Hey guys. I've been in the process of building a zombie tribal deck for a while now, but am now just sitting down to figure out what exactly is going in it. First off, i'm still currently on the fence between Mikaeus, the Unhallowed or Grimgrin, Corpse-Born as my general. Both seem like great options, but I think I'm leaning more towards Mikaeus because of his possible combo/inevitability potential.
At any rate, I'm looking to see if any of you have thought about thematic lands in any of your EDH decks (either the art screams flavor, or the set, or they just plain look cool for your theme). Up until this point, I've just tried to scrounge out enough of the same land art, or do the highlander approach and do one of each basic land art.
So I'm curious: are thematic lands important to you?
Also if any of you have a recommendation for a sick zombie-themed land, I'd love to see it!
Erase will take care of Suspension Field, but some decks still aren't playing it in their boards.
Also I've never played with the High Sentinels outside of limited. It's definitely powerful if you can keep it around, but I feel like it's effect is too slow. How do you think it affected your games?
The 2 Raiders' Spoils should probably be Sorin, Solemn Visitor or maybe even Utter End, but the card drawing seems like it should keep the pressure on. If you don't have any creatures or warriors on the field, you're probably losing anyways and Sorin won't help much either.
Herald of Anafenza at 3 seems like a good number, although it might go down to 2. With the aggressive nature of this deck, you won't be using it's outlast ability unless you're behind or drawing duds, at least in the early game. Late game it pumps out more guys while making himself stronger or fuels Butcher of the Horde.
Seeker of the Way is incredible, especially with the added boost of Chief of the Edge. 6-8 point life swings seem INSANE in the early game putting you ridiculously far ahead. If you are able to proc the Raiders' Spoils, all that life gain can go into card draw.
As far as lands go, I don't think this deck wants more than 8 tap lands (it doesn't want any at all, but those are the breaks). Luckily enough this deck isn't too colored mana intensive, so I think it should be safe to run a higher amount of basics.
I've been playing commander on MTGO a lot lately whenever I have free time and been having a blast. Now I'm looking to change things up a bit (because I'm fickle and need constant variety), so I decided to build towards a budget when I saw a 10 ticket commander challenge.
The only rules are that the total deck cost (minus commander and basic lands) can't exceed 10 tickets. Seems simple enough because most cards on MTGO are INSANELY cheaper than their paper counterparts (i.e. Gamble, costs ~$20 for the paper version and only $.05 on MTGO).
So that brings us to what kind of deck do I want to build? I really enjoyed the mild chaos in my Tor Wauki deck, so I kinda wanted to work on a similar theme, but a bit more competitive with extra shenanigans and politics! I started looking at Riku of Two Reflections because it gave me 3 amazing and diverse colors in EDH, and he can fork and copy your spells and creatures.
I updated the OP with the new deck and my updated version of the Ping Death deck. Let me know what you think! I'll be doing more testing on the Everyone Attacks deck when I get some free time.
All of these recommendations are amazing and hilarious. I was moving towards a more "ping/deathtouch" kind of deck, but I think (with those new suggestions) that I will move back toward the Everyone Attacks idea I had from the start. Royal Assassin paired with any of the everyone attacks enchantments, barring vigilance, will ALWAYS be viable and obnoxious. Endless Whispers seems like a sick chaos effect that could get political.
Blood Reckoning/Hissing Miasma/etc are perfect for "pseudo protection", Caltrops seems practically broken with Death Pits of Rath out on the board (although I wouldn't have creatures as well if I had an everyone attacks effect up.) Is there an effect like Caltrops that's only for opponents creatures?
I'm going to rework the list, adding those suggestions and probably a few more tutors for consistency. It looks like a lot of annoying 2-3 card combos, so a better chance to get them out at the same time seems preffered.
I'd like to add more card draw, and only Mind's Eye/Staff of Nin is coming to mind, while the latter pings. Any other good card draw in BR other than Phyrexian Arena?
@TeleranHorobi, Death's Wail is perfect! I tried looking for more similar effects to that and Death Pits of Rath, but couldn't find any, so I added a bit more "double damage" enchantments. I did some more research and found a lot of really cool options, but it's making me move away from the "all creatures attack each turn" option I was originally going for. It just doesn't seem to make as much sense with everything else except for the commander. The first and double strike options would make sense if I was going all in on that idea, because it would make combat a bit more favorable, but I think I might move away from that idea and just stick with the double damage/pinging/deathtouch. What do you think?
