UR Drake is a midrange deck that plays a controlling early game with spells like Magma Spray, Lightning Axe, and Censor, while overwhelming your opponent in the midgame with superior card advantage and ultra-undercosted threats. It's a deck that rewards you for simply playing magic, and has a very strong "snowball effect". Turns 1-4 are usually spent playing a Draw-Go game, holding up removal or a counter to use if needed, and otherwise playing an Anticipate or cycling a spell at EoT. Once your graveyard has 5 or more Instants/Sorcs in it (which can happen surprisingly quick), its time to change rolls from control to aggro/control, throwing down super efficient beaters like Cryptic Serpent, Bedlam Reveler, or the deck's namestay Enigma Drake.
UR drake plays very much like a midrange Modern deck. You have excellent card advantage tools, excellent removal and counters, and your finishers are cheap and powerful. Bedlam Reveler and Cryptic Serpent are essentially this deck's Tasigur, the Golden Fang and Gurmag Angler, while Enigma Drake is our 3 drop flying Tarmogoyf. Often the game will be over after swinging with Drake 2 or 3 times, and your late game is exceptionally strong (paying 3 mana for a 15/4 flier feels really good).
- Really fun. This deck draws about half it's library each game and when games go long you get to play 2 mana 6/5's and 3 mana flying 15/4's which is pretty sweet.
- Excellent Top Decks. The deck has significant draw power, using tools like Anticipate, Take Inventory, and Cathartic Reunion alongside cyclers like Censor and Sweletering Suns to both refill your hand and also fill your gy with Instants and Sorceries, you will rarely find yourself in topdeck mode. When you do you can rest assured that this deck has close to the best "topdecking" of any deck in standard.
-Fantasic Mid/Late Game: Bedlam Reveler and Cryptic Serpent are some of the best midrange creatures in Standard at the moment. Tossing out a 6/5 for UU or a 3/4 Prowess + draw 3 for RR just feels great, and can really help in wars of attrition.
-Strong Early Game: UR Drake doesn't have the amazing curve of Toolcraft > Heart > Gideon, but we do have Magma Spray for their toolcraft, Lightning Axe for their Heart, and Censor for their Gideon.
-Great against decks that go wide: Sweltering Suns is a 3-4 of mainboard. Both modes are relevant, and the 3 damage won't kill any of our creatures so it's a very one-sided board wipe that also fuels our main gameplan when we don't need it. With all the draw power in the deck, you're very likely to see at least 1 in a game.
-Landbase: One of the biggest factors of whether a deck can be competitive in Standard is what lands are available to it. In Eternal formats this isn't as much of a thing, but in Standard having access to a fastland like Spirebluff Canal and arguably the best manland in Standard in Wandering Fumarole is a pretty huge advantage.
-Budget: The entire list posted below can be ordered for $95
-Control is a tough matchup: The deck is somewhat threat light, with 4x Drake 3x Reveler 3x Serpent, thats only 10 answers they need mainboard. Due to the draw power of the deck you will likely end up seeing about half your library in a single game, so its not a terrible matchup but it's not amazing either.
-No direct enchantment or planeswalker removal in UR: PW's can be killed by combat damage of course, but when a problem non-creature non-artifact permanent resolves it can be hard to get rid of.
10 cyclers, creature removal in magma spray and suns, unsubstantiate, to counter a spell or return a creature like HOK or Gideon, or return a gearhulk to hand until we can counter it or mana leak it. Jace is actually really good in this type of deck as his -2 is great or his scry is great.
cards like Thermo-Alchemist, Thing in the Ice, and Stormchaser Mage could increase threat density post SB if needed. Seems like this deck would want Incendiary Flow and/or Collective Defiance as well. Both would allow for more redirect dmg to troublesome PW's. Defiance would also allow you to dump your hand to potentially Alpha Strike with Drake or drop multiple large threats
I like the idea of adding Jace to the list, he's a solid top end for this deck. Glorybringer is great, but I think it belongs in the SB if we're going to play it. Thing in the Ice definitely belongs in the sideboard too, you are correct that the deck is a bit threat-light.
I don't like stormchaser mage or alchemist though, as both are more suited to a proactive UR Prowess style game where you cast spells on your turn. We're certainly not opposed to that, but I almost always want to be doing things during my opponent's turn instead.
