Nice thread , good work . I have a Mardu list I play on Arena, I´ll post it later. It has a Rix Maadi Reveler + Revival // Revenge resurrection subtheme (I even had Arclight Phoenix in there as the recurring spells from Feather bring it back, but it was a bit too win-more).
Add some Dreadhorde Butchers (maybe on the Fireblade Artist slots). I´m loving Spark Harvest as a 1-of or 2-of to deal with problematic planeswalkers or creatures, maybe in the Necrotic Wound slot, and replacing 1 Status/Statue or Vraska.
Good finding ! The idea is pretty neatand probably does a lot of damage to Esper and other control decks (I can´t imagine the face of a Nexus player facing this).
I love the idea of Finale of Promise, I´d go the full route with Electrodominance and Finale of Promise, replacing As Foretold. It makes you even more vulnerable to graveyard hate, but it enables even more consistent turn 2 Living Ends. Being red also means being able to skimp on lands more, and Simian Spirit Guide works even better. Maybe a Black/Red version works best (enabling Mausoleum Secrets and discard).
Still very little time to play. Went up to 20 land and seems to be the "magic" number (I started having to mulligan more than I liked on 19).
Continue to hover around 50% winrate (about 10 wins and 10 losses), so no "breakthrough". Lost to some weird mainboard cards, including twice to Ethereal Absolution (which is a graveyard hoser too). So I added Blink of an Eye but I realized now that Discovery // Dispersal could be an option to remove troublesome permanents too.
I got a bit pissed at always drawing the Creeping Chills, so I dropped some. I shaved some numbers (an Opt and a Stitcher) to fit other cards to test, I´d like to go back to 4-ofs but I need data on the cards I´m testing.
I added Cry of the Carnarium after I lost to a White Weenie with Hunted Witnesses and a Golgari deck with Midnight Reaper but might have been an overreaction (it did exile my Stitcher's Suppliers which is a nonbo).
Thought Erasures continue to perform very well, and Mission Briefing is still amazing (extra Gates Ablaze or Thought Erasure or Negate or Banefire, or Opt for returning Phoenix). I don´t miss Ral Zarek.
I theorized that Crackling Drake + Maximize Velocity can be a good finisher vs Esper, hasn´t happened yet but the Drakes have performed well. I really want a solid plan vs Esper, I feel good in most other matchups.
Thanks! Looking forward to your feedback and your decklist I made some changes to the manabase, I cut 2 Gateway Plazas because they're too clunky, went up to 4 Dimir Guildgates, and added a Swamp (might change that to an Island, as it´s very blue-intensive).
I´m playing on Best of 1 Arena which has the mana-smoothing algorithm, in "real life" or Best of 3, I´d go up to 20 land probably. I´ve mulliganned to 6 a few times (usually Creeping Chills or no land), the London Mulligan would be great for this.
I´ve been doing Mission Briefing into Opt a lot , that plus a spell returns Phoenixes .
I cut the Drakes for my experiments (Doom Whisperer et al).
Edit: I added 2x Thought Erasure more and the 2nd Negate and improved my Esper matchup a lot. Mission Briefing + Banefire is also very nice.
Golden Demise is a good idea. I´m very unsure on the 5th board sweeper - I currently cut it.
Did you end up trying the deck? I´ve had very little time so far, played about 10 more games.
I´ve made some further changes. Mission Briefing has been a card that´s been REALLY impressive, so I´m testing 3 right now.
I´m unsatisfied with the deck´s top end. On one hand, the deck feels very powerful, on the other I feel like I´m walking a tightrope, I´ve lost several games where I identified one slight misplay that lost me the game. I´m also not abusing Gates (only Plaza and Ablaze as payoffs), that might be a mistake (maybe change a Chemister´s Insight for a Guild Summit, also, overdrawing shouldn´t be an issue.
Thinking of crafting the Immortal Sun for Ral too, does all I want (stops walkers, almost unkillable for Esper if they can´t counter it, draws cards, reduces costs and buffs Phoenixes), but it´s not a wincon unlike Ral.
Tested Doom Whisperer, he sounds really good in theory but I´m still not sold. Bone Dragon would be nice but it´s another Mythic Wildcard for a card that rotates soon.
