Deck of Solitude

by Puschkin on 07 April 2016

Main Deck (60 cards)

Sideboard (7 cards)

Creatures (2)


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

My take on a Budget deck (of sorts) yet keeping things interesting and out-of-the-box-thinking. There is a lot about this deck I could improve but I tried to keep it as cheap as possible because otherwise nobody reads this. Which wasn't easy because the key card, City of Solitude, is already 16$ the playset. If 40$ total is still too much to ask you can further reduce the cost by replacing the Medallions with cheap artifact mana but you wouldn't do yourself a favour. The Medaillons are crucial and useful in many decks, they are a good investment.

Anyway, the deck bases on City of Solitude which prevents players from doing anything outside their turn. This includes tapping anything for mana. Which means, if you play any of your twelve pirates (the Rishadan guys) then the opponents cannot pay the extra mana for the ability, so they have to sacrifice something. The same is true for Crystal Shard and Erratic Portal - if you use them on opponent's creatures during your turn with a City out, they cannot pay that mana and therefore are forced to bounce the creature. However, the Portal and Shard can also be used on your pirates so you can force the opponent again to sacrifice something ... which you might recognize as highly annoying and nasty :)
In the same way, Fade Away acts like a kind of Wrath of God/Mass removal while Liege of the Hollows is your win condition in the case you need to overrun somebody, but if your deck is rolling, you can kill with pirates because the opponent will have nothing to block with. The Liege could also be replaced with something else, I just added him for the lols.

See How to Play section for more details and synergies.
Cards in Sideboard are cards to consider for a proper version without budget in mind.

How to Play

Gameplan:
Coiling Oracle and the Walls ramp mana. The former is also a card draw engine with Portal/Shard, the latter are also good early blockers.
So, ramp mana and try to get City of Solitude into play asap. Once it is there you can play your pirates and nibble away on your opponent. Sometimes it's better to get a Portal or Shard online first, using it on opponent's most expensive creatures, slowing them down. Once you have all three components, your opponent is in deep trouble!

Neat trick you can do when City isn't in play (because you didn't draw one or because the opponent destroyed it):
You can block and then use the Portal/Shard on it, saving your creature from destruction (the attacking creature is still blocked and you won't get damage unless it tramples)

On multiplayer:
The pirates effect every opponent, so, yes, you could play this in multiplayer. But probably only once ... when I played a version of this for the first time it outraged my buddies so much that they ganged up on me the next game - even though I switched decks :P Nobody likes you with this deck, nobody! The deck name reflects this BTW^^

REMEMBER:
With City of Solitude in play only the active player play normally, the others can do almost nothing. The other players CANNOT:
- tap anything for mana
- cast spells
- play activated abilities

They CAN:
- block
- make decisions that effects or spells of the active player ask for (like splitting a Fact of Fiction)
- play *triggered* abilities (if they are, well, triggered), for example if they have a Soul Warden an the active player casts a creature, they will get 1 life

The last one can be important. The deck I played so many years ago ran Counterbalance for the ultimate "fuck you" experience. Since it's a triggered ability it can actually be used during the opponent's turn whenever they cast a spell. This is one of only two ways I can counter a spell while under City of Solitude. The other one would be Hunting Grounds + Mystic Snake. Which is extra nasty because you can bounce the Snake to your hand via Shard/Portal ... but if you do that, you might fear for your physical well-being :)

Deck Tags

  • Casual
  • Bounce
  • Simic
  • Softlock

Deck at a Glance

Social Stats

54
Likes

This deck has been viewed 8,254 times.

Mana Curve

Mana Symbol Occurrence

0190020

Deck Format


Legacy

NOTE: Set by owner when deck was made.

Card Legality

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

Deck discussion for Deck of Solitude

This is positively evil. I want it. My friends would never let me play it more than once, but that's all that matters

2
Posted 08 April 2016 at 02:01

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Yeah, that's the thing with this deck, after playing it you will get no so subtle hints that you should switch deck asap :)

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Posted 08 April 2016 at 09:09

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Quick give me a deck idea

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Posted 08 April 2016 at 13:17

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Deckidea:
Cyclone + Circle of Protection: Green

Would probably include other green cards that damage all players, too.