I feel like with the number of noncreature threats (read: planeswalkers) running around I'm not sure if i want more than 2x magma sprays main board. definitely 2 in the sb though. Same thing for Thing in the Ice really.
I feel like with the number of noncreature threats (read: planeswalkers) running around I'm not sure if i want more than 2x magma sprays main board. definitely 2 in the sb though. Same thing for Thing in the Ice really.
Scrounger is one of the most prevalent cards in the meta. I wont run less than 3 in the main and less than 4 in the 75
Now THIS seems fun. I was looking at some america midrangey thing and the idea of drakes and serpents appealed to me so I might start shifting it more in this direction.
I played my own version of this deck at Game Day today to a 3-1 record, losing a narrow one in the finals to an Approach of the Second Sun deck. The main difference in my list was 2x Insult // Injury in the main, and I have to say I was pretty impressed by it all day. I would definitely recommend it as tech for anyone looking for something to give the deck a little more 'oomph'.
After playing the deck, I would remove all the Stormchaser Mages and Key to the Citys and add at least one more Bedlam Reveler. Other than that, I don't know what I would replace them with but I know they were basically useless all day.
Out of curiosity, what would happen if the deck was boiled down a bit into a cantrip-aggro sort of deck. You put out a UR flyer, cycle through a bunch of spells each turn and just leave up some protection for your win cons.
Aggressively mulligan into a Creature or a way to dig into the deck to find a creature, then dump cards in the GY (and burn to the face) to power up your flyers. Hold on to 1-mana protection for your win condition.
(Distemper of the Blood is in the deck as a 1 mana Madness Spell. Could probably just as easily be any other 1 mana combat trick)
Has anyone tried adding G to this for blossoming defense to protect threats? Attune makes for a decent 1-drop to fuel later enigma drakes. Also allows for grapple with the past out of the side if facing a removal heavy opponent.
Why not just go straight UR Control with Drakes and Gearhulks? I went up against UR control deck during game day (was playing Zombies) and he was able to out grind me game one. Going more control will also give you more means of protecting a resolved Drake through counters
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Standard - Some kind of control
Modern - UB Mill (casual)
EDH - Meren's Grave Shenanigans
Why not just go straight UR Control with Drakes and Gearhulks? I went up against UR control deck during game day (was playing Zombies) and he was able to out grind me game one. Going more control will also give you more means of protecting a resolved Drake through counters
Honestly, I tried something like this. I probably got a little too greedy with my list and it didn't flow as well as it did before heading in a more control direction. But that's indicative of the issue at hand - you're either diluting your control gameplan to jam more threats, or you're diluting your aggro gameplan to try and outgrind other aggro decks.
Having said that, I still think this is ultimately the direction this list wants to go; if you know the meta you're preparing for, build a streamlined control list and add drakes. My recent experience with the aggro version makes me feel it's just not fast enough to compete with Mardu as a fast aggro deck, too slow to simply aggro out against the current T1 meta (Marvel, Zombies, Mardu and GB maybe?, UR classic), so we're forced to adopt a more control-oriented playstyle, but then we run into the classic control problem of needing our answers to line up with their threats. The issue we run into is having a rough matchup against classic UR builds, unless we specifically board around them.
I'm still in favor of a color splash, but that's why I think I'm too greedy.
1- Grapple with the Past Is fantastic here, it puts instants and sorcs into our gy in order to power up our creatures/speed up their arrival, and then can grab one from the GY to be cast, which is awesome since we're a bit threat-light. Instant speed means we can hold up a grapple or a censor and cast whichever serves us best.
2- Attune with Aether Is great for mana fixing. Temur is a good group to be in with 2 fastlands in standard that fit it's colors, but 3 colors is still tough in standard, especially since 2 of our 3 biggest threats both require UU or RR. It's also something good to do on turn 1 which we didn't really have in UR aside from cycle something.
3- Insult // Injury Is incredible for this deck and warrants an inclusion even if you stay UR. I haven't drawn it once in testing where I wasn't happy to see it. I once used it when I didn't have any threats out to turn my sweltering suns into 6 damage to each of my opponent's giant zombies and wipe their board, which then allowed me to swing for lethal with fumarole on my next turn. Bottom line, this card is awesome. That said, you don't really want to see multiples so 2 is probably the right number.
