See red is an interesting option in red too, but we already have Solidarity to give first strike. Theres a red 2cc enchantment from Kaladesh though I can't remember it's namebut gives +2+1 and menace. Menace is a good form evasion especially on a flier.
Flying is great which is why I run One With The Wind in addition to Cartouche Of Knowledge, giving me 8 ways to give evasion. While I like Stormtamer a blue one drop isn't where our mana lets us be. The manabase is mediocre at best because of the low land count. I've had times I couldn't cast both blue spells in hand without getting blown out because i no longer had dive down.
Thoughts on One with the wind? I personally don't like temmet that much and was thinking of running this instead. Why Dive Down over sheltering light? is hexproof to deal with vraska's really worth more than scry 1, especially considering U is harder to get to than W with the mana base?
Why doesn't this deck maindeck Spell Pierce ?
The whole gameplan revolves around sticking auras on non-hexproof creatures and having a 1-mana counterspell to avoid 2-for-1's seems like a no brainer.
One with the Wind also seems really good here for the "voltron" plan, rather than Legion's Landing which is probably better to grind post-board as the deck doesn't go wide that fast to reliably flip it and also lacks the mana to consistently sink into it.
Hey guys, just wanted to chime in on the dive down/sheltering light discussion from my personal experience.
Sheltering light is often redundant with adanto vanguard if the life doesn't matter. Scry is nice, but it really shines in protecting from targeted removal or sweepers on non vanguard targets you've started to suit up.
Dive down is great against exile/ control effects.
Cards I want to see sheltering light against:
board clears that aren't settle the wreckage or hour of devestation or pinpoint removal that isn't exile or neg toughness, usually a nonvanguard target, and in combat to punch through 1 or 2 blockers and not give up board presence.
Cards I want to see spell pierce against:
Interaction or remova that isn't hostage taker turns 1-3 that costs more than 1-2 cmc.
Cards I want to see negate against:
Anything that gets rid of an adanto vanguard clock post T3.
--------
Grixis midrange is a real deck and you're going to see push/red/contempt removal but maybe also moment of craving and hour of devestation out of the board.
Red has the one drop that can punch through protection.
White also has cast out, ixalan' binding, and baffling end.
Blue may have unsummon if it's tempo or counters of their own to stop the combat trick.
Dive down is incredibly relevant against a huge swath of the field right now, but you can also use it to survive combat in some situations too. The issue stems from the mana base. Dive down requires a stronger blue mana base for T3 onward after we develop our first two attackers. I don't have a good answer for that one. Maybe the 2/2 hexproof unblockable ascend guy? Shift blue to the main color and white as our secondary color? Not sure here.
I've been running an Esper list that's primarily white, but splashes blue and black. I run Daring Saboteur, Warkite Marauder, Kitesail Freebooter, and Glory-Bound Initiate instead of Sacred Cat, Skymarcher Aspirant, Temmet, Oketra, Legion's Landing, Slither Blade, Unsummon, etc. I also run Cartouche of Ambition and Fatal Push. The mana base is definitely shaky at times and I'm definitely still working on it, but it works relatively smoothly more often than not.
Once I'm home from work I plan on typing up my FNM results from last night with a decklist.
This deck should not be so inactive considering how quickly it's picking up wins. Another UW auras list just top-8'd a pptq.
My current list is pretty stock, except I don't like snubhorns at all, and dropped them for more sacred cats. I also really like one with the wind as a 2-of. I'm also running Aether Meltdown in place of Baffling End, flash makes it much more playable and Aura makes it a cantrip with sram out. It's also more useful vs cmc 4+ creatures.
I'm also testing a different list. I feel like the major weakness of this list is recovering after having our major threats dealt with. There used to be a UW aggro deck that did very well recovering from board wipes and the like, and it's grindiness made it a really solid meta call. Oketra's Monument is the deck i'm talking about.
Oketra's really helps the deck pull ahead in longer, grindier games as yet another source of card advantage, and turning those topdecked creatures into useful draws rather than things you wish you didn't draw over another aura or something. and helps deal with removal. It also lets us shelve Baffling End and instead play Fairgrounds Warden as mainboard removal. Oketra's also gives the deck even more of a go-wide option, letting us close out games either with 1 supercharged voltron creature, or tons of tokens.
