[Deck] The Rock - Adapted to Legacy

[lolosoon]

Damn. I have to Read the F*** Card correctly. I thought it was a mix of Naturalize + Terror. :D

I agree with you about the tweak Putrefy brings to your mana curve, and for the same CC we already have Deed...

Thanks fot pointing this out.

See Ya.

LoloSoon. - RTFC :p

[kimberley]

Just to encourage you...take a look at this. :)

For Understanding:
The Polls Question is: "Which decks are playedin yr region often and/or successfully?"
psyche=me

re: Putrify
As i explained earlier, Living Wish is a solid card but not necessary if you have other needs. Cutting both Edict and 2 of the Wishes (in the list i presented) is absolutely possible...if that is desired.
In fact many people here are running only 2 or 3 Wishes to have more room for Edict/Smother.
Whether Edict or Putrify is better cannot be discussed in theory but must be tested imo. Putrify's cc is bad, but its advantages may be helpful often. There are several artifacts, that are extremely dangerous...
I see cc more as a general problem, not as that bad against Goblins.

[bigredmeanie]

Has anyone considered Gleancrawler

Gleancrawler 3(b/g,b/g,b/g)
Trample
At the end of your turn return to your hand all creature cards put into your graveyard from play this turn.
6/6

If nothing else he is a 6/6 Trample for 6 that you will never have problems casting. But I think that his synergy with Deed makes him very strong in the late game.

[Ramos]

The problem that I see with this card is that he costs 6. If he was a 5cc I think he might stand a change since it would be more likely he would hit the board in time to really come in handy with a deed or a baloth. If i'm playing goblins, they start doing alot of stuff around turn 4, thats when I want to be able to blow my deeds so that I don't die. If i'm playing control/combo, i've already sacced my birds or yavimaya elder to therapy hopefully so that i can stop them from either comboing out, or gaining too much control over the game. I can see this guy being good with baloth since he sould be sticking around a while longer, but his ability is too slow to help much with anything else, and if you want a 6/6 body then I say grab a Monger, which no one seems to like anymore ;)

There are a few open slots for creatures though, and maybe he is worth a 2 of just because of how well he works with ravenous baloth.

[TheDrunkDwarf]

The new dredge mechanic might fit nicely. Something like Buried Alive could be used to put Grave shell scarab or other powerful dredge creatures in your graveyard, and then could be put in your hand with dredge. Also, buried alive (or a similar fetcher) might make genesis a viable card advantage engine in this deck. Thoughts?

[Ramos]

I think that adding buried alive into this deck to add a nice dredge creature into the deck just to work with this would be changing the point of the deck. I can see a deck centralized around this card an graveyard things, but it doesn't fit into the rock archetype because the rock is a more of a control deck than a reanimation deck

And genesis i think would be a wasted card slot. This deck should be able to clear the way for the big beats that it will be giving. You have no practical way of discarding genesis, and with pernicious deeds and other removal, your baloths and ink-eyes/big beats should find a path to beating face :P

[Eremus_Duskwalker]

i really don't think ravinca offers anything to legacy versions of the rock. i have been testing the following versions against a gauntlent of: R/G Survival, Landstill(several variants), Goblins, and Solidarity. Not a lot of decks, but legacy isn't really "big" so i go with what people have.

4x Birds of Paradise
4x Wall of Blossoms
4x Yavimaya Elder
4x Spike Feeder
2x Eternal Witness
2x Phyrexian Plaguelord

4x Cabal Therapy
4x Chainer's Edict
4x Pernicious Deed
3x Living Wish
2x Duress

9x Forest
6x Swamp
4x Bayou
3x Treetop Village
1x Volrath's Stronghold

Sideboard
4x Engineered Plague
2x Duress
1x Deranged Hermit
1x Virdian Shaman
1x Withered Wretch
1x Genesis
1x Eternal Witness
1x Avatar of Woe
1x Boneshredder
1x Phyrexian Negator
1x Treetop Village

