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BMoor's Magic The Gathering Deck Garage
casual team B/G attack deck

June 1, 2006

When building a deck that is intended specifically for team games, you have a little more freedom with your build.  You have a teammate to cover the things your deck can't do, so there's no need to try and do everything.  On the other hand, you'll have multiple opponents, so you have to make sure your deck has the wherewithal in it to finish of multiple players and won't run out of gas early.  Fortunately for today's client, his deck already thrives in the late game, as every dead creature gives him another small advantage.
I am wondering if you can come up with a powerful B/G deck that  is supported by my partners Blue counter deck.
 
my deck currently runs off

creature 23
4 Mortivore
4 Revenant

1 myojin of nights reach
4 dauthi horror
3 ogre marauder
4 nether shadow
1 netherborn phalanx
1 scion of the wild
1 kokusho the evening star
 
spells23
4 dark ritual
4 rancor
4 moldervine cloaks
2 lightning greaves
2 hex
3 soul burn
4 golgari signet
 
land 15
3 vault of whispers
4 golagri rot farm
8 swamps
4 forest
 
I want to keep the
mortivores, revenants,  and rancor's anything else can be changed
 
my budget is $ 80
You want to keep the Mortivores, Revenants, and Rancors, eh?  That sounds good: Rancor is an awesome card, Mortivore has a lot of power, and Revenant is essentially a Flying Mortivore, which is even better.  I take it then that the strategy of this deck is to fill the graveyard with creatures, and use your Lhurgoyfs.... Lhurgoyves..... Lhurgoyfi..... to present ever-worsening threats while your teammate keeps all your opponent's relevant spells at bay.  Sounds like an excellent plan.
 
Now, since your teammate is playing a "counter deck" as you described, I have to assume that he/she isn't running a lot of win conditions and that he/she is counting on you to finish the job.  And in this case, I assume "finishing the job" means killing off two other players.  That means you're gonna need lots of offense.  LOTS of offense.  I'd like to bring your creature count up to 30, 35, maybe even 40.  That'll be difficult to do though, since I'm gonna have to add more land at some point.  We'll start by dropping whatever cards we can.
 
Soul Burn can go (I don't know why you're even using it; it has no place outside of a deck with Black and Red).  Lightning Greaves can go too.  I won't drop Hex or Moldervine, since they can each put creatures in your graveyard for Mortivore and Revenant, and I'd be a fool to drop Dark Ritual.  But even with the Rituals, you need to have lots of creatures out, and that means you need to put them out fast.  Also drop Myojin of Night's Reach, Scion of the Wild, and Netherborn Phalanx.
 
That's eight cards dropped.  In their place go 2 Golgari Grave-Troll, whose effect is similar to that of Mortivore, 4 Golgari Guildmage, a good utility creature all around, and 2 Dimir House Guard, an excellent creature that can help get creatures into the graveyard if need be and can Transmute for Mortivore.  Notice that I dropped several expensive cards for much cheaper ones, and I left in your cheapest creatures (Dauthi Horror and Nether Shadow).
 
Of course, even with that bringing down your mana curve, it may not be enough.  You've got a 61-card deck, with 15 land, 4 Golgari Signets, and 4 Dark Rituals.  Your most expensive card is now Hex or Kokusho, and your most important cards all cost either 4 or 5.  That's just too much pressure to draw enough land, especially in a deck with no ways to draw extra cards.  I think the best option is to drop Hex (I know I said I wouldn't, but something's gotta give) and replace it with one copy of Svogthos, the Restless Tomb.  That brings the card count to 16 land in a 60-card deck, which is better but still rather risky.  Of course now you only have one 6-mana card (and it's Kokusho, which is awesome enough to justify it), and your Signets and Rituals, so hopefully you'll be alright.
 
But that does bring up one more question: why are you using Vault of Whispers?  Artifact lands are only useful in decks full of cards that reward you for playing artifacts with cards like Myr Enforcer, Arcbound Crusher, or Shrapnel Blast.  Without such cards, artifact lands are merely lands that are legal targets for Shattering Spree.  Replace them with Swamps.  Not more Svogthoses, Swamps.  Or maybe a Forest or two.  Svogthos doesn't provide colored mana, and you'll need it early on, so you don't want to be drawing Svogthos too early.  Also, Svogthos's ability is only worthwhile later in the game, when your graveyard is well-stocked.
And that's about all I have to say about that.  I'm kinda sorry there wasn't room for Grave-Shell Scarab or Vulturous Zombie, but c'est la vie.  Good luck!
 
~BMoor

 
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