Here's a revision I've been playing online. I found that this deck is so aggressive and can hit the enemy for 8-12 damage by turn 3, so I decided to focus more on the early game beatdown and reconsider the Pandemonium shenanigans. I added in 4 Vexing Devil which is an amazing card I had never seen before til' I just noticed it in another thread. It goes perfectly here because this deck doesn't care if my own creatures die, it just wants heavy quick turn 1-3 damage. I added in a couple of Lightning Bolts, though I am even thinking of adding 2 more and cutting one Bloodbraid and one Vengevine perhaps. Sometimes removal and an extra 3 damage is more important and can help end the game on turn 4. This deck is super fun and straightforward and does a crap ton of damage very reliably. The deck is very stable and has a ton of mana that can go for either color, so even the Groundbreakers and Ball Lightnings nearly never present a problem. It has a ton of solid 1, 2, and 3 drops, and if it gets to a 4 drop, both of them are incredible. Love it.
Some other card I'm considering: Simian Spirit Guide and Elvish Spirit Guide. I wonder if this would help to accelerate out more quick creatures, though I don't know if they would just clog up the deck for other better creatures.
Hi all. Returning to casual MTG after a year or so of not really playing. The only format I really play is multiplayer 2v2 or 3v3 teams, and I'm working out an old fun deck I had success with trying online against a friend in 1v1. Here is my deck (Yes, I only have one Vengevine, and probably not going to drop a ton of money for three more at the moment, but I welcome other suggestions as we might allow for proxies in our playgroup)
So obviously the point is to get out Primal Forcemage and batter them with hasted, trampling +3/+3'd elementals. Additionally, I can have Pandemonium out there to double the beatdown (even though it's a double edged sword, it should spice things up).
Because of Bloodbraid Elf, I'm a little worried about some of the bad cascade targets (the one drops, Thatcher Revolt if Forcemage isn't out, etc.)
Other cards I'm considering: Flamekin Harbinger (probably not though as it's a pretty terrible cascade target, but nice for grabbing that Vengevine for instance), Incandescent Soulstoke (kinda like this card, opinions?), Smokebraider, and Nova Chaser (*shrug* dunno, any of you used it?), and hell maybe even Rockslide Elemental since a lot of things are dying in multiplayer. Hell's Thunder is the one card that I think I need to track down though first.
So can you guys think of other integral additions to a deck like this? I'm not sold on the Glitterfangs yet, but it seems like a recurring potential 4/4 from the forcemage with Pandemonium out could be pretty nasty.
This probably isn't the direction you're taking, but I run a Living End cascade deck. Buried Alive + Gaea's Revenge = dead opponent for the most part. I use Violent Outburst and Demonic Dread to cascade and the deck is full of 3+ CMC cards so the ONLY target is Living End. I use Dimir Machinations and Insidious Dreams (in case I draw the Gaea's Revenges, or to discard Igneous Pouncers) to tutor for a cascade card if I don't have one, or Buried Alive. I also use Elvish Spirit Guide for a burst of mana to get Buried Alive off turn 2, and cascade turn 3 to end the game. I also include 1 Magister Sphinx just to be mean as well against lifegain decks or in multiplayer.
So what is the exact plan for Greater Gargadon? Are you going to be sacrificing your own stuff a lot? In my experience you will get a creature in the vat and not want to switch out once you have the best possible one in there, so there's not much reason for sacrificing after that.
I don't necessarily think this is the best option since most of your cards are relatively low cost, but Sneak Attack can be kind of nice to cheaply cast stuff and get it into the vat. Kind of tech, but Imp's Mischief may help to switch targets if your opponents start with artifact-hate to save the Vat. I still think having a 4-of of something like Terminate is necessary, and the reason it's played so much is because it's good, but that's up to you!
Consider Dark Ritual and Sol Ring to ramp into Mimic Vat immediately. My deck uses Thran Dynamo too. And I can sometimes have all of those artifacts out on turn two.
You need a lot more kill spells. Add 4 Terminate, Go For the Throat, and also maybe a few Doom Blades. This will allow you to steal other people's creatures, all the while getting rid of their threats.
Seems slow without something like Sneak Attack to cheat him out for barely any mana and have enough to cast spells. With a perfect hand o guess you could kill someone on turn 4 or 5.
