[Deck] Tarmfolk

[Maveric78f]

After Threshold and and Tarmhold, I present a new fatty creature based aggo-control deck : Tarmfolk, as the concatenation between the popular Tarmogoyf and the Treefolk scheme.

The pool of creature has a lot of advantages compared to the threshold's pool : bigger (virtually 5/5 and 3/3 against virtually 3/3 and 4/4) and not grave dependant. The fact that the small can fetch the big and that the big boosts the small is also very synergic.

Well, stop talking here is the list.

18 lands :
4*bayou
1*forest
1*swamp
1*scrubland
2*savannah
1*Karakas
4*windswept
2*bloodstained
2*polluted

8 Potential additionnal mana :
4 bird of paradise
4 treefolk harbinger

8 Utility creatures :
4 dark confident
4 gaddock teeg

8 Fat guies :
4 tarmogoyf
4 doran, the siege tower

8 Removal :
4 Putrefy
4 vindicate

8 Discard :
4 thoughtseize
4 cabal therapy

2 Random slots :
1 Sensei's divining top
1 Timber protector

SB :
4 Duress
3 STP
4 Krosan Grip
4 extirpate

The deck is highly relying on Lorwyn spoilers (17 cards in MD are from Lorwyn). It is very well balanced and redundant (8 cards of each). The mana curve is also very interesting :

%0 : .................. (18)
%1 : ................. (17)
%2 : ............ (12)
%3 : ............ (12)
%4 : (0)
%5 : . (1)

The choice of putrefy over swords in main deck may be weird but the goal is to avoid chalices (and deal with them too) and counterbalance, and not to be to much dependant on white which is supposed to be only a splash. The fact of being able to deal with scepter, crucible, smokestack, explosives and vedalken shackles is nice too.

The lonely karakas is here on test. It involves nice tricks with our best creatures (particularly doran, which is the card we are going to draw the most often thanks to its harbinger). But as I said, white is only a splash and having a "only white" and non-basic producing land can be problematic. Tests will determine that. My first tests (only yesterday afternoon) showed that it was often the first wasted land (thank you death and taxes).

I consider that this deck is a Lorwyn call and lacks of creativity. However it is raw power with reponse to every deck in the metagame. My 5/6 matches yesterday were confirming this idea, even if more testing is needed of course. And I think I was stupidly playing it : birds or harbinger or discard first ? => I often made the bad choice. I forgot that I had teeg on the table a couple of times and got some spells forced. On a cabal therapy, I was even surprised to see a humility in the hand of my opponent although he had the mana to cast it but Teeg was ruling.

I am waiting for your remarks.

[diffy]

Just a few general comments:

- Do you really need 4x Doran, the Siege Tower (http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=57150&d=1189742547)? I mean that guy is legendary and you have 4 additional ways to fetch him, so you could just cut one (or a Treefolk Harbinger (http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=89304) as Doran does more on its own).

- How often are you going to flashback Cabal Therapy with so few expendable creatures (I can only see Treefolk Harbinger as a potential creature you'd want to sac, all the others being too important)? Wouldn't Duress be better in its slot?

- Putrefy is just plain bad in my eyes, especially when you have Vindicate to take care of random artifacts like AEther Vial... Play something like Diabolic Edict, Ghastly Demise or Swords to Plowshares in its slot.
As an aside, you could also play Pernicious Deed, Engineered Explosives or the like (Seal of Doom? Rancor [bad synergy with Doran]?) here to pump your Tarmogoyf.

- What do you mean by Timber Protector? I couldn't find anything the like.

Some possible changes to test the deck could look like:

-1 Doran, the Siege Tower
-4 Putrefy
-4 Cabal Therapy
+1 Duress
+3 Swords to Plowshares (or 1 Ghastly Demise and 2 Swords to Plowshares)
+1 Engineered Explosives/Pernicious Deed splitt card
+2 Tombstalker/Mystic Enforcer splitt card
+2 Skeletal Scrying/Duress splitt card

Now you'd possibly wonder why I chose this odd distribution but this is just for testing purposes.
Just jot down whenever you draw one card of the split cards and make a quick note like if you had ******** for Mystic Enforcer (he is better than Tombstalker in a Vacuum but you really have to have ******** in order for him to perform) or if Pernicious Deed killed too many of your own dudes or if you had enough mana for Skeletal Scrying (or if it mattered that you had a Gaddock out)... You get the picture.

Hope that helped a little

[Cavius The Great]

What exactly is Doran's drawback? Can it deal combat damage to a player? If so, how is it any different from a 5/5?

[diffy]

What exactly is Doran's drawback?


I guess it would be its casting cost... You need quite a stable mana base to have access to 3 different colored mana symbols by turn 3.



Can it deal combat damage to a player? If so, how is it any different from a 5/5?


It isn't really any different from a 5/5 except that now there are no more Goyf standoffs and that Birds of Paradise can go aggro for good.



I am waiting for your remarks.


