There's a couple of things I was hoping you could add your insight into.
Why no mention of Radiant Fountain? The deck being slower costs you to lose games to aggro that you were a turn away from winning. Gaining 2 life can often buy you that extra turn against very fast aggro. In addition, it's a great target for Vesuva as well gaining you 4 life. In a bind, you can even tutor it up with Expedition Map. I've been very happy with the life gain the 4 Radiant Fountain I run has been giving me.
Where are the rampers? Without Eye, the deck needs to run some ramp spells. Counting on assembling Tron every game is not a smart plan, especially with all the Ghost Quarters running around. The deck can't even support Sylvan Scrying. The deck needs enough ramp that it can function and cast Ulamogs even if Tron doesn't get assembled. Conduit of Ruin is a solid ramper, but I've found that Mind Stone and Palladium Myr supplement it very well, ramping you into a turn 4 Conduit and a turn 5 breaker of worlds (one sided sweepers are always awesome).
If you're not happy with the available colorless rampers, the other option is to splash green to play Boreal Druids, Sylvan Scrying and World Breakers. But I can't find a consistent way to make that happen without running 28+ lands.
The only other problem with the colorless rampers is their dysnergy with Oblivion Stone. I've had success cutting Stone completely and relying on Dismembers and Spatial Contortions to provide adequate early game removal to buy time till you ramp into a Wurmcoil Engine or an Ulamog.
There's a couple of things I was hoping you could add your insight into.
Why no mention of Radiant Fountain? The deck being slower costs you to lose games to aggro that you were a turn away from winning. Gaining 2 life can often buy you that extra turn against very fast aggro. In addition, it's a great target for Vesuva as well gaining you 4 life. In a bind, you can even tutor it up with Expedition Map. I've been very happy with the life gain the 4 Radiant Fountain I run has been giving me.
Where are the rampers? Without Eye, the deck needs to run some ramp spells. Counting on assembling Tron every game is not a smart plan, especially with all the Ghost Quarters running around. The deck can't even support Sylvan Scrying. The deck needs enough ramp that it can function and cast Ulamogs even if Tron doesn't get assembled. Conduit of Ruin is a solid ramper, but I've found that Mind Stone and Palladium Myr supplement it very well, ramping you into a turn 4 Conduit and a turn 5 breaker of worlds (one sided sweepers are always awesome).
If you're not happy with the available colorless rampers, the other option is to splash green to play Boreal Druids, Sylvan Scrying and World Breakers. But I can't find a consistent way to make that happen without running 28+ lands.
The only other problem with the colorless rampers is their dysnergy with Oblivion Stone. I've had success cutting Stone completely and relying on Dismembers and Spatial Contortions to provide adequate early game removal to buy time till you ramp into a Wurmcoil Engine or an Ulamog.
I really think the mana dorks/mana rocks are a genuinely bad idea. they are effectively dead cards by themselves, and you're taking the deck very much towards the kind of ramp strategies a Standard deck would use. Sometimes it'll work, obviously, but the majority of the time you're spending your mana durdling and opening yourself up to be time warped by someone removing your mana rock/dork.
you are effectively trying to play a much worse RG Tron deck, by substituting their actually decent land-tutoring for basic ramp like the Myr. if that's your plan, I highly advise you to check out the RG Tron deck instead, you'll have more fun and be more consistent just ramping out big things.
really, we want the TronDrazi deck to just sort of curve out - threat after threat, increasingly further ahead of anything your opponent can do (or stonewall them with an unbeatable sweeper from O-Stone). it helps that the eldrazi threats are naturally disruptive.
you also want to keep the curve as low as possible. having temple in the deck is effectively a cost-reducer which means you can play your Eldrazi spells a turn earlier, which is important. without that simple interaction, we wouldn't have a deck. and we need to be able to get this interaction without spending cards on it (again, like the Myr - it's a trap), so we can get the most threats-per-topdeck possible, at the cheapest mana cost.
for the top-end, I'd advise keeping it light.
three or four Eldrazi 6-drops (at most)
two or three Eldrazi titans (again, at most)
in theory, we only want 1 titan... it makes our opening hands worse and messes up our topdecks... but without Eye we are forced to run more to aid with consistency. running Conduit doesn't solve the issue - as I explained, Conduit is a dangerous early play, because a single removal spell can lose you the game. it doesn't help that Conduit provides negligable value once it's on the board (the cost reduction won't affect the board, provides no card advantage and doesn't help you catch up against an opponent).
Endbringer is genuinely a better play. it helps you out-grind the grindy decks and will walk all over the low-curve zoo-style decks by being bigger than their stuff and providing more interaction/outs.
also, dude... Breaker of Armies? for real? you're brave, man. i wouldn't run high-cost summoning-sick jank like that unless it exiled stuff on cast or had some other significant effect which effectively won me the game straight away. there's a big difference between a 6-cost eldrazi creature (which is perfectly reasonable to cast of a temple, vesuva and a couple of other lands) and an 8-cost eldrazi (which you more or less have to have Tron online for, and even then you need to wait a turn to drop an additional land to cast). nah man, it's a wasted slot.
i think you've got it in your head that the deck needs to go completely over-the-top to win games. trust me, most of your games will be won off the back of a couple of Thought-Knot Seers and maybe a single Reality Smasher. Tron is there as a sort of backup, for when you don't draw temple, and it means your other lands still have similar sort of scaling value. this really isn't a go-all-in ramp deck. it's much more elegant than that. it's an aggressive midrange deck that has built-in cost-reducing effects, which scales into an unbeatable late-game. imagine running ramp cards in Jund - you wouldn't dream of it. apply the same logic here. value, card advantage, excellent topdecks, disruption, playing threats on curve, transitioning into a very strong late-game.
that's why O-Stone is important. in some matchups, playing threats on curve won't quite get you there. in those situations you can hold the fort, sandbag a threat or two and sweep, before unleashing a torrent of stuff that's much bigger than their stuff (because you were playing lands the whole time and your lands are better than theirs)
Bane of Bala ged is actually decent in terms of what it offers, but relies on having tron mana most likely (in order to get it early, at least) which means it probably crosses the line into the "costs more than 6 and isn't Ulamog" category.
