When Redcap comes into play, have it target itself. It dies, comes back, counters cancel, deals two damage to itself, comes back, etc, etc, etc. All the while, the Ranger gets.... huge.
So once you have your 1000000/1000002 Ranger, either attack with it... or Rite of Consumption.
You've got a lot (~40) of lands. Which are going into the graveyard quite often (due to Crusher). You also tend to have few lands out (unless you are running Crucible). Grunt is cheap, restocks your library, stops graveyard shenanigans from your opponents, and is a nice 4/4 beatstick. Eventually, if you run through all of your library, you can be dumping like 20 lands a turn off the top of your library (make sure to put a non-land on the bottom though!), making Crusher huge in the process.
You also get to use Flagstones, which are great with Shard Volley.
I spent like $100 on a box of Time Spiral. Me and my friends would often do non-sanctioned drafts, and so it was much cheaper to buy the box and draft from that than to buy draft packs from the store.
Of course, soon after (and before I get to draft any, since I was busy), I moved. At the new place, *no one* did unsanctioned drafts. I shed a single tear and had to open up all the packs alone in my basement. Of course, it was Time Spiral, so the cards sucked, *and* I was out a bunch of money that could've gone towards drafting. Sigh!
I learned way back in middle school, after a friend showed me how to play. We would go to the local game store and he would let me use his cards, starting me out with what was probably the most crazily complex deck I could possible start out with - Peacekeeper plus ping effects like Rootwater Hunter and Prodigal Sorcerer. Pretty sure I would've won all my games back then (because everyone just ran creatures and no removal?) if I wouldn't constantly forget to pay for Peacekeeper. Blech, upkeep costs! My uncle (who was a big gamer in his day, though that game was the original D&D) got me my first cards of my own - a starter set which I then used to force my father to play with me.
I ended up falling out of Magic at the end of Middle School (as my friend and I drifted apart, though I think he's probably still hardcore into Magic), and then falling right back in once I was in College. But that's a different story!
When you play it, it does (or even as a 1/1 if you remove a counter for some reason). But if you want to fetch it from your library, it's a 0/0... so your 2/2s will not fetch it out with Wild Pair.
wait a sec so what are the better colors to play the deck?
i guess it has to be UG+X will it be W or B or maybe R ?
what is more consistente?
Obviously G, as Wild Pair is green.
U is generally necessary, as card draw to find Wild Pair is definitely needed. No Wild Pair, not much of a deck!
I like R, as grinning ignus and avalanche riders are pretty awesome. Ignus is both acceleration *and* an engine.
W is also a good choice - W has some good 2/2s (True Believer), and then you have Whitemane Lion instead of Ignus. The Lion is not acceleration, but he allows tricks - you can grab Mystic Snake or Vesner in response to a spell.
Black? No, no. What bounce 2/2 do you have to search out everything? Can't make it work.
I'd honestly have to play with both of them to find the "right" build.
OMG I didn't know that about Wall of Roots, but now that I think about it, it does make sense. I chose Coalition Relic because of the color dependency on the deck and that it would seemingly able me to cast Wild Pair ASAP,(as soon as plausible ).
Red > White
Instead of Whitemane Lion, go with Grinning Ignus. He is both mana acceleration *and* reusable 2/2 (who only costs R to cast/recast instead of 1W like Lion!). Third turn put down the Ignus, then fourth turn add a land, return the Ignus, and bam - Wild Pair.
Next turn (with 5 mana perhaps?) you can play Ignus, (search Riders) destroy a land, return Ignus play Ignus, (search another Riders) destroy a land, return Ignus play Ignus, (search another Riders) destroy a THIRD land, then attack for 6 with your hasty Riders.
Next turn you could even use Gaia's Blessing to shuffle them back in your deck... and do it again. (Just an option!)
Also Ingot Chewer can be evoked on the cheap (one R!), eating an opposing Relic or Rack while tutoring up something nice (Enforcer? Stalking Yeti? <- Kills critters and returns to hand, too! Voidstone Gargoyle even, for opposing spells?)... Briarhorn too (and Briarhorn even can first give itself +3/+3, allowing you to search up a finisher like Akroma or one of the big Elementals).
