Thrasios / Bruse - 80 Lands and a Dream

Chromaticus
Posts: 308
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Post by Chromaticus » 1 year ago

I'm coming to realize, a little late in my magic career, that my sweet spot in deckbuilding is finding really amazing concepts, and then putting my spin on them, tailoring them to something that will compete at the right level for my playgroup.

I was completely enamored of Dirk's multiple forays into 99 land decks, and I wanted to give the concept a whirl. At the same time, I wanted to include as many of the Ixalan flip lands as I possibly could, since I love that design. After that, I decided that I wanted the deck to be a little more than a meme, and I included the best exploration effects, and the 4 cards that can reduce the cost of a creature's activated ability to get my flipping on with Thrasios, Triton Hero.

The result is that the utility land hits all feel good, and the non-lands that I draw all fuel the engine to overdrive.
Decklist




Utility Lands



Approximate Total Cost:


I played my first game with the deck last night –

Opponents were Lathril, Blade of the Elves, Miirym, Wyrm Sentinel[/card], and Carth, the Lion, (borrowed from me)

My initial hand was Thespian's Stage, Dowsing Dagger, Zirda, the Dawnwaker , Heartstone, Plateau, Tolaria West, and Prahv, Spires of Order. With this deck, getting even one non-land in the opener is irregular, so I snap kept, with the thought that I could copy one of my opponent's green producing lands to play Thrasios off schedule if the nightmare case of no fixing occurred.

The first couple turns, Lathril came into play off a turn 1 Sol Ring, the other 2 players ramped, and I made a deal with the Miirym player to let me hit her with Dowsing Dagger if I gave her the plants.

Turn 3 started getting scary with an Elvish Archdruid and a couple more elves out of the Lathril player, with the commander connecting on me and making 3 elves. Lathril passed on 4 mana, Carth played his commander. I drew into a fetch, and cracked it for Tropical Island, playing Dryad, of the Ilysian Grove and my additional land drop.

The next turn was even scarier out of Lathril, dropping nearly his entire hand, including Beastmaster Ascension. He played a Tyvar Kell among other cards, and brought Lathril up to 4 power, connecting again. Miirym played Thrakkus, the Butcher and passed. Carth got Ob Nixilis, of the Black Oath into play, as well as Gaea's Cradle.

On my turn, I cracked a fetch, suited up Dryad of the Ilysian Grove with Dowsing Dagger, and connected to Miirym, flipping to Lost Vale. I also played out Thrasios, Triton Hero, turned Thespian's Stage into Lost Vale and played Training Grounds that I drew.

On Lathril's turn he did not attack with enough creatures to trigger Beastmaster Ascension which I found questionable, but the table breathed a sigh of relief. Miirym played her commander. End of her turn, Carth tutored up Doubling Season and we were all suddenly terrified. Doubling Season came into play, and enough creatures enabled Gaea's Cradle to also get out Garruk Relentless who popped out double wolves, and Ob Nilixis, of the Black Oath to get a couple more demons.

On my turn, I played Heartstone, Elvish Reclaimer and went into the tank considering if I should transmute Tolaria West for Glacial Chasm. The Elvish Reclaimer was the main consideration, because I knew that I could surprise blank an attack to much greater effect than revealing it, and also that I would be a huge target after becoming semi-invulnerable in one direction. Ultimately, I decided to leave up my 6 mana for Thrasios activations, and hope that I wasn't the target for the Beastmaster Ascension horde of elves.

This turned out to be a great decision, as the Lathril player… waited until after the pizza break to make his decision. A LOT of politicking went on as we ate our Papa John's, and some not very subtle comments about super friends and Doubling Season meant that he sent everything except the commander at Carth, and the 9 power commander at me. After blocks were declared (I opted out of blocking) Carth blew up the +5/+5 anthem and munched a bunch of elves.

Miirym, Wyrm Sentinel followed up with Ancient Copper Dragon doubled up, and swinging her whole team at Carth, despite his demon blockers. This cost her both her dragons, and him a pair of demons. The best part of the game came next:

He went into a diatribe about how he really should be giving a gift to someone else, but the person who really deserved it was the person who just suicided into him with their creatures for no gain, just to hurt him. Ob Nixilis, Reignited and his NASTY emblem went down on Miirym.

To gain some political favor, and to hide my move under the nasty other thing that was happening, I activated Thrasios six times in response.

With Elvish Reclaimer in play to get whatever I wanted, and the ability to double my mana base every turn cycle with Thrasios, I passed the turn.

Lathril, Blade of the Elves activated her drain ability on her turn and passed, getting everyone low, and speeding up the clock on Miirym.

Miirym connected with both Ancient Copper Dragons, producing 28 treasures, and used 27! of them to recast her commander, Ancient Silver Dragon, Earthquake Dragon, and Scourge of the Throne (really glad she didn't cast this in the first main phase)

Carth played Garruk, Primal Hunter and Garruk, Cursed Huntsman ultimating and drawing 8 cards, finishing off Miirym with the Ob Nixilis, Reignited emblem. He produced several more token creatures, and passed the turn.

End of his turn, I ramped by 11, activated Elvish Reclaimer to get The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale and everyone died a little inside.

I paid for my creatures, and made a copy of The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale with Thespian's Stage… which unfortunately, no one caught, because that move radically impacted the game. The next turn Lathril sacrificed everything, not even activating Lathril, despite having Elvish Archdruid in play, because he felt like he was out of the game.

Before Carth untapped, I blew up Gaea's Cradle with Dust Bowl. He paid for enough creatures to be very threatening / lethal with a second Garruk, Cursed Huntsman ultimate, and swung at me. I searched up Glacial Chasm in response, and it was a new card to everyone at the table. Everyone was a good sport – Carth played Sorin, the Mirthless and popped Lathril for 13 damage to come back from 5 life to 18.

End of turn, I doubled my mana again, untapped, played Ondu Inversion and attacked with a Bruse Tarl, Boorish Hunter enabled 9/9 Lair of the Hydra for lethal on Carth. Lathril could do nothing after the wipe, and I swung again to end the game.



So! Turns out when you play 2 cost reducers with Thrasios, Triton Hero and you get 3 turns with your 80 land deck, it goes pretty well! 😊

Even with the goof with The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale , I still think I would have been in a commanding position to win, since I had flipped over several maze effects, and I could have gone for one more big double.

I do think I'll face a little more interaction going forwards to the enablers, so it will be interesting to see where this deck lands on the power level for my playgroup.

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