[Deck] Berserker (Critique & sideboard options)

[Harlequin]

Heres the main deck as it stands:

The Mana --
8 Forest
8 Windswept Heat & Wooded Foothills
4 ESG
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Lotus Petal

The Draw --
3 Sylvan Library

The Meat --
4 Rouge Elephants
4 Quirion Rangers
4 Xantid Swarm
3 Skyshroud Elite

The Guns --
4 Berserk
4 Rancor
4 Briar Shields
3 Seal of Strength
3 Invigorate
2 Giant Growth

The Side ---
4 Null Rods
3 Naturalize
3 Rushwood Legate
3 Ground seal
2 Causic Wasps
=====
Other Cards considered --
-Chalice of the void
-Bind
-Insist
-Oxidize
-Viridian shawman
-Deconstruct

Sideboard Discussion ---
The sideboard is really straigt forward:
null rod, ground seal (obvious hoses)
Caustic Wasp <--> Xantid swarm (for brown aggro decks)
Legate <--> SS Elite (decks that run primarily basic islands)
Naturalize (super important to deal with chalice for 1)

Basically It mows down an opponent in 3 or 4 turns... wich is pritty good.   It is kinda geared towards beating Control/Slaver.

Deck Pros --
No good Mana drains
Only has a few cards that hose it (and they dont get much play, esp with the latest 3sphere going outa commission)
Simple, Cost effective
If unchecked can land a consistent 3 or 4 turn kill, this kill tends to come outa left field (16-18 dmg on a trampler - at instant speed!).
When faceing Creatures: lots of "quick tricks" For getting the upper hand in combat
When faceing control:  assuming all counters are used on xandids and berserks, it has a relyable 5 to 6 turn clock.
Runs practically the best sideboard hate out there (groundseal, and nullrod are "must counters" in alot of decks).
No fear of Wasteland

Deck Cons --
Light mana: Land destruction / SoR or 3Sphere hurts like hell
Creature Dependant: It must be able to attack to win
Slower than Combo: game one vrs combo is a 90% chance of loosing (id say)

Short Term Game:  Obvious --
Blast outa the gate with Land + ESGs and get creatures on the board and ready to rock and roll fast.  beat them down to 15 life or so, then hammer out any 2 "+3/+3" cards on a 2/3 or 3/3 and berzerk for the kill.  with Sylvan library out, -8 life for 3 cards is a game winner.

The Long Game: Tricky --
With Sylvan Libraries and fetchlands you should get a good amount of late game selection.  After siding Caustic Wasp will dominate Welder/Agro's  or mono-brown Agro's HUGE BADDIES.  Unfortunatly if game 1 goes into the long game... it doesnt look good.

Cards to Fear:
#1) Chalice for 1
#2) Egineered Explosives / Powder Keg (for 1)
#3) Aracne Lab / Rule of Law  --- not so much here, because i Opted for more sacrifical enchantments over instants (ei Seal of Stregth over giant growth).  With the latest 3sphere restriction i expect to see more A.Lab/RoLaw on ppls side to control combo.  the Desicision to run more sac enchants and less instants gains game 2-3 stability at the cost of sneakyness/"element of surprise".
#4) 3sphere and Sphere Of Resistance -- wasps and naturalize help, but are decks that use these cards going to be competitors with the new restriction?
#5) Platinum Angel - Causic wasps + some boosting ability are a "damned if you do,  damned if you don't" Outcome.  if they block with angle boost wasp and kill, if they dont block deal damage and target angel for distruction.

Id love to hear what ppl think.  What Other cards should I consider?  Are there adjustments i should make to Qty of Cards?  And in general, Is this deck worthy in the the new 3sphere free enviroment?

[serracollector]

First off, too many lands, should be 4 land grant, 4 forest, 4 Foothills.

Wild Might>>>rest of pumpers.

Scent of Ivy also good since on average you'll still have 5 green cards in hand on turn 2, scent for 5 + beserk on a 2/2 on turn 2 is some good.

In a field of very few damage dealers ealry on (yes you will have your occasional fire/ice)  I would consider ghazban ogre and wild dogs seriously over Rogue Elephant.

Also try some of the hidden guys (gibbons and the 5/3 trampling ones when your opponent plays an artifact)

Ppl still play with lots of blue in t1, try river boa, unblockbale is some good, regenration helps agsint the 5/3, manshow games.

Good luck.  Since 3sphere is gone, and there is such a lakc of critter kill in the current meta, this might be a semi-descent deck, therefre it should HOPEFULLY NOT get sent to the newbie forum, and will be able to be discussed further.

SC

[Jacob Orlove]

therefre it should HOPEFULLY NOT get sent to the newbie forum, and will be able to be discussed further.

