Ethersworn Canonist in the main is certainly interesting. Makes matchups against Elves and Storm better pre-board, and seems better than Prelate against the field.
I've done a little tuning after seeing what you're thinking about:
I'm not sure if the Throne is actually good, but I haven't seen anyone try it yet. Being the pretty pretty princess is very strong, so it might be worth a slot if I'm trying lists that don't include Jailer.
Round 1: Spirit got me game one on the draw vs Elves. My opponent had a slowish Glimpse of Nature reliant hand, Spirit came down and he didn't have an answer. Game two he drew 3 Natural Order, but didn't hit 4 mana before Mirran Crusader + Umezawa's Jitte could come down. Win against the boogie-man 2-0. I feel like I played this match mostly correctly on my side, but my opponent bricked pretty hard.
Round 2: was against U/R delver. My opponent is relatively new to the deck, and made what seemed like some misplays, throwing 1 mana burn spells at my face for Monastery Swiftspear prowess triggers in the early turns instead of saving them to remove disruptive creatures later. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben came down and bought time for my Aether Vial and Stoneforge Mystic x 2 to get a Batterskull in play. Game 2 was a combination of Thalia and Ethersworn Canonist buying time to get a Serra Avenger down with a Jitte. My favorite play of the night was vialing in Thalia main phase turn 4 with my opponent tapped out, then resolving Serra Avenger with my opponent having Force of Will in hand. Win, 2-0. Having a high density of two drops with a vial on two and a Karakas was very good here. I could have been a bit more aggressive in one of the games with my attacks, and likely ended one of the games one turn sooner, but I was playing with a very defensive mindset. I need to keep closing out games more in mind with this current version of the deck leaning more towards aggro.
Round 3: I felt pretty good going in, having gone 2-0 after losing the die roll twice. I went up against a good ANT player. I had a good amount of two mana hate both games, but lost before I could get to turn 2 in both games, one time with him going down to 1 life after taking 18 damage from his Ad Nauseam flips. Part of me could chalk this up to variance, but I do wonder if I'm mulliganing correctly with the two Mindbreak Traps in my board, especially when I'm on the draw.
Round 4: I was paired down and my opponent scooped to me. We played out two games and I went 1-1 vs Maverick before we called it a night. This seems like a bad matchup, and one that I don't have a great deal of experience with. Sigarda, Host of Herons is a beating though.
The most questionable cards in the maindeck are probably Thalia, Heretic Cathar and Cavern of Souls. I saw THC once last night and it was fine, setting my opponent back a turn on one of their dual lands, and swinging for 3. I've thought about Brimaz, King of Oreskos in that slot, as it doesn't die to Lightning Bolt, can swing with a True-Name Nemesis on the board, block Thought-Knot Seer, is a fast clock without equipment, and is protected by Karakas and potentially Eiganjo Castle. Cavern I didn't see, and I'd like to have a 5th non-basic white source to cast creatures for ANT's post-board games when they bring in Massacre. I've thought about Eiganjo Castle (as mentioned above) in that slot, especially if I bring Brimaz in, as it would bring my mainboard Human count down to 10, making Cavern fairly "meh".
I enjoyed this version of the deck after playing various splash builds that lean more towards being a prison deck. The more aggressive list seemed good, and I think I'm going to try this trimmed down on three drops version of the list for the time being. I didn't miss Recruiter of the Guard, or Sanctum Prelate that much, and the streamlined creature setup and sideboard plan made sideboarding quicker and easier (and sideboarding is admittedly something I need to learn to do more effectively a higher percentage of the time).
I've been trying so hard to actually win a GPT that I've contorted my deck into the 3 color manabase with 4 Caverns, and now that I've been running those lists for a few weeks and Big Red is one of the best decks in the format, all I want to do is go back to a monowhite build and beat some faces in with Avengers and Crusaders.
