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MTG Standard (Type 2) Black-Green Deathtouch

2074red2074

Shiny Collector
This deck was built on a semi-budget, so all of the cards either came from my single M14 Toolkit or were bought individually. If you suggest the addition of new cards, please check TCGPlayer for a price estimate and refrain from suggesting any cards that cost more than one US dollar for M14 and the Ravnica block, or two for the Theros block.

Swamp x15
Forest x12
Reaper of the Wilds x1
Mortal's resolve x2
Sporemound x1
Wild Beastmaster x1
Stab Wound x1
Reviving Melody x1
Deadly Recluse x1
Predator's Rapport x1
Bow of Nylea x1
Giant Growth x3
Corrupt x1
Liliana's Reaver x1
Chariot of Victory x3
Fade into Antiquity x2
Quag Sickness x2
Diabolic Tutor x1 (probably adding 3 more)
Mark of the Vampire x1
Trollhide x1
Archetype of Endurance x1
Archetype of Finality x1
Font of Return x2
Sedge Scorpion x4
Raised by Wolves x4
Ordeal of Nylea x2 (Adding two more whenever they become available locally)
Pharika's Chosen x4

Also considering adding Liliana x1 and/or Whip of Erebos x1


This deck focuses on taking weak creatures with Deathtouch and boosting them while also using temporary instant boosts to save my creatures when necessary (I attack with Liliana's Reaver boosted to a 8/7 with an Ordeal, he blocks with a Heroes' Bane at 8/8, I activate Giant Growth to save my creature. Also, he activates Smite, and I activate Mortal's resolve to save my creature again). Two of my creatures and four of my enchantments spawn tokens for meatshield purposes. For example, I can block and destroy a 4/7 using two of my Reaver's tokens and a 1/1 with Deathtouch without actually losing my Deathtouch creature. These meatshields can become deadly with my Bow of Nylea or my Archetype of Finality. I have more Swamps than Forests despite having more greens than blacks because I only have cards that get more powerful based on my number of Swamps. Also, if I add Liliana, I would be limiting my deck-thinning power by having more Forests.


I know that I need to remove some cards to drop it to 60 and I know that many cards will probably never be drawn, which is why I want to add more Diabolic Tutors and why I want Ordeal of Nylea and Liliana for deck thinning. Please do not waste a post telling me this.
 
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Kamotz

God of Monsters
Just having deathtouch creatures doesn't make a deck. BG is a pretty powerful color combination. You get some aggressively-costed creatures and great removal.

Reaper of the Wilds, Dreg Mangler, Deadbridge Goliath, Doom Blade, Ultimate Price, Putrefy, Kalonian Tusker, and Golgari Guildgate. Playing ~4 of each of those over some of your other options will make this deck much more powerful.
 

2074red2074

Shiny Collector
Well this deck actually focuses on boosting creatures with Deathtouch to turn them into beatsticks that my opponent won't be able to block without major sacrifices. That's why most of my creatures are one-drop 1/1's with Deathtouch. There also are a few token spawners for chump blocking that, when combined with Archetype of Finality or Bow of Nylea, become deadly meatshields. I actually have a Reaper of the Wilds in my deck, I just must have skipped over it when making my list. I took out my destruction cards because my debuff cards tend to lower the target's toughness to zero, though I could add Time to Feed. Also, because my deck focuses so much on boosting weak creatures, I didn't bother putting in any high-stat creatures unless they have another use, such as Liliana's Reaver w/ token spawns or my Archetypes.
 

Kamotz

God of Monsters
Right, but the issue with playing "buffing" spells and so few creatures, is that sometimes you'll be drawing the wrong half of your deck. Or you'll draw an opening hand with all buffs and no creatures...or all creatures and no buffs. Additionally, dedicated removal is (almost) always better than situational +x/-x spells. How do you deal with a Stormbreath Dragon? or a Polukranos? Will you rely on your 2 Quag Sickness to deal with the entirety of the Monsters deck? Will you just fold to a Pack Rat or an Elspeth or a Supreme Verdict?

