26

(21 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

HikingStick wrote:

one of you commented that it made you "sad" to think I wasn't running Lightning Bolt (I was running some other burn spell that did only two damage). Some of us just don't know all those details about all those cards (it well could be my age, too wink). It can be quite intimidating.

That was probably me tongue and all of your points are valid, I agree 100% and while I'd love for people to offer insight my primary focus is just that I'd like to know where people would like help instead of just having to guess, because if I guess and I'm guessing too expensive then I could make someone feel like you need to spend a bunch of money to have a good deck or even to have fun, (this is the opposite of the truth by the way, generally the more competitively you play the less you are able to enjoy playing casually sad) and if I guess too low then my advice could just be useless, but I say again you are absolutely correct it can be quite intimidating when you first get here, I was intimidated and I've been playing since Kamigawa block (7ish years I guess that makes it) but I'll say that I'd love to get advice even if I never use it, no pressure to anyone but being able to discuss advice has improved my deckbuilding significantly even just since I joined the site

Sorry again HikingStick, I miss having Bolt in standard quite a bit so I react a bit too strongly when I see a Shock varient being used in modern tongue

27

(7 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

Good call on Bloodgift, that's certainly a better option than the arena, I didn't even think of that guy

Another thing to consider would be the original Rakdos, Rakdos the Defiler if you can find one, the way that his ability works when he is brought in with Kaalia he doesn't actually attack, he just enters the battlefield already attacking therefore if he tramples through (And let's face it, he's huge) your opponent will have to sacrifice half of their stuff and as long as you don't attack again you won't have to do the same

28

(21 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

I must agree as well, it's a little frustrating to put time and effort into commenting when I have nothing to work with, of course I wouldn't do it if I didn't enjoy it but with a little direction I think that we could really help out alot, I know for casual play it's hard to describe the "Meta Game" but if you could just give us a little insight, like my friends started at the same time as me (Gives us an idea of what sets they're using), even if you tell us the name(s) of their best creature(s) they like to play Green or Red (General archtypes exist even within entire colors) or a little thought about how you like to play getting huge creatures and running people over, putting together an epic combo, or just stopping your friends from doing what they want to do.

If you aren't sure about this kind of stuff just add that to your post, experienced players know questions that they can ask you to determine what kinds of decks your friends are using

Thanks for reading smile

29

(7 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

I agree with Loot Pinata accept for Necropotence, while the card is absolutely amazing to get BBB in a 3 color deck is pretty difficult to accomplish unless you're willing to drop some serious cash on lands, however if your games are fairly slow it could be a good option I'd guess that Phyrexian Arena would be better in this deck, but that might just be me.

I'm gonna go ahead and say that you need to pick one stragety, you're 100% correct above in what you've said, and I think that cutting the Assemble the Legion part is probably your best bet, I know that it can get sick but really when are you going to be able to pull it off? You're playing an extremely aggressive deck if you ignore the combo and I think aggro is the way to go, I will give advice in 3 tiers, #1 fairly inexpensive #2 putting some cash/trades into the deck #3 cost is not an issue

First off I'd say that Legion Loyalist is not a good choice, basically because it doesn't do anything unless there's battalion active and even then a 1/1 is nothing impressive.

#1 add searing spear, it's really good at punching holes in your opponent's defenses and really is able to kill almost every single important threat in standard at the moment aside from Geist and Restoration angel. I'd also use Boros Guildgate, the way that you're deck is set up you only have 1 1 mana creature, therefore there's a decent chance you won't be doing anything turn 1, it may seem counter-intuitive but if you look at standard at the moment the Rakdos deck is the most aggro deck in the format and it's usually using a full playset of rakdos guildgates, and usually getting your mana correct is more important than anything else. as far as 2-drops, Wojeck Halberders is a good option, they may not seem very impressive, but if you have battalion active they can eat a thragtusk and they sort of trade with one even if you don't have it. At this level you should cut the foundry champs, assemble the legions to SB, and cut cloudshift

