Hmmm it sounds like food chain might be your bet. Seems to hit all the areas your interested in, while not folding to combo, plus the cool synergies the deck has make it a blast to play.
You could always throw together bug walkers, although that might have the same issues of not having a good combo match-up, although this could be slightly remedied post board.
Yeah, and in playtesting, pitching a Griffin to a Misdirection or Force of Will feels great. For that deck I need most of the creatures and some utility spells, so I can definitely afford it. The main question I have is: what are the problems of this deck? I know I can construct the sideboard any way I want, adding gravehate, or Mindbreak Trap/Flusterstorm, more counters, tricks like Elephant Grass not to be overrun by swarm/tribal decks, but any deck has its nemesis. Which matchups should I fear when taking Food Chain to a tournament?
By the way, later I can transform the deck into Shardless BUG or something similar if I get the money for it. Also, what deck do you mean by BUG walkers? Just Lilianas/Jaces supported by value creatures like DRS and Strix?
I need some opinions/advice on what I should get into. I've been playing Punishing Nic Fit for a year and a half, but I'm a bit tired of scooping to combo decks. I have no specific love for blue, but I want that color in my deck at least for FoWs and Brainstorms. I tried UR Delver before the bannings of Treasure Cruise. The deck was explosive, but that wasn't exactly my play style; I liked its Grixis version (the one with Dack Fayden and Dig Through Time) much more, but it suffered from bans, too. I'd probably go for some sort of BUG (I currently have one of each nonwhite dual, so the rest of mana base I can borrow or substitute with weaker lands). I love decks that are a bit hard to disrupt, can play "fair", but also have some way of going over-the-top (like Scapeshift in Scape Fit or Food Chain in its latest top8-ings). I already own all the typical blue stuff like Forces, BS, Ponder, Probe, Daze, etc. due to playing UR for some time; plus typical Nic Fit cards like Cabal Therapy, SDT and a pair of Deathrites. My budget is a bit limited (well, like $100-150 now), so I can buy a lot of "small stuff", but I definitely can't afford a playset of Goyfs (nor do I want to play them). Any ideas?
I quit standard in November seeing that the format was really weak and boring. Traded away parts of my standard deck, sold half of my collection, and after 2 months of trading I completed my Punishing Nic Fit deck in legacy. Legacy is quite popular in my city and I find the format just amazing.
Maybe when standard gets better mana base that let 3-color decks shine, I'll return. But for now, legacy is just 100 times more interesting and interactive.
Been following this thread since its creation, but didn't have much to post. Now that I just got back from an SCG IQ, I'll try to write down my first tournament report.
Unfortunately, there were a couple cards that I missed - Wear // Tear, Magma Jets, Temple of Silence, Hero's Downfall - I just didn't receive the package in time. So yes, the deck is imperfect, but I wanted to give it a try regardless. Maybe with those cards everything would be a bit better.
G1 I Chained his Smiter, 'seized an Abrupt Decay and saw 2 Golgari Charms, VoR, Ooze and an Obzedat. He played a Caryatid, I cast a Demon, then an Aurelia, he fed the demon with Caryatid, but I swung for 12 and he could not recover, even with Obzedat and company. He didn't have much green mana, especially without Caryatid, so we moved on to the next game.
G2 was pretty much one-sided: I was stuck on two lands the whole game, Devour Flesh'ed an Ooze, but then was beaten down by a Smiter.
G3 I tried to kill everything he cast, got a Reckoner and started swinging, brought him down to 7 life, he managed to kill it, then I cast a Baron and he scoops with no answers to the Baron.
Round 2: Minotaur Aggro
G1 I kept a hand a bit too heavy and slow, 'seize a Hammer of Purphoros, see Mutavault and the renamed Searing Spear, have an Anger, but never get to cast it. Gates, Temples, gg. Cackler and Zealot killed me quickly.
G2 was more even, I Dreadbored something, got a Reckoner, she attacked me with a common minotaur that regens for 2B, a minotaur lord and a zealot. I block, next turn Anger, wipe the board, she sticks a Hammer and I can't answer every golem she makes.
Spoiler: the woman who made and piloted this deck did win the IQ. She says that her brew is fast enough to kill control and midrange, and the creatures can stonewall aggro all day since they are 2/3 and tougher, and traditional aggro beats with 2/2s. Seems quite true.
