Help with Three dual color decks I want to build.
Modern Deck Help forum
Posted on July 29, 2015, 8:42 a.m. by 3rdeye88
Hi anyone reading this. I plan on building three different dual colored decks, two of which are inspired by Magic Origins, one is just an idea I had.
Geen/White(selesnya) Super Defense deck.
My deck:
Selesnya On The Big D Playtest
Standard*
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This comes after my friend beat me to the punch of doing a green white populate deck as his first main deck(we're both new to Magic). So I wanted to take the green white combo in a different direction. The main inspiration is two cards, Heart of Light and Pariah. It could be enchanted onto any creature really, but I was thinking something like Angelic Wall would be a good candidate. It would also run a decent amount of defenders like Hornet Nest. I'd also like to run a full set of Heliod's Pilgrim to fetch said auras and may Auramancer on top of that. On the green side of things I'm thinking some mana ramp and spells like Mending Touch and serene rememberance]]. Beyond that I don't really know what else could beef this deck up into an untouchable wall of Defense. Then of course I'd need some way to actually win the game so what recommendations do you guys have for something that has decent offense and defense as well or what I could do to actually win the day? I'm thinking keep my creatures as much in the air as possible, so Sungrace Pegasus sounds like a nice option and see if I could throw enough buffs or instant buffs in to make that work.
Black and Green(golgari) Elf Deck.
Shaman of the pact has got me thinking that my first elf deck should be black and green. not to mention that Black is currently the only color I'm not running in a deck. So for elves, for black cards or I guess more specifically, black elves which cards do you recommend?
Robocop Deck(blue/red izzit deck).
This deck is basically a blue control, red burn with artifacts deck. Looking at Magic Origins, there seems to be a decent amount of cards that puke out 1/1 flying thopters along with them and this was an idea I had prior to the set's release anyways. So why not try it now that it actually seems to be a thing?
Dual land database?
Lastly with all this in mind, where's the best place to look up the different kinds of dual lands. I don't have very many for anything but the Simic color combo as I'm already running that. How do I look up the Hinterland Harbor equivalent for blue/red, white/green, and green/ black? Is there a definitive list here on Tapped out or what?
Thanks for all your help. I really appreciate your taking the time to read this. And as any new player could use I could always use some feedback on my decks. Have a great day!
Thanks rothgar13 for a thorough answer.
I've updated the Selesnya deck to a preliminary 64 card deck. I've added Canopy Cover to make the creature more or less hexproof, as well as making my other creatures unblockable except against flying or reach. I know the auras can be destroyed. That's what Serene Remembrance and more importantly Reclaim will be for. The deck would be totally vulnerable if it stood on that crutch alone, but I don't think it has to. If I have Hornet Nest out it dissuades my opponent from attacking with anything too big because then that's that many 1/1 flying deathtouch bugs they've got to deal with. Mark of Asylum will stop burn spells in their tracks, and then I threw in Giant Growth for when I can get my creatures through the line I can throw on a quick additional +3/+3
There's no mana ramp in this but I think that's okay considering everything runs on 3 mana or less. The only thing I think I might need that isn't here is a 1 drop creature.
That's true, 4drops is a bit late game. But maybe that can be negated with some kind of mana ramping or cheating? Are there any good ways to mana ramp in blue and/or red? Artifacts are involved so wouldn't things like Chromatic Lantern work? Or does that simply change the land to add what ever mana I want? Does it add it in addition to the mana the land produces? I know some cards do that. The focus doesn't have to be completely on Thopter generation. The idea is that it's a lot of blue control, red burn, so basically a kind of "shut down" deck, and all the creatures are artifact creatures. Then I could throw in freebies like Ornithopter and play them for free. Then things that get boosts when there's artifacts on the field trigger. This is just a preliminary idea based on my limited knowledge of Magic and the cards I have. Though i have quite a few thanks to ebay and craigslist buys, knowledgeable friends and of course, the internet.
