Garruk's Maze

[Guli]

I saw a movie recently, i don't know if it was on the tv or in my dreams. Both are the same though. It was in some kinda 3D virtual world. It was one of those movies with a classical monster with his green maze. Anyway it gave me inspiration and that reflected to this wonderful game. I see my decks as a hobby were i put my creativity into play.

We will use FORESTS. haha i can already see some people shouting away my idea again. That is ok though as long as some people appreciate it. I have had several good comments on MWS about my posts. A couple of misguided moderators who made moving my threads a hobby won't demotivate me.

The only cards that will justify the use of forest are in my opinion

Root Maze
Fastbond
Crop Rotation
Life from the Loam

We have seen these cards in the past nothing original. They are solid to good and in some cases deadly

Strip Mine
Wasteland
Ghost Q

Add in some Crucibles and you got yourself a deck that will eventuall destroy all lands except for darksteel citadel.


Let's look at the angry guy with his personal bodyguards:



All right. I tend to make a list of comments about new cards.


1.Go read http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=magic/planeswalkers/week4 if you don't know rulings about planeswalker.


2.For 4 mana you can untap 2 lands the turn it comes into play;

-so basicly it costs 2 mana if u look it that way.
-it can play around root maze wich will create a LOCK with cruci/loam/strip

-u can make a 3/3 to protect it or see it as a long turn win condition that at the same time is your lock. Multitasking, gives room for other cards in deck.
-he has got a maze weapon wich fits in the deck theme with root maze and makes me a happy panda-artist.

3.He can't be killed with traditional spells. You need to attack it with creatures or counter it.


Oh I almost forgot. Because of loads of 4-offs and the need of a draw engine, Bazaar of Baghdad is the natural choice.

Somehow this deck reminds me of vroman's ubamask with red (and a bit green). Im going full green.

I explained the lock and some cards choices. I ll post the list then. My SB looks bad thought.




// Lands
    4 Bazaar of Baghdad
    4 Riftstone Portal
    4 Mishra's Factory
    1 Strip Mine
    4 Wasteland
    1 Ghost Quarter
    1 Maze of Ith
    1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
    1 Mox Pearl
    1 Mox Diamond
    1 Mox Jet
    1 Mox Ruby
    1 Sol Ring
    1 Lotus Petal
    1 Mox Emerald
    1 Black Lotus
    1 Mox Sapphire
    4 Forest

// lock/disruption

    1 Fastbond
    4 Crucible of Worlds
    4 Garruk Wildspeaker
    1 Crop Rotation
    4 Life from the Loam
    4 Root Maze
    3 Null Rod
    4 Chalice of the Void

// creature/secondary kill

    2 tarmogyf

// Sideboard
    2 Maze of Ith
    2 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
    4 Leyline of the Void
    3 Sacred Ground
    4 Ray of Revelation

A LOT disruption.

Against any deck that want to kill you with creatures (this includes oath/tinker/platinum/...) the strategy is to destroy their mana and get Pendrall Vale or Maze of Ith to stall and eventually win. Well there is mishra's fac as well helps against aggro. Included 2 tarms they will be biggies.

Thanks for reading,

Guli

[Duncan]

Gee.. i like your style! Interesting idea again!

Don't you think 4 crucible & 4 loam is a bit too much? How has this worked out for you? And since you're running loam, have you considered the cycle lands?

In Legacy there is this TerraGeddon deck, which also ran white. It used Solitary Confinement along with Loam and cycle lands (or Genesis) to protect yourself. Since you're running Ray of Revelation, maybe this is an idea?

[meadbert]

Gee.. i like your style! Interesting idea again!

Don't you think 4 crucible & 4 loam is a bit too much? How has this worked out for you? And since you're running loam, have you considered the cycle lands?

In Legacy there is this TerraGeddon deck, which also ran white. It used Solitary Confinement along with Loam and cycle lands (or Genesis) to protect yourself. Since you're running Ray of Revelation, maybe this is an idea?

