This is a deck I have been playing for a while and recently took to a top 4 finish at GP Denver. I think that this deck is very powerful and well positioned in the meta, but it is not easy to play. There are a lot of triggers to be aware of and there will often be many different lines of play that you can take.
Gameplan
The basic gameplan is pretty straightforward, get stichwings and amalgams into the card, bring them back, and use them to cast undercosted Eldrazi to close out the game. The nut draws are almost unbeatable by any deck in the format. Getting out 12 power on turn 3 is very difficult for any other deck to beat. However, the deck also plays a good long game with fevered visions to keep the action coming. Elder deep-fiend can give you a chance to punch through almost any board stall and helps you close out many games.
Creatures
Stitchwing Skaab, Advanced Stitchwing, Prized Amalgam: This is the Zombie package, the constant recursion matches up well against most decks' removal. These also let us get a discount on casting out emerge threats. Usually you will be activating the stitchwings in your opponent's second main phase so that it will bring back the amalgams on the end step.
Elder Deep-Fiend: By far the most powerful creature in the deck. It is a big instant speed threat that can tap down lands or creatures and often comes with a free board wipe thanks to Kozilek's Return. Knowing when to cast this and how to stack all of the associated triggers is probably one of the hardest parts about playing this deck.
Wretched Gryff: If I could play 5 Deep Fiends, I would, but this will have to do. This is another way to trigger kozilek's return from the graveyard and also triggers Sanctum of Ugin to let us search for a Deep-Fiend. Also lets us essentially untap a stitchwing after attacking for 1 or 2 mana and replaces itself. The 3/4 flying body matches up well against smuggler's copter and a lot of the other small creatures of the format.
Spells
Tormenting Voice, Cathartic Reunion: These cards enable the deck's most busted draws. They allow us to get stitchwings and amalgams into the yard while digging deep and fixing mediocre hands. They can be a liability against counter magic, so be careful casting these into spell queller mana. However, even if countered, thay have still done their job of getting important pieces into the yard.
Lightning Axe: A 1 mana kill spell that has the upside of letting us discard a card.
Fiery Temper: With all of our discard outlets, this will often be a Lightning Bolt that doesn't cost a card.
Kozilek's Return: An instant speed board wipe that can be flashed back at instant speed with Elder Deep-Fiend.
Fevered Visions: This is my most recent addition to the maindeck, and is certainly one of the more powerful card in the deck. This card just does so many things at the same time. It preasures slower decks all by itself, it puts pressure on opposing planeswalkers, and it keeps card in our hand for the rest of the game. The symmetrical card draw ends up us more than the opponent in most macthups. As the game goes long, most deck will have a certain number of dead draws, but with this deck, any card can be discarded to bring back a stitchwing.
Lands
This is a pretty straight forward manabase, run all the good duals and add Sanctum of Ugin so that we can chain deep-fiends. Wandering Fumerole is also very powerful in this deck because we can often tap down lands and blockers with deep fiend and make a big uncontested swing.
Matchups
GB Delerium: This is one of our best matchups. Fevered Visions is almost a free win all by itself, and the second half of Kozilek's return does a good job of cleaning up any of the deck's mid game threats. Elder Deep-Fiends can tap down Emrakul for a couple of turns and buy us enough time to close out the game.
UW Flash; This is another good matchup where fevered visions does some work. Use lightning axe and fiery temper to keep selfless spirit off the board then clean up everything else with kozilek's return. Play conservatively with your deep fiends to try and counter dec in stone or stasis snare. I usually bring in the weavers to deal with selfess spirit and negates to take care of gideon and any of their exile removal.
GR Aetherworks; I haven't played this matchup a ton, but it feels like a bad matchup game 1, but gets better once we can bring in countermagic after sideboard. Elder Deep fiend is one of the most important cards in this matchup, but don't use it too aggressively.
Vehicles: This is a slightly unfavorable matchup, but can be won. Against this deck, you need to mulligan a bit more aggresively than you would otherwise in order to make sure that your had actually does something the first couple of turns. If you get a strong hand, you can sometimes race them, but you will often need to use a deep fiend as a fog for a turn or two.
Hi, congratulations for your GP result!
And thanks for the primer, I was looking for a working emerge deck and this is surely working.
I will try this deck tomorrow in a small local tournament.
Could you give some advice about the sideboard, and if you are satisfied with it or if you would change something?
This deck is a ton of fun and can win out of nowhere at times. I've made a few experimental personal tweaks in my online playing: Nagging Thoughts in place of Tormenting Voice and -1 Wandering Fumarole -1 Highland Lake for 2 Drownyard Temples. I haven't run into any colorfixing issues and I have had luck with Nagging Thoughts, either casting with Madness or sometimes casting it normally when I don't have enough cards to discard for Cathartic Reunion. I wish I had a slight bit more card draw at times, so I may experiment with an extra Voice/Thoughts in place of a Visions or something, but the deck as is performs well enough to render my experimental refinements moot. Really fun deck, thanks for the primer!
Congrats of your finish. I like to see this deck doing well. This looks like the sideboarded version of the deck I've been playing. Here's the list from my thread. I couldn't agree more. The deck is very well positioned. I find that the emerge/K's Return strategy works best against aggro decks while having a heavier zombie list works stronger against midrange and control strategies.
One (annoying) thing I've run into is how Stitchwing Skaab matches up against Liliana, the Last Hope. It's a good creature and I played with him a long time, but it was an easy kill with a popular card. I find I like Geralf's Masterpiece a lot more. The 3 cards is steep, but it's a strong card on the battlefield.
A card that has been great, and I can't understate how much I've liked it, is Collective Brutality. Not only does it get zombies in the yard, but it kills a ton of popular creatures and goes to the face. It's great versatility.
This deck is a ton of fun and can win out of nowhere at times. I've made a few experimental personal tweaks in my online playing: Nagging Thoughts in place of Tormenting Voice and -1 Wandering Fumarole -1 Highland Lake for 2 Drownyard Temples. I haven't run into any colorfixing issues and I have had luck with Nagging Thoughts, either casting with Madness or sometimes casting it normally when I don't have enough cards to discard for Cathartic Reunion. I wish I had a slight bit more card draw at times, so I may experiment with an extra Voice/Thoughts in place of a Visions or something, but the deck as is performs well enough to render my experimental refinements moot. Really fun deck, thanks for the primer!
