I was pretty late to this set - I've been building a soundproof room, tore my MCL, holiday in Japan & discovered that baseball is more entertaining in South Korea than anywhere else I've seen. Fun times
After drafting one weekend and playing Arena this last week, the cards that made me think are;
The Great Henge has become a kill on sight spell when I play it....
All the great cards are kill-on-sight. Henge and Kiora have the benefit of, at least one of them surviving the vast majority of sweepers that see play in my group, so I'll take that. Temur Ascendancy is another possible choice if you prefer a build with blue, and it's not legendary, so there's that.
Thanks for the suggestions everyone.
So far I'm prioritizing creatures that can come down early, preferably flying. Cockroach-like cards like Rekindling Phoenix are always good, my group loves sweepers. Black drain has made a comeback lately in my group, so I may have to focus on lifegain creatures for survival. Invigorate, Wild Growth & Utopia Sprawl look like making the cut in some numbers, otherwise I'm gonna try to keep the creature count as high as possible. It's taking shape, but I'm not set on which creatures I wanna use yet.
The main thing that every Kiora deck needs is cards like Utopia Sprawl and Wild Growth.
....
I almost always use Selvala, Heart of the Wilds
....
I personally don't think that the creatures themselves matter nearly as much (they're mostly interchangeable).
Thanks again.
I think I'll avoid Lupine Prototype, but I see your point. As for Selvala, I missed the boat on that one.
Sprawl & Wild Growth, haha I've gotten so much use out of those two cards. Thing is with these, once Henge hits the table, I'm thinking of repeatedly untapping Henge for the lifegain - I'm thinking of you Gary!
I totally agree on the creatures more or less being interchangeable, they're just there to feed the engine and eventually beat face.
Invigorate! Now that is the sort of card I can get behind. Great suggestion
Simic Flash is annoying enough, but right now I've seen soooooo many decks running between 12 to 16 counters with very few other cards that constitute a win-con. One of them literally ran nothing but counter, Time Wipe's & Jace-my-deck-is-empty with card draw.
I'm running into these decks almost exclusively right now (or red aggro) so I'm considering whether B01 is worth it as quite a few games are reaching time. I'm thinking this is marginally more cancerous than Field of the Dead....
Lately in standard, I've been rockin something close to this. It's varied a bit as I try different cards, but it's the general idea, so I'll list all cards I've been trying out.
I'm interested in making this thing work for multiplayer, and even more interested in getting as many 3-5cmc evasive/flying creatures in here as I can, without awful drawbacks like like most of the demons seem to. Any suggestions?
I'm thinking some Steve, Hydra Omnivore possibly, and maybe some Banshee of the Dread Choir. I'm gonna put some trample enablers in here too.
One thing I'm wary of looking for, is a way to prevent decking myself. This deck can draw a tonne of cards! Barishi is one I know of, that synergizes with Henge & Kiora, but also leaves the land cards in the grave, which helps to keep Cavalier of FLames' ability alive. If there is anything that might be better here, please let me know.
Banned on the 24th, I made my comment b4 the ban. Laugh all you like.
I'm really surprised it's banned.
Standard has now effectively killed off ramp decks. I'm disappointed they're banning it now, yet when Scapeshift was in the format it was just fine. Makes little sense to me. I know it's a strong card, and a strong deck, but playing the deck on Arena it doesn't often feel that way, as quite a few aggro decks can kill you before the engine can get up and running.
All that Glitters is better than it looks. I've seen Smothering Tithe fuel this thing to epic proportions. And most of the time, you don't know the player has this in their deck until the turn they're swinging for lethal.
I like Mystic Sanctuary a LOT. Great land, I agree with you on this one. I like the black one too, but I also agree it's not as strong.
I disagree about a ban-hammer coming for Field of the Dead. Aggro decks are strong enough right now. Gruul is definitely favourable against Field decks. Given the sideboard tools that are available in standard, like Unmoored Ego, and the quality of the creatures @ 4cmc and below to pressure ramp decks, I don't see Field going anywhere.
Looking forward to jamming Midnight Clock with all sorts of things from Psychosis Crawler to Psychic Corrosion to Niv Mizzet.
I play a fair bit of larger FFA's, so scalers like this are always welcome.
I've been testing out a few different builds for MP.
Land-ramp is generally more robust than reduction cards like Starfield Mystic, so that's where I would be looking first.
I wanna get that first Fires of Invention down on turn 3!
SO far I'm liking enchantment heavy builds, as there are lots of cards like Enchantress's Presence to keep your hand full of threats, and people don't generally have many cards able to deal with enchantments. And even if they do, there are ways to negate that.
If I was gonna do demented things with Risen Reef in multiplayer, I'd consider a critical MASS of Clone-effects to just repeatedly spam more Risen Reef's into play, drawing a heap of your deck and dumping tonnes of lands into play. I like Clones a lot for MP, because if your plan is being nerfed, you can simply copy the largest threats on the table.
