In the next tournament I will go with RUG Scapeshift decklist with 4 Growth Spiral and cryptic command, I don't know the day of the tournament:-(
What does the rest of your list look like? Are you gonna be running more control style with remands and such or more land grab with explore and farseek?
The future is RUG Scapeshift without bring to light,ruturn the vintage RUG Scapeshift with Growth Spiral,I think is the card star in the new Scapeshift deck, with Snapcaster mage is great!!!
In the next tournament I will play this deck.
I still prefer the tool box we get out of Bring to Light. It adds some variety and resilience in play that you don't get with straight RUG Shapeshift. I typically use Snapcaster as my flex spot for sideboards because it feels very situational to me and more like a recycle for when we cant land shapeshift due to a counter spell.
The Growth Spiral isn't a guaranteed extra land every time you play it, but the draw is nice and the instant speed is nice when paired with the Snapcaster recycling, but you will still get diminishing return as the game goes on because once we reach 4 mana I think I would personally rather cast a Cryptic Command using that 4 mana in most instances to slow my opponent down and gain board advantage.
Tron will probably have more fun with it but, I am interested to see how Hydroid Krasis performs in Scapeshift. It seems to check several boxes that I look for when looking for new cards to try in this deck. The draw cards seems to bring back a lot of what the original variant of scapeshift wanted with the addition of add health and the possibility of a flying trample creature if its not countered (and if it is countered, then they just used a counter spell anyways and you still got stuff from it). Thoughts?
Question for those of you running this deck with Prismatic Omen. Why have I seen no Kessig Wolf Run in this deck as backup/alternate to help you win? It would still trigger Valakut if Omen is in play, can be searched with Primeval Titan, and it can make Tribe Elder a better threat in certain cases as well.
Any thoughts on running Koth of the Hammer? Untap a mountain its a 4/4 creature you can swing with or tap for mana, and his -5 isn't too hard to reach for some extra damage. He was pretty good in the old Titan Valakut combo back when the deck was playable in standard.
Mistys are dominant in the deck because we don't necessarily want all of our mountains out before we play scapeshift, mostly having access to green and blue mana early game for stuff like search for tomorrow or the 3 blue it takes for cryptic command. Is it necessary probably not and you could sub it for something like scalding tarn but it does set up better because it gives us the mana we need earlier.
Finally rebuilt my scapeshift deck after it was stolen last christmas and I figured I would post my thoughts on where we should go with scapeshift. I know some people have been considering playing cinder glade in favor of basic mountains and forests and the counter argument to that being our land search spells are for basics and the potential problem with blood moon, but if we switched to the new duals then we could take those spells out for more cantrips and such. Spesifically I'm thinking Sakura-Tribe Elder could be out for Augar of Bolas or another creature more Snapcaster Mage for example and any spells you are using to grab basics could be switched with explore for draw and extra landfall. To stop the blood moon problem maybe we go the route of old scapeshift with prismatic omen, but put it in the sideboard as a just incase. The third problem I could forsee with switching basics for the new duals is we have a higher chance of them entering tapped, but that may be a risk we would have to be willing to take. Thoughts and opinions?
I am writing a community driven story called Aetherian Wars at http://aetherianwar.webs.com. Four sides, four stories, and one end. You as the community decide Where we go next in the world.
I have been waiting for someone to post more on Master of Cruelties, but haven't seen much. This card has potential, it just needs some help so I have decided to post a deck list that I have been toying with for a few weeks.
To start I, chose Jund for a Master of Cruelties deck mainly because I like playing green, but it also provides ramp and allows for effective use of Kessig Wolf Run in creatures like Master of Cruelties, Vampire Nighthawk, and Huntmaster of the Fells. The base for this deck was taken from a midrange Jund deck and modified to fit Master of Cruelties better (i think).
I am looking for advice on this deck because I have been out of standard since Innistrad came around and Zendikar rolled out, so I don't know what the meta looks like as far as what is good in decks right now. So, now for my deck list.
Creatures:
Arbor elf and Zhur-Taa:
I figured they would be good for ramp. I would rather have Zhur-Taa to ping down players when I cast spells like Rakdos's Return (oh and he can ping for that last damage after Master of Cruelties).
Deathrite Shaman:
Cheap card to play, looks like lots of fun and can exile graveyard cards for extra damage or gain me life.
Huntmaster of the Fells:
Good source of damage, works well with Wolf Run what more do I need to say?
Vampire Night Hawk:
Flying, Deathtouch and Lifelink works great with Trample and power boost from Wolf Run.
Master of Cruelties:
The main reason I brought this up. Master has a fun ability with some funky conditions, but we can work around them and find a way to get him through to deal damage.
Planeswalkers:
Garruk, Primal Hunter:
Draws me cards, and puts out creatures always fun.
Domri Rade:
Domri is the reason I added more creatures and took out some spells form the Midrange Jund, he gives me the chance to draw an extra card each turn meaning I can sudo search through my deck, and he can use fight which i plan to take advantage of.
Spells:
Most are the same as Midrange Jund so I will only go through my modifications
Flesh//Blood:
Figured Blood was cheap ability to get rid of creatures I don't like, and because Nighthawk and Cruelties both have deathtouch this card wouldn't be a wasted spot at 2 mana while carrying Flesh along with it means my dead creatures don't go to waste.
Lands
Same As spells, only 2 I am discussing here
Kessig Wolf Run:
Pumps creatures and doesn't take up a spell slot. Now a lot of you may say, oh Master of Cruelties ability doesn't trigger if he is blocked so what does trample do for him? Well trample if he is blocked lets me deal any remaining damage to the player, and because he has first strike with deathtouch he only needs to assign 1 (lethal) damage to each creature blocking him placing the opponent in an awkward position of blocking and loosing their creature or not blocking and loosing most of their life.
