Type 1-based Xtreme decks - Concepts to the Xtreme

[Mindstab_Thrull]

OK, here goes. I'm looking at designing decks from the Type 1 card pool, minus any of the uber-expensive cards (read: anything worth over $150 each). The key here is to take a common concept in Magic (counterspells, for instance) and build a deck HEAVILY based on that concept, with at least THIRTY cards that follow it. Here's a sample deck:

U(g) Counterspells to the Xtreme

4 Stronghold Machinist
4 Stronghold Biologist
4 Mystic Snake
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
4 Dismiss
4 Decree of Silence
2 Foil / Misdirection
2 Bringer of the Blue Dawn
3 Temporal Adept
4 Thieving Magpie
1 Feldon's Cane

4 Tundra
4 Underground Sea
4 Volcanic Island
4 Tropical Island
4 Yavimaya Coast

OK.. so here's the key:

1. Minimum 60-card deck (duh), Type 1 cards, follow all restrictions/bans, no high-dollar-value cards.
2. At least 30 cards devoted to the concept. "All creatures" doesn't count, incidentally; however, "sorceries that put creature tokens into play" may be fair game
3. 20 Land slots. It's casual; we're not trying for fast kills here
4. You have to be able to WIN with this deck. To do that, make the following assumptions:
a) At least 12 creatures and/or spells that can hit your opponent.
b) Each card sees play once; twice if you have an all-at-once refiller like Timetwister or Feldon's Cane.
c) An X in a casting cost counts as 2; cards like Corrupt that are based on how many of SOMETHING you have, choose a feasible minimum to play that card. For example, Corrupt won't generally see play unless you have at least four swamps out.
d) All creatures are able to swing once per time through the deck (ie, once usually; twice if you count Feldon's Cane or Timetwister; three if you have both), and all spells will see play once per two copies.
e) You must be able to deal at least 20 damage in this way.

If you wish to ask before trying out a theme, leave me an IM here. Most concepts are fair game, so whatever you want to try it will probably be good. Have fun!

[Mindstab_Thrull]

Mono-Black Life Gaining Deck

4 El-Hajjaj
4 Drain Life
4 Corrupt
4 Soul Burn
4 Consume Spirit
4 Viscious Hunger
4 Syphon Soul
2 Throne of Bone
3 Death Pit Offering
4 Dark Ritual
3 Cabal Ritual
1 Necropotence
1 Feldon's Cane

18 Swamp
2 Cabal Coffers

===

Black/Red LD

4 Molten Rain
4 Pillage
4 Avalanche Riders
4 Despoil
4 Rancid Earth
4 Braids, Cabal Minion
4 Implode
3 Army Ants
2 Demonic Hordes
4 Dingus Egg
2 Arc Mage
1 Feldon's Cane

4 Badlands
4 Sulfurous Springs
4 Swamp
4 Mountain
1 Strip Mine
3 Wasteland

[dandan]

Self damage (for lovers of very short games)

4 Carnophage
4 Sarcomancy
4 Sewer Rats
4 Erg Raiders
2 Hasran Ogress
4 Coumbajj Witches
4 Flesh Reaver
4 Phyrexian Rager (Like Night's Whisper but you get a 2/2 for B instead of a card!)

4 Dark Ritual  *
1 Necropotence
2 Forsaken Wastes
1 YawgWin    **
1 Strands of Night
2 Nocturnal Raid ***

18 Swamp
1 Wasteland
1 Stripmine

* Mana burn if you want to stay in theme
** Cast Ragers and/or Rituals for thematic life loss
*** Apologies, with 30 creatures I figured a pumper was in order. Change to Hatred if you want to be 'pure'

Metagame choices
Plague Spitter
Crypt Rats

I guess 36 Relentless Rat, 4 Rituals is fairly Xtreme! (Personally I would run 4 Crpyt 'ratbomb' Rats)

[Mindstab_Thrull]

Nice deck idea, dandan. If you don't have Flesh Reaver you can run Wretched Anurid; Murderous Betrayal might be playable too. And what about that weird critter.. Ebonblade something I think.. it's recent.. swats your opponent for half his life, but you lose half yours on your upkeep or something like that.. really really nasty dude. Maggot Carrier might also be a playable one-drop if you need another one.

[dandan]

If I can run the Reaver I run the Reaver. Self-damaging decks love him.

