The deck itself felt pretty good but very inconsistent. It required you to have 2-3 lands, at least 1 big mill card (mind sculpt or breaking) and a few creatures in your opening hand or in the first 2 draws or so to be good...otherwise, you would just end up with a bunch of 1/1 or 2/2 until t5-6 and get smashed by their big stuff and having to chump with your creatures before they could grow, or you would have a bunch of cards in their graveyard but no board presence at all...and by the time you actually pull something out, they would have an answer to it...
This looks like a very hard combo to pull off that may or may not kill the opponent :S
Remember that trait doctoring only changes a color until EOT so for this to work, you would need both creatures on the board, cast trait doctoring and then mill the opponent and pray that you hit a lot of creatures :S
I feel like for this deck to actually work, you pretty much need a hand with 1-2 creatures, at least one of the big mill cards (breaking // entering, mind sculpt) and some mana...which lead me to put some vampire nighthawk back into the deck. They allow me to stabilise more easily and keep some hands that I would have had to mulligan if it were not there.
Score wise, I have been having so-so success with this deck. It just feels very inconsistent. Sometimes, you will have all the cards in your hand and your wight of precinct six or jace's phantasm just get big ridiculously fast. Other times you just sit there with either no creatures and a bunch of mill cards or a bunch of creatures but no mill to make them bigger =/
Unfortunately Spark Trooper reads "at the beginning of the next end step"
So you have to sacrifice at the beginning of the opponent's end step
Unless you have two Legion's Initiative
But I'm not sure where I got off the highway and veered into Magical Christmas land
Huh? Legion's initiative is returned at the next combat phase at the same time as all your creatures. All you would have to do is repay the cost during his turn and re exile them until your combat phase no?
I find it a little bit easier to manage fast aggro by adding a lot of spot removal (6-7) and keeping 4 wight, the spot removal not only takes away a threat but also boosts ur wight. If you can get one of them to stick, a single mind sculpt usually gets him bigger than most of the enemy monsters.
As a side note, there are a few interesting cards new cards that could work with this from dragonmaze.
Hidden strings could be nice on an early Jace's Phantasm, allowing you to ramp and mill faster, something like (in an ideal world) t1:JP, t2: hidden string, mind sculpt, swing and then have 2 mana for more mill or anything like that could be interesting. It does leave us weak against 2 for 1 but then again, it can also be used to tap enemy creatures and let our stuff get in so its not like a total dead card or soemthing
breaking // entering a definite 4 for obvious reasons, plus it works really well with thought scour, bringing the enemy graveyard to the magical 10
noting thief on the sideboard sounds really great against control decks
The veilborn ghoul is a bad card here because:
1. It is bad as a creature, so you wont be casting it.
2. sphinx of the chimes is a 6CMC card, so say you draw 2 veilborn ghoul of them within your opening hand and the next 5 cards(if your on the play, 6 of your on the draw), your hand would be consisting of 6 lands, 2 veilborn ghoul and 1 sphinx of the chimes leaving 3-4 cards for you to play on your first 6 turns which is a less than ideal position to be in. Not to mention that if you miss a land drop or the sphinx or 1 ghoul, the ghoul/s is/are just going to be (a) dead card/s in your hand.
The thing with fencing ace is that it begins with a 1/1 body, so it takes at least 2 other cards (if not 3) to get it out of searing spear range. Most of the time, with the +1/+1 buffs you have, it will still be vulnerable to pillar of flame
Other than that, you are currently pretty much leaving yourself open to 2 for 1 everywhere. alpha authority could help with that but it's very much on the slower side. ranger's guile could would be a definite 4 here imho.
One other card to consider might be thalia, guardian of thraben which might help for more control-ish matchups
Assume lands are played each turn. On the play:
T1: Dream Twist targeting self into deck's only Mirror-Mad Phantasm.
T2: Use Phantasm's ability to mill deck.
This is your opponent by the way.
Your turns played out like this.
T1: Go.
T2: Go.
