Introduction
This is a casual/FNM budget deck. It is designed to steal your opponents creatures, attack them with their own cards then "sacrifice" those cards so they don't get them back. The remainder of the deck is designed to stay alive till this can start happening.
The goals of this deck was to give me an around 60 dollar entry point into the upcoming standard I would enjoy playing consistently. As well as give me a deck to tinker with and improve over time or develop in different ways.
The Primer
Overview
Reading this decklist
Reading this decklist
This decklist is organized, by default, into my custom categories.
Land: Self-explanatory.
Kidnapping: The effects that let me take my opponents creatures.
Control: The removal spells that allow me to respond to opponents' plays and control the game till I can start kidnapping their creatures.
Sacrifice: The various ways to remove your opponents creatures before giving them back.
The sideboard is largely going to be for handling graveyard recursion matchups and control decks until I run into something else that just tears me apart.
The maybeboard is a working list of cards that are not in the deck, but are being considered for inclusion based on suggestions and testing.
Deck colors
Deck colors
I choose Red because it had the type of stealing effect I really enjoy and Captivating Crew recurring version of this effect made me want to build around it.I choose Black because it had additional sacrifice outlets that didn't cost any mana to use. This color could change if new options present themselves in other colors.
Deck strengths
Deck strengths
This deck is set up to be strong against midrange and ramping creature decks. It is very hard for them to recover when you take their best thing every turn and turn it against them. Basically if the deck goes tall with only a few strong creatures they are in for a nasty surprise. It also has solid potential against tribal decks. Stealing and sacrificing their 'lords' can reduce much of their effectiveness.The deck aims to be consistent, cohesive, and have a very effective constant threats versus midrange and ramp creature decks.
Deck weaknesses
Deck weaknesses
Okay so first obvious weakness. Decks that go wide with lots of small bodies or tokens. This deck lacks mass removal in the current main deck and if they aren't medium to large threats to steal our own offensive power is reduced considerably.Another weakness is going to be control and combo decks that don't rely on creatures as well. Especially if they use enchantments. The decks colors prevent any enchantment removal outside of well timed discard. The deck lasts flexibility and potentially resiliency.
The Strategy
General strategy
General strategy
In general the deck is trying to win either through constant erosion and use of your opponents board through Captivating Crew and a way to dispose of them. Or to get them low enough to burn out with your spells, or even a large Fling target.
You need time to get there though so it is important to use your control cards to stay alive till then.
Early game
Early game
Your early game is developed to keeping your opponents board manageable and setting up one of your sacrifice outlets. Try to not tip off what your deck does too early.
Mid game
Mid game
Midgame is where the deck gets to do its thing. The first time you steal and sacrifice their best thing on the board can be backbreaking to some decks especially if you have kept their board small and manageable to this point. If you manage to stick a Captivating Crew down without it getting removed you should sail smoothly to victory
Late game
Late game
If the game is going long hopefully they are within burn range to close the game out quickly, stealing their best guy and flinging it is a common finisher. If the game goes late enough Heart-Piercer Manticore can be an okay finisher providing a fling on a body that can be recurred. Or there is always pumping your mana into Ribbons
Contingency plan
Contingency plan
Honestly at this point the deck doesn't really have one and that is one of its main flaws. Suggestions would be appreciated.
Mulligans
Mulligans
Optimum hand to start is 3 lands 2 removal spells, a Captivating Crew and a cheap sacrifice outlet like Hazoret's Favor or Yahenni, Undying Partisan. You can't afford to miss a land drop or not have at least one early removal spell in hand. Do not be afraid to mulligan if you are lacking that.
Matchups and sideboarding
Matchups and sideboarding
"Against faster decks you will need to use your control spells wisely to get you set up. If there deck has a really aggressive curve you may need to sideboard in mass removal. Aggressive token strategies will tear you up most of the time. You simply lack good targets to steal.
Low creature count control or combo decks will give you no end of trouble if their creatures are not part of their win con. Side in as much disruption as you are packing and more damage sources.
Against mid-range and ramp big creatures decks are where you really shine. Their slower pace matches yours letting you save more early removal to become late game burn finishers.
Combos and synergies
Combos and synergies
Besides the deck being based around that temporary stealing effects are better when it is also permanent removal there are a few specific combos and interactions I want to point out.
Kari Zev's Expertise + Wrangle
What is better then stealing one creature? How about two? Or even taking a vehicle and crewing it with their wrangled creature before getting rid of both of them. This can be a nasty surprise that wins a first game right out since you are likely taking their blockers getting in a big chunk of damage and removing most of their board. A lesser version of this combo is Expertise into a burn spell to clear a blocker first.
Hazoret's Favor + Whatever you steal. Why not pump up the creature you kidnapped before Hazoret runs them through with her spear. Potentially our best sacrifice outlet. Especially if you steal an evasion or trampling creature.
Card Choices Explained
Lands
Lands
Straight forward section except for Endless Sands. This is in here to provide another way to remove your opponents creatures that you kidnap. With the added benefit of exiling them if your opponent is playing a recursion deck
Creatures
Creatures
Yahenni, Undying Partisan a cheap instant speed sacrifice outlet on a body that is hard to remove and can sneak in additional damage here and there. Unlikely to grow huge in this deck though.
Heart-Piercer Manticore Fling on a body to help us close out long games.
Captivating Crew What the whole deck was inspired by. If it is not removed quickly it can take over the whole game.
Other cards
Other cards
Need to expand this later sorry for the placeholder.
Other Information
Building this deck
Building this deck
This is a budget deck at least for now. But their are plenty of strong cards you could slot in here. Fatal Push for example is amazing removal that if you happen to have you could easily slot in. In general all you need to get the core of the deck is 2-3 unique cards to steal creatures with and 2-3 sacrifice outlets. Check the maybe board, comments, and suggestions to see examples. I plan to try a few different variants of this deck and will post the testing in this primer as it is accomplished.
Event record
Event record
Placeholder till I can get this to an FNM/MTGO events.
Change log
Change log
Placeholder for now
Feedback
Comments, suggestions, criticisms, and ratings are all welcome!
When recommending cards, please remember that this deck is a budget oriented deck. If the suggestion is particularly expensive it will likely find itself in the maybe board to be tried if I decide to develop this deck beyond its initial budget of 60 dollars. It is still appreciated though.
The coding for this primer was developed by
Epochalyptik here.
