So, I've been trying to brew a stompy list in the Snow meta, but I'm a little short on ideas.
What I want to be doing is resolving BBE to hit disruptive creatures that are also fairly good at winning the game. I have a few notes:
- I feel like Kommand is solid in this meta. Thoughts?
- I've been wondering about Lightning Skelemental. Blightning on a Stick should be decent in some matchups.
- I think Bonecrusher is worth running.
I mostly need to fill out my curve with lower costed(but still stompily awesome) creatures, and decide wether I want to go Llanowar Elves type gameplan or try and use Inquisition of Kozilek and other disruption.
My current budget is about $20, but I have a lot of the pricier cards including a mediocre shock-n-check manabase, 3 Kommands, Bolts, 3 Collective Brutality, 4 Bonecrusher, 4 Glorybringer, and probably some other pieces off the top of my head.
With your list, i'd hit the full 4 Ghostly Prison, replace Windborn Muse and Loxodon Gatekeeper with Island Sanctuary, and consider more Wrath of God effects. Maybe run Rule of Law combined with Howling Mine if that sounds fun.
You should probably do one or the other. Saprolings and Madness Vampires both are easy one-theme strategies, but aura hydras is two and that could put her at a big downside. Mostly because getting a creature blown up when it has auras on it hurts far more than newer players can ever know.
I recommend going either Bogles(which could easily be the best deck at the table) or hydra themed counters(which can also be huge).
Given she's newer, she should probably use counter-based hydras. Managorger Hydra is the absolute best here, especially if you're playing more than 1v1. This is mostly because it can be played on t2 w/elves, and it's also just a fun card, which should be one of the focuses for this sort of playgroup.
If she still wants enchantments, cards like Hydra's Growth and Forced Adaptation provide counters to go with the Hydra theme, but they're still auras so be careful. Colossal Majesty and Journey to Nowhere are still fine cards without an enchantment them, though, and should be played regardless.
From your list, I'd keep:
Avacyn's Pilgrim
Banishing Light
Colossal Majesty
Death's Presence is a fine card for table, keep it if you want
Dromoka's Command
End Hostilities as a panic button
Frontier Siege is fine if you want it
Journey to Nowhere
Llanowar Elves
Loxodon Smiter
Managorger Hydra
Prey Upon's fine
Protean Hydra
Shalai is great
Solidarity is fine with enough counters.
That leaves 28 cards, probably want ~7 more. for 25 or so lands. Hydras can use that mana, and Colossal Majesty can keep your hand full later on.
Hydra's Growth seems like a super flavorful card to add here, and it'll get out of hand really quick. You can find them at your local game store, they're from the last set printed so whichever store you choose should be guaranteed to carry them. Probably ~$0.50. Sphere of Safety in some number would also be great, because her massive hydras will make her a target. Again, about 50 cents apiece.
If it helps at all, remember to choose one them and go with it. When deciding what cards to use, make sure they fit the them. For instance, if you choose Madness Vampires, you would play mostly Madness because the Vampire half is incidental, and also SOI and EDM gave a lot of support for the combined strategy. In essence, it's one theme because of the card support. In contrast, Hydras and Auras don't really complement each other, nor are they combined in any way. It's one or the other. However, there are still plenty of non-aura enchantments that can help out the hydra gameplan.
Good luck, and I wish you great times with your siblings.
Zetalpa as a finisher seems fine, I wouldn't worry there.
Baird seems really bad in control. I get that your wraths don't hit him, but he's best as a SB card for W weenie decks against other aggressive matchups.
Same with Raff. He seems like he does nothing.
Also, you've got a SUPER high curve. Control tends to have 1-2 cost removal and interaction in swaths, a few wraths at the 4-5 mana mark, and 1-2 cards that are really big finishers.
Of course, that's if you're going full control. You can definitely go the other way and play Historic Prison(I presume this format is Historic, but pun not intended). In that, Baird and Raff are all-in, you want Karn's Temporal Sundering, and then you can use more legendary cards. Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle and Board the Weatherlight are great additions there, History of Benalia can be powerful, and there's a few other great pieces if you look around for them.
All in all, it's spicy but it feels divided. Go Control or go Legends, but mixing the two, especially when they're conflicting strategies, might be what's hurting you.
Although you could always be a spike and play Teferis, if you want to be miserable but win a lot. I prefer not being miserable though.
I cut 2x Mental Misstep because it's $2 and the budget is weird. I went with Foil here because I know my friend's playstyles might not make Daze effective enough to do anything.
And yes, non-snow basics don't count towards the budget.
