..."gary" needs more devotion....

simondiamond2012, 10 years ago

gifts ungiven moved to maybe-board; phyrexian obliterator moved to mainboard... not that I don't like gifts, but the devotion for "gary" was lacking... this may change after testing...

Complete overhaul.

jadpk, 10 years ago

No longer artifact based. Aims to combo off through infinite mana while starving opponents/protecting combo with counterspells.

mikmon, 10 years ago

In->Volrath's Stronghold Out->Arcane Lighthouse

Metaman33, 10 years ago

I've decided to completely restructure the deck, as before it was very janky and just silly. I added some removal and graveyard recursion and cut off some fluff.

LGS Results 2-2 and deck tweaking

Knockadoon, 10 years ago

I was at my LGS again last night. I was very close to going 3-1, which would be the best I've done ever. Close, but not quite.

Round 1: 2-1 vs White-Bolster

This opponent had Soldier of the Pantheon, Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit and Citadel Siege that he was playing in Khans mode. Game 1 I had 2 Roast in my opening hand and so I was able to fry his early creatures, then deploy my dragons and he scooped. Game 2 he played an Elspeth at an opportune time to take out a dragon token from Sarkhan Unbroken, and although I was able to remove Elspeth with Crater's Claws I couldn't quite get back in the game. In Game 3 I started out again by Roasting his early stuff, but he replaced them and ended up getting a couple BIG creatures from the constant +1/+1 counters from Citadel Siege, so I was happy to have Reality Shift in from my sideboard and used it to take out a 10/10 creature mid-combat. I managed to close it out with a timely Stormbreath Dragon on one turn followed by a Ferocious Crater's Claws the following turn which I used to drop him from 11 to exactly 0 on that turn.

Round 2: 1-2 vs White-Bolster

I think these two guys were friends and played similar decks. Game 1 was very similar to the previous round, and I finished with an overload of flying threats. Game 2 he got some BIG Bolstered creatures off his Citadel Siege and I didn't draw either the right kind of removal or enough flying threats. Game 3 I had to mull to 5 cards but still might have stabilized a few turns in if he hadn't been able to play a Secure the Wastes and just went wide enough to get around the wall of blockers I'd set up. This was another game, like one from last week, when an Anger of the Gods probably wins me the game. So I still haven't found room for that in my sideboard, but I'd like to if I knew what to cut.

This was the round that I felt got away if I'd just not had to mull to 5 in Game 3, or if he hadn't had the little burst of tokens.

Round 3: 0-2 vs Esper Dragons

I had NO game against this deck. I sideboarded 11 cards for the second game, but the only 3 I ended up drawing (about expected for a game where I went through about a third of my deck) were an Ugin, the Spirit Dragon which got countered and 2 Reality Shifts, the first of which took down a tapped Dragonlord Ojutai, but the second one got countered when it tried to take down the second Ojutai. My opponent was gracious enough afterward to give me advice on how to beat his deck, and I'll discuss that in more detail after the report of the rounds.

Round 4: 2-0 vs Temur Aggro

This was a mirror matchup for me and it went really well. I really liked Roast in this matchup as taking out my opponent's mana-dorks slowed him down enough to put out my own threats ahead of him and just get ahead that way. I'm always happy playing a Xenagos, the Reveler. He's so perfect for this deck...so versatile. If you're ahead, he slam dunks it with threats. If you're behind, he puts out chump blockers (as long as the opponent doesn't have flying of course), OR you can pump mana to deploy even bigger threats or fire off a huge Crater's Claws. In this kind of mirror matchup, whether it's against another Temur deck or an Abzan aggro kind of deck, Xenagos, the Reveler is exactly the edge you need for victory. He was even nice against those White-Bolster decks as the satyr tokens could chump block their big attackers.

So, this was my first chance to play this deck against Esper Dragons. I don't mind having an unfavorable matchup; this is my personal deck and I'm not trying to win any pro tournaments, I just don't want to sit down to play and KNOW that I'm going to lose because it takes all the excitement, tension, and drama out of the game, which is why I like playing it (I love winning a close game, but losing one that was exciting is still at least half as fun, as long as it was interesting). So I don't need to be a lock to beat every other kind of deck, and there isn't any deck you can play that would be that, or everyone would be playing it. But I don't want to be completely destroyed either...it's frustrating, of course, and worse, it's boring.

