Showing posts with label red. Show all posts
Showing posts with label red. Show all posts

Thursday, September 3, 2026

Thrash Unreal

I took  this from an Against Me! song. And what we have here is a shamans deck.

2 Sapling of Colfenor
3 Ashling the Pilgrim
2 Flamekin Harbinger
4 Taurean Mauler
4 Wolf-Skull Shaman
4 Rage Forger
2 Fulminator Mage
2 Vexing Shusher
3 Deathgreeter

4 Hit // Run
3 Cauldron Haze
2 Dark Banishing

6 Mountain
1 Jund Panorama
4 Savage Lands
2 Swamp
2 Forest
4 Darigaaz's Caldera
4 Jetmir's Garden

2 Titania's Boon

Let's put some +1/+1 counters on things and swing, right? Make extra wolves, and see what can be done!

Well. Quite a lot, really. So let's have at it.


Tuesday, June 2, 2026

Sandstorm

Well, now we have a name for the deck! As an added bonus, it's also the name for a Transformer so I'm kinda double-dipping. 

In addition, despite the last decklist working really well, Secrets of Strixhaven gave us a card that I am testing, because I think it's very powerful: Stirring Hopesinger. This is in addition to the new removal spell upgrade, Erode, which is definitely better than Unwanted Remake

However that's not all! Hopesinger is a bird, and that means it gets a boost from Valley Questcaller.

Sadly, this means that something has to go, and Mabel is my cut. She's very good-and she creates an additional mana tax with Cragflame. In a deck with so few mana sources, having a flier that could boost the team just seemed better. 


Thursday, May 28, 2026

Mice

 I need a name for this deck, but right now it's got it where it counts, kid.

4 Shuko

4 Heartfire Hero
3 Manifold Mouse
3 Valley Questcaller
3 Emberheart Challenger
2 Mabel, Heir to Cragflame
3 Flowerfoot Swordmaster
3 Seedglaive Mentor
1 Feather, the Redeemed

4 Monstrous Rage
4 Unwanted Remake
2 Loran's Escape|
3 Legion Leadership
2 Shelter

7 Plains
7 Mountain
4 Elegant Parlor
2 Restless Bivouac

Obviously this started as a riff on the mice deck in Standard-hey, why not build on a proven idea? Without the limits of Standard, Shuko becomes available and the deck can get sick very, very quickly. 

With 20 lands, the deck is running very lean, and I'm absolutely hoping that Elegant Parlor along with Shelter and Loran's Escape can help smooth my draws out, while not slowing me down, despite Restless Bivouac and Parlor entering tapped.




Tuesday, January 27, 2026

Your Head Asplode

 Another deck I've been putting off for awhile because of the reset. Because Your Head Asplode, baby. 

4 Talisman of Impulse
4 Rukh Egg
2 Seedguide Ash
1 Greater Gargadon
4 Viridian Joiner
4 Predator Ooze
4 Brindle Shoat

4 Elephant Guide

4 Rootgrapple

4 Stomping Ground
2 Mountain Valley
6 Mountain
6 Forest
1 Gruul Turf
4 Cragcrown Pathway

3 Obliterate
3 Jokulhaups

Obviously, there's a LOT that can be done now. Hell, Thraben U has a whole thing about using Jokulhaups and winning games, so even if it is just for fun (and it is) I should be able to improve this deck considerably. 

Tuesday, November 4, 2025

Paranoid Android

 Alright, so I abandoned a deck because I said I had an idea. That idea starts with this deck, which wants to do some recursion things with artifacts and is named after a Radiohead song.

2 Chromatic Sphere
1 Dispeller's Capsule
2 Executioner's Capsule
4 Pyrite Spellbomb
2 Skeleton Shard

2 Extruder
4 Disciple of the Vault
2 Nova Cleric
3 Perilous Myr
3 Gorilla Shaman
2 Junk Diver
3 Myr Retriever
3 Salvage Titan

4 Shrapnel Blast

4 Ancient Den
4 Glimmervoid
4 Great Furnace
1 Swamp
4 Mountain
4 Vault of Whispers
2 Plains

First, we have the classic old me deckbuilding problems of trying to solve every problem: Nova Cleric, Executioner's Capsule, Gorilla Shaman. Next, for a three color manabase, there just isn't enough versatility there. Glimmervoid is a neat card, but there's just too much pressure on that card alone to solve all the mana issues. 

