Lol, yes Trinket Mage was supposed to be Pilgrim. Tappedout doesn't have some M15 cards yet.
I considered Essence Warden but it's not a human so it won't work towards Weight of Conscience unless you have the Gond combo and by then you should've already won. But your point on the mana base is correct so I'll probably make the change.
I've had a lot of success with Mine Excavation so far. I tested against a Domain Zoo deck and I completely wrecked it with recurring Weight. Sure sometimes it might hit the yard but I'd rather have Excavation over Commune since we already have a tutor for Auras. I also tested against an MBC build of mine and lost to it. Crypt Rats did a lot of damage even with Strands. Strands just helped save my opponents Crypt Rats for later use. Crown of Awe would've been great for it's sac ability since we have a lot of shared creature types in our deck. I'll definitely use this in my SB over Mask of Law and Grace. It'll stop most relevant board wipes in the format like Electrickery, Evincar's Justice and Crypt Rats.
I don't have much experience with Teachings, but Trinket Mage is perfect for Pauper Cawblade and in a lot of other decks so I see how it sees a lot of play. I'm sure once Pilgrim is released we'll see a lot of decks come about.
Your Trinket/Pilgrim idea is very interesting and I'd love to see more on that! Using Forbidden Alchemy in place of Commune will give you better ways to play out your matches and Mine will work better with it.
As much as I love the idea of a UW deck (mostly for reality acid), I doubt there's any space for a trinket mage package. I did propose the idea in the Caw Blade thread, but I've come to the same conclusion that was posted there: 60 cards is too tight to fit a whole different package of cards. This isn't SFM fetching Batterskull we are talking about, so you need lots of deck space to make it work.
And anyways, it's not like UW lacks drawing or good auras to find. In fact, a deck with Squadron Hawk and Heliod's Pilgrim (and maybe some fetches) sounds like a good place for Brainstorm. Oh, and counters. Because everyone loves counters, specially enchanted creatures.
Thanks for the report, Ninja! Darn, upon closer reading of Prismatic Strands, I can see how Crypt Rats is problematic. Still, MBC shouldn't be problematic for the deck if you grind them out with Cenn's Enlistment, Hawks and recurring auras - protection spells are just extra gravy. But yeah, Crown of Awe seems like it would do a good number on Crypt Rats!
You say you'd rather have Mine Excavation than Commune with Nature if it'd come to that. The problem is that getting value out of Excavation gets very difficult when you're expecting auras to end up in the GY naturally, and artifact lands add nothing if you don't run commune. I think Commune is a fantastic complement to Pilgrim, especially if we can recur interesting stuff in our yard with card advantage. I'm working on a modified GWb build that might include Essence Warden (how did you like the soul sisters in your build?) and hope to post a main deck later today.
@Broco, yeah I was pouring over the Caw Blade thread last night looking for inspiration for an UWx build and noticed your comment. Having attempted a few drafts, I agree completely - it's gonna be next to impossible to fit them both. And yeah, if you go UW you're definetely gonna want Brainstorm + Hawk, leaving no room Forbidden Alchemy or graveyard shenanigans. So the question is really: Which is better in a UWx caw blade shell, Trinket Mage or Pilgrim? I think it's telling when we look at the GW list that almost all the auras are green. Rancor and Moldervine Cloak are acceptable replacements for Bonesplitter and the other buffs Caw Blade runs with Trinket Mage. True, you could get cute with Reality Acid, but white already offers the awesome Weight of Conscience, so it seems like blue complements white less well than green or black when it comes to aura selection. Yes, counters can protect enchanted dudes, but wouldn't it be better to use those counters against opposing threats and just playing another bird/token and reequip? I'm thinking Pilgrim has little use for blue, really, and Caw Blade is better off with Mage.
A bant build could probably be made to work however, basically the same shell we have right now in GW but Brainstorm instead of Commune and as many counters that we can shove in, lol A mana base of:
would take the same space as in the GW build, provide some additional acceleration and the same number of fetches as in the Caw Blade build (useful for Brainstorm). It also has 14 green sources (10 turn 1) and 12 turn 2 blue/white sources, plus it makes for some rather large Gnarlids. In fact, this mana base might be better for GWb too, just replacing the island with a swamp. Anyway, the tinkering continues!
