Part 2 of the starter deck upgrade series. Timestamps are in the video description in case you want to skip to a specific part in the video. Wildcards needed to upgrade the deck (excluding sideboard): 1 Mythic, 12 Rare, 13 Uncommon, 4 Common This is assuming you already have 2x Llanowar Elves from the Forest's Might starter deck. 12 Rare wildcards might seem much, but 8 of those are lands.
What do you think about Vraska, Golgari Queen over Immortal sun? +1 (or 2 i forget off hand) lets us choose to sac a permanent (could be a token, or a llanowar elf once we have ramped, or a land) to draw and gain a life -3 destroy permanent convert cost 3 or less, helps us remove hassle cards. And if you manage to land the ult its gg, any damage thay gets through is game over Edit: im saying use this over Immortal sun, since sun would shut down vraska Edit edit: ah missed sideboard part, saw you briefly mentioned
You're upgrading NPE deck videos are THE BEST MTGA videos on youtube. Hoping there's more in the near future. Going to watch your draft videos right now and I'm sure there will be a lot that I will learn. Thanks for the videos, really wish you put them out faster but the editing is always great, flashing mentioned cards is fantastic.
LegendVD, you have the best deck videos on the net! Even if I cant build some of these yet, I learn a lot about other decks to counter play! Awesome work man!
This is an outstanding example of thought progression and an extremely useful tool for upgrading any deck. I ended up with the same deck almost, through similar channels of thought. I admit I wish I had seen this video beforehand so that my progress on the deck would have been faster. It's nice to know that I'm not being too obsessive and wanting the tribal Synergy here. Thank you very much for your thorough effort here.
Been looking forward to this one. I'm new to MTG and this is deck I enjoy the most out of the NPE decks. WIll see if I have the wildcards to upgrade it. Thanks dude.
Ah man love your videos. These tokens decks are some of my favourites, my older brother used to play elves waay back in 2005 or so when we first got into magic cards, always loved that speedy archetype since then.
I wanted to stop back by and say thanks for this video. IMO this is a very strong deck and is waaaay undervalued and under utilized. Given a decent draw its really hard to beat and is my go to grinding deck. I have several other "high tier" decks but this im pretty sure I have the highest win rate with this.
I love the saprolings and the fungus people but the deck i had just was so hit or miss, usually miss. I want to thank you so much for this setup. I had just the right amount of rare and uncommon WCs and so far, your deck is working like a charm.
This video popped up on my youtube for some reason, and I remember this being the fist deck tech after joined up on Arena. I still have this deck and it still wins me games in historic.
Hey, I just wanted to say it's great that you make these kind of videos. You could also talk about what're the most competetive decks (what's the meta), make a videos of upgraded mono decks (I liked the green one, and I would love to try the good version of mono green with ramp and big minions). Also, most decks are aggro / midrange- could you make a video of some good control decks? And lastly, you could add information how good is the deck compared to best decks, because nobody wants to craft weak/fun decks when they have low budget. :)
Absolutely loved this video! My favorite MTG Arena channel along with Merchant's. Would love to see you splash the sideboard with Vraska - The Unseen and some Ochran Assasins for the memes. Even if you don't have her emblem it nearly always let's your tokens just go to face for free. Also, some Eldest Reborns because Bolas is bae. Love the content man. Thanks for sharing! \m/ Gonna try this one in ladder soon.
Thx a lot for the great ideas! I´m playing a variant of your deck for some time now, with great success. I cut slimefoot, fungal infection, arguels, immortal sun and a couple of lands (only have 20) and added vraska queen 3x, wild onslaugt 2x and blinding fog 2x. There are a lot of surprises for the opponent - spore swarm in opponent´s end of turn, then playing dryad ->ascended, or freyalise chapter 3 with 5+ saps plus wild onslaught (maybe kicked), or blinding fog protecting your stuff. All are afraid of Vraskas ultimate plus one 1/1-token slipping through. Works wonders in best of 1, and I hardly need side-board in best of 3.
