Turns 1-5 are really important and you want to be able to cast your spells. Hero's Downfall is 1BB, so with 27 lands you aim for 19 black sources. Dissolve similarly needs 19 blue sources. Empty the Pits is interesting due to Urborg. Tomb of Yawgmoth, but for a reliable turn 6 play, you'd have to get up towards 21 black sources. Magma Jet and Lightning Strike (I presume that's what you meant), is 1R, which requires about 13 red sources.
Your mana-base is 14 black, 8 blue and 8 red. To put it in perspective, you have a 90% chance of casting Magma Jet with 5 lands in play. And 90% chance of casting Hero's Downfall with 5 lands, and 90% chance of casting Dissolve with 8 or so lands.
Suffice to say, very often you will have lands but can't play your early-game spells. You have to add many more fetch-lands and dual-lands to make your deck work.
Example, just by using Evolving Wilds and life-gain lands from KTK you can get up to 17 blue, 18 black and 13 red source, which compares reasonably to UB-control lists such as Andrew Brown's that had 19 blue, 19 black and 3 colorless sources (28 lands). The difference of course is that this one has 15 comes-into-play-tapped lands, whereas his has 9 cipt lands.
Very interesting Rogon. So I think I will throw in 2 evolving wilds, 2 bloodstained mire, and 2 polluted deltas. I was trying to avoid playing the new fetchlands so that I could sell them, but hey, why not. In playtesting they really did help out the early game. Thanks to both of you for your advice.
For what it's worth Font of Fortunes IMO is an upgrade over divination. It's a legit turn 2 play in a deck that otherwise would do nothing. Also later in the game paying 4 instead of 3 as a top deck is not going to put you back much anyway.
Also looking at some of these decks trying to fit UU, RR and BB into the 3 mana slot is a mistake. The mana base in standard is not good enough to support it. 3 color Decks especially in standard need to be built like a pyramid main color splash splash. For me looking at grixis I would say heros downfall is the odd man out It's a backup plan when thoughtseize and despise fail you at best.
I have been doing some early play testing and this has not been so bad. It seems like there are lots more things that die to magma spray and disdainful stroke this time around and I really like the mana efficiency of the curve. I am still short on one win con. the deck has 59 cards. I think it wants to be a 5 drop. Having the pearl lake ancient in the main die not feel that good. The mana may need slight tweaking but it feels pretty good overall.
I have been doing some early play testing and this has not been so bad. It seems like there are lots more things that die to magma spray and disdainful stroke this time around and I really like the mana efficiency of the curve. I am still short on one win con. the deck has 59 cards. I think it wants to be a 5 drop. Having the pearl lake ancient in the main die not feel that good. The mana may need slight tweaking but it feels pretty good overall.
I am not so concerned about enabling delve. I think this version just wants more raw cards. Steam augury is a better delve enabler but the deck is not redundant enough to support that. Thoughtflare drew 4 discarded 2 and was better for the price. I like enhanced awareness in a world without ingenuity. I would consider it if the only other option was concentrate type spells or other sorcery draws at that cmc.
On the other hand if you are making a build that can utilize more of the graveyard then awareness is the better card. Like say trying to find or throw away Torrent Elemental because you do not want it yet and delving him out for a murderous cut or dig since he can be replayed later. The discard is less relevant. Just depends what you are in the market for
@caffiend:
How does the one-of Ashiok main work for you? (I've been alternating between running and not running him, but the main thing I don't like is having to play him t3 to be good - so as a 3-of, which leads to spectacularly disappointing top decks.)
If you get 1 Stormbreath + 1 Silumgar attacking; it is a -2/-2 to all Creatures.
Add to that Mainboard Anger of the Gods; which in most matchups you're going to want a few anyways; mainboard say 2, now you have more ways of wiping other smaller 3 toughness creatures; along with any Reality Shifted creatures too.
Now; my suggestions are coming from a perspective of what we knew the metagame to be previous to Fate Reforged.
