This is my second try at a Tiny deck, suggestions are appreciated.
First off, this is a sort of a "budget" list, as much as we can speak about budget on magic, I'm actually playing modern so I already had most of the modern used cards avaliable.
Second note, I will not add Liliana of the Veil to the deck, i know it's the absolutely best 3 drop ever for this deck, and I already have a set of them, though since I mostly play for fun I'll not put it there, dropping it on t3 after you played a tourach/raven's crime/kill spell on 2 often made my friends ragequit, so i'll opt it out. If you're keen on using it you may as well remove any other card in the deck, really.
Commander Show
First off the commander
Glissa, the Traitoras a body it's quite decent for its cost, 3/3 fisrt strike deathtouch; it basically goes unblocked every time it attacks, but even when we get blocked we gain something...
The second ability is the core arround wich the revolves the deck:"whenever a creature an opponent controls dies, you may return an artifact from your graveyard to your hand"
This ability requires two conditions: artifacts you can cast in your graveyard and creatures dying on your opponent's field.
That said this deck requires good artifacts we can dispose of and good removal spells. For this reason i feel that Arcbound Ravager and all the other artifact creatures do not really fit well in this deck, if we want them in the graveyard for glissa's ability to function we can't be attacking with them, and while they will have some form of recursion our goal is to set a board where we can just lock our opponent out of the game instead of hoping to recour dead creatures, a thing that the deck already does by the way. There also some artifact creatures that i'm considering and I'll go over them later.
The card choices
Artifacts first; because they are the core of our deck. here i'll quickly go over each choice i made and some possible alternatives.
Must have Show
Executioner's Capsule:
with glissa on the board it's basically an ever recurring deck:doom blade, and while there are black creatures in the format paying 3, as many times as you want, to kill a creature is quite powerful and game locking
Mishra's Bauble;Urza's Bauble:
while they may seem quite the weak choice they have a solid reason behind them: they make all our removals into cantrip, possibly multiple times, we can keep killing and drawing further gas!!
Tangle Wire:
this card is nuts, seriously, it will delay you opponent for 2 whole turns, wile only slightly slowing you down, if you have already faced it once you know what it means to tap 4 lands on your upkeep, and it's quite a common occurrence, since our goal is to keep their board clear
It's really useful, in many situations: mill is a thing in tiny; you may also end up dredge/draw yourself to death; gains life; protects from yard removal. Oh and i forgot: watch out for mill XD.
Nihil Spellbomb:
I feel it's quite a solid choice, it can draw you some cards and most important it's job is to be MD gravehate, which is always useful.
Moonglove Extract:
it's a slightly worse version of executioner capsule, it only has some marginal advantages: it's colorless and it can hit both black creatures or creatures protected from black (Mirran Crusader,Mother of Runes,Animar, Soul of Elements are just some popular ones) on the other hand does not kill fatties and most elves once they get online.
Lifespark Spellbomb:
it's a fringe card, it's useful as an additional semi-cantrip draw engine, and also sinergizes well with any creatures swipe (you are animating your opponent lands in order to kill it and get the bomb back). But i feel it's a bit clunky as a card overall, there are better land destructions engines arround, see below.
While they are in the average section you definitely DO need at least one of the following cards, they are all artifact wipes, each one has its pros and cons, ponder them on your expected meta.
Engineered Explosives:
pros: you can cast and explode them on the same turn. Quite useful on elves.
cons: requires BG to cast if you want to go 2 counters, can't go over 2 cmc in this shell.
Ratchet Bomb:
pros: it can hit for 0 the same turn it enters the battlefield, it requires a limited investment (2), swipes enchantments and artifacts too.
cons: can't hit manlands, it's actually quite slow and needs to survive 2-4 turns to work effectively.mixed: hits only a specific CMC, good for choosing what to destroy, bad to wipe boards.
Powder Keg:
Pros: same as above, do notice that this one doesn't destroy artifacts and enchantments, but it does kill manlands, also somewhat sinergizes with Lifespark Spellbomb
Cons: same as above
Oblivion Stone:
Pros: swipes board instantly, may also save some of our stuff
Cons: too heavy of a mana investment, it's probably a slightly suboptimal choice.
Crucible of Worlds:
I did not include it in my deck because i prefer Life from the Loam in this shell. It's your call though, it still makes for a solid land desruction engine when paired with Ghost Quarter,Wasteland,Tectonic Edge
costs (3) (1 too much), you can't control when it goes off, it's a really bad choice, it will backfire most of the time.
Necrogen Spellbomb:
while it may feel a mix between Raven's Crime as repeated discard and another bomb-draw spell. It's neither, stick with crime if you want discard and with a bauble if you want draw.
Viridian Longbow:
it may look as a solid killing engine, but in my experience it's not as solid as it looks, requires glissa on board and forces you not to attack with it, stick to more efficient removals.
nothing else here, for now ;) will upload when someone proposes something else XD
Lands second, because i love them.
Warning: my land choice is based on the use of Life from the Loam, you can also decide for Crucible of Worlds, in that case be warned that some cards will change.
Must have Show
Overgrown Tomb:
shock, usual stuff
Bayou:
if you like to spend some money switch a basic or cemetery for bayou. I don't have that kind of money though.
