GWr Midrange

Afroking_ · Joined: 25 Jun 2005 Posts: 33

4 Wild Nacatl
3 Scute Mob
1 Protean Hydra
3 Ranger of Eos
4 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Uril the Miststalker

4 Rampant Growth
4 Khalni-Heart Expedition
2 Behemoth Sledge

3 Ajani Vengeant
4 Path to Exile
2 Vines of Vastwood

4 Arid Mesa
4 Misty Rainforest
7 Forest
7 Plains
2 Mountain

SB:

4 Silence
4 Pyroclasm
3 Pithing Needle
2 Naturalize
2 Vines of Vastwood

In this deck, you play creatures that are bigger than your opponents to stop them in their tracks. The deck really picks up on about the fourth turn, when your knights are big, and your mobs are getting bigger.

With the mobs, you really don't want to play them early. It's okay to play them when you have only 4 lands, but ideally you want to drop them when they'll grow the next turn.

Behemoth sledge turns every creature in the deck into a threat, and Uril is truly frightening weilding it.

The Expedition is better in this deck than most ramp decks, simply because of the Knights of the Reliquary. When they search up a fetch, they bump it twice.

Vedrfolner · Joined: 04 Apr 2006 Posts: 2142

There is nothing wrong with your deck.

Still, there is much improvement to do...

What I mean is that even though you take out Protean Hydra, which sucks, and add the third Uril or fourth Scute Mob, there is nothing impressive in the way your deck looks.

The thing is that Knight of the Reliquary, even as a 10/10 monster, is just a 10/10 monster. The same with Scute mob. They are big creatures. So what?

You play 4 Rampant Growth and 4 Khalni-Heart Expeditions in order to make a couple of otherwise small creatures into big creatures. If you replaced the Mobs and Knights with Battlegrace Angel and Wooly Thoctar, you would have 8 slots open for more relevant spells. Lightning Bolt and whatnot. The result will be the same - big creatures, and you have removed 8 spells that does nothing for a deck which curve stops at 4.

So you need to rethink the premise of the deck. Is it going to mostly be attacking or defending etc...

Afroking_ · Joined: 25 Jun 2005 Posts: 33

4 Wild Nacatl
3 Scute Mob
3 Ranger of Eos
4 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Uril the Miststalker
2 Baneslayer Angel

4 Khalni-Heart Expedition
2 Behemoth Sledge

3 Ajani Vengeant
4 Path to Exile
2 Vines of Vastwood

4 Arid Mesa
4 Misty Rainforest
7 Forest
7 Plains
2 Mountain
3 Gargoyle Castle

SB:

4 Silence
4 Pyroclasm
3 Pithing Needle
2 Naturalize
2 Vines of Vastwood

It looks more like a ramp deck now, I suppose. I really want to leave red as a splash, which is why I am hesitant on putting any bloodbraid elf in.

DoomBring3r · Joined: 30 Apr 2009 Posts: 436

If red is the splash color, i could see Lightning Bolt in there, it's just that great.

Same goes for Bloodbraid Elf, really.

Afroking_ · Joined: 25 Jun 2005 Posts: 33

Hmm. Do you see why adding 8 red cards would make it no longer a splash?

Adding those 2 cards totally changes the focus of the deck.

Vedrfolner · Joined: 04 Apr 2006 Posts: 2142

Afroking_ · Joined: 25 Jun 2005 Posts: 33

4 Wild Nacatl
4 Scute Mob
3 Ranger of Eos
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Baneslayer Angel

2 Behemoth Sledge

3 Ajani Vengeant
4 Path to Exile
3 Vines of Vastwood
2 Earthquake

4 Arid Mesa
4 Misty Rainforest
7 Forest
7 Plains
2 Mountain
3 Gargoyle Castle

SB:

4 Celestial Purge
4 Pyroclasm
3 Pithing Needle
3 Naturalize
1 Vines of Vastwood

Took out the Khalni-Heart Expedition. The deck really doesn't need to ramp all that badly. Thank you for that suggestion. Upped the threat count, as well as the vines.

As for why I don't want bloodbraid elf and lightning bolt - Elf can cascade into some awkward things in this deck, such as vines or earthquake. Bolt is good - but I would need some pretty good reasoning to find place for it.

As you can see, 5 is the magic number for this deck. The 27 land count helps me get to that pretty easily within the first couple draws, and then the fetchlands and knights make land draws less common in the late game.

Sledge has been great, turning everything into a threat. A castle with sledge on it blocks opposing baneslayer angels, which has been huge.

Obviously baneslayer angel is THE card to get to five for. However, in my experience, it's often better to wait til six so that you can protect it with vines.

Vines has blown so many people out, it's not even funny. In this removal heavy environment, it really acts as a single mana counterspell.

Ajani has been acting like a double helix in my playtesting. I rarely go ultimate with him, but he has been great.

Earthquake has been fantastic, simply because there is a new R/W landfall deck that has been all the rage. In the late game, after you've been gaining tons of life, you can smack it down for lethal.

Wild Nacatl fills a niche roll, blocking and trading with the average 2-4 drop. Nacatl is great with a sledge in play, as it looks a lot like 3g for a 5/5 Trample lifelink.

Vedrfolner · Joined: 04 Apr 2006 Posts: 2142

Seems more focused now.

I am not sure that you need Gargoyle Castle in this deck. I would rather have Jungle Shrine most of the time. 27 lands is also 2 too many. I am not a fan of the one-colour fetchland (Misty Rainforest) since it doesn't do much good - then Terramorphic Expanse is much better.

-4 Misty Rainforest, -3 Gargoyle Castle
-2 Plains
+4 Jungle Shrine
+3 Terramorphic Expanse

+2 Garruk Wildspeaker (all his abilities are highly relevant for you)

xSNACKSx · Joined: 20 Jul 2009 Posts: 235

-3 gargoyle castle
-2 earthquake
-1 ranger
-4 wild nacatl (I've never liked this dude, late game it's a 3/3 for 1 WOWWWWW)
-1forest

+4 jungle Shrine
+4 Woolly Thoctar
+4 Bloodbraid Elf
+4 lightning bolt

I know I added more than I took off, but the 16 cards I added are NAYA staples. Add those and trim the edges of other crap.

DoomBring3r · Joined: 30 Apr 2009 Posts: 436

Vedrfolner · Joined: 04 Apr 2006 Posts: 2142

Afroking_ · Joined: 25 Jun 2005 Posts: 33

Rainforest is not so much a forest as a bonus pump for the Reliquary. Bloodbraid Elf, as mentioned before, hits too many blanks to be effective.

xSNACKSx · Joined: 20 Jul 2009 Posts: 235

The bonus pump is irrelevant, running fetches when it only hits one color, and there's no landfall in the deck, is just dumb. Reliquary never needs to be bigger than a 5/5 or 6/6 in most cases, any attempts to get her bigger by wasting turns or resources is just greedy.