This deck is really nice, even now. I finished a constructed rank with it last night, and it was joyfull :D The deck list is the same as you and the side: - 4 duress against sweeper of course - 2 fungal infections, really strong angainst monoblue (early game) and to slow down golgari - 1 sentinel totem: hard time for eldest reborn, izzet drakes - 1 silent gravestone (same as sentinel totem) - 2 assassin's trophy - 2 crushing canopy - 1 Vraska, Golgari queen. It made my day since Saproling has always been one on my favorites decks when i played paper Magic like 20 years ago :D
I recently added a copy of Might of the Masses, and it's working wonders! Every attack you make with 4-5+ creatures on board makes the threat that much greater, plus it's versatile, you can save your own creatures from burn spells. Testing one copy at the moment but from what I've experienced I'll propably add 1-2 more.
would it be good to splash white for shanna and shalai? i'm having trouble against a bunch of control decks and mono red just killing the thallid slimefood and dryad btw legend, i absolutely love your videos and it's really helping me become a better player and the way you make them and comment makes them really good to watch
Shalai seems better than Shanna on the splash, but definitely worth trying out. The monored matchup isn't great, but winnable if you can dodge Chainwhirler.
This has been a great deck for me to grind with, I use the rare lands for my Golgari deck and play this when I just want to get in some faster games and finish quests which is much appreciated. A lot of fun too, lot of cool cards you can tech in for fun too since you can potentially ramp really hard and get some crazy top end in here.
Great content as always. Had fun with this deck pre-wipe and was happy it was one of the pre-con decks. The upgrades may take time to add in, but it still works well in the mean time. I wonder if Magic would allow us to use custom art/photos for tokens. Would be fun to see what people would come up with... though now that I think about, guessing that is what Magic would be afraid of...
At 33:00, why didn't you use the fungal infection on the chainwhirler and then block with a saproling? It generates more saprolings ultimately (because you don't lose any to the first strike) and the possible downside is less because you still only lose one saproling in the event of a removal spell.
Loving your upgrade series! I've been stomping with my upgrade merfolk deck! How about Eternal Thirst next? It's a pretty fun deck as it is, but I know it could be better!
I had a great time when playing Chaos and Mayhem deck. Without any modifications it won me many games. I'm wondering if you mind upgrading it even more.
out of curiosity. if reading this do you plan to make ravnica allegiance updates to the premade decks? your videos on starter deck changes is really good and reccomended them to my friends that got into arena and werent sure what to change or what synergize well together. with allegiance and later 3-4 months the next set it would be handy if these were updated to add/replace cards. if cant do full video then maybe a note on video to read desciption for updates on cards for new sets.
I love Saprolings, and I like how you progressively improve the deck as well. But, frankly, I don't think the payoff for splashing B is worth it. Slimefoot is decent but really not all that amazing. I think I'd rather go W and add a bit top end to make use of Elves and Song. Shalai seems like a no-brainer, protecting your SongIII against Settle.
New to Magic and appreciate these videos as I learn to build various themed decks. Enjoying the Saproling build I'm running on MTG Arena currently. However, despite my success I run into a roadblock with Merfolk themed decks. I'm competitive usually, and quite often have my opponent on the ropes only to suffer the dreaded Sleep and River's Rebuke. Would be interested in your answer to that problem. What tactics might you use to counter those cards with the deck build you use above? Would you consider putting Root Snare or Pause for Reflection in your deck to counter, or are there better ways to address Merfolk?
Thank you so much for your very helpful, descriptive and comprehensible videos on MTGA. One question regarding the upgraded Saprolin Swarm deck: How do you defend against flying creatures? I've often been beaten as I could not block one or even several flying oponent creatures, in combination with powerful blocking cards by my opponent shooting down my tendershoots and other token generators....it seems that vivious offering (of which we only have 2 cards) is actually the only card against flying creatures. Do you have an alternative deck suggestion that could better address flying creatures? Thank you very much in advance for your kind reply.
The main gameplan is always to get on the board quickly and swarm the opponent. The only Flying creature that stops us in our tracks is Lyra Dawnbringer, which we can answer with Vicious Offering. If you keep running into her you can try additional copies, Assassin's Trophy, Spark Harvest or Ob Nixilis Cruelty.
Hi, LegenVD! As a experienced MTG player, you make your decks probably just as for paper MTG or MTG Online, where best of three is only (or mostly) constructed format. But in Arena FTP economy, match pacing and some other things makes best of one probably the main format (sealed, quick drafts, main queue etc). So for playing in best of one, don't you think, decks need some alternative angles in main deck, not sideboard, to face different decks? You can't go anticontrol route or antired or anticreature with sideboard, you must win any deck with your 60 cards. Do you think your Merfolk and this configuration is already good for best of one? Or maybe it can be more diversified to have more answers against different strategies? P.S. Like in this video you bring 2 enchantments vs control mostly.