The Archetypes (especially the green one) are very expensive, and don't really help you all that much when you have ONLY 15 creatures...neither does your Chariot of Victory...or any of the pump spells, really. In a 60 card deck, only a quarter of your cards would be creatures. Standard has SO much removal...really GOOD removal. So drawing 1 creature every 4 cards, and only 2 creatures (tops) in your opening hand won't turn out well.

I know that I need to remove some cards to drop it to 60 and I know that many cards will probably never be drawn, which is why I want to add more Diabolic Tutors

If you want to fix your issues with consistency, forget the Diabolic tutors. A deck like this is typically called 'Roids...as in Steroids...as in all you'll be doing is playing your dudebros and artificially buffing them to insanity. A Roids deck doesn't want a 4-mana play that won't immediately impact the board. Roids wants a play that kills its opponent before either of you even have 4 mana. Past Roids decks were usually Naya (GWR), and played things like Ghor-Clan Rampager and Boros Charm to deal absurd amounts of damage with a single swing.
 

2074red2074

Shiny Collector
I would deal with Stormbreath Dragon by not having many cards in my hand. I usually have about two cards at most five turns in. I would deal with Polukranos by keeping a Mortal's resolve in my hand if possible, and it would be destroyed immediately upon becoming monstrous anyway because most of my important creatures have Deathtouch. I would do the same with Elspeth, and either hit it with Corrupt or by brute force. Supreme Verdict would also require Mortal's resolve or Archetype of Endurance. I should add more of Mortal's Resolve, now that I think about it. Any creature with high power I would deal with by leaving a weak creature with Deathtouch untapped to block and destroy it.

Archetype of Endurance actually helps a LOT against removal spells b/c it grants all of my creatures hexproof. Seeing as how those are one of my biggest weaknesses, it's very important. The Archetype of Finality is there to remove Deathtouch if my opponent has it and to combine with my token spawners.

My lack of creatures isn't that troublesome either. I have a somewhat high creature return power (Font of Return and Reviving Melody) and a good amount of token spawners just in case I need to default to a creature without Deathtouch. My Raised By Wolves's alone can result in eight creatures, even if I have to put them on an opponent's creature, and Sporemound combined with Liliana or Ordeal of Nylea would be great. I've gone up against a burn deck and a counter deck (both with good removal) and done fairly well. I haven't won against either, but I usually get them down to around 5 life. Adding the extra Mortal's Resolves and Ordeal of Nyleas would help a lot.

The Diabolic Tutor actually serves for more than just consistency. I have several cards that are only helpful in certain situations (or that are too expensive to buy multiples of), so I can put only one of each of those in and Diabolic Tutor can be used to fetch them whenever necessary. It's almost like having five of each, but with slightly higher mana cost.

Also, I'm only playing casually with friends. None of my opponents will have four Athreos or anything super rare like that. One guy I know has a single Ajani (the M14 one, not the Nyx one) and it's his prized possession.

Please correct me if any of this reasoning is flawed.

I also could use help with deciding which cards to remove to thin mt deck out.
 
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Kamotz

God of Monsters
I would deal with Stormbreath Dragon by not having many cards in my hand. I usually have about two cards at most five turns in. I would deal with Polukranos by keeping a Mortal's resolve in my hand if possible, and it would be destroyed immediately upon becoming monstrous anyway because most of my important creatures have Deathtouch. I would do the same with Elspeth, and either hit it with Corrupt or by brute force. Supreme Verdict would also require Mortal's resolve or Archetype of Endurance. I should add more of Mortal's Resolve, now that I think about it. Any creature with high power I would deal with by leaving a weak creature with Deathtouch untapped to block and destroy it.

