Adapting to the meta; just play good cards
Badsniper, 7 years ago
I've hit a balance for about where I wanted this deck to operate. Back in the days of Smuggler's copter and GB Delirium, I was having decent games. The build before fatal push was able to out value the WB flash decks, and it was able to get under most of the delirium decks that I played against. Now we meet aether revolt and all the interesting toys that it brings. I haven't tested much with this deck, so I'll go through my rationale to justify this deck. 3x Thalia, Heretic Cathar I've played with this card since its release. I think that this is one of the best 3 drops in standard. There are some 3 color manabases in standard right now and landing a Thalia against them is a scenario of "You must answer this". Thalia also stops our opponent from trying to creatues just to block, which is great when we are the beatdown, and it stops all the fake haste that vehicles allows creatures to have. 3x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar Lots has been said about this card. It's a good card. It can make tokens which is strong because a 2/2 every turn is kind of scary if it happens more than once. Gideon hits hard, a 5/5 represents a 4 turn clock, there are some larger creatures that are in standard, but gideon is pretty big for 4 mana. Emblem really plays well with our value plan, and allows us to cash in gideon for permanent value. 1x Blighted Fen This is very useful against things like some of the energy decks that are playing bristling hydra and pummeler. The deck has a little bit of trouble getting to 6 mana to use the blighted fen, but it threatens the opponents creatures very well. 1x Thalia's Lancers Searches for a lot of the creatures in our deck. Usually it goes for Bruna so that Gisela can be assembled. 3x Gisela, the Broken Blade This is a great flying threat that can cause games to end after 2 attacks.
Game Day
BubbleMatrix2357, 7 years ago
Went 2-1 on Game Day with this deck. Slow, but fun to play when it worked.
small changes
kopfschuss, 7 years ago
Made some small changes over the past few days while thinking about the deck. Fit in Anguished Unmaking and Spine of Ish Sah. Decided to throw in Tezzeret the Schemer as well. Small changes to the manabase, such as fitting in Vault of Whispers and Darksteel Citadel, in case I need to fetch black or colorless with a fetch artifact effect. Cut Leyline of the Meek and replaced with Impact Tremors. Cut Shared Animosity for Coat of Arms. Added Saheeli's Artistry as well at some point
More Commands, Less Protection v. Lifegain
XVicarious, 7 years ago
I have been in the process of foiling out my deck. Lands, as one would guess are one of the biggest hurdles. However, foil Lava Spike from CHK and foil Rift Bolt from TSP are hard to come by. I ended up trying to get all the Rift Bolts from Europe, but two of them got lost on the first leg of the journey.
For actual changes, Chandra, Torch of Defiance just was not doing much. For 4 mana, she was already expensive, and add to that the fact that she almost always lasted a turn at the most told me that it was time for her to head out.
I opted for a 4th Atarka's Command over a 4th Skullcrack, due to Command being more flexible. I have 10 fetch lands, so getting green mana is not a terribly hard thing to do.
Lastly, I removed my Leyline of Punishment. Life gain just was not as much as of a problem anymore, and the player who was on Soul Sisters that I played nearly every week was playing a different deck. These have been replaced with a half playset of Deflecting Palm. I will say this about that card: it has saved me more than once. Picture it; I am staring down a Nahiri, the Harbinger ultimate, and Emrakul, the Aeons Torn is coming at me for the swing. I tap my lands and cast Deflecting Palm. The opponent loses, dumbstruck that Deflecting Palm does in fact not target anything. It also may be worth mentioning few weeks after this I tried the same move on the same player in the exact situation, but he had counter magic up and four separate counterspells in hand. You cannot win them all, I suppose.
Necropotence
fads68, 7 years ago
Added Necropotence to the deck. Why is this card legal
Playtesting vs Izzet control 3-3
Neko069, 7 years ago
Some matches with a friend. I have definitely concluded that Dragonlord Kolaghan does not fit in this deck. It's really big, unfortunately.
Rounds were very straightforward. Bloodsoaked Champion into Goblin Rabblemaster into Butcher of the Horde, or "land-go" for several turns until opp stocks 6 counterspells and a Torrential Gearhulk, making it impossible to play.
Deck can win in mainboard if it goes aggro enough, and it can do a much better job in sideboard matches, with Duress and Infinite Obliteration
courser
lornlynx, 7 years ago
removed Boros Keyrune for Courser of Kruphix, think the Courser has a lot more potential to give us more ramp into the lategame, and the creature from the keyrune was kinda mediocre as well
small change
lornlynx, 7 years ago
Again removed The Great Aurora for Curse of the Swine. Curse is probably more flexible and direct, it costs less, with the same mana we can exile 7 creatures which should be enough to clear the enemies board, and it does have the added benefit of being able to exile our own tokens and get more experience counters for it.
haynesking, 7 years ago
+4 Geosurge -4 Desperate Ritual
kortioznikas, 7 years ago
Thanks to Pyromancer999 suggestion, playtested Geosurge instead of Desperate Ritual and it is great card (it also reduced price of this deck by ~5 bucks). Now you need 8 cards to blast off combo on turn 3, instead of 9:
- Turn 1: play Mountain
- Turn 2: play Mountain, play Vessel of Volatility
- Turn 3: play Mountain, sacrifice vessel, play Geosurge, play Nim Deathmantle, Composite Golem, go to infinite and play win card.
v2.0
AJSXenigma, 7 years ago
So what was meant to be a minor update for Aether Revolt (among other sets released since my last revision) turned into a more extensive overhaul after finding myself unsatisfied with the performance of the deck in my somewhat large normal playgroup of 5-6 players. A total of 26 cards changed, with the following basic goals in mind:
- Improve the mana base and add fixing.
