Home Strategy Magic 2014 Chant of Mul Daya deck guide: Don’t stop ’till it’s...

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One of the slower, more fun, and admittedly quite strong decks in Duels of the Planeswalkers 2014, Chant of Mul Daya isn’t too big on strategy. Ramp up, summon big guys, summon even bigger guys, stomp.

It’s reminiscient of Ancient Depths back in DotP12, ramping up like a speeding fighter jet and horribly powerful in the late game unless it is stopped before then. Unlike that deck, it’s stuffed full with even more ramping spells, to the point where you’ll have to take out many of them simply in order not to die before the game even gets started, i.e. you get up to 12 mana.

Deck Overview: Whom you gonna summon?

Let’s start out with the bad news. Against opponents with actual brains, Chant is not nearly as good as it looks against AI. It’s ridiculously easy to disrupt and there isn’t much space in the deck for redundant cards, meaning that horrible luck will spell your doom even more than with other decks. Ironically, Chant might be the deck which suffers the most from land screws. I know, right?

Beyond that however, if you do manage to get going, there isn’t much your opponent can do against it. With seven or more lands on the field, which is reasonable by turn four if all things go well (yes, seriously), you’ll be able to just play whatever you’re drawing, at the very least. Barring manaflood, you cannot be stopped once in that stage.

Also, did I mention this deck’s win condition is dropping fucking Eldrazi on your opponent? You won’t get any of the legends, but the “small” ones stomp hard enough already, it’d feel uncouth to ask for more than them. Coming to think of it, doesn’t the game start exactly when the Eldrazi are freed, but then dodges around dealing with them in favour of more pointless planeswalking? Well, I suppose nobody liked Zendikar anyway, so you might as well use those things while they’re here.

General strategy: Turtle, durdle, and… win?

Let’s face it: This deck is the slowest ever built in any DotP game ever. Hell, even Dream Puppets got up a sizable army before this one does. Speaking of which, or rather its mutated sister That DotP14 Illusions Deck Whose Name I Forgot, its largest weakness is being rushed down and people messing with its stuff, both of which Illusions will be glad to do. It also sports a whopping zero fliers and two creature-targeting cards, so having to face that deck is tricky at best.

Despite being in the big guy colour, you have absolutely nothing that’d speak for itself early on, and even fewer creatures that you actually want to use in combat. Your goal is purely to survive until later in the game, when you’ll easily turn it around. Due to this, your early game strategy depends heavily on deterioration, keeping yourself up to card advantage, and getting punched in the face so that your creatures won’t have to. When playing this deck, it’s very likely you’ll end up at 5 or less life by the end, especially if you’re playing a too greedy variant. Just keep calm, don’t throw away any cards that don’t have to die, and keep ramping up towards your goal.

With promos now out, the above paragraph is somewhat invalidated as non-Eldrazi builds have become somewhat viable. They’re stupidly fun to play as your opponent sits on a hand full of removal waiting for your Eldrazi to come out. For completion, one such build is listed below, submitted by Evil Mee. Also, both builds assume you have all promo cards. If you don’t, you can get them here.

Chant of Mul Daya deck list (by mana cost, Eldrazi build)

60 cards, 25 Forest, 1 Eye of Ugin

1 CMC

  • 1 Scute Mob
  • 2 Green Sun’s Zenith

2 CMC

  • 4 Explore
  • 1 Rampant Growth
  • 2 Tangle

3 CMC

  • 3 Grazing Gladeheart

4 CMC

  • 3 Oracle of Mul Daya
  • 1 Harmonize

5 CMC

  • 1 Plow Under

6 CMC

  • 2 Primeval Titan
  • 2 Summoning Trap

7 CMC

  • 2 Pelakka Wurm
  • 2 All Is Dust
  • 1 Tooth and Nail
  • 1 Gaea’s Revenge

8+ CMC

  • 1 Ulamog’s Crusher
  • 2 Artisan of Kozilek
  • 1 Pathrazer of Ulamog
  • 1 It That Betrays
  • 1 Eldrazi Conscription

Chant of Mul Daya deck list (by mana cost, green stompy build)

60 cards, 26 Forest

1 CMC

  • 1 Scute Mob
  • 2 Exploration
  • 2 Green Sun’s Zenith

2 CMC

  • 2 Tangle
  • 3 Explore
  • 2 Rampant Growth

3 CMC

  • 3 Glazing Gladeheart
  • 1 Farhaven Elf

4 CMC

  • 3 Oracle of Mul Daya
  • 1 Harmonize

5 CMC

  • 1 Sporemound
  • 1 Plow Under
  • 1 Dramatic Entrance

6 CMC

  • 3 Primeval Titan
  • 1 Vigour
  • 2 Summoning Trap

7 CMC

  • 1 Avenger of Zendikar
  • 1 Pelakka Wurm
  • 1 Tooth and Nail
  • 1 Gaea’s Revenge

8 CMC

  • 1 Eldrazi Conscription

Chant of Mul Daya card-by-card analysis

Eye of Ugin: 4.0

It’s costly to activate, doesn’t produce mana on its own, and doesn’t help you if you’re losing. That being said, if you’re playing Eldrazi, this card is a must; It’ll chop a solid 2 mana off of all of your bombs and tutors for them once you’re starting to run out of steam late game, when you have the mana to cast them.

Scute Mob: 3.5

In the Golgari deck, this was decent even though it only activated turn 6 and onwards. Here, it can be a 5/5 and growing from turn 4 for one mana which you paid right as you began the game. It’s not very likely to survive, but that also makes it useful as a removal magnet which robs your opponent of the means to stop your bigger and meaner dudes. Not to mention that if it doesn’t get pinged dead immediately, you’ll have an escalating beast.

Exploration: 4.0

It’s from Urza’s block. That should say enough already. Its effect diminishes heavily after the first few turns though since there just isn’t anything in this deck that’d fuel your hand with as many land drops as you can afford – oh wait. Especially in a deck that has literally three cards for turn 1 (two of which are this one), this is worth playing. Remember that a turn 1 Exploration is why Ramaz is considered a dangerous enemy. That being said, Exploration doesn’t really do much for you. (In the Eldrazi build, that is.) While it does allow for some plays that’d make the nearest female’s clothes fall off in awe, it’s simply far too likely that you’ll soon run out of land to fuel it, even with an Oracle out. Even then, what would you have gained? Beyond twelve lands, one of which being an Eye, and often before then, any extra become completely unnecessary. What are you gonna do with all your land drops then?

Green Sun’s Zenith: 4.5

It’s anyone you’ve ever met, directly into play, for but one mana more. Didn’t draw an Oracle? Now you did. Wurm? Yup. I hesitate to rate it a 5 though as it’ll fetch only green creatures, no Eldrazi. You’ll have to settle with just a Primeval Titan instead. It also reshuffles itself, so there’s a chance slightly above zero that you’ll be able to do it twice.

Explore/Rampant Growth: 4.0

There isn’t much that Explore and Rampant Growth hold over one another, hence I discuss them as one. Drop it turn 2, have an Oracle turn 3, profit. Past the early stages, it also helps to get yourself an extra land drop or two off the top of your library with the Oracle. With that in mind, I’d say that Explore is slightly stronger than Growth as the odds are the same that you’ll get another land out of the Oracle, but Explore gives you the card that used to block you from dropping another land. In another version of the deck, i.e. Ancient Depths, I might recommend against using Explore for its randomness, but this deck pretty much literally runs on land drops and before long you’ll be using Explore for its one-mana draw more than anything else. The Growth is a little more consistent though. Use whatever suits you. I’d recommend running plenty of them either way, around 5 should do the trick. You really want this card early on. Stay tuned for additional testing or, heavens beware, math to arrive.

Khalni Heart Expedition: 2.5

Look, I know it’s good. In fact, it even saw tournament play, which puts it somewhere into the best 0.01% of all cards ever. Still, that was in Landfall decks. This isn’t one of them. I tried to play it, especially since the game gives you a full playset right off the bat, but this deck would prefer to play an actual ramping spell turn 2, and by the time that it goes online the land probably doesn’t matter any more. That being said, I can already see a Landfall variant of this deck where this would shine. Not my build, nothing else to say.

Tangle: 3.5

Could be better, could be much worse. The 1G cost is still rather cheap for the sort of crazy deck that you’re playing, and this card single-handedly neuters both an opponent’s alpha strike and her entire defense, two turns in a row. You know what, screw it, this card is a 4 at least. I’d consult what the (pro) community thinks about it, but it doesn’t actually exist yet, so bonus points for literally being from the future.

Vastwood Hydra: 3.0

Eh. Just eh. I admit, it saved my butt a few times while testing by holding off attackers until my big stuff arrived, but that’s the wrong mentality, as I could have taken it out and drawn more big stuff instead. As is, it’s a flexible, but meh card if cast in the midrange (and that’s exactly where it’s useful). The counter battery thing is nice, but rarely relevant; If it’s going to die before some of your other stuff, it’s most likely due to an All Is Dust, that you played yourself, and in that case you’re going to have a free field either way. Also, it’s functionally a strictly better Modular, which it probably would be if R&D wasn’t afraid of printing powerful keywords. Negative credit for that.