0
Posted 08 April 2016 at 14:01

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Painters servant with cards that go against a certain color. (Posted anti green)

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Posted 08 April 2016 at 19:24

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Iona, Shield of Emeria + painter's servant

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Posted 08 April 2016 at 20:40

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I posted a painter's servant deck recently.
servant (choose black), plus compost, plus sphinxes' revelation. :)

0
Posted 11 April 2016 at 01:57

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Sphinxes' Tutelage. Not revelation. Now I feel dumb... Lol. :)

0
Posted 13 April 2016 at 15:41

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Going with Puschkin's idea

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Posted 19 April 2016 at 04:50

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its here, no circle though, dont require it the way i made it
http://www.mtgvault.com/hydranianknighttamer/decks/is-whiplash-is-appropriate/

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Posted 19 April 2016 at 05:10

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This is awesome. I have a playset of all the pirates and was looking for something to do with them. This looks like it would be great at my local shops casual tournament.

1
Posted 08 April 2016 at 03:57

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Would be careful - this isn't exactly tournament caliber, casual or not. It's easily disrupted once the opponents know what it does and if you win a few rounds, word will spread. It also isn't the fastest. I recommend checking the sideboard which currently holds cards I would play in a non-budget version. Especially the lands and the Mystic Snakes. You can't use Mystic Snakes when City is in play, however, in a tournament you have less time and the problem is to actually get it in play. The snakes will help you staying alive until you have a City online. The evil thing is you can bounce them with your Shards/Portals, too.

0
Posted 08 April 2016 at 09:16

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A card I would invest in is Wall of Vines (1-mana drop 0/3 with defender+reach). very useful against aggro, as it can hold opponent's early game until you get Overgrown Battlement out.

1
Posted 08 April 2016 at 11:40

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It surely smoothes out the mana curve, but what to cut? For now I remove a Liege (which is just for style anyway) and a Fade Away (because the more creatures I have myself the less useful it becomes). But I am clueless what else to cut. Maybe a Brigand, now that I have a new blocker with reach?

0
Posted 08 April 2016 at 12:18

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I think that you can safely cut the liege entirely (As you said, just for style), and also cut another Fade Away, as you will find few useful situations for it.

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Posted 08 April 2016 at 19:58

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I play Traproot Kami over Wall of Vines. I have had the debate between the two many times. But I personally prefer something that gets bigger.

But Wall of Roots puts City of Solitude out turn 2 or mana accel in general.

1
Posted 10 April 2016 at 04:08

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Traproot Kami is a great card but not for this budget version of the deck (without duallands I simply haven't got enough Forests).
Worldsoul: Yes but then I would be withgout style ;)

0
Posted 10 April 2016 at 08:43

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What of Wall of Roots?

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Posted 12 April 2016 at 02:40

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Also solid but I have enough 2-mana-walls and the one I have produce more mana.

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Posted 12 April 2016 at 07:18

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I'd consider Spiketail Hatchling/Drakeling/Drake for sideboard against more sorcery or planes walker oriented decks. (Counter Spell even with city of solitude)

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Posted 08 April 2016 at 15:38

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Oh also Dosan the Falling Leaf can be a fifth City of Solitude that can deal damage.

0
Posted 08 April 2016 at 15:46

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Spiketail Hatchling and Co don't work, it's still activated abilities. Dosan is not not a fifth City of Solitude because he only works on spells, not abilities, so all of my tricks don't work, opponents can still pay mana.

However, the Spiketails + Dosan work nice together, you can counter things with them while Dosan is in play, however, it doesn't fit here. Would probably be good as it's own deck.

0
Posted 08 April 2016 at 16:25

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right Forgot about that. Still think the Dosan is good though since its a sort of a half city of solitude.

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Posted 08 April 2016 at 16:34

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But it's the half that zero of my cards work with.

