[Deck] GW Survival

[St3B]

@SotW congrats on your finish, I see you're still faithful to your cats. BTW it was nice meeting you in Madrid.

Last Sunday I took G/W Survival to top 4 split in a 76 person tournament.

1st round W-Stax 2-0
2nd round mirror 2-0
3rd round B/U storm 1-2
4th round NOPro 2-0
5th round G/W aggro 2-0
6th round Merfolk 2-1
7th round Merfolk ID

Top 8 Merfolk 2-1
Top 4 split for 8 Duals

I pretty much played the stock list with a tutor SB, but will probably change the SB for the next tournament. I saw Quirion Ranger was being played at the SCG an will certainly give it a spin since it really improves the Fauna Shaman, which is MVP post board.

// Lands
3 [TE] Wasteland
3 [ZEN] Misty Rainforest
4 [ON] Windswept Heath
1 [LG] Karakas
1 [MI] Plains (2)
2 [FUT] Horizon Canopy
3 [U] Savannah
4 [DM] Forest (3)
1 [US] Gaea's Cradle

// Creatures
1 [TO] Basking Rootwalla
1 [FD] Aven Mindscensor
1 [P3] Loyal Retainers
1 [ZEN] Iona, Shield of Emeria
4 [CFX] Noble Hierarch
1 [4E] Birds of Paradise
4 [CFX] Knight of the Reliquary
4 [M11] Fauna Shaman
2 [ARB] Qasali Pridemage
4 [UL] Mother of Runes
3 [ROE] Vengevine
4 [FUT] Tarmogoyf

// Spells
4 [EX] Survival of the Fittest
4 [R] Swords to Plowshares

// Sideboard
SB: 2 Gaddock Teeg
SB: 1 Faerie Macabre
SB: 1 Ethersworn Canonist
SB: 3 Path to Exile
SB: 1 Bojuka Bog
SB: 2 Krosan Grip
SB: 2 Enlightned Tutor
SB: 1 Umezawa's Jitte
SB: 1 Ghostly Prison
SB: 1 Aura of Silence

[tomjulioo]

first of all: i really like your list it's the same as the one i run with success!

i just wonder if the gaea's craddle worth the risk of mulligans...
what's the use of it? in which situation you need the extra mana?
when it provides a lot of mana, it means you have a lot of small creatures on the board and in this deck, smalls creatures already provides mana exept MoR...

i'd like to include a tropical maindeck with wonder and meddling mages in sideboard but room is expensive in the deck
i'd also like to play quirion ranger in the list...

[majikal]

I really like the interaction of Quirion Ranger with Fauna Shaman, however for our intents and purposes, I kind of feel like Scryb Ranger might be a better call for the following reasons:

• It flies.
• It has protection from blue.

Thus, it carries equipment like a pro and/or blocks Trygon Predator all day long, which is a huge bonus in the UG Madness matchup. Also it can't be removed with Waterfront Bouncer, something that has started showing up in some lists.

@tomjulioo: Gaea's Cradle is a must in this deck! There have been times when I've been playing against decks with grave hate, and rather than risk dumping Iona into the graveyard and reanimating it with Retainers, I've been able to just hard cast it off of Cradle and Savannahs/Hierarchs. Knight of the Reliquary can dig it up as well, which is a huge plus. Also, sometimes it just wins the game against other Survival decks.

[Rigero]

Hi,

Played in a 21 person tournament Today. Went 4-0-1 first place. Played the Same list like last time with a little blue splash for Wonder.


2 Basking Rootwalla
3 Fauna Shaman
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
4 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Loyal Retainers
4 Mother of Runes
4 Noble Hierarch
2 Qasali Pridemage
4 Tarmogoyf
1 Trygon Predator
4 Vengevine
1 Wonder


4 Survival of the Fittest
4 Swords to Plowshares


2 Forest
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Horizon Canopy
3 Misty Rainforest
1 Plains
3 Savannah
2 Tropical Island
1 Tundra
3 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath

Sideboard:

1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Bojuka Bog
2 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Faerie Macabre
2 Gaddock Teeg
2 Krosan Grip
2 Path to Exile
3 Spell Pierce


Round 1: RWgb - Control with Main 4 Needle; 8 Path/stp; 2 Humility. I won the first game normaly. In the second I ve got 20(!) of my 21 Lands. He won this with Koth after 30 min... In the last game there was only 5 minutes left. I've got Survival but draw only two other survivals and lands instead of one creature wich would've won me the game. So 1-1-1
Round 2: Dark Depth: He's too slow against my Beatdownplan 2-0
Round 3: Supreme Blue: 2-1 Vengevines are that good, even if you have no survival on board ^^
Round 4: ProBant with CB: 2-0 Turn 4 and Turn 5 kill with flying Vengevines
Round 5: BUG Thresh: 2-0 second game he has to mulligan to 5, slowing me down with Stifle, Waste but at least i've got more Beef to kill him.