Off the top of my head(I've looked at most of those cards) that would be ~$45 w/out counting Thing in the Ice. It stacks up fast, and Preordain/Ponder are bother about $2-4 apiece. It's a really interesting game because you think you can run some decent cards, then you check the price and it's about your normal deckbuilding budget type stuff, and then you realize it takes up 50% of your budget in one playset and you have to cut it.
The nice thing is that there are a lot of banned cards that are really cheap, so we can play with legends like Hymn to Tourach, Treasure Cruise, and even run crap like Grapeshot if we felt like it. My friend loves Island Sanctuary, so he's probably building a deck with that.
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/the-list-of-free-cast-cards-and-similar-effects/ has a lot of what I presume will be absurd cards in the format. I feel that skirting mana costs, either by using Gushing effects or with cards like Dark Ritual, will be the best thing to do. Especially because Mono Colored is so heavily incentivized by virtue of an extreme lack of fixing. Some colors don't have cheap enough untapped fixing to be run at all. I think RB decks will have decent fixing by virtue of their lack of play in Pioneer, and maybe WB because Caves of Koilos is still $1, but everything else is probably out the window unless you want to play taplands.
It's like taplands but also slow ramp but also you're playing Arboreal Grazer in your land slot. But it's still taplands.
Which is really confusing. Legitimately these are either broken as all get out(which I doubt) or useless. Although these could be fine in commander, just run some of these in place of some mana rocks. I think a colorless one that allows you to jam any basic land is best, maybe legendary. A cycle would be confusing here, mostly because it's 5 different effects that are similar, but you'd have to balance them out really well.
Here:
Super whatever land
Legendary Land
CITP tapped. When ~ ETBs, you may put a basic land from your hand into play tapped.
T: Add Colorless
That way you can reasonably get value from the ramp, like playing an Arboreal Grazer, but it doesn't fix and it's useless in multiples or later in the game.
It becomes a "every deck wants exactly one" type card rather than "maybe some decks want a playset but only if they're landfall and they have the right support and a bunch of other conditions and also It's almost useless unless you build around it".
Although, I've never seen an "every deck wants exactly one" type card. Imagine that in constructed non-singleton formats.
@d0rsal, I know that there are plenty of fine silver bordered, I just decided to go with a blanket ban at least for now bc I don't want to go through every single one. Although I may set up a playgroup ban system of some sort if we want it, which will allow us to just add them all in.
Also, a quick look at the Mtggoldfish's Pauper metagame tells me that most pauper decks(other than heroic) are well over $30. I know we can go for budget builds, but the point also wasn't to netdeck anything but to brew and create our own stupid meta.
I get where you're coming from, but in case you didn't know I'd just like to say that many format outlaws such as Mental Misstep, Gitaxian Probe, Treasure Cruise and Gush(just off the top of my head from the lists I've been brewing) are very much legal. That gives U a huge presence. Black gets Dark Ritual and a couple other absurd cards, Red's got a good thing going with aggro, White can do weenie I guess(white always sucks) and Green could easily do high power stompy within the budget. I don't know about multicolored, as that opens up so many difficult decisions it wouldn't be possible to list them here.
I personally think it'll be fairly balanced, especially as I know that there are some definite Uncounterable creatures to beat U and some Hexproof stuff to deal with B.
So, just wondering what you guys think. Maybe I'll even get a reply
My friends and I made a 60-card format(w/SB), no banlist, no set restrictions(other than silver bordered cards and ante). The only restriction is the deck in total must be $30 or less(we use MTGGoldfish for this, because we agreed on it).
Just really curious -- would you play it w/friends, and if you would, what deck?
P.S. I did make another post referencing this format, but I didn't go into detail there.
My friends and I wanted to play a format where the decks(in total) are limited to $30. I want to play Mono U Delver. Here's my list so far(not including lands, but those are all islands).
I sorta need SB help and 1 more card to top it off.
Note that most of these said friends are SUPER casual and their lists are rarely competitive. They don't often try to build a smooth curve, and they often have slow and clunky win conditions like Triskaidecophobia. So the meta's going to be a little weird.
Thanks in advance!
EDIT 1: Foil over Misdirection/Thwart bc I like it's interaction w/Treasure Cruise and Gush. It's almost a Black Lotus for that can only be spent on Cruise, and holding it and gush can fully negate the downsides.
Boomerang will be thrown at lands if I don't have other targets. It's sort of Wasteland, but budget and helps deal with other permanents as well.
What I want to be doing is resolving BBE to hit disruptive creatures that are also fairly good at winning the game. I have a few notes:
- I feel like Kommand is solid in this meta. Thoughts?
