Alright so recently I had the idea for a deck. I'm not sure how well it would work in modern but I'm curious to see what other people think and what they feel like could be done with the deck to make it better. Basically the deck is like Dredge and the Standard popular, or at least locally popular, Abzan Rally combo sort of deck. For those who don't see where I'm going, basically you dump your primarily creature filled deck into your graveyard and then play Rally the Ancestors and sacrifice your creatures to Bloodthrone Vampire activating Blood Artist or Zulaport Cutthroat's ability enough to straight up kill your opponent. Here's what I have for an idea so far. Any an all kinds of constructive criticism are very welcome.
The title is fairly self explanatory. I need help building a standard deck. What I currently have in mind is some form of Grixis coloured control/midrange. What I'm hoping to do is use a lot of control magic in the earlier game to keep my opponent from getting me too low or winning before I drop one of my bombs. I'm definitely including a playset of Herald of Kozilek to help me play cards like Horribly Awry, Complete Disregard, and Touch of the Void while also making it easier to drop some bombs like Barrage Tyrant ("The Flingdrazi" as we call it at my LGS) and Desolation Twin or cards like Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger and other beef like that. I'm not necessarily asking for complete deck lists, but some guidance on what cards I should use. I would prefer to keep it in the $100 range if possible but I would be willing to go outside of that range but not very far.
EDIT: Ulamog doesn't necessarily need to be in it and neither do the Flingdrazi or Desolation Twin, those were just examples however I do like the Flingdrazi-Desolation Twin combo of flinging 20 damage at my opponent.
Someone playing a Narset Storm deck in 1 on 1: Alright so I'll attack with Narset and play Omniscience, then Enter the Infinite *after playing every single nonland card* now I play Grapeshot foooooor 127 copies, all targeting you.
Apparently they had only played lands, Narset, and drawn.
Playing my Sen Triplets "No Friends Allowed" deck as a 1 on 1 game for once.
Me: *at 32 life, turn 6 begins, Master Transmuter and 5 lands (2 are original Ravnica block Karoo lands) in play, have Sphinx of the Steel Wind in hand, draw Magister Sphinx* "Ok so I'll use play Magister Sphinx and make your life 10. Then pass the turn."
Opponent: *Dragonlord Atarka deck, hasn't played her, has 5 lands and no creatures in play (damaged me from burn spells) then draws and groans* "Play Stomping Grounds tapped and pass the turn." *no cards in hand*
Me: "End of your turn, use Master Transmuter's ability to put Sphinx of the Steel Wind into play then begin my turn." *turn 7 for me, draws Plains, puts it into play* "Alright so I'll swing in the air for lethal."
Typically this deck is a long term strategy deck. If someone wins on turn 7 while I'm using this deck, it's usually someone else who has an even more "No Friends Allowed" deck in the sense that just play infinite combos or an insane burn deck.
Last Opponent: *has Wall of Frost, Wall of Tanglecord, Guardians of Meletis, Hover Barrier, Murmuring Phantasm, Wall of Water, and Wall of Wonder in play*
Me: *has a clear attacker advantage* Alright. Pass.
Last Opponent: *draws a land and has 1 other card in her hand; plays Phenax, God of Deception from command zone then Sleep* Pass.
Me: *draws land, puts it into play* Pass.
Last Opponent: On your end step I tap all of my creatures to mill you for 47. On my upkeep I mill you for another 47, draw then pass.
Me: *flips entire deck upside down and puts it into grave*
Another time she some how managed to play Blue Sun's Zenith for 123 (or just some ridiculously high number like that) on my other friend who was the only other person at the table at the time.
Ummmm.... Was the deck U/B? Wall of Tanglecord is considered green by color identity rules.
Ah. Well I should tell her that for future reference.
Last Opponent: *has Wall of Frost, Wall of Tanglecord, Guardians of Meletis, Hover Barrier, Murmuring Phantasm, Wall of Water, and Wall of Wonder in play*
Me: *has a clear attacker advantage* Alright. Pass.
Last Opponent: *draws a land and has 1 other card in her hand; plays Phenax, God of Deception from command zone then Sleep* Pass.
Me: *draws land, puts it into play* Pass.
Last Opponent: On your end step I tap all of my creatures to mill you for 47. On my upkeep I mill you for another 47, draw then pass.
