Made some trades and acquired 2 LotV tonight, and I'm borrowing 2 other from a friend to put this together. I played a funky B/R waste not brew at FNM tonight which lost every match , but wasn't outclassed by anything either. I was in every game, and the games I did win we're because Waste Not just generated ludicrous amounts of value. I had a game where I had The Rack and Waste not on the Board, and at 5 life facing two flipped delvers where the game ended two turns later with my opponents hand empty, his delvers gone, and me getting for 5 with tomb stalker and another 6 from the rack. The delver player was just on all cylinders the entire game until he wasn't. I drew more cards of waste not than my opponent did off treasure cruise.
All this to say I'm sold on the power of waste not, and think it's got to be included in the core of this deck.
My only worry about Waste Not is that there is no way to retrieve it from the graveyard.
I'd definitely be more interested in a artifact based list that can take advantage of Buried Ruin and Life from the Loam. People have mentioned Burn and Delver as issues - I present Chalice of the Void, set on 1 it can ruin the day for Delver and Burn. Another option would be Trading Post.
I'd also contemplate a Syphon Life in the main to also ease the aggro match-ups. As well as to provide a clock.
Waste Not is only good if you can get it down early - and once we start Loaming, I don't think we will be drawing it naturally mid-late game. So it feels like a bad card in this deck.
I might be wrong - I haven't played it out. But with Buried Ruin, the synergy with artifacts seems like a natural fit (which is similar to Tezzerator).
I find a light blue splash for Gifts Ungiven and/or Oona's Grace to be worth it. They give the deck quite a bit of card draw, open up some nice synergies, reduces the need to draw particular cards or those which are bad in multiples, and grants access to Creeping Tar Pit.
It might be a bit cute, it does reduce the mana base's stability, but the clock, instant speed cards, and precision it offers seems worth it to me.
Anyone have a recent list? Interested to see how this has developed recently.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Legacy:
Pox (BG Chalice Depths and Rack Pox)
Soldier Stompy
EDH:
Darien, King of Kjeldor Soldier Tribal EDH
Sidisi, Brood Tyrant Zombie tribal EDH
Sigarda, Host of Herons enchantress French EDH
Griselbrand monoblack control French EDH
I see Obstinate Baloth in some SBs. What do you think about Thragtusk? I know OB is a bigger body, but Tusk nets you 5 life, draws removal and it leaves behind either a 3/3 beater or at worst pulls more removal from their hand.
I've been testing this at the kitchen table with 24 lands. I'm getting flooded the majority of the time. Could I get away with 22 lands? Is there a strategy with this deck that I'm missing? I'm running 4 fetches to thin it out and that doesn't seem to help much. I appreciate the help. I really like this deck as I am a Golgari guy myself.
What is everyone doing against Burn and UR Delver? Are we just taking a bath in game 1 and SB Leyline of Sanctity or Chalice of the Void? I've been looking at options to push this deck into the MidRange when necessary.
Ok. I did some more play testing. I see the value of dredging with Life from the Loam. I also like Tombstalker. I've dropped the Tusk idea. I think I just need practice piloting this deck. I added Dragon's Claw to my SB to help with Burn. I'm taking this to my LGS Modern tourney tomorrow night. I'll post my list and results afterwards.
I see Obstinate Baloth in some SBs. What do you think about Thragtusk? I know OB is a bigger body, but Tusk nets you 5 life, draws removal and it leaves behind either a 3/3 beater or at worst pulls more removal from their hand.
I've been testing this at the kitchen table with 24 lands. I'm getting flooded the majority of the time. Could I get away with 22 lands? Is there a strategy with this deck that I'm missing? I'm running 4 fetches to thin it out and that doesn't seem to help much. I appreciate the help. I really like this deck as I am a Golgari guy myself.
What is everyone doing against Burn and UR Delver? Are we just taking a bath in game 1 and SB Leyline of Sanctity or Chalice of the Void? I've been looking at options to push this deck into the MidRange when necessary.
