A variant of a Turbo Fog deck I've been using playing with the new Extort ability from Gatecrash. The strategy is pretty simple and so far in testing against various deck types; this deck has preformed very well.
First cheap defender creatures for most of the creatures in the deck along with a few others to provide access to Extort or give me a few potential problem solvers and mana generation.
Angelic Wall
is a cheap but beefy blocker that can take a hit or two and protects against fliers.
Trestle Troll
is another beefy but cheap defender that can watch ground and flying creatures.
Basilica Guards
is another cheap and beefy defender; it won't do any good against fliers but it is the first creature to give us access to the Extort ability and serves to further power Axebane Guardian's ability should I get one or more out.
Gatecreeper Vine
is a cheap chump blocker who fetches mana for us; even if it gets nuked immediately it's done its main job for us by fetching land and getting us a deck shuffle.
Axebane Guardian is another defender creature who provides mana on demand based on the number of defenders I have out. Awesome way to really abuse the Extort ability; unnecessary for a win as I have done just fine when I never pulled one of them - but they REALLY speed things up.
Thrull Parasite
is just a cheapy; but it gives access to Extort and can help deal with pain in the ass planeswalkers, filibusters, +1/+1 counters and all sorts of other annoying crap.
Basilica Screecher is a cheap flier that gives access to the Extort ability and provides a chump blocker in the air if needed as well as a few extra points of damage if my opponent has no way to block fliers.
Rhox Faithmender is the last creature in this deck and provides insult to injury by doubling my life gain every time I use Extort or an Elixir of Immortality
The Turbo fog part of the deck is made up of:
Druid's Deliverance in this deck is basically a 2 mana Fog that gives me the option of blocking and potentially killing your creatures.
Fog (obviously), I don't have to risk my creatures by blocking yours.
Rootborn Defenses in this deck becomes a 3 mana Fog that again; gives me the option to potentially block and kill your creatures. Also serves to protect against Murder and similar effects.
Safe Passage
is a three mana Fog which also give me the ability to block and potentially kill your creatures.
Terrifying Presence
is a two mana Fog which leaves me able to block and potentially kill one of your creatures while leaving me and my creatures unscathed.
Elixir of Immortality gives me a little life gain (sometimes a little is enough) plus the ability to endlessly cycle my deck and graveyard. The life gain can become substantial if one or both of my Rhox Faithmender's are out.
Of course the ideal is to fog with one of the above options and then Extort my opponent with whatever mana I can summon; even if for a single point.
Mana sources I need will be mostly green but require sources of black and white mana for creatures and Extort. Accordingly the first sixteen land I threw in the deck were:
Godless Shrine,
Overgrown Tomb
, Temple Garden all have the option to come in untapped by paying two life. In testing; this has not been a problem for me even when playing three of these lands untapped on turns 1,2 and 3. The life gain from Extort and the fog cards make this life loss a non-issue.
The rest of the land will be made up of basic land to avoid using the damn guildgates which I have found to be near useless due to coming in tapped no matter what. Also basic land allows me to use
Gatecreeper Vine
s to fetch some land out of the deck and get deck shuffles. Green is the most needed color by a bit so I added 4 Forests to fill out the other land in the deck I added 2 Plains and 2 Swamps.
The strategy is pretty simple.
First I pump out creatures as quick as possible - always paying the 2 life for the dual lands. In the early stages of the game where mana is extremely limited I use any mana left after casting a creature to use Extort if available - even if its only one point. The only exceptions early on would obviously be if I only had one green mana left and cannot use Extort or there is enough mana to use one of my fog cards (and I happen to be holding one of course)
After the early turns (say up to turn 4 to 6 depending on the game) the main strategy is to pump land out every turn if possible and at least one creature. The important thing is to leave land untapped if there are no Axebane Guardians available. On my opponents turn stall with a fog card even if strictly unnecessary and pump as much damage and life gain through Extort as possible. Rinse and repeat.
In testing damage builds up very quickly and anything you don't feel like blocking to save your creatures or life lost to the duelies is out paced and regained through Extort.
