V 1.2* Added 1x
Nissa, Vastwood Seer* Removed 1x
ForestReasoning: After playing a bit more, the 26th land felt a little awkward. We do want our long game to feel like we have 26 lands (primarily for
Pack Guardian, although we have a lot of other mana sinks as well), but we don't want that many in our opener. Nissa helps hedge that land count a bit more than Basic Forest. It's also a solid threat in longer games.
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V 1.1* Added 2x
Oath of Nissa, 1x
Primal Bellow, 1x
Forest* Removed 2x
Ulvenwald Mysteries, 2x
Rabid BiteReasoning: Ulvenwald Mysteries is a nice plan against control, but I think the extra Primal Bellow for reach and Oath of Nissa for consistency / threat finding is an even better plan. Oath improves a lot when we cut four non-creature spells and most of our enchantments (removing the cost against
Tragic Arrogance). The extra reach from
Primal Bellow always felt like one of the best top decks, and still a good cheap play in the early turns, where
Rabid Bite was equivalent early and much worse late. The extra Forest should add a lot of consistency to the mana base, and improve the quality of our full playsets of
Pack Guardians and
Primal Bellows.
Ulvenwald Mysteries was our worst card against aggro (although Rabid Bite was good), and more deck consistency should help enough to balance out the loss of removal. This also removes four sorcery-speed cards, while adding three 1-mana plays and a land, which should improve our flash game.
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Hello there, Zerris again with another decklist!
As you've probably noticed, I would much prefer to try and meta-game against the best decks than play them myself. Here's another attempt. Unlike my prior two lists, this one's still early in testing - but my first five matches at rank 40 hit all the top-tier decks and all felt very good. Feedback to my decks has been positive (and the improvements to my
Fireball deck were invaluable) so I'm hoping to get some community feedback here as well.
Background:What metagame am I trying to beat, and how am I trying to beat it?
My goal is to be good against Hyper Aggressive decks (
Humans,
Burn, etc), Ramp (
,
,
), Walker Control (
), and acceptable against the field at large. As usual, a tall order. So to start with, what is each of these decks weak to?
Aggressive decks in the current meta are extremely bad against cheap X/3 blockers, since they run a ton of 2/X first strike and 2/2 evasion creatures. Every X/3 blocker trades with a creature, a trick, or both. It's also bad against cheap sweepers. Those don't usually go together, so we'll probably have to pick one.
Ramp is weak to proactive aggressive decks. The more you cut sweepers, bring in a few cheap kill spells for their single early blockers, and cast high Power-to-CMC creatures, the better a spot you're in. Ramp also has a specific weakness to both Thought-Knot Seer stealing their payoff and Reality Smasher being bigger than any of their blockers, kill spells, or red wraths. Alright, let's play those creatures and build a proactive aggressive deck.
4CC Walkers is weak to instant speed plays that can pressure their walkers. They play almost their entire game at sorcery speed with a lot of removal and wraths, and hope it's good enough. Flash creatures and creatures which individually force removal are good here (and our own wraths would be terrible). This informs which way we should go about beating aggro (X/3s > wraths), and suggests we should play some flash creatures. Also, creatures and spells that play well against wraths/removal will be good.
Also, although I didn't plan with them in mind, flash threats and efficient beaters are an excellent strategy against most blue mill/control decks.
Now, what reasonable deck could best combine all those elements? Without further ado, I present:
Flash an' Smash (Midrange)Threats2x
Sylvan Advocate3x
Duskwatch Recruiter/
Krallenhorde Howler3x
Lambholt Pacifist/
Lambholt Butcher1x
Nissa, Vastwood Seer/
Nissa, Sage Animist2x
Vile Redeemer2x
Tireless Tracker2x
Matter Reshaper3x
Pack Guardian2x
Thought-Knot Seer2x
Reality SmasherInteraction3x
Primal Bellow3x
Warping Wail3x
Spatial ContortionOther2x
Oath of Nissa1x
Evolutionary Leap1x
Nissa, Voice of ZendikarLands (25)13x
Forest1x
Wastes4x
Evolving Wilds2x
Westvale Abbey/
Ormendahl, Profane Prince2x
Foundry of the Consuls3x
Rogue's PassageMana Source ReasoningFor once, this is an exciting section! Look at all those value lands! We're running a deck that's solidly two colors - but when one of those colors is
, your lands can do a lot for you. As far as casting our spells goes, we need to get
by turn three (for more than just Nissa - you'll see) and
by turn two. After that, anything goes. In order to do that reliably,
Frank Karsten's math suggests 19
sources and 13
sources.
