The big thing about Leylines is that they improve the relevant matchups no matter how many of them you run. If you don't play too many of them you simply don't mulligan for them actively. I would be playing more than the singleton, but there's simply not enough space in the list currently, all the other sideboard cards are very useful in their applicable matchups. There's also the point that I tend to sideboard very many cards as a time. Against many decks I replace upwards of 10 cards to adjust my gameplan against theirs. All of the cards are useful in several matchups in various combinations, and are minor upgrades over the replaced mainboard cards.
I got a lot of experience with the deck, as it was one of the first decks i built in modern, before I built the old Birthing Pod deck. I've had it as my main deck for a couple of years now. This plus a good knowledge of the modern format really helps in winning games.
I'm also spending a decent amount of time looking at statistics for chances to draw various combinations of cards. As a result most of the time I got a decent feeling for the chances of topdecking a card of type X at any point in the game, and can plan based on that. I've tinkered with my list quite a lot based on that, and I believe I've found a sweet spot where there is no card function in the deck that can't be accessed after drawing approximately the top third of the deck. To do that we need about three copies of the function. For example, despite running only two mainboard boardwhipes, Ugin and O-Stone, I can find them relatively early using Gifts Ungiven. Alternatively, even though I run only one Mindslaver, it can be found via Treasure Mages. Need to flash something back? 1 snap + 2 gearhulks. Bounce? 2 Repeal + 1 Cyclonic rift. Stabilizer? Wurmcoil + Platinum Angel + Ugin. The unique cards that are harder to find, are in a class of card you never need to actively search for. I very rarely need to look for the Solemn Simulacrum or the Talisman of Dominance.
The effect of having a lot of the deck accessible in the mid-game allows for a lot of strategic decisions that couldn't otherwise be made. For instance if I'm good on mana I can sort-of rely on reaching a boardwhipe "soon".
Here's my current list. All the dailies I've been playing for a while resembles this one strongly, with only one or two cards being different daily to daily.
As you can see that despite initially championing Gemstone Caverns as an awesome card I've since cooled on its utility. I believe it was good while I suggested it, but the meta has changed since then, and its utility is now somewhat lower. I used its slot to get another land destruction spell in the mainboard to go with the Crucible of Worlds in the sideboard. I'm still thinking the slot could find some better use and I'm going to test Mirrorpool next.
Unlike kharniverous I just don't believe in using two Mindslaver. I've tried it, and I just get them in my hand too often. It might be that he goes for partial locks earlier in the game more often than I do, but I only really need access to it once, and don't recall having trouble finding one when I wanted. Instead of using multiple Mindslavers I've focused my strategy pulling ahead with a pair of Torrential Gearhulks. The extra deck velocity generated by these two allows for running a leaner and more singleton based strategy than would otherwise be possible. They magnify the power of our sideboard, with cards like Dismember and Spatial Contortion being castable several times. They have a also have a nice size vs most of the other creatures played. They do require that I play extra blue, so I've included a singleton Talisman of Dominance, as well as a Wayfarer's Bauble and a Solemn Simulacrum. You can see reasoning for the bauble earlier in the thread if you search. Together these two cards allow me to reach 6 lands at a decent speed, at which point a lot of the value and payoff cards come online.
Commit/Memory is the real deal, be it by casting it EOT using gearhulk (remember, you can cast Memory this way), or by just as an option to cast later in the game when both sides are down to few resources. If you're after side with the extra ugins in the deck it can in some cases reliably be cast -> finish tron -> cast ugin or O-stone in the same sequence.
I strongly believe that you need one or two Ugin, the Spirit Dragon in the sideboard. If you do it opens up the option of siding out the Treasure Mages in matchups like counters company and elves. You will have enough big spells of the correct type without having to spend the three mana tutoring one up using the treasure mage. Instead using these three mana to cast Thirst lets us find both the tron and the big spell at the same time.
