Terese Nielsen is my favorite Magic artist, so I decided to design a deck with entirely her cards
My first idea was control built around Force of Will and Faerie Trickery. Looking through lists of her cards, no other idea stood out.
Green seems the most viable splash, which isn't surprising since she has a lot of vibrant leafy artwork.
White was a possibility, but many of her cards are white/green, and I can't afford two splashes with minimal fixing. Also, many of her monowhite cards don't seem to have much synergy with her other cards. She did relatively little in black or red.
For extra fair I'd build it with basic lands she illustrated. She did all the Guru lands, but as for cheaper options:
Plains - Premium Deck Series: Slivers, Tempest
Island - Duel Decks: Phyrexia vs. the Coalition
Forest - Unglued
Looks like you're priced into some combination of W, U and/or G. Considering the lack of fixing, I'd not go GWU. White doesn't seem worth the trouble (you get Swords to Plowshares but the rest requires heavy WWW). Looks like UG is indeed best. I wouldn't dismiss Garruk Wildspeaker, Nature's Lore, Rhystic Study or Sturmgeist, though.
So you agree with my color choices.
Yeah, many of the white cards demanding multiple colored mana is part of the problem.
I would've liked to have Rest in Peace for better graveyard hosing.
Also, I'm usually a huge fan of her work, but I don't like her StP. Nothing against the black guy, but he doesn't have much contrast against the dark background. When I run StP, I like the Kaja Foglio Ice Age art or maybe the Jeff A. Menges original, but that obviously isn't an option here.
It doesn't seem like there's much for Ixidron to work off of here. I had dismissed Sturmgeist. I thought Rhysic was more of a multiplayer card.
Yeah, there's not much for Descendants' Path to do here. Also, I thought of Natural Order, but springing for or proxying it didn't make sense when it isn't the best fit for the deck. I ad thoguht about Hunter's Insight and maybe Giant Growth.
I thought about Nature's Lore but that's simple accel and Rampant Growth (she did the MPR version) is also fixing. Birds of Paradise (the M11 buy a box promo version) might also be good there. Garruk (the Duel Decks version) could help with either and I thought using his token making and/or pump as the finisher, but went Essence of the Wild because that starts out bigger and the copy ability is a sort of pump for small creatures I draw late.
Someone on MWS tolerated me playing FoW but ragequit to Fact or Fiction. I was afraid of that, that the deck would be too powerful to be considered casual when I was playing with it.
Someone else played a full game, beat me with an array of Planeswalkers. I got manaflooded and not colorscrewed - I feel I can cut 1 of each land for 2 Garruks.
As stated before, she did alternate art on Rampant Growth(Textless Player Rewards), Birds of Paradise(M10 Buy a Box Promo), and Lotus Cobra(GP Promo). I've been working on a Nielsen Deck and feel pretty happy with my WG Stompy build:
As stated before, she did alternate art on Rampant Growth(Textless Player Rewards), Birds of Paradise(M10 Buy a Box Promo), and Lotus Cobra(GP Promo). I've been working on a Nielsen Deck and feel pretty happy with my WG Stompy build:
I thought of abusing Essence of the Wild with my weenies, but hadn't considered Springjack Pasture for that.
However, colorless is a big problem for this deck (and combining Pasture's 2nd and 3rd abilities for colored mana is extra inefficient)
Dismember, hadn't thought of that. Now that you mention it, she hadn't done any other Phyrexian mana cards. However, that and StP are antisynergistic with Wild Dogs
So I'm playing Legacy on MWS, opponent wants another match with different decks. I get out this on a lark and I actually go 2-1 against UW Miracle Control. Partially a case of having more counters than him. Might just be a fluke, but cool nonetheless. Reminds me of my Soldier WW deck, which I figured was good enough in casual to try as budget Legacy.
Spell Burst did the least, so that's what I'd take out for Dismember. Maybe I could put some bursts sideboard. 2 of a legendary such as Ertai seems fine.
I wouldn't feel too bad about some straightforward non-Terese manafixing. Breeding Pool perhaps. That reminds me of how my Selesnya and Izzet decks were originally all Ravnica block and I eventually decided to include cards from other sets.
Second one's written as [card]Call of the Conclave|Return to Ravnica[/card]
I love that card in my Selesnya deck, and would likely run it here if I went W/G. Didn't know you could autocard the version from a specific set, which would be particularly useful here. Doesn't seem to work with decklists.
