Challenge 1: Mechanical Threat

If you haven't read the first post in my other thread please do so here...

http://www.mtgcombos.com/view.php?fid=1&tid=35042

Now with that out of the way onto the first challenge. Since it is the first I decided to go easy on you.

Posts: 2788
Joined: 13-Oct-09

Challenge: Build a Tribal deck based on a non-basic mechanic rather then a creature.

Rules:

1) A Tribal build means that 1/3 of the deck needs to be the tribe, or in this case the mechanic. So for a 60 card deck at least 20 cards have to have the mechanic

2) The mechanic chosen needs to be a non-basic, which means stay away from abilities common to most sets such as flying, fear, deathtouch, lifelink, reach, protection-you get the idea. Some acceptable mechanics are infect, proliferate, transmute, provoke, soulshift, exalted, etc...

3) Some mechanics might not have enough cards to have 1/3, so cards which can specifically benefit from the mechanic can count toward the tribal. For example, Entangling Trap can count as a clash card.

4) Deck needs to be legacy legal

Date Posted: Sat Mar/26/11 at 8:04pm

how about a cycling deck?

Posts: 1608
Joined: 14-Jan-10

Phasing deck here I come

Date Posted: Sat Mar/26/11 at 9:55pm

Akinas86

Posts: 327
Joined: 16-Jun-10

Date Posted: Sat Mar/26/11 at 10:24pm

MorbidAnimosity

Posts: 557
Joined: 18-Apr-10

umm..

a rampage deck? o.o

Date Posted: Sat Mar/26/11 at 10:32pm

krowbar28

Posts: 434
Joined: 18-Oct-10

storm mechanic

dragonstorm x4

grapeshot x4

empty the warrens x4

Volcanic Awakening x4

storm entity x4

kiln fiend x4

bogardan hellkite x4

rite of flame x4

desperate ritual x4

seething song x4

Date Posted: Sun Mar/27/11 at 4:47am

i was thinking of a defender deck but that's already been done... how about a flying deck... UW probably...

Posts: 5711
Joined: 08-Sep-09

Date Posted: Sun Mar/27/11 at 8:05am

rav514

Posts: 329
Joined: 02-Dec-10

The Scarecrow deck.
It uses 3 mechanics to function. Affinity, Draw, Permanent Destruction.
Its based around this card.

So in order to cast all my scarecrows to blow stuff up i use;

There are two card i use to replenish my hand and they are:

I also throw in a few thoughtcasts since with affinity it becomes 2 card for 1 blue. Not a bad price.

The rest of the scarecrows are mostly filler but the two i think are critical are:

Rattleblaze is very important because it can be sac'd to scarecrone for a card and if painter's servant is in play it comes back with persist. Which then trigger's The reaper king destroy ability. 1 mana for a card and destroy a permanent is nice for me.

Lands are very important to this deck because all the artifact lands help the affinity and the moxes act like lands that you can drop fast and let you draw for them when the engine is running. I use mox safire, mox jet, 3 mox opals, 4 chrome moxes, 4 Blue artifact land, 4 black artifact land, and few regular isalnds and swamps. I also use the mana producing Scarecrows to keep the balance. Obviously, some of the moxes could be replaced which would not hinder speed to much as long as you most of them.

Add a few search cards(a tinker is a must), a few affinity counter spells; and some filler scarecrows and you got the deck. The engine usually pops off between 3 and fifth. The earliest i got it to fire was second.

Have fun

[Edited by rav514 on 27/Mar/11 at 8:07AM]

[Edited by rav514 on 27/Mar/11 at 10:28AM]

Date Posted: Sun Mar/27/11 at 10:43am

@akinas-cycling is a mechanic so go ahead

@shakii-defender and flying are basic mechanics. Stay away from those.

@rav-scarecrows are a creature not a mechanic. Best way to descibe mechanics are as keyword abilitys that are ontroduced with new sets. For example the non basic mechanics in mirroden besieged are infect. Proliferate. Battle cry. Living weapon. Metalcraft. Some of the zendaker ones are annihalter. Level up. landfall

@krow-I do like the kiln fiend addition, however. in my opion you will be better off with a way to replay your spells. As a result I would switch it out for recoup.

Posts: 2788
Joined: 13-Oct-09

Date Posted: Sun Mar/27/11 at 12:54pm

rav514

Posts: 329
Joined: 02-Dec-10

your not going to count pemanent destruction triggered by every scarecrow as a mechanic? ok

Date Posted: Sun Mar/27/11 at 3:50pm

Akinas86

Posts: 327
Joined: 16-Jun-10

the cycling deck:

4x barkhide mauler

4x viscera dragger

4x disciple of law

4x disciple of grace

3x disciple of malice

4x keeneye aven

4x pendrell drake

4x sandbar merfolk

1x dark ritual

4x fluctuator

1x haunting misery

1x lotus petal

4x blasted landscape

4x drifting meadow

4x polluted mire

4x remote isle

4x slippery karst

2x smoldering crater

Date Posted: Sun Mar/27/11 at 4:19pm

MorbidAnimosity

Posts: 557
Joined: 18-Apr-10

OH,
i got a good one...
the "clash" mechanic from lorwyn/shadowmoor block

Date Posted: Sun Mar/27/11 at 7:18pm

i got one... shuffling libraries... with Scry? Can i mix those two up?

