Puschkin

Hey guys, anyone of you still active? I miss the good decktalk and just talked with Kazzong about the good old times here on Vault on an old deck of Jessie that got reanimated. Might as well add him here because he misses quality deck feedback as well.

When and why did that stop? I am still looking for good decktalk. You guys can still call me out if you need reviews or ideas and I'll always appreciate feedback on my stuff.

You already commented on it 2 years ago ... getting old and forgetful? ;)

First off, this is EDH, with Locust God as the commander, right? There is a functionality to put your Commander in an extra tab called "Command Zone". You need to set the deck format to "Commander" to see this tab.

Now, to the deck. Like so many other decks here it focusses waaaay too much on the commander (and in this case only one-sided, more on that later). It's like you did a card search for draw-7-effects and similar cards, put them ALL on a big pile and called it a day. There are multiple problems with this:
1) Commanders get plowed, pathed, stolen, exiled, terminated, wrathed and what not all day. The opponent knows what your commander is and WILL save removal for it. In a typical game you have to bait with lots of other minions first, or empty the opponents hand. Or be prepared to play the commander many times before he can use his ability.
2) If you don't have the commander in play, which is the case most of the time, all those cards that depend on him are dead cards, or, in this casem outright dangerous.
3) Dangerous because most of them give your opponent cards, too. You generelly don't want that for obvious reasons. Worse yet, among your card drawers are cards like Time Twister that also reshuffle the graveyard. Basically, since you keep on reshuffling and refilling the opponent's hand, he will never run out of removal (which is cheaper than you commander)
4) It turns your deck into a one-trick-pony. Which means if your opponent has an answer to it, you can fold. And good EDH decks are toolboxes shock-full of varied answers.

Other problems that this deck has:
The one trick it does is producing lots of 1/1 tokens, typically, by refilling all player's hands. 1/1 tokens aren't a big threat, you have only 4 or so cards to make use of them and you can't even give them haste. By the time you have your commander in play and produced tokens, your opponents WILL have means to kill them on their turn before you attack, especially considering you refilled their hand! You do have a few card like Purphoros that help ou, but they are too few.
Also, the deck has virtually no removal! So, whatever solution your opponent plays, it'll stay! Lifegain? Zero! Graveyardremoval? Zero! Counterspells? Zero! The deck is basically naked, the opponent can do whatever he wants while you provide him a full hand and a full graveyard to work with ...

So, seriously, cut a dozen or so draw effects and begin tackling those problems. Here are some suggestions:
- Cerebral Vortex, Black Vise: Alternate paths to victory in case your main trick doesn't work
- Anger, Hammer of Purphoros, Unabrask the Hidden: Give your tokens haste. Anger is especially great since you have no problem getting it into your graveyard, Hammer adds more token production and Unabrask also removes haste from opponent's creatures
- Nevinyrral's Disk: A much needed reset button, one of the few ways to handle enchantments for a deck with these colours
- Misdirection, Insidious Will, Wild Ricochet: These cards protect your stuff (commander) and can be removal at the same time!
- Ivory Tower, Venser's Journal: Best lifegain there is for this deck.
- Relic of Progenitus: Nuke graveyards when in trouble. Can be popped just to draw a card in case it isn't needed.
- Incendiary Command: Of all the Winds of Change-effects, you didn't add THIS one? This, at least, also has other options like removal.
- Glen Elendra Archmage: Adds both counterspell utility and means to bait for removal.

Miscellaneous:
- Ruination and Back to Basics have bad synergy with Blood Moon and Magus of the Moon. I would either play the former couple or the latter, but not all 4 in the same deck!
- Maybe I am missing something but I don't see the purpose of Intruder Alarm. Note that with Locust God in play, you will untap your opponent's creatures automatically during your draw step.
- Strip Mine is an auto-include in any EDH deck.
- Mind's Eye is way better than most of the card drawers you currently run.

Sure but burn is not my style, I don't want to fight cancer with cancer, I want to turn their own cards and strategies against them.

You are assuming a lot of things, most notably that the Scion survives a full turn, but also no blockers and no response to you searching the next piece. Of course, if you are playing against a goldfish, this will work. Like any other random combonation of cards if you have 7-8 turns where your opponent doesn't do anything.

That is not what you wrote (you assumed having all 3 in hand). Counting on topdecking Demonfire makes this SO bad that I can't believe you actually playtested this >and made a video< ... This also assumes that you don't draw the Demonfire when you use Treasure Hunt.
Sorry, but I don't count this as "working".

No, it doesn't. When you use Manabond to put all lands into play, you have to discard your hand including your Demonfire. End of story.