Also interested in any sideboard refinements!
Nagging thoughts is not a card I have considered. It is net card neutral like tormenting voice and digs you just as deep if you are looking for a specific card, but it is not a discard outlet itself. I can see it being better if you do not have the graveyard enabler in your hand but worse than voice if you have one in hand that you need to discard. How often are you able to madness it? I could see that being the deciding advantage between the 2.
If you looking for extra card draw, visions is not the thing to cut. Landing one essentially means that you will not be short on cards for the rest of the game.
I am also not sold on the drownyard temples. This deck can be very strict on mana, sometimes needing UUU to reanimate a stitchwing and emerge it for deep fiend, while also needing RR for voice/reunion + fiery temper. I actually cut the third Sanctum of Ugin for another basic right before the GP, and i think it noticeably helped the mana consistency. This deck can often keep a 1 land hand on the draw, but not if that land is colorless. We also don't want to be taking a turn off to bring back the temple from the yard, especially turn 3 or 4, which are usually our most explosive turns. If you are going to add another colorless land to the deck, I think you would be better off increasing the number of sanctums, since they are much more impactful than the temples.
I'll try to write up a little more on the sideboard when I get a chance.
Congrats of your finish. I like to see this deck doing well. This looks like the sideboarded version of the deck I've been playing. Here's the list from my thread. I couldn't agree more. The deck is very well positioned. I find that the emerge/K's Return strategy works best against aggro decks while having a heavier zombie list works stronger against midrange and control strategies.
One (annoying) thing I've run into is how Stitchwing Skaab matches up against Liliana, the Last Hope. It's a good creature and I played with him a long time, but it was an easy kill with a popular card. I find I like Geralf's Masterpiece a lot more. The 3 cards is steep, but it's a strong card on the battlefield.
A card that has been great, and I can't understate how much I've liked it, is Collective Brutality. Not only does it get zombies in the yard, but it kills a ton of popular creatures and goes to the face. It's great versatility.
I am not a fan of Geralf's Masterpiece, I think that it will almost always be worse than advanced stitchwing at the same mana cost. The P/T doesn't synergize with drawing extra cards from visions, and needing to discard an extra card can be a pretty steep cost. On of the problems this deck can have, is that without sticking a fevered visions, we can straight up run out of cards. Needing to discard an extra card for a potential slight bump in power is not worth the trade. You also lose out on the potential T1 lightning axe into T2 stitchwing skaab.
Stitchwing skaab is necessary because it costs 1 less mana which lets us do more things in a turn. It can get hit by Liliana, but we will usually be bringing it back at end of turn or at the end of the main phase, which means that it will usually get a free swing at Liliana. Liliana doesn't tend to be a big problem since it gets punked pretty hard by fevered visions.
Collective brutality is a great card and does everything we would want to do in this deck, but I am trying to stick to 2 colors for mana consistency. Did you mean collective defiance? I guess that could be a good card, but it doesn't seem that great unless you can escalate it, at which point it feels too expensive for what we want to be doing in this list, especially at sorcery speed.
TL;DR - If you like T2 Skaab, check out Insolent Neonate.
Check out Collective Defiance. It performs really well.
Don't knock going bigger without trying it. I've had better results. Nagging Thoughts seems interesting. I'm gonna give it a test. Drownyard Temple was underwhelming in my tests.
I think there are 2 builds to how to play with these zombies. You can either go faster or bigger. Faster is getting that t1 Lightning Axe, t2 Stitchwing Skaab. I have 2 problems with that.
1) Lighting Axe is a pretty good removal card as far as UR is concerned. Tossing it out on a 1-drop is really underwhelming. Look at the targets currently in the format. Thraben Inspector, Gnarlwood Dryad, Nerd Ape, Cryptbreaker? Of those, Cryptbreaker is the only one I'm comfortable throwing an Axe at, and it makes up a very very small part of the meta.
2) The probability is low. You need a Stitchwing Skaab (4 of) and a Lightning Axe (3 of) and your opponent has to have a 1 drop to target. And on top of all that, you have to have the right gas in hand and be playing against the right deck to make all of that worth while. That's a lot of planets that have to align...
I'm not saying this is the wrong way to build the deck. I played this version for a very very long time (pretty much from beginning of SOI until 6 weeks ago, minus the emerge in SOI, of course). It's successful. Very hard to beat. If T2 Revive Skaab is an important play to you, and it was to me, then I very much suggest Insolent Neonate. Not only does it give turn 1 discard, menace also lets it get in for some damage. It's a great card to have if you're building faster. I can't downplay how good it is in the faster strategy and strong it is to be able to add more turn 1 discard consistency to the deck.
When it came to building bigger, the comparison is Masterpiece vs Skaab (because that's the fundamental change). When I found having Skaab was letting me down was when I realized even with 4 Neonates and 4 Axes, turn 2 Skaab just wasn't consistent. It was good when it happened, but getting all the pieces in the top 8 cards wasn't something to count on. Then it became an issue of analyzing Skaab in non turn 2 situations. Obviously the best turn will be t3 and then downhill after that. On the play, t3 skaab is decent. Not great, but still decent. On the draw, it's much much worse (and this can basically be applied to turn 4 and on, regardless of play or draw). On the draw, you are starting off on a more defensive footing. That means your Skaab is likely to have to block. I know against some decks and with some draws you'll be absorbing the damage to emerge, but your chances are equal or better that you'll need to interact in combat. At 1 toughness, Skaab trades with/dies to everything, and that's the big problem. If I have to discard 2 cards to get it back, and then it easily dies, I'm down 3 cards anyway. If I'm going to be down 3 cards, being down 3 cards with a Masterpiece still in play is always going to be better than being down 3 cards with nothing in play.
That was the impetus that made me decide to go bigger. I'm not saying it's the definitive way to build the deck, but I am saying that I've had noticeably better results in testing and playing than I did when I was built faster. It's worth looking into.