- I've been wondering about Lightning Skelemental. Blightning on a Stick should be decent in some matchups.
- I think Bonecrusher is worth running.
I mostly need to fill out my curve with lower costed(but still stompily awesome) creatures, and decide wether I want to go Llanowar Elves type gameplan or try and use Inquisition of Kozilek and other disruption.
My current budget is about $20, but I have a lot of the pricier cards including a mediocre shock-n-check manabase, 3 Kommands, Bolts, 3 Collective Brutality, 4 Bonecrusher, 4 Glorybringer, and probably some other pieces off the top of my head.
You should probably do one or the other. Saprolings and Madness Vampires both are easy one-theme strategies, but aura hydras is two and that could put her at a big downside. Mostly because getting a creature blown up when it has auras on it hurts far more than newer players can ever know.
I recommend going either Bogles(which could easily be the best deck at the table) or hydra themed counters(which can also be huge).
Given she's newer, she should probably use counter-based hydras. Managorger Hydra is the absolute best here, especially if you're playing more than 1v1. This is mostly because it can be played on t2 w/elves, and it's also just a fun card, which should be one of the focuses for this sort of playgroup.
If she still wants enchantments, cards like Hydra's Growth and Forced Adaptation provide counters to go with the Hydra theme, but they're still auras so be careful. Colossal Majesty and Journey to Nowhere are still fine cards without an enchantment them, though, and should be played regardless.
From your list, I'd keep:
Avacyn's Pilgrim
Banishing Light
Colossal Majesty
Death's Presence is a fine card for table, keep it if you want
Dromoka's Command
End Hostilities as a panic button
Frontier Siege is fine if you want it
Journey to Nowhere
Llanowar Elves
Loxodon Smiter
Managorger Hydra
Prey Upon's fine
Protean Hydra
Shalai is great
Solidarity is fine with enough counters.
That leaves 28 cards, probably want ~7 more. for 25 or so lands. Hydras can use that mana, and Colossal Majesty can keep your hand full later on.
Hydra's Growth seems like a super flavorful card to add here, and it'll get out of hand really quick. You can find them at your local game store, they're from the last set printed so whichever store you choose should be guaranteed to carry them. Probably ~$0.50.
Sphere of Safety in some number would also be great, because her massive hydras will make her a target. Again, about 50 cents apiece.
She also might like Glare of Subdual, Brave the Sands, and Wellspring might be pretty funny.
If it helps at all, remember to choose one them and go with it. When deciding what cards to use, make sure they fit the them. For instance, if you choose Madness Vampires, you would play mostly Madness because the Vampire half is incidental, and also SOI and EDM gave a lot of support for the combined strategy. In essence, it's one theme because of the card support. In contrast, Hydras and Auras don't really complement each other, nor are they combined in any way. It's one or the other. However, there are still plenty of non-aura enchantments that can help out the hydra gameplan.
Good luck, and I wish you great times with your siblings.
Baird seems really bad in control. I get that your wraths don't hit him, but he's best as a SB card for W weenie decks against other aggressive matchups.
Same with Raff. He seems like he does nothing.
Also, you've got a SUPER high curve. Control tends to have 1-2 cost removal and interaction in swaths, a few wraths at the 4-5 mana mark, and 1-2 cards that are really big finishers.
Interesting list, but I'd probably cut Baird/Raff, replace Urza's Ruinous Blast with something like Time Wipe, and add cards like Sinister Sabotage, Seal Away, etc. Consider Opt or Anticipate, and replace Divination with Chemister's Insight.
Of course, that's if you're going full control. You can definitely go the other way and play Historic Prison(I presume this format is Historic, but pun not intended). In that, Baird and Raff are all-in, you want Karn's Temporal Sundering, and then you can use more legendary cards. Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle and Board the Weatherlight are great additions there, History of Benalia can be powerful, and there's a few other great pieces if you look around for them.
All in all, it's spicy but it feels divided. Go Control or go Legends, but mixing the two, especially when they're conflicting strategies, might be what's hurting you.
Although you could always be a spike and play Teferis, if you want to be miserable but win a lot. I prefer not being miserable though.
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Brineborn Cutthroat
4 Counterspell
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Foil
4 Gush
4 Treasure Cruise
4 Though Scour
4 Accumulated Knowledge
2 Mana Leak
2 Opt
I cut 2x Mental Misstep because it's $2 and the budget is weird. I went with Foil here because I know my friend's playstyles might not make Daze effective enough to do anything.
And yes, non-snow basics don't count towards the budget.
