The Retired: Intolerance

This one gets filed under; Neat idea, but the game has passed it by.

4 Humble Budoka
2 Blurred Mongoose
4 Jolrael's Centaur
4 Nimble Mongoose
4 Pincher Beetles
3 Elvish Lookout
1 Kodama of the North Tree
3 Hawkeater Moth

3 Wrap in Vigor

2 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
19 Forest
2 Slippery Karst

4 Overrun
2 Titania's Boon
1 Overwhelming Stampede

2 Doubling Chant

I really like the concept here; play creatures that cannot be targeted by removal, creating dead cards in your opponent's hand. The fact that I can't target them either isn't a problem and cards like Wrath of God are just passe now. But if they are running (most) Wrath effects, Wrap in Vigor solves that problem! 

Unfortunately for me-but really better for the game-the Shroud ability has been replaced by Hexproof. And sure, there are green creatures to make that deck with there isn't anything particularly powerful happening if I do that. And if I'm going to play around with an off-beat concept, I'd at least like there to be some powerful interactions. 

So it's time to let it go.

Reuse Repurpose

 I got to play two games with Scavenger against Noah; one with Grist, and one with Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler. 

I feel like Tyvar is pretty easy to justify: the ability to use tokens for mana immediately isn't bad, the ability to return a creature from the graveyard is pretty nice too. The +1 isn't amazing but it is still useful!

The first matchup was with Grist in the deck against Goblins and I was able to utilize Night Incarnate to stay in those games. Mana adjustments have been positive-I was even able to play through a couple Wastelands, which felt good. 

Unfortunately, Scavenger still fell short. Noah agreed the games were interesting matches but he was still able to present lethal. 

Later that evening, I swapped the Voracious Larva for Tyvar and found the abilities to be just as useful as I had hoped! I think I ended up playing Goblins again and I still lost but also the plan of the deck didn't come together either; I didn't see any of my engine pieces. 

3 Desecrated Tomb
4 Witch's Oven

3 Urborg Elf
4 Hapless Researcher
1 Guile
1 Dread
4 Cauldron Familiar
3 Reassembling Skeleton
3 Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel
3 Night Incarnate
2 Rootwater Diver
3 Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler

4 Insidious Roots

5 Swamp
1 Salt Marsh
4 Island
5 Forest
3 Jwar Isle Refuge
4 Zagoth Triome

So for now, this is the list. I would like a little more card draw, so it might be worth looking for a Hapless Researcher replacement. However, since this deck has put up a good battle against a solid Goblins deck, I feel like it is in a good place! They don't all have to be A tier decks. 

Still The Best

I know that Legacy and Modern are a bit of a trainwreck right now, but Thraben U reminds us that Magic can still be a great game.

Treasure

I had games against Matt on Doomsday and Noah on Goblins. 

I lost both of them: Doomsday was just too fast for me and Scavenger just has zero interactions with that deck. That's what a sideboard would be for.

Against Goblins though I split the games! That's very promising for a deck that I'm just fucking around with. I might've even taken game 1 if I'd gotten to four mana in time to cast Night Incarnate (I was a turn shy). 

The first thing that became clear: Splinterfright, as much as I like it, shouldn't be here. The second: I should run this through Deckstats and check the mana. 

Turns out I'm shy on Swamps, so I trimmed an Island and a Forest for two more.

As for Splinterfright, well....OK I'll just admit I got diverted by the Glory of Cool Things and added in a Grist, Voracious Larva. But hey, maybe it'll be great!

Sifting Through

My first run against Fuz showed me where I was holding on to ideas that were just not helping. Cutting the 'engine' of the deck-Basalt Monolith and Mesmeric Orb- was clearly mandatory.

So after some consultation with him, this was what I came up with:

4 Desecrated Tomb
4 Witch's Oven

3 Urborg Elf
4 Hapless Researcher
1 Guile
1 Dread
4 Cauldron Familiar
2 Reassembling Skeleton
3 Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel
3 Night Incarnate
2 Rootwater Diver
3 Splinterfright

4 Insidious Roots

3 Swamp
1 Salt Marsh
5 Island
6 Forest
3 Jwar Isle Refuge
4 Zagoth Triome

I like Malcolm as a way to sift through my library; I'm not sure if it's good but at least it is interesting. And 2 damage in the air per turn is a clock, even if it isn't the fastest one.

More relevant is the Witch's Oven/Cauldron Familiar combo. Now that the Orb/Monolith is out, Scavenger still needs an engine for the deck to help it get wins. This is a great place to start and it's pretty cheap to get going. Plus, it means that Rootwater Diver still holds relevance! 

Scavenger II

(This should've gone up yesterday! Sorry)

I know I did this deck once before but! Insidious Roots wasn't a card then. 

