Hoist the Name of the Game

This will be a new thing:

Hoist 2 Jhessian Infiltrator 2 Vedalken Heretic 4 Mystic Snake 4 Shorecrasher Mimic 3 Murkfiend Liege 3 Pygmy Hippo 4 Coiling Oracle 3 Snakeform 2 Nature's Will 4 Favor of the Overbeing 3 Bear Umbra 4 Winter Orb 9 Forest 9 Island 4 Tropical Island

Name of the Game 4 Symbiotic Deployment 3 Urborg Elf 3 Trygon Predator 3 Selkie Hedge-Mage 2 Murkfiend Liege 4 Hystrodon 4 Raven Familiar 3 Temporal Spring 3 Ponder 3 Fallow Earth 3 Plow Under 3 Donate 11 Forest 11 Island

Two green/blue decks. One of them trying to use Murkfiend Liege and Shorecrasher Mimic to quickly win a game, the other wanting to Donate a Symbiotic Deployment to cut off an opponent's draw step, then bounce things to the top of their library and win through attrition.

I've had Name of the Game built for quite some time. I owned Donate but did not want to build an Illusions of Grandeur deck, because everyone was doing it, so I thought it would be more amusing to give someone a Symbiotic Deployment. And it was, until I had an opponent drop a Verdant Force on me and proceeded to outdraw the table.

Fast forward a few years: I make Hoist and it's a Liege decks (which everyone ought to know I love) but Lieges are expensive and with Winter Orb, I don't really want to spend my mana on a 5 casting cost creature that untaps my creatures. I need to untap my lands.

Also, the secret of enemy colored Liege decks is this: they aren't Liege decks, they are Shapeshifter decks. Hoist cares a lot more about Shorecrasher Mimic than it does about Murkfiend Liege.

So if I want to take Murkfiend Liege out, what to do? Well, in this case I decided to revamp the Name of the Game into a deck that still wants to cut off the opponent's draw step but if I can't do that, I can make tokens and draw cards with them, giving me an overwhelming advantage.

Hoist now has -3 Murkfield Liege, +2 Jhessian Infiltrator, Veldaken Heretic.

Name of the Game is now - 3 Selkie Hedge-Mage, -3 Urborg Elf (this elf belongs in a U/B/G deck), -4 Raven Familiar, +2 Murkfield Liege, +2 Verdant Embrace, and 4 yet to be determined mana producers. Still processing that one but something good will come of it.

The bonus is that I know Hoist works already. It's been performing well before I made changes. Name of the Game will bear more watching but the upside is: I can test both decks and occasionally get a win when I'm feeling disgruntled.