[Deck] Little Rock

[robby]

I've recently been trying to re-work an old deck. The basic concept is to go with an aggro strategy with creatures that keep coming back. The deck tries to have more threats and bigger threats than the opponent can handle. It tries to achieve more threats by recurring its dredged or destroyed creatures with dredge in the case of Stinkweed Imp, and animation in the case of Unearth.

Difference between this and The Rock:
This deck is called little rock because of some of the similarities it shares with its big brother The Rock. The decks are defiantly quite different though. The Rock has an early disruption plan and tries to dominate the mid-late game. This deck tries to steal the game early on and tries to have a fast recovery plan mid-game when deed is blown, or when an opponent finds answer. This deck tops out a 3 mana curve allowing it to focus on dropping early threats and equipping them. This deck also has room for equipment which give it access to reusable creature control in the form of Umezawa's Jitte.

Little Rock

Land: 15
3 Bloodstained Mire
3 Wooded Foothills
4 Bayou
3 Forest
2 Swamp

Artifacts: 11
4 Lotus Petal
4 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Grafted Wargear

Creatures: 14
2 Carnophage
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Darkheart Sliver

Sorcery: 4
4 Unearth

Enchantment: 4
4 Pernicious Deed

Instant: 10
4 Diabolic Edict
4 Smother
2 Krosan Grip



Card Choices:

Land - The mana is a bit off. I think i may cut down on fetch lands. I haven't quite figured out the ratio yet.

Stinkweed Imp - For the built in recursionand solid ability.

Darkheart Sliver - It was the best 2 drop I could come up with. It has really made the burn match up very playable. I have won every burn match I have played thanks to this guy and jitte.

Tarmogoyf - Because it exists.

Carnophage - I needed another creature and it smoothed out the mana curve at a 1 drop. I am sure this can be improved upon and would like to hear suggestions.

Lotus Petal- Petal is in here to try and get a turn ahead on tempo. I have played a little with Chrome Mox, but with deed in the deck Petal seemed better. Petal also has synergy with early Tarmo's

Grafted Wargear - The deck uses Grafted Wargear over other equipment because of the 0 equip cost. The idea is to have the bigger Tarmo/Whatever on the table in order to speed up the clock. It also for big turn 2/3 swings, and can 'grow' a guy to a decent size after you recur a threat.

Umezawa's Jitte - Combat utility to beat out other mid-range aggro.

Unearth - Used to recover Tarmo's or Slivers after opponent uses removal or after Deed. Unearth is often a 1 drop Tarmo, making it hard for your opponent to keep up with answers. It also has synergy with dredging.

Pernicious Deed - Deed is pretty much the main decks way of saying "I have an answer for that". I don't think this needs much explaining.

Smother/Edict - Mostly used to remove blockers, the best 2 choices IMO. I'm curious what others think.

Krosan Grip - This could probably be on the SB. I am looking for utility in this slot. Grip has come in handy in play testing but I feel it is a little redundant main deck with the deeds already there. I would like to hear opinions and suggestions.

Closing words:
I haven't been around in a while but I look foward to recieving constructive feedback. Thanks for your time!

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Current list:

Land: 18
5 Forest
5 Swamp
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Wooded Foothills
4 Bayou

Creature: 19
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Darkheart Sliver
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Shambling Shell
3 Dark Confidant

Artifact: 7
3 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Lotus Petal

Encahntment: 4
4 Pernicious Deed

Instant: 8
4 Diabolic Edict
4 Smother

Sorcery: 4
4 Unearth

[Elficidium]

Personally i'd go for Stinkweed Imp instead of Shambling Shell, i've had a lot fo fun with him in Demon Stompy where he functions as a recurrable goyf-killer and his mono-colored mana cost is also a big plus.

Edit: also, Sword of Light and Shadow instead of Unearth, might be slower but it recurs every turn + lifeswing + Protection from STP&Smother.

[robby]

Personally i'd go for Stinkweed Imp instead of Shambling Shell, i've had a lot fo fun with him in Demon Stompy where he functions as a recurrable goyf-killer and his mono-colored mana cost is also a big plus.

I hadn't considered Imp at all. I am in a very early stage of playtesting. Yeah the coloress would really help with the mana ratio issues I'm currently having. The evasion definitely makes the equipment better. I like it.

Edit: I think SOLS may be a bit slow for the deck. The mana is often tied up and the curve is very low. I will play test with it and see how it goes.

Edit Edit: Stinkweed Imp is far better. Original post changed to include it. SOLS is far too mana heavy in a fast game. There just isnt enough time to use it effectively.

[Akasha]

Four Jitte seem like much, wouldn't three also do?

Are the grips main that good? Maybe seal of ... the green cleansing one. Cheaper, can stick around, rattlesnake, bad with deed. Might be a decision, yours to make :).

And I miss card draw. Dark Confidant? He might be weak, but when he sticks around he might be worth it. 14 creatures do sound like to less.

Smother is very good, edict I don't know...

[robby]

Four Jitte seem like much, wouldn't three also do?

