Just made my first god rank and just wanted to post my phantasm mid range creature control type deck. The deck was initially a lot greedier running more mythic such as magda, sharra dragonslayer, and the green dragon Tethra. While an awful lot of fun, I dropped these three mythics and also gave up on apex predators as well. They are not bad cards… but either are not useful against the current meta or are win more cards in the current meta in this deck (apex predator).
magnus, king of meroval
3 shamanic dance
3 elder wood embrace
3 sagami grovecaller
3 veduran force
3 sturdy shell
aurora, myth maker
3 frogify
3 ancient herald
1 gabrian warden
3 phantasm
baeru, the first wave
seifer, blood tyrant
garuda, heart of the mountain
Description. This is a mid range creature control deck. It is highly successful against other green blue decks, mono green, and burn red. It works well against red rush. Poor matches are jump blue, yellow rush, and yellow in general. Poor matchups would be vastly improved by including more taunt minions. However, taunt creatures have weaker stats which weakened performance vs burn red and green/ blue which where the decks I faced most often.
Deck philosophy. This deck cannot output the huge creatures of mono green and attack buff green/blue. The creatures are 5/5, 5/6, and 7/7. Elders embrace and shamanic dance make the creatures bigger, but more importantly repair damaged creatures.
This deck destroys mono green and green/blue because of frogify and phantasm. Phantasm is great to usually use on the sturdy shells. But in a pinch, it can be used offensively to cut down huge creatures to a manageable 5/5. 90% phantasms will be used to buff the 0/5 shells, but can be game saving when used offensively.
And red? Yes, the two best red mythics. It is best to simply play the deck as green blue. But seifer is only 5 mana and can be used to devastating effect with the sagami grovecaller. Garudan helps immensely verses blue jump. Don’t drop a mountain until you have one of these cards and want to use it. Best to hide the fact you may have a red aoe and let them flood the board first. The deck can handle the third red colour because the only cards to need 3 lands are frogify and baeru
Beneficial aspects of the deck
Very few people run the sturdy shell phantasm package. It is very amusing killing enemies that thought they were approaching a harmless turtle. Good players are appropriately cautious, but even they have no choice sometimes but to risk approaching the turtle
Sturdy shell is aqueous and at times can single handedly harvest both wells on one side with no land built there. This happens particularly when you put heavy offensive pressure on or they are rushing you. They simply cannot afford 3+ land and a creature to go chase the turtle on the side.
Sturdy shell has 5 health for 2 mana. Not once has an enemy ever cast a direct damage spell on it, unlike lower health harvesters
Sturdy shell can approach enemy land by water, be phantasm’d, and jump to enemy land to attack. Phantasmd turtle can attack if on water, but will drowned if it survives. Also aurora myth maker is great to use on the shell as well as phantasm if being attacked, although usually less preferable as it will be a 6/6 stuck in the water
Sturdy shell is out on turn one to harvest
Phantasm is a mediocre, but useful frogify in tight spots. This wrecks mono green, and green/blue if they have huge creatures. The deck runs large, but not huge creatures. Rather it has 3 frogifies and 3 5/5 frogifies.
Sagami grove caller allows you to pick the time and target of your attack. It is amazing with seifer. This deck can and needs to strike first. Do not approach the enemy and let them decide if they can win. Strike first and anywhere. Losing a 7/7 Veduran in a poor trade early is very hard to recover from. No place is safe if you slowly scatter forests over the board. It makes me very anxious playing against decks I know have grove callers… I expect my opponent feels the same unending uncertainty
Garudan… enough said. Do not let them know you have red until they are overextended. Jump blue is such a frustrating match, and I enjoy watching a board of frogs go up in flames
Magnus. This card is amazing, but should be used sparingly and wisely. Do not toss it out on turn 3 just to be frogified, except maybe against a rush deck. Roll the dice mid game after a couple frogifies are out. If they have no answer, they lose, quickly. Use frequently if losing. It’s like kicking over the game table and hoping for a better outcome. Things can’t get any worse, but if no answer, you often pull out a win
Seifer and Magnus simply shut down rush if they have no answer
For decks like burn red with no frogify, magnus is devastating. Buff him to 12 or 16 life and laugh. Charge 3 means you can summon him on your end yet pin an enemy creature such that it cannot escape
The deck needs at most 2 forest, 3 island, and 2 mountain. Ancient herald requires only one island and verudan force 2 forests. Mountains aren’t needed until mid game. Though I occasionally greet a rush deck with a seifer, magnus, or baeru mythic, usually to very amusing and I’m sure rage inducing effects. Mainly, all cards were selected in part due to low special land requirements to accommodate tri-colour.
The deck is highly mana efficient
- verudan force, the only 7/7 available for 6 mana available on turn 2
- ancient herald is a 4 mana 5/6. It costs 6 but you get 2 back, though it’s annoying when it’s free turtles you don’t need
- phantasm, two 5/5s for 9 mana. But often done as 2 mana turn 1 and 7 mana another turn. Much easier than coming up with 9 mana, and the phantom’d turtle attacks immediately.
- shamanic dance. 4 health for 2 mana, and it gives taunt. Use to either survive a hard battle, heal a damaged creature, or for taunt ability
- baeru. Nice stats for 8 mana. More importantly can single handedly win against a rush if dropped on turn 3. Also makes a huge mess of mono green or three wishes turning their lands to useless island
- gabrian warden. Amazing when used to drop the enemies biggest creature for 0 return damage, plus a solid 4/6 body. Hold and wait for the right time. Brilliant verses deathtouch. Have used 2 of them in deck in the past, but I can’t find a spot, it’s expensive, and situational. Can strike a devastating blow. But is also great to let a phantom survive killing another 5+ attack creature
Well that’s the end of my post. Just made my first time god rank today. Absolutely love this game. Still getting my teeth kicked in and learning hard lessons from the skilled players at the top of the god ranks. But this deck got me there, and comfortably so. I think one of its biggest advantages is that I think I’ve seen maybe two phantasm decks on my climb, and this one has some unexpected surprises. This is a creature control type deck and I think is best played as such. Usually take both your wells, and watch for an opportunity or weakness and then strike hard.
