One of the biggest things to look at is your Commander. He provides card draw and discard. Therefore, each card draw and discard spell you play in the maindeck is potentially a different type of card that could be played; a tutor, a kill spell, a counterspell, or a win condition. It's not always the best strategy to completely lean on your Commander, but it does stay with you the entire game, so you always have access to drawing more cards or forcing discard.
I'm iffy on the following cards: Arcane Denial- I only really like this one in combo decks that don't care about the opponent drawing more cards. I would swap for Remove Soul. Bone to Ash- 4 mana for a creature-only counterspell doesn't seem that good. Paying extra mana just to get card draw doesn't make sense when your Commander already provides you card draw. I would swap for Preemptive Strike. Brainstorm- I don't think there's enough shuffle effects to abuse it. I would run Gitaxian Probe or Peek. Consult the Necrosages- Your Commander already does both of these, making this a wasted slot. It's a good card, just not for this deck. Deprive- Losing a land drop in duels is very costly. I would swap for False Summoning. Expedition Map- There are no supremely powerful lands in Pauper EDH, thus negating the power of this card. The only saucy target is Bojuka Bog. Read the Bones- This card is only good when you don't have access to blue. You have access to blue, therefore Foresee is better for this role. Scatter Arc- 4 mana is pathetic for this effect. I'd replace it with Mage's Guile, which is an extremely versatile card.
I wouldn't cut down on draw spells in a control deck. Just because a General does something really slowly doesn't mean that it's smart to cut other draw from the deck. If the general gets Firebolted twice, you have to spend so much mana just putting the bear into play that it'll take a long time to get anything done. Even if you get to draw 2 cards while that happens--it's just 2 cards. You can get that a lot more easily by just playing a draw spell for 3-5 mana, and then you don't have to worry about things like Memory Lapse shafting your engine and leaving you with no way to draw cards.
I think Bone to Ash and Scatter Arc are fine. Exclude is basically the Dismiss of Pauper, and in a Commander variant with higher life totals and generally slower decks (due to less redundancy), a 4-drop Exclude is fine. Scatter Arc might be a little more narrow...but what deck in EDH doesn't have stuff for Negate to hit? And it's not like you're not going to get to 4 mana...if you can't do that, you're failing at some other major issue.
I would keep Arcane Denial (although I agree that Remove Soul is a good addition, just in place of something else). Arcane Denial always digs for outs, and later on you can point it at some insignificant spell of yours to turn 2 cards into 3 (cycling away a blank in the process too, which is part of what we all love about Thirst for Knowledge).
I would probably play a Nightscape Familiar in here, and I'd like to see maybe a transmute tutor or two.
I wouldn't cut down on draw spells in a control deck. Just because a General does something really slowly doesn't mean that it's smart to cut other draw from the deck. If the general gets Firebolted twice, you have to spend so much mana just putting the bear into play that it'll take a long time to get anything done. Even if you get to draw 2 cards while that happens--it's just 2 cards. You can get that a lot more easily by just playing a draw spell for 3-5 mana, and then you don't have to worry about things like Memory Lapse shafting your engine and leaving you with no way to draw cards.
I think Bone to Ash and Scatter Arc are fine. Exclude is basically the Dismiss of Pauper, and in a Commander variant with higher life totals and generally slower decks (due to less redundancy), a 4-drop Exclude is fine. Scatter Arc might be a little more narrow...but what deck in EDH doesn't have stuff for Negate to hit? And it's not like you're not going to get to 4 mana...if you can't do that, you're failing at some other major issue.
I would keep Arcane Denial (although I agree that Remove Soul is a good addition, just in place of something else). Arcane Denial always digs for outs, and later on you can point it at some insignificant spell of yours to turn 2 cards into 3 (cycling away a blank in the process too, which is part of what we all love about Thirst for Knowledge).
I would probably play a Nightscape Familiar in here, and I'd like to see maybe a transmute tutor or two.
Good Call on Familiar I totally forgot about him. What Transmute tutors are good on their own outside of Muddle the Mixture and Shred memory? Dimir House guard might be a possibility since i have no way of searching my sweepers.
