Reverend Damaged
08-06-2006, 04:57 PM
EDIT: There is 3 deck lists in this post. Each one is an actual tested version of the deck, with the third one being the final. If you'd like to view the final, please scroll to the bottom of the post.
Alright guys, it had been 3 sets (Guildpact, Dissension, Coldsnap) since I'd played a tournament (R.I.P. Gamer's Guild and all it's trading-with-noobs glory). Now that I've got some more free time to travel, I've played 2 in the last 2 weeks - one in Mass. and one in Syracuse in the Dual Land Draft tournament. This is the deck I played at the Dual Land Draft, some of you may have seen it. It's a G/u "Secret Force" build, though it doesn't actually play Verdent Force in it. It doesn't play dragons in it either as the name implies.
Someone who posts on here under the name Jesus was very interested in the deck and offered to give me a hand with it as he suggested a third color (white), which I think is a good idea as well.
Here is the initial list as well as card choices, and some results against some of the decks I played:
****
Dragonforce (ver 1)
Creatures:
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Fyndhorn Elves
4x Elvish Spirit Guide
4x Quirion Ranger
4x Wall of Blossoms
2x Eternal Witness
4x Ravenous Baloth
2x Stampeeding Wilderbeests
2x Simic Skyswallower
1x Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
Spells:
4x Brainstorm
4x Natural Order
2x Naturalize
Land:
4x Wasteland
3x Gaea's Cradle
4x Wooded Foothills
4x Tropical Island
4x Forest
****
**Sideboard**
4x Defense Grid
4x Phyrexian Furnace
4x Pithing Needle
2x Trygon Predator
1x Naturalize
**Sideboard**
Mini-Tournament report (Dual Land Draft 8/5/06) [This report is going to be fairly vague but will include the strong points and weak points as I can remember them. I should of taken notes, but didn't think so many people there were going to like the deck, not enough for me to post it anyway].
Round 1: Mono-black w/ shade and stinkweed imp? 1-1-1
Game 1: I lose the die roll (this happens every single round except round 6), and am on the draw. Turn 1 I play a fetch and say go. He drops a shade on his second turn after, and passes. EOT I Brainstorm. Realizing he's probably packing edict, I grab a couple 1 drops and play them on my second turn with the inclusion of a forest. I pass the turn to him, and he draws and starts swinging in with the shade and pumping it. My next couple of turns go Baloth, Natural Order away a 1cc for Simic. Game over. He had nothing.
Game 2: I'm on the draw again, and he has no first turn. Awesome. I play a bird after my draw and pass. No shade from him this time, but Ritual -> Pestilence. Arg. He passes. I end up dropping a wall before passing, with mana for Brainstorm. His turn 3 consists of Stinkweed Imp. Stinkweed Imp? What the hell? He passes. EOT Brainstorm. Next turn I Order the bird for Simic, even though imp kills it. His turn comes around and he casts Chalice for 1. That's a problem. I have 2 elves in my hand. Next turn, Baloth. Next turn after that, Baloth. He plays a Chalice for 2. I swing in with everything doing a decent chunk of damage. Pass. He draws. Perish. From there I don't get enough threats fast enough and he keeps getting Perish, even though after all my Baloths hit the yard I was at 30. The game is 2 minutes short of a draw when he casts Greater Harvester. I have no Spirit Guides left and all 1cc guys in my deck. GG.
Game 3: We don't even have enough time to shuffle. Draw.
Round 2: PeterRotten playing Burning Tog (0-2)
Game 1: I resolved several threats, only to see burning wish for Perish. Counter counter counter. Good game.
Game 2: I resolve a couple of furnaces, as well as 3 defense grids. I see no wastelands to slow him down. The couple of threats I do drop against him, he rips the burning wish for Perish. From here on out the game is long. I get beat down with 2 Nightscape Familiars. I'm at 13 or so. Hoping to rip Baloths is all I'm doing at that point. He gets 2 togs on the board. Beats me to 4 I believe and I have 1 blocker. I'm hoping to rip another one, and in comes Elvish Spirit Guide to save the day. Matt FoF's on his turn. Into another FoF, into a Burning Wish for Perish (which I removed from the game with furnace, how amazing is THAT?). I lose. Again.
