Fun Fact: the original art for Tropical Island was the Birds of Paradise art but they felt the Birds took up too much of the focus. At least my foggy memory is telling me I heard that somewhere.
I can corroborate this with my own foggy recollection.
my own foggy recollection vaguely seemed to come from a mark rosewater discussion on them. one of his cool insider trivia things!
i think tropical island is pretty good, though i'd rather use it in vintage/legacy.
yea i think im the same as most other peeps here, deckbuilding is a neverending thing... a good neverending thing though!
i must say though, if anything my horde decks are the ones that goes through the most changes, since its the most difficult ones to get right. sometimes, the zombie horde just doesnt feel scary enough, the werewolves dont feel like they'r rampaging enough, and the worst is when the players win and/or feel like they could pull off a win almost all the time (i mean who'd ever be able to actually survive against hordes of zombies?)
on my actual edh decks, it feels like my skeleton ship can always give away more -1/-1 counters, that bloodbond march just isnt doing hilarious enough stuff with relentless rats and so on.
Rulings right on Pthing needle: "6/1/2005 Pithing Needle affects cards regardless of what zone they're in. This includes cards in hand, cards in the graveyard, and exiled cards. For example, a player can't cycle Eternal Dragon or return an Eternal Dragon from his or her graveyard to hand if Pithing Needle naming Eternal Dragon is on the battlefield."
that, is brilliant!
so i suppose a good tip now would be play pithing needle naming derivi, then copy it as many times as you can, make them hexproof, indestructible.
Before i start, i just wanted to raise a glass to smalladult, the one who came up wth this idea in the first place.
A nearby village has been infiltrated by werewolves, and you and your mates have been called in to help 'solve' the situation. Unlike most other hordes, this horde has a day/nighttime cycle, which makes big swings in gameplay.
The players start by preparing their assault by having 3 free turns. When the players end their 3rd turn, the horde starts on daytime.
During the daytime (use a d6 to mark, hour 1 = 1 on the d6), the horde flips over 2 cards, then 1 more per player beyond the first (so the horde flips 3 for a 2 player game, 5 for a 4 player game), and then flips over 1 more card per 2 humans the horde controls in the village (they procreate!), all cards flipped comes into play on the daylight/sun side. Then, add 1 to the d6. Hours 1-3 are daytime, 4-6 are nighttime. At the end of the hordes turn, if the dice moves from 3 to 4, transform all the cards to the nighttime side and when the dice moves from 6 to 1, transform all cards to the daytime side, but only transform cards that have the sun/moon symbol on it (so transform moonscarred werewolf, but not greater werewolf).
During the day, the villagers are so scared that these crazy outsiders that don't understand them are going to annihilate them, so they don't attack, and try to protect themselves. All instants the horde casts during the daytime (eg banners raised) last until the beginning of the horde's next turn.
During the nighttimes, (when the hour-dice is 4, 5 or 6), the horde flips over 2 cards, then 1 more per player beyond the first, putting all cards into play on their moon/nighttime side.
Then, all werewolves attacks. At the end of turn, add 1 to the hour-dice.
if for whatever reason a player manages to gain control of a werewolf (be it mind control or rise of the dark realms), when it is daytime, they are all transformed to the human side. in the nighttime, they all return to the horde's control.
When moonmist hits, all humans transforms to the nighttime side, even if it is daytime, and they don't transform back to the human side until the beginning of the next daytime cycle.
the game is much easier to explain to people, and its still pretty fun. it has very little legs though for the long game. gonna have to fix up a way to make it harder and scale as the game goes on.
i just went out and got all the doublesided cards from everyone i knew and made something similar to this.
except that every 3 turns, the sun rises, then 3 turns later, the moon rises, 3 turns later, the sun goes, and so on.
However, only the cards that have the moon/sun symbol on the top corner flips. the others don't. so on the back of immerwolf, lone wolf and sound the call, i have flavourfull stuff like cemetery gate or instants like break of day and moonmist (which transforms all werewolves). that way, the cemetary gate and stone wall dont transform into some instant, and the others are non-permanents that dont matter so much. i also squeezed in a cultural exchange, which works by trading away as many human-werewolves as a player has creatures, then when night comes, the werewolves return to the village (in other words, cultural exchange works a bit like a sweeper, albeit a very very clunky one).
Instead of flipping till you hit a non-token, flip 2 cards, plus 1 per player after the first. during the daytime, flip another 1 card per 2 humans in the werewolf village.
during the daytime, humans cower in fear, so they dont attack. But at night, the werewolves attacks. we would choose blockers to a maximum of 1 per attacker on a self-preservating mindset.
