Beastie Boys

by Puschkin on 03 May 2017

Main Deck (62 cards)

Sideboard (1 card)

Artifacts (1)

Submit a list of cards below to bulk import them all into your sideboard. Post one card per line using a format like "4x Birds of Paradise" or "1 Blaze", you can even enter just the card name by itself like "Wrath of God" for single cards.


Deck Description

[As usual: My decks are for multiplayer, mostly 2vs2 and Pentagram. I am playing in a regular group of Magic veterans with huge collections, the meta is very mixed and mostly relaxed but sophisticated, no netdecks. No need to comment on manabase because it is always subject to change due to availability of my duals and fetchies, but feel free to suggest non-basics with abilities that fit. We don't use sideboards, cards listed in the sideboard are cards I consider adding and/or cards I don't own yet]

So, this is straight forward:
Gain massive amounts of life with Ravenous Baloth and Fangren Marauder. Then win the game with Hurricanes. Sounds stupid? If it works, it ain't stupid ... see, there are lots of beast token generators and Thran Forge help you to send more artifacts to the grave. All your stuff doesn't fly, so Hurricane is usefuel if not needed on itself, but in the endgame it will be a potent finisher.
See a detailed rundown of all cards and interaction in the How to Play section.

Oh, this is designed for multiplayer.

It looks finished but I am not fully satisfied yet:
* I decided to make red the splash colour since I need red mana for those Contested Cliffs anyway. I added Brass's Bounty as a setup for a big play. It virtually doubles my mana for a big Hurricane next turn but also gives me access to lots of ARTIFACTS. If I have ten lands out along Fangren Mauler and play a Bounty, then that's up to 50 life I give me at any time! Second addition is an Overmaster that helps me punch through my key spells like Brass's Bounty, Ezuri's Predation or that Hurricane.
But I haven't taken anything out yet ... so, I still need suggestions on what to cut.
Of course I could afford to play with slightly more than 60 cards. It's 62 currently. If I don't cut anything I would have to add another land, probably a Strip Mine.

* The entire thing seems to be too slow but I can't find a way to speed this up. Beast tokens tend to be 3/3 and bigger and cost accordingly. I do NOT own any Gaea's Cradles!

*

How to Play

* RAVENOUS BALOTH
4 life per beast at any time! And he is a beast itself - yes, you can sacrifice him to himself, notably in response to something that would exile it.

* FANGREN MARAUDER
5 life for every artifact that goes to the grave ANYWHERE ... now that's massive! There are tricks to speed that up, see below. Nice bonus: the Marauder happens to be a beast itself :)

* THRAN FORGE
This is the main way to gain more life out of the Marauder. Note that it can be used on opponent's creaturs, too! So, whenever a creature ist about to die, give it the full phyrexian treatment and harvest 5 life. Of course it can still be used to pump your critters.

* TIRELESS TRACKER, ROOT OUT, WEIRDING WOOD
These provide me with some utility and carddraw in the form of clue tokens which happen to be arifacts that are designed to die - feed the Marauder! The Weirding Wood might go if I don't find a worthy second colour splash.

* KEEPER OF THE BEASTS and PULSE OF THE TANGLE
Compareably cheap beast token generators. The only work when someone has more creatures, though, but with Ravenous Baloths you can control the size of your population.

* HURRICANE, CYCLONE
Your game finisher and only creature removal. By the time you cast you you hopefully have more life than anybody else, so max it out.

* EVOLUTION CHARM
The thing with the Baloths and Marauders is: They are key to this deck and you need them out as soon as you have the first material out that might die. So they will be in constant danger of getting nixed. Evolution Charm can bring one of them back to your hand. But it can also fetch a basic land in a pinch (or to get the splash colour if I can decide on one) and it has a thid option that will get you rid of a non-flyer when it is Hurricane-time.

* GARRUK WILDSPEAKER
One attempt to make this a bit faster. First ability has synergy with Weirding Wood, second produces beasts, third is an Overrun so maaaybe I could also score a refular victory. I should have a second Garruk in here but I own just one.

* WOODRIPPER
This is fantastic. You can use it's fading counters right away to kill artifacts, with an Marauder out thats 15 life if you have enough targets. And if you don't you could make some with Thran Forge. 4/6 for 5 isn't bad either. It's fading, so it doesn't die immediatedly when there is not counter, it will die next upkeep when you are required to remove a counter but can't. And IF it dies ... it's a beast! :)
You just have to love that.

