[Deck] Mardu Gravekin

MarcWizard
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Post by MarcWizard » 4 years ago

Well, someone has to start this trainwreck of a deck's primer. I'll do it, I guess.

Gravekin refers to the ridiculous elemental deck that basically got its latest, BUILD ME NOW card from M20. Long story short, we're taking the upgraded Ball lightning from MH1, Lightning Skelemental (I still cannot believe they missed a chance for "Ball Blightning"), adding it to it's predecessor, and bringing these back from the grave repeatedly with the newly "modern"-ized MH1 enabler, Unearth.

Thunderkin Awakener joins the line-up as a ridiculously overpowered and self-repeating, hasty unearther. And just in case you're worried this isn't enough redundancy, MH1 also provided us with Vesperlark, which brings back dead thunderkin and... can be brought back with thunderkin - DOES NOBODY ELSE SEE HOW STUPID THIS DECK IS?! IT BUILT ITSELF!

Also, I forgot to mention this deck can run Vampiric Tutor, except that instead of being an instant and costing you 2 life, it's a 1/1 creature: Flamekin Harbinger. And.... do I need to say it again? Flamekin can be brought back with both Vesperlark and Thunderkin.

We need more redundancy, don't we? Of course we do. Enter Flickerwisp. Let's see, tutorable with Flamekin. Blinks Flamekin for an additional tutor, or a land that could let u hold up a path, push or bolt despite committing all your mana to attack. Comes back with unearth. Comes back with Thunderkin. Removes a blocker so your thunderkin doesn't get killed. Unlike the balls, sticks around to deal 3 every turn without further assistance. Has evasion. Yea okay.

So there you go, a circlejerk of circlejerking elementals.

Now just add the most efficient cards in the format to the deck:
Faithless Looting - needs no explanation. The nut draw for this deck ISN'T looting into thunderkin for skelemental. Its looting into double unearth TWO skelementals, dealing 12 and making the opponent discard 4, possibly when all they've done is lay 1 land. Do you need a plastic bag? You look nauseous.
Burning Inquiry - 4 lootings aren't enough, and this deck has enough redundancy that it doesn't really mind accidentally dropping a thunderkin, since you have vesperlarks and unearths to undo these "mistakes".
Lightning Bolt - it's not until you bolt your own vesperlark (which was brought back with thunderkin) after an opponent fatal pushes your thunderkin to basically return thunderkin before combat that vesperlark's ridiculousness comes to light. Plus, you know, maybe the opponent might try something like "stabilize" against your ridiculous redundancy, so having some reach is cool.
Collective Brutality There are some decks that try to go faster than us, typically with devoted druid and vizier. Others may wise up and hold up removal for thunderkin. But it's cool, you can maindeck this card which, while dropping balls into the GY, will also kill off opposing combo pieces, dorks, or strip away precious removals.

And then some utility cards
Boros Charm - sometimes people think they can destroy your kin, which is so wrong. But if they're not doing naughty stuff like removing your thunderkin, then you have 4 points of reach. Or, you know, you can give skelemental double strike because why not? It's just 12 damage and discard 4... stop crying, here's some tissue.

For the sideboard we have basically, hmmm. Enchantment removal in Wispmare which you can tutor with harbinger and unearth and also return with vesperlark... okay. We have artifact removal in Ingot Chewer, which doesn't come back but can be tutored all the same. Then you have Fulminator Mage, which you can also tutor. And unearth. I mean we're already strong against Tron but sometimes watching these Tron pilots roll around crying in a pool of their own vomit can be refreshing. Depriving Jund of their mana besides making their removal look inadequate is also an option.

So finally, I'd like to present this abomination of a deck, which admittedly is affected by GY hate. But hey, that didn't stop Hogaak.

The boros charms, collective brutality numbers are pretty loose - you can tweak them to your heart's delight. I think the core is pretty much in-the-face obvious (hint: the elementals, unearth and looting spells), but you can do other stuff like Cathartic Reunion or Lightning Axe, too.

Have fun with the deck! I'll be testing and tweaking as I go along, too, especially for that sideboard. I'm playing some cards that help with grindier games, since the maindeck is pretty all-in. The downside is that they too are GY dependant, and you can bet your last dollar those rest-in-peaces and leylines are coming in to blank the graveyard. All I can say is: keep your wispmares close, and your flamekin closer.

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Lord_Mektar
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Post by Lord_Mektar » 4 years ago

This list - and the primer itself - are hilarious. The synergies here are totally my cup of tea. The one issue I can see coming up is that if your opponent sticks major graveyard hate, the mana suddenly seems really rough, as being able to hardcast both Flickerwisps and Skelementals is hard to set up. Especially if you pitch all your fetchable lands to a Burning Inquiry.

Yawgmoth
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Post by Yawgmoth » 4 years ago

Given the recent loss of Faithless Looting, this deck will require a little bit of reworking (cathartic reunion and/or lightning axe seem like good replacements). However, I think that this B&R announcement actually helps this deck a fair bit as the graveyard hate will back off. In particular I think we will see less Leyline of the Void in favor of more targeted hate/wipes (I.e. Surgical & Relic).

As far as modifications go, why not run path to exile if we are going to have white? Also, it may not be necessary but ephemerate gives us an easy way to get multiple extra triggers off of vesperlark.

Has anyone tried playing this in the wild?

Yawgmoth
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Post by Yawgmoth » 4 years ago

Does it make any sense to run aether vial?

Dropping a Skelemental on the opponent's end step seems like it could be fun. Since Skelemental is sacrificed at the beginning of the end step he stick around through your turn. Almost all of the creatures are 3 cmc too so it's pretty straightforward to set the Vial up. Since we rely on our creatures so much this gives us a little protection from counterspells and allows us to keep mana up for our turn for additional protection as needed.

Just a thought, I've not played with Vial much though so I'm not entirely sure which decks it fits best in.

Yawgmoth
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Post by Yawgmoth » 4 years ago

Another thought. Does flickering Ball Lightning or Skelemental with Flickerwisp on your second main phase prevent the sacrifice trigger from happening until your opponent's turn?

Flickerwisp returns the creature to the board at the beginning of the end step" which is also when they get sacrificed. In that case they come. A k on the board and won't be sacrificed until your opponent's end step which gives you a pretty large blocker.

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