Let me know what you think of the changes, and if there's anything else I need to add. I still need 15 more cards to start trying this bad boy out!
Hey everyone! I'm trying to get back into MTG after almost a year hiatus. Because of my new job I can't really go out to my LGS and play any kind of constructed, so I'm thinking of putting the majority of my time into MTGO playing the one format I've had the most fun, but the least experience in: Commander.
So, I've been looking into making a (relatively) cheap, fun, annoying deck on MTGO with a rather unused commander. Nothing hyper competitive (I don't care if I win), but I at least want it's theme to work and have fun doing it.
These are the two Tor Wauki decks I'm working on/testing currently:
I've tested out the Death Ping deck a bit on MTGO and it's a blast to play. When a machine gun effect like Goblin Sharpshooter + Basilisk Collar happen, things start looking bleak for the rest of the table but not completely bleak. Since I don't have many cards that scream I WIN, the actual "win" can take a long time, especially with a few pingers out there doing a damage a turn. It is possible to win this way, though. I managed to win a multiplayer game on the backs of Chandra, the Firebrand + Staff of Nin + Death Pits of Rath pretty much saying "NO" to everything that entered the battlefield and slowly whittling everyone down, but it did take forever (it also helped that one of the other guys was playing a Zedruu the Greathearted pillowfort deck which stalled the game up)
The things I've learned about the deck after a few matches is that the early-game is nonexistent (i.e. no pressure, trying to set up the killing floor); the mid-game is doing more of the same, just better; and the end-game, if you haven't died yet by pissing everyone off, then you MIGHT have the board locked up and a chance on winning the attrition war. Either way, it's a really fun and annoying deck, which is what I was looking for. And you REALLY don't need Tor Wauki to win at all, he's just there to strike fear with his bow.
----
As for the first deck, I'm going to pick up some of those cards on MTGO and give them a shot as soon as possible. What I like about it currently is that with all the "everyone attack" spells, I have a few cards that make it disadvantageous to attack me. Cards like Clatrops, Crawlspace, Hissing Miasma, Blood Reckoning, No Mercy, Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs and Dread.
What I'm looking for are recommendations for cards that have similar effects like Goblin Diplomats/Fumiko the Lowblood where creatures must attack every turn, and more creatures that ping like Goblin Sharpshooter/Olivia Voldaren/etc paired with deathtouch equipment/effects. I'm still new to the format, so I can be pretty dumb when it comes to cards and staples.
Thanks for reading and let me know what you think!
So, here's the thing: I've been having basically zero luck trying to compete with all the G/x ramp and mono black decks plaguing the meta. Mostly I've been trying to go overtop of these decks with UR decks with Spellheart Chimera and Prognostic Sphinx (which is the better of the two, since both decks have trouble dealing with it's hexproof.) It usually gets close but it could never close out a game, which gets frustrating.
Next thing I had to think about was how to get these creatures in the graveyard to set up huge reanimation swings. There were a few options that seemed to fit the theme (Returned Centaur and Commune with the Gods), and, while on the surface they seemed to be perfect, they seem too durdly, especially if they missed. Plus the promote practically creature-only strategies.
This brought me to figuring out how to pitch them from hand. The aforementioned Prognostic Sphinx looked great, then I saw Erebos's Emissary which also makes great use of dumping creatures into the yard with a +2/+2 bonus which helps it dodge red based removal.
Here's the list I threw together. I warn you, it is not fully tested (need to pick up a few more cards on MTGO to try it out, but I've done some testing on cockatrice and some goldfishing and it seems pretty powerful once things get rolling), and the manabase is br00tal to look at.
I need to actually test with Rescue from the Underworld to see if it's good enough, but right now it feels like it needs quite a bit of set up to work out well. Same goes with Commune with the Gods.
If anyone has any thoughts or ideas for a deck like this, I feel like it could have some pretty good potential. It has great stall tactics in all the lifegain and Hero's Downfall, but it still is pretty durdly.
I've been messing around with a list just in the tournament practice rooms (haven't had any time to test at a daily). Been having some success with this list, and it's generally pretty powerful once you get a sphinx out there. It's almost impossible for any deck to deal with that card once you get it out.
