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How would you build it?


EDIT: Sigh, this wasn't the pool I wanted to put up, but I lost the SS of the one i wanted, so I'll leave it up for discussion purposes.

In the normal deck editor, go to Tournament Decks and find the one you wanted. Load it and take the SS.

Nothing about this pool is exciting. You don't have a lot of synergy between any of the cards. Training grounds with only 3!?! creatures in your entire pool that can level. Suck. You have a few ways to make spawn, but no way to use them to your advantage. Suck.
Hartebeest can fetch 2x narcolepsy, guard duty, drake umbra, domestication which is nice. Plus, those colors give you Deathless Angel, Dawnglare invoker, Frostwind Invoker...wait, that's all. Damn.

Hellcarver Demon still intrigues me. I'm always afraid to play it as it takes a heavy black comitment, and you are kind of gambling when you swing with it. If you are ahead on creatures, you could be putting youself behind quickly. If they remove it, you are stuck with probably 2-3 land and a few random other things. If you had some stupid eldrazi that you could make appear, maybe it would be worth it.

Baneful Omen is something that I would have to try (like the bone wand). If you are going for the Demon, try the Omen as well...

I think I would build:

1x Deathless Angel
1x Totem-Guide Hartebeest
1x Dawnglare Invoker
1x Kor Line-Slinger

1x Frostwind Invoker
1x Sea Gate Oracle
1x Guard Gomazoa
1x Hada Spy Patrol

1x Ondu Giant
2x Kozilek's Predator
1x Aura Gnarlid
1x Beastbreaker
1x Joraga Treespeaker

1x Snake Umbra
1x Growth Spasm
1x Drake Umbra
1x Regress
2x Narcolpesy
1x Guard Duty
1x Ogre's Cleaver
1x Prophetic Prism

6x Plains
4x Island
7x Forest

The chump blockers produced by Kozilek's Predator, 2x narcolepys, guard duty, Kor slinger should all help keep you alive long enough to land a game winner. Aura Gnarlid should be solid with the Cleaver and other auras in this deck.

This pool is not exciting. Hope you snuck away with 3-1.

Might want to re-read Hellcarver.

I meant if they remove it after you've connected with it once. If I was at a high enough life total, I might let the opponent get 6 random things, then heat ray the demon afterwards. It's all situational though.

And John was trying to point out that you cannot play lands off of the demon's triggered ability.

I would build what King built except -1 Snake Umbra, -1 Regress, -1 Plains, +1 Hedron-Field Purists, +1 Domestication, +1 Island.
I've made a lot of noise about how you must play red or black in this format, but this pool is so mopey that I think you just have to spread yourself all the way thru Bant and hope that guard duty, 2x narco, oust, and domestication (also slinger and gomazoa) are enough creature control to get it done.

Oh, keyword being CAST. Yeah...guess I need to L2RTFC

With a pool like this, I think I just want to extract the most value I can power-wise. You have Ondu Giant, Growth Spasm, and Prophetic Prism. I haven't done an entire cut yet, but this is where I'm starting I think.

Deathless Angel
Totem-Guide Hartebeest
Hedron-Field Purists
Dawnglare Invoker
Kor Line-Slinger
Oust
Hyena Umbra
Hyena Umbra
Guard Duty

Drake Umbra
Domestication
Narcolepsy
Narcolepsy

Stomper Cub
Jaddi Lifestrider
Ondu Giant
Kozilek's Predator
Kozilek's Predator
Snake Umbra
Growth Spasm
Aura Gnarlid
Beastbreaker of Bala Ged
Spider Umbra
Joraga Treespeaker

