Valdarith's post-JOU brewing thread!

[Valdarith]

I'm starting this thread to collect the decks I brew as the JOU spoilers are released. Some will be pure Spike decks meant for competitive play, while others will cater to my inner Johnny, so the quality between the decks will vary greatly. Just keep that in mind when you see a strong deck followed by a janky FNM-quality brew.

[deck]BR Aggro[/deck]

The key consideration here is Spike Jester vs Mogis's Warhound. The former requires a heavier investment into Mana Confluence due to wanting a red source sooner while the latter synergies nicely with Pain Seer and Tormented
Hero. Spike Jester may be correct because one drop into Jester can just win games on its own.

[deck]UB Control[/deck]

Here we have a deck with no nonland permanents besides Dictate of Kruphix, Elixir, and Aetherling. This allows us to play almost completely on our opponents turn which UW and Esper cannot do as reliably due to Supreme Verdict, Detention Sphere, and planeswalkers. UB does not have access to a board wipe except for the six mana black card recently spoiled, but that is probably not where the deck wants to be. Cyclonic Rift serves this purpose as it is not dead in any matchup and is a nice compliment to Dictate of Kruphix since our opponent is likely to have a full
hand due to the extra cards drawn. If we overload a Rift at their EOT they'll have to discard the extras, giving us a massive card advantage. Warped Physique also becomes a reliable removal spell due to the presence of Dictate of Kruphix. No longer will it be an underwhelming top deck when our hand is low on spells, and it can serve as a reliable god killer if our opponent's devotion is high. The deck's wincon is obviously Aetherling, but there is an alternate wincon in decking our opponent. This was an alternate strategy for UW but was extremely slow and often led to them drawing in a matchup. Dictate of Kruphix speeds this process up tremendously.

[deck=Red Enchantments Win (Block Constructed)]
Creatures (27)
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Satyr Hoplite
3 Nyxborn Rollicker
4 Everflame Eidolon
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
4 Mogis's Warhound
4 Forgeborn Oreads

Spells (11)
3 Dragon Mantle
4 Lightning Strike
4 Searing Blood

Lands (22)
22 Mountain
[/deck]

Classical RDW shell with an
enchantment theme. With so many firebreathing spells the deck almost wants to flood out. Running 22 land means fewer mulligans and the ability to run a slightly higher curve. Forgeborn Oreads may be too cute but is worth testing with all the enchantments in the deck. Purphoros, God of the Forge could be a potential card to add to the deck.

[deck=Wu Soldiers (FNM special)]
Creatures (21)
4 Favored Hoplite
3 Soldier of the Pantheon
4 Precinct Captain
4 Vanguard of Brimaz
4 Battlefield Thaumaturge
2 Brimaz, King of Oreskos

Spells (17)
4 Glimpse the Sun God
4 Launch the Fleet
2 Gods Willing
4 Hidden Strings
2 Banishing Light
1 Spear of Heliod

Lands (22)
2 Mutavault
4 Temple of Enlightenment
4 Hallowed Fountain
1 Mana Confluence
1 Island
10 Plains
[/deck]

The basic strategy is to amass a swarm of tokens, then land a Thaumaturge and cast Launch the Fleet and/or Glimpse the Sun God for a huge alpha strike. The blue splash is only for Thaumaturge and
Hidden Strings. The big difference between this strategy and Brave the Elements is that the latter does not target creatures and it tends to get clunky in multiples. Launch the Fleet on the other hand can be cast early to develop an overwhelming board state even without a Thaumaturge on the field.

Competitive? Probably not. But super fun to pilot I'm sure.

[deck]GW Enchantments[/deck]

A light white splash for Banishing Light, Selesnya Charm, and a singleton Karametra in the main. Karametra may seem underwhelming but is deceptively powerful. This deck will often have devotion and even when it doesn't Karametra has an
interesting interaction with Courser of Kruphix and Eidolon of Blossoms. If you've already played your land off the top for the turn and reveal another land (and don't want to draw it), you can cast a creature, put the land into play from the Karametra trigger, then use the trigger from Eidolon of Blossoms to draw from a freshly shuffled deck.

[Purp]

Is there anyway Spiteful returned could be Spike Jester?

[Valdarith]

Would be a bit too hard on the mana. You could complete the playset of Mana Confluence but between Thoughtseize, Pain Seer, and Herald of Torment, you'd be asking for trouble.

[Purp]

So far I love the look of the aggro list, I'd quesiton whether or not I'd want 12 one drops, but i'd have to do more investigation to figure out the replacements

[Lightning_Dolt]

The BR deck looks VERY good to me. I imagine you want the full four City of Ass though. The mana was shaky on that deck. I'd also love to see Exava get her due. Anyway to squeeze them in? Spike Jester would also be viable if running 4x city I think.

