An uber-powerful deck core, featuring endless triggers, can be expanded into a complete deck in the style and colors of your choice.
Sacrifice 3 clues:
Get 3 +1/+1 counters. Gain 9 life. Put 3 humans on the battlefield. And target opponent loses 12 life!
(We're not paying 2 per clue sac)
The shell is Green. From there you can build out to midrange, combo or control; use any additional colors you choose, using your favorite cards. Viable options include: GW humans (and/or angels), GWU toolbox control, GRB Marionette Combo
Why play this deck?
Powerful - able to run over opponents with big draws.
Robust - very difficult to control with endless card advantage
Defensive - token generation and life gain options stop a lot of incoming trouble.
Flexible - can adapt to and overcome any meta decks.
Combo options - artifact combos fit this deck very well, and there's strong tutors available.
Toolbox options - forget top decking. With a repeatable tutor on board, just search up your answer.
Why not play this deck?
There are a ton of triggers. You really need to be on top of them. There are a ton of play options. (For me that's a plus, but not for everybody.) If you like lots of choices, you got them. If you don't want something that complicated, look elsewhere.
How the deck works
Early game, you build up your mana and generate clues. Clues help fix weak draws. You may play creatures to attack or block. Removal, counterspells, board sweepers keep the game under control for you. Very quickly the clue synergies go from okay (we aren't playing any bad cards just for clues) to great to overpowering.
In a Marionette build, you often can just cast it and declare victory. If that's not sufficient at this spot, Tamiyo's Journal cements it. Given the journal, you should be able to tutor every other turn for what you need, and given the a good array of tutor targets, there's hardly a deck in standard that can survive this. Once the game is controlled, you can also tutor for your win condition. GG.
Details
Key Cards
These cards provide cheaper ways to sacrifice clues. You won't draw a card, but you get other value. And each sac triggers all the payoff cards even though you didn't pay the (2) mana.
Syndicate Trafficker - sac for (1), get +1 and indestructible. Paired with tireless tracker and you quickly have a pair of 5 powered (and growing) beaters or blockers. Very hard to kill, or attack through.
Tamiyo's Journal - Planeswalker in disguise. Card draw equal to many planeswalkers in standard. Tutoring far above average. AND: This dodges Fragmentize, so it very rarely dies. Many games, your strategy is to stifle the attack just long enough to get Journal to start generating you clues.
Metalwork Colossus - This card you want in the graveyard. From there, you can sac any or all of your clues for free! Trigger all the value you want. Occasionally you can also cast this as a 5 mana followup to Tamiyo's Journal.
Pia Nalaar - Make your big beater hard to block. a couple sacrifices and their defense is rendered poor. Aside: can make your Smuggler's Copter a 4/3 when you need it to be.
These are your combo cards. The more you have, the more clues you get, and the more your clues are worth.
Tireless Tracker - Every clue sac makes it bigger. Every land drop makes clues (multiple trackers, multiple clues.)
It's such a great card advantage source. And comboed with Tamiyo's Journal you can make it a 6/5 instantly for no mana.
Graf Mole - Gain tons of life in one shot. This is how you trounce aggro and burn.
Ulvenwald Mysteries - 1 is fine, but multiples are insane. 2 copies, every creature death gets 2 clues. Sac 2 clues get 4 humans. 3 copies and we're talking 3 clues, nine humans per suicide. And a journal search or a ton of life loss, etc.
Reckless Fireweaver - Every time you get a clue they take 1. Also works on Journal, Copter, Gearhulks, servos, thopters. Imagine 2 of these and 2 mysteries out. Activate your Copter, swing, then sac it. 2 clues generated, 4 extra damage.
Marionette Weaver - (a) Make 3 servos (6 damage from Fireweaver). or (b) Make this a 4/6. Now sac a clue and deal them 4 life loss. Sac all your other artifacts and say GG. Unlimited hasty damage.
Thraben Inspector - they don't come cheaper than this value creature! Ongoing Investigation - If you run evasive creatures, this is an enormous source of clues. Lifegain is marginal. Erdwal Illuminator - If you really want a lot of clues, here you go! Bygone Bishop - in the long game, a repeatable source of clues.
Weirding Wood - really like this in this deck. Gets you to 4 and 5 mana. Also color-fixes, so very useful in making 3 and 4 color decks work.
Confront the Unknown - If they don't kill your creature, it will be surprisingly big.
As a midrange speed deck, it will need to deal occasionally with either aggro creatures, high-end nuissance stuff, or combo pieces. Some of my favorites:
Quarantine Field - HUGE for this deck. Deals with planeswalkers, Fevered Visions, Sphinx's Tutelage, Jace's Sanctum, etc. Or, just selectively remove a couple of their best creatures, keeping yours around.
Hard Combo. There's so many out there, pick one and run with it. Tamiyo's Journal and a solid board presence keeping you alive will give you the tools to finish them.
Control. There's room instead to run lots of removal. Do this enough and you just win with what you have left. Tamiyo's Journal shines here. You just keep getting the cards you need to reduce their game to rubble.
Besides Journal, we have available: Inventor's Fair - find journal, Colossus, or your favorite artifact. Aetherworks Marvel - the deck doesn't focus on energy, but it does focus on sacrificing artifacts. You can reliably turn this on in a game. Thalia's Lieutenant - Journal, Marvel, Pia, angels, lots to find.
