Personally I'm working on a RG list for my stuffy/reckoner deck. Since you have access to Clan defiance, farseek (and currently trackers isntinct and urban evolution) but the RWB idea does interest me.
I don't quite understand the direction your list in trying to go. There doesn't seem to be enough creatures for an aggro plan, and without unburial rites/doll the BAct plan wont work since teh first reckoner is just going to die and you have no way to find a second one fast.
Faithless Looting could be a good way to gain CA. You can ditch souls/temblor/rites/devil's play for value.
Chandra seems sweet in this deck with all the instants/sorceries. Also keeps opposing PWers in check, and at worst can ping your high priest.
If you're having problems with 4turn aggro, try playing 4 spears 4 Pillars in your 75. I'm not sure of the best answer to Thundermaw, that card is quite good. But i guess you could SB Ultimate price.
As far as control goes, more PWers, and Hellkites out of the board could be the way to go.
Won a GPT today, not much to report though since matchups were
RB jund humans RB ID mirror RB RB.
RB lists with crippling blight are scary, those with sign in blood are not.
Was amusing watching people keep hands with yard removal, and then proceed to kill them with hard cast centaurs and tusks.
Mulch is the best card draw in the format, don't like any blue mages tell you otherwise. Draw 2 lands, put a flashback card into the yard for 1G. yes please.
Craterhoof Behemoth should be in the main rather than the board over 2nd Griselbrand
Number of games where you get stuck with worldspine wurm in your hand
vs
number of games where you actually hit 11 mana and have wurm in your hand AND any other fatty would not win you the game.
On another note, I have found Vault of the Archangel to be more relevant tha Gavony Township . One activation gaining 5+ life can put you out of reach vs aggro, whereas township only does well if you get multiple activations and somehow run out of gas.
You can, it just loses some power without the mana guys, and centaur dies a lot more than troll. Might still be a SB consideration for those grinding matches.
i have moved onto testing the red version at the moment, and sadly no behemoth shenanigans in that list, instead you get the power that is Faithless Looting. Man, that card is soooooo strong.
Not sure which version i like more, they both have their strong points.
I wasn't a fan of the 'moth to start off with, it certainly is useless against hyper-aggro since it does nothing on defense, but it does shine against midrange and control.
They have to respect that elf + 2 lingering souls tokens with a 'moth in the yard is 24 damage. Or, more amusingly, if you have troll in play with another guy, you can just discard 'moth cast rites from hand, for lethal out of nowhere.
As well as the insta-win, 'moth is good at killing PWers, a big weakness of this deck. I am considering a 2nd in the SB for the UWx matchup.
There was a deck a called that worked off off alchemy/rites, it was called Solar Flare. It worked because of sun titan / image + wurmcoil, as well as the absurdness that is snapcaster + leak/ponder/doom blade etc. Because of the scars duals, allied colours were easy to play.
i would love to play alchemy if its cost was 2W or 2B or 2G, but it doesn't. It costs 2U. You are commited to B and W for rites/souls and preferably being able to cast Angel of Serenity and Griselbrand.
Do you know what colour currently has a guild associated with B and W and thus has access to current fixing? Green.
What colour has the current best creature in the format? Green -> Thragtusk
and what colour also has access to TWO different TWO MANA graveyard filling cantrips ? Green,( it has 3 if you want to include tracker's instinct)
This is why Frites is currently based off GWB, and not UWB. Now, faithless looting is such a good card, one version of the deck splashes red for it. Red also gives you Dreadbore and Bonfire, 2 ridiculous cards that you cannot get the same effect from GWB colours.
The version without red adopts for a ramp element by including mana accelerators. casting tusk on t4 instead of 5 or rites on 3 instead on 4 gives the ability to stablilize against aggro 'on time'.
Now, maybe you want to play a UW list that splashes green for tusk and black for rites/souls. That's fine, there's bound to be a thread for that somewhere. This is not it. This is for a deck whose plan A is to dump cards into the gy and cast unburial rites on a fatty as soon as possible and THIS deck is going to be playing Mulch and Grisly Salvage.
Edit:- Ok, there might be a possibily of building a base URw list that splashes G for tusks, and B for rites. If you can build that, with a functional mana base, then OK you can play frites with blue.
@blackchaos Boarding in centaur healers as extra thragtusks is better in that scenario than jarad's orders since the impact is immediate.
This discussion would be relevant if Gifts Ungiven was in the current standard format, but it is not, so can we move on to discussing something useful...such as
feelings on 23 vs 24 land
how many colorless lands (ie vault/township) can you play without getting color screwed
would 6 elves + 2 shamans be better than 8 elves, freeing up 2 SB slots, could you even play GWB without any elves at all?( though this seems bad, since you have less food for the trolls and makes behemoth weaker)
im also wondering if 3 rites is correct over 4, if you aren't running faithless looting.
Jarad's Orders is not a usable card at 4 mana and sorcery speed, unless there's a 2 creature combo that eventuates.
Im not sure this deck would even use entomb. Little point when your reanimation spells cost 4 or 5. You aren't trying to cast entomb T1 and exhume t2.
What makes mulch/salvage the core of the deck, is that they are cheap, replace themselves and send multiple cards to the yard. Faithless looting is a much stronger card, which is why it is splashed in one version, but Alchemy is not.