Farhaven Elf: 2.0

Again, I rate cards based on how well they play within the specific deck. This one is a Rampant Growth stapled onto a 1/1, or rather a 1/1 stapled onto a Rampant Growth. Yes, it generates card advantage. Technically. Practically, it’s a 1/1. In another deck, such as Ancient “Fucking OP” Wilds in DotP13 which sported the, for Green, strictly better Wood Elves, getting a land up with a free chump block might be worth it. Here, its size is pathetic, so most of the time you’ll be paying 3 for a Rampant Growth. Not only that, but Chant loves to skip 3 mana and go straight for 4 mana, where much better can be played. Like Khalni Heart Expedition, this card is unfortunately costed so that by the time it does something, you won’t care about that something.

Fierce Empath: 3.0

See what this world has done to me. I watched as entire planes were devoured, its denizens fading without so much as a whimper. Yet all throughout, my own heart devoid of emotion, of empathy. I have felt nothing! Wait, this isn’t the support group? How awkward. Either way, like Farhaven Elf, this card does something, but I just don’t feel like it does enough. Especially since most of the things that he tutors are more likely to show up (due to more than one fucking copy) than he himself, you can comfortably run without this card. If you could get multiples, maybe. Edit from the future: Nope, still sucks. In DotP’s environment, a 1/1 might as well not exist since he’s certainly not gonna do anything worthy, so you’re paying 3 mana for a limited creature tutor.

Grazing Gladeheart: 3.5

Now this is how 3 mana is done right. Down to the basics, you get a relevant body, which also goes a great way towards keeping you alive. When you’ll have 2-5 lands entering under your control a turn and even one of these beauties running about, you’ll literally heal faster than Jace can beat you, without blocking anything. That is neglecting multiples, too. Does 8 life at no additional cost per land sound good enough already? Eat your heart out, Staff of the Noob Mage. Run at least three, no matter what you do. The lifegain alone will keep you alive much longer than expected, and the body will do its part too, especially as opponents will have difficulty judging this thing’s value to you (i.e. whether or not you’ll use it to trade) before it’s already gained you a ton of life.

Rites of Flourishing: 1.0

Being a professional troll, I am obliged to give at least one card 1.0. I usually look down on people dismissing cards like Howling Mine because they also help out your opponent, but here they are right. Sure you get extra fuel for the fire too, but the entire point of this deck is to reach higher mana levels before your opponent is ready for it. If you play this, even if we imagine it was free and you got to play something useful on the same turn, your opponent will be able to keep up and play their own bombs possibly before you manage, since theirs will be costed much lower. If you play this, don’t come back whining when you get whooped.

Elvish Piper: 3.5

I understand it’s good. I also understand that it’s a 4-mana 1/1 that does bugger-all until it survives to untap, except having a target the size of Texas on its forehead. If your opponent lets this survive to do something, it sure is lovely to flash out anything you want for one mana, but it also means that she is not holding any removal, so you have practically already won whether or not you pay for your legged doom. (If you actually need the cost reduction, you were not going to win in the first place.)

Into the Wilds: 1.5

It’s like an Oracle of Mul Daya, except once a turn, giving you no additional information beyond what card you are going to draw moments later, and unable to block or attack. Reminds me of comparing Tales of the Winter Magic Academy to Harry Potter and finding absolutely no difference whatsoever, except that the Winter Magic Academy was actually sort of alright, which this card isn’t. Tell me again why exactly you should ever play this. It is, notably, another card from the future, but that is not exactly an advantage. All it tells us is that the future sucks and that I already pity anyone who had to pull this in M14 drafts. In case my point isn’t clear yet, this card is very very very bad bad bad. Don’t don’t don’t play it.

Oracle of Mul Daya: 5.0

Onwards from really really really bad bad bad cards onto very good ones. In case you didn’t notice from the discussion of the above cards, Oracle of Mul Daya is a very good card which serves as the cornerstone to any possible builds for this deck and to which I recently got engaged. Coming down turn 3 consistently, this not only helps you ramp up like you stole something but also shaves any land pockets right off the top of your library so that all of your actual draws will be spells. When we’ll get the fourth copy with promo unlocks*, include that as well and toss maybe a Wurm or something.

Harmonize: 4.0

It’s not an Oracle, but unlike Into the Wilds, it does something, namely help you draw into one. There are rarely situations where drawing three cards for four mana in green isn’t an extremely sexy deal.

Vengevine: 2.5

If you desperately need midrange support, maybe this could be useful. As is, this competes with the Oracle for both deck and mana slots, and it rarely ever actually does something since you’ll probably have won if you can afford two creatures in a single turn. Meh. Next card.

Bountiful Harvest: 1.000000001

Other than Rites of Flourishing, this actually does something besides help you lose faster. In fact, it helps you lose slightly slower. Being less shit than something which is absolute shit on a platter doesn’t make it good, mind you. In fact, if you ever even considered this card in your deck, you should go and think about your life as a scrub. Maybe it could be decent at 1G, perhaps with a 1/1 on top of it, or 2 life per land at 2G or 3G. Please, Wizards, there are other ways to help newbies realise that pure lifegain is garbage, you don’t have to clog up our slots with it!

Sporemound: 3.0

I’m torn on this card. Blast from the future, wee! Still, I feel like it could do more than just crap out 1/1 chump blockers. Like so many unfortunate Elves, this is stuck on a mana level where you don’t actually want to cast anything and instead go straight for Titans and co, but you’ll want to make the most out of its ability, so in playing it, you’ll delay your Titan and hurt yourself more than it helps! More research is required on it, I’ll report back once I have it.** As stands, perhaps it could be worth it to swap out two of the worse cards in this deck for it, though it’s not great by any means.

Dramatic Entrance: 3.0

“Ah, Mister Jura… I’ve been expecting you.” Except that will never happen because it’s limited to green stuff only. As a result, you’re paying a card for instant speed and a maximum of two mana discount. In my opinion, don’t bloody bother, though it could be worth the slot in the stompy build.

Woodborn Behemoth: 3.0

Yet another card in the category “Not terrible, but I’m not playing it, so 3.0”. 5 CMC hurts this as well, as does only being an 8/8 when you’d have the mana to summon a static 8/8. Sideboard it in against disruptive decks. I personally find it somewhat off tempo, but an 8/8 (blocker) is nothing at which to scoff.

Plow Under: 4.5

If you play this at the kitchen table, say on turn 4 after going first, chances are you’re going to wake up without a face. It’s evil and sets your opponent even further back than they already are when you’re taking off with an Artisan of Kozilek by the time that they play their third land. It also goes beautifully to illustrate that top of the library is sometimes worse than the graveyard. Sure they get their lands back, but only after two draws which will certainly be lands. That makes it wonderful to use lategame when mana isn’t an issue and you’re both topdecking for spells. Also particularly fun to manascrew those silly 3-colour decks which aren’t running any fixing.

Primeval Titan: 5.0

A 6/6 Trample is already quite a package considering how early you can get it. When it leaves you with two lands every time it attacks and as soon as it enters? Madness. It can also pull out your one Eye of Ugin to make it much more consistent, so make sure to do so with every ETB trigger.

Vigour: 4.0

It’s something about her/him/it. Sure it’s another trampling fatty like Primeval Titan, and sure it makes your other guys literally immortal, at least to damage, but I can’t help but feel like she could do more. Like, you know, ramp up two lands for free each turn. Regardless, decent card, deserves to be played.

Summoning Trap: 5.0

I don’t always rate 5.0, but you can be certain that the card which receives that rating is an absolute powerhouse. Like this one. For six mana you get to pull up a fatty of any cost which doesn’t even have to be in your hand at instant speed. With as many big guys as Chant has, it’s near impossible that the Trap isn’t worth it; After all, even if it’s just a Titan you fetch out, you got instant speed practically for free. Not to mention that you get a free pass on it should one of your things get countered, providing a nice way of giving Jace a digital stinky finger. Considering that counters are one of your deck’s major weaknesses, there’s no deck that should be without it or it’s soon-to-be cousin.* (Edit from the future: Someone answer the phone because I fucking called it.)

Pelakka Wurm: 4.0

If things go well, this can come out turn 4. However, it’s worth the cost even late on. The initial lifegain will make up for any life you lost up to this point, and the draw, together with the huge body, will make sure that any way of getting rid of it means card advantage for you.

Gaea’s Revenge: 4.0

“Hey look! It’s Vengevine‘s older brother! And he heard all the mean things you were saying about Vengevine!” Essentially hexproof and extremely stompy. Run it in both builds, whatever you do.

All Is Dust: 4.5

(Lands are colourless.) Chant’s best and, sadly, only option of dealing with stuff that can’t be adressed by stomping on it, this card will easily win games. While it’ll often consume some of your things as well, the fact of the matter is that you should have an Eldrazi on the field or ready to drop by the time it comes around, ready to swing into an open field. Its cost is also reduced to a measly five mana by the Eye of Ugin, so that’s another plus.

Tooth and Nail: 5.0

You want power, you get it. Tutor up whatever you want, lay it down, and do both for half than what you would’ve paid for the creatures themselves. There’s no excuse for ever not running this.