Why don't you run some artifact mana artifact's are good because balance ignores them completely
I thought about it. It's a halfway decent idea, but I generally don't need to "ramp up" into anything. Garga and Balance each only cost a single mana (when suspending), and everything else is about two mana anyway! I'm sad that all the signets are gone, boros signet might have been nice, but other than that, what do I run? The best mana artifact is the Relic, but it costs three... far too much for this deck in my opinion.
also you could run orizon Canopy in the Deck because, your deck run's really cheap spells you don't really need much mana, and when your opponent doesn't has any lands in play the cards in hand don't really matter
I figure Canopy can't do much good in the deck - it's a plains that hurts me (as I play no green), and while saccing to draw a card is nice, by that time I'm going to want a hand free of cards anyway! (To make Balance blow them out.) It's definitely a good card, just not so much for this deck.
historically, RW control decks of various kinds (and this is more or less a RW control deck of a particular sort) are just inherently weak against counterspells. you've got to resolve bomb sorceries to win, the whole strategy is hinging on a small number of cards. there's no good way around it. RW control decks have only been able to be tier 1 in metagames where blue control is almost unplayable (such as during Onslaught block).
Yes, this is unfortunately very true. I just figured that blue control might go under the wheels of the aggro bus very shortly (once all these tribal decks get running), and so there might be a spot for this deck.
my suggestion for what to do against Blue is basically to sideboard heavily. I see that you've already got a full load of Detritivore and Cryoclasm. That's probably the best you can hope for, though maybe Avalanche Riders is better then Cryoclasm once the Ravnica duals leave the format. you'll have to figure out exactly how to sideboard against blue. my intuition is that your best bet is to actually board out Gargadon and Balance.
I agree with all this - I'll have to see how many actual islands I see.
for the maindeck, most of it looks pretty decent. the most questionable card there is Dawn Charm. Fog variants generally aren't that great without some way to recur them. My suggestion is Serra Avenger, this will also work to prevent a pretty reasonable amount of damage (by blocking or just absorbing an Incinerate) and also provide a very good clock. The Keldon Marauders should probably be Mogg War Marshal. It provides far superior stalling on the ground and it removes 3 counters from Gargadon, seems like a natural choice.
Dawn Charm is pretty much awesome. It's not just a fog, it's also a counterspell. While most of the time it just helps stall me to get a Balance resolved, it's also saved me from game-losing burn and can also counter discard spells. The Avenger is awesome, but comes out three turns before Balance resolves, sometimes too late to do much. It's also double-white in a red-heavy deck.
The War Marshal is another good idea, though - it does stall very nicely (though I'll likely never pay the echo). It doesn't do as much damage to the opponent as Marauders do (as those do 5 damage pretty much always against non-aggro decks), but those tokens actually stick around forever. I'll have to give it a try, thanks.
*** is nice, but it's 4 mana, a sorcery, and does the same thing that Restore Balance does.... which means I'm afraid it'll get stuck in my hand by the time Restore Balance goes off, letting my opponents have cards in hand. Yes, it's good to have backup sources of board-sweepers, but I don't know, yet. (Also, I don't have any, but it's something to look for, at least.) More wrath = better, but I would probably try sulfurous blast before then. (As I can instant-ify it.)
Razia's Purification is worse, as it's a gigantic 6 mana, meaning I'll almost never get to play it (Balance is likely to go off sooner!), and it'll be stuck in my hand always.
I've thought about Rift Elemental, and I don't know which way to go on this. It's cheap (so I can get it out of my hand), but dies to my own removal (pyroclasm), and is kinda slow.... but it is a good way to dump extra mana at end of opponent's turn. I'd put it in, but what to remove?
I maindecked one Detritovore yesterday, and it was... well, less than optimal. Three players played only basic lands, and it got stranded in my hand there at least twice. Against my other opponents, I think it killed one land, as usually Balance would end up going off before I had enough mana to suspend a big one anyway.
The problem is that I want to run spells that I can get rid of easily - this makes Balance devastating, because it becomes a Wrath, an Armageddon, and a Mind Twist... all in one. If I have cards left in my hand, they'll hold back lands and recover quickly, while I'll have sacrificed everything to the Gargadon. However, when I don't draw a Balance, I wish I had something that was bigger than a little burn spell! So it's always back and forth... do I add higher costing stuff? But then it gets stuck! So then I take it out, and have problems when people get big creatures out and I still have four turns to go on Balance.
Dust of Moments is very much like Fury Charm, but I like Fury Charm more (because I can hit artifacts, and very occasionally give Gargadon trample). I could possibly use them both (as cheap instants), but I feel like Dust of Moments will be dead if I don't have suspenders out (while the Charm is almost always useful).
So thanks for the comments (and hopefully I'll get more), but try to keep the idea of the deck in mind - I like to get things out of my hand quickly to make Balance completely devastating. Cheap (but useful) suspend cards, charms which serve many purposes, split cards that I can use early (Boom) or late (Bust)... all these are very important, but I think I pretty much mined most of those ideas already... just seeing what other people can think of now which I might have missed. Also, more ideas for the control matchup - I do pretty well against aggro, which is why I don't know about adding Wrath, but control is just terrible if they save a counterspell to deal with Balance.
