Ymils, Slug Overlord4GB
Legendary Creature - Slug Avatar
~ power and toughness are each equal to three times the amount of slug tokens you control.
When ~ enters the battlefield or is dealt damage, create two 1/1 green and black slug tokens.
*/*
Leather Tunic3
Artifact - Equipment
If equipped creature were to be dealt damage from any source, it does that much damage minus one instead.
Equip - 1
The problem with your deck is that it is incredible unfocused.
A rule of thumb when building decks, you want your deck to be extremely good at one thing rather than mediocre at multiple things. What makes this complicated is that sometimes you delve into subthemes IE BG snek with delirium, energy, or just grindy cards. Each is the same idea with a different subtheme, but they still have a focused idea.
Your deck has a +1/+1 counter theme, as well as an energy theme, and a slight ramp theme.
Your counters/energy theme make you want to be beating down and/or win early with Electrostatic Pummeler. I think you want:
Next, you need to have more ramp cards. If you know the site mtggoldfish, they released a fairly interesting article on ramp a week or so ago. In a very brief summary, you want your ramp cards to line up. For example, you have a t2 play that ramps you, you want to have a 4cmc thing to play (on turn 3 using all mana), and further up. If we had 1cmc dorks, you would want to play a t2 3cmc ramp because it uses all your mana. Standard follows the 2>4>6 curve.
I would suggest around 8 2cmc rampers, 6 4cmc, and 4 6cmc rampers. Your options:
Ulvenwald Captive:Good card that has a permanent ramp, allows for it to become a beatstick/bigger ramper later game.
Naga Vitalist:Better in multicolor decks, still has plenty of versatility because it is permanent ramp.
Servant of the Conduit: Only is a 2-shot ramper. That is why I removed it, you could play it.
Channeler Intiate: Like above, but 3-shot. Can be a beater but you really don't want beaters, you want big dudes. Also more expensive than previous options.
4 Cmc
Hedron Archive: Good burst ramp, very powerful. Depending on payoff cards you choose, you might prefer others that ramp you with lands.
Shefet Monitor when cycled: I like this. Ramp and a free card? Seems pretty good. You could also toolbox with a few deserts since you run only green cards. It also can be a backup finisher.
Wild Wanderer: It's a fine card. Give you a land and a chump blocker.
Verdant Crescendo: You could run one of the PW-deck nissa as a win con. If so, this is pretty good.
Now you have to look at the payoffs. This area gets tricky due to your small budget, but you can still run big dudes. I'll showcase some of my favorites that are under $1.
Oran-Rief Hydra: In budget decks. this can be a MASSIVE beater and turns your ramp into power/toughness.
Ulvenwald Hydra: Does just about the same thing, but in a slightly different way. These are starting to see play in marvel sideboards, so pick them up now before they break the $1 mark.
Soul of the Harvest: Can replace your bestiary. Starts drawing cards and is on curve as a finisher.
Honored Hydra: Almost vanilla, but has the advantage of big stats and causing 2-for-1s.
It is up to you what you do, I am just giving you options, you'll have to toy with the budget. Also you have to be careful of some cards getting whiped out by rotation. Here are my suggested Additions.
I would also suggest putting in some more lands that can also be utility.
After a little bit of tinkering, this is my final list:
I've recently been trying 1x Whir of Invention mb over 1 Commit/Memory. So far it has worked fairly well as an extra slot that can be reservoir, statuary, prism, etc.
Does this look budget enough for you? I include the Anointed Procession + Hidden Stockpile combo because it is very strong and lets you grind your opponent out.
Hi all, Just picked up this deck yesterday for mtgo, due to its extremely cheap nature (3 tix) and have a few questions. I'm playing almost an exact copy of Teimuu's list. I'm stil learning the deck, but a few questions:
1.) What do you fetch for with Inventors' Fair? I'm sure that there are situations, but like, Statuary vs Reservoir? Is Prism worth it for card draw?