Rogue's Passage:
Many may not like this idea, but still lets give it a chance before saying no. Like Wolf Run it is a land meaning more room for spells, and best of all it provides Master of Cruelties a great way to use his ability.
The way his ability is worded he interacts with trample very oddly. Like he can't actually kill you by himself because he always sets your life to 1 and does no combat damage, but if he's blocked and gets trample and a pump like from wolf run he won't reduce the opponent to 1 he'll just do the normal amount of damage relevant to his power.
Ya, but with deathtouch, first strike, and wolf run he can kill anything that blocks him as long as you pump him enough
I really like Primeval Titan mostly because I have 4 and I was running Valakut so I wanted to keep him.
I do agree with inkmoth, but I don't have any yet so I will be trading for them on Friday. The Sphinx, Dismember, and Thrun I also agree with, but again I need to acquire them to test them.
I also seemed to be mana flooded every time I added more land. Don't know completely why that is, but somehow I am able to pull off this few lands.
What does the rest of your list look like? Are you gonna be running more control style with remands and such or more land grab with explore and farseek?
I still prefer the tool box we get out of Bring to Light. It adds some variety and resilience in play that you don't get with straight RUG Shapeshift. I typically use Snapcaster as my flex spot for sideboards because it feels very situational to me and more like a recycle for when we cant land shapeshift due to a counter spell.
The Growth Spiral isn't a guaranteed extra land every time you play it, but the draw is nice and the instant speed is nice when paired with the Snapcaster recycling, but you will still get diminishing return as the game goes on because once we reach 4 mana I think I would personally rather cast a Cryptic Command using that 4 mana in most instances to slow my opponent down and gain board advantage.
While I'm not super interested in the straight RG version because it isn't very interactive I wanted some opinion on why they might suggest taking out scapeshift in so many matchups and how that might pertain to our Bring to Light variant.
To start I, chose Jund for a Master of Cruelties deck mainly because I like playing green, but it also provides ramp and allows for effective use of Kessig Wolf Run in creatures like Master of Cruelties, Vampire Nighthawk, and Huntmaster of the Fells. The base for this deck was taken from a midrange Jund deck and modified to fit Master of Cruelties better (i think).
I am looking for advice on this deck because I have been out of standard since Innistrad came around and Zendikar rolled out, so I don't know what the meta looks like as far as what is good in decks right now. So, now for my deck list.
2 Deathrite Shaman
4 Huntmaster of the Fells
3 Master of Cruelties
3 Vampire Nighthawk
3 Zhur-Taa Druid
2 Domri Rade
2 Garruk, Primal Hunter
4 Farseek
2 Flesh // Blood
2 Mizzium Mortars
2 Putrefy
2 Rakdos's Return
4 Blood Crypt
2 Dragonskull Summit
2 Forest
2 Kessig Wolf Run
4 Overgrown Tomb
2 Rogue's Passage
2 Rootbound Crag
4 Stomping Ground
3 Woodland Cemetery
Creatures:
Arbor elf and Zhur-Taa:
I figured they would be good for ramp. I would rather have Zhur-Taa to ping down players when I cast spells like Rakdos's Return (oh and he can ping for that last damage after Master of Cruelties).
Deathrite Shaman:
Cheap card to play, looks like lots of fun and can exile graveyard cards for extra damage or gain me life.
Huntmaster of the Fells:
Good source of damage, works well with Wolf Run what more do I need to say?
Vampire Night Hawk:
Flying, Deathtouch and Lifelink works great with Trample and power boost from Wolf Run.
Master of Cruelties:
The main reason I brought this up. Master has a fun ability with some funky conditions, but we can work around them and find a way to get him through to deal damage.
Planeswalkers:
Garruk, Primal Hunter:
Draws me cards, and puts out creatures always fun.
Domri Rade:
Domri is the reason I added more creatures and took out some spells form the Midrange Jund, he gives me the chance to draw an extra card each turn meaning I can sudo search through my deck, and he can use fight which i plan to take advantage of.
Spells:
Most are the same as Midrange Jund so I will only go through my modifications
Flesh//Blood:
Figured Blood was cheap ability to get rid of creatures I don't like, and because Nighthawk and Cruelties both have deathtouch this card wouldn't be a wasted spot at 2 mana while carrying Flesh along with it means my dead creatures don't go to waste.
Lands
Same As spells, only 2 I am discussing here
Kessig Wolf Run:
Pumps creatures and doesn't take up a spell slot. Now a lot of you may say, oh Master of Cruelties ability doesn't trigger if he is blocked so what does trample do for him? Well trample if he is blocked lets me deal any remaining damage to the player, and because he has first strike with deathtouch he only needs to assign 1 (lethal) damage to each creature blocking him placing the opponent in an awkward position of blocking and loosing their creature or not blocking and loosing most of their life.
Rogue's Passage:
Many may not like this idea, but still lets give it a chance before saying no. Like Wolf Run it is a land meaning more room for spells, and best of all it provides Master of Cruelties a great way to use his ability.
Ya, but with deathtouch, first strike, and wolf run he can kill anything that blocks him as long as you pump him enough
I really like Primeval Titan mostly because I have 4 and I was running Valakut so I wanted to keep him.
I do agree with inkmoth, but I don't have any yet so I will be trading for them on Friday. The Sphinx, Dismember, and Thrun I also agree with, but again I need to acquire them to test them.
I also seemed to be mana flooded every time I added more land. Don't know completely why that is, but somehow I am able to pull off this few lands.