The next set of these figures is Sarkhan, Tezzeret, Elspeth, Gideon Jura and Nicol Bolas, and they said that they aren't releasing them until the next set comes out. Maybe toy companies get notified of what Planeswalkers will be involved with the next set to plan? We already know Sarkhan is going to be there, and Elspeth was in the last set, so those make sense, however I could see Tezzeret, Gideon and Bolas all being involved in the next block. Thoughts?
I felt that Pharika was unnecessary; there are already plenty of enchantments in this deck to trigger constellation, and exiling creature cards from our graveyard is counter-productive. I also am running Boon Satyr instead of Nighthowler now. Nighthowler is good, but is unreliable sometimes. Maybe I'll add him back in as a one-of. I added more Gnarled Scarhide; even though he's not the greatest fit for this deck, he's still an enchantment creature with two power and a mana cost of one with the option to bestow. Now since I word it like that, he's actually a great fit for this deck. Mutavaults have been added as well because Mutavaults are great. Commune with the Gods has been added as well, to ensure our graveyard is nice and plump.
EDIT: I'm taking out the Brain Maggots for Nighthowler. I feel that we need to make full use of the graveyard with more than just Strength from the Fallen. Also, since we really only care about the creatures in the graveyard, Deathrite Shaman will help us make use of the other spells poured into the graveyard.
I think I'm going in a different direction, using lots of graveyard shenanigans as well as Constellation.
There was originally a thread for this but an admin decided it wasn't "different enough" from Rockstars and closed it. Pity, because that would have been more in line with your list.
OK, first off: Lacking Commune with the Gods seems really bad for you. It is so much cheaper than Insight and does so much of what you want. It can dig for Strength while setting up your yard, it really is the best dredger for this list.
Secondly, Scarhide simply doesn't fit with what you're trying to do here. You don't want cheap early rush dudes who just get outclassed in a few turns, because you're not an aggro rush deck. You're a dredge midrange deck, it's important not to lose focus. You need more Nyx Weavers, more dredgers, and most of all, you need more Temples so you can dig faster for Strength and more Dredgers.
Thirdly, your colors don't prevent you from running 2-3 Mutavaults. I keep saying this to people in this thread but no one seems to listen. I don't care if your buff of choice is Primeval Bounty, Strength, or even Dictate of Heliod - Mutavault can pick up that buff and crash in for damage *the turn after a Verdict*. That means U/W/x control is never safe as long as you have a Muta on board. Doesn't that sound fine? Them never being safe against you? Why would you throw away the option of making that happen? Mutavault is the only creature you can run that they can never counter. Think about Strength, Mutavault, and Boon Satyr in hand, swinging in against Elspeth. You could just stomp her guts out right past her team. No Hero's Downfall required!
Strength from the Fallen is our main damage dealer, while both Eidolon of Blossoms and Kruphix's Insight give us plenty of card advantage. Doomwake Gaint helps weaken and kill other creatures, and Pharika allows us to activate Constellation over and over. Renowned Weaver gives us a cheap creature that can both throw itself in the graveyard and activate Constellation. Nyx Weaver activates Constellation, fuels our graveyard and can snipe us the card we need most. Brain Maggot is great against control, and in late game still activates Constellation and dies easily for the graveyard, in case it's late game and we weren't able to nab a card. Courser does it all and has been proven time and time again.
Courser, Nyx Weaver, and Nighthowler are all better than Renowned Weaver. And Boon Satyr is even better than them. You are running Strength from the Fallen, which is a constellation combat pump trick - why aren't you running the best flash enchantment in Standard?? Boon Satyr mana open + Strength and a blocker onboard = opponent has to think really long and hard before every attack. If you're not going to play to the strengths of your strategy, you should be running a more straight-up Rock approach, because you need to maximize the power of the Fallen trigger to make up for all the bad cards it requires you to run (coughwayfindercough). Decks like this one are fine but you need to focus on your strategy and squeeze every drop out of it that you possibly can.