Feek free to ask if you have any other questions. =)
Telepathy is definitively worth 1 mana, it is however not worth one card. It doesn't matter if you know exactly how to efficiently play around your opponent's hand if you don't have the resources, in this case cards, to go through with that plan. Every single card needs to do something that has a quick impact on the boardstate. If you play a card that doesn't impact, or prepare the boardstate every turn we'll fall very far behind, which is already a problem the deck can have in various matchups.
For the situation you mentioned about counter + surgical. If i knew nothing else about the game I'd actually be happy in that situation. They spent two cards to deal with the one Mindslaver you had in your hand. It's situations like these that allow us to pull ahead by getting breathing room to pull ahead using Thirst for Knowledge, or by searching up another big artifact with Treasure Mage. The slot used on Telepathy could instead be used on some other big artifact spell somewhere in the deck.
Cmon guys, we need to pick up our game a bit. Shoktroopa is the only one even keeping this deck on the map in regards to statistics on things like mtg goldfish.
I went 5-0 in a competitive league before the weekend, and again just now. I hope one of them shows up on MtgGoldfish. The one I had a few weeks back didn't. Anyone know how decks get selected to get featured on Wizard's site?
"don't play bad 4 drops that give you hexproof after you have been defeated. Play 4 drops that you can't cast but can help you ensure victory quickly as possible(turn1)
I agree wholeheartedly with this lesson. A card's usefulness is based on what it does, and when it does it. Turn 0 is very early, and since it gives us the effect we're looking for it's well worth the risk of drawing one later. Besides, we run Thirst for Knowledge, we can get rid of a few copies.
[I] suggest [to] run a play set and here is the math to back it up:
[copies vs hand size]
NUMBER OF COPIES: 1 CHANCE: 11% OF HAVING IT ON THE STARTING HAND
NUMBER OF COPIES: 2 CHANCE: 22% OF HAVING IT ON THE STARTING HAND
NUMBER OF COPIES: 3 CHANCE: 31% OF HAVING IT ON THE STARTING HAND
NUMBER OF COPIES: 4 CHANCE: 39% OF HAVING IT ON THE STARTING HAND
While you alluded to it I'll just point out that the value of each subsequent copy is lower than the one before. The first and second copy adds roughly 11%, but the third only adds 9%, and the fourth only 8% to the chance of having in the opener. These numbers are are important, but they also aren't the only numbers to look at. If we look four turns into the game the chances of being stuck with a spare copy of the leyline goes way way up when running three or more. With two leylines the chance is 3.1%, 8.35% with three, and a massive 15% with four. I haven't run the card myself, but it seems to me running one or two copies, and not actively taking mulligans for them is the way to go.
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On Gifts ungiven, seems like it is normally a 1 of in most decks even thought every time I actually cast it the impact seems huge. Should we be running 2 or is their a reason that is not good?
It's a great card, but there simply isn't enough space for too many draw spells, especially expensive ones like gifts. And as you've likely experienced, playing in a fast meta like the current modern meta means that getting stuck with only draw spells can lead to very quick losses. A big part of Gifts power comes from pulling singletons from the deck and putting them in a zone where we can interact with them, and in my experience you only need that effect about once each game. If you combine this with Gifts actively becoming worse in multiples due to the reduction in cards to pick from, the inclusion of more than one copy becomes hard to justify to most people.
If you want more card advantage in the deck I actually suggest finding space for artifacts. A lot of lists are running 13 or fewer, and at that point the reliability of thirst has already started to dip. By going from 13 to 15 artifacts you get rid of approximately 1 in 7 cases where you start with no artifacts in hand, and haven't found one even after casting thirst. That's an estimate for when you have no artifacts, but it also helps the selection when you do have some by quite a lot. I'm halfway convinced that the reason people are having success running Sundering Titan or more than one Mindslaver is simply because it's an artifact that can get safely discarded to thirst. I believe I fell into that trap myself for a while when I tried running Trophy Mage and Crucible of Worlds in the main. It worked decently, but there are better cards to run. However their actual effectiveness was actively masked by my Thirsts becoming better, something which can be achieved in any number of ways.
