The black sources are strictly for sideboard (which is not yet public), and clearly you could changed for any other color if you found a reason to run it. Pharika, Doomwake Giant might be good motivators in the black direction.
Anyway, the game plan is a combination of green aggro, constellation, and graveyard tricks. Wayfinder and Commune fill the grave, Strength pumps for stuff being in the grave. Boon Satyr triggers Strength at instant speed, and other enchantments offer slower pumps.
The linchpin of the deck is Den Protector. Able to retrieve needed cards from the graveyard, including things the opponent just killed, it can also get pumped by Strength from the Fallen, at which point it becomes virtually unblockable.
A single Chord of Calling finds a missing creature, also providing an instant-speed enchantment for Strength.
--
That's Stephen's list. It keys off of lots of creatures and lots of enchantments. Cards I would want to try: Bow of Nylea, Noble Quarry. That last one: If you have Strength on the table, you bestow Noble Quarry on something, Strength triggers making that something huge, and everybody must block your huge guy - or, you make something else huge and they have to block the Unicorn.
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Current Awesome Deck: UWAll-In GiftsWU Consistent, Resiliant, and way overpowered, making multiple 4/4s per turn.
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWUFree Stuff MidrangeUWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
A guy showed up today with a GB version with Collected Company. Scored 3-2, but there's some scary plays in there. Instant "look at the top 6 cards of your library, put 2 enchantments on the battlefield, 2 other creatures get +X/+X" is very good. Pharika's BG: get a death touch enchantment snake (as many as you like) makes beautiful synergy. End-of-their-turn Collected Company into 2 Master of Feasts (okay, opponent draws 2 cards, but likely they're tapped out, and you swing for 10 flying, and you might pump beyond that.
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Current Awesome Deck: UWAll-In GiftsWU Consistent, Resiliant, and way overpowered, making multiple 4/4s per turn.
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWUFree Stuff MidrangeUWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
Taking this to Game Day tomorrow with one change. I replaced a Courser for a Nighthowler.
I have played only two games with the deck so far, but Nighthowler actually ended up winning them both for me. Courser is great, but when you're playing a SftF deck, the top card of your library can be the difference between 0 and 20 damage. I've had many times in the past (playing a similar deck before Khans block) when the opponent did or didn't do something they would have done in favour of holding up mana for removal because they could see the top card of my deck.
Anyway, I'm worried about the control match mainly. They'll be able to remove everything important, and I feel like it won't be a good matchup. Mistcutter was great before because some of control's removal was UW split, but now with UB being the flavour, it's not quite as good... All their removal is black, so it likely won't get more than a hit in at X=4 or so if we're lucky.
What else can I include for the control match up in sideboard?
A fair number of people run G/R or G/W around here so I want to try Extinguish All Hope here as a one sided board wipe more or less. Great for when the board gets stalled, as they'll have a Courser or two left at best to my everything.
I beat Jeskai tokens 2-0 and lost to a W/G Anafenza type deck 2-0. vs Jeskai I won game 2 off of an EoT Boon Satyr after a board wipe, followed by a bestowed Nighthowler with an active Strength out for 16 damage. Versus G/W, he got an ideal draw both games with the outlast guy that makes all creatures with counters gain flying, and this deck has nothing that can beat flying at all in it...
There were a total of 3 whole people at the event today... it was pretty sad. However, one of the attendees had won a mat the day before, and I beat the other person who did not. Thus, I "won" despite it actually being a complete 3 way tie. We did all play 2 rounds of a board game called Splendor after that I won both of, so I will consider this the tie breaker.
Still, the store owner paid out much more in prizing than he needed to for such a small crowd, so they have my respect for sure.
The deck has some serious power, but it also has some serious weaknesses. I'll probably play it for fun a few more times, but I don't think it'll be highly tournament viable going forward.
I beat Jeskai tokens 2-0 and lost to a W/G Anafenza type deck 2-0. vs Jeskai I won game 2 off of an EoT Boon Satyr after a board wipe, followed by a bestowed Nighthowler with an active Strength out for 16 damage. Versus G/W, he got an ideal draw both games with the outlast guy that makes all creatures with counters gain flying, and this deck has nothing that can beat flying at all in it...
There were a total of 3 whole people at the event today... it was pretty sad. However, one of the attendees had won a mat the day before, and I beat the other person who did not. Thus, I "won" despite it actually being a complete 3 way tie. We did all play 2 rounds of a board game called Splendor after that I won both of, so I will consider this the tie breaker.
Still, the store owner paid out much more in prizing than he needed to for such a small crowd, so they have my respect for sure.
The deck has some serious power, but it also has some serious weaknesses. I'll probably play it for fun a few more times, but I don't think it'll be highly tournament viable going forward.
Hey, no one will argue with the playmat. Congrats to you!