If this last weekend is any indication; I think Control is going to make a comeback, and so I think that means Grixis decks may suffer; or will have to adapt.
Personally I think Grixis with Permission and Burn while having access to some ANTI Conrol win conditions like Liliana/Ashiok/Pearl Lake Ancient or other things to go along with great BURN spells we could adjust to a Control metagame and bring something different to the table to make Grixis worth playing.
Won the first 3 rounds, including round one bye, though I already can't remember what I played against. Asked to split prizes before round 4 (accepted), gave him the win, then played for the odd pack. All because I knew he was playing WU Heroic and I had been having difficulty with that matchup recently. Beat him in three games, which surprised me. Could have even beaten him in two games if I hadn't shot myself in the foot not leaving enough mana open for the 2 Aetherspouts in hand while at 3 life.
Crux of Fate is awesome. Felt much less stressed to deal with everything when I can just wipe the board. Reality Shift is also really good. I think the 3 Vaults might be slightly excessive, but it was first chance to play since the new set came out.
Phantom, with respect to ashiok. I think I want a second in the main. Running him out on turn three is generally not what I want to do unless the board is clear or its against control post thought seize. In the previous rotation the one of was enough to be a must answer threat. There were some games I took it out though which is why I wanted only 1. I need to do some more testing but 2 main should be ok given the rest of the spells.
In other news I played last night to an un impressive 1-3 finish with a control shell of my devising. I made some changes and hope to do better at the fnm. I can post the list later but it is using steam augury and dig at 4 ofs, but the only wincons are 2 ashiok, keranos, ugin, and a tasigur in the main with 2 pearl lake ancients and 2 grind clocks in the side.
What are thoughts on mogis? Making them either sack a creature or take 2 every turn is pretty good, could have him and keranos, imagine them taking 5 a turn...
So this is the list I am currently considering sleeving up... I think it has potential to be pretty great and I am strongly considering cards like flamewake phoenix in the upcoming meta
I want to be able to side into a good control mirror because I think that Sultai, UB and UW are going to be fairly prevalent. This meta is full of midrange action and control just kind of *****s on that plan. I am really excited about reality shift, blanking a turn of theirs by reality shifting on like turn 3 or 4 and then anger on turn 4-5 seems perfectly reasonable. At that point you can save your crux for more important turns and delay the game by quite a bit. Also reality shift works great vs Coursers. This might be too heavy on removal, I'll have to test with it to figure that out. I don't expect to have problems with RW based decks or Abzan decks g1 at all. I will have to make sure they can't side into pw's or w/e game 2/3 and devise a good sb plan for that.
I don't really not having 4 hero's downfall there is no other way to kill walkers and there is a lot of them around. reality shift doesn't seem that great 2/2's can still kill you. I'd kinda just prefer lightning strike/magma jet. the only card it is good against is deathdealer anything bigger and you can just counter it.
The CORE of the deck though revolves around dumping cards to the GY; including Elementals to Delve them to Exile and casting them from Exile.
Perilous Vaults and Ugin are OK wipes also if you have Torrent Elemental out as we can just recast it.
Combine Anger of the Gods + Crux + Vault + Ugin; and that's enough board sweep to annihilate any decks.
Steam Augury fuels Empty the Pits and Dig Through Times.
While Torrent Elemental isn't super powerful; combine that with Empty the Pits; other Burn Spells; and Ugin; and Torrent Elemental can surely close out a game and provides a ton of flexibility with the rest of the cards.
The initial list surely needs some tuning; I'm just theory crafting for now...
I considered something like Palace Siege to give us Lifegain; although DRAIN 2 isn't super powerful; when you combine it with Ugin; it's not a Drain 2 + 3 Damage a turn. Combine that with Torrent Elemental and Burn; along with an Empty the Pits EOT or something and it will be very effective.
I considered Marang as well as an early Threat that can be cast from the GY if you have a Black Permanent (Palace Siege). But I don't think it's needed.
