Creepy Crawlie BG Deck

[Resonantg]

I had fun with this deck. Lots of tokens and bugs to nom your opponent.

2 Whispersilk Cloak
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Sol Ring

2 Carrion Ants
4 Ant Queen
4 Scute Mob
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
4 Deadly Recluse

4 Defense of the Heart
2 Exploration
2 Fecundity
4 Dark Ritual
4 Worldly Tutor
4 Zombify
4 Kodama's Reach
4 Maelstrom Pulse

5 Forest
5 Swamp
4 Bayou
4 Twilight Mire

You should be able to get 3-5 land out by turn 3 in most cases thanks to Kodama's Reach and the Sakura-Tribe Elder, making the Scute Mob quite dangerous. And if for some reason you can't lay your hands on it, the Ant Queen is more than happy to punch out 3-4 tokens a turn for you AND attack. Fliers? Fine and dandy, The Deadly Recluse ends them and you can just Zombify them right back on to the battlefield. And of course the Carrion Ants being pumpable on colorless make this a very dangerous deck IMNSHO.

Have fun ruining people's picnics. Hey... there's an interesting theme idea.

[Mr.Chaos]

Picnic? It's winter here and we have more snow than the roads, railroads and people in general can cope with and you want to go on a picnic? Crazy person!
Time for the classic "20cm (8 inches) of snow" piccy: (But we really have a lot more than that here)


The deck is interesting, although 18 lands feels a little on the shallow side iwth both the number of lands in play and available mana for token making being so important to the deck.
Gaea's Cradle seems like an obvious choice here, yet it is not included.
Or you could go the other route and use Defense of the Heart to get your big critters in play early.
I like the deck and will have a few goes to see if my fears of mana shortage are right or not.

[Resonantg]

I know exactly what you mean about the mana. Occasionally I've had to do mulligans, but really I generally get 1-2 mana producers turn 1. Defense of the Heart has been a real life saver. On many occasions I've suddenly put out an Ant Queen and Deadly Recluse when I started to see the other guy getting ready to roll. Plus having the Sakura-Tribe Elder and Kodama's Reach really changes the speed for you in the positive.

Then again, Fecundity is a wonder when you're letting your insect tokens get slaughtered. Then you start really getting cards you want quick.

The only card I'm not the most happy with is the Whispersilk Cloak. It's great to bypass stuff like Moat and other things that block your attack, but I got it in there originally to protect the Scute Mob. Unfortunately, it doesn't prevent damage from cards like Pestilence or the like, so... it's a mixed bag. Mana isn't quite the neccessary component here as much as land is.

BTW, my home's getting socked with 19-24 inches of snow over Christmas. That's about 40-50 cm to you metric folks. Have a Merry Christmas, y'all!

[Marek14]

I know exactly what you mean about the mana. Occasionally I've had to do mulligans, but really I generally get 1-2 mana producers turn 1. Defense of the Heart has been a real life saver. On many occasions I've suddenly put out an Ant Queen and Deadly Recluse when I started to see the other guy getting ready to roll. Plus having the Sakura-Tribe Elder and Kodama's Reach really changes the speed for you in the positive.

Then again, Fecundity is a wonder when you're letting your insect tokens get slaughtered. Then you start really getting cards you want quick.

The only card I'm not the most happy with is the Whispersilk Cloak. It's great to bypass stuff like Moat and other things that block your attack, but I got it in there originally to protect the Scute Mob. Unfortunately, it doesn't prevent damage from cards like Pestilence or the like, so... it's a mixed bag. Mana isn't quite the neccessary component here as much as land is.

BTW, my home's getting socked with 19-24 inches of snow over Christmas. That's about 40-50 cm to you metric folks. Have a Merry Christmas, y'all!

How exactly does Whispersilk Cloak help against Moat...?

[Chris H.]

BTW, my home's getting socked with 19-24 inches of snow over Christmas. That's about 40-50 cm to you metric folks. Have a Merry Christmas, y'all!

`
Yes, have a Merry Christmas.

I live on the east coast in between Rares and Rob. I got hit with a lot of snow last weekend. I think this upcoming storm is only providing rain for me ... I hope.