0
Posted 08 April 2016 at 17:00

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why i thought you can still use mana to respond to the pirate abilities since your not "playing the ability" you are playing the mana cost in response to the abilities affect. At least I think that's how it works (I might be wrong.)

0
Posted 08 April 2016 at 17:06

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And in order to get that mana you need to tap your lands for mana, which is an activated ability. I explained that in the deck description and How to Play section. Here are the official rulings for City of Solitude (the last one is the crucial one):

10/4/2004: City of Solitude can affect abilities of cards that are not on the battlefield because it prevents players from activating those abilities.
10/4/2004: City of Solitude does not stop triggered abilities from being put on the stack. They are never "activated".
10/1/2009: This stops players from activating mana abilities.

0
Posted 08 April 2016 at 17:13

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My bad... now I feel stupid

0
Posted 08 April 2016 at 20:25

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Budget Solitude....Now I've seen everything XD

Side note, this reminds me that you're an old ass man hahahaha.

1
Posted 09 April 2016 at 01:29

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Out of curiosity, how old is "old ass man"?

0
Posted 09 April 2016 at 07:48

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My ass is 40 years old. Fortunately nobody believes that so when someone asks and I say "30", nobody blinks an eye :) Started out Magic with Revised/Fallen Empires.

http://magiccards.info/uh/en/106.html

1
Posted 09 April 2016 at 09:41

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Not too old. I'm 30 (turning 31 this year) and I'm the youngest of the "older memebers" in my club.

0
Posted 10 April 2016 at 09:18

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Im am turning 40 this July and i am far from an "old ass man" Puschkin, hell I have a 3 and 5 year old they keep me young by default! Good to see an old school idea actually work with little cash to spend! This deck is a one off to play with your group, I have an awesome land destruction deck and none of my buddy's will play it cause its not fair...

Good to see some of the old school guys around haven't been using the site as often cause its been stale as hell

+1 from this salty pirate

0
Posted 11 April 2016 at 19:57

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You just have to know where to look^^

0
Posted 11 April 2016 at 20:52

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Very nice. +1 Love good budget concept

0
Posted 09 April 2016 at 22:58

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It's actually not supposed to be budget, I just trimmed it down intentionally because otherwise people don't look at your decks.
What I would like to teach MTGVault users is to check out other people's decks that aren't already in Hot Page - look at Unloved or New, bookmark authors you like and check their lists, use deck search and go for tags etc. And, most importantly, don't look at the deck's price! Check out the deck and if you like what it does and really want to build something similar IRL but can't afford it ... then try make it budget yourself! In most cases it's sufficient to fiddle with the mana base and for many cards there are compareably cheap alternatives! Even if there aren't you can still learn from what you see and/or get ideas for variations of the theme.

This is more of a shoutout to anyone reading this, not just Taishi - there are many good ideas out here and you miss them if you restrict yourself to budget decks. 1 year ago I would have posted this deck with the cards you see in the sideboard, but then it would cost hundreds of dollars and nobody would have replied. But as you can see, the core of the deck isn't that expensive. Yet MTGVaulters seem to be unable to mentally replace duallands with basic lands and to cut the other expensive cards in favour of more cheap cards that support the core of the deck.

There are roughly 15000 different Magic cards out there ... you cannot imagine how many possible combinations and interactions that means.

5
Posted 10 April 2016 at 00:05

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Well put Puschkin :)

0
Posted 10 April 2016 at 21:03

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Couldn't have said it better myself.

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Posted 10 April 2016 at 21:57

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incredibly well said Puschkin. plus 1 from me.

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Posted 11 April 2016 at 21:20

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I did a few posts to different decks on the new page, and am actually getting feedback for a change.

1
Posted 13 April 2016 at 04:05

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Isn't that nice? Win-Win :)

1
Posted 13 April 2016 at 08:55

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I like the combo .... im newer to magic I just got into it during dragons and khans but I love seeing all these older cards and the things you can do with them... im just starting to get into modern and legacy and am working on a turn 4 vraska ultimate, if anyone would like to help me out that would be amazing

0
Posted 13 April 2016 at 11:59

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Why ult vraska turn 4 when you can ult jace aot into ral zarek, then into vraska?