2.) Glint-Nest Crane vs Anticipate vs Prophetic Prism?
3.) What is a "flood"/"screw" hand with this deck?
Thanks for feedback in advance.
As a few stories with the deck (Bad Beats/Good Beats): one game I consitently didn't have enough life to one shot my opponent, but was able to gain 20+ life a turn until I won. Another game I drew every single land in my deck in a row (seriously).
Overall, this deck is really fun! After playing just a few casual games with it, it seems really fun and has a lot of interesting synergies. It is a big change up from my paper deck that I have had for a while now, GB Energy. I have had a ton of fun with that deck , but Aetherflux was a dream and this thread is a dream come true.
What I thought was a really sweet card was Mindswipe. You are very aggro, so you don't want to have too many 3+ drops (because that is what mindswipe is) but it is good flood protection. Even if your opponent pays 3 mana, you still get a bolt on them from the spell. I also sqeezed in Serum Visions because that card is really good. Peek is another cantrip with some upside. The part where this deck is really hurting is the lands. Having Steam Vents and Spirebluff Canal allow you to be consistently making t1 plays.
I think Servant of the Conduit should be an auto include, because it lets you another way to combo off. Also winning with infinite mana seems good but you need more combos. You need another combo effect and if you want to win with paradox engine and aetherflux resevoir the blue chord of calling seems like a good redundancy include; Seems pretty spicy, might build this when I get tired of gb snek.
Edit: whoops, i didn't see the last page, fixing my entry:
Forgotten Bow 2
Artifact - Equipment
Equipped creature has :symtap:This creature does one damage to target creature or player.
If equipped creature is an archer, it does 4 damage instead.
Equip 2 Many can shoot, but only few can aim.
I want to make sure that you, as a new player, understand that buying packs is not the best way to acquire specific cards. If you can find a local game store, you can buy all these cards there. If that doesn't work, you can order them online from a place like tcgplayer.
Anyways, about the deck:
You want to sit back in the early game, let some of your creatures die, attack if your opponent is open, and just stall until a few creatures die. Once you embalm them, Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun and Aven Wind Guide give them lots of evasion and you can hit for a large amount. The only non-Amonkhet cards are Borrowed Grace which is a good pump spell when attacking and can also save some dudes (or both) and Stasis Snare which is good removal.
A few questions...
What is your budget? (You say no gideons, but are you at $20? $50? $100+?)
How competitive do you want the deck to be? (obviously more budget can be more competitive, but you don't need to have a competitive deck if you just want to play fun, etc.)
If you just want something cool, U/W Embalm seems like an interesting build. I can try to build some for you, but I need these questions answered. Thanks!
Okay, I've toyed around with RDW, and here is my $.02:
3 Drops: Combat Celebrant: Very good, especially with Hanweir Garrison. I think a play set of this and Garrison is too much. Henweir Garrison: Good at going wide. I like this card.
Suggestions:
-maybe 1 less garrison, 8 3-drops is a bit much.
2 Drops: Harnessed Lightning: You aren't trying to durdle and kill creatures, you want to be as fast as possible. Incendiary Flow has the downside of being sorcery and not synergizing with Aether Chaser, but has the large upside of going to the face.
Thriving Grubs: This card can synergize with aether chaser, but it is pretty bad if you want to be fast. Aether Chaser: This card is just fine, you can think of it as 2 mana for 3 power.
Suggestions:
-I think grubs shouldn't be in this deck. Bloodrage Brawler is a huge beater and fairly cheap, like 1.5 tix for a playset, I would pick a playset up asap.
-If you delve into a madness subtheme, Furyblade Vampire is a 4/2 discard outlet, another big beater. If you play it, remove aether chaser.
1 Drops: Falkenrath Gorger: 2/1 for 1. Pretty good. Soul-Scar Mage: Pretty good, the amount of noncreature spells is fairly small though.