Now, obviously I think I can do much better than before--and it might all be due to Weapons Manufacturing

Tuesday, May 20, 2025

Burn To Shine

 Taken from the delightful Ben Harper song, I started off with this R/W Liege deck:

4 Cursed Totem

4 Balefire Liege
3 Hearthfire Hobgoblin
2 Boros Swiftblade
3 Skyknight Legionnaire
3 Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice
4 Boros Recruit
4 Swiftblade Vindicator

4 Squee's Embrace

4 Lightning Helix
3 Chance for Glory

4 Scabland
7 Plains
7 Mountain
4 Needle Spires

Years ago, this started off as a Cursed Totem deck, if you can believe that. Inspired by a writer at Starcity Games, who used the Totem to remove the drawbacks to cards like Glittering Lion and Flailing Manticore, while also serving as a way to pre-emptively deal with other problem cards at the time (notably the Rebels deck) this deck was an easy one to morph into a Balefire Liege deck. The tech was SO old, why not make it a fun aggro deck? 

But here it languished until a card I've had for years but had forgotten about was brought to my attention via a Thraben U video: General Ferrous Rokiric

Let's get going. 


Tuesday, March 11, 2025

Bruticus

 Are you ready for a weird one? This one, named after the most brutal Combaticon, is coming from the wayback machine, as you can see by the card choices.

3 Anvil of Bogardan
4 Necrogen Spellbomb
4 Noetic Scales

4 Guiltfeeder

4 Gibbering Descent
4 Oppression
3 Seal of Fire
3 Megrim

4 Dead // Gone
3 Skeletal Scrying

1 Keldon Megaliths
4 Tainted Peak
4 Mountain
12 Swamp
2 Rocky Tar Pit

1 Demonfire

Obviously, there are some very old cards here! But for people who don't see how the deck works, the idea is to use Noetic Scales to keep creatures off the table, and Guiltfeeder to freely attack and do outsized levels of damage.

Oppression is there to help keep cards out of my opponent's hand, and then there's some removal to take care of the early creatures, and Skeletal Scrying to draw me cards and help me find what I need. 

Gibbering Descent is probably the glory of cool things, but we shall see!



Tuesday, July 23, 2024

The Retired: Weapons of Mass Distortion

Once upon a time, I named a deck after a Crystal Method song and tried to use Defense of the Heart

Weapons of Mass Distortion

2 Darksteel Ingot

4 Utopia Tree
3 Varchild's War-Riders
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
3 Viridian Zealot
1 Tornado Elemental
1 Bringer of the Blue Dawn
1 Bringer of the Red Dawn
1 Duplicant
1 Akroma, Angel of Fury
1 Avatar of Fury
1 Avatar of Might
1 Woodfall Primus
1 Bogardan Hellkite
2 Fire Ants
1 Suture Priest

4 Defense of the Heart

4 Lat-Nam's Legacy
4 Simoon

4 Forbidden Orchard
8 Forest
2 Island
5 Mountain
4 Dreamroot Cascade

As ideas go, this isn't too bad-use Forbidden Orchard to force the conditions that Defense of the Heart requires onto my opponent. Then dial up whatever cool monsters I want/need and win. Use Simoon and Fire Ants to keep the token army from getting out of control-or don't and use Suture Priest to punish them.

There are a few problems though. First, the monster selection is bad. Sure, Avatar of Might seemed rad once, but creatures have come a looooooooooong way. 

Second: the mana is all over the place. 

Third, there's no way to ensure that I'm going to get the Defense of the Heart. Lat-Lam's Legacy is a card I love and I think it's underutilized but that isn't enough to make the deck consistent. 

