MTGCast #130: States, Worlds, and Ward of Bones

[pitimp]

This thread is for the discussion of my latest article, MTGCast #130: States, Worlds, and Ward of Bones. We would be grateful if you would let us know what you think, but please keep your comments on topic.

[Darksteel Origami]

Oho, I love this deck challenge! Do it again!
Here's mine~

Mana screwed again...
4 Dwarven Ruins 4 Havenwood Battleground 4 Crystal Vein 4 Hickory Woodlot 4 Sandstone Needle 4 Tinder Farm 1 Strip Mine 3 Steel Golem 4 Eladamri's Vineyard 4 Pyroclasm 4 Firespout 4 Channel 4 Fireball 4 Ward of Bones 4 Arc Blade 4 Magma Jet

[bateleur]

Bwn3d! - a Casual Extended Ward of Bones deck
Land (24) 4 Forest 4 Simic Growth Chamber 4 Gruul Turf 4 Vivid Creek 4 Vivid Grove 2 Island 1 Mountain 1 Plains Creatures (24) 4 Birds of Paradise 4 Llanowar Elves 4 Riftwing Cloudskate 4 Eternal Witness 4 Realm Razer 4 Durkwood Baloth	Spells (12) 4 Kodama's Reach 4 Ward of Bones 2 Mindmoil 2 Privileged Position

That's a deliberately low budget version. If you can afford a far more expensive manabase (or happen to own the cards already) the deck wants to be properly four-colour with Greater Gargadons, Aeon Chroniclers and something like Vexing Shusher to fend of untimely counterspells...

...but the basic idea remains the same. Suspend stuff, then play Realm Razer with Ward of Bones out. Bwn3d!

[mikey k159]

lol, ward of bones, guess ill make one, but mine has greater gargadon cause its one of my favorites of all time

remember the reveillark combo! lol

Deck
lands 24 4 crystal vain 4 tinder farm 4 gemstone mine 3 mountain 2 plains 3 forest 3 gruul turft 1 strip mine creatures 19 4 greater gargadon 4 terravore 4 birds of paradise 3 dirkwood baloth 4 llanowar elves	spells 17 4 ward of bones 4 rampant growth 4 zuran orb 2 boros signet 2 selesnya signet 1 demonfire

zuran orb + greater gargadon + ward of bones is just good old fashion fun isn't it? lol

the 1 demonfire is my pet card

[Default User]

Hello again after a longish pause, Too much work and no play etc...

Cool having a deck challenge, too bad that Ward of Bones leads directly to some sort of lock-deck, so you can expect a lot of similar deck skeletons.

Anyway here's my multiplayer with Type 1 restrictions deck.

Deck
Lock pieces (11) 4 Ward of Bones 2 Limited Resources 4 Ghostly Prison (or Propaganda) Acceleration (9) 1 Sol Ring 1 Mana Vault 4 Mox Diamond 3 Mind Stone Utility (6) 1 Tinker 3 Enlightened Tutor 1 Trade Routes 1 Zuran Orb Resets (3) 3 Wrath of God	Early game deterrants (6) 2 Ticking Gnomes 4 Bottle Gnomes Win conditions (2) 1 Tezzeret the Seeker 1 Elspeth, Knight Errant Lands (23) 1 Library of Alexandria 1 Tolarian Academy 3 Maze of Ith 4 Tundra 4 Faerie Conclave 3 Seat of Synod 3 Ancient Den 4 Azorius Chancery

This is a knock-off of one of my old love-to-hate decks: UWg Limited Resources, I would pick up when ever our playgroup would get too far into ponderous lock-decks. The original deck was a bit more old-school than the Ward-version above, and had some problems with cheap beatdown, especially fliers like Serendib Efreet and friends. The difference betwen having maximum of 10 land ever in play or having equal amounts cause a bit of tension, so I included also the Limited Resources for good times. Also all your creatures are able to self-sacrifice so they can be played early and even act as fodder for the Tinker for Ward.

One thing to remember is that with Plainswalker out any opponent can attack your 'Walker even with Prison/Propaganda out, as they only prevent creatures attacking you. If you have some Moats and Humilitys, just replace the Prisons/Propagandas with them to have even better lock. (And change the Tezz into another Elspeth, as Humility/Moat and Tezzeret are not an combo. [Humility will be applied only after Tezzeret making all your artifacts creatures and make them 1/1 and Moat stops them cold even as 5/5's.])

