[Deck] Somewhat casual SotF engine deck.

[freakish777]

This deck is as the title says, somewhat casual.  It's more of a "change of pace, play it on an unsuspecting meta, and have some fun and not completely scrub out" kinda deck, than it is truly competitive.

The goal of the deck is to get a swarm of creatures down over the course of 2 or 3 turns using Survival of the Fittest, and steam-roll your opponent (you know like a locomotive, get it... engine?  shut up, I'm bad at humor).

In any event here is the current list I have:


//Mana
2 Mountain
4 Forest
4 Taiga
4 Wooded Foothills
6 LoMoxen
4 Eladamri's Vineyard

//The Engine
4 Survival of the Fittest
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
3 Squee Goblin Nabob
1 Anger

//Beats
4 Arrogant Wurm
4 Blastoderm
4 Flametongue Kavu
4 Basking Rootwalla

//I hate Workshop and Welders
4 Null Rod                                      (this should really come out)
4 Fiery Temper


//Sideboard
Irrelevant, sculpt it how you like it,
I'd imagine Naturalize is an auto-include no matter your meta though.



Card Choices:

The number one Card to point out is Eladamri's Vineyard.

Yes, it provides you with a half turn of negative tempo (as your opponent gets to use the mana first), which is more or less the reason you don't want to just bring this deck to any given meta.  The upside is that the mana means either, multiple activations of SotF for lots of rootwallas, or dropping some fat to start the beatdown.  In the worst case scenario (for you spending mana), you are spending the mana to pump rootwallas.  In the worst case of your opponent using the mana, they are either comboing you out, or dropping Smokestack + Trinisphere/Crucbile/Tanglewire.

That said, don't bring this deck to a combo ridden meta.  It does however do fairly well against Aggro-workshop.


SotF and Bazaar are fairly obvious.  Use them to find and then drop cheap beaters.

There's 3 Squees for being able to discard all three to an active Bazaar if you want to.  Anger is one of the only real saving graces of the deck, making it a full turn faster in a lot of cases.


Moxen + Lotus get you cheap fat.  The off color moxen are worth it here for dropping turn one Survival, paying for Wurm, Blastoderm, FTK, or even half of a rootwalla activation.

The actual land count seems low here, but rest assured, it does its job, and first turn Bazaar is alright if you're trying to find more mana with atleast one pitchable card in hand.


Rootawalla and Wurm are obvious, FTK simply murders Welders, Juggernauts, Platinum Angels, Su-chis, fishies, Gorilla Shamans, Duplicants (if they've picked off any of your creatures with it), affinity's critters, opposing Wurms and rootwallas, small dryads, causes Dr. Teeth's controller to spend resources, Triskelions, Ophidians, and goblins.  Blastoderm in some regards seems like a weak choice, however 4 is the mana cost that's basically what we're aiming for to be able to drop 2nd turn if after a vineyard if we have a bunch of fat in hand instead of a Survival.  Why not Juggernaut?  Its targettable and easier to take down in combat.


Fiery Temper is purely for another outlet for Bazaar.  Null Rod really should be replaced.


I won't give match-up statistics, as I haven't really done thorough testing with this (hence it's in the Newbie Forum).

This deck is designed to pump out fat with the help of Eladamri's Vineyard in a meta where there's little chance of your opponent being able to make repeated use of the mana (so they'll take burn at some point), more or less in an aggro-control environment, producing bigger fat then Fish, and more fat than 4cC can take care of (before the find angel) or even outrace in some cases (when you have 2 Vineyards out, and they're taking burn, which doesn't happen very often).  As stated before, it does decently against aggro-workshop as well, as your rootwalla can take down a Jugg, and then your engine guarentees you creatures everyturn (just make sure to get a FTK for there Welder, or else they'll weld Duplicant back and forth).

Obviously this was made well before ChK was leaked even (I'm a little lazy on posting this one), so there's really no reason to play it (in a competitive meta) as you'll wind up either giving them Oath for free, or letting them not have to find an Orchard.  If however in some freak occurance you are able to get the Vineyard-Survival engine running before they Oath, there's a possibility you could outrace them (unlikely unless you have 2 Vineyards out).


