Magic the Gathering Libraries(decks) discussion

[MakosMIchio]

This thread is for deck design and flaws others see in one's library.

To start off:

Deck Name: Discord

Colors: Blue (u)

Format: type 2 standard

Land

Island: 26

Creatures

Invisible Stalker: 3

Jace's Archivist: 1

Cryptoplasm: 3

Consecrated Sphinx: 1

Chancellor of the Spires: 1

Non Creatures

Mental Misstep: 1

Dream Twist: 3

Kraken"s Eye: 1

Jace's Erasure: 3

Memory's Journey: 4

Mana Leak: 3

Dissipate: 1

Cackling Counterpart: 3

Trepanation Blade: 4

Curse of the Bloody Tome: 4

Dreadwaters: 3

Mystic Retrieval: 3

Time Reversal: 1

Venser's Journal: 2

Curse of Echoes: 3

Caged Sun: 1

Increasing Confusion: 1

Planeswalkers

Jace, Memory Adept: 1

[RashallFiremane]

so basically a mill deck?

[MakosMIchio]

so basically a mill deck?

Yes, it is a mill, that will also turn your opponets best creatures, and spells, against them.

[weesh]

Kraken"s Eye: 1

(shudder)

This card is extremely weak. I'd give you suggestions of the better cards to replace it, but there are probably several thousand.

How fast can you kill a goldfish with this deck? Do you usually win by milling, or with creature damage?

[weesh]

Name: No Rares Equipment

Color: White/Artifact

Format: Casual Multiplayer

Intro: This deck is a lot of fun to play, can attack for 6 on turn two, and 12 on turn three. However, it burns out quickly and if it hasn't killed everyone, then it just sits there defenseless. I'm looking for some ways to give it some long term staying power, but that is hard without rares, or throwing off the aggro focus.

Sometimes I break the no rares rule because "Balance" will get me back in the game by taking everyone down to zero creatures, three lands and no hand.

Creatures: 18

4x Auriok Glaivemaster

4x Kitesail Apprentice

4x Kor Duelist (most powerful card in the deck)

4x Sunspear Shikari

2x Porcelain Legionaire

Equipment: 16 (17 with the gift)

4x Shuko

4x Bonesplitter

4x O-Naginata (most fun card in the deck because it can swing from powerful to useless)

2x Cranial Plating

2x Lightning Greaves

Other: 6

2x Swords to Plowshares

1x Disenchant

1x Tempest of Light

1x Sol Ring

1x Steelshaper's Gift

Land: 20

12x Plains

4x Ancient Den

4x Darksteel Citadel

[Rosewind]

x4 Black Lotus

x4 Ball Lightning

x4 Lightning Bolt

x2 Mox Ruby

That's it!

[Kirby Krackle]

Oh boy, where do I start?

Vampires. Mono Black. Zenkidar/M10 Standard.

Creatures

4 Vampire Lacerator

4 Pulse Tracker

4 Child of Night

4 Vampire Nighthawk

4 Vampire Nocturnus

3 Gatekeeper of Malakir

1 Malakir Bloodwitch

Disruption

4 Duress

4 Sign in Blood

3 Feast of Blood

4 Tendrils of Corruption

Lands

4 Piranha Marsh

16 Swamps

I suppose I'll post these one at a time, sporadically, unless people really want to see everything I have. I make a lot of decks. Sorry.

[weesh]

4 Tendrils of Corruption

I'm not a huge fan of this card. Black is the best color at creature removal, and here you are playing a spell that, for an expensive 4 mana, might not kill the opposing creature. By turn four, and with only 16 swamps, you only have an expectancy of 2.93 swamps in play, and an expectancy of just 3.67 lands in a deck that only has 20 mana sources. And that is if you draw first. I'm sure sign in blood helps even out your mana, but it kills momentum, and the deck is still at least 4 mana sources short since you absolutely need to hit your fourth land drop.

Looks like a fun deck though. Any thought to expanding it with the new vampires?

Don't give us more than one deck per post, but I would like to see more of them.

