, you just make blocking hell when you can threaten to whip this out mid combat.
Dragon mantle: I think this is probably the least value here. Yes, it cantrips, but you seldom have much extra R to give a meaningful buff. The only possible exception is when it is on a seeker, the extra lifegain can be good then. I am open to suggestions on this one.
Ride Down: One of my favorites from Khans, this just seems like its too useful not to include. You always want to be attacking, and this makes sure you can.
Gods willing: protection, there may be too few of these, without creatures the deck dies, so it is necessary.
Launch the fleet: this targets lots of things, which is really nice. If you can follow this up with a pump to Phalanx leader mid combat, it gets painful quick. also helps with...
Dictate of Heliod: That you can flash this in makes it 100 times more effective than it looks, and it looks good already. You pretty much win if you can cast this. It makes all your wennies soo big, plus it triggers all the prowess!
Chained to the rocks: One of the best spot removal spells if you can handle it, and this deck can!
The main goal of the deck is to play creatures, clear out blockers if you need to, then swing and buff. On a board with just a seeker and phalanx leader, just W and a defiant strike can turn that into a 4/4 lifelink and a 3/2, and can replace the card you spent even! Its just too much value too fast for most decks. in the same case with a coordinated assault instead the seeker is a 5/4 first strike lifelinker. that means for R you can take down a siege rhino with a 2/2, and gain back more than the life you lost.
Some Things I have noted in my play testing:
Dictate = win
Seekers do soo much work and gain so much life you will never lose a race. Get them on the board quick.
without creatures, you are dead. And there are not that many creatures for how necessary they are.
The mana requirements for this deck are super specific. There are literally only 2 spells with any colorless in their cost, meaning you need a mix of the right kind of mana. This is also why battlefield forge(other than cost) is not an option, it would always be pinging you.
Dictate > Obelisk of Urd in this deck. Not just because of the type mismatches, but because it wants to be super aggressive, so tapping people down to get the obelisk doesn't seem worth it. especially when you can drop the dictate as a surprise.
If you need to go defensive for a turn or two, you can still come out ahead with coordinated assault.
With some of the instants, it is actually best to play them pre combat sometimes. Specifically with defiant strike. That extra card could be something even more useful, or a swiftspear you can easily add to the turns attack.
With the remaining budget it may be worth it to get a one of Chandra, Pyromaster at $6.00, or Iroas, God of Victory at $4.26, I would say only of either of them though, as you don't want them stuck in your hand. They both seem really good in this deck though, and a one of is still in budget.
For the Sideboard, I am open to suggestions, but I think Hammerhand has a place here. I feel like the 2 more Gods willing or Feat of Resistance would be good choices, because I think protection is a must versus some decks. Also Titan's Strength seems like another promising route. Aside from that, general cheap burn might be a good idea for some more spot removal, but chained to the rocks is already really hard to beat. All those are very cheap, so budget shouldn't be a problem.
EDIT: Just saw Purphoros is also at $6, him plus Launch the Fleet seems rather amazing in place of the Chandra.
Please Someone try this out at an FNM or something! I am really curious to know how this will preform! Any feedback is encouraged.
Okay guys! I don't really have time to look at stuff right now (Homework to do D: ) but by the end of this week I'm HOPING to have not only a new and improved budget Temur Midrange deck, but also some "featured decks" (Plus my own) to be put on the front page.
If you have suggestions for which decks should be featured, please let me know!
Hey Katherine
SO I cracked 4 packs of khans. I pulled 4 temur ascendancys. Lol. I also got a Bear's companion and a Sagu Mauler. Wondering if you have any ideas on how to base a deck around ascendancy... would your temur midrange core work?
I'm not entirely sure if I would even play the ascendancy in a budget temur deck. The reason is because it is a bad topdeck and in this budget, you're missing out a lot of the triggers. I'd probably skip it regardless. I really like ascendancy but don't think it belongs here (when it was spoiled, my first though was riku edh. Gives haste. I play a fatty, copy it, draw 2 cards into more fatties! Getting a nice influx of cards from every big thing you play in a ramp deck seems pretty solid.) The cards that come to mind here to trigger are as follows.