You're kidding about flooding right? Between blowing up your own lands with smallpox and having lands that serve as attackers/defenders (mutavault), removal (quicksand & ghost quarter), artifact recursion (buried ruin), and direct damage (leechridden swamp) this deck can run a LOT of lands without worrying too much about flooding. I think you're missing that much of the strategy of the deck revolves around using utility lands as recurring uncounterable spells & creatures. Also, a 5 or 6-land opening hand with a single raven's crime isn't so bad (T1 land, crime, T2 land, retrace twice...)
UR delver probably isn't the best matchup but we do have reasonable answers for it. Drown in sorrow should help, and golgari charm or engineered explosives might be worth bringing in if you're running it in the board. 1 or 2 copies of maelstrom pulse might be ok too. Also, delver is one of the many matchups where you'd probably bring in any additional bridges from the board.
Burn is tougher and I just don't see it being a decent matchup. Dragon's claw is ok, although I think I'd run sun droplet if you need burn-specific hate in the board. Batterskull or trading post are more versatile but obviously slow.
I like chalice of the void in general but it is a terrible, awful card in this deck. It shuts off your best and fastest win condition (the rack) as well as your best discard (raven's crime), which in turn makes waste not and ensnaring bridge a lot worse. Leyline also seems terrible since you'd have to run 4, you can't cast it, and it's VERY narrow for us (we don't really care much about opposing discard, after all).
From legacy pox experience, tombstalker is a good card against decks like delver and burn because it provides a fast clock and especially game 2-3 they probably aren't prepared for it. I've definitely slammed it down turn 3 (T1 fetch, discard, T2 fetch, smallpox, discarding something and saccing a land = 6 in the grave, T3 land, tombstalker... if they don't have an answer it's bad for them). I go back and forth on whether stalker deserves a spot mainboard or just in the side, though.
Tombstalker is definitely a favorite card of mine, and against certain decks it can easily and quickly go all the way on its own.
A card I was specifically thinking of against Delver and Burn, since both are utilizing cruise these days and both can have trouble against lifegain is Suffer the Past. Depending on how much Cruising is happening in your meta could be worth maindecking - I also suspect that it would be effective at making opposing goyfs somewhat less scary, especially since you get to target the cards that are exiled. Against delver builds though, you're removing fuel for TC, maybe buying yourself a a little more time with the lifegain, and if their list runs Snapcaster Mage you can specifically target anything in their yard that you wouldn't particularly want to see again.
wish the lifegain did more for us, but I don't know if there are any 'lifegain matters' type cards that we would want to run in this list.
I love the idea of this deck. It's relatively budget conscious and looks really fun to play. I've been trading aggressively to get the last few pieces, and I hope to be sleeving it up soon.
The only change I would suggest other than the previously discussed mana base is replacing Gravecrawlers with Thoughtseizes. I'd consider IoK too, but either way this deck *needs* targeted discard. Discard strategies have gotten worse in the post-T.Cruise world, but being able to disrupt plans with Thoughtseize is still insane. Lucien also admitted that Gravecrawler didn't do much work. I would feel better packing a full set of Seizes and Ghasts, though I'm not sure what else to take out. Maybe just have 3 Liliana instead of 4?
Man, great feedback guys. I admit that I was missing the land strategy. I shouldn't have, considering I use Treetop Village in my Death Cloud deck. Been doing more play testing and it's a killer strategy. I thought about Sun Droplet myself to counteract any damage from Burn. My meta is HEAVY on Burn.
You're kidding about flooding right? Between blowing up your own lands with smallpox and having lands that serve as attackers/defenders (mutavault), removal (quicksand & ghost quarter), artifact recursion (buried ruin), and direct damage (leechridden swamp) this deck can run a LOT of lands without worrying too much about flooding. I think you're missing that much of the strategy of the deck revolves around using utility lands as recurring uncounterable spells & creatures. Also, a 5 or 6-land opening hand with a single raven's crime isn't so bad (T1 land, crime, T2 land, retrace twice...)
