I've never actually played Tiny Leaders, but this is a concept I thought may be worth exploring.
Strategy:
*Get a bunch of cmc-0 creatures into my graveyard, by way of chumping (Ornithopter), playing for 0 (Endless One), or Dredging them away.
*Use Winding Constrictor or Hardened Scales with Varolz to Scavenge at a rate of 2 or 3 +1/+1 counters for 0.
*Give Varolz some bling and swing
Not only is this not budget, but telling someone who's new to the game to go out and spend $100 on their first casual deck is unhelpful and intimidating.
Try to get something close to this. 4-of's make your deck run more smoothly. A few rules of thumb for card count include:
*3-ofs for legendaries, planeswalkers, and cards you want to see once a game, or high cost cards that don't need to be in your starting hand.
*1-ofs for conditional cards (things you won't need to see every game).
*4-ofs for things you want in your starting hand, or things you'll want to play more than once.
*2-ofs for utility spells (artifact/enchantment hate, support cards, etc.)
If you can't find or can't afford anything, just use what you have.
I use Combustible Gearhulk as a 1-of in a casual deck with 10 other cards with a converted mana cost of 6 or higher. If they don't let me draw 3, it could kill them outright.
Torrential Gearhulk is a card that is similar to Snapcaster Mage, and at the same time, altogether different. You'll want a suite of midrange or high cost instants in your graveyard. You can use him as card advantage, or make a graveyard deck that fills your 'yard with silver bullets to get a free spell that's very effective in a given situation. Gifts Ungiven and some modal spells like Commands and Charms might be worth looking into.
Insofar as using them together, maybe 2 or 3 of each as finishers in a U/R/x instant-heavy control or counterburn deck?
This is an old favorite that I recently updated. Before Kaladesh, I haven't followed new cards since Theros. Any suggestions on card choices, improvements, edits, etc. are welcome.
Choices:
*Garg is the raison d'etre of this deck. Everything is fuel for the Garg.
*War Marshal is a solid defensive critter that feeds Garg really well.
*Epochrasite is a chump blocker/Garg feeder that comes back with a vengeance.
*Tuktuk can make a surprise 5/5 blocker (with Garg) that usually attacks on Turn 4.
*Ember Swallower can help lock the game out when I'm ahead (or at least have a Gargadon in the mail).
*Sad Robot is value. Pulls lands out of my deck to improve Combustible Gearhulk's burn potential.
*Siege-Gang is tech. He makes tokens (read: Garg food) and can be solid removal. Plays nicely with War Marshal and Tuktuk.
*Conquering Manticore is a finisher that gets better when I have a Gargadon suspended to sac the creature that it steals.
*Combustible Gearhulk is a neat card. There are 10 cards in the deck with a cmc of 6 or more, so if the opponent doesn't let me draw three, it could be lethal. Nice card advantage with finisher potential.
*Lightning Bolt is tech.
*Wildfire is a good sweeper that encourages me to sac all my lands to Garg. It's pretty devastating in multiplayer too.
*Warp World is a fun 1-of for multiplayer shenanigans.
*Strip Mine is mean, but it can deal with certain key nonbasics like Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth or pesky manlands.
*Hellion Crucible is a tidy mana dump. When played on Turn 1, it can make a hasty 4/4 on Turn 4.
*Mountain is the basic land for euphoric gentlemen of discerning tastes.
I'm looking to make a casual list that utilizes Kaladesh's mechanic. Aethersquall Ancient looks like a potent finisher.
There are several creatures that generate energy when they ETB, so I'm considering cards like Aether Theorist and Peel from Reality for tempo/energy ramp.
I haven't decided on colors for this deck yet.
G: Some mana ramp/acceleration might be nice, as Ancient costs 5UU. Mana rocks or green ramp spells.
B: Black lets me play Demon of Dark Schemes (read: Demon of Dank Memes), which seems like a good soft sweep, threat, and energy generator. the 3BBB is slightly prohibitive in a 2- or 3-color deck. Aether Hub can help with that.
Other ideas:
1x Soul Conduit: Funny and bad but also useful.
I'm a fan of Marchesa and wanted a multiplayer deck that features her. What I came up with is a midrange creature-oriented deck.
*Painlands help me stay behind my opponents in life so I can consistently get Dethrone triggers.
