Xander9009's Decks

by **Xander9009** » 21 Mar 2017, 00:29

Download - Also, you can check any deck's actual card list there, too.

I've decided that having 90 decks is more than enough to justify having my own deck thread. So, I'll use this thread to post info about each of my decks. However, I don't plan to upload any images yet, as that'll take quite a bit more effort, and I've already put a lot of energy into simply typing this all up. It's actually so long (and all typed by hand, no less) that the forum won't let me post it together. I'll do my best to keep this thread updated, but you guys know I'm better at keeping things updated when I can automate the task, which I can't do with these forums, so no promises. :lol:

Nearly all of my decks are made completely by me with no outside sources, but there are some exceptions. I usually just think of some possibility or notice some combo, and then I start adding cards until I feel it would work well. A few decks, however, are based on others' ideas. I'll try to note those where I remember.

And finally, I don't intend to post the decklists here. Because of the website (see my signature), it's not just unnecessary, but it also means that there are more ways for me to forget to manually update something, so I'm not going to bother. You can get the decklist for any of my decks from the website, but the website isn't designed to have any of the deck pages manually edited to include any extra information (which I hope to fix eventually), so this is mostly about discussing the idea behind the decks. Sometimes to point out tricky combos that might not be obvious, and other times to simply explain where the idea came from.

Some decks are marked as Concept Decks. These aren't going to be as strong as other decks, because they focus rather intently on a specific idea, not so much on being powerful. Some may even be practically unplayable, though these are rare. Some, however, are just as powerful as normal decks, or even rarely stronger than the typical deck. They can really be all over the place.

*This is a deck I really like.
**This is one of my top favorite decks.

Mardu Raiders | Open: I built this with the intent that it be my idea of a quintessential Mardu deck. I don't play against other people or pay any attention to popular decks, so this may be nothing like what most of the popular Mardu decks look like.

There are some cards in here that could probably use fewer copies, but being specifically Mardu convinced me to put them all in. Namely, Mardu Banner, Mardu Ascendancy, and Mardu Charm.

Despite being my first deck listed, and even having my first ID, it's neither my first deck nor my favorite.

If You Build It | Open: This deck is made entirely of artifacts and artifact creatures. The name is a reference to its complete lack of lands. If you want to play spells, you'll need to manage to get out the various free artifacts. Lots of affinity and free stuff. Once you get out what you need, though, either Darksteel Juggernaut or Blightsteel Colossus can end the game pretty quickly.

Myrtation | Open: Like If You Build It, this is an artifact deck, but it's not about landless play or affinity, but rather Myr creatures. It's not entirely Myr creatures, though. It's also got a few generally artifact-y creatures like Master of Etherium and Steel Overseer. It's even got Platinum Angel, and of course Blightsteel Colossus in case you're having trouble pushing through.

Angelic Chorus | Open: This deck might have been based on someone else's. I don't think so, but I've had it for so long that I frankly don't remember. The name says everything, really.

One thing that might seem out of place is Solemn Simulacrum; 4 copies, even. However, it's really good for its ETB ability when combined with Emancipation Angel or Restoration Angel. This deck needs the extra lands because it's got some high CMC things to work with: Soul of Theros, Resolute Archangel, and Avacyn, Angel of Hope.

Honestly, this deck would probably benefit well from Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx due to all of the cards with multiple mana symbols, but I've been trying lately to keep decks from using complicated lands that the AI doesn't understand unless the deck really needs it.

Simic Lifeblood | Open: I think this deck might have been based on someone else's.

This Simic deck is designed to power up your creatures until your opponent can't handle it anymore. Nearly every creature in the deck has a way to produce +1/+1 counters. The only exceptions are Prophet of Kruphix, Courser of Kruphix, and Kruphix, God of Horizons.

The main combo in this deck is Kruphix, God of Horizons and Lifeblood Hydra. The ability to save up your mana to spend on the hydra can make it exceptionally powerful. Plus, if your opponent does manage to kill it, you'll get a bunch of cards that you can probably afford to play.

Archetype of Victory - Concept Deck | Open: It's built around the archetype cards, and contains 4 copies of each. It then contains cards that will hopefully help you survive long enough to get them out, and a few to help them survive long enough to be useful.

Leyline of Vitality will help keep your creatures alive and also grant a bit of life which can prove invaluable. And just in case you find yourself overwhelmed since all the creatures in the deck are enchantment creatures, 4 copies of Extinguish All Hope can wipe out everyone else's creatures while leaving yours untouched.

Aggressive Mining | Open: This deck is all about getting out the card Aggressive Mining. Since it stops you from being able to play lands, but you need lands to activate it, there are lots of cards that put lands directly into play. And for those lands left in your hand, Seismic Assault can get them out of it.

I'm not very happy with Seismic Assault since it's so expensive. I'd prefer something else.

Tropical Evolution | Open: Another Simic deck (I love Simic), this one focuses on the evolve mechanic. It's got a lot more card draw, mostly from Fathom Mage, but you'll really need to draw a Kruphix, God of Horizons or Prophet of Kruphix in order to afford everything. Even then, you'll likely be drawing cards faster than you can play them. Not that that's a bad thing. It's always good to have lots of options.

Defend the Sentinel - Concept Deck | Open: This is another concept deck, but it's a little stronger than the other concept decks. It has no attackers except for Flamewright. However, it's got a nice mix of defenders that make Vent Sentinel really powerful.

It's also got a couple of other interesting features. Symbiotic Deployment lets you use your defenders since they won't often be tapping for anything else anyway. And Grand Melee can be really powerful when paired with Perimeter Captain or Sprouting Phytohydra.

This is possibly the only deck I made with max temples (Temple of Triumph, Temple of Plenty, and Temple of Abandon), but it really benefits from the scrying. It's not often strongly in need of that one extra mana right away.

Elven Superiority | Open: This was my take on Nissa's deck. The biggest difference between the two is that this deck has 4 copies of Druids' Repository, which can combine with Ezuri, Renegade Leader extremely well.

Plus, since we've got access to planeswalkers, this deck actually has Nissa Revane in the deck, instead of just acting as the personality. She's accompanied by Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury.

Maze Runner - Concept Deck | Open: Many cards were pulled from an online deck.
Built around Maze's End, this deck has no creatures. Instead, it has lots of differently colored lands and lots of ways to stave off your opponents' attacks. Supreme Verdict and Merciless Eviction let you get rid of the creatures, while Fog, Druid's Deliverance, Riot Control let you ignore this turn's combat. A few counterspells in the form of Negate round it out, with just a couple of extra goodies to deal with pesky creatures that won't obey your verdicts. Overall a decent deck.

Count On It (But really colorless} | Open: An artifact deck built around counters and counter-manipulation, this deck can, in many cases, run away with power. Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas acts as one of the finishers, along with Blightsteel Colossus and Titan Forge. This is one of my favored decks, but I won't explain it too much. Just looking at the cards will show it's pretty straightforward to play.

Jeskai Way | Open: As a Jeskai deck, this thing focuses on instants and sorceries. And for that, it's got Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind and Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius, along with Melek, Izzet Paragon. However, it does have some difficulty getting the mana to play those, so Jhoira of the Ghitu can help get them into play. She can also help get one of the 4 planeswalkers in out (though 3 of them should be cheap enough to play normally without trouble).

Run Wild | Open: This is a very powerful deck with lots of big creatures. Largely elf focused but has lots of non-elf stuff going on, too.

As a mono-green deck, it's got to have lots of land fetch, and it puts that land to excellent use.

You'll need to make extensive use of manual-mana tapping for this deck. Vorinclex, Vernal Bloom, Nissa, Worldwaker, and Garruk Wildspeaker (to a lesser extent) all benefit from manual-mana.

Stream of Thought | Open: I built this deck in paper magic a long time ago, and I always liked it. It's not the most powerful (though it's not weak, either), but it's really fun to me. It's all about drawing cards. You get lots of opportunities to draw, and you get lots of abilities that let you make use of those extra cards and lands. Walking Atlas is the main method of getting extra lands into play, and once you've got them, there's a very nice mana-sink combo.

In fact, it's the combo the deck was originally built around: Horseshoe Crab + Retraction Helix. (Technically, it was originally Banishing Knack, but I like the art for the helix better). You can turn every mana you have into a bounced permanent, clearing your opponents' creatures out of the way.

There's also Freed from the Real, which is the same cost as Horseshoe Crab, and also more versatile.

Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Thassa, God of the Sea are notable special cards.

Countermand * | Open: This is a blue+red proliferate deck with the ability to really get our of hand (I'd never play this in paper magic...). It is, nonetheless, one of my favorite decks to play with.

Several planeswalkers are included, but the notable one is Ral Zarek, which can team up with Sage of Hours to (rather consistently) get nearly unlimited extra turns. Sage of Hours is mostly triggered by Hidden Strings, but Blinding Flare can also do it if needed.

Gruuling Goblins * | Open: Like most goblin decks, this can often be very fast. It's got the multitude of goblins you'd expect from a goblin deck, but it's also got a few interesting additions from the green side of things.

Vineweft, Dragon Fangs, and Asceticism will let your Goblin Kaboomist survive an accident (and so will Goblin Chieftain and Boartusk Liege), and Infiltration Lens, Bequeathal, and Skullclamp will make blocking your goblins more dangerous.

