Emerald Alice: A derivative of T1 Dryad

[Rogue]

Actually, you're exactly right. But there really are some big differences. The most important difference is the cost of the threats. XLU can't (typically) drop threat after threat. It has 4 morphlings. We, on the other hand, have 8 cheap threats, and 2 expensive ones. It doesnt play nearly the same as XLU, although since it has a similar structure it does have some things in common. Also, a lot of XLU decks have very little card drawing. This deck has no shortage.
We only dig for land for a short time. It typically takes 4-6 turns to get 4-5 mana. On the average, we NEED to dig for 1 or 2 lands a game. This is because we have 20 mana cards(one third), which makes 3/9 cards that we start with. Impulse/brainstorm for another, and you can lay a threat and counter in the same turn.
If you fail to see how this is better then forbiddian, we draw more and have cheaper win conditions while running fewer land. Also, I daresay we have a better board against aggro.

[Acolytec]

Ok, I decided that we only need about 2 Blue Ele Blasts in the SB, so we have some free slots.  Also, I think that the feeder is dropable, cause we have 2 morphlings maindeck now.  So what should go in the 3 remaining slots?  Could even go to 5 slots by removing all of them.

2 Tranquil Domain /  Tranquil Grove? (really don't expect many enchant based decks, but it's probably the only matchup at the moment that we do rather dreadful at.  Gives us options against opposing oath decks too, but isn't oath dead right now?).

1-2 Drop of Honey? (I hate aggro  Just gives 1 more removal card, the mini abyss.  When you side into oath, 2 of your critters are immune, and well the 3rd just doenst matter if you can abyss them all the time.  Just makes it so aggro simply -cannot- win, ever.  Could go with 2x morph 1x feeder and 2 Drop of honey, so the feeder can either give life or make the Ubermorphling in response to the trigger for drop).

Graveyard kill? (Dragon and Oath.  Seems rather unnecessary since we should beat dragon anyway, and well it doest do dreadfully much against oath).

2 Flash Counter (Gives more counterpower against control decks, works better in many ways than trying to side blue blasts against red ones).

1 more BTB (Fuck keeper!).

Thats just what I thought of off the top of my head, but I'm sure other options exist.  Thoughts.

Most of this is from testing against sligh, where I typically just never lose and against stacker, where it very rapidly becomes suicide UberMorphling as they blow up my graveyard and or library with anti oath artifacts.  The last few games ended with a 6/6 morphling crusading against alot of juggernauts and su chi's

[Stirner]

I like the deck.  One thing, however.

4 B2B's in your sideboard and only 1 Forest and a Mox Emerald maindeck?  Seeing how the Tropicals are useless once B2B hits, doesn't this deck have difficulties with green mana?

[halo99]

1 forest and 1 mox emerald is enough. all you need it one land grant and your set.

on the topic of the sideboard:

enchantment hate ---> how many competetive enchantment based decks are there? parfait and enchantress? how often do these get played?

how does the deck do against keeper? (i know that you probably already said this, but i first read this thread days ago and can't remember. )
it seems that you should do well, but search/manipulation, and a lot more threats.

i don't think that an extra B2B is needed. 3 should be enough.

[frznoasys]

Quote 2 Tranquil Domain /  Tranquil Grove? (really don't expect many enchant based decks, but it's probably the only matchup at the moment that we do rather dreadful at.  Gives us options against opposing oath decks too, but isn't oath dead right now?).

1-2 Drop of Honey? (I hate aggro  Just gives 1 more removal card, the mini abyss.  When you side into oath, 2 of your critters are immune, and well the 3rd just doenst matter if you can abyss them all the time.  Just makes it so aggro simply -cannot- win, ever.  Could go with 2x morph 1x feeder and 2 Drop of honey, so the feeder can either give life or make the Ubermorphling in response to the trigger for drop).

Graveyard kill? (Dragon and Oath.  Seems rather unnecessary since we should beat dragon anyway, and well it doest do dreadfully much against oath).