Avenger of Zendikar: 3.5

In the Eldrazi build, no. In the stompy build, yes fucking please. An army of chumps is only awesome for as long as you can make them grow enough to actually do something.

Eldrazi Conscription: 3.5

Its buff alone could very easily win you matches. Not to mention it gives you an instant fucking Eldrazi. Well, still sorcery speed, but you can play it on a creature able to attack and completely catch your opponent off guard. You can also toss it onto an Eldrazi to give it additional Annihilator (yes, it stacks) and Trample to bring through its then exorbitant power. Why? Because reinforcing a space tentacle monster with additional space and more tentacles somehow makes it twice as powerful. It can then also survive an All Is Dust (and swing in for 20+ on a clear board). Can’t go wrong with including one.

Terrastodon: 3.0

Meh. It can deal with evil noncreatures (because there are so many of those in DotP14, such as… Staves. Tee hee.) or create 18/18 on your side at the cost of three lands. Some might say that’s enough. Some might say I’m too hard to please. But riddle me this, when the same mana would get you something bigger that kills your opponent’s stuff without compensation, it’s not easy to root for this giantophant.

Eldrazi: 4.0-4.5

Not really any point in discussing any of them separately, or for that matter any of them, as each of them will spell doom for your opponent when it lands in return for having the highest price tags in all of magic. You should run all of them to maximise chances that you’ll get one. If you have to take out one, Ulamog’s Crusher is probably the best choice as you’ll probably be needing blockers in that scenario. So instead, let me give you a list of silly nicknames for It That Betrays. It That Yoinks. All Your Land Are Belong To Us. Arise, Sleeping Princess. “Wait, This Isn’t Legendary?” . Game Nommer 3000.

Forest: 5.0

Call me silly for discussing Forests here, but this deserves mention. I’ve found that this deck doesn’t at all suffer from additional lands. In fact, getting all your land drops is crucial and having lands in your library is nearly irrelevant as the Oracle does its work. Thus, I’ve proposed a 26 land build; If you feel like some card isn’t pulling its weight, you can try replacing it with Forests, now that the game lets you manually regulate land count. To do that, clicky on the land card at the side in the Deck Manager screen.

 

*This information was obtained using a combination of experience, common sense, and actual future sight. There is no official information as to what the promo unlocks will be, so don’t take this for granted.

**Read: I’m tired because playing DotP14 is pretty much literally all I did since it came out. On that note, Wing, you’re paying me extra for this article. Or don’t. You know, whatever you wanna do is fine.

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82 replies to this post

    • Well look who was right!
      Sort of, anyhow.

      Well, let’s have a look.
      Hmm hmm hmm… Zenith, All Is Dust, Trap and probably the Titan are auto-includes, of course. Fierce Empath still sucks, Harmonise is debatable…

      Avenger of Zendikar could be worth it for providing an army of chumps right as it drops in order to keep you alive once you’ve taken some damage. Discounting the Landfall and facing Trample, it does pretty much the same as Pelakka Wurm. That’s a case for testing, though it’s clear fodder for the Landfall variant I’ve mentioned.

      It That Betrays is probably worth it. True, it’s the pinnacle of utter ownage. So what would you call two of them?

      I’m not sure how I feel about Dramatic Entrace. Sure you probably get to eat an attacker, but you’ll be cutting at best 2 mana off of the price of whatever you’re putting in, plus a card. This might sound inconsistent considering I’m in a triangle relationship with both Oracle of Mul Daya and Summoning Trap, but I’m just not sure it does enough. Is the instant speed really worth it to take card disadvantage for green stuff only which has to be in your hand to begin with? Especially on a singleton?

      Gaea’s Revenge could be another inclusion, at the cost of another lardy. It’s on the mana stage where you want beefy blockers , but as the second creature to come out, when something else is holding the front for you, it can certainly put on heat. We all know that Green isn’t exactly hot on removal spells, so it’ll most likely die in combat if at all. Since most decks don’t sport too many creatures that could easily deal with it (read: high power, it’s almost unavoidable that they’ll die anyway) it is bound to generate heavy card advantage, and that is exactly what you want in that stage of the game, something to clear out the board so that you won’t get bumrushed while your Eldrazi are whittling down their lands.

      • Welp, better get started on playing (and guiding) Illusions then. (Urgh.)

        I know that it’s the most limited format ever, and that some power has to be in all decks, like my favorite got the Eldrazi… but seriously? There’s a reason you will get slapped if you ever play something like those cards outside of sanctioned tournaments.

    • There’s apparently a hack out there that allows you to play with the promo cards already since the cards are already in-game.

      Played with a guy in 2v2 the other day who’s using some of the promo cards.

      WotC, take note: cut the silly must-enter-real-life-conventions-to-get-promo-code crap. As a professional marketer, it beggars belief they try to pull this shenanigan TWICE.

  2. This whole process to get to the deck you already have wouldve taken me forever, weighing the costs and detriments and then realizing I was totally wrong after testing. My head hurts that elvish pipers were not in but I have 100% faith you know what your doing better than me.

    • This comes down to testing which could take days of playtime which I simply didn’t have in assembling the deck and testing it. After all, the sooner there is coverage on the new game, the better. Not implying we at TTT here rush our articles below quality, of course.

      Maybe, after some playtesting, it’ll turn out that the Pipers are pretty decent, but I just don’t feel like it suits into the deck as a whole. As mentioned above, it’ll die to literally any removal the opponent has, so your threat would already have won you the game regardless of whether or not you got to cheat it out.

      Plus, it’s an issue of consistency. You have to draw into your Piper, the means to play it, and something to use with it. Not to mention that it obviously has to stick around to untap. Afterwards, then what if your opponent neutralises both the Piper and whatever you managed to get out with it, which might not even be anything? You’ll be stuck at 4 lands and nothing to speak for yourself, whereas an Oracle is harder to kill and gives you an advantage the turn it comes down, one which even sticks around after it leaves. It’s not particularly hard to be able to practically topdeck for threats, what with the crazy ramp that this deck does.

      Besides that, it obviously also competes with the Oracle for the same mana slot; If you draw both, you’ll be regretting your choice of what you laid down first no matter which you choose.

      Long story short, DotP is not paper Magic. The Piper is, as far as I know, pretty good where it can be used, but tournaments are (incredibly boring at that) games of conserving mana and flinging counters. There, its cost reduction works wonders, but in DotP there’s no problem with ramping up and just tapping out to hardcast the thing you want.

      I’m not a pro though, even though I’d call myself “not entirely shit” at Magic, so playtesting results and other opinions are welcome. Perhaps our local pro whose MTG career is almost older than I could share some insights on that too once he’s had a go with the deck. You know, when he isn’t busy playing fucking Slivers.

      • You make great points. Just playing around today, I think this saved me a lot of time and got me some wins I wouldnt have otherwise got. I was playing the Khanli instead of some of the other tools and I feel like removing them made a big difference in the getting my orcales out on time which is usually when I win.

        Youve already indulged me enough, but if you time, I am curious how you d sideboard against AGlory?

    • See, Evlish Piper is this tricky card. It looks REALLY good, and in theory it could allow you to do stupidly good things. The problem is that those things usually don’t happen, so you are spending 4 mana for a 1/1 that may or may not live to do what you want it to do. Meanwhile your opponent is playing stuff like Sigil of the Empty Throne!

    • Thing is, look at the deck. Turn 1, you don’t affect the board. Turn 2, you don’t affect the board. Turn 3, you are playing a 4 drop at best, likely. None of your 4 drops are great stabilizing cards.

      So…. turn 4 is make or break. period. You need to cast something and it needs to stick of you probably lose.

      the deck is super vulnerable to remove, but don’t make it too easy for your opponents. If elvish piper gets removed, you are now on 5 mana on turn 4. And you started the turn wtih 4 lands out. That’s not enough to buff scute mob and it’s not enough to drop any of your big 6 drop fatties. This deck doesn’t HAVE any 5 drop fatties.

      If you play elvish piper and it dies, you probably autolose. If you draw elvish piper and green sun’s zenith, green sun’s zenith is not effectively a dead card.

      Elvish piper is a great card for decks with great board presence to cheat awesome buffing creatures into play. It’s not enough to build you a board all on it’s own. Especially because you can’t chump with him the turn you use him to cheat a fattie into play.

  3. But you can possibly get her down by as little as turn 2 which might even be too early for your opponents removal followed by say a primeval titan and an oracle or whatever, more than enough to get you started at turn 3. Then by turn 4 with the Eye of Ugin from the titan which is easy enough to get down you can start searching your deck for any Eldrazi for 7 and “flashing” them down with the piper for 1.
    Pretty much game over by turn 4, sure it can be situational but it just happened for me (managed to hit 9 or 10 land by turn 3…) Even in the late game with the eye down she could help drop 2 bombs down at once. I’d say it’s definitely not a bad choice. =)

    • Can, theoretically. Practically, this requires you to draw, with as little as 8 cards since you’ll want to go first for this to work as you imagined, no less than six specific cards, two of which are only a two-of at best. Besides, assuming that your opponent can’t remove a 1/1 because it’s early is stupid. She’ll die to literally anything that even looks at her, so even a turn 1 tapped out opponent could deal with her.

