I love spoiler season! The new cards start to open up so many crazy and neat new ideas to make decks, revisit old ones, and brew up some silly things that I can take with me to my next Casual card night. Well, Journey into Nyx is no different and has offered up loads of fun new ideas already and I wanted to take some time to share some of the Casual new brews I’ve been piecing together even before Nyx drops in May.
The first deck I started brewing up was for our return to “Hobo” night at our Casual card night. I wrote about Hobo night in a previous article, but basically we all agreed that we would play no Rare or Mythic Rare cards in our decks, but we could play commons and uncommon from any set. This really challenges you because many of the most potent spells that we all like to play are Rares or Mythics, so to force ourselves to play commons and uncommon is healthy and refreshing, and usually evens out the power level of the various decks. Yes, this format is usually called Peasant, but that just sounds dull, so we opted to call it “Hobo” and the name has stuck.
My inspiration for the deck came from watching the coverage of the MTGO championships a couple of weeks ago where I saw a Standard take on a “dredge” style deck. The deck exploited the power of cards in the graveyard to deal some pretty healthy amounts of damage and looked pretty exciting, so I sat down to see if I could create something similar for Hobo night.
I started with the auto include cards for this sort of deck, namely Satyr Wayfinder and Grisly Salvage. These cards allow me to start to burn through the top of my library to find land or creatures and fills up my graveyard to be used at a later time. These are the “raison d`être” for this deck and need to be there in suitable quantities to fill up your yard, but more importantly ensure you never lack for land so that you can chain together powerful spells as the game moves along.
The next creature that is an automatic in this sort of deck, particularly in a Hobo variant, is Nemesis of Mortals. The 5/5 for 6 mana sees the cost to cast him reduced by 1 colourless for every creature in your graveyard. As a result, you could be casting this guy for much less than the 6 mana in the casting cost without much trouble. However, Nemesis of Mortals gets better from there because his Monstrosity 5 ability gets reduced in cost by 1 colourless for each creature in your graveyard. This guy can very easily get silly big for a bargain basement price thanks to all the graveyard shenanigans in your deck and makes the prospect of going into combat very difficult because it is such a huge monster.
However, what happens when some of my key components end up in the graveyard because I’ve put them there myself? There are a number of ways to return lost creatures to your hand and have them be available to you again. Now, I will be honest, this isn’t the same dropping them onto the battlefield and cheating big fatties into play because you still need to cast the spells again, however it does ensure that you have access to the creatures and a chance to re-use them, which is very helpful. Pharika’s Mender, Odunos River trawler, and other “Raise Dead” effect cards allow you to get your most potent threats back again and force your opponent to burn more removal spells on things that just don’t stay dead.
The final piece is the plethora of Bestow creatures that this deck packs. Bestow has proven to be a very valuable ability in Limited formats, and once again this is a form of limited format. Baleful Eidolon and Nyxborn Wolf can come down early as blockers to plug up the ground and play solid D to get us through to the point where our bigger bombs can take over. Nyxborn Wolf, at 3/1 can trade up to take out larger creatures, but the Eidolon can shut down attacking by virtue of the Deathtouch ability. Once they have served their purpose they can then be brought out of the yard and used to Voltron up another threat and really do some work.
Here’s the deck list.
Hobo – G/B “reanimator”
So, people will point out that this decklist isn’t Standard and my response is, you’re 100 percent correct. However, without much trouble you could make this Standard playable. A few minor adjustments like replacing Sign in Blood for Read the Bones would be the first switch. I could absolutely replace the Disentomb, and Raise Dead with Treasured Finds. So without breaking the spirit of the Hobo deck I could make some adjustments and make it completely Standard Legal, but sifting through my boxes I came across these cards and they did the job just as well and for less mana. It can also be ramped right up to match the Standard “Dredge” decks running around these days making this a decent skeleton upon which to build a more robust Standard deck.
