Joined: Feb 05, 2014 Posts: 1347 Location: Berk
Identity: Dragon
Happy 2018!! For my New Years resolution I decided to buckle down and actually write out the Squirrel EDH deck that I've been bouncing around in my head.
It's a crying shame for me that Earl of Squirrel isn't legendary, but we'll see what we can do.
It's worth noting that with Conspiracy out Half-Squirrel, Half-Ordinary Pony goes infinite even with the power level errata since it can now blink itself (because it's no longer a horse).
I'm going to start with a g/w version, simply making note of interesting black cards I see, and then see how hard the swaps would be to make it abzan.
The deck will want another pass through to add certain EDH necessary things like mana ramp, card draw, and removal, but at least I have the framework down. As always, comments are most welcome! ^_^
Joined: Feb 05, 2014 Posts: 1347 Location: Berk
Identity: Dragon
And now for the hard part: cutting cards to make room for the EDH necessities. I love the composition of this deck and all the various different silly things it's trying to do, but that poses a problem. I have too many cards in the deck. In thinking about this deck I've realized that I can take it in two directions: 1)Embrace the squirrels, cut the silly side angles that only help a few of the un-squirrels 2)Embrace the Un-Sanity, cut the weaker squirrels and leave the contraptions, host/augments, and dice rolling in
The 1) option will feel more like a typical Rhys deck, while 2) will probably turn into Ghave to grab the black squirrels and maybe one or two other cards (not that that helps with the card count).
Huh. That wasn't as painful as i thought it would be. I guess it really helps to focus the direction of the deck. Now I just have to NOT ADD TOO MANY CARDS. XD
(in mana base+in adds for this version+left in the main deck+contraption assemblers*number of contraptions that do the thing/total number of contraptions=total for category) (0+2+2 + 7*2/15=4.9 spot, 0+2+0=2 wipe, 3+4+0 + 7*5/15=9.333 draw, 4+4+3=11 ramp)
Hm.... that's not quite as bad as I'd thought, but it's still not very good.
Draw (want ~10): 8 (a little low, though I do have some other card selection, it may be ok) Ramp (want ~10): 13 (I can pull a little from here if I need to shore up another area) Spot Removal (want ~5): 4 (hm.... missing a way to interact with lands, this may call for a ghost quarter) Wipe (want ~5): 5 (right on target)
I think I'll swap Myriad Landscape for a Ghost Quarter. Other than that the shell actually looks mostly fine on paper. I'm not sold on the curve, but it's definitely worth trying in this configuration.
CMC Curve (do it later) Creatures/Non-Creatures/Total 1-3/3/6 2-2/8/10 3-8/5/13 4-10/10/20 5-4/3/7 6-2/2/4 7-0/0/0 8-0/1/1 9-0/0/0 10-1/0/1
Avg-3.77/3.41/3.58
Well that's certainly a better curve than the Rhys deck. Let's see how the crucial commander categories stack up.
Draw (want ~10): 6 (contraptions count for approximately an additional +1 card draw, bringing it up to 7...it miiiiiiiight be ok? Definitely light though) Ramp (want ~10): 11 (solid) Spot Removal (want ~5): 4 (and a Dust Bowl for this deck) Wipe (want ~5): 2 (that's just a bit too low)
Interestingly enough it is the Ghave deck that I feel like I need to make tweaks to now that I've made a stat analysis.
Both decks really could probably use another pass, but the Rhys one in particular I think I skewed too high on the curve and maybe too low on the creatures. I'll make a decision later, when I have the time to run the numbers. But for now I'm satisfied with the updates to both decks as significant improvements over the mess that was my first combined list.
As always, comments and suggestions are welcome. These decks are far from tuned. =p
Edit: Evaluated the stats on both the Rhys and Ghave decks. Rhys actually looks mostly fine. Just want to make one easy swap, otherwise I'm pretty comfortable ordering cards for that deck as is. Ghave, on the other hand could use a little more work.
CMC Curve (do it later) Creatures/Non-Creatures/Total 1-3/3/6 2-2/9/11 3-8/6/14 4-8/8/16 5-3/5/8 6-2/3/5 7-1/0/1 8-0/1/1
Avg-3.59/3.49/3.53
Dropped the creature and overall curves a little, raised the non-creature curve some. I can live with this.
Draw (want ~10): 9 (contraptions count for approximately an additional +1 card draw, bringing it up to 10...it should be good now) Ramp (want ~10): 10 Spot Removal (want ~5): 5 Wipe (want ~5): 5 (much better)
Edit: Added Arch of Orazca because I can't count (only 37 lands)
I'll find a home for Blade of Selves someday, but let's be real here: the token decks are probably not the place for it.
Both of these decks are now to the point where I just need to play test them.
Joined: Feb 05, 2014 Posts: 1347 Location: Berk
Identity: Dragon
Got some games in with Rhys last night and afterwards my friends gave me some input. Biggest conclusion is that I think I want some more card draw. More importantly though they talked me through some cuts.
CMC Curve Creatures/Non-Creatures/Total 1-3/3/6 2-1/6/7 3-8/8/16 <- Krosan Tusker here as non-creature b/c that's how I plan to use it 4-4/10/14 <- Shefet Monitor here as non-creature b/c that's how I plan to use it 5-2/6/8 6-3/2/5 7-1/2/3 8-1/0/1 9-0/0/0 10-1/0/1
Avg-4.08/3.65/3.82
Dropped the curve some,though part of that is probably simply because I mislocated some 5's in the 6's before.