Landstill: Okay, Brainstorm is this decks worst enemy. I hate it. Force of Will isn't as bad because Cabal Therapy has the flashback, but Brainstorm is a huge pain. Sometimes I'll use an early wish to grab Treetop Village just so I can have something to work around Standstill. Also he avoids some of their Wrath Effects(if only they didn't run Nevy's Disk). Wasteland is bad for Treetop and Bayou while STP is another problem you just have to deal with, but the discard can get STP when they matter most in the late game. This is the match where I wish I ran Diabloic Edict or Smother instead of Chainer's Edict, but I like that I have 8 creature removal spells in 4, sometimes even more with Witness. If I were to take this to a major tournament I would probably switch but most of the time this deck is casual play. If they run counter heavy versions then Genesis is the better wish target. I usually also try to use the draw mechanic of Yavimaya Elder most in this match to generate the most advantage I can which is important here. Deed is only good against Decree of Justice here, and I don't have a great sideboard for Landstill. Overall my version has game against Landstill, but obviously is not going to beat Landstill consistantly in a tournament. I do think that with some tooling this match could greatly improve for this deck.

Goblins: What are they going to do? Lightning Bolt Spike Feeder, or Elder? Wall of Blossoms laughs at Lightning Bolt, usually taking two cards to remove your one. Game two and three take out the 2 Duress and 2 Living Wish for the 4 Engineered Plague that I'm thinking of cutting to 3, then i'd only take out 1 wish. This is a fun match that I win a lot with my version, but which may not be great for others. Phyrexian Plaguelord and wishing for Deranged Hermit owns them in the late game, while early on the blockers hold off the horde. Turn two Engineered Plague usually puts a hamper on their day. Overall this match is in my favor, game one is much closer to 50-50 with a slight advantage to them if they can get going early.

R/G Survival: It's all about Withered Wretch. I really should put an enchanment hoser other than Deed in, but I haven't had that much of a problem with this deck. ATS is probably a lot harder(Brainstrom!!!) A fun match to play. Again the more creature control-ish version that I run makes this match more in my favor. Witness should be used to grab Edicts and repeat. Plaguelord and Deranged Hermit do some dirty work here too. Living Wish for Bone Shredder, Eternal Witness, Deranged Hermit, Avatar of Woe, and Genesis are all good choices at varying points of the game. I was actually considering cutting the Bone Shredder, but if you expect a lot of R/G survival and goblins i'd keep him.

Solidarity: Brainstorm!!! I really believe that I'd rather face Skullclamp all day with this deck than Brainstorm. Sometimes you get lucky and they don't have it. Usually when you don't have Duress or Cabal Therapy. I still leave Wall of Blossoms in, even though they seem not so great here. But you draw a card and get something to sac to therapy on turn 2. Again, just good ole' fashioned card advantage. Rip their hand apart and wish for Negator to destroy them before they can recover. Again, I have a lot of dead cards maindecked against this deck: Pernicious Deed and Chainer's Edict so I wouldn't consider this deck tournament ready, but I like how well it performs against R/G Survival decks and Goblins. So if Goblins does become as big as the pro's and writers feel then this could be a deck to play in that enviroment.

[Majestyk1136]

Zilla Bitch slapped me for starting a new thread, so I'll necro this one. Here's what I wrote. RE: Grah and my discussion for along these lines.

I've been playing and trolling Legacy for a bit now and one deck that I almost never see that made a port from Extended is The Rock.