Thirst for Knowledge is the core card draw of the deck, don't forget about it when making adjustments elsewhere!
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I played at GP Copenhagen, but had a disappointing finish of 5-4 after day one (no byes). The deck worked fine, but wasn't tuned well because I didn't have time to prepare for the event.
I'll just post my decklist here, and mention that I've been very happy with this configuration. Censor is very playable. Cycle for only U is super relevant.
Commit is also pretty good. It's exactly what our decks want by letting us untap before having to deal with the troublesome permanent again. Four mana is a bit much though, so I don't know if we can run more than one or two. I've been taking it in against creature decks, as well as being a solution to troublesome permanents. It probably beats out repeal number 3. Also, there's an interesting interaction with Torrential Gearhulk. Gearhulk's trigger can cast both sides of the card. Allowing us cast Gearhulk EOT, and untap with 7 fresh cards. Casting Gifts Ungiven makes this interaction far far more likely to happen.
I want to find space for another Ugin somewhere, but can't quite fit him in. Maybe I should be replacing a surgical in the side, since he does help vs Dredge as well.
Building on the idea of running more t1 plays I suggested a couple of cards way back. The first one was the Gemstone Caverns, which caught on, yay! The second was Wayfarer's Bauble, to replace a single talisman. The third being Conjurer's Bauble, allowing for using Gifts Ungiven with Ugin and Academy Ruins, without losing their unique abilities from the deck when they're binned.
Recently I came across another card, which I suppose fills the niche of t1 plays. Avarice Totem. I had skipped over it several times while looking through the list of cheap artifacts, thinking it was probably pretty bad. However once I tried it I realized the downsides weren't as big as I initially thought, and the upsides were actually pretty big. I suppose it could get compared to Control Magic, which is a pretty powerful cards, which you might have experienced by playing it in cube. Dunno how well it would fit in to the modern metagame though. The Avarice Totem has a higher upfront cost of 6 mana (1+5), but one of them can be paid of on a turn we're not tapping out on anyways, and it requires no blue. Even if we're using our T1 on some other spell, like Map, using 6 mana on casting the totem later becomes a way smaller problem. The totem has the upside being able to trade for nonland permanents, as opposed to creatures, which sometimes can be very relevant. The downside of our opponent trading the totem back for 5 mana isn't too big either, because that would require that they have 5 mana AND more than one card as pressure on the board. If their board presence is only one creature, it'll stay summoning sick due to switching control between the players. There's also a few nice interactions we have with bounce. We can first trade the totem, and when they can't activate it back, or even in response to their trade we can bounce it back to our own hand using Repeal or Cyclonic Rift.
I tinkered with a graphing program last week, and ended up modelling how I think about its possible interactions. I've attached a copy of the result. I may be overly positive on the card, but I'd love to see if anyone has any thoughts about it.
I came across an interesting situation while playing on MTGO, and I'm wondering what people would have done in my place. We're in game 3 vs Grixis Delver, they run delvers, swiftspears, a whole bunch of cmc1 spells and a tasigur/angler top-end. I'm on the play, and on turn three the board looks as can be seen in the attached image "Turn 3".
I have a few distinct lines to go for here.
Kill the Pyromancer right now, using Snapcaster and Dismember
Play land, and cast Thirst for knowledge right away.
Play land, and pass the turn using Snapcaster to ambush.
play land, pass the turn and cast Thirst for knowledge EOT IF my opponent doesn't play a threat that needs to be killed
The list I was running was pretty close to stock. Notable cards after side:1 Ugin, 2 wurmcoils, 2 Treasure Mages, 2 Spatial Contortion, 3 Dismember.
So, what's the play?
