ok here is the update- untested-
briar tokens

Creature(21)
4 x Sacred Cat
2 x Oviya Pashiri, Sage Lifecrafter
4 x Annointer Priest
2 x Yahenni, Undying Partisan
4 x Bloodbriar
2 x Tireless Tracker
2 x Regal Caracal
1 x Angel of Invention

Instant(2)
2 x Anguished Unmaking

Sorcery(2)
2 x Sram's Expertise

Enchantment(7)
3 x Hidden Stockpile
2 x Anointed Procession
2 x Call for Unity

Planeswalker(1)
1 x Nissa, Voice of Zendikar

Artifact(4)
2 x Smuggler's Copter
2 x Aethersphere Harvester

Land(23)
3 x Plains
1 x Swamp
4 x Forest
2 x Canopy Vista
2 x Isolated Chapel
2 x Sunpetal Grove
2 x Woodland Cemetery
2 x Evolving Wilds
2 x Westvale Abbey
3 x Aether Hub

To view this deck go to: https://www.magicduelshelper.com/deckli ... c6727b81bd

Created using Magic Duels Helper: http://www.magicduelshelper.com

Could you replace the Hubs with 2 more EW and a basic? EW is just good with revolt, Tracker, and Bloodbriar. This would be a fun build to try out. CfU is one of those jank cards that are really fun but risky to use. Super satisfying when it works tho.

I just tried the Draz-emerge build out on the ladder for the first time. It won! My opp was playing some pretty janky token build, tho. My golgari list (with some modifications) got pummeled by a prowess build on its first run but managed to win against the same deck in a random rematch. I was kinda happy about that because that should be a very hard matchup for a slow, janky deck with few answers to flying.

Oh yeah. Just a reminder - builds are due today. Submissions by PM are preferred.

I agree that suggestions by the Prime Minister would be preferred, Flaky, but isn’t he too busy to play Magic Duels? Or did you mean Teresa May, instead of Justin Trudeau?

we could always just send dick pics to Barney for his PMS

I don’t need an excuse to send Barney dick pics, Cucho.

Ok Flaky I will try the build in the night, I already swapped Oyiva for Ayli and Nissa for Gideon.... I want to test it on the ladder and adjust the mana so expect some dick pics on your PMS.

I got a bit of testing done today, but only against the AI...
The damn AI was playing a damn mid-range deck that always managed lethal the turn before I stabilized and I stubbornly kept wanting a rematch. It drew Khenra Charioteer and that damn Samut, Voice of Dissent every single game, not to mention double Glorybringers...

Anyway the ElBriarDraziRamp deck is a lot of fun to play, Anointed Procession with Scions is a blast. Don't really have any deck ready, but I'll try and submit something anyway.

What doesn't grow in popularity is jank. And the jank grows the Bloodbriar.

Wish I'd done some more testing, spent far too much time playing Odyssey last week. Fairly happy with this following a 28-6 Versus record over the last two days.


Tall, Dark, and Morbid
Creatures:20
2 Oviya Pashiri, Sage Lifecrafter
2 Deathcap Cultivator
2 Selfless Spirit
4 Bloodbriar
1 Bontu the Glorified
2 Bygone Bishop
3 Fleshbag Marauder
1 Master Trinketeer
2 Tireless Tracker
1 Angel of Invention

Spells:16
3 Fatal Push
2 Declaration in Stone
2 Evolutionary Leap
3 Hidden Stockpile
2 Anguished Unmaking
1 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2 Sram's Expertise

Lands:24
2 Canopy Vista
4 Evolving Wilds
5 Forest
2 Isolated Chapel
5 Plains
2 Sunpetal Grove
2 Swamp
2 Woodland Cemetery

Functions as a pretty typical midrange deck - based on your draws and the matchup, identify your role as beatdown or control and gameplan accordingly. I'll see about adding some thoughts on the build in the morning, need me some sleep. Deck Thoughts, the Promised Ramble:

Exclusions:
Westvale Abbey - The token gobbling demon just couldn't make the cut here. It's nothing more than a Wastes until you have six mana sources. The deck can't afford to fall behind from poor mana issues in the early game, and this would make the already precarious base that much worse. Late game, it simply isn't necessary - between clues, Oviya/Trinketeer, and Evo Leap -> cast, there are plenty of ways to use mana that don't involve getting blown out if your opponent has exile, sacrifice, or bounce interaction.