However, there's another reason why I'm taking this apart and it's got a little bit to do with this. (The bones of this deck went into Blackened Disease!)

Tuesday, July 9, 2024

Blackened Disease

From the mad minds of YouTube, I present this:

4 Slaughter Specialist
3 Varchild's War-Riders
3 Vampire Nighthawk
1 Varchild, Betrayer of Kjeldor
2 Clackbridge Troll
4 Exsanguinator Cavalry

4 Trespasser's Curse
4 Illness in the Ranks

4 Lat-Nam's Legacy
2 Cathartic Pyre
4 Hero's Downfall

4 Forbidden Orchard
5 Swamp
5 Mountain
1 Swiftwater Cliffs
1 Dismal Backwater
1 Island
1 Evolving Wilds
4 Sulfurous Springs

3 End the Festivities

Let's see where this takes me. I named this after the killer Dukatalon song, because it links so nicely with Illness in the Ranks.


Tuesday, February 27, 2024

It Sucks To Suck

The name took me longer than I thought it would, but eventually I was hooked by this masterpiece from the latest Striker album.

3 Currency Converter
4 Mox Diamond

3 Hazoret the Fervent
4 Fury
4 Stalactite Stalker
2 Rix Maadi Reveler
3 Troll of Khazad-dûm
3 Blood Scrivener
3 Avatar of Discord

4 Animate Dead
1 Seal of Fire

3 Dangerous Wager

8 Swamp
8 Mountain
4 Raucous Theater

3 Molten Collapse

So what's up with this? Why is it so different from the first list?

My first discovery was that Grief was in a BW deck and I wanted to keep it there. Similarly, Resurrection is elsewhere and the next cheapest thing was Animate Dead. But as options go, that isn't bad!

The Blood Scrivener has been a nice card. It isn't perfect, but as a solid turn two drop that then helps feed me do what this deck wants to do, I'm pleased with it so far. 

Avatar of Discord is there because at the last time of writing, I didn't have Carnage Interpreters. Apparently that card gets released tomorrow and I have no idea if it's good. It seems good but so does a 5/3 flier on turn 2, which is something this deck can do.

Molten Collapse doesn't have an excuse. That card should almost certainly be Terminate or Kolaghan's CommandBedevil might also fit, and I probably have copies of all of these cards somewhere.

While searching Moxfield.com for ideas, I saw someone using Seal of Fire to contribute to their Stalkers and I thought one wouldn't be a bad idea.

So that's why I'm with this list for now and I'm looking forward to seeing how it does!

Thursday, January 18, 2024

The Retired: 99 Problems

I know I haven't written about this deck yet, but I was doing some research on the "Moggwarts" deck, trying to take it from its Pauper combo state to a more powerful one and was stuck here:

99 Problems

4 Skirk Prospector
2 Goblin Matron
2 Murderous Redcap
3 Putrid Goblin
1 Pashalik Mons
2 Munitions Expert
2 Sling-Gang Lieutenant

4 Cathartic Pyre
4 First Day of Class
3 Poison the Cup

4 Foreboding Ruins
4 Canyon Slough
5 Swamp
9 Mountain

3 Night's Whisper
4 Duress
4 Unearth

Sideboard

SB: 4 Overmaster

Two Goblin Decks I gotta smoosh into one

Except...I have a deck that uses Goblin tribal in a silly way. When I realized this, I began to really look at the two decks and see if I could combine them to do an aggressive thing with a combo finish. Why not, right? If most of the time I'm just attacking for silly amounts of damage, that's fine! But if things stall out then screw it, go all in on a combo finish.

However, what Bonecrusher really wants to do is flood the board with goblins and goblin tokens to activate Skirk Fire Marshal, hopefully with a Mogg Fanatic out.

99 Problems on the other hand is wanting to make sure a First Day of Class is cast with a sac outlet and a Persist creature of some sort, to generate infinite damage or mana. The direction I was taking it was to try and draw as many cards as I could in order to do the combo consistently and quickly. 