0-2
Round 3: RDW
G1 was like Cackler-Zealot-Reckoner-Fanatic, nothing else to say.
G2 he doesn't have a 1 drop, starts swinging with Zealot, but doesn't kill me in the first 5 turns when I was shooting all the creatures he had. Then I proceed to cast a Baron and win.
G3 I don't remember much. There was some 2-for-1 because of my Reckoner, then probably an Anger, Helix his Mutavault and it was over.
On a side note: the woman I faced in the second round was sitting at the table next to me, playing against mono black devotion. She got that Cackler-Zealot-Minotaur lord-Fanatic sequence, he played a Nightveil Specter on his turn, she reveals her last card which is Lightning Strike, and he swears so loud that he gets a warning. He almost flipped the table.
2-1
Round 4: Esper Control
G1 was the hardest grind since my Jund vs UWR games. I lost about 12 life to my shocklands, 'seizes and RtBs. I discard his Aetherling, then punish him for playing another Aetherling without a blue mana open with a Doom Blade. He sticks an Elspeth, I get a Whip and a Reckoner. He kills it, I play another one. He makes 3 tokens each turn, ticking Elspeth up. I attack with a Reckoner, he chump blocks, I ping Elspeth, recur a Reckoner with a Whip, cast Anger, kill Elspeth and gain 6 more life. We were both running out of cards until he topdecked a Revelation and killed me with two Barons (one to attack, one to prevent me from attacking) while I had an Obzedat and a Whip which he DSphered after two turns. There were many more cool details in this game which made it probably the most interesting game of today. Performing a Whipzedat combo feels great, too.
G2 I got all the luck in the world. He Thoughtseizes me, sees nothing important, discards something. I 'seize a Dissolve from his hand and see SR, cast threats that he needs to answer, Slaughter Games his Revelations, he misses his 5th or 6th land drop, then plays a Jace, Architect of Thought. I topdeck my 6th land, pay 2 life, Rakdos's Return him for 4 and wreck all his hand. I start beating him down, he topdecks a Baron, I reveal Devour Flesh and we move on to game 3.
G3 I felt like I had a chance if we had time. I 'seize and probably take a Dissolve again, see 2 Verdicts, Elspeth and Dispel in his hand, he 'seizes me, takes a Dreadbore. I have a Sire of Insanity, Aurelia, Helix and whatnot, but time runs out, we go to turns and I can't kill him that quickly.
1-1 (draw)
Round 5: Mono Black Devotion
Remember the guy that almost flipped the table? Well, you know who my last opponent was. I mentioned that I had 7 points and he had 6, so he had no chance of making it to the top-8 even if he won, while I would certainly be in top-8 with 10 points (I was on 9th place at the moment), but he was not in the mood for helping anyone and conceding.
G1 I 'seize a Demon and see a Nightveil, Erebos, Downfall and Mutavault. Kill the Nightveil with Anger, then he sticks Erebos, gets another Demon and a Grey Merchant. No Downfalls, no chance.
G2 I cast Sin Collector, see a Lifebane Zombie, Demon, Underworld Connections and some lands. Scry with a Temple, see a Baron, have to put it on the bottom so he whiffs with his Lifebane. I Slaughter Games his 2 Erebos, play a Whip, he plays Nykthos, draws a couple cards with Connections, plays a Demon which I feed with a Sin Collector for a turn, then he plays Grey Merchant and I die.
0-2
2-2-1 in swiss, 7 points, finished 14th out of 28.
The meta consisted mostly of monocolored decks - cheap aggro in white and red; mono black and mono blue devotions; some kids with monogreen. Then there were a few Esper controls and a couple midranges in Naya, Junk and 1 Dega (me).
There were maybe 2 or 3 times when I kept a hand with a shockland and a scryland, didn't get 3rd land in time and lost in 2-3 turns. I definitely don't want to go up to 27 lands, so I probably will play 7-8 scrylands and no guildgates. Downfalls seem necessary at 2 or 3. Magma Jets would be okayish against RDW and similar aggro, and poor against most other decks, but today I needed all the scry I could have. If the next set adds some consistency to the deck, it will be like ten times better. Not sure if we need 12 temples, though. Last Breath is another card to consider - it gets rid of Specters, Merchants, Cacklers, Zealots, Frostburn Weirds and many other things and we don't worry about the opponent's life total.