Oketra - A fine late game engine, she was in the list for quite a while. It's a four mana do nothing spell if you don't have four creatures though. If your opponent is applying pressure and forcing chump blocks, or if they have any instant speed interaction, it's quite difficult to get her online. Doesn't interaction with Bygone either, another minor strike. Ultimately replaced by Trinketeer.

Gitrog Monster - Still not sure I couldn't work him back in. He's tricky to play with - ramping him out on t4 means you start t5 with three lands. He was quite swingy in my limited testing, as he would either pump the Briars up to the heavens or force some awful decisions on what color I'd no longer have two sources of. Works great with the Briars, does nothing for the tokens - not worth the risk.

Manlands - I'd love some more dual lands, but not at this cost. With EW already representing four ETB-tapped lands, I opted for a mana base that largely enters untapped otherwise. 12 basics help out the others a lot, but a battle land on t1 also enables all the check lands.

Deck Modes:
As mentioned originally, the flexibility to adjust your game plan is one of the main strengths of the deck. Evo Leap and Hidden Stockpile help buy time to decide your role and find pieces to get you there.

Control - Effectively the default configuration if you can't identify your Opp. I don't pack anything that grants evasion, so the Bloodbriars lean defensive. Grow them with incidental EW, clue, or Fleshbag sacs and expand the board with Walkers or Stockpiles. Try to make sure any chump blocks are chump sacs for extra value. Pick away with the fliers when possible, using Angel or the Walkers to pump them up and expedite the process. Boring but effective.

Beatdown (vs unknown) - Deathcap into Gideon or Expertise + 3 drop on t3 is the typical line that puts you here, though either on t4 (without Deathcap) are solid as well. Fire off Pushes early to get in. Make sure not to over commit to the board unless you've got Evo Leap or an adequate hand to restock in response to unexpected removal.

Beatdown (vs control/ramp) - Beatdown is the default mode against control or ramp, regardless of your pieces - smash with whatever you've got, using Selfless Spirit and Evo Leap/Hidden Stockpile to fight though the removal. Try to grow your Briars and Trackers to 4 toughness ASAP to get out of Radiant Flames/Yahenni Expertise territory, then 5 to get out of Grasp/Languish. Value your Fleshbags and exile spells highly, as they are excellent for dealing with late game threats.

Matchups:
Favorable:
Ramp - Beat down before they get on the board, or use a wide board/Fleshbags/Dec to shut down their fatties.
GW Tokens - Go toe to toe with their tokens. Push their playmakers, gum up the board until you win with fliers.
GR Aggro - Exile takes care of their big threats - otherwise, just play defensive and keep life high until you can crack back.
Dedicated Mill - The only time three colors spread almost evenly is a benefit. Evo Leap is your friend if they have copious removal.
Midrange decks with no evasion - Same plan as GW tokens, though you can start swinging with ground creatures to force blocks if their board isn't wide.

Neutral:
Control - Sneak in Stockpile and/or Evo Leap under counter magic and you should be just fine.
Voltron Auras - You win if you have removal. You lose if you don't.
Superfriends - Depends largely on their sequencing of Walkers and removal. Selfless Spirit or Evo Leap make life hard for them.

Slightly Unfavorable:
BR midrange - Frickin' Cut//Ribbons.

Might as well concede:
B or WB Zombies - Their tokens are bigger. Between Cryptbreaker, Lord of the Accursed, Plague Belcher, Wayward Servant, and Diregraf Colossus, there's not enough removal to stop their engines.

Enough rambling for now I suppose.

