Survival of the Demigods

[Moczoc]

Hi, this is a try to build a deck around Demigod of Revenge and Survival of the Fittest. I'm sure other people had the idea, but I don't think anyone tried to build a Rock/Survival shell around it.

-> The combo: You basically need only a survival in play. Then you search for Demigod 4 times, play one and win.

Example:

t1: Birds
t2: Survival, (+Duress)
t3: search for Demigod 4 times
t4: play one Demigod, attack for 20 damage

Good thing about this combo are that it can hardly be stopped by Swords or FoW, if they remove/counter one, you still have the other three Demigods because he is worded "If you play ..."

A reason, why many people abandoned this, when Demigod was released, could be that you really need a lot of mana and you can spend only G for Survival and only B for Demigod. That are big problems. I try to solve them with Twilight Mire, Birds and many fetches/duals.


The first

Creatures
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Nantuko Shade
4 Demigod of Revenge
4 Tarmogoyf
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
1 Big Game Hunter
1 Wickerbough Elder
1 Shriekmaw

Spells
4 Survival of the Fittest
2 Pernicious Deed
2 Ghastly Demise
3 Thoughtseize
2 Duress
2 Cabal Therapy

3 Slots open (at the moment filled with 2 Eternal Witness and 1 Putrefy)

Lands
4 Bayou
4 Windswept Heath
1 Bloodstained Mire
5 Swamp
2 Forest
4 Twilight Mire
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Polluted Delta


Some choices explained

- Nantuko Shade: is easy to support with the manabase
- Ghastly Demise: Just cheap removal, could also be Smother
- Discard: I reserved 7 slots for this, I don't know if the specific number are the right combination
- Open slots: I'm really not shure what cards are still needed in this deck, I never played Survival before ;)

[Maveric78f]

You(d better play dark confidant instead of shades (and maybe keep 1 shade for the open slots). I'm quite sure that you want 1 witness (search the witness in resp to removal on the survival), 1 anti-combo creature (needs a white splash though) and 1 genesis MD.

[Soulles]

You could solve the mana problems with the legendary land, that makes all lands a swamp in addition.

[Ebinsugewa]

You could solve the mana problems with the legendary land, that makes all lands a swamp in addition.

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth.

[Phoenix Ignition]

I gave this deck a couple runs in small tournaments, but I think you're overlooking the biggest helper to Demigod, Skyshroud Elf. Run him and Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary, and then Sakura Tribe elder and birds. I also threw in 4 Thorn of Amethyst to screw over anyone trying to counter my stuff.

It went 3-1 a few times but overall I think regular survival with just solid creatures and goyfs is going to be better.

[Moczoc]

You(d better play dark confidant instead of shades (and maybe keep 1 shade for the open slots). I'm quite sure that you want 1 witness (search the witness in resp to removal on the survival), 1 anti-combo creature (needs a white splash though) and 1 genesis MD.

Good ideas, I'm gonna try some Shade (although the decks avg. cmc is quite high :rolleyes: )


You could solve the mana problems with the legendary land, that makes all lands a swamp in addition.


I gave this deck a couple runs in small tournaments, but I think you're overlooking the biggest helper to Demigod, Skyshroud Elf. Run him and Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary, and then Sakura Tribe elder and birds. I also threw in 4 Thorn of Amethyst to screw over anyone trying to counter my stuff.


Urborg and Skyshroud Elf make it easily possible to cast Demigod, but I also need much G mana for Survival. I don't know if its the right way to play with a mainly green manabase and to rely on one of the two cards to be able to cast Demigod.
On the other hand, Skyshroud Elf is a creature, so I can survival for it.



It went 3-1 a few times but overall I think regular survival with just solid creatures and goyfs is going to be better.

3-1 sounds good. I want to run a regular Survival with Demigod ;)
(And he is also not so bad without Survival)

[Darkenslight]

Why not run Urborg Elf, as it makes green AND black mana? The only downside I can see is that it costs two.

[Tao]

He already plays 4 Goyfs.

- Sensei's Divining Top is a really strong card in this type of deck. I have more experience with controllish Survival than with any other deck. I can say is that Top will win you a lot of games in which you don't have a Survival or in which Survival was countered / Thouhgtseized. Basically you play 2 games: with Survival you play whatever you want every round and without it you play what you draw every round. Top helps a lot there.

- I'd play the 4th Thoughtseize over the second Duress.