Pretty rough right now, and I want to try out some Thassa's once I can get a hold of them, but I'm having some serious frustration with Mono Black (mainly with Gray Merchant). If he resolves, unless it's just himself and you have some good board position, he nearly takes this deck out of range to kill them. Is there any way to stop him or mitigate some of the life loss/gain without countering him? With the amount of hand disruption and board disruption, the only thing that can really survive are the sphinx's.
Anyone have any insight to this matchup? I could just be playing it entirely wrong or getting really unlucky, but I feel like they always have more Gray Merchants than I do counterspells.
Blue would probably make this deck work, but at that point I'd probably just want to run UWR Control/Flash route and scrap this idea totally. Maybe just a blue splash for those things. Too bad Oblivion Ring isn't in standard, I'd immediately throw 3-4 in over Arrest.
@claudeman if I added Ogre Battledriver and Molten Birth, that would change the whole idea of a control deck (which is what I'm trying to build and get some help with), and instead make it like a midrangey token deck. I see the synergy with Battledriver and all the tokens, it's just not what I'm trying to do with this deck.
have you considered dropping some number of arrests and/or pacifisms in favor of blind obidience? I also am enjoying Purphoros with assemble the legion...
I've thought about Blind Obedience, but I haven't seen that many haste creatures lately that would make me want to run it other than slowing down Stormbreath Dragon for a turn. If I were to get rid of some amount of pacifisms and arrests, I would probably replace them with other forms of removal or some more threats.
I don't think Purphoros is actually good for this deck. While it has a good interaction with Assemble the Legion, it's more of a win-more and doesn't really do anything on his own, unlike Heliod. If you have an Assemble the Legion out for more than a turn or two, you're probably going to win anyway. Since this deck only really runs 7 creatures, with some late game token producers, Purphoros seems pretty lackluster if you don't have any way to get his ability working. Also, he will NEVER get devotion unless you have 2 Boros Reckoners out, but I guess that's not really necessary.
I definitely like the idea. I've toyed around with sphere of safety in the past and its never quite gotten there for me vs. other protection/removal options, but I agree that with Heliod pumping out the enchant tokens it will probably work a lot better than it has historically. One worry though is that enchantment removal will probably be huge especially with Destructive Revelry being a thing. Could make the sphere difficult to stick against gruul which seems like it could be the problem deck in the first place.
So far testing on cockatrice there isn't a ton of enchantment removal in sideboards right now, so that hasn't been an issue. Also, you are correct in that Gruul decks have been very difficult to beat because of Domri and Xenagos (if they run him). Turn 3, or even turn 2, Domri puts this deck so far behind it's unreal.
I've also realized after a day of getting my a** handed to me, that this deck is slow. Now, that's not exactly a bad thing. I love slow grindy games that put people in tough spots and almost win out of nowhere. Assemble the Legion in this deck does just that. I can usually stall out quite a few decks while Assemble keeps ticking up until I amass a huge army to finally overrun them.
The thing is, with the majority of the removal being sorcery and creature based, it's reacting almost 1 or even 2 turns behind the opponent. Even then this can usually stall them enough to get an Assemble out or an Elspeth and win from there, but other times you sit behind a Spear of Heliod and kill anything who attacks, a Heliod, God of the Sun who spits out tokens to block while you try to top deck into something, or you just sit stone dead to a board that you have no way to deal with. Or in game 1 against a turn 4-5 Blood Baron of Vizkopa you just straight scoop unless you have 2 Magma Jets in hand.
The main reason for this deck was getting a heavy enchantment theme to possibly turn on Heliod easier in a control deck, and also to toy around with Sphere of Safety. While they are GOOD once they get going, they are generally far too slow to react to what your opponent is doing.
I'm going to play around with this deck some more while keeping the enchantment theme, but I might end up scrapping it for another control deck to work on like WRB, BUG, or Grixis.
Hey guys. So far with Theros I've been looking into making a fun, yet kinda funny/different control deck. I have messed around with BR Master of Cruelties Burn control which was doing well, just never really felt powerful enough even when I dropped my namesake card. Now I'm trying something different: Boros Enchantment Control.
