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! ;-)

The Big Deck

As promised before I went on staycation, I present to you my Type 4 stack, or, as we call it, The Big Deck. It has sort of slimmed down over the years due to some damaged sleeves marking some of the cards and other reasons but still maintains most of its size. This deck contains almost 250 cards so forgive me for not posting links to the card images as it would have been overwhelmingly tedious.


Artifact: 9
Akroma's Memorial
Howling Mine
Legacy Weapon
Mimic Vat
Mind's Eye
Mindslaver
Mirari
Nevinyrral's Disk
Nim Deathmantle

Creature: 89
Aegis Angel
Akroma, Angel of Wrath
Angel of Despair
Angel of Salvation
Anowon, the Ruin Sage
Archangel of Strife
Avacyn, Angel of Hope
Avatar of Slaughter
Avatar of Woe
Blazing Archon
Blightsteel Colossus
Blood Tyrant
Boldwyr Intimidator
Butcher of Malakir
Cadaver Imp
Child of Alara
Consecrated Sphinx
Damia, Sage of Stone
Darksteel Colossus (Best Creature in the Deck!)
Dawnglare Invoker
Djinn of Wishes
Draining Whelk
Dread
Dread Cacodemon
Drogskol Reaver
Eight-and-a-Half-Tails
Elgaud Shieldmate
Empyrial Archangel
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
Eternal Witness
Fiend of the Shadows
Frost Titan
Furyborn Hellkite
Geth, Lord of the Vault
Gilded Drake
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
Godsire
Grave Titan
Griselbrand
Hamletback Goliath
Havengul Lich
Hornet Queen
Hydra Omnivore
Intet, the Dreamer
Iona, Shield of Emeria (Always Call Blue!)
It That Betrays
Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund
Keiga, the Tide Star
Kokusho, the Evening Star
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
Linvala, Keeper of Silence
Lorthos, the Tidemaker
Memnarch
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
Myojin of Night's Reach
Nicol Bolas
Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
Pathrazer of Ulamog
Petrified Wood-Kin
Phyrexian Metamorph
Platinum Angel
Platinum Emperion
Prince of Thralls
Quicksilver Gargantuan
Rafiq of the Many
Reya Dawnbringer
Riku of Two Reflections
Scourge of Kher Ridges
Sen Triplets
Sheoldred, Whispering One
Silverblade Paladin
Simic Sky Swallower
Sower of Temptation
Sphinx of Jwar Isle
Sphinx of the Steel Wind
Stormtide Leviathan
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
Teneb, the Harvester
The Mimeoplasm
Thraximundar
Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
Vengeful Archon
Verdant Force
Vorapede
Vorosh, the Hunter
Wolfir Silverheart
Wrexial, the Risen Deep
Wurmcoil Engine
Yosei, the Morning Star

Enchantment: 15
Chant of the Skifsang
Confiscate
Curse of Bloodletting
Curse of Echoes
Curse of Exhaustion
Decree of Silence
Eldrazi Conscription
Faith's Fetters
Leyline of Anticipation
Leyline of Lifeforce
Leyline of Sanctity
Pillar Tombs of Aku (Fan Favorite)
Take Possession
Treachery
Warstorm Surge

Instant: 58
Absorb
Angel's Grace
Arcane Denial
Assert Authority
Beacon of Immortality
Cancel
Chaos Warp
Counterlash
Counterspell
Deprive

Desertion

Discombobulate
Dismal Failure
Dismiss
Dissipate
Dream Fracture
Dromar's Charm
Evacuation
Fervent Denial
Fog
Forbid
Force of Will
Gather Specimens
Go for the Throat
Grab the Reins
Humble
Increasing Vengeance
Krosan Grip
Last Word
Lay Bare
Mana Drain
Mystic Melting
Naturalize
Orim's Chant
Punish Ignorance
Put Away
Redirect
Reins of Power
Relic Crush
Resounding Silence
Resounding Thunder
Reverberate
Rewind
Searing Wind
Snakeform
Spell Crumple
Stoic Rebuttal
Sudden Spoiling
Swords to Plowshares
Terminate
Time Stop
Trickbind
Turn to Frog
Undermine
Urza's Rage
Wild Ricochet
Wipe Away
Word of Seizing

Planeswalker: 2
Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
Sorin Markov