- You also can play one Kitchen Finks. They are solid when drawn, a tutorable Lifegain creature and pretty nuts with Cabal Therapy.

[Aleksandr]

He already plays 4 Goyfs.

- Sensei's Divining Top is a really strong

- You also can play one Kitchen Finks. They are solid when drawn, a tutorable Lifegain creature and pretty nuts with Cabal Therapy.

Sry, missed them.. :smile:
SDT - yeah, good idea, with many mana and lots of shuffle effects, it can be strong.

[georgjorge]

One thing every Survival-combo deck has to ask is, "is that combo cheaper or more powerful then the already existing ones ?", those being

Survival + Welder (tutoring up Anger and Titan) - costs 1GGGGR
Survival + Volrath's Shapeshifter (tutoring up Hypnox) - costs 2GGGUU

Yours costs 1GGGGGBBBBB, which is on the expensive side. It has the advantage that it can't be countered, but then with Survival out and Squee, counters on the creature you tutored up are not such a problem (with Welder, you can get another for just GR).

Which is not to say that the deck can't be good, but I think the cost of the combo is a problem and needs to be solved (more acceleration etc, maybe replace some lands with Chrome Mox). Additional Elves and such would also give you more creatures, 20 is about the minimum with Survival.

And, like the people above me, I think you need more draw to get to Survival. Top + Confidant are really solid here.

[Phoenix Ignition]

Urborg and Skyshroud Elf make it easily possible to cast Demigod, but I also need much G mana for Survival. I don't know if its the right way to play with a mainly green manabase and to rely on one of the two cards to be able to cast Demigod.
On the other hand, Skyshroud Elf is a creature, so I can survival for it.
3-1 sounds good. I want to run a regular Survival with Demigod ;)
(And he is also not so bad without Survival)

I was always okay running Skyshroud Elves alone to get out demigod. I only had 3 in the deck. Early on they do produce green mana, so I don't see your problem there. It also helps you play things like Harmonic Sliver or Hierarch without worrying about finding Savannahs. The elves do get killed on sight when people figure out why they are there, but if you played Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary you would have plenty of mana to fetch Elf, play Elf, pump mana into him, play Demigod.

If you're worried about Extirpate then you would have to ditch Demigod to begin with, so your Elf strategy is relatively safe.

Or you could throw in a couple Urborgs too.

[AngryTroll]

I'm not sure Confidant is all that hot with all the Demigods and Shriekmaws in the deck.

Oh, +1 Shriekmaw to go with the one you have and the Big Game Hunter.

Deed is solid, but you never want to blow it with Survival in play, and you never want to blow it with Goyfs in play...it's best with just the Demigod plan. I'd run some more removal in those spots, possibly Krosan Grips, Smothers, or Diabolic Edicts.

Eternal Witness is a great card, I'd be tempted to run two instead of one.

Shade seems reasonable, but he's a real mana hog, and will still usually be smaller than Goyfs. I'd almost be tempted to run Tombstalkers in this spot, or possibly Dorans. Doran also lets you run Orim's Chant in the board to join Thoughtseizes and Therapies main to give you a run at Combo.

[Maveric78f]

For all who are wondering how disruptable the combo is, I would just say, that you don't care. This deck is aggro-control with a combo finish.


One thing every Survival-combo deck has to ask is, "is that combo cheaper or more powerful then the already existing ones ?", those being
I think that (apart from the combo disruptability) the cost and the power of the combo are really the last combo features you are going to look at in an aggro-controle-combo deck. Basically, in a survival shell, the most important is to have cards that are decent outside from the combo.

But actually, I'm not completely sure to understand the utility of the combo finish in the survival shell.

[georgjorge]

With the above combo, you're right - its cost only allows for it to be a finisher in an Aggro-control deck. However, the other combos costing six or seven mana allows you to actually use them as defense against aggro decks, or to beat control with them before they have their defenses up (the Welder combo can be cast on turn three), which "normal" Survival mode - either an endless supply of hasted Goyfs or Shriekmaw + Genesis - can not do so easily, especially if there's land destruction involved. Losing against fast decks even when resolving second turn Survival is not uncommon for "normal" Survival.

[robertoe]

How about Orcish Lumberjack? You can kill turn three with survival, lumberjack, demigod and 3 lands (2 forest type).

Turn 1: Land, Jack.
Turn 2: Land, Survival, Sac a forest to discard demigod for demigod three times, end up with demigod in hand.
Turn 3: Land, tap them and sac another forest for demigod #4, trigger, twenty.