"Spider Deck"

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spiderking

Guest
I origionally thought that spiders could not serve as a single basic creature type basis for a deck. A friend showed me I was wrong. Spiders have two things going for them:

1. They can all block flying. This increases the options for creature warfare.

2. They all have high toughness. This means that, simply, they can get into combat and come out of it unsquished.

So, I had the idea of making a passive, "blocking" deck. It uses lots of cards to make the spiders live longer and become more dangerous. Here is the projected idea of it:

4x Canopy Spider
2x Rib Cage Spider
2x Wooly Spider
4x Plated Spider
3x Tangle Spider
1x Spitting Spider
1x Silklash Spider

4x Regeneration
2x Gift of the Woods
2x Thunderstaff
2x Venom
4x Giant Growth
2x Bounty of the Hunt
4x Ferocity
1x Rite of Passage
2x Desert Twister

In other words, i'm running cards such as Venom and Giant Growth to kill off creatures. I have Ferocity and Rite of Passage to make my spiders bigger permanently(and make my opponents not want to block). Then there is Regeneration and Gift of the Woods to keep them alive. Thunderstaff serves a dual purpose, both protecting me, then makeing my spiders stronger for the kill. And of course, I have Desert Twisters for removal. Oh, yeah and I threw in the Bounty of the Hunts for more unpredictability.

For spiders, I have the eight cheaper bugs, then Tangle Spider for suprise blocking, Plated spider for actual damage dealing, and the Spitting and Silklash Spiders for higher toughness and more flying destruction.

What do you guys think?
 
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Jigglypuff

Guest
I had a Spider deck similar to this one. In mine, I ran Bullwhips to force creatures to attack into my spiders. I also included Hailstorms and Sandstorms to help deal with early creatures.

What lands are you running? I've noticed that you have a lot of expensive spells in your deck. You may want to consider cards such as Explosive Vegetation and Land Grant to help you ramp up to 4 or 5 lands quickly. To make room, I'd consider dropping the Gift of the Woods. It doesn't do anything that Giant Growth doesn't do better. I'd also consider dropping the lone Spitting Spider for another Silklash. You can't really afford to be sacking lands with this deck.

(- Steve -)
 
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Limited

Guest
i am having serious doubts about the bounty of the hunt.. seems the only deck that can use that card is Mr Stompy.. i would add more desert twisters instead (or some mana accel)
 
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spiderking

Guest
Anyone who disses Bounty of the Hunt has never seen how annoyed people get when you play a free booster. It's the same thing with free counterspells- it makes the deck unpredictable while increasing the options you can do with your land each turn. My other personal favorites are Pyrokinesis (red creature burn) and of course, Daze, force of will, and foil.

Also you'll notice the low creture base. I could take out the Spitting Spider for another desert twister, though. How about Naturalize?

Which reminds me, my friend suggedted I go with a second color for support, I.E. counterspells, burn or black removal. I would perfer blue, but when I built the deck i had so many good non-creature spells that i just kept it green. What could I do with this?

The silklash is a problem. I probably won't even be able to get the one, so two would mean waiting a long time to finish the deck. I have 1 sandstorm, and I see your point, and somewhere I have a land grant. However, instead of the land grant, how about Wild Growths? I'm not doing anything turn one anyway and I have four.

What does a Bullwhip do?
 
Oversoul

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
What do you do against an opponent that isn't just attacking you? If they start burning you up with direct damage, or bouncing all of your stuff, or locking you down, or countering everything, or blowing up all your creatures after you've emptied your hand, or making you sacrifice lots of stuff, or attacking you with shadow creatures (and maybe Hatred), or building up tons of tokens and blocking you until you're about to be overwhelmed? This strategy seems far too easy to get around...
 
J

Jigglypuff

Guest
Okay, well first off, if an opponent is burning you up with direct damage, bouncing all of your stuff, locking you down, countering everything, or making you sack a lot of stuff, most creature-based decks lose horribly. Unless it's a really fast deck like Sligh or Stompy.

Bullwhip
4
Artifact
2, T: Bullwhip deals one damage to target creature or player. That creature attacks this turn if able.

I used Bullwhips to force the issue; Norritt and Siren's Call could do the same thing. Hailstorms and Sandstorms combined with Bullwhips can handle most creature swarms. You could even splash red for Earthquake and Savage Twister. Your Spiders should be able to survive it. Heck, a simple Fog might even do the trick.