The next deck is entirely Casual based on one of recurring theme in Theros block on Kraken, Octopuses, and other sea creatures. Whelming Wave was given to us in Born of the Gods, and now with the spoilers from Journey into Nyx we have Scourge of Fleets. With these two sweeper effects in Blue’s arsenal the possibility exists for a viable Kraken/Control deck. Don’t believe me? Check this out.
Mono-Blue Kraken Control
The idea behind this deck revolves around the interaction between Archaeomancer and Mnemonic wall and Whelming Wave. When you hit turn 4 you are banking that you have Whelming Wave in your hand and return all creatures that aren’t Kraken, Leviathans, Octopuses or Serpents to their owners hands. Then on turn 5, cast your Archaeomancer or Mnemonic wall, buy back your Whelming Wave and restart the cycle. You will continue to cast the wave and buy it back with the Archaeomancer/ Menmonic Wall interaction as you stall looking for one of your bigger Sea critters. So, hit the Sealock monster and when you wash away your opponent’s creatures Sealock Monster stays and can now attack into a open board. If you get stuck, Sea God’s Revenge approximates the same effect as you wait to piece together the combination and the dissolves are there to protect your creatures, should things get ugly. Scourge of Fleets is another possible sweeper condition that comes with a huge body and is asymmetrical in design, so he’s sort of like Plan C if you need to go down that road. The last pieces of this deck, the Hypnotic Siren and the Voyage’s End are to play some early interference as you set up your board.
Now, you may have missed it, but I stated that this was a Casual deck list. There is no way I’d even attempt to play a Tier 1 Standard deck with this list, but the hilarious interactions between Archaeomancer and the Whelming Wave are well worth the risk. I can’t wait to see the face of my opponent when I repeatedly wash away his stuff as I stall…and then swim across the table with my Sealock Monster and crush him. That would be priceless. It would certainly be entertaining and very flavourful with all that we have seen from Standard.
So, there you have it. Some fun deck ideas that are flavourful, relatively inexpensive, and fun to play. By all means, give them a try and see what think. The Hobo Dredge deck might be really good for a player who isn’t convinced playing B/G Dredge is for them, but once they get the hang of it with this less high octane model might be willing to speed matters up and go play with the big boys of Standard. The Wave deck is just funny and I can’t wait to put it together.
If you have other ideas or more fun ideas for funky decks I would love to hear about them. I`m always working on some new deck ideas that could make playing at my Kitchen table fun, entertaining, and fresh.
As always Keep it fun, Keep it safe…keep it casual. Until next time!
Bruce Gray
Aerie Worshippers – while an interesting effect on a decent defensive body her cost is very undesirable and the amount of mana you tie up to conjure her birds could likely be better used elsewhere.
Champion of Stray Souls – there is no doubt in my mind that there isn’t a way to chain two of these with creatures that produce mana either on the way in or out and something granting haste to infini-loop for some crazy shenanigans. But, that would hardly be something powerful enough for competitive constructed given so many moving parts. Likely to see play as a value creature sacing tokens to recur creatures that have enter/leave play triggers or strong sacrifice abilities. Just way to expensive for much other then Commander.
Drown in Sorrow – could this be the tool that Blue-Black Control decks have been looking for to combat fast aggro decks? While -2/-2 may not seem like a huge hit it is usually pretty much what you’d need to sweep away a quick swarm and then spot removal could take care of the rest.
Ephara’s Enlightenment – a little expensive with a converted mana cost at 3 for just +1/+1 and Flying the interesting factor of the card is that you can return it to your hand whenever you have a creature enter play on your side and the +1/+1 stays behind on the original creature as counter. At that cost though it is a very slow way to work on boosting the power of your team and in colors usually looking to play a control game not aggro.
Fanatic of Xenagos – paying 3 for a 3/3 Trample would be enough for me to be head over heels with him but then we tack on the tribute ability. While our opponent will get to choose the lesser of two evils both of those evils are rather nasty. So we either end up with that 3/3 Trample but that turn he hits play he’s a hasty 4/4 OR he just sticks around as that 4/4 Trample !!! Now where exactly is the downside from this situation?