[quote from="KingAlanI »" url="http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/casual-related-formats/550582-terese-nielsen-deck?comment=11"]I actually go 2-1 against UW Miracle Control.
Sweet!
Darn straight it was sweet.
Just went 1-0 against BG Rock with the current list. Dismember helped mightily. Garruk was an MVP, especially when his tokens came in with Essence of the Wild out.
Tweaking the theme with Breeding Pool helped a bit. Maybe I'll think about W/U/G now that I've gone down this path.
I kept it U/G but tweaked the list. Not sure why Buy-a-box BoP (Birds of Paradise) wasn't in there already. Gaea's Skyfolk wasn't doing much. Nature's Lore (forest untapped) might be better than Rampant Growth (basic tapped) especially since it could get the shocks. I'd add Hallowed Fountain and Temple Garden to support a white splash. Swords to Plowshares is the only obvious addition for W/U/G, and might be somewhat superfluous with the Dismembers. Maybe Rest in Peace for better graveyard hate than Dryad Militant.
Essence of the Wild just isn't getting it done as a finisher. There aren't many other creatures for it to enhance. (Limited nubmer of creatures also limits Essence Warden or pump effects) Sometimes a 6/6 vanilla isn't that useful, maybe less useful than Eternal Witness. Angel of Jubilation's manacost might work especially since I already did shocks. If that doesn't work, finisher is another thing I might bend the format for.
Limited number of creatures is also a problem with Essence Warden, and various pump effects.
It's hard to deal with certain things that this deck doesn't counter. Despise could deal with planeswalkers.
Mundungu would add to the counter ammo in a black splash. Either Dismember or Swords to Plowshares would work for removal depending on the splash.
U/B/G list, haven't had much chance to test it yet:
My first idea was control built around Force of Will and Faerie Trickery. Looking through lists of her cards, no other idea stood out.
Green seems the most viable splash, which isn't surprising since she has a lot of vibrant leafy artwork.
White was a possibility, but many of her cards are white/green, and I can't afford two splashes with minimal fixing. Also, many of her monowhite cards don't seem to have much synergy with her other cards. She did relatively little in black or red.
For extra fair I'd build it with basic lands she illustrated. She did all the Guru lands, but as for cheaper options:
Plains - Premium Deck Series: Slivers, Tempest
Island - Duel Decks: Phyrexia vs. the Coalition
Forest - Unglued
12 Forest
12 Island
Creature (12)
4 Essence of the Wild
4 Eternal Witness
4 Gaea's Skyfolk
4 Call to Mind
4 Rampant Growth
Instant (16)
4 Fact or Fiction
4 Faerie Trickery
4 Force of Will
4 Spell Burst
4 Dryad Militant
3 Ertai, Wizard Adept
4 Infested Roothold
4 Nature's Spiral
Vintage: Dredge | Legacy: Burn, Goblins, Soldier | Standard: Mono-Red Aggro
Commander: Nicol Bolas, Sliver Overlord, Rafiq
Casual: Selesnya Saproling Smackdown, Izzet Labs, Rebel
Played since June 2004, mostly inactive June 2011 to March 2018
Other usernames include AlanFromRochester, homerthebeerbaron
MTG checklists from Alpha to Ravnica Allegiance - https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/magic-fundamentals/other-magic-products/third-party-products/805324-checklists-for-everything-from-alpha-to-ravnica
So you agree with my color choices.
Yeah, many of the white cards demanding multiple colored mana is part of the problem.
I would've liked to have Rest in Peace for better graveyard hosing.
Also, I'm usually a huge fan of her work, but I don't like her StP. Nothing against the black guy, but he doesn't have much contrast against the dark background. When I run StP, I like the Kaja Foglio Ice Age art or maybe the Jeff A. Menges original, but that obviously isn't an option here.
It doesn't seem like there's much for Ixidron to work off of here. I had dismissed Sturmgeist. I thought Rhysic was more of a multiplayer card.
Yeah, there's not much for Descendants' Path to do here. Also, I thought of Natural Order, but springing for or proxying it didn't make sense when it isn't the best fit for the deck. I ad thoguht about Hunter's Insight and maybe Giant Growth.
