I think having this kind of thread is important for the community. I make a habit of checking back to it every so often. It has dwindled off in activity lately though.
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Sorry about that! I'm still playing this deck and its shockingly good. I hate saying that because everyone says that about their deck but Jund Monsters and other G devotion/ramp decks are really popular online and I feel like this deck does extremely well against them. I don't even really have a sideboard plan, let's just put it that way. I'll post the version I am currently playing even though it is not necessarily a budget version. I do highly recommend the deck and am willing to offer play advice if you want it.
PLAY TIPS:
-You deck is faster than your opponent's unless you are playing hyper aggressive R/x. Your goal is to land a single threat and suit it up Voltron style. There is, typically, no need to have more than 1 or 2 creatures on the field at any given time. Normally you will have a Hopeful Eidolon/Hero of Iroas + Underworld Coinsmith and that will be all the board presence you have. Build your threat and use removal against revelevant blockers.
-The guys you will want to prioritize for your buffs are Hero of Iroas > Hopeful Eidolon > Herald of Torment > Everyone else.
-If you can play a Hopeful T1 and have to choose between Hero or Ethereal T2, always play the Ethereal Armor. You want to force your to have the removal. It may be a 2-for-1 if they do but it protects your Hero. Also, if they don't have the removal you will often get in for 1 or 2 good hits and put yourself so far ahead it won't matter what they do.
-Gods Willing should only be used to protect your creatures. Do NOT use it to give your guy evasion unless that hit will win the game.
-Rogue's Passage is REALLY good here. Try and hold it in hand until you plan on using its ability/you have no other land drops. It works kind of like a combat trick and holding it in hand means your opponent cannot prepare for your game plan.
SIDEBOARD:
-Divine Favor is for burn.
-Orzhov Charm is for aggro.
-Revoke Existence is for decks with scary Gods or maybe the mirror match.
-If you have Thoughtseize that is good against control.
OTHER:
-Xathrid Slyblade is for testing purposes. Hexproof is huge and the Deathtouch+First Strike combo is great against larger blockers. 3 mana is steep though and we would usually rather be doing anyting else.
-Underworld Coinsmith is a good card. He is better in this deck than a lot of decks. There was a time when he was one of the best cards in the deck. As it has evolved his usefulness has also diminished. His reach is very nice to have in the deck. The lifegain doesn't hurt either. He does get a little worse with the rotation of Ethereal Armor which worked quite well with him.
ROTATION:
-We lose Ethereal Armor, Ultimate Price, Orzhov Charm, and Rogue's Passage.
-Ethereal Armor + Hopeful Eidolon is pretty much an "I Win" button mostly because of the lifegain. If there is a W or B enchantment that can produce +2 power and is playable on turn 2, that should be good enough. It's not quite the same as dropping a Nyxborn + Ethereal on Turn 2 and swinging for 4 Lifelink but still. I almost never play this card on Hero or Iroas and Hero wins me 90% of my games. This deck can survive without this card.
-Ultimate Price and Orzhov Charm are our biggest loss. Courser of Kruphix is everywhere and Ultimate Price handles it nicely. That fact alone is a big deal. Hero's Downfall is okay but 3 mana is a lot for what this deck wants to do. It will work in a pinch but we really need Doomblade or something in KTK. 4 Doomblade + 2 Ulcerate would be alright. Oppressive Rays is searchable with Heliod's Pilgrim but otherwise the card simply isn't good enough being both Sorcery speed and crappy against ramp decks. Honestly, if we don't get AT LEAST a Doom Blade/Go for the Throat in the next set this deck is dead in the water.
-Rogue's Passage is not likely to see any sort of replacement. I cannot stress how good this card has been for me. The fact that it is a land and repeatable is crucial. It doesn't take up a turn to play it, it taps for mana even when you don't need it, and it doesn't take slots away from other cards. Too good. It helps you to push through damage against those G/x Ramp decks that try to stabalize with Courser of Kruphix or other resilient blockers. This deck can survive without this card but only if our removal options in the next set DRASTICALLY improve. The options available in Theros and M15 are simply not good enough.