A lot of decks are synergy based, so it's difficult to maindeck cards aimed at a very specific matchup, otherwise it ends up being a dead card in every other one. Blood Fast and Fungal Plots are versatile enough, where I don't mind maindecking them. Maindecking Negate in Merfolk seems bad to me.
It's my main problem with deckbuilding online. That's why before wipe i put deeproot waters and hadana's climb maindeck. It gives merfolk deck so many angles, where it can win. With 1/1 hexproof tokens swarm, with one kumena's speaker flying and so on. And recently i thought hard about Blink of Eye, cause it can find replacement in long game, open attack or save you from ghalta and so on... So it's ~4 cards vs consistency. Is it too bad for synergistic deck? In this deck i'm thinking about putting for example 2 Vraska's Contemps or now 1 Contemp and 1 Assasin's Trophy. It's, no question, slows main engine of this deck, but at least give deck some way outs against various threats. Cast Out of Ixalan's Binding in RW dino's is sure hurt the deck, but again can save your game in a lot of situations, when you are not killing your opponent at 4 turn. Also, in my lgs, most peoples play creature-type decks, so i like having 2 enchantments main deck as well.
This deck is very fun to play. I struggle against enchantment-heavy decks, but against most opponents if I can get Tendershoot Dryad to resolve and stay on the battlefield, especially with Song of Freyalise active, I win. I actually had an opponent with a good removal spell actually remove one of the TD's tokens. What a blunder... Power isn't everything. Edit: I've also won a few games by sacrificing saps to fungal plots with Slimefoot on the field. I almost feel bad when I do that
Very good video. I am building this deck and is currently shy of two Tendershoot Dryads and 3 Overgrown Tomb. With 23 lands I often draw two lands. Should I Mulligan on two lands?
18:21 so you’re saying this deck should only run two removal spells in the entire deck?? (fungal infection doesn’t really count because its use is so narrow) What if your opponent has a flier like izzet drakes or boros angels?
I mean you could go jund(r/g/b) or abzan (w/b/g) but you'd have to focus more on sac'in more non-saproling creatures . The starter decks could probably support jund right out of the box but you don't have many pay offs and the mana is bad.
He removes the Poison Tip Archers, which have both Reach and Deathtouch. He recommends Crushing Canopy later on. I find a Kicked Viscious Offering is usually enough to take out annoying fliers.
Yes precisely, most of the 1-ofs in the final build are cards you would never want to draw in multiples because they have seriously diminishing returns past the first copy you draw.
Heya Legend, would like your opinion on something. After partialy upgrading the deck, at around the point the additional Spore Swarms were added, I ran into a Blue deck that was all low cost flyers and unblockcables. I had some trouble with it. What would you say is the best course of action in this type of matchup?
The monoblue matchup can be tricky for sure. Best cards in that matchup are Song of Freyalise and Tendershoot Dryad, ways to kill them quickly. Cheap removal can also be important, but between Dive Down and Siren Stormtamer it sometimes works out better if you just try to race them. The monoblue deck has a lot of discrepancy between its draws as they only have 4x of some key cards like Tempest Djinn, Curious Obsession and Wizard's Retort.
I`m a new player and got 6 rare wildcards but im hesitant to craft tendershoot because its a rivals of ixalan card which runs out in about 3 month afaik ?
what about a GW version instead of bw? edit; not sure this would work as well as i thought. I was thinking of using anointed procession, but I see that set is rotated out.
Would Assassin's Trophy (x2) and Vraska, Golgari Queen (x2) be a good fit for this deck? What would you cut to put them in? I kind of invested in Golgari a bit too early and am just not happy with the explore builds going around...
Hey Legend, I noticed that it said you had 4 copies of the mythic edition Vraska Golgari Queen. How did you manage to get that? I tried to redeem additional copies of the mythic edition Ral Zarek but it told me that it couldn't be acquired through wild cards. Love the content btw!
ive modified this deck to be pretty damn good ;) 3 slimefeet, 4 poison tip archers, 4 vindictive vampires, and then whispers and the other 2 cost (sacrifice 2 creatures, opponent sacrifices, add black draw card gain life) :) and then saproling makers, fungus creatures
I feel like the Saplings Build should have been a Dual Color theme (Black/Green) in Reference to Black Mold and how cheap and powerful it is.. The saplings are better than the Nightpack Ambushers..
