I have not tried mb hand attack such as Harsh Scrutiny or Duress. Without Heart of Kiran, Bone Picker doesn't seem extremely necessary, but it is a good creature in any non-control matchup. Even in the control matchup, it can fly over their finisher, if it is something like The Scarab God or Torrential Gearhulk. Ruin Raider seems like the glue that holds the deck together imo, but my local meta is slanted more towards control than ramunap or temur.
I played this deck to a 2nd place finish on sunday at a 16 player mini invitational. Gotta lots a fun prizes, including plenty of store credit to upgrade the deck if I wanted to.
Tourney Report!!!*we only had a 3 round swiss because lots of people quit early, plus some couldn't make it
Round 1: Temur Energy 2-0
Game one was really close. I got him down to one extremely fast and then he stabilized with hydra and virtuoso. Key to the City (of course it was my lucky german copy, always play one non-english card in your deck for good luck, it works 100% of the time.) was a lucky rip, allowing me to win with an unblockable Heart of Kiran.
Sideboard: -2 Supernatural Stamina -1 Fatal Push -1 Heart of Kiran
+2 Aethersphere Harvester +2 Sorcerous Spyglass
Game two was a little easier for me. He boarded in Essence Scatter which almost all of the participants agreed was wrong against a deck like mine. He got in some good beats, but I outdrew him on cards and got the win with my fliers.
Round 2: Grixis Control 0-2
Game one I kept a slow hand, he countered everything of importance I sideboarded a bunch of cards, don't really feel like putting them down, its just most of my removal out, keep 1/2 walk the prank in, bring in grindy cards.
Game 2 I kept the ultra greed hand of 1 colorless land, drew the only other one in my deck. This is all on me for the extra greed. Not much to say here.
Round 3: Jund Vehicles 2-0
He had a game-loss game one for forgetting to sideboard.
Sideboarded in harvesters.
Game two was close. He had more individually powerful creatures, but mono B just annihilated him with its speed.
TOP 4 CUT! YAY!!!
Semifinals: UB Control 2-0
My opponent didn't draw Fatal Push either game. izi rek. Boarded in harvesters over heart of kiran due to it being harder for them to kill. Brought in a bunch of other stuff as well, didn't matter much.
Finals: UW Approach Control 0-2
Game one I got him low, but Fumigates and Settle the Wreckage game him enough time to recover.
Sideboard: All but harvesters and spyglass. Brought out all of my removal and bone pickers, and key to the city.
Game two felt really bad. Early game I Lost Legacy'd approach, his only threat was Sunscourge Champion. What was the game changer was Authority of the Consuls. He resolved two, and shut down my recursive threats almost entirely. Eventually he decked me out, not much to say.
All in all it was a fun tournament, sorry I'm so bad a breaking things down.
A few things looking forward:
Authority of the Consuls is really, really, really good against us, at least in my experience, since mono black, and red for that matter, don't have good enchantment hate, the best way to stop it is with hand destruction.
Supernatural Stamina was just plain underwhelming. Nothing much to see here.
A complicated sideboard doesn't help this aggro deck much. I think a much more streamlined sideboard could work. There needs to be ways to fight control and graveyard decks, but our aggro and midrange matchups are pretty good already.
Moving Forward: I want to try out a deck like this:
The focus on Duress effects is to be able to stop enchantments pre-emptively. Kitesail Freebooter seems good here as part disruption, and part flier. No Aether Hub is because I really want to be able to cast Walk the Plank on turn 2 or 3 while also deploying other cards that cost B or B1. Scavenger Grounds, as our only utility land, can be squeezed in, as well as being sacrificial fodder to ifnir deadlands if we want to machine gun little creatures down.
Sorry for the rambling, I wanted to write this yesterday with all the games still in my head, but this will have to suffice. Thoughts? Criticisms? How did your tournaments go? Until next time, keep on raiding!
