I think the reduced basics is a non-problem. You don't have to get 3 with Land Tax, and if you happen to get all 14 basics out you're probably winning. By that point there's a good chance you'd also have Urborg out and then any further fetches you come across will just be swamps. Nobody really blows up land in my meta. If they do it's targeted at big mana like Sanctum, Coffers, or Nykthos. Urborg never seems to be a problem. Due to that, I might even turn 1 of my swamps into a plains. Or 2, as I still run 10 of each at the moment.
I was starting to doubt Academy Rector myself after your comments, but it's probably great for swinging that Sword.
At least how my games have gone, I'm not sure about Skullclamp anymore. It doesn't seem to get nearly the value that it does in my graveyard deck. Rector and Burnished Hart are the only creatures cards I actually want to die, and it doesn't kill the Rector outright. So I've recently been thinking of the Enchantress or Grafdigger's Cage in that slot.
The thing with Skullclamp is that I don't seek to aggressively abuse it to draw a boatload of cards, but rather play into the whole slightly politics'y style that Daxos has going, slap it on a blocker and see what happens. It still tends to generate decent value, and has a similar "bad deck construction" vibe going as Burnished Hart. Why the hell is a Skullclamp in a deck that doesn't sac for days? Must be a stupid design mistake. Anyway, swing into the clamped blocker. Oh no suddenly Skybind how could this happen.
Nevertheless, I see your point, and if any cards grab my attention for inclusion (seems likely, they've been on a roll with stuff for this list for a while) I may just devote this slot to it.
A friend pointed out to me that Mirage Mirror might be a good inclusion for Daxos. It does turn into Enchantments and Daxos has big enough mana to support multiple activations. A realistic play I can see is it becoming Cabal Coffers #2 on your turn and Sphere of Safety on my opponent's.
A friend pointed out to me that Mirage Mirror might be a good inclusion for Daxos. It does turn into Enchantments and Daxos has big enough mana to support multiple activations. A realistic play I can see is it becoming Cabal Coffers #2 on your turn and Sphere of Safety on my opponent's.
Anybody else considering it?
Hrm, come to think there's a lot of other hilarious stuff you could copy. Anointed Procession for ultra bomb token amassment, Aura of Silence to make target artifact.dec very unhappy, Oppression to help people bleed out cardboard at a rapid pace, Skybind because Skybind. It doesn't just work with everything though, the dribble upkeep discard, Attrition and Rule of Law come to mind. Nevertheless, it seems like it merits some testing. I'm afraid it might end up in the winmore camp though, as it needs other things around to actually do anything of note and stupid amounts of mana to allow it to carry over to other people's turns reliably. However, I also claimed Anointed Procession would be winmore, so there's that against me.
I don't run all of these, and nor do you. But this is pretty much a Daxos pool of cards and I sorted them under whether there is a possible beneficial interaction with Mirage Mirror (Bonus) or if there is not a possible advantage (Bogus). Even if said bonus is as weak as the 1 net mana gained from copying Gilded Lotus.
using Vault of the Archangel on your own turn and spending 4WB on an opponents turn to copy and activate as a trick
tapping Serra's Sanctum then copying to tap again (though the original would die and you might as well have Deserted Temple instead), etc.
There's only so many multi-copy tricks you could pull, too, such as:
1. tapping Sanctum and Nykthos
2. copying an ETB or constellation effect and holding priority
3. then copying one of those lands with the Mirror
4. let that copy resolve and then tap for mana
5. let copy of ETB/constellation effect resolve
6. activate Daxos a number of times.
I think Anointed Procession finds a place because it makes the token production more mana-efficient as well as getting more constellation triggers. This was an effect not present in the deck already and is a good card to draw (increased aggro) if we're not drawing speedbumps (prison). However, Mirage Mirror seems like it would only be a marginal bonus to effects for greater mana expense. It's not actually providing something new or enabling crazy shenanigans. In an artifact/blue/green deck with untapping effects and instant speed stuff where you can play with the stack more, I could see Mirage Mirror being able to provide shenanigans.
I think it's worth testing, because that flexibility on some of the permanents in the deck might be worth it to someone, or someone might shift their build to take more advantage of it. I just feel like it would be underwhelming for me in this deck.
