UGWb Goodstuff

[Essah]

I'm new here and could need some tips for my Deck:

Lands(35):
Hallowed Fountain
Temple Garden
Watery Grave
Overgrown Tomb
Marsh Flats
Verdant Catacombs
Misty Rainforest
Scalding Tarn
Arid Mesa
Flood Plain
Bad River
Secluded Steppe
Lonely Sandbar
Tranquil Thicket
Mishras Factory
Volrath´s Stronghold
Ghost Quarter I know Wasteland is better but i have only Ghost Quarter
Sunpetal Grove
Glacial Fortress
Drowned Catacomb
Murmuring Bosk
Gilt-Leaf Palace
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3 Plains
4 Island
1 Swamp
4 Forest


Creatures(41):

cc1(02):
Llanowar Elves
Birds of Paradise

cc2(06):
Merfolk Looter
Sakura-Tribe Elder
Gaddock Teeg
Saffi Eriksdotter
Qasali Pridemage
Darkheart Sliver

cc3(14):
Mirror Entity
Boneshredder
Squee, Goblin Nabob
Caller of the Claw
Eternal Witness
Yavimaya Elder
Spike Feeder
Harmonic Sliver
Necrotic Sliver
Kitchen Finks
Psychatog
Rhox Warmonk
Hunting Trygon
Man-o´-War

cc4(11):
Solemn Simularcum
Venser, Shaper Savant
Sower of Temptation
Glen Elendra Archmage
Crypt Champion
Ravenous Baloth
Chameleon Colossus
Loxodon Hierarch
Rafiq of the Many
Mystic Snake

cc5(08):
Reveillark
Baneslayer Angel
Karmic Guide
Body Double
Mulldrifter
Shrickmaw
Genesis
Deranged Hermit

cc6(01):
Yosei, the Morning Star


Spells(27):

cc1(09):
Swords to Plowshare
Path to Exile
Ancestral Visions
Brainstrom
Ponder
Duress
Thoghtseize
Wordly Tutor
Aether Vial

cc2(07):
Impulse
Demonic Tutor
Oversold Cemetery
Animate Dead
Life from the Loam
Surveival of the Fittest
Regrowth

cc3(06):
Oblivion Ring
Intuition
Recurring Nightmare
Pernicious Deed
Necromancy
Soul Manipulation

cc4(03):
Wrath of God
Gifts Ungiven
Fact or Fiction

cc5(01):
Primal Command

ccx(01):
Engineered Explosives


I know that the Manabase looks very bad, but i dont have the good lands.
Next time i´ll and Breeding Pool, Godless Shrine and ONS Fetchlands(without red) and cut Scalding Tarn, Arid Mesa, Flood Plain and Bad River.

I want add some cards, but i dont know what i can cut:
-Mind Twist
-Aven Mindcensor
-Stonecloaker
-Spike Weaver
-Zur the Enchanter
-Vindicate
-Malstrom Pulse
-Garruck Wildspeaker

My Meta is heavy Red. 3 times mono R, 2 RB Gobbos, 1 BDW and 1 random xcControl.

I hope you can help me.
Essah

[Dreamer]

The answer to the "What to cut?" question comes when you decide whether to do control or combo. Gifts-Survival is an archetype that generally has lots of elements from both, but some of your cards are blatantly combo (black reanimation spells), some blatantly control (Loam, Looter, Teeg etc.). There's even the odd aggro card, like Rafiq.

As far as Reveillark combo goes, I'd prefer Nantuko Husk and Carrion Feeder to Mirror Entity, at least if you're going to run one or the other. They protect your guys from RFG removal, and provide a one-turn win condition by becoming arbitarily huge.

You're running Crypt Champion and Saffi Eriksdotter, yet the only thing I can see that benefits from the recursion engine is Caller of the Claw, which is a bit narrow IMHO.

Darkheart Sliver and Harmonic Sliver are good creatures on their own, but I'm a bit hesitant about Necrotic Sliver. You wanted Vindicate in the deck. Run it instead of the copycat Sliver.


I'm running a somewhat similar list myself, check it out if you could find some ideas.

[Essah]

The answer to the "What to cut?" question comes when you decide whether to do control or combo. Gifts-Survival is an archetype that generally has lots of elements from both, but some of your cards are blatantly combo (black reanimation spells), some blatantly control (Loam, Looter, Teeg etc.). There's even the odd aggro card, like Rafiq.

The Reanimation is for Gifts and you can chose Creatures in any grave.
Rafiq is only a Surveival target if i must finish in time. And he´s Insane with Lifelink.

As far as Reveillark combo goes, I'd prefer Nantuko Husk and Carrion Feeder to Mirror Entity, at least if you're going to run one or the other. They protect your guys from RFG removal, and provide a one-turn win condition by becoming arbitarily huge.

I chose Mirror Entity because you cant stop the Combo with Removel. If you run Husk you sac the Body Double-Lark and in response to the returntrigger your opponent kill the Husk or Fedder. With Entity you can do funny things with Darkheart Sliver, Necrotic Sliver and Ravenous Baloth. And Mirror Entity is good for Beatdown,too.

You're running Crypt Champion and Saffi Eriksdotter, yet the only thing I can see that benefits from the recursion engine is Caller of the Claw, which is a bit narrow IMHO.

Yes, there is only the Caller. I could add some Lifecreature like Soulwarden but if i draw Soulwarden without the Combo, i have only a ranom 1/1 dork. The Caller is great agianst Massremovel and after Combat you have 3 or 4 new Guys on board. The other Combo Pieces are even good without the combo. Saffi is a friend of Evoke and dying CiP EtB Creatures. Crypt Champion is not as good as Saffi or Caller but you can use your Wittnes/Boneshredder/Psychatog/Rhox Warmonk/... agian and they are all good creatures. And the best is that they are all 2/2 and Lark targets.

Darkheart Sliver and Harmonic Sliver are good creatures on their own, but I'm a bit hesitant about Necrotic Sliver. You wanted Vindicate in the deck. Run it instead of the copycat Sliver.

I know Vindicate is better but you cant search it with Surveival or return it with Lark or Crypt Champion. Maybe i could play both Sliver and Vindicate?


I'm running a somewhat similar list myself, check it out if you could find some ideas.

[Dreamer]

I don't doubt that the cards you run are good, that's evident based on tournament results in one format or another. The thing here is simply that while some cards are good, the deck is better in the end without them. No one would doubt that a card like Doran is insane: It's easily one of the better Rock-aggro cards there is. Yet it or Great Sable Stag are probably the weakest cards in my deck.

As for the Project X combo, I played it previously on a reasoning largely similar to yours: Saffi and Champion are both individually good cards, and sometimes they can combo out for insane results (in the ideal case, a 3rd turn kill). Thing is, the combo requires a lot of pieces and just isn't as robust and easy to assemble as the Reveillark kill. It's decent, but it's likely that the deck is better without it.

You run Recurring Nightmare, Oblivion Ring, Survival and Deed. This means that Zur, for example, is far superior to the Champion in your current build, and I'd recommend putting him into the deck immediately. Likewise, Aven Mindcensor and Mind Twist will probably do the deck more good than Saffi.

As far as the Sliver goes, I'd just run Vindicate and Maelstrom Pulse instead of the Sliver and Vindicate. The gulf in card quality is just too big, and you can already Survival out answers like Pridemage, Shriekmaw and Man-o'-War. It's just not worth it.