I'm not talking about the Red Aggro Rock version that people were using at the end of last extended season with Flametongue Kavu, but the more traditional version of The Rock with the strong hand destruction elements of Duress and Cabal Therapy and the Board Sweeping power of Pernicious Deed. For reference I submit this list for your perusal:

//NAME: G/B Control
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Duress
4 Troll Ascetic
2 Putrefy
1 Genesis
3 Ravenous Baloth
4 Wall of Blossoms
4 Pernicious Deed
3 Living Wish
4 Eternal Witness
2 Wooded Foothills
2 Bloodstained Mire
4 Bayou
7 Forest
5 Swamp
SB: 1 Genesis
SB: 3 Skyshroud War Beast
SB: 1 Bone Shredder
SB: 1 Ravenous Baloth
SB: 1 Viridian Shaman
SB: 1 Thrull Surgeon
SB: 4 Engineered Plague
SB: 1 Putrefy
SB: 2 Cranial Extraction

I am not submitting this deck as the optimized or World-Beating version but as a starting place to talk about what might be a reasonable method of consistently beating several of the top decks in the format.

Card by card:

BoPs and Sakura-tribe Elders: The force behind mana fixing and acceleration for what has always been a tough color combination. The key here is attempting to make yourself immune to disruption from Wasteland and have a solid foundation from which to begin.

Duress/Therapy: The 3/4 split on these cards is a concession to the reality that Duress isn't all that exciting against the Gobbos. Otherwise, these cards are a house (obv) against almost every deck in the format. The combo Decks can't afford to lose cards and the control decks will be peeled apart by these allowing you to slide in your threats under removal and counters.

Wall of Blossoms/Eternal Witness: Your draw engine. Your Regrowths. Your speed bumps that will get in the way of irritating little red men. Carven Caryatid may be an acceptable replacement but the issue of speed is too critical if you're not on the play to sacrifice that turn. Nothing feels better than hitting your opponent with Therapy and then Regrowing it with Witness only to replay and Flash it back in one horrific sweep.

Troll Ascetic/Genesis/Ravenous Baloth/Living Wish:

Your beatdown and toolbox cards. Living Wish obviously fetches the answer to the thing that irritates you the most and the men are as solid as they get. Almost no removal is sufficient to deal with a recurring Troll Ascetic and the Life Gain from Baloth will keep you in the game in the face of everything from burn to the slow clock presented you by Landstill. I don't know if this is enough guys to smash face with however.

Pernicious Deed/Putrefy:

Disgusting board control elements. Things that get past your barrage of hand death will meet a horrible death at the hands of these babies. Toss in the Utility of the Wish Toolbox Sideboard and you'll have plenty of ways of destroying irritating permanents.

The Board:
1 Genesis: Duh?

3 Skyshroud War Beast: An interesting little piece of Technology that I discovered. Want to see Landstill start wastelanding itself? Try throwing one of these down on the table as a 2-cost 4/4 Trampler (Not so unlikely against Landstill) and you'll start seeing it happen. Almost too efficient against Landstill as you'll want to play it early. They have to counter/Swords or Wrath this thing away fast as it's going to start eating their life total pretty quick. Discourages Crucible recursion of everything from Manlands to Wastelands. The basic lands will have to leap into play on the Landstill player's side to stave off the beatings.

1 Bone Shredder:
Boom. Dead Man walking.

1 Ravenous Baloth:
Gain more life. Kill more men. Recur me please.

1 Viridian Shaman:
The perfect solution for that irritating artifact.

1 Thrull Surgeon:
You now have a Doctor's license and you're doing some Neurosurgery. Control and combo's Best Friends.

4 Engineered Plague:
Takes your Goblins Matchup from "Meh" to "Hahaha."

1 Putrefy:
Make more stuff dead in case duress is a bad card in the main.

2 Cranial Extraction:
Make more friends with Control and Combo Decks.

General Comments on the board: I'm not sure if there needs to be a more cohesive plan for dealing with Enchantments in the sideboard or if Edicts would be more attractive for dealing with pro-black men and/or irritations like Akroma.

General Comments about the deck: I'm not sure about why this deck hasn't been attempted in Legacy at this point (or if it has why I can't find other people's attempts at it) or if Survival is just deemed to be better than this in general. I'm going to give it a chance however.