* THRAGTUSK, RAPAGING BALOTHS
More beast generators that re beast themeselves. Should maybe pack more of them but I ran out of deck space and don't own more than one Baloth.

* PRIMEVAL BOUNTY, MIDSUMMER REVEL, FRESH MEAT, EZURI'S PREDATION
More or less random beast generators. Like with some other one-ofs I'll run them for a while and see what works best. Although it's unlikey that I will change this too much: Fresh Meat has great potential, but if you have no mana left when someone wipes the board, you'd better be off with one of the others. Primeval Bounty looks also great because you get something whenever your play a card. However, it can be disenchanted. Midsummer Revel could be disenchanted as well but you can use it in response. It takes some time to be good but no additional resources. The Predation is the most expensive but also the most explosive and has immediate impact on the board. Honestly, the deck is better off with one copy each.

Deck Tags

  • Beasts
  • hurricane
  • Multiplayer

Deck at a Glance

Social Stats

8
Likes

This deck has been viewed 4,236 times.

Mana Curve

Mana Symbol Occurrence

000250

Card Legality

  • Not Legal in Standard
  • Not Legal in Modern
  • Legal in Vintage
  • Not Legal in Legacy

Deck discussion for Beastie Boys

I will probably not have enough time for a real comeback. But in case I do, here are a few links to my projects here, which may as well become my legacy:

The "OBSCURE CARD CHALLANGE" where you can challange me to build a deck around a card you deem unplayable:
http://www.mtgvault.com/puschkin/decks/obscure-card-challenge-occ/

Here you can request DECK HELP on/REVIEW of your casual decks (read the description first!)
https://www.mtgvault.com/puschkin/decks/puschkin-please-help-me/

And here a deck where I need some suggestions . No deckbuilding skills needed, I need thematical suggestions!
https://www.mtgvault.com/puschkin/decks/kingdoms/

Thank you for reading.

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Posted 25 February 2019 at 16:13

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I am sorry to say that this is not only outside my area of expertise, this is downright out of my conceptual domain. I don't really know what useful critique I could give.

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Posted 26 February 2019 at 13:43

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Yeah, I figured nobody is building decks the old way anymore. It's getting a bit lonely here. Thanks for chiming in anyway.

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Posted 26 February 2019 at 16:35

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It is mostly a metagame issue, to balance decks that cross all formats whilst adhering to abstract rules designed to ensure some semblance of acceptable balance withou turning it into Vintage for broke people takes more than I am willing to give.
It is however wonderful to see it work out for someone else.

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Posted 27 February 2019 at 16:18

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But ... we are not broke, I could add a Mox Emerald if I wanted :) Gaea's Cradle is just a card I missed - I have all other Urza legendary lands. Besides, ANY suggestion is welcome, even if I ultimately don't make use of it, because it gets my brain thinking in ways I didn't before.
But yes, excuse accepted :)

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Posted 27 February 2019 at 17:28

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xD Yeah, but broke people can play this, they can't play that which most think of when they hear the word 'Vintage' uttered.
Beast Within feels good.

Damn, feels weird to make these kinds of suggestions, as I said, outside of my conceptual domain. Still fun to hang out here while I feel like procrastinating xD

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Posted 27 February 2019 at 17:30

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Actually the rules of your group state that your deck needs to be legal in Vintage OR Legacy OR Modern OR Standard OR Commander. Most of the time we default to Vintage because it has the biggest card pool but sometimes you want to play a card that is restricted 4 times and you switch to Legacy. It also allows guests to join with whatever they have. It's quite beautiful but your are right: What was basically the norm for casual 15 years ago is now insular, I understand your concerns, but at the same time I refuse to acknowledge that things have changed that much and that our style to play is now unique and obscure. Because ultimately it reminds me of my age.

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Posted 27 February 2019 at 19:08

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See that's more or less what I meant; balancing something where the rules are "anything goes" ought to be hard enough to where few try.

I hardly believe it to be obscure as I'd imagine every game store has one such playrgroup made up of either nostalgic adults or begging kids. My issue has always been with balancing decks in such playgroups. Though it is a concern that springs purely from anecdotal experience as every such playgroup I have ever witnessed seemed to spiral out of control and become degenerate. Though I'd imagine that is not a problem you are having.

