Hey guys,
after searching for a 'not so common' general I found Johan.
His ability is quite weak and there are almost no decks out there using him as a general, so I tried to find a good way to abuse his ability.
All my creatures vigilance?
First I was thinking about tapping abilities and combat tricks, for example Glare of subdual. This works well with cards like Hateflayer and so on. Other creatures, attacking and then tapped for an ability are also quite interesting (Living Inferno).
But thats kinda boring and predictible, so I was thinking about something different.
I already had a landfall deck with a GWU general and so I was looking through the cards and was thinking, hey, if all my lands would be creatures and have vigilance, I got lots of creatures and could use the mana during the second main phase.
Johan gives my creatures vigilance. Enables landcreatures to attack and use their mana later on. Reconnaissance does basically the same as Johan, but its better, because blocked creatures can be removed from combat and at end of combat, all creatures (and lands) can untap. Glare of Subdual is very strong with Johan, even more, when all lands can be used to tap the opponent's creatures.
There are two ways to let the lands become creatures: Natural Emergence bounces another enchantment (perhaps draw with enchantress) and our land have first strike! Liege of the Tangle is the most expensive card with 8 mana, but the lands are 8/8 creatures afterwards. With Terra eternal they are indestructible!
Aggravated Assault has nice syngergies with creature lands. Expecially, when they have vigilance (Infinite Attacks or mana). Hellkite charger also allows infinite attacks with lands, but only untaps attacking creatures. Not as good as Aggravated Assault but I wanted a creature with this effect.
If you attack multiple times a turn, someone should die: Nacatle War Pride and my creatures should be powerfull and trample: Kamahl, Fist of Krosa.
In the beginning I was using more cards like Burgeoning, Budoka Gardener and Azusa, Lost but Seeking, but after some playtesting I realized, that fetchlands are much more powerfull, expecially with loam crucible and valakut. The three cards mentioned above just do nothing, when I have no lands in my hand.
With Aggravated Assault you can also go infinite mana. You have Brightflame so maybe add Banefire and Fireball. Also, Rude Awakening goes with the flavor of turning your lands in creatures, but you might be beating the dead horse with this.
Brightflame actually seems really clever here, since most of your land-animating effects leave them colorless, so you can torch most anything without having to play around burning up your army. You still have other colored creatures to worry about, but the bulk of your forces are out of harm's way.
Did some playtesting yesterday and some parts of the deck worked quite well (Brightflame, landfall creatures and valakut). A big problem was card draw, so I did some changes and updated the decklist.
after searching for a 'not so common' general I found Johan.
His ability is quite weak and there are almost no decks out there using him as a general, so I tried to find a good way to abuse his ability.
All my creatures vigilance?
First I was thinking about tapping abilities and combat tricks, for example Glare of subdual. This works well with cards like Hateflayer and so on. Other creatures, attacking and then tapped for an ability are also quite interesting (Living Inferno).
But thats kinda boring and predictible, so I was thinking about something different.
I already had a landfall deck with a GWU general and so I was looking through the cards and was thinking, hey, if all my lands would be creatures and have vigilance, I got lots of creatures and could use the mana during the second main phase.
The current decklist:
Creatures
4 Oracle of Mul Daya
6 Primeval Titan
3 Knight of Reliquary
6 Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
3 Eternal Witness
4 Academy Rector
4 Nullmage Shepherd
6 Nacatl War-Pride
6 Hellkite Charger
8 Liege of the Tangle
7 Avenger of Zendikar
6 Admonition Angel
6 Rampaging Baloths
3 Mesa Enchantress
3 Verduran Enchantress
2 Argothian Enchantress
Enchantments
2 Fertile Ground
2 Trace of Abundance
2 Prismatic Omen
3 Rites of FLourishing
5 Miraris Wake
1 Exploration
2 Sylvan Library
3 Aggravated Assault
4 Glare of Subdual
3 Terra Eternal
4 Natural Emergence
3 Seismic Assault
3 Enchantress's Presence
2 Sterling Grove
3 Aura Shards
1 Reconnaissance
2 Militia's Pride
3 Oblivion Ring
3 Story Circle
2 Khalni Heart Expedition
6 Martyr's Bond
3 Prison Term
4 Dawn's Reflection
6 Mana Reflection
1 Crop Rotation
3 Realms Uncharted
1 Enlighted Tutor
3 Harrow
3x Chord of Calling
2 Constant Mists
Sorceries
2 Life from the Loam
4 Scapeshift
4x Brightflame
4 Decimate
2 Planar Birth
3x Genesis Wave
2 Nostalgic Dreams
6 Open the Vaults
4 Replenish
7 Tooth and Nail
3 Idyllic Tutor
4 Wrath of God
4 Chain Reaction
1x Green sun's zenith
4 Harmonize
Artifacts
3 Crucible of Worlds
6 Planar Portal
5 Eldrazi Monument
1 Valakut, the Molton Pinnacle
1 Vesuva
1 Windswept Heath
1 Arid Mesa
1 Thawing Glaciers
1 Krosan Verge
1 Tranquil Thicket
1 Riftstone Portal
1 Glacial Chasm
Card choices / Strategies
Johan gives my creatures vigilance. Enables landcreatures to attack and use their mana later on.
Reconnaissance does basically the same as Johan, but its better, because blocked creatures can be removed from combat and at end of combat, all creatures (and lands) can untap.
Glare of Subdual is very strong with Johan, even more, when all lands can be used to tap the opponent's creatures.
There are two ways to let the lands become creatures:
Natural Emergence bounces another enchantment (perhaps draw with enchantress) and our land have first strike!
Liege of the Tangle is the most expensive card with 8 mana, but the lands are 8/8 creatures afterwards. With Terra eternal they are indestructible!
Aggravated Assault has nice syngergies with creature lands. Expecially, when they have vigilance (Infinite Attacks or mana).
Hellkite charger also allows infinite attacks with lands, but only untaps attacking creatures. Not as good as Aggravated Assault but I wanted a creature with this effect.
If you attack multiple times a turn, someone should die: Nacatle War Pride and my creatures should be powerfull and trample: Kamahl, Fist of Krosa.
The enchantment drawbox is quite self explaining, draw with Enchantress's Presence, Mesa enchantress, Verduran enchantress and Argothian enchantress.
The landfall cards are mainly for massive ramping and abusing ramp.
In the beginning I was using more cards like Burgeoning, Budoka Gardener and Azusa, Lost but Seeking, but after some playtesting I realized, that fetchlands are much more powerfull, expecially with loam crucible and valakut. The three cards mentioned above just do nothing, when I have no lands in my hand.
There are also synergies with Valakut, the Molton Pinnacle: Prismatic Omen and Scapeshift and Planar Birth. The landfall creatures also love the latter cards.
Seismic Assault works well with crucible and loam.
I hope for thoughts and suggestions.
Changes (05/02/2012):
Added:
Removed:
I am now working on the manabase, I don't have all the duals, but will include them here, because they just work so well with valakut.
WUBCycling ZurWUB
WGRJohanWGR
Sylvan Library and more tutors to increase consistency,
There's a local guy who has made a Johan deck just because it's a different General. I'll see if I can get him to ship his list.
BPhage the UntouchableB
GRBKresh the BloodbraidedGRB
R Citizen Cane (Feldon of the Third Path)
WUBCycling ZurWUB
WGRJohanWGR
And what about Earth Surge?
Great list BTW
Hakim, Loreweaver
Autumn Willow
Yomiji, Who Bars the Way
Hanna, Ship's Navigator
Chromium
Skyfire Kirin