If you go into the ancient forest, and find yourself surrounded by curiously life-like statues... flee!
The concept of the deck is to dump as many lands out in the initial turns as possible, and then play almost exclusively high-cost creatures. Of course, I just described almost every Ramp deck in existence.
I'm staying away from some of the black and green staple creature types, unless the artwork looks like they wouldn't mind hanging out with some gorgons. I'm avoiding placing favorite creatures like elves, humans, and other nice forest beasts in the deck. Also avoiding zombies, vampires, and demons (except for the one trapped in
Elbrus, the Binding Blade
). While I'm trying to focus on nightmare fuel, Eldrazi don't really fit my theme - what would they doing in my statuary garden? My main focus is gorgons and a few colossi (which will fit right in with all my other statues). A few other horrors, snakes and scorpions round out my creature collection.
I'm also building a sister deck, Perseus and Andromeda to fight the gorgon sisters. I think I have it as a pretty even 1 vs, 1 match, where Perseus tries to win before the Sisters of Stone Death really gets going.
Since I'm just getting back into Magic, aside from a few legacy cards I have from a while back (Bayou, Demonic Tutor, Sylvan Library), I'm mostly keeping towards some less expensive cards - I don't want to go too crazy and wreck my budget. Don't feel shy about suggesting high cost cards, though. Even if I don't end up using them, it can't hurt to look, and anyone else looking in may have better options :D If you don't include the Bayou, this deck comes in at a reasonable $125-$150 or so. (It cost me just over $100 to get all the cards I needed)
Suggestions are welcomed and appreciated!
More in-depth breakdown:
Mana Ramping and Sorceries:
The deck is heavily focused on finding land and putting it into play. 17 cards are devoted to such (15 Sorceries, 2 Instants). If it allows basic lands, I often pull swamps a little more heavily. If "forests" or "swamps", pull the Bayou first, then basic lands. Boundless Realms is the most costly, but worth it, considering that it will double your lands on the field. During the playtests that I ran, this card (sometimes found with Demonic Tutor, sometimes cast twice with
Treasured Find
) was a huge mana boost, sometimes causing virtually all the land to be out before turn 10! Caged Sun and Mana Reflection are pretty straitforward. I usually will choose "green" on the Caged Sun since I have more forests than swamps, and the +1/+1 will hit the green snakes created by
Orochi Hatchery
.
Other Sorceries:
If you have Death Cloud on hand after your ramp, you can pretty well just win with it by killing everyone else's mana supply (aside from artifacts). [edit: Death cloud was sideboarded since it wasn't as fun to win with as some of the other win cons] I also like the idea of holding Genesis Wave until after you have most of the lands out - you can play a large portion of your deck, and at that point if you hit some sorceries, they most likely are more spells to find land, so no longer any big loss. Gaze of Granite is killer in this deck, and thematic. It allows regeneration, but we have ways to regenerate too. We also have ways to gain indestructable monsters, so it may be possible to cast it and keep the important parts of your own army.
Drawing Cards:
Second key concept is finding ways to get more cards in hand. Having 20-40 land is pointless if you don't have ways to spend it. Phyrexian Arena and Greed are straitforward. Sylvan Library works well with
Into the Wilds
- if you happen across a land when drawing three, just put it on top of the deck to be found by
Into the Wilds
next turn, no need to spend 4 life.
Tower of Fortunes
is mana costly, but when the deck starts hitting its stride, the 8 cost to use can end up pretty trivial and was a good option to search for with a tutor if I didn't need it for Boundless Realms.
Infiltration Lens
looks like it will be pretty killer combined with our general.
