Hunted/VWR/sharpshooter

[Shabbaman]

I have a pet deck, but I'm not happy with it. I WAS happy with it, but the deck didn't work after the M10 rules change regarding token ownership.The deck exploits the cheap hunted creatures and Varchild's war-riders. To get around the drawback (the tokens the opponent gets) I run Leyline of Singularity. I used to run Brand (and Warp World), and Toshiro Umezawa to recur Brands and other instants. That doesn't work anymore, so I changed the Brands to Goblin Sharpshooters. It's not as if that doesn't work, but it doesn't work good enough. Sharpshooter only works at turn 4, and that's pretty slow. Having a creature as your solution to all your problems doesn't really solve the problem but rather creates a new one. Creatively,I'm at a loss and I could need some fresh ideas.

The deck:
4 VWR
4 Hunted phantasm
1 Hunted horror
1 Hunted dragon
1 Hunted troll
4 Goblin sharpshooter

4 Leyline of singularity
1 Engineered explosives
1 Powder keg
1 Loxodon warhammer
1 behemoth sledge
3 Basilisk collar
4 Brainstorm
3 Intuition
1 Life from the loam
1 Crime/punishment
1 Zuran orb

4 Forbidden orchard
4 bloodstained mire
1 Island
1 Cephalid coliseum
1 Halimar depths
1 Mountain
1 Swamp
1 Volrath's stronghold
1 barren moor
1 Lonely sandbar
1 Bojuka bog
1 Academy ruins
1 overgrown tomb
1 Badlands
1 Volcanic island
1 Tolaria west
1 Urborg
1 Karakas

Some stuff I tried but that doesn't satisfy:
Pyroclasm
Earthquake
Echoing truth
shriveling rot

Some stuff that was somewhat satisfactory:
Propaganda
Ghostly prison
Tainted aether (nice with statebased effect of Leyline)

The intuition/loam engine is in the deck to get some draw, and because I had a Karakas and I wanted to play that together with Leyline. Because of the Intuitions I can run some singletons, just to show that I can (and to show that there are different kinds of answers to the same problem). But occasionally it gets me around the legend rule. With the Collars, there's no reason to run the other equipment anyway (as it's subpar).

[sunshine]

Firespout, Pyroclasm, and Rolling Earthquake seem like reasonable options (especially the Rolling Earthquake if you can get your hands on some copies). You'll get to kill off the tokens and possibly some other dudes your opponent has dropped as well.

Other interesting options: Harbinger of Night, Echoing Truth, and Necroplasm.

[Bigface]

As a singleton, Witch's Mist could pull out some nice sheningans with Sharpshooter.

[Tacosnape]

Illusionary Mask might be neat here, as it's pretty sexy with Hunted Horror and Phantasm.

Alternately, you could go the other direction and focus more on Basilisk Collar shit, add Trinket Mage, Grim Lavamancer, Razorfin Hunter, etc.

[Purgatory]

I like the idea a lot, and I think the deck is cool, but I don't think that VWR quite cut it. I know this is on the budget forum, but VWR is basically a Tarmogoyf with a drawback. I say cut them and add something better, more Hunted creatures for example. That said, VWR is a really cool card and if you want to keep it for its flavour and coolness, then by all means.

Also, I don't know how much you want to spend on the deck, but cards like Engineered Explosives and Pernicious Deed can be useful both as board sweepers and as a way to get rid of those pesky tokens. My brother ran a half-serious GWB Rock deck a couple of years back, with Hunted Troll and Pernicious Deed as ingredients, and I think both cards worked quite well individually, but especially well when paired up.

[Meekrab]

Pestilence? It's anyway re-usable.

[Shabbaman]

It seems that my previous response from yesterday didn't make it through the internet, but that didn't keep you guys from posting even more suggestions.


I like the idea a lot, and I think the deck is cool, but I don't think that VWR quite cut it. I know this is on the budget forum, but VWR is basically a Tarmogoyf with a drawback. I say cut them and add something better, more Hunted creatures for example. That said, VWR is a really cool card and if you want to keep it for its flavour and coolness, then by all means.

Also, I don't know how much you want to spend on the deck, but cards like Engineered Explosives and Pernicious Deed can be useful both as board sweepers and as a way to get rid of those pesky tokens. My brother ran a half-serious GWB Rock deck a couple of years back, with Hunted Troll and Pernicious Deed as ingredients, and I think both cards worked quite well individually, but especially well when paired up.

First of all: it's a casual deck. I know about every deck gets beter with goyfs, but that's besides the point: the goal of the deck is to make VWR work, to win in style. If you look at the decklist you can see that budget isn't really much of a concern, but tbh I'm done spending a lot more on this deck. But your suggestions are good: I already run EE, and I was planning to get 3 more (until the price exploded, that is...). That card is the answer to just about everything, especially in a deck with access to five colors. But I have a set of Deeds lying around, and that happens to be one of my favorite cards (and without a home atm). I haven't tried them in this deck, because it's more difficult to recur and because 3 mana is, well, still a bit much. The interaction with Hunted Troll is surely a path to explore as well, although the Troll is the worst of them because he lacks evasion. But that;s solvable through killing all blockers with deed.


Illusionary Mask might be neat here, as it's pretty sexy with Hunted Horror and Phantasm.

Alternately, you could go the other direction and focus more on Basilisk Collar shit, add Trinket Mage, Grim Lavamancer, Razorfin Hunter, etc.

Yeah, mask... well, the budget isn't unlimited ;) I have no masks, but the Masknought idea had crossed my mind before. But you'd get on the Stifle plus Trickbind path, and I've chosen to abuse the tokens rather than abuse the low CC of the Hunteds. There's not enough free space in the deck to do both. But Hunted Phantasm plus Mask plus Dreadnoughts plus Stifle plus Trickbind plus coutersuite (yes, I have FoW's) is the better deck. I'm not sure it's more fun though.

But I have a set of Lavamancers, and I ordered a set of Trinket Mages because I like your suggestion. Got an Expedtion Map (to get Academy Ruins) as well (plus a revised PL Bayou while I was at it). I like recurrable tutoring, as you might have guessed from the Intuition/Loam/crazy land mix.


Pestilence? It's anyway re-usable.

Hm. Hmm. I've tried Plaguespitter, everyone tells me to run Aether Flash. I haven't tried Pestilence yet. Might be worth it.