Xenagos, the Reveler and Domri Rade make up the planeswalker support, and they can, with Domri acting as the main finisher in drawn out games.

Legend of the Tri-Force - Concept Deck | Open: This is not a deck you play if you want to win. It's got entirely unique cards (like EDH), with every creature being legendary. Each card requires exactly 3 differently colored mana to play (plus colorless), including all of the tri-colored charms, each of the ascendancies, and each of Tarkir's clan leaders (plus many others).

You're not likely to win, but it is sometimes fun to see how they interact with one another.

Urza's Craft - Concept Deck | Open: Urza's got lots of related cards, so I decided to make an artifact decks using all of them. Many of the cards are singletons.

The land base is made up of Urza's lands, plus Mishra's Workshop. You can often end up with exceptional amounts of mana, so there are a handful of fairly expensive cards (plus, as always, Blightsteel Colossus) to put that mana to use.

Sultai Silumgar | Open: Basically what the name implies. Silumgar, the Drifting Death is actually the only creature. This deck is mostly about destroying creatures (often en masse), countering spells, and scrying for Silumgar. It's also got Liliana Vess and Kiora, the Crashing Wave to back it up.

Eldrazi Invasion | Open: This is one of the most powerful decks I've made, with it being capable of consistently winning against all base-game decks, and usually able to resolve several Eldrazi, including Emrakul, the Aeons Torn.

Parallel Lives, Awakening Zone, Beastmaster Ascension, and Eldrazi Monument combine to make a very deadly force.

Simic Walkers | Open: This is a deck made up of lots of planeswalkers, and a number of ways to give them counters. The most notable planeswalkers are Tamiyo, the Moon Sage and Teferi, Temporal Archmage. While the others are important, these two have ultimates that will allow you to seriously mess up your opponents.

Dawn Bringer - Concept Deck | Open: Bringer of the White Dawn, along with its four siblings, are the focus of this one. Paradox Haze lets you benefit from them multiple times per turn.

Joiner Adept, Channel the Suns (very fitting, flavor-wise), and a few rainbow lands let the deck function much better than the concept deck status might imply.

Headshot | Open: Another of the decks I made in paper magic, this one is all about creatures that ping, like Prodigal Pyromancer. it's also got lots of direct damage spells, as wells as Grapeshot, though getting it up to a decent number in this particular deck can be tricky. Not the best deck around (I improved it later as Aneurysm), it's still decent.

Burden of Knowledge ** | Open: This deck is all about drawing cards. However, unlike Stream of Thought, it's not just you who will draw. You make your opponents draw, too, and then you punish them for having too many cards. There aren't very any decks out there that can really stand up to the sheer number of cards this can cause an opponent to go through.

It's also got a nice combo for helping you not be the one who dies when your deck is empty: General's Kabuto + Platinum Angel.

Your opponent is likely to get lots of creatures, but Silent Arbiter and Ivory Tower usually prevent that from mattering. The arbiter also plays very nicely with Wurmcoil Engine.

Metallic Menagerie | Open: This one's all about having a variety of artifacts. Many of the creatures are singularly powerful (Blightsteel Colossus, Colossus of Akros, Platinum Emperion, Sphinx of the Steel Wind), you'll usually have plenty of mana to get them all down. Throw in an Akroma's Memorial, and there's not much your opponent can do.

Engineered Enhancements | Open: For this artifact deck, I wanted to try something slightly different. Not very different, but a bit. Tezzeret the Seeker and Daretti, Scrap Savant are in here with Inexorable Tide and Contagion Engine. That's really all there is to say about it. It's a moderately good deck, nothing great, but fun to play on occasion.

Endless Afflicted | Open: Zombies galore, here. Parallel Lives, Doubling Season, and Endless Ranks of the Dead (4 of each) will quickly overwhelm your opponents if you can get them down. To help you survive long enough, Pharika, God of Affliction, Garruk, Apex Predator, and Vraska the Unseen all help you get out creatures, with Vraska's ultimate being a very fun way to end the game. (Those 3 tokens can become 768 at once potentially (not that the game will let you have that many).)

Selfless Donations | Open: I saw Zedruu the Greathearted and (like many others, I'm sure) had to make something based on him (her?). This is the result. Akroan Horse and Abyssal Persecutor are the main creatures you want to give your opponent, and Silent Arbiter works perfectly no matter who's controlling it.

A few other cards that function the same for anyone are included, as well as a couple of less than helpful cards, like Illusions of Grandeur and Pyromancer's Swath.

To really finish the deck off, Venser, the Sojourner can help your Spine if Ish Sah fire off many times, or he can recharge your Gemstone Mine.

Speaking of mana, if you "gift" a land to your opponent, like Gemstone Mine or Mirrodin's Core, you empower your Exotic Orchard without benefitting your opponent very much.

Simic Personified ** | Open: In case you can't tell, I really like Simic.

I took everything I thought of when I thought of Simic and shoved it all into one very powerful deck. Lots of drawing, counters, copying, and powerful fliers, this deck often does very well for itself, and it's one of the more fun ones to play with (I think).

Fame and Honor | Open: Renown and bolster are the focus here, with Valeron Wardens and Dromoka, the Eternal being the guiding lights for it all. It's also got a handful of equipment (mostly stuff I'd expect a renowned warrior to have; giant hammers, gleaming chariots, throne, awesome plate armor) to help your creatures survive their attacking.

5 Color Walkers | Open: This one's got more planeswalkers than any of my other decks, (I think), and I don't even remember if I'm the one that made it. It might have been fallenangle (or maybe even someone else). It has no creatures, so it makes good use of Damnation. Chain Vail and Doubling Season round out the main focus. Due to the sheer number of planeswalkers you can get out (and with a single Doubling Season, many of them can activate their ultimate immediately), this deck is very powerful once it gets going. Plus, each planeswalkers in unique within the deck, so you'll never get a dead one in your hand that you can't use.

Final Destination | Open: At some point, I was coding Containment Priest, and I decided she deserved her own deck, so I made a deck based on a bunch of cards that exile things, and then return them to the battlefield. Usually, since it's only temporary, this is relatively cheap, or it's pretty easily repeatable. However, with Containment Priest out, it becomes a permanent removal, and cards like Parallax Wave can quickly wipe out your opponents' entire army.

Venser, the Sojourner makes a reappearance, since his ultimate fits the deck very well, and his +2 can get your own Containment Priest out of the way for a turn if you need to.

The Nalaar's Continue to Burn | Open: This one wasn't made by me. It was a decklist I found on the internet and decided to try out. It was, at the time, standard, and is exactly what you'd expect from the name.

In the Forest of the Night | Open: When fixing The Great Aurora, I needed a deck to test it with, so instead of just making a test deck, I looked one up and made it. It's actually what led to the previous deck, as well.

The idea is relatively simple: cast The Great Aurora. Your deck is built to handle it much better than your opponents'. And don't forget to tap all of your lands for mana before you do. You'll get to use that mana to play the cards from your hand.

Accessorize * | Open: This deck is all about artifacts, equipment, and myr. The full cycle of dual-color swords is included, as well as a bunch of other equipment, such as Sword of Kaldra and co.

One of the better combos is Pariah's Shield and Darksteel Myr.

Dragonlords of Tarkir - Concept Deck | Open: Containing lots of dragons, the idea here is simple: play dragons, eat your enemies. It's got each of the dragonlords, plus lots of friends. It is, however, a concept deck, and as such, it's not the most powerful. It can have lots of trouble finding the mana to do the things it needs to.

It's also got the monument and command cycles (e.g. Atarka Monument and Atarka's Command).

For land, despite not really being the best choice, I decided to go for Tarkir's triple lands (e.g. Nomad Outpost). It's also got Rupture Spire to help out a bit. Since everything enters the battlefield tapped, it can be a bit slow, but hopefully, you can get out some of the cost reducers to fix that issue. It did have Haven of the Spirit Dragon and Crucible of the Spirit Dragon, but they proved too crash-prone.

On the planeswalker side of things, it's got Sarkhan Unbroken. I'm not sure how well he'll do, but getting his ultimate resolved is basically the best win con ever...

Poisoned Placebo | Open: When I coded Tainted Remedy, I immediately decided I had to make a deck for it. Basically, you have lots of cheap ways to make your opponents gain life, and Tainted Remedy makes it kill them instead. Gaining life is, at least generally, much cheaper than causing loss of life, and there are some fun creatures that combo nicely in here such as Soul Scourge.

Other decent ones are Congregate, Wall of Shards, and Blessed Wind. However, nothing beats Beacon of Immortality. If you've got the remedy out or False Cure in effect, then it's an instakill.

Also in the mix are Soul Conduit and Platinum Emperion.

Transcension ** | Open: Lightmine Field is what prompted this deck, and I really liked the idea of punishing enemies for attacking. So, I put in with it Orim's Prayer and a decent bit of enchantment support, most notably, Starfield of Nyx. I also really liked the idea of defeating your enemies through enlightenment. So, with the flavor set, I added Hedron-Field Purists, which makes their attacks useless. I added Monastery Mentor and Transcendent Master to round it out, and it works really well.

