Reaganstorme wrote: Kiora's Tomb of ZombiesCreatures (1): Prized AmalgamSpells (5): Catalog * (or Pore Over the Pages) Talent of the Telepath Gather the Pack Mantle of Webs Exert InfluenceSupports (4): Durable Handiwork Strider Harness * (or Haunted Cloak) Angel's Tomb Fevered Visions * (utility slot) This deck works by dumping a LOT of Prized Amalgam zombies into your graveyard with Gather the Pack, and then reanimating them all at once with huge bonuses! Durable Handiwork grants +1/+1 permanently to your non-token creatures on entering play, and Angel's Tomb grants +3/+3 and flying to a creature entering play until the start of your next turn. A single Gather the Pack dumps 4 copies of PA into the engine, and getting one out normally will make the whole stack rumble to life, becoming a 30/30 Flying Defender for a turn. If you have additional copies in the graveyard, well, it can get a bit ridiculous (ridiculously awesome that is!). 2/2 base creature, +1/+1 from DH perm, +3/+3 from AT temp. 6/6, multiplied by number of PA entering play.... I've had good effect with both Strider Harness and Haunted Cloak, using HC offensively on opponent's creatures too, but often seemed wasted in hand. Exert Influence is there because you have plenty of other creature slots available, 10 mana for their best creature essentially. Catalog allows you to churn your excess zombies or supports and find something more useful, and I've found Pore Over the Pages is too expensive to use immediately on a single match. Often I'll put a PA into the bottom card slot, use Talent to fetch a Catalog, then get the other two cards I saw as well. Save your Loyalty for Kiora's second ability to fetch and prime your trigger zombie. Lastly, I've been rotating several cards through the utility slot, but nothing has really stood out so far. Fevered Visions is ok, Animist's Awakening helps fuel the initial setup, as does Shrine of the Forsaken Gods, though both become redundant once you're set up. Support destruction can also go here.
exosect wrote: Alex 91....I'd say sphinx's tutelage should work well there, zandikar resurgent giving you a card for each thopter dropped by spy network would completely lock down pretty much any deck.
exosect wrote: Sorry I don't know how to add your post to mine like I see others do lol Anyway tilwin90, my thoughts would be to keep sphinx's tutelage, it has a nice synergy with sage of the ancient lore, instead I'd try and push the card draw a little more, with anchor to the ether and maybe Stratus walk The anchor adds creature control and Stratus would give your creatures flying, and both have you draw a card, triggering sphinx and tutelage, as well as helping get to cards you need. With running only 2 creatures, unless you are using kiora's third ability a lot you have a creature slot open, I'd consider ulvenwald mysteries, it gives you a 1/1 human every time you play a support, and when a non-token creature dies investigate, since it counts clues as supports it pairs well with journal investigating every turn, and they are human for champions ability. Alternatively Exert influence could be good as well, letting you permanently take an opponents creature, doubling as board control. Lastly I've always preferred Nissa's pilgrimage, it gives basically the same effect, but it's cheaper cost let's you cast it even on a non primary color match. Dunno if any of this would speed up the deck, but it would add some synergy to it which generally improves performance.
Tilwin90 wrote: exosect wrote: Sorry I don't know how to add your post to mine like I see others do lol Anyway tilwin90, my thoughts would be to keep sphinx's tutelage, it has a nice synergy with sage of the ancient lore, instead I'd try and push the card draw a little more, with anchor to the ether and maybe Stratus walk The anchor adds creature control and Stratus would give your creatures flying, and both have you draw a card, triggering sphinx and tutelage, as well as helping get to cards you need. With running only 2 creatures, unless you are using kiora's third ability a lot you have a creature slot open, I'd consider ulvenwald mysteries, it gives you a 1/1 human every time you play a support, and when a non-token creature dies investigate, since it counts clues as supports it pairs well with journal investigating every turn, and they are human for champions ability. Alternatively Exert influence could be good as well, letting you permanently take an opponents creature, doubling as board control. Lastly I've always preferred Nissa's pilgrimage, it gives basically the same effect, but it's cheaper cost let's you cast it even on a non primary color match. Dunno if any of this would speed up the deck, but it would add some synergy to it which generally improves performance. Click on the quote image on top of the post you want to reply to. Thanks for the great tips they are shaping things up and give me a direction. I replaced tutelage with mysteries and truth be told I don't regret it that much. Not very happy with how fragile it is though and how often it ends up out of the board. But the synergy with the lifelink from Champion is there so great suggestion. Ran back to nissa's pilgrimage and indeed it is easier on my mana. Exert influence would be the dream card to replace scour from existence. Doesn't seem to appear though. Same with thopter spy network... Would be better than the silly part the water veil. But now I have an improvement so thank you for that. It's surprising how many uncommon I have yet I do not use...
