[Deck] Eva Green - B/g suicide

I brought it up in the Eva article thread but I have played a few test matches with a base Bg Eva list with 4 Thorn of Amethyst and while its too early to tell I really like it.

We play
4 Stalker
4 Goyf
4 Specter
3/4 Some dude

That's 15/16 creatures, which is more than most good decks in the format given that we attack their manabase and hand anyway it seems like a strong card. Obviously if you can get it out, all combo decks but Ichorid need to deal with it before going off. It protects you from Daze (which absolutely busts this decks balls) and causes people to have to make decisions in the early game like...do I want to tap out and play something or keep a mana up for a FOW/Daze or whatever. It fundamentally skews a large part of thresh holds plan (ponder for 2? ICK) while giving us a little more time to lay down big dudes.

If we are the tempo deck then let's steal more tempo from the opponent.

Sideboard: I don't like Enginereed Plague having Umezawa's Jitte.

Anyone has tested Pernicious deed on side?

I haven't and as good as deed is I would be against it on principle. Everything in this deck is not only proactive, but VERY fast. Deed takes 2 turns which is obviously OK if you are losing but what are you losing against, and can your manabase take the extra strain?

Deed is a bit slow and it also can hit your own stuff. What would you need pernicious deed against? Counterslivers? I don't know, it is a powerful card, but it's also very reactive and I'm not sure it helps you very much with your more dicey matchups. Plague has always been good for me and I have never been unhappy with it in the board. It is not as narrow as it seems.

Okay. I'm trying this deck in a torney tomorrow. I'll explain how it goes :D

I played in a small local tourney here last week, playing the standard list, but with only 3 Tombstalker (I like to call him Tom) and 2 Reanimates. I came first with 3-0 record, only losing 1 game. Its been a week, and I dont have the best memory, so apologies if this isnt exactly correct! Here were my match ups:

Round 1 – Poor man’s Slivers no counters – Cant remember his name, but he had great hair! G1 went to him, I didn’t have enough removal for his horde and he got the regen sliver and the lifelink sliver going, so I scooped to save time. I had taken my E.Plagues out of the SB before we started. They will be going straight back in! G2 – Eva Green did what it was supposed to do and 2 Sinkholes and a Reanimate on one of this Harmonic Slivers gave me the game. G3 – Cant really remember this one, but I remember it was a battle and life totals were both low. I think multiple Snuff Out carried this one. Umezama Jitte also played a big part in this one, taking down the lifelink sliver when he reared his ugly head. I think I got 6 tokens for the pump to win!

Round 2 – Blue White Enchantment Control – I think this was Alan? G1 – he keeps laying Pacifisms and Faiths Fettors and similar on all my creatures. I see a little bit of discard, but nothing special. I finally lay a Hippie and he doesn’t have a ‘chant for it, so he WoGs and I reanimate a Hippie and rip another and they take the game. G2 – I lay an early Seal of Primodium and this keeps him from using his Genju of the Fields (after I already Sinkholed one plains with it on, must remember that Genju’s go back to the owners hand!) and i beat him down with flyers.

Round 3 – Artifact deck with Tezzeret and Door to nothingness – Declan – G1 – He gets an early Tezzeret, but I have Tom and Hippie early too, my first attack with Tom gets assigned to Tezzeret and he says that I am the first person all day to take him down. He was running artifact land and paying X=0 to search it out. Cant be having that! I chump his Master of Etherium to gain time, until I i get him within lethal range, then let his attack thru, and kill him the next turn. G2 – keep a hand of swamp, Dark ritual, 3 thoughtseize and a reanimate. I cast two thoughtseizes and clear out his hand and reanimate a darksteel gargoyle. I am now on 7 life. I then get a Goyf and a Tom online. I At some point I must have cracked a fetch, as I was on 6 life and he casts another creature. I am tapped but have Snuff Out, so dropped myself to 2 life and finish him off.

Really lucky all night, with the top decks I needed. I see people have been putting Dark Confidant back in this deck, but I am not so sure, Tombstalker (I love Tom) is just too big! Was great fun tho, the deck played out really well and always gave me what I needed! I really like reanimate, won me at least 2 games!

