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By: Flippers_Giraffe, Simon Smith
Sep 08 2015 12:00pm
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Welcome readers to another article of madness and mayhem. Things are really starting to hot up with the spoilers for Battle for Zendikar at the moment, although I haven't seen much that has impressed me so far.  I'm definitely going to be building a deck around Oblivion Sower that card hits all the right points to interest me, he should go really well with Garruk Wildspeaker. It's still early in the spoilers at the moment MTG Salvation only has 37 so far so by the time you read this we should have seen a lot more of the cards. Must admit I wasn't sold on the Eldarzi first time round so they won't be seeing much play from me.

I noticed that I had a ton of player points today before writing this article and was looking for something to do with them that wouldn't tie me down for three hours. I ended up playing a two player Legacy cube phantom sealed event. It's the first time I've tried one and I expected to see a lot of rares but there were so many rares and mythics in my pool it was a bit silly and my opponent was the same after seeing his deck. I must say it really wasn't as fun as a normal sealed event both decks were just bombs and removal, my opponent had Karn Liberated who really kicked my butt when he came out. I won the middle round when he didn't make an appearance with Mirran Crusader, as all his removal was black he couldn't deal with him. I'll have to honour him and pick up a playset at some point.

As I'm looking for things to talk about before I introduce the first deck of the article the Wizards twitter feed has exploded with abuse in retaliation to Zendikar Expeditions, looks like there will be hidden cards in boxes again. There are currently two cards spoiled Arid Mesa and Steam Vents both with new art and borders, lots of people are not happy in the paper world.


 

Our first deck of the article is based around a card that holds a lot of potential as a star bouncer, no not the nightclub type he's a bit more royal than that. Our card is Brago, King Eternal the legendary king who rules still after death took his mortal soul. When he deals combat damage to a player you can exile any number of non land cards you control and then return them to the battlefield. Oh yes he has big potential, I did cover a bounce deck a few articles ago but I'm going to avoid using the same cards as I don't like using too many cards in other decks I've shown you, I like to keep it fresh and exciting!

For this deck we will be going into the colours of Bant. First we have the cards that liked to be bounced Elvish Visionary is the smallest of the bunch who lets us draw a card every time she comes into play. Then we have Attended Knight every time this young lady enters the battlefield she brings her attendant, she must have a lot of attendants for her not to run out in this deck! Moving on to blue is everyone's favourite Mulldrifter, still just as popular now in the just for fun room as it was back when Lorwyn was in Standard.

Now to add some creatures that really appreciate other creatures being bounced around. First up is a great card that I nearly overlooked, it's actually really powerful in this deck Champion of Lambholt. Whenever a creature enters the battlefield on either side she gains a +1/+1 counter and to make her even better she can't be blocked by creatures with less power than herself and that's applied to your other creatures as well, so the bigger she gets more of your creatures will be able to smash face. Next we have Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit, whenever a non token creature enters play on your side she lets you bolster one. Then we have Eternal Witness the queen of bounce, if you ever wanted a lady to bounce then she is your girl. Bringing you back a card from your graveyard every time, she's not afraid to get her hands dirty.

Removal removal we need some removal, so you will know all these cards as they get played all the time in Legacy. Swords to Plowshares is our first spot of white removal, instead of the old man I'm running the bald guy with a big sword and lots of weird demons behind him. Then we have Banishing Light because Oblivion Ring is so yesterday! Lastly when the going gets tough the tough all die to Wrath of God, it's nice to have some Divine Intervention on our side but not actually the card Divine Intervention as that would be just plain weird as we are trying to win here.

Now the odd cards, we have Bant Charm which is our Counterspell for instants, artifact destroyer and it can place a creature on the bottom of its owners library, great for getting rid of Eldrazi. Next is Cloudshift for when you really get that urge to bounce something and Brago isn't around. I'm also going to mention a land here as well Karakas, well there's no secret usage for it, it's mainly to keep our legends safe against burn decks and other unfortunate accidents that can happen when you're wondering around the multiverse. Lastly as a one off we have Prime Speaker Zegana for some extra card draw not that the deck needs it but if Champion of Lambholt is in play she usually ends up quite big, well I think it's a she it's hard to tell with these fish types.

