GBW combo - Pattern-Rector

[Dreamer]

The Garruk and Thrun intrigue me. Why keep Thrun if you already have Stoneforge as a beatdown backup plan? It's not like the deck lacks tutors to find it. Is Garruk just moar mana or a token factory most of the time?

[ChristophO]

I feel the deck has quite a few impact cards that have a high mana cost (Bargain, conscription, Titans if you play them). You can also play much safer against non black decks and slowroll enabler + combo or tutor + combo if you have more avaiable mana. When games went bad it was usually at least one of two problems:
a) My opponent had a stronger board and made CA via Planeswalkers/blue Card draw
b) I was lacking mana

I feel Garruk can help in both regards and I also hope that Innistrad will finally bring some strong black planeswalkers.

[Dreamer]

Spent the better part of the evening getting my ass handed to me by a hyperaggressive, highly redundant RUG list. Dudes, dudes, more dudes, Moons, some counters, tons of burn and a Cradle. And a Pod. It just seems that he's about as fast or perhaps faster than I am, and can just do the fishy stuff - drop dudes, keep disruption up until he wins. At least one positive thing about it:
It's a deck with a very defined plan, not a random pile of goodstuff. That makes me very happy, even if I get mercilessly slaughtered by it.

Any changes, lines of play I should try to make things more even?

What I'm running atm:

Changes from last time:
Lotus Cobra=>Overgrown Battlement (more stable)
Equipment: SoFaI/SoFaF => SoLaS/Batterskull (just generally better in this deck)
Bargain=>Thrun (more general applications)
Ravenous Baloth => Obstinate Baloth (tons of games, have eaten Hulk once or so, cursed the need to sack it for life many times)
Manabase improvements (Razorverge Thicket, Savannah)

Heresy:
Top=>Boreal Druid
I'm just usually not terribly happy to draw top, almost always happy to draw manadork.
Great chance of me being wrong here, but will test to see what happens.


Primeval Rector:

//Creatures:

Birds of Paradise
Noble Hierarch
Elves of Deep Shadow
Arbor Elf
Fyndhorn Elves
Llanowar Elves
Boreal Druid

Viscera Seer
Carrion Feeder

Bloodthrone Vampire
Saffi Eriksdotter
Fauna Shaman

Wall of Roots
Overgrown Battlement
Sakura-Tribe Elder
Viridian Emissary
Sylvan Ranger

Wall of Blossoms
Qasali Pridemage
Stoneforge Mystic
Tidehollow Sculler
Mesmeric Fiend

Knight of the Reliquary
Phyrexian Ghoul
Yavimaya Elder
Eternal Witness
Kitchen Finks

Academy Rector
Obstinate Baloth
Skinrender
Fleshwrither
Dimir House Guard
Phyrexian Metamorph
Thrun, the Last Troll

Reveillark
Karmic Guide
Shriekmaw

Yosei, the Morning Star
Primeval Titan
Grave Titan

Protean Hulk
Terastodon


//Other permanents:

Sword of Light and Shadow
Recurring Nightmare
Oblivion Ring

Birthing Pod
Pattern of Rebirth

Batterskull

Eldrazi Conscription


//Other spells:

Inquisition of Kozilek
Duress
Thoughtseize
Worldly Tutor
Sylvan Tutor
Crop Rotation

Eladamri's Call
Regrowth
Demonic Tutor
Diabolic Intent

Vindicate
Maelstrom Pulse
Beast Within

Natural Order

Primal Command
Living Death

Green Sun's Zenith
Chord of Calling


//Lands:

5  Forest
4  Plains
3  Swamp

Arid Mesa
Wooded Foothills
Marsh Flats
Polluted Delta
Misty Rainforest
Flooded Strand
Windswept Heath
Verdant Catacombs

Savannah
Temple Garden
Overgrown Tomb
Godless Shrine

Razorverge Thicket
Llanowar Wastes
Sunpetal Grove
Twilight Mire
Wooded Bastion
Horizon Canopy

Dryad Arbor
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Wasteland
Volrath's Stronghold
Phyrexian Tower

[Ball.Lightning]

Some time has passed since I posted my current version of hulk combo. I have spent several evenings improving the deck and hours testing it. Many nice thought were posted here in this forum. I would like to present my thoughts about this deck.