Sorcery: 51
Akroma's Vengeance
All Is Dust
Archangel's Light
Austere Command
Barter in Blood
Beacon of Tomorrows
Beacon of Unrest
Black Sun's Zenith
Blatant Thievery
Blightning
Brilliant Ultimatum
Concentrate
Consuming Vapors
Counsel of the Soratami
Cruel Ultimatum
Damnation
Day of Judgment
Death by Dragons
Death's Caress
Decree of Pain
Elven Cache
Exhume
Foresee
Heroes Remembered
Hymn to Tourach
Increasing Devotion
Increasing Savagery
Insurrection
Mark of Mutiny
Mystic Retrieval
Persecute
Phyrexian Rebirth
Plague Wind
Planar Cleansing
Primal Surge
Reforge the Soul
Regrowth
Relentless Assault
Resounding Scream
Searing Flesh
Slave of Bolas
Syphon Mind
Tidings
Time Stretch
Time Walk
Titanic Ultimatum
Unnerve
Violent Ultimatum
Wheel of Fortune
Windfall
Wrath of God








First, I will justify Pillar Tombs of Aku's place in the deck. This card has, on multiple occasions, presented a case of RTFC & UTFC (Read the fucking card & Understand the fucking card) where players play it, then play Time Stretch forcing them to either sacrifice two creatures or lose 5 life. I mean, over the years of playing Big Deck its so hilarious every time someone plays it so we never cut it.

You always call blue with Iona to shut down opposing counterspells which forces players to speak now or forever hold their counters and Darksteel Colossus is the best creature in the deck, I don't care what anyone else tells me.

As for some funny situations that have occurred over the years, well, there was this one time fairly recently where someone had Gisela on the field while another person had an Avatar of Slaughter. Needless to say, things got very hairy from then on.

Also, I'll never forget the time when Leb had Memnarch, sucked up all the creatures on the board (including Darksteel Colossus!) and then played Titanic Ultimatum, knocking most everyone out the game except myself and Rockman and putting himself at 97 life. Me, with my diehard attitude convinced Rock that we shouldn't give up and began collaborating. I wiped the board, Rock Confiscated his Colossus and began chipping down his life and the rest is history. Rock won that game by the way.

Rock is also the only person to achieve killing everyone at the table in the same turn. (It involved some shenanigans with Relentless Assault)

Having said all that, I highly recommend and promote Type 4 (or The Big Deck as we call it) as a fun format that can be just as or even more insane than EDH and if you have some spare cards lying around then thats all you need to make a Type 4 stack of your own.

Just in case anyone cares then here are our house rules that have sort of evolved over the years:

1- You can only play two spells per turn
2- You can't play two spells and attack (Even more hilarious than Pillar Tombs)
3- You CAN, however, play one spell, attack, and then play another spell (Debatable loophole)
4- You can only use any one ability once per turn
5- Starting hand size is usually zero but negotiable depending on what kind of game we want.
6- Starting life points is usually twenty but again negotiable
7- Always kill Jammin first (I never agreed to this but its apparently a rule)

Thats it for today, and if you aren't already playing Type 4, I hope you decide to pick it up and take it to your playgroup because it is awesome. You have my word on that. (Especially if you use my list ;-) )

Thank you for reading, 'till next time.

Thromok: The Vanilla Thrilla

Okay, so out of all the Planechase commanders that have been spoiled, Thromok interested me the most. Krond is cool too, as is Vela and I'll probably build decks around them eventually, but the thought of casting a massive creature, attacking with it, and then flinging it at my opponents for lethal damage was too enticing to pass up. So here we are.















The first cards that I wanted to make the cut no matter what was anything that allowed me to deal damage equal to any particular creature's power directly to a player, as well as anything that granted trample or some other form of evasion. Luckily, in R/G there is a rich bounty of cards that have these kinds of effects; so, with a token strategy in mind, I included:

Akroma's Memorial
Eldrazi Monument
Mage Slayer
Bloodshot Cyclops
Brawn
Champion of Lambholt
Craterhoof Behemoth
Kessig Wolf Run
Skarrg, the Rage Pits
Stalking Vengeance
Warstorm Surge
Fling
Grab the Reins
Overwhelming Stampede (Sweet Jesus!)

These cards should be more than enough to ensure that at some point of the game some massive damage will be dealt to someone. I wanted to include Pandemonium as well, but in the end I didn't have enough room with all the other cards I wanted to run, so Warstorm Surge by itself would have to do. So now that we have our Thromok synergy down, next up is the core of what this deck wants and needs to do: make tokens. So the following cards got invited to the party:

Druidic Satchel
Ant Queen
Avenger of Zendikar
Dragon Broodmother
Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
Master of the Wild Hunt
Mitotic Slime
Mycoloth
Rampaging Baloths
Ulasht, the Hate Seed
Awakening Zone
Doubling Season
Parallel Lives
Artifact Mutation
Sprout Swarm
Khalni Garden
Kher Keep
Garruk Wildspeaker (Also untaps Gaea's Cradle and gives Thromok trample. Perfect 3/3)

Next up we need to make sure we have our basic functions down: removal, card draw, tutoring and ramp, and maybe a little graveyard hate too.