Savage knuckleblade. Costs too much.
Arbor colossus.
Polukranos. Costs too much.
Reaper of the wilds. Off color.
Hey Nev. Thanks for the feedback. I thought about it, and to be completely honest with you I think a playset of arbor and savage is doable for my own budget. While I know this is a super budget thread, my own is slightly higher. What would you take out for the two of them?
EDIT: REading through the past couple pages I notice that Katherine is concocting a Temur Ascendancy based deck so I guess i could wait till she posts the decklist and see how she triggers it. If you have an idea though, Nev, I'm all eyes.
So I accidentally clicked off and I'm not going to bother rehashing the speech. Here's the deck. It doesn't meet the budget of this thread except maaaaaaybe on tcg low minus the knuckleblades but the point I'm making here is that temur ascendancy doesn't belong. It is in a bad place (sharing the 3 drop with boon satyr and temur charm), is stuck in a deck with 12 ish things to trigger it while knuckleblade can already give itself haste. Boon satyr will wanted to be played first a lot or will often enough bestow which means no immediate value and doesn't care about the haste. So even the haste bit doesn't mean so much. Ascendancy is also a bad topdeck and the slots have to come from somewhere? What's going for it? Dorks? The things that trigger it? Burn? Disdainful stroke in side is recommended and if you have some sagu mauler, they're not a bad choice either. Sagu mauler and boon satyr can be good friends.
So just for clarification, I tap a land (1 mana produced)
If I use voyaging on it does the mana get un-produced if I haven't used it yet? or does the mana remain till the end of my main phase and I can tap the land again for 2 mana in total...?
Hey Katherine
SO I cracked 4 packs of khans. I pulled 4 temur ascendancys. Lol. I also got a Bear's companion and a Sagu Mauler. Wondering if you have any ideas on how to base a deck around ascendancy... would your temur midrange core work?
Hmmm... I wouldn't put ascendancy in my midrange core.
I do kind of agree with Nev that Ascendancy is ehhh... but, if we want to try and make this work, here are some interesting cards to use with it:
Polis Crusher: Is a decent threat that can't be hit by Suspension Field, Chained to the Rocks, or Banishing Light. Can't be blocked by Courser, or by other enchantment creatures (Doomwake might pop up, depending on your meta.) Can destroy stuff like the aformentioned cards when made Monstrous.
Bear's Companion: 6 power over 2 bodies for five. One of the bodies will trigger ascendancy, but both will get haste. Cool card, and an uncommon.
Meandering Towershell: This one is more "cute" than serious, but if you can find a way to abuse the fact that Towershell gains haste (making it slightly less slow) and, if not answered, will be drawing you multiple cards with ascendancy (again, slow and cute) it MIGHT be funny.
Sagu Mauler: Not sure if this guy rose beyond our budget, but he's still pretty good at what he does.
Hydra Broodmaster: If we can get nine mana, he can make us 4 dudes and draw us 4 cards.
Nessian Wilds Ravager: I've talked about this guy before. He can still be pretty good, and triggers ascendancy.
cool. thanks so much Katherine. I like polis a lot. i was also thinking arbor colossus would be nice in here, but I realized it aint that great. I was thinking Nessian right b4 i read it at the bottom lol.
Alrighty! Again, keep in mind I haven't personally tested with any of these, but they seem like the most solid you can do with the colors and midrange archetype at this point. Best of luck!
Voyaging satyr is effectively a mana dork. Mana cannot be un-produced. Sagu is about 1.30 ish, I think. Thing is that we have arbor colossus at less than 40 cents. At mid price. Polis crusher isn't bad at all but it has a key deficiency vs polukranos where the fatties I chose can beat it. Hence the decision to play them over it. The others I can't recommend. Nessian is ok but I really prefer arbor because it can eat stormbreath or block sarkhan. Also eats mantis rider. There are relevant fliers to kill or block. It gets bigger than polukranos and outsizes siege rhino. The only reason I wouldn't play 4 is due to having a bunch of sagu mauler in which case I might play 2 or 3... Or I had a hunk of cash and wasn't on a budget.