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As the OP for the Caw Blade deck, and with the experience I have piloting the deck and all the times I've iterated it I can confirm that there's simply no space for both tutors. That said, if we want to go the UW route, we have to find what can we do that regular Caw Blade can't. By doing this we avoid being an inferior Caw Blade deck, as auras are way weaker than weapons and outside of Auramancer we have no good cards to recur it. That said, I think the way to go is to abuse two things that Caw Blade can't take advantage of: Acid Trip and Momentary Blink. By incorporating Pilgrim here we have a wider range of options to fit in our Aura Toolbox like Brilliant Halo, Diplomatic Immunity , False Demise, Curse of Chains, Empyrial Armor , Fate Foretold and Spreading Seas as a kitty card that also screws up manabases.
Good insight, Zephyr. I was hoping you'd come back to the thread What makes a Pilgrim shell better poised to abuse Momentary Blink than a Trinket Mage shell? Auramancer? I think I'm missing something here. I still think Bant colors is the way to go with that build. I'll get back to y'all with a bant and a necra version.
On a more fundamental level: What is the upside of combining counters with sorcery speed artifacts and 3 cmc dudes? It seems to me that faeries are much better poised for an aggro-control build with counters, and you don't see them adding a trinket mage package. Don't you get a conflict of interests wanting to tap out on turns 2-3, or are the counters strictly for the late game? Prohibit especially seems hard to reconcile with stuff like Guardian of the Guildpact and Exclude ain't exactly cheap either.
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A Pilgrim shell is miles better to abuse Momentary Blink since it can chain Bounce Triggers and easily cause a 2-for-1 situation by, for example, using it to save a Kor Skyfisher from removal and blowing up a permanent by bouncing a Reality Acid. Or you can block a big guy with an Aven Riftwatcher and blink it to gain 4life and reset it's fade counters. The fact that it can be flashed is just gravy, as your opponents will have to watch closely and time well their removal or just be aware that you can retrigger any of your ETB at will, especially Pilgrim's to fetch more answers.
About the 3 CMC dudes I assume you're talking about Caw Blade. Prohibit is multipurpose there: First of all, since I play Brainstorm, Think Twice and Last Breath, this gives me freedom on what to cast on my second turn, as it's usually wrong to just slam Hawks and call it a day (unless you're facing a Blue deck, and even then you have to predict Daze (. Second, it proactively baits countermagic from Delver or MUC. Third, it catches common 1 and 2 drops such as Delver, Cloud of Faeries, Spellstutter Sprite, Kiln Fiend, Atog, Carapace Forger, opposing Hawks, Auriok Sunchaser and the list goes on. Third it counters all commonly used counters and removal, so it protects Guardian of the Guildpact from edicts and countermagic and simply lets me choose if I want their spells, specially counters removal. And finally, it's not dead lategame since it allows me to do all of this and more countering roughly 90% of pauper's spells, including important combo pieces. The lone Exclude is there to counter backbreaking creatures that I cannot let resolve, like Gary, Mulldrifter, Fangren Marauder, Maul Splicer, and has the added bonus of just countering any creature regardless of cost, while also cantripping. I could argue that this is the closest I have to Cryptic Command, and if you,ve played Command you can get a gist of how powerful Exclude can be.
Artifacts having sorcery speed don't matter since they cost just 1, and I can allow to tap out for Aven seeing that at worst it will gain me 4 life and take either a creature or a card from their hand. I usually don't cast mage on curve though.
So, now that we are discussing the best auras available for each color, what's your opinion on Bequeathal?
Unlike other eternal formats, there aren't many exiling cards in pauper, so it looks like an interesting Standstill effect. Granted, it is still weak to Snap-like effects, but it looks like it could be worth the shot. I'm thinking it would fit nice with Tragic Poet.
Bequeathal can be potentially good in a Bant shell splashing the U for brainstorm and counters as already said, and there are some interesting Blue Auras such as Eel Umbral or Ophidian Eyes that can function well in an aggro deck.
