Complete guide at:
http://www.playhaven.com/guides/360/magic-the-gathering-duels-of-the-planeswalk
ers/duels-of-the-planeswalkers-2012-guide/9BTpSAjYWUrU/
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|| Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 guide ||
|| Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers ||
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Written by: robvalue (http://www.playhaven.com/profile/robvalue/)
Last updated: 2011-07-07 15:28:26
===============================================================================
Table of Contents
===============================================================================
- Introduction
- Differences between D09 and D12
- Getting started
- Deck building and playing strategies
- Chandra Nalaar - Unquenchable Fire
- Garruk Wildspeaker - Apex Predators
- Gideon Jura - Wielding Steel
- Jace Beleren - Realm of Illusion
- Kiora Atua - Ancient Depths
- Koth - Strength of Stone
- Nissa Revane - Guardians of the Wood
- Sarkhan Vol - Dragon's Roar
- Sorin Markov - Blood Hunger
- Tezzeret - Machinations
- Changes Log
===============================================================================
Introduction
===============================================================================
I have written this guide to help players get the most out of Duels of the
Planeswalkers 2012 (D12). I play on the Xbox 360, but everything should apply
just as well to other formats. I will note the changes between this and the
original Duels (D09), and for each deck I will discuss each card, give general
strategies, and give example decklists that I recommend using.
If you haven't already, I suggest first reading my other guide "Improving your
playing skills":
http://www.playhaven.com/guides/360/magic-the-gathering-duels-of-the-planeswalk
ers/improving-your-playing-skills/mjCV2Dnb5ntz/
This was written for D09 but almost everything in it still applies. Of course
the examples given are all from D09, but the points are still relevant.
Please note that the card analysis and deck-building tips in this guide are
aimed at one on one matches, although I will comment briefly on cards that may
be useful in Archenemy. Free-for-alls are a totally different matter, and I am
the worst in the world at them!
At the end of the guide, I have included a changes log where I will note any
alterations I make to the example decklists over time, and other changes. I'll
give credit where due for corrections etc.
I'd like to say a big thank you to everyone who has written to me to say they
have found my guides useful! I highly value such feedback and really appreciate
it. I hope this guide will be as helpful! If you try my decklists or ones based
on them, I'd love to know how you get on.
===============================================================================
Differences between D09 and D12
===============================================================================
> * Improved graphics and user interface. Much more of play area is visible
as the "turn bar" which shows what phase you are in is much smaller and is near
the life total for each player.
> * New cards and new decks. Not every card is new, but a good percentage
are. Out of the ten decks you can play, eight of them are roughly based on
decks from D09 but are far from carbon copies. Many have had quite a makeover.
Two are brand new original decks, for new Planeswalkers Kiora Atua and Koth.
Also Karn appears as the new non-playable boss, and Gideon Jura takes over the
role of primary white Planeswalker.
> * Core deck editing! You can now remove cards from the core deck after
adding unlocked cards. This means you have much more control of your deck and
can personalize it, taking it in many different directions. It also means that
for some multicoloured decks you can cut out some of the colours completely by
removing all cards of that colour. Lands in your deck are calculated
automatically, and corresponding lands disappear if you take out all cards of a
colour.
> * Large amounts of bugs and issues have been fixed. Props to Wizards and
Stainless, they seem to have pretty much taken into account everything on my
bug list for cards in this game. Only a few coding issues remain, and Wizards
seem much more determined to sort things out this time round.
> * Archenemy mode! You and two other players (or AI players if you are on
your own) team up against one super-powered opponent who gets to use a card
from a seperate oversized deck every turn for free. Cards from this deck
(called Schemes) are extremely potent and can swing the momentum of the game
hugely. They also get 40 life.
> * You can now play Two Headed Giant online with a team mate who is not
physically sat next to you.
> * In my opinion the decks are much more balanced. I would rate Guardians of
the Wood and Blood Hunger as the best, and Strength of Stone as the worst, and
the others somewhere in the middle. The spread is not as great as before.
> * There has been new terminology introduced for the Magic 2012 core set,
which has been implemented in this game. The phrase "When this creature
dies..." is now shorthand for "When this creature is put into the graveyard
from the battlefield..."
> * In general, the decks feel more coherent with less sore thumbs.
> * Deathtouch has been corrected when facing multiple blockers. Only 1
damage has to be put on each blocker now from a creature with deathtouch. If
the creature also has trample, remaining damage can be assigned to the
opponent. This is now in line with the main Magic rules.
===============================================================================
Getting started
===============================================================================
Most of what I've written in "Improving your playing skills" will help you get
started with this game. The options set up is virtually identical, and I
recommend following the same configuration as before.
You do not now have the option of using custom duel as an easy option to unlock
cards, since it won't let you change the starting life totals and hand sizes as
in D09. But you can win cards by repeatedly beating the same opponent over and
over in campaign mode (or custom duel), with difficulty set to Mage if you want
to do so as fast as possible. To have a one on one duel outside of campaign,
select Custom Duel from the main menu, then Free For All, and pick just one AI
opponent before starting the duel.
I found the easiest opponents to unlock cards against are:
Koth: Probably the weakest overall deck. Has few flying creatures, good for
decks with lots of fliers and/or strong creatures.
Jace: Lots of Illusion creatures that die when they are targeted by a spell or
ability. Any deck that has lots of ways to target (even with things that don't
normally kill creatures like helpful Auras) can exploit this.
To save time, if a duel is going badly or you have had to mulligan several
times, just pause the game and select Restart Duel. The AI doesn't mind! It's
quicker to play out your stronger hands and not spend a lot of time on the
defensive, if you just want to get the cards most quickly.
Every time you win a duel with a deck, you unlock a new card for it. It's best
to then go back to the Deck Manager on the main menu, and see if you actually
want that card in your deck! If you don't like it, take it out right away. If
you do, then choose your weakest card and remove that to keep your deck at 60
cards. Refer to my individual deck guides to help you decide what to keep and
what to take out. Take out cards I list as "bad" from your core deck as soon as
possible, and don't add any that you unlock. Add in all the cards I list as
"good", and even "OK" ones if they can replace something worse.
Sometimes you unlock multiple copies of a card at once, in which case remove
the same number of cards if you wish to keep them in. The golden rule for
having a good deck is always, always stay at 60 cards. If you are taking things
seriously, this is the way to proceed. My 15+ years of Magic have taught me
this time and time again. There are several reasons for this:
> * The fewer cards you have, the more consistent your draws will be. You
have a better idea of what you expect to draw, and will see each card the
maximum amount of the time.
> * Each card you add over 60 effectively decreases the number of every other
card in the deck. All you are doing is diluting your deck and spreading your
power across it. And if you instead choose and remove the weakest cards, you
achieve the most potent combination. A lot of cards in this game are simply
much better than others, and you only want the best available.
> * You will more regularly get the amount of land you need, and the right
colours, with fewer cards. A draw with too little or too much land is much more
likely to self-correct in a smaller deck.
You will find that initially victories can be difficult as the core decks
contain a lot of poor cards, but as you manage each win it will get easier and
easier with that deck as you add in powerful unlocks and remove the weaker core
cards.
You unlock decks as you progress through the campaign as before, by beating
certain opponents. You get all the decks in the initial campaign, the Archenemy
and Revenge parts do not give you any extras. You only have to beat each
opponent once to progress and get the decks, but to get cards you can play any
of them as many times as you want.
As Koth is the first opponent, you may find it a good idea to repeatedly beat
him with one of the two starting decks and unlock all its cards. You should
then sail through the campaign quite easily with either of them. You may wish
to switch to Guardians of the Wood or Blood Hunger when they become available
as they are in my opinion the strongest. You can go back to beating up Koth to
earn cards for them. For the boss Karn, I found Ancient Depths the best. If
anyone's having any more trouble with any of the campaign, please let me know
and I'll offer help!
For the Archenemy campaign, you can pick both your deck and both your AI
partners' decks if you are playing on your own. I suggest either all 3 playing
Blood Hunger, or picking the AI to both be Blood Hunger and you pick Ancient
Depths. Depths has some great cards which will help both your teammates in this
mode: New Frontiers and Edric, Spymaster of Trest. See the Depths section for
more hints on those cards.
The Revenge campaign is the same as the original campaign, but the opponents
now have a few different cards in their deck which you can't unlock at present,
generally making them a bit harder. I suggest using Blood Hunger for this
campaign, and again Ancient Depths for Karn at the end.
===============================================================================
Deck building and playing strategies
===============================================================================
Below I will discuss each of the ten playable decks. I will split all the
available cards into three groups, according to my opinion of them:
> * Good- The better cards in the selection. This is either because they are
very powerful card in their own right, or they fit and complement the deck in
general very well. These should be highly considered for every decklist.
> * OK- A decent card for providing support, filling holes, and rounding out
themes, but does not excel. Some powerful cards will drop to just OK because
they don't fit particularly well in the deck.
> * Bad- The poorer cards in the selection, either just because they are
awful or they are totally in the wrong kind of deck. I recommend avoiding all
these cards unless you have a particular reason to include them in a deck
design.
Under each heading, I have also put the cards for each deck in roughly what I
consider to be order of power and usefulness. So the very best cards are are at
the beginning of the "good" section, and the worst at the bottom of the "bad".
Those near the top of "OK" are often going to be serious contenders and
necessary to round out a deck.
Don't assume that sticking all the good cards together is always going to be
the best deck. You may find that two cards are competing for the same mana cost
slot, and it doesn't always make sense to include both. There are also many
other factors to consider when putting together your 60 cards:
Mana curve
You want a reasonable spread over different mana costs throughout your deck.
Too many cheap cards will leave you lacking in power late game; too many
expensive ones can clog up your hand early on. Too many spells of the same mana
cost can cause a bottleneck, where you can't cast a group of them in your hand
until you hit that much mana, and are left casting them after your mana has
gone to higher amounts, or they get left behind as you go up the curve.
Generally the more land and land-fetching cards in the deck, the more you
should move the distribution towards higher mana cost cards. A smooth mana
curve is most important for creatures than for other spells, as you tend to
cast creatures right away and more often hold other spells back. But a range of
other spell costs is good too. You can press Y when in the deck manager to see
an overall graph of your mana costs.
Synergy
The cards in a deck don't exist in a vacuum, they must cooperate with every
other card in the deck. This doesn't mean they have to all be part of "combos",
but they should be making each other stronger whenever possible. Look for
little ways in which cards can help each other, and that work well together.
Theme
The deck as a whole should have some sort of purpose, a way in which it plays
to achieve victory. This could be such things as aggression, direct damage,
fast mana, using certain creature types, etc. Decks may have a mix several
different themes. Try to make sure that every card is pulling in the same
direction and achieving what you want from your overall plan and themes. A card
that may usually be very good on its own may prove much less useful if it
doesn't fit in with what you're trying to do with the deck. With core card
removal each deck can be taken in some different directions, so for your
particular build think what you're trying to do.
Be sure to test your deck thoroughly, since what looks good on paper sometimes
doesn't pan out in a game. Don't be too hasty to make changes, don't let one
bad deal make you give up on a card. Give it a few games at least, and see how
the deck is working together. Then go back to your deck manager and see what
you have learned, and how you can improve your deck. Make as few changes at a
time as possible, as it will be easiest to see whether or not this is an
improvement.
The decklists I offer are not meant to be "the best", they are just an example
of what I have come up with during my experience with the game, and to provide
a starting point for those who are overwhelmed by all the different choices.
They have been working well for me in testing, but everyone's play style is
different and you may find particular cards don't work so well for you. Allow
your creativity to flow and build on the decks, taking them in your own
direction.
I have included the lands in the decklists for completeness. You don't need to
chose lands for your decks, they are calculated automatically based on the
cards you pick. If you use the cards I suggest, you will get the amount of land
I show. The only exception so far is Machinations, where you can put in up to 3
Terramorphic Expanse to help you search for other lands. These are chosen from
your list along with the spells.
Note that when I refer to things such as "artifact control" I mean "the ability
to deal with artifacts on the battlefield". Also, I have discussed the
life-gain artifacts and why I hate them in my Improving your Playing Skills
guide, so please see that for why I dismiss these cards. I won't repeat it all
here, I'll just write "I hate life gain!"
===============================================================================
Chandra Nalaar - Unquenchable Fire
===============================================================================
Summary
This is an aggressive mono red direct damage deck, loosely based on Heat of
Battle from D09. It has also borrowed the Kiln Fiends and Wheel of Fortune from
Root of the Firemind, but only has one Pyroclasm now. It's a nasty deck that
can deal a lot of damage quickly, and can often finish you off from quite a
high life total with direct damage.
Strategy
The aim of this deck is to do a lot of quick damage with creatures, using
damage spells to remove blockers, and get the opponent into a range where
direct damage can finish them off. Kiln Fiends are huge early on, as they can
provide an extra 3 damage each time you burn out a blocker on your turn. If
things are going badly, you use your creatures and spells to kill the biggest
creature threats until you can get something good into play. Don't use your
direct damage spells immediately on the opponent unless you feel you have
enough to finish them off in short order. It's usually best to save them to
have the option of killing creatures, both to keep yourself alive and to remove
blockers to do repetitive damage with your own creatures. You can always use
them later on the opponent when they are closer to death. Your creatures are
pretty much expendable as far as getting your opponent's life total down is
concerned, they don't need to get it all the way there. Sometimes you can make
bad trades just to keep the damage getting through if you have more creatures
on the table.
Pros
> * Huge amounts of direct damage to kill creatures and hurt players
> * Nice creatures that interact well with the deck's other spells
> * Potential to finish players from high life totals with a combination of
direct damage cards
> * Punishes life gain with Punishing Fire
> * Mono deck so no colour problems
Cons
> * No artifact or enchantment control
> * Few evasion creatures
> * Can struggle against huge creatures as it relies on direct damage to kill
them
Good cards
Wheel of Fortune: This really needs a new category of it's own; broken. I think
it was a mistake to include cards like this in the game, they are unbalancing.
But here it is! It's now in the right deck as well unlike in D09, making it
even more scary. The important part is not so much drawing 7 cards each, as
both players discarding their whole hand. If you use this when your opponent
has more cards in hand than you, you gain card advantage by using this. At it's
best, if the opponent has 7 cards in hand and this is your last card, they
discard 7 cards and you discard none, this has given you a 6 card advantage
(you used the Wheel for this effect) making it especially effective against
slow decks. So always try to use this when your opponent has more cards. Late
in the game if you have a lot of mana you can use it regardless, expecting to
be able to cast a lot of burn spells that you draw to finish off your opponent,
or crazily pump up a Kiln Fiend. As this deck is so fast, you will normally
have less cards in your hand than your opponent, and if you have this in hand
at the start of the game you may wish to empty your hand super-fast to get
maximum advantage from this.
Banefire: Damage spells that deal unlimited amounts depending on mana input are
always powerful. This is one is especially useful for its extra ability. It
means that you kill a big creature or finish off your opponent without worrying
about counterspells. The "damage can't be prevented" part isn't going to be
relevant very much in this game, as they don't include damage prevention spells
or abilities. Creatures killed by this can still be regenerated. You should
usually save this for killing big creatures that can be out of reach of your
other small direct damage, or as part of a big finish, especially after using
instants on your opponent at the end of their turn before you untap. Note that
X spells can be cast with X=0, just to kill Illusions.
Blaze: This is just the same as Banefire, but without the extra bonus.
Certainly worth including as well.
Incinerate: All the way from Ice Age, it's one of the best direct damage spells
ever. It does efficient damage for it's cost, at instant speed, and stops
regeneration. It doesn't have to kill a creature outright to stop regeneration,
as soon as a creature has been hit by this it can't regenerate that turn so you
can finish it off in other ways. Take advantage of this being an instant. You
can use it in response to Giant Growth, to kill the creature before it gets
pumped and take out 2 cards for 1, and in all sorts of similar situations. It's
often best used during combat, it can suddenly make a blocker disappear when
the opponent has ganged up 2 blockers on your big creature, allowing your
creature to survive.
Flame Slash: Insanely efficient, and even though it's just against creatures,
the sheer power of this card is worth it. Save this for your opponent's medium
size creatures, often they will have to spend a lot of mana getting out a
creature with 4 toughness and you gain momentum by taking it out for just 1
mana.
Pyroclasm: This is your best sweeper spell, and a "panic button" against a
weenie assault. If your opponent has got off to a quick start with lots of
small creatures, after waiting as long as possible to lure more creatures onto
the board, cast this and reset the game, gaining lots of card advantage. Don't
worry about killing your own creatures as long as you kill more of your
opponent's. It can also help get rid of a big creature at the same time in
combination with another spell, for example use this to clear the weenies then
hit the remaining 6 toughness creature with Flame Slash to finish it off.
Volcanic Hammer: An obviously weaker version of Incinerate, but still efficient
and worth including. Use this before Incinerate when you have a choice, to save
the better card for later. Being a sorcery there are much less tricks you can
do with it.
Inferno Titan: This guy is huge, and with his immediate damage he gets you card
advantage even if he is killed right away. It makes you pick 3 targets, and
then does 1 to each of them, but you can pick the same target more than once.
Usually you'll want to cast this as soon as you can, taking out whatever
creatures you can, and putting the remaining damage onto your opponent. If they
can't deal with it they are probably going to lose very quickly as you continue
to either hack their creatures down or burn their face when you attack! And as
if that wasn't enough, you can pump up his attack up as well.
Flametongue Kavu: This is an awesome creature, having stats that are a decent
threat while taking out anything up to a 4 toughness creature for free. Don't
cast it however if the opponent has no creatures, as you will be forced to
target one of yours! Think of this as a Flame Slash with an added creature. It
usually swings the momentum of the game heavily. If things are going badly for
you, just cast it as soon as you can and kill the best thing possible, then you
have another blocker to help keep you alive.
Flameblast Dragon: If you can get this out and keep it out, usually you will
easily win the game. Being a big flying creature he is hard to stop, and every
attack you can usually kill a creature. Unless you can finish off the opponent
in very short order, I'd recommend using his ability to hit a creature each
time. This is hard for the opponent to come back from, and clears the way for
your other attackers. He is not as useful on defence as he can't use his
ability, but he can still block and kill most creatures in the game, providing
a lot of cover until you are in a position to attack again.
Prodigal Pyromancer: A 'pinger', a 'Tim', what do you call him? You will always
be happy to see this guy, his ability to do 1 damage to a specific target every
turn is really powerful. He can be used to pick off 1 toughness creatures, or
to provide extra damage after one of your spells to kill a large creature. When
you have attacked, he can finish off any creature that requires just 1 more
damage. Unless you are removing blockers, it's best to not use him in your
turn, and wait to see what your opponent does on their turn. You can always use
it near the end of their turn with no penalty if no other interesting
possibilities arise, hitting the opponent if there's nothing you can kill. Keep
him out of combat whenever possible as his ability is far too valuable to lose
him.
Punishing Fire: You can generally use this as a less powerful Incinerate, with
the same strategies. But it comes into its own in any situation where the
opponent gains life. I have found a great way to use this card is cast it in
response to a spell or ability that will give your opponent life. Your spell
resolves first, and then when their ability resolves, you can pay one mana to
get this card back. You can then use it again that turn if need be! This way
you can take out a 4 toughness creature with this one card by piggy-backing
your opponent's life gain. It's great against lifelink creatures, sometimes
turning them into a liability. If a lifelink creature is going to deal damage,
cast this in the blocker's phase before damage is dealt, then when the lifelink
guy hits you will get the chance to restock this and use it again!
Chandra's Phoenix: I love this creature, it seems almost unfair. It fits the
aggressive nature of the deck perfectly, being able to smash away for 2 damage
every turn, including the one you cast it. You'll usually want to keep up the
pressure with this guy, using your ground creatures for defence if need be.
