@esterk: I agree, Shock is better than both Magma Jet and Izzet Charm. Not in isolation, of course, but the 1-mana difference is crucial when you play against Rabble-decks and other hyper-aggro. Being able to turn-1 remove a mana-dork also sets you up for the later game. You really want to avoid a turn 2 Courser of Kruphix.
Not much to report from FNM this week. Played against a graveyard deck I lost to because I made the mistake of using Jace, Memory Adept's 0 (lol) on game 3, giving his Nighthowler enough P/T to kill me. It was an interesting matchup, and the Nyx Weaver spiders he had were actually very hard to deal with. Not exactly a deck I felt the need to account for. second match against Slivers was great, Shock did a ton of work in this match and I was able to get Jace, Architect of Though to ultimate both games. Third game against U/B control was slow going, but post-sideboard I did really well - unfortunately control vs control matches tend to go long and we got to time, me being literally one turn short of killing him.
Overall the deck did very well. I think maybe I'll take out the singleton Rakdos's Return - I like the card and it does really well in certain matchups, but so many other cards outclass it, I found myself boarding it out a lot.
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I make art!
Sorry for any grammar/spelling errors, I mostly post from my tablet/smartphone.
Currently playing: Standard: UBRControl
Commander:
White Makes Right (Mikaeus, The Lunarch)
Izzet Fun Yet? (Jhoira of the Ghitu)
The Perfect Storm (Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge)
Dead Grave Walking (Skullbriar, the Walking Grave)
How Could You Be So Heartless? (Heartless Hidetsugu)
I played in 2 Standard events, not taking 1st in either but still winning packs from both.
The tournaments were each 4 rounds with swiss pairing. The first tournament I was paired against my friend running Mono Black Devotion. I really love this matchup, as my deck can outgrind theirs if I stop Gray Merchant of Asphodel from landing. I won game 1, he won game 2, and time was called while we were shuffling for game 3. A round one draw... :/ 0-0-1
Round 3 I played against a mono blue devotion deck. This guy kept getting the nut draws. Both games he was able to play 3 Master of Waves, which only two cards in my deck can deal with. The first game was super close and I had the board locked down with 3 Frostburn Weirds, Keranos, god of Storms, and a stolen Thassa, god of the Sea on defense, but he baited out my counter with Nightveil Specter and landed a Thassa, god of the Sea to make his own Frostburn Weird unblockable and take my last 3 life. The second game he was able to win very quickly before I could stabilize. Man, a Damnation reprint sure would help out this deck! 1-1-1
The last round I was paired against a Rabble Red deck. A few well-placed Anger of the Gods and Izzet Charms allowed me to win in two games. Normally I struggle against aggro, both games I saw two Anger of the Gods. Jace, Architect of Thought also did quite a bit of work. The player seemed to be pretty new or nervous as he kept making mistakes and had to read most of my cards. 2-1-1 is my final record, winning me 3 packs.
The next event I got a first round bye (1-0-0), then played against Mono Black Devotion (2-0-0), Orzhov Control (3-0-0), then finally lost to Red devotion with a splash of white (3-1-0). Both games the Red Devotion player was able to play a Fanatic of Mogis for 12 or more to win the game on turn 4. I just couldn't keep up with the deck or answer his threats fast enough. I think 12 scry lands really makes the deck too slow.
Honestly I used to think Thoughtseize was a must have in the MB, but after playing a version with it solely on the side, I actually like not maindecking it (right now). The 2 loss of life is actually really relevant - because our manabase can be pretty greedy we tend to shock ourselves a lot from lands, and we have no way to gain that back unlike other control variants (except for a singleton Elixir, of course). Just running more kill control in general is better in such a creature-driven format right now, or just using counterspells like Dissolve. Obviously from the way my deck is built I would rather win game one versus aggro and be weak against control than vice-versa, so your mileage may vary on that front. I run 3 Thoughtseize and 2 Duress on the side and haven't had any complaints about it being missing from the main.
For what it's worth, I do think Thoughtseize is fantastic at letting you know what you're up against so you know how the match is going to reasonably play out. Knowing if you're against Mono-Black, Mono-Blue, Jund Monsters, etc, on game one turn one can really give you a lot of insight on planning out your plays, deciding your best path to victory, assuming what else their deck has, etc. - though it could be argued you would get most of that information on turns 1-3 anyway.
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I make art!