What? You said it was Magical Christmas Land! I devised a way you win without doing a thing.
Umm... not only does the mirror-mad phantasm need to be in play for you to be able to activate it's ability, but the card gets reshuffled into your deck when you activate it, it is therefore impossible for you to mill yourself out with it unless it was a copy/token or so
It does not change the game or probabilities -- it only changes your knowledge of the probabilites.
How does this even make sense? Probability is the estimation of how likely an event is going to happen. If a card has been milled, the probability of drawing that card is now 0%, thus the probability has changed.
Every card among the bottom 40 cards in a game where you don't draw more than 20 cards could just as well have been exiled or milled out from the bottom of your library, without affecting the actual probabilites of drawing them; You would not have drawn them.
It is true that in the given situation, the physical bottom 40 cards would not have been drawn and that they might as well not have been there. However, the important part of this is not the physical cards but the information that players have at their disposal during the game.
In a game, any card in your deck has the same likelihood to be on the top, middle or bottom of the deck. The act of milling or exiling reveals the cards and tells the player that the exiled/milled card are, with certainty, not the card they are going to draw next. This information is real and has real impact upon decisions made in games.
For example, if a player see all 4 supreme verdict in his opponent's graveyard, he knows that he can safely play without playing around supreme verdict
Now. Because you don't know where the cards in your library are, the effect of milling the top of your library instead of the bottom, in decks that don't manipulate their own libraries, has no bearing on the probabilites -- it just lets you know the probabilities.
It is true that milling from the top, the middle, or the bottom of the deck has no incidence on the probabilities as every physical card in the deck can be considered, simultaneously, as a land, a creatures, a sorcery and any other card in the deck. However, as I stated before, it is not the physical card that was milled out that is important, it is the knowledge that the card can no longer be drawn.
I don't think so. Those cards were already randomized in their deck.
Look at ADW's explanation, I think he put it really well.
Nope, initially, in a completely randomized deck, every card has a chance of 1/60 to be drawn. But as cards gets drawn or milled, the probability of drawing X card is now conditional because of the card that has already been milled/drawn are no longer in the deck.
Not to mention that milling is nothing like pulling out face down cards from the bottom of the deck. Putting cards into the graveyard gives a lot of information to both players and affect the way will go significantly. The milling effect may be random, the the decisions you make afterwards are conditional to the cards that were milled.
wight of precinct six requires at the very least 2, if not 3 creatures in the opponents graveyard to be anything other than a chump blocker imo, and this deck does not seem to be able make it happen before in a reliable fashion before turn 5-6. I mean sure, it is possible dimir charm t2 into mind rot discard 2 creatures or psychic strike mill 2 creatures. But that would mean that you are against an aggro matchup, in which case i can't see why he would discard 2 creatures, and you probably won't have the chance to psychic strike due to all the cavern of souls floating around. Against a more control-ish matchup, your wight is more than likely going to stay a 1/1 - 2/2 for the better part of the game. And this is not even taking into account all the removal spells out there abrupt decay, murderdevour fleshvictim of nighttragic slip, etc
You lack removal spells in this deck. dimir charm is a very limited removal option and grisly spectacle is very slow, especially against those explosive aggro decks like naya blitz and such. More removal would also feed into your wight.
You desperately need some form of sweeper here, and, as mentioned by the previous poster mutliate could be a great option, not to mention that it also feeds your wight
From experience playing with a deck very similar to yours,
1. Not a very big fan of duskmantle guildmage. He is very weak @ 2/2, he dies to pretty much any monster any agro deck is going to throw at you and dosn't do much (battle wise) against control, other than being a chump blocker. His abilities are too expensive especially if you are trying to keep mana u for psychic strike or trying to play increasing confusions and the such. IMO, deathrite shaman (although being a bit expensive for a budget deck) is just better in every possible way. Its a turn 1 play, it can ramp you by exiling milled lands and can do dmg with his second ability. His abilities are a lot cheaper, and he chumps just as well in worst case scenarios.