Round 3: U/g/b/r Threshhold Varient (2-0)
Game 1: I'm on the draw again. My turn 1, land, critter. Go. His next turn, Dark Confidant. Great. He passes. I play a Wall of Blossoms. He goes. Draws a card, plays a land, and says go. I Brainstorm on his end step. He COUNTERS IT. Amazing. My next turn, Natural Order the 1 drop for Simic Sky Swallower. Game is over. He can't do anything about it.
Game 2: He goes first. Plays Underground Sea. My turn comes around. Wasteland. He goes. Volcanic Island. Passes to me. I drop land, elf. Go. His turn comes around. He misses a land drop. He passes. Defense Grid, Wasteland. Shortly after I beat him with Simic.
Round 4: Watcher487 playing his crazy land deck. (1-2)
Game 1: I don't remember this that well, but I know it was long, and I lost. Humility dropped, and I couldn't find a naturalize.
Game 2: I play a bird. He plays a land and plows the bird. Ho ho. I waste his land. I repeat this process again next turn. He has a mox diamond and an Exploration in play. I Naturalize Exploration. He's got 2 mana. Soon I get Trygon Predator active. Then I order. I win.
Game 3: I get a 1 land hand with a ton of 1 drops and an Order. I decide to run with it. Turn 2 I have out 3 1cc critters. I forget about Star Storm. They all die before I can use them. He gets Crucible/Exploration/fetchland and I get mana screwed. Had I parised down to 6 and had a better hand, I could of won the match easily with the Naturalizes, Trygons, and graveyard hate. I never saw a single sideboard card that game either. Go go gadget bad decisions.
Round 5: Angel Stompy (2-1)
Game 1 - I run this guy over completely with turn 2 Simic.
Game 2 - He plows my early critters and gets out a Priest with Jitte on it. I lose.
Game 3 - This game is long and drawn out. He makes several play mistakes, one I made the mistake of letting him take back. He played a second Jitte when the first one was being a problem and after setting it down and paying for it says "wait, I can't do that". I still beat him with Naturalize, a Simic, and a total of 3 Baloths for life. He gave me 2-0 because he knew had I called him on it, the game would of been over in half the time. Good guy.
Round 6: Obfuscate Freely playing U/g/w threshhold (0-2)
Game 1: I play some little guys and get a Baloth in, he plows, I sac it, and somehow on the next turn manage to Natural Order. I knew he had a plow in his hand, because he didn't counter the spell. I get Simic Sky Swallower and he just says "You're my hero". The Sky Swallower swings through a couple times before being blocked by mystic enforcer. This ends up being a long game, but he's got counters to stop my threats left in the deck while beating on me with Werebears. Close, but I lose.
Game 2: This game I get a couple of Furnaces out against him, and he took out his Pithing Needles, so I was hoping I could rock this game because of it. Unfortunately, that second Furnace didn't come out until he had already been dumping multiple cards in the yard a turn, and I couldn't get enough threats against him. I held a Defense grid in my hand from turn 1 to turn 3, because I was trying to waste his land and still have the mana to cast it while avoiding Daze (FoW was welcome because that's like a Hymn to Tourach for me). That was a huge mistake, as playing it at least would of set him back a turn had he Dazed it. I made a lot of mistakes that day, and I dont know if that would of saved me had I not messed up with the defense grid, but regardless, I lose again. He played Portent against me though, so I don't even care. That was awesome.
Card Choices in the original deck (I saved this for after for specific reasons - as there is changes in the current deck list [before adding white])
Mana Critters:
4 Birds of Paradise - This guy is good because he is part of the 4 mana on turn 2 engine, as well as a color fixer.
4 Fyndhorn Elf - He's obvious. Same as above except he swings.
4 Elvish Spirit Guide - Helps you get turn 2 Natural Order or Baloth. Both plays are AMAZING against Goblins (Which I expected to play and didn't even play against once).