Thanks for getting my creative juices flowing. I think I need to get two more Ward of Bones this week... and maybe edit in a T2 legal deck later on.

[swarmandsing]

The deck can be standard, right? Ward of Bones has always stood out as a fun "build around me" card.

Deck
Creatures (6): 4 Tidehollow Sculler 2 Oona, Queen of the Fae Control Cards (26): 3 Ward of Bones 2 Scourglass 3 Ajani Goldmane 4 Thoughtseize 4 Condemn 2 Unmake 4 Oblivion Ring 1 Feudkiller's Verdict 3 Mind Stone	Planeswalkers (3) 3 Ajani Goldmane Lands (25): 4 Fetid Heath 4 Caves of Koilos 7 Plains 6 Swamp 4 Mutavault	Sideboard (15): 4 Pithing Needle 4 Runed Halo 2 Story Circle 3 Wheel of Sun and Moon 2 Stillmoon Cavalier

This deck's goal is to disrupt the opponent early with Thoughtseize / Sculler, and then lock them out of creature win-cons with Wrath's and Ward of Bones. Ward also has nice synergy with Scourglass. Once locked, the player can build Ajani counters to his ultimate, lay down a single Oona, or simply beat face with Mutavault tokens and laugh unless they have Flash creatures (which you can promptly remove).

The sideboard should be fairly self explanatory. The needles hose the Planeswalker deck, Halo and Story Circle are generic answers to many troublesome decks, the wheel deals with Reveillark and Sanity Grinding, and the Stillmoon can come in on creature light decks or beat back Bitterblossom tokens.

[lintman]

Ok so this isn't that original, but it's pretty good, and you can play it in extended.

18 Mountain
4 Demigod of Revenge
4 Deus of Calamity
2 Magus of the Moon
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Blood Moon
4 Chrome Mox
4 Desperate Ritual
4 Empty the Warrens
4 Rite of Flame
4 Seething Song
4 Ward of Bones

All in Red with Ward of bones. Seems fun.

[burek]

You could try making it into an "Eggs" deck with artifacts that produce mana, Ravnica Karoos, sweep effects (Smallpox, anyone?) and a fun way to tin like milling someone to death. :P

Other ideas for decks of this type: suspending creatures like Riftwing Cloudskate or the guy that draws cards whenever a time counter gets removed from him. Forbidden Orchard. Chandra Nalaar. Manlands. Ichorid. Those red guys that bounce back to your hand at EOT. Hunted creatures.

[plarp]

Ward of Bones would probably go great in a friend of mine's Balancing Act deck - it's a half-assed version of the old extended competitive deck. It tends to take a while to actually win and lets us back in the game a good amount of the time, but not being able to play lands after they all get wiped out would make it impossible. I've stuck Chandra Nalaar in as well, as if you play her instead of terravore as your win condition your opponents can't even play Ornithopter!

4 Terrarion
4 Chromatic Star
4 Beseech the Queen
4 Lotus Bloom
4 Fire / Ice
4 Balancing Act
3 Ward of Bones

3 Terravore
3 Anurid Brushhopper
3 Chandra Nalaar

4 Tinder Farm
4 Sulfur Vent
4 Irrigation Ditch
4 Geothermal Crevice
4 Archaeological Dig
4 Ancient Spring

[Team-Hero]

The best shell for Ward of Bones is in a Wildfire deck. Here's the Legacy version. If you can't afford the Burning of Xinye (like me), you can substitute for 2 more Wildfire and 1 Anarchy in the SB. By the way, I think Wizards should do a special printing, like they did with Time Shifted, using the PORTAL and Three Kingdom cards. I'm sick of these +$50 dollar - should be 2-7 dollar rares. SEA DRAKES! I'm talking to you!