- Move away from a pure aggro focus, trading speed for cards better suited to handle a large table.
- Reduce creature total, adding more protection and utility in its place.
- Upgrade budget options when feasible.
- Oh, and add Vernal Equinox, simply because it's a quirky card that seems unusually well suited for werewolves.
It'll probably take around a month to actually acquire the new cards, but I'm excited to take the deck for a spin once the revision is complete.
100 Packs Acquired!
Linkdude74, 7 years ago
Card Upgrade 9
Driemer84, 7 years ago
-Crucible of Worlds -Relentless Dead +Blood Artist +Zulaport Cutthroat Crucible wasn't impactful enough. If Coffers wasn't in the yard I really didn't feel the need to be recurring swamps. Relentless Dead seems good on paper, but my deck isn't optimized to take full advantage of his abilities. He was nice early on to pressure planeswalkwers, but more often than not he was sac fodder to flip Liliana and I don't really have a zombie theme to abuse his death trigger. Returning him to my hand also taxed my mana more than getting back a 2/2 was worth. Blood Artist and Zulaport Cutthroat are added to drain people out by taking advantage of the decks natural tendency to kill creatures.
Brogan54, 7 years ago
Day of Judgement ---> Wrath of God Shifting Borders --> Disallow Bazaar Trader ---> Fellwar Stone Volcanic Offering --> Paradox Haze Perplexing Chimera ---> Gift of Immortality Trading Post ---> Mystic Remora Sunforger ---> Dictate of Kruphix Oath of Lieges ---> Oblivion Ring Conjured Currency --> Solitary Confinement Venser, the Sojourner ---> Elspeth, the Sojourner Stranglehold ---> Foil End Hostilities ---> Hallowed Burial Oblivion Ring--- Preordain
Splitting Hairs With Mikey
Geoffrey1, 7 years ago
So I took the list out for a spin..... I split games with Jeski Saheeli. For all of you that are like: HOW DID YOU WIN? Turn 4 colossus with deep-fiend back up is how this is done. I am excited to get more games in.
A few improvements
Dancing-Blade, 7 years ago
Time for a long over-due update! First of all, a huge thank you to everyone who’s took the time view, upvote and/or leave a comment on the deck thus far. It has made improving the deck far greater and much more interesting, and I believe there is still far-reaching potential for it to be improved further. So, first of all:
2x Rancor -> 2x Aspect of Hydra
In hindsight, not running a playset of Aspect was laughably inexcusable. Still running 2 Rancor as its usefulness is still made apparent when given to Predator Ooze, however its ability to recur itself means running 4 was pretty unnecessary.
1x Courser of Kruphix + 1x Eternal Witness -> 2x Garruk, Primal Hunter
While initially hesitant about swapping 3 drops for 5 drops, I now believe Garruk is the walker for the deck. The creatures and card advantage he provides really kick the deck up a gear and are certainly more useful than a 4th Courser or a Witness.
2 x Gaea's Revenge -> 2x Mistcutter Hydra
The ability to scale Hydra makes him more useful, more often than Gaea’s revenge, as well as having potential to have even higher P/T. Overall, the fact that Mistcutter only hates blue as opposed to all other colours isn’t enough to sully his far greater flexibility in my eyes.
2x Skyreaping -> 2x Hurricane
Less restrictive anti-flying sideboard option that also hits players for the same damage. Hopefully the damage to us shouldn’t be too big a deal as the opponent’s life total should be lower due to the aggressive nature of the deck.
In addition to the above changes, I would like to replace the playset of Birds of Paradise with Noble Hierarch. Unfortunately, he comes with a pretty serious price tag so that will take some time :p
Also for the chopping block as it stands is Courser of Kruphix. It’s got to the point where playing with the top card revealed is more often useful for the opponent than the player, but I’m not 100% sure what should go in its place.
Finally, any thoughts on splashing white would also be useful. I’ve seen a few decks that have done it effectively and I feel that the deck could accommodate it pretty well with the fetches and mana dorks, and would allow access to powerful cards such as Path to Exile and Voice of Resurgence.
Thanks again folks!
Red-Green Hydra
UnholyDeadbones, 7 years ago
added some anti-flying since I kinda forgot about that mechanic
call_me_god32, 7 years ago
Now blacker than ever!
GregariousG, 7 years ago
- Siege Rhino from Inferno Titan
- Ashen Rider from Terastodon
- Forest from Ancient Tomb
Reached #1 for Valentine's Day
TheLoneDart, 7 years ago
In the past 24 hours this deck has climbed from 6th to 1st. Thanks for the support! Hopefully everyone is playtesting and enjoying the brew!
Mainboard changes
Nick0130, 7 years ago
Swapped 2x Forest for 2x Boseiju, Who Shelters All to help against the counterspell issues this deck faces.