I went for the second option, reasoning that killing the Pyromancer this turn was not very important, and that I would not get any good chances to resolve Thirst on any later turn. I didn't want to delay the casting until his EOT, because that runs the risk of getting it countered. In that case I'd be stranded potentially facing multiple tokens with no real game plan. I drew decent cards off of the Thirst as can be see in image "Turn 4" I threw away an Oblivion Stone, for card advantage and the difficulty of activating it without removing the Chalice.
In response to me casting Spatial Contortion on Young Pyromancer he fired of two CMC 1 spells to cash in for tokens. He attacks me down to 11 the following turn.
Turn 5: I play land, and pass. On his combat I cast Snapcaster targeting Spatial Contortion and kill one of his tokens. He casts Terminate to kill my Snapcaster. This allows two of his tokens through for 2 damage putting me at 9.
No more spells were played that game. The two tokens left over get to attack 5 more times without any interaction. My last 6 draws were Expedition Maps and Lands.
Had a question earlier which I couldn't answer to myself satisfactorily. Does Ugin the Spirit Dragon and Cyclonic Rift fill the exact same role in our deck? They're both good at dealing with multiple problematic permanents at once, but I suppose Ugin can also serve as a payoff card. Does anyone else think it could be a worthwhile trade-off to go down to zero Rifts if you play Ugin? I haven't tested this myself, but I will in the coming days.
Minor thought experiment:
Now that more of us are running Chalice of the Void and Spatial Contortion in the mainboard, the need for very early blue mana has gone down a bit. What ways could we find to get reliable access to blue mana without using Talismans? If such a change can be found, would this allow us to play Mind Stone instead? With a way to get reliable blue mana without artifacts we also wouldn't be messing with the the number of blue sources during sideboarding. This can be important as some of the decks that run Stony Silence are the very same decks that can require that we have good access to two blue sources.
After going through a couple of Leagues on mtgo with the Emrakul build I can report that it isn't as bad as it looks. However it's definitively not as good as the stock list. For it to work we need a bit more card selection than we currently have, and we don't really have space for that. It is fun though.
I think Emrakul can work in the deck, but it definitively doesn't slot in seamlessly. The big draw to playing Emrakul, is that it's a big play that when cast puts you in a situation it's hard to lose, and the aforementioned shuffle effect. We've always wanted those effects, but it wasn't before the introduction of Epiphany at the Drownyard that the cost of 15 mana became surmountable. Ephiphany is a pretty big draw spell which allows us to go from ~8 mana to 13-14 mana WAY WAY easier than if you really want to. I don't know if it's enough to reliably get all the way to 15 mana, but I think it's worth testing a variant of the deck optimized for Epiphany and Emrakul. I'll be going for something like this:
23 lands
4 Thirst for Knowledge
2 Epiphany at the Drownyard
2 Everflowing chalice (Could makes for some pretty big epiphanies early)
1 Talisman of Dominance
1 Emrakul
With everything else being pretty close to a shoktroopa style build.
Not all the 5-0 lists gets posted. The same way only the results of one daily, usually the biggest, got posted before leagues was a thing. I had a period were I played a lot of dailies and did well, but none of the dailies showed up because those convenient for those living in Europe were rarely the day's biggest daily. I don't know how they select from the 5-0 lists now though. I'd guess it's random.
I was initially intrigued by Blighted Cataract but I've cooled slightly on it. It's another colorless land, so we either need to play more lands, or get blue via nonland sources. That is Talismans and Baubles and the like. It requires quite a lot of mana, which isn't a problem, but it assumes that we're activating it in the late-game in a topdeck scenario. We already win those topdeck games, don't we? With 7+ mana on the table, most cards we draw allow us to keep going. Be it Thirst, Repeal or one of our big spells.
It occurred to me that if we were willing to play a colorless land for increased card advantage in the very late game we might as well play Darksteel Citadel. It pitches to Thirst, allowing us to get way more selection whenever we resolve one. As we're now able to chose between lands or spells, and still be up cards. In a land flooded situation, as hands with both lands and Maps, you can fetch it up and pitch to Thirst. Without having to discard your other lands, which might become useful for setting up a lock later.
