I tried a walker build a while ago with Doubling Season, and just didn't find it consistent enough. I was also trying to work alongside Cloudstone Curio, but having that many things that did nothing on their own sucked. CurdBros,I hope it works for you. It was cool when I could ult a walker or double a Hydra, but it rarely won me the game. Gotta say, though, being able to ult Ugin immediately was awesome.
WarWizard, if you can loop Abundant Growth a bunch with Cloudstone Curio, you rack up a lot of castings, which will cause Grapeshot's Storm mechanic to copy itself for each casting of Abundant Growth.
CurdBros, have you tried the new devoid land destruction instead of avalanch riders? I know you can't hit it off the digging, but it does a ton of damage to some decks.
Courser has been absolutely fantastic for me. Especially against the aggro and burn matchups. Usually ask it takes is a few life your way to make a difference.
I got to try my walker devotion deck with a single doubling season instead of my Nylea's Presence, against a junk deck. The one game I got it out, it was pulled off a Genesis Hydra for 5, so it landed with 10 counters, and the next turn I played Garruk, immediately did his ultimate and won.
It's interesting to have and I want to test some more. Unfortunately I only have one doubling season, pulled from my EDH deck.
I got to wondering what replacing Curio with Doubling Season would do for the deck. The hydras would come in twice as large (even the hydra you fetched it with) and all the walkers could ultimate immediately. You'd obviously lose the combo portion, which has helped me close out games, but I thought it'd be neat.
I actually added Karn Liberated as a second "superfriend". Overall, I think Ugin, the Spirit Dragon is a better walker for our top end; every one of his abilities is super helpful to us. However, sometimes Genesis Wave for 7 is all I can get, and I missed Ugin twice this past Friday with a wave of 7! Plus, I almost had to have Karn's remove ability, so I see the usefulness of him.
After the FNM last night, I also feel Eternal Witness wants to be in this deck. I kept sideboarding it in to replace Nylea's Presence. So it's cool that you've come to the same conclusion (it makes me feel I'm on the right track). Scavenging Ooze and Reclamation Sage were all-stars for me, too.
I just picked up two Ancient Stirrings, and I want to grab two Defense Grids, since I saw numerous times when I wished I had one in play.
To be fair about my deck, it's just a slightly tweaked version of the first walker combo deck CurdBros posted. For reference, here's the list I played with this past Friday:
Just got back from another FNM. 3-1 tonight with the planeswalker combo deck.
Round 1: 8Rack win 2-1
Tough games. Both wins were done with small agro critters off of planeswalkers. On the last game he put down an ensnaring bridge, which stopped me pretty well. I won by using Garruk to lay down a token, then bounced my Reclamation Sage to kill the bridge.
Round 2: Abzan Company loss 1-2
Creature aggro just nailed me both losses.
Round 3: G\W brew won 2-0
His deck never really got off the ground, and it wasn't very powerful to start with. It was his standard deck.
Round 4: Burn won 2-0
Each game came down to winning by one turn. Got the combo on each turn. Courser or Kruphix was an all-star. This was the same burn player from last Friday .
Gm13p, that same article sparked the desire for me to try it as well.
I really want to like Gifts Ungiven for the walker devotion deck. I just can't think of what the piles would be that would guarantee that we'll end up with the combo. Maybe if we had the new Kiora, then we could grab one of each Planeswalker... But then you also really want to have a Nykthos... and it just goes to hell for me.
Or perhaps it's useful to get the rest of the combo if you've got a piece of it already.
CurdBros has a lot more experience than I do with the deck, so I hope he comes in to speak more on it. Plus my FNM isn't stocked with many high tier decks.
Aggro decks are the ones I'm very worried about. The best I've got is to use the walkers to produce blockers, and use smaller Waves and Hydras to build some enchantments to get out ahead. Kessig Wolf Run can turn a token into something formidable to block with.
For burn, I've raced them. Again, early token pressure helps me some help until I'm ready to go all in for a ton of mana. I've only played a few of these matches, though.
I really need to run the deck a lot more to see how it stands up for me.
If Purphoros is your main game plan, why only play one with no way to tutor it up?
The main game plan is flooding the board. Purphoros/empty the warrens and curio are there to combo out or provide some sort of reach within that plan. (Looking at my previous statement I may have phrased this poorly.) I'll have a better idea where to go with it when I have more time to test the build.