Crucibles and Loam are VERY important for this deck.  Keep in mind that extras can be pitched to Bazaar.  Also, Crucible may be the card most likely to be countered.  I have played decks quite similar to this and I found that I wanted a lot of 7 ofs.
For instance I played 4 Rods and 3 Chalice.  I also played 4 Loams and 3 Crucible.

Vinelasher Kudzu might be better than Garuk or Tarmogoyf in this deck.  It may be that Kudzu + Goyf is the way to go for beats.

Sylvan Scrying can help you find Strip Mine, Maze of Ith or Tabernacle.  Generally I find you want to run 4 Ghost Quarters or 4 Scryings and a Ghost Quarter.  Having both is probably overkill.  I just wanted to mention this card because it is pretty good.

If you run a lot of creatures then Centaur Garden can be pretty good.
Another card that I go back and forth on is Azusa, Lost but Seeking.  It turns out that with her Crucible and Centaur garden you can actually pump Azusa up to a 10/11 each turn.  If she belongs in the deck at all, she is the worst card.

Rootmaze is a hoser.  I used to run it in the board because I did not like shutting down my infinite mana engine in some matchups.  Root Maze is a tremendous pain for fetchlands though.

Sacred Ground is realy not needed.  If you lose to Stax it will be because of Chalice@2.  Exploration is better against Stax and probably better in general that Sacred Ground.

Finally, this deck is very susceptible to Leyline of the Void.  Garruk becomes your only hope and he will be too slow with Strip/Waste recursion shut off.  Goyf is tiny.  With Leyline out you are cut off from most of you white sources because Riftstone Portal cannot hit the yard.  This means you cannot  hardcast Ray of Revelation.  Obviously Ray cannot be flashed back with Leyline out.  Definitely look to find a way to better address Leyline of the Void.
Options are:
Naturalize
Seal of Primordium
Wax/Wane
Alter mana base to something like (4 Forrests, 1 Platea, 3 Windswept Heath, 2 Wooded Foothills)
Because Plateau can be fetched by the same fetchlands that fetch Forrests you can easily board in Ray of Revelation and Ancient Grudge.
Ancient Grudge helps the Stax matchup some, but does not address Chalice@2 which is the biggest threat.
With a fetch base Root Maze becomes worse.
Go to a rainbow base.

[Guli]

@meadbert

thank you for the comments. some really good points.
I know leyline is painful for this deck. That is why i added ray of rev in sideboard. what i simply overlooked (i have no problem admitting this) is that it doesn't solve the leyline problem. This means either make the deck less graveyard dependent OR have a solid answer against leyline.

What i do want to point out is that this is not a deck with creatures that beat down hardcore. In fact i look at this deck as a non-creature deck. This improves your match up against oath.

The deck wants to disrupt the opponents mana base in every fashion and it really does this nice

chalice
null rod
root maze

strip/waste
cruci/loam

I used workshops as well. But i had a hard time casting the garruk. But i didn't use riftstone portals when i used workshops. Maybe remove the factories and add shops.

To address the leyliine problem, how about Emerald Charm. I know ichorid defended in the same way in some lists. You can always untap bazaar or strip mine.
Reverent Silence is also an option (maybe in sideboard)

Again the deck isn't interested in cool gro creatures even if they would fit. I don't even want to include tarmogyf. But for 2 mana you get a 6/7 maybe more. That can't be cut entirely thats why i want a couple. Would be nice to kill an akroma with tarm/charm. Note that tabern is the key to win against oath. You make sure you strip orchards and kill the tokens with tabern. No more oathing.

Remember the key parts are root maze and garruk(title/theme). There are likely other directions than my list that can be explored.

Keep the feedback coming!

Guli

[Spacebalzz]

Have you tested Living Wish?  It seems that if you moved 1 Wasteland and 1 Bazaar to the SB, you'd be able to increase your probability of fetching a very early strip effect.  Also, Living Wish makes it possible to fetch a Tarmogoyf or Vinelasher from the board for the kill, or some other utility land if you're in a tight spot.