[weesh]

Here is another deck that needs some help:

I'm posting it directly from the text file, so you will have to excuse the format.

The symbol "(1)" means that every card in that row costs one mana.

Name: Liquimetal Coating Abuse

Color: Red/Artifact

Format: Casual

(1)4xArcbound Worker, 4xGorilla Shaman, 4xVault Skirge, 1xSol Ring

(2)4xEmbersmith, 4xLiquimetal Coating, 4xEverflowing Chalice, 3xArcbound stinger, 2xAtog

(3)2xViashino Heretic

(4)2xAladdin

(5)2xShattering Pulse

(6)2xHoard-Smelter Dragon, 2xSteel Hellkite

Land: 18xMountains, 2xBlinkmoth Well

This is pretty brutal if I get a Liquidmetal Coating into play. However, it can't do much without it. I'm thinking about taking out the 4 dragons and adding 4 Hording Dragons to help me tutor them, but Kuldotha Phoenix would also fit in well too. The last time I played this deck, I started destroying land at a rate of about one-two per turn, and both of the other players spent the rest of the game trying to hunt me down. I came out on top because one of them got mana flooded, and I focused on destroying the land of the other player, keeping him out of his second color. By the end of the game, I still only had access to 4 mana.

So....what can I do to improve the consistency?

[Kirby Krackle]

I'm not a huge fan of this card. Black is the best color at creature removal, and here you are playing a spell that, for an expensive 4 mana, might not kill the opposing creature. By turn four, and with only 16 swamps, you only have an expectancy of 2.93 swamps in play, and an expectancy of just 3.67 lands in a deck that only has 20 mana sources. And that is if you draw first. I'm sure sign in blood helps even out your mana, but it kills momentum, and the deck is still at least 4 mana sources short since you absolutely need to hit your fourth land drop.

See, that's what I thought at first! I genuinely believed it was junk until playtesting. At 4cmc, I'm killing the majority of creatures with 4 toughness or lower, which conveniently are also at approx. 4cmc. Mid to late game, this card is boss. The only time I stay my hand with this card is if I have too many Piranha Marshes out. Plus, Nighthawk has Deathtouch and the Gatekeeper is an Edict on legs. I rarely feel unsafe.

Looks like a fun deck though. Any thought to expanding it with the new vampires?

I have another Vampire deck, B/R, and modeled for the current standard. I haven't married the two decks mainly because the former was my first success at Vamps and I'd like to keep it as is out of nostalgia. Plus, so many Innistrad Vamps use Red, which I don't feel like splashing. I would have to dismantle both, really. Except for Bloodline Keeper. He is a monster and very pro-mono black.

On that note, Vampires. B/R. Innistrad/New Phyrexia/M12 Standard. Depending on how M13 and the new Ravnica block goes, this deck may be redone completely. Dunno yet. I do have a pet project that could use these Proliferate spells.

Creatures

4 Stromkirk Noble

4 Vampire Interloper

3 Rakish Heir

4 Stromkirk Captain

4 Bloodline Keeper

2 Olivia Voldaren

Other Stuff

3 Doom Blade

4 Volt Charge

2 Gut Shot

3 Dead Weight

3 Tezzeret's Gambit

2 Devil's Play

Lands

4 Dragonskull Summit

9 Mountains

9 Swamps

[Kirby Krackle]

Here is another deck that needs some help:

I'm posting it directly from the text file, so you will have to excuse the format.

The symbol "(1)" means that every card in that row costs one mana.

Name: Liquimetal Coating Abuse

Color: Red/Artifact

Format: Casual

(1)4xArcbound Worker, 4xGorilla Shaman, 4xVault Skirge, 1xSol Ring

(2)4xEmbersmith, 4xLiquimetal Coating, 4xEverflowing Chalice, 3xArcbound stinger, 2xAtog

(3)2xViashino Heretic

(4)2xAladdin

(5)2xShattering Pulse

(6)2xHoard-Smelter Dragon, 2xSteel Hellkite

Land: 18xMountains, 2xBlinkmoth Well

This is pretty brutal if I get a Liquidmetal Coating into play. However, it can't do much without it. I'm thinking about taking out the 4 dragons and adding 4 Hording Dragons to help me tutor them, but Kuldotha Phoenix would also fit in well too. The last time I played this deck, I started destroying land at a rate of about one-two per turn, and both of the other players spent the rest of the game trying to hunt me down. I came out on top because one of them got mana flooded, and I focused on destroying the land of the other player, keeping him out of his second color. By the end of the game, I still only had access to 4 mana.