You'll normally want to kill any big fliers the opponent casts as general
strategy anyway, which clears the way for him to continue. He can suicidally
attack even if the opponent has a big flier, as you will probably have an
instant or sorcery to do the rest of the damage after combat if it gets
blocked. When the opponent has finally stemmed the bleeding and killed it, all
you have to do is hit them directly with a damage spell and he's back to your
hand ready to be cast again.
Chandra's Outrage: This is a bit expensive, but still effective. Again make use
of the fact that it's an instant to full advantage. The 2 damage dealt to your
opponent is very helpful for this deck. When you can spare the mana for this,
use this ahead of other direct damage to kill a creature so that you retain
your cheaper ones for crucial situations later.
Fiery Hellhound: Although 2/2 for 3 isn't that good, his ability to pump up
indefinitely makes him a scary creature for the opponent to be looking at. If
there's no blockers you can do as much damage as you like, and even if there
are, he can usually be pumped up to kill whatever blocks him. It's not always
best to pump him up as much as you can; if it's just to do damage, put what you
can spare into him, but continue to cast other creatures to develop your
position. Of course the closer the opponent is to death, the more important it
is to get damage through, and you can do so without having to use any further
cards. This saves them for the big finish. Usually your opponent either has to
spend a card taking this guy out or swap it for a big creature, as you'll
likely burn away any smaller ones that could stop him. Otherwise, they'll be
snacking on hellfire and dead pretty quickly.
Kiln Fiend: Borrowed from the Firemind deck in D09, these fit in perfectly
here. The deck is full of instants and sorceries to fire him up. Often the
strategy for this deck revolves around getting this out, and then using spells
to kill each blocker that appears, pumping this up to 4/2. Keeping this up for
even a few turns is devastating and will probably put the opponent into serious
worries about being finished off easily with direct damage. You can pull some
tricks off with him too, if he blocks or is blocked by a 7/7 creature say, in
the blockers phase Incinerate the 7/7. This puts your Fiend up to 4/2, which is
enough to fell the foul beast!
Goblin Arsonist: This is the perfect 1 drop for this deck, he needs no further
investment and is almost guaranteed to end up doing his damage to something.
Hopefully early on he can attack freely for a bit of damage, and as soon as
other creatures turn up he can still make a nuisance of himself. If the
opponent has cast a 2/2, you can attack with this, and if they block you can
use his ability after he dies to finish off the 2/2. Of course his ability can
also pick off any 1 toughness creature, or if there's nothing better just hit
the opponent. You can combine it with your spells to take down a bigger
creature too. If the opponent has a 1/1 creature with a good ability, by
keeping this on defence you make the opponent unlikely to attack since you can
block with this and then kill their 1/1! Currently the best choice for a 1 drop
in my book.
Fire Servant: Although his stats are not very good for his cost, his ability is
awesome in this deck. It's not hard to finish your opponent with direct damage
anyhow, and this makes it even easier. X spells become double X, Incinerate
becomes 6 damage, it's all rather crazy. This also makes it much easier to kill
big creatures as damage to them is doubled too from your sorceries and
instants. You have no shortage of these, and he can also be applying some beats
while you remove blockers. Keep him alive unless you desperately need to block
with him to save yourself.
Flamekin Brawler: This is very nice for 1 mana, 2 toughness is notable and
helpful against initial weenies, and unlimited pump from turn 1 sounds great. I
have found in my testing that he is not as effective as I had hoped though.
Firstly, on turn 2 I almost always want to spend my mana either on another
creature like Kiln Fiend, or on some burn to kill something. Rarely am I happy
to spend 2 mana just to do 2 damage, it's not very efficient at such an early
stage. And also he is heavily competing with the similar Fiery Hellhound. As
soon as you get one of those out as well, this becomes almost redundant, except
for being able to split the mana between them. As this deck is always hungry
for mana, I'd rather rely on the 4 Hellhounds which can do some damage even if
I can't spare mana, and to leave these guys out. For a speed compromise, you
could go with 2 of these and 2 Hellhounds, for example.
OK cards
Flame Wave: 7 mana is a stretch for this deck, which is why I don't rate this
card higher, but I think this is just about worth it. It's one card that will
make a real difference in a long game or a stalemate situation. It will most
likely win you the game right away, knocking your opponent further into direct
damage range and removing probably a lot of blockers at once. The game can go
on a bit if you are burning out lots of creatures and your creatures are being
killed too. But a case could certainly be made for leaving it out and
concentrating more on speed.
Fire Elemental: He's not amazing, but there are very few 5 mana creatures
available at the moment and he's good enough. The 5 power is too much for the
opponent to ignore with the amount of firepower you have in this deck.
Lava Axe: It's a reasonable amount of damage for the mana, and for a total burn
strategy is a reasonable finisher. But I personally do not get along with cards
like this, simply because they are inflexible. They are only any good if you
are winning, and don't affect the board at all. If you're losing, this pretty
much does nothing at all. I prefer to stick to cards that can kill creatures
too, as they are always useful. You can't assume you will always be winning!
For now I have included just one copy for lack of a better card.
Relentless Assault: This is quite a cool card, but doesn't work as well in the
deck as I initially thought. The Kiln Fiends will only get the bonus once since
you cast it after the first combat, and it won't help clear blockers. And it
doesn't combine well with Flamekin Brawler or Fiery Hellhound as it takes mana
away from them.
Goblin War Paint: This is an alright Aura, but suffers from the usual problem
of possibly losing both cards to one kill-spell. At least the haste means you
will often get some damage in before that can happen, especially if the
opponent is tapped out. I feel that the deck doesn't need this for one on one,
the creatures are strong enough and I'd prefer to have direct damage to back
them up.
Bad cards
Cinder Wall: I feel this deck is too aggressive to be mucking about with walls.
It has 4 aggressive one drops, and I would much rather have any of them than
this. It can never damage your opponent, and can't be used offensively to
remove blockers. It also is never a surprise.
Dragon's Claw: I hate life gain!
Ember Shot: I don't know why this was brought across from D09, it must have
been the butt of the most jokes of all the cards. It's hideously overpriced,
and 7 mana is a lot for this deck anyhow. Flame Wave is a much better choice.
Avoid!
Sizzle: In one on one, this is totally stupid. 3 Damage for 3 mana is poor, and
it can't hit creatures either. This isn't any good for Archenemy either, unless
you were the Archenemy which isn't possible at the moment! It's only use would
be in Two Headed Giant, where it would hit both opponents for a total of 6
damage.
Example decklist
24 Mountains
Creatures (17)
2 Goblin Arsonist
3 Kiln Field
1 Chandra's Phoenix
4 Fiery Hellhound
1 Prodigal Pyromancer
1 Flametongue Kavu
2 Fire Elemental
1 Fire Servant
1 Flameblast Dragon
1 Inferno Titan
Other spells (19)
1 Banefire
1 Blaze
2 Flame Slash
2 Incinerate
2 Punishing Fire
1 Pyroclasm
4 Volcanic Hammer
1 Wheel of Fortune
3 Chandra's Outrage
1 Lava Axe
1 Flame Wave
===============================================================================
Garruk Wildspeaker - Apex Predators
===============================================================================
Summary
This is a mono green aggressive creature deck based loosely on Teeth of the
Predator from D09. It has lost all parts of the Troll Ascetic/Blanchwood
Armor/Loxodon Warhammer combo, which I am personally glad of, but has become
much more well rounded with a stronger creature base instead of relying almost
entirely on that one combo. It does however have some new creatures with "troll
shroud", which has been given the new name hexproof, meaning you can target it
with spells and abilities but your opponent cannot. Note that hexproof and
shroud do not stop a creature being countered while being cast. This deck still
uses 2 Overrun as big finishers, and has gained a little creature control with
2 Serrated Arrows and some cards that let you draw multiple creatures at once
from your deck.
Strategy
This deck relies entirely on creature damage to win. You want to get out as
many creatures are possible, as fast as possible, and keep the pressure on.
Giant Growth can help you break through against bigger creatures, as can
Elephant Guide. It is often better not to trade creatures if you have the
choice, unless it helps you get more damage through in short order. This is
because if you draw an Overrun, the more creatures you have the better, as they
all get the +3/+3 and trample. This is what you will rely on late game and in
stalemates to get your win. The deck does have some excellent higher mana
creatures which can break through as well. If things are going badly, Cudgel
Troll is an excellent blocker, having 4 power and being able to regenerate. You
also have Serrated Arrows to pick off weenies if you are getting overwhelmed,
to fix fights in your favour or stop the bleeding to some extent from a flier
that is beating you up.
Pros
> * Some of the most efficient creatures, some of which are hard to counter
or kill
> * Mana acceleration from Nature's Lore and extra land from Borderland
Ranger
> * Excellent surprise value and fight fixing from Giant Growth
> * Good ways of drawing cards and adding more creatures from your deck
> * Mono deck so no colour problems
Cons
> * No artifact or enchantment control
> * Little creature control
> * Vulnerable against fliers
> * Relies entirely on creatures to win
Good cards
Terra Stomper: This is insanely efficient and easily your best high mana
creature. It's stats are terrific, trample makes it hard to stop and not being
able to be countered makes it a headache for blue as well. For those of you who
remember Force of Nature, compare and contrast.
Serrated Arrows: Finally some real creature control! Coming all the way from
the Homelands expansion, this is really handy for either picking off several
weenies, slowly killing a medium size creature, or using during combat to fix
fights. While it's untapped, it can be used to quickly get rid of a 2 toughness
creature your opponent casts. Activate it near the end of their turn targeting
the creature, then when you untap you can target it again and finish it off.
Note that creatures can't regenerate from having their toughness lowered to
zero, so three counters from this will kill Cudgel Troll outright. But this
doesn't combine with damage. Although the game displays damage and toughness
reduction as the same thing, they are in fact different. If Cudgel Troll has
taken 2 damage and then gets a -1/-1 counter, he is really 3/2 with 2 damage
and can regenerate, staying at 3/2 but removing the damage. The game displays
the damage as the toughness going down which is misleading, it doesn't actually
make the toughness go down.
Giant Growth: One of the best surprise combat spells, this is brutally
efficient. Even when your opponent suspects it is coming, there is often not
much they can do about it. If they have tapped out to cast a 4/4 creature and
see you attacking with three 2/2 creatures, they know you are going to Giant
Growth whichever one they block, but their only alternative is to let them all
through! The best time to use this is during the blockers phase, after blockers
have been declared. Don't use it earlier as you only make the opponent's
decisions easier. Save it for when it really matters, don't use it to keep a
lowly creature alive. Be wary of opponents using direct damage or a kill-spell
in response to your Giant Growth. The damage will resolve first before the
bonus takes effect.
Dungrove Elder: Showcasing the new hexproof, this is a really nasty creature.
For 3 mana he is 3/3 at the very least, which is nice stats, and then grows
just by playing land. If he's not big enough to beat your opponent's largest
creature, you need only wait a few turns until you have more land. He's
unlikely to die in the mean time thanks to hexproof. You can still use your
beneficial spells such as Giant Growth and Elephant Guide on him, making him
even less likely to die!
Thrun, the Last Troll: Similar to the above, but with fixed stats and added
regeneration. 4/4 is hefty for 4 mana, and he's probably never going away
thanks to his abilities. A terrific blocker and attacker. Watch out for your
opponent pulling their own combat trick like Giant Growth on a small creature
while you are tapped out.
Leatherback Baloth: With crazy amounts of beef for your buck, this guy just
looks wrong when he hits the table on turn 3. Sadly you can't get him out any
quicker than that, but it's still quick enough. He'll likely tower over
anything else around at that stage and can keep on attacking until the opponent
finds an answer.
Wolfbriar Elemental: Again 4/4 is great for 4 mana when you need it, even
without the kickers. If you need him right away, don't feel you have to hold
him back, sometimes it is better to cast him especially if you are short on
other creatures or need a blocker fast. But when you can afford to hold him
back and cast other things in the meantime, or pick him up late game, spend a
whole turn paying as many kickers as possible. He's the new and more effective
Howl of the Night Pack, and is amazing when followed up by Overrun next turn.
Often you'll have enough tokens to overwhelm your opponent by just attacking
with them all anyway.
Nature's Lore: I'm glad to see them make the swap from Rampant Growth which
made no sense for mono green. This works exactly the same, except the Forest
comes in untapped. When using it on turn 2 to accelerate your mana this
probably won't make any difference, but it becomes more useful later on. If you
have an extra land available you don't need that particular turn, you can use
it to your advantage with this card. Say you have just played your fourth
Forest, and you have in hand Nature's Lore, another Forest, a 3 mana creature
and a 6 mana creature. At first glance you are choosing between casting the 3
mana creature and casting Nature's Lore to get the 6 mana creature out next
turn. But in fact you can do both. Cast Nature's Lore first, and the new
untapped Forest will leave you with 3 still to use. Then you can cast the 3
mana creature. Next turn you'll get to play your Forest and cast the 6 mana
creature, so you have made use of the spare mana to be able to get both
creatures out without losing anything.
Overrun: This is your big play card, and you should normally hold this back
until it is likely to win you the game. You want to get as many creatures in
play as possible, no matter how small, as they will all become big threats once
you cast this, and it's an extra 3 potential damage per creature. They all gain
trample, so it becomes a matter of comparing how much total power your
creatures will have after casting this with the total toughness of your
opponent's creatures. If the difference between these is equal to or higher
than their life total, you will probably win by using this. Watch out for your
opponent interfering if they have mana available by using spells to boost their
creatures or kill yours. You can sometimes use this even if you can't win
outright with it just to force your opponent to make lots of awkward blocks
costing them many creatures. If you cast it when they will lose unless they
block with almost everything, they will often lose a lot more creatures than
you will, leaving you in a powerful position.
Garruk's Packleader: A new very useful addition to the deck. His stats are only
average for his cost, but his strength is in his card drawing. Get him out as
soon as you possibly can, so that you get maximum card draw from further
creatures. Most creatures in the deck will net you a card, even the very cheap
Garruk's Companion. If not dealt with, this amount of card advantage will be
quickly overwhelming. You even get a card for the token from Elephant Guide!
Cudgel Troll: I really like this guy, he has decent stats and a cheap
regenerate cost. This makes him hard to stop as an attacker, and a brilliant
defender when you need one. When pumped with Giant Growth he will kill almost
anything and survive, and if you have at least 6 mana he is brilliant in
combination with Overrun as he can regenerate even if ganged up on. Remember,
don't use his regenerate ability "just in case", only ever do it in response to
a spell or ability that threatens to kill him, or in the blockers phase just
before a creature is about to deal enough damage to kill him. Using it at other
times is a waste of mana.
Garruk's Companion: Runeclaw bear on steroids, you might say. Incredible stats
for the cost, he is a big threat as early as turn 2. His trample makes him
combine really well with Giant Growth, not only can he grow and kill the
blocker but he will deal any excess damage as well. An excellent target for
Elephant Guide on turn 3!
Lead the Stampede: A quite amazing new spell for mono Green, out performing
Beast Hunt quite considerably. You may not want to cast this on turn 3 in case
you draw more creatures than you can keep on your hand, but if your hand isn't
too strong you may not care about dumping the weaker cards to get more
firepower. Later in the game this is really strong as you may be able to cast
one or more of the creatures you get right away. Unfortunately it's down to
chance how many creatures you get, but you'll be very unlucky to get none at
all and with such a high creature percentage in this deck you'll get at least 2
quite a lot. Currently it's bugged so that you don't see all 5 cards, just the
creature cards that you draw. This has been reported.
Elephant Guide: A reasonable alternative to the unfair Blanchwood Armor which
was almost unstoppable along with Troll Ascetic. I'm glad they made the switch,
as Blanchwood on one of the new Hexproofs would be just as unfair. This gives a
static bonus, but still a very nice one. You can put it on any creature and it
will be effective, but trample ones will be the best. It gives you some
protection against 2 for 1 losses by giving you a token when the creature dies,
but note that if the opponent kills your creature in response to you casting
Elephant Guide, you won't get a token since the Aura won't be on the
battlefield yet. For that reason it's at its best cast when the opponent is
tapped out.
Gaea's Revenge: Haste is rare in green, and this one packs quite a punch. Along
with Terra Stomper, this makes blue mages quite infuriated by being
uncounterable. This can also hardly be targeted by anything, only from green
sources, which are unlikely to kill it. Only the low toughness lets it down,
but if needed you can still use Giant Growth etc. on it. Since it has haste you
may not need to for its first attack as the opponent won't be prepared for it
and may not have any blockers available. It may also be the only attack you
need.
Engulfing Slagwurm: A nice top end creature to make use of all your mana, and
very hard to stop. The creature he destroys can still regenerate, but you gain
the life regardless of whether the destruction works. He's great on defence if
needed as well. Since the creature is destroyed as soon as he blocks or is
blocked, it doesn't get to hit him at all with any damage, making him almost
impossible to kill apart from with an indestructible creature. He will even
kill a creature with protection from green that blocks him since his ability
doesn't target the creature.
Multani, Maro-Sorcerer: Obviously intended to be great for Archenemy, and is
cool for two headed giant, but for now he's decent enough to take a 6 mana spot
in one on one I think. I'd rather use him than a Craw Wurm, and against a slow
deck he is going to be lethal, especially as they can't target him with
kill-spells. Between you and your opponent you will probably have enough cards
to make him a reasonable threat, and you can allow him to grow just by holding
back cards while your opponent may be forced to chuck stuff out prematurely
just to keep him lower. Watch out for your opponent using cards up during
combat causing him to shrink. Remember you can't target him either with Giant
Growth etc. If a better 6 mana cost creature turns up, he'll probably be
replaced.
OK cards
Borderland Ranger: He's not ideal and I would rather have something else that
actually accelerates your mana rather than finding you more, but he does the
job. You can think of him as a creature that gets you a free land, or another
land that you pay for and get a free creature. He effectively raises the land
count in the deck, making the higher casting cost creatures viable, so some of
them have to be kept in for that reason. At least he builds up your creature
base ready for Overrun. When you can afford to, cast him and then play the land
afterwards, rather than playing it first, to reduce the amount of information
your opponent has about your hand.
Stomper Cub: A very aggressive card that sits fairly well in the deck. His low
toughness is a shame, but the trample is great. A surprise Giant Growth may
keep him alive against a medium size blocker and deal a lot of damage at the
same time.
Beast Hunt: I'm glad they moved this over to this deck where it makes much more
sense. Strange how they then included a strictly better card in Lead the
Stampede. That makes this close to being left out, but I have found that there
is nothing better to include at the moment. Will probably be the first card to
go when DLC hits. Cast it when you can spare the mana and need some more
threats.
Centaur Courser: Decent stats for the mana, but compared to the heroes of the
deck he doesn't excel. He's worth it to fill the mana curve at the moment.
Runeclaw Bear: Bog standard, but at the moment just about worth including to
keep the speed of your deck up. At least being fast he helps you get more
creatures on the board ready for an Overrun. Also gives you an early target for
Giant Growth or Elephant Guide if the opponent drops something nasty early on.
Bad cards
Giant Spider: Too defensive for this deck, and wimpy for his cost. Although
this deck is vulnerable to flying creatures, it's best to concentrate on
pounding your opponent into keeping their fliers back than having this guy
waving his legs around trying to scare them off. There are much better reach
creatures that could have been included, I don't know why they insisted on
keeping this. If you do use him, he can at least take out a big flier by
surprise with a Giant Growth while blocking.
Grazing Gladehart: In the wrong deck, again. Oopsey! Life gain is not important
for this deck, it's about finishing off the opponent as quickly as possible
with efficient creatures. This is not efficient at all, and is not part of your
strategy. If you do want to play him, you can hold back lands you don't need
later in the game to benefit from his landfall ability should you draw him.
Craw Wurm: Why they insist on keeping crud like this in the game, I don't know.
Green is meant to have the biggest and best creatures, and this is a
shrivelled-up counter example to that. Really un-scary stats and no abilities.
