This deck focuses on utilizing Living Weapons by using their token as a free resource to advance our play while using the Living Weapon equipment itself to buff our creatures for high attack and burn damage, such as with
Fireblade Charger
and
Dreadhorde Butcher
.
The gameplay reason this deck doesn't run more than 1
Kaldra Compleat
is because it would then be molded to become a
Kaldra Compleat
turbo deck, rather than a Living Weapons deck.
Main Deck Card Explanations
Living Weapons
- 2x
Batterskull
: A valuable Living Weapon with a good buff, and with Vigilance and Lifelink, it's great for sustain.
- 1x
Kaldra Compleat
: Very expensive on CMC, but extremely powerful.
- 4x
Lashwrithe
: One of the primary buffing threats in the deck, the affordable CMC with high power potential and Phyrexian-life equip cost makes this only a growing threat. Has high synergy with
Korlash, Heir to Blackblade
and
Mycosynth Wellspring
.
- 2x
Mortarpod
: A Living Weapon sac outlet, primarily intended as a backup option to sac our
Fireblade Charger
s and
Dreadhorde Butcher
s. Can also be used of course as a slight pinger for burn or creature removal.
- 3x
Nettlecyst
:
Cranial Plating
, but now a Living Weapon! Affordable to equip and cast, like
Lashwrithe
, it becomes more of a threat as the game goes on, being powered by all of the other Living Weapons and artifacts in the deck.
Utility
- 3x
Apostle's Blessing
: Can grant protection of a color or artifacts to either our Living Weapons OR our creature, rather than just being able to protect a creature. Can be used offensively or defensively.
- 3x
Cranial Plating
: Like
Nettlecyst
, a great buffing equipment which gets more powerful with the more artifacts we get out, like Living Weapons.
- 2x
Korlash, Heir to Blackblade
: Having the same effect as our
Lashwrithe
means it's doubling the Swamp potency when they are together. Korlash's Grandeur effect gives us ANY two swamps, ramping us and powering up Korlash and
Lashwrithe
. I love the Future Sight borders aesthetically too -- they're my fav so I'm glad to be able to include it in this decklist! Honestly, more of other cards like
Dreadhorde Butcher
or
Nettlecyst
are probably better than this, but... I want Korlash, haha.
- 2x
Mycosynth Wellspring
: Buffs
Cranial Plating
and
Nettlecyst
while also searches us a Swamp, increasing our available lands and thus also buffing
Lashwrithe
and
Korlash, Heir to Blackblade
.
- 4x
Springleaf Drum
: A cheap 1 drop that allows us another extra mana by tapping an untapped creature, such as a Germ token, and buffs
Cranial Plating
and
Nettlecyst
.
Sacrifice-Focused Utility
Cards used to take advantage of our Germ tokens and/or to initiate
Dreadhorde Butcher
/
Fireblade Charger
's effect along with their own effect.
Buff Targets
These are the primary buff targets and are a solid win condition of the deck when combined with our Living Weapon buffs.
Land
All Swamps buff
Lashwrithe
and
Korlash, Heir to Blackblade
, and all are searchable via
Korlash, Heir to Blackblade
's Grandeur effect.
Side Deck Card Explanations
- 3x
Flayer Husk
: If we need more, cheap Living Weapons, be it for sac ammunition, blockers, artifact buff, etc.
- 2x
Fling
: If we want more Fling.
- 4x
Galvanic Blast
: Highly effective burn/removal, synergizing with our artifacts (Living Weapons) to gain access to the Metalcraft power. Use if you need more burn/removal.
- 2x
Resolute Strike
: Equips our Warriors (
Dreadhorde Butcher
,
Fireblade Charger
,
Korlash, Heir to Blackblade
) at instant speed, allowing us to suddenly deal or block with a now powerfully buffed creature. Also gives a +2/+2 buff itself. Very synergistic.
- 4x
Wear / Tear
: Efficient artifact/enchantment removal if needed.
Maybeboard Notes/Considerations
- 4x
Grafdigger's Cage
: Cripples recursion and some cheat-out strategies while also helping with our artifact-liking cards. As this deck is supposed to be more casual, completely locking out strategies seems to counter that expression, so it's not in the decklist. Good sideboard card otherwise.
-
Sigarda's Aid
/
Steelshaper's Gift
: 1 CMC fantastic equipment support in Living Weapons (equipment) deck. While not fit for my expression personally at the moment, technically these are very good.
- 4x
Thud
: Throws our buffed creatures. While 1 CMC, it IS sorcery speed, disallowing us to use it reactively. Still very good for the deck, but I'm not sure if losing the instant speed is worth the drop to 1 CMC compared to
Fling
. Use if you don't mind the sorcery speed.