It could serve as a singleton instead of an Ulamog, in a budget version. It's certainly very powerful.
The other guy I don't see a use for.
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Modern: G Tron, Vannifar, Jund, Druid/Vizier combo, Humans, Eldrazi Stompy (Serum Powder), Amulet, Grishoalbrand, Breach Titan, Turns, Eternal Command, As Foretold Living End, Elves, Cheerios, RUG Scapeshift
With Deceiver online, drop conduit to search for ulamog.....and at combat, you have a flock of 10/10s and mill their whole library! Pretty taxing mana-wise, but it would be fun at least!
With Deceiver online, drop conduit to search for ulamog.....and at combat, you have a flock of 10/10s and mill their whole library! Pretty taxing mana-wise, but it would be fun at least!
Amazing
Putting that sequence together is now my life-goal in casual magic.
but in Modern it's like a three card combo which relies on you having already cast a 7 drop, followed by a 6 drop, and have dudes already on the battlefield. Result? Ehhhh
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Modern: G Tron, Vannifar, Jund, Druid/Vizier combo, Humans, Eldrazi Stompy (Serum Powder), Amulet, Grishoalbrand, Breach Titan, Turns, Eternal Command, As Foretold Living End, Elves, Cheerios, RUG Scapeshift
With Deceiver online, drop conduit to search for ulamog.....and at combat, you have a flock of 10/10s and mill their whole library! Pretty taxing mana-wise, but it would be fun at least!
The problem with Deciver of Forms starts with that it's a big guy that doesn't do much other than be a big guy. The only exception I've made so far in those terms with any Eldrazi is Reality Smasher because it has trample, haste, can still come down turn 3 (two if your running Simian Spirit Guide), and has a protection clause. Deceiver has none of those. The scry ability is nice, but if we're looking for advantage that high on the curve, my advice is go down a mana for Endbringer or up all the way to ten mana and play either version of Kozilek. Or play a blue Eldrazi control deck similar to MonoU Tron.
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One thing I noticed is Vesuva is picking up. If that's the case, I would recommend Glimmerpost for testing because even without Cloudpost to ruin the meta game, 4-8 life gain lands that accumulate can help stem the tide of damage (although for best results, we're probably getting into Primeval Titan territory and the little known 8-Temple archetype).
One thing that can also be of use if control catches on is that Rise of Eldrazi has some useful Eldrazi as well. Beyond the Titans themselves (which also frustrate mill), there's also Artisan of Kozilek, and every Eldrazi in that set has Annihilator.
But yeah, I've been testing a little here and there and control is on the rise, which may or may not mean much with aggro being a thing still, but Ancestral Vision is definitely more than just a bone tossed to control players (I know because my mono-U Tron deck loves it). So Cavern of Souls and Cast triggers need to be a forethought.
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Vive, vale. Siquid novisti rectius istis,
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
~~~~~
I got to play a few games with my version of the deck on XMage (and hopefully I will have a FMN next week to report on as well). Had the chance to play against Living End, 8Rack, and Elves. It is important to note that I haven't built any sideboard for the deck and have been just smashing the main board against things to see what I like and dislike about it. Here are a few thoughts about my current dislikes/likes of cards and the general success I had.
Elves: As mentioned before the deck didn't contain any board wipes/or ways to clear a large amount of creatures. While I had removal (6) to slow him down (I don't think I drew any of it) and any damage I traded early didn't matter as the elves soon went out of control after collected company went online (and lords started appearing). All is Dust, Oblivion Stone, Engineered Explosives, Ratchet Bomb, Ugin, the Spirit Dragon all provided similar utility in clearing the board. Without them in the main board, I imagine would would very much struggle against Elves, Merfolk, and other fast creature based decks. As for the solution to the problem, I like the synergy that All is Dust has with the rest of the mana base and creatures. It is castable by only Tron on T3, we can cheat it out early with temples on other hands/games, and we still get to keep our creatures. The disadvantage is the possibility of dying before we get the mana base to cast it. Although that could be said a lot about are deck if we get a bad draw (no maps, temples, or close to tron). Games in which we play "fair" we are almost always bound to lose unless our opponent has an equally bad hand.
8Rack: Considering 8Rack is the deck I played primarily before this one I had a good idea of my opponents thoughts while this game was occurring. While someone peeking into our hand is brutal when they remove map (for our T3) Tron we can win this game overall with very steady top-decks and on-board threats. Additional tutor effects were highly effective on threatening Ulamog to explode their bridge pieces or lands, either from Conduit of Ruin or Sanctum of Ugin. Sea Gate Wreckage was also notable for having the ability to help negate some rack damage or draw through our decks to threats when we are being hellbent. Last but not least, I was surprised by how effective Warping Wail was. Trading it for a spell (even 1cmc T1) rather than the best piece in our hand was great, and when you have the chance to play it against Mind Wrench (T2) even better. However this is another match-up, that shows our weakness against decks that don't run creatures as their main kill conditions. All is Dust isn't useful at all here, and having a Ratchet Bomb/Oblivion Stone would be great. Ideally the other two rather than wiping out what we have currently as well.
Living End: This match was fairly interesting. I felt reasonable good about it even without the mass creature removal because as long as we can threaten a large creature afterwards we can at least trade/or beat out a creature. If it is used at our turn, then we have to hope they haven't amassed a critical amount of creatures in the graveyard to instantly kill us before we have an answer. In good news, usually this match up is great after sideboarding and once against Warping Wail can be used for a counterspell to delay the game. Oblivion Stone main board might be a good solution but has issues (5 mana without the chance for temple to make it cheaper). The best solution to this deck like most is a solid sideboard.
Which cards I liked:
Warping Wail: I think have a flexible creature removal, sorcery counterspell, and bad SSG in one card is pretty fantastic. The question for myself, is it worth more that Spatial Contortion in most other match ups (since I played two heavy sorcery games). I don't know yet but I do think it has a place in our deck. We often have extra mana open early and later in the game (Tron/Temples) which we can't always effectively use. Having the threat of interaction/removal helps us be more disruptive early and is part of the package of Thought-Knot Seer.
