Trying to get back into Standard after playing quite a lot of Modern and a bit of Block constructed, and I've really got a soft spot for this build I want to port from Block to Standard. As you might assume, I am not really familiar with the competitive decks in Standard and what cards are making a splash outside of the usual Restoration Angel/Thragtusk and Boros Reckoner shenanigans.
I actually really like this deck. Have you given Triumph of Cruelty or Appetite for Brains any thought, I think that they will serve some good in this build.
@loneviet: Triumph was something I had considered, but decided that for 3 mana it was not quite doing enough. Appetite was something I had not considered, but hopefully I can have my opponent's hand reduced to 0 before I have to worry about those 4+ drops.
@ skaminy: was using Judge as a way to increment damage and also keep some counter measures on hand. It's mostly there as an additional counter spell, but you are right that it probably could be something better. Grisly Salvage is actually supposed to be Grisly Spectacle. That was a typo on my part.
You do realize that the Wight only gets bigger from creature cards in your opponent's graveyard right? So sacing the Familiar doesn't add value to the wight.
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Standard: GWSelesnya Aggro, GWBVoice of Servitude, R Stuffy Reckoning, UWBUnblockable Auras, UGDefenders of the Combo
Extended: G Cheat-a-Colossus Elves,BRU Infinite Heartless,R Infect, R 'Helldrazi' (Hellions/Eldrazi Tokens)
Legacy: R Goblinstorm, UR Artifacts, R Artifacts, BURWG Land Deck, etc.
Commander: BRWUGSliver Overlord, BR Tsabo Tavoc
You do realize that the Wight only gets bigger from creature cards in your opponent's graveyard right? So sacing the Familiar doesn't add value to the wight.
I saw Blistersquall as a way of clearing the path for the kill. It's utility has been good, whether I was tapping out a creature for 1, or tapping out my opponent as a quasi fog effect. Still though, I feel like that spot might be better as card advantage, hence why I am also considering Think Twice and Inaction Injunction as other cards to possibly fit in that spot. The main thing is (and probably why Blistersquall is bad) is that I am not running a ton of creatures, which makes it not as effective as if it were in a deck that were loaded with creatures looking for an Alpha Strike type of victory. Maybe I would be better off fitting in a second Rogue's Passage.
My questions at this point are this:
Is 3x Soul Ransom enough card draw, or should I look at other options such as the two cards I mentioned above?
Do people run grave hate in Standard? Deathrite Shaman doesn't seem the powerhouse in Standard as he is in other formats with fetch lands. I'm not sure if there is anything else I should look out for. Running both Wight and Phantasm might be a bad choice if my opponent can easily negate their buffs.
Is Dimir Charm good in the format, or are it's modes not particularly useful? I often find myself using it as removal, and rarely find myself countering a sorcery or digging for an additional answer. I could see maybe looking at the top of my opponents library to put 2 more critters in the grave, but that is probably an at best situation.
Are there other things I should consider for this deck?
Yes, gravehate is run in the sideboard and shaman is a great card and sees a decent amount of standard play. Plus reanimate angel of serenity/craterhoof behemoth decks are evvvvverywhere so yes grave hate is good.
And dimir charm is a very good card in my opinion I play it in my UB control.
I played against something like this online the other day. Interesting; I want it to work.
You ask about grave hate; the currently most-played deck is Junk Reanimator, which forces other decks to pack Deathrite Shaman, Rakdos Charm, Rest in Peace, Tormod's Crypt, Cremate, or Ground Seal (Jund sometimes maindecks that last). All but Ground Seal can potentially be irritating to your gameplan.
I don't hate Dimir Charm, but you might indeed want more draw.
With 14 swamps, you might want to have access to Mutilate, at least SB, for all the really fast aggro decks about.
Good luck with the deck; I'll see how much of it I need to acquire to test online.