I got a lot of experience with the deck, as it was one of the first decks i built in modern, before I built the old Birthing Pod deck. I've had it as my main deck for a couple of years now. This plus a good knowledge of the modern format really helps in winning games.
I'm also spending a decent amount of time looking at statistics for chances to draw various combinations of cards. As a result most of the time I got a decent feeling for the chances of topdecking a card of type X at any point in the game, and can plan based on that. I've tinkered with my list quite a lot based on that, and I believe I've found a sweet spot where there is no card function in the deck that can't be accessed after drawing approximately the top third of the deck. To do that we need about three copies of the function. For example, despite running only two mainboard boardwhipes, Ugin and O-Stone, I can find them relatively early using Gifts Ungiven. Alternatively, even though I run only one Mindslaver, it can be found via Treasure Mages. Need to flash something back? 1 snap + 2 gearhulks. Bounce? 2 Repeal + 1 Cyclonic rift. Stabilizer? Wurmcoil + Platinum Angel + Ugin. The unique cards that are harder to find, are in a class of card you never need to actively search for. I very rarely need to look for the Solemn Simulacrum or the Talisman of Dominance.
The effect of having a lot of the deck accessible in the mid-game allows for a lot of strategic decisions that couldn't otherwise be made. For instance if I'm good on mana I can sort-of rely on reaching a boardwhipe "soon".
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
1 Talisman of Dominance
4 Expedition Map
Interaction
2 Repeal
4 Condescend
2 Spatial Contortion
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Commit/Memory
2 Remand
1 Spell Burst
2 Chalice of the Void
Value
2 Treasure Mage
1 Gifts Ungiven
4 Thirst for Knowledge
2 Torrential Gearhulk
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Mindslaver
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Platinum Angel
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
Lands
1 Academy Ruins
7 Island
4 Urza's Mine
4 Urza's Tower
4 Urza's Power Plant
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Ghost Quarter
3 Dismember
1 Chalice of the Void
1 Crucible of Worlds
2 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
1 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Commit/Memory
2 Squelch
1 Negate
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Spatial Contortion
As you can see that despite initially championing Gemstone Caverns as an awesome card I've since cooled on its utility. I believe it was good while I suggested it, but the meta has changed since then, and its utility is now somewhat lower. I used its slot to get another land destruction spell in the mainboard to go with the Crucible of Worlds in the sideboard. I'm still thinking the slot could find some better use and I'm going to test Mirrorpool next.
Unlike kharniverous I just don't believe in using two Mindslaver. I've tried it, and I just get them in my hand too often. It might be that he goes for partial locks earlier in the game more often than I do, but I only really need access to it once, and don't recall having trouble finding one when I wanted. Instead of using multiple Mindslavers I've focused my strategy pulling ahead with a pair of Torrential Gearhulks. The extra deck velocity generated by these two allows for running a leaner and more singleton based strategy than would otherwise be possible. They magnify the power of our sideboard, with cards like Dismember and Spatial Contortion being castable several times. They have a also have a nice size vs most of the other creatures played. They do require that I play extra blue, so I've included a singleton Talisman of Dominance, as well as a Wayfarer's Bauble and a Solemn Simulacrum. You can see reasoning for the bauble earlier in the thread if you search. Together these two cards allow me to reach 6 lands at a decent speed, at which point a lot of the value and payoff cards come online.
Commit/Memory is the real deal, be it by casting it EOT using gearhulk (remember, you can cast Memory this way), or by just as an option to cast later in the game when both sides are down to few resources. If you're after side with the extra ugins in the deck it can in some cases reliably be cast -> finish tron -> cast ugin or O-stone in the same sequence.
I strongly believe that you need one or two Ugin, the Spirit Dragon in the sideboard. If you do it opens up the option of siding out the Treasure Mages in matchups like counters company and elves. You will have enough big spells of the correct type without having to spend the three mana tutoring one up using the treasure mage. Instead using these three mana to cast Thirst lets us find both the tron and the big spell at the same time.