Well done DCG

That is a very good record, I sent mine to Flaky... -No dick pics sorry buddy- I had a decent run yesterday but the dick is weak against PWs, Control in general and good Aggro ...and basically any well played tier 1 dick, overall I played 10 or so matches with the last build and it went something like 6-4, on its behalf it did won against Mardu vehicles, RG energy, BW zombies, Esper control and some mirror jank. I started the test on R40 and ended on R37.
One thing must be said... the matches lasted for ages! so stay calm be patient and let the Jank be with you...

EDIT:
Sac your tokens!

Alright! I got lists from all participants. Barney, do you still need the lists emailed?

Here are our entries for round three.

CardboardNomad:


Haven_PT:


DCG-MTG:


Cucho Lambreta:


TheFlakyMage:


Alright judges. Hold on to your stones and your rank (if you can) and have at em. Remember that this is a "break the card" contest, so the build around card should, in theory, make the deck better.

These builds all look fun and I'm looking forward to trying them out.

Just built Nomad’s list and did 2 games vs AI. It was very fun to play and absolutely demolished the AI. Sacking a bunch of drazi tokens to pay for Arrogance and take out Oketra and a 4/4 on the opponent’s side (leaving a tapped zombie token) and pumping my Briar to 8/9 was quite satisfying.

Hopefully I’ll get a chance to play it on the ladder tonight. Of all the builds I think it is the most similar to mine but mine just feels a bit grindy-er.

I got a head start on testing. I did mine first and I have one game left with DCG's.

Arrogant Gardening goes 6-1, which is honestly better than I expected, but I think the synergies work well here and it's generally hard for opponents to deal with. I think they spend all their energy thinking through all the instant sacking jank and forget about things like Avacyn, or see from beyond and start playing around ulamog instead of Decimator. Fun wins out of nowhere here.

