FoolofaTook
07-24-2008, 01:17 AM
This is an attempt to use Blood Moon effects in a smaller, hopefully quicker, aggro shell than Dragon Stompy, while preserving a midgame strategy if the rush fails. Basically the idea is to get a Blood Moon effect up turn one or two and then send in a horde of 2/2's to try to beat the opponent down before he recovers. The Aluren sideshow is to have a mid to late game option if a stalemate develops. So far this is testing middling with some consistency issues, however it seems to beat everything but Ichorid when it's on so I have some hope for it.
Early Game Suite
4x Elvish Spirit Guide
4x Simian Spirit Guide
4x Tinder Wall
4x Vexing Shusher
4x Magus of the Moon
3x Blood Moon
3x Briarhorn
3x Dosan, The Falling Leaf
3x Horned Kavu
Mid Game Refilling
3x Harmonize
1x Nantuko Cultivator
Mid Game Combo
3x Aluren
2x Living Wish
1x Storm Entity
1x Essence Warden
1x Grapeshot
Land
4x Taiga
10x Forest
2x Mountain
Sideboard
1x Essence Warden
1x Horned Kavu
1x Dosan, The Falling Leaf
4x Wheel of Sun and Moon
4x Chalice of the Void
4 open slots
The basic plan is to play either a Blood Moon effect turn one if the mana is there or a Vexing Shusher. The Spirit Guides are generally used as additional mana on turn one to three and then cast as 2/2 creatures from thereon to try to finish things off. If things stall in the early game with a standoff plan B is to get a Dosan in play and then find an Aluren combo and combo out.
Things seem to work okay against Threshold, Landstill and many multi-color decks, Blood Moon is just a dominant effect that chokes the opponent in the early game and the way the deck puts effects in play it requires quite a lot of targetted removal to get things back under control for the opponent. A Wrath of God or Moat effect works very well early on but most decks can't get the mana to cast those under Blood Moon, ditto for Pernicious Deed and Engineered Explosives.
Decks that the deck has some problems against are mostly mono-colored, and it has real trouble against those because the moon effects mean very little in those matchups.
The cards that are working really well in the deck are Vexing Shusher, Dosan, Blood Moon, Magus of the Moon and Briarhorn (this is how the deck lives through an early opposing Goyf - evoke Briarhorn, make it uncounterable, and pump an attacker or blocker to kill it without dying.)
The cards that are holding their own but present some issues are the Spirit Guides, the Tinderwalls and Living Wish. I'm generally really unhappy with a draw that has Living Wish in it at the start, because it functions with the Aluren combo more than anything else, although using it to bring back a Vexing Shusher that has been plowed does happen fairly often. The mana accelerants all have secondary purposes (Tinder Wall is my answer to Goblin Lackey or a 2/2 or less beater as an example) but they are also bad topdecks after the first 5 turns or so. Having 12 bad topdecks is very tough on the deck's consistency.
The cards that I am really unhappy with but unable to replace easily are the Alurens, the Horned Kavus, the Essence Warden, the Storm Entity and the Grapeshot. None of those cards is good in the opening hand and it is tough to assemble the combo in a timely fashion when a stalemate or worse has developed, even with three combo targets in the sideboard for Living Wish. The reason I cannot replace them easily is I just die when the first wave fails or I don't keep moon in play early on without them. I don't pull it out with them a lot after that but I win enough that I'm unwilling to get rid of my only chance to kill control after it has gotten back on it's feet.
I have considered adding a few more land and removing a few of the Spirit Guides to make Harmonize easier to cast on turn 4 or 5. That's a possible option. I've also considered running Survival over Aluren and adding in Squee, Anger and maybe a Stingscourger in place of the combo critters and Grapeshot. That would make the Spirit Guides and Tinder Walls less of an iffy pull in the mid game. It would leave me vulnerable to control after moon had failed though and so it's an iffy replacement I think.
Early Game Suite
4x Elvish Spirit Guide
4x Simian Spirit Guide
4x Tinder Wall
4x Vexing Shusher
4x Magus of the Moon
3x Blood Moon
3x Briarhorn
3x Dosan, The Falling Leaf
3x Horned Kavu
Mid Game Refilling
3x Harmonize
1x Nantuko Cultivator
Mid Game Combo
3x Aluren
2x Living Wish
1x Storm Entity
1x Essence Warden
1x Grapeshot
Land
4x Taiga
10x Forest
2x Mountain
Sideboard
1x Essence Warden
1x Horned Kavu
1x Dosan, The Falling Leaf
4x Wheel of Sun and Moon
4x Chalice of the Void
4 open slots
The basic plan is to play either a Blood Moon effect turn one if the mana is there or a Vexing Shusher. The Spirit Guides are generally used as additional mana on turn one to three and then cast as 2/2 creatures from thereon to try to finish things off. If things stall in the early game with a standoff plan B is to get a Dosan in play and then find an Aluren combo and combo out.
Things seem to work okay against Threshold, Landstill and many multi-color decks, Blood Moon is just a dominant effect that chokes the opponent in the early game and the way the deck puts effects in play it requires quite a lot of targetted removal to get things back under control for the opponent. A Wrath of God or Moat effect works very well early on but most decks can't get the mana to cast those under Blood Moon, ditto for Pernicious Deed and Engineered Explosives.
Decks that the deck has some problems against are mostly mono-colored, and it has real trouble against those because the moon effects mean very little in those matchups.
The cards that are working really well in the deck are Vexing Shusher, Dosan, Blood Moon, Magus of the Moon and Briarhorn (this is how the deck lives through an early opposing Goyf - evoke Briarhorn, make it uncounterable, and pump an attacker or blocker to kill it without dying.)
The cards that are holding their own but present some issues are the Spirit Guides, the Tinderwalls and Living Wish. I'm generally really unhappy with a draw that has Living Wish in it at the start, because it functions with the Aluren combo more than anything else, although using it to bring back a Vexing Shusher that has been plowed does happen fairly often. The mana accelerants all have secondary purposes (Tinder Wall is my answer to Goblin Lackey or a 2/2 or less beater as an example) but they are also bad topdecks after the first 5 turns or so. Having 12 bad topdecks is very tough on the deck's consistency.
The cards that I am really unhappy with but unable to replace easily are the Alurens, the Horned Kavus, the Essence Warden, the Storm Entity and the Grapeshot. None of those cards is good in the opening hand and it is tough to assemble the combo in a timely fashion when a stalemate or worse has developed, even with three combo targets in the sideboard for Living Wish. The reason I cannot replace them easily is I just die when the first wave fails or I don't keep moon in play early on without them. I don't pull it out with them a lot after that but I win enough that I'm unwilling to get rid of my only chance to kill control after it has gotten back on it's feet.
I have considered adding a few more land and removing a few of the Spirit Guides to make Harmonize easier to cast on turn 4 or 5. That's a possible option. I've also considered running Survival over Aluren and adding in Squee, Anger and maybe a Stingscourger in place of the combo critters and Grapeshot. That would make the Spirit Guides and Tinder Walls less of an iffy pull in the mid game. It would leave me vulnerable to control after moon had failed though and so it's an iffy replacement I think.