Nizzahon (a budget deck YouTube guy) had a pretty nice UW Skies decklist. (Video)
Aggro-control seems reasonable placed for budget right now. A little bit of countermagic for planeswalkers or boardsweep. A little bounce for the +1/+1 counters.
What would you adjust? It sure would be nice to be able to turn on Topplegeist's delirium in the late game. But there's not much in the way of enchantments or artifacts to help here. Vessel of Ephemera? Pilgrim's Eye? Hangarback Walker is probably the only good card that would help.
I have been testing a similar list and I can conclude that you need thraben inspector in the main for some card advantage. Command has been underwhelming at times and I have moved it to sb, bishop has been meh and has only impressed me when I have been able to flash it in via Chains. The absolute MVP to me so far and totally uncutable are Rattlechains, Always Watching and Negate. Reflector Mage come at a Close second.
Hello. Long time viewer of the forums, first time poster!
I'm super excited to see a thread for this, I have been playing a U/W Flash Skies since the season started and absolutely love it! It won't beat the net decks (though it can - 2-0'd G/W tokens at Game Day last night) but it's a TON of fun and costs almost nothing (note: I pulled the Abbey at Prerelease and have had Secures since they were only a buck or two at most). Note in my list below that in the main only 3 cards must be played at Sorcery speed - I almost think Reflector Mage main actually slows the deck down!
Nothing better than playing almost ENTIRELY on your opponent's turn. I love Topplegeist for the tempo through Chains, or as an early beater and fodder for the Sorcerer. You'll note I cannot get delirium on my own but require my opponent to kill an enchantment, so I'm not using it for that.
If I had more Watchings they'd maybe go in, but I'm finding the deck is so tight that in board matches I really only have a few flex spots (Mages, 'Geists, counterspells or kill spells depending on the matchup). Avacyn would slot right in but that's not budget of course and I have a personal boycott against "auto-include" mythics
Here's hoping Eldritch Moon adds some sick spirits to give Rattlechains more love
My hats off to all the budget brewers out there!!!
Your post and the videos inspired me to build this as my Standard deck. I'm looking forward to taking it to FNM next week, but until then I'll try to find someone to play Standard with to test it out. It's broadly similar, but with a few changes - and it lacks Prairie Stream for now.
Someone on another thread had the idea of running 1x Wastes in a deck with Dimensional Infiltrator, to be fetched up with Evolving Wilds in relevant situations. I'm inclined to think our mana base can get away with doing this; might be worth trying out?
Some thoughts from FNM last night. I went 0-6 (three rounds), so consider this more of an information-gathering exercise than anything! Round 1 was against 5color Superfriends, and we just weren't fast enough to kill before he got a bunch of planes walkers online and took over the board.
Round two was vs. GR Eldrazi Ramp. Both games we had the same issue; not enough reach to finish the job before he gets going with World Breaker, Nissa and Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger. I also misplayed by not countering an early ramp spell, realizing my mistake right after I made it. Game two I got him down to one life thanks to Thunderclap Wyvern and small flyers, but he stabilized with life gain off of Jaddi Offshoot with extra landfall triggers plus finishers.
Third round was Esper Starfield Pact. Lots of spot removal and of course Languish, the -4/-4 being enough to kill any of the deck's creatures unless we've got a counter. Both games felt close, and I was well-positioned for a while and pressuring his life total, but in the end not enough reach to kill before his inevitability kicks in. Sadly, Reflector Mage was not much help here since he ran very few creatures.
Some general observations:
* Holding up mana, especially on turn two, to either counter something or cast Rattlechains / Infiltrator at end of turn was really valuable.
* Always Watching and Thunderclap Wyvern both performed really well. Silumgar Sorcerer much less so.
* The deck, or at least my build of it, seems to lack enough reach to close out a game.
* Stratus Dancer was highly versatile vs the Starfield Pact deck.
Bear in mind, I haven't played in an FNM in a long time so I may have made play errors that I'm not aware of. I also didn't play against any aggro decks, so maybe it would have a better time racing them in the air than I had against more controlling decks.
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Aggro-control seems reasonable placed for budget right now. A little bit of countermagic for planeswalkers or boardsweep. A little bounce for the +1/+1 counters.