Posts: 5711
Joined: 08-Sep-09

Date Posted: Sun Mar/27/11 at 7:23pm

W@W Podcaster

Posts: 445
Joined: 01-Jun-10

Shuffling libraries has no keyword mechanic, so Gericault would probably not consider it to be a legal "tribe". Scry, however, is a keyword mechanic that does not appear very often, so that would be perfectly fine to do.

Date Posted: Sun Mar/27/11 at 8:16pm

i mean i have a few concept for scry...

Other Spells: 23
*4 Crystal Ball
*4 Judge Unworthy
*4 Lose hope
*4 Stand Firm
4 Carnival of Souls
3 Consume Spirit

Creatures: 15
*4 Viscera Seer
4 Reassembling Skeleton
4 Soul's Attendant
3 Pawn of Ulamog

Lands: 22
*4 New Benalia
14 Swamp
4 Plains

Well there you go i have 24 cards with scry ability... i don't know if this will win, but it's a scry deck sort of... LOL

Posts: 5711
Joined: 08-Sep-09

Date Posted: Mon Mar/28/11 at 12:02am

Akinas-nice build, I like the use of haunting misery as a wincon

Shakii- it would actually probally do pretty well. Scry is a great mechanic, the deck manuplation it offers gives a great edge in finding your wincon-which is a cool one by the way

Posts: 2788
Joined: 13-Oct-09

Date Posted: Mon Mar/28/11 at 12:25am

Here is my deck, based on the ninjutsu mechanic

The ninja

Posts: 2788
Joined: 13-Oct-09

3 throat slitter
4 ninja of the deep hours
4 mistblade shinobi
3 walker of secret ways
4 skull snatcher
2 hijure, the still wind

Other spells

4 primal forcemage
4 ronin warclub
4 dimir infiltrator
2 Jhessian infiltrator
2 mystic speculation
3 writ of passage

Land

2 verdent catcombs
2 forest
3 swamp
3 island
2 misty rainforest
3 breeding pool
3 Watery grave
3 Drowned catacomb

Date Posted: Mon Mar/28/11 at 4:03pm

MorbidAnimosity

Posts: 557
Joined: 18-Apr-10

ohhh,
heres a hard one...
transmute?

Date Posted: Mon Mar/28/11 at 7:17pm

that one is hard... it will be a combo deck for sure...

Posts: 5711
Joined: 08-Sep-09

Date Posted: Tue Mar/29/11 at 9:32am

MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

I call dredge deck.

Posts: 377
Joined: 06-Feb-11

Date Posted: Tue Mar/29/11 at 3:17pm

Bladelord00

Posts: 112
Joined: 13-Nov-08

Champion or Threshold

Date Posted: Tue Mar/29/11 at 4:29pm

oh a threshold deck, what color?

Posts: 1608
Joined: 14-Jan-10

Date Posted: Tue Mar/29/11 at 7:57pm

threshold deck is probably G/R...

Posts: 5711
Joined: 08-Sep-09

Date Posted: Tue Mar/29/11 at 8:41pm

But blue has the best self mill.

Posts: 1608
Joined: 14-Jan-10

Date Posted: Tue Mar/29/11 at 9:01pm

maybe but remember that the madness deck is also a threshold deck... well sort of... that is why i believe that threshold deck would be G/R or maybe G/U... who knows...

Posts: 5711
Joined: 08-Sep-09

Date Posted: Tue Mar/29/11 at 9:27pm

Chlorophant
Battlefield Scrounger
Chainflinger
Fledgling Dragon
Krosan Beast
Krosan Restorer
Nantuko Blightcutter
Pardic Arsonist
Werebear
Basking Rootwalla
Wild Mongrel

Barbarian Ring
Centaur Garden

Far wanderings
Lightning Surge
Violent Eruption

Posts: 5711
Joined: 08-Sep-09

Date Posted: Tue Mar/29/11 at 10:40pm

Dagor_Lotalon

Posts: 107
Joined: 29-Mar-11

Hey, I'm new! But I was reading through your posts and thought I could contribut. This is my landfall deck; I've used it a bunch and it works really REALLY well! Hope you like.