Conduit of Ruin: 6 mana is fairly easy for us to hit by mid-game and we can immediately threaten a titan the turn after if we have a land in hand. Forcing removal or lose the game situation to most other decks is extremely punishing. I was also running Deceiver of Form which gave me another target to tutor for if I was short on mana. Often Conduit of Ruin is activated with Tron which means a titan isn't far away in mana cost, but if it is triggered with temples then Deceiver offers a great body to grab instead. It can come down the turn after (and if not killed on casting), you get to Scry 1 on your combat turn and have the possibility of a blow-out (turning everything else into Deceivers, Reality Smashers, Titans) or just improving your draw for the next turn. Is this gamebreaking? No. Is it a strong mid-game play? I would argue for it being so. It is an 8/8 body, scry 1, and possible combat trick built into the same card.
Deceiver of Form: Spoke about it above. It has synergy with Conduit of Ruin if you don't have the mana for a titan. It can provide a 8/8 for a mimic to copy if you have one on board, it has a good amount of utility if it stays around (Scry 1), and it has the chance to randomly blow out the game in a hilarious fashion. It is also possible to drop T3 with Tron which none of the other big Eldrazi have going for us. Other than our standard play of T3 Reality Smasher+2mana for interaction. I think it deserves a 1 at least but I encourage other people to test them as well. So far I am not in love, or hate, but on the positive side of it of liking what it does for us. Sadly I wish we could cast World Breaker instead.
Sanctum of Ugin: Our deck needs to play tutors. There isn't anyway around it. If we don't drop threatening creatures then we aren't going to win the game or we are going to stall it out a lot longer than we should. Without any other card draw (other than Sea Gate, Endbringer, and Matter Reshaper) we may not find our most important threats early. Trading a tap for one land for Ulamog when you already have Tron is a great deal (plus it goes right to hand). I really like this card and I think it is very important if you are only running two titans since it can be enabled by Endless Ones and Deceiver of Forms. It finds your game winning condition. It helped a lot with consistency when only running two Conduit of Ruin.
Didn't Like:
Tomb of the Spirit Dragon - I know it has been discussed for a little bit now. But often if we are playing a fairly competitive game then we don't usually have more than 2-3 creatures on the board. If you have more than that, it is likely that you are about to win. We are far too mana tight early in the game (T1 Maps/or interaction with temple, T2+ Creatures) then I can only really seeing us benefit from this card in games where the board has stalemated. Even then I'd rather be trying to draw cards with Sea Gate Wreckage (and cast them), activating Endbringer, or casting towards our biggest creatures. I never found a good time to use them. Right now I have them as a two of, but I think about just having one in as a "maybe" card or adding another Waste in additional protection for Ghost Quarters or Path of Exile. Or removing them completely for Ghost Quarters or Cavern of Souls.
Going Forward:
Ghost Quarters and Cavern of Souls into the land flex spot I think would be better served for this deck. As for Vesuva, I am not a huge fan of if you are running Mimics and Matter Reshapers but otherwise they are a very solid choice for people starting at CMC4. Boardwipe - Main board. I like All is Dust but it doesn't stop everything and then we are hoping for Ulamog to solve our problems since we have no way of having Worldbreaker instead. The real question, is it worth it to splash Green (or the ability to cast it) for World Breaker but not worry about Ancient Stirrings? Getting a green mana source for T1 Ancient Stirrings we might find very hard with 16 lands slots already taken by Temple/Tron. But it might be more possible by the time World Breaker would be used. It does muddy up the deck construction.
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World Breaker@7? Lands:
Deceiver of Form -> World Breaker
Core
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Urza's Mine
4 Urza's Power Plant
4 Urza's Tower
Utility
4 Cavern of Souls (Cost an arm and a leg)
3 Sanctum of Ugin -> Mosswort Bridge (if you like gimmicks) or some of the painlands?
1 Forest
Purklefluff: Good writeup I agree with most things you have down. Don't underestimate Mind Stone though. Its not a world beater but it ramps and I have mized several times cracking it for a card draw. I agree with your Paladium Myr criticism, tried it and it ALWAYS underperformed. One of the first cards to go from my original list.
As for Deceiver of Form I'm running a one of just for the fact that in some grinder games, Ulamog and Kozilek may very well end up in the GY/Exile and I need that 3rd Titan to tutor up. Its pseudo-scry effect is the real deal as well as it lets you sift through useless top deck cards. Realistically it takes up the space of a second copy of Ulamog and that probably is the better choice. As PersonalRiot said above, I'd prefer World Breaker in that spot but that would take a total remake of my manabase. Green sure would open up some possibilities though.
As for Bane of Bala Ged it is too vulnerable to Dismember. Which of course could be said about Conduit, but Conduit gives you a better return on investment. Deceiver of Form I believe would be the better choice of the two. (If you run these as a one-of.)
I know I need to refine my list and I'm enjoying the recent talk here in the thread. Lets keep it going.
Playing since 1994: Currently MAGS (HomeBrew),Standard & Pauper (Pioneer and Modern are degenerate trash formats)
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that would mimic a turn 4 eye of ugin wouldn't it?
I've thought about it and that's about it. Unfortunately its slow, and then exiles an Eldrazi that you want to play, not remove from the game. I don't think it has a place in competitive versions.
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Playing since 1994: Currently MAGS (HomeBrew),Standard & Pauper (Pioneer and Modern are degenerate trash formats)
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
Tomb of the Spirit Dragon - I know it has been discussed for a little bit now. But often if we are playing a fairly competitive game then we don't usually have more than 2-3 creatures on the board. If you have more than that, it is likely that you are about to win. We are far too mana tight early in the game (T1 Maps/or interaction with temple, T2+ Creatures) then I can only really seeing us benefit from this card in games where the board has stalemated. Even then I'd rather be trying to draw cards with Sea Gate Wreckage (and cast them), activating Endbringer, or casting towards our biggest creatures. I never found a good time to use them. Right now I have them as a two of, but I think about just having one in as a "maybe" card or adding another Waste in additional protection for Ghost Quarters or Path of Exile. Or removing them completely for Ghost Quarters or Cavern of Souls.