Tutoring/Draw Power:
Expedition Map
Skullclamp
Fauna Shaman
Skullmulcher
Greater Good (I know the answer to this... its Reliquary Tower... right?)
Survival of the Fittest
Chord of Calling
Momentous Fall (I'll go with D, Reliquary Tower. Final answer Regis.)
Worldly Tutor
Mikokoro, Center of the Sea (Not to be used when we're winning.)
Harmonize
Natural Order
Primal Command (Doubles as graveyard hate if need be)
Reforge the Soul
Wheel of Fortune

Ramp:
Ashnod's Altar
Gruul Signet
Sol Ring
Primeval Titan
Sakura-Tribe Elder
Seedborn Muse (Awesome with Sprout Swarm!)
Yavimaya Elder
Gaea's Cradle
Cultivate
Kodama's Reach

Removal:
Master of the Wild Hunt
Artifact Mutation
Beast Within
Krosan Grip
Blasphemous Act (Hilariously enough, most of the time this will kill everything except Thromok)

Our removal section is a tad thin, and I'd like to add two more spells at least. I'm thinking of Rain of Thorns and maybe Shattering Pulse. I'd also like to add Tormod's Crypt for some more 'yard hate. So after I give this deck a test drive I'll see what can be rearranged.

Now we've got most everything the deck should need and we'll just throw in a couple more relevant and fun cards and we've got something that looks like this:

Artifact: 10
Akroma's Memorial
Ashnod's Altar
Druidic Satchel
Eldrazi Monument
Expedition Map
Gruul Signet
Mage Slayer
Sensei's Diving Top
Skullclamp
Sol Ring

Creature: 23
Anger
Ant Queen
Avenger of Zendikar
Bloodshot Cyclops
Brawn
Champion of Lambholt
Craterhoof Behemoth
Dragon Broodmother
Eternal Witness
Fauna Shaman
Genesis
Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
Master of the Wild Hunt
Mitotic Slime
Mycoloth
Primeval Titan
Rampaging Baloths
Sakura-Tribe Elder
Seedborn Muse
Skullmulcher
Stalking Vengeance
Ulasht, the Hate Seed
Yavimaya Elder

Enchantment: 8
Awakening Zone
Beastmaster Ascension
Doubling Season
Fires of Yavimaya
Greater Good
Parallel Lives
Survival of the Fittest
Warstorm Surge

Instant: 10
Artifact Mutation
Beast Within
Chord of Calling
Fling
Fresh Meat
Grab the Reigns
Krosan Grip
Momentous Fall
Sprout Swarm
Worldly Tutor

Planeswalker: 2
Garruk Wildspeaker
Sarkhan Vol

Sorcery: 9
Blasphemous Act
Cultivate
Harmonize
Kodama's Reach
Natural Order
Overwhelming Stampede
Primal Command
Reforge the Soul
Wheel of Fortune

+37 Land

In this deck alone I decided to run Diamond Valley over High Market since the potential with Thromok was too good to pass up. I have all the manlands that I could find to provide more fodder for Thromok should I really need it, and I tried to squeeze in as many fetches as I could to help trigger Avenger and Rampaging Baloths. Spinerock Knoll and Mosswort Bridge also make an appearance since, in this deck, both conditions are very doable.

I'm still awaiting the Planechase 2012 decklists to be spoiled on the 28th before I make this list final. Dragonlair Spider for instance looks great and might get a slot, though I can see that with Thromok ready to go and a Warstorm Surge on the field for example, the first spell cast is more than likely going to be removal. So at best it just stalls the game for awhile rather than making tokens like I'd want.

Thats it for today's look at Thromok, if you have any suggestions or secret tech then please leave a comment! =)

Thank you for reading, 'till next time.

Griselbrand in Command!

We should all be acquainted with Griselbrand by now, big, scary, soul-sucking demon that he is. Well today we're going to build a deck around him.

There are more than a few directions you could take Griselbrand, I decided on combo since Griselbrand himself would allow us to draw into our combos and tutoring spells rather quickly, and black, as we know, pretty much has the best tutoring spells. Now I'm not usually a combo player but I figured that there is a first time for everything. So I'm gonna give it a shot!

But before we go loading up on combos, we're going to need the essential elements that every EDH deck should have in order for it to function. First up, and probably the most important (especially since we're playing combo) is tutoring/draw power:

Expedition Map
Mind's Eye
Sensei's Divining Top
Skullclamp (Combo Piece!)
Dimir House Guard
Rune-Scarred Demon
Necropotence
Vampiric Tutor
Liliana Vess
Beseech the Queen
Demonic Tutor
Imperial Seal
Increasing Ambition
Promise of Power
(+ G-Bizzle himself!)