I would never run bob in eva green, it does more things worse then it does good.
The carddraw is nice, but you can pay a high price for it. and 4 tombstalker's is much better then you light think. i'm always able too cast multiple of them during matchups. You get enough cards in the yard (fetches, thoughtseize, Hymn, Sinkhole, ..)

I don't play reanimate but it might be worth considering though but not for tombstalker. I don't know yet what to cut for it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Slayer001

I don't play reanimate but it might be worth considering though but not for tombstalker. I don't know yet what to cut for it.

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I cut 1 nantuko shade for it, since it becomes better when you have more manna and it isn't really that great in multiples.

I cut one fetchland and a Tombstalker, but I would change that to be a Nantuko Shade in the future, its a much better threat all round. Ideally, Wizards will print another nasty black/green creature that has great tempo and we can take Shade out all together! I havent been happy with him for a while, but cant find a suitable replacement!

Might I suggest playing Ashenmoor Gouger in place of Nantuko Shade.

This is my preferred configuration here...

4 Hypnotic Specter
4 Tombstalker
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Ashenmoor Gouger
2 Reanimate

I'm surprised by people's dissatisfaction with Nantuko Shade. It's a tremendous threat, and one of the very few two-drops that can survive combat with Tarmogoyfs, especially later in the game.

Ashenmoor Gouger costs more mana to play, and has a weaker body that will rarely best an opposing Tarmogoyf. It seems considerably worse, unless your metagame is overrun by Lightning Bolts.

Don't get me wrong. Nantuko Shade is a fantastic creature.

It's just that I'm not convinced he is the best choice in this particular deck.

Shade requires a tremendous mana investment to pump. But he doesn't stay pumped.

To trade with a Goyf, you would usually have to pump 4 mana into him (on top of the initial two mana casting cost). So you spent 6 mana to trade with a 2cc creature. That could work in slower more controllish deck that goes into the late game often. But that doesn't seem like a great investment in a deck that wins quickly and rarely has any mana to spare.

To me, Nantuko Shade seems like a worse figure of destiny. For that same initial 2 mana investment, you can drop down Figure of Destiny as a 2/2. But then, if you pump Figure of Destiny, it stays pumped for the rest of the game. Nantuko Shade needs to be pumped every single time. Yes, I know we can't play Figure of Destiny. I'm using it to illustrate the point that the powerlevel of creatures has increased well past Nantuko Shade.

Long time zoo player recently traded some stuff and acquired the cards needed for the original build on page 1. I took this deck to a local tourny in gainsville and was very pleased. I had an idea of the meta so I played 3 Md pithing needle and put the seal in the SB. Some of the people I spoke to did not like this idea, but I was never unhappy when I saw a needle and it really wrecked a few of the decks that I played.

Here's a little report:

Match 1: Blue.dec storming up for giant brainfreeze (1-0)

Game 1: I sit there while my opponent mutters to himself and taps and untaps land while counting, I went and got a drink. When I came back he said that I lost. GG

Game 2: 4 choke comes in
I have a sick draw good disruption and needle. Turn 1 I play needle and name candelabra. The game goes on and I play choke, then another needle naming mind over matter. Eventually I wear him out with a goyf or something.

Game 3: I see 2 needle and choke in my opening hand. Called Candelabra and Mind over Matter again. It was not pretty, drew into the 3rd needle within 4 turns and called flooded strand. The game ended with 3 strands on his side and 2 hyppies swinging in.

Match 2: Little man super pump (1-1)

Game 1: OWNED with a double invigorated something or other.

Game 2: put in 3 Engineered Plague
What a beating, mulled to 5 and still didn't see any help. GG

Match 3: Mono black kinda combo? (2-1)

Game 1: Pretty one-sided had disruption and creatures. He thoughtseized my pithing needle then I TD another and name "bosieum strip"? I'm not sure if that is the name, but it was essential to his combo.

Game 2: Another steam roll, disruption and creatures in the draw. I'm pretty sure the game ended like turn 6 or 7 with goyf, hyppie, and tombstalker on the board.

Match 4 (3-1) Deadnought/stife

Game 1: turn 2 dreadnought + stifle. I think these are good cards when played together.... I have no answers.