2 Flash Counter (Gives more counterpower against control decks, works better in many ways than trying to side blue blasts against red ones).

1 more BTB (Fuck keeper!).

You don't have many green sources in this deck, but this deck is accompanied by a good drawing engine.  Getting 2 green for Tranquil Grove I don't really think would present much of a problem.  I think one is all that is necessary.

I would just run another Keg instead of going with the Drop of Honey's.  I feel they are much more effiencient for creature removal not to mention any pesky artifacts that you'll run into.

Don't run another BtB..I believe 3 is optimal.

You also might want to give Compost a try.  It would surely be good against Sui.

[Anonymous]

Hrm. I decided to do a version of the deck myself, going from a different angle, BBS with Dryads... that happens to be able to side into either Saphire Oath or almost-Gro on demand.

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

Notes:
I use the full 4 Brainstorm because I have always liked the card and always will (draw 3 cards, put 2 lands back on top since you can only play one a turn anyways).
Psionic Blast takes the place of the 3rd keg because A) You can scroll for it, B) It is another card I happen to like.
Concentrate is because I detected a lack in card-drawing. I would also have liked Opportunity and/or Stroke, but those are too expensive with only 20 mana sources, and only 2 of them moxen.
Library of Alexandria, while I have never even played this deck solitaire yet, I think would work better here, even if for the occasional time you draw it in your first 7 (god forbid you're even going second), and randomly counter anything your opponent tries from there on out.
The sideboard is pretty self-explanatory, I think.

[Pegasus Token]

Quote (Radagast the z0rceror @ July 23 2002,19:26)Hrm. I decided to do a version of the deck myself, going from a different angle, BBS with Dryads... that happens to be able to side into either Saphire Oath or almost-Gro on demand.

Notes:
Concentrate is because I detected a lack in card-drawing. I would also have liked Opportunity and/or Stroke, but those are too expensive with only 20 mana sources, and only 2 of them moxen.
Library of Alexandria, while I have never even played this deck solitaire yet, I think would work better here, even if for the occasional time you draw it in your first 7 (god forbid you're even going second), and randomly counter anything your opponent tries from there on out.
The sideboard is pretty self-explanatory, I think.

All you have done is copied the deck posted here, taken out good cards and replaced them with bad ones.

You complain of a lack of card-drawing, but do not play with Gush?  I don't understand your thinking on this subject.

Also, the Library is just bad in this deck as you will rarely if ever have 7 cards.

As for the sideboard being self explanatory, I beg to differ.  What would possess you to not maindeck Gush?

Your post was very aggravating and I believe I'll stop now before I say anything offensive.

[Rogue]

You took the deck in your own direction by replacing werebears with counters, removing card drawing, and changing a select few cards. You can't go "almost gro" because you have 6 threats. 2 are the mana hungry morphling.  You added concentrate because of a lack of card drawing. However, you removed gush, so obviously card drawing is going to suffer. Also, removing gush took care of your only wasteland defense.
The reason our deck runs green is because we have more threats in green. It used to be 8, now it is 7, along with sylvan. You have 4. The other is the board, which you have copied, so that's fine. Except for gush, which ended up there, and i can't seem to figure out why you would side that in and not just run it in the maindeck.

[Acolytec]

I started with the idea of running blue with dryads

[Anonymous]