I've been running a slight downgrade of this deck for the last couple of days. I'm new to arena and didn't have enough wildcard for the full deck so I didn't add any of the dual color lands and really haven't needed it so far think there was only once that I didn't have both colors when I needed them.
Too many synergies in the BG deck are dependent on 1) going wide, 2) fungi/saprolings, and/or 3) having at least one black mana up by turn 3. Steel Leaf Champion doesn't fit with any of those synergies, but it does work wonders in a stompy monogreen deck.
![1 Orc vs 7 Computers [4K]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/7BWNchvzG1Y/mqdefault.jpg)
Part 2 of the starter deck upgrade series. Timestamps are in the video description in case you want to skip to a specific part in the video.
Wildcards needed to upgrade the deck (excluding sideboard): 1 Mythic, 12 Rare, 13 Uncommon, 4 Common
This is assuming you already have 2x Llanowar Elves from the Forest's Might starter deck.
12 Rare wildcards might seem much, but 8 of those are lands.
this is a great series, i enjoy it so much. Good Job!
Best series, thnx for making this.
Well done sir. Can't wait for the Graveyard Bash!
love these videos man. such a great help for a f2p newbie like me :)
What do you think about Vraska, Golgari Queen over Immortal sun?
+1 (or 2 i forget off hand) lets us choose to sac a permanent (could be a token, or a llanowar elf once we have ramped, or a land) to draw and gain a life
-3 destroy permanent convert cost 3 or less, helps us remove hassle cards.
And if you manage to land the ult its gg, any damage thay gets through is game over
Edit: im saying use this over Immortal sun, since sun would shut down vraska
Edit edit: ah missed sideboard part, saw you briefly mentioned
You're upgrading NPE deck videos are THE BEST MTGA videos on youtube. Hoping there's more in the near future. Going to watch your draft videos right now and I'm sure there will be a lot that I will learn. Thanks for the videos, really wish you put them out faster but the editing is always great, flashing mentioned cards is fantastic.
LegendVD, you have the best deck videos on the net! Even if I cant build some of these yet, I learn a lot about other decks to counter play! Awesome work man!
This is an outstanding example of thought progression and an extremely useful tool for upgrading any deck. I ended up with the same deck almost, through similar channels of thought. I admit I wish I had seen this video beforehand so that my progress on the deck would have been faster. It's nice to know that I'm not being too obsessive and wanting the tribal Synergy here. Thank you very much for your thorough effort here.
Been looking forward to this one. I'm new to MTG and this is deck I enjoy the most out of the NPE decks. WIll see if I have the wildcards to upgrade it. Thanks dude.
I started working on an upgraded Saproling Deck too but your version is much more efficient, well done ! Thanks a lot for the help
Glad I could help!
Ah man love your videos. These tokens decks are some of my favourites, my older brother used to play elves waay back in 2005 or so when we first got into magic cards, always loved that speedy archetype since then.
Awesome, thanks for sharing!
I wanted to stop back by and say thanks for this video. IMO this is a very strong deck and is waaaay undervalued and under utilized. Given a decent draw its really hard to beat and is my go to grinding deck. I have several other "high tier" decks but this im pretty sure I have the highest win rate with this.
I love the saprolings and the fungus people but the deck i had just was so hit or miss, usually miss. I want to thank you so much for this setup. I had just the right amount of rare and uncommon WCs and so far, your deck is working like a charm.
This is great content, especially for newer players (like me). You are describing your thought process very well. This helps a lot. Thanks :)
I would LOVE to see your take on the U/W artifacts deck.
This video popped up on my youtube for some reason, and I remember this being the fist deck tech after joined up on Arena. I still have this deck and it still wins me games in historic.