Smuggler's Copter - it flies, it bites, it digs, and it's an artifact for the cards that care. Skysovereign, Consul Flagship - repeatable removal in a deck that (unless it's a controlling build) doesn't get a lot of that.
The shell is a powerful card-advantage plan where all the pieces are useful on their own, but together provide a super-powerful strategy:
An aggressive GRB life-draining list. Syndicate Trafficker and Tireless Tracker often become 5-powered beaters by turn 5. If the board gets gummed up, we switch to life drain to close out the game.
Delirium decks - G/W/U, humans or control, has no problems with this. We kill stuff easily enough to delay the Emerge plan. Elder might slow us a turn. Distended Mindbender might cost us cards, but we draw so many anyway. Emrakul players often are disappointed when they discover virtually nothing useful to do with our cards. Planar Outburst says hi! Or else Sigarda says not interested, Emmy.
GBx Marionette however runs a few cards that Emrakul can really abuse. This deck needs to push speed and get the game close to over. If their life is low and we have a lot of resources, we can take it by going wide.
GWx aggro - Build a strong board and stifle their attacks. Gideon, Verdant, flyers are the main concern. Build up a good stash of clues and get to the high mana counts. From there you can take it down.
Bx control - They can kill creatures and walkers, but not all the Journals or Mysteries. Pursue card advantage. Preserve your Copter if it's dangerous to attack. In GBx preserve clues for Marionette. Protect your card advantage with Mysteries. Kill obnoxious planeswalkers, look to kill them with Tracker and allies, or whatever top-end you can get. Quarantine Field will be good here.
Aggro - Get the board under control by whatever means necessary. Removal, blockers, sweepers, counters. Use mana efficiently. Then when things are stabilized, one way or another you will win. Side into 4x Graf Mole and other 2-drops, side out the expensive stuff and non-defensive stuff. Skyconsul Flagship is incredible against most of these decks, especially if you can Fumigate their board first.
Burn - Use creatures as distractions. Develop mana as quickly as you can. Get Graf Mole lifegain. Sigarda (if GW) is a trump card.
Artifact combos - Do your thing, but at least side into proper removal. Root Out is an interesting option for us.
To play well, you need to think ahead. Do you need blockers or future card advantage? Do you need a card or do you need current value? Do you play out creatures into possible removal, or value enchantments, allowing further life loss?
Journal is a promise for the future, but isn't the card you need for the present. Cast it when your game is safe, or if you need a specific answer next turn.
Generally, tap Journal after your draw, so you know what you don't need to search for.
When the game is under control, but you fear your opponent has something, save your journal tap so you can search for a countermeasure to whatever your opponent presents. Just sac excess clues normally to get the cards you need.
Play Graf Mole late, when you actually have clues ready to sac. Unless it has a viable role as a blocker.
Add any 3rd color. Then add whatever sorts of cards you feel are useful, which you might already have. Your deck will work, with just a little tweaking.
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Current Awesome Deck: UWAll-In GiftsWU Consistent, Resiliant, and way overpowered, making multiple 4/4s per turn.
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWUFree Stuff MidrangeUWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
Went 4-1 at FNM. This is a strong deck, and I'm certain it can be made even better. Hope to convince people to try it!
Perhaps this fact will help: MOST of this deck is from the current block, and virtually nothing of consequence is from Dragons or Origins. So it won't be rotating soon people! It's also very affordable. Apart from Avacyn and Tamiyo (both of which are very optional and often sided out anyway), most of the cards are quite cheap. If you have Declaration in Stone (also optional) and Tireless tracker, that's a big chunk of the budget.
As I said before: fun deck that plays whatever cards you like!
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Current Awesome Deck: UWAll-In GiftsWU Consistent, Resiliant, and way overpowered, making multiple 4/4s per turn.
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWUFree Stuff MidrangeUWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
If you mean the pictures at the top, it's because I consider the deck to be flexible. Any of those cards I may choose to play on any given day, it just depends. Atarka for example is a card I tried online (she's good!) but never in real life because I don't own any.
Add in 24 lands, and you have 20 flex slots to develop whichever direction you choose. Quarantine Field is odd to be part of the core, but if you rely on white removal and play a slower deck, there's nothing else like it. It's not required if you were to go GU or GUB or if you're aggressive. (You shouldn't go GB because not enough clue sources.)
I would add confirm suspicions to this combo. You alread have to have 5 mana to have Journal on the field, so in response to someone casting a spell, sac 3, search for Confirm, counter that spell, and then you get 3 new clues to sacrifice for a second tutor.
That would totally work Deathby. I have considered it in the past, and I only cut it because by the time Journal is online, the extra clues tend not to be necessary anymore. So I'd rather have a counter that works *before* I reach that level of available mana.
To illustrate what I mean by different strategies around the same core, here's a build that doesn't even bother with counterspells. It's Bant Humans, but with Sigarda, Heron's Grace and Ulvenwald Mysteries to spam out human tokens. It works quite well, but is very aggressive instead of controlling. In this kind of deck, Tamiyo's Journal is the nail in the coffin, rather than the crux of fate turn-around moment. It's the sort of aggro that will really frustrate a control player. Not because we're too fast, but because they can't keep us down. So we churn out 10 points of early damage, they Languish, but then we Ulvenwald Mysteries, sac clues, draw cards, generate humans, untap, cast a Thalia's Lieutenant and swing for another 6.