Lorwyn stuff doesn't really add to the deck. But pulling out Rav doesn't also hurt the deck much either. Ajani Goldmane could possibly come in (survives a balance!), and Oblivion Ring almost certainly should come in (replacing... Marauders?).
Basically, the idea of the deck is to suspend Restore Balance, and then suspend Greater Gargadon. A few turns later, you should be out of cards in hand, and can sacrifice all your permanents to Gargadon. If you have multiple Gargadons suspended (or often even with only one), you can manage to clear the board of creatures, hands, and lands... leaving only the Gargadon (which comes into play after the Balance has resolved, as long as you stack upkeep triggers properly). He then swings hastily for the win (either then or the next turn).
Everything else in the deck basically stalls the opponent. You kill their small critters, and hold off the large ones (chumping with Marauders and fogging with Dawn Charm) until Balance can wipe the board clear. Then your suspend-guys come on down for the win.
Card choices:
Lands: You really really really want an untapped source of white or red mana first turn. As your lands aren't going to be lasting very long, Gemstone Mine is awesome. The few life going into the Forge also aren't going to matter. New Benalia is decent - I don't like the cipt, but scry one in a deck without draw is very nice.
Balance, Gargadon: Make the deck work.
Epochrasite: Early game always castable chump blocker, late game (especially after a Balance!) beater. Pretty awesome, all around.
Dawn Charm: Counters burn to the face (saved me today!) and stalls the early game with a fog effect. Very good.
Fury Charm: Kills the Rack dead, kills artifact mana, and sometimes allows you to pop off Balance when the opponent is *completely* not expecting it. The blue mage will tap out... and then get balanced when they expected it to be happening two turns from now.
Pyroclasm: Stops early creature swarms. Very effective.
Rift Bolt/Incinerate: Other burn. Cheap, gets cards out of your hand, and kills creatures or the opponent.
More iffy choices:
Keldon Marauders: Five damage for two mana is not a bad deal. Also serves as a very nice chump blocker early in the game, killing a creature and dealing two to the opponent for a mere two mana. But is it really necessary? I am unsure!
Boom/Bust: Sometimes this is great - I destroy the mana of the type they need, and hold them off. Sometimes its crazy good, armageddoning my opponent when they don't expect it. Often it sits in the hand, not really doing anything to affect anything.
Also, the sideboard:
No idea here. Generally, Nodes for critter attacks, and land destruction for control.
So:
Any suggestions on card choices?
This deck beats decks without counters pretty well. When there are counters.... well, bad things happen. As I said, I just went 3-2 tonight, losing (barely each time, 2-1 and fighting) to blue-flavored control decks. Sac all my lands to the gargadon... and counter Restore Balance. Blech. What can I do about that matchup? I was thinking I either go aggro (and have some sort of transformational sideboard) or I go land-d (and hope to keep the opponent off of blue mana for the counters!).
When Redcap comes into play, have it target itself. It dies, comes back, counters cancel, deals two damage to itself, comes back, etc, etc, etc. All the while, the Ranger gets.... huge.
So once you have your 1000000/1000002 Ranger, either attack with it... or Rite of Consumption.
Why? One reason: Jötun Grunt.
You've got a lot (~40) of lands. Which are going into the graveyard quite often (due to Crusher). You also tend to have few lands out (unless you are running Crucible). Grunt is cheap, restocks your library, stops graveyard shenanigans from your opponents, and is a nice 4/4 beatstick. Eventually, if you run through all of your library, you can be dumping like 20 lands a turn off the top of your library (make sure to put a non-land on the bottom though!), making Crusher huge in the process.
You also get to use Flagstones, which are great with Shard Volley.
Tap forests! Tap Rofellos! Return forest, untap Rofellos, replay forest. Tap forest! Tap Rofellos! Do a little dance! (Not required.)
Then with a bagillion green mana.... er... make a big creature. Watch it get terrored. Cry a little. Rinse, repeat next turn.
(Llanowar Elves aren't special - they only make one mana! Ranger though... crazy stuff!)
Of course, soon after (and before I get to draft any, since I was busy), I moved. At the new place, *no one* did unsanctioned drafts. I shed a single tear and had to open up all the packs alone in my basement. Of course, it was Time Spiral, so the cards sucked, *and* I was out a bunch of money that could've gone towards drafting. Sigh!
I ended up falling out of Magic at the end of Middle School (as my friend and I drifted apart, though I think he's probably still hardcore into Magic), and then falling right back in once I was in College. But that's a different story!
