Deck Concept - Land Destruction [GR]

I don't usually pay attention to this kind of deck; not really interested in this kind of "solo play" deck. Considering the amount of early game plays going down in standard, it might prove interesting. And a friend's interested in it, so here's more or less the response I gave him:

After taking a look at land destruction in the format, here's a quick first draft deck. Feel free to tear it apart from here.

22 Lands
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Strangleroot Geist
4 Young Wolf
4 Viridian Emissary
2 Beast Within
4 Bramblecrush
4 Melt Terrain
4 Tectonic Rift
4 Invader Parasite
4 Acidic Slime

No big finishers, but it loves the early game setup. And could probably lose some destruction for more win condition if testing/desire dictates.

Or Demolishes...

Those never hurt....

Concept Decklist - Temporal Mastery [GRU]

EDIT: I need to learn how to read. Specifically, the exile portions on cards. Still, this can stand as an example on how easily Miracle can be broken.

Spoiler season for Avacyn Restored. I like most of what I see so far, but today my thoughts are focused on one previewed card so far; Temporal Mastery.



A marvelous plaything indeed.

Miracle has awesome flavor behind it, and must feel awesome to pull off when it happens. Shame I'm going to abuse it.

See, we've got a few things that ensure we know what our first draw is.
- Noxious Revival
- Reclaim
- Ponder

That strips away the divine sheen, doesn't it? But wait! Two out of three require a graveyarded / already cast Temporal Mastery, don't they?
- Faithless Looting

Nevermind! Actually, I'm certain anyone familiar with Standard knew that was coming. Here's where I note that Civilized Scholar and Merfolk Looter work decent without splashing a third color, but leave a gaping vulnerability to creature hate. Smallpox and Liliana of the Veil are excellent options for a heavy black splash... if one can afford a playset of Liliana. Speaking of black, Zombie Infestation can also be considered a legitimate option.

Anyways, now we've got some idea of how to abuse our timeplay. But think about it; when I'm Time Walking, my "first turns" are always going to be a miracled Temporal Mastery. Hard to explain what I'm trying to get at here, but I'm concerned about running out of land and hand quickly, which doesn't bode so well when a good amount of turns could be used merely setting up next turns. I need something to help combat that.
- Rites of Flourishing

Alright, sounds like a cool idea and all, but how am I going to win?
- Delver of Secrets

Why hello there. I dig the early game potential to be swinging even on turns I waste making more turns. Now to page through my trade bind and find a few other random win condition-makers. It's a concept deck anyway, and is bound to change after Avacyn Restored has bared a little more flesh.
- Jace, Memory Adept
- Sturmgeist
- Charmbreaker Devils
- Galvanoth

I'll admit, the last two weren't quite so random. Jace takes advantage of our multiple turngen potential and gives us more drawing if we really really needed it. Sturmgeist works decently with Rites of Flourishing. And the last two are meant to generate more absurdity, especially together. Charmbreaker Devils comes out late enough in the game to make hardcasting Temporal Mastery an easy possibility, and Galvanoth gives us card advantage through non-hand spellcasting. Combined, you could see a random chance miss the Mastery but hit a green spell to put said Mastery back on top of your deck, then the second critter casting it without breaking a sweat. Could be sweet.

And because I don't like all this early game mana-pickiness, a playset of Birds to smooth out some edges.


Timeplay
---Lands (24)---
4x Hinterland Harbor
4x Rootbound Crag
4x Sulfur Falls
7x Island
4x Forest
1x Mountain

---Creatures (11)---
4x Birds of Paradise
1x Charmbreaker Devils
4x Delver of Secrets
1x Galvanoth
1x Sturmgeist

---Noncreature Permanents (5)---
1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4x Rites of Flourishing

---Instants/Sorceries (20)---
4x Faithless Looting
4x Ponder
4x Noxious Revival
4x Reclaim
4x Temporal Mastery


And yes, if I ever put this deck together, I'll do some stencil-work on a blue deckbox.

Update - MonoPod [G]

With an added Top 8 (4-2), a near miss (3-1-1), and a casual standard (3-0) under the deck's collective belt, I've decided that this time around I'll skimp on the quick recaps.

The deck hasn't changed too much. Lent out one of the Wurmcoils, so the replacement has varied between tournaments (Creeping Renaissance, Increasing Savagery, and Steel Hellkite, respectably). After obtaining a Vorapede tonight, it's in the slot. Acidic Slimes have earned their keep enough to stick around. Considering how often I've sideboarded in Karn, he's replaced one of the Pods. So far, no complaints. Lastly, I've switched out a Forest for an Island. It's nice being able to fetch it up in non-Dungrove games in which I know they'll be a Phyrexian Metamorph coming soon.