These cards should allow us to get our combos in a quick and orderly fashion, and with Griselbrand providing so much draw power all by his lonesome we'll throw in:

Library of Leng
Venser's Journal
Reliquary Tower
Psychosis Crawler

Next up is mana ramp, we're going to need it if we plan to get Griselbrand on the field anytime soon:

Armillary Sphere
Basalt Monolith
Grim Monolith
Sol Ring
Magus of the Coffers (Doubles as a Combo Piece!)
Nirkana Revenant
Solemn Simulacrum
Black Market (Combo Piece)
Cabal Coffers + Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

One last thing the deck needs before we start adding in our combos is some removal:

Oblivion Stone
Spine of Ish Sah (Much appreciated versatility to cover for our inability to deal with artifacts or enchantments)
Kagemaro, First to Suffer
Shriekmaw
Steel Hellkite (See Da Spine)
Attrition
Grave Pact
Karn Liberated (See Steel Hellkite & Da Spine!)
All is Dust (You get the point by now)
Damnation
Profane Command

Okay, now we're to the fun part, the combos:

Ankh of Mishra + Bloodchief Ascension + Mindcrank (Clunky Wincon)
Reassembling Skeleton + Skullclamp (Draw Engine... Combine with Gravepact and/or Black Market for more fun!)
Leyline of the Void + Helm of Obedience (Wincon)

Leyline of the Void + Oath of Ghouls (Recursion? Don't mind if I do!)

Emissary of Despair + Mycosynth Lattice + Whispersilk Cloak (Not an instant Wincon but I like it)
Magus of the Coffers + Umbral Mantle + Exsanguinate (Wincon)
Grave Pact + Sengir Nosferatu (Board Control)
Grave Pact + Skeletal Vampire (Board Control... Combine with Skullclamp and/or Black Market for even more fun!)
Grave Pact + Pentavus (Board Control... Between the two vampires and Pentavus I gotta find one of 'em, right?)
Bottled Cloister + Ensnaring Bridge + Maddening Imp (Moar Board Control!!)
Caltrops + Death Pits of Rath (Board Control yet again...Combine with Maddening Imp if you wish to force the issue)
Lich + Repay in Kind (Awesome Wincon)
Words of Waste + Geth's Grimoire (Full hand for me, empty hand for everyone else)
Words of Waste + Griselbrand (See Above)
Cabal Coffers + Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth + Deserted Temple + Exsanguinate (Not a guaranteed wincon but it should work often enough)
Claws of Gix + Spine of Ish Sah (Did I say it enough times? Board Control! xD)

It should be noted that Claws of Gix is also great for theft prevention. =)

Now we just throw in our manabase and we're done:

Commander:
Griselbrand

Artifact: 23
Ankh of Mishra
Armillary Sphere
Basalt Monolith
Bottled Cloister
Caltrops
Claws of Gix
Ensnaring Bridge
Expedition Map
Geth's Grimoire
Grim Monolith
Helm of Obedience
Library of Leng
Mind's Eye
Mindcrank
Mycosynth Lattice
Oblivion Stone
Sensei's Divining Top
Skullclamp
Sol Ring
Spine of Ish Sah
Umbral Mantle
Venser's Journal
Whispersilk Cloak

Creature: 15
Dimir House Guard
Emissary of Despair
Kagemaro, First to Suffer
Maddening Imp
Magus of the Coffers
Nirkana Revenant
Pentavus
Psychosis Crawler
Reassembling Skeleton
Rune-Scarred Demon
Sengir Nosferatu
Shriekmaw
Skeletal Vampire
Solemn Simulacrum
Steel Hellkite


Enchantment: 10
Attrition
Black Market
Bloodchief Ascension
Death Pits of Rath
Grave Pact
Leyline of the Void
Lich
Necropotence
Oath of Ghouls
Words of Waste


Instant: 1
Vampiric Tutor


Planeswalker: 2
Karn Liberated
Liliana Vess

Sorcery: 10
All is Dust
Beseech the Queen
Damnation
Demonic Tutor
Exsanguinate
Imperial Seal
Increasing Ambition
Profane Command
Promise of Power
Repay in Kind


+ 38 Land



In our manabase we have the dynamic duo of Coffers and Urborg as listed previously as well as High Market (More theft prevention), Volrath's Stronghold, and since we have so many artifacts, Buried Ruin. Plus a few more staple-y lands.

I'd like to add in a Filth if possible to give creatures like Psychosis Crawler, Kagemaro, and Nirkana Revenant some evasion. I'll probably end up taking out the Ankh of Mishra combo as its the clunkiest of the wincons but we'll see how it goes I guess.

