Sunday 15 July 2012

YotD Theme Decks: Treva, the Renewer


Today's deck is going to be a life gain theme deck revolving around Treva, the Renewer. It should be noted that this deck is far from competitive as life gain strategies in EDH are stifled by the general damage rule, though there are a few notable cards that make decks like these formidable if things go your way.
*cough*Felidar Sovereign*cough*

I should probably also say that I kinda felt like a fish out of water building this deck since this is the first time I've attempted any sort of life gain theme in an EDH setting so I was initially at a loss as to what cards would make good inclusions. Either way, I think it turned out well enough, though you, my readers, can be the judge of that.

Now, on to the deck!






The first thing we'll need is cards that focus on what this deck is supposed to do: gain life. Anything along these lines will do, from creatures with lifelink like Baneslayer Angel to more subtle cards like Lifegift. The inclusion of cards like Lifegift also leads us to include a healthy ramp package for double utility and luckily for us we just got some shiny new toys in M13 so this should be no problem.

Anyway, here's the life gain cards we'll be using:

Batterskull
Behemoth Sledge
Loxodon Warhammer
Sword of Light and Shadow
Sword of War and Peace
Venser's Journal  (Great with Well of Lost Dreams)
Well of Lost Dreams

Baneslayer Angel
Drogskol Reaver
Felidar Sovereign
Rhox Faithmender
Serra Ascendant
Shattered Angel
Wurmcoil Engine (Great beater, and leaves behind little dudes to equip stuff to)

Boon Reflection
Cradle of Vitality
Lifegift
Recumbent Bliss
Words of Worship (Absolutely disgusting with Drogskol Reaver)

Fracturing Gust (We probably won't want to use this most of the time but its a backup plan)
Swords to Plowshares (Technically not a life gain spell for us but it can be in a pinch)

Primal Command (The first ability was the only excuse I needed. ;-) )

I wanted to include Ajani's Mantra at first as I figured it was subtle enough to fly under the radar of removal and if played early it can gain you quite a bit of life over the course of the game, I decided not to include it though due to the fact that its a horrible late game topdeck. I suppose that we all have horrible topdecks sometimes no matter what, but in this case I figured that Recumbent Bliss deserved a spot just a little bit more than the mantra. I also wanted to include cards like Dawnglow Infusion and Heroes Remembered but I figured that cards with repeatable life gain effects would have more value than one shot effects. Not to mention that if you suspend Heroes Remembered on turn 1 (which is the best time to suspend it anyway) you attract too much attention and thats something you try to avoid in multiplayer.

Now, since we have Lifegift, we'll deal with our ramp package next. It looks something like this:

Primeval Titan
Sakura-Tribe Elder
Burgeoning
Boundless Realms
Ranger's Path
Skyshroud Claim

I couldn't resist playing with the shiny new Boundless Realms card, as its probably the best mana-doubling card to see print ever, at least in my opinion. Mirari's Wake and Mana Reflection are cool too, but with Boundless Realms, should it resolve, you have double mana for the rest of the game; whereas Wake and Reflection can be targeted by removal to end the effect. The only drawback is that you need to play with a higher number of basics to get the most out of it but that's no problem for me.

So life gain is the theme, but we need more than a theme. We need a strategy. This is deck isn't aggressive, short of a turn 1 Serra Ascendant, and we don't have too many game ending bombs so we need a way to slow things down to our pace. So I included:

Norn's Annex
Windborn Muse
Dissipation Field  Aurification
Ghostly Prison
Propaganda

Commander Eesha
Silklash Spider

If your sitting behind a Dissipation Field Aurification and a Propaganda your opponents will be heavily encouraged to swing elsewhere while you put together a game plan and Commander Eesha and Silklash Spider are stellar blockers, not to mention that the spider doubles as removal. So the above cards pretty much cover our theme and strategy and now its time for the standard things that every EDH deck should have: removal, tutoring... etc

Removal:
Acidic Slime
Beast Within
Fracturing Gust
Sword to Plowshares
Treva's Charm (Wouldn't be a theme deck without it! xD)
Austere Command
Rout