Thanks for the report, Ninja! Darn, upon closer reading of Prismatic Strands, I can see how Crypt Rats is problematic. Still, MBC shouldn't be problematic for the deck if you grind them out with Cenn's Enlistment, Hawks and recurring auras - protection spells are just extra gravy. But yeah, Crown of Awe seems like it would do a good number on Crypt Rats!
You say you'd rather have Mine Excavation than Commune with Nature if it'd come to that. The problem is that getting value out of Excavation gets very difficult when you're expecting auras to end up in the GY naturally, and artifact lands add nothing if you don't run commune. I think Commune is a fantastic complement to Pilgrim, especially if we can recur interesting stuff in our yard with card advantage. I'm working on a modified GWb build that might include Essence Warden (how did you like the soul sisters in your build?) and hope to post a main deck later today.
The MBC list I run uses Unearth to recur creatures so even though I had Enlistment going the other deck just unearthed Crypt Rats swept for 1 damage and swung in with all it's X/2 creatures. I only played a couple of matches against it and didn't sideboard so I'm sure we can give a list like that a good fight.
The Soul Sisters gives us a good start against aggro and burn, especially since a Squadron Hawks will do a lot of work for us here. I'm still not sure if it's worth taking up deck space to fit in the Sisters but we don't need a lot of copies of our Auras anyway, so it's hard to say.
The main reason I'd want Excavation over Commune is that once I get Weight of Conscience or Dead Weight in my hand I'd rather recur what I know I have in the bin than dig through my deck for more. Obviously I like both options together to optimize my Excavation targets but if I had to cut one I'd probably drop Commune, but that is a hard choice.
Thanks for the run down Zephyr - it all makes sense sort of, but I still assume an intelligent opponent will exploit windows in your counter wall and cast that gary just when you tap out for Guardian and you're holding a dead Exclude. Anyway, not saying it can't be good, but "traditional" Caw Blade/Caw Go used Sword of Feast and Famine just so its birds could swing that mana back open, and Delver of course uses flash or free creatures two always have UU open in order to avoid this. Anyway, let's move on.
Using much of your Caw Blade thread as a template I've arrived at the following Bant Pilgrim build. I should note first that Bequeathal is probably better in the Necra (BWG) build that follows, but I have in general found that tutor targets that only draw 1-2 cards are unimpressive. There's utility with cantrip built in that I'd rather use the slots for.
I chose Mana Leak as the counter of choice because it's multi-purpose, easy on mana requirements and works well later with mana denial from Spreading Seas/Reality Acid. Yes, the combo is still in the Bant build and rightly so since the counters help protect it even better. Most of the auras are flashy to work well with keeping mana open. There is no recursion theme, as these auras are better bounced than recurred. Here is the Necra version
So the necra version is more focused on getting "two of a kind" for Weight of Conscience and splashes black for Font and Dead Weight (and probably hand disruption in the board). It runs Suture Priest main to somewhat compensate for the lack of counters against combo - this method of life generation is also better with token production. I think I prefer the necra version right now, but there's definetely potential to improve both builds.
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Have you tried Silhana Ledgewalker? It seems like a great card to run as 2-3 of since it has evasion and built-in protection. It could exploit Snake Umbra and similar saboteur auras. Armadillo Cloak and Trollhide are two great cards to fetch as 1-of and two big reasons to be playing G. I would also run the full four Pilgrim package to be able to have our toolbox ready about every moment, since it also fetches SB hate. Finally I would add more Dead Weight since with only 2 Auramancer and 2 Font you are not going to be able to recur it as much as you wish, and I would add 2-3 Ethereal Armor because its a very solid card all around that gives a good beating for such a low price. I would advise against the Presence of Gond package, because yes, we can fetch presence, but we can't fetch Guard, and with Delver and mono B being the big players, they will just jack up your Guard in response to the aura. Both pieces are rather weak on their own, and I'd rather devote the entire deck to finding and protecting the combo akin to Splinter Twin.
About Caw Blade, it's not that easy though since I won't tap out against a MBC. player and I can sabotage their Devotion, but I see where are you going and I might play Mana Leak instead of Prohibit. Don't be fooled though, the deck puts up a fierce fight even in it's bad matchups (except bogles). If you're interested we can keep talking in it's respective thread so we don't derail this too much.