Game plan
All versions of deck that were posted here has hulk combo as a main win con. Some packed also Eldrazi Conscription to maximalise use of Academy Rector. Should there be alternative game plan or is combo alone enough?

I think, there should be backup plan, what the deck is trying to acomplish. This deck has lots of creatures, so it comes into mind, that beat down should be the next possibility. The problem is that the creature quality of creatures this deck want to play is not in P/T, but in what the creatures do - ETB effents, utility abilities. I can't imagine, that I would be able to race dedicated agro or midrange agro deck or various agro controls with the creatures that are in this deck. Problem is, that this deck needs lots of slots to make the combo even possible and most of these creatures are not supposed to clash swords in combat phase. Adding several creatures, that improve this agro plan would take essential slots for creatures, that enable the combo and mainly few creatures like Stoneforge, Thrun, Grave titan would not save us, when oponent can play those creatures too, and take more advantage of them. That is why I think, that however Stoneforge is phenomenal, it is not what this deck needs or even wants.    

This deck has(or at least can have) lot of creature control cards, some versions had more or less disruptive cards, but is not enought to call this plan. The deck cann't usually play rock style - trading one for one so long as the opponent is out of juice. We again run into comboparts, that are some sort of blanks for this plan.

So what should best suit this deck? I think, that it is recursion and card advantage made by most of creatures. This should exhaust opponent or cripple him enought to make comboing off possible. It is essential to make combo essential cards usable even without rest of combo.

In this perpective I would present my current decklist. It lacks some "autoincludes" that almost all deckbuilders included. I would discuss the card choices under the decklist.

// Lands
   1 [SH] Volrath's Stronghold
   1 [US] Phyrexian Tower
   1 [WWK] Khalni Garden
   1 [TE] Wasteland
   1 [PLC] Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
   1 [WWK] Bojuka Bog
   1 [FUT] Dryad Arbor
   1 [LG] Karakas
   1 [US] Gaea's Cradle

   1 [A] Bayou
   1 [A] Scrubland
   1 [A] Savannah
   1 [RAV] Overgrown Tomb
   1 [GP] Godless Shrine
   1 [RAV] Temple Garden
   1 [ON] Windswept Heath
   1 [ON] Flooded Strand
   1 [ON] Bloodstained Mire
   1 [ON] Wooded Foothills
   1 [ON] Polluted Delta
   1 [ZEN] Misty Rainforest
   1 [ZEN] Arid Mesa
   1 [ZEN] Marsh Flats
   1 [ZEN] Verdant Catacombs

   1 [EVE] Twilight Mire
   1 [EVE] Fetid Heath
   1 [SHM] Wooded Bastion
   1 [TE] Reflecting Pool
   1 [FUT] Horizon Canopy

   3 [IA] Snow-Covered Forest
   2 [IA] Snow-Covered Swamp
   1 [IA] Snow-Covered Plains

// Mana - 12
   1 [ISD] Avacyn's Pilgrim
   1 [CFX] Noble Hierarch
   1 [A] Llanowar Elves
   1 [IA] Fyndhorn Elves
   1 [RAV] Elves of Deep Shadow
   1 [WWK] Arbor Elf
   1 [RAV] Birds of Paradise
   1 [CHK] Sakura-Tribe Elder
   1 [M11] Sylvan Ranger
   1 [MI] Wall of Roots
   1 [ROE] Overgrown Battlement
   1 [TSP] Yavimaya Dryad


//Combo
   1 [DIS] Protean Hulk
   1 [UD] Academy Rector
   1 [MOR] Reveillark
   1 [TSP] Saffi Eriksdotter
   1 [UL] Karmic Guide
   1 [ROE] Eldrazi Conscription
   1 [WWK] Terastodon

//Sacc outlets - 5
   1 [M11] Viscera Seer
   1 [SC] Carrion Feeder
   1 [M11] Bloodthrone Vampire
   1 [US] Phyrexian Ghoul
   1 [RAV] Dimir House Guard