I think the strength of the Esper Dragons deck comes from Dig Through Time. Yes, Dragonlord Ojutai makes it much better, as does Silumgar's Scorn and the excellent suite of removal. However, the reason they ALWAYS seem to have exactly the right answer to whatever you're doing is because of Dig, which not only gets them extra cards, but gets them the "right" extra cards. That's why they're willing to pay so much mana (setting Delve aside) for a spell that otherwise does the same thing that Divination does for 5 less mana. So my plan had been to use my own Dig, and had 3x of them in my sideboard. I didn't draw any of them in my Game 2 against Esper Dragons, but he likely would have countered it anyway. I had thought to sneak it in to windows when he was tapped out, but he almost never was.

So my Esper opponent's suggestion, which I liked at the time and like more the more I think about it, is to use Dragonlord's Prerogative since I should often have a dragon to reveal/control and so it can't be countered. To beat Esper you basically have to overload their responses. This is why Deathmist Raptor + Den Protector is so good, because you can keep deploying threats until their responses are depleted. Or the RDW decks just play multiple threats early on, before they have enough mana to respond. Since I don't want to try to do either one of those things, then just drawing extra cards later in the game is going to be good, whatever they are, and then being able to play multiple threats per turn at a point later in the game when I have enough mana to do that.

So I think using Disdainful Stroke to stop them from playing Dig Through Time (or their dragons or planeswalkers), using Reality Shift to take down their Dragonlord Ojutai when they have it, and then using Dragonlord's Prerogative to refill my hand is the way to go. Do I still need a good draw to beat them? Sure. But I think this is a formula that would work at least some of the time, and that's what I'm shooting for in this particular matchup. Stubborn Denial ends up not being great because the creatures that satisfy its Ferocious requirement often don't resolve and they have to be on the board to satisfy the requirement, so in this matchup, Negate would be better, but against basically everything else, Stubborn Denial is better..

I COULD play Den Protector in the sideboard or the maindeck, or maybe Stratus Dancer, but I'm really happy with my maindeck the way it is and don't want to change that. And I haven't been able to get Savage Knuckleblade to be as good as it looks on paper, and don't think it works alongside the 1 Courser of Kruphix because of the mana requirements, and I LOVE Courser so I'd never take it out until it rotates. I do well against other midrange decks and happily do better even than I expected against weenie-aggro decks like RDW, and with Reality Shift in from the sideboard I can take down Heroic-type decks as well since they tend to rely on a couple of high-impact creatures, and between Stubborn Denial stopping their tricks, and Reality Shift taking down whatever gets through the cracks, it's easy to break their gameplan.

Mistcutter Hydra looks good against Esper Dragons, since it can't be countered and also can't be blocked by the dragons they commonly use, which all have , but it dies to removal, so it's a little better than Stormbreath Dragon, but not a ton better. And it doesn't help at all in the battle to not let them get such a huge card advantage.

PS: I decided to swap 3x Stubborn Denial and 1x Crater's Claws in the maindeck for 4x Silumgar's Scorn. This gives me a better Game 1 matchup against Control (ie. Esper Dragons), while admittedly being a less good card (but not terrible) against basically all other matchups, as it's "slower" because of the extra mana requirement. Looking at pro decks, I think I'm safe enough with the dragon requirement having 8 of them in the maindeck along with Sarkhan Unbroken which might also make some dragons. This also allowed me to take 4x Disdainful Stroke out of the sideboard to make room for 4x Seismic Rupture which I had been wanting but didn't know what to cut to make room for. I had been wanting to keep both Stubborn Denial in the main as a "fast" Negate, and Disdainful Stroke in the sideboard as it can also counter creatures like Siege Rhino, Wingmate Roc, or Dragonlord Ojutai. I basically like Disdainful Stroke a lot as a Silumgar's Scorn with a different downside, but didn't want to maindeck it since it's a dead card against exactly the kind of decks (aggro-RDW) that you can't afford to have dead cards against. I thought about just switching Stubborn Denial to Negate and just giving up a little speed for reliability, but since I seem safe having "enough" dragons to activate Silumgar's Scorn, I'm going to go that way. I have played some games against weenie-aggro decks where even Stubborn Denial was a dead card because they were simply playing creatures every turn with nothing else, and Silumgar's Scorn will ALWAYS be a relevant response to any spell, often even without satisfying the dragon requirement as people often don't have one mana to spare.

Having space for Seismic Rupture is a nice bonus since I've lost some games that would have been winnable if I'd had that card, and having Silumgar's Scorn in Game 1 versus Abzan (read Siege Rhino) will be nicer than having Stubborn Denial. I'm not going with Anger of the Gods because it kills my Sylvan Caryatids (bad enough that my Rattleclaw Mystics will die to Rupture), and because I don't think I should run cards with in Silumgar's Scorn, in Courser of Kruphix AND in Anger of the Gods. I'm fine having two colors that have double requirements in spells, but don't want to run three. I have the dragons, but Haven of the Spirit Dragon gives two extra sources for those that won't help cast Anger.