Played a game with the above list. When you get 2 Ulvenwald Mysteries, things get ridiculous. Play Thraben Inspector, get a clue. Suicide him, Get 2 more clues. Sacrifice the 3 clues get 6 humans.
So imagine having 3 guys out in a board stall. Cast Planar Outburst getting 6 clues, sac them to get 12 humans, and then drop a Thalia's Lieutenant. This is not fair magic. And meanwhile, nobody is playing enchanment removal except the ineffective Dromoka's Command, or artifact removal except the occasional Kolaghan's Command. So these shenanigans run unchecked.
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Current Awesome Deck: UWAll-In GiftsWU Consistent, Resiliant, and way overpowered, making multiple 4/4s per turn.
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWUFree Stuff MidrangeUWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
I played the human-centric build with Ulvenwald Mysteries tonight. SOOOO much fun, everybody in the world is missing out! It has absolutely busted plays.
Tonight, with a nearly empty board except Ulvenwald Mysteries and clues, my opponent having 4 giant eldrazi creatures, I tapped all my mana for A second Mysteries and a Tamiyo's Journal. Opponent figured he could swing for lethal, but instead I activated Journal, generated 6 blockers and searched up a sweeper. Very soon I had a huge army of creatures and swung in for 30 damage.
Another match I was facing burn, but quickly had counters on a pair of creatures out of reach backed up by Mysteries to continue the pressure.
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Current Awesome Deck: UWAll-In GiftsWU Consistent, Resiliant, and way overpowered, making multiple 4/4s per turn.
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWUFree Stuff MidrangeUWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
Hey, I am new to magic but I am interested in trying to build this list. Should I just start with a budget version of GW humans, stick in a few big legendaries like Sigarda and Gisela, or should I go and try and build a budget control version. I feel like this should be a GW humans deck, with a focus on clue generation/synergy, and with Tamiyo's Journal as an alternate win condition/finisher.
As for Aetherworks Marvel, I don't think it has that great synergy with Journal. If you want to use Journal, you should double down on that, not use AM. Maybe I am wrong there, but I think AM would be better in a pure energy based shell.
Speaking of Kaladesh, does this list become weaker due to more artifact hate? Journal was a rogue card in SOI because of little artifact hate, but now it might be a much weaker choice.
There really isn't any good artifact hate in Kaladesh, so it won't be a problem. I suggest the humans version, maybe with angels as well. Gisela can be very useful in stopping those Copters around the new standard. If you run Gisela, make sure to have 1 Bruna too.
Overall it works extremely well for a budget deck. It isn't quite the same level as pro decks overall but it's close.
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Current Awesome Deck: UWAll-In GiftsWU Consistent, Resiliant, and way overpowered, making multiple 4/4s per turn.
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWUFree Stuff MidrangeUWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
Now in absence of Journal, we have a very powerful creature who can sac clues for 1. You don't get to draw cards, but *all* the standard triggers happen, and we have two new ones with MM and ST: An ever-growing virtually indestructible dude, and a guy who actively drains the enemy's life total: 3 clues, 4 power = 12 life lost in an instant.
So BG, BUG adn BWG are now on the table for deck builds.
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Current Awesome Deck: UWAll-In GiftsWU Consistent, Resiliant, and way overpowered, making multiple 4/4s per turn.
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWUFree Stuff MidrangeUWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
It can win by attacking with giant Trackers and Traffickers (Key to the City helps), win wide with Ulvenwald Mysteries, or combo out with Marionette Master, with sac-assistance from Journal, a discarded Metalwork Colossus, or Trafficker.
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Current Awesome Deck: UWAll-In GiftsWU Consistent, Resiliant, and way overpowered, making multiple 4/4s per turn.
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWUFree Stuff MidrangeUWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
New deck: This time adding RED! Reckless Fireweaver and Pia Nalaar provide notable clue synergies that are respectively a nice addition to Marionette Master's life draining and providing evasion to giantizing Syndicate Trafficker and Tireless Tracker.
I've had my eye on the Marionette + Metalwork combo for a little while now, and I'm not sure whether combo (see the Ever After Combo thread) or this strategy is best. I'm very interested to see how this develops.
So many options, I can't decide! Here's an attempt at BUG.
What I like here is it's very defensive, with a 1/3 flyer, a 1/4 lifelink and a 3/1 Trafficker at the 2-spot, plus grasp of darkness. Also with Illuminator we get extra clues so we don't have as much fear of using them all up, and Kingpin will scry all the more. The mana base is a bit of a problem, but Weirding Wood helps tremendously.
Back with a decklist. I have been super busy with school, and only now had time to put this together. Pretty much the same as the earlier humans build, but with a few changes, mainly cards I pulled from the Kaladesh prerelease. I am a little concerned about the manabase, don't really know how strong it is.
Backup wincons are Tamiyo, Gearhulk, and Westvale Abbey. Main wincon is of course winning through and army of hexproof humans. Let me know what you think.
Back with a decklist. I have been super busy with school, and only now had time to put this together. Pretty much the same as the earlier humans build, but with a few changes, mainly cards I pulled from the Kaladesh prerelease. I am a little concerned about the manabase, don't really know how strong it is.
Backup wincons are Tamiyo, Gearhulk, and Westvale Abbey. Main wincon is of course winning through and army of hexproof humans. Let me know what you think.
