1,101

(73 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

Nice!  Oh yeah, I should've said we're aiming for standard.... imsully, do you have a preference between Llanowar or Arbor?  I've added Arbor for the time being.

1,102

(73 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

Just for amusement's sake, I think it would be fun for those of us who actually read/help in the deck discussion forum area to play a little game.  So here's how it goes:

I've started a new deck here:  http://deckbox.org/sets/221643

Each of us will declare one card to add to the deck and how many copies should be added (remember that's only up to 4x - Land will come last).  I will add the requested cards and then it will be on to the next person.  If a period of 24 hours passes with no new ideas, I will begin the cycle again and everyone will get another turn (preferably in the same ordering if possible).  This will continue until we have 50-60 cards, and then we will take turns tweaking it to be able to fit a mana base between 22 and 24 lands.

The idea is to produce a sort of group made deck that might just be built and taken to an FNM for all of our combined glory cool.

I've taken the liberty of making the first move by adding 2x Gutter Grime as I think that would be a cool one to build into something.

Let the games begin!

1,103

(2 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

First a question: Why did you link to the old version of the deck?  I spent the first 5 minutes looking over the old version thinking up feedback before I realized that I should be looking at the other one.

Second, while I'm the one imsully is noting about the need for versatility wink, I have to agree with him that you need consistency.  If you cannot put at least 2x of a card, it's likely not worth it or had better not be an integral part of your plan.  For example, if you're running a vampire deck and throw in a copy of Exquisite Blood as a 1x just for grins, that's fine, but if it's potentially important to your strategy, it NEEDS to be at least 2x if not more.  This will both increase the consistency but also will make the deck easier to learn to play, as you don't have to sit and figure everything out from scratch all the time.

I'm also going to go one step further than imsully to say that I really think the deck is lacking in direction and would likely get wiped out pretty quickly at an FNM (I don't mean to be harsh).  Of course there is likely to be variation in the meta at each LGS, but I'm just not seeing the power play here.  If you want to do a crazy blue/white spirit deck, run it, but at current there are a lot of pieces that aren't fitting in.

Here are a few questions/comments/suggestions:

1) Jace's Phantasm - I understand the pull toward including a possible one-drop 5/5 flyer, but I'm not seeing any mill elements here.  So were you just planning on waiting until they have 10 cards via spells or casualties from combat/removal?  If that's the case, you might as well be waiting to hard-cast Avacyn.

2) Serra Avenger - again, a nice, tempting card, but those spots could be better utilized with either spirit creatures (there are quite a few of them), spells to pull Lingering Souls out of the graveyard (Archaeomancer or better in your case Runic Repetition), or some sort of removal, i.e., Oblivion Ring.

3) Blade Splicer - same story here.  You're making tokens, so that's good, but those tokens aren't playing into the strength of the deck.  Why not go with 2x more Drogskol Captain to ensure the spirits are that much stronger?

4) Mirran Crusader - I would sideboard him.  He doesn't fit the scheme, doesn't have flying, and his protections only work in some instances.  You could easily use those spots to either include additional Phyrexian Metamorphs or something else to that end.

5) You're splashing black just for one Unburial Rites?  If it's an Avacyn casting strategy, why not just run Defy Death?  It might cost one more, but it's in a primary color AND would give her two +1/+1s.

6) Why not just run 3x Ponder?

7) Take or leave this one - personally I like Divine Reckoning over Day of Judgment.  Same cost, but you can maintain a creature advantage if you have the biggest one, AND it has flashback, giving you double the board clears for the same number of slots in the deck.

8) Why Spectral Flight when most of your creatures are already flying?  You could take advantage of Favorable Winds and pump all those spirits even more.  If you're looking for a pump enchantment, Spirit Mantle is still standard legal and gives your guy both +1/+1 and protection from creatures (not a bad deal there).  Others that would better serve you are there.

9) The sideboard needs some work here, but I'll leave that up to you to figure out as you're more familiar with the decks your opponents are more likely to be running.

Then you can simplify your land base in a way that it will be much more consistent.  I think there's a lot of promise here and it could be pulled together without spending too much or putting forth too much effort.  Soon you'll be pumping lots of spirit tokens that can dive in for plenty of flying damage.  Confetti will stream from the rafters, music will be playing, etc., etc.