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Posted 28 February 2019 at 14:00

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Late answer: Well, we also fight with it from time to time, but ultimately, the group stayed sane and the power creep slow. Degenerate decks aren't fun and if you spot one, people gang up on you. Also, well, we TALK about what is acceptable, what not and WHY. This isn't without conflict of course, but if anything, our issue isn't insta win combos or super aggro, it's actually control. If there's too much of it, games last forever and actually doing something that could progress the game is punished.
It also helps that we don't play very often anymore, that most of us stopped buying new cards and that we hardly have time to build new decks ... I have more than 30 active decks but the "newest" one is almost as old as my son (which is no coincidence :( ),

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Posted 14 October 2020 at 17:54

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Cavern of souls and a bit more focus on beasts?
Chancellor of the tangle + æthervial and or wild growth ?
Inner beast to deal with combo's or to turn your lands into emergency beasts after a sweep?

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Posted 26 February 2019 at 18:21

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Like Gaea's Cradle I don't own Cavern of Souls and they are too expensive to get now.
The Chancellor gives me one extra mana on turn one only - where it will fizzle respectively give me manaburn :P
(yes, we kept mana burn rules)
AEther Vial, hm, that is an option for my key creatures, however, it takes 5 turns to get there. I don't think they'll live that long, but it is worth a try. Wild Growth I have in the form of Weirding Wood, which is more expensive but replaces itself and feeds the Marauder due to investigate.
Inner Beast is woth a try, however, if I nuke my own land, then that's the opposite of acceleration. Plus, after a swipe, what is a vanilla 3/3 worth if I don't have a Baloth and/or Mauler/Thran Forge anymore? Also, they would most likely replace the Root Outs, right? Then I win a bit in beasts (IF desperate enough to waste my only spotremoval on myself) but I weaken the other combo with Mauler.

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Posted 26 February 2019 at 19:18

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I have a friend with a high mana cost green deck. He uses cloudpost along with crop rotation to get them early. Might help to quicken the deck. Works well for him in multiplayer games.

If I was to splash a color, I would add white to play rhox faitmender since your strategy is to win with lifegain.

I still wonder if you ever win life consistently with fangren, especially since you have only 2x thran forge.
I also wonder if beastmaster ascention could be your 2nd wincon instead of cyclone.

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Posted 26 February 2019 at 19:09

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Ah, thx for the input!

Rhox Faithmender would indeed be sick here. It would be, however, almost "win more". If I was to splash for a colour, I thought it would be for something I can't do yet. Rhox Faithmender would be just more life and more importantly: Not on his own, only on top of one of my other combos. And it's a creature itself, too. When it works, I will probably win in a flashy way, but I just fear he will be yet another card I lose to the inevitable Wrath of God like effect. I was thinking of something like Overmaster for the splash, something that helps me winning unwinable games or to overcome common obstacles in multiplayer. See, life gain alone doesn't win me the game. A Hurricane big enough to kill my opponents does but I have to have enough life for that.

I tried Beastmaster Ascension before. That is a card that puts a big bulls eye on you long before it got enough counters. Creature bades attacks can also be stopped in way too many ways. A single guy holding a Constant Mists for example. I run Cyclone because it has the potential to do a lot of damage over a longer time. If my opponents also have lots of life, Hurricanes might not be big enough. Cyclone has at least the chance to catch up.

About the Fangren: I also have the investigate mechanic going and in my opponents will lose some artifactes here and there on their own. But yes, more Forges are a consideration, but I don't know what to cut, let's wait for the next big gaming night.

Cloudpost is a nice suggestion! I have actually never used them before but here it seems like a good idea.

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Posted 26 February 2019 at 20:14

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good points! Some more ideas: I think Domri, chaos bringer would be an awesome red splash! Speed up the game, resist wrath of god effects, and add beasts! Clan defiance and Overmaster were pretty good ideas. I wondered if sylvan caryatid could also help speeding up the deck while giving some early game protection. I also thought about the idea of splashing black for equisite bloodsanguine bond). ifh-biff efreet would be pretty fun to add, it's a shame it's not a beast! call of the wild could also help after a wrath of god event!

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Posted 27 February 2019 at 19:00

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If I had Domri CHaosbringer, he would be in! I am waiting for him to leave standard/get reprinted so that the price drops.