I like that we can always attack with all those unblockable dorks, so we don't have to play removal spells at all G1. We can also grind with several of them on the battlefield, and not attach auras on a single creature all that often. It also means Spell Pierce gets better and Dive Down / Sheltered Light less necessary since we hardly involve our creatures into trading steps. We almost only need to counter non-creature removal spells (the only exceptions being Glorybringer and Walking Ballista).
It's also good to have creatures that attack through Rekindling Phoenix and Gods. Those cards blank Adanto Vanguard real bad because we miss trample.
I think it's somewhat key to dig for Squire's Devotion because the format is very aggro. Even UB control can slam the Scarab God early and turn the corner right away. The combo with Vanguard isn't even cute because we must pay 4 life very often and keep the guy on board at any cost sometimes.
I believe Skymarcher Aspirant (and small flyers overall) is a bit overrated, just because of the oppressive presence of big flyers : Heart of Kiran, Aethersphere Harvester, Angel of Invention, Rekindling Phoenix and Glorybringer. We can't deal with most of these things with 1-2 cmc removal spells, so how can we imagine to win in the air ? That's one reason that lets me belive One with the Wind is worse than Cartouche of Knowledge, because drawing a card is more important than buffing a flyer that'll rarely be bigger than what the opponent can bring to the table.
Edit : I'm exploring red a little bit and I am quite attracted by an evasive approach with Tilonalli's Crown. The manabase seems rather good. To go with Crown though, I can't run 1-toughness creatures besides Vanguard (goodbye Pouncer and Herald), so the most obvious replacements I can think of are Thriving Turtle (lul) and Kari Zev, Skyship Raider.
The Turtle is as bad as a card can be, but Sacred Cat, Slither Head and Herald are also garbage. Turtle can at least survive Magma Spray and Shock we may encounter on T1-2, and becomes Abrade / Lightning Strike-proof after one attack. It helps if Aether Hub remains in the manabase. Well well... The other consideration is Flameblade Adept and it's certainly better but harder on the mana.
Overall, menace seems really good with Cartouche of Knowledge, because it prevents a single big flyer from blocking, and that I love !
I'm wondering if ascend is really worth all the hassle. It seems to me like there are three different ways this deck plays out.
1) Aura stomp, we outrace our opponents and land a sram or a pouncer and some auras and beat face
2) Creature grind, our threats get answered and instead of going tall we go wide
3) Lose. If we can't do one of the 2 above we don't win.
As much as I like the idea of ascend, and as easily reachable as it is, I think we're warping the deck in pursuit of ascend when we should instead be making it more overall consistent. Legion's Landing is the first card that comes to mind that should be cut, and then snubhorn. Neither feel good to draw at pretty much any point in the game, and while a flipped legion's landing will sometimes help stall out games, I'd almost always rather draw an aura or an actual threat. Ditto for snubhorn
I wouldn't mind putting in three Negates or Essence Scatters (depending on the matchup) in place of Legions Landing. This probably means switching an Island for a Plains. Also, I have switched my SkyMarchers Aspirant with Sacred Cats at this point.
I've found life gain to be pretty important to the deck, that's why I run Glory-Bound Initiate in addition to Sacred Cat. Against any red variant it can mean the difference between winning and losing. I've also considered Squire's Devotion, but I really don't think it's good enough.
@Jbrudney:
I agree completely. I think the only creatures in this deck should either be resilient (Adanto Vanguard) or recursive (Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun, Sacred Cat, Adorned Pouncer) and we don't care that they die. And the third group are specific role-fillers: more protection (Siren Stormtamer), card advantage (Sram, Senior Edificer) and matchup-specifics (Tocatli Honor Guard against Anointer Priest).
Everything else is too cute and dilutes the more streamlined approach.
Also Legion's Landing is - together with the Sacred Cat - the first cards that I'm willing to decrease in numbers for other stuff. Both fit in well and help with the deck's strategy (token go wide and unblockable with Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun, recursive and lifegain to fuel the Adanto Vanguard) but in the end they are just okay-ish. Right now I think I'm playing 2-3 of each.
I came to the same conclusions with the deck - resilience is key to try and prevent 3 for 1's with spot removal with recursion as a secondary condition to help rebuild a board. Any other cards need to have a key role or very good ability to make the cut.
