The build-pass-build a deck game... (Page 3 of 3)

Predatory Rampage is going and Champion of Lambholt will be dropped to 3x to add 1x Craterhoof Behemoth - for those late game situations where other strategies have failed and you just need to overrun them.

Even if we drop the BoPs, I think we need to replace it, at least partially, with something else that provides ramp, otherwise we're going to be way too slow in getting to our actual end-game (any of the expensive enchantments, preferably multiple of them).  I'm not sure that there is much to help us out for ramp at the moment though, without knowing the full RTR list (which will hopefully include BoP).

Any more updates that we were going to make to the deck?  Just curious since everybody had gone quiet for some time now.

And ugh, Woodland Cemetery just jumped up to $11-12.  I can't decide if I should try to get the last one I need for a playset now so that I can play this deck, or if they'll end up dropping in price later on.  If anybody has one that they want to trade, I'm open for negotiations.

Last edited by NullParameter (2012-09-10 20:29:00)

I'm going to be laughing really hard when people realize that Vraska, the Unseen isn't even going to be competitively playable in an environment with Oblivion Ring and the new planeswalker kill card, not to mention that she's 5cmc and doesn't even make an impact until several turns after she hits the board, and I doubt it'll be uncommon for someone to just hold a bonfire/magmaquake until she ultimates, then laughs hysterically, she's a very fun card, without a doubt and I'll be trying to get one for my Ghave deck, until she gets banned in EDH (which could happen very realistically) but not until her price plummets to about where Tibalt's sitting at right now, on a side note, I don't think that she should be included in our deck, unless they re-print doubling season, in which case all bets are off and she's going to be an absolute bomb, but I hope for the sake of standard that they don't reprint Season, no matter how much I want a playset

Been trading for a bunch of cards, finally got my last Woodland Cemetery and Killing Wave in the mail, so I think I'm going to be taking this deck to FNM tonight.  Will report back later tonight on how everything went.

Although I just realized that we don't have a sideboard, so I'll have to come up with something.......

Yeah, I got the first three before the price hike.  This one I had to trade an arm and a leg for (and shipping body parts isn't cheap!), but it sets me up well to play some Golgari after rotation, so hopefully it is worth it.

A general idea about sideboard is that its usually best to only have cards that hate specific styles/strageties because if you just put cards you like that didnt make the cut youll never put them in, theyre just not as good, things like topor orb and grafdiggers cage are sideboard cards, or my favs surgical extractions

Had to work late instead of going to FNM.......   Next week......

I finally got to play this tonight!  And sadly, it bombed pretty hard.  Went 1-3.
If and when you can get the big enchantments out (Exquisite Blood, Feed the Pack, etc.) then they can be great.  The problem is that the current meta, at least where I'm at is just way too incredibly fast. 

The main problem is that there just weren't enough creatures staying in my hand, especially when I'm using them as an extra resource to draw cards and kill things.  Blood Artist + Barter in Blood definitely stole the show though.  Any time that you can get a couple artists out and then essentially kill four creatures, that is at least a 16 point life swing in your favor.  I cleared more than a couple boards with back to back Barter in Bloods, but that also left my board empty.

The problem wasn't quite as much of the fact that there aren't enough creatures in the deck, but rather that they all cost so little and are rather insignificant in the grand scheme of things, that you end up committing a lot of them to the board very quickly.  And when you do that, and then sacrifice a bunch, you end up with an empty hand and just top decking the rest of the game.  With all the extra life gained from the Blood Artists, will definitely want to include a full set of Sign in Bloods.  For the most part, the enchantments are definitely cool when they hit the field, and allowed me stall for a few more turns whenever they did, but they should probably be dropped almost entirely for something that will help out more immediately and more readily.

I am gonna have to say though, that I sided in a couple Gnaw to the Bones and they rock the house in this deck.  Sack a bunch of creatures to get a life swing from the Blood Artists, and then gain twice that much life, and then do it again with flashback.  Even if you have only 4 creatures in the graveyard, that is 16 life for 6 mana.  Will probably be main boarding those from now on because you really need that extra stall factor here.

Champion of Lambholt was pretty useless, because you'd just end up wanting to sacrifice it anyway.  Will definitely drop those.  Craterhoof Behemoth was much the same way; you never had enough creatures on the board and enough mana to make it worth while.

Lastly, definitely need a bunch of enchantment and artifact hate in the sideboard, possibly main.  Oblivion Ring shuts down your sacs.  Witchbane Orb shuts down Blood Artist.  And I'm sure there is plenty more where that came from.

Gaining from sacrificing and life gain are really the stars of the deck, and we definitely need to play more on that fact.  A lot more.

I would say that is probably an amazing idea, actually.  And possibly Jarad's Orders as well, because that gets you the best of both worlds (especially since you can choose to only find one and it goes right to your hand).

I wasn't ever able to get it out once, because it was never relevant enough.  By the time I had that much mana lying around, I didn't have enough creatures out to make it worth while because they were busy chump blocking and being sacrificed.  The Exquisite Blood at least came in handy a bit with only a single Blood Artist, and Feed the Pack was able to essentially double the number of blockers I had lying around, but Gutter Grime just doesn't have an immediate impact and requires me to keep feeding it more and more creatures to be useful.