RB Recruiter Control

[Black_Dog]

Hello.

I'm usually a 1.5 W/B Pox player but was lucky enough to grab 4 Imperial Recruiters. I've worked on this deck for a while but took a break from Magic about 18 months ago. I'm back in and figure I'll start testing this again. It works well against almost everything. Not great. But very well. Great against a lot more than I first expected.

Breakdown:

//LANDS

8 x Swamp
2 x Mountain
4 x Badlands
4 x Bloodstained Mire
4 x Wasteland

//CREATURES

4 x Imperial Recruiter
4 x Mesmeric Fiend
4 x Faerie Macabre
4 x Stingscourger
2 x Chittering Rats
1 x Street Wraith
1 x Goblin Tinkerer
1 x Ghitu Slinger
1 x Magus of the Moon
1 x Braids, Cabal Minion
1 x Stinkweed Imp
1 x Garza's Assassin
1 x Bone Shredder

//SPELLS

4 x Oath of Ghouls
4 x AEther Vial
4 x Cabal Therapy

//SIDEBOARD

1 x Magus of the Moon
1 x Yixlid Jailer
1 x Plague Spitter
1 x Abyssal Gatekeeper
3 x Ingot Chewer
4 x Hymn to Tourach
4 x Dystopia

When this deck was first built it ran 4 Stingscougers, 4 Chittering Rats 4 Street Wraiths and little else. I started turning it into more of a toolbox with Recruiter, but still keeping the Stingscougers and some of the rats.

You can get a lock in a few ways with Oath and Braids out. Chittering Rats are great with that and also the rats help out with card advantage / slow down annoying brainstorm / deck manipulation. Tempted to run more but I'll probably end up taking them out altogether.

I wanted to keep the curve higher than 1 to avoid a Chalice lockdown, but low enough to allow me to quickly throw out useful creatures if the grave / oath is knocked out. You'd be surprised at what the above mob of creatures can do to say things like Faerie Stompy, mid-control based decks with 1-2 big creatures to do the damage.

It works great vs. Goblins and other aggro as the creatures it packs are far more useful, although you have to switch your strategy if you're running up against another heavy creature based deck.

Anyway, I've been out of the loop for a while so any thoughts / comments would be appreciated.

[DrJones]

I would happily include in that decklist one Safe Haven or two.

[jazzykat]

I suggest gatekeeper of malakir.

[Black_Dog]

I would happily include in that decklist one Safe Haven or two.

Could be nice but I think it's a bit slow.


I suggest gatekeeper of malakir.

This, is a good addition. Very good. Thanks.

[Combo Winter]

I question the 4 main deck farie macabre i think one for toolbox purposes is all thats needed. I would suggest throat slitter over bone shredder because it bounces back your come into play guys. I would also add fulmetor mage as at least a 2 of because it provides a free wasteland lock.
I also think that gatekeeper is a probably stronger removal option than stingscourger. Also are you sure oath is better than oversold cematary I assume don't have that hard a time filling your yard.

I would go

-3 macabre
-1 bone shredder
-1 ghitusliger
- 1 garzas assain
- 3 stingscourger
+2 fulmetor mage
+1 throatslitter
+3 gatekeeper
+ 3 dark confidant

[Mantis]

The idea of Faerie Macabre is obviously that combo's so incredibly well with Oath of Ghouls. Your opp never recurs a creature while you always have the Faerie to recur.

[Combo Winter]

I am aware of that but is that really better than oversold if you play such a creature heavy deck as then you can play cards like confidant which are sick if you don't stick a oversold cematary which is easy as hell to get online

[Black_Dog]

I question the 4 main deck farie macabre i think one for toolbox purposes is all thats needed. I would suggest throat slitter over bone shredder because it bounces back your come into play guys. I would also add fulmetor mage as at least a 2 of because it provides a free wasteland lock.
I also think that gatekeeper is a probably stronger removal option than stingscourger. Also are you sure oath is better than oversold cematary I assume don't have that hard a time filling your yard.