19 Lands

4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Sandstone Needle
7 Mountain

27 Artifacts

4 Thran Dynamo
4 Gruul Signet
2 Talisman of Impulse
4 Gilded Lotus
2 Worn Powerstone
2 Foriysian Totem
3 Ward of Bones
4 Trinisphere

4 Creatures

2 Sundering Titan
2 Crater Hellion

1 Enchantment

1 Form of the Dragon

11 Sorceries
3 Decree of Annihilation
2 Burning of Xinye
2 Wildfire
4 Burning Wish

60 TOTAL

15 Sideboard
1 Decree of Annihilation
1 Burning of Xinye
1 Devastation
4 Pyroclasm
4 Chalice of the Void
1 Call the Skybreaker
1 Hull Breach
1 Life from the Loam
1 Shattering Spree

[anna.mossity]

Great show as always. The only thing other than the contest that i'd like to discuss is the videos regarding rare print runs. I won't be naming the guy, but i found his findings quite interesting. This will definitely help me out alot, since got kinda ripped when i got a box of Eventide to crack open about 10 good cards and the rest be jank. At 15 bucks it is well worth it to get the book.

as for the Ward deck, i think the best solution is one that makes it unlikely for your opponent to have a way out, mainly through fast red mana. Using the base from RDW and modifiying it to allow some fun shenigans this deck runs relatively fast. The main engine is still a storm one, minus the dragonstorm. If the initial plan of halting them with the Ward fails, there is still a backup plan with the Backlash combo. This deck also utilizes Braid of Fire and the charge lands to make it even MORE unlikely that you would need to play more than 2 lands.

RDWard
Lands 10 Mountain 2 Kher Keep 2 Keldon Megaliths 4 Fungal Reaches 4 Molten Slagheap Creatures 4 Akki Rockspeaker 4 Painter's Servant Spells 4 Braid of Fire 4 Rite of Flame 4 Ignite Memories 3 Chaotic Backlash 4 Chain of Plasma 4 Lotus Bloom 3 Ward of Bones 4 Seething Song

[lizardgod]

Ahh the last part of my voicemail got cut off. This is allen with the planes walker deck, the question I had at the end of the vmail was what sideboard or mainboard tech would you use against those token decks I was having problems with. Thanks.

So Ward of Bones eh??? Lets see what I can come up with in T2.
Also this is the first time I have tried the deck tags so lets hope this works out good

Deck
Creatures (6): 3 Kitchen Finks 3 Murderous Redcap PlanesWalkers (14): 3 Chandra Nalaar 4 Ajani Vengeant 2 Elspeth, Knight Errant 1 Sarkhan Vol 4 Garruk Wildspeaker Other Spells (16): 4 Fertile Ground 4 Wrath of God 4 Ward of Bones 4 Mindstone	Lands (24): 4 Treetop Village 3 Mutavault 2 Vivid Grove 3 Reflecting Pool 3 Karpulsan Forest 3 Brushland 1 Wooded Bastion 2 Fire-Lit Thicket 3 Battlefield Forge	Sideboard (15): 4 Oblivion Ring 4 Condemn 3 Stillmoon Cavalier 3 Cloudthresher 1 Wild Richochet

Well this is pretty close to the deck I actually played but slightly different. Why use the same deck, well two reasons.

Reason A: I am now obsessed with this deck because I find it very interesting as it is not only competitive but fun to play and interactive when playing it.

Reason B: We actually considered putting Ward of Bones in the deck at one points since it runs so few creatures. I tend to attack for the win with Treetop Village or an already persisted Finks using Elspeth and Garruk's Pump abilities.

Our playtesting showed that it was just to slow at 6 mana to come down at the right time. But sometimes it had a massive effect on the game.

Oh and one huge downside, lets say you have one critter and your opp has none cause you WoG'ed the last turn. If he playes Demigod of Revenge as his one creature that is very very bad news (number one reason we ened up cutting it for condemn)

also if someone could tell me how to fix the deck edit so it looks right that would be awesome

[Twilight_Eyes]

I think that a Ward of Bones deck should be sorta like a R/U artifact control deck... kinda like this:

Deck
Lands: 4 Izzet Boilerworks 4 Cascade Bluffs 4 Great Furnace 4 Seat of Synod 4 Steam Vents Creatures: 4 Platinum Angel 2 Dominus of Fealty Spells: 4 Lotus Bloom 4 Rite of Flame 4 Seething Song 4 Chromatic Star 4 Ward of Bones 4 Remand 3 Lightning Greaves 2 Mind Spring 2 Tezzeret the Seeker 2 Chandra Nalaar 1 Pact of Negation

[HellMuT]

Pox Ward
Lands 4 Polluted Delta 2 Golgari Rot Farm 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 4 Mutavault 3 Treetop Village 4 Overgrown Tomb 2 Twilight Mire 1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All 1 Swamp Creature 4 Tarmogoyf Planeswalker 2 Liliana Vess	Spells 4 Ward of Bones 4 Smallpox 4 Lotus Bloom 4 Thoughtseize 4 Damnation 3 Death Cloud 3 Putrefy 3 Life from the Loam 3 Raven's Crime

Eh, Pretty unoriginal. It's like TarmoPox but with Ward of Bones for added control.

