Lizard Luncheon
I've finally had some opportunities to test a deck that I've been working on and the initial results are quite promising. Right now, it has won eleven of twelve games I've played with it, which is certainly a good sign. Consequently, I'm more seriously considering going to the local Friday Night Magic tournaments to see if it really holds up against actual players. Here's the deck list:
Creatures (32):
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Tukatongue Thallid
4x Elvish Visionary
4x Sprouting Thrinax
4x Nantuko Husk
4x Scarland Thrinax
4x Hissing Igunar
4x Algae Gharial
Spells (4):
4x Grave Pact
Land (24):
4x Llanowar Wastes
4x Karplusan Forest
2x Savage Lands
5x Forest
3x Mountain
6x Swamp
This deck was inspired by a post on mtg.com by an author who was quite excited about the Scarland Thrinax acting as a second Nantuko Husk in a Grave Pact deck he had been playing. Without looking closely at the deck list, I wound up with an early version of this deck and quickly brought it to the revision above. Even a couple control decks had problems keeping up -- not to mention the prevalence of cards which read "counter target non creature spell" wind up leaving their owner up the proverbial river.
The addition of the Hissing Igunar was because of how much it reminded me of the Disciple of the Vault that caused so much trouble several years ago. When it hits the table, I get another way to deal damage to an opponent that they can only do so much about. When combined with Grave Pact, each creature that dies on your own side is worth a point of damage to your opponent. Even worse, it makes dropping a board-clearing Wrath of God a painful proposition. Frequently, two of them on the table would be enough to make my opponent scoop right on the spot. Other creatures in the deck prove to be formidable as well; between the Gharial's shroud and the actual threats in the deck having a tendency to get very large, it's often difficult to get rid of any valuable material.
I've considered a few changes; one that was pointed out to me was the addition of some Sulfurous Springs to the deck to make it easier to hit the important three black mana mark for casting the Grave Pact. While the Elvish Visionary doesn't directly fit the theme, it does make the deck a touch smaller and does serve as food for the other critters. The birds are starting to seem superfluous at this point as the mana acceleration has been less important than mana fixing. Manamorphose is looking like a good option; it's a quick mana fix and it replaces itself in your hand. Another thought is the seemingly omnipresent Kitchen Finks. A little life gain plus a two for one deal when feeding my critters certainly isn't bad.
One other addition that sounds promising is Cauldron Haze. Handing out persist to my creatures just before a Wrath wound certainly be nice, not to mention it would serve the purpose of making some creatures edible a second time around -- notably the Sprouting Thrinax. It would even help get another use out of the lowly Tukatongue Thallid as it would come to play just long enough to die and sprout another saproling.
Anyway, I'm glad that I've managed to make something in standard and have it fare pretty well at the college. We'll see where it goes from here.
Spellchecking blog posts about Linux and about Magic is always a fun activity; there's so many nonsense words involved!
Creatures (32):
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Tukatongue Thallid
4x Elvish Visionary
4x Sprouting Thrinax
4x Nantuko Husk
4x Scarland Thrinax
4x Hissing Igunar
4x Algae Gharial
Spells (4):
4x Grave Pact
Land (24):
4x Llanowar Wastes
4x Karplusan Forest
2x Savage Lands
5x Forest
3x Mountain
6x Swamp
This deck was inspired by a post on mtg.com by an author who was quite excited about the Scarland Thrinax acting as a second Nantuko Husk in a Grave Pact deck he had been playing. Without looking closely at the deck list, I wound up with an early version of this deck and quickly brought it to the revision above. Even a couple control decks had problems keeping up -- not to mention the prevalence of cards which read "counter target non creature spell" wind up leaving their owner up the proverbial river.
The addition of the Hissing Igunar was because of how much it reminded me of the Disciple of the Vault that caused so much trouble several years ago. When it hits the table, I get another way to deal damage to an opponent that they can only do so much about. When combined with Grave Pact, each creature that dies on your own side is worth a point of damage to your opponent. Even worse, it makes dropping a board-clearing Wrath of God a painful proposition. Frequently, two of them on the table would be enough to make my opponent scoop right on the spot. Other creatures in the deck prove to be formidable as well; between the Gharial's shroud and the actual threats in the deck having a tendency to get very large, it's often difficult to get rid of any valuable material.
