maxtheape

There is a card that nobody has suggested yet, and I am curious why. Karn Liberated. For my part, I'm an old-fashioned player who's been out of the game for a decade. To my mind, Planeswalkers just feel wrong. It could be very potent in this deck, alternating between making my opponent discard and destroying a land. I'm unwilling tp pay enough to buy a couple, but may try to trade for a couple and see if they have a spot in this deck.

andorman is mostly right. I'm not ruling out the possibility of perhaps 2 of them. The upside of Ghost Quarters is that I could take out two land in one turn without needing 8 mana. Also a plus is that, even though you fetch a land, if I have the card in hand to destroy whatever you fetch it reduces the amount of land in your deck for you to draw the following turn(s). My reasoning for not having them is a bit more basic. I have Bramblecrush/Acidic Slime which require GG and Invader Parasite which needs RR. I have Copperline Gorges which are going to come into play tapped after turn 3 and Rootbound Crag which is going to come into play tapped if I can't pull a basic land. Putting in Ghost Quarters means either pulling basics and putting my Crags at risk, pulling Gorges which reduces my access to either G or R at will, or finding a non-land card to remove. I'm certainly open to the idea, but would be curious to hear what you think about the concerns I just expressed. Thanks for the feedback!

The Tectonic's have always been a staple, but I did ditch the Into the Maw of Hell's. Surgical Extraction as a pre-drawn land kill (for non-basics) is fantastic. What I really like about the Daybreak Rangers is that if I can get one out and working against weenies with a Surgical Extraction bouncing back to my hand from the Charmbreaker Devils, my opponents deck disappears very quickly.

Anybody have any thoughts on whether I should drop the Incinerates in favor of the Daybreak Rangers? I already dropped back to 3 Charmbreaker Devils and am thinking about going down to 2 and swapping the third and the three Incinerates for Daybreak Rangers. It does mean I risk needing to pop my own creatures with a 3 counter Ratchet Bomb, but the Rangers can handle many 3 casting cost creatures without needing to use the Bomb.

Thanks! If you do build one, please link it here. I'm always interested in seeing what someone else comes up with.

Something, perhaps strange, to consider. What happens with a werewolf deck if you run Omen Machine. If either you or your opponent hit land once, the were's will flip. Absent spells in hand when you drop the Omen Machine, you're opponent will not be able to "stockpile" to be able to cast two to force the switch back condition.

You've got a point with the counter decks, and it may be worth dropping the two Maw's, extra Forest (unnecessary without the Maw's), and one Fog to put four Beast Within's in the sideboard just for control decks. I've been out of the game for a long time, and I'm still working out the rusty spots. I hadn't actually paid close enough attention to EVERYTHING the cards I'm already using do. The Acidic Slime's could take out a beast despite their inferior power due to deathtouch, the Invader Parasite's have the three power needed to take out a Beast, and unless I'm mistaken a zero counter Ratchet Bomb could be used in a pinch to eliminate a Beast.

Do you think counter is going to be dominant enough in the new Standard to warrant main-boarding three of them in place of the Incinerate's?

You're right, of course, about the Extraction and Nihil. The two-for-one effect is really the appealing part of the Maw. With the Skaab being castable from the graveyard, though, you are probably right. The three creatures in the graveyard won't be a problem for my opponent as I am giving them the perfect opportunity to discard as many as they'd like by virtue of a full hand and no mana. The even bigger plus to the Extraction is that it can be used on non-basic lands. If I can pop 1 Inkmoth Nexus, I can get rid of all of them. In the current environment, that means against most decks I'd have deck-land-removal. Very compelling thought. The remaining question is whether I can back off one land (down to 20) and replace a Forest as well as the two Maw's.

Thanks for making me really think about that one.

The single biggest threat that warrants the Maw's is Skaab Ruinator. If my LD slows down for even a couple of turns, and one of those hits the board, I have no way to respond.

It wasn't until after countless draw-testing that I relented and put in the Maw's. The mana production of the deck is so quick that getting to the 6 mana for the Maw isn't too tough. I originally put in 2 Melt Terrain's and a fourth Incinerate, but discovered that by the time they appeared I had the mana to cast both at the same time. Enter Maw. It IS basically casting both, but cycled with the Charmbreaker it means I can kill both a land and a creature every turn.