I thought about Nature's Lore but that's simple accel and Rampant Growth (she did the MPR version) is also fixing. Birds of Paradise (the M11 buy a box promo version) might also be good there. Garruk (the Duel Decks version) could help with either and I thought using his token making and/or pump as the finisher, but went Essence of the Wild because that starts out bigger and the copy ability is a sort of pump for small creatures I draw late.
Someone on MWS tolerated me playing FoW but ragequit to Fact or Fiction. I was afraid of that, that the deck would be too powerful to be considered casual when I was playing with it.
Someone else played a full game, beat me with an array of Planeswalkers. I got manaflooded and not colorscrewed - I feel I can cut 1 of each land for 2 Garruks.
Vintage: Dredge | Legacy: Burn, Goblins, Soldier | Standard: Mono-Red Aggro
Commander: Nicol Bolas, Sliver Overlord, Rafiq
Casual: Selesnya Saproling Smackdown, Izzet Labs, Rebel
Played since June 2004, mostly inactive June 2011 to March 2018
Other usernames include AlanFromRochester, homerthebeerbaron
MTG checklists from Alpha to Ravnica Allegiance - https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/magic-fundamentals/other-magic-products/third-party-products/805324-checklists-for-everything-from-alpha-to-ravnica
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Lotus Cobra
4 Eternal Witness
4 Angel of Jubilation
4 Essence Warden
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
Enchantments (4)
4 Glorious Anthem
Sorceries (8)
4 Rampant Growth
4 Call of the Conclave
4 Swords to Plowshares
Lands (21)
13 Forest
8 Plains
Interesting idea. That theme would be especially good if cost and/or powerlevel of the blue control cards is a concern for a casual deck.
Vintage: Dredge | Legacy: Burn, Goblins, Soldier | Standard: Mono-Red Aggro
Commander: Nicol Bolas, Sliver Overlord, Rafiq
Casual: Selesnya Saproling Smackdown, Izzet Labs, Rebel
Played since June 2004, mostly inactive June 2011 to March 2018
Other usernames include AlanFromRochester, homerthebeerbaron
MTG checklists from Alpha to Ravnica Allegiance - https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/magic-fundamentals/other-magic-products/third-party-products/805324-checklists-for-everything-from-alpha-to-ravnica
I thought of abusing Essence of the Wild with my weenies, but hadn't considered Springjack Pasture for that.
However, colorless is a big problem for this deck (and combining Pasture's 2nd and 3rd abilities for colored mana is extra inefficient)
Vintage: Dredge | Legacy: Burn, Goblins, Soldier | Standard: Mono-Red Aggro
Commander: Nicol Bolas, Sliver Overlord, Rafiq
Casual: Selesnya Saproling Smackdown, Izzet Labs, Rebel
Played since June 2004, mostly inactive June 2011 to March 2018
Other usernames include AlanFromRochester, homerthebeerbaron
MTG checklists from Alpha to Ravnica Allegiance - https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/magic-fundamentals/other-magic-products/third-party-products/805324-checklists-for-everything-from-alpha-to-ravnica
3 Essence Warden
4 Essence of the Wild
4 Eternal Witness
4 Lotus Cobra
2 Magus of the Candelabra
1 Rushwood Herbalist
2 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Loxodon Warhammer
4 Natural Order
4 Nature's Lore
2 Rampant Growth
4 Springjack Pasture
2x Dismember
4x Dryad Militant
1x Essence of the Wild
3x Eternal Witness
13x Forest
3x Garruk Wildspeaker
4x Giant Growth
3x Glorious Anthem (7ED)
3x Lotus Cobra
4x Mother of Runes
8x Plains
4x Swords to Plowshares
4x Wild Dogs
Most builds are 2 color, and mana fixing is hard enough already. Mono green might be an alternative.
Dismember, hadn't thought of that. Now that you mention it, she hadn't done any other Phyrexian mana cards. However, that and StP are antisynergistic with Wild Dogs
Vintage: Dredge | Legacy: Burn, Goblins, Soldier | Standard: Mono-Red Aggro
Commander: Nicol Bolas, Sliver Overlord, Rafiq
Casual: Selesnya Saproling Smackdown, Izzet Labs, Rebel
Played since June 2004, mostly inactive June 2011 to March 2018
Other usernames include AlanFromRochester, homerthebeerbaron
MTG checklists from Alpha to Ravnica Allegiance - https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/magic-fundamentals/other-magic-products/third-party-products/805324-checklists-for-everything-from-alpha-to-ravnica
Spell Burst did the least, so that's what I'd take out for Dismember. Maybe I could put some bursts sideboard. 2 of a legendary such as Ertai seems fine.