#2 Keep the Spear and the Guildgates, but instead of adding Wojeck put in Precinct Captains and Ash Zealots, they can power through most opponents, I'd also add Silverblade Paladins, they can do so much work in an aggro deck, they make your smallest creatures into game-winning threats with little to no effort. Then add 1-2 Mizzium Motars to your SB, they're not really main deck material but if you're facing some sort of tokens they're awesome. At this point you should cut Slayer's Stronghold, they are one of the weakest of the utility lands (Not the worst but up there) the fact is that it should give first strike and since it doesn't it's pretty bad, and at this point you really need as much mana fixing as possible

#3 Keep everything from #2 accept cut the Motars for Bonfires, then bring in the heavy top-end from the Rakdos Aggro deck, Hellriders and Thundermaw Hellkites, if you get up to this level I'd recommend cutting the Firemane Avengers just because they don't really seem to do all that much for the deck

I've got a bonfire, an aurelia coming in, x3 catatcombs, and several of the cheaper cards if youd like to try a trade that should work out better than our past ones tongue

Well even though you only need to get up to 3 mana to cast your spells 18 lands is really risky, you will very often only have one land in your opening hand and especially in a 3 color deck where almost everything has 2 mana symbols in the cost I wouldn't go below 20 which is what I'm running in my 3 color aggro deck, and having too much land doesn't really come up for me. Most people like to run 24 lands because it improves consistency.

If you wanted to know what I'd cut from the deck I do not like Trained Caracal in any deck, especially not an auras deck, it's really really easy to kill and to be honest the lifelink rarely matters, I'd recommend adding Avacyn's Pilgrim / Arbor Elf, this can get your stuff on the board a turn faster, I.E. Geist of Saint Traft/Silverblade Paladin on turn 2 or being able to put an enchantment on a creature I.E. Invisible stalker enchanted with anything accept Spectral Flight since that costs 2.

Just a thought, what are you planning to do for sideboard? If you're planning to play at FNMs or anywhere where people have sideboards Glaring Spotlight could be a bit of an issue for you. Right now Invisible Stalker is like almost impossible to kill but if they can get a spotlight they can kill it and all of the auras on it with one spell, now not everyone will use spotlight but it's certainly something worth considering.

Good Luck smile

marumari wrote:

Don't know if this is still the place to post this, but... the login popup is nearly completely unusable on most of the Android browsers I've used.  The menu pops up, but when you click in a field to enter your credentials, in zooms in horribly, the popup is off the side of the page, and you can't see any of the submission buttons.  It's pretty bad.

Something similar happens on iTouch but if I just zoom out it automatically corrects its self.

I have 2 retreats + 1 Sunpetal available for trade, I see a chord of calling in your tradelist, I'd be very interested in working something out, shoot me an offer if you're interested

Sorry I must have missed the first posting, first off I'm scared just thinking about Corpsejack Menace into Prime Speaker, draw 8 with no one else on the board, jeez that's scary. I think that flickering might now be your best option without more targets however, Thragtusk and the Prime speaker are pretty sweet to flicker but if you don't have one you don't want to flicker your evolve creatures, and although Corpsejack and the master biomancer will evolve alot of your guys they won't get them any higher than 4-5 usually so by the time you're flickering they're probably beyond realistic evolving range.

I don't love your removal package personally, Devour Flesh seems really weak against anything that isn't just play a GoST and win deck. I'm not sure about Agoraphobia either, seems like it leaves them with a blocker either way and It's nice to have repeatable removal  but I don't think this card is worthwhile. if you can pick up Simic Charms they're pretty boss, none of the effects are really worth 2 but they're all very useful, it is never a dead card unless there are no creatures on the board at all. Sever also seems worthwhile in the Main deck, with farseeks and a slightly slower build I'd say if you're not playing against aggro you'll probably be able to flash it back in most games.

I'm not sure about the Manipulator, if there's a deck it would be good in it's yours for sure, otherwise it probably won't get enough counters to do anything, but I'd like to hear how it works out for you.

Anything specific you're playing against in your meta, I can give better advice if I know what I'm dealing with smile

36

(10 replies, posted in Reddit MTG Trades)

TyWooOneTime wrote:

Notably I have:

Aurelia's Fury
2x Sacred Foundry (potentially 2x more if anyone is interested)
Foil Thespian's Stage
Foil Assemble the Legion
Frontline Medic
Foil Molten Primordial

Ideally I'm looking to turn the Fury into Domri Rade and the Foundries into any of the other Gatecrash shocks (with a preference for Stomping Grounds).  As for the other pieces, I'm open to trade proposals (I'm also looking to try and get 2x Huntmaster of the Fells).

