The Magic Deckbuilding/Criticism/Advice thread.

Nope, they go to 10 as usual.

It still depends on the play group. Felidar Sovereign for example, sometimes they'd rule that what is needed is 60 rather than 40 (in a multiplayer EDH), because 40 is 20 more than the starting life in normal 1v1s.

Here's a degenerate idea I saw from browsing other Ezuri decks on Tapped Out.

Sage of Hours

That leads to two questions.

• Do I actually have a Sage of Hours?
• Do I really want to be that cruel?

Edit: I've gone through my rares, and I don't actually have a Sage of Hours. I don't have a Hornet Queen, either, and my only copies of Myr Turbine and Phyrexian Swarmlord are in other decks.

I'm still in the process of going through my commons and uncommons for cards to throw in there. Then I'll have to narrow it down to the ones I want to swap out the cards in the pre-con for. My collection's at the point where "brainstorming as I go through my collection" part of my deck building process is quite a chore.

edited 28th Nov '15 1:23:38 PM by Lightblade

I've now personalized my Ezuri deck. Here's the decklist.

What do you think?

So I'm currently contemplating trying to build a standard Eldrazi deck around the likes of Assault Formation and Tide Drifter. I'm not entirely sure what direction to go with it yet, though I know for certain that Mist Intruder and Benalithic Infiltrator are definitely going in.

It's GU for certain, but I'm not sure if I should just stick to those colors or add in Red as well.

edited 5th Dec '15 6:56:30 PM by TheSpaceJawa

I've got a new deck for your viewing pleasure. This one is a Blue/Red/Colorless Eldrazi deck, themed around casting colorless spells. What do you all think I can do to improve it?

It's an interesting idea, but the deck right now is way too scattershot to have any reliable path to winning.

It's got a theme, I can tell you that. LOL

My RDW Standard is dead (since Goblin Rabblemaster, Lightning Strike, Magma Jet, and Foundry Street Denizen are gone now, so Goblin Piledriver isn't as powerful), so I turned it into a UR Prowess deck.

Creatures

• 4 Monastery Swiftspear
• 4 Mage-Ring Bully
• 4 Stormchaser Mage
• 2 Kolaghan Forerunners
• 2 Jori En, Ruin Diver

Spells

• 4 Dragon Fodder
• 4 Hordeling Outburst
• 4 Wild Slash
• 4 Anticipate
• 3 Treasure Cruise
• 1 Exquisite Firecraft
• 1 Negate

Land

• 2 Wandering Fumarole
• 6 Island
• 15 Mountain

Sideboard

• 3 Negate
• 4 Void Shatter
• 1 Reality Hemorrhage
• 2 Collateral Damage
• 1 Roast
• 2 Goblin Heelcutter
• 2 Arc Lightning

To make it Modern legal, I put in Slip through Space to replace Treasure Cruise. lol

edited 1st Feb '16 2:29:56 AM by entropy13

that's not a bad list. Though I think there might be better cards than Kolaghan Forerunners, I'm not sure what you could replace it with.

Working on a casual mill deck, based on Sphinx's Tutelage, Jace's Erasure and Winds of Change style effects. If all went well, it should be forcing both players to shuffle and redraw their hand or discard and then redraw their hand, either of which causing ~7 procs of Sphinx's Tutelage. I'm not sure of the viability of this, though, as opposed to just doing a UB casual mill deck.

So, I'm considering getting back into standard once it's less blatantly awful...

this is something I've been thinking of putting together.

edited 19th Mar '16 3:20:50 PM by ImperialSunlight

I just got done making a tokens and +1/+1 counters deck for casual play I suppose.

Lands: 25

• 1x Simic Guildgate
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 2x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Lumbering Falls
• 5x Island
• 1x Llanowar Reborn
• 1x Thornwood Falls
• 1x Vivid Grove
• 1x Vivid Creek
• 1x Tranquil Expanse
• 5x Plains
• 5x Forest

• Creatures: 25
• 1x Ezuri, Claw of Progress
• 1x Managorger Hydra
• 1x Cytoplast Rootkin
• 1x Scute Mob
• 1x Avenger of Zendikar
• 1x Trygon Predator
• 1x Wistful Selkie
• 2x Skyrider Elf
• 1x Cold-Eyed Selkie
• 1x Lorescale Coatl
• 1x Experiment One
• 1x Stormbound Geist
• 1x Elesh Norn Grand Cenobite
• 1x Knight of the Reliquary
• 1x Kabira Vindicator
• 1x Abzan Falconer
• 1x Ainok Bond-kin
• 1x Lightwalker
• 1x Prime Speaker Zegana
• 1x Forgotten Ancient
• 1x Arbor Colossus
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Tajuru Stalwart
• 1x Fungal Behemoth

• Enchantments: 4
• 1x Bident of Thassa
• 1x Doubling Season
• 1x Parallel Lives
• 1x Day of the Dragons

• Instants and Sorceries: 9
• 1x Increasing Devotion
• 1x Synthetic Destiny
• 1x Feat of Resistance
• 1x Scale Blessing
• 1x Swift Reckoning
• 1x Rampant Growth
• 1x Kodama's Reach
• 1x Infuse with the Elements
• 1x Ezuri's Predation

• Artifacts: 2
• 1x Simic Signet
• 1x Sol Ring

• Planeswalkers: 1
• 1x Nissa, Voice of Zendikar

Good combo idea or bad combo idea: RG built around Goldnight Castigator and Assault Formation.