I've noticed the lack of "bring back from the graveyard" makes the delve hooting mandrils quite useful later in the game. I am currently waiting on my LGS to build stock of Arbor colossus, Savage knuckleblade
I have play-tested this (keep in mind I have no standard players in my play group and am building this for FNM)
Vs. modern RDW with a splash of black (2-1)
Game 1 win
t1 elvish mystic > t2 heir of the wilds (down to 17 life) > t3 Ascendancy swing for 2 > t4 Bear's companion swing for 9 (down to 10 life, lost heir to burn) > t5 Nessian, no tribute, destroyed 1 of 2 potnl. blockers, deal 7, destroy blocker (down to 5 life) > Elvish mystic swing for 14 and win
game 2 loss
no ascendancy, elvish out only at t2, used a charm to buy time but still lost due to lack of field presence
game 3 win
similar to game 1, but my nessian was instantly burned as was my bear's companion (still got my bear tho) so I delved to summon hooting and swung for 15 to win
Vs. modern UW auras and flying creature protection (1-0)
i was constantly being swung at with flying (i can't wait for arbor :p) so I dropped to 13 by t3. I used 2x charm to stop even more flyers from being created. I finally managed to get out nessian, tribute was not paid but protection from creatures so it was useless anyway, swung for 10 no blcokers were available to him, down to 9, lightning struck his flyer and another wall he had, swung for 10 and won.
I can already imaginge the benefit of arbor since a lot of flyers exist in all metas. also arbor is a great fatty even without the ability. I really think more ramp culd really boost the deck to a great height. Hopefully I can grab a set of voyaging satyr when I go to get my savage and arbor. Are golden hind or karametra's favor viable mana ramp cards if I can't find any voyaging?
Match 1: Mardu Warriors 2-0
My opp played poorly made deck, so I got a quite easy win
Match 2: Esper Control 2-1
I outraced my opp easily at game 1, at game 2 I got stuck at 2 lands in play, with hand containing 2 Hordeling Outbursts, Dictate etc. He resolved early Ashiok and managed to exile my hand. Got him down to 2 hp, then he resolved Resolute Archangel, I conceded. Game 3 was pretty much similar to game 1.
Match 3: Jeskai Tempo 0-2
That was one unfavourable MU for me, He managed to get Mantis Rider on the board and deflect my Stoke. At game 2 I dropped him down to 1 hp, but Rabblemaster with a dozen tokens pumped by Jeskai Charm set him up and eventually won the game for him.
Match 3: BG Aggro: 2-0
Quite easy MU, I managed to outrace him in both games, in game 2 he was stuck at Llanowar Wastes as only black mana source, causing him to pain himself multiple times.
Deck plays great, I really think Rabblemasters are not required. The only things I would add myself would be Stokes (maybe you can ask someone to borrow them for an FNM), and Eidolons (they're quite expensive, but they are played in eternal formats).
Golden hind and karametra's favor are not advised. Voyaging satyr is for fixing. Ask around if necessary. Talk to the guys who you see cracking open boxes. Some of them problably cracked theros and thus have leftover cheapo rares they could trade or sell you like boon satyr and arbor colossus. Savage knuckleblade is a little bit harder but you may find some spares too. There's more than just the lgs.
The deck plays simply enough: mulligan for an artifact and Ensoul Artifact if you don't get it in your first 7 and go to town. Easily a turn 4 kill if the opponent can't respond in time. Monastery Swiftspear and Jeskai Elder provide additional damage, and in the Elder's case, utility. Chief Engineer and Springleaf Drum are primarily there to ramp out Scuttling Doom Engine, your answer for when the game goes longer than you want it to. Illusory Angel is just a strong beater that can be difficult to deal with. Just make sure if you want to cast her on curve, you hold back an Ornithopter to get past her downside.
Only using 2 Swiftwater Cliffs to stay under budget. Otherwise, replace a Mountain and an Island to run a playset of them if you do build this deck. Darksteel Citadel combined with Ensoul Artifact is all but immune to most forms of creature removal in today's format.