4- In the sideboard Blossoming Defense is a great 2-of, protects our threats or pumps them up to help hit lethal damage. Great vs control and midrange.
My sideboard has also adjusted as the meta shifted towards marvelworks, with Ceremonious Rejection as a 3-of. That plus a 2-of Negate and a 3-of Dispel effectively lets this deck transform from a midrange approach to a much more controlling approach vs marvelworks, which has seemed to work well. It's a shame we don't have access to Lost Legacy or Disposses, but adding a 4th color seems a bit tough in standard unless you start playing mana dorks and the like, and then you're warping the deck way too much to be effective with Drakes and Revelers and Serpents.
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As to the suggestion of swapping into a more heavy control deck, this really speaks more to deckbuilding philosophy than anything else. UR control doesn't want to dilute their deck with threats like enigma drake or revelers, they want to control the field and then win with gearhulks or fumaroles once they've established a secure board. UR control is a great deck right now and if that sounds appealing you should have at it, but there is a reason UR control isn't running drakes and whatnot.
If you want to run a more controlling build I'd love to hear the results, but I think you'll probably find that at a certain point you will either dilute this deck to the point where it's not as powerful/fast, or you'll feel like you're playing a fairly diluted UR control deck and want to ditch the enigma drakes for Gearhulks and the bedlam revelers for Glimmer of Genius and whatnot.
The strongest argument for running this midrangy URx over a strict control UR list is Zombies/aggro starting to come back. UR control is decent against those decks, but we definitely have an edge in those matchups.
If you want to run a more controlling build I'd love to hear the results, but I think you'll probably find that at a certain point you will either dilute this deck to the point where it's not as powerful/fast, or you'll feel like you're playing a fairly diluted UR control deck and want to ditch the enigma drakes for Gearhulks and the bedlam revelers for Glimmer of Genius and whatnot.
Yep, nailed it. That was exactly my problem in being stranded in the middle, as it were. I've been sick and delirious tbh and upon re-reading my post it was a bit meandering and unfocused (apologies ;p), but you summed it up pretty well.
You clearly have quite a bit more experience piloting this than I do, so I'll throw some things that have been bugging me your way and see if I can get some feedback:
- I don't really like Censor as a card. I too often found myself wishing I had a hard counter in hand, but at other times I also found myself sitting on a Disallow or something with no way to refresh my hand into something more relevant. I kept cutting them, but running 2 and not 4 really killed the consistency of having it early to force spike a gideon or something.
- I DO really like Gearhulk. Did you ever test with him, even out of board? We have a million targets for him to hit, though few enough are very impactful, I guess. I largely feel the same way about Pull from Tomorrow. This is making me sound like a control player at heart. Maybe I am? OTOH, I really like modern Jund and this list has the same core philosophy of ~12 very relevant threats backed up by disruption, and THAT I like.
- How have you been handling Marvel? I honestly didn't feel like it was a terrible matchup, but I found myself being forced to make difficult decisions between presenting lethal and keeping up countermagic, for instance. I ended up misplaying a few times but I'm assuming that comes down to pilot skill and lack of really solid experience with the deck. I also made a bunch of changes to my list before taking it to my LGS after testing and my consistency was down. Oops.
Coincidentally, I also have been brewing around a Temur shell most recently. ATM it's more of a tower list than a drake one, but I've been curious to try something like what you're posting. On color splash notes, I DID run the deck with a white splash for board cards and some Nahiri, the Harbingers in the main. FWIW she was a total house in most matchups. The biggest issue was lack of a compelling ult target, but I mostly used her as removal and a way to fuel my looting. She was at her worst vs. Mardu, in my experience.
Anyway, thanks for the discussion. I'll probably shoot for trimming down my gameplan to be more streamlined and back-to-basics instead of trying to jam in my pet control cards. I'd appreciate any further insight you have on the above, and keep up the good work!
@Milkpail - I like the comparison to Jund, it's one of the main decks I modeled this one after. In general this deck works with a really low-to-the-ground curve. Enigma Drake is our most expensive creature, as the other 2 should almost always be cast for 2 mana. UR Control can get away with running glimmer of genius, pull from tomorrow, and gearhulks because UR Control runs 25-27 lands. We don't want to do that, we want to be running 19-22 at the most. We certainly want to hit land drop #3, and #4 wouldn't be bad to hit either, but after that I'd almost always rather draw into some gas than draw into a land.