Doesn't really compare well to Terra Stomper in this deck huh? With that and
Multani Maro-Sorcerer you don't need these.
Hunted Wumpus: This is way too risky in one on one, as your opponent could
easily put out a huge creature that this deck has no way to deal with and lose
you the game on the spot. Even if they put out something average, you are
giving away serious momentum, especially if they then hit your Wumpus with a
kill-spell which is quite likely. This is great however for Archenemy, where
both your allies get a creature too, giving you 3 good creatures for just 1 to
the big bad man.
Wall of Vines: Better than Wall of Wood, but still hopelessly in the wrong
deck. This deck is pure offence, and this card is pure defence, it doesn't fit.
It can never damage your opponent, can't even kill an attacker without help,
and sits by idly when you cast your Overrun. A good aggressive ground-based
deck wins by keeping the pressure on the opponent and forcing them to defend
with their flying creatures, not wasting time with half-baked defensive cards.
Rites of Flourishing: I wouldn't recommend using this in one on one, it gives
your opponent the same advantage as you and they get to use it first. It's just
too risky, and it will mean a bigger threat coming out for you to deal with
than you would normally face, and you don't have enough creature control to
handle it. This is really good however in Archenemy, since you and your allies
all get the benefit, 3 cards a turn and only one for the Archenemy, plus you
all get to play another land.
Hunters' Feast: That may look like a lot of life, but it's still not worth it
in one on one, especially in an aggressive deck. You'll draw this when you need
either another attacker to seal the game or a much needed blocker, this will
only serve as a stall. Save it for Archenemy or Two Headed Giant if you're
going to use it.
Example decklist
24 Forest
Creatures (23)
2 Garruk's Companion
2 Runeclaw Bear
3 Borderland Ranger
2 Centaur Courser
1 Dungrove Elder
1 Leatherback Baloth
2 Cudgel Troll
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Wolfbriar Elemental
2 Garruk's Packleader
2 Stomper Cub
1 Multani, Maro-Sorcerer
1 Terra Stomper
1 Engulfing Slagwurm
1 Gaea's Revenge
Other spells (13)
3 Giant Growth
2 Nature's Lore
1 Elephant Guide
2 Lead the Stampede
1 Beast Hunt
2 Serrated Arrows
2 Overrun
===============================================================================
Gideon Jura - Wielding Steel
===============================================================================
Summary
This is a mono white aggressive weenie swarm style deck that uses lots of
equipment, loosely based on Weapons of the Warrior from D09. It has become more
focused, and has addressed a lot of the decks weaknesses to both creatures with
nasty abilities and to artifacts and enchantments. It has a lot of creatures
that get better simply by being equipped, which are very cheap, and so a
powerful offence can launch very quickly.
Strategy
This deck needs to get out lots of creatures quickly, and then back them up
with equipment to help them break through or give them evasion. It has ways to
sabotage the opponent's creatures, by tapping them or making them useless with
Arrest. They should be used both to help your creatures keep attacking, and
when things are going badly to stop yourself getting beaten up. Move the
equipment around when you have spare mana, so you can take it off your creature
that attacked and put it on an untapped creature ready to defend. Later in the
game your 5 and 6 mana spells will help you break through.
Pros
> * Very fast, aggressive and efficient creatures
> * The best artifact and enchantment control in 2 Revoke Existence
> * Fair amount of creature control/disruption
> * Lots of quick and powerful equipment
Cons
> * Can sometimes stall if equipment doesn't show up or gets destroyed
> * Lack of mid range creatures, reliant on mainly small creatures
> * Creature control relies on cards remaining on the battlefield
Good cards
Arrest: This card mostly sorts out the biggest problem that Weapons of the
Warrior had, which was annoying ability creatures. Sadly it still doesn't stop
continuous effects like Captivating Vampire giving all other Vampires +1/+1.
Use this sparingly to either nullify huge threats, remove a blocker if victory
is close, or to stop a creature with activated abilities. Watch out for the
opponent destroying this during combat, suddenly making another blocker
available for them.
Baneslayer Angel: Along with the other Angels, this is really nothing to do
with the deck and it's strategy. But it's too strong to ignore, one of the best
creatures of all time, sickeningly overpowered. It will most likely win the
game if the opponent can't kill it, it's usually that simple. Amazing on attack
and defence, and really hard to kill thanks to first strike. Some of the huge
fliers that might have done the job are dragons, and they can't even block it
or use their abilities on it thanks to protection. The life gain means you can
usually just keep attacking and can afford to take damage back, it's hard for
the opponent to keep up in that race.
Stoneforge Mystic: Unbelievably awesome, I think I read that this is even
banned now in standard play. It's probably best there is only one in the deck
for balance. This essentially gives you an extra copy of every equipment in the
deck, along with a way to get them on the battlefield at a reduced cost for the
expensive ones. Note that it doesn't have to be the one you fetched that you
put onto the battlefield, you can use it for any equipment in your hand, and
multiple times over several turns. If you don't have the mana to equip what
you're going to play anyway, it can be better to hold back your mana and
activate his ability near the end of your opponent's turn. This puts the
equipment in as a surprise ready for you to untap, rather than letting your
opponent plan their strategy around it by putting it down on your turn. When
you cast him, the equipment you fetch will depend on the situation and the
cards in your hand. Plan your next few turns mentally, looking at what your
opponent has, and decide what best fits your mana curve.
Revoke Existence: The best artifact and enchantment control in the game. It
ignores being indestructible, and regeneration. Also, the targeted card can't
be retrieved from the graveyard. It is more effective against some decks than
others, but most have something that you will want to get rid of.
Puresteel Paladin: If you play with 6 or more equipment cards, this is an
awesome creature to include. He turns all your equipment into "free" cards,
replacing them instantly with another card. And if you're lucky enough to cast
several in a row this way and get 3 or more on the battlefield, his other
ability then lets you equip them all for free. And at 2/2 he's capable of
handing out the beats with the rest of them. Keep him alive is a priority for
his abilities. Cast him before any equipment cards.
Gideon's Lawkeeper: This is in my opinion the best of the 1 drops in the deck,
and in the game. Tapping creatures is a very powerful ability. If you use it
offensively, make sure you tap a creature before the opponent chooses their
blockers in your turn. Once a creature has blocked, tapping it will make no
difference. If you're using it defensively, you need to tap a creature before
the opponent declares their attackers, which will be in their first main phase.
Again, once a creature has attacked, trying to tap it makes no difference. If
it's untapped during your opponent turn you can also use it extra-offensively
by tapping one of their creatures during the opponent's turn, then untapping
and tapping another creature. This way he can clear 2 blockers out the way.
Trusty Machete: The most efficient and dangerous of the equipment in the deck.
It comes out quickly, the only drawback is the slightly annoying equip cost
which can be awkward early on. It helps your smaller creatures punch through.
Once you have a reasonable amount of mana it becomes a permanent boost for any
available creature. Very nasty on Kor Duelist or Kitemaster Apprentice.
Elite Vanguard: To my knowledge this is only the second ever 1 mana creature
with 2 power and no drawback, the first being Savannah Lions. It's ridiculously
unfair, and should be a green creature! But since no one cares what I think
about it, it's here in white, and it's a soldier too. A great creature to cast
first, getting maximum power on the table. He can trade with most 2 drops, and
gets even more scary once he gets hold of equipment.
Kor Outfitter: These are essential to the deck strategy. They enable you to
continue to get a creature into play while equipping your gear, and sometimes
to avoid paying a large equip cost. You'll usually want to save these until you
have some equipment in play that you want to equip to something. Cast other
creatures and equipment first, then cast this guy. Attach something to one of
your other creatures and it can attack holding the gear right away. If you have
no other creatures to play first, play your equipments and then cast this so he
can at least pick up the equipment himself.
Sword of War and Peace: This equipment is a bit mental. Although slightly on
the expensive side, it's benefits are worth it. Protection from red and white
has a fair chance of being relevant. Note that protection from white stops the
creature being targeted by your own abilities such as Kor Outfitter. The life
gain can really hurt direct damage decks, and the damage is harsh against
slower decks. Perfect for putting on Kitesail Apprentice, as it will be harder
for the opponent to avoid these effects by chump blocking.
Kor Hookmaster: This guy can look a bit wussy on first glance, but I have found
him to be quite effective. He doesn't permanently deal with a creature, but he
gets it out of the way for an attack both on this turn and the next. You can
deal a lot of damage in that time if you pick your moment. After that you may
have another Hookmaster to lock it down again, or a diferent way to deal with
it. While he does this he provides another reasonable creature and a target for
your equipment.
Sunspear Shikari: He is a bit of a mental case, going ape when he gets hold of
some equipment. He's got decent stats anyhow, and lifelink and first strike
make him really hard to deal with, especially after stat boosts. Getting him
out with something on him is a priority, since the life gain will help you be
able to keep attacking recklessly, and not much will be able to stop him early.
Neither ability will be redundant since none of your equipment offers either of
them.
Conqueror's Pledge: Forget the kicker which is unlikely to ever happen. Just
the standard effect of this card is very strong. 6 creatures for 5 mana is
really good (anyone remember Icatian Town? That was in a tournament deck
once...) and gives you huge amounts of targets for equipment, and the ability
to overpower your opponent with huge attacks. Or a bunch of chump blockers if
things are going badly while your flying creatures do some damage. My favourite
5 mana spell for this deck, after the infamous Baneslayer. If you are choosing
between this and Serra Angel, I'd go with this, because the 5 creatures are
harder to kill in just one spell, and this fits the theme of the deck better.
Serra Angel: Not quite as good as Baneslayer, but good enough to hold a 5 mana
slot, at least for now. The age old creature which can attack and then still
defend thanks to vigilance. If you're going to cut a 5 mana spell for speed,
I'd cut this one.
Gideon's Avenger: This guy is a lot more effective than he looks. He acts as a
deterrent against your opponent attacking with anything. Right away he gets a
counter for each attacking creature, and then has the option of blocking after
that, potentially now big enough to kill something. Also he combos well with
the Lawkeeper and Hookmaster, gaining a counter each time you tap an opponent's
guy. He often gets big enough to demand an answer fairly quickly, or at least
makes your opponent hold up on their attack.
Kitesail Apprentice: I really like this one, he gives you a way to easily get
some evasion damage from flying. With 4 Elite Vanguard and 2 Gideon's Lawkeeper
already demanding one-spots, I feel this is in competition with Kor Duelist for
the remaining places. I like this one slightly more, because you already have
Sunspear going crazy on the ground once he gets equipment, and the deck is
slightly low on evasion overall. It's really close though. This guy takes to
the air with whatever you put on him, plus a +1/+1 bonus, to keep on doing
damage even if the ground has become clogged up.
Kor Duelist: Although this is really good, for the reasons noted above I tend
to leave him out just because of the competition. But if you want to go
super-speed offensive, he's worth considering including as well, or you may
prefer the extra damage to the evasion of the Kitesail Apprentice, especially
if you include 2 Kitesails. He does become scary very quickly, just with a
Trusty Machete he can deal 6 damage thanks to double strike.
Brave the Elements: A very useful cheap spell, and one of your few combat
tricks. You can use this in several ways, by choosing the appropriate colour-
> * By casting before blockers are chosen, no creatures of the chosen colour
can block your creatures this turn. Against a mono deck, this means all your
creatures are essentially unblockable.
> * By casting in response to a spell or ability that targets one or more of
your creatures, you make the targets invalid and the spell or ability will
fail. This will also prevent any extra side effects that would have happened,
such as gaining life from Corrupt.
> * By casting in response to a spell or ability that deals damage to one or
more of your creatures but doesn't target them (such as Pyroclasm), all the
damage will be prevented.
> * No combat damage will be dealt from creatures of the chosen colour to
your creatures. This is useful if your opponent plays an unexpected Giant
Growth or similar during combat, to save your creature.
> * It makes any nasty Auras your opponent has put on your creatures, such as
Arrest, fall off.
This spell is no use against untargeted effects that don't deal damage, such as
Damnation or Evacuation. Also it's usually bad to cast this "just in case". For
example, say I cast this with the idea that I don't want the opponent to
Incinerate any of my creatures this turn. If my opponent does have an
Incinerate he can use it in response and it will resolve first killing my
creature. If I'd have waited and an Incinerate does come, I can cast this in
response to save my creature.
Captain of the Watch: This is my favourite top-end spell for the deck. It has
an immediate impact, pumping up all your soldiers (which is most of your
creatures) and vigilance allows them to defend as well after attacking. This is
best cast when your opponent is tapped out so they can't kill this guy and make
you lose the bonus mid combat. But even if he does die right away, you get to
keep the 3 tokens which give you plenty of targets for equipment. Keep him out
of combat if he's likely to die, to keep his bonus in operation.
Infiltration Lens: I find this equipment very useful, mainly because of its
really cheap mana and equip costs. Since you have as many as 8 creatures that
get a bonus just by being equipped, this makes getting those bonuses very easy.
It also fits the strategy of the deck perfectly. You want to keep attacking,
and this makes one of your creatures undesirable to be blocked. Your opponent
has the choice between taking the damage, or letting you draw 2 cards. You can
attack recklessly with the creature it's on, even if the opponent can block it
with a bigger creature and survive. Gaining 2 cards for your 1 creature is
great. Your opponent can't handle this kind of cheap card advantage, and an
experienced player will most likely let your creature through each time until
they can do something about the situation.
OK cards
Strider Harness: Although initially a little expensive, once on the table it's
easy to use. You can equip it to the new creature you cast each turn, allowing
it to attack right away along with everything else. You can also cheaply move
it around after combat to provide a suitable blocker. Very nice for keeping the
pressure on, and lethal on a big angel!
Kitesail: I used it to keep the equipment count up, although I'd like to
replace it if DLC offers something better. A little bit pricey for what it
does, it can be hard to use early on in the game, so I only like using 1 of
these. It does help keep the damage going through a stall situation, and for
when need a blocker against the opponent's flying creatures.
Pennon Blade: Although on the expensive side, I've been including this to keep
the equipment count up again, and as a late-game breakthrough since this deck
can stall. Hopefully a Kor Outfitter can save you the big equip cost. Great in
combination with the token generation cards in the deck. Could possibly be cut
for speed.
Glory Seeker: Your standard grunt, who becomes totally surplus to requirements
as you unlock the 2 cost 2/2 creatures with abilities.
Argentum Armor: I feel that this is just slightly too expensive for this deck
with its current setup. When it works it's going to be great, but I think the
risk and the cost may be too much. It will be amazing if you get both a
Stoneforge Mystic and Kor Outfitter to avoid paying both the big costs, but
with only one Mystic you can't rely on this. And if the creature you go to
equip gets killed in response you're stuck with a huge equipment you won't be
able to use again without another Outfitter for some time probably. And played
from your hand it will take a whole turn to get it out, once you finally reach
6 mana, and unless you've been holding back an Outfitter (clogging up 2 cards
in your hand) another turn to equip. You risk that creature being killed in
response leaving you very vulnerable after such a big commitment. You may
decide it's worth all this risk for the times it works, but I would rather
stick with Captain of the Watch for its immediate impact as my 6 mana spell and
leave it at that. For a compromise, Pennon Blade has a big effect and for more
manageable mana.
Bad cards
Congregate: Life gain is no good for this really aggressive deck, although this
one does give you quite a lot of life. I still wouldn't bother, concentrate on
nailing your opponent. It'll be more useful in Two Headed Giant or Archenemy
where there will be huge amounts of creatures.
Archangel of Strife: This is too expensive for this deck, and not game
clinching enough for the stretch. It can also backfire quite badly. Save it for
Archenemy where all 3 of you can choose attack and wreak havoc!
Angel's Feather: I hate life gain!
Harmless Assault: This is well overpriced anyway for what it does, and it's
still in the wrong deck. This is a very aggressive deck, and doesn't want to be
standing around trying to fix fights on the defence or fogging the opponent.
Steer clear!
Example decklist
24 Plains
Creatures (22)
4 Elite Vanguard
2 Gideon's Lawkeeper
2 Kitesail Apprentice
3 Kor Outfitter
1 Puresteel Paladin
1 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Sunspear Shikari
1 Gideon's Avenger
3 Kor Hookmaster
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Serra Angel
1 Captain of the Watch
Other spells (14)
1 Brave the Elements
1 Infiltration Lens
2 Trusty Machete
1 Kitesail
2 Revoke Existence
3 Arrest
1 Pennon Blade
1 Strider Harness
1 Sword of War and Peace
1 Conqueror's Pledge
===============================================================================
Jace Beleren - Realm of Illusion
===============================================================================
Summary
This is a mono blue Illusion based deck. It's vaguely like Thoughts of Wind
from D09, but has had a complete makeover. A lot of its Illusion creatures die
just from being targeted by a spell or ability, which I'll refer to as "shy"
creatures. They make up for it with generally very good stats for their mana
cost. It has plenty of countermagic, and much improved support cards, making it
a competitive deck at last. It is also able to tap out much more safely with
more reliable bounce options (returning cards to their owners' hands).
Strategy
This can be a very aggressive deck, and you want to try and swarm the opponent
with Illusions, right from turn 1 if possible. You expect some of the shy ones
to die, but it will usually still cost the opponent a card, and you have plenty
more where they came from. The Krovikan Mists are big hitters early on, so keep
the number of Illusions in play high. Keep on the offensive whenever possible,
and use your bounce spells such as Repulse to return expensive creatures to the
opponent's hand to slow them down. Use your countermagic to stop big threats,
and to protect your important cards like Lord of the Unreal. He is the bomb for
this deck if you can keep him out, making your shy creatures untargetable and
thus removes their disadvantage. Press for the win with flying creatures, aided
by unblockable Phantom Warriors and Air Elementals.
Read carefully: don't ever try to stop one of your shy creatures from getting
killed by countering the spell that targeted them. It won't work! Their own
ability to kill themselves exists independently and it doesn't matter what
happens to the spell after that. There is only one way to save them from their
own ability, and that is to use Evacuation in response to whatever has targeted
them. You must have auto-resolution set to Off, otherwise the self-kill
abilities resolve instantly. This works because Evacuation doesn't target
anything, so doesn't set off their ability like trying to save them with
Repulse would.
Pros
> * Beefy creatures can dominate the board from early on
> * Lots of countermagic and bounce spells
> * Plenty of fiers and unblockables
> * Good card drawing
> * Some nice creature stealing
> * Mono deck means no colour problems
Cons
> * Relies on just one card for enchantment and artifact control, and that is
by bouncing them (Quicksilver Geyser)
> * Shy creatures obviously very vulnerable without Lord of the Unreal
> * Cannot destroy creatures, only steal/bounce them
Good cards
Counterspell: Ouch! Banned from standard for being too good, for some reason
it's back again. The counterspell that all other counterspells are named after,
and probably the second best of all time after Mana Drain. But enough with the
history lesson... This is your best counterspell in the deck, and the only one
that requires just 2 mana. My rule of thumb with counterspells is the more you
have in your hand, the more sparing you can be with them. And the less you
have, the more careful you have to be with each one. So with a handful of
countermagic it can be worth countering even a lowly 2/2 creature if it's going
to help your game plan. But when you just have one in your hand, you can't
assume you're going to draw more any time soon. Save it for something you
really can't cope with any other way, or that will seal your victory. When you
can afford to, use your other countermagic first so that you save this more
efficient one for later.
Mind Control: This is a huge game changer, and you want to make it count. By
stealing your opponent's huge creature, you've not only removed the threat to
yourself but turned the tables by making your opponent have to find an answer
to it. Knowing the decks well helps a lot to decide what to steal. Take into
account whether the deck you are facing has enchantment control too. If it
does, it may be better to wait until you have enough mana to defend this with
countermagic. Otherwise, you can tap out to steal the creature quite safely.
Cancel: Exactly the same as Counterspell, but costs one more. Still very
powerful and worth including.
