G/B budget The Rock-ish deck.

Gigs · Joined: 13 Jun 2006 Posts: 4

Creatures:
4 Yavimaya Elder
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Llanowar Elves
2 Elves of Deep Shadow
1 Vhati il-Dal
2 Nantuko Vigilante
1 Bane of the Living
1 Phyrexian Plaguelord

Spells:
4 Diabolic Edict
3 Rend Flesh
2 Urborg Uprising
2 Snuff Out
1 Call of the Herd
4 Rancor
1 Beast Attack
3 Death Denied

Lands:
2 Golgari Rot Farm
12 Forest
9 Swamp

Cards that I'm still trying to get:
3 more Llanowar Elves for 2 Elves of Deep Shadow and the last empty spot.
Edit: 4 Putrefies and 4 Duress. Thanks kobisjeruk!

This is a deck I've been building for a while, and I was looking for some advice. There's some card I have been thinking about getting. The first is Grinning Demon, which might be good because I think the deck might need some more card that can finish the game, and it'd combine well with the vigilante and bane of the living to keep people guessing what the morph might be. I was also thinking about Blastoderm for the face-smashing role. I've also been having doubts about discard. Duress seems good but kind of limited, while Cabal Therapy might be hard to play right because I don't play competitive magic a lot, so I see a lot of different cards. I'm also not sure if I should have more global destruction in the deck, like more Banes, or Plague Boiler. I do have creatures that have synergy with it like the Yavimaya Elders, and I have cards to bring my stuff back.

So any thoughts you might have on any of that, any suggestions on what cards would be first on the list if I would add more money to the deck, or just comments and critique, it's all welcome.

Edit: And what about Eternal Witness, should I play it? I also feel the deck might need a card that can put all the mana this deck gets from Yavimaya Elders and Sakura-tribe Elders to good use in the late game, something reusable. Genesis looks good, but I wouldn't want to draw more than one of it, and I also can't really afford more than one. Maybe something like Wurmcalling?

kobisjeruk · Joined: 04 Jun 2007 Posts: 44

Since this is a budget casual Rock-ish deck, first of all, I'd recommend Wall Of Roots or Vine Trellis (if its not too hard to find in your area) instead of Llanowar Elves and Elves Of The Deep Shadow b/c its a better blocker overall and you might get it to survive a Bane Of The Living activation for small number.

For better graveyard recursion trick, try using Grim Harvest instead of Urborg Uprising since it's an instant and you can combo it with a lot of your critters. I dont think Rancor worth a spot here since you dont have any big untrampling critters to slap it to. Sure you can put it on a Sakura-Tribe Elder but how cool is that? Now, if you have a Spiritmonger, that'll be different Wink

Duress or some sort of early hand disruption is a must for these kind of decks. And I'd go for Duress, trust me, it is not as limiting as you'd think (unless you're playing against Goblins or 36crits/24lands.dec), since you said yourself that you're not familiar with competitive play, I'd suggest Stupor instead of Cabal Therapy if you cant find any duress. Or you could use Nightmare Void. Or to keep on with the recursion trick, why not try Thrull Surgeon or the more recent Augur Of Skulls? BTW, if you havent noticed, I like me some discard effect Wink

Also try to get your hands on a couple of Putrefy b/c it is a far more better option than Snuff Out.

Wurmcalling is a fine choice to sink all your mana from the abundance of mana thinning effect you have.

ALERT! RARES AHOY! ALERT!
You do need to add some sort of reset button to make it feel more like a rock-ish build, and by reset I mean something that wipe more than one type of cards off the playing field. The best of all is Nevinyrral's Disk but it's really old and quite expensive, maybe even Pernicious Deed is out of the question. Try to get Plague Boiler if you can since this is quite cheap (altho it will take awhile to get active) but there arent any good reset button in the color other than this right now and with all the mana, you can activate it on the next turn without any dsiruption from your opponent if you're lucky (or if you take my advice and opt to include some sort of hand disruption to take care of disenchant effect and whatnot;)).
Lastly, just one word : Persecute.

I hope this will help
-=/\/=-

Gigs · Joined: 13 Jun 2006 Posts: 4

ebbitten · Joined: 01 Jan 2007 Posts: 41

Sengir vampire i have always found to be a good casual finisher, hymn to tourach is your best bet for nagging cards IMO, also ernham djinn is very very good.

Gigs · Joined: 13 Jun 2006 Posts: 4

Gigs · Joined: 13 Jun 2006 Posts: 4

UPDATE!

So I managed to find some more cards. Here's the updated list:

Creatures:
4 Yavimaya Elder
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Vhati il-Dal
1 Grinning Demon
1 Vulturous Zombie
2 Nantuko Vigilante
1 Bane of the Living
1 Phyrexian Plaguelord

Spells:
4 Diabolic Edict
1 Call of the Herd
4 Rancor
1 Beast Attack
2 Death Denied
1 Centaur Glade
4 Putrefy
2 Duress
1 Wurmcalling

Lands:
1 Svogthos, the Restless Tomb
2 Golgari Rot Farm
12 Forest
9 Swamp

So I mainly just followed advice and got some Putrefies and Duresses. I also uppsed the number of late game cards, with Vulturous zombie, Wurmcalling and even Svogthos.

What do you think?