I have been working on this deck for a long time.. over a month. It's pretty finely tuned, the mana has been very consistent, especially for a Conflux deck.

The concept of the deck is to brick aggro early in with an amazing assortment of 3 drops. Every card in this deck survives Anger of the Gods, so you can progress your board and wipe theirs in the early game. It crushes aggro.. something most 5 color good stuff decks struggle with. If opponents don't present an early board.. it beats down very well. If it goes to late game.. well.. its Conflux.. some of the best late game available.

The removal suite is strong.. the draw portion of the deck was the toughest part to figure out. I wanted Inspiration and/or Griselbrand, but it just wasn't able to be done.

I'm doing this on my phone.. I'd love to be able to put this list up in that special format everyone uses now. If a kind stranger could send me a PM with some directions, I'd really appreciate it.

Mana Mastery 2015

1 CMC

2x Banefire

2 CMC

4x Think Twice
3x Ground Assault

3 CMC

1x Brimaz, King of Oreskos
2x Anger of the Gods
3x Darksteel Ingot
3x Rhox War Monk
3x Wooly Thoctar

4 CMC

Nothing

5 CMC

1x Stormbreath Dragon
1x Baneslayer Angel
1x Maelstrom Archangel

6 CMC

1x Obelisk of Alara
1x Inferno Titan
1x Soul of Ravnica (card draw MVP)
2x Planar Cleansing

7 CMC

1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
2x Rune-Scarred Demon
3x Pelakka Wurm

10 CMC

1x Kozilek, Butcher of Truth

MANA

2x Plains
2x Islands
1x Swamp
2x Mountain
1x Forest
3x Jungle Shrine
3x Arcane Sanctum
3x Crumbling Necropolis
3x Savage Lands
3x Seaside Citadel
1x Simic Guildgate

The key to getting out that early game is to remember that War Monk and Wooly Thoctar both need green and white, so you want to look at your hand and plan out your mana accordingly. If War Monk is the play, get a blue tapland down early, if its Thoctar, stick one with red. If its Brimaz (and it rarely is) obviously, double white. If you can manage a turn 2 Think Twice, thats always great.

The cards in this list that I'm still debating are as follows:

Brimaz: The other 3 drops are just so much better IMO.. at least, that's how it feels. War Monk's lifelink threat just shuts down aggro so hard, and Thoctar just uses his massive fear factor to keep them back, as he represents a 4-turn clock. Brimaz is just kinda there. I'd love to find a better 4-toughness early play, but I just don't see one available.

Banefire: These two slots were Angelic Edicts, then Reprisal, now Banefire. Reprisal I thought would be good bc I can win all the early game fights with my stud 3 drops.. Reprisal gave me outs to bombs I couldn't answer, or enchanted stuff that gets out of Ground Assault range too quickly.. but Banefire's reach is so significant. Banefire is also.. never a dead draw, which Reprisal has a chance to be. I'm torn.

The Mana: Believe it or not, its actually pretty damn good.. but just looking at it.. I feel a better player might be able to do better. I DO NOT want Satyr Wayfinder in this deck, at all. Cutting 4 killer cards for them feels so bad, and they are an awful late game draw.. where as the 3 drops in there now are still significant in the late game (except Brimaz).

The short version of all this is: Stick one of your stud 3 drops on curve above all else and the deck just takes care of itself after that.

Thanks for taking the time to read this wall of text.. I am eagerly looking forward to reading any feedback you guys have got for me.

Here's the deck using the deck planner :

Thank you Aranthys. Could you please send me a PM on where I use that thing (website or however its accessed) and how to link it? It's hard to get your builds taken seriously around here without using that format. Thanks again.

There's a link at the bottom of the list whenever you use the planner

Here ya go Megabeast (hopefully I don't count as a stranger though!)




I believe I got everything you listed but just in case the link to the editor is in the bottom of the list (Open)



elk

I never noticed that before... Boy do I feel dumb now. I guess that's to be expected when I all my web browsing on my phone. I'll warm up the ole desktop and start playing with it. Thanks a bunch.

hmm I just realized I was beaten to the punch (I'd say I was in the editor making the list based on post times). I guess for the sake of a clean line, a mod could dump my post(s).

elk

Thanks anyway though.. non-stranger : )

Do you see anything you'd change? Any glaring holes that catch your eye?

With 16 taplands, you'll almost always be 1 turn behind your opponent.
That's pretty much the biggest drawback i'm seeing here.

Yeah..that's a thing for sure. That's why those 3 drops really shine when they hit, their overall power/effect on the board buys time for me to draw for a couple turns, grind out some Think Twices, let the mana flow in, gain some life with War Monk or put them on their heels with Thoctar. Without them, the whole thing falls apart and becomes another 5 color good stuff deck that chumps with Elvish Visionaries while praying not to die on the turn they cultivate vs Goblin type decks. I actually tested this deck for several matches against the computer using Monk's RDW deck (it pilots the deck decently) and my deck held up remarkably well.

