Emerald Alice: A derivative of T1 Dryad

[acoly]

Although it has its roots in Chapman's Dryad/Phid deck, we believe that we have created a version of Dryad that will be respectable for mainstream Type One play:

EMERALD ALICE
Created by Acolytec and Rogue

(Gush>AncestralRecall.Deck)

Mana:

4 Land Grant
7 Island
1 Forest
4 Tropical Island
1 Mox Saphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus

Permanents:

4 Quirion Dryad
4 Werebear
1 Morphling
3 Powder Keg

Counterspells:

4 Force of Will
4 Misdirection
3 Mana Drain
3 Mana Leak

Draw:

1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Fact or Fiction
4 Gush
4 Impulse
3 Brainstorm

SIDEBOARD:
4 Oath of Druids
2 Gaea's Blessing
1 Spike Feeder
1 Spike Weaver
4 Hydroblast
3 Back to Basics

The deck is very versatile, classifying as an aggrocontrol deck capable of moving to either side in a match.

14 counterspells coupled with 3 kegs and 4 oath of druids allow for signifcant removal.  The 8 green critters act as walls, elves,  as well as signifcant threats, capable of overrunning a morphling.  Back to basics returns to annoy the shit out of keeper players as usual   This deck has excellent drawing power in 4x misdirection, ancestral, 4x gush, 4x impulse, and fact as well as a high card to land count.

Certain cards failed to work well in testing:  These include Library and timetwister.  Yes these cards are good, but not in this deck (threashold is good, giving your opponent cards is bad, and with gush, library takes up a very necessary land drop as it is hard enough to get colored mana as it is.  Also, having 7 cards is very rare with this deck belive it or not.)

Although we certainly will not make the mistake of posting anything stupid like win percentages, testing has shown this deck to perform very well against the field.  It is certainly a deck, in our opinion, that is worth respecting, as a descendant of NecroBlue SaphireOath and Alice.

Acolytec and Rogue

[FeverDog]

The lone Morphling seems a little out of place, when are you really gonna have enough mana to cast and protect it when you run 4 Gush? I think if your looking for an untargetable finisher, something like Blurred Mongoose might fit the deck better.

[acoly]

The initial reason was actually to make more room in the board for the oath conversion.  We did find though that we liked the morphling, and that he typically was either pitched if he came up early or that we could cast him if he came up late.  Basically we need a 9th creature, and well, morphling is superman   Its another good sink for drain too.

[kirdape3]

I disagree with the Werebears in the deck.  Nimble Mongoose is a very respectable 3/3 smasher, but the most important part is that it's untargetable (and therefore unburnable and unAbyssable).  Sure, you have a bunch of counterspells, but having a cheaper untargetable guy may just be better than having the Werebear.

[acoly]

Thats one issue I'm not certain about.  Its a difference of a few things:

Werebear:
Is not stopped by blocking reavers, factorys (no wastes), or mongooses
Dropping an island 1st turn and tropical 2nd is preferable due to wasteland, so the mongoose is only partly a first turn play.
5 turn clock compared to 7 turns
Can be used as an elf to cast and counter at same time.
Keg for 1 doesn't suck

Mongoose:
The Abyss does nothing
Burn before threashold does nothing
Swords to plowshares does nothing

I certainly like the idea of basically nullifying just about everything really terrible that keeper has to throw at me (abyss and swords), weighting the keeper matchup very highly in Dryad's favor.  Not being hit with early burn is helpful too, but we allready beat anything red an awful lot.

Blocking critters with 3-4 power are really the greatest reason that I started with werebears, cause the deck really can't run wastelands very well, and I dislike being dryad dependent in order to go aggressive.

Thoughts on the support critter choice?  I like both...

[Fishhead]

> Also, having 7 cards is very rare with this deck belive it
> or not.

I wasnt having problems getting to 7 with Chapins version; a Gush is +4-1 = +3 which is a big boost.  Of course those darn Ophidians would stay in my hand until I got 3 mana, so I may have had a generally larger hand size than you.

> 3 Powder Keg

How many counters are you hoping to put on the Keg?  Certainly not 2.    Is this just an anti-Aggro measure and if so, how are you siding to fit in 4 Oaths, 2 Blessings and the creature suite for that matchup?  I'm wondering if there is something more optimal for this slot.  

> Thoughts on the support critter choice?  I like both...