This deck was awesome as always and for me i don'T see anything i would change on my actual list.

[tomjulioo]

i play this deck right now after bant survival.
i use the same list as St3B

// Lands
3 [TE] Wasteland
3 [ZEN] Misty Rainforest
4 [ON] Windswept Heath
1 [LG] Karakas
1 [MI] Plains (2)
2 [FUT] Horizon Canopy
3 [U] Savannah
4 [DM] Forest (3)
1 [US] Gaea's Cradle

// Creatures
1 [TO] Basking Rootwalla
1 [FD] Aven Mindscensor
1 [P3] Loyal Retainers
1 [ZEN] Iona, Shield of Emeria
4 [CFX] Noble Hierarch
1 [4E] Birds of Paradise
4 [CFX] Knight of the Reliquary
4 [M11] Fauna Shaman
2 [ARB] Qasali Pridemage
4 [UL] Mother of Runes
3 [ROE] Vengevine
4 [FUT] Tarmogoyf

// Spells
4 [EX] Survival of the Fittest
4 [R] Swords to Plowshares

// Sideboard
SB: 2 Gaddock Teeg
SB: 1 Faerie Macabre
SB: 1 Ethersworn Canonist
SB: 3 Path to Exile
SB: 1 Bojuka Bog
SB: 2 Krosan Grip
SB: 2 Enlightned Tutor
SB: 1 Umezawa's Jitte
SB: 1 Ghostly Prison
SB: 1 Aura of Silence

and i've got a deckbox with some cards in it to test:

for MD but it's hard to cut something in the MD i use:
-1 quirion ranger
-1 scryb ranger
-1 eternal witness
-1 shield sphere
-1 Basking Rootwalla
-1 tropical island
-1 wonder
i often try this:
- 1 forest
-1 fauna shaman
+1 tropical
+1 wonder
it's good but i really like fauna shaman...
i could also try to put the loyal/iona in SB (just to make room for quirion/scryb, sphere/rootwala or witness) but i don't think it's good as your opponent will pack anti graveyard cards for G2 and G3...

for SB. not so much room... i could remove the tutor package:
-4 natural order
-1 progenitus (i don't think it's needed in GW because we an be aggro without using graveyard)
-3 in the eye of chaos (1 if i keep tutors)
-2 faerie macabre
-1 man-o-war (peacekeeper is annoying)
-1 umezawa's jitte
-4 meddling mage (3 could be enough)
-1 enlightened tutor (i'd like to have room for it)
-1 tormod's crypt
-1 harmonic sliver (instead of 1 k-grip)
-1 SoLaS
-1 SoFaI
-2 stoneforge mystic
-2 dueling ground (1 if i keep tutors)

what do you think of theese possible additions?

[St3B]

@Tomjulioo
I wanted to test pretty much the same cards, problems is it’s hard to take stuff out.

Let’s see, in my opinion we want to play Quirion/Scryb Ranger mainly to improve Fauna Shaman, so it wouldn’t make any sense to take out copies of her. I believe (without testing) that Quirion Ranger is the better choice as our 2cmc slot is quite loaded and it’s also easier to chain 1 drops to trigger VV. What is really appealing of the Scryb Ranger though is, that he can block Coralhelm Commander all day long, which is the only way Merfolk has to beat us (not counting ridiculous draws).

Wonder is also intriguing as it can totally surprise your opponent, but in my opinion it’s not worth it to splash another color for and having another potential dead draw.

Shiled Sphere/Memnite/2nd Rootwalla is something I was also looking into as it helps after SBing to just grind out some matches or to just reboot the engine. I’m tending towards playing a second Rootwalla, but having an artifact would help playing around Canonist.

Eternal Witness is always nice to have, but I think we have the necessary redundancy when playing 8 Survivals to skip on her.

Having said all the above, I believe there are 5 flexible slots in my list:
Iona+Loyal
Birds
Aven Mindcensor
And maybe 1 KotR

I personally like the Iona package, so I will test swapping 1 KotR for a Quirion Ranger. As for the SB I will test a more traditional SB with Genesis and Sporefrog. With a wish SB I’d prefer playing Ghostly Prison rather than Dueling Grounds so you can attack with your VVs.

