Discussion Forum

Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society.

I'm starting this for anyone who wants to post their prelease/launch party/any incomplete builds for development into a 60 card deck. Please post the 40 card version, even if you have a 60 card version already. The goal here is to get everyone to help each other develop construction abilities. One of the best ways to do this is to take a preconstructed deck and modify it into a custom build. An even better way is to take a deck that isn't complete and complete it. I apologize now for the length of the post but, you can't teach and they can't learn if you aren't substantial in you commentary.

Obviously I'll get the ball rolling.

I started prerelease by drafting RW humans but, in the last ten minutes was worried that I wouldn't be able to pull it off quick enough between the cost, with the strong arm of the deck being at 5 and 6 mana and also dependent in ways on my opponent (particularly two zealous conscripts) and only having one one-drop (Somberwald Vigilante)

In the last ten minutes I changed to this

3 Nettle Swine
3 Gryff Vanguard
1 Wingcrafter
1 Vorstclaw
1 Amass the Components
1 Latch Seeker
1 Geist Trappers
2 Fleeting Distraction
2 Lair Delve
2 Mist Raven
1 Nephalia Smuggler
3 Scrapskin Dragon

10 Island
9 Forest


The deck went 3-1 against 2 R/W humans (The first claiming my only defeat - due to a poor choice of keeping a 1 land and 2 vanguard hand), a Monoblack Built around Demonic Taskmaster and G/W.... ehh i think it was supposed to be soulbond themed. The Main Condition was Restoration Angel + Silverblade Paladin

Anyway, I took the deck home and was quite upset that I never got to use some of the fun red cards I got. I modded it up a bit and came up with this(after a few botched attempts), which is currently 4-1.


2 Vorstclaw
2 Wolfir Silverheart
2 Wingcrafter
4 Shock
3 Gryff Vanguard
2 Hanweir Lancer
4 Divination
1 Amass the Components
1 Fleeting Distraction
1 Latch Seeker
2 Mist Raven
1 Nephalia Smuggler
1 Thunderous Wrath
1 Somberwald Vigilante
3 Zealous Conscripts
1 Geist Trappers
2 Lair Delve
3 Nettle Swine
4 Sulfur Falls
4 Hinterland Harbor
4 Rootbound Crag
4 Forest
4 Island
4 Mountain

Drafted Sideboard (yet to test, it lacks the devils)
SB: 3 Mana Leak
SB: 3 Negate
SB: 2 Naturalize
SB: 2 Chandra, the Firebrand
SB: 2 Natural End
SB: 3 Vexing Devil

So, what I've done is tweaked some numbers to make room for a little more push. Thunderous wrath is entirely in there because it is THE miracle card. That's sort of a flavor thing for me. I feel like a miracle is something that doesn't happen to you every day, so it shouldn't be a repeated occurence in a deck. At least not the same miracle over and over. Again, all about the flavor and probably a very impractical approach.

Anyway, the push comes from a combination of draw and burn while I set up the creatures to make sure they get through. I decided that the 40 card deck's weakness was that it had no way to barrel through a strong offensive. A couple of Lancers, another wingcrafter, and zealous conscripts helped with this. The conscripts have the added bonus of forcing the opponent into frustration, with the attack including their own creature(generally the best one on their board).

I chose divinations over ponders and think twices because it feels more synergistic with the deck. My thinking here is that every turn i'll make one or two plays with each play moving my game forward a devastating amount. beyond that, If I'm hitting my land drop every turn, then those plays will become that much more effective. It's a deck that plays at a good pace and is able to win with a whole lot of different techniques (though it is clearly a creature-based deck. I wouldn't necessarily call it aggro myself).

Its a theory.

Your turn! Post a deck, share some of your reasoning, any questions/comments/interests you have with it. I know I'll try to respond. Hopefully others will too!