For the land, it's got several non-basics, including Serra's Sanctum, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, and Emeria, the Sky Ruin. With the last one and Starfield of Nyx, you can get back nearly any card put into your graveyard, except for Godsend, the land cards, or the planeswalkers.

Deathstroke | Open: The combination of First Strike and Deathtouch can be singularly powerful, so, I made a deck around it. Most of the creatures have one or the other, and there are several cards to grant the other; most importantly, the archetypes.

Aneurysm | Open: This is my improvement over Headshot. It's similar to the previous one, as well, with lots of deathtouch. Deathtouch does not need to be combat damage, so Prodigal Pyromancer's ability can act as a one-hit kill for non-indestructible creatures.

Despite being expensive for its normal abilities, the ETB ability of Embermage Goblin makes him singularly powerful in this deck. Having the ability to get out more ping abilities is well worth the high cost in most cases.

Usually, this ends up with the enemy having no creatures, and you can destroy them the moment they're played. And with any leftover pinging to be done, you can target the player directly to whittle them down.

Glimpse of Ashiok | Open: This is first mill deck I made. It's got lots of powerful mill cards, and several ways to hold off any creatures your opponents manage to get out thanks to Baleful Strix, Tidehollow Strix, and Damnation.

Obviously, it's got Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver, but it's also got Phenax, God of Deception. This deck tends to be really powerful. There are certain archetypes that can really tear it down, but it usually comes out on top against anyone else.

Cascading from the Maelstrom ** | Open: This is my single favorite deck. It's also the largest, and one of the strongest. All of that despite the fact that it began life as a concept deck. It never even had to stray from that concept, it just worked really well.

The concept was a deck with every cascade card. It needed a way to get out lots of mana in a way that was useful for cascade, too, so I put in two of each borderpost (e.g. Wildfield Borderpost), though I recently switched these out for the cycles with Mardu Banner and Obelisk of Grixis type cards. They come in untapped, and some have extra abilities. This was partially done so I could swap out the basic lands for the main dual lands cycle. Finally, it had cards with cascade as cheap as CMC 3, so it needed something to cast cheaper than that, so I put in Eladamri's Call, Abrupt Decay, and Dreadbore.

Transguild Promenade and Rupture Spire finish out the mana base nicely.

And finally, just recently, I threw in a single Elixir of Immortality, because despite being 91 cards, it does actually get down to nothing. This can be fetched from your deck with Maelstrom Nexus and any 2 CMC spell if it's needed.

I did remove several cards with cascade, so it doesn't have the full concept, anymore, but it made it much stronger. Mostly spells and enchantments. I kept all of the creatures.

Zombie Apocalypse | Open: This one, as well as the next, were together in an article about two different methods of making infinite tokens. At some point, I'll probably remove them. I don't much like them, and I've never used them since I made them...

Walking Woods | Open: See the previous deck for info on this deck.

Gruul Stomping Ground ** | Open: The Gruul can be ridiculously powerful, sometimes, and I wanted to showcase some of that brute force. With Atarka, World Render, Dragon Broodmother, and Dragonlord Atarka, it may seem like a dragon deck, but it's also got several hydras, and also several support cards. It's also got a decent chunk of land-grab, mostly in the form of a couple Sword of the Animist entries, and 4 copies of Recross the Path. With your massive creatures, these can sometimes provide 2 or three lands before you lose them.

Planeswalker support is in the form of Domri Rade and Xenagos, the Reveler.

Resolution of Allies | Open: In paper magic, I have an allies deck, and it was my first that I personally made with my own cards. It's also my strongest, having been beaten only once or twice by those I played with. This was initially meant to be an updated version of that, making use of the various new allies from Battle for Zendikar.

The land-base was originally using Ally Encampment, Cavern of Souls, and Mana Confluence, but the first two proved too crash-prone and the latter was just a hassle (since it can't be auto-tap). So, they were traded out for normal dual-lands, with Cryptolith Rite added for a bit of extra rainbow support.

Pearly Gates! Only $4.99! | Open: This is all about making it cheaper to cast angels, and it's got a lot of those angels to cast. Aspiring Aeronaut might seem like an odd fit, but it's often only to cast, and for two fliers is fantastic and combos well with Champion of the Parish.

Overall, this is one of the more powerful decks, with Guardian of the Gateless and Iridescent Angel able to hold off most attackers, and Platinum Angel keeping you alive through most anything.

Life is Pain ** | Open: Probably my second favorite deck, this one's about benefitting from being attacked. The main cards of note are Sun Droplet, Rhox Faithmender, and Fleecemain Lion. The lion is the main defender, which can survive lots of stuff early on and can be made indestructible for use later in the game. It was previously named Please Sir, May I Have Some More, but I changed the name and modified the card list to add Godsend, Serra Ascendant, and Luminarch Ascension. I also swapped the dual lands for Terramorphic Expanse. Overall, the AI is much better at being able to handle it now, and it doesn't have a strong enough color split to require the dual lands.

Bonds of Strength | Open: I got a paper Dromoka, the Eternal and Enduring Scalelord, and loved the art and effects of them both too much to not use them, so I made this deck. Make lots of +1/+1 counters. And making +1/+1 counters triggers more +1/+1 counters. Those are the best creatures in the deck, and with a couple of the latter one out, you can have infinite counters.

NOTE: If you get out two Enduring Scalelords and they trigger, you will be forced to turn off the setting "Always use optional abilities" in order to answer "no". They're designed to auto-skip the timer once they're more powerful than the other creatures on the battlefield. They slow down and use the timer every time they have counters in an exact multiple of 50.

Nature Incarnate - Concept Deck | Open: The two cycles of incarnations (Purity, Hostility, etc and Brawn, Valor, etc) are all included here with a few extra cards to help the deck function. It's not very powerful but can get lucky sometimes.

Painful Memories | Open: Painful Memories plays off of the idea that your hand is what you're thinking of, and it punishes opponents for drawing cards. It also, of course, makes them draw more cards. Nekusar, the Mindrazer embodies the deck well.

Syngergism - Concept Deck | Open: This deck has lots of cards that go very well together. However, they're basically all very expensive, and this deck rarely gets off the ground. When it does, it's a force to be reckoned with, though.

Your Immortal Soul | Open: Teysa, Orzhov Scion and Painter's Servant mark the central idea of this deck. With Painter's Servant set to black, Teysa can exile any number of creatures whenever you want.

It sometimes has some trouble getting going, but usually does at least decently. And when it does well, it does amazingly.

Athreos, God of Passage gives you a way to get back your creatures should you find yourself being forced to sacrifice them (or lose them in combat) before Teysa's out.

Deathbringer Liege gives a backup plan for getting rid of creatures if you can't get a hold of Teysa.

Wooded Avalanche * | Open: All about landfall, this deck's main creature is Undergrowth Champion. I often found it having trouble with being overrun before it could really get down to business, so Nevinyrral's Disk is included to take out most of your opponents' permanents. Of course, it'll have to be used carefully.

Sylvan Safekeeper and Groundskeeper make a fantastic combination, and the ability to replay those lands benefits the deck very well. Overall, it's a really strong deck unless you're unlucky.

Reversion | Open: Made when Battle for Zendikar was coded, this one's all about devoid creatures and various things that benefit from having colorless permanents.

It does have the ingest mechanic and a few processors, but it should run fine even if you can't get that fired off.

All is Dust and Gruesome Slaughter mark the main win conditions.

Processing a Plane | Open: This is similar to Reversion, but it's more focused on processing. Since it relies on it more heavily, it's also got Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver. Like the other Battle for Zendikar decks, it's not amazing, but it's a fun, flavorful deck.

Awakening of Zendikar | Open: All about the awaken mechanic, obviously, this one's got Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper and lots of instants and sorceries to trigger him. It's also got Halimar Tidecaller to reuse those cards you able to afford before.

Getting enough lands for a mechanic like this in a deck can be a bit of a challenge, so Sword of the Animist and Journeyer's Kite help get more awaken targets.

It's also got a lot of planeswalker support with Venser, the Sojourner, Narset Transcendent, Elspeth, Knight-Errant, and Ajani Steadfast all making appearances.

Elemental Rage | Open: Omnath, Locus of Rage was the main motivation for the deck, so it's got lots of elementals. It doesn't focus on its landfall ability, though Liege of the Tangle does play nicely as another land-related elemental.

This also has Whisperwood Elemental, which can quickly overwhelm your opponents.

Kinetic Creations | Open: Built around the fabricate and energy mechanics, and it's even got some crew cards. In other words, it's all about Kaladesh.

Angel of Invention and Marionette Master are the main creatures, though Thriving Rats and Eddytrail Hawk are the bulk of the army. It's also got lots of artifacts, such as Fabrication Module and Aetherworks Marvel.

Kaya, Ghost Assassin plays surprisingly well with this, as it lets you gain a bit of life when needed, reactivate your fabrication creatures/energy producers, or draw extra cards.

For land, it had to have Aether Hub, but is otherwise what you'd expect.

Rise Again(st) | Open: Not my favorite name for the decks I've made, but it's decent enough. This one's all about angels and demons, with High Priest of Penance being the only non-angel, non-demon creature. They actually get along much better than expected, and it's usually a pretty strong deck.

