So I'm currently in a Ravnica Block League (which means we're stuck somewhere between Limited and Block Constructed), and my friend has a Gelectrode/Wee Dragonauts deck that pretty much cleans up pretty well. He includes a lot of cantrips from the set including Repeal, Telling Time, Cackling Flames, and Invoke the Firemind. Essentially Gelectrode's clear the board while Dragonauts go in for the kill. Finally, Izzet Chronarch recycles used up instants and sorceries, and cards like that could be useful to you.
He's also splashing green and has a few cards that go great with Wee Dragonauts: Psychotic Fury and Might of the Nephelim. Also Plaxmanta might be a good alternative to the cloak or greaves...
Magic is kind of a pain in that you either have to get booster packs, cross your fingers, and hope for the best, or go down to the internet/card store and buy the cards individually. Thankfully, a lot of commons and uncommons range from .10-.50 cents online, so if you form a decklist first of what you want you can then maybe go online and buy the specific cards you want for not much money.
try shopping at Black and Blue Magic. They got good prices, a nice stock, and should do what you want to do. If you're going to buy booster packs, get the booster packs from Eventide, since that's the particular set where "Superabundance" is from, and it will most likely have the blue/green cards you need. Booster packs are fairly random though, so I rarely buy booster packs directly to expand my collection.
If you're going blue/green, have you thought about putting in four Shorecrasher Mimic? Snakeform is amazing too, and if you got a lot of card drawing cards like Divination, Wistful Selkie, and Elvish Visionary you can maybe think of getting four Lorescale Coutl and playing around with that. Also, Cold-Eye Selkie is about a dollar right now, and is a fairly strong card that's a rare, and also blue/green.
I was lucky in that when I got introduced to Magic I had friends who had played for a long time in the past and let me use their giant collections for my early deckbuilding. They helped me walk through certain archetypes of decks and tell me what was good and not, but it wasn't until I had a very clear idea of the deck I wanted when I started collecting cards. I'm glad you've stumbled upon magic by yourself, but unfortunately having to start a collection from square zero is a bit of a pain. I've thrown out a few suggestions, I hope they help, and good luck!
Wickerbough Elder seems kind of a situational card... well, depending on what you're playing against.
I don't see the need to draw more than one per game, so maybe Garruk should go in for that. Again, I don't know much about what this deck is going to try and beat.
May I suggest Scroll Rack? I'm using it in a similar way with Skill Borrower for library manipulation, although in your case it may just be a little weaker.
Djinn of Wishes might be cute? If you have an expensive spell on top, you could cheat on the mana cost and play it cheaply, plus bouncing Djinn with evacuation recharges its counters. However, you don't have many high cost mana spells right now making Djinn redundant.
Magus of the Future is based off of Future Sight, which I think is better by sheer property of being an enchantment. If you can spare the cash, possibly think about upgrading to those eventually?
My suggestions are silly. Forget I ever posted them
Haha, well my current deck holds 100 cards, i'm having a hard time bringing it down.
We were all there at one point.
Building decks is one of the most fun things in Magic for me, mostly because I see myself as a "Johnny"; the type of player Wizards markets to that are interested in interesting card interactions and making crazy and interesting decks.
When I set out to build a deck, it almost always starts with me looking at one card and thinking "What would make this card really awesome?" When I saw Sedris, the Traitor King, I started thinking of what would be cool with it. I realized creatures that had cool "when _____ comes into play..." effects and evoke like Mulldrifter and Shriekmaw would be great because they can be evoked, go to the graveyard, then Sedris can unearth them and they'd use their "comes into play" effect again. When I saw Mycoloth I thought of cool cards that would take advantage of me having a billion 1/1's in play: Furystoke Giant and Overrun came into my mind. Right now I'm looking at three Manaplasms that I own and putting them alongside several Giant Growth, Bloodbraid Elf, Tower Above, and Flame Javelin that I own.
