Ruining Friendships One Land at a Time (Casual MTG Deck)

Ruining Friendships One Land at a Time

Casual

Bengernaut

Sorcery (16)

Land (21)

Creature (9)

Artifact (4)

Instant (8)

Planeswalker (2)

Sideboard

Enchantment (3)

Creature (3)

3x Dwarven Miner

Maybeboard

Sorcery (13)

Creature (6)

Land (4)

4x Darksteel Citadel

Enchantment (2)

2x Mana Flare

Planeswalker (2)

***Thanks to my fellow law school classmate and her fiance' for navigating this deck in the right direction. Hopefully, it works as well as I think it should.

Continuing my theme of playing decks that annoy others as much as humanly possible, I decided to go with a deck that destroys opponent's land with cards like Stone Rain and Molten Rain. The maybeboard currently has a turn 1 LD with Simian Spirit Guide + Darksteel Citadel + Boom/Bust , but I found the likelihood of having all three of those cards in hand to be unlikely, so I instead went with a turn two, 2 LD combo. This combo is as follows:

T1: Play MountainT2: Play Strip Mine then Raze. Tap Strip Mine as you sac it for 2LD putting your opponent behind on mana curve.

Outside of basic LD, Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning provide protection from creatures or an additional win condition when mixed with Pyromancer's Goggles, Dualcaster Mage, and/or Chandra, the Firebrand. The deck maintains board presence with the the phoenix cards in addition to Shivan Wumpus and Ember Swallower . Shivan Wumpus can be both a gift and a nuisance. If the opponent has been doing well on mana, they can waste your draw phase each turn by sacrificing a land and sending him to the top of your library. IF it's a mill deck, they can get rid of him entirely. Still, he forces mana pressure and board pressure on the opponent which has worked well so far. Ember Swallower is more of a win condition card since using monstrosity will cost you 3 lands as well, in addition to it's hefty cost. However, as a 4-drop 4/5, he's a strong presence on the board until you beef him up.

Originally, this deck was really struggling from two major problems: mana starvation and draw. To address the former I added cards like Chandra, Torch of Defiance, Rite of Flame , and Seething Song. Even without Chandra on the board, the mana issues seem to be more or less gone with the addition of these cards. For card draw, I added in Howling Mine which is an absolute menace in this deck. When I decided to give it a shot I had hoped that the card would have a pseduo-milling effect on the opponent. It does. Not only does it allow you to draw faster (this deck burns through its hands very fast), but it also forces the opponent into a position where they are often discarding cards because they have no mana to cast spells. After playtesting this (against a limited number of deck styles), this happened in almost every game Howling Mine was used in.

Chandra, Torch of Defiance was originally included in the mainboard but was replaced for two reasons: 1. She doesn't fit as well in this deck as I had hoped. +1 2-mana ability is great but with Seething Song and Rite of Flame I don't think it is necessary to include her just for that. 2. She's expensive. On the other hand Chandra Ablaze adds some nice shock utility to the deck by allowing me to discard unnecessary red cards for a 4 damage shock. Since my graveyard gets filled rather quickly anyway, her -7 ability has the potential to wipe out multiple lands, allowing some viability in multiplayer games.

tl;dr use early game LD combos to pull ahead of your opponent on the mana curve and drag them empty-handed into the mid-game where you can continue suppressing them with spells and creatures. Finish them off with a massive 12 damage turn 6 (technically, this can be done turn 3 if you get the right combination of cards, maybe earlier) - Pyromancer's Goggles + Chandra, the Firebrand + Dualcaster Mage + Lightning Bolt if they're not already done from the plethora of other win condition combos available.

Note: This deck started as a r/u but after playing around with card options for a while I opted for a mono-red deck. After playtesting it a few times (against my other crappy decks) it seems to be in a good spot but would love some feedback from more experienced players.

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Tons of Playtesting — April 6, 2017

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After playing solitaire-type playtesting against some of my other decks, I think this is in a good spot. The Simian Spirit Guide + Boom / Bust + Darksteel Citadel combo for a turn one LD is still something I would like for the deck but the financial cost is a bit much for such a tenuous combo (having all three in hand for turn one is not a guarantee, obviously).

Instead, I stumbled upon Strip Mine which is really a broken card, but whatever. With four of those in my deck I can use Raze + Strip Mine for a turn two, 2LD combo by sacrificing Strip Mine which I would have to do anyway. This is far more reliable and financial available so this is wonderful.

Additionally, I tried out Surgical Extraction and that card can really make the difference between an opponent coming back or being totally knocked out of the game early. I want 2-3 of them for this deck but the problem again arises where the cost is simply absurd. If I can manage to get my hands on the card for a reasonable price, I will.

Otherwise, the addition of the mana-generation cards like Seething Song and rite of flames have been really helpful, especially with Strip Mine removing a good chunk of my mana from the deck. I had Koth of the Hammer in the deck earlier and he didn't feel as valuable. His -2 ability is really awesome but since his hp starts at 3 and I do not run a creature heavy deck I feel Chandra, Torch of Defiance is a more reliable source of mana when considering Seething Song and rite of flames.

--That all said, I have gone ahead and purchased the cards I need for the deck with the exception of those I mentioned above and Chandra, Torch of Defiance because they are prohibitively expensive. I may be able to pick up Chandra, Torch of Defiance and 2x Surgical Extraction soon, though.

April 5, 2017

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April 4, 2017

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April 4, 2017

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April 4, 2017

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Deck Feels Done — April 4, 2017

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April 3, 2017

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April 3, 2017

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Date added	7 years
Last updated	7 years
Legality	This deck is Casual legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 0 Mythic Rares 11 - 0 Rares 12 - 6 Uncommons 14 - 0 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.56
Folders	Expensive Decks
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