So....what can I do to improve the consistency?

Coating + Shatter = Dead lands I like, but wow you need to hunt the Coating down. Tinker and Fabricate and the like if you felt like adding in blue.

Meanwhile: Monoblack Discard. Casual format.

Creatures

4 Ravenous Rats

3 Augur of Skulls

4 Hypnotic Specter

Stuff

4 Dark Ritual

4 Duress

4 Hymn to Tourach

4 Sign in Blood

4 Doom Blade

4 The Rack

3 Liliana's Caress

1 Corrupt

Planeswalkers

1 Liliana of the Veil

Lands

20 Swamps

I need more Lilianas. O_o

[weesh]

Coating + Shatter = Dead lands I like, but wow you need to hunt the Coating down. Tinker and Fabricate and the like if you felt like adding in blue.

it is even worse that that. Gorilla Shaman plus the coating kills a land for just one mana each turn. There are lots of other ways to mess with their lands if I have the Coating out, but the Shaman is the cheapest.

Ah, I was not aware of Fabricate. A pair of Fabricates would probably help a lot, but I am hesitant. I've got this anti-blue thing going on, but I am working on it. I don't use blue cards unless they are completely necessary. I am a fan of the gambits that you have in your Innistrad vampire deck though. They are amusing in my counter decks.

Speaking of the vampire deck, it seems to be lacking in the one-two drop department. How often do one of your first two turns end inefficiently? I like the Interlopers. I am trying to convince a friend that he needs to add that card to his deck. He has too much going on at the four-drop slot. Also, I am curious about gut shots. I've never used them because I can't judge it's power very well. How do they play?

[Kirby Krackle]

it is even worse that that. Gorilla Shaman plus the coating kills a land for just one mana each turn. There are lots of other ways to mess with their lands if I have the Coating out, but the Shaman is the cheapest.

Ah, I was not aware of Fabricate. A pair of Fabricates would probably help a lot, but I am hesitant. I've got this anti-blue thing going on, but I am working on it. I don't use blue cards unless they are completely necessary. I am a fan of the gambits that you have in your Innistrad vampire deck though. They are amusing in my counter decks.

Speaking of the vampire deck, it seems to be lacking in the one-two drop department. How often do one of your first two turns end inefficiently? I like the Interlopers. I am trying to convince a friend that he needs to add that card to his deck. He has too much going on at the four-drop slot. Also, I am curious about gut shots. I've never used them because I can't judge it's power very well. How do they play?

We're in the same We-Hate-Blue boat. I despise the color. I hate Counterspell, I hate mill, I hate all the freaking card draw! However, like you, I'm working around it. I have a BU Reanimator I could not help but add Blue to, primarily for Forbidden Alchemy. It's too good. Those top four cards could be Reanimate and three fatties. Bam. A pet deck of mine, currently in the garage until more cards come in the mail is BU Ninja. I've had this deck since college and have been tinkering with it here and there. It is also the only deck my wife has ragequit against, which makes me more interested in improving it.

I am absolutely miserable at the lack of 1cc and 2cc Vamps in this. Everything good, with a few exceptions, starts at 3cc. Which is why I added in so much cheap removal. Dead Weight kills early game and slows down late game. Gut Shot plays well right now, mainly because of the large number of 1 toughness creatures in Standard, including tokens. Pretty much all its good for.

[weesh]

Dead Weight kills early game and slows down late game.

Ha! I once drafted a dead wight 15th in a pack! It was about then that I realized that none of my opponents were very strong.