I realize that as Gatecrash just released, GTC prices are all screwy for the time being.  As such, I'm not expecting anyone to come forward with legacy/modern staples.

Cheers and happy trading everyone!

I'm interested in frontline medic and Sacred Foundries, my list isn't updated quite yet but let me know if you see anything

I just got a Grislebrand, interested in a counterbalance, LMK if you'd do 1:1 or so

38

(4 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

This is certainly quite a bit to think about, I've never even thought about testing Assemble the Legion, it seems more like a sideboard option to me because seeing it in my opening hand seems like it would be terrible, but I can certainly see where it could be awesome, I'll have to test it out against control decks, I might not run it just because they're not human tokens but that's more because I don't want to sacrifice the Human theme for a better deck.

Hopefully I'll have some info about some cards soon, FNM this week won't tell me much since gatecrash won't be standard but hopefully people will have Gatecrash cards I can trade for smile

I've got a SoWaP and I'm interested in your Foundry

Cackling Counterpart is always a good option, Clinging Mists can buy you time, if you're willing to add black Evil Twin can serve as extra Clones, Infinite Reflection is also a possibility

41

(4 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

In this build I'd say that Mikaeus, the Unhallowed wouldn't be terrible, it doesn't give all of your creatures undying simply because you've got a decent number of humans, but if you can give Grave Titan or Thrun Undying that's pretty sick. Glissa is a cool utility just because she kills pretty much everything without even having to try but you don't really have enough artifacts to make it worthwhile since Equipment don't go to the graveyard.

If you have both of them it's 100% worthwhile to take out the Bitterheart Witchs for them, First Strike and deathtouch for 3 mana is way better than regular deathtouch for 5, and Mikaeus is unblockable unless your oppponent has a black or artifact creature and if they're playing a humans deck it's just insane, the problem with Bitterheart Witch is that you don't have any curses in the deck, if you have some then she's pretty cool, you can kill their best guy by blocking then go get curses to hurt your opponent worse

42

(4 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

I absolutely agree about Boros Charm making the deck better, the main reason that I don't have it in the list is because I want to make Domri as efficient as possible, I currently have about a 55% chance of drawing a card so I should be getting a creature from my draw step or Domri every turn. one thing that I've actually considered is cutting Rancor, I've found that I like a T2 Thalia against almost every deck and that Rancor usually only matters if I can keep a silverblade paladin alive since if I keep a champion of the parish alive I win with or without rancor, but either way I can't see myself using less that 3 between my main deck and sideboard.

As a side note normally the Mayor actually doesn't make it more likely for experiment one to evolve, simply because he's getting the same power and toughness bonus as the creature entering the battlefield, however if I let my Mayors flip then the wolves that they spit out will cause him to evolve which is something I hadn't really considered that could actually make him bigger than a Champion of the Parish would be if I get stuck on 2 mana.

I've tested extensively with the Burning-Tree Shaman, and I'm still not sure, late game it's still just a 2/2 for 2 and early game it's only good if I have either more of them, or Mayor of Avbruck in hand, otherwise most of the free mana goes to waste. That being said it can lead to explosive starts if I've got a champion and more than one of them in my opener, it's pretty much over before it starts unless there's a T2-3 Terminus.

Also I know that 20 Lands is a bad decision, I should have a minimum of 22, even if i curve out at 4, I just find that I've got good luck and it's more fun for me to play the risky deck smile

Finally, thoughts on sideboard? I like having Nevermore quite a bit, but as a double white when I'm playing 3 colors and have 5 colorless lands it seems a bit risky and there are really only 4 things I care about enough to keep it in, Terminus, Bonfire, Mizzium Motars, and Supreme Verdict (Mutilate might also become an issue in the coming weeks but as of now no issues) and I feel like for the most part Boros Charm can fill in the spot of all of those things.