It takes a while to learn about cards and how each one really interacts with another, so my best advice is this:
Feel free to play your 100 card deck as long as you have to in order to figure out what your best cards are and how to get a feel for the game. Eventually, you'll see certain cards working really well with others, and although its tough sometimes you just gotta let those "good cards" go to let those better cards really shine.
About the whole lands thing, which this entire threads been mostly about, I would say that 24 lands is the right choice, but keep in mind you're talking to a forum where most of the players haven't played magic like they were just starting in a long time. Like someone else said earlier, certain playgroups play the game differently, and most of us aren't used to playing 100 card decks or playing with a "sub-optimal" number of lands. Most of us say 24 is the right number because that's the number of lands tournament winning decks tend to have, but you aren't out to win a tournament. You're just starting, so hey, no pressure dude.
Finally, if you like Magic, and want to expand your collection, think about going to a draft or sealed deck event. They're usually laid back, a lot of fun, and they certainly helped me get back into the real fundamentals of the game once I started getting into it. You get exposed to a lot of cards, learn very quickly about what makes a good card good, and best of all, you collect cards through the experience. If you live anywhere where there are nice people, most people should be more than willing to be supportive and helpful to you.
That wraps up my advice to you. I know that's a lot, but that's my philosophy to deckbuilding since I've started, and its worked for me. If you have a few cards that really excite you, I can throw out some suggestions for cards you may want to look into, and suggest some cool things you can do with those cards in a deck.
There are 101 ways to go about picking reanimation targets, but my personal favorites are Woodfall Primus, Empyrial Archangel, AKROMAAAAAA!!!, and some large creature with haste. Also, Diabolic Edict is a very good removal card, potentially better than terror seeing terror has some restrictions on non-black non-artifact. But if you want to stick with terror, also think about Shriekmaw; its a terror that is also a reanimation target.
A deck like this would like to look out against Leyline of the Void, Wheel of Sun and Moon, Tormod's Crypt, Relic of Progenitus, etc. Therefore, some enchantment removal might be in order. There's very little in the way of black but perhaps if you splash blue it will help you a lot: blue lets you use careful study as a discard+draw outlet, use boomerang effects to bounce enchantments/artifacts away long enough to let you reanimate your dudes, and give you a way to hardcast one of your fatties god forbid its late game and you have to. Æthersnipe would be something to consider as a way to bounce problems away: you evoke it, and you simply reanimate it when you're in trouble again. I'll also bring up Woodfall Primus again because he can also destroy enchantments and artifacts outright when he comes into play; the only problem is that if you're trying to get rid of a relic of progenitus, you'll have to dump the primus in your graveyard first then reanimate him, and by then your player will simply RFG your primus once he hits the graveyard. Therefore, he's actually not the best option you've got.
Finally, Makeshift Mannequin is slower reanimation, but also comes in at instant speed, letting you respond much faster to threats if you decide to mannequin a shriekmaw or aethersnipe.
In answer to your question, check the first post in this thread. There will be a spoiler called "rounds" which contains links to all the 5CB rounds played to date on these here forums. (there have been 2 seasons so far, spanning several years). Usefully, each special round has a short descriptive note. Just check for "backbuild". For example, season 2 had a backbuild on round #13 and #14.
Good luck!
Found what you were talking about. This particular format looks absolutely silly.
So this is my first 5CB, and its interesting to have my first one be in this totally different format. In any case, my deck is in, it probably won't do well, but maybe it will. At least I think my build is pretty amusing in how it beats the test deck.
Good luck me!
In other news, where can I see previous backbuild round reports? I didn't want to see what was going on at first but now that my deck is in I'm curious as to how people handled the problem in the past.
