The other enchantment I was looking at for a similar effect to Death's Presence is Ooze Flux, but I decided not to go with it (or any of the others like it, such as Necrogenesis, Golgari Germination, Night Soil, etc) because I wanted to focus on playing small creatures to the battlefield and scavenging big creatures onto them.
I may have to add Survival of the Fittest, Brawn and Filth. My deck needs more trample. And I will definitely be adding Concordent Crossroads. My deck needs a little kill acceleration. Rings of Brighthearth is definitely going in; I just need to get my hands on one.
I don't have much mana ramp as I haven't really needed it. An Exploration might be a good edition though with life from the loam. Wish it was just a little cheaper. Same is true for Crucible of Worlds.
Take a look at my deck and let me know what you think.
You definitely run a lot more creatures than I do. I focus on scavenging onto one creature and getting in with him before the board wipe or removal comes down.
I usually see more value out of a ramp spell than an artifact that costs the same CMC, for example I'd run Cultivate or similar instead of the cluestone.
Have you gotten any value out of Death's Presence? I've gotten it out once in testing and never was able to use it, so I cut it, but you have way more creatures than I do.
I was looking at Cauldron of Souls and Thought Gorger (loooooooove that interaction) as well as a few others but they just didn't make the cut. (The first one that jumps to mind is Spike Weaver.)
Possibility Storm: Amazing card in conjunction with Ruric. For the most part this works for you as you tend to be casting creatures all the time, and basically all the creatures in the deck are good things to have out. Every once in a while you'll grab a Sylvan Primordial with no legit targets but that's worth it for turning off Chaos Warp. Note that when Ruric is out, anyone who casts a non-creature spell first takes 6 from Ruric, then when the Storm resolves and the second card comes off, they can cast it if they take another 6, for a total of 12 damage taken to cast an unknown spell.
Lurking Predators: There are 53 creatures in the deck. This card is good.
Cream of the Crop: Lets you set up your top card as a creature, which is almost always what you want.
Grip of Chaos: Comes really close to negating removal entirely, making it extremely difficult to kill Ruric or any of your enchantments. (Or other juicy targets like Kiki-Jiki)
Wild Pair: The only creature in the deck that doesn't have a pair is Terastodon. If you trigger this off a 2/2 your top two choices are almost always Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and Acidic Slime but there's plenty of good ones.
Primal Surge: Every Timmy's dream, in a deck with 3 non-permanents this'll get you quite a few cards! Try to get Cream of the Crop out when you cast this as it'll let you set up the top card so every one is a creature. (Your win condition off this is either putting Anger in the graveyard or getting Urabrask out).
Gruul Ragebeast: Seriously underrated card but in a big beatdown deck like this it turns everything into an Inferno Titan.
Krosan Drover: It's like an Urza's Incubator for a third of your deck.
So let me know what you think. There are of course a load of options for creatures that go into the beatstick category, I just went with my favorites. I'm still playing around with the land, trying to find the right mix of basic/non-basic.
Farseek puts a dual or shock into play, giving us actual ramp that's usable on turn 2. The cycling creatures only get the land into your hand. While that's better than nothing it doesn't actually accomplish what we need them to. And while they put themselves into the graveyard, it's true, but none of them is aggressively costed for their power. I'd be left with the choice between scavenging Wirewood Guardian at 5:symg::symg: for 6 +1/+1 counters vs any of my regular fodder creatures, which I've tried to ensure get me at least 2 +1/+1's per CMC (or way more than that, in the case of something like Death's Shadow).
Just glanced at ISBPathfinder's decklist (he's got a very different build) and someone suggested Rings of Brighthearth, which for some reason I hadn't considered here. Seems incredible so now I need to figure out how to fit it in here.
Varolz is an explosive aggro general. With a huge selection of ways to put creatures into your graveyard, you can quickly power up any creatures you have on the board and swing for huge damage. That said, he's a bit fragile. You are obviously very susceptible to graveyard hate like Rest in Peace or Leyline of the Void, and being in :symb::symg: means you're somewhat limited in ways to protect your creatures as you make them big.
What this means is in general you want to win the game as soon as possible once you get an engine going. Thankfully, that isn't too hard!
You'll like this deck if:
-You like putting tons of counters on creatures
-You like swinging for lethal
-You like not caring if things get sent to your graveyard
You won't like this deck if:
-You like to have control over every aspect of the game
-You dislike exiling things
The high notes: Ramp: We run just enough to be able to reliably get to around 6 mana on turn 4. High notes are obviously Rofellos, Nature's Lore, etc. We focus on ramp that's playable on turns 2 and 3 so that on the following turns we can start playing action.
Tutor: In a creature-based deck, we focus mainly on tutoring for creatures, using all-stars Survival of the Fittest and Fauna Shaman to grab large fodder creatures (such as Death's Shadow) and dump them in the graveyard. We skip the middlemen with Jarad's Orders, Entomb, and Buried Alive.
Draw: Three of the best cards in these colors appear. Sylvan Library and Phyrexian Arena are best played essentially whenever you can; Greater Good is especially useful for giving you a way to discard big fodder creatures at instant-speed, and can net you a ton of cards in response to a board sweep.
Mill/Dredge/Etc: Varolz relies on having a selection of creatures in your graveyard so you can scavenge them. We want to try and ensure that we have a reliable way of putting pretty big chunks of the deck into the yard so we can get a good set, and we do that with the amazing Mesmeric Orb and Hermit Druid. While not repeatable, Deadbridge Chant is absolutely amazing, netting you a free card every turn and dumping 10 cards in the bin. Life from the Loam is a nice way to put a few cards in every turn and lets us reuse things like Verdant Catacomb.
