March 19 2016 Saturday at 02:19 PM

Telling Time - Oath and Shadows - Izzet Eldrazi vs Green Wastes Ramp

Today I continue the early-bird Duels testing with paper Magic cards, and the decks I picked out today are Green Wastes and Izzet Eldrazi.  Let’s jump right in -

Green Wastes

3 x Jaddi Offshoot

4 x Elvish Visionary

4 x Pulse of Murasa

4 x Natural Connection

1 x Titan's Presence

1 x Nissa, Vastwood Seer

2 x Thought-Knot Seer

4 x Explosive Vegetation

2 x From Beyond

2 x Outland Colossus

2 x Reality Smasher

3 x Walker of the Wastes

1 x Greenwarden of Murasa

1 x Oblivion Sower

2 x Nissa's Renewal

1 x Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger

4 x Evolving Wilds

9 x Wastes

10 x Forest

Pulse of Murasa was a real pain in the butt.  It is the reason that Elvish Visionary makes the deck as a four-of, because worst case you get a chump block, six life and a card cycle, and perhaps another chump block and more Fleshbag/Bearer of Silence protection.  Gaining six life at instant speed really messes with lethal-looking attacks, and late in the game you just keep recycling Eldrazis.

Titan’s Presence did nothing and can/should be cut.  Jaddi was huge, any game that started with one felt too easy.  The curve for the deck could use work since we go three-five-eight often enough, and we have no real eight-mana payoff.  Walker of the Wastes is pretty nuts, and was a 13/13 trample plenty of times.  Is it worth cutting Red?  I doubt it at this point, but it is worth more work.  The games that the deck lost involved missed land drops, so I would raise the mana count to 25 or 26 and turn one or two Natural Connection into Nissa’s Pilgrimage, I rarely had trouble getting plenty of Wastes after a certain point.

Izzet Eldrazi

2 x Fiery Impulse

4 x Twin Bolt

1 x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy

3 x Disperse

2 x Abbot of Keral Keep

2 x Exquisite Firecraft

4 x Eldrazi Skyspawner

3 x Vile Aggregate

2 x Thought-Knot Seer

2 x Pia and Kiran Nalaar

3 x Whirler Rogue

1 x Akoum Firebird

2 x Reality Smasher

2 x Drowner of Hope

1 x Chandra, Flamecaller

1 x Oblivion Sower

5 x Island

5 x Mountain

2 x Sulfur Falls

2 x Crumbling Vestige

3 x Foundry of the Consuls

1 x Rogue's Passage

1 x Wastes

2 x Wandering Fumarole

4 x Evolving Wilds

This deck took the Eldrazi Thopters approach and went more in on the Eldrazi side of it.  The results felt poor.  The game count was 3-2 in favor of Green Wastes, but I don’t think the matchup is that close, both of the Izzet wins came when the Green deck failed to hit land drop three for multiple turns.  In the losses, the Izzet deck felt like everything was going very well but it couldn’t keep up with the lifegain from Pulse, Jaddi and Renewal, and the Izzet deck couldn’t find any good long term answer to a 13/13 Walker of the Wastes.  This deck needs better early plays, for now the Izzet Eldrazi just casts some removal spells for the early turns and starts kicking into gear on turn four.  That gives too much time to ramp, and this matchup felt like many matchups I played early in B4Z - midrange decks failing to kill Gruul Ramp in time and getting run over.  What the deck need is at least two quality two or one drops to be a player in the future, in this writer’s humble opinion :)

This test was conducted with confirmed cards only (check out my Confirmed Visual Spoiler HERE).  There are a lot more cards that could make the Green Wastes deck even better if we get them, and there are a handful of cards that could help Izzet.  There may still be something to the Izzet Eldrazi list, but for now I am sticking to the Thopter build.

<3 CGB

The End Credits -

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Awesome Duels resources and recommendations -

Magic Duels Reddit - https://www.reddit.com/r/magicduels/

No Goblins Allowed - http://forum.nogoblinsallowed.com/viewforum.php?f=38


Twitch Magic Duels - http://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/Magic%20Duels