1,104

(5 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

Good points.  I only wish Darksteel Axe wasn't rotating... Manor Gargoyle can provide another option.

Thanks for the input guys!

1,105

(5 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

As I'm on a pace of one new idea per day, I just had a fun thought to run with a new deck idea...

So with no more delay, I present:

You've got 99 problems and this Lich is one (see what I did there?): http://deckbox.org/sets/219383

The basic idea here is to pair Phylactery Lich with a nice artifact to do some major damage.  Well, since a simple Smelt or Naturalize could cost you both the Lich and the artifact, why not pick a shiny, indestructible artifact?  Stuffy Doll enter stage left.

So realistically, the deck proceeds by popping out Black Cats and Ravenous Rats to disrupt their hands while giving me chump blockers.  Toss in a few Krenko's Commands to add some tokens, throw in ramping with Infernal Plunge, Vessel of Endless Rest, and Gilded Lotus (and to a lesser degree Liliana).  Once you hit critical mass and put out Stuffy Doll you can start board clearing in the way most doll decks do, but if you ALSO have the Lich paired to the Doll, well, those don't get dropped by the board clears either.

Anyway, I guess this really isn't that different from most Stuffy Doll decks, but man, I'll take a 5/5 indestructible Lich paired with the Doll every day of the week.

Thoughts?

1,106

(6 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

It would seem great minds think alike as they say.  wink

1,107

(6 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

Mass Appeal could actually prove useful in there too.  Especially if you drop the artifact diggers.

1,108

(5 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

Thanks for the input.  To be honest, I'm thinking the mill deck is going to get scrapped.  The input I received over at TappedOut was similar, saying the deck was too diffuse and not focused enough.  sad

On the other hand, it led me to start thinking about my Win, Lose, or Draw? deck and those combos.

Go figure, Talrand, for all his epic awesomeness, is difficult to build around.

1,109

(1 replies, posted in General Discussion)

So I've stumbled across a combo that's ALMOST broken in standard and wanted to get some input from anyone/everyone to see if there is a way to make this thing work.  Or I could be misinterpreting Infinite Reflection, at which point, this works.

So it centers around Chancellor of the Spires, Talrand, Sky Summoner, and Infinite Reflection.  You play Chancellor of the  Spires and then cast Infinite Reflection on him.  Then simply cast whatever sorcery/instant you like to trigger Talrand.  The new drake becomes a copy of Chancellor, allowing you to target any sorcery/instant in your opponent's graveyard (who cares what it does), in turn, making another Talrand token... and so on, so on.

The catch, Infinite Reflection specifically states "nontoken creatures," so is there a way to pull this off I'm not familiar with?  I managed it with Rite of Replication in the opponent's graveyard on DoTP_2013, but those were specifically copies of the Chancellor.  So is there a way to manage this that the tokens count or something?

Thoughts?

I'll definitely cede those points to you as they're right on the money.  BUT, given the prevalence of Surgical Extraction in standard play, the fact Shimian Specter hasn't gotten ANY love is surprising to me.  Although that might be a function of the fact that most of my real competitive play came back in revised and such when Hypnotic Specter was an absolute beast - and all he did was make you drop a card...

I'll give it another look in the AM and can agree that I've gone overboard with the unblockable effects, I realistically could drop down to just 3-4x Artful Dodge and that would cover me.  I'm staying away from the rotating cards as I'm not really likely to have but one FNM I'd be able to partake in before then, so that sort of takes out Surgical Extraction.  I'll definitely aim for more removal/control aspects.  I just love the idea of attacking with the Specter, unsummoning one of their key creatures, and BAM that sucker and all of his friends are gone.

Thanks for the input!  And it's no trouble if you ramble, I know half the ideas I post on here are hair-brained anyway. wink

So the feedback for my "Something Smells Fishy" deck on Tappedout was less than positive sad, which means, I spent about 15 minutes thinking up a new, weird deck idea to have fun with in Standard format.  I welcome any/all comments, even negative ones, as long as you're constructive and help the idea along (even if you're helping it along to the scrapyard).