Prophetic Prism
Ogre's Cleaver

Vendetta

Flame Slash

You can easily splash 1 swamp and 1 mountain with those fixers. If we go this route, I'm not sure we start with Domestication main, so then it's a matter of the removal vs Domestication. Jaddi Lifestrider will give you a big life burst when he comes into play, hopefully stabilizing your life total if you faced some early beats. Kor Line-Slinger helps here also. From that point you actually do have a few bombs in Deathless Angel and Beastbreaker of Bala Ged. Ogre's Cleaver is going to pair well with Aura Gnarlid, your Spawn tokens (which also fuel that Lifestrider), and Stomper Cub/Beastbreaker. Perhaps we just cut the Flame Slash, and play Domestication since the Aura will boost Aura Gnarlid in addition to being a good removal spell. We likely aren't aggressive at all, so I think we would cut the Hyena Umbras, and probably the Drake Umbra, since our Blue will be light (I'm envisioning just Narcolepsy x2 with maybe the Domestication). If we are playing Domestication, remember that we can side in lands of a certain color if we see a particularly juice target to steal (like Brimstone Mage, Guul Draz Assassin, something with a colored mana requirement). Training Grounds could be good here since we're going to be dipping into a few levellers, but in the route we're going, it's not worth splashing for. That deck would probably be more UWcentric with the Invokers and Levellers. I guess after talking through it, I'd probably come to play something like this:

Deathless Angel
Totem-Guide Hartebeest
Hedron-Field Purists
Dawnglare Invoker
Kor Line-Slinger
Oust
Guard Duty
Domestication
Narcolepsy
Narcolepsy
Stomper Cub
Jaddi Lifestrider
Ondu Giant
Kozilek's Predator
Kozilek's Predator
Snake Umbra
Growth Spasm
Aura Gnarlid
Beastbreaker of Bala Ged
Joraga Treespeaker
Prophetic Prism
Ogre's Cleaver
10 Forest
6 Plains
2 Island



22/18. We have prism, treespeaker, ondu giant, and growth spasm, so we dont need a billion lands (i know prism doesnt accelerate but it fixes and cantrips), but I still feel safer with more. I've decided not to play flame slash, drake umbra, and spider umbra. I wanted to play Spider Umbra so we could just have a bunch of ways to block things, but with Kor Line-Slinger and Narcolepsy we might be fine. We could also just cut Vendetta and play Drake Umbra and protect what good guys we DO have, and perhaps have an extra "win condition" (as in, anything we drake up). Feels like if we play Vendetta we probably can't play Domestication main also with the white that we have. The Hartebeest package is going to be better than the mana constraints that vendetta forces into for one spell. Aura Gnarlid is going the distance in this thing.

I know this is written in a very loose and incoherent fashion, but I wanted to kinda just type it up as I went through it in 25 or less minutes, so people could maybe see what I was thinking of. It could still be totally reasonable to double or triple splash, but I guess the cards in this deck are more than fine AND easier on the mana. Just remember to side in lands for premium domestication targets. Hope this was at least helpful to people, if not right/wrong/whatever.

I would go something along the lines of:

Joraga Treespeaker
Champion's Drake
Renegade Doppleganger
2x Narcolepsy
Hada Spy Patrol
Beastbreaker of Bala Ged
See Beyond
Ogre's Cleaver
Regress
Sea Gate Oracle
Growth Spasm
Aura Gnarlid
Snake Umbra
Domestication
Lay Bare
2x Kozilek's Predator
Ondu Giant
Frostwind Invoker
Stomper Cub
Jaddi Lifestrider
Reality Spasm

9 Island
8 Forest

I really wanted to fit in the Traitorous Instinct and the Flame Slash in that order, and I imagine you could easily -1 Island +1 Mountain and take out the Jaddi Lifestrider for the Traitorous Instinct, but I'm not sure that's necessary here.

I think we're stretching the other colors by suggesting they should be a main color of the deck and I don't see anything except the above that are worth splashing a 3rd color.

Thoughts?

This would probably be what the UW deck looks like:

Deathless Angel
Totem-Guide Hartebeest
Hedron-Field Purists
Dawnglare Invoker
Puncturing Light
Puncturing Light
Kor-Line Slinger
Oust
Guard Duty

Reality Spasm
Frostwind Invoker
Lay Bare
Domestication
Sea Gate Oracle
Regress
Jwari Scuttler
Guard Gomazoa
Narcolepsy
Narcolepsy
Hada Spy Control
Training Grounds
See Beyond

Probably can't win a game! But you get to use invokers for 6 mana! YAAY! Just sit around and do nothing!