That block constructed list looks good too, although I don't like Forgeborn Oreads. I wonder if this could work?

[deck]Creatures (28)
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Satyr Hoplite
4 Nyxborn Rollicker
4 Akroan Crusader
4 Everflame Eidolon
4 Arena Athlete
4 Mogis's Warhound

Spells (14)
4 Dragon Mantle
4 Lightning Strike
3 Searing Blood
4 Titan's Strength
3 Coordinated Assault

Lands (18)
18 Mountain[/deck]

[Valdarith]

So far I love the look of the aggro list, I'd quesiton whether or not I'd want 12 one drops, but i'd have to do more investigation to figure out the replacements

The best thing about it is that you have 12 conditional one-drops. Gnarled Scarhide is both a one and four drop, plus with the scrylands you will oftentimes want multiple one drops in your hand.

The BR deck looks VERY good to me. I imagine you want the full four City of Ass though. The mana was shaky on that deck. I'd also love to see Exava get her due. Anyway to squeeze them in? Spike Jester would also be viable if running 4x city I think.

I think Exava is great but I'm not sure what the cuts would be. Again, you already
have a plethora of four and five drops in your bestow creatures and many of them will just win the game via voltron anyway. Exava may just be superfluous.

The deck runs 11 red sources which I think is best because you don't really care about curving into red until turn three at the earliest. You won't typically be casting your removal until turn three or four. What I fear with more than two Mana Confluence is drawing into multiples early and losing TONS of life over a few turns. That makes your matchups against other aggro decks much worse, especially the red ones.

That block constructed list looks good too, although I don't like Forgeborn Oreads. I wonder if this could work?

[deck]Creatures (28)
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Satyr Hoplite
4 Nyxborn Rollicker
4 Akroan Crusader
4 Everflame Eidolon
4 Arena Athlete
4 Mogis's Warhound

Spells (14)
4 Dragon Mantle
4 Lightning Strike
3 Searing Blood
4 Titan's Strength
3 Coordinated Assault

Lands (18)
18 Mountain[/deck][/
quote]

Well first of all your spell count is off. You're actually running 18 spells, so 64 cards total.

Ignoring that, it could be okay, but I like builds with 20+ land to reduce mulligans, and that's what makes my build so powerful. We're both running Everflame Eidolon, Dragon Mantle, and Firedrinker Satyr which love to feed on extra Mountains so flooding isn't as bad as it is in other red decks. I had a singleton Hammer of Purphoros in the deck but there's a tension between sacrificing your lands and pumping your firebreathers.

Forgeborn Oreads could be too cute, but it has a respectable power level and you're running 22 enchantments to trigger it. It can get out of hand pretty quickly if you bestow it, too.

It could be that 20 land with some other spells is the best configuration.

[Purp]

Posting these for reference and comparison:

[deck=CVM's List]
Creatures (27)

3 Mogis's Marauder
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Rakdos Shred-Freak
4 Spike Jester
4 Tormented Hero
4 Gnarled Scarhide
4 Herald of Torment

Lands (23)

4 Mana Confluence
1 Mountain
8 Swamp
4 Blood Crypt
2 Mutavault
4 Temple of Malice

Spells (10)

4 Lightning Strike
2 Ultimate Price
4 Thoughtseize[/deck]

[deck=JSilv's List]
Lands
2 x Mutavault
4 x Mana Confluence
4 x Temple of Malice
4 x Blood Crypt
8 x Swamp

Creatures
4 x Gnarled Scarhide
4 x Tormented Hero
4 x Spiteful Returned
4 x Pain Seer
4 x Spike Jester
4 x Herald Of Torment
3 x Master of the Feast

Noncreature Spells
4 x Thoughtseize
4 x Dreadbore
3 x Lightning Strike[/deck]

[Valdarith]

I much prefer Josh's list to CVM's, but I could be biased because it looks closest to mine. He's giving up Mogis's Warhound for Spike Jester (which seems reasonable) and Rakdos Cackler for Master of the Feast (which seems terrible).

I like that we almost exactly agree on the spell suite too.

[Purp]

I think they apply to different strategies. Red is trying to win much fast where as White is trying to win a longer, grindier game.

[Valdarith]

Indeed. That's a rather blanket statement anyway. That's like saying "I think GR Monsters offers more than Uw Devotion does right now." They're two completely different philosophies.

[Thrillho]

I will add a list when I'm not on a phone, but I have a terrible deck idea for WB enchantment men with the X/1 2-drops, the Empyrial Man, Drain Life Guy, and the WB god.

