Since I saw Kruphix, God of Horizons I really felt like building a deck around him. I'm thinking of a deck with tons of draw/mana ramp cantrips (such as explore and preordain) and/or tiny creatures with enter the battlefield - draw effects. Maybe a few creature fetch cards such as green sun's zenith, not sure. And then have those key fat cards to win the game. I'm thinking of single use cards such as overrun, board cleaners and cards with cost x, fat creatures and/or mana sink permanents - those with mana paid strong abilities, such as heroes' bane, creatures with monstrosity, etc. So, above all, could you guys help me with these key cards?
Finally, what do you think about cards with on draw effects, such as horizon chimera and chasm skulker? And do you think prophet of Kruphix is worth its while? Untapping lands on the opponent's turn sounds really good when your mana pool doesn't empty...
Oh I forgot to mention, it can be a ug deck, or g with a u splash, a u with a g splash or even a ug with a third color splash - I really don't mind.
I'm going to give a friend of mine a deck as a late xmas present, and he asked me to build a BG deck around the idea of gaining loads of life and then damaging everything/everyone. I confess I'm a bit at a loss with the request, because I don't usually build life gaining decks around green, and I'm not very familiar / at ease with the black suicidal mechanics - although I'm fully aware they are both perfectly viable. Not a pro player / deck builder here =p So I'd really appreciate any and all help you guys can provide.
About our playstyle: we usually play 2x2, so anything that says "whenever" or that triggers every upkeep is doubly potent. We are also very relaxed and casual, and play mainly as an excuse to hang out together. On the other hand, I'm willing to spend a bit because it's a present. (Note: avoid Sanguine Bond, because we already have four decks built around that card in our circle!!)
So far, I thought about using some serious mana ramp based on recycling lands and then gain life through landfall-like techniques. It would look a bit like this:
As for damaging / making every lose life, I can't think of much without using Red, really. Soulcage Fiend- / Howling Banshee-like cards don't seem to do it well enough for me. Maybe I could go Jund (I don't think he would mind, and with that ramp land recycling idea, probably wouldn't hurt so bad)??
Please I'm having a really hard time trying to put it all together, I will really appreciate any help!!!!
Of all of these, eidolon sounds like the most interesting. Sulfuric vortex seems ok, but risky. Maybe br are the colors I want for this deck. Any other ideas of cards or a way to tie up this concept? Maybe bloodchief ascension?
The idea is to control (with whatever that color has to offer in that respect) and slowly drain the opponents life. I know the concept is pretty rough, but I'd appreciate any help you guys can give. Thanks!!
If you're not going to go the reanimation route, you'll definitely need more ways to ramp like Crypt Ghast and Dark Ritual because these dudes are expensive. Or run ones that have alternate casting costs like Demon of Death's Gate and Tombstalker. Another option is making Shadowborn Apostle.dek
Thank you for the input. I'll try to think of other options too. Not looking for those alternative guys right now, since I'd have to, again, rethink the whole concept of the deck. Delve might be good anyways, especially if I use many instants or small critters. Thanks for that nice card!
Before I post a new deck build up, I was thinking that a card like lightning greaves might be very useful in this deck. Haste and shroud for 0 seem like the perfect tool theses big crits needs... Please comment on it =]
Some ramp like f.e. Phyrexian Totem might help in getting out Demons faster.
Leechridden Swamp is better in multiplayer than in 1v1, but mostly if you manage to keep it active, it will keep Luminarch from becoming active - if I understood your setup correct.
You know that Hex needs six targets to be cast?
Also, that house rule reeks of being abused.
Exsanguinate is a great card, I have a whole deck based on it and the bw version of it. Still, I'm not sure what I'd take away to put it, considering I'm already struggling for space on the deck.
Phyrexian totem is cool, and I think going mana ramp might be a good alternative to the whole graveyard tricks. If I do that, I'd probably change a lot, get rid of all the zombify and rise from the grave, and probably change hidden horror for some thing else too. Even twisted abomination might go, since it is very synergetic in this deck specifically. Would that be worth it?
Leechridden swamp is a great card I didn't know of, I'll certainly get it for a lot of decks, not only this one. In this particular deck, though, not sure I'll be able to keep it going, since when it really matters (early on) I probably won't have those black permanents.