I know this is a clue centric deck, but I think I really like this with Eldritch Evolution in it. Maybe 3 Evolutions and go to 1 Journal, and 2 each of Mysteries and Unknowns?
I know this is a clue centric deck, but I think I really like this with Eldritch Evolution in it. Maybe 3 Evolutions and go to 1 Journal, and 2 each of Mysteries and Unknowns?
Not really sure what Evolution would accomplish here. If I had several big creatures, sure, but I only have sigarda and the gearhulk.
I know this is a clue centric deck, but I think I really like this with Eldritch Evolution in it. Maybe 3 Evolutions and go to 1 Journal, and 2 each of Mysteries and Unknowns?
Not really sure what Evolution would accomplish here. If I had several big creatures, sure, but I only have sigarda and the gearhulk.
It is just another means of getting them on the board faster. Once your Mage is out, there isn't any blink effects so he is pretty much a chump blocker. Get a Sigarda on the board one turn then the next evolution a Mage into the Gearhulk and put the counters on Sigarda or across multiple creatures and swing. Or they have a 6/6 beast token on board turn 4 and you don't have a reflector mage in hand. Evolution a Thraben Inspector into a Reflector Mage and bounce. I assume you are using the Journal to get Tamiyo and your big creatures. Evolution gets the creatures faster it just eats a small creature rather than 3 clues.
We're still working out the numbers but the main idea is to abuse Eternal Scourge // Scrapheap Scrounger // Prized Amalgam // Haunted Dead synergy with Traverse the Ulvenwald and any sac outlet.
The deck is very aggressive and resilent to all kinds of removal and control, yet features a good late game against other creature decks. The only problem is to find the balance between all the combo pieces, and still have some space for essential removal.
Maindeck Lost Legacy is a meta call to foil zombies and Eldrazi, and stil can be played at our own Scourges for card advantage.
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Sacrifice 3 clues:
Get 3 +1/+1 counters. Gain 9 life. Put 3 humans on the battlefield. And target opponent loses 12 life!
(We're not paying 2 per clue sac)
Why play this deck?
Powerful - able to run over opponents with big draws.
Robust - very difficult to control with endless card advantage
Defensive - token generation and life gain options stop a lot of incoming trouble.
Flexible - can adapt to and overcome any meta decks.
Combo options - artifact combos fit this deck very well, and there's strong tutors available.
Toolbox options - forget top decking. With a repeatable tutor on board, just search up your answer.
Why not play this deck?
There are a ton of triggers. You really need to be on top of them. There are a ton of play options. (For me that's a plus, but not for everybody.) If you like lots of choices, you got them. If you don't want something that complicated, look elsewhere.
How the deck works
Early game, you build up your mana and generate clues. Clues help fix weak draws. You may play creatures to attack or block. Removal, counterspells, board sweepers keep the game under control for you. Very quickly the clue synergies go from okay (we aren't playing any bad cards just for clues) to great to overpowering.
In a Marionette build, you often can just cast it and declare victory. If that's not sufficient at this spot, Tamiyo's Journal cements it. Given the journal, you should be able to tutor every other turn for what you need, and given the a good array of tutor targets, there's hardly a deck in standard that can survive this. Once the game is controlled, you can also tutor for your win condition. GG.
Details
Key Cards
These cards provide cheaper ways to sacrifice clues. You won't draw a card, but you get other value. And each sac triggers all the payoff cards even though you didn't pay the (2) mana.
Syndicate Trafficker - sac for (1), get +1 and indestructible. Paired with tireless tracker and you quickly have a pair of 5 powered (and growing) beaters or blockers. Very hard to kill, or attack through.
Tamiyo's Journal - Planeswalker in disguise. Card draw equal to many planeswalkers in standard. Tutoring far above average. AND: This dodges Fragmentize, so it very rarely dies. Many games, your strategy is to stifle the attack just long enough to get Journal to start generating you clues.
Metalwork Colossus - This card you want in the graveyard. From there, you can sac any or all of your clues for free! Trigger all the value you want. Occasionally you can also cast this as a 5 mana followup to Tamiyo's Journal.
Pia Nalaar - Make your big beater hard to block. a couple sacrifices and their defense is rendered poor. Aside: can make your Smuggler's Copter a 4/3 when you need it to be.
These are your combo cards. The more you have, the more clues you get, and the more your clues are worth.
Tireless Tracker - Every clue sac makes it bigger. Every land drop makes clues (multiple trackers, multiple clues.)
It's such a great card advantage source. And comboed with Tamiyo's Journal you can make it a 6/5 instantly for no mana.
Graf Mole - Gain tons of life in one shot. This is how you trounce aggro and burn.
Ulvenwald Mysteries - 1 is fine, but multiples are insane. 2 copies, every creature death gets 2 clues. Sac 2 clues get 4 humans. 3 copies and we're talking 3 clues, nine humans per suicide. And a journal search or a ton of life loss, etc.
Reckless Fireweaver - Every time you get a clue they take 1. Also works on Journal, Copter, Gearhulks, servos, thopters. Imagine 2 of these and 2 mysteries out. Activate your Copter, swing, then sac it. 2 clues generated, 4 extra damage.
Marionette Weaver - (a) Make 3 servos (6 damage from Fireweaver). or (b) Make this a 4/6. Now sac a clue and deal them 4 life loss. Sac all your other artifacts and say GG. Unlimited hasty damage.
