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Poesjuh
10-31-2008, 12:48 PM
Some of you might remember my thread that contained a EDH Zur deck. Basically that was just b0ring and not really my style. First of all I really dislike blue, secondly there were not enough creatures to satisfy the timmy in me.

So, after carefull consideration and knowing that my favorite colors have always been white, black and green (in that order), there were not many choices left for me. It was either Doran, or Teneb. Now Doran is just, lame, not strong enough, not cool enough, and the ability that he has somewhat brings a defensive strategy (you want to play creatures with stronger toughness than power) that I just don't like. Also there was little room for comboing, and I like to to that from time to time. So the obvious choice for me was that Teneb should be my general.

At first the deck I created was a lot like The Rock, only bigger. I don't have the initial list anymore, so unfortunately can't give it to you. After a while and several tips from others, including one that actually tested my deck a couple of times (I haven't played a single game with it :P, don't use MWS...), more and more it was developing towards a recurring theme with Survival of the Fittest as the main engine. So that basically is the idea of the deck now. Plenty of cards are pointed towards this theme, a lot of draw-cards, a couple of tutors and utility creatures combined with simple fatties to finish it. For the complete story and all the tips that have been given plus my respons to that, I'll have to redirect you to another forum, you can find it here (http://edh.truespace.ca/EDH_Forum/viewtopic.php?t=880&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0). The reason I'm also posting it on this forum is in the hope that you'll have some cool ideas that I didn't think of so far.

Now to the list. There are some odd card choices that I'll clarify, next to that there also are self-explanatory cards, so I won't give comment with those.

General:
Teneb the Harvester ==> duh...

Mana + mana acc.: 37 land, 5 artifact acc

Darksteel Ingot
Golgari Signet
Orzhov Signet
Selesnya Signet
Sol Ring
2 Forest
4 Plains
3 Swamp
3 Duals (Bayou, Savannah, Scrubland)
3 Shockduals (Godless Shrine, Overgrown Tomb, Temple Garden)
3 Painlands (Brushland, Caves of Koilos, Llanowar Wastes)
3 Bounce lands (Golgari Rot Farm, Orzhov Basilica, Selesnya Sanctuary) => don't know about these lands, the fact that they come into play tapped just, sucks, really. I have the feeling that I propably should be playing for example Gemstone Mine, Treetop Village/Nantuko Monastery, 3 more basics, Krosan Verge or something like that instead of these three
5 Fetch (Mire, Strand, Delta, Heath, Foothills)
Cabal Coffers
City of Brass
Gemstone Mine
Krosan Verge
Murmuring Bosk
Maze of Ith
Strip Mine
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Vesuva
Volrath's Stronghold
Wasteland


Equipments, aura's: 3

Quietus Spike => players in EDH start with a lot of life, this card can cost a player about 15 life easily in the beginning of the game, looks like a no brainer to me, also the Deathtouch is pretty nice to get rid of some stupid creatures
Sword of Light and Shadow
Umezawa's Jitte



Tutors and other draw effects: 13

Scroll Rack
Ambition's Cost => only 1 colored mana needed, lifeloss doesn't make a difference, so pretty good card overall, the same counts for Ancient Craving
Ancient Craving
Demonic Tutor
Diabolic Tutor
Necropotence
Vampiric Tutor
Crop Rotation => the reason I like this is because it's an instant, it only costs 1 and the land comes right into play untapped
Harmonize
Natures Lore
Sylvan Scrying
Tooth and Nail
Land Tax => engine with scroll rack mainly


First there were Cruel Tutor and Enlightened Tutor here. Both cut mainly because I couldn't find the space for them anymore.


