I think you definitely need Tezz's Gambit. Not only is it card draw, it's also proliferate. You have 4 Shrines of each color and you're winning through poison counters. A Gambit can get your Shrines up to combo-strength, or allow you to start going off without having to wait for five counters because you can just proliferate them up to 10.
A few Mausoleum Guard might not hurt either, as that's 3 creatures for Arbalesting right there-- now the Shrine only needs two counters.
I know I've got problems with it. It has a bit of trouble keeping enough creatures on the board-- I know I need more. It also rolls over and dies to Curse of Death's Hold. I'm considering running Redirect to help confound my opponent's removal. After all, is there any deck in the format that doesn't run a few targeted spells? I can't think of any.
You could try Werewolves. It consists almost entirely of Innistrad cards, and if you don't run Garruks the whole deck can be had for ~$25. I think Mayor of Avabruck is the most expensive card in the deck that you can't just substitute or do without, and he clocks in around $3.
One other thing that's been bothering me... card advantage. It feels like this deck has zero. How do you guys handle that?
For the most part, this is an aggro deck. It wins before card advantage becomes an issue. If the game goes long, however, it has options.
Howlpack Alpha makes a token every turn, which creates card advantage if you can block profitably with them or force opponents to trade with them. Daybreak Ranger can act as repeatable removal in both its forms. Flashback cards like Ancient Grudge, Geistflame, and Devil's Play can come in from the sideboard if needed. And of course, if you can time a Moonmist right and exploit its Fog effect, then you can decimate an opponent's attackers or blockers without losing a single creature.
I've been toying with the idea of building myself a Werewolves deck, and I'm wondering if Devil's Play would be a worthwhile include. X spells seem like they'd work fine in a deck that doesn't want to play multiple spells in a turn, yet Devil's Play can still be flashed back to kill two creatures with one card.
I'm also still laboring under the delusion that Daybreak Ranger belongs in the deck. Its Human side can take out Inkmoth Nexi, Spirit tokens, unpumped Ornithopters and Vault Skirges, and Insectile Abberations. Transforming it only widens the range of creatures it can take out, though now doing so costs R and the victim has a chance to fight back (and if it's Inkmoth Nexus, it'll be hobbling itself in the process). Repeatable removal = good, I hear. Right?
rafab: Your English is better than most native speakers I see online.
I too have been out of the Standard loop for a bit, but not as long as most people in this thread. I stopped playing Standard around last February in favor of Commander. I haven't bought any M12 or Innistrad. My last two decks were mono-red Pyromancer Ascension, and W/U Proliferate Control with Luminarch Ascension and Ajani Goldmane. I don't know how viable either strategy would be today.
A friend of mine said that "G/W Humans" and "Werewolves" were viable and fairly cheap to build. Is it true? I keep seeing talk of WU Humans and GW Tokens, but no GW Humans. And no real Werewolf decks-- Wolf Run Ramp doesn't run any Werewolves. Is there a Werewolf deck to be had in the format? And which colors is it? Does it run Clone and copy effects like the one in BoaB?
I see it working with lots of instant/sorcery ramp like Rampant Growth, maybe Priest of Urabrask and Infernal Plunge, maybe a few BoP to tap and then sack to the Plunge, Reverberate to copy your ramp, and possibly Culling Dais so that you can empty your board when it's time to Scramble.
I second the suggestion that you'd need a few walls in order to get them to overcommit. It's a shame Zendikar block rotated-- Overgrown Battlement and the Spawn tokens could've made this work.
In 100-card singleton decks, just about any tutor effect is worth running. A 0/3 body that doesn't have defender for one mana is decent as well, especially early game.
Still, tutors are only as good as what they're tutoring, so I'd say its use really depends on what you're going to get. Lignify and Rootgrapple are both great spells by Green's standards, and fetching a Forest is always a nice trick. Still, I'd want at least one solid Treefolk creature in my deck before I ran one of these. Fortunately, those are easy to come by. Ambassador Oak, Dauntless Dourbark, Deadwood Treefolk, and Woodfall Primus are all solid choices for a Green deck.
I second Seizan, Perverter of Truth. He's got everything you need for monoblack whatever-you-want, plus he's the closest thing Black has to a group hug general. I flip Seizan and everybody smiles. They WANT him to hit the board. Of course, I don't run Underworld Dreams (mainly because I don't have a copy) but I do run plenty of life-drain cards to make Seizan's life loss hurt that much more.
Really, just about any Kamigawa general will work. Some of them are a bit more obvious than others, though. Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker just screams combo-- just about the most unexpected thing you could do with him is win without casting him.
