This time I post a deck based on the crappy tribe from Shadowmoor: The Scarecrows. Always a lover of the tribal decks, I wanted to put a deck that could win some games on the back of the bird-scaring morons, so I took as a starting point their leader, the Reaper King.
The strategy of this deck is simple, play some mana accel, play scarecrows, attack with scarecrows, repeat until your opponent stops playing.
The cards:
Reaper King: The card that inspired the deck, one of the objectives in the deck is to get as soon as posible the five colors of mana to slap this bastard in the field. If you get to untap with him, well, let's just say that a Vindicate-machinegun that also doubles as a Glorious Anthem and even as an attacker certainly helps to win the game. More on this guy later.
Academy Ruins: As most of the time I play multiplayer, having a way to recover your lost mooks is a good way to get online after a sweeper or just a row of removal pointed at you, it can also get some of the other artifacts the deck uses in case they're destroyed.
Grim Poppet: This thingie packs a three-round shotgun, it can get into fights with bigger creatures and live to tell the story, this card is removal on legs, very good scarecrow.
Scarecrone: After the Reaper King, this lowly 1/2 is the most dangerous creature in the deck, you really need to play this to get how powerful in a scarecrow deck it can be, it reduces the opponent's removal power by like half and when it loses summoning sickness it becomes a reanimator machine for the other scarecrows; always have mana available to sacrifice this guy, because it'll have a target the size of a door in its forehead. And at worst, it'll take a removal of your opponent and draw ou a card.
Terramorphic Expanse: These help to get the mana of the right colors from your lands.
Trace of abundance: Targeted land destruction is abundant in my meta, so protecting your lands is a must, this aura also doubles as mana acceleration.
Steely Resolve: Slap this in the field, and you'll have one-sided shroud for your deck, this enchantment is that good, truly scary things happen with this and Reaper King or Scarecrone in the field.
Coalition Relic: One of the goals of the deck is to get four or five different colors of mana as early as possible so you can play Reaper King faster, this artifact helps a lot by getting up to two different colors in a single shot, more often than not, once I untap with this thing, I can easily summon the King.
Urza's Incubator: Ah, the good ol' Incubator, I traded for two of these many years ago, then bought online the other two. They don't print cards like this anymore (Ok, maybe I'm wrong, Semblance Anvil is very good too, but exiling a card from your hand hurts a little) for a simple reason, and it's because you can do some truly degenerate things when your creatures cost 4 or 6 less to cast, this deck starts to look like affinity when this thing is in multiples in the field, lesser scarecrows come free to the table, and Reaper King becomes even cheaper that it already is, because you can choose to pay colorless mana for the color you're lacking, then cut by 2 it's total cost, so the King can hit the table as soon as turn 4, not bad for a card with CMC of 10.
I've played many times this deck, and I've won like a bit more than half of the games I get it, that's a good record for me in a multiplayer table where suddenly people can ally against you and you start to feel like the Archenemy but without your schemes.
Once this deck gets a little of preparation in the first few turns, it's time to get aggressive and take out the player who's most dangerous for you, usually the one with the I-blow-all-the-artifacts deck or the one who tries to screw relentlessly your mana base, these two are it's weak points, otherwise, it's a very fun deck to play for me, heh
As Usual, you can leave any comments or ideas you might have for scarecrow decks, heh.
One Scrap Basket and one Coalition victory= auto win (this is asuming you have the required lands) Also, in your multipplayer games you talk about, mabe you could, look at a strategy based five player variant that will create some interesting allies. For example, only two people can gang up on any one player, and the other two will be trying to prevent the targeted player from dying. Its a really wonky format that is garenteed to make you rub your head. Its in variant formatts and is titled five player variant.
Your deck seems like the curve is really high but you're the one to tell us that. But Lurebound hits turn 3, Incubator turn 4... can't tell. If you need aggro to leave you alone for a while, you might look at some Collective Restraint.
The absolute best card I can recommend for this deck that will make this deck like 10 times better is Land Tax. It is the best way in all of the game, easily, to fix your mana, and since your playing five color with all basic lands you seriously may want to consider it. I think it costs like 7 or 8 bucks if you buy it online.