Edit: Sarnath'd
Edit2: You know, Loxodon Smiter exists. I love discard, but this might well beat itself against anything midrange with GW. I'll give the current suggested maindeck a whirl, but I'm actually thinking I'd rather maindeck the Mutilates and SB in Mind Rots against control.
wight of precinct six requires at the very least 2, if not 3 creatures in the opponents graveyard to be anything other than a chump blocker imo, and this deck does not seem to be able make it happen before in a reliable fashion before turn 5-6. I mean sure, it is possible dimir charm t2 into mind rot discard 2 creatures or psychic strike mill 2 creatures. But that would mean that you are against an aggro matchup, in which case i can't see why he would discard 2 creatures, and you probably won't have the chance to psychic strike due to all the cavern of souls floating around. Against a more control-ish matchup, your wight is more than likely going to stay a 1/1 - 2/2 for the better part of the game. And this is not even taking into account all the removal spells out there abrupt decay, murderdevour fleshvictim of nighttragic slip, etc
You lack removal spells in this deck. dimir charm is a very limited removal option and grisly spectacle is very slow, especially against those explosive aggro decks like naya blitz and such. More removal would also feed into your wight.
You desperately need some form of sweeper here, and, as mentioned by the previous poster mutliate could be a great option, not to mention that it also feeds your wight
Weight is a good card in the right deck, but I don't think you're making a good deck.
The deck requires Mutilate and should probably consider running Essence Scatter and Dead Weight or other early removal. You don't really expect to drop Weight until you can protect him or he is large enough to protect himself.
You can design the deck to be heavily favored against aggro in G1 while still plenty good in G2 and G3, possibly using drownyards as a wincon against slower decks.
I don't really like this discard theme that you're trying to force. Affliction is bad and without LotV you can't really force it to be good. Mind Rot costs a lot of mana so you're basically paying a turn for +1 CA and fairly disgusting tempo loss. Soul Ransom is the kind of card that will lose you games left and right because it's strictly worse than Mind Control. The only time you're going to get to draw is when you're threatening lethal with their creature or they can outright kill you. Spectacle seems like a weak choice next to some of the other removal. I appreciate that you're trying to mill cards to grow Weight but Drownyard is simply better at it and playing more mana efficent spells is a better plan.
You should probably be playing with Snapcaster and Augur of Bolas in your spell dense deck, potentially runechanter's pike as well. Game 2 I'd expect you to start getting hurt by cards like RIP so you may want and alternative win package. If your deck stays incredibly spell dense Deathrite Shaman and Delver of Secrets are potentially interesting options. Low mana curve also makes Duskmantle Sear an interesting card, however I'm not sure that he is stable enough to get the job done.
I appreciate the input guys. Mutilate is something I had played with in the past and had not known was reprinted. Loved that card and will definitely make room for it. I do like the idea suggested to run it main over Mind Rot, and then board for the control match ups.
I'll give the rest some thought and post an updated list.
For sure. The price is not really an issue since I can almost always borrow them. The biggest thing I saw was that I don't want to make myself discard, but it might be worth it with the extra sac utility. There would definitely need to be more draw in the deck.
Wight of Precinct Six is one of the central cards of my deck, which I found to have great synergy with Gristly Spectacle and Psychic Strike. I also run heavy discard with Mind Rot and Soul Ransom, and want to run Shrieking Affliction as a back up win condition. The discard also helps to pump up Wright and restricts my opponents ability to interact with my deck.
Here is currently what I am looking at:
4x Wight of Precinct Six
4x Judge's Familiar
Other Spells: 29
4x Shrieking Affliction
4x Duress
4x Mind Rot
3x Soul Ransom
4x Psychic Strike
3x Dimir Charm
2x Frightful Delusion
3x Gristly Spectacle
2x Think Twice / Inaction Injunction / Blustersquall
4x Watery Grave
2x Drowned Catacomb
1x Rogue's Passage
10x Swamp
6x Island
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@ skaminy: was using Judge as a way to increment damage and also keep some counter measures on hand. It's mostly there as an additional counter spell, but you are right that it probably could be something better. Grisly Salvage is actually supposed to be Grisly Spectacle. That was a typo on my part.
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Standard: GW Selesnya Aggro, GWB Voice of Servitude, R Stuffy Reckoning, UWB Unblockable Auras, UG Defenders of the Combo
Extended: G Cheat-a-Colossus Elves,BRU Infinite Heartless,R Infect, R 'Helldrazi' (Hellions/Eldrazi Tokens)
Legacy: R Goblinstorm, UR Artifacts, R Artifacts, BURWG Land Deck, etc.
Commander: BRWUGSliver Overlord, BR Tsabo Tavoc
Working on putting my decks here for testplaying: http://tappedout.net/users/drunk231/
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My questions at this point are this:
Is 3x Soul Ransom enough card draw, or should I look at other options such as the two cards I mentioned above?