The main reason I am considering Reality shift as a 4 of is that I am running 7 board sweepers, most games I will be delaying killing anything that they have until I have to, then shifting away the creature about to hit me (negating the dmg) then angering the next turn. sometimes I'll be shifting their courser to nullify their elspeth on top.
Considering the worst situation. R/W on the play
Their t1- Land
Our t1- Land
their t2- Seeker/raise/grandmaster/
Our t2- Land
Their t3- Rabblemaster/Mentor/jet, atk for 2-3
Our t3- Land
Their t4- We reality shift the rabble/Mentor, they atk us for 2-3, play another guy or making hordling tokens or w/e. life 14+
Our t4- Anger, the reality shift didn't cost us anything, it delayed 3+ dmg and now we start over with having 6 cards in hand to their 3~ and still at 14 life.
Worst use of Reality shift- delay turn, flip another creature. This is the main reason why reality shift is potentially bad and I understand that. With 6 other pieces of removal and 7 board wipes I think that this problem is mitigated quite well because we have choice. I will be testing this a lot and I am looking forward to seeing how it does.
it has a lot more potential upside than strike/jet, is easier to cast than blight.
The CORE of the deck though revolves around dumping cards to the GY; including Elementals to Delve them to Exile and casting them from Exile.
Perilous Vaults and Ugin are OK wipes also if you have Torrent Elemental out as we can just recast it.
Combine Anger of the Gods + Crux + Vault + Ugin; and that's enough board sweep to annihilate any decks.
Steam Augury fuels Empty the Pits and Dig Through Times.
While Torrent Elemental isn't super powerful; combine that with Empty the Pits; other Burn Spells; and Ugin; and Torrent Elemental can surely close out a game and provides a ton of flexibility with the rest of the cards.
The initial list surely needs some tuning; I'm just theory crafting for now...
I considered something like Palace Siege to give us Lifegain; although DRAIN 2 isn't super powerful; when you combine it with Ugin; it's not a Drain 2 + 3 Damage a turn. Combine that with Torrent Elemental and Burn; along with an Empty the Pits EOT or something and it will be very effective.
I considered Marang as well as an early Threat that can be cast from the GY if you have a Black Permanent (Palace Siege). But I don't think it's needed.
Thoughts on the overall idea?
I feel like this deck is going to try to set up Empty the pits for the win and just lose in the process to all of the aggro decks. It might beat the midrange decks, but we should already be incredibly favored vs decks that aim to play 1 spell per turn like that. A RW deck or Temur or UW Heroic will be watching their friends play before you are even considering making 4 2/2 for 12 mana/delve. if you want to play empty the pits then you should look at sultai delve lists that use satyr and commune to fill yards. While looking at those lists, drop the EtP for whip and value town, it's fairly populated for a reason.
So this is what I'll be tweaking to bring to Game Day. Merciless Executioner is simply amazing against heroic deck (which is rather prevalent in my LGS). For sideboard, I'm planning on bringing in Goblin Rabblemaster & Tasigur, the Golden Fang against other control deck.
I wanted to slot in Anger of the Gods in the SB, but the double red feels too much for me.
As for bad match up. I'd say the extremely fast red decks and Abzan Midrange / Aggro feels really hard to win pre-board. Any tips on that particular match up?
I am a little behind the response curve. Some one mentioned Mogis, you should run the black siege first.
As for reality shift I am playing it as the 4th downfall and I like it. However I do not think I want more than 1 because you are more likely to upgrade their threat. It is great against the temur sabertooth however. On the topic of torrent elemental, while it is an interesting card it feels too easy to race/tempo out of the game. On Tasigur I tried playing a few of them but I think because I was running 4 steam augury his ability had diminishing returns and the 4/5 was just ok in most cases. He also died to crux a few times. I am not sure how useful the Executioner is. There is not much you want to make people sacrifice, except against heroic maybe.