Yes, I know about hex. It works very well in 2-2: six targets (even with all the sweepers and removers) are not that hard to gather, though you might have to sacrifice some of your own sometimes.
Finally, kagemaru is a cool card too. Having one in the deck might be cool, maybe instead of mutilate for example.
Any more hints, guys?
On a side note: yes, our house rule can easily be abused of and it most certainly heavily influences our gameplay (for instance, burn decks are seriously crippled and heavier cards have a much bigger chance of being of use). Still, we've been playing like this for over 6 years now and I don't think 'abuse' is a good definition for how we play it - we are a very easy going, non competitive party. =) Think of it as a two-headed giant with less things shared.
-------edit--------
Ok so this is a variation of the deck based more on control and ramp. Please comment which you think would be more resilient.
So my gf and I always play 2-2 format with neighbors and friends. But she always uses my decks, and never bothered owning her own deck. So I've been trying to convince her to, and offered to build her a deck if she wanted me to.
I was very disheartened when she enthusiastically said "I want a demon deck!!!". In my opinion demon decks are expensive, not synergetic and slow. Still, now I'm facing the challenge of building a fun, themed and decent mono black demon deck.
Some notes about this deck:
1) I'm using a few graveyard raising tricks in order to both speed up the presence of demons on the battlefield and also to make the deck slightly more resilient, as removers and nukes are common in our tables.
2) I'm NOT building a deck AROUND graveyard hell raising, our group had a previous experience with a deck like that and it was very bad.
3) about every other game with my group, our opponents have a luminarch's ascension out, so there are some weenies to try to stave them off.
4) we have a house rule by which a player doesn't leave the game for having 0 life as long as the other one is still alive. That makes having a way of regaining life very important late game.
I feel this decks needs more removers and/or sweepers, but I'm afraid that taking creatures away will hurt the deck ability to consistently having one or two demons out.
Please help me make my gf a happy mtg player (though I'm the one laying for this deck, so easy on the card prices =p).
Rakdos only cares about loss of life, so Subversion will work. It is a bit heavy, but if you can keep it around, it means you can cast Rakdos on any turn you want without paying life (Gut Shot) or mana (insert burn card here).
It does seem a little cheaty, I'll agree, but if you're going to run Demigod, you're really obligated to have one or two of them in your graveyard to take full advantage of his ability. A 5/4 flying, hasty beater for 5 CMC is a good card regardless, granted, but if he's not putting his buddies into play, there are better ways to do damage, in my opinion.
Yeah, he's gnarly, and another good way to get Rakdos out cheap.
I dropped Hellrider and Grave Pact from the list of gifted cards. Hellrider needs more cheap aggro to be useful, in my opinion, and Grave Pact just doesn't seem to synergize with much of anything else you've mentioned. Lightning Bolt and Terminate will help you keep the board clear early and let your Freaks get in some early punches before your Demigods and Rakdos go all stompy. I chose Fanatic of Mogis over Gray Merchant of Asphodel for speed/cost reasons. Merchant would be a bigger thump since you'll be leaning toward B if you run Subversion (plus the Merchant's own contribution) but I think you'll find yourself wanting the speed. If you're expecting multiplayer, then swap them.
The only downside here is that Rakdos won't provide any cost reduction except for the Fanatics (or Merchants, if you go that route), and that's sort of a dead-end with this build.
I think you can go hybrid-heavy and stick to the Devotion theme or go another direction and work in Hellrider and maybe something else expensive and stompy from your collection to better take advantage of Rak's ability.
Thanks for all the input. First of all, yes, I play mainly 2v2 or two-headed, so yeah, my games tend to be a bit longer. I don't think I'd use your deck especially because 1) Subversion is really a card I didn't think much of and 2) Rakdos bonuses become quite useless. Also, we play mainly for fun here, so a bit more of a diversified deck (instead of the usual 4x) feels more interesting at this point. Also, though I can see the advantage of graveyard cards, I still think demigod is wonderful because not only is he very strong on his own, but also he will keep coming back whenever I play him again - believe me, with my friends he won't last longer than a heartbeat.