Hey, I just wanted to say it's great that you make these kind of videos. You could also talk about what're the most competetive decks (what's the meta), make a videos of upgraded mono decks (I liked the green one, and I would love to try the good version of mono green with ramp and big minions). Also, most decks are aggro / midrange- could you make a video of some good control decks? And lastly, you could add information how good is the deck compared to best decks, because nobody wants to craft weak/fun decks when they have low budget. :)
The upgraded mono green deck is the RG deck with Dinos :)
Absolutely loved this video! My favorite MTG Arena channel along with Merchant's. Would love to see you splash the sideboard with Vraska - The Unseen and some Ochran Assasins for the memes. Even if you don't have her emblem it nearly always let's your tokens just go to face for free. Also, some Eldest Reborns because Bolas is bae. Love the content man. Thanks for sharing! \m/ Gonna try this one in ladder soon.
Enjoying the series and would like to see Eternal Thirst next!
Thx a lot for the great ideas! I´m playing a variant of your deck for some time now, with great success. I cut slimefoot, fungal infection, arguels, immortal sun and a couple of lands (only have 20) and added vraska queen 3x, wild onslaugt 2x and blinding fog 2x. There are a lot of surprises for the opponent - spore swarm in opponent´s end of turn, then playing dryad ->ascended, or freyalise chapter 3 with 5+ saps plus wild onslaught (maybe kicked), or blinding fog protecting your stuff. All are afraid of Vraskas ultimate plus one 1/1-token slipping through. Works wonders in best of 1, and I hardly need side-board in best of 3.
This deck is really nice, even now. I finished a constructed rank with it last night, and it was joyfull :D
The deck list is the same as you and the side:
- 4 duress against sweeper of course
- 2 fungal infections, really strong angainst monoblue (early game) and to slow down golgari
- 1 sentinel totem: hard time for eldest reborn, izzet drakes
- 1 silent gravestone (same as sentinel totem)
- 2 assassin's trophy
- 2 crushing canopy
- 1 Vraska, Golgari queen.
It made my day since Saproling has always been one on my favorites decks when i played paper Magic like 20 years ago :D
I just finished making this deck it's really fun! Thanks! I love these videos. You explaining everything is really helpful.
Thank you for this video! This is my favorite pre-con deck, and I think you did well improving it.
OMG THIS IS INSANE! 25:29 i thought we lose this but insane comeback
I recently added a copy of Might of the Masses, and it's working wonders! Every attack you make with 4-5+ creatures on board makes the threat that much greater, plus it's versatile, you can save your own creatures from burn spells. Testing one copy at the moment but from what I've experienced I'll propably add 1-2 more.
Awesome series. Thank you for these!
This is an amazing series. I'm very glad I've discovered your channel (through your collaboration with FilthyRobot, if you're curious).
Awesome, glad to hear :)
Very nice upgrade guide like the others. I would also like to see the upgrade of the other route of the deck: a sacrifice deck.
Loving this concept. Learning about deck building in general, even if not about to make this exact archetype.
Damn, i googled this just a few hours ago. Thanks Legend, I loved the Merfolk one, heve been playing with it since the I watched the video
Amazing vid, really hoping I can put it to use soon, would love to see a upgrade aimed to the black side of SS!
Working like a charm.
Happy to watch three games versus mono green, red burn and control deck. I played saproling deck quite a long time when I didn't have much card.
would it be good to splash white for shanna and shalai? i'm having trouble against a bunch of control decks and mono red just killing the thallid slimefood and dryad
btw legend, i absolutely love your videos and it's really helping me become a better player and the way you make them and comment makes them really good to watch
Shalai seems better than Shanna on the splash, but definitely worth trying out.
The monored matchup isn't great, but winnable if you can dodge Chainwhirler.
Thanks for the video, Legend. I would love to see you tackle the white, blue, and artifact deck next.
This has been a great deck for me to grind with, I use the rare lands for my Golgari deck and play this when I just want to get in some faster games and finish quests which is much appreciated. A lot of fun too, lot of cool cards you can tech in for fun too since you can potentially ramp really hard and get some crazy top end in here.
Excellent series! would appreciate a video for each starter or the ones you think have potential!!
Great content as always. Had fun with this deck pre-wipe and was happy it was one of the pre-con decks. The upgrades may take time to add in, but it still works well in the mean time.
I wonder if Magic would allow us to use custom art/photos for tokens. Would be fun to see what people would come up with... though now that I think about, guessing that is what Magic would be afraid of...
Great Video, Do walk the plank next! :)
Thx, i love this deck!
