You can't fire me because I quit - Avg. CMC 1.44

Frontier PlagueRats

SCORE: 138 | 165 COMMENTS | 25383 VIEWS | IN 78 FOLDERS


Pre Oath of the Gatewatch - version —March 2, 2016

Just added Nissa, Voice of Zendikar to win my Game day event! I don't feel like updating this pages description again.

ZKnite says... #1

I see no use for the fetches except for the windswept

November 26, 2015 8:59 a.m.

Trynthlas says... #2

Congrats on the FNM wins, PlagueRats!

Have you had any matchups vs control-heavy decks? Jeskai-black type of thing or any or mono-? Or anything that plays a lot of sweepers? To me those seem to be the biggest obstacles. Creature-control-by-exile or board sweepers that wipe your tokens (or Languish and/or Virulent Plague).

November 26, 2015 12:20 p.m.

PlagueRats says... #3

ZKnite, 6 fetches is great! You realize all three can fetch Canopy Vista? The alternative is a dual tap land or basic Plains. If anything I'd add a 7th fetch land. The Flooded Strand isn't ideal, two Wooded Foothills would be better. I bought one of each with the intention of using them in commander decks later.

November 26, 2015 4:59 p.m.

jubale says... #4

Trynthlas, I haven't played this list, but Evolutionary Leap is rough on control players. You cast a creature, they try to kill it, but that's just card advantage for you when you draw another. Control-heavy decks don't have that many sweepers either so they will just run out of removal, and get exhausted trying to remove tokens one by one.

November 26, 2015 8:21 p.m.

PlagueRats says... #5

Thanks Trynthlas, I haven't got to play a whole lot since adding Murder Investigation. Languish beats Murder Investigation, but it's sometimes less of a threat than an Abzan Charm. Hardened Scales + Managorger Hydra is a fun matchup against Languish, you just need to play one card after the Hydra to make it a 3/3 that becomes a 5/5 when the opponent casts their Languish. Actually most of these creatures can get bigger then 4/4 on their own.

Virulent Plague obviously beats all my tokens. I would just side out all the token making cards in that case. It makes Murder Investigation a dead card, but I do have 4x Dromoka's Command's? It may not be that much of a problem.

What likely happens against sweepers is the opponent will waste turns trying to set it up so they can destroy the creature with spot removal and clean up the tokens next turn with their sweeper. Against control decks or whenever I suspect sweepers, I just try not to play more creatures then I need. The more removal a deck has, the fewer creatures, so often you only really want two or three creatures in play to defend yourself and keep up the pressure. Once I have enough creatures in play, I can just keep all my lands untapped for Evolutionary Leap if I want. There are 23 green lands so you can sacrifice most/all of your creatures in response to anything. With Evolutionary Leap your ideally always leaving enough untapped land to 'protect' your creatures from any expected threat. They play a sweeper, next turn you can cast a couple creatures and leave one land untapped to maintain your advantage.

I love this type of game, I beat a control deck with 4x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  Flip and nothing but card draw, removal, and counter spells. Game 1, I conceded after activating Evolutionary Leap and not finding a creature left in my library. It was a good game though, I always felt like I could win within a couple turns, right up to the end.

November 27, 2015 3 p.m.

TobyG says... #6

Why did you take out Hooded Hydra? It seems to me like it was made for this deck

November 28, 2015 12:12 p.m.

jubale says... #7

Tried a couple games against control, and wow, if you have Leap you almost can't lose.

Thinking about tokens, Valor in Akros can be nutty. I would only play 1 or 2 because of its cost, but with Hangarback tokens and Murder Investigation tokens you can just any turn (or their turn) go "everybody gets +5/+5. War Horn is another cheaper option. If you go this way, Secure the Wastes might be an idea. Hypothetically you drop Hardened Scales for creatures that naturally get high power. Not saying this is the way to go, but there's lots of room to experiment here.

November 28, 2015 1:51 p.m.

jubale says... #8

Seem to fold to Aristocrats. They do the same thing kind of but Cutthroat means they drain life when their creatures die.

November 28, 2015 2:40 p.m.

PlagueRats says... #9

jubale, it's tempting to add stuff to buff tokens, but I don't think it's worth the cards. Typically when ever I get lots of tokens it's enough to win anyways. I like Hardened Scales better here over cards like Valor in Akros because this deck is really about big creatures, the tokens just help you get there.

Murder Investigation is also very often sided out, so there's less reason to bother buffing tokens.

November 28, 2015 5:23 p.m.

darleen says... #15

With a CMC so low you could probably go down a land or two and add Abzan Falconer mainboard. He's a huge win con for a deck like this. Let your creatures build up counters, drop in Falconer and alpha strike for the win.

December 11, 2015 5:07 p.m.

PlagueRats says... #16

Cutting lands isn't the way to go. I never have too much, there's a lot to spend it on. The only thing I'm considering cutting now is the fourth Endless One and fourth Murder Investigation

December 11, 2015 5:23 p.m.

Phyrexia108 says... #18

Don't really have time to look at the decklist, but +1 for the name! XD

December 13, 2015 5:12 p.m.
December 14, 2015 6:13 p.m.

PlagueRats says... #20

Is Gaea's Revenge really great against much? The 5 toughness seems like it will just trade for something like Dragonlord Ojutai. People seem to be playing cards that get around hexproof. It seems dangerous to count on a game getting to 7 lands, control decks are usually in a very good position by then. I like my new sideboard against control. Just get in there fast and overwhelm them with too many cheap creatures. Maybe adding a lot of giant un-counterable threats to the sideboard would work really well, idk.

December 14, 2015 7:12 p.m.

zulaica says... #21

I saw Dragonlord Dromoka in your maybes, but I'd suggest Dromoka, the Eternal instead. The Bolster 2 ability is strong in Abzan Counters, plus she costs less.

December 20, 2015 4:26 p.m.

PlagueRats says... #22

I've considered Dromoka, the Eternal, it couldn't go in the main board. With my Evolutionary Leap strategy even one expensive creature can break the reliability of it all. I was thinking about adding some big creatures to the side board for games that go longer, but I decided against that in favor of an overwhelming number of low cost threats.

I've found that it's not actually that valuable to add cards that primarily put counters on creatures. Dromoka, the Eternal comes with a 5/5 flying body, but still it's not really good enough.

December 20, 2015 5:06 p.m.

zulaica says... #23

Fair enough; that makes sense.

December 20, 2015 6:03 p.m.

Hearthemelody says... #24

Undergrowth Champion? Just a thought, I've really been enjoying my build of this deck and it seems it might fit!

February 15, 2016 2:06 a.m.