I tried out the deck and had a great time with it.

[zerker2000]

Picnic? It's winter here and we have more snow than the roads, railroads and people in general can cope with and you want to go on a picnic? Crazy person!

Ah, so now one living in California is considered crazy? Anyways, 5 years ago I lived down under (Australia), and There, my friends, is the best Christmas barbecue you'll ever find .

[apthaven]

I know exactly what you mean about the mana. Occasionally I've had to do mulligans, but really I generally get 1-2 mana producers turn 1. Defense of the Heart has been a real life saver. On many occasions I've suddenly put out an Ant Queen and Deadly Recluse when I started to see the other guy getting ready to roll. Plus having the Sakura-Tribe Elder and Kodama's Reach really changes the speed for you in the positive.

Then again, Fecundity is a wonder when you're letting your insect tokens get slaughtered. Then you start really getting cards you want quick.

The only card I'm not the most happy with is the Whispersilk Cloak. It's great to bypass stuff like Moat and other things that block your attack, but I got it in there originally to protect the Scute Mob. Unfortunately, it doesn't prevent damage from cards like Pestilence or the like, so... it's a mixed bag. Mana isn't quite the neccessary component here as much as land is.

BTW, my home's getting socked with 19-24 inches of snow over Christmas. That's about 40-50 cm to you metric folks. Have a Merry Christmas, y'all!

How exactly does Whispersilk Cloak help against Moat...?

Enchantments don't target shrouded creatures right? Pestilence itself is an enchantment, that's why it works against Shroud. Moat will work unless you have protection.

Pyroclasm and Volcanic Fallout should work against shroud too. Shroud is a great thing to have against creature removal spells though (like Terror, Path to Exile, etc...).

BTW, my home's getting socked with 19-24 inches of snow over Christmas. That's about 40-50 cm to you metric folks. Have a Merry Christmas, y'all!

Lucky you Snowy Winter folks. In our country, there is no snow during Christmas season. It's cold, and chilly but no snow. No winter technically. It's either raining, it's cold, or it's just so hot.

It's all because of the Geography. All because of the line we all know as the Equator.

If you like to have a picnics during this time of the year, you might consider going to our country for a change. The weather's nice

[Mr.Chaos]

About Moat, it is a global enchantment, it does not target so Whispersilk Cloak does not allow a creature without flying to attack. Just because you cannot block it does not mean it can attack if it does not have flying.
Sorry to clip your wings there.

[Resonantg]

Looks like I'll have to find a better alternative than Whispersilk.

As for the Picnic reference, it was an idea of a deck based off of having a picnic. With ants and eating/food cards and of course... giants. ;c) What can I say? I like theme decks cause they are a challenge, can be fun as well as practical. Had nothing to do with being out and about in the snow.

[Marek14]

Looks like I'll have to find a better alternative than Whispersilk.

As for the Picnic reference, it was an idea of a deck based off of having a picnic. With ants and eating/food cards and of course... giants. ;c) What can I say? I like theme decks cause they are a challenge, can be fun as well as practical. Had nothing to do with being out and about in the snow.

Well, how about Neurok Hoversail? That gets around Moat.

As for picnic, well, too bad we don't (can't) have Fat Ass As for ants, currently Forge has just Ant Queen and Carrion Ants. But it should be possible to get some more:

Army Ants
Fire Ants
Release the Ants (hard)
Saber Ants
Yavimaya Ants (hard)

Ant deck should probably cut Fire Ants (which tend to kill other ants, especially tokens). Theoretically, Ant Queen and Saber Ants could produce large number of Insect tokens...

[DennisBergkamp]

Hm, Yavimaya Ants is actually not hard, I have just recently implemented Echo, Cumulative Upkeep and just regular Upkeep. It will be in the next version

[Marek14]

Hm, Yavimaya Ants is actually not hard, I have just recently implemented Echo, Cumulative Upkeep and just regular Upkeep. It will be in the next version

That's great Huge number of cards uses those... should I prepare a list?

