There's No One That Can Stop Her

Out: Ashling the Pilgrim, Dark Banishing, Fulminator Mage, and Sapling of Colfenor

In: 4 Ignoble Hierarch, 3 Harmonic Prodigy, 2 Judith, the Scourge Diva.

On the block: Titania's Boon.

Cut Boon, added Banishings, 

Cutting Caludron Haze (it's win more) and adding removal, in this case Bogslither's Embrace.

It took all of one match against Noah to find the problems: it's the lands.

With 8 lands that enter tapped and 4 that bounce a land when they come into play, that is a debilitating blow to the pace of this deck. For a deck that generally tops out at the 3 spot, I need to re-evaluate how many lands I have that stunt my mana. 

The other issue was the removal: Bogslither's Embrace is a Christmasland card. I just assumed that I'd have have plenty of creatures with +1 counters on them to negate the Embrace's drawback.

I do not. 

So a little more work to do here. 

But I'm glad I swung big on those first changes: seeing that Ignoble Hierarch was a Shaman is a HUGE boost for this deck.

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.

The Zeta Set

This is pretty dang cool. 

I can't afford it, apparently you can't draft it and sealed would be bullshit. 

That is; no, I won't buy it, nobody should and this product is a distortion of what Magic needs to be about: form (the art) follows function (the game). 

But it's still a pretty cool art project.

Break

Just going to take a couple weeks break: I'm feeling kinda burnt out, so a short vacation will be nice. 

See y'all back in a couple!

Sandstorm Complete

So let's catch up since I failed to update the readers on Sandstorm!

4 Shuko

4 Heartfire Hero
3 Manifold Mouse
3 Stirring Hopesinger
3 Valley Questcaller
3 Emberheart Challenger
3 Flowerfoot Swordmaster
3 Seedglaive Mentor

4 Erode
4 Monstrous Rage
1 Loran's Escape
3 Legion Leadership
2 Shelter

2 Glittering Massif
7 Plains
7 Mountain
4 Elegant Parlor

There've been two real changes: first, Stirring Hopesinger. An evasive creature that can gain life and give me a boost every time I cast a non-creature spell? This seems pretty good. The card draws a lot of attention when I play it, so clearly I'm doing something right. 

The other change has been to remove Restless Bivouac for Glittering Massif. My reasoning here is that if Massif shows up in the first two turns, great I can use the color fixing. 

If it shows up anytime after I have 3 or more lands, I can cycle it away for another card. 

The spell suite might be a bit more challenging. I've been looking at Adventures, Omens and Prepared spells in hopes of finding something that might add to the spell count while keeping a threat base high but very little fits. Because I would like something that either offers me some removal redundancy. Erode has been a solid card and it wouldn't suck having another. It's possible I should look at replacing a card like Shelter for something more aggressive but I'm not sure at the moment. 

Still; it's a solid deck and for now it's doing well!

Vibro-Sword

After some time revamping more, this is the list I settled on.

1 Deep Forest Hermit  

1 Emeritus of Woe

2 Eldrazi Repurposer
1 Grim Haruspex
1 Massacre Girl
1 Murderous Rider // Swift End
3 Ohran Viper
4 Misery's Shadow
1 Springheart Nantuko
1 Vein Ripper
3 Sakura-Tribe Elder
3 Fume Spitter

4 Fecundity
3 Mortuary

6 Swamp
2 Volrath's Stronghold
4 Llanowar Wastes
7 Forest
4 Blooming Marsh

4 Final Vengeance
4 Malevolent Rumble

Sideboard
SB: 2 Fulminator Mage
SB: 1 Murderous Rider // Swift End

It pained me to cut a Mortuary but the chance to utilize Emeritus of Woe in order to get some of the silver bullets in the deck seemed strong. I'm also experimenting on a few things: Ohran Viper over Wall of Blossoms to increase the creature control element. If my opponent isn't attacking me because of the Viper, that's more time. If my opponent isn't doing anything else, I can draw cards. 

How will it do? I'm not sure. But I like the configuration.

Tiny Arms

 I like Grimlock, but I got a lesson in it's limitations recently.

I was playing Matt who was playing my Sandstorm deck-which I am just now realizing I never followed up on!

So I'll get that posted soon. But Matt couldn't get the deck going, which meant I had time to both set up my deck and take out his smaller creatures. I chalk a little of that up to him being a new pilot 

However, later that day, I was playing against a B/W Bats deck that just had my number. Cheap creatures with evasion, scaling power and lifegain meant that by the time I could get my deck set up, the game was over. 

The closest I got was when I landed a Vein Ripper and even that wasn't enough.

Now there's a couple lessons: one is that Grimlock is going to be taken down by fast decks, and I should be looking at board resets. My deck should be more resilient to resets than my opponent's. 

But also: this deck, as neat as it is, can't be all things. And that's OK. Take the wins where you can.