Topic: Advocate of the Beast Deck.

Hello all! I just have one more deck idea to try to tweak. I decided that I wanted to try to base a deck around the combo Advocate of the Beast, Renegade Krasis, and Sapphire Drake. Essentially, m beasts will obtain counters from Advocate and then be boosted up even more each time Renegade would get a counter from Advocate. If that isn't scary enough, just have Sapphire give them all flying. This is just the initial setup so please feel free to suggest anything.

http://deckbox.org/sets/472311

Re: Advocate of the Beast Deck.

I'd had the thought of doing a tribal beast deck when Advocate of the Beast was first spoiled, but the biggest problem is that your #1 option beast is rotating, #goodbyeThragtusk.  It MIGHT still be feasible but I don't see where it will be all that competitive, as you're essentially just playing a collection of sub-par creatures that don't normally see play because of a combo with one guy that only equates to adding one counter to a creature per turn (not exactly the scariest thing in the world).  Your opponents will likely catch on after the first game and can easily just pick off the Advocates when they hit the field... trust me on this, I tried a similar thing with Slumbering Dragon when M13 hit.

That being said, if you're set on the deck idea, here are some ideas for you.

1) Elvish Mystics - not beasts, but mana rampers to help your curve.  Think T2 Advocate, T3 Rumbling Baloth.  Then you're at least attacking with a 5/5 on T4.  Still not ideal though as you could just CAST a 5/5 Deadbridge Goliath on T3... Also, Reverent Hunter could easily be a 5/5 on T2 in the right build once Theros hits.

2) Species Gorger - you NEED to remove this card.  The 6/6 body is attractive, but you HAVE to return a creature to your hand.  If the opponent is smart, they clear out your other creatures and you end up just casting and re-casting the gorger (which you really don't want to do, as you'll never be able to attack with him).  Again, I had grand ideas for Roaring Primadox in M13 and ran into the same issues.

3) Sapphire Drake - I could see as a 2x or 3x, but at 4x you're really making your curve top heavy.  Sure, it will evolve some stuff and give flying, but odds are your creatures are going to be pretty large to start with.  The flying strikes me almost like overkill in most cases.

4) Pit Fight - Decent removal, but I would suggest you use Rapid Hybridization instead.  It's cheaper, it can remove their major threats and replace them with 3/3s OR in a pinch can be used to upgrade one of your underperforming creatures.

5) Why not go with a full playset of Renegade Krasis?

6) Prime Speaker Zegana?  Evolves EVERYTHING and gets you some pretty sick card draw?

7) You don't really have one-drops.  This solidifies the need for Elvish Mystic.

8) I would actually suggest using Agoraphobia.  It's soft removal that is REALLY versatile for what you're doing.  You could either a) use it to negate one of their threats or b) reduce the power of one Renegade Krasis, ensuring that it will evolve no matter what you put onto the field.  Best of all, you can use even one copy for both purposes given that you can return it to your hand.

9) Given that you're in blue, you REALLY need some means of generating additional card advantage - whether it be Zameck Guildmage or Fathom Mage either one gives you card draw and some versatility.  I would suggest the guildmage as it can both bring things in larger, helping to trigger evolve and guarantee everything has counters, AND it can remove counters from Renegade Krasis letting it evolve.

10) Kalonian Hydra says hello (Expensive, yes.  But also perfectly suited for this deck.)

Having said all of this, if Renegade Krasis operates as the central piece behind the counter generation, you NEED to be sure that you have numerous creatures that will evolve it without any added pieces.  Rumbling Baloth will trigger it up to two times, Sapphire Drake could up to 3 times... but that's it.  Adding Zegana, Agoraphobia, and Zameck Guildmage will go a LONG way toward helping you with this.

Either way, it could be fun.  I hope some of this helps.  Good luck.

Re: Advocate of the Beast Deck.

Thank you once again for the suggestions TyWooOneTime. I modified the deck based on your suggestions. I'd like you opinion on it again if you wouldn't mind. Plus any feedback from anyone would still be appreciated.

http://deckbox.org/sets/472311?

Re: Advocate of the Beast Deck.

So just giving it a quick glance... a few things jump out at me:

1) Gyre Sage - now there is promise here and I'm not saying this is definitely the way to go, but I could see where Elvish Mystic is going to be a more consistent help.  The sage has the ability to grow and really help the cause, BUT it requires at least one evolve trigger before it ever produces any mana (which leads to inconsistency).  If you're looking to ramp, I can see where the mystic is just going to be better most of the time.

2) You need to pick between Crowned Ceratok or Sapphire Drake.  You should worry about either going over or through the opponent's defenses, but you needn't stress both.  Giving a 5/4 flying Renegade Krasis trample will just be redundant.  Personally, I would say to stick with the drakes, but playtest it both ways to see which you prefer and which performs better.

3) Towering Indrik?  Why?  I get that it's a beast, but at the four you're soooo much better suited with Rumbling Baloth... think... 2/4 reach or 4/4.  I'm going with the 4/4 because you're planning on giving things flying via the Sapphire Drake anyway, right?

4) I would drop Rogue's Passage and two forests for the full set of Simic Guildgates. They might come into play tapped, but they guarantee you'll be able to play both colors more consistently.  Again, when you're giving things flying late game, you won't need unblockable.

As way of looking forward, I would suggest making the above changes and playtesting the deck.  It might work, it might not.  BUT, whatever you can learn about the weak links in the deck is great as you're about to have another 249 cards to draw upon that are going to introduce a lot of interesting dynamics to the game.