I think 1x Recruiter and 1x Prelate still have their places in the deck. Prelate shuts off so many unfair cards and Recruiter provides Flickerwisp Loops if nothing else, which is strong enough on it's own to be worth 1 slot in the deck.
On the one hand, I miss all the *****ty things I've gotten used to doing to my opponent's game plan, on the other, T3 Serra Avengers and Crusaders are strong plays all by themselves.
So that's twice that this deck has come up in D&T discussion, but no one seems to be talking about it? The Dragon Stompy thread here hasn't gotten a post this year, and I can't find the thread on the Source. Links (perhaps via PM to limit derailment) to active discussion would be great!
So that's twice that this deck has come up in D&T discussion, but no one seems to be talking about it? The Dragon Stompy thread here hasn't gotten a post this year, and I can't find the thread on the Source. Links (perhaps via PM to limit derailment) to active discussion would be great!
I've read that it's pretty bad against traditional D&T, hence the sideboard plans with 4 Sulfur Elemental and some number of Sudden Shock. I haven't played against it yet myself (I'm just a lowly paper player, no one locally has trotted it out yet).
Uhh, you guys should be testing against the red deck if you aren't already. Just a friendly suggestion. I may have spent most of this week playing that deck... I'll put up an article next week talking about my experiences with it and a few different decklists based around the same core.
I wish I had a testing group, I get in 2-3 weeklies and sadly that doesn't leave much additional time for testing unless I have an event of some kind to prepare for (not a lot of those here in Calgary, modern's the big thing up here).
Is that deck the reason for the upping of basic plains in your most recent list? With 8 moon effects and so much fast mana, getting cut off white sources early seems like a real possibility.
We are probably not favored against the new mono-red prison deck, which really surprised me. I went 3-7 in preboard games against it the other day. Any hand where they can produce a Chandra on turn 1 or 2 is really hard to beat. Fiery Confluence is beyond a blowout. Ensnaring Bridge gives them infinite time to draw out of bad situations. My mono-white list is indeed running another Plains to compensate; it also is just nice to have a rock solid manabase against Delver.
@KayJay1991
If you check out The Source D&T thread, Chris Cunningham posted some math about splashing creatures off just four Caverns. It's not really so bad.
Yeah, people have been playing "mono-white" with Pontiff and Magus for a while now. It might not be as consistent in casting the splash spells, but there's the benefit of actually playing at least as many Plains as others are playing Magus effects.
I like the article, but ran up against Bomberman in an Eternal Weekend cash tournament one of the local stores ran yesterday. I feel like that deck has gotten the Aluren/Food Chain treatment of recently gaining a TON of power and flexibility ( in this case, due to the printing of Walking Ballista, much like Food Chain). The deck can now play a weak creature aggro game, backed up by artifact-based utility and dig effects then, once they've exhausted their opponents removal options, they can move into combo mode and close out the game when any window presents itself.
I was on Elves and ended up winning the round, but there was plenty of misplays firing on all sides to get there. Anyway, I think Bomberman is worth a second look after playing that round.
It's a very light splash build with only two splash creatures in maindeck, 1 Orzhov Pontiff and 1 Magus of the Moon, with an extra copy of each in the board. I've tried to keep the number of 2 drops high (14) in this build. I've really missed Serra Avenger in the splash builds I've tried and I'm going to try running 2 of it here. Every time it shows up against a fair deck it's great. I also like being able to cast a 2 drop on turn 2 and vial a 2 drop on turn 3. Having 14 2 drops enables this type of aggressive opening much more often.
Recently I've also really liked Cavern of Souls when I've seen it early against Delver decks, as it can mitigate Daze's effectiveness. Sure, it can be Wastelanded, but I do typically get some value out of Cavern before it's wasted away. I've cut 1 Rishadan Port and 1 Karakas to keep the basic land count at 10, and true white sources at 12. Basic lands in high numbers just seem strong right now, especially since I face a good number of Delver decks and R/W Taxes lists locally.