The following link is an invitation to join Pucatrade (card trading service though similar to TCGPLayer). If you follow the link then it awards me with tokens to exchange for actual cards. Thanks! https://pucatrade.com/invite/gift/86097
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Background:
This deck is actually inspired by the deck I quoted above. It is supposed to be a more aggressive variant. The Bestow mechanic gives you a lot of resiliance not unlike the way that Undying or Persist did. Basically what you want to do is build Voltron, suit up one guy and swing for the fences. If they remove him it will hopefully leave you with another guy on the field to continue the onslaught.
KEY CARDS & INTERACTIONS:
Creatures + Ethereal Armor: All of our creatures are Enchantments which makes Ethereal Armor outrageous. 1cmc for +2/+2 & First Strike.
Ethereal Armor/Eidolon of Countless Battles + Murder Investigation: Murder Investigation is like a Bestow creature kind of. The bigger the creature the more doods we get back. This works best with Eidolon of Countless Battles because when the Eidolon becomes a creature after being Bestowed it is buffed by all the tokens.
Orzhov Charm + 1 drops: This card is maximized in this list. We will be enchanting lots of guys, we have plenty of one drops to recur, and it serves as a source of unrestricted removal.
NON-BUDGET UPGRADES: (in order)
-2 Gift of Orzhova, -1 Murder Investigation, +3 Spear of Heliod: This card is really the heart and soul of the deck. I hated to cut it for budget reasons, its really not that pricey though, but it makes the deck tick. It really helps out our aggro plan, combos extremely well with Ethereal Armor, and provides additional removal. Also, it is awesome with Murder Investigation. Oh, your 3/3 died? Get 3 more 2/2s. Go from 3 power on board to 6. When combined with Ethereal Armor and/or Eidolon of Countless Battles it gets out of hand really fast. Your opponent ends up better off letting you keep your creature at that point.
-3 Murder Investigation, +3 Heliod, God of the Sun: Heliod is another win condition. Getting the 5 devotion is actually not as hard as you think. Gift of Orzhova + Spear of Heliod is all it takes. Also with all the little 1 drops you can just hand dump to get him online if needed. He is also an enchantment which works to our plan and his ability pumps out more enchantments which works really well with Ethereal Armor and Eidolon of Countless Battles. If you do manage to get Gift of Orzhova and Spear of Heliod online with Heliod you should win the game no matter how grindy. At that point you have infinite instant speed removal and infinite instant speed 3/2 Vigilant tokens both of which are limited only by your mana. That's inevitibility if I ever saw it.
The best part about these two upgrades is that even with them you can purchase this deck for less than $35 (I know, I did it lol).
The following link is an invitation to join Pucatrade (card trading service though similar to TCGPLayer). If you follow the link then it awards me with tokens to exchange for actual cards. Thanks! https://pucatrade.com/invite/gift/86097
So this was built upon the inspiration of a few different posts in the budget forums. I remembered a few older decks (Post + Rig & Post + Accord + Scroll of Avacyn) and some original talk of a Murder Post type deck. Someone recently brought it back up so I thought I'd try my hand at the deck and see what I could come up with. This is what I settled on. I actually had all of this in my collection already so that was convenient!
First things first, the deck relies on the same combo as the old Volatile Post decks. You run out a Volatile Rig and swing. Before it dies, or at the end of the turn you sac it to Trading Post to either draw a card or return another Volatile Rig from the 'yard to your hand to cast next turn. The repeated pseudo-wipe should keep the board clean enough to not be a problem.
Hammer of Purphoros and Hellraiser Goblin let the rig swing the turn it comes into play so you don't give your opponent even a moment of rest. Hammer of Purphorus also lets you turn extra lands into dudes so that you can have chumps/threats available when necessary. The deck doesn't really need more than 5 or 6 mana to do everything it would want in a turn anyway. You may not always need to make some dudes, but you will always have it as an option. The legendary status of the Hammer isn't really a problem because you can discard multiples to the Post or use the Post to recur them if necessary.
To keep this short, most of the cards in this deck act as additional versions of Trading Post allowing you to discard (Pack Rat) or sac (Tymaret, Cauldron, Hammer) for value. Newt is here because of its obvious interaction with Cauldron, the 8 life swing is nothing to scoff at. It offsets the downside of the Rig for you and doubles it up for the opponent. Tymaret is nice because you can use him to sac the Rig for a Shock or use him to sac the Rig from the 'yard to put him in your hand so you have a chump/threat for next turn. Saccing random things to the Cauldron also helps offset the damage from the Rig.
