GW cip Return Deck

[Chris H.]

This is an interesting Deck. I'm not quite sure if I will decide to modify it at some time or if I will be happy with its several different themes.

When Land Tax was first printed I felt that it was one of the worst cards that I had ever seen. My opinion is changing. The Land Tax and the Weathered Wayfarer can help to increase the amount of mana that you have available and can help to thin out the Library for future draws.

The Defense of the Heart and Demonic Tutor should help to get into play your Angel of Despair, Angel of Mercy, Elvish Piper, Eternal Witness, Steel Leaf Paladin, Tolsimir Wolfblood, Rhox Bodyguard. It is interesting to watch these cards interact.

The Fleetfoot Panther, Stonecloaker and Steel Leaf Paladin should give you a chance to re-use the Angel of Despair.

60 Total Cards

31 Creatures
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3x Angel of Despair
1x Angel of Mercy
1x Briarhorn
1x Elvish Piper
1x Eternal Witness
4x Fleetfoot Panther
1x Kavu Climber
1x Noble Panther
2x Primordial Sage
1x Rhox Bodyguard
1x Steel Leaf Paladin
4x Stonecloaker
1x Tolsimir Wolfblood
3x Wall of Blossoms
2x Watchwolf
4x Weathered Wayfarer

10 Spells
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4x Defense of the Heart
1x Demonic Tutor
2x Land Tax
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Jet
1x Mox Pearl

19 Land
--------
4x Bayou
2x Forest
3x Plains
4x Savannah
4x Scrubland
2x Swamp

[GandoTheBard]

I still want to make THIS deck: (sadly not all the cards are available)

(Ive got 10-11 varients on MODO but can't play them because the client effectively wont run for me on this machine.)
Variant a)
Beasts:
3 Stonecloaker
3 Desolation Giant
2 Riftwing Cloudskate
3 Steamcore Weird
1 Viridian Shaman
1 Merchant of Secrets
1 Mystic Snake
1 Ogre Savant
1 Harmonic Sliver
1 Dust Elemental
1 Coiling Oracle
1 Cloudchaser Eagle
1 Aven Cloudchaser
1 Civic Wayfinder

Arts
2 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Crystal Shard
4 Darksteel Ingot
1 Lotus Blossom

Spells
2 Ancestral Vision
2 Gaea's Blessing

Lands
1 Azorius Chancery
3 Boros Garrison
1 Izzet Boilerworks
5 Mountain
5 Plains
3 Forest
2 Island
4 Terramorphic Expanse


Variant b)
Beasts
3 Stonecloaker
3 Desolation Giant
3 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Absolver Thrull
1 Deadwood Treefolk
1 Merchant of Secrets
1 Krosan Tusker
1 Ogre Savant
1 Riftwing Cloudskate
1 Sage Aven
1 Tin Street Hooligan
1 Viridian Shaman
1 Aven Riftwatcher
1 Aven Cloudchaser

Arts
2 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Crystal Shard
4 Darksteel Ingot
1 Lotus Blossom

Spells
2 Ancestral Vision
2 Gaea's Blessing
1 Reminisce

Lands
1 Azorius Chancery
3 Boros Garrison
1 Izzet Boilerworks
5 Mountain
5 Plains
3 Forest
2 Island
4 Terramorphic Expanse

The differences between the two decks may seem subtle but one was definitely a change due to the types of decks I was facing in Casual. I usually won 3 out of 5 matches with this deck in Casual though it did not fair all that well against the serious decks du jour (Dragon Storm etc) Though it did ok against less than perfect builds. Also the surprise factor had a big impact on alot of my opponents, even those who won, since they had to switch strategies to overcome the lock. Denial and Counterspells were the hardest enemy decks to face with this though of course the worse the deck the deck or player the easier it was to win.

The idea here is board control using comes into play/leaves play effects. In addition you get decent card advantage off of the recursion of creatures and as a last little niggling thing, your opponent expects you to use the shards on their creatures and you can to stall them until you get the draw you want (Stonecloaker+Giant) and the land you need: 2 red + 2 white + 1 blue +2 of any is typically mandatory and not hard to achieve. Fun things happen when you get a mystic snake and a crystal shard...suddenly you are just plain control and your opponent has to figure out if you are really playing control.deck (very frowned on in casual) or just have a quirky hand (which is the case).

Anyway since I can't play it online I share it here with you. Hope you enjoy.

==Edit== You should know if you decide to use this on MODO, I played this well over a year and a half ago and the cards in it may be only usable in Freeform or Legacy/Classic. Also many of the cards may have better counterparts and/or answers to them in the newer sets. Since I don't play offline and I can't play online I have no idea about current card interactions really outside of our little macroverse.

[Chris H.]

Thank you Gando.

Those decks look like they would be a lot of fun to play.

I hope that one day we will see the Crystal Shard card implemented in Forge.