Beowulf85

Simplest solution, put on your big boy pants and step out of the safe world of modern in to the scary world of, well, this. ;)

It's true that 18 mana producing lands is a little on the low side, but don't forget to consider that there are 6 cards in here that give me card draw off of either one mana+suspend, or returning two tapped islands to my hand (as explained before, a mini accellerant). Slower decks tend to fare better in 4 person + multiplayer because people find themselves in stalemates of "if I attack him, then I'll be open to be attacked". Many of my decks optimize around that strategy, where I have some way of deterring others from attacking me until I can violently swing the game in my favor (my front page zombie deck is a good example, giving deathtouch/fist strike to everything while waiting for the proper card combo to suddenly make them unblockable).

What's more, my main deterrent enchantments only cost 3 mana, even with this mana base that isn't usually hard to achieve. Once you drop one or two of those enchantments (especially early game when few have mana to spare) almost no one wants to waste time attacking the guy who doesn't have any threats present on the field. Even if it takes an extra turn or two to get the third mana, you should be able to survive a few turns because no one wants to go all out against someone that early in multiplayer, where being overly aggressive can lead to being punished by other players.

While, yes, there is comparatively little mana in this deck, there is also no reason to cast anything at a cost of more than 4 mana. Even the one turn drop of the win con only takes 4 mana to drop both cards in one turn (remember again, multiplayer means more creatures, which lowers Blasphemous Act's casting cost very quickly).

However, as you said, we could theoretically do without the Ghostly Prisons, thus doing away with white and allowing room for two more mana. Both eliminating one color and adding two more lands would make it much easier to draw what you need expediently.

I'll take a look at those decks.

Oh, and thanks for liking how I think. Back when I was active one of the reasons I got 3 decks to the front page was because I always left decently useful comments on other people's decks, so they kept coming back for advice. Eventually I developed a small following for a while, lol.

It is worth noting that when I play casual I do allow people to mulligan for free until they have at least 3 mana in hand (also free mulligan if you have 5 or more mana, because being mana screwed or mana flooded isn't fun for anyone), and the majority of my decks require at most 5 mana to be effective at what they do.

I took a look at Sphere of Safety, and while I agree it does fit the theme well, I find its mana cost to be prohibitive. I need these defensive enchantments out ASAP to deter attacks, waiting until turn 5 at the earliest (when I would normally play either my win con, or a gush to get my win con) would throw off the pacing for the entire deck. This deck should win in 6-8 turns (ideally, though it could win by turn 4 if the mana/creatures fall properly and I can do a 1 mana blasphemous act) and throwing in a turn 5 card that does something that should be done by turn 3-4 just wouldn't play well.

As it is people usually have to pay 8-12 mana to attack me with a single creature anyway, and even if they can manage that cost there is usually a Maze of Ith or two to prevent that one creature from doing anything.

This deck goes through a few specific phases when it is being played. Early game is dropping mana and playing defensive enchantments, suspending Ancestral Vision in prep for mid game. Mid game is draw all the cards and put creatures in to play under your opponent's control until you have what you need for your win con. Mid to late game is where the win con goes off.

You've got loads of decks man, are there any you would like me to take a look at and drop a comment? You post really good analysis and criticism/advice.

Note: I have won with this deck several times when I used to play it in casual multiplayer on Cockatrice, so the mana base does work well enough though the deck certainly isn't beyond improvement.

Well said! Yeah, this deck is pretty thematic and I think I agree with most of what you've said. I built it a few years ago and I think collective restraint was a "let's see if I can maximize this effect" card, though even if I had 2 fewer land types it would still be very powerful. It is generally ideal to run as few colors as possible in order to simplify play and maximize resources.

Sterling Grove is a great card, I'm not sure why I didn't include it originally.

Mystic Remora synergises beautifully, and is even better in multiplayer! The cumulative upkeep is heavily offset by its low initial casting cost, and the fact that if people pay to counter its card draw it will mean that they won't have enough mana left to attack through my other defenses.

Mana analysis when compared to Gush (total cumulative mana spent vs effect):
Gush - 5 mana (or 2 islands returned to hand)
Mysitc Remora -
Turn 1 - 1 mana (casting cost)
Turn 2 - 2 mana (1 upkeep)
Turn 3 - 4 mana (2 upkeep)
Turn 4 - 7 mana (3 upkeep)
Sacrifice it somewhere between here and 2 turns from here, and I'm likely to have drawn more cards off of it than I would have off of Gush (particularly in multiplayer).