One of the biggest things to look at is your Commander. He provides card draw and discard. Therefore, each card draw and discard spell you play in the maindeck is potentially a different type of card that could be played; a tutor, a kill spell, a counterspell, or a win condition. It's not always the best strategy to completely lean on your Commander, but it does stay with you the entire game, so you always have access to drawing more cards or forcing discard.
I'm iffy on the following cards: Arcane Denial- I only really like this one in combo decks that don't care about the opponent drawing more cards. I would swap for Remove Soul. Bone to Ash- 4 mana for a creature-only counterspell doesn't seem that good. Paying extra mana just to get card draw doesn't make sense when your Commander already provides you card draw. I would swap for Preemptive Strike. Brainstorm- I don't think there's enough shuffle effects to abuse it. I would run Gitaxian Probe or Peek. Consult the Necrosages- Your Commander already does both of these, making this a wasted slot. It's a good card, just not for this deck. Deprive- Losing a land drop in duels is very costly. I would swap for False Summoning. Expedition Map- There are no supremely powerful lands in Pauper EDH, thus negating the power of this card. The only saucy target is Bojuka Bog. Read the Bones- This card is only good when you don't have access to blue. You have access to blue, therefore Foresee is better for this role. Scatter Arc- 4 mana is pathetic for this effect. I'd replace it with Mage's Guile, which is an extremely versatile card.
Like INS said, just because my general provides draw and discard doesn't mean that I should omit draw and discard outside of him. Especially knowing that this is a control deck that wants to draw a lot of cards, and doing so relying solely on DGM is extremely slow and un-reliable. I'm not sure I agree with the more tutors the better or just having tutors for the sake of having tutors. The deck wants to turn 1 card into 2 or more cards with each spell it casts. Tutors don't satisfy that to warrant just having all of them. The only ones I'd consider really are Muddle the Mixture, Shred Memory, and Dimir House Guard only because it finds 2 of my 3 sweepers which are otherwise un-searchable.
I like a finisher to also be able to stabilize if I'm behind, and Ulamog's Crusher does that very well.
I considered the other recursion cards, but in my experience with 60 card pauper grim harvest is all you really need especially with my already low creature count i'm probably not going to need it very much, and it's teachings-able.
as for your Iffy list:
I agree with Deprive in most cases, but having a redundant counterspell with a neglegent downside having the little bit of ramp i have to compensate makes it fine in most cases, and I actually had it in there because it synergized with Bog and Halimar depths
I agree with your Remove Soul counterspells, and I actually just put them all into 1 slot with the new Nullify card from BNG since UB has only a few direct ways of dealing with Permanents(Recoil and Capsize) this could be nice as a remove soul or a negate pointed at auras like freed from the real, and friends. Good call here
Consult the Necrosages is a very good card here too it's either a divination or a mind rot sort of like the pauper esper charm if you will.
Read the bones is excellent, and I think it should be played in addition to foresee thanks for bringing that up.
Scatter Arc is staying for now the Dismiss counters are just too good to pass up in this format, but I might try house guard here.
Brainstorm is kind of tricky, but not only can you abuse it you can also protect important things in teh case of duress effects, so I like that flexibility.
I made a few small changes:
- Map
- Mistvein Borderpost
- Prismatic Lens
- Twisted Abomination
- Fellowar Stone
I didn't realize I forgot one of the best reasons to have Trinket Mage in your deck (Nihil Spellbomb). I wasn't liking the ramp that didn't produce colors on it's own except for ring and eye since they add 2, and the other can cycle if they're useless, plus familiar had to replace 1 of the rocks anyway, so all in all I only cut 1 accelerator. The rest were you guys' suggestions except for oracle, but he doesn't need much explanation.
I got 2 Matches in tonight and they both ended in opponent concessions. I played against Spellheart Chimera(Dat Nihil Spellbomb), and the Boros guy who poops out 2 dudes when a instant or sorcery damages the opponent(general is way too slow).
It's been awhile, but I've started playing again. new group doesn't play with generals like psychatog, so I had to swap him out and change back to this deck.