4 Basalt Monolith
3 Mesmeric Orb
4 Desecrated Tomb

3 Urborg Elf
3 Splinterfright
4 Hapless Researcher
1 Guile
1 Dread
1 Den Protector
2 Rootwater Diver
1 Reassembling Skeleton
4 Nightveil Sprite
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder

3 Catalog
3 Price of Fame

3 Swamp
1 Salt Marsh
5 Island
6 Forest
3 Jwar Isle Refuge
4 Zagoth Triome

This was the original. Let's mix it up. Not a lot-but with copies of both Desecrated Tomb and Insidious Roots, I have the opportunity to play into the theme better, without having to add a lot of extra card draw. 

Free Pizza: Deadpool Season

The last day of the season, but I did it. Despite the drag of the game and Deadpool's Diner being a real slog, I earned my free pizza. (Well, so to speak).

I did with a bit of a metagame call: Darkhawk is a decent counter to Arishem decks and those are currently still the rage. Once I got a Cassandra Nova, I figured I might as well use it!

However, prior to having a Cassandra I was using Absorbing Man so if you don't have one, that's a super useful card in this deck and a good replacement. 

I can't say this is the most original idea (the deck name is a reference to the Devil Dino & Darkhawk decks that were popular a year ago), but it did get the job done!

 

Upsides

 

I got a Cassandra Nova in the Diner. Let us never speak of it again.

Except...

Except for one thing. I got my Cassandra because someone deliberately lost a game to me--giving me 3,000,000 Bubs. 

See, turns out that some of the community on Reddit decided that this game mode was some nonsense and began donating to other players. Which is awesome! Posts were made, threads created where people were giving their usernames and an established signal for how to let someone know you were donating was set up. 

I wanted to be a part of that, so I promptly started going in to lose games in order to give other players a leg up. 

Which is pretty awesome. 

One small apology to user Brody though--I messed up trying to give you Bubs and inadvertently won the game. I'm so so sorry! I gave them away to the next user, I promise!

Bloomburrow Pre-Release (1-2)

Once again, I was at the Two-Headed Giant pre-release at Red Castle Games, my partner was the awesome Rebecca and...here's how it went!

First match vs Eugene & Kevin (loss)

This one was a tough one—Rebecca drew 4 lands in a row, after mulliganing down to five cards. While I had an interesting start of two Mistbreath Elders, I couldn’t follow up with anything important. The tempo set us back, unfortunately. They had a Mable, a Heartfire Hero, and then followed it up with a slow building rat deck.

Round two; I’m sorry, I didn’t get your names! (won)

There was a nice back and forth; one opponent had a rat/otter deck the other had GW rabbits and while we kept them at bay, we were on the back foot for most of the game. I could deal with Burrowguard Mentor the first time, but it came back via a Dewdrop Cure. With Valley Floodcaller they really kept the pressure on. The UB deck they had was stacked, and at one point I counted four rares on the table just from them! 

At the last moment I was able to.cast a Dragonhawk, exiling 3 cards, give it haste with Raccoon Rallier and exile 3 more; this meant that no matter what, I was dealing 24 damage to my opponents (12 each) and that was exactly enough. That ending is very silly. But a win is a win!

Round 3; I also did not get their names, sorry. (loss)

It went pretty evenly, though Bandit's Talent did a LOT of work both forcing cards from our hand and doing damage. The critical play was a Scales of Shale to protect Driftgloom Coyote from my Agate Assault, preventing returning Kingfisher to us. I foolishly walked into attacking after that, instead of just letting Rebecca's fliers get damage in. They gained five life to the five damage and Bandit's Talent did another 4 damage to us on upkeep to seal it.

Sigh. I totally blew that one—but we had a good time! We both felt the games were good, and that we had opportunities, even in the games where RNG didn't help us.

Here's what we built:

Deck 1 (RG)
Playful Shove
Wildfire Howl
Agate Assault

Pawpatch Formation
Conduct Electricity

Flamecache Grecko
Mistbreth Elder (2, one later cut for the Wildfire Howl)
Byway Barterer
Brambleguard Captain
Wandertale Mentor
Rust-Shield Ramppager
Dragonhawk, Fate's Tempest
Tender Wildguide (2)
Brambleguard Veteran
Raccoon Rallier
Quaketusk Boar
Treeguard Duo
Treetop Sentries
Sunspine Lynx
Alania's Pathmaker
Junkeblade Bruiser
Roughshod Duo
Bark-Knuckle Boxer

Deck 2 (UB)
Patchwork Banner
Sword of Fire & Ice

Savor (2)
Early Winter
Feed the Cycle

Kitnap

Starlit Soothsayer
Tidecaller Mentor
Knightfisher
Agate-Blade Assassin
Daggerfin Duo
Persistent Marshstalker
Vren, the Relentless
Glidedive Duo
Mind Drill Assailant
Bonebind Orator
Starscape Cleric
Thought Shucker
Moonrise Cleric
Nightwhorl Hermit
Seedpod Squire
Waterspout Warden
Moonstone Harbinger

Hidden Grotto
Uncharted Haven (2)