Evolving Wilds is the only real
dual land in a flash deck (
Crumbling Vestige won't work), and it plays nice with our few turn-one plays and Tireless Tracker, so we can run a full playset. That leaves 15
sources and 9
sources for a deck that only wants to run about 24 lands in total. Some concessions will have to be made. I've opted for just 17
and 12
sources, since we can function on single green, but not without our colorless lands. Also, our colorless lands bring us much more value. Lastly, you'll note that I said this deck wants about 24 lands, but I've included 25 - that extra land is for
Pack Guardian, which (alongside our multiple sources of clues and
Evolutionary Leap) makes it unlikely that we flood out. This deck could plausibly go to 26 lands, but I'd worry about diluting opening draws against aggro decks that won't give us time for clues or Leap.
As far as the value lands, this configuration gives room for seven slots.
Westvale Abbey is an easy pick for our first two slots; it's a secondary win condition with no cost.
Rogue's Passage is also fantastic in a Midrange deck that's trying to force 4-power attackers in against ramp and control; it gives you more reach to finish out games. I think the full three copies are justified; it's been amazing. Lastly, we have two more slots to fill - the available lands are
Foundry of the Consuls,
Drownyard Temple,
Ruins of Oran-Rief, and
Warped Landscape. Ruins of Oran-Rief is right out; we don't have enough colorless creatures, we can't spare the mana, and it comes into play tapped. Drownyard Temple only has limited synergy with
Pack Guardian, and we're already avoiding ramp cards. That puts the contest between Warped Landscape (fixing and
Tireless Tracker triggers) and Foundry of the Consuls. I can see more situations where I'd gain value out of Foundry (it's another "Flash" threat with evasion, and two blockers for aggro) so I've prioritized it, but Warped Landscape isn't out of the question.
StrategyUnlike my other decks, the strategy for this deck varies wildly from match-up to match-up. Figure out what your opponent's deck is, and try to out-midrange him (or her). If they're playing an aggressive deck, prioritize 2-drop creatures and holding back on blocks until you can crack for lethal in a single swing - you win the long game, so they have to attack into you or lose. If they're playing ramp, jam every high-power threat as quickly as possible - prioritize flipping your werewolves by using flash creatures and dealing as much damage as possible so that a
Westvale Abbey /
Reality Smasher /
Rogue's Passage has enough reach for lethal. If you're playing against Walker Control, try to pressure them into using their wraths / removal as inefficiently as possible - prioritize dropping
Evolutionary Leap and
Duskwatch Recruiter, then holding up your mana every turn to flash in threats post-wrath or post-walker. Kill their walkers while swinging damage until you think you can push through lethal. If you're playing against counterspell control, only play 2-drops into open mana (and only until you have some board presence), then hold up mana to flash things in when they tap low to draw cards. Play on their endstep, then untap and play on your turn to overwhelm countermagic with a flurry. Basically, figure out what your opponent is up to, and play to their weaknesses - you have the tools, as long as you know the metagame well enough to read their deck by the third turn.
Specific interactions:Flipping
Lamholt Pacifist is important, but relatively easy. You have plenty of removal / flash threats to hold up on turn 3 or 4, and against anything other than aggro, it's usually worth doing - even if it's not a perfectly efficient use of your mana. Also, Nissa can make her a 4/4 on her own, which allows her to attack, as do all of our 4 and 5 mana plays. Flipping
Duskwatch Recruiter is even easier, and allows for some cool tricks - notice that you can pass on
the turn after you play Duskwatch, flip him, then flash in
Pack Guardian (or
Vile Redeemer with the ability to pay).
Remember to hold on to a land in the late game - this deck only needs 6 mana (to activate Abbey / Foundry) and any extra land is a potential 2/2 wolf. Also, it'll stop you from getting shafted by priority bugs and help hide your hand's contents from your opponent. Holding on to Colorless lands is better than Forests, because they pump
Primal Bellow. This also means knowing when not to put lands in to play off
Matter Reshaper triggers - it is optional.