Game 2: Sb in 3 seal and 3 or 4 choke.
I didn't see top game one so I drop a needle and call mishra's factory. He is kinda happy and drops a top. It's a battle now, but I draw another needle and call flooded strand. The game drags on and I'm in TD mode getting a hymm off and then choke comes down. It doesn't take long from that point, especially with the 3 flooded strands sitting on board and 4th being topped every turn.

Game 3: O-Tundra go
Me-Wasteland, Needle
O-Brainstorm, pull back tundra daze

O-Island go
Me-Swamp go

O-Flooded strand, Top go
Me-Bayou, hyppie
O-FOW

O-Tundra go
Me-(play error) Wasteland the Tundra, play another Wasteland cast Choke.
O- Sits there and looks at his hand and I ask if it walks. He Untaps his island and I tell him that it doesn't untap now and could you please move your top back off of my board space. He then scoops and is pretty frustrated with everything Magic.

I go about my business feeling tension in the air and immediately start to not have fun due some unsportsmanlike conduct, where's the zebras with their yellow flags?

All in all this is a very mean deck and you're not going to make alot of friends playing it. However, if you don't care about anyone, this is the deck to play as it puts a hurting on blue (which I hate). I was generally impressed and I am not so sure about adding white for vindicate/Stp. I felt the deck was very fast and had good tempo all day. Turn one thoughseize, turn 2 hymm, turn 3 hyppie? Come on, is that even fair?

Also with Needle in the main it's more situational, but in all the games that I played it did something and I think that something was better than seal, but this is very meta dependant.

Honestly, I was never 100% sold on Sinkhole unless it had Vindicate or something to supplement it.

I wanted to try a slightly different more aggressive direction for this deck based on some of the cards people have been playing recently.

So I put together the below build, interested to hear other people's thoughts on it...

8 Swamp
3 Bayou
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Polluted Delta
2 Wasteland

4 Dark Ritual
4 Thoughtseize
4 Hymn to Tourach

4 Reanimate (I am in love with this card now)
3 Snuff Out

4 Tarmogoyf
4 Hypnotic Specter
4 Tombstalker
3 Nantuko Shade
3 Ashenmoor Gouger
2 Shriekmaw

Playing Shriekmaw allows me to cut a Snuff Out (since worse in multiples), and really abuse Reanimate when neccesary to take down two opposing creatures and get a 3/2 on your side all for just three mana.

I know the 2 Wasteland probably seem strange. The deck never goes the mana denial route so more than two would not go great with Nantuko Shade and Ashenmoor Gouger. But with two, you get a way to take out Factories, occasionally cut decks off from a particular color, and give you something to do one you play out your land.

I really would love to hear what other people think of the build and the direction that I took this deck in.

Please don't suggest any major changes, just minor revisions.

Noob question:

Which is the better order to play Thoughtseize and Hymn to Tourach off of a turn 1 Dark Ritual? Playing Thoughtseize first makes them discard more lands, but Hymn first has a better chance of getting rid of their best cards.

It's fairly variable. If you know you're facing off against a fast combo deck, I would Hymn then Thoughtseize.

But I'm guessing you're asking about game one when you have no idea what they're playing.

Then, on the very rare occasion that you have absolutely no other 2cc cards, and no chance for a first turn Hyppe, I would Hymn first and then Thoughtseize away the best card out of what they have left over.

But 90% of the time, I have Reanimate or Shade or Sinkhole or something else I could potentially play after the Thoughtseize. So I Thoughtseize first, then decide whether I want to Hymn or play that alternative card based on what their hand looks like.

Then usually, I end up Hymning them anyway, but there are exceptions.

For example, say that when I Thoughtseize and I see that they are mana flooded but have some sweet creature like Sea Drake to make them discard and Reanimate and see nothing else in their hand that's threatening. I would just opt to Reanimate so I can beat for 4 and Hymn them next turn. If they're mana flooded anyways, no point is Hymning away worthless cards when I could potentially make them discard something solid by waiting till next turn.

Or if instead say a hand with lots of land, no relevent threats or removal, I might opt to cast Shade instead and Hymn them next turn.

Hi guys,
I would like to post my latest version of EVA GREEN. I made some changes that took the MD into a direction that could adept a little better to aggro and control decks.

I would like to hear some thoughts!