What land would you lean towards over TotSD? A second copy of Ghost Quarter? Sea Gate Wreckage as a one of? Something else? I've had a couple of grindy stalemate-like games against 8rack where Tomb is really good but as you say other than in those instances I haven't seen a lot of positives.
And after gold fishing several game ones vs. my Goblin Aggro deck I can see my curve is WAY too high. Oblivion Sowers will be replaced by 2 Endless One. And even though I really like Deceiver of Form, I am probably going to go with one more Dismember or Warping Wail. I also either need to drop Endbringer or go with a 2/2 split of Endbringer and Conduit of Ruin to free up 2 more spots for either 2 more Mimics, 2 more Endless Ones or one more of each. Funny how Eye of Ugin could let me fudge the curve and now as Purkle recommends, it needs to come down.
Playing since 1994: Currently MAGS (HomeBrew),Standard & Pauper (Pioneer and Modern are degenerate trash formats)
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
Tomb of the Spirit Dragon - I know it has been discussed for a little bit now. But often if we are playing a fairly competitive game then we don't usually have more than 2-3 creatures on the board. If you have more than that, it is likely that you are about to win. We are far too mana tight early in the game (T1 Maps/or interaction with temple, T2+ Creatures) then I can only really seeing us benefit from this card in games where the board has stalemated. Even then I'd rather be trying to draw cards with Sea Gate Wreckage (and cast them), activating Endbringer, or casting towards our biggest creatures. I never found a good time to use them. Right now I have them as a two of, but I think about just having one in as a "maybe" card or adding another Waste in additional protection for Ghost Quarters or Path of Exile. Or removing them completely for Ghost Quarters or Cavern of Souls.
What land would you lean towards over TotSD? A second copy of Ghost Quarter? Sea Gate Wreckage as a one of? Something else? I've had a couple of grindy stalemate-like games against 8rack where Tomb is really good but as you say other than in those instances I haven't seen a lot of positives.
And after gold fishing several game ones vs. my Goblin Aggro deck I can see my curve is WAY too high. Oblivion Sowers will be replaced by 2 Endless One. And even though I really like Deceiver of Form, I am probably going to go with one more Dismember or Warping Wail. I also either need to drop Endbringer or go with a 2/2 split of Endbringer and Conduit of Ruin to free up 2 more spots for either 2 more Mimics, 2 more Endless Ones or one more of each. Funny how Eye of Ugin could let me fudge the curve and now as Purkle recommends, it needs to come down.
Mimics are solid and I won't criticise you for running them. Have you considered trying Phyrexian Revoker instead though? I have found it to be quite helpful.
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Modern: G Tron, Vannifar, Jund, Druid/Vizier combo, Humans, Eldrazi Stompy (Serum Powder), Amulet, Grishoalbrand, Breach Titan, Turns, Eternal Command, As Foretold Living End, Elves, Cheerios, RUG Scapeshift
Have you considered trying Phyrexian Revoker instead though? I have found it to be quite helpful.
I will consider it. I'm hesitant in that it can't be cast turn one off a Temple. I suppose if I play test it I can drop 2 Mind Stones and give it a test drive. What match ups do you find it most helpful against? I'd think vs. Affinity it could help.
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STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
Have you considered trying Phyrexian Revoker instead though? I have found it to be quite helpful.
I will consider it. I'm hesitant in that it can't be cast turn one off a Temple. I suppose if I play test it I can drop 2 Mind Stones and give it a test drive. What match ups do you find it most helpful against? I'd think vs. Affinity it could help.
affinity, Jund, grishoalbrand, melira combo, elves, merfolk, Tron, Thopter foundry, Tezzeret, ad nauseam (naming lightning storm, prism or bloom). plus a bunch of niche instances where they play a thing and you just revoker it in your turn, like planeswalkers, combo pieces or mana generators.
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Modern: G Tron, Vannifar, Jund, Druid/Vizier combo, Humans, Eldrazi Stompy (Serum Powder), Amulet, Grishoalbrand, Breach Titan, Turns, Eternal Command, As Foretold Living End, Elves, Cheerios, RUG Scapeshift
Those are some good examples. I'll try to give it a test run.
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Playing since 1994: Currently MAGS (HomeBrew),Standard & Pauper (Pioneer and Modern are degenerate trash formats)
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
Kozilek, the Great Distortion - i want to love this card. the art is amazing, the ability is amazing, the 12/12 with menace is amazing. BUT, the problem with decks like this one are that by the time you realistically land a titan, you are slightly behind on board, and need to break parity or catch up somehow. Ulamog does this better in most cases, and there's no avoiding that. Corner case situations arise when the disrupting shoal ability on Kozilek can shut down an uninteractive combo player, and that's perhaps worth a 2:1 or 1:1 split with Ula and Kozi.... so it's primarily a metagame call. make your choice.
Corner case? Kozilek is better against Burn than any other Eldrazi (yes, even the other Legendary Eldrazi and Ruin Processor), and really any deck that doesn't rely on creatures to win. And sometimes it's nice to draw six or seven cards.
Alright Purklefluff... I'll admit it, there's a good reason to run Endbringer. If for no other reason, opponents generally can't kill all four. Oblivion Sower is still in the back of my mind, but not as a four of. To be honest, the Conduits have been underperforming, so I may test a pair out there eventually.
I'm generally satisfied with how the deck has done. The sideboard needs tweaking, but I am not disappointed with where it is at this moment. The lack of Ghost Quarter and/or Tectonic Edge is a gamble right now that other Tron will not be that big. I'll adapt as needed when the meta starts shaking out.
What I've gotten a feel for in practice is we have a good chance of being a hit this meta game (It'll need to adjust if fast aggro keeps being a thing). As an aside, GR Eldrazi Stompy isn't dead from my testing, so I wonder how many archetypes of Eldrazi survived losing Eye...?