Fodder:Phyrexian Dreadnought has 12 power and 1 CMC. Death's Shadow costs the same and has 13. Since Varolz gives all creatures in our graveyard the scavenge ability, this means we can pay 1 or to put 12 or 13 +1/+1 counters on any creature. These are the main two targets as they are the most consistently huge. Later on the game Lord of Extinction can easily be in triple digits, and Multani, Maro-Sorcerer tends to be around 30-35 p/t in a 4-player game. Our primary use for these creatures is scavenging them from the bin, but that doesn't mean we can't just play them and turn sideways. Tarmagoyf and Boneyard Wurm are the strongest for this.
Beats: These are the creatures we try and scavenge counters onto. Lotleth troll has trample, regenerate, and lets us discard fodder at instant speed. Nether Traitor has haste, shadow, and can be recurred from the graveyard in the event of a board wipe (or if you mill him in there). Vampire Nighthawk has flying, deathtouch, and lifelink. Dreg Mangler has haste and can scavenge on its own. Skullbriar gets you double value for your scavenges, since the counters stay on him when he goes to the bin - you can just scavenge him and put the counters on something else!
Buffs:Champion of Lambholt makes your creatures essentially unblockable. Once you get Brawn into the bin they'll get trample (this is probably the most important one), and with Filth they'll get swampwalk (less important but still good). Concordant Crossroads is one of the few ways to give our stuff haste. Notable exclusion from this section is Lightning Greaves, and the reason for it is that scavenge is a targeted ability and would be blocked by shroud.
Counters: Both Corpsejack Menace and Doubling Season double the counters you put on creatures. It's extremely unlikely that you'll keep either one for more than a turn so make sure you get the most value you can out of these.
Answers: We run lots of spot removal in order to clear the way of things that turn our deck off: Leyline of the Void, Rest in Peace, Bloodchief Ascension, etc. Triskelion is both creature removal and a straight win condition if you get enough cards in the bin.
Lands: Pretty standard fare.
So what's the gameplan?
Early Game(turns 1-4): Ramp as much as possible. Ideally you do this by getting more lands out than anyone else but playing Rofellos is always good too. Play Varolz here if you can. You can usually play a 2-drop beater here as well.
Mid Game(turns 5-8): On turn 4 or 5 you want to do two things ideally, and have hopefully already played Varolz. First, you play something that'll dump cards into the bin - Buried Alive and Jarad's Orders are your two best options - and follow that up by scavenging some fodder onto a beater or Varolz himself. Then, you go sideways.
Late Game (turns 9-12): At this point the game has probably decided where to go. You're either going strong with a beater equipped with tons of +1/+1 counters, or you've been wiped a couple times and are having to rebuild. If you're going strong it tends to be best to just keep going with that until someone wraths. If you're trying to rebuild just remember that you can scavenge onto any creature you have - 10 damage from Wood Elves is still 10 damage after all.
The Ideal Line of Play: You ramp on turn 1, 2, and 3, giving 6-7 mana available on turn 4. Play Varolz, Rancor, and Swiftfoot Boots or similar. Turn 5 you Buried Alive, binning Brawn, Phyrexian Dreadnought, and Death's Shadow. Scavenge the dreadnought and the shadow for 1 total and put 25 (count 'em 25) +1/+1 counters on Varolz. Turn sideways and kill someone.
Cards under consideration: This deck is very much a work in progress. Currently I'm considering switching for a few more dredge cards or possibly a few things with flashback, as you can usually rely on getting any individual card into the bin. If anyone can suggest anything I'd love to hear it. Let me know what you think!
Currently testing out Mana Flare as a replacement for Doubling Cube. The cube obviously has way more potential but it's a huge threat, whereas the flare is likely to stick around a few turns.
Echo Mage is so brutally powerful that it's worth it - you can copy it and get two of them, after all. Also, I frequently find myself without an X spell in hand to cast, those are the turns when you cast and copy echo mage, then level both up all the way. Doubles as a blocker, and even as a replacement for Riku if he gets tucked, too!
So far I haven't faced up against an aggro deck that was fast enough to kill me before I fireballed them to death. In my experience the combination of lots of burn, a touch of removal, and just not even caring about being attacked does the job. (Honestly what's Rakdos going to do? Play Sheoldred? Several turns later Ulamog becomes a big threat but at that point you're already killing him)
The other thing is I try to avoid building threatening board positions unless I'm going to use them that turn to great effect. Two realmwrights is ok, maybe even two bloom tenders, but if you drop those and two electromancers, two leveled up echo mages, and Melek/magus of the future? Everyone's going to try to kill you.
About the land: I almost always ramp all of the land out every game. Through a combination of copying the ramp spells themselves, to casting them multiple times (after a Time Spiral shuffle, flashbacked with Past in Flames, etc), to just playing Boundless Realms, this deck just vomits out land. That is, of course, one of the reasons I mention that in general the highest priority is to ramp as hard as you can.
So I built this Melek storm combo deck on accident. It was pretty consistent but excruciating to play with or against because it'd take a 45 minute turn and at the end of it you'd win. After thinking about it for a while I determined that the best way to make Melek fun is to play him in a deck that already does what he's doing - copying huge spells for fun and profit.
Enter Riku of Two Reflections.
(Note: If you're interested in learning about how to build/play Riku, go read Sonik's fantastic Multiplayer Primer. This isn't a primer, just the build I'm having fun with at the moment.)
Play this deck if:
-You want to kill everyone at the table with one spell
-You don't care about attacking
-or blocking, really
-You remember casting Fireball in sixth grade and having to figure out how to spread the damage out, and the thought of casting huge Comet Storms makes you smile.
Don't play this deck if:
-You can't handle repetitive but simple math in your head. You do a lot of mana doubling in this deck.
