Help me build a deck...

[Oversoul]

Uh, scroll to the bottom if you want to see the deck in progress. I didn't expect this post to turn out so long...

For a while now, I've been wanting to build a new deck. I took apart all of my old ones for basically no reason at all and didn't have anything to do with my cards after that. There was the ultimate drafting challenge, which is still not finished, but the rest of my cards have been partially reorganized and I still don't have much in the way of decks--primarily because I also don't have anything in the way of opponents right now. I did an experimental Tendrils deck and did rebuild my old burn deck to test it against, but that's it.

My cards aren't fully organized yet, but I know some of the stuff I'd like to use now is probably missing. And there is some stuff I never had. My collection is kind of small and very deficient in certain aspects. The decks I could rebuild are things like Necro-Donate, Dream Halls, Academy, and High Tide. These weren't the only decks I had. I used to carry a dozen different decks around and only one or two of them would be things like that. But the cards for those decks tended to be the ones I hung on to.

So now I can build other decks--just with a rather limited cardpool (not sure quite how limited yet). I'd like to start with one of my favorite short-lived decks. When I first saw Iridescent Drake, I was a fan. Particularly, I noticed immediately the interaction it would have with False Demise. I tried several different decks that included this, some exploiting the interaction moreso than others. In 2001 I found out about the erratum (none of my opponents knew about it at the time) and took apart my latest creation, a weird deck that was half Infernal Genesis and half Iridescent Drake. I haven't played the Drake since. But ever since the revision, I've been wanting to. There are a ton of ways to break Iridescent Drake, now that it has False Demise again. But many of them are not available to me. For example, I know I don't have Altar of Dementia. Ashnod's Altar gives me infinite mana if I want to go that route, but I'm not sure yet. So right now, the deck is just...

4x Iridescent Drake
4x False Demise

Any ideas?

 

[Spiderman]

It seems you need lots of Auras to make it work. The best ones seem to be:

Curiosity (or Ophidian's Eye)
Hermetic Study (or Psionic Gift)
Pemmin's Aura
Unstable Mutation
Zephid's Embrace (to make the Drake bigger, unless you're gonna have beefier creatures in the deck)

 

[Ransac]

You should combo the Drake with Island. That always works well for me!


....or EVEN Dwarven Pony!!!!!!!!!!! The victories will start piling up!!!


Ransac, cpa trash man

 

[Spiderman]

Definitely will need Phantasmal Terrain then Although it's a land Aura, not a creature Aura...

 

[Oversoul]

It seems you need lots of Auras to make it work. The best ones seem to be:

Curiosity (or Ophidian's Eye)
Hermetic Study (or Psionic Gift)
Pemmin's Aura
Unstable Mutation
Zephid's Embrace (to make the Drake bigger, unless you're gonna have beefier creatures in the deck)

Hm...

I traded away all my Curiosities (which is too bad, because they're awesome). I don't have Pemmin's Aura, but I should still have playsets of Unstable Mutation and Hermetic Study. And I saw at least one Zephid's Embrace while looking through my blue uncommons for the Drakes...

Unstable Mutation and Zephid's Embrace both look useful for pumping up the Drakes or other small creatures, but I'm not sure how I'd use Hermetic Study. If I do use a lot of creature enchantments, I know I do have a Rootwater Matriarch, which might be fun...

 

[Spiderman]

I guess I was thinking of using the Study as some way of damaging your opponent or creatures if there's a stalemate going on and the Drake can't attack...

 

[Venton]

Auramancer's Guise?

 

[Oversoul]

Spidey: Hermetic Study would be invaluable in that particular case, but I'm not sure that I want to be using the Drake as an attacking finisher. It's only a 2/2. Prodigal Sorcerer would seem just as good if all I'm doing is pinging the player during a stalemate...

Venton: I don't have it. Actually, I don't have anything from recent sets. Unfortunate, because I like some of the stuff from Ravnica and Time Spiral blocks, but I haven't bought cards since early in high school and most of what I was buying or trading for then were key rares I didn't have like Masticore and other assorted brokenness. Almost everything in my collection is pre-Odyssey. You did remind me though, maybe I should see if I have enough to put together a Rabid Wombat deck...

I used to do a Kjeldoran Pride/Rootwater Matriarch combo, but I'm not sure that it would fit into this deck and I only have one Matriarch. Maybe instead I could use bounce and something to kill creatures off for a stealing engine. Play False Demise on something, kill it and gain control of it, play Iridescent Drake and get False Demise back, bounce False Demise and replay it on something else, kill the new target and gain control of it, then bounce the Drake...

Probably too bulky and impractical.

Well, I could use Fallen Angel, but I already did that...

 

[Venton]

Heh, this thread made me think of Rabid Wombat so I did a search to see if there was anything similar and I found the Auramancer's Guise. I tried a Wombat deck a long, long time ago. I might have to give that another shot.

With lots of auras getting flung about, would Crown of the Ages fit in?

 

[Spiderman]

Yeah, I was just thinking of the Study since it's an Aura and would work with the Drake's ability. If the False Demise combo is all that you're looking for to use with the Drake, I'd say just fill the rest of the deck out with countermagic and other steal creature spells.

 

[Oversoul]

Venton: That's a good idea. I almost certainly have at least one Crown of the Ages. I was trying to build an entire Ice Age collection a while ago, so it's probably in there. No need for Kjeldoran Pride then. And it could let me steal the opponent's creatures either by killing them and letting False Demise kick in or by grabbing them directly with Rootwater Matriarch.

Spidey: That's a good point. I might be better off with Control Magic and such, rather than diluting the deck with unlikely combos.