Also, as a brainstorm proposal, a deck using Battle Thaumaturge.

[Valdarith]

I could make something happen with Battlefield Thaumaturge. Glimpse the Sun God and Gridlock are the most attractive inclusions.

[Valdarith]

Oh, and Curse of the Swine.

[Valdarith]

I build a couple Thaumaturge decks but they all were FNM quality decks. This is the best one I came up with.

[deck=Wu Soldiers (FNM special)]
Creatures (21)
4 Favored Hoplite
3 Soldier of the Pantheon
4 Precinct Captain
4 Vanguard of Brimaz
4 Battlefield Thaumaturge
2 Brimaz, King of Oreskos

Spells (17)
4 Glimpse the Sun God
4 Launch the Fleet
2 Gods Willing
4 Hidden Strings
2 Banishing Light
1 Spear of Heliod

Lands (22)
2 Mutavault
4 Temple of Enlightenment
4 Hallowed Fountain
1 Mana Confluence
1 Island
10 Plains
[/deck]

The basic strategy is to amass a swarm of tokens, then land a Thaumaturge and cast Launch the Fleet and/or Glimpse the Sun God for a huge alpha strike. The blue splash is only for Thaumaturge and Hidden Strings. The big difference between this strategy and Brave the Elements is that the latter does not target creatures and it tends to get clunky in multiples. Launch the Fleet
on the other hand can be cast early to develop an overwhelming board state even without a Thaumaturge on the field.

Competitive? Probably not. But super fun to pilot I'm sure.

[Valdarith]

Added some commentary to each list in the OP and updated with the janky Wu FNM brew.

[Valdarith]

[deck]GW Enchantments[/deck]

A light white splash for Banishing Light, Selesnya Charm, and a singleton Karametra in the main. Karametra may seem underwhelming but is deceptively powerful. This deck will often have devotion and even when it doesn't Karametra has an interesting interaction with Courser of Kruphix and Eidolon of Blossoms. If you've already played your land off the top for the turn and reveal another land (and don't want to draw it), you can cast a creature, put the land into play from the Karametra trigger, then use the trigger
from Eidolon of Blossoms to draw from a freshly shuffled deck.

[Toddington]

With regards to the Eidolon of Blossoms deck, isn't Mana Bloom where you want to be? Ramp early, Whispers of the Muse later on?

[Valdarith]

I thought about it in the beginning but ultimately decided it's not what you want. The problem with ramping with it is that you don't have enough high impact four drops to ramp into. You want to be casting Courser, Boon Satyr, Banishing Light, etc which means you actually want Elvish Mystic to get there quicker. Mana Bloom forces you to durdle and lose to aggressive decks. Sure, you get cute interaction with Eidolon of Blossoms late game, but at that point are you not already winning?

[Tyrael]

Valdarith, how would you feel about a card like Ethereal Armor in that enchantment deck? It could be a huge blowout for just one cmc.

Also, Sphere of Safety sideboard? Maybe?

[Valdarith]

With Nylea and Collective Blessing in the deck you really don't need Ethereal Armor. Plus with all the hard removal in the format I really don't think it's where you want to be.

Sphere of Safety is probably worth a couple of sideboard slots. In this deck it may as well read "creatures can't attack you."

With white getting such a huge buff in JOU this deck got a lot more powerful. Finally GW gets solid removal spells pre and postboard.

[Tyrael]

This might be a crazy idea, but what if pillowfort got to be a real thing?

[deck] Pillowfort[/deck]

[Gigex]

[deck]
Creatures
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Satyr Hoplite
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Mogis's Warhound
4 Ghor-Clan Rampager

Other Spells
4 Lightning Strike
4 Madcap Skills
4 Titan's Strength
2 Gruul War Chant

Lands
2 Mutavault
4 Stomping Ground
4 Temple of Abandon
12 Mountain[/deck]

Gonna be trying this out upon release. Pretty straightforward, I wasn't too sold on the 17-18 land builds i've seen with the 20 one drops. Decided to give it a bit more power and reach with the rampager and warchant. Sideboard for now is up in the air. Destructive revelry is on the shortlist lol. Feedback is appreciated.

[Valdarith]

Don't like Gruul War Chant. Would prefer another two drop in its place. Also cut a Mountain for a Forest. I'd cut a Madcap Skills and a Titan Strength to fill out the third two drop I mentioned earlier. I've been fond of Skylasher but Gore-house Chainwalker or Firefist Striker is acceptable too.

[Tyrael]

I would also definitely run Fanatic of Xenagos

[Gigex]

I was trying to minimize the amount of green creatures to make LBZ less effective against me, hence the exclusion of fanatic. I really like the war chant. It helps "reduce" the drawback of the warhound and pumps our dudes. Its like a poor man's Iroas lol. But I guess if ur playing against control another creature is prlly better.