-You can't shuffle. You'll do that a lot.
-You take a long time to figure out how to chain cards together. That'll make it take forever.
-You need to go to the red zone to win.
1) Mull aggressively. The only things you want in your opener are lands and things that put more lands into play. Your goal is to hit 7 mana ASAP, and you want to stress and over :symg:, which just isn't as important in this deck. (7 mana is important as it lets you drop many of your powerful creatures, and then copy them with Riku).
2) Ramp like crazy. In general, if you're presented with multiple options, say a) ramp, b) play removal, ramp is nearly always the correct choice.
3) Get Riku out there and maximize potential. Riku costs 2:symr::symu::symg:. To maximize potential for him in this deck means having :symr::symu: available, on top of the cost of any spell you want to play. If this is turn 4-6 you'll probably want to continue ramping as much as possible. Experienced players will try to keep Riku off the board at pretty much any cost, so you want to take advantage of him while you can.
4) Drop bombs. There's a couple ways to go about it but basically you want to chain together things in the ritual section (Turnabout, etc) with Forks in order to generate huge mana, then either a) cast Epic Experiment for 15, copy it, fork it, then copy the fork, or b) do the same thing with Genesis Wave, or c) cast a fireball for 20, copy it, fork it, copy the fork, kill two opponents.
5) If you still have opponents living at this point they are going to be coming after you like crazy. You need to ensure that everyone dies on your next turn. Best way to do that is to utilize recursion to get your rituals back, then fireball again.
Some superstars from this deck include:
Genesis Wave: We all know this as an all-star but how many decks use it as a ramp spell? Trigger this for 10 and copy it a few times, you'll get most of the land out of the deck as well as good odds on things like Mana Reflection.
Epic Experiment: Obviously this thing is best when you can chain together multiple copies of Time Stretch, but where's the fun in that? Just build huge mana and throw fireballs around! It's a good idea to keep back at least a couple :symr::symu: when you cast this as you'll have good odds of hitting something like Turnabout or Early Harvest if you're digging 50 cards in.
Red Suns' Zenith: It doesn't look like much, but the fact that this fireball shuffles itself back into your deck is huge. It means that early game you can feel free to use it for removal against opposing generals, confident that you'll be seeing it again. Hint: do this whenever necessary (meaning you don't have Chaos Warp in hand).
Praetor's Counsel: Ever resolved one of these and put 60 cards in hand? The followup step here is to cast Inner Fire and copy it. Then just kill everyone.
Melek, Izzet Paragon: This guy makes Magus of the Future look like a chump. You will get up to absolutely disgusting amounts of X-spell damage with him. Don't use him to copy Time Spiral if you want to stay friends with your opponents.
Realmwright: Shockingly useful little guy in a color-hungry deck like this. Your first pick should almost always be Islands (for High Tide), but if you copy him with Riku you can name Mountains as well and solve a lot of problems. Great turn 1 drop.
Past In Flames: This is another good Intuition target and will solve a lot of problems for the deck. One of the reasons you can generally feel pretty safe dropping Genesis Wave for 60 is that the odds are you'll put this in your graveyard, letting you flashback all your bombs.
Fork and friends: Holy smokes is it fun to run these. Favorite uses obviously include copying fireballs and genesis waves/epic experiments. Shockingly effective when you use them to copy Time Spiral but this'll get you hated out of casual games (this can be used as a form of ritual in a pinch). Also, if you're playing against blue control decks, remember to hold back your forks to protect against counterspells.
Overall this is one of the funniest and most fun EDH decks I've built. You'll do things like play 2-hour long game with 4 opponents and never cast any other creature aside from Riku, and come out on top. It's swingy as hell and your top decks will define the game for you.
Cards I thought about using:
-Chandra in various flavors: Overall she's just too expensive. The best option is the Firebrand at 3 and that just isn't worth it when you can run Fork instead. She'll never live through a turn in this deck, nobody'll ever let her.
-Reiterate: This goes infinite with Turnabout and that's not something I want for this deck.
-Radiate: I really like the idea of using this but have no idea how to survive it when I radiate a 50-point banefire.
-Time Warp and friends: I don't really like taking extra turns very much and I really hate playing against Riku decks that do it, so I specifically built this deck without those sorts of things.
-Counterspells: Riku doesn't do well with them. You really only need them to protect your own stuff and for the most part you have enough Forks combined with flashback effects to deal with it. When it comes to other people's stuff, just Bonfire them for 30.
-Lightning Greaves and friends: Honestly this stuff doesn't do you any good. You need to cut a useful card to fit it in there and once you start going everyone will be gunning for you anyway. You'll never need the haste so don't bother with it.
If anyone has any advice for cards to add or substitute, I'm always looking for that.
Lately I've been brainstorming decks with the generals from the latest couple of sets. You've got Melek storm combo decks, Vorel evolve-type decks, Tajic battalion decks. Then I thought about :symu::symw: and its predisposition towards blinking things.
Because I like to build decks with a theme, I decided to make this a human tribal deck. The only two creatures in the deck that aren't human are Angel of Glory's Rise and Herald of War, and I think they pass the sniff test as they both refer to Humans in their card text.
Play this deck if:
-You want to create engines that allow you to repeat certain actions every turn for incremental advantage.
-You want to lock down certain aspects of the game.
-You like the idea of a bunch of puny human cops fighting off zombie, goblins, demons, and slivers.
-You like making tokens.
Don't play this deck if:
-You can't stand passing the turn without attacking.
-You want to win on turn 5.