Threads get moved to newbie when the quality of the discussion is lacking, regardless of the deck involved (otherwise there would be no CS threads in newbie, for example).

On that note, moved.

[warble]

Hey,

  Just from my experience playing green aggro, it is better to have more creatures then sylvan library.  Odds are when you are able to cast the library, it is because you need more creatures.  I would suggest running more creatures instead, and if you are afraid of the long game switch a few of your one-time pops (Invigorate) for bonesplitters.  Also, if you go for more flyers and forget the skyshroud elite you'll stand a better chance in the long game.

From one person who loves a scryb sprite with 2 bonesplitters and rancor to another.

You forgot the scryb sprites and bonesplitters dude...what's up with that?

[Harlequin]

first off, ive found that boa is actually too mana heavy.  Although his regen is really nice.  I did have boa over rushwood legate, but you really cant beat a 0 mana 2/1.  vrs a 2 mana 2/1 thats unblockable...  if you consider the other options for even just 1 mana you could have a 4/1 with trample (rancor), or a 3/2 with instant +3/+3 (of briar sheild)

rogue elephant is so good... he turns a land drop into a 3/3.  the life creatures would be nice if it werent for fetches and esp sylvan library.  Aslo another creature that came in just under the bar was pouncing jaguar.  good... but too mana heavy.  

Scent of Ivy is a card that i had not heard of ... so thanks!  But i dont think it belongs seeing as it has 2 main flaws.  #1 for early game 4 or 5 dmg... you have to reveal all your secrete plans, they will know when to block and what to do to best stop your kill.  #2 late game you have like 1 or 2 cards in hand, so it would be far weaker than say giant growth, or seal of strength.

[Harlequin]

therefre it should HOPEFULLY NOT get sent to the newbie forum, and will be able to be discussed further.

Threads get moved to newbie when the quality of the discussion is lacking, regardless of the deck involved (otherwise there would be no CS threads in newbie, for example).

On that note, moved.

Ummm... I cant help but feel insulted by that comment.  As i understand it the "Newbie Forum" is (by your definition) "A spring board for all starting members as well as new players"

I would like to think that the subject of this thread is a step above your typical "new player" discussion.  I went to great lengths to bring up the pros and cons of each card considered.

In a 3sphere reduced enviroment, i think people would want to see true Potential Tier 1 decks.  Im not saying that this deck will win every game, or become the top deck.  But in the current metagame, there are few decks taht run Null and Ground seal, and have none of the typical downsides.  I supose ill just have to get some good top 8's before this deck will be spotlighted.  Oh well.  Thanks again to anyone who checked out the newbie thread. =/

[Vegeta2711]

Ummm... I cant help but feel insulted by that comment. As i understand it the "Newbie Forum" is (by your definition) "A spring board for all starting members as well as new players"

I would like to think that the subject of this thread is a step above your typical "new player" discussion. I went to great lengths to bring up the pros and cons of each card considered.

You shouldn't be insulted, you have to realize you thinking that you made a 'better than usual thread' isn't accurate. Here are some of the faults in the thread.

1. No testing results at all
You need to give people some idea of how you do against other decks. You don't have to tourney test, though it is nice, but some mentioning of playtesting is always good.

2. Why this would be a deck that's better than anything else?
You go over this to some extent, but fail to mention why this deck would do better than say...  Food Chain Goblins, Ravager or similar aggro-combo decks.

You need some sort disection of why it's better specfically than similar, but proven, decks. Generalities help, but they can only go so far.

3. Lack of proper grammar and spelling.
If you can make half of the post legible, take the extra 2 minutes and make the other half the same way. Nobody will berate you for a single typo or something, stuff like  'ppl', lack of apostrophes and consistent misspellings are rather annoying.

Finally, being in the newbie forum isn't a slam on you. It simply means you need to work on how you post and explain yourself and the deck better. If you people would post in the newbie forum to begin with, maybe you wouldn't feel so insulted when a post gets moved there.

[AnFgangsta]

A couple things I noticed that I want to bring up:

1. Naturalize maindeck seems like a poor decision to me since the deck's objective is to win really quick..I mean I would sideboard them and run Oxidize in their spot since artifacts are going to be what you worry about.

2. You say that there is a 90% chance of losing first game to combo..any deck where the chances of loss are that high should not be played..that plain and simple.  You do not want to give a deck an auto game, especially combo where everything in the deck is broken and the combo can be pieced together out of nothing. With that said, try maindecking some hate/stalling techniques to help improve the game 1 matchup. Root Maze, Null Rod, Cursed Totem, etc would all be helpful (ofcourse not all of them at once because the deck would then be too convaluted). I would suggest you read up to the G/W tempo deck, it seems to run off the same principle that you are looking for.