I like that list a little better, you might get some interactions with thragtusk and species gorger.  Considering you don't' have any real removal you might include pit fight

You might look into incorporating some of the green flash cards.  Yeva, wolfir avenger.  Predator ooze can be mean with things like pit fight and nightshade peddler. 

You could alternately try for a simic aggro, cloudfin, exp 1, shark, gyre sage, renegade krasis.  Just evolve creatures until they get to big to handle.

You're going to struggle with the more competative decks with the current deck you have.

I got your email.  Just got busy with stuff smile

To the tune of strategies.  IMO. I would shoot for the following.   Side boarding takes practice really and knowing your deck.

- Control -

there aren't a lot of control decks out there but the ones that you see will start relatively slow.  You should have time to set up a tajic against them. he's probably going to be your bread and butter against control.  Him and/or aurelia.  You'll also want warleaders helix because they're probably playing some kind of plains walker. Things like boros charm will be good here too. If it's american control I'd put in the volcanic strengths.  Helix comes in against both (you might be able to catch an Ætherling with helix... maybe.) Skull crack to stop life gain from vault and sphinx's.  Assemble is good here too.  Side out spears (maybe), and pilgrims.

- Aggro -

You want a fast hand.  2 and 3 drops to chump/trade and removal.  if you survive the first 5-6 turns you're probably in the clear.  Try not to leave reckoners on the board, I've seen some aggro decks run a suprise blasphemous act.  Your life gain stuff will be important here to help stabalize as well. Side in pillars, o rings and volcanic strs. You can probably side out aurelia and thundermaw/assemble.

- Midrange

again not a fast set up here, but potentially explosive with ramp.  You'll face a lot of removal (jund) or big creatures (bant).  Tajic, reckoner and frontline will be good here.  Helix too against some of their creatures.  Life gain is good here it helps to stall the game.  Getting an aurelia/thundermaw/assemble on line would be ideal, with slayers stronghold. Watch for angel of serenity plays in the decks that run white.  Save legion's initiative to save your creatures.

Side in volcanic str, helix, o-ring skullcrack as needed.

JUnd - volc str, helix skullcrak
Bant - helix o-ring, skull crak
reanimate, oring , pillar, helix - need to exile their creatures so they can't replay them.

- Combo

Not many combo decks around.  Human reanimator?  basicaly the same as reanimator.  exile as many of their creatures as possible.

if you do the dragon sleeves plus the perfect fits then you need the "100 sleeved" boxes.  There are some slightly larger ultra pro boxes with dividers but they cost a little more.

http://legionsupplies.com/store/index.p … ;cPath=2_8

I asked a friend who uses the dragon sleeves + perfect fit. This is what he said.

It's a ultra pro commander box.... its not needed though, any of the legion boxes would work... they are about the same size

You're really talking about 2 different decks though.  If you're going to go full aggro, you probably should run some burning tree emmissary's.  The chance for the explosive opening with BTE BTE lightning mauler is too good not to include if you want more aggro.  In that case I would also try to go with champion of the parish, boros elite and stonewright.  You'd be more boros human aggro. 

The aggro version would probably run the human package,  Champion, zealot, silverblade etc.  about 30ish creatures. not much removal, boros charm and searing spear. 22 lands-ish More RDW splash white.

The midrange version will run aurelia, tajic, reckoner, fire mane, thundermaw, and frontline medic.  about 20ish creatures + 15 ish removal.  25 lands. You might even put in a blasphemous act and assemble the legion.

The aggro game plays to win by turn 4-5 and stop the midrange and control decks before they can come online and stabilize.  The midrange version wants to hit that sweat spot where you're attacking with 3 creatures every turn enabling tajic, frontline medic and the like.  Legion's initiative works in both decks but it's probably a 2 of in the aggro deck and a 4 of in the midrange.  The mid range uses legions initiative for combat tricks and enabling the fabled 3 attack phases with aurelia. 

It really sounds like you want the aggro version, based on your last post, which is different that what you currently have built.  I would suggest finalizing a plan and get some test games in.  You don't want to go into gameday this weekend playing a deck you're not familiar with.