Lavinia is amazing. At 5CMC, she's a Pro-Red 4/4 with a hilariously powerful ETB ability that locks down equipment, mana rocks, planeswalkers, tricky artifacts, and creatures. The gameplan for the deck is to play her every turn, either returning her to hand using Sunken Hope, Umbilicus, or Blood Clock; or blinking her using cards like Nephalia Smuggler, Flickerform, and Momentary Blink.
Some notable interactions include: Nephalia Smuggler + Mangara of Corondor: Tap Mangara, targeting any permanent. Hold priority, and in response activate the Smuggler, targeting Mangara. The Smuggler's ability resolves first, blinking Mangara. When Mangara comes back to play, because it changed zones, it's a new object and not subject to the resolution of its previously-activated ability. So now you let the stack resolve, and only the original target of Mangara's ability gets exiled. You can achieve the same ends by using High Market and sacrificing Mangara in response to his ability, though of course you don't get to keep him in play in that case. Fiend Hunter can be substituted for Mangara in a pinch, but you'll always have to have something exiled in the end using it.
Angel of Glory's Rise + Fiend Hunter: First, get things in your graveyard (either by waiting for someone else to wrath, or by wrathing yourself). Then play the Angel, returning all Humans from your graveyard to play (note that this is all but one other creature in the deck). It's easiest if Fiend Hunter starts in the graveyard, but you can follow it up by playing it, either way works. When Fiend Hunter enters the battlefield, its ability triggers, and you target the Angel to be exiled. Now, when Fiend Hunter leaves play, the Angel will return, returning all your humans from your graveyard to play, including your fiend hunter, and... I think you get the idea.
Cards I'm thinking about:
I want to get skullclamp in here but haven't figured out what to cut.
I really like Propaganda and Ghostly Prison for this type of deck.
I think Counterbalance might have a place here as well.
There's also a variety of blue and white creatures that would allow me to bounce Lavinia somewhat more reliably. Trouble is, what the heck do I cut for them?
Things I wish were human so I could play them in human tribal: Elesh Norn, Mistmeadow Witch, Deadeye Navigator.
I'm open to any suggestions for cards or tuning. Any help would be appreciated.
I'd recommend Terrain Generator, with as much card draw as you have you will be able to get an extra land into play pretty frequently. It allows you to keep counterspell mana up, too!
I'd also recommend Sapphire Medallion, as it reduces the cost of most of the spells in your deck and opens you up for a turn 3 general play.
You definitely run a lot more creatures than I do. I focus on scavenging onto one creature and getting in with him before the board wipe or removal comes down.
I usually see more value out of a ramp spell than an artifact that costs the same CMC, for example I'd run Cultivate or similar instead of the cluestone.
Have you gotten any value out of Death's Presence? I've gotten it out once in testing and never was able to use it, so I cut it, but you have way more creatures than I do.
I was looking at Cauldron of Souls and Thought Gorger (loooooooove that interaction) as well as a few others but they just didn't make the cut. (The first one that jumps to mind is Spike Weaver.)
Everyone loves :symr::symg: beatdown decks, right?
You'll like this deck if:
-You like swinging for the fences
You'll dislike this deck if:
-I dunno you hate kittens or something
1 Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
Ramp:
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Krosan Drover
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Priest of Titania
1 Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Somberwald Sage
1 Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger
1 Wood Elves
1 Exploration
1 Burgeoning
1 Yavimaya Dryad
Draw:
1 Domri Rade
1 Drumhunter
1 Garruk's Horde
1 Heartwood Storyteller
1 Soul of the Harvest
Tutors:
1 Elvish Harbinger
1 Fauna Shaman
1 Fierce Empath
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Wild Pair
Buffs:
1 Anger
1 Pyreheart Wolf
1 Urabrask the Hidden
1 Vigor
1 Spearbreaker Behemoth
1 Brawn
1 Loxodon Warhammer
1 Deadwood Treefolk
1 Eternal Witness
1 Genesis
Beaters:
1 Akroma, Angel of Fury
1 Hellkite Charger
1 Thundermaw Hellkite
1 Inferno Titan
1 Stalking Vengeance
1 Borborygmos
1 Balefire Dragon
Removal:
1 Acidic Slime
1 Brutalizer Exarch
1 Gruul Ragebeast
1 Master of the Wild Hunt
1 Nullmage Shepherd
1 Scourge of Kher Ridges
1 Sylvan Primordial
1 Terastodon
1 Glissa Sunseeker
1 Duplicant
1 Steel Hellkite
Misc:
1 Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
1 Rampaging Baloths
1 Elvish Piper
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Vexing Shusher
1 Possibility Storm
1 Grip of Chaos
1 Genesis Wave
1 Lurking Predators
1 Cream of the Crop
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Homeward Path
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Mosswort Bridge
1 Strip Mine
1 Yavimaya Hollow
1 Dryad Arbor
1 High Market
1 Maze of Ith
1 Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
1 Spinerock Knoll
Mana Lands:
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Rootbound Crag
1 Stomping Ground
1 Taiga
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Primal Surge
7 Snow-Covered Forest
7 Snow-Covered Mountain
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Command Tower
1 Ancient Ziggurat
1 Fire-Lit Thicket
1 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Karplusan Forest
1 Temple of the False God
Nothing super complex mostly, just ramp and then play the biggest creatures you can before turning sideways.
Strategy:
Ruric Thar + Loxodon Warhammer: Rather obvious but absolutely amazing while it lasts.
Possibility Storm: Amazing card in conjunction with Ruric. For the most part this works for you as you tend to be casting creatures all the time, and basically all the creatures in the deck are good things to have out. Every once in a while you'll grab a Sylvan Primordial with no legit targets but that's worth it for turning off Chaos Warp. Note that when Ruric is out, anyone who casts a non-creature spell first takes 6 from Ruric, then when the Storm resolves and the second card comes off, they can cast it if they take another 6, for a total of 12 damage taken to cast an unknown spell.
