A highly refined Derevi deck list that attacks from every line of play it can. Questions and comments are highly appreciated.
Creatures SHOW
HIDE Derevi, Empyrial Tactician: The fearless leader of the deck. Derevi is less central to how the deck operates then many commanders but she is the single force that pushes many of our engines over the top. On her own she does not really represent much of a threat, but like a good leader, just makes those around her better. Her ETB ability, that also triggers whenever one of your creatures hits a player, is fairly innocuous. Howerever, being able to tap down a key permanent or untap one of your own is not something to underestimate. The part where Derevi really shines is with her second ability, "1GWU: Put Derevi onto the battlefield from the command zone." This ability gets around many troublesome mechanics of the game and can feel a lot like you are cheating. As an activated ability, it does not count as being cast and as such ignores both counter-spells and the Command Tax. The fact you can do it at instant speed is just the icing on the cake.
Aven Mindcensor: Wizard, Flash, Stops tutors,
Azami, Lady of Scrolls: Legendary Wizard that draws cards for every wizard, Does not need haste to work
Azorius Guildmage
: Wizard, Activated ability hate, Can also tap down blockers
Captain Sisay: Pretty large legendary toolbox
Consecrated Sphinx: Must answer card that will generally draw at least two cards.
Dromoka, the Eternal
: Legend, Pretty solid threat on his own, helps keep our cards out of getting burnt out, Soft lock with
Glen Elandra Archmage
Edric, Spymaster of Trest: Legend, Early card advantage and helps sway attacks in big multiplayer games.
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite: Legend, Great finisher, gives us a strong out to token strategies, Also kills lands with Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
Eternal Witness: Solid recursion card
Frost Titan
: Durable beater that shines when we are trying to lock someone out of the game
Gaddock Teeg: Legend, We are playing a creature heavy deck and he is amazing protection against wraths. Keep in mind you can stil overload Cyclonic Rift with Teeg in play.
Gilded Drake: Cheap mind control effect.
Glen Elendra Archmage: Wizard, Most of the cards we need to worry about are non-creatures and we have a couple ways of resetting her for added cheese.
Grand Abolisher: Keeps people from responding to us, not great outside the 1v1
Grand Arbiter Augustin IV: Legend. Makes out spells cheaper, keeps our slows our opponents down.
Heliod, God of the Sun: Legend, An indestructible vigilance source with upside, keep in mind the tokens are enchantments creatures for our
Serra's Sanctum
.
Hero of Bladehold: A very aggressive creature for 4 mana, Can also lock out the game on its own with stasis and Derevi using the token hits to untap lands and the hero itself.
Hushwing Griff: A hate card against ETB's.
Knight of the Reliquary: Lets us get our powerful nonbasics out as well as being a decent beater. All star with Armageddon
Linvala, Keeper of Silence: Legend, Hate card for decks running lots of tap effects.
Mirror Entity: A very powerful card that synergizes with our overall creature heavy strategy. Pumps the teams between the token trigger and and the battlecry trigger on Hero of Bladehold. Also gives us creature types for our Wizards and
Dromoka, the Eternal
. Worst case can save us from an untimely Terminus by activating for zero.
Patron Wizard: Wizard, effectively makes our opponents spells cost 1 more for each wizard we have access to. Keep in mind you can tap it, flash in Derevi, untapping the patron, then tap both for a mana leak with just the patron in play, goes overboard with Mirror Entity. Probably gets replaced with Voidmage Prodigy.
Prophet of Kruphix: Wizard, Untaps all our stuff everyturn, enabling us to draw more cards with Azami, Lady of Scrolls, counter more spells with Patron Wizard, and just advance our board every untap step. DOES NOT WORK WITH A STASIS IN PLAY.
Qasali Pridemage
: Wizard. Solid naturalize effect that happens to be a wizard. We dont really use the Exalted effect much but it exists.
Resolute Archangel: Our other big curve topper, exists to make sure we wont just end up getting burnt out over the course of the game.
Reveillark: We don't plan to go infinite, but the ability to get back most of our creatures is powerful enough.
Snapcaster Mage: Wizard, Has flash for our wizard synergies in addition to all the fun of flashback.
Solemn Simulacrum: I don't like him much because once we hit 4 we don't care too much about lands any more and he does not do too much else for us, but he is a solid pod target when we really just want to pod upward. Going to be replaced with Kamahl, Fist of Krosa when I get one.
Sun Titan: We keep a pretty low curve and he keeps them in play. Is also a Stasis lock on his own by not paying for the upkeep cost and just returning it on the attack trigger.
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben: Legend, Makes people who kept fast artifact hands really sad.
Trygon Predator: Flyer that hits to make people sad.
Vendillion Clique
: Legend, Wizard. An agressive flyer? Helps filter out our draws or keep an eye on our opponets? Flash in our of nowhere? IS also a wizard? Yeah.
Venser, Shaper Savant: Remand on legs that synergies with our Wizard plan.