Do people run grave hate in Standard? Deathrite Shaman doesn't seem the powerhouse in Standard as he is in other formats with fetch lands. I'm not sure if there is anything else I should look out for. Running both Wight and Phantasm might be a bad choice if my opponent can easily negate their buffs.
Is Dimir Charm good in the format, or are it's modes not particularly useful? I often find myself using it as removal, and rarely find myself countering a sorcery or digging for an additional answer. I could see maybe looking at the top of my opponents library to put 2 more critters in the grave, but that is probably an at best situation.
Are there other things I should consider for this deck?
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And dimir charm is a very good card in my opinion I play it in my UB control.
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You ask about grave hate; the currently most-played deck is Junk Reanimator, which forces other decks to pack Deathrite Shaman, Rakdos Charm, Rest in Peace, Tormod's Crypt, Cremate, or Ground Seal (Jund sometimes maindecks that last). All but Ground Seal can potentially be irritating to your gameplan.
I don't hate Dimir Charm, but you might indeed want more draw.
With 14 swamps, you might want to have access to Mutilate, at least SB, for all the really fast aggro decks about.
Good luck with the deck; I'll see how much of it I need to acquire to test online.
Edit: Sarnath'd
Edit2: You know, Loxodon Smiter exists. I love discard, but this might well beat itself against anything midrange with GW. I'll give the current suggested maindeck a whirl, but I'm actually thinking I'd rather maindeck the Mutilates and SB in Mind Rots against control.
You lack removal spells in this deck. dimir charm is a very limited removal option and grisly spectacle is very slow, especially against those explosive aggro decks like naya blitz and such. More removal would also feed into your wight.
You desperately need some form of sweeper here, and, as mentioned by the previous poster mutliate could be a great option, not to mention that it also feeds your wight
But in general, it feels like you don't really have an answer to the aggro match up, and the control matchup just foils your plan with by having very little creatures,rendering the wight useless, and beats your shrieking affliction with sphinx's revelation, think twice, detention sphere, oblivion ring, etc etc etc
The deck requires Mutilate and should probably consider running Essence Scatter and Dead Weight or other early removal. You don't really expect to drop Weight until you can protect him or he is large enough to protect himself.
You can design the deck to be heavily favored against aggro in G1 while still plenty good in G2 and G3, possibly using drownyards as a wincon against slower decks.
I don't really like this discard theme that you're trying to force. Affliction is bad and without LotV you can't really force it to be good. Mind Rot costs a lot of mana so you're basically paying a turn for +1 CA and fairly disgusting tempo loss. Soul Ransom is the kind of card that will lose you games left and right because it's strictly worse than Mind Control. The only time you're going to get to draw is when you're threatening lethal with their creature or they can outright kill you. Spectacle seems like a weak choice next to some of the other removal. I appreciate that you're trying to mill cards to grow Weight but Drownyard is simply better at it and playing more mana efficent spells is a better plan.
You should probably be playing with Snapcaster and Augur of Bolas in your spell dense deck, potentially runechanter's pike as well. Game 2 I'd expect you to start getting hurt by cards like RIP so you may want and alternative win package. If your deck stays incredibly spell dense Deathrite Shaman and Delver of Secrets are potentially interesting options. Low mana curve also makes Duskmantle Sear an interesting card, however I'm not sure that he is stable enough to get the job done.
I'll give the rest some thought and post an updated list.
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For sure. The price is not really an issue since I can almost always borrow them. The biggest thing I saw was that I don't want to make myself discard, but it might be worth it with the extra sac utility. There would definitely need to be more draw in the deck.
This looks like a good starting place:
4x Wight of Precinct Six
Other Permanents: 12
4x Shrieking Affliction
3x Liliana of the Veil
3x Dead Weight
2x Soul Ransom
Other Spells: 21
4x Duress
4x Psychic Strike
4x Think Twice
3x Mutilate
3x Dimir Charm
3x Frightful Delusion
4x Watery Grave
2x Drowned Catacomb
1x Rogue's Passage
10x Swamp
6x Island
4x Dispel
4x Tormod's Crypt
3x Mind Rot
3x Contaminated Ground
1x Frightful Delusion
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