Murderous Betrayal is very mana intensive for this deck and believe it or not you actually need your life! Most cards 'use' your life in exchange for higher than usual power but Murderous Betrayal is very mana intensive compared to Vendetta, Snuff Out and I'd even prefer Slaughter. Generally the deck deals with creatures by turning creatures sideways (not many Peacekeeper/Arboria/Moat theme decks).

The Maggot Carriers were considered but are not as good as the current 12 1 drops.

Regarding the half your life creature, he is bad. Although it might not look it at first sight, this deck is more dangerous to the opponent than it is to you (although I wouldn't be very keen on a direct damage deck packing Earthquake - a particularly bad way to lose as it is self-damaging too!). The creatures are all hard except the Ragers who are really card drawing in disguise. By the time you hardcast or cast/Morph him you might as well just cast a good creature.

I would really like to have an Infernal Darkness in there but it depends on the metagame. This deck probably has the best SB out of all theme decks (Dystopia, Withering Wisps, Infernal Darkness, etc)

Seeing as the deck is pretty Wasteland-proof I guess I should replace 1 Swamp with an Urborg. All Swamps are Snow-covered.

I actually have a cantrip deck based around Flare that uses no non-land permanents other than Disk/Keg/Deed and kills very very slowly.

Ultra-defense decks would also be strong
(Moat, Ivory Mask, Abeyance, Story Circle, Balance, Land Tax, ZOrb, Scroll Rack, Conjurer's Bauble/Soldevi Digger/Gaea's Blessing/Mesmeric Orb, Sun Droplet and decking as the win condition)

[dandan]

I'd be impressed by an alternative win theme deck -Battle of Wits, Celestial Convergence, Chance Encounter, Coalition Victory, Darksteel Reactor, Epic Struggle, Mortal Combat, Test of Endurance, The Cheese Stands Alone and of course Shahrazad. That would be awesome!!

[Jacob Orlove]

I'd be impressed by an alternative win theme deck -Battle of Wits, Celestial Convergence, Chance Encounter, Coalition Victory, Darksteel Reactor, Epic Struggle, Mortal Combat, Test of Endurance, The Cheese Stands Alone and of course Shahrazad. That would be awesome!!

With poison creatures and millstones, you could probably build a 250-card deck potentially capable of meeting every alternate win condition in the game.

[Alfred]

This deck is aptly called "back on top"

4x Tropical Island
4x Bayou
4x Underground Sea
4x Polluted Delta
4x City of Brass
4x Windswept Heath
4x Chittering Rats
4x Wayward Soul
4x Agonizing Memories
4x Fallow Earth
4x Memory Lapse
4x Painful Memories
4x Plow Under
4x Temporal Spring
4x Time Ebb

This uses the best of all of the "put on top" mechanic. This deck is extremely fun to play. Your opponent may get VERY fed up over the course of the game though. All of the cards are designed to lock your opponent out of drawing cards and give you tempo at the same time.

[dandan]

Excellent deck. It does, however have too many lands.

Since you are mana hungry, I suggest Sol Ring and 3 Pentad Prism (you don't have that many 2 drops and a turn 3 Stunted Growth is probably game). They are out of theme though but so are extra lands!

[Alfred]

Wow, I can't believe I missed stunted growth! That is the king of all the friggen on top cards. I changed my deck to take into account all of your suggestions (stunted growth replaces agonizing memories). On another note, I've been playing this deck quite a bit, and am surprised by how well it works. The mana denial keeps cards in their hand, making the "discard" that much more effective. Plow under followed by a time ebb is a real kick to the balls, because most of the time they have to wait and draw the mana again before they can cast it. I have gotten to the point in some games where all 60 cards were on top of his library, at which point, the guy just conceded. Come to think of it, I don't think I have won a game where the opponent didn't concede.

[Mindstab_Thrull]

Alfred:

*chuckles* You know, I'd started making a deck like that RL a couple years ago.. The only negative comments I have with your deck are that (a) it's 24 lands not 20 as I mentioned before and (b) you "only" have 4 cards that can actually WIN you the game, and according to rule #4, this deck counts for 8 damage to the opponent. Is there a way we can swap out four lands for 12 damage with this?

It's a really fun deck idea though

[dandan]

Actually he also has Wayward Soul although I think death by concession is EASILY the most common way of winning. Those Rats would kill you in the end and if anything I would cut the Souls adding Stunted Growth. With the Sol Ring, Rituals and Prisms, you stand a good chance of doing something nasty by turn 3 and the opponent is unlikely to have 4 ways of killing Rats in their top 9 cards!!