The only card that really needs to be noted is Desolation Angel. It's a bit tricky to use, but if you can manage to get its kicker resolved after a Magister of Worth, you've pretty much won. A single 4/4 flyer isn't all that amazing for 6 mana, but a single 4/4 flyer with no other creatures and no other lands is gonna be tough to deal with. (I've only managed to get this combo done a couple of times, but both times ended up being a very quick win.)

Induced Insanity | Open: Notion Thief and Master of the Feast were the combo this deck was built around. Dream Fracture also plays very nicely in there, as does Otherworld Atlas. Bloodgift Demon is even better, letting you deal 1 damage and letting you draw the card.
Nemesis of Reason and Glimpse the Unthinkable are the other major players, with Jace Beleren being the only planeswalker. Turning his +2 into two copies of his own -1 ability is fantastic. (Even better in multiplayer.)

Mercurial Experiments | Open: The idea with this deck is to draw as many cards as you possibly can, and Psychic Vortex usually the method that gets the most drawn. You've got to get out at least 5 lands in order to get it going while still reliably keeping your land count high enough to win, but once you've managed that, you hopefully use your ridiculous card drawing power to stave off your enemy until you run out of cards with Laboratory Maniac in play. And in case you don't get him out, Elixir of Immortality lets you keep drawing without worrying about dying (at least for awhile).

Since you'll usually end up discarding your hand at the end of your turn, most of the cards are kept relatively cheap so you can afford multiple ones. Unsummon, Lightning Bolt, and Mana Drain being among them. You can make use of these reliably even if your opponent doesn't have any valid targets since you can feed them to Nivmagus Elemental to eat them for counters.

Other cards that would go well in the deck but aren't included are Chasm Skulker and Sphinx's Tutelage. Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind would be amazing, but it's too expensive to reliably cast; the deck already often has trouble with the cheaper Keranos, God of Storms.

Call of the Forested Island | Open: This particular Simic deck isn't necessarily the best composition, but it's still pretty strong. The idea was to be able to play big creatures whenever you want (hence the name). To manage this, you'll need Prophet of Kruphix out. Having Kruphix, God of Horizons will greatly empower the deck, though in that case, it will often end up with more mana than it can use.

In order to get the creatures, Sages of the Anima can increase your creature drawing power significantly, but at a steep cost, no more lands. That won't be a bother if you've got Kruphix out or the Prophet out, though.

Nulltread Gargantuan was too good not to include, but it's drawback had to be exploited, so Shardless Agent and Coiling Oracle are pretty cheap things you can play again for a decent benefit.

It does have a lot of draw power from Fathom Mage, and she can be boosted further by Master Biomancer or Vorel of the Hull Clade.

Kiora, the Crushing Wave is the only planeswalker included, but she fit nicely enough mechanically that I included her, though the main motivation for wanting to in the first place was simply because her ultimate is so flavorfully fitting.

Unchecked Growth | Open: This one's going to be long... It's possibly the most complicated deck I've made. The general idea is that you can pump out lots of mana and then use that mana to effectively kill your opponent.

This deck makes extensive use of combinations.
Creatures:
Walking Atlas
Stone-Seeder Hierophant
Kiora's Follower

Other:
Amulet of Vigor
Simic Growth Chamber

Basically, you play Simic Growth Chamber. This will put three abilities onto the stack. Itself, Amulet of Vigor, and Stone-Seeder Hierophant. Every chance you get, tap the land for mana and untap the land using Stone-Seeder Hierophant.
If you don't control a Walking Atlas, then also untap the land every time you can using Kiora's Follower.
When Simic Growth Chamber's ability resolves, choose itself.
Now, use Walking Atlas to perform the entire process again.
If possible, untap Walking Atlas using Kiora's Follower to perform the entire process again.

Basically, as long as you control at least one of each, you can perform the whole combo once, plus once for each Walking Atlas and Kiora's Follower. The amount of mana you can get out of the land is 2 times the number you control of Amulet of Vigor and Stone-Seeder Heirophant. Only Amulet of Vigor and either Kiora's Follower or Stone-Seeder Hierophant are required, though.

With Amulet of Vigor out, you can also use Thawing Glaciers right away, and use your untapping abilities to use it multiple times, racking up your basic land count significantly.

Since Amulet of Vigor is so important, Fabricate and Trinket Mage will help you get it.

To make use of all of that mana, you can put it into Sigil of Distinction or Braingeyser. And to ensure that Sigil of Distinction isn't blocked by an endless stream of 1/1 tokens, Ring of Kalonia will make sure the equipped creature can get through.

Trinket Mage and Fabricate can pull lots of useful things from your library, not just Amulet of Vigor, so they should prove useful no matter when you draw them.

Overall, it's a very powerful deck, but it's also very tricky to make sure you're getting the most out of it. It's entirely possible to go from having 2 cards in hand (Braingeyser & Simic Growth Chamber) to making your opponent draw their entire deck and immediately winning.

Vitality of the Living | Open: Create lots of little creatures and get benefits from making them. Soul Warden and Essence Warden are the main ways to benefit, and the main source of creatures will be Whitemane Lion, Spirit Bonds, and White Sun's Zenith.

Champion of Lambholt acts as the main win-con, with Sigil Captain and Trostani, Selesnya's Voice being the biggest supporters.

Wrath of Rakdos | Open: This deck was inspired by Grenzo, Dungeon Warden, but it sort of grew into a more varied deck than that might imply. Lots of ways to deal damage directly to your opponent or take out their creatures are included, and also several ways to shrink their hand and limit their options.

Ashenmoor Liege will help all of the creatures in the deck, and he'll also help make sure that Grenzo is strong enough to play any creatures you pull.

Defiler of Souls and Mogis, God of Slaughter help to thin their ranks over time for free while also serving as creatures.

Sigarda's Investigation | Open: I really love the Investigate mechanic, so I wanted to make a deck based on it. Since Clues are artifacts, Leonin Elder is a fantastic 1-drop. And since most of the creatures in the deck are pretty cheap, Bygone Bishop is extremely powerful. It's important to get your cheap humans up to snuff, though, so Always Watching will help them not just survive early on, but also attack later once they've been boosted a bit without leaving you vulnerable.

Even so, you're likely to lose a few, and Sigarda, Heron's Grace should help you put those dead ones to use again, with the human tokens hopefully triggering Thalia's Lieutenant. The other major creatures in the deck are Ulvenwald Hydra, Sage of Ancient Lore, and Archangel Avacyn.

As a last resort, you can protect your creatures from wipes with Eerie Interlude. And not just that, but you can also often power your creatures up with it a bit if you target lots of (non-token) humans while you've got Thalia's Lieutenant out.

Arrival of the Sphinx | Open: Esper artifacts, this deck was prompted by Sharding Sphinx. Baleful Strix, being perhaps my favorite creature of its kind, will usually be the main defender. There's also Sphinx's Herald as a cheap creature, and his sac ability can actually be useful for Windwright Mage as well (assuming you don't need to use Windwright Mage as the white creature...). It's an entirely creature deck except for Elixir of Immortality, but the fetching, card draws, and several other abilities mean you won't typically be in need of non-creatures anyway.

Sandal's Enchanted Evening | Open: I made a deck that combined Aura Thief, Enchanted Evening, Omniscience, and Enter the Infinite. It can consistently get those spells cast, which means it can consistently win by turning everything into an enchantment and then stealing all of those enchantments for yourself. There's no better embodiment of excitement over enchantments that Sandal (Dragon Age), so he had to be included somehow.

There are multiple ways to get Omniscience cast, including Fist of Suns+Crystal Quarry, Jace, Architect of Thought, Show and Tell, and Master of Predicaments. Many of these same ones, plus Living Lore and Spell Twine will help you get out Enter the Infinite.

And finally, to ensure you can kill your Aura Thief, High Market is available.

Immemorial | Open: The name of this deck is a reference to the phrase "Since time immemorial", meaning it's so long ago, there isn't even a record of it. It's all about outlasting your opponent until you can crush them with Eldrazi.

It was actually prompted by Glacial Chasm, with Eon Hub negating its cost. But there are other ways to avoid death, too.

Spore Frog + Gift of Immortality and Platinum Angel for outright immunity to combat, and Orbs of Warding for slowing them down and making you untargetable, and Blessed Reversal acting as a temporary stopgap, even though it's really only effective against lots of little creatures.

Ancient Stirring will help you get the Eon Hub + Glacial Chasm combo since it can fetch both, while Knight of the Reliquary can only fetch the chasm. And Strip Mine will help you break the combo when you're ready to attack. Although with Platinum Angel or Elixir of Immortality, you can also simply survive until they can't draw.

Always More to Learn | Open: Level up deck with proliferate. Basically, it's all of the best W/U level up creatures, plus Venerated Teacher, supported by Inexorable Tide, Steady Progress, and Tezzeret's Gambit. It can have some trouble getting going, but once it does, it can be impossible to stop.

Exploring the Future * | Open: This one's built on being able to cast cards from your library, or in MTG's metaphor, casting spells you haven't even thought of yet.

The ability to play cards so long as you have the mana for them can be extremely powerful. Especially when you can play multiple lands per turn and can put any number you want on top of your library. The most important cards are Oracle of Mul Daya, Magus of the Future, and Future Sight. Basically everything else is padding.

For closers, we've got Worldspine Wurm, and Primeval Bounty also often acts as a finisher.