*Unleash critters want to attack anyway and can be recurred with Marchesa out.
*Hellhole Flailer can go balls to the wall and maybe get a kill, or if I want to hound someone, I can *situationally* use him to pick who is on the throne and single out one opponent.
*Cerberus and Chasm Skulker help me recover from a board wipe.
*Syyg and Looter help feed the Skulker.
*Looter is powerful when it has Dethrone.
*Scourge of the Throne, Garza Zol, and Thraximundar are threats/win-cons that synergize with Marchesa.
*Grixis Charm's Trumpet Blast synergizes with Skulker tokens. It can also bounce a blocker or pesky global enchantment/artifact, or kill a critter.
*Virulent Swipe makes my opponent think twice about blocking. It's really good with Splatter Thug. Rebound is built-in card advantage.
Criticism is welcome. I want to buy singles and build this, so getting some feedback before I spend money would be appreciated.
Been a while since I've made a new deck. There's a cute interaction between Sire of Stagnation and Realm Razer that lets you mill them for a bunch while drawing a ton of cards.
*Axebane Guardian + Walls: Lets me hardcast Realm Razer and Sire of Stagnation.
*Wall of Mulch + Wall of Omens: Lets me dig for combo pieces.
*Worldly Tutor: Grabs combo pieces.
*Doorkeeper + Hedron Crab: Mill.
*Ravenous Baloth: sac outlet for Realm Razer. Efficient 4-drop that can buy me time with life gain.
*Reclaim: Lets me recur important things, like a piece that got killed, or go for a second Razer.
Pauper is strictly commons. If you want to play commons and uncommons or no rares, try Peasant, which is 5 uncommons allowed in a deck.
Edit: Sometimes things get reprinted at a different rarity for different reasons. If anything was ever printed as common, it's considered common for the purposes of the Pauper format. An example would be Oblivion Ring, which has been printed as both a common and an uncommon, meaning it's legal in Pauper.
Munchkin. Munchkin is so goddamn fun and easy. There are like 20 expansions that let you change it up from classic fantasy to sci-fi to gothic horror to pirates to ninjas to dinosaurs. it's a card game where you dungeon crawl in the form of deck drawing, and has teamwork and betrayal elements.
Objective: FNM-tier homebrew. Heavy focus on discard and resilient threats, some for the control matchup, some for the aggro matchup.
My card choices:
*Dreadbore, Hero's Downfall and Thoughtseize deal with early game. There are a lor of strong Planeswalkers in this format, and 6 Mainboard answers to 'walkers seems comfortable. (Note: Doom Blade and Devour Flesh might replace Dreadbore.)
*Hythonia is a neat board wipe/beatstick rolled into one, her Monstrosity is easily attainable with Crypt Ghast.
*Underworld Cerberus is an evasive beater (for control) that has synergy with Desecration Demon (for aggro), another evasive beater.
*Slaughter Games neuters combos and can keep them from playing the one thing they need to stay in the game. Rakdos's Return rounds out the discard package, and has synergy with Crypt Ghast.
*Crypt Ghast's Extort helps deal with life loss from Read the Bones, Underworld Connections and untapped Blood Crypts. Can help you grind out a win in longer games or even the score against aggro. Solid ramp to power up Rakdos's Return and speed out a Monstrous Hythonia.
*Sire of Insanity is anti-control tech. Fat body to boot.
*Lifebane Zombie hits lots of nice things we don't want to see, like Fleecemane Lion, Voice of Resurgence, Loxodon Smiter, etc. However, it doesn't deal with Advent of the Wurm, which is pretty much the only bad thing I can say about it.
*Ratchet Bomb deals with tokens/weenie swarms pretty nicely.
*1-mana removal is always good, and Dark Betrayal goes in against other black decks.
*I can't decide between Read the Bones or Underworld Connections... Connections is better in longer games.
Some concerns: Surviving early game (aka Aggro matchup), Card Advantage, too much discard (?)
This Standard environment is pretty new, and I'm curious to see if this deck has a shot at being good. I haven't assembled the deck yet, nor have I tested it. I know G/W and RDW are going to be popular aggro decks, and UWx control will be popular, so I'd like to test against these and take it from there.
Any advice is appreciated.
P.S.- if anyone wants to test Standard on cockatrice, drop me a pm.