Misc. Critters:
Wall of Blossoms - He replaces himself. He blocks. He gets ordered away. Stops Nimble Mongoose. Helps against Goblins. Shuts out Silver Knight. Awesome.
Quirion Dryad - with the 3 Cradles in the deck, as well as 4 guides and 8 1cc Mana guys, this has 2 purposes: Second turn Natural Order (when paired with a mana critter and Cradle), and it helps against wasteland. A lot. Also lets me swing with Baloth, then untap for blocks.
Eternal Witness - This guy was in here mostly because one of the final cards I added was Stampeeding Wilderbeests. Wilderbeests < Eternal Witness. The Eternal Witness count is currently 4 (-2 Wilderbeests, +2 Witness).
The beaters:
4 Ravenous Baloth - This guy is good because he's A) A 4/4 for 4, and his ability is ridiculous in a lot of match-ups. Unfortunately, I put Stampeeding Wilderbeests in instead of Stampeeding Serow (who is also a beast), which actually lost me a game because I couldn't sac the Wilderbeests. I dropped the ball on that one.
2 Stampeeding Wilderbeests - This guy is a 5/4 trample that is good with Witness and with Wall of Blossoms. Unfortunately, I rarely had to go into a game so late that recurring witness over and over again would help. When I did go into late game like that, this guy just got killed. A lot. I've taken him out for 2 more Eternal Witness (-2 Wilderbeests, +2 Eternal Witness)
2 Simic Sky Swallower - This is the best creature that could ever be Natural Ordered for. If you know what this does, there's no reason I should have to explain this. He Flies. He Tramples. He doesn't get plowed. He's amazing.
1 Kamahl, Fist of Krosa - I boarded this guy out in every single game I played. Literally. He's horrible. Everytime I ordered, and looked through my deck, I wished he was Penumbra Wurm so I could dodge Perish. Replacing him with Penumbra Wurm. (-1 Kamahl (because he's terrible), +1 Penumbra Wurm)
The spells:
4 Natural Order - This is a no brainer.
4 Brainstorm - This is the best card in the deck. Most of the games I won were because I brainstormed into exactly what I needed for the win. It also helps you dodge duress, and put cards from your hand that you want to order for on top of your library (a play I also did 3 times yesterday).
2 Naturalize - Good, but not good enough. In the matchup with Obfuscate Freely, the first game, which I was hoping I could take had I drawn some threats, was gummed up by 2 Naturalize draws. In a row. This is being replaced with Trygon Predator, because at least he can attack, block, and kill more than 1 thing should I need it. (-2 Naturalize, +2 Trygon Predator)
Mana Base:
This should be pretty obvious. Wasteland helps keep tempo, and is great with Witness, as are Sac Lands. Mana base is pretty solid since the deck plays almost no blue.
After the changes above, here is the revised Deck List:
****
Dragonforce (Ver 1.5)
Creatures:
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Fyndhorn Elves
4x Elvish Spirit Guide
4x Quirion Ranger
4x Wall of Blossoms
4x Eternal Witness
2x Trygon Predator
4x Ravenous Baloth
2x Simic Skyswallower
1x Penumbra Wurm
Spells:
4x Brainstorm
4x Natural Order
Land:
4x Wasteland
3x Gaea's Cradle
4x Wooded Foothills
4x Tropical Island
4x Forest
****
**Sideboard**
4x Defense Grid
4x Phyrexian Furnace
4x Pithing Needle
3x Naturalize
**Sideboard**
That's the current deck list for the 2 color version - however as suggested white would be an excellent color to add to the deck for the addition of Loxodon Hierarch over Baloth. Possibly STP as well.
Problem is - I don't know what to remove for the STP's, or if they're even needed. I'm thinking of keeping them simply in the board, since the deck just plows over aggro to begin with (No pun intended). But while running 4 witness that could just be stupid.
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. I'm pretty busy all the time, but I think I want to take this to Gen Con, even if it's just to play a side event to get a little more practice in. I don't have magic work station but I can always get it should anyone want to test, or if people want to test this amongst themselves. I never post on here, I just lurk, and I'm pretty rusty after 8 months of not playing, but I'm far from inexperienced. Just ask PeterRotten. Even though he'll probably describe anything I've ever played as a "Franky deck".
