Hi I'm moo and welcome to a new series I've got called Hidden Gems, I've made it because alot of people overlook the standard format because the card pool is smaller, and others who play standard and only play Simic or dimir flash, But to that I say touché. In this series I will make one standard deck a week made of cards I've seen play maybe one or 2 times ever, (often never). So I hope I hope you enjoy and come back to see this every week (if you don't I'll send the duolingo bird after you) So without further ado:
Also these decks will usually be either £40 or £20 (or if your in America just check the average price box in the corner)
If you don't care about tactics and can see roughly what the deck does skip to the last paragraph
Week 1's Card of choice: Dreamshaper Shaman
A 6 cost red creature (so already of to a great start) that is only a 5/4 with no evasion, is destroyed by Gemrazer, is a 6 cost red creature, is blown up by enchantment removal, requires setup and did I mention that it's a 6 COST RED CREATURE.
So I thought how would I build a deck around the Shaman, charbelch it. It's clearly made as a big mana card, for a big mana deck that likes to cheat on lots of mana costs, and that is what this is. The whole deck is tailored for the specific purpose of cheating things into play and if you can survive to turn 4 (which considering it's standard you SHOULD, wizards) and it goes off, this deck can be seriously powerful.
I think that sums up why people don't use it, but we're going to ignore that completely and build a deck around it anyway. So the basic idea of the deck is to not die in the first 4 turns by throwing out small tokens and using storm's wrath, then cast Irencrag Feat one of the best cards and arguably the most important, it lets us cast our big spells early to cast big creatures.
The tactics:
Digging & early plays:
For the first few turns you'll probably be playing either of the 2 token generators (Forbidden Friendship and Goblin Gathering) or a draw spell (Cathartic Reunion or Thrill of Possibility) to help you get to the cards you need.
The "Ramp":
I've already gone over irencrag, so I'll talk about Transmogrify this is the other cheater, it unfortunately can't hit Chromatic Orrery but eh, it's not quite as good as irencrag which is why I'm only running one. But it does what the deck does, murders tokens and gets big stuff from the top.
Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion:
He deserves his own section as he doesn't go under anywhere else. But he's great and I'd run 4 but he's legendary, so I didn't. He does exactly what you want him to do He hits people in the face, he can block big bois, he can get rid of bad cards dig through your deck ramp and win the game. Literally everything this deck does, He's amazing.
The Game Winners:
And this is the bit you've been waiting for for the last 60 seconds, the big dumb spells and creatures: card:Drakuseth, maw of flame, Chromatic Orrery and card:Deathbellow Warcry. I love all of these cards so much. Orrery is Absolutely amazing in Cascading bunch of spells, I'd love to up the number to 3, but mostly due to budget reasons that won't happen. Drakuseth is the game winner, he is amazing if he stays around long enough to attack, he can also be cast with Irencrag Feat which is amazing. card:DeathBellow warcry is just silly because it never needs to be used and honestly Transmogrify would probably be better than it, but because it's so funny to get neheb and the sleepy minotaur I kept one in.
The maybe board: Ugin isn't mainboarded because he's expensive and I he's the most annoying card in standard at the moment
And that's the tactics over with in summary, look at the deck and that is what the deck does.
The Last Paragraph: So I hope I continue this series and people keep coming back(and yes I know It's unlikely because of how decklisting and people's memories work), It isn't a proper series on the site because I want to see how well it does and I'd . Please vote for what card I choose Next week (or submit your own idea):