Sower of Temptation: Stealing the opponent's creatures is one of the most
powerful things you can do in Magic. To add more injury to the insult and the
injury, you get a 2/2 flier out of the deal as well. Although it's not an
Illusion and doesn't fit the theme particularly, it's too good to ignore. It's
generally easier to kill than Mind Control being a small creature, but it's
also cheaper. And if the opponent can't deal with it, they are in big trouble.
If you cast this when they are tapped out, even if they can untap and then kill
this right away, the creature you stole will regain summoning sickness. Later
in the game, you may have enough mana to cast this and then protect it with
countermagic.
Lord of the Unreal: This is your boss guy, who makes everything alright. 2/2
for 2 mana is unusually efficient for blue anyway, and his ability works
wonders for this deck. As long as he remains on the battlefield, all your shy
creatures suddenly lose their disability since they can no longer be targeted
by anything. And your other Illusions becomes similarly shielded. Short of mass
destruction, the opponent has to deal with this card before he can do anything
about your Illusions. Early in the game he can provide a quick boost to your
guys before the opponent gets round to removing him, but later on, at only 2
mana, you can fairly easily cast him and then protect him with countermagic. If
you can do this, the sheer size of your Illusions should win the game. Along
with Krovikan Mist, he gives a reason to use as many Illusion-type creatures as
possible.
Repulse: This is so much better than the bounce spells in the old Jace deck
which almost always lead to card disadvantage. This spell means you can tap out
much more safely, knowing that even if a big creature comes down, you can at
least bounce it. If you also want to counter it, make sure your opponent can't
cast it again the same turn if you don't have the mana to counter it. If they
can you may have to wait until your turn and untap all your lands. This card
has all sorts of uses:
> * To play with your opponent's momentum by making them cast an expensive
creature again, and make it have to go through summoning sickness again.
> * To get rid of any counters or Auras on a creature, and make it drop any
equipment it has.
> * To stop a creature that has been pumped with Giant Growth etc. from
killing your creature by bouncing it before damage is dealt.
> * To temporarily get rid of the bonus a creature is providing, for example
bouncing Captivating Vampire in the middle of combat so all the Vampires
suddenly drop their +1/+1 bonus before damage is dealt.
> * To kill creature tokens, since they cease to exist when they are put back
in your opponent's hand.
> * To save your own creature, by casting in response to something that will
kill it, or in combat before damage is dealt.
> * To get rid of nasty Auras that your opponent has put on your creature by
being able to recast it. This includes things that steal it such as Mind
Control.
Phantasmal Dragon: This is the peek of the shy creatures, quite amazing stats
and also flying just for 4 mana. Unfortunately he's going to be a prime target
as well. You may want to throw out Phantasmal Beasts first if you have both in
hand, if you suspect the opponent will likely have something to target them.
Left unchecked, this guy is going to rule the air and probably the game,
especially early on.
Krovikan Mist: This can prove to be one of the most effective parts of your
offence, and the main reason to use as many Illusions as possible in your deck.
He counts all Illusions, including himself and other Krovikan Mists, quickly
growing very large and becoming hard to deal with. It's a good play on turn 2,
even if the opponent has something to kill it, that's one less for use on your
shy creatures. And if it remains, every Illusion you cast next turn will pump
him up before he attacks. Along with Air Elementals, he can often provide the
finishing touches to your win. Late in the game, in any stalled position, he's
likely to come out huge and you'll have the mana to protect him.
Divination: Very simple and effective card drawing. Useful both early and late
in the game. Always put a lot of thought into whether you should commit your
mana to card drawing, casting creatures, or holding it back for countermagic.
Each situation is different, try to imagine what your opponent has in their
hand, and what will happen over the next few turns. As you gain experience in
the game this will become easier, but in the end you often have to rely on
intuition and rough probabilities. Pay careful attention to the number of cards
the opponent has in their hand at all times.
Concentrate: This is the same as Divination, but one more card for one more
mana. Really great for refilling your hand if you've cast a lot of cheap
illusions early.
Jace's Ingenuity: Although at first glance this just seems worse than
Concentrate, its power lies in it being an instant. For the other card draw
spells in this deck, you have to decide on your turn whether you want to commit
the mana to getting the cards. With this card, you don't have to decide. In
fact, unless you have enough mana to make use of the cards you draw, or
desperately want another land to play, it's best to not cast this in your turn
at all. Leave your mana open, and see what the opponent does. Wait until at
least after they have attacked, and if they appear to have finished you can go
ahead and cast it. If they do something awful and you decide you must counter
it, then you have kept your options open to do that, which you wouldn't if you
cast this in your turn. Be wary of people "baiting" you though, pretending they
have finished their turn when they haven't. If you cast this on their turn,
they can then start casting creatures etc. and you may not have the mana to
counter them. You have to decide whether this is worth the risk. How many
bounce spells are in your hand will help with this decision.
Mind Spring: This is very flexible, and normally I'd recommend putting this in
as it's a great card, but the sheer number of other efficient card drawing
spells makes me think this isn't needed. If you want to concentrate even more
on card drawing though, this is the way to go. At least you can be fairly safe
tapping all your lands with this deck with bounce spells in hand. At other
times, you can play it more safely, leaving some mana back for countermagic. If
you haven't played a land this turn, and all you have is Cancel for
countermagic, you could risk tapping all but 2 Islands, hoping to find another
Island in the cards you draw.
Phantasmal Bear: Although the smallest, this is my favourite shy guy. He
absolutely owns the field by coming out 2/2 on the first turn, and he can be
followed by another or even 2 more the next turn. Even if the opponent uses
something to kill it, it will usually be a card for a card, and since you only
put 1 mana into this guy you're not going to be too worried. Use him to pound
the opponent early, getting them low enough for your eventual bigger creatures
and fliers to finish the job, and to force the opponent onto the defensive.
Phantom Beast: Although not as good as the dragon, this is still very hefty.
He's likely to be bigger than anything else out on turn 4, and if the opponent
can't swipe him then he'll be able to bully them quite badly. Also a huge
blocker if needed.
Air Elemental: Not an Illusion, but I feel he is strong enough to fill out the
top of the creature mana curve and provide some late game punch. 4/4 flying is
always going to be big, and there's nothing else to challenge his position at
the moment I feel.
Time Warp: This is the "fair" Time Walk, and I'm glad to see it make an
appearance in Duels. Once you hit 5 mana you can't go wrong by casting it, as
at the very least it will replace itself in your hand. But you want to cast it
when you can get maximum advantage. If you have more than 5 lands, it lets you
use the remainder without having to worry about being tapped out since you will
get to untap again before your opponent does. It will let you play an
additional land in your extra turn. You can attack recklessly without worrying
about blocking since you get a full untap. The later in the game you use this
the better usually, but look out for any situation where you can gain a big
advantage, or even kill your opponent just by attacking twice with flying and
unblockable creatures.
Summoner's Bane: Although narrow in focus, it's worth including as every deck
uses creatures and there's always going to be nasty ones you want to stop. Use
this in preference to any other counterspell when you get the chance, to save
the others for more flexible targeting. The token you get counts as an Illusion
as well, which helps your theme, and gives you another attacker or blocker.
Phantom Warrior: This fits much better here than it did in the old Jace deck.
Because this is much more aggressive, you're more likely to want to keep
attacking with this and not having to keep it as an overpriced blocker. If the
game gets stalled he's the perfect card to keep applying damage since almost
nothing can stop him. Plus he's an Illusion!
Quicksilver Geyser: I feel this card, although a little expensive, is an
essential include because it is the only way you can do anything about
artifacts and enchantments on the battlefield. And on top of that, it can be
used as a mini-evacuation against your opponent, leaving your own creatures in
place. This can cost them a lot of momentum. It can be used in many
dual-purpose ways, such as bouncing your own creature which just got targeted
by a kill-spell, while returning their annoying creature/artifact/enchantment
to their hand ready to counter. Use carefully and sparingly.
Evacuation: A very nice card, and it's the only way to save your shy creatures
once they have been targeted (make sure you have auto resolution turned off for
this to work). I personally prefer dropping this for Quicksilver Geyser, since
I feel that is the more important card, and since this deck is very fast I
don't like how it halts your own momentum as well. I feel this is the weakest
of the 5 mana spells available and is too negative for the overall strategy. If
you do use it, save it for when your opponent has a large number of creatures
in play, and preferably when they have tapped out so they can't cast any again
that turn. Use it during their turn when you can, leaving your mana untapped to
start casting yours again.
Aether Adept: Although it's a shame he's not an Illusion, his ability is very
strong. It's worth considering as they play havoc with your opponent's momentum
and complement nicely the other bounce effects in the deck. Follow the same
strategies as with Repulse, although of course this can't be used as an
Instant.
Mahamoti Djinn: A good old fashioned huge flier back from the mists of time! He
is nice, but I feel he's not quite needed in this deck. You already have 2 Air
Elementals for big finishers, and this is just a bit more of a stretch so I'd
prefer them and wouldn't want another expensive non-Illusion. You'd probably
also rather be spending the mana on card draw when you get to the stage you can
cast this. He could be useful if you plan for a really long, drawn out game.
OK cards
Fleeting Distraction: This is a baby version of Disorient, which is much
better. It can be used to either reduce the combat damage that will be dealt to
you, or fix a fight, such as dropping a 2/2 to 1/2 so it falls to your
Phantasmal Bear. Even when you don't have a particular use for it, cast it on
anything (except your shy creatures!) just to draw a card whenever you have a
spare mana. I like including this to complement the card draw, and it
effectively reduces the deck size.
Blind Phantasm: This is OK to start with, but doesn't quite pack enough punch
to hang with the rest of the potential unlocks. It does have quite nice stats
and is an Illusion that's not shy, but it tends to just sit around after the
first few turns. The impact of Aeether Adept is much better for the mana, and
Phantom Warrior is preferable. You'll often be wanting to hold the mana for a
counterspell if you don't have either of these rather than casting this.
Wall of Air: This would have been good in the old Jace deck, but here it is too
defensive. Plus it's not an Illusion. You have plenty of fliers which can
defend if need be, and better things to play on turn 3 that fit your strategy.
Bad cards
Aeether Figment: I just can't like this card, it's not a good deal with or
without the kicker. 1 damage a turn is puny, and for 5 mana you have much
better spells. Phantom Warrior is much better in my opinion. And at the 2 mana
slot, you have 4 Krovikan Mist and 2 Lord of the Unreal which are both much
better than this.
Drake Umbra: An Aura this expensive has to be really good, and this isn't. Plus
you can't use it on your shy creatures without killing them, and a lot of your
creatures have flying already. And if they kill the creature in response to
casting the Aura, the totem armor effect won't kick in. Too clumsy for this
deck.
Prosperity: This is no good in one on one without something particular to combo
it with, and this deck has nothing suitable. Your opponent gains the same
amount of cards as you, and will probably get to use them first if you put a
lot of mana into this. The deck has plenty of other reliable card drawing, you
don't need this. Save it for Archenemy, where it will be really good, letting
your team draw X cards each against just one lot of X for the Archenemy.
Kraken's Eye: I hate life gain!
Disorient: The Firemind deck from D09 gave this card to Jace as a joke, and he
mistakenly put it in his deck. Don't make the same mistake! Remove this as soon
as possible and keep it out. It's stupidly overpriced for what it does, and it
doesn't guarantee you will kill a big creature with your one since you still
need enough power to do the job. As a one-shot way of stopping damage against
you, it's a terrible deal too. This deck is aggressive, and this is a silly
defensive kind of card.
Example decklist
24 Island
Creatures (19)
4 Phantasmal Bear
4 Krovikan Mist
2 Lord of the Unreal
2 Phantom Warrior
1 Phantasmal Dragon
3 Phantom Beast
1 Sower of Temptation
2 Air Elemental
Other spells (17)
1 Fleeting Distraction
2 Counterspell
2 Cancel
2 Divination
3 Repulse
1 Concentrate
1 Summoner's Bane
2 Jace's Ingenuity
1 Mind Control
1 Quicksilver Geyser
1 Time Warp
===============================================================================
Kiora Atua - Ancient Depths
===============================================================================
Summary
This is a brand new blue/green deck, which is quite different to anything else
you will have seen in D09. It is capable of getting out huge numbers of lands
very quickly, and then uses them to cast powerful expensive spells that you
would normally never even consider trying to use, including two Eldrazi! On the
way it draws lots of cards, messes with and steals your opponent's creatures.
Strategy
In the early game your goal is to get as much land into play as possible while
keeping yourself alive. You don't have much to defend yourself with early on, 2
Kraken Hatchling are your best hope. If you're getting beaten really bad you
have Coiling Oracles as chump blockers. Once you get a bit of mana on the
table, Ondu Giant can be really useful for keeping the lands coming while
giving you a blocker. Once you have lots of mana, you then want to start using
your expensive spells to draw lots of cards and get huge creatures out. The
situation will dictate the priority of all of this, and the most important
thing is to manage your mana effectively. If you can stay alive long enough,
you will usually win just by the sheer power of the threats you put into play.
Pros
> * Insane mana development leading to awesome spells early in the game
> * Good card drawing
> * 2 creature stealing spells which can turn the game around
Cons
> * Can't easily destroy creatures
> * Vulnerable in the early game when trying to develop lands, especially to
fliers
> * Little artifact and enchantment control
> * Can get stuck on not enough mana to get going, or sometimes far too much
and not enough to do with it
> * Two colours can cause problems, especially if you don't draw Forests
early
Good cards
Mind Control: This deck doesn't have a lot of ways to directly remove creature
threats, so this is an immensely important card when you draw it. Save it for
the biggest threat you are likely to face (knowing the decks well helps), or
something that is beating you up really badly. It will help buy you time until
your own huge guys turn up.
Explore: This is a brilliant card, and perfect for this deck. This is usually
the priority spell for turn 2. You will likely have a third land in hand, and
you get to draw a card and then play your land. Even if you don't have one, it
is often worth the chance of casting this and hoping you draw one, and then
playing it. Even if you don't, you've replaced the card and got closer to the
next land in your deck. Later on, you can sneak this in if you have exactly one
more mana available than you need to cast the spell you want to, and a land in
hand. Cast this first, then play your land, and that will leave you with
exactly the mana you need to cast your spell as well.
Primeval Titan: A huge threat, and not even that expensive by this deck's
standards. Even if he dies right away, unless he is countered, you get to keep
the 2 extra lands you fetched. If he doesn't die, he can quickly start emptying
your deck of land and pumping up your mana to ridiculous proportions. It's
sometimes worth attacking with him even if he will die, just to squeeze out
some more land. That's a judgement call for each situation. He is an insane
choice, in a good way, for Rite of Replication. Each copy also fetches you land
upon entering the battlefield, so if you copy him 5 times that's a bucketload
coming out at once!
Rite of Replication: This is a way of sort-of dealing with an opponent's scary
creature by making a copy of it, which can normally either block it and survive
or trade with it. You get any entering the battlefield abilities, they will
trigger just as if you had cast the creature you copied. Paying this with the
kicker is not out of the question for this deck, and when you can, it's worth
holding back until you can do this. It's often a game ending play. Note that if
you copy a legendary creature, the creature and all the copies will go to the
graveyard because of the "legend rule". For this reason, don't copy your own
legendary creatures! But by copying an opponent's one, this effectively becomes
a kill spell. No need to kick it in that case, there's no point.
Cultivate: This gives mana acceleration and card advantage, all at one low
affordable price. You normally want to cast this on turn 3, unless you can
happen to have ramped up to 4 mana for Skyshroud Claim or Explosive Vegetation.
You can play the land that gets put into your hand if you haven't played one
already, or if you also cast an Explore. Later in the game, cast this when you
have the spare mana to keep ramping up the lands.
Skyshroud Claim: This and Explosive Vegetation perform similar roles, and I
feel they are competing for the same slots in the deck. Two of such spells
seems enough, along with all the other acceleration at other mana costs. I
slightly favour this one, because the lands come in untapped. Explosive
Vegetation obviously has the advantage that you can fetch Islands as well as
Forests, but I have not found this necessary as the other fetch cards can take
care of getting your Islands. The 2 Forests coming in untapped essentially
makes the spell cost 2 mana, as long as you have the 4 mana to play it in the
first place. So by casting this first, you can often cast another spell that
turn that uses those two Forests, either on their own such as for Explore or
with other lands for something more expensive. This and Explosive Vegetation
are also kind of competing with Ondu Giant, but I've found him so useful that I
want to keep him in rather than have 4 spells at this cost.
Explosive Vegetation: As discussed above, I feel this isn't needed, great
though it is. If you want to concentrate even more on acceleration, you can add
these instead, or if you're more concerned about finding the right lands, you
can use this instead of the above.
Compulsive Research: This is efficient and cheap card drawing, and perfect for
this deck. It's at its best when you already have a land in hand that you can
afford to discard to guarantee you the full card draw. But even if you haven't
you can be reasonably sure you're going to draw at least one land in your 3
cards.
Tidings: This is vital for the deck, helping you rake back cards for all the
resources you put into developing your mana. With lots of land, you can often
make use of at least some of the cards you draw right away. As soon as your
hand is getting a bit low and you can afford the time to spend the mana on
this, normally it's a good idea to do so.
Coiling Oracle: An excellent complement to Explore, and quite similar. He
always replaces himself, and is an excellent chump blocker. Early in the game,
if you trade him for a 1/1 or 2/1 attacker, that's a great deal for you. On
turn 2, if you have a choice between this and Explore and have no land in hand,
play this. If the card you draw is a land it will be played for you, just as if
you'd got it with Explore. If it isn't a land just draw it, as you would with
Explore. Either way, you get the same result but a free 1/1 into the bargain.
Later in the game, he is a cheap way to keep ripping through your deck to find
the cards you need.
Simic Sky Swallower: The big daddy of the skies, and one of your most reliable
creatures. The great thing about him is the shroud, which means you can cast
him and hardly need to worry about him suddenly getting killed after putting
your resources into him. 7 mana is reasonably cheap for a big creature in this
deck too, and he is an excellent blocker while you are developing your
position. Once you're ready to start attacking, he's really hard to stop thanks
to flying and trample. I'd always keep both of these copies in the deck.
Ondu Giant: You often have to make difficult decisions about when to cast a
creature for defence, and when to press on with mana development. This guy
offers a useful way to do both at once. His high toughnes makes him a great
roadblock, and even if he does get killed by a spell right away you get to keep
the land, maintaining card advantage.
Yavimaya's Embrace: Even though the cost of this spell looks outrageous, it's
not that hard to achieve with this deck. It has the same strategies as Mind
Control, but of course you get an additional bonus of +2/+2 and trample making
it even harder for your opponent. You can also cast this on your own creature
just to boost it up, although you better be certain that's really worth it! It
could win you the game giving a huge creature trample, if the opponent is
tapped out and unable to interfere with a kill-spell.
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth: He's a walking Tidings with a rocket launcher, or
something like that. He's one of the best ways to spend all that mana you've
built up, since you get 4 cards just for casting him, even countering him
doesn't stop you drawing the cards. Note that you don't get any cards if he's
put onto the battlefield another way such as with Elvish Piper. Although he
doesn't have trample, this hardly matters since annihilator is even more
effective. If your opponent can't stop him from attacking even a few times,
they will not have enough permanents left to stop you doing anything. Even if
they can team up to kill it, it's usually worth attacking anyway, since they'll
probably lose 2-3 creatures in battle plus 4 permanents to the annihilator,
that's a lot of attrition. His graveyard shuffling ability can be useful if
you're running low on cards due to putting almost your whole deck onto the
battlefield as land. If you use Tidings to get to 8 cards, discard him at the
end of your turn when prompted and he'll shuffle for you. Note that Eldrazi are
not artifact creatures, just colourless creatures.