I know this post is extremely lengthy, and if there's any typos please excuse me because I hurt my hand the other day and this already took me hours to type up. Ick. >_<
Thanks in advance.
UPDATE: Here is a deck variation running black and blue, rather than just blue. I know that the post says that the third color was more than likely white in it's title, but I've put into consideration everyone's suggestions and have come up with this deck list. I have not tested it at all yet. It's just some ideas.
****
Dragonforce (Ver 2 - current decklist)
Creatures:
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Fyndhorn Elves
4x Elvish Spirit Guide
3x Quirion Ranger
4x Wall of Blossoms
3x Eternal Witness
1x Indrik Stomphowler
4x Loxodon Hierarch (that's the elephant, right? I think I spelled it wrong).
2x Simic Skyswallower
Spells:
4x Swords to Plowshares
4x Brainstorm
4x Natural Order
Land:
4x Wasteland
3x Gaea's Cradle
4x Wooded Foothills
4x Tropical Island
4x Savannah
****
**Sideboard**
4x Defense Grid
2x Phyrexian Furnace
2x Tormod's Crypt
4x Pithing Needle
3x Naturalize
**Sideboard**
EDIT: Alright, I edited the above decklist to the decklist I am currently running. Thanks to Brainstorm sculpting my hand and searching for me, and Swords to Plowshares + Eternal Witness = GG against decks that try to race my Simic Sky Swallower, I believe this is the "almost" optimal build for the deck currently. Yes, running black is powerful, but you might as well be playing Rock to run black. The deck needs minor tweaking, such as a Spiritmonger to avoid Perish (this will be tested, along with a single Bayou), and possibly something other than Brainstorm for searching (I'm thinking Impulse, as several games I found myself digging for a very specific card.).
I've responded to and bumped my post with a mini tournament report, since it was only 3 rounds and top 8 (I lost in top 8, first game to a play mistake, second game to turn 2 Akrome + Animate Dead tricks).
Alright guys, it had been 3 sets (Guildpact, Dissension, Coldsnap) since I'd played a tournament (R.I.P. Gamer's Guild and all it's trading-with-noobs glory). Now that I've got some more free time to travel, I've played 2 in the last 2 weeks - one in Mass. and one in Syracuse in the Dual Land Draft tournament. This is the deck I played at the Dual Land Draft, some of you may have seen it. It's a G/u "Secret Force" build, though it doesn't actually play Verdent Force in it. It doesn't play dragons in it either as the name implies.
Someone who posts on here under the name Jesus was very interested in the deck and offered to give me a hand with it as he suggested a third color (white), which I think is a good idea as well.
Here is the initial list as well as card choices, and some results against some of the decks I played:
****
Dragonforce (ver 1)
Creatures:
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Fyndhorn Elves
4x Elvish Spirit Guide
4x Quirion Ranger
4x Wall of Blossoms
2x Eternal Witness
4x Ravenous Baloth
2x Stampeeding Wilderbeests
2x Simic Skyswallower
1x Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
Spells:
4x Brainstorm
4x Natural Order
2x Naturalize
Land:
4x Wasteland
3x Gaea's Cradle
4x Wooded Foothills
4x Tropical Island
4x Forest
****
**Sideboard**
4x Defense Grid
4x Phyrexian Furnace
4x Pithing Needle
2x Trygon Predator
1x Naturalize
**Sideboard**
Mini-Tournament report (Dual Land Draft 8/5/06) [This report is going to be fairly vague but will include the strong points and weak points as I can remember them. I should of taken notes, but didn't think so many people there were going to like the deck, not enough for me to post it anyway].