It's also possible to run this G/u with some minor changes (Force, Circular, Brainstorm, Mana Leak, Mongrel, Recall, and DA are all good choices then, but it makes the deck feel more like Bazaar madness, and you'd have to change game plans and slow things down in that approach more or less).


The Sideboard I'd imagine would look like some combination of the following cards:

Naturalize
Viridian Zealot
Artifact Mutation
Oxidize
REB
Ground Seal
Pyrostatic Pillar   (if you expect there to be one and only one combo deck, otherwise, again, don't run this)
Seeds of Innocence
Masticore


Also, it may be interesting (and possibly more beneficial than the Vineyards) to use 2 (or 3 if your replacing Vineyards) Gaea's Cradle and a Crop Rotation.

[PipOC]

Blastoderm feels really slow compared to Troll ascetic.  And if you have problems with workshop/welders you should probably run ground seal over null rod and maybe arc lightning/fire.ice over fiery temper, maybe even violent eruption.  And if your meta is really infested with workshop  MD artifact mutation with 2 in SB would probably do wonders for you.

[M]

Why not run 4 Pyrostatic Pillar MD instead of 4 Null Rod?
It seems to fit the deck's "all or nothing" fat aggro theme, which btw I like.
Maybe then take out 1 Bazaar and 1 Squee and add 2 Violent Eruption.

[andrewpate]

I disagree with taking out a Squee:  he is soooo good.  With all three, you can Bazaar and Survival both every turn and still be gaining CA.  Having as many as possible increases the chances of ripping him off a Bazaar activation, and that gives you one fewer Survival activation before you are really doing your thing.  If space allowed, I'd run all 4 in this deck.

[freakish777]

Why not run 4 Pyrostatic Pillar MD instead of 4 Null Rod?

That's probably a good idea.

Maybe then take out 1 Bazaar and 1 Squee and add 2 Violent Eruption.

Violent Eruption costs 3 to madness out...  And two of it is red, which, if you haven't noticed isn't likely for you to get (you're actually probably going to get a Forest with your first popped fetch land, considering the deck is designed to run in an aggro-control meta, which loves its Wastelands).

Blastoderm feels really slow compared to Troll ascetic.  And if you have problems with workshop/welders you should probably run ground seal over null rod and maybe arc lightning/fire.ice over fiery temper, maybe even violent eruption.  And if your meta is really infested with workshop  MD artifact mutation with 2 in SB would probably do wonders for you.

Blastoderm is actually faster, considering it will have something by it's side swinging with it (again the idea is to get Vineyard + Moxen out to pay for Blastoderm/FTK/Wurm), as its 4 for a 5 power as opposed to 3 for 3 power(with Haste as you had better have Anger in the yard,getting around Jugg is easy, outrace it, it can't block seeing as how it has to attack everyturn, and if you're going to trade creatures with a Jugg [in a forced situation], trade a rootwalla).

I don't have problems with Welders (seeing as how Fiery Temper and FTK already take care of them).

I have problems with Prison decks that drop a metric buttload of lock components off the mana Vineyard gives them (Tanglewire + Smokestack, or Crucible + Smokestack, or Trinisphere + Smokestack [not as bad], or Tanglewire + Crucible + Trinisphere, or probably the scariest is when you're tapped out [meaning you can't madness out another Wurm] and they drop Memory Jar with other Workshops untapped).

[absolute]

You should probably try to add in some root mazes to help your matchup vs. combo and shop decks, while upping the count of maindeck artifact removal like shaman and sex monkey (taking away blastoderm). Genesis is also another card that should atleast be a one-of card maindecked, allowing you to recur what a juggy or oathed out fatty took down.

[M]

Violent Eruption costs 3 to madness out...  And two of it is red, which, if you haven't noticed isn't likely for you to get (you're actually probably going to get a Forest with your first popped fetch land, considering the deck is designed to run in an aggro-control meta, which loves its Wastelands).

That's true. But then Temper also cost 1RR to hardcast, and can only be madnessed out with Bazaar.
Orcish Lumberjack instead of one or more of the off-color Moxen?
Moxen ONLY give you one lousy mana anyway

[freakish777]

Lumberjack also costs mana to put into play, and doesn't have haste until Anger goes into the yard.

The reason the moxen are important is being able to drop SotF turn one.
Instead though, I may consider ESG's...  To have better chances of playing SotF + Vineyard within the first two turns...

hm... I have to think about what's getting cut though.