Woodland Cemetery:
dual, almost always untapped.
Twilight Mire:
fixes our mana very well, we need all the duals we can get to consistently produce GGB, mind you, you don't need to forcefully cast glissa on t3 she can wait as long as needed, we're not aggro.
Command Tower:
why not.
Verdant Catacombs & CO:
1-4 they work very well with loam and raven's crime, fix your mana, the usual stuff. You may want to stick only with BG for flavour reasons, else put as many as you feel comfortable, mind that life loss isn't an issue here.
Creativity Show
Now is a list of lands that perform varous duties, putting them in or out depends on how much you like lands and doing stuff with them, while on the other side having enough lands that actually do produce mana. They come along a personal liking score (1-5).
Ghost Quarter:
kills manlands, kills basics too, can fix our mana in a tight spot. But itself it does not produce land advantage... until they run out of basics. A special mention is against elves, where it can instantly destroy their Gaea's Cradle, well that is land advantage (4/5)
Tectonic Edge:
This one really makes land advantage and recurs very well, it runs into issues when elves keeps below 4 lands and still has that cradle online. (3/5)
Wasteland:
Strict upgrade on both of the above lands, fell off my list for budget reasons, if you can run it, no reason not to really. (5/5)
Volrath's Stronghold:
This card is quite good actually, i found it on the bottom of a friend's box, it's the reason why i don't need any protection for glissa, I can keep recasting it the first 1-3 times, by then I should have found this card, it will keep glissa on the board indefinitely. The only downside is the colorless mana. (4.5/5)
Treetop Village:
I really do love this ape, it's as big as creatures come in tiny and it tramples with a low activation cost, on top of that it's also cheap. I feel it should be a must have. (5/5)
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth:
It fixes your mana, your black mana at least, and allows you to gain mana from fetches. It may fix your opponent too. (3/5)
Tranquil Thicket;Barren Moor:
They are quite good IF you're using Life from the Loam, they will enable it to cantrip easily or to re-dredge itself. If you're sticking with crucible avoid them mostly. (1 or 3.5/5)
Bojuka Bog:
Ok it enters tapped, but it exiles your opponent's graveyard, and he can't do much against it. Try it, love it. edit depends on meta (4.5/5)
Blighted Fen:
I admit it, this one is quite bad. It actually will work as a late (very late) game lockdown, making an opponent sacrifice a creature each turn. Shines, albeit poorly, against card:geist of sant traft and True-Name Nemesis. I'll probably switch it with something else (1.5/5)
card:thespian stage + Dark Depths:
I personally think it's too cliche to to be fun, still it's quite the combo, expecially in tiny leader, it's only "problem" are blue bounces (rare) and Path to Exile / Swords to Plowshares, still you can just recur it endless times with loam/crucible. Unfun. [sidenote: you will also need some tutors here in the form of Sylvan Scrying,Crop Rotation,Expedition Map and possibly Vampire Hexmage (5/5)
Sea Gate Wreckage: testing in progress, I can also cast all my hand withouth losing much in my strategy most of the time. definitely worth a try. (expected 3-4/5)
here are some beaters, because while killing all you opponents stuff and discarding their hand is fun you still have to close somehow. Don't put too many, we're not aiming for aggro but to grind out, prefer utility over beaters.
Tarmogoyf:
well... (5/5) (still watch out because we keep emptying the yards, not in my list because I don't have any)
Scavenging Ooze:
gains life, empties yards, grows, after a while it beats harder than a goyff. (5/5)
Scute Mob:
I have always loved this card, if left unchecked for longer than a turn it starts beating hard, really. it's still soft to removal. (2/5)
Pack Rat:
on paper it looks good, after I tried it felt too slow and clunky as hell. (1/5)
Troll Ascetic:
I haven't tried it yet. Looks good.
Nimble Mongoose:
It's a nacatl, with shroud. Good against control decks, sideboard choice. (4/5)
Utilities Show
here are some good cards,that can turn to beating after they have achieved their job, min you that since their primary role is to use their effect the strenght/thoughness factor is only secondary here
Deathrite Shaman:
No comment needed here (5/5)
Eternal Witness:
Since we're sending quite the number of things in the yard it usually has quite many useful targets, after that it starts beating, i feel it's overall a solid choice (4.5/5)
Fleshbag Marauder:
It's sac on a creature, and we often have something with less strenght than him to keep it sticking around (3.5/5)
Reclamation Sage:
I have tried it maniboard and sometimes it's dead in hand, still it's a solid sideboard choice and it's absolutely required against gravehate Rest in Peace,card:grafdigger cage,Nihil Spellbomb,... they are almost all artifacts/enchantments. Solid sideboard choice (4/5)
Artifact creatures Show
There are also some artifact creatures that I considered, glissa's ability is factored into each one of those.
Sylvok Replica:
It's maindeck artifact and enchantment removal, as many times as you need. great (5/5)
Moriok Replica:
It looks and spells like sylvok replica, but it's much less useful, it also doesn't draw as much as a single bauble. I'll probably switch it soon. (2.5/5)
Hangarback Walker:
Still trying it, at the moment feels quite good. on hold.
Myr Retriever:
It plays better than it looks, gets us something back, usually to restart our killing chain. Sideboard (3/5)