Suggestions: Flameblade Adept is almost the same but can get value off of furyblade or bloodrage.
Overall Suggestions:
I think that you could easily, and fairly cheaply, get into a madness subtheme, with the large payoff card being Fiery Temper.
Since saheeli is dead, I think you don't need shock mainboard.
If you want to go for monetary upgrade, I think 2 of Hazoret the Fervent or the 4/9 flying haste vampire that I can't think of could be a strong curve topper, but maybe not with only 20 lands.
I toyed around with Docent of Perfection, and while it is extremely strong, when this deck is going to win, it will win almost definitely. In more testing I have even moved away from Glyph Keeper in favor of a fourth Baral, Chief of Compliance. On the other hand, the only way this deck loses is to small go-wide strategies, and Docent of Perfection helps make lots of tokens, but since most spells are counterspells, we need the opponent to cast more spells to get value out of him. The problem is, he is only good against aggresive red decks, but costs 5 mana. I will definitely be testing him more though.
This is a tempo/control deck. The main goal is to resolve a spell enabler, such as Baral, Chief of Compliance or Curious Homunculus and then counter every single meaningful spell that the opponent plays for the rest of the game.
Should you play this deck?
-If your meta is not extremely aggro heavy
-If you don't need friends
-If you love blue control
Card Analysis Baral, Chief of Compliance Best card in the deck. Makes us able to go toe-to-toe by making our counterspells cheaper. only 3 because legendary. Curious Homunculus Arguably better than baral. While slower in the beginning, turning into a huge beater is a large upside and can be flipped in one or two turns. Curator of Mysteries One of the better fliers in standard at the moment. The cycling cost of U is a large upside and we discard a surprising amount of cards, making its ability relevant. Also can be cast of Baral's Expertise. Glyph Keeper This card is great. Only one because it is our finisher and once we get going, we will find it. It is almost always card advantage because you get it twice, or you can discard it to loot into better cards, and still get to play it later.
Censor: This card, almost singlehandedly pushes this deck way over the top. Never dead because of that cycling effect, and with a baral or homunculus out this is basically Force Spike. Essence Scatter: Who needs creatures? you dont... (This is a 2/2 split with negate, can be adjusted) Negate:Who needs noncreatures? you dont...(see above) Spell ShrivelVery budget counterspell, along with the fact that double spell enabler makes this a simple U, compared to other counterspells. Overwhelming Denial/Insidious Will/Summary Dismissal The high end powerful counterspells. This split is just for experimental purposes, and mixture works.
Hieroglyphic Illumination Average card draw spell. While not as good as Glimmer of Genius when hard cast, the cycling is better for this deck. Could be swapped though. Pull from Tomorrow Right when your opponent is out of spells, you get to draw a new hand! Especially powerful with our enablers. Not amazing early game, but still very powerful.
Baral's Expertise This can bounce the one or two threats that slipped through our portfolio of counterspells. Also quite good to get to cast a curator or hieroglyphics for free.
Tips on Playing
-This deck can only generate advantage with a homunculus or baral on the field. Usually best to be able to play one turn 2.
-Don't be afraid to cycle Curator of Mysteries! You will almost definitely draw another one and you do not want to play it on curve.
-This is not a curve deck. It aims to resolve a spell enabler and then counter every single spell the opponent will play for the rest of the game.
-You do not want to be casting Curator of Mysteries or Glyph Keeper on curve unless you are being pressured to.
-You get a free mana when casting Pull from Tomorrow with a Baral or Voracious Reader on the battlefield.
The Sideboard
I am still testing out different sideboard cards. Any advice or ideas are appreciated!
Up for Debate:
Should we splash RWGB?
What about counterspell ____?
Does PoohBearOverlord have no friends?
Changelog
2:00 pm EST, April 24, 2017: Thread created.
Legendary Creature - Slug Avatar
~ power and toughness are each equal to three times the amount of slug tokens you control.