I wouldn't feel too bad about some straightforward non-Terese manafixing. Breeding Pool perhaps. That reminds me of how my Selesnya and Izzet decks were originally all Ravnica block and I eventually decided to include cards from other sets.
Vintage: Dredge | Legacy: Burn, Goblins, Soldier | Standard: Mono-Red Aggro
Commander: Nicol Bolas, Sliver Overlord, Rafiq
Casual: Selesnya Saproling Smackdown, Izzet Labs, Rebel
Played since June 2004, mostly inactive June 2011 to March 2018
Other usernames include AlanFromRochester, homerthebeerbaron
MTG checklists from Alpha to Ravnica Allegiance - https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/magic-fundamentals/other-magic-products/third-party-products/805324-checklists-for-everything-from-alpha-to-ravnica
Darn straight it was sweet.
Just went 1-0 against BG Rock with the current list. Dismember helped mightily. Garruk was an MVP, especially when his tokens came in with Essence of the Wild out.
Tweaking the theme with Breeding Pool helped a bit. Maybe I'll think about W/U/G now that I've gone down this path.
9 Forest
9 Island
4 Breeding Pool
Creature (12)
4 Essence of the Wild
4 Eternal Witness
4 Gaea's Skyfolk
Sorcery (8)
4 Call to Mind
1 Nature's Lore
3 Rampant Growth
4 Dismember
4 Fact or Fiction
4 Faerie Trickery
4 Force of Will
Planeswalker (2)
2 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Dryad Militant
2 Ertai, Wizard Adept
4 Infested Roothold
4 Nature's Spiral
1 Spell Burst
Vintage: Dredge | Legacy: Burn, Goblins, Soldier | Standard: Mono-Red Aggro
Commander: Nicol Bolas, Sliver Overlord, Rafiq
Casual: Selesnya Saproling Smackdown, Izzet Labs, Rebel
Played since June 2004, mostly inactive June 2011 to March 2018
Other usernames include AlanFromRochester, homerthebeerbaron
MTG checklists from Alpha to Ravnica Allegiance - https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/magic-fundamentals/other-magic-products/third-party-products/805324-checklists-for-everything-from-alpha-to-ravnica
Vintage: Dredge | Legacy: Burn, Goblins, Soldier | Standard: Mono-Red Aggro
Commander: Nicol Bolas, Sliver Overlord, Rafiq
Casual: Selesnya Saproling Smackdown, Izzet Labs, Rebel
Played since June 2004, mostly inactive June 2011 to March 2018
Other usernames include AlanFromRochester, homerthebeerbaron
MTG checklists from Alpha to Ravnica Allegiance - https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/magic-fundamentals/other-magic-products/third-party-products/805324-checklists-for-everything-from-alpha-to-ravnica
Limited number of creatures is also a problem with Essence Warden, and various pump effects.
It's hard to deal with certain things that this deck doesn't counter. Despise could deal with planeswalkers.
Mundungu would add to the counter ammo in a black splash. Either Dismember or Swords to Plowshares would work for removal depending on the splash.
U/B/G list, haven't had much chance to test it yet:
4 Island
2 Swamp
4 Forest
4 Breeding Pool
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Secluded Glen
Creature (8)
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Eternal Witness
3 Despise
4 Nature’s Lore
Instant (19)
3 Dismember
4 Fact or Fiction
4 Faerie Trickery
4 Force of Will
4 Spell Burst
Planeswalker (4)
2 Garruk Wildspeaker
2 Liliana Vess
4 Barrin's Spite
3 Ertai, Wizard Adept
4 Mundungu
4 Nature's Spiral
Vintage: Dredge | Legacy: Burn, Goblins, Soldier | Standard: Mono-Red Aggro
Commander: Nicol Bolas, Sliver Overlord, Rafiq
Casual: Selesnya Saproling Smackdown, Izzet Labs, Rebel
Played since June 2004, mostly inactive June 2011 to March 2018
Other usernames include AlanFromRochester, homerthebeerbaron
MTG checklists from Alpha to Ravnica Allegiance - https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/magic-fundamentals/other-magic-products/third-party-products/805324-checklists-for-everything-from-alpha-to-ravnica