Thanks, this helps me understand how I should be thinking to pilot this deck better.
Ok. I did some more play testing. I see the value of dredging with Life from the Loam. I also like Tombstalker. I've dropped the Tusk idea. I think I just need practice piloting this deck. I added Dragon's Claw to my SB to help with Burn. I'm taking this to my LGS Modern tourney tomorrow night. I'll post my list and results afterwards.
How did you end up doing? This is the deck I want to play with more than anything right now, but it doesn't always perform in testing. I don't know if that's me piloting incorrectly and maybe i just need to put in more time with it? Sometimes I feel like I end up just durdling around with Loam and not accomplishing much.
1-2-1 at FNM last night. Splashed white for lingering souls and for Stony Silence in the board and souls definitely did a lot of work. Ensnaring Bridge is an all-star, and so is Waste Not.
Round 1: UW gifts Tron- I main board beast within, and have both Extirpate and Surgical Extraction out of the board, so this is a matchup I generally feel good against. I actually feel like I do well against any flavor of Tron. Unfortunately I never draw a bridge or a smallpox for the entire matchup. G1 I beast within his karn and buy some time, but the game drags on and on and he eventually hardcasts emrakul. G2 I pithing needle naming karn, manage to snag Urzas tower with surgical and am slowly getting there with souls tokens. he top decks and plays a Wormcoil engine which I never find an answer for. frustrating loss
Round 2: Zoo - This was my draw due to time. G1 was really just epic all around, he gets in for a lot of damage real quick, and taps out play Qasali Pridemage the turn after I drop the bridge. it earns an abrupt decay, and I dump my hand using ravens crime / loam engine. Stabilized. I'm looking at kird ape, a pair of nacatl, and Emeria Angel sitting across from my 4 souls tokens. I'm using Liliana and waste not to gather steam, sometimes waving a card or two in my hand which leaves me susceptible to his bird tokens, but I have a trump card on the board: Pendelhaven! He doesn't think it prudent to attack into my tokens so I feel safe earning some extra draws off of waste not. After an eternity, I ultimate liliana, and make him choose between his creatures and his lands. lands go to the bin and eventually I find and play the rack. he's starting to accumulate a couple lands here and there, which I ghost quarter periodically. he draws an odd burn spell here and there and gets me to 2 life. slowly the rack gets him to two life. the turn before he would have lost he topdecks a pridemage, and blows up my bridge. I have souls tokens and waste not zombies on my side of the board but he's able to get through for 3 damage. frustrating loss but a damn fine topdeckby my opponent. Game two begins with 14 minutes on the clock, I do not sideboard as typically I'll eat creature decks alive, which is what happens. Over the course of 7 minutes I'm able to smallpox aggressively, earning myself some zombie tokens and souls tokens along the way, mitigating my loss of lands with a flagstones of trokair in play. I have a legendary turn where I must draw 8 cards and get 4-5 zombies in play off multiple waste nots. we finish with 7 minutes on the clock, he boards a bit slowly and with 4 minutes remaining to start g3 we opt to draw. frustrating draw.
Round 3: UR Delver - G1 he just gets there with pyro tokens in record time. I board in mutilate and batter skull. G2 he gets me under 10 life quickly, but Pendelhaven allows me to trade souls tokens with delvers and pyromanecers and swift spears profitably. I eventually find bridge, liliana, and the rack, and the outcome is never in doubt even though he cruises twice. G3 is odd, and I play around mana issues all game long. I never find a bridge, but I get a waste not into play and start playing Souls tokens as well. he cruises and dumps his hands generating lots of pyro tokens. gitxian probe reveals a batter skull in my hand. he passes turn, I draw mutilate, loam for a fetch, crack for basic swamp, which is my only swamp. I cast mutilate for one, wiping his board. next turn I drop batter skull and it goes all the way, amidst a few desperate attempts by my opponent to get back in the game.
