dknight27

Are you going for budget casual here?

No joke, MASSIVE card advantage potential in a deck that wants to run as many rats as possible. And since you already have 3 lands when you play him, the lands you put on the bottom help you, on top of everything else. What's not to love about this silly card.

Helps with the low land count too, and gets around counterspells. Your discard rats could be used as turn disruption as well, so that's nice. I'm liking it the more I think about it.

You've got two deck ideas kind of meshed together here instead of one coherent theme: the rats and discard. None of your rats help with the discard, and you don't really have enough discard going to justify it or its support mechanics, so I'd suggest cutting that alltogether.

Undercity Plague is just too expensive and too conditional to justify, as it will take forever to cast, requires a creature to imprint on, is only useful with connected damage, and is lost when the critter is lost. So, a single lightning bolt takes away more than half its efficacy, as well as being a +0 exchange with tempo. You're much better off with something you can play quickly that gives you good value.

Behind the Scenes is actually counterproductive in this build, as Skulk works extremely poorly with Rat Colony (which pumps itself up), and you can't take advantage of the boost because you're not running white. I'd suggest cutting it.

Rancid Rats is a little too underpowered for what it's giving, especially since you get almost the same thing with [[Typhoid Rats]], and deattouch is a deterrent to blocking in the first place, making the Skulk angle less important.

You can also get away with fewer lands, as your curve is very low, though the lack of one-drops means you're always playing down a turn against fast decks, but since it's for casual that probably doesn't matter.

Overall, I'd suggest the following:

-Hypnotic Specter
-Undercity Plague
-Wrench Mind
-Behind the Scenes
-Waste Not
-Rancid Rats


+[[Karumonix, the Rat King]]
+[[Persistent Marshstalker]]
+[[Tangled Colony]]
+[[Rat Out]]

Okiba Reckoner doesn't seem like it has enough value for a spot in competitive. I have no idea what you'd swap in for it, as you want to keep the curve low and there aren't that many good 1-drop rats, but I can't see it holding up that well. Maybe [[Aether Vial]]?

This deck's best friend would be [[Aether Vial]]. You're constantly gunna be mana starved if you have to keep bouncing and replaying critters, and the vial gets around that, with Flash, and the critters can't be countered. Start the game with a turn 1 Vial and you're already at about +5 tempo with the way this deck wants to run.

Your curve is relatively low here, you most definitely don't need 26 lands. I'd suggest dropping it to 21 or 22 and adding in some cheap removal like [[Incinerate]]/[[Lightning Bolt]].

No fetch lands to feed the goyfs?

SKullclamp works best as a sac engine on its own, as you can essentially use it to pay {1} to sac the critter and draw 2 if the clamp kills the critter. Skullclamp's best friend is [[Bloodghast]] for this very reason, as it turns into a combo that's basically just {1} draw 2 cards every turn. Some other fodder critters I'd consider are [[Refurbished Familiar]] and [[Nether Traitor]]. Then there are the draino critters that take advantage of the dying, [[Blood Artist]] and [[Zulaport Cutthroat]], which are also emergency targets for the clamp, which is delightful. I'd also absolutely recommend running 4 clamps, as the whole deck revolves around abusing it.

Right now you've got three themes going: stuffy death, isochron burn, and isochron lockdown. Realistically, all three of these could be their own builds, so my main suggestion is to cut at least one of them out to free up space for more support and consistency. Isochron and stuffy have very little natural synergy, as any burn damage you could throw at stuffy through scepter could just be directed at opponent directly. If you're using isochron lockdown as a means of searching out stuffy and his otk with extinction, that could be achieved about as well by just using another isochron and a burn spell for consistent damage, as you'd be netting 3 damage a turn as opposed to waiting 5-10 turns to get the pieces of the combo you need for the otk, which would be 15-30 isochron damage anyway.

