It's basically a control deck aimed at my aggro-and-ramp-heavy meta. Enemy creatures get their creature types changed, then I use various shenanigans to kill them.
I only got a chance to play it once today, against a reasonably fast black Khans-block recursion aggro deck. My opponent quickly dropped a couple of Bloodsoaked Champions, a Nantuko Husk and a Sultai Emissary. Unfortunately I didn't pull a Plumeveil, but made do with an Imagecrafter and two Knight of the Mists to whittle away at his board. He got annoyed enough by the Imagecrafter to hit it with spot removal, and got me down to 6 life. But he scooped after I brought out Spirit Mirror and Unnatural Selection.
The deck looks vulnerable to most of the common control strategies, and would be ineffectual against combo. Fortunately for me, there's not much control in my meta, and proper combo is nonexistent.
Other than swapping in Wall of Denial (which I have no copies of at the moment) for Plumeveil, what tweaks might you make if you were to give this deck a spin?
One problem I see is that Pure Reflection will kill your Amoeboid Changeling when any player casts a creature spell, unless you use its ability on itself to make it lose all its creature types in response, or use some other card for that. It's not much of an issue, but it seems cumbersome.
Slayer of the Wicked is another creature type based removal you could use and would give you some more creatures to actually attack with.
Shields of Velis Vel doesn't do much unless you also have some destroy option available that turn, and if you're destroying creatures with spot removal en masse, chances are you're no hitting much with that convoluted mass removal. I'd rather just go for some good white spot removal, like Path to Exile. Or rely even more on ETB destroy effects with Momentary Blink or Ghostly Flicker, which also give you some means to protect your creatures.
Since your game really starts with 4+ mana, you could use some mana rocks, like Mind Stone or Azorius Signet to get there faster.
In the game I played, the four cards left in my hand when my opponent scooped were three Pure Reflections and one Shields of Velis Vel. There always seemed to be a better option at every stage of play. That may have been a fluke, but if not, I may take Pure Reflection out and leave Amoeboid Changeling in. And you're right, Shields is probably too dependent on other cards in play to be worthwhile.
I'd considered Slayer of the Wicked during design, but thought it was a bit too expensive compared to other options. At the time I hadn't yet thought to add Amoeboid Changeling, though, and having that in the deck should make the Slayer more viable for spot removal in the early game.
The transmute options are an interesting suggestion, as are the mana rocks. I'll mull this over and retool the deck sometime during the upcoming week. Thank you for your help!
4 Amoeboid Changeling (2)
1 Hanna, Ship’s Navigator (3)
4 Imagecrafter (1)
4 Knight of the Mists (3)
4 Plumeveil (3)
4 Undead Slayer (3)
4 Pure Reflection (3)
4 Spirit Mirror (4)
4 Unnatural Selection (2)
INSTANTS
4 Shields of Velis Vel (1)
8 Island
7 Plains
4 Temple of Enlightenment
4 Tranquil Cove
I only got a chance to play it once today, against a reasonably fast black Khans-block recursion aggro deck. My opponent quickly dropped a couple of Bloodsoaked Champions, a Nantuko Husk and a Sultai Emissary. Unfortunately I didn't pull a Plumeveil, but made do with an Imagecrafter and two Knight of the Mists to whittle away at his board. He got annoyed enough by the Imagecrafter to hit it with spot removal, and got me down to 6 life. But he scooped after I brought out Spirit Mirror and Unnatural Selection.
The deck looks vulnerable to most of the common control strategies, and would be ineffectual against combo. Fortunately for me, there's not much control in my meta, and proper combo is nonexistent.
Other than swapping in Wall of Denial (which I have no copies of at the moment) for Plumeveil, what tweaks might you make if you were to give this deck a spin?
If you're looking to exchange Plumeveil, instead of Wall of Denial I'd go for Drift of Phantasms, because you can also use that card as a tutor for Pure Reflection, as well as Undead Slayer or Knight of the Mists. In the same vein, you could use Muddle the Mixture as a tutor for Unnatural Selection and also gain some counterspell options. These tutor option would make you able to lose Hanna, Ship's Navigator and also allow you to cut down on the creature type change effects, for example, that Amoeboid Changeling.
Slayer of the Wicked is another creature type based removal you could use and would give you some more creatures to actually attack with.
Shields of Velis Vel doesn't do much unless you also have some destroy option available that turn, and if you're destroying creatures with spot removal en masse, chances are you're no hitting much with that convoluted mass removal. I'd rather just go for some good white spot removal, like Path to Exile. Or rely even more on ETB destroy effects with Momentary Blink or Ghostly Flicker, which also give you some means to protect your creatures.
Since your game really starts with 4+ mana, you could use some mana rocks, like Mind Stone or Azorius Signet to get there faster.
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In the game I played, the four cards left in my hand when my opponent scooped were three Pure Reflections and one Shields of Velis Vel. There always seemed to be a better option at every stage of play. That may have been a fluke, but if not, I may take Pure Reflection out and leave Amoeboid Changeling in. And you're right, Shields is probably too dependent on other cards in play to be worthwhile.
I'd considered Slayer of the Wicked during design, but thought it was a bit too expensive compared to other options. At the time I hadn't yet thought to add Amoeboid Changeling, though, and having that in the deck should make the Slayer more viable for spot removal in the early game.
The transmute options are an interesting suggestion, as are the mana rocks. I'll mull this over and retool the deck sometime during the upcoming week. Thank you for your help!
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/casual-related-formats/149909-uw-spirit-mirror-changeling-deck-idea
...that is pretty old, but maybe an idea or two in there for you.
I retired it as it was pretty hard core for my casual group.
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showpost.php?p=4557651&postcount=1
TheWarden's Creative Commons Music Pick Project (Retired):
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=336498