43

(4 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

Hey everyone, I've been playing with Green White humans for quite a while but after winning a tournament and getting 2 foil deathrite shamans I was able to get a playset of huntmasters so I decided that Naya could be cool, the main issue I'm having at the moment is Experiment One, so far I LOVE the idea of having 4 more Pseudo Champions of the Parish, my goal is to get them to 3/3 consistently if I can get one T1, in my opinion Frontline Medic and Fiend Hunter are going to be my all stars in this regard, as there are not very many humans that have 3 power or 3 toughness, right now I've got 2 Wojek Halberdiers in the deck as they seem decent enough, being able to trade with a Thragtusk while blocking seems decent but I just don't think they're really right for the deck, what does everyone else think? Odric, Master Tactician, Zealous Conscripts, and Angelic Overseer are all possible contenders as well, the last card I'm considering is Crusader of Odric, I don't like it nearly as much as any of the 4-5 drops I mentioned but I'm just not a fan of the Halberdiers, they don't really help with anything post board-wipe so that's not an advantage and it seems like best case scenerio they're pretty average whereas the Crusader could be exactly what this deck needs, another creature that can dodge things like searing spear and Pillar of Flame

So finally I'm curious about A) What do you think of Experiment one? B) What's the best creature to get the 3rd evolve, C) what do you think about the deck in general?, and D) What are the best sideboard cards for this deck I've got alot of stuff I really like the idea of but I don't know how many I should include of each.

Here's my current list: http://deckbox.org/sets/276804

Id be interested in your foil medic if you see anything

45

(4 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

Um, it depends on the deck, they fit in different decks so it's relative to how you build the deck

nsongster wrote:
imsully2 wrote:

I'm interested in the Emblem if you want to work something out for it

Would you trade a Terra Stomper and an Experiment Kraj for it?

Sending an offer smile

I'm interested in the Emblem if you want to work something out for it

Madcap skills is in my opinion the worse version of Pyreheart Wolf which I think you should be running instead, I wouldn't be opposed to you using both, however madcap is a great way to get yourself 2 for 1ed, meaning they kill the creature with the enchantment, they use one of their cards to take out 2 of yours, whereas with the Pyreheart Wolf they're going to have to waste 2 spells to kill your wolf and if they try to block it to death they'll get killed by your other creatures in no time flat.

Also Legion loyalist is pretty ok in some situations but I prefer to have it in sideboard, it's most relevant ability is to ignore tokens and so you don't really need that main deck unless you see A LOT of lingering souls near you.

I think that although I know you want to curve out at 4 Zealous Conscripts is alot better for your sideboard than Act of Treason, if you're bringing in something like that it's usually against life-gain cards, like Thragtusk and Centaur Healer a,d if you bring in Act of Treason it'll just undo their healing but not help put any more damage into them, if you have a conscripts you will bash in for additional damage rather than just undoing their damage.

Also for the record Hellraiser Goblin is an absolutely TERRIBLE card even in a 100% aggro deck because it lets your opponent make all of the decisions, as soon as you cast the goblin they are now the one who makes every single decision for the rest of the game regarding combat.

Seems like a pretty sweet deck overall, I know I wouldn't want to run into it smile

Another card that I found that I used in the build that I had posted on here quite a while ago was Volatile Rig, it's just another source of damage to everything, sure it's a chance but lets be honest this entire deck is largely based on chance, I'd also say that Boros Keyrune could be pretty sweet, it lets you keep a creature post board-wipe and ramps you into your Stuffy Doll.

Electrickery and co are huge threats, I might consider adding x4 Angel of Jubilation in sideboard in order to counteract this risk, the big problem in my opinion is just that Curse of Death's Hold is one of the few things in standard that actually kills Stuffy Doll and let's be honest how likely is is that you win without the doll? I know I never did. Harvest Pyre was also pretty good in my experience, it usually does more than 3 damage since you don't really care about having stuff in your graveyard and you're playing alot of instant's/sorceries, it has the added benefit of hurting your opponent's Deathrite Shaman since you can just exile everything in your graveyard.

I have a bonfire and I just traded for an Aurela I'm in need of Domri Rades, shoot me an offer if you want to work something out