I second Collective Restraint it justs smacks down aggro decks as soon as it hits the battlefield.
I think you may need some more mana fixing, what about Cultivate? It is really good and also is budget friendly.
Personally I would lose the Urza's Incubator. I have never played with that card but I have played against it a lot and I have not once seen it truly be worth its while. You may consider replacing it with more artifact based mana.
Stuff like: Sol Ring (if you can afford one) Darksteel Ingot Everflowing Chalice
Also since your playing 5 color you always gotta consider Allied Strategies as it can draw you five cards for just five mana.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
--------------------------------------
"STAY CLEAR OF WHITE POWDER"
311 "Who's Got the Herb"
--------------------------------------
@ Kennethwong: Maybe I can go and try to use some Glimmervoids, because they give any color of mana, the Academy is a bit on the expensive side, I should proxy it first before trying to buy it.
@ Jacktheinvisible: Coalition Victory could do a fine job here as a one-of. Scrapbasket wouldn't be needed since the Reaper King is already all colors. The multiplayer format you mention sounds a bit like 2 vs 3, it reminds me about another format called five-color star, where five players sit in the table, and then each player wins if the two opponents sitting at the opposite side of the table are defeated.
@ The Warden: The deck can start ticking in turn 2, dropping a Steely Resolve or a Trace of Abundance. While it's true that the deck looks very expensive, well, it's got several mana accels (12 cards), so it's possible to get two or even three of those each game. Lurebound is a very good beatstick, it even fits in any aggro deck, a 4/4 for a measily 3 is cheap.
I read a bit the topic you wrote in your post, I tried to use Scuttlemutt in the first iterations of the deck but it just didn't survive to get mana from it, because it got Shocked all day long, that's why Coalition Relic was here, it's much harder to kill. But I should try to run it again in the place of Coalition Relic now that I have the Steely Resolves, I could lose a bit of the mana that the Relic produces, but seems like a fair trade for another possible attacker and minion for the King.
@ rchrhds: I have one Land Tax somewhere, even if it's the 61th card in the deck, the chance to get three different basics sounds too good to pass, I'll try that one.
Urza's Incubator helps here because it cuts mana costs from the creatures, that helps when you have a Scarecrone in the table and want to destroy several cards in the same turn with Reaper King, look at this hypotethical situation:
You have the King, Scarecrone and the Incubator in the field, and two more scarecrow cards in your hand, let's say one Lurebound and another Scarecrone (Both cost 3), you can cast the first by paying 1, destroy a perm, and then cast the other one by another 1 to destroy another perm, you can even sacrifice one of those to draw a card, and you did all of that by 3. Without the Incubator, you would need 7 to accomplish that.
The Incubator looks more powerful here because the deck might need to play as many creature spells as possible in the same turn to maximize the destruction, and leaving the most mana available to sacrifice to draw more cards and repeat the cycle.
Don't get me wrong, Sol Ring and Everflowing Chalice are very powerful cards, but here, their mana accel would be spent after playing one card in the turn... But, that wouldn't stop me from chucking one Sol Ring in this deck if I had one xD.
Now that you and the Warden mention Collective Restraint, I'll see what I can take out the deck to put a couple of those I have. The Allied Strategies go fine with the basic land mix here, I think I could put those in the place of the Thirst for Knowledge.
Here's the decklist:
Wrath of the Reaper King WUBRG
4 Plains
4 Island
1 Swamp
1 Mountain
6 Forest
2 Academy Ruins
4 Terramorphic Expanse
4 Lurebound Scarecrow
4 Scarecrone
4 Wicker Warcrawler
4 Grim Poppet
4 Reaper King
Others (18)
2 Thirst for Knowledge
3 Steely Resolve
4 trace of Abundance
4 Coalition Relic
1 Jalum Tome
4 Urza's Incubator
The strategy of this deck is simple, play some mana accel, play scarecrows, attack with scarecrows, repeat until your opponent stops playing.