I enlisted the help of a friend and I went pseudo-goldfishing, trialling two swaps - Chromatic Lantern out for Cabal Coffers and Skullclamp out for Mirage Mirror. The Mirror failed spectacularly. The fact most of our big mana is legendary gets in the way big time, and surprisingly enough there really just isn't that much that you want to copy at any point, especially given the slowdown of the setup. In one game, I had Mesa Enchantress out, and I could have taken part of a turn to set the Mirror up and double up on the draws, but it just didn't feel worth it. In the end, it just got dribbled to the Necrogen Mists, even ahead of the aggressively nonborriffic (on that particular board state) Spirit of the Labyrinth. The Coffers, in turn, played pretty ok. The fetches make it reasonably easy to land enough swamps to make this do things most of the time, it was certainly way less horrid than expected. There were a few games where everything went to hell and the Coffers just sat there with the potential to filter two colourless into a black, but those were outliers.
Anyway, given the fact I didn't feel the world end without Skullclamp around, I may finally try trialling Marchesa's Decree in that slot.
While it is important that the Mirror works with our permanents, it does essentially say 2: Become the Best Permanent. I know that's not as reliable as Copying your own Coffers, but I can easily see the flexibility and power from Copying whatever our opponent has.
Hey just curious, how have you found Kaya, Ghost Assassin?
I find planeswalkers die quickly in my meta (people tend to just gang up on planeswalkers, so the controller doesn't get much off of them.)
But maybe Kaya is more powerful than I anticipated.
Just wanted to pop in and say I decided to try out Gonti, Lord of Luxury in the deck since you can bounce him on each opponent's turn with Skybind. It's been a pretty fun experiment so far. One game a guy tried to go off early in the game and forced me to drop a Rule of Law a lot earlier than ideal. He failed thanks to a Blue player, but I ended up using Gonti's ability on him every single turn once I got Skybind online. I found most of his combo pieces this way in the following 5-6 rounds of turns and exiled them, and put a lot of his more helpful cards on the bottom of his deck in the process. them while the other Enchantments just held the other players at bay in the mean time. The combo player ws playing Roon of the Hidden Realm.
Kaya has been fine. People don't tend to clamour for her throat the moment she comes out as all she is is a slow, unthreatening trickle of value. She's not a superbeast that wins games on her own or anything, and she's in no way an auto-include, but I've gotten good mileage out of her, plus I also dwelled at tables where walkers tend to get melted on sight.
I'd recommend against that combo. Sanguine Bond is a largely dead card outside of the interaction, making it a super feelbad draw in a regular game.
I see what you're saying about Gonti, Lord of Luxury, and even the base effect is quite interesting, but once again - you shouldn't run something just because it works well with something else in the 99. We cannot guarantee Skybind, we'll have it out quite often but seeing how it's not the commander and the deck is not a draw/tutorfest we can't be 100% sure we'll have it on tap whenever Gonti shows up. With that in mind, I'm not 100% sure the base effect is worth it for this deck. Not saying it's bad or anything, but is it seriously the sort of thing you'd devote slots in the 99 to given what the deck sets out to do?
Kaya has worked best for me behind some protection, of course. The first couple times I used her I think she stuck around mostly because she has no + abilities (only 0 and -) and the first ability tends not to be read well enough at first to anticipate the use of resetting her loyalty counters. Decent part of the trickle discard suite.
On the topic of slot devotion and value, I'm going to have to reconsider some of the "under the radar" cards that are supposed to give that "maybe it's poorly built" vibe. I can't pull that off in my group, but it can still fly under the radar because of that sliver-like effect I've mentioned before. So I'm going to see if there are additional options there and experiment with some other tech. Fallen Ideal comes to mind for testing. I think that and the Sword would be great on Academy Rector.
Sword of the Animist stays because it pulls its weight or eats removal. Some of my group know it needs to be answered but when they can't get rid of it I'll find a way to get 3+ lands out of it. I've only had one game where I couldn't get use out of it for a while because it meant a suicidal attack for Daxos. I also love Broken Vigilance.