Thraben Inspector - they don't come cheaper than this value creature!
Ongoing Investigation - If you run evasive creatures, this is an enormous source of clues. Lifegain is marginal.
Erdwal Illuminator - If you really want a lot of clues, here you go!
Bygone Bishop - in the long game, a repeatable source of clues.
Weirding Wood - really like this in this deck. Gets you to 4 and 5 mana. Also color-fixes, so very useful in making 3 and 4 color decks work.
Confront the Unknown - If they don't kill your creature, it will be surprisingly big.
As a midrange speed deck, it will need to deal occasionally with either aggro creatures, high-end nuissance stuff, or combo pieces. Some of my favorites:
Quarantine Field - HUGE for this deck. Deals with planeswalkers, Fevered Visions, Sphinx's Tutelage, Jace's Sanctum, etc. Or, just selectively remove a couple of their best creatures, keeping yours around.
Anguished Unmaking
Fragmentize
Grasp of Darkness, Ruinous Path
Negate, etc.
Eliminate the Competition. We may have lots of tokens, and not a lot of space for removal cards, so this can be a pretty good deal.
Fumigate, Radiant Flames. Our non-creature value engines (and survivors like Syndicate Tracker make this a good option even though we have vulnerable stuff.
Stasis Snare - a good response to Emrakul, Elder, Avacyn, Smasher, Gideon, Copter.
Artifact synergies can win all by themselves, but you can choose other means instead. Promising ideas:
Humans, with Thalia's Lieutenant pumping/pumped by all the humans including Mysteries tokens.
Angels, with tutoring up Gisela, Bruna, Avacyn, Angel of Invention
Hard Combo. There's so many out there, pick one and run with it. Tamiyo's Journal and a solid board presence keeping you alive will give you the tools to finish them.
Control. There's room instead to run lots of removal. Do this enough and you just win with what you have left. Tamiyo's Journal shines here. You just keep getting the cards you need to reduce their game to rubble.
Besides Journal, we have available:
Inventor's Fair - find journal, Colossus, or your favorite artifact.
Aetherworks Marvel - the deck doesn't focus on energy, but it does focus on sacrificing artifacts. You can reliably turn this on in a game.
Thalia's Lieutenant - Journal, Marvel, Pia, angels, lots to find.
Smuggler's Copter - it flies, it bites, it digs, and it's an artifact for the cards that care.
Skysovereign, Consul Flagship - repeatable removal in a deck that (unless it's a controlling build) doesn't get a lot of that.
The shell is a powerful card-advantage plan where all the pieces are useful on their own, but together provide a super-powerful strategy:
4 Thraben Inspector
4 Ulvenwald Mysteries
1 Graf Mole
2 Tamiyo's Journal
An aggressive GRB life-draining list. Syndicate Trafficker and Tireless Tracker often become 5-powered beaters by turn 5. If the board gets gummed up, we switch to life drain to close out the game.
4x Aether Hub
4x Blooming Marsh
4x Evolving Wilds
2x Foreboding Ruins
2x Forest
1x Inventor's Fair
1x Mountain
2x Smoldering Marsh
4x Swamp
Instant (3)
3x Grasp of Darkness
Creature (18)
2x Marionette Master
2x Metalwork Colossus
2x Pia Nalaar
4x Reckless Fireweaver
4x Syndicate Trafficker
4x Tireless Tracker
1x Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
4x Smuggler's Copter
2x Tamiyo's Journal
Sorcery (1)
1x Eliminate the Competition
Enchantment (7)
4x Ulvenwald Mysteries
3x Weirding Wood
2x Blossoming Defense
1x Eliminate the Competition
2x Murder
2x Natural State
3x Radiant Flames
2x Root Out
1x Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
2x Voldaren Pariah
A control list, designed to contain the tier 1 strategies, with over-the-top tutorable cards.
4x Canopy Vista
4x Evolving Wilds
5x Forest
2x Island
1x Lumbering Falls
2x Plains
4x Port Town
4x Botanical Sanctum
Counter (4)
1x Rebuff
1x Negate
1x Summary Dismissal
1x Void Shatter
Clues (16)
1x Confront the Unknown
2x Tamiyo's Journal
4x Thraben Inspector
4x Tireless Tracker
3x Weirding Wood
1x Graf Mole
1x Blessed Alliance
3x Declaration in Stone
1x Descend upon the Sinful
1x Cataclysmic Gearhulk
2x Quarantine Field
2x Stasis Snare
Utility (2)
2x Anticipate
Win (4)
1x Sigarda, Heron's Grace
1x Sphinx of the Final Word
1x Tamiyo, Field Researcher
1x Archangel Avacyn
1x Ulvenwald Mysteries
1x Angelic Purge
1x Archangel Avacyn
1x Bruna, the Fading Light
2x Glimmer of Genius
1x Fumigate
1x Descend upon the Sinful
1x Gisela, the Broken Blade
3x Graf Mole
3x Sylvan Advocate
A humans list, for hard hitting beatdown, but that virtually can't be stopped by control.