Sorry for any grammar/spelling errors, I mostly post from my tablet/smartphone.
Currently playing: Standard: UBRControl
Commander:
White Makes Right (Mikaeus, The Lunarch)
Izzet Fun Yet? (Jhoira of the Ghitu)
The Perfect Storm (Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge)
Dead Grave Walking (Skullbriar, the Walking Grave)
How Could You Be So Heartless? (Heartless Hidetsugu)
That's a good way to think about it. Game one vs aggro decks seems more important to me. Here's my list. It's going to be for the Khans release, so Only stuff that's going to survive rotation is in it.
I think it's very hard for me to give you any advice on this deck, seeing as I don't know what things will look like once Khans rotates into Standard. That being said, I think your deck is very light on win-cons. Sphinx is a pretty good clock, and the Scry effect is nuts, but it seems to be your only non-Planeswalker ultimate (and even those aren't 'you win the game' moments here) way to win the game. I would strongly recommend Keranos in your deck. He is an amazing win con that literally lets you sit around and cast kill spells and counterspells and draw spells (doing it on their turn triggers him!) and still have inevitability and high pressure. Seriously, I was scepitcal about him at first, but playing him and then just sitting back and doing nothing ensures you will win, barring Unravel the Aether/Revoke Existence/Deicide, which don't see much play anymore, and can also just be countered.
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I make art!
Sorry for any grammar/spelling errors, I mostly post from my tablet/smartphone.
Currently playing: Standard: UBRControl
Commander:
White Makes Right (Mikaeus, The Lunarch)
Izzet Fun Yet? (Jhoira of the Ghitu)
The Perfect Storm (Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge)
Dead Grave Walking (Skullbriar, the Walking Grave)
How Could You Be So Heartless? (Heartless Hidetsugu)
I would strongly recommend Keranos in your deck. He is an amazing win con that literally lets you sit around and cast kill spells and counterspells and draw spells (doing it on their turn triggers him!)
Anyway, went 3-0-1 at FNM this week. Deck performed admirably, but the control matchup against esper is grueling. We have way more options when it comes to picking apart their threats, and Notion Thief is amazing post board, but I think I need another Negate or Gainsay on the side to combat Detention Sphere since if it resolves on Keranos, it's really hard to win since we have to then bank on resolving an Aetherling.
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I make art!
Sorry for any grammar/spelling errors, I mostly post from my tablet/smartphone.
Currently playing: Standard: UBRControl
Commander:
White Makes Right (Mikaeus, The Lunarch)
Izzet Fun Yet? (Jhoira of the Ghitu)
The Perfect Storm (Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge)
Dead Grave Walking (Skullbriar, the Walking Grave)
How Could You Be So Heartless? (Heartless Hidetsugu)
both are build around cards that help you enable delve and can advance your game plan.
New cards that look good: Tormenting Voice - filter/looting for delving Winterflame - could be playable. Despise - makes a comeback. Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker - obvi Taigam's Scheming - delve enabler and top deck filter Dig Through Time - awesome card selection with a net +1 Dead Drop - one sided Barter in Blood, seems good. Worth noting that there does not seem to be another card to make someone sac a creature Pearl Lake Ancient - interesting card is interesting, needs play testing. Crippling Chill - tempo plus cycle to get a card left on top by jace, scheming, or Liliana Clever Impersonator - 4 mana clone anything seems good.
plus some of the new counter spells seem pretty playable.
Seems like there is still a ton to play with. Losing Aetherling probably hurts, not sure what to use a new stable win con. Losing so much 2 mana removal could hurt but it may just be the case that the format slows down a little.
the gears are turning. Just need to proxy up some stuff and playtest I guess.
These are my thoughts on grixis going forward based on spoilers:
From what I've seen a lot of the more useful cards for us are Delve cards. Murderous Cut, Dig Through Time, Empty the Pits, etc. However, obvious this makes it awkward because we don't want too many maindeck since then we start losing synergy. Murderous Cut is amazing, but how many can we get away with running? I think our new finisher is Empty the Pits, as long as Bile Blight doesn't increase in use. Being able to shove all our mana into it and exile everything from our graveyard at their end step for like 8-9 zombies is pretty nuts. It's no Aetherling, but then again, what is?