So after goldfishing for a bit I made a few changes. Haven't tested against a real deck though, but I'm meeting with friends this weekend who have Mono Black Control, Delver, and Burn decks made and will let ya'll know the results. This deck is kind of turning into an aggroish/midrange deck.
-2 Auramancer
-1 Snake Umbra
-1 Shield of the Oversoul
-1 Llanowar Knight
-1 Valeron Outlander
+4 Llanowar Elves (or Elvish Mystic etc, I went with the Llanowar Elves to fit the deck theme)
+2 Forest
Sorry I'm just finally getting back around to posting, but I also realized I didn't give card explanations my first post (result of being super tired and having to work early that morning. Here goes.
1 Drops
Llanowar Elves and Avacyn's Pilgrim - This deck needed more 1 drops so I added the elves. These provide early ramp that can go turn 2 Centaur Healer or Heliod's Pilgrim to get us what we need.
2 Drops
Llanowar Knight and Valeron Outlander - I was looking for cards that fit the GW multicolored criteria for Shield of the Oversoul and came across these guys. They fit that criteria and also completely turn a matchup that should be bad for us to our favor. MBC can't do anything to them aside from sac effects, but there should be enough creatures on the field and redundancy in the cards to negate discard effects. Testing will confirm all this I hope. Burn decks will have to decide whether or not they want to waste precious burn cards on them or our face, knowing that we have plenty of life gain effects, and if we enchant one of our creatures it's pretty much game over for them.
Qasali Pridemage - Love this guy, adds much needed artifact/enchantment on a body that also buffs attackers.
Centaur Healer - 3/3 for three, and gains 3 life. This combined with the other life gaining effects should be able to hopefully stave off burn decks until we can stabilize.
Armadillo Cloak and Shield of the Oversoul - These make our creatures into beasts. Armadillo Cloak is more important in burn/aggro matchups while Shield of the Oversoul is more important against control or "destroy" effects.
Snake Umbra - A favorite card of mine. Tutorable aura that adds another shield and buffs our creatures, but most importantly gives us much needed card draw later game.
4 Drops
Captured Sunlight - I love the cascade mechanic and this card fits well into the deck, gaining life against aggro and everything it hits is value town.
The Delver or MUC matchup may be hard. White based removal could be a problem as well. To try and combat that I'm actually thinking about adding in some Slippery Bogle to the sideboard, which is still needed. Will try and come up with one after more testing.
@Zephyr: I'll continue the discussion on Caw Blade in the appropriate thread As for your suggestions:
On Silhana: I run gnarlids instead of trying to get mini combos like silhana + ethereal armor. It seems more robust if you're not going with an all out hexproof approach. All my auras either protect the creature (achieving card parity if it's killed) or recur themselves (Rancor, Moldervine Cloak) so I don't have to worry about targeted removal. Against instant speed removal in response to auras (Presence especially) there's Prismatic Strands or counters in the bant version.
On Armadillo Cloak and Trollhide: I need a way to get life in the main - Cloak is one option but slightly unreliable without hexproof. Faith's Fetters is good and definetely in as a SB card at least. Not too sure about Trollhide though - I think I'd much rather have Moldervine Cloak to develop my yard and not have to keep regen mana open. I'll definetely be running 1-2 copies of Armadillo Cloak somewhere in my 75 though. Right now I'm trying out Suture Priests in the main, but I'm still experimenting!
On the numbers and combo: Comparing to your orzhov build on page 1, my necra build also runs Commune with the Gods which permits me to trim in some areas. Notably, 3 Commune + 3 Pilgrim + 4 cantripping land auras and draw from Snake Umbra should give me much better odds at getting singletons than simply 4 Pilgrim. 3-4 offensive auras seem to be the right number in this set up, with at least 3 going to the yard (dead weight + weight of con) to enable auramancer (something commune also does nicely). I will often just sift past Midnight Guard with Commune in the mid game and then recur him with font or grab him with a second commune around round 8-ish or so, so I can drop Guard + Presence in the same turn. Again, Prismatic Strands in the yard protects against instant speed removal, and your awesome Auramancer + Font interaction gives some good inevitability. Again, 2 Auramancer + 2 Font in my shell with Commune and other green cantrip/draw should be roughly equivalent to them as 3-ofs in your orzhov build. With only 4 slots devoted to the combo, you can easily board it out when it's bad or difficult to protect.