Almost half our deck (
Duskwatch Recruiter,
Vile Redeemer,
Pack Guardian,
Primal Bellow,
Warping Wail,
Spatial Contortion,
Evolutionary Leap,
Westvale Abbey,
Foundry of the Consuls, and Clues) can be meaningful at instant speed. This means we can reasonably pass with all our mana up and still use it efficiently most turns, and is a nightmare for opponents. What should they play around? It's like playing a blue deck, except our instant speed tricks attack you back on a relevant clock. Even more effective when this isn't a popular deck, so our opponent can't guess our hand as easily as they could against, say,
Humans.
Also, don't be afraid to use
Warping Wail as a one-off ramp spell or a flash 1/1 attacker/blocker; the card is made of versatility and you should take advantage of all of it. Same with Spatial Contortion - it's either a kill spell or a pump spell depending on your needs.
Lastly, a bit of trigger minutiae - In Magic, the trigger for flipping Werewolves is in the upkeep. Magic Duels doesn't have an upkeep. When, you might ask, do these triggers occur then? They occur during the endstep! This means you can cast an instant/flash creature in response to their flip trigger, and it won't count as a spell cast for the next turn (nor will it stop the flip once the trigger is on the stack). Depending on how much of an MTG purist you are, you might consider this illegal, or you might not - but it's worth knowing.
Card ChoicesAs I said at the beginning, this deck is still in the early stages of testing/tuning, so these should be considered transient at best. I'll order them by how important I think they are to the deck, so that you can see which ones I'm looking to improve upon.
CrucialSylvan Advocate,
Lambholt Pacifist,
Duskwatch Recruiter - This is our hedge against both aggro and control (in addition to a few removal spells). We want to drop a 2-drop creature every game, and each of these is a significant creature for such a small investment. Lambholt Pacifist and Duskwatch Recruiter reliably flip turn 3 or 4, alongside instant speed plays. We might even be able to justify more Werewolves, but these are clearly the strongest for what we're up to.
Pack Guardian,
Spatial Contortion - The creme of our instant speed crop, this is a 4/3 flash creature (sometimes with a 2/2 friend) and a 2-mana removal spell that hits almost all the 2 and 3 mana plays in the format. They're both fantastic, and a lot of why we get to play our game at instant speed.
Thought-Knot Seer,
Reality Smasher - These are both incredible threats against any late-game deck, and the backbone of our strategy against ramp. Thought-Knot seer is also one of the few cards in the game that let you see the opponent's hand. If you've ever seen a format with
Thoughtseize, you know how valuable this information (and the ability to act on it to disrupt their plans) is. Staple it to a 4/4 beater on curve, and you're winning games. Reality Smasher is just the best threat in any aggressive midrange deck, as it has gratuitous lines of text that all read "get wrecked" in various forms. These two cards - even with just two apiece - are why we have
as our second color.
ImportantTireless Tracker - This card is a value machine and one of the best green creatures in standard. It's a bit more focused on the long-game than our deck typically is, but we do take excellent advantage of clues, and a 3/2 for 3 is at least playable.
Warping Wail - While none of these modes are fantastic, having this much versatility in a deck playing on the opponent's turn is very good. This "Eldrazi Command" can counter all the wraths of the format (aside from
Kozilek's Return, which doesn't kill our creatures), exile
Jaddi Offshoot,
Thing in the Ice,
Consul's Lieutenant, and more, and give you a flash attacker/blocker/mana ramp. The deck won't fail without this card, but it will lose a lot of tricks.
Nissa, Voice of Zendikar - A planeswalker that does everything we want, for only 3 mana. What a deal! We're an aggressive deck that can go wide and blocks well, which is where she shines. Also, she makes
Lambholt Pacifists into 4/4s, which is adorable. Provides blockers for aggro, provides pressure for control/ramp, dodges wrath - a good fit.
Primal Bellow - Adds some much-needed reach, especially alongside Rogue's Passage. Also, this deck feels like it wants a few more combat tricks to scare opponents away from attacking/blocking properly. Since we have no incentive to play non-basic Forests, Primal Bellow feels like the best pump spell, though I considered
Confront the Unknown and
Might of the Masses. The most often scenario for wanting maximum damage from a pump spell is when we only have one creature left and want to use a 1-mana spell + Rogue's Passage to push lethal on the last turn, and this seems ideal for that case. The rest of the time, +1/+1 or +2/+2 is plenty to win a combat fight.
Westvale Abbey,
Rogue's Passage - These are our "good" value lands, and they give us some nice options. They passively fill out our mana base at no cost, while also giving us yet another excuse to leave up mana. They also give us multiple forms of reach, a common problem for a green deck. The Rogue's Passage activation in response to flash blockers is hilarious, and it comes up with
Archangel Avacyn in the format.