@Jodon I think Harness may have a place in the 75, but glimmer probably doesn't. I feel like I use illumination as a 1 mana cantrip about 60% of the time and then 40% of the time it's a 4 mana draw 2 when I have the mana for it. If i replaced it with glimmer that just means that 60% of the time it's a dead card in my hand and 40% of the time it's slightly better.
As for the Marvel matchup, its a tough one. As you can see from the list I posted earlier, I've devoted 5 slots in the board to helping that matchup (although Negate helps in other matchups too). In general you need to put pressure on asap, while still hanging onto a negate or censor or ceremonious rejection for their marvelworks. It's a tough matchup but certainly not unwinnable. I wish we could splash black, because if we could then it would be a much better matchup.
On splashes - Our base colors are UR. We need both for our main creatures and gameplan. That means that if we're going to splash a 3rd color, we need a compelling reason to do so and a landbase that makes it doable. Unfortunately, this means we can't splash black right now. There is no black manland in standard with a U or R other half, and there are no UB or RB fastlands in standard. Everything is a tapland, with the exception of Foreboding Ruins, or the tango-lands, or Evolving Wilds. I just don't think that any deck relying on cards like Evolving Wilds has a snowball's chance in hell in a format where turn 4 Ulamogs are possible.
That leaves 2 options for a splash- Temur or Jeskai. Due to the lack of solid instants or sorceries in W, I think Temur wins in that comparison:
Best reasons to play Temur: Grapple with the Past does everything we could want it to do, it fills our gy to boost critters, and acts as enigma drake/reveler/serpent 5-8 since they are such automatic removal targets. Blossoming Defense is a great 1 mana protection spell that can help us get there in the end.
Best reasons to play Jeskai: Fragmentize and Nahiri, the Harbinger strike me as the two best cards with white, but frag wont help vs marvel since they arent going to cast it without being able to immediately tap it unless they have to. Nahiri is a great control card and ulting her for a reveler isn't a horrible play since you get to draw 3 and then reveler comes back to hand, letting you get his draw 3 again the turn after.
I really like the way this deck plays. I agree that two copies of Insult // Injury work great in the main board but I wouldn't want any more than that because it's a card I only really want to see in the late game. In one game I had both copies in my hand and a 3/4 drake on the field, I cast both and my opponent had no answer so I was able to hit my opponent for 20.
Commit // Memory might be worth trying as a way to deal with any permanent the deck doesn't counter and cannot burn. I do recognize that the memory part of the card in almost all circumstances would be bad for this deck, but I feel that commit is a better removal option than something like Compelling Deterrence because it doesn't leave the opponent up a card (if you don't have any zombies) like most other bounce spells and is a much better tempo play as a result.
Even though it's three mana I wonder if Geistblast might be a good toolbox card for this deck. Since it is essentially an aftermath card that can let you draw six cards for 3UR off of a Cathartic Reunion as well as having other uses similar to insult's ability to double the damage of this deck's burn in the late game.
I'm thinking of building the Temur variant for my less competitive nights, unfortunately I only have 1 Sweltering Suns. Trying to consider a decent replacement until I can get the full playset. I could possibly add extra Cathartic Reunion or the weaker Tormenting Voice, I also have a few albeit strictly worse and somewhat anti synergistic Kozilek's Return I could add as well. I know it's almost a have to have vs zombies and I'll be weaker in that matchup without it, but what can I do. Thoughts of the best filler for the time being if I can't get ahold of them?
There's always Radiant Flames, but I'd only recommend it if you're testing out your Temur variant. Though I suppose you could try running four Aether Hub just for a third color for flames if you wanted to try it as a substitute in a strictly UR list.
Right now I'm running flames in a Jeskai list I cobbled together because I didn't have suns. Flames and Nahiri are the only cards I have in the deck that use white mana. I've also added in some Needle Spires to accompany Wandering Fumarole and increase the number of threats I have.
Radiant Flames would probably be better in the Zombie matchup versus return, but has the same problem of potentially being a dead card where suns is not. You might be right, that might be the better temporary replacement.
I have been having though matchups against Gx ramp decks. With no good removal for big creatures it feels like it becomes a race to kill them with my Enigma Drakes before they get me and that is not a position I like to be in because they have more creatures than I have. The gods are especially hard to deal with as I can't even kill them in combat.