I have a few Xtreme decks floating around although many of them are Highlander so less Xtreme than the focused efforts you have here. One is half Highlander, 4 of the focus cards and only 1 of support cards. Here is a distilled version of that deck.

Themes
Creatureless Tim deck
Cantrips and Cycling

PING
4 Flare
4 Zap
4 Solar Blast
3 Slice and Dice
4 Touch of Death
4 Last Caress
PING AGAIN
4 Gaea's Blessing
4 Conjurer's Bauble
MANA
3 Helm of Awakening
1 Fastbond
1 Sol Ring
4 Chromatic Orb
4 Badlands
4 Taiga
4 Bayou
6 Mountains
1 Swamp
1 Forest

For anyone interested, the semi-Highlander version also features Abeyance, Renewed Faith, Wayfarer's Bauble, Manipulate Fate, Lat-Nam's Legacy, Mind Ravel, Unhinge and Cremate.

May you never experience the hell of having an opponent drop Black Vise or Underworld Dreams against you!!

[Mindstab_Thrull]

God I love these deck ideas.

Dandan: Thanks for pointing out the Souls.. I missed those in the deck list. The deck thus qualifies for 20 damage = legal under rule #4e. Hm. Looking at the rule list again.. 4b was worded as "that can hit your opponent", by which I meant damaging your opponent. (I suppose I should reword it that way.) Are there any other cards that would suit the theme, or support it, that could go in?

Nice cantrip/cycling damage deck idea as well. I've got a friend who wants to build a cantrip deck, ie one where every card in it says "Draw a card." So, eg he'd take Dismiss over Counterspell, or (in theory) Ember Shot over Lightning Bolt (although even HE realizes how bad Ember Shot is..).

[theorigamist]

Well, here's the obvious deck:

Some call him...Tim?

Tims: 33
4 Prodigal Sorcerer
4 Grim Lavamancer
4 Razorfin Hunter
4 Suq'Ata Firewalker
4 Rootwater Hunter
4 Thornwind Faeries
4 Vulshok Sorcerer
4 Zuran Spellcaster
1 Kamahl, Pit Fighter

Spells: 4
4 Curiosity

Mana: 23
4 Volcanic Island
4 Shivan Reef
4 fetches (3 blue, 1 red)
6 Island
5 Mountain

[dandan]

Where is Intruder Alarm?
23 lands!! Rules say 20, use Sol Ring and 2 other artifacts

Damn, I want to play that deck with my PING deck (Slice and Dice deals with Firewalkers)

Who wants to post an Enchantress deck?
I guess we can discount Goblins and Slivers as being too mainstream.

I also have a highlander 'life' deck full of defensive creatures and enchantments. I can't imagine the tedium that an Xtreme version entails but I must admit that maindeck Lashknife Barrier would upset PING and Tims.

[bebe]

All your base are mine. dec

4 force of will
4 misdirection
3 scent of brine
3 bribery
3 steal artifact
3 desertion
3 control magic
2 confiscate

3 back to basics

3 rootwater thief
2 morphling
2 old man of the sea

1 fact or fiction
1 stroke of genius
1 opportunity  

16 beta islands
4 Wateland
1 strip mine
1 sol ring

[Mixing Mike]

bebe: No Memenarch!?!?!?

[Squee]

Token.dec

4 Deranged Hermit

2 Parallel Evolution
4 Call of the Herd
4 Beast Attack
3 Grizzley Fate
4 Chatter of the Squirrel
4 Squirrel Nest
3 Roar of the Wurm
4 Catalyst Stone
4 Quiet Speculation

4 Tropical Island
4 Yavimaya Coast
4 Deserted Temple
6 Forest
2 Island

[dandan]

Is it too hard to put 20 land in a deck? (not you Squee)

Remember the holy hand-grenade? 3 is the number, the number is 3. 4 is not the number, 5 is right out.
Substitute 20 for 3 and 21, 22 etc for 4, 5,  etc.

Nice decks BTW although Scent of Brine???!!!!!

[bebe]

Sorry - Memnarch is not part of a deck designed before it came out.
Scent of brine = tech
And really,Morphs could be Rainbow Efreeets for style points.

[pox_reborn]

An all alternate-win condition deck.. hmm.. interesting thats a challenge I'm up tot take!