As for the elf deck. I will definitely take a look at that and other elf decks. I'll be honest and admit that my knowledge base for black is next to nothing though. I haven't even sorted my black at all yet. Its been completely untouched all this time cause it's my least favorite of the colors. I don't even know what I have. So are there staple black cards that I should generally be aware of, and more specifically are there black elves I should know about?
Lastly...How do you get the mana symbols in your comments? That's cool. LOL
July 29, 2015 11:58 a.m.
The problem with relying on fishing your enchantments back up when they get destroyed is that it takes turns which you probably won't have. You're on a pretty fast clock in Modern - for example, if a 
aggro deck (like Merfolk) Vapor Snags your aura-loaded creature on turn 4 and then attacks, chances are you've just lost - you'll have no chance to cast them again, because the game is over. WotC has referred to Modern as a "turn 4" format, which means that you're usually either winning or losing on turn 4. If your deck would take significantly longer than that to close a game out, you need to be packing a ton of disruption or it just won't be successful.
Hornet Nest won't necessarily be all that helpful to you, because most of the successful decks in the format have ways to destroy it without dealing any damage (some of which I mentioned in my last post), can generate infinite creatures (like Deceiver Exarch/Pestermite with Splinter Twin) or infinite direct damage with Murderous Redcap, Viscera Seer, and Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit, are sending damage spells right at your face with Lightning Bolt and Lava Spike all game and therefore don't care about board state, or just have ways of ignoring blockers (like Spreading Seas and Master of the Pearl Trident/Lord of Atlantis). Trying to wall people off tends to be a low-percentage strategy in this format.
A 
control deck that looks to shut the opponent down and then impose a win condition already exists, and it uses the Splinter Twin combo that I mentioned. That combo tends to win the game on the spot when it comes out, so it's the gold standard that other win condition in those colors have to measure themselves up to. By that metric, Thopter tokens fall woefully short.
Chromatic Lantern allows all of your lands to produce mana of any color instead of (not in addition to) their normal color production, while producing one mana of any color when tapped. It's a pretty good mana rock.
I mentioned several of the 
"staple" cards in Modern in my previous post, but in general is a color that is at its best in this format when combined with another color. can give you cards like Kolaghan's Command, Terminate, and Olivia Voldaren, which are all very good midrange pieces, whereas 
brings Abrupt Decay, Maelstrom Pulse, and it shares Tasigur, the Golden Fang with . 
mostly has Sorin, Solemn Visitor, but the mono-colored cards mesh together nicely. If you're looking at just , some good cards are Dismember (although that one can be played in any deck if you're willing to pay some life for it), Dark Confidant, Inquisition of Kozilek, Gurmag Angler, Thoughtseize, Damnation, Viscera Seer (for combos), and Murderous Cut.
As for your last question... you can use the "symbol:" command inside double brackets, with the colon being followed by the one-letter shorthand for a given color (so, for example symbol:U in double brackets for ).
July 29, 2015 12:30 p.m. Edited.
I guess I need to give some context on where I'm at in terms of playing Magic. I post to modern because if there was any format I was going to try and play in seriously, it would be Modern, but it's more like "strive-for-modern-legal-casual-play" between my buddy and I. The group I play with however is casual unformatted play. I sometimes have to go up against that kind of speed, but not always. I'm just trying to get to that point. To give you a time frame of how long I've been playing, I started playing with my co-workers-now friends back in February. I've since grabbed a lot of cards and have tried to learn the game the best I can as quick as I can. Still though, I'm aiming for Modern like decks that will at least hold up somewhat well if I went to Friday Night Magic and tried Modern.
Reading all this, it's basically "this is useless because it can get bounced." Well that's true of a lot of cards in the game. I don't think that should define a card or deck as useless. Cards are going to get bounced, burned, or removed in some fashion. That's part of the game. I guess the question is how do you keep stuff from getting bounced then? I don't want to change my whole playstyle just cause things can get removed.
