Ah, the beautiful life of a Daxos man. The other day I had to grit my teeth and recast him for 13. I had done nothing of note all game long, yet pretty much all the removal was aimed at me and not at the affinity Marchesa who got a good value engine going and was drawing 5+ a turn cycle and eventually won once he actually felt like playing the game. It ebbs and weaves, eventually they'll stop, I'll get a good draw streak, and it'll be back to this point again. For what it's worth, out of my three "established" lists, Daxos is easily the weakest, and my other two builds don't actually reach for the power stars either - a mono blue seven drop voltron, and a turbo jank mono green combo. Hence whenever you say that my build is more competitive I narrow my eyes a bit
Interesting how Zetalpa would catch your eye in Gishath contraptions, of all places, but I guess having one from the command zone certainly "helps". I'm not actually sure how good an out Slaughter the Strong specifically is against her(?), notice how if you cast that against Gishath Zetalpa is likely to be the juiciest thing to keep around. Unless they run tons of anthems or whatever. You may have better luck hitting Zetalpa out of the command zone as I'd imagine the deck has its share of equipment. Don't get me wrong, I'm not questioning the card itself in the shell as it's the most brutal of that particular brand of board throttler and I'm on the brink of adding it myself (can't exactly playtest it as asking to start the game with a wrath in hand is going to break the flow of the game hard), just not sure it'll do the job you want it to in this particular scenario. Isn't Tragic Arrogance asking for trouble too, given the fact we tend to build up enchantment real estate?
In terms of stuff I don't run, how have the following played for you?
If you're having issues with Zetalpa, or any targetable big beater really, I'd recommend either Maze of Ith or Thaumatic Compass. Also, what happened to Darksteel Mutation? I thought you had it in your list at one point.
Ah, the beautiful life of a Daxos man. The other day I had to grit my teeth and recast him for 13. I had done nothing of note all game long, yet pretty much all the removal was aimed at me and not at the affinity Marchesa who got a good value engine going and was drawing 5+ a turn cycle and eventually won once he actually felt like playing the game
I bear no responsibility for this.
Anyway, I'd imagine that good exile removal options are plentiful in black-white, so I wonder if there really is a need to bring specialized answers. At this stage in Magic I'd much rather have something with hexproof than something with indestructible.
Yeah, it's not on you - the guy had the idea independent of you, I linked to your build at some point like I mentioned in your thread, he actually seemed to take absolutely no cues from it though. He's quite entrenched in arcbound stuff, Kuldotha Forgemaster + Dross Scorpion + Myr Battlesphere, that sort of jazz. Still, it's one hell of a cool way to build Marchesa, and I was just using the game as an example of just how tunnel-visioned metas can get sometimes and how much it sucks to be on the receiving end of that
If I'm willing to use Hour of Revelation, then Tragic Arrogance is an "upgrade" for me. There's a lot of things in my meta that are difficult to answer, Arrogance should nip them in the bud.
I have noticed that Dance of the Dead et. al. has sometimes been lacking, I'll keep an eye for it. Your own musings Rumpy caused me to take a look at what I thought was a staple.
Crackdown gets people mad at me and they start messing with me more; I rather dissuade them from attacking me so that I get to end game. Solitary Confinement protects me from a lot of things; I can even loop it with a Sun Titan to get all the protection without any disadvantage. I forsee that I'll need to up my draw suite to compensate for this Enchantment.
Fair point re Planar Cleansing. Oh, don't get me wrong at all, Crackdown is a staple alright. The problem is that it's a bit of a situational one, while other options can perform in a more even manner. Interesting to see how Solitary Confinement performs, if you find you can keep it around reliably it'd make a very solid include.
I really like the idea of her, but considering she has never once been used to laser a permanent, I am not happy with that. It's great that she's a way to gain life and sacrifice my Daxosmen. I do plan on including Grave Pact, so this would have been another Sac Outlet, but she's been disappointing. Fun, but not up to snuff. I need to get to the end game and while she would shine at the end game, I need to arrive there first. The amount of aggression my Daxos triggers has increased as of late. Gossamer Chains will help me live but with its self bounce, I can use it to keep farming Experience. I can even use it on attacks not against me to recast it and depending on the politics at the time I could use that before or after damage.
