An Ode To Locksmiths

 It's mill deck time

4 Hedron Crab
3 Ruin Crab
3 The Mindskinner

4 Manabond

4 Daze
4 Brainstorm|
2 Mana Leak

13 Island
3 Forest
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Temple of Mystery

2 Stock Up
3 Scouting Trek
3 Treasure Hunt
4 Serum Visions

Named after the Type O Negative song, there's no rhyme or reason to that name. I just like Type O. 

The real trick: Have a crab out, have a Manabond out, play Scouting Trek and then Treasure Hunt. Go to end of turn, drop all the lands in your hand and mill your opponent out. 

Is it pie in the sky? You bet. But let's go.

We Do What We Do To Get By

 OK, I think I've got this deck where I want it. It can do some crazy things and the curve is pretty good. 

Is it going to be tier one? No, not without some mana reworks. But I'm not mad about this! I've build this deck into something that does stuff as opposed to just hoping.

4 Harmonic Prodigy
4 Ignoble Hierarch
2 Judith, the Scourge Diva
2 Flamekin Harbinger
4 Taurean Mauler
4 Wolf-Skull Shaman
4 Rage Forger
3 Vexing Shusher
3 Deathgreeter

4 Infernal Grasp

1 Overgrown Tomb
6 Mountain
1 Jund Panorama
4 Savage Lands
4 Swamp
3 Forest
4 Darigaaz's Caldera

3 Crippling Fear

I like this build quite a bit, as there is a great deal of redundancy and good mana fixing. Of everything, Deathgreeter is probably the most replaceable creature, but it's super cheap-not unlike this deck.

I'm out of town for the next week, so let's see if I can get a new post up in seven days!

Worked All Week Long

So there have been a few developments. 

First, I have discovered that Jetmir's Garden does not, in fact, produce Black mana. Sooooo that's kind of embarrassing. However, it did make the decision to cut that land much easier! 

Infernal Grasp has come in as the spot removal of choice, and I was leaving Dark Banishing in as my extra copies of removal until last night when I was just being overwhelmed by tiny-but-growing creatures, all of whom were Black. 

I've had Crippling Fear in my sideboard: but why? This does what I want it to do with no drawbacks to my deck! There isn't a plague of shaman decks running around Magic and there never has been. 

Similarly, Hit/Run should come out. Before the deck's tune up giving all my creatures +1 on attack or making my opponent sacrifice a permanent was useful. But now it's just an expensive card that is fighting for space against having a fourth copy of Harmonic Prodigy, a card that has been an absolute banger, or maybe even some card draw. 

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!