[DECK] I Name it, You Have it

[nolink]

Good day folks. its my first post here so if there is any mistakes, do note me regarding what i should improve on.

recently, i was trying to brew some semi-competitive deck just to play it more casually and less cutthroat in my playgroup. the whole idea was based on abusing Aether Vial, cheap Hatebears and stoneforge mystic package. took down black white discard and bantblade in a ease. tried several configurations before settling down with the following:

18 Lands
---------
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Flooded Strands
2 Windswept Heath
3 Marsh Flats
1 Island
2 Swamp
3 Plains
1 Forest
1 Temple Garden
1 Savannah
1 Tundra
1 Mummuring Bosk

10 Artifacts
------------
4 Aether Vial
1 Sword of War and Peace
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of Body and Mind
1 Umezawa's Jitte

4 Instant
----------
4 Swords to Plowshares

29 Creatures
-------------
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Meddling Mage
4 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Qasali Pridemage
4 Mother of Runes
4 Squadron Hawk
3 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Gaddock Teeg

i don't have a sideboard for this deck yet as i originally wanted to play this as a casual-competitive deck.

other cards considered
----------------------
Leonin Relic-warder - was a replacement for qasali pride-mage if color fixing proves to be a big issue.

Spellstutter Sprite - another replacement if color fixing proves to be a problem. adds to the flying army of hawks which is advantagous in every sense considering im playing with swords and them linking up would be awesome. counterspell at 1 or less is always welcomed in legacy.

Kazandu Blademaster - going aggro route on the ground, only thing stands in its (legacy) way is tarmogoyf.

Aven Mindcensor - its 3-drop costing makes it less of a "bear" to me. but the search-screwing effect could prove itself worthy.

Withered Wretch - a Meta-call, nothing much to argue.

Scavenging Ooze - See above

Yixid Jailer - See above

Samurai of the Pale Curtains - See above

Ethersworn Canonist - See above

Corahelm Commander - Not a fish deck, but 2-drop through vial and funneling any extra mana to make it big sounds nice.

Tarmogoyf - a tough call. i usually don't trust creatures with no other abilities other than it being big. removable, mother of runes and block it all day, etc.

Grand Abolisher - yet another tough call. im not sure whether the protection is needed as your opponents are still able to do what they want on their turn, rendering it 1/2 as useful. stopping response to equiping does looks promising though.

Dear Veterans of Legacy, please drop me any comment that i could improve on it as i think there's some chance of it to work in my local meta. thank you.

[Greenpoe]

Spellskite, or anything, should replace Squadron Hawk. Since you don't have Brainstorm or Jace, Squadron Hawk is just bad when it could be Bitterblossom.

[Tao]

The mana base is bad atm. No reason for 2 Swamps because it only casts Sculler. Use more Duals and Fetchlands or you will get color screwed. Can't tell you exactly how it will look, but you test it. Atm I don't think it is close to being consistent. 7 Fetchlands and only 18 lands cant fix 4 colors so if Vial gets Misstepped or you dont draw it you are in trouble. I would say 19-20 lands and 10-11 Fetchlands if you stick with 4 colors.

For the spells: Play 4 Stoneforge Mystics. It is essential to buff your bears. This also looks like a Brainstorm deck, especially because of the Hawks. 2-3 Gitaxian Probes could be good to improve your Meddling Mages and Revokers.

[Nihil Credo]

You don't need all five Swords. The R/W and U/G ones are pretty terrible, in particular, and even if you wanted six equips it would still be better to play more copies of better stuff (and/or a Batterskull).

And you almost certainly do want Tarmogoyf (cut the Hawks, they're awful without Brainstorm and I'm not sure you can afford the time to cast it). Without a piece of equipment (which are slooooooowwwwww) your guys are pretty much worthless at combat - MoR is a Wall and everything else just chumps.

I would also play some number of Thoughtseizes. Not only does it enable Tarmogoyf, but they're a better T1 play than Mother and they fill up all those awkward slots in your curve. It sucks balls to have three lands out but only a bunch of 2cc spells in hand (by the way, I agree with Tao that you want a couple more lands). You can make room by cutting some of the redundant cards in your hand - e.g. how often are you happy to draw triple Revoker? Sure, sometimes you face Jace and a ton of spot removal, but usually it's much better to draw 1-2 Revokers and something else.

To recap:

+2 land (go with Tao's idea, fuck the basics. Almost nobody plays Moon/B2B ATM and you don't run cantrips, so duals are better against Wasteland than basics.)
+3 Tarmogoyf
+1 Stoneforge Mystic
+3 Thoughtseize
-4 Hawk
-1 Mother of Runes
-1 Phyrexian Revoker
-1 Meddling Mage
-1 R/W Sword
-1 U/G Sword

[Aggro_zombies]

You don't need all five Swords. The R/W and U/G ones are pretty terrible, in particular, and even if you wanted six equips it would still be better to play more copies of better stuff (and/or a Batterskull).
The U/G Sword makes your creature actually or virtually unblockable against most of the decks in the format. I would want to test it for that reason alone.