One last thing I'll say is, the reason that I'm not usually a combo player is because I find that combos can easily be denied/disrupted but in this case Griselbrand is his own backup plan. If all else fails, three swings to the face should take care of any opponent.

Thats it for my take on Griselbrand, if you have any suggestions or cool combos that I may have overlooked then please leave a comment! =)

Thank you for reading, 'till next time.

Innistrad Tribal Block Constructed: The Humans

Today's installment will complete our look at the tribes of Innistrad and what they have to offer, and as the title says, today we're looking at the humans. Judging from the abilities of humans like Champion of Lambholt (An auto-include in my opinion) and Champion of the Parish, much like our vampires, +1/+1 counters seems to be the name of the game. So lets see what we can do with that.

Champion of Lambholt is easily one of the most important humans in the deck since humans usually have small bodies so the evasion is going to be crucial to our game plan. Sadly, the humans have no viable lord or anthem effects for us to use so I found myself wanting to play with Cathars' Crusade. It doubles both of our Champion's output and even if it should be destroyed, unlike a traditional lord or anthem effect, any benefits we managed to get out of it are permanent. Some similar cards to use in tandem with the Crusade are: Mikaeus, the Lunarch and Gavony Township.

In my opinion, any deck with access to card draw should probably find room for some. Though I can't speak for anyone else, I know that my least favorite thing about Magic is being in topdeck mode. So having said that, and considering the fact that almost all humans are 2/2 or less then its obvious that Mentor of the Meek fits right in.

Now, at this stage of the deck, a pattern is arising. A lot of our cards trigger when a creature enters the battlefield, so why not use this to create some great synergy? And if synergy is what we're looking for then look no further than Thraben Doomsayer; churning out a human token each turn, we are able to trigger both of our Champion's, Cathars' Crusade, and/or Mentor of the Meek all without having to use any of the creatures we may have in hand. His 'Fateful Hour' ability is narrow and probably won't come into play very often if at all but at least its gravy! Also, as if the Doomsayer wasn't good enough, we can also add Mausoleum Guard for almost equal synergy.

Now the deck just needs some finishing touches so we'll add some good stuff, some necessary utility, and some more thematic cards in the form of Silverblade Paladin, Rebuke, and Travel Preparations respectively.

The Paladin and Rebuke need no explanations I'm sure, but Travel Preparations may seem lackluster at first glance, though, I think it is actually great for enabling an alpha strike with Champion of Lambholt and is also good for recharging Mikaeus or even perhaps doing both at the same time.

We'll just add in the rest of our manabase now and we're done, our list looks something like this:

Creature: 24
4 x Champion of Lambholt
4 x Champion of the Parish
3 x Mausoleum Guard
3 x Mentor of the Meek
2 x Mikaeus, the Lunarch
4 x Silverblade Paladin
4 x Thraben Doomsayer

Enchantment: 3
3 x Cathar's Crusade

Instant: 4
4 x Rebuke

Sorcery: 4
4 x Travel Preparations

+ 25 Land




One card I'd love to find room for is Deranged Outcast so I'd have a sac outlet for Mausoleum Guard and could also put the Doomsayer's tokens to even more use. Silverblade Paladin contributes nothing to the theme (other than being human) but I'm reluctant to cut him because he's so good.

Oh well, as with a lot of deck ideas, we usually find ourselves with more ideas than we have room for and either way I think the deck is pretty good as it stands. Though, of course...yada yada... playtesting ... yada yada. ;-)

This concludes our venture into the realm of Innistrad and as we delved into its tribes, I hope it was as enjoyable for you as it was for me.

Remember to leave a comment if you have any suggestions or if perhaps you feel I overlooked a card as I'm very open to different perspectives and ideas.

Thank you for reading, 'till next time.

Innistrad Tribal Block Constructed: The Wolves

Today we look at the werewolves of Innistrad and what a block constructed deck built around them might look like. I wasn't particularly looking forward to this one as the transform mechanic for the werewolves in this set is unreliable to say the least.

They transform to and from their human state based on the number of spells played by any player on the turn before. I probably don't need to tell you why this is bad but for the sake of any newer players reading I will. Basically, anything that allows your opponent(s) to decide what happens to your cards is generally a bad thing. Cards like Browbeat for example seem good at first glance, 3cc for three cards is a pretty good deal, as is 3cc for five damage, but your opponent will always choose the lesser of two evils to minimize your advantage. So, like Browbeat, Dash Hopes, and many other cards, our werewolves are very difficult to rely on but despite all this we're going to build a deck around them anyway. So lets get into it.

Thankfully there are a few cards that we can turn to to mitigate the issue I just talked about and they will be our first cards to make the cut whatever happens. They are Immerwolf and Moonmist. Immerwolf isn't exactly a werewolf but for the sake of making the deck at least playable I chose to dilute the theme just this once.