These premises don't jibe together.

The other thing I noticed about Bonecrusher is that IT isn't even consistently doing what I want. Making a bunch of goblin tokens is not what a card like Goblin Ringleader is for. 

My dilemma is that I think using Skirk Fire Marshal is a funnier way to win a game, but the combo engine of 99 Problems is a proven quantity. 

One other issue is that there are more goblins and generators in Black than White. Keeping Bonecrusher as a R/W deck is probably not the way to go. White gives me some excellent removal and the ability to activate SFM at any life total, if I have an Angel's Grace. But the synergies in Black are really too good to gloss over.

So I'm just gonna smoosh these together-against what is probably the better judgement of everyone-and see what happens. 

Tuesday, January 2, 2024

Commander Tune Up: Kaalia of the Vast

Instant
1 Wrecking Ball
1 Mortify
1 Terminate
1 Master Warcraft
1 Sulfurous Blast
1 Cleansing Beam
1 Comet Storm
1 Return to Dust
1 Bathe in Light
1 Orim's Thunder
1 Congregate
1 Path to Exile
Artifacts
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Sol Ring
1 Orzhov Signet
1 Rakdos Signet
1 Boros Signet
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Armillary Sphere
1 Tenza, Godo's Maul
Enchantment
1 Stranglehold
1 Pyrohemia
1 Vow of Duty
1 Vow of Lightning
1 Vow of Malice
1 Righteous Cause
1 Soul Snare
Sorcery
1 Earthquake
1 Akroma's Vengeance
1 Diabolic Tutor
 1 Evincar's Justice
1 Syphon Flesh
 1 Syphon Mind
 1 Into the Maw of Hell
Lands
1 Command Tower
 1 Barren Moor
 1 Forgotten Cave
 1 Rakdos Carnarium
 1 Orzhov Basilica
 1 Boros Garrison
 1 Secluded Steppe
 1 Bojuka Bog
 1 Akoum Refuge
 1 Evolving Wilds
 1 Rupture Spire
1 Molten Slagheap
 8 Swamp
 8 Plains 8 Mountain
 1 Haunted Fengraf
 1 Terminal Moraine


Creatures
1 Oros, the Avenger
1 Tariel, Reckoner of Souls
 1 Basandra, Battle Seraph
 1 Bladewing the Risen
 1 Malfegor
1 Angel of Despair
 1 Mordant Dragon
 1 Mana-Charged Dragon
 1 Akroma, Angel of Fury
 1 Anger
 1 Deathless Angel
1 Angelic Arbiter
 1 Voice of All
 1 Shattered Angel
1 Serra Angel
 1 Kokusho, the Evening Star
 1 Reiver Demon
 1 Dread Cacodemon
 1 Rune-Scarred Demon
 1 Requiem Angel
 1 Moonveil Dragon
 1 Krav, the Unredeemed
 1 Regna, the Redeemer
 1 Archfiend of Despair
 1 Stormbreath Dragon
1 Sylvia Brightspear
 1 Khorvath Brightflame




 SB: 1 Kaalia of the Vast

I've been teaching my friend Rebecca to play Magic, and with that has come an education on how Commander works. She decided she wanted to build a Commander deck and Kaalia was one of her choices, so I thought I'd let her take mine for a spin. 


After the games were over, I recognized that I really hadn't done anything to Kaalia and that this deck could be incredibly powerful. Far more powerful than what it is. I also noted that, unlike my version on Cockatrice (which I pasted in here) my paper version has two copies of Bladewing the Risen. So let's give this a tune up. 