Green looks like a good add to this deck when just trying to add overall power but I don't know if it adds that much to the decks weaker matchups. I would like to try RUG but I think RUW could work out better to improve the weaker matchups. Nahiri, the Harbinger could really help the deck deal with bigger dudes, even if she doesn't help with Heart of Kiran. I also like Declaration in Stone for the sideboard. I don't know if I want Fragmentize over By Force I will probably have to test both if I'm going with adding White. I'm mostly worried about the mana base when it comes to White I was thinking 22 lands like this:
- Excellent Top Decks. The deck has significant draw power, using tools like Anticipate, Take Inventory, and Cathartic Reunion alongside cyclers like Censor and Sweletering Suns to both refill your hand and also fill your gy with Instants and Sorceries, you will rarely find yourself in topdeck mode. When you do you can rest assured that this deck has close to the best "topdecking" of any deck in standard.
-Fantasic Mid/Late Game: Bedlam Reveler and Cryptic Serpent are some of the best midrange creatures in Standard at the moment. Tossing out a 6/5 for UU or a 3/4 Prowess + draw 3 for RR just feels great, and can really help in wars of attrition.
-Strong Early Game: UR Drake doesn't have the amazing curve of Toolcraft > Heart > Gideon, but we do have Magma Spray for their toolcraft, Lightning Axe for their Heart, and Censor for their Gideon.
-Great against decks that go wide: Sweltering Suns is a 3-4 of mainboard. Both modes are relevant, and the 3 damage won't kill any of our creatures so it's a very one-sided board wipe that also fuels our main gameplan when we don't need it. With all the draw power in the deck, you're very likely to see at least 1 in a game.
-Landbase: One of the biggest factors of whether a deck can be competitive in Standard is what lands are available to it. In Eternal formats this isn't as much of a thing, but in Standard having access to a fastland like Spirebluff Canal and arguably the best manland in Standard in Wandering Fumarole is a pretty huge advantage.
-Budget: The entire list posted below can be ordered for $95
-No direct enchantment or planeswalker removal in UR: PW's can be killed by combat damage of course, but when a problem non-creature non-artifact permanent resolves it can be hard to get rid of.
Decklist:
4 Enigma Drake
3 Bedlam Reveler
3 Cryptic Serpent
Answers
4 Censor
4 Lightning Axe
4 Fiery Temper
3 Sweltering Suns
2 Magma Spray
4 Take Inventory
3 Anticipate
3 Cathartic Reunion
Lands
4 Spirebluff Canal
4 Wandering Fumarole
4 Aether Hub
5 Mountain
6 Island
3 Negate
3 Harsh Mentor
2 Warfire Javelineer
3 Dispel
2 Sphinx of the Final Word
2 Magma Spray
BG Rock
Modern:
RW Sun & Moon
RBG Dredge
RWG Burn
Legacy:
W Death & Taxes
BG Rock
Modern:
RW Sun & Moon
RBG Dredge
RWG Burn
Legacy:
W Death & Taxes
here is what i was brewing
2 Baral, Chief of Compliance
2 Bedlam Reveler
2 Cryptic Serpent
4 Enigma Drake
//Instant (20)
4 Censor
4 Disallow
4 Hieroglyphic Illumination
4 Magma Spray
4 Unsubstantiate
4 Reduce // Rubble
//Planeswalker (2)
2 Jace, Unraveler of Secrets
//Sorcery (2)
2 Sweltering Suns
//Land (22)
10 Island
5 Mountain
4 Spirebluff Canal
3 Wandering Fumarole
10 cyclers, creature removal in magma spray and suns, unsubstantiate, to counter a spell or return a creature like HOK or Gideon, or return a gearhulk to hand until we can counter it or mana leak it. Jace is actually really good in this type of deck as his -2 is great or his scry is great.
With Scrapheap Scrounger being so popular, Magma Spray seems like an auto include somewhere in the 75
I don't like stormchaser mage or alchemist though, as both are more suited to a proactive UR Prowess style game where you cast spells on your turn. We're certainly not opposed to that, but I almost always want to be doing things during my opponent's turn instead.