Tron in this deck is a nice bonus rather than the main go-to strategy. We just don't have the tools to assemble it reliably on turn 3 or whatever like the RG Tron deck.
Think of this deck like "stompy that can level up" rather than an analogue of other tron decks.
I recommend dropping some number of your six drops and also dropping a Titan. You are running the risk very much of drawing too much late game and never getting there. You'll also be making yourself mulligan away more opening hands which is never a good idea.
Like I said before, the tron lands are for a mid-game boost, some inevitability and being able to go over the top of other strategies in a board stall. Your main path to victory is thought-knots and reality smashers.
It's also why kozilek isn't good against burn in this deck. In RG Tron I can see what you're saying, sure. But they can assemble tron basically every game no matter what (more or less). To say a ten mana creature is good against burn in a deck that can't reliably get to ten mana until maybe turn six or seven.. Well you get what I'm saying. From my own testing, thought-knot has been the real star against burn. It removes some damage from their hand, blocks well, and that's generally all you need to secure a game (assuming you have other threats to play or more thought-knots)
Drop the expensive stuff and add some number of endless ones or something. They have early and late-game relevance. Give it a test.
Tron in this deck is a nice bonus rather than the main go-to strategy. We just don't have the tools to assemble it reliably on turn 3 or whatever like the RG Tron deck.
Think of this deck like "stompy that can level up" rather than an analogue of other tron decks.
I recommend dropping some number of your six drops and also dropping a Titan. You are running the risk very much of drawing too much late game and never getting there. You'll also be making yourself mulligan away more opening hands which is never a good idea.
Like I said before, the tron lands are for a mid-game boost, some inevitability and being able to go over the top of other strategies in a board stall. Your main path to victory is thought-knots and reality smashers.
It's also why kozilek isn't good against burn in this deck. In RG Tron I can see what you're saying, sure. But they can assemble tron basically every game no matter what (more or less). To say a ten mana creature is good against burn in a deck that can't reliably get to ten mana until maybe turn six or seven.. Well you get what I'm saying. From my own testing, thought-knot has been the real star against burn. It removes some damage from their hand, blocks well, and that's generally all you need to secure a game (assuming you have other threats to play or more thought-knots)
Drop the expensive stuff and add some number of endless ones or something. They have early and late-game relevance. Give it a test.
I've had 0 issues with drawing too many high end threats so far, regardless of Tron. Depending on which version of burn you play against depends on how useful Kozilek is because Burn can ALWAYS come back from behind unless you can snip everything they may try to throw.
How are you finding being able to counter burn's spells when you only run four spells that cost 2 (and you probably want to cast them because they are removal) and four spells that cost 1 (and you definitely will have cast at least one because they are your maps)
Not to poo-poo the idea, but if your aim was to draw a grip of cards that could effectively stone-wall a burn player (with kozilek's ability), you're likely to only draw maybe one card that can counter anything. If you had a lower curve and ran stuff like revoker, mimic, relic, stirrings or whatever, I'd say maybe it's a corner-case decent idea.
I'm still not convinced a turn-6-or-7 play that costs 10 can ever be considered anti burn tech. I've lost to burn on turn three, at large tournaments, more times than I care to remember. That's after playing early stuff like dragon's claw, sun droplet or whatever. Since they printed atarka's command the deck is so much quicker.
And looking at your curve; if you haven't had any issues yet, you're probably not testing enough against the quicker decks in the format :P. How can you support 9 cards at cmc6 or more? Sure, sometimes tron will come together really easily and you'll just cast bomb after bomb, but if you're building your deck around this premise you've been hit with confirmation bias. You need to build your deck around what happens when you *don't* get a perfect draw. RG Tron, for the record, runs 20 maindeck fetching/filtering effects. Five playsets. They run approximately nine 6-10 cost cards. In this deck we run just four maps, and you're trying to have the same top-end!
Great insight purklefluff, rekon you could post a tentative list?
Would playing two mana rocks in the 60 such as talisman of dominance be that terrible? It's another spell that fills the turn two curve and reliably sets up a turn 3 tks or smasher. It also enables us to play those creatures in a blood moon scenario.
It can also tap straight away for dismember should we need it.
I've been running 2 spellskites main board too and they've been great
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There's a couple of things I was hoping you could add your insight into.
Why no mention of Radiant Fountain? The deck being slower costs you to lose games to aggro that you were a turn away from winning. Gaining 2 life can often buy you that extra turn against very fast aggro. In addition, it's a great target for Vesuva as well gaining you 4 life. In a bind, you can even tutor it up with Expedition Map. I've been very happy with the life gain the 4 Radiant Fountain I run has been giving me.
Where are the rampers? Without Eye, the deck needs to run some ramp spells. Counting on assembling Tron every game is not a smart plan, especially with all the Ghost Quarters running around. The deck can't even support Sylvan Scrying. The deck needs enough ramp that it can function and cast Ulamogs even if Tron doesn't get assembled. Conduit of Ruin is a solid ramper, but I've found that Mind Stone and Palladium Myr supplement it very well, ramping you into a turn 4 Conduit and a turn 5 breaker of worlds (one sided sweepers are always awesome).
If you're not happy with the available colorless rampers, the other option is to splash green to play Boreal Druids, Sylvan Scrying and World Breakers. But I can't find a consistent way to make that happen without running 28+ lands.
The only other problem with the colorless rampers is their dysnergy with Oblivion Stone. I've had success cutting Stone completely and relying on Dismembers and Spatial Contortions to provide adequate early game removal to buy time till you ramp into a Wurmcoil Engine or an Ulamog.