Thats a tough one.  The Mongoose seems like a purely better creature, but mana balance issues are so hairy with this deck.  Are you using the Bears for mana a lot?  If so, I'm not sure you can remove them without upsetting your mana base.  

It also plays back into the Keg question, since the Goose costs only 1.

[Rogue]

Having 7 cards in hand is not a priority. More often than not, we spend the vast majority of games at about 3 or 4, and do just fine. Obviously we would like 7, but it is not a major concern.
       Keg is sided out for oath against some decks. We obviously don't want to maindeck oath, as many matchups would be sub optimal with that configuration. Keg stays versus some decks, and is subbed out versus others.
       To make room for the oaths, blessings, and spikes, out come bears and dryads. They get in the way when you are trying to fog the opponent and block with morphling. Oath is not complimentary, it is transformational. It makes us play like a different deck.
      The biggest reason for not using the mongoose is the fact that keg is most often used for 1.
One thing that should be noted about the deck is allthough it has roots in Chapman's deck, it really has an incredible number of differences. If you read down the two lists, things have been changed up and down. More land has been added, a better attacking secondary creature, one mana cantrips have been replaced by impulse, certain cards have been added/replaced/removed.
         It has more of a control attitude, and less of a "suicide dryad". Also, the sideboard has gone from specific answers to transformational. I am not trying to take credit for the idea, I am just saying this so that it is taken into consideration when advice is given and comments are made.
         Also, I would like to thank those who gave input on our deck.\n\n

[Fishhead]

> More land has been added...

I think this is a key improvement.  I dont know how Chapin got by with 9 land, 4 mana artifacts and zero Bears.  And then still used a 3cc creature!  

> Oath is not complimentary, it is transformational.
> It makes us play like a different deck.

I'm not sure I can wrap my brain around a complete transformation to Oath while still retaining such a sketchy land-base.  

Since Morphling and Weaver still require mana to operate, I dont see them being as good here where you are likely to have very few land on the table.  

What sort of testing have you tried against the transformational sideboard?   And how did it stack up against just running the 3 Kegs?

[acoly]

Oath is an absolute beating stick.  It really doesnt matter how much mana you get, since its not like you're gonna be siding oath against static-control.  Morphling doesn't take much mana to defend against aggro and weaver only takes 1 mana to fog after all.  God forbid a critter die, another one will simply pop out the following turn

The maindeck alone is showing very good results against aggro, 4x oath and 3x keg post board allows for overkill as well as a very good chance against the worst matchup in theory for the deck: suicide.

It is a misconception that the mana base is shaky.  Although a duel color deck will obviously never be as resilliant as a monocolor, gush and land grant for forest make it very difficult to color-screw a deck that can run easilly at 2 mana.  I get a lot more mana than you would think over the course of a game typically.  Casting morphling and fact when they come up is rarely a problem.

Besides, I've been running oath decks for quite some time now with very high success.  Oath just works for me, always has.  It has the potential to be a better removal card than the abyss or moat because it handles any creature that is not a manland at a very difficult to stop two mana.  Its a win condition unto itself as well, plus a deck shuffler/graveyard recurser.

[merkaba]

I have a question :if i'm in an envioremnt that has about 60%  aggro and 40% control, is it viable to convert to dryad post-side board? Just wondering, because i like this deck, but it might not be the best idea to play it like it is now.

[Rogue]

The problem with maindecking oath is that it really is not the best thing for the environment. Aggro decks are not extremely difficult to beat game 1, the exception being suicide. The oath board is simply an insurance policy, as well as a solid card versus decks that beat us at times(suicide). We are by no means a good oath deck post board, just one that is effective enough to win because it is tuned to beat the specific aggro deck it is playing against.

For example, say that we were playing a deck such as the patriot. Post board, we would have Back to Basics and Oath. Once both had made it to the table, it would simply be a matter of protecting them in order to win. Having a deck tuned to abuse oath is not necessary.

The other reason for not having a reverse main deck/sideboard situation is that control would simply beat us game 1, even is we did have back to basics. We simply wouldn't be able to find our answers and threats in time, even with back to basics. Auto-losing to keeper game 1 is not a good idea, especially when they have REB and other tools post board.

[FeverDog]

About the Werebear vs Mongoose issue: I think we are overlooking one thing, Powder Keg. With both Dryad and Werebear at 2cc, you can blow the Keg at 1 without having to worry about your own dudes. Considering you will usually Keg at 1 versus Sligh and Stompy, or at 3 vs Suicide, his creature base seems fine to me.