The Snow-Covered Plains and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar in the board are for a UW control player who Predicted (and failed, but it means the play is on his radar) me last week. I also just like Gideon in BUG and other fair matchups, and against matchups that run -1/-1 effects like Dread of Night, Sulfur Elemental or Zealous Persecution in their boards. I think it's becoming more and more important to have a sideboard plan for the hate that is brought in against us, so I'm trying Gideon and Relic-Warder out again. The cards have been very good for me in the past.
Dark Confidant --> overperformed for me. It's great to have another 2-drop that can put immense pressure on board. Being vialed at end of turn often guarantees you get a draw out of it. Being human makes it compatible with Cavern. DnT suffers from lack of card manipulation and card draw against the fair decks and Confidant solves this problem.
Thoughtseize --> a great 1-cmc card for combo decks, which I don't feel comfortable facing with DnT. It's the only way to interact with combo outside of a turn 2 Thalia.
Deathrite Shaman --> Good news: mana acceleration lets you abuse port and wasteland as much as possible. Fixes mana for black/red cards like Magus or Orzhov Pontiff. Bad news: conflicts with too many cards for turn 1 play. I played it in a build without mother of runes and it still felt awkward. Sometimes it's better than Thoughtseize and aether vial. Sometimes it's not. The lack of powerful 3-drops (aside from Magus) makes it much less appealing though it has potential with the utility lands. Perhaps it will perform better if the overall deck is fine-tuned.
Magus of the Moon --> Haven't been able to test it against enough non-red decks. When it works,it's superb. It's also human. Not much to say here. I think you run 3-4 or none at all.
Simian Spirit Guide --> the idea of this is to enable Chalice of the Void, Magus of the Moon, and other turn 2 plays on turn 1 as much as possible. It also helps you get around things like Daze. The card has a lot of potential but use 3 copies or 0, as you don't want multiples. The problem with this card is that it looks really bad without a Chalice or Magus in hand. Maybe I just got unlucky draws so far.
Chalice of the Void --> Mixed feelings about the card. The fact that many combo decks can get around casting 3 cmc spells is pretty bad. I haven't tested this in a Ancient Tomb/ City of Traitors build however.
Other notes: I think taking out Flickerwisp in a Mardu version is mandatory. The card is just harder to cast with Caverns and conflicts with deck space anyhow. Losing a flyer hurts which is why I considered Serra Avenger but it's still a non-Human that I prefer not to have in the deck.
Also mother of runes is really bad with Chalice (self-explanatory yes but many people still play it in Chalice builds). Don't even bother playing a single copy.
Conclusion: The deck just feels weak to Delver and combo decks. The disruption and resource denial is simply too slow, especially on the draw. I find that the blood moon strategy is where we want to be. As for Chalice, I don't know. The best removal spells are 1-cmc and options like Shaman/ Mother of Runes enable much flexibility.
Currently I'm running 3 magus, 1 recruiter, 1 sanctum prelate, and 1 orzhov pontiff. What do you guys think are the best 3-drops to run right now?
Hey, it's been a while. Seeing a lot of discussion about the Mardu builds or just splashing Caverns for Magus, Confidant and Pontiff. While I don't think they're bad, and in fact can work with enough support, I think one thing to consider especially post Miracles ban is that Recruiter is just plain bad in the current meta. Card is slow and takes space, without a Vial in play you basically Timewalk yourself fetching something to play for next turn.
Just a heads up. I've seen people go down to 1 lately but I think 0 is the number to go unless you go full Mardu toolbox with a ton of 1-ofs.
Hey, it's been a while. Seeing a lot of discussion about the Mardu builds or just splashing Caverns for Magus, Confidant and Pontiff. While I don't think they're bad, and in fact can work with enough support, I think one thing to consider especially post Miracles ban is that Recruiter is just plain bad in the current meta. Card is slow and takes space, without a Vial in play you basically Timewalk yourself fetching something to play for next turn.
