Re: New quest decks
Posted: 30 Jul 2016, 19:16
I started working on a blue aggro-control deck, possibly with some minor white splash (not sure about the splash yet), focused around Elemental synergy and generally themed around water (think e.g. waterbending from Avatar: The Last Airbender, someone like Katara if you know what I'm talking about).
The idea here is to have a variety of powerful Elemental creatures available at each CMC slot between 2 to 6 or so and an array of efficient counterspells and bounce for some control, especially early on. The finishers may include casting Master of Waves for an Elemental buff and a blue devotion-based addition of Elemental tokens and casting Levitation to make all the elementals Flying. Additional support can be provided via spells with Awaken which turn lands into additional Elementals, as well as enchant land auras that turn lands into Elemental creatures.
Here's the first rough draft that I have:
Creatures:
==========
3 Frost Walker // CMC 2 with power 4 but dies to an ability
2 Plumeveil // CMC 3, potent flying defender adding +3 devotion bonus, can keep some early midgame threats away
2 Shorecrasher Elemental // CMC 3, does not fly but gives +3 devotion and seems decent for its cost
2 Water Servant // CMC 4, does not fly by itself, +2 devotion, has buff abilities
4 Master of Waves // CMC 4, one of the synergy finishers, devotion-based Elemental tokens + buff
2 Cyclone Sire // CMC 5, flying, can turn lands into additional elementals
2 Roil Elemental // CMC 6, flying, can take control of opponent's creatures
1 Supreme Exemplar // CMC 7, a flying 10/10 elemental creature, doesn't fit the theme of water too much but can serve as a nail in the coffin if it gets to casting high CMC spells
Other Spells:
=============
2 Wind Zendikon // CMC 1 that can turn a land into a 2/2 flying elemental
4 Clutch of Currents // CMC 1 bounce for early control
4 Counterspell // CMC 2 counterspell, as efficient as it gets
2 Mana Leak // CMC 2 counterspell, early control
3 Cancel // CMC 3, ditto
3 Scatter to the Winds // CMC 3, ditto + Awaken (maybe go 4 Scatter / 2 Cancel?)
2 Levitation // CMC 4, one of the finishers that makes all creatures flying
Lands:
======
Now here I have two options - either go 24 Island (or tweak the count maybe, I don't know, 25-26 Island and cut a couple spells since there are high-CMC spells to be cast?), or splash a bit of white for Celestial Colonnade which can later serve as an Elemental manland, e.g.:
10 Island
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Tundra
I really need some ideas for improving this list here, and I have several question about optimizing this deck further, especially with the Forge AI in mind:
1) Is it worth throwing in a very high CMC creature into the mix (Supreme Exemplar) or is it better to replace it with something else, or maybe even cut it for an extra land?
2) Do you have any other ideas for some Elemental-based shenanigans that might add extra power to this deck list?
3) Is any kind of mana acceleration viable for this deck except for the usual Mox / Sol Ring mix for the potential "harder" version of this deck list?
4) What other spells might work well in this deck list (both creature and non-creature ones)? What would you change here, both when it comes to spells themselves and the proposed number of cards, given both the intended synergy and the intended theme of the deck?
5) Is any planeswalker viable here, or not worth it?
Any other ideas and advice for improvement would be highly welcome!
Eventually I'm planning to have an easier and a harder version of the deck (ideally Medium and Hard), any ideas for tweaks for those particular difficulty levels are welcome as well!
- Agetian
The idea here is to have a variety of powerful Elemental creatures available at each CMC slot between 2 to 6 or so and an array of efficient counterspells and bounce for some control, especially early on. The finishers may include casting Master of Waves for an Elemental buff and a blue devotion-based addition of Elemental tokens and casting Levitation to make all the elementals Flying. Additional support can be provided via spells with Awaken which turn lands into additional Elementals, as well as enchant land auras that turn lands into Elemental creatures.
Here's the first rough draft that I have:
Creatures:
==========
3 Frost Walker // CMC 2 with power 4 but dies to an ability
2 Plumeveil // CMC 3, potent flying defender adding +3 devotion bonus, can keep some early midgame threats away
2 Shorecrasher Elemental // CMC 3, does not fly but gives +3 devotion and seems decent for its cost
2 Water Servant // CMC 4, does not fly by itself, +2 devotion, has buff abilities
4 Master of Waves // CMC 4, one of the synergy finishers, devotion-based Elemental tokens + buff
2 Cyclone Sire // CMC 5, flying, can turn lands into additional elementals
2 Roil Elemental // CMC 6, flying, can take control of opponent's creatures
1 Supreme Exemplar // CMC 7, a flying 10/10 elemental creature, doesn't fit the theme of water too much but can serve as a nail in the coffin if it gets to casting high CMC spells
Other Spells:
=============
2 Wind Zendikon // CMC 1 that can turn a land into a 2/2 flying elemental
4 Clutch of Currents // CMC 1 bounce for early control
4 Counterspell // CMC 2 counterspell, as efficient as it gets
2 Mana Leak // CMC 2 counterspell, early control
3 Cancel // CMC 3, ditto
3 Scatter to the Winds // CMC 3, ditto + Awaken (maybe go 4 Scatter / 2 Cancel?)
2 Levitation // CMC 4, one of the finishers that makes all creatures flying
Lands:
======
Now here I have two options - either go 24 Island (or tweak the count maybe, I don't know, 25-26 Island and cut a couple spells since there are high-CMC spells to be cast?), or splash a bit of white for Celestial Colonnade which can later serve as an Elemental manland, e.g.:
10 Island
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Tundra
I really need some ideas for improving this list here, and I have several question about optimizing this deck further, especially with the Forge AI in mind:
1) Is it worth throwing in a very high CMC creature into the mix (Supreme Exemplar) or is it better to replace it with something else, or maybe even cut it for an extra land?
2) Do you have any other ideas for some Elemental-based shenanigans that might add extra power to this deck list?
3) Is any kind of mana acceleration viable for this deck except for the usual Mox / Sol Ring mix for the potential "harder" version of this deck list?
4) What other spells might work well in this deck list (both creature and non-creature ones)? What would you change here, both when it comes to spells themselves and the proposed number of cards, given both the intended synergy and the intended theme of the deck?
5) Is any planeswalker viable here, or not worth it?
Any other ideas and advice for improvement would be highly welcome!
Eventually I'm planning to have an easier and a harder version of the deck (ideally Medium and Hard), any ideas for tweaks for those particular difficulty levels are welcome as well!
- Agetian