I like the idea of Heart of Kiran, and supernatural stamina seems like a wierdly good place to be rn because of no Magma Spray and obviously 0 Incendiary Flow. Tonight at fnm if I find some hearts to put in i'll run them. I still think Glint-Sleeve Siphoner is too good not to include. I might try to play something like this.
The problem with your deck is that it is incredible unfocused.
A rule of thumb when building decks, you want your deck to be extremely good at one thing rather than mediocre at multiple things. What makes this complicated is that sometimes you delve into subthemes IE BG snek with delirium, energy, or just grindy cards. Each is the same idea with a different subtheme, but they still have a focused idea.
Your deck has a +1/+1 counter theme, as well as an energy theme, and a slight ramp theme.
Your counters/energy theme make you want to be beating down and/or win early with Electrostatic Pummeler. I think you want:
Next, you need to have more ramp cards. If you know the site mtggoldfish, they released a fairly interesting article on ramp a week or so ago. In a very brief summary, you want your ramp cards to line up. For example, you have a t2 play that ramps you, you want to have a 4cmc thing to play (on turn 3 using all mana), and further up. If we had 1cmc dorks, you would want to play a t2 3cmc ramp because it uses all your mana. Standard follows the 2>4>6 curve.
I would suggest around 8 2cmc rampers, 6 4cmc, and 4 6cmc rampers. Your options:
Ulvenwald Captive:Good card that has a permanent ramp, allows for it to become a beatstick/bigger ramper later game.
Naga Vitalist:Better in multicolor decks, still has plenty of versatility because it is permanent ramp.
Servant of the Conduit: Only is a 2-shot ramper. That is why I removed it, you could play it.
Channeler Intiate: Like above, but 3-shot. Can be a beater but you really don't want beaters, you want big dudes. Also more expensive than previous options.
4 Cmc
Hedron Archive: Good burst ramp, very powerful. Depending on payoff cards you choose, you might prefer others that ramp you with lands.
Shefet Monitor when cycled: I like this. Ramp and a free card? Seems pretty good. You could also toolbox with a few deserts since you run only green cards. It also can be a backup finisher.
Wild Wanderer: It's a fine card. Give you a land and a chump blocker.
Verdant Crescendo: You could run one of the PW-deck nissa as a win con. If so, this is pretty good.
Now you have to look at the payoffs. This area gets tricky due to your small budget, but you can still run big dudes. I'll showcase some of my favorites that are under $1.
Oran-Rief Hydra: In budget decks. this can be a MASSIVE beater and turns your ramp into power/toughness.
Ulvenwald Hydra: Does just about the same thing, but in a slightly different way. These are starting to see play in marvel sideboards, so pick them up now before they break the $1 mark.
Soul of the Harvest: Can replace your bestiary. Starts drawing cards and is on curve as a finisher.
Honored Hydra: Almost vanilla, but has the advantage of big stats and causing 2-for-1s.
It is up to you what you do, I am just giving you options, you'll have to toy with the budget. Also you have to be careful of some cards getting whiped out by rotation. Here are my suggested Additions.
I would also suggest putting in some more lands that can also be utility.
After a little bit of tinkering, this is my final list:
Does this look budget enough for you? I include the Anointed Procession + Hidden Stockpile combo because it is very strong and lets you grind your opponent out.
1
1
4 Night Market Lookout
4 Dread Wanderer
3 Vicious Conquistador
4 Glint-Sleeve Siphoner
4 Scrapheap Scrounger
4 Ruin Raider
2 Bone Picker
Other Spells:
4 Heart of Kiran
4 Fatal Push
3 Walk the Plank
2 Supernatural Stamina
1 Key to the City
4 Ifnir Deadlands
3 Aether Hub
12 Swamp
1 Sunsorched Desert
1 Hostile Desert
3 Duress
2 Lost Legacy
2 Sorcerous Spyglass
2 Arguel's Blood Fast
2 Aethersphere Harvester
2 Deadeye Tracker
2 Yahenni, Undying Partisan
Tourney Report!!!*we only had a 3 round swiss because lots of people quit early, plus some couldn't make it
Round 1: Temur Energy 2-0
Game one was really close. I got him down to one extremely fast and then he stabilized with hydra and virtuoso. Key to the City (of course it was my lucky german copy, always play one non-english card in your deck for good luck, it works 100% of the time.) was a lucky rip, allowing me to win with an unblockable Heart of Kiran.
