Casual-60 Tyranids?!?

[Diz]

You'd better believe it!

'nids

DecklistCMCManaPricesChartsDraw 7

Creatures

4 Hormagaunt Horde

4 Termagant Swarm

3 Mawloc

4 Purestrain Genestealer

4 Tyranid Prime

1 Malanthrope

2 Tervigon

4 Sporocyst

4 Toxicrene

2 Gargoyle Flock

1 Winged Hive Tyrant

1 Old One Eye

1 Tyranid Harridan

Hardened Scales

4 Hardened Scales

Lands

4 Rugged Highlands

4 Swiftwater Cliffs

4 Thornwood Falls

5 Forest

2 Island

2 Mountain

Approximate Total Cost:

It's a mess, but it's my mess.

[Diz]

It's been noted that I should probably go up in Mawlocs, and that Tervigons are likely the best cut for those. This change has been made.

[Diz]

It has also been noted that the color ratio for my lands is pretty bad. I've done the math:

21 lands, 9 of which are basics
51 mana symbols - 38 G, 9 U, 4 R

If we're working with the full land skew, I should have ~15.64 G-generating lands, ~3.7 U-generating lands, and ~1.647 R-generating lands. If we're keeping that adjustment strictly to basics, it should be ~6.7 Forests, ~1.58 Islands, and ~0.7 Mountains, but I like to run a little extra for the sake of not getting color drought, so, if we keep the non-basics as they are (which I would prefer), we should probably go 5 Forest, 2 Island, 2 Mountain. These changes have been made.

[Boros_Blendo]

Haha, this looks silly and stupidly fun but super-aggressive. I use the Termagant Swarm now in my Sliver Queen token matters edh, and I use Screamer-Killer in another edh, but never really looked at Tyranids as a tribe deck. I assume that Hardened Scales counts toward the ravenous trigger, yes? I might have to put one of these babies together...I still have room for two more 60 card decks.

What I don't immediately see is answers to tax effects, or other soft hosers, or artifact/enchantment heavy decks that can tie you down. I do like that your Tyranids can recover very fast, though, from sweepers of your opponents. Have you considered something non-block like Raise the Palisade to break open the lanes in your favor? I'm the first to keep things in block, and this looks like a blast, but I can see how it could get bogged down playing some stuff in my group. My elf deck culled from two (yes, I bought two of the danged things) Galadriel, Elven-Queen edh decks uses the Raise the Palisade to deadly effect.

[Boros_Blendo]

What I don't immediately see is answers to tax effects, or other soft hosers, or artifact/enchantment heavy decks that can tie you down.

Okay, admittedly, bad party foul for quoting myself, but I wonder if this acts a lot like a x-hydra deck that will struggle to generate value against more-aggressively, but static costed creature decks with uber keywords. Have you tested it against other decks yet?

[Diz]

Haha, this looks silly and stupidly fun but super-aggressive. I use the Termagant Swarm now in my Sliver Queen token matters edh, and I use Screamer-Killer in another edh, but never really looked at Tyranids as a tribe deck. I assume that Hardened Scales counts toward the ravenous trigger, yes? I might have to put one of these babies together...I still have room for two more 60 card decks.

What I don't immediately see is answers to tax effects, or other soft hosers, or artifact/enchantment heavy decks that can tie you down. I do like that your Tyranids can recover very fast, though, from sweepers of your opponents. Have you considered something non-block like Raise the Palisade to break open the lanes in your favor? I'm the first to keep things in block, and this looks like a blast, but I can see how it could get bogged down playing some stuff in my group. My elf deck culled from two (yes, I bought two of the danged things) Galadriel, Elven-Queen edh decks uses the Raise the Palisade to deadly effect.

I did not consider such, but now I am :p Yes, Hardened Scales applies to Ravenous. All that said, I do enjoy the idea of pitching Hormagaunt Hordes to One One Eye's reclaim ability. I basically only play Casual-60 against 1-4 people, and very rarely, so I'm not overly concerned with answers, given the relative power level of the people with whom I play it.

What I don't immediately see is answers to tax effects, or other soft hosers, or artifact/enchantment heavy decks that can tie you down.

Okay, admittedly, bad party foul for quoting myself, but I wonder if this acts a lot like a x-hydra deck that will struggle to generate value against more-aggressively, but static costed creature decks with uber keywords. Have you tested it against other decks yet?

Is there a such thing as a good party foul? :p I ordered the cards, yesterday, and have not yet received them for testing. I'll probably play it against my other decks to see how it fares before committing to any further adjustments. I did really want to run Venomthrope, but it didn't complement the other cards all that well, so, I refrained from adding the "goodstuff" card.

[Diz]

Finally got my stuff for the deck; I'll try it out, at some point, but I unfortunately haven't heard from my local Casual-60 friend in a couple of months.