I agree that my first flex-spot is the Sacred Cat (currently down to 2 to test a Hope of Ghirapur, which is to hedge against control but feels meh so far), but I'm a little higher on Legion's Landing, particularly against heavy removal to keep a threat on board, help you get to 5 mana for Embalm/Eternalising and mitigate any flooding. I matches where you are racing I can see it being less effective. I run 3 Landing and haven't been cutting them in sideboarding, but maybe I should be considering cutting 1.
Nice, what are your thoughts on unsummon? It feels we are more of a tempo/aggro deck. Another card that has been mvp for me is champion of wits. Too often I need to cycle cards to get a proper combination.
So I stopped playing this deck for a little while but picked it back up when wizards gave us an insta win combo. Started playing this list and has been performing really great.
I have only been playing it for a little bit but it has been really strong in testing. Being able to just win without attacking has been great for dodging settle the wreckage. The deck can either play out like a sram deck or just get the combo of wand equipped to paladin + lifelink. The paladin has been great to just give lifelink to outside of being equipped, then swing with, kind of a weaker vigilance. It can just win as early as turn 4 if you don't get any interference.
Um...this question is going to sound a bit stupid, but it's bothering me, so I'll just get it over with. Why do these creatures have two different species'? Did an elf figure out how to have sex with a tree?
Also, isn't Dauntless Bodyguard a better option than Stormtamer here ?
It lacks evasion but is more aggressive and the defensive ability is free to activate.
Storm Fleet Sprinter doen't look too bad for a hasty evasive creature but at 3-mana not sure if it is really worth it over something like Slither Blade.
Flying is great which is why I run One With The Wind in addition to Cartouche Of Knowledge, giving me 8 ways to give evasion. While I like Stormtamer a blue one drop isn't where our mana lets us be. The manabase is mediocre at best because of the low land count. I've had times I couldn't cast both blue spells in hand without getting blown out because i no longer had dive down.
4 Adanto Vanguard
4 Adorned Pouncer
3 Sacred Cat
4 Skymarcher Aspirant
4 Sram, Senior Edificer
1 Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun
Spells
4 Cartouche of Solidarity
4 Cartouche of Knowledge
4 Curious Obsession
3 Legion's Landing
3 Baffling End
2 Dive Down
4 Glacial Fortress
3 Irrigated Farmland
4 Island
7 Plains
2 Shefet Dunes
2 Authority of the Consuls
3 Fragmentize
2 Gideon of the Trials
1 Slash of Talons
2 Spell Pierce
1 Baffling End
4 Negate
Currently Playing:
EDH
RBUJeleva SpellsUBR
RGRadha RampGR
GW Rhys Tokens WG
GB Meren Graveyard BG
BUW Oloro Lifegain WUB
RBUW Breya Artifacts WUBR
Standard
Nothing currently
Retired From:
GUExtended Crystal WitnessUG
RBStandard Blightthroat AggroBR
UGHighlander CountersGU
GU Standard Turbo Turns UG
The whole gameplan revolves around sticking auras on non-hexproof creatures and having a 1-mana counterspell to avoid 2-for-1's seems like a no brainer.
One with the Wind also seems really good here for the "voltron" plan, rather than Legion's Landing which is probably better to grind post-board as the deck doesn't go wide that fast to reliably flip it and also lacks the mana to consistently sink into it.
Sheltering light is often redundant with adanto vanguard if the life doesn't matter. Scry is nice, but it really shines in protecting from targeted removal or sweepers on non vanguard targets you've started to suit up.
Dive down is great against exile/ control effects.
Cards I want to see sheltering light against:
board clears that aren't settle the wreckage or hour of devestation or pinpoint removal that isn't exile or neg toughness, usually a nonvanguard target, and in combat to punch through 1 or 2 blockers and not give up board presence.
Cards I want to see dive down against:
hostage taker, moment of craving, red removal if they have whatever that card is that converts damage to meg 1 counters, vraska's contempt, baffling end
Cards I want to see spell pierce against:
Interaction or remova that isn't hostage taker turns 1-3 that costs more than 1-2 cmc.
Cards I want to see negate against:
Anything that gets rid of an adanto vanguard clock post T3.
--------
Grixis midrange is a real deck and you're going to see push/red/contempt removal but maybe also moment of craving and hour of devestation out of the board.
Red has the one drop that can punch through protection.
White also has cast out, ixalan' binding, and baffling end.
Blue may have unsummon if it's tempo or counters of their own to stop the combat trick.