[warwizard87]

I kind of like the g/w pillow fort deck, that thing looks insanely annoying

[Tyrael]

As far as a competitive pillow fort deck I'm inclined to say I quite like Travis Woo's version

[deck]Lands
4 x Sacred Foundry
4 x Stomping Ground
4 x Temple Garden
4 x Temple of Plenty
2 x Temple of Triumph
2 x Temple of Abandon
3 x Forest
2 x Plains

Creatures
3 x Nyx-Fleece Ram
3 x Courser of Kruphix
4 x Eidolon of Blossoms
1 x Ajani's Chosen

Noncreature Spells
4 x Sphere of Safety
3 x Assemble the Legion
1 x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
4 x Chained to the Rocks
3 x Oppressive Rays
3 x Mana Bloom
1 x Nylea's Prescence[/deck]

[Valdarith]

His version is better, but I'd hardly call it competitive.

[Tyrael]

I wouldn't know as I haven't tested it ^^


[deck]Heroic Red[/deck]

any AIR players?

[Valdarith]

I think it's an oversight for any Standard mono red creature-based deck to not have Burning-Tree Emissary. It's just too powerful not to play.

[LP, of the Fires]

The Gruul Deck I've been working on:

[deck]4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Firefist Striker
2 Gore-House Chainwalker
2 Skylasher
4 Mogis Warhound
1 Pyreweild Shaman
4 Fanatic of Xeangos
4 Ghor-Clan Rampager

4 Lightning Strike
2 Mizzium Mortars

4 Mana Confluence
4 Stomping Ground
2 Forest
2 Mutavault
9 Mountains[/deck]

To bad Hellriders not a card.

[Valdarith]

Has your results against mono blue been as pathetic as mine? I'm running four Skylashers and the matchup still seems impossible unless I nut out.

Also, how are the Firefist Strikers treating you?

[LP, of the Fires]

If I draw rampager I win?

[LP, of the Fires]

I keep changing things willy nilly, but rampager definitely makes the matchup very winnable. Drawing it probably increases your odds of winning by 20-30% as they can't just brickwall your guys and firefist striker does a good job of helping you punch through extra points of damage. Depending on how good/bad the matchup actually is, I may want to run some number of shocks.

[Valdarith]

I keep changing things willy nilly, but rampager definitely makes the matchup very winnable. Drawing it probably increases your odds of winning by 20-30% as they can't just brickwall your guys and firefist striker does a good job of helping you punch through extra points of damage. Depending on how good/bad the matchup actually is, I may want to run some number of shocks.

Rampager makes it much better, but the matchup is very swingy. Then again, the whole deck is swingy so...yeah.

I'm running Magma Jet right now for scry value but I may swap to Shock. One mana is a big deal. Searing Blood could be good too since we want to race them. I've lost mono blue games being 2-3 damage short of the win.

[Valdarith]

LP, how many times have you been punished for the 4x Mana Confluence? How would you say the consistency compares to running some number of Temples?

[LP, of the Fires]

Uh...none? The matchups where the life matters are generally unfavorable game one so it doesn't really matter.

Also, hipster red:

4 Prophetic Flamespeaker
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Mogis's Warhound
4 Firefist Striker
4 Rubblebelt Maaka
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Magma Jet
4 Lightning Strike
4 Mutavault
18 Mountain

[Valdarith]

Also, hipster red:

4 Prophetic Flamespeaker
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Mogis's Warhound
4 Firefist Striker
4 Rubblebelt Maaka
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Magma Jet
4 Lightning Strike
4 Mutavault
18 Mountain

I've been thinking of a similar build. I feel like 4 Flamespeaker may be too many but it's probably worth it to test the entire playset first and trim down from there if it's true.

[TBuzzsaw]

I'm doing Naya Auras now that MC helps smooth out the mana base, and it doesn't hurt to have new hexproof creatures.


[deck]Creatures (17)
4 Witchstalker
1 Boon Satyr
4 Voice of Resurgence
4 Bassara Tower Archer
4 Gladecover Scout

Spells (21)
2 Ajani, Caller of the Pride
4 Unflinching Courage
4 Madcap Skills
4 Ethereal Armor
4 Boros Charm
3 Selesnya Charm

Lands (22)
4 Temple Garden
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Stomping Ground
4 Temple of Plenty
1 Temple of Abandon
3 Mana Confluence
2 Forest[/deck]

Sideboard is a work in progress, but there's a mix of Gift of Orzhova, FSP, and Mending Touch so far.

[LP, of the Fires]

The archer is one of the better cards in the set, low key.