I generally agree with the rest of your post, though.

EDIT: Actually, now that I think about it, I disagree with Tarmogoyf too. Elvish Warrior isn't exactly what this deck wants, but the OP's list can put lands and one other card type in the yard reliably (probably creature, because all his guys blow). In the first couple of turns, having your bruiser be stuck as a 2/3 seems...kind of shitty. I mean, I guess the opponent will probably be blue in an "average" metagame, so Goyf would then be a 3/4, but that just seems so lackluster. Equipping a random dork makes a guy of similar size anyway.

To be honest, I kind of want to trim green out from this shell and add some Faeries to it: Bitterblossom, Spellstutter, Clique. Natural evasion makes them better than dumb groundpounders, BB is good with equipment in general and is good at fogging offense-light decks, and Spellstutter gives the deck a degree of control it's currently lacking. I would actually want to trim way down on the hatebears (they're just not good) and go with a more traditional blue control package sans Aether Vial. But that's probably diverging too much from the OP's original idea.

[nolink]

Spellskite, or anything, should replace Squadron Hawk. Since you don't have Brainstorm or Jace, Squadron Hawk is just bad when it could be Bitterblossom.

From my play tests, I often do need fliers to trigger sword abilities reliably. Bitterblossom seems needed. Squadron hawks was there just because of the draw-3 effect that it brings. If I have a stone forge and equipment in play, it almost guarantee for me to get something out of the swords. Thinning down the deck by three also let's me draw more 2 drops too crease oars presence. Is spellskite really that good in legacy?it's a 2 drop but doesn't help on jitte triggers, that might be a problem. Any other bears to recommend?

[nolink]

The mana base is bad atm. No reason for 2 Swamps because it only casts Sculler. Use more Duals and Fetchlands or you will get color screwed. Can't tell you exactly how it will look, but you test it. Atm I don't think it is close to being consistent. 7 Fetchlands and only 18 lands cant fix 4 colors so if Vial gets Misstepped or you dont draw it you are in trouble. I would say 19-20 lands and 10-11 Fetchlands if you stick with 4 colors.

For the spells: Play 4 Stoneforge Mystics. It is essential to buff your bears. This also looks like a Brainstorm deck, especially because of the Hawks. 2-3 Gitaxian Probes could be good to improve your Meddling Mages and Revokers.

Was trying with 4 stoneforge. May cut a sword just to fit it back in. Personal preference now would be having one of each so I would guarantee myself a unblock able creature. Land base was form in mere minutes due to it's original purpose as a casual deck. Withered wretch, yixid jailer was originally considered as auto include in sideboard, thus having the extra swamps. Gitaxian probe was untested yet, as the original idea was playing lots of hate bear to irritate my friends. Thanks for the idea I'll try it ASAP.

[Maveric78f]

If your idea is to scry the opponent's hand, then Gitaxian Probe is a must be in your deck.
If you plan to know your opponent's hand in the early game, then Cabal Therapy cannot be beaten.

I built and tested a deck like this some time ago, without G though.

19 Lands :
4 Wasteland
3 Scrubland
1 Swamp
2 Plains
3 Polluted Delta
4 Marsh Flats
1 Underground Sea
1 Tundra

17 Creatures :
4 Dark Confidant
4 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Meddling Mage
3 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Mother of Runes

5 Artifacts :
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
2 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Batterskull

19 instant/sorcery :
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Vindicate

SB: 1 Vindicate
SB: 2 Relic of Progenitus
SB: 3 Perish
SB: 2 Mishra's Factory
SB: 2 Bojuka Bog
SB: 1 Sword of Light and Shadow
SB: 3 Engineered Explosives
SB: 1 Sword of Feast and Famine

I liked it but for some reason, I probably wanted to try something else and I left it. It can play mana denial quite effectively (waste, vindicate and revoker). It can have the nuts and probe + cabal at opponent's turn 0. We even had a naming contest in our french forum and we found these little names (note that we have the tendancy to choose english names):
- Probe your opponent
- Pro-The-In Fish (for Probe, Therapy and Inquisition)

[Aggro_zombies]

To be honest with you, the only Sword I'd want to maindeck in this format is SoFF. SoFI is fine and all but I feel like SoFF does a better job of swinging the game in your favor or cementing a lead than SoFI does (and pro: green is more relevant than pro: blue as far as combat is concerned).

I could see the untap effect not being that relevant in a deck with few instants, though.

EDIT: Although, let me be clear here and say that Batterskull and Jitte are probably all you need in the maindeck.

[Tao]

I think Hawks are good. Easy card advantage plus Evasion and you need Brainstorm anyway. For equipment: I would run SoFaI, a green Sword of your choice plus Batterskull and Jitte. I would say cut the Green splash for more Mana consistency because Pridemage seem like the least synergetic of your cards. You can use Revoker on most Artifacts anyway. Use these slots for Brainstorm, a fourth SFM, Gitaxian Probes and Mana Fixing.

Also, work on a Sideboard.