At first I was building just a normal WR control list that had some enchantments, but more instant speed removal. Once I realized that almost everything else was an enchantment or part-enchantment, I removed some of the instant speed options and went with Pacifism, Arrest, and Chained to the Rocks (which is AMAZING btw).
After adding all those enchantments, I thought it would be funny to throw in 2 Sphere of Safety just for kicks. Later did I realize that Heliod, God of the Sun PUMPS OUT ENCHANTMENT CREATURES. Pretty cool interaction if I do say so myself.
Spear of Heliod has been running wonderfully in this build. Earlier game, you can use it to remove creatures who attack you, late game you have an enchantment for Sphere's (if you manage to get one out, though it's not always necessary), and you have a pump for all of the token producers in this list: Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Assemble the Legion, and even Heliod, God of the Sun himself.
While this deck is lacking any real draw engine, 4x Magma Jet and even 4x Temple of Triumph help to smooth out your draws making you draw into exactly what you need.
Let me know what you guys think. As much fun and success I'm having with this deck, it needs a bit of work, especially with the sideboard though that will only come with a more established meta.
At any rate, I'm looking to see if any of you have thought about thematic lands in any of your EDH decks (either the art screams flavor, or the set, or they just plain look cool for your theme). Up until this point, I've just tried to scrounge out enough of the same land art, or do the highlander approach and do one of each basic land art.
So I'm curious: are thematic lands important to you?
Also if any of you have a recommendation for a sick zombie-themed land, I'd love to see it!
Also I've never played with the High Sentinels outside of limited. It's definitely powerful if you can keep it around, but I feel like it's effect is too slow. How do you think it affected your games?
4 Bloodsoaked Champion
4 Mardu Skullhunter
4 Butcher of the Horde
4 Chief of the Edge
4 Mardu Hordechief
3 Herald of Anafenza
2 Seeker of the Way
1 Grim Haruspex
2 Mardu Ascendancy
4 Mardu Charm
4 Murderous Cut
2 Raiders' Spoils
Lands
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Nomad Outpost
2 Scoured Barrens
1 Bloodfell Caves
1 Wind-Scarred Crag
4 Swamp
4 Plains
2 Mountain
Mardu Ascendancy and Butcher of the Horde are almost too perfect not to throw together. Lifelink or vigilance every turn? Sign me up!
The 2 Raiders' Spoils should probably be Sorin, Solemn Visitor or maybe even Utter End, but the card drawing seems like it should keep the pressure on. If you don't have any creatures or warriors on the field, you're probably losing anyways and Sorin won't help much either.
Herald of Anafenza at 3 seems like a good number, although it might go down to 2. With the aggressive nature of this deck, you won't be using it's outlast ability unless you're behind or drawing duds, at least in the early game. Late game it pumps out more guys while making himself stronger or fuels Butcher of the Horde.
Seeker of the Way is incredible, especially with the added boost of Chief of the Edge. 6-8 point life swings seem INSANE in the early game putting you ridiculously far ahead. If you are able to proc the Raiders' Spoils, all that life gain can go into card draw.
As far as lands go, I don't think this deck wants more than 8 tap lands (it doesn't want any at all, but those are the breaks). Luckily enough this deck isn't too colored mana intensive, so I think it should be safe to run a higher amount of basics.
The only rules are that the total deck cost (minus commander and basic lands) can't exceed 10 tickets. Seems simple enough because most cards on MTGO are INSANELY cheaper than their paper counterparts (i.e. Gamble, costs ~$20 for the paper version and only $.05 on MTGO).
So that brings us to what kind of deck do I want to build? I really enjoyed the mild chaos in my Tor Wauki deck, so I kinda wanted to work on a similar theme, but a bit more competitive with extra shenanigans and politics! I started looking at Riku of Two Reflections because it gave me 3 amazing and diverse colors in EDH, and he can fork and copy your spells and creatures.
