Mono Savannah Hate

[FTW]

Since the top DTBs are now blue control decks, hating on manabases and blue shells seems good.

Legacy has some powerful hate cards, but many decks cannot run them without also hurting from the drawbacks.

The idea is that this deck runs no fetches, no cantrips, no tutors, no Islands, and no Brainstorms. That means you get to run a bunch of hate cards that punish the Legacy format for playing Magic while not suffering from any of the drawbacks yourself.

Chalice of the Void: Hating out cantrips, combo, and tempo like nobody's business.

Choke: Oh, you wanted to tap Islands for mana? Awkward.

Suppression Field: Oh, your manabase depends on fetchlands? Awkward. Also: planeswalkers, Ant War, Wasteland, Rishadan Port, Aether Vial, and equipment just got a lot more durdly.

Leonin Arbiter: See above fetchland comment. Also tutors.

Spirit of the Labyrinth: Oh hi Brainstorm.

Thalia, Guardian of Thraben: Also messing up cantrips and spell-based strategies

Karakas: Goodbye 15/15s and 20/20s. Please play normal creatures.

Here's a rough idea of a list. It looks a bit like a GW Hatebears deck, except also running Chalice, Suppression Field and Choke along with fast mana. The goal is to land a 2cmc lock piece on turn 1 and another on turn 2, then beatdown.


//Mana: 26
4 Savannah
4 Razorverge Thicket
4 Cavern of Souls
2 Horizon Canopy
1 Karakas
3 Ancient Tomb
4 Chrome Mox
4 Elvish Spirit Guide

//Artifacts and Enchantments: 10
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Suppression Field
2 Choke

//Creatures: 24
4 Leonin Arbiter
4 Spirit of the Labyrinth
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Knight of Autumn
3 Loxodon Smiter
2 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
2 Palace Jailer

//Sideboard: 15
4 Rest in Peace
3 Path to Exile
3 Containment Priest
2 Sanctum Prelate
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Choke
1 Gaddock Teeg


Explaining the other card choices...

The creatures:
Phyrexian Revoker - Shutting down yet more activated abilities, especially against combo. This may prove redundant in a deck with 4 Suppression Field, so I only have 2 copies to start.

Knight of Autumn - Such a flexible card. Kills artifacts and enchantments. Pads your life total. Goes on beatdown mode. Also 2 colors for Chrome Mox.

Loxodon Smiter - I haven't seen this card played in a while, but an uncounterable 4/4 seems like a good beater. Comes down for free when Liliana or Kolaghan's Command makes you discard. 2 colors for Chrome Mox.

Thalia, Heretic Cathar - Even more fetchland hate. Also shuts down Sneak Attack and makes blocking more awkward.

Palace Jailer - Removal. Card draw. It performs pretty well in D&T, Soldier Stompy and 5c Humans.


The mana:
Savannah - Taps for G and W. Enters untapped. No drawbacks. Seems good.

Razorverge Thicket - Taps for G and W. Enters tapped later on, but enters untapped early to help land those turn 1 and turn 2 hate pieces.

Horizon Canopy - Taps for G and W for moderate lifeloss. Draws cards in a pinch. With Suppression Field it will cost 3, and with Spirit you will have to remember to draw on opponent's EOT only, so I am only at 2 copies.

Cavern of Souls - This is a questionable inclusion, because there's no explicit tribal theme here and there are also 6 colored noncreature spells. There are many creatures with overlapping types though. The idea is that given a specific hand and matchup, you can decide what to name with Caverns to help force through whichever piece you really need to land to skew the matchup, without worrying about FoW or Daze. It won't necessarily be the most common type in your hand. Hopefully there are enough other things that tap for either G or W that you can deal with this tapping for colorless the rest of the time.

Karakas - Hates out unfair creatures. Protects Thalias.

Ancient Tomb - Helps power out turn 1 Chalice or Heretic Cathar (to screw up fetches). Helps play around Daze. Because you don't have too many 2X stuff, 4 copies would be excessive. Maybe 2 is correct.

Chrome Mox - Helps land the turn 1 lock piece. Some gold options to imprint, so this can potentially tap for G or W.

Elvish Spirit Guide - Helps land the turn 1 lock piece. Helps play around Daze. Comes down as a creature later.



The sideboard:
Rest in Peace - Standard GY hate for a deck that aims to play 2cc spells on turn 1 and doesn't run any GY stuff itself. Obviously it comes in against Reanimator and Dredge and Lands, but it also has value against Storm and Grixis and anything else with grindy graveyard recursion.