When ~ enters the battlefield or is dealt damage, create two 1/1 green and black slug tokens.
*/*
Next:
Starfish Warrior
Artifact - Equipment
If equipped creature were to be dealt damage from any source, it does that much damage minus one instead.
Equip - 1
One arrow just doesn't cut it anymore.
IIW: Redesign one of the 5 one-cmc cards from the beginning of magic! Dark Ritual, Lightning Bolt, Ancestral Recall, Giant Growth, Healing Salve
4 Bomat Courier
3 Electrostatic Pummeler
4 Greenbelt Rampager
2 Longtusk Cub
3 Rishkar, Peema Renegade
3 Scrounging Bandar
4 Servant of the Conduit
1 Tireless Tracker
1 Prey Upon
1 Traverse the Ulvenwald
1 Oath of Nissa
1 Lifecrafter's Bestiary
19 Forest
1 Mountain
The problem with your deck is that it is incredible unfocused.
A rule of thumb when building decks, you want your deck to be extremely good at one thing rather than mediocre at multiple things. What makes this complicated is that sometimes you delve into subthemes IE BG snek with delirium, energy, or just grindy cards. Each is the same idea with a different subtheme, but they still have a focused idea.
Your deck has a +1/+1 counter theme, as well as an energy theme, and a slight ramp theme.
Your counters/energy theme make you want to be beating down and/or win early with Electrostatic Pummeler. I think you want:
3 Electrostatic Pummeler
4 Greenbelt Rampager
2 Longtusk Cub
3 Rishkar, Peema Renegade
3 Scrounging Bandar
4 Servant of the Conduit
1 Lifecrafter's Bestiary
4 Attune with Aether
1 Traverse the Ulvenwald
1 Prey Upon
1 Mountain
2 Aether Hub
Next, you need to have more ramp cards. If you know the site mtggoldfish, they released a fairly interesting article on ramp a week or so ago. In a very brief summary, you want your ramp cards to line up. For example, you have a t2 play that ramps you, you want to have a 4cmc thing to play (on turn 3 using all mana), and further up. If we had 1cmc dorks, you would want to play a t2 3cmc ramp because it uses all your mana. Standard follows the 2>4>6 curve.
I would suggest around 8 2cmc rampers, 6 4cmc, and 4 6cmc rampers. Your options:
I would also suggest putting in some more lands that can also be utility.
After a little bit of tinkering, this is my final list:
20 Forest
2 Blighted Woodland
2 Mirrorpool
Creatures (21):
4 Naga Vitalist
4 Ulvenwald Captive
4 Shefet Monitor
2 Wild Wanderer
3 Ulvenwald Hydra
3 Oran-Rief Hydra
1 Soul of the Harvest
4 Nissa's Renewal
4 Nature's Way
3 Blossoming Defense
1 Heroic Intervention
2 Rishkar's Expertise
1 Mouth/Feed
Tell me what you think!
4 Sacred Cat
4 Thraben Inspector
Two Drops:
4 Hidden Stockpile
4 Servo Exhibition
3 Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun
4 Master Trinketeer
2 Stasis Snare
Four Drops:
4 Aven Wind Guide
3 Anointed Procession
2 Sram's Expertise
2 Cast Out
2 Regal Caracal
Lands:
4 Evolving Wilds
4 Meandering River
8 Plains
3 Island
3 Swamp
Does this look budget enough for you? I include the Anointed Procession + Hidden Stockpile combo because it is very strong and lets you grind your opponent out.
1.) What do you fetch for with Inventors' Fair? I'm sure that there are situations, but like, Statuary vs Reservoir? Is Prism worth it for card draw?
2.) Glint-Nest Crane vs Anticipate vs Prophetic Prism?
3.) What is a "flood"/"screw" hand with this deck?
Thanks for feedback in advance.