I also think you give Masterpiece too little credit. I've been playing Masterpiece for a while, and it's rare that it's worse than Advanced Stitchwing on the board. Typically, it's 4/4 or better. You said it yourself, we can straight up run out of cards. That means we can easily control our hand size and keep it low, even with Fevered Visions in play. If I have a lot of cards in hand, that only means 1 thing: I'm not having to use the control elements I'm holding. If that's the case, then I have gas for bring more zombies into play and closing the game out faster. Keeping Masterpiece's p/t high isn't hard at all. And, like I said earlier, Advanced Stitchwing isn't the card to compare it to, because that's not the card you'll cut if you go the Masterpiece route.
You're totally right. I brainfarted. I meant Collective Defiance. I decided to test this card on a whim. It was undeniable what it added to the deck. This deck loves getting zombies from the hand to the GY early, and it's another card that able to do that. But it also burns creatures, goes to the face and can wheel your hand when Visions is drawing you up a bunch of lands. Whether you go bigger or stay faster, it's definitely something you should try. I've loved playing with it. It brings some much versatility to the 3 slots I gave it.
On the things Champagne suggested. Nagging Thoughts is very interesting. My gut is telling me, it'll be better to just keep discarding from the hand with Voice/Reunion, but Thoughts is interesting enough to warrant a little testing.
I have tested with Drownyard Temple, though. The results were underwhelming. I found that when I would want it to ramp me up (turns 4 or 5), I'm using my mana, so I'm not getting a lot of turns to bring it back to play. Then in later turns, it's not needed. I think having the color mana instead is better in that situation.
When I tested Skysovereign, I found it to be underwhelming, but at the same time, I don't run into a ton of matches that feel all that grindy. The ones that were grindy back when I was playing Stitchwing Skaab (instead of Geralf's Masterpiece) were UW Flash, because they have a lot of fliers, and anything with Ishkanah, Grafwidow. The problem was that in all of those matchups, Skaab couldn't survive combat with anything. Sure, he could come back, but without a way to make up the card disadvantage (if for some reason I hadn't drawn Fevered Visions or it'd been Queller'd or something), they'd be able to stall long enough until they found something useful. Ishkanah is just a beating against Skaab. She can either handle him single-handedly, or let her tokens trade. Since I changed out Skaab for Masterpiece, I don't run into those problems anymore.
One artifact I've found useful was Key to the City. It can discard, help sift through the deck and sneak that last piece of damage though if they manage to land a flying, tentacled mind-slaver.
Jumping into this thread rather late, but I wanted to say that the deck is indeed fun and seems like a solid plan to attack the meta from another angle!
A couple of threads have mentioned Ghirapur Orrery as an alternative to Fevered Visions. I actually came to the UR Emerge deck after extensive attempts to break Orrery in other color combinations and settled on UR because the Cathartic Reunion/Tormenting Voice engine is super reliable.
While I haven't tested Fevered Visions at all, it did come up on my radar, and I should offer some thoughts on why I still think Orrery is the better option.
Pros:
-Power level when on is insane--draws you into more gas/Deepfiends and shores up your mana base to more reliably cast Sideboard tech like Summary Dismissal without losing tempo.
-No symmetrical downside against just about any form of control and usually the delirium decks, as opposed to Fevered Visions.
Cons:
-less reliable when wanting to hold-up countermagic or if you draw multiple deepfiends, though usually your instant-speed discard can allow you to turn Orrery on again if you want the draw power.
-Can reload an aggressive deck's hand quickly--hence my sideboard tinkering with Just the Wind to ensure at the last second they won't get the benefits.
-One more mana, often times takes a turn to drop or set-up with little action.
Like Fevered Visions, if the cons are too much, you can usually pitch it to your engine and move on with your life. When it IS on, you feel like a monster, and this card-hungry deck will usually out-advantage any competition, even if they occasionally get to make their own use of it.
I'm still working out a list, but I'll post whatever I run tonight later.
I did test with Ghirapur Orrery and found it to be underwhelming most of the time. The main reason was because I didn't always find myself wanting to play out my whole hand. I run Geralf's Masterpiece, so I like to keep it low, just not empty (I normally hold up 1 or 2 control cards if possible).
In my testing, both cards are bad against aggro and combo opponents, and they get boarded out. I suppose technically, you can use a bounce spell against aggro to make Orrery better against aggro than Fevered Visions, but I doubt I would commit more than 3 slots to bounce spells in general, and I don't want my games to hinge on whether or not I have enough of a 3-of to keep my agro opponent from refueling. And Combo Opponents, I would never give them cards if I can help it.
Against midrange and control decks, Fevered Visions is just a beating. Period. Unlike Orrey, Fevered Visions will likely finish off control and midrange opponents, especially in multiples. That 2 damage adds up, and adds up fast.
With Mardu vehicles being so strong, I think this thread needs to be dusted off. Having instant speed board wipes with Kozilek's Return and Elder Deep-Fiend is going to be incredibly important in a meta that is heavily vehicles. It also doesn't hurt that red removal is at instant speed and can take down most vehicles that are seeing play. Being in blue is good for having access to counterspells to disrupt Shaheeli/Guardian combo. And this deck just preys on control and midrange decks.
My local meta is still pretty heavy control, so my emerge package is in the sideboard, but in the matches I've had against vehicles, bringing in EDF and K's Return has been CRUSHING. Wiping them out during their combat step and tapping them down for their 2nd main phase is brutal. If my meta moves stronger towards vehicles, I'll definitely go main deck emerge and take the easy wins. That would also mean adding in Sanctums instead of Temples and some more EDFs so I can get some serious strength out of them.
Meanwhile, this is just a good midrange deck that eats control, is strong against other midrange because of the flying and endless blocking from Prized Amalgams, and thanks to counterspells has great game against control.
I have NO CLUE why people aren't talking more about this deck...the only weakness I see is a resolved Verdurous Gearhulk, that's an 8/8...but otherwise this deck is very consistent against both vehicles. copy cat and B/G...B/G perhaps being the only iffy matchup. I'm surprised people aren't jamming this more.
