FNM Prep

[G. Moto]

  Hey everybody I have a deck I'm working on and I would like some advice from you guys on how to make it better. Yes it is kinda big right now but I'm in the process of shrinking down some. I feel this deck may stand a firm chance against most of those Tron and "COCO" decks that people are running. Any help or advice is well appreciated.

http://deckstats.net/decks/24826/505293-ancient-walkers

[KouriNick]

Hey G.Moto! I like the deck and I especially like the flavor of it. The whole, "Fear the Monster's of Innistrad" idea gives the deck a nice theme to work around.

Personally, my favorite card in this deck is Gitrog Monster, since it feeds it's own engine while being a giant 6/6 with Deathtouch. If you have more, it could totally be a 4 of. It fits the deck flavor nicely, and the cards needed to support it all work with the monster theme too. Getting Groundskeeper, Stoic Builder, and Fork in the Road up to 3 copies each will support the monster and allow for enough land recursion to sustain The Gitrog Monster. To make room for these 5 cards, you have a couple options. You could cut blue altogether and do 4 of each of the cards suggested (though I like the uniqueness of the deck by keeping it B/U/G), or you could cut Might Beyond Reason (good card, but leaving 4 mana up for some counters could slow you down), Rottenheart Ghoul (there's so much madness, making your opponent discard could bite you back), and Hound of the Farbogs (5 mana for a creature that can get killed by Fiery Temper is risky).

I hope you find this helpful man, and Good Luck at FNM. Let us know how it goes. Happy Hunting

[G. Moto]

  Thank you very much Kourinick, your advice is greatly appreciated.

[Frimmel]

What Kourinick said.

Also -- Drop the blue. That's fourteen of the fifteen you need to get down to sixty.

Go with more ramp? Get some artifact creatures that make mana to help with delirium (not that you have much in the way of that) and cast the Gitrog. Inexorable Blob might be a good fit. 

Rancid Rats and Rottenheart Ghoul look like good choices for dropping to take some of the other stuff up to four like Stoic Builder, Sanitarium Skeleton, and Merciless Resolve.

[hotrodscott]

I like the above suggestions as well.  Cryptolith Rite might do the trick.

[skeri]

I also think that dropping blue would be helpful. It would bring you consistency and drop down your choices for cards. Deathcap Cultivator is a neat card as well for green/black and he certainly looks creepy, the people of Innistrad would probably cringe if they saw him standing across the street from a park. I think you would get more out of your Soul Swallower and Hound of the Farbogs if you had some ways to trigger their delirium. All in all G/B decks have lots of potential with SOI and who knows, next month they may release some super sweet cards to add to it with Eldritch Moon. Good Luck and let us know how it goes!

[G. Moto]

  Hey guys and gals, I found some cards that I had gotten through this block and did some tweaking to the deck. I've decided on keeping the Blue so this is going to be a BUG deck. I did however find some cards that may make play with this deck pretty interesting. Some of the suggestions that you gave tied into this deck pretty well so that worked out pretty good. I plan on keeping the deck count between 65-70 cards mostly because I'll be doing self mill for a majority of the game (and cause I have enough land in the deck that it'll help with my creature/delirium triggers). Any thoughts on the new look?

[G. Moto]

  Hey ladies and Gents of the multiverse, this is your favorite Vamp G. Moto. I went to my local FNM and tried out a new deck that I built. For some of you that had a look at it before hand (@Skeri, Kourinick, hotrodscott, frimmel) the deck  played well using a third color. We only had three rounds but this was my match-ups for the evening:

Round 1 - [R/B Vampire aggro/Madness] The deck feat. Drana, Olivia M.F.W, and the usual red and black vamps from the SOI set. I didn't see Kalitas but the falkenrath gorger, and ravenous bloodseeker were included. The deck focused more on combat and less on life gain. This deck I actually drew against so it was a pretty even match.

Round 2 - [U/B Eldrazi control] This deck was mostly played using black,draw and kill spells such as ruinous path, grasp of darkness, ultimate price and silumgar's command. My crawling sensation helped A LOT in that game and it allowed for me to keep a steady board presence. I nearly beat the deck but when conduit of ruin hit the field and he dropped an ULAMOG, the ceaseless hunger it was over after it attacked and milled me out the following turn. My deck lost but it performed well, it held its ground and I got my opponent down to less than 10 life both games, the first one down to 2.

Round 3 - [R/G Eldrazi Mid ranged] This was my second run-in with an Eldrazi in the same day. The first game of the match was very good, it was funny because the first game lasted nearly the entire match! We didn't finish the 2nd game because the shop closed but despite how well the deck performed having to deal with and lose to Ulamog the ceaseless hunger TWICE was kinda annoying. But still it is what it is.

    So to recap; My deck functions as it was designed to with minimum hiccups, my deck holds its ground against Vampire decks, it maintains a steady field presence against control decks, aggro mana ramping landfall decks are held at bay. As of today my deck only loses to Ulamog the ceaseless hunger. The deck will definitely receive some upgrades with the new cards I came across (a 2nd of the gitrog monster and a 2nd drownyard temple) but for a while I think i'll let my ancient walkers take a rest....

