Good calls I'll try out the 3 I don't have in.

How are you feeling about Greatmaw? I haven't been feeling that happy with him, but those feels were mostly cultivated when I was still thinking the deck needed to be more aggressive.

Nissa is the most important adition, then Yah and then Kali, I'd say

Greatmaw...weird, isn't it? I have come to the concussion that he feels a bit dissapointing because we (probably, at least I did) make the mistake of using him as a counter dump...I think he should be played without counters in him, Exemplar is a better garbage can for those... and just use him as a 4/5 with, sometimes, a little room for shenanigans (like putting a counter from a mummy with no enemy targets in him, so to clear another in another critter while making a Snake and/or an Insect in the process, for example)...those stats are good enough in themselves for 3 mana, the 5 thoughness rocks in a grindy deck.

Only if a crucial creature has too many counters I think it deserves to make him weaker. Also, the 2 counters matter a lot for Nests and Hapys.

I really missed Scrapheap Scrounger when control cunts was making love to my ass but I'm not sure what to cut for it. Maybe a couple of dissenters?

That would prob be fine. Dissenter is only there as a 2-for-1 outlet for -/- counters. Scrounger can do that too, but trades immediate/free one time token replacement for conditionally endless replacement. Worth a test at least if Control is pissing in ur cheerios.

Is this on xbox? Was it against a guy named divinevert?

You wish but it was on Steam!

Shame. I got into someone's booty playing GB -1s and they had a name like snake venom or something. Timing matched up, so figured I'd ask.

Could be...but I find this deck is another one of the snowball kind, so I really want my early blockers, above all on the draw...I dunno, I guess it's a meta call, and right now, I'm more worried about rush than control. Also, Scroungy has lost a bit of value with all the new exile removal. Though call.

Haha, I was in total tilt mode last night. I was playing zombies and took a hand with 3 lands, 2 threats, and 2 removal spells. Up against a 100 card fat stack that went shock>shock and then played nothing but 1cmc creatures for the rest of the game....and I lost, because I somehow ended up with 12 land on the table and 3 in my hand, in a 21 land deck.....awesome.

I don't often lose my cool when it comes to magic, but between this, a couple games of getting mulls of nothing but lands multiple times in a row, and all the recent connection issues I was absolutely losing my **** last night.

There

The mulligan thing is ridiculous...you know that if you dare to mull a 2-3 lander cause the colors are wrong, or 2 Abbeis or something...you can bet your fortitudes the next hand is gonna be a 5-6 lander, or a 0-1 one, 98% sure

This is too true, I've gotten to the point where I almost always keep if the lands are good even if the combination of spells are bad to start with

I added them, and I think my build now is identical to yours (or nearly at least). I went 3-0 on the ladder with it yesterday. Didn't draw Nissa or Kali in any, but Yahenni came up in 2 of the 3 and is a great fit here (getting pretty big in both). I had her and Bontu out with Nest in one, and their wondertwin powers just took over the game. I'd sac a insect token to make Yahenni indestructible and turn on Bontu, then swing and take out blockers swelling Yahenni and decimating opps board without having to cast removal I was holding. With both resistant to removal, there wasn't much opp could do but watch it happen. Another cool thing about Yahenni was being able to target a weenie for -/- counters, then sac the weenie for indestructible before resolution to make extra use of it (if don't have Nest out).

It does feel a lot better being able to do more useful things with Nest spam. I should have picked up on that earlier when I realized how often Bontu was winning games for me by converting token spam into scry/lifeloss/menace-attack.

Still not super stoked about Greatmaw, lol. I won't pull it out yet because the 2 -/- counters is important for Nest, but I am finding if he's one of a couple 3 drops I can play on curve, I keep picking the other options first. I'm sure there will be a game where I drop Dissenter T2, Greatmaw T3 for a 4/5 and zombie token and be happy about it, but hasnt happened yet.

Yeah, that matchs my experience, that's why I put Yah above Kali, no small feat...wait to get Nissa, and double up your swarm out of nowhere FTW, lol...but indeed the Yah/Bontu couple is a nightmare to deal with, if I had to chose between those 2, i'd cut Nissa if just for mana reasons

Well, the other 3 CC drops are so strong that it makes sense haha...the question I have is: is he worse than his obvious replacement? Which imo is the Baleful Ammit, I really want -1/-1 creatures...the Baleful is very good too, I'm not utterly convinced that he is worse than the Maw, 4 lifelink is huge...only the low thoughness is making me lean towards the Maw, but I should try more the Ammits to decide

Could be worth a test putting Ammits in over Greatmaw. I keep thinking Greatmaw's ability will be useful, but it never comes up in a relevant way (usually dumping -/- counters on things that die right away). And even when it does happen to come up where I have something with -/- counters still alive on the board (usually an Exemplar), the ability is too slow to be that helpful.

But then again I wasn't all that thrilled with Ammit either. When I still had him in he mostly just chilled on defense because his 3 (or 2) butt doesn't survive blocks very well. Lifelink wasn't something I really needed in games I played (either I'd have the board so clogged up opp wasn't dealing damage to me, or I'd be in such rough shape +3/4 life wouldn't really change anything, so idk if that brings more to the table than Greatmaws 2 Nest triggers.

Gonna try Splendig Agony...looks overcosted, but here, maybe...

Oy. That spell makes me feel bad every time I look at it. Let me know how it goes tho.

Still, this build is a tad inconsistent...there are games where everything goes wonderfully, but then others you just draw Mummies and Maws and then Op kills your only good card, Kalitas....so you lose miserably.

It's a combish concept that lacks draw/card selection, and that's problematic

I'm thinking about going a bit Delirium, so Vessels/Grapples can smooth my draws...besides, Iskhana and Hapatra are made for each other it would be so nice to have reach damage in this deck...

I think there is a deck somewhere close around, but we aren't totally at it yet

Yep, for me the main problem, which is some kind of inconsistency, is noticeably aleviated by Vessels, which allow me to cut the cards that weren't that good and gives me much needed depth instead to assemble good boards

So:

3 x Fatal Push
4 x Festering Mummy
4 x Vessel of Nascency

2 x Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons
3 x Exemplar of Strength
2 x Smuggler's Copter
3 x Grasp of Darkness

3 x Defiant Greatmaw
2 x Plague Belcher
1 x Yahenni, Undying Partisan
1 x Bontu the Glorified
3 x Nest of Scarabs
1 x Liliana, the Last Hope
1 x Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
1 x Never // Return

3 x Crocodile of the Crossing

8 x Swamp
5 x Forest

2 x Hissing Quagmire
2 x Woodland Cemetery
4 x Foul Orchard

2 x Westvale Abbey


I'm making the bold move of cutting Kali for the 3º Croc, they are performing wonderfully

Looks awesome you two. Gonna try maggit's deck above out with Bone Splinters and Kalitas instead of Fatal Push and Yaheeni. no AER cards right now

I was tooling around with this deck yesterday, trying to use the B Trial with G and B cartouches. It did alright, but this looks much better. Is Doomed Dissenter working for you guys? He failed to create a token twice yesterday.

He always worked fine for me