I'd replace Young Pyromancer with Ash Zealot. Similarly priced according to tcgplayer and brings the beats much faster. Alternatively, You could cut some things to make room for Ogre Battledriver, which has synergy with Young Pyromancer. To go full circle with the token subtheme, add Akroan Crusader.
In my experience, 8 is a good number of 1-drop creatures to have in RDW. It was my main deck for FNM this past season. Also, 16 seems like a lot of burn. You can do without Flames of the Firebrand mainboard unless you see a lot of Weenie/token/rdw decks in your meta.
Legion Loyalist is a potent one-drop that scales well as the game progresses.
I'd cut Sakashima's Student down to 2. Clone effects are nice, but you'll have a hard time beating people when your threats are only as good as theirs.
Hulk seems out of place here. If you took him out your deck would curve out at 4. He seems like mVapor Snag is strictly better than Unsummon.
I'd cut Sakashima's Student down to 2. Clone effects are nice, but you'll have a hard time beating people when your threats are only as good as theirs.
Hulk seems out of place here. If you took him out your deck would curve out at 4. He seems like more of a ramp target/combo enabler.
I've never actually played Tiny Leaders, but this is a concept I thought may be worth exploring.
Strategy:
*Get a bunch of cmc-0 creatures into my graveyard, by way of chumping (Ornithopter), playing for 0 (Endless One), or Dredging them away.
*Use Winding Constrictor or Hardened Scales with Varolz to Scavenge at a rate of 2 or 3 +1/+1 counters for 0.
*Give Varolz some bling and swing
Card Choices: Mostly budget. I can't afford a Liliana of the Veil or Sylvan Library.
Not only is this not budget, but telling someone who's new to the game to go out and spend $100 on their first casual deck is unhelpful and intimidating.
Consider this:
4x Orzhov Guildgate
7x Plains
9x Swamp
4x Tithe Drinker
4x Vampire Nighthawk
4x Voracious Hatchling
4x Divinity of Pride
4x Pillory of the Sleepless
2x Oblivion Ring
4x Terror
2x Read the Bones
Try to get something close to this. 4-of's make your deck run more smoothly. A few rules of thumb for card count include:
*3-ofs for legendaries, planeswalkers, and cards you want to see once a game, or high cost cards that don't need to be in your starting hand.
*1-ofs for conditional cards (things you won't need to see every game).
*4-ofs for things you want in your starting hand, or things you'll want to play more than once.
*2-ofs for utility spells (artifact/enchantment hate, support cards, etc.)
If you can't find or can't afford anything, just use what you have.
Torrential Gearhulk is a card that is similar to Snapcaster Mage, and at the same time, altogether different. You'll want a suite of midrange or high cost instants in your graveyard. You can use him as card advantage, or make a graveyard deck that fills your 'yard with silver bullets to get a free spell that's very effective in a given situation. Gifts Ungiven and some modal spells like Commands and Charms might be worth looking into.
Insofar as using them together, maybe 2 or 3 of each as finishers in a U/R/x instant-heavy control or counterburn deck?
4x Greater Gargadon
4x Mogg War Marshal
4x Epochrasite
3x Tuktuk the Explorer
2x Ember Swallower
4x Solemn Simulacrum
4x Siege-Gang Commander
2x Conquering Manticore
1x Combustible Gearhulk
4x Lightning Bolt
3x Wildfire
1x Warp World
Lands: 24
1x Strip Mine
1x Hellion Crucible
22x Mountain
This is an old favorite that I recently updated. Before Kaladesh, I haven't followed new cards since Theros. Any suggestions on card choices, improvements, edits, etc. are welcome.
Choices:
*Garg is the raison d'etre of this deck. Everything is fuel for the Garg.
*War Marshal is a solid defensive critter that feeds Garg really well.
*Epochrasite is a chump blocker/Garg feeder that comes back with a vengeance.
*Tuktuk can make a surprise 5/5 blocker (with Garg) that usually attacks on Turn 4.
*Ember Swallower can help lock the game out when I'm ahead (or at least have a Gargadon in the mail).
*Sad Robot is value. Pulls lands out of my deck to improve Combustible Gearhulk's burn potential.
*Siege-Gang is tech. He makes tokens (read: Garg food) and can be solid removal. Plays nicely with War Marshal and Tuktuk.
*Conquering Manticore is a finisher that gets better when I have a Gargadon suspended to sac the creature that it steals.
