Disclamer I play exclusively on cockatrice and exclusively modern. I own no cards. I have no budget.
The deck is based around
Heartwood Storyteller
and Ruric Thar, the Unbowed who both ruin almost any opponent.Without the aid of both, though, the deck can easily win through the likes of aggro. There's lots of control in Necrotic Sliver and Fiend Hunter and card draw in
Mwonvuli Beast Tracker
and Wall of Omens the fixing is super easy due to the full 8 mana dorks and
Ancient Ziggurat
..
CARD BREAKDOWN
Birds of Paradise
Noble Hierarch
Since Ruric Thar, the Unbowed is the best card, and it costs 6, I have to ramp to get anything done.
Fiend Hunter
He clears the way, levels up Fathom Mage, and blocks stuff.
Necrotic Sliver
I aboslutely love this card. He attacks for as much as you need him to , and kills anything and everything when you need.
Heartwood Storyteller
since almost every deck out there has some noncreatures,
Heartwood Storyteller
capatalizes on that.
Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
the real engine of the deck. If the opponent wants to kill him, they had better counter him or they're taking 6. Also he puts them on a bit of a clock with his impressive bulk, while still blocking everything with vigilance and reach.
Fauna Shaman
This finds whatever utility creatures I need. Also searches in response to boardwipes, which suck.
Sunblast Angel
Pod is a really bad matchup, so this clears parts of their board whenever it needs to.
Spellskite
I don't know why this wasn't in the board before. It answers like 40% of the field and blocks everything.
Linvala, Keeper of Silence
Twin is also a bad matchup, so this kills them and dies to only
Flame Slash
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
This deck needed a finisher, and I'm testing both this and Craterhoof Behemoth
Acidic Slime
Handles Urza lands, Blood Moon, Birthing Pod, Ghostly Prison etc. and blocks anything.
Mwonvuli Beast Tracker
Despite being impossible to spell, this card is really something. It targets Ruric Thar, the Unbowed, and Thrun, the Last Troll. It also blocks.
Voice of Resurgence
The token is almost always bigger than the creature, and has to be answered twice, maybe three times.
SIDEBOARD
Qasali Pridemage
Kills pods, makes my guys bigger.
Dauntless Escort
Wrath effects really suck, so this prevents those.
Scavenging Ooze
Against creature heavy decks. Living end, especially.
Phyrexian Revoker
Destroys twin, and shuts down all planeswalkers.
Tajuru Preserver
I can't totally deal with
Phyrexian Obliterator
, so this guy negates his effects. It also makes it so that all Liliana of the Veil can do is +1. Thought about Angel of Jubilation, since that does Pod too, but idk.
Pharika, God of Affliction
I was psyched when I saw this in the spoiler. I think I'll be mostly targeting myself, since I run lots of fetch lands and people like to kill my creatures a lot. I know I should do more than 1, but I don't know what to cut.
Angel of Jubilation
Beats Pod AND Rock. And some other stuff, probably. Idk.
A NOTE ABOUT MANA
You'd think the 4, sometimes 5, colors of this deck would be impossible without the aid of City of Brass, Forbidden Orchard, or Gemstone Mine, but
Ancient Ziggurat
and birds of paradise handle the 1 black and 1 red card. [[okina, temple to the grandfathers is just a fun gimmick that I found online. It can actually be important against
Flame Slash
on Linvala, Keeper of Silence, so I keep it around. Dryad Arbor's vulnerability is sort of necessary in order to have an answer to Aura Hexproof when all I'm drawing is lands. There's only one, but it can be fetched by 12 things in the deck, so I think I'm good. Also, I run 4 of each green fetchland because every land, with the exception of Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers and
Ancient Ziggurat
can be hit by them, since the deck is so predominantly green.
MATCHUPS
Affinity
I haven't done a lot of testing against affinity, but the matchup is pretty good regardless. Linvala, Keeper of Silence is good there, as is Acidic Slime in the main. The Cranial Plating
+
Etched Champion
combo is obviously really insane, so there's almost nothing to do about that but block it with Phyrexian Revoker. The ramp in this deck is pretty good too, so an Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite on turn 3 would definitley do the trick. It probably won't actually come down till turn 6, but I can survive till then.
Birthing Pod
+
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
Their early game isn't fantastic, and they tend to take lots of damage from their lands, so I can usually get KIki Pod down to 11 or 10 life by turn 4. They might have acheived the combo by then, but it's doubtful. Resolving a Ruric Thar, the Unbowed can really rip them up because they usually don't want to block so that they have creatures to pod away.
Birthing Pod
+
Melira, Sylvok Outcast
Slightly better than the above version because they don't have their extreme land damage. Same otherwise. This is a very bad matchup.
Hatebears
Is this even a real deck? Elesh Norn resolves. Game.
Zoo
You'd think this'd be bad because they don't run tons of I/S, but almost all of their creatures are 3 power, and Spellskite knows what do do about that.
Bogles
This can be a serious problem without Spellskite. But I always have Spellskite.
Red Deck Wins
The loss of life is rough, probably gonna lose game one. Eidolon of Rhetoric can get it done, though.
UrzaTron
They don't actually run tons of creatures, so
Heartwood Storyteller
benefits tons. When the Wurmcoil Engines come a knockin' Acidic Slime tells them they've got the wrong house. This can be a grindy one, so Fulminator Mage, Qasali Pridemage, and Dauntless Escort all come in game 2.
UWx Control
Since they like to win with celestial colonade exclusively, I can put some Birds of Paradise in the way if they aren't already dead from the sheer amount of Ruric Thar, the Unbowed damage.
The Rock
I had a tough time with this matchup when all the rock decks were running 4
Phyrexian Obliterator
, but now that there's usually 1 or 0 in their 75, they can only blow up so much stuff before they're toast due to Dark Confidant damage and Ruric Thar, the Unbowed damage.
Faeries
Thank god this one is on the downfall because this matchup sucks. I can barely get my bearings before they start
Vendillion Clique
ing and Spellstutter Spriteing--both of which are creatures, mind you--everything away. Don't even have a board plan, because they're so fierce. Thrun, the Last Troll really carries his weight here.
Gifts Ungiven Control
This is another grindy one, since so much stuff is instant speed. I can usually pull it out just by being smart though. Fiend Hunter their Iona, Sheild of Emeria and Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite and I'm good.
Splinter Twin (Without Tarmogoyf)
This is the worse matchup of the two because of the speed of the whole engine. Linvala, Keeper of Silence is seriously good here for obvious reasons, until it gets
Flame Slash
'd. That's why we have Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers though. Thrun helps too, but there's only so much that can happen.
Splinter Twin
+
Tarmogoyf
Since they're attacking into my Spellskites and Voice of Resurgences most of the time, they're gonna lose, just like any other half hearted aggro deck.
Storm
Storm, meet Eidolon of Rhetoric. Eidolon, Storm.
Scapeshift
The R/G version is hard to fight, since they don't care about the card draw. RUG struggles, though, since they like to play slower games.
ad nauseum
ad nauseum, meet Eidolon of Rhetoric. Eidolon, ad nauseum.
OPTIONS FOR BUDGET HUNTERS
This deck is very rouge-oriented, so it uses lots of low cost cards. If you were looking to build a version for like $100, maybe even $50, you can czech this link: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/heartwood-storyteller-the-budget-version/