@Imovefasteronmyown: Looking forward to hearing how your investment in pro:black and oversoul targets pay off! To me, Centaur Healer seems like the weakest card in your deck. Have you considered replacing the elves with land auras instead and running Aura Gnarlids in place of Healer? I also think the pridemages should be a 3-of main with other hate coming in from the SB. Good luck!
EDIT: I'm considering a singleton Broken Fall in the main to protect combo and enchanted creatures in general better. Thoughts?
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Prismatic Strands only prevents damage, so MBC can still kill guard in response to Presence, and Delver can bounce it or straight up counter the Aura. I would run a more resilient, value centric deck:
I've been loving this deck more and more. Here's a variant I like to call DoublePilgrim. You get have some ramp early and extra bodies to enchant later ,which gives as a better chance against removal heavy decks, specially when any creature can be "rancored" for extra damage.
The two abundant growths are there because it's the cheapest cantrip aura (skyfishers!) that also do something useful for us, in fact, I have often found myself wanting to tutor it midgame just for the draw effect.
@Zephyr: Are you sure about Aven Riftwatcher in an aura deck? I'd imagine you'd think it twice before using any aura in it, sicne you know it will be gone in a turn or two. You are already playing 4 Abundant Growth, plus more than a few ETB effects to make Kor Skyfisher a better option.
Yes, I was initially between this and Lone Missionary because we need the lifegain, but Riftwatcher has evasion, can be recurred and more important, interacts greatly with Bequeathal. It's not in the list, but I'd like to fit in two Bequeathal, a single Faith Fetters años if posible one more land.
I don't like Bequeathal all that much. You need to wait for the creature to die for it to do anything (if you have a creature at all), so you might not want to play it on any creature. It only draws you two cards, which basically replaced itself and the creature you lost. It's just hard to use and not that advantageous.
Hm, you might be right. It was me thinking that we needed to refill the gas even if it's by double cantripping. The fact that the Aven dies by itself while gaining two life makes it easier to use.
Now that I think about it, The Pilgrims is a great idea: slammimg an Heliod's pilgrim on T2 and casting your aura on T3 seems like a good plan. Furthermore we could take advantage of beefy 3-drops and creatures like Ledgewalker and Hawks to have a potent deck very capable of a splash thanks to both Pilgrims fixing colors un some way.
I considered Essence Warden but it's not a human so it won't work towards Weight of Conscience unless you have the Gond combo and by then you should've already won. But your point on the mana base is correct so I'll probably make the change.
I've had a lot of success with Mine Excavation so far. I tested against a Domain Zoo deck and I completely wrecked it with recurring Weight. Sure sometimes it might hit the yard but I'd rather have Excavation over Commune since we already have a tutor for Auras. I also tested against an MBC build of mine and lost to it. Crypt Rats did a lot of damage even with Strands. Strands just helped save my opponents Crypt Rats for later use. Crown of Awe would've been great for it's sac ability since we have a lot of shared creature types in our deck. I'll definitely use this in my SB over Mask of Law and Grace. It'll stop most relevant board wipes in the format like Electrickery, Evincar's Justice and Crypt Rats.
I don't have much experience with Teachings, but Trinket Mage is perfect for Pauper Cawblade and in a lot of other decks so I see how it sees a lot of play. I'm sure once Pilgrim is released we'll see a lot of decks come about.
Your Trinket/Pilgrim idea is very interesting and I'd love to see more on that! Using Forbidden Alchemy in place of Commune will give you better ways to play out your matches and Mine will work better with it.
And anyways, it's not like UW lacks drawing or good auras to find. In fact, a deck with Squadron Hawk and Heliod's Pilgrim (and maybe some fetches) sounds like a good place for Brainstorm. Oh, and counters. Because everyone loves counters, specially enchanted creatures.