Forlorn Pseudamma – another of the cycle of Inspired token generator, this one is made ever so slightly better in that it comes with Intimidate which gives you more chance to be able and safely attack with him. The real issue I have is with the cost not looking that attractive for the effect.
God-Favored General – the main upside with him is you’re able to curve him out turn two then as long as you hit land drops your first three turns and can attack safely with a 1/1 then you’ll be able to trigger his Inspired ability and gain an additional two creatures. The downside is that all the effort goes into getting three 1/1s out by turn four for five mana…hopefully you have something to boost them up for value.
Listed here are all the promos for the different events leading to Game Day. More info on Battle the Horde and the Hero’s path see this article.
Pre-Release Promos
Eater of Hope – the demon always demands a sacrifice, but this time the sacrifice is beneficial and nonobligatory. While he isn’t horrible as a 6/4 Flying body for seven mana his abilities are pretty good as long as you have fodder to satisfy his hunger for sacrifice. He’s got some built in protection with the first ability allowing him to sac another creature to regenerate. That second ability is what really makes him shine allowing you to feed the hunger of the demon to destroy pesky creatures. If you have a good token generator or naturally recurring creatures then this bad boy might be what you’re looking for.
Forgestoker Dragon – a pretty standard dragon showing fairly typical stats but with a pretty intriguing ability. While fairly mana intensive if your opponent has a formidable air force that you are trying to bypass it isn’t always necessary to clear all blockers, just the ones that would be a nuisance. While not necessarily a dragon of choice for constructed this should definitely see play in casual formats and could be a great addition to a Kaalia Commander deck.
Arbiter of the Ideal – Some of the Inspired creatures with their more fragile bodies leave you scrambling to find ways to tap them that don’t involve attacking but with this 4/5 Flying body that should rarely be an issue. Paired with manipulation of the top of your deck this should often gain you tons of value with the downside of turning the new permanent into an enchantment more of a nuisance then a hindrance.
Silent Sentinel – While extremely high end as a seven drop and requiring an attack to trigger its ability the sheer power of that ability is what could see this card see some action. Commander players who are already abusing enchantments will likely find this ability very welcoming especially in Uril, the Miststalker decks.
Release Promo
Tromokratis – Call the Kraken !!! Here it is, a legendary kraken. This humongous sea monster has some pretty interesting abilities. The first I find is largely ineffectual which grants him Hexproof unless he is attacking or blocking, but if you have spot removal for him there’s a good chance it’s an instant so once he attacks blammo. It’s the second ability that I much prefer where if you are either able to tap one of your opponents creatures or make the kraken fly you can basically make him unblockable. Or combo with a Bow of Nylea and you can probably take down entire armies with this monstrosity of the sea.
Buy-A-Box promo
Fated Conflagration – The ability to target a Planeswalker may be the saving grace of this removal spell. Five points of damage is really no small shakes but at four converted mana cost with triple red in there the amount of decks which will be able to cast this is very narrow.
Game Day promos
Pump, pump, pump it up! That’s what this Merfolk wants to do and he does it all day and everyday by unntaping lands, mana rocks, dorks and other abilities; the list goes on and on. He’s definitely going to find play in EDH for some added shenanigans. We already know that, but what about standard? The next set has Kiora, the Crashing Wave with her ability to Explore and also to “Release the Krakens”. Simic might be finally ramping up to some Prime Speaker Zegana, Prophet of Kruphix, Master Biomancer and something else, right!?!? Ramping up in a deck with flash, counters and draw sound like a party, maybe even Plasm Capture could find a spot. To be continued…
Pain Seer – What should be referred to as Confidant Lite this card definitely need an alternate tapping condition in order to ensure a steady stream of card advantage. This is without a doubt going to also be paired up with untapping abilities in order to gring out maximum value.
Gerald Knight was inspired from insomnia.