Well Rumpy, you broke the glass. I thought that Animate Dead and Dance of the Dead were fine, but I've had some lacklustre games with them. Either someone nuked all the Graveyards so I'd have no targets or there weren't good targets. I know I've won off of them, but looking back, it was just the first thing that I can loop and abuse that I drew. It could've been something else, as I was using Cloudstone Curio to loop Dance to keep bringing back Gray Merchant of Asphodel. I think I can do better than that, so I've made the following changes:
Finally got around to getting a Grave Pact. With the increase of Indestructible Creatures in my meta, this is a welcome addition. I then stumbled across a card in the wild that I'm going to test out for my next change:
I saw Fanatical Devotion being abused in a Queen Marchesa value deck and I think it is a good option for Daxos. It's another Sac Outlet to trigger Dictate or Grave Pact, it protects Daxos and other utility Creatures and does so at no mana cost. This means I can just keep spending mana on Daxosmen.
I noticed that I was a little Black heavy so I'm swapping out a Swamp for a Plains. I think it's a combination of wishing Plains for Emeria Shepherd and that Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth makes everything tap for Black. We'll see if I need to add more Plains.
I also currently have an eye on Fetid Heath with its reprint, so I'm hoping its price will drop a bit more over the next few weeks and pick it up. I'm currently toying with cutting either Temple of Silence due to its mandatory ETBT nature or Concealed Courtyard due to no upside for when it does come down tapped.
Concealed Courtyard, easy. Also, I didn't mean to scare you off those options, instead I was curious to hear how things I wasn't running were performing for you. Speaking of that, keep me posted on Grave Pact. You've got a fair few more sac outlets going than me, so maybe you'll be able to proc the trigger at an opportune time with greater ease than yours truly.
Let's try out Cabal Stronghold as another big mana source. I don't want to cut my Swamps because it would dilute the efficacy of the Stronghold itself. Plus it'll only get online if I get Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth out to turn my Basic Plains into Swamps. It's nice to have a 'backup Cabal Coffers'. Hopefully it'll be good.
Meanwhile i killed my Daxos-deck. Playing this deck is pure stress for me. Daxos is always a big target, and i am always stuck between the decision: playing Daxos first to build up experience fast, or playing the enchantments first.
I decided to play Phelddagrif as Voltron with lot of enchantments (i love enchantments). Very stress-free because i can bounce him back. While playing Phelddagrif i stepped deeper into aura-cards and found some nice auras which come back to hand from graveyard.
Perhaps this one could be helpful for you: Cessation.
In my playgroup an industructible creature is often played. So i use Pariah to use this to my advantage.
And my very defensive and reactive playstile lead to lesser attacks on me. Because i play some instants which punishes the player who attacks me. Helpful are cards like: Harsh Justice and Comeuppence.
And finally i found this jewel in my old Ice Age cards: Sunstone. Just switch to snowcovered lands.
I hope i could give some ideas.
Greetings from germany without punitiv duties.
I don't mind the stressful nature, I kind of like to see how much the table has to put pressure on me so that I lose. If they don't, I usually do well in the end.
Cessation looks like great tech, as it stops scary enemies but also could ramp up my Experience. Pariah is a good call, Indestructible Creatures seems to be shifting away. Perhaps I could put Rout back into the deck instead of Slaughter the Strong.
Right now I don't know if I need Instant Speed tricks like you suggested, or pilot my deck better. It's something I've been thinking on.
Sunstone, now that's a card I haven't heard in a while. It's a good suggestion, I already put one in my Vosk, the Mind Drinker as it runs entirely on Snow Lands.
Oh i forgot.
Instead of playing under the radar try out the political way and get a friend on the table: Soldevi Sentry. You have an cheap early blocker and give a "friend" some cards to help you out.
Or even better, because you play kind of pillowfort: Jesters Mask. Give a friend a powerhand to clear the table, but no enchantmentremoval.
When you are playing against strong Voltron-decks i suggest the Vow-auras: Vow of Duty.
And when focussing on more auras this tutor is getting more interesting: Three Dreams. Keep in mind, that Underworld Connections is also an aura.
And you can use an early and cheap carddrawing engine: Sram, Senior Edificer.
I'd have to change my deck significantly to be able to take advantage of Sram. Not sure if I would do that. Vow of Duty is a grand suggestion, I'll have to consider it. The main problem Voltron right now is Dragonlord Ojutai, his pilot protects the crap out of him, such as using Heliod, God of the Sun to make Ojutai always have Hexproof and Heliod poops out 2/1 blockers if I swing with something bigger than Ojutai. Heliod is also a pain to deal with due to being Indestructible.