You say you'd rather have Mine Excavation than Commune with Nature if it'd come to that. The problem is that getting value out of Excavation gets very difficult when you're expecting auras to end up in the GY naturally, and artifact lands add nothing if you don't run commune. I think Commune is a fantastic complement to Pilgrim, especially if we can recur interesting stuff in our yard with card advantage. I'm working on a modified GWb build that might include Essence Warden (how did you like the soul sisters in your build?) and hope to post a main deck later today.
@Broco, yeah I was pouring over the Caw Blade thread last night looking for inspiration for an UWx build and noticed your comment. Having attempted a few drafts, I agree completely - it's gonna be next to impossible to fit them both. And yeah, if you go UW you're definetely gonna want Brainstorm + Hawk, leaving no room Forbidden Alchemy or graveyard shenanigans. So the question is really: Which is better in a UWx caw blade shell, Trinket Mage or Pilgrim? I think it's telling when we look at the GW list that almost all the auras are green. Rancor and Moldervine Cloak are acceptable replacements for Bonesplitter and the other buffs Caw Blade runs with Trinket Mage. True, you could get cute with Reality Acid, but white already offers the awesome Weight of Conscience, so it seems like blue complements white less well than green or black when it comes to aura selection. Yes, counters can protect enchanted dudes, but wouldn't it be better to use those counters against opposing threats and just playing another bird/token and reequip? I'm thinking Pilgrim has little use for blue, really, and Caw Blade is better off with Mage.
A bant build could probably be made to work however, basically the same shell we have right now in GW but Brainstorm instead of Commune and as many counters that we can shove in, lol A mana base of:
4 Fetches
4 Abundant Growth
4 Utopia Sprawl
10 Forest
1 Island
1 Plains
would take the same space as in the GW build, provide some additional acceleration and the same number of fetches as in the Caw Blade build (useful for Brainstorm). It also has 14 green sources (10 turn 1) and 12 turn 2 blue/white sources, plus it makes for some rather large Gnarlids. In fact, this mana base might be better for GWb too, just replacing the island with a swamp. Anyway, the tinkering continues!
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On a more fundamental level: What is the upside of combining counters with sorcery speed artifacts and 3 cmc dudes? It seems to me that faeries are much better poised for an aggro-control build with counters, and you don't see them adding a trinket mage package. Don't you get a conflict of interests wanting to tap out on turns 2-3, or are the counters strictly for the late game? Prohibit especially seems hard to reconcile with stuff like Guardian of the Guildpact and Exclude ain't exactly cheap either.
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About the 3 CMC dudes I assume you're talking about Caw Blade. Prohibit is multipurpose there: First of all, since I play Brainstorm, Think Twice and Last Breath, this gives me freedom on what to cast on my second turn, as it's usually wrong to just slam Hawks and call it a day (unless you're facing a Blue deck, and even then you have to predict Daze (. Second, it proactively baits countermagic from Delver or MUC. Third, it catches common 1 and 2 drops such as Delver, Cloud of Faeries, Spellstutter Sprite, Kiln Fiend, Atog, Carapace Forger, opposing Hawks, Auriok Sunchaser and the list goes on. Third it counters all commonly used counters and removal, so it protects Guardian of the Guildpact from edicts and countermagic and simply lets me choose if I want their spells, specially counters removal. And finally, it's not dead lategame since it allows me to do all of this and more countering roughly 90% of pauper's spells, including important combo pieces. The lone Exclude is there to counter backbreaking creatures that I cannot let resolve, like Gary, Mulldrifter, Fangren Marauder, Maul Splicer, and has the added bonus of just countering any creature regardless of cost, while also cantripping. I could argue that this is the closest I have to Cryptic Command, and if you,ve played Command you can get a gist of how powerful Exclude can be.
Artifacts having sorcery speed don't matter since they cost just 1, and I can allow to tap out for Aven seeing that at worst it will gain me 4 life and take either a creature or a card from their hand. I usually don't cast mage on curve though.
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Unlike other eternal formats, there aren't many exiling cards in pauper, so it looks like an interesting Standstill effect. Granted, it is still weak to Snap-like effects, but it looks like it could be worth the shot. I'm thinking it would fit nice with Tragic Poet.
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The MBC list I run uses Unearth to recur creatures so even though I had Enlistment going the other deck just unearthed Crypt Rats swept for 1 damage and swung in with all it's X/2 creatures. I only played a couple of matches against it and didn't sideboard so I'm sure we can give a list like that a good fight.
