Topic: {Opinion, Legacy} Green/Black Mana Ramp Attempt

Hello Ladies and Gents!
So my intention was to build my first MTG deck. I have been working for a gaming stop for a couple of months now, and it has been long past due to build my own deck.
I do realize this is a bit expensive for a newbie but I wanted to try out certain cards and everything I found interesting was playable in Legacy.

The card that inspired my interest in playing was Thespian's Stage so I wanted something that took advantage of mana (please don't judge, I know its not that best card but as a former Theatre Nerd, it sparked my interest).
FULL Deck List
Additional Stats from DeckStats.net
My goal was to use cards such as Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, Cabal Coffers, and Wirewood Channeler to create mass amounts of mana.
After getting that mana I want to use cards such as Drain Life, Gaze of Granite, and Mutilate to not only take out target creatures but also take down my opponents life count.
I know that Mutilate is a bit of flaw in the deck since it is only at creatures and would take out almost all of my own but as a precaution I added cards like Giant Growth, Groundswell, and Elvish Archdruid to help bring up the toughness on some of the creatures.

I hope my ideas on how I want to mechanics to work makes sense. Let me know if you see improvements that can be made or better card combos based on what I have listed on the full deck list. Thanks for reading!

Last edited by quirkymegan (2014-06-20 04:37:33)

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Re: {Opinion, Legacy} Green/Black Mana Ramp Attempt

So to add to this some of the boys at my shop suggested replacing drain life with Exsanguinate and maybe finding a way to use Consume Spirit. Again I would love to hear everyone's suggestions.

Edit 1: Also got a suggestion to add in Coat of Arms which has the same effect asElvish Archdruid but with all creatures not just elves.

Last edited by quirkymegan (2014-06-21 02:14:36)

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Re: {Opinion, Legacy} Green/Black Mana Ramp Attempt

all your creatures tap for mana why do you need Paradise Mantles?

You also have a mostly green deck that than tries to rely on Cabal Coffers for Black mana. What about Nykthos Shrine to Nyx instead of Coffers?

There was a deck for Vintage (12Post I believe?) that revolved around Candalbera, Cloudpost and Vesuva to generate huge stockpiles of mana. You may be able to recreate a similar deck in Legacy using Cloud Posts, Vesuva and Thespian Stage. And then something to untap the cloudposts (Voyaging Satyr??)

You'd be stuck into something more like a Fireball, or Emrakul to win but it seems like it has alot of potential to me.

Re: {Opinion, Legacy} Green/Black Mana Ramp Attempt

TRZ wrote:

all your creatures tap for mana why do you need Paradise Mantles?

You also have a mostly green deck that than tries to rely on Cabal Coffers for Black mana. What about Nykthos Shrine to Nyx instead of Coffers?

There was a deck for Vintage (12Post I believe?) that revolved around Candalbera, CloudpostandVesuva to generate huge stockpiles of mana. You may be able to recreate a similar deck in Legacy using Cloud Posts, Vesuva and Thespian Stage. And then something to untap the cloudposts (Voyaging Satyr??)

You'd be stuck into something more like a Fireball, or Emrakul to win but it seems like it has alot of potential to me.

I could probably lay off some if not all of the Paradise Mantle, I just wanted to have a back-up plan if I ever needed just one more of either of the manas.

Well form my understanding of how the cards work my deck would actually be relying on Cabal Coffers, Wirewood Channeler (working with colorless mana boosting elf Bloom Tender and the other elves using advantages for multiple elves on the field), and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth to get black mana.
But even if I didn't get alot of black mana out it wouldn't matter as much since I would mainly be using Exsanguinate, Gaze of Granite, and Consume Spirit to hit the target players and their creatures using any mana for the damage X.

As for the other cards you posted, I couldn't find Candalbera. Cloudpost looked very interesting but I would then have to add Locus to my deck and I don't have the space or any idea and how that would plausible with the mana types I'm using. As for Vesuva it looks like it could be Thespian's Stage twin. I can defiantly see how it would work well in the deck.

And I do have a question, how would Emrakul be effective in this deck? I'm not quiet sure I would be able to get it out fast enough, would it be more appropriate in the sideboard?

Last edited by quirkymegan (2014-06-21 02:05:50)

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Re: {Opinion, Legacy} Green/Black Mana Ramp Attempt

The problem with saying that you're building a Legacy deck is that people expect a competitive, focused deck.  If you wanted to build a casual deck, it would be better to label it as casual instead of Legacy.

For reference, the deck that you're closest too with the current build is called Elves and you can find one build here:

http://deckbox.org/sets/298334

You can find some discussion of the deck here:

http://www.starcitygames.com/article/27 … rt-1-.html

Even if you don't adopt some of the combos and strategies, you could borrow some ideas, such as using Craterhoof Behemoth and Natural Order.

