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BMoor's Magic The Gathering Deck Garage
Kyle's Snake Token Deck
July 25, 2007

I just started playing magic the gathering a few weeks ago, so I'm still very new to the game. I've put together a few neat decks I thought would win, but I play with friends who played this game for years. I struggle sometimes to even cause damage. Even though I'm new I want to be competitive. I've put together a poison counter slash snake token deck. I have not bought these cards yet because I would like some advice just in case it's unbalanced. I have a descent budget, so please help me in any kind of way!

 

Here are the cards I'm thinking of putting in this deck:

 

Creatures:  2x Marsh Viper

                 3x Sabertooth Cobra

                 2x Patagia Cobra

                 3x Nafs Asp

                 1x Patron of Orochi

                 2x Tangle Asp

                 1x River Boa

                 1x Myojin of Life's Web

                 1x Mire Boa

                 1x Sachi, Daughter of Seshiro

                 1x Sosuke, Son of Seshiro

                 2x Seshiro the Anointed

 

Artifacts:  2x Coat of Arms

               3x Serpent Generator

               3x Snake Basket

               1x Infinite Hourglass

               1x Orochi Hatchery

 

Throw-Ins:  1x Steely Resolve

                 1x Doubling Season

                 2x Parallel Evolution

                 2x Sosuke's Summons

                 3x Overrun

                 1x Epic Struggle

 

Land: 20x Forest

 

All cards can be replaced if you see fit, after some insite I'm going to buy them individually.

If you think I should change this deck into just poison counter please say so, and if you could, tell me what cards I should take out and put in to make this deck purely poison counter!  Please help me soon as possible because my friends are holding a tournament soon! I appreciate your advice and I thank you for your help!

  

Thanks for helping out,

Kyle Watermolen

You're welcome, Kyle.  I know it took longer than you might have liked it (current estimated waiting time here at the Garage is approximately one month), but I'm on the job now and ready to have this deck tuned up faster than a cobra's bite.

First, I'll address your burning underlined question: do I think you should change this deck over into just poison counters?  Well, you seem willing to accept any advice I give and aren't too attached to any of these card syet (having not bought them), so here's what I think.  You should change this deck into just snakes.

I know, I know, it's a shocker, but the truth is that poison counters just don't work all that well.  Especially since most of the creatures that give poison counters aren't very good.  Back in the day, enchanting a Marsh Cobra with Hermetic Study worked fairly well, but that's because the Cobra needed an alternative way of damaging the opponent.  It's too small to attack with safely.

Snakes, on the other hand, are a better bet.  There's plenty of them, and the ones out there are mostly better than the creatures out there that poison, and you can make tokens of them for large swarms or chump blocking.  So, let's switch this deck over to a Snake deck, shall we?

The first step is to take out all the non-Snake, non-Snake-supporting creatures.  That's Marsh Viper and Nafs Asp, which are a Viper and an Asp respectively, not snakes at all.  Patron of the Orochi can stay in since it has a Snake-centric ability, but Myojin of Life's Web looks like it got tossed in just because it looked like fun.  Which isn't the worst thing in the world, but it's an 11-mana creature and you don't really have any way to cheat it out.  Sabertooth Cobra, despite being a Snake, can also come out, since you no longer have enough poison to make it work.  And I can't even find Patagia Cobra in Gatherer, so I'm assuming you meant Patagia Viper.  That comes out unless you're willing to add in a blue mana source.  That gives us 11 slots; what sort of Snakes can we add in?  Well, Ohran Viper is undeniably powerful, but kind of a money rare.  Sakura-Tribe Elder is a common, and known for being an excellent Snake having seen much tournament play.  And Orochi Sustainer could be good for helping you get counters onto that Orochi Hatchery.  I wouldn't really be doing my job if I didn't also bring up Kashi-Tribe Reaver.

Now, for your artifacts.  Serpent Generator comes out.  One, it costs way too much mana.  Two, it's another poison enabler.  And three, the tokens it creatures aren't technically considered Snakes, they're "Poison-Snakes".  Snake Basket, on the other hand, received errata years ago so now it does create Snake tokens.  It can stay, along with the powerful Orochi Hatchery.  You'll actually want more copies of the Hatchery.  If you need the room, you can take out Infinite Hourglass.

As for your "throw-ins", well, they're all actually quite powerful in this deck.  Except maybe Parallel Evolution, but if you add more Hatcheries then that will get mroe powerful.  Another card you may want to "throw in" is Endless Swarm.  Yes, the Epic restriction hurts, but not as much when you can still use your mana to play the Hatchery's ability or sacrifice a Snake Basket.  And Seshiro works wonders with Endless Swarm.  Think about it.

I know that it's quite likely that that tournament you mentioned has come and gone, but I hope that my advice will help you out anyway.  If nothing else, I expect you'll be ready for the next one!

Good luck,

~BMoor