Circle of Despair isn't as good as Martyr's Cause but I picked it up because it was looking to spike hard due to Speculators. Even if it isn't as good, it does stop me from dying to Voltron which this deck has a problem with if they fly. Gifts wasn't really pulling its weight as Rumpy pointed out.
True Conviction is great if I need to close out a game, but it doesn't help me survive which the deck desperately needs to do, especially since the hate for it has been ramping up. I put in Strands of Night as a way to instantly put a Creature back into play and at a low cost.
Cabal Stronghold is not a Cabal Coffers, I cut it so that I could ramp further with Terrain Generator.
I'm surprised you aren't running Heliod, God of the Sun as he synergizes with Skybind and other constellation cards when Daxos is getting hated on. I'm also surprised you aren't running Mystic Barrier and No Mercy as pillow-forty attack deterrents. I also have decided that I am a fan of Axis of Mortality (especially with Necropotence and a way to blow it up to avoid the exile discard). I still find I like Extinguish all Hope as it doesn't touch the tokens or my constellation creatures.
I'm surprised you aren't running Heliod, God of the Sun as he synergizes with Skybind and other constellation cards when Daxos is getting hated on. I'm also surprised you aren't running Mystic Barrier and No Mercy as pillow-forty attack deterrents. I also have decided that I am a fan of Axis of Mortality (especially with Necropotence and a way to blow it up to avoid the exile discard). I still find I like Extinguish all Hope as it doesn't touch the tokens or my constellation creatures.
The key to this deck is to subtly slide in lock pieces, while it sometimes fun to smash face with overly powerful cards I find it makes the table gang up on you. I want to end the game with an one opponent who suddenly asks "Wait, how big are those?" as I put slam Spirits down at Instant Speed. I tried out Heliod, God of the Sun previously, I just found him to be a chunky, bad Daxos. The deck has enough redundancy that Daxos usually can come back fairly low costed.
I already have a No Mercy, though Mystic Barrier might not be bad. I don't want to table to hate Daxos out, but the Barrier does focus it down to one opponent. After seeing Axis of Mortality in action, I am warming up to it. I am looking for more ways to gain life, but I have been finding spending Triple White and six CMC for cards like True Conviction weren't worth it. Perhaps Axis would be good.
The life loss from the Graveborn Muse has been catching up to me in the last few games I've had, where I died to exactsies. With my Edgar freeing up the Twilight Prophet, I figure Daxos would use her. I have had trouble ending the game in a timely fashion, I am fine with grinding out a game but it sucks to be one of the eliminated players sitting in the pod waiting will come out on top. Overall, I think Twilight Prophet does everything I need Daxos to do: draw cards, gains life and helps end the game.
Strands of Night is a decent backup plan, but I rather go for more redundancy in the wrath department. After being on the receiving end of Phyrexian Scriptures a few times, I am going to give it a try for Daxos. It'll help Wrath away the board, plus I can bounce to reset the Scriptures to get a Wrath loop going.
I realized I like relatively quick games, which Daxos does not do. I'm shifting my decks away from hard control and towards midrange. Daxos also felt completely unfair. If my opponents knew what they were doing, they would murder the ***** out of Daxos and I would be out of the game for a long while. If they didn't, I would just sit back, quitely gaining advantage until it was heads up and my opponent would be asking how big my 3 mana Instant Speed Enchantment Creatures were.
I got the itch to play Daxos again so I've resurrected him, again.
With this initial build, I am going with more tutors and wincons to try get the win if the game hits gridlock. I've cut the pillowfort elements as the lesson I learned from my Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker deck: if you look helpless, people will overlook you and if someone thinks on attacking, they just see a lot of open mana. It's this weird psychological hack if your opponents don't just attack you out of hatred; so my expectation is to get away with that for a few weeks.
It's interesting to see you go for a Grave Pact'y build, with some sac outlets. However, the value the outlets themselves provide isn't the best, I guess you'll agree with me. As such, I'm curious how the thing will hold up in practice. You also appear to be missing the best one of all, Big Ole Raz. Doesn't seem like a conscious omission as you've rammed quite a few tutors and stuff in here now.