      Without meaning to discourage you too much, the probability of that hand happening are about in the ballpark of really fucking low. As in, one in a thousand or something.
      Sure it can and will happen, but if you assume such hands, you can also assume that the same happens with an Oracle, which would allow you to hardcast Eldrazi from turn 3. (And onwards, because unlike the Piper, lands can’t be killed by a 1 ping.)

      Besides, if you don’t have the lands required to hardcast two Eldrazi with an Eye by the stage that you call the lategame, you are just not playing it right! Probably skipped the Oracle in that case and I have to disapprove of people who don’t include my spouse in their decks.

      Before this turns into a flamewar, this is exactly the shift in mentality that allows you to tell competitively minded players from others. You theoretically can start flashing Eldrazi by turn 3, but it’s really unlikely to happen and when it gets disrupted (if it doesn’t get stopped, an Oracle would have likewise won you the game) you have absolutely not backup plan.

      If you think that playing Magic depends on luck (save for extreme cases like the absolute manascrew that ruined my last Draft) and/or build decks that depend on getting a chance of… say, less than 80-90% to function, like a two-of Piper, then the game has successfully beat you.

      • Wow you got rather defensive about that… I was only stating it as a possibility which isn’t as hard or bad as you think, didn’t mean to offend anyone’s magic playing abilities. Was not at all saying it’s the only way to win or play the deck out. Also pulling out Eldrazi for 8 land compared to 15-19 is still worth it despite how many lands you can get… I assume you’re one of the guys that takes too long to get the Eldrazi out being busy ramping and all to gain control of the game in time. At worst they just aim their removal at a 1/1 like you said but hey… at least it wasn’t on one of those Eldrazi you probably took 6+ turns to get out. Sealed the last few games for victory in 4-6 turns the last bunch of games i played destroying the fuck out of Jace and Avacyn but hey what do i know… I’ve already won 550+ games in the little time the games been out and rank 2 in the world on one part of the leaderboards… MEH

      • I was just wondering because the game’s been out for 4 days now. Even if we assume that you’ve been playing Magic for twelve hours a day and winning every match, that still means that you’ve barely got 5 minutes per match. Seems a bit odd to me, especially since a 100% win rate is near impossible for regular human beings.

        And I’m sort of put off by your stats. I don’t know the entire game by heart yet, but exactly how does one go about doing exactly 30’000 damage in a single turn, controlling 108 creatures (alright, maybe with some really tough token generators… which are, exactly? Sporemounds and an already dead opponent?) and supposedly having 9999 life.

        Explain to me how each of those things worked out and how it’s supposed to happen in a match with an opponent who is good enough not to run the Staff cycle. Then maybe I’ll believe you.

        Then again, this seems to be on console, so… why exactly did I expect people playing Magic on console not to be bad? That speaking against your opponents, not you.

        Besides, as if it was really hard to get up in the boards this early after launch. I played one match online and I’m already in the top 1000 of 83’000. Right in a field of thousands of people with one point between them, led by two who either hacked or played Magic straight since it launched.

        Before this gets the way it will, I’d challenge you to a duel, but I suppose that’ll never happen. I reckon I could totally kick your butt in a rap battle, though.

      • Haha fan of Epic Rap Battles of History? They’re great.

        I suck at rap, you win hands down! I didn’t mean any disrespect earlier by the way just felt I was a little patronized for saying things that are JUST possible. I’d have to show you how things are going for me in this deck to clear things up, maybe I’ll make a video some day =)
        Anyway about the leaderboards they do get hacked pretty quickly unfortunately =( used to be 9th on 2013 before they were hacked. Still pretty impressive even if it doesn’t take TOO much though :)

        The 30k damage was me messing with a friend having out 3 primordial hydras at 9999. If you have somebody to mess around with, you could do a lot more with Jace/Dimir cloning vigor and swinging each other.

        9999 Life again with Primordial Hydra being Condemned or with Celestial Mantle in GoL.

        108 Creatures easily beatable getting 100 zombie tokens with Endless Ranks.

        (Yes i got 2 Primordial Hydra’s in one of my sealed slots and my friend got 3 Rune Scarred Demons allowing me to get the Demonic Master title with a little help of the old Switcheroo <3)

        Also no lifed the game as you can tell… played 40 hours straight then died R.I.P. I have actually won nearly every single game so far (except 2HG my teammates suck) even 3-4 way ffa with friends. I would even consider myself one of the top players on Xbox at least, the amount of people I've made rage quit in a row is shocking it's hard to go a full game with a person… But that's because I learned a lot from the masters here at TTT ;) You guys do analyze the cards very accurately which i agree on 99% of the time and then wonder why people run other cards. :S

      • Oh yeah probably the last comment seeing as I’ve flooded the comments (my bad, maybe email would be better).
        Ok, stay with me on this I know it sounds crazy and all but it seems like it COULD actually work. Have you tried taking all the Eldrazi out of this deck? MAYBE keep Kozilek to bring out a fallen friend, the Eldrazi Conscription for a super greenie and All is Dust.
        Take the Eldrazi out? Are you mad? One may wonder. The greenies are still relatively strong but perhaps a bit faster, maybe more flexible. I don’t know for sure yet I haven’t tried but it seems like a fun experiment.

      • “40 hours? More than me, true
        But bro, I get paid.
        You should go out sometime
        Play less, get laid!”

        Aah, wonderful, but I suppose it wasn’t meant to be. Amazing how being a not quite shit prosa writer translates into writing articles and raps, even though one would assume the opposite.

        This has been that sort of weird exchange where you go at each other yet are both aware that there’s not really anything between you… eh.

        I don’t want to dilute your success with saying that more or less all console players are drooling hypersticks whose faces explode if they go for more than two seconds without shooting someone in a “realistic shooter”, even though that’s absolutely true. Uh, well, then what DO I want to say?

        Eh, writing deck guides is easy. You just gotta sit down, unlock the deck, figure out a decent build, test it, and then write an analysis on every single card. Still, worth it. After all, I only spent what, 3 or 4 hours on this. With the enormous sum that our glorious leader and totally not slavemaster gives us, at least I can boast with working for just slightly less than half minimum wage… or something.

        Taking out Eldrazi sounds like an interesting idea, but I’m not sure if it’d function so well. This deck is built around turboramping up to Eldrazi range and then stomping the enemy with it, so the greenies might fail to deliver on power considering that they are all relatively small, so they’d only get killed off too easily. A matter of testing, I suppose.

        Also, I don’t think we at TTT really mind discussions in the comments, considering that I’ve now taken to using comments and hits to measure my personal value as a human being. Not that you could use email anyway, considering that my only public information is my site at Fimfiction…
        Though, if you want, you can check my stories there. I promise it’ll be worth your while. Perhaps you’d be the first to read my novel in one go, I mean, it’s only… 180k.
        My good bollocks, how did that become so large. It was intended as a 10k, and I always took solace in knowing that I’d end it before it hit 200k… alright, off topic. Comment over.

      • Ahh okie fair enough if you guys don’t mind =) Yay lots of text.
        May give the stories a check if I got the time doubt I could do it in one go lol. Magic has drained me.
        Think you just branded me one of those console gamers which I’m nothing like :( we aren’t all that bad! sadly just most. I’m quite nice and friendly. =) (as long as you don’t quit early) and some are pretty decent Magic players.
        Haha there’s a time and place for those other things ;) but right now for me it’s release of Magic week :D Already bored of seeing Jace/Avacyn in every fucking game so far though (I wonder why).

        Problem with Eldrazi you may spend too long ramping. Finding that sweet spot knowing which cards to play in order where you can start dropping them each turn asap consistently should determine more wins for this deck. Mine have usually been down by turn 4 sometimes 2 at turn 4 with several following after (last game I played I had 18 life about 3-4 Eldrazi with lots of greenies and 20+ lands at turn 6 whilst Avacyn had 2 land left and 2 creatures after being annihilated so hard, my turn 4 was amazing)

        Additional: despite the lovely lovely life gain gladeheart isn’t much of a defensive body as you’ll want it to live sure it can block 1/1’s and regain life from 2/2’s but wasn’t the main aim to ramp and stomp with Eldrazi? (sure you have to live first and before you say anything I agree with everything above and do run them for the obvious reasons 3 has worked fine for me so far, they’re great even gotten me to 100+ life! Just considering the cons). Oracle can screw you sometimes as well seeing as in DoTP they can be removed before you get the chance to play your additional land (which would be similar to the pipers fate anyway) and giving your opponent a heads up on your next card which may be something you can’t play. Also giving Jace a copy of one of those mostly results in a kick to the groin. I’d still say better them as targets than the Eldrazi though! Judging a creature on the fact that it might be removed (probably but not always) is a little harsh if you consider the deck it’s in and could say the same about most cards in DoTP that have to survive SUCH AS THE ELDRAZI except their few extra texts, not saying it’s the best card. I dunno maybe I’m just trying to find negatives in cards that are still good but that’s what you guys have done to me analyzing everything. Opinions vary but not everything is wrong.