Citadel plus ensoul is indeed good but it is not immune to most. Here's what misses it.
Burns
Hero's downfall
Murderous cut
Bile blight
Mardu charm
Sultai charm
Temur charm
Here's some things it doesn't dodge.
Jeskai charm
The occasional bounce
Abzan charm
Suspension field
Devouring light
Banishing light
Silence the believers
Unravel the aether
Crackling doom
So it isn't what I'd call most though it is a fair bit. Keep in mind that abzan and jeskai are the 2 most common charms.
Have you considered uw? I read a bit on azorius soul blade which involved ditching red in favor of white. Heliod's pilgrim searches out ensoul. God's willing provides defense for it. Ghostfire blade (a little more pricy but not terrible) allows you to grow your artifacts to larger than polukranos levels and can shorten the clock from 4 hits to 3. It can also be ensouled.
Citadel plus ensoul is indeed good but it is not immune to most. Here's what misses it.
Burns
Hero's downfall
Murderous cut
Bile blight
Mardu charm
Sultai charm
Temur charm
Here's some things it doesn't dodge.
Jeskai charm
The occasional bounce
Abzan charm
Suspension field
Devouring light
Banishing light
Silence the believers
Unravel the aether
Crackling doom
So it isn't what I'd call most though it is a fair bit. Keep in mind that abzan and jeskai are the 2 most common charms.
Have you considered uw? I read a bit on azorius soul blade which involved ditching red in favor of white. Heliod's pilgrim searches out ensoul. God's willing provides defense for it. Ghostfire blade (a little more pricy but not terrible) allows you to grow your artifacts to larger than polukranos levels and can shorten the clock from 4 hits to 3. It can also be ensouled.
I actually saw Soulblade and thought it looked like an awesome deck. I think I'll try and do a budget version here (although I believe it is fairly budget already) at some point.
EDIT: OKAY! Front page is now UPDATED! You can navigate to all my decks on the first page, and also browse the featured decks. The decks I chose for featured were ones that were stated to have good results, ones that I personally liked, or ones that had been talked about and critiqued in more detail.
Enjoy! I'm going to be brewing a few new decks today as well, which will be up later.
I just checked the price on ghostfire blade and it has dropped like a rock. The deck should probably entirely within budget minus the fetches, temples, and singleton ajani. Hero of iroas is the only card even mildly worth something in the original build beyond those. It does need a little fixing and can miss a land so I endorse playing 4 evolving wilds and 4 refuges. With the citadels, I feel it necessary.
I'm not too happy where my current three decks I was going to add here are, so if you want to try, or anyone else, please go ahead. Here are the problems I am finding:
Budget Soulblade: I can't get this deck at $15. It always ends up being at least a few cents over, and besides cutting something vital, like Revoker, I'm not sure what to do. Pretty much the money cards in the deck right now are Ensoul Artifact, Phyrexian Revoker, and Ghostfire Blade, and even calling those "money" is a bit ridiculous. But those are all very essential cards to the strategy, so yeah.
Temur Ascendancy: I was working on a Temur Ascendancy build, but the mana is dreadful. Attempting to get a three color enchantment out on turn two or three is very, very rough. I think this deck is going to get scrapped for now, but if someone else wants to test with it or build around it, be my guest. The list is here.
U/B Control/Mill: This was a deck I am trying to brew at the request of a friend, and I'm getting a bit overwhelmed with it. For one, it's currently over budget, and it's not something I can recommend getting at all. Still, their playstyle is mill and mill is what they wanted, so I'm trying.
The main problem of course, is that mill cards need to do something besides just mill to be good. Siren of the Silent Song is actually fairly good, because it's also nice disruption. With Siren as a definite four-of, I knew I'd want to add some inspired shenanigans as well.
Another idea I hit on was to use the deck as a deck that could exploit the graveyard of your opponent. Endless Obedience doesn't specify your graveyard, and again, fits the theme nicely.
