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6 months ago  ::  Nov 23, 2012 - 10:23PM #1
BUoy
Date Joined: Nov 21, 2012
Posts: 6
 I pulled Axebane Guardian and fell in love with it. so ive been playing around with ideas for a defender deck. I was wondering what others had in mind. Lets assume for the sake of conversation this deck would be for modern format In a casual setting.


Red/Green: Use axebane guardian, gatecreeper vine, Primal Clay, and wall of fire to hide behind while ramping for huge fireballs and volcanic geysers and rapid fire cheap burn spells. Rampant growth is obviously a must, and Battle Hymn the problem I see is that gatecreeper vine is a classic case or something being mediocre at two things instead of good at one a 0/2 he cant even stop a zombie token without buying the farm. . with burn spells as my offense, i need the mana split to favor red probably with 14 mountains 6 forests. Dual lands will help buy unfortunatley my money tree died.







 
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6 months ago  ::  Nov 23, 2012 - 10:44PM #2
AcexSpades
Date Joined: Oct 10, 2012
Posts: 55
If you're running a Defender deck, there are a few things you need to watch out for.  Your biggest problem is that the decks are generally slow in generating win conditions, leaving your opponent able to bring out creatures big enough to take down the walls you put up or sneak through the cracks with Intimidate or some other kind of evasion.  I don't know of any Defender-based deck without Doorkeeper in it.  The stalling mill archetype does give you a bit of an advantage.  

Another great wall is Norn's Annex .  It's great against most opponents, even if they're running white, because it forces them to use their mana up attacking rather than summoning.  Another interesting one is Cathedral Membrane which can essentially revenge kill anything that dares attack it.  The best part of these is that you can choose the splash white or just pay the Phyrexian cost, but they're worthwhile nonetheless.
Also, if you're splashing white, Rolling Stones is a must.
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6 months ago  ::  Nov 23, 2012 - 10:58PM #3
JaxsonBateman
Date Joined: Sep 16, 2009
Posts: 4,176
Overgrown Battlement would almost be mandatory for this kind of thing, so that you have 8 defender rampers.
Vent Sentinel is an on theme wincon that also helps with the mana provided be Guardian and the Battlement, but has the drawback of taking a few turns to actually kill the opponent regardless of how much mana you have.
Comet Storm is a strong Fireball -esque spell that's also instant speed, and can gain card advantage by using it on multiple creatures. If your mana starts to really get crazy you can even one-shot multiple opponents in multiplayer.
Banefire is another option that would allow you to not have to worry about pesky counterspells.
Green Sun's Zenith allows you to search for your crucial ramping walls.
Carven Caryatid helps with the ramp, is a fairly sturdy defender and cantrips. I'd recommend Wall of Blossoms , but if you're trying to keep it modern legal that's out.

You can always ramp into some ginormous fatty for your wincon, but some people loathe Emmy in casual circles, so whether or not that's a viable wincon would depend on your group. Of course, if you want to annoy your circle you can go with Staff of Domination which provides infinite mana/life/card draw if you get a wall that can produce 5+ mana.
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6 months ago  ::  Nov 23, 2012 - 11:11PM #4
JaxsonBateman
Date Joined: Sep 16, 2009
Posts: 4,176

Nov 23, 2012 -- 10:44PM, AcexSpades wrote:

Another great wall is Norn's Annex .  It's great against most opponents, even if they're running white, because it forces them to use their mana up attacking rather than summoning.  Another interesting one is Cathedral Membrane which can essentially revenge kill anything that dares attack it.  The best part of these is that you can choose the splash white or just pay the Phyrexian cost, but they're worthwhile nonetheless.
Also, if you're splashing white, Rolling Stones is a must.



While it has a 'wall-like' effect, Norn's Annex isn't technically a wall. The issue with it in a defender deck is that your opponent can more or less ignore it - they'll attack you if they gain something out of that 2 life payment (2 or more damage to you, or making you lose a wall in blocking), or they just won't attack - but your walls are already there so that attacking is usually pointless. ^^

Rolling Stones is only useful if you have some way to make your defea bit more offensive, like Doran, the Siege Tower or, I dunno, Twisted Image . Most walls don't exactly have much power. It also won't have any interaction with the non-wall defenders in the deck.

I'm all about super-control in MTG. If you're able to stop my shenanigans, then there aren't enough shenanigans.