[IceStorm]

Okay, Most of this is from Memory as my decks are both in my car, but I have two Primary Type 2 Decks. First

VAMPIRES Black/Red Destruction Counter (60

Creatures:

|3x|Markov Blademaster

|3x|Erdwall Ripper

|1x|Falkanrath Maurader

|4x|Blood Seeker

|1x|Stormkirk Captain

|1x|Rakish Heir

|1x|Bloodlord of Vaasgoth

|1x|Onyx Mage

|1x|Charmbreaker Devil

Enchantments:

|1x|Curse of the Stalked Prey

|1x|Curse of the Pierced Heart

|1x|Curse of Thirst

|1x|Claws of Valakut

|2x|Firebreathing

Instants & Sorceries:

|4x|Doom Blade

|3x|Volt Charge

|2x|Shock

|1x|Sorin's Vengence

|2x|Tragic Slips

Artifacts:

|1x|Acavyn's Mask

|1x|Swiftfoot boots

|1x|Elixir of Immortality

|1x|Runechanter's Pike

|1x|Manalith

|1x|Quicksilver Amulet

Plainswalkers:

|1x|Sorin Markov

Lands:

|10|Swamp

|10|Mountain

____________________________________________________

This deck is Blue/Black Zombie Mill (68 cards total)

Creatures:

|4x| Armored Skaab

|4x| Screeching Skaab

|3x| Undead Alchemist

|1x| Skaab Ruinator

|1x| Grave Titan

|2x| Abbatoir Ghoul

Enchantments:

|4x|Call to the Kindred

|3x|Rooftop Storm

|1x| Zombie Infestation

|3x|Endless Ranks of the Dead

Instants and Sorceries:

|2x| Ghoulrcaller's Chant

|4x| Increasing Confusion

|4x| Counter

|3x| Negate

|3x| Mana Leak

|2x| Diabolic Tutors

Artifacts:

|1x| Cellar Door

|1x| Travelers Amulet

Plainswalkers:

|1x|Jace Memory Adept

Lands:

|1x|Nephalia Drownyard

|1x| Evolving Wilds

|12x| Islands

|10x| Swamps

___________________________________________________

My Vampire deck On Average wins by turn 7 latest, and every Zombie in my deck becomes free to play after about five turns.

[MakosMIchio]

Here's the Blue/Black zombie I run

Creatures

Grimgrin the Corpse-born: 2

Geth Lord of the vault: 1

Cemetery Reaper: 1

Undead Alchemist: 4

Geralf's Mindcrusher: 1

Unbreathing Horde: 1

Gravedigger: 3

Walking Corpse: 4

Artifacts/ Enchantments

Darksteel Plate: 2

Mask of Avacyn: 2

Cellar Door: 1

Painful Quandary: 1

Curse of Death's Hold: 1

Endless Ranks of the Dead: 4

Rooftop Storm: 4

Gruesome Deformity: 3

Skeletal Grimace: 2

Instants/ Sorceries

GravePurge: 2

Zombie Apocalypse: 2

Ghoulcaller's Chant: 3

Disentomb: 2

Lands

Shimmering Grotto: 4

Haunted Fengraf: 2

Islands: 6

Swamps: 11

Personally I find most Titans to be a waste of slots, so I would recommend putting Grave Titan in the Side Board.

(I would have Quoted but my computer done goofed)

(shudder)

This card is extremely weak. I'd give you suggestions of the better cards to replace it, but there are probably several thousand.

How fast can you kill a goldfish with this deck? Do you usually win by milling, or with creature damage?

Kraken's Eye is there til I get a third Venser's Journal. It is somewhat, and I mean very, slow. And more often then none I give Trepanation Blade to the Stalker and win from an over powered unblockable, Unkillable, god of death.

[weesh]

My Vampire deck On Average wins by turn 7 latest, and every Zombie in my deck becomes free to play after about five turns.

Yeah, everyone should be posting this kind of information if they know it.

Regarding the zombie deck, I assume you mean that you cast rooftop storm on turn 6 and then they are all free? How are you accelerating it? Why do you like that card? Once you are to 6 mana, how many zombies do you still have in your hand? Rooftop storm is a challenging card to use effectively because it has to make up for it's own slots in the deck, and you have 3. Furthermore, the odds are against you having 6 land by turn six with only 36% mana sources are low (an expectancy of just 4.58 if you are on the draw).