Now, the deck needs a wincon, something to propel it to victory and I think Kessig Wolf Run is what we're looking for. It ensures that even if our werewolves revert back to their weak human state they can still pose a threat. Now, after deciding that the Wolf Run is our wincon there are two things we'll need: ramp and decent creatures to target. The ramp in the Innistrad block does leave much to be desired and unless I overlooked a card or two, the best I could find was Mulch and Caravan Vigil. Oh, and we also have Moonscarred Werewolf.

As for creatures to target with our Wolf Run we are slightly more fortunate in this area as we have Terror of Kruin Pass and Ironfang. Ironfang may seem a little lackluster but if you noticed, Wolf Run doesn't boost the toughness of our creatures so First Strike is actually pretty relevant. Some other great werewolves we can add are Merciless Predator and Ravager of the Fells. Ravager is pretty much "good stuff" as far as werewolves go since he rewards you no matter which form he transforms into.

At this point, we only have space for a couple more cards so I think we'll add Full Moon's Rise and the rest of our manabase and we're done. Our list looks something like this**:

Creature: 22

3 x Huntmaster/Ravager of the Fells

4 x Immerwolf

4 x Kruin Outlaw/Terror of Kruin Pass

4 x Reckless Waif/Merciless Predator

4 x Scorned Villager/Moonscarred Werewolf

3 x Village Ironsmith/Ironfang

Enchantment: 3

3 x Full Moon's Rise

Instant: 4

4 x Moonmist

Sorcery: 8

4 x Caravan Vigil

4 x Mulch

+ 23 Land  

One thing that worries me with this list (other than the inherent problem with werewolves to start with) is that something feels wrong with the creaturebase, I mean, all the cards have a justified role in the deck but its just so many four-ofs that it feels wrong (to reiterate) though it feels like it has more four-ofs than I really need. I dunno, maybe its just me.

Some playtesting should reveal any issues to be sorted out anyway. So take this list with a grain of salt I guess.

Anyway, this covers our look at the Werewolf tribe and next up is G/W Humans to complete our look at the tribes of Innistrad.

If you have any suggestions please feel free to leave a comment. =)

**Edit - I just realized that Wolfir Silverheart would really be phenomenal in this list and I'm not sure how I forgot about him. The question is though, should I dilute the theme any further? Any thoughts on this would be appreciated! 

Thank you for reading, 'till next time.

Innistrad Tribal Block Constructed: The Vampires

Today's look is at the Vampires of Innistrad and how one could go about building a deck around them. Vampires in Innistrad seem to have a recurring theme of getting stronger once they damage a player so lets go with that.

First up, setting a very aggressive tone to the tribe is Stromkirk Noble, able to hit the board early and swing (hopefully) before any non-human blockers come down. So we can see already that it would help if we had him as a four of.  Some other cards that fit nicely into the deck are Markov Blademaster and Falkenrath Marauders as well as Stromkirk Captain to help our vampires take control of the board; speaking of controlling the board, we can throw in a couple of Olivia Voldarens too.

As I said earlier most of our vampires seem to have a thing for dealing combat damage to players, so why not double (or possibly triple) their output by adding Rakish Heir and Curse of Stalked Prey? Also, since our vampires need to do damage to players before we start getting any value out of them, we're going to need plenty of ways to mow down any blockers that might hinder us, so we'll add Brimstone Volley, Thunderbolt, and Tribute to Hunger. Brimstone Volley's morbid trigger might seem a bit unreliable but even three damage should be enough to clear away blockers in the early game and thats where this deck looks to set the pace. The fact that it is possibly good in the late game as well is just gravy.

One last thing we'll do is add a few Reforge the Souls to prevent us from running out of gas and we're done.

Creature: 21

3 x Falkenrath Marauders

4 x Markov Blademaster

2 x Olivia Voldaren

4 x Rakish Heir

4 x Stromkirk Captain

4 x Stromkirk Noble

Enchantment: 3

3 x Curse of Stalked Prey

Instant: 10

4 x Brimstone Volley

4 x Thunderbolt

2 x Tribute to Hunger

Sorcery: 3

3 x Reforge the Soul

+ 23 Land

Thats it for our look at the B/R Vampires of Innistrad, next up is (ugh) the R/G Werewolves.

Any suggestions or cool tech, please leave a comment! =)

Thank you for reading, 'till next time.

Innistrad Tribal Block Constructed: The Skaabs

Okay, so at first I wasn't really sure what to do for this zombie list as most all of the mono-blue zombies sucked, though I eventually decided on a build revolving around Grimgrin, Corpse-Born as our main wincon.

