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Deck Reviews / [Extended] Scourge of Perdition (quick trample win condition)

« on: December 14, 2016, 08:35:11 am »

Scourge of Perdition (quick trample win condition)

Turn 3 get out the Scourge of Skola Vale; turn 4 get out the Tree of Perdition; turn 5 swap opponent's life with Tree of Perdition's toughness and then sacrifice it, boosting the Scourge to a 22/22 creature with trample (but tapped) - then cast Rabid Bite or Ornamental Courage to deal 22 direct trample damage or 23 attacking trample damage against your opponent's 13 life.  Likelihood of getting the first two cards by turn 4 is about 30%, and all three by turn 5 is about 20%.

Everything else in this deck searches for the first two cards or is the means to do the damage.

Haven't built it yet but test runs on deckstats are very promising - one way or another, you can get the necessary cards to do 20+ damage by turn 5-8 fairly often.

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Deck Reviews / [Standard] Burning Horde

« on: November 11, 2016, 07:46:12 am »

Burning Horde

Get lots of creatures out (cheap cards & token generation), and use spells which deal direct damage esp. based on the number of creatures I have on the battlefield.

Token generation mainly via Nissa, Voice of Zendikar & Oviya Pashiri, Sage Lifecrafter.

Pair Animation Module & Durable Handicraft (esp. with Cryptolith Rite) for token generation and creature ramp so long as there is mana available.

Use Cryptolith Rite to be able to cast Blue counter-spells to opponent's surprise.

Use Dramatic Reveal after casting a large mana-cost spell (via tapping creatures) to untap all nonland permanents and cast another spell with large mana cost.

Use Mirrorpool with a copy of itself or with Westvale Abbey to copy a burn spell.

If Westvale Abbey isn't being used, and there are sufficient creatures & mana: transform it.


Any suggestions for improvement would be greatly appreciated; I don't often use Red so I'm curious to see how this turns out.

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Deck Comments / Re: Landfall - Comments

« on: November 01, 2016, 09:02:29 pm »

There, updated!

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Deck Comments / Re: Landfall - Comments

« on: November 01, 2016, 08:15:49 pm »

Yeah, I made it before the Kaladesh set came out; I might update it again with Architect of the Untamed and a few others though.

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Deck Reviews / [Extended] I Want It All (Extended)

« on: November 01, 2016, 01:07:24 am »

An Extended version of: https://deckstats.net/decks/72817/591561-i-want-it-all-streamlined-/en.

Creature abilities (Reach, Trample, Hexproof, Double Strike, Deathtouch, Lifelink, Indestructible) are provided by cheap creatures; Flying is provided by a more expensive one.
The idea is to get out lots of creatures, including via token generation (From Beyond, both Planeswalkers, and some creature abilities), and then use cards which reference the number of creatures I have: Cryptolith Rite for mana generation; Oviya Pashiri to create larger and larger creatures via mana cost; Voice of Resurgence for same but via dying or an opponent casting an instant spell; Wayfaring Temple by itself; Elder of Laurels to give creatures +X/+X for X = number of creatures this turn (for attacking, esp. Avatar of the Resolute).
With Odric, Lunarch Marshal, each creature has the abilities of each creature, which becomes very interesting with the ease of generating large tokens.  Sigarda, Heron's Grace provides Hexproof protection for Odric.
Conduit Ruin makes casting larger spells easier even without Cryptolith Rite, as well as searching for Desolation Twin (From Beyond can also do this for any Eldrazi).
Both Planeswalkers provide token generation; Nissa also provides creature ramp, and Xenagos also provides mana generation.
Athreos makes graveyard manipulation redundant as any (nontoken) creature that dies comes back to my hand.
With all the mana generation, it would be possible to get out a ca. 20/20 Eldrazi (via Endless One) without too much trouble (eg. with From Beyond to search, Xenagos to add X mana (X = number of creatures), and Cryptolith Rite to tap each creature for mana again).

Once a few large creatures are out with Odric and the Pegasus, whatever damage to me basically doesn't matter because it can be gained back by attacking for larger and larger amounts.

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Deck Reviews / [Standard] Force of Numbers

« on: October 22, 2016, 07:44:37 am »

Force of Numbers

This is my first mono-green deck, and I think this has turned out very well.  Of course there are vulnerabilities (especially direct damage and counter spells), but it seems to do what it's designed to do quite efficiently.

The idea is to get out weenies and defenders while stocking up on mana (esp. with Cryptolith Rite and token generation cards) to cast more expensive spells much quicker than expected.

If there are no useful cards in hand to play, you can pair Durable Handicraft (pay 1 when creature ETB, get +1/+1 counter) with Animation Module (pay 1 when +1/+1 counter is placed, get a token), Cryptolith Rite (to tap tokens for mana to repeat the process), and From Beyond (get a token each upkeep) each turn until mana runs out.  Without Cryptolith Rite, this can still be done, but far less efficiently; From Beyond simply increases the ease and amount this process can be done each turn.  This also works with several other spells which provide +1/+1 counters or tokens (incl. landfall and creature death as well as creature abilities).

Use From Beyond (ideally after using it for token generation) to search for a Conduit of Ruin if one is not already in hand; when this is cast, spells cost even less.  You can also search for Desolation Twin and by this time play that too.

Tokens (incl. 1/1 tokens) can quickly ramp up with the +1/+1 counters (esp. via Durable Handicraft, Cultivator of Blades, and Nissa Voice of Zendikar), to the point that Standard boardwipes (like Archangel Avacyn) won't kill all the tokens.  However, it is vulnerable to spells that destroy all cards of a specific name; conveniently, there are three different types of tokens generated (Eldrazi, Servo, and Plant) to reduce the efficacy of this strategy.

Finally, you can attack with everything (including Cultivator of Blades to give everyone +X/+X with X = the Cultivator's existing power, already significantly ramped) as an overwhelming force.

Ideally many creatures would have Trample, Lifelink, Flying, and the like, but restricting the deck to mono green prevented the benefit of Odric Lunarch Marshal to do so all at once.  Instead, there are at least creatures with Deathtouch and Reach (for blocking); offensive ability is therefore reduced, but ramps nicely in terms of raw power to be used all at once.

This deck is vaguely based on the "I Want it All" series (https://deckstats.net/decks/72817/572841-i-want-it-all/en and https://deckstats.net/decks/72817/591561-i-want-it-all-streamlined-/en), where I did use Odric Lunarch Marshal to give all creatures a bunch of different abilities during combat (the intention was to have a pair of 10/10 Desolation Twins by turn 6 or so, with Flying, Trample, Deathtouch, Vigilance, and Hexproof during combat).  However, this mono-green deck doesn't rely on Cryptolith Rite to cast spells with specific colours of mana, which is a big plus.

Feedback is definitely appreciated; I'm having a lot of fun at the strategy and logistics of deck design.

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Deck Comments / Re: Blocker, Life Gain/Drain - Comments

« on: September 11, 2016, 07:39:40 am »

Thanks, I didn't know about that one.  The highest life I've had so far is 78 with a Shadows over Innistrad deck heavy on life gain through sacrificing clues with the help of Erdwal Investigator and Ongoing Investigation.