So, in summary:
-1 Forest, +1 Island
-1 Wurmcoil Engine, +1 Vorapede
-1 Birthing Pod, +1 Karn Liberated


Monopod
---Lands (23)---
2x Kessig Wolf Run
18x Forest
1x Island
2x Mountain

---Creatures (32)---
2x Acidic Slime
2x Avacyn's Pilgrim
1x Birds of Paradise
4x Dungrove Elder
4x Llanowar Elves
3x Phyrexian Metamorph
1x Precursor Golem
1x Predator Ooze
1x Primevil Titan
3x Solemn Simulacrum
3x Strangleroot Geist
4x Viridian Emissary
1x Wurmcoil Engine

---Noncreatures (8)---
3x Birthing Pod
1x Garruk Relentless
1x Karn Liberated
2x Mimic Vat


---Sideboard (15)---
3x Autumn's Veil
2x Batterskull
3x Beast Within
3x Corrosive Gale
3x Surgical Extraction
1x Thrun, the Last Troll

Oh yeah, Beast Within in sideboard. Phyrexian Obliterator has been going around. It deals with him when I can't manage to copy it, in addition to having a little more control in the deck.

General Strategies
No recap, but I'll still go over a little of my local metagame/strategy.

Control: The hardest part of facing control are the variants going around. All I can really say is that tight play and timing my Autumn's Veils are key. Surgical Extractions go in if I see Dissipate or Phantasmal Image. Mana Leak's the easier play around. Dungrove Elder is key here, since Wrath-less variants have little solution to deal with him.

Zombies: Comes in two variants; Obliterator and non-Obliterator. Both I try to stay on the offensive with at all times. Metamorph gets saved for when Obliterator comes out, otherwise I try to make myself a Geralf's Messanger or big thing in general. Mimic Vat is boss here, giving some killed things chance for revenge, snatching a recurring zombie, or even catching the previously mentioned Obliterator.

French Rites: Are problematic, to say the least. Either I have to race them before Elesh Norn comes out, a hard task; or I have to catch her/it in a Mimic Vat. Post sideboard I can delay with Beast Withins and Surgical Extraction. Pods are out, given the abundance of Ancient Grudge. One of the best matchups to have a "Deus Ex Karn" in.

Red Deck Wins: Race race race. Bloodthirst is a bitch. Stormblood Berserker is hard to play against, when burn can eat my many little creatures. Dungrove is key, with Wurmcoil an objective in both stabilizing and turning the tide. Post sideboard, Beast Within cancels damage steps and Batterskull gives me a better chance of keeping my life up. If my mana dorks take hits to keep me from ramping, that's less burn for me to eat. As for Chandra's Pheonix, Surgical Extraction is too situational to deal with her, so I have to steal a red philosophy: Annoying things opponents have go away when they die.

Delver: I haven't seen it too much recently, but the goal is simple; Race, resolving a Dungrove if possible. The spirit-emphasized variants are where Corrosive Gale shines.

About all my mind can conjure up for now!

FNM Recap - MonoPod (4-1-1)

Just a quick recap this time around, as I'm prepping for tonight's FNM shortly. Top Four'd with MonoPod last week. Still enjoying the deck.

Minor changes to the deck from the last post:
-1 Myr Propagator, +1 Garruk Relentless.
Sideboard was the same, minus the Naturalizes.

That said, it was a rather absurd night, pairings-wise. Here's a quick summary.
Round 1 - Lost 1-2 vs U/W Delver (swords focused). Something about a game one early Body and Mind and a game three major-mana screw really impeded my ability to race him.
Round 2 - Won 2-1 vs U/B Zombies.
Round 3 - Won 2-1 vs U/B Zombies. This one played an excessive amount of Obliterators, each matched with my own Metamorphed/Mimic Vat copies. Good games all around when each attack from either side can carry more risk than reward.
Round 4 - Won 2-0 vs U/B Zombies. My deck was sick of zombies at this point. It stomped hard. Game two even had two Dungroves in opening hand followed by two drawn shortly after.
Round 5 - Took my chances with an ill-advised draw. It worked somehow.
Top 8 - Won 2-0 vs an Esper control build. I played around his counters and board wipe magnificently. Not bad for a fool galloping through a minefield.
Top 4 - We split the prize.

Now to see how tonight fares...

Until next brains!

Recap - Heartless Hellrider [RB] (2-1)

Hmm, the more I post, the faster I can get the lack of updating behind me! Yes!