2. dream twist is a must in this deck, since you want to get the opponent graveyard to at least 10 as fast as you can to enable your jace's phantasm and dream twist + [card]mind sculpt[card/] allows you to do that quite nicely.
3. You might want to look at desecration demon. big 6/6 flyer, great for blocking, attacking, making the opponent sac their creatures and is a potential target for essence harvest
4. This deck really needs something on the sideboard to counter those rest in peace so things like negate, duress or stuff like that on the side board are a must
1 Breeding Pool
4 Drowned Catacomb
2 Hinterland Harbor
5 Island
1 Overgrown Tomb
6 Swamp
1 Watery Grave
2 Woodland Cemetery
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Jace's Phantasm
4 Wight of Precinct Six
3 Vampire Nighthawk
3 Consuming Aberration
Spells
4 Thought Scour
4 Breaking // Entering
3 Mind Sculpt
3 Sheltering Word
2 Essence Harvest
2 Far // Away
2 Pilfered Plans
The deck itself felt pretty good but very inconsistent. It required you to have 2-3 lands, at least 1 big mill card (mind sculpt or breaking) and a few creatures in your opening hand or in the first 2 draws or so to be good...otherwise, you would just end up with a bunch of 1/1 or 2/2 until t5-6 and get smashed by their big stuff and having to chump with your creatures before they could grow, or you would have a bunch of cards in their graveyard but no board presence at all...and by the time you actually pull something out, they would have an answer to it...
Remember that trait doctoring only changes a color until EOT so for this to work, you would need both creatures on the board, cast trait doctoring and then mill the opponent and pray that you hit a lot of creatures :S
Have you considered cipher spells? The cipher proc would activate both guttersnipe and talrand, sky summoner
4 Drowned Catacomb
2 Hinterland Harbor
6 Island
1 Overgrown Tomb
6 Swamp
1 Watery Grave
2 Woodland Cemetery
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Jace's Phantasm
4 Wight of Precinct Six
4 Vampire Nighthawk
3 Consuming Aberration
Instant
4 Thought Scour
2 Sheltering Word
2 Far // Away
4 Breaking // Entering
2 Mind Sculpt
2 Essence Harvest
3 Pilfered Plans
I feel like for this deck to actually work, you pretty much need a hand with 1-2 creatures, at least one of the big mill cards (breaking // entering, mind sculpt) and some mana...which lead me to put some vampire nighthawk back into the deck. They allow me to stabilise more easily and keep some hands that I would have had to mulligan if it were not there.
Score wise, I have been having so-so success with this deck. It just feels very inconsistent. Sometimes, you will have all the cards in your hand and your wight of precinct six or jace's phantasm just get big ridiculously fast. Other times you just sit there with either no creatures and a bunch of mill cards or a bunch of creatures but no mill to make them bigger =/
Huh? Legion's initiative is returned at the next combat phase at the same time as all your creatures. All you would have to do is repay the cost during his turn and re exile them until your combat phase no?
As a side note, there are a few interesting cards new cards that could work with this from dragonmaze.
Hidden strings could be nice on an early Jace's Phantasm, allowing you to ramp and mill faster, something like (in an ideal world) t1:JP, t2: hidden string, mind sculpt, swing and then have 2 mana for more mill or anything like that could be interesting. It does leave us weak against 2 for 1 but then again, it can also be used to tap enemy creatures and let our stuff get in so its not like a total dead card or soemthing
breaking // entering a definite 4 for obvious reasons, plus it works really well with thought scour, bringing the enemy graveyard to the magical 10
noting thief on the sideboard sounds really great against control decks
warped physique/far // away potentially a sweet removal in our colors
pilfered plans draw 2 cards? its in sorcery so its a bit slow tho...but will defenitly playtest it
any opinions?
