Erratic Spikes (revisited)

[Killer Joe]

I've been reconstructing my "Erratic Spikes" multi-player deck around and came up with this:
3x Erratic Portal
2x Icy Manipulator
2x Masticore
1x Jayemdae Tome
3x Equilibrium
2x Stern Proctor (CIP return an Art/Ench)
3x Man-O-War (CIP return creature)
2x ????? from MM (CIP return a land)
2x Gilded Drake (CIP you're mine)
4x Wall of Blossoms
3x Spike Feeder
2x Spike Weaver
1x Abundance
1x Sylvan Library
3x Gaea's Blessing
3x Wrath of God
2x Disenchant (I'm goona replace 'em with Seal of Cleansing)
1x Phelddagrif (it's a CASUAL deck, okay?)
3x Tropical Island
1x Tundra
1x Savannah
5x Island
5x Forest
1x Grassland
1x Flood Plains
4x Plains

I pull this out of the box and everyone knows to make sure that I don't live long (I love it). It's not because I'm a big threat as much as I'm an annoyance (again, I love it). I've stolen Avitar of Woes (it had summoning sickness), Mother of Runes, Shadow creatures etc... The Phelddagrif is an extreme after-thoughht because I traded for it and wanted to use it somewhere to justify the trade. The white makes the deck a little unfocused and redundent (because I could just return any type of permanant to their owners' hand). I thought about using Evacuation as my blue Wrath and adding more blue CIP cards (Comes Into Play). Also, someone always plays Armageddon and though I try to keep land in my hand it never fails that the moment I play the last land in my hand BOOM! there goes the 'geddon. Maybe I should use some artifact mana body parts or rocks.
Any suggestions/comments?

 

[Mikeymike]

What breaks this deck is Aluren from tempest.
2GG, Ench., All creatures with a casting cost of 3 or less cost zero to cast and can be played as instants.

With that and Equilibrium, you can do very very ugly things. Other critters that work wonders: Cloud of Fairies (infinite loops), Wizard mentor, Ghitu Slinger, Shrieking Mogg (Egads, there is a use for this card!) and Raven Familiar.

I had a similar deck made, but I too dismantled it b/c no one liked to play against it.

 

[Apollo]

I would add Survival of the Fittest to go get whatever CIP guy you need in a given situation. Alluren is good, too, as Mikeymike said. By the way, does playing Gilded Drake, putting the effect on the stack, and then using Erratic Portal in response to return the Drake work? It seems like it should (you probably do this all the time).

And I love Pheldagrif. You should play with four. Everybody should play with four. The hippo rules.

Apollo

 

[Y The Alien]

Tag Guard

The exchance effect requires that there be two permanents to exchange. However, you could simply wait until the permanents switch, then bounce the Drake.

 

[Apollo]

Yeah, but then they could pay the one mana to stop the Portal.

On the rules board, Turtle said that if Chimeric Idol is Disenchanted, all of your lands still get tapped because it tries to carry out all of the effect that it could. What is different about this situation? Wouldn't it try to carry out all of the Drake's effect, and let you take the creature even though the Drake isn't there?

The ignorant one,

Apollo

 

[Y The Alien]

Tag Guard

They require both to be there on resolution as well as announcement.

 

[Istanbul]

Mikeymike - There's another use for Shrieking Mogg. Use Moggcatcher (yes, there's a use for that card, too!) to bring it out at the end of your opponent's turn. Now all of his creatures are tapped, and yours won't be (because you get an untap phase). Swarm!

 

[Mikeymike]

I like it, the timing is nice. Toss in some Goblin Marshalls, Fanatics, Arms Dealer and a Coat or 2 and thats a nice multiplayer goblin deck. I actually don't own any Moggcatchers but my friend has 2 he doesn't want. Hmmm....

 

[Killer Joe]

I blew the dust off of this deck, too. I put it together last night and I tried to keep it in it's original form, well, I TRIED too, at least.

4 Erratic Portal
4 Spike Weavers
4 Spike Feeders
4 Counterspell
4 Mana Leak
4 Man-o'-War
4 Naturalize
4 Wall of Blossoms
4 ???? I can't remember ????

4 Tendo Ice Bridge (supposed to be Tropical Islands - I'll put them back in when I play it)
10 Island (Portal II)
10 Forest (Invasion)

Now THIS, is my only true creation of my own. Really.

 

[Budget Player Cadet]

Why is tendo ice bridge rare? The Vivid cards from lorwyn are better, and they aren't rare!

 

[BigBlue]

I love Erratic Portal, it's one of my all time favorite cards...

Everyone in my playgroup HATED it... which made me love it even more.

I never got into spikes...

The other card they hate is Wash Out... in MP, returning 2-3 players cards to hand just pisses them off... Especially since you probably have something to go with that effect...

I love Man-O-War, and I also like the blue creature who bounces a land when he comes into play...

4x Man o'war (187 creature bounce - also useful for your footpads)
4x Rishadan Pirate (187 kill - note this affects all opponents)
4x Rishadan Footpad (187 kill - note this affects all opponents)
4x Glowing Anemone (187 Land bounce)
4x Tradewind Rider (bouncy goodness)

4x Erratic Portal (useful for you too w/ pirates)
2x Capsize (buyback bounce)
2x Wash out (really you don't need it that often... it's a sort of reset)
4x Withdraw (Money, especially for your own bouncers etc)
4x Seal of Removal
2x Rhystic Study
4x Counterspell

This is for MP... not a lot of counters, because you can bounce, if you would prefer more - Mana Leak and Miscalculation (for cycling even) are good. It's just for fun...

Also - I don't know cards from the last 3-4 blocks, so if there's some blue goodness I'm lacking, let me know. (I don't own any of the flying pirate which makes them pay 3 or sac... he'd be even cooler).

 

[turgy22]

Why is tendo ice bridge rare? The Vivid cards from lorwyn are better, and they aren't rare!

In competitive play, the first turn is crucial. Any land that comes into play tapped automatically puts its controller at a disadvantage. This is why the Ravnica "shock" dual lands are worth so much more than the Invasion "comes-into-play-tapped" duel lands.

 

[Budget Player Cadet]

I know that, but still, the Ice bridge shouldn't be rare.

 

[turgy22]

Oh yeah, I agree. But that's probably more dependent on R&D having certain "slots" to fill at each rarity. Instead of camparing it to the Vivid lands, you should compare it to Gods' Eye, Gate to Reikai - the only other land in BoK. Whoever slotted the cards probably had these two designs to work with and had to pick one each to fill an uncommon and rare slot. Which would you have chosen?