0
Posted 13 April 2016 at 17:27

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Whoa now, don't blow the kids mind just yet there bro!

0
Posted 13 April 2016 at 20:04

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mind = blown right now

0
Posted 19 April 2016 at 11:05

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I like the deck can't wait to see more of your stuff.

0
Posted 19 April 2016 at 01:22

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dude... you need to post once, then refresh before assuming it didn't get posted.

0
Posted 19 April 2016 at 03:10

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I've found that the refresh button can cause the multiple post thing too. The user should delete his / her own extra posts

0
Posted 19 April 2016 at 04:10

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well that too. although I guess I meant navigating away from the deck page, like to the deck stats page, and then back again. that I have to give him crap. he is my little brother, and this is the second time in two days that he did it... :)

0
Posted 19 April 2016 at 06:30

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No problem, the author of the deck (me^^) can delete messages, two. I always delete duplicates so the thread isn't cluttered.

Anyway, Jacksonfoohia, all you need to do is click on my name and check out the other decks.

0
Posted 19 April 2016 at 08:17

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Hey Puschkin, can you check out my green blue delirium deck? would really like some feedback on it.

http://www.mtgvault.com/kazzong/decks/investigating-delirium/

0
Posted 19 April 2016 at 18:57

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I know and give shit about Standard and wouldn't be of great help.

0
Posted 19 April 2016 at 19:16

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meh. it just happens to be standard is all. not really intentional. but that's cool. :)

any advice on any other decks would be cool.

0
Posted 19 April 2016 at 19:24

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Definitely an interesting deck. Were you planning on keeping it standard?

0
Posted 19 April 2016 at 19:32

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Probably for now. but certainly willing to branch out in the near future. and definitely willing to add cards to the "sideboard" to be swapped in after rotation and for casual play. so anything goes for that really.

0
Posted 19 April 2016 at 19:36

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Well, I guess, if you make it anything else than Standard, you'd add Tarmogoyfs. And once you did that, it'll slowly transform into a run-off-the-mill-Tarmodeck ...

0
Posted 19 April 2016 at 20:32

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man, love the concept here. the bounce unless you pay works great for your pirates to be played multiple times as well as getting rid of pesky blockers. I could also see Wild Might being good here. +5/+5 at instant speed for 2 mana is rather good.

0
Posted 19 April 2016 at 18:50

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How many people do you think will pirate this deck? *creepy ironic smile*

This is positively evil. It's also positively pirates. I'm now positive I positively love evil pirates...Pushkin!

One last trollolo: 2,016th view in 2016. Where da bitches at.

1
Posted 19 April 2016 at 19:28

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Yeah, I wish there would be more pirates to add but somehow they all suck. The ones I use here also suck if it wasn't for City of Solitude.

Ramirez de Pietro was my first legend (card type), first card from the Legends expansion and first golden card. In fact it was the first golden card my playgroup has ever seen. Which is why he still has a special place in my heart, no matter how outdated he is meanwhile. He is still the captain of the pirate deck of my dreams.

1
Posted 20 April 2016 at 08:45

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Haha, well he's a pretty badass card. I felt the same way about seeing a Planeswalker for the first time (Ajani Goldmane for me) and couldn't believe how cool it was. It definitely helped suck me in to the world of Magic to pull a card like that early on for me.

0
Posted 20 April 2016 at 21:28

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You made me walk down Memory Lane in Nostalgia Park ... I made a theme deck back then to honour Ramirez. Here it is (in a slightly altered version):
http://www.mtgvault.com/puschkin/decks/the-flying-dutchman/

0
Posted 21 April 2016 at 08:20

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Budget, Tropical Island, and Misty Rainforest do not mix my friend. But otherwise, great concept!