Just a heads up. I've seen people go down to 1 lately but I think 0 is the number to go unless you go full Mardu toolbox with a ton of 1-ofs.
Agreed. I only like playing 1 copy. I'm testing 4 dark confidants which are great, but I have no room for things like canonist, revoker, containment priest, etc. How important do you think those are in the main? I feel like they are not going to be impactful as 1-ofs without some serious tutoring ability anyways.
I haven't been running them, but I'm not a huge fan of Bob unless you're running a pretty heavy black splash. Giving up Revokers and Canonists to run him really hurts too. Disruptive two drops are still important. Deadguy Ale seems more like the place for Bob, as it has more turn one interaction.
Now, Recruiter of the Guard: I like running one, because sometimes you get into grindy fair matchups, and the Recruiter/Flickerwisp chain is good there. I've tried builds without it, and it made me realize that I didn't like the increased number of 3 drops I'd been running in various splash builds.
I haven't been running them, but I'm not a huge fan of Bob unless you're running a pretty heavy black splash. Giving up Revokers and Canonists to run him really hurts too. Disruptive two drops are still important. Deadguy Ale seems more like the place for Bob, as it has more turn one interaction.
Now, Recruiter of the Guard: I like running one, because sometimes you get into grindy fair matchups, and the Recruiter/Flickerwisp chain is good there. I've tried builds without it, and it made me realize that I didn't like the increased number of 3 drops I'd been running in various splash builds.
Actually I'm only invested in two scrublands (I could probably get away with one honestly) and it is because of aether vial and cavern of souls.
For the mardu build, I actually cut down on the 3 drops. 1 recruiter and cut down on flickerwisps.
I was thinking of playing vyrn wingmare instead of flickerwisp. Getting to double white is more risky now and I find flickerwisp is so bad without a vial on board. Wingmare being able to stack with Thalia is exactly what I want because soemtimes even turn 2 thalia feels lackluster. It still trades with delver and both are equally terrible against decks **** elves.
I haven't tested it yet but I want to commit to playing thoughtseize. I just feel this deck really wants a turn 1 disruption source. The deck needs a more efficient way to get around counterspells, combo pieces, and -1/-1 hatecards. Tidehollow is worth considering but I don't really want to give back a card and it is two mana.
Since a couple of you asked questions about it, here's a write up on Red Prison.
Good look to those of you going to Vegas this week, and I look forward to reading your tournament reports! I can't make it out due to obligations for my summer job, but I'm really looking forward to the coverage.
I'd split up your fetches to avoid getting Needled off fetching red. I'd also consider playing a Containment Priest over RiP #3. Otherwise it seems reasonable.
@Curby
This is my WW build, though I do prefer the splash builds at the moment.
List
I want to fool around with something like that.
Ethersworn Canonist in the main is certainly interesting. Makes matchups against Elves and Storm better pre-board, and seems better than Prelate against the field.
I've done a little tuning after seeing what you're thinking about:
4 Mother of Runes
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Ethersworn Canonist
3 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Serra Avenger
4 Flickerwisp
2 Mirran Crusader
1 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
Instants:
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Aether Vial
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Batterskull
Lands:
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Horizon Canopy
3 Karakas
4 Rishadan Port
4 Wasteland
10 Plains
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Gut Shot
1 Path to Exile
2 Pithing Needle
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Blessed Alliance
2 Containment Priest
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Manriki-Gusari
1 Rest in Peace
1 Council's Judgment
2 Mindbreak Trap
2) Use the right number of each card.
3) Know your probabilities.
4) Print your deck lists; make yourself and your judges happier.