Here is the list I am on for now. Testing has proven decent. Steam augury and dig are still awesome and the dragons and crux really work well together. I want the third dragon to be something else but I am not sure what. It was not Kolaghan. It may go back to being a keranos.
How good is Steam Augury compared to say Dig Through Time or Jace's Ingenuity? Most of the time, you won't be getting the answer that you need no?
For the Merciless Executioner, I feel like we need a reliable edict effect against the various heroic deck running around, and the good ones are either Mardu colours, or too expensive (Dead Drop)
Yes spells can hit the dragons. But they are good against most matchups. The Pro white dodges a lot of removal options and Temur has a problem dealing with them. I think I want 2 dragons and a keranos. I you are super worried about them dying then use Prognostic sphinx, which is where the deck was before the rotation. Palace siege was a consideration of mine because the life gain seems relevant.
You also have thoughtseize, Disdainful Stroke, and Dissolve to help protect your threats.
As for the steam augury. Steam augury does not compare to Dig through time but it is an amazing enabler. If you are trying to use Steam Augury to find a specific spell then yes, there is a good chance you will not get exactly what you want unless you flip 2 of them. The card does not excel in that regard. If you are using Steam Augury to sculpt or supplement your hand then the card gets better. You have opportunities to make splits that hint that you really need a card, when you may already be holding one. The augury plays off of deck redundancy. Most of spells I am playing are equivalent to each other. Its 4 mana casting cost is great and it lets you see 5 cards. You are also running 27 lands so there are some pockets you just need to move through. Once you dig you may end up auguring less. Try it out and see if its something you like. 3 ofs would be a good starting point for redundancy.
So 4 auguries lets you see 20 cards. 4 Ingenuities lets you see 15 cards and if you add 3 divination you see 21, but you are down 3 main deck card slots and a turn or part of one to sorcery draw.
I've goldfished last night, changing 2x Jace's Ingenuity for 2x Steam Augury. I'm particularly fond of the fact that it makes Dig Through Time much easier to cast. Think I'll settle for that during game day.
The difference between strike and jet matters in mu's where you see a lot of lions. outside of that the scry 2 on jet seems fairly relevant. Prowess in response might be a problem as well though.
The difference between strike and jet matters in mu's where you see a lot of lions. outside of that the scry 2 on jet seems fairly relevant. Prowess in response might be a problem as well though.
Exactly! That's what I'm considering if I should change. Maybe I should cut Crater's Claw instead? I was relying on it to be something akin to Fireball for me to close out games faster. - 2x Crater's Claw for 2x Magma Jet?
My removal suite will end up something like this
4 Lightning Strike
2 Bile Blight
2 Magma Jet
3 Hero's Downfall
2 Merciless Executioner
2 Crux of Fate
2 Perilous Vault
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I think that if you dedicate too many slots to stuff like lightning strike and magma jet you will start to lose parity vs decks running Anafenza/Siege rhino etc
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Turns 1-5 are really important and you want to be able to cast your spells. Hero's Downfall is 1BB, so with 27 lands you aim for 19 black sources. Dissolve similarly needs 19 blue sources. Empty the Pits is interesting due to Urborg. Tomb of Yawgmoth, but for a reliable turn 6 play, you'd have to get up towards 21 black sources. Magma Jet and Lightning Strike (I presume that's what you meant), is 1R, which requires about 13 red sources.
Your mana-base is 14 black, 8 blue and 8 red. To put it in perspective, you have a 90% chance of casting Magma Jet with 5 lands in play. And 90% chance of casting Hero's Downfall with 5 lands, and 90% chance of casting Dissolve with 8 or so lands.
Suffice to say, very often you will have lands but can't play your early-game spells. You have to add many more fetch-lands and dual-lands to make your deck work.
Example, just by using Evolving Wilds and life-gain lands from KTK you can get up to 17 blue, 18 black and 13 red source, which compares reasonably to UB-control lists such as Andrew Brown's that had 19 blue, 19 black and 3 colorless sources (28 lands). The difference of course is that this one has 15 comes-into-play-tapped lands, whereas his has 9 cipt lands.