I'm also quite curious about the Conqueror's Galleon. There are so many cool flip lands in that set that I somehow ignored on release. How's it playing for you?
I've put in Kite because I want a draw engine and this deck wants to hit all of its land drops. I cut Expedition Map because I don't need the big mana as badly; with Serra's Sanctum price ballooning, I no longer feel comfortable bringing that to a LGS so it's not like I got such a mandatory land to fetch anymore.
Luminarch was in to make flying blockers to protect my face but I think I have enough prevent shenanigans that I should be OK. Razaketh will help me tutor up whatever the hell I need.
I like the Conqueror's Galleon as part of a more casual control meta. I am trying a lot of the flip lands because they dodge all the deep clean Wraths that run in the meta. I've yet to regret it in the decks that benefit from it. At the very worst, it makes people burn spot removal on it. At medium bad, if you manage to flip it but lose the game you can walk away with a sense of accomplishment. If it flips, you're in a good spot. The hoops and reward is very similar to ulting a Planeswalker, being able to recast the same bomb Sorcery over and over again is worth it. It helps you dig and is another way to get Daxos back to hand when he takes the umpteenth trip to the Graveyard.
Yup, I cut Gary. One of the big problems with Daxos is draw; I just can't seem to get an engine going. So, I scoured through the deck looking for bloated wincons. Gary definitely qualifies, as does Revel and Bonds. In their place I've put in more draw engines. Gary can definitely come back, Revel will probably too once I get my mitts on a Smothering Tithe but right now, I need a steady stream of cards so I make sure I hit my land drops, get Enchantments to make Daxosmen bigger and get the Enchantments that will let me weather the storm. They're all under 3, which means that the Sun Titan can get them back into play.
I found that the Wayfarer caught too much flak, he would be the card that pushed a player into deciding to Wrath. I still need draw and I don't think the Wayfinder's ability to find my lands is that grand anymore. I've added more Tutors and my lands have become less explosive as they were in previous builds. Vampiric Rites is an Enchantment that is low to the ground to help with Daxos' Experience, it's a Sac Outlet for all of my two Grave Pacts and in theory I should be willing and able to toss away Daxosmen for draws. I'm not too sure, I was even thinking of using Inheritance but that's not as reliable as draw on demand.
Toxic Deluge hits Creatures and is also cheap, but sometimes Creatures aren't the problems or they're too big for me to pay life in to. Hour of Revelation, in theory, should cost only three when it resolves and it will wipe away all of the problem permanents.
How about Cloudstone Curio? It may not be a formal draw engine, but you can bounce enchants off each other to storm up experience, and it also works as a versatile protection piece in case you need to dodge some removal. I know you're not super fond of it, but it does work in my build. However, you just cut two cards I'd qualify as top 10 in my list, so I guess mileage varies.
I'm curious as to your motivation for including entire nonland space wipes. How have those been working out? I always write off the enchantment space as holy cows and stay away from this sort of effect.
How about Cloudstone Curio? It may not be a formal draw engine, but you can bounce enchants off each other to storm up experience, and it also works as a versatile protection piece in case you need to dodge some removal. I know you're not super fond of it, but it does work in my build. However, you just cut two cards I'd qualify as top 10 in my list, so I guess mileage varies.
I'm curious as to your motivation for including entire nonland space wipes. How have those been working out? I always write off the enchantment space as holy cows and stay away from this sort of effect.
I am thinking of adding the Curio but right now I'm solving the 'Don't Die' problem and still a bit of problems with Draw. The main issue is that I can't use hard Stax to do both: hard to do anything under a Rule of Law or tons of Discard. So, I'm trying to find ways to fairly stop my death which is pretty difficult.
Tymna involved turning bodies sideways, which is what this deck is trying to avoid. In her place, I have Graveborn Muse that'll be another copy of Phyrexian Arena and she combos with Daxos as he's also a Zombie.
Burnished Hart is probably the worst Ramp piece in the deck, so when I put in Smothering Tithe it was what I chose to axe.
Vampiric Rites barely counted as a draw engine, it did pretty much nothing. In its place is White's answer to Arena: Endless Horizons. I don't think it'll be that good, but it'll thin my deck. I won't be going full Mana Severance; 4-5 Plains is probably more than enough.
