Five With Flores

Just a quick update to the Junk Mana Ramp deck… Now with Celestial Purge (and Putrid Leech… You know, like everybody else).

Junk Mana Ramp v. 3.0

4 Grim Discovery
4 Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
2 Sorin Markov

4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Putrid Leech

4 Lotus Cobra

4 Baneslayer Angel
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
4 Path to Exile

1 Graypelt Refuge
4 Forest
4 Marsh Flats
4 Plains
4 Swamp
4 Sunpetal Grove
4 Verdant Catacombs

sb:
4 Doom Blade
4 Mind Shatter
2 Sorin Markov
4 Celestial Purge
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant

Just a quick update on this one. I took out Thornling (even though he has been pretty good) for some of the reasons brought up by wobblesthegoose in the comments of How to Play With Marsh Flats. Essentially the deck only needs one Green mana source to operate (though it does need that initial Green)… Except when you consider Thornling. Thornling is very Green mana hungry, but the rest of the deck is pretty Black mana hungry (you actually need three of the four Swamps in play most games), not to mention needing two White sources in play for Baneslayer Angel.

The randomest cards are / were Behemoth Sledge (one-of plus one-of) which actually didn’t do enough in matches where the opponent could Lightning Bolt all your jones (which is ironically often the kind of match where the second copy went in) and Mind Shatter. Mind Shatter remains awesome, but you will often lose game one when you draw it if the opponent is faster than you are. Mind Shatter is more the kind of card that pre-empts a more controlling deck’s Cruel Ultimatum or messes up their ability to hit land drops when they are tapped for a Planeswalker. It’s not unconditionally good despite being unconditional card advantage.

All those came out for Putrid Leech (about as fine a man as you can get for a two-drop Zombie Leech).

The sideboard saw significant changes. Mind Shatter shifted from main to side as a new Game Two four-of (potentially) against more controlling decks, or decks with a significant Cascade component.

The biggest shift–at least in this test version–was moving away from Summoning Trap (which has yet to materialize for me, or even get cast despite my keeping double Summoning Trap hands against Counterspell decks) to Celestial Purge. The inspiration for moving to Celestial Purge came at a loss tonight to Ajani Vengeant. I had just spent a Maelstron Pulse relatively well, but then he had that best of Planeswalkers (one of the Ajanis probably is, anyway)… and whittled at my options over and over. I really need another card to deal with these kinds of permanents, I thought. It turns out that Celestial Purge is a Doom blade of sorts against the Red Decks (gain seven or whatever), and as pointed out by Alfrebaut, is really good Sprouting Thrinax suppression.

So there you have the current test version; it’s actually winning less than the previous ones, but not on account of any of the new cards (or the old ones missing, I think)… So I think it will have more potential to be better.

Have fun playing second turn Lotus Cobra!

LOVE
MIKE

Currently Reading: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone First U.S. Edition 1st Printing (Bella and I are almost done!)