4 Dismal Backwater
4 Swiftwater Cliffs
4 Bloodfell Caves
2 Polluted Delta
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Evolving Wilds
4 Island
1 Mountain
1 Swamp
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Also looking at some of these decks trying to fit UU, RR and BB into the 3 mana slot is a mistake. The mana base in standard is not good enough to support it. 3 color Decks especially in standard need to be built like a pyramid main color splash splash. For me looking at grixis I would say heros downfall is the odd man out It's a backup plan when thoughtseize and despise fail you at best.
2x Thoughtseize
2x Magma Spray
2x Lightning Strike
2x Nullify
2x disdainful stroke
3x Hero's Downfal
4x Dissolve
3x Divination
3x Crux of Fate
2x Jace's Ingenuity
3x Dig Through Time
Artifacts 1
1x Perilous Vault
Walkers 2
1x Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
1x Ugin, Spirit Dragon
1x Keranos, God of Storms
Land 27
3x Temple of Deceit
3x Temple of Epiphany
4x Temple of Malice
2x Swiftwater Cliffs
2x Dismal Backwater
1x Shivan Reef
1x Radiant Fountain
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2x Polluted Delta
1x Bloodstained Mire
1x Evolving Wilds
2x Island
2x Swamp
2x Mountain
2x Grindclock
1x Ashiok
2x Dark Betrayasl
2x Negate
1x Pearl Lake Ancient
3x Anger of the Gods
2x Thoughtseize
2x Missing Cards
Have you thought about swapping Jace's Ingenuity for Enhanced Awareness? Easier on the mana base, plus it fuels delve.
On the other hand if you are making a build that can utilize more of the graveyard then awareness is the better card. Like say trying to find or throw away Torrent Elemental because you do not want it yet and delving him out for a murderous cut or dig since he can be replayed later. The discard is less relevant. Just depends what you are in the market for
How does the one-of Ashiok main work for you? (I've been alternating between running and not running him, but the main thing I don't like is having to play him t3 to be good - so as a 3-of, which leads to spectacularly disappointing top decks.)
With that being said; how do we feel about Palace Siege?
I've been testing other decks that have Palace Siege in it and it turns out that card isn't all that bad.
It gives Grixis a much needed Lifegain option as well.
Another thing I saw in this thread; was the Dragon Synergy with Reality Shift.
2 Silumgar, the Drifting Death
3-4 Stormbreath Dragon
0-2 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
If you get 1 Stormbreath + 1 Silumgar attacking; it is a -2/-2 to all Creatures.
Add to that Mainboard Anger of the Gods; which in most matchups you're going to want a few anyways; mainboard say 2, now you have more ways of wiping other smaller 3 toughness creatures; along with any Reality Shifted creatures too.
Now; my suggestions are coming from a perspective of what we knew the metagame to be previous to Fate Reforged.
If this last weekend is any indication; I think Control is going to make a comeback, and so I think that means Grixis decks may suffer; or will have to adapt.
Personally I think Grixis with Permission and Burn while having access to some ANTI Conrol win conditions like Liliana/Ashiok/Pearl Lake Ancient or other things to go along with great BURN spells we could adjust to a Control metagame and bring something different to the table to make Grixis worth playing.
What do you all think?