Still, besides Phenax, I'm not sure what other sources of "Big" mill we can pull right now. So this deck might have to refine its approach.
here is the decklist, if anyone wants to help me make it into something that I can both proudly hand my friend, and that can sit on this page.
I will look at azorius soul blade later. On ub mill, there are exactly 1.5 methods. One is grindclock. The other is the really bad combo midnight guard (which is white), retraction helix, ornithoper, and altar of the brood. I don't think I need to explain how bad this is. The grindclock method is just ub control sporting grindclock. I think uw is better, though. Black removal is pretty shoddy right now on the cheap. White has a better sweeper, better spot removal, and resolute archangel to recoup life loss.
I tossed this together really quick. Tcgplayer low has it comes out to $11.46 at the time of this posting. Here's the price counts by hand. Mid is first, followed by low.
4x Phalanx Leader
4x Akroan Crusader
4x Seeker of the Way
4x Monastery Swiftspear
Instants:
4x Defiant Strike
4x Coordinated Assault
2x Ride Down
2x Gods Willing
2x Launch the Fleet
Enchantments:
4x Dragon Mantle
2x Chained to the Rocks
2x Dictate of Heliod
Land:
4x Wind-Scarred Crag
9x Plains
9x Mountain
I am not entirely sure how you are doing the prices, but when I did the mass entry, I got $14.49 for the item value.
However, When I just looked at the low price for each card and multiplied that by the number of that card in the deck I got $7.60.
Either way I am well under budget.
Timestamp: 10-28-14
Here is the use breakdown:
Monastery swiftspear: Is just really good, fast, and will almost always be trading up
Seeker of the Way: This guy is so amazing, he is often swinging on turn 3 as a 5/5 lifelink or 5/4 lifelinking first striker.
Phalanx leader: the main target for all the instants you have. massive team buffs happen so often.
Akroan crusader: probably the secondary target for most spells, or just the other half of coordinated assault. Even if you draw him "late"(like turn 6) you will likely have enough spells to target him precombat and still get in a hasty attacker.
Defiant strike: the bread and butter spell, so much value in this deck.
Coordinated assault: also super effective, you just make blocking hell when you can threaten to whip this out mid combat.
Dragon mantle: I think this is probably the least value here. Yes, it cantrips, but you seldom have much extra R to give a meaningful buff. The only possible exception is when it is on a seeker, the extra lifegain can be good then. I am open to suggestions on this one.
Ride Down: One of my favorites from Khans, this just seems like its too useful not to include. You always want to be attacking, and this makes sure you can.
Gods willing: protection, there may be too few of these, without creatures the deck dies, so it is necessary.
Launch the fleet: this targets lots of things, which is really nice. If you can follow this up with a pump to Phalanx leader mid combat, it gets painful quick. also helps with...
Dictate of Heliod: That you can flash this in makes it 100 times more effective than it looks, and it looks good already. You pretty much win if you can cast this. It makes all your wennies soo big, plus it triggers all the prowess!
Chained to the rocks: One of the best spot removal spells if you can handle it, and this deck can!
The main goal of the deck is to play creatures, clear out blockers if you need to, then swing and buff. On a board with just a seeker and phalanx leader, just W and a defiant strike can turn that into a 4/4 lifelink and a 3/2, and can replace the card you spent even! Its just too much value too fast for most decks. in the same case with a coordinated assault instead the seeker is a 5/4 first strike lifelinker. that means for R you can take down a siege rhino with a 2/2, and gain back more than the life you lost.
Some Things I have noted in my play testing:
Dictate = win
Seekers do soo much work and gain so much life you will never lose a race. Get them on the board quick.
without creatures, you are dead. And there are not that many creatures for how necessary they are.
The mana requirements for this deck are super specific. There are literally only 2 spells with any colorless in their cost, meaning you need a mix of the right kind of mana. This is also why battlefield forge(other than cost) is not an option, it would always be pinging you.
Dictate > Obelisk of Urd in this deck. Not just because of the type mismatches, but because it wants to be super aggressive, so tapping people down to get the obelisk doesn't seem worth it. especially when you can drop the dictate as a surprise.
