Soooo cool. Drake Familiar.dec

[Nazdakka]

A fun little casual deck I've had knocking around on MWS. It's loads of fun to play, and surprisingly dangerous.

// Lands
    1 Selesnya Sanctuary
    1 Gruul Turf
    4 Flooded Strand
    4 Wooded Foothills
    2 Tundra
    1 Boros Garrison
    1 Taiga
    3 Volcanic Island
    1 Plateau
    1 Savannah
    4 Tropical Island
// Creatures
    4 Merfolk Looter
    4 Nomad Mythmaker
    4 Iridescent Drake
    3 Rootwater Matriarch
    4 Drake Familiar
// Spells
    3 Flight of Fancy
    4 Fists of Ironwood
    4 Careful Study
    4 Galvanic Arc
    2 Enlightened Tutor
    1 Mythic Proportions

The idea? Abuse the CIP enchantments from Ravinca using Drake Familiar, Mythmaker and the Drake. It works pretty well. There's a kinda of enchantment-Reanimator theme going which gives a constant souce of card advantage, especially with the Mythmakers. The worst card in the deck at the moment feels like the Matriach - she can sometimes be absolutely amazing, stealing huge amounts of stuff and winning the game solo, but she doesn't combo all that well with the Mythmakers and Iridescent Drakes, which hurts a lot. I don't know what I'd use instead if I were to cut her - any ideas?

[Ephraim]

I have a deck based on Drake Familiar.  It leans more toward newer cards, just because I wanted to play with some of the stuff that I liked out of Ravnica.  One of the cards I found that plays really well with the theme of the deck is Cloudstone Curio.  You play Flight of Fancy and use it to bounce Galvanic Arc.  You play Sparkmage Apprentice and use it to bounce Drake Familiar.  It isn't going to make the deck any more powerful, but it helps the deck do "what it was made to do."  (There's nothing quite as un-fun as building a deck around an interaction or a concept only to find that the cards you've included incidentally steal the limelight.)

If you're not feeling good about Rootwater Matriarch, you might consider Simic Guildmage.  If you're using Iridescent Drake to bring back Flight of Fancy, you'll get the cards, but the enchantment isn't doing you any good there.  Simic Guildmage (or Kitsune Mystic // Autumn Tail, Kitsune Sage, if you're feeling bold) would let you put those enchantments where they'll be most useful.

You have good ways to cheat Mythic Proportions into play, but if you'd like a beater card that will be a little easier for you to cast, I think that Moldervine Cloak hits the spot.  It is hard to get rid of and it puts cards in your graveyard where your Mythmakers and Drakes can get at them.

[Nazdakka]

Ephraim:
I'll look at the Curio. It doesn't seem like it does enough by itself, but I could be wrong - bouncing the enchantments would certainly be very powerful. I know what you mean about cards stealing the limelight - when testing a new casual deck which does something cool I have to mentally separate out the wins where I just curve out and win with utility creature beatdown from the wins where I do the deck's trick.

Simic Guildmage is an idea I've had too - it probably has less raw power, but it's more synergetic with everything else. It's also an easy-to-cast bear, so it's automatically pretty good

Moldervine is an idea I like. Getting good cards into grave can sometimes be a problem, so dredge could be the answer I'm looking for. At the moment Mythic Proportions is like a tutorable 'help' button which I get when I need a fast clock as opposed to genuine board control, but Moldervine would work differently. I'll look into it.

Another unrelated deck: I posted a thread on this deck ages ago, but noone replied. I'll give it another try here, because it's quite an interesting deck which is pretty strange to play. I've made quite a lot of changes since the last incarnation, mainly centred around trying to fix my almost total lack of disruption. U/G is never going to have good removal, but without some kind of way of stopping my opponen't plans I am very vulnerable.

// Lands
    4 Tropical Island
    1 Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers
    5 Island
    2 Flooded Strand
    2 Windswept Heath
    6 Forest
    4 Simic Growth Chamber

// Creatures
    3 Meloku the Clouded Mirror
    4 Yavimaya Elder
    4 Sakura-Tribe Scout
    2 Budoka Gardener--Dokai, Weaver of Life
    4 Vinelasher Kudzu
    2 Soratami Cloudskater

// Spells
    2 Rending Vines
    4 Exploration
    4 Counterspell
    3 Gush
    4 Mana Breach

Exploration makes me quite a lot more explosive, and obviously more ways to put lots of lands into play makes the the various tricks quite a lot more powerful. After a bit of testing, I think I've found the point where I have the right amount of cards which put extra lands into play - if I go up to 4 Gardeners I tend to have too many land players and not enough stuff to do with the land.

The Simic Bounceland is an obvious addition - extra excuses to get lands into and out of play are always good.

Rending Vines is beginning to look a bit meh. My hand is not always as full at is might be, perhaps Naturalize might be better here.

Mana Breach can be pretty crushing to an unprepared opponent. It can gain fantastic amounts of time in the medium term by slowing the opponent down at every drop. Obviously it's best against slower opponents, but it never seems to be really awful except when I topdeck it looking for an out. In multiples it can be crushing. I also looked at Overburden and Storm Cauldron when I made the choice, but my intuition is that Breach is the best option. I'll certainly try the Cauldron out in the future, just to see what happens, but probably not Overburden. It just seems a lot less powerful.

EDIT:
Storm Cauldron is sooo much fun, although I'm still not sure if Mana Breach isn't better. In my Storm Cauldron version I've gone up to the full 12 'Explorations' and added Flooded Shoreline for a better removal spell.

Current build:

// Lands
    4 Tropical Island
    1 Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers
    6 Island
    2 Flooded Strand
    2 Windswept Heath
    5 Forest
    4 Simic Growth Chamber

// Creatures
    3 Meloku the Clouded Mirror
    4 Yavimaya Elder
    4 Sakura-Tribe Scout
    4 Budoka Gardener--Dokai, Weaver of Life
    4 Vinelasher Kudzu

// Spells
    4 Exploration
    4 Gush
    3 Storm Cauldron
    3 Counterspell
    3 Flooded Shoreline

[WireTapOut]

I really like this concept.  I have been kicking around a deck with Auratouched Mage in it for a while and this post finally helped me put together a list. The only problem I have with this deck is that Drake Familiar and Iridescent Drake both need to have an enchantment in play or in the graveyard or they just sit in your hand.

You really ought to try out some of the cards from Dissension.  It gives this deck Shielding Plax, which cantrips and also allows you to play a few tricks with Simic Guildmage.

My build is U/W to clean up the mana base and to utilize Auratouched Mage:

//Creatures
    4 Academy Researchers
    4 Auratouched Mage
    4 Drake Familiar
    2 Iridescent Drake
    3 Nomad Mythmaker
    4 Simic Guildmage

//Enchantments
    4 Shielding Plax
    4 Flight of Fancy
    4 Mythic Proportions
    1 Infiltrator's Magemark

//Artifacts
    3 Azorius Signet

//Lands
    4 Azorius Chancery
    10 Island
    9 Plains

The mana base is budget.  The two drakes and the mythmaker are there to abuse the CIP enchantments.  Auratouched Mage searches out Mythic Proportions and should you have one in your hand then Academy Researchers makes up for not being able to cast the Proportions.  The Guildmage is there for combat tricks and and targeting tricks.

Great idea on this post!