Round 4: Weird Bant Flicker deck. This deck is just odd. it also preys on other creature decks by doing weird stuff like making them skip combat phases, repeatedly, flashing in resto angels, etc. We play 3 games but ultimately I love to a rest in peace that I cannot find a decay for, and the fact that he has maindeck answers for my bridge.
I liked the white splash, souls did a ton of work, Pendelhaven and flagstones of trokair both did some work. Stirring Wildwood was actually really great for me all night. I really wanted to put in a single bow of nylea, but was not able to find one. the only matchup where I think it would have been irrelevant is Tron. otherwise, I could have used the damage to flyers or life gain in every single matchup.
I'm wondering about sleeving this up in a variant for my FNM this week. I like the idea of Abrupt Decay and Golgari Charm and wonder if they shouldn't both be main decked for my meta, I'll be playing against Boggle's, Delver, and RG and MonoU Tron builds. Those are the decks I'm most worried about, as most of the other fillers will be some tier3 or lower standard spin off's. I've loved Pox for a long time and have tried it with little success as either MonoB, or BW. So now I guess it's time to try BG, and wonder about Krosan Grip as a side option? Now that we have the Loam engine as well, what about a Dark Heart of the Wood somewhere in the 75? Before you go on about it wait and here's my logic, but also my criticism for it.
Pro: It's a great recurring way to keep us above the life belt from lethal, and with Loam, who cares right?
Con: Surfers to grave hate alot, but so does Loam, and at first feels a bit clunky, needing to have so many forests for it to be effective.
What about Hideous Laughter to go against the Twin decks? Yes it's 2BB but it is Instant speed and can help take out so many other dudes as well.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
It's not the fall that hurts, it's the sudden stop at the bottom.
the red mage lives by the variance and dies by the variance. May the variance be with you, always.
I'm thinking of giving this deck a go, and am wondering, other than playing raven's crime, what benefit is there to 4 loam over 2-3 crucible? I feel like dredge isn't really helping too much without having more recursion. Plus playing fewer crucible frees up 1-2 slots for more disruption. So what is the benefit?
i know this thread isnt super recent, but I wanted to share my idea of a deck for a budget since im just getting into modern. I would like any advice for a sideboard help and maindeck ideas also. if you have any questions on why i am running any particular item, ask.
4 smallpox
4 inquisition of kozilek
1 funeral charm
2 duress(will be thoughtseize in the future i think)
4 abrupt decay
3 raven's crime
1 syphon life
4 lingering souls(chose this over bloodghast for flying and able to block)
2 abyssal persecutor
1 grafted wargear
2 phyrexian arena
3 the rack
2 victim of night
4 life from the loam
and possible a maelstrom pulse MB
so far this is 37 without the pulse and i plan on running 23-24 lands, i havent fully worked out my mana base, but i do own 4 wooded foothils, might run 2 and i have 3 poluted delta as my only fetch options currently. i intend on 2-3 buried ruin and 3-4 treetop village as my manland for the trample and with wargear thats a 6/5, also those help ungraft wargear from percy once the 9/8 flying trample has dealt with any life needed to be lowered lol i dont have twilight mire unfortunately, but i do onw a playset of overgrown tomb and woodland cemetery, so ill run 2 cemetery probably and 3 tomb, i want at least 2 forest and 2 swamp mainboard since ive noticed my meta loves path to exile
Could drop the Shrieking Afflictions for Smallpox and increase the Loam count, of course, if you're going to plan on dredging all the time, and you shouldn't, you should get threats that come in from the GY like Your Lingering Souls or Bloodghast or Gravecrawlers. I'm fine with polluted deltas as the only fetch, I didn't run much green anyway. If you wanna go land denial could try Ghost Quarter or Tectonic Edge but I had trouble with it due to the double black sources even with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. I was brewing with Summer Bloom for those as well to be very annoying, it was probably too cute though.
