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Standard* PlagueRats

SCORE: 87 | 69 COMMENTS | 12024 VIEWS | IN 46 FOLDERS


Tadikon says... #6

maybe some card draw is neededadd cryptolith rite for mana generation to get your gideon faster or for the ability of oviyia...thats what i would do.

September 30, 2016 2:10 p.m.

PlagueRats says... #7

I think it's best to focus the main deck on doing it's thing as fast as possible, any card draw would just slow it down. And I don't think this deck would benefit much from extra mana generation, without adding card draw anyways. This maindeck has little trouble emptying its entire hand quickly, which is the strategy. Oviya Pashiri, Sage Lifecrafter is legendary, so late game five mana is all you can spend.

I'm debating the number of Oviya Pashiri, Sage Lifecrafters btw, I think three may be the right number at first, but I think opponents will learn to start killing it early. Also the number of Collective Effort's depends on the meta game, so I think I'll start with three of each until I see how this stacks up against the new format.

September 30, 2016 2:42 p.m.

Leeeeroy says... #8

Have you though about adding an always watching ?

October 3, 2016 12:05 a.m.

Kiivuhl says... #9

Always Watching work only with nontokens...

October 3, 2016 4:20 a.m.

mr_nathanielp says... #11

what about Secure the Wastes?

October 5, 2016 1:46 a.m.

PlagueRats says... #12

I wish!Secure the Wastes has rotated

October 5, 2016 1:50 a.m.

Zaueski says... #13

There's a reason G/W Tokens fell by the wayside after Eldritch Moon. Liliana, the Last Hope, Kozilek's Return, Authority of the Consuls and Radiant Flames all waste your board state.

If you insist on going tokens, a few cards you may want to consider are Veteran Warleader, Cogworker's Puzzleknot, and Angel of Invention.

October 5, 2016 3:54 p.m.

PlagueRats says... #14

I should mention this is intended to be a long-term playable deck, not necessarily meant to beat the newest meta-game, and note that I haven't actually played this deck against any serious competition yet, but I think it is pretty solid. If the opponent doesn't do a lot to stop the main deck, it can win fast. There's a lot of ways to cover my playmat three rows deep with permanents by turn six.

The sideboard is a mediocre grindy midrange deck, but sometimes that's all you need. This will never be the deck that plays itself and beats the very best tier one deck every game, but I think this gives a fair chance at competing with most decks we'll see going forward.

I've tested it against the top Boros Vehicles decks on Tappedout and won almost all maindeck games for what that's worth.

Let's consider what will happen against a few cards...

Liliana, the Last Hope will maybe gain an overall advantage. it will kill Nissa, Voice of Zendikars plants as fast as I can make them, but all 7 one drops survive. Liliana kills all the 1/1 tokens, but I make them two at a time or everyturn.

Kozilek's Return will wreck everything if played at the right time against the main deck. It will rarely be a two for one against the sideboard though when cast, the 5 damage will always hurt, but no more then it hurts everyone.

Authority of the Consuls, is this really a problem? I don't imagine it would be.

Radiant Flames is great against the mainboard, but is unlikely to actually beat many cards in the sideboard. Even if it kills 3 plants and 2 knights, I still have two planeswalkers left. I'd expect it to often be a two for one against the sideboard, but not much better I think?

There's token hate cards available for sure, but I think most are found in sideboards, which is what I 'm counting on.

October 5, 2016 4:54 p.m.

phazing says... #15

Bro, I so god damn love the idea of a sideboard meant to go all in to completely throw off your opponents strategy. Great deck.

October 5, 2016 4:56 p.m.

PlagueRats says... #16

Thanks Zaueski, but from my perspective Veteran Warleader is worse then Hanweir Militia Captain  Flip, Cogworker's Puzzleknot costs twice as much as Servo Exhibition, and Angel of Invention is too expensive and conditional for my strategy.

October 5, 2016 4:58 p.m.

PlagueRats says... #17

thanks phazing, I've been playing similar strategies for a while and I love it as-well. It's a great strategy for casual games and even against familiar players at FNMs because they never know what your doing after sideboading

October 5, 2016 5:04 p.m.

PlagueRats says... #18

So after a LOT of playtesting the deck with different combinations of lands and high/low cost cards, I've come to the conclusion that Westvale Abbey  Flip needs to go. This deck needs to see double green and double white reliably every game and even a single colorless land sometimes trips it up. Also sacrificing five creatures is so risky since every other card depends on lots of creatures.