So, for a whiles now I've been wanting to assemble a B/R Heartless deck. Something about the loose synergy of a random assortment of cards really appeals to me. Played the deck last night in a casual Standard tournament, and didn't do too bad. Let's start with the list.


Heartless Hellrider [RB]
---Lands (23)---
3x Blackcleave Cliffs
4x Dragonskull Summit
14x Mountain
2x Swamp

---Creatures (25)---
1x Balefire Dragon
4x Hellrider
1x Inferno Titan
1x Moltensteel Dragon
4x Myr Superion
4x Phyrexian Metamorph
4x Priest of Urabrask
1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
3x Solemn Simulacrum
2x Urabrask, the Hidden

---Enchantments (4)---
4x Heartless Summoning

---Sorceries (8)---
1x Devil's Play
4x Faithless Looting
3x Galvanic Blast


So, the main goal of the deck is fast damage. Hellriders can hit hard early on, especially with friends to work with.
Heartless Summoning or Priest of Urabrask get out Myr Superions.
Heartless Summoning turns Priests of Urabrask into red Dark Rituals and Phyrexian Metamorphs into quick copiers. That spells big things out fast and bunches of annoying things, respectively.
Not too complicated, right?

Summary time!

Now, I noticed the lack of reactive spells in the deck, so I decided to make the sideboard pretty much just that. In other words, I could switch into a control deck at a moment's notice. Ideally, Heartless Summoning and the Myr Superions would be the first ones to go out in the switch.
- 2x Kruin Outlaw: 2/2 first strike isn't bad on the defensive.
- 2x Dismember
- 2x Tragic Slip
- 2x Brimstone Volley: I will note that this spell loves a Heartless Priest of Urabrask
- 3x Curse of Death's Hold: Eats little things.
- 4x Shatter
Shame I had to do this in a hurry. I'd have preferred Manic Vandals, Slagstorms, and some Ratchet Bombs. Or something.

Round 1 - [WG] White Sun Myr (2-0)
- A deck that uses the Galvanizer combo as well as huge mana in general to pop out massive White Sun's Zeniths. Zenithes. Zeni?

I felt bad in game one. That's one heck of a way to start a tournament. Turn two Heartless Summoning. Turn three Priest of Urabrask, generating enough mana to drop the Balefire Dragon. Which proceeded to eat all the little Myrs until my opponent was dead. Ouch.
Game two was a bit slower. Heartless Summoning showed a turn three Priest -> Solemn Simulacrum + Moltensteel Dragon. Risk was worth the reward; as turn four saw the phyrexian firebreather hit him for 6 as I played another Simulacrum, and turn five saw me slice my life in half to help the Dragon bring him into a metalcrafty Galvanic Blast range. Felt awesome.

Round 2 - [WU] Human Aggro (0-2)
- A casual Standard deck I've helped construct / assemble. Human oriented, it plays a mix of aggressive humans and suppressive whiteyness.

This round was silly. Game one was good. Mulliganed. Heartlessed into a Hellrider. Hellrider, with backup, works quite well. Without it, not so much. An Elite Inquisitor stopped his swings. Urabrask popped out, but was quickly shut down by an Oblivion Ring. A Vigilance flip human comes out and gets enchanted by Spirit Mantle. Inferno Titan comes out. Nope, another Oblivion Ring. The kill only aggravates the vigilance human, and my last turn sees him get trampley and finish off was his vigilance (and an Invisible Stalker) began.
Game two was absurd. I sideboard in control, end up mulliganing again. Nada in the kill department. Which sucked, considering she played a turn one Champion of the Parish followed by two more on turn two. Needless to say, I was quickly buried under a mass of +1/+1 counters.

Round 3 - [UB] Zombies (2-0)
- From what I've gathered, he's got one-ofs Gravecrawler, Rooftop Storm, and Grimgrin, Corpse-Born in addition to his normal zombies to set up a cute combo; Grimgrin sacs Gravecrawler for a +1/+1 counter, then Gravecrawler comes back due to there being a zombie on the field plus having a zero cost from Rooftop Storm. Rinsed/repeat leads to an ∞/∞ Grimgrin. Now mix that infinite sacrificing with life loss the playset of Diregraf Captain in the deck can generate.