Lorthos, the Tidemaker: Sometimes even more devastating than the Eldrazi, this
octo-plus can totally lock down all your opponent's permanents. It's usually
most important, if you can, to lock down the opponent's lands. Tap all the
lands, then use any of the remaining 8 targets on their best creatures. This
way you totally stunt their development and they can't increase their board
position hardly at all. Of course, sometimes you need to tap more creatures,
either to get your guys through or to stop them beating you up. Use your
judgement as to what's best to tap in each situation. There's no penalty for
choosing all 8 targets, even if you don't intend to pay the 8 mana, you are not
forced to do so when the time comes. And the permanents still count as targeted
so this kills any of the die-by-target Illusions for free. It may take almost
all your mana to pay the 8, but you should find that you can continue to
develop by playing more lands and mana development spells. So you can carry on
casting things while your opponent keeps getting locked down and can barely
move. This is an excellent card in Archenemy, if you can keep the big man
locked down in this way, often the Schemes aren't even enough to dig them out
of that hole.
Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre: Similar to Kozilek, except this time your reward for
casting him is destroying a permanent. Again this ability can't be stopped even
by countering him, and only applies if you actually cast him. This is one of
the few ways this deck can directly destroy a permanent. Being indestructible
means that you can send him crashing in to attack each turn and not worry about
any amount of blockers stopping him. Only a very few cards can deal with him,
most of them being in the Wielding Steel deck. He is very expensive, but I feel
he is worth it, and you will often achieve this amount of mana.
Elvish Piper: You can use this chap as a way to "cheat" in your huge creatures
without bothering to pay the cost. Although he is very fragile, I feel it is
worth the risk, and at the very least your opponent has to stop what they are
doing and deal with this card. It's often best not to use his ability in your
turn, instead waiting to see what your opponent does. Let them declare
attackers, and if they do choose any, use his ability in the attackers phase to
drop down something huge. It can then be used to block, probably making a mess
of one of the attackers. Even if they don't attack, which they may well not if
they know what you're up to, you can still use the ability near the end of
their turn once you've seen what they wanted to cast.
Aether Mutation: Although this is essentially a stall card and I generally
don't like those, this is an uber-stall and has other applications as well. It
plays with your opponent's timing by returning hopefully a huge creature to
their hand, and adding a nice army of 1/1 creatures for you to chump block
with. Apart from fliers, these can usually keep you going for a really long
time, helping you develop your mana while hiding behind them, until you can put
out threats of your own. The deck just doesn't have hardly any other way of
dealing with creatures, and I feel these are needed. Sometimes the army of
little guys can join in your attack and prove overwhelming to an opponent that
has developed slowly. And if there's nothing worth using this on and you
desperately need more cards, you can use this on your own Coiling Oracle so you
can cast him again. Or if you need more mana, bring back your Ondu Giant for
another use. It can also be used to get stolen creatures back to your hand,
such as from Mind Control. It will kill a token since they disappear after
going to your opponent's hand, but you won't get any Saprolings since tokens
have zero converted mana cost.
Kraken Hatchling: This is the kind of card you would normally expect to see me
scoffing at and moving to the bottom of the list. But I make an exception,
because this fits perfectly into this deck. You are very vulnerable in your
first few turns, and apart from chump blocking with Coiling Oracles you have
nothing to protect you. This can soak up a huge amount of damage for you. Even
for a pansy defensive card 4 toughness is impressive. You have nothing else you
can cast on turn 1, so he doesn't interfere with your mana curve. Later on, you
only have to find one spare mana to cast him. I would actually play more of
these if they were available.
Assault Zeppelid: With this deck being low on creatures, this provides a
reasonable mid-range attacker and defender. The deck is vulnerable to flying,
and this helps with that somewhat. It's easy to cast colour wise. Judging when
to cast this and when to keep going with the mana building is difficult. It
depends on what the opponent has out, what your life total is and what is in
your hand. Plan your next few turns out mentally, and what your opponent is
likely to do.
OK cards
Treasure Hunt: I initially thought this looked great, but I've decided it's not
necessary. Early in the game, with the deck having around 42% land, you are
about 58% likely to just draw 1 card, and for 2 mana that's not good. The rest
of the time you'll usually draw 1 land, which is good, and sometimes more. But
I'd rather not gamble like this, as Coiling Oracle and Explore are really
important to cast early on and are more reliable. Later on in the game, you're
likely to have stripped a lot of land from your deck, and the chances of just
drawing 1 card get even higher. The deck has better more reliable card draw,
I'd leave this out.
Inkwell Leviathan: He looks good and talks big, but I feel that he's really
just a bit too expensive for what he offers. He is certainly hard to stop, but
not that much harder than the cheaper Simic Sky Swallower, and not as
devastating as the Eldrazi or Lorthos. If you are looking for another big
threat that can look after itself though, you could do worse.
Edric, Spymaster of Trest: This doesn't work well in one on one, simply because
you don't have enough fast creatures to make use of his ability, nor ways of
clearing blockers early. He'll likely get out-muscled, and not achieve much.
Late in the game when you have your huge buddies, he may start getting you
cards, but that defeats the point of him being so cheap and you may as well
have had another giant threat. He is wonderful however in Archenemy! When
played aside 2 Sorins busting out Tormented Souls on turn 1, he turns them into
crazy card machines, and your Vampire friends will be loading up on goodies.
Even the Archenemy will have trouble keeping up with all the firepower they
will draw.
Tidal Kraken: He looks really cool, and when you start playing the deck he's a
reasonable threat to use after getting all your mana out. But once you unlock
other types of big threats, you'll see they are much more efficient and this
guy is a bit overpriced for what he does. He doesn't even compare favourable to
Simic Sky Swallower which already starts in the deck. Replace him with one of
the better huge cards, and then you shouldn't need him anymore.
Polymorph: I can see the idea with this card, but I find it too risky. You're
meant to cast it on something menial like a Coiling Oracle or a token generated
by Aeether Mutation and turn it into one of your big nasties. The problem is,
the deck has quite a few support creatures, like loads of those Coiling
Oracles, Kraken Hatchling, and various 4 mana creatures which would make you
facepalm if they got turned over. When it works it may be really good, but I'd
rather use cards I can count on. If you are playing a version with much less of
the smaller creatures, then it would be much more viable, being quite likely to
turn up a monster. You can of course use it on your opponent's creature. This
can be risky, but you may consider it an option since the deck is so lacking in
creature control.
Giant Octopus: Just about acceptable to begin with, certainly nothing special.
As soon as you unlock the 2 Assault Zeppelid, they are clearly better and
should replace these. Those, along with the 2 Ondu Giant, are all you should
need at the 4 mana creature range, so these can stay in the box.
Bad cards
Isleback Spawn: I've never much cared for this card. It's just way too
expensive for what it does. It's usually a huge, untargetable defender, which
sounds great, but at 7 mana you want something better than that. It's boost
ability isn't something you can rely on either. Some games you may deplete your
library really heavily by land searching and drop it to 20, but by that time
you'd have the mana to cast any big nasty in the deck and there's plenty more
scary that this. The deck needs quick defence, and this isn't it.
Living Destiny: This is rather expensive, relies on having a big creature in
hand which you don't always, and is at best only a stall tactic. There's too
many other important things to do for 4 mana, mainly boosting your land up
quickly to get something really scary into play that will make a real
difference. That's better than mucking around like this and giving away card
advantage. I'd stay clear.
New Frontiers: I don't recommend using this for 1 on 1, even though the mana
acceleration is great, you give the same advantage to your opponent. And they
get to untap and make use of it all before you do. It's just too risky, I'd
stick to all the more reliable ways that don't help your opponent. However,
this is an absolute bomb for Archenemy play! For any amount of X, even as
little as 1 but hopefully more, you are boosting all 3 of your allies' land
supplies, while only boosting the Archenemy once. And they often get loads of
free land from their Schemes and have more than enough, a few more often
doesn't make that much difference. But it will raise the curves of all your
team, and help them get bigger threats out early.
Levitation: You don't have enough creatures in this deck that you plan to
attack with, that don't already have flying, for this to make much of a
difference. For 4 mana, you'd much rather be developing your lands or casting a
creature than this. It does help with chump blocking, your Coiling Oracles can
get in the way of big fliers. But I still don't think it's worth a whole card
slot.
Example decklist
12 Island
13 Forest
Creatures (17)
2 Kraken Hatchling
4 Coiling Oracle
2 Assault Zeppelid
1 Elvish Piper
2 Ondu Giant
1 Primeval Titan
2 Simic Sky Swallower
1 Lorthos, the Tidemaker
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
Other spells (18)
4 Explore
1 Compulsive Research
3 Cultivate
1 Rite of Replication
2 Skyshroud Claim
3 Aether Mutation
1 Mind Control
2 Tidings
1 Yavimaya's Embrace
===============================================================================
Koth - Strength of Stone
===============================================================================
Summary
This is a new mono red deck, which is quite hard to describe as it doesn't seem
to have any coherent theme or strategy. It's got a bit of direct damage, a bit
of creature pumping, some temporary creature-stealing tricks, and some haste
creatures. It's not very good at all, and is easily the worst deck in the game.
I'm really hoping to see it get some good DLC cards to fill in some of the gaps
and give it some direction.
Strategy
Unfortunately, this amounts to just doing the best you can with what you've
got. Save your direct damage for really important creatures, as your creatures
are poor and will not likely match up to your opponents' very well. You have a
few fatty creatures that can prove a menace if you can survive long enough to
get them out, and Spire Barrage can be a good finisher if you can get enough
damage through to your opponent somehow. Claws of Valakut often provides your
best threat, making a creature having a huge power and first strike.
Pros
> * Has a bit of direct damage, and a couple of 1 mana creatures that can
deal damage
> * Good artifact control with 2 Oxidda Scrapmelter
Cons
> * Poor creatures and notably no mana cost 2 creatures at all which wrecks
the curve
> * Relies too much on pumping up creatures
> * Not effective enough to make use of many of the themes the deck tries to
have
> * No coherent strategy
Good cards
Fault Line: I want to follow the "Fault Line" to find out who's fault it is
that this deck is so messed up. The most powerful card in the deck, and your
best defence against a weenie rush. With enough mana, it can even clear the
board of medium size creatures. It's an instant speed Wrath of God against
ground creatures, often best used in your opponent's turn either after they
have tapped lots of their land to cast creatures or have pulled a combat
surprise you don't like. Use very sparingly, it's a nuke but you can only use
it once. Don't worry about killing your own creatures, which you most likely
will, as long as you kill more of your opponent's. Hold out on casting it as
long as possible, in the hope that the opponent will commit more creatures that
you can kill. Use what you have to chump block, faking that they are getting
the upper hand before levelling the playing field. You may want to hold some
creatures back ready to cast in your turn after using this in your opponent's
turn. The damage is really just a side effect, but occasionally you may be able
to combine it with your other direct damage to kill the opponent, so keep a
close eye on their life total.
Spire Barrage: A hugely improved Lava Axe that can also deal damage to
creatures, and can go beyond 5 damage. Save this for killing your opponent's
biggest, scariest creatures, or to finish the opponent off.
Spitting Earth: Very useful for getting rid of an annoying little creature
early on, or a bigger one later in the game when you have more land. This can't
hurt players, so your only decision is how long to hold this back before
killing something.
Spikeshot Elder: My favourite creature in the deck, and what you want to see in
your opening hand. He can get some quick damage in, and then once blockers
arrive he can sit back and start pinging things for you. Excellent for taking
out weenies, and can combine with other direct damage once you have enough mana
to take out bigger things. He can finish off creatures that are nearly dead
after combat, or just do damage to your opponent. If you're desperate, he can
kill a 2/2 creature on his own by blocking it and dealing it 1 damage in the
blockers phase, causing them both to die when damage is dealt. But keep him
alive whenever you can, his ability is very valuable. He combos well with
Volcanic Strength and Darksteel Axe, increasing his power and the damage his
ability deals.
Grim Lavamancer: Similar to the above, but cannot operate without fuel from the
graveyard. Early in the game there may not be any for a while, but later in the
game he'll probably be able to keep firing for several turns. 2 damage is a lot
for such a cheap ability, and you may sometimes want to engineer ways of
getting more cards into your graveyard (such as suicidally attacking with other
creatures) just so you can use it to kill a vital creature. It currently has a
bug on the Xbox version where the targeting lines for his ability don't appear
while it is resolving. I've reported this and hopefully it will be fixed soon.
Flowstone Overseer: One of the few truly scary creatures in the deck. Not so
much because he can pump the attack of your creatures, although that can be
helpful, but because he can kill creatures. He will easily pick off smaller
ones, and after combat he can lower the toughness of any that are nearly dead,
and at that point increasing their power won't matter. You can combine with a
Spitting Earth to take out something huge. He is also not too shabby at 4/4 and
can hand out some pain while you clear the board of your opponent's creatures.
Darksteel Axe: I like this because it's likely to stick around for the whole
game. Only two cards can currently do anything about it directly once it's on
the table, Revoke Existence and Quicksilver Geyser. Everything else will bounce
harmlessly off it, unless you are forced to sacrifice it to an Eldrazi. It
makes your undersized creatures more competitive, and will be good to put on
almost anything in the deck.
Conquering Manticore: One of the best creatures in this deck, 5/5 flying is
good for 6 mana, and you get to borrow a creature. You'll usually want to cast
him whatever the situation, and just nick the best creature the opponent has.
He's too good to be holding back. Ones that can somehow kill themselves are
good targets, such as Vampire Aristocrat or Prodigal Pyromancer, so you can do
them in once you've finished with them rather than giving them back.
Oxidda Scrapmelter: A very nice way to deal with artifacts, giving you a decent
size creature as well. If the opponent is using a deck that doesn't have
artifacts or you just really need a creature, you can cast him without there
being an artifact on the battlefield. Even if you're forced to target your own
Darksteel Axe, that doesn't matter since he won't destroy it.
Magma Phoenix: One of the few fliers in the deck, and offers another way to
protect against an overgrown enemy creature population. If you need to clear
the way, just block with him and get him killed to trigger his ability. When
you can spare the mana, pay to get him back in your hand, and eventually he'll
be useful as an attacker once you're in a better position. He's hard to stop
permanently, unless he's disabled by Arrest or similar. Even then you have the
option of killing him yourself to get him back in your graveyard.
Hero of Oxid Ridge: A clearly better version of your Vulshok Berserker, who
also pumps up any other attackers you have. Good for making those 1/1 creatures
more worthwhile on the attack, and the 4 damage he deals is a nasty surprise
for an unprepared opponent.
Claws of Valakut: One of the few Auras I'm fairly happy to play with. This
instantly turns even the crummiest of your creatures into a virtually
unstoppable powerhouse, with hugely inflated attack and first strike. This
ability is relevant to every one of your creatures, except Rockslide Elemental
which has it already. Even a first turn 1/1 can be pumped to 4/1 first strike
on turn 3 with this, and will probably be able to kill anything around. Later
in the game the stats can get just silly. If you have enough mana and your
opponent has just attacked with all their creatures, you can cast one of your
haste creatures and then immediately enchant it with this and attack for
massive damage.
OK cards
Cerebral Eruption: I tend to include this as another come-back card, although
it's far from ideal. When it works it can be great, but it can also totally
miss the mark if a land is turned over so you can't rely on it. You get the
card back, but it uses up a lot of time and resources to cast it again. I'd
happily replace this if some better control cards become available. I don't
like using hit and miss cards very much, but for now there's not much to take
its place. You could just use another creature if you don't like it.
Molten Ravager: 4 toughness is pretty high for 3 mana, shame about the 0 power.
But you often only need to put enough mana into him to kill what blocks him, as
the opponent may be scared of letting you pump it to the max. If he does get
through, consider how much it's worth pumping him, as getting more threats on
the table can often be more important than a bit of damage. He makes a good
blocker as well.
Koth's Courier: Reasonable stats for his mana makes him a fairly good attacker
and blocker. Forestwalk is just a nice bonus when it applies.
Tephraderm: A better version of Earth Elemental, with two alright abilities.
Nice against direct damage decks, as they suffer if they try to burn him out.
And he tends to kill whatever he fights, giving them a low blow after the fight
is done. Even if something with first strike and 5 power takes him down, he
will still hit back for 5 and probably kill them too.
Earth Elemental: The fatty from Hands of Flame, nothing special about him but
he's alright. The high toughness makes him annoying to get rid of. As the worst
of the 5 mana creatures available, I have found he's not needed.
Goblin Mountaineer: Not one of the best 1 drops, but the deck is so slow and
relies on some Auras and Equipments, so it needs something quick to put them
on. The mountainwalk is only good against 2 of the 10 decks, but handy when it
happens.
Vulshok Berserker: One of the better cards in the deck's mini-theme of haste,
but still not great. He would be fine except for the puny 2 toughness, but if
you can find your opponent with no untapped blockers, it doesn't matter so
much.
Flameborn Hellion: Unimpressive for 6 mana, but aside from Conquering Manticore
you don't have anything better at this range. With 25 lands in the deck the
game will often get to the point where you can use this. The stats aren't good,
but hopefully you can surprise your opponent with this and knock them down to a
range where they may fear direct damage finishing them off. If you need this as
a blocker, at least for one turn, cast it after combat so that it doesn't have
to attack and will remain untapped. You could replace with Earth Servant to go
more defensive.
Lavaborn Muse: A Hill Giant with a so-so ability, not great but will do for
now. It can at least make the opponent choose between taking damage and holding
their cards back.
Volcanic Strength: It's OK, not quite good enough for the risk of being an
Aura, but it does the job for the moment. It goes some way to making up for the
missing 2 cost creatures by instead putting this on a 1 cost creature making it
a more impressive size. The mountainwalk is just an added bonus if it happens
to apply. I'd want to replace this when better cards become available, but for
now it helps your weaker creatures to try and compete. Best used when the
opponent is tapped out to force them to either block and lose a creature or
take a lot of damage.
Vulshok Heartstoker: With few evasion creatures, there's often not much to use
this on that's going to be much of a threat. No 2 cost creatures is a problem,
meaning on turn 3 you're probably using this on a 1 cost creature at best. The
opponent get to see this all coming, and can either just take a little extra
damage or block accordingly. At least it can make your 1/1 creatures able to
muscle through bigger blockers for a turn.
Rockslide Elemental: Really puny initially, but if you can get him to survive,
he can grow to annoying proportions. His problem is that currently there isn't
enough ways for you to kill creatures in this deck to reliably let him sit
around growing big. Keep him out of combat where possible so he doesn't get
killed early, and let him benefit from creature trades and by killing things
with your spells and abilities. He can be tricky in combat, if two creatures of
the same size as him try to gang up and kill him, they will fail. Say he is 4/4
and gets blocked by two 4/4 creatures, the opponent thinking one will die to
first strike and the other will kill your Rockslide. But he deals his damage to
one of them, and straight away gets his +1/+1 counter after the first strike
damage, but before normal damage is dealt. He's then 5/5 when the other 4/4
hits him back, and he'll survive.
Act of Treason: A pretty good card, but it's in the wrong deck. This deck isn't
fast, powerful or aggressive enough to make good use of this. It amounts to
some extra damage against the opponent, and doesn't help when you are losing,
which you normally are with this deck.
Earth Servant: For this much mana you want something that will make a decent
impact, and this isn't very scary for your opponent. It will have an insanely
high toughness though, and if you are concentrating more on defence up this
will at least help keep ground creatures at bay.
Bad cards
Assault Strobe: Only any use when you are winning, being a sorcery it is purely
offensive. Seeing as you will usually be struggling to stay alive with this
deck, this won't help you dig your way out of a hole. Also the deck has a lack
of evasion creatures, so your double striker will be seen coming a mile away
and probably chump blocked.
Golden Urn: I hate life gain! Similar to and not much better than the standard
life-gain artifacts.
Bloodfire Colossus: He is just too expensive for this deck, even with 25 lands.
You won't get him out consistently, he'll mostly sit in your hand for ages.