Scorched by Soulfire * | Open: Soulfire Grand Master prompted this one and is the central card. Lots of cards that cause lots of damage, and with the ability to gain life from them, plus the ability to often get them back, they can be devastating.

One of the best things about giving your spells lifelink, though, is the fact that so many spells use the drawback of dealing damage to you and your creatures as a balancing mechanism. Flame Rift and Acidic Soil chief among them. Artifacts are often pesky nuisances, so Subterranean Tremors can take care of those while remaining otherwise mechanically useful. Enchantments can be a bit trickier since this deck actually makes use of them, but Aura Blast can take care of one or two (there are two copies) if needed. Mark of Asylum is included, but it's not helpful to have more than one, so if you get out a second, it can act as a mana sink with the Aura Blast if needed. If you're unlucky enough to draw two marks and an Aura Blast while your opponent has no enchantments, you can at least trade them in for something else.

And for the enchantments I mentioned, Shielded by Faith and Pariah are included and make an amazing combo. You can even put both on the same enemy creature if needed. And if you do manage to play Soulfire Grandmaster, the shield can switch to it if you want. I've often found that I have the mana to play Shielded by Faith, but I don't have any creatures yet, and no way to get rid of my opponents' at the time. So, being able to go ahead and use that mana on the shield, only to get it back once you draw your creatures can be very helpful. Of course, you'll need to be careful, since making an enemy creature indestructible can obviously often be unwise.

Curse of Futility | Open: Taking choices away from your opponents is always a good thing. Being attacked usually isn't, but that can be fixed. cheap first strike creatures (Wall of Razors and sometimes Boros Reckoner) can take care of most creatures in combat, and if you can actively benefit from being attacked, even better. Enter Sleeping Dragon. In order to facilitate this, Grand Melee, Curse of the Nightly Hunt, Rage Nimbus, and Fumiko the Lowblood can force your opponents' creatures to attack. Grand Melee plays very well with the two defenders. Circle of Flame will also help take care of any weak attacking creatures.

Koth of the Hammer is included since this deck often needs more mana than it can really muster. It's got creatures with level up, and they take a lot of mana to get into fighting shape.

And to enhance Fumiko's chances of survival, since she's not immune to Grand Melee (or for use in defending, should you not have it out), Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep can give her first strike.

Masterful Enchanting | Open: This one's my take on Enchanter's Arsenal from the vanilla game. It had lots of room to improve, especially with cards from Nyx.

You're going to draw a lot of cards, but at least the majority of them will be optional, so you can opt not to if you're getting low. Karametra isn't the best suited to this, but at least she'll give you lands to play all of the cards you'll draw. She also will often act the closer once you enchant her with Rancor.

The Right Tools | Open: Having the right tools can make any job easier. This deck is all about having equipment cards and cards that work well with equipment. Mostly, you'll be relying on Puresteel Paladin to get your equipment free to equip, though most of the creatures in the deck can also do this with varying efficiency. In case you find yourself against lots of creatures, Mageta the Lion can be incredibly powerful. But, more often, you'll want to use Scourglass. Since your artifacts will remain in play, you'll only have to worry about your creatures. With only a few creatures, Shield of Kaldra or Darksteel Plate can mitigate your own losses. With many creatures out, you'll need to rely on Selfless Spirit.

That said, there are also some planeswalkers to worry about, being Nahiri, the Lithomancer and Elspeth, Knight-Errant, the latter of which can actually make gaining more effective indestructibility for your creatures a possibility.

Varying Degrees | Open: Play creatures that are either free, cheap, or however expensive you want them to be. Then, once they're out, manipulate counters to get menefits. From Energy Chamber producing them to Power Conduit moving them around. Chalice of the Void can be a tricky card to play with, but against the right deck, you can get it to a specific number and then leave it there to avoid unwanted visitors. I also made sure to keep all of the fixed costs to exactly 2 or 4 mana, so you can know what numbers to avoid with the Chalice of the Void.

This deck also makes use of Sea Gate Wreckage and Ghirapur Orrery. The wreckage can be a bit tricky, but Everflowing Chalice can help you pay its colorless cost.

And once you manage to proliferate consistently with Contagion Clasp, your mana production can benefit greatly from both the chalice and Astral Cornucopia.

I was a bit surprised when I discovered that in most cases, Ornithopter is actually the creature that wins you the match. Sigil of Distinction is invaluable here.

Pyrrhic Victory | Open: My housemate happened to use the term "Pyrrhic Victory", and I thought it was awesome, so I made a deck to use it. A Pyrrhic Victory is a victory so costly that it was, in ways, still a defeat.

The idea here is that you can win the game by having exactly 1 life, and you've got a few ways to get your life to exactly one. That said, there aren't ways to reduce your own life, but rather ways to ensure that when your opponents try to kill you, you'll end up with 1 life.

Near-Death Experience is the win-con. And ways to get your life to exactly one include Worship and Angel's Grace.

However, I also recognize that it's not the best method of winning, so it's also got other ways. Mostly by overrunning your opponents with Helion, God of the Sun and his tokens. But, there's also another, much more satisfying method: Aetherflux Reservoir. You've got lots of life gain in the form of Soul's Attendant, Soul Warden, Rhox Faithmender, Aetherflux Reservoir, and Boon Reflection, so getting enough life to pay its cost is pretty straightforward.

Empress Elspeth | Open: This one's about the empires artifacts: Throne of Empires, Scepter of Empires, and Crown of Empires.

In order to survive long enough to get them all, you've got Isochron Scepter + Pollen Lullaby and Knight-Captain of Eos. Since the Knight-Captain needs soldiers, there are 1-drop Loyal Sentry creatures, Mobilization, Elspeth, Sun's Champion or Elspeth, Knight-Errant, Kjeldoran Outpost, and even the Throne of Empires itself. Preventing that damage can help you out a lot, too, thanks to Luminarch Ascension.

by **Xander9009** » 21 Mar 2017, 00:29

Mantle of Divinity * | Open: Among my favorites, this deck has the potential to gain ridiculous amounts of life. It's got 4 key cards for managing this.
Rhox Faithmender, Boon Reflection, Celestial Mantle, and Beacon of Immortality. Since the mantle requires damaging an opponent, you've got Ferropede and Fleet-Footed Monk to help you trigger it, along with Spirit Mantle and Flickering Ward.

Flickering Ward can actually be incredibly powerful. You can use it to destroy most any aura your opponents control and even to prevent equipping colored artifacts, though it will usually be used to protect either your Rhox Faithmender or one of your unblockable creatures. And it'll also allow you to trigger Hero of Iroas rather often, letting you power him up quite a bit.

Anafenza's Uprising | Open: As the name's origin, Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit, would suggest, this one's about bolstering. However, in order to really take advantage of it, you'll need out a few expensive cards like Primal Vigor or Doubling Season. So, to that end, it's also got a lot of land fetching.

Backlash | Open: I really liked Boros Reckoner from Curse of Futility, and I found there was another with a similar ability, Spitemare, plus Shaman en-Kor to get damage going where you needed it, so I made this deck to do exactly that. Redirect damage around your creatures, or just punish your enemies for attacking you. High Priest of Penance and Deep-Slumber Titan are the best ones, with Shielded by Faith making High Priest of Penance an extremely powerful force. Always Watching helps both your priest, by giving him the ability to survive 1 redirected damage, and your titan, by making it able to attacking without needing to wake it up again.

And possibly the most powerful card in the deck thanks to its synergy with everything else, Arcbond can let you damage everything while triggering all of your creatures, which usually lets you choose where to deal even more damage. And with Shaman en-Kor, you can protect any creatures you really need to.

Hypochondria - Concept Deck | Open: Sickness and despair are what this deck is made of, with its choice of cards being made by searching for any cards with names related to illness and putting them all together in the best way I could manage. Being a concept deck, it's not amazingly powerful or even necessarily consistent in its relative weakness, but it's an interesting deck to play if you don't mind taking a couple of games to get lucky. Once you do, it can be fun to watch as every creature your opponents play is killed off by infections and blights.

Skytherix, the Blight Dragon was, of course, the only suitable avatar for the deck, and serves as a very effective win-con.

Most of it's pretty self-explanatory, just try to get out -1/-1 counters, and then help them get around.

Geminio ** | Open: My roommate actually suggested this name (a Harry Potter reference) for Anafenza's Uprising. I didn't like it for that deck but did like it enough in general to make a deck around it. Geminio is the Harry Potter spell that causes objects to duplicate when they're touched, and this deck works off of that very effectively.

Hornet Nest is the best example of this, though Voice of Resurgence and Phytohydra are also great examples.

In all honesty, it's mostly about populate, and getting out Voice of Resurgence's token is the main end-game goal. Trostani, Selesnya's Voice will help you populate often and stay alive, while Arachnogenesis can be a super effective way to get out a decent number of tokens (and gain massive amounts of life if you've got out Trostani).

And finally, since the deck intends for your creatures to take damage and for you to get more and more tokens every time, Lifeline is included as well. This deck is likely to be better suited to this than your opponents', so you'll almost always benefit well from getting this out. Especially if you can get it out while you've got Voice of Resurgence out.