Circle of Despair, Diabolic Intent and Spirit Bonds were part of my 'Don't die' suite but as someone pointed out to me: if Daxos gets hated out they pretty much do nothing. In their place is the very effective No Mercy and I'm trying out First Response. The idea with Response is to have other bodies to feed to my various effects and if I'm a little ahead, I can spread out my pain over multiple turns so that I'll get a continual stream of bodies. Glistening Oil is being put in as a way to continually kill my own Creatures, have an Enchantment that Raises itself and Infect is one way to kill a player whose life total is outside of a reasonable attack. I remember wanting to test is in a previous build but those decks were a bit too good, this seems to be the place to do so.
The fact that the Sanguine Bond & Exquisite Blood combo was in the deck made people swing at me really hard. As I need more ways to gain life, Blood stays in while Bond leaves. In its place Revel in Riches returns now that I have a Smothering Tithe.
And now onto the Blasphemy: I'm cutting Cabal Coffers because I've removed all of the Land Tutors so I can't regularly set up Urgborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth plus Coffers. I'm also trying to make the deck fair and massively outstretching my opponent's mana production with Coffers seemed to be too much. We'll see if I'll miss them. Since I counted Coffers as a 'ramp piece', it goes out for Temple of the False God. That is the best way I've found to use Temple: don't put it in your land count, it doesn't replace a land. The utility of Mistveil Plains is questionable, Thespian's Stage will have plenty of targets to copy. Westvale Abbey triggered my stupid, greedy plays so I axed it for more mana smoothing.
Vampiric Rites barely counted as a draw engine, it did pretty much nothing. In its place is White's answer to Arena: Endless Horizons. I don't think it'll be that good, but it'll thin my deck. I won't be going full Mana Severance; 4-5 Plains is probably more than enough.
Don't be surprised if somebody removes it anyway with that many lands under it.
The fact that the Sanguine Bond & Exquisite Blood combo was in the deck made people swing at me really hard. As I need more ways to gain life, Blood stays in while Bond leaves. In its place Revel in Riches returns now that I have a Smothering Tithe.
People might still think you've got the other half somewhere if you play Blood. There's a potential prejudice there regardless of telling them Bond isn't anywhere in the deck. A lifelink effect like Whip of Erebos or Teysa Karlov might be less of a perceived threat than Blood in such cases.
Interesting how Zetalpa would catch your eye in Gishath contraptions, of all places, but I guess having one from the command zone certainly "helps". I'm not actually sure how good an out Slaughter the Strong specifically is against her(?), notice how if you cast that against Gishath Zetalpa is likely to be the juiciest thing to keep around. Unless they run tons of anthems or whatever. You may have better luck hitting Zetalpa out of the command zone as I'd imagine the deck has its share of equipment. Don't get me wrong, I'm not questioning the card itself in the shell as it's the most brutal of that particular brand of board throttler and I'm on the brink of adding it myself (can't exactly playtest it as asking to start the game with a wrath in hand is going to break the flow of the game hard), just not sure it'll do the job you want it to in this particular scenario. Isn't Tragic Arrogance asking for trouble too, given the fact we tend to build up enchantment real estate?
In terms of stuff I don't run, how have the following played for you?
I bear no responsibility for this.
Anyway, I'd imagine that good exile removal options are plentiful in black-white, so I wonder if there really is a need to bring specialized answers. At this stage in Magic I'd much rather have something with hexproof than something with indestructible.
The Unidentified Fantastic Flying Girl.
EDH
Xenagos, the God of Stompy
The Gitrog Monster: Oppressive Value.
Marchesa, Marionette Master - Undying Robots
Yuriko, the Hydra Omnivore
I make dolls as a hobby.
Yeah, it's not on you - the guy had the idea independent of you, I linked to your build at some point like I mentioned in your thread, he actually seemed to take absolutely no cues from it though. He's quite entrenched in arcbound stuff, Kuldotha Forgemaster + Dross Scorpion + Myr Battlesphere, that sort of jazz. Still, it's one hell of a cool way to build Marchesa, and I was just using the game as an example of just how tunnel-visioned metas can get sometimes and how much it sucks to be on the receiving end of that
I have noticed that Dance of the Dead et. al. has sometimes been lacking, I'll keep an eye for it. Your own musings Rumpy caused me to take a look at what I thought was a staple.