Ah, gotcha. Looks fun! I'd be interested to see how Brood Monitor works for you.
I run Nylea's Presence right now to turn Nykthos on for the arbor elves and Nissa. This will likely be the first card to be cut.
I love Genesis Wave. I won numerous games off the back of that card because it can lay multiple pieces of the combo at once. Hydra can get just one, but it gets through counters, which is just plain awesome. I like having voth in my deck and I can see trading out a few Waves for hydras.
I did find myself waving for 2 or 3 a few times, just to grab some lands or enchantments.
Last night I got 4-0 at my FNM with my current version of Walker Devotion. Out of 9 games, I only lost once, in the last round.
Round 1: 2-0 Jeskai... something
The deck was the dude's standard deck from the week before. And he didn't really get off the ground in either game. He couldn't pull his counters, or burn. The tokens he put out just couldn't stand up to Ugin, the Spirit Dragon + Xenagos, the Reveler in the first game, and he just died to all my Garruk'ed mana dorks in the second game.
Round 2: 2-0 Esper Control
First game he had a ton of discard against me, and it was a lot of trading of resources for a while, then he made the mistake of forcing me to discard Ugin, the Spirit Dragon over a Genesis Wave, and he scooped after a Wave of 16.
Second game was moved much better in my favor early game, and I ended up combing off with my walkers (after getting Garruk Wildspeaker + Nissa, Worldwaker to create 1,000 beast tokens that promptly got wiped by Engineered Explosives).
Round 3: 2-0 Burn
Both games were close. First game I was able to use Genesis Wave to drop the combo faster than he could burn me.
Second game I ended up going the aggro plan, after having to grind out two small waves, and two genesis hydra. I used Garruk's overrun ability, and did my math wrong, leaving him at 1 life, and me at 4. He had one burn in his hand, and didn't draw a second one on his turn, so lost when it came back to my turn.
Round 4: 2-1 Affinity
First game I lost. He was very fast, and his game plan came together flawlessly. Died in a few turns.
Second game, I was able to combo off, when he was running a little slow.
Third game was a grind, but I ended up comboing that turn, as well I think. I don't remember the details to be honest.
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I had a blast with this deck, and plan to keep playing it for a while!
Aggro is still my biggest issue, I think.
It's interesting to have and I want to test some more. Unfortunately I only have one doubling season, pulled from my EDH deck.
I actually added Karn Liberated as a second "superfriend". Overall, I think Ugin, the Spirit Dragon is a better walker for our top end; every one of his abilities is super helpful to us. However, sometimes Genesis Wave for 7 is all I can get, and I missed Ugin twice this past Friday with a wave of 7! Plus, I almost had to have Karn's remove ability, so I see the usefulness of him.
After the FNM last night, I also feel Eternal Witness wants to be in this deck. I kept sideboarding it in to replace Nylea's Presence. So it's cool that you've come to the same conclusion (it makes me feel I'm on the right track). Scavenging Ooze and Reclamation Sage were all-stars for me, too.
I just picked up two Ancient Stirrings, and I want to grab two Defense Grids, since I saw numerous times when I wished I had one in play.
To be fair about my deck, it's just a slightly tweaked version of the first walker combo deck CurdBros posted. For reference, here's the list I played with this past Friday:
9x Forest
2x Kessig Wolf Run
4x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1x Stomping Ground
4x Windswept Heath
1x Wooded Foothills
Creature (13)
4x Arbor Elf
4x Birds of Paradise
3x Courser of Kruphix
2x Genesis Hydra
4x Garruk Wildspeaker
1x Karn Liberated
1x Nissa, Worldwaker
1x Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
2x Xenagos, the Reveler
Enchantment (11)
4x Abundant Growth
2x Fertile Ground
1x Nylea's Presence
4x Utopia Sprawl
Artifact (3)
3x Cloudstone Curio
3x Genesis Wave
2x Damping Matrix
1x Engineered Explosives
2x Eternal Witness
2x Kitchen Finks
2x Primal Command
2x Reclamation Sage
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Spellskite
Round 1: 8Rack win 2-1
Tough games. Both wins were done with small agro critters off of planeswalkers. On the last game he put down an ensnaring bridge, which stopped me pretty well. I won by using Garruk to lay down a token, then bounced my Reclamation Sage to kill the bridge.