To get some other ideas to tinker with, you might want to have a look at the IcBE Control (http://mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6531) that top8ed at the Source tournament since its basically the same shell sans the Doran package.

[Maveric78f]

Just a few general comments:

- Do you really need 4x Doran, the Siege Tower (http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=57150&d=1189742547)? I mean that guy is legendary and you have 4 additional ways to fetch him, so you could just cut one (or a Treefolk Harbinger (http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=89304) as Doran does more on its own).

Well it's the first 5/5 on the ground. Doran is the first creature that the opponent will try to get rid of. I need more testing but I don't think it's a problem to have it once in play and once in hand as you can still fetch for timber protector.


- How often are you going to flashback Cabal Therapy with so few expendable creatures (I can only see Treefolk Harbinger as a potential creature you'd want to sac, all the others being too important)? Wouldn't Duress be better in its slot?

Birds + harbinger + dark confidant when your life goes down + teeg when it's not relevant or when you have another in hand. It's a lot. You may want to remove 1 cabal for 1 duress but not more I think. Cabal therapy completely owns tarmhold, as long as counterbalance is not is play...


- Putrefy is just plain bad in my eyes, especially when you have Vindicate to take care of random artifacts like AEther Vial... Play something like Diabolic Edict, Ghastly Demise or Swords to Plowshares in its slot.
As an aside, you could also play Pernicious Deed, Engineered Explosives or the like (Seal of Doom? Rancor [bad synergy with Doran]?) here to pump your Tarmogoyf.

I like to have 3CC solution spells. EE is not tech with gaddock teeg by the way. And you'll never get me to play suboptimal cards to pump up my tarmogoyfs as tarmhold is more likely to find them than me.


- What do you mean by Timber Protector? I couldn't find anything the like.

Timber Protector %4 %G
Creature - Treefolk Warrior
Other Treefolk creatures you control get +1/+1.
Other Treefolk and Forests you control are indestructible.
4/6

A big tutorable guy.



Some possible changes to test the deck could look like:

-1 Doran, the Siege Tower
-4 Putrefy
-4 Cabal Therapy
+1 Duress
+3 Swords to Plowshares (or 1 Ghastly Demise and 2 Swords to Plowshares)
+1 Engineered Explosives/Pernicious Deed splitt card
+2 Tombstalker/Mystic Enforcer splitt card
+2 Skeletal Scrying/Duress splitt card

I'm not going to discuss that as it needs testing and it's clearly not my kind of building. Only Mystical Enforcer would be motivating me.



Hope that helped a little

Well thanks to help the brainstorming ;-)


What exactly is Doran's drawback? Can it deal combat damage to a player? If so, how is it any different from a 5/5?

It's different fro ma 5/5 because it can be tutored by harbinger, because with him harbinger is 3/3 and protector is 6/6 and birds are 1/1, because it gains +1/+1 and is indestructible with protector in play. This creature is plain crazy. It just implies that you are playing a GWB lorwyn deck...

[nightshade81]

18 Lands
4 Chrome Mox

Crits :
4 Mother of Runes
4 Dark Confident
3 Gaddock Teeg
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Watchwolf
3 Doran, the Siege Tower

Spells :
4 StP
2 Vindicate
4 Thoughtseize
4 Duress

Random good artifacts :
3 Umezawa's Jitte

Play it. Test it. Win.

[Maveric78f]

I don't see the point of this post. If you want to make a thread about your list. Post it, it's going to be deleted because of lack of content. If you want to feed my thread, just explain me in what it is supposed to be better than what I proposed... You don't even give a SB.

[Hanni]

I really, really like that list, Nightshade. However, I would cut the 3 Watchwolfs and 1 Gaddock Teeg for 4 Treefolk Harbinger.

Treefolk Harbinger fetches Doran (and becomes a 3/3 for G) or stabalizes your 3c manabase. The manabase stability is especially nice since this deck is 3c, is using lots of each color throughout the deck, and the cc range of the deck is low so you won't really want to run alot of land. This deck might not have alot of cantrips but the Harbingers easily replace them as far as manabase stability goes. It's still an 0/3 blocker anyway, which is a solid answer to shit like a first turn Lackey, etc.

Gaddock Teeg is a great card, but it is a little narrow. It's strong against combo and control but it doesn't do much vs Thresh, etc. It's also Legendary. I think 2 MD 2 SB would be the best configuration.

Watchwolf is a solid creature but you already have enough beats with Doran, Tarmogoyf, and Jitte. I definitely think that Harbinger should be in here; Watchwolf seems, to me, to be the weakest card in your list.

How have the Chrome Moxes been in testing? Your list has a low cc range, only 3 equipment spells, and not very much card advantage. I'm not sure whether I would run them or not.

I'd cut 2 lands. I think 20 mana sources, with 4 Harbingers, considering the cc range of this deck, should be plenty. I'd replace the 2 lands with 2 more Vindicates, although these 2 spots could become Watchwolf, Spectral Lynx, Gaddock Teeg, etc.