Dumir - I like your build, although I found myself that scullers were too difficult to keep on the field. Usually you have to use DoJ yourself, or your opponents are packing enough removal to take care of it. Granted I've only played in one tournament with this deck so far, but all of my matchups played lightning bolts, paths, pulse and more.
Yeah, somebody brought that to my attention as well. The Tidehollow can easily be something else as they are pretty bad in an aggro-centric metagame like this one. Change the Scullers for something else and we are gold. I do have to do some rummaging around Gatherer, see if I can find a suitable replacement. Scullers will hit the SB as they are just good against Control decks combined with some more disruption.
* Still on test mode, probably will be removed for something less color-intensive, otherwise it is a good starting point.
This is what I would play. The Nighthawks imho are just way too good not to play. They are like the Kitchen Finks of the new Standard, that gains you life with the potential to kill almost every creature in Standard. Stays long enough, combined with Harm's Way and such, and you'll probably offset the Sign in Blood drawback. Kabira Crossroads also makes your Sign in Blood less painful with the added benefit of slowing aggro down by two points of damage and making your Fetch lands drawback-less.
I think this deck is just good. I'll just wait and see, though. I'll be playing this deck. I'm sure it's good enough.
I miss it. I never really cared if it made sense flavor wise, I just loved how it felt to block a critter, stack damage, and Unsummon my creature. It feels powerful. Other than that? It's still Magic... Yet sometimes I do which I could still do it.
"b) When you realize the only good counter in the past two blocks was Cryptic Command (and no, Stutter doesn't count as it shouldn't have happened in the first place) we went from having one good counter to having no good counters. Not much was lost, eh?" by smokestack.
So by saying that something should not have happened we magically make it disappear?Spellstutter sprite existed and countered everything in that terrible fae deck, it was counterspell on legs ,what more do control players want, should control also have counterspell along with spellstutter since you don't think it was a counter?Cryptic is one of the most powerful cards of the past few years , it was format warping and you could effectively end your opponents turn ,it was a mistake that should never have happened.Draw go style decks are an abomination most players don't want to see again, they are not even remotely entertaining to almost all who have played against them and it is a grave mistake to assume that they should be an archetype in every set.
Mistake or not faeries existed and what they didn't counter they killed or took control of or they outright stopped your turn .I DON'T WANT TWO MORE YEARS OF THAT.
You know what was format warping last season? Decks that could play Cryptic Command, Broodmate Dragon, and Hallowed Burial all in the same deck.
Cryptic Command was certainly powerful, but it isn't the best card in years or format warping. Cryptic Command just happened to come out during a time where R&D messed up the mana bases and the Fae Tribe. Control last season wasn't defined by Cryptic Command, it was defined by 5-color mana bases and Fae.
Fae has a 4/4 Flying that Mana Shorted. It had a 1/1 that was arguably a hard counter most of the time. It had an X-cost counterspell reminiscent of Condescend. It had a 1/1 critter that granted +1/+1 to all other Faes and Shroud. Then it had a 3/1 Flyer that looked at hands and made them cycle away unwanted cards. Not to mention all of these fae had Flash. And not to mention the mother of Fae cards, Bitterblossom which was "the" engine of the deck, making Spellstutter MUCH more powerful than intended and made it that much easier for players to Champion faeries to get the Mistbind bonuses.
In short, Faeries was a giant, synergistic tard that rolled over almost everything in the format. Cryptic Command was just gravy. We really can't blame a card when the real problem was an entire deck (or two).
I actually love the set. Everything about it, is just wow. It has Johnny cards, Spike cards, and Timmy Cards, plus combo cards, and utility cards, and well, EVERYTHING. We have more room to create competitive decks than with Lorwyn, where you had ridiculous mana bases for 5CC to be dominant enough (thanks to it's ability to play the best cards in ALL colors) and that EVERY deck archetype had a way to create ridiculous amount of card advantage. Cascade? Spectral Procession (wow, feels like it's been a VERY long time since I last saw a Spectral), and so on.
Zendikar, I think, was that the metagame needed... Just like when Affinity rotated out of Standard, Ravnica fixed Standard. Zendikar seems to be trying to do the same thing.
Not to mention all these traps really makes me feel like I'm wandering into a perilous plane.
Ok I didnt insult you, and I wont do so now. I will just point out that your statement is rather foolish when there are servicable replacements that are never dead cards, and are actually better when you tweak the deck a bit, such as including 2-3 Soul Stair Expedition to recycle your walking edicts (or other creatures if needed).