Tuesday, December 12, 2023

Commander: Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis

Instant
1 Arcane Denial
1 Benefactor's Draught
1 Oblation
1 Beast Within
1 Entrapment Maneuver
1 Reins of Power
1 Sylvan Reclamation
1 Consign to Dust
Artifacts
1 Sol Ring
1 Empyrial Plate
1 Howling Mine
1 Commander's Sphere
1 Temple Bell
1 Assault Suit
1 Prismatic Geoscope
1 Venser's Journal
Enchantment
 1 Evolutionary Escalation
1 Oath of Druids
1 Ghostly Prison
1 Propaganda
1 Rites of Flourishing
1 Sphere of Safety
1 Lurking Predators
1 Hoofprints of the Stag
1 Dictate of Heliod

Sorcery
1 Minds Aglow
1 Collective Voyage
1 Cultivate
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Tempt with Discovery
1 Wave of Reckoning
1 Migratory Route
1 Seeds of Renewal
1 Reverse the Sands
1 Treacherous Terrain
1 Blasphemous Act
1 Cleansing Meditation
Lands
1 Ash Barrens
1 Azorius Chancery
1 Command Tower
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Exotic Orchard
1 Forbidden Orchard
1 Frontier Bivouac
1 Gruul Turf
1 Homeward Path
1 Izzet Boilerworks
1 Jungle Shrine
1 Krosan Verge
1 Myriad Landscape
1 Mystic Monastery
1 Opal Palace
1 Rupture Spire
1 Seaside Citadel
1 Selesnya Sanctuary
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Transguild Promenade
5 Plains
5 Island
5 Mountain
5 Forest
Creatures
1 Veteran Explorer
1 Humble Defector
1 Hushwing Gryff
1 Orzhov Advokist
1 Chasm Skulker
1 Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer
1 Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist
1 Selvala, Explorer Returned
1 Edric, Spymaster of Trest
1 Akroan Horse
1 Selfless Squire
1 Windborn Muse
1 Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa
1 Horizon Chimera
1 Psychosis Crawler
1 Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
1 Kraum, Ludevic's Opus
1 Realm Seekers
1 Rubblehulk
1 Progenitor Mimic
1 Blazing Archon
1 Archetype of Imagination



Alright, here's the commander for those unfamiliar. 

I got to play this once-after having not done much with this deck-and thought one thing: This should just be the ultimate value engine deck. Draw more cards, play more lands get free stuff off of doing that. Let's go.

So that's what I'm going to do: Free Shit, the Deck.


Thursday, December 7, 2023

The Retired: Cutthroat

 "What if I had a deck that just took care of all the problematic permanents?"

2 Rith, the Awakener
1 Cloudchaser Eagle
2 Aven Cloudchaser
2 Tephraderm
4 Flametongue Kavu
3 Elvish Visionary
1 Godsire
3 Uktabi Orangutan
3 Stonecloaker
3 Civic Wayfinder
2 Meglonoth

3 Reinforcements

3 Rith's Grove
1 Naya Panorama
8 Forest
6 Plains
6 Mountain

3 Lava Burst
4 Gift of the Gargantuan

Well, the answer is: you do all the things sorta and none of the things well. In this respect, this deck isn't living up to the song it's named after

This is a frequent theme in decks I build. I rarely want to focus on the one thing; I want to have outs to problems, instead of insisting that my opponents respond to me. I've been getting better about this, but I still have to fight against those tendencies. 

Cutthroat is a fine example of the old way of thinking and that's a good reason to retire this one. 

Tuesday, December 5, 2023

The Retired: Grotusque

Land destruction is always a messy business. 
 
2 Verduran Emissary

2 Dwarven Blastminer
3 Thresher Beast
4 Llanowar Elves
2 Avalanche Riders
2 Acidic Slime

2 Form of the Dragon

3 Lunge
2 Rhystic Lightning

8 Forest
4 Karplusan Forest
1 Forgotten Cave
1 Tranquil Thicket
1 Slippery Karst
1 Smoldering Crater
8 Mountain

2 Aftershock
2 Creeping Mold
4 Stone Rain
2 Frenzied Tilling
2 Desert Twister
2 Pillage

I named this from the Transformer-what can I say, I have a soft spot for a flying, fire breathing tiger. And to past mes credit, the idea behind this deck is to use Form of the Dragon to finish the game off, after blowing up opposing lands so they just have to sit there. 

Couple problems here; first, I was a cheapskate and didn't want to purchase a third copy of Form, a card this deck 100% needs. 