4 Mother of Runes
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Spirit of the Labyrinth
3 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Serra Avenger
4 Flickerwisp
2 Mirran Crusader
1 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
Instants:
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Aether Vial
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Batterskull
Lands:
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Horizon Canopy
3 Karakas
4 Rishadan Port
4 Wasteland
10 Plains
1 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Path to Exile
1 Pithing Needle
1 Surgical Extraction
2 Containment Priest
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Manriki-Gusari
1 Rest in Peace
2 Council's Judgment
2 Mindbreak Trap
I decided to try Spirit of the Labyrinth maindeck instead of Ethersworn Canonist due it having 3 power, and being broadly good against Brainstorm decks, and providing some disruption against Elves and Leovold, Emissary of Trest. It seemed to be solid yesterday.
Round 1: Spirit got me game one on the draw vs Elves. My opponent had a slowish Glimpse of Nature reliant hand, Spirit came down and he didn't have an answer. Game two he drew 3 Natural Order, but didn't hit 4 mana before Mirran Crusader + Umezawa's Jitte could come down. Win against the boogie-man 2-0. I feel like I played this match mostly correctly on my side, but my opponent bricked pretty hard.
Round 2: was against U/R delver. My opponent is relatively new to the deck, and made what seemed like some misplays, throwing 1 mana burn spells at my face for Monastery Swiftspear prowess triggers in the early turns instead of saving them to remove disruptive creatures later. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben came down and bought time for my Aether Vial and Stoneforge Mystic x 2 to get a Batterskull in play. Game 2 was a combination of Thalia and Ethersworn Canonist buying time to get a Serra Avenger down with a Jitte. My favorite play of the night was vialing in Thalia main phase turn 4 with my opponent tapped out, then resolving Serra Avenger with my opponent having Force of Will in hand. Win, 2-0. Having a high density of two drops with a vial on two and a Karakas was very good here. I could have been a bit more aggressive in one of the games with my attacks, and likely ended one of the games one turn sooner, but I was playing with a very defensive mindset. I need to keep closing out games more in mind with this current version of the deck leaning more towards aggro.
Round 3: I felt pretty good going in, having gone 2-0 after losing the die roll twice. I went up against a good ANT player. I had a good amount of two mana hate both games, but lost before I could get to turn 2 in both games, one time with him going down to 1 life after taking 18 damage from his Ad Nauseam flips. Part of me could chalk this up to variance, but I do wonder if I'm mulliganing correctly with the two Mindbreak Traps in my board, especially when I'm on the draw.
Round 4: I was paired down and my opponent scooped to me. We played out two games and I went 1-1 vs Maverick before we called it a night. This seems like a bad matchup, and one that I don't have a great deal of experience with. Sigarda, Host of Herons is a beating though.
The most questionable cards in the maindeck are probably Thalia, Heretic Cathar and Cavern of Souls. I saw THC once last night and it was fine, setting my opponent back a turn on one of their dual lands, and swinging for 3. I've thought about Brimaz, King of Oreskos in that slot, as it doesn't die to Lightning Bolt, can swing with a True-Name Nemesis on the board, block Thought-Knot Seer, is a fast clock without equipment, and is protected by Karakas and potentially Eiganjo Castle. Cavern I didn't see, and I'd like to have a 5th non-basic white source to cast creatures for ANT's post-board games when they bring in Massacre. I've thought about Eiganjo Castle (as mentioned above) in that slot, especially if I bring Brimaz in, as it would bring my mainboard Human count down to 10, making Cavern fairly "meh".
I enjoyed this version of the deck after playing various splash builds that lean more towards being a prison deck. The more aggressive list seemed good, and I think I'm going to try this trimmed down on three drops version of the list for the time being. I didn't miss Recruiter of the Guard, or Sanctum Prelate that much, and the streamlined creature setup and sideboard plan made sideboarding quicker and easier (and sideboarding is admittedly something I need to learn to do more effectively a higher percentage of the time).
Rambling over.