If I cut both Scarhide and Renowned Weaver, should I just run 4 Thoughtsieze as my one drop? Also, Boon Satyr is great, but it's really hard to put in yet another 3 drop in this deck. Commune of the Gods is proven, but I really wanted to give Kruphix's Insight a try, usually drawing 2 cards and throwing 4 in the graveyard for 3 mana is impressive, and sometimes you get to draw 3 cards off of it. I'll throw in at least 2 Commune of the Gods for now, and if I like it more than KI, then I'll run more.
Mutavault is a great addition, I'll be sure to run them. I also need to find more room for Nyx Weavers, as they do a lot for this deck.
Strength from the Fallen is our main damage dealer, while both Eidolon of Blossoms and Kruphix's Insight give us plenty of card advantage. Doomwake Gaint helps weaken and kill other creatures, and Pharika allows us to activate Constellation over and over. Renowned Weaver gives us a cheap creature that can both throw itself in the graveyard and activate Constellation. Nyx Weaver activates Constellation, fuels our graveyard and can snipe us the card we need most. Brain Maggot is great against control, and in late game still activates Constellation and dies easily for the graveyard, in case it's late game and we weren't able to nab a card. Courser does it all and has been proven time and time again.
Brave the Elements is definitely a fantastic card, but since my build is (supposed to be) God-centric I want to maximize the number of permanents I'm playing. If I wanted to play Brave the Elements, I feel like I'd just drop the Gods, play eight one drops, and curve out at three. That could an overly simplistic assessment though.
Still somewhat unsatisfied with the board however, I might check out Fiendslayer Paladin.
Brave the Elements is one of the strongest cards you can run in this deck. It's protection, evasion and counterspell all in one cmc1 instant. Eidolon of Countless Battles has won me a few games. Getting +5/+5 or so is bonkers.
Usually a contol deck's plan is to counter spells, draw cards, kill threats and lay down a late game finisher. This has elements of a control deck, however, the mana curve is much smaller and instead of drawing cards, we're preventing the opponent from having anything useful in hand. This deck has a constant eye on the opponent's hand, so we know when to play what and know which cards will prevent them from drawing or playing anything useful.
Dakra Mystic: The role of this card is a little different than what you would expect. Normally, we care more about what card we're able to draw, and if it's worth letting the opponent draw. In this scenario, we're preventing the opponent from drawing the cards they need while occasionally drawing some cards for ourselves. Oh, their mana flooded this game? Let them draw the lands revealed and get rid of the creatures. Brain Maggot: This is our Thoughtseize via creature. It's not QUITE as powerful as Thoughtseize, but it does exactly what we need it to - get rid of prominent threats in our opponent's hand. Pain Seer: Since we're able to keep the opponent's early threats off the field, this card should have no problem untapping at least a few times in a game to do some damage and draw us some cards. This is a very good shell for this creature due to the low average CMC and the ability to kill or prevent anything that may be able to block it. Lifebane Zombie: No, this card isn't always able to discard something, but it still has evasion and 3 power. When facing the right kind of deck, this card can be devastating. Desecration Demon: The few creatures that they will be able to play will either fall prey to Desecration Demon or they'll face 6 damage each turn. This is the perfect finisher in this deck.
Instants / Sorceries:
Thoughtseize: The premier discard spell. Hit everything, low cost, this card does everything we want it to. Rip apart the opponent's hand. Negate: Good for keeping our creatures alive and preventing draw spells from occuring. Essence Scatter Good for keeping their creatures at bay, of course. What else is Essence Scatter going to do? Dimir Charm: Takes care of pesky lower power creatures, can completely ruin scry set ups and hey, maybe we might even counter a random sorcery once in a while. Psychic Strike: Our main counterspell. Why play this over Dissolve? Mostly due to cast-ability, but also because the few cards off the top of the library could help in this deck sometimes. Hero's Downfall: Takes care of whatever creature or planeswalker we weren't able to discard or counter.
Other Spells:
Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver: Can help us conjure up some of our opponent's creatures, and if the game goes stale for a REALLY long time, I guess that this can mill them to death. This deck is very good at stalling, so this might happen more often than you expect, but still not very often.
Lands:
Of course, we're running 4 of the shock and scry for these colors. We run so few lands (23) because of the low mana cost of our spells and we need to be hitting disruption of some sort each turn.