Round 1: Mono-black w/ shade and stinkweed imp? 1-1-1
Game 1: I lose the die roll (this happens every single round except round 6), and am on the draw. Turn 1 I play a fetch and say go. He drops a shade on his second turn after, and passes. EOT I Brainstorm. Realizing he's probably packing edict, I grab a couple 1 drops and play them on my second turn with the inclusion of a forest. I pass the turn to him, and he draws and starts swinging in with the shade and pumping it. My next couple of turns go Baloth, Natural Order away a 1cc for Simic. Game over. He had nothing.
Game 2: I'm on the draw again, and he has no first turn. Awesome. I play a bird after my draw and pass. No shade from him this time, but Ritual -> Pestilence. Arg. He passes. I end up dropping a wall before passing, with mana for Brainstorm. His turn 3 consists of Stinkweed Imp. Stinkweed Imp? What the hell? He passes. EOT Brainstorm. Next turn I Order the bird for Simic, even though imp kills it. His turn comes around and he casts Chalice for 1. That's a problem. I have 2 elves in my hand. Next turn, Baloth. Next turn after that, Baloth. He plays a Chalice for 2. I swing in with everything doing a decent chunk of damage. Pass. He draws. Perish. From there I don't get enough threats fast enough and he keeps getting Perish, even though after all my Baloths hit the yard I was at 30. The game is 2 minutes short of a draw when he casts Greater Harvester. I have no Spirit Guides left and all 1cc guys in my deck. GG.
Game 3: We don't even have enough time to shuffle. Draw.
Round 2: PeterRotten playing Burning Tog (0-2)
Game 1: I resolved several threats, only to see burning wish for Perish. Counter counter counter. Good game.
Game 2: I resolve a couple of furnaces, as well as 3 defense grids. I see no wastelands to slow him down. The couple of threats I do drop against him, he rips the burning wish for Perish. From here on out the game is long. I get beat down with 2 Nightscape Familiars. I'm at 13 or so. Hoping to rip Baloths is all I'm doing at that point. He gets 2 togs on the board. Beats me to 4 I believe and I have 1 blocker. I'm hoping to rip another one, and in comes Elvish Spirit Guide to save the day. Matt FoF's on his turn. Into another FoF, into a Burning Wish for Perish (which I removed from the game with furnace, how amazing is THAT?). I lose. Again.
Round 3: U/g/b/r Threshhold Varient (2-0)
Game 1: I'm on the draw again. My turn 1, land, critter. Go. His next turn, Dark Confidant. Great. He passes. I play a Wall of Blossoms. He goes. Draws a card, plays a land, and says go. I Brainstorm on his end step. He COUNTERS IT. Amazing. My next turn, Natural Order the 1 drop for Simic Sky Swallower. Game is over. He can't do anything about it.
Game 2: He goes first. Plays Underground Sea. My turn comes around. Wasteland. He goes. Volcanic Island. Passes to me. I drop land, elf. Go. His turn comes around. He misses a land drop. He passes. Defense Grid, Wasteland. Shortly after I beat him with Simic.
Round 4: Watcher487 playing his crazy land deck. (1-2)
Game 1: I don't remember this that well, but I know it was long, and I lost. Humility dropped, and I couldn't find a naturalize.
Game 2: I play a bird. He plays a land and plows the bird. Ho ho. I waste his land. I repeat this process again next turn. He has a mox diamond and an Exploration in play. I Naturalize Exploration. He's got 2 mana. Soon I get Trygon Predator active. Then I order. I win.
Game 3: I get a 1 land hand with a ton of 1 drops and an Order. I decide to run with it. Turn 2 I have out 3 1cc critters. I forget about Star Storm. They all die before I can use them. He gets Crucible/Exploration/fetchland and I get mana screwed. Had I parised down to 6 and had a better hand, I could of won the match easily with the Naturalizes, Trygons, and graveyard hate. I never saw a single sideboard card that game either. Go go gadget bad decisions.
Round 5: Angel Stompy (2-1)
Game 1 - I run this guy over completely with turn 2 Simic.
Game 2 - He plows my early critters and gets out a Priest with Jitte on it. I lose.