Here's the list I came up with:
1 Riku of Two Reflections
Creatures
1 Acidic Slime
1 Archaeomancer
1 Braids, Conjurer Adept
1 Edric, Spymaster of Trest
1 Eternal Witness
1 Goblin Diplomats
1 Hunted Dragon
1 Hunted Phantasm
1 Hunted Troll
1 Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
1 Melek, Izzet Paragon
1 Meletis Charlatan
1 Noble Benefactor
1 Palinchron
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Terastodon
1 Zealous Conscripts
Spells
1 Blasphemous Act
1 Capsize
1 Chaos Warp
1 Collective Voyage
1 Comet Storm
1 Gamble
1 Guided Passage
1 Hinder
1 Insurrection
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Naturalize
1 Prosperity
1 Regrowth
1 Tempt with Reflections
1 Unexpected Results
1 Warp World
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Words of Wisdom
1 Avarice Totem
1 Crawlspace
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Gate to the Æther
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Gruul Signet
1 Helm of Awakening
1 Izzet Signet
1 Knowledge Pool
1 Mirari
1 Otherworld Atlas
1 Simic Signet
1 Sol Ring
1 Temple Bell
Enchantment
1 Confusion in the Ranks
1 Conjured Currency
1 Curse of Echoes
1 Eye of the Storm
1 Heartbeat of Spring
1 Hive Mind
1 Mana Flare
1 Possibility Storm
1 Propaganda
1 Rites of Flourishing
1 Wild Evocation
Lands
1 Alchemist's Refuge
1 Command Tower
1 Contested War Zone
1 Desolate Lighthouse
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Exotic Orchard
6 Forest
1 Gruul Guildgate
6 Island
1 Izzet Guildgate
1 Kessig Wolf Run
7 Mountain
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Rootbound Crag
1 Simic Guildgate
1 Temple of the False God
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Vivid Crag
1 Vivid Creek
1 Vivid Grove
1 Yavimaya Hollow
Here are some reasons for the card choices:
Group Hug Effects
Prosperity + any mana booster/Riku of Two Reflections or any other draw effects
Palinchron + Riku of Two Reflections
Insurrection
Possibly just normal Beatdown (very unlikely)
With this deck on Mtggoldfish.com, it comes in at $8.98 so it looks like I can add a bit more value to it.
Any recommendations?
Blood Reckoning/Hissing Miasma/etc are perfect for "pseudo protection", Caltrops seems practically broken with Death Pits of Rath out on the board (although I wouldn't have creatures as well if I had an everyone attacks effect up.) Is there an effect like Caltrops that's only for opponents creatures?
I'm going to rework the list, adding those suggestions and probably a few more tutors for consistency. It looks like a lot of annoying 2-3 card combos, so a better chance to get them out at the same time seems preffered.
I'd like to add more card draw, and only Mind's Eye/Staff of Nin is coming to mind, while the latter pings. Any other good card draw in BR other than Phyrexian Arena?
Let me know what you think of the changes, and if there's anything else I need to add. I still need 15 more cards to start trying this bad boy out!
So, I've been looking into making a (relatively) cheap, fun, annoying deck on MTGO with a rather unused commander. Nothing hyper competitive (I don't care if I win), but I at least want it's theme to work and have fun doing it.
These are the two Tor Wauki decks I'm working on/testing currently:
5 Tor Wauki
Creatures
1 Godo's Irregulars
1 Grim Lavamancer
2 Goblin Diplomats
2 Rix Maadi Guildmage
3 Blood Cultist
3 Fleshbag Marauder
3 Royal Assassin
3 Vampire Nighthawk
3 Viashino Heretic
4 Fumiko the Lowblood
4 Horobi, Death's Wail
4 Rakdos, Lord of Riots
5 Bloodgift Demon
5 Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
5 Master of Cruelties
5 Urabrask the Hidden
6 Deathbringer Thoctar
6 Dread
6 Harvester of Souls
6 Inferno Titan
7 Kaervek the Merciless
8 Avatar of Slaughter
Spells
1 Earthquake
1 Electrickery
1 Gamble
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Vandalblast
2 Dreadbore
2 Terminate
3 Chaos Warp
4 Chain Reaction
4 Diabolic Tutor
4 Wild Ricochet
5 Reforge the Soul
8 Insurrection
9 Blasphemous Act
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Solring