As a few stories with the deck (Bad Beats/Good Beats): one game I consitently didn't have enough life to one shot my opponent, but was able to gain 20+ life a turn until I won. Another game I drew every single land in my deck in a row (seriously).
Overall, this deck is really fun! After playing just a few casual games with it, it seems really fun and has a lot of interesting synergies. It is a big change up from my paper deck that I have had for a while now, GB Energy. I have had a ton of fun with that deck , but Aetherflux was a dream and this thread is a dream come true.
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Stormchaser Mage
4 Young Pyromancer
Spells:
4 Burst Lightning
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Peek
4 Serum Visions
3 Vapor Snag
4 Mana Leak
3 Skullcrack
2 Mindswipe
1 Desolate Lighthouse
2 Evolving Wilds
4 Temple of Epiphany
7 Island
6 Mountain
What I thought was a really sweet card was Mindswipe. You are very aggro, so you don't want to have too many 3+ drops (because that is what mindswipe is) but it is good flood protection. Even if your opponent pays 3 mana, you still get a bolt on them from the spell. I also sqeezed in Serum Visions because that card is really good. Peek is another cantrip with some upside. The part where this deck is really hurting is the lands. Having Steam Vents and Spirebluff Canal allow you to be consistently making t1 plays.
Forgotten Bow 2
Artifact - Equipment
Equipped creature has :symtap:This creature does one damage to target creature or player.
If equipped creature is an archer, it does 4 damage instead.
Equip 2
Many can shoot, but only few can aim.
IIW: Starfish creature subtype
4 Aven Wind Guide
4 Sacred Cat
4 Fan Bearer
3 Unwavering Initiate
3 Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun
4 Labyrinth Guardian
2 Vizier of Many Faces
2 Glyph Keeper
2 Regal Caracal
4 Stasis Snare
4 Borrowed Grace
Lands:
4 Evolving Wilds
4 Meandering River
9 Plains
7 Island
I want to make sure that you, as a new player, understand that buying packs is not the best way to acquire specific cards. If you can find a local game store, you can buy all these cards there. If that doesn't work, you can order them online from a place like tcgplayer.
Anyways, about the deck:
You want to sit back in the early game, let some of your creatures die, attack if your opponent is open, and just stall until a few creatures die. Once you embalm them, Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun and Aven Wind Guide give them lots of evasion and you can hit for a large amount. The only non-Amonkhet cards are Borrowed Grace which is a good pump spell when attacking and can also save some dudes (or both) and Stasis Snare which is good removal.
What is your budget? (You say no gideons, but are you at $20? $50? $100+?)
How competitive do you want the deck to be? (obviously more budget can be more competitive, but you don't need to have a competitive deck if you just want to play fun, etc.)
If you just want something cool, U/W Embalm seems like an interesting build. I can try to build some for you, but I need these questions answered. Thanks!
3 Drops:
Combat Celebrant: Very good, especially with Hanweir Garrison. I think a play set of this and Garrison is too much.
Henweir Garrison: Good at going wide. I like this card.
Suggestions:
-maybe 1 less garrison, 8 3-drops is a bit much.
2 Drops:
Harnessed Lightning: You aren't trying to durdle and kill creatures, you want to be as fast as possible. Incendiary Flow has the downside of being sorcery and not synergizing with Aether Chaser, but has the large upside of going to the face.
Thriving Grubs: This card can synergize with aether chaser, but it is pretty bad if you want to be fast.
Aether Chaser: This card is just fine, you can think of it as 2 mana for 3 power.
Suggestions:
-I think grubs shouldn't be in this deck. Bloodrage Brawler is a huge beater and fairly cheap, like 1.5 tix for a playset, I would pick a playset up asap.
-If you delve into a madness subtheme, Furyblade Vampire is a 4/2 discard outlet, another big beater. If you play it, remove aether chaser.
1 Drops:
Falkenrath Gorger: 2/1 for 1. Pretty good.
Soul-Scar Mage: Pretty good, the amount of noncreature spells is fairly small though.