Trying to build around said idea:

Suicide Squad
Creatures
4 Goldnight Castigator
4 Moldgraf Scavenger
4 Insolent Neonate
3 Sanguinary Mage
3 Ravenous Bloodseeker

Enchantments
4 Assault Formation
3 Vessel of Nascency
3 Stensia Masquerade

Spells
4 Fiery Temper
2 Pulse of Murasa
3 Uncaged Fury
2 Avacyn’s Judgement

Lands
4 Cinder Glade 4 Game Trail
6 Forest
7 Mountain

Sideboard
3 Clip Wings
3 Crumble to Dust
3 Burn from Within
3 Crater Elemental
3 Naturalize\\

edited 21st Apr '16 8:23:06 PM by TheSpaceJawa

Anyone have thoughts on my submitted deck?

Here's my latest creation, a Green/White/Blue investigate deck. What do you think I could do to improve it?

Press for Answers is kind of useless since taping a creature is the sort of thing you want to do during your opponents turn. Unless your an aggressive deck and need to remove a blocker, and there are honestly better ways to do that.

if I remember correctly there's a green creature that dose something good if you sacrifice a whole bunch of clues at the same time. You may want to look into that.

Here's yet another new Standard creation, an Esper Spirits deck. I was originally going to make it a Modern deck, but after I'd gone brainstorming through my boxes and binders of Standard-legal cards, I saw there was enough to make a semi-coherent deck right there by itself. Your thoughts?

I'd made this deck shortly after Eldritch Moon came out, but I've only gotten around to posting it now. It's a Sultai Emerge deck. There are still some obvious improvements to be made (like getting the more powerful Emerge creatures), but it's done decently, and is completely rotation-proof.

I don't know how viable Emerge as a strategy is, but I can offer some advice.

First off you might want to try to get yourselves a sat of Matter Reshapers, since there perfect for what you want to do. Cards like Haunted Dead and Stitchwing Skaab are an idea, since they can resurrect themselves, and something like Catacomb Sifter can give you extra bang for your buck.

Otherwise you could use some better removal. Complete Disregard is fine, but I would recommend Prey Upon over Rabid Bite, as it basically dose the same thing but cheaper.

Also now that Kaladesh is (basically) out you should look at what that set has to offer. Nimble Innovator, Lawless Broker, Weaponcraft Enthusiast, Morbid Curiosity, Revolutionary Rebuff and especially Scrapheap Scrounger and Rashmi, Eternities Crafter are cards you may want to look into.

edited 28th Sep '16 6:44:52 AM by chaosconsortium

As I can see, the deck in question is well-built, but... I think it'd be better if it had some better ramp. Would be good to have things like Sanctum of Ugin, and Shrine of the Forsaken Gods, and maaaybeee Cryptolith Fragment and Cultivator Drone.

edited 14th Dec '16 11:26:57 AM by MajesticLolWut

I've got another new Standard deck. This one is Red/White Vehicles.

I've got a new "make my friends very, very unhappy" deck.

This is "Doing Ghoulish Affinity Things".

• 1x High Market
• 1x Choked Essuary
• 1x Plains
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Nykthos Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Aether Hub
• 1x Dromar's Cavern
• 1x Vivid Creek
• 2x Seat of the Synod
• 2x Ancient Den
• 2x Jwar Isle Refuge
• 2x Concealed Courtyard
• 2x Port Town
• 4x Vault of Whispers
• 1x Sharding Sphinx
• 4x Etherium Sculpter
• 1x Enigma Sphinx
• 1x Noxious Gearhulk
• 1x Sphinx of the Steel Wind
• 1x Arcbound Crusher
• 1x Arcbound Ravager
• 3x Foundry Inspector
• 4x Myr Retriever
• 1x Filigree Angel
• 1x Blightsteel Colossus
• 1x Kuldotha Forgemaster
• 1x Skeleton Shard
• 1x Executioner's Capsule
• 1x Darksteel Ingot
• 1x Mana Geode
• 1x Hedron Archive
• 1x Panoptic Mirror
• 1x Spawning Pit
• 1x Thopter Foundry
• 1x Cranial Plating
• 2x Skull Clamp
• 1x Batterskull
• 1x Everflowing Chalice
• 1x Sphere of the Suns
• 1x Cultivator's Caravan
• 1x Aetherflux Reservoir
• 2x Machinate
• 1x Chemister's Insight
• 1x Temporal Fissure
• 1x Dovin Baan

The aim obviously is to do horrifying old style affinity things, as I worked on this masterpiece since Darksteel itself. The infinite loops are there and are multiple in number. I prefer Temporal Fissure to Tendrils of Agony because I love the image of everyone holding 10 to 15 or even 20 cards in hand and with an empty board.

Sadly can't find the Disciples of the Vault, otherwise I'd be able to add another deadly loop.