Such an underrated channel
At 33:00, why didn't you use the fungal infection on the chainwhirler and then block with a saproling? It generates more saprolings ultimately (because you don't lose any to the first strike) and the possible downside is less because you still only lose one saproling in the event of a removal spell.
well with first strike dmg, and a shock still can lose one sap. Safer to hold infection until you need it or opponent tapped out/no cards in hand
I was thinking the same thing. I think it would have been a better play.
Got this deck today and was looking for improvement... and you turned it into a monster hahaha
i love this deck, thank you for the tips
Loving your upgrade series! I've been stomping with my upgrade merfolk deck! How about Eternal Thirst next? It's a pretty fun deck as it is, but I know it could be better!
What a big swing after the 3rd chapter of Song of Freyalisse at 39:10. Holy cow...he had a God draw and still lost.
39:10? What?
Great video, thanks buddy.
I had a great time when playing Chaos and Mayhem deck. Without any modifications it won me many games. I'm wondering if you mind upgrading it even more.
I've been playing with just 3 Tendershoot Dryads, and been very happy with it.
You will be even happier with a fourth :)
How about the Primal Fury deck upgrade soon? Appreciate your work on these.
out of curiosity. if reading this do you plan to make ravnica allegiance updates to the premade decks? your videos on starter deck changes is really good and reccomended them to my friends that got into arena and werent sure what to change or what synergize well together. with allegiance and later 3-4 months the next set it would be handy if these were updated to add/replace cards. if cant do full video then maybe a note on video to read desciption for updates on cards for new sets.
Yes will do something like this soon.
Tnx a lot for the deck, I'm finaly start wining with it
Hi, I'm really enjoying these upgrade videos, could you do one about the black/white vampires?
I would love to see you fixing the auras of majesty deck. I feel like that one suck so hard and I'm curious to see what you can do to make it viable.
Would be nice to see an update with newer cards.
I love Saprolings, and I like how you progressively improve the deck as well.
But, frankly, I don't think the payoff for splashing B is worth it. Slimefoot is decent but really not all that amazing. I think I'd rather go W and add a bit top end to make use of Elves and Song. Shalai seems like a no-brainer, protecting your SongIII against Settle.
The splash becomes more important as you add the sideboard.
This deck is so fun
If you use Helm of the Holder you can equip it on a tendershoot dryad for even more ludicrously powerful saprolings.
i would like to see the upgrading bulid focusing on the sscrfices with poison tip Archer and togaar
New to Magic and appreciate these videos as I learn to build various themed decks. Enjoying the Saproling build I'm running on MTG Arena currently. However, despite my success I run into a roadblock with Merfolk themed decks. I'm competitive usually, and quite often have my opponent on the ropes only to suffer the dreaded Sleep and River's Rebuke. Would be interested in your answer to that problem. What tactics might you use to counter those cards with the deck build you use above? Would you consider putting Root Snare or Pause for Reflection in your deck to counter, or are there better ways to address Merfolk?
Great video, thank you! Can you show an upgrade to Chaos and Mayhem next?
Could you think of Merfolk upgrade? I have done some of the work, but would like to see your version.
Check his channel that was the first upgrade video he did
Hey man! Your videos are great! Can you please make another vídeo for this deck where you focus on the sacrifice part please!
Thank you so much for your very helpful, descriptive and comprehensible videos on MTGA. One question regarding the upgraded Saprolin Swarm deck: How do you defend against flying creatures? I've often been beaten as I could not block one or even several flying oponent creatures, in combination with powerful blocking cards by my opponent shooting down my tendershoots and other token generators....it seems that vivious offering (of which we only have 2 cards) is actually the only card against flying creatures. Do you have an alternative deck suggestion that could better address flying creatures? Thank you very much in advance for your kind reply.
The main gameplan is always to get on the board quickly and swarm the opponent. The only Flying creature that stops us in our tracks is Lyra Dawnbringer, which we can answer with Vicious Offering. If you keep running into her you can try additional copies, Assassin's Trophy, Spark Harvest or Ob Nixilis Cruelty.
@@LegenVD Thank you so much for your very helpful answer. Please keep up your excellency :)
These videos are awesome. I can't wait until you do the Eternal Thirst Deck since that is my fav of the starters.
Great video! Walk the plank next please!!
