Project Humans

[dontbiteitholmes]

Work in progress...

Decklist

2 Notion Thief
4 Dark Confidant
3 Swords to Plowshares
4 Abrupt Decay
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Shardless Agent
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Deathrite Shaman
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Tundra
1 Tropical Island
4 Wasteland
2 City of Brass
2 Savannah
1 Scrubland
4 Windswept Heath
1 Forest
1 Flooded Strand
2 Bayou
4 Mayor of Avabruck
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Karakas
SB: 3 Rest in Peace
SB: 2 Fiend Hunter
SB: 2 Meddling Mage
SB: 1 Notion Thief
SB: 1 Rayne, Academy Chancellor
SB: 2 Engineered Plague
SB: 1 Gaddock Teeg
SB: 1 Ethersworn Canonist
SB: 1 Grand Abolisher
SB: 1 Tower of the Magistrate


Basic Concepts:
Noble and DRT ramp early game and provide utility later in the game through abilities and exalted, they also minimize the impact of Wastelands.
Gain card advantage through Dark Confidant and Shardless Agent
Caverns make humans uncounterable and Abrupt Decay is uncounterable.
Notion Thief sucks in some matchups but vs. decks that play Jace and are lighter on Wastelands or if you have ramped they can be blowouts.
3x Swords and 4x Decay to clear the way for your army and keep you in control.
4x Thalia and 4x Wasteland to keep tempo.
Mayor forces opponent to play at your pace or get overrun with Wolves, on side A he pumps all your dudes.
Fiend Hunter occasionally a blowout but I think 1 MD is the right call, 2x SB to give Sneak/Show fits (+1 Karakas main).
Jitte - Gains life, controls opposing armies, ends the game, deals with Souls.

SB : Work in progress, probably too cute at the moment and largely untested (but holy hell do you crush GY decks with 3x RiP, 4x Shaman, and Shardless Cascading into RiP/Shaman)

Sample hands

I know the deck looks janky on paper, so I pulled up the first 6 hands to show that things aren't as bad as they probably seem if you just look at the deck w/o testing, only 1 hand was a sure mull (5xlands + Swords + Noble). No tricks, no cherry-picking.

The deck is rough right now for sure but I think it has potential.

[Morte]

I like the idea. I suggest you to consider the human package of Vial Maverick (top 8 at BoM):

Mother of Runes
Sylvan Safekeeper
Weathered Wayfarer
Knight of the Reliquary

and Vial as well, your deck is almost entirely made by creatures. For the same reason MoR and SS would be very strong.

Knight should be a must in your list as it is the best human beater and you already run Karakas.

[HPB_Eggo]

Actually looks pretty excellent, albeit a little rough. Probably going to need testing to flesh out a lot of the right numbers and see if some things need to be included/excluded.

On first impression to Morte's proposal, I'd say Mother of Runes is worth adding - preventing people from removing Confidant or Notion Thief seems very strong - but that you probably don't need KotR - Mayor fills more or less the same spot while pumping everything but DRS, and while not quite as good is definitely very strong.

Outside of that, first on the chopping block for testing, at least IMO, would be City of Brass - seems entirely unnecessary when you only have 13 non-human spells, all of which are trivial to cast or easily cast with one mana dork.

Some things possibly worth testing: MD Grim Lavamancer (probably can't support well enough as is, but could be tweaked to see if it works out), MD Champion of the Parish (not as good as KotR and causes you to overextend, probably not good enough), MD Avacyn's Collar (makes fliers, could be very good in some cases, but the 'dies' rather than 'leaves the battlefield' clause probably kills it), SB Riders of Gavony (free win against Goblins/Merfolk, although unsure if help is really needed there), and SB Devout Chaplain (another free win against some decks, but not sure if it's resilient enough).

[bruizar]

Man, I want to resolve engineered plague or night of souls' betrayal against you.

[dontbiteitholmes]

Man, I want to resolve engineered plague or night of souls' betrayal against you.

Night is unplayed.
Plague is bad times but Abrupt Decay is a pretty good answer to it.