[DennisBergkamp]

That would be awesome, if you could
I added quite a few Echo cards already, but only a few (cumulative) upkeep cards... Donate / Illusions of Grandeur works though, which is pretty cool

[Marek14]

Note that the counters used by vanishing should be renamed to "time". "Age" counters are the ones used by cumulative upkeep.

Upkeep costs:
MANA:
Arcades Sabboth
Binding Grasp
Breeding Pit
Child of Gaea
Chromium
Conversion
Cosmic Horror (is destroyed if not paid, deals damage)
Cyclone (similar to cumulative upkeep)
Dance of Many
Darba
Death Spark (maybe)
Delaying Shield (maybe)
Demonic Hordes (complex effect)
Draco (the cost is reduced by 2*domain)
Drifter il-Dal
Drifting Djinn
Drought
Earthlink
Energy Vortex (deals damage)
Extravagant Spirit
Farmstead (lifegain)
Force of Nature (deals damage)
Forethought Amulet
Ghastly Remains (raise)
Glaciers
Haazda Shield Mate
Hungry Mist
Icy Prison (anyone may pay)
Junun Efreet
Justice
Kami of the Tended Garden
Krosan Cloudscraper
Kuro, Pitlord
Lim-Dul's Hex (maybe)
Mangara's Equity
Melancholy
Minion of Tevesh Szat (deals damage)
Molting Harpy
Nature's Wrath
Nicol Bolas
Palladia-Mors
Peacekeeper
Phantasmal Forces
Phantasmal Sphere
Pit Raptor
Pit Spawn
Primordial Ooze (taps, deals damage)
Pyre Zombie (raise)
Rogue Skycaptain (takes control)
Rohgahh of Kher Keep (taps, takes control)
School of Piranha
Serra Bestiary
Spindrift Drake
Stasis
Sunken City
Thelon's Chant
Thirst
Tourach's Chant
Vaevictis Asmadi
Vaporous Djinn (phases out)
Veiled Apparition
Warping Wurm (phases out)
Whipstitched Zombie
Wild Leotau
LIFE:
Blood Clock (returns)
Carnophage (taps if not paid)
Sangrophage (taps)
Season of the Witch
Umbilicus (returns)
SACRIFICE:
Akuta, Born of Ash (reanimate)
Bog Elemental
Contamination
Cosmic Larva
Crovax the Cursed (adds/removes counters)
Elder Spawn (also deals damage)
Endless Wurm
Gargantuan Gorilla (complex effect)
Lithophage
Minion of Leshrac (taps)
Pillar Tombs of Aku
Psychic Allergy (gets destroyed)
Ravenous Vampire (gets counter or taps)
Sacred Mesa
Safe Haven (maybe)
Territorial Dispute
The AEther Flues (Plane - maybe)
Yawgmoth Demon (taps, deals damage)
DISCARD:
Gigapede (raise)
Lim-Dul's Paladin (draws)
Masticore
Mishra's War Machine (taps, deals damage)
Razormane Masticore
Solitary Confinement
WEIRD:
Anurid Scavenger
Barrow Ghoul
Chisei, Heart of Oceans
Circling Vultures
Deep Spawn
Duplicity (maybe)
Emberwilde Djinn (takes control)
Entrails Feaster (adds counter or taps)
Forgotten Harvest (adds counter)
Gravestorm (draws)
Gurzigost
Ichorid (reanimate)
Junk Golem
Koskun Falls
Living Artifact (lifegain)
Living Tsunami
Magmasaur
Moonring Mirror (maybe)
Preffered Selection (maybe)
Purgatory (maybe)
Sun Droplet (maybe)
Tetravus (maybe)
The Maelstrom (Plane - maybe)
Waterspout Djinn

Upkeep cost to untap:
Brass Gnat
Brass Man
Dream Tides
Forsaken City
Goblin Dirigible
Goblin War Wagon
Island Fish Jasconius
Leviathan
Magnetic Mountain
Mana Vault
Mudslide
Soldevi Golem
Thelon's Curse
Worms of the Earth