Burnished Hart is up for consideration as a flex slot. The 3 twice conflicts with enchantment-casting or activating Daxos for me. It's fine in the mid-game of a Big Mana deck like Chainer because of doublers and recursion. With good card draw I could possibly test Terrain Generator or Walking Atlas. If I can get more consistent openings with the Sword with Fallen Ideal or Sleeper's Guile I could test Explorer's Scope. Or I'll use fetches and CoW.
There are some other cards in slots I'll probably make flexible. Sun Titan is a great card, but I think I've drawn it and put it on the field maybe once. I don't face as much spot removal on my enchantments yet, so I don't get much value from its recursion. If Hart is replaced, Titan probably will, too, until I need that recursion. Of course, I could try to include more things that would take better advantage of the recursion.
I still have a few slots that are tests. Some of them:
Cover of Darkness still hasn't come up yet. The one time I could have gone for it to wrap up the game on a Rector trigger I fetched True Conviction instead.
And then there's the wishlist of cards I'd like to test. For example, there's a Nekusar deck to contend with, so I'm considering Words of Worship or Words of Waste as an answer.
The Hart comes with the upside of offering land ramp, which is super scarce yet very appreciated. Being rock-heavy is dangerous, as this deck likes its mana and artifacts die. As such, I've been moving away from a high rock total in the interest of a more reliable gameplay experience, keeping only the most solid ones. The Hart slows us down by two turns, but also offers a lasting shot of ramp that only gets handled by MLD. Is it super good? No. But the deck is a late game bloomer and requires ample mana, and there aren't any better options really. Knight of the White Orchid is super unreliable, and lies about being a two drop Depression Automaton is the closest to a valid consideration for a similar effect, maybe that would somehow be better?
Given the fact that you're literally just introducing Mesa Enchantress, I'd greatly recommend keeping the Flickering Ward. The two are unbelievably awesome together. I've been the subject to many a mistimed cut in the past, and will surely do so again in the future, so just trying to save you from the same fate for once
Weird, I've always found the Sun Titan capable of doing something, even more so these days with fetches around. Maybe I just naturally draw more ire than you or something. Of the Nekusar options you mention, Words of Waste would probably be preferable as it'll work better outside the matchup.
I see what you mean. I'll reconsider the Ward. So far I haven't needed it for getting enough counters to end the game.
Regarding Sun Titan, it's two-pronged. I almost never see that card or need to tutor for it (and so far it's the same with Restoration Specialist and Sunspeth). And, yeah, I don't experience as much spot removal in my group. Maybe they'll learn some day. The Titan will likely stay for now since I'm contemplating the fetches.
As for the Nekusar options, I agree that typically Waste is the better option to add to the discard package, but I also want to see the look on his face when I gain up to 35 life per wheel and then Molten Psyche can't touch me.
Not a whole lot of artifact destruction in my group, but I only have 3 rocks in this anyway. Not much mass destruction of any sort except Grave Pact-style stuff in a Meren deck. I'm trying to encourage a bit more spot removal (I had Mortify in here until Cast Out), but I'm not trying to encourage wipes at all and typically only run 2 per deck, if that.
Fair enough. My 2014/2015 meta was quite light on destruction/wraths on the whole, so I can envision you in a similar environment.
Just a quick note on some of the cards you've brought up, Fallen Ideal was okay early on in the deck's life, but I took it out as it essentially cost six mana to do what Flickering Ward does for two. The extra flying was an okay perk, but nothing to write home about really. Don't fall for Casting of Bones, Skullclamp does that job far better. And we're talking about taking that out already
Regarding Nekusar, perhaps Gideon's Intervention would do the job? It lets you keep drawing without taking the damage, so you're not several cards behind the rest of the table. If you wait until the turn after they play him, they're still the villain that's pinging down everyone else and likely no one will fault you for protecting yourself (even though you could have spared the others). You also might pivot into being the hero if someone removes Nekusar and you're now what's keeping him from being replayed. This doesn't stop Molten Psyche, though you'd hopefully be in enough better shape than the others that it doesn't especially matter.
He does use some backup cards such as Underworld Dreams, Seizan, Perverter of Truth, Psychosis Crawler. So for certain problems I prefer removal. I actually don't mind too much if just Nekusar is out and he hasn't wheeled. I was playing a mono-red deck once while he was playing Nekusar and for 3-4 turns I was really happy with the extra card draw despite 1 life per card. Then as soon as he brought out something else I blew one of them up. In general I think one of my best solutions against Nekusar is Spirit of the Labyrinth. Bloody shame the only source of the effect is on a squishy creature.