I like Mimic Vat for landing a Clone or Reef every turn.
I'm sure a nice big X-spell like Torment of Hailfire would do enough to give you a clear advantage, but there are heaps of big mana things that could work in BUG colours.
P.S. feel free to let me know if there's any TOE decks that you'd like to see. I can't promise that I'll have something for everything but TOE was an extremely powerful set.
I've been running a similar build on Arena, and yes, it does indeed draw a tonne of cards, and many decks don't have an answer to it.
I do feel that something like the ultimate from Knights' Charge could be a very good finisher against control decks running Wrath's.
Eldraine has quite a few cards to get excited about for us multiplayers. (Yes, I'm also trying to build a Syr Konrad, the Grim deck)
The Cauldron of Eternity is an interesting card, but I'm not sure I like it yet.
And well I'd like to do something with it, after I drafted a couple today and then trading to get a full set from friends. Cos why not?
The casting cost, and how to build around this thing has me thinking. .....I'm sure it's gonna be stuck in your hand much more often than being a combo enabler, but repeatable reanimation looks very useful.
Considering looting/discard effects for creature heavy Reanimator-type shells, I feel we have better options. Another reanimator version could be packing your deck full of massive beat-sticks, MP-discard, Buried Alive, pseudo ramp & Cauldron to land beaters every turn.
I've been trying to get the best out of Grenzo, Dungeon Warden with little luck since print. Now Cauldron together with Grenzo? Whilst dredgers would work quite well here to drop the casting cost of Cauldron, dredgers can be doing far more busted things, and doing them quicker while less vulnerable to removal, so I feel this deck idea isn't where I wanna be.
I think the most likely home might be in sac-decks running Zulaport Cutthroat and friends, but this wouldn't work with typical targets, so the deck would have be tweaked to accomodate it.
Anyone loving this card?
Is this card a ripper and I just haven't seen it yet, or just another card that's halfway-solid without being amazing?
I was pretty late to this set - I've been building a soundproof room, tore my MCL, holiday in Japan & discovered that baseball is more entertaining in South Korea than anywhere else I've seen. Fun times
After drafting one weekend and playing Arena this last week, the cards that made me think are;
Thassa, Deep-Dwelling I like. It's no Deadeye Navigator, but it's durable & 4cmc.
I think I'm gonna try a build with Act of Treason-style cards to keep their stuff.
Nightmare Shepherd + Sac outlet looks great, but don't think we *need* it for Gary. Gary don't need help Cool card.
Shadowspear looks killer, seems under-costed to me.
*Escape* cards are interesting, but none I'm super keen on yet.
Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger together with Lazav, the Multifarious would be hilarious though.
Gotta say, this set looks heavy on duel-focused cards. Not many I'm interested in so far, but I need more time to digest all the cards.
All the great cards are kill-on-sight. Henge and Kiora have the benefit of, at least one of them surviving the vast majority of sweepers that see play in my group, so I'll take that. Temur Ascendancy is another possible choice if you prefer a build with blue, and it's not legendary, so there's that.
Thanks for the suggestions everyone.
So far I'm prioritizing creatures that can come down early, preferably flying. Cockroach-like cards like Rekindling Phoenix are always good, my group loves sweepers. Black drain has made a comeback lately in my group, so I may have to focus on lifegain creatures for survival. Invigorate, Wild Growth & Utopia Sprawl look like making the cut in some numbers, otherwise I'm gonna try to keep the creature count as high as possible. It's taking shape, but I'm not set on which creatures I wanna use yet.
Thanks again.
I think I'll avoid Lupine Prototype, but I see your point. As for Selvala, I missed the boat on that one.
Sprawl & Wild Growth, haha I've gotten so much use out of those two cards. Thing is with these, once Henge hits the table, I'm thinking of repeatedly untapping Henge for the lifegain - I'm thinking of you Gary!
I totally agree on the creatures more or less being interchangeable, they're just there to feed the engine and eventually beat face.
Invigorate! Now that is the sort of card I can get behind. Great suggestion
Thanks! Rekindling Phoenix I own already, Verix looks good too!
I'd consider some Rite of Replication too. 5 copies of Agent of Treachery is exactly where I would want to be, although it might be easy to deck yourself....
Simic Flash is annoying enough, but right now I've seen soooooo many decks running between 12 to 16 counters with very few other cards that constitute a win-con. One of them literally ran nothing but counter, Time Wipe's & Jace-my-deck-is-empty with card draw.
I'm running into these decks almost exclusively right now (or red aggro) so I'm considering whether B01 is worth it as quite a few games are reaching time. I'm thinking this is marginally more cancerous than Field of the Dead....
Is it just me? Anyone else copping this?
Lately in standard, I've been rockin something close to this. It's varied a bit as I try different cards, but it's the general idea, so I'll list all cards I've been trying out.