Game 3 - This game is long and drawn out. He makes several play mistakes, one I made the mistake of letting him take back. He played a second Jitte when the first one was being a problem and after setting it down and paying for it says "wait, I can't do that". I still beat him with Naturalize, a Simic, and a total of 3 Baloths for life. He gave me 2-0 because he knew had I called him on it, the game would of been over in half the time. Good guy.
Round 6: Obfuscate Freely playing U/g/w threshhold (0-2)
Game 1: I play some little guys and get a Baloth in, he plows, I sac it, and somehow on the next turn manage to Natural Order. I knew he had a plow in his hand, because he didn't counter the spell. I get Simic Sky Swallower and he just says "You're my hero". The Sky Swallower swings through a couple times before being blocked by mystic enforcer. This ends up being a long game, but he's got counters to stop my threats left in the deck while beating on me with Werebears. Close, but I lose.
Game 2: This game I get a couple of Furnaces out against him, and he took out his Pithing Needles, so I was hoping I could rock this game because of it. Unfortunately, that second Furnace didn't come out until he had already been dumping multiple cards in the yard a turn, and I couldn't get enough threats against him. I held a Defense grid in my hand from turn 1 to turn 3, because I was trying to waste his land and still have the mana to cast it while avoiding Daze (FoW was welcome because that's like a Hymn to Tourach for me). That was a huge mistake, as playing it at least would of set him back a turn had he Dazed it. I made a lot of mistakes that day, and I dont know if that would of saved me had I not messed up with the defense grid, but regardless, I lose again. He played Portent against me though, so I don't even care. That was awesome.
Card Choices in the original deck (I saved this for after for specific reasons - as there is changes in the current deck list [before adding white])
Mana Critters:
4 Birds of Paradise - This guy is good because he is part of the 4 mana on turn 2 engine, as well as a color fixer.
4 Fyndhorn Elf - He's obvious. Same as above except he swings.
4 Elvish Spirit Guide - Helps you get turn 2 Natural Order or Baloth. Both plays are AMAZING against Goblins (Which I expected to play and didn't even play against once).
Misc. Critters:
Wall of Blossoms - He replaces himself. He blocks. He gets ordered away. Stops Nimble Mongoose. Helps against Goblins. Shuts out Silver Knight. Awesome.
Quirion Dryad - with the 3 Cradles in the deck, as well as 4 guides and 8 1cc Mana guys, this has 2 purposes: Second turn Natural Order (when paired with a mana critter and Cradle), and it helps against wasteland. A lot. Also lets me swing with Baloth, then untap for blocks.
Eternal Witness - This guy was in here mostly because one of the final cards I added was Stampeeding Wilderbeests. Wilderbeests < Eternal Witness. The Eternal Witness count is currently 4 (-2 Wilderbeests, +2 Witness).
The beaters:
4 Ravenous Baloth - This guy is good because he's A) A 4/4 for 4, and his ability is ridiculous in a lot of match-ups. Unfortunately, I put Stampeeding Wilderbeests in instead of Stampeeding Serow (who is also a beast), which actually lost me a game because I couldn't sac the Wilderbeests. I dropped the ball on that one.
2 Stampeeding Wilderbeests - This guy is a 5/4 trample that is good with Witness and with Wall of Blossoms. Unfortunately, I rarely had to go into a game so late that recurring witness over and over again would help. When I did go into late game like that, this guy just got killed. A lot. I've taken him out for 2 more Eternal Witness (-2 Wilderbeests, +2 Eternal Witness)
2 Simic Sky Swallower - This is the best creature that could ever be Natural Ordered for. If you know what this does, there's no reason I should have to explain this. He Flies. He Tramples. He doesn't get plowed. He's amazing.
1 Kamahl, Fist of Krosa - I boarded this guy out in every single game I played. Literally. He's horrible. Everytime I ordered, and looked through my deck, I wished he was Penumbra Wurm so I could dodge Perish. Replacing him with Penumbra Wurm. (-1 Kamahl (because he's terrible), +1 Penumbra Wurm)
The spells:
4 Natural Order - This is a no brainer.
4 Brainstorm - This is the best card in the deck. Most of the games I won were because I brainstormed into exactly what I needed for the win. It also helps you dodge duress, and put cards from your hand that you want to order for on top of your library (a play I also did 3 times yesterday).