I've been trying so hard to actually win a GPT that I've contorted my deck into the 3 color manabase with 4 Caverns, and now that I've been running those lists for a few weeks and Big Red is one of the best decks in the format, all I want to do is go back to a monowhite build and beat some faces in with Avengers and Crusaders.
I might try something like this next week:
4x Flickerwisp
2x Mirran Crusader
3x Mother of Runes
3x Phyrexian Revoker
1x Recruiter of the Guard
1x Sanctum Prelate
3x Serra Avenger
1x Spirit of the Labyrinth
4x Stoneforge Mystic
4x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4x Aether Vial
1x Batterskull
1x Sword of Fire and Ice
1x Umezawa's Jitte
Land (23)
3x Karakas
12x Plains
4x Rishadan Port
4x Wasteland
Instant (4)
4x Swords to Plowshares
2x Containment Priest
2x Council's Judgment
3x Ethersworn Canonist
1x Grafdigger's Cage
1x Leonin Relic-Warder
2x Path to Exile
1x Pithing Needle
2x Rest in Peace
1x Spirit of the Labyrinth
I think 1x Recruiter and 1x Prelate still have their places in the deck. Prelate shuts off so many unfair cards and Recruiter provides Flickerwisp Loops if nothing else, which is strong enough on it's own to be worth 1 slot in the deck.
On the one hand, I miss all the *****ty things I've gotten used to doing to my opponent's game plan, on the other, T3 Serra Avengers and Crusaders are strong plays all by themselves.
So that's twice that this deck has come up in D&T discussion, but no one seems to be talking about it? The Dragon Stompy thread here hasn't gotten a post this year, and I can't find the thread on the Source. Links (perhaps via PM to limit derailment) to active discussion would be great!
2) Use the right number of each card.
3) Know your probabilities.
4) Print your deck lists; make yourself and your judges happier.
The deck has consistently been putting up results both on MTGO and in paper tournaments. It's worth considering at least for the time being.
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?19745-Deck-Dragon-Stompy/page146 is also going to be worth looking at as it's neither sneak attack nor dragon stompy that is sticking out as the clearly better chalice moon deck, but both are putting up results at the same time.
I think this is the type of deck that's gaining some newfound traction: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/legacy-big-red-36893#paper
The Ensnaring Bridge plan is certainly interesting.
I've read that it's pretty bad against traditional D&T, hence the sideboard plans with 4 Sulfur Elemental and some number of Sudden Shock. I haven't played against it yet myself (I'm just a lowly paper player, no one locally has trotted it out yet).
I wish I had a testing group, I get in 2-3 weeklies and sadly that doesn't leave much additional time for testing unless I have an event of some kind to prepare for (not a lot of those here in Calgary, modern's the big thing up here).
Is that deck the reason for the upping of basic plains in your most recent list? With 8 moon effects and so much fast mana, getting cut off white sources early seems like a real possibility.
We are probably not favored against the new mono-red prison deck, which really surprised me. I went 3-7 in preboard games against it the other day. Any hand where they can produce a Chandra on turn 1 or 2 is really hard to beat. Fiery Confluence is beyond a blowout. Ensnaring Bridge gives them infinite time to draw out of bad situations. My mono-white list is indeed running another Plains to compensate; it also is just nice to have a rock solid manabase against Delver.
@KayJay1991
If you check out The Source D&T thread, Chris Cunningham posted some math about splashing creatures off just four Caverns. It's not really so bad.
2) Use the right number of each card.
3) Know your probabilities.
4) Print your deck lists; make yourself and your judges happier.
I was on Elves and ended up winning the round, but there was plenty of misplays firing on all sides to get there. Anyway, I think Bomberman is worth a second look after playing that round.