2 Rakdos Signet
2 Swiftfoot Boots
3 Caltrops
3 Crawlspace
3 Darksteel Ingot
3 Hammer of Purphoros
3 Mimic Vat
3 Rakdos Keyrune
4 Whip of Erebos
6 Staff of Nin
Enchantments
1 Mass Hysteria
3 Goblin Assault
3 Hissing Miasma
3 Invasion Plans
3 Repercussion
4 Blood Reckoning
4 Endless Whispers
4 Furnace of Rath
4 Grand Melee
4 No Mercy
4 War's Toll
5 Death Pits of Rath
Planeswalker
5 Liliana Vess
Lands
1 Akoum Refuge
1 Command Tower
1 Dragonskull Summit
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Forgotten Cave
13 Mountain
1 Rakdos Guildgate
1 Shivan Gorge
1 Stensia Bloodhall
1 Strip Mine
1 Sulfurous Springs
8 Swamp
1 Tainted Peak
1 Temple of the False God
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
1 Vivid Crag
1 Vivid Marsh
5 Tor Wauki
Creatures
1 Grim Lavamancer
2 Ashling the Pilgrim
2 Cuombajj Witches
2 Goblin Diplomats
2 Onyx Mage
2 Rix Maadi Guildmage
3 Blood Cultist
3 Cunning Sparkmage
3 Goblin Sharpshooter
3 Rakdos Ickspitter
3 Viashino Heretic
3 War Elemental
4 Fumiko the Lowblood
4 Horobi, Death's Wail
4 Jeska, Warrior Adept
4 Olivia Voldaren
4 Rakdos, Lord of Riots
5 Bloodgift Demon
5 Kumano, Master Yamabushi
5 Lightning Reaver
5 Master of Cruelties
6 Archetype of Finality
6 Deathbringer Thoctar
6 Inferno Titan
6 Vampiric Dragon
Spells
1 Earthquake
1 Electrickery
1 Gamble
1 Vampiric Tutor
2 Dreadbore
2 Terminate
3 Chaos Warp
3 Flames of the Firebrand
3 Sudden Spoiling
4 Wild Ricochet
5 Increasing Ambition
8 Insurrection
9 Blasphemous Act
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Sol Ring
2 Gorgon Flail
2 Rakdos Signet
2 Swiftfoot Boots
3 Darksteel Ingot
3 Heartstone
3 Mimic Vat
3 Neko-Te
3 Quietus Spike
3 Rakdos Keyrune
4 Sword of Kaldra
6 Staff of Nin
Enchantments
3 Everlasting Torment
3 Repercussion
3 Underworld Connections
3 Witch's Mist
4 Furnace of Rath
4 Grand Melee
5 Death Pits of Rath
5 Gratuitous Violence
6 Warstorm Surge
Planeswalkers
4 Chandra, the Firebrand
5 Liliana Vess
Lands
1 Akoum Refuge
1 Command Tower
1 Dragonskull Summit
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Forgotten Cave
13 Mountain
1 Rakdos Guildgate
1 Shivan Gorge
1 Stensia Bloodhall
1 Strip Mine
1 Sulfurous Springs
8 Swamp
1 Tainted Peak
1 Temple of the False God
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
1 Vivid Crag
1 Vivid Marsh
I've tested out the Death Ping deck a bit on MTGO and it's a blast to play. When a machine gun effect like Goblin Sharpshooter + Basilisk Collar happen, things start looking bleak for the rest of the table but not completely bleak. Since I don't have many cards that scream I WIN, the actual "win" can take a long time, especially with a few pingers out there doing a damage a turn. It is possible to win this way, though. I managed to win a multiplayer game on the backs of Chandra, the Firebrand + Staff of Nin + Death Pits of Rath pretty much saying "NO" to everything that entered the battlefield and slowly whittling everyone down, but it did take forever (it also helped that one of the other guys was playing a Zedruu the Greathearted pillowfort deck which stalled the game up)
The things I've learned about the deck after a few matches is that the early-game is nonexistent (i.e. no pressure, trying to set up the killing floor); the mid-game is doing more of the same, just better; and the end-game, if you haven't died yet by pissing everyone off, then you MIGHT have the board locked up and a chance on winning the attrition war. Either way, it's a really fun and annoying deck, which is what I was looking for. And you REALLY don't need Tor Wauki to win at all, he's just there to strike fear with his bow.
----
As for the first deck, I'm going to pick up some of those cards on MTGO and give them a shot as soon as possible. What I like about it currently is that with all the "everyone attack" spells, I have a few cards that make it disadvantageous to attack me. Cards like Clatrops, Crawlspace, Hissing Miasma, Blood Reckoning, No Mercy, Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs and Dread.