I did struggle with all the artifacts my opponents brought to the table. Gotta admit that Wear//Tear would help a lot. Never used Boros Charms, expected them to be burn spells and save my creatures from sweepers, but the charms weren't relevant. 2 Duress instead of them would be better.
Chained to the Rocks was amazing, I want to go up to 3-4 copies, really. The monocolored decks have almost no ways to deal with this enchantment and others.
Aurelia won me the game every time she managed to stay alive for a turn. That's impressive.
Desecration Demon was fine, he either ate the aggro player's creatures or he got caught in a Detention Sphere.
Reckoner helped against aggro while beating midrange, and Baron/Obzedat were not invincible, but powerful nonetheless.
So this deck tries to play threats that are hard to answer, but when your opponent does it better, it's kinda frustrating. Today I couldn't do anything to artifacts/enchantments, Blood Barons (except for the singleton Devour Flesh), Obzedats, and there are only so many Thoughtseizes you can draw in a single game. I'll wait until I get the rest of my cards for this deck, playtest and keep tuning, though I don't have much time for it.
Overall I have mixed feelings about this day, it was my first competitive event and I liked it, but being one match short from getting into top-8 does upset me a little. I hope you find this report useful, feel free to comment on any of my mistakes/card choices/anything else.
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben usually is a pain for the control player and is an easy removal target (less disruption for our combo). She's already well-known, though.
There is also Grand Abolisher if your mana base can get WW. No spells on your turn means safe combo. And he'll draw removal, too.
The site is awesome, well done!
A feature I'd love to see is the "international shipping" filter, so that I don't click and find out that 'this listing is US only'. That option would make it so much better. Well, I guess it's been said before me.
I was drafting RG, got Woodfall Primus in my first pack, then got passed 2 Kitchen Finks, 3 Giant Dustwasp, 3 Nantuko Shaman... and finally 2 Echoing Courage! Opening a foil Primus in the third pack was even more fun. Cast Shaman and Dustwasp off suspend, then Bonesplitter, Riftsweeper removing the opponent's Ivory giant, and Grapeshot to kill the blockers. Got 2nd, losing only to our best player who had Reach of Branches, Feudkiller's Verdict and other stuff that was really hard to beat. Getting Countryside Crusher and Earwig Squad from the prize packs was painful, though.
By the way, should I trade that foil Primus now or later? Would like to know people's opinion.
Oh well. I never liked blue as a color since it could do really unfair things it shouldn't be able to, but cloning a legendary creature was fine. Nothing was broken, so why fix it? Imagine that some paradox occurred and your shiny unique legendary creature is staring at its own copy. In literature, the hero usually goes insane and commits suicide or whatever, and in the game the Multiverse reverts to its normal state, returning the legends back to aether or warp they were summoned from. Same goes for planeswalkers.
Flavor didn't really suffer from this!
On the other hand, the rules change allows for some degenerate plays like aforementioned double Gaea's Cradle activation, and makes some powerful creatures just bonkers. Interesting how they'll handle it. More banhammer blows?
I used to love hexproof, it was cool and flavorful, but with this change I wish they replaced all instances of hexproof with shroud. Or we'll see some "%CARDNAME% can target creatures with hexproof as though they didn't have hexproof" card developed to fix what they broke when fixing what wasn't broken.
I love that the mythics spoiled so far are fun yet hardly constructed playable cards, while the really awesome and/or useful cards are at rare. Nicely done, Wizards!
Is it possible that we get a Garruk Wildspeaker reprint? The card was nice. We don't need 4th version that much.
If he gets a new card, though, I'd like a 3CMC utility planeswalker that can accelerate your mana, maybe even protect himself and has some ridiculous ultimate. But that would be too good.
If you are worried about Baron, Mizzium Mortars is the most simple and, eh, elegant answer. Cheap and effective.
