Weird Riptide Beef R/U Deck.

[Force of Will Smith]

4 Dracoplasm
Red:
4 Mogg Flunkies
4 Viashino Sandstalker
3 Wall of Razors
3 Flametongue Kavu

Blue:
3 Equilibrium
3 Echoing Truth
3 Mana Leak
3 Reins of Power
3 Imaginary Pet
3 Riptide Mangler
3 Skyshroud Condor

Lands
12 Island
9 Mountain

Basically you set up an incredibly early defense and abuse the low cost of creatures you control..

if you have a razor wall in play, a riptide becomes a 4/3..

if you paid RU and sac'd a riptide mangler, a razor wall, and a flunkies you have a 11/11 flier around turn 4/5
or a 4/4 flier for RU..

 

[Jigglypuff]

I like the deck a lot. Clever use of Dracoplasm and Riptide Mangler. I also like the Equilibrium with the Imaginary Pets and Viashino Sandstalkers.

I'd probably drop the Reins of Power. I see the combo with Dracoplasm, but it's a dead card otherwise. I'd also consider getting some more lands into the deck. You have a lot of mana-intensive cards (Equilibrium, Mangler, Sandstalkers) and you really need to get to four or five mana quickly. Oh yeah, and drop the Condor. Man-o'-War is fun with Equilibrium.

(- Steve -)

 

[Force of Will Smith]

Thanks a lot!

When i started putting it together i was trying
to do something bizarre with imaginary that hadn't been done..
then it just went from there.. I also made it with another deck in mind, one that abuses low cost high power red beef... like ball lightning, okk, and mijae djinn..

I also like how against a matchup that has no direct damage, it can setup a turn 2 4/4 killer..

as far as the reins, I completely disagree.. Reins is a blue wrath...
I've easily won 15+ games with it.. Ensnare as well..
evacuation and washout at a close 3nd.
Draco with Reins is cool but, by itself its amazing...

Reins loves equipment, suicide black, stompy, and elves of all kind

i want to put an undercosted flier for blue.. and 1U for a 2/2 is pretty good.. know any others? i was considering the golem that bounces back if you have 7 or more permanents.
Im not budging on the reins however

 

[Jigglypuff]

Okay, I honestly can't see what Reins does for you (other than the Dracoplasm combo) that you couldn't do with Earthquakes or bounce, but I'll let it go for now.

About the Condor. Realize that the Condor doesn't actually cost 2. He costs 2 + whatever spell you had to play to even enable him. Because most of your spells cost 3 or greater, he doesn't realistically hit play until turn 5.

(- Steve -)

 

[Force of Will Smith]

Yeah
i think i'll either replace the condors with thought eaters or gilded drakes..

drakes i'd have to have equilibrium out but it could potentially let me steal something with huge toughness that either a mangler could use or dracoplasm could be used for.

In a creature based deck you either try to swarm the opponent, or minimize losses while overwhelming you opponents defenses. With reins if the balance ever shifts into your opponents favor you can single handedly win the game.

it basically retroactively makes any plays played against you, to be for you..
say in a game you started out with a jackal pup, a fireslinger, a ball lightning.. you're kicking ass.. then they establish some huge defense, or a huge threat, start laying out equipment... at some point they have a ridiculously 7/7 doublestriker pro blue/and/red.... youre completely screwed if that one attacker gets through...
then the only thing stopping them is your 2 fatties... to which they play barter for blood... or terror, or terminate...

now their one attacker has free rein.. and its game... you have 2 creatures... youre doomed..
during your turn. you cast reins... switch.. and win.

It can take everything bad that happened to you into something good..
switching and sacrificing is just insult to injury.

I used to use reins in my accelerated blue deck against ravager in our group games and laugh like hell when id sac all their lands and creatures and their ravager,only to choose not to make any opponents lose any life..

try running ensnares and reins in a deck.. youll be amazed..

ensnare reads:

ensnare:0 instant
return 2 islands: no damage from creatures are dealt this turn, next turn
all of your creatures are unblockable.

 

[Jigglypuff]

I've run Ensnares and Reins in multiple decks. And every time I've drawn them, I've wished I had something more aggressive.

You're basically playing from behind with those cards. If you already have creature superiority, then you don't need to waste time with Ensnare. You just swing. If you're behind, Ensnare can't help you unless you can win with that attack. Otherwise, they just untap and continue to smash you. Reins has the same problem unless you can set up the Dracoplasm play.

in fact, I'm now worried about Dracoplasm. You're putting a lot of resources into one creature and you have pretty much no ways to protect it. If they have Terror or Wrath or Terminate, you're screwed.

(- Steve -)

 

[Force of Will Smith]

It all depends though what my opponent is playing... and im not blowing up everything i have... i might be paying RU and sacrificing a 4/1 wall for a 4/1 flier.. or a mogg flunkies and a wall for a 7/4 flier. If my opponent was playing something like green or white, i might want to go all out.... a big problem with creatures is that they're good until a point... you have a 1/1 flier thats poking them... oop.. they have a 4/4.... new plan..

this way.. my imaginary pet/flunkies/wall of razors benefit me early game, and then metagame... or say i have a mangler who's super beefy with his power.. but that 3 will die to anything they control... i give him a new life ..

or i could do some crazy fast effects with a 2nd dracoplasm and a riptide mangler.. it can also turnaround effects...

say for example.. i play a dracoplasm.. hes a 6/6 flier... opponent casts pacifism..... i have a riptide mangler in play... i activate him... then cast another dracoplasm sacrificing them both... now he has a 12/12 flier to deal with... by that point they have to deal with the draco or die..

I've found that the most successful decks can have everything destroyed by themselves or otherwise, and rebuild within 2 turns.