Here's my updated list:
Decklist:
4 Enigma Drake
3 Bedlam Reveler
3 Cryptic Serpent
Answers (15)
4 Censor
4 Lightning Axe
3 Fiery Temper
2 Sweltering Suns
2 Magma Spray
4 Take Inventory
3 Hieroglyphic Illumination
3 Cathartic Reunion
2 Jace, Unraveler of Secrets
Lands (23)
4 Spirebluff Canal
4 Wandering Fumarole
4 Aether Hub
5 Mountain
6 Island
4 Negate
2 Essence Scatter
2 Dispel
1 Sphinx of the Final Word
1 Glorybringer
2 Magma Spray
2 Thing in the Ice
1 Sweltering Suns
BG Rock
Modern:
RW Sun & Moon
RBG Dredge
RWG Burn
Legacy:
W Death & Taxes
BG Rock
Modern:
RW Sun & Moon
RBG Dredge
RWG Burn
Legacy:
W Death & Taxes
4x Wandering Fumarole
4x Spirebluff Canal
2x Highland Lake
7x Mountain
5x Island
Creatures (12)
4x Thing in the Ice
4x Enigma Drake
2x Bedlam Reveler
2x Cryptic Serpent
4x Censor
4x Anticipate
4x Magma Spray
4x Hieroglyphic Illumination
Sorcery (8)
3x Collective Defiance
3x Sweltering Suns
2x Incendiary Flow
Planeswalkers (2)
2x Chandra, Torch of Defiance
4x Negate
3x Dispel
3x Disallow
2x By Force
2x Glorybringer
1x Sweltering Suns
BG Rock
Modern:
RW Sun & Moon
RBG Dredge
RWG Burn
Legacy:
W Death & Taxes
REALLY looking forward to seeing how the testing turns out. In the meantime I might try to fit Drake Haven and Elder Deep-Fiend. Maybe even color splash for Nahiri, the Harbinger?
EDIT: Included decklist I ran at Game Day.
2 Baral, Chief of Compliance
2 Stormchaser Mage
4 Enigma Drake
2 Cryptic Serpent
2 Bedlam Reveler
Instants: 13
3 Magma Spray
1 Fling
3 Censor
2 Negate
1 Geistblast
3 Hieroglyphic Illumination
4 Take Inventory
2 Cathartic Reunion
2 Incendiary Flow
2 Insult // Injury
2 Sweltering Suns
Artifacts: 2
2 Key to the City
Lands: 21
4 Spirebluff Canal
3 Wandering Fumarole
6 Islands
8 Mountains
2 Kari Zev's Expertise
1 Hazoret the Fervent
2 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Fling
1 Stormchaser Mage
1 Crackdown Construct
2 Niblis of Frost
2 Negate
2 Fevered Visions
1 Heart-Piercer Manticore
2 Bedlam Reveler
4 Enigma Drake
4 Stormchaser Mage
Instants 15
4 Essence Flux
3 Fiery Temper
4 Shock
4 Turn Aside
4 Cathartic Reunion
3 Distemper of the Blood
4 Take Inventory
4 Tormenting Voice
Lands 20
5 Island
7 Mountain
4 Spirebluff Canal
4 Wandering Fumarole
Aggressively mulligan into a Creature or a way to dig into the deck to find a creature, then dump cards in the GY (and burn to the face) to power up your flyers. Hold on to 1-mana protection for your win condition.
(Distemper of the Blood is in the deck as a 1 mana Madness Spell. Could probably just as easily be any other 1 mana combat trick)
Standard - Some kind of control
Modern - UB Mill (casual)
EDH - Meren's Grave Shenanigans
Honestly, I tried something like this. I probably got a little too greedy with my list and it didn't flow as well as it did before heading in a more control direction. But that's indicative of the issue at hand - you're either diluting your control gameplan to jam more threats, or you're diluting your aggro gameplan to try and outgrind other aggro decks.
Having said that, I still think this is ultimately the direction this list wants to go; if you know the meta you're preparing for, build a streamlined control list and add drakes. My recent experience with the aggro version makes me feel it's just not fast enough to compete with Mardu as a fast aggro deck, too slow to simply aggro out against the current T1 meta (Marvel, Zombies, Mardu and GB maybe?, UR classic), so we're forced to adopt a more control-oriented playstyle, but then we run into the classic control problem of needing our answers to line up with their threats. The issue we run into is having a rough matchup against classic UR builds, unless we specifically board around them.