I'd drop the Grafted Wargear, seems cute. Treetop Village is good. Other budget options include Blackmail, Necrogen Mists.
Since you have the deltas and are running Lingering you could pick up one Godless Shrine then you could fetch it up if you need to hard cast Souls.
Been a little too long since I liked this up but I did build it and made some changes after the last two sets, any one else still trying this?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
It's not the fall that hurts, it's the sudden stop at the bottom.
the red mage lives by the variance and dies by the variance. May the variance be with you, always.
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Modern
UWGB 4c Snow Control BGWU
All this to say I'm sold on the power of waste not, and think it's got to be included in the core of this deck.
I'd definitely be more interested in a artifact based list that can take advantage of Buried Ruin and Life from the Loam. People have mentioned Burn and Delver as issues - I present Chalice of the Void, set on 1 it can ruin the day for Delver and Burn. Another option would be Trading Post.
I'd also contemplate a Syphon Life in the main to also ease the aggro match-ups. As well as to provide a clock.
Waste Not is only good if you can get it down early - and once we start Loaming, I don't think we will be drawing it naturally mid-late game. So it feels like a bad card in this deck.
I might be wrong - I haven't played it out. But with Buried Ruin, the synergy with artifacts seems like a natural fit (which is similar to Tezzerator).
It might be a bit cute, it does reduce the mana base's stability, but the clock, instant speed cards, and precision it offers seems worth it to me.
Pox (BG Chalice Depths and Rack Pox)
Soldier Stompy
EDH:
Darien, King of Kjeldor Soldier Tribal EDH
Sidisi, Brood Tyrant Zombie tribal EDH
Sigarda, Host of Herons enchantress French EDH
Griselbrand monoblack control French EDH
Modern:
G/W Enchanted Bogles
BGW Treefolk Tribal
Standard:
Villainous Wealth
@Cthulhufthagan...Do you have a bug list you can post, or is this just some random idea?
Bear with me, I usually run Death Cloud.
I've been testing this at the kitchen table with 24 lands. I'm getting flooded the majority of the time. Could I get away with 22 lands? Is there a strategy with this deck that I'm missing? I'm running 4 fetches to thin it out and that doesn't seem to help much. I appreciate the help. I really like this deck as I am a Golgari guy myself.
What is everyone doing against Burn and UR Delver? Are we just taking a bath in game 1 and SB Leyline of Sanctity or Chalice of the Void? I've been looking at options to push this deck into the MidRange when necessary.
You're kidding about flooding right? Between blowing up your own lands with smallpox and having lands that serve as attackers/defenders (mutavault), removal (quicksand & ghost quarter), artifact recursion (buried ruin), and direct damage (leechridden swamp) this deck can run a LOT of lands without worrying too much about flooding. I think you're missing that much of the strategy of the deck revolves around using utility lands as recurring uncounterable spells & creatures. Also, a 5 or 6-land opening hand with a single raven's crime isn't so bad (T1 land, crime, T2 land, retrace twice...)
UR delver probably isn't the best matchup but we do have reasonable answers for it. Drown in sorrow should help, and golgari charm or engineered explosives might be worth bringing in if you're running it in the board. 1 or 2 copies of maelstrom pulse might be ok too. Also, delver is one of the many matchups where you'd probably bring in any additional bridges from the board.
Burn is tougher and I just don't see it being a decent matchup. Dragon's claw is ok, although I think I'd run sun droplet if you need burn-specific hate in the board. Batterskull or trading post are more versatile but obviously slow.
I like chalice of the void in general but it is a terrible, awful card in this deck. It shuts off your best and fastest win condition (the rack) as well as your best discard (raven's crime), which in turn makes waste not and ensnaring bridge a lot worse. Leyline also seems terrible since you'd have to run 4, you can't cast it, and it's VERY narrow for us (we don't really care much about opposing discard, after all).