I assume a lot of things will be dying so Nighthowler could be good in this deck. On the back of a Rig (as an Aura) it could be very good. A 7/7 (or better) trampler is nice. Its even better when it dies and wipes the board and leaves you with another 4/4 (or better)
More Pack Rat- Originally Pack Rat wasn't even in the list, Chandra was but is over budget. Even Pack Rat is a little pricey. Pack Rat is awesome because he let's you fill the 'yard with Tymarets, Rigs, Hammers, or whatever else until you get the Post online and can start recurring some of those things. With Tymaret and Post online you can create new Rats for 1 life and 4 mana. Its steep but its technically card advantage and the Rats can take over a game very quickly if your opponent doesn't have a board wipe. If you get in a good position this little interaction can straight seal the deal. It may be a little "win more" or maybe just "win faster" so you can get to the next game. I honestly think I like Pack Rat over my original idea of Chandra's Phoenix.
Chandra's Phoenix- This was originally in the deck over the two Pack Rats and two Hellraiser Goblins. I like the Phoenix because it has haste and can get right in the fray but with the Hammer it doesn't really matter and the 2 cmc Pack Rat fits the curve better. Also, if you add in the Phoenix it might be a good idea to swap the Read the Bones for some Magma Jet to better recur the Phoenix.
The deck could definitely use more spot removal as well but I don't quite know what I would cut for it.
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4 Caves of Kolios
8 Plains
8 Swamp
2 Rogue's Passage
CREATURES (22)
4 Hopeful Eidolon
4 Nyxborn Shieldmate
4 Hero of Iroas
4 Underworld Coinsmith
1 Xathrid Slyblade
2 Heliod's Pilgrim
4 Herald of Torment
3 Gods Willing
2 Orzhov Charm
4 Ultimate Price
4 Ethereal Armor
2 Spectra Ward
1 ???
2 Orzhov Charm
3 Revoke Existence
3 Divine Favor
3 ???
3 ???
PLAY TIPS:
-You deck is faster than your opponent's unless you are playing hyper aggressive R/x. Your goal is to land a single threat and suit it up Voltron style. There is, typically, no need to have more than 1 or 2 creatures on the field at any given time. Normally you will have a Hopeful Eidolon/Hero of Iroas + Underworld Coinsmith and that will be all the board presence you have. Build your threat and use removal against revelevant blockers.
-The guys you will want to prioritize for your buffs are Hero of Iroas > Hopeful Eidolon > Herald of Torment > Everyone else.
-If you can play a Hopeful T1 and have to choose between Hero or Ethereal T2, always play the Ethereal Armor. You want to force your to have the removal. It may be a 2-for-1 if they do but it protects your Hero. Also, if they don't have the removal you will often get in for 1 or 2 good hits and put yourself so far ahead it won't matter what they do.
-Gods Willing should only be used to protect your creatures. Do NOT use it to give your guy evasion unless that hit will win the game.
-Rogue's Passage is REALLY good here. Try and hold it in hand until you plan on using its ability/you have no other land drops. It works kind of like a combat trick and holding it in hand means your opponent cannot prepare for your game plan.
SIDEBOARD:
-Divine Favor is for burn.
-Orzhov Charm is for aggro.
-Revoke Existence is for decks with scary Gods or maybe the mirror match.
-If you have Thoughtseize that is good against control.
OTHER:
-Xathrid Slyblade is for testing purposes. Hexproof is huge and the Deathtouch+First Strike combo is great against larger blockers. 3 mana is steep though and we would usually rather be doing anyting else.
-Underworld Coinsmith is a good card. He is better in this deck than a lot of decks. There was a time when he was one of the best cards in the deck. As it has evolved his usefulness has also diminished. His reach is very nice to have in the deck. The lifegain doesn't hurt either. He does get a little worse with the rotation of Ethereal Armor which worked quite well with him.
ROTATION:
-We lose Ethereal Armor, Ultimate Price, Orzhov Charm, and Rogue's Passage.
-Ethereal Armor + Hopeful Eidolon is pretty much an "I Win" button mostly because of the lifegain. If there is a W or B enchantment that can produce +2 power and is playable on turn 2, that should be good enough. It's not quite the same as dropping a Nyxborn + Ethereal on Turn 2 and swinging for 4 Lifelink but still. I almost never play this card on Hero or Iroas and Hero wins me 90% of my games. This deck can survive without this card.