Matchups:

Landstill: Your board control is actually a little bit better than theirs thanks to the fact that theirs is almost totally reactive (Wrath, Swords, Disk) and has to sit in their hand (where you get rid of it) or out on the board Vulnerable to removal. Deed does a number on this deck as most versions don't play Stifle. You have creatures that they can't seem to deal with easily (Troll) or ones that extend the game (Baloth) to where their clocks can't defeat you easily. You will win the game in the long run thanks to your superior recursion and specialty creatures.

Goblins: Uh-oh. This hurts in game 1. The worst possible play that you can see against you is Turn 1 Lackey. Aether Vial isn't such a big deal as you can wipe it out and any man it generates with a Deed. Trolls are infinite blocking Abysses for Gobbos and Wall of Blossoms and Baloth will buy you some time. But you have to hope you get the deed to get that one midgame swing in your favor before the Goblins get to critical mass.

After Boards you have a Brutal hoser in Engineered Plague. Goblins is unlikely to bring in Disenchant against you unless they suspect your nefarious plot. They're probably bringing in Needles for Deed and Baloth. You ought to laugh at this plan and dump those Duresses and Wishes for the extra Putrefy, Plagues, and the extra Baloth. Smash away.

Soldarity: Haven't tested against combo much. But it seems to be a typical combo Vs. Control matchup. You play hand Death. They cry. After boards you can gut them with Extraction and dump some dead cards (Putrefy.) Living wish will almost always be for Surgeon (followed by Genesis hopefully) as he's a wrecking ball.

ATS: A wild Card. Your graveyard recursion elements will negate one another. However, your hand control and board sweeper can garner you a great deal of advantage here as ATS is pretty dependant on the Survival Engine for card advantage. This deck makes me want to include some sort of Graveyard hate in the board as it would break the matchup wide open instead of being a Stalemate like it is now. Another less obvious element is that your mana Acceleration tends to be in the form of Lands (From Elders) whereas theirs is in Birds, Elves and Walls. Kill those and the deck slows down considerably.

Let me know what you think.

[Citrus-God]

Well, I've seen this build kick some ass in a weekly T1.5 tourney. It whooped my Landstill, so bad. It was okay against Goblins. Solidarity... I don't wanna talk about it...


// Lands 20
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Windswept Heath
4 Savannah
4 Bayou
4 Forest


// Creatures 22
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Wall of Blossoms
4 Troll Ascetic
3 Eternal Witness
3 Ravenous Baloth
2 Genesis
2 Kokusho, Evening Star


// Spells 19
4 Duress
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Pernicious Deed
3 Living Wish


// Sideboard 15
1 Genesis
1 Ravenous Baloth
1 Kokusho, the Evening Star
1 Spore Frog
1 Withered Wretch
1 Uktabi Orangutan
1 Kami of Ancient Law
1 Deranged Hermit
2 Cranial Extraction
3 Enginneered Plague
1 Gaea's Blessing

[Deep Inside]

I'm not sure about splashing white in legacy(In Extended ok, but in legacy?), but if you do, you probably should play Loxodon Hierarch over Baloth.

[Majestyk1136]

That manabase= :(

With as shaky as the G/B manabase can be would you really want to add a higher degree of uncertainty to it by splashing a third color? What does the Swords provide you that existing Black or Gold Removal doesn't? Akroma destruction? The Hierarch would be fine for saving your own men from Deed and to a lesser extent Disk, but avoiding making your mana susceptible to Wasteland would seem to be more important.

[J.Dangerously]

I played this deck for about 6 months in the pre-split days and found it lacking quite a bit. It was able to handle the random round 1 & 2 decks, but not the top tier boys.

One of the things I think this deck could really use is either darkblast or lose hope. They should both provide what the deck lacks, simple early-game creature hate. It will shore up your goblins game, keep RGSA off thier early mana critters, and provide a side benefit (dredge or scry,) all the way. We should also be trying Last Gasp (-3/-3 to targe creature,) as a possible new form of creature control, taking any slots the edict/smother used to use.