The Morphling is a little different, i think you should either play 2 or none at all. This may sound stupid but if you only run a single Morph with no tutoring you are not likely to draw one when you really need it and with 8 pitch-counters, drawing extra Morphlings should not be a problem.

[Pegasus Token]

Quote (FeverDog @ July 13 2002,12:24)The Morphling is a little different, i think you should either play 2 or none at all. This may sound stupid but if you only run a single Morph with no tutoring you are not likely to draw one when you really need it and with 8 pitch-counters, drawing extra Morphlings should not be a problem.

I disagree with your statement for what I consider to be a fairly obvious reason.  You're completely overlooking that Morphling is in the maindeck because there isn't necessarily anything stronger and it saves sideboard room as it is part of the Oath engine you side in during the transformation postboard.  Also, the inability to play the Morphling regularly is not a problem for the reason you listed.

[Rogue]

Actually Feverdog, I did mention the keg thing in an earlier post as it came to my attention. It is not optimal to have a creature killed when you really ant a blocker after you kill slighs creatures(Saves counters).
The Morphling issue: well, I'm glad you didn't tell us to drop them. 2 is really awkward though. See, we essentially have a "weakness" to moat and the abyss. They almost never hit, but if they did, we would be screwed. Once a keeper player knows that, you're chances of winning are greatly decreased. Therefore, a single morpho is there. We are never in a situation where we feel like we have to have him(except the abive circumstance), and thus it is usually just a finisher or a bonus. With impulse specifically, as well as the gush/land grant/brainstorm/fof/ancestral drawing, we tend to see a morphling during the course of almost every game, and 1 is plenty for a deck with 14 counters.

[Zherbus]

First off let me say that I like this deck a lot. My stomach turns at the 1,467,895 posts about 'My Gro', 'Super Gro', 'Bionic Gro', Miracle Gro', 'Watch My Wang Gro', 'Hey Look! its agGro', and 'Gro is the best deck in the world because I am an ignorant extended player...say isn't Morphling restricted?'

Anyways, this deck seems to me a great working model of what Type 1 grow should be. I love the transformational sideboard more than I like listening to my girlfriend tell me how gigantic I am. Seriously, It makes sense to me. Gro generally does poor against aggro, simply swap the deck around and *bam* kill aggro.

Anyways, I also disagree with Werebear. In addition to its horrible flavor text, I just find it nothing more than a Llanowar elf who may become a 4/4 if/when it gets threshold.

Acoly's comparison:

Quote Werebear:
Is not stopped by blocking reavers, factorys (no wastes), or mongooses
Dropping an island 1st turn and tropical 2nd is preferable due to wasteland, so the mongoose is only partly a first turn play.
5 turn clock compared to 7 turns
Can be used as an elf to cast and counter at same time.
Keg for 1 doesn't suck

Mongoose:
The Abyss does nothing
Burn before threashold does nothing
Swords to plowshares does nothing

I would rather have Blurred Mongoose than either of these two. Simple because then you have the following:

The Abyss does nothing
Burn before threashold does nothing
Swords to plowshares does nothing
Keg for 1 doesn't suck
Dropping an island 1st turn and tropical 2nd is preferable due to wasteland, so the mongoose is only partly a first turn play.

Also, against suicide it chumps a Negator better...minor reason, I know. Every little inch you can get against suicide is needed however.

[acoly]

He's the 2/1 bugger right?  I tried him.  He got dropped from the deck the second an opposing ophidean held him off.  Can't be stalled because of a stupid phid now

[Zherbus]

Yeah, I forgot you see tons of Phid decks. In that case, getting to threshold to make 4/4 bash their way through Phid's aren't that bad of an idea...I still don't like them, but I don't know as if there is anything better.

I still don't like Nimble Mongoose, because of the kegs. You almost always want to blow it at 1 (and on the rare occasion 0 to wipe out moxen if that would be the smart move.)

[merkaba]

To make your werebear better: cross out the flavor text, and write 'ho' over the 'e' in the card title.

