Mesa Unicorn

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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Arena Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Gladiator Legal
Highlander Legal
Historic Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Pauper Legal
Pauper Duel Commander Legal
Pauper EDH Legal
Pioneer Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Mesa Unicorn

Creature — Unicorn

Lifelink (Damage dealt by this creature also causes you to gain that much life.)

Simerix on Just Don't Get Hit

2 years ago

Some cards to cut: Akroan Jailer , Accorder Paladin , Healer's Hawk , Mesa Unicorn , Stone Haven Pilgrim , Story Seeker , Banishing Light , Blind Obedience , Journey to Nowhere , Stasis Snare

If you want an explanation why, lmk. There are a lot more cards I would take out. In general, gaining life and doing nothing else isn't worth your time. There's too much gaining life and not enough synergy

HalbrechtHalbrecht on Pauper boi

5 years ago

Tweaks to Lands

The most important thing to change first is the mana base. You might be able to get away with less than 24 lands ultimately, maybe 23 or even 22 if you lower your mana curve, but I'd start with the default of 24 and tweak from there.

In addition to adding lands, switch out the 4x Azorius Guildgate for Tranquil Cove — it's strictly better because of the lifegain.

You might also consider more mana fixing than a single dual playset, such as fetchlands ( Evolving Wilds ) or Ash Barrens . There's also Azorius Chancery . Since you run so many creatures, you might also be able to benefit from Holdout Settlement .

Other than mana-fixing, some people also like cycling lands, as they can help you draw more useful cards when you get mana-flooded (like Lonely Sandbar and Secluded Steppe ). For control decks, Halimar Depths is a useful way to set up your draws. You can opt for incidental lifegain on lands like Kabira Crossroads , but I'd honestly stick with basic Plains, because you don't want too many lands that enter tapped.

I noticed that more than one of your cards had an effect like "target creature an opponent controls doesn’t untap during its controller’s next untap step". If you wanted to focus you deck on that type of strategy, you could consider Skyline Cascade .


Possible Cuts

So what to cut to make room for 8 more lands?

I'd cut most of the creatures that are considered "vanilla" or "French vanilla", i.e. have no abilities or only basic keyword abilities like Flying or Lifelink. You want as many of your creatures as possible to DO something other than just being a warm body. So:

-1 Concordia Pegasus
-1 Coral Commando
-1 Daybreak Chaplain
-1 Humongulus (also, you want 5+ mana spells to have more of an impact than this)
-1 Knight of the Tusk (same deal as with Humongulus)
-1 Mesa Unicorn
-1 Sky Ruin Drake (same deal as with Humongulus)
-1 Talon Trooper

You could also considering cutting Sunspring Expedition , since effects that solely grant lifegain are generally considered not worth running (incidental lifegain, on the other hand, can be great).

I'd also consider cutting Nimbus Wings , since most of your creatures already have flying.


Game Plan

After making some of the above cuts and additions, really what you want to think about is what is your deck trying to DO. You want to have a unified strategy.

For instance, right now you have creatures like Civic Stalwart , Haazda Officer , Pegasus Courser , and Vedalken Mesmerist that want you to be on the offensive. But you also have creatures with low power / high toughness (several of the ones I suggested you cut, actually), Syndicate Messenger (which makes for a great blocker), and Wall of Mist that want your deck to be defensive.

A couple cards can swing both ways — AEther Adept and Chillbringer can either clear the board for your attacks, or they can slow down your opponent defensively.

I think before we can make further suggestions, you'll need to better nail down the direction you want to take the deck — offensive flyers? high-toughness blockers and other stalling techniques to get to your win-con?

legendofa on The Void of Mass Confusion and too Many Key Words

5 years ago

I would add some cards that help you find creatures. Since the deck is based around Odric, it can kind of fall apart if you don't draw him. Also, if you draw multiples of Odric, they're dead cards in hand as long as one's on the battlefield. I don't know what kind of budget you have, but try taking out some cards that only offer one ability ( Mesa Unicorn , for one) and 1-2 Odrics, and add something like Collected Company or Growing Rites of Itlimoc  Flip, or Commune with Nature or Enshrined Memories as cheaper options.

lagotripha on R/W Angel Deck(Help)

5 years ago

Its always good to see new players.

