Your lands are still wrong. A landfall deck should run every single fetchland it possibly can. Also, you should have at least 25 lands, but preferably 26 so that you are almost guaranteed a land drop every turn. In a landfall deck, lands are as good as your best spells, so it's okay to have more than usual. Here are the changes I would make: +1 Marsh Flats +1 Scalding Tarn +1 Arid Mesa +2 Evolving Wilds +2 Contested War Zone -3 Mountain -2 Plains -1 Adventuring Gear -1 Ruin Ghost
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Another benefit to Venser, other than his -1 unblockable ability being crazy with infect, is that his +2 blink ability has excellent synergy with Tumble Magnet and Stoneforge Mystic.
JTMS is crazy, but I think this deck should be playing out its creatures on turns 2-4, then going for the kill on 5-7. To go the JTMS route would slow the deck down a bit and I think it would require control spells, which would really take the deck in a different direction than I intended. However, if you wind up playing your deck, let me know how it works out since I'm not totally convinced that Jace wouldn't work out.
Thanks for the compliment. Let me know how Jace works out, I'm wondering if his card advantage will be more important to this deck than Venser's -1 unblockable.
You make a good point, and I think that even though they won't do infect damage, they can be useful because of the swords and the deck thinning. +4 Squadron Hawk -4 Core Prowler I worry that it won't reach the critical mass of infect creatures it needs, even with Inkmoth Nexus. Will deck thinning from lands and hawks make up enough for that?
Rebalanced the lands to favor white more strongly: -2 Scalding Tarn -1 Marsh Flats -1 Island +1 Plains +3 Arid Mesa
Hmm, still skeptical about the hawks in infect. Do you think they'd be that good in this deck? I can agree with the sword.
I agree the hawks have crazy card advantage, but in this deck they would only be useful as blockers. I mainly wanted to borrow the equipment engine.
Have you ever considered splashing blue for Distortion Strike and Venser? Distortion Strike will give a slight pump to one of your infect creatures while making it unblockable for two turns. Venser's second ability will make all of your creatures unblockable, which is usually an instant win in an infect deck. DoJ seems a little out of place in this deck since you'll generally have more creatures on the field than your opponent. Maybe put it in the sideboard for games versus aggro decks.
I was trying to maximize targets for Oran-Rief, but I think you're right about them not wanting to block him. What do you think of Eldrazi Monument in this deck?
I decided to leave out Kuldotha Rebirth because I don't want to fill the rest of the deck with useless zero-cost artifacts like memnite and ornithopter for a chance at trading 2 cards and 1 mana for 3 1/1 goblins. Sadly, Goblin Assault is not in Standard, otherwise I would love to put it in.
Now that I'm doing some sample draws, I am finding that there is a pretty severe mana problem. All of the double-casting-cost creatures make it difficult to get the right mana when you need it. I think I would ditch the 2 Goblin Guides to make more room for mana, then arrange the mana as follows: 4 Arid Mesa 4 Contested War Zone 3 Evolving Wilds 3 Terramorphic Expanse 2 Smoldering Spires 4 Mountain 4 Plains You really need more chance of drawing a Mountain than a Plains because your early game relies heavily on your goblins with a casting cost of RR (Bushwhacker should almost never be cast w/o kicker). Your double-white creatures won't be played until turns 3 - 5, by which time you will hopefully be able to do some mana fixing. The Expanses and Wilds will slow down the game by a little bit in the worst case scenario, but it's better than being stuck unable to cast half of your creature spells. Smoldering Spires will provide the extra red mana you need in the early game, or will help keep your battle cry creatures alive in the mid game. Contested War Zone should help you win the early game, which is what this deck needs. If your opponent is still alive by the late game, you're in trouble if they're not in bolt range.
Other cards to consider for maindeck: - Ajani Goldmane - Stoneforge Mystic - Bonehoard - Spikeshot Elder + Basilisk Collar - Cunning Sparkmage + Basilisk Collar - Contested War Zone (you will take more advantage of it than almost any of your opponents) Stoneforge Mystic could be really cool for fetching up equipment for the double-striking Myrran Crusader. If you include equipment, don't include more than one of each type because you can fetch them with the mystic. Possible sideboard cards: - Revoke Existence (vs Artifacts/Enchantments) - Kor Firewalker (vs RDW/Boros) - Sword of Body and Mind (vs G/U) - Sword of Fire and Ice (vs R/U) - Luminarch Ascension (vs Control) - Tunnel Ignus (vs Ramp) - Mark of Mutiny (vs Titans/Eldrazi)
Nice deck. I would ditch Victory's Herald in favor of something speedy like Goblin Guide or Steppe Lynx, you'll just never wind up playing the angels. Journey to Nowhere would be a good replacement for one of your burn spells to help deal with Titans and their ilk. Drop in a set of Arid Mesas in place of 4 of your lands and you'll be set.
Verdant Catacombs.
You should use 4 x Verdant Catacombs.
I have found though that 1cmc instant and sorcery spells are golden when it comes to Kiln Fiend because it allows you to play multiple per turn right after Kiln Fiend comes out. I'm definitely going to do some experimenting with Staggershock though since it would be more helpful mid-game.
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