In my matches with gaze of granite i've never been unhappy casting it.  It'd consider at least one maindeck, I don't know if I'd want it in my starting hand, but, drawing it against things like assemble the legion, detention sphere can be pretty good too.  You're going for late game anyway so casting it with 10 mana on the board isn't completely out of question. 

I'd also be worried about removal while casting bolas.  If they nuke the DD or thrag with a putrefy or something before she resolves that would hurt. Just a thought.

Domri isn't bad, his abilities are just situational.  Knowledge or what's coming next turn is useful, but not as useful, ,imo, as just drawing the card would be.  I've honestly not tried him in a midrange deck I usually played him in a more creature heavy deck.  He seemed good there at times other times not so much.  mileages may very i suppose. smile

One thing on the jund midrange.  I see the synergy between disciple and the other creatures, but consider this.

If you're able to play disciple for value she's amazing for 4 mana, but the cheese does not stand alone in this case.  As a card by herself she doesn't provide the same value that the standard jund 4 drops do.  If you really wanted to draw cards consistently in jund consider deadbridge chant instead.  I run one in my current jund and it's a fantastic card.  getting a creature back for free potentially is amazing.  I'm considering taking out the garruks for additional chants.  it is a bit expensive at 6 but there's still not a whole lot of enchantment removal out there.

Domri seems out of place in the midrange.  You're less than 1rd creatures which means he's going to miss at least 2 out of 3 times on average. 

A couple more sweepers would probably help too.  I like gaze of granite.  It's worked pretty well.  And against the naya blitz decks casting it for 4 is almost like using a supreme verdict.  Though arbor elf does not synergy with it.  YOu'd have to go to keyrunes probably.

I saw someone running posibility storm as well to beat things like sphinxs... because if they hit another one it casts for zero

If you're going for aggro it probably needs to be all in to get under the sweepers and thargs, other than that you'd need a more resilient creature base

I saw a version of bg aggro-ish stuff on the pro tour coverage this weekend.  I really liked the interactions between varolz, lotleth and scrivener.  I don't know how competative it is but the cards scream synergy

click inventory, tools , remove everything.

687

(2 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

I looked at modern and standard and the pickings are slim.  Is that intentional or just a limitation of your inventory?

i see people use the databases on the phone too, just call up the card name the picture and everything else match up then you're usually good to go.  imo better than a bunch of loose paper or "marking" your cards.

MTG familiar is pretty good for android.

Lazav might be alright.  he doesn't remove quite these same way evil twin does and he's harder to cast. 

you may not need the uncovered clues.  think twice is like having 8 draw cards by itself. you'll have to play and see.  I feel you'll need more removal in the end.

You'll have to play some games and see.  time to start testing. smile

that's magic online.  it cost just as much as paper magic (boosters, singles etc) ((well slightly less, but still)).  i use it to draft sometimes though.

one more card to consider that isn't terribly expensive.  duskmantle seer.  Just be careful playing him,  he's a good threat and nets you extra cards but you might kill yourself smile

There's nothing wrong with a 2 color deck.  It just limits your cards selection some.  Talrand and the drake tokens can go for things like mutilate and more removal, ultimate price, murder, sever the bloodline. Ætherling is really your win condition, and another one of those is good too. To enable delver you want to run a lot of spells. Watchout for running too many ultimate price.  It's a dead card against some decks, better to diversify your removal.  Far//away is fantastic. dead weigh is cheap and effective. just make sure if you're running tragic slip you have enough removal to enable the morbid side of it.  I run 3 in my jund and find that it's still a dead card occasionally with 11 other removal spells and creatures.

To your specific questions.  The watery graves say both swamp and island, the drowned catacombs are just non-basic lands and don't count as swamps.  most control decks want more mana than 22, to be consistent.  try shooting for 25 and see how that feels.  A couple nephalia drownyards wouldn't hurt as an alternate win con or mana dump at the end of turn. More swamps probably for mutilate.