Fountain of Renewal is bad, I understand it gives you game against Monored and combos with Dawn of Hope, but I´d cut some (1 or 2).
The first card I'd add is probably Duress, you want to remove opponent´s Mortify vs Esper and it takes burn or even better, Experimental Frenzy, out of a Monored player´s hand.
You have too much removal too, I´d check and see which of your removal spells is worst and cut that.
There's a bunch of cards I want to try.
Took out Niv-Mizzet as he's way too slow.
I currently have a 4-4 record (50%) with that list.
Lost to:
- Mardu Judith (Gutterbones, Adanto Vanguard(!!!), Judith, Heroic Reinforcements), Judith did me in even with a boardclear
- Monored (the "god hand", I didn't even get to untap on my 4th turn)
- Abzan Superfriends (!!!) which landed a turn 3 Kaya on the play (oof)
- Selesnya, I didn't draw Gates Ablaze
Won against:
- Grixis Control (a really close game)
- Monored twice
- Esper which conceded (not a "real" win, probably person needed to drop)
Latest additions are the 1x Banefire (for a Negate) and 1x Ritual of Soot (after losing to Selesnya for not drawing a boardclear).
The third piece of the puzzle is the manabase, and I'm playing a 5-color Gates deck, so I thought I could use that. The alternative is going Grixis.
So, I built an unholy monstrosity on Magic Arena, and it's performing surprisingly well, although I've been losing to Esper (which I didn't expect), Vraska's Contempts seem to work well against the version which I built that has no early pressure.
Creeping Chill and Plaza of Harmony make racing a good possibility against aggro (I beat 3 monored decks out of 4 I played). I died to a Ghalta (no way to kill it) and to several Esper decks.
5-color Gates - I was playing a Gates shell with Gatebreaker Ram and Gates Ablaze (I thought Ram + Maximize Velocity was cute, but maybe it's TOO cute). Manabase included Gateway Plaza and Plaza of Harmony for the sweet 5 color fixing, plus Izzet Gates and the rest (focusing on blue, red, black and green in that order). This version played Jadelight Ranger and Glowspore Shaman.
A Grixis shell: this might be better (Gates has too many taplands), and Crackling Drake is a flying Ram that replaces itself.
There are Izzet and Rakdos versions (https://article.hareruyamtg.com/article/22668/?lang=en), so Grixis should be the best of both worlds, losing Gates Ablaze but Fiery Cannonade or single removal (Beacon Bolt and Lava Coil) could take its place.
A card I'm strongly considering is Thought Erasure to improve the Esper matchup. I probably should add some number of Dive Downs too. A third idea was Search for Azcanta but it's probably too slow.
Pteramander might also play well with the Suppliers, although too many creatures dilute the spell pool.
Niv-Mizzet might be an answer to Monoblue and Esper, although I didn't see any monoblue yet at Diamond. Maybe a Krasis or two too
Any thoughts? Think this might fly or is this madness? small sample size says it's viable but untuned.
Well, finally reached Diamond on Magic Arena, and deck tracker thinks I'll make Mythic in 60 games. Took me 163 games to reach Diamond on a 53% winrate.
This is my current list (geared for Arena Best of 1, don't try on Bo3!):
I know it's not optimal, it has a lot of flexible answers and 1-ofs, which I like (and it makes games more fun).
Best (and most common by far) matchup is monored (43-21), I like keeping a hand of 2 gates and a Plaza of Harmony and either Gates Ablaze or Ram, if you do so you're heavily favored.
2nd most common matchup is Esper (lots of Dovin's Acuity variants), I lost more than I won (15-19) but I think my latest iteration is 50-50.
3rd most common is White Weenie or Boros, I went 14-14, several cards like Adanto Vanguard and Dauntless Bodyguard and Tajic or Unbreakable Formation or even Chance for Glory give this deck trouble.
4th most common is Monoblue, I went 13-13, honestly feels worse and I thought I had a losing record.
5th most common and wost matchup are Temur Reclamation decks. They don't care about removal and outvalue you with Explosions. I think it should be better but I keep good hands vs aggro usually which suck vs Reclamation, I kill one or two but the 3rd sticks and I'm toast.