When you play it, it does (or even as a 1/1 if you remove a counter for some reason). But if you want to fetch it from your library, it's a 0/0... so your 2/2s will not fetch it out with Wild Pair.
Obviously G, as Wild Pair is green.
U is generally necessary, as card draw to find Wild Pair is definitely needed. No Wild Pair, not much of a deck!
I like R, as grinning ignus and avalanche riders are pretty awesome. Ignus is both acceleration *and* an engine.
W is also a good choice - W has some good 2/2s (True Believer), and then you have Whitemane Lion instead of Ignus. The Lion is not acceleration, but he allows tricks - you can grab Mystic Snake or Vesner in response to a spell.
Black? No, no. What bounce 2/2 do you have to search out everything? Can't make it work.
I'd honestly have to play with both of them to find the "right" build.
Red > White
Instead of Whitemane Lion, go with Grinning Ignus. He is both mana acceleration *and* reusable 2/2 (who only costs R to cast/recast instead of 1W like Lion!). Third turn put down the Ignus, then fourth turn add a land, return the Ignus, and bam - Wild Pair.
Next turn (with 5 mana perhaps?) you can play Ignus, (search Riders) destroy a land, return Ignus play Ignus, (search another Riders) destroy a land, return Ignus play Ignus, (search another Riders) destroy a THIRD land, then attack for 6 with your hasty Riders.
Next turn you could even use Gaia's Blessing to shuffle them back in your deck... and do it again. (Just an option!)
Also Ingot Chewer can be evoked on the cheap (one R!), eating an opposing Relic or Rack while tutoring up something nice (Enforcer? Stalking Yeti? <- Kills critters and returns to hand, too! Voidstone Gargoyle even, for opposing spells?)... Briarhorn too (and Briarhorn even can first give itself +3/+3, allowing you to search up a finisher like Akroma or one of the big Elementals).
I thought about it. It's a halfway decent idea, but I generally don't need to "ramp up" into anything. Garga and Balance each only cost a single mana (when suspending), and everything else is about two mana anyway! I'm sad that all the signets are gone, boros signet might have been nice, but other than that, what do I run? The best mana artifact is the Relic, but it costs three... far too much for this deck in my opinion.
I figure Canopy can't do much good in the deck - it's a plains that hurts me (as I play no green), and while saccing to draw a card is nice, by that time I'm going to want a hand free of cards anyway! (To make Balance blow them out.) It's definitely a good card, just not so much for this deck.
Yes, this is unfortunately very true. I just figured that blue control might go under the wheels of the aggro bus very shortly (once all these tribal decks get running), and so there might be a spot for this deck.
I agree with all this - I'll have to see how many actual islands I see.
Dawn Charm is pretty much awesome. It's not just a fog, it's also a counterspell. While most of the time it just helps stall me to get a Balance resolved, it's also saved me from game-losing burn and can also counter discard spells. The Avenger is awesome, but comes out three turns before Balance resolves, sometimes too late to do much. It's also double-white in a red-heavy deck.
The War Marshal is another good idea, though - it does stall very nicely (though I'll likely never pay the echo). It doesn't do as much damage to the opponent as Marauders do (as those do 5 damage pretty much always against non-aggro decks), but those tokens actually stick around forever. I'll have to give it a try, thanks.
Razia's Purification is worse, as it's a gigantic 6 mana, meaning I'll almost never get to play it (Balance is likely to go off sooner!), and it'll be stuck in my hand always.
I've thought about Rift Elemental, and I don't know which way to go on this. It's cheap (so I can get it out of my hand), but dies to my own removal (pyroclasm), and is kinda slow.... but it is a good way to dump extra mana at end of opponent's turn. I'd put it in, but what to remove?
I maindecked one Detritovore yesterday, and it was... well, less than optimal. Three players played only basic lands, and it got stranded in my hand there at least twice. Against my other opponents, I think it killed one land, as usually Balance would end up going off before I had enough mana to suspend a big one anyway.
The problem is that I want to run spells that I can get rid of easily - this makes Balance devastating, because it becomes a Wrath, an Armageddon, and a Mind Twist... all in one. If I have cards left in my hand, they'll hold back lands and recover quickly, while I'll have sacrificed everything to the Gargadon. However, when I don't draw a Balance, I wish I had something that was bigger than a little burn spell! So it's always back and forth... do I add higher costing stuff? But then it gets stuck! So then I take it out, and have problems when people get big creatures out and I still have four turns to go on Balance.