This is the idea I came up with. I disregarded Grave Pact in this one because my focus won't be weenie endless attack.
Generally fun, great interaction with Demigod and Rakdos: Ashenmoor Liege
Thanks a lot for the input. All of you guys.
Apparently, Subversion doesn't really work with Rakdos, because Loss of Life != Damage. =( It's also quite heavy and even in a 2v2 game, not sure it's worth it. Pestilence and Pyrohemia are both good enchants, I'll probably get a couple and see how they work out in the deck.
Not a big fan of Graveyard cheating though =p Maybe one Zombify or Rise from the Grave would sufice.
Ashenmoor Liege, on the other hand..... That's an excellent card, I hadn't considered it also because it used to be so expensive, but it's quite ok right now! Lovely suggestion!!!
While not really being a cheap (cmc) critter strategy, apart from a list like old standard RDW-sytle with Hellrider, I think this is one of the strongest interactions you can get based on the gifted cards.
OK, now you got me even more torn!!! I was wondering whether to go typical weenie aggressive crits and all out "if you kill/block them, you're screwed" or a mix of unleash and bloodthirst. Now I got devotion into the mix. I must say, Ashenmoor Liege plus demigod of revenge sounds like a good combo for devotion.
I'll try to put some built deck options by tomorrow and if you guys can give me the feedback, I'll appreciate immensely.
Hello everyone. I just got some sweeeet cards as a xmas gift from a friend, and now I need to build something around it so he can regret giving those to me
So I guess I should build a small aggressive crit deck around that. Could you guys please help? Also, I hate nothing more than a deck without plenty of control options, so some direct damage and destroy will be welcome. Budget-ish cards would be nice, so that the extra cards don't come more expensive than around $15.
I recently got a friend to play magic, and he really enjoyed it. His birthday is coming and I wanted to give him a custom deck as present. As far as I could gather, he seems to want a red and green "simple" deck", which translates into decent creatures, some direct damage, a couple of enchantments and/or artifacts, and necessarily a few big cool looking "monsters" - badass dragons, wurms, giants or whatnot. I'm wiling to go somewhere around $30 in this deck, after all his getting addicted to magic will largely depend on this deck. I'd also value diversity over consistency - avoiding 4 copies of the same card, because I think new players have more fun from variety than always relying on the same good drop to win.
What about mizzium skin if you are worried about a volcanic fallout. Can be useful against other removal as well
WOW, mizzium skin might be just what I was looking for. It probably won't save my 1/1's, but it might do a lot of good in MANY situations, including protecting my stronger creatures and saving about half of my guys from damage-everything cards. And what's best, for a very, very reasonable mana cost! Thanks, mate!
The other options I came up with but didn't mention before because I didn't want you to be biased were:
Creeping Renaissance or Praetor's Counsel, in order to retrieve my little guys from the graveyard. But I thought both were quite heavy / slow, and it wouldn't help with my tokens.
Murkfiend Liege: an amazing creature both in making my deck suddenly much more offensive (bonus to crits power), more defensive (untap) and more resilient (bonus to crits toughness). Negative point - a bit heavy, "easily" removeable and VERY pricey!! =p
Biomass Mutation or Mirrorweave: both could either save my small crits or make them suddenly very strong for a sudden attack (though mirrorweave is much more situational). The problem is, for defence I'd have to leave a lot of mana untapped, which is what I DON'T want.
So, from those options, Mizzium Skin or still some other option, any suggestion/observation?
It's probably worth adding a couple more copies of Mystic Snake, or maybe a Draining Whelk or the like, for a bit more control. Admittedly this won't help against Volcanic Fallout, but what will in UG?
Draining Whelk is a really cool card I didn't know about, but it seems HIGHLY situational... Many decks don't have that many heavy cards and this babe might go to waste then.
Mystic Snake is a card I like... but not so much in this deck. Being mainly a creature deck, saving 4 mana for the Snake is often counter productive - unless I happen to have Briarhorn as well (which seems to happen more often than I'd think). Don't get me wrong, it's a very nice card, that has saved my game a bunch of times, but more often then not I end up dropping it either just to block a 1/1 or 2/2 crit, or to counter some nothing-y spell. Or worse, sometimes I end up just dropping it at the end of the opponents turn to make good use of the mana (you see, the cards in my hand are often competing heavily for that 4 mana!). I think two copies of M. Snake is just about right, really.