Are the grips main that good? Maybe seal of ... the green cleansing one. Cheaper, can stick around, rattlesnake, bad with deed. Might be a decision, yours to make :).

And I miss card draw. Dark Confidant? He might be weak, but when he sticks around he might be worth it. 14 creatures do sound like to less.

Smother is very good, edict I don't know...

Ive been trying -2 Grip -2 Carnophage +4 Confidant. I haven't decided how much I like it yet. One of the decks biggest problems seems to be its mana curve right now. I really havent figured out my mana situation yet either, which makes it difficult.

[Hightower]

Haha, we played on MWS.. You owned my Madness-Survival.dec

Stinkweed Imp is the bomb against aggro, that's for sure! Dark Confidant is also a must in my opinion. Some decks splash black just for him =p and it's not like your mana curve is to steep for him.

My only real concern: too many equipments you dont want too many permanents on the board.. 1 Jitte + Goyf/Imp should do enough, and Grafted Wargear doesn't complement Imp (except if your in a damage race) since it kills creatures anyway.


Good luck with this project :)

[robby]

Haha, we played on MWS.. You owned my Madness-Survival deck.

Stinkweed Imp is the bomb against aggro, that's for sure! (maybe cut some equipment since you don't want too many permanents on the board) Dark Confidant is also a must in my opinion. Some decks splash black just for him =p and it's not like your mana curve is to steep for him.

Good luck with this project :)

Yeah, I remember you. You've been the best player of the morning. Yeah I think Confidant needs to go in. I'm thinking of cutting back on the equipment as well. Ill let you know how it goes.

[robby]

1) How are you satisfied with 15 lands?

I'm not, my current build is running 18.



2) Is the explosiveness of LPs (and a bonus for Goyf) a reason to play it over some actual stuff?

For now I am going to say yes, but I need more testing.



3) Grafted Wargear. Interesting choice. It has corresponding casting cost, very cheap equip cost and really strange drawback. (In g1 ithe drawback is nonexistant, but after they side-in their Grips...?)

Hightower reminded me Wargear does nothing on Imp, before Imp it made more sense to me. As Hightower said Imp kills anyway, so for now its been cut, although I could see it coming back.


4) Deed or EE? Just proposal... :smile:

I think Deed.


5) Play Dark Confidant.
I am :wink:

I'm with you on 2/4 of those. I think further play testing may swing me on the petal, but I think deed is here to stay.

[robby]

- lands: I overlooked the change.. :smile:
- Wargear: ditto
- Deed/EE. Ok.
- Confi - good decision..
Good luck!
EDIT: And what about Hymn? It seems like no-brainer.. except for :b::b:

As of now the :b::b: is to hard to pull off in a relevant amount of time. The list is getting pretty tight, if I were to add it, what would you cut?

Current list:

Land: 18
5 Forest
5 Swamp
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Wooded Foothills
4 Bayou

Creature: 19
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Darkheart Sliver
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Shambling Shell
3 Dark Confidant

Artifact: 7
3 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Lotus Petal

Encahntment: 4
4 Pernicious Deed

Instant: 8
4 Diabolic Edict
4 Smother

Sorcery: 4
4 Unearth

I dropped the Wargear and Shamling Shell came back. The redundant threats you get with the two dredge creatures and Unearth is far more significant than I would have thought. Its running far smoother than it has with the original list.

I'm taking a break from play testing for now, so I won't be responding too quick. Thanks for everyones suggestions so far, it has really helped!

[tsabo_tavoc]

-4 Diabolic Edict, +4 Thoughtseize, or you lose terribly to Combo or Control.

[Valtrix]

I honestly feel lotus petal is misplaced here. The one time mana acceleration it provides here seems not worth it, because the deck isn't particularly fast. Perhaps you could just drop them in lieu of hymn? Or maybe just thoughtseize, because it's that good. I know it's somewhat decent with goyf, but since the curve is somewhat low already, I think another threat/control item would make more sense. I'd also like to see the dark confidant #4, because he's way too good to not run four of. I'd go:

-3 Forest
-2 Bloodstained mire
+2 Wooded foothills
+3 Swamp

-1 Dark heart sliver
-1 Stinkweed imp
-2 Diabolic edict
-1 Smother
-4 Lotus petal
+4 Thoughtseize
+1 Dark confidant
+4 Hymn to tourach

I really like edict a lot, just because it gets rid of nimble mongoose. However, with deed it becomes less necessary. I also think the fourth stinkweed is redundant, and you don't always want it right away. I don't even think I like the card all that much in general, but eh. The manabase change seems good if you want to support hymn and your first turn discard better. Hymn is almost always a good choice, and should really help versus control. I simply changed the fetches to still give you a good chance of getting to a basic forest.

[robby]

I really like edict a lot, just because it gets rid of nimble mongoose. However, with deed it becomes less necessary.

I admit Edict is one card that could be cut. The deck still needs a way to clear blockers. It occurred to me Bone Shredder could be good here. It has nice synergy with the Unearth, and evasion for Jitte. I'll do some testing with it. It might be a bit mana heavy though.

I'll try the re-worked mana base and see how it turns out with Hymn.