"What do you have, that I cannot obtain?"
- Mairsil, the Pretender
This flavor text from Fellwar Stone pretty much encompasses, what this deck is about. It's the question the deck is asking the opponent. This is a rather old deck of mine, built around Puca's Mischief. It's one of my favorite casual decks, but I haven't gotten to update it in recent years. Many more sets came out since the last time I tried to improve it, and I'm looking for some help in that regard. I'm not bound by any format, but I want the deck to stay monoblue, and I don't intend to buy many expensive cards. I may purchase a few cards for an idividual price of up to one shockland, but overall the cards shouldn't be too expensive.
First and foremost, I need to get the deck down to 60 cards as at the moment it stands at 62. I have a few ideas about what to cut, but want to hear some other opinions first. The deck is full of synergies, but starts out rather slow, which makes for a hard time against aggressive decks. I need some improvements in that regard, I think. Once the deck gets rolling, though, it can grab pretty much any creature the opponent has and also many other permanents while generating more and more card advantage. But I'm highly relying on PM to do its thing, so I need to get that card out quickly and either keep it on the battlefield or quickly replace it if it gets removed. (That's where Put Away and Junktroller come in, they virtually make me have more copies of the card to draw into while providing other utility as well.)
The Moonring Island is just in there because it gives me a bit of information should I get it out, and it is an Island, so it doesn't hinder my playing a Spire Golem as cheaply as possible. I have nothing to do on turn 1, and I often end up with more than enough lands later on, so that I can easily activate the land to glan a bit of information (of my deck or the opponent's). Cutting lands however isn't a good idea, I tried with less and the deck was too slow in its mana development.
Junktroller is more of a graveyard hate card and big blocker than it is to empty my own graveyard. I'll put my own cards under my library if the chance arises, because I don't need them in my yard and I eventually end up shuffling my library so I have better chances at drawing those cards again. About the only cards I would keep as a single copy in my yard are Turn to Mist and Put Away. Junktroller is also a card that I don't mind much giving away, it has 0 power and defender to boot, so it poses no threat on the other side of the table, unike that Polukranos, World Eater I can trade it for. I can even tap it before giving it away, so it cannot even block that turn. Turn to Mist synergizes well with Nucklavee and Puca's Mischief, alowing me to steal a permanent each turn without actually giving something away. It also can be used as a kind of regenerating blocker, since I don't actually lose a card, it only costs me 2 mana. Similar stealing shenanigans can be done with two Riftwing Cloudskates (or one and a Sakashima copy thereof). Sakashima the Impostor himself can grab a permanent every other turn by himself (and Puca's Mischief of course), thanks to his delayed (!!!) bounce ability, which doesn't care about who controls him when it's finally time to go back to the hand. All I have to do is activate the ability in response to PM's trigger.
I'm a terrible deckbuilder in regards to counterspells. I know how to use them when they are in a deck, but building with counterspells is for some reason a big mystery. This is in fact the only deck I have that uses counterspells, despite me having many more that contain blue as a main color. Since the deck has to focus on developing the board in the early game and doesn't have mana to spare to counter what the opponent is doing, I keep to more conventional means of keeping him at bay, by using higher toughness blockers (Spire Golem, Junktroller), shutting down his biggest creatures (Mystic Restraints), or simply copying them to act as deterent (Sakashima the Impostor). However, I found, that in many games, I simply need a means to deal with a spell (got blown out by spell based decks many times). So I wanted to add a counterspell. Oftentimes, my Puca's Mischief got removed, and I had to wait for another copy to show up. The usual approach of getting it back from the graveyard lacked the in-color cards. I eventually opted to at least put the card back into my library so that I could draw it again. And, well, a counterspell that could kind of solves both problems is Put Away.
I tried Scornful Egotist and it just didn't work. A CMC of 8 is great on a basically 3-4 mana creature, sure, but in the end it was simply outclassed by my other cards as "give away". Spire Golem for example can come down turn 3 as a 2/4 flyer and has a CMC of 6. It can also be blocked by playing another without killing either. Until I eventually get it back. No reason to kill what you take for yourself anyway.
I'm using Mystic Restraints as a removal that's also a one way give away. My opponent can keep control of those. Until I eventually want what the aura took out of the fight. Usually, those creatures stay on my opponent's side, though. No urgency in taking what cannot be used.
