FNM UG Ramp??

[Randomness]

Ok so with the standard PTQ season over, a group of mates have decided that we needed a challenge at FNM. There are 6 of us in total and it was decided that each person in the groupw ould pick a card that each of us would have to play, and a card that we weren't allowed to play.

I have ended up with needing to play Sturmgeist, Alpha Brawl, Kessig Wolf Run, Faith's Reward and Jin-Gitaxias.

The cards I am not allowed to play are Geist of Saint Traft, Wurmcoil Engine, Grand Architect, Inkmoth Nexus and Sphere of the Sun.

After looking at the wonderful (help...) choice of cards that I was given to play, I decided on a Blue/Green ramp deck with some splashing of red and white. The decklist which I have come up with is below. If anyone can offer any advice or suggestions on the below deck that would be great.

On top of that, what would you have chosen to play?

Main Board:
4 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Primeval Titan
2 Acidic Slime
2 Sturmgeist
2 Jin-Gitaxias
1 Thragtusk

4 Rampant Growth
3 Farseek
4 Bonfire of the Damned
2 Mana Leak
2 Negate
2 Faith's Reward
2 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Alpha Brawl

4 Hinterland Harbor
4 Rootbound Crag
2 Kessig Wolf Run
2 Cavern of Souls
1 Desolate Lighthouse
6 Forest
3 Island
2 Mountain
1 Plain

Side Board:
1 Acidic Slime
2 Wrack with Madness
2 Ghost Quarter
2 Thragtusk
3 Beast Within
2 Grafdiggers Cage
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Naturalize

[vger]

@Randomness,

Oh wow, that's really a challenge. Not only those cards lack synergy with one another, some of them are better if built around them (say Faith's Reward). I don't have any great deck ideas that can incorporate all of those cards, but your list definitely seems decent enough (given such requirements).

I do have some thoughts that you may want to consider and playtest though.

1) Glided Lotus seems like a fine addition to your build, being able to help cast your Alpha Brawl and Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur. Then it also helps to make your Bonfire of the Damned and Kessig Wolf Run's activations more powerful, or help cast more spells after you refill your hand with Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur.

2) Faith's Reward unfortunately doesn't actually do much in this deck, it is at most a recursion spell that you don't gain any significant benefits from.

I do suggest adding a few Ghost Quarter as part of your manabase, to deal with opposing nonbasic lands and to have an extra interaction with Faith's Reward.

Faith's Reward can act as an overcosted ramp spell when used in conjunction with Ghost Quarter - Cast Faith's Reward and then activate Ghost Quarter on your nonbasics (while floating some mana from those lands). After everything resolves successfully, you would have extra lands on your battlefield now. Though not really an impressive interaction, it is probably the only other way to maximize Faith's Reward usage here.

With that said, I would suggest these changes.

-2 Acidic Slime
-1 Desolate Lighthouse
-1 Faith's Reward
-2 Green Sun's Zenith
-2 Mana Leak
-2 Negate
-1 Rootbound Crag
-1 Solemn Simulacrum

+1 Farseek
+2 Ghost Quarter
+2 Glided Lotus
+2 Ponder
+4 Temporal Mastery
+1 Thragtusk

Reasons for some of the suggested changes:

Acidic Slime is being replaced by the Glided Lotus (and Thragtusk) I just recommended, since they probably will do more to cast your more powerful spells. You can observe that there is increased action with Temporal Mastery, which provides another reason to play those Glided Lotus. Acidic Slime is a little less played in ramp decks these days, since you can play even more over-the-top spells (say Thragtusk) that outright win you games now.

The countermagic suite is being replaced by Farseek and Temporal Mastery, since there doesn't seem to be any good reason to be reactive here. Might as well reinforce your ramp plan. Temporal Mastery serves as a psuedo ramp spell when miracled, and grants you more tempo and action in the late game.
Green Sun's Zenith doesn't actually have a lot of targets here, hence it is being replaced by Ponder which helps manipulating your draws.

Hopefully this helps!

[Randomness]

Thank you for taking the time to look at the deck and give your opinions. I must admit that I was unsure about some of things you suggested until I tried the deck out myself last night.

The counter magic proved useless in a lot of match ups and was sided out a lot. In the end I did some times keep Negate in, but Mana Leak came out each time.

Green Sun's Zenith again proved very little use in the match ups. It was a good way to get the 1 Thragtusk in the deck, but I would have rather been playing other things in my hand at those moments.

The Desolate Lightouse actually proved to be really useful in a few situations and helped me win a couple of games. Faith's Reward I had mixed success with the card and wish for dear god I didn't have to play that or Sturmgeist.

However I have made some changes to the mainboard. After testing out the changes the deck worked a lot better and had a few successes in a row with play testing. Unfortunately I don't have any Gilded Lotus or Temporal Mastery available to use, but the changes I made were as follows.

- 2 Negate
- 2 Mana Leak
- 1 Solemn Simulacrum
- 2 Green Sun's Zenith
- 1 Bonfire of the Damned (was a friends but has decided he needs to use it)
- 2 Acidic Slime
- 1 Island
- 1 Forest

+ 3 Thragtusk
+ 3 Huntmaster of the Fells
+ 2 Restoration Angel
+ 2 Beast Within
+ 1 Plains
+ 1 Mountain

[vger]

@Randomness,

Those changes do seem reasonable, except that I am unsure about having Beast Within around. The lack of Slagstorm and the sort to deal with the Beast Token, and the comparatively smaller body sizes of your creatures to the Beast Token... doesn't seem to justify playing it to deal with opposing troublesome permanents. Granted that you have Bonfire of the Damned, Restoration Angel and titans-level cards to overcome those 3/3 beast tokens eventually, but those may take a long while to come online.

[Randomness]

I can see where you are coming from with regards to Beast Within. What would you suggest as an alternative to it?

[vger]

@Randomness,

Well Oblivion Ring remains your best option to deal with any nonland permanents. The only downsides are that it is sorcery speed and can be disenchanted.

Or otherwise you may have to adjust a little by playing slightly more sweepers or Restoration Angel/Blade Splicer sort of cards.