6th most common is Gruul, another good matchup (11-7) unless you're on the draw and they start with Elves into Rekindling Phoenix or Nullhide Ferox or Ghalta.
7h most common is Sultai, I went 7-5 vs them. Wildgrowth Walker can grow out of control and they sometimes outvalue you.
It's the one 2 comments up, with some tweaks: +1 Krasis -1 Insight, I changed the manabase and added Gateway Plazas for better mana and access to The Eldest Reborn and a single Assassin's Trophy, removed Mass Manipulation (meta call, lots of aggro), added an extra Negate, removed Shimmer and a Clarion (dead vs control and too redundant vs aggro).
Creeping Chill is a high-risk, high reward card.
It´d need more land destruction to be viable (Fall of the Thran??? + Ashiok, Dream Render? Bedeck // Bedazzle? Star of Extinction?), and some other disruption such as Duress. And something to resurrect Feather which will be killed on sight, maybe Revival // Revenge or Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord or both.
PS: check out the MTGO 5-0 list with Feather. Reckless Rage is sweet
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/competitive-standard-constructed-league-2019-04-29
I caved in and crafted The Immortal Sun and it´s been all I´ve ever wanted (heck, some Esper decks conceded on the spot).
I also added one copy of Search for Azcanta and it´s also been clutch.
Continue to hover around 50% winrate (about 10 wins and 10 losses), so no "breakthrough". Lost to some weird mainboard cards, including twice to Ethereal Absolution (which is a graveyard hoser too). So I added Blink of an Eye but I realized now that Discovery // Dispersal could be an option to remove troublesome permanents too.
I got a bit pissed at always drawing the Creeping Chills, so I dropped some. I shaved some numbers (an Opt and a Stitcher) to fit other cards to test, I´d like to go back to 4-ofs but I need data on the cards I´m testing.
4 Arclight Phoenix
2 Crackling Drake
3 Opt
1 Blink of an Eye
3 Mission Briefing
2 Negate
1 Radical Idea
2 Chemister's Insight
1 Banefire
1 Maximize Velocity
4 Chart a Course
4 Thought Erasure
1 Cry of the Carnarium
4 Gates Ablaze
2 Creeping Chill
1 The Eldest Reborn
Land
4 Dimir Guildgate
2 Gateway Plaza
2 Island
4 Izzet Guildgate
4 Plaza of Harmony
3 Rakdos Guildgate
1 Steam Vents
I added Cry of the Carnarium after I lost to a White Weenie with Hunted Witnesses and a Golgari deck with Midnight Reaper but might have been an overreaction (it did exile my Stitcher's Suppliers which is a nonbo).
Thought Erasures continue to perform very well, and Mission Briefing is still amazing (extra Gates Ablaze or Thought Erasure or Negate or Banefire, or Opt for returning Phoenix). I don´t miss Ral Zarek.
I theorized that Crackling Drake + Maximize Velocity can be a good finisher vs Esper, hasn´t happened yet but the Drakes have performed well. I really want a solid plan vs Esper, I feel good in most other matchups.
I´m playing on Best of 1 Arena which has the mana-smoothing algorithm, in "real life" or Best of 3, I´d go up to 20 land probably. I´ve mulliganned to 6 a few times (usually Creeping Chills or no land), the London Mulligan would be great for this.
I´ve been doing Mission Briefing into Opt a lot , that plus a spell returns Phoenixes .
I cut the Drakes for my experiments (Doom Whisperer et al).
Edit: I added 2x Thought Erasure more and the 2nd Negate and improved my Esper matchup a lot. Mission Briefing + Banefire is also very nice.
Did you end up trying the deck? I´ve had very little time so far, played about 10 more games.
I´ve made some further changes. Mission Briefing has been a card that´s been REALLY impressive, so I´m testing 3 right now.
I´m unsatisfied with the deck´s top end. On one hand, the deck feels very powerful, on the other I feel like I´m walking a tightrope, I´ve lost several games where I identified one slight misplay that lost me the game. I´m also not abusing Gates (only Plaza and Ablaze as payoffs), that might be a mistake (maybe change a Chemister´s Insight for a Guild Summit, also, overdrawing shouldn´t be an issue.