There is a good chance Silence the Believers starts becoming better in this new format. Hooded Hydra, Bloodsoaked Champion, Grim Haruspex, Gods, etc all get hosed by it, and we won't have access to Utter End. The Strive cost is gravy if we pull it really late game. It also helps against other Delve cards as an added bonus. I think the departure that hurts the deck most if Dreadbore. Having a cheaper Hero's Downfall (albeit at Sorcery speed) was a great tool, and now I think it will be harder for us to deal with Planeswalkers with only Downfall available. To make up for this, maybe playing more burn spells like Lightning Strike is the right solution, but I'm not sure. We also lose access to edict effects outside of the new Dead Drop (which I don't like personally), so against any hexproof creatures (there are only two I think will see play, and one gets killed by Anger), we get pretty hosed.
I think going forward Aetherspouts will be very good. Not good enough to run more than 2 probably, but it gives us a lot of ways to deal with boardstates that start escalating out of control. It sets our opponents way back and gives us breathing room, which I feel like we will need badly. Our early game looks like it may get a bit worse, so we will probably have to take some hits early on before getting to our powerful spells. Losing Aetherling, I think Prognostic Sphinx becomes one of our sustainable routes to victory, though I don't know how much I like relying on it. Sphinx is nice, but we need more draw-enablers if that's going to be a finisher for us, which is kind of hard to find. Divination and the new Weave Fate can help there, along with Jace's Ingenuity of course, but do those really do enough? I'm not sure. if we end up using more card draw in our deck, maybe a card like Chasm Skulker suddenly becomes an option as well, but maybe not. Nightmarish End also becomes a good option we go heavier card draw as well. Our other finisher would probably be Sarkan and/or Stormbreath Dragon. Early game, i think Omenspeaker may be a good choice now that Frostburn is rotating.
Pearl-Lake Ancient is interesting. It looks like a big dumb creature to me less than a control finisher, but it could have merits. The bounce effect is really backbreaking though, so I'm not sure I like it as an all-in option like Aetherling was. Clever Impersonator will be a powerful silver bullet sideboard card against various matchups, able to take the form of cards like Banishing Light or similar effects we don't usually get.
One card I am keeping my eye on is Singing Bell Strike. It may seem weird, but it's basically Pacifism in blue. I'm not sure if it will actually be good, but being able to shut down any creature on the board for 1U is pretty good, and if they really want to devote 6 mana to untap it (note that this has to be paid every time), then that's fine. Like I said, maybe I'm overvaluing this card, but it seems like it could be really useful depending on what the meta looks like. Same with Crippling Chill, though I think that card may be a little too mana intensive, even if it does draw a card.
Sorry for any grammar/spelling errors, I mostly post from my tablet/smartphone.
Currently playing: Standard: UBRControl
Commander:
White Makes Right (Mikaeus, The Lunarch)
Izzet Fun Yet? (Jhoira of the Ghitu)
The Perfect Storm (Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge)
Dead Grave Walking (Skullbriar, the Walking Grave)
How Could You Be So Heartless? (Heartless Hidetsugu)
Weave Fate is Instant. Why would Imposter be main board? I don't personally agree. We can't copy any of our Walkers, and I don't ever remeber Clone being good enough to main. Sure we can copy one of their Walkers but they have to be playing any for that. It's a solid sideboard card in my eyes.
My point on Delve is it starts adding up really quick. Sure Dead Drop is a powerful effect, but it's also a steeper Delve cost to get it in a reasonable casting range. That turns off a lot of other Delve cards like Murderous Cut, and I don't see many edict effects being required going forward. That could change if the Hexproof 6/6 sees play or Prognostic sphinx, but I don't see a card like that needed in the main. Obviously it all depends on your build though. Like I said, I think Empty the Pits will be a nice finisher, so I wouldn't want to be using my graveyard so aggressively for Dead Drop and would rather just play Murderous Cut and exile 2-3 cards to help pay for it.
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I make art!
Sorry for any grammar/spelling errors, I mostly post from my tablet/smartphone.
Currently playing: Standard: UBRControl
Commander:
White Makes Right (Mikaeus, The Lunarch)
Izzet Fun Yet? (Jhoira of the Ghitu)
The Perfect Storm (Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge)
Dead Grave Walking (Skullbriar, the Walking Grave)
How Could You Be So Heartless? (Heartless Hidetsugu)
Was thinking of how to hate on aggro decks, Grixis seemed pretty good
I have some weird splits, like 2 thoughtseize / 2 despise and 3 dissolve / 2 disdainful stroke. But I think the rest makes sense.