2x Heron's Grace Champion
4x Reflector Mage
2x Sigarda, Heron's Grace
4x Thalia's Lieutenant
4x Thraben Inspector
4x Tireless Tracker
Enchantment (8)
1x Quarantine Field
4x Ulvenwald Mysteries
3x Weirding Wood
Planeswalker (1)
1x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
Land (23)
3x Evolving Wilds
4x Forest
4x Fortified Village
1x Island
1x Westvale Abbey
2x Plains
4x Prairie Stream
4x Botanical Sanctum
1x Blessed Alliance
3x Confront the Unknown
Sorcery (2)
2x Declaration in Stone
Artifact (2)
2x Tamiyo's Journal
2x Archangel Avacyn
1x Bruna, the Fading Light
1x Descend upon the Sinful
3x Gisela, the Broken Blade
3x Graf Mole
2x Fragmentize
1x Quarantine Field
2x Thalia's Lancers
Delirium decks - G/W/U, humans or control, has no problems with this. We kill stuff easily enough to delay the Emerge plan. Elder might slow us a turn. Distended Mindbender might cost us cards, but we draw so many anyway. Emrakul players often are disappointed when they discover virtually nothing useful to do with our cards. Planar Outburst says hi! Or else Sigarda says not interested, Emmy.
GBx Marionette however runs a few cards that Emrakul can really abuse. This deck needs to push speed and get the game close to over. If their life is low and we have a lot of resources, we can take it by going wide.
GWx aggro - Build a strong board and stifle their attacks. Gideon, Verdant, flyers are the main concern. Build up a good stash of clues and get to the high mana counts. From there you can take it down.
Bx control - They can kill creatures and walkers, but not all the Journals or Mysteries. Pursue card advantage. Preserve your Copter if it's dangerous to attack. In GBx preserve clues for Marionette. Protect your card advantage with Mysteries. Kill obnoxious planeswalkers, look to kill them with Tracker and allies, or whatever top-end you can get. Quarantine Field will be good here.
Aggro - Get the board under control by whatever means necessary. Removal, blockers, sweepers, counters. Use mana efficiently. Then when things are stabilized, one way or another you will win. Side into 4x Graf Mole and other 2-drops, side out the expensive stuff and non-defensive stuff. Skyconsul Flagship is incredible against most of these decks, especially if you can Fumigate their board first.
Burn - Use creatures as distractions. Develop mana as quickly as you can. Get Graf Mole lifegain. Sigarda (if GW) is a trump card.
Artifact combos - Do your thing, but at least side into proper removal. Root Out is an interesting option for us.
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWU Free Stuff Midrange UWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
My greatest hits:
GURFate Reforged Temur Ascendancy COMBORUG
GUDragons of Tarkir Whisperwood Forever UG
Add to this two cards: Tamiyo's Journal and Weirding Wood.
Add any 3rd color. Then add whatever sorts of cards you feel are useful, which you might already have. Your deck will work, with just a little tweaking.
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWU Free Stuff Midrange UWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
My greatest hits:
GURFate Reforged Temur Ascendancy COMBORUG
GUDragons of Tarkir Whisperwood Forever UG
Perhaps this fact will help: MOST of this deck is from the current block, and virtually nothing of consequence is from Dragons or Origins. So it won't be rotating soon people! It's also very affordable. Apart from Avacyn and Tamiyo (both of which are very optional and often sided out anyway), most of the cards are quite cheap. If you have Declaration in Stone (also optional) and Tireless tracker, that's a big chunk of the budget.
As I said before: fun deck that plays whatever cards you like!
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWU Free Stuff Midrange UWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
My greatest hits:
GURFate Reforged Temur Ascendancy COMBORUG
GUDragons of Tarkir Whisperwood Forever UG
I consider the core of the deck to be this:
4 Thraben Inspector
3 Weirding Wood
1 Graf Mole
2 Tamiyo's Journal
2 Quarantine Field
Add in 24 lands, and you have 20 flex slots to develop whichever direction you choose. Quarantine Field is odd to be part of the core, but if you rely on white removal and play a slower deck, there's nothing else like it. It's not required if you were to go GU or GUB or if you're aggressive. (You shouldn't go GB because not enough clue sources.)
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWU Free Stuff Midrange UWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
My greatest hits:
GURFate Reforged Temur Ascendancy COMBORUG
GUDragons of Tarkir Whisperwood Forever UG
To illustrate what I mean by different strategies around the same core, here's a build that doesn't even bother with counterspells. It's Bant Humans, but with Sigarda, Heron's Grace and Ulvenwald Mysteries to spam out human tokens. It works quite well, but is very aggressive instead of controlling. In this kind of deck, Tamiyo's Journal is the nail in the coffin, rather than the crux of fate turn-around moment. It's the sort of aggro that will really frustrate a control player. Not because we're too fast, but because they can't keep us down. So we churn out 10 points of early damage, they Languish, but then we Ulvenwald Mysteries, sac clues, draw cards, generate humans, untap, cast a Thalia's Lieutenant and swing for another 6.
