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[BREWING] Banty of the Luxa
http://862838.jrbdt8wd.asia/viewtopic.php?f=61&t=18916		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  Zen [ Mon Jun 05, 2017 2:17 am ]
Post subject:  [BREWING] Banty of the Luxa
AKH added quite a far bit of new possibilities for Ramp – new mana dork, ramp spells, card draws, payoffs. A particular synergy that caught my eye is the use of mana dorks to ramp, indestructible critters as payoff, and dusk as a one-sided sweeper. This is not going to be a typical ramp-to-something-big-and-win deck. It’s slower with the use of AKH gods. I am not sure if I am self-crippling the deck by going this route but I had fun playing it. Most wins are close and satisfying.

Below is my attempt at it and I would like to seek your advice for improvement.

2 x Deathcap Cultivator – Mana dorks
4 x Druid of the Cowl – Mana dorks
3 x Blessed Alliance – Flexible defensive card
2 x Pull from Tomorrow – Card draw
1 x Kefnet the Mindful – Payoff. Card draw as mana sink. An optional 5/5 flier to attack/block if conditions are met.
1 x Rhonas the Indomitable – Payoff. Can be turned on quite easily if there is another critter in play. Provides trample to other critters.
2 x Tireless Tracker – Too good not to be added even if it gets swept by Dusk
2 x Aethersphere Harvester – Mainly used as a blocker and life gain
4 x Gift of Paradise – Ramp with life gain
1 x Oketra the True – Payoff. Token generator as mana sink. Can be turned on quite easily.
3 x Cast Out – Flexible removal. Paired pretty well when I played with planar bridge previously.
2 x Bounty of the Luxa – Ramp with card draw
2 x Gaea's Revenge – Payoff. Especially against control as the deck do not have much win con.
2 x Dusk // Dawn – Single sided sweeper most of the time.
3 x Spring // Mind – Ramp with card draw
1 x Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger – Payoff.
2 x Plain
2 x Island
7 x Forest
2 x Lumbering falls
2 x Canopy Vista
2 x Prairie Stream
2 x Westvale Abbey – Can be a payoff using tokens from Oketra
2 x Sunpetal Grove
4 x Evolving Wilds

Other cards that I have tried
Sandwurm Convergence – I chose Gaea’s Revenge over this for a better chance against control.
Weaver of Currents – I find it slow and weak. And I might end up with too many mana dorks.
Planar Bridge – Fun to bring in cast out for removal, a Westvale Abbey when I have 5 critters, an Ulamog in response to opponent casting one and exiling the bridge - I get to attack first to deplete their library. Might be a better fit if I end up with more higher cost permanents.
Tamiyo's Journal – Tried this card in a bant ramp/tempo shell - tireless tracker, bygone bishop, reflector mage, spell queller. I do not find it working very well for me.
Kiora, Master of the Depths – I do not always have good usage for the extra mana from her +1 ability. Might be a better fit if I end up with more higher cost permanents.
Sylvan Advocate – This plus multiple form of Nissa to create land critters. Works best with Nissa, Master of Elements for a surprise attack. I find that if I had the opponent down to 14 or below before I cast these. I already have an edge in the game most of the time.

Any comments will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Author:  Sl33pHumper [ Mon Jun 05, 2017 2:44 am ]
Post subject:  Re: [BREWING] Banty of the Luxa
Looks solid as far as the overall idea. Kiora could really do a lot of ramping in this deck and you do have mana sinks. Have you tried playing with Walking Ballista as an additional mana sink? Pretty stonk card in a ramp deck. No veggies or Nissa's Renewal so your ramp isn't as fast but for the most part you don't seem to need it to be.

How is the aggro matchup? Can you ramp and still survive a weenie/rdw rush? I like the addition of Harvesters as anti-aggro tech.

Have you ever wanted to cast Dusk after you drop Gaea’s Revenge? That would hurt.

I'll try it out sometime sooner than later. Bookmarking to see where this goes.
Author:  Banedon [ Mon Jun 05, 2017 6:36 am ]
Post subject:  Re: [BREWING] Banty of the Luxa
Did you see the thread on ramp that I made a while ago? viewtopic.php?f=38&t=18769 Part of the reason I made that thread was because Bounty of the Luxa was interesting, and I wanted to make a deck in which it was a core player. Problem is, the card turned out to be quite underwhelming. I'll leave aside issues such as how blue and green has weak sweepers, and ask the major question that has bugged me: why would you use Bounty of the Luxa over From Beyond? Consider:

Bounty of the Luxa
+ Can draw cards, which is potentially useful.
- Doesn't ramp on the turn after it comes into play, or the turn after it. The early game is when ramp decks are at their most vulnerable. If Bounty gave mana the turn after it comes into play, it'd be a lot better.
- Ramp decks have a "bad" half of their deck. In the case of your list for example, it's all the mana dorks after turn 2, and all the win conditions before you're able to cast it. The extra card may not be useful in that case: you may draw a mana dork that you don't need.

From Beyond
+ Generates tokens, which can be used to block or even attack.
- The same tokens are vulnerable to creature kill and sweepers. However because they're expendable, only a few cards with reusable creature kill concern you, e.g. Liliana, the Last Hope's +1.
+ Can tutor up your win conditions.
- Your win conditions must be Eldrazi. However, the Eldrazi are typically good cards.
- You don't actually need ramp cards to cast the best Eldrazi (TKS & RS, the latter of which is more an aggro card than a ramp payoff).

My conclusion was that Bounty is worse than From Beyond, which is already barely playable. I wonder what you think about this, and if your list works well in practice.
Author:  Shard [ Mon Jun 05, 2017 7:01 am ]
Post subject:  Re: [BREWING] Banty of the Luxa
A minus to add to From Beyond is that it's very telegraphed. Most of the time you're intending to search for an Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger with it, and then you have to either search for Ulamog when you know you'll have ten mana next turn, or wait until you have twelve mana before searching for it. Either case it's usually quite obvious what you're doing. Not a big minus, but it can still matter.

Btw Zen, use ' instead of ’ in the card names if you want them to show up correctly. I'm sadly missing a few too many cards to play around with this deck and see how it feels.
Author:  Zen [ Mon Jun 05, 2017 8:17 am ]
Post subject:  Re: [BREWING] Banty of the Luxa
Thanks for all your comments.

@Sl33pHumper
Tired the ballista in previous iterations but did not work out, prolly a good idea to try them again. Maybe swap a gift of paradise for a ballista.

Against aggro, I win as much as I lose. I need to draw enough bodies to block off the early game attacks, else I will get overwhelmed. I did use Jaddi Offshoot in the past. It increases my win rate against aggro but I find the defender too narrow for my liking.

Gaea is important to me when
- against control whom I do not usually need to sweep.
- I am desperate for blocker. So if I were to sweep with it on board, it will be to my advantage.
It's okay to lose it other times.

@Banedon
The fundamental difference between the basis of my deck and all your thread discussion pointers is that I play mana dorks plus sweepers without losing them to it. Then, you went with Jund in the end and mine is Bant. Also, I guess my deck is more of a midrange deck than a traditional ramp. I am not out to get a badass critter asap to win and I like the card draw on alternate turns.

I did tried From Beyond in previous iterations. It is more useful for producing chump blockers or to hasten the descend for the profane prince. The ramp-and-find-ulamog intent of this card happens less often.

My list is not as consistent in wining as I hope it to be. If only, I can have 4 copies of dusk.... Please help me out if you have any suggestions for improvement. ^_^

@Shard
Great tip on Apostrophe! I have edit my opening post and the card image is linking correctly now.
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