Since I saw Kruphix, God of Horizons I really felt like building a deck around him. I'm thinking of a deck with tons of draw/mana ramp cantrips (such as explore and preordain) and/or tiny creatures with enter the battlefield - draw effects. Maybe a few creature fetch cards such as green sun's zenith, not sure. And then have those key fat cards to win the game. I'm thinking of single use cards such as overrun, board cleaners and cards with cost x, fat creatures and/or mana sink permanents - those with mana paid strong abilities, such as heroes' bane, creatures with monstrosity, etc. So, above all, could you guys help me with these key cards?
Finally, what do you think about cards with on draw effects, such as horizon chimera and chasm skulker? And do you think prophet of Kruphix is worth its while? Untapping lands on the opponent's turn sounds really good when your mana pool doesn't empty...
Oh I forgot to mention, it can be a ug deck, or g with a u splash, a u with a g splash or even a ug with a third color splash - I really don't mind.
I'm going to give a friend of mine a deck as a late xmas present, and he asked me to build a BG deck around the idea of gaining loads of life and then damaging everything/everyone. I confess I'm a bit at a loss with the request, because I don't usually build life gaining decks around green, and I'm not very familiar / at ease with the black suicidal mechanics - although I'm fully aware they are both perfectly viable. Not a pro player / deck builder here =p So I'd really appreciate any and all help you guys can provide.
About our playstyle: we usually play 2x2, so anything that says "whenever" or that triggers every upkeep is doubly potent. We are also very relaxed and casual, and play mainly as an excuse to hang out together. On the other hand, I'm willing to spend a bit because it's a present. (Note: avoid Sanguine Bond, because we already have four decks built around that card in our circle!!)
So far, I thought about using some serious mana ramp based on recycling lands and then gain life through landfall-like techniques. It would look a bit like this:
I could then use Drown in Filth for control, as well as Gaze of Granite and Death Frenzy.
As for "whenever ___ gain life" cards, I thought about Exquisite Blood, Polluted Bonds, Profane Memento, Essence Warden, Sangromancer, Blood Artist and/or Sun Droplet.
As for damaging / making every lose life, I can't think of much without using Red, really. Soulcage Fiend- / Howling Banshee-like cards don't seem to do it well enough for me. Maybe I could go Jund (I don't think he would mind, and with that ramp land recycling idea, probably wouldn't hurt so bad)??
Please I'm having a really hard time trying to put it all together, I will really appreciate any help!!!!
Of all of these, eidolon sounds like the most interesting. Sulfuric vortex seems ok, but risky. Maybe br are the colors I want for this deck. Any other ideas of cards or a way to tie up this concept? Maybe bloodchief ascension?
Thanks for the help so far!
The idea is to control (with whatever that color has to offer in that respect) and slowly drain the opponents life. I know the concept is pretty rough, but I'd appreciate any help you guys can give. Thanks!!
Thank you for the input. I'll try to think of other options too. Not looking for those alternative guys right now, since I'd have to, again, rethink the whole concept of the deck. Delve might be good anyways, especially if I use many instants or small critters. Thanks for that nice card!
Before I post a new deck build up, I was thinking that a card like lightning greaves might be very useful in this deck. Haste and shroud for 0 seem like the perfect tool theses big crits needs... Please comment on it =]
Exsanguinate is a great card, I have a whole deck based on it and the bw version of it. Still, I'm not sure what I'd take away to put it, considering I'm already struggling for space on the deck.
Phyrexian totem is cool, and I think going mana ramp might be a good alternative to the whole graveyard tricks. If I do that, I'd probably change a lot, get rid of all the zombify and rise from the grave, and probably change hidden horror for some thing else too. Even twisted abomination might go, since it is very synergetic in this deck specifically. Would that be worth it?
Leechridden swamp is a great card I didn't know of, I'll certainly get it for a lot of decks, not only this one. In this particular deck, though, not sure I'll be able to keep it going, since when it really matters (early on) I probably won't have those black permanents.