Other Mana Dumping areas:
Orochi Hatchery
can end up a game winner just by the sheer number of snakes generated by 5 mana each turn. Bow of Nylea can only be used once for a couple mana, but is thematic for the Gorgons, and gives some pretty good options, including ways to gain life and cycle a few cards back into the deck. This last part is especially nice for two reasons: we have a lot of cards that allow the deck to be shuffled and we can deck out pretty quick. The fastest I've been able to manage (in play-testing) is turn 16 so far, but that was after three or so turns of mana screw (followed by all of the right cards to accelerate like mad). [edit: current record for having run this deck out of cards is now turn 11] Fortunately our general is also a mana dumping option, as it takes 5-6 mana to capture each enemy creature (1 to lure it, 2 to exile, 3 to return it under our control) if nothing else comes up.
Vraska the Unseen:
Really only in because she is thematic. The assassin tokens from her ultimate are nice, and may have a chance to win if our general lures the entire enemy army, or in conjunction with Rogue's Passage, but I put this in more for flavor than anything.
Speaking of unblockable:
Elbrus, the Binding Blade
is in for the same reasons - the expensive cost we can ignore, and if we get it through to an enemy in one of the same ways, the resulting demon is pretty awesome in a multi-player game. Also, there are some nice large creatures with trample, which means combat damage to the opponent - our giant statues can use this toothpick to conjure us up our one demon.
Defense:
Asceticism makes everything regenerating and hexproof- not a bad deal. Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots are similar, just single target, and apparently well known, so I don't need to go into detail there. There is a little of spot artifact or enchantment removal with Krosan Grip, Putrefy, and Golgari Charm. Homeward Path doesn't mesh at all with our general, but is in just in case an opponent is able to snag one of our own brutes. Grim Backwoods is in for a similar reason (to sacrifice the nasty creature getting stolen, and has the added benefit of allowing you to draw a card.
Brutes:
Our general, Sisters of Stone Death can use our impressive mana base to lure the entire enemy army, exile them all, and then bring them back under our control. Also, at 7 power, it only requires 3 hits on an opponent to kill with general damage assuming she isn't buffed at all. Blightsteel Colossus and Colossus of Akros both are indestructible and have trample. Lord of Extinction is also a contender in large multi-player games, though he lacks the innate trample. [edit: Lord of Extinction was sideboarded due to not being thematic enough] The rest of the creatures are all pretty nasty, but not on the same level of being potential game-winners.
The Gorgons:
Hythonia the Cruel
is a board wipe waiting to happen, conveniently not destroying any of our gorgons or our statues (who are indestructible).
Korozda Gorgon
works with the +1/+1 tokens created by the
Ring of Kalonia
or
Ring of Xathrid
to eliminate opposing indestructible creatures.
Xathrid Gorgon
is great for dealing with enemy commanders or other menaces that our general can't steal (usually because they are always tapped by the time our turn comes around). Reaper of the Wilds allows us to scry anytime something dies. Not a bad deal.
Win Conditions:
Sisters of Stone Death, either through the Rogue's Passage or by stealing everyone's creatures. It is always good when your general can be good enough to potentially win by herself.
Exsanguinate deals a ton of direct damage to your opponents once you have the mana (and can heal you quite a bit)
Death Cloud, if you want to pull it from the sideboard, as it can trade about 1/3 of your lands for all of your opponents' lands, and clears the board of creatures and cards in hand at the same time. Doesn't win by itself, but it should be fairly trivial for you to do so if you get this off. You can follow up with Gaze of Granite to knock out all of their artifact mana producers.
Blightsteel Colossus Stomp + Infect.
Colossus of Akros Stomp stomp.
Elbrus, the Binding Blade
requires a little finesse to turn into a demon, but once out, will be a beast. Moreso, once players start dying and he starts gaining +13/+13 each time (doesn't even have to be to you doing the killing!)
Vraska the Unseen's assassins, discussed earlier.
Orochi Hatchery
swarms the enemy with throwaway creatures that can be 2/2 with the Caged Sun.
Genesis Wave for a lot. I'm sure you'll get something good.
That's it for now. Hope you enjoyed looking through this, and I again welcome criticism or suggestions.