Ah, zombies. So fun. Game one saw Faithless Looting to set up a Heartless Summoning. Turn three I kamikaze'd Priest of Urabrask into a Solemn Simulacrum and three more from Phyrexian Metamorphs, leaving me with 14 life and six land. Those land get relevant, as I have to blow about four more Faithless Lootings to start hitting win conditions that can chew through the horde he's building. That's done by a combination of Hellrider and Inferno Titan, but only after I'd hit six life.
Game two was something different altogether. Turn three Priest of Urabrask into a Superion. Hellrider pops out the next turn, the Superion eating his blocker. Another Hellrider and a Metamorph Superion come out after that, eating another random zombie, and anything I play on the last turn is hardly relevant after, though I did pop out an Urabrask, burn up his little blocker, and swing for ~26 damage. Brag brag brag.


So, not too bad overall. I'm rather pleased with the ability of the deck to blow out an opponent quickly. And be able to manage without a drawn Heartless Summoning. And manage a three mana game with a Heartless around. And keep a bad hand then fix it with Faithless Looting. Hell, Faithless Looting gets it's own mention. I can draw a land on an empty hand, flashback it, then keep the best one of the three cards drawn that turn. Screw card advantage when digging for something relevant/helpful makes for a better priority.

Sorry about the mass of text. I do feel the deck needs a few more fatties to keep the game going, but I might be wrong on that vibe. Also, without a Heartless or Looting, turns one-through-three can feel pretty slow. Off the bat, I'd support nixxing a Superion and a Metamorph for something playable in those slots. Maybe two mainboard Slagstorms in addition to that, for getting a last push if the Hellriders fail just short of the finish line. Because Devil's Play can't always do it.
Meh, more rambling...



Until next time!

Decklist - MonoPod [G]

So, the FNM after I posted that quickly-made list, my friend's Birthing Pods were free to use, so I tossed my loyal U/B Heartless deck to the wind and assembled the build. After a month's worth of FNMs, I'm still royally digging it, especially the fairly frequent Top 8 scores. Here's how it is now.


Monopod
---Lands (23)---
2x Kessig Wolf Run
19x Forest
2x Mountain

---Creatures (32)---
2x Acidic Slime
2x Avacyn's Pilgrim
1x Birds of Paradise
4x Dungrove Elder
4x Llanowar Elves
1x Myr Propagator
3x Phyrexian Metamorph
1x Precursor Golem
1x Predator Ooze
1x Primevil Titan
3x Solemn Simulacrum
3x Strangleroot Geist
4x Viridian Emissary
2x Wurmcoil Engine

---Artifacts (6)---
4x Birthing Pod
2x Mimic Vat


---Sideboard (17*)---
3x Autumn's Veil
2x Batterskull
3x Corrosive Gale
1x Karn Liberated
2x Naturalize
3x Surgical Extraction
1x Thrun, the Last Troll
2x Ratchet Bomb


Breakdown:
- Kessig Wolf Runs, Forests, and Mountains: Forests are the primary fuel of the deck, with Mountains in only to support the game-ending potential of the Wolf Runs. And while it is annoying to run into either of the non-green sources early in some games, most of the deck only cares about having just one green symbol anyway, and the redundancy has dashed at least three opponent's plans to date.
- Avacyn's Pilgrims, Birds of Paradise, and Llanowar Elves: Provide the early game support. Blue hates it when I turn two Dungrove Elder. The Pilgrims would be Birds, but they're on loan and I don't mind the early aggro nor really need the color fixing.
- Viridian Emissaries and Solemn Simulacrums: Give me ramp, and decent Pod fodder.
- Strangleroot Geist: Early aggro and not a bad Pod target, since he can swing after it, unless he's busy with having been killed earlier by removal or previous sacrificing.
- Dungrove Elder: The tastiest critter in the deck. He provides the most of the beats, wins, and opponent disliking. Especially when it's an Emissary providing Pod fodder for him.
- Wurmcoil Engine: Doesn't show up as much as the Elder, but still provides a decent amount of beats.
- Phyrexian Metamorph: Jack-of-most trades. Kills opposing legendaries. 85% of the time becomes Dungrove Elder and doesn't afraid of anything. Especially in this artifact hate-filled environment.
- Precursor Golem: Fun against light-removal decks. Mostly only a bridge between a Simulacrum and a Wurmcoil, though. Never hurts when he leaves behind his posse!
- Acidic Slime: Only removal in the deck pre-sideboard. Loves to eat swords and long walks on unique locales.
- Myr Propagator: Occupies a very chaotic spot in the deck. Used to be a Pyreheart Wolf until I disliked the lack of early game red for it. Then was a Daybreak Ranger, but wasn't relevent / alive for enough games. Almost became a One-Eyed Scarecrow until Spirits got lucky and I thought better of it. Knowing my luck will become a Jar of Eyeballs, but more likely will become a Garruk Relentless until I get a better three-drop in color in Avacyn Restored. Assuming I don't take it out now that I've noticed there's 61 cards in the deck. Fingers crossed.
- Predator Ooze: A convenient one-of. Rarely shows up in games he shouldn't participate in, and can be Podded into when he is needed. Blocks opposing Dungrove Elders on the defensive, and offensively can swing all day long until they run out of chump blockers or I hit a Wolf Run. So basically, an anti-mirror / Timmy deck tech inclusion.
- Primeval Titan: Purely in the deck for fetching up a Wolf Run and a mountain. If he lives to swing, good for him; the Dungroves are sure to appreciate it.
- Birthing Pod: One of the key bits of the deck, but not vital. Generally only used as a tool to turn cmc 2s into Dungroves and cmc 4/5s into Wurmcoils.
- Mimic Vat: Defensively, keeps an expendable blocker around at a low cost. Offensively, lets me swing and Pod if the fake critter survives. Douchebaggingly, can steal a Chandra's Pheonix or a Gravecrawler if need be. Serves 'em right for depending on graveyards instead of their deck for more critters.
What's Missing:
- Predator Ooze: One's out, since it's intentional use is veeeery specific so far.
- Woodland Sleuth: I took her out after rarely ever seeing her hit play, much less have time to fetch / abuse it. Sadly, I haven't missed her.
- Vorapede: No access. Acidic Slime seem to be doing fine in their place.
- Bellowing Tanglewurm: A casualty of never showing up. Podwise, I always felt more of a need to pull acidic slime instead.

