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Deckbox Forum » Posts by elpablo
Trade forum might be a better place for this, but I don't know if you'll get much value out of this type of transaction.
I would recommend selling what you can to a store then just taking the cash and converting it into tics online, or alternately see if anyone will trade tickets for the cards. As you know one ticket = 1 dollar. You'd basically be selling the cards that way.
Really right now going 3 colors is completely doable. 2 colors are really for aggro decks atm, 90% of other competitive decks will be 3 color.
I looked at your inventory, you have an isolated chappel and a resto angel which are important cards in the esper version of the mill deck. Your trade fodder looks a little slim otherwise though. it could be a long expensive ride to get to a functional esper deck before rotation.
If you want to be competitive at FNMs in the short run you might look into a mono red aggro which you can trade for pretty easy while you build up your other options.
Unless you can drop the $$, then by all means go for it.
UR doesn't mill as well as esper does. Nehalia Drownyard with things like thought scour etc are probably better. Esper gives you access to the sweepers like Terminus and Supreme verdict and control cards like azorious charm and sphinx's rev.
If you're intent on doing mill then I think you need to try to work towards the Esper list.
if you're intent on staying UR, then UR delver is still a thing. Though the deck runs snap casters and a lot of counters and burn.
For UR delver, you'd want 4 delvers, 4 snaps, and maybe a couple Ætherlings as creatures. You need think twice for your draw engine and Ral Zareck wouldn't be bad either.
Pillar is a solid card and I wouldn't worry about changing it for now. Who knows what will be available after rotation. When rotation happens you'll have M14 and Theros cards to consider. They could bring back lightning bolt for all we know.
Other cards to consider adding.
Mizzium Mortars - strong damage for cheap cost, efficient sweeper
cyclonic rift - more of this
Burn - remove creatures, searing spear, pillar.
More Duel-type-lands and land in general - a control deck needs to be at about 24-26 lands to be consistent, even with additional draw cards.
Turn//Burn - great removal for tough to deal with creatures
Think Twice
Counter spells (dissipate, rewind, syncopate) - these spells exile cards which is a really beneficial effect
Auger of bolas if you can't get snap casters
if you wanted more reslient creatures you could even try Reckoner instead of delver.
Ætherling - Ætherling - Ætherling!!
Cards to consider taking out
Spell rupture - weapon surge (you're not running enough creatures to make these worth while)
Clear a path - I've never seen enough defenders at FNM for this card to matter.
All the mill... - to be honest it's not an efficient strategy and it can even help some decks right now.
That's an expensive bet... good luck! 
all good decks have to be play tested... Even if you copy someone strategy. You won't really understand deck building strategies on a competitive level until you really evaluate competitive decks.
Although arguably, RDW doesn't need much, you play your biggest dude each turn and turn them sideways as often as possible
It does have a cost associated with it, and with rotation being mere months away it might not be advisable to trade for a bunch of cards. It is a good deck though and it does exactly what you're trying to do, but better.
A friend of mine decimated my jund deck with slime reanimating. Most frustrating loss I've had in a long time.
Thrags and the lands are down in cost, this might not be a bad time to look into them even if only for a short while. You don't have to have lingering souls or smiters. there are variations out there.
that's how I do most of my research. hard to develop a better deck than the guys that win tournaments.
There are small changes I might make based on what you see more of in your area.
Sticking with RDW is fine. You're running quite a bit of removal. if this is a meta choice for your play area then I understand but in general terms you're a bit heavy and could cut some here for some more board presence.
I would suggest the following (below). Stone wright gives you a mana dump when you run out of plays. Bonded with a zealot can help clear the way. I like the blasphemous act sideboard, but you might still have trouble casting it if someone manages to clear your board. Could be a surprise win against a slow deck though. Alternately instead of zealot firefist striker could be good. Synergizes with BTE and makes blocking harder for your opponent.
3 Stonewright
3 Rakdos Cackler
4 Stromkirk Noble
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Ash Zealot
4 Lightning Mauler
4 Boros Reckoner
4 Hellrider
2 Thundermaw Hellkite
Splashing green for the few things you have really isn't worth it. I'd drop the green and go for straight WB.
You're mana curve is all over the place. To be able to consistently play a huge card like angel of serenity you need 24-25 lands. If you draw it in this current deck in your opening hand you're going to be sitting on it all game and probably not able to cast it.
Enchants without something to protect them usually isn't a great strategy. Rancor is resilient so it can be played solo, but in general you want to play them with hexproof creatures. Other wise you get 2 for one'd with any direct removal.
IMO, either go aggro, or go midrange and it looks like midrange is a stronger game for you.
Consider this. Sublime archangel is a decent enough creature, but needs a lot of creatures to really make it work. WB has great token generators if you want to build around sublime. Lingering souls is good, Sorin, etc.. Drop the enchants and weenie creatures for a midrange control/removal package then back up sublime with tokens.