        I might give the greenies a go see how it fairs out, a bunch of 6/6-8/8’s fairly early might even be better or just fail as you said it has its pros and cons. Sporemound might even earn its place. I’ll see how it goes if I edit the deck and I’ll give you a heads up if it’s a nay or yay.
        My main problem with just greenies is that it’s way more fun to annihilate your opponents face off right?

        Sidenote:
        I’m anxious to see what you guys think of Dimir’s new deck. I personally didn’t find 2013’s THAT bad just lacked in a few areas. So far I am loving it and even keeping up with Jace/Avacyn. Seems to be one of the most controlling decks this year, a little slow but gets going and powerful around turns 4-6. Very stressful to go against once you start top decking.
        Would be awesome to play some games with you guys but I’m stuck on the Xbox version.

    • Playing her turn 2 is not realistic. It requires a miracle starting hand and if you have that you probalby don’t have anything to play OUT with her. She can also just be pinged off and she really didn’t help your turn 3 or 4 at all.

      Simply put, exploration is an amazing card in this deck because it gives you utility throughout the game… but it’s going to deplete your hand very quickly if it’s useful at all in the early game. Expecting even a 2 card combo if you already played out 5 from your hand by turn 2 is optimistic.

  4. Would you post your deck build evil me for chant, and Ill try it out too. I am using the one posted here, but every once in a while I switch out something for fun to experiment.

    • It’s actually almost exactly the same as above tbh we think alike just with the 2 pipers and 3 gladehearts instead and a consideration of taking Vigor out because well… What do you really need him for? Protecting your Eldrazi so they can safely attack or your weenies who can block bigger things now? HA. Garruks deck with the promo unlock YES Eldrazi no =( Maybe the odd one Conscription to catch the opponent off guard with a +10/10 to the face. Yeah I’m a noob I don’t always run exactly 60 cards in a deck sometimes I use slightly more but not really over 70 sue me. I think the main difference is i have slightly few more lands to hit those land pockets for most of the cards that play additional land (bearing in mind it can screw you). I think mine has 68 overall? I think it might work fine without the rampant growths and kalhini thingies with more lands if you use explore/exploration but i have them for now just in case. If the green creature play works well I’ll post that too.

  5. Ok played a couple games taking a spin on things with this deck. Won most games so i can at least say it’s quite playable maybe not the best or most fun but if you fancy a change. I got the worst possible start hands too and still managed to pull things off just as fast. One major plus side to this is your opponent may be expecting Eldrazi and keep hold of their spells while you just swamp with your greenies. So it gets a plus for psychology win.

    So far and feel free to mix things around:

    60 cards 24 forest (number is optional may need less than normal without Eldrazi)
    1 x Scute mob
    2 x Exploration
    1 x Green Sun Zenith
    2 x Tangle
    0 x Khalni Heart Expeditions (optional)
    4 x Explore
    0 x Rampant Growth (optional)
    3 (or 4) x Grazing Gladehart
    1 x Vengevine (I guess he’s optional)
    3 x Oracle of Mul Daya
    0 x Elvish Piper (Haha after those last comments as above it looks really good but this build should be faster, fits the Eldrazi + Eye of Ugin more but still optional)
    1 x Woodborn Behemoth (0-2 optional)
    2 x Sporemound (1-2 optional does make it harder to get hit)
    1 x Plow Under (Just saved me vs Jace with 2 tangles… lol)
    2 x Primeval Titan
    1 x Vigor
    1 x Summoning Trap
    3 x Pelakka Wurm
    1 x Tooth and Nail
    1 x All is Dust (I guess they’re optional too as you self destruct)
    1 x Terastodon (Maybe take him out 3 3/3’s may slow you down just as much but shouldn’t be that bad. + side a 9/9)
    2 x Eldrazi Conscript
    1 x Eldrazi of choice (Recommend Artisan of Kozilek to bring a creature out the graveyard)

    That’s about it so far… It’s ok, not bad. Still in testing so a few cards may be mixed around Rampant Growths may be more suited. Anywho I shall be changing it back to how it was before. Enjoy.

    • No prob. Lemme know how it goes for you if it’s any good. I prefer the Eldrazi but a different way to play is nice too. I wish it had Garruks Beast Master Ascension or even an Overrun/Overwhelming Stampede or whatever that card was called +X/X to creatures you control = to the highest power creature you control to make up for its loss of power.

  7. Can we have a discussion on:

    1. The God awful chat system they are using. I mean WTH?!
    2. What happened to the No AI-Takeover option in 2HG for instant resolve if someone quits/disconnects?
    3. Why my mouse does fun-house mirror with the menu just so fat-fingered tablet users can ‘click’ on things.

    On the other hand, I haven’t had a “your request is pending” freeze in 3 days so stability seems to have improved.

    • Perhaps there’s another article that’s a better discussion point for those, but eh.

      1. Agreed. One would think they’ve taken to Microsoft’s approach of doing things the same shitty way as before except now with more shit attached to those which technically worked before.

      2. Not exactly an opinion on those, maybe because I never play 2HG, because my preferred way of playing with other people is to stab them in the face, not depend on them not being absolute retards. (I tried the latter once. Life is pain.)

      3. Because developing things slightly differently for two completely different platforms would take a designer two hours of work and a Snickers bar. Woo!
      Maybe it helps to think that Wizards is owned by Hasbro, the same people who also commissioned Studio B to redo MLP. As awesome as that is, it’s rather famous for having some… silly mistakes. (/watch?v=4b5ZjGdjz1k)
      That means there’s totally a connection, right?

    • 2. I believe you’re now forced to face AI when your opponent leaves to prevent “boosters” from unlocking all the cards instead of playing and winning or buying a key.

  8. Nice build Toraka. Been using it for a while now and it seems effective.

    Good work!

    Bring on the other deck builds! :D

    • But my real life!

      Alright alright. I can’t keep playing Illusions for now as there’s a creeping feeling that I’ll soon have to saw my own arms off for playing Aggro, but since TTT now pays for my deck keys, I unlocked Garruk’s and Ajani’s deck and I’ll see what I can do with them. At least Garruk’s is not quite as easy to make work as others like Chant, though. Makes me wonder exactly why Wizards seem to be hellbent on their tradition of giving you exactly one deck to start out and making that deck a Garruk-themed monoG stompy which is not quite top tier at its best and absolute balls when you don’t have any unlocks yet.

      …

      Well, maybe I can focus on Ajani first. Victory through Sunbroism!

      • Haha, lucky you. You’ll probably find Ajani quite aggro too with relatively achievable turn 5 wins. Azorius was one of my most powerful decks in 2013 being almost mono white with a few odd blues (hexproof, unblockable, narcolepsy , mind control) focusing on one big super mutant. 2014 loses its hexproofs and unblockables but can see a few more creatures getting stronger. I’ll give you my list which may end up being similar and a rating. =)

        60 Cards 26 Lands
        1 x Lifelink 3.5 being the only 1 drop it’s ok :S
        3 x Kor Spiritdancer 4.5 5 if they weren’t such big targets, gets big fast and card draw yay.
        3 x Ajani’s Sunstriker 3 just meh… you’ll probably need some creatures
        2 x Blade of the Sixth Pride 2.5 less meh but about it as far as creatures go
        1 x Daybreak Coronet 5 gives everything you need really so long as you can play it
        2 x Spirit Mantle 3.5 being an aggro format it can help block and get through attacks
        1 x Divine Favor another meh card for this deck but cheap enchants can help
        2 x Pacifism 4 as this deck goes for removal that’s about it sadly maybe even 4.5
        1 x Nomad Mythmaker 4 (yay he has been fixed in this game. Being able to throw Mind Control on “creature you control” on opponents was BS)
        2 x Skyhunter Skirmisher 5 Best attacker in the deck imo
        1 x Pariah 4.5 protection + removal on opponent or take no damage from an indestructible creature has won many games
        1 x Griffin Guide 3 another meh… didn’t use it before
        1 x Idyllic Tutor 3 strictly better than Totem-Guide Hartebeest which I would give a 1
        1 x Dawn Elemental 4 strictly better than its friend Seraph of the Sword
        1 x Ajani’s Chosen 2.5 maybe 3 in certain situations where you need the tokens?
        1 x Angelic Destiny 5 enough said?
        1 x Indestructibility 4 decent but only one
        3 x Armored Ascension 5 so damn powerful beknighted you whore
        1 x Retether 4-4.5 Ouch if things were going bad but now they’ve taken a turn
        1 x Sigil of the Empty Throne 4? never used it in Azorius and didn’t need to but here it probably fits more without hexproof creatures
        1 x Admonition Angel 4 and 1 not quite as good as Jaces Roil dude but a huge slap when it gets removed
        1 x Auratouched Mage 3.5 again never used them before but may have a place here
        1 x Celestial Mantle 4 screams kill me x 4 life on a Skyhunter though
        1 x True Conviction 4 sluggish to get out with creatures but can be oh so rewarding

        Like to see what you think about the deck soon.
        Unsure about Aura of Silence sometimes it’s good others it’s pointless… screwed me over when it was used against me as this deck though!

  9. Thanks for this deck build Toraka! I think it’s nearly perfect but I don’t think it’s necessary to have 4 Grazing Gladehearts. 3 is more than enough for me. I definitely want to see him early on but not too much of him when I can be drawing Oracle’s or other cards that will get me mana faster.