26 Jund Lands
Card Draw - 4 The Great Henge & 4 Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner
Removal - Murderous Rider & Bonecrusher Giant
4+ Power Creatures - Lovestruck Beast, Rotting Regisaur, Questing Beast, Shifting Ceratops, Spawn of Mayhem, Skarrgan Hellkite, Cavalier of Flame, God-Eternal Rhonas, Ilharg, the Raze-Boar etc.
The deck works well enough for standard, but I know it's not fast enough for some meta's.
I'm interested in making this thing work for multiplayer, and even more interested in getting as many 3-5cmc evasive/flying creatures in here as I can, without awful drawbacks like like most of the demons seem to. Any suggestions?
I'm thinking some Steve, Hydra Omnivore possibly, and maybe some Banshee of the Dread Choir. I'm gonna put some trample enablers in here too.
One thing I'm wary of looking for, is a way to prevent decking myself. This deck can draw a tonne of cards!
Barishi is one I know of, that synergizes with Henge & Kiora, but also leaves the land cards in the grave, which helps to keep Cavalier of FLames' ability alive. If there is anything that might be better here, please let me know.
Thoughts?
Improvements?
I'm really surprised it's banned.
Standard has now effectively killed off ramp decks. I'm disappointed they're banning it now, yet when Scapeshift was in the format it was just fine. Makes little sense to me. I know it's a strong card, and a strong deck, but playing the deck on Arena it doesn't often feel that way, as quite a few aggro decks can kill you before the engine can get up and running.
Fabled Passage for me, is one of the better cards in the set, simply due to it working for so many decks. I really like this one.
All that Glitters is better than it looks. I've seen Smothering Tithe fuel this thing to epic proportions. And most of the time, you don't know the player has this in their deck until the turn they're swinging for lethal.
I like Mystic Sanctuary a LOT. Great land, I agree with you on this one. I like the black one too, but I also agree it's not as strong.
I disagree about a ban-hammer coming for Field of the Dead. Aggro decks are strong enough right now. Gruul is definitely favourable against Field decks. Given the sideboard tools that are available in standard, like Unmoored Ego, and the quality of the creatures @ 4cmc and below to pressure ramp decks, I don't see Field going anywhere.
My deck listed above is for duels. It's ok, but Gruul has been giving it a smashing.
You're my hero right now.
I'm gonna think of as many 4 or 5cmc creatures I can abuse with Rite.... LOL
I play a fair bit of larger FFA's, so scalers like this are always welcome.
Land-ramp is generally more robust than reduction cards like Starfield Mystic, so that's where I would be looking first.
I wanna get that first Fires of Invention down on turn 3!
SO far I'm liking enchantment heavy builds, as there are lots of cards like Enchantress's Presence to keep your hand full of threats, and people don't generally have many cards able to deal with enchantments. And even if they do, there are ways to negate that.
As far activated stuff, Dark Imposter, Sacred Mesa, Helix Pinnacle, Dragon Roost, Lighthouse Chronologist, Luminarch Ascension etc. are a few idea's.
I like Mimic Vat for landing a Clone or Reef every turn.
I'm sure a nice big X-spell like Torment of Hailfire would do enough to give you a clear advantage, but there are heaps of big mana things that could work in BUG colours.
I've been running a similar build on Arena, and yes, it does indeed draw a tonne of cards, and many decks don't have an answer to it.
I do feel that something like the ultimate from Knights' Charge could be a very good finisher against control decks running Wrath's.
RE: TOE decks;
One of my favourites so far has been a BUG build centered around Oko, Thief of Crowns, Dreadhorde Invasion & Woodland Champion.
Support from Lovestruck Beast, Gilded Goose & removal.
Obviously we have better card choices in eternal formats, however this deck has consistently been good to me so far.
Eldraine has quite a few cards to get excited about for us multiplayers.
(Yes, I'm also trying to build a Syr Konrad, the Grim deck)
The Cauldron of Eternity is an interesting card, but I'm not sure I like it yet.
And well I'd like to do something with it, after I drafted a couple today and then trading to get a full set from friends. Cos why not?
The casting cost, and how to build around this thing has me thinking.
.....I'm sure it's gonna be stuck in your hand much more often than being a combo enabler, but repeatable reanimation looks very useful.
Considering looting/discard effects for creature heavy Reanimator-type shells, I feel we have better options. Another reanimator version could be packing your deck full of massive beat-sticks, MP-discard, Buried Alive, pseudo ramp & Cauldron to land beaters every turn.
I've been trying to get the best out of Grenzo, Dungeon Warden with little luck since print. Now Cauldron together with Grenzo? Whilst dredgers would work quite well here to drop the casting cost of Cauldron, dredgers can be doing far more busted things, and doing them quicker while less vulnerable to removal, so I feel this deck idea isn't where I wanna be.
I think the most likely home might be in sac-decks running Zulaport Cutthroat and friends, but this wouldn't work with typical targets, so the deck would have be tweaked to accomodate it.
Anyone loving this card?
Is this card a ripper and I just haven't seen it yet, or just another card that's halfway-solid without being amazing?