(- Steve -)
 
K

Killerbob

Guest
reminds me of this thread

http://www.casualplayers.org/forums/showthread.php?t=12982&highlight=insects

I think wild growth is a good idea. Its a fine card. Only reason that its not played more is that most people prefer elves or birds.
I wouldnt play bounty of the hunt. Thats an aggressive card. Spiders are control.
As Jygglypuff pointed out, Bullwhip works fine in a spider deck.
I dont think splashing is worthit. A few counterspells would be nice, but then you have to play duals. Keeping it a budgetdeck would be nice.
 
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spiderking

Guest
Bullwhips. Got it.

Why can't I deal with burn? I can understand lockdown and control decks, but burn I can deal with. If the burn player just killed my spiders they would never win, and then I have a lot of things that make my spiders less fire-prone. Regeneration comes to mind, but not against incinerate. Ferocity can actually work if the player is playing walls, and Giant Growth and of course BotH can make it so more burn is reqired to kill the spider. Come to think of it, I play two desert twisters in this deck. So I could eliminate two key cards in a lockdown deck. I'd probably still be massacred, but it's there. Shadow I could't deal with anyway, and with my gaming enviroment i'll never have to. Besides, I have to deal with Phantom Warrior and its ilk all the time.

Again, the emphasis on the Bounty of the hunt was not agression(although thats a small part of it- I have to win somehow) it was unpredictability. With it, I can potentialy block a gigantic creature, kill it, and do this after I've tapped all my land for something, giving the impression of wide-openess. If my opponent knows me, It means I can bluff by becoming wide open, when in reality I have no tricks up my sleeve. Even if they attack i'd just lose a spider when there is enough anyway. 16 is not low, really, because of that aspect.

This deck is a novelty still. I intend it to be strong, but it probably won't be winning any tournaments with all you control freaks out there. Note the screename. I like spiders, so I built a deck around them. Regardless of what I expect of it, It would still be very cool if I somehow managed to win a minor tounament or something with it by figuring out a way to make it more of a contender.

What set is bullwhip out of?
 
S

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
I think this deck is a cool idea. Any thoughts on Rancor (costs G, creature enchantment that gives +2/+0 and trample, returns to owner's hand if put into graveyard from play)? That way you can make your spiders a real threat... :)
 
Oversoul

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
spiderking said:
Why can't I deal with burn? I can understand lockdown and control decks, but burn I can deal with. If the burn player just killed my spiders they would never win, and then I have a lot of things that make my spiders less fire-prone.
Click to expand...
Because a burn deck will not be killing your spiders. It will be killing you...
 
N

NorrYtt

Guest
What you need is an excellent tapper to use with your defensive-oriented Spiders. The best one IMO is Kyren Negotiations but you could even use Hair-Strung Koto to mill them out. As long as you have a nice effect to tap your spiders at EOT, it allows you to remain defensive while slowly advancing toward a win. To me, Spiders are just flavorful walls.
 
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DarthFerret

Guest
I think that one major thing you have in the deck with some great potential is being overlooked. You have the Regens and the Venoms....Ever wonder what would happen if you lured a venomed spider?... It takes care of lots of annoyances like the passive meanies, and the horrid "token" decks. Ever seen 150 squirrel tokens die to a lured basilisk..It is not pretty, trust me. (talking from experience here) Plus, the other side of a lure, is that if you lure your smallest critter, all of your big pounders are virtually guaranteed to get through and shred yoru opponent. Other than that, the deck looks somewhat similar to one of my spider decks, with the exception that I use one of my favorite Green cards....Overrun.
 
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jorael

Guest
Overrrun would be a very cool trick for the deck. Spider beatdown!
 
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Jigglypuff

Guest
Okay, here's a deck I threw together based around this idea.

4 Saber Ants
3 Silklash Spider
3 Giant Mantis
3 Ribcage Spider
2 Triskelion
4 Rite of Passage
3 Bullwhip
3 Skyshroud Claim
4 Spidersilk Armor
3 Hail Storm
3 Creeping Mold
25 lands

The entire deck revolves around Rite of Passage. It allows your primarily defensive creatures to become threats later in the game. It helps your Saber Ants survive to make more tokens. Combined with Spidersilk Armor, it can help the tokens grow into threats. Bullwhips, Hail Storms, and the Trikes let you ping your creatures to trigger the Ants and the Rites.

(- Steve -)
 
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DarthFerret

Guest
I still say Overrun. Plus any deck that deals with building up tokens should have at least 2 Parrallel Evolutions.
 
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Jigglypuff

Guest
I hate Parallel Evolution. I never play it. Same with Overrun. I only play 1 if I think I might need it late.

(- Steve -)
 
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