I believe the deck NEEDS to have genesis in it, if for no other reason than to recur wall of blossoms to provide some sort of card advantage. Genesis also fixes the issue of drawing into a bunch of non-threats right after you deed. Which was always my issue, not drawing into the right threats.

As far as gleancrawler is concerned, I almost wonder if Kokusho isn't a better choice? It proves to be a hassle even if they get rid of it, and I have been known to flashback Cabal therapy for the win.

Thoughts?

[Majestyk1136]

Sooooo e-x-p-e-n-s-i-v-e. Gleancrawler, Kokusho, even Spiritmonger carry huge price tags that are untenable against fast decks like goblins (without cheating them out) and worthless against decks like Landstill because they'll just Swords or Wrath it away before you have a chance to use it.

Four is probably the upper limit for casting cost on guys in this deck with that 4 needing to be on a body with 4 or more power and some relevant ability. That leaves us with Hierarch and Baloth at the top of the curve. More likely Baloth because you don't have to Junk up your mana base to support the Hierarch without sacrificing some of the consistency on your hand disruption mana.

Recursion, disruption, efficient beatdown. That's the tripod of the Rock, and if it's going to work in Legacy you can't waste a bunch of time on conditional/overpriced crap like Gleancrawler, Avatar of Woe, etc... Your window for opportunity against decks like Goblins is pretty narrow as is. Having one of these things sitting in your grip while you're dying is not a pleasant situation.

EDIT: I've been thinking lately that I might try Ravenous Rats in Thrull Surgeon's spot. The argument for this move would be that it's simply more mana efficient and gives you the opportunity to feed a Therapy Flashback immediately while garnering additional discard.

For reference, my most recent Decklist:
//NAME: G/B Control
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Duress
4 Troll Ascetic
1 Genesis
2 Putrefy
3 Ravenous Baloth
4 Wall of Blossoms
4 Pernicious Deed
3 Living Wish
4 Eternal Witness
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Bloodstained Mire
4 Bayou
8 Forest
6 Swamp
SB: 1 Genesis
SB: 1 Skyshroud War Beast
SB: 1 Dust Bowl
SB: 1 Bone Shredder
SB: 1 Ravenous Baloth
SB: 1 Viridian Shaman
SB: 1 Thrull Surgeon
SB: 4 Engineered Plague
SB: 2 Putrefy
SB: 2 Persecute

MD Genesis might get fired for another land or accelerator. [oh]

[Pinder]

Here's a decklist I drummed up a little bit ago (keeping in mind that in my meta Goblins is the DTB):

//Lands

4 x Wooded Foothills (or any fetch that will nab B/G Duals)
4 x Bayou
4 x Overgrown Tomb
3 x Forest
3 x Swamp

// 1cc
4 x Cabal Therapy
4 x Duress
4 x BoP

// 2cc
3 x Wall of Blossoms
4 x Diabolic Edict
3 x Living Wish

// 3cc
4 x Pernicious Deed
4 x Putrefy
3 x Troll Ascetic
2 x Yavimaya Elder
2 x Eternal Witness

// 4cc
3 x Ravenous Baloth

// 6cc
2 x Gleancrawler


//The Board
1 x Volrath's Stronghold
1 x Ravenous Baloth
1 x Eternal Witness
1 x Wall of Blossoms
3 x Plague Spitter
4 x Infest
4 x Engineered Plague

Questions and criticism is welcomed, I would really like your input.