//Discard -7
   1 [FNM] Tidehollow Sculler
   1 [NPH] Entomber Exarch

   1 [ROE] Inquisition of Kozilek
   1 [M10] Duress
   1 [LRW] Thoughtseize
   1 [AT] Hymn to Tourach
   1 [AP] Gerrard's Verdict

//Defense
   1 [SH] Wall of Blossoms
   1 [ROE] Wall of Omens
   1 [SHM] Kitchen Finks
   1 [M11] Obstinate Baloth

//Removal
   1 [LRW] Shriekmaw
   1 [UL] Bone Shredder
   1 [SHM] Murderous Redcap   
   1 [SOM] Skinrender

   1 [AT] Swords to Plowshares
   1 [NPH] Dismember
   1 [AP] Vindicate
   1 [ARB] Maelstrom Pulse
   1 [HOP] Oblivion Ring
   1 [7E] Wrath of God   / Damnation is color-wiser

   1 [ARB] Qasali Pridemage
   1 [TSP] Harmonic Sliver

// Tutors
   1 [M11] Fauna Shaman
   1 [CFX] Knight of the Reliquary

   1 [UL] Crop Rotation
   1 [MI] Worldly Tutor
   1 [MBS] Green Sun's Zenith
   1 [PS] Diabolic Intent
   1 [R] Demonic Tutor
   1 [PS] Eladamri's Call
   1 [MOR] Idyllic Tutor
   1 [UD] Pattern of Rebirth
   1 [RAV] Chord of Calling
   1 [PT] Natural Order
   1 [LRW] Primal Command
   1 [NPH] Birthing Pod


//Graveyard shenigans 5+1(entomber)
   1 [EX] Recurring Nightmare
   1 [A] Animate Dead
   1 [FD] Eternal Witness
   1 [R] Regrowth
   1 [M11] Sun Titan

   1 [AP] Phyrexian Arena
   1 [CHK] Sensei's Divining Top


Deck has 103 cards. I still feel, there is room for one more anticontrol creature card. I would go with Graveborn Muse(deck has even some zombies in it)  / Acidic Slime (utilize Reveillark, Recuring Nightmare and Birthing Pod.

Cards i lack:
Yosei, the Morning Star - nice six drop, comboes only with Recuring nightmare, but one must pay 6 mana for it and then something can happen. Not synegistic enough.

Yavimaya Elder - Zenithable creature, that brings CA. Casting Elder means, that next turn nothing happens. It realy does not speed's up the deck. Yavimania dryad speeds up, leaves body for Natural order od Diabolic Intent.

Lotus Cobra - too fragile and one must have enough lands to make this not death card. I dont expect this ever to attack.

Fleshwrither - Too slow again. Can tutor only Rector. And "tutor" for rector that can be stopped by any removal is generally not that great.

Yawgmoth's Bargain - again, sort of uncastable until it might be too late. We should be enough sattisfied with Recuring Nightmare. Still I can imagine to run this enchantment instead of Conscription, but still i find Conscription better.

Tainted Pact - unreliable and one must fetch first combopart in the way.

Mesmeric Fiend - Sculler should be just enough.

Grim discovery - sort of mana intensive to get full advantage of it. It does not do much early game and later on we should do better than this.

Living Death - This deck is not reanimation. We can hardly get some uncastable creatures to grave to revive them this way. Its wrath factor for opponent is not that usable too. Not to die agains agro we must kill their dudes to slow them down, and I realy do not want to kill half their army just to see the second half come to life.

Ravenous Baloth : OK, it eats hulk and then? It sucks as lifegainer, sucks with recuring nightmare.

Garruk Wildspeaker: even when most of the deck are creatures, we do not usually want do chump with any of them to save him. He can be quite riddiculous against Winter Orb or with Cradle + makes our uncasteables little more castable, But it is 4cc that would not help most of the deck.


The main requirement for creatures to be put in deck is that they have some cool ETB effect + they work great with Recuring nightmare, Reveillark or Sun Titan. repeatable card advantage through creatures should break the neck to opponent.