Sideboard:
Note: I listed 17, because I've been switching between the two Naturalizes and Batterskulls. Both have merits and have won me games, so it's tough.
- Autumn's Veil: For screwing over control. Especially if it's to play a hexproof creature. A resolved Elder just eats them alive.
- Batterskull: For when the Pods come out and I go into pure ramp mode. They evade artifact hate, and that can really matter.
- Corrosive Gale: For stalling Delver decks and the occasional Spirit-focused token deck. Since I can't always draw a needed Dungrove for racing them.
- Karn Liberated: Another ramp mode choice. Slower decks don't appreciate his bulky exiling bullying.
- Naturalize: Mostly intended for busting Oblivion rings and Swords.
- Surgical Extraction: For the French Rites deck that's going around, mostly. With that, I almost feel like I need two Nihil Spellbombs as well to screw it over. Not sure, since it's probably the toughest matchup. Anyways, I also have a bad habit of exiling counterspells after they've annoyed me, with the added bonus of seeing my control opponent's hand.
- Thrun, the Last Troll: Another anti-control measure. Resolving hexproofers has been what's allowed me to eat them alive in most of my matches. He makes it easier, and (although I haven't needed it), can survive the rare board wiping.
- Ratchet Bomb: Disentegrates tokens. That is all.


That's about it. Most of the strategy involved is covered in the breakdown. Lastly, I do want to know how deceptive I've noticed the deck can be. With Dungrove Blade and Wolf Run metagame decks running around, I've noticed the more "internet-informed" players jumping to the conclusion that this deck's one of those, only to see "the other half" appear shortly after.

Tldr; Dungrove Elder beats.


Until next post!

Concept Decklist - MonoPod [G]

Had a few deck ideas once the Dark Ascension spoiler came out. Rather than solidify any of them (BW tokens, BRU Vengeance, BRU Curses, and most entertainingly, BW Myr), I decided to see how the Prerelease treated my thoughts. I'll talk about that later, I think.

So anyway, this has nothing to do with that. I just wanted to kick a monogreen Birthing Pod deck out of my head.


Monopod
---Lands (22)---
2x Kessig Wolf Run
2x Mountain
18x Forest

---Creatures (34)---
4x Birds of Paradise
3x Llanowar Elves
3x Strangleroot Geist
4x Viridian Emissary
4x Dungrove Elder
2x Predator Ooze
3x Solemn Simulacrum
3x Phyrexian Metamorph
2x Woodland Sleuth
1x Bellowing Tanglewurm
2x Vorapede
1x Primeval Titan
2x Wurmcoil Engine

---Noncreature Artifacts (4)---
4x Birthing Pod


The goal is to stomp hard. With seven one-drop rampers, chances are on your side that you'll have one in opening hand. Speaking of ramp, it's packing seven more just to up the Timmy Fury. Primeval's solely to get out a Wolf Run and / or Mountain if you need them, and Bellowing Tanglewurm's intended to be an End-of-Opponent's-Turn pod-fetch finisher. This build leaves problem solvers purely to the sideboard; Deal with it.