Instants SHOW
Sorcery's SHOW
HIDE Armageddon: Heavy land ramp strategies can get the edge on this and Armageddon just turns them off, meanwhile we operate on a pretty low curve. Can also just with the game after a Cyclonic Rift.
Austere Command: Not entirely sold on it but wanted another reset button and this is the most versatile.
Council's Judgement
: Deals with anything and everything, When you have spot removal that can kill an indestructible Segarda, Host of Herons, you are doing something right.
Retribution of the Meek: Our sweeper of choice because its going to be a
Plague Wind
most of the time. Costed to get under Gaddock Teeg as well.
Wargate
: Need somthing? Go get it.
Artifacts and Enchantmets SHOW
HIDE Birthing Pod: One of the biggest cogs in the card advantage machine. Lets us get what we want despite of decks running heavy counter spells or possibility storm. Details further down.
Crucible of Worlds: We have fetch's, strip mine and Armageddon. That's all we really need,
Mana Vault: Better then Sol Ring.
Static Orb: One of our worst lock pieces, but has interesting applications by tapping it with Derevi at the end of our opponents turn.
Winter Orb: One of our better lock pieces, lets us push damage through before our opponents can assemble any defence.
Umezawa's Jitte: The only sword in the deck. Just a ton of utility on a cheap stick. I get more in depth into the swords later on.
Aura Shards: Lets us keep any artifacts or enchantments we don't want out of the picture.
Defense of the Heart: Tooth and Nail when our opponents are playing cards, Even when we don't flash it in end of turn, people are forced to play several threats against us to get past Derevi's ability to chump almost any single threat.
Spirit Bonds: One of the harder cards to evaluate. Has the potential to get us a lot of tokens with the bonus of being able to keep out high value creatures alive.
Stasis: Our biggest lock piece, details below.
Stony Silence: We made a point keeping out of artifacts with actives and this is why. Being able to say no to artifact ramp, tops and swords is just too powerful to ignore.
Plansewalkers SHOW
HIDE Elspeth, Sun's Champion: The three tokens can maintain our lock with Stasis, and the board wipe its usually only going to be our opponents creatures.
Garruk Wildspeaker: Pretty Good ramp that again, Stasis locks people out of the game, beasts are also nice and with our creature count, the Overrun is super good and unexpected.
Jace, the Mindsculpter: He's expensive for a reason.
Venser, the Sojourner: The weakest of our plansewalkers but still super good, being able to
Vendillion Clique
every turn is amazing, and resetting our
Glen Elandra Archmage
is a pretty solid lockout. His unblockable its always good for getting damage through and he must be dealt with before the his ultimate.
Lands SHOW
HIDE Alchemist's Refuge: Pretty lackluster for the most part because you usually have better things to do but it can catch people off guard.
Celestial Colonnade: Never underestimate the 4/4 flying beat stick on a land.
High Market: Great insurance against Terminus style effects, and super cute with Gilded Drake.
Krosan Verge: Fixes all our colours for the rest of the game.
Mutavault: One of the most interesting coices, still giving it some testing but Man lands are good, wizards are good and the swing in with Dromaka, in Eternal is pretty entertaining.
Oboro, Palace in the Clouds: Legend, Yeah, should probably be Minamo, School at Water's Edge, but until I get a Gaea's Cradle its not really any better, The art is pretty and its nifty with Armageddon. Its mostly just a blue source we can grab with Captain Sisay.
Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers: Is a placeholder for Gaea's Cradle. Currently just a green to grab with Sisay.
Serra's Sanctum
: Our legendary white source. Most of the time it isn't going to do much, but with Heliod, God of the Sun in play, it can get out of hand really quickly.
Windbrisk Heights: Our hideaway land of choice if we had to choose one. Cute to reset with Venser, the Sojourner.
Thawing Glaciers: Not really a land per say, but its pretty nifty to ramp a couple of times a turn with Derevi's untap triggers. Most likely going to be replaced with a Weathered Wayfarer.
Riptide Laboratory: Oh good god this land is good. Protects Derevi from Terminus, already good enough to run but just the tip of the iceberg. Its an amazing soft lock with Venser, Shaper Savant, resets our
Glen Elandra Archmage
, Gives us perfect hand control with
Vendillion Clique
, and if nothing else lets us save our wizards from wraths.
The Joys of Birthing Pod
Birthing Pod is a source of amazing value even when its not being abused with Derevi. For the most part we cannot "combo" off with it, but the style of the deck is to gain incremental advantage and soft lock out opponents out of the game. The deck doesn't have an established pod route, but instead opts for flexibility. At 4 mana, directly podding Derevi, we can get Linvala, Keeper of Silence against tap heavy stratagies, or Heliod, God of the Sun if we either suspect a board wipe or are preparing to Stasis out. If we just want to end the game, Hero of Bladehold is a heavy hitter, we can even fall back for more flexible tutors and grab out Captain Sisay. As far as going past that,
Glen Elandra Archmage
provides amazing control on her own, and persists if you just want to pod her away up to 5. Podding away the Archmage allows us to pull out Dromoka, the Eternal to net us both a powerful beater and a way to "reset" the Archmage off the attack trigger.