I really think the mana dorks/mana rocks are a genuinely bad idea. they are effectively dead cards by themselves, and you're taking the deck very much towards the kind of ramp strategies a Standard deck would use. Sometimes it'll work, obviously, but the majority of the time you're spending your mana durdling and opening yourself up to be time warped by someone removing your mana rock/dork.
you are effectively trying to play a much worse RG Tron deck, by substituting their actually decent land-tutoring for basic ramp like the Myr. if that's your plan, I highly advise you to check out the RG Tron deck instead, you'll have more fun and be more consistent just ramping out big things.
really, we want the TronDrazi deck to just sort of curve out - threat after threat, increasingly further ahead of anything your opponent can do (or stonewall them with an unbeatable sweeper from O-Stone). it helps that the eldrazi threats are naturally disruptive.
you also want to keep the curve as low as possible. having temple in the deck is effectively a cost-reducer which means you can play your Eldrazi spells a turn earlier, which is important. without that simple interaction, we wouldn't have a deck. and we need to be able to get this interaction without spending cards on it (again, like the Myr - it's a trap), so we can get the most threats-per-topdeck possible, at the cheapest mana cost.
for the top-end, I'd advise keeping it light.
three or four Eldrazi 6-drops (at most)
two or three Eldrazi titans (again, at most)
in theory, we only want 1 titan... it makes our opening hands worse and messes up our topdecks... but without Eye we are forced to run more to aid with consistency. running Conduit doesn't solve the issue - as I explained, Conduit is a dangerous early play, because a single removal spell can lose you the game. it doesn't help that Conduit provides negligable value once it's on the board (the cost reduction won't affect the board, provides no card advantage and doesn't help you catch up against an opponent).
Endbringer is genuinely a better play. it helps you out-grind the grindy decks and will walk all over the low-curve zoo-style decks by being bigger than their stuff and providing more interaction/outs.
also, dude... Breaker of Armies? for real? you're brave, man. i wouldn't run high-cost summoning-sick jank like that unless it exiled stuff on cast or had some other significant effect which effectively won me the game straight away. there's a big difference between a 6-cost eldrazi creature (which is perfectly reasonable to cast of a temple, vesuva and a couple of other lands) and an 8-cost eldrazi (which you more or less have to have Tron online for, and even then you need to wait a turn to drop an additional land to cast). nah man, it's a wasted slot.
i think you've got it in your head that the deck needs to go completely over-the-top to win games. trust me, most of your games will be won off the back of a couple of Thought-Knot Seers and maybe a single Reality Smasher. Tron is there as a sort of backup, for when you don't draw temple, and it means your other lands still have similar sort of scaling value. this really isn't a go-all-in ramp deck. it's much more elegant than that. it's an aggressive midrange deck that has built-in cost-reducing effects, which scales into an unbeatable late-game. imagine running ramp cards in Jund - you wouldn't dream of it. apply the same logic here. value, card advantage, excellent topdecks, disruption, playing threats on curve, transitioning into a very strong late-game.
that's why O-Stone is important. in some matchups, playing threats on curve won't quite get you there. in those situations you can hold the fort, sandbag a threat or two and sweep, before unleashing a torrent of stuff that's much bigger than their stuff (because you were playing lands the whole time and your lands are better than theirs)
(probably as a 1x of)
Bane of Bala ged is actually decent in terms of what it offers, but relies on having tron mana most likely (in order to get it early, at least) which means it probably crosses the line into the "costs more than 6 and isn't Ulamog" category.
It could serve as a singleton instead of an Ulamog, in a budget version. It's certainly very powerful.
The other guy I don't see a use for.
With Deceiver online, drop conduit to search for ulamog.....and at combat, you have a flock of 10/10s and mill their whole library! Pretty taxing mana-wise, but it would be fun at least!
Amazing
Putting that sequence together is now my life-goal in casual magic.
but in Modern it's like a three card combo which relies on you having already cast a 7 drop, followed by a 6 drop, and have dudes already on the battlefield. Result? Ehhhh
The problem with Deciver of Forms starts with that it's a big guy that doesn't do much other than be a big guy. The only exception I've made so far in those terms with any Eldrazi is Reality Smasher because it has trample, haste, can still come down turn 3 (two if your running Simian Spirit Guide), and has a protection clause. Deceiver has none of those. The scry ability is nice, but if we're looking for advantage that high on the curve, my advice is go down a mana for Endbringer or up all the way to ten mana and play either version of Kozilek. Or play a blue Eldrazi control deck similar to MonoU Tron.
---------
One thing I noticed is Vesuva is picking up. If that's the case, I would recommend Glimmerpost for testing because even without Cloudpost to ruin the meta game, 4-8 life gain lands that accumulate can help stem the tide of damage (although for best results, we're probably getting into Primeval Titan territory and the little known 8-Temple archetype).
One thing that can also be of use if control catches on is that Rise of Eldrazi has some useful Eldrazi as well. Beyond the Titans themselves (which also frustrate mill), there's also Artisan of Kozilek, and every Eldrazi in that set has Annihilator.
But yeah, I've been testing a little here and there and control is on the rise, which may or may not mean much with aggro being a thing still, but Ancestral Vision is definitely more than just a bone tossed to control players (I know because my mono-U Tron deck loves it). So Cavern of Souls and Cast triggers need to be a forethought.
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
~~~~~
Elves: As mentioned before the deck didn't contain any board wipes/or ways to clear a large amount of creatures. While I had removal (6) to slow him down (I don't think I drew any of it) and any damage I traded early didn't matter as the elves soon went out of control after collected company went online (and lords started appearing). All is Dust, Oblivion Stone, Engineered Explosives, Ratchet Bomb, Ugin, the Spirit Dragon all provided similar utility in clearing the board. Without them in the main board, I imagine would would very much struggle against Elves, Merfolk, and other fast creature based decks. As for the solution to the problem, I like the synergy that All is Dust has with the rest of the mana base and creatures. It is castable by only Tron on T3, we can cheat it out early with temples on other hands/games, and we still get to keep our creatures. The disadvantage is the possibility of dying before we get the mana base to cast it. Although that could be said a lot about are deck if we get a bad draw (no maps, temples, or close to tron). Games in which we play "fair" we are almost always bound to lose unless our opponent has an equally bad hand.