You still have to deal with a 4/4 or 7/7 flying dragon with haste. Barring your one Deadly recluse your creatures can't interact with it. Outside of Mortal's Resolve, your creatures will generally die in combat. Other than the green Archetype (which is a 1-of and costs 8), your biggest thing is the 4/5 Reaper of the Wilds. Most of your creatures will generally be losing/trading in combat. And with only 15 creatures, you'll draw hands with none more often than not (I've done the starting-hand playtests). Against control, you won't really get the chance to land a finisher: they'll hold up resources, wipe the board, and just accumulate too much card advantage.

Archetype of Endurance doesn't protect against board wipes. It only protects creatures against spells/abilities that include the word "target creature" in their text boxes.

Archetype of Endurance actually helps a LOT against removal spells b/c it grants all of my creatures hexproof. Seeing as how those are one of my biggest weaknesses, it's very important. The Archetype of Finality is there to remove Deathtouch if my opponent has it and to combine with my token spawners.
Yeah...but it's an 8-mana play. You'll be waiting several turns until then. And you hardly have any creatures to fill the gap between then. The Hexproof won't help against board sweepers like Mizzium Mortars, Supreme Verdict, or Anger of the Gods, or Drown in Sorrow. Archetype of Finality seems almost-useless, since your creatures already have deathtouch. And if your opponents creatures have deathtouch, they'll still probably be trading with yours in combat because they'll almost always be bigger than a 1/1 or a 1/2.

My lack of creatures isn't that troublesome either. I have a somewhat high creature return power (Font of Return and Reviving Melody) and a good amount of token spawners just in case I need to default to a creature without Deathtouch. My Raised By Wolves's alone can result in eight creatures, even if I have to put them on an opponent's creature, and Sporemound combined with Liliana or Ordeal of Nylea would be great. I've gone up against a burn deck and a counter deck (both with good removal) and done fairly well. I haven't won against either, but I usually get them down to around 5 life. Adding the extra Mortal's Resolves and Ordeal of Nyleas would help a lot.
Raised by wolves is a pretty bad play though. You'll be getting some wolves out of it. And your opponent gets the boost. And it just doesn't compare well to other 5-mana plays available...even to the budget limit. Arbor Colossus, Assemble the Legion, Celestial Archon, Lavinia, Ornitharch, Prognostic Sphinx, Wildfire Cerberus...all of them are just much stronger plays your opponent can make on the same turn. You're playing with all these cute interactions (Sporemound + Ordeal of Nylea. Though with Liliana, you don't get to play an extra land each turn, of course, you just get to find a land from your deck). But that requires a LOT of effort. It requires all the right pieces coming into place at the right time and the opponent doing nothing. The problem with Font and Reviving Melody is that they don't do anything to effect your field. They do neat things, but they don't put you ahead on the board at all.

The Diabolic Tutor actually serves for more than just consistency. I have several cards that are only helpful in certain situations (or that are too expensive to buy multiples of), so I can put only one of each of those in and Diabolic Tutor can be used to fetch them whenever necessary. It's almost like having five of each, but with slightly higher mana cost.
There's a reason that people don't play with expensive (mana-wise) sorcery-speed Tutors though. They're just woefully inefficient. Unless you're playing a long-game Control deck where you can afford to stretch things out, Tutors will just eat up your turn. You'll pay 4 mana to get a...Corrupt? Archetype? And your opponent will spend the same amount of mana to cast a Deadbridge Goliath, or a Polis Crusher, or an Ember Swallower, or a Rumbling Baloth. You still have several turns needed to play either of those spells to any effect, and he gets something to go on the offensive with. Maybe you'll have one of your 11 creatures with deathtouch out. But there's only ~ a 1/7 chance of that. And you've tapped out, so you're vulnerable to removal.

Also, I'm only playing casually with friends. None of my opponents will have four Athreos or anything super rare like that. One guy I know has a single Ajani (the M14 one, not the Nyx one) and it's his prized possession.
Casual or budget doesn't have to mean "sub-optimal" though. It just means you have to be more creative with the way you build your deck and try different types of strategies.

Please correct me if any of this reasoning is flawed.
See above
 
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