If you need to go defensive for a turn or two, you can still come out ahead with coordinated assault.
With some of the instants, it is actually best to play them pre combat sometimes. Specifically with defiant strike. That extra card could be something even more useful, or a swiftspear you can easily add to the turns attack.
With the remaining budget it may be worth it to get a one of Chandra, Pyromaster at $6.00, or Iroas, God of Victory at $4.26, I would say only of either of them though, as you don't want them stuck in your hand. They both seem really good in this deck though, and a one of is still in budget.
For the Sideboard, I am open to suggestions, but I think Hammerhand has a place here. I feel like the 2 more Gods willing or Feat of Resistance would be good choices, because I think protection is a must versus some decks. Also Titan's Strength seems like another promising route. Aside from that, general cheap burn might be a good idea for some more spot removal, but chained to the rocks is already really hard to beat. All those are very cheap, so budget shouldn't be a problem.
EDIT: Just saw Purphoros is also at $6, him plus Launch the Fleet seems rather amazing in place of the Chandra.
If you have suggestions for which decks should be featured, please let me know!
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SO I cracked 4 packs of khans. I pulled 4 temur ascendancys. Lol. I also got a Bear's companion and a Sagu Mauler. Wondering if you have any ideas on how to base a deck around ascendancy... would your temur midrange core work?
Savage knuckleblade. Costs too much.
Arbor colossus.
Polukranos. Costs too much.
Reaper of the wilds. Off color.
Yeah....
EDIT: REading through the past couple pages I notice that Katherine is concocting a Temur Ascendancy based deck so I guess i could wait till she posts the decklist and see how she triggers it. If you have an idea though, Nev, I'm all eyes.
4 voyaging satyr
4 heir of the wilds
4 boon satyr
4 savage knuckleblade
4 arbor colossus
4 crater's claws
3 lightning strike
2 stubborn denial
4 frontier bivouac
4 rugged highlands
3 thornwood falls
6 forest
3 mountain
3 island
So just for clarification, I tap a land (1 mana produced)
If I use voyaging on it does the mana get un-produced if I haven't used it yet? or does the mana remain till the end of my main phase and I can tap the land again for 2 mana in total...?
Hmmm... I wouldn't put ascendancy in my midrange core.
I do kind of agree with Nev that Ascendancy is ehhh... but, if we want to try and make this work, here are some interesting cards to use with it:
Polis Crusher: Is a decent threat that can't be hit by Suspension Field, Chained to the Rocks, or Banishing Light. Can't be blocked by Courser, or by other enchantment creatures (Doomwake might pop up, depending on your meta.) Can destroy stuff like the aformentioned cards when made Monstrous.
Bear's Companion: 6 power over 2 bodies for five. One of the bodies will trigger ascendancy, but both will get haste. Cool card, and an uncommon.
Meandering Towershell: This one is more "cute" than serious, but if you can find a way to abuse the fact that Towershell gains haste (making it slightly less slow) and, if not answered, will be drawing you multiple cards with ascendancy (again, slow and cute) it MIGHT be funny.
Sagu Mauler: Not sure if this guy rose beyond our budget, but he's still pretty good at what he does.
Hydra Broodmaster: If we can get nine mana, he can make us 4 dudes and draw us 4 cards.
Nessian Wilds Ravager: I've talked about this guy before. He can still be pretty good, and triggers ascendancy.
