Selvala of Pern

Segrus · **Posted:** 2015-Jun-13 12:33 am

(Image by Robin Wood, 1988)

The Dragonriders of Pern book series by Anne McCaffrey isn't my favorite book series, but it captured my imagination and a child-like delight I've missed in reading for quite some time. It was only until I noticed the similarities between this image and Selvala--who I'd been eyeing for a good deck for a while now--that I finally found a new theme deck.

Spoilers ahead! Don't read unless you want the books spoiled!

Lessa of Pern
Lessa is a main character of the Pern series and the focus of this deck. In the books, she is the child of tragedy: her entire bloodline wiped out by an invading tyrant, and only survived by hiding with her family castle's guardian wher (lesser dragon). She was given a premonitory sense of the impending catastrophe due to her future self arriving quite accidentally in her former self's timeline, causing a ripple which both selfs could feel. I know...complicated.

By surviving, she was able to grow up and obtain perfect revenge in directly causing the tyrant's death. But due to this, she was marked by dragonriders as being a likely candidate for becoming the Wyrewoman--queen of the dragonriders. In this, she is most capable, as she has the ability to talk telepathically to all dragons (dragonriders at the time can only speak to their dragon).

Dragons of Pern
Monstrous and capable of teleportation (I know, because dragons weren't cool enough already), and bonded to one human for the rest of the human's life. Once the human dies, the dragon commits suicide. Incapable of breathing fire without the help of a special rock that, when eaten, mixes with the dragon's stomach to produce a flaming breath. Dragonriders and their dragons spend their whole life fighting against a planetary menace known as the Thread.

Thread
The Thread is a hostile, non-sentient fungus/spore which rapidly consumes all organic matter is comes in contact with. It is not natural to the world of Pern, but grows on a nearby planet named "The Red Star." Every two hundred years, the Red Star remains close enough to the planet of Pern for the Thread to pass through space between the two and land on Pern. This pass lasts for fifty years.

Relevant Plot for this Deck
Due to a quirk in the planetary cycles, four hundred years passed without Threadfall. The end of these four hundred approaches as Selvala is learning to be a dragonrider after having killed her family's murderer. Also, after the last Threadfall (four hundred years ago), four of the five dragon Weyrs--strongholds where dragons and their riders live--suddenly disappeared without a trace. Selvala, while learning to teleport with her dragon, discovers their capability to not only transport between places, but also times. Using this, she fulfills her fate by going back in time 400 years to bring forward the four Weyrs which suddenly disappeared in order to have enough dragons to save Pern from the current Threadfall.

Kemev · **Joined:** 2011-Feb-07 3:37 pm **Age:** Elder Dragon

Are you still working on this?

Not all the GW dragons are great, but Foe-Razer Regent is pretty good. You already have ways to blink it and make it fight stuff too. Hardened Scales and Sight of the Scalelord are a good fit too; they're Dragon-flavored and +1/+1 counter themed.

Invigorating Boon is another way to make your cyclers do work. I'm assuming you're running all the cycle lands... you might think about adding Radiant's Judgment too.

This might be a good deck for Birthing Pod; it's a good back-up for Yisan, the deck's already got a couple cards that shuffle back into the deck when they die, and you could also throw in a Repopulate.

Maybe proliferate cards for a Thread-theme mechanic?

Viperion · **Joined:** 2010-Jul-18 9:59 pm **Age:** Elder Dragon

I'd replace Den Protector with Champion of Lambholt for all your "unblockable by creatures less than 'x'" needs

Segrus · **Posted:** 2015-Nov-24 10:40 pm

Kemev wrote:

Are you still working on this?

Short answer is yes, I'm still working on this. Long answer is...

Well, there's a lot to this deck. I was really excited about it as I was going through some of the Pern books. I posted this decklist so I could help keep track of where I was in the deck design process, as I almost immediately realized how slowly the deck can play out sometimes, but also how terrible of a decklist it can be when trying to finish out a game. It doesn't always seem to do enough to close out--more on this below. I was also hoping to garner a little attention by posting it, but it never seemed to get any interest. So I paused in working on it until I had some new ideas. That pausing has lasted...well, what, since basically the time I posted the decklist in June?

Kemev wrote:

Not all the GW dragons are great, but Foe-Razer Regent is pretty good. You already have ways to blink it and make it fight stuff too. Hardened Scales and Sight of the Scalelord are a good fit too; they're Dragon-flavored and +1/+1 counter themed.

Invigorating Boon is another way to make your cyclers do work. I'm assuming you're running all the cycle lands... you might think about adding Radiant's Judgment too.

This might be a good deck for Birthing Pod; it's a good back-up for Yisan, the deck's already got a couple cards that shuffle back into the deck when they die, and you could also throw in a Repopulate.

Maybe proliferate cards for a Thread-theme mechanic?

It's true, not all of the dragons are great. There are a number of really good ones though. I guess my main concern with Foe-Razer is the real lack of fight mechanic in the deck to make him really shine. I suppose I could look into what other cards I might add to create more fights.

I should be running every cycling land. I'll having to think about how Birthing Pod fits in thematically.

As for proliferate cards...I suppose Contagion Clasp and Contagion Engine work well enough. All is Dust is definitely the closest thematically to the Thread, but these two proliferate cards probably work well enough I can ignore the card art (or modify them later) to work. Thanks for the suggestions!

Viperion wrote:

I'd replace Den Protector with Champion of Lambholt for all your "unblockable by creatures less than 'x'" needs

I considered Champion, but Den Protector works quite well as a creature who fights to protect the Weyrs (dens) from Threadfall. Also, being able to return a card to my hand is quite a big deal in the world of cycling cards. Maybe there's a place for both somewhere. Thanks!

Segrus · **Posted:** 2016-Feb-27 2:39 am

I've finally gotten this decklist finished, and everything sleeved up. It's been a long time in the making, honestly, so I'm glad it's done (well, at this point). I've changed up a lot of the cards in the original list, but I don't recall offhand all of them. I do believe I'll need to consider a tutor or two to help get the list flowing properly, but I don't have those changes figured out yet (specifically to get Astral Slide and Invigorating Boon out quicker).

Selvala of Pern

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