I like Ashiok right now, seems good vs aggro & midrange, exiles cards against delve. SB would be heavily against control, more thoughtseize, negate, Liliana, etc.
The filtering with Steam Augury, dig through time, and Jace is insane. Stabilize, use Dig through Time to find win conditions. Steam Augury fuels Dig through Time so well. In testing, you can often Dig for just UU which feels amazing.
Esterk I apologize, I thought you were talking about Bitter revelation new Inspiration is still playable.
After talking with a friend I also now really like the prospect of playing 2 Mindswipe over rakdos return. The damage is dealt whether the spell is countered or not.
I agree that there is a rather high investment/high reward for dead drop but traditionally speaking 2-1's are hard to come by and with more creatures having 4 toughness and the lack of other multi card advantage spells like mortars makes this more enticing. We do still have aether spouts which is very powerful. I also agree that Murderous Cut can do some serious work as a 1-1. Losing the Architect of thought means you have a decrease in card velocity. Maybe that is where 4 Weave Fate come in. This means we have to work harder to draw more 1-1's and there is no shortage of card advantage in the other color schemes. Meaning that there will be games where you are at relative card parity with the 1-1's and your draw vs theirs. At least this was my starting perspective.
As for the clone, I think the ability to copy a creature, enchantment, or plainswalker is pretty good. Paying 4 for an opposing courser in this style of deck is still pretty worth it. And while there may still be some decks that do not play plainswalkers, but with dreadbore and rakdos rotating out and the current popularity of jund walkers, I suspect many people will be playing with them.
True, losing Dreadbore does hurt us a lot and also opens opportunities for more Walkers to see play. I will say that even copying our own Walkers isn't that awful - Playing Sarkhan and using his -4 to kill something and then play Impersonator to copy him and swing is decent (though doing this all in one turn does require 9 mana). And like I said, I do think Sarkhan will be paramount in the future. So I could see maindeck Impersonator sparingly.
Mindswipe could be good, I'm not sure though. It really is going to depend on the deck build more than anything. I'll probably try it as a one-of as a late game mana sink.
I actually think Steam Augury could be better than Weave Fate. Weave only gets us 2 cards, while Augury can get more. Augury also helps with Delve as TheUnrealOne touched on. I'm not 100% sure on this, but it could be worth looking into.
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I make art!
Sorry for any grammar/spelling errors, I mostly post from my tablet/smartphone.
Currently playing: Standard: UBRControl
Commander:
White Makes Right (Mikaeus, The Lunarch)
Izzet Fun Yet? (Jhoira of the Ghitu)
The Perfect Storm (Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge)
Dead Grave Walking (Skullbriar, the Walking Grave)
How Could You Be So Heartless? (Heartless Hidetsugu)
Are we ready to talk about the new stuff yet? Is it still grixis if you add a 4th color?
Obviously not, if these colors aren't good enough without dipping into ANOTHER color and further opening yourself up to Mono Black Aggro and Rabble Red then I'd suggest you just pick another color pairing altogether.
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Brilliant ideas are stupid ideas that worked - Patrick Chapin
Thinking about Delve, this is not the best deck for it, I presume. Green has far more ways to put cards in graveyard, the only Delve card we can try to play is Murderous Cut, I guess.
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:Current Decks:
Standard: UBR Grixis Control
Modern: U Merfolk
Commander: UB Wydwen, the biting gale
Any removal heavy deck is throwing cards in the graveyard left and right. Discard spells, kills and counters. Dig through Time is SUPER viable here, as a more draw-go type of deck that's light on creatures, you can easily afford to spend 3-5 mana for a Dig. It's the place of Jace's Ingenuity, but often less mana. Especially after Steam Augury.
TRY Steam Augury / Dig Through Time. The UWR control thread is all over it.
Yeah it's not that we are actively trying to get cards into our graveyard, it's that control decks tend to accumulate a critical mass of cards there because of all the reactionary spells we play. Most of the time you are playing at least one card per round of turns, meaning that by turn five a card like Murderous Cut will cost B. Dig Through Time will cost 4 (which still makes it way better than any draw spell at 4 mana), and so on. Add in Fetchlands and other variable factors and Delve cards become quite good, albeit bad if your hand is stuck with three or more of them, of course.
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I make art!
Sorry for any grammar/spelling errors, I mostly post from my tablet/smartphone.