I've played the Esper matchup a few times, and I was able to get there by finding just a single copy of Thoughtseize and looping it a couple times with Den Protectors. I'm not sure if that's really reliable, though.
I also took this deck to Game Day on Saturday and Sunday. I was able to scratch and scrape to get into the Top 8 on Saturday before scrubbing out immediately in the quarterfinals, but on Sunday I ran the tables and walked out with the playmat!
One thing I will say about this deck - it just rolls over to any kind of sustained flying offense. I lost several games over the course of the Saturday event to various curves involving Thunderbreak Regent and Stormbreath Dragon. Not wanting to die in a similar fashion on Sunday, I switched up the sideboard like so:
My rationale behind the Dryads were that they allowed me to block flying creatures while also triggering Strength from the Fallen. Windstorm was in there in case I found myself staring down multiple dragons. It worked alright, but the deck is still very soft to GR Dragons.
That said, this deck is still an absolute blast to play, and it's great to see the look on the opponent's face when they have you dead on board, only to have you rattle off a couple of massive Strength triggers to push your Den Protector through for 30+ damage.
I like it, reminds me of the old Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord deck I used to play. What I found with that though was that you really need a good wall as it's almost an ambush deck. With Jarad it was about saccing anothing creature. Here though, once they figure out that Den Protector is your main win con, they'll go after them with everything they have, so make sure they're protected, which does leave you short on the blocking front. There's also so much Enchantment hate out there at the moment so don't put all your eggs in one basket. Nighthowler could be an interesting addition, and Herald of Torment is also a fun card with SFTF, and it sorts your flying issue. Whip of Erebos of course also works well, both in triggering, and returning triggers if they're in the graveyard.
I like it, reminds me of the old Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord deck I used to play. What I found with that though was that you really need a good wall as it's almost an ambush deck. With Jarad it was about saccing anothing creature. Here though, once they figure out that Den Protector is your main win con, they'll go after them with everything they have. So make sure they're protected, which does leave you short on the blocking front. Nighthowler could be an interesting addition, and Herald of Torment is also a fun card with SFTF, and it sorts your flying issue.
Yeah, but at the same time, leaning on that second color reduces the consistency of an already very inconsistent deck. Besides, what are they going to do, spend their time killing your Den Protectors? They can recur each other. And there's also Nylea to give the rest of the team trample, making them just as dangerous.
I got wiped 3 games in a row vs U/W heroic (extra game for fun) and I think it's just unwinnable. They have so much to give their creatures flying/unblockable and we have no removal main deck. They're also pretty fast with it. In the last for fun match we played, I managed to land 3 Murderous Cut's thanks to good draws and a Den Protector. Still wasn't enough.
I ended up winning the next two matches, but they weren't against top tier decks at all.
Flying certainly does wreck this deck, as [WyvernSlayer] said. It has been the cause of every loss I've had so far I believe. One creature I can't block attacking over and over again...
I also think Nighthowlser has won 70% of the games I played so far. I used to play a Strength deck for a bit when Constellation first came out, and I think it was slightly better back then. Den Protector has it's benefits, but it still doesn't really compare to Lotleth Troll when it comes to Nighthowler (or even other bestow creatures).
It's my favourite card of recent memory for sure, and is undervalued I believe.
I've been playing this deck for a while, and heroic is by far the worst matchup. Self-inflicted wound is a must have in the sideboard for these types of matchups, and it also helps against jeskai aggro.
At my store, the guy I consider to be the best player, and who was on a long time heroic slant, dropped the deck today. Why? The new king of the hill, Esper, runs 7 "sac a creature" cards. This turns off Gods Willing, and makes that deck no longer viable. Strength should be viable in an Esper match because loads of creatures and a relevant enchantment they can't kill.
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Current Awesome Deck: UWAll-In GiftsWU Consistent, Resiliant, and way overpowered, making multiple 4/4s per turn.
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWUFree Stuff MidrangeUWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
This is the sideboard i'll be taking to fnm with Stephen madden's main board i think a couple variations could be possible some plummets or doomwakes other then that i think this sideboard is the best possible one for this main deck i test games post sideboard against sultai control,sultai whip,red green monsters, red/white tokens, abzan aggro, and u/b control. It's best match ups post sideboard are definitely tokens and b/u control even abzan aggro it was quite strong against. However it is very weak to dragon decks so if your local meta game has a high amount of dragons i would recommend no playing this list otherwise it's a complete blowout against many match ups and extremely fun to play
I'm beginning to think that some number of Arbor Colossus in the sideboard would help to address the R/G Dragons matchup, which is otherwise pretty miserable.
I made a version of this thats not testing badly at all with merciless executioner, it makes a synergistic edict effect as it just puts another creature in the yard to boot. It doesnt do well against tokens but great against dragons. Anyone else have thoughts on the executioner in here?