1x Graf Mole
4x Reflector Mage
2x Sigarda, Heron's Grace
4x Thalia's Lieutenant
4x Thraben Inspector
4x Tireless Tracker
1x Whirler Rogue
Enchantment (8)
1x Quarantine Field
4x Ulvenwald Mysteries
3x Weirding Wood
Planeswalker (1)
1x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
3x Evolving Wilds
4x Forest
4x Fortified Village
2x Island
2x Plains
4x Prairie Stream
4x Yavimaya Coast
Instant (4)
1x Blessed Alliance
3x Confront the Unknown
Sorcery (2)
2x Declaration in Stone
Artifact (2)
2x Tamiyo's Journal
2x Archangel Avacyn
1x Bruna, the Fading Light
1x Descend upon the Sinful
1x Gisela, the Broken Blade
3x Graf Mole
2x Negate
1x Quarantine Field
2x Thalia's Lancers
2x Whirler Rogue
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWU Free Stuff Midrange UWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
My greatest hits:
GURFate Reforged Temur Ascendancy COMBORUG
GUDragons of Tarkir Whisperwood Forever UG
So imagine having 3 guys out in a board stall. Cast Planar Outburst getting 6 clues, sac them to get 12 humans, and then drop a Thalia's Lieutenant. This is not fair magic. And meanwhile, nobody is playing enchanment removal except the ineffective Dromoka's Command, or artifact removal except the occasional Kolaghan's Command. So these shenanigans run unchecked.
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWU Free Stuff Midrange UWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
My greatest hits:
GURFate Reforged Temur Ascendancy COMBORUG
GUDragons of Tarkir Whisperwood Forever UG
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWU Free Stuff Midrange UWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
My greatest hits:
GURFate Reforged Temur Ascendancy COMBORUG
GUDragons of Tarkir Whisperwood Forever UG
Tonight, with a nearly empty board except Ulvenwald Mysteries and clues, my opponent having 4 giant eldrazi creatures, I tapped all my mana for A second Mysteries and a Tamiyo's Journal. Opponent figured he could swing for lethal, but instead I activated Journal, generated 6 blockers and searched up a sweeper. Very soon I had a huge army of creatures and swung in for 30 damage.
Another match I was facing burn, but quickly had counters on a pair of creatures out of reach backed up by Mysteries to continue the pressure.
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWU Free Stuff Midrange UWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
My greatest hits:
GURFate Reforged Temur Ascendancy COMBORUG
GUDragons of Tarkir Whisperwood Forever UG
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWU Free Stuff Midrange UWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
My greatest hits:
GURFate Reforged Temur Ascendancy COMBORUG
GUDragons of Tarkir Whisperwood Forever UG
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWU Free Stuff Midrange UWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
My greatest hits:
GURFate Reforged Temur Ascendancy COMBORUG
GUDragons of Tarkir Whisperwood Forever UG
As for Aetherworks Marvel, I don't think it has that great synergy with Journal. If you want to use Journal, you should double down on that, not use AM. Maybe I am wrong there, but I think AM would be better in a pure energy based shell.
Speaking of Kaladesh, does this list become weaker due to more artifact hate? Journal was a rogue card in SOI because of little artifact hate, but now it might be a much weaker choice.
Overall it works extremely well for a budget deck. It isn't quite the same level as pro decks overall but it's close.
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWU Free Stuff Midrange UWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
My greatest hits:
GURFate Reforged Temur Ascendancy COMBORUG
GUDragons of Tarkir Whisperwood Forever UG
Now in absence of Journal, we have a very powerful creature who can sac clues for 1. You don't get to draw cards, but *all* the standard triggers happen, and we have two new ones with MM and ST: An ever-growing virtually indestructible dude, and a guy who actively drains the enemy's life total: 3 clues, 4 power = 12 life lost in an instant.
So BG, BUG adn BWG are now on the table for deck builds.
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWU Free Stuff Midrange UWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
My greatest hits:
GURFate Reforged Temur Ascendancy COMBORUG
GUDragons of Tarkir Whisperwood Forever UG
4x Aether Hub
2x Blooming Marsh
3x Canopy Vista
4x Concealed Courtyard
4x Evolving Wilds
2x Forest
1x Geier Reach Sanitarium
2x Plains
3x Swamp
Creature (16)
2x Marionette Master
2x Metalwork Colossus
4x Syndicate Trafficker
4x Thraben Inspector
4x Tireless Tracker
4x Ulvenwald Mysteries
1x Underhanded Designs
4x Weirding Wood
Artifact (8)
2x Key to the City
4x Smuggler's Copter
2x Tamiyo's Journal
Instant (2)
1x Anguished Unmaking
1x Immolating Glare
1x Blessed Alliance
2x Blossoming Defense
2x Cataclysmic Gearhulk
1x Descend upon the Sinful
3x Fragmentize
2x Sigarda, Heron's Grace
2x Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
2x Stasis Snare
It can win by attacking with giant Trackers and Traffickers (Key to the City helps), win wide with Ulvenwald Mysteries, or combo out with Marionette Master, with sac-assistance from Journal, a discarded Metalwork Colossus, or Trafficker.
