Zedd's M:tG decks - The Johnny is strong with this one!

[LiaThistle]

Zeddicuus

I never thought of the combo with the Skeleton and the Idol. That definitely would have been interesting to use.

That looks like a nice deck you made out of it. The only problem that kept me from using the Harbor Serpent was the 5 Island requirement to attack. But if you get them it's pretty dang nice...

I see them more as defensive bricks, especially considering the lack of Islands that are really available in the binary color deck options.

[Zeddicuus]

Good news is: I haven't died!

Been busy with a lot of stuff, but I've been lurking somewhat around here. Been missing most card nights lately due to said stuff. I managed to build a new deck though since the last time I talked about doing so though. Only took...4 months? Yikes.

This is a casual deck I designed in an attempt to be more on-par with the three new players that have joined my group. Literally new, as in the middle of learning new. So I was trying to aim for something not too overbearing. Some things could be changed to optimize the deck, but I'd like comments on it as-is for now.

Lands: 20

12x Forest
8x Mountain

Creatures: 21

1x Silvos, Rogue Elemental
3x Elvish Piper
3x Fauna Shaman
3x Flametongue Kavu
2x Stalking Vengeance
2x Voracious Cobra
2x Protean Hydra
1x Acidic Slime
1x Inferno Titan
1x Shivan Wurm
1x Chameleon Colossus
1x Duskdale Wurm

Enchantments: 4

2x Overgrowth
2x Wild Growth

Instants & Sorceries: 15

4x Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
3x Cultivate
3x Fling
2x Hull Breach
2x Firespout
1x Desert Twister

Total Deck Size: 60

The idea is pretty simple and pretty much Classic Green. You mana/land ramp up into fatties, then when the opponent is weakened you Fling them to deal extra damage and deal even more extra damage with Stalking Vegeance. Protean Hydra and the Colossus are particularly nice since they're easily pumped up in some form.

The Fauna Shamans and the Elvish Pipers allow for consistency in getting the fatties out as well as fodder for the burn/kill spells an opponent may have. Not many people in my area leave those two alive if they can help it.

Cobras tend to act as a means to keep people from wanting to attack me. The Flametongue Kavu and the Acidic Slime act as a form of removal. I can usually get 2-for-1's with them given their ability.

Firespout is self Explanatory. It's flat out weenie wipe, which is necessary in a meta that plays a lot of small tokens or weenie creatures on a far too common basis.

I figure I could toss in my Red Akroma, but that may be a bit much since I tend to use the deck for fun games at break time at work or for playing with the newer players here. What do you folks think? Comments/suggestions are always welcome.

[LiaThistle]

Have you considered Terramorphics? Something to show them that sacrificing isn't always bad (as if Fauna Shaman didn't do that) perhaps?

[Zeddicuus]

That might be a good idea. I haven't considered that aspect of the game yet. I'll have to put a couple of those in to take care of that. Thanks smile

[Zeddicuus]

New deck time! This one was actually built a couple of weeks ago, but has only been used about a dozen times.

This one was designed with both multiplayer and casual in mind. Relatively cheap to play and moves pretty quick, making it ideal for those coffee and lunch breaks at work but still has enough interesting things going on so I won't get bored with it too easily

Lands: 20

5x Swamp
5x Plains
5x Mountain
3x Dragonskull Summit
1x Fetid Heath
1xGraven Cairn

Creatures: 28

2x Akroma, Angel of Wrath (It's not a Zedd deck without an Angel!)
1x Brigid, Hero of Kinsbaile
1x Phage the Untouchable
1x Scion of Darkness
1x Living Inferno
1x Avatar of Woe
1x Extractor Demon
3x Pestilent Kathari
2x Prodigal Pyromancer
2x Wojek Embermage
2x Crypt Rats
2x Rakdos Ickspitter
2x Sparksmith
2x Goblin Medic
2x Vulshok Sorcerer
2x Subterranean Spirit
1x Giant Scorpion

Artifacts: 9

3x Gorgon Flail
3x Viridian Longbow
1x Rakdos Signet
1x Boros Signet
1x Orzhov Signet

Enchantments: 3

3x Lashknife Barrier

Deck Total: 60

This deck was designed to take on a creature heavy meta. Basically I get Timmies out and give them Deathtouch, or I get out Deathtouchers and give them Tim ability. Either way a creature can be killed every turn.

Toss the Flail onto Embermage or Crypt Rats with a single Lashknife Barrier out and I have a renewable Damnation that won't hit my own creatures. Then bring out larger Creatures such as Akroma, Scion or Phage and beat face in while I destroy all opponents' creatures while slowly bleeding them out.

To be honest the deck can really drag a game out as I gain board control in the current meta in my area as once things get going the opponents rarely get creatures out while I work on getting the bigger guys, but so far it has won most of the games it was used in.

I know it could use some Basilisk Collars. Any other suggestions on things to look for? Comments/Criticism?

[LiaThistle]

I really, really don't like that manabase. It seems so questionable.

And why the Phage? Because of her creature kill ability?

[Zeddicuus]

To be honest the Phage was filler as I misplaced a card playing games on the weekend and couldn't find the dang thing until yesterday. I thought I'd permanently lost it so I tossed her in until I could find something better. The creature kill is nice, but only if she deals out combat damage, so it won't work with the equipment I have in the deck.

I understand that manabase looks questionable. I thought so too at first, even with the Dragonskull Summits. I think I should add a few extra lands instead of the Phage. Maybe take something else out so I can up the land count to 22 at least. Maybe the second Akroma as she's pretty price and I don't have as many means to produce White as I do Black and Red.

so if I made those changes:

-1 Phage
-1 Akroma
+1 Swamp
+1 Mountain

That should cover the bases I suppose. Unless you could think of a better suggestion? I know the dual/shock/filter lands would be more preferable to basics, but I don't have any left in those colours to put in there.