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6 months ago  ::  Nov 23, 2012 - 11:21PM #5
AcexSpades
Date Joined: Oct 10, 2012
Posts: 55

Nov 23, 2012 -- 11:11PM, JaxsonBateman wrote:

Nov 23, 2012 -- 10:44PM, AcexSpades wrote:

Another great wall is Norn's Annex .  It's great against most opponents, even if they're running white, because it forces them to use their mana up attacking rather than summoning.  Another interesting one is Cathedral Membrane which can essentially revenge kill anything that dares attack it.  The best part of these is that you can choose the splash white or just pay the Phyrexian cost, but they're worthwhile nonetheless.
Also, if you're splashing white, Rolling Stones is a must.



While it has a 'wall-like' effect, Norn's Annex isn't technically a wall. The issue with it in a defender deck is that your opponent can more or less ignore it - they'll attack you if they gain something out of that 2 life payment (2 or more damage to you, or making you lose a wall in blocking), or they just won't attack - but your walls are already there so that attacking is usually pointless. ^^

Rolling Stones is only useful if you have some way to make your defea bit more offensive, like Doran, the Siege Tower or, I dunno, Twisted Image . Most walls don't exactly have much power. It also won't have any interaction with the non-wall defenders in the deck.



Yeah, I just realized that.  I guess I got it confused with Cathedral Membrane .  And it's good in that it prevents your opponent from attacking with weenie cards.  Most decks at this point are massive swings with tokens and weak monsters.  Attacking 10 times is effectively a wincon, and if you use multiple Norn's Annex es, it stacks.  Imagine 2 Norn's, each attack they do, it's either 4 life or 2 mana.  They can't attack AND play creatures and the mana is needed to bring out the big guns.  By reducing the speed at which they bring out larger sweeper creatures, you're gaining more and more of an advantage since the casting cost of defenders is comparatively under par.

 Also, might I suggest Ensnaring Bridge ?

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6 months ago  ::  Nov 24, 2012 - 7:16AM #6
krichaiushii
Date Joined: Jul 17, 2003
Posts: 4,047
In a CASUAL setting, you could concievably use Axebane Guardian and Gatecreeper Vine to eventually have enough mana for a Door to Nothingness win.  I know of one deck that follows this strategy and is constantly working at it.

A friend has a WGR defender deck that uses Axebane, Vent Sentinel , and a few other walls with acceptable power and then animates them with Wakestone Gargoyle .  His deck only wins through overextending - fortunately for him, sweepers are not prevalent in our area.

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6 months ago  ::  Nov 24, 2012 - 4:41PM #7
Tunklebunkle
Date Joined: Jul 22, 2012
Posts: 103
I have my own defender deck that focuses on using Door to Nothingness to win. Here's the list:
(Sorry for the weird MS Word Formatting)


10 Forest 2 x [c]Terramorphic Expanse


4 Evolving Wilds


2 Island


2 Plains




20 lands

Axebane Guardian
4 Carven Caryatid


4 Overgrown Battlement


4 Wall of Omens


3 Stalwart Shield-Bearers


4 Wall of Vines


4 Wall of Tanglecord




24 Creatures


4 Biomantic Mastery


4 Door to Nothingness


4 Swiftfoot Boots


4 Negate




16 Other spells


Sideboard




0 Sideboard cards

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6 months ago  ::  Nov 24, 2012 - 5:08PM #8
BankaiMastery
Date Joined: Dec 3, 2008
Posts: 2,855
How about,

Wall of Blood   Soul Conduit Vent Sentinel (or any ping)

Tinder Wall Wall of Roots as ramp

Throw in Tree of Redemption as a backup for your life.
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6 months ago  ::  Nov 24, 2012 - 5:13PM #9
Escef
Date Joined: Jul 23, 2003
Posts: 10,861

Nov 23, 2012 -- 11:11PM, JaxsonBateman wrote:

Rolling Stones is only useful if you have some way to make your defea bit more offensive, like Doran, the Siege Tower or, I dunno, Twisted Image . Most walls don't exactly have much power. It also won't have any interaction with the non-wall defenders in the deck.




I run a RWG Wall deck with Rolling Stones and Coat of Arms . Hey, look, all of the old school walls have the creature type of "Wall", ain't that a thing?

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6 months ago  ::  Nov 24, 2012 - 5:18PM #10
BankaiMastery
Date Joined: Dec 3, 2008
Posts: 2,855
Why don't you run Wakestone Gargoyle in place of Rolling Stones ?


Monowhite defender deck is that plus  Sunweb , Stoic Ephemera , &  Plumeveil


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