A different sort of echo.

[Purple_jester]

This is a little deck idea I thought up while playing with my red and black decks, one of which used Ghitu Slinger and the second used Bone Shredder. I thought of building a theme deck with mostly echoing creatures, but instead of paying the echo, I would let them die. Now, we all know that an echo comes back to you, so I built it so that my creatures would keep coming back again and agian, wreaking havok with their special abilities. (I don't know if this deck type has already come out in any of the magazines, like Inquest Gamer, so bear with me, okay?)

First off, here's the deck:

Lands:
4 Badland
2 Reflecting Pool
6 Swamp
7 Mountain
1 Undiscovered Paradise
1 Stripmine
1 Wasteland

Creatures:
4 Ghitu Slinger
4 Bone Shredder
4 Keldon Champion
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Hypnotic Specter

Spells:
4 Haunted Crossroads
2 Grave Pact
4 Dark Ritual
3 Lightning Bolt
3 Incinerate
2 Pillage
1 Demonic Tutor

The idea is relatively simple. The creatures have good comes-into-play or sacrificial abilities. They are meant to be expendable, since you have Haunted Crossroads to bring them back. You can use them as blockers with no concern for their safety, or just don't pay the echo or sacrifice them to allow them to go to the graveyard. Once you have a good set of creatures in the graveyard, you can just cycle them perpetually, casting them again and again.

Grave Pact will make your dying creatures doubly useful. Each time you sacrifice a Mogg Fanatic, each time you chump block a Blastoderm with a Bone Shredder, your opponent sacrifices a creature till none are left. That's card advantage.

Oh, yeah. The Hypnotic Specters are just there for their power. A first turn Specter is deadly, and what could be more irritating than a Specter that won't stay dead? At the very least, they'll instantly draw your opponent's creature kill spells.

Well, that's it. My problem is that there are so many other candidates for this type of deck, since it's so versatile. I can already think of a few off the top of my head: Phyrexian Defiler/Debaser/Plaguelord, Avalanche Riders, Goblin Marshall, Keldon Vandals, Shivan Raptor, Ticking Gnomes, High MArket, Black Market...

The list goes on. Do any of you have any comments?

 

[Hetemti]

I had a friend who used the same strategy. Lots of echos (and some Highway Robbers) that he could sac to the Plaguelord and then bring back with Phyrexian Reclamation and Undertaker.

That deck is the reason I first made a R/W deck.

 

[Cateran Overlord]

I have comments, but it's too late to think. I'll just post them tomorrow if I remember

 

[Duel]

I use that strategy too. It's really useful;. I have a gravepact deck that runs any creature deck off the walls, and the highway robbers make for good drain.

Here's a card for you, and it's quote. Use it!

"I will trade life for life with the insurgents. My rescources, unlike theirs, are unlimited."

Sound like your deck?
And the card is: ATTRITION.
Use that card!

 

[DÛke]

...I had a deck like that once. It was fun, but slow.

One thing that could be really fun to add is Umbilicus. You play a CIP creature, it does it's thing, and, at the begging of your turn, boom, it goes back to your hand, waiting to be played again.

Life Line could even be better than Umbilicus (bue Umbilicus has the advantage of annoying your opponent). Don't pay the Echo cost of any of your creatures, there, now you get multiple Slingers and Shredders, and you shouldn't worry about your opponent's creatures, because, if you play it right, he wouldn't have them back due to the Life Line.

Ancient Hydra from Nemesis seem to share the qualities you are looking for. Sure not Eacho, but Fading. Play it, use it, attack with it, deal damgae, and then get it back with Haunted Crossroads, or even better, return it back to your hand with Umbilicus, or, the most evil one, use Life Line with it...That's got to hurt.

Ticking Gnomes come to mind too, but that's situational. They are only good against Protection creatures.

There

 

[FoundationOfRancor]

You might want to try

Flicker
Parralax Wave


I suggest splashing white for some enchantment protection spells...(and also the stuff i've listed)

 

[FoundationOfRancor]

IDEA! With all that reset stuff and bring-back, blastoderm (and all good fading spells) would be good!

 

[DÛke]

...add Flicker. If you get Life Line and/or Umbilicus, you don't need Flicker. Flicker would be nice though, I've played it, it's fun. Parallax Wave isn't great in the deck, especially after seeing the doulbe W in the cost.

Stick with your original idea

 

[Purple_jester]

Well, when I restarted playing Magic, I already made a Green/Black Fading/Crossroads deck, filled with Blastoderms, Woodrippers and Skyshroud Ridgebacks. This was before they made... what's it called... Snuff-Derm? I've been wondering why this tactic hasn't been used in tournaments till recently.

I could post my deck if you'd like.

Regarding my deck, I know it's a little slow, but can be really nasty once it gets going. Endless combo and comes-into-play damage is fun to watch.

I'll see how I can incorporate your ideas, and I'll post the revised version soon. Any more ideas goin out there?