1. Win vs Grixis Reanimator. Start with some little pieces, and a Catalog from them tosses an Alhammarret, so I know I've got until t5 to get anything good out of my hand. In this case that's a Mysteries and Gisela, and when the Sphinx comes back (as a 7/7) all it can lock out is a Sage. Yahenni's Expertise next turn messes with my plans a bit, but the Mysteries rebuilds a board quickly and draws me a Briar and From Beyond. I'm down to a 1 turn clock when I Tutor up Decimator EOT and send everything for the win.
2. Win vs Bant Ramp. On the draw with a slow start, but I have answers. Angelic Purge off a Druid for their Tutelage. Then they hide behind multiple Retreat to Kazandu and ramp while I get out a Bishop and Mysteries and start to go wide. They play a From Beyond so I know ulamog has to be incoming, but I've got Arrogance and Ajani in hand, so I'm okay with that. They play and flip Nissa. Play a Briar and get the reading pause- love it! They commit it, then tutor Ulamog. They play it and remove Bishop and Mysteries, but I respond with Ajani for easy removal. They minus Nissa for the token then pump it once with Retreat. Get Briar back in and then it's Gearhulk time, which knocks out two retreats and a pumped eldrazi token. Then their Nissa token has to chump my briar to keep Nissa on the board. They have a tragic arrogance of their own! They leave me with just the Gearhulk and Ajani with 4 counters to their flip Nissa at 1 and a Retreat. They plus Nissa and draw big Nissa, and I think make a huge mistake in not playing it, sacrificing the first and sending an animated land at Ajani immediately. Then I'd either lose Ajani or the Gearhulk and be on the defensive. Instead they wait another turn for me to kill flip Nissa and get more creatures out before playing Vital Force, leave their land on defense and I just Ajani it away before killing their PW. Play Gideon and they concede. They're still at 60+ life so I try to play it out, but the game isn't recognizing Ajani's confirmation boxes, so once they're gone and I try to plus him again it just hangs indefinitely with no timer to force a conclusion. Hell with that, I owned that board and I'm counting it as a win.
3. ‎Win vs RDW. I am the damn Houdini Ninja Master. They stick at three lands for a bit but go Kari Zev, Crasher, Crasher, where my first play is a Tracker I hold till T4 to trigger off an evolving wilds, figuring it'll just get removed. They're feeling confident with their second crasher though, so they just attack past it. My turn I crack a clue and another wilds and just attack. They swing again, thinking it's over, cause they're about to take me to 2 with burn in hand... AND NOBODY EXPECTS PREPARE! Ha, I'm back up to 11, they're down a Crasher and they have to point that Exquisite Firecracker at Tracker to finish it off. But I'm not out of the woods yet with Kari and the Crasher still in play. My turn I top a very welcome Druid to go with the Gideon that's been waiting in my hand the whole game, and that's lucky cause they find a fourth land in a ping desert and play Fleetwheel Cruiser. They swing that at Gideon and the others at me, not exerting the crasher, so my ally token trades with that and my Druid chumps the Cruiser to keep Gideon alive. My turn I make another token, bust a clue and pass. I'm at 4 and they need one more power to crew the Cruiser. They get it and more with an Abbot that turns over their fifth land and a Bloodrage Brawler. Swing at me for lethal with Cruiser and Kari, and I really wanted to save this Avacyn for the inevitable Glorybringer, but I guess I have no choice. She blocks the Cruiser, my ally kills their monkey and I'm down to 2 from Kari and trample. Please no Shock! No Shock. I swing with Avacyn, Gideon and the token, no blocks. Play Briar, aftermath my Fight to trade my ally for their Abbot and that triggers Avacyn. Crack a clue to grow my Briar so it survives when she flips and wipes out their entire board, and now Glorybringer can't touch me. Great win!
4. ‎Win vs Izzet vehicles. Good draw for this with Sage and Gearhulk in hand. They go Heart, Harvester, Spy Network, and that's the point at which it's Sage time, before they start crewing and drawing. They follow up with Chandra and Copter, and then it's Gearhulk time too! They keep the Heart, at least until they lose it blocking the weakly Sage, because PREPARE STRIKES AGAIN! God that's satisfying. Even more so when my Gearhulk Fights a Foundry Inspector a couple turns later. I pair a Briar with a From Beyond and go to town.
5. ‎Win vs Naya Humans. Almost feel a little bad about this. They mulligan to five, and they're on the play, but I curve with Selfless Spirit (Dec Stoned), Mysteries, Gisela, Gearhulk, Selfless Spirit #2. What answer do they have to all that? Not much. I fly over for the win.
6. ‎Win vs Izzet Thermo-Mill. They ping away with an alchemist while I use a Leap to build a big briar. They drop a fevered visions, but a little ramp from a Druid and Scions and I have no problem getting under the cap. Instead it draws me into Decimator. Thanks!
7. ‎Lose vs Madness Red. I get a Selfless Spirit (Shocked), Bishop and Briar to start, but then flood, while they have double Goblin Arsonists and Flameblade Adepts hacking away. I lose when I get cute trying to play and keep mana up for a Leap instead of immediately using an Angelic Purge on a Furyblade Vamp. A few combat tricks later and it's over. Big letdown to lose to a bunch of crappy one drops and dumb user error after some great games with this deck.

I like the diversity of the builds, they all look like fun.

I actually had 3 builds in the oven, but just couldn't find the time to test them properly. I don't think I stand a chance in this one. The other 2 decks were the all-in briar combo things (that was actually performing well vs AI) and a golgari-snake/shambler/gavony unhallowed/briar beatdown deck that gave the briars some inflatable friends to draw removal away from them. I'll try it out anyway as it looks decent in theory.
I went with the ramp deck because its fun to play, but lack of interaction is its main weak point.
My advice when playing it is: use that warping Wail wisely. It can be a surprise briar pump, removal for a pesky little dude or, more important an anti-sweeper boon when your opponent thinks you can't do anything (sacking a Scion or 2 to cast it should catch 'em off guard.
Otherwise, just ramp fast into something big and annoying and abuse the processions (Sandwurm Convergence + double Procession is fantastic). Priests help to recover life and if you have a Procession, sac them to Embalm them later for ridiculous lifegain (I finished 1 game vs AI with over 100 life, 50+ clues and did 200+ lethal damage).

@Nomad: nice! That’s a great run against some solid decks. Hopefully the judges have similar luck.