I already run Runed Halo instead of Nevermore because I generally don't like keeping opponents from casting a specific card because there's a strong temptation to choose their commander (chances are I won't be able to reset it to another card name). That draws their ire. Prevention of casting seems to me to be more useful against something that will be cast multiple times as part of a combo (1, answer) or a few times for value (1) or is devastating if cast once (12). I don't run into that kind of stuff in my group and haven't found myself in a situation thinking, "I really wish I had Nevermore." So the second ability doesn't entice me.
Gideon's Intervention's final ability, however, is why I'll eventually test it in Runed Halo's slot. They don't do quite the same thing, though. Intervention prevents damage from the named source and extends that to my permanents, but Halo also prevents me from being targeted by that source. Kinda meta-dependent to me as to which will ultimately be more useful.
A well placed Nevermore can swing the game heavily in your favour, but once again it might just be a meta thing. The overwhelming majority of the tables I've sat down at since this deck's inception featured at least one deck that flips on its back and waves its legs in the air to a Nevermore, often on the commander. Is it nice? Not really. But ultimately the goal of the deck is to walk away victorious, and the more this hampers/pisses off the opponent the less they're typically able to do about it.
Oh right, a new set is on the way. Nothing from C17 is even slightly in danger of gracing the list. Kindred Dominance kind of rhymes with Extinguish All Hope, but there's only so many sweepers (particularly expensive ones) that the list can hold.
Arguel's Blood Fast is the first thing in the set that has me go "Well, got to test this at least." The lowered CMC means it'll be easier to play early if you need the cards, more more likely to quickly get Daxos' Experience up quickly. And if your life does dip low, it turns into a land which this mana hungry deck desires but more importantly, Daxos has an unlimited supply of Saccable, probably highish toughness tokens that can be made at will. I've been adding a lot of life gain to my decks to compensate for the early beating you take plus the amount of Enchantment-based card draw that uses life to work. The only issue now is to figure if I should make room for Blood Fast or swap Greed or Erebos, God of the Dead (I'm leaning more towards Greed if that's where I cut).
Arguel's Blood Fast is the first thing in the set that has me go "Well, got to test this at least." The lowered CMC means it'll be easier to play early if you need the cards, more more likely to quickly get Daxos' Experience up quickly. And if your life does dip low, it turns into a land which this mana hungry deck desires but more importantly, Daxos has an unlimited supply of Saccable, probably highish toughness tokens that can be made at will. I've been adding a lot of life gain to my decks to compensate for the early beating you take plus the amount of Enchantment-based card draw that uses life to work. The only issue now is to figure if I should make room for Blood Fast or swap Greed or Erebos, God of the Dead (I'm leaning more towards Greed if that's where I cut).
Almost certainly Greed. It still feels like a pretty slim window where this would flip.
Axis of Mortality - that's a cute piece of cardboard if ever I saw one. Some weird, idealistic part of me thinks it could potentially work here as another pillow fort'y thing of sorts, or political tool if not in immediate danger. However, I've been known to get hung on silly scenarios without much coverage in reality before, often leading to dead'ish slots in lists for years (Vedalken Orrery et al in Patron of the Orochi, although those were also a relict of the partial mulligan). What do you fellows think, can this funk?
I think it's too expensive. Hell, the only 6 drop Enchantment I run is True Conviction which definitely protects my life total and seals games faster than Axis of Mortality.
I would consider Legion's Landing before Axis and I would put Legion's Landing under the Ramp section. And I am not adding Landing to my deck because the deck doesn't consistently make enough Daxos men early on to swing with three of them.
Yeah, not a chance in hell for Legion's Landing here. Good call on the True Conviction comparison, this is making me less willing to try it out. Thanks!
However, Arguel's Blood Fast got me thinking a little about the deck curving out in the early turns. Usually it's fine, but sometimes a mana or two slide by unused, and the deck's quite slow as is. Maybe it's time to swap out Burnished Hart for Depression Automaton? Probably just the pointless musings of a guy who hasn't really properly magicked in quite a while.
I was starting to doubt Academy Rector myself after your comments, but it's probably great for swinging that Sword.