[Majestyk1136]

4 x Bayou
4 x Overgrown Tomb
4 x Duress
3 x Wall of Blossoms
4 x Diabolic Edict
4 x Putrefy
3 x Troll Ascetic
2 x Yavimaya Elder
2 x Eternal Witness
2 x Gleancrawler


//The Board
1 x Volrath's Stronghold
1 x Ravenous Baloth
1 x Eternal Witness
1 x Wall of Blossoms
3 x Plague Spitter
4 x Infest
4 x Engineered Plague

Questions and criticism is welcomed, I would really like your input.

Too many of some things, too few of others. Gleancrawler is @$$. 6 mana for a guy that's just gonna get sent to the farm? Inconceivable. Too many Duresses, (by 1) too few Wall of Blossoms and far too much targeted removal. Maybe your meta is infested with Goblins, but I'd say that you don't need that much... It's dead (well, at least not as good) against pretty much all of the other decks. Look up a Bone Shredder for your board in addition to a Viridian Shaman. More tomorrow.

[Deep Inside]

I wouldn't say its too much removal
In my meta (which is also infested with Goblins, but also WW) I run a build with 4 Smother and 3 Putrefy main. i've also cut the Duress and put them in the SB because they don't do anything useful against Goblins. At the moment I'm trying a built that doesn't run Living Wish, because its too slow in my meta.

Also, has anyone considered running Tsabo's Web in the SB. I'm trying it out at the moment and I won some Games against Landstill,, though the matchup is still like 70-30 for them.
Preboard I have almost no chance without the Duress, but after boarding 4 Duress, 4 Naturalize, and 3 Tsabo's Web I have a chance.

For reference my current list (I don't run Duals because I don't own them, and so far, I've been doing ok with it, sometimes getting into T8
The tournament here is usually about 20-30 people)
4 Llanowar Wastes
2 Treetop Village
1 Volrath's Stronghold
9 Forest
5 Swamp

4 BoP
4 STE
4 WoB
4 Eternal Witness
4 Baloth
2 Kokusho

4 Deed
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Smother
3 Putrefy
2 SoFaI

SB:
4 Naturalize (I love them)
4 Duress (Maybe 1 too much)
3 Tsabo's Web (secret tech against Landstill, because we have mostly U/R builds that don't have much artifact destruction9
4 Engineered Plague (staple against Goblins)
The Kokushos and Swords main were a recent addition, and so far, I've got good results against Goblins and WW(and Affinity which sometimes shows up here) In my meta there's only one Solidarity(crappy sorcery build with medallions), and not much Landstill, so Rock is viable here(we have three Rock players here)

[Majestyk1136]

I wouldn't say its too much removal
In my meta (which is also infested with Goblins, but also WW) I run a build with 4 Smother and 3 Putrefy main. i've also cut the Duress and put them in the SB because they don't do anything useful against Goblins. At the moment I'm trying a built that doesn't run Living Wish, because its too slow in my meta.

Also, has anyone considered running Tsabo's Web in the SB. I'm trying it out at the moment and I won some Games against Landstill,, though the matchup is still like 70-30 for them.
Preboard I have almost no chance without the Duress, but after boarding 4 Duress, 4 Naturalize, and 3 Tsabo's Web I have a chance.

For reference my current list (I don't run Duals because I don't own them, and so far, I've been doing ok with it, sometimes getting into T8
The tournament here is usually about 20-30 people)
4 Llanowar Wastes
2 Treetop Village
1 Volrath's Stronghold
9 Forest
5 Swamp

4 BoP
4 STE
4 WoB
4 Eternal Witness
4 Baloth
2 Kokusho

4 Deed
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Smother
3 Putrefy
2 SoFaI

SB:
4 Naturalize (I love them)
4 Duress (Maybe 1 too much)
3 Tsabo's Web (secret tech against Landstill, because we have mostly U/R builds that don't have much artifact destruction9
4 Engineered Plague (staple against Goblins)
The Kokushos and Swords main were a recent addition, and so far, I've got good results against Goblins and WW(and Affinity which sometimes shows up here) In my meta there's only one Solidarity(crappy sorcery build with medallions), and not much Landstill, so Rock is viable here(we have three Rock players here)

Do you find that Kokusho is hard to cast a lot of the time? I'd be horrified of sitting there with that fat beast in my grip as the Goblins come tearing down out of Skirk Ridge... Have you thought about replacing that with Troll? He's better in most cases because he's essentially immune to all removal not called "Wrath of God" and seriously impairs the Goblin deck's ability to play all-out aggro.