If you can eventually do a RBW deck that would give you access to reckoner, aurelia, mizzium mortars, dread bore, blood baron, and AOS all in the same deck... Aurelia would be a good finisher with sublime and tokens.
when the red/white deck came out recently with clifftop, ash zealot, silver blade and a few others it was hard to find for less and 30-40 bucks. If you can get them for MSRP then they're usually a good deal.
I think you'll also find that nivmagus and judge's familiar don't do well in a competitive FNM environment. They're easily removable. A lot of "American" decks run resto angel and some run geist of saint traft. Restos and geists are expensive though. The deputy is a cheap (not quite as good) alternative to resto.
a lot of American decks run reckoner and a blasphemous act or 2 for the surprise 13 damage. Aurelia, and Angel of Serenity should be considered too as a possible 1 of card for winning.
Also, I don't think dragon shift is a card. You probably won't have enough creatures on board to make overload worth while. I think azorious charm in place of this is much better.
Also, in the current format, sphinx's revelation is kind of a must. IMO. If not your deck will be lacking a lot of resiliency. You need at least a couple.
Staying with red though, I agree with ty, cut the devils and I would also cut the loyalist. Truth be told RDW just isn't as strong as RG or Naya blitz right now. If you can go on the green plan, then BTE + flinthoof boar is a great play. Getting the lands is a challenge though.
glad you had fun the first day. Even getting destroyed can be a learning experience. Things to change and what to look for.
Personally I think you should go for full reanimate with unburial rites. You have a lot of the cards and acidic slime is very dangerous in the deck. It's got everything you you're trying to do with this deck plus it's dangerous to everything else thats out there
Good luck. Glad I could help. 
it works fine and was a top tier deck for a while. However this is an older version of the deck. I'm sure there are updated versions of it. I would search for a version you like and then build it and make changes as you go.
Some cards to consider adding, could be... dreadbore, blood scrivener, perhaps a sire of insanity (a bit costly at six, but one or two wouldn't be too bad,and you could up your land count by 1 or 2). Stromkirk noble might be a good addition as well, naya blitz runs a lot of humans.
well, it's supposed to be a bit early game focused. That's the whole point of your thread right? An aggro deck?
In the current environment if you play aggro you need to be able to get in a win in 5 turns or less (potentially). There are cards in the deck that make it more resilient - falkenrath + blood artist + messenger + gravecrawler make for a good combo, life gain/loss and damage.
Also, keep in mind that there isn't really a "burn" deck that's competitive right now. You really can't just damage people enough with spells to win. There are a couple exceptions, but they don't count on the burn to win, it's more of a bonus/finisher.
Well, it depends on where you're playing. If you just want a casual deck then what you have is probably okay. If you want to do things like gamedays and FNM, then you probably want something a little more competitive, like the BR zombie decks out there. They run a fair amount of black, but the red in them is important for various reasons.
Mono color right now isn't a good idea (assuming you aren't heavily budget restricted) just because the best cards are often in multiple colors. 2-3 and sometimes even 4 color decks are the norm in the current format. Sticking with one color really limits your card selection.
Below is one example of a B/R "zombie" deck.
http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/deck.asp?deck_id=1112290
It includes a lot of strong black cards, vampire nighthawk, geralf's messenger, gravecrawler.
There's also potential for a BG zombie deck, using cards like lotleth troll, blood scrivener and varolz. I'm working on building something in that vein, but I'm not sure how competitive it will be.
JUND is a strong combination, that's Black Green Red, but the mana base will set you back quite a bit, you'd need the pain lands and tap lands to be able to consistently cast your spells. If you google jund aggro or go to starcity games and look at the standard tournament deck lists you'll get a good look at what works. And like I tell most newer players, the guys that go to and win those tournaments are some of the best players around and you'd be hard pressed to build a deck that's better than theirs when you're just starting out. Chances are someone has already thought of the deck.
Unleash is a good mechanic but there are creatures out there that are just as good as the unleash ones or better for about the same cost. I'll list a few below. Cackler being the exception probably, it's a pretty solid one drop.
Falkenrath is a superb card and should be main deck. If you like the black red stuff, then I would suggest looking into black/red zombies. A quick google search should come up with a few decks. Exava is an okay replacement for falkenrath but in the format falkenrath is the better card. The zombies deck doesn't even really care if she sacked a human it's more about the interaction with gravecrawler and keeping her on the field.
If you just want to do a regular aggro deck splashing black then you'll need more 1 drops. Cackler is good, you'll need stromkirk nobles, diregraph ghoul is okay too. Spike jester is a great 2 drop fro BR ash zealot is great too. Alternately you can use burning tree emmissary and lightning mauler, doesn't match up as well with zealot and spike jester. For 3 drops you could even use boros reckoner even though he's 3 red in the deck. You can run falkenrath or hellrider.