I don't quite understand the direction your list in trying to go. There doesn't seem to be enough creatures for an aggro plan, and without unburial rites/doll the BAct plan wont work since teh first reckoner is just going to die and you have no way to find a second one fast.
Faithless Looting could be a good way to gain CA. You can ditch souls/temblor/rites/devil's play for value.
Chandra seems sweet in this deck with all the instants/sorceries. Also keeps opposing PWers in check, and at worst can ping your high priest.
If you're having problems with 4turn aggro, try playing 4 spears 4 Pillars in your 75. I'm not sure of the best answer to Thundermaw, that card is quite good. But i guess you could SB Ultimate price.
As far as control goes, more PWers, and Hellkites out of the board could be the way to go.
RB jund humans RB ID mirror RB RB.
RB lists with crippling blight are scary, those with sign in blood are not.
Was amusing watching people keep hands with yard removal, and then proceed to kill them with hard cast centaurs and tusks.
Mulch is the best card draw in the format, don't like any blue mages tell you otherwise. Draw 2 lands, put a flashback card into the yard for 1G. yes please.
Craterhoof Behemoth should be in the main rather than the board over 2nd Griselbrand
4 Grisly Salvage
4 Faithless Looting
3 Lingering Souls
4 Unburial Rites
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Sever the Bloodline
1 Dreadbore
1 Rolling Temblor
1 Golgari Charm
4 Angel of Serenity
2 Griselbrand
3 Centaur Healer
4 Temple Garden
4 Blood Crypt
4 Overgrown Tomb
2 Woodland Cemetery
2 Sunpetal Grove
1 Isolated Chapel
3 Rootbound Crag
3 Clifftop Retreat
I'm just not sure how to SB against UWx control. Assuming I don't have a Vraska i'm thinking about these cards: Craterhoof Behemoth , Pithing Needle, Zealous Conscripts, Dreadbore, Ray of Revelation. What have others been trying?
vs
number of games where you actually hit 11 mana and have wurm in your hand AND any other fatty would not win you the game.
On another note, I have found Vault of the Archangel to be more relevant tha Gavony Township . One activation gaining 5+ life can put you out of reach vs aggro, whereas township only does well if you get multiple activations and somehow run out of gas.
Not sure which version i like more, they both have their strong points.
They have to respect that elf + 2 lingering souls tokens with a 'moth in the yard is 24 damage. Or, more amusingly, if you have troll in play with another guy, you can just discard 'moth cast rites from hand, for lethal out of nowhere.
As well as the insta-win, 'moth is good at killing PWers, a big weakness of this deck. I am considering a 2nd in the SB for the UWx matchup.
i would love to play alchemy if its cost was 2W or 2B or 2G, but it doesn't. It costs 2U. You are commited to B and W for rites/souls and preferably being able to cast Angel of Serenity and Griselbrand.
Do you know what colour currently has a guild associated with B and W and thus has access to current fixing? Green.
What colour has the current best creature in the format? Green -> Thragtusk
and what colour also has access to TWO different TWO MANA graveyard filling cantrips ? Green,( it has 3 if you want to include tracker's instinct)
This is why Frites is currently based off GWB, and not UWB. Now, faithless looting is such a good card, one version of the deck splashes red for it. Red also gives you Dreadbore and Bonfire, 2 ridiculous cards that you cannot get the same effect from GWB colours.
The version without red adopts for a ramp element by including mana accelerators. casting tusk on t4 instead of 5 or rites on 3 instead on 4 gives the ability to stablilize against aggro 'on time'.
Now, maybe you want to play a UW list that splashes green for tusk and black for rites/souls. That's fine, there's bound to be a thread for that somewhere. This is not it. This is for a deck whose plan A is to dump cards into the gy and cast unburial rites on a fatty as soon as possible and THIS deck is going to be playing Mulch and Grisly Salvage.
Edit:- Ok, there might be a possibily of building a base URw list that splashes G for tusks, and B for rites. If you can build that, with a functional mana base, then OK you can play frites with blue.
This discussion would be relevant if Gifts Ungiven was in the current standard format, but it is not, so can we move on to discussing something useful...such as
feelings on 23 vs 24 land
how many colorless lands (ie vault/township) can you play without getting color screwed
would 6 elves + 2 shamans be better than 8 elves, freeing up 2 SB slots, could you even play GWB without any elves at all?( though this seems bad, since you have less food for the trolls and makes behemoth weaker)
im also wondering if 3 rites is correct over 4, if you aren't running faithless looting.
Im not sure this deck would even use entomb. Little point when your reanimation spells cost 4 or 5. You aren't trying to cast entomb T1 and exhume t2.
What makes mulch/salvage the core of the deck, is that they are cheap, replace themselves and send multiple cards to the yard. Faithless looting is a much stronger card, which is why it is splashed in one version, but Alchemy is not.
4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
2 Lotleth Troll
4 Thragtusk
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Armada Wurm
1 Craterhoof Behemoth
3 Angel of Serenity
4 Grisly Salvage
2 Liliana of the Veil
3 Lingering Souls
3 Unburial Rites
2 Vault of the Archangel
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Temple garden
2 Sunpetal Grove
3 Isolated Chapel
4 Woodland Cemetery
4 Forest
1 Swamp
Def a fan of 1 Behemoth again.