I wanted to try my hand at creating a Horde deck for use in co-operative commander games. The theme behind the deck is that a storm of epic proportions ravages the coast, leaving massive floods and the terrors of the deep in its wake. The players must work together as a group of survivors and outlast the encroaching leviathan horde.
I saw some decks using a 'Loot' variant, in which the Horde deck rewards players for eliminating key creatures with prizes, usually minor artifacts. I'm not sure where this deck stands yet in terms of difficulty, so I don't know if including Loot would make things too easy, or give players the edge they need to overcome its challenges.
1/31/18 Update: I made a few changes after getting to try the deck out a few times. I removed the 4 Coral Barriers because they didn't make that much of an impact. I originally added them because it was suggested that the deck could use some dedicated blockers. Coral Barrier seemed like a natural choice, because it also provided an islandwalking token so it wasn't entirely defensive. However, players ended up breathing a sigh of relief whenever a Coral Barrier came up, and none of the 'big cards' in a horde deck should make you feel relief, so I removed them for more offensive pressure.
I also took out Honden of Seeing Winds. I added it as a filter so that if the first card the horde drew was a non-token card, it would still have a chance to draw some tokens and keep up the pressure. However, this rarely occurred when the Honden was in play, making it somewhat of a dead card.
In their place I added 2 copies of Hydromorph Gull to give the deck more fliers and some way to counter spells. The idea is that the Gulls will sacrifice themselves to counter the first valid spell target. I also added Tidal Kraken for another large, evasive body. I also added one more copy of Sunken City so the horde's creatures would be buffed more often, and another Blustersquall for more control.
For those of you unfamiliar with the format, rules and my intended rulings on specific cards in the deck can be found below.
- A game of Horde Magic is intended for 4 players, and is divided into two factions: The Horde (the deck that runs automatically) and The Survivors (the players).
- A Horde deck consists of 100 cards: 60 creature tokens, and 40 non-token cards.
- In this deck, the 55 Giant Octopus cards represent 3/3 octopus tokens, and the 5 Reef Worm cards begin in their 3/3 fish token stage.
- The Horde wins if The Survivors' group life total is reduced to zero or below.
- The Survivors win if The Horde has no cards in its library, no cards in its hand, and no creatures on the battlefield.
- The Horde plays itself automatically and has infinite mana at all times.
- Any choice The Horde must make should be made randomly, but always at the horde's benefit.
- The Horde's turn starts by revealing cards from the top of its library until a non-token card is revealed.
- All revealed tokens are then cast. The revealed non-token is cast last.
- Then, if applicable, The Horde casts any cards that can be cast from its graveyard as well as any cards it has in its hand.
- All creatures controlled by The Horde have Haste and "This creature must attack each turn if able."
- The Horde has no life total. Damage dealt to The Horde causes that many cards from the top of The Horde's library to be put into its graveyard.
- The octopus and fish tokens persist when sent to the Horde's graveyard or hand.
- The Horde has no maximum hand size and casts all cards from hand when able.
- Cards returned to The Horde's hand can't be cast until The Horde's next turn.
- OPTIONAL: For a more challenging game, remove Paragon of Gathering Mists from the deck and use it as the horde's Commander. If the Commander is in the command zone, the horde will play it after it plays all other cards from its hand.
- Like in Two-Headed Giant, The Survivors are a team and all take their turn simultaneously.
- Each Survivor contributes 20 life to the group life total.
- For each player less than 4, remove 25 cards from the horde deck.
- The Survivors have three turns to set their defenses before The Horde gets its first turn. Then turns alternate like normal. (The number of turns can be reduced for a more challenging game.)
- The Survivors skip their first draw step.
- The Survivors attack and block as a team.
- Aethersquall Ancient: The Horde activates Aethersquall Ancient's ability after drawing but before playing cards for the turn once it has enough energy.
- Brine Elemental and Thousand Winds: The Horde always plays these cards face down and morphs them immediately after.
- Coral Barrier: Coral Barrier blocks the attacking creature with the highest power.
- Grozoth: The Horde searches its library for any valid targets remaining in the deck (Breaching Leviathan, Inkwell Leviathan, and The Unspeakable) and plays them immediately. The Horde always pays 4 mana on each of its turns for Grozoth to attack. The Horde never activates Transmute.
- Hydromorph Gull: The horde sacrifices hydromorph gull to counter the first valid targetable spell. If more than one hydromorph gull is in play, it will only sacrifice one at a time.
- Paragon of Gathering Mists: Each turn before combat, Paragon of Gathering Mists taps and grants Flying to the creature with the highest power that the Horde controls that has neither Flying, active Islandwalk, or is unblockable.
- The Unspeakable: The Horde has no Arcane cards and this ability can be ignored.
- Thundercloud Elemental: The Horde activates Thundercloud Elemental's relevant abilities whenever the Survivors control a creature with Flying or an untapped creature with less than two toughness.
- Sunken City: The Horde always pays the upkeep cost.
- Blustersquall: The Horde always pays the Overload cost.
- Temporal Cascade: The Horde always chooses the first option and never pays the Entwine cost. Exile Temporal Cascade after it is cast.
- Quicksilver Fountain: Each Survivor chooses which non-island land they control will get a flood counter each turn.
This is a work in progress and I welcome any feedback, be it suggestions on cards to add/remove, as well as advisement on the deck's difficulty level.