At least how my games have gone, I'm not sure about Skullclamp anymore. It doesn't seem to get nearly the value that it does in my graveyard deck. Rector and Burnished Hart are the only creatures cards I actually want to die, and it doesn't kill the Rector outright. So I've recently been thinking of the Enchantress or Grafdigger's Cage in that slot.
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R Zada Arcane Storm
RBU Marchesa
GWU Estrid
GWR Samut?
URB Kess
(R/W)(U/B) Akiri & Silas
BWR Alesha
R Neheb Dragons
G Nylea Wurms
W Darien
U Tetsuko
Nevertheless, I see your point, and if any cards grab my attention for inclusion (seems likely, they've been on a roll with stuff for this list for a while) I may just devote this slot to it.
Anybody else considering it?
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
Hrm, come to think there's a lot of other hilarious stuff you could copy. Anointed Procession for ultra bomb token amassment, Aura of Silence to make target artifact.dec very unhappy, Oppression to help people bleed out cardboard at a rapid pace, Skybind because Skybind. It doesn't just work with everything though, the dribble upkeep discard, Attrition and Rule of Law come to mind. Nevertheless, it seems like it merits some testing. I'm afraid it might end up in the winmore camp though, as it needs other things around to actually do anything of note and stupid amounts of mana to allow it to carry over to other people's turns reliably. However, I also claimed Anointed Procession would be winmore, so there's that against me.
4 Academy Rector
4 Agent of Erebos
5 Angelic Chorus
4 Anointed Procession
3 Aura of Silence
1 Authority of the Consuls
2 Blind Obedience (extort only)
3 Burnished Hart
3 Cloudstone Curio
5 Doomwake Giant
0 Ghost Quarter
3 Ghostly Prison
5 Gilded Lotus
0 Homeward Path
1 Land Tax
4 Lost Auramancers
4 Marchesa's Decree
3 Mesa Enchantress
0 Myriad Landscape
0 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
2 Orzhov Signet (expensive fix)
2 Restoration Specialist
0 Rogue's Passage
0 Serra's Sanctum (destructive)
5 Skybind
5 Sphere of Safety
6 Sun Titan
2 Sword of the Animist
6 Thoughtrender Lamia
0 Vault of the Archangel
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
1 Weathered Wayfarer
3 Act of Authority
3 Attrition
3 Blanket of Night
3 Bottomless Pit
2 Cho-Manno's Blessing
2 Cover of Darkness
3 Crackdown
2 Darksteel Mutation
3 Eidolon of Rhetoric
4 Erebos, God of the Dead
1 Flickering Ward
4 Gideon's Intervention
3 Grasp of Fate
2 Lightning Greaves
3 Necrogen Mists
3 Necromancy
3 Necropotence
3 Nevermore
4 No Mercy
3 Oppression
3 Phyrexian Arena
1 Phyrexian Reclamation
1 Reconnaissance
2 Righteous Aura
3 Rule of Law
2 Runed Halo
1 Skullclamp
2 Spirit of the Labyrinth
6 True Conviction
3 Worn Powerstone
There's only so many multi-copy tricks you could pull, too, such as:
1. tapping Sanctum and Nykthos
2. copying an ETB or constellation effect and holding priority
3. then copying one of those lands with the Mirror
4. let that copy resolve and then tap for mana
5. let copy of ETB/constellation effect resolve
6. activate Daxos a number of times.
I think Anointed Procession finds a place because it makes the token production more mana-efficient as well as getting more constellation triggers. This was an effect not present in the deck already and is a good card to draw (increased aggro) if we're not drawing speedbumps (prison). However, Mirage Mirror seems like it would only be a marginal bonus to effects for greater mana expense. It's not actually providing something new or enabling crazy shenanigans. In an artifact/blue/green deck with untapping effects and instant speed stuff where you can play with the stack more, I could see Mirage Mirror being able to provide shenanigans.
I think it's worth testing, because that flexibility on some of the permanents in the deck might be worth it to someone, or someone might shift their build to take more advantage of it. I just feel like it would be underwhelming for me in this deck.
old thread
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R Zada Arcane Storm
RBU Marchesa
GWU Estrid
GWR Samut?