On the start of the 3rd day, elbrus, the binding blade comes in, and is always equipped by the werewolf/human with the biggest power. if he hits, it transforms (and doesnt transform back). if it turns to night, it transforms as well.
dunno if what we made up would work for u guys.. we generally sport themed decks, so it was kinda funny watching a skeleton ship pirate theme and Ayesha Tanaka banding like a boss deck taking it to the werewolf infested village! we were doing well till mr withengar unbound rocked up and whooped us.
by the way, i was trying to make something vaguely similar to your horde, except with these 6/12 trampling tokens.. cuz i dont have any 9/9 ones.. for us, jhoira was a bit too awesome of a help if she started with 50 life, since we were able to float a bunch of awesome dudes, then board wipe after board wipe till a bunch of eldrazi and friends hit. also, one of the players had a heartstone, which kinda made suspending stuff that much easier! not that we won though, but i think without jhoira we'd have died much faster.
we also made a semi-rule where whenever a splicer came into play, someone'd have to say 'upgrade' in that cyberman voice..
or wait can you pithing needle it? can you deactivate the ability of making derevi get put into play that way? not sure if the pithing needle ability covers the command zone.
how many blue sweepers are there? how many sweepers are there in all other colours?
correct me if im wrong, but in blue, i think we're at the rift and ixidron (and thats barely sweeper material there at that)
are there any beyond that? like.. at all? even remotely sweeper-like?
white has... well, more than a couple to say the least,
black has almost as many,
red has jokulhaups, apocalypse and all the earthquake-like sweeps
green has tsunami, whirlwind, a bunch of x-damage spells..
seriously, the first time blue got an actual sweeper (as far as i can think of), and someone whines about it... its not like the sweeper even removes it from the game or sends it to the graveyard or tucks it... it goes up to the hand so it can be recast!
and before anyone rants about how the rift isn't sweeping fairly, how often is it that sweepers are ever used fairly? isn't that like... an innate part of sweepers?
my own foggy recollection vaguely seemed to come from a mark rosewater discussion on them. one of his cool insider trivia things!
i think tropical island is pretty good, though i'd rather use it in vintage/legacy.
i must say though, if anything my horde decks are the ones that goes through the most changes, since its the most difficult ones to get right. sometimes, the zombie horde just doesnt feel scary enough, the werewolves dont feel like they'r rampaging enough, and the worst is when the players win and/or feel like they could pull off a win almost all the time (i mean who'd ever be able to actually survive against hordes of zombies?)
on my actual edh decks, it feels like my skeleton ship can always give away more -1/-1 counters, that bloodbond march just isnt doing hilarious enough stuff with relentless rats and so on.
but one day, im gonna live the magical edh wonder-christmasland by successfully casting artificial evolution on spawnsire of ulamog to put into play a million billion relentless rats into play.
then, maybe ill be satisfied.
that, is brilliant!
so i suppose a good tip now would be play pithing needle naming derivi, then copy it as many times as you can, make them hexproof, indestructible.
hear! hear!
actually, that thread had another good insight, which was along the lines of 'another thinly veiled attempt to start a ban the rift thread'.
oh and if anyone has any thoughts and whatnot, let me know.
i can tell you since we were surprised at it too, that banding really is a thing. beats face like a boss!
A nearby village has been infiltrated by werewolves, and you and your mates have been called in to help 'solve' the situation. Unlike most other hordes, this horde has a day/nighttime cycle, which makes big swings in gameplay.
5 Wolfbitten Captive - Krallenhorde Killer
5 Huntmaster of the Fells - Ravager of the Fells
5 Mondronen Shaman - Tovolar's Magehunter
5 Mayor of Avabruck - Howlpack Alpha
5 Afflicted Deserter - Werewolf Ransacker
5 Gatstaf Shepherd - Gatstaf Howler
5 Grizzled Outcasts - Krallenhorde Wantons
5 Hanweir Watchkeep - Bane of Hanweir
5 Hinterland Hermit - Hinterland Scourge
5 Lambholt Elder - Silverpelt Werewolf
5 Reckless Waif - Merciless Predator
5 Scorned Villager - Moonscarred Werewolf
5 Tormented Pariah - Rampaging Werewolf
5 Ulvenwald Mystics - Ulvenwald Primordials
5 Village Ironsmith - Ironfang
5 Villagers of Estwald - Howlpack of Estwald
5 Daybreak Ranger - Nightfall Predator
5 Instigator Gang - Wildblood Pack
5 Kruin Outlaw - Terror of Kruin Pass
10 wall of stone - immerwolf
1 zealous persecution - wolfir avenger
10 break of day - sound the call
5 cemetery gate - wolf token
5 cemetery gate - kessig cagebreakers
5 scare tactics - wolfir silverheart
2 opportunity - greater werewolf
10 moonmist - howl of the night pack
10 moonmist - sound the call
5 banners raised - howl of the night pack
The players start by preparing their assault by having 3 free turns. When the players end their 3rd turn, the horde starts on daytime.
During the daytime (use a d6 to mark, hour 1 = 1 on the d6), the horde flips over 2 cards, then 1 more per player beyond the first (so the horde flips 3 for a 2 player game, 5 for a 4 player game), and then flips over 1 more card per 2 humans the horde controls in the village (they procreate!), all cards flipped comes into play on the daylight/sun side. Then, add 1 to the d6. Hours 1-3 are daytime, 4-6 are nighttime. At the end of the hordes turn, if the dice moves from 3 to 4, transform all the cards to the nighttime side and when the dice moves from 6 to 1, transform all cards to the daytime side, but only transform cards that have the sun/moon symbol on it (so transform moonscarred werewolf, but not greater werewolf).