Second: land destruction starts at mana value 3, and these days you mostly find those effects at 4. If there isn't a way to reset the game after blowing up opponent's lands-to deal with what they've put into play before I start to turn the corner-then I'm in trouble. And guess what: Rhystic Lightning is not the answer I need.

Third: it's clear I haven't looked at this deck since 2003 and Magic strategy and card development has shifted immensely since then. The concepts behind this deck are out of the colors it's in (Lands does a mana denial thing and it's G/W), and almost old enough to drink. 

So I'm going to let this drift away. I don't even think there's a deck that needs some of these cards -but if I decide to do a land destruction deck again, it's going to be significantly tighter than this. 

Thursday, November 16, 2023

The Retired: Wizard Fight!

This one was named after the best song Weedeater ever did. Honestly, they probably should've retired after this song, because I don't think anyone can top it. 

Still here we are:

1 Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
3 Kami of the Crescent Moon
2 Psychosis Crawler
2 Dragon Mage

4 Words of War

4 Jilt
4 Repeal
4 Bewilder

9 Island
3 Izzet Boilerworks
4 Scalding Tarn
8 Mountain

2 Preordain
4 Wheel of Fate
3 Rolling Thunder
3 Serum Visions

While the idea is to use Words of War in combination with basically every red card drawing effect ever, and supplement WoW with Psychosis Crawler for a victory condition, Wizard Fight also had to run cards like Kami of the Crescent Moon. KotCM helps everyone, and the support cards I added in just weren't punishing enough.

Rolling Thunder is too slow and I don't have enough mana in here to make it truly dangerous. Jilt, Repeal, and Bewilder aren't even close to being a strong enough suite of cards to help keep the game in my favor.

This is probably a deck that if I refashioned it into a combo deck that used Blood Oath or Sudden Impact to do damage and Arcane Laboratory to control the board, would be more interesting to play. And since it turns out, I already have a deck like this, letting Wizard Fight! go is for the best. 

But the name is awesome! Maybe I'll reuse that. 

Note: No posts next week, as I'll be away for Thanksgiving and quite likely playing a lot of Warhammer 40k Conquest.

Tuesday, July 25, 2023

Trash Truck

 I'm going to have two versions of this deck, the first is the one I will revert back to:

2 Elixir of Immortality

2 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
3 Magus of the Wheel
2 Shocker
2 Tourach, Dread Cantor
3 Glint-Horn Buccaneer
3 Orcish Bowmasters

2 Waste Not

3 Dream Salvage
4 Terminate

10 Mountain
8 Swamp
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
1 Rakdos Carnarium 

3 Liliana of the Veil

4 Reforge the Soul
4 Burning Inquiry

This is the fun take on the deck. The manabase isn't set for a tournament build, Shocker is clearly not up to snuff when it comes to power, Elixir of Immortality is me trying to hedge against decking, a situation that is 99% unlikely to happen, and Terminate, as great of a card as it is, needs to be a stronger removal spell. These are just a few of the small details that I'll want to change to shift this from my kitchen table deck to one for an event.

But hopefully you can see the core of the deck, using Tourach, Dread Cantor, Glint-Horn Buccaneer and Waste Not to give me rewards for discarding, while Orcish Bowmasters and Sheoldred the Apocalypse provides rewards for the drawing portion of Burning Inquiry, Reforge the Soul and Magus of the Wheel.

Is this some jank? Hell yes. But it's synergistic jank. 

The second take on Trash Truck is what I'm taking to the Mox events starting on the 28th, and I'll go over the changes to the deck, along with a Sideboard, on Thursday.