URB Kess
(R/W)(U/B) Akiri & Silas
BWR Alesha
R Neheb Dragons
G Nylea Wurms
W Darien
U Tetsuko
Anyway, given the fact I didn't feel the world end without Skullclamp around, I may finally try trialling Marchesa's Decree in that slot.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
I find planeswalkers die quickly in my meta (people tend to just gang up on planeswalkers, so the controller doesn't get much off of them.)
But maybe Kaya is more powerful than I anticipated.
Thoughts?
EDIT: You might not want to be that guy, but have you ever considered Sanguine Bond and Exquisite Blood as an alt-wincon? It's a one card combo off of Plea for Guidance.
Arahbo, Kitty Kat Beatdown Decklist
Mizzix of the Izmagnus Decklist
Breya, Etherium Shaper
Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow Decklist
My Current Set Cube Lists:
Kamigawa Re-Experience
Ravnica, City of Guilds Re-Experience
Alara Re-Experience
(Also known as Xenphire)
I'd recommend against that combo. Sanguine Bond is a largely dead card outside of the interaction, making it a super feelbad draw in a regular game.
I see what you're saying about Gonti, Lord of Luxury, and even the base effect is quite interesting, but once again - you shouldn't run something just because it works well with something else in the 99. We cannot guarantee Skybind, we'll have it out quite often but seeing how it's not the commander and the deck is not a draw/tutorfest we can't be 100% sure we'll have it on tap whenever Gonti shows up. With that in mind, I'm not 100% sure the base effect is worth it for this deck. Not saying it's bad or anything, but is it seriously the sort of thing you'd devote slots in the 99 to given what the deck sets out to do?
On the topic of slot devotion and value, I'm going to have to reconsider some of the "under the radar" cards that are supposed to give that "maybe it's poorly built" vibe. I can't pull that off in my group, but it can still fly under the radar because of that sliver-like effect I've mentioned before. So I'm going to see if there are additional options there and experiment with some other tech. Fallen Ideal comes to mind for testing. I think that and the Sword would be great on Academy Rector.
old thread
old thread
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R Zada Arcane Storm
RBU Marchesa
GWU Estrid
GWR Samut?
URB Kess
(R/W)(U/B) Akiri & Silas
BWR Alesha
R Neheb Dragons
G Nylea Wurms
W Darien
U Tetsuko
Sword of the Animist stays because it pulls its weight or eats removal. Some of my group know it needs to be answered but when they can't get rid of it I'll find a way to get 3+ lands out of it. I've only had one game where I couldn't get use out of it for a while because it meant a suicidal attack for Daxos. I also love Broken Vigilance.
Skullclamp is replaced by Mesa Enchantress right now to see if it's more productive for me, but I could also revisit Graveborn Muse or Bloodgift Demon for a bit of flying and politics. It's basically a card draw slot, so I also want to see how Ambition's Cost fares, and I just discovered Casting of Bones.
Burnished Hart is up for consideration as a flex slot. The 3 twice conflicts with enchantment-casting or activating Daxos for me. It's fine in the mid-game of a Big Mana deck like Chainer because of doublers and recursion. With good card draw I could possibly test Terrain Generator or Walking Atlas. If I can get more consistent openings with the Sword with Fallen Ideal or Sleeper's Guile I could test Explorer's Scope. Or I'll use fetches and CoW.
There are some other cards in slots I'll probably make flexible. Sun Titan is a great card, but I think I've drawn it and put it on the field maybe once. I don't face as much spot removal on my enchantments yet, so I don't get much value from its recursion. If Hart is replaced, Titan probably will, too, until I need that recursion. Of course, I could try to include more things that would take better advantage of the recursion.
I still have a few slots that are tests. Some of them:
old thread
old thread
old thread
R Zada Arcane Storm
RBU Marchesa
GWU Estrid
GWR Samut?
URB Kess
(R/W)(U/B) Akiri & Silas
BWR Alesha
R Neheb Dragons
G Nylea Wurms
W Darien
U Tetsuko
Given the fact that you're literally just introducing Mesa Enchantress, I'd greatly recommend keeping the Flickering Ward. The two are unbelievably awesome together. I've been the subject to many a mistimed cut in the past, and will surely do so again in the future, so just trying to save you from the same fate for once
Weird, I've always found the Sun Titan capable of doing something, even more so these days with fetches around. Maybe I just naturally draw more ire than you or something. Of the Nekusar options you mention, Words of Waste would probably be preferable as it'll work better outside the matchup.