Me: *flips entire deck upside down and puts it into grave*
Another time she some how managed to play Blue Sun's Zenith for 123 (or just some ridiculously high number like that) on my other friend who was the only other person at the table at the time.
STATE OF THE BOARD:
-Me: Doubling Season, Parallel Lives, Primal Vigor, Liliana of the Dark Realms's, Caged Sun with black named, Urborg Tomb of Yawgmoth, and 12 lands in play, 51 cards in my grave because Empty the Pits/reanimator, 3 life, everything untapped, no creatures, Empty the Pits in hand
-Last player in play besides me: 29 lands in play, 784 life, empty hand, no creatures
Opponent: *goes through the motions, puts 30th land into play* Pass turn.
Me: End of your turn *taps all lands, exiles 50 cards from grave* I empty the pits fooooor 71, Doubling Season, Parallel Lives, and Primal Vigor keep triggering off of each other to create infinite 2/2 zombies, they all get +1/+1 because of Caged Sun, don't think that triggers Doubling Season and Primal Vigor's effects, if it does, they get infinite +1/+1s. My turn, I draw a card, and swing in with infinite damage.
It would appear Zendikar makes it. However it may still not. As TheGunsmasha said, Zendikar could have been destroyed and the oath is to protect other planes until their last breath. Or they make an oath to fight for as long as possible but their effort is futile and the plane is destroyed.
My reason for thinking Zendikar makes it:
- Background details show healthy Zendikar.
- Hedrons looks intact and functional.
- Planeswalkers seem happy rather than fighting/distressed.
- Zendikar was a successful set, BFZ looks like it's going to be a super-successful set, why kill the cash cow?
The Magic team certainly are capable of sets with unhappy endings ( Scars block especially, but Theros and Khans block were left on a kind of a sad note, too ), but given the original Zendikar block left with an unhappy end, I suspect they'll try to give an upside for this one, too.
That is a good point. I'm just stating all possible views.
It would appear Zendikar makes it. However it may still not. As TheGunsmasha said, Zendikar could have been destroyed and the oath is to protect other planes until their last breath. Or they make an oath to fight for as long as possible but their effort is futile and the plane is destroyed.
Me playing Borborygmos Enraged EDH, I turn two'd Xenagos, the Reveler and on turn 5: "Alright, my turn. I play a Temple of Abandon and Scry 2. *ship two lands to the bottom* Then I ultimate my Xenagos, leaving him with 1 loyalty. *top 7 are Borborygoms (from the original Ravnica block), Cyclops of Eternal Fury, Rubblehulk (5 lands in play), Rubblebelt Raiders, Chaos Imps, a Forest, and a Wooded Foothills* *already has Borborygmos Enraged in play because of Xenagos' first, Burning-Tree Emissary, Arbor Elf, and Llanowar elves* Alright so I swing in for 33 at [player] for lethal."
Me: "I cast Villainous Wealth, where X is 17 targeting [player]." *exiles then plays Emrakul, Ulamog, Blightsteel Colossus, Chromanticore, and other unimportant cards*
That is impressive. By the way, if you surround a card name with these characters [ c ] and [ / c ] but remove the spaces it gives you those nifty autocard links you see elsewhere.
So, [ c ]Empty the Pits[ / c ] when you take out those spaces becomes Empty the Pits
Ah thank you for the tip. I will use it.
And yeah it was very late into the game and it was basically do that, or mill out. Most of my cards were either on the field, in the grave, or in my hand. I honestly probably only had about 5 cards left in my library.
EDIT: Forgot to mention that Rakshasa Vizir was on the battlefield at the time. I exiled 60 cards (this was very late game) and so Rakshasa Vizir also became a 64/64.
My goal is to turn my "Subway" deck (my cousin always misspoke and called Jarad Jared so we just ended up calling him Jared from Subway and so it just became "The Subway EDH") into a Sidisi-based EDH with more reanimator stuffs as well as complete my Kruphix (formerly Stitcher Geralf but it failed) mana ramp/mill EDH.
At this point, this type of thread may have been tugged on a million times (or at least some of it) but anyway. This may just be me and my linguistics/language geek side showing but I'd love to see the cards for the Gods of Theros, hell most any card from Theros, written in Greek, just for flavour reasons and really for nothing else. After scouring the internet, I have not found them. If I could speak Greek I would definitely go into MSE and start writing them out just for fun. If anyone actually speaks Greek and would be willing to do that I would love to see them if you decide to do them. I understand that the names may not translate directly, specifically Xenagos, however a close approximation (like changing the x from ksi to zeta due to the pronunciation of Xenagos and things like that) would still be cool.