Thursday, May 26, 2022

Hold The Heathen Hammer High

Let's just forgo the tease: 

1 Batterskull
1 Kaldra Compleat
3 Nettlecyst
1 Colossus Hammer
1 Shadowspear

3 Cloudsteel Kirin
4 Lizard Blades
3 Sram, Senior Edificer
4 Puresteel Paladin
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Goblin Engineer
4 Rabbit Battery
4 Esper Sentinel
1 Kor Outfitter
1 Halvar, God of Battle

4 Sigarda's Aid

7 Mountain
10 Plains
4 Rustvale Bridge
1 Den of the Bugbear
1 Cave of the Frost Dragon

Here's a wild bunch. It's already undergone some shifts (Magnetic Theft came out to add Halvar) and yes, it's clearly based on the Hammertime decks from Modern. But interaction between Sigarda's Aid and the new equipment creatures from Neon Dynasty is that now, I can play creatures with flash. 

So let's raise the Heathen Hammer High

The mana base is downscaled and as this was the first iteration of the deck, I was experimenting with a Goblin Engineer. The idea was that I could bring back equipment or even search for a creature if I was having trouble finding one. For a deck that was going into an event, I didn't want to risk that. 

I did some testing with this deck though and we'll talk about how it did next week!


Thursday, February 10, 2022

Quickmix

It's time for the R/U Liege deck. Named after the very weird transformer...what can I say? I wanted a deck with a Q name and there aren't a lot of songs with a title starting with Q.

4 Noggle Hedge-Mage
4 Riverfall Mimic
3 Crag Puca
2 Dominus of Fealty
3 Mindwrack Liege
4 Lightning Stormkin  
4 Clout of the Dominus  
3 Schismotivate
4 Electrolyze 
7 Mountain
4 Volcanic Island
1 Izzet Boilerworks
7 Island
4 Wandering Fumarole
2 Frostboil Snarl 
4 Expressive Iteration

Now, as a Liege deck that really wants to use Riverfall Mimic as a way to get in chip damage every turn, with Mindwrack Liege as the final haymaker there are already some restrictions on what should go into the deck. 

Still, I love Liege decks and can't wait to start to tackle Quickmix and make it more consistent, as well as up the power level a bit. 

The obvious problem with this deck is that it's clearly dated. The creature base is more than enough to tell you that, so that's probably where I will start with my revisions. 

With Strixhaven having enemy colored themes in it, there should be some great substitutes for some of the weaker creatures here. If nothing else, though, Expressive Iteration (which I added in automatically over Research the Deep, the deck's initial draw engine) should be a big upgrade. 

Tuesday, January 11, 2022

Sabotage

So here we go:

4 Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar
4 Blazing Rootwalla
4 Hollow One
3 Anger
4 Anje's Ravager
4 Kitchen Imp
4 Putrid Imp
2 Ox of Agonas
1 Ovalchase Daredevil
1 Tombstalker

          3 The Underworld Cookbook  

5 Swamp
7 Mountain
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Blood Crypt

4 Faithless Looting
2 Night's Whisper

Sideboard

2 Pithing Needle
3 Big Game Hunter
4 Leyline of the Void
3 Blood Moon
3 Firestorm

The genesis for this deck comes, once again, via Thraben U, who has played a few variants of it. The skeleton comes from a deck I put into The Retired pile (mostly the manabase) and a desire to streamline the colors. A solid manabase goes a long way. 

The name is probably obvious

As a two color deck, I had to make some choices to make up for the lack of Lion's Eye DiamondVengevine and Basking Rootwalla. On the flipside this made the inclusion of Anger not only easy, but a necessity. (Also, I remember when Lion's Eye Diamond was awful. Which is wild to think about as the card costs $430 for a heavily played one.)

Kitchen Imp is being overlooked even in non-Anger decks, since a 2/2 with haste for B is good and can also take on an opposing Delver of Secrets. The hasty flier is my replacement for Vengevine, and Night's Whisper a way to work with Faithless Looting to keep the cards coming. 

Ovalchase Daredevil was a card I stole from someone else's list while doing research for the deck. The synergy with The Underworld Cookbook is something I initially slept on but hope to get good things from.

Finally, Tombstalker was a suggestion from either Matt or Caitlin, I don't remember exactly. I don't know if this is a good card for this deck but if I can get a 5/5 flyer with haste for BB then that is an outstanding rate.