Even if you do eventually get him out, he could have been something cheaper to
have an effect on the game many turns before.
Example decklist
25 Mountain
Creatures (22)
3 Goblin Mountaineer
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Spikeshot Elder
2 Koth's Courier
2 Molten Ravager
1 Vulshock Heartstroker
1 Hero of Oxid Ridge
1 Lavaborn Muse
2 Oxidda Scrapmelter
2 Vulshok Berserker
1 Flowstone Overseer
1 Magma Phoenix
2 Tephraderm
1 Conquering Manticore
1 Flameborn Hellion
Other spells (13)
2 Darksteel Axe
1 Fault Line
3 Spitting Earth
2 Volcanic Strength
2 Claws of Valakut
1 Cerebral Explosion
2 Spire Barrage
===============================================================================
Nissa Revane - Guardians of the Wood
===============================================================================
Summary
This is a black/green aggressive Elf deck, quite similar to Ears of the Elves
from D09. It has thankfully lost the Elvish Champions which gave it such an
unfair advantage against green decks from all the forestwalk. Also gone are the
cheap and nasty Coat of Arms. In their place, the deck concentrates more on a
swarm strategy with cards like Elvish Promenade that doubles your elf
population, and Heedless One who grows stronger with each Elf you have. It's
one of the best decks in the game in my opinion.
Strategy
You generally win with this deck by getting a lot of Elves into play quickly,
which pump up a huge Heedless One who tramples through. Churn out as many
creatures as you can, stopping to kill creatures only if really needed. The
ideal play would be a turn 4 Heedless One, followed by Elvish Promenade next
turn which will make him pretty unstoppable. Otherwise it's a fairly simple
deck, keep attacking whenever you can to keep the pressure on.
Pros
> * Lots of fast, nasty Elves with good abilities
> * Good creature, artifact and enchantment control
> * Lots of ways to gain card advantage
> * Good combat tricks with Might of the Masses and Epic Proportions
Cons
> * No evasion (only Elven Riders which is rubbish)
> * Sometimes you end up with more land than you need, and not much at the
top end of the mana curve
Good cards
Maelstrom Pulse: One of the best control cards ever, this deals with almost
anything. Most of the time you'll only expect to kill one card, but that's
plenty good enough since you can pick from anything your opponent has. If you
can afford to wait and cast some things in the mean time, you might get lucky
enough that they'll drop a duplicate of a card and you can sweep both at once.
This is great for getting rid of loads of tokens, as it will wipe out all of
the same type.
Eyeblight's Ending: Amazing creature control, useful in every matchup except
the mirror match. Save it for your opponent's best creatures. It is also
counted as an Elf spell by Lys Alana Huntmaster giving you an Elf token.
Imperious Perfect: I always liked this more than Elvish Champion, it is always
really good, can't backfire and can win the game on its own. Also it's easier
to cast. You'll usually want to create tokens rather than attack with this, for
more damage over time, and they will stick around after this dies. Until he
does, he pumps up the tokens too making them formidable 2/2 guys. You can use
this ability in your opponent's turn after they declare attackers, dropping
your token ready to block, or wait until near the end of their turn if you want
to keep your mana open for other things you might want to cast.
Joraga Warcaller: A nice replacement for Elvish Champion, and sometimes even
stronger. You can play him as just a 1/1, although I'd almost never recommend
doing that. Hold back until you can play the kicker once, preferably twice. He
can turn the smallest of your Elves into considerable threats.
Might of the Masses: A fairer replacement for Giant Growth, but which can
sometimes be even more effective. Keep an eye at all times on the number of
creatures you have, and the bonus this will give. Be wary of your opponent
killing something in response to this, which will reduce the bonus it gives.
Awesome after you've flooded the screen with Elvish Promenade, and on your
tramplers like Heedless One.
Essence Drain: A bit expensive, but handy anyway to take out small or medium
size creatures, finish off a creature after your combat phase, or provide some
direct damage for the win.
Viridian Emissary: I love this guy, although he looks more like an Elf Zombie
to me! I prefer him to the slow Farhaven Elves. He's easy and quick to get out,
and can normally be your priority play on turn 2. You can attack recklessly
with him, happily swapping him for a 1/1 or just running him into a bigger
creature, because you want him to die so you can accelerate your mana. Your
opponent faces the tough choice of letting you sucker punch them each turn with
him, or taking him down and risking you coming out with scary things much
quicker. He's also a brilliant blocker, again your opponent might think twice
about giving you the chance to get him killed. His only drawback is when the
opponent refuses to kill it and you really want a particular land, usually a
Swamp. But unless your opponent is using primarily flying creatures, this isn't
too much of a problem since to kill you they're probably going to have to let
you block with this sooner or later. Most of the time one Swamp is enough for
this deck, so if you have one in hand or on the battlefield already, I'd
recommend fetching a Forest since the deck sometimes needs a lot of green mana.
Sylvan Ranger: The alternative to the above, he's not as scary and doesn't
accelerate, but he is more reliable as you always get the land you want right
away. I prefer the Emissary, and feel like 6 mana creatures is overkill,
especially as there is little in the way of top end spells in this deck. But
you could run 2 of each if you prefer these guys.
Nissa's Chosen: Almost the same as Elvish Warrior, except this goes back to
your library rather than the graveyard. This doesn't generally make a lot of
difference, but it does stop graveyard triggers for your opponent such as
Sangromancer. There's also a chance it'll get shuffled to the top again when
you search for a land card with one of the 2 cards above. Still an awesome beat
stick, and hard to compete with at the 2 mana range.
Elvish Visionary: An excellent way to boost your Elf population without even
costing you a card. Easy to cast and always replaces himself. Great early or
late in the game.
Heedless One: This is often your big winner, and rewards all your hard work
making lots of little Elves. He can get huge in a hurry, and hard to stop with
trample. Follow him up with Elvish Promenade when possible. Watch out for your
opponent killing one of your other Elves during combat, suddenly lowering his
stats. Try to cast lots of other Elves before you cast this, getting him out
too early sometimes makes him not too scary and vulnerable.
Nath of the Gilt-Leaf: Back from Ears of the Elves, one of my favourite
creatures. It's pretty hard to get rid of, although there are more ways in this
game and less non-black restricted kill-spells. The discard is really nasty,
especially being random. If you can get this out quickly using Viridian
Emissary, you may clean out quite a few cards. That's normally too much to come
back from, and the extra Elf tokens help your strategy really well. Also once
the opponent's hand is empty, they are forced to either use every card they
draw right away or lose it on your turn. This means they often have to play
non-creature spells prematurely that they may have usually held back, and
counterspells will all be lost. If they draw cards they don't have the mana to
cast, they will have to be discarded. In this way, you stop the opponent
building up their hand for the future.
Elvish Promenade: Along with Heedless One, part of the main combo of this deck,
although it's really good anyway to make a huge number of Elves. Hold it back
until you have at least 3 to make it worthwhile, but of course the more the
better. With anything that pumps them up like Imperious Perfect, the tokens
become more scary. It counts Elf tokens you already have as well.
Jagged-Scar Archers: A mini-Heedless One that has the bonus of taking care of
fliers for you. That's a good bonus, since this deck doesn't have any flying
creatures to block them. It can really put a flying heavy deck on ice until
they can deal with this, it just can't cope with losing a creature every turn.
Viridian Shaman: A great way to get rid of an artifact while adding to your Elf
population. If the opponent is using a deck that doesn't have artifacts or you
just really need a creature, you can cast him without there being an artifact
on the battlefield.
Elvish Lyrist: Useful extra backup against nasty enchantments. If they don't
worry you or you feel the Maelstrom Pulses are sufficient, you could drop him
for something else. But with things like Mind Control around, I'd stick with
this guy.
Ezuri, Renegade Leader: A very handy mid range creature which can help keep all
your other guys alive, and replaces the previous Overrun in the deck with his
second ability. Also that ability can be used anytime, so save it for after
blockers have been assigned and you can even use it on the defence. As long as
you have some Forests untapped, your opponent is usually going to have to kill
this before he can kill any of your other Elves.
Lys Alana Huntmaster: This is back from Ears of the Elves, and I still
recommend using it. It really helps build up your Elf numbers to pump your
Heedless One up. It can also provide a near endless supply of chump blockers or
extra attackers, depending on how the game is going. Normally the opponent will
try and take this out quickly, as if they don't they are usually in trouble.
Wildheart Invoker: Pretty good stats, and a nice ability although I wouldn't
count on getting enough mana to use it regularly. I tend to leave this out
simply because it is competing directly with Heedless One, which tends to fit
more with the overall strategy. You may feel like replacing some of the
Heedless with this, just in case you can't find any other Elves, he will still
be 4/3 rather than a 1/1 Heedless.
Ezuri's Archers: Pretty crazy abilities for a 1 mana creature! As well as a
fast and efficient guy to get your Elf population started, he's a really good
defence against fliers, able to take down even an Air Elemental.
Epic Proportions: Not really in fitting with the deck, but since this is the
only 6 mana spell available and it's pretty good, I think it's worth including.
Especially as you'll probably be running 4-6 Elves that fetch you extra land
and you usually end up with a lot. The flash means you can cast this as if it
was an Instant, so use it either in the blockers phase as a
permanent-super-Giant Growth, or in response to direct damage that would kill
your Elf.
OK cards
Elvish Eulogist: The classic 1 drop from Ears of the Elves, still decent
although I feel there are better 1 drops available now so this isn't needed. If
you do use it, don't sacrifice him until he's just about to die, either from a
spell, ability or combat. Doesn't work well with Nissa's Chosen which won't be
in the graveyard when it dies.
Norwood Ranger: A nice little weenie, but outclassed by Ezuri's Archers, and
there are better 1 drops in the deck.
Plummet: This will be good when it works, but a bit of a gamble to include. Not
every deck has flying creatures, and some only have a few and they might not
come out. It's a tough call as to whether to stick with this anyway, but I feel
there's enough control in the deck that will work against virtually anything,
so I'd rather leave this out and concentrate on the attack. However, if certain
decks like Blood Hunger are running rampant, it would be worth including to
pick on their numerous fliers.
Bad cards
Elven Riders: Your only evasion creature, sadly it's stats are too rubbish to
consider using. I'd rather rely on my Heedless Ones to break through the
defences than put a lot of mana into this guy. Just not good enough for his
cost.
Titania's Chosen: This is only going to be any good in 2 headed giant or
Archenemy where you are all playing this deck or Apex Predators so it benefits
from loads of spells. Too wimpy and slow for one on one play.
Example decklist
17 Forest
7 Swamp
Creatures (23)
1 Elvish Lyrist
2 Ezuri's Archers
1 Joraga Warcaller
2 Elvish Visionary
4 Nissa's Chosen
4 Viridian Emissary
1 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
1 Imperious Perfect
1 Jagged-Scar Archers
1 Viridian Shaman
3 Heedless One
1 Lys Alana Huntmaster
1 Nath of the Gilt-Leaf
Other spells (13)
3 Might of the Masses
2 Eyeblight's Ending
2 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Elvish Promenade
3 Essence Drain
1 Epic Proportions
===============================================================================
Sarkhan Vol - Dragon's Roar
===============================================================================
Summary
This is a black/red Dragon style deck, loosely based on Scales of Fury from
D09. Obviously green is gone, and in its place there are a lot more Goblins,
making it a sort of strange mix of big Dragons and weenie Goblin rush. There is
a crossover card, Voracious Dragon, which can eat the Goblins to inflate itself
and do damage. There isn't a lot of black in the deck and because of this not
many Swamps are added, and this causes problems since you often don't draw any.
Strategy
There's two ways you can go with this deck. You can go mono red and drop every
black card, which makes the deck focus more on the fast Goblins. You lose some
creature control but tend to do more damage early on, and lose the mana colour
problems. Otherwise you can keep black/red, in which case I tend to cut down on
some of the Goblins, using them mainly to keep alive until the Dragons show up,
playing as more of a control deck. Either way the deck is fairly simple, you
aim to survive long enough to get out big Dragon creatures which will be how
you usually win. Your creature control will normally be used to kill threats
early in the game, or sometimes blockers later on when you are in attack mode.
Which build is better is a close call. Black/red gives you more powerful
spells, but relying on just 6 Swamps is very risky. You often get either Swamps
and no black spells, or black spells and no Swamps, causing you a lot of
problems. I'd give the slight edge to mono red for now just for its
consistency.
Pros
> * Good, cheap creature control
> * Lots of big, powerful flying Dragons that must be dealt with or they win
for you in short order
> * Ways of reducing the cost of your Dragons to get them out faster with
Ruby Medallion and Dragonspeaker Shaman
> * Artifact control, although just one card
Cons
> * No enchantment control
> * Problems with getting black mana
> * Early Goblin creatures aren't generally very good
Good cards
Burst Lightning: Amazing direct damage, which can be used to take out a small
annoying creature, or finish something off, very cheaply. But when you can
afford to, it can kill a medium size creature with the kicker. The key is
deciding which way to use it. Also 4 damage is considerable against the
opponent, when you have them on the ropes this can be a nasty finisher.
Assassinate: Very useful because it can target and destroy any type of
creature. It will have to have attacked you already to be tapped so you've
taken damage or chump blocked it, but getting rid of the threat for good is
what's important. Save this for your opponents best creatures.
Pyroclasm: This is your one comeback card against a weenie rush from the
opponent. You can often maximize it's impact early in the game by continuing to
chump block with anything you have out, trying to tempt the opponent into
casting some more creatures before pulling the trigger. Hold back creatures in
your hand to cast afterwards. You can combine with Burst Lightning to take down
a larger creature at the same time.
Flameblast Dragon: One of the best creatures in the game, and fits the control
theme perfectly. Usually you'll want to take out your opponent's creatures
instead of damaging them directly with his ability, unless you can finish them
off. Killing one a turn is usually enough to turn the momentum of the game.
Hellkite Charger: This guy is a bit crazy, 5/5 flying haste is good enough for
6 mana. When you can afford to pay for his ability it is probably worth it. If
he got through once he'll likely get through again. Add any other attackers to
that scenario and it's probably close to game over.
Rorix Bladewing: Another nutcase of a Dragon, his mana cost is a little
demanding but since the land base is almost all Mountains it shouldn't be a
problem. He hits hard and fast, and wants to put the opponent down in just a
few attacks.
Voracious Dragon: This is the combo centrepiece of the deck, and a good
creature in its own right. 4/4 flying for 5 mana is good, especially unusual in
red which often has notoriously bad creatures at that cost. You can feed any
number of your creatures to him as he comes into play, and gets a +1/+1 counter
for each. And you get to target a creature or player for damage equal to twice
the number of Goblins he ate. You can still choose a target to kill an Illusion
even if you don't devour anything. It's usually worth eating at least one
Goblin for this purpose, more if you can take out a decent creature or if you
think your opponent cannot handle a huge Dragon. If they are playing red and
relying on direct damage to kill creatures, it may put it out of blast range.
Disfigure: A nice way to take out small annoying creatures, or finish off
bigger ones. It can also fix fights, use it in the blockers phase before damage
gets dealt to suddenly lower the stats of your opponent's creature. Lowering
toughness also stops regeneration, but only if it's completely lowered and not
combined with damage. So two Disfigures will be needed to take down a Cudgel
Troll so it can't regenerate, a Disfigure and Burst Lightning won't do the job.
But a Disfigure could combine with Festering Goblin's ability successfully.
Dragonspeaker Shaman: Poor stats, but an amazing ability for this deck. A
reduction of 2 mana for your Dragons make them come out scarily fast,
especially in combination with Ruby Medallion. Your opponent will probably have
to kill this very quickly or else face serious fiery wrath. Definitely worth it
if you're playing with a lot of the expensive Dragons.
Manic Vandal: The deck's only artifact control, and although totally out of
theme he's important to keep in. A red rip-off of Viridian Shaman, shameless
really. He's good at what he does, which seems to be smashing things. If the
opponent is using a deck that doesn't have artifacts or you just really need a
creature, you can cast him without there being an artifact on the battlefield.
Dragonmaster Outcast: A weenie creature with an overwhelming ability that won't
turn on until you have 6 lands. You can either risk casting it and getting
early damage in and hoping it will survive, or hold on to it until you have 6
lands, hoping your other creatures will have drawn away the kill-spells. This
will depend on the rest of your hand. I'd usually favour casting it, unless I
have a Pyroclasm in hand in which case I'd hold onto it until after I've had to
use that. If you can get the ability going, you should win in short order.
Volcanic Dragon: Feels a little bit weak for the expensive cost, but it will
prove an important part of your offence. Hopefully you will be enough in
control of the game to be able to attack and not have to keep it back as a
blocker. If you can't afford to attack yet, cast another Dragon first in you
can, so that you can hopefully make use of the haste ability this has by the
time you cast it.
Furyborn Hellkite: He's very expensive, but with 4 cards in the deck making him
easier to cast he is just about worth the stretch. Of course try and get the
bloodthirst bonus when you can, which will make him almost unstoppable in
creature combat and probably too big to kill by direct damage. You my consider
cutting him to keep costs down.
Ruby Medallion: With the beef of the deck being huge Dragons, this is very nice
for helping them come out early. It can also help you cast several spells in
one turn, for example two Dragon Fodders will only cost you 2 red mana. It can
also reduce the cost of the kicker on Burst Lightning, you'll only have to pay
4 mana total. It can't reduce coloured mana, so can never help with Goblin
Wardriver for example.
Slavering Nulls: It's Goblin Piker with an ability, and a scary one at that.
Early in the game this can be a real threat as you use your cheap spells to
remove blockers. Causing a discard each turn will really hurt and is hard to
come back from after a few turns. The opponent has to find an answer to this
quickly. In mono red it's just a Piker again, but your opponent won't know for
sure you're playing mono red and may freak out and kill it anyway.
Festering Goblin: This guy is good for controlling the pace of the first few
turns. If the opponent has two 1 toughness creatures out and you just have
this, they will be forced to hold back or else you can block one and use his
ability to kill the other. He can also kill a 2 toughness creature by using his
ability on it after it kills him. If your position is good enough to attack, he
can often to do recklessly, particularly if you have your eye on a 1 toughness
creature you'd like to be rid of. Be careful about his ability, since it's not
optional. If only you have creatures when he goes to the graveyard, you have to
use his ability on one of those. So if you have him and a Goblin Piker and the
opponent has a 1/1 creature, you don't want to trade him for the 1/1 as your
Piker will bite it too. To take down bigger creatures, you can combine with
Burst Lightning to kill even a 6 toughness creature.
Goblin Wardriver: This is a nice creature, but it fits much better with lots of
smaller creatures to pump up and not so much with the Dragons and a control
setup. It's mana cost can sometimes pose a problem on turn 2 if you're playing
red/black, but is easy if you go mono red.
OK cards
Furnace Whelp: These are not great due to their low intial stats, but are the
only mid range creatures you have at the moment. They usually make you
vulnerable when you cast them, since they are just a 2/2 and you probably can't
pump them much. Even smaller creatures will probably get sent in against you,
happy to trade with him. Keep this alive when you can, using all your little
creatures for defence, and use this for its damage which is its strength.
Sometimes when things are going badly you don't have a choice, you may have to
trade it for a small creature if you are being overwhelmed.
Giant Scorpion: He's not much to look at, but he fits the control theme
perfectly. 3 toughness is handy for surviving against the common 2/2 creature
stats, and deathtouch will take out just about anything even if it kills him
too. You'll rarely want to attack with this as it works much better on defence.
Crucible of Fire: This is more useful here than it was back in Scales of Fury,
because this deck has more actual Dragons in it. It is mainly of benefit to
your Furnace Whelps and Volcanic Dragons which are lacking in stats for their
mana costs. The other Dragons are generally big enough, but the boost certainly
doesn't hurt and will help you win quicker. It's no help to all your Goblins,
but as long as you're using a fair number of Dragons this is worth including.