-Ultimate Price and Orzhov Charm are our biggest loss. Courser of Kruphix is everywhere and Ultimate Price handles it nicely. That fact alone is a big deal. Hero's Downfall is okay but 3 mana is a lot for what this deck wants to do. It will work in a pinch but we really need Doomblade or something in KTK. 4 Doomblade + 2 Ulcerate would be alright. Oppressive Rays is searchable with Heliod's Pilgrim but otherwise the card simply isn't good enough being both Sorcery speed and crappy against ramp decks. Honestly, if we don't get AT LEAST a Doom Blade/Go for the Throat in the next set this deck is dead in the water.
-Rogue's Passage is not likely to see any sort of replacement. I cannot stress how good this card has been for me. The fact that it is a land and repeatable is crucial. It doesn't take up a turn to play it, it taps for mana even when you don't need it, and it doesn't take slots away from other cards. Too good. It helps you to push through damage against those G/x Ramp decks that try to stabalize with Courser of Kruphix or other resilient blockers. This deck can survive without this card but only if our removal options in the next set DRASTICALLY improve. The options available in Theros and M15 are simply not good enough.
https://pucatrade.com/invite/gift/86097
Background:
This deck is actually inspired by the deck I quoted above. It is supposed to be a more aggressive variant. The Bestow mechanic gives you a lot of resiliance not unlike the way that Undying or Persist did. Basically what you want to do is build Voltron, suit up one guy and swing for the fences. If they remove him it will hopefully leave you with another guy on the field to continue the onslaught.
KEY CARDS & INTERACTIONS:
Creatures + Ethereal Armor: All of our creatures are Enchantments which makes Ethereal Armor outrageous. 1cmc for +2/+2 & First Strike.
Ethereal Armor/Eidolon of Countless Battles + Murder Investigation: Murder Investigation is like a Bestow creature kind of. The bigger the creature the more doods we get back. This works best with Eidolon of Countless Battles because when the Eidolon becomes a creature after being Bestowed it is buffed by all the tokens.
Orzhov Charm + 1 drops: This card is maximized in this list. We will be enchanting lots of guys, we have plenty of one drops to recur, and it serves as a source of unrestricted removal.
THE DECKLIST
TIMESTAMP: 06/05/2014 @ 9:41am
10 Plains
8 Swamp
CREATURES (18)
4 Hopeful Eidolon
4 Nyxborn Shieldmate
4 Gnarled Scarhide
2 Baleful Eidolon
4 Spiteful Returned
4 Eidolon of Countless Battles
4 Orzhov Charm
4 Ethereal Armor
4 Murder Investigation
4 Gift of Orzhova
CURVE (0-1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6+): 16 / 14 / 4 / 4 / 0 / 0
AVERAGE CMC: 2.08
TYPE: BDC10 ($10.00 LIMIT)
CURRENT COST: $ 9.54
REMAINING BUDGET: $ 0.46
NON-BUDGET UPGRADES: (in order)
-2 Gift of Orzhova, -1 Murder Investigation, +3 Spear of Heliod: This card is really the heart and soul of the deck. I hated to cut it for budget reasons, its really not that pricey though, but it makes the deck tick. It really helps out our aggro plan, combos extremely well with Ethereal Armor, and provides additional removal. Also, it is awesome with Murder Investigation. Oh, your 3/3 died? Get 3 more 2/2s. Go from 3 power on board to 6. When combined with Ethereal Armor and/or Eidolon of Countless Battles it gets out of hand really fast. Your opponent ends up better off letting you keep your creature at that point.
-3 Murder Investigation, +3 Heliod, God of the Sun: Heliod is another win condition. Getting the 5 devotion is actually not as hard as you think. Gift of Orzhova + Spear of Heliod is all it takes. Also with all the little 1 drops you can just hand dump to get him online if needed. He is also an enchantment which works to our plan and his ability pumps out more enchantments which works really well with Ethereal Armor and Eidolon of Countless Battles. If you do manage to get Gift of Orzhova and Spear of Heliod online with Heliod you should win the game no matter how grindy. At that point you have infinite instant speed removal and infinite instant speed 3/2 Vigilant tokens both of which are limited only by your mana. That's inevitibility if I ever saw it.
The best part about these two upgrades is that even with them you can purchase this deck for less than $35 (I know, I did it lol).