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWU Free Stuff Midrange UWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
My greatest hits:
GURFate Reforged Temur Ascendancy COMBORUG
GUDragons of Tarkir Whisperwood Forever UG
4x Aether Hub
2x Blooming Marsh
2x Cinder Glade
4x Evolving Wilds
2x Foreboding Ruins
2x Forest
1x Inventor's Fair
2x Mountain
2x Smoldering Marsh
3x Swamp
Creature (18)
2x Marionette Master
2x Metalwork Colossus
2x Pia Nalaar
4x Reckless Fireweaver
4x Syndicate Trafficker
4x Tireless Tracker
1x Sinister Concoction
4x Ulvenwald Mysteries
1x Underhanded Designs
4x Weirding Wood
Instant (2)
1x Blossoming Defense
1x Unlicensed Disintegration
Artifact (6)
4x Smuggler's Copter
2x Tamiyo's Journal
2x Blossoming Defense
1x Lightning Axe
2x Murder
3x Natural State
4x Radiant Flames
1x Sinister Concoction
2x Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWU Free Stuff Midrange UWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
My greatest hits:
GURFate Reforged Temur Ascendancy COMBORUG
GUDragons of Tarkir Whisperwood Forever UG
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWU Free Stuff Midrange UWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
My greatest hits:
GURFate Reforged Temur Ascendancy COMBORUG
GUDragons of Tarkir Whisperwood Forever UG
4x Thraben Inspector
4x Syndicate Trafficker
4x Deathcap Cultivator
4x Duskwatch Recruiter
4x Tireless Tracker
2x Bygone Bishop
1x Graf Mole
1x Marionette Master
Artifacts (6)
2x Tamiyo's Journal
2x Magnifying Glass
2x Cultivator's Caravan
2x Weirding Wood
1x Quarantine Field
Instant (3)
3x Confront the Unknown
Land (24)
3x Fortified Village
3x Canopy Vista
3x Blooming Marsh
3x Concealed Courtyard
4x Forest
4x Plains
4x Swamp
4x Anguished Unmaking
4x Declaration in Stone
4x Stasis Snare
3x Blossoming Defense
Insane mana ramp and card draw
What I like here is it's very defensive, with a 1/3 flyer, a 1/4 lifelink and a 3/1 Trafficker at the 2-spot, plus grasp of darkness. Also with Illuminator we get extra clues so we don't have as much fear of using them all up, and Kingpin will scry all the more. The mana base is a bit of a problem, but Weirding Wood helps tremendously.
4 Erdwal Illuminator
2 Graf Mole
2 Marionette Master
4 Syndicate Trafficker
4 Contraband Kingpin
2 Forest
3 Swamp
4 Evolving Wilds
3 Blooming Marsh
4 Aether Hub
3 Botanical Sanctum
3 Sunken Hollow
2 Island
2 Confront the Unknown
4 Grasp of Darkness
2 Tamiyo's Journal
4 Ulvenwald Mysteries
3 Weirding Wood
1 Confront the Unknown
2 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
2 Natural State
2 Ceremonious Rejection
2 Negate
2 Voldaren Pariah
1 Flaying Tendrils
3 Gnarlwood Dryad
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWU Free Stuff Midrange UWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
My greatest hits:
GURFate Reforged Temur Ascendancy COMBORUG
GUDragons of Tarkir Whisperwood Forever UG
2 Aether Hub
3 Evolving Wilds
5 Forest
4 Fortified Village
1 Island
3 Plains
4 Prairie Stream
1 Westvale Abbey
Instants
1 Blessed Alliance
3 Confront the Unknown
Sorceries
2 Declaration in Stone
3 Ulvenwald Mysteries
3 Weirding Wood
1 Quarantine Field
Creatures
2 Heron's Grace Champion
4 Reflector Mage
2 Sigarda, Heron's Grace
4 Thalia's Lieutenant
4 Thraben Inspector
4 Tireless Tracker
1 Verdurous Gearhulk
Planeswalker
1 Tamiyo, Field Researcher
2 Tamiyo's Journal
1 Bruna, the Fading Light
1 Descend upon the Sinful
4 Erdwal Illuminator
1 Gisela, the Broken Blade
4 Graf Mole
2 Negate
1 Quarantine Field
1 Thalia's Lancers
Backup wincons are Tamiyo, Gearhulk, and Westvale Abbey. Main wincon is of course winning through and army of hexproof humans. Let me know what you think.
I know this is a clue centric deck, but I think I really like this with Eldritch Evolution in it. Maybe 3 Evolutions and go to 1 Journal, and 2 each of Mysteries and Unknowns?
Not really sure what Evolution would accomplish here. If I had several big creatures, sure, but I only have sigarda and the gearhulk.
It is just another means of getting them on the board faster. Once your Mage is out, there isn't any blink effects so he is pretty much a chump blocker. Get a Sigarda on the board one turn then the next evolution a Mage into the Gearhulk and put the counters on Sigarda or across multiple creatures and swing. Or they have a 6/6 beast token on board turn 4 and you don't have a reflector mage in hand. Evolution a Thraben Inspector into a Reflector Mage and bounce. I assume you are using the Journal to get Tamiyo and your big creatures. Evolution gets the creatures faster it just eats a small creature rather than 3 clues.
3 Westvale Abbey
21 other lands
4 Syndicate Trafficker
4 Scrapheap Scrounger
4 Eternal Scourge
1 Graf Mole
1 Marionette Master
1 Abolisher of Bloodlines
1 Zulaport Cutthroat
2 Tireless Tracker
4 Noose Constrictor
4 Haunted Dead
4 Prized Amalgam
4 Ulvenwald Mysteries
3 Traverse the Ulvenwald
4 Vessel of Nascency
3 Lost Legacy
We're still working out the numbers but the main idea is to abuse Eternal Scourge // Scrapheap Scrounger // Prized Amalgam // Haunted Dead synergy with Traverse the Ulvenwald and any sac outlet.
The deck is very aggressive and resilent to all kinds of removal and control, yet features a good late game against other creature decks. The only problem is to find the balance between all the combo pieces, and still have some space for essential removal.
Maindeck Lost Legacy is a meta call to foil zombies and Eldrazi, and stil can be played at our own Scourges for card advantage.