Lurking Predators: There are 53 creatures in the deck. This card is good.
Cream of the Crop: Lets you set up your top card as a creature, which is almost always what you want.
Grip of Chaos: Comes really close to negating removal entirely, making it extremely difficult to kill Ruric or any of your enchantments. (Or other juicy targets like Kiki-Jiki)
Wild Pair: The only creature in the deck that doesn't have a pair is Terastodon. If you trigger this off a 2/2 your top two choices are almost always Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and Acidic Slime but there's plenty of good ones.
Primal Surge: Every Timmy's dream, in a deck with 3 non-permanents this'll get you quite a few cards! Try to get Cream of the Crop out when you cast this as it'll let you set up the top card so every one is a creature. (Your win condition off this is either putting Anger in the graveyard or getting Urabrask out).
Gruul Ragebeast: Seriously underrated card but in a big beatdown deck like this it turns everything into an Inferno Titan.
Krosan Drover: It's like an Urza's Incubator for a third of your deck.
Changelog:
-Swapped Yavimaya Elder for Domri Rade since it works out well in testing.
So let me know what you think. There are of course a load of options for creatures that go into the beatstick category, I just went with my favorites. I'm still playing around with the land, trying to find the right mix of basic/non-basic.
Just glanced at ISBPathfinder's decklist (he's got a very different build) and someone suggested Rings of Brighthearth, which for some reason I hadn't considered here. Seems incredible so now I need to figure out how to fit it in here.
For most Ruric Thar decks I'd recommend creatures that do this instead of enchantments. Pyreheart Wolf, Champion of Lambholt, that sort of thing.
Thanks.
Varolz is an explosive aggro general. With a huge selection of ways to put creatures into your graveyard, you can quickly power up any creatures you have on the board and swing for huge damage. That said, he's a bit fragile. You are obviously very susceptible to graveyard hate like Rest in Peace or Leyline of the Void, and being in :symb::symg: means you're somewhat limited in ways to protect your creatures as you make them big.
What this means is in general you want to win the game as soon as possible once you get an engine going. Thankfully, that isn't too hard!
You'll like this deck if:
-You like putting tons of counters on creatures
-You like swinging for lethal
-You like not caring if things get sent to your graveyard
You won't like this deck if:
-You like to have control over every aspect of the game
-You dislike exiling things
The Deck:
1 Varolz, the Scar-Striped
Ramp:
1 Deathrite Shaman
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
1 Sol Ring
1 Wood Elves
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Cultivate
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Nature's Lore
1 Farseek
1 Three Visits
1 Exploration
Tutor:
1 Fauna Shaman
1 Survival of the Fittest
1 Jarad's Orders
1 Worldly Tutor
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Entomb
1 Buried Alive
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
Draw:
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Sylvan Library
1 Greater Good
Mill/Dredge/Graveyard Stuff:
1 Deadbridge Chant
1 Rot Farm Skeleton
1 Life from the Loam
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Eternal Witness
1 Mesmeric Orb
1 Hermit Druid
1 Lord of Extinction
1 Death's Shadow
1 Hunted Horror
1 Phyrexian Dreadnought
1 Tarmogoyf
1 Boneyard Wurm
1 Multani, Maro-Sorcerer
1 Force of Savagery
Beats:
1 Lotleth Troll
1 Nether Traitor
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Vampire Nighthawk
1 Skullbriar, the Walking Grave
1 Dreg Mangler
1 Bloodghast
Buffs:
1 Champion of Lambholt
1 Loxodon Warhammer
1 Brawn
1 Filth
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Rancor
1 Asceticism
1 Concordant Crossroads
Fun with Counters:
1 Corpsejack Menace
1 Doubling Season
Answers:
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Beast Within
1 Krosan Grip
1 Damnation
1 Woodfall Primus
1 Triskelion
1 Riftsweeper
1 Spike Weaver
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Cavern of Souls
1 High Market
1 Homeward Path
1 Maze of Ith
1 Strip Mine
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Hall of the Bandit Lord
Mana Lands:
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Bayou
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Command Tower
8 Forest
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Llanowar Wastes
1 Overgrown Tomb
5 Swamp
1 Twilight Mire
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Vesuva
1 Woodland Cemetery
The high notes:
Ramp: We run just enough to be able to reliably get to around 6 mana on turn 4. High notes are obviously Rofellos, Nature's Lore, etc. We focus on ramp that's playable on turns 2 and 3 so that on the following turns we can start playing action.
Tutor: In a creature-based deck, we focus mainly on tutoring for creatures, using all-stars Survival of the Fittest and Fauna Shaman to grab large fodder creatures (such as Death's Shadow) and dump them in the graveyard. We skip the middlemen with Jarad's Orders, Entomb, and Buried Alive.
Draw: Three of the best cards in these colors appear. Sylvan Library and Phyrexian Arena are best played essentially whenever you can; Greater Good is especially useful for giving you a way to discard big fodder creatures at instant-speed, and can net you a ton of cards in response to a board sweep.
Mill/Dredge/Etc: Varolz relies on having a selection of creatures in your graveyard so you can scavenge them. We want to try and ensure that we have a reliable way of putting pretty big chunks of the deck into the yard so we can get a good set, and we do that with the amazing Mesmeric Orb and Hermit Druid. While not repeatable, Deadbridge Chant is absolutely amazing, netting you a free card every turn and dumping 10 cards in the bin. Life from the Loam is a nice way to put a few cards in every turn and lets us reuse things like Verdant Catacomb.