Recursion:
Sword of Light and Shadow
Eternal Witness
Genesis (I swear, this must be my favorite green card)
Reveillark
Faith's Reward
Creeping Renaissance

Card Draw/Tutoring:
Well of Lost Dreams
Consecrated Sphinx
Drogskol Reaver
Mulldrifter
Treva's Charm (Card draw when we have no better options, but good for discarding Genesis)

Academy Rector (Will mostly be used to fetch Dissipation Field Aurification or SotF)
Fauna Shaman
Survival of the Fittest
Eladamri's Call
Enlightened Tutor
Mystical Tutor
Worldly Tutor
Idyllic Tutor

These cards are pretty much my concessions to good stuff inclusions in order to maintain a balance between theme and power. We still want to be able to win a few games, after all. ;-)

Now we just put it all together, and throw in a few more useful cards and you get something like this:

Commander: 1
Treva, the Renewer


Artifacts: 14
Azorius Signet
Batterskull
Behemoth Sledge
Loxodon Warhammer
Norn's Annex
Selesnya Signet
Sensei's Divining Top
Simic Signet
Sol Ring
Swiftfoot Boots
Sword of Light and Shadow
Sword of War and Peace
Venser's Journal
Well of Lost Dreams


Creatures: 20
Academy Rector
Acidic Slime
Baneslayer Angel
Commander Eesha
Consecrated Sphinx
Drogskol Reaver
Eternal Witness
Fauna Shaman
Felidar Sovereign
Genesis
Mulldrifter
Primeval Titan
Reveillark
Rhox Faithmender
Sakura-Tribe Elder
Serra Ascendent
Shattered Angel
Silklash Spider
Windborn Muse
Wurmcoil Engine

Enchantments: 10
Boon Reflection
Burgeoning
Cradle of Vitality
Aurification
Ghostly Prison
Lifegift
Propaganda
Recumbent Bliss
Survival of the Fittest
Words of Worship

Instants: 8
Beast Within
Eladamri's Call
Enlightened Tutor
Faith's Reward
Fracturing Gust
Mystical Tutor
Swords to Plowshares
Treva's Charm
Worldly Tutor


Sorceries: 8
Austere Command
Boundless Realms
Creeping Renaissance
Idyllic Tutor
Primal Command
Ranger's Path
Rout
Skyshroud Claim

+ 38 Land


In addition to Treva's Charm I also added Treva's Ruins for the sake of theme, but aside from that, the mana base is pretty standard including High Market, Kor Haven, Reliquary Tower...etc

So move along there's nothing to see here!

Oh, and we have the Karoo lands to help trigger Lifegift. ^.^

Off topic: You guys must be wondering why I post a ton of decklists but no game reports or decklist changes and I'll take the time to explain now that, sadly, I am currently without an EDH playgroup so I haven't had a chance to test any of the decks I've built. My friends and I really only play Type 4 and Modern at the moment but plan to start some EDH sometime soon (hopefully).

I could play on cockatrice but it comes without the social interaction that makes EDH so much fun in the first place so I only really use cockatrice now for deckbuilding purposes.

Anyway, thats it for our look at Treva, the Renewer. Dromar is up next. Stay Tuned!

Thanks for reading, 'till next time! ;-)

3 comments:

  1. Props on the Lifegift, that's some pretty fun secret tech right there.

    I also love that you pointed out the interaction between Drogskol Reaver and Words of Worship - I'm familiar enough with both cards individually, but never thought about using them together. Great find, will file that away for use later.

    I'd cut Dissipation Field for the Steel. I find Dissipation Field actually tends to make people want to swing their ETBF creatures into you MORE, not less. Last time someone played Diss. Field in my group, I drew 8 cards off the same Mulldrifter before they managed to get a blocker. :)

    I strongly suggest using Steel of the Godhead - it's great for pushing through Treva damage, and it gains you life.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hmm, you have a point about the ETB creatures, I didn't think of that. Perhaps Aurification instead?

      Also, Steel of the Godhead sounds like a great inclusion, not sure how I overlooked it ^.^

      I will definitely try to find a slot for it. =D

      Delete
    2. Aurification could be cool. I always liked the card, so I endorse its use!

      Delete