Remember aggro decks are like pyramids. One drops make your base then 2 drops then 3, then a very few 4 drops, and depending on the deck a couple 5 drops like thundermaw helkite. Alternately the 5 drops can be 1 2 or 3 drops. The strategy is to increase the likely hood you'll have a turn 1 play and subsequent plays on the following turns. Below is the layout for a 30 creature aggro deck. That gives you about 8 cards worth of spells/removal and 22 lands.
55
4444
333333
22222222
1111111111
Consider this
Spike jester = Shredfreak
Ash Zealot = Chainwalker, 2/2 with first strike haste and a useful ability against decks that cast from the graveyard.
Boros Reckoner = splaterthug (3/3 for 3 without unleash and it can have first strike and it gets a damage redirect ability, much better than splater thug).
Falkenrath = exava (flying to get accross, haste, can sack to be indestructible and/or add counters, much more damage potential than exava)
Hellrider (haste, 3/3 makes all your attackers do extra damage)
Some cards to consider removing.
Dark Favor, if they remove the creature you put it on then you lose the enchant and the creature so your investment in the enchant went for nothing. We call this a 2-for-1.
Cryptborn horror, the other 3 drops are just better. Hellhole flailer is a consistent 4/3 with a good ability and doesn't require a conditional circumstance like the horror. Really a reckoner would be better here, but I know they do cost $$.
Rakdos charm, just bad here. It's not going to help you enough to include in the deck let alone 4. You're much better off just adding more dudes.
Shred Freak, for the cost and colors spike jester is just better. Get some of those to put in its place.
I get cards that say "play an additional land this turn" blah blah blah... but what about cards that say something like unexpected results. Reveal the top card of your library if it's a land put it into play etc...
Does the commandment of the card ad an additional land play?
no, extort is life loss not damage.
you have a lot listed on your profile. Any ones in particular? How will you be playing them?
are you planning to keep the deck standard? are you playing it casually or taking it to tournaments?
I appreciate the thoughtful evaluation. I fully admit it has problems. It can be inconsistent which is the last thing you want in a tournament deck. I was suggesting it to the OP as a potential alternative to what he was building, since he has some of the cards anyway. It can be fun to play when it "goes off". We tested quite a bit with it (we really want it to be a "deck"),but it's just not. You talk about changing colors. Which is really the "competitive choice" really, dropping blue all together is the way to go when talking about aggro and competitive. You want to be in Red with some measure of white green or black.
The damage was per turn, then a total at the bottom. The copy/paste from excel didn't capture it properly. My math might be off in a place or two, but it's generally correct after looking at them figures again.
Back to this janky bug aggro deck.
Our goal was to build a deck that was bug, that was aggro, and that used gyre sage. You might be suprised that we took it to a few FNMs and it went 3-2 all 3 times. In a competitive environment with top tier decks. I piloted it only once, and it usually won on turn 5-6 when it did when. And when it didn't, it was pretty bad.
Gyre sage is a card in the deck and can make it easier to play into some of the other cards, the deck runs a mana hungry base and the small amount of ramp sage provides can be helpful. The thing we noticed about the deck while playing it is, it's not always out of range if it doesn't win early on. Corpse jack (which is important to the aggro component of the deck) and dusk mantle have good bodies and evolve can provide for some larger creatures even on later turns.
I want to share with you a bug aggro deck I was working on it has the potential to win by turn 4, but lacks some consistency to be truly competitive in the current environment. As rotation happens this deck might be a solid tier 2 or 1.5 deck. A friend and I were working on it and it has some good potential, it's just not quite there yet. You're not far from it with what you currently have and it can be extremely fun to play.
Count name
3 Cloudfin Raptor
4 Experiment One
3 Rakdos Cackler
4 Gyre Sage
4 Shambleshark
4 Renegade Krasis
4 Dreg Mangler
4 Corpsejack Menace
2 Duskmantle seer
3 Rancor
3 Simic Charm
4 Breeding Pool
3 Drowned Catacomb
1 Hinterland Harbor
3 Overgrown Tomb
2 Watery Grave
3 Woodland Cemetery
3 Forest
1 Island
2 Swamp
It plays like this. You want to hit evolve every turn with hopefully hitting a corpse jack or dreg mangler on turn 4. Duskmantle seer gives you a measure of "burn" against some decks and helps with card draw. See some sample turns below. Assuming you drop a land each turn.
Turn Play Cumulative Damage
t1 exp1 0
t2 gyr sag 2
t3 ren kras 5
t4 dreg 15
22
t1 rak cak 0
t2 sham 2
t3 dreg 8
t4 corps 9
19
t1 rak cak 0
t2 sham 2
t3 ren kras 5
t4 corps 16
23
t1 rak cak 0
t2 exp, ranc 4
t3 ren kras 6
t4 dusk 14
24
t1 rak cak 0
t2 gyre 2
t3 ren kras 4
t4 dreg 14
20
Deckbox Forum » Posts by elpablo