Fodder: Phyrexian Dreadnought has 12 power and 1 CMC. Death's Shadow costs the same and has 13. Since Varolz gives all creatures in our graveyard the scavenge ability, this means we can pay 1 or to put 12 or 13 +1/+1 counters on any creature. These are the main two targets as they are the most consistently huge. Later on the game Lord of Extinction can easily be in triple digits, and Multani, Maro-Sorcerer tends to be around 30-35 p/t in a 4-player game. Our primary use for these creatures is scavenging them from the bin, but that doesn't mean we can't just play them and turn sideways. Tarmagoyf and Boneyard Wurm are the strongest for this.
Beats: These are the creatures we try and scavenge counters onto. Lotleth troll has trample, regenerate, and lets us discard fodder at instant speed. Nether Traitor has haste, shadow, and can be recurred from the graveyard in the event of a board wipe (or if you mill him in there). Vampire Nighthawk has flying, deathtouch, and lifelink. Dreg Mangler has haste and can scavenge on its own. Skullbriar gets you double value for your scavenges, since the counters stay on him when he goes to the bin - you can just scavenge him and put the counters on something else!
Buffs: Champion of Lambholt makes your creatures essentially unblockable. Once you get Brawn into the bin they'll get trample (this is probably the most important one), and with Filth they'll get swampwalk (less important but still good). Concordant Crossroads is one of the few ways to give our stuff haste. Notable exclusion from this section is Lightning Greaves, and the reason for it is that scavenge is a targeted ability and would be blocked by shroud.
Counters: Both Corpsejack Menace and Doubling Season double the counters you put on creatures. It's extremely unlikely that you'll keep either one for more than a turn so make sure you get the most value you can out of these.
Answers: We run lots of spot removal in order to clear the way of things that turn our deck off: Leyline of the Void, Rest in Peace, Bloodchief Ascension, etc. Triskelion is both creature removal and a straight win condition if you get enough cards in the bin.
Lands: Pretty standard fare.
So what's the gameplan?
Early Game(turns 1-4): Ramp as much as possible. Ideally you do this by getting more lands out than anyone else but playing Rofellos is always good too. Play Varolz here if you can. You can usually play a 2-drop beater here as well.
Mid Game(turns 5-8): On turn 4 or 5 you want to do two things ideally, and have hopefully already played Varolz. First, you play something that'll dump cards into the bin - Buried Alive and Jarad's Orders are your two best options - and follow that up by scavenging some fodder onto a beater or Varolz himself. Then, you go sideways.
Late Game (turns 9-12): At this point the game has probably decided where to go. You're either going strong with a beater equipped with tons of +1/+1 counters, or you've been wiped a couple times and are having to rebuild. If you're going strong it tends to be best to just keep going with that until someone wraths. If you're trying to rebuild just remember that you can scavenge onto any creature you have - 10 damage from Wood Elves is still 10 damage after all.
The Ideal Line of Play: You ramp on turn 1, 2, and 3, giving 6-7 mana available on turn 4. Play Varolz, Rancor, and Swiftfoot Boots or similar. Turn 5 you Buried Alive, binning Brawn, Phyrexian Dreadnought, and Death's Shadow. Scavenge the dreadnought and the shadow for 1 total and put 25 (count 'em 25) +1/+1 counters on Varolz. Turn sideways and kill someone.
Cards under consideration: This deck is very much a work in progress. Currently I'm considering switching for a few more dredge cards or possibly a few things with flashback, as you can usually rely on getting any individual card into the bin. If anyone can suggest anything I'd love to hear it. Let me know what you think!
So far I haven't faced up against an aggro deck that was fast enough to kill me before I fireballed them to death. In my experience the combination of lots of burn, a touch of removal, and just not even caring about being attacked does the job. (Honestly what's Rakdos going to do? Play Sheoldred? Several turns later Ulamog becomes a big threat but at that point you're already killing him)
The other thing is I try to avoid building threatening board positions unless I'm going to use them that turn to great effect. Two realmwrights is ok, maybe even two bloom tenders, but if you drop those and two electromancers, two leveled up echo mages, and Melek/magus of the future? Everyone's going to try to kill you.
About the land: I almost always ramp all of the land out every game. Through a combination of copying the ramp spells themselves, to casting them multiple times (after a Time Spiral shuffle, flashbacked with Past in Flames, etc), to just playing Boundless Realms, this deck just vomits out land. That is, of course, one of the reasons I mention that in general the highest priority is to ramp as hard as you can.
So I built this Melek storm combo deck on accident. It was pretty consistent but excruciating to play with or against because it'd take a 45 minute turn and at the end of it you'd win. After thinking about it for a while I determined that the best way to make Melek fun is to play him in a deck that already does what he's doing - copying huge spells for fun and profit.
Enter Riku of Two Reflections.
(Note: If you're interested in learning about how to build/play Riku, go read Sonik's fantastic Multiplayer Primer. This isn't a primer, just the build I'm having fun with at the moment.)
Play this deck if:
-You want to kill everyone at the table with one spell
-You don't care about attacking
-or blocking, really
-You remember casting Fireball in sixth grade and having to figure out how to spread the damage out, and the thought of casting huge Comet Storms makes you smile.
Don't play this deck if:
-You can't handle repetitive but simple math in your head. You do a lot of mana doubling in this deck.
-You can't shuffle. You'll do that a lot.
-You take a long time to figure out how to chain cards together. That'll make it take forever.
-You need to go to the red zone to win.