[Wickedly Warped]

My thoughts on the last deck, is maybe to get some infect too. I know of a few people that play indestructible on a regular basis. I am not completely sure if infect will activate from a timmy ability, but I don't recall infect saying combat damage.

EDIT: after looking at infect it just states deals damage in the form of -1/-1 counters or poison counters. It doesn't specify needing to be combat.

[LiaThistle]

Wickedly Warped

My thoughts on the last deck, is maybe to get some infect too. I know of a few people that play indestructible on a regular basis. I am not completely sure if infect will activate from a timmy ability, but I don't recall infect saying combat damage.

EDIT: after looking at infect it just states deals damage in the form of -1/-1 counters or poison counters. It doesn't specify needing to be combat.

For that purpose, Wither is better. The quality creatures are easier to come by, and there's a bit more variety in them than in Infecters.

[Zeddicuus]

Never thought of the Infect/Wither creatures. That would be a good idea considering the Indestructible creatures. Unfortunately I do not yet have a lot of them with Infect. It won't work too well though considering the Indestructible in question are Eldrazi and Darksteel Colossus. The Wither creatures I have are 3/3 at the largest.

It really wasn't built to take on something like that, but more to play with the newer players in the group whom I don't think are ready to take on some of the more fierce decks I have going at the moment.


I'll have to dig through my Wither though and see what I can come up with. I really should take the 2-3 Eldrazi decks into consideration now, but Eldrazi haven't concerned me overly much yet while playing as they weren't used too often while I was there.

I do have some equipment that gives Wither...I could add those...hmm....definitely something to consider.

[Wickedly Warped]

LiaThistle

Wickedly Warped

My thoughts on the last deck, is maybe to get some infect too. I know of a few people that play indestructible on a regular basis. I am not completely sure if infect will activate from a timmy ability, but I don't recall infect saying combat damage.

EDIT: after looking at infect it just states deals damage in the form of -1/-1 counters or poison counters. It doesn't specify needing to be combat.

For that purpose, Wither is better. The quality creatures are easier to come by, and there's a bit more variety in them than in Infecters.

Good idea, I forgot about wither. it definitely makes more sense than infect, unless he purposely wants them to block the creatures, as a lot of people here hate poison counters.

[Wickedly Warped]

Zeddicuus

Never thought of the Infect/Wither creatures. That would be a good idea considering the Indestructible creatures. Unfortunately I do not yet have a lot of them with Infect. It won't work too well though considering the Indestructible in question are Eldrazi and Darksteel Colossus. The Wither creatures I have are 3/3 at the largest.

It really wasn't built to take on something like that, but more to play with the newer players in the group whom I don't think are ready to take on some of the more fierce decks I have going at the moment.


I'll have to dig through my Wither though and see what I can come up with. I really should take the 2-3 Eldrazi decks into consideration now, but Eldrazi haven't concerned me overly much yet while playing as they weren't used too often while I was there.

I do have some equipment that gives Wither...I could add those...hmm....definitely something to consider.

If you want I can get you a list of infect witherers I have. And I guess based on the newer less experienced people, it makes sense that you never thought of eldrazi/indestructibles. Good luck finding a way to incorporate some of them.

[Zeddicuus]

Well, I've tried the deck several times, and it does fairly decent. It's a bit slow considering it typically starts to go by turn 3, which is alright for multiplayer. Duel it's pretty much crap, but that was kind of expected.

The problem I'm having with it mostly is getting the necessary mana for the larger creatures. I typically get the deathtouching going no problem, but I can never get more than 5 lands in play, even with the minor alterations I listed previously.

Another thing is that when it does work, it bogs a game down to nearly a stand still because I can never get enough power out to deal large scale damage. One game lasted over a half hour a couple of times when I used this deck and the other player could do nothing. Blah.

Let's not speak of what it did to a multiplayer game when I managed to get it going. It took over an hour to slowly butcher off two opponents as, again, I could not get enough mana to cast anything until there were 10 creatures in the GY so I could play Avatar of Woe for cheap. Then it was killed off immediately.

So I plan to dismantle it and try something different.

[LiaThistle]

That kinda stinks. Guess it needed more focus than we thought. Oh well. What are your current ideas for the next one?

[Zeddicuus]

I'm not sure what I'm going to go after next. I've been mulling something in my head for B/R that is more focused for duels as there is one player I play regularly at work on my breaks that has built some fairly fast decks that a good portion of my current ones, all made for multiplayer, cannot compete with very well.

I was thinking of something along the line of a lot of burn and creature kill. I have a list written down somewhere that I can't find at the moment, but it did involve Lightning Bolts, Blightnings, Browbeats, Terminates, Unmakes, Flametongue Kavu and some Murderous Redcaps. Lots of burn and creature wipes. Something that went fast but there's not much pizzazz to that. I'm hoping to come up with something more concrete in a couple of days if I get a chance to go through my stuff.

If I find that list later today I'll post it here, though it's not a very elaborate setup I had going. More of a typical "Win the duel ASAP" kind of thing. It would be good for those 15 minute coffee breaks at the very least.

On a side note, one of the decks this particular player has a hard time playing against is Mad Hatter's Tea Party, of all things. I believe I listed it a few pages back with SpawnBrokers, Bronze Bombshells and Phyrexian Colossus. I've played it in such twisted fashions he's not sure what to go after when I use it anymore, which is amusing. It also seems to hold it's ground fairly well in duels when it was originally made for multiplayer only. Kind of funny how that works out. You focus a deck for multiplayer and it works in duels. Make a deck for duels that should do well and it does better in multiplayer if you want the game to grind to a halt.

I should stop using reverse psychology on myself, it would make easier things a lot more difficult.