QQ over the fact that Elspeth is still $15++ despite her duel deck coming soon which will cost only slightly more and comes with Kiora + possible goodies.
I've been toying around with the idea of making one drop zoo more burn oriented. There's a lot of burn potential in bolt, helix, tribal flames, boros charm, and my new test subject, jeskai charm.
I've been playing with 2 jeskai charms and they've performed very well. At certain points, a jeskai control/midrange or u/r player might tap out for a bolt or snapcaster bolt against one of the 2/3s or a nacatl, at which point +1/+1 and lifelink the team is REALLY powerful. Pushes through more damage and allows you to recover some of the life loss from lands, and ya, there's quite a bit of life payment in 5c zoo.
There's also the idea of just burning for 4 or 5 turn after turn. It feels less one sided than burn, but with as much reach.
One thing about this set that's such a bummer is that all the cool abilities are triggered upon attacking and exclude tokens. I'm okay with having to tap sideways, but let's give tokens some more love. After all, it's not like they'd be too busted. Aetherspouts annihilates tokens, anger of the gods, etc.
After seeing how u/w/r can run 4 Stormbreath Dragons in the SB, it got me thinking what green creature is worth sideboarding. I'm thinking maybe Sylvan Primordial. 7/8 stats, reach, and the ability to destroy spheres/banishing lights/enemy planeswalkers/mutavaults/other lands. The only problem is resolving it. In game 2, the negates and dispels come in against control, but there's the chance of counterflux ruining any plans. I tried voice of resurgence in the side, but I haven't seen it while testing too much.
Jace, AoT might get shaved down to 3 copies, but right now I feel comfortable with 4. I want to possibly cut the number of sphere/lights because of the overwhelming number of ways to negate it. Especially with dredge/junk decks. Not sure. Kiora definitely feels powerful, I like 3. When playing the other night, I had Elspeth and Kiora out aswell as Jace and Kiora out at separate times, both times to have the Kiora targeted before Elspeth/Jace. The race to ultimate is really threatening with control.
I'm having fun with the deck, I don't think it's incredibly overpowered, but I enjoy the playstyle.
After tonight, I've decided Selesnya Charm will be great in the SB. I'll probably gut the voices. More edits and coherent reasoning tomorrow. I'm wiped.
Interesting note of the night: Played against u/w control in match 2. We played game 1 for the entire round, went to turns, drew. I ultimated Kiora twice. The first one right behind turns, and the 2nd when it the match was pretty much over.
I'd rather play Divination, Font of Fortunes, Opportunity, or any other card draw spell than Steam Augury. Giving your opponent options and at the same time is really bad.
I've been trying to make a Bant midrange deck work, but I've come to the learn that the midrange deck dies to u/w/x control despite having 3 md Voice of Resurgence. I had the same idea as many others where you'd take half of the control elements (2 or 3) such as Supreme Verdict and Sphinx's Revelation and combo it with flash/archangel cuteness. The control player will have counters at the ready for when you start getting PW mana and last breaths and other 1 for 1 kill spells for the small stuff. Threw back in the full counter suite and 4 verdicts. Here's the Bant Control list I've been working on:
I took the one of Ajani out for a main deck negate because we're living in standard where people can't run 30+ creatures in a domri deck. Aggro decks have to play non creature spells now.
Comments/criticism?
Edit: Playtested against a pretty decent u/w/r player. Counterflux is the main reason I envy u/w/r at the moment. It's hard not to switch.
Question, how does Bant deal with Stormbreath Dragon? I'm running a Bant midrange/control deck atm, and I'm starting to see the double dmg dictate with stormbreath a lot, it's a nasty combo. The only answers I can think of are Kiora, Elspeth, celes flare (which I don't run MB), and ofc verdict.
I was having a great time with the deck today playing online until I played against mono red. G1 I lost to a t2 BTE, BTE, Firefist... G2 lost to double Peak Eruption. Peak Eruption is enough to turn this deck into U/W pretty fast. If we had u/r or u/w scry lands, it would be a lot easier, but until then, Peak Eruption shows U/W/R a real, real bad time.
It depends on how many people are playing Combo-style decks in your area. If you're in a 4-man EDH game where everybody is playing a fair game, chances are you'll need board wipes as opposed to counter spells.
But...
If you're sitting at a table where everybody is playing blue, you'll need some ammo for the counter/combo war.
The hardest hitting enchantment hate in EDH, by far, is Merciless Eviction. Any mass removal for Enchantments/non-land is pretty devastating for us, Eviction just makes Replenish and return effects null. =( I lost a Blind Obedience, Karmic Justice, Land Tax, and O-Ring today during a 4 player EDH. Eventually won off of a tutored Blood/bond combo however.
In the meta around my area, people have a lot of non-creature hate (as they should), but not so much graveyard hate. I know that I have to look for a Replenish, but I'm also thinking of adding a Snapcaster Mage.
@Comicalflop - Zur's Weirding and Spreading Plague sound like great additions to the deck. I foresee some incredible shenanigans with Zur's Weirding and likely some raised fists from my girlfriend playing Nekusar.
Rift is so devastating late game because there's simply no drawback (other than the 7 mana it takes to overload). I took Well of Lost Dreams out of my deck because I haven't had a problem with staying over 5+ cards in hand. I don't run many Spellbook type cards. I think all I run is Reliquary Tower and Venser's Journal. I hate having to go to discard at EOT, even if it's just a land being tossed.
