Can you specify then? Which cards are you afraid of? My biggest enemy with this deck so far has been a bad opening hand

Seance, warstorm surge, bane, there are a few other threats worth respecting not so much fearing...

Those cards do deserve respect, but you should be able to outrace/overwhelm them

I have yet to post one of my original builds on this forum so I decided it was about time to throw one of my hats into the ring. One of the first decks that I fell in love with on this installment of Duels was my BUG spider build. I know it has been done, but at this point most things have. I am of course open to suggestion as many of you know and I would love to get any helpful criticism or comments. I have playtested this deck rigorously and came out with fantastic results. Well-played control and agro can be an obstacle, but when aren't they?

SpiderGate

3 x Island
5 x swamp
5 x forest
3 x Dimir Guildgate
3 x Simic Guildgate
4 x Golgari Guildgate

3 x Hedron Crab
2 x Negate

3 x Necromancer's Assistant
1 x Dead Reckoning
2 x Graveborn Muse
1 x Shadowborn Demon
1 x Rescue from the Underworld
1 x Flesh to dust
2 x Rune-Scarred Demon

3 x Elvish Visionary
4 x Satyr Wayfinder
1 x Reclamation Sage
3 x Cultivate
2 x Saruli Gatekeeper
3 x Spider Spawning
2 x Nemesis of Mortals
1 x Pelakka Wurm

2 x Treasured Find

The only comment that I can make about that deck (since it's only a few cards off of mine) is to wonder why you're not running all 4 Necromancer's Assistant. I see Reclamation Sage as more of a sideboard card, but I can fully understand why someone would main deck it as well.

Since I pretty much only play quick matches against random players I don't have the luxury of sideboarding very often. The sage comes in handy a lot, but I agree that it is more of a sideboard card. I want to keep the sage, but I probably should have all 4 copies of the assistant in there. I am also contemplating adding the other 2 saruli gatekeepers as well as I have found that the added life-gain would really come in handy in many games. I notoriously suck at making cuts, so any suggestions are welcome.

Deck: Pyxis Blast - Contains Premiums

Counts : 60 main

Blue:5
3 x Hedron Crab
2 x Quickling

Black:7
2 x Graveborn Muse
2 x Sanguine Bond
1 x Shadowborn Demon
2 x Rune-Scarred Demon

Green:18
4 x Elvish Visionary
4 x Satyr Wayfinder
4 x Grazing Gladehart
4 x Saruli Gatekeepers
2 x Pelakka Wurm

Artifact:6
2 x Pyxis of Pandemonium
3 x Millstone
1 x Kozilek, Butcher of Truth

Land:12
4 x Dimir Guildgate
4 x Golgari Guildgate
4 x Simic Guildgate

Basic Land:12
7 x Forest
1 x Island
4 x Swamp

So, I could use some advice on this deck. The basic idea is to have a dual strategy of mill, and life gain as primary win conditions, and a secondary win condition, actually using Pyxis' second ability. I have on multiple occasions set off a Pyxis on the opponents attack phase to win immediately via mill, or life gain. It's probably not that powerful right now, but I'd like to know if anyone has ideas on how to improve the deck. Right now, it's competitive (at least against other decks of mine) - except of course against any deck that actually likes having cards in the graveyard.

Rough playing guide: You really want to see Pyxis or a crab in your opening hand if you think mill will be possible. You should try to withhold life gain cards until you need them. Typically tutor for Shadowborn (if you need its ETB), Kozilek (if you have the mana), or Sanguine Bond (when you think the math works). Hold Pyxis until you have Crabs, and or Gladeharts already in play. You'll want at least 6 cards under Pyxis to be sure to get a big effect, but the effect is usually game ending if you follow this advice. Note: almost all of the cards in the deck ETB in useful ways. If you make changes to the main pile, don't forget ETB is king in this deck.

Definitely a fun deck... so try it out.

This seems pretty neat, I've been tinkering with a Pyxis deck but couldn't get it where I wanted it. I was splashing black just for Undying Evil and using Talrand as my alternate wincon. Adding the green and going the lifegain route as an alternate wincon seems good because you actually want to crack your Pyxis.

The main suggestion I would have is Dinrova Horror because when you unleash Pandemonium you get to bounce the nasty things your opponent gets and make it bit more one-sided. I think you could trim the Millstones and perhaps Kozilek, 10 mana feels too greedy but I could be wrong.

I agree, I am not big on the millstones here. The Dinrova addition sounds like a great idea. I'd probably keep Kozi, he would be great for the Pyxis. Gravedigger might not be a bad idea to fit in here either. Would work well with the Pyxis and if satyr mills something nice like a rune-scarred or muse you could get it back. Looks like a fun deck! I'll have to give it a whirl. Like Hakeem said, I've been thinking about the best route to take to make a Pyxis deck, this looks like it might do the trick.