Lands:

X5 forest
X5 Island
X5 plains
X4 Bant Panorama
X4 Evolving Wild
X4 Terramorphic Expanse

Creatures:

X4 Hedron Crab
x4 Fledgling Griffin
X4 Steppe Lynx
X2 Rampaging Baloths
X2 Emeria Angel
X2 Grazing Gladehart
X2 Hedron Rover
X2 Roil Elemental
X2 Hedron Scrabbler

Spells & Artifacts:

X4 Khalni Heart Expedition
X4 Groundswell
X2 Ior Ruin Expedition
X1 Harrow (if I had at least one more that'd make me happy)
X1 Vapor Snare (not part of my original deck, but I kept getting stuck by my brother's R/W deck w/Linvala, Keeper of Silence)
X4 Khalni Gem
X1 Seer's Sundial

This deck has taken out almost every competitor losing maybe 1 in 7 rounds if that. But, since I am still a fairly new and inexperienced player I'm completely open to any constructive criticism that you can throw in?

Date Posted: Thu Mar/31/11 at 5:17pm

Finally finished mine, look for it here

Posts: 1608
Joined: 14-Jan-10

Date Posted: Thu Mar/31/11 at 6:52pm

Dagor_Lotalon

Posts: 107
Joined: 29-Mar-11

How exactly does phasing work?? It's always kinda confused me...

Date Posted: Thu Mar/31/11 at 10:24pm

*sigh* why can't more people be like me and spend long hours of the day browsing through obscure rules?

In its most basic form, phasing means that just before the begining of your turn, it "phases out" or if already out it phases in, this should not be confused with being exiled, it is very different. Important to note that phasing is smart, if an enchantment is on a creature which phases out, the enchantment goes with the creature, if an equipment is it remains attached while the creature is phased out. On the flip side, any leaves or enters the battlefield abilities don't trigger. If a creature without phasing is phased out than it will still come back just before the turn. Also phased creature still untap normally.

Posts: 1608
Joined: 14-Jan-10

Date Posted: Thu Mar/31/11 at 10:53pm

LOL... I just don't wanna answer that question ...

Posts: 5711
Joined: 08-Sep-09

Date Posted: Thu Mar/31/11 at 11:07pm

Dagor_Lotalon

Posts: 107
Joined: 29-Mar-11

So it's there one round gone the next, and then back again the round after? Huh. cool. K, Thanx!!

Date Posted: Thu Mar/31/11 at 11:30pm

The concept being that if all your creatures are gone when you wrath of god, then back the next. . .

Posts: 1608
Joined: 14-Jan-10

Date Posted: Fri Apr/01/11 at 1:01pm

theotherguy

Posts: 346
Joined: 04-Feb-11

hmm...only 10 cards have or grant annihilator.put in some thematically related violent ultimatums and use the rest of the deck to fix the obscene mana requirements

Date Posted: Sat Apr/02/11 at 1:00pm

Twogunkid

Posts: 2609
Joined: 22-Jan-10

Prepare to make a fading deck

Date Posted: Sat Apr/02/11 at 1:01pm

W@W Podcaster

Posts: 445
Joined: 01-Jun-10

Why fading? Vanishing is strictly better.

Date Posted: Sun Apr/03/11 at 2:57pm

But Storm Crow is the best!

I am preparing to make a deck with the FLAVOR TEXT as the mechanic... here I come vanilla creatures!

Posts: 377
Joined: 06-Feb-11

Date Posted: Sun Apr/03/11 at 7:18pm

Storm crow? Best? WTF are you smoking? GIVE ME SOME!

Posts: 1608
Joined: 14-Jan-10

Date Posted: Sun Apr/03/11 at 10:42pm

It's nice to see some old school mechanics. phasing was such a fun mechanic, so much power for such a low cost. Same with fading, vanishing might offer some nice little perks when the counters are removed, but it can't compete with the raw power of fading, though it has lost some of that when compared to new stuff

Oh and Shakii here you go-a transmute deck based on your combo

4 dimir inflitrator

4 muddle the mixture

4 perplex

4 dizzy spell

2 distortion strike

2 carnival of souls

2 soul warden

2 reassembling skeleton

2 blood throne

2 pawn of ulamg

4 tolaria west

2 mystic gate

4 sunken ruin

4 watery grave

6 island

2 drowned catacombs

Posts: 2788
Joined: 13-Oct-09

Date Posted: Mon Apr/04/11 at 7:07pm

read the comments in Gatherer for Storm Crow! You will be utterly confused!!!!!!!!

I'm not smoking anything, Lin... my friend showed me how to get drunk on milk. I'll never be somber again!

Posts: 377
Joined: 06-Feb-11

Date Posted: Sun Apr/10/11 at 11:47pm

he's got a point there, Lin... that creature should be mythic diamond rare card or something...

Posts: 5711
Joined: 08-Sep-09

Date Posted: Sun Apr/10/11 at 11:53pm