Feek free to ask if you have any other questions. =)
For the situation you mentioned about counter + surgical. If i knew nothing else about the game I'd actually be happy in that situation. They spent two cards to deal with the one Mindslaver you had in your hand. It's situations like these that allow us to pull ahead by getting breathing room to pull ahead using Thirst for Knowledge, or by searching up another big artifact with Treasure Mage. The slot used on Telepathy could instead be used on some other big artifact spell somewhere in the deck.
I went 5-0 in a competitive league before the weekend, and again just now. I hope one of them shows up on MtgGoldfish. The one I had a few weeks back didn't. Anyone know how decks get selected to get featured on Wizard's site?
I agree wholeheartedly with this lesson. A card's usefulness is based on what it does, and when it does it. Turn 0 is very early, and since it gives us the effect we're looking for it's well worth the risk of drawing one later. Besides, we run Thirst for Knowledge, we can get rid of a few copies.
While you alluded to it I'll just point out that the value of each subsequent copy is lower than the one before. The first and second copy adds roughly 11%, but the third only adds 9%, and the fourth only 8% to the chance of having in the opener. These numbers are are important, but they also aren't the only numbers to look at. If we look four turns into the game the chances of being stuck with a spare copy of the leyline goes way way up when running three or more. With two leylines the chance is 3.1%, 8.35% with three, and a massive 15% with four. I haven't run the card myself, but it seems to me running one or two copies, and not actively taking mulligans for them is the way to go.
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It's a great card, but there simply isn't enough space for too many draw spells, especially expensive ones like gifts. And as you've likely experienced, playing in a fast meta like the current modern meta means that getting stuck with only draw spells can lead to very quick losses. A big part of Gifts power comes from pulling singletons from the deck and putting them in a zone where we can interact with them, and in my experience you only need that effect about once each game. If you combine this with Gifts actively becoming worse in multiples due to the reduction in cards to pick from, the inclusion of more than one copy becomes hard to justify to most people.
If you want more card advantage in the deck I actually suggest finding space for artifacts. A lot of lists are running 13 or fewer, and at that point the reliability of thirst has already started to dip. By going from 13 to 15 artifacts you get rid of approximately 1 in 7 cases where you start with no artifacts in hand, and haven't found one even after casting thirst. That's an estimate for when you have no artifacts, but it also helps the selection when you do have some by quite a lot. I'm halfway convinced that the reason people are having success running Sundering Titan or more than one Mindslaver is simply because it's an artifact that can get safely discarded to thirst. I believe I fell into that trap myself for a while when I tried running Trophy Mage and Crucible of Worlds in the main. It worked decently, but there are better cards to run. However their actual effectiveness was actively masked by my Thirsts becoming better, something which can be achieved in any number of ways.
Thirst for Knowledge is the core card draw of the deck, don't forget about it when making adjustments elsewhere!
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I played at GP Copenhagen, but had a disappointing finish of 5-4 after day one (no byes). The deck worked fine, but wasn't tuned well because I didn't have time to prepare for the event.
Commit is also pretty good. It's exactly what our decks want by letting us untap before having to deal with the troublesome permanent again. Four mana is a bit much though, so I don't know if we can run more than one or two. I've been taking it in against creature decks, as well as being a solution to troublesome permanents. It probably beats out repeal number 3. Also, there's an interesting interaction with Torrential Gearhulk. Gearhulk's trigger can cast both sides of the card. Allowing us cast Gearhulk EOT, and untap with 7 fresh cards. Casting Gifts Ungiven makes this interaction far far more likely to happen.
I want to find space for another Ugin somewhere, but can't quite fit him in. Maybe I should be replacing a surgical in the side, since he does help vs Dredge as well.