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4 Bear's Companion
4 Heir to the Wilds
4 Elvish Mystic
2 Hooting Mandrils
2 Nessian Wilds Ravager
2 Wooly Loxodon
4 Temur Charm
4 Temur Ascendancy
4 Lightning Strike
2 Stubborn Denial
Land
4 frontier bivouac
4 rugged highlands
3 thornwood falls
6 forest
3 mountain
3 island
I've noticed the lack of "bring back from the graveyard" makes the delve hooting mandrils quite useful later in the game. I am currently waiting on my LGS to build stock of Arbor colossus, Savage knuckleblade
I have play-tested this (keep in mind I have no standard players in my play group and am building this for FNM)
Vs. modern RDW with a splash of black (2-1)
Game 1 win
t1 elvish mystic > t2 heir of the wilds (down to 17 life) > t3 Ascendancy swing for 2 > t4 Bear's companion swing for 9 (down to 10 life, lost heir to burn) > t5 Nessian, no tribute, destroyed 1 of 2 potnl. blockers, deal 7, destroy blocker (down to 5 life) > Elvish mystic swing for 14 and win
game 2 loss
no ascendancy, elvish out only at t2, used a charm to buy time but still lost due to lack of field presence
game 3 win
similar to game 1, but my nessian was instantly burned as was my bear's companion (still got my bear tho) so I delved to summon hooting and swung for 15 to win
Vs. modern UW auras and flying creature protection (1-0)
i was constantly being swung at with flying (i can't wait for arbor :p) so I dropped to 13 by t3. I used 2x charm to stop even more flyers from being created. I finally managed to get out nessian, tribute was not paid but protection from creatures so it was useless anyway, swung for 10 no blcokers were available to him, down to 9, lightning struck his flyer and another wall he had, swung for 10 and won.
I can already imaginge the benefit of arbor since a lot of flyers exist in all metas. also arbor is a great fatty even without the ability. I really think more ramp culd really boost the deck to a great height. Hopefully I can grab a set of voyaging satyr when I go to get my savage and arbor. Are golden hind or karametra's favor viable mana ramp cards if I can't find any voyaging?
Sideboard
Stubborn denial, some altenative fatties like polis crusher, perhaps a couple temur banner
2x Dictate of the Twin Gods
2x Circle of Flame
2x Act of Treason
1x Scouring Sands
3x Searing Blood
2x Magma Jet
2x Magma Spray
Match 1: Mardu Warriors 2-0
My opp played poorly made deck, so I got a quite easy win
Match 2: Esper Control 2-1
I outraced my opp easily at game 1, at game 2 I got stuck at 2 lands in play, with hand containing 2 Hordeling Outbursts, Dictate etc. He resolved early Ashiok and managed to exile my hand. Got him down to 2 hp, then he resolved Resolute Archangel, I conceded. Game 3 was pretty much similar to game 1.
Match 3: Jeskai Tempo 0-2
That was one unfavourable MU for me, He managed to get Mantis Rider on the board and deflect my Stoke. At game 2 I dropped him down to 1 hp, but Rabblemaster with a dozen tokens pumped by Jeskai Charm set him up and eventually won the game for him.
Match 3: BG Aggro: 2-0
Quite easy MU, I managed to outrace him in both games, in game 2 he was stuck at Llanowar Wastes as only black mana source, causing him to pain himself multiple times.
Deck plays great, I really think Rabblemasters are not required. The only things I would add myself would be Stokes (maybe you can ask someone to borrow them for an FNM), and Eidolons (they're quite expensive, but they are played in eternal formats).
MTGO: UberMower
TIMSTAMP: 15:46 EST 11/1/14
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Jeskai Elder
4 Chief Engineer
4 Illusory Angel
2 Scuttling Doom Engine
4 Springleaf Drum
4 Lightning Strike
4 Shrapnel Blast
2 Swiftwater Cliffs
8 Mountain
8 Island
Total: $14.96 Budget left: $0.04
The deck plays simply enough: mulligan for an artifact and Ensoul Artifact if you don't get it in your first 7 and go to town. Easily a turn 4 kill if the opponent can't respond in time. Monastery Swiftspear and Jeskai Elder provide additional damage, and in the Elder's case, utility. Chief Engineer and Springleaf Drum are primarily there to ramp out Scuttling Doom Engine, your answer for when the game goes longer than you want it to. Illusory Angel is just a strong beater that can be difficult to deal with. Just make sure if you want to cast her on curve, you hold back an Ornithopter to get past her downside.
Only using 2 Swiftwater Cliffs to stay under budget. Otherwise, replace a Mountain and an Island to run a playset of them if you do build this deck. Darksteel Citadel combined with Ensoul Artifact is all but immune to most forms of creature removal in today's format.
