Competitive Deck Help
Deck Help forum
Posted on Sept. 15, 2013, 1:07 p.m. by MagicalHacker
Brainstorming a new deck for post-Theros Competitive, and need other peoples input.
Purpose: The point of the deck is to play creatures that mess up aggro's plans, while simultaneously messing up control's plans. I would sideboard to make the deck stronger against whichever it is I'm going up against.
Here are all the cards I am looking at so far with a reason for why I'm looking at it. Keep in mind, these are just my ideas so if I'm dead wrong, tell me:
- I wouldn't be able to use the green bit if I kept it mono-black, and I won't have many instants or sorceries, but I can't help but think that he is a good one-drop.
- From my days with playing with Gravecrawler and Diregraf Ghoul , I know that a 1-drop with 2 power puts a ridiculous amount of pressure.
- A one-drop that potentially makes my creatures unblockable. Unblockable is pretty good in my opinion.
- Extort messes with Control's plans to stay alive and with Aggro's plans to make sure I don't. On a one-drop? Sounds good. Not to mention the part about taking counters off of things...
- I honestly want to see this work, because a flash 2/2 for 1 is just bonkers. Will I be able to exile a creature? I don't know. Also, it doesn't give me any devotion, which is another problem. As long as I don't run too many tokens, I won't have to worry so much about ratchet bombs.
Tormented Hero.
- A tapped 2/1 could potentially pose a problem for decks if it can put pressure, but I won't be able to abuse his heroic ability and he will die to creatures with one power. Still, two power on a one-drop catches my attention.
- Every deck's nightmare. So four of these is a must.
- On to the two-drops. An extort at two is good for the same reasons shown at Thrull Parasite , but this time I have a 1/2 that flies as well. It's not blow-your-socks off spectacular, but I like it.
- Now before you ridicule me out of ever playing magic again, hear me out: it chump blocks and gains two life after it has swung unblockably as many times as it can to gain two life. Gaining life is going to be awesome against aggro decks, and I kind of like this card.
- It's Basilica Screecher and Child of Night had offspring. Losing the extra power/toughness+extort gets me a hard-to-block lifelinker. Then again, these three creatures aren't super awesome anyways.
- Deathtouch poses a problem for Aggro since I can trade with any creature it can block. For control, it's just another unleashed creature for pressure.
- Destroy big creatures. Destroy combo pieces. Destroy your opponent's dreams.
- Ditto.
Baleful Eidolon.
- Just another Thrill Kill Assassin that I get the option to bestow instead of that extra toughness and unleash.
- Is it worth paying an extra mana for an extra toughness on a Child of Night? Idk, but I have that option.
- Such a great card. Not only is it a hard-to-block 3 powered dude for 3 mana, but it also EXILES a threat from my opponents hand, gives me a look at what cards they are going to play, AND lets me know what type of deck they are playing! DAT VALUE.
- A 2/2 flier for 3 mana can mess up aggro decks, but he has some really cool features. He messes up control player's scry-ed decks. He gives me more cards to play. He gives me three devotion. I really like this card a lot.
- I played this guy so much in my Aristocrats deck yesterday at a SCG Open and he gives headaches to Aggro and control because he is two cards in one. I might get extra synergy if I have more humans, but I like him regardless.
- If this deck turns out to be dealing lots of damage from those 2-powered one-drops I saw, this guy could potentially be a headache to aggro players. On top of that, Control players can't deal with him using an Ultimate Price or a Doom Blade .
- Depending on if there are lots of 3-powered creatures with a butt of 3 or bigger out there, this means 2 unblockable damage unless my opponent answers it or their own creature. To elaborate, putting this on a 3/3 usually tricks my opponent into thinking that swinging with it is best since I might block his 1/1, killing the enchantment. If not, he deals a damage to me, so he's fine either way. WRONG. I will let that damage go through since I know it's giving me an unblockable 2 damage each turn. Even when my opponent knows that the right move is to keep him to block, I can still control him by not swinging with anything that will trade with the stabbed creature. Then, the opponent has the option to make another misplay by thinking that he can save the creature to trade with one of my own next turn. It is definitely a card that needs to be politically used, but I kind of like it.
- The reason I like this card is that it can give me a huge advantage by making a creature swing for twice the life swings, making it hard to block, and by raising its power and toughness by one. It's an aura, so I'm worried about getting two-for-oned.
- This is pretty disgusting against control, but aggro isn't too happy with it either. It means that I will replace threats at the cost of 1 life which totally tilts control players and races aggro players faster. The downside is that I have to lose life for it, but the upsides are worth it in my opinion. On top of that, it gives me 3 devotion as a three drop and it isn't a creature that control can simply Murder .
Murder .
- Speaking of which, here is that card which can deal with any non-indestructible creature. It's a more powerful Doom Blade /Ultimate Price but costs an extra mana.
- Also, there is a simply better Murder coming to Theros as well. This can deal with those pesky planeswalkers that Control players like so much.
- When he comes onto the field, every spell will now be extorted at least once. Having a four-drop that can double your mana while providing you with an extort trigger is pretty frickin sweet.
- Dwindles out Aggro's army. Slaps Control in the face. It's hard to imagine a scenario where this is not used as a sweeper, and I really like it.
- A 4/3 for 4 mana with an ability that makes it hard to block is nice, but making your opponent discard while making more creatures is just a problem for control and a nuisance for aggro.
- Here's the main star. Preventing all your opponent's life gain solidifies your win as an aggro deck, but with all the devotion we can get on our way to him makes for a nice 5/7 indestructible creature as well. Having the option to draw cards is never bad, especially when gaining a bunch of life.
- You might say that a 3/3 that can get buffed if you lose card advantage isn't so great, but with 5 cards in hand, if this guy is unblocked, he can deal 13 damage to you opponent. Ouch! Having the option to bestow him isn't so bad either.
- Repeatable Lay of the Land . Repeatable Quag Sickness . Repeatable Buff. Five stars in my book.
- As I said with Gift of Orzhova , auras worry me for the simple fact that your opponent can two-for-one you, but I can't ignore the fact that it gives me two more power and lifelink. Most likely a near impossible card to make competitive though.
- Then again, who needs crappy lifelink auras/creatures when you can just give everything lifelink? This card will definitely be a problem for aggro, and it's recursion ability might also be a problem for control too.
- This guy is like a Xathrid Necromancer that makes Baleful Eidolons, but he costs quite a bit. Could be useful since he gives value, but could be fooling me.
Gray Merchant of Asphodel.
- Having another card to abuse the fact that I'm creating a lot of devotion to black is nice, especially when it is basically a Corrupt on a body! It's only a 3/3, so I'm kind of skeptical about this too.
Corrupt .
- This can also do a huge life swing out of nowhere, but 6 mana might be a bit pricy.
- If I'm gaining a lot of life, this card could help me reach more in dealing damage to my opponent.
Sorry for the long post, but any assistance in developing a competitive deck from these cards is much appreciated.
SharuumNyan says... #3
Have you built this in the deck builder yet? It's much easier to visualize a deck in the deckbuilder layout.
September 15, 2013 2:05 p.m.
MagicalHacker says... #4
Well, I just tried, but I can't make up my mind on how to build it since there are still so many options... heh. -;
MagicalHacker says... #2
Quag Sickness .
Insatiable Harpy .
Nighthowler .
September 15, 2013 1:55 p.m.