I feel your protection spells could potentially get in the way of getting Pariah on your Dawn Elemental if the other player is playing white. I see those spells as providing protection to Dawn Elemental from spot removal, but since Dawn Elemental already prevents damage to itself perhaps you should find a way to give it shroud. Also, Ghostly Prison seems redundant if you're getting Pariah on Dawn Elemental consistently. Same goes for Blinding Angel (although it is a good card and you should actually probably keep it). Maybe you should use tutors and transmuters to find Dawn Elemental and Pariah for you?
Another thing is that Dawn Elemental costs WWWW, which is pretty intensive and hard to get out for a two color deck. Some dual lands would go a long way for you, even come into play tapped lands but I think you ideally want a playset of Fetid Heath
Other than that, you've got a fairly singleton deck and the best way to improve it overall is simply to find the creatures and spells that do the most for you. Then go out, get more copies of those cards from your collection, and replace the more consistent cards with the cards that do less for you.
Here's an amazingly fun deck I've brewed using everyone's favorite reject rare. Some of the cards are not that expensive, although the costs add up so just be warned about that if you're on a tight budget. Most of the cards I've secured either through trades, had lying around in my old dusty collection, or cashed in some store credit at the local draft hangout.
A quick rundown of how the deck works: Brainstorm, Top, and especially Scroll Rack initially look for a skill borrower ASAP, then once she's out put a disk or scourglass on top of the library. With that stabalized, you're in business to start digging up Master Transmuter to get your threats out and get Sharuum to recycle the borrower so she can be used as a disk or scourglass over and over again. I rarely hardcast my boardsweepers unless I'm really desperate because it's almost always faster and better to pop the skill borrower, especially if I get her into play with a couple mana open and a thousand-year elixir.
Glacial Fortress and Platinum Angel were lucky openings at my M10 release. Ideally Platinum Angel really wants to be a Darksteel Colossus instead, and I really could use one more Academy Ruins. Elsewhere Flask is a nice cantrip that combos well with Master Transmuter and Sharuum for creating a card drawing engine, and Filigree Angel buys valuable time and serves as a pretty decent beatstick, especially when being bounced around by Transmuter. Magus of the Disk was mostly put there for budget reasons, also there are times I could think of where he'd be better than a disk proper.
If I was rolling in money, first thing to go out would be the terramorphics and panoramas going out for proper fetch lands. Right now they're a poor man's deck manipulation more than a mana fixer (especially the panorama), seeing that I usually get enough mana to be operational pretty easily (I hardly ever hardcast anything in the >4 CMC zone). Again, I also mentioned the glaring lack of Darksteel Colossus, who would be the win condition of win conditions for this deck, seeing he lives through all the wrath effects I provide. I thought about getting an Inkwell Leviathan, or some other artifact creature rock.
So any suggestions about what you would do with this deck? I highly recommend the build, and would like to see how all of you guys like playing it.
He's also splashing green and has a few cards that go great with Wee Dragonauts: Psychotic Fury and Might of the Nephelim. Also Plaxmanta might be a good alternative to the cloak or greaves...
I'll try to fetch a decklist at some point.
try shopping at Black and Blue Magic. They got good prices, a nice stock, and should do what you want to do. If you're going to buy booster packs, get the booster packs from Eventide, since that's the particular set where "Superabundance" is from, and it will most likely have the blue/green cards you need. Booster packs are fairly random though, so I rarely buy booster packs directly to expand my collection.
If you're going blue/green, have you thought about putting in four Shorecrasher Mimic? Snakeform is amazing too, and if you got a lot of card drawing cards like Divination, Wistful Selkie, and Elvish Visionary you can maybe think of getting four Lorescale Coutl and playing around with that. Also, Cold-Eye Selkie is about a dollar right now, and is a fairly strong card that's a rare, and also blue/green.
I was lucky in that when I got introduced to Magic I had friends who had played for a long time in the past and let me use their giant collections for my early deckbuilding. They helped me walk through certain archetypes of decks and tell me what was good and not, but it wasn't until I had a very clear idea of the deck I wanted when I started collecting cards. I'm glad you've stumbled upon magic by yourself, but unfortunately having to start a collection from square zero is a bit of a pain. I've thrown out a few suggestions, I hope they help, and good luck!
