Combo Craziness 5

Features

squire1

7 April 2011

5300 views

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Hello again everyone! So it has been a while since I did one of these articles. I write them when a card inspires me. Normally I write about using bad cards and making them work, taking bad cards and seeing what they can do. This time however I am inspired by a not so bad card from the newest MTG set. It is a common but a good common. Maybe too good for common but that is a different discussion. I know a lot of cool cards have kinda been spoiled but only a small handful have been confirmed by WOTC. So with that I give you the card of the hour.

That's right suture priest. This guy is Johnny gold right here. I mean really I get a Soul Warden and an ability that hurts my opponent when they drop creatures. Sweet!

I know, I know..."What if they are playing a creatureless deck?" you say. My answer is that you must not be a Johnny if you asked that. If they are playing a creatureless deck or not, make them put creatures onto the battlefield under thier control. I don't care what they are playing, I can make them put creatures out.

Now as with all of my articles, I am saying these things relative only to the vintage or legacy world. And in that world I am mostly talking about casual. I often have to remind people that MTG is a game, and is meant to be fun. Suture Priest will see some play in draft and sealed games, but probably very little in constructed standard and extended. It certainly is not a must have in standard deck, but that is because it is not a basic land or a planeswalker. Yes I am bitter.

The build

So now that I have talked about Suture Priest enough, what do we do with him? How is a viable deck built around a perfectly common and simple card? How does Suture Priest become the card that we must draw in this deck? How does it become the focal point of a deck and the win condition?

Well we can start by looking at cards that play well with it. I say we start by looking at cards that hand opponents creatures. In this case I will start with creatures that give opponents creatures as well. Because while I give them stuff, I want to gain some life too.

Creatures

Now there are a couple of different ways to go here. We could go in the Hunted Wumpus, Oath of Druids, Eureka route. Which is the first place my mind went. I figured white green would be good and still may be the best to go with in a different direction. I went in a different direction at first though because in a creatureless deck these would not help and it could also cause Emrakul, the Aeons Torn for free in some decks.

If I go with green/white, I will use Hunted Troll as it causes at least 4 life loss with Suture Priest. Since Hunted Troll gives smal flyers, i figured that some creatures that hate on flyers would be helpful too. So maybe add Ifh-Biff Efreet and Arashi, the Sky Asunder. Then I would add a playset of Qasali Ambushers into the fold for some combo antics.

So I figured that the next best batch of creatures to explore was the hunted cycle from Ravnica: Hunted Dragon, Hunted Horror, Hunted Lammasu, Hunted Phantasm, and Hunted Troll. Of these guys I figured that with Suture Priest out, the Hunted Phantasm translated to a 3CMC bomb that causes a loss of 5 life when it drops or more if you have multiple Suture Priests out. I could also add Hunted Lammasu here, but it is not really that good for this deck.

To go along with Hunted Phantasm I figure that our new friend Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite would be amazing. This way the phantasm has no drawback if our new praetor is out. I also added a few Flickerwisps to the fold as they can trigger Hunted Phantasm again. Flickerwisps can also do a nice reset on a building planeswalker you opponent has to if needed. I also figured that bounce is good here as a stall. Since my Suture Priests just need to be out on the battlefield, I won't mind tapping them from time to time to use with Tradewind Rider, which will help make opponents recast creatures that they already dropped causing more life loss.

So after exploring both of these avenues, I figure that I will continue with both. I think each is a viable build. One of the decks will be white/green and the other will be white blue.

Planeswalkers

So from the prior decision, I will break each section into two decks.

White/Green Deck

This deck has some not that great options for planewalkers. Garruk Wildspeaker could be useful for acceleration and a tiny help with creature advantage and life gain. Nissa Revane is as lame as usual. Gideon Jura could be a nice target and Elspeth Tirel pumps out chumps which also help us gain life/stall; so I think that a couple of each is ok. Actually I am going to put 2 Garruk Wildspeaker in there to play off of a cool land for later. Fun little combo.

White/Blue Deck

Now the white blue is a bit easier. Depending on the number of Suture Priests out, Venser, the Sojourner's first and final ability become bombs. Additionally Jace, the Mind Sculptor is a no brainer here. His 0 ability is always good, and in this case, his -1 ability is perfectly in line with the goals of the deck. That said, if I played against a creatureless deck I might take these out for simple Brainstorms. Elspeth Tirel and Gideon Jura could also be used in this deck but I don't want to fill the deck too much with planeswalkers and the other two simply go better here.

Instant/Sorcery

White/Green Deck

I started out with some removal here. I know that Hunted Troll will give my opponent weenie flyers, but Howling Gale will take care of that easily. I then went for a pile of Path to Exiles because they are great in most cases. Even if they have no creatures to kill, you can mana fix with it. or accelerate with garruk making tokens then killing them. Lastly I put in a couple of Pack Hunts. These can be really helpful because it can pull all the Suture Priests into your hand. And then next turn gain huge life, then the next turn drop a troll for 16 lost life!

White/Blue Deck

Alright now for spells I am putting mostly control in here to help with stall. Some of the creature control i put in could be sideboarded for more counterspells against creatureless decks. So the first creature control I am going to put in is an odd one and most likely contraversial. Pongify is a great blue creature kill that feeds the concept. Pongify on a beast means that for a 3/3 they have already lost 2 life and that thier bomb waletslayer angel just turned into a 3/3 vanilla ape. Yes I could just exile it or actually kill it, but this feeds the deck purpose and plays mind games for days. I love it. For all of the same reasons, I am dropping in a few Afterlife's.

The next card I selected is Momentary Blink. It can be creature control and can also be a finisher. If you have a Suture Priest, a Hunted Phantasm, and 6 free mana, this thing can mean your opponent loses 10 life and you gain 2 for 6 mana. Pretty mean, and just a useful card. Aside from that we have some counters. The early game is the worst for this deck so far, so I am goin' with Mana Leak.

Enchantments

White/Green Deck

So not that much for enchantments here, but I was thinking that this deck would need a bit more card manipulation because it has non so far. I figured that Survival of the Fittest was the best choice here. This way, I can pull a Suture Priest if I need one, or one of my token generators, or one of the flying killers.

White/Blue Deck

None for this deck

Artifacts

White/Green Deck

Only one artifact for this guy and that is Cloudstone Curio. That's right, with the right set up and Qasali Ambusher I get infinite life (I know it is not really infinite, but it gets close enough).

White/Blue Deck

Not too many here. I added a couple of Everflowing Chalices to speed up the early game. I think a couple of Brittle Effigys is a good idea to sideboard, just in case a big recycle or indestructable bomb drops.

Land

White/Green Deck

So the first thing I put in here is Forbidden Orchard. With 2 of these out and Garruk Wildspeaker you can cause 4 lost life while casting something that sweeps the tiny flyers. Also a playset of Dryad Arbor rather than forests. This way land drops gain life. Aside from those. It is some basics to fill out the curve: Plains, Temple Garden, Forbidden Orchard, Windswept Heath, and Savannah

White/Blue Deck

Pretty basic here:Island, Plains, Hallowed Fountain, Flooded Strand, Tundra. That is it. I thought about Forbidden Orchard but it is not needed and it goes a bit better in the green one

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The Decks

So after all that here they are. Please take a look tell me what you think. I had a great time making them and playtesting them. Can't wait to see the rest of the new set.

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Email me at [email protected] if you have any questions or comments, or please just post on the article and decks.