    I threw in an Eldrazi Conscription instead. Giving a card with Annihilator 2 additional Annihilator can be devastating. It’s also good for when you only have a 2/2 on the field so your opponent goes all out with his 2/2’s. When it’s your turn you can throw on an Oracle or Gladeheart and do huge damage plus get him to remove some cards. It’s been pretty effective for me, I’d consider it!

    • Good points. I’ll make those changes right away.
      Sort of forgot that tossing more Annihilator onto something triggers separately, plus it’ll be temendously huge with Trample.
      Because the only thing that could make an Eldrazi worse is more Eldraziness. This also sort of solves the problem that you’ll almost always lose the conscription in an All Is Dust (Oh why why why couldn’t it say “Enchanted creature is a colourless Eldrazi in addition to its other types”).

  10. Tangle is not from the future, well they may reprint it in the future but it’s also from the long past. It was printed during the Invasion set.

  11. I agree with you on oracle over piper. But I feel the empaths and Farhaven elf should make the cut over gladeheart. the deck wants to turn 4/5 a titan/wurm as many games as possible and with only 2 of each in the deck the ability to search them up for 3 mana plus provide a chump blocker seems worth it. Plus the Farhaven elf fits into the curve better by absorbing sum damage while ramping you towards 6/7 mana while gladeheart only absorbs damage through life gain but doesn’t ramp forcing you chose between life gain and additional ramp on turn 3 which has been awkward in my play testing.

    I would only include the gladehearts if you want the landfall build with Khalni Heart Expeditions. which seems to slow and inconsistent for the format.

    What this deck really needs is 8 post (4 cloudpost + 4 glimmerpost ) but there’s a reason why that’s banned in moddern

    • Empath… I’m open for discussion on that one. It’s not a turn 3 play, I’ll stay with that, but maybe it can be used as a late tutor.

      As for the Elf, no. Just absolutely no. Did you even read the article through?
      I thought I’d explained well enough that this deck doesn’t WANT to play things at 3 mana. You’ll want to drop a ramp spell by turn 2 and drop a turn 3 Oracle in more or less all cases, or do a turn 1 Exploration into 4 turn 2. Either way, the Elf will only eat up mana while doing minimal help towards ramping.
      Worst comes to worst, you’ll be at 5 mana turn 4 with fuck-all to do with it, because you spent your third turn playing Farhaven Elf. It’s not a bad card, but it doesn’t fit the curve, and playing it later on is nearly irrelevant, when you could instead have drawn lard.

      Besides, I never said to play a Gladeheart turn 3. You don’t, that’s the point. Turn 2 ramp, turn 3 Oracle. It seems oddly specific, but with 3 Oracles, a decent amount of ramp spells, and aggressive mulligans, it’s quite consistent. You then drop the Gladeheart afterwards when it won’t be in your way mana-wise, depending on your draws turn 4-6. Your first priority should always be additional ramp and getting the key cards out.

      Besides, forgive me for saying this, but saying that Farhaven Elves absorb more damage than the Gladehearts is downright stupid. A Gladeheart will infinitely hold off any 1/X, it will scare your opponent out of attacking with X/2 if they consider the X/2 more valuable than your Gladeheart, and it actively gains you life rather than just chump blocking, which the Gladeheart will also do, but better.

      Let’s say you’re facing a 4/4 Trample whilst in topdeck mode, you have a Gladeheart and a Forest on hand and plenty of land on the field. If you drop the Gladeheart and the Forest, you gain 2 and hold off 2 damage, evening out to exactly zero damage done to you.
      If it had been an Elf instead, you’d ramped up a land, held off 1 Trample damage, and taken a total of 3 damage.

      Considering that both of them should come out only once you’re way past their 3 mana treshold, ramp should not be much of an issue any more, and instead staying alive. Not to mention that the Gladeheart is easy to underestimate. With how much landfall you’ll be triggering once you get your ramp engine going, it’s extremely easy (read: almost unavoidable) to end up at more life than you had at the start.

      I tried running without Gladehearts, but the amount of damage you have to take early on means that you’ll simply be overrun for lethal before you can get going.

      Not to mention, of course, card advantage. Yes, the Elf fetches you a Forest, but it dies if it is to prevent any damage done to you. I think that, realistically, it’d chump a 4/4 at most, meaning it prevents 4 damage. At the same time, the Gladeheart will have negated that damage without the need for it to arrive in one blow, prevent more damage that hasn’t even happened yet, and stick around to be enchanted and so forth.

      Forgive me if this comment sounded aggressive, but the general tone of your comment fits very close to the one weak spot which still elicits emotion out of me, that being that of disrespect and being convinced of being better than I am. Perhaps you are, but I’d prefer to see some proof for that other than talking nonsense.

      Besides, you know what would REALLY improve this deck? How about a Black Lotus or four? Or maybe two more Explorations and an Emrakul?
      Seriously, that’s just ridicule of game balance, and proves exactly why Wizards won’t let us build our decks freely.

      • Youre not always going to have turn 3 oracle the deck only runs 3 of them and even if it had 4 it wouldn’t be guaranteed. For the games where you DON’T turn 3 an oracle the elf is a decent stop gap on your way to 6 and 7.

        MATH
        Odds you don’t see oracle by turn 3
        On the play (57!*51!)/(48!*60!)=60.85%
        On the draw (57!*50!)/(47!*60!)=57.28%

        So during the 57 to 60 % of the time you’re going to take 100% of the damage the most popular agro decks are going to dish out and hope to stabilize by turn 4 by which time just a p-titan probably isn’t going to cut it.

        I’m not saying the 1/1 is great it just does what the deck needs it to do when you don’t hit oracle… continue ramping and absorb some damage

    • Pant* Pant* just cycled 20 miles to London and back and a bottle of wine… Gotta agree with parts of both of you, Conscription can be pretty nasty (probably better than that 8 CMC Eldrazi) and the 3 Gladeharts. But Toraka definitely has a point with the Farhaven Elves and definitely correct when to play your Gladeharts after your ramping with Oracles. Farhaven does the same as a Rampant Growth with a lame 1/1 for an extra mana which you’ll want to skip as stated. Explores and lots of land just seem the fastest way to get Eldrazi down although I still stand by saying the piper is useful in this deck if you consider the theme is more aggro over control.

      Key to this deck is knowing when to play which card. Same goes for most decks, you can have the tools but you need to know how to use them.

  12. I really agree with you on the term of those Khalni Heart Expiditions. As you said, if you play a Landfall Deck there great, but you don’t want to overrun your opponents with weenie Saproling Token you want to smash his face with your giant creatures. And if you ask me it works way better without those things. If you tried to play with them you always wanted to play them first to get more mana later instead of right now.

    The thing I don’t agree with is the 26 forests. I just think there is no logical explanation. If you run it as a Landfall Deck, sure you need those extra lands but with this build you just need two mana on your starting hand and can start ramping. I play it with 20 Lands with some of those Elves (yeah I know there Wood Elves with a damn tapped land) but you got yourself some chumps and some more ramp. Also you should try playing with at least one Eldrazi Conscription, if your opponents tapped out and you drop this on your Scute Mob the game is over for sure.

    But great job, I’m looking forward to compare my decks with the other builds as usual :)

    • Yeah yeah, I’m updating the build!
      Ahem. Anyway.

      I think that this deck is definitely manahungry as hell. Perhaps you could do with a few lands less, but I think 20 is too few. you want to draw into 3 lands by turn 3 (of course, 4 if you prefer Explore) and get your Oracle going. The sooner that comes down, the better. As a consequence, hitting all those land drops and the ramp spell is vital.

      If you prefer using Rampant Growth over Explore, you need slightly less land in your deck, but you also lose utility later on when your Oracle is already out and you only want to remove the top card of your library.

      With a slightly adjusted curve, this could definitely be viable, though, when you’re going for an Oracle on turn 4 in exchange for more consistency, more spells, and more mana overall. Still, only 19 Forests is toying with your luck. Keep in mind that the Oracle more or less negates any topdecked lands, so 23 or 22 Forests (plus the Eye) could definitely do the job as well, to make room for some Elves which help guarantee you those 4 (or 5, rather) lands by turn 4.

      See, other person above that comment? If you actually argue well, I’m up for discussion!

      • Sure, if you rely on the Oracles to fetch those Lands out so you only draw the good stuff its better to have those 26 lands. Actually I got 21, if you count The Eye of Ugin, I tried both variants with more lands and with less. I gotta say both versions aren’t that good, could be my bad luck or perhaps this deck just sucks xD. What I like in the Elves and the Rampant Growth is that it shuffles your deck. So if you want to fetch some more lands with your Oracle you got yourself a new try on a forest being on top of your deck. Nothing sucks more than having an Oracle but no forests on top of your library.

      • On that note, a little discussion.
        Sure it’s true that shuffling gives you another chance at a land. However, Explore could, in the same situation, leave you with another nonland card and +1 card advantage.

        Whether you shuffle or draw the top card off, odds are more or less the same (drawing actually gives slightly better odds assuming it’s a nonland) that you’ll find a land up top.