Sideboard:
Duress: More discard! Yay! Perfect against control decks and other non-creature heavy decks which may show up. Doomblade: Great card for non-black decks. Need I say more? Ultimate Price: Great card for mono-color decks. Need I say more? Essence Scatter: Sub in against creature heavy decks. Negate: Sub in against creature light decks. Drown In Sorrow: For those pesky hyper aggro decks. Herald of Torment: Replaces Lifebane Zombie against non-white and non-green decks.
RECORD:
Coming Soon
OTHER INFO:
You can look at and test out the deck here.
I can throw in ~3 Mana Confluences. I don't want to run 4 because we're already taking damage from Watery Grave, Thoughtseize, Herald of Torment and Pain Seer. How about instead of Dissolve, I run Psychic Strike? Putting the top two into the graveyard isn't very helpful, but it's a bit easier to cast in this deck.
Revised deck. Top of the curve is now Desecration Demon, and he's the only 4 drop, everything else costing 3 or less, making Pain Seer a good option with all of the hand hate, counters and removal at hand. Also, cut lands back down to 23. This is about as aggressive as U/B can get. I feel that this deck will prevent the opponent from playing anything useful while beating them to death.
EDIT: What do you guys think about Crystalline Nautilus? Too risky, or a good beater in a shell like this?
Not sure which one you're referring to. For me pesonally, Jace, Kiora, and Courser all provide more card advantage than Ephara, in addition to other relevant abilities that Ephara cannot provide. Likewise, it would be difficult to activate her devotion, and so she's just not a consideration for me.
Some of the Bant decks like this that use some flash creatures work really well with one or two Epharas in there. I just looked at your deck and you're right, Ephara would not be better than any of the cards you chose in that shell.
I think most people are looking at this card from this perspective: "Oh, look, if my opponent's revealed card is worse than mine, than I can draw a card!"
But with Thoughtseize, Brain Maggot, Duress and the like, I'm looking at this card with this perspective: "Oh, look, if my opponent's revealed card is something he needs, than I can prevent him from drawing it, and with hand destruction like Thoughtseize, I can make sure that he's unable to play anything meaningful this entire match."
Okay, so I suppose this is more of a midrange-ish deck than a control decks, although it has elements of both.
I like Dakra Mystic in this deck because with Thoughtseize and Brain Maggot, we get to look at our opponent's hand quite often, so we have an idea of which cards they need and don't need. Are they mana flooded? Only let them draw the lands with Dakra. Do they have one basic land and one scry land with only one two drop? Force the two drop out of their hand and only let them draw cards with mana costs out of their reach with Dakra. Have a Negate? Let them draw a non-creature spell with Dakra.
http://funkorific.tumblr.com/tagged/Magic-the-Gathering
The next set of these figures is Sarkhan, Tezzeret, Elspeth, Gideon Jura and Nicol Bolas, and they said that they aren't releasing them until the next set comes out. Maybe toy companies get notified of what Planeswalkers will be involved with the next set to plan? We already know Sarkhan is going to be there, and Elspeth was in the last set, so those make sense, however I could see Tezzeret, Gideon and Bolas all being involved in the next block. Thoughts?
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Satyr Wayfinder
3 Courser of Kruphix
4 Boon Satyr
3 Nighthowler
2 Nyx Weaver
4 Eidolon of Blossoms
2 Doomwake Gaint
4 Commune with the Gods
3 Kruphix's Insight
4 Strength from the Fallen
Lands:
7 Forest
1 Mana Confluence
2 Mutavault
4 Overgrown Tomb
5 Swamp
4 Temple of Malady
I felt that Pharika was unnecessary; there are already plenty of enchantments in this deck to trigger constellation, and exiling creature cards from our graveyard is counter-productive. I also am running Boon Satyr instead of Nighthowler now. Nighthowler is good, but is unreliable sometimes. Maybe I'll add him back in as a one-of. I added more Gnarled Scarhide; even though he's not the greatest fit for this deck, he's still an enchantment creature with two power and a mana cost of one with the option to bestow. Now since I word it like that, he's actually a great fit for this deck. Mutavaults have been added as well because Mutavaults are great. Commune with the Gods has been added as well, to ensure our graveyard is nice and plump.