Take a while and look at other decklist and inspect how many creatures are in these decklists, that realy matter for recursion? Also the Birthing Pod chain is not that great there. Not always one can go for Rector or Reveillark (that would do not much either).  

Honorable creatures mentions: I include just those, that are NOT commonly played
Harmonic Sliver, Bone shredder, Yavimania Dryad, Ravenous Redcap, Entomber exarch, (?Acidic Slime), Sun Titan, Animate Dead. Avoiding some not that great cards and with adding there one can get realy crazy interactions.

Birthing Pod can go wild with this package, so can Recuring nightmare or Reveillark...

Thank you for reading my comment. I hope you liked it. I am looking forward responses.

[Phoenixlee]

Thanks for that, it's much appreciated！

[Tiggupiru]

Thought I'd post my new list, since the last post is from a bot and the last actual list is from last year.



// Deck file for Magic Workstation

// Lands
   1 Bayou
   1 Savannah
   1 Scrubland
   1 Arid Mesa
   1 Marsh Flats
   1 Verdant Catacombs
   1 Misty Rainforest
   1 Bloodstained Mire
   1 Polluted Delta
   1 Flooded Strand
   1 Wooded Foothills
   1 Windswept Heath
   1 Overgrown Tomb
   1 Volrath's Stronghold
   1 Temple Garden
   2 Plains
   2 Swamp
   1 Horizon Canopy
   1 Phyrexian Tower
   5 Forest
   1 Llanowar Wastes
   1 Godless Shrine
   1 Dryad Arbor
   1 Selesnya Sanctuary
   1 Golgari Rot Farm
   1 Orzhov Basilica
   1 Stirring Wildwood

// Creatures
   1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
   1 Carrion Feeder
   1 Bloodthrone Vampire
   1 Reveillark
   1 Yavimaya Elder
   1 Kitchen Finks
   1 Academy Rector
   1 Wall of Omens
   1 Wall of Blossoms
   1 Eternal Witness
   1 Birds of Paradise
   1 Noble Hierarch
   1 Fyndhorn Elves
   1 Llanowar Elves
   1 Elves of Deep Shadow
   1 Knight of the Reliquary
   1 Shriekmaw
   1 Qasali Pridemage
   1 Arbor Elf
   1 Yosei, the Morning Star
   1 Fauna Shaman
   1 Viscera Seer
   1 Protean Hulk
   1 Grave Titan
   1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
   1 Murderous Redcap
   1 Phyrexian Metamorph
   1 Primeval Titan
   1 Mentor of the Meek
   1 Avacyn's Pilgrim
   1 Acidic Slime
   1 Karmic Guide
   1 Vampire Aristocrat
   1 Nantuko Husk
   1 Phyrexian Ghoul
   1 Scavenging Ooze
   1 Skinrender
   1 Viridian Emissary
   1 Loxodon Hierarch
   1 Sylvan Ranger
   1 Tidehollow Sculler
   1 Saffi Eriksdotter
   1 Deranged Hermit

// Spells
   1 Natural Order
   1 Thoughtseize
   1 Duress
   1 Pattern of Rebirth
   1 Eladamri's Call
   1 Recurring Nightmare
   1 Demonic Tutor
   1 Maelstrom Pulse
   1 Vindicate
   1 Living Death
   1 Diabolic Intent
   1 Chord of Calling
   1 Primal Command
   1 Inquisition of Kozilek
   1 Sensei's Divining Top
   1 Worldly Tutor
   1 Phyrexian Arena
   1 Oblivion Ring
   1 Green Sun's Zenith
   1 Birthing Pod
   1 Liliana of the Veil
   1 Garruk Relentless
   1 Sylvan Library
   1 Dismember


That is close to the exact list I played at KuukkaCon, which featured ~38 players. I went 4-1-1 picking up a loss from not being able to play a the first round as I was in another tournament at the same time. Deck felt pretty good and most of my wins came from opponents being somewhat unaware of the potential the deck offers. I might have won those matches anyway, but it sure made it easier. I won a Naya aggro that was flooded in two games, BW aggro, Dragon Highlander (a friend of mine, deck has some serious OOMPH, but is really lacking against combo) and Bant. I drew against Good Stuff.