[MTG_Djinn]

//Mana
2 Mountain
4 Forest
4 Taiga
4 Wooded Foothills
6 LoMoxen
4 Eladamri's Vineyard

//The Engine
4 Survival of the Fittest
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
3 Squee Goblin Nabob
1 Anger

//Beats
4 Arrogant Wurm
4 Blastoderm
4 Flametongue Kavu
4 Basking Rootwalla

//I hate Workshop and Welders
4 Null Rod (this should really come out)
4 Fiery Temper

Hi
How is you manabase working out for you?
Im thinking that you could cut 1 Mountain and 1 Forest and ad 2 windswept heath so you manabare looks like this:

1 Mountain
3 Forest
4 Taiga
2 Windswept Heath.
4 Wooded Foothills
6 LoMoxen
4 Eladamri's Vineyard

I really think that 1 mountain is more then enough on the basis that you have no 2RR spells (only to hard cast Fiery Temper). It also gives you the 1 red you need is B2B is in play, besides you still have the ruby and the lotus.
I also removed 1 forest because I think a fetch more will give you a more stable manabase. The 2 added fetches cant get red but I really don’t think that will be a problem at all, because most of the time you get a Tiaga the first times you fetch.

4 Blastoderm

Why not Roar of the Wurm? You should have no problem getting it in to the grave with Bazaar of Baghdad. Its 6/6 and it dosent leave unless its killed.

And yes I think Pyrostatic Pillar might work instead of Null Rod.

-MTG_Djinn

(Ps. You got the power, why not try to move it up from casual to competitive)

[M]

The reason the moxen are important is being able to drop SotF turn one.

OK, but if you play SurvivalotF with a land plus a Mox on turn one you still can't activate it until turn two, and then only twice (unless the Mox was Emerald). But if you go turn one Lumberjack, you can still go turn two SurvivalotF, AND activate it three times. Thus the card disadvantage involved in saccing the forest is instantly regained because you get one more Squee. And if the first SurvivalotF gets countered you can drop another on immediately (if you have it) and still activate it once. This is the same as if your turn one SurvivalotF (played with land + Mox) got countered, and you then played a second one on turn two. Except that your opponent gets to counter over two turns, meaning that (if he played first) he could Mana Leak the first one and Mana Drain the second.

And Lumberjack is a creature

[freakish777]

Hi
How is you manabase working out for you?
Im thinking that you could cut 1 Mountain and 1 Forest and ad 2 windswept heath so you manabare looks like this:

1 Mountain
3 Forest
4 Taiga
2 Windswept Heath.
4 Wooded Foothills
6 LoMoxen
4 Eladamri's Vineyard



Why not Roar of the Wurm? You should have no problem getting it in to the grave with Bazaar of Baghdad. Its 6/6 and it dosent leave unless its killed.

And yes I think Pyrostatic Pillar might work instead of Null Rod.

The mana works alright, however I came to the same conclusion on the forest and the mountain.  However, I think that Gaea's Cradle deserves one or two spots over the fetches, to provide alternate ways to abuse the SotF with extra mana.

Roar works well in concept at one extra power, but I'm somewhat partial to Blastoderm's untargetability, as he doesn't come out (if I have SotF activate, otherwise he comes down for beats to race) until after they've swept the board with either Balanced or Disked, that way he can't be Swords'ed.

As for trying something more competitive, I do, I just like playing this once every blue moon as a change of pace.

Thus the card disadvantage involved in saccing the forest is instantly regained because you get one more Squee. And if the first SurvivalotF gets countered you can drop another on immediately (if you have it) and still activate it once.

Ah, see the card disadvantage isn't what I'm worried about, its the tempo loss.  By saccing that forest, I've just given my opponent an Time Walk of sorts, and the next turn I won't be able to start getting the arrogant wurms into play.



All of your comments thus far have been appreciated.

[MTG_Djinn]

[quote="freakish777 However, I think that Gaea's Cradle deserves one or two spots over the fetches, to provide alternate ways to abuse the SotF with extra mana.[/quote]

Yes, why not. Would be worth testing. But take Eladamri's Vineyard out before any fetches. I dont like Eladamri's Vineyard personally.

-MTG_Djinn