1 Solitary Confinement
1 Crackdown
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
1 Gossamer Chains
1 Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
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
1 Grave Pact
1 Dance of the Dead
1 Fanatical Devotion
1 Plains
1 Animate Dead
1 Swamp
I noticed that I was a little Black heavy so I'm swapping out a Swamp for a Plains. I think it's a combination of wishing Plains for Emeria Shepherd and that Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth makes everything tap for Black. We'll see if I need to add more Plains.
I also currently have an eye on Fetid Heath with its reprint, so I'm hoping its price will drop a bit more over the next few weeks and pick it up. I'm currently toying with cutting either Temple of Silence due to its mandatory ETBT nature or Concealed Courtyard due to no upside for when it does come down tapped.
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
1 Cabal Stronghold
1 Concealed Courtyard
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
1 Fetid Heath
1 Temple of Silence
I stumbled across Equipoise in the wild and I think it has potential. I just don't know what card to cut to fit this in.
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
Cessation looks like great tech, as it stops scary enemies but also could ramp up my Experience. Pariah is a good call, Indestructible Creatures seems to be shifting away. Perhaps I could put Rout back into the deck instead of Slaughter the Strong.
Right now I don't know if I need Instant Speed tricks like you suggested, or pilot my deck better. It's something I've been thinking on.
Sunstone, now that's a card I haven't heard in a while. It's a good suggestion, I already put one in my Vosk, the Mind Drinker as it runs entirely on Snow Lands.
I'd have to change my deck significantly to be able to take advantage of Sram. Not sure if I would do that. Vow of Duty is a grand suggestion, I'll have to consider it. The main problem Voltron right now is Dragonlord Ojutai, his pilot protects the crap out of him, such as using Heliod, God of the Sun to make Ojutai always have Hexproof and Heliod poops out 2/1 blockers if I swing with something bigger than Ojutai. Heliod is also a pain to deal with due to being Indestructible.
As for changes I've implemented, I swapped:
1 Circle of Despair
1 Strands of Night
1 Terrain Generator
1 Gift of Immortality
1 True Conviction
1 Cabal Stronghold
True Conviction is great if I need to close out a game, but it doesn't help me survive which the deck desperately needs to do, especially since the hate for it has been ramping up. I put in Strands of Night as a way to instantly put a Creature back into play and at a low cost.
Cabal Stronghold is not a Cabal Coffers, I cut it so that I could ramp further with Terrain Generator.
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'm surprised you aren't running Heliod, God of the Sun as he synergizes with Skybind and other constellation cards when Daxos is getting hated on. I'm also surprised you aren't running Mystic Barrier and No Mercy as pillow-forty attack deterrents. I also have decided that I am a fan of Axis of Mortality (especially with Necropotence and a way to blow it up to avoid the exile discard). I still find I like Extinguish all Hope as it doesn't touch the tokens or my constellation creatures.
I already have a No Mercy, though Mystic Barrier might not be bad. I don't want to table to hate Daxos out, but the Barrier does focus it down to one opponent. After seeing Axis of Mortality in action, I am warming up to it. I am looking for more ways to gain life, but I have been finding spending Triple White and six CMC for cards like True Conviction weren't worth it. Perhaps Axis would be good.
Made a change today:
1 Twilight Prophet
1 Graveborn Muse
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
1 Phyrexian Scriptures
1 Strands of Night
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 realized I like relatively quick games, which Daxos does not do. I'm shifting my decks away from hard control and towards midrange. Daxos also felt completely unfair. If my opponents knew what they were doing, they would murder the ***** out of Daxos and I would be out of the game for a long while. If they didn't, I would just sit back, quitely gaining advantage until it was heads up and my opponent would be asking how big my 3 mana Instant Speed Enchantment Creatures were.
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
With this initial build, I am going with more tutors and wincons to try get the win if the game hits gridlock. I've cut the pillowfort elements as the lesson I learned from my Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker deck: if you look helpless, people will overlook you and if someone thinks on attacking, they just see a lot of open mana. It's this weird psychological hack if your opponents don't just attack you out of hatred; so my expectation is to get away with that for a few weeks.
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
It's interesting to see you go for a Grave Pact'y build, with some sac outlets. However, the value the outlets themselves provide isn't the best, I guess you'll agree with me. As such, I'm curious how the thing will hold up in practice. You also appear to be missing the best one of all, Big Ole Raz. Doesn't seem like a conscious omission as you've rammed quite a few tutors and stuff in here now.