Spot-removal: 6

Ashes to Ashes => again, lifeloss doesn't really matter, and removing from the game + 2 for 1 = good
Mortify
Putrefy => the same counts for Mortify; I like the flexibility of these cards, you can choose what to destroy instead of waiting for the other card
Unmake
Vindicate
Aura of Silence
Swords to Plowshares



Global-removal: 6

Damnation
Overwhelming Forces => I prefer this over Decree of Pain, really just because it's cool
Pernicious Deed
Armageddon
Cataclysm
Wrath of God



Other Spells: 11

Necromancy
Profane Command
Debtors' Knell
Mirari's Wake
Crush of Wurms => woehoe, big creatures, three of them, flashback it, and even more! Or don't flashback it, just get it back with Regrowht and/or Restock and play is many many times ^^
Life from the Loam
Regrowth
Restock
Survival of the Fittest
Congregate => some necessary lifegain
Decree of Justice



Critters: 19

Avatar of Woe
Bone Shredder => should be Shriekmaw because that's a better card, however Bone Shredder is cooler so that's why I play it and not Shriekmaw
Desolation Angel => one of my favorite cards :)
Fleshbag Marauder => recurrable Innocent Blood, I like!
Visara the Dreadful
Angel of Despair
Divinity of Pride
Mystic Enforcer
Spiritmonger
Eternal Witness
Forgotten Ancient
Genesis
Spike Weaver
Thorn Elemental => good old fattie, I think this card is actually really good because you can choose to just bash your opponent. Equip this with a Quietus Spike and have a good time ^^.
Wickerbough Elder
Yavimaya Elder => this slot used to be Mana Reflection, however I have a very high mana curve in this deck and just about enough lands, so in a effort to reduce the CC and have more search options I replaced the Reflection with this card
Exalted Angel
Karmic Guide
Reya Dawnbringer



Total cards: 102
So there are two cards that need to go. I you would look at this list the first thing that might come into your mind is that Thorn Elemental should go, perhaps with Forgotten Ancient. However I have the feeling that propably Aura of Silence and Sylvan Scrying should be going.



As you can see there are some pretty odd cards in the list. In my opinion every deck that I make should have something of me in it, cards that only I play because I just like them and not because they're good. Overwhelming Forces for example is a pretty good card in the format, however one might think that perhaps Nev. Disk or Decree of Pain are better card, but the fact that O. Forces is simply a really cool card is enough reason for me to play it over the latter.

Anyway, that's all I can say for now, I'm working really hard on creating a playgroup here so I can finally play some games with it. Pretty lame if you have a completely foiled EDH deck but never play with it ^^

If anyone has any tips whatsoever, they are most welcome. As you can see I'm at a stage where there is not many more room for any changes, however there might be substitutes for cards in the deck that are just better that I didn't know of. For example Tornado Elemental over Thorn Elemental.

Huhm, that's it. Thx in advance for any suggestions, pointers and/or usefull tips.
Grtz,
Marin

ps; please don't attack my on my english, I'm doing the best I can (A)

badjuju
10-31-2008, 03:21 PM
Hey man,

that's a pretty cool list you got there. It seems like you have most bases covered. Each time I scan the decklist I can't really find any major faults. I would really like to see how this deck plays out - once you find out what problems you're running into then I can make some card suggestions. As it stands now, you should be absolutely fine.

On second thought, you might also want to consider running even more removal (especially ones that don't RFG) because you use Teneb as your general.

Poesjuh
10-31-2008, 06:44 PM
Hey man,

that's a pretty cool list you got there. It seems like you have most bases covered. Each time I scan the decklist I can't really find any major faults. I would really like to see how this deck plays out - once you find out what problems you're running into then I can make some card suggestions. As it stands now, you should be absolutely fine.

Thx, I think I got most things covered, however I'm concerned about the amount of lands I play. I've thrown the deck several times through a "first hand + 4 simulator" at the Nedermagic site, here the first 10 examples of possible hands:

1) Forest, Nature's Lore, Unmake, Llanowar Wastes, Sword of L.a.S, Angel of Despair, Orzhov Signet
only 2 lands, 1 land-searcher and 1 Signet, so a do-able hand

2) Darksteel Ingot, Decree of Justice, Plains, Harmonize, Visara, Avatar of W., Forest
2 lands, Ingot and 4 overcosted cards that I don't want to be seeing early game (Harmonize is not so bad) ==> mulligan

3) Strip Mine, Des. Angel, Sol Ring, Plains, Spike Weaver, B. Mire, Bayou
second turn spike weaver? I'll sign for that :)