The cards:
Reaper King: The card that inspired the deck, one of the objectives in the deck is to get as soon as posible the five colors of mana to slap this bastard in the field. If you get to untap with him, well, let's just say that a Vindicate-machinegun that also doubles as a Glorious Anthem and even as an attacker certainly helps to win the game. More on this guy later.
Academy Ruins: As most of the time I play multiplayer, having a way to recover your lost mooks is a good way to get online after a sweeper or just a row of removal pointed at you, it can also get some of the other artifacts the deck uses in case they're destroyed.
Lurebound Scarecrow, Wicker Warcrawler: Beatsticks, these two creatures are your infantry, their main role in the deck is to attack over and over until they get destroyed, eleven green permanent cards in the deck help Lurebound to stay alive.
Grim Poppet: This thingie packs a three-round shotgun, it can get into fights with bigger creatures and live to tell the story, this card is removal on legs, very good scarecrow.
Scarecrone: After the Reaper King, this lowly 1/2 is the most dangerous creature in the deck, you really need to play this to get how powerful in a scarecrow deck it can be, it reduces the opponent's removal power by like half and when it loses summoning sickness it becomes a reanimator machine for the other scarecrows; always have mana available to sacrifice this guy, because it'll have a target the size of a door in its forehead. And at worst, it'll take a removal of your opponent and draw ou a card.
Terramorphic Expanse: These help to get the mana of the right colors from your lands.
Trace of abundance: Targeted land destruction is abundant in my meta, so protecting your lands is a must, this aura also doubles as mana acceleration.
Steely Resolve: Slap this in the field, and you'll have one-sided shroud for your deck, this enchantment is that good, truly scary things happen with this and Reaper King or Scarecrone in the field.
Jalum Tome, Thirst for Knowledge: Card drawing and filtering, the Tome is slower but if unchecked, it will get many goodies for you.
Coalition Relic: One of the goals of the deck is to get four or five different colors of mana as early as possible so you can play Reaper King faster, this artifact helps a lot by getting up to two different colors in a single shot, more often than not, once I untap with this thing, I can easily summon the King.
Urza's Incubator: Ah, the good ol' Incubator, I traded for two of these many years ago, then bought online the other two. They don't print cards like this anymore (Ok, maybe I'm wrong, Semblance Anvil is very good too, but exiling a card from your hand hurts a little) for a simple reason, and it's because you can do some truly degenerate things when your creatures cost 4 or 6 less to cast, this deck starts to look like affinity when this thing is in multiples in the field, lesser scarecrows come free to the table, and Reaper King becomes even cheaper that it already is, because you can choose to pay colorless mana for the color you're lacking, then cut by 2 it's total cost, so the King can hit the table as soon as turn 4, not bad for a card with CMC of 10.
I've played many times this deck, and I've won like a bit more than half of the games I get it, that's a good record for me in a multiplayer table where suddenly people can ally against you and you start to feel like the Archenemy but without your schemes.
Once this deck gets a little of preparation in the first few turns, it's time to get aggressive and take out the player who's most dangerous for you, usually the one with the I-blow-all-the-artifacts deck or the one who tries to screw relentlessly your mana base, these two are it's weak points, otherwise, it's a very fun deck to play for me, heh
As Usual, you can leave any comments or ideas you might have for scarecrow decks, heh.
Fan of Both old and new Slivers (But the new ones are still better anyway)
C Call of Emrakul - G vs R DD: Elves vs. Goblins - W vs B DD: Divine vs. Demonic - WUB Esper Artifice - RGW Aura Dancers
WUBRG Wrath of the Reaper King - WB Men of Faith - B Mercenaries - UB Phyrexian Assault 2.0 - WU Artifacts of Empires
BR Skeleton Warriors - RG Night of The Howlpack - B Bog Murderers - BR Eldrazi Assault - BGU Ulamog's Swarm
Thanks to Darth Monkey and SGT_Chubbz at Damnation Studios for the sig and banner.