When you start putting cards like Soul Stair Expedition, you'll be diluting this deck. Deck is an aggro deck. Aggro decks bash in and try to be as resilient and relentless as possible... You do not need gimmicks like the Expedition.
That happens. I'm probably playing that deck, this season. It's under the radar, only Smother and Ravenous Baloth will rotate and as replacements we have Doom Blade or even Path to Exile might come in handy... As for the Baloth, perhaps Loxodon Heirarch might be a worthy replacement...
I think playing the deck as a U/R/W is a better strategy. You'll have the R/W and the R/U Fetchlands to help with the fixing, plus some shard lands. U/W Dual Land helps.
Throw away Stoic Angel and play Baneslayer. Might even be able to play UW Control which I suppose will be a lot more streamlined than insisting on 5 colors... However, there are still +130 cards to get spoiled, so we'll see by then.
I have to agree with an above poster. The Baloth puts 4/4 tokens... and it's barely noticeable and my eyesight is not what it used to be, but I think the Baloth itself is a 4/4 as well.
Got 17th place at my Nationals yesterday, due to bad Limited on my part. Went 3-0 on the Standard portion (Nationals here is only 6 rounds. But played in the Grinders and went 3-0-1. Played against Faeries, 5cc, Random Mill decks, Random 5ccs, Mono-Green Elves, Random RG Aggro (Very good, though), and a deck I can't remember.
Yeah, somebody brought that to my attention as well. The Tidehollow can easily be something else as they are pretty bad in an aggro-centric metagame like this one. Change the Scullers for something else and we are gold. I do have to do some rummaging around Gatherer, see if I can find a suitable replacement. Scullers will hit the SB as they are just good against Control decks combined with some more disruption.
3x Tidehollow Sculler
4x Vampire Nighthawk
4x Baneslayer Angel
2x Path to Exile
2x Duress
3x Tendrils of Corruption
3x Disfigure
4x Day of Judgment
4x Sign in Blood
4x Harm's Way
4x Marsh Flats
4x Plains
13x Swamps
* Still on test mode, probably will be removed for something less color-intensive, otherwise it is a good starting point.
This is what I would play. The Nighthawks imho are just way too good not to play. They are like the Kitchen Finks of the new Standard, that gains you life with the potential to kill almost every creature in Standard. Stays long enough, combined with Harm's Way and such, and you'll probably offset the Sign in Blood drawback. Kabira Crossroads also makes your Sign in Blood less painful with the added benefit of slowing aggro down by two points of damage and making your Fetch lands drawback-less.
I think this deck is just good. I'll just wait and see, though. I'll be playing this deck. I'm sure it's good enough.
You know what was format warping last season? Decks that could play Cryptic Command, Broodmate Dragon, and Hallowed Burial all in the same deck.
Cryptic Command was certainly powerful, but it isn't the best card in years or format warping. Cryptic Command just happened to come out during a time where R&D messed up the mana bases and the Fae Tribe. Control last season wasn't defined by Cryptic Command, it was defined by 5-color mana bases and Fae.
Fae has a 4/4 Flying that Mana Shorted. It had a 1/1 that was arguably a hard counter most of the time. It had an X-cost counterspell reminiscent of Condescend. It had a 1/1 critter that granted +1/+1 to all other Faes and Shroud. Then it had a 3/1 Flyer that looked at hands and made them cycle away unwanted cards. Not to mention all of these fae had Flash. And not to mention the mother of Fae cards, Bitterblossom which was "the" engine of the deck, making Spellstutter MUCH more powerful than intended and made it that much easier for players to Champion faeries to get the Mistbind bonuses.
In short, Faeries was a giant, synergistic tard that rolled over almost everything in the format. Cryptic Command was just gravy. We really can't blame a card when the real problem was an entire deck (or two).
Zendikar, I think, was that the metagame needed... Just like when Affinity rotated out of Standard, Ravnica fixed Standard. Zendikar seems to be trying to do the same thing.
Not to mention all these traps really makes me feel like I'm wandering into a perilous plane.
When you start putting cards like Soul Stair Expedition, you'll be diluting this deck. Deck is an aggro deck. Aggro decks bash in and try to be as resilient and relentless as possible... You do not need gimmicks like the Expedition.
Throw away Stoic Angel and play Baneslayer. Might even be able to play UW Control which I suppose will be a lot more streamlined than insisting on 5 colors... However, there are still +130 cards to get spoiled, so we'll see by then.
This is for you.