8Rack: Considering 8Rack is the deck I played primarily before this one I had a good idea of my opponents thoughts while this game was occurring. While someone peeking into our hand is brutal when they remove map (for our T3) Tron we can win this game overall with very steady top-decks and on-board threats. Additional tutor effects were highly effective on threatening Ulamog to explode their bridge pieces or lands, either from Conduit of Ruin or Sanctum of Ugin. Sea Gate Wreckage was also notable for having the ability to help negate some rack damage or draw through our decks to threats when we are being hellbent. Last but not least, I was surprised by how effective Warping Wail was. Trading it for a spell (even 1cmc T1) rather than the best piece in our hand was great, and when you have the chance to play it against Mind Wrench (T2) even better. However this is another match-up, that shows our weakness against decks that don't run creatures as their main kill conditions. All is Dust isn't useful at all here, and having a Ratchet Bomb/Oblivion Stone would be great. Ideally the other two rather than wiping out what we have currently as well.
Living End: This match was fairly interesting. I felt reasonable good about it even without the mass creature removal because as long as we can threaten a large creature afterwards we can at least trade/or beat out a creature. If it is used at our turn, then we have to hope they haven't amassed a critical amount of creatures in the graveyard to instantly kill us before we have an answer. In good news, usually this match up is great after sideboarding and once against Warping Wail can be used for a counterspell to delay the game. Oblivion Stone main board might be a good solution but has issues (5 mana without the chance for temple to make it cheaper). The best solution to this deck like most is a solid sideboard.
Which cards I liked:
Warping Wail: I think have a flexible creature removal, sorcery counterspell, and bad SSG in one card is pretty fantastic. The question for myself, is it worth more that Spatial Contortion in most other match ups (since I played two heavy sorcery games). I don't know yet but I do think it has a place in our deck. We often have extra mana open early and later in the game (Tron/Temples) which we can't always effectively use. Having the threat of interaction/removal helps us be more disruptive early and is part of the package of Thought-Knot Seer.
Conduit of Ruin: 6 mana is fairly easy for us to hit by mid-game and we can immediately threaten a titan the turn after if we have a land in hand. Forcing removal or lose the game situation to most other decks is extremely punishing. I was also running Deceiver of Form which gave me another target to tutor for if I was short on mana. Often Conduit of Ruin is activated with Tron which means a titan isn't far away in mana cost, but if it is triggered with temples then Deceiver offers a great body to grab instead. It can come down the turn after (and if not killed on casting), you get to Scry 1 on your combat turn and have the possibility of a blow-out (turning everything else into Deceivers, Reality Smashers, Titans) or just improving your draw for the next turn. Is this gamebreaking? No. Is it a strong mid-game play? I would argue for it being so. It is an 8/8 body, scry 1, and possible combat trick built into the same card.
Deceiver of Form: Spoke about it above. It has synergy with Conduit of Ruin if you don't have the mana for a titan. It can provide a 8/8 for a mimic to copy if you have one on board, it has a good amount of utility if it stays around (Scry 1), and it has the chance to randomly blow out the game in a hilarious fashion. It is also possible to drop T3 with Tron which none of the other big Eldrazi have going for us. Other than our standard play of T3 Reality Smasher+2mana for interaction. I think it deserves a 1 at least but I encourage other people to test them as well. So far I am not in love, or hate, but on the positive side of it of liking what it does for us. Sadly I wish we could cast World Breaker instead.
Sanctum of Ugin: Our deck needs to play tutors. There isn't anyway around it. If we don't drop threatening creatures then we aren't going to win the game or we are going to stall it out a lot longer than we should. Without any other card draw (other than Sea Gate, Endbringer, and Matter Reshaper) we may not find our most important threats early. Trading a tap for one land for Ulamog when you already have Tron is a great deal (plus it goes right to hand). I really like this card and I think it is very important if you are only running two titans since it can be enabled by Endless Ones and Deceiver of Forms. It finds your game winning condition. It helped a lot with consistency when only running two Conduit of Ruin.
Didn't Like:
Tomb of the Spirit Dragon - I know it has been discussed for a little bit now. But often if we are playing a fairly competitive game then we don't usually have more than 2-3 creatures on the board. If you have more than that, it is likely that you are about to win. We are far too mana tight early in the game (T1 Maps/or interaction with temple, T2+ Creatures) then I can only really seeing us benefit from this card in games where the board has stalemated. Even then I'd rather be trying to draw cards with Sea Gate Wreckage (and cast them), activating Endbringer, or casting towards our biggest creatures. I never found a good time to use them. Right now I have them as a two of, but I think about just having one in as a "maybe" card or adding another Waste in additional protection for Ghost Quarters or Path of Exile. Or removing them completely for Ghost Quarters or Cavern of Souls.
Going Forward:
Ghost Quarters and Cavern of Souls into the land flex spot I think would be better served for this deck. As for Vesuva, I am not a huge fan of if you are running Mimics and Matter Reshapers but otherwise they are a very solid choice for people starting at CMC4. Boardwipe - Main board. I like All is Dust but it doesn't stop everything and then we are hoping for Ulamog to solve our problems since we have no way of having Worldbreaker instead. The real question, is it worth it to splash Green (or the ability to cast it) for World Breaker but not worry about Ancient Stirrings? Getting a green mana source for T1 Ancient Stirrings we might find very hard with 16 lands slots already taken by Temple/Tron. But it might be more possible by the time World Breaker would be used. It does muddy up the deck construction.
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World Breaker@7? Lands:
Deceiver of Form -> World Breaker
Core
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Urza's Mine
4 Urza's Power Plant
4 Urza's Tower
Utility
4 Cavern of Souls (Cost an arm and a leg)
3 Sanctum of Ugin -> Mosswort Bridge (if you like gimmicks) or some of the painlands?
1 Forest
Just some musings.
As for Deceiver of Form I'm running a one of just for the fact that in some grinder games, Ulamog and Kozilek may very well end up in the GY/Exile and I need that 3rd Titan to tutor up. Its pseudo-scry effect is the real deal as well as it lets you sift through useless top deck cards. Realistically it takes up the space of a second copy of Ulamog and that probably is the better choice. As PersonalRiot said above, I'd prefer World Breaker in that spot but that would take a total remake of my manabase. Green sure would open up some possibilities though.