Dragon Fodder: This is handy even for the control version, providing at the
very least 2 chump blockers for 1 card. Works well with Voracious Dragon, and
they can take down weenies that are bothering you early in the game. Don't feel
bad about using both tokens to kill a 2/2 creature, sometimes that's better if
you have no other way to deal with it at that time than chump blocking it twice
if you're doing badly.
Gravedigger: He is OK, although not greatly efficient for his cost. He can be
useful for digging up one of your better Dragons for another round, but not
much use early in the game so probably 1 is enough of these.
Rally the Forces: The effectiveness of this depends on how many small creatures
you are using. The bigger creatures generally don't need this as much, and you
want it to affect as many creatures as possible. Cast it in the blockers phase
after blockers have been chosen for maximum surprise value.
Raging Goblin: A pure aggression creature that doesn't really fit into this
deck. It's more about winning with huge Dragons while holding on for the early
game. I feel red/black plays more like a control deck and these don't fit, but
mono red has to use more cards and these make it more aggressive.
Goblin Piker: Your bog standard creature, who you are only going to include if
there's nothing better. In red/black you have plenty of other options, but
running mono red you may be forced to consider them to make up the numbers.
Bad cards
Dragon's Claw: I hate life gain!
Goblin Offensive: I have found this is just too expensive. You need 5 mana to
get 2 tokens, compared with 2 mana for Dragon Fodder. Whatever you spend, it's
not an impressive amount of smelly Goblins you get and since they only interact
with Voracious Dragon it's not worth the investment.
Example decklist
Red/black version:
19 Mountain
6 Swamp
Creatures (23)
1 Dragonmaster Outcast
2 Festering Goblin
2 Slavering Nulls
2 Dragonspeaker Shaman
2 Giant Scorpion
1 Manic Vandal
2 Furnace Whelp
1 Gravedigger
2 Voracious Dragon
1 Flameblast Dragon
1 Hellkite Charger
1 Rorix Bladewing
3 Volcanic Dragon
1 Furyborn Hellkite
Other spells (12)
2 Burst Lightning
3 Disfigure
2 Dragon Fodder
1 Pyroclasm
2 Ruby Medallion
2 Assassinate
1 Crucible of Fire
Mono red version:
25 Mountain
Creatures (24)
1 Dragonmaster Outcast
3 Raging Goblin
1 Goblin Piker
1 Goblin Wardriver
2 Slavering Nulls
2 Dragonspeaker Shaman
1 Manic Vandal
3 Furnace Whelp
2 Voracious Dragon
1 Flameblast Dragon
1 Hellkite Charger
1 Rorix Bladewing
4 Volcanic Dragon
1 Furyborn Hellkite
Other spells (11)
2 Burst Lightning
3 Dragon Fodder
1 Pyroclasm
2 Ruby Medallion
2 Rally the Forces
1 Crucible of Fire
===============================================================================
Sorin Markov - Blood Hunger
===============================================================================
Summary
This is a mono black aggressive Vampire deck, quite like Master of Shadows from
D09. It has a new focus which is bloodthirst, creatures which get a bonus if
the opponent has been damaged the turn you cast them. That's not hard to
achieve with this deck as it's very fast and has a lot of evasion creatures. It
also tends to gain plenty of life through spells and lifelink creatures, which
allow you to ignore counter-attacks to some extent. Certainly the best deck in
my opinion, with the strongest card selection on offer.
Strategy
You should be always on the offensive with this deck. Hopefully you have
Tormented Soul for your first turn, and he can keep attacking, providing you
your bloodthirst bonus for anything else you cast. Keep casting creatures,
unless you need the mana to take out a blocker or a threat. You should gain
enough life in a variety of ways to not worry too much about defending unless
things are going badly. Keep the pressure on, and hopefully you will finish the
opponent with flying creatures and direct damage from Corrupt. When things are
going badly, you may have to cast bloodthirst creatures without getting the
bonus if you can't afford to attack but need the defender.
Pros
> * Lots of lifelink and evasion creatures
> * Plenty of creature control
> * Good threats all the way up the mana curve, fast and deadly creatures
> * Lots of incidental life gain
> * Mono deck so no colour problems
Cons
> * No enchantment or artifact control
Good cards
Urge to Feed: Incredibly efficient, instant speed removal. The first part is
good enough, getting the counters on your Vampires is just an amazing bonus.
Even if this doesn't kill a creature outright, you can still use it either just
for the counters, or in combination with another spell or combat damage to
finish it off. You can pull off some tricks with this when on the defence. Let
things advance in combat until you have blocked whatever you need to, and then
cast this on a creature. You can now tap all your Vampires, even the ones that
have blocked. They will still damage the attackers as normal, but with an added
+1/+1. This could make your 2/2 blocker take down a 5/5 creature that you
target, and survive. Otherwise use it to remove blockers or take out key
ability creatures.
Feast of Blood: Having 2 Vampires out isn't at all difficult for this deck, and
this spell can target any kind of creature without the normal black kill-spell
restrictions. You just have to control two Vampires, no matter if they are
tapped, untapped, or under Arrest. Save it for the scariest of your opponent's
creatures, or to make way for your attack if you can smell blood for the
finish. The life gain will help get back any beatings you have taken while
holding on to this card. You can, in dire situations, target your own creature
just to gain life, but this is probably hardly ever going to occur.
Vampire Nighthawk: This has to be one of the best stand-alone creatures ever,
the fact that it's also a Vampire is just gravy on the cake. It pretty much
does everything you could ever want. Usually he can just keep attacking, slowly
winning you the game and gaining you life to cover possible counter-attacks. It
will take something with flying and either first strike or protection from
black to not get taken down as well. When things get tough he can block and
kill almost anything. Even something pumped with Giant Growth is still going to
die. The 3 toughness makes him not that easy to bring down, he's an amazing
powerhouse.
Vicious Hunger: Simple and effective removal, either for killing a small
annoying creature or finishing off a bigger one after combat or another spell.
You can make what looks like a stupid attack when the opponent has a bigger
blocker you really want to kill, then do the final 2 damage with this in your
second main phase. Use this to take out your opponent's key ability creatures,
which are often small enough to be killed by this. As usual, the life gain is a
handy side-effect.
Vampire Nocturnus: He's back from Master of Shadows, and still as dangerous.
That difficult looking mana cost is no problem for mono black, and as soon as
he hits the table he has the chance to boost up all your Vampires to ridiculous
amounts. It will be pure luck whether or not you have a black card on top of
your deck. When you do, you should normally be able to attack with almost
everything right away unless the opponent has a lot of big fliers. The next
turn he can join in the assault if he has the bonus, 5/4 flying is awesome for
his cost. When he doesn't give the bonus he's best kept out of combat if he may
die as he's so valuable. Having the top card of your library on show is a
double edged sword. Your opponent can plan for your next move, and so can you.
Make sure you take it into account when you plan your strategy.
Corrupt: This is my choice pick for the 6 mana slot, and it's quite likely to
win you the game by the time you get to cast it. You can use it as a finishing
blow if your offence has been running well, or if a big creature is getting in
the way or threatening to do you in, you can kill that instead and reap the
life benefit. Normally 6 damage is enough for either purpose, but you can hold
onto it until you've played more Swamps if you need a bigger blast. If you're
concentrating on pure speed, you could consider dropping 6 mana spells
altogether, but I think it's worth having 1 or 2 of these for games which go
the distance.
Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief: Even more powerful than Sengir Vampire, this is
just deadly. 4/4 flying is decent for 5 mana, and her ability is going to rip
through your opponent's creatures once you have enough mana to keep using it.
You can even use it multiple times a turn to kill several creatures if you can
afford to. Since it lowers toughness the creature can't regenerate either. You
can use it when you are attacking to remove a blocker and have her do more
damage. On the defence you can kill an attacker and then she is more powerful
that turn if she needs to block and kill a huge creature. Keep her alive
whenever possible as she will usually win you the game just by killing
creatures one by one. You can even use her ability on herself or one of your
other creatures just to pump her power up. For example, you may do this when
your opponent has no creatures so you can do more damage, or to help her kill a
big untargetable creature like Simic Sky Swallower.
Captivating Vampire: His stats are not great, but he has two amazing abilities.
Since almost all your other creatures are Vampires, they all get boosted up,
making it really hard for your opponent to keep up with your already efficient
creatures. And if you can get enough Vampires on board, you can start stealing
your opponent's creatures! You can use this ability as soon as you cast him as
it doesn't require tapping. But sometimes it will be better to wait and do it
in your opponent's turn, particularly after you have assigned blockers. You can
block with whatever you like as normal, then use his ability (note that he can
be one of the 5 Vampires you tap) and steal a creature. If it's an attacking
creature you steal, it is removed from combat and won't hurt you. The fact that
some of your blockers tap won't stop them dealing damage. Because he is so
valuable you want to keep him out of combat if there's a chance he will die.
Gatekeeper of Malakir: He has 2/2 for 2 mana which is good enough, but you'll
almost always want to pay the kicker too. He is best used when the opponent has
just one creature that you want to get rid of, since they must sacrifice that
one. This ability even kills indestructible creatures, they can't regenerate,
and it gets around hexproof and shroud also. If the opponent has lots of
creatures they will just sacrifice their weakest one, but you are still getting
card advantage. If the opponent has 2 creatures one of which is small, you can
pick off that little one with Vicous Hunger for example, then cast this with
the kicker to kill the bigger one. He's a must have for the 2 mana slot.
Mirri the Cursed: This is a crazy efficient scary creature. It flies, attacks
right away, and hits first, making it a really nasty aggressive creature that's
hard to see coming. You'll usually want to keep attacking with this unless
you're in a very bad way and need the blocker. It can be tricky in combat, as
it gets the +1/+1 counter right away on dealing damage. Say this blocks a 2/4
creature- it deals its 3 first strike damage, and then gets a counter and goes
up to 4/3. Then the other creature hits it for 2, and this ends up surviving.
It didn't kill the attacker, but has got stronger and can kill it next turn.
Spread the Sickness: This is somewhat pricey, but it is effective as it can
target any creature. Save it for big threats, or for clearing the way for a
victory in short order. Try to plan around it so that you get best use of the
proliferate. For those who haven't seen it before, I'll explain how it works.
For each player or permanent that has a counter on it, you may add another
counter of the same type. For the purposes of this game, it's usually +1/+1
counters on creatures, and it automatically adds them to your (and your
allies') creatures but not your opponents'. If the opponent has a creature with
a -1/-1 counter on it (like from Serrated Arrows) then this adds another of
those counters, but wouldn't do so to your own creature. In one on one, this is
mainly going to benefit your creatures that got their bloodthirst bonus, or
counters from Blade of the Bloodchief or Urge to Feed.
Sengir Vampire: The classic Vampire which has survived through the ages. Just
like Vampires will do given half the chance. He's always been good and
efficient, and can kill the opponent very quickly on his own. The extra counter
gain is a bonus, making the opponent pay for chump blocking him. He will
usually be best on the attack, but if you do need him for defence he is great
since if he can survive an attack he will get stronger. Also once he has a
counter, he qualifies for an extra one when you cast Spread the Sickness.
Bloodghast: This guy is going to really annoy your opponent by coming back time
and time again. He gives you a reason to hold back lands whenever you have
enough already just in case you draw him. You can use him recklessly, even
suicidally as part of a big attack just to overload blockers. You know you can
bring him back, even on the same turn by playing a land after combat. Not being
able to block doesn't matter too much since this deck is so aggressive and you
have plenty of better blockers. Having haste as well makes him even more of a
threat when the opponent is on 10 life or less.
Blade of the Bloodchief: This is really cheap to cast and equip. Although it
doesn't do anything on its own, creatures always die in games and you also have
loads of creature removal. You can put this on anything really, whenever you
have the mana to do so. Of course a Vampire will gain the most counters from
it, but even 1 counter per death on your Tormented Soul can be very effective
since he's guaranteed to get his damage through every turn. When put on a
lifelink creature it makes them gain even more life as they get bigger. I'd
recommend equipping this to a creature that isn't likely to be targeted for
destruction by the opponent at that particular time. If you keep putting it on
your best creature, when they kill it you get no bonus. By putting it on a
second best or lower, you force them to choose between killing the one with the
equipment or killing your better one and letting you get counter(s) on the
equipped one. If you're going to kill something, and before a battle likely
resulting in casualties, make sure this is on something first if you have the
mana!
Tormented Soul: Even though it's not a Vampire, this works so amazingly well in
this deck that I would always keep it in regardless. Being totally unblockable
means you can just peck away every single turn no matter what is going on, and
it provides an ever decreasing timer for your opponent. Often they are forced
to eventually use a card just to take out this guy, which is hilarious for you.
Even if things are going badly, keep attacking with him anyway, there is no
point keeping him back as he can't block at all. His greatest achievement
however is how easy it makes it to get your bloodthirst! If you get one of
these early, you are almost guaranteed to get all your bloodthirst creatures
coming out with their bonus.
Child of Night: A simple and effective 2 drop. It can trade with most other 2
drops in the game, but gives you 2 life in the process. If the opponent has
nothing to block it, your life total goes up while theirs goes down, making it
a steeper climb once they get back in the game. A good chump blocker as well if
needed thanks to the extra life gain.
Sangromancer: A bit of a strange card to be in this deck since it has no
discard whatsoever. Even without this, it's a decent enough card, having a
reasonable amount of power for an evasion creature, and giving you yet more
life as opponent's creatures die around her. Try to keep her alive for this
reason, her life gain will probably be more worthwhile than a single chump
block unless you are in serious danger of being killed right away. Normally she
can keep attacking along with your other guys, racing your opponent's life
total down. Note that you gain the life even if dies trading with an opponent's
creature in combat. She will become more useful in free for all or 2 headed
giant where her discard ability may come into play, and she will count all
other players' casualties for life gain.
Vampire Outcasts: At first glance this doesn't look very good when you see the
2/2, but if you've played this deck you'll have seen how easily the bloodthirst
bonuses come. It almost always comes out at 4/4 for this reason, that is really
good stats for 4 mana, plus the lifelink is outrageous. He can normally keep
attacking and gaining you lots of life, and the opponent will have trouble
doing you enough back to even keep up. If the opponent gets bigger creatures
out (and you can't kill them) then he is an excellent blocker while your
evasion creatures do the business.
Skeletal Vampire: This is quite good, and the best 6 mana creature available at
the moment. You get an overall 5 attack power with flying creatures for 6 mana,
and split up so that one card can't usually deal with them all. He's very hard
to kill, since he can regenerate for no mana by sacrificing one of the bats you
get. If you attack or block with him and the bats, after blocking you can
sacrifice a bat that's going to die in combat anyway to regenerate the Skeletal
Vampire. This works well on blocking especially, meaning you've lost just one
bat token to block two attackers. If you have the mana, you can instead pay to
turn the bat that's about to die into two bats and use one of those to
regenerate the Vampire. If things are going well, you can just keep making more
and more bats. You can also sacrifice Duskhunter Bats to his abilities if you
use them.
Vampire's Bite: This deck normally hammers down your life totaly very quickly,
and the threat of these can make it even more scary. Be way of the opponent
using an instant to kill your guy in response to this, so it's best used when
they are tapped out if possible. It can also be used in a desperate situation
to fix fights, allowing your smaller creature to kill one of their big ones.
And if you can afford the kicker, the extra life can keep you ahead in an
aggression race or against direct damage. Don't both paying the kicker if you
are using it on a creature that already has lifelink, since double lifelink
doesn't get you any more life. I found this effective for a while, but decided
in the end to cut it because it's not great when you're losing, usually at best
giving you a 2 for 1 trade in your opponent's favour and/or some life. But it's
certainly worth considering for extra-aggressive strategies.
OK cards
Bloodrage Vampire: With the amount of aggressive 1 and 2 drops in this deck,
the chances of getting bloodthirst on turn 3 is pretty good. This gives 4/2 for
3 mana, which is a nasty early threat. I feel this earns his place for the
moment. Even without the bloodthirst, 3/1 isn't too bad although not ideal. You
may need to play him anyway if you need a blocker or have run out of other
attackers.
Vampire Aristocrat: Although 2/2 for 3 mana is not very good, his ability to
self pump is handy. He is competing against a lot of great creatures for 3
mana, and the only one he could replace is Bloodrage Vampire. It's close, but I
feel that I'd rather have the extra power, and more often than not two power
with the bloodthirst, than the need to pump him up. Especially as your
creatures are really strong and you probably don't want to sacrifice any of
them to this if you can avoid it! If you use him, make sure you don't use his
ability until blockers have been declared, so your opponent has to make their
decision blind and you can then decide whether or not to pump him. Or else in
response to direct damage that threatens to kill him. You can also use his
ability to eat himself, or any of your other creatures, to avoid them being
stolen by something like Mind Control.
Ruthless Cullblade: This is the weakest of the two mana creatures I would
recommend using, but still just about good enough to make it. 2/1 isn't too bad
early on, and late game it's likely to come out as 4/2 which is good value.
Dispensable extra offense.
Barony Vampire: Reasonable stats for a standard grunt Vampire, but with so many
good creatures already demanding the three mana slot, this doesn't quite make
the cut.
Quag Vampires: This is alright, but not great whatever amount of kickers you
use. The swampwalk is handy but is only relevant against 3 out of the 10 decks.
However, 2 of those are this deck and Guardians of the Wood which are the best
decks in my opinion, so you may consider including him just to pick on those
deck types. I feel overall Tormented Soul is better for the one slot though,
and the other Vampires out-perform this guy. For a really fast swarm strategy
and his flexibility, you may consider including him.
Duskhunter Bat: He is OK and may have just about made the cut, except for the
fact he's not a Vampire so doesn't help the overall theme. He is highly
aggressive and efficient when he works though. I feel he's not quite good
enough to justify taking away a Vampire, and you can't always count on getting
a bloodthirst bonus on turn 2.
Bad cards
Stalking Bloodsucker: This guy has weak original stats, and with every card
being so effective in this deck I'd rather play them out than chuck them to him
for an extra 2 damage. He's hopelessly outclassed by the other creatures in
this deck, and by the other 6 mana spells.
Demon's Horn: I hate life gain!
Repay in Kind: This is way too expensive for one on one, considering this deck
is so aggressive it's most likely your opponent will have a lower life total
than you. This is only any use in Archenemy for bringing down the big man's
life total!
Example decklist
24 Swamps
Creatures (24)
3 Tormented Soul
1 Bloodghast
2 Child of Night
2 Gatekeeper of Malakir
2 Ruthless Cullblade
3 Bloodrage Vampire
1 Captivating Vampire
2 Vampire Nighthawk
1 Mirri the Cursed
1 Sangromancer
1 Vampire Nocturnus
2 Vampire Outcasts
1 Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief
1 Sengir Vampire
1 Skeletal Vampire
Other spells (12)
1 Blade of the Bloodchief
2 Feast of Blood
2 Urge to Feed
2 Vicious Hunger
3 Spread the Sickness
2 Corrupt
===============================================================================
Tezzeret - Machinations
===============================================================================
Summary
This is a blue/black/white artifact deck, and is sort of like Relics of Doom
from D09. The cards it uses are almost all new however. It's main theme is
metalcraft, which grants bonuses for having 3 or more artifacts on the
battlefield under your control. To this end, every creature in the deck is an
artifact creature like in Relics. This deck has quite a range of interesting
cards.
Strategy
You want to get your metalcraft bonus as soon as possible, so this means
getting out artifacts quickly. Hopefully you will have an Etherium Sculptor to
play on turn 2, he will speed everything up by reducing the cost of all
artifacts you cast by 1. You basically just keep getting out artifacts and hope
you can overpower the opponent with your weenie fliers and some bigger ground
creatures at the 5-6 mana range later on. Use countermagic to protect your most
important artifacts and stop threats, and the white and black support cards to
remove creatures. When you have a creature with a metalcraft bonus such as
Razorfield Rhino, be wary of the opponent removing your other artifacts in the
middle of combat, dropping your artifact count below 3 and making it lose its
bonus at a crucial point.