10 Plains
8 Swamp
CREATURES (25)
4 Hopeful Eidolon
4 Nyxborn Shieldmate
4 Gnarled Scarhide
2 Baleful Eidolon
4 Spiteful Returned
4 Eidolon of Countless Battles
3 Heliod, God of the Sun
4 Orzhov Charm
4 Ethereal Armor
2 Gift of Orzhova
3 Spear of Heliod
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So this was built upon the inspiration of a few different posts in the budget forums. I remembered a few older decks (Post + Rig & Post + Accord + Scroll of Avacyn) and some original talk of a Murder Post type deck. Someone recently brought it back up so I thought I'd try my hand at the deck and see what I could come up with. This is what I settled on. I actually had all of this in my collection already so that was convenient!
First things first, the deck relies on the same combo as the old Volatile Post decks. You run out a Volatile Rig and swing. Before it dies, or at the end of the turn you sac it to Trading Post to either draw a card or return another Volatile Rig from the 'yard to your hand to cast next turn. The repeated pseudo-wipe should keep the board clean enough to not be a problem.
Hammer of Purphoros and Hellraiser Goblin let the rig swing the turn it comes into play so you don't give your opponent even a moment of rest. Hammer of Purphorus also lets you turn extra lands into dudes so that you can have chumps/threats available when necessary. The deck doesn't really need more than 5 or 6 mana to do everything it would want in a turn anyway. You may not always need to make some dudes, but you will always have it as an option. The legendary status of the Hammer isn't really a problem because you can discard multiples to the Post or use the Post to recur them if necessary.
To keep this short, most of the cards in this deck act as additional versions of Trading Post allowing you to discard (Pack Rat) or sac (Tymaret, Cauldron, Hammer) for value. Newt is here because of its obvious interaction with Cauldron, the 8 life swing is nothing to scoff at. It offsets the downside of the Rig for you and doubles it up for the opponent. Tymaret is nice because you can use him to sac the Rig for a Shock or use him to sac the Rig from the 'yard to put him in your hand so you have a chump/threat for next turn. Saccing random things to the Cauldron also helps offset the damage from the Rig.
I assume a lot of things will be dying so Nighthowler could be good in this deck. On the back of a Rig (as an Aura) it could be very good. A 7/7 (or better) trampler is nice. Its even better when it dies and wipes the board and leaves you with another 4/4 (or better)
*** THE DECKLIST ***
TIMESTAMP: 12/03/13 10:25am
12 Swamp
12 Mountain
CREATURES - 19
4 Festering Newt
2 Pack Rat
4 Tymaret, the Murder King
2 Hellraiser Goblin
3 Nighthowler
4 Volatile Rig
4 Lightning Strike
3 Read the Bones
2 Bubbling Cauldron
4 Hammer of Purphoros
4 Trading Post
CURVE (0-1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6+): 4 / 12 / 12 / 8 / 0 / 0
AVERAGE CMC: 2.67
TYPE: BDC10 ($10.00 LIMIT)
CURRENT COST: $7.93
REMAINING BUDGET: $2.07
POTENTIAL UPGRADES:
Blood Crypt- Obvious
More Pack Rat- Originally Pack Rat wasn't even in the list, Chandra was but is over budget. Even Pack Rat is a little pricey. Pack Rat is awesome because he let's you fill the 'yard with Tymarets, Rigs, Hammers, or whatever else until you get the Post online and can start recurring some of those things. With Tymaret and Post online you can create new Rats for 1 life and 4 mana. Its steep but its technically card advantage and the Rats can take over a game very quickly if your opponent doesn't have a board wipe. If you get in a good position this little interaction can straight seal the deal. It may be a little "win more" or maybe just "win faster" so you can get to the next game. I honestly think I like Pack Rat over my original idea of Chandra's Phoenix.
Chandra's Phoenix- This was originally in the deck over the two Pack Rats and two Hellraiser Goblins. I like the Phoenix because it has haste and can get right in the fray but with the Hammer it doesn't really matter and the 2 cmc Pack Rat fits the curve better. Also, if you add in the Phoenix it might be a good idea to swap the Read the Bones for some Magma Jet to better recur the Phoenix.
The deck could definitely use more spot removal as well but I don't quite know what I would cut for it.
https://pucatrade.com/invite/gift/86097