4 Hero's Downfall
4 Dissolve
3 Thoughtseize
3 Crux of Fate
3 Aetherspouts
3 Font of Fortunes
2 Dig Through Time
2 Jace's Ingenuity
2 Reality Shift
1 Keranos, God of Storms
1 Mindswipe
1 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
1 Silence the Believers
1 Empty the Pits
1 Disdainful Stroke
1 Pearl Lake Ancient
5 Island
3 Dismal Backwater
3 Polluted Delta
3 Temple of Deceit
3 Temple of Epiphany
2 Radiant Fountain
2 Swamp
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Bloodfell Caves
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Mountain
1 Swiftwater Cliffs
2 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
1 Clever Impersonator
2 Disdainful Stroke
2 Gainsay
1 Murderous Cut
2 Negate
3 Perilous Vault
1 Silence the Believers
1 Thoughseize
Won the first 3 rounds, including round one bye, though I already can't remember what I played against. Asked to split prizes before round 4 (accepted), gave him the win, then played for the odd pack. All because I knew he was playing WU Heroic and I had been having difficulty with that matchup recently. Beat him in three games, which surprised me. Could have even beaten him in two games if I hadn't shot myself in the foot not leaving enough mana open for the 2 Aetherspouts in hand while at 3 life.
Crux of Fate is awesome. Felt much less stressed to deal with everything when I can just wipe the board. Reality Shift is also really good. I think the 3 Vaults might be slightly excessive, but it was first chance to play since the new set came out.
http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/deck.asp?deck_id=1229129
In other news I played last night to an un impressive 1-3 finish with a control shell of my devising. I made some changes and hope to do better at the fnm. I can post the list later but it is using steam augury and dig at 4 ofs, but the only wincons are 2 ashiok, keranos, ugin, and a tasigur in the main with 2 pearl lake ancients and 2 grind clocks in the side.
Mondern: Mardu Aristocrats (link to my post http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/deck-creation-modern/624899-goblins-and-kings-mardu-aristocrats-build)
Legacy: dead guy ale (B/W/G)
2 Ugin, the spirit dragon
1 Ashiok, nightmare weaver
1 Silumgar, the drifting death
1 Keranos, god of storms
Removal suite
4 Anger of the gods
3 Crux of fate
4 Reality shift
3 hero's downfall
1 murderous cut
2 magma jet
Counter suite
4 dissolve
2 disdainful stroke
3 Dig through time
2 Jace's ingenuity
Lands
4 temple of deceit
4 temple of epiphany
3 swiftwater cliffs
1 bloodfell caves
4 polluted delta
3 bloodstained mire
2 shivan reef
1 urborg, tomb of yawgmoth
2 Islands
2 Swamps
1 Mountain
4 Jorubai Murk lurker
4 negate
2 read the bones
2 disdainful stroke
3 ?????
I want to be able to side into a good control mirror because I think that Sultai, UB and UW are going to be fairly prevalent. This meta is full of midrange action and control just kind of *****s on that plan. I am really excited about reality shift, blanking a turn of theirs by reality shifting on like turn 3 or 4 and then anger on turn 4-5 seems perfectly reasonable. At that point you can save your crux for more important turns and delay the game by quite a bit. Also reality shift works great vs Coursers. This might be too heavy on removal, I'll have to test with it to figure that out. I don't expect to have problems with RW based decks or Abzan decks g1 at all. I will have to make sure they can't side into pw's or w/e game 2/3 and devise a good sb plan for that.
I don't really not having 4 hero's downfall there is no other way to kill walkers and there is a lot of them around. reality shift doesn't seem that great 2/2's can still kill you. I'd kinda just prefer lightning strike/magma jet. the only card it is good against is deathdealer anything bigger and you can just counter it.
Pioneer:UR Pheonix
Modern:U Mono U Tron
EDH
GB Glissa, the traitor: Army of Cans
UW Dragonlord Ojutai: Dragonlord NOjutai
UWGDerevi, Empyrial Tactician "you cannot fight the storm"
R Zirilan of the claw. The solution to every problem is dragons
UB Etrata, the Silencer Cloning assassination
Peasant cube: Cards I own
1.) Focusing around Torrent Elemental, Ugin, Perilous Vault, and Empty the Pits to go with Steam Augury.
2.) Dragons
The first one has looked the best thus far...