Should we play more bounce? It seems that deep fiend elder is our win con, so not burning out creatures doesn't seem too big a deal.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"I hope to have such a death—lying in triumph upon the broken bodies of those who slew me."
—Radha, Keldon warlord
You'll notice #1 UR Zombie Emerge, 7 BG Constrictor in the Top 8. Resolved Gearhulks aren't that hard to deal with. They're still artifacts and red can deal with that (albeit not as well as they should. No instant artifact kill in Red, Wizards? Shame!). This deck is very well positioned to wreck the current meta of decks. It's strong against all of the top decks while being completely under the radar.
I don't think more bounce is the way to go. My own personal sideboard tech is Imprisoned in the Moon. Takes care of big creatures, takes care of planeswalkers (the 2 biggest things UR has trouble dealing with after they resolve**)
**I know UR can't deal well with Enchantments after they resolve, but there aren't any really bomb enchantments seeing play in standard right now.
In a side note, any thoughts on Kari Zev's Expertise? Feels like it could be a good move late game, grabbing a tapped gearhulk or skysovereign, with a free reunion or
Lightning Axe to boot!
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"I hope to have such a death—lying in triumph upon the broken bodies of those who slew me."
—Radha, Keldon warlord
I haven't tested with exactly that card, but I've tested that idea. I used Malevolent Whispers in some testing way way back, and it was neat that you could steal a creature for an alpha strike or (since it has madness) you could steal a creature and sometimes 2 for 1 your opponent, but it was more miss than hit. At least it felt that way.
I'm not a fan of the Expertise myself, most of our spells are above 2 CMC and the ones that aren't have additional costs which we still have to pay. It feels like I'm playing a worse Hijack at that point.
I played RB zombies most of the last standard to great success but am looking to switch into this deck for obvious reasons (RIP in peace Smuggler's Copter). Does anyone have new information with the GB constrictor, Mardu Vehicles, Saheeli Rai meta?
I wish to maximize Elder Deep-Fiend, Kozilek's Return, and Prized Amalgam. I would like to add counterspells but doubt there's room. The things that unnerve me about the deck are the weakness to a creature with 5+ toughness and the obvious damage that a Negate can do to Cathartic Reunion or Tormenting Voice.
I was considering Fevered Visions in the main deck because I like it against Control, Saheeli, and GB, but I feel very uncomfortable about feeding Mardu cards. I also was considering Baral's Expertise because it's very good against the overplayed GB menace and synergizes well with Fevered Visions but I think it's too narrow and doesn't do enough against Control, Saheeli Control, and Mardu on the draw.
Does anyone have a preferred build? I was thinking about something along these lines.
Maybe I'm also too high on Fiery Temper as a holdover from RB, as it is less important when you have 4 Kozilek's Return. But I do like to have a couple good madness cards in to mitigate the loss in card advantage from the Stitchwings and Axes. Are there any decent draw spells in Standard? This deck would be insane with something half as powerful as Treasure Cruise to refuel.
Having your Cathartic Reunion or Tormenting Voice countered isn't a big deal. The most important part of those cards for this deck is the discard part. The drawing is just icing on the cake.
Also, it's not uncommon with so much sifting through the deck to have 2 K's Returns in the GY, wiping out creatures up to 10 toughness, so there's that. Also, when you consider which cards have more than 5 toughness, most of them are artifacts, so you can just kill them that way. The non-artifact/non-Ulamog ones are easily chumped by Amalgams indefinitely. Everything else you can keep a counterspell for it.
Alright guys sorry I'm late to the party. Played the deck last Tuesday and I felt like I got really unlucky with my drawing and discarding however, I think the deck has a ton of legs. Two issues I'm seeing are keeping up on having cards in hand to discard and getting the Dredgers into the graveyard. My semi-decent solution to both problems is Perpetual Timepiece. If you can play the card turn two, you effectively have a free discard outlet the rest of the game while holding cards in hand. If you mill a Sanctum of Ugin or an Elder Deep-Fiend, you can exile the Timepiece and shuffle them back into your deck.
Right now I want to add two Timepieces but I think it may just be better than Cathartic Reunion and/or Tormenting Voice. I am going to try a split of 4,3,2 of Reunions, Voices, and Timepieces. To accommodate, I am moving one Fevered Visions to the sideboard as well as going down one land. What do you guys think about Perpetual Timepiece?
I think Timepiece is a very good answer. Key to the City is much better if you ask me. You can discard freely (and get extra damage in), enable madness at will, and use it to dig through the deck faster. It's a great card. I have it as a 2-of and it's amazing.
Key to the City does let you dig and enables madness but Perpetual Timepiece allows you to get more cards into the graveyard while not having to discard cards in your hand and thus allowing you to keep up on card advantage. Everytime you want to draw with Key to the City you have to tap two lands to replace the discarded card effectively. Timepiece only needs the initial two mana investment to get two cards into your graveyard every turn. You don't need another madness enabler when you are returning your Dredgers to the field as well as playing Cathartic Reunion and Tormenting Voice that can enable madness. I think the deck needs more speed when it comes to cards in the graveyard and that's what Timepiece allows you to do at an efficient cost.
While it's true that Timepiece will mill every turn, cards in hand and then discarded are typically better than ones dumped directly into the graveyard. At the very least, you get to decide if you want to use them. Seeing something like an Elder Deep Fiend just milled off when I needed it, only to hope to see it again soon after I shuffle it back into the deck.
As far as Paying 2 to draw the card, completely worth it. Should you find yourself with 0 cards in hand, you can pitch topdecked lands, topdecked Voices/Reunions (which are AWFUL when the hand is empty), etc.
Finally, you can't discount how useful the unblockable ability can be. There's a lot of token generation available to standard, some of it flying thopters. I play big beefy Geralf's Masterpieces. It would suck to pitch 3 cards to revive it, only to see it endlessly chumped. You're playing Stitchwing Skaab in that slot. Pitching 2 cards to bring it back just to see it trade with a thopter would be BRUTAL. Key gets creatures into the face, timepiece mills.