From legacy pox experience, tombstalker is a good card against decks like delver and burn because it provides a fast clock and especially game 2-3 they probably aren't prepared for it. I've definitely slammed it down turn 3 (T1 fetch, discard, T2 fetch, smallpox, discarding something and saccing a land = 6 in the grave, T3 land, tombstalker... if they don't have an answer it's bad for them). I go back and forth on whether stalker deserves a spot mainboard or just in the side, though.
A card I was specifically thinking of against Delver and Burn, since both are utilizing cruise these days and both can have trouble against lifegain is Suffer the Past. Depending on how much Cruising is happening in your meta could be worth maindecking - I also suspect that it would be effective at making opposing goyfs somewhat less scary, especially since you get to target the cards that are exiled. Against delver builds though, you're removing fuel for TC, maybe buying yourself a a little more time with the lifegain, and if their list runs Snapcaster Mage you can specifically target anything in their yard that you wouldn't particularly want to see again.
wish the lifegain did more for us, but I don't know if there are any 'lifegain matters' type cards that we would want to run in this list.
The only change I would suggest other than the previously discussed mana base is replacing Gravecrawlers with Thoughtseizes. I'd consider IoK too, but either way this deck *needs* targeted discard. Discard strategies have gotten worse in the post-T.Cruise world, but being able to disrupt plans with Thoughtseize is still insane. Lucien also admitted that Gravecrawler didn't do much work. I would feel better packing a full set of Seizes and Ghasts, though I'm not sure what else to take out. Maybe just have 3 Liliana instead of 4?
As far as sideboard goes, I feel good about Tombstalker, Drown in Sorrow, and Maelstrom Pulse. Damnation might be good too, as would Sun Droplet. I would definitely do a couple of Sun Droplets over 4x Leyline of Sanctity. Leyline of the Void might be good too, but I might choose Relic of Progenitus or Scavenging Ooze over it. You can lose Leylines to Cryptics.
Let's keep this discussion going! Has anyone playtested extensively with a particular build?
Thanks, this helps me understand how I should be thinking to pilot this deck better.
4x Bloodghast
1x Bojuka Bog
2x Buried Ruin
1x Darkblast
2x Ensnaring Bridge
3x Forest
1x Ghost Quarter
2x Leechridden Swamp
4x Life from the Loam
3x Liliana of the Veil
2x Mutavault
3x Overgrown Tomb
2x Quicksand
3x Raven's Crime
4x Smallpox
8x Swamp
3x The Rack
4x Thoughtseize
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3x Waste Not
1x Batterskull
2x Golgari Charm
2x Damnation
2x Drown in Sorrow
2x Maelstrom Pulse
2x Scavenging Ooze
2x Sun Droplet
1x Surgical Extraction
1x Tombstalker
I only have 2 Mutavaults and I can't really swing 2 more right now. I have 1 of each: Bloodstained Mire, Wooded Foothills and Polluted Delta. Should I toss those in, even if they're not Verdant Catacombs?
How did you end up doing? This is the deck I want to play with more than anything right now, but it doesn't always perform in testing. I don't know if that's me piloting incorrectly and maybe i just need to put in more time with it? Sometimes I feel like I end up just durdling around with Loam and not accomplishing much.