Iridium wrote: If I could get some help on my deck, it would be much appreciated!CreaturesDecimator of Provinces (game ender)Soulblade Djinn (flex slot, not sure what to put here)SpellsGather the Pack (fetches creatures)Scour from Existence (spot removal, will be replaced with Turn to Frog or Imprisoned in the Moon when lady luck finds me)Anchor to Aether (removal, card draw)Sylvan Scrying (ramp, flex slot)SupportsFertile Thicket (ramp)Nissa's Pilgrimage (ramp)Shrine of the Forsaken Gods (more ramp)Jace's Sanctum (slow opponent's tempo) Here are my card choices
Tilwin90 wrote: It seems Kiora with Baral is simply ridiculous. Not having Saheeli, the next blue planeswalker that made sense for the madness was Kiora. And boy is she powerful with the right spells (not that many choices really).Creatures (2):Baral, Chief of ComplianceNiblis of FrostSpells (8):Ornamental CourageNatural ConnectionScatter to the WindsRush of IceCoastal DiscoveryStratus WalkHaunted CloakShard of Broken GlassDeck tech Pretty straightforward. Assemble Baral and Niblis onto the battlefield and let the madness begin. I've tweaked the spells a bit to suit my needs and this is the optimal approach. Basically you want only spells with mana cost 3 or less so they are free to cast thanks to Baral and that will pump Niblis (plus disable an opposing creature). Do note that this combo does not go infinite as it is limited by your hand size. And since you have 2 creatures in the deck, it is inevitable that at some point you will end up with only creatures, moment when the combo ends. We want to make sure that happens the latest moment possible, but it does rely on a bit of luck too. - Card draw helps tremendously here. If you draw cards, drawing a creature from Baral during combo doesn't hurt that much - you would need to be unlucky and draw consecutive creatures. Stratus Walk and Coastal Discovery are here to ensure just that. - Kiora is green, and its crucial because we can use this to our advantage. Storming into Natural Connection can help cast some of your creatures from your hand (since they are so cheap to begin with). Multiple Natural Connections ensure this can happen multiple times. So this card is actually vital to maximizing the combo! - The faster we combo, the better. To pump Niblis I included Shard of Broken Glass and Ornamental Courage. You can use Ghostly Wings as well though to be honest I don't want too many of these spells. I want to be able to disrupt my opponent a bit too. Naturally you want Haunted Cloak so that your combo can go off immediately when you have Niblis onto the battlefield (removal of summoning sickness). The trample helps get over defenders though with so much disable, you don't have to worry about that. The vigilance can actually hurt you if you are not able to end in one turn but we have solutions to that. Ultimately, it is possible that you won't be able to combo fully against a high life opponent (I'm looking at your Tezzeret). Here is where the last pieces of the puzzle (no pun intended) help: - Scatter to the Winds slows our opponent down. Quite a bit really. I succeeded to keep opponents at bay with this especially when they want to cast a spell. The awaken can also help (see below). - Rush of Ice is a neat card, and I used it particularly if the opponent gets to establish a board. It slows them down significantly. Without it I would've lost to Tezzeret. There is a twist to it though, in that it needs an opposing creature... or an awakened island. I actually won turn two this way by having an awakened island from Scatter to the Winds without my opponent having anything on the board. If you are confident you can win in one turn, you can replace this with Ghostly Wings. And there you have it, storm madness going insane. Sometimes it works, sometimes indeed it backfires, and it does take a lot (not in terms of number of turns but actual playtime).
p2dr wrote: I have played a few times against a Baral/Niblis deck and its a instant quitthegame for me. The first games I played against it, ofcourse i have tried to win, and even have, but its just so annoying to wait for, and OP as f*ck (like most (semi-)infinite combo's) But I guess it wins a lot of games I wonder if it's fun to play, as you are just watching the combo go off and thats it.
Tilwin90 wrote: p2dr wrote: I have played a few times against a Baral/Niblis deck and its a instant quitthegame for me. The first games I played against it, ofcourse i have tried to win, and even have, but its just so annoying to wait for, and OP as f*ck (like most (semi-)infinite combo's) But I guess it wins a lot of games I wonder if it's fun to play, as you are just watching the combo go off and thats it. Gets really boring after a while. Reason why I don't play it this often anymore. It also is extremely volatile - I defeated the tinykitty angel only in 9 rounds instead of 7 during the current event. I get much more satisfaction from Dovin, Nahiri and Sorin, all playing slightly different deck styles but pulling in a control-ish direciton. - Dovin: Mostly disable opponent creatures while deploying a solid board position and winning with powerful creatures. - Sorin: Disrupt opponent via creature destruction and hand discard before winning with a lifelinking army powered by the ultimate. - Nahiri: Disrupt opponent via creature and support destruction. Fast deck that usually wins the deck with a voltron Geier Reach Bandit that's usually transformed, double-striked and pumped like crazy via the ultimate. (I once did 160 damage in one turn this way) But coming back to Kiora, the Baral shenanigans while fun get boring after a while. And people... move on. I see no reason why it should be balanced or anything. It's definitely a card that can be dealt with, and the AI most often has no freaking idea what it's doing.