One of the reasons I like Gush is it can actually act like a mini mana accelerant (for one turn). Tap two islands, float the mana, return them to hand to play gush and draw 3 cards, put one of the islands in hand back in to play and tap it a second time. Ultimately this puts you one turn behind in lands but by mid game most people don't have more than one land in hand regardless. With the card draw, assuming you draw one more land, that means two more turns of playing lands before you're completely caught up and ahead of the game due to the draw. It's a mid game card (hence there only being two of it in the deck). No need to use it to draw early game as I'll still have cards I want to play in hand, and by mid game I have the means I need to play it.

Basically, with more than half of the lands in play able to produce blue I can't remember ever running in to a problem when it came to having the correct color mana in this deck. I always do an analysis of how many of each mana symbol appear in the casting cost of the cards in my decks and use those numbers to derive percentages in order to balance the mana available in the deck, and Vesuva/Forbidden Orchard really allows me to be more flexible. Omitting my opponent's lands (in multiplayer where it becomes more likely that someone is running the colors I need), Vesuva still has 10 targets in this deck to produce blue mana from.

You are right though, I could eliminate white and black and still have plenty of defenses in the deck to make the strategy go off.

I considered Stuffy Doll previously, but I designed this deck around the idea of it being creatureless and using enchantments to protect the player. Replacing Stuffy Doll would be powerful, but it would require me to have at least two in play for each player I'm against. Relying on repercussion means all I need is for my opponents to have 2 creatures in play. I think Stuffy Doll would significantly slow the deck down, though a Blasphemous Act+Stuffy Doll combo could work very well if one wanted to build a deck around it. I'd probably want to rework at least half the deck if I did that (though this deck would be a good basis for that kind of idea).

Yeah, I'm aware of the catch 22, yet not all front page decks are horrible. This one seems to have been bumped here by deleted comments. If you (or anyone) would like, suggest 2-3 of your decks you would like me to take a look at and drop some comments on and I'll do the same for you. We can see if we can generate some interest in decks we think might deserve attention. If you drop a comment that's even 1/3 as well thought out as what you've done here I'll try to do the same for any deck you suggest.

Note, all my decks are hypothetical and most are proxy only, thus I don't pull punches when it comes to using alpha lands. They are basically thought experiments about exploiting a particular strategy or card to the best of its ability and the price of any of the decks could be cut down to a fraction by easily subbing out the Alpha/Urza lands.

My decks are here: http://www.mtgvault.com/beowulf85/

I've already had 3 front page decks (back when I was active on this site in 2013), but others that people have enjoyed playing that I think are worthy of some attention include:
-Creatureless Blasphemous Act
-Archers Done Right
-Best Overwhelming Stampede
-Overpowered Treefolk

Of course if you comment on any of my less popular decks I'll return the favor. Note, I haven't been updating these decks for about two years so I'm unaware of many of the newest cards that have been released since 2013, if any newer cards could help my decks (which are mainly vintage/legacy legal) I would appreciate it. Of particular interest to update may be my "Fat Fat Fatty" deck, which already made the front page but could always used suggestions for the newest big fat overpowered cards to exploit.

Thanks! Yeah, all my decks are hypothetical. The budget could easily be fixed by changing out the alpha lands with shock lands (or other dual/triple lands), which are still pricey but much more affordable.

I proxy these decks and just play them casually for fun, many of the decks I build are based around the idea of "how well can I get a certain card/strategy to work"? Hence the prevalence of Alpha and Urza lands in many of my decks, they basically just display the potential of the cards under optimal conditions.

Isochron scepter paired with tangle IS DIRTY! I like it... It would also serve to insure against a mass enchantment board wipe (though many such cards also deal with artifacts). The only problem is you have to tap it to activate it, and I generally play my decks in a multi player setting, meaning Isochron would only serve against the first attacker (that being said the same complaint could be made against Maze of Ith).

Out of curiosity, what would you remove from the deck in order to make room for Isochron scepter?

So this deck got to front page with a bunch of deleted comments?
You had a good idea, but a poor execution. Look up manaless dredge if you want a powerful manaless deck.
Ignore the haters, while I don't think this deck deserves to be on the front page, play for fun and build what you enjoy.

Got to love an overpowered and efficient budget deck. I don't typically play decks like this because I prefer multiplayer, and burn decks suffer in drawn out games when other decks ramp up. Any idea how this fares in a 4 way situation? Could you conceivably simultaneously wipe out two opponents during one main phase by turn 8 (assuming they both had 10-15 health)?