Patience Is Not a Virtue | Open: If you want to take way more turns that you really deserve, this deck's got you covered. Getting extra turns is usually an expensive ordeal, and getting multiple can be extremely difficult. Once this deck gets going, it usually wins by simply taking 4 or 5 turns in a row, dealing a moderate amount of damage each time.

This is the only deck I've built with Harness the Storm, and it works out very well when you can cast Stitch in Time multiple times. You've only got a 50% chance of one copy working, but with 3, you're odds are great. And while it's not free to cast the extras, they do benefit from cost reduction, such as Ruby or Sapphire Medallion and Mixxic of the Izmagus.

Ral Zarek is also included since he's both one of my favorite planeswalkers and has an ability to take extra turns. And since he can usually churn out 2 or 3 at a time, and you can usually use those turns to take even more, his ultimate can prove invaluable.

Rewinding Death * | Open: Winding Constrictor prompted this one, since it adds not just counters on your permanents, but also on you. Experience and Energy counters are the main focus in that regard, with Meren of Clan Nel Toth and Demon of Dark Schemes being the biggest producers of those. For energy, there's actually a better use of the counters, usually, in the form of either Architect of the Untamed or, my typical choice, Aetherworks Marvel.

And since it's all permanents, not just creatures, Mercadian Lift and Lux Cannon also benefit. Lux Cannon with two Winding Constrictors in play is exceptionally powerful.

Turn of the Wheel | Open: I saw Energy Field and figured there had to be a deck there, so I looked through the cards and found the ultimate solution: Wheel of Sun and Moon. You can use it on yourself to protect Energy Field and keep your cards usable... eventually, or you can use it on your opponent to keep their graveyards empty if it would benefit them.

There are backups in place, such as Rest in Peace and most of the creatures. Plus, Repeal and Chain of Vapor can let you return either your permanent that would be destroyed or simply Energy Field itself if needed.

Staff of Nin and Elixir of Immortality are two of my favorite artifacts, and they're both included here to great effect. You need the staff's drawing power (and its damage is always helpful), and the elixir will get back any cards you lost before getting your wheel out (though the creatures and Rest in Peace will exile them to protect your graveyard, so they might still be lost forever).

The deck needed some way to defend itself without anything of yours dying, so Guard Gomazoa and Fog Bank are the main defenders, and Deep-Sea Kraken being the eventual game-ender.

Very powerful deck. Your opponents' inability to damage you will usually mean certain death for them, even if that's your only trick for the moment. You can almost definitely draw answers eventually while they may not be able to.

Death as Opportunity ** | Open: I like Meren of Clan Nel Toth and the energy counters, so I made a deck more focused on them, with Ezuri Claw of Progress as well.

The most deadly card in the deck is actually Guul Draz Assassin. I didn't expect it to be, but the ability to play it so cheaply, and eventually to power it up as you're able into an incredibly deadly creature capable of -4/-4 (not damage, so even regeneration and indestructible won't stop it) make him very dangerous.

As you'd expect from a Sultai deck, it's largely built around filling your graveyard. To that end, Deadbridge Chant, Liliana, the Last Hope, and Sidisi, Brood Tyrant are included, as well as a couple other more minor methods. Since you both need creatures to die for Meren, and you can bring them back immediately with him anyway, Grimgrin, Corpse-Born fits the deck very well.

Mayael, the Godsire * | Open: I liked Wheel of Sun and Moon and wanted a deck more focused on that than on Energy Field, so I made this one. Lots of cards will put lots of cards into your graveyard as a trade-off for doing things. Preventing that trade-off can make those cards very cheap. Vessel of Nascency is a good example of this and is the main one-drop.

However, it morphed into a deck focused on not just that, but also on getting out very powerful creatures. While Emrakul, the Aeons Torn is the only one you really need, Godsire is much more fun, in my opinion. So, have fun using Mayael, the Anima, Defense of the Heard, or Hypergenesis to get out some very powerful creatures for relatively cheap costs.

Soldier's Duty - Concept Deck | Open: I remembered Veteran Armorsmith from somewhere and remembered seeing similar soldiers, and wanted to know if there were enough like him to make an entire deck. Turns out, there are. It's actually incredibly powerful, too. It can very quickly turn a few creatures into a really strong force. It's also got several creatures to help make them cheaper, which can help get everything out more easily. Definitely worth a shot.

06-07-17

Temur Savagery | Open: Decided to make a deck based on Temur's love of high creatures with decent power. The main driving forces in this deck are Animar, Soul of Elements and Temur Ascendancy. It's got tons of creatures that are powerful enough to trigger the Ascendancy, letting you draw lots of cards to play. Many of those creatures are rather cheap, such as Frost Walker or Vexing Devils, but merely playing them can be enough to threaten your opponent. With those cheaper ones, Riku of Two Reflections can multiply their threat level to be particularly potent. This deck also makes good use of Guided Passage. They have to choose three cards, and those three cards will basically always be useful. The only time they're not is if they choose a legendary creature you already have out. For the kill, it's got Xenegos, God of Revels and Nimbus Swimmer. You'll usually be able to get Nimbus Swimmer to a pretty decent size, and any creature that can get through will do a ton of damage with Xenegos out.

Thought Thief ** | Open: This deck turned out to be one of my most powerful ever. Its entire focus is countering everything your opponent does. And what you can't counter (or choose not to) can be bounced or stolen. The only card in it that's often unusable is Devastation Tide, but it's also the only really good way to handle being overwhelmed. In most games, it'll end up not being used, but in games where it's needed, it's essential. It won't matter that it's a dead card anyway most of the time since the deck has really good card draw. It's a good option for Brainstorming back into your deck since that also means you can draw it again and make it cheaper if needed. I'm sure there exist several decks this one would fall flat against, but it's done very well against most everything the AI can manage, at the very least. Anything that can't be countered and can't be stolen will be a major threat, but not much else.

Born of Aether - Concept | Open: This one's simply a deck with every Aetherborn (minus the UB one, Contraband Kingpin) plus Live Fast and Die Young since they portray Aetherborn. It turned out to actually be pretty decent.

Jund Presence | Open: This one's got a lot of moving parts. It's similar to Temur Savagery in that I picked a color set and made something from it rather than having a specific idea to work from first. Jund cards are largely about having creatures that have utility, such as sacrificing them. This is one of those decks that can really go either way in a duel, being either very strong or far too slow. It really depends on the draw. I'd say the creatures you're most likely to get use out of are Jund Hackblade, Scarland Thrinax, and Sprouting Thrinax. The thrinaxes are especially good together since they can turn the Scarland Thrinax into a 7/7.

This deck also gets lots of help from planeswalkers, with Xenagos, the Reveler, Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath, Domri Rade, Arlinn Kord, and Vraska the Unseen. Each serves a particular purpose, with all of them able to directly or indirectly give you more creatures out.

It does have a couple of cards that can be tricky to use. Namely, Dragon Appeasement, which is only really useful if you've got a way to get at least one creature per turn, like the planeswalkers. Some others, like the Sprouting Thrinax, and Prossh, Skyraider of Kher can get you more sacrificial offerings, with Xira Arien and Adun Oakenshield helping you work around the skipped draw step.

And finally, one of the better cards, if you get it resolved, is Lavalanche. Since the best way to stand up to this deck (except for countering) is to throw a lot of creatures in front of it, this card can help clear them out in a hurry before swinging with whatever you've got out.

Healer's Touch * | Open: Clerics galore. Main cards are Edgewalker and Mother of Runes. The first will let you play your cleric spells very cheaply, while the latter will let you much more easily defend when you're on the defensive, and let any chosen creature through your opponent's defense when you're on the offensive. It's also got several ways to bring things back from the dead, and a few ways to sacrifice your creatures to get some utility out of them. Everything synergizes very well, with something like Priests of Norn and Mother of Runes being a fantastic combo. Maybe not super powerful, but in either defensive or offensive encounters, it'll do something significant.

The real win-con for this deck is usually Liliana, Heretical Healer//Liliana, Defiant Necromancer's ability to start overwhelming your opponents with an unstoppable emblem. If that doesn't work, Westvale Abbey//Ormendahl, Profane Prince will typically get the job done.

Gift of Immortality can usually replace Mother of Runes in this deck's combos and High Priest of Penance works well with both (but unlike Priests of Norn, it's mostly defensive). The main offensive creature will usually be Doubtless One, since once you start getting good numbers of creatures, which is easy thanks to the reanimation aspect, its starts becoming very threatening.

Temmet's Procession - Concept | Open: This one's about embalming, with lots of embalm creatures and not much else to say. It's not terrible, but also not particularly great. It's got a few good tricks up its sleeve, like Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun and Scytheclaw combo-ing well. Another good combo is Ajani Goldmane's ultimate with Temmet. Since it's so heavy with tokens, Intangible Virtue will give you lots of vigilance creatures, which is even better when they're unblockable.

A Hard Day's Work | Open: This started off as a concept deck based on Exert, but it's actually strong enough on its own not to need the tag. Exert is severely overpowered when your creatures have vigilance, so tossing a few of the more powerful ones in with Always Watching and Ring of Thune makes for a pretty powerful deck. Even when they don't have vigilance, they're still pretty good on their own, so before you manage to draw those, it'll still hold its own for a good while.