But yeah, back to the list itself, it is good to combo again and as you can see, I added way more sacoutlets and trimmed some beater dorks. This is to combat decks like Bant and good stuff as your best weapon against them is synergy and combo. This is the reason I for example dropped Stoneforge as she didn't give too much of an edge against them and if they ever draw their own, theirs were way better. You cannot match them in pure card power anyway, so it's better to play your strengths. The previous approach is better if you expect slow control or fast aggro. The decline of UB control allowed me to finally get rid of the Bargain, which was pretty weak most of the time.

The list has both comboes (Melira/Persist + Reveillark/Guide/Hulk/Saffi), mostly because the latter consist mainly of cards you want to play anyway (Saffi isn't that great, but she has unlimited synergy). Melira is there just because you can just randomly draw those pieces and they are really nice with Pod. Optimal list probably drops one of these in favor for another, but I don't have many cards I would want to play in the deck atm, so there are room for both at the time.

Land base has Ravnica Karoos and they have been excellent. I am probably alone in this matter, but they have been in most of my recently made decks and I've been loving them. Having more mana without the need to play non-business cards is pure greatness. Wasteland sucks, but whatever. One card out of 100 and not every one plays it, so I'll gladly take those odds. Moons aren't even that bad as you can still play them (they come into play tapped) and you don't need to return a land. I've actually let a Magus of the Moon live for a turn before killing it just to cheat some karoos into play. I don't play Karakas because I need two plains to tutor up with Sakura, Elder or Ranger and I really don't want more white producing lands in the deck.

Some additions from the new sets: Garruk Relentless is in and I've been happy with it. It kills my guys with both sides and flipping it by killing my own Rector is pretty nice. Dismember replaced StoP because it can kill your Rector. Scavenging Ooze is not a synergy piece, but my god is it amazing. Liliana of the Veil kills your own guys (and I guess my opponent's too) and can actually cripple an opponent in some games. Phyrexian Metamorph is probably good enough, but I haven't cast him too much yet. An effect like that is pretty nice to have at the ready since the deck is loaded with tutors anyway. Mentor of the Meek has been good, but might be unneeded. It's nice to have some card draw when you aren't doing anything else, but you really can't rely on him to survive and pull you through from every situation.

I haven't had a chance to try out the new Mikaeus, but I will soon. Been preoccupied with another formats lately. Let me know if you have questions or suggestions.

[Kristian]

Thank you for the continued updates. Your list seems very optimized to me. I'm seriously considering assembling it

[Ball.Lightning]

Hi,
I would also post my accual decklist. I changed several cards, adapted some ideas from tabris. And I would like also comment Tiggupiru's decklist.

First I would like to point out, that in our comunity, there is no spoil mulligen. We still use old rule mulligen(nearly all player decline to accept new rule). So that is why my decklist has more lands then it is ussual here(35 instead of 33). You can feel free to cut two and recieve deck for new mulligen rule. This two lands stretch deck size little bit, but there is no harm done :-)

The plan of the play stayed the same, like i described in my last post. I still want more sick synergy then nice beatdown backup plan. Current decklist realy lack high cost spells, that go over 5 mana. Threre is just Hulk, Conscription and Sun titan (which is only one, that is supposed to get paid mana for). Significant difference is that deck lacks second green bomb (Terastrodon or Primeval). Terastrodon was kind of unwanted baby. One could catch control player with pants down T3/T4 smashing all theirs lands, but the same could do control to us with resolved Bribery. I lost too much games because of Bribery for Terastrodon, or it was just blank for me, that I can hardcast when it is too late plus Terrastrodon is saddly very medicore against agro. Casting terrastrodon T5-> has usually not great, since opponent can still operate with remaining lands.