AcceptableThese are all the cards I'm look to improve upon (or test more, so that I can conclude they do their jobs). Any replacements should probably start here.Matter Reshaper,
Vile Redeemer - Redeemer is another reasonably costed flash threat, and we can pay his kicker to regain value after a wrath. I think he makes the cut, but he's the last one in for my creature suite. Matter Reshaper is a little more reliable at getting value, but it's missing that all-important third point of toughness, and it's expensive on the front side. That said, it's
Byway Courier if the clue cost 0 and came with the possibility of the card you drew also being discounted to 0, so... hard to go too far wrong. Excellent threat against control decks.
Oath of Nissa - A cantrip that can select from most of our deck. Doesn't put down any pressure (and the Walker bonus isn't very relevant), but does smooth out the draws a lot. We don't have anything else going on turn one and most of our lands enter untapped, so it fits the curve well.
Nissa, Vastwood Seer - We naturally want to be playing about 26 lands for
Pack Guardian and
Tireless Tracker, but we don't need that many lands in our opening hand. Nissa is a way to hedge that land count, and also attacks/blocks/qualifies as a lategame threat. We don't hit 7 lands every game, but the games where we don't are the fast games where we'd prefer a 2/2 for 3 that cantrips over an additional basic land.
Evolutionary Leap - I don't think you want it enough to see the second copy, but the first is pretty good against removal.
Foundry of the Consuls - the last of our slots for colorless value land, and the first I'll abandon if anybody suggests something better. it does a mediocre
Westvale Abbey impersonation, but we'd definitely play four of those, so maybe that's good enough. (Also, it plays well with Abbey, giving you one more creature for your Plan C)
ConsideredIf I were to make replacements, they'd likely come from here.Elvish Visionary,
Sylvan Ranger,
Dwynen's Elite - The elf value package. Probably plays really nicely with Leap and Mysteries, but we're trying to be aggressive and these cards just durdle. No, I don't want to pay 2 mana for a cantripping 1/1. I'd rather pay 2 mana for a conditional 4/4 or 4/5 and beat your face in.
Confront the Unknown - Briefly in the deck for clue synergies and being a pump spell that's not card disadvantage. Unfortunately, it's also rarely a real pump spell.
Hinterland Logger - Did you say more aggressive 2-drop werewolves? I guess I did, but I didn't mean this. Can't even block a
Consul's Lieutenant, which is unacceptable.
Nissa's Judgment - Value removal, at the cost of being atrociously expensive and slow. I don't think we can afford this at sorcery speed.
Reclamation Sage - Good, but reactive. Attacks... poorly.
Retreat to Kazandu - Good when it works, but voted most likely of his class to be the only permanent left on the board, tearfully gaining us life we don't care about. If I'm going to play a non-threat spell, I want it to win the game, remove a threat, or counter/neuter removal on my own threats. This does none of those.
Seed Guardian - Similar to
Pack Guardian, but can't be played at Instant speed. So sad.
Woodland Bellower - The best 6-drop in our colors, if we wanted a 6 drop that offered value without winning the game. We don't.
Stalking Drone - Another 2-mana beater, this one is a 3/4 with... "upkeep". I don't think we want to pay that, though it's an interesting thought.
Testing ResultsAfter a couple games against the AI and a few tweaks to come up with a streamlined concept, I played five games against Rank 40 players. Here are the results with commentary:
Win vs. WalkersEarly game is us trading 2-drops; I cast a very early
Evolutionary Leap and start passing my turns with all my mana up (and a
Warping Wail in case he ever tries to hard-wrath). First time he drops
Ob Nixilis Reignited, kills a creature, and I decline to Leap it. Presumably confused, he attacks straight into a
Pack Guardian, losing his
Sylvan Advocate, and his Ob Nix on the crack back. This sets the tone for the match. His next play is
Chandra, Flamecaller into more open mana, wrathing my board – I again decline to Leap anything, flash in
Vile Redeemer for two scions, and kill Chandra on the return. This time, I attack into open mana, he flashes in
Archangel Avacyn… and I just make my creature unblockable. His turn, he drops
Nahiri, the Harbinger and kills it, alongside more blockers, but he’s down to 8 life. I have
Primal Bellow and
Spatial Contortion for 9 on
Duskwatch Recruiter, but I'm exactly one mana short of being able to also go unblockable. Alright, let’s play for the win – pass turn, no attacks, all mana up. Opponent minuses Nahiri to kill Leap, then drops
Sorin, Grim Nemesis and minuses him on Duskwatch for exactly 3 (a mistake by him) - crucially, having to tap his
Shambling Vent to do so. He’s got no other obvious ways to gain life – so I let it die. He’s at 11 life, I have nothing but lands, and he has Nahiri, Sorin, Avacyn, and blockers. Time to kill him. Flash in
Pack Guardian without a wolf, cast
Warping Wail for a Scion to get my last mana, untap,
Primal Bellow +
Spatial Contortion + unblockable for 11 damage. Good game! Best match I’ve played in a while; both decks running at maximum potential.
