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BMoor's Magic The Gathering Deck Garage
Anonymous W/G/B goodstuff
2.21.06

Welcome to another day in the laboratory.  Since I've opened up shop, most of the decks I've been getting are multicolored, built from Ravnica and Guildpact cards.  And why not?  It's never been easier to play several colors.  A deck's mana base can still be delicate though, and some mana costs can be such a pain....
 
"Hello, I've been playing Magic on and off for several years but really haven't seemed to be able to grasp the idea of a proper deck structure leading me to lots of good creatures but just an unbalanced deck. The deck I have now focuses around Orzhov's deals ability with cards like Moonlight Bargain, Blind Hunter, and Ghost Council. Also I've tried to incorporate Selesenya ability of token generation (as well as green's overall ability to produce mana). I think I've established a good base deck to start off around but I feel like it could be greatly improved. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
Creatures: 23
3 - Llanowar Elves (G)
2 - Utopia Trees (1G)
3 - Transluminant (1G)
2 - Sakura-Tribe Elder (1G)
2 - Restless Bones (2B)
3 - Blind Hunter (2WB)
1 - Witch-Maw Nephilim (GWUB)
2 - Ostiary Thrull (3B)
1 - Ghost Council of Orzhova (WWBB)
1 - Poisonbelly Ogre (4B)
2 - Myojin of Cleansing Fire (5WWW)
1 - Blazing Archon (6WWW)
 
Sorcery/Enchantment/Aura/Ins: 13
2 - Farseek (1G)
1 - Flickerform (1W)
1 - Ghostly Prison (2W)
3 - Devouring Light (1WW)*
1 - Hissing Miasma
1 - Chord of Calling (XGGG)*
2 - Seize the Soul (2BB)
1 - Moonlight Bargain (3BB)
1 - Final Judgment (4WW)
 
Land: 24
5 - Swamp
4 - Plains
6 - Forest
1 - Orzhov Basilica
1 - Selesenya Sanctuary
2 - Caves of Koilos
1 - Godless Shrine
3 - Vitu-Ghazi, The City Tree
1 - Temple Garden
 
Sideboard: 15
2 - Suppression Field (1W)
2 - Manriki-Gusari (2)
2 - Defense Grid (2)
1 - Chord of Calling (XGGG)*
1 - Phyrexian Arena (1BB)
1 - Worship (3W)
2 - Teysa, Orzhov Scion (1WB)
1 - Moratorium Stone (1)
3 - Souls of the Faultless (WBB)
 
(#XX) Representes the casting cost of the card listed
* represents that the card has Convoke"
 
Well, this deck does seem a bit ragged around the edges, but it’ll shine with a few tweaks.  I especially like how Anonymous here typed out the casting costs of the creatures, making my job that much easier :).  As I was looking through them, I noticed that all the small creatures seem to be little Green Elves, then turning white and black at around four mana.  I also saw Witch-Maw Nephilim, which really threw me for a loop.  My first thought was to search your mana base for a blue mana source.  I didn’t find it in Utopia Tree until after I found Chord of Calling, and assumed your gameplan was to cheat her into play with that.  So I may be a bit slanted in that direction.
 
Also, your “Selesnya token” sub-theme seems limited to Transluminant, Vitu-Ghazi, and Seize the Soul.  That does not make for the token army the Selesnya envisioned.  I’d like to just abandon that as a focal point of the deck, though Seize the Soul is certainly a worthy card to play.  Now, with so many enormous casting costs in your deck, it seems unreasonable to have to PAY them all, so I’m going to recommend Vigor Mortis.  This way, you can discard huge creatures like Blazing Archon and bring them back for cheap.  I’d also like to see a few copies of Debtor’s Knell, which can grab fresh meat from ANY graveyard, and replace Witch-Maw Nephilim with Yore-Tiller Nephilim, who also brings back dead creatures.  That, and moving the second Chord from the sideboard to the main deck should allow you to get creatures out of your library and graveyard, leaving only your hand to worry about.  Elvish Piper can take those worries away.
So, what do you drop for all these goodies?  Well, you can start with Transluminant, Vitu-Ghazi, Flickerform (whose prescence here puzzles me anyway) and Blind Hunter.  Really I want to reduce the white component of this deck greatly, but with Utopia Tree and all those dual lands, there’s no need to remove ALL the white cards, just the ones that aren’t worth cheating out.  Which means Ghostly Prison, Final Judgment, and Devouring Light are all gone.  Those are unfortunate drops I admit, but Ghostly Prison can be exchanged for another Hissing Miasma, Final Judgment is likely to hurt you worse than your opponent, and Devouring Light pales in comparison to Putrefy.  So take out the four plains.  Replace them with a Swamp and a Forest.  This deck should be able to run on 22 lands, what with all the Elf and Elder mana production, and besides you still have 8 white mana sources.  Try one more Farseek as well, it can search for Temple Garden and Godless Shrine.  Also, Restless Bones is a bit underwhelming here, take that out too.  And Poisonbelly Ogre is a mistake in such a creature-heavy deck.
 
-3 Transluminant
-2 Restless Bones
-3 Blind Hunter
-1 Witch-Maw
-1 Poisonbelly Ogre
-1 Flickerform
-1 Ghostly Prison
-3 Devouring Light
-1 Final Judgement
-4 Plains
 
+4 Vigor Mortis
+2 Debtor’s Knell
+1 Yore-Tiller
+1 Chord of Calling
+2 Elvish Piper
+1 Swamp
+1 Forest
+1 Hissing Miasma
+4 Putrefy
+1 Farseek
 
Well, I cut 20 cards, and only added 18.  Since this new deck is about getting cards with nightmarish casting costs out for cheap, those last two slots should go to the two biggest, nastiest, most unstoppable creatures you can get your hands on.  Or maybe another Chord of Calling and another Moonlight Bargain (to get huge creatures into the graveyard for future Vigor Mortises).  Maybe that Witch-Maw can come on back.  Also, you may want to replace one of those white Myojin with her Green counterpart—if you cheat a Myojin into play, it doesn’t get a divinity counter, and green is easier to hardcast in this deck than white now.  And what of the sideboard?  Well, a sideboard is where you put cards that are good against specific decks, but not good enough against the majority of opponents to be in the maindeck.  If you never play matches(best of 3 games), and just play one game at a time, I don't think you'd need a sideboard at all.  If you do sideboard in things, they should be cards specifically picked based on a type of deck you know you have trouble beating.  And since I don't know who your opponents typically are, then I can't really make educated sideboard recommendations.  I'll leave that to you, Anonymous.
 
A final note: even when you don't always intend to pay mana costs, juggling several colors of mana and getting the right amount of each can be tough.  I can't really overvalue cards like Overgrown Tomb, or even the Signets when it comes to multicolor decks.  Also, keep in mind that a black/green deck doesn't always want an even split of Forests and Swamps.  The earlier you need a color of mana, for example, or the more cards that require at least two mana in your deck, the more the ratio should be tilted in that color's favor.  And there will always be that game where you get nothing but Swamps and green cards; that's simply a side effect of the game's inherent randomness and can never be completely avoided in a shuffled deck.  When building a deck, these are things to keep in mind.  Until next time, you can send decks in need of fixing to me at bemore4096@yahoo.com.  Good luck, and may the colors be on your side!

 

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