Otherwise, your deck looks good. One artifact I've been testing with lately, and it's been SO GREAT is Corrupted Grafstone. Having it on turn 2 is incredible. My favorite sequence since I added it is Turn 2 Grafstone, Turn 3 Double Reunion. Being 15 cards into the deck on turn 3 is crazy good for finding Amalgams.
Being able to dig into the deck that fast is also good in non-amalgam cards too. Digging through like that makes each card feel like there's an extra copy. If I'm running a 3 of Fiery Temper, digging that fast makes it feel like their 4 ofs (from a consistency point of view). It allows me to relax the deck building. The list I play is more zombie focused and less emerge focus (of course I'll adjust that if my local meta needs it), and I run 2 Deep Fiends and 3 K's Returns and I always feel like I have them when I need them. It frees up a lot of space in the deck.
I'm more concerned with getting the 12 dredgers into the graveyard at a discounted mana cost while keeping up on card advantage. Yes you will mill some Elder Deep-Fiends and Sanctum of Ugins but you can offset the odds of that by using Reunion and Voice to filter your discard (you can also add them back to the deck if you need to chain Deep-Fiends with the Timepiece activation). While Key to the City enables madness, filters, and allows blockers to get through, it does so all at a 2 mana activation cost to be able to keep up on card draw (which is important to be able to be able to return the Stitchwings to the battlefield. I don't think blocking should be an issue when you have Kozilek's Return to remove the small stuff in your way as well as Fiery Temper and Lightning Axe.
Regardless, I think both situations should be tested to see what the deck wants. Does the deck want to have more unfiltered mill (quantity) or does the deck want filtered discard (quality). I think Key and Timepiece both have their merits. I would love to run Grafstone but I just don't see where it can fit in the deck. I'll try to do some testing to see what feels better.
If interested, here's a fun little 5-0 to watch from TCGPlayer. Easy wins against Constrictor, Mardu and Copy Cat. Despite some bad misplays that should've finished some games, and matches, sooner.
4 Wandering Fumarole
4 Spirebluff Canal
1 Highland Lake
2 Sanctum of Ugin
6 Island
6 Mountain
Spells (20)
3 Lightning Axe
4 Cathartic Reunion
2 Tormenting Voice
3 Fiery Temper
4 Kozilek's Return
4 Fevered Visions
4 Prized Amalgam
4 Stitchwing Skaab
4 Advanced Stitchwing
4 Elder Deep-Fiend
1 Wretched Gryff
3 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Dispel
3 Negate
1 Jace, Unraveler of Secrets
2 Weaver of lightning
4 Galvanic Bombardment
1 Nahiri's Wrath
Gameplan
The basic gameplan is pretty straightforward, get stichwings and amalgams into the card, bring them back, and use them to cast undercosted Eldrazi to close out the game. The nut draws are almost unbeatable by any deck in the format. Getting out 12 power on turn 3 is very difficult for any other deck to beat. However, the deck also plays a good long game with fevered visions to keep the action coming. Elder deep-fiend can give you a chance to punch through almost any board stall and helps you close out many games.
Creatures
Stitchwing Skaab, Advanced Stitchwing, Prized Amalgam: This is the Zombie package, the constant recursion matches up well against most decks' removal. These also let us get a discount on casting out emerge threats. Usually you will be activating the stitchwings in your opponent's second main phase so that it will bring back the amalgams on the end step.
Elder Deep-Fiend: By far the most powerful creature in the deck. It is a big instant speed threat that can tap down lands or creatures and often comes with a free board wipe thanks to Kozilek's Return. Knowing when to cast this and how to stack all of the associated triggers is probably one of the hardest parts about playing this deck.
Wretched Gryff: If I could play 5 Deep Fiends, I would, but this will have to do. This is another way to trigger kozilek's return from the graveyard and also triggers Sanctum of Ugin to let us search for a Deep-Fiend. Also lets us essentially untap a stitchwing after attacking for 1 or 2 mana and replaces itself. The 3/4 flying body matches up well against smuggler's copter and a lot of the other small creatures of the format.
Spells
Tormenting Voice, Cathartic Reunion: These cards enable the deck's most busted draws. They allow us to get stitchwings and amalgams into the yard while digging deep and fixing mediocre hands. They can be a liability against counter magic, so be careful casting these into spell queller mana. However, even if countered, thay have still done their job of getting important pieces into the yard.
Lightning Axe: A 1 mana kill spell that has the upside of letting us discard a card.
Fiery Temper: With all of our discard outlets, this will often be a Lightning Bolt that doesn't cost a card.
Kozilek's Return: An instant speed board wipe that can be flashed back at instant speed with Elder Deep-Fiend.
Fevered Visions: This is my most recent addition to the maindeck, and is certainly one of the more powerful card in the deck. This card just does so many things at the same time. It preasures slower decks all by itself, it puts pressure on opposing planeswalkers, and it keeps card in our hand for the rest of the game. The symmetrical card draw ends up us more than the opponent in most macthups. As the game goes long, most deck will have a certain number of dead draws, but with this deck, any card can be discarded to bring back a stitchwing.
Lands
This is a pretty straight forward manabase, run all the good duals and add Sanctum of Ugin so that we can chain deep-fiends. Wandering Fumerole is also very powerful in this deck because we can often tap down lands and blockers with deep fiend and make a big uncontested swing.
Matchups
GB Delerium: This is one of our best matchups. Fevered Visions is almost a free win all by itself, and the second half of Kozilek's return does a good job of cleaning up any of the deck's mid game threats. Elder Deep-Fiends can tap down Emrakul for a couple of turns and buy us enough time to close out the game.
UW Flash; This is another good matchup where fevered visions does some work. Use lightning axe and fiery temper to keep selfless spirit off the board then clean up everything else with kozilek's return. Play conservatively with your deep fiends to try and counter dec in stone or stasis snare. I usually bring in the weavers to deal with selfess spirit and negates to take care of gideon and any of their exile removal.
GR Aetherworks; I haven't played this matchup a ton, but it feels like a bad matchup game 1, but gets better once we can bring in countermagic after sideboard. Elder Deep fiend is one of the most important cards in this matchup, but don't use it too aggressively.