Burns
Hero's downfall
Murderous cut
Bile blight
Mardu charm
Sultai charm
Temur charm
Here's some things it doesn't dodge.
Jeskai charm
The occasional bounce
Abzan charm
Suspension field
Devouring light
Banishing light
Silence the believers
Unravel the aether
Crackling doom
So it isn't what I'd call most though it is a fair bit. Keep in mind that abzan and jeskai are the 2 most common charms.
Have you considered uw? I read a bit on azorius soul blade which involved ditching red in favor of white. Heliod's pilgrim searches out ensoul. God's willing provides defense for it. Ghostfire blade (a little more pricy but not terrible) allows you to grow your artifacts to larger than polukranos levels and can shorten the clock from 4 hits to 3. It can also be ensouled.
I actually saw Soulblade and thought it looked like an awesome deck. I think I'll try and do a budget version here (although I believe it is fairly budget already) at some point.
EDIT: OKAY! Front page is now UPDATED! You can navigate to all my decks on the first page, and also browse the featured decks. The decks I chose for featured were ones that were stated to have good results, ones that I personally liked, or ones that had been talked about and critiqued in more detail.
Enjoy! I'm going to be brewing a few new decks today as well, which will be up later.
WUBRGCommander Decklists - PaperWUBRG
CCCCCommander Decklists - TheorycraftCCCC
Sig Credit: Pegasus Bishop
Budget Soulblade: I can't get this deck at $15. It always ends up being at least a few cents over, and besides cutting something vital, like Revoker, I'm not sure what to do. Pretty much the money cards in the deck right now are Ensoul Artifact, Phyrexian Revoker, and Ghostfire Blade, and even calling those "money" is a bit ridiculous. But those are all very essential cards to the strategy, so yeah.
Temur Ascendancy: I was working on a Temur Ascendancy build, but the mana is dreadful. Attempting to get a three color enchantment out on turn two or three is very, very rough. I think this deck is going to get scrapped for now, but if someone else wants to test with it or build around it, be my guest. The list is here.
U/B Control/Mill: This was a deck I am trying to brew at the request of a friend, and I'm getting a bit overwhelmed with it. For one, it's currently over budget, and it's not something I can recommend getting at all. Still, their playstyle is mill and mill is what they wanted, so I'm trying.
The main problem of course, is that mill cards need to do something besides just mill to be good. Siren of the Silent Song is actually fairly good, because it's also nice disruption. With Siren as a definite four-of, I knew I'd want to add some inspired shenanigans as well.
Another idea I hit on was to use the deck as a deck that could exploit the graveyard of your opponent. Endless Obedience doesn't specify your graveyard, and again, fits the theme nicely.
Still, besides Phenax, I'm not sure what other sources of "Big" mill we can pull right now. So this deck might have to refine its approach.
here is the decklist, if anyone wants to help me make it into something that I can both proudly hand my friend, and that can sit on this page.
WUBRGCommander Decklists - PaperWUBRG
CCCCCommander Decklists - TheorycraftCCCC
Sig Credit: Pegasus Bishop
4 phyrexian revoker
4 ornithopter
4 hero of iroas
4 ensoul artifact
4 ghostfire blade
4 gods willing
4 springleaf drum
4 stratus walk
2 singing bell strike
1 spectra ward
4 tranquil cove
4 evolving wilds
6 plains
3 island
I tossed this together really quick. Tcgplayer low has it comes out to $11.46 at the time of this posting. Here's the price counts by hand. Mid is first, followed by low.
Heliod’s pilgrim 0.15 0.03
Ensoul artifact 1.56 0.31
Ghostfire blade 0.62 0.23
Hero of iroas 1.89 0.50
Phyrexian revoker 1.66 0.75
Gods willing 0.19 0.04
Springleaf drum 0.54 0.11
Stratus walk 0.13 0.03
Ornithopter 0.21 0.07
Darksteel citadel 0.94 0.65
Tranquol cove 0.18 0.04
Singing bell strike 0.12 0.03
Spectra ward 0.37 0.20
Evolving wilds 0.13 0.04