Here's the new deck:  http://deckbox.org/sets/218318

The basic premise here is to run with Shimian Specter - I don't know how this card isn't seeing more play - and exile a LOT of the opponent's deck.  The key is to keep them unblockable, which can be achieved with Artful Dodge, Ghostform or even more permanently with Tricks of the Trade.  You swing with the Specter(s), they're unblockable, BAM you're getting a Surgical Extraction without any mana cost that you can repeat.  They pull a Mana Leak and you don't want to worry about those any more, DONE!  I'm also liking this idea because I can make my Specter unblockable, cast Unsummon on their favorite creature, and BAM, yank them too.

Deranged Assistant and Gilded Lotus help do a little bit of ramping (I know the lotus costs five, but it provides three mana), as the four drop spot is really packed, but outside of using Heartless Summoning I'm not really sure how to fix that (comments welcome there).

Evil Twin works to either take out their Legends via the Legend rule or to copy the best creature on the field, and then take out theirs.  Either that or they give me 3x more specters.  Talrand is really just in here to be another target for them to worry about - and if he happens to create some drakes along the way, that's just an added bonus.

Lastly, the only remaining challenge is to keep cards in the opponent's hand.  Enter Sign in Blood and Bloodgift Demon.

Anyway, I'm open to any thoughts on yet another odd idea.

1,112

(5 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

HikingStick - I just commented on your deck, hopefully that will be of some help.

With regard to the one I've pieced together here, again, I'm not really looking to make this thing dominate by any means.  Rather, I'm really wanting to mislead my opponent into thinking that I'm running some crazy aggro goblin ramp deck, when in reality, my goal is to charge Druids' Repository enough to pull off a Door to Nothingness win.

To that end, I'm sure I could work in more burn spells to help against flyers and the like, but with that in mind, any other thoughts?

Also, anyone have any thoughts on the merfolk mill action going on in the other deck I posted?

Thanks!

Outside of what imsully said, I would say there are two things here that could be changed for some improvement.

1) Rolling Temblor - really this is a great card if you have a deck chock full of flyers or are worried about your opponent rolling out an army of tokens.  However, the beauty of Krenko, Mob Boss is that YOUR army of tokens will likely be larger than theirs, meaning the last thing you want to do is drop a spell that does two damage to every creature without flying.  Without at least two Goblin Chieftains on the battlefield, this card will essentially neutralize your entire deck.  The obvious card to substitute in is Bonfire of the Damned, but I'm not going to say you should go drop $80 or more for two cards.  I would likely go with 2x Goblin Grenade in their place.

2) You really don't have any means by which to draw more cards once your hand is spent, and given that it's a goblin deck, that reality could be much sooner than expected.  Just spitballing here, but Rummaging Goblin will at least help ensure you can dig through to get the spells you really want (a big plus if you're over 60 cards).  I've always been a believer that Elixir of Immortality is great when you're using things that require you to discard, as your curve might not be to the point where you want a six-drop, but you can discard it for something more useful, recycle the library, and find it the next go round.

Other options to help with the drawing situation could be Descendants' Path - as it has a pretty good chance of helping you out, as all your creatures are goblins; Staff of Nin?  It has a cost of six, but that's about when you'll be needing more cards anyway.  You get to ping things and draw more.

I'll keep thinking about it, but that's just what comes to mind now.

1,114

(14 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Wow, where to even begin on something like this.  So I'll apologize for the long-winded response before I even begin.

I think Anubomb has really hit the nail on the head saying, "each trade is situational;" because, really, I can think of numerous reasons why the "extra" value would change.  But let me begin by saying, if you come up with a good system that people buy into, props to you (but I fear you might need an advanced degree in economics to really pull it off, as this is, technically, an empirical question that could be answered if someone with the right expertise and time to kill wanted to survey the existing trade data - with some help from Sebi to export it all, of course wink ).

Just some of the factors that I can think of off the top of my head include:

1) What format is the large card you're trading down? (I feel it should warrant more extra if it's something that cannot be pulled from a pack tomorrow)

2) How available is the large card?  Could the card be purchased easily, and, if so, for how much? (Even some legacy staples are widely available, whereas others, people tend to hold on to.  For this someone should look at how many people have them in their tradelists.  If I'm one of only 4-5 people willing to part with it, that should garner extra value, as opposed to a card that could be picked up from one of a hundred different traders).