Another powerful 5 drop, Reveillark, loves to be podded up to 6 and gets back some of out earlier creatures. If you feel like you can assemble it, Having both Prophet of Kruphix and Azami, Lady of Scrolls will end a game pretty quickly, drawing us several cards per turn as well as letting us flash in more of our creatures.
Winning the Game
the most part, actually closing out games is more difficult then it would first appear. For the most part, you will of effectively won the game through one lock or another long before your opponents realize it. We can also play aggressive against more controlling decks, often killing them long before they can fight past our more disruptive cards.
The Locks
Most of our locks are "soft", still allowing our opponents to try and play the game, but preventing them from accomplishing anything.
Dromoka, the Eternal
+
Glen Elendra Archmage
|| Glen Elendra Archmage
+
Venser, the Sojourner
: Only stops non-creature spells and only once per turn, but Dromoka can usually kill your opponent long before they can resolve an answer. Also nicly set up to pod directly up to it over a couple of turns.
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite + Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
: The most difficult to get on-line but undoubtedly the most drastic. Kills all your opponests lands and turns yours into 3/3's, should be winning the game within a couple turns.
Stasis, Static Orb, and Winter Orb: Stasis has quite a few lockout interactions once you establish a board and static orb has many of the same. The basic concept is to use Derevi's trigger to untap everything you need while tapping down anything you opponent might be trying to build up to. For stasis you need either Derevi and Heliod, God of the Sun, you can use just Sun Titan, Hero of Bladehold or Garruk Wildspeaker, although Garruk will have difficulty ending the game on his own. Winter Orb is a little bit different because you can just slam it early as turn 4 or 5 and just disrupt your opponents mana long enough for your board to kill them.
Crucible of Worlds + Strip Mine
or Armageddon + Crucible of Worlds
:Pretty lame, pretty good, not much to explain.
Riptide Laboratory
+
Venser, Shaper Savant
or Riptide Laboratory
+
Vendilion Clique
: Lets you either remand a spell every turn or unsummon a permanent, wont win the game on its own but gives you excellent control for anything else you might have going on.
Vendillion Clique
is a little less oppressive at first glance, but lets you choose what your opponent has to do every turn. Glen Elendra Archmage kinda works here too.
~The Cards not in the Deck~ SHOW
HIDE ~Sword of X and Y~
One of the biggest things I have people questioning in the deck. All of the swords have merit for being in the deck, but none of them manage to be good enough for a few reasons. First off, I really like having stony silence in play, theres not much use in casting silence on turn two then drawing into the sword hand. Jitte is the one exception I made just because it fills the same roles as the rest of them combined, it also draws a great deal less hate from other players. Looking at the swords one by one I can dismiss them pretty easily.
[Sword of Feast and Famine]] is easily the most popular of the group and as such inspires the most fear. My reasons against it are simple, its abilities are completely meaningless. Derevi players often forget that if a sword is equipped to a creature, the protection prevents Derevi from interacting with it. As such, you cant really use it to maintain a tight stasis lock and it does not really help your clock in any way. The discard is cute, but its not something I really care about.
Sword of Fire and Ice and Sword of Light and Shadow both have slightly more merit then Feast and Famine but they still don't quite get there. We generally draw enough cards to make the extra one meaningless. The shock is nice, but I prefer the -1's off Jitte for removing small creatures and shocking their face is hardly a meaningful damage boot. Gaining three life off light an shadow is nifty, but again, Jitte does it better. the Rise from the grave is pretty cute recursion, but not worth the previously mentioned downsides.
Sword of Body and Mind
is personally one of my favourites, but admittedly the least relevant. The mill is actually bad for us due to the lack of graveyard hate, and we don't care enough about tokens.
Sword of War and Peace
is probably the highest damage increase, especially when we are locking them down, but Jitte already gives better value for both halves and maintains more flexibility.
~Graveyard Hate~
One of the more painful decisions and honestly, I just couldn't find the room. We can usually race most graveyard strategies while maintaining just enough disruption. As for our options, I'm not really a fan of any of them. Both Rest in Peace and Grave Seal hate out a lot of our lines of play, and Tormod's Crypt feels dead most of the time.
~
serra ascendent
~
Shes a 6/6 flying lifelink for W. Past personal dislike of the card, there really is not much reason to run it other then it being just a creature. If you want to run it go right ahead. The only real argument is it not having any real synergies in the deck.
~Deadeye Navigator Combo~
Again, its a pretty sweet combo set, no real arguments against it. If you feel like the rest of the combo is good enough, go right ahead.
~Sol Ring~
I could only really justify one slot for our artifact ramp plan and Mana Vault is just better with Derevi
~Sensai's Diving Top/Mirri's Guile && Sylvan Library~
Its up for consideration to go back in the deck, Cant quite find the slot for it though.
~Ravnica Bounce Lands.~
The extra mana off of Derevi's untaps has potential, But I dont usually need to use it. Early strip mines are a pretty painful thing to happen to them as well.
