Managorgeous Counters (Standard MTG Deck)

Hangarback Walker: Swiss-Army-knife of the deck, this guy can be ANYTHING! Need air defence? Chump blockers? Sac him and get an armada of Thopters! Need a beat stick to beat your foe with? Use hardened scales and buff him into a monster! He is nearly impossible to trade well with, and MVC of the deck!

Hardened Scales: The core card of the deck, this thing synergises with almost every card and turns hangarbacks and managorger into twice the threat.

Servant of the Scale: Never underestimate this guy! With a hardened scales out this guy is pure value, and the opponent will hate being blocked by/ blocking him as I can move his counters, plus interest with a hardened scales (prime target being hangarback walker). Great in aggro match ups.

Beastcaller Savant: A fast mana-dork. I think I'd still prefer a 1-drop mana-dork, and he cant help casting non-creatures, but I still prefer his speed over Rattleclaw Mystic for casting a cheeky Servant of the Scale turn two after a turn 1 Hardened Scales.

Avatar of the Resolute : I love this guy. A turn two 4/3+ with reach and trample is just disgusting value. Also attracts removal like a magnet, which is fine!

Rot Shambler : A cheap growing creature who plays very nicely with evolutionary leap. Can sac things like unneeded mana-dorks, servant of the scales or thopters to gain gas all while pumping this guy.

Evolutionary Leap: I struggle to find the words to describe just how good this card is. Remove my creatures? I'll sac them in response and gain card advantage. Chump blocking with a Thopter? Sac it before the damage step and gain card advantage. It wins games.

Managorger Hydra: Gets huge alarmingly fast with Hardened Scales out. The opponent either kills this guy, or loses.

Undergrowth Champion: A hardy, yet slower-growing version of the Managorger. This guy has the added benefit of being hard to kill via damage and being able to block huge creatures efficiently, which may help against any Eldrazi Ramp decks that surface.

Tuskguard Captain : Hangerback Walker, Rot Shambler, Undergrowth Champion and anyone given a +1/+1 counter by Servant of the Scale or Retreat to Kazandu will love this guy being out. Plus, his outlast ability is actually much more worthwhile with a Hardened Scales out.

Surrak, the Hunt Caller: Because a hasted Avatar of the Resolute is as scary as hell. Not as good without another strong 4 or 5 drop, so he may have to go now that Polukranos is no longer a thing.

Whisperwood Elemental: Value in a can! But really, he gives card advantage, builds a board state, has a decent body and ruins board wipe for the opponent. What more could you ask for, really?

All this adds up to a deck that is above all fast, which gets out big threats faster than pretty much everything in the meta with minimum deck space spent on ramp. It's fast enough to out-speed control and can race other aggro decks and even come back from a slower start thanks to cards with crazy value which generate tons of card advantage.

As always, my decks are always a WIP, so please feel free to make any suggestions you think of!

Also, I'm feeling the void in my 4-drop slot left by Polukranos. Any suggestions? (Currently testing Collected Company)

Suggestions

Updates Add

1st Place FNM — Sept. 19, 2015

Edit

So, I finally did it! The matches, and my notes below:

Round 1: 2-0 vs RDW. Creature-based RDW has yet to prove a challenge to this deck, I simply get too many fat and high value creatures out too fast for any red removal to deal with efficiently, and Hangarback Walkers really ruined this guy's day. Second game I sided in Nylea's Disciple, which sealed his fate.

Round 2: 2-0 vs U/B/W "12 Wrath" control. Cool deck. 12 board wipes in one deck alongside Day's Undoing, I've played against it before and he eats midrange for breakfast. However, my recent efforts to make the deck more aggressive and fast seem to have paid off, as this is not a game I thought I would win. I will admit, I got a bit lucky in the first game when my opponent misplayed and failed to kill my Whisperwood Elemental before using a board wipe (he apparently completely forgot about whisperwood's activated ability), but that allowed me to keep enough board presence to win. 2nd game I was fast enough to get him very low before his first wipe, and I used the remaining Thopters plus Surrak, the Hunt Caller to win next turn.

Round 3: 2-0 vs W/G Bolster. Scary deck; he had a 5/5 Arashin Foremost with vigilance on turn 4, and I was certain that this was going to be a bad matchup. I managed to stay in the game by chumping with Thopters and sacrificing them to fuel Evolutionary Leap, which gave me all the gas I needed to get out a massive Managorger Hydra (15/15 in the end) as well a massive board presence that I eventually overwhelmed him with. Second game was more in my favour. He got out that bolstering legendary dragon, which again I took great pleasure in chumping with my Thopters, and again I ramped up into a number of threats that he couldn't match.

Round 4: 2-0 vs B/G Delver. I've played this guy before a couple times, although now he has cut a colour from the deck and it seems more reliable. Two long and hard-fought games. In the first he (luckily for me) never saw a whip of ereboss and I took control of the game, stopping his bigger creatures with my wonderful Thopter spam. Second game I sided in some hate for the whip I knew I would see, and it paid off, allowing me to take the second game after a long and grindy stalemate.

So, 4-0 tonight, with a total win count of 8 and no losses! Result!

Notes: You may notice that I actually side-boarded Den Protector. I thought long and hard the last week since last FNM (I went 2-2, and was not pleased with how the deck had performed) and I realised that I had actually slowed the deck down a lot by adding the protectors, they just ended up clogging the deck and making it more mid-range than it had to be. In their place I've added Mistcutter Hydra, which shores up my naturally weak matchup vs control and can even secure surprise wins with its haste, and benefits greatly from Tuskguard Captain and Hardened Scales. The hydra will likely be replaced by Undergrowth Champion in the coming two weeks.

Week 2 FNM — Aug. 28, 2015

Edit

Week 1 FNM — Aug. 21, 2015

Edit

Image View Timeline

Card Odds v1 Draw hand

Add to folder Copy

Download / Export / Embed Code

Comments View Archive

Attention! Complete Comment Tutorial! This annoying message will go away once you do!

Comment:

Become a supporter of TappedOut and hide ads for only $3/month!

Important! Formatting tips — Comment Tutorial — markdown syntax

Please login to comment

Revision 13 See all

(9 years ago)

-3	Honored Hierarch	main
-2	Hunt the Weak	main
+1	Managorger Hydra	main
+1	Servant of the Scale	main
+1	Undergrowth Champion	main
+2	Whisperwood Elemental	main

Top Ranked	Achieved #4 position overall 9 years ago
Date added	9 years
Last updated	9 years
Legality	This deck is not Standard legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 1 Mythic Rares 20 - 3 Rares 6 - 6 Uncommons 6 - 5 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.16
Tokens	Manifest 2/2 C, Morph 2/2 C, Thopter 1/1 C
Folders	My Beauties, Ideas, will improve, Mono-color deck, Yours?orMiiiiine, stndrd, Folder 1, competitive, standard replacement
Votes
Ignored suggestions
Shared with
Views

Magic the Gathering, FNM is TM and copyright Wizards of the Coast, Inc, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. All rights reserved. This site is unaffiliated. Articles and comments are user-submitted and do not represent official endorsements of this site.