Here's the deck:
1 Riku of Two Reflections
Ramp:
1 Sol Ring
1 Farseek
1 Nature's Lore
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Mana Reflection
1 Bloom Tender
1 Cultivate
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Three Visits
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Exploration
1 Skyshroud Claim
1 Boundless Realms
1 Amulet of Vigor
1 Burgeoning
1 Heartbeat of Spring
Rituals:
1 Turnabout
1 Doubling Cube
1 Inner Fire
1 Mana Geyser
1 High Tide
1 Early Harvest
Draw:
1 Urban Evolution
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
1 Sylvan Library
1 Magus of the Future
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Frantic Search
1 Stroke of Genius
1 Hull Breach
1 Chaos Warp
1 Beast Within
1 Krosan Grip
1 Blasphemous Act
Copying:
1 Melek, Izzet Paragon
1 Echo Mage
1 Fork
1 Increasing Vengeance
1 Reverberate
1 Twincast
Recursion:
1 Charmbreaker Devils
1 Past in Flames
1 Praetor's Counsel
1 Time Spiral
1 Regrowth
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Recoup
Tutoring:
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Intuition
Fireballs:
1 Molten Disaster
1 Bonfire of the Damned
1 Comet Storm
1 Red Sun's Zenith
1 Banefire
1 Devil's Play
Other Awesome Stuff:
1 Epic Experiment
1 Goblin Electromancer
1 Vedalken Orrery
1 Leyline of Anticipation
1 Galvanoth
1 Guttersnipe
1 Fire Servant
1 Genesis Wave
1 Leyline of Punishment
1 Realmwright
1 Breeding Pool
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Command Tower
1 Maze of Ith
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Steam Vents
1 Stomping Ground
1 Taiga
1 Tropical Island
1 Volcanic Island
1 Wooded Foothills
7 Mountain
7 Island
6 Forest
Here's the basic gameplan that I use:
1) Mull aggressively. The only things you want in your opener are lands and things that put more lands into play. Your goal is to hit 7 mana ASAP, and you want to stress and over :symg:, which just isn't as important in this deck. (7 mana is important as it lets you drop many of your powerful creatures, and then copy them with Riku).
2) Ramp like crazy. In general, if you're presented with multiple options, say a) ramp, b) play removal, ramp is nearly always the correct choice.
3) Get Riku out there and maximize potential. Riku costs 2:symr::symu::symg:. To maximize potential for him in this deck means having :symr::symu: available, on top of the cost of any spell you want to play. If this is turn 4-6 you'll probably want to continue ramping as much as possible. Experienced players will try to keep Riku off the board at pretty much any cost, so you want to take advantage of him while you can.
4) Drop bombs. There's a couple ways to go about it but basically you want to chain together things in the ritual section (Turnabout, etc) with Forks in order to generate huge mana, then either a) cast Epic Experiment for 15, copy it, fork it, then copy the fork, or b) do the same thing with Genesis Wave, or c) cast a fireball for 20, copy it, fork it, copy the fork, kill two opponents.
5) If you still have opponents living at this point they are going to be coming after you like crazy. You need to ensure that everyone dies on your next turn. Best way to do that is to utilize recursion to get your rituals back, then fireball again.
Some superstars from this deck include:
Genesis Wave: We all know this as an all-star but how many decks use it as a ramp spell? Trigger this for 10 and copy it a few times, you'll get most of the land out of the deck as well as good odds on things like Mana Reflection.
Epic Experiment: Obviously this thing is best when you can chain together multiple copies of Time Stretch, but where's the fun in that? Just build huge mana and throw fireballs around! It's a good idea to keep back at least a couple :symr::symu: when you cast this as you'll have good odds of hitting something like Turnabout or Early Harvest if you're digging 50 cards in.
Red Suns' Zenith: It doesn't look like much, but the fact that this fireball shuffles itself back into your deck is huge. It means that early game you can feel free to use it for removal against opposing generals, confident that you'll be seeing it again. Hint: do this whenever necessary (meaning you don't have Chaos Warp in hand).
Intuition: Dig for Fork, Twincast, and Increasing Vengeance, then use whichever one you get on the fireball you use to win. Alternatively, dig for Devil's Play, Comet Storm, and Banefire, for a nice lose-lose choice for the opponent.
Praetor's Counsel: Ever resolved one of these and put 60 cards in hand? The followup step here is to cast Inner Fire and copy it. Then just kill everyone.
Melek, Izzet Paragon: This guy makes Magus of the Future look like a chump. You will get up to absolutely disgusting amounts of X-spell damage with him. Don't use him to copy Time Spiral if you want to stay friends with your opponents.
Realmwright: Shockingly useful little guy in a color-hungry deck like this. Your first pick should almost always be Islands (for High Tide), but if you copy him with Riku you can name Mountains as well and solve a lot of problems. Great turn 1 drop.
Past In Flames: This is another good Intuition target and will solve a lot of problems for the deck. One of the reasons you can generally feel pretty safe dropping Genesis Wave for 60 is that the odds are you'll put this in your graveyard, letting you flashback all your bombs.
Fork and friends: Holy smokes is it fun to run these. Favorite uses obviously include copying fireballs and genesis waves/epic experiments. Shockingly effective when you use them to copy Time Spiral but this'll get you hated out of casual games (this can be used as a form of ritual in a pinch). Also, if you're playing against blue control decks, remember to hold back your forks to protect against counterspells.
Overall this is one of the funniest and most fun EDH decks I've built. You'll do things like play 2-hour long game with 4 opponents and never cast any other creature aside from Riku, and come out on top. It's swingy as hell and your top decks will define the game for you.
Cards I thought about using:
-Chandra in various flavors: Overall she's just too expensive. The best option is the Firebrand at 3 and that just isn't worth it when you can run Fork instead. She'll never live through a turn in this deck, nobody'll ever let her.
-Reiterate: This goes infinite with Turnabout and that's not something I want for this deck.
-Radiate: I really like the idea of using this but have no idea how to survive it when I radiate a 50-point banefire.