Off the top of my head(I've looked at most of those cards) that would be ~$45 w/out counting Thing in the Ice. It stacks up fast, and Preordain/Ponder are bother about $2-4 apiece. It's a really interesting game because you think you can run some decent cards, then you check the price and it's about your normal deckbuilding budget type stuff, and then you realize it takes up 50% of your budget in one playset and you have to cut it.
The nice thing is that there are a lot of banned cards that are really cheap, so we can play with legends like Hymn to Tourach, Treasure Cruise, and even run crap like Grapeshot if we felt like it. My friend loves Island Sanctuary, so he's probably building a deck with that.
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/the-list-of-free-cast-cards-and-similar-effects/ has a lot of what I presume will be absurd cards in the format. I feel that skirting mana costs, either by using Gushing effects or with cards like Dark Ritual, will be the best thing to do. Especially because Mono Colored is so heavily incentivized by virtue of an extreme lack of fixing. Some colors don't have cheap enough untapped fixing to be run at all. I think RB decks will have decent fixing by virtue of their lack of play in Pioneer, and maybe WB because Caves of Koilos is still $1, but everything else is probably out the window unless you want to play taplands.
Elvish Spirit Guide may also be worth your while.
Vine Mare is probably a fine finisher, although Nullhide Ferox may be a better piece if the opp doesn't have lands.
There are definitely some good fliers, but the above hexproof finishers should be fine if you can ramp fast enough.
Also, you running 4x each of Armageddon and Ravages of War?
Which is really confusing. Legitimately these are either broken as all get out(which I doubt) or useless. Although these could be fine in commander, just run some of these in place of some mana rocks. I think a colorless one that allows you to jam any basic land is best, maybe legendary. A cycle would be confusing here, mostly because it's 5 different effects that are similar, but you'd have to balance them out really well.
Here:
Super whatever land
Legendary Land
CITP tapped. When ~ ETBs, you may put a basic land from your hand into play tapped.
T: Add Colorless
That way you can reasonably get value from the ramp, like playing an Arboreal Grazer, but it doesn't fix and it's useless in multiples or later in the game.
It becomes a "every deck wants exactly one" type card rather than "maybe some decks want a playset but only if they're landfall and they have the right support and a bunch of other conditions and also It's almost useless unless you build around it".
Although, I've never seen an "every deck wants exactly one" type card. Imagine that in constructed non-singleton formats.
Creature - whatever
When ~ etbs or dies, each player scrys 2
2/1
W
Creature - whatever
When ~ leaves the battlefield, each player draws a card
2/1
W
Instant
Each opponent sacrifices a creature.
Each player draws one card.
And probably some larger stuff for EDH later on
Also, a quick look at the Mtggoldfish's Pauper metagame tells me that most pauper decks(other than heroic) are well over $30. I know we can go for budget builds, but the point also wasn't to netdeck anything but to brew and create our own stupid meta.
I get where you're coming from, but in case you didn't know I'd just like to say that many format outlaws such as Mental Misstep, Gitaxian Probe, Treasure Cruise and Gush(just off the top of my head from the lists I've been brewing) are very much legal. That gives U a huge presence. Black gets Dark Ritual and a couple other absurd cards, Red's got a good thing going with aggro, White can do weenie I guess(white always sucks) and Green could easily do high power stompy within the budget. I don't know about multicolored, as that opens up so many difficult decisions it wouldn't be possible to list them here.
I personally think it'll be fairly balanced, especially as I know that there are some definite Uncounterable creatures to beat U and some Hexproof stuff to deal with B.
My friends and I made a 60-card format(w/SB), no banlist, no set restrictions(other than silver bordered cards and ante). The only restriction is the deck in total must be $30 or less(we use MTGGoldfish for this, because we agreed on it).
Just really curious -- would you play it w/friends, and if you would, what deck?
P.S. I did make another post referencing this format, but I didn't go into detail there.
4 Foil
4 Gush
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Brineborn Cutthroat
4 Thought Scour
4 Treasure Cruise
4 Accumulated Knowledge
4 Rune Snag
4 Boomerang
I sorta need SB help and 1 more card to top it off.
Note that most of these said friends are SUPER casual and their lists are rarely competitive. They don't often try to build a smooth curve, and they often have slow and clunky win conditions like Triskaidecophobia. So the meta's going to be a little weird.
Thanks in advance!
EDIT 1: Foil over Misdirection/Thwart bc I like it's interaction w/Treasure Cruise and Gush. It's almost a Black Lotus for that can only be spent on Cruise, and holding it and gush can fully negate the downsides.
Boomerang will be thrown at lands if I don't have other targets. It's sort of Wasteland, but budget and helps deal with other permanents as well.