4 Mother of Runes
2 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Serra Avenger
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Flickerwisp
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Mirran Crusader
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Recruiter of the Guard
1 Sanctum Prelate
4 Swords to Plowshares
Artifacts:
4 Aether Vial
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Batterskull
Lands:
4 Cavern of Souls
2 Karakas
3 Rishadan Port
4 Wasteland
5 Plains
5 Snow-Covered Plains
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Gut Shot
1 Path to Exile
1 Pithing Needle
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Blessed Alliance
2 Containment Priest
1 Leonin Relic-Warder
1 Rest in Peace
1 Council's Judgment
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Mirran Crusader
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
It's a very light splash build with only two splash creatures in maindeck, 1 Orzhov Pontiff and 1 Magus of the Moon, with an extra copy of each in the board. I've tried to keep the number of 2 drops high (14) in this build. I've really missed Serra Avenger in the splash builds I've tried and I'm going to try running 2 of it here. Every time it shows up against a fair deck it's great. I also like being able to cast a 2 drop on turn 2 and vial a 2 drop on turn 3. Having 14 2 drops enables this type of aggressive opening much more often.
Recently I've also really liked Cavern of Souls when I've seen it early against Delver decks, as it can mitigate Daze's effectiveness. Sure, it can be Wastelanded, but I do typically get some value out of Cavern before it's wasted away. I've cut 1 Rishadan Port and 1 Karakas to keep the basic land count at 10, and true white sources at 12. Basic lands in high numbers just seem strong right now, especially since I face a good number of Delver decks and R/W Taxes lists locally.
The Snow-Covered Plains and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar in the board are for a UW control player who Predicted (and failed, but it means the play is on his radar) me last week. I also just like Gideon in BUG and other fair matchups, and against matchups that run -1/-1 effects like Dread of Night, Sulfur Elemental or Zealous Persecution in their boards. I think it's becoming more and more important to have a sideboard plan for the hate that is brought in against us, so I'm trying Gideon and Relic-Warder out again. The cards have been very good for me in the past.
Things I'd like to find room for, but haven't in this build are Flickerwisp #4 Manriki-Gusari and Mindbreak Trap in the board.
I mentioned doing this with a friend, and he directed me to this: http://metadeck.me/
It's a little site that lets you make a 12-in-1 proxy deck. Or you can make a 3-in-1 if you want the rules/oracle text on there.
I've fiddled around with it some this afternoon. Seems useful. I've just been copy/pasting lists from mtggoldfish.
Dark Confidant --> overperformed for me. It's great to have another 2-drop that can put immense pressure on board. Being vialed at end of turn often guarantees you get a draw out of it. Being human makes it compatible with Cavern. DnT suffers from lack of card manipulation and card draw against the fair decks and Confidant solves this problem.
Thoughtseize --> a great 1-cmc card for combo decks, which I don't feel comfortable facing with DnT. It's the only way to interact with combo outside of a turn 2 Thalia.
Deathrite Shaman --> Good news: mana acceleration lets you abuse port and wasteland as much as possible. Fixes mana for black/red cards like Magus or Orzhov Pontiff. Bad news: conflicts with too many cards for turn 1 play. I played it in a build without mother of runes and it still felt awkward. Sometimes it's better than Thoughtseize and aether vial. Sometimes it's not. The lack of powerful 3-drops (aside from Magus) makes it much less appealing though it has potential with the utility lands. Perhaps it will perform better if the overall deck is fine-tuned.
Magus of the Moon --> Haven't been able to test it against enough non-red decks. When it works,it's superb. It's also human. Not much to say here. I think you run 3-4 or none at all.
Simian Spirit Guide --> the idea of this is to enable Chalice of the Void, Magus of the Moon, and other turn 2 plays on turn 1 as much as possible. It also helps you get around things like Daze. The card has a lot of potential but use 3 copies or 0, as you don't want multiples. The problem with this card is that it looks really bad without a Chalice or Magus in hand. Maybe I just got unlucky draws so far.
Chalice of the Void --> Mixed feelings about the card. The fact that many combo decks can get around casting 3 cmc spells is pretty bad. I haven't tested this in a Ancient Tomb/ City of Traitors build however.
