This is a deck that I just recently made and I wanted it to just be full speed. Get out lands and mana and drawing cards to get what I need and then hit my opponent with some unblockable creatures with Minamo Sightbender. I've been in the game since 7th edition and havent gotten any new cards since Kamigawa. My friends can beat me alot because I wont get any creatures out in time and even if I do they destroy them like nothing. And I also feel I really need to cut down on the lands so if you could please help me out with that too.

 

Well okay heres my deck

 

Creatures x15

x1 Assault Zeppelid

x4 Silver Myr

x2 Minamo Sightbender

x1 Psychic Membrane

x1 Kami of the Crescent Moon

x1 Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar

x2 Plasma Elemental

x1 Taunting Elf

x1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking

x1 Shinen of Life's Roar

 

Sorcerys/Instants/Enchantments x14

x1 Words of Wisdom

x1 Inspiration

x3 Counsel of the Soratami

x4 Kodama's Reach

x2 Rampart Growth

x1 Shielding Plax

x1 Blanchwood Armor

x1 Primitive Etchings

 

Artifacts x7

x3 Serum Tank

x4 AEther Spellbomb

 

Lands x24

x1 Simic Growth Chamber

x4 Seat of the Synod

x1 Tree of tales

x10 Forest

x8 Island

 

Gratufully,

         Dan Abrames

 

Well, Dan, thanks for sending in your deck! As I was thinking about what to do with your deck, a couple different ideas came to mind, so I think I'm going to go over them both briefly and let you decide which way you want to go with it.

 

Option 1: Get a bunch of small creatures and overrun them by making some of them unblockable.

 

To do this, we need to improve your creature base. There are countless good creatures to use here, but I don't think the Plasma Elemental is the answer. As you mentioned, your friends like to kill your creatures, so what's the use in spending 6 mana on something that is going to get killed, probably before you can even use it? Let's put in several cheap, efficient creatures. I'll let you choose which, but a few good ones are Vinelasher Kudzu (great with all the land search you have), Budoka Gardener (again good with getting more lands), and Humble Budoka (2 mana for a 2/2 is decent - and he can't be targeted!). Basically, choose some good creatures that will come out quickly. Your Assault Zeppelid is a good choice - more of him would be advisable. This will do 2 things for you: give you creatures to make unblockable using the Sightbender without costing a fortune, and give you some quick blockers if your opponent comes out quickly with a fast rush of creatures. Also, you're investing 6 mana in two or three creatures instead of in one, making it harder for your opponent to kill them, unless they are using a board sweeping effect like Wrath of God.

 

And now to add another unblockable-enabler: Whispersilk Cloak. This equipment not only makes something unblockable, but gives it shroud (inability to be targeted) as well! I think you need 4 of these! Slip this onto your best creature in play and swing away!

 

With these cheaper casting cost cards, we need to make sure we keep drawing cards. In my opinion, Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar is too expensive. Words of Wisdom gives your opponent cards, too, and we don't want that. I would recommend cards such as Telling Time, Harmonize, and Compulsive Research as good drawing cards. I don't think Serum Tank is going to be worthwhile unless your opponents play with a lot of artifacts.

 

As far as land, I don't see the purpose of the artifact lands (especially without Serum Tank), so I think those 5 can go, and in their place, let's put in 2 more Forests and 1 more Island, leaving us with 22 lands instead of 24. That should be plenty with the Kodama's Reaches and the Rampant Growths. Speaking of Rampant Growth, I like Search for Tomorrow or Sakura Tribe Elder better if you have any of those. Also, I don't think the Silver Myrs are all that necessary. Let's put some more better creatures in those spots. Perhaps even a couple copies of something big and nasty like a Deep-Sea Kraken!

 

That's the basic idea for the first option. I'll let you decide on the final build if you want to go this strategy.

 

Option 2: Make all your creatures unblockable with a 2 card combo.

 

Myr Landshaper and Tanglewalker combo together perfectly to make all your creatures unblockable. If you go this direction, I would, like the first deck option, put in a slew of lower casting cost, efficient creatures. But with this combo, you don't need the Whispersilk Cloak or the Sightbender. Let's use those slots for a card to help you search for your two combo pieces: Drift of Phantasms. The Drift can transmute for anything that costs three, and guess how much both the Landshaper and the Tanglewalker cost? Yup - three. The advice for the card drawing and the land searching spells holds true for this option, too, except that I would only run one set of land fixers so I could run the Drift of Phantasms.

 

Now, since we don't have the need for unblockable from the Whispersilk Cloak anymore, we can still have the shroud ability by using Ligthning Greaves. The Greaves give shroud and haste, which will give you an element of surprise, too.

 

Personally, I like option 2 the best, but it does kind of change your deck up a lot, so I wanted to start with something simpler and closer to your original plan.

 

If I were to run a deck using option 2, I would build it something like this:

 

Creatures x19

x4 Assault Zeppelid

x3 Vinelasher Kudzu

x4 Tanglewalker

x4 Myr Landshaper

x4 Drift of Phantasms

 

Sorcerys/Instants/Enchantments x15

x3 Harmonize

x4 Kodama's Reach

x3 Blanchwood Armor

x3 Ligthning Greaves

x2 Primitive Etchings

 

Artifacts x4

x4 AEther Spellbomb

 

Lands x22

x1 Simic Growth Chamber

x12 Forest

x9 Island

 

I hope you can take some of this into account. Even if you don't go exactly along with either option here, remember a couple things as you work on your deck:

 

1 - Unblockable creatures are mana intensive. It either takes a lot of mana to cast a creature with the natural unblockable ability, or it takes mana to enchant or equip a creature to make it unblockable.

 

2 - The more mana you invest in a single item, the more devastating it is when an opponent destroys it. Spread out your mana so they can't destroy you as easily.

 

Until next time,

 

-mattedesa