In creamy's defense he has been here before the GGT horde. As someone who has been playing dredge for a couple of months I litereally did not know that until I was playing and my local PTQ and after a match my opponent helped me a bit(He had a lot more experience then me). My opinion on the Grave-troll is that he costs too much and doesn't do enough. If we do manage to play him we won't be casting another creature for VV. He has the regenerate which is nice but they can keep chump blocking him. On the otherhand Hooting mandrils has trample and Tombstalker has flying. Both of which are easily t3 playable plus a VV trigger. GGT has a lot more potential if their board is clear but in my experience in games where I could have cast GGT I had probably already lost. I think I'll sell mine till the hype calms, let me know how they work.
I dont understand how someone can view hardcasting GGT in modern as a viable play. If I thought having 5 mana up in a dredge deck was an scenario I would much rather be casting Unburial rites for something that has a much larger effect on the board. I dont think that GGT is a game changer in dredge either, it just makes dredging a bit more consistent.
I think it only has a place in All in dredge. When it hits and you have at least have one dredger in your hand or grave already Im pretty sure ur gonna dredge half ur deck.
Half your deck? Have you actually played this deck in real time against a legitimate opponent? 1 dredger = 4 or 5 cards, that's not half your deck. 2 dredgers = 6-8 cards realistically. Good luck with that.
Learn how dredge works with multiple draws and then you have permission to post in this thread again.
Regardless. It seems like many have drifted pretty far from the BUG combo version nowadays, so I don't know how relevant it is. Ideally if you can get a birds out on turn one you can dark deal turn two and maybe mill half ur deck and go off turn 3 with something like fatestitcher 2x gravecrawler.
If not and you have a faithless instead turn one, you dredge much more and go off turn 4.
I think it only has a place in All in dredge. When it hits and you have at least have one dredger in your hand or grave already Im pretty sure ur gonna dredge half ur deck.
Thanks for breaking that down Badd. But I don't think that he was asking if it would be competitive or not but what one would look like.
Since you shouldnt worry too much about wrecking or dealing with upper division decks I would look through the gatherer on the WoTC website for a number of samurai cards that you like or think would work well together and post them here. Then Im sure that the community would be more than willing to throw some ideas or critique ur way on how to improve it.
This tread tends to pop up every other month or so, mostly because they really could make a cool themed deck. Unfortunately they are not as good or competitive as everyone wants them to be. To help you can dip in to the generic human or warrior/soldier tribes for some good synergies.
However a Pure samurai deck can make a very fun casual deck with some legendary equipments and such. If anything I might add some kind of mama acceleration to get your larger samurai or swords out earlier. Maybe a Birds of paradise or Avacyn's Pilgrim. I think Birds fit the theme a bit better. Sry I dont have a deck list for you.
Resolved Iona wrecks a number of control and combo matchups if resolved. Alot of midranged decks can also fold if they dont already have an answer on board. Ideally the earlier you can reanimate the better but that's why majority of this deck is control to deal with everything prior to the actual reanimation.
Terrastodon is usually a sideboard reanimation target. He's only useful in certain match-ups. Most of the time Elesh Norn is going to do more work for you. But in a given match-up where lets say neither Norn nor Iona is your primo fatty, Terastodon is great at being super aggressive. Though like Iona, he's pretty much uncastable if you draw him.
I have some sideboard notes in the works, but I need to test against a few other tier decks to get everything complete. Does anyone here test on cockatrice that would be willing to help me put a few other tier decks together to play 4C Gifts against? We would need to agree on a generic sideboard and discuss sideboard choices beforehand. I personally don't mind playing the opposing deck or 4C gifts, as I have a lot of experience with a variety of playstyles.
Ya I might be able to hit you up for a couple games. Just need a date and time.
So in some testing this deck gets rocked by a resolved Blood Moon... duh. But seriously. Trying to gift for answers after moon already hit the board unless you saw it coming is almost impopsicle.
With running UB comes consistency, but you do lose raw power. How are you going to win the games? Drownyard + Jace, Memory Adept seems best to me, but you give up the whole teachings + Revelation shell and you give up many good sideboard cards by not splashing white. You also lose rest in peace vs decks with Eldrazi and need to play some other exiling GY hate like Ravenous Trap.
If you do play UB, what is your plan against decks like Scapeshift and Tron?
Shadow of doubt wrecks both of them. With black you also gain combo extraction like surgical and extirpate.
Thank you. That is actually going to be the new primer for the thread.
@your list: I can definitely dig it. I've always liked Academy ruins in the main deck since it opens up for EE, one of my favorite cards. How do you like Geist? I used to run 4 but since switched to KOTR for the added utility. Also, why leyline in your board? Is burn a big problem in your metagame?