Currently playing: Standard: UBRControl
Commander:
White Makes Right (Mikaeus, The Lunarch)
Izzet Fun Yet? (Jhoira of the Ghitu)
The Perfect Storm (Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge)
Dead Grave Walking (Skullbriar, the Walking Grave)
How Could You Be So Heartless? (Heartless Hidetsugu)
with 8 fetches, augury, tormenting voices and the new mind rot+ this deck has a lot of ways to get real greedy with delve. empty the pits is probably out, because murderous cuts seems essential and this deck could manage 3 of those and 2 or 3 delve draw spells.
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Overall the deck did very well. I think maybe I'll take out the singleton Rakdos's Return - I like the card and it does really well in certain matchups, but so many other cards outclass it, I found myself boarding it out a lot.
Sorry for any grammar/spelling errors, I mostly post from my tablet/smartphone.
Currently playing:
Standard:
UBRControl
Commander:
White Makes Right (Mikaeus, The Lunarch)
Izzet Fun Yet? (Jhoira of the Ghitu)
The Perfect Storm (Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge)
Dead Grave Walking (Skullbriar, the Walking Grave)
How Could You Be So Heartless? (Heartless Hidetsugu)
3x Bile Blight
3x Dissipate
3x Dissolve
3x Hero's Downfall
2x Lightning Strike
2x Magma Jet
2x Silence the Believers
2 Font of Fortunes
3x Thoughtseize
4x Island
4x Mana Confluence
4x Shivan Reef
3x Swamp
4x Temple of Deceit
2x Temple of Epiphany
4x Temple of Malice
2x Jace, the Living Guildpact
1x Liliana Vess
4x Prognostic Sphinx
2x Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
2x Chandra, Pyromaster
2x Jace, Architect of Thought
2x Jace, the Living Guildpact
2x Liliana Vess
Creatures:
1x AEtherling
4x Frostburn Weird
2x Keranos, God of Storms
Spells:
3x Counterflux
1x Rakdos's Return
2x Hero's Downfall
3x Izzet Charm
3x Anger of the Gods
3x Dreadbore
2x Steam Augury
1x Elixir of Immortality
Land:
4x Blood Crypt
4x Shivan Reef
4x Steam Vents
4x Temple of Deceit
4x Temple of Epiphany
4x Temple of Malice
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Anger of the Gods
2x Cyclonic Rift
2x Doom Blade
2x Jace, Architect of Thought
2x Jace, Memory Adept
2x Rakdos's Return
4x Stormbreath Dragon
I played in 2 Standard events, not taking 1st in either but still winning packs from both.
The tournaments were each 4 rounds with swiss pairing. The first tournament I was paired against my friend running Mono Black Devotion. I really love this matchup, as my deck can outgrind theirs if I stop Gray Merchant of Asphodel from landing. I won game 1, he won game 2, and time was called while we were shuffling for game 3. A round one draw... :/ 0-0-1
The next round I played against a BUG Walkers deck. Anger of the Gods kept his Sylvan Caryatids off the board, which he over relied on for mana fixing. I was able to win in two. Rakdos's Return is a great card here, and walker decks make me wish I had thoughtseize or Duress in my sideboard instead of Stormbreath Dragon. 1-0-1
Round 3 I played against a mono blue devotion deck. This guy kept getting the nut draws. Both games he was able to play 3 Master of Waves, which only two cards in my deck can deal with. The first game was super close and I had the board locked down with 3 Frostburn Weirds, Keranos, god of Storms, and a stolen Thassa, god of the Sea on defense, but he baited out my counter with Nightveil Specter and landed a Thassa, god of the Sea to make his own Frostburn Weird unblockable and take my last 3 life. The second game he was able to win very quickly before I could stabilize. Man, a Damnation reprint sure would help out this deck! 1-1-1
The last round I was paired against a Rabble Red deck. A few well-placed Anger of the Gods and Izzet Charms allowed me to win in two games. Normally I struggle against aggro, both games I saw two Anger of the Gods. Jace, Architect of Thought also did quite a bit of work. The player seemed to be pretty new or nervous as he kept making mistakes and had to read most of my cards. 2-1-1 is my final record, winning me 3 packs.
