I'm not a particularly strong Gangrel player, so this deck is in part to force me to play more Gangrel and also to push my ability to play Gangrel better.
I'm keen to hear feedback about this.
Deck Name : Wall of Birds
Author : Juggernaut1981
Description :
This is intended to be a Wall Deck based around Animalism retainers, mixed Animalism/Protean combat and classic grinding cards (Jack, Antediluvian, Army of Rats, Anarch Revolt). I'm not planning to go anarch with the deck but wear the grind on my pool through the Blood Dolls. I'll probably try to set it up as strongly-forward blocking as I can manage.
Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 4 max: 9 average: 5.91667
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3x Lord Ashton 5 ANI for pro Gangrel:3
3x Bobby Lemon 4 ANI pro Gangrel:3
2x Ingrid Rossler 9 ANI FOR PRO dom prince Gangrel:2
2x Danielle Diron 7 ANI PRO chi for 1 vote Gangrel:3
2x Horrock 6 ANI PRO vic Gangrel:3
Library [82 cards]
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Action [8]
2x Army of Rats
2x Movement of the Slow Body
1x Shepherd's Innocence
2x Tier of Souls
1x Trainer
Action Modifier [10]
4x Earth Control
6x Freak Drive
Combat [34]
10x Aid from Bats
2x Canine Horde
6x Carrion Crows
4x Drawing Out the Beast
8x Flesh of Marble
4x Form of Mist
Master [11]
1x Anarch Revolt
1x Antediluvian Awakening
4x Blood Doll
1x Ecoterrorists
1x Gangrel Revel
1x Smiling Jack, The Anarch
2x Zoo Hunting Ground
Reaction [8]
8x Cats' Guidance
Retainer [11]
2x Dog Pack
2x Homunculus
1x Murder of Crows
4x Raven Spy
2x Wolf Companion
Hello!it's my first time here. I have similar deck. If you want to be wall you must use more reaction, my favourite is: 5 Cat's guidance, 10 forced and 5 on the qui vive. You need more intercept, i play with 10 raven and 6 murder and 10 pack alpha. No more retainer are need it.
ReplyDeleteNo need action modifiers, if someone blocks you put it into hole with combat:P
i hope i help you.
The action modifiers are there to help me get that setup. Similar for the Form of Mist. I don't really like the "Pack Alpha" thing, because its too similar to Concealed Weapon and conditional. I'd prefer to be able to get the Raven Spy in my hand when I can.
ReplyDeleteHomonculus + Cat's Guidance should give me enough untap-power to block most things I need to, the only exception being Block-Fails cards.
I do need to probably put in 6+ Taste of Vitae.
Well hi there, I know it's not the same, but in my Magorzata and Her Tzimisce block deck i play around 25 untaps (maybe more, really) - truth is, 10-12 of them are Eyes of Argus. I'm not sure whether I would like to depend on two cards for my block deck's functionality (I mean the Homunculi), also I don't see enough intercept cards here (I personally play Bowl of Convergence, Corpse Balloon, Abbot and Revenant, two copies each, and LOTS of reaction intercept cards). One Smiling Jack is IMO too few, at least 2, better 3 of them. But I don't want to criticise too much, I don't have enough experience with Gangrel and neither with ANI block deck.
ReplyDeleteIf I wanted to learn to play Gangrel, I definitely wouldn't choose a block deck in the first place... ;-)
I have been playing and testing akunanse block deck for some time right now and although your deck is quite different, there are some similarities. I will try to comment each set of cards.
ReplyDeleteAction Cards - Trainer and Shepherd's Innocence are just taking space in this deck. I can see situations, where they can be usefull, but more than that they will just jam your hand. Movement of the slow body is a good card, but I do not know, how it should combine with your combat package. Tier of souls is not bad, but I can see laptop computers as better option if you aim for bleed dmg and deep songs are better, if you aim is crippling vampires. Armies of rats sure are great.
Action modifier - freak drives are generaly good, but here I cannot see their effectiveness. I would replace them with more untaps if you want to play this deck more wallish. Earth controls are great, but with only four of them, you will never have them, when you'll need them. So either more of them, or replace them with more combat, so that you will punish anyone, who tries to block you. Believe me, it works great.
Combat - I am not sure, how do you plan to work with this combat package. Partialy it looks like classic long range animalism combat, but there are some close range combat aspects. So I suggest more crows and bats and terror frenzies, or removing them completely, adding more drawings, some aggravated dmg cards.
Master - Well I have a few decks in my posession and I can tell you, that about 50% of them can generate more pool than you, so the revolt and awakening will be more devastating for you than them. Rest of my decks are just heavy dmg dealers, which would gain edge thaks to your own cards. Other masters are well chosen.
Reaction cards - too few untaps in general. And they leave you totally defenseless in case you have tapped all your vampires. I would consider some Qui Vive and probably a few eludings even, which are killer with permacepts.
Retainers - too few raven spies. It almost seems like this deck is not designed to block. There sould be at least twice as much. Damage dealing retainers are somewhat cool, but you actually need to get in combat to use them.
Overall I would say, that is is a good attempt, but it lacks focus. It cannot deal pool dmg, combat is inconsistent and defense could be easily broken. Concept is not bad, but I think, that playtesting would show my point.