I changed 2x Temple of Mystery to 2x Yavimaya Coast since I'm putting more pressure on having early to get more value out of Silumgar's Scorn and Xenagos, the Reveler doesn't help with that color later in the game, but I think I'm okay. I had over-represented sources anyway since I'm using that for counter-magic and didn't want to be stuck with too few of it.

Foil Mox Opal!

Sleazebag, 10 years ago

Today has been a good day! Found a guy who opened a Foil Mox Opal at my LGS and traded it to me pretty much instantly! YES, that means there are only TWO possible foil upgrades left!

Esper delver 2-0

chillistills, 10 years ago

Both games, I got quite low on health but managed to deal with his threats and won with one of my own threats. Game one I couldn't kill his big delve creatures but I played a huntmaster and got him to flip about 4 times. I worked out that an all out attack and a final flip could kill him, he didn't see it until too late and conceded when he realized. Game 2 he drew a lot of threats, I managed to thoughtseize away a few of his removal cards and so only had to play one goyf to win, despite getting stuck on 4 lands and him drawing a ton of cards. The combination of disruption and overpowered threats is so ridiculous in this deck sometimes, you can be down on all your resources and still just win through careful play and the sheer power of the cards compared to other decks.

wetlandsambar69, 10 years ago

Budget-ish Green

Primal Eldrazi

Karunko, 10 years ago

Land

Myrium, 10 years ago

1 Island -> Academy Ruins

DeElgathor, 10 years ago

Swapped Scalding Tarn and basics for Bloodstained Mire and Wooded Foothills, cutting a little over a hundred dollars from the cost.

Red/Black Minotaur deck/Token destroyer

IronChefHeff, 10 years ago

I built this deck to counter a white/black token deck with Panoptic MirrorGC and Increasing Devotion combo that also includes Xathrid Necromancer. I had the minotaur deck originally built then added the board clear to help win. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Karunko, 10 years ago

New Changes

Winklebott, 10 years ago

Mainboard: Put another Mirran Crusader and two Aven Mindcensor going to try out the new cards and see if they help the flow of things. Restoration Angel and Baneslayer Angel.

Side board: Lots of changes. Brought in more game against combo decks.

Pyface, 10 years ago

Heartstone swapped for door of destines, and a plague myr added and took out dodecapod, rugged prairie's for rogue's passage. There simply weren't enough activated abilities to warrant Heartstone and I opted for giving the artifacts even more juice. Rugged prairies out because I needed more evasion. I wasn't encountering enough discard to warrant dodecapod or be able to get him for free. Touchstone wasn't doing much the times I got it out besides more fuel for metalcraft, and same for blinding souleater so Mycosynth Golem to get more of the big fat artifacts out for cheaper with affinity. And the Lattice to make sure creatures get out faster with that.

LucaNasini, 10 years ago

WhiteAgony09, 10 years ago

Updated the deck adding some more cost efficient cards at the expense of a little speed. The deck is more expensive but it may be more serviceable in modern.

Sweet Suggestions

THEblazinASIAN, 10 years ago

From you guys' suggestions, I've decided to add more lands to bring the land total up to 24. In addition to this, I've added 2 Necromaster Dragons, which have smoothed out the need for having a dragon a little less. More suggestions are always wanted!

Update

Moltry, 10 years ago

With the great suggestions given and some plays, i've now swapped around some cards:

2x Kolaghan Forerunners for 2x Ambuscade Shaman

1x Deathbringer Regent for 1x Boltwing Marauder

1x Dragonlord Kolaghan for 1x Boltwing Marauder

2x Twin Bolt for 2x Impact Tremors

1x Twin Bolt for 1x Foul Renewal

1x Pitiless Horde for 1x Foul Renewal

1x Kolaghan Monument for 1x Warbringer

As soon as we (my friends and i) decide we want to upgrade the decks by buying cards, there will be some more changes as the suggested cards can be included.

Update #6 - Post-FNM

Benandorf, 10 years ago

Played in FNM, and went 2-2, but realized that I struggled with faster decks, and that I would never really need some of the sideboard cards. Thus, I made the following changes:

-1 Sarkhan, Dragonspeaker

-1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion

-2 Valorous Stance

-3 Twin Bolt

+3 Searing Blood

+2 Anger of the Gods

+2 Scouring Sands

Comments are way to long

Lifa, 10 years ago

Thanks everyone! This deck would not be the same without input from everyone