I can't imagine playing less than 3 Lingering Souls, I guess your miser Elspeth helps with token production? Have you been lucky enough to stick her alongside Geist? Such a brutal interaction
Academy is awesome cause it allows me to lock out certain decks G1 that appear frequently in my meta. GOD I HATE MERFOLK
My theory on creatures in this deck is there arent alot of slots for them so the ones you put in need to be as threatening and as hard to remove as possible. Gofy takes multiple bolts or dudes to kill and Geist dodges anything pointed at it. Both also can win the game alone and dont require my attention to stay alive, like Scooze and KOTR (Even though I LOVE both of these cards, I need to find a deck that use these as a center piece).
Leyline is too good against so many things in my meta. TONS of targeted hand disruption, burn, scapeshift etc.
I cut one lingering souls so that I could push goyf to 4. I have found in most cases I would only ever need to gift for souls. Not sure if this is the right choice, Ill trial it and if I get my balls rocked super fast by aggro ill drop something else.
Elspeth is neat addition in my eyes. Ive loved the card ever since I saw it in Iyanaga's 4C delver. Haven t rocked Geist and Elspeth yet, but Geist and Elesh is pretty insane.
5:31:00
I dont understand how someone can view hardcasting GGT in modern as a viable play. If I thought having 5 mana up in a dredge deck was an scenario I would much rather be casting Unburial rites for something that has a much larger effect on the board. I dont think that GGT is a game changer in dredge either, it just makes dredging a bit more consistent.
Learn how dredge works with multiple draws and then you have permission to post in this thread again.
Regardless. It seems like many have drifted pretty far from the BUG combo version nowadays, so I don't know how relevant it is. Ideally if you can get a birds out on turn one you can dark deal turn two and maybe mill half ur deck and go off turn 3 with something like fatestitcher 2x gravecrawler.
If not and you have a faithless instead turn one, you dredge much more and go off turn 4.
Since you shouldnt worry too much about wrecking or dealing with upper division decks I would look through the gatherer on the WoTC website for a number of samurai cards that you like or think would work well together and post them here. Then Im sure that the community would be more than willing to throw some ideas or critique ur way on how to improve it.
Not sure if this is all of them but: //gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?page=0&name=+[samurai">||type=+[samurai]||subtype=+[samurai]||text=+[samurai]"]http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?page=0&name=+[samurai]||type=+[samurai]||subtype=+[samurai]||text=+[samurai]
40 cant be all of them can it?
From what I see you are probably looking at a White based aggro deck with a possible splash of another color for further support.
However a Pure samurai deck can make a very fun casual deck with some legendary equipments and such. If anything I might add some kind of mama acceleration to get your larger samurai or swords out earlier. Maybe a Birds of paradise or Avacyn's Pilgrim. I think Birds fit the theme a bit better. Sry I dont have a deck list for you.
24 so im thinking 5 rounds
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Horizon Canopy
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Temple Garden
1 Breeding Pool
1 Blood Crypt
1 Watery Grave
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Forest
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Stomping Ground
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Vengevine
4 Hedron Crab
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Deathrite Shaman
2 Haakon, Stromgald Scourge
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
9 INSTANTS and SORCERIES
4 Faithless Looting
2 Life from the Loam
2 Unburial Rites
1 Gnaw to the Bone
2 OTHER SPELLS
2 Liliana of the Veil
1 Life from the Loam
1 Gnaw to the Bone
2 Ray of Revelation
1 Griselbrand
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Spellskite
4 Abrupt Decay
1 Ancient Grudge
This topped at a GPT in Antwerpen. hmm...
Ya I might be able to hit you up for a couple games. Just need a date and time.
So in some testing this deck gets rocked by a resolved Blood Moon... duh. But seriously. Trying to gift for answers after moon already hit the board unless you saw it coming is almost impopsicle.
Shadow of doubt wrecks both of them. With black you also gain combo extraction like surgical and extirpate.
Academy is awesome cause it allows me to lock out certain decks G1 that appear frequently in my meta. GOD I HATE MERFOLK
My theory on creatures in this deck is there arent alot of slots for them so the ones you put in need to be as threatening and as hard to remove as possible. Gofy takes multiple bolts or dudes to kill and Geist dodges anything pointed at it. Both also can win the game alone and dont require my attention to stay alive, like Scooze and KOTR (Even though I LOVE both of these cards, I need to find a deck that use these as a center piece).
Leyline is too good against so many things in my meta. TONS of targeted hand disruption, burn, scapeshift etc.
I cut one lingering souls so that I could push goyf to 4. I have found in most cases I would only ever need to gift for souls. Not sure if this is the right choice, Ill trial it and if I get my balls rocked super fast by aggro ill drop something else.
Elspeth is neat addition in my eyes. Ive loved the card ever since I saw it in Iyanaga's 4C delver. Haven t rocked Geist and Elspeth yet, but Geist and Elesh is pretty insane.