4 Bloodghast
2 Kitchen Finks
4 Tarmogoyf
Spells:
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Raven's Crime
3 Lingering Souls
4 Abrupt Decay
4 Smallpox
4 Bitterblossom
4 The Rack
Planeswalkers:
4 Liliana of the Veil
Lands:
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Overgrown Tomb
2 Sunpetal Grove
2 Treetop Village
3 Dragon's Claw
2 Leyline of Sanctity
Round 1: UW gifts Tron- I main board beast within, and have both Extirpate and Surgical Extraction out of the board, so this is a matchup I generally feel good against. I actually feel like I do well against any flavor of Tron. Unfortunately I never draw a bridge or a smallpox for the entire matchup. G1 I beast within his karn and buy some time, but the game drags on and on and he eventually hardcasts emrakul. G2 I pithing needle naming karn, manage to snag Urzas tower with surgical and am slowly getting there with souls tokens. he top decks and plays a Wormcoil engine which I never find an answer for. frustrating loss
Round 2: Zoo - This was my draw due to time. G1 was really just epic all around, he gets in for a lot of damage real quick, and taps out play Qasali Pridemage the turn after I drop the bridge. it earns an abrupt decay, and I dump my hand using ravens crime / loam engine. Stabilized. I'm looking at kird ape, a pair of nacatl, and Emeria Angel sitting across from my 4 souls tokens. I'm using Liliana and waste not to gather steam, sometimes waving a card or two in my hand which leaves me susceptible to his bird tokens, but I have a trump card on the board: Pendelhaven! He doesn't think it prudent to attack into my tokens so I feel safe earning some extra draws off of waste not. After an eternity, I ultimate liliana, and make him choose between his creatures and his lands. lands go to the bin and eventually I find and play the rack. he's starting to accumulate a couple lands here and there, which I ghost quarter periodically. he draws an odd burn spell here and there and gets me to 2 life. slowly the rack gets him to two life. the turn before he would have lost he topdecks a pridemage, and blows up my bridge. I have souls tokens and waste not zombies on my side of the board but he's able to get through for 3 damage. frustrating loss but a damn fine topdeckby my opponent. Game two begins with 14 minutes on the clock, I do not sideboard as typically I'll eat creature decks alive, which is what happens. Over the course of 7 minutes I'm able to smallpox aggressively, earning myself some zombie tokens and souls tokens along the way, mitigating my loss of lands with a flagstones of trokair in play. I have a legendary turn where I must draw 8 cards and get 4-5 zombies in play off multiple waste nots. we finish with 7 minutes on the clock, he boards a bit slowly and with 4 minutes remaining to start g3 we opt to draw. frustrating draw.
Round 3: UR Delver - G1 he just gets there with pyro tokens in record time. I board in mutilate and batter skull. G2 he gets me under 10 life quickly, but Pendelhaven allows me to trade souls tokens with delvers and pyromanecers and swift spears profitably. I eventually find bridge, liliana, and the rack, and the outcome is never in doubt even though he cruises twice. G3 is odd, and I play around mana issues all game long. I never find a bridge, but I get a waste not into play and start playing Souls tokens as well. he cruises and dumps his hands generating lots of pyro tokens. gitxian probe reveals a batter skull in my hand. he passes turn, I draw mutilate, loam for a fetch, crack for basic swamp, which is my only swamp. I cast mutilate for one, wiping his board. next turn I drop batter skull and it goes all the way, amidst a few desperate attempts by my opponent to get back in the game.
Round 4: Weird Bant Flicker deck. This deck is just odd. it also preys on other creature decks by doing weird stuff like making them skip combat phases, repeatedly, flashing in resto angels, etc. We play 3 games but ultimately I love to a rest in peace that I cannot find a decay for, and the fact that he has maindeck answers for my bridge.
I liked the white splash, souls did a ton of work, Pendelhaven and flagstones of trokair both did some work. Stirring Wildwood was actually really great for me all night. I really wanted to put in a single bow of nylea, but was not able to find one. the only matchup where I think it would have been irrelevant is Tron. otherwise, I could have used the damage to flyers or life gain in every single matchup.
Pro: It's a great recurring way to keep us above the life belt from lethal, and with Loam, who cares right?
Con: Surfers to grave hate alot, but so does Loam, and at first feels a bit clunky, needing to have so many forests for it to be effective.