1. It is bad as a creature, so you wont be casting it.
2. sphinx of the chimes is a 6CMC card, so say you draw 2 veilborn ghoul of them within your opening hand and the next 5 cards(if your on the play, 6 of your on the draw), your hand would be consisting of 6 lands, 2 veilborn ghoul and 1 sphinx of the chimes leaving 3-4 cards for you to play on your first 6 turns which is a less than ideal position to be in. Not to mention that if you miss a land drop or the sphinx or 1 ghoul, the ghoul/s is/are just going to be (a) dead card/s in your hand.
Other than that, you are currently pretty much leaving yourself open to 2 for 1 everywhere. alpha authority could help with that but it's very much on the slower side. ranger's guile could would be a definite 4 here imho.
One other card to consider might be thalia, guardian of thraben which might help for more control-ish matchups
Umm... not only does the mirror-mad phantasm need to be in play for you to be able to activate it's ability, but the card gets reshuffled into your deck when you activate it, it is therefore impossible for you to mill yourself out with it unless it was a copy/token or so
How does this even make sense? Probability is the estimation of how likely an event is going to happen. If a card has been milled, the probability of drawing that card is now 0%, thus the probability has changed.
It is true that in the given situation, the physical bottom 40 cards would not have been drawn and that they might as well not have been there. However, the important part of this is not the physical cards but the information that players have at their disposal during the game.
In a game, any card in your deck has the same likelihood to be on the top, middle or bottom of the deck. The act of milling or exiling reveals the cards and tells the player that the exiled/milled card are, with certainty, not the card they are going to draw next. This information is real and has real impact upon decisions made in games.
For example, if a player see all 4 supreme verdict in his opponent's graveyard, he knows that he can safely play without playing around supreme verdict
It is true that milling from the top, the middle, or the bottom of the deck has no incidence on the probabilities as every physical card in the deck can be considered, simultaneously, as a land, a creatures, a sorcery and any other card in the deck. However, as I stated before, it is not the physical card that was milled out that is important, it is the knowledge that the card can no longer be drawn.
Nope, initially, in a completely randomized deck, every card has a chance of 1/60 to be drawn. But as cards gets drawn or milled, the probability of drawing X card is now conditional because of the card that has already been milled/drawn are no longer in the deck.
Not to mention that milling is nothing like pulling out face down cards from the bottom of the deck. Putting cards into the graveyard gives a lot of information to both players and affect the way will go significantly. The milling effect may be random, the the decisions you make afterwards are conditional to the cards that were milled.
No, a replacement effect cannot modify the same event more than once. You can look at the previous ruling of plagiarize for further details
You lack removal spells in this deck. dimir charm is a very limited removal option and grisly spectacle is very slow, especially against those explosive aggro decks like naya blitz and such. More removal would also feed into your wight.
You desperately need some form of sweeper here, and, as mentioned by the previous poster mutliate could be a great option, not to mention that it also feeds your wight
But in general, it feels like you don't really have an answer to the aggro match up, and the control matchup just foils your plan with by having very little creatures,rendering the wight useless, and beats your shrieking affliction with sphinx's revelation, think twice, detention sphere, oblivion ring, etc etc etc
From experience playing with a deck very similar to yours,
1. Not a very big fan of duskmantle guildmage. He is very weak @ 2/2, he dies to pretty much any monster any agro deck is going to throw at you and dosn't do much (battle wise) against control, other than being a chump blocker. His abilities are too expensive especially if you are trying to keep mana u for psychic strike or trying to play increasing confusions and the such. IMO, deathrite shaman (although being a bit expensive for a budget deck) is just better in every possible way. Its a turn 1 play, it can ramp you by exiling milled lands and can do dmg with his second ability. His abilities are a lot cheaper, and he chumps just as well in worst case scenarios.
2. dream twist is a must in this deck, since you want to get the opponent graveyard to at least 10 as fast as you can to enable your jace's phantasm and dream twist + [card]mind sculpt[card/] allows you to do that quite nicely.
3. You might want to look at desecration demon. big 6/6 flyer, great for blocking, attacking, making the opponent sac their creatures and is a potential target for essence harvest
4. This deck really needs something on the sideboard to counter those rest in peace so things like negate, duress or stuff like that on the side board are a must