Other annoying combos include Death Pits of Rath paired with Grand Melee which essentially wipes the board; Death Pits of Rath + Caltrops + any "everyone attacks" spell. Urabrask the Hidden makes it easier for my dudes to attack through newly summoned creatures, and since a lot of creatures WILL be dying, Harvester of Souls will be drawing you a ton of cards.
What I'm looking for are recommendations for cards that have similar effects like Goblin Diplomats/Fumiko the Lowblood where creatures must attack every turn, and more creatures that ping like Goblin Sharpshooter/Olivia Voldaren/etc paired with deathtouch equipment/effects. I'm still new to the format, so I can be pretty dumb when it comes to cards and staples.
Thanks for reading and let me know what you think!
So I got to looking at hard to destroy creatures like Prognostic Sphinx, Reaper of the Wilds, and cards that have pretty back-breaking ETB abilities like Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Abhorrent Overlord, and Ashen Rider. Then I started thinking about how to get these creatures out faster: ramp, devotion, stalling, etc when I saw that we have good reanimation cards in Whip of Erebos and Rescue from the Underworld. While the Whip is overall a better card because it sticks around and gives your dudes lifelink, Rescue from the Underworld can make some pretty huge plays.
Next thing I had to think about was how to get these creatures in the graveyard to set up huge reanimation swings. There were a few options that seemed to fit the theme (Returned Centaur and Commune with the Gods), and, while on the surface they seemed to be perfect, they seem too durdly, especially if they missed. Plus the promote practically creature-only strategies.
This brought me to figuring out how to pitch them from hand. The aforementioned Prognostic Sphinx looked great, then I saw Erebos's Emissary which also makes great use of dumping creatures into the yard with a +2/+2 bonus which helps it dodge red based removal.
Here's the list I threw together. I warn you, it is not fully tested (need to pick up a few more cards on MTGO to try it out, but I've done some testing on cockatrice and some goldfishing and it seems pretty powerful once things get rolling), and the manabase is br00tal to look at.
4 Abhorrent Overlord
3 Ashen Rider
4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
2 Prognostic Sphinx
3 Reaper of the Wilds
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Erebos's Emissary
4 Hero's Downfall
4 Nylea's Presence
3 Whip of Erebos
Lands
6 Forest
6 Swamp
2 Temple of Abandon
3 Temple of Deceit
4 Temple of Mystery
4 Temple of Silence
I need to actually test with Rescue from the Underworld to see if it's good enough, but right now it feels like it needs quite a bit of set up to work out well. Same goes with Commune with the Gods.
If anyone has any thoughts or ideas for a deck like this, I feel like it could have some pretty good potential. It has great stall tactics in all the lifegain and Hero's Downfall, but it still is pretty durdly.
Let me know what you think!
Anyways, here's the list:
4 Ember Swallower
3 Omenspeaker
4 Prognostic Sphinx
1 Shipbreaker Kraken
4 Spellheart Chimera
Spells
2 Curse of the Swine
4 Dissolve
4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet
1 Sea God's Revenge
3 Voyage's End
1 Bident of Thassa
Lands
12 Island
9 Mountain
4 Temple of Mystery
2 Annul
1 Bident of Thassa
1 Curse of the Swine
2 Gainsay
1 Griptide
1 Omenspeaker
3 Peak Eruption
2 Portent of Betrayal
1 Wild Celebrants
1 Voyage's End
Pretty rough right now, and I want to try out some Thassa's once I can get a hold of them, but I'm having some serious frustration with Mono Black (mainly with Gray Merchant). If he resolves, unless it's just himself and you have some good board position, he nearly takes this deck out of range to kill them. Is there any way to stop him or mitigate some of the life loss/gain without countering him? With the amount of hand disruption and board disruption, the only thing that can really survive are the sphinx's.
Anyone have any insight to this matchup? I could just be playing it entirely wrong or getting really unlucky, but I feel like they always have more Gray Merchants than I do counterspells.
@claudeman if I added Ogre Battledriver and Molten Birth, that would change the whole idea of a control deck (which is what I'm trying to build and get some help with), and instead make it like a midrangey token deck. I see the synergy with Battledriver and all the tokens, it's just not what I'm trying to do with this deck.