Draw (want ~10): 15 (hm... I must have miscounted last time on this stat) Ramp (want ~10): 14.75 (The Immortal Sun doesn't help me make Rhys activations) Spot Removal (want ~5): 5 Wipe (want ~5): 5
Tests with Ghave will have to wait until I don't have an opponent who seriously objects to silver bordered shenanigans (his problem was mostly with the dice rolling).
Joined: Feb 05, 2014 Posts: 1347 Location: Berk
Identity: Dragon
Finally got multiple reps in with Ghave. The deck is much more mana hungry than I realized. Seriously, seriously mana hungry. And if possible I'd like more cardflow and/or ways to positively interact with the contraption makers I do have. Sitting on an Riveting Rigger with no artifacts to sac is sad times.
As for cuts to make this happen, I feel like the squirrel theme in Ghave is actually a little too strong, making the deck play a little too similarly to Rhys for my liking. So I'm going to cut some more of that.
Also, as I was still putting the final touches on actually deciding what cards to purchase (decks have been proxied until now) there was a buyout on Earthcraft making it much more expensive than I really want to pay for. The primary desire was for the combo with squirrel nest, but that's not enough to make me want to pay that much for it. The effect is still absurdly powerful in a token strategy though, but fortunately there's a budget version in Cryptolith Rite, which is what I will replace it with.
Ashnod's Altar <-ramp, infinite with ghave and doubling season (replaces infinite combo of earthcraft and squirrel nest), is saccable artifact Serpentine <-get more fun out of my hosts
Also Out: Squirrel Dealer Conspiracy <-Only ever actually did anything with Ordinary Pony, Squirrel Mob, Deranged Hermit, Earl of Squirrel, Nut Collector, and Swarmyard. I just slashed that number in half and I don't think 3 cards somewhere in a 99 card deck is enough to justify this. Which really sucks, because this was really cool and I can't put it in Rhys, but without my squirrel theme I just don't think this works.
Ok, new angle of attack. I really hate losing my conspiracy/squirrels shenanigans. Besides being mechanically relevant on 6 cards it lets me do things like have Sword of Dungeons & Dragons make 4/4 flying squirrels! What if I shred Rhys and make Ghave the squirrel/tokens deck? But then what would I cut to make the deck run smoother? Dice Rolling? Contraptions? Host/Augment? The whole point to adding black to the Rhys list was to add the black dice rolling squirrel cards and dice rolling isn't deep enough to be mechanically relevant without requiring a crossover to at least one of the other two mechanics (it may well need both, in which case the following is moot, but I need to get this out anyway). Contraptions then? I have 5 dice rolling contraptions in a 15 card contraption deck and only 7 contraption assembly cards, so I only have a 1/3 chance for any of my assemblers to even roll dice, meaning they add a net of about 2 dice rolling cards to the deck. Host/Augment? I only have 2 dice rolling hosts. My augments just let me roll repeatedly sometimes, which contraptions do naturally as turns progress as well. By my count the host/augment mechanic takes up 6 slots in the deck: 3 hosts, 2 augments, 1 Dr Julius Jumblemorph.
So both are about equally relevant.
But I'm trying to add 12 cards, 11 if I cut the contraption angle I guess, but that still leaves me with 4 slots left to cut. Only 9 cards to add if I cut host/augment. 3 slots left if I take that path. I could still cut Earthcraft, Second Harvest (card just underperforms), Krosan Beast, and Squirrel Farm?
If I'm cutting contraptions I can also cut: By Gnome Means Hidden Stockpile? although this card is still really good with ghave
And then there's the fact that none of this alternate approach addresses the fact that several of my contraption and host/augment cards also count towards other core tenets of EDH deckbuilding (removal, draw, ramp)
I'll have to think on this one. I'll leave my ramblings here so I can reference it and maybe get input from others.
Joined: Feb 05, 2014 Posts: 1347 Location: Berk
Identity: Dragon
After sleeping on it and counting my non-contraption, non-host/augment dice rolling cards, I've come to terms with not having Conspiracy in my deck and come to the conclusion that I need all the dice rolling help I can get. To that end I'd like to also add Inhumaniac and Big Boa Constrictor, but I don't know what to cut. Oh, and since my squirrel theme is gone Swarmyard is out for Throne of the High City because I love the Monarch mechanic. Another swap out is Hypnotic Swirly Disc because I don't have Krosan Beast anymore. Putting in Arms Depot because it synergizes with Ghave.
Don't know how I got 5 before. Maybe I counted Slaying Mantis here instead of in spot? I think that's what I did, but it doesn't mechanically feel like it will usually be a board wipe. Though it could be (if squint at it funny).
I could see one draw and one ramp piece coming out for the two dice rollers. I know I just put them in, but maybe. I could see cutting any of Ineffible Blessing (f), because the lack of a "may" scares me with regards to the number of tokens I intend to make, Deathreap Ritual, because I have cheaper repeated card draw effects, or Fecundity, because it helps my opponents too (granted, presumably far less than me). Then from the ramp package I could see cutting either Selfie Preservation to maximize the number of saccable artifacts I keep, or I could cut Fellwar Stone because its color fixing is less certain and keeping the preservation lets me have some ramp that doesn't die to artifact removal.
Edit: Actually, I'll keep both ramp cards and cut Slaying Mantis. Drops my curve, keeps my ramp, and mantis is questionable (if hilarious) removal anyway. And I've decided to cut Deathreap Ritual as it drops my curve. If I run into problems with the other card draw cards I can simply choose to change my swap. Also want to swap out Optical Optimizer for Rapid Prototyper because I think I want some more larger critters. Losing cardflow out of the contraption deck is really only 1/15th of a card anyway and if I change my mind I can always swap back.
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