I'm sick of losing because my decks aren't up to scratch. I'm not a terrible player, not the best by far, but not terrible. But my decks kill me. I'm sick of having to mulligan because I don't have enough lands, I'm sick of getting destroyed by affinity and control decks.
I've decided, because my frustration is so great, that I'll be willing to invest a bit of money into a Pauper deck.
What I need to know is; what is the absolute best Pauper deck under, say, 100 tix.
I'm sick of losing because my decks aren't up to scratch. I'm not a terrible player, not the best by far, but not terrible. But my decks kill me. I'm sick of having to mulligan because I don't have enough lands, I'm sick of getting destroyed by affinity and control decks.
I've decided, because my frustration is so great, that I'll be willing to invest a bit of money into a Pauper deck.
What I need to know is; what is the absolute best Pauper deck under, say, 100 tix.
For me, MTGO is very expensive. I quit last time because I spent over $100 in a week. But now I'm back on, after spending $10 to get the cards I needed for my deck, I don't really want to spend any more.
What's an easy way to build up a collection of decent cards without spending a fortune?
I've gotten a lot of great advice in my other thread about improving my game, but I've hit a wall.
On MTGO I win most of the time when I play in the 'Just For Fun' room, but lose every tournament. How can I improve if they're not a challenge? I can't keep spending money on tournaments.
For a layer of complexity in G/W, you need more combat tricks. Instants and creatures with Flash can pull off a lot of card advantage. For example, Qasali Ambusher will surprise the opponent out of nowhere, even though you're tapped out. You can further increase the complexity by adding Evolving Wilds/Terramorphc Expanse. Look at a situation where you go Turn 1 Loam Line, turn 2 Evolving Wilds. Don't use the land just yet, wait until the opponent is attacking, then surprise him by cracking the land. It's an obvious plan, but can catch your opponent off-guard. You can do the same land trick with Qasali Ambusher.
Furthermore, if you want to take this into a more Cat Equipment route, it would be even more complex. Two cards in particular: Leonin Shikari and Raksha Golden Cub. With the Shikari, you can play mind games with the opponent - to which creatures will you be moving the equipment to at Instant-Speed? Free equipment like Lightning Greaves suddenly provide shroud for all of your creatures. With Raksha Golden Cub, Deathrender comes to mind. When a creature holding Deathrender dies, you can put Raksha into play Equipped with Deathrender, suddenly giving all of your cats +2/+2 and Double Strike. If there's a good top heavy card, it's Deathrender - I'd say it's necessary if you're going to keep the high CMC cats.
Lastly, put in 4 Qasali Pridemage - it's just too good not to include, cat deck or not.
The deck can be made even more complex, but I won't go into that atm. I want to see if you like the suggestions I made first - hope something in there helped.
That's fantastic advice, I love the look of flash, and the Raksha/Deathrender combo. Can't wait to see what else you suggest
I'm developing also a Cat deck at the moment - but it's mono white. There's no need for green. The stategy is mostly equipments and cards that makes good synergy with them. Shroud, creature removal, enchantment / artifact removal and many life-gaining stuff. And it's very funny deck for multiplayer.
Puresteel Paladin is currently Kemba's Skyguard, Swords are currenly Arrest. So here you can see a super-cheap deck that can work. The combo here is Kemba / lot of equipments / Soul Warden = life + bodies every turn.
Yeah, I've really noticed the benefit that equips bring in this deck.
The main problem I have with this deck, and any deck really, is counterspells. I hate counterspells, they ruin all my plans. Especially a Sensei's Divining Top/Counterbalance combo. And Cancel. I can't do anything when people keep playing counters, is there a way to get past counterspells with my deck?
Boon may be $$ cheaper, but she (BBE) gives you a blocker in case you cascade poorly, so you can hopefully survive another turn to try again. You could possibly land her T3, if you T1 Search, and play an additional land T3.
Boon really helped me a couple of times by giving my creatures flying, especially when someone played Stormtid Leviathan.
Since taking advice in this thread my win percentage with this deck is up to about 70%-75% - that's in casual games on MTGO, I'd still lose every tournament I entered though I bet.
For the land problem, perhaps Search for Tomorrow? first turn play, actual mana cost means you won't cascade into it, and it gives you the land on turn three, when you can cascade for the first time.
And I dunno about your mana base. 4 colors for cascade needed? I'd go City of Brass, or something similar. Maybe just drop one of the cascade cards for something more in color. Maybe just RG, with Bloodbraid Elf as well.
Oh nice, I didn't even know about Bloodbraid Elf. I'll drop Ardent Plea and get four of them instead. Thanks.
This was an experiment for MTGO, currently I'm getting like 60% wins 40% losses with it. Definitely needs improvement.
The theory was to get three lands, play Ardent Plea or Violent Outbirst for Cascade, use that to draw Hypergenesis, use that to play all of the massive bombs I have, specifically Emrakul. The problem is until I get that out I have no defense, if the Cascade is countered then it's delayed, if I don't draw the right lands it's delayed, with no defenses I'm screwed. I added some low cost defenses to the deck, but that screwed up Cascade, because I drew them instead of Hypergenesis.