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4 Strength from the Fallen
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Voyaging Satyr
4 Courser of Kruphix
4 Satyr Wayfinder
4 Commune with the Gods
1 Chord of Calling
4 Eidolon of Blossoms
4 Boon Satyr
4 Den Protector
2 Nylea, God of the Hunt
8 Forest
4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
4 Llanowar Wastes
4 Temple of Malady
The black sources are strictly for sideboard (which is not yet public), and clearly you could changed for any other color if you found a reason to run it. Pharika, Doomwake Giant might be good motivators in the black direction.
Anyway, the game plan is a combination of green aggro, constellation, and graveyard tricks. Wayfinder and Commune fill the grave, Strength pumps for stuff being in the grave. Boon Satyr triggers Strength at instant speed, and other enchantments offer slower pumps.
The linchpin of the deck is Den Protector. Able to retrieve needed cards from the graveyard, including things the opponent just killed, it can also get pumped by Strength from the Fallen, at which point it becomes virtually unblockable.
A single Chord of Calling finds a missing creature, also providing an instant-speed enchantment for Strength.
--
That's Stephen's list. It keys off of lots of creatures and lots of enchantments. Cards I would want to try: Bow of Nylea, Noble Quarry. That last one: If you have Strength on the table, you bestow Noble Quarry on something, Strength triggers making that something huge, and everybody must block your huge guy - or, you make something else huge and they have to block the Unicorn.
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWU Free Stuff Midrange UWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
My greatest hits:
GURFate Reforged Temur Ascendancy COMBORUG
GUDragons of Tarkir Whisperwood Forever UG
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/standard-type-2/standard-archives/575999-g-r-strength-of-the-fallen
I think black is good for stuff like doomwake giant, brain maggot, Pharika, god of affliction and removal. Red has guys like archetype of aggression and xenagos, god of revels.
Blue gives interesting options as well with hypnotic siren, and flitterstep eidolon (and now mirror mockery as well come to think of it)
i still have hopes for this deck and might revisit the U/G version soon.
Sorry I guess wasn't clear, I was wondering what record he ended up with at the PT?
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWU Free Stuff Midrange UWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
My greatest hits:
GURFate Reforged Temur Ascendancy COMBORUG
GUDragons of Tarkir Whisperwood Forever UG
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWU Free Stuff Midrange UWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
My greatest hits:
GURFate Reforged Temur Ascendancy COMBORUG
GUDragons of Tarkir Whisperwood Forever UG
The sideboard...
-Has (at least) two copies of Thoughtseize, according to Stephen during his Deck Tech.
-Does NOT contain Doomwake Giant, but does have at least 1 Virulent Plague.
-Contains some number of Murderous Cuts.
-Does NOT contain Deathmist Raptor. (I feel this is should be rectified.)
I think I'm going to sleeve up Stephen's maindeck tonight, with the following sideboard:
2 Murderous Cut
2 Deathmist Raptor
2 Mistcutter Hydra
2 Reclamation Sage
2 Nylea's Disciple
2 Doomwake Giant
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWU Free Stuff Midrange UWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
My greatest hits:
GURFate Reforged Temur Ascendancy COMBORUG
GUDragons of Tarkir Whisperwood Forever UG
I have played only two games with the deck so far, but Nighthowler actually ended up winning them both for me. Courser is great, but when you're playing a SftF deck, the top card of your library can be the difference between 0 and 20 damage. I've had many times in the past (playing a similar deck before Khans block) when the opponent did or didn't do something they would have done in favour of holding up mana for removal because they could see the top card of my deck.
Anyway, I'm worried about the control match mainly. They'll be able to remove everything important, and I feel like it won't be a good matchup. Mistcutter was great before because some of control's removal was UW split, but now with UB being the flavour, it's not quite as good... All their removal is black, so it likely won't get more than a hit in at X=4 or so if we're lucky.
What else can I include for the control match up in sideboard?
Currently I'm running:
1 Pharika, God of Affliction
1 Soul of Innistrad
3 Murderous Cut
2 Extinguish All Hope
3 Thoughtseize
3 Doomwake Giant
A fair number of people run G/R or G/W around here so I want to try Extinguish All Hope here as a one sided board wipe more or less. Great for when the board gets stalled, as they'll have a Courser or two left at best to my everything.
Thanks in advance!
I ended up winning the Game day mat today.
I beat Jeskai tokens 2-0 and lost to a W/G Anafenza type deck 2-0. vs Jeskai I won game 2 off of an EoT Boon Satyr after a board wipe, followed by a bestowed Nighthowler with an active Strength out for 16 damage. Versus G/W, he got an ideal draw both games with the outlast guy that makes all creatures with counters gain flying, and this deck has nothing that can beat flying at all in it...