Vehicles: This is a slightly unfavorable matchup, but can be won. Against this deck, you need to mulligan a bit more aggresively than you would otherwise in order to make sure that your had actually does something the first couple of turns. If you get a strong hand, you can sometimes race them, but you will often need to use a deep fiend as a fog for a turn or two.
And thanks for the primer, I was looking for a working emerge deck and this is surely working.
I will try this deck tomorrow in a small local tournament.
Could you give some advice about the sideboard, and if you are satisfied with it or if you would change something?
Thanks again.
Also interested in any sideboard refinements!
One (annoying) thing I've run into is how Stitchwing Skaab matches up against Liliana, the Last Hope. It's a good creature and I played with him a long time, but it was an easy kill with a popular card. I find I like Geralf's Masterpiece a lot more. The 3 cards is steep, but it's a strong card on the battlefield.
A card that has been great, and I can't understate how much I've liked it, is Collective Brutality. Not only does it get zombies in the yard, but it kills a ton of popular creatures and goes to the face. It's great versatility.
Nagging thoughts is not a card I have considered. It is net card neutral like tormenting voice and digs you just as deep if you are looking for a specific card, but it is not a discard outlet itself. I can see it being better if you do not have the graveyard enabler in your hand but worse than voice if you have one in hand that you need to discard. How often are you able to madness it? I could see that being the deciding advantage between the 2.
If you looking for extra card draw, visions is not the thing to cut. Landing one essentially means that you will not be short on cards for the rest of the game.
I am also not sold on the drownyard temples. This deck can be very strict on mana, sometimes needing UUU to reanimate a stitchwing and emerge it for deep fiend, while also needing RR for voice/reunion + fiery temper. I actually cut the third Sanctum of Ugin for another basic right before the GP, and i think it noticeably helped the mana consistency. This deck can often keep a 1 land hand on the draw, but not if that land is colorless. We also don't want to be taking a turn off to bring back the temple from the yard, especially turn 3 or 4, which are usually our most explosive turns. If you are going to add another colorless land to the deck, I think you would be better off increasing the number of sanctums, since they are much more impactful than the temples.
I'll try to write up a little more on the sideboard when I get a chance.
I am not a fan of Geralf's Masterpiece, I think that it will almost always be worse than advanced stitchwing at the same mana cost. The P/T doesn't synergize with drawing extra cards from visions, and needing to discard an extra card can be a pretty steep cost. On of the problems this deck can have, is that without sticking a fevered visions, we can straight up run out of cards. Needing to discard an extra card for a potential slight bump in power is not worth the trade. You also lose out on the potential T1 lightning axe into T2 stitchwing skaab.
Stitchwing skaab is necessary because it costs 1 less mana which lets us do more things in a turn. It can get hit by Liliana, but we will usually be bringing it back at end of turn or at the end of the main phase, which means that it will usually get a free swing at Liliana. Liliana doesn't tend to be a big problem since it gets punked pretty hard by fevered visions.
Collective brutality is a great card and does everything we would want to do in this deck, but I am trying to stick to 2 colors for mana consistency. Did you mean collective defiance? I guess that could be a good card, but it doesn't seem that great unless you can escalate it, at which point it feels too expensive for what we want to be doing in this list, especially at sorcery speed.
Check out Collective Defiance. It performs really well.
Don't knock going bigger without trying it. I've had better results.
Nagging Thoughts seems interesting. I'm gonna give it a test.
Drownyard Temple was underwhelming in my tests.
I think there are 2 builds to how to play with these zombies. You can either go faster or bigger. Faster is getting that t1 Lightning Axe, t2 Stitchwing Skaab. I have 2 problems with that.
1) Lighting Axe is a pretty good removal card as far as UR is concerned. Tossing it out on a 1-drop is really underwhelming. Look at the targets currently in the format. Thraben Inspector, Gnarlwood Dryad, Nerd Ape, Cryptbreaker? Of those, Cryptbreaker is the only one I'm comfortable throwing an Axe at, and it makes up a very very small part of the meta.
2) The probability is low. You need a Stitchwing Skaab (4 of) and a Lightning Axe (3 of) and your opponent has to have a 1 drop to target. And on top of all that, you have to have the right gas in hand and be playing against the right deck to make all of that worth while. That's a lot of planets that have to align...
I'm not saying this is the wrong way to build the deck. I played this version for a very very long time (pretty much from beginning of SOI until 6 weeks ago, minus the emerge in SOI, of course). It's successful. Very hard to beat. If T2 Revive Skaab is an important play to you, and it was to me, then I very much suggest Insolent Neonate. Not only does it give turn 1 discard, menace also lets it get in for some damage. It's a great card to have if you're building faster. I can't downplay how good it is in the faster strategy and strong it is to be able to add more turn 1 discard consistency to the deck.
When it came to building bigger, the comparison is Masterpiece vs Skaab (because that's the fundamental change). When I found having Skaab was letting me down was when I realized even with 4 Neonates and 4 Axes, turn 2 Skaab just wasn't consistent. It was good when it happened, but getting all the pieces in the top 8 cards wasn't something to count on. Then it became an issue of analyzing Skaab in non turn 2 situations. Obviously the best turn will be t3 and then downhill after that. On the play, t3 skaab is decent. Not great, but still decent. On the draw, it's much much worse (and this can basically be applied to turn 4 and on, regardless of play or draw). On the draw, you are starting off on a more defensive footing. That means your Skaab is likely to have to block. I know against some decks and with some draws you'll be absorbing the damage to emerge, but your chances are equal or better that you'll need to interact in combat. At 1 toughness, Skaab trades with/dies to everything, and that's the big problem. If I have to discard 2 cards to get it back, and then it easily dies, I'm down 3 cards anyway. If I'm going to be down 3 cards, being down 3 cards with a Masterpiece still in play is always going to be better than being down 3 cards with nothing in play.
That was the impetus that made me decide to go bigger. I'm not saying it's the definitive way to build the deck, but I am saying that I've had noticeably better results in testing and playing than I did when I was built faster. It's worth looking into.