The Soul Sisters gives us a good start against aggro and burn, especially since a Squadron Hawks will do a lot of work for us here. I'm still not sure if it's worth taking up deck space to fit in the Sisters but we don't need a lot of copies of our Auras anyway, so it's hard to say.
The main reason I'd want Excavation over Commune is that once I get Weight of Conscience or Dead Weight in my hand I'd rather recur what I know I have in the bin than dig through my deck for more. Obviously I like both options together to optimize my Excavation targets but if I had to cut one I'd probably drop Commune, but that is a hard choice.
Using much of your Caw Blade thread as a template I've arrived at the following Bant Pilgrim build. I should note first that Bequeathal is probably better in the Necra (BWG) build that follows, but I have in general found that tutor targets that only draw 1-2 cards are unimpressive. There's utility with cantrip built in that I'd rather use the slots for.
4 Evolving Wilds
4 Abundant Growth
4 Utopia Sprawl
10 Forest
1 Island
1 Plains
CREATURES (18)
4 Squadron Hawk
3 Kor Skyfisher
3 Heliod's Pilgrim
3 Midnight Guard
2 Aura Gnarlid
3 Aven Riftwatcher
1 Presence of Gond
1 Rancor
1 Eel Umbra
2 Temporal Isolation
1 Reality Acid
1 Spreading Seas
1 Alexi's Cloak
4 Brainstorm
4 Mana Leak
2 Momentary Blink
I chose Mana Leak as the counter of choice because it's multi-purpose, easy on mana requirements and works well later with mana denial from Spreading Seas/Reality Acid. Yes, the combo is still in the Bant build and rightly so since the counters help protect it even better. Most of the auras are flashy to work well with keeping mana open. There is no recursion theme, as these auras are better bounced than recurred. Here is the Necra version
3 Orzhov Guildgate
4 Abundant Growth
4 Utopia Sprawl
11 Forest
2 Plains
CREATURES (20)
4 Squadron Hawk
3 Kor Skyfisher
3 Heliod's Pilgrim
3 Midnight Guard
2 Aura Gnarlid
3 Suture Priest
2 Auramancer
1 Presence of Gond
1 Rancor
1 Moldervine Cloak
2 Weight of Conscience
1 Dead Weight
1 Fists of Ironwood
1 Snake Umbra
3 Commune with the Gods
2 Font of Return
2 Prismatic Strands
1 Cenn's Enlistment
So the necra version is more focused on getting "two of a kind" for Weight of Conscience and splashes black for Font and Dead Weight (and probably hand disruption in the board). It runs Suture Priest main to somewhat compensate for the lack of counters against combo - this method of life generation is also better with token production. I think I prefer the necra version right now, but there's definetely potential to improve both builds.
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About Caw Blade, it's not that easy though since I won't tap out against a MBC. player and I can sabotage their Devotion, but I see where are you going and I might play Mana Leak instead of Prohibit. Don't be fooled though, the deck puts up a fierce fight even in it's bad matchups (except bogles). If you're interested we can keep talking in it's respective thread so we don't derail this too much.
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-2 Auramancer
-1 Snake Umbra
-1 Shield of the Oversoul
-1 Llanowar Knight
-1 Valeron Outlander
+4 Llanowar Elves (or Elvish Mystic etc, I went with the Llanowar Elves to fit the deck theme)
+2 Forest
4 Qasali Pridemage
3 Llanowar Knight
3 Valeron Outlander
4 Heliod's Pilgrim
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Centaur Healer
1 Arrest
1 Temporal Isolation
1 Snake Umbra
4 Captured Sunlight
3 Armadillo Cloak
3 Shield of the Oversoul
11 Forest
5 Plains
Sorry I'm just finally getting back around to posting, but I also realized I didn't give card explanations my first post (result of being super tired and having to work early that morning. Here goes.
1 Drops
On Silhana: I run gnarlids instead of trying to get mini combos like silhana + ethereal armor. It seems more robust if you're not going with an all out hexproof approach. All my auras either protect the creature (achieving card parity if it's killed) or recur themselves (Rancor, Moldervine Cloak) so I don't have to worry about targeted removal. Against instant speed removal in response to auras (Presence especially) there's Prismatic Strands or counters in the bant version.