Malfegor's Hatred * | Open: This is one whose idea I've liked for a long time, and that idea is cards which punish all of your opponents, regardless of how many there are. Breath of Malfegor is one of the best examples of this idea. It has a light Energy theme, with Gonti's Machinations, which makes your opponents choosing you to attack in multiplayer much less appealing. It's also got Tattered Mummy to make you a less tempting target. It's, of course, got Malfegor himself, with Mogis, God of Slaughter backing him up. All around a very fun deck in multiplayer. In 1v1 it's still good, just not as good.

Solemn Denial | Open: There exist many creatures that are rather cheap to cast because they have the unfortunate side effect of entering the battlefield with bad counters on them. Luckily, there exists Solemnity to negate those downsides and make those creatures overpowered. Examples include the various hatchlings, like Belligerent Hatchling, Canker Abominations, and Etched Monstrosity. Phyrexian Unlife pairs with it such that you simply don't lose the game due to loss of life, which itself pairs well with Death's Shadow. Dark Depth's fits into any deck that does away with counters, and you can do that retroactively using Aether Snap. However, Aether Snap does not play nicely with Kaya, Ghost Assassin, which the deck also utilizes, so make sure to exile her before casting it if needed. Since reducing your life total is the way most decks win, and this one can negate that entire process with 2 cards, it turns out to be very strong. Anything that can destroy enchantments can be a real threat, so be careful there, but as long as you still have positive life, those aren't too bad, since any creature's you've already cast will already have no negative counters.

Bolas's Reckoning ** | Open: This is my favorite new deck, with a heavy theme around Nicol Bolas. Since he got two new planeswalker cards in Hour of Devastation, plus several cards that feature him, and since he's always been one of my favorite planeswalkers (and the only one I bothered to actually trade to get), I had to make a deck for him. The main idea behind this deck is to make it impossible for your opponents to keep creatures on the battlefield while you're building up lands to play the expensive planeswalkers. It uses Damnation, Bontu's Last Reckoning, and Nevinyrral's Disk to keep the board clear. It also utilizes creatures with persist or undying so you don't have to be as careful about playing your own creatures before wiping everything. Augur of Bolas will help you get to those destruction spells, and Gem of Becoming will help you get those lands you need. And once you've got those lands, the main win-con comes into play: Torment of Hailfire. When you can fire that off with plenty of mana, which happens quite often, it will seriously hurt your opponents. Usually, it'll wipe out their field and hand both, since they have no creatures out.

For those times when there's a spell you need to counter, it's got Glen Elendra Archmage, and Stormbound Geist protects against fliers.

And finally, it's got The Scarab God for when you've got plenty of mana and plenty of dead creatures and want to overrun your opponents, as well as The Scorpion God for when you encounter something that's indestructible or when you want to kill of things more precisely. Its card draw is a nice boost, too. The fact that they can both be brought back should you be forced to wipe everything is great.

Rounding it all out is Visage of Bolas, to help speed up mana and make sure you can play one of those planeswalkers, plus Gem of Becoming to get some more lands out of your deck, making the other cards more likely. This will usually tip you over the edge if you were close to playing a Bolas. The Gem, however, is prone to Nevinyrral's Disk, so watch out for that.

22-03-18

Knowledge is Power | Open: This deck is based on the idea that more cards in hand are better. It's somewhat similar to Burden of Knowledge in that regard, but it doesn't use the mechanic wherein you force your opponents to draw and then punish them. Rather, you've got cards like Kefnet the Mindful, Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix, and Psychosis Crawler.

Psychosis Crawler alone can be a win condition, but just in case you get into danger territory with a small library remaining, Laboratory Maniac can be a secondary win-con.

To help with drawing, there's Howling Mine, Rites of Flourishing, Font of Mythos, Overbeing of Myth, and the most powerful: Consecrated Sphinx.

I ended up not loving how this deck turned out, but it's alright.

Ideal of Persistence | Open: Your creatures aren't going anywhere. Hexproof, indestructible, and vigilance are the key components of this deck, with creatures able to evade death in many ways, and avoid tapping out. They're always available for offense and defense. It's also got a minor Legendary theme, since legendary creatures are the best way to grant those abilities en-mass, and Captain Sisay will help you get the ones you need.

Normally, I'd list out the cards that really drive the deck, but apart from Captain Sisay's fetch ability and Always Watching being a generally decent vigilance granting card that's not redundant to have multiple of, the others end up each doing a small part in a strong deck. Eldrazi Monument paired with Awakening Zone is worth mentioning, at least, with Avacyn, Angel of Hope taking the top slot. And since she'll usually have hexproof by the time she lands, she's likely to end the game in a couple of turns.

Hostile Territory - Concept Deck | Open: Really, this deck is all about making lands into creatures. But it's not doing so using man-lands or awakening. It's using effects that affect either all lands or all of your lands. Natural Affinity isn't permanent, but it's the cheapest, with Living Plane being the main goal. All lands become weak creatures and Terra Eternal makes them indestructible. This may seem like a downside since your opponent's creatures become unkillable, but Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite can wipe out your entire opponent's board.

If you can manage to get the opponent to with Living Plane out, you can potentially wipe out quite a few using Marrow Shards, too. Not the most powerful, but cards like Defense of the Heart can help you get out the cards you need.

Atraxa, Voice of Eternity * | Open: This deck turned out really well. It's a proliferate based deck with Atraxa, Praetor's Voice being the strongest creature in the deck when accounting for synergy. This deck utilizes Lux Cannon and Magistrate's Scepter, and if you manage to get the deck rolling, you can consistently fire off both every turn, meaning infinite turns, and infinite targeted removal. The reason I made the deck was actually because of Eternity Vessel. It was said it was one of the worst cards of its kind and completely unusable, so I made a deck where it plays an important role. Eternity Vessel triggers whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, and Soratami Cloudskater and Meloku the Clouded Mirror can let you do that every turn, keeping your life total nice and stable even if you end up taking lots of damage. And of course, adding extra counters to Eternity Vessel will make it better and better.

Overall, this deck can have a hard time getting started, but if it does, it's extremely hard to combat. For me, it's a really fun deck to play.

Virtues of Undeath - Concept Deck | Open: White vampire were something I found particularly interesting, and I love the card Axis of Mortality. It's an interesting effect and some of the best art I've seen in several sets. In order to effectively use it, though, you need to ensure you have a low life total and your opponent has a high one. (Speaking of which, Wall of Shards may be a good fit here if I can bring myself to break the all-vampire theme.) In order to give you a low life total when you need it, the easiest way is as a cost, for which Adanto Vanguard helps greatly. And to ensure you can put yourself right at 0 if you start with a multiple of 4 (or simply allow your opponent to drop you to 0 without dying), Phyrexian Unlife can synergize with Axis of Mortality extremely effectively.

Cryptic Gateway can help you get down your vampires, especially since some are pretty expensive. Another artifact to help the vampire theme is Door of Destinies, which powers them all up at once and can make your weakest ones very strong, very fast. The only downside here is that the two don't work well together. Door of Destinies requires the vampire spell to be cast, but Cryptic just puts them onto the battlefield.

Being a concept deck, it's a little less powerful than others, since it's maintaining a specific theme rather than having the flexibility to use whatever works best. However, with Door of Destinies in particular, it can end up being very powerful, indeed.

Overtaken * - Concept Deck | Open: I realized I'd never made a sliver deck. Sliver decks are obviously very strong, but they require you to be able to actually play the ones you draw. To that end, it's got 8 mana producing slivers, so mana isn't likely to be a problem.

It, of course, has the four legendary slivers, and it's got all of the ones I felt were necessary for true versatility.

Huatli's Petting Zoo - Concept Deck | Open: This is all about Huatli and dinosaurs. It's got Huatli, Dinosaur Knight, Huatli, Radian Champion, and Huatli, Warrior Poet. It's also got the legendary dinosaurs Etali, Primal Storm, Ghalta, Primal Hunger, Gishath, Sun's Avatar, and Zacam, Primal Calamity. It's also got Aside from these, it's got a collection of dinos that work well together, but it's all about Huatli, so it's somewhat limited in its effectiveness. It's also not a 60 card deck. It's got 72 right now because it's not meant to be efficient or necessarily uber-consistent; it's meant to show off Huatli and her dinos. For a playable dino deck, see Volatility.

Beleren, Ad Infinitum ** - Concept Deck | Open: Jace. Every Jace. When planeswalker became legendary instead of having the planeswalker uniqueness rule, it occurred to me that a deck could be made entirely from planeswalkers (the same one). So, I put every Jace in existence into one deck. But not even Jace is powerful enough as a planeswalker to not need some support, so Jace's Phantasm and Jace's Sentinel back him up. In the counterspell department, Remand, Cryptic Command, Fuel for the Cause, and Confirm Suspicions decently cover most situations you'll encounter. Normally, Remand isn't the best, but if you can put it off for awhile, there's a good chance you'll run into something that can properly handle the threat. Of course, Fuel for the Cause's proliferate effect will help all of your current Jaces. And finally, Jace tends to draw a lot of cards, and those counterspells really need to be reusable so Elixer of Immortality will ensure you can keep drawing until you've hit the exact combo you need.