Upkeep cost imposers:
Aura Flux
Coral Net
Custody Battle (changes control)
Disruption Aura
Energy Flux
Essence Leak
Kataki, War's Wage
Magus of the Tabernacle
Pendrell Flux
Pendrell Mists
The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale (destroys)
Vile Consumption

Forced upkeep sacrifices (or else):
Eldrazi Monument
Liege of the Pit
Lord of the Pit
Rust Elemental
Woebringer Demon
Xathrid Demon

Cumulative upkeep cards:
MANA:
Ancestral Knowledge
Arctic Nishoba
Arctic Wolves
Arnjlot's Ascent
Balduvian Fallen (cares about specific mana used)
Blizzard
Brand of Ill Omen
Breath of Dreams (also imposes cumulative upkeep to other cards)
Cold Snap
Corrosion
Cover of Winter
Earthen Goo
Elephant Grass
Energy Storm
Firestorm Hellkite
Flow of Maggots
Freyalise's Radiance
Fyndhorn Pollen
Glacial Plating
Halls of Mist
Heart of Bogardan
Heat Wave
Hibernation's End
Illusionary Forces
Illusionary Presence (note that it can choose any land type, not just basic)
Illusionary Terrain
Illusionary Wall
Illusions of Grandeur
Jotun Owl Keeper
Juju Bubble
Kjeldoran Javelineer
Krovikan Whispers
Maddening Wind
Magmatic Core
Malignant Growth
Mesmeric Trance
Mind Harness
Musician (complex)
Mwonvuli Ooze
Mystic Might
Mystic Remora
Naked Singularity
Phobian Phantasm
Phyrexian Etchings
Prismatic Circle
Reality Twist
Revered Unicorn
Ritual of Subdual
Ronom Hulk
Royal Decree
Snowfall
Soldevi Simulacrum
Splintering Wind
Survivor of the Unseen
Sustaining Spirit
Tidal Control
Tombstone Stairwell
Tornado
Uktabi Efreet
Volunteer Reserves
Wave of Terror
Yavimaya Ants
LIFE:
Dystopia
Gallowbraid
Glacial Chasm
Inner Sanctum
Morinfen
SACRIFICE:
Phyrexian Soulgorger
Polar Kraken
DISCARD:
Vexing Sphinx
WEIRD:
Aboroth
Braid of Fire
Herald of Leshrac
Infernal Darkness
Jotun Grunt
Karplusan Minotaur
Psychic Vortex
Sheltering Ancient
Thought Lash
Varchild's War-Riders
Wall of Shards

Cumulative upkeep imposers:
Balduvian Shaman (text-changing effect as well)
Breath of Dreams
Decomposition
Dreams of the Dead
Mana Chains

Echo cards:
MANA:
Acridian
Albino Troll
Avalanche Riders
Basalt Gargoyle
Bone Shredder
Citanul Centaurs
Cradle Guard
Crater Hellion
Deranged Hermit
Extruder
Firemaw Kavu
Flamecore Elemental
Ghitu Slinger
Goblin Marshal
Goblin Patrol
Goblin War Buggy
Hammerheim Deadeye
Henchfiend of Ukor
Herald of Serra
Hunting Moa
Karmic Guide
Keldon Champion
Keldon Vandals
Lightning Dragon
Mogg War Marshal
Multani's Acolyte
Pouncing Jaguar
Radiant's Dragoons
Raven Familiar
Ring of Gix
Shivan Raptor
Simian Grunts
Stingscourger
Subterranean Shambler
Tectonic Fiend
Thran War Machine
Thran Weaponry
Ticking Gnomes
Timbermare
Uktabi Drake
Urza's Blueprints
Viashino Outrider
Volcano Hellion
Vug Lizard
Winding Wurm
Yavimaya Granger
WEIRD:
Deepcavern Imp
Shah of Naar Isle
Skizzik Surger

Special mention: Thick-Skinned Goblin

[DennisBergkamp]

Ahhh holy sh*t!!! that's quite the list, thanks

Yeah I noticed too that some of the cards are destroy, some of them are sacrifice... I had a nice way to combine The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale and Magus of the Tabernacle programmatically... after implementing them, I noticed they were different. Which forced me to hack in an ugly separate piece of code for the Magus