*Combustible Gearhulk is a neat card. There are 10 cards in the deck with a cmc of 6 or more, so if the opponent doesn't let me draw three, it could be lethal. Nice card advantage with finisher potential.
*Lightning Bolt is tech.
*Wildfire is a good sweeper that encourages me to sac all my lands to Garg. It's pretty devastating in multiplayer too.
*Warp World is a fun 1-of for multiplayer shenanigans.
*Strip Mine is mean, but it can deal with certain key nonbasics like Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth or pesky manlands.
*Hellion Crucible is a tidy mana dump. When played on Turn 1, it can make a hasty 4/4 on Turn 4.
*Mountain is the basic land for euphoric gentlemen of discerning tastes.
What I have so far. Still feels like a pile.
Also considering Conflagrate, as it gives me something to do late game with a full hand after Aethersquall Ancient bounces everything else.
There are several creatures that generate energy when they ETB, so I'm considering cards like Aether Theorist and Peel from Reality for tempo/energy ramp.
I haven't decided on colors for this deck yet.
G: Some mana ramp/acceleration might be nice, as Ancient costs 5UU. Mana rocks or green ramp spells.
R: Red gives me a way to give my creatures haste (Hammer of Purphoros) as well as access to more nifty ETB critters (Flametongue Kavu). Harnessed Lightning is pretty good.
B: Black lets me play Demon of Dark Schemes (read: Demon of Dank Memes), which seems like a good soft sweep, threat, and energy generator. the 3BBB is slightly prohibitive in a 2- or 3-color deck. Aether Hub can help with that.
W: Aetherstorm Roc and Consul's Shieldguard seem good. I also get access to okay removal (Oblivion Ring) and ETB critters (Reflector Mage).
Has anyone experienced fun or success at their kitchen table with this new mechanic?
4x Looter il-Kor
3x Sygg, River Cutthroat
3x Chasm Skulker
4x Splatter Thug
3x Hellhole Flailer
4x Bloodfray Giant
3x Marchesa, the Black Rose
3x Underworld Cerberus
2x Scourge of the Throne
2x Garza Zol, Plague Queen
2x Thraximundar
2x Virulent Swipe
2x Grixis Charm
Lands: 23
3x Island
3x Swamp
5x Mountain
4x Underground River
4x Shivan Reef
4x Crumbling Necropolis
Other ideas:
1x Soul Conduit: Funny and bad but also useful.
I'm a fan of Marchesa and wanted a multiplayer deck that features her. What I came up with is a midrange creature-oriented deck.
*Painlands help me stay behind my opponents in life so I can consistently get Dethrone triggers.
*Unleash critters want to attack anyway and can be recurred with Marchesa out.
*Hellhole Flailer can go balls to the wall and maybe get a kill, or if I want to hound someone, I can *situationally* use him to pick who is on the throne and single out one opponent.
*Cerberus and Chasm Skulker help me recover from a board wipe.
*Syyg and Looter help feed the Skulker.
*Looter is powerful when it has Dethrone.
*Scourge of the Throne, Garza Zol, and Thraximundar are threats/win-cons that synergize with Marchesa.
*Grixis Charm's Trumpet Blast synergizes with Skulker tokens. It can also bounce a blocker or pesky global enchantment/artifact, or kill a critter.
*Virulent Swipe makes my opponent think twice about blocking. It's really good with Splatter Thug. Rebound is built-in card advantage.
Criticism is welcome. I want to buy singles and build this, so getting some feedback before I spend money would be appreciated.
Been a while since I've made a new deck. There's a cute interaction between Sire of Stagnation and Realm Razer that lets you mill them for a bunch while drawing a ton of cards.
3x Realm Razer
3x Sire of Stagnation
4x Ravenous Baloth
4x Axebane Guardian
4x Wall of Mulch
4x Wall of Blossoms
4x Sylvan Caryatid
4x Doorkeeper
4x Hedron Crab
2x Reclaim
2x Worldly Tutor
Lands (22)
4x Hinterland Harbor
8x Island
10x Forest
Stuff:
*Axebane Guardian + Walls: Lets me hardcast Realm Razer and Sire of Stagnation.
*Wall of Mulch + Wall of Omens: Lets me dig for combo pieces.
*Worldly Tutor: Grabs combo pieces.