2 Naturalize - Good, but not good enough. In the matchup with Obfuscate Freely, the first game, which I was hoping I could take had I drawn some threats, was gummed up by 2 Naturalize draws. In a row. This is being replaced with Trygon Predator, because at least he can attack, block, and kill more than 1 thing should I need it. (-2 Naturalize, +2 Trygon Predator)
Mana Base:
This should be pretty obvious. Wasteland helps keep tempo, and is great with Witness, as are Sac Lands. Mana base is pretty solid since the deck plays almost no blue.
After the changes above, here is the revised Deck List:
****
Dragonforce (Ver 1.5)
Creatures:
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Fyndhorn Elves
4x Elvish Spirit Guide
4x Quirion Ranger
4x Wall of Blossoms
4x Eternal Witness
2x Trygon Predator
4x Ravenous Baloth
2x Simic Skyswallower
1x Penumbra Wurm
Spells:
4x Brainstorm
4x Natural Order
Land:
4x Wasteland
3x Gaea's Cradle
4x Wooded Foothills
4x Tropical Island
4x Forest
****
**Sideboard**
4x Defense Grid
4x Phyrexian Furnace
4x Pithing Needle
3x Naturalize
**Sideboard**
That's the current deck list for the 2 color version - however as suggested white would be an excellent color to add to the deck for the addition of Loxodon Hierarch over Baloth. Possibly STP as well.
Problem is - I don't know what to remove for the STP's, or if they're even needed. I'm thinking of keeping them simply in the board, since the deck just plows over aggro to begin with (No pun intended). But while running 4 witness that could just be stupid.
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. I'm pretty busy all the time, but I think I want to take this to Gen Con, even if it's just to play a side event to get a little more practice in. I don't have magic work station but I can always get it should anyone want to test, or if people want to test this amongst themselves. I never post on here, I just lurk, and I'm pretty rusty after 8 months of not playing, but I'm far from inexperienced. Just ask PeterRotten. Even though he'll probably describe anything I've ever played as a "Franky deck".
I know this post is extremely lengthy, and if there's any typos please excuse me because I hurt my hand the other day and this already took me hours to type up. Ick. >_<
Thanks in advance.
UPDATE: Here is a deck variation running black and blue, rather than just blue. I know that the post says that the third color was more than likely white in it's title, but I've put into consideration everyone's suggestions and have come up with this deck list. I have not tested it at all yet. It's just some ideas.
****
Dragonforce (Ver 2 - current decklist)
Creatures:
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Fyndhorn Elves
4x Elvish Spirit Guide
3x Quirion Ranger
4x Wall of Blossoms
3x Eternal Witness
1x Indrik Stomphowler
4x Loxodon Hierarch (that's the elephant, right? I think I spelled it wrong).
2x Simic Skyswallower
Spells:
4x Swords to Plowshares
4x Brainstorm
4x Natural Order
Land:
4x Wasteland
3x Gaea's Cradle
4x Wooded Foothills
4x Tropical Island
4x Savannah
****
**Sideboard**
4x Defense Grid
2x Phyrexian Furnace
2x Tormod's Crypt
4x Pithing Needle
3x Naturalize
**Sideboard**
EDIT: Alright, I edited the above decklist to the decklist I am currently running. Thanks to Brainstorm sculpting my hand and searching for me, and Swords to Plowshares + Eternal Witness = GG against decks that try to race my Simic Sky Swallower, I believe this is the "almost" optimal build for the deck currently. Yes, running black is powerful, but you might as well be playing Rock to run black. The deck needs minor tweaking, such as a Spiritmonger to avoid Perish (this will be tested, along with a single Bayou), and possibly something other than Brainstorm for searching (I'm thinking Impulse, as several games I found myself digging for a very specific card.).
I've responded to and bumped my post with a mini tournament report, since it was only 3 rounds and top 8 (I lost in top 8, first game to a play mistake, second game to turn 2 Akrome + Animate Dead tricks).