That ties up our first deck of the article it's really fun to play, you can end up drawing too many cards in some games so be careful that you don't get too carried away bouncing all the young ladies and the Mulldrifter!!! The Banishing Light is mainly in the deck to deal with Planeswalkers so use it wisely.

As a random side note I found the cheapest Planeswalker on MTGO Traders is currently Chandra Nalaar the lovely version by Kev Walker (only comes in foil) from the Jace vs Chandra duel deck at a whopping $0.03, yep a bargain not to be sniffed at.

    Creatures     Lands
Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit  2 Breeding Pool
4 Attended Knight Flooded Strand
3 Brago, King Eternal 2 Forest
Champion of Lambholt 1 Karakas
Elvish Visionary 1 Plains
Eternal Witness  4 Savannah
Mulldrifter  4 Tropical Island
Prime Speaker Zegana 1 Tundra
    Windswept Heath 
  Spells    
2 Banishing Light    
3 Bant Charm    
3 Cloudshift    
Swords to Plowshares    
Wrath of God    
       
       

Staying in the Legacy format for the next deck of the article I'm going to Lure you into a false sense of security our card that we will be building round will be a card that you probably didn't even know existed, I didn't I found it by accident looking for cards for a beast deck. The card is Thresher Beast from the Prophecy set. When this big beast is blocked the defending player sacrifices a land. So how are we going to use this bad boy to win us some games?

The answer is Lure a green enchantment that makes all our opponents creatures block him. Sounds pretty good yes? Well Lure alone isn't really enough 4 cards out of 60 doesn't really give us much of a chance of drawing it, so I'm also running Deadly Allure as well which is a sorcery that acts like lure when cast on our creatures but also gives them deathtouch as well. It also has Flashback for one green mana. That's also confirmed the colour of our deck as . Steve Argyle wins again with another really nice piece of art for Deadly Allure, could you resist the temptation of this young lass and her big snake? 

Now we look at the other creatures in the deck Golgari Decoy is a creature with a built in Lure he's a bit expensive but I find he makes a good threat especially if you can regenerate him, more on that later. Then we have Reaper of the Wilds who is very good for his(?) mana cost. For 4 mana one of which is green and one black you get a 4/5 creature, that has the ability to gain deathtouch and hexproof until end of turn. If another creature dies whiles it's in play you also get to scry 1 as well. I wanted another creature that could do quite well in combat but in the three mana ramp slot and that ended up going to Nirkana Cutthroat her ability to level up into deathtouch and first strike works quite well in this deck.

Now for the odd balls of the deck. First is a little combo of Village Elder (did you really think that anyone would play this card?) and Titania, Protector of Argoth The Village Elder sacrifices forests to regenerate our creatures and whenever a land goes into your graveyard Titania, Protector of Argoth puts a 5/3 elemental into play. I do have further plans for Titania but her cost shot up quite a lot recently before I could pick up any more copies. So don't fret, she will make a return.

Then we move on to Deathrite Shaman who can do all sorts of interesting things with cards in both yours and your opponents graveyards. He can tap and exile a land to add a mana of any colour to your mana pool, for a green mana he can tap to exile an instant or sorcery to make each opponent lose two life and his third ability for one black mana he can tap to exile a creature and you gain two life. Overall he is super useful especially I found in the early game where he can start removing cards before your opponent finds a way to deal with him. We also have a one off in the form of Glissa Sunseeker who I use in lots of decks, I really like her artifact removal capabilities and that she comes with first strike is also a bonus. The last creature is a fill in and a bit of air support the ever faithful Vampire Nighthawk.