As for Bane of Bala Ged it is too vulnerable to Dismember. Which of course could be said about Conduit, but Conduit gives you a better return on investment. Deceiver of Form I believe would be the better choice of the two. (If you run these as a one-of.)
I know I need to refine my list and I'm enjoying the recent talk here in the thread. Lets keep it going.
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
I've thought about it and that's about it. Unfortunately its slow, and then exiles an Eldrazi that you want to play, not remove from the game. I don't think it has a place in competitive versions.
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
What land would you lean towards over TotSD? A second copy of Ghost Quarter? Sea Gate Wreckage as a one of? Something else? I've had a couple of grindy stalemate-like games against 8rack where Tomb is really good but as you say other than in those instances I haven't seen a lot of positives.
And after gold fishing several game ones vs. my Goblin Aggro deck I can see my curve is WAY too high. Oblivion Sowers will be replaced by 2 Endless One. And even though I really like Deceiver of Form, I am probably going to go with one more Dismember or Warping Wail. I also either need to drop Endbringer or go with a 2/2 split of Endbringer and Conduit of Ruin to free up 2 more spots for either 2 more Mimics, 2 more Endless Ones or one more of each. Funny how Eye of Ugin could let me fudge the curve and now as Purkle recommends, it needs to come down.
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
Mimics are solid and I won't criticise you for running them. Have you considered trying Phyrexian Revoker instead though? I have found it to be quite helpful.
I will consider it. I'm hesitant in that it can't be cast turn one off a Temple. I suppose if I play test it I can drop 2 Mind Stones and give it a test drive. What match ups do you find it most helpful against? I'd think vs. Affinity it could help.
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
affinity, Jund, grishoalbrand, melira combo, elves, merfolk, Tron, Thopter foundry, Tezzeret, ad nauseam (naming lightning storm, prism or bloom). plus a bunch of niche instances where they play a thing and you just revoker it in your turn, like planeswalkers, combo pieces or mana generators.
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
CURRENT DECK: and I'm liking it pretty well:
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Urza's Mine
4 Urza's Power Plant
4 Urza's Tower
2 Cavern of Souls
2 Radiant Fountain
2 Vesuva
2 Wastes
Creatures: 21
4 Matter Reshaper
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Reality Smasher
4 Endbringer
2 Conduit of Ruin
2 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
4 Expedition Map
2 Oblivion Stone
1 Ratchet Bomb
2 Relic of Progenitus
Instants: 6
3 Dismember
3 Spatial Contortion
1 Void Winnower
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Damping Matrix
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Gut Shot
1 All is Dust
Alright Purklefluff... I'll admit it, there's a good reason to run Endbringer. If for no other reason, opponents generally can't kill all four. Oblivion Sower is still in the back of my mind, but not as a four of. To be honest, the Conduits have been underperforming, so I may test a pair out there eventually.
I'm generally satisfied with how the deck has done. The sideboard needs tweaking, but I am not disappointed with where it is at this moment. The lack of Ghost Quarter and/or Tectonic Edge is a gamble right now that other Tron will not be that big. I'll adapt as needed when the meta starts shaking out.
What I've gotten a feel for in practice is we have a good chance of being a hit this meta game (It'll need to adjust if fast aggro keeps being a thing). As an aside, GR Eldrazi Stompy isn't dead from my testing, so I wonder how many archetypes of Eldrazi survived losing Eye...?
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
~~~~~
Tron in this deck is a nice bonus rather than the main go-to strategy. We just don't have the tools to assemble it reliably on turn 3 or whatever like the RG Tron deck.
Think of this deck like "stompy that can level up" rather than an analogue of other tron decks.
I recommend dropping some number of your six drops and also dropping a Titan. You are running the risk very much of drawing too much late game and never getting there. You'll also be making yourself mulligan away more opening hands which is never a good idea.
Like I said before, the tron lands are for a mid-game boost, some inevitability and being able to go over the top of other strategies in a board stall. Your main path to victory is thought-knots and reality smashers.
It's also why kozilek isn't good against burn in this deck. In RG Tron I can see what you're saying, sure. But they can assemble tron basically every game no matter what (more or less). To say a ten mana creature is good against burn in a deck that can't reliably get to ten mana until maybe turn six or seven.. Well you get what I'm saying. From my own testing, thought-knot has been the real star against burn. It removes some damage from their hand, blocks well, and that's generally all you need to secure a game (assuming you have other threats to play or more thought-knots)
Drop the expensive stuff and add some number of endless ones or something. They have early and late-game relevance. Give it a test.
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
~~~~~
Not to poo-poo the idea, but if your aim was to draw a grip of cards that could effectively stone-wall a burn player (with kozilek's ability), you're likely to only draw maybe one card that can counter anything. If you had a lower curve and ran stuff like revoker, mimic, relic, stirrings or whatever, I'd say maybe it's a corner-case decent idea.
I'm still not convinced a turn-6-or-7 play that costs 10 can ever be considered anti burn tech. I've lost to burn on turn three, at large tournaments, more times than I care to remember. That's after playing early stuff like dragon's claw, sun droplet or whatever. Since they printed atarka's command the deck is so much quicker.
And looking at your curve; if you haven't had any issues yet, you're probably not testing enough against the quicker decks in the format :P. How can you support 9 cards at cmc6 or more? Sure, sometimes tron will come together really easily and you'll just cast bomb after bomb, but if you're building your deck around this premise you've been hit with confirmation bias. You need to build your deck around what happens when you *don't* get a perfect draw. RG Tron, for the record, runs 20 maindeck fetching/filtering effects. Five playsets. They run approximately nine 6-10 cost cards. In this deck we run just four maps, and you're trying to have the same top-end!
Would playing two mana rocks in the 60 such as talisman of dominance be that terrible? It's another spell that fills the turn two curve and reliably sets up a turn 3 tks or smasher. It also enables us to play those creatures in a blood moon scenario.
It can also tap straight away for dismember should we need it.
I've been running 2 spellskites main board too and they've been great