Edited with deck tags. Only thing I'm skeptical about is including enough basics in a 3-color deck for Vegetation. I'm not the best at building mana bases.
Hello! I've been trying to come up with a brew for a while now, and I think I have settled on a fairly solid framework for a competitive deck. The object is to use the early turns to ramp and control the board with removal, which is particularly critical against the fast aggro decks.
Thanks for the reply. That's very informative. I was testing a bit online last night and I definitely caught onto the EOT Through the Breach or Summoning Trap trick to bait out counters. The other problem I noticed was a lack of draw effects to find creatures to pair with Breach. Also, it's true that if you EOT Breach a Titan or Emrakul, for example, that they stay through the end of YOUR turn, correct?
Does this deck not fare too well against UW/UWR control decks? Seems like the number of counterspells + Ghost Quarter (and Surgical Extraction out of the board) is a problem. Plus, it's quite hard to kill a Restoration Angel.
Played this deck in a 5K over the weekend and it did not go well. Played the 3 Thing in the Ice list from a page or 2 back.
Round 1 vs Spike Feeder/Angel combo.
Game 1 I draw and play all 3 Thing in the Ice and literally nothing else. Got steamrolled by a horde of creatures.
Game 2 I'm able to interact with his board long enough to counter Chord/tap down his team then combo off via Part the Waterveil Island kill.
Game 3 I'm able to interact for a bit but then fizzle out and can't draw anything to stop his infinite life combo. I let him go to 100 million life, but he has 3 creatures in play with 100 million +1/+1 counters essentially giving me a 1-turn window to combo off and I can't.
0-1
Round 2 vs Naya Burn
This was ugly. Very ugly. Game 1 he mulligans to 5 then rage concedes after I play a Thing in the Ice. Definitely thought he conceded too early, but I wasn't going to complain.
Games 2 and 3 were basically both over in a few turns. I don't know how we ever win this matchup. Even a Chalice on 1 wouldn't have bought me enough time. Double Eidolon is brutal.
0-2
I dropped out of frustration at this point. I did not like the inclusion of Thing in the Ice. I felt it would've been better served as something else. I missed Hibernation/Engulf the Shore out of the board. I think either would've made the round 1 matchup a breeze.
2 Linvala, the Preserver
2 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
4 Explosive Vegetation
1 Ruinous Path
3 Languish
2 To the Slaughter
4 Hedron Archive
3 Sorin, Grim Nemesis
4 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
26 land
What do you think? Any thoughts/comments/criticisms are appreciated.
The list I tested last night had 3 Courser. The info gained was pretty good in determining whether or not to crack a fetch. Haven't tried Explore yet.
Round 1 vs Spike Feeder/Angel combo.
Game 1 I draw and play all 3 Thing in the Ice and literally nothing else. Got steamrolled by a horde of creatures.
Game 2 I'm able to interact with his board long enough to counter Chord/tap down his team then combo off via Part the Waterveil Island kill.
Game 3 I'm able to interact for a bit but then fizzle out and can't draw anything to stop his infinite life combo. I let him go to 100 million life, but he has 3 creatures in play with 100 million +1/+1 counters essentially giving me a 1-turn window to combo off and I can't.
0-1
Round 2 vs Naya Burn
This was ugly. Very ugly. Game 1 he mulligans to 5 then rage concedes after I play a Thing in the Ice. Definitely thought he conceded too early, but I wasn't going to complain.
Games 2 and 3 were basically both over in a few turns. I don't know how we ever win this matchup. Even a Chalice on 1 wouldn't have bought me enough time. Double Eidolon is brutal.
0-2
I dropped out of frustration at this point. I did not like the inclusion of Thing in the Ice. I felt it would've been better served as something else. I missed Hibernation/Engulf the Shore out of the board. I think either would've made the round 1 matchup a breeze.