The next event I got a first round bye (1-0-0), then played against Mono Black Devotion (2-0-0), Orzhov Control (3-0-0), then finally lost to Red devotion with a splash of white (3-1-0). Both games the Red Devotion player was able to play a Fanatic of Mogis for 12 or more to win the game on turn 4. I just couldn't keep up with the deck or answer his threats fast enough. I think 12 scry lands really makes the deck too slow.
For what it's worth, I do think Thoughtseize is fantastic at letting you know what you're up against so you know how the match is going to reasonably play out. Knowing if you're against Mono-Black, Mono-Blue, Jund Monsters, etc, on game one turn one can really give you a lot of insight on planning out your plays, deciding your best path to victory, assuming what else their deck has, etc. - though it could be argued you would get most of that information on turns 1-3 anyway.
Sorry for any grammar/spelling errors, I mostly post from my tablet/smartphone.
Currently playing:
Standard:
UBRControl
Commander:
White Makes Right (Mikaeus, The Lunarch)
Izzet Fun Yet? (Jhoira of the Ghitu)
The Perfect Storm (Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge)
Dead Grave Walking (Skullbriar, the Walking Grave)
How Could You Be So Heartless? (Heartless Hidetsugu)
3 Prognostic Sphinx
4 jace's ingenuity
2 Lightning Strike
2 anger of the gods
3 Hero’s Downfall
3 Dissolve
3 Dissipate
2 Silence the Believers
2 magma jet
1 Liliana Vess
2 chandra, pyromaster
4 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
2 Temple of Deceit
2 Temple of Malice
4 polluted delta
4 bloodstained mire
3 Temple of Epiphany
3 mountain
3 Swamp
1 urborg, tomb of yawgmoth
3 Island
I have two free places because I removed Thoughtseize, what should go there?
Sorry for any grammar/spelling errors, I mostly post from my tablet/smartphone.
Currently playing:
Standard:
UBRControl
Commander:
White Makes Right (Mikaeus, The Lunarch)
Izzet Fun Yet? (Jhoira of the Ghitu)
The Perfect Storm (Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge)
Dead Grave Walking (Skullbriar, the Walking Grave)
How Could You Be So Heartless? (Heartless Hidetsugu)
Keranos only ever triggers on your own turn.
Anyway, went 3-0-1 at FNM this week. Deck performed admirably, but the control matchup against esper is grueling. We have way more options when it comes to picking apart their threats, and Notion Thief is amazing post board, but I think I need another Negate or Gainsay on the side to combat Detention Sphere since if it resolves on Keranos, it's really hard to win since we have to then bank on resolving an Aetherling.
Sorry for any grammar/spelling errors, I mostly post from my tablet/smartphone.
Currently playing:
Standard:
UBRControl
Commander:
White Makes Right (Mikaeus, The Lunarch)
Izzet Fun Yet? (Jhoira of the Ghitu)
The Perfect Storm (Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge)
Dead Grave Walking (Skullbriar, the Walking Grave)
How Could You Be So Heartless? (Heartless Hidetsugu)
Old cards that still seem good:
Magma Spray
Anger of the Gods
Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
Thoughtseize
Keranos, God of Storms
Divination
Jace's ingenuity
Hero's Downfall
Stormbreath Dragon
Aetherspouts
Jace, the Living Guildpact
Liliana Vess
Goblin Rabblemaster - not sure if we should be playing the card but with the goblin slide it could be pretty good.
counter spells are pretty good.
Cards that could become playable to help replace the loss of doomblade and ultimate price:
Nightmarish End
Spite of Mogis
Voyage's End
Other good removal replacements:
Gild
Silence the Believers
Stoke the Flames
New cards to supplement the strategy:
Quiet Contemplation
Goblinslide
both are build around cards that help you enable delve and can advance your game plan.
New cards that look good:
Tormenting Voice - filter/looting for delving
Winterflame - could be playable.
Despise - makes a comeback.
Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker - obvi
Taigam's Scheming - delve enabler and top deck filter
Dig Through Time - awesome card selection with a net +1
Dead Drop - one sided Barter in Blood, seems good. Worth noting that there does not seem to be another card to make someone sac a creature
Pearl Lake Ancient - interesting card is interesting, needs play testing.
Crippling Chill - tempo plus cycle to get a card left on top by jace, scheming, or Liliana
Clever Impersonator - 4 mana clone anything seems good.
plus some of the new counter spells seem pretty playable.
Seems like there is still a ton to play with. Losing Aetherling probably hurts, not sure what to use a new stable win con. Losing so much 2 mana removal could hurt but it may just be the case that the format slows down a little.
the gears are turning. Just need to proxy up some stuff and playtest I guess.