Your advice is valid given the format, but I'm thinking based on it that I posted this in the wrong section. Maybe I'm just not ready for 4 turn format. That's moving way too fast for me and I'm not constantly up against that kind of playing. Thanks for your feedback
July 29, 2015 4:21 p.m.
You shouldn't be reading this as "this is useless because it'll get bounced". That's not the message I'm trying to send. What I am trying to say is "that strategy doesn't present enough reward to justify its risk". The reason why is because it takes time to set up, it's easy to disrupt by any of the means presented above, and it doesn't win you the game - it just forestalls you from losing. I understand the theoretical allure of being able to stymie your opponent's aggression with an invulnerable creature that soaks up all the damage you would otherwise take, but unless that comes out quickly and reliably (conditions that your proposed combo does not meet, in my opinion) and you have a gameplan to actually win the game coming up behind it... it's actually not that useful, and overall not worth building a deck around like you were proposing. You're thinking defensively in a format that generally rewards aggression, and that is probably going to cost you.
As far as where you are in terms of experience and playgroup... all of my advice is geared for Modern, because you're in the Modern Deck Help forum. I'm not saying that you shouldn't play casual, but metagame context matters a lot for this sort of thing, and you won't necessarily get the most applicable ideas here for what your current MtG experience is. You said you wanted decks that will hold up in Modern - I'm doing the best I can to point you in that direction. I can't really help you with casual play - I haven't played casual in over a decade, and from what I've seen, the general rule of thumb there is "play whatever you think is cool, and don't beat your buddies so badly that they won't want to play you again".
rothgar13 says... #2
I see where you're going with in terms of the Pariah/Heart of Light combo, but that sort of thing is very fragile, and it doesn't win you the game on the spot - it just means you can't lose while it's up, which basically makes it a Platinum Angel that requires more setup.
Now, the reason I keep mentioning fragility is because you need to draw (and cast) all of these cards in succession before your opponent kills you. Furthermore, it has to stay in play as you figure out a way to win the game. The first part is somewhat doable, but the second is rather difficult in Modern, which has spells like Abrupt Decay, Terminate, Murderous Cut, Path to Exile, and even Vapor Snag (your Auras go to the graveyard when the creature gets bounced) in a lot of the popular decks. Additionally, that occurrence is a devastating blow for you, because you spent 3 or so cards building up something that it took them 1 card to break. Another unfortunate thing that can befall your deck is that they decided to blow up your enchantments - cards like Wear / Tear and Destructive Revelry are also common sideboard fodder, and stand to ruin your day. There's a reason you don't see many competitive decks revolving around Auras (it's pretty much just Bogles, which uses Hexproof creatures and offensive Auras to win quickly), and this is why.
Militant Tree-Huggers Playtest
Modern rothgar13
SCORE: 0 | 0 COMMENTS | 250 VIEWS
As for the land database... they're really isn't one, but I can tell you the expansions the lands were released in, which will help you search.
Check-lands (like Hinterland Harbor) are from the Innistrad block, which had Innistrad, Dark Ascension, and Avacyn Restored.
Fast-lands (like Seachrome Coast) came from the Scars of Mirrodin block, which includes Scars of Mirrodin, Mirrodin Besieged, and New Phyrexia.
Shock-lands (like Steam Vents) were printed in both the Ravnica and Return to Ravnica blocks. Ravnica block is composed of Ravnica, Guildpact, and Dissension, whereas Return to Ravnica has Return to Ravnica, Gatecrash, and Dragon's Maze.
Ally-colored fetch-lands (for example Flooded Strand) were recently reprinted in the Khans of Tarkir block, which includes Khans of Tarkir, Fate Reforged, and Dragons of Tarkir.
Enemy-colored fetch-lands (like Scalding Tarn) and ally-colored man-lands (an example is Creeping Tar Pit) came from the Zendikar block, which has Zendikar, Worldwake, and Rise of the Eldrazi.
Hope all of that helps.
July 29, 2015 10:39 a.m.