I don't see the need to draw more than one per game, so maybe Garruk should go in for that. Again, I don't know much about what this deck is going to try and beat.
Djinn of Wishes might be cute? If you have an expensive spell on top, you could cheat on the mana cost and play it cheaply, plus bouncing Djinn with evacuation recharges its counters. However, you don't have many high cost mana spells right now making Djinn redundant.
Magus of the Future is based off of Future Sight, which I think is better by sheer property of being an enchantment. If you can spare the cash, possibly think about upgrading to those eventually?
My suggestions are silly. Forget I ever posted them
We were all there at one point.
Building decks is one of the most fun things in Magic for me, mostly because I see myself as a "Johnny"; the type of player Wizards markets to that are interested in interesting card interactions and making crazy and interesting decks.
When I set out to build a deck, it almost always starts with me looking at one card and thinking "What would make this card really awesome?" When I saw Sedris, the Traitor King, I started thinking of what would be cool with it. I realized creatures that had cool "when _____ comes into play..." effects and evoke like Mulldrifter and Shriekmaw would be great because they can be evoked, go to the graveyard, then Sedris can unearth them and they'd use their "comes into play" effect again. When I saw Mycoloth I thought of cool cards that would take advantage of me having a billion 1/1's in play: Furystoke Giant and Overrun came into my mind. Right now I'm looking at three Manaplasms that I own and putting them alongside several Giant Growth, Bloodbraid Elf, Tower Above, and Flame Javelin that I own.
So my advice is take a look at the card that seems to excite you the most right now. Got a Captain of the Watch? Round up all your Veteran Armorsmiths, Veteran Swordsmiths, Elite Vanguards, and other soldiers and start with that. Or if you something like Fable of Wolf and Owl or Kalonian Behemoth that you really like playing with, think about putting in a lot of green cards that get you to 6 or 7 mana quickly so you can play these spells early. This includes Llanowar Elves, Elvish Visionary, Borderland Ranger, Rampant Growth, etc. If you play Fable, you'll have a lot of creatures if you play it, so think: what goes well with having a lot of creatures? May I suggest Overrun?
It takes a while to learn about cards and how each one really interacts with another, so my best advice is this:
Feel free to play your 100 card deck as long as you have to in order to figure out what your best cards are and how to get a feel for the game. Eventually, you'll see certain cards working really well with others, and although its tough sometimes you just gotta let those "good cards" go to let those better cards really shine.
About the whole lands thing, which this entire threads been mostly about, I would say that 24 lands is the right choice, but keep in mind you're talking to a forum where most of the players haven't played magic like they were just starting in a long time. Like someone else said earlier, certain playgroups play the game differently, and most of us aren't used to playing 100 card decks or playing with a "sub-optimal" number of lands. Most of us say 24 is the right number because that's the number of lands tournament winning decks tend to have, but you aren't out to win a tournament. You're just starting, so hey, no pressure dude.
Finally, if you like Magic, and want to expand your collection, think about going to a draft or sealed deck event. They're usually laid back, a lot of fun, and they certainly helped me get back into the real fundamentals of the game once I started getting into it. You get exposed to a lot of cards, learn very quickly about what makes a good card good, and best of all, you collect cards through the experience. If you live anywhere where there are nice people, most people should be more than willing to be supportive and helpful to you.
That wraps up my advice to you. I know that's a lot, but that's my philosophy to deckbuilding since I've started, and its worked for me. If you have a few cards that really excite you, I can throw out some suggestions for cards you may want to look into, and suggest some cool things you can do with those cards in a deck.
