Fabled Fates

Standard* musselhead

SCORE: 9 | 9 COMMENTS | 3549 VIEWS | IN 6 FOLDERS

Replacing 25% of the deck —July 1, 2014

Big update!

Switching up 15 out of the 60 cards Mainboard.
Did a lot of play testing to see what works (and what doesn't).
Sideboard is always a work in progress, could always use suggestions.

Adding:
1x Athreos, God of Passage: On color and great for aggressive decks. Also, there are many creatures with double mana symbols to turn him on.
1x Heliod, God of the Sun: On color and great for aggressive decks. Fabled Hero, Hero of Iroas, and Ethereal Armor like Heliod.
1x Erebos, God of the Dead: On color and... He's great when you get mana flooded. Let's face it, it always happens. At least Erebos can draw into a Gift of Orzhova that regains the life lost and draw that last Gods Willing you need to close out the game.

Hint about Gods: Try to turn them on without the use of Gift of Orzhova or Herald of Torment. Once A God becomes active, enchant it. This makes it harder for your opponent to turn them off while you swing with a Flying Indestructible.

2x Brimaz, King of Oreskos: Replacing Fabled Hero to better dodge early game removal. Better to have both on the field for threat variety than to have two Heros (Things like Anger of the Gods and Drown in Sorrow exists).
4x Brain Maggot: Introducing the new MVP of this deck. Because he's better than Thoughtseize in this deck (or could just be that I hate Thoughtseize don't want to run it). He pumps up Ethereal Armor (Maggots with Armor are scary), creates board presence turn 2, Almost always hits something, and forces you opponent to use removal to get their thing back, leaving them unable to answer Agent of the Fates who will make them sacrifice it later.
1x Banisher Priest: Because you finally top decked your removal to get your creature back from Brain Maggot, just to get it taken away again.

1x Ultimate Price: I have come to find out that, in most cases, Ultimate Price is strictly better than Doom Blade. It almost always has a good target (like Desecration Demon or Polukranos, World Eater). If I notice Mono Black Devotion being more prevalent, I'll probably increase the count.
2x Orzhov Guildgate: Because all the double mana symbols. Better to cast something a turn late than never be able to cast it.
2x Mana Confluence: Because we always keep one mana up for Gods Willing and Boon of Erebos anyways.

Removing:
1x Baleful Eidolon: He doesn't do anything but sit there. Herald of Torment is better for the 5 cost bestow, and Brain Maggot is better for the 2 cost disruption.
1x Eidolon of Countless Battles: The 4 cost bestow costs too much to reliably get it out quick. Want to use more, but other things are more important.
2x Fabled Hero: Replacing with Brimaz, King of Oreskos to better dodge early game removal.
2x Herald of Torment: It's a late game bomb, so having multiple early game slows you down.
1x Ethereal Armor: At first I thought Scourgemark was a cheaper, less powerful version of Gift of Orzhova. Then I realized Hero of Iroas it a 1 cost +1 that trades first strike for card draw. I still want to run just 1 Scourgemark, so replacing it with the 4th Armor.
2x Doom Blade: I do well against non-black decks already (Mostly Agent of the Fates forcing sacrifice). Prefer something that helps me in other matchups (like Ultimate Price or Brain Maggot)
1x Gift of Immortality: Sometimes I could pull it off with Agent of the Fates, but most of the time it didn't do anything spectacular. Would rather just have a Banishing Light That can hit anything.
5x Plains and Swamp: We would rather draw Orzhov Guildgate or Mana Confluence than be land screwed out of the wrong mana symbol. Dropping an extra land for a few reason (but mostly just sick of getting land flooded).

Other notable mentions:

• 2x Gift of Orzhova is a good number to have. I would run more if I didn't face so much removal.
• Blood Baron of Vizkopa doesn't actually fit this deck. 5 CMC makes it hard to get out fast. And I can't target him with any of my buffs. I would rather run Athreos, God of Passage or Heliod, God of the Sun than him. Keeping in 1 in the sideboard for now.
• Wish I had more Hero's Downfall, but I do fine with only 1. Most of the time, I ignore their Planewalkers so I can swing for lethal.
  
• Always go 2nd. Go on the play to ensure deck consistency. The best Turn 1 play is to play a dual land (followed by Turn 2 Hero of Iroas or Brain Maggot). We dropped down to 22 land, and we still want to hit hard Turn 4 (Herald of Torment bestowed)
• Tested High Priest of Penance: Sometimes he was amazing. Most of the time he suffered from the same fate as Baleful Eidolon. Brain Maggot is better.