3) What is being offered in return? (Again this is a completely idiosyncratic variable.  If they're trading you cards that are more than say, 25% of the large card's value each, then I'd say anywhere from 10-25% extra would be fair.  If none of the cards even top 10% of the large card's value, I don't think I'm out of line saying an extra 25-50% would be warranted - especially if the majority of the trade is comprised of junk commons/uncommons - or as I call them, penny cards.  I think you would be hard pressed to expect anything more than 50% extra value in any trade.)

Other factors that I won't even pretend to know how to operationalize include:

1) How much does the person want/need the card?  (This really works both ways.  How much do you want to move the large card?  How much do they want to get it?)

2) How much trouble is someone willing to go to in order to get the card? (I've actually had someone go to an LGS to pick up other items on my wishlist in order to make a trade work - but I hardly consider this the norm).

3) Cross-Format trades? (How much value is gained/lost between legacy and standard?)

4) As Anubomb said, rotation status, or even, time remaining to rotation?

5) Overall demand for the large card?  (You can bet someone that puts a Bonfire of the Damned up for trade is going to want a fair bit for it because they're in such demand right now - such that you cannot even purchase them from a lot of LGSs).

6) At what value do these rules even kick in?  $5, $10, $20?

Again, sorry for the lengthy response. I do wish there was an established protocol for this sort of thing, but realistically, the factors I've listed above are just the proverbial "tip of the iceberg." 

Personally, I'd just setup some ground rules for what you think is fair so traders can know what they're getting into when they try to trade for a larger value card.  Then it's really up to the two of you to sort out what a fair "extra" compensation for the larger card is.

It's one of those things that the higher dollar cards are obviously at a premium, and unless the person offering it is dying to unload it, you likely would have to give up some value (within reason).  Unless it's a roughly even swap (i.e. Thundermaw for Sublime Archangel or Cavern of Souls, etc) i don't think it's unreasonable to expect.

I know that I've received countless offers for 2-3 five or six dollar cards that are comprised of like 1-2 one dollar cards and a bunch of junk rares/uncommons.  In those instances, I'm VERY unlikely to do the trade unless I'm picking up a LOT of value.  I've instituted a rule that I go by low values (because 1. you could just go buy them at that price, and 2. it doesn't inflate the values of penny cards) and that the person trading up will have to give up value.  I get that you have to start somewhere, but man...

I'm pleased to report the Thundermaw has found a new, loving home.

Thanks everyone who expressed interest.

1,117

(5 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

So I'm in the process of building my Krenko/Talrand pairing deck... but the thought came to mind that I might enjoy playing with those two fellows in decks that perhaps are a little less serious.

The first one is here:  http://deckbox.org/sets/216935 - it borrows the Rootbound Crags and Strangleroot Geists from my Heroin Hero and Momm! He's Touching Me decks; the Krenko's Commands, Goblin Chieftains, and Krenko, Mob Bosses come from the Krenko/Talrand deck.

The goal here is simple, I can win one of two ways, I either drop them via an overrun of tokens (but what fun is that?) OR, more amusingly, I attack enough times with those tokens/Geists to charge Druids' Repository enough to win via Door to Nothingness.  Four Rummaging Goblins help me burn through the deck to find what I'm looking for.  2x Elixir of Immortality allows me to dump things that might be useful later for the sake of getting it rolling, as I can cycle back to get them later.

My gut feel is that this would get destroyed at FNM, but I think the better question is, does anyone think I would be able to pull off at least 2-3 DtN wins?  Because I really think that would make it worth losing a fair bit.  Or, if you have thoughts as per to how to make this competitive, I'm game.

The second deck is here:  http://deckbox.org/sets/216944

The second is another dual win-con deck.  This one plays off Talrand, Sky Summoner and his merfolky and drake buddies to either beat the opponent to death; OR, I can mill my opponent to death via Mind Sculpt, Archaeomancer and Ghostly Flicker.  I can flicker two Archaeomancers to get back two Mind Sculpts and cost the opponent another 14 cards.

I actually think this could be mildly competitive, but I would imagine I need to include some more counter-magic to really get to that point.  I'm game to snag some Mana Leaks or Negates from other decks, but would want to know what to drop to make room.  Realistically here, I just want to actually win a few games via mill, because, well, that'd be sweet (not quite DtN sweet, but fun nonetheless).