When you crack Pyxis, it's typically GG thanks to all of the land falls and life gains, Dinrova's effect probably wouldn't matter - but let me know if you try it. Kozilek is actually a remnant of an earlier version of the deck. I've kept him in, but he used to make more sense. -1 Kozilek +1 Pelakka probably.

On the subject of millstones... I dunno. The pedigree of this deck was mill. It does need a bit of help to make sure the opponent runs out of cards, and it is capable of winning that way. Ugghhhh... I've never really been good at standard mill strategies (this goes back 20 yrs, lol). Is millstone a good card, or not?

I think you should focus on mill as your secondary wincon rather than your primary; in that deck Millstone is bad. JMHO.

But is it always bad? That's the real question.

So, I stand corrected... Dinrova's horror is actually an excellent addition, but not for the Pyxis part. I subbed it in for the for the two Demons, and Kozilek. I think it's a very good addition, after testing. Still running 2 Pelakkas. I still don't have a real replacement for the 3 millstones, and when the game goes long, they are truly ace. Plus, with Horrors, the deck stalls even better. I really like that my turn 6 totally stops the opponent for a full turn, e.g.: just long enough to crack Pyxis - when everything is going well. Thanks for the input guys!

I think a singleton Millstone wouldn't be terrible, I just thought running three was way too much.

Maybe -1 Millstone, +1 Quickling? I think that might be a decent swap.

I don't know, I'm kind of under the impression 1 millstone isn't going to make a difference. Kind of at least a 2-of or nothing type deal. I think with the strategy with Pyxis having the crabs should be enough to handle the milling as a second win-con here.

The crabs aren't enough.... The deck needs a second mill source. I'd run the doorkeepers, but millstones are very nearly strictly better in this deck. When you crack Pyxis, it needs to kill them, not get them close to death. Imo millstones are the only way to get there. The real issue is that mill isn't a good strategy right now... Throwing in white into this deck is actually better than blue right now, but I've already built the reanimator deck... There's no reason to go BWG again, and I seriously doubt this deck's concept would be more powerful... /shrug

I'm just trying for something new. We just need a few new cards (expansion?) and this deck will be fully viable. Right now it's low tier, but cool.

I agree, millstones are better than doorkeepers here.

I still think millstone being a 1-of can't be very helpful. Maybe I'm wrong.

Here's my take on spider spawning; compared to other lists I saw in this thread it seems more focused on self-milling and less on alternative strategies (such as reanimation); for example I'm running 4 tome scours to good success

3 hedron crab
4 tome scour
4 think twice
1 negate
3 guard gomazoa
2 archaeomancer
1 fog
2 elvish visionary
4 satyr wayfinder
1 beastmaster ascension
2 saruli gatekeepers
3 spider spawning
2 nemesis of mortals
1 shadowborn demon
3 treasured find

5 island
2 swamp
5 forest
12 guildgates


An unanswered crab is basically unbeatable, but we only get 3 fragile copies of that crustacean miracle of nature; so the deck tries to get as many crabs as possible by milling them with scour/satyr and replaying them through treasured find - or drawing them by flashing back think twice.
This is why rescue from the underworld got cut: I would just use it to get back the crab 90% of the time (not kidding), and for that treasured find is cheaper - even using archaeomancer for treasured find for crab is very reasonable.
Eventually spider spawning happens, I grab the singleton ascension from the graveyard and attack for lethal.
I have zero interaction with my opponent's creatures but I can repeatedly cast the single fog if needed, while digging with the crabs and think twices.

Also, I cut the necromancer's assistants since they are worse at milling than tome scour; as blockers they are very inefficient against the fast decks (spend 3 mana to trade with a goblin token?), which are the only matchups where I need blockers in the first place. If I wanted more mill (and maybe I do ) I would seriously look at the 3 mana sorcery that mills 5 before considering them.

Edit: I realized that siege dragon exists and I had no way in the deck to deal with it. So I cut a nemesis for a shadowborn demon, which is also a good way to stabilize the game while waiting to get to 7 mana to flashback spawning. As for the nemesis, it's in the deck mostly as a cheap blocker that teams up with the gomazoa and the gatekeepers to slow down the opponent, and occasionally turns into a win condition (when it's the only creature surviving an anger of the gods). It doesn't feel 100% necessary, but it has been good so far.

I really think that 16 creatures is way too few if you want Spider Spawning to be your primary wincon. I know Crabs mill fast but they're frail and you can't rely on them. I've played the Spawning archetype extensively and straight BG is way more consistent. The speed of the Crab isn't worth dropping from 30 creatures to 16 because you can actually kill your opponent with those extra creatures in Spawning's absence. While my deck is attacking, your deck is playing Tome Scour and Think Twice hoping to get there. On the defensive side, my deck is chump-blocking to fuel a game-winning Spawning while yours is just dying because it can't block.

On another note, I much prefer Elder of Laurels to Beastmaster Ascension in these lists because it does the same thing (wins you the game on the spot) while still being a creature to synergize with Spawning. And it can block against aggro.