Oh and has anyone considered call of the herd in the werebear slot(Im not sure if it would be viable with this mana base)

[acoly]

Its moreso that if a stupid phid can block, well quite frankly just about anything can stop your assault.  Thats no good

Ok got a question.  What do people think about the following:

Morphling #2.   Regrowth.   Sylvan Library

[Pegasus Token]

Quote (acoly @ July 14 2002,17:45)Ok got a question.  What do people think about the following:
Morphling #2.   Regrowth.   Sylvan Library

I don't believe I'd mind the second Morphling (8 Pitch Counters).  However, I also see no need for him.  I see the 1 as often as I'd like anyway.  Two of him seems unnecessary and awkward.  That's just my take.

Regrowth seems fun, but I don't know what I'd take out for it.  Ancestralling twice is some good, but isn't that why we run 4 Mis-D? heh  Anyway, Regrowth would likely be a fine addition, but what do you feel comfortable taking out?  The deck seems rather tight to me, especially in the department of green cards as they are all necessary and I just don't like reducing my force food once I've become accustomed to seeing as much of it as I have.  It would be nice, though.

Sylvan Library... I am really unsure about this card.  We already have the best card-drawing engine in Type One...  My only real complaint is that it isn't blue and it doesn't seem better than anything else in the deck.

I'd be glad to hear your opinion on these three cards and what provoked you to ask the opinion of others.

[acoly]

Misdirection #4 is getting ganked.  Not good enough, often enough.

Sylvan is my friend from oath- its really good.  Regrowth is a toy and I like toys, even if they are not the best.  Morphling #2 is where I'd dump all my extra mana late game since I don't have much else to do then.  Most of all, im looking for another card to get out of topdeck mode lategame, cause that happens an awful lot to me.

Other than the fact that I like the post at the top of the extreeme vintage mill, ummmm

[FeverDog]

I have stated before that i think a 2nd Morph would be a good idea, but either Sylvan or Regrowth are good ideas too.

I wonder if you could post how you approach each matchup. I once asked you whether or not you cast Dryad on turn 2 or leave mana open to counter, your answer was "it depends", maybe you could break down each matchup and when you go aggro or control.

[Rogue]

I can run down some of the matchups that we expect to face. Obviously not all of them, but the important ones.
KEEPER: I approach this with much more fear than acoly, but we have the tools to succeed. Basically, we force keeper to deal with all of our threats. It is very similar to the way suicide plays against keeper, except that we use counters instead of disruption. All of our creatures can go the distance, and thus it is difficult to stop them short of moat and the abyss. Post board, we use Back to Basics and beb(for reb and the occasional shaman) and we have a similar matchup. Typically, provided we get a good hand, it is difficult for keeper since we draw/dig more and have good threats. Of course, being twisted or having your counters/lands dragged to the grave and then watching morphling kill you does happen. We win game 1 about 2/3, and provided we win the first game winning one of the next two is typically very doable.
SLIGH: They steal games, but we use keg and our blockers to achieve board position. They have a reasonable chance if they can mess up our mana, but anything short of that is typically our game.
SUICIDE: This one is tough. Whoever opens better usually wins. They kill our mana, destroy our hand, and have nasty critters. However, as a testement to how resiliant our deck is, i have been hymned 2 times, duressed, and been staring at a shade with no blockers turn 3 and won. Game 1, we hope to misdirect hymn's especially, as well as sinkholes. If we get out a 6/6 dryad(not as hard as you might think), we have a pretty good chance. Kegs help, and game 1 is basically a 1/2 situation at best. Post board is all about getting an oath on the table and stopping dystopia. If we do that, which isn't easy, we usually dont lose.

Those are the decks that I think every person should worry about.
Going Aggro and Control: Against control, I typically try to drop dryads like they're hot potatoes and make my opponent deal with them. Later, Werebear and morphling become threats and I just keep digging for counters. Essentially, if you play control, you will probably lose since they are control by design and you by choice. Against sligh, I typically keg and then drop a creature. Against suicide, I never drop a creature unless I can cast a counter, whether free or hard cast. However, I drop one as soon as possible, because they negate negators, kill reavers, and put me on the offensive. As a generally rule, go aggro versus control from the start, go aggro against aggro when you have solid board position/control, and against combo when you are sure you can handle their progress.
As a final note, I don't consider this to be the be all end all, but I have been using this deck as much as acoly and this is what I have found to be the most effective.

[Rogue]

Now for my ideas on Acoly's three cards.
Morphling #2-Good in a control heavy environment, not a bad idea.
Regrowth-Overkill, would take up a slot better used on a counter.
Sylvan-I want it, I really do, but I cant find anything to replace, especially since we are now down to 13 counters.

Here is the most current list.