2 Chalice of the Void
4 Expedition Map
Small Bodies
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Trophy Mage
2 Treasure Mage
Trophy mage Package
1 Filigree Familiar
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Oblivion Stone
Big Stuff
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Mindslaver
1 Torrential Gearhulk
1 Platinum Angel
1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
Counterspells
2 Remand
3 Censor
4 Condescend
1 Cyclonic Rift
2 Repeal
2 Spatial Contortion
Draw Spells
1 Gifts Ungiven
4 Thirst for Knowledge
Lands
1 Academy Ruins
1 Polluted Delta
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
1 Ghost Quarter
2 Gemstone Caverns
4 Urza's Mine
4 Urza's Tower
4 Urza's Power Plant
5 Island
3 Dismember
1 Chalice of the Void
3 Surgical Extraction
1 Negate
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Spatial Contortion
1 Tectonic Edge
2 Squelch
1 Spreading Seas
1 Commit/Memory
Recently I came across another card, which I suppose fills the niche of t1 plays. Avarice Totem. I had skipped over it several times while looking through the list of cheap artifacts, thinking it was probably pretty bad. However once I tried it I realized the downsides weren't as big as I initially thought, and the upsides were actually pretty big. I suppose it could get compared to Control Magic, which is a pretty powerful cards, which you might have experienced by playing it in cube. Dunno how well it would fit in to the modern metagame though. The Avarice Totem has a higher upfront cost of 6 mana (1+5), but one of them can be paid of on a turn we're not tapping out on anyways, and it requires no blue. Even if we're using our T1 on some other spell, like Map, using 6 mana on casting the totem later becomes a way smaller problem. The totem has the upside being able to trade for nonland permanents, as opposed to creatures, which sometimes can be very relevant. The downside of our opponent trading the totem back for 5 mana isn't too big either, because that would require that they have 5 mana AND more than one card as pressure on the board. If their board presence is only one creature, it'll stay summoning sick due to switching control between the players. There's also a few nice interactions we have with bounce. We can first trade the totem, and when they can't activate it back, or even in response to their trade we can bounce it back to our own hand using Repeal or Cyclonic Rift.
I tinkered with a graphing program last week, and ended up modelling how I think about its possible interactions. I've attached a copy of the result. I may be overly positive on the card, but I'd love to see if anyone has any thoughts about it.
I have a few distinct lines to go for here.
So, what's the play?
In response to me casting Spatial Contortion on Young Pyromancer he fired of two CMC 1 spells to cash in for tokens. He attacks me down to 11 the following turn.
Turn 5: I play land, and pass. On his combat I cast Snapcaster targeting Spatial Contortion and kill one of his tokens. He casts Terminate to kill my Snapcaster. This allows two of his tokens through for 2 damage putting me at 9.
No more spells were played that game. The two tokens left over get to attack 5 more times without any interaction. My last 6 draws were Expedition Maps and Lands.
Now that more of us are running Chalice of the Void and Spatial Contortion in the mainboard, the need for very early blue mana has gone down a bit. What ways could we find to get reliable access to blue mana without using Talismans? If such a change can be found, would this allow us to play Mind Stone instead? With a way to get reliable blue mana without artifacts we also wouldn't be messing with the the number of blue sources during sideboarding. This can be important as some of the decks that run Stony Silence are the very same decks that can require that we have good access to two blue sources.
23 lands
4 Thirst for Knowledge
2 Epiphany at the Drownyard
2 Everflowing chalice (Could makes for some pretty big epiphanies early)
1 Talisman of Dominance
1 Emrakul
With everything else being pretty close to a shoktroopa style build.
It occurred to me that if we were willing to play a colorless land for increased card advantage in the very late game we might as well play Darksteel Citadel. It pitches to Thirst, allowing us to get way more selection whenever we resolve one. As we're now able to chose between lands or spells, and still be up cards. In a land flooded situation, as hands with both lands and Maps, you can fetch it up and pitch to Thirst. Without having to discard your other lands, which might become useful for setting up a lock later.