Yes, I know about hex. It works very well in 2-2: six targets (even with all the sweepers and removers) are not that hard to gather, though you might have to sacrifice some of your own sometimes.
Finally, kagemaru is a cool card too. Having one in the deck might be cool, maybe instead of mutilate for example.
Any more hints, guys?
On a side note: yes, our house rule can easily be abused of and it most certainly heavily influences our gameplay (for instance, burn decks are seriously crippled and heavier cards have a much bigger chance of being of use). Still, we've been playing like this for over 6 years now and I don't think 'abuse' is a good definition for how we play it - we are a very easy going, non competitive party. =) Think of it as a two-headed giant with less things shared.
-------edit--------
Ok so this is a variation of the deck based more on control and ramp. Please comment which you think would be more resilient.
2 Black Knight
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
2 Manor Skeleton
1 Abyssal Persecutor
2 Desecration Demon
2 Grinning Demon
1 Bloodgift Demon
1 Reaper from the Abyss
1 Xathrid Demon
1 Lord of the Void
1 Pestilence Demon
1 Basilisk Collar
4 Charcoal Diamond
2 Consume Spirit
4 Go for the Throat
1 Liliana of the Dark Realms
1 Mutilate
1 Pestilence
1 Exquisite Blood
2 Rise from the Grave
1 Hex
1 Life's Finale
23 Swamp
So my gf and I always play 2-2 format with neighbors and friends. But she always uses my decks, and never bothered owning her own deck. So I've been trying to convince her to, and offered to build her a deck if she wanted me to.
I was very disheartened when she enthusiastically said "I want a demon deck!!!". In my opinion demon decks are expensive, not synergetic and slow. Still, now I'm facing the challenge of building a fun, themed and decent mono black demon deck.
Some notes about this deck:
1) I'm using a few graveyard raising tricks in order to both speed up the presence of demons on the battlefield and also to make the deck slightly more resilient, as removers and nukes are common in our tables.
2) I'm NOT building a deck AROUND graveyard hell raising, our group had a previous experience with a deck like that and it was very bad.
3) about every other game with my group, our opponents have a luminarch's ascension out, so there are some weenies to try to stave them off.
4) we have a house rule by which a player doesn't leave the game for having 0 life as long as the other one is still alive. That makes having a way of regaining life very important late game.
2 Drudge Skeletons
2 Manor Skeleton
4 Hidden Horror
1 Abyssal Persecutor
2 Desecration Demon
2 Grinning Demon
1 Bloodgift Demon
1 Reaper from the Abyss
4 Twisted Abomination
1 Xathrid Demon
1 Lord of the Void
1 Pestilence Demon
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Consume Spirit
2 Murder
1 Liliana of the Dark Realms
1 Mutilate
1 Pestilence
2 Zombify
1 Exquisite Blood
3 Rise from the Grave
1 Hex
1 Life's Finale
23 Swamp
I feel this decks needs more removers and/or sweepers, but I'm afraid that taking creatures away will hurt the deck ability to consistently having one or two demons out.
Please help me make my gf a happy mtg player (though I'm the one laying for this deck, so easy on the card prices =p).
Thanks for all the input. First of all, yes, I play mainly 2v2 or two-headed, so yeah, my games tend to be a bit longer. I don't think I'd use your deck especially because 1) Subversion is really a card I didn't think much of and 2) Rakdos bonuses become quite useless. Also, we play mainly for fun here, so a bit more of a diversified deck (instead of the usual 4x) feels more interesting at this point. Also, though I can see the advantage of graveyard cards, I still think demigod is wonderful because not only is he very strong on his own, but also he will keep coming back whenever I play him again - believe me, with my friends he won't last longer than a heartbeat.
This is the idea I came up with. I disregarded Grave Pact in this one because my focus won't be weenie endless attack.
3 Rakdos Cackler
1 Rix Maadi Guildmage
3 Spike Jester
2 Cryptborn Horror
1 Hellhole Flailer
4 Ashenmoor Liege
2 Fanatic of Mogis
4 Hellrider
2 Rakdos, Lord of Riots
4 Demigod of Revenge
2 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1 Butcher of Malakir
1 Furyborn Hellkite
2 Lightning Bolt
2 Tragic Slip
2 Terminate
Lands:24
4 Akoum Refuge
4 Dragonskull Summit
8 Mountain
8 Swamp
Please tell me what you think. =)
Thanks a lot for the input. All of you guys.