Win vs. Hyper AggroI mulligan a 5-lander into another 5-lander with
Vile Redeemer /
Reality Smasher and keep. He drops
Goblin Glory Chaser on the play and I know I’ve made a terrible mistake not mulling to 6. I continue to fail to draw two-drops as he gets two renowned Goblins, although I do get to
Warping Wail a
Stormchaser Mage.
Thought-Knot Seer steals a probably-lethal
Slip Through Space,
Rabid Bite kills
Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh, and I stabilize the board with
Nissa, Voice of Zendikar plants at 6 life. Fearing more unblockable tricks, I attack with a
Reality Smasher, leaving back five blockers – and he swings the team into them. Two plants get
Twin Bolted, I block for maximum safety, he
Titan's Strengths the sole unblocked goblin token and leaves me at 2, but dies on the crack-back for exactly 15. Close game.
(Avoidable) Loss vs. HumansOn turn 4, I pass the turn with
up,
Matter Reshaper and
Pack Guardian in hand. That mistake cost me the game on its own vs. an aggressive deck, since it let them get a
Consul's Lieutenant renowned for free and it spiraled from there. My final desperate attempt at
Westvale Abbey shenanigans got ruined by a top-decked
Archangel Avacyn forcing extra chump blocks, but the game was lost on turn four. Without that misplay, I think I had the edge and would have won eventually.
Win vs. Counterspells and Cheap CreaturesA turn one
Expedition Envoy gets in 8 damage, but my ability to play at instant speed stops him from developing further, and I eventually use
Rabid Bite and
Spatial Contortion to overwhelm his countermagic and kill it. He follows with
Whirler Rogue and then tries to race my double
Reality Smasher plus
Tireless Tracker draw. It doesn’t go well, and he eventually concedes to the onboard kill from
Rogue's Passage, declining to even bluff a bounce spell. I assume his deck played
Willbreaker, though I never saw it.
Win vs. RampEarly
Lambholt Pacifist flips, and manages to do some damage as I play on his turn to keep her flipped.
Kiora, Master of the Depths makes a brief appearance and does nothing before dying to a
Warping Wailed in Scion and the Pacifist.
Thought-Knot Seer from him sees my hand and steals my
Tireless Tracker, since I have no removal. I top-deck a
Spatial Contortion – somebody’s about to be mad. Swing Lambholt and
Vile Redeemer into two blockers, he blocks Redeemer with Thought-Knot, and I take the 2-for-2 trade, since it unlocks my hand. Play down a flurry of creatures, since there’s little chance
has sweepers, then
Pack Guardian to let my Pacifists keep attacking. He ramps and plays
Drowner of Hope, which stops my auto-win with Abbey, but he’s forced to trade both scions for wolf token, giving me a clear win with him at 2 and me having 7 power minimum unblocked and
Rogue's Passage. I don’t believe he’s left himself dead on board, so I Thought-Knot pre-combat, and sure enough he’s got
Pulse of Murasa. His hand is now
Thought-Knot Seer,
Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, and
Kozilek, the Great Distortion with exactly 10 lands in play. Neither Thought-Knot nor Kozilek can stop me on board, so I take the Ulamog, attack him down to 1, and pass back. He plays Kozilek, draws 7, and holds up a
Hinterland Harbor bluffing
Fog (I think that’s the only trick that could save him 2 blockers vs. 4 attackers?), but there's no reason for me not to call and he concedes to my
Rogue's Passage activation.
And that's a wrap...Even more than normal, I'd appreciate suggestions on card selection - this deck is still in early testing stages, and could use some tuning. It looks strong, though - I played all three cornerstones of the meta in five games, and felt like I was even or favored in all of them.