Dive down is incredibly relevant against a huge swath of the field right now, but you can also use it to survive combat in some situations too. The issue stems from the mana base. Dive down requires a stronger blue mana base for T3 onward after we develop our first two attackers. I don't have a good answer for that one. Maybe the 2/2 hexproof unblockable ascend guy? Shift blue to the main color and white as our secondary color? Not sure here.
Once I'm home from work I plan on typing up my FNM results from last night with a decklist.
My current list is pretty stock, except I don't like snubhorns at all, and dropped them for more sacred cats. I also really like one with the wind as a 2-of. I'm also running Aether Meltdown in place of Baffling End, flash makes it much more playable and Aura makes it a cantrip with sram out. It's also more useful vs cmc 4+ creatures.
I'm also testing a different list. I feel like the major weakness of this list is recovering after having our major threats dealt with. There used to be a UW aggro deck that did very well recovering from board wipes and the like, and it's grindiness made it a really solid meta call. Oketra's Monument is the deck i'm talking about.
Here's my version:
4 Skymarcher Aspirant
4 Adorned Pouncer
4 Adanto Vanguard
4 Sram, Senior Edificer
4 Fairgrounds Warden
4 Oketra's Monument
4 Cartouche of Solidarity
4 Cartouche of Knowledge
4 Curious Obsession
1 Sheltering Light
2 Legion's Landing
4 Glacial Chasm
4 Irrigated Farmland
6 Plains
6 Island
2 Shefet Dunes
Oketra's really helps the deck pull ahead in longer, grindier games as yet another source of card advantage, and turning those topdecked creatures into useful draws rather than things you wish you didn't draw over another aura or something. and helps deal with removal. It also lets us shelve Baffling End and instead play Fairgrounds Warden as mainboard removal. Oketra's also gives the deck even more of a go-wide option, letting us close out games either with 1 supercharged voltron creature, or tons of tokens.
The first draft I'm thinking of :
2 Adorned Pouncer
4 Adanto Vanguard
4 Sram, Senior Edificer
4 Slither Blade
4 Mist-Cloaked Herald
4 Cartouche of Knowledge
4 Cartouche of Solidarity
4 Curious Obsession
4 Spell Pierce
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Irrigated Farmland
5 Island
3 Plains
I like that we can always attack with all those unblockable dorks, so we don't have to play removal spells at all G1. We can also grind with several of them on the battlefield, and not attach auras on a single creature all that often. It also means Spell Pierce gets better and Dive Down / Sheltered Light less necessary since we hardly involve our creatures into trading steps. We almost only need to counter non-creature removal spells (the only exceptions being Glorybringer and Walking Ballista).
It's also good to have creatures that attack through Rekindling Phoenix and Gods. Those cards blank Adanto Vanguard real bad because we miss trample.
I think it's somewhat key to dig for Squire's Devotion because the format is very aggro. Even UB control can slam the Scarab God early and turn the corner right away. The combo with Vanguard isn't even cute because we must pay 4 life very often and keep the guy on board at any cost sometimes.
I believe Skymarcher Aspirant (and small flyers overall) is a bit overrated, just because of the oppressive presence of big flyers : Heart of Kiran, Aethersphere Harvester, Angel of Invention, Rekindling Phoenix and Glorybringer. We can't deal with most of these things with 1-2 cmc removal spells, so how can we imagine to win in the air ? That's one reason that lets me belive One with the Wind is worse than Cartouche of Knowledge, because drawing a card is more important than buffing a flyer that'll rarely be bigger than what the opponent can bring to the table.
Also, Jim Davis's paradigm to stay on 18 lands makes some sense, but I doubt it's a route one should blindly follow. It shuts down many good options. I can also see a nice advantage in playing red for Protean Raider & Tilonalli's Crown, and maybe Consuming Fervor (not too bad with Adorned Pouncer and Sacred Cat ?) and Cartouche of Zeal, or tricks like Invigorating Rampage.
Edit : I'm exploring red a little bit and I am quite attracted by an evasive approach with Tilonalli's Crown. The manabase seems rather good. To go with Crown though, I can't run 1-toughness creatures besides Vanguard (goodbye Pouncer and Herald), so the most obvious replacements I can think of are Thriving Turtle (lul) and Kari Zev, Skyship Raider.