Path to Exile - The interaction with Leonin Arbiter is cute, usually just exiling a creature without giving them a land or life or anything. Bad with Chalice though. Maybe there's a better choice for this slot. Some targeted removal in the 75 seems good though.

Containment Priest - Messes up a range of cheatyface strategies from Reanimator to SneakShow to Vial aggro to GSZ tutoring. 2 cmc hatebear. Obviously fits in well.

Sanctum Prelate - Chalice #5-6, hitting things above 1 cmc more efficiently than Chalice. Even name 6 to shut down Terminus.

Umezawa's Jitte - Vs other creature-heavy decks. Maybe this should be 2 copies, since there is no Stoneforge to find it.

Choke - The 3rd copy to really drive the nail in blue decks, especially once they start boarding in answers to the first few hate pieces.

Gaddock Teeg - More "you can't play magic" stuff for combo and control.



Other creatures to consider:
Aven Mindcensor - more fetch/tutor hate, as a surprise. good with Ancient Tomb mana.

Recruiter of the Guard - If Leonin Arbiter goes, this should be a 4-of to find strategic answers more smoothly

Scavenging Ooze - maindeck graveyard hate

[kinda]

Losing the die roll to delver will be problematic. I suggest some jitte or sofi. With tomb you could run them without stoneforge.

Edit: this also makes hardcasting esg late game reasonable.

[mistercakes]

haven't spent too much time looking at it, but a singleton sylvan isn't the worst idea. i would also have a few more answers to threats in here. it seems very preventative, but you have no reactive answers other than a singleton karakas.

[FTW]

haven't spent too much time looking at it, but a singleton sylvan isn't the worst idea. i would also have a few more answers to threats in here. it seems very preventative, but you have no reactive answers other than a singleton karakas.

Sylvan's a nonbo with Spirit of the Labyrinth, so I'd have to cut some Spirits. Maybe.

Yeah it's heavily proactive. The only reactive answers main are Karakas and 2 Palace Jailer (plus 3 PtE and 1 Jitte SB). It's metagamed against blue control (Miracles, Grixis) and combo, but does have a lack of answers against fair decks. Maybe that's too unbalanced. Eldrazi Stompy and turn 1 Delver will be awful.

What would you recommend as a reactive answer main? StP and PtE are a nonbo with Chalice. Oblivion Ring? Jittes? Banisher Priest? Kitchen Finks to gain back life? I couldn't think of much better than Palace Jailer. Ghostly Prison?

Losing the die roll to delver will be problematic. I suggest some jitte or sofi. With tomb you could run them without stoneforge.

I was avoiding equipment because Suppression Field. 4 to equip. 2 to remove each counter from Jitte. Paying 6-10 mana before you get any counters on Jitte (then 2 to remove each counter) seems way too slow. On the plus side it means enemy Jittes aren't a threat to your X/1s and X/2s! SoFaI is 7 mana to end up on a creature, then you can't even draw the card if Spirit is out.

Maybe Jitte is still worth it. Suppression Field won't always stick early, and those are the games you're more likely to be behind anyway. 2 Jittes main and move Revokers to the SB? Equipment does make all the 2/2s less bad

[FTW]

What if we make this mono-Plateau Hate instead? We lose Choke, but red has better reactive answers built into creatures. Red gives Simian Spirit Guide, Avalanche Riders/Goblin Ruinblaster, Flametongue Kavu, Manic Vandal, Jaya Ballard, Task Mage, and other stuff.

Or mono-Scrublands Hate? Black for Ravenous Chupacabra/Shriekmaw, Dark Confidant (draws through Spirit), Tidehollow Sculler, Plague Mare, Plaguecrafter... . However we lose Spirit Guides.

I realized Green isn't doing much here other than Knight of Autumn, Spirit Guides and Choke.

[compacta_d]

Red already is a DNT version.

I think green is good, but I would look to maverick, and make it a stompy shell. Or play Maverick.

Why no wastelands and gqs with Ramunap Excavator? Why no GSX?

Riftstone Portal with Mox diamond?

I'm not saying "just play the other decks", I support trying stuff out. This DOES sounds similar to those decks though.

I don't think you need 4 spirit of the labyrinth nor 4 leonin arbiters, unless paired with GQ similar to modern dnt.

I've long had similar ideas of mox+riftstone+ramunap+kotr+chalice+thalias etc+GQ's+leonins