There were a total of 3 whole people at the event today... it was pretty sad. However, one of the attendees had won a mat the day before, and I beat the other person who did not. Thus, I "won" despite it actually being a complete 3 way tie. We did all play 2 rounds of a board game called Splendor after that I won both of, so I will consider this the tie breaker.
Still, the store owner paid out much more in prizing than he needed to for such a small crowd, so they have my respect for sure.
The deck has some serious power, but it also has some serious weaknesses. I'll probably play it for fun a few more times, but I don't think it'll be highly tournament viable going forward.
Hey, no one will argue with the playmat. Congrats to you!
I've played the Esper matchup a few times, and I was able to get there by finding just a single copy of Thoughtseize and looping it a couple times with Den Protectors. I'm not sure if that's really reliable, though.
I also took this deck to Game Day on Saturday and Sunday. I was able to scratch and scrape to get into the Top 8 on Saturday before scrubbing out immediately in the quarterfinals, but on Sunday I ran the tables and walked out with the playmat!
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
8 Forest
4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
4 Llanowar Wastes
4 Temple of Malady
Not Lands (39)
4 Strength from the Fallen
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Voyaging Satyr
4 Courser of Kruphix
4 Satyr Wayfinder
4 Commune with the Gods
1 Chord of Calling
4 Eidolon of Blossoms
4 Boon Satyr
4 Den Protector
2 Nylea, God of the Hunt
3 Thoughtseize
2 Doomwake Giant
2 Deathmist Raptor
2 Mistcutter Hydra
2 Reclamation Sage
2 Feed the Clan
2 Murderous Cut
One thing I will say about this deck - it just rolls over to any kind of sustained flying offense. I lost several games over the course of the Saturday event to various curves involving Thunderbreak Regent and Stormbreath Dragon. Not wanting to die in a similar fashion on Sunday, I switched up the sideboard like so:
-2 Mistcutter Hydra
-2 Feed the Clan
+3 Leafcrown Dryad
+1 Windstorm
My rationale behind the Dryads were that they allowed me to block flying creatures while also triggering Strength from the Fallen. Windstorm was in there in case I found myself staring down multiple dragons. It worked alright, but the deck is still very soft to GR Dragons.
That said, this deck is still an absolute blast to play, and it's great to see the look on the opponent's face when they have you dead on board, only to have you rattle off a couple of massive Strength triggers to push your Den Protector through for 30+ damage.
Yeah, but at the same time, leaning on that second color reduces the consistency of an already very inconsistent deck. Besides, what are they going to do, spend their time killing your Den Protectors? They can recur each other. And there's also Nylea to give the rest of the team trample, making them just as dangerous.
I got wiped 3 games in a row vs U/W heroic (extra game for fun) and I think it's just unwinnable. They have so much to give their creatures flying/unblockable and we have no removal main deck. They're also pretty fast with it. In the last for fun match we played, I managed to land 3 Murderous Cut's thanks to good draws and a Den Protector. Still wasn't enough.
I ended up winning the next two matches, but they weren't against top tier decks at all.
Flying certainly does wreck this deck, as [WyvernSlayer] said. It has been the cause of every loss I've had so far I believe. One creature I can't block attacking over and over again...
I also think Nighthowlser has won 70% of the games I played so far. I used to play a Strength deck for a bit when Constellation first came out, and I think it was slightly better back then. Den Protector has it's benefits, but it still doesn't really compare to Lotleth Troll when it comes to Nighthowler (or even other bestow creatures).
It's my favourite card of recent memory for sure, and is undervalued I believe.
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWU Free Stuff Midrange UWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
My greatest hits:
GURFate Reforged Temur Ascendancy COMBORUG
GUDragons of Tarkir Whisperwood Forever UG
2 deathmist raptor
2 Reclamation Sage
3 Thoughtseize
2 virulent plague
3 murderous cut
1 pharika, god of affliction
2 nylea's disciple
This is the sideboard i'll be taking to fnm with Stephen madden's main board i think a couple variations could be possible some plummets or doomwakes other then that i think this sideboard is the best possible one for this main deck i test games post sideboard against sultai control,sultai whip,red green monsters, red/white tokens, abzan aggro, and u/b control. It's best match ups post sideboard are definitely tokens and b/u control even abzan aggro it was quite strong against. However it is very weak to dragon decks so if your local meta game has a high amount of dragons i would recommend no playing this list otherwise it's a complete blowout against many match ups and extremely fun to play
Banishing light
hopeful eidolon
swinging big with lifelink makes all the difference in the world.
Bestowing a satyr wayfinder with hopeful eidolon is a game changer. It has to be killed twice to stop the lifegain
Sometimes I add blue (BANT) for prophet of kruphix, mirror mockery, and encase in ice.
The deck is slow and instant speed constellation triggering removal is awesome!
I also run renowned weaver
This deck is a lot of fun with a lot of color combinations to explore.