Sideboard: -2 Supernatural Stamina -1 Fatal Push -1 Heart of Kiran
+2 Aethersphere Harvester +2 Sorcerous Spyglass
Game two was a little easier for me. He boarded in Essence Scatter which almost all of the participants agreed was wrong against a deck like mine. He got in some good beats, but I outdrew him on cards and got the win with my fliers.
Round 2: Grixis Control 0-2
Game one I kept a slow hand, he countered everything of importance I sideboarded a bunch of cards, don't really feel like putting them down, its just most of my removal out, keep 1/2 walk the prank in, bring in grindy cards.
Game 2 I kept the ultra greed hand of 1 colorless land, drew the only other one in my deck. This is all on me for the extra greed. Not much to say here.
Round 3: Jund Vehicles 2-0
He had a game-loss game one for forgetting to sideboard.
Sideboarded in harvesters.
Game two was close. He had more individually powerful creatures, but mono B just annihilated him with its speed.
TOP 4 CUT! YAY!!!
Semifinals: UB Control 2-0
My opponent didn't draw Fatal Push either game. izi rek. Boarded in harvesters over heart of kiran due to it being harder for them to kill. Brought in a bunch of other stuff as well, didn't matter much.
Finals: UW Approach Control 0-2
Game one I got him low, but Fumigates and Settle the Wreckage game him enough time to recover.
Sideboard: All but harvesters and spyglass. Brought out all of my removal and bone pickers, and key to the city.
Game two felt really bad. Early game I Lost Legacy'd approach, his only threat was Sunscourge Champion. What was the game changer was Authority of the Consuls. He resolved two, and shut down my recursive threats almost entirely. Eventually he decked me out, not much to say.
All in all it was a fun tournament, sorry I'm so bad a breaking things down.
A few things looking forward:
Moving Forward: I want to try out a deck like this:
4 Night Market Lookout
3 Vicious Conquistador
4 Dread Wanderer
4 Scrapheap Scrounger
2 Glint-Sleeve Siphoner
4 Ruin Raider
4 Bone Picker
4 Fatal Push
3 Walk the Plank
Artifacts:
4 Heart of Kiran
1 Key to the City
3 Aethersphere Harvester
Lands:
4 Ifnir Deadlands
2 Scavenger Grounds
14 Swamp
4 Duress
4 Kitesail Freebooter
3 Lost Legacy
2 Deadeye Tracker
2 Vraska's Contempt
The focus on Duress effects is to be able to stop enchantments pre-emptively. Kitesail Freebooter seems good here as part disruption, and part flier. No Aether Hub is because I really want to be able to cast Walk the Plank on turn 2 or 3 while also deploying other cards that cost B or B1. Scavenger Grounds, as our only utility land, can be squeezed in, as well as being sacrificial fodder to ifnir deadlands if we want to machine gun little creatures down.
Sorry for the rambling, I wanted to write this yesterday with all the games still in my head, but this will have to suffice. Thoughts? Criticisms? How did your tournaments go? Until next time, keep on raiding!
1
4 Bone Picker
4 Dread Wanderer
2 Gifted Aetherborn
4 Night Market Lookout
4 Ruin Raider
4 Scrapheap Scrounger
3 Vicious Conquistador
3 Walk the Plank
4 Fatal Push
3 Supernatural Stamina
1 Aethersphere Harvester
4 Heart of Kiran
Lands:
4 Ifnir Deadlands
16 Swamp
2 Gifted Aetherborn
2 Aethersphere Harvester
1 Supernatural Stamina
1 Walk the Plank
4 Duress
2 Harsh Scrutiny
1 Key to the City
2 Lost Legacy
I like the idea of Heart of Kiran, and supernatural stamina seems like a wierdly good place to be rn because of no Magma Spray and obviously 0 Incendiary Flow. Tonight at fnm if I find some hearts to put in i'll run them. I still think Glint-Sleeve Siphoner is too good not to include. I might try to play something like this.