4) Bayou, Congregate, Profane Command, P. Deed, Plains, Plains, City of Brass
again a pretty decent hand, 4 lands is good, so is the deed, but congregate and command and more late-game cards, so possible mulligan

5) Ex. Angel, Swamp, Necropotence, Overgrown Tomb, Mortify, Genesis, Forest
Nice hand, possible 3rd turn Necropotence which means Genesis in grave the same turn. Otherwise morphed Ex. Angel

6) Wog, Scroll Rack, Swamp, Reya D., Avatar of W., Crush of W., Congregate
suuuuucks => mulligan

7) Mystic Enforcer, Ashes to Ashes, Forest, Des. Angel, Swamp, Cabal Coffers, Ancient Craving
2 lands + coffers, craving to draw cards and a.t.a if I want to remove something, very tricky hand this though, could go good or really bad

8) Ancient Graving, Visara, Tooth and Nail, Thawing Glaciers, Mirari's Wake, Putrefy, Overwhelming Forces
suuuuuuucks ==> mulligan

9) Debtors' Knell, Overwhelming Forces, Swamp, Orzhov Signet, Overgrown Tomb, Bayou, Vindicate
definitely a keeper, nice lands + signet, vindicate, possible early game debtors' knell!

10) Bl. Mire, Crop Rotation, Ambition's Cost, Urborg, Godless Shrine, Maze of Ith, Aura of Silence
really good hand! Urborg + Crop Rotation means Cabal Coffers is yours for the grabbing! maze against threads, ambition's cost to draw cards, definitely a keeper!


Now, where I was going to with these 10 starting hands is the following. There are:
2 "god" hands, 9 and 10,
2 hands that are not superb, but certainly good enough to keep, 3 and 5
3 questionable hands, 1,4 and 7
3 hands that basically suuuuck, of which 2 ENORMOUSLY suck, 2,6 and 8

My point is, that there are in total 3 hands that need mulligan because there aren't enough lands in it, and a fourth is questionable. So is it wise to add one or two lands...???




On second thought, you might also want to consider running even more removal (especially ones that don't RFG) because you use Teneb as your general.

Do you mean more spot-removal or more global-removal? I think that I pretty got every good spot-removal card covered, or you have to think of something from the Dark Banishing, Terror, Diabolic Edict - corner. As far as global-removal concerns, on my initial list were a little bit more than I have now, the cards that I removed are:
- Nevinyrral's Disk
- Oblivion Stone
- Plague Boiler
- Decree of Pain

Peter_Rotten
10-31-2008, 08:36 PM
Please reserve red text for mod use only. Blue or purple would be fine colors to use.

Poesjuh
11-01-2008, 10:21 AM
Please reserve red text for mod use only. Blue or purple would be fine colors to use.
Done :)


I was thinking of a rather weird card for the deck while going through the cards from all the portal series and starter, and came across this one:

Hua Tuo, Honored Physician
Legendary Creature - Human 1/2, 1GG
{T}: Put target creature card from your graveyard on top of your library. Play this ability only during your turn, before the combat phase.

Could this be a secret but truly usefull creature? The fact that you can only use it during your pre-combat main-phase obviously is a bit of a bummer, but combine it with draw-effects such as Scroll Rack and basically you have an extra Volrath's Stronghold, on a stick! ^^ (no, not a chalapenjo (or whoever you spell it :P))

Atwa
11-01-2008, 05:53 PM
I really like the deck, I'm currently trying to build my own Teneb deck, I really want to play WBG, and I dislike Doran, so I guess I have no choise.

I like your choise of Thorn Elemental, I have some good memories of him, however did you ever try Tornado Elemental in his place?

He beats almost as hard as Thorn Elemental, and he can kill almost all flyers at the same cost. Sure, I wouldn't cast him when you have Teneb in play, but with Survival in play, it seems like a usefull addition. I know I'm running him in my version.

Poesjuh
11-01-2008, 07:02 PM
I know that you can call Tornado Elemental a better card that Thorn, and in most cases it is, however I play several flyers, and Thorn is just way cooler than Tornado. Hence the choice for Thorn over Tornado :)

Nice to hear that you like the deck, succes with making your own :)