Have any of you thought of using Blood Baron of Vizkopa? I came dangerously close last night to getting an extremely early win off an Oloro 1v1 mirror after playing Blood Baron followed by -3'ing Sorin Markov. Blood Baron + Sorin/Magister is pretty powerful considering it's a one shot kill. I wonder if Wizards thought about that synergy when creating Blood Baron.
Edit: Also, has any thought of using the fluffy pillow that is Witchbane Orb?
I need her to help send my rhino recruits
4 Loam Lion
4 Kird Ape
4 Wild Nacatl
2 Ghor-Clan Rampager
2 Snapcaster Mage
4 Dryad Militant (testing)
3 Lightning Helix
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Path to Exile
2 Boros Charm
2 Jeskai Charm (testing)
3 Tribal Flame
1 Plains
1 Temple Garden
1 Steam Vents
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Blood Crypt
2 Stomping Ground
2 Sacred Foundry
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Scalding Tarn
2 WindSwept Heath
2 Arid Mesa
SB is still shaky. Not sure if 20 lands vs 21 is better. Jeskai charm seems powerful.
I've been playing with 2 jeskai charms and they've performed very well. At certain points, a jeskai control/midrange or u/r player might tap out for a bolt or snapcaster bolt against one of the 2/3s or a nacatl, at which point +1/+1 and lifelink the team is REALLY powerful. Pushes through more damage and allows you to recover some of the life loss from lands, and ya, there's quite a bit of life payment in 5c zoo.
There's also the idea of just burning for 4 or 5 turn after turn. It feels less one sided than burn, but with as much reach.
I'll post a deck list in a bit.
-1 Goldmane
-2 Sarkhan
+1 Niccy B
+1 Ajani Vengeant
+1 Kiora
I'd also try and squeeze a Gideon Jura in there too.
1 Negate
1 Syncopate
1 Last Breath
3 Azorius Charm
4 Supreme verdict
4 Detention Sphere
1 Banishing Light
4 Sphinx's Revelation
4 Jace, Architect of Thought
3 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
3 Kiora, the Crashing Wave
2 Plains
1 Mutavault
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Breeding Pool
2 Temple Garden
4 Temple of Enlightenment
4 Temple of Mystery
4 Temple of Plenty
2 Negate
1 Jace, Memory Adept
1 Aetherling
2 Celestial Flare
2 Nyx-fleece Ram
2 Archangel of Thune
2 Deicide
1 Glare of Heresy
2 Mistcutter Hydra
After seeing how u/w/r can run 4 Stormbreath Dragons in the SB, it got me thinking what green creature is worth sideboarding. I'm thinking maybe Sylvan Primordial. 7/8 stats, reach, and the ability to destroy spheres/banishing lights/enemy planeswalkers/mutavaults/other lands. The only problem is resolving it. In game 2, the negates and dispels come in against control, but there's the chance of counterflux ruining any plans. I tried voice of resurgence in the side, but I haven't seen it while testing too much.
Jace, AoT might get shaved down to 3 copies, but right now I feel comfortable with 4. I want to possibly cut the number of sphere/lights because of the overwhelming number of ways to negate it. Especially with dredge/junk decks. Not sure. Kiora definitely feels powerful, I like 3. When playing the other night, I had Elspeth and Kiora out aswell as Jace and Kiora out at separate times, both times to have the Kiora targeted before Elspeth/Jace. The race to ultimate is really threatening with control.
I'm having fun with the deck, I don't think it's incredibly overpowered, but I enjoy the playstyle.
Interesting note of the night: Played against u/w control in match 2. We played game 1 for the entire round, went to turns, drew. I ultimated Kiora twice. The first one right behind turns, and the 2nd when it the match was pretty much over.
3 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
3 Jace, Architect of Thought
4 Detention Sphere
2 Banishing Light
4 Supreme Verdict
3 Azorius Charm
1 Last breath
4 Dissolve
1 Syncopate
1 Negate
4 Breeding Pool
4 Temple Garden
4 Temple of Mystery
4 Temple of Plenty
4 temple of Enlightenment
2 Island
1 Plains
I took the one of Ajani out for a main deck negate because we're living in standard where people can't run 30+ creatures in a domri deck. Aggro decks have to play non creature spells now.
Comments/criticism?
Edit: Playtested against a pretty decent u/w/r player. Counterflux is the main reason I envy u/w/r at the moment. It's hard not to switch.
It depends on how many people are playing Combo-style decks in your area. If you're in a 4-man EDH game where everybody is playing a fair game, chances are you'll need board wipes as opposed to counter spells.
But...
If you're sitting at a table where everybody is playing blue, you'll need some ammo for the counter/combo war.
@Comicalflop - Zur's Weirding and Spreading Plague sound like great additions to the deck. I foresee some incredible shenanigans with Zur's Weirding and likely some raised fists from my girlfriend playing Nekusar.
Have any of you thought of using Blood Baron of Vizkopa? I came dangerously close last night to getting an extremely early win off an Oloro 1v1 mirror after playing Blood Baron followed by -3'ing Sorin Markov. Blood Baron + Sorin/Magister is pretty powerful considering it's a one shot kill. I wonder if Wizards thought about that synergy when creating Blood Baron.
Edit: Also, has any thought of using the fluffy pillow that is Witchbane Orb?