I'm still in favor of a color splash, but that's why I think I'm too greedy.
Here's the list, along with an explanation of card choices afterwards
4 Enigma Drake
3 Cryptic Serpent
3 Bedlam Reveler
Answers
4 Censor
4 Lightning Axe
3 Fiery Temper
3 Magma Spray
2 Sweltering Suns
Draw/Utility
4 Attune with Aether
2 Hieroglyphic Illumination
2 Cathartic Reunion
3 Grapple with the Past
2 Insult // Injury
4 Spirebluff Canal
4 Botanical Sanctum
4 Wandering Fumarole
4 Aether Hub
3 Island
2 Mountain
2 Blossoming Defense
2 Negate
3 Dispel
3 Ceremonious Rejection
2 Thing in the Ice
2 Sweltering Suns
1 Magma Spray
3 major changes to the UR version-
1- Grapple with the Past Is fantastic here, it puts instants and sorcs into our gy in order to power up our creatures/speed up their arrival, and then can grab one from the GY to be cast, which is awesome since we're a bit threat-light. Instant speed means we can hold up a grapple or a censor and cast whichever serves us best.
2- Attune with Aether Is great for mana fixing. Temur is a good group to be in with 2 fastlands in standard that fit it's colors, but 3 colors is still tough in standard, especially since 2 of our 3 biggest threats both require UU or RR. It's also something good to do on turn 1 which we didn't really have in UR aside from cycle something.
3- Insult // Injury Is incredible for this deck and warrants an inclusion even if you stay UR. I haven't drawn it once in testing where I wasn't happy to see it. I once used it when I didn't have any threats out to turn my sweltering suns into 6 damage to each of my opponent's giant zombies and wipe their board, which then allowed me to swing for lethal with fumarole on my next turn. Bottom line, this card is awesome. That said, you don't really want to see multiples so 2 is probably the right number.
4- In the sideboard Blossoming Defense is a great 2-of, protects our threats or pumps them up to help hit lethal damage. Great vs control and midrange.
My sideboard has also adjusted as the meta shifted towards marvelworks, with Ceremonious Rejection as a 3-of. That plus a 2-of Negate and a 3-of Dispel effectively lets this deck transform from a midrange approach to a much more controlling approach vs marvelworks, which has seemed to work well. It's a shame we don't have access to Lost Legacy or Disposses, but adding a 4th color seems a bit tough in standard unless you start playing mana dorks and the like, and then you're warping the deck way too much to be effective with Drakes and Revelers and Serpents.
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As to the suggestion of swapping into a more heavy control deck, this really speaks more to deckbuilding philosophy than anything else. UR control doesn't want to dilute their deck with threats like enigma drake or revelers, they want to control the field and then win with gearhulks or fumaroles once they've established a secure board. UR control is a great deck right now and if that sounds appealing you should have at it, but there is a reason UR control isn't running drakes and whatnot.
If you want to run a more controlling build I'd love to hear the results, but I think you'll probably find that at a certain point you will either dilute this deck to the point where it's not as powerful/fast, or you'll feel like you're playing a fairly diluted UR control deck and want to ditch the enigma drakes for Gearhulks and the bedlam revelers for Glimmer of Genius and whatnot.
The strongest argument for running this midrangy URx over a strict control UR list is Zombies/aggro starting to come back. UR control is decent against those decks, but we definitely have an edge in those matchups.
BG Rock
Modern:
RW Sun & Moon
RBG Dredge
RWG Burn
Legacy:
W Death & Taxes
Yep, nailed it. That was exactly my problem in being stranded in the middle, as it were. I've been sick and delirious tbh and upon re-reading my post it was a bit meandering and unfocused (apologies ;p), but you summed it up pretty well.
You clearly have quite a bit more experience piloting this than I do, so I'll throw some things that have been bugging me your way and see if I can get some feedback:
- I don't really like Censor as a card. I too often found myself wishing I had a hard counter in hand, but at other times I also found myself sitting on a Disallow or something with no way to refresh my hand into something more relevant. I kept cutting them, but running 2 and not 4 really killed the consistency of having it early to force spike a gideon or something.
- I DO really like Gearhulk. Did you ever test with him, even out of board? We have a million targets for him to hit, though few enough are very impactful, I guess. I largely feel the same way about Pull from Tomorrow. This is making me sound like a control player at heart. Maybe I am? OTOH, I really like modern Jund and this list has the same core philosophy of ~12 very relevant threats backed up by disruption, and THAT I like.