I've thought about Blind Obedience, but I haven't seen that many haste creatures lately that would make me want to run it other than slowing down Stormbreath Dragon for a turn. If I were to get rid of some amount of pacifisms and arrests, I would probably replace them with other forms of removal or some more threats.
I don't think Purphoros is actually good for this deck. While it has a good interaction with Assemble the Legion, it's more of a win-more and doesn't really do anything on his own, unlike Heliod. If you have an Assemble the Legion out for more than a turn or two, you're probably going to win anyway. Since this deck only really runs 7 creatures, with some late game token producers, Purphoros seems pretty lackluster if you don't have any way to get his ability working. Also, he will NEVER get devotion unless you have 2 Boros Reckoners out, but I guess that's not really necessary.
So far testing on cockatrice there isn't a ton of enchantment removal in sideboards right now, so that hasn't been an issue. Also, you are correct in that Gruul decks have been very difficult to beat because of Domri and Xenagos (if they run him). Turn 3, or even turn 2, Domri puts this deck so far behind it's unreal.
I've also realized after a day of getting my a** handed to me, that this deck is slow. Now, that's not exactly a bad thing. I love slow grindy games that put people in tough spots and almost win out of nowhere. Assemble the Legion in this deck does just that. I can usually stall out quite a few decks while Assemble keeps ticking up until I amass a huge army to finally overrun them.
The thing is, with the majority of the removal being sorcery and creature based, it's reacting almost 1 or even 2 turns behind the opponent. Even then this can usually stall them enough to get an Assemble out or an Elspeth and win from there, but other times you sit behind a Spear of Heliod and kill anything who attacks, a Heliod, God of the Sun who spits out tokens to block while you try to top deck into something, or you just sit stone dead to a board that you have no way to deal with. Or in game 1 against a turn 4-5 Blood Baron of Vizkopa you just straight scoop unless you have 2 Magma Jets in hand.
The main reason for this deck was getting a heavy enchantment theme to possibly turn on Heliod easier in a control deck, and also to toy around with Sphere of Safety. While they are GOOD once they get going, they are generally far too slow to react to what your opponent is doing.
After a few days of testing and about a slightly less than 50% win ratio, I've found out that some cards are amazing all of the time (Magma Jet, Warleader's Helix, Assemble the Legion, Elspeth, Sun's Champion), some are amazing most of the time (Anger of the Gods, Chained to the Rocks, Boros Reckoner, Spear of Heliod), some are amazing some of the time (Heliod, God of the Sun, Sphere of Safety), and the rest are just okay (Pacifism, Arrest).
I'm going to play around with this deck some more while keeping the enchantment theme, but I might end up scrapping it for another control deck to work on like WRB, BUG, or Grixis.
4 Boros Reckoner
3 Heliod, God of the Sun
Planeswalkers
2 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
Spells
3 Anger of the Gods
4 Magma Jet
3 Warleader's Helix
Enchantments
2 Arrest
2 Assemble the Legion
4 Chained to the Rocks
4 Pacifism
2 Spear of Heliod
2 Sphere of Safety
7 Mountain
10 Plains
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple of Triumph
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Glare of Heresy
3 Mizzium Mortars
2 Pithing Needle
2 Stormbreath Dragon
4 Tajic, Blade of the Legion
2 Wear // Tear
At first I was building just a normal WR control list that had some enchantments, but more instant speed removal. Once I realized that almost everything else was an enchantment or part-enchantment, I removed some of the instant speed options and went with Pacifism, Arrest, and Chained to the Rocks (which is AMAZING btw).
After adding all those enchantments, I thought it would be funny to throw in 2 Sphere of Safety just for kicks. Later did I realize that Heliod, God of the Sun PUMPS OUT ENCHANTMENT CREATURES. Pretty cool interaction if I do say so myself.
Spear of Heliod has been running wonderfully in this build. Earlier game, you can use it to remove creatures who attack you, late game you have an enchantment for Sphere's (if you manage to get one out, though it's not always necessary), and you have a pump for all of the token producers in this list: Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Assemble the Legion, and even Heliod, God of the Sun himself.
While this deck is lacking any real draw engine, 4x Magma Jet and even 4x Temple of Triumph help to smooth out your draws making you draw into exactly what you need.
Let me know what you guys think. As much fun and success I'm having with this deck, it needs a bit of work, especially with the sideboard though that will only come with a more established meta.
Thanks for reading!