I'm thinking of trying Wall of Omens in this list.. it survives Anger (which is a prerequisite for this deck), helps hit my land drops and stalls aggro further. I wish I could get away from the taplands.. but I'm not seeing any other options. If you can think of a better assortment of mana I'd love to try it.

An option, albeit a slow one, is to go the route of my 5 color creatureless control deck and include a couple copies of Armillary Sphere.

As I said, it is a bit slow, but it is guaranteed to draw 2 of your basics out of your deck. Which helps a ton for hitting land drops/fixing and helps with having lands you can put onto the field untapped.

This may not work out quite as well for you (since the list I run them in is creatureless, so is packed to the rafters with removal and sweepers to keep from dieing in the early-mid game) but it may at least be something worth considering.

What cuts/additions would you make to the deck to include them? What would you do to the land count? I'm all ears bro

Just keep in mind.. I need an active Green and White source for all my turn 3 guys (double white for the cat king).. so that's the real priority. They can (and do) go out on turn 4 sometimes.. maybe 1/4 of the time.. but the goal is a T3 roadblock.

Why play Simic Guildgate instead of Selesnya Guildgate if you want early Green / White mana ?

Mana consistency/ fixing is the thing I'd mention. Outside of Darksteel Ingot, you've got to basically wait until you have enough tap lands/ color combinations to cast (which is solely based on your draw/top decks). Your three drop slot is filled with multi color and double color costs so even aiming to play T4 due to tap lands, you still got a good chance they aren't the right colors (meaning you're into T5 or even 6 before you have the right mana to match the cards you have in hand). Unfortunately that means you're into the same bucket as everyone else for fixing (either green, blue or colorless).

I would aim for a bit more fixing and attempt to smooth out the color requirements in the early turns just to try and improve performance. Unfortunately I think that's one of the draw backs to the rainbow deck and our card pool (heck it's tough enough in a lot of the 3 color decks let alone all the colors). This could mean relenting on the anti-anger theme.

elk

I'm not a fan of Obelisk and I'm worried that not having Cultivates in this deck will be troublesome.

will try this deck tomorrow night. Can't wait

I was having trouble casting early Think Twices.. my knee jerk reaction was to swap 1 forest for a Simic. It stayed that way and seemed to work out.. or I just got lucky a whole bunch of times in a row.

It's Conflux! You have to have at least one Obelisk

TBH though.. I don't use it that much, and I never tutor for it with Rune Scarred. Sheoldred or Pelakka Wurm always get the call.

I'm just worried about being totally dead or really close to dead on the turn I Cultivate. I like seeing turn 4 with 15+ life bc I put down a roadblock.. as opposed to less than 10 bc I cultivated.

Believe it or not.. I can honestly say that I can get one of those 3 drops out on turn 4 almost 100% of the time. The mana Isn't THAT bad lol. Its actually pretty damn good for a Conflux deck IMO (thank you free mulligan). I just wanna aim higher for that T3 goal.. bc if I don't lay down a body until turn 4, and it gets answered with Banisher Priest, Tribute to Hunger, etc. then I'm hurtin' for certain.

What would you recommend?

what about elf visionary instead of think twice? It's a draw that also roadblocks

with only 8 normal land, it imagine we're not getting this out on t2 anyway

If I did my math right I see

sources:
12 blue
11 red
11 white
11 green
10 black

You've indicated you need white and green early for your 3 drops. 6 of the sources share the white and green (Seaside & Jungle) so those are either one or the other but not both at the time you need to cast them. You then have to hit a second green/white and either another white, blue or red for a body to hit the board (I'd assume you stall with casting Anger to get value out of the card so lets exclude the double red). So I'm going to assume for your 3 drops that the frequency in which you cast Brimaz in the early turns is low and that you're most often getting Rhox or Thoctar out? (considering Rhox could also has the same white/ blue source issue with Sanctum and Seaside and Thoctar with Jungle and Savage for red/green)?

To be honest I'm not entirely sure what to suggest (I just haven't found any of the 5 color decks consistent and gave up on making them).

Green has the best chances for fixing through Satyr Wayfinder, Cultivate and Sylvan Bounty as well as the old Elvish Visionary cantrip (and to a lesser extent Masked Admirers due to the cost and double green).

Blue has a few cantrips in Fleeting Distraction, Quicken, Courier's Capsule, Think Twice (which you have), Inspiration, Bident of Thassa (which is obviously cart before the horse), Ior Ruin Expedition (I know), Scroll Thief (I know I know!) and then Traumatic Visions to fix (I'm trying to keep the cost 4 and below).

Colorless is unfortunately the best option since it won't matter what colors you have in play but your options are bleh (Traveler's Amulet, Armillary Sphere, Darksteel Ingot which you have and Meteorite which would be too late. There is also the Avarice Amulet for draw)

If you are finding that you have enough success/ consistency that you get a stabilizer out on T4, then I'm not sure what more you can ask for from the rainbow (Maybe that can be the next commercial. Stabilize the rainbow! Taste the rainbow!).


elk