      • I got both in there Explore and Rampant Growth. Explore is a must have in this deck, when your loosing with this deck it’s mostly due to an aggro deck or because your in top deck mode. I’m really looking forward to those promo unlocks, harmonize will be so great in this deck. Your build made me overthink archive trap. It’s a great card, but with only one deck playing with counters and with that deck beeing mostly aggro you probably won’t get a chance to play it at zero mana, what I kinda ignored is that it still is a great card, so I gotta thank you for that. Our decks are pretty similiar, I just have those six more spots where I dropped some forests. In most cases if you get to 6 or 7 mana you got four possibilities to summon your titan. You got this little beast caller which I personally like, because even lategame he can shuffle your library, as mentioned and fetch out a titan or a vigor, or hell even a wurm if you need some lifepoints. You got Green Sun’s Zenith and you got the two titans themselves. In most matches you’ll get this titan on the board and when this happens you just don’t need 26 forests in your library in my opinion. Please don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to hate on your build, as you said your open for discussion and that’s what I’d like to do. Perhaps we get the perfect build (which still sucks against all those aggro decks in 2014 xD)

  13. Very nice guide, although it would be nice to see you or Wingspan youtube video when one of you is playing this deck.

  14. Dear Toraka, I feel you are letting people goad you into things and wind you up. It is making you come off childish and defensive. I think it is going to result in people not taking you seriously or showing you very much respect as a writer. Your long winded comments are exhausting and a pain to get through. I think if you adopted the motto “Say more with less” you would have much better results. I am a huge fan of Wingspan and it is not very often that he lets himself get wound up in a huge string of arguments, he always comes off as a true professional, and is somebody I always look forward to reading. Even though you have only been here a short period of time I am already finding your articles (and comments hard to read. Mainly due to length and going off on tangents that add nothing to the article, and seem to be written to pat your self on the back with. I mean this with the up-most respect and by no means mean to belittle you. Just a little advice from a fan of TTT. Feel free to ignore this completely as I may be the only person to feel this way, and maybe your writing style and fan interaction is exactly what everyone else is looking for. Good luck and I wish much success upon you. “Say more with Less”

    • Cool story brah.

      In all seriousness though, you must excuse if I might have come off a little defensive in the comments here. I’m usually open for objective discussion, but I can’t always wrangle myself.

      That being said, I think that fan interaction is one of the main pillars for any writer, be it articles or prosa. Hence why I do read all comments and respond to them if it’s worth the space. Likewise, I don’t believe in artificially short pieces, comments or articles alike, though I do my best to keep them as short as is possible. It’s just coincidental that all of the articles I wrote for this site so far treat topics which demand their length. I’m not gaining anything from making them longer than need be either, you know.

      Still, it’s a known issue for me to prefer longer pieces. Hell, my 180k+ novel started out as a 10k piece, if that’s any proof to you. I’m working on improving that.

  15. “childish and defensive”

    “Cool story brah.”

    ” written to pat your self on the back with”

    “my 180k+ novel started out as a 10k piece, if that’s any proof to you”

    Case and Point.

    • Hang on, let me fetch something, even on the risk of you using it against me too.

      http://jasonbstanding.com/blogparts/2009/11/mighty_facepalm.jpg

      There.
      I’ll have you know that this site heavily features irony and humor. Irony like saying “Cool story brah” to start off a reply, clearly not obvious enough, and humor like mentioning my own misjudgement as proof that I do often have issues making things too long and that I am aware and working on that.

      Fine day to you too, missir. A word of friendly advice, perhaps you should bring in your sarcasm detector, it seems to be broken.

  16. Good point, clearly you have taken my advise into consideration and will be all the more prosperous because of it. I will accept my commission in cash, cheques, Force of Wills, and Dual Lands. Any Ponies sent will be returned to sender, heads freshly shorn, with interest charged for the error.

  18. Toraka,

    Thanks for all the card-by-card discussion for this deck! I’ve read up on a lot of info trying to find a build of CoMD that works for me. i enjoy playing all game formats, so it needs to have the ability to survive focused aggro, while having the capacity to take on 2 opponents in the mid- and late-game. i’ve settled on a build that differs from your above list by only 4 cards:

    -1 scute mob
    -1 grazing gladeheart
    -1 ulamog’s crusher
    -1 pathrazer
    +1 rampant growth
    +1 farhaven elf
    +1 elvish piper
    +1 eldrazi conscription

    i find that having one farhaven elf is crucial for situations where i get stalled on 3-4 lands w/ no Oracle in sight. casting a Zenith for 4 to drop a farhaven elf gives that spell an extra level of versatility that has made the difference for me.

    as for the Piper, i’m just testing it for now, but so far its only use has been to draw removal away from an Oracle.

    out of the dozen games i played today, my only 2 losses were to illusions, so i’m quite satisfied w/ the results!

    • I didn’t update the actual build, did I.
      Nope, I did not.

      Alright. My build now sports 3 Gladehearts in favour of 1 Conscription. Otherwise, I see your thinking. Using Zenith on an Elf is a quite lovely interaction which honestly didn’t come to my mind until you mentioned it. Since the Zenith will fetch it if you need it, you don’t need more than one of those terrible cards to still have the same odds as a 2-of.

      However, I would advise you to leave in the Scute Mob and drop the Piper. They both serve as a huge removal magnet, but the Mob has more utility than the Piper in certain situations like lategame topdecking while going online at about the same time.

      • i see your point w/ the mob vs. piper. mob is a better body / threat when you already have enough mana to hardcast 2 bombs per turn. i’m just curious to see if having another 4-drop ramp-ish creature will increase the deck’s consistency. i would much prefer a 4th Oracle…

        i would still strongly urge you to drop an ulamog’s crusher for a single farhaven elf. for me, it continues to turn bad situations into wins, and i don’t think (y)our deck will miss the obligatory annihilator too much…

  19. just had a crazy thought…

    how awesome / unfair / rage-quit-inducing would it be to have a pair of Lightning Greaves in Chant… i think i could find a spot for two for those… AND they would survive All is Dust…

    *drools at the thouht of it*

    …

  20. Hey Toraka. I was wondering if this guide would be receiving any updates anytime soon. I think this build is good but it’s not as consistent as I’d like it to be and there’s some games I still don’t grab as much mana as I need to on turns 1-4. Once your opponent gets ahead of you with this deck, it’s game over. I’m not sure what changes I’d make but I’m curious to see if there’s another build that can more reliably grab lands early on.

    • Um, er… sure.
      You can find some variations in the comments section and, like everything I do, this guide is more of a functioning base from which you can build your own things.
      However, off the top of my head, I’d say that you should swap Explores for Rampant Growth and include one or two Farhaven Elves (Green Sun’s Zenith can tutor them, remember that when estimating odds.) as well as probably some Pipers, if only to draw removal.

      To make room, you could then toss some of the big guys. I’m thinking particularly Conscription, Pelakka Wurm, and Crushers could be excluded as needed.

      I’d have to sit down and work out another build for some time, probably five minutes like with this one because this deck literally builds itself. Still, I suppose you could make the changes I’ve mentioned to build a deck that’s slightly slower to take off and does less impressive things when it does, but to make up for it should do so significantly more often.

      Not my variation to play, I can say. Maybe I just really really dislike Farhaven Elves. Understandable, because they fucking suck at everything they try and my spouse the Oracle will do everything better than they can possibly imagine, but if you can’t get a guaranteed curve going, that’s the way you’ll want to go.

      • Awesome. Those are more or less the changes I made myself (minus including the Pipers, maybe I can squeeze them in there) but it’s nice to see your approval as well. I’m fairly new to all of this Magic stuff so I really appreciate the advice, thanks!

      • I know how much you love me, could always give you mine lol with a gameplay video of its success. =p

  21. i recently removed the 2x Exploration in favor of another Rampant Growth and a 26th forest. i don’t miss them at all. though this removes the freakishly awesome chance of a turn 2 Oracle, the deck is playing far more consistently.

    i also removed the single Piper i was testing in favor of the Scute Mob, which is actually having an effective impact on board position.

  22. Wildly irrelevant and anectdotal experience with Khalni:

    I just had this happen from my best opening grip so far:

    turn 1: island
    turn 2: island + khalni
    turn 3: island + explore + island + explore + island + pop khalni
    (I took a 4 land hand hoping I’d draw the fifth and luckily I did)

    Opponent left :(

    • That being Forests, right? I’d love to see you play a monoBlue version… yeah yeah, I’ll stop with the sarcasm lest somebody get offended again.

      In a Landfall variant which could become viable with promos, the Expedition would be absolutely golden. Here, it does nothing until you don’t need it any more. Sure that was nice to have such a hand, but that Expedition could also have been a Zenith or something. I’m sure you know the point already, though.

  24. Hey guys, finally made a video of my Chant deck without the Eldrazi in it to show how it plays. Admittedly I did get my avenger in every bloody game but it’s still pretty strong without him and I won 6-0 while recording the video even without the best of starting hands. =) if it’s ok to put the link and if you’re interested:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJAc_S-8lkk
    I’m looking at you Toraka *cough cough*

    • Lovely plays. I was glad to be able to follow and predict your thought processes throughout. Dat Plow Under in your first game, though… I imagine one or two swears escaped you there.