Another thing that I've always thought about across the few years that I've played Magic: What would the languages of each plane be like, specifically the ones with clear influence from real world cultures and what not? To start off, yes I know that in all of the trailers (with the exclusion of the New Phyrexia trailer for the most part) they speak English or whatever language the trailer is in but that is only for the sake of comprehension like they do in films and in theatre. I also understand that R&D probably has not fleshed out much of this but I still like discussing it. Personally I feel like on most of Dominaria they would all speak a similar language likely called Dominarian. Maybe not close enough to be almost entirely mutually intelligible, but the difference between like Spanish and Italian where you can understand a lot but not all of it or maybe as different as Spanish and Romanian where you can only understand some of it. As clearly stated in the lore, High Mercadian is its own language and, as someone who's name is currently slipping my mind says, it is very similar to a language spoken by the Phyrexians on Dominaria. Certainly on Kamigawa they would speak a variant of pseudo Japanese, probably something like Kamigawanese. The names of many of the cards clearly state it. One thing that I've always been unsure of is if the guilds of Ravnica would speak different languages. As previously stated, I know that R&D has probably not fleshed out much of the language related stuff in the series but in my opinion it's still fun and/or interesting to speculate and discuss stuff like this. I can almost guarantee that on each Shard of Alara they each speak a different language due to centuries or likely millennia of separation. One thing I'm unsure of is if the Eldrazi would have a different language from those on Zendikar or even their own language to begin with. The Phyrexian language as of New Phyrexia is completely unintelligible to those who don't speak it and I doubt that there are many, if any languages like it out in the Multiverse. On Tarkir, I would presume that all of the clans would have their own languages much like the groups they were based off of in real life (Abzan = Ottoman Turks, Mardu = Mongols, Jeskai = Chinese Monks, Sultai = Burmese/other South East Asians, Temur = Siberians). Therefore I feel like the languages of the clans would be incredibly similar to those of the groups they were based off of. However I wonder if after the Khanfall, would the languages of the tribes change due to different history and different influence? Personally I feel like it would be possible and the languages would have changed but not significantly enough to create a major impact on everything else. These are just my speculations and if there is anyone else out there who is interested in this sort of stuff, I would love to hear what you have to say down bellow.
4 Overgrown Tomb
3 Godless Shrine
2 Temple Garden
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Marsh Flats
2 Windswept Heath
3 Horizon Canopy
4 Zulaport Cutthroat
2 Blood Artist
4 Bloodthrone Vampire
4 Shambling Shell
2 Blisterpod
3 Doomed Traveler
2 Stinkweed Imp
3 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Abzan Ascendancy
3 Rally the Ancestors
2 Read the Bones
2 Day of Judgment
1 Harmonize
2 Thoughtseize
EDIT: Don't worry about sideboard. That's dependant on your LGS's or wherever you play's meta.
EDIT: Ulamog doesn't necessarily need to be in it and neither do the Flingdrazi or Desolation Twin, those were just examples however I do like the Flingdrazi-Desolation Twin combo of flinging 20 damage at my opponent.
Apparently they had only played lands, Narset, and drawn.
Me: *at 32 life, turn 6 begins, Master Transmuter and 5 lands (2 are original Ravnica block Karoo lands) in play, have Sphinx of the Steel Wind in hand, draw Magister Sphinx* "Ok so I'll use play Magister Sphinx and make your life 10. Then pass the turn."
Opponent: *Dragonlord Atarka deck, hasn't played her, has 5 lands and no creatures in play (damaged me from burn spells) then draws and groans* "Play Stomping Grounds tapped and pass the turn." *no cards in hand*
Me: "End of your turn, use Master Transmuter's ability to put Sphinx of the Steel Wind into play then begin my turn." *turn 7 for me, draws Plains, puts it into play* "Alright so I'll swing in the air for lethal."
Typically this deck is a long term strategy deck. If someone wins on turn 7 while I'm using this deck, it's usually someone else who has an even more "No Friends Allowed" deck in the sense that just play infinite combos or an insane burn deck.
Ah. Well I should tell her that for future reference.
Me: *has a clear attacker advantage* Alright. Pass.