Primeval titan is different story. Cheating him into play usually gets us more mana for next turn, but do we need that? Recent decklist realy lack utility lands(like bojuka, Karakas even Wasteland). So let't think, what can Primeval titan brings us? More mana? We could just tutor Hulk instead, and kill the guy. When we cut more uncastables, we can get more consistent draws and not sit with hands full of six mana spells when opponent is threating us with Winter orb or Armagedon.
Sun vs Grave Titan depends on other deck choices. Sun titan is more than solid if your deck supports it. I covered Yosei in my last post, I still dont like him. Last word on uncastables - with new Liliana we have the option to dump unwanted combopiece to graveyard and then reanimate it. In this matter I think, that playing Animate Dead is not optional. Less uncastables means less ramp spell or land search and thus some place for new good stuff.

I didn't tested bounce lands from Ravnica yet, but they are quite tricky. In the last turnament, I got tripple wasted and once vindicated, to stay on two lands ( + I faced fully loaded Opposition in one game). With the wasted land beeing karoo, I think I would lost the game at that moment. I still like utility lands, that are in the deck, are very solid and makes Knight of the Reliquary such a valuable creature to have. The best land in deck is no doubt Gaea's Cradle, with the flood of creatures this deck has, it makes commboing off so much easier.

I am testing now two new cards - Night's Whisper (which I abaronded very long time ago) and Harmonize. They performed extremely well and even after getting all my creatures killed, I was not doomed just for topdecking and could refill my hands with those draw spells. Night whisper compared to Phyrexian arena is something, like we get the cards NOW instead two turns from now. Arena is better in long run, but can be destroyed. So if you are happy casting Arena T2/T3, you should be happy casting Night's Whisper as well.

My current decklist:

// Lands
    1 [SH] Volrath's Stronghold
    1 [US] Phyrexian Tower
    1 [WWK] Khalni Garden
    1 [TE] Wasteland
    1 [PLC] Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
    1 [WWK] Bojuka Bog
    1 [FUT] Dryad Arbor
    1 [LG] Karakas
    1 [US] Gaea's Cradle

    1 [A] Bayou
    1 [A] Scrubland
    1 [A] Savannah
    1 [RAV] Overgrown Tomb
    1 [GP] Godless Shrine
    1 [RAV] Temple Garden

    1 [ON] Windswept Heath
    1 [ON] Flooded Strand
    1 [ON] Bloodstained Mire
    1 [ON] Wooded Foothills
    1 [ON] Polluted Delta
    1 [ZEN] Misty Rainforest
    1 [ZEN] Arid Mesa
    1 [ZEN] Marsh Flats
    1 [ZEN] Verdant Catacombs

    1 [EVE] Twilight Mire
    1 [SHM] Wooded Bastion
    1 [TE] Reflecting Pool
    1 [FUT] Horizon Canopy
    1 [AN] City of Brass

    3 [IA] Snow-Covered Forest
    2 [IA] Snow-Covered Swamp
    1 [IA] Snow-Covered Plains

// Acceleration
    1 [ISD] Avacyn's Pilgrim
    1 [CFX] Noble Hierarch
    1 [A] Llanowar Elves
    1 [IA] Fyndhorn Elves
    1 [RAV] Elves of Deep Shadow
    1 [WWK] Arbor Elf
    1 [RAV] Birds of Paradise
    1 [CHK] Sakura-Tribe Elder
    1 [M11] Sylvan Ranger
    1 [MI] Wall of Roots

//Combo
    1 [DIS] Protean Hulk
    1 [UD] Academy Rector
    1 [MOR] Reveillark
    1 [TSP] Saffi Eriksdotter
    1 [UL] Karmic Guide
    1 [ROE] Eldrazi Conscription 

//Sac. outlets
    1 [M11] Viscera Seer
    1 [SC] Carrion Feeder
    1 [M11] Bloodthrone Vampire
    1 [US] Phyrexian Ghoul
    1 [RAV] Dimir House Guard

//Discard
    1 [ROE] Inquisition of Kozilek
    1 [M10] Duress
    1 [LRW] Thoughtseize
    1 [AT] Hymn to Tourach
    1 [FNM] Tidehollow Sculler
    1 [NPH] Entomber Exarch

//Defense
    1 [SH] Wall of Blossoms
    1 [ROE] Wall of Omens
    1 [SHM] Kitchen Finks
    1 [M11] Obstinate Baloth