      I’d record my own gameplay, but when it’d have to compete against Wing’s style either with my own commentary or none at all, I feel slightly discouraged. Not to mention I rarely play Magic as of right now because I want to get back to writing yet never do because instead I play Civ 5 with my friend…

      • Hehe yeah… Well he is the 4th best commentator on Youtube! lol Very fidgety though. I haven’t braved it yet to do commentary myself.
        I thought you could target your tapped lands from Plow Under giving me 4 untapped land instead of 2 to be honest, guess not. If you were wondering why I played Piper before Oracle it was mostly to test if Jace had any sneaky counter spells as my Oracle was more valuable. Also I made a slight mistake playing a land then searching for my Gladehart but I was trying to think which creature I needed.
        It usually plays quite a bit faster than that to be honest I just didn’t seem to draw much ramp until after I got my lands, thanks for watching. =)

        I saw that you played Surgeon Sim. Haha funny game, should totally get WiNG on there if he hasn’t already, subbed.

  25. Yay my green stompy build with 1 change: 1 conscription swapped for a 2nd sporemound. =p

    I too swapped the piper for dramatic entrance with the promo unlock yesterday so it’ll be interesting how that plays out.

  26. Manamanaoraclemoremanatoothandnail2*itthatbetrays@turn6wtf? :D
    If for no other reasons this makes the deck worth playing now and then imo.
    Greenstompy might be better overall if the opponent doesn’t know your playing w/o Eldrazi

  27. I feel like both builds could be greatly improved if they were designed around two principles:

    1. Consistency. This deck NEEDS fast land ramping every game or it’s an almost guaranteed loss. In my opinion, that means 4x Rampant Growth, 4x Explore and 4x Farhaven Elf (as well as the Oracles, and 3x Titan, obviously). Exploration is great in your opening hand and terrible after that – in other words, inconsistent. Including the elves means you also have two Green Sun’s Zenith to fetch them in the rare case you don’t have enough ramp. Anything short of the above 12 cards is a recipe for not ramping fast enough at least some of the time. When I created my build based on the above, I consistently ramp every game, and a turn 4 Titan is common. Consistency also means no Summoning Trap – sometimes they’re great and can dig you out of a hole; sometimes they come up empty or hit a Gladeheart or Oracle and you lose. At 6 mana, there are much better cards.

    2. Creatures with enter-the-battlefield effects are vastly superior to creatures without them. The only creatures without ETB effects that should be run are the Oracles, and they sort of have one since you can use them immediately. And arguably Vigor, solely because it is useful in the mirror match, and its effect also applies immediately. This means: no Scute Mob, Gladehearts, Sporemounds or any Eldrazi other than the Artisans. Scute Mob is ok but easily removed and does nothing immediately for your board state – and even it sticks around, it lacks evasion. Gladehearts are terrible: everything they do, Pelakka Wurms do better, and the Wurms draw you a card when they die and can be brought back by Artisans. Sporemounds are ok but rarely make a huge impact other than stalling the board slightly. Consistent mana ramp means you really don’t need to stall the board most of the time – and Wurms, Tangle, the Avenger, and All is Dust serve that purpose far better. The non-Artisan Eldrazi are great if you can make them stick and attack with them, but chances are your opponent is using removal selectively and saving it for them.

    3x Pelakka Wurm, 3x Titan, 2x Artisan, and Avenger of Zendikar should be in every build because of their ETB effects, in my opinion. Avenger is probably the best card in the deck, but it needs 2x Artisan and 3x Titan to have maximum utility. Having at least one Terrastadon is probably mandatory given things like Gravepact, Pariah, Form of the Dragon, the artifacts in the new Samurai deck, and the fact it can be tutored, unlike All is Dust. I haven’t played with Gaia’s Revenge yet since it hasn’t been unlocked, so I don’t know how good that card is in this build, but I have my doubts – I don’t think it can be targeted by an Artisan while in the graveyard, and it lacks evasion, although haste and hexproof are nice.

    • Good points. Community testing has updated our build, though that hasn’t made it into the guide yet, as I was on holiday until last Sunday and I forg– I was too busy to update it yet. You can expect an update by Saturday, when TTT will bring you the all-new promo code 9.

      However, a few explanations where we’ve been unclear:
      1. Yes, Exploration needs lots of land to fuel it. That’s why it’s included only in the stompy build, as it provides additional Landfall triggers with an Oracle of Mul Daya.

      2. No offense, but if it’s not worth it to spend six (or zero) mana to dig into the top six cards and pull out a fatty AT INSTANT SPEED, you might just not be playing it right. There should be enough monsters for the card to hit something worthy 97% of the time, especially during a cocky opponent’s combat step when it’s your only card in hand. There are better cards for the board state, but this is the card that brings them out, AT FUCKING INSTANT SPEED. Besides, don’t get greedy; It’d be worth the cost to put down a Gladeheart if it doesn’t have to be in your hand and during your turn. Think of it as a pseudo-Zenith that gained instant speed and conditional 0 cost in exchange for 1G more cost, at most. At least, you actually get a discount of 5 mana to the creature, as well as being able to fetch it despite colourlessness.

      3. I hate Farhaven Elf, with every fiber of my being. I agree that it might be good to add more Growths, but one Elf is way enough, being able to tutor for it with Zenith if necessary. When no one sees you of course, only after three turns of being screwed at 4 lands with no Oracle in sight.

      4. No, creatures without ETB ARE good. You praise consistency, yet put your hopes of living until you can play your seven mana fatties into a seven mana fatty. Gladehearts can earn you an amazing amount of life and will make your opponent feel bad no matter when they remove it, and that’s just for a single one. On that note, you run Scute Mob BECAUSE it will get removed. If it isn’t until it grows, you have a monster which will eat away at the opposition, even without trample. With those early game removal magnets going, you shouldn’t have much of a problem keeping Oracles and Eldrazi up. Besides, I’d say that laying down an It That Betrays and swinging with a Conscripted guy already classifies as an ETB effect. Sporemound is terrible, though.

      Besides, the deck suffers an automatic loss against the holy trinity anyway, so why bother Spikeing it?
      By the way, Gaea’s Revenge CAN be recurred using the Artisan. If Wizards means to say that an ability works in a graveyard, they explicitly write on the card that it does.

      • 1. No offense taken; arguments about card strengths and weaknesses are what generate better lists. I appreciate that Summoning Trap works at instant speed; it would otherwise not be playable. It’s a good card; but it’s not the most consistent card in the world. I stopped running it awhile ago, but I’ve been in many matches where my opponent played it to little (and sometimes no) effect. You can frequently see it coming, given the Oracles. I don’t think the digging part of it is of much benefit: there are 4 (soon to be 5) cards you always want to draw – All is Dust and Tangle – and Summoning Trap is as likely to force them to the bottom of the library as it is to bring you closer to them. The bottom line for me is whether there’s a card that gives you more value for a similar cost. The extra Titan, Wurm and Terrastadon are all better choices in my opinion.

        2. I’ll use a GSZ for an elf immediately if it’s the difference between missing a land drop or not. You only need one elf for GSZ, but you need 4 elves if you want to be assured of getting to 6 mana every game without stalling a single turn. I think consistent ramp for this deck is the single most important factor that determines whether it wins or not.

        3. Creatures without ETB are unquestionably good; my argument is comparative though – in every case (in this deck) the creature with ETB is better than the one without. Consistency is key – but getting to 7 mana by turn 5 is the norm, not the exception, as long as you have enough mana ramp. I don’t know if I’ve ever had a game where I’ve wanted to play a Wurm but have been unable to because of mana issues. Gladehearts can sometimes make a big difference but if you’re getting a ton of life because you’re playing a ton of land, you’re at the point where you could play a Wurm anyway (and if you’re not – replace the Gladehearts with the Elves!). As far as removal bait goes – I’m absolutely fine with any creature with an ETB effect being removed. The ETB effect alone already makes a huge difference to the game, and the Artisan lets me recur it. It that Betrays is awesome, but it’s a highly conditional ETB effect, and one that doesn’t make a huge difference to the game state (generally it’s win more), except against the mirror, where it is admittedly very useful. I used to run it solely for the mirror, but I’ve taken it out recently since it’s not as useful against any other deck.

        4. it’s definitely not an automatic loss against the holy trinity. Consistent ramp + recurring ETB creatures gives you a decent shot. I’m not saying it’s easy – my personal record against those 3 decks with Chant is 22-27 – but it can be competitive.

        5. I didn’t know that about Gaia’s Revenge. Good to know for the future.

  29. I think at least 1 Terrastadon is a must regardless of the build with all the ramp you won’t have any problem saccing 3 lands, 3 elephant token helps a lot in board stabilization. This deck is pretty slow it gets easily overwhelmed, Terrastadon gives you board presence when you are behind and save you the match.

  30. I really appreciate your guides.
    I agreed with you about Terrastodon: 3.0 until I saw an opponent use it on me, and destroy a couple of MY non creature permanents. Once the dust settled, although I was left with a couple of elephants I wasnt too happy about the stuff I had just lost.
    let me know your thoughts.
    Cheers
    Russ

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