EDIT: I'm taking out the Brain Maggots for Nighthowler. I feel that we need to make full use of the graveyard with more than just Strength from the Fallen. Also, since we really only care about the creatures in the graveyard, Deathrite Shaman will help us make use of the other spells poured into the graveyard.
If I cut both Scarhide and Renowned Weaver, should I just run 4 Thoughtsieze as my one drop? Also, Boon Satyr is great, but it's really hard to put in yet another 3 drop in this deck. Commune of the Gods is proven, but I really wanted to give Kruphix's Insight a try, usually drawing 2 cards and throwing 4 in the graveyard for 3 mana is impressive, and sometimes you get to draw 3 cards off of it. I'll throw in at least 2 Commune of the Gods for now, and if I like it more than KI, then I'll run more.
Mutavault is a great addition, I'll be sure to run them. I also need to find more room for Nyx Weavers, as they do a lot for this deck.
3 Brain Maggot
3 Courser of Kruphix
2 Doomwake Giant
4 Eidolon of Blossoms
2 Gnarled Scarhide
3 Nighthowler
2 Nyx Weaver
2 Pharika, God of Affliction
3 Renowned Weaver
4 Satyr Wayfinder
4 Kruphix's Insight
4 Strength from the Fallen
Lands:
8 Forest
2 Mana Confluence
4 Overgrown Tomb
6 Swamp
4 Temple of Malady
2 Extinguish All Hope
3 Golgari Charm
4 Hero's Downfall
1 Hunter's Prowess
3 Master of the Feast
2 Unravel the AEther
Strength from the Fallen is our main damage dealer, while both Eidolon of Blossoms and Kruphix's Insight give us plenty of card advantage. Doomwake Gaint helps weaken and kill other creatures, and Pharika allows us to activate Constellation over and over. Renowned Weaver gives us a cheap creature that can both throw itself in the graveyard and activate Constellation. Nyx Weaver activates Constellation, fuels our graveyard and can snipe us the card we need most. Brain Maggot is great against control, and in late game still activates Constellation and dies easily for the graveyard, in case it's late game and we weren't able to nab a card. Courser does it all and has been proven time and time again.
I cut the 24th land and never looked back lol, in this deck, it's usually the right call to go to 23 lands.
Brave the Elements is one of the strongest cards you can run in this deck. It's protection, evasion and counterspell all in one cmc1 instant. Eidolon of Countless Battles has won me a few games. Getting +5/+5 or so is bonkers.
I like magic. its all magicky and *****. john is cool, he is best card lolriteguys
STRATEGY:
The purpose of this deck is to rip apart your opponent's hand (Thoughtseize, Brain Maggot, Lifebane Zombie), mess with their draw (Dimir Charm, Dakra Mystic), kill and counter (Hero's Downfall, Negate, Essence Scatter, Psychic Strike, Dimir Charm) and win (Pain Seer, Lifebane Zombie, Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver, Desecration Demon)
Usually a contol deck's plan is to counter spells, draw cards, kill threats and lay down a late game finisher. This has elements of a control deck, however, the mana curve is much smaller and instead of drawing cards, we're preventing the opponent from having anything useful in hand. This deck has a constant eye on the opponent's hand, so we know when to play what and know which cards will prevent them from drawing or playing anything useful.
DECK LIST:
4x Dakra Mystic
4x Brain Maggot
4x Pain Seer
3x Lifebane Zombie
3x Desecration Demon
Instants / Sorceries:
4x Thoughtseize
2x Negate
2x Essence Scatter
3x Dimir Charm
3x Psychic Strike
4x Hero's Downfall
1x Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
Lands:
4x Watery Grave
4x Temple of Deceit
5x Island
10x Swamp
3x Duress
2x Doom Blade
2x Ultimate Price
1x Essence Scatter
1x Negate
3x Drown in Sorrow
3x Herald of Torment
CREATURES:
Dakra Mystic: The role of this card is a little different than what you would expect. Normally, we care more about what card we're able to draw, and if it's worth letting the opponent draw. In this scenario, we're preventing the opponent from drawing the cards they need while occasionally drawing some cards for ourselves. Oh, their mana flooded this game? Let them draw the lands revealed and get rid of the creatures.