Clan Defiance and Overmaster will be the cards I use if I can't come up with something else.

Caryatid is and option, but I won't play them in addition to th Weirding Woods and Evolution Charms, so decisions have to be made here. Wait a sec - I JUST realize that I also run Contested Cliffs, which I never mentioned before. It needs red mana to activate. lol! ... so the splash colour needs to be red anyway. Which is a good thing, that way I don't have to consider Blood Sanguine, which would shift this deck into the realm of combo.

You made an old fart like me happy by suggesting Ifh-Biff Efreet! I happen to own one and would have included him anyway. I didn't include him in the list on purpose because it would drive the deck price up and unless something changed here at MTGVault since I left, the crowd here is MUCH more likely to comment on decks that don't have expensive cards ...

Wrath of God:
I am actually not afraid of it. It borrows me time, too. A Wrath will typically gain me lots of life, so I can lean back during the recovery stage. An early Wrath is actually good, it gets me rid of all of opponents weenies and utility that I don't have. A midgame Wrath looks like loos for me but it actually only is if I can't gain life in that moment. And Wraths after that ... well, with these over the top creatures from the last third of sets you actually WANT a swipe here and there ... ;)
It's also about multiplayer psychology. This deck will hopefully be lablelled "that beast token deck". If a Wrath kills a bunch of beasts that looked threatening and maybe even lethal if draw an Overrun, then they feel like that Wrath saved their ass and silenced me. They don't need to know that the actual goal was the lifegaining which is a setup for the Hurricanes.

EDIT:
It feels to good to talk about deck like that again, thank you The Wretched.

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Posted 27 February 2019 at 20:01

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I decided to make red the splash colour since I need red mana for those Contested Cliffs anyway :P I added Brass's Bounty as a setup for a big play. It virtually doubles my mana for a big Hurricane next turn but also gives me access to lots of ARTIFACTS. If I have ten lands out along Fangren Mauler and play a Bounty, then that's up to 50 life I can give me at any time! Second addition is an Overmaster that helps me punch through my key spells like Brass's Bounty, Ezuri's Predation or that Hurricane.

But I haven't taken anything out yet ... so, I still need suggestions on what to cut.
Of course I could afford to play with slightly more than 60 cards. It's 62 currently. If I don't cut anything I would have to add another land, probably a Strip Mine.

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Posted 28 February 2019 at 14:01

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Might I suggest rampage of the clans?

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Posted 28 February 2019 at 16:17

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It creates centaur tokens. I need beasts for the Baloth.
It's a potent card, though! That will become a staple in a lot of my decks from now on I think.

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Posted 28 February 2019 at 18:18

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Dang. Must have misread it. Thought it put out beasts. My bad.

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Posted 28 February 2019 at 18:36

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I'm toying a lot with cycling these days, so I have a focus on cycling.

if you can add some beasts with cycling you can always cycle them if you haven't gotten the mana, and cycle into cheaper beasts or the lands to cast other beasts.


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Posted 11 March 2019 at 18:06

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They are all 5+ mana and with the exception of the most expensive ones they are all vanilla besides the cycling. So, while I get a slightly more stable mana production, I will go up the mana curve AND lose abilities. I can't afford to play vanillas instead of something like Rampaging Baloths. I might if i had some sort of reanimation going but alas I don't.
Besides, none of them accelerate. Even Krosan Tusker doesn't put the land into play, only into my hand.

Nyktos might be an option.

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Posted 12 March 2019 at 10:55

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Yeah, if cycling's the only ability on the critters the rest of the deck would have to hold them up.
Since this message also got through, I suspect notifications are timed, and disappear after a while.
That would root out some memory space for other stuff. I imagine that before that, lots of notifications were just hanging out ;)

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Posted 14 October 2020 at 20:41

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Wickeddarkman good job at responding in a timely manner

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Posted 14 October 2020 at 20:47

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haha, that's the, how to say it ... suboptimal notification system! It was actually me to respond late (somewhere up here, dialog with TheSwarmer). But since WD has subscribed he got an notification. And since the second last post in here was his, he assumed I replied to him two hours ago :)

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Posted 14 October 2020 at 20:57

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I did ponder s second why it was dated 2019, but I was in an answering frenzy.
Blood was in the water and I bit the bait ;)

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Posted 14 October 2020 at 21:04

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