I would go

-3 macabre
-1 bone shredder
-1 ghitusliger
- 1 garzas assain
- 3 stingscourger
+2 fulmetor mage
+1 throatslitter
+3 gatekeeper
+ 3 dark confidant

Macabre beats a lot of decks in 1.5. More than it should for being a free "RFG 2 Cards". It serves 3 purposes.
1: Potential combo breaker for Storm / Combo decks, Survival, Ichorid/Froggoid, Loam, etc.
2: Helps feed Oath of Ghouls and keeps Oath in my favor
3: Flying for evasion

Bone Shredder is better than Throat Slitter as once it hits the battlefield I kill something and the Echo feeds into Oath. Same with Ghitu Slinger (Mogg Fanatic is better but also gets ripped by a turn 1 chalice and 2 damage kills most creatures in 1.5)

Stingscourger is a stupid 2/2 that sets your opp back a turn. Great combo with Cabal Therapy / Fiend. Echo to feed Oath.

G. Aassassin - Alt Bone Shredder that I can get back via Recover. Card is better than Shredder.

Gatekeeper is a newer card I've just learned about (I got back in after an 15 month break) Solid card. Will MD one.

Dark Confidant - This deck was made when at every tournament you knew 30-40% of all decks were running counterbalance. So we shot for a 3CC curve (harder to break). I think it's too much damage to risk with it on the board and little options to remove it myself (Ghitu / Cabal).

As for more Fulminator Mage.. I'll stick with one BUT so many times I'm tempted to switch him out for Avalanche Riders (as they get basic lands)

IMO I'd rather go back to something like the original primer (4 stingscourgers, 4 chittering rats, 4 M. Fiends, 4 street wraith, 4 imp recruiters, etc), rather than be so toolbox-y. Just a matter of finding the proper cards (although you'll still have maybe 4-8 unique creatures to fetch for.

btw, worse match ups for this deck are: Humility and Enchantress. It's why they're 3 Dystopia's and a Stormgald in the SB.

Lack of Fast (i.e. fetchable + comes into play and blows up X) Enchant / Artifact hate are the biggest problem. Goblin Tinkerer is slow and weak. Ingot is perfect but a 3/3 (can't fetch w/ recruiter).

[Willoe]

Looking for fetchable artifact removal?

http://magiccards.info/query?q=o%3Adestroy+o%3Aartifact+c!r+pow%3C%3D2+t%3A%22creature%22&v=card&s=cname

I'd say Hearth Kami or Duergar Hedge-Mage (the latter would be optimal if you were able to put in two Plains like Scrubland or Plateau)

Just be careful not to add too many tutor targets, it just sucks drawing into something that is completely useless. I don't know what else to say about the deck, it looks fun!

[Black_Dog]

Looking for fetchable artifact removal?

http://magiccards.info/query?q=o%3Adestroy+o%3Aartifact+c!r+pow%3C%3D2+t%3A%22creature%22&v=card&s=cname

I'd say Hearth Kami or Duergar Hedge-Mage (the latter would be optimal if you were able to put in two Plains like Scrubland or Plateau)

Just be careful not to add too many tutor targets, it just sucks drawing into something that is completely useless. I don't know what else to say about the deck, it looks fun!

Yeah when I first got my set of recruiters, the Hedge-Mage was tempting but I'd rather not splash another color and have my own Magus do damage to me in the first place. Too conditional.

But yes, it's far more of a solid deck than I would have expected and stronger than your typical survival decks.

[woremak]

So I've been playing this deck on MWS a lot, and it makes me very, very sad at the price of recruiter.
It's absurdly cool, and really beats up on decks like landstill, lands, and has a bunch of game vs. reanimator and dredge. But I've been having a lot of problems in aggro matchups, namely that I can't seem to find a consistent way to not die against zoo.
Are there any thoughts?
I've tried Deathmarks in the board, but I haven't really found anything that stop them from just burning me out.

This deck is really cool, and once I have the money to invest, I'd certainly like to build it.