//Removal
    1 [LRW] Shriekmaw
    1 [UL] Bone Shredder
    1 [SHM] Murderous Redcap
    1 [SOM] Skinrender
    1 [ARB] Qasali Pridemage
    1 [TSP] Harmonic Sliver
    1 [AT] Swords to Plowshares
    1 [AP] Vindicate
    1 [ARB] Maelstrom Pulse
    1 [HOP] Oblivion Ring
    1 [ISD] Liliana of the Veil
    1 [PLC] Damnation
    1 [MBS] Go for the Throat

//Tutor
    1 [CFX] Knight of the Reliquary
    1 [M11] Fauna Shaman
    1 [UL] Crop Rotation
    1 [MI] Worldly Tutor
    1 [MBS] Green Sun's Zenith
    1 [PS] Diabolic Intent
    1 [R] Demonic Tutor
    1 [PS] Eladamri's Call
    1 [UD] Pattern of Rebirth
    1 [RAV] Chord of Calling
    1 [PT] Natural Order
    1 [LRW] Primal Command
    1 [NPH] Birthing Pod

//Graveyard shenanigan
    1 [FD] Eternal Witness
    1 [M11] Sun Titan
    1 [EX] Recurring Nightmare
    1 [A] Animate Dead
    1 [R] Regrowth

//Misc.
    1 [NPH] Phyrexian Metamorph
    1 [CMD] Scavenging Ooze

// Card advantage
    1 [AP] Phyrexian Arena
    1 [CHK] Sensei's Divining Top
    1 [PLC] Harmonize
    1 [FD] Night's Whisper



Last words are salutes to Phyrexian Metamorph. When this was printed, almost everyone was crazy about this card and it apeared in all sorts of deck. I was very reserved to this, but in this deck, it just pure awesomeness. It solves so much issues this deck might have.
   * Bribery to Hulk? - thanks I copy that.
   * Saffy removed? It copies Karmic Guide as it comes, and comboes with Reveillark.
   * We run so many ETB effect creatures, that having another copy of almost any creature is nice option.
   * It greately improves comboing when we can't go infinite for some reason.
   
   
Tiggupiru: I like very much your idea with Deranged Hermit. Pure sickness :-)

I wish to everyone good games, especially with Hulk combo.

[Genesis]

Yea i would also want to know what's reasoning to not run Sun titan / Gaea's gradle in tiggupiru's list? Sun titan is hitting several targets, even fetchlands usually if there arent else, going crazy with liliana seems acceptable. Gradle can produce zero mana in some cases (after wrath) but other times it should be good. Combined with deranged hermit? Sweet. I also think that mikaeus 2.0 should be in list, it has synergy with lots of cards in list already and comboes easily with persist guys + sac-outlet. Is sylvan tutor too slow to use vs. worldly Tutor? Also couple more cards what i would want to know your opinion, Thrun and Garruk, primal hunter. Are both unneeded or why you don't wanna play them? Thrun might not be good enought since we don't run any Swords but how about Garruk? Is that triple-g too much?

[Ball.Lightning]

Hi,
I did not tested mikaeus 2.0 yet, but synergistic aspect is so obvious, that there is no need to point out that more :-) The question is does it helps to the deck goal? Is it needed(ie not overkill like Terrastrodon)? Can we get him consistently do the game to gain advantage of him? I think if someone plays Grave titan, he can easily switch to Mikaeus. These are but just my impressions. I may be wrong.

Thrun can realy help against blue based decks since he can't be countered. Still I feel him like blank. This deck is either under severe pressure (then thrun is very medicorish) or we have enough tools to combo out. I realy dislike the moment, when I have to switch to beatdown plan, because hulk usually do not generate so much pressure and we have blanks for agro plan. So playing more creatures, that are good just for this plan and are completely useless for combo is something I try to avoid.

I have negative experience with planeswalkers here. Since there is not that many cards, that can protect PW effetively. And I surely do not want to chump just to save PW. Primal Hunter is sort of interesting because of the draw clause (pity, we dont have many beaters in deck, so it will draw like 2 at most without creating token first). In this matter it is quite slow. I think, Mikaeus would deserve slot more than Garruk. I want to try hermit first, since he offers defense/offense at the same time + comboes out with nightmare and reveillark very well.