That being said, if you want to keep the core of the deck as is, I'd recommend cutting curse of the pierced heart, as it's too slow and doesn't combo with anything other than as a slow win con when hooked up with isochron lockdown. Boros charm and deflecting palm have the same idea, as they are unnecessary for stuffy and just act as burn damage. You'd be better off with good ol [[Lightning Bolt]] and [[Incinerate]] which act as removal as well as damage to the face. There's nothing fancy about them, but they'll keep you alive if you need them to clear critters, and they'll kill opponent on a scepter if you need a win condition. I'd also recommend [[Sweltering Suns]] to help keep you alive, and the cycling ability is always useful if you don't need it.

24 lands with no fetches also seems pretty high. I know you want 7 lands for your otk, but the rest of the build can survive off of 2. I'd recommend cutting 3 rugged prairie, 3 elegant parlor and 4 clifftop retreat and adding in 4 [[Arid Mesa]] and 3 [[Windswept Heath]]. That'll help thin the deck, still has color fixing, and has the fantastic turn 1 surveil combo by fetching your remaining elegant parlor (if you don't need to play anything), which actually gives you 8 chances at a turn 1 surveil instead of just 4, while helping thin the deck and so forth.

Just some ideas, I'm assuming this isn't trying to be modern legal, as the core of the deck is enlightened tutor, which isn't legal in modern.

I can help with that. There are plenty of budget cards you can work in here to bring it down to modern.

Check out:

[[Bonecrusher Giant // Stomp]]
[[Lightning Bolt]]
[[Firebrand Archer]]
[[Guttersnipe]]

Shit happens my man, keep fighting the good fight. We all appreciate it.

We're back baby!

Is there no one at the helm anymore?

I'm very disappointed at the selection of 3-drop walkers available in naya. I'm not a huge fan of four-color decks, even with the dorks, but it sure would be nice to have access to another 3-drop.

My thoughts on Nissa were that it either throws out chump blockers, builds to a really slow win con, or refills the hand once you're tapped if you field it early and don't have any interference. All that and it's the 3-drop that makes me the least sick of the available options that were left.

I'd love to run [[Teferi, Time Raveler]] with High Noon (which I'll be working on), cause that's pretty much the ballgame, but those four-color decks are just too risky for me.

I love how Grist works with Unearth, that's some fun synergy.

That's all fair. My mind went right to [[Insidious Roots]] and all the drainocrats.

It is indeed a daunting combo for how cheap and available it is. I wanted to stay away from it for the beginner-friendly version though, both because it technically costs more than I'm allowing for the budget (cards under a buck to keep the whole build around 20 bucks), and because it's so self-contained and in-game cheap that it doesn't really teach anything beyond 'wow, there are 2 card combos that are silly broken'.

Aegis of the Gods is nice, but doesn't really fit. Swap it out for [[Akroan Skyguard]].

Daybreak Coronet is too risky twice over. It's a horrible topdeck and in the opening hand, as it's conditional on you already having an enchanted creature (meaning you need a fielded creature (shouldn't be a problem) and another enchantment (there are only 8 more)). On top of that, it's a triple investment, as you've got 3 cards stacked (critter, first enchantment, Coronet), all of which can be taken out by a single murder spell, putting you at -2 material, which is VERY bad. Its 2-drop cost is also sort of annoying, as you want this build to be faster rather than slower, and 1-drop auras/targets get that done much better (you've gotta field a critter(s) first. Swap it out for either [[Hyena Umbra]], which keeps the aura count for Ethereal Armor (as well as being a great investment against everything but exile spells), or [[Defiant Strike]] which does something similar but thins the deck with tempo.

I'm also not that into Archetype of Courage in here, as you've already got plenty of first strike/double strike on the board already, and your boys will be nice and fat and won't really need the first strike (which works best on things with no ass). I'd probably swap it out for more Fabled Hero.

As usual, all suggestions are budget friendly.

Oh sure, there are whole formats I've never played (pauper/pioneer/etc). I've just been playing a long time and spend too much time on games in general.