Just built the budget version of it. It is great! really recomment the legendary artifact though!
much fun, much insta wins!
Hi, LegenVD!
As a experienced MTG player, you make your decks probably just as for paper MTG or MTG Online, where best of three is only (or mostly) constructed format.
But in Arena FTP economy, match pacing and some other things makes best of one probably the main format (sealed, quick drafts, main queue etc).
So for playing in best of one, don't you think, decks need some alternative angles in main deck, not sideboard, to face different decks? You can't go anticontrol route or antired or anticreature with sideboard, you must win any deck with your 60 cards.
Do you think your Merfolk and this configuration is already good for best of one? Or maybe it can be more diversified to have more answers against different strategies?
P.S. Like in this video you bring 2 enchantments vs control mostly.
A lot of decks are synergy based, so it's difficult to maindeck cards aimed at a very specific matchup, otherwise it ends up being a dead card in every other one.
Blood Fast and Fungal Plots are versatile enough, where I don't mind maindecking them. Maindecking Negate in Merfolk seems bad to me.
It's my main problem with deckbuilding online. That's why before wipe i put deeproot waters and hadana's climb maindeck. It gives merfolk deck so many angles, where it can win. With 1/1 hexproof tokens swarm, with one kumena's speaker flying and so on. And recently i thought hard about Blink of Eye, cause it can find replacement in long game, open attack or save you from ghalta and so on... So it's ~4 cards vs consistency. Is it too bad for synergistic deck?
In this deck i'm thinking about putting for example 2 Vraska's Contemps or now 1 Contemp and 1 Assasin's Trophy. It's, no question, slows main engine of this deck, but at least give deck some way outs against various threats.
Cast Out of Ixalan's Binding in RW dino's is sure hurt the deck, but again can save your game in a lot of situations, when you are not killing your opponent at 4 turn.
Also, in my lgs, most peoples play creature-type decks, so i like having 2 enchantments main deck as well.
This deck is very fun to play. I struggle against enchantment-heavy decks, but against most opponents if I can get Tendershoot Dryad to resolve and stay on the battlefield, especially with Song of Freyalise active, I win. I actually had an opponent with a good removal spell actually remove one of the TD's tokens. What a blunder... Power isn't everything.
Edit: I've also won a few games by sacrificing saps to fungal plots with Slimefoot on the field. I almost feel bad when I do that
Glad to hear :)
would be nice if you include the sideboard into your export data
Very good video. I am building this deck and is currently shy of two Tendershoot Dryads and 3 Overgrown Tomb. With 23 lands I often draw two lands. Should I Mulligan on two lands?
BEST MAN ON THE PLANET
I think you should upgrade the Gruul dino deck. I feel like there are a lot of problems that could be fixed with that one.
Any further improvements that can be done to this deck using RNA cards?
You should upgrade the B/R starter deck
There you go
ua-cam.com/video/q_A5va7sR4k/v-deo.html
There you go:
ua-cam.com/video/q_A5va7sR4k/v-deo.html
I would love to see an upgrade to the zombie deck. Love this series.
nice upgrading videos.. still new on mtga and this helps a lot.. can u do the U/W artifacts deck with antiquities war maybe
Hi really loved the deck but just realise a few key cards just vanish from collection....any idea to replace then?
Your videos are amazing. Graveyard Bash deck would be nice
18:21 so you’re saying this deck should only run two removal spells in the entire deck?? (fungal infection doesn’t really count because its use is so narrow) What if your opponent has a flier like izzet drakes or boros angels?
You try to run them over with green dudes.
These are dope. Are any of the starter decks particularly upgradeable by adding a third color? that'd be a cool video.
I mean you could go jund(r/g/b) or abzan (w/b/g) but you'd have to focus more on sac'in more non-saproling creatures . The starter decks could probably support jund right out of the box but you don't have many pay offs and the mana is bad.
I actually turned this deck into g/b/w adding divine visitation so that all tokens come into play as 4/4 flyers. Also flower/flourish is strong
The fist game was insane through you were dead
Will you do the 5 mono color decks as well? Also you didn't change the m19 basic lands out :(
The basics looked nice :)
Hi , i love this deck. but how do you deal against flying creatures? have some troubles with that. great vids btw
He removes the Poison Tip Archers, which have both Reach and Deathtouch. He recommends Crushing Canopy later on. I find a Kicked Viscious Offering is usually enough to take out annoying fliers.
yopu would defenely want to have both@@Incoherencel
Question, would this work in Forest Might?