[tomjulioo]

i think the SB genesis spore frog is bad because in G2/G3 you'll face some grave hate.
cutting a KotR is also a weak plan especialy for games with sideboard where you often have to win without SB...

edit:
i'm gonna try this, keeping my previous MD without trop/wonder (the same as St3B)

SB: 1 Gaddock Teeg (control, TES, dredge)
SB: 2 Faerie Macabre (survival, dredge, thopter combo)
SB: 1 Ethersworn Canonist (survival, combo)
SB: 2 Path to Exile (survival, aggro)
SB: 1 Bojuka Bog (dredge, survival, thopter combo)
SB: 2 Krosan Grip (almost everything)
SB: 2 Enlightned Tutor (depending on the stuff that goes in with 'em)
SB: 1 Umezawa's Jitte (aggro)
SB: 1 Ghostly Prison (aggro)
SB: 1 Aura of Silence (everything with annoying enchant/artifact)
SB: 1 Null Rod (anti hate, TES, belcher)
SB: 1 Qasali Pridemage (same as aura + control to go exalted aggro)

[DragoFireheart]

I noticed that some lists use Lion's Eye Diamond. Why is that?

[majikal]

I noticed that some lists use Lion's Eye Diamond. Why is that?

You retain priority from the first Survival activation, crack LED, and it gives you a huge mana boost that you can use to combo off all at once.

Also, if you have two Rootwallas on board, and the opponent casts Hibernation, you can crack LED and madness them back out, triggering your Vengevines.

[Mark Sun]

Hi everyone, I've been lurking around the Survival threads for a little bit now trying to get some good ideas for a GW list. I've been moving back and forth between plain GW and GWb Ooze, but the threads are literally spread out everywhere, so what the hey.

I guess I'll go ahead and ask, how necessary does everyone feel Fauna Shaman is to this list? I originally was running 4 SotF/4 Fauna Shaman, but every time I play a Fauna Shaman, I'm unimpressed with the power and speed of the card. I played a list that looks very similar to St3B at Vestal, NY a week ago, and afterwards when I went to make tweaks to my list, I found myself cutting Fauna Shaman all together.

I'm now just running 4 Enlightened Tutor in the MD, which basically serves as SotF #5-8 like Fauna Shaman does but gives you the actual thing. Also, it allowed me to cut the Stoneforge Mystic I was running from the list all together and have one Umezawa's Jitte in the MD. I'm not a fan of SoLaS or SoFI without the aid of the Mystic.

I definitely endorse LED, btw. It speeds up the deck by a lot, but I've been boarding it out in some matchups so I can recover more easily from a board sweeper or GY hate.

[Tinefol]

I play 3 Shaman / 1 Quirion Ranger. It is unimpressive without Ranger. With Ranger its quite good. I'm not dropping that package, at least not for Etutors.

[Bongo]

I'm having problems against Dredge and Enchantress. My current hate-package against Dredge is:

2 Faerie Macabre
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Loaming Shaman

The Macabre are not very effective, their main purpose is against other grave-based decks anyway. The Bog is there as a tutor target for Knight, while also being useful against opposing Knights. The Shaman is my tutor-target to clean the entire grave. Still, I feel those cards are too slow and the matchup remains bad.

Enchantress also continually frustrates me. I'm thinking about Back to Nature, what's everybody's opinion on this? My plan is to destroy their enchantments with Back to Nature and follow up with some graveyard hate to prevent Replenish. Are there better cards or strategies against Enchantress, preferrably not so narrow as Back to Nature?

For additional info, my current SB:

1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
2 Faerie Macabre
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Loaming Shaman
2 Back to Nature
2 Path to Exile
2 Krosan Grip
3 Mindbreak Trap (hatebears are too slow)

[venice]

Best "one-card-answer" against Enchantress is Harmonic Convergence since it clears the board like Back to Nature while simultaneously solving the Replenish issue.
Also Mother of Runes + Ethersworn Canonist is VERY strong against Enchantress.

And I disagree about Mindbreak Trap. Imo it´s easier for Combo to play around counters than around permanent hate. Of course Hatebears are "slow" but if you got to stick them they are far superior compared to MT, which won´t interrupt a decent combo player at all. And they are much more narrow than Teeg+ Canonist - so I wouldn´t stick with them in the GW list.

Teeg also hits the Dredge Matchup (as well as Landstill, Stax, NO/Pro, EE and others) while Canonist is great against Enchantress as I said. And since you are looking for advice for those MU, I suggest: play hatebears - they are very good in a variety of MU!

[Bongo]

Of course Hatebears are "slow" but if you got to stick them they are far superior compared to MT, which won´t interrupt a decent combo player at all. And they are much more narrow than Teeg+ Canonist - so I wouldn´t stick with them in the GW list.

The problem I encountered was this: you lose g1 most of the time, win g2 with a hatebear on turn 2, and you lose g3 again, because your hatebear is stuck in your hand while Tendrils creams your face. I do run a few hatebears, but I think they're more valuable against other archetypes. Against Tendrils they are simply too slow, which is why I switched to Mindbreak Trap instead of more hatebears. The only other disruption that can be played on turn 1 is Orim's Chant, which isn't even effective if Storm just casts a first turn Empty the Warrens on the play. I really want to be able to interact from the beginning of the game even if I lose the die roll.