Again, the idea here is just to have a little fun with some cards I'm already looking to acquire for some more serious decks.  But if either one strikes you as having some promise, by all means, let the discussion for how they could be good commence.

1,118

(6 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Imgur pics of the high dollar cards is also a good idea (pending that anything is worth more than say $30-40).

I could be tempted... let me dig around with some of what you have.  Do you prefer avg or min prices?  (I'm on min now with the blip in TGC averages).

Just pulled a Thundermaw Hellkite at FNM.  Never even played.  Up for trade to whomever can fill the most of my wishlist - note that I don't want offers with $30 worth of commons/junk rares.

My wishlist:  http://deckbox.org/sets/129549

1,121

(7 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

I'll second that Goblin Grenade would be nice; but, as an alternative, you could kill multiple birds with one stone by subbing Arms Dealer in for the Mogg Flunkies.  Given that you'll be pumping goblins out like an assembly line, you won't mind sacking a few of them to pick off their flyers (or other obnoxious creatures).

The other problem I can see here is when you get decked.  Then what?  I've found that the best decks are the ones that find a way to keep your hand full or at least to pull what you're really looking for.  The only thought I really have there that fits this deck would be Rummaging Goblin/Mad Prophet (the former obviously benefits more with Krenko).   The other alternative would be Descendants' Path which could let you drop more creatures out for nothing - all the more reason to stick to only 1 or 2 types.

1,122

(6 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

As a note, something I just realized is that Shimmering Grotto is standard legal, meaning that it's not difficult to have four of an easy mana color converter... who knew?

1,123

(6 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

I'll openly admit, I was having a brain fart when I thought you could exile lands with Oblivion Ring.  In either case, I can see it still being FAR more useful than Pacifism, so I've swapped that up.  I dropped the Scroll of Avacyn for Abundant Growth as those can help both if the mana comes out stacked in favor of green, provide the red for Gisela, OR, they're a one green "draw a card."

On the one hand I can see where Rancor is the "cat's meow" for a lot of people, but really, in a lot of instances if your creatures aren't giving you a board advantage already... either way, it can only solve so many problems on its own.

For the board clearing, I thought Divine Reckoning is a good option.  I don't end up clearing my own enchantments and will likely have a larger creature on the board than them, so why not drop it?  Also, it has flashback, so for only two slots I can technically clear the board four times.

Ground Seal - I was really just looking for a placeholder there, so it'll be easy to swap out.

Nevermore - you're correct that it wouldn't stop Delver decks cold, but man, if you could get that out, so many players have ZERO creativity and just build the exact same decks with only five cards in them.  And if you were to draw into one at the right time, you could TOTALLY stop countermagic.  That's a luxury most of us would pay for, right?

Gisela will make a cameo and we'll see how she works out.

Thanks, as always, for the input.

How did said Humans and Angels deck fare for you?

1,124

(6 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

So my gf is learning the game and I'm looking to put together a few standard decks so that she can play FNMs too (rock on!).  She wasn't too impressed with any of the standard ideas I've thrown up yet.  She seems intrigued by Selesnya as a guild option for RTR after rotation and requested I look into "an angel deck."  So this is what about 40 minutes of perusing the post-rotation sets has yielded.

http://deckbox.org/sets/215062

The idea is to drop the humans early to provide some early defenses and also mislead the opponent.  They see Doomed Traveler, Avacyn's Pilgrim, and Thraben Doomsayer and they'll be expecting Champion of Lambholt, Champion of the Parish, or tokens (I hope).  But the real clincher comes in the form of angels, and with any luck, a quick Avacyn, Angel of Hope.

Obviously angels have a steep mana curve; however, that's the beauty of green as I can ramp the mana using Avacyn's Pilgrim and Somberwald Sage.  Angels will get cheaper thanks to Herald of War to further expedite the process.  And if none of those work, Descendants' Path will let me drop either the humans or the angels at no added cost to me.

I don't forsee getting decked with Mentor of the Meek pairing with Thraben Doomsayer to help me draw.  Scroll of Avacyn gives a nice life gain while also powering some added draws.  Lastly, multiple Descendants' Paths will let me cycle through the deck with the quickness.

Divine Reckoning works either once Avacyn is out or otherwise just to bail my ass out when I'm looking at a bad draw (or at least a bad board presence).  Defy Death will let me score Avacyn if they counter her or if she's otherwise forced to the graveyard (and five is certainly cheaper than eight).

