MTG Salvation

For awhile I've been playing around with the idea of a deck that specializes in creatures that deal non-combat damage through tapping. Pingers. I've had this deck on Tappedout for a few years now, even wrote a (somewhat outdated) primer for it. I don't think the deck is competitive or concise enough to have a Primer written up for it here just yet, but I'd like you guys to take a look at it and let me know what you think.



The deck obviously leans HARD into the Pingers theme; I'm starting to think it could use a bit of balancing. Counters and the like. I'm not all that familiar with what are considered Izzet's best general card choices, so I'd love to have some input!

9/13/18: Made a few changes based on input!

Removed:
Ral Zarek
Minamo, School at Waters Edge
Willbreaker
Brimstone Mage
Honden of Seeing Winds
Honden of Infinite Rage

Added:
Vance's Blasting Cannons
Detection Tower
Unwind
Temple Bell
Blue Sun's Zenith
Thornwind Faeries

Kami of the Crescent Moon, Howling Mine help with keeping people pinged due to hand size from Fevered Visions, as well as bolstering your ping strength when Niv 1.0 is out. That being said, you may also want to look into Niv 3.0 as one of your 99, though he may be more meta dependent.
Fateful Showdown, Nahiri's Wrath, Molten Psyche, all those can be GREAT pinger spells. I would also suggest getting Library of Leng to reduce the chances of decking yourself(or put Laboratory Maniac in if you WANT that to happen). It's quite hilarious to cast Showdown for X cards, discard them(via Library) to your library, and return the cards for free to your hand. Blue Sun's Zenith can be a great way to insure people get hit by Fevered Visions or the like by filling their hand at the last minute as well.
Staple counters include Counterspell, Disallow, Trickbind, Rewind and the like. However, it can also include stuff like Mizzium Meddler, Spellskite and Venser, Shaper Savant. If uncounterable spells are a problem, consider Commit of Commit // Memory, Mindbreak Trap or Redirect. Finally, to insure your stuff gets through, see about Boseiju, Who Shelters All.

Thanks for a help! I am a little wary of Howling Mine style effects just because Fevered Visions is the only Rack-style pinging the deck has. I'm trying to avoid this from becoming a Nekusar deck, if you get what I mean. However, those discard-to-ping cards could really benefit from extra draw, even if it is giving everyone else card advantage.

The new Niv is absolutely going in, that card is just insane for this type of deck. The counters all seem like good options; I'm personally a big fan of Commit // Memory, kind of embarrassed I haven't put that in already!

What would you suggest I cut? Some of the lamer cards like the Hondens? Saheeli Rai is really only in because she's a cheap, good Izzet planeswalker and I happen to own one.

Brimstone Mage(by and large, levelers need to be FANTASTIC to make it in EDH, and he's one of the worst ones, being that he costs 7 total to be useful)
Honden of Infinite Rage(only two damage, ever...pass)
Wojek Embermage(if the biggest threat coming at you is a red or blue creature...)
Willbreaker(unless you plan to include blink effects to get another creature AND keep the first target...)
Izzet Staticaster(unless you run into a Relentless Rats or Shadowborn Apostle deck, it's no better than any other pinger...you might as well put Tim in at that point)
Ral Zarek(as fun as it might seem to run to his ultimate and get 5 extra turns, getting there is often a chore, and his +1 doesn't help nearly as often as it should. Plus, I can tell you from experience that getting to the ult and having it whiff is NOT fun...spare the pain and pitch him)

Most all of the rest seems decent, and should be taken as a fine-tune approach...see what works for the next few games, then try swapping out an underperformer or two. The big test will be when GoR comes out, and one can try Niv in his brand new glory. And don't feel bad about Commit...someone had to point out its relevance to me as well, so now I help to spread the word(which I may regret should it be used against me someday, lol).

A lot of these are things I was planning on taking out anyway, so it's good to know I was on the right track! Izzet Staticaster I'm going to have to veto, though. Haste and Flash really make it one of my favorite pingers in the deck, haha. This is really helpful though!

Definitely looking forward to getting my hands on the new Niv, though. I'm really hoping Izzet pulls through with some good basic pingers, too. It's been a long time since a solid pinger has come out.

Sounds fair, I missed the haste part on Staticaster, so I can get why you'd want to keep him around. With the others, you were on the right path(pingers), but you overcommitted, and now just need to scale back for better ones or for a back-up plan. Happens to all of us at some point or another.

Yeah definitely, this is a huge help. I should have some time to make cuts tomorrow; I'll update the decklist soon.