From what I've seen a lot of the more useful cards for us are Delve cards. Murderous Cut, Dig Through Time, Empty the Pits, etc. However, obvious this makes it awkward because we don't want too many maindeck since then we start losing synergy. Murderous Cut is amazing, but how many can we get away with running? I think our new finisher is Empty the Pits, as long as Bile Blight doesn't increase in use. Being able to shove all our mana into it and exile everything from our graveyard at their end step for like 8-9 zombies is pretty nuts. It's no Aetherling, but then again, what is?
There is a good chance Silence the Believers starts becoming better in this new format. Hooded Hydra, Bloodsoaked Champion, Grim Haruspex, Gods, etc all get hosed by it, and we won't have access to Utter End. The Strive cost is gravy if we pull it really late game. It also helps against other Delve cards as an added bonus. I think the departure that hurts the deck most if Dreadbore. Having a cheaper Hero's Downfall (albeit at Sorcery speed) was a great tool, and now I think it will be harder for us to deal with Planeswalkers with only Downfall available. To make up for this, maybe playing more burn spells like Lightning Strike is the right solution, but I'm not sure. We also lose access to edict effects outside of the new Dead Drop (which I don't like personally), so against any hexproof creatures (there are only two I think will see play, and one gets killed by Anger), we get pretty hosed.
I think going forward Aetherspouts will be very good. Not good enough to run more than 2 probably, but it gives us a lot of ways to deal with boardstates that start escalating out of control. It sets our opponents way back and gives us breathing room, which I feel like we will need badly. Our early game looks like it may get a bit worse, so we will probably have to take some hits early on before getting to our powerful spells. Losing Aetherling, I think Prognostic Sphinx becomes one of our sustainable routes to victory, though I don't know how much I like relying on it. Sphinx is nice, but we need more draw-enablers if that's going to be a finisher for us, which is kind of hard to find. Divination and the new Weave Fate can help there, along with Jace's Ingenuity of course, but do those really do enough? I'm not sure. if we end up using more card draw in our deck, maybe a card like Chasm Skulker suddenly becomes an option as well, but maybe not. Nightmarish End also becomes a good option we go heavier card draw as well. Our other finisher would probably be Sarkan and/or Stormbreath Dragon. Early game, i think Omenspeaker may be a good choice now that Frostburn is rotating.
Pearl-Lake Ancient is interesting. It looks like a big dumb creature to me less than a control finisher, but it could have merits. The bounce effect is really backbreaking though, so I'm not sure I like it as an all-in option like Aetherling was. Clever Impersonator will be a powerful silver bullet sideboard card against various matchups, able to take the form of cards like Banishing Light or similar effects we don't usually get.
One card I am keeping my eye on is Singing Bell Strike. It may seem weird, but it's basically Pacifism in blue. I'm not sure if it will actually be good, but being able to shut down any creature on the board for 1U is pretty good, and if they really want to devote 6 mana to untap it (note that this has to be paid every time), then that's fine. Like I said, maybe I'm overvaluing this card, but it seems like it could be really useful depending on what the meta looks like. Same with Crippling Chill, though I think that card may be a little too mana intensive, even if it does draw a card.
Sorry for any grammar/spelling errors, I mostly post from my tablet/smartphone.
Currently playing:
Standard:
UBRControl
Commander:
White Makes Right (Mikaeus, The Lunarch)
Izzet Fun Yet? (Jhoira of the Ghitu)
The Perfect Storm (Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge)
Dead Grave Walking (Skullbriar, the Walking Grave)
How Could You Be So Heartless? (Heartless Hidetsugu)
The imposter is good enough to main.
Paying 4 at sorcery speed for weave fate sounds terrible.
I too am still curious about how much and which delve to play. You just need 6 cards to delve into one sided barter in blood with dead drop.
Sample.
Land, thought seize or fetch, or magma spray - delve count 1-2
Turn 2, taigams scheming, delve count 3-8 or tormented voice, delve count 3-4
Basically it adds up faster than you think. Losing the rakdos return hurts too.
