Don't forget that since the deck is slow, you also need to make accommodations to not lose to burn. This is also a big downside.
Perhaps it's time to rethink a little bit about what the important things are for the deck and maybe how we can approach the deck differently to help keep these core strengths and refocus to deal with the current meta.
Raging Ravine is the go to thing to use for grindy games, as you can just bring him back with loam. Wolf run does nothing without a creature (so why not just get the creature?) Xenagos looks awful. The reason a game will be grindy is that your main things didn't get through (assault, goyf), which means that Xenagos is never going to make a goyf bigger or even turn into a creature himself. You should just play an actual threat/advantage engine for the long game.
So I cut 2 mountains and 1 fire-lit thicket to make room for 2 Tec edge 1 sacred foundry. They're really helpful, especially against scapeshift. I side in 1-2 more tec edges from the board. Sacred foundry is just something I'm testing, in order to run 2 Circle of Protection: Red and Peace of Mind, to help address the burn matchup (which I think could be hard otherwise). I also added another Flame Jab to the sideboard, because it's great against Delver and can help against control to give another (much weaker) effect like seismic assault.
Really loving the enchantment dig cards--I've been seeing all the cards I want on time (for the most part). Abundant growth is surprisingly useful. Getting a basic forest or playing a tec edge and enchanting it to have access to red are useful plays to help make sure assault is ready to hit play. Also, I rarely play out more than 3 lands with this deck--I tend to hold onto my land so it's ready for when assault/flame jab is ready to go. Plus, if you do find a raging ravine you can play it then play a land the turn after and still be ready to attack with it, so you don't lose any tempo there.
Yeah, I'm not sold on Blood Moon in the SB, because needing green is so crucial and utopia sprawls has issues with it. I was just thinking that I should put some cool enchantments in the SB while I try to figure out what types of things the deck actually needs.
The velocity of the enchantment dig cards is great--It really fuels everything of your strategy and makes it fairly easy to find Seismic Assault + Loam, so I feel really comfortable relying on them as much as I do.
Tarmogoyf has been especially great here too. Plays great offence or defence, and the enchantments + put cards in GY cards have made him a more formidable threat faster than he gets in a lot of other decks. Plus, the deck desperately needs an alternate win-con, so he fits the bill perfectly.
I don't think Xenagos really fits the deck. We don't really have enough creatures to take advantage of him, even if getting the devotion is not unreasonable. The main issue is that he's a 5cc spell and most of the time with this deck you'll just want to sit on three mana so that you can dig for seismic assault. In particular I can't think of any MUs where I'd really want to see xenagos.
It's a ton of fun to play, but I haven't gotten much real testing in (thanks Cockatrice!). However, it's just a lot of fun to play and some hands are really scary, especially when you have the "combo" early. I kind of view this as a soft-lock combo deck--Loam + assault doesn't win you the game immediately, but damn if it doesn't give you a lot of power/flexibility as well as ending the game quickly when you need it.
One thing I really like is that there are a lot of really powerful enchantments to dig for--I think that that could give this deck immense SB potential. Not sure what the bad MUs are, but there is splash potential for sure. If enchantments are worth while, another color might be appealing. (Aegis of the Gods? Circle of Protection: Red?).
I had being that guy that just posts a deck list, but unfortunately I won't have a lot of time to test right now, but I really like this concept and how the list is turning out and wanted to share it. Maybe the concept can be tuned further. Any suggestions/comments would be great.
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Perhaps it's time to rethink a little bit about what the important things are for the deck and maybe how we can approach the deck differently to help keep these core strengths and refocus to deal with the current meta.
So I cut 2 mountains and 1 fire-lit thicket to make room for 2 Tec edge 1 sacred foundry. They're really helpful, especially against scapeshift. I side in 1-2 more tec edges from the board. Sacred foundry is just something I'm testing, in order to run 2 Circle of Protection: Red and Peace of Mind, to help address the burn matchup (which I think could be hard otherwise). I also added another Flame Jab to the sideboard, because it's great against Delver and can help against control to give another (much weaker) effect like seismic assault.
Really loving the enchantment dig cards--I've been seeing all the cards I want on time (for the most part). Abundant growth is surprisingly useful. Getting a basic forest or playing a tec edge and enchanting it to have access to red are useful plays to help make sure assault is ready to hit play. Also, I rarely play out more than 3 lands with this deck--I tend to hold onto my land so it's ready for when assault/flame jab is ready to go. Plus, if you do find a raging ravine you can play it then play a land the turn after and still be ready to attack with it, so you don't lose any tempo there.
The velocity of the enchantment dig cards is great--It really fuels everything of your strategy and makes it fairly easy to find Seismic Assault + Loam, so I feel really comfortable relying on them as much as I do.
Tarmogoyf has been especially great here too. Plays great offence or defence, and the enchantments + put cards in GY cards have made him a more formidable threat faster than he gets in a lot of other decks. Plus, the deck desperately needs an alternate win-con, so he fits the bill perfectly.
I don't think Xenagos really fits the deck. We don't really have enough creatures to take advantage of him, even if getting the devotion is not unreasonable. The main issue is that he's a 5cc spell and most of the time with this deck you'll just want to sit on three mana so that you can dig for seismic assault. In particular I can't think of any MUs where I'd really want to see xenagos.
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Stomping Ground
1 Forest
4 Mountain
2 Raging Ravine
2 Fire-Lit Thicket
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Scalding Tarn
//Win-cons
4 Seismic Assault
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Seal of Fire
2 Flame Jab
//Dig
4 Commune with the Gods
4 Kruphix's Insight
4 Abundant Growth
//Other
4 Life from the Loam
4 Utopia Sprawl
4 Seal of Primordium
3 Blood Moon
2 Courser of Kruphix
2 Ancient Grudge
3 Obstinate Baloth
1 Lifegift
It's a ton of fun to play, but I haven't gotten much real testing in (thanks Cockatrice!). However, it's just a lot of fun to play and some hands are really scary, especially when you have the "combo" early. I kind of view this as a soft-lock combo deck--Loam + assault doesn't win you the game immediately, but damn if it doesn't give you a lot of power/flexibility as well as ending the game quickly when you need it.
One thing I really like is that there are a lot of really powerful enchantments to dig for--I think that that could give this deck immense SB potential. Not sure what the bad MUs are, but there is splash potential for sure. If enchantments are worth while, another color might be appealing. (Aegis of the Gods? Circle of Protection: Red?).
I had being that guy that just posts a deck list, but unfortunately I won't have a lot of time to test right now, but I really like this concept and how the list is turning out and wanted to share it. Maybe the concept can be tuned further. Any suggestions/comments would be great.