[KouriNick]

Glad to hear you had fun G. Moto! And it sounds like you did pretty good and just need a way to deal with cards like Ulamog.
maybe Blessed Reincarnation, or Oblivion Strike in the sideboard.

[skeri]

Glad to hear you had fun G. Moto! And it sounds like you did pretty good and just need a way to deal with cards like Ulamog.
maybe Blessed Reincarnation, or Oblivion Strike in the sideboard.

Ulamog isn't a hexproof monster so could you take control of it with Switcheroo and turn it against your opponent?

[Mnemosyne]

Ulamog isn't a hexproof monster so could you take control of it with Switcheroo and turn it against your opponent?

If only you could use Switcheroo, but it isn't standard? The problem with Ulamog is when you cast it, an ability which is unaffected by countering, means that you get to remove two of your opponent's permanents. (lands/artefacts/enchantments/creatures) so even if you could take control of it, that ability does not trigger, since you are not casting it, merely taking control of it. Also to my knowledge, there are no permanent control spells in standard, except the blue enchantment-aura Illusory Gains, which assumes your opponent does not cast another creature. The trick then would be to use an ability that temp exiles it, then returns it to the battlefield, which would cause the aura to be 'shrugged off'.

You could use 'act of treason' but that is only temporary, assuming that you have that card in your hand, when Ulamog, The Ceaseless Hunger is cast. (very circumstantial at best)

But I do like where you are going with that, and in Modern, it is totally doable, just not in Standard. Your best bet would be to use declaration in stone, infinite obliteration or anguished unmaking

[Mnemosyne]

  Hey everybody I have a deck I'm working on and I would like some advice from you guys on how to make it better. Yes it is kinda big right now but I'm in the process of shrinking down some. I feel this deck may stand a firm chance against most of those Tron and "COCO" decks that people are running. Any help or advice is well appreciated.

http://deckstats.net/decks/24826/505293-ancient-walkers

A very budget Standard deck, mate! If you wanted to improve it by paying a little more, I would suggest putting in Hissing Quagmire, that way you can use it as a creature and it provides a dual source of mana! If you combined that with Sylvan Advocate, it would become a 4/4 creature with death touch. I also suggest more permanents with delirium, especially since you are going with self mill. like (Skeri) suggested, you could use cards like Corpse Churn and Liliana's Indignation to quickly trigger delirium.

PS, more Gitrog frogs!     

[G. Moto]

   Thanks for all the feedback guts and girls. I recently did get another drownyard temple and the gitog monster so the deck is now improved. I was trying to go for a more budget approach by using cards that most people wouldn't that could still be effective. THe thing about collected company is that it plays a lot of small creatures. That's why when I initially built the deck I was going for the big creatures such as morkrut necropod (also because it has menace) and kill spells such as biting rain. This way I could wipe out a lot of small threats and have my big threats unaffected. Also the drownyard temple + morkrut necropod combo works great! Either that or use the gitrog monster helps keep a steady mana base without falling too far behind in the game. As for Ulamog I made another deck ESPECIALLY for him. You can all check it out under the name "Flames and Feathers" under my decks. I also put it up on the post titled Purge the impure.

[skeri]

Ulamog isn't a hexproof monster so could you take control of it with Switcheroo and turn it against your opponent?

If only you could use Switcheroo, but it isn't standard? The problem with Ulamog is when you cast it, an ability which is unaffected by countering, means that you get to remove two of your opponent's permanents. (lands/artefacts/enchantments/creatures) so even if you could take control of it, that ability does not trigger, since you are not casting it, merely taking control of it. Also to my knowledge, there are no permanent control spells in standard, except the blue enchantment-aura Illusory Gains, which assumes your opponent does not cast another creature. The trick then would be to use an ability that temp exiles it, then returns it to the battlefield, which would cause the aura to be 'shrugged off'.

You could use 'act of treason' but that is only temporary, assuming that you have that card in your hand, when Ulamog, The Ceaseless Hunger is cast. (very circumstantial at best)

But I do like where you are going with that, and in Modern, it is totally doable, just not in Standard. Your best bet would be to use declaration in stone, infinite obliteration or anguished unmaking

Ah you're totally right, I thought there was a 2016 emblem on Switcheroo, but turns out I just can't read and it says 2015. Act of Treason and Malevolent Whispers paired with sacrifice target creature cards could work, but that depends on the draw and the timing. My oopsie!

[skeri]

   Thanks for all the feedback guts and girls. I recently did get another drownyard temple and the gitog monster so the deck is now improved. I was trying to go for a more budget approach by using cards that most people wouldn't that could still be effective. THe thing about collected company is that it plays a lot of small creatures. That's why when I initially built the deck I was going for the big creatures such as morkrut necropod (also because it has menace) and kill spells such as biting rain. This way I could wipe out a lot of small threats and have my big threats unaffected. Also the drownyard temple + morkrut necropod combo works great! Either that or use the gitrog monster helps keep a steady mana base without falling too far behind in the game. As for Ulamog I made another deck ESPECIALLY for him. You can all check it out under the name "Flames and Feathers" under my decks. I also put it up on the post titled Purge the impure.

It looks great! And I love that you're using cheaper cards that people won't expect to be competitive!