During the day, the villagers are so scared that these crazy outsiders that don't understand them are going to annihilate them, so they don't attack, and try to protect themselves. All instants the horde casts during the daytime (eg banners raised) last until the beginning of the horde's next turn.
During the nighttimes, (when the hour-dice is 4, 5 or 6), the horde flips over 2 cards, then 1 more per player beyond the first, putting all cards into play on their moon/nighttime side.
Then, all werewolves attacks. At the end of turn, add 1 to the hour-dice.
howl of the night pack and howl from beyond are defined by a d10 roll, and sound the call adds a 2/2 wolf for each sound the call in the horde's graveyard.
if for whatever reason a player manages to gain control of a werewolf (be it mind control or rise of the dark realms), when it is daytime, they are all transformed to the human side. in the nighttime, they all return to the horde's control.
When moonmist hits, all humans transforms to the nighttime side, even if it is daytime, and they don't transform back to the human side until the beginning of the next daytime cycle.
10/6 update:
removed the boss fight, cultural exchange and slayer of the wicked.
the game is much easier to explain to people, and its still pretty fun. it has very little legs though for the long game. gonna have to fix up a way to make it harder and scale as the game goes on.
except that every 3 turns, the sun rises, then 3 turns later, the moon rises, 3 turns later, the sun goes, and so on.
However, only the cards that have the moon/sun symbol on the top corner flips. the others don't. so on the back of immerwolf, lone wolf and sound the call, i have flavourfull stuff like cemetery gate or instants like break of day and moonmist (which transforms all werewolves). that way, the cemetary gate and stone wall dont transform into some instant, and the others are non-permanents that dont matter so much. i also squeezed in a cultural exchange, which works by trading away as many human-werewolves as a player has creatures, then when night comes, the werewolves return to the village (in other words, cultural exchange works a bit like a sweeper, albeit a very very clunky one).
Instead of flipping till you hit a non-token, flip 2 cards, plus 1 per player after the first. during the daytime, flip another 1 card per 2 humans in the werewolf village.
during the daytime, humans cower in fear, so they dont attack. But at night, the werewolves attacks. we would choose blockers to a maximum of 1 per attacker on a self-preservating mindset.
On the start of the 3rd day, elbrus, the binding blade comes in, and is always equipped by the werewolf/human with the biggest power. if he hits, it transforms (and doesnt transform back). if it turns to night, it transforms as well.
dunno if what we made up would work for u guys.. we generally sport themed decks, so it was kinda funny watching a skeleton ship pirate theme and Ayesha Tanaka banding like a boss deck taking it to the werewolf infested village! we were doing well till mr withengar unbound rocked up and whooped us.
by the way, i was trying to make something vaguely similar to your horde, except with these 6/12 trampling tokens.. cuz i dont have any 9/9 ones.. for us, jhoira was a bit too awesome of a help if she started with 50 life, since we were able to float a bunch of awesome dudes, then board wipe after board wipe till a bunch of eldrazi and friends hit. also, one of the players had a heartstone, which kinda made suspending stuff that much easier! not that we won though, but i think without jhoira we'd have died much faster.
we also made a semi-rule where whenever a splicer came into play, someone'd have to say 'upgrade' in that cyberman voice..
its annoying because you can't pithing needle it or nevermore it!
or wait can you pithing needle it? can you deactivate the ability of making derevi get put into play that way? not sure if the pithing needle ability covers the command zone.
the instant speed is always welcome i think.
thats why i have use the hypersonic dragon. its amazing how quick people forget about that guy!
sliver
wizards
goblins
humans
dragons
a 5c scion of the ur dragon can do some crazy stuff!
and i think for horde magic though, zombies, definitely.
but in terms of themed/flavour tribes that can be surprisingly powerful,
cleric (shadowborn apostle + bloodbond march)
rats
scarecrow
land
correct me if im wrong, but in blue, i think we're at the rift and ixidron (and thats barely sweeper material there at that)
are there any beyond that? like.. at all? even remotely sweeper-like?
white has... well, more than a couple to say the least,
black has almost as many,
red has jokulhaups, apocalypse and all the earthquake-like sweeps
green has tsunami, whirlwind, a bunch of x-damage spells..
seriously, the first time blue got an actual sweeper (as far as i can think of), and someone whines about it... its not like the sweeper even removes it from the game or sends it to the graveyard or tucks it... it goes up to the hand so it can be recast!
and before anyone rants about how the rift isn't sweeping fairly, how often is it that sweepers are ever used fairly? isn't that like... an innate part of sweepers?
aether vial is a thing. brilliant against counterspells. and a lot more useful on 2 or 3 counters instead of 1.
Prossh, Skyraider of Kher player sacs 30 kobolds, equipped with fireshrieker, then you reflect damage him to general damage himself.
if it gave another creature protection though, it'd be outright epic.