I'd say Pain's Reward and Plague of Vermin. They sort of offer your opponents a choice, although they're less like a quick game of chess and more like a quick hand of poker.
Also, anything that makes a player choose and sacrifice something: Geth's Verdict, the Edicts, Balancing Act?
I'd like to go off the board and say Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger. Sure it's eight, but any decent ramp deck can get him out consistently by turn 5 if not sooner, and if people are so worried about benefitting opponents, well, Clexy has that covered.
1. Use Phantasm's ability to dump your whole library into the graveyard.
2. Swing with Lhurgoyf-like creatures. I reccomend Cognivore.
3. Cast Flashback cards.
4. Reanimate whatever needs reanimating.
5. Pop your Quest for Ancient Secrets so you don't lose on your next turn (assuming you didn't win this turn).
If Equipment is popular in your environment, Carry Away is pretty fun.
A few Mausoleum Guard might not hurt either, as that's 3 creatures for Arbalesting right there-- now the Shrine only needs two counters.
4 Thrummingbird
4 Neurok Invisimancer
2 Bloodcrazed Neonate
4 Volt Charge
4 Curse of Stalked Prey
4 Ponder
2 Incinerate
2 Panic Spellbomb
2 Trigon of Rage
1 Chimeric Mass
11 Mountain
I know I've got problems with it. It has a bit of trouble keeping enough creatures on the board-- I know I need more. It also rolls over and dies to Curse of Death's Hold. I'm considering running Redirect to help confound my opponent's removal. After all, is there any deck in the format that doesn't run a few targeted spells? I can't think of any.
For the most part, this is an aggro deck. It wins before card advantage becomes an issue. If the game goes long, however, it has options.
Howlpack Alpha makes a token every turn, which creates card advantage if you can block profitably with them or force opponents to trade with them. Daybreak Ranger can act as repeatable removal in both its forms. Flashback cards like Ancient Grudge, Geistflame, and Devil's Play can come in from the sideboard if needed. And of course, if you can time a Moonmist right and exploit its Fog effect, then you can decimate an opponent's attackers or blockers without losing a single creature.
I'm also still laboring under the delusion that Daybreak Ranger belongs in the deck. Its Human side can take out Inkmoth Nexi, Spirit tokens, unpumped Ornithopters and Vault Skirges, and Insectile Abberations. Transforming it only widens the range of creatures it can take out, though now doing so costs R and the victim has a chance to fight back (and if it's Inkmoth Nexus, it'll be hobbling itself in the process). Repeatable removal = good, I hear. Right?
I too have been out of the Standard loop for a bit, but not as long as most people in this thread. I stopped playing Standard around last February in favor of Commander. I haven't bought any M12 or Innistrad. My last two decks were mono-red Pyromancer Ascension, and W/U Proliferate Control with Luminarch Ascension and Ajani Goldmane. I don't know how viable either strategy would be today.
A friend of mine said that "G/W Humans" and "Werewolves" were viable and fairly cheap to build. Is it true? I keep seeing talk of WU Humans and GW Tokens, but no GW Humans. And no real Werewolf decks-- Wolf Run Ramp doesn't run any Werewolves. Is there a Werewolf deck to be had in the format? And which colors is it? Does it run Clone and copy effects like the one in BoaB?
I second the suggestion that you'd need a few walls in order to get them to overcommit. It's a shame Zendikar block rotated-- Overgrown Battlement and the Spawn tokens could've made this work.
Still, tutors are only as good as what they're tutoring, so I'd say its use really depends on what you're going to get. Lignify and Rootgrapple are both great spells by Green's standards, and fetching a Forest is always a nice trick. Still, I'd want at least one solid Treefolk creature in my deck before I ran one of these. Fortunately, those are easy to come by. Ambassador Oak, Dauntless Dourbark, Deadwood Treefolk, and Woodfall Primus are all solid choices for a Green deck.
Morph. Just remember, you're not really allowed to play three-card-monty with your face down cards.
Really, just about any Kamigawa general will work. Some of them are a bit more obvious than others, though. Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker just screams combo-- just about the most unexpected thing you could do with him is win without casting him.
Also, anything that makes a player choose and sacrifice something: Geth's Verdict, the Edicts, Balancing Act?
And of course the "punisher" cards: Browbeat, Temporal Extortion, Dash Hopes, Breaking Point, etc.
2. Swing with Lhurgoyf-like creatures. I reccomend Cognivore.
3. Cast Flashback cards.
4. Reanimate whatever needs reanimating.
5. Pop your Quest for Ancient Secrets so you don't lose on your next turn (assuming you didn't win this turn).