1x Bygone Bishop
4x Dimensional Infiltrator
4x Rattlechains
4x Reflector Mage
2x Silumgar Sorcerer
4x Stratus Dancer
4x Thunderclap Wyvern
4x Topplegeist
4x Evolving Wilds
6x Island
6x Plains
4x Port Town
4x Prairie Stream
Instant (5)
3x Negate
2x Ojutai's Command
Enchantment (4)
4x Always Watching
2x Bygone Bishop
1x Encase in Ice
2x Felidar Cub
2x Hallowed Moonlight
1x Horribly Awry
1x Negate
3x Silkwrap
1x Silumgar Sorcerer
2x Vryn Wingmare
What would you adjust? It sure would be nice to be able to turn on Topplegeist's delirium in the late game. But there's not much in the way of enchantments or artifacts to help here. Vessel of Ephemera? Pilgrim's Eye? Hangarback Walker is probably the only good card that would help.
Tron
I'm super excited to see a thread for this, I have been playing a U/W Flash Skies since the season started and absolutely love it! It won't beat the net decks (though it can - 2-0'd G/W tokens at Game Day last night) but it's a TON of fun and costs almost nothing (note: I pulled the Abbey at Prerelease and have had Secures since they were only a buck or two at most). Note in my list below that in the main only 3 cards must be played at Sorcery speed - I almost think Reflector Mage main actually slows the deck down!
Nothing better than playing almost ENTIRELY on your opponent's turn. I love Topplegeist for the tempo through Chains, or as an early beater and fodder for the Sorcerer. You'll note I cannot get delirium on my own but require my opponent to kill an enchantment, so I'm not using it for that.
If I had more Watchings they'd maybe go in, but I'm finding the deck is so tight that in board matches I really only have a few flex spots (Mages, 'Geists, counterspells or kill spells depending on the matchup). Avacyn would slot right in but that's not budget of course and I have a personal boycott against "auto-include" mythics
Here's hoping Eldritch Moon adds some sick spirits to give Rattlechains more love
My hats off to all the budget brewers out there!!!
4x Bygone Bishop
4x Thunderclap Wyvern
3x Silumgar Sorcerer
2x Topplegeist
2x Reflector Mage
1x Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
1x Mizzium Meddler
4x Stasis Snare
3x Immolating Glare
3x Anticipate
2x Negate
2x Eerie Interlude
1x Dispel
1x Always Watching
8x Plains
8x Islands
4x Evolving Wilds
2x Foundry of the Consuls
1x Westvale Abbey
2x Secure the Wastes
2x Celestial Flare
2x Reflector Mage
2x Invocation of Saint Traft
1x Dispel
1x Negate
1x Felidar Cub
1x Displacement Wave
1x Tragic Arrogance
4 Evolving Wilds
4 Port Town
8 Island
7 Plains
Creatures - 25
3 Topplegeist
4 Rattlechains
4 Dimensional Infiltrator
2 Stratus Dancer
4 Reflector Mage
2 Bygone Bishop
2 Silumgar Sorcerer
4 Thunderclap Wyvern
4 Always Watching
2 Stasis Snare
Instant - 6
3 Negate
2 Ojutai’s Command
1 Clash of Wills
3 Felidar Cub
2 Dispel
2 Invasive Surgery
2 Stasis Snare
1 Silumgar Sorcerer
1 Essence Flux
3 Immolating Glare
1 Invocation of Saint Traft
Someone on another thread had the idea of running 1x Wastes in a deck with Dimensional Infiltrator, to be fetched up with Evolving Wilds in relevant situations. I'm inclined to think our mana base can get away with doing this; might be worth trying out?
Round two was vs. GR Eldrazi Ramp. Both games we had the same issue; not enough reach to finish the job before he gets going with World Breaker, Nissa and Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger. I also misplayed by not countering an early ramp spell, realizing my mistake right after I made it. Game two I got him down to one life thanks to Thunderclap Wyvern and small flyers, but he stabilized with life gain off of Jaddi Offshoot with extra landfall triggers plus finishers.
Third round was Esper Starfield Pact. Lots of spot removal and of course Languish, the -4/-4 being enough to kill any of the deck's creatures unless we've got a counter. Both games felt close, and I was well-positioned for a while and pressuring his life total, but in the end not enough reach to kill before his inevitability kicks in. Sadly, Reflector Mage was not much help here since he ran very few creatures.
Some general observations:
* Holding up mana, especially on turn two, to either counter something or cast Rattlechains / Infiltrator at end of turn was really valuable.
* Always Watching and Thunderclap Wyvern both performed really well. Silumgar Sorcerer much less so.
* The deck, or at least my build of it, seems to lack enough reach to close out a game.
* Stratus Dancer was highly versatile vs the Starfield Pact deck.
Bear in mind, I haven't played in an FNM in a long time so I may have made play errors that I'm not aware of. I also didn't play against any aggro decks, so maybe it would have a better time racing them in the air than I had against more controlling decks.