Your deck seems like the curve is really high but you're the one to tell us that. But Lurebound hits turn 3, Incubator turn 4... can't tell. If you need aggro to leave you alone for a while, you might look at some Collective Restraint.
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showpost.php?p=4557651&postcount=1
TheWarden's Creative Commons Music Pick Project (Retired):
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=336498
I second Collective Restraint it justs smacks down aggro decks as soon as it hits the battlefield.
I think you may need some more mana fixing, what about Cultivate? It is really good and also is budget friendly.
Personally I would lose the Urza's Incubator. I have never played with that card but I have played against it a lot and I have not once seen it truly be worth its while. You may consider replacing it with more artifact based mana.
Stuff like:
Sol Ring (if you can afford one)
Darksteel Ingot
Everflowing Chalice
Also since your playing 5 color you always gotta consider Allied Strategies as it can draw you five cards for just five mana.
--------------------------------------
"STAY CLEAR OF WHITE POWDER"
311 "Who's Got the Herb"
--------------------------------------
@ Jacktheinvisible: Coalition Victory could do a fine job here as a one-of. Scrapbasket wouldn't be needed since the Reaper King is already all colors. The multiplayer format you mention sounds a bit like 2 vs 3, it reminds me about another format called five-color star, where five players sit in the table, and then each player wins if the two opponents sitting at the opposite side of the table are defeated.
@ Spusdrus: Artificial Evolution, I've seen what it can do with Spawning Pit, and man, it's absurdly good.
@ The Warden: The deck can start ticking in turn 2, dropping a Steely Resolve or a Trace of Abundance. While it's true that the deck looks very expensive, well, it's got several mana accels (12 cards), so it's possible to get two or even three of those each game. Lurebound is a very good beatstick, it even fits in any aggro deck, a 4/4 for a measily 3 is cheap.
I read a bit the topic you wrote in your post, I tried to use Scuttlemutt in the first iterations of the deck but it just didn't survive to get mana from it, because it got Shocked all day long, that's why Coalition Relic was here, it's much harder to kill. But I should try to run it again in the place of Coalition Relic now that I have the Steely Resolves, I could lose a bit of the mana that the Relic produces, but seems like a fair trade for another possible attacker and minion for the King.
@ rchrhds: I have one Land Tax somewhere, even if it's the 61th card in the deck, the chance to get three different basics sounds too good to pass, I'll try that one.
Urza's Incubator helps here because it cuts mana costs from the creatures, that helps when you have a Scarecrone in the table and want to destroy several cards in the same turn with Reaper King, look at this hypotethical situation:
You have the King, Scarecrone and the Incubator in the field, and two more scarecrow cards in your hand, let's say one Lurebound and another Scarecrone (Both cost 3), you can cast the first by paying 1, destroy a perm, and then cast the other one by another 1 to destroy another perm, you can even sacrifice one of those to draw a card, and you did all of that by 3. Without the Incubator, you would need 7 to accomplish that.
The Incubator looks more powerful here because the deck might need to play as many creature spells as possible in the same turn to maximize the destruction, and leaving the most mana available to sacrifice to draw more cards and repeat the cycle.
Don't get me wrong, Sol Ring and Everflowing Chalice are very powerful cards, but here, their mana accel would be spent after playing one card in the turn... But, that wouldn't stop me from chucking one Sol Ring in this deck if I had one xD.
Now that you and the Warden mention Collective Restraint, I'll see what I can take out the deck to put a couple of those I have. The Allied Strategies go fine with the basic land mix here, I think I could put those in the place of the Thirst for Knowledge.
Thanks for your comments, folks
Fan of Both old and new Slivers (But the new ones are still better anyway)
C Call of Emrakul - G vs R DD: Elves vs. Goblins - W vs B DD: Divine vs. Demonic - WUB Esper Artifice - RGW Aura Dancers
WUBRG Wrath of the Reaper King - WB Men of Faith - B Mercenaries - UB Phyrexian Assault 2.0 - WU Artifacts of Empires
BR Skeleton Warriors - RG Night of The Howlpack - B Bog Murderers - BR Eldrazi Assault - BGU Ulamog's Swarm