1 Dimir Guildmage
//Lands
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Command Tower
1 Desert
1 Dimir Aqueduct
1 Dimir Guildgate
1 Dismal Backwater
1 Esper Panorama
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Grixis Panorama
1 Halimar Depths
12 Island
1 Opal Palace
1 Seat of the Synod
6 Swamp
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Vault of Whispers
//Spells
1 Ashes to Ashes
1 Bone to Ash
1 Brainstorm
1 Capsize
1 Chainer's Edict
1 Compulsive Research
1 Condescend
1 Consult the Necrosages
1 Counterspell
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Deep Analysis
1 Deprive
1 Dimir Cluestone
1 Dimir Signet
1 Evincar's Justice
1 Exclude
1 Executioner's Capsule
1 Expedition Map
1 Fellwar Stone
1 Foresee
1 Fractured Powerstone
1 Ghastly Demise
1 Grim Harvest
1 Hymn to Tourach
1 Innocent Blood
1 Into the Roil
1 Mana Leak
1 Mana Prism
1 Manalith
1 Memory Lapse
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Mind Stone
1 Mistvein Borderpost
1 Muddle the Mixture
1 Mystical Teachings
1 Negate
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Pestilence
1 Ponder
1 Preordain
1 Prismatic Lens
1 Pristine Talisman
1 Probe
1 Prohibit
1 Read the Bones
1 Recoil
1 Remove Soul
1 Repeal
1 Rush of Knowledge
1 Sign in Blood
1 Sisay's Ring
1 Snuff Out
1 Sol Grail
1 Spell Pierce
1 Stoic Rebuttal
1 Thoughtcast
1 Treasure Cruise
1 Ur-Golem's Eye
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
1 Archaeomancer
1 Crypt Rats
1 Mulldrifter
1 Nightscape Familiar
1 Predatory Nightstalker
1 Trinket Mage
1 Twisted Abomination
1 Ulamog's Crusher
WU Rhystic Tron WU
WUBRG Snow-Go WUBRG
One of the biggest things to look at is your Commander. He provides card draw and discard. Therefore, each card draw and discard spell you play in the maindeck is potentially a different type of card that could be played; a tutor, a kill spell, a counterspell, or a win condition. It's not always the best strategy to completely lean on your Commander, but it does stay with you the entire game, so you always have access to drawing more cards or forcing discard.
Toxic Nim is a good finisher. Jhessian Zombies is also flexible as early mana fixing or late game attacking. Dimir Infiltrator is also super necessary; the more tutors, the better. Tidehollow Strix is a great blocker and attacker. Dauthi Marauder is a nasty slap in the face if unanswered.
Disturbed Burial is must; it's better than Grim Harvest since the harvest almost always seems to go awya at the worst possible time.
I have an unnatural love for Pristine Talisman.
Since this looks like it's for 1v1, you might want to load up on the Duress effects.
Since Dimir Guildmage isn't very aggressive, I'm not sure how much mileage you'll get from Opal Palace.
I'm iffy on the following cards:
Arcane Denial- I only really like this one in combo decks that don't care about the opponent drawing more cards. I would swap for Remove Soul.
Bone to Ash- 4 mana for a creature-only counterspell doesn't seem that good. Paying extra mana just to get card draw doesn't make sense when your Commander already provides you card draw. I would swap for Preemptive Strike.
Brainstorm- I don't think there's enough shuffle effects to abuse it. I would run Gitaxian Probe or Peek.
Consult the Necrosages- Your Commander already does both of these, making this a wasted slot. It's a good card, just not for this deck.
Deprive- Losing a land drop in duels is very costly. I would swap for False Summoning.
Expedition Map- There are no supremely powerful lands in Pauper EDH, thus negating the power of this card. The only saucy target is Bojuka Bog.
Read the Bones- This card is only good when you don't have access to blue. You have access to blue, therefore Foresee is better for this role.
Scatter Arc- 4 mana is pathetic for this effect. I'd replace it with Mage's Guile, which is an extremely versatile card.