- How have you been handling Marvel? I honestly didn't feel like it was a terrible matchup, but I found myself being forced to make difficult decisions between presenting lethal and keeping up countermagic, for instance. I ended up misplaying a few times but I'm assuming that comes down to pilot skill and lack of really solid experience with the deck. I also made a bunch of changes to my list before taking it to my LGS after testing and my consistency was down. Oops.
Coincidentally, I also have been brewing around a Temur shell most recently. ATM it's more of a tower list than a drake one, but I've been curious to try something like what you're posting. On color splash notes, I DID run the deck with a white splash for board cards and some Nahiri, the Harbingers in the main. FWIW she was a total house in most matchups. The biggest issue was lack of a compelling ult target, but I mostly used her as removal and a way to fuel my looting. She was at her worst vs. Mardu, in my experience.
Anyway, thanks for the discussion. I'll probably shoot for trimming down my gameplan to be more streamlined and back-to-basics instead of trying to jam in my pet control cards. I'd appreciate any further insight you have on the above, and keep up the good work!
@Jodon I think Harness may have a place in the 75, but glimmer probably doesn't. I feel like I use illumination as a 1 mana cantrip about 60% of the time and then 40% of the time it's a 4 mana draw 2 when I have the mana for it. If i replaced it with glimmer that just means that 60% of the time it's a dead card in my hand and 40% of the time it's slightly better.
As for the Marvel matchup, its a tough one. As you can see from the list I posted earlier, I've devoted 5 slots in the board to helping that matchup (although Negate helps in other matchups too). In general you need to put pressure on asap, while still hanging onto a negate or censor or ceremonious rejection for their marvelworks. It's a tough matchup but certainly not unwinnable. I wish we could splash black, because if we could then it would be a much better matchup.
On splashes - Our base colors are UR. We need both for our main creatures and gameplan. That means that if we're going to splash a 3rd color, we need a compelling reason to do so and a landbase that makes it doable. Unfortunately, this means we can't splash black right now. There is no black manland in standard with a U or R other half, and there are no UB or RB fastlands in standard. Everything is a tapland, with the exception of Foreboding Ruins, or the tango-lands, or Evolving Wilds. I just don't think that any deck relying on cards like Evolving Wilds has a snowball's chance in hell in a format where turn 4 Ulamogs are possible.
That leaves 2 options for a splash- Temur or Jeskai. Due to the lack of solid instants or sorceries in W, I think Temur wins in that comparison:
Best reasons to play Temur: Grapple with the Past does everything we could want it to do, it fills our gy to boost critters, and acts as enigma drake/reveler/serpent 5-8 since they are such automatic removal targets. Blossoming Defense is a great 1 mana protection spell that can help us get there in the end.
Best reasons to play Jeskai: Fragmentize and Nahiri, the Harbinger strike me as the two best cards with white, but frag wont help vs marvel since they arent going to cast it without being able to immediately tap it unless they have to. Nahiri is a great control card and ulting her for a reveler isn't a horrible play since you get to draw 3 and then reveler comes back to hand, letting you get his draw 3 again the turn after.
BG Rock
Modern:
RW Sun & Moon
RBG Dredge
RWG Burn
Legacy:
W Death & Taxes
Commit // Memory might be worth trying as a way to deal with any permanent the deck doesn't counter and cannot burn. I do recognize that the memory part of the card in almost all circumstances would be bad for this deck, but I feel that commit is a better removal option than something like Compelling Deterrence because it doesn't leave the opponent up a card (if you don't have any zombies) like most other bounce spells and is a much better tempo play as a result.
Even though it's three mana I wonder if Geistblast might be a good toolbox card for this deck. Since it is essentially an aftermath card that can let you draw six cards for 3UR off of a Cathartic Reunion as well as having other uses similar to insult's ability to double the damage of this deck's burn in the late game.
Standard:
UR Control
Right now I'm running flames in a Jeskai list I cobbled together because I didn't have suns. Flames and Nahiri are the only cards I have in the deck that use white mana. I've also added in some Needle Spires to accompany Wandering Fumarole and increase the number of threats I have.
Standard:
UR Control
I have 2x burn from within in the sb to deal with them