Any help would be amazing. This deck was pretty expensive.
I've been playing MTG for about six or seven years. Not consistently though, just on and off over that time. In that time I've barely improved, I only got better when I started constructing my own decks.
Now I'm playing MTGO, so I'm playing a lot more often. But I'm not improving. Can anyone give tips or link me to sites and videos that will help me improve?
This is the first deck I made on MTGO. It's really smooth to play; I'm never thinking "I need more lands", "I need more creatures", "I need lower/higher cost creatures" etc. I get everything when I need it, all the time.
But it's not challenging, it's simple just; draw, play lands, play creatures, attack. There are no combos, nothing to make me think.
Can anyone suggest ways to make the deck more powerful, but at the same time more challenging to use, so I actually get better at MTG?
I've decided, because my frustration is so great, that I'll be willing to invest a bit of money into a Pauper deck.
What I need to know is; what is the absolute best Pauper deck under, say, 100 tix.
I've decided, because my frustration is so great, that I'll be willing to invest a bit of money into a Pauper deck.
What I need to know is; what is the absolute best Pauper deck under, say, 100 tix.
What's an easy way to build up a collection of decent cards without spending a fortune?
On MTGO I win most of the time when I play in the 'Just For Fun' room, but lose every tournament. How can I improve if they're not a challenge? I can't keep spending money on tournaments.
1 Ajani Goldmane
Creatures:
3 Raksha Golden Cub
2 Jareth, Leonine Titan
1 Jedit Ojanen of Efrava
1 Skyhunter Skirmisher
3 Kemba's Skyguard
4 Qasali Ambusher
4 Leonin Skyhunter
4 Qasali Pridemage
2 Leonin Shikari
2 Savannah Lions
4 Loam Lion
2 Bonesplitter
4 Leonin Scimitar
3 Deathrender
Lands:
6 Forest
13 Plains
4 Terramorphic Expanse
That's fantastic advice, I love the look of flash, and the Raksha/Deathrender combo. Can't wait to see what else you suggest
Yeah, I've really noticed the benefit that equips bring in this deck.
Great suggestions too, thanks.
The main problem I have with this deck, and any deck really, is counterspells. I hate counterspells, they ruin all my plans. Especially a Sensei's Divining Top/Counterbalance combo. And Cancel. I can't do anything when people keep playing counters, is there a way to get past counterspells with my deck?
Boon really helped me a couple of times by giving my creatures flying, especially when someone played Stormtid Leviathan.
Since taking advice in this thread my win percentage with this deck is up to about 70%-75% - that's in casual games on MTGO, I'd still lose every tournament I entered though I bet.
But I love playing tournaments. Is there any way to play the same kind of match, without a prize, for free?
The Tournament Practice Room isn't really what I'm looking for, because they're all one on one, not an eight person thing.
Thanks a lot, I'll definitely be doing that. Anything to improve my defense in the first four-five rounds will be helpful.
Oh nice, I didn't even know about Bloodbraid Elf. I'll drop Ardent Plea and get four of them instead. Thanks.
The theory was to get three lands, play Ardent Plea or Violent Outbirst for Cascade, use that to draw Hypergenesis, use that to play all of the massive bombs I have, specifically Emrakul. The problem is until I get that out I have no defense, if the Cascade is countered then it's delayed, if I don't draw the right lands it's delayed, with no defenses I'm screwed. I added some low cost defenses to the deck, but that screwed up Cascade, because I drew them instead of Hypergenesis.
Any help would be amazing. This deck was pretty expensive.
4 Emrakul, The Aeons Torn
4 Terastodon
4 Ulamog's Crusher
4 Pathrazer of Ulamog
4 Vengeful Archon
1 Blazing Archon
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
2 Training Drone
1 Phyrexian Digester
1 Vulshok Replica
2 Training Drone
Instants, Sorcery etc:
2 Hypergenesis
4 Violent Outbirst
4 Ardent Plea
4 Terramorphic Expanse
3 Seaside Citadel
3 Jungle Shrine
5 Plains
3 Mountain
3 Island
4 Forest
Now I'm playing MTGO, so I'm playing a lot more often. But I'm not improving. Can anyone give tips or link me to sites and videos that will help me improve?
Thanks.
But it's not challenging, it's simple just; draw, play lands, play creatures, attack. There are no combos, nothing to make me think.
Can anyone suggest ways to make the deck more powerful, but at the same time more challenging to use, so I actually get better at MTG?
2 Ajani Goldmane
1 Elspeth, Knight Errant
Creatures:
1 Jedit Ojanen of Efrava
2 Arctic Nishoba
1 Kemba's Legion
3 Ajani's Pridemate
1 Skyhunter Skirmisher
4 Leonin Skyhunter
3 Kemba's Skyguard
3 Jareth, Leonine Titan
2 Kemba, Kha Regent
4 Silvercoat Lion
3 Savannah Lions
1 Loam Lion
1 Serra Angel
3 Leonin Scimitar
2 Bonesplitter
Land:
10 Forest
15 Plains