Why? (This comment needs to be 10 characters long)

Oh, and BTW, causing an opponent to discard with Swords while they can only untap one land per turn while you untap all of yours will often cause your opponent to surrender. Sword of Vengeance also grants vigilance/trample/first strike/haste/+2/+0 if you wanted some more "bang" in the deck.

I see what you did here...

First thought, again you have a near perfect mana curve, but between Sol Ring, Birds of Paradise, and Lotus Cobra, is it really necessary? I understand you put lands in to lockdown, but you should be producing plenty of mana besides.

Great use of Force Spike. Am I correct in assuming that this deck wins by bouncing Batterskull between Birds and Cobra? If so, I think it could benefit from more creatures. You can take out 4 lands (since you really don't use them that much) and add 4 Llanowar Elves. Heck, you could take out 4 more and add 4 Fyndhorn Elves!

This deck reminds me a little of my Overwhelming Stampede deck, the idea was winning primarily through use of 1 CMC craetures. It does so with great success.

BTW, Sol Ring is either Restricted or Banned in every non singleton format (if I'm not mistaken). The reason being is you could start out with 2/3/4 of them in hand and play them all on turn 1, ending up with 5/7/9 mana per turn on turn two (+1 if you had a second land). There are plenty of other artifacts that mana accell that you could use, but for this deck, just to troll your opponents, I would highly recommend... Sword of Feast and Famine.

It fits the theme with both powering up your creatures, it's easier to bounce around than Batterskull (lower equip cost), AND it untaps all your lands in an alternate way. Causing your opponent to discard, getting +2/+2, and protection from green and blue are unfortunate side effects, but you'll just have to live with em'.

Seems I neglected the vigilance from Batterskull, nice! Even so, feast and Famine is easy to re-equip to another creature so you have a beefed up defender if need be. Or just put it on the same thing as Batterskull and laugh meniachally.

No worries, I'll check out another deck or two of yours, if you like any more of mine feel free to drop a comment. I just wish my elf decks would get the attention that yours has. XD

If you want to playtest it, check out Cockatrice.

If you do throw in Genesis Wave, i highly recommend at least one Elixir of Immortality to keep yourself from milling out, it'll also ensure that your library is full of Instants and Sorceries and protect against unfortunate board wipes.

Next up, Nissa Revane is a huge troll with Genesis Wave. She drops at the same time as the elves, but you can set off her life gain right away after a genesis wave/elvish promenade combo, so even if someone does board wipe they probably still can't kill you.

I'll update this deck to its latest iteration since you've taken an interest. I removed door of destinies, but they are also great board wipe protection, ensuring that your elves stay nice and big even if they are all blown up.

-3 Door of Destinies
-2 Joraga Treespeaker
+1 Llanowar Elves
+2 Nissa
+1 Primal Command
+1 Elvish Promenade

I found that I didn't need Treespeaker with all the mana being generated by Priest of Titania and Gaea's Cradle.

Thanks! I already have Immaculate Magistrate in there specifically for Joraga. Once I set off a Genesis Wave followed by and Elvish Promenade, I'll pump up Joraga with Magistrate and, well, the deck is called "It's over 9000!" for a literal reason. I can do thousands of damage in one swing with this deck. I have several times, lol. It unfortunately takes several minutes to accurately calculate the damage, luckily people usually end up giving up.

Good explanation, your deck = liked.

I'd still throw one or two lodges in personally, but I'm sure you bring the power without em'.

I'll appreciate any comments, suggestions, or likes you have for my decks. :)

Any reason you don't have Wirewood Lodge in here? It would multiply the power of Imperious Perfect, Rhys, and Priest of Titania.

I also run Genesis Wave in all of my elf decks, because playing your whole deck in one turn is fun and makes people give up.

I noticed you basically have a perfect mana curve, nice. :)

Would be way more powerful if you added a few ways to bring lands directly in to play from your deck, which would probably mean removing a few non-basic lands and adding some basic lands in instead. Even if you don't need the acceleration, it thins your deck out so you are drawing more slivers.

If you ever play slivers in EDH multiplayer expect everyone to focus you. No one likes a sliver EDH deck.

Edit - Removed 4 Brainstorm, added 4 Syphon Mind.

Add some more taggs to the deck man. Tribal, Aggro, Bird, etc... It would get some love, and certainly deserves some attention!

This deck has great potential and I would love to see it in action. The only card that is really out of place here is Aven Mimeomancer. You just don't need it, most of your creatures are already flying birds, you don't need it in there for the one or two creatures that aren't already birds. I would suggest removing it in favor of more card draw.