I agree though I probably need more dudes with an ass of 2+.

Actually looks pretty excellent, albeit a little rough. Probably going to need testing to flesh out a lot of the right numbers and see if some things need to be included/excluded.

On first impression to Morte's proposal, I'd say Mother of Runes is worth adding - preventing people from removing Confidant or Notion Thief seems very strong - but that you probably don't need KotR - Mayor fills more or less the same spot while pumping everything but DRS, and while not quite as good is definitely very strong.

Outside of that, first on the chopping block for testing, at least IMO, would be City of Brass - seems entirely unnecessary when you only have 13 non-human spells, all of which are trivial to cast or easily cast with one mana dork.

Some things possibly worth testing: MD Grim Lavamancer (probably can't support well enough as is, but could be tweaked to see if it works out), MD Champion of the Parish (not as good as KotR and causes you to overextend, probably not good enough), MD Avacyn's Collar (makes fliers, could be very good in some cases, but the 'dies' rather than 'leaves the battlefield' clause probably kills it), SB Riders of Gavony (free win against Goblins/Merfolk, although unsure if help is really needed there), and SB Devout Chaplain (another free win against some decks, but not sure if it's resilient enough).

Mother seems worth testing.
I could probably be talked into cutting at least one Mayor to try a Knight and maybe another in the Fiend Hunter slot for starters.
Grim is not going to work, I'm already a 4 color aggro deck 5 colors is unmanageable.
I thought about trying Mirran Crusader but I haven't gotten that far yet.
Collar is <<<<< Jitte I don't even think that's worth wasting time on.

[bruizar]

Night is unplayed.
Plague is bad times but Abrupt Decay is a pretty good answer to it.

I agree though I probably need more dudes with an ass of 2+.

You are right. Night of Souls' Betrayal would be really good in the current meta though.

[dontbiteitholmes]

You are right. Night of Souls' Betrayal would be really good in the current meta though.

I've tried it, the problem is once you get to 2BB you usually just wish it was a Damnation. Then you just play Damnation and realize it's better in most cases.

The difference between Damnation and Night when it wins you the game is the area known as "win more."

[HammafistRoob]

It seems like you could get turn 2 KotR pretty easily. Definitely test him out.

[goblinsplayer]

Maybe look into something that would interact with the tribe "humans" a bit more. An example would be champion of the parish. It probably won't work in this deck but just an idea to look for something like that.

[Freggle]

As much as I like the color Green I don't think it's correct for humans. ...especially if you're omitting Gaddock Teeg. Knight of the Reliquary hasn't been Knight in a while.

Ethersworn Canonist might be awesome main. So you can slow progression and beat with lets say Geist of Saint Traft. In this case is Notion Thief really better than Ethersworn?

Maybe something dumb like:

4 Cavern of Souls
3 Underground Sea
2 Tundra
2 Scrubland
3 Marsh Flats
1 Island
1 Plains
1 Swamp
3 Flooded Strand


4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Mother of Runes
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Meddling Mage
2 Deputy of Acquittals
4 Geist of Saint Traft
4 Dark Confidant
3 Ethersworn Canonist

4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Aether Vial

Interactive, prison-y & fast.

[dontbiteitholmes]

As much as I like the color Green I don't think it's correct for humans. ...especially if you're omitting Gaddock Teeg. Knight of the Reliquary hasn't been Knight in a while.

Ethersworn Canonist might be awesome main. So you can slow progression and beat with lets say Geist of Saint Traft. In this case is Notion Thief really better than Ethersworn?

Maybe something dumb like:

4 Cavern of Souls
3 Underground Sea
2 Tundra
2 Scrubland
3 Marsh Flats
1 Island
1 Plains
1 Swamp
3 Flooded Strand


4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Mother of Runes
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Meddling Mage
2 Deputy of Acquittals
4 Geist of Saint Traft
4 Dark Confidant
3 Ethersworn Canonist

4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Aether Vial

Interactive, prison-y & fast.