My point on Delve is it starts adding up really quick. Sure Dead Drop is a powerful effect, but it's also a steeper Delve cost to get it in a reasonable casting range. That turns off a lot of other Delve cards like Murderous Cut, and I don't see many edict effects being required going forward. That could change if the Hexproof 6/6 sees play or Prognostic sphinx, but I don't see a card like that needed in the main. Obviously it all depends on your build though. Like I said, I think Empty the Pits will be a nice finisher, so I wouldn't want to be using my graveyard so aggressively for Dead Drop and would rather just play Murderous Cut and exile 2-3 cards to help pay for it.
Sorry for any grammar/spelling errors, I mostly post from my tablet/smartphone.
Currently playing:
Standard:
UBRControl
Commander:
White Makes Right (Mikaeus, The Lunarch)
Izzet Fun Yet? (Jhoira of the Ghitu)
The Perfect Storm (Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge)
Dead Grave Walking (Skullbriar, the Walking Grave)
How Could You Be So Heartless? (Heartless Hidetsugu)
I have some weird splits, like 2 thoughtseize / 2 despise and 3 dissolve / 2 disdainful stroke. But I think the rest makes sense.
I like Ashiok right now, seems good vs aggro & midrange, exiles cards against delve. SB would be heavily against control, more thoughtseize, negate, Liliana, etc.
Removal
3 Anger of the Gods
2 Aetherspouts
2 Magma Jet
4 Hero's Downfall
1 Murderous Cut
2 Thoughtseize
2 Despise
3 Dissolve
2 Disdainful Stroke
Draw
2 Steam Augury
2 Dig Through Time
2 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
3 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
2 Keranos, God of Storms
2 Jace, the Living Guildpact
The filtering with Steam Augury, dig through time, and Jace is insane. Stabilize, use Dig through Time to find win conditions. Steam Augury fuels Dig through Time so well. In testing, you can often Dig for just UU which feels amazing.
After talking with a friend I also now really like the prospect of playing 2 Mindswipe over rakdos return. The damage is dealt whether the spell is countered or not.
I agree that there is a rather high investment/high reward for dead drop but traditionally speaking 2-1's are hard to come by and with more creatures having 4 toughness and the lack of other multi card advantage spells like mortars makes this more enticing. We do still have aether spouts which is very powerful. I also agree that Murderous Cut can do some serious work as a 1-1. Losing the Architect of thought means you have a decrease in card velocity. Maybe that is where 4 Weave Fate come in. This means we have to work harder to draw more 1-1's and there is no shortage of card advantage in the other color schemes. Meaning that there will be games where you are at relative card parity with the 1-1's and your draw vs theirs. At least this was my starting perspective.
As for the clone, I think the ability to copy a creature, enchantment, or plainswalker is pretty good. Paying 4 for an opposing courser in this style of deck is still pretty worth it. And while there may still be some decks that do not play plainswalkers, but with dreadbore and rakdos rotating out and the current popularity of jund walkers, I suspect many people will be playing with them.
Still working on a deck list.
Mindswipe could be good, I'm not sure though. It really is going to depend on the deck build more than anything. I'll probably try it as a one-of as a late game mana sink.
I actually think Steam Augury could be better than Weave Fate. Weave only gets us 2 cards, while Augury can get more. Augury also helps with Delve as TheUnrealOne touched on. I'm not 100% sure on this, but it could be worth looking into.
Sorry for any grammar/spelling errors, I mostly post from my tablet/smartphone.
Currently playing:
Standard:
UBRControl
Commander:
White Makes Right (Mikaeus, The Lunarch)
Izzet Fun Yet? (Jhoira of the Ghitu)
The Perfect Storm (Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge)
Dead Grave Walking (Skullbriar, the Walking Grave)
How Could You Be So Heartless? (Heartless Hidetsugu)
Obviously not, if these colors aren't good enough without dipping into ANOTHER color and further opening yourself up to Mono Black Aggro and Rabble Red then I'd suggest you just pick another color pairing altogether.
Standard: UBR Grixis Control
Modern: U Merfolk
Commander: UB Wydwen, the biting gale
TRY Steam Augury / Dig Through Time. The UWR control thread is all over it.
Sorry for any grammar/spelling errors, I mostly post from my tablet/smartphone.
Currently playing:
Standard:
UBRControl
Commander:
White Makes Right (Mikaeus, The Lunarch)
Izzet Fun Yet? (Jhoira of the Ghitu)
The Perfect Storm (Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge)
Dead Grave Walking (Skullbriar, the Walking Grave)
How Could You Be So Heartless? (Heartless Hidetsugu)