List:
4 Torrent Elemental
Spells: 26
4 Dig Through Time
4 Steam Augury
4 Dissolve
4 Anger of the Gods
2 Crux of Fate
2 Hero's Downfall
4 Lightning Strike
2 Empty the Pits
2 Perilous Vault
Planeswalkers: 2
2 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
It's a very rough list...
The CORE of the deck though revolves around dumping cards to the GY; including Elementals to Delve them to Exile and casting them from Exile.
Perilous Vaults and Ugin are OK wipes also if you have Torrent Elemental out as we can just recast it.
Combine Anger of the Gods + Crux + Vault + Ugin; and that's enough board sweep to annihilate any decks.
Steam Augury fuels Empty the Pits and Dig Through Times.
While Torrent Elemental isn't super powerful; combine that with Empty the Pits; other Burn Spells; and Ugin; and Torrent Elemental can surely close out a game and provides a ton of flexibility with the rest of the cards.
The initial list surely needs some tuning; I'm just theory crafting for now...
I considered something like Palace Siege to give us Lifegain; although DRAIN 2 isn't super powerful; when you combine it with Ugin; it's not a Drain 2 + 3 Damage a turn. Combine that with Torrent Elemental and Burn; along with an Empty the Pits EOT or something and it will be very effective.
I considered Marang as well as an early Threat that can be cast from the GY if you have a Black Permanent (Palace Siege). But I don't think it's needed.
Thoughts on the overall idea?
Considering the worst situation. R/W on the play
Their t1- Land
Our t1- Land
their t2- Seeker/raise/grandmaster/
Our t2- Land
Their t3- Rabblemaster/Mentor/jet, atk for 2-3
Our t3- Land
Their t4- We reality shift the rabble/Mentor, they atk us for 2-3, play another guy or making hordling tokens or w/e. life 14+
Our t4- Anger, the reality shift didn't cost us anything, it delayed 3+ dmg and now we start over with having 6 cards in hand to their 3~ and still at 14 life.
Worst use of Reality shift- delay turn, flip another creature. This is the main reason why reality shift is potentially bad and I understand that. With 6 other pieces of removal and 7 board wipes I think that this problem is mitigated quite well because we have choice. I will be testing this a lot and I am looking forward to seeing how it does.
it has a lot more potential upside than strike/jet, is easier to cast than blight.
I feel like this deck is going to try to set up Empty the pits for the win and just lose in the process to all of the aggro decks. It might beat the midrange decks, but we should already be incredibly favored vs decks that aim to play 1 spell per turn like that. A RW deck or Temur or UW Heroic will be watching their friends play before you are even considering making 4 2/2 for 12 mana/delve. if you want to play empty the pits then you should look at sultai delve lists that use satyr and commune to fill yards. While looking at those lists, drop the EtP for whip and value town, it's fairly populated for a reason.
I wanted to slot in Anger of the Gods in the SB, but the double red feels too much for me.
As for bad match up. I'd say the extremely fast red decks and Abzan Midrange / Aggro feels really hard to win pre-board. Any tips on that particular match up?
Instants
4 Dissolve
2 Bile Blight
3 Hero's Downfall
3 Dig Through Time
2 Jace's Ingenuity
2 Disdainful Stroke
4 Lightning Strike
Sorceries
2 Crater's Claws
2 Crux of Fate
Artifact
2 Perilous Vault
Planeswalkers
1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
Creatures
1 Keranos, God of Storms
1 Silumgar, the Drifting Death
2 Merciless Executioner
2 Palace Siege
Lands
3 Polluted Delta
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Radiant Fountain
3 Dismal Backwater
2 Swiftwater Cliffs
1 Bloodfell Caves
3 Temple of Deceit
2 Temple of Epiphany
1 Temple of Malice
3 Island
1 Swamp
2 Mountain
3 Goblin Rabblemaster
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
3 Drown in Sorrow
2 Arc Lightning
2 Merciless Executioner
2 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
1 Liliana Vess
Nothing Slowly collecting cards for Esper Control.