Suggestions:
Flameblade Adept is almost the same but can get value off of furyblade or bloodrage.
Overall Suggestions:
I think that you could easily, and fairly cheaply, get into a madness subtheme, with the large payoff card being Fiery Temper.
Since saheeli is dead, I think you don't need shock mainboard.
If you want to go for monetary upgrade, I think 2 of Hazoret the Fervent or the 4/9 flying haste vampire that I can't think of could be a strong curve topper, but maybe not with only 20 lands.
I've been toying around with a mono blue list for a long time, and some Amonkhet cards, this deck has been pushed over the top.
Creatures:
4 Curious Homunculus
3 Baral, Chief of Compliance
4 Curator of Mysteries
1 Glyph Keeper
Counterspells:
4 Censor
2 Negate
2 Essence Scatter
4 Spell Shrivel
1 Overwhelming Denial
1 Insidious Will
1 Summary Dismissal
3 Pull from Tomorrow
4 Hieroglyphic Illumination
Tempo:
3 Baral's Expertise
Lands:
23 Island
This is a tempo/control deck. The main goal is to resolve a spell enabler, such as Baral, Chief of Compliance or Curious Homunculus and then counter every single meaningful spell that the opponent plays for the rest of the game.
Should you play this deck?
-If your meta is not extremely aggro heavy
-If you don't need friends
-If you love blue control
Card Analysis
Baral, Chief of Compliance Best card in the deck. Makes us able to go toe-to-toe by making our counterspells cheaper. only 3 because legendary.
Curious Homunculus Arguably better than baral. While slower in the beginning, turning into a huge beater is a large upside and can be flipped in one or two turns.
Curator of Mysteries One of the better fliers in standard at the moment. The cycling cost of U is a large upside and we discard a surprising amount of cards, making its ability relevant. Also can be cast of Baral's Expertise.
Glyph Keeper This card is great. Only one because it is our finisher and once we get going, we will find it. It is almost always card advantage because you get it twice, or you can discard it to loot into better cards, and still get to play it later.
Censor: This card, almost singlehandedly pushes this deck way over the top. Never dead because of that cycling effect, and with a baral or homunculus out this is basically Force Spike.
Essence Scatter: Who needs creatures? you dont... (This is a 2/2 split with negate, can be adjusted)
Negate:Who needs noncreatures? you dont...(see above)
Spell ShrivelVery budget counterspell, along with the fact that double spell enabler makes this a simple U, compared to other counterspells.
Overwhelming Denial/Insidious Will/Summary Dismissal The high end powerful counterspells. This split is just for experimental purposes, and mixture works.
Hieroglyphic Illumination Average card draw spell. While not as good as Glimmer of Genius when hard cast, the cycling is better for this deck. Could be swapped though.
Pull from Tomorrow Right when your opponent is out of spells, you get to draw a new hand! Especially powerful with our enablers. Not amazing early game, but still very powerful.
Baral's Expertise This can bounce the one or two threats that slipped through our portfolio of counterspells. Also quite good to get to cast a curator or hieroglyphics for free.
Tips on Playing
-This deck can only generate advantage with a homunculus or baral on the field. Usually best to be able to play one turn 2.
-Don't be afraid to cycle Curator of Mysteries! You will almost definitely draw another one and you do not want to play it on curve.
-This is not a curve deck. It aims to resolve a spell enabler and then counter every single spell the opponent will play for the rest of the game.
-You do not want to be casting Curator of Mysteries or Glyph Keeper on curve unless you are being pressured to.
-You get a free mana when casting Pull from Tomorrow with a Baral or Voracious Reader on the battlefield.
The Sideboard
I am still testing out different sideboard cards. Any advice or ideas are appreciated!
Up for Debate:
Should we splash RWGB?
What about counterspell ____?
Does PoohBearOverlord have no friends?
Changelog
2:00 pm EST, April 24, 2017: Thread created.