Dust of Moments is very much like Fury Charm, but I like Fury Charm more (because I can hit artifacts, and very occasionally give Gargadon trample). I could possibly use them both (as cheap instants), but I feel like Dust of Moments will be dead if I don't have suspenders out (while the Charm is almost always useful).
So thanks for the comments (and hopefully I'll get more), but try to keep the idea of the deck in mind - I like to get things out of my hand quickly to make Balance completely devastating. Cheap (but useful) suspend cards, charms which serve many purposes, split cards that I can use early (Boom) or late (Bust)... all these are very important, but I think I pretty much mined most of those ideas already... just seeing what other people can think of now which I might have missed. Also, more ideas for the control matchup - I do pretty well against aggro, which is why I don't know about adding Wrath, but control is just terrible if they save a counterspell to deal with Balance.
What I played:
4x Restore Balance
4x Dawn Charm
4x Lightning Helix
4x Pyroclasm
4x Keldon Marauders
4x Rift Bolt
3x Fury Charm
2x Boom//Bust
2x Sudden Shock
1x Epochrasite
1x Detritivore
5x Plains
2x New Benalia
2x Terramorphic Expanse
1x Gemstone Mine
1x Sacred Foundry
4x Plains
4x Battlefield Forge
4x Gemstone Mine
2x New Benalia
2x Terramorphic Expanse
4x Epochrasite
4x Greater Gargadon
4x Keldon Marauders
4x Fury Charm
4x Incinerate
2x Boom/Bust
4x Pyroclasm
4x Restore Balance
4x Rift Bolt
4x Cryoclasm
4x Detritivore
4x Porphyry Nodes
1x Pull from Eternity ?
Lorwyn stuff doesn't really add to the deck. But pulling out Rav doesn't also hurt the deck much either. Ajani Goldmane could possibly come in (survives a balance!), and Oblivion Ring almost certainly should come in (replacing... Marauders?).
Basically, the idea of the deck is to suspend Restore Balance, and then suspend Greater Gargadon. A few turns later, you should be out of cards in hand, and can sacrifice all your permanents to Gargadon. If you have multiple Gargadons suspended (or often even with only one), you can manage to clear the board of creatures, hands, and lands... leaving only the Gargadon (which comes into play after the Balance has resolved, as long as you stack upkeep triggers properly). He then swings hastily for the win (either then or the next turn).
Everything else in the deck basically stalls the opponent. You kill their small critters, and hold off the large ones (chumping with Marauders and fogging with Dawn Charm) until Balance can wipe the board clear. Then your suspend-guys come on down for the win.
Card choices:
Lands: You really really really want an untapped source of white or red mana first turn. As your lands aren't going to be lasting very long, Gemstone Mine is awesome. The few life going into the Forge also aren't going to matter. New Benalia is decent - I don't like the cipt, but scry one in a deck without draw is very nice.
Balance, Gargadon: Make the deck work.
Epochrasite: Early game always castable chump blocker, late game (especially after a Balance!) beater. Pretty awesome, all around.
Dawn Charm: Counters burn to the face (saved me today!) and stalls the early game with a fog effect. Very good.
Fury Charm: Kills the Rack dead, kills artifact mana, and sometimes allows you to pop off Balance when the opponent is *completely* not expecting it. The blue mage will tap out... and then get balanced when they expected it to be happening two turns from now.
Pyroclasm: Stops early creature swarms. Very effective.
Rift Bolt/Incinerate: Other burn. Cheap, gets cards out of your hand, and kills creatures or the opponent.
More iffy choices:
Keldon Marauders: Five damage for two mana is not a bad deal. Also serves as a very nice chump blocker early in the game, killing a creature and dealing two to the opponent for a mere two mana. But is it really necessary? I am unsure!
Boom/Bust: Sometimes this is great - I destroy the mana of the type they need, and hold them off. Sometimes its crazy good, armageddoning my opponent when they don't expect it. Often it sits in the hand, not really doing anything to affect anything.
Also, the sideboard:
No idea here. Generally, Nodes for critter attacks, and land destruction for control.
So:
Any suggestions on card choices?
This deck beats decks without counters pretty well. When there are counters.... well, bad things happen. As I said, I just went 3-2 tonight, losing (barely each time, 2-1 and fighting) to blue-flavored control decks. Sac all my lands to the gargadon... and counter Restore Balance. Blech. What can I do about that matchup? I was thinking I either go aggro (and have some sort of transformational sideboard) or I go land-d (and hope to keep the opponent off of blue mana for the counters!).
It's very fun to play, though, I had a blast.
With Hex, you have to have 6 different targets to be able to play it. But if some of those targets then go away, it will still kill the rest.