I have SOME removal in Pacifism and Oblivion Ring, but don't know that I'll really need much because of the basic design of the deck - I should be able to secure a better board presence pretty quickly or just chump block the crap out of them.

Lastly, Ajani, Caller of the Pride is just in for some grins.  He can help with Herald of War by adding counters or otherwise his -3 ability will help get the kill.

So here are my concerns:

1) Sideboard - at current it has 4x Nevermore as I'm viewing that as the ultimate SB card.  Play the first game, see what happens, sub them in and you can cripple most decks relatively easily - just think about calling out Mana Leak/Vapor Snag/Tragic Slip/Bonfire of the Damned or better yet, Delver of Secrets or Snapcaster MageCurse of Exhaustion is sort of barking up the same tree there.

2) Do I need more removal?  Would it make sense to dump Pacifism for more Oblivion Rings - they're more versatile and can even help mana screw your opponent.

3) I can't help but think I'm missing something in green as the color balance is wildly in favor of white.  I'd adjust the mana, but forests are so important to get things off on the right foot with Avacyn's Pilgrim.

4) Entreat the Angels, Banishing Stroke and several others are tempting.  But are they necessary?  I can't help but think that the creature composition of the deck is spread too thin.  Would it make sense to drop some and make it more focused?

How does this sound more generally?  Thoughts?

As always, any input anyone can offer will be greatly appreciated.

So here's my next "bright" idea for a deck (note that I'm using the word bright rather liberally here).

Given that Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord has been leaked from RTR, why not build a Golgari (G/B) deck for some fun both leading up to and post rotation?  (here's a link to Jarad: http://www.rarityguide.com/forums/magic … ombie.html)

Here's the deck as it currently sits: http://deckbox.org/sets/213966 (Title is still a work in progress too wink )

So the idea here is pretty simple.  It's all about deathtouch and fighting.  Ulvenwald Tracker is one of the key engines that makes this work, as he fuels all the fighting.  Nightshade Peddler is there to help with to give deathtouch to the creatures where they don't already have it.  Between the two of them, I should be able to control the board pretty well, especially when the ones fighting are undying creatures, so I can pair them with the peddler, pick a fight using the tracker, let my creature get it's arse kicked, but take theirs out in the process. 

If my creatures don't have undying, well, that's what Undying Evil is for.  The fun being, that as long as things are dying, I can rock all sorts of morbid effects (enter Skirsdag High Priest or Tragic Slip), pump up Predator Ooze, or even take their creatures using Dread Slaver or Unhallowed Pact

Ultimately, if all my options don't work out and nothing is going to die, well, Disciple of Griselbrand provides a sack engine (which, when paired with the high priest, could easily translate into a one mana cost 5 life gain as I could sack the demon token during my opponent's end phase if life is needed).  Or Jarad will work in this place too once we return to Ravnica.

Other things... I have other board control via Murder, Bone Splinters and Tragic Slip.  4x Sign in Blood will ensure that I'm not sitting there top-decked.  Lastly, Exquisite Blood can help bail me out in a lengthy game by essentially giving all my creatures lifelink if/when they make their way through.

A few thoughts:

1) I'm pretty sure Rancor needs to find its way in here, but I'm not sure where to make room, given that I'm already sitting at 63 cards.  It would be a monster on any creature once Exquisite Blood is on the board, but it will really work wonders with Predator Ooze once it's pumped a bit.

2) What should I drop to get this to 60?  I've never been afraid of going over, but I'm thinking it should probably go down to at least 61 (with the added one being Jarad) for the time being.

3) I have some flying defense in Deadly Recluse and my load of creature removal.  I've sideboarded some added anti-flying stuff (see Silklash Spider).  Will that be sufficient?

4) Lastly, I have a lot of neat mechanics going on here and I don't doubt I'll be able to clear/control the board pretty well here.  But outside of clearing their side and then going in, is this a clear enough path to victory?  Predator Ooze has the ability to become LARGE pretty quickly.  I can take their creatures with either Dread Slaver or Unhallowed Pact.  I can plop out 5/5 flying demons essentially every turn with Skirsdag High Priest.  Is that enough?

Sorry for the lengthy post, but any/all input is welcome.