Removal is pretty straight forward in this deck we have Putrefy to deal with creatures and artifacts at instant speed and Maelstrom Pulse which can destroy any non land permanent and all the other permanent's with the same name in play. Both of these are pretty good staples if you like playing black/green decks. I'm also running a single copy of Naturalize as well for an extra artifact/enchantment removal spell, this card wasn't one that I was going to use but after a game against our very own AJ Impy I realised I needed more of a chance to draw into enchantment removal than the three Maelstrom Pulses I had. I'll also add in here a land which I've found very useful in the deck when I don't draw Village Elder which is my second source of regeneration Yavimaya Hollow, going all the way back to the Urza's Destiny set for this one.

It's an interesting deck that's for sure. I'm quite happy that I've not been insulted for using land destruction via Thresher Beast, because it's quite later in the game people aren't so worried. I have removed some players mana sources entirely when I put Lure on him. With the regeneration from Village Elder and Yavimaya Hollow the deck stands up quite well in the casual Legacy format.  

    Creatures     Artifacts 
Deathrite Shaman  3 Golgari Signet
1 Glissa Sunseeker    
3 Golgari Decoy   Lands
Nirkana Cutthroat 4 Bayou
Reaper of the Wilds 4 Evolving Wilds
Thresher Beast  5 Forest
Thrill-Kill Assassin 4 Swamp
Titania, Protector of Argoth Woodland Cemetery
Vampire Nighthawk Yavimaya Hollow 
Village Elder    
       
  Spells    
3 Deadly Allure    
Lure    
Maelstrom Pulse    
Naturalize     
Putrefy     

 

The final deck sees us hitting the Vintage format, there's still not many players around when I'm online so it's always a battle to get enough games in to test the deck well enough.  I manage to always get to a point where I'm happy with them. This deck took a lot of testing and there were quite a lot of versions as I kept running up against issues some were due to Oath of Druids decks which I see quite a lot in the Just for Fun room. The card I wanted to build round is an old card from Ice Age Polar Kraken, you may laugh but back when it was in Standard I actually took a Polar Kraken/Animate Dead deck to a tournament and it actually won me a prize as I ended in the top ten players. I'm not going to use Animate Dead this time round. I found a card that would nullify the drawback of the Kraken which is Ritual of the Returned it lets me exile the Polar Kraken and put a 11/11 black zombie into play.

This deck of course will need a way to put the Polar Kraken into my graveyard, for this I went with Survival of the Fittest making my entire deck a toolbox in the process. Toolbox decks are ones which usually run lots of one off cards and tutors and cards like Survival of the Fittest to find an answer to any situation that may occur. Survival of the Fittest lets you discard a creature and search your library for another and put it into your hand. This card saw quite a lot of fame in conjunction with madness cards and Vengevine in the past but I'm going a different route.

First on the creature front we have a mana accelerator Birds of Paradise. The lovely promo version of Birds of Paradise has fallen down to a reasonable price, it's currently around the $1 mark so if you fancy an alternative version with a black border now's your chance. Then we have our first Origins and only Origins card of the article, the not so famous Caustic Caterpillar.  He's a great little card that loves to chomp down on artifacts and enchantments. Then we have Vampire Hexmage who is our Planeswalker removal. You could also run Dark Depths as an alternitive win condition but I decided I didn't want to invest in one at this point in time.

A few blue creatures next, first is Wonder who I'll be more than happy to dump into our graveyard to give all our creatures flying. Then we have Gilded Drake from Urza's Saga, this guy is the answer to Oath of Druids if they play an Eldrazi or Griselbrand you can swap it for the Gilded Drake, even if the drake dies you still keep control of the creature and you get to choose which creature you swap for as well. Next is Psychatog who can win games by himself, we will already be filling the graveyard for him and we have enough card draw to keep a smile on his face. Our last creature is a big hitter that's immune to Swords to Plowshares Ihsan's Shade, I wanted a threat that could be hard cast that would be an issue for people to get rid of.

