MTG Salvation

Alright. Clues have a lot of love. I suppose I'll throw in some things to start a clue deck.

Creatures -
For 1 drops we don't have much.
Thraben Inspector is our only one. So, we'll probably(most likely) want a 4 set.

Then for 2 drops we get a bit more.
Erdwal Illuminator could be a pretty decent 2 drop as a 3 set. Maybe 4 if wanted.
Daring Sleuth is my personal favorite. I'd run a 4 set just because I like the guy. And, he'll flip fast considering the theme

Now onto the 3 drops.
Bygone Bishop is screaming at us to put him in here. He wants in it. You want him in it. I want him in it. Neighbors want him in it.
Tireless Tracker would be a great include if we splashed green.

Those are the creatures I think would work here. If I missed any let me know. I'll do enchantments and artifacts later. (Yes, Tamiyo's Journal would be good. Same with Ulvenwald Mysteries, Confront the Unknown, and Neglected Heirloom could work. Invocation of Saint Traft could also help with some extra oomph.

So the big payoff for playing clues, as of right now, is tamiyo's journal. Getting to tutor up anything in your deck for 0 mana at instant speed is pretty broken. Currently I've been trying out blue and white, despite the fact that green has better investigators, because blue and white have fantastic draw-go options that create a sort of soft lock once you've got three clues and a tome. My current package is ojutai's command, archangle avacyn, and confirm suspicions.

I think I'm sold on thraben inspector, not as a 1-drop but as a follow up to erdwal illuminator or bygone bishop. jace, vryn's prodigy is another must-kill little creature, putting pressure on their spot removal. Reflector mage can help buy you some time while you're setting up.

So in the end, the deck has a consistent early game, with a lot of 3 and 4 of 2 drops and 3 drops, which are value creatures that give you more gas until you can draw a tamiyo's journal. At that point you've got access to a huge 1-of toolbox of answers and threats, some of which are at instant speed.

Quote from digger_was_taken »

So the big payoff for playing clues, as of right now, is tamiyo's journal. Getting to tutor up anything in your deck for 0 mana at instant speed is pretty broken. Currently I've been trying out blue and white, despite the fact that green has better investigators, because blue and white have fantastic draw-go options that create a sort of soft lock once you've got three clues and a tome. My current package is ojutai's command, archangle avacyn, and confirm suspicions.

I think I'm sold on thraben inspector, not as a 1-drop but as a follow up to erdwal illuminator or bygone bishop. jace, vryn's prodigy is another must-kill little creature, putting pressure on their spot removal. Reflector mage can help buy you some time while you're setting up.

So in the end, the deck has a consistent early game, with a lot of 3 and 4 of 2 drops and 3 drops, which are value creatures that give you more gas until you can draw a tamiyo's journal. At that point you've got access to a huge 1-of toolbox of answers and threats, some of which are at instant speed.

Confirm Suspicions should never be played, even in Limited. It's too expensive for what it does. If you want more Clues, play Ongoing Investigation. It combos with your early drops and gives you another reason to splash Green besides Tireless Tracker. You should also play Thopter Spy Network in any clue-centric deck. Both Clues and Network combo ridiculously well with each other, it'd be silly not to. I'm running it in a mill-centric decklist myself:

Briarbridge Patrol could work with Tamiyo's Journal to bring out some of the big nasties like Kozilek and Ulamog

Quote from warstudy »

Briarbridge Patrol could work with Tamiyo's Journal to bring out some of the big nasties like Kozilek and Ulamog

Keep in mind you don't get their on-cast trigger by doing that, which is a big part about why they're played in the first place. Still, can't argue with a 10/10 for what amounts to 5 and roughly 3/4ths of a card. Let me know how well it does at your next FNM!

What about Void Winnower?

Quote from warstudy »

What about Void Winnower?

I was thinking something expensive CMC wise with a strong ETB effect like Woodland Bellower, Icefall Regent, or Linvala, the Preserver.

All three of those would be nice. Alhammarret, High Arbiter could work as well.

Looking at Erdwal Illuminator and Bygone Bishop made me think that there can be some kind of spirit sub-theme going on with this deck, which got me looking into what Spirits are available in Standard now. Unfortunately, there aren't that many, but one that did stand out as being interesting in this deck is Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit. It helps make your other creatures bigger and triggers the Bishop, and with this you could possibly go for a kind of aggro/tempo deck utilizing clues as a means of retaining card advantage in the face of mass removal. Perhaps something like this:


Note that Essence Flux works on any creature you control, not just Spirits. I happen to like blink effects, plus this should give you lots of ways to dodge removal, while also abusing Anafenza's bolster effect. Eldrazi Displacer gives you basically infinite uses out of Avacyn if necessary, and the Yavimaya Coasts give you that colorless mana. Eerie Interlude is here as an answer to Descend upon the Sinful and similar cards, although you may just want to use Invasive Surgery instead.

In regards to Flygonogal's deck above, I don't think you can consider that a mill-centric deck if you are running that many creatures in it. In particular, Sylvan Advocate will likely win through damage way more often than you will win through decking, and it does almost nothing to help you deck your opponent out (I understand you can swing with it and investigate with Ongoing Investigation, but since it has to hit your opponent to do so, you will be dealing a lot of damage that way as well, and if you can get it through that many times you probably will just win through damage). It would certainly be possible to go a nearly creatureless route with this concept, though, and focus on using Sphinx's Tutelage as the win condition. It just seems to me that you have a lot of creatures and effects that require you to hit your opponent with those creatures, so it looks like you would just win with damage more often than not.

I've retooled my mill deck. Sphinx's Tutelage proved too slow to be used. Meanwhile, splashing White for Thraben Inspector, Angelic Purge, and Silkwrap is looking fairly solid thus far.



What makes this deck great is that you don't have to pay 2 for your clues to get value out of them. Between Angelic Purge and Tamiyo's Journal, you can easily mill for up to 9+ a turn, depending on how many memories you have on the field. Silkwrap is extremely important to have early on, with so many threats costing less than 3 these days (Thing in the Ice, Eldrazi Displacer, and Olivia, Mobilized for War to just name a few).

The cards I'm not sure about at the moment are Ojutai's Command and Suppression Bonds. The Command is useful when I draw it, netting me card advantage or raw life, but I don't think 2 is enough to justify it. At the same time, I'm not sure if I want to bump it up to 3 or 4, as it can be a bad play in the wrong circumstances. Similarly, the Bonds is my only real answer to Planeswalkers, which are everywhere. The problem is there's no good answer in WUG to them instant/sorcery wise like there is in BR. Any suggestions on what I can do with these 2 cards?

Silkwrap is inferior to Declaration in Stone unless you have a reason to like vulnerable enchantments.

Beside Thopter Spy Network, Whirler Rogue also loves clues.