Opponent #1: Em, nothing else, go! [Thinks: His board is empty, I should be safe on 33 life.]
Me: End of your turn: Vampiric Tutor [pays life, searchy, searchy, puts card aside, shuffles, puts card on top] Draw, Entwined Tooth and Nail. Anyone have any responses?
All opponent's: [Thinks: I hope the next guy has something!] They don't: [thinks: D'oh!]
Me: [searchy, searchy] Ok, Avenger of Zendikar aaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnd, em........ Flame-Kin Zealot? Sure, why not?! So, I have 8 lands so I get 8 little 0/1 plant token guys. This Flooded Strand should give all the plants +1/+1, that ok? No Stifle on the Landfall trigger? Ok, activate, Flooded Strand, pay 1 life, any responses? [fetchey, fetchey] And another landfall trigger gets me more +1/+1 counters on my guys. That's, let me do a quick count,....eh, 33 power of hasty attacking. Anyone on exactly 33 life?
Opponent #1: [groans]
Me: [evil laugh!]
When the itch gets you to build a particular deck, you just have to go out and build it. While reading over in the strategy forum about everybody's favourite Tooth and Nail targets, I decided to get it going on and have come up with a deck to make a very Rare-heavy change from our current decks (Balthor/Zombies and Ashling/Burn Peasant decks) This may just be the most expensive deck I've ever sleeved!!
Right, the idea is simple. Comb through everyone else's ideas over on the other thread (thanks guys!), add a couple of my own, mix in some land and it's insta-deck time. So that's what I did.
There's a couple of cards I don't actually own that were listed in the thread, like Mephidross Vampire, so I excluded the Triskelion combo. The idea of the deck is to repeatedly hit Tooth and Nail for shennanigans either from your graveyard with Eternal Witness or back from your deck via Wheel of Sun and Moon with tutors.
There are a few caveats with the deck: You're totally running for the multiple Tooth and Nail plan, thus you have to forget about things like counterspells and boardwipes outside of what the combo can get you. You're also completely dependant on your manabase panning out so, if someone decides to Dust Bowl-lock you at 6 lands, you just have to accept that until you or some other nice soul finds a way past that.
I'm not suggesting this deck as anything competitive or complete, the obvious exclusions are testament to that. You're trying to TandN an Emrakul and Iona to semi lock a board or even some Flame-kin Zealot/Avenger of Zendikar/Fetchland goodness (damage easily into the 30's on this one!) out onto the battlefield so it's only fair that you leave a door open for your opponents to have some fun. No Wraths, No counters, nothing that's not already on a creature.
Here's the list:
Progentius - General
Creatures
Admonition Angel
Avenger of Zendikar
Butcher of Malakir
Clone
Crater Hellion
Duplicant
Empyrial Archangel
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
Eternal Witness
Flame-kin Zealot
Fleshbag Marauder
Grave Titan
Iona, Shield of Emeria
It that Betrays
Karmic Guide
Keiga
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
Primeval Titan
Rafiq
Realm Razer
Seedborn Muse
Solemn Simulacrum
STE
Sundering Titan
Sylvan Ranger
Teferi
Terastodon
Thrashing Wumpus
Vigor
Wood Elves
Woodfall Primus
Yavimaya Elder
Artifacts
Basilisk Collar
Brittle Effigy
Coalition Relic
Crystal Ball
Darksteel Ingot
Mind Stone
SDT
Skullclamp
Sol Ring
Spells
Beseech the Queen
Cultivate
Demonic Tutor
Enlightened Tutor
Idyllic Tutor
Intuition
Kodama’s Reach
Harmonize
Mystical Tutor
Harrow
Tooth and Nail
Tunnel Vision
Vampiric Tutor
Wargate
Enchantments
Greater Good
Wheel of Sun and Moon
Survival of the Fittest
Wild Pair
Lands
Exotic Orchard
Fetch x10
Flagstones of Trokair
Forest x3
Gaea's Cradle
Island x3
Mosswort Bridge
Mountain x3
Plains x2
Shockland x10
Swamp x2
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Murmuring Bosk
Maze of Ith
Well, let's have a look then, shall we? There's a small group of players who exist only to work your mana base: Solemn Simulacrum, STE, Wood Elves, Yavimaya Elder and Sylvan Ranger are pretty much the bare minimum you can run without just hoping that your mana will sort itself out. Of course they have some support from the spell section but these guys run the double duty of chump blocking like champions.
After that we have the combos:
- Emrakul, the Aeons Torn with Rafiq or Iona, Shield of Emeria
- Flame-kin Zealot with Avenger of Zendikar or Terastodon
Choosing the Terastodon allows for slightly chunkier beaters and a set attack value but at the cost of three non-creature permanents which in turn may reduce your ability to repeat the Tooth and Nail any time soon if those three permanents were mana sources. What it lacks in scaleability, it makes up for in utility as the decks' main threat against opponent's non-creature permanents. Whatever Elephants you spread around the table will be smaller than your own as yours will benefit from the Zealot's +1/+1 until EOT ability. It's likely that they will throw their elephant under the bus anyway as the moma elephant, Terastodon, inexplicably for an elephant, doesn't trample. Major flavour fail Wizards!!
- It that Betrays with Fleshbag Marauder or Butcher of Malakir
- Keiga, the Tide Star with Clone
If the creature concerned is not a legend, you can simply copy it with Clone and use the Keiga as a threat to steal the original. Obviously Clone is the perfect companion to a lot of other creatures in your deck, I think it goes without saying that 2 Avengers of Zendikar is better than one!
- Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker with Woodfall Primus or Grave Titan or Primeval Titan or Duplicant or Karmic Guide or Eternal Witness
I'm fairly sure the combinations with Woodfall Primus, the Titans, Duplicant or EWit don't need to be gone into. They are all board or hand advantage doubled by Kiki Jiki.
- Realm Razer with Admonition Angel
- Teferi with Seedborn Muse
- Vigor with Thrashing Wumpus or Crater Hellion or Empyrial Archangel
Vigor - Likes Birds. |
That's a quick tour of the deck and some of the possibilities involved though you can always mix and match between the given options. If you decide to run the deck, have a blast and don't be afraid to come back and leave some comments!
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