-Time Warp and friends: I don't really like taking extra turns very much and I really hate playing against Riku decks that do it, so I specifically built this deck without those sorts of things.
-Counterspells: Riku doesn't do well with them. You really only need them to protect your own stuff and for the most part you have enough Forks combined with flashback effects to deal with it. When it comes to other people's stuff, just Bonfire them for 30.
-Lightning Greaves and friends: Honestly this stuff doesn't do you any good. You need to cut a useful card to fit it in there and once you start going everyone will be gunning for you anyway. You'll never need the haste so don't bother with it.
If anyone has any advice for cards to add or substitute, I'm always looking for that.
Lately I've been brainstorming decks with the generals from the latest couple of sets. You've got Melek storm combo decks, Vorel evolve-type decks, Tajic battalion decks. Then I thought about :symu::symw: and its predisposition towards blinking things.
Because I like to build decks with a theme, I decided to make this a human tribal deck. The only two creatures in the deck that aren't human are Angel of Glory's Rise and Herald of War, and I think they pass the sniff test as they both refer to Humans in their card text.
Play this deck if:
-You want to create engines that allow you to repeat certain actions every turn for incremental advantage.
-You want to lock down certain aspects of the game.
-You like the idea of a bunch of puny human cops fighting off zombie, goblins, demons, and slivers.
-You like making tokens.
Don't play this deck if:
-You can't stand passing the turn without attacking.
-You want to win on turn 5.
The Decklist:
1 Lavinia of the Tenth
Mana Acceleration:
1 Azorius Signet
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Land Tax
1 Urza's Incubator
1 Herald of War
Card Draw:
1 Rhystic Study
1 Sphinx's Revelation
1 Mentor of the Meek
1 Azorius AEthermage
1 Mystic Remora
Tutors:
1 Academy Rector
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Idyllic Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Trinket Mage
1 Ranger of Eos
1 Tolaria West
Token Generation:
1 Captain of the Watch
1 Hero of Bladehold
1 Knight-Captain of Eos
1 Militia's Pride
1 Elspeth Tirel
1 Stormfront Riders
Removal:
1 Devout Chaplain
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Intrepid Hero
1 Mangara of Corondor
1 Detention Sphere
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Journey to Nowhere
1 Oblation
1 Return to Dust
1 Austere Command
1 Hallowed Burial
1 AEtherize
1 Martial Coup
Creature Buffs/Protection:
1 Frontline Medic
1 Grand Abolisher
1 Odric, Master Tactician
1 Riders of Gavony
1 Cathars' Crusade
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Door of Destinies
Blink/Bounce:
1 Nephalia Smuggler
1 Equilibrium
1 Momentary Blink
1 Ghostway
1 Flickerform
1 Blood Clock
1 Umbilicus
Pillow Fort:
1 Fatespinner
1 Maze of Ith
1 Aura of Silence
Counters:
1 Voidmage Husher
1 Force of Will
1 Pact of Negation
Recursion:
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Angel of Glory's Rise
1 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
Other Stuff:
1 Serra Ascendant
1 Soul Warden
1 Venser, the Sojourner
1 Unbender Tine
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Adarkar Wastes
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Command Tower
1 Flooded Strand
1 Glacial Fortress
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Mistveil Plains
1 Mystic Gate
1 Nimbus Maze
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Temple of the False God
1 Tundra
7 Island
10 Plains
1 Sunken Hope
1 High Market
Lavinia is amazing. At 5CMC, she's a Pro-Red 4/4 with a hilariously powerful ETB ability that locks down equipment, mana rocks, planeswalkers, tricky artifacts, and creatures. The gameplan for the deck is to play her every turn, either returning her to hand using Sunken Hope, Umbilicus, or Blood Clock; or blinking her using cards like Nephalia Smuggler, Flickerform, and Momentary Blink.
Some notable interactions include:
Nephalia Smuggler + Mangara of Corondor: Tap Mangara, targeting any permanent. Hold priority, and in response activate the Smuggler, targeting Mangara. The Smuggler's ability resolves first, blinking Mangara. When Mangara comes back to play, because it changed zones, it's a new object and not subject to the resolution of its previously-activated ability. So now you let the stack resolve, and only the original target of Mangara's ability gets exiled. You can achieve the same ends by using High Market and sacrificing Mangara in response to his ability, though of course you don't get to keep him in play in that case. Fiend Hunter can be substituted for Mangara in a pinch, but you'll always have to have something exiled in the end using it.
Angel of Glory's Rise + Fiend Hunter: First, get things in your graveyard (either by waiting for someone else to wrath, or by wrathing yourself). Then play the Angel, returning all Humans from your graveyard to play (note that this is all but one other creature in the deck). It's easiest if Fiend Hunter starts in the graveyard, but you can follow it up by playing it, either way works. When Fiend Hunter enters the battlefield, its ability triggers, and you target the Angel to be exiled. Now, when Fiend Hunter leaves play, the Angel will return, returning all your humans from your graveyard to play, including your fiend hunter, and... I think you get the idea.
Cards I'm thinking about:
I want to get skullclamp in here but haven't figured out what to cut.
I really like Propaganda and Ghostly Prison for this type of deck.
I think Counterbalance might have a place here as well.
There's also a variety of blue and white creatures that would allow me to bounce Lavinia somewhat more reliably. Trouble is, what the heck do I cut for them?
Things I wish were human so I could play them in human tribal: Elesh Norn, Mistmeadow Witch, Deadeye Navigator.
I'm open to any suggestions for cards or tuning. Any help would be appreciated.
I'd also recommend Sapphire Medallion, as it reduces the cost of most of the spells in your deck and opens you up for a turn 3 general play.