- Mairsil, the Pretender
This flavor text from Fellwar Stone pretty much encompasses, what this deck is about. It's the question the deck is asking the opponent. This is a rather old deck of mine, built around Puca's Mischief. It's one of my favorite casual decks, but I haven't gotten to update it in recent years. Many more sets came out since the last time I tried to improve it, and I'm looking for some help in that regard. I'm not bound by any format, but I want the deck to stay monoblue, and I don't intend to buy many expensive cards. I may purchase a few cards for an idividual price of up to one shockland, but overall the cards shouldn't be too expensive.
The deck:
21 Island
1 Moonring Island
2 Quicksand
Creatures (18)
2 Junktroller
2 Sakashima the Impostor
4 Mulldrifter
4 Riftwing Cloudskate
2 Nucklavee
4 Spire Golem
4 Fellwar Stone
4 Turn to Mist
4 Puca's Mischief
4 Mystic Restraints
4 Put Away
First and foremost, I need to get the deck down to 60 cards as at the moment it stands at 62. I have a few ideas about what to cut, but want to hear some other opinions first. The deck is full of synergies, but starts out rather slow, which makes for a hard time against aggressive decks. I need some improvements in that regard, I think. Once the deck gets rolling, though, it can grab pretty much any creature the opponent has and also many other permanents while generating more and more card advantage. But I'm highly relying on PM to do its thing, so I need to get that card out quickly and either keep it on the battlefield or quickly replace it if it gets removed. (That's where Put Away and Junktroller come in, they virtually make me have more copies of the card to draw into while providing other utility as well.)
Thanks in advance for any suggestions
Former Rules Advisor
"Everything's better with pirates." - Lodge
(The Gamers: Dorkness Rising)
"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science."
(Girl Genius - Fairy Tale Theater Break - Cinderella, end of volume 8)
Junktroller is more of a graveyard hate card and big blocker than it is to empty my own graveyard. I'll put my own cards under my library if the chance arises, because I don't need them in my yard and I eventually end up shuffling my library so I have better chances at drawing those cards again. About the only cards I would keep as a single copy in my yard are Turn to Mist and Put Away. Junktroller is also a card that I don't mind much giving away, it has 0 power and defender to boot, so it poses no threat on the other side of the table, unike that Polukranos, World Eater I can trade it for. I can even tap it before giving it away, so it cannot even block that turn. Turn to Mist synergizes well with Nucklavee and Puca's Mischief, alowing me to steal a permanent each turn without actually giving something away. It also can be used as a kind of regenerating blocker, since I don't actually lose a card, it only costs me 2 mana. Similar stealing shenanigans can be done with two Riftwing Cloudskates (or one and a Sakashima copy thereof). Sakashima the Impostor himself can grab a permanent every other turn by himself (and Puca's Mischief of course), thanks to his delayed (!!!) bounce ability, which doesn't care about who controls him when it's finally time to go back to the hand. All I have to do is activate the ability in response to PM's trigger.
I'm a terrible deckbuilder in regards to counterspells. I know how to use them when they are in a deck, but building with counterspells is for some reason a big mystery. This is in fact the only deck I have that uses counterspells, despite me having many more that contain blue as a main color. Since the deck has to focus on developing the board in the early game and doesn't have mana to spare to counter what the opponent is doing, I keep to more conventional means of keeping him at bay, by using higher toughness blockers (Spire Golem, Junktroller), shutting down his biggest creatures (Mystic Restraints), or simply copying them to act as deterent (Sakashima the Impostor). However, I found, that in many games, I simply need a means to deal with a spell (got blown out by spell based decks many times). So I wanted to add a counterspell. Oftentimes, my Puca's Mischief got removed, and I had to wait for another copy to show up. The usual approach of getting it back from the graveyard lacked the in-color cards. I eventually opted to at least put the card back into my library so that I could draw it again. And, well, a counterspell that could kind of solves both problems is Put Away.
I tried Scornful Egotist and it just didn't work. A CMC of 8 is great on a basically 3-4 mana creature, sure, but in the end it was simply outclassed by my other cards as "give away". Spire Golem for example can come down turn 3 as a 2/4 flyer and has a CMC of 6. It can also be blocked by playing another without killing either. Until I eventually get it back. No reason to kill what you take for yourself anyway.
I'm using Mystic Restraints as a removal that's also a one way give away. My opponent can keep control of those. Until I eventually want what the aura took out of the fight. Usually, those creatures stay on my opponent's side, though. No urgency in taking what cannot be used.
Former Rules Advisor
"Everything's better with pirates." - Lodge
(The Gamers: Dorkness Rising)
"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science."
(Girl Genius - Fairy Tale Theater Break - Cinderella, end of volume 8)