On Armadillo Cloak and Trollhide: I need a way to get life in the main - Cloak is one option but slightly unreliable without hexproof. Faith's Fetters is good and definetely in as a SB card at least. Not too sure about Trollhide though - I think I'd much rather have Moldervine Cloak to develop my yard and not have to keep regen mana open. I'll definetely be running 1-2 copies of Armadillo Cloak somewhere in my 75 though. Right now I'm trying out Suture Priests in the main, but I'm still experimenting!
On the numbers and combo: Comparing to your orzhov build on page 1, my necra build also runs Commune with the Gods which permits me to trim in some areas. Notably, 3 Commune + 3 Pilgrim + 4 cantripping land auras and draw from Snake Umbra should give me much better odds at getting singletons than simply 4 Pilgrim. 3-4 offensive auras seem to be the right number in this set up, with at least 3 going to the yard (dead weight + weight of con) to enable auramancer (something commune also does nicely). I will often just sift past Midnight Guard with Commune in the mid game and then recur him with font or grab him with a second commune around round 8-ish or so, so I can drop Guard + Presence in the same turn. Again, Prismatic Strands in the yard protects against instant speed removal, and your awesome Auramancer + Font interaction gives some good inevitability. Again, 2 Auramancer + 2 Font in my shell with Commune and other green cantrip/draw should be roughly equivalent to them as 3-ofs in your orzhov build. With only 4 slots devoted to the combo, you can easily board it out when it's bad or difficult to protect.
@Imovefasteronmyown: Looking forward to hearing how your investment in pro:black and oversoul targets pay off! To me, Centaur Healer seems like the weakest card in your deck. Have you considered replacing the elves with land auras instead and running Aura Gnarlids in place of Healer? I also think the pridemages should be a 3-of main with other hate coming in from the SB. Good luck!
EDIT: I'm considering a singleton Broken Fall in the main to protect combo and enchanted creatures in general better. Thoughts?
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4 Squadron Hawk
4 Heliod's Pilgrim
3 Auramancer
3 Silhana Ledgewalker
3 Aven Riftwatcher
2 Aura Gnarlid
Lands (20)
4 Orzhov Guildgate
12 Forest
3 Plains
1 Swamp
4 Abundant Growth
2 Font of Return
2 Rancor
3 Ethereal Armor
1 Necromancer's Magemark
1 Snake Umbra
1 Armadillo Cloak
1 Pentarch Guard
3 Dead Weight
1 Trollhide
1 Death's Approach
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The two abundant growths are there because it's the cheapest cantrip aura (skyfishers!) that also do something useful for us, in fact, I have often found myself wanting to tutor it midgame just for the draw effect.
10 Forest
6 Plains
4 Selesnya Guildgate
//Creatures (23)
4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
4 Heliod's Pilgrim
4 Squadron Hawk
4 Kor Skyfisher
4 Auramancer
3 Midnight Guard
1 Presence of Gond
2 Ethereal Armor
2 Cho-Manno's Blessing
3 Weight of Conscience
1 Armadillo Cloak
2 Temporal Isolation
1 Fists of Ironwood
3 Rancor
2 Abundant Growth
1 Mask of Law and Grace
1 Temporal Isolation
2 Spider Climb
1 Shield of Duty and Reason
3 Aura Gnarlid
3 Dawn Charm
1 Armadillo Cloak
1 Artifact Ward
1 Seal of Cleansing
@Zephyr: Are you sure about Aven Riftwatcher in an aura deck? I'd imagine you'd think it twice before using any aura in it, sicne you know it will be gone in a turn or two. You are already playing 4 Abundant Growth, plus more than a few ETB effects to make Kor Skyfisher a better option.
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UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
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Now that I think about it, The Pilgrims is a great idea: slammimg an Heliod's pilgrim on T2 and casting your aura on T3 seems like a good plan. Furthermore we could take advantage of beefy 3-drops and creatures like Ledgewalker and Hawks to have a potent deck very capable of a splash thanks to both Pilgrims fixing colors un some way.
Thanks to DNC from Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig
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