My thought with the Grimoire is as follows: If my opponent can't cast, that means they're discarding. The first thing you discard is those big things (including creatures) that you won't be able to cast. For my deck's purposes, unless I'm facing a counter deck, once that sixth land hits the board I'm happy to discard extra land. The Grimoire isn't for early in the game. Additionally, I can happily block, even if it's a chump block, with my Acidic Slime's and Invader Parasite's. When I "Grimoire" any of them that had died get to nuke lands all over again. As for the Inferno Titan's, I have to admit I don't have any (same with Simulacrum's and Karn's) and the purchase price of Charmbreaker's was much more reasonable. Also, with the mana producers in my deck, I can hit with a third turn Tectonic Rift and fourth turn Charmbreaker and let the cycle of pain begin.

I'm going to have to consider the Argentum Armor. I think it would be a sideboard item for me, but I do see its usefulness.

I definitely "Like" your deck and would be curious to hear how you find it works for you. Good luck.

I've been thinking about werewolves and wonder whether there is a possible use here for Omen Machine. By controlling the casting pace, the moment someone hits a land the werewolves transform. Unless they've got spells in hand, they won't be transforming back. Unfortunately, this makes Moonmist's and Traitorous Blood unpredictable at best and useless at worst.

I've also got an Innistrad Standard Land Destruction deck (http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=237867) and would welcome any suggestions you might have. One of the differences between our decks is that rather than the Argentum Armor, I went with Charmbreaker Devils to supply me with later game land destruction. With all of your creature destruction capacity, you might consider making space for a Grimoire of the Dead. I don't have Titans, Simulacrums, or Karns, so I'm using a few lower cost solutions.

The Surgical Extractions are kind of an odd choice for me, as it's not specifically a "discard" deck. My thought is that if I can take out small creatures with an Incinerate or Daybreak Ranger and "extract" all copies, I can leave them with minimal land and nothing small in their deck to cast. That's the theory at least. I'm quite rusty, having been back in the game for just a few weeks after being out for ten years, but I do try to make sure that each card choice is as strategic as possible.

The big concern I have is that if I stop pulling Land Destruction and my Charmbreakers don't make an appearance, I've just prepped my opponents graveyard for them to reanimate like mad. Once Skaab Ruinator could do this deck in. Because of that kind of thing, or a cheap creature with power/toughness based on the number of creatures in your graveyard, I'm also tinkering with Into the Maw of Hell. I don't really want them main deck due to the cost, but if I put them in the sideboard I won't have space for my swap to "Counter Mode."

After drawing through countless test hands, I found that the Avacyn's Pilgrims just weren't needed for the quick mana as much as I thought they were. I replaced them with 2 Melt Terrain's and 2 Grim Lavamancers. The Melt Terrain's because I wasn't reliably getting my land destruction sorcery's despite the presence of 8 of them. The Grim Lavamancer lets me do a couple of things. First, I can remove the extra land destruction and Incinerates to leave only the sorcery or instant of my choosing (making the "random" effect from the Charmbreaker Devils non-random.) Second, I can remove creatures from my graveyard to prevent a deck that can reanimate from any graveyard from killing my own lands with my creatures come into play effects.

At least in just simply draw outs it seems to flow pretty consistent. Haven't decided on a sideboard, but am thinking about dropping in some combination of u/g and u/r lands with Mana Leak's. It would be a total change-up, but could prove just as interesting with the Charmbreaker's.

Also seriously looking for space to stick in a Grimoire of the Dead. An opponent stuck with a hand full of big creatures s/he can't cast makes nice fodder for it.

More testing has led me to the conclusion that I can drop down to 3 each of the Semblance Anvil and Quicksilver Amulet. To ensure better land access, I dropped in Mycosynth Wellsprings. Also dropped down to 3 each of the Adaptive Automaton and Etched Champion. So far, it seems to draw well. Haven't committed yet to getting all the cards so I can really playtest it. Decided to wait on a "final" deck list until Innistrad is out. Already planning to find room for one Laboratory Maniac.

I'm really fond of the Galvanoth's I dropped into my Burn/LD deck. It flows quickly, especially with (in my case) nothing by land, Galvanoth's and instant/sorcery spells. Not quite an extra card every turn, but when I do get an extra, it's free.

I think my infect deck (found here: http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=213095) nicely fits into the cheap deck category. I did already have the Birds of Paradise, which helped. I found it to be quite capable and snagged a victory at our local qualifier tournament for Pittsburgh. I actually opted out of the Ichorclaw Myr, despite originally planning on it because I found that opponents were more afraid of me being able to target their "hinge-pin" creatures with the one point of damage from a dying Necropede. The Livewire Lash was critical. I had several games where I was able to win without a single successful attack (including an ill-conceived Lightning Bolt by an opponent.)

Tried out the Myr Superion's, but got stuck with them in my hand early and swapped them back out in favor of Phyrexian Metamorph (along with ditching the green altogether).