October 8, 2016 8:42 p.m.

lords2001 says... #19

If you need the double green and double white, I could suggest Oath of Nissa which if nothing else cycles your deck through for you as it can pick up 80% of your deck. But it does slow you down a bit - see how you travel

October 9, 2016 10:13 a.m.

PlagueRats says... #20

Oath of Nissa has been a four of in every other green deck I've built since its release, I started with it in this deck but ruled it out pretty early on, but maybe now it could work... I would need to cut from the instant/sorcery/enchantment cards only or else there would be too many misses I think. The card to cut first would be Second Harvest, but I'm kinda attached to it.

I'll test it out with 3 Oath of Nissa in place of my 25th land, and two Second Harvest. Then maybe try adding back in a couple Westvale Abbey  Flip's.

October 9, 2016 11:40 a.m.

Drakender says... #21

Have you tought about playing Collective Effort, it will help you in the late game as a removal and will boost your team. I also wonder if Blisterpod would not be good in your deck as a recursing one drop.

I would cut some card sidebord for Skywhaler's Shot, wich, unlike Declaration in Stone is an instant. Also, some Make a Stand can really help you sometimes, giving you boost and protecting your board, it's a good sideboard card is such a deck.

Greenwarden of Murasa is too big for a 4 of, maybe you'll prefer change some for Tireless Tracker as a human who can draw you cards, it's good with Sigarda, Heron's Grace and while the total manacost of drawing two cards with Tireless Tracker is greater than with Greenwarden of Murasa and you don't have the same choice, you only need 5 lands in total to do it and you will probably have done more damage at the end if we count the fact it enters the battlefield earlier and get easily boosted.

For your mana base, I would go down to 24 lands, since you are aggro, maybe you can put Collective Effort, Declaration in Stone or Angel of Invention in place, they're good 1 of. Talking of land base, isn't Canopy Vista too late? Have you tried changing some for basic lands to see the effect?

October 21, 2016 11:44 a.m.

PlagueRats says... #22

Thanks for the suggestions Drakender.

I started out this deck with Collective Effort's and as I tested I found that there was no room in the mainboard it. The maindecks strategy is to be as consistent and reliable as possible, so I can't play any conditional cards. I've found the 8 Planeswalkers are enough for pump effects.

I love Blisterpod, but I'd rather any of the other cards. I already have 8 one drops.

Skywhaler's Shot is good, but the deck seems okay with only four removal cards and if I can only have four it's got to be Declaration in Stone. Maybe I'll add more removal at some point depending on the meta game, but generally this deck will be about racing for power/toughness rather then removing opposing threats.

Tireless Tracker would be nice for the sideboarded games, but I don't want it mainboard and don't think there's room in the sideboard.

I now have access to 29 lands so Greenwarden of Murasa is easy to cast. With four you have a great chance of looping two together for ever.

I have spent a lot of time testing the manabase and found this to be the only way to reliably get to double green and double white and hit 5 lands for Oviya Pashiri, Sage Lifecrafter which is important.

October 22, 2016 5:13 p.m.

PlagueRats says... #23

I won my local Gameday event! I made some last minute changes to the sideboard the night before, but I mainly stuck with the main deck and just sided in Declaration in Stone against a couple opponents.

I played against two Zombie decks and found that I could put dowm more creatures and pump them to 2/2 early enough and then to 3/3 to attack into their horde. It's a good matchup, but I think I have the advantage.

Against an Electrostatic Pummeler deck I got smashed game one, sided in the Declaration in Stone's, but didn't draw any and just barely won game two. Game three I started with two Declaration in Stones in my opening hand and drew the other two, so it was no contest.

Against a Dynavolt Tower deck, it was a tough battle, but I won after going to turns game three after siding in my entire sideboard.

So, the sideboards a mess now, but I won the biggest event I'm likely to compete in, so I guess the decks a success!?

October 22, 2016 5:23 p.m.

zebeg says... #24

Why Sylvan Advocate? You don't have any land creatures, and without buffing anything but itself, there are far better options.

October 22, 2016 5:33 p.m.

PlagueRats says... #25

Sylvan Advocate is nothing special, but it adds some reliability to the deck, I can get into situations where I have nothing but 1/1's and 1/2's for several turns and so a quick 2/3 helps stabilize the board. I've found it to be a valuable attacker in most matchups since it tends to always be at least one toughness higher then the board state after being pumped by Nissa or Gideon. It preformed well for me today, but your right it's the weakest card for the decks token strategy.

October 22, 2016 5:55 p.m.

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