If you could get your hands on some of the plains walkers that'd be good too.  liliana of the veil is probably too expensive, but you might be able to get a jace or two perhaps a tamiyo. evil twin is good too, you can copy things your opponent creatures and/or use it as removal against legendary creatures.  Consuming apperation is kind of a poor mans jace. It can be a decent threat though. obviously more snaps would be great but they are $$.

you're also gonna need some graveyard hate on the side at least.  against reanmiator if you go to FNM.  You really have no plainswalker killer other than a counter spell so watch for those against midrange and control decks.  Aggro can still blow you out, even with delver and auger to chump.  You'll have to get a sweeper off against them to stabalize or a lot of removal since you dont' have any life gain,  I'd run 4 mutilates if you can get them and snap basically gives you a 5th if you need it.

edit: 4 think twice... trust me on that one smile drawing cards is your key to winning.  can't play your Ætherling or mutilate if you don't draw it.

693

(2 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

you might also consider faithless looting, in addition to scotts comments,  it can synergy well with varolz and help you get some consistency. It's fairly cheap and could replace cards like jarad's orders farseak and grisly salvage. Which are slow, and looting doesn't reveal everything to your opponent. Duress doesn't seem right.  Maybe sideboard the duress. If you have access to it, gravecrawler works pretty well with lotleth and varolz to sac for regen.

Not a bad start to this kind of deck though.

also, a piece of advice from personal experience.  When I first started playing rtr I tried very hard to make corpse jack work as a card and it usually didn't pan out. And I've tried a few times recently. I'd consider replacing him with dreg mangler, 3 haste damage is pretty good.

I'm not much of a control deck player, but I'll point out what I've seen from my friends perspective.  He's a major control player. 

Counter spells are institutionally useful and more-so against the midrange decks. Against aggro decks you'll need to have a better plan and that's the real threat in the meta right now.  You really need a board sweeper.  In your colors Mutilate is decent.  Cut some of your counters for more removal, something like 2 dissipates, 1 rewind and 1 syncopate.

However, if you can get access to the lands for mana grixxis (RUB), esper (UWB) or BUG would be better.  Esper gets you supreme verdict and cards like azorious charm as well as resto angel.  Grixxis will let you cast mizzium mortars and things like dreadboar, and BUG gives you gaze of granite and deadbridge change as well as abrupt decay, thragtusk and putrefy.

Talrands a little slow, he's got low body for the format and doesn't come online until the turn after you cast him. If you want tokens lingering souls is better and can help you chump while setting up your board/hand. More draw card underworld connections isn't as good as another thinktwice, azorious charm, or forbidden alchemy.

I honestly like your esper control deck better, doing that with a stronger creature package is what my friend does and he was 4-1 in our last FNM, Ætherling, resto angels, obzedat, blood barron, snaps, augars, he's running more of an esper midrange with a splash of counter magic.

play the game in the way it's most fun to you, and GL smile

what do you plan on doing with your deck?  Casual, FNM, competitive?

697

(3 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

I would suggest finding a local game shop in your area. See if they do 10 dollar drafts (or drafts in general).  Doing the drafts is a good way to get some more cards and learn the game.  The format is a little different, but people are generally open and receptive to new players at those kinds of events.

At this point your just tweaking , and you probably should test out and see how you feel... ty and I will probably jsut continue to disagree, I'm not sold on firemane yet tongue

699

(3 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

You're playing casually with your wife so there's no real reason to get into heavy mechanics or anything, but there are some basic deck building strategies that you can use when trying to build on your own.   Playing a deck that works consistently is just more fun that goes for casual and competitive.

Try to stick to 60 cards with about a 1/3rd being land. The more high cost cards you have, 4 mana +, the more land you need to make sure you can cast them.  Also multiples are important. you can have up to 4 of the same card in a deck, basic lands excluded.  this makes it more likely you'll draw the cards you need when you need them.

Just make sure if you improve your deck you improve your wife's too. She won't play if you beat her all the time. wink

rally and rout is the red/white deck I mentioned.  Thanks to scott for knowing the name.  I forgot is has a champion of the parish in it.  Those are good as well.

I disagree a little with the token deck.  It's not really an "aggro" deck, and the cards in it are used in constructed deck archetypes that I would try to stay away from as a new player.