Round 2: Abzan Company loss 1-2
Creature aggro just nailed me both losses.
Round 3: G\W brew won 2-0
His deck never really got off the ground, and it wasn't very powerful to start with. It was his standard deck.
Round 4: Burn won 2-0
Each game came down to winning by one turn. Got the combo on each turn. Courser or Kruphix was an all-star. This was the same burn player from last Friday .
I'm still loving this deck.
I really want to like Gifts Ungiven for the walker devotion deck. I just can't think of what the piles would be that would guarantee that we'll end up with the combo. Maybe if we had the new Kiora, then we could grab one of each Planeswalker... But then you also really want to have a Nykthos... and it just goes to hell for me.
Or perhaps it's useful to get the rest of the combo if you've got a piece of it already.
CurdBros has a lot more experience than I do with the deck, so I hope he comes in to speak more on it. Plus my FNM isn't stocked with many high tier decks.
Aggro decks are the ones I'm very worried about. The best I've got is to use the walkers to produce blockers, and use smaller Waves and Hydras to build some enchantments to get out ahead. Kessig Wolf Run can turn a token into something formidable to block with.
For burn, I've raced them. Again, early token pressure helps me some help until I'm ready to go all in for a ton of mana. I've only played a few of these matches, though.
I really need to run the deck a lot more to see how it stands up for me.
Ah, gotcha. Looks fun! I'd be interested to see how Brood Monitor works for you.
9x Forest
2x Kessig Wolf Run
4x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1x Stomping Ground
4x Windswept Heath
1x Wooded Foothills
4x Abundant Growth
2x Fertile Ground
2x Nylea's Presence
4x Utopia Sprawl
Creature (13)
4x Arbor Elf
4x Birds of Paradise
3x Courser of Kruphix
2x Genesis Hydra
4x Garruk Wildspeaker
1x Nissa, Worldwaker
1x Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
2x Xenagos, the Reveler
Sorcery (3)
3x Genesis Wave
Artifact (3)
3x Cloudstone Curio
I run Nylea's Presence right now to turn Nykthos on for the arbor elves and Nissa. This will likely be the first card to be cut.
I love Genesis Wave. I won numerous games off the back of that card because it can lay multiple pieces of the combo at once. Hydra can get just one, but it gets through counters, which is just plain awesome. I like having voth in my deck and I can see trading out a few Waves for hydras.
I did find myself waving for 2 or 3 a few times, just to grab some lands or enchantments.
Last night I got 4-0 at my FNM with my current version of Walker Devotion. Out of 9 games, I only lost once, in the last round.
Round 1: 2-0 Jeskai... something
The deck was the dude's standard deck from the week before. And he didn't really get off the ground in either game. He couldn't pull his counters, or burn. The tokens he put out just couldn't stand up to Ugin, the Spirit Dragon + Xenagos, the Reveler in the first game, and he just died to all my Garruk'ed mana dorks in the second game.
Round 2: 2-0 Esper Control
First game he had a ton of discard against me, and it was a lot of trading of resources for a while, then he made the mistake of forcing me to discard Ugin, the Spirit Dragon over a Genesis Wave, and he scooped after a Wave of 16.
Second game was moved much better in my favor early game, and I ended up combing off with my walkers (after getting Garruk Wildspeaker + Nissa, Worldwaker to create 1,000 beast tokens that promptly got wiped by Engineered Explosives).
Round 3: 2-0 Burn
Both games were close. First game I was able to use Genesis Wave to drop the combo faster than he could burn me.
Second game I ended up going the aggro plan, after having to grind out two small waves, and two genesis hydra. I used Garruk's overrun ability, and did my math wrong, leaving him at 1 life, and me at 4. He had one burn in his hand, and didn't draw a second one on his turn, so lost when it came back to my turn.
Round 4: 2-1 Affinity
First game I lost. He was very fast, and his game plan came together flawlessly. Died in a few turns.
Second game, I was able to combo off, when he was running a little slow.
Third game was a grind, but I ended up comboing that turn, as well I think. I don't remember the details to be honest.
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I had a blast with this deck, and plan to keep playing it for a while!