Apparently, Subversion doesn't really work with Rakdos, because Loss of Life != Damage. =( It's also quite heavy and even in a 2v2 game, not sure it's worth it. Pestilence and Pyrohemia are both good enchants, I'll probably get a couple and see how they work out in the deck.
Not a big fan of Graveyard cheating though =p Maybe one Zombify or Rise from the Grave would sufice.
Ashenmoor Liege, on the other hand..... That's an excellent card, I hadn't considered it also because it used to be so expensive, but it's quite ok right now! Lovely suggestion!!!
Nice card, I see the point of paying 0 mana for dealing damage, will try to scramble that into the mix.
OK, now you got me even more torn!!! I was wondering whether to go typical weenie aggressive crits and all out "if you kill/block them, you're screwed" or a mix of unleash and bloodthirst. Now I got devotion into the mix. I must say, Ashenmoor Liege plus demigod of revenge sounds like a good combo for devotion.
I'll try to put some built deck options by tomorrow and if you guys can give me the feedback, I'll appreciate immensely.
The cards are:
So I guess I should build a small aggressive crit deck around that. Could you guys please help? Also, I hate nothing more than a deck without plenty of control options, so some direct damage and destroy will be welcome. Budget-ish cards would be nice, so that the extra cards don't come more expensive than around $15.
THANKS A LOT!!! =D
I recently got a friend to play magic, and he really enjoyed it. His birthday is coming and I wanted to give him a custom deck as present. As far as I could gather, he seems to want a red and green "simple" deck", which translates into decent creatures, some direct damage, a couple of enchantments and/or artifacts, and necessarily a few big cool looking "monsters" - badass dragons, wurms, giants or whatnot. I'm wiling to go somewhere around $30 in this deck, after all his getting addicted to magic will largely depend on this deck. I'd also value diversity over consistency - avoiding 4 copies of the same card, because I think new players have more fun from variety than always relying on the same good drop to win.
Some cards I have in mind so far:
We'll you get the gist, anything red green that is really good!! Thanks a lot!!
Just my *tokens* of contribution =)
WOW, mizzium skin might be just what I was looking for. It probably won't save my 1/1's, but it might do a lot of good in MANY situations, including protecting my stronger creatures and saving about half of my guys from damage-everything cards. And what's best, for a very, very reasonable mana cost! Thanks, mate!
The other options I came up with but didn't mention before because I didn't want you to be biased were:
Creeping Renaissance or Praetor's Counsel, in order to retrieve my little guys from the graveyard. But I thought both were quite heavy / slow, and it wouldn't help with my tokens.
Murkfiend Liege: an amazing creature both in making my deck suddenly much more offensive (bonus to crits power), more defensive (untap) and more resilient (bonus to crits toughness). Negative point - a bit heavy, "easily" removeable and VERY pricey!! =p
Biomass Mutation or Mirrorweave: both could either save my small crits or make them suddenly very strong for a sudden attack (though mirrorweave is much more situational). The problem is, for defence I'd have to leave a lot of mana untapped, which is what I DON'T want.
So, from those options, Mizzium Skin or still some other option, any suggestion/observation?
Draining Whelk is a really cool card I didn't know about, but it seems HIGHLY situational... Many decks don't have that many heavy cards and this babe might go to waste then.
Mystic Snake is a card I like... but not so much in this deck. Being mainly a creature deck, saving 4 mana for the Snake is often counter productive - unless I happen to have Briarhorn as well (which seems to happen more often than I'd think). Don't get me wrong, it's a very nice card, that has saved my game a bunch of times, but more often then not I end up dropping it either just to block a 1/1 or 2/2 crit, or to counter some nothing-y spell. Or worse, sometimes I end up just dropping it at the end of the opponents turn to make good use of the mana (you see, the cards in my hand are often competing heavily for that 4 mana!). I think two copies of M. Snake is just about right, really.
Anyway, thanks for the input so far. =)