@Haven: yeah, I was waffling between the build I submitted and the one I posted earlier thst was inspired by your build. You going drazi-ramp decided it for me. Its a lot of fun seeing these old, forgotten tricks like Warping Wail and Prepare // Fight getting played.

I think except for the lifegain one Barney tends to crash and burn my decks in the first round. Fingers crossed!

Fingers crossed indeed! I’m still absolutely wrecking the ladder with Life Comes At You Fast (perfect for this weeks community quest) so I have faith in you!

Flaky I will pm you my email address. I’ll print the decks Monday and start playtesting next week. Great work everybody

Tall, Dark, and Morbid lurches to a 3-4* record. Deck never really got humming for me, but in particular seems to have trouble with flyers. Something I found in building mine was the need for some lifegain - these Briars take their time growing, and especially if you're running Anguished Unmaking you often need to find a way to extend the games a bit. I died my last game with an Unmaking in hand that might have saved me had I not been at 3 to start the turn.

1. Lose vs Golgari Value. So facing 4 languish with a token deck is pretty tough, especially when duels does that stupid timeout thing and won't pause the timer to let you Leap that last token and get your Briar big enough to actually survive the double languish. Argh! From there it's diminishing returns, with a Bishop and Oviya gamely trying to solve Lily Majesty and Ob Nix. A recurring Sage makes that impossible.
2. ‎Win vs Double Gearshift Ace. Opponent plays 2 Gearshift Ace and 5 plains. Are they missing a color? Who knows. I'm missing black, but I Briar, then Expertise into a Fleshbag and Leap away all the things they try to block with their one remaining Gearshift Ace.
3. ‎Lose vs Orzhov lifegain goodstuff. Both planeswalkers in my opening hand, so of course they start with a copter. With a leap, it's worth it to use Nissa for a couple tokens before she gets wrecked. Get a tracker, but they have Yahenni, and when I finally find a push for the copter and it's safe to play Gideon he just gets tagged with Suppression Bonds immediately. I get some briars but can't sac creatures without growing Yahenni too, and then they have a Caracal to deal with too. Draw an Unmaking for Yahenni, but not before they've got an angel of invention out. They have solemn offerings for Leap and Stockpile, another enchantment to lock down a briar, I have no air defenses, and they just win this one with better threats and answers.
4. ‎Win vs Selesnya Angels. AI takes over this one from the start and doesn't do well. They just have a few utility dorks until they drop a Bruna (with nothing to bring back from the yard), while I've been busy building up a tracker, briar and Nissa that's feeding Bontu, and I'm holding a Dec Stone for the angel. AI apparently doesn't know how to handle Briar, casting a pre-combat Blessed Alliance to gain life and untap its untapped druid instead of holding it to make me sac one of my big things and survive another turn.
5. ‎Lose vs RDW. Slow start on the draw with tap lands. I get both Oviyas, 2/3 of an Expertise, angel of invention and a Fleshbag burned, and while I find targets for all 3 pushes and a Dec stone, it's not without taking a bunch of damage. They eventually finish me off with shock and a twin bolt. The difference here is I have land to spare while they can get by on the three mountains they draw which gives them massive effective card advantage.
6. ‎Win* vs Esper control. This one gets an asterisk, cause Opp gets annoyed with me being pesky and goes offline, and the AI has absolutely no idea how to use Disciple of the Ring, repeatedly burning through its graveyard to partially tap me down EOT and then not attacking, though I'm at 3 forever. Eventually double stockpile brings me wide enough.
7. ‎Lose vs Selesnya Aggro. Angelic Destiny on a Lone Rider is pretty good. Having another Lone Rider when I manage to spike a Fleshbag to knock out the first is even better, and having a blossoming defense when I try to Dec Stone that is just some dandy icing on your cake. Flying beats, I die.

That combo goes insane in a heartbeat, I can confirm.
Carboard, I like your build the most! and I reached the same conclusion on the life link need to buy some time and flyers weak spot for this week contest, I end up adding copters to come around that flying pickle.
I will test the decks during the week, good luck to everyone!
this should be fun!

Thanks Cucho! I'm testing Haven's now and those priests have already saved me once. Angelic Destiny remains my nemesis however.