T1 Crystal Witness

M

Mikeymike

Guest
I've been planning this deck ever I first saw Eternal Witness, but haven't built it yet for various reasons. One of which being it turned into a T2 staple deck...but I say screw it, I wanted to build it anyway.

It is for casual play, but I want it to be strong. In other words, I'm going very light on the cute stuff (have that in other decks).

Combo 8
4 Crystal Shards
4 Eternal Witness

Creatures 14
4 Wall of Blossoms
2 Uktabi Orangutan
2 Mystic Snake
1 Monk Realist
1 Duplicant
1 Triskelion
1 Silent Arbiter (Extremely underrated)
1 Trinket Mage
1 Darksteel Colossus (Tinker and/or Arbiter Combo)

Helpers 12?
4 Eladamri's Call
4 Curfew
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
3 ? (Wood Elves?)

Mana 24
3 In-Color Moxen
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
4 Windswepth Heath (own 0 Flooded Strand)
4 Trop Island
4 Savannah
4 Tundra
3 ?

Damn, gotta run. Will comeback later.

Thoughts on the Tinker stuff?
Any other good 187 critters I'm missing?

Thanks in advance
 
T

train

Guest
I'd go with Krosan tuskers over wood elves... getting a land, and drawing seems much more effective... especially when you can also fetch the tusker with to do it again with the witness...
 
M

Mikeymike

Guest
OK, had a little time to think about this, thanks for the comments.

Memory Jar - Excellent card, and could help, but I'm thinking I should drop the Tinker stuff because of my lack of cheap artifacts to sack. Being that I can't trick it into play, it would be a little more random.

Strip Mine - Added

Krosan Tusker - The issue with the Tusker is that it doesn't pull Dual lands (which Wood Elves can). I wouldn't be against basic lands, but I'm not sure if duals or basics are better here.
Duals/Elves Pros:
* More reliable color delivery
* Generates true mana acceleration
* Synergy with Shards
* Less mana intensive to recur (2GU to reuse, vs 3GGG for the Tusker)
Basics/Tuskers Pros
* Generates true card advantage (and thins the deck)
* Less susceptable to non-basic land kill (and Wastelands do run around my group, though they are usually saved for Mazes and the like)
* Synergy with Witness
Tough call, but I think reliability wins out over potential card advantage this time. I wouldn't mind more card draw still.

Combo 8
4 Crystal Shards
4 Eternal Witness

Creatures 16
4 Wall of Blossoms
3 Wood Elves
2 Uktabi Orangutan
2 Mystic Snake
1 Monk Realist
1 Silent Arbiter
1 Duplicant
1 Triskelion
1 Big beater ? (is Phantom Nishoba too expensive?)

Helpers 10
4 Eladamri's Call
4 Curfew
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
3 ?

Mana 24
3 In-Color Moxen
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Strip Mine
2 Wasteland
4 Windswepth Heath (own 0 Flooded Strand)
4 Trop Island
4 Savannah
3 Tundra
1 Treva's Ruins

Questionable cards:
* Curfew - It is a backup to the Shards that can make a soft-lock with the Witness. Worth it?
* Triskelion - I'm just worried that I can't support the 6 mana costs of both the Duplicant and Triskelion.
* Mystic Snake - should this be a single copy?
* Who should the kill-creature be?
 
S

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
I'm just throwing out ideas here, I have no idea what I'm talking about :)

For a helper, Fact or Fiction? I'm not really sure exactly how your deck works, is it a control type deck where you recurse stuff? Is it necessary to have creature control like StP?
 
M

Mikeymike

Guest
It is a control deck with recursive creatures.

Crystal Shards allows me to re-use my 187 creatures' CiP effects.
Eternal Witness allows me to recycle anything (ideal targets being Recall, Time Walk, Curfew, or E. Call)

Creature Control is good, but hopefully my creatures and Curfews can cover my but (E. Call for Duplicant, 'Skel). Will it be enough? I'm not fully sure.

Another idea is to lighten up on the creature utility and bump up the spell utility (which the Witness can take better advantage of).
 
S

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
Well, the only thing I can really see then is to guard against graveyard hate like Planar Void and Withered Wretch (your favorite card! :) ). So maybe StP to permanently get rid of WW? Not sure about Planar Void.

Or maybe your opponents don't play with graveyard hate :)
 
M

Mikeymike

Guest
The group is at somewhat of a Lull with Graveyard removal right now, but it still shows up (thankfully the Wretch has gone into hiding recently). Graveyard hate would hurt me, but I think I could somewhat play around it until I get Duplicant (unless of course Duplicant is in the 'yard with the Wretch hits). The nice thing about it is that the Shards can do tricks w/o needing the Witness.
 
H

Homestar

Guest
do u really have a Black Lotus?!?!?!??!

If you dod, you better watch your back and your front cuz ima steal it:p
 
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