What about Hideous Laughter to go against the Twin decks? Yes it's 2BB but it is Instant speed and can help take out so many other dudes as well.
the red mage lives by the variance and dies by the variance. May the variance be with you, always.
4 smallpox
4 inquisition of kozilek
1 funeral charm
2 duress(will be thoughtseize in the future i think)
4 abrupt decay
3 raven's crime
1 syphon life
4 lingering souls(chose this over bloodghast for flying and able to block)
2 abyssal persecutor
1 grafted wargear
2 phyrexian arena
3 the rack
2 victim of night
4 life from the loam
and possible a maelstrom pulse MB
so far this is 37 without the pulse and i plan on running 23-24 lands, i havent fully worked out my mana base, but i do own 4 wooded foothils, might run 2 and i have 3 poluted delta as my only fetch options currently. i intend on 2-3 buried ruin and 3-4 treetop village as my manland for the trample and with wargear thats a 6/5, also those help ungraft wargear from percy once the 9/8 flying trample has dealt with any life needed to be lowered lol i dont have twilight mire unfortunately, but i do onw a playset of overgrown tomb and woodland cemetery, so ill run 2 cemetery probably and 3 tomb, i want at least 2 forest and 2 swamp mainboard since ive noticed my meta loves path to exile
lilistar82 Here's my take on this deck. And how has your version ran?
1 Buried Ruin
4 Mutavault
3 Overgrown Tomb
4 Polluted Delta
6 Swamp
4 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Creatures
2 Bloodghast
3 Pack Rat
Spells
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Victim of Night
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Life from the Loam
4 Raven's Crime
4 Thoughtseize
4 Shrieking Affliction
3 Ensnaring Bridge
4 The Rack
4 Liliana of the Veil
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Bile Blight
2 Darkblast
1 Ensnaring Bridge
2 Krosan Grip
1 Life from the Loam
2 Pithing Needle
4 Surgical Extraction
Could drop the Shrieking Afflictions for Smallpox and increase the Loam count, of course, if you're going to plan on dredging all the time, and you shouldn't, you should get threats that come in from the GY like Your Lingering Souls or Bloodghast or Gravecrawlers. I'm fine with polluted deltas as the only fetch, I didn't run much green anyway. If you wanna go land denial could try Ghost Quarter or Tectonic Edge but I had trouble with it due to the double black sources even with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. I was brewing with Summer Bloom for those as well to be very annoying, it was probably too cute though.
I'd drop the Grafted Wargear, seems cute. Treetop Village is good. Other budget options include Blackmail, Necrogen Mists.
Since you have the deltas and are running Lingering you could pick up one Godless Shrine then you could fetch it up if you need to hard cast Souls.
Cube
Terricube
Modern
8Rack
Burn
Legacy
Oops, All Spells!
Pox
edit: found it
3 Zombie Infestation
3 Liliana of the Veil
2 Go for the Throat
1 Murderous Cut
2 Abrupt Decay
4 Life from the Loam
4 Faithless Looting
1 Raven's Crime
1 Darkblast
1 Flame Jab
2 Squee, Goblin Nabob
1 Golgari Brownscale
1 Vengeful Pharaoh
4 Bloodghast
4 Lingering Souls
2 Blood Crypt
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Godless Shrine
2 Swamp
1 Forest
2 Polluted Delta
2 Marsh Flats
2 Bloodstained Mire
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Tectonic Edge
1 Dragonskull Summit
Pioneer:UR Pheonix
Modern:U Mono U Tron
EDH
GB Glissa, the traitor: Army of Cans
UW Dragonlord Ojutai: Dragonlord NOjutai
UWGDerevi, Empyrial Tactician "you cannot fight the storm"
R Zirilan of the claw. The solution to every problem is dragons
UB Etrata, the Silencer Cloning assassination
Peasant cube: Cards I own
the red mage lives by the variance and dies by the variance. May the variance be with you, always.