This deck is very strong, and it's a lot of fun. You can bounce just about anything you can't currently handle, and you'll be able to counter it before long. Milling the opponent and making them draw is the most consistent win condition for this deck, but Jace's Sentinel can do the job, too, albeit very slowly.

Scout Ahead | Open: This is mostly about the Explore mechanic. Exploring, of course, can either result in an extra land or a +1/+1 counter. When it's a land, it'll help fuel Tireless Tracker and Undergrowth Champion, both of which still fit the theme really well. It'll also trigger Ob Nixilis, the Fallen and Retreat to Kazandu, though they're less thematically appropriate.

Doubling Season will greatly help out when you end up with the counters, and Retreat to Kazandu can pair with that even better, letting you get extra counters even when you do hit a land.

All That Glitters | Open: This one's about treasure, and winning using Revel in Riches. There are plenty of other ways to win such as Chromanticore, Deadeye Plunderers, and Vraska, Relic Seeker. Parallel Lives and Anointed Procession with each double your treasure token creation, allowing you to get out more and more until it's enough to win. The main non-treasure related card is Mathas, Fiend Seeker. Contract Killing can let you get some treasure out of a creature targeted with Mathas, as well.

Volatility * | Open: Enrage is the focus here, with several dinosaurs having very powerful effects based on it: Ranging Raptors can fill out your land base in a hurry, Ripjaw Raptor can fill your hand, and Polyraptor can fill your board. Lots of cards to help it along, too, including Tremor, Volcanic Spray, Arcbond, Shake the Foundations, and most notably, Pyrohemia.

It's not just dinosaurs, though, with Hornet Nest being very powerful in a deck about dealing some small damage to all of your creatures. And to help everything benefit even more, Rite of Passage essentially gives all of your creatures a second enrage ability.

Overgrown Armasaur may seem like an odd choice, and it kind of is, but its tokens can act as an easy disposable source of damage. They may not always be particularly useful, but the armasaur itself is strong enough to stand on its own, so they're essentially just a sometimes-useless cherry on top.

Rounding out the upper end of the curve, which you can easily reach thanks to Ranking Raptors, are Etali, Primal Storm and Ghalta, Primal Hunger. Ghalta will often be easily affordable without the extra lands from the raptors. Etali is likely to end the game pretty quickly. It may only be a 6/6, but you can often boost it with Rite of Passage, and getting to cast any cards for free is pretty strong. In multiplayer, it's pretty OP, since you can usually find at least one opponent you can attack unhindered.

Taste the Rainbow ** | Open: This is sort of a concept deck, but ended up just being a nice rainbow deck. Channel the Suns and Fist of the Suns will let you play any card in the deck, which includes powerful cards like Conflux, Progenitus, and The Ur-Dragon. Among the more affordable rainbow cards are Chromanticore, Maelstrom Archangel, Coalition Victory, and Etched Monstrosity (who can obviously be cast regardless of mana colors, but having all 5 will make him extremely powerful).

It's also got Legacy Weapon to fend off any threats that are otherwise hard to deal with.

Finding what you need can be a bit of a hindrance, so Nissa, Steward of Elements will help you filter, and Land Grant and Shard Convergence will help you find lands, in particular. To play those lands, you've got Exploration and Azusa, Lost but Seeking. And just because I've already listed off the rest of the cards, the last one is Sylvan Caryatid.

This deck is really powerful, though it can have some trouble in the opening of the game. Fast decks will tear it apart, but medium to slow decks are all likely to be easy targets.

Laying Down Plans | Open: I'm not sure I should even upload this deck. It has a lot of tweaking it needs before it'll really be good, but the idea behind it is that you've got artifacts, enchantments, and spells. Several of the cards play off of multiple types, such as Swarm Intelligence, Stoic Rebuttal, or Torrential Gearhulk. Mechanized Production is the most likely win-con, with treasures and clues both counting for the win even if they're not what you enchanted with it. The best target for it is Wurmcoil Engine, giving you lots of board control. This deck can really do nicely, or can really not. It's all down to luck right now since it's got 94 cards. If you play this deck, keep that in mind. Maybe tweak it on your end until it seems to run well, and let me know what you ended up doing with it. I'd be interested to see.

From the Ashes * | Open: Phoenixes are an interesting kind of creature, and some are better than others. The idea of them being able to come back, though, is really useful so here's a deck that fully utilizes that ability.

Rekindling Phoenix and Ashcloud Phoenix are the most notable, consistent cards in the deck, with Flamewake Phoenix and Flame-Wreathed Phoenix both being good contenders. It's got Chandra, Pyromaster, Chandra, Torch of Defiance, and Koth of the Hammer to help them out, their mana ability greatly helping things along. Since all but a few of the phoenixes cost at least 4, you'll need that extra mana to keep up with the game. And when you don't need the mana, each can do something else useful.

The deck is pretty light on burn spells for a red deck, but Red Sun's Zenith and Subterranean Tremors both work pretty well here, and both will trigger Chandra's Phoenix's ability.

Pretender | Open: Arcane Adaptation makes everything Human, and lots of things are better when they're being used with Humans, especially several equipment cards. Avacyn's Collar, Gallows at Willow Hill, Mass Appeal, and Slayer's Plate are all pretty good when you can use them with humans. Slayer's Plate, in particular, can give you a respawning defender.

Helping out in the equipment department, there's Hammer of Nazahn, Elbrus, the Binding Blade, and Tatsumasa, the Dragon's Fang, as well as Deadeye Quartermaster.

There's also a minor control theme with Beguiler of Wills and Keiga, the Tide Star.

Chaos of Creation ** | Open: This one's based on my favorite deck I actually made in paper magic several years back. After I made it, it quickly became and remained my favorite, so I finally decided to create it for 2014. It's not a perfect replica, since in 2014, I've got so many more options, but the idea is the same. Creatures entering the battlefield is a good thing. You can unsummon them using Unsummon and Simic Charm, and it can even be used as part of a cost for other things like Familiar's Ruse. There are a couple of cards, Roaring Primadox and Species Gorger, which let you do it every turn. You'll always have options, since you can choose which creature to bounce, and different ones will let you do different things. Acidic Slime will let you destroy pesky things, Thragtusk will give you a token and life, Rogue Refiner will give you a card and energy (to use with Servant of the Conduit), Rishkar, Peema Renegade will give you counters, which become mana, Coiling Oracle gives you a card either via draw or direct play. Elvish Visionary was my favorite card to use in paper magic, but Coiling Oracle and Rogue Refiner proved much better, given the option.

The deck needs a lot of mana, so in addition to the mana boosts above, there's also Cultivate and Skyshroud Claim, and you've got Urban Evolution and Concentrate for plenty of drawing power.

Acidic Slime will quickly become the best thing to bounce whenever you have the mana to replay it, since its ability to destroy a land can slow your oppnent's play to a crawl, and once their land count is less than a usable number, you can start bouncing other things using Icefeather Aven (which they can't re-play, since they've got no land).

This deck draws a lot of cards, so finding what you want won't be too difficult, but surviving the drawing power of these cards after you've got what you need can be tricky. Elixir of Immortality negates this need, though you might replace it with Laboratory Maniac to simply win, instead.

by **Xander9009** » 07 Jul 2017, 18:15

Added 10 new decks.

by **nivmizzet1** » 10 Jul 2017, 14:39

Any room for Myth Realized in your Transcension deck? It seems to fit the synergy, but the deck is already so synergistic, it would be hard to find something to replace. Fun deck btw.

by **Xander9009** » 10 Jul 2017, 22:34

nivmizzet1 wrote:Any room for Myth Realized in your Transcension deck? It seems to fit the synergy, but the deck is already so synergistic, it would be hard to find something to replace. Fun deck btw.

I've never really noticed that card, but you're absolutely right about it fitting really well. An enchantment that benefits from casting other enchantments, and it has a mana sink built in. But in a deck like this, it'll still work even if you don't manage to put much mana into it. And Inheritance has never been the best in this deck because of the cost to use the ability. Mesa Enchantress is a much better card for generating advantage for this deck.

I swapped 2x Inheritance out for 2x Mesa Enchantress, and I swapped 1x Starfield of Nyx and 1x Godsend for 2x Myth Realized.

I was going to swap out the Sigil of the Empty Throne instead of one Starfield of Nyx, but the Sigil is actually the most reliable win-con in a game approaching a stalemate, and it's also the best defense against fliers, so I didn't want to remove the only copy.

by **nivmizzet1** » 11 Jul 2017, 01:53

Xander9009 wrote:I've never really noticed that card, but you're absolutely right about it fitting really well. An enchantment that benefits from casting other enchantments, and it has a mana sink built in. But in a deck like this, it'll still work even if you don't manage to put much mana into it. And Inheritance has never been the best in this deck because of the cost to use the ability. Mesa Enchantress is a much better card for generating advantage for this deck.

I swapped 2x Inheritance out for 2x Mesa Enchantress, and I swapped 1x Starfield of Nyx and 1x Godsend for 2x Myth Realized.

I was going to swap out the Sigil of the Empty Throne instead of one Starfield of Nyx, but the Sigil is actually the most reliable win-con in a game approaching a stalemate, and it's also the best defense against fliers, so I didn't want to remove the only copy.

Cool, I look forward to trying it with the changes

by **Xander9009** » 23 Mar 2018, 00:39

Added 16 new decks.

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