Maybe I should not have posted the deck as a reply to this post, as it does play quite differently (like mono-u; counter anything that's threatening, except you have a dryad growing huge in the meantime), but A) It would've gone down in flames immediately for the exact reasons Pegasus Token said, and B) I DID think of making the deck only after looking at this post.
However, I did not just pull cards out of the deck and put in new ones -- I started from scratch, with 4 Dryads, and then decided I wanted all the good counterspells possible, and then filled out the rest with removal, brokenness, and land (which I should probably have more of, but as I said, I haven't done any actual testing with the deck yet, but I liked the concept and decided to post it, and this seemed like the best place). As for not maindecking Gush, my feeling was that it would get in the way of getting mana up, playing Morphling and the expensive cards (which you do want to do with the deck, I think), so I put it in the sideboard, because it _is_ amazing against control. And yes, I did copy most of the sideboard, since that was one of the main reasons why I really liked the original deck.
I suppose I should actually try to get some games in with this thing, and then try to work in some more card advantage (maybe the AK-Merchant Scoll-Medallion-Intuition route; I've always had a weakness for that one and it does let you play lots of spells for huge dryads).
At any rate, proceed discussing the original deck; as mine should probably not have been posted (due to lack of a proper place to do so) (I would have deleted it, but A) I felt like explaining it, and B) then there would be a few posts talking about mine which is no longer there, which would be awkward), if you have any further comments on the deck, tell me on IRC, in a private message, or something.

[MarquisnSpades]

I don;t know why you don;t show a newer decklist acoly the last time i played you you had at least 3 phlings and drops o fhoney in the sb with no BEB. Thsi may have been a test run, but it was able to take over in one turn.

[Pegasus Token]

Quote (MarquisnSpades @ July 28 2002,21:51)I don;t know why you don;t show a newer decklist acoly the last time i played you you had at least 3 phlings and drops o fhoney in the sb with no BEB. Thsi may have been a test run, but it was able to take over in one turn.

Here's the list he's playing in the toc:

1 Sylvan Library
1 Time Walk
4 Land Grant
3 Brainstorm
4 Impulse
4 Gush
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Ancestral Recall
2 Mana Leak
4 Mana Drain
3 Misdirection
4 Force of Will

2 Morphling
3 Werebear
4 Quirion Dryad

3 Powder Keg
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire

4 Tropical Island
1 Forest
7 Island

Sideboard
1 Tranquil Domain
1 Flash Counter
2 Drop of Honey
3 Back to Basics
1 Spike Feeder
1 Spike Weaver
2 Gaea's Blessing
4 Oath of Druids

I still disagree with his sideboard.  Specifically, I dislike the lack of Hydroblast and view the Drops of Honey as unnecessary cards.  Aside from that, I think everyone agrees that this list is currently the best.

[Rogue]

Acolytec and I play the same main decks, I have 4 beb in the board instead of the drop, flash counter, and tranquil domain. It is all a matter of personal preferance, Acolytec believes drop has served him well, and it probably has. BEB is what I want, because stacker and sligh piss me off. The only person with a much different deck is ocifer, and he pretty much got the deck from Acolytec and then tweaked it to his own style.
As far as the deck taking over in one turn, I have the personal honor of playing against 3 different players using this deck, all of which made amazing comebacks and won games they shouldn't have by any stretch of the imagination. 3 Morphlings is too many for this deck.

[Pegasus Token]

Quote (Rogue @ July 29 2002,12:51)BEB is what I want

Damn it, Chris.  Hydroblast! Hydroblast! Hydroblast!

[kirdape3]

Agreed.  If you have nothing else better to do, point the Hydro at a land and get a bigger Dryad.

[dandan]

Have you tested Holistic wisdom in the maindeck? I can see that recurring Ancestral and Time Walk and Kegs and any critter can affect theshold but it also means you win.

UG seems the natural home for Holistic Wisdom.

[kirdape3]

Wisdom's double green and mana intensive in a deck with 6 green sources and 16+4 (Land Grants) mana overall.  It's nice to recur stuff, but I somehow doubt that they'll have the mana to do so.

[Rogue]

Kirdape spelled it out. I won't even run regrowth, let alone the mana hogging wisdom. Besides, since I would probably use wisdom once I had control, it doesn't really help at all. Once we have control, we just start attacking.

[Zherbus]

CLOSED. This thread was real good and started tailing off at the end. I am closing it for now to keep its integrity alive. Acolytec and Rogue, please don't hesitate to post about any major changes, alterations, or developments to this deck.

Kudos -Zherbus