The Turtle is as bad as a card can be, but Sacred Cat, Slither Head and Herald are also garbage. Turtle can at least survive Magma Spray and Shock we may encounter on T1-2, and becomes Abrade / Lightning Strike-proof after one attack. It helps if Aether Hub remains in the manabase. Well well... The other consideration is Flameblade Adept and it's certainly better but harder on the mana.
Overall, menace seems really good with Cartouche of Knowledge, because it prevents a single big flyer from blocking, and that I love !
I'll work on this draft :
4 Adanto Vanguard
4 Slither Blade
4 Flameblade Adept
4 Squire's Devotion
4 Tilonalli's Crown
4 Cartouche of Knowledge
4 Cartouche of Zeal
4 Curious Obsession
2 Spell Pierce
4 Spirebluff Canal
4 Inspiring Vantage
4 Irrigated Farmland
4 Aether Hub
1 Island
1 Mountain
1) Aura stomp, we outrace our opponents and land a sram or a pouncer and some auras and beat face
2) Creature grind, our threats get answered and instead of going tall we go wide
3) Lose. If we can't do one of the 2 above we don't win.
As much as I like the idea of ascend, and as easily reachable as it is, I think we're warping the deck in pursuit of ascend when we should instead be making it more overall consistent. Legion's Landing is the first card that comes to mind that should be cut, and then snubhorn. Neither feel good to draw at pretty much any point in the game, and while a flipped legion's landing will sometimes help stall out games, I'd almost always rather draw an aura or an actual threat. Ditto for snubhorn
I came to the same conclusions with the deck - resilience is key to try and prevent 3 for 1's with spot removal with recursion as a secondary condition to help rebuild a board. Any other cards need to have a key role or very good ability to make the cut.
I agree that my first flex-spot is the Sacred Cat (currently down to 2 to test a Hope of Ghirapur, which is to hedge against control but feels meh so far), but I'm a little higher on Legion's Landing, particularly against heavy removal to keep a threat on board, help you get to 5 mana for Embalm/Eternalising and mitigate any flooding. I matches where you are racing I can see it being less effective. I run 3 Landing and haven't been cutting them in sideboarding, but maybe I should be considering cutting 1.
https://www.facebook.com/notes/chaos-cards-tabletop-gaming-centre/magic-the-gathering-pptq-minneapolis-breakdown-decks-and-discussion/2497288693829546/
I feel like the archetype has to play the card, which would turn this into a Jeskai version :
4 Sram, Senior Edificer
4 Adanto Vanguard
4 Siren Stormtamer
4 Squire's Devotion
4 Tilonalli's Crown
4 Cartouche of Knowledge
4 Cartouche of Solidarity
4 Curious Obsession
4 Inspiring Vantage
4 Spirebluff Canal
4 Glacial Fortress
3 Evolving Wilds
2 Plains
2 Island
1 Mountain
4 Sram, Senior Edificer
4 Famished Paladin
3 Sacred Cat
3 Knight of grace
Auras and equip 22
4 Cartouche of Knowledge
4 Cartouche of Solidarity
4 Curious Obsession
3 Desert's Hold
1 On Serra's Wings
3 Squire's Devotion
3 Sorcerer's Wand
3 Dive Down
1 Prepare//Fight
Land 20
4 Glacial fortress
4 Irrigated Farmland
2 Scattered Groves
3 Shefet Dunes
2 Zhalfirin Void
3 Plains
2 Island
2 Tocatil Honor Guard
2 Spell Pierce
2 Negate
3 Fragmentize
1 On Serra's Wings
1 Knight of Grace
1 Dive Down
3 Gideon of the Trials
I have only been playing it for a little bit but it has been really strong in testing. Being able to just win without attacking has been great for dodging settle the wreckage. The deck can either play out like a sram deck or just get the combo of wand equipped to paladin + lifelink. The paladin has been great to just give lifelink to outside of being equipped, then swing with, kind of a weaker vigilance. It can just win as early as turn 4 if you don't get any interference.
Really curious to hear RW results... Would love to play it if it can take games
Thanks to SB4 at High~Light Studios for the awsome sig
You either need another aura first (Champion, Stormtamer) or deal yourself 4-damage with Vanguard.
Also, isn't Dauntless Bodyguard a better option than Stormtamer here ?
It lacks evasion but is more aggressive and the defensive ability is free to activate.
Storm Fleet Sprinter doen't look too bad for a hasty evasive creature but at 3-mana not sure if it is really worth it over something like Slither Blade.