IMO Green is crucial. It gives you Abrupt Decay as an uncounterable answer to Lilli, Goyf, Confidant, Delver, etc. that give you fits otherwise and just clears the way so you can get in with some damage. Noble and DRS ramp you early game then fit your mid game plans with exalted and DRS abilities. Shardless Agent is additional card advantage and helps deal with walkers and just keep you ahead, dude is insane. I like the current colors a lot in the deck. The whole reason I like the deck is that it explodes early then has critical mass removal to make a quick finish or keep the pressure on into the mid-late game. If your main beef with Green is no MD Teeg I'd just add MD Teeg. I mean he fits I just don't have him MD because it's still a work in progress.

Anyways I'm not trying to be "prisony" I'm trying to drop lots of dudes and put pressure on where if you can't answer it you die, and if you can answer it I just put on more pressure. Then the SB is just heavily geared towards facing "unfair" decks where I have a lot of options most creature decks don't, many of which are actually pretty hard for combo to answer (especially if I can get a diversity of hate bears on the board which isn't hard).

[ahg113]

Fan of the deck concept. Cobbled a G/W version for Modern that also used Descendants' Path. If you're looking for an advantage engine that's pretty idiot proof. Only downside is flipping a card you want and knowing it's going to the bottom of the yard.

Since speed is part of the game for you, I think Concordant Crossroads could also do some work for you.

Cheers,
I'm missing the Nobles :(

[Freggle]

IMO Green is crucial. It gives you Abrupt Decay as an uncounterable answer to Lilli, Goyf, Confidant, Delver, etc. that give you fits otherwise and just clears the way so you can get in with some damage. Noble and DRS ramp you early game then fit your mid game plans with exalted and DRS abilities. Shardless Agent is additional card advantage and helps deal with walkers and just keep you ahead, dude is insane. I like the current colors a lot in the deck. The whole reason I like the deck is that it explodes early then has critical mass removal to make a quick finish or keep the pressure on into the mid-late game. If your main beef with Green is no MD Teeg I'd just add MD Teeg. I mean he fits I just don't have him MD because it's still a work in progress.

Anyways I'm not trying to be "prisony" I'm trying to drop lots of dudes and put pressure on where if you can't answer it you die, and if you can answer it I just put on more pressure. Then the SB is just heavily geared towards facing "unfair" decks where I have a lot of options most creature decks don't, many of which are actually pretty hard for combo to answer (especially if I can get a diversity of hate bears on the board which isn't hard).

My apologies man. I have absolutely no beef with green in general. It's just that Green typically packs the beef, and all things green here don't. I don't want to step on your toes. I like reading your stuff on here, and I know you have played enchantress (the main reason I still play Legacy.) DRS - Let face it that card is 80+% black you could still run it. Goyf is checked by mom quite well. Confidant is checked by Ethersworn, and Delver ...race, STP, snap -> stp? It's not my deck though. I was just trying to help.

To ahg113 who suggested Decendants' Path I play that in Modern Treefolk. It's decent. However for Legacy for 3 mana something right now is typically far better than maybe something next turn.

FYI - If you did know there was an old humans thread here. Different concept though.

Lastly, No Human League reference? I no-so-secretly like that group. ...and yes I'm old-ish.

[Water_Wizard]

To the original list, I think that you need to cut City of Brass (as previously stated). Between the DRS, Nobles, Caverns, and Fetches, you should be able to color-fix well-enough.

I think you are a little too heavy on creatures. I realize that that is the point of the deck, but I think that you should consider more discard and cantrips. Brainstorm, Ponder, Thoughtseize, Inquisition of Kozilek, etc. I think that you can cut Mayor and Fiend and that you can consider moving Notion Thief and Jitte to the sb. Discounting Notion Thief, your whole deck is 1 and 2 casters, besides Shardless. With 8 mana dorks, you can run light on land. I would cut the basic Forest, because the times that it helps you out being Wasteland-proof are going to be negated by the times that you are color screwed. Balance the deck by replacing 10-12 slots with cantrips and discard and it will smooth out your deck and improve your combo and control match-ups.