Also, both traveler's amulet and evolving wilds are cards for limited. Even dual-colored-comes-into-play-tapped lands are better. Are you avoiding drowned catacombs and darkslick shores for budget reasons? If you are having trouble with mana fixing, getting the deck back down to 60 cards and 40% mana sources will help.

[weesh]

Kraken's Eye is there til I get a third Venser's Journal. It is somewhat, and I mean very, slow. And more often then none I give Trepanation Blade to the Stalker and win from an over powered unblockable, Unkillable, god of death.

That is not surprising. The deck seems a bit unfocused. If you are using a milling strategy, you should go with it 100%.

[MakosMIchio]

That is not surprising. The deck seems a bit unfocused. If you are using a milling strategy, you should go with it 100%.

The blades are a mill+buff and all the other cards allow me to mill, give me time to mill, or hinder my opponents spells.

Overall the deck is focused just a little slow if I don't get 3+ islands.

[IceStorm]

Yeah, everyone should be posting this kind of information if they know it.

Regarding the zombie deck, I assume you mean that you cast rooftop storm on turn 6 and then they are all free? How are you accelerating it? Why do you like that card? Once you are to 6 mana, how many zombies do you still have in your hand? Rooftop storm is a challenging card to use effectively because it has to make up for it's own slots in the deck, and you have 3. Furthermore, the odds are against you having 6 land by turn six with only 36% mana sources are low (an expectancy of just 4.58 if you are on the draw).

Also, both traveler's amulet and evolving wilds are cards for limited. Even dual-colored-comes-into-play-tapped lands are better. Are you avoiding drowned catacombs and darkslick shores for budget reasons? If you are having trouble with mana fixing, getting the deck back down to 60 cards and 40% mana sources will help.

The reason that I run three is for fodder. This deck mills on itself a lot so I run three in hopes to draw one.

AS far as how I'm accelerating it. Armored Skaab turn 3, Call To the Kindred Turn Four and Upkeep of Turn Five I start getting free Zombies. I also use the Diabolic tutors to either search for Jace or Undead, depending on what I have already.

And Added Trepenation Blade. I knew there were cards I were forgetting in the Zombies but I forgot which one. I was posting it from memory last night,. Trepenation Blade in Combo with Undead Alchemist = broken

Also I don't really have an issue with mana because of Traveler's Amulet and Evolving Wilds. And I know both are type two legal because Evolving wilds were reprinted in DA and Traveler's is from Innistrad. An yes, the primary reason I'm avoiding most duel colored lands are because of budget. I'm currently living off of unemployment.

[MakosMIchio]

And Added Trepenation Blade. I knew there were cards I were forgetting in the Zombies but I forgot which one. I was posting it from memory last night,. Trepenation Blade in Combo with Undead Alchemist = broken

Sorry but It is broken if the connects. And of course it is a huge if. I find the blade is better if the creature is unblockable. If you use Artful Dodge or Ghoustly Form it my only do half the job it is supposed to do.

[IceStorm]

It doesn't even have to connect when you attack, it mills the cards to determine +X All creatures Milled this way are Exiled and you get 2/2 Zombie Tokens = to the creature Removed. So regardless of whether they take the damage or not, they are milling and you're getting Zombies. Same Goes with Jace, but Memory Adept is broken anyway on it's own. Let alone paired with another card.

[MakosMIchio]

True but if the deck is 2 to 1 then you have to time the attack plus worry about their creatures and what other spells they have that might kill the alchemist after the first attack. It isn't worth it unless the blade is on a creature with trample or strong enough to survive being blocked, such as Grimgrin, or just use Geth to take creatures or artifacts with the mill.

[MakosMIchio]

Hey RashalFiremane What was that deck you said all your friends hate?

[HamishtheDinosaur]

i have a phyrexian white green red artifact deck. its crazy but works lol all those golems and metalcrafts