Dreno33 - just found 2 major weaknesses for my deck. Anything with hexproof and/or lifegain. Are there any good answers to those in my colors? have been away from standard for quite a bit

Devour Flesh and Erebos, God of the Dead

Thank you nbarry223. I feel a tad dumb for forgetting those two. Erebos is perfect too. I can drop the Dark Prophecy when sideboarding and put in three of him. Magnifico my friend.

Any deck that has the newts is ok in my book lol.

Have you considered Silence the Believers ? I've found it to be quite useful.

Thanks SpadeMagna. I've found that most (but not all) of the decks that are giving me a hard time are some variation of standard hexproof auras. Gladecover Scout and Witchstalker have been very common. I will definitely keep that card in mind for my local meta though just in case.

I have a pretty similar deck and from playtesting I have to agree hexproof sucks, Probably going to put two Glaring Spotlight sideboard. Another thing is I think maybe there should be room for two Immortal Servitude it gives a lot of reach to the late game. Four mana to get back all Festering Newt , Drainpipe Vermin , and Tenacious Dead .

Oh and sorry for double post but as for sideboard I was thinking Some mixture of Duress , Elixir of Immortality , Celestial Flare / Devour Flesh , Glare of Heresy /(Deicide ?), Glaring Spotlight , Immortal Servitude (maybe mainboard). Would love to get feedback from Bellock86 and Dreno33

how....how does this beat UWx?

UWx and hexproof are definitely it's worst matchups, but as stated its "jank" with any jank comes matchups you just don't expect to win, you can, it's just not likely.

I get that. I love jank trust me haha. The issue is - I want to play this (or a variation...) but probably 80% of my LGS is UWx... which is why I ask :D

@patlienemann ~ for the time being I have found Devour Flesh to help tremendously in the "hexproof auras" matchup. I just played this and the guy had a massive gladecover scout out and eot I dropped ot and yeah he gained like 16 life or something ridiculous but I had my combo out and that 16 was gone in one turn. The problem with hexproof decks is they basically play on putting all of their eggs in one basket and then you pounce.

The control matchup is somewhat tougher. It's basically going to result in you having to make some VERY smart plays, putting preasure on early and keeping it going. The thing that this deck really has on UWx is simply well simplicity. The deck is VERY straight forward and while keeping the stack straight can be a pain, if you can land the cards in the proper order (T1 - newt etc etc) that should usually be enough to out run that matchup. Or at least that's how I played it on friday and stomped the guy 2-0. I also am not ashamed to admit that he was one of those "oh great a janky deck. Here comes a win". He actually said that to my face when he figured out what I was doing. What he did not plan on was me using Pharika's Cure to hit my own High Priest of Penance and blow up his Detention Sphere s that he zapped my 2 Festering Newt s with on his turn. The look on his face was priceless. Sorry I got off point a little. It was just a point of pride with me that I was able to make that cocky jerk eat his words. But I digress.

I want to say thank you to you patlienemann for taking such an interest that you are actually looking to pilot this deck in some form.

Also a big shout out to Dreno33 and Kilo for their hand in helping me trick this deck out.

Hey Spootyone. I know you like rogue decks so I thought I would tag you here just so you can take a peek.

Of course! I have a place in my heart for rogue decks.I feel like so many cards get printed and don't see play and so their potential goes unnoticed... until you cure your priest to get a newt back haha. grats on that.

I'm wondering if Cure is the only way to take advantage of high priest - with the exception of chump blocking...

patlienemann ~ I had considered splashing red for that but decided it wasnt worth changing the focus of the deck or trying to multi task. Trust me on this when I say that with 4x priest and 3x cure that little trick turns up quite often.

Side note that guy was really pissed when I used that trick in game 2 to blow up his Elspeth, Sun's Champion and then newted all of his soldier tokens. Lol

Also as to beating UWx, the sideboard is important I personally run 4 duress sideboard, that plus (x) Deicide and the newt / HPoP interaction tends to keep me above water. It's one of the harder matches but as long as you don't punt and you keep it rolling you can do ok.

Oh, Bellock86 I wanted to ask why you prefer Devour Flesh to Celestial Flare Just ease of casting? After trying both I felt like in practice they were the same except giving them a ton of life.

Hmmm. Well to be honest Kilo I hadn't actually considered Celestial Flare before but the double white kind of scares me because the deck is so B heavy but it might warrant some serious testing. The flare might (very likely in fact) be better for 2 reasons:

1) it will mean they can't sac a mana dork or something. Obviously you wouldnt cast Devour Flesh if that option was available to your opponent but it's still an important point as in that situation DF is basically a dead card.

2) (as you pointed out) the fact that they don't gain life. That is my one complaint about DF as it is directly counterproductive for the deck. In most matchups it's not a big deal but in the hexproof match it matters a LOT as they can have a 12/12 Gladecover Scout or what have you.

Celestial Flare may just replace Devour Flesh in the board as it just seems more helpful to the deck overall. Good catch Kilo. Thanks.

That was my thoughts, also it's conditionally better because most people may have a Polukranos, World Eater and a mana dork, but they wouldn't attack with the dork so flare would actually hit where as you said Devour Flesh would brick. You can do the same if they single block something although most good players won't take the bait it can work on lesser players especially the first time you offer it up. On a side note I like it for blood baron since it isn't uncommon for him to be the only creature attacking.

LOVE THIS!!! +1 ALL DAY!

Don't forget, Ashen Rider :)

i think gift of ohrzava might be even jankier and fun to fuck with people because of life gain and also dat flying do

just a suggestion though

BearForce_02 thanks. I'm really trying to make this as competetive as possible.

NyanFries ~ Ashen Rider is a little to high on cmc and doesn't really fit the theme of the deck but thank you for looking this over and giving input.

sqwash984 ~ Gift of Orzhova while a cool card doesn't fit the self sac theme of the deck. What would I put it on? What would come out to make room for it? Not to mention I barely if ever attack with anything in this deck except Athreos, God of Passage and by then it's pretty much a win for me anyway. I appreciate the input and the comment. Thank you.

Whip+Ashen after discarding it is beast

how has Tenacious Dead been playing for ya? I haven't been able to play test for awhile.

Tenacious Dead Puts in work, atleast for me it does our lists are quite similar.