To make our zombified Kraken that extra bit deadly I'm also running two Berserks which will kill it but more than likely will kill our opponent. Removal is mostly for Oath decks again in the form of Diabolic Edict, it's a nice spell and because it's an instant it can be used as an offensive counter as well. To deal with the weenie decks we have Damnation the creature board clearer. I'm also running a few counters as well as it would be rude not to, we have Mana Leak to deny spells in the early game and a few copies of Force of Will just to make sure that we can counter when we are tapped out. I've only gone for two as we aren't running a large amount of blue cards, I did try three but it was too many.

The tutors in the deck are the standard for Vintage, we have Demonic Tutor for all your needs, Vampiric Tutor at instant speed again this can be used to find any card and then we have Mystical Tutor that can search for instants and sorceries. Card draw and top deck manipulation starts with my new card that I picked up just for this deck Ancestral Recall, it is as good as it looks, three cards for one blue mana, you will never see a better card. Then we have Brainstorm and its brother Ponder to help control the top of our deck. The new draw card on the block Treasure Cruise is also making an appearance alongside an old friend Time Walk.

From the mana ramp side excluding Birds of Paradise we also have a few moxen to help out. Mox Emerald, Mox Jet and Mox Sapphire. At one point I was running all five but they weren't really required. The lands are mostly duals and fetch lands with Strip Mine to deal with Tolarian Academy.

Overall I'm really enjoying playing the deck I just wish I could get in some more games with it. I'm finding my creature toolbox is giving me everything I need but if you think of anything else let me know in the comments.

Also an interesting bit of information if you take each card from its original set this decks spans quite wide over the history of Magic the Gathering.

Set Number of cards
Alpha/Beta 22
Antiquites 1
Ice Age 5
Homelands  1
Alliances 2
Mirage  1
Visions  1
Tempest 2
Stronghold  2
Exodus  4
Urzas Saga  1
Odyssey  1
Judgment  1
Onslaught  4
Planar Chaos  1
Lorwyn  1
Zendikar  1
Innistrad  2
Journey into Nyx  4
Khans of Tarkir  1
Origins  2

 

    Creatures     Artifacts 
Birds of Paradise  1 Mox Emerald
2 Caustic Caterpillar Mox Jet
1 Gilded Drake 1 Mox Sapphire
Ihsan's Shade    
Polar Kraken   Lands
Psychatog  4   Bayou 
Vampire Hexmage  Polluted Delta 
Wonder Strip Mine 
    Tropical Island 
  Spells Underground Sea
1 Ancestral Recall 2 Woodland Cemetery
2 Berserk    
1 Brainstorm    
Damnation    
Demonic Tutor    
Diabolic Edict     
Force of Will     
Mana Leak     
Mystical Tutor     
Ponder     
Ritual of the Returned     
Survival of the Fittest     
Time Walk     
Treasure Cruise     
Vampiric Tutor     

That's all from me for now I probably won't be writing another article until the end of the month, keep tapping away and I'll see you online.

Flip

 

4 Comments

Ah yes, I remember that game. by AJ_Impy at Tue, 09/08/2015 - 20:13
AJ_Impy's picture
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Ah yes, I remember that game. I was experimenting with quite a few enchantment-heavy builds at the time, mostly for Tribal. Thanks for the mention. :)

No problem AJ, it's always a by Flippers_Giraffe at Wed, 09/09/2015 - 13:44
Flippers_Giraffe's picture

No problem AJ, it's always a pleasure playing you.

Another fine casual piece. I by Paul Leicht at Tue, 09/08/2015 - 21:41
Paul Leicht's picture
5

Another fine casual piece. I am so glad you've come back and are providing content for the fun lovers among us. :D Lure me in is particularly funny.

Thanks Paul I'm having lots by Flippers_Giraffe at Wed, 09/09/2015 - 13:46
Flippers_Giraffe's picture

Thanks Paul I'm having lots of fun at the moment on MTGO, the deck ideas are flowing well so more articles are on the horizon.