It's possible to cut out either black, white, or both from this deck once you
have all the cards unlocked. At the moment I'm slightly favouring just taking
out white. Although it has some strong cards, it messes with your land setup
quite badly and I think the consistency may be worth the slight drop in power
overall. It's a close call though.
Pros
> * Good countermagic and reasonable creature control
> * A lot of fliers/potential fliers
> * Can be quite fast with Etherium Sculptor
Cons
> * No artifact or enchantment control
> * 3 colours can lead to mana problems
> * Creatures a bit on the weak side overall
Good cards
Go for the Throat: Amazingly efficient creature control, and at instant speed.
Be very sparing with this! I'm glad to see them ditch Terror due to its
non-black requirement making it a dead card in so many games. Sadly this is
still dead in the mirror match. This kills anything except artifacts, but note
that you can regenerate from it. For those creatures use it only when the
opponent is tapped out and can't regenerate, unless you are happy for it just
to end up tapped. This card is mainly going to be used on big creatures or
little ones with really good abilities, and provides a safety net for creatures
getting past your counterspells. A must include.
Stoic Rebuttal: It's a cross between Cancel and Counterspell. Either way you
need two Islands untapped for this, so manage your mana carefully. This is your
only way of stopping artifacts and enchantments, so consider that when the
opponent drops a really nasty one of these. It may be better to counter that,
and rely on your creatures and kill-spells to deal with the opponent's
creatures. Obviously sometimes a creature is just too much of a threat and if
you have nothing else in hand to deal with it, go ahead and counter it. Getting
to metalcraft quickly means you don't need to leave as many lands behind, and
you can use this offensively to protect your most valuable creatures. It's more
important to keep your land untapped for this spell if you hand is poor and
anything that hits the table could go unchecked for a while.
Undermine: Same strategy as the above, except of course you always need a Swamp
too making it a bit more fiddly to use. If you're just playing blue/black this
should be no problem though. The 3 life lost can be handy since this deck is
quite aggressive when it's running well, and gets you closer to the finishing
line.
Dispense Justice: Without metalcraft this is handy but not wonderful, since to
be useful it requires your opponent to have just one creature or several good
ones so that they can't just sacrifice a weenie to it. Once you get metalcraft
though, two creatures lost for 1 card is devastating in most situations so try
and hold on for this. Along with Sanctum Gargoyle this is the main reason to
keep white in.
Wurmcoil Engine: This is an insane creature for any deck! It puts your
Razorfield Rhinos to shame. You can probably just keep attacking with this, and
the lifegain you get will help deal with any damage you get back from your
opponent. If they do have something big enough to kill this and they end up
trading, theirs will die and you get two more tokens! It's rather unfair, so
this is a must include.
Steel Overseer: This is a new "boss" of the artifacts, being even cheaper than
Master of Ehterium and able to indefinitely keep pumping up both himself and
all your creatures. You'll most likely want to keep him out of combat unless
you need him for a final attack, or are desperate for a blocker. If you do need
to block with him, block first and then use his ability in the blocker's phase.
This may make him big enough to kill the attacking creature, or even survive as
well. And if not, at least you get some counters on your other creatures before
he dies. He's a prime target to get back with Sanctum Gargolye and Dead
Reckoning. If you follow my strategies, you will know that I recommend normally
casting creatures after combat to reduce the amount of information your
opponent has. When you have this guy out and ready to use his ability though,
it is often best to cast them before combat if you intend to attack. This is
because you will want to use his ability to make your attackers stronger, and
you won't want your other creatures to miss the chance to get a counter to by
not being around when you use the ability.
Master of Etherium: One of the survivors from Relics of Doom, and still as
deadly. Just the one now, but still a must include. He instantly boosts up all
your guys, and he gets ludicrously bigger and bigger the more artifacts (not
just creatures) you churn out. Keep him out of combat unless he is sure to
survive, as he is too valuable to lose that way. He is often big enough to
attack though, and if the opponent has to combine two blockers to kill him you
can always use Go for the Throat after they declare blockers to take one out,
leaving the Master to kill the other and survive. Sometimes he will just be a
huge blocker for you while the fliers do the work on the offence.
Etherium Sculptor: An essential part of the deck, you hope to always have one
of these for turn 2 and it should be your priority play. You will then be able
to get much more for your mana as long as he sticks around. You'll achieve
metalcraft very quickly, and also get out your big mana artifacts a turn
earlier than usual. Note that he can't reduce the coloured portion of costs, so
he does nothing to help cast Tidehollow Strix. His 2 defence makes him handy as
a blocker for early 1/1 creatures.
Tidehollow Strix: This is your premium small flier, excellent on both offence
and defence. He can keep pecking away for 2 while the opponent has no fliers,
and if you get in trouble you can keep him back and his deathtouch will kill
almost anything. The exceptions are things that can regenerate and
indestructible creatures. I feel this is a must include.
Etched Champion: This is pretty poor until it gets its metalcraft, at which
time it becomes awesome. Protection from all colours means that, except from
artifacts and artifact creatures, it can't be blocked by anything, killed by
damage, have any nasty enchantments put on it (neither can you put any on it!)
or be the target of any spell or ability. Also any Auras on it will fall off.
This all makes it almost invincible, aside from non-targetting mass effects
like Evacuation and Damnation. If you have other artifacts cast them first, so
that ideally this gets its metalcraft bonus as soon as it hits the table and
will then be harder to get rid of. If you cast this first, it can be picked off
quite easily. Of course if you're low on resources you may have to cast it
anyway and hope it survives. Once it has its bonus it is virtually a free 2
damage on the attack each turn, or else a perfect ground defender, letting only
trample damage through from coloured creatures.
Sanctum Gargoyle: The other big reason to have white in the deck, this is
really useful to get easy card advantage and provide another decent attacker.
Obviously don't cast it until there is something worth retrieving from your
graveyard, unless you desperately need another attacker/blocker. He can fetch
any of your many artifacts, both creature and non creature, giving you two
towards your metalcraft once you cast it again. You will probably bring back a
key creature most of the time like Steel Overseer or Master of Etherium, but if
you're getting really beat up you may need a Tidehollow Strix. If you have
loads of land you may want the card advantage from Mirrorworks or Seer's
Sundial.
Mirrorworks: If the game doesn't finish quickly one way or the other, you can
often end up with more land than you need with this deck. This card along with
Seer's Sundial gives you an excellent way to use that extra mana for card
advantage. The tokens will act as exact replicas with all the abilities,
including entering the battlefield abilities. So it can double up things like
Master of Etherium for twice the bonus. It gets quite crazy when you have the
mana, and it becomes hard for the opponent to keep up. Use Mirrorworks' ability
whenever you can, but sometimes you just need to cast something huge or several
things at once, so don't always force yourself to use it. Don't cast this until
you can afford the mana, since it doesn't do anything on its own. Think of it
as a payment towards a big future payoff, once your board position is stable.
Seer's Sundial: A pure card drawing engine, I find this a really great way to
get an advantage mid/late game. You can make it part of your general strategy
to hold back some lands when you have as many as you need, either in case you
draw this or if you already have it in hand. Once it's out, pay the cost
whenever you can afford to, the card advantage will put you way ahead if you
can manage it. Of course it might not be possible every turn, so again don't
feel obliged. You can use Terramorphic Expanse to get two for the price of one.
You can activate the Sundial when you play it, then wait until next turn to
activate the Expanse, and use the Sundial again when it fetches the land. You
can then play another land that turn, and pay for another card!
Darksteel Plate: A really handy bit of equipment that not only makes one of
your creatures really hard to get rid of, but is itself indestructible making
it resistant to almost all the removal in the game. The only things that can do
anything to it once it's on the battlefield are Quicksilver Geyser which can
return it to your hand, and Revoke Existence which can exile it. You can use
this to make a really hard to stop attacker, or a solid blocker, particularly
good on Tidehollow Strix. Once you have enough mana you can do both, move it
from the attacker to another creature ready to defend, then move it to the
attacker again next turn and so on. It can also be great for keeping your key
creatures alive that normally die such as Master of Etherium or Steel Overseer.
Be careful because the opponent can respond to the equip ability and kill the
creature before the Plate takes effect. But you can then just put it on another
creature! This really helps with Metalcraft as it's likely to stick around for
the long haul.
Razorfield Rhino: The theory with this creature is that by the time you can
cast it, you are likely to have at least 2 other artifacts on the battlefield
so it comes in at 6/6. That's a pretty good deal for 6 mana, especially 6 of
any colour(s). Obviously without the bonus he's pretty poor, so do everything
you can to keep him pumped up. He can often dominate the board, especially if
he comes out quickly using Etherium Sculptor, and will demand an answer before
he batters the opponent to death.
Magister Sphinx: This guy is very expensive, even for a big flier, but his
effect is quite game changing and I think it's just about worth the stretch. By
setting your opponent to 10 you can effectively do 10 damage to them if you've
got off to a slow start and haven't done any damage yet. He then only has to
attack twice for the win. Alternatively by setting your own to 10, you can gain
some life if you've been badly beaten and are close to death. If you're more
focused on speed, there is an argument for removing him as he doesn't help with
quickly getting metalcraft going and is never going to come out particularly
quickly so can clog your hand up early. Obviously if you drop white (or black)
you lose him too. He can be great for Archenemy since he can drop that big 40
life total down to 10!
Terramorphic Expanse: This is an amazingly helpful card, especially if you are
using all 3 colours. It can find whatever land you need in the circumstances,
and it can be played penalty-free on turn 1 since there's nothing to cast
anyway (besides Signal Pest if you use it). Later in the duel, play one
whenever you don't need mana right away from an additional land. There's no
point activating it right away on your turn since you can't use the land as it
comes in tapped. It's better to wait until near the end of your opponent's turn
to use it. This avoids giving away early what your choice is, and you may want
to change your mind once you've seen what the opponent has done on their turn.
I still recommend keeping these in if you drop to 2 colours, especially since
the game doesn't replace them with other lands if you remove them. This is the
only way in the whole game you can effectively drop your land count in fact,
you could in theory make the deck have 21 lands if you took them all out.
Finding enough worthwhile cards, and cheap enough for the low land count, to
fill the gaps is another matter!
OK cards
Pilgrim's Eye: Although he's puny, he is very handy in this deck, particularly
if you are playing all 3 colours. He is easy to cast, but fetches whatever land
you need. He then provides either a little attacker or a chump blocker, and
helps towards metalcraft. Great if copied by Mirrorcraft as you get a land for
the token too! Certainly worth including.
Gust-Skimmer: This is the Alpha-Alpha Myr! If the opponent doesn't have
creatures just roll him in on the ground, and if you need him to fly make sure
you activate his ability before blockers are declared. Doing so after he's been
blocked doesn't stop him being blocked. And if you want him to block a flying
attacker, again activate the ability before it gets to the blocker's phase.
Make sure you don't spend a blue mana on him when you desperately need it for a
Stoic Rebuttal. Along with all your permanent fliers, he can help peck away at
your opponent.
Sleep: This may look like a defensive card at first glance, but in fact it's
more of an aggressive card. It effectively gives you two free attacks, both the
turn you cast it, and next turn after they haven't untapped anything. Save this
for when you have enough muscle on the table to finish the opponent with these
two attacks. If the game reaches a stalemate with lots of creatures around and
you draw this card, it's likely to be a game winner. If you're badly losing and
need some breathing room, go ahead and use it just to stop the opponent
attacking you next turn; this isn't ideal, but it may just keep you in the
game. Attack them anyway after you cast it since they can't attack back, but
then don't attack on your next turn, hold for defence. I rate it as only OK
because it's not very good when you're losing and needs you to have several
creatures out to be effective. But I think it's worth including at the moment.
Stone Golem: Not a wonderful card, but he does his job, and is easy to get out.
You should reach 5 mana fairly easily with both Etherium Sculptors helping you
and Pilgrim's Eye getting more land. He can either be a fat blocker to keep the
attackers away while your fliers peck at the opponent, or if you have a good
board position and life total he can smash in with the rest of them.
Psychosis Crawler: He can be a little inconsistent, but I think he just about
makes the cut at the moment. If you're off to a slow start, he's probably going
to be quite big. Even if he comes out small, you can hold back cards for a few
turns allowing him to grow. His insulting life loss can be handy for finishing
off an opponent in a stalemate situation. Be very careful with your cards in
hand when you have him out, it's very easy to play a land without thinking
about it and have him drop in stats when you really need him big. Don't play
anything before combat unless you really need to so he stays as big as
possible. Works nicely with Pilgrim's Eye since it replaces itself in your hand
and he doesn't get smaller.
Snapsail Glider: This is a bit crappy really, but I grudgingly find it a
necessary part of the offence with the current card selection. At least it's
easy to cast not needing any particular colours, and 2 damage a turn from him
flying in isn't bad once you've got 2 more artifacts out. He can be considered
disposable though, don't worry about trading him for a 2/2 ground creature if
you are getting beaten up. If you really, really hate him and want something
quicker you could go for Golem Hearts to play more defensively, or Alpha Myrs
or Signal Pests to play more aggressively. But I find him just about adequate
for now.
Dead Reckoning: This is quite handy and duel purpose, giving your important
creature a second chance (although it costs you a draw) and hopefully killing
something annoying your opponent has out. Since Steel Overseer and Master of
Etherium tend to get killed very quickly, these are good candidates as they
help you so much. The card is held back by the fact that you can't use it until
something is dead, and because it's limited to the power of the dead creature.
I'd include only if you are dropping white, especially because the two black
mana required can be a pain for 3 colours and low Swamp count. It's because of
the mana cost that it's lower on the list than it would otherwise be.
Alpha Myr: Bog standard artifact creature, 2/1 is alright but obviously he is
outclassed by Gust-Skimmer. The 2 mana slot already has Tidehollow Strix, Steel
Overseer and Etherium Sculptor. But he can be used as a filler if you cut out
one of the colours.
Signal Pest: This guy seems like he might be a good idea for a few reasons.
He's the only 1 mana artifact you have so he gets metalcraft off to a fast
start and you have nothing else to play anyway on turn 1, and he can normally
attack safely while pumping up your other guys as long as the opponent has no
fliers/reach creatures. This almost sounds tempting, but I would rather go with
something more reliable and that can deal damage on its own. Obviously if you
have no other creatures this is useless. And once fliers hits the table he's no
good unless you can keep killing them all. But if you are interested in pure
speed and swift metalcraft, he may be worth considering.
Bad cards
Venser's Journal: At least this can offer a reasonable amount of life, but I
still don't think it's worth the big mana cost. You're rarely going to need
more than 7 cards in your hand anyway as the deck is quite quick and you're
racing out artifacts to get your metalcraft bonus. I'd only recommend using
this while unlocking cards if you're playing against direct damage, I found it
helpful against Koth.
Soulquake: This is a cool looking and interesting card, but I think it's too
expensive and not right for this deck. There's no reason to expect you will
have any more dead creatures than the other player, so you can't count on
raking the graveyards for an advantage. As for returning everything in play to
your hand, you lose your metalcraft bonus and you're probably completely tapped
out. Your opponent gets to play everything again first and will have control of
the game. You'll rarely have enough mana left to counter anything they cast.
For 7 mana I think the Sphinx is far better.
Hunger of the Nim: The fact that this is a sorcery means you can't use it for
surprise value in combat, making it limited to trying to finish your opponent
off. But they can then either kill the creature you pumped up or block it. It's
main use is going to be on a flier when your opponent doesn't have any. I don't
like the card because it's useless when you are losing, and relies on having
lots of things in play to be any good at all. Only worth considering if you are
insanely focused on a quick attack. I mistakenly thought it was an Instant to
begin with! That would have made it much better.
Golem's Heart: I hate life gain!
Shape Anew: This is an interesting card, but unreliable. You're probably going
to want to cast it on your own cheap artifact and hope that something big
churns out. Sometimes you'll get something else small that wasn't worth your 4
mana and two cards to fetch. I prefer not to gamble like this, but if gambling
is your thing, go for it! It can be cast on the opponent's artifact, probably a
big one, in the hope that they churn out a little one. There may be some value
in this, but again I don't like the risk and you're still spending a lot of
mana and giving away card advantage.
Razorfield Thresher: I don't understand why they make cards like this. It's
obviously terrible stats for its cost, and has no point to it whatsoever. Why
it's been included in this deck I have no idea, all your 6 mana creatures are
better than this. The flavour text is quite funny, making it officially a joke
card, I guess.
Darksteel Colossus: This is just not right for this deck, I would never include
this. It will be extremely rare, even with the help of Etherium Sculptors, that
you will get enough mana to cast this. The only other way to get it onto the
battlefield is with Shape Anew, which I don't recommend using, and even if you
try that there's very little chance you'll actually hit this.
Example decklists
Tri colour version:
6 Plains
11 Island
4 Swamp
3 Terramorphic Expanse
Creatures (24)
4 Etherium Sculptor
2 Gust-Skimmer
2 Steel Overseer
2 Tidehollow Strix
1 Etched Champion
1 Master of Etherium
2 Pilgrim's Eye
3 Snapsail Glider
1 Sanctum Gargoyle
1 Psychosis Crawler
2 Stone Golem
1 Razorfield Rhino
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Magister Sphinx
Other spells (12)
2 Go for the Throat
1 Darksteel Plate
2 Dispense Justice
3 Stoic Rebuttal
1 Undermine
1 Seer's Sundial
1 Sleep
1 Mirrorworks
Blue/black version:
14 Island
7 Swamp
3 Terramorphic Expanse
Creatures (25)
1 Alpha Myr
4 Etherium Sculptor
2 Gust-Skimmer
2 Steel Overseer
2 Tidehollow Strix
1 Etched Champion
1 Master of Etherium
2 Pilgrim's Eye
4 Snapsail Glider
1 Psychosis Crawler
2 Stone Golem
2 Razorfield Rhino
1 Wurmcoil Engine
Other spells (11)
2 Go for the Throat
1 Darksteel Plate
1 Dead Reckoning
3 Stoic Rebuttal
1 Undermine
1 Seer's Sundial
1 Sleep
1 Mirrorworks
===============================================================================
Changes Log
===============================================================================
While writing guide:
Blood hunger
Removed 2 Vampire's Bite, put in 1 Spread the Sickness and 1 Skeletal Vampire
Strength of Stone
Removed 2 Act of Treason, added 2 Volcanic Strength
Removed 1 Rockslide Elemental, added in 1 Vulshock Heartstroker
Machinations
Tri colour: Removed 1 Snapsail Glider, added 1 Gust-Skimmer
Blue/black: Removed 1 Hunger of the Nim, added 1 Alpha Myr
6.7.2011:
Corrected some errors, and added to Aether Mutation's and Repulse's commentary.
Added to Polymorph's commentary and moved it up to OK. Thanks to NLi10 for this
feedback.
Changed and added to the commentary on Nath of the Gilt-Leaf, thanks to
Orthanc_eb for prompting me to elaborate.
Added about deathtouch to the Differences from D09 to D12 section.
Realm of Illusion
Removed 1 Aeether Adept, added 1 Phantom Beast - Thanks to Lorenzo for pointing
out I had overlooked there actually being a third Beast available!
Unquenchable Fire
Remove 1 Relentless Assault, added 1 Lava Axe. I changed commentary on
Relentless Assault and moved it down to bad. Thanks to Gegliosch for pointing
out my error.
7.7.2011
Thanks to Cardio for asking me to elaborate on which build I prefer for
Dragon's Roar, I have done so.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
This guide was created at http://www.playhaven.com/. See the full guide here:
http://www.playhaven.com/guides/360/magic-the-gathering-duels-of-the-planeswalk
ers/duels-of-the-planeswalkers-2012-guide/9BTpSAjYWUrU/
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