Last Opponent: *draws a land and has 1 other card in her hand; plays Phenax, God of Deception from command zone then Sleep* Pass.
Me: *draws land, puts it into play* Pass.
Last Opponent: On your end step I tap all of my creatures to mill you for 47. On my upkeep I mill you for another 47, draw then pass.
Me: *flips entire deck upside down and puts it into grave*
Another time she some how managed to play Blue Sun's Zenith for 123 (or just some ridiculously high number like that) on my other friend who was the only other person at the table at the time.
-Me: Doubling Season, Parallel Lives, Primal Vigor, Liliana of the Dark Realms's, Caged Sun with black named, Urborg Tomb of Yawgmoth, and 12 lands in play, 51 cards in my grave because Empty the Pits/reanimator, 3 life, everything untapped, no creatures, Empty the Pits in hand
-Last player in play besides me: 29 lands in play, 784 life, empty hand, no creatures
Opponent: *goes through the motions, puts 30th land into play* Pass turn.
Me: End of your turn *taps all lands, exiles 50 cards from grave* I empty the pits fooooor 71, Doubling Season, Parallel Lives, and Primal Vigor keep triggering off of each other to create infinite 2/2 zombies, they all get +1/+1 because of Caged Sun, don't think that triggers Doubling Season and Primal Vigor's effects, if it does, they get infinite +1/+1s. My turn, I draw a card, and swing in with infinite damage.
Opponent: Why are we friends again?
That is a good point. I'm just stating all possible views.
It would appear Zendikar makes it. However it may still not. As TheGunsmasha said, Zendikar could have been destroyed and the oath is to protect other planes until their last breath. Or they make an oath to fight for as long as possible but their effort is futile and the plane is destroyed.
Everyone else: *silent*
Ah thank you for the tip. I will use it.
And yeah it was very late into the game and it was basically do that, or mill out. Most of my cards were either on the field, in the grave, or in my hand. I honestly probably only had about 5 cards left in my library.
"I Empty the Pits, where X is 80."
EDIT: Forgot to mention that Rakshasa Vizir was on the battlefield at the time. I exiled 60 cards (this was very late game) and so Rakshasa Vizir also became a 64/64.
Another thing that I've always thought about across the few years that I've played Magic: What would the languages of each plane be like, specifically the ones with clear influence from real world cultures and what not? To start off, yes I know that in all of the trailers (with the exclusion of the New Phyrexia trailer for the most part) they speak English or whatever language the trailer is in but that is only for the sake of comprehension like they do in films and in theatre. I also understand that R&D probably has not fleshed out much of this but I still like discussing it. Personally I feel like on most of Dominaria they would all speak a similar language likely called Dominarian. Maybe not close enough to be almost entirely mutually intelligible, but the difference between like Spanish and Italian where you can understand a lot but not all of it or maybe as different as Spanish and Romanian where you can only understand some of it. As clearly stated in the lore, High Mercadian is its own language and, as someone who's name is currently slipping my mind says, it is very similar to a language spoken by the Phyrexians on Dominaria. Certainly on Kamigawa they would speak a variant of pseudo Japanese, probably something like Kamigawanese. The names of many of the cards clearly state it. One thing that I've always been unsure of is if the guilds of Ravnica would speak different languages. As previously stated, I know that R&D has probably not fleshed out much of the language related stuff in the series but in my opinion it's still fun and/or interesting to speculate and discuss stuff like this. I can almost guarantee that on each Shard of Alara they each speak a different language due to centuries or likely millennia of separation. One thing I'm unsure of is if the Eldrazi would have a different language from those on Zendikar or even their own language to begin with. The Phyrexian language as of New Phyrexia is completely unintelligible to those who don't speak it and I doubt that there are many, if any languages like it out in the Multiverse. On Tarkir, I would presume that all of the clans would have their own languages much like the groups they were based off of in real life (Abzan = Ottoman Turks, Mardu = Mongols, Jeskai = Chinese Monks, Sultai = Burmese/other South East Asians, Temur = Siberians). Therefore I feel like the languages of the clans would be incredibly similar to those of the groups they were based off of. However I wonder if after the Khanfall, would the languages of the tribes change due to different history and different influence? Personally I feel like it would be possible and the languages would have changed but not significantly enough to create a major impact on everything else. These are just my speculations and if there is anyone else out there who is interested in this sort of stuff, I would love to hear what you have to say down bellow.