Once I decided on that, I realized I would definitely need some fodder for the cannon and luckily there were a few zombies that fit the role, such as Gravecrawler, Geralf's Messenger, and Black Cat. Most of the time we're going to be casting Gravecrawler from our 'yard several times per match, so why not profit from that with Secrets of the Dead? Though, I figure we'll need more support for the enchantment than just Gravecrawler, so we'll add Think Twice, and Havengul Lich.

Now, we can't go putting all our eggs in one basket so as an alternate wincon we can throw in some Endless Ranks of the Dead (also provides food for Grimmy if need be) as well as some Diregraf Captains to make our meagre tokens slightly more threatening. Diregraf Captain also works pretty well when we are constantly feeding our Gravecrawlers to Ol' Grimmy. 

At this point we'll just add some removal a la Barter in Blood and Tribute to Hunger, assemble our mana base and we're done. Our finished product looks something like this:

Creature: 17

3 x Black Cat

4 x Diregraf Captain

2 x Geralf's Messenger

4 x Gravecrawler

3 x Grimgrin, Corpse-Born

1 x Havengul Lich

Enchantment: 7

3 x Endless Ranks of the Dead

4 x Secrets of the Dead

Instant: 8

4 x Think Twice

4 x Tribute to Hunger

Sorcery: 4

4 x Barter in Blood

+ 24 Land

Of course, Cavern of Souls was added to the mana base , though from this point I'll just leave that as a given.  

Any suggestions or cool ideas, just leave a comment! =)

Next up are the B/R Vampires. 

Thank you for reading, 'till next time.

Innistrad Tribal Block Constructed: The Geists

Today and in the next few days to come, we'll be looking at the tribes of Innistrad and how a (block constructed) deck built around each tribe might look. Going in a clockwise motion and starting with White, first up would be the W/U Spirit build.

The first obvious inclusion is Drogskol Captain who pumps and grants protection to our spirits, and coming in second is Geist of Saint Traft, who doesn't want six power for three mana? Though, it really does irk me that he doesn't have flying but I digress.

Two other great spirits to add are Mindshrieker and Spectral Rider. Mindshrieker can go off multiple times in a turn for some potentially impressive boosts and already has evasion so what's not to like?

Now we have our beatsticks out of the way, and since we're in some very controlling colors, we'll add some board control in the form of Dungeon Geists, Soul Seizer and Rebuke; and for the fun of it I suppose a couple of Divine Deflections could do as well. 

As the bane of all decks is running out of fuel we'll throw in a playset of Amass the Components to keep our tank full. 

So now we have beats, board control and refilling our tank covered, what now? Well, I'd say since a majority of our creatures have flying, a few Favorable Winds might do nicely. Its not as good as the Captain but as the old saying goes, two anthem effects are better than one. Not to mention that the Captain is less likely to stick, being a creature and all, so it can fill in in his absence.

Seeing as how this deck isn't exactly laden with creatures, I figured Midnight Haunting could serve us when we have no creatures to speak of.

Put it all together and we have something that looks like this:

Creatures: 19

4 x Drogskol Captain

3 x Dungeon Geists

2 x Geist of Saint Traft

4 x Mindshrieker

2 x Soul Seizer

4 x Spectral Rider

Enchantments: 3

3 x Favorable Winds

Instants: 10

2 x Divine Deflection

4 x Midnight Haunting

4 x Rebuke

Sorcery: 4

4 x Amass the Components

+ 24 Land

In our mana base, we have another obvious inclusion in the form of Cavern of Souls, and Moorland Haunt allows us to use our graveyard as a resource.

You're probably wondering why Angel of Flight Alabaster isn't on this list, as she would allow us to make better use of our graveyard than Moorland Haunt; so to answer your question, the only reason she wasn't included is that I was trying to keep it to a strict spirit build.

This concludes our look at the W/U Spirits next up is the U/B Zombie tribe. If you have any suggestions or secret tech, please leave a comment!

Thank you for reading, until next time.

The Brutal Bruna Brew

Last but not least, today's decklist is based on Bruna, Light of Alabaster.

Smack dab in the middle between Sigarda and Gisela, Bruna is not what I would call aggressively costed nor is she that expensive. Though, 6cc for a 5/5 with evasion and one of the most powerful abilities I've seen in a while, she is more than a bargain.

So lets get into what her 99 is composed of. Her ramp package is quite similar to Gisela's, give or take a couple of cards. The graveyard hate section is identical to Sigarda's and of course the ubiquitous staples were included. 

What about the cards that are unique to her list, you ask? Well first up were the buffs (Auras) that Bruna would be relying on to establish some kind of board presence. I wanted each of the buffs to serve at least one of three functions: pump by at least +2/+2, grant evasion, and/or grant protection as those are the three most important things I figured Bruna and the rest of my creatures would need.

