Source
r/Pauper•
Toadstuff09

Revised TortEx Deck | Deck Ideas and Discussion

DECK DISC.

Hey all,

I for one am super excited by the new CMM downshifts, and have been trying to update my beloved TortEx deck.

[[Lotleth Giant]] and [[Dread Return]] are two massive additions to pauper, giving a clean way to shut the door on the opponent and win on the spot with a large enough yard. [[Mire Triton]] is also a sweet addition to mill, offset some life loss, and add a considerable chump blocker to slow down aggro or 5/5's.

After some scrolling through scryfall, I landed on [[Acorn Harvest]] as an fantastic way to make a few bodies for Dread Return's flashback cheaply (and from the yard), meaning we just need to focus on filling it as quickly as possible and reanimating a Giant. Looping Tortured Existence + Stinkweed Imp + Street Wraith is the most effective way to do this, translating into 'Pay 1B + 2 Life: Mill 5 cards'. It's very easy to slam a Giant with 20+ creatures in the yard on Turn 4 with this setup.

Although vulnerable to graveyard hate, a backup plan of dropping a few [[Writhing Necromass]] or reanimating a [[Troll of Khazad-dum]] and beating down is still scary.

Speaking of, the new landcyclers from LOTR are really the icing on the cake, allowing us to drop our land count significantly and increase our creature count for the Giant. From playtesting the manabase seems pretty solid.

All in all this deck feels super nice to playtest, and I think there could be some real potential here. I would love to know what the community thinks, the gems I have undoubtedly missed, any thoughts for making it more streamlined/consistent/powerful, and how to make it more adapted to the current pauper meta (particularly the sideboard).

Much love :)

​

Posted Jul 25, 2023, 3:29 AM UTC

111
MTGCardFetcher•

Lotleth Giant - (G) (SF) (txt)
Dread Return - (G) (SF) (txt)
Mire Triton - (G) (SF) (txt)
Acorn Harvest - (G) (SF) (txt)
Writhing Necromass - (G) (SF) (txt)
Troll of Khazad-dum - (G) (SF) (txt)
^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call

1
KenBarb•

This list looks sick on paper. It's hard to tell how it stacks up to other decks.

1
OhDee402•

I've never played tortex before but I'm excited to start and I think I will be using your list as a starting point. Thanks for sharing! Looks sweet. This seems like the kind of list that will have to be tweaked depending on each person's meta.

1
OhDee402•

[[basking rootwalla]] might be useful as well.

1
MTGCardFetcher•

basking rootwalla - (G) (SF) (txt)
^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call

1
Zomb1333•

have you considered [[dredgescape zombie]] as the body for Dread Return since it would be cheaper to cast for both it's unearth and regular costs, as well as being another creature which can empower Lotleth Giant?

1
MTGCardFetcher•

dredgescape zombie - (G) (SF) (txt)
^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call

1
Toadstuff09OP•

That could actually be a really good shout, definitely worth testing. Didn't know the zombies existed, thanks for the suggestion!

1
Lilbabynoobnoob•

Here's my paper list it's a bit more toolboxy and a little jank but I think it's a good baseline for a Tortex shell. After the spoilers I'm considering adding 1 of both Lotleth Giant and Dread Return as finishers but tbh I think Mire Triton is a trap and not worth including. I'd also highly recommend including [[Kitchen Imp]] that card has always been an over performer for me. I like the cycling creatures but I'd caution you with running too many heavy top end creatures. Sure Tortex is a grindy long match but with paying for casting spells and activating Tortex mana can get tight. Another card I've been debating adding is [[Seed of Hope]] but Im not sure how well it will perform. Lemme know what you think

https://www.archidekt.com/decks/3131925/tortex

1
MTGCardFetcher•

Kitchen Imp - (G) (SF) (txt)
Seed of Hope - (G) (SF) (txt)
^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call

1
ThunderBirdJack•

I agree that Kitchen Imp is the best card in the deck. I think most TortEx shells should be playing at least 3 if not 4.

Here's my list I made a while back for a pauper league at my LGS. https://www.moxfield.com/decks/T6zmBpntckKdlktZrqwwgw

1
tomyang1117•

https://archidekt.com/decks/5015734/pauper_tortex

This is my current first draft of the deck.

I think if you are running 6-8 land cyclers than splashing a third color is relatively free, in this case I am splashing the first copy of auramancer. With some proper math done I think double off color pip cards like dust to dust might even be possible.

1