The Locust God
Being one of my favourite commanders I decided to build a casual-competitive
The Locust God
Deck. This description will outline reasons various cards are included in the deck. The deck relies heavily on The Locust God being in play.
These categories are shown in the Custom Category to make it a bit easier to see. All feedback is welcome!
The Locust God Clone
Spark Double
allows us to have a second
The Locust God
, doubling the tokens entering the battlefield.
Combo Killers 1
A straightforward semi-infinite combo using
Breath of Fury
combined with either
Bident of Thassa
/
Coastal Piracy
to take numerous combat steps to finish off opponents.
Shared Animosity
really helps buff that damage imput allowing for faster wins.
Combo Killers 2
An effective infinite win-con using
Sage of the Falls
to draw through your deck. This requires
Jace, Wielder of Mysteries
/
Laboratory Maniac
to complete the deck out process. Assuming we have the extra mana, we can start the combo, drawing into Jace or Lab Man, casting and then drawing another card to start the process again.
The Burn
Purphoros, God of the Forge
and
Impact Tremors
allow us to burn down our opponents, with
Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
and
Goblin Bombardment
also able to back up the burn on opponents if we don't have immediate threats to deal with.
Removal
Curse of the Swine
,
Cyclonic Rift
,
Reality Shift
, and
Vandalblast
make useful cheap removal with majority having a mass removal effect.
Counter Spells
Counter spells are mainly used to protect our combos and if needed we can use them to disrupt the opponents. We will be using
Arcane Denial
,
Counterspell
,
Force of Will
,
Pact of Negation
, and
Swan Song
as cheap/free interaction.
Narset, Parter of Veils
is hand removal against our opponents if we wheel dropping their hands to 1, or in a double wheel event, 0.
Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
and
Goblin Bombardment
also serve as removal for Creatures and Planeswalkers
Protection
We have too important pieces of Equipment for our Locust God.
Lightning Greaves
and
Swiftfoot Boots
protect
The Locust God
from targeted removal.
Library of Leng
is a sort of protection against our discard allowing us to keep the pieces we want or need.
Mana Pump
Ashnod's Altar
and
Phyrexian Altar
allow us to sac our Insects for extra mana to continue casting and get through to our combos.
Land Hate
We are running a fair few Basic Lands in our deck. This is so we don't fall prey to our own land hate.
Blood Moon
/
Magus of the Moon
turn our Fetches and Cavern into extra Mountains, while
Back to Basics
only hurts our
Cavern of Souls
but doesn't affect our Fetches.
Card Draw
We have singular use card draw with some allowing us the potential to hit a lot of cards. These are
Braingeyser
,
Brainstorm
,
Gitaxian Probe
,
Keep Watch
,
Pull from Tomorrow
,
Stroke of Genius
, and
Treasure Cruise
.
Our recursive card draw effects include
Consecrated Sphinx
(thanks opponents!),
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
,
Rhystic Study
(Are you gonna pay for that?), and
Skullclamp
( for an extra token and two cards? Yes please!)
Wheels
Considered the some of the most important cards in this deck, wheel effects allow us to get through our deck with potentially thwarting our opponents plans.
Echo of Eons
,
Khorvath's Fury
,
Magus of the Wheel
,
Molten Psyche
,
Shattered Perception
,
Teferi's Puzzle Box
(one of my absolute favorite cards!),
Tolarian Winds
,
Wheel of Fortune
,
Whirlpool Drake
,
Whirlpool Rider
,
Whirlpool Warrior
,
Windfall
, and
Winds of Change
(turn 1 anyone?) are the wheel effects we will be using for this deck.
Lands
Running majority of Basic Lands, 18x
Island
s and 7x
Mountain
s these will be unaffected by our land hate.
Fetches we will be using are
Arid Mesa
,
Bloodstained Mire
,
Flooded Strand
,
Misty Rainforest
,
Prismatic Vista
, and
Scalding Tarn
allow us to get our respective Islands and Mountains. Honorable mention to
Ash Barrens
which works like a fetch land to get our basics.
Our remaining land is
Cavern of Souls
(Gods) which allows us to get
The Locust God
and
Purphoros, God of the Forge
out without the worry of counter spells. We have added a
Steam Vents
as deck testing I ran into early game issues with have both and sources
Mana Rocks
We are running a total of 11 mana rocks to really try and get our commander out as early as possible.
Our top performers in allowing early Locust God are
Mana Crypt
and
Sol Ring
.
The 2 mana rocks
Arcane Signet
,
Izzet Signet
,
Mind Stone
,
Thought Vessel
and
Talisman of Creativity
help curve us out early as well.
Hedron Archive
,
Thran Dynamo
, and
Worn Powerstone
are our backup rocks that really beef up the extra mana.
Wayfarer's Bauble
is more of a ramp spell than a mana rock, but allows us to hit one of our basics.
Hopefully the description wasn't to convoluted, and thanks for taking a look at my deck! Suggestions are more than welcome!
Changes to Deck
Island
for
Steam Vents
: We need an early reliable / source as confirmed by playtests.
Fellwar Stone
for
Thought Vessel
: We need opponents to have and otherwise it fells like a dead rock. Swapping for Thought Vessel allows us to keep extra cards in hand for the windfall effects.
Mana Vault
for
Library of Leng
: Mana Vault is great when it goes right, but ramping into our Commander only to lose it to removal means we are down the potential 3 mana required for him. Our other rocks perform better in this deck and we are switching to Library of Leng to protect our pieces from our wheels if need be.
Maybe Board
Reliquary Tower
is another good card for the no maximum hand size. Cutting a land will be hard unless it is an Island
Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive
is a great card for forcing our insects through our opponents defences.
Trinket Mage
is a good card for fetching either
Skullclamp
or
Library of Leng
depending on our hand situation.
Venser's Journal
would be nice to gain life from with the added benifit of being another choice for no maximum hand size.
Cavalcade of Calamity
is a great way for us to get damage across regardless with the added benifit of not needing to waste resources swinging directly at troublesome Planeswalkers.
Fabricate
is better than
Trinket Mage
as it allows us to hit any of our artifacts