-2
Posted 04 May 2016 at 22:40

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Maybe if you read the deck description you would see that it has things in the sideboard for if it WASN'T budget. Pays to read before commenting

1
Posted 05 May 2016 at 03:19

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this decks is so dank!!, you make muchos the mana and make the bounce get infinite value, also cryustal shard cen resopond to echo trigger from deranged hertmmit, completely insante, i heliod pilgrem recommend, also sage of reclamation completely good!!, also since legacy you can splash black for get abrupy dacey, i recomend daze and fow but buget, maybe u mightt stay 2 color since bugget, fish you cool luck in tournamet!

0
Posted 17 May 2016 at 06:38

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I was thinking about something:
The Hot Page is stale as american mainstream beer (I know you have great micro breweries, so shut up^^) and the MTGVault team hasn't done anything about the site in years. They promised to change the algorythm of the Hot Page, but they also said they'll bring the forums back "soon". Well, the forums are still down, in fact they were already down when I registered in september 2013 ...

So, what I suggest is:
If you had a deck on Hot Page and the discussion dried up, you might as well stop listing your deck as public, hence removing it from Hot Page and making room for others. I have currently 2 decks occupying precious slots on Hot Page even though nobody has replied to them in weeks. So, what I will do is make them private soon. I am asking you politely to do the same once you haven't gotten any replies for a considerable amount of time.
I will, however, list them again after some time, because otherwise they would end up in Nirvana. But until then other decks will have a shot at Hot Page and meanwhile my stale decks can't get any new Likes (which seems to be the main factor for Hot Page, not the actualy activity), so hopefully it won't immediately hog up Hot Page again.

I don't actually expect anyone to follow my example but at least I tried to fix this site.

0
Posted 28 May 2016 at 10:07

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I actually think that'll be great. I'll do the same.

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Posted 28 May 2016 at 11:18

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Sounds like a plan to me

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Posted 28 May 2016 at 13:05

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I would do the same but I have only hit the hot page once or twice, all of my decks fly away into the wasteland without love or attention...soob

On a lighter note how is everyone?

0
Posted 01 June 2016 at 15:31

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Fine, weather has finally caught up here, grilling and festival season begins and I was booked for many interesting events as a DJ (doing that as a hobby). Just the job is looking grim, might be time to search for something new.

0
Posted 01 June 2016 at 16:53

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At least you've got something at the moment. I'm currently job hunting and it's not going well at all. It's been over a month and I've had two interviews. I'm not even getting calls back from fast food places . That's sad

0
Posted 01 June 2016 at 18:54

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bummer... I hope you can find something soon.

0
Posted 02 June 2016 at 05:00

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Hopefully so

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Posted 02 June 2016 at 06:35

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This thing is great dude. I hate playing against counter/FU decks but this is creative enough that I wouldn't mind loosing to it ??

1
Posted 05 August 2016 at 13:56

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That is actually a very nice attitude :)

0
Posted 14 October 2020 at 19:46

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Hey Pushkin, just wanted to let you know I copied your deck with a few mods. I added a few of the new ixalan cards. I just didn't want to post it without giving you a heads up. Thanks for posting man!

1
Posted 24 January 2018 at 04:46

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And thank you for notifying!

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Posted 14 October 2020 at 19:47

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yeah, still like this deck. would love to see this in action. just bounce a ton of stuff and make them sacrifice a ton of things every turn... and they can't pay to prevent it because of city of solitude... lol... :)

in retrospect, I apologize for 95 percent of my previous posts on this deck.

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Posted 24 January 2018 at 04:59

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I've been playtesting it lately and it can be a beast man, just trying to get a final tune. I added siren's ruse to mine because with medallion out I can cast for one, re-trigger one of the pirates and draw a card!

0
Posted 24 January 2018 at 05:09

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Seems like someone plays Rishadan Brigand in real decks now, look at the price tag!!!

EDIT:
Even the Footpad, lol!

0
Posted 24 January 2018 at 18:48

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What?!?!?!?!?!?! Those are crazy prices!!!!!!
Dang...

0
Posted 24 January 2018 at 18:57

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And ... 4 years later this deck that started out as a budget deck (under 50$) is currently worth more 250, crazy times!

0
Posted 02 March 2022 at 14:45

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