Teeg wasn't effective enough for me, Dredge can easily win without casting Dread Return. I'll probably switch the Back to Nature's in my board to Harmonic Convergence or Ethersworn Canonist, thanks for the advice. We probably just have to accept having a bad matchup to Enchantress if we skimp on enchantment hate.

[Koby]

I played an off-shoot version of GW in a 37 person tournament over the weekend. I went 4-1-1 in the swiss before losing in the Top8.

I splashed for 5 blue cards: Wonder, Vendilion Clique, Trygon Predator, Rhox War Monk, and Spell Pierce.

4 Vengevine
4 Survival of the Fittest
4 Fauna Shaman
4 Enlightened Tutor
2 Basking Rootwalla
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Quirion Ranger
1 Memnite
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Gaddock Teeg (poor performer - should have been Aven Mindcensor)
2 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Qasali Pridemage (+1 Wispmare would have worked better)
1 Trygon Predator
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Wonder

2 Savannah
2 Tropical Island
1 Tundra
3 Forest
1 Plains
1 Tree of Tales
2 Wasteland
1 Horizon Canopy
7 Fetchlands

SB:
3 Spell Pierce
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Null Rod (MVP vs TES)
2 Ethersworn Canonist (1 should have been another Mindcensor)
1 Ghostly Prison
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Faerie Macabre (could probably use more)
2 Rhox War Monk

This list runs too many lands. I was flooding all day, and never considered Wasteland as a land drop. However, going down to 18 or 19 possibly won't hurt, except when it comes to mulligans.

Round 1 - TES 2-1 (E-tutor for Null Rod turn 1 in G2/3)
Round 2 - 4c CBtop 2-1
Round 3 - GWb Survival 0-2
Round 4 - Rb Goblins 2-1
Round 5 - LED UG VV 2-1 (this was the list that I ran last tournament more or less - Thanks GerryT/MTGO!)\
Round 6 - ID

Top 8 - GWb Survival 1-2

[Mark Sun]

I play 3 Shaman / 1 Quirion Ranger. It is unimpressive without Ranger. With Ranger its quite good. I'm not dropping that package, at least not for Etutors.

Ah, thanks for the explanation. I originally was playing 1 Quirion Ranger as well until I decided the better direction with the deck to take was White Zoo + Survival Toolbox. I messed around with the 8 mana bug / 4 Fauna Shaman / 4 Quirion Ranger build, and it's made a believer out of me.

Best "one-card-answer" against Enchantress is Harmonic Convergence since it clears the board like Back to Nature while simultaneously solving the Replenish issue.
Also Mother of Runes + Ethersworn Canonist is VERY strong against Enchantress.

If they don't play an early Ground Seal, putting Emrakul back into play is actually okay as well, so keep that open as an option. One thing Solitary Confinement doesn't protect them from is Annihilator 6. I do agree Harmonic Convergence is the "best" choice, but it is also incredibly narrow and I personally don't see it feasible to include in the sideboard without having it in quantities of 2-3, which eat up a lot of other sideboard options for other (more probable) matchups.

[venice]

@rukcus: Congrats to you! I really like your list. I think this is the future way to go for GWx lists. But in comparison, the GWb list by Gerry Thompson still seems stronger to me, due to discard and the explosiveness of the Ooze Combo. Is there a particular reason, why you chose to play blue over black? Main reason seems to be Wonder and Clique to battle Extirpate. If you decide to cut black, I´d at least pack Iona+LR as a alternate "combo". Btw, Wispmare is totally cool!

[Koby]

I would have played GWb, but was missing 3 Bayous and 4 Thoughtseize. *shrug*

Wonder was the primary reason for playing blue. Vendilion Clique was also really good too, and I will add a 2nd to the maindeck over KotR which I never cast once the whole tournament.

[Muela]

@rukcus Congrats for the result! BTW, what was the Tree of Tales for? Etutor?

[Nidd]

I discovered the power of Mindcensor and I wanted to include him in a Survival deck, GW without splashes seemed like the best combination.

Creatures //
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Qasali Pridemage
2 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Mangara of Corondor
1 Eternal Witness
2 Flickerwisp
3 Aven Mindcensor
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
1 Loyal Retainers
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria

Artifacts //
4 AEther Vial
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of Light and Shadow

Enchantments //
4 Survival of the Fittest

Instants //
4 Swords to Plowshares

Manabase //
4 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath
2 Misty Rainforest
4 Savannah
3 Forest
1 Plains
1 Karakas

The deck is a combination of Death and Taxes with Survival and aims to disrupt the opponent by attacking his manabase (Censor, Mangara, Waste) and outclass his creatures (Hierarch/Qasali, Equipment).
It features a disruptive early game and a strong lategame, thanks to Survival.
And it features the classic "I Win"-button in Retainers-Iona.

Criticism?