I'm trying to look up Howling Mine alternatives that are more one-sided but there aren't many that aren't either super high CMC or really restrictive. Ever-Watching Threshold could potentially net a lot of cards by my next turn AND is tutorable by Drift of Phantasms but needs people to attack me. If this deck is firing on all cylinders, I should be the only one with creatures on the board.

Loyal Drake is also CMC3 and less restrictive, but requires Keranos to be out and is a 2/2 creature. The deck isn't totally commander-dependant though he is hard to get rid of, so this may be worth a try.

Otherwise, I think I'm leaning towards Temple Bell or just more straight-up draw spells.

Temple Bell is a great choice, so go for it. As for draw spells, be careful of swinging back and overcommitting the other way...take it slow, and give it a few games in the new iteration. Feel free to also look at my Niv-Mizzet decklist: a lot of the cards will be out of your price range or not exactly casual, but you may get some good ideas.

EDIT: I was just looking over some other things, and was alerted to other cards you may want to consider...
League Guildmage - 2 in 1, can't argue with that.
Thermo-Alchemist - this may be iffy, as you have a low sorcery/instant bent, but it's still a pinger that can do a little more if you have the hand for it.

League Guildmage does seem really cool. I'll have to give her a try when she comes out. Thermo-Alchemist I don't really like just because he ONLY pings opponents. I like the versatility of creatures that can ping any target, so they can be used as both removal and burn in the right situations. There really hasn't been a good "any target" pinger in a while. Fervent Paincaster needs to Exert to target a creatur and Aethertorch Renegade needs a lot of Energy. Other than those two I don't believe there have been any other "any target" pingers.

Quote from SafetyValve »

League Guildmage does seem really cool. I'll have to give her a try when she comes out. Thermo-Alchemist I don't really like just because he ONLY pings opponents. I like the versatility of creatures that can ping any target, so they can be used as both removal and burn in the right situations. There really hasn't been a good "any target" pinger in a while. Fervent Paincaster needs to Exert to target a creatur and Aethertorch Renegade needs a lot of Energy. Other than those two I don't believe there have been any other "any target" pingers.

*points again to Izzet Staticaster and Mercurial Chemister*

Seriously speaking, I get where you're coming from, BUT...consider that as soon as your opponent is out, the creatures are a non-issue. Honestly, if you have to choose between a creature only pinger or a player only pinger...it's usually best to go the player only one.

However, I do see Thermo does damage to EACH opponent, which is its own brand of danger, so you probably want to not go with that anyway.

Actually... With that in mind, I might try Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh

Hi!
I was planning to build a Pinger deck as well .... but I ended up with my Reveka, Wizard Savant deck instead. You may look at the decklist through the link provided in my sig.

Tell me how your deck is playing so far.

As for suggestions, you may also add in cards such as
Aphetto Alchemist, Fatestitcher and the like. These can function both as pingers and as mana source (they can untap mana rocks or lands)

Also, you may want to add in a copy of Dramatic Reversal, just so that you can untap all your pingers at will and use them twice in one turn. Even though it's not chained to a combo (though you can), its still a useful spell that your opponents won't see coming.

Paradox Engine is a great card too.

P.S. I just noticed, all my suggestions are in my Reveka deck, so if you would just visit my deck list, you will learn how I used these interactions. My Reveka deck was a mono-blue pinger at the start, but then, I transformed it and just left my commander to be the only pinger.

The lack of any type of Damage doubling enchantment seems to be too glaring of an omission. Is there a specific reason that you aren't playing Furnace of Wrath effects in your deck? It makes your Pingers more relevant with fewer of them in play and helps to actually make them effective win conditions.

Where's Curiosity and Ophidian Eye? They make your Pingers sources of card advantage. I don't know if your group frowns on infinite combos or something, but these cards seem too powerful to just dismiss outright.

Hey guys!

So I recently game into possession of Will Kenrith and Rowan Kenrith and I'm really tempted to shift this into more of a Superfriends Pingers deck. I'm gonna give it a try and post my results. In the meantime I'll answer some questions that have come up.

Damage doubling effects become more of a curse than a blessing in this type of deck. Doubling the damage output of all of your Pingers is great, but it'll also double the damage of any fatties on the table you may not have been able to get rid of.

Curiosity style effects are nice, and I do have a handful of them, but I tend to stay away from the Auras because they go away if the enchanted creature dies, and I don't have any way to immediately recur them. Your mileage may vary, though.

Electrostatic Field could be worth a look...