The buffs that were added are as follows: 

Angelic Destiny

Armored Ascension

Auramancer's Guise

Battle Mastery

Celestial Mantle

Diplomatic Immunity

Drake Umbra 

Eel Umbra

Eldrazi Conscription

Indestructibility

Infiltrator's Magemark

Mammoth Umbra

Spirit Mantle

Steel of the Godhead 

Unquestioned Authority

Going by the seven by nine rule which you can read about here. I tried to include at least seven cards that served each function. Some of these buffs served more than one function, Drake Umbra for example, pumps, grants evasion, and grants protection all in one; and on the opposite end there is Battle Mastery which serves none of the functions yet I liked it enough to include it.

Also, I realize that in my initial post reviewing Bruna I advocated the usefulness of Crab Umbra yet you will notice its absence in the above list. To clear up any confusion I was really advocating the usefulness of the Umbra card's Totem Armor ability and not specifically Crab Umbra itself. Don't get me wrong, because I'd include every single W/U Umbra if I had room. Sadly the deck needed room for some other essential cards so some Umbras needed to be cut.

Next up is our tutoring section, as consistency is key to a solid game plan. As our deck runs on our enchantments we'll need plenty of ways to get the enchantments we need when we need them. So our tutoring section consists of:

Academy Rector
Auratouched Mage
Sovereigns of Lost Alara
Totem-Guide Hartebeest
Enlightened Tutor
Intuition
Mystical Tutor
Idyllic Tutor
Three Dreams

Intuition is great in this deck since Bruna doesn't care if our enchantments are in the graveyard or not and Mystical Tutor doesn't tutor for enchantments but can become any of our other tutoring spells; at instant speed no less!

Last but not least we'll need some good creatures to target with our enchantments and similar to our Sigarda list, this would include creatures with combat damage abilities, evasion, or protection built in. Some of these creatures included:

Beloved Chaplain
Cephalid Constable
Commander Eesha
Kor Spiritdancer
Ninja of the Deep Hours
Rootwater Thief

Rootwater Thief is good for disrupting any combo players at the table and if you can pump up Cephalid Constable and manage to get a Battle Mastery on him then more power to you!

At this point we'll add some standard recursion, some card draw, a little removal/board control, and some good stuff and we're done. Our finished list looks something like this:


Commander:
Bruna, Light of Alabaster

Artifact: 6
Armillary Sphere
Azorius Signet
Coalition Relic
Expedition Map
Sol Ring
Tormod's Crypt

Creature: 21
Academy Rector
Auratouched Mage
Beloved Chaplain
Cephalid Constable
Commander Eesha
Consecrated Sphinx
Duplicant
Hanna, Ship's Navigator
Jace's Archivist
Kor Spiritdancer
Mesa Enchantress
Ninja of the Deep Hours
Reveillark
Rootwater Thief
Solemn Simulacrum
Sovereigns of Lost Alara
Stonecloaker
Sun Titan
Totem-Guide Hartebeest
Umbra Mystic
Weathered Wayfarer

Enchantment: 24
Angelic Destiny
Armored Ascension
Auramancer's Guise
Battle Mastery
Celestial Mantle
Diplomatic Immunity
Drake Umbra
Eel Umbra
Eldrazi Conscription
Enchanted Evening
Faith's Fetters
Fool's Demise
Indestructibility
Infiltrator's Magemark
Karmic Justice
Land Tax
Mammoth Umbra
Prison Term
Rhystic Study
Spirit Mantle
Steel of the Godhead
Take Possession
Treachery
Unquestioned Authority

Instant: 6
Enlightened Tutor
Intuition
Mystical Tutor
Return to Dust
Swords to Plowshares
Tithe

Sorcery: 5
Austere Command
Idyllic Tutor
Replenish
Three Dreams
Winds of Rath

+37 Lands


In our mana base we have Serra's Sanctum to help ramp mana and Minamo, School at Water's Edge to help abuse the Sanctum (Especially with an Enchanted Evening in play). There is a combo with Enchanted Evening and Cleansing Meditation but I decided not to be dirty.... yet.

I not sure but I may have let the theme dilute the power as I excluded a lot of good stuff (Phyrexian Metamorph and friends) for more thematic cards. There is actually an article that a friend of mine did covering the issue of theme vs power and you can read about it here. Of course, as with any deck, play-testing will reveal what cards can or should be taken out and allow for some fine-tuning.

Also, speaking of fine-tuning, I'm not sure how it happened but Sensei's Divining Top is not on the list. This needs to be rectified of course but as it stands I'm not sure what to cut.

This concludes our look at AVR's three angel legends, if you have any suggestions or secret tech be sure to share!

Thank you for reading, I'll see you next time.