If you're curious about 12 Post (aka Turbo Eldrazi), here is a deck list:

http://deckbox.org/sets/241273

and here's an article that talks about the deck, though not very thoroughly:

http://www.starcitygames.com/article/28 … egacy.html

I don't recommend picking up Turbo Eldrazi as one of your first Legacy decks.  It's a complicated deck to play properly.

Re: {Opinion, Legacy} Green/Black Mana Ramp Attempt

Right so the basic concept here is sort of two seperate paths you can go.

Consume Spirit still requires black manage to pull off so I dont like it in the deck flat out.

Right now you're focusing alot on stuff like Cabal Coffers and Urborg to give you Black Mana so you can exsanguinate/gaze. But at the same time you're focusing alot on All your elves to boost out Mana and they dont really tie into each other all that well.

I guess I would say I see three Potential decks here that do similar things but in slightly different ways and you've tried to put 2-3 of them all into one deck!

Deck 1 - Black Consume Spirit/Exsanguinate/Lifedrain Deck
Cabal Coffers, Urborg, and creatures like Nirkana Revenant and (I cant remember the other one now...) who let you tap for extra Black Mana are key here.

Deck 2 - Green Elf Mana Ramp into Assorted Expensive Cards.
Nykthos, Archdruid and Priest of Titania provide you with huge gobs of Mana. Which you then use to play World Spine wurm or something else big like that.

Deck 3  - 12 Post Variant
The 2 Locus + Thespan Stage + Vesvuva and then a few odds and ends like Voyaging Satyr to untap your Locus again. Use your huge wads of Colour Mana to Fireball or Emrakul someone to death. Fun!


I just think you're trying to do too much at once in your current deck.

Candelabra of Tawnos was the card I was thinking of. It let you abuse the heck out of lands like the locus.
Also Note: Gaze of Granite is just a worse Pernicious Deed so if you're gonna be playing competitive legacy look for the deed!

Modern Decks can consistent get off a Turn 4-5 Emrakul Im 100% Sure that Legacy can do the same or better if needed.


If you're looking to play more casually my advice still stands. But you can get away with playing a deck much closer to what you showed us without any problem.

Paradise mantle just really has very little to no use in the deck.... You'd be better off with Expedition Map or Sylvan Scrying so at least you can grab a useful special land. Actually now that Im looking at it again Elves of Deep Shadow or Lanowar elves would probably be better than Heritage Druid as well. Again all your stuff except heritage taps for mana already...so do we really need the one to enable non tappers to do it?

Re: {Opinion, Legacy} Green/Black Mana Ramp Attempt

psrex wrote:

I do apologize for the categorization of the deck, I figured since it was all legacy legal that, that was what determined the type of deck, not level of competitiveness. If we are doing the level of competition it's really none so it would be free form. But due to the lack of free form players at my shop I'll probably end up playing legacy anyways.

My only problem with Elves is that I don't want to be playing THAT many different kinds of mana and.... I don't wanna pay that much... haha. But I do like a lot of the cards on their own and see a lot of good ideas/inspiration for the deck and sideboard.

I also highly enjoyed the discussion on different combinations of elves and how they effect each other, really interesting and want to look more into that.

And 12 post does look a bit complicated... interesting...but complicated. I might wait a bit.

TRZ wrote:

It makes complete sense to take out Consume Spirit, I didn't even think about the fact it takes only back.

Out of the three decks I like the first two the most, I think I would have to play around with them a bit first though to find out which one I like more.

Both Pernicious Deed and Candelabra of Tawnos look freaking awesome. I love that deed not only cost less but does more in terms of damage and taking down your opponents defenses. I'll also play with Emerkul and see how that goes.

And I already completely took out Paradise Mantles and replaced it instead with Coat of Arms to see how that would play in the deck. I figured it wouldn't hurt to see how that might help since all my creatures are elves

Last edited by quirkymegan (2014-06-23 06:10:33)

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Re: {Opinion, Legacy} Green/Black Mana Ramp Attempt

I think in general Coat of Arms is considered too expensive to be truly effective in a competitive setting but I still like it more than paradise mantle! big_smile

Pernicious Deed Technically hits alittle bit less then Gaze of Granite does (Im looking at you Planeswalkers...god I still don't even like you in the game sad ) But the big thing is you can sac it at Instant Speed to mess with your opponent on their turn!

Re: {Opinion, Legacy} Green/Black Mana Ramp Attempt

TRZ wrote:

I think in general Coat of Arms is considered too expensive to be truly effective in a competitive setting but I still like it more than paradise mantle! big_smile

Pernicious Deed Technically hits alittle bit less then Gaze of Granite does (Im looking at you Planeswalkers...god I still don't even like you in the game sad ) But the big thing is you can sac it at Instant Speed to mess with your opponent on their turn!

Well I'm glad it's more liked! And ahhh, I see what you mean, again I'll play around it it till I figure out what works best smile

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