I also think you give Masterpiece too little credit. I've been playing Masterpiece for a while, and it's rare that it's worse than Advanced Stitchwing on the board. Typically, it's 4/4 or better. You said it yourself, we can straight up run out of cards. That means we can easily control our hand size and keep it low, even with Fevered Visions in play. If I have a lot of cards in hand, that only means 1 thing: I'm not having to use the control elements I'm holding. If that's the case, then I have gas for bring more zombies into play and closing the game out faster. Keeping Masterpiece's p/t high isn't hard at all. And, like I said earlier, Advanced Stitchwing isn't the card to compare it to, because that's not the card you'll cut if you go the Masterpiece route.
You're totally right. I brainfarted. I meant Collective Defiance. I decided to test this card on a whim. It was undeniable what it added to the deck. This deck loves getting zombies from the hand to the GY early, and it's another card that able to do that. But it also burns creatures, goes to the face and can wheel your hand when Visions is drawing you up a bunch of lands. Whether you go bigger or stay faster, it's definitely something you should try. I've loved playing with it. It brings some much versatility to the 3 slots I gave it.
On the things Champagne suggested. Nagging Thoughts is very interesting. My gut is telling me, it'll be better to just keep discarding from the hand with Voice/Reunion, but Thoughts is interesting enough to warrant a little testing.
I have tested with Drownyard Temple, though. The results were underwhelming. I found that when I would want it to ramp me up (turns 4 or 5), I'm using my mana, so I'm not getting a lot of turns to bring it back to play. Then in later turns, it's not needed. I think having the color mana instead is better in that situation.
One artifact I've found useful was Key to the City. It can discard, help sift through the deck and sneak that last piece of damage though if they manage to land a flying, tentacled mind-slaver.
Jumping into this thread rather late, but I wanted to say that the deck is indeed fun and seems like a solid plan to attack the meta from another angle!
A couple of threads have mentioned Ghirapur Orrery as an alternative to Fevered Visions. I actually came to the UR Emerge deck after extensive attempts to break Orrery in other color combinations and settled on UR because the Cathartic Reunion/Tormenting Voice engine is super reliable.
While I haven't tested Fevered Visions at all, it did come up on my radar, and I should offer some thoughts on why I still think Orrery is the better option.
Pros:
-Power level when on is insane--draws you into more gas/Deepfiends and shores up your mana base to more reliably cast Sideboard tech like Summary Dismissal without losing tempo.
-No symmetrical downside against just about any form of control and usually the delirium decks, as opposed to Fevered Visions.
Cons:
-less reliable when wanting to hold-up countermagic or if you draw multiple deepfiends, though usually your instant-speed discard can allow you to turn Orrery on again if you want the draw power.
-Can reload an aggressive deck's hand quickly--hence my sideboard tinkering with Just the Wind to ensure at the last second they won't get the benefits.
-One more mana, often times takes a turn to drop or set-up with little action.
Like Fevered Visions, if the cons are too much, you can usually pitch it to your engine and move on with your life. When it IS on, you feel like a monster, and this card-hungry deck will usually out-advantage any competition, even if they occasionally get to make their own use of it.
I'm still working out a list, but I'll post whatever I run tonight later.
Cheers, and happy Deep-Fiending!
In my testing, both cards are bad against aggro and combo opponents, and they get boarded out. I suppose technically, you can use a bounce spell against aggro to make Orrery better against aggro than Fevered Visions, but I doubt I would commit more than 3 slots to bounce spells in general, and I don't want my games to hinge on whether or not I have enough of a 3-of to keep my agro opponent from refueling. And Combo Opponents, I would never give them cards if I can help it.
Against midrange and control decks, Fevered Visions is just a beating. Period. Unlike Orrey, Fevered Visions will likely finish off control and midrange opponents, especially in multiples. That 2 damage adds up, and adds up fast.
4 Advanced Stitchwing
4 Geralf's Masterpiece
4 Prized Amalgam
Enchantments 2
2 Fevered Visions
Artifacts 2
2 Key to the City
Instants 9
4 Broken Concentration
3 Fiery Temper
2 Lightning Axe
4 Cathartic Reunion
4 Collective Defiance
4 Tormenting Voice
Lands 23
4 Drownyard Temple
4 Island
7 Mountain
4 Spirebluff Canal
4 Wandering Fumarole
2 Elder Deep-Fiend
2 Compelling Deterrence
2 Lightning Axe
2 Incendiary Flow
3 Kozilek's Return
2 Negate
2 Release the Gremlins
My local meta is still pretty heavy control, so my emerge package is in the sideboard, but in the matches I've had against vehicles, bringing in EDF and K's Return has been CRUSHING. Wiping them out during their combat step and tapping them down for their 2nd main phase is brutal. If my meta moves stronger towards vehicles, I'll definitely go main deck emerge and take the easy wins. That would also mean adding in Sanctums instead of Temples and some more EDFs so I can get some serious strength out of them.
Meanwhile, this is just a good midrange deck that eats control, is strong against other midrange because of the flying and endless blocking from Prized Amalgams, and thanks to counterspells has great game against control.
Should we play more bounce? It seems that deep fiend elder is our win con, so not burning out creatures doesn't seem too big a deal.
—Radha, Keldon warlord
http://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=14690&f=ST
You'll notice #1 UR Zombie Emerge, 7 BG Constrictor in the Top 8. Resolved Gearhulks aren't that hard to deal with. They're still artifacts and red can deal with that (albeit not as well as they should. No instant artifact kill in Red, Wizards? Shame!). This deck is very well positioned to wreck the current meta of decks. It's strong against all of the top decks while being completely under the radar.
I don't think more bounce is the way to go. My own personal sideboard tech is Imprisoned in the Moon. Takes care of big creatures, takes care of planeswalkers (the 2 biggest things UR has trouble dealing with after they resolve**)
**I know UR can't deal well with Enchantments after they resolve, but there aren't any really bomb enchantments seeing play in standard right now.
In a side note, any thoughts on Kari Zev's Expertise? Feels like it could be a good move late game, grabbing a tapped gearhulk or skysovereign, with a free reunion or
Lightning Axe to boot!