        7 Island
        1 Forest
        4 Tropical Island
        1 Black Lotus
        1 Mox Emerald
        1 Mox Sapphire
        1 Sol Ring
        4 Land Grant
        4 Quirion Dryad
        4 Werebear
        2 Morphling
        4 Force of Will
        3 Misdirection
        4 Mana Drain
        2 Mana Leak
        3 Brainstorm
        4 Impulse
        4 Gush
        1 Ancestral Recall
        1 Time Walk
        1 Fact or Fiction
        3 Powder Keg
SB:  4 Blue Elemental Blast
SB:  3 Back to Basics
SB:  4 Oath of Druids
SB:  2 Gaea's Blessing
SB:  1 Spike Weaver
SB:  1 Spike Feeder

Also, to respond to zherebus: the biggest issue with gro in type 1 is that ext players are using it. They think that it can do something, but it worked in ext largely in part because of winter orb. It is well documented that Orb is not good in type 1. Also, I appreciate you appreciating our deck, and the oath board being liked..........it makes life worth living.

[Acolytec]

As for control vs. aggro, its really hard to say, cause I am really inconsistant with how I play it.

I guess I will cast a critter anytime that I feel like they can't hurt me much when they take their turn.  I'll leave counter mana open whenever I think that they can.  Gush and force complicate things alot though, because its easier to play a critter with either in hand.

I have to test more vs. keeper, but sui is remarkably becoming a very good matchup for me.  It just seems as if we should have all of the tools to do very well against keeper, with more counters, very pointed cheap threats (dryad and BTB), more real cards to land, and a better draw engine (since everything they have, just about, to draw cards can be hit by misdirection).

Maybe drop a bear for a sylvan with 2 morphlings?

And Rogue, make the BEBs hydros.  This is the only deck that they are better in.

[Ex-Spectator]

earlier today i put this deck together and played a bit it and i like it a lot. it's a sharp, well thought out deck that's a blast to play.

as for the morph/sylvan/regrowth question i'd definitely go with sylvan for the following reasons:

1. go necro vs. control
2. it hides things from discard
3. when drawn early, it helps you to find needed mana.
4. you can use it to stow away things like an extra gush for
    when you need it or a second wave of creatures should
    the ones you have get kegged away.
5. impulse is a hell of a reset card for it. count land grant in
    there too.

seriously though, i tried it for a few games and it works great.

i think regrowth would be my second choice and possibly my first if i was gearing for an aggro metagame...kind of acting as keg #4. but other than that i would just rather have another counter in most situations.

IMO, the one 1 morphling seems enough to me, as i drew it literally 10-11 times out of 15 games. my results could be skewed, but with all the draw/search/dig cards in the deck i would imagine not.

[Acolytec]

Sylvan is permanently in the deck allready   Testing the 2nd morphling in there too in place of a bear, not sure yet if I like it or not.  The deck seems really powerful, but a bit sluggish now with the more powerful cards added.

Well I was told today to "pray for good matchups in the TOC because I can't imagine that you have many."  I really wonder when the T1 community will finally stop associating gro = shit and keeper = invincible.  I swear its always the keeper players that realize environment shifts and new viable decks last.

[Rogue]

I hate it when people bash the deck. Seriously, not only is it miles away from Chapin gro, it is like light years different from the other gro varients. If you notice, we don't even usually call it gro; other people do.
That is because it only runs some of the gro cards and a gro curve. In truth, it is simply a modified control deck that can play threats faster and more often. Sylvan really should be here, hopefully aco has found a place.
Ex-I don't feel that your results are skewed. Like i said, we see it almost every game with the search and draw. Also, you have found what I put earlier, that regrowth should just be a counter. Also, thank you for the compliment.
As a final note, I will most likely replace a Morphling from the version I posted earlier with sylvan, as I really can't find another card to remove(possibly a bear). Acolytec, please post your most recent list.

[kirdape3]

The one reason I would have to bash this deck is that it's monoblue control (at heart; only the threats are green) with very few mana sources.  16 mana + Land Grant means that you're digging for mana, not counters as with a strict monoblue control deck.  I actually fail to see as to how this is any better than Forbiddian; they're both vulnerable to the same threats and should have similar matchups with every conceivable deck sans the mirror.

[Acolytec]

This one is more fun   Thats why.

Well as long as keeper exists, how much of a choice do you have for making a deck that beats keeper and isnt either suicide or U/x?