Thinking of crafting the Immortal Sun for Ral too, does all I want (stops walkers, almost unkillable for Esper if they can´t counter it, draws cards, reduces costs and buffs Phoenixes), but it´s not a wincon unlike Ral.
Tested Doom Whisperer, he sounds really good in theory but I´m still not sold. Bone Dragon would be nice but it´s another Mythic Wildcard for a card that rotates soon.
The first card I'd add is probably Duress, you want to remove opponent´s Mortify vs Esper and it takes burn or even better, Experimental Frenzy, out of a Monored player´s hand.
You have too much removal too, I´d check and see which of your removal spells is worst and cut that.
I´d add a Karn if you had it.
Some examples of Mardu decks:
https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/aliaintrazi-02012019-ali-plays-mardu-control
Karn and Angrath would be good, but you don't have wildcards.
The Eldest Reborn is only an uncommon and pretty good, I´d cut one of your removal spells for it.
Thaumatic Compass and Treasure Map are nice card draw engines.
Cry of the Carnarium is a must have in the sideboard.
Creeping Chills are surprisingly good even when hardcast vs aggro.
I've won a bunch of very close games, which I guess it's the main way the Phoenix decks win, including vs Jeskai Control which played 3x Niv-Mizzet.
I added an extra Beacon Bolt and cut a Negate, but I really want 2x Negates, don't know where to fit the 2nd.
4 Arclight Phoenix
2 Crackling Drake
1 Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
1 Ral, Izzet Viceroy
4 Opt
1 Mission Briefing
1 Negate
2 Radical Idea
2 Chemister's Insight
1 Discovery // Dispersal
1 Banefire
4 Chart a Course
2 Thought Erasure
2 Beacon Bolt
4 Gates Ablaze
4 Creeping Chill
1 Ritual of Soot
3 Gateway Plaza
1 Island
4 Izzet Guildgate
1 Mountain
4 Plaza of Harmony
2 Rakdos Guildgate
1 Steam Vents
4 Stitcher's Supplier
4 Arclight Phoenix
4 Creeping Chill
Izzet Package:
2 Crackling Drake
1 Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
1 Ral, Izzet Viceroy
Cantrips for Phoenix:
4 Opt
1 Mission Briefing
3 Radical Idea
2 Chemister's Insight
1 Discovery // Dispersal
4 Chart a Course
2 Thought Erasure
1 Negate
Removal package:
1 Beacon Bolt
4 Gates Ablaze
1 Ritual of Soot
1 Banefire
Manabase
4 Plaza of Harmony
3 Gateway Plaza
3 Dimir Guildgate
4 Izzet Guildgate
2 Rakdos Guildgate
1 Steam Vents
1 Island
1 Mountain
There's a bunch of cards I want to try.
Took out Niv-Mizzet as he's way too slow.
I currently have a 4-4 record (50%) with that list.
Lost to:
- Mardu Judith (Gutterbones, Adanto Vanguard(!!!), Judith, Heroic Reinforcements), Judith did me in even with a boardclear
- Monored (the "god hand", I didn't even get to untap on my 4th turn)
- Abzan Superfriends (!!!) which landed a turn 3 Kaya on the play (oof)
- Selesnya, I didn't draw Gates Ablaze
Won against:
- Grixis Control (a really close game)
- Monored twice
- Esper which conceded (not a "real" win, probably person needed to drop)
Latest additions are the 1x Banefire (for a Negate) and 1x Ritual of Soot (after losing to Selesnya for not drawing a boardclear).
I saw a thread on Standard Dredge, and I thought maybe mixing the 2 together might yield something.
In particular, Stitcher's Supplier seems like the ideal enabler for Phoenix. Another strong enabler and card advantage is Jadelight Ranger
The third piece of the puzzle is the manabase, and I'm playing a 5-color Gates deck, so I thought I could use that. The alternative is going Grixis.
So, I built an unholy monstrosity on Magic Arena, and it's performing surprisingly well, although I've been losing to Esper (which I didn't expect), Vraska's Contempts seem to work well against the version which I built that has no early pressure.
Creeping Chill and Plaza of Harmony make racing a good possibility against aggro (I beat 3 monored decks out of 4 I played). I died to a Ghalta (no way to kill it) and to several Esper decks.