EDH Decks:
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
Tajic, Blade of the Legion
Oloro, Ageless Ascetic
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
Purphoros, God of the Forge
Ezuri, Renegade Leader 1v1
Prossh, Skyraider of Kher 1v1
Hythonia the Cruel
Trying to build:
Jenara, Asura of War
Designing a Custom Set:
Clash of the Cultures: 5 Wedges, 5 Cultures
Providing Artwork for:
Archester: Frontier of Steam
I think Bone to Ash and Scatter Arc are fine. Exclude is basically the Dismiss of Pauper, and in a Commander variant with higher life totals and generally slower decks (due to less redundancy), a 4-drop Exclude is fine. Scatter Arc might be a little more narrow...but what deck in EDH doesn't have stuff for Negate to hit? And it's not like you're not going to get to 4 mana...if you can't do that, you're failing at some other major issue.
I would keep Arcane Denial (although I agree that Remove Soul is a good addition, just in place of something else). Arcane Denial always digs for outs, and later on you can point it at some insignificant spell of yours to turn 2 cards into 3 (cycling away a blank in the process too, which is part of what we all love about Thirst for Knowledge).
I would probably play a Nightscape Familiar in here, and I'd like to see maybe a transmute tutor or two.
Good Call on Familiar I totally forgot about him. What Transmute tutors are good on their own outside of Muddle the Mixture and Shred memory? Dimir House guard might be a possibility since i have no way of searching my sweepers.
Like INS said, just because my general provides draw and discard doesn't mean that I should omit draw and discard outside of him. Especially knowing that this is a control deck that wants to draw a lot of cards, and doing so relying solely on DGM is extremely slow and un-reliable. I'm not sure I agree with the more tutors the better or just having tutors for the sake of having tutors. The deck wants to turn 1 card into 2 or more cards with each spell it casts. Tutors don't satisfy that to warrant just having all of them. The only ones I'd consider really are Muddle the Mixture, Shred Memory, and Dimir House Guard only because it finds 2 of my 3 sweepers which are otherwise un-searchable.
I like a finisher to also be able to stabilize if I'm behind, and Ulamog's Crusher does that very well.
I considered the other recursion cards, but in my experience with 60 card pauper grim harvest is all you really need especially with my already low creature count i'm probably not going to need it very much, and it's teachings-able.
as for your Iffy list:
I agree with Deprive in most cases, but having a redundant counterspell with a neglegent downside having the little bit of ramp i have to compensate makes it fine in most cases, and I actually had it in there because it synergized with Bog and Halimar depths
I agree with your Remove Soul counterspells, and I actually just put them all into 1 slot with the new Nullify card from BNG since UB has only a few direct ways of dealing with Permanents(Recoil and Capsize) this could be nice as a remove soul or a negate pointed at auras like freed from the real, and friends. Good call here
Consult the Necrosages is a very good card here too it's either a divination or a mind rot sort of like the pauper esper charm if you will.
Read the bones is excellent, and I think it should be played in addition to foresee thanks for bringing that up.
Scatter Arc is staying for now the Dismiss counters are just too good to pass up in this format, but I might try house guard here.
Brainstorm is kind of tricky, but not only can you abuse it you can also protect important things in teh case of duress effects, so I like that flexibility.
I made a few small changes:
- Map
- Mistvein Borderpost
- Prismatic Lens
- Twisted Abomination
- Fellowar Stone
+ Nihil SPellbomb
+ Nullify
+ Nightscape Familiar
+ Sea Gate Oracle
+ Foresee
I didn't realize I forgot one of the best reasons to have Trinket Mage in your deck (Nihil Spellbomb). I wasn't liking the ramp that didn't produce colors on it's own except for ring and eye since they add 2, and the other can cycle if they're useless, plus familiar had to replace 1 of the rocks anyway, so all in all I only cut 1 accelerator. The rest were you guys' suggestions except for oracle, but he doesn't need much explanation.
I got 2 Matches in tonight and they both ended in opponent concessions. I played against Spellheart Chimera(Dat Nihil Spellbomb), and the Boros guy who poops out 2 dudes when a instant or sorcery damages the opponent(general is way too slow).
WU Rhystic Tron WU
WUBRG Snow-Go WUBRG
WU Rhystic Tron WU
WUBRG Snow-Go WUBRG