Having 4 Trolls maindeck plus the 4 Walls gives you a plethora of likely turn 2 drops that can stop the beatdown and stabilize the board so that you can set up a game-swinging Deed or Wish.

On Duress. You're correct to put it in the Sideboard if your meta is infested with Goblins. The trouble is that against almost all of the other decks it serves a very important purpose in that it gives you access to information that sets up crushing Therapies and keeps obnoxious pests and threats off the board.

If I were going to go to Philly I would be very seriously considering playing the 3 MD Duress only because I expect that some bizarre Combo Deck is going to emerge from the mind of some pro and that information will be disseminated among the top tier players. They of course won't be expecting Black to show up, so Duress will pwn them.

I'm also glad that you noticed that you have no shot against landstill without Duress. Of course, the continued Viability of Landstill is in doubt, but the increasing popularity of things like Wombat continue to make Duress very attractive.

[J.Dangerously]

I think putrify is going in the wrong direction. I think we should be taking a look at Last Gasp. There are very few relevant creatures that don't die to -3/-3. Or to Last Gasp and a chump blocking STE.

Also, if goblins are that big of a problem in your meta, you should be subbing in Ostracize, instead of duress. If you swing and miss, you can follow up with your therapy for anything else.

[Deep Inside]

I love Kokusho. If I had room I'd play him 4 times, same with Putrefy. I never have problems casting him, I usually draw him 4-5th round, and I can usually cast him in the 5th, If I have a bird 4th round.The 10 lifeloss you sometimes can inflict to your opponent won me some games.
I found wish to be seldom useful, and I have too many thins I want to put in my SB. I also really like the Swords. because I think Rocks biggest Problem is, that sometimes you remove every thread the opponent has, and then can't get anything out to put pressure on him, and he can recover. The Swords turn everything you have into a thread.

[Majestyk1136]

I think putrify is going in the wrong direction. I think we should be taking a look at Last Gasp. There are very few relevant creatures that don't die to -3/-3. Or to Last Gasp and a chump blocking STE.

Also, if goblins are that big of a problem in your meta, you should be subbing in Ostracize, instead of duress. If you swing and miss, you can follow up with your therapy for anything else.

Stop being bad. Ostracize is a terrible card under the best of conditions and should NEVER be sided in from anywhere.

On Putrefy. The key word that we're looking for here is "Utility." You're going to be looking pretty stupid sitting there with Last Gasp in your hand as that Exalted Angel obliterates your life total. For that matter, Smother more reliably deals with anything that Last Gasp could conceivably kill.

Please note that Putrefy is also a critical element in beating any Stax Deck in game 1. Again, you're going to look like a fool sitting there as a Smokestack or Tangle Wire eats your Lunch with Last Gasp in hand and your flaccid member in the other.

EDIT:

@ Deep Inside: Do you really need Kokusho however? How is it that Ravenous Baloth isn't enough??? Doesn't the Big Dragon catch an STP more frequently than he faithfully dies and gives you life? On the SoFIs. It seems to me that the most important thing that this does is give Protection from Red and occasionally draw a card when the Sword doesn't get blown up. I think you'd find that you'd have more consistency and success if you'd replace the 2 swords and the kokushos with Trolls. Troll wins combat with most Goblins (even if he has to Regen...) or even if he dies is likely to come back via Witness recursion to cause more problems for the goblins player. At the very minimum he's going to force the Goblins player to seriously overcommit to the board if they want to get through, thus allowing you to get an X-for-1 off of your Deed.