Regarding Sun Titan, it's two-pronged. I almost never see that card or need to tutor for it (and so far it's the same with Restoration Specialist and Sunspeth). And, yeah, I don't experience as much spot removal in my group. Maybe they'll learn some day. The Titan will likely stay for now since I'm contemplating the fetches.
As for the Nekusar options, I agree that typically Waste is the better option to add to the discard package, but I also want to see the look on his face when I gain up to 35 life per wheel and then Molten Psyche can't touch me.
Not a whole lot of artifact destruction in my group, but I only have 3 rocks in this anyway. Not much mass destruction of any sort except Grave Pact-style stuff in a Meren deck. I'm trying to encourage a bit more spot removal (I had Mortify in here until Cast Out), but I'm not trying to encourage wipes at all and typically only run 2 per deck, if that.
old thread
old thread
old thread
R Zada Arcane Storm
RBU Marchesa
GWU Estrid
GWR Samut?
URB Kess
(R/W)(U/B) Akiri & Silas
BWR Alesha
R Neheb Dragons
G Nylea Wurms
W Darien
U Tetsuko
Just a quick note on some of the cards you've brought up, Fallen Ideal was okay early on in the deck's life, but I took it out as it essentially cost six mana to do what Flickering Ward does for two. The extra flying was an okay perk, but nothing to write home about really. Don't fall for Casting of Bones, Skullclamp does that job far better. And we're talking about taking that out already
He does use some backup cards such as Underworld Dreams, Seizan, Perverter of Truth, Psychosis Crawler. So for certain problems I prefer removal. I actually don't mind too much if just Nekusar is out and he hasn't wheeled. I was playing a mono-red deck once while he was playing Nekusar and for 3-4 turns I was really happy with the extra card draw despite 1 life per card. Then as soon as he brought out something else I blew one of them up. In general I think one of my best solutions against Nekusar is Spirit of the Labyrinth. Bloody shame the only source of the effect is on a squishy creature.
I already run Runed Halo instead of Nevermore because I generally don't like keeping opponents from casting a specific card because there's a strong temptation to choose their commander (chances are I won't be able to reset it to another card name). That draws their ire. Prevention of casting seems to me to be more useful against something that will be cast multiple times as part of a combo (1, answer) or a few times for value (1) or is devastating if cast once (1 2). I don't run into that kind of stuff in my group and haven't found myself in a situation thinking, "I really wish I had Nevermore." So the second ability doesn't entice me.
Gideon's Intervention's final ability, however, is why I'll eventually test it in Runed Halo's slot. They don't do quite the same thing, though. Intervention prevents damage from the named source and extends that to my permanents, but Halo also prevents me from being targeted by that source. Kinda meta-dependent to me as to which will ultimately be more useful.
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R Zada Arcane Storm
RBU Marchesa
GWU Estrid
GWR Samut?
URB Kess
(R/W)(U/B) Akiri & Silas
BWR Alesha
R Neheb Dragons
G Nylea Wurms
W Darien
U Tetsuko
Oh right, a new set is on the way. Nothing from C17 is even slightly in danger of gracing the list. Kindred Dominance kind of rhymes with Extinguish All Hope, but there's only so many sweepers (particularly expensive ones) that the list can hold.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
old thread
old thread
old thread
R Zada Arcane Storm
RBU Marchesa
GWU Estrid
GWR Samut?
URB Kess
(R/W)(U/B) Akiri & Silas
BWR Alesha
R Neheb Dragons
G Nylea Wurms
W Darien
U Tetsuko
I would consider Legion's Landing before Axis and I would put Legion's Landing under the Ramp section. And I am not adding Landing to my deck because the deck doesn't consistently make enough Daxos men early on to swing with three of them.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
However, Arguel's Blood Fast got me thinking a little about the deck curving out in the early turns. Usually it's fine, but sometimes a mana or two slide by unused, and the deck's quite slow as is. Maybe it's time to swap out Burnished Hart for Depression Automaton? Probably just the pointless musings of a guy who hasn't really properly magicked in quite a while.