I've considered a few changes; one that was pointed out to me was the addition of some Sulfurous Springs to the deck to make it easier to hit the important three black mana mark for casting the Grave Pact. While the Elvish Visionary doesn't directly fit the theme, it does make the deck a touch smaller and does serve as food for the other critters. The birds are starting to seem superfluous at this point as the mana acceleration has been less important than mana fixing. Manamorphose is looking like a good option; it's a quick mana fix and it replaces itself in your hand. Another thought is the seemingly omnipresent Kitchen Finks. A little life gain plus a two for one deal when feeding my critters certainly isn't bad.
One other addition that sounds promising is Cauldron Haze. Handing out persist to my creatures just before a Wrath wound certainly be nice, not to mention it would serve the purpose of making some creatures edible a second time around -- notably the Sprouting Thrinax. It would even help get another use out of the lowly Tukatongue Thallid as it would come to play just long enough to die and sprout another saproling.
Anyway, I'm glad that I've managed to make something in standard and have it fare pretty well at the college. We'll see where it goes from here.
Spellchecking blog posts about Linux and about Magic is always a fun activity; there's so many nonsense words involved!
Labels: magic
posted by Spook at 6:42 AM
4 Comments:
Wow, that is a nice deck. My only thought is perhaps some Ornithopters?
I tried mine in a Standard tournament on Saturday. Went 3-2 and learned some valuable stuff.
Here is my decklist following post-tournament tweaking:
4 Tukatongue Thallid
4 2/2 Persist Elf
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Scarland Thrinax
4 Sprouting Thrinax
4 Nantuko Husk
4 Kitchen Finks
2 Masked Admirers
2 Murderous Redcap
====================
32 Creatures
4 Gravepact
====================
4 Other Spells
2 Swamp
1 Mountain
1 Forest
4 Llanowar Waste
4 Savage Lands
4 Black/Green Elf Land
4 Sulfurous Springs
3 Ancient Ziggurat
1 Graven Cairns (to be replaced by a 4th Ziggurat)
====================
24 Lands
Board:
4 Hissing Iguanar
2 Necrogenesis
2 Hurricane
3 Firespout
2 Caldera Hellion
2 Naturalize
Sideboard needs some work. My post-tournament tweaks focused on the main deck, so a lot of the sideboard is semi-random at the moment.
Not sure how the Masked Admirers will do. It was added after the tournament. It seems potentially good for keeping my hand full, and it has synergy with my elf lands and sacrifice effects. Not sure if I can handle the GG cost to keep bringing it back.
One of my losses was to a merfolk milling deck. The other was rotten luck. I generally felt competitive, but I was also in the loser's bracket most of the day. My wins were all 2-0.
Got linked to this post by TRS80. I've been trying a similar deck myself, I think everyone saw Scarland Thrinax, Tukatongue Thallid and Hissing Iguanar then thought Arcbound Ravager, Arcbound Worker and Disciple of the Vault.
Thought about putting Soul's Fire or Bone Splinters in there? I guess Grave Pact is all the removal you need since you will always have more dudes than the other guy..but having some direct damage never hurt
Also, since most of the deck is creatures, what about Gift of the Gargantuan?
trs80 : My lizards insist on eating all-natural critters.
Rocco : It sounds like your deck works/worked pretty well. Your concern about the admirers seems well-founded, the depth in green needed to make them work well is not too favorable in a three color deck. Though, your mana base is very different, so I can't say for certain. Kitchen finks are looking quite good, I'm trading for a few on Friday. I'm not sure about the murderous redcap in my own build; with the Iguanar in the main deck, they seem redundant.
Necrogenesis was in mine until it became the more homogenous version I posted. Caldera Hellion and Hurricane both seem like they'd be good in the board, too.
Of course, Alara Reborn is just around the corner, which may well change everything.
Anonymous: Soul's fire looks really good, actually. Strange thing is that even after about a box and a half of Shards, I've only cracked one or two. Gift of the Gargantuan might work, but I see myself putting my Pacts on the bottom of the deck too often.
You're right about the comparison to Ravager affinity; after I had a build together and saw how it played, I thought something similar and wound up molding it in that direction. It doesn't have *quite* the same punch as that awful deck did though :)
Thanks for stopping by and commenting, everyone.
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