The core of the deck is:
4 Arclight Phoenix
3 Creeping Chill (don't want on opening hand)
4 Stitcher's Supplier
4 Opt
4 Chart a Course
4 Discovery/Dispersal
2 Chemister's Insight
2 Radical Idea
2 Maximize Velocity
1 Ral, Izzet Viceroy
For the rest, I'm considering two options:
5-color Gates - I was playing a Gates shell with Gatebreaker Ram and Gates Ablaze (I thought Ram + Maximize Velocity was cute, but maybe it's TOO cute). Manabase included Gateway Plaza and Plaza of Harmony for the sweet 5 color fixing, plus Izzet Gates and the rest (focusing on blue, red, black and green in that order). This version played Jadelight Ranger and Glowspore Shaman.
A Grixis shell: this might be better (Gates has too many taplands), and Crackling Drake is a flying Ram that replaces itself.
There are Izzet and Rakdos versions (https://article.hareruyamtg.com/article/22668/?lang=en), so Grixis should be the best of both worlds, losing Gates Ablaze but Fiery Cannonade or single removal (Beacon Bolt and Lava Coil) could take its place.
A card I'm strongly considering is Thought Erasure to improve the Esper matchup. I probably should add some number of Dive Downs too. A third idea was Search for Azcanta but it's probably too slow.
Pteramander might also play well with the Suppliers, although too many creatures dilute the spell pool.
Niv-Mizzet might be an answer to Monoblue and Esper, although I didn't see any monoblue yet at Diamond. Maybe a Krasis or two too
Any thoughts? Think this might fly or is this madness? small sample size says it's viable but untuned.
https://article.hareruyamtg.com/article/22668/?lang=en
Was wondering about the Esper matchup mostly.
This is my current list (geared for Arena Best of 1, don't try on Bo3!):
4 Gatebreaker Ram
2 Jadelight Ranger
1 Knight of Autumn
1 Gate Colossus
2 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
2 Vivien Reid
1 Assassin's Trophy
3 Negate
1 Sinister Sabotage
1 Chemister's Insight
1 Thought Erasure
4 Gates Ablaze
1 Settle the Wreckage
1 Banefire
1 Entrancing Melody
1 Find // Finality
1 Circuitous Route
3 Guild Summit
1 The Eldest Reborn
1 Arch of Orazca
2 Azorius Guildgate
2 Boros Guildgate
3 Gateway Plaza
1 Golgari Guildgate
2 Gruul Guildgate
1 Island
4 Izzet Guildgate
1 Orzhov Guildgate
4 Plaza of Harmony
1 Selesnya Guildgate
4 Simic Guildgate
I know it's not optimal, it has a lot of flexible answers and 1-ofs, which I like (and it makes games more fun).
Best (and most common by far) matchup is monored (43-21), I like keeping a hand of 2 gates and a Plaza of Harmony and either Gates Ablaze or Ram, if you do so you're heavily favored.
2nd most common matchup is Esper (lots of Dovin's Acuity variants), I lost more than I won (15-19) but I think my latest iteration is 50-50.
3rd most common is White Weenie or Boros, I went 14-14, several cards like Adanto Vanguard and Dauntless Bodyguard and Tajic or Unbreakable Formation or even Chance for Glory give this deck trouble.
4th most common is Monoblue, I went 13-13, honestly feels worse and I thought I had a losing record.
5th most common and wost matchup are Temur Reclamation decks. They don't care about removal and outvalue you with Explosions. I think it should be better but I keep good hands vs aggro usually which suck vs Reclamation, I kill one or two but the 3rd sticks and I'm toast.
6th most common is Gruul, another good matchup (11-7) unless you're on the draw and they start with Elves into Rekindling Phoenix or Nullhide Ferox or Ghalta.
7h most common is Sultai, I went 7-5 vs them. Wildgrowth Walker can grow out of control and they sometimes outvalue you.
It's the one 2 comments up, with some tweaks: +1 Krasis -1 Insight, I changed the manabase and added Gateway Plazas for better mana and access to The Eldest Reborn and a single Assassin's Trophy, removed Mass Manipulation (meta call, lots of aggro), added an extra Negate, removed Shimmer and a Clarion (dead vs control and too redundant vs aggro).