I Need Help

[House Turtle]

Just to get any nonsense out of the way the name change just like the last was something I did on a whim. The VNV Nation song Joy came up on my Kindle and I thought it fit with the Avatar of Woe and that fit the theme of the board more than Mr Ando even though I find that insanely funny. What I need help with is I've lost my creative spark. I recently dismantled my fairy deck because there's nothing it can do better than my bear or white knight decks. Both of those are faster and play the overrun game. The bears generate a decent amount of tokens although nothing like a myr, or saproling deck. It gets the job done though. The white knights are faster and I can play Leonin Sun Standard as well. Problem is they are in the end essentially "overrun" decks. Then for lack of creativity I have 3 knight decks. Granted each works differently and I am fond of the red one because its them ost different from the other two.

My problem is I'm running out of ideas and I really use a lot of the same gimmicks I'm starting to feel like a one trick pony. I got Ghostly Prison in 3 decks, Propaganda in another and Leonin Sun Standard in 3 decks. I frequently use Feldon's Cane as a filler but rarely does it actually achieve any usefulness. My red knight and assassin decks I thought turned out good and my licid deck I thought was cool but beyond that I feel like I'm suffering a creative cramp. I want to do something not done which is partially why I dismantled my discard deck. I'm looking at a potential black/blue or mono blue grind deck seriously. I've also toyed with the idea of unusual creature themes such as Leviathan and Horse. Yes, in both cases there's enough. Will they be any good is the question? Odds are not really. I also want to do a life gianing deck that could turn out good.

My latest insane ideas seem creative enough the artist thene decks are cool although the Dan Frazier deck may not work too well. Its hard in such a restricted manner and that's out of pure stubbroness. I want the land to match too and sadly I'm sure all he's done is swamps. The Mark Tedin deck looks surprisingly good.

So if anyone has any ideas or suggestions I'll make sure all my decks are posted. I'll also post a couple deck ideas any help is appreciated.

[Maraxus of Keld]

With regards to the Faerie deck, are you aware that there are a lot of faeries in the set Lorwyn? For instance, Faerie Harbinger is pretty cool. Anyway, I found out that with Gatherer you can do a [url=http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?type=+[faerie]||subtype=+[faerie]]search by creature type[/url], which not only brings up all the creature cards but also stuff like Bitterblossom, which is an enchantment but relevant to faeries.

Anyway, I think you should try a different approach to deck building for the sake of variety. I've noticed that you do a lot of creature theme decks, with a tendency to usually avoid the most common types like elves, goblins, slivers, zombies, etc. So if you're looking for something that plays differently and feels less like a deck you've already got but with different pictures, then maybe step away from creature themes for a bit.

The way I like to do it, is look for an interesting card or combination of cards, and build around that. For example, my Whim of Volrath deck hasn't been particularly effective in many years now, but I've never seen another deck like it. It's fun to use all those cards that specifically hose one color, and then change them to the colors that are being played in the current game. Unfortunately it's generally not fast or efficient enough for the level of games we play anymore but I still like to try it once in awhile.

Have you got any particular card that you've always thought "this would be really cool to use in a deck" but never figured out where to put it? I helped Chris build a deck around Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker back in the day, because it just had a neat, unique ability that screamed to me to make something out of it. Endless Whispers is another card like that, but I've never gotten around to doing anything with it. I've noticed that most sets have at least one or two cards like this, that do something interesting and fun, even if not particularly useful to a "Spike" type player.

Last but not least, you could take a look at something that was made as a tournament deck, and make a similar idea with different (probably less expensive) cards. My Landstill, Aluren, and to a lesser degree Reanimator decks are all based very loosely on tournament decks that worked in a way I found interesting. I look at the basic strategy of how the deck works, and figure out how best I can do it without using Power 9, fetchlands, dual lands, or other expensive stuff I don't have.

[Baron Sengir]

Nov 25, 2011 0:17:52 GMT -6 Maraxus of Keld said:

The way I like to do it, is look for an interesting card or combination of cards, and build around that. For example, my Whim of Volrath deck hasn't been particularly effective in many years now, but I've never seen another deck like it. It's fun to use all those cards that specifically hose one color, and then change them to the colors that are being played in the current game. Unfortunately it's generally not fast or efficient enough for the level of games we play anymore but I still like to try it once in awhile.

Have you got any particular card that you've always thought "this would be really cool to use in a deck" but never figured out where to put it? I helped Chris build a deck around Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker back in the day, because it just had a neat, unique ability that screamed to me to make something out of it. Endless Whispers is another card like that, but I've never gotten around to doing anything with it. I've noticed that most sets have at least one or two cards like this, that do something interesting and fun, even if not particularly useful to a "Spike" type player.

I actually was going to suggest this as well. It's how a lot of my decks were made. I just found a cool card I had like Last Stand and figured out ways to make a deck with it. Same with the Death Pit Offering deck. And of course if you think of an idea we can always help filling in the other parts of the deck you get stuck with.

[House Turtle]

I really want to do a life gaining deck. So far the key cards I have in mind are

Erratic Portal
Angelic Chorus
Loxodon Warhammer
Serra Avatar

I've wanted to make use of Serra Avatars and bouncing them back with Erratic Portal and Angelic Chorus sounds fun.

[Baron Sengir]

Sounds fun. I'll look through my stuff this week and see what I can find that may help and fit the theme.

[House Turtle]

I'm looking over various creatures that gain life when they come into play too. I'm toying with the idea od making it green/white too since green has all sorts of fun stuff. Nourish fits on an Isochron Scepter and its a cheap life gainer even without it. I have a couple of Angels Mercy and 1 Elixir of Immortality I would love to get a couple of Beacon of Immortality Sadly though Beacon of Immortality is kind of pricey and the Serra Avatars at cheapest are 10 each. This would be an expensive deck to build.

[Maraxus of Keld]

One thing that I feel deserves mentioning - life gain is all good, but make sure you have a way to actually win the game. I used to run into this problem with the life-gaining deck I had a few years back. You may find yourself at 600 life or whatever, but if you're staring down an army of buffed-up zombies, slivers, vampires, or whatever and you've got no way to get through them and defeat your opponent, then all you're doing is dragging the game out.

Also, remember that your life total is more than just a defense that keeps you from dying, it's also a resource. If you include black in your deck, there are cards like Night's Whisper, Necropotence, and Yawgmoth's Bargain that let you put your life gain to good use in getting more cards. If you have life to spare, Shauku, Endbringer can help get rid of problem creatures, including indestructible creatures.

[House Turtle]

Adding black would benefit me good. If I can pull a single Serra Avatar just at base 20 life that is a force to be reconed with. Granted I can think of half a dozen cards to kill it, but black could also help with creature recovery if there's room.

[House Turtle]

I have another idea for a twist on a reanimator deck based on a card I found. I want to kill my opponents creatures and using fun stuff like Coffin Queen and Bone Dancer I want to reanimate opponents creatures and kill them with thier own creatures. I could even reanimate Adarkar Valkyrie to steal other creatures and use Reya Danbringer in case I loose anything.