Other notes: I think taking out Flickerwisp in a Mardu version is mandatory. The card is just harder to cast with Caverns and conflicts with deck space anyhow. Losing a flyer hurts which is why I considered Serra Avenger but it's still a non-Human that I prefer not to have in the deck.
Also mother of runes is really bad with Chalice (self-explanatory yes but many people still play it in Chalice builds). Don't even bother playing a single copy.
Conclusion: The deck just feels weak to Delver and combo decks. The disruption and resource denial is simply too slow, especially on the draw. I find that the blood moon strategy is where we want to be. As for Chalice, I don't know. The best removal spells are 1-cmc and options like Shaman/ Mother of Runes enable much flexibility.
Currently I'm running 3 magus, 1 recruiter, 1 sanctum prelate, and 1 orzhov pontiff. What do you guys think are the best 3-drops to run right now?
Just a heads up. I've seen people go down to 1 lately but I think 0 is the number to go unless you go full Mardu toolbox with a ton of 1-ofs.
Agreed. I only like playing 1 copy. I'm testing 4 dark confidants which are great, but I have no room for things like canonist, revoker, containment priest, etc. How important do you think those are in the main? I feel like they are not going to be impactful as 1-ofs without some serious tutoring ability anyways.
Now, Recruiter of the Guard: I like running one, because sometimes you get into grindy fair matchups, and the Recruiter/Flickerwisp chain is good there. I've tried builds without it, and it made me realize that I didn't like the increased number of 3 drops I'd been running in various splash builds.
Actually I'm only invested in two scrublands (I could probably get away with one honestly) and it is because of aether vial and cavern of souls.
For the mardu build, I actually cut down on the 3 drops. 1 recruiter and cut down on flickerwisps.
I was thinking of playing vyrn wingmare instead of flickerwisp. Getting to double white is more risky now and I find flickerwisp is so bad without a vial on board. Wingmare being able to stack with Thalia is exactly what I want because soemtimes even turn 2 thalia feels lackluster. It still trades with delver and both are equally terrible against decks **** elves.
I haven't tested it yet but I want to commit to playing thoughtseize. I just feel this deck really wants a turn 1 disruption source. The deck needs a more efficient way to get around counterspells, combo pieces, and -1/-1 hatecards. Tidehollow is worth considering but I don't really want to give back a card and it is two mana.
Good look to those of you going to Vegas this week, and I look forward to reading your tournament reports! I can't make it out due to obligations for my summer job, but I'm really looking forward to the coverage.
4x Flickerwisp
3x Magus of the Moon
2x Mirran Crusader
4x Mother of Runes
3x Phyrexian Revoker
1x Recruiter of the Guard
1x Sanctum Prelate
4x Stoneforge Mystic
4x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Land (23)
4x Arid Mesa
2x Karakas
6x Plains
3x Plateau
4x Rishadan Port
4x Wasteland
4x Aether Vial
1x Batterskull
1x Sword of Fire and Ice
1x Umezawa's Jitte
4x Swords to Plowshares
2x Council's Judgment
1x Disenchant
2x Ethersworn Canonist
1x Grafdigger's Cage
1x Pithing Needle
3x Rest in Peace
3x Sudden Demise
2x Surgical Extraction
I'd split up your fetches to avoid getting Needled off fetching red. I'd also consider playing a Containment Priest over RiP #3. Otherwise it seems reasonable.
@Curby
This is my WW build, though I do prefer the splash builds at the moment.
4 Wasteland
4 Rishadan Port
3 Karakas
12 Plains
4 Mother of Runes
3 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Serra Avenger
3 Mirran Crusader
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Flickerwisp
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Batterskull
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Aether Vial
1 Path to Exile
2 Containment Priest
2 Rest in Peace
2 Council's Judgment
2 Blessed Alliance
1 Sword of War and Peace
2 Ethersworn Canonist
4 Chalice of the Void