Brain Maggot: This is our Thoughtseize via creature. It's not QUITE as powerful as Thoughtseize, but it does exactly what we need it to - get rid of prominent threats in our opponent's hand.
Pain Seer: Since we're able to keep the opponent's early threats off the field, this card should have no problem untapping at least a few times in a game to do some damage and draw us some cards. This is a very good shell for this creature due to the low average CMC and the ability to kill or prevent anything that may be able to block it.
Lifebane Zombie: No, this card isn't always able to discard something, but it still has evasion and 3 power. When facing the right kind of deck, this card can be devastating.
Desecration Demon: The few creatures that they will be able to play will either fall prey to Desecration Demon or they'll face 6 damage each turn. This is the perfect finisher in this deck.
Instants / Sorceries:
Thoughtseize: The premier discard spell. Hit everything, low cost, this card does everything we want it to. Rip apart the opponent's hand.
Negate: Good for keeping our creatures alive and preventing draw spells from occuring.
Essence Scatter Good for keeping their creatures at bay, of course. What else is Essence Scatter going to do?
Dimir Charm: Takes care of pesky lower power creatures, can completely ruin scry set ups and hey, maybe we might even counter a random sorcery once in a while.
Psychic Strike: Our main counterspell. Why play this over Dissolve? Mostly due to cast-ability, but also because the few cards off the top of the library could help in this deck sometimes.
Hero's Downfall: Takes care of whatever creature or planeswalker we weren't able to discard or counter.
Other Spells:
Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver: Can help us conjure up some of our opponent's creatures, and if the game goes stale for a REALLY long time, I guess that this can mill them to death. This deck is very good at stalling, so this might happen more often than you expect, but still not very often.
Lands:
Of course, we're running 4 of the shock and scry for these colors. We run so few lands (23) because of the low mana cost of our spells and we need to be hitting disruption of some sort each turn.
Sideboard:
Duress: More discard! Yay! Perfect against control decks and other non-creature heavy decks which may show up.
Doomblade: Great card for non-black decks. Need I say more?
Ultimate Price: Great card for mono-color decks. Need I say more?
Essence Scatter: Sub in against creature heavy decks.
Negate: Sub in against creature light decks.
Drown In Sorrow: For those pesky hyper aggro decks.
Herald of Torment: Replaces Lifebane Zombie against non-white and non-green decks.
RECORD:
Coming Soon
OTHER INFO:
You can look at and test out the deck here.
4x Dakra Mystic
4x Brain Maggot
4x Pain Seer
3x Herald of Torment
3x Desecration Demon
Instants / Sorceries:
4x Thoughtseize
2x Negate
2x Essence Scatter
3x Dimir Charm
3x Dissolve
4x Hero's Downfall
1x Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
Lands:
4x Watery Grave
4x Temple of Deceit
5x Island
10x Swamp
3x Drown in Sorrow
3x Doom Blade
3x Ultimate Price
2x Devour Flesh
2x Essence Scatter
2x Negate
Revised deck. Top of the curve is now Desecration Demon, and he's the only 4 drop, everything else costing 3 or less, making Pain Seer a good option with all of the hand hate, counters and removal at hand. Also, cut lands back down to 23. This is about as aggressive as U/B can get. I feel that this deck will prevent the opponent from playing anything useful while beating them to death.
EDIT: What do you guys think about Crystalline Nautilus? Too risky, or a good beater in a shell like this?
Some of the Bant decks like this that use some flash creatures work really well with one or two Epharas in there. I just looked at your deck and you're right, Ephara would not be better than any of the cards you chose in that shell.
But with Thoughtseize, Brain Maggot, Duress and the like, I'm looking at this card with this perspective: "Oh, look, if my opponent's revealed card is something he needs, than I can prevent him from drawing it, and with hand destruction like Thoughtseize, I can make sure that he's unable to play anything meaningful this entire match."
I like Dakra Mystic in this deck because with Thoughtseize and Brain Maggot, we get to look at our opponent's hand quite often, so we have an idea of which cards they need and don't need. Are they mana flooded? Only let them draw the lands with Dakra. Do they have one basic land and one scry land with only one two drop? Force the two drop out of their hand and only let them draw cards with mana costs out of their reach with Dakra. Have a Negate? Let them draw a non-creature spell with Dakra.