[KeySam]

Hi guys, great show as always.

Heres my Ward of Bones deck for T2:

Deck

// Lands 4 [ALA] Arcane Sanctum 1 [7E] Swamp (3) 2 [4E] Plains (1) 2 [OV] Adarkar Wastes 2 [10E] Caves of Koilos 1 [10E] Underground River 4 [SHM] Reflecting Pool 2 [10E] Faerie Conclave 3 [SHM] Mystic Gate 3 [EVE] Fetid Heath // Creatures 3 [ALA] Tezzeret the Seeker 1 [TE] Bottle Gnomes // Spells 1 [ALA] Dispeller's Capsule 2 [ALA] Executioner's Capsule 1 [ALA] Courier's Capsule 4 [8E] Wrath of God 4 [EVE] Ward of Bones 3 [SHM] Runed Halo 4 [WL] Mind Stone 2 [10E] Story Circle 4 [ALA] Esper Charm 4 [LRW] Cryptic Command 2 [10E] Pithing Needle 1 [10E] Millstone

// Sideboard 1 [SHM] Runed Halo 1 [10E] Story Circle 2 [10E] Pithing Needle 1 [ALA] Relic of Progenitus 2 [LRW] Jace Beleren 2 [ALA] Infest 4 [LRW] Thoughtseize 2 [LRW] Wispmare

Okay now i go over the ideas for this deck.

Its basicly an esper control deck using all the cards you expect pretty mutch. But it also has an artiact theme to go with Tezzeret, which is an isnane powerful engine and also fine against control decks. It also serve to roll of an finisher.

I go now over some 1 ofs.
The Random Millstone is against slow decks so you can kill them, because its kind of hard to kill an control deck with tezzeret. Dont forget to untap millstone with tezzeret.
The Bottle Gnomes is basicly for some lifegain and a bit blocking, it often gives you quite some life, because they kill gnomes (about a 6 life swing) and will also kill Tezzeret(if you got it with him) which is some more life.
Pithing needle is just an awesome card in this metagame against a lot of decks, you can name manlands, planeswalker, figure of destiny....
The Capsules are overall good cards, i think they are self explaining, but still. Blue is a fine card to search up if you running out of gas, Black is for creature control and the white one is basicly for bitterblossom.

Now what Does Ward of Bones do in this deck. You may have noticed i dont play any creatures but bottlegnomes, which can be sacrificed to itselff. So you can stall out creature decks, by having runed halo or story circle in play and Ward of bones, so each creature in their deck turns into a dead card. That may not seem as mutch but a lot of control decks also depend on creatures like mulldrifter..., if they play an early kithcen finks and you get a way to stop them, all those cards also turn death, not to mention each spot removal they may play. Its also important to note that stop playing lands against some control decks may be worth considering.

Some matchups now, you can pretty mutch win against any aggresive deck, the more burn they got the harder it gets, but not unsolvable. I usualy win against agressive decks.

Decks like Mana Ramp, are pretty mutch in my favor depending on the build.

The Control matchup isnt as bad either, because you play a lot of answers, and an early ward of bones or Tezzeret can easily win you the game. I am not sure how the % are but its not bad, espacally if they try to go beatdown with finks and you stick a ward of bones. I also guess that alot of the time the players arent sure how to play against it so i may overestimating this matchup

Now the bad matchup, its defenatly faeries, its kind of hard to win against them, although belive it or not ward of bones isnt as bad against faeries either, if it sticks, a lot of stuff becomes uterly useless. Its still a bad matchup.

I didnt play against any other deck, but i think merfolk shouldnt be great as well, its still a fun deck and has a decent powerlevel.

I hope you enjoy this list and have fun with it.

KeySam