4 Dread Wanderer
4 Night Market Lookout
3 Vicious Conquistador
4 Glint-Sleeve Siphoner
4 Scrapheap Scrounger
4 Ruin Raider
3 Bone Picker
4 Fatal Push
4 Walk the Plank
4 Heart of Kiran
2 Supernatural Stamina
Lands (20):
4 Ifnir Deadlands
3 Aether Hub
13 Swamp
4 Duress
2 Lost Legacy
2 Sorcerous Spyglass
2 Arguel's Blood Fast
3 Aethersphere Harvester
2 Yahenni, Undying Partisan
2
4 Bomat Courier
3 Electrostatic Pummeler
4 Greenbelt Rampager
2 Longtusk Cub
3 Rishkar, Peema Renegade
3 Scrounging Bandar
4 Servant of the Conduit
1 Tireless Tracker
1 Prey Upon
1 Traverse the Ulvenwald
1 Oath of Nissa
1 Lifecrafter's Bestiary
19 Forest
1 Mountain
The problem with your deck is that it is incredible unfocused.
A rule of thumb when building decks, you want your deck to be extremely good at one thing rather than mediocre at multiple things. What makes this complicated is that sometimes you delve into subthemes IE BG snek with delirium, energy, or just grindy cards. Each is the same idea with a different subtheme, but they still have a focused idea.
Your deck has a +1/+1 counter theme, as well as an energy theme, and a slight ramp theme.
Your counters/energy theme make you want to be beating down and/or win early with Electrostatic Pummeler. I think you want:
3 Electrostatic Pummeler
4 Greenbelt Rampager
2 Longtusk Cub
3 Rishkar, Peema Renegade
3 Scrounging Bandar
4 Servant of the Conduit
1 Lifecrafter's Bestiary
4 Attune with Aether
1 Traverse the Ulvenwald
1 Prey Upon
1 Mountain
2 Aether Hub
Next, you need to have more ramp cards. If you know the site mtggoldfish, they released a fairly interesting article on ramp a week or so ago. In a very brief summary, you want your ramp cards to line up. For example, you have a t2 play that ramps you, you want to have a 4cmc thing to play (on turn 3 using all mana), and further up. If we had 1cmc dorks, you would want to play a t2 3cmc ramp because it uses all your mana. Standard follows the 2>4>6 curve.
I would suggest around 8 2cmc rampers, 6 4cmc, and 4 6cmc rampers. Your options:
I would also suggest putting in some more lands that can also be utility.
After a little bit of tinkering, this is my final list:
20 Forest
2 Blighted Woodland
2 Mirrorpool
Creatures (21):
4 Naga Vitalist
4 Ulvenwald Captive
4 Shefet Monitor
2 Wild Wanderer
3 Ulvenwald Hydra
3 Oran-Rief Hydra
1 Soul of the Harvest
4 Nissa's Renewal
4 Nature's Way
3 Blossoming Defense
1 Heroic Intervention
2 Rishkar's Expertise
1 Mouth/Feed
Tell me what you think!
1
4 Sacred Cat
4 Thraben Inspector
Two Drops:
4 Hidden Stockpile
4 Servo Exhibition
3 Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun
4 Master Trinketeer
2 Stasis Snare
Four Drops:
4 Aven Wind Guide
3 Anointed Procession
2 Sram's Expertise
2 Cast Out
2 Regal Caracal
Lands:
4 Evolving Wilds
4 Meandering River
8 Plains
3 Island
3 Swamp
Does this look budget enough for you? I include the Anointed Procession + Hidden Stockpile combo because it is very strong and lets you grind your opponent out.
1