[Tiggupiru]

Triple green on the Garruk is not a problem, but the fact that he costs five is. He is also not very good deal in most of the decks and is very much like a win-more card. If you have a titan or something out and they don't kill those in response to this, you are going to get an attack with your titan and that is really good. If you are behind on the board, Primal Hunter is pretty weak. In essence, i really don't like the card and it doesn't even produce any synergy, so it's an easy decision for me not to run it.

Sylvan Tutor I forgot. I didn't play it anywhere for a full year or so, mainly because how poorly it did against control. Since that is no longer that big of an issue, it can come back in. I've been thinking about cutting Diabolic Intent because it's just so bad when you are losing and not that insane unless you can play the tutored card immediately. I am going to swap those two up.

Deranged Hermit isn't insane or much of a good card. I know it seems like it has sick synergies, but it really doesn't provide enough power to be considered in the big leagues. Before the tournament I noticed that I was missing a card, so I put that in as a card that can give some trouble to slow control and has infinitely better synergies than Thrun. I was full aware he would not be optimal going into the tournament, but it was the best I could come up with in such a short notice. Thrun is pretty useless without the swords anyway, so Hermit might be decent as a meta call. All I know is, I will be cutting the Hermit as soon as I find some cool card to replace that.

Sun Titan is not on the list, because the targets for it aren't especially good. Random mana dorks and fetchlands are not ideal targets by any means and it's a six drop, which I wanted to have less of anyway. It's also quite possible to run out of targets completely if you don't have a fetchland at your disposal. He is somewhat synergistic, but the price tag is just too much. Grave Titan is kinda unneeded also, so I am going to give the Mike a run in that slot, but will not go back to Grave Father even if Mikaeus is proven to be something I don't want to play in this deck.

Cradle is another win-more card. All in all, it's decent and I might put it back in at some point, but I did pick up many losses where a basic forest would have been more than adequate mana source all the while Gaea mocked my face from her cradle. It sucks when you need to paris because the only green source you have in your opening hand is not going to produce mana. Nevertheless, it's nothing sort of amazing when the right pieces fall into place and it's a thing of beauty in mirror (and against similar decks). Horrible when facing red aggro, so adjust your opinion according to the expected meta.

Primeval is very good. Having an access to Volrath's Stronghold is simply great. Primeval + Stronghold is also a combo in itself and will give you endless amount of gas and mana to use the stronghold and play dudes on the same turn. Phyrexian Tower is also a nice one to nab. Even though the rest of the lands aren't as good, simply having infinite mana is going to make a number of things easier.

[Dreamer]

http://deckstats.net/deck-1137936-88bf84cb0997a53a624c2d803d52dae2-en.html

What I am running at the moment. For what it's worth, Thrun has been amazing for me thus far. Will have to see if he's worth it now that Stoneforge and friends are out though.

[Genesis]

Since birthing pod did get banhammer, what would replace that slot? I'm thinking to add Diabolic Intent back. What's your opinion should life from the loam get slot here too? It works nice with Horizon canopy and other utility lands but since we aren't running wasteland should we now add that for extra value?

[Tiggupiru]

Intent is fine, that's why it's been in the deck for so long. I'll probably add it back in too until I can think of a better card.

Loam is something this deck doesn't really want. Durdling with lands is too time consuming whereas just trying to find a tutor or Rector/NO/Pattern is way more efficient than slowly gaining minor advantages. If you would make this deck more Loam-centric, then maybe, but I don't see much benefit from that.

[Ball.Lightning]

Birthing Pod is great loss for this deck. Secondly unbanned loam propably means, that people will be more concerned about opponents graveyards.

There are several quick thoughts that came across my mind. Why not abuse all the recently unbanned stuff and make it broken. I mean stick together Hulk engine, Hermit Druid, Burried allive, Dread Return?, Victimize, Necromancy, Animate Dead, Loam engine with Ravens Crime and maybee it would do well. I have not decklist yet, but I feel some real potential here.