4*Tarmogoyf
4*Tombstalker
4*Hypnotic Specter
3*Nantunko Shade

4*Thoughtseize
4*Hymn to Tourach
3*Snuff Out
3*Putrefy
2*Reanimate
4*Dark Ritual
4*Sinkhole

6*Swamp
1*Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4*Bayou
4*Wasteland
3*Polluted Delta
3*Bloodstained Mire

SIDEBOARD:
4*Extirpate
4*Choke
3*Jitte
2*Seal of Primordium
2*Faerie Macabre

Some own thoughts to the changes:

- I cut 1 Shade since seeing multiples especially early in the game is bad. Shade seems to me the weakest of the used creatures. He absorbs resources while not having evasion or any other kind of ability. Shade is rather fragile to creature hate like fire/ice, mogg fanatic, pyroclasm, even stuff like feastering goblin and the like.
- I had to get to slots for the two reanimates I play. Reanimate showed to be incredibly strong in this deck. Since it reanimates creatures it was clear to me to cut 1 creature from the main board. A fast clock combined with the massive hand destruction and the 6 maindeck creature removals makes reanimate just rock. This is especially true for a meta that is crowded with goyfs!
- Because I wanted to capitalize on reanimate the best I could I decided to replace the seals with putrefy. I know putrefy is a little more expensive and wants me to keep resources open. That is why cutting a shade made sense as well. Further playing 3 Putrefy ensures to see at least one during a longer game but not necessarly in the early game-stages. Since there aren´t too many enchantments that really hurt EVA GREEN or at least not in my meta, replacing seal with putrefy isn´t a big drawback considering the discard you play for possible threats in form of enchantments. (Counterbalance, Humility, SotF, Propaganda, Ghostly Prison,..,anything else?)
- Playing 3 extra creature removal allowed me to cut an extra snuff out making room for the second Reanimate and saving some life.
- I like the singleton Urborg because it sometimes helps getting the second black mana if you have a wasteland and urborg in your opening hand. Powers out the shade a little better in the mid- to lategame if you have unused wastelands and saves some life (no fetching) in case you had to overextent with the thoughtseizes and the snuff outs.
- Since I play reanimate I had to replace the Leylines in the board by Extirpates. They showed to be even better most of the time since they underline the disruption concept of this deck very nicely. Wasteland, Sinkholes and Extirpate often cause heavy manasrew! Thoughtseize, Hymn to Tourach, Hypnotic and Extirpate are a mess for keycards of any sort, being enough to battle combo.
- Since I wanted to have a solution against fast combo on the draw I included the faeries. They are played as a 2-off since they are just a bonus to the extirpates. They also double as a 2/2 beater with evasion which can carry a jitte.
- I play 2 seals since I had two open slots and wanted to have a solution against enchantments that are gamebreaking and didn´t get handled by discard.
- I dropped the engineered Plagues from the sideboard since I always felt that the only time I play them is against goblins and Combo going for ETW-Tokens. Both decks aren´t seen a lot in my meta.


Up to now I could not find any drawbacks using this list instead of the original one during tournaments and play testing. This list is still solid against combo (even better against none grave-based-combo), solid against control and improved the aggro match ups.

I would like to hear some thoughts from you guys. Has anyone tried a similar list and got results?


Thanks

I like the list a LOT actually. I love Reanimate too.

This list is almost identical to a lists posted about two pages ago.

The only thing I might possibly try would be to switch from...

3 Snuff Out
3 Putrefy

to

4 Snuff Out
2 Putrefy/Smother

(Killing artifacts is really not that critical, usually, your discard stops anything really bad from resolving).

The other change I might make is to maybe go back to the 8 fetchland 3 bayou configuration.

The fetchland feeds Tombstalker, Goyf, and lets you grab basics to get around Blood Moon.

Are hypnotics really so good?

I found them usually "too slow", or "too small". Only few times they were useful - there was time and no defenders/stronger attackers.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by humppa

Are hypnotics really so good?

I found them usually "too slow", or "too small". Only few times they were useful - there was time and no defenders/stronger attackers.

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First turn Hyppie, second turn Hymn = 3 random cards pitched. That can be hard to recover from by itself. If you nail lands, Sinkhole becomes more powerful, otherwise the other discard effects will devastate. An unanswered Hyppie will keep their hand size at like 4 or less if they keep up with land drops. Your discard forces this number down.