*Doorkeeper + Hedron Crab: Mill.
*Ravenous Baloth: sac outlet for Realm Razer. Efficient 4-drop that can buy me time with life gain.
*Reclaim: Lets me recur important things, like a piece that got killed, or go for a second Razer.
Any advice is appreciated.
I don't know if you really need Elixir of Immortality here.
I agree that the Petals should be 2 more lands.
Edit: Sometimes things get reprinted at a different rarity for different reasons. If anything was ever printed as common, it's considered common for the purposes of the Pauper format. An example would be Oblivion Ring, which has been printed as both a common and an uncommon, meaning it's legal in Pauper.
4x Thoughtseize
4x Dreadbore
3x Rakdos's Return
2x Hero's Downfall
4x Read the Bones
2x Slaughter Games
4x Crypt Ghast
4x Desecration Demon
4x Underworld Cerberus
2x Hythonia the Cruel
2x Sire of Insanity
4x Blood Crypt
4x Rakdos Guildgate
17x Swamp
4x Devour Flesh
4x Underworld Connections
4x Lifebane Zombie
3x Ratchet Bomb
Objective: FNM-tier homebrew. Heavy focus on discard and resilient threats, some for the control matchup, some for the aggro matchup.
My card choices:
*Dreadbore, Hero's Downfall and Thoughtseize deal with early game. There are a lor of strong Planeswalkers in this format, and 6 Mainboard answers to 'walkers seems comfortable. (Note: Doom Blade and Devour Flesh might replace Dreadbore.)
*Hythonia is a neat board wipe/beatstick rolled into one, her Monstrosity is easily attainable with Crypt Ghast.
*Underworld Cerberus is an evasive beater (for control) that has synergy with Desecration Demon (for aggro), another evasive beater.
*Slaughter Games neuters combos and can keep them from playing the one thing they need to stay in the game. Rakdos's Return rounds out the discard package, and has synergy with Crypt Ghast.
*Crypt Ghast's Extort helps deal with life loss from Read the Bones, Underworld Connections and untapped Blood Crypts. Can help you grind out a win in longer games or even the score against aggro. Solid ramp to power up Rakdos's Return and speed out a Monstrous Hythonia.
*Sire of Insanity is anti-control tech. Fat body to boot.
*Lifebane Zombie hits lots of nice things we don't want to see, like Fleecemane Lion, Voice of Resurgence, Loxodon Smiter, etc. However, it doesn't deal with Advent of the Wurm, which is pretty much the only bad thing I can say about it.
*Ratchet Bomb deals with tokens/weenie swarms pretty nicely.
*1-mana removal is always good, and Dark Betrayal goes in against other black decks.
*I can't decide between Read the Bones or Underworld Connections... Connections is better in longer games.
Some concerns: Surviving early game (aka Aggro matchup), Card Advantage, too much discard (?)
Other ideas: Rakdos Keyrune
This Standard environment is pretty new, and I'm curious to see if this deck has a shot at being good. I haven't assembled the deck yet, nor have I tested it. I know G/W and RDW are going to be popular aggro decks, and UWx control will be popular, so I'd like to test against these and take it from there.
Any advice is appreciated.
P.S.- if anyone wants to test Standard on cockatrice, drop me a pm.
In my experience, 8 is a good number of 1-drop creatures to have in RDW. It was my main deck for FNM this past season. Also, 16 seems like a lot of burn. You can do without Flames of the Firebrand mainboard unless you see a lot of Weenie/token/rdw decks in your meta.
Legion Loyalist is a potent one-drop that scales well as the game progresses.
Madcap Skills helps your creatures connect.
Coordinated Assault can turn routine chumps and trades into a massacre.
You can go down to 20-22 lands.
Vapor Snag is strictly better than Unsummon.
I'd cut Sakashima's Student down to 2. Clone effects are nice, but you'll have a hard time beating people when your threats are only as good as theirs.
Hulk seems out of place here. If you took him out your deck would curve out at 4. He seems like mVapor Snag is strictly better than Unsummon.
I'd cut Sakashima's Student down to 2. Clone effects are nice, but you'll have a hard time beating people when your threats are only as good as theirs.
Hulk seems out of place here. If you took him out your deck would curve out at 4. He seems like more of a ramp target/combo enabler.
Hope this was helpful.