I have a deck based around Mimic Vat, Kaervek the Merciless, and a whole bunch of kill, burn, and tutor spells to set up some nasty stuff. You can kill anybody's creature on the board and continually bring them out over and over with your vat, which is especially nice with Enter the Battlefield effects. It basically steals everyone else's stuff and uses it for your own good. Kaervek just wrecks people too, especially in multi.
In a deck like this I'd probably add 4x Quest for the Holy Relic honestly, especially for some of the more expensive equips. Also, I would suggest 4x Mother of Runes to give your creatures protection not only from removal, but to swing when they get huge with the equipment.
3x Vengevine
4x Bloodbraid Elf
4x Primal Forcemage
4x Spark Elemental
4x Strangleroot Geist
4x Groundbreaker
4x Ball Lightning
4x Hellspark Elemental
4x Vexing Devil
2x Lightning Bolt
23 Lands:
5x Mountain
2x Forest
4x Stomping Ground
4x Copperline Gorge
4x Ancient Ziggurat
4x Rootbound Crag
Here's a revision I've been playing online. I found that this deck is so aggressive and can hit the enemy for 8-12 damage by turn 3, so I decided to focus more on the early game beatdown and reconsider the Pandemonium shenanigans. I added in 4 Vexing Devil which is an amazing card I had never seen before til' I just noticed it in another thread. It goes perfectly here because this deck doesn't care if my own creatures die, it just wants heavy quick turn 1-3 damage. I added in a couple of Lightning Bolts, though I am even thinking of adding 2 more and cutting one Bloodbraid and one Vengevine perhaps. Sometimes removal and an extra 3 damage is more important and can help end the game on turn 4. This deck is super fun and straightforward and does a crap ton of damage very reliably. The deck is very stable and has a ton of mana that can go for either color, so even the Groundbreakers and Ball Lightnings nearly never present a problem. It has a ton of solid 1, 2, and 3 drops, and if it gets to a 4 drop, both of them are incredible. Love it.
Some other card I'm considering: Simian Spirit Guide and Elvish Spirit Guide. I wonder if this would help to accelerate out more quick creatures, though I don't know if they would just clog up the deck for other better creatures.
1x Vengevine
4x Bloodbraid Elf
4x Primal Forcemage
4x Spark Elemental
4x Strangleroot Geist
4x Groundbreaker
4x Ball Lightning
4x Hellspark Elemental
4x Glitterfang
3x Pandemonium
3x Thatcher Revolt
21 Lands:
5x Mountain
4x Forest
4x Copperline Gorge
4x Ancient Ziggurat
4x Rootbound Crag
So obviously the point is to get out Primal Forcemage and batter them with hasted, trampling +3/+3'd elementals. Additionally, I can have Pandemonium out there to double the beatdown (even though it's a double edged sword, it should spice things up).
Because of Bloodbraid Elf, I'm a little worried about some of the bad cascade targets (the one drops, Thatcher Revolt if Forcemage isn't out, etc.)
Other cards I'm considering: Flamekin Harbinger (probably not though as it's a pretty terrible cascade target, but nice for grabbing that Vengevine for instance), Incandescent Soulstoke (kinda like this card, opinions?), Smokebraider, and Nova Chaser (*shrug* dunno, any of you used it?), and hell maybe even Rockslide Elemental since a lot of things are dying in multiplayer. Hell's Thunder is the one card that I think I need to track down though first.
So can you guys think of other integral additions to a deck like this? I'm not sold on the Glitterfangs yet, but it seems like a recurring potential 4/4 from the forcemage with Pandemonium out could be pretty nasty.
I don't necessarily think this is the best option since most of your cards are relatively low cost, but Sneak Attack can be kind of nice to cheaply cast stuff and get it into the vat. Kind of tech, but Imp's Mischief may help to switch targets if your opponents start with artifact-hate to save the Vat. I still think having a 4-of of something like Terminate is necessary, and the reason it's played so much is because it's good, but that's up to you!
Cemetery Puca might work okay for you as well.
You need a lot more kill spells. Add 4 Terminate, Go For the Throat, and also maybe a few Doom Blades. This will allow you to steal other people's creatures, all the while getting rid of their threats.