I'm also quite curious about the Conqueror's Galleon. There are so many cool flip lands in that set that I somehow ignored on release. How's it playing for you?
1 Journeyer's Kite
1 Razaketh, the Foulblooded
1 Expedition Map
1 Luminarch Ascension
Luminarch was in to make flying blockers to protect my face but I think I have enough prevent shenanigans that I should be OK. Razaketh will help me tutor up whatever the hell I need.
I like the Conqueror's Galleon as part of a more casual control meta. I am trying a lot of the flip lands because they dodge all the deep clean Wraths that run in the meta. I've yet to regret it in the decks that benefit from it. At the very worst, it makes people burn spot removal on it. At medium bad, if you manage to flip it but lose the game you can walk away with a sense of accomplishment. If it flips, you're in a good spot. The hoops and reward is very similar to ulting a Planeswalker, being able to recast the same bomb Sorcery over and over again is worth it. It helps you dig and is another way to get Daxos back to hand when he takes the umpteenth trip to the Graveyard.
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
1 Miren, the Moaning Well
1 Isolated Watchtower
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
1 Dark Prophecy
1 Underworld Connections
1 Mesa Enchantress
1 Polluted Bonds
1 Revel in Riches
1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
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
1 Vampiric Rites
1 Hour of Revelation
1 Weathered Wayfarer
1 Toxic Deluge
Toxic Deluge hits Creatures and is also cheap, but sometimes Creatures aren't the problems or they're too big for me to pay life in to. Hour of Revelation, in theory, should cost only three when it resolves and it will wipe away all of the problem permanents.
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'm curious as to your motivation for including entire nonland space wipes. How have those been working out? I always write off the enchantment space as holy cows and stay away from this sort of effect.
Today's changes:
1 Graveborn Muse
1 Smothering Tithe
1 Endless Horizons
1 No Mercy
1 First Response
1 Glistening Oil
1 Revel in Riches
1 Temple of the False God
1 Thespian's Stage
1 Tainted Field
1 Tymna the Weaver
1 Burnished Hart
1 Vampiric Rites
1 Circle of Despair
1 Spirit Bonds
1 Diabolic Intent
1 Sanguine Bond
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Mistveil Plains
1 Westvale Abbey
Burnished Hart is probably the worst Ramp piece in the deck, so when I put in Smothering Tithe it was what I chose to axe.
Vampiric Rites barely counted as a draw engine, it did pretty much nothing. In its place is White's answer to Arena: Endless Horizons. I don't think it'll be that good, but it'll thin my deck. I won't be going full Mana Severance; 4-5 Plains is probably more than enough.
Circle of Despair, Diabolic Intent and Spirit Bonds were part of my 'Don't die' suite but as someone pointed out to me: if Daxos gets hated out they pretty much do nothing. In their place is the very effective No Mercy and I'm trying out First Response. The idea with Response is to have other bodies to feed to my various effects and if I'm a little ahead, I can spread out my pain over multiple turns so that I'll get a continual stream of bodies. Glistening Oil is being put in as a way to continually kill my own Creatures, have an Enchantment that Raises itself and Infect is one way to kill a player whose life total is outside of a reasonable attack. I remember wanting to test is in a previous build but those decks were a bit too good, this seems to be the place to do so.
The fact that the Sanguine Bond & Exquisite Blood combo was in the deck made people swing at me really hard. As I need more ways to gain life, Blood stays in while Bond leaves. In its place Revel in Riches returns now that I have a Smothering Tithe.
And now onto the Blasphemy: I'm cutting Cabal Coffers because I've removed all of the Land Tutors so I can't regularly set up Urgborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth plus Coffers. I'm also trying to make the deck fair and massively outstretching my opponent's mana production with Coffers seemed to be too much. We'll see if I'll miss them. Since I counted Coffers as a 'ramp piece', it goes out for Temple of the False God. That is the best way I've found to use Temple: don't put it in your land count, it doesn't replace a land. The utility of Mistveil Plains is questionable, Thespian's Stage will have plenty of targets to copy. Westvale Abbey triggered my stupid, greedy plays so I axed it for more mana smoothing.
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
People might still think you've got the other half somewhere if you play Blood. There's a potential prejudice there regardless of telling them Bond isn't anywhere in the deck. A lifelink effect like Whip of Erebos or Teysa Karlov might be less of a perceived threat than Blood in such cases.
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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