As for reality shift I am playing it as the 4th downfall and I like it. However I do not think I want more than 1 because you are more likely to upgrade their threat. It is great against the temur sabertooth however. On the topic of torrent elemental, while it is an interesting card it feels too easy to race/tempo out of the game. On Tasigur I tried playing a few of them but I think because I was running 4 steam augury his ability had diminishing returns and the 4/5 was just ok in most cases. He also died to crux a few times. I am not sure how useful the Executioner is. There is not much you want to make people sacrifice, except against heroic maybe.
Here is the list I am on for now. Testing has proven decent. Steam augury and dig are still awesome and the dragons and crux really work well together. I want the third dragon to be something else but I am not sure what. It was not Kolaghan. It may go back to being a keranos.
2x Thoughtseize
2x Magma Spray
2x Lightning Strike
1x Reality Shift
2x disdainful stroke
3x Hero's Downfall
2x Dissolve
1x Aetherspouts
2x Anger of the Gods
3x Crux of Fate
4x Steam Augury
4x Dig Through Time
Walkers 2
1x Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
1x Ugin, Spirit Dragon
Creatures 3
3x Stormbreath Dragon
3x Temple of Deceit
3x Temple of Epiphany
3x Temple of Malice
2x Swiftwater Cliffs
1x Dismal Backwater
1x Bloodfell Caves
1x Shivan Reef
1x Radiant Fountain
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2x Polluted Delta
2x Bloodstained Mire
1x Evolving Wilds
2x Island
2x Swamp
2x Mountain
2x Grindclock
2x Dissolve
2x Dark Betrayal
2x Negate
1x Pearl Lake Ancient
1x Anger of the Gods
1x Thoughtseize
1x Shatter
1x Whelming Wave
1x Perilous Vault
For the Merciless Executioner, I feel like we need a reliable edict effect against the various heroic deck running around, and the good ones are either Mardu colours, or too expensive (Dead Drop)
For the Stormbreath Dragon, won't they just die to all the different removal the opponent has drawn throughout the game? One of the reason why I'm opting for a slower clock with Silumgar, the Drifting Death, Keranos, God of Storms and Palace Siege
Nothing Slowly collecting cards for Esper Control.
You also have thoughtseize, Disdainful Stroke, and Dissolve to help protect your threats.
As for the steam augury. Steam augury does not compare to Dig through time but it is an amazing enabler. If you are trying to use Steam Augury to find a specific spell then yes, there is a good chance you will not get exactly what you want unless you flip 2 of them. The card does not excel in that regard. If you are using Steam Augury to sculpt or supplement your hand then the card gets better. You have opportunities to make splits that hint that you really need a card, when you may already be holding one. The augury plays off of deck redundancy. Most of spells I am playing are equivalent to each other. Its 4 mana casting cost is great and it lets you see 5 cards. You are also running 27 lands so there are some pockets you just need to move through. Once you dig you may end up auguring less. Try it out and see if its something you like. 3 ofs would be a good starting point for redundancy.
So 4 auguries lets you see 20 cards. 4 Ingenuities lets you see 15 cards and if you add 3 divination you see 21, but you are down 3 main deck card slots and a turn or part of one to sorcery draw.
Another thing I'm interested to test changing 1x Lightning Strike and 1x Crater's Claw for 2x Magma Jet. However, the difference of 1 damage between Lightning Strike and Magma Jet is pretty significant. What do you guys think?
Nothing Slowly collecting cards for Esper Control.
Exactly! That's what I'm considering if I should change. Maybe I should cut Crater's Claw instead? I was relying on it to be something akin to Fireball for me to close out games faster. - 2x Crater's Claw for 2x Magma Jet?
My removal suite will end up something like this
4 Lightning Strike
2 Bile Blight
2 Magma Jet
3 Hero's Downfall
2 Merciless Executioner
2 Crux of Fate
2 Perilous Vault
Nothing Slowly collecting cards for Esper Control.