Decks tend to fall into three categories- aggro, midrange and control. Most combo decks also fall into these categories too.

Aggro looks to play lots of small threats and win asap, midrange looks to trade even then play efficient medium sized threats, then control looks to stop the opponent doing anything while it gets small advantages and eventually win (think 4 Pristine Angel and a bunch of Mana Leak).

Most angels form a midrange strategy. You try to stall until you have enough mana, then play hard to kill three and four drops which fly over the opposing board. You get that you're trying to do this, and having trouble.

This is because a lot of your creatures form part of an aggro strategy- they are 1 and 2 drops that want to attack lots, but by attacking they mostly aren't helping you survive. If you want to carry on attacking with the small creatures, I reccomend more Bishop's Soldier, with some backup creatures like Hopeful Eidolon Mesa Unicorn, Sacred Cat etc to help you live an extra couple of turns and gain enough life to challenge aggro.

Alternatively, you can pick up powerful blockers and disruption spells- your Nyx-Fleece Ram, your Authority of the Consuls etc, but that Silverblade Paladin/Precinct Captain interaction will go to waste.

In all of these, Archangel of Thune is an all star, but I can understand wanting a variety of angels- I still dust off my 'all the dragons' deck once in a while. You can back this up with accesss to R/W's amazing budget removal suite. Chained to the Rocks, Oblivion Ring, Oust and many others all help stop your opponent doing what they want to be doing, and don't break the bank.

If you like the format in modern, there are a set of staple cards (Path to Exile, Lightning Bolt, Fatal Push, Mana Leak, meta manadorks) that you will want, but its best not to commit too soon, as you can still put up a respectable winrate even in competitive environments without them, and pick up exactly what you need for a deck you like playing.

If you are having trouble figuring out land percentage and land drops (we were all there once), there are a couple of simple rules of thumb. For decks with all 1 drops, you can drop to 18 lands, but you will lose some mulligans. For decks that consistantly want 4 drops 25-26 land equivalents are the call, with manadorks, cheap land search and ramp counting as half a land. There are more detailed guides if you look at a specific strategy.

Playing six mana angels is a lot of fun, and I completely get it. If you want to focus on this, then dedicated ramp and a focus on angels with haste or similar immediate effects is a must. You can use things like Pentad Prism to play an angel a couple of turns early, and pray that it is enough. Cards like Desperate Ritual or Pyretic Ritual can also help, as can things like Grinning Ignus. Just remember that the more you rely on any one card, the more your opponent gets when they kill it- this is why everyone loves cards that do stuff right away when they enter the battelfield, you care (somewhat) less when you opponent kills it, and why having a hand with one important spell and mostly things to let you cast it can be a problem.

quickstraw on Life Drain

5 years ago

Thanks for the suggestions! I ended up switching Immortal Servitude and Mesa Unicorn for Phyrexian Arena and Blood Artist. I wasn't really sure on how to fit the other cards yet, so that's a work in progress.

mrowka3d on Dikwende Mutombo

5 years ago

yep, there's some stuff there I'd like here too. (this is Gregg). But it seems like we'd both want to keep what each other would want.

Here's what I'd love to trade from you:

Really Want: Aryel, Knight of Windgrace

Want: | Dauntless Bodyguard | Blessing of Belzenlok

Kind of Want: | Mesa Unicorn | Kwende, Pride of Femeref | D'Avenant Trapper | Yargle, Glutton of Urborg

DemonDragonJ on Dominaria release notes posted

5 years ago

During deck construction at the prerelease, the person sitting across from me opened a foil Karn; I was very jealous of that, and I really wish that I had chosen the box that he ultimately chose.

I did not win any rounds, which, at this point, is hardly surprising but still frustrating; I have been playing this game since 2003, so why do I always do so poorly at preleases?

The event was not a complete loss, for me, however, as I did open a Hinterland Harbor, and I am seeking to obtian two of each dual land for my decks.

Also, this is incredibly minor, but I just noticed that Mesa Unicorn has cloven hooves, and that really bothers me; I understand that unicorns are fictional creatures, but they are essentially a variation of a horse, and horses have solid hooves, not cloven hooves, so seeing a creature is is essentially a horse with cloven hooves is as weird as, for example, a rhinoceros with skinny antelope legs.

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