Of course you lost, this deck still doesn't work as I explained above!

Well, Skullbriar could also get stolen ...

Anyway, there are lots of spells that become redundant pretty fast, for example once Skullbriar is (virtually) unblockable, you don't need yet another effect like Treetop Bracers. I also think you can easily replace some of the weaker +1/+1 counter givers with something more productive. Here lots of suggestions:

* One with Nature: I don't think you need this with a mana curve like this. One open slot.

* Ordeal of Nylea isn't that great here since it will fall off of Skullbriar immediatedly in most cases. Two open slots.

* Ferocity is one of the weakest pumpers here that doesn't add anything except for a single +1/+1 counter. Same is true for Forced Adaption. Four open slots.

* Mark of Sakiko, what's this for? Five open slots.

* Prowler's Helm/Trailblazer Boots => Whispersilk Cloak. I would ditch the other completely since so many unblockable effects are redundant, so six open slots.

* Nature's Claim ... why this over, say, Krosan Grip? You plan on using it on your own stuff to get some life?

* Stuff to fill the open slots with:
- Spike Feeder (both abilities are incredibly useful here)
- Avatar of the Resolute (useful early and late)
- Vulturous Zombie (you need flyers and this can win all by itself)
- Cytoplast Rootkin (the more creatures with counters you run, the better this will be)
- Champion of Lambhold (might not be budget anymore but is a gamewinner)
- Mindless Automaton (Adds card draw)
- Korozda Gorgon or Retribution of the Ancients (sometimes you need to kill something like a Royal Assassin in order to get through)
- Commune with the Gods (in this deck, there should always come up something useful. Ideal to replace one of the redundant cards we removed like Ferocity)

* Since these changes will add up a few dollar, here some suggestions to drop the price to where it started:
- Ditch Hatred. It's 3 times more expensive than any other card in this deck. I just don't see it justified, especially considering that it's so risky (any instant spot removal or counterspell and you have virtually lost the game). And IF I would add a card of this price range to the deck, it would be Reyhan!
- AEther Hub isn't needed in a two-colour deck like this.
- Switching to basic lands of a different set will also reduce the overall cost ;)
- Lord of the Accursed could go, it isn't that good anyway here since it basically only interacts with your commander.

Decided to update descriptions to mention the infinite combo with Spike Feeder.

First off, nice idea to build an EDH deck around Skullbriar.
But I think this needs a bit of work. For my taste you are focussing too much on your trick and neglect other important areas like removal, carddraw, lifegain and so on. I mean, you are have more enchantments and artifacts to boost your creatures than you have creatures, that's usually a giveaway that the ratio isn't useful, even for an EDH deck with a cheap commander. For that matter, I think you need a plan B if your Skullbriar ends up somewhere where you can't retrieve him. Since you produce lots of +1/+1 counters, I'd go that route.

I don't have time for a detailed critique right now, but this deck is bookmarked, I'll come back.

Unfortunately, reasonable guys like CiaranMadgrin are the exception.

Erm, I forgot ... that message is half a year old ;) It was probably an activity check for the Deckhelp Alliance.

Since your list is Legacy anyway, why don't you run Phyrexian Dreadnought then? Probably instead of Inverter of Truth, which is clearly the weakest of the bunch.

Classic Trash. But the fact you had to ask means, you aren't ;)

Are you, by chance, "that" Invis from CT?

Looks much better!
We are almost there - last things to adjust:
* Remove the last two Holy Day in favour of 2 more Dawn Charms! Why? Well, we now have more mana to spend, but more importantly, Dawn Charm is so much better, especially in this deck! In case you don't know: You can target a creature with Dawn Charm's second option even when there is no damage on the stack! Dawn Charm will just create a regeneration shield that waits for something to happen. This means you can use Dawn Charm to trigger Artisan of Forms!

* Now, Shieldmate's Blessing is the weakest link. I think all of the following are better in this deck:
- Emerge Unscathed
- God's Willing
- Anoint (although this isn't Modern legal)

Well, this is quite a good list for someone new!
You can always call me out if you need help.

About the walls I mentioned without naming them:
Have a look at Axebane Guardian, Overgrown Battlement and Sylvan Caryatid. They all help you with additional mana, can be used to blocker smaller creatures but at the same time provide targets for Mirrorweave (or Polymorphus Rush). Running some of those instead of some of the defensive spells like Holy Day will make the deck much more consistent.

You run way too few creatures and also too few ways to trigger Artisan of Forms! Also, there is no need to run Polymorphus Rush when you could use Mirrorweave instead! So, RUsh becomes Mirrorweave and I would cut Holy Day for more creatures to mirrorweave into, probably more mana walls.