A deck like this would like to look out against Leyline of the Void, Wheel of Sun and Moon, Tormod's Crypt, Relic of Progenitus, etc. Therefore, some enchantment removal might be in order. There's very little in the way of black but perhaps if you splash blue it will help you a lot: blue lets you use careful study as a discard+draw outlet, use boomerang effects to bounce enchantments/artifacts away long enough to let you reanimate your dudes, and give you a way to hardcast one of your fatties god forbid its late game and you have to. Æthersnipe would be something to consider as a way to bounce problems away: you evoke it, and you simply reanimate it when you're in trouble again. I'll also bring up Woodfall Primus again because he can also destroy enchantments and artifacts outright when he comes into play; the only problem is that if you're trying to get rid of a relic of progenitus, you'll have to dump the primus in your graveyard first then reanimate him, and by then your player will simply RFG your primus once he hits the graveyard. Therefore, he's actually not the best option you've got.
Finally, Makeshift Mannequin is slower reanimation, but also comes in at instant speed, letting you respond much faster to threats if you decide to mannequin a shriekmaw or aethersnipe.
Those are my two cents!
Found what you were talking about. This particular format looks absolutely silly.
Absolutely silly.
Good luck me!
In other news, where can I see previous backbuild round reports? I didn't want to see what was going on at first but now that my deck is in I'm curious as to how people handled the problem in the past.
Another thing is that Dawn Elemental costs WWWW, which is pretty intensive and hard to get out for a two color deck. Some dual lands would go a long way for you, even come into play tapped lands but I think you ideally want a playset of Fetid Heath
Other than that, you've got a fairly singleton deck and the best way to improve it overall is simply to find the creatures and spells that do the most for you. Then go out, get more copies of those cards from your collection, and replace the more consistent cards with the cards that do less for you.
4 Terramorphic Expanse
4 Arcane Sanctum
1 Glacial Fortress
1 Academy Ruins
3 Plains
4 Island
3 Swamp
4 Skill Borrower
3 Master Transmuter
1 Magus of the Disk
4 Sphinx Summoner
2 Sharuum of the Hegemon
1 Platinum Angel
1 Filigree Angel
2 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Scroll Rack
1 Elsewhere Flask
3 Thousand-Year Elixir
3 Nevinyrral's Disk
2 Scourglass
A quick rundown of how the deck works: Brainstorm, Top, and especially Scroll Rack initially look for a skill borrower ASAP, then once she's out put a disk or scourglass on top of the library. With that stabalized, you're in business to start digging up Master Transmuter to get your threats out and get Sharuum to recycle the borrower so she can be used as a disk or scourglass over and over again. I rarely hardcast my boardsweepers unless I'm really desperate because it's almost always faster and better to pop the skill borrower, especially if I get her into play with a couple mana open and a thousand-year elixir.
Glacial Fortress and Platinum Angel were lucky openings at my M10 release. Ideally Platinum Angel really wants to be a Darksteel Colossus instead, and I really could use one more Academy Ruins. Elsewhere Flask is a nice cantrip that combos well with Master Transmuter and Sharuum for creating a card drawing engine, and Filigree Angel buys valuable time and serves as a pretty decent beatstick, especially when being bounced around by Transmuter. Magus of the Disk was mostly put there for budget reasons, also there are times I could think of where he'd be better than a disk proper.
If I was rolling in money, first thing to go out would be the terramorphics and panoramas going out for proper fetch lands. Right now they're a poor man's deck manipulation more than a mana fixer (especially the panorama), seeing that I usually get enough mana to be operational pretty easily (I hardly ever hardcast anything in the >4 CMC zone). Again, I also mentioned the glaring lack of Darksteel Colossus, who would be the win condition of win conditions for this deck, seeing he lives through all the wrath effects I provide. I thought about getting an Inkwell Leviathan, or some other artifact creature rock.
So any suggestions about what you would do with this deck? I highly recommend the build, and would like to see how all of you guys like playing it.
It's unfortunate that with the removal of mana burn comes the removal of great Braid of Fire tech