—Radha, Keldon warlord
Standard:
UR Ral Combo
Modern:
U Merfolk
R Goblins
Commander
RB Grenzo, Dungeon Warden
R Feldon of the Third Path
I played RB zombies most of the last standard to great success but am looking to switch into this deck for obvious reasons (RIP in peace Smuggler's Copter). Does anyone have new information with the GB constrictor, Mardu Vehicles, Saheeli Rai meta?
I wish to maximize Elder Deep-Fiend, Kozilek's Return, and Prized Amalgam. I would like to add counterspells but doubt there's room. The things that unnerve me about the deck are the weakness to a creature with 5+ toughness and the obvious damage that a Negate can do to Cathartic Reunion or Tormenting Voice.
I was considering Fevered Visions in the main deck because I like it against Control, Saheeli, and GB, but I feel very uncomfortable about feeding Mardu cards. I also was considering Baral's Expertise because it's very good against the overplayed GB menace and synergizes well with Fevered Visions but I think it's too narrow and doesn't do enough against Control, Saheeli Control, and Mardu on the draw.
Does anyone have a preferred build? I was thinking about something along these lines.
4 Advanced Stitchwing
4 Stitchwing Skaab
4 Prized Amalgam
4 Lightning Axe
4 Fiery Temper
4 Kozilek's Return
4 Tormenting Voice
4 Cathartic Reunion
1 Negate
4 Fevered Visions
3 Baral's Expertise
3 Release the Gremlins
2 Negate
3 Incendiary Flow (maybe?)
Maybe I'm also too high on Fiery Temper as a holdover from RB, as it is less important when you have 4 Kozilek's Return. But I do like to have a couple good madness cards in to mitigate the loss in card advantage from the Stitchwings and Axes. Are there any decent draw spells in Standard? This deck would be insane with something half as powerful as Treasure Cruise to refuel.
Also, it's not uncommon with so much sifting through the deck to have 2 K's Returns in the GY, wiping out creatures up to 10 toughness, so there's that. Also, when you consider which cards have more than 5 toughness, most of them are artifacts, so you can just kill them that way. The non-artifact/non-Ulamog ones are easily chumped by Amalgams indefinitely. Everything else you can keep a counterspell for it.
Right now I want to add two Timepieces but I think it may just be better than Cathartic Reunion and/or Tormenting Voice. I am going to try a split of 4,3,2 of Reunions, Voices, and Timepieces. To accommodate, I am moving one Fevered Visions to the sideboard as well as going down one land. What do you guys think about Perpetual Timepiece?
I think Timepiece is a very good answer. Key to the City is much better if you ask me. You can discard freely (and get extra damage in), enable madness at will, and use it to dig through the deck faster. It's a great card. I have it as a 2-of and it's amazing.
Here is a decklist:
4 Advanced Stitchwing
4 Stitchwing Skaab
4 Prized Amalgam
4 Elder Deep-Fiend
Enchantments 3
3 Fevered Visions
Artifacts 2
2 Perpetual Timepiece
Instants 10
3 Fiery Temper
3 Lightning Axe
4 Kozilek's Return
4 Cathartic Reunion
3 Tormenting Voice
Lands 22
1 Highland Lake
5 Island
5 Mountain
4 Spirebluff Canal
4 Wandering Fumarole
3 Sanctum of Ugin
2 Disallow
1 Dispel
1 Fevered Visions
1 Fiery Temper
1 Filigree Familiar
1 Lightning Axe
2 Nahiri's Wrath
2 Negate
2 Release the Gremlins
2 Wretched Gryff
If Timepiece is better than expected, move some card to the sideboard and go down on Release the Gremlins by 1.
As far as Paying 2 to draw the card, completely worth it. Should you find yourself with 0 cards in hand, you can pitch topdecked lands, topdecked Voices/Reunions (which are AWFUL when the hand is empty), etc.
Finally, you can't discount how useful the unblockable ability can be. There's a lot of token generation available to standard, some of it flying thopters. I play big beefy Geralf's Masterpieces. It would suck to pitch 3 cards to revive it, only to see it endlessly chumped. You're playing Stitchwing Skaab in that slot. Pitching 2 cards to bring it back just to see it trade with a thopter would be BRUTAL. Key gets creatures into the face, timepiece mills.
Otherwise, your deck looks good. One artifact I've been testing with lately, and it's been SO GREAT is Corrupted Grafstone. Having it on turn 2 is incredible. My favorite sequence since I added it is Turn 2 Grafstone, Turn 3 Double Reunion. Being 15 cards into the deck on turn 3 is crazy good for finding Amalgams.
Being able to dig into the deck that fast is also good in non-amalgam cards too. Digging through like that makes each card feel like there's an extra copy. If I'm running a 3 of Fiery Temper, digging that fast makes it feel like their 4 ofs (from a consistency point of view). It allows me to relax the deck building. The list I play is more zombie focused and less emerge focus (of course I'll adjust that if my local meta needs it), and I run 2 Deep Fiends and 3 K's Returns and I always feel like I have them when I need them. It frees up a lot of space in the deck.
I'm more concerned with getting the 12 dredgers into the graveyard at a discounted mana cost while keeping up on card advantage. Yes you will mill some Elder Deep-Fiends and Sanctum of Ugins but you can offset the odds of that by using Reunion and Voice to filter your discard (you can also add them back to the deck if you need to chain Deep-Fiends with the Timepiece activation). While Key to the City enables madness, filters, and allows blockers to get through, it does so all at a 2 mana activation cost to be able to keep up on card draw (which is important to be able to be able to return the Stitchwings to the battlefield. I don't think blocking should be an issue when you have Kozilek's Return to remove the small stuff in your way as well as Fiery Temper and Lightning Axe.
Regardless, I think both situations should be tested to see what the deck wants. Does the deck want to have more unfiltered mill (quantity) or does the deck want filtered discard (quality). I think Key and Timepiece both have their merits. I would love to run Grafstone but I just don't see where it can fit in the deck. I'll try to do some testing to see what feels better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jSvGCDUcMk&list=PLxg8UAfS2YJa3OfKNbINmXvGqb3daXFyi