In the upgrade you add a number of single cards. Being new to MTG aren’t single cards not worthwhile as the chance to draw them is so low?
Yes precisely, most of the 1-ofs in the final build are cards you would never want to draw in multiples because they have seriously diminishing returns past the first copy you draw.
How competitive do you think this deck is? Constantly beat the mono red/blue in competitive constructed? Nice video
Heya Legend, would like your opinion on something.
After partialy upgrading the deck, at around the point the additional Spore Swarms were added, I ran into a Blue deck that was all low cost flyers and unblockcables.
I had some trouble with it.
What would you say is the best course of action in this type of matchup?
The monoblue matchup can be tricky for sure. Best cards in that matchup are Song of Freyalise and Tendershoot Dryad, ways to kill them quickly.
Cheap removal can also be important, but between Dive Down and Siren Stormtamer it sometimes works out better if you just try to race them.
The monoblue deck has a lot of discrepancy between its draws as they only have 4x of some key cards like Tempest Djinn, Curious Obsession and Wizard's Retort.
I`m a new player and got 6 rare wildcards but im hesitant to craft tendershoot because its a rivals of ixalan card which runs out in about 3 month afaik ?
Next Standard rotation is in a year, so you're good to go :)
whatsinstandard.com/
Good to know and thx for answering !
What would you say is the easiest way to get wildcards?
Buying packs I'd say, but in the long run its better to draft (not so much if you REALLY suck at it)
what about a GW version instead of bw?
edit; not sure this would work as well as i thought. I was thinking of using anointed procession, but I see that set is rotated out.
Would Assassin's Trophy (x2) and Vraska, Golgari Queen (x2) be a good fit for this deck? What would you cut to put them in? I kind of invested in Golgari a bit too early and am just not happy with the explore builds going around...
If you watch the video he discusses those two cards in the sideboarding section.
Hey Legend, I noticed that it said you had 4 copies of the mythic edition Vraska Golgari Queen. How did you manage to get that? I tried to redeem additional copies of the mythic edition Ral Zarek but it told me that it couldn't be acquired through wild cards. Love the content btw!
You could craft them in the first week of open beta, so I made sure to get them even though I prefer the other art :p
Good content. Grats
Great series i would like to see Eternal Thirst....
Agreed, would like to see Eternal Thirst as well.
I droped Vraska golgari queen in a pack, is it worth putting her in this deck ?
She can be okay, definitely worth experimenting with!
@@LegenVD wath about Vivien Reid, the card drawing would be great, or Vraska would be better? thanks for the videos man they are great
@@jorgetrevino4306 Vivien is a little awkward with a lot of creatures being Sorceries, but might still be fine.
Any reason why I can't find overgrown tomb?
Make sure to enable the "unowned" filter.
I Happened to unbox Vraska, can i play her in this deck ? :)
Nobody is stopping you :)
PLS CAN U UPGRADE RAKODOS STARTER DECK?I LOVE RAKADOS BAD NO IDEA FOR WHAT I NEEED
Nice videos, Do walk the plank
ive modified this deck to be pretty damn good ;) 3 slimefeet, 4 poison tip archers, 4 vindictive vampires, and then whispers and the other 2 cost (sacrifice 2 creatures, opponent sacrifices, add black draw card gain life) :) and then saproling makers, fungus creatures
super combos when i use whispers or the other one with vindictives and poison tips out with a slimefoot!!!
I feel like the Saplings Build should have been a Dual Color theme (Black/Green) in Reference to Black Mold and how cheap and powerful it is..
The saplings are better than the Nightpack Ambushers..
I've been running a slight downgrade of this deck for the last couple of days. I'm new to arena and didn't have enough wildcard for the full deck so I didn't add any of the dual color lands and really haven't needed it so far think there was only once that I didn't have both colors when I needed them.
What about adding steel leafs to this deck?
Too many synergies in the BG deck are dependent on 1) going wide, 2) fungi/saprolings, and/or 3) having at least one black mana up by turn 3. Steel Leaf Champion doesn't fit with any of those synergies, but it does work wonders in a stompy monogreen deck.