I tried Crypt Incursion, and it has been spectacular in playtesting. Swings game in our favor in Reanimator matchup (you get the life to keep fighting their beaters and exile what they might reanimate), but is not completely useless in other games, either. If you survive against aggro for 4-5 turns, you are probably below 10 life, and your opponent has 3-5 creatures in graveyard, so Incursion helps you stay alive here if you don't see Swagtusk in your hand. It's not impressive against control, where you can side it out for Sire of Insanity. Sire is cool, but I see him only as a sideboard card, as it is awkward against non-control decks.
So does Crypt Incursion give you life for each card in grave or only for creatures? OP says each card, then someone says about creatures. If it's each card, then it's awesome and makes Reanimator weep, otherwise it's just good.
Edit: oh, reading is tech. Doesn't hit flashback spells etc. Still it's a nice card and I'll try it out.
Of all the creatures spoiled so far, Ruric Thar and maybe Sire of Insanity seem to be the most interesting. I'd center the deck around ramping into those efficient threats (Thragtusk and Hellkite are also still here) while trying to stay mostly RG. That would give the opportunity to even splash white for powerful sideboard cards. I'm gonna make a rough decklist soon.
Btw, the aggro approach is fine and has some nice interactions, but I'm a bit tired of pure aggro.
What do you think about Ruric Thar's future price? I preordered a playset for $10 and felt quite happy about it, but now I'm not so sure. It's an intro pack foil, for what it's worth, and to my surprise many people seem to dismiss him as an unplayable card. Your opinions?
Yeah, and in playtesting, pitching a Griffin to a Misdirection or Force of Will feels great. For that deck I need most of the creatures and some utility spells, so I can definitely afford it. The main question I have is: what are the problems of this deck? I know I can construct the sideboard any way I want, adding gravehate, or Mindbreak Trap/Flusterstorm, more counters, tricks like Elephant Grass not to be overrun by swarm/tribal decks, but any deck has its nemesis. Which matchups should I fear when taking Food Chain to a tournament?
By the way, later I can transform the deck into Shardless BUG or something similar if I get the money for it. Also, what deck do you mean by BUG walkers? Just Lilianas/Jaces supported by value creatures like DRS and Strix?
I need some opinions/advice on what I should get into. I've been playing Punishing Nic Fit for a year and a half, but I'm a bit tired of scooping to combo decks. I have no specific love for blue, but I want that color in my deck at least for FoWs and Brainstorms. I tried UR Delver before the bannings of Treasure Cruise. The deck was explosive, but that wasn't exactly my play style; I liked its Grixis version (the one with Dack Fayden and Dig Through Time) much more, but it suffered from bans, too. I'd probably go for some sort of BUG (I currently have one of each nonwhite dual, so the rest of mana base I can borrow or substitute with weaker lands). I love decks that are a bit hard to disrupt, can play "fair", but also have some way of going over-the-top (like Scapeshift in Scape Fit or Food Chain in its latest top8-ings). I already own all the typical blue stuff like Forces, BS, Ponder, Probe, Daze, etc. due to playing UR for some time; plus typical Nic Fit cards like Cabal Therapy, SDT and a pair of Deathrites. My budget is a bit limited (well, like $100-150 now), so I can buy a lot of "small stuff", but I definitely can't afford a playset of Goyfs (nor do I want to play them). Any ideas?
Maybe when standard gets better mana base that let 3-color decks shine, I'll return. But for now, legacy is just 100 times more interesting and interactive.
Unfortunately, there were a couple cards that I missed - Wear // Tear, Magma Jets, Temple of Silence, Hero's Downfall - I just didn't receive the package in time. So yes, the deck is imperfect, but I wanted to give it a try regardless. Maybe with those cards everything would be a bit better.
The deck itself:
4x Boros Reckoner
2x Sin Collector
2x Desecration Demon
2x Obzedat, Ghost Council
3x Blood Baron of Vizkopa
1x Aurelia, the Warleader
Instants
1x Devour Flesh
2x Doom Blade
2x Warleader's Helix
Sorceries
3x Thoughtseize
2x Dreadbore
2x Read the Bones
3x Anger of the Gods
2x Rakdos's Return
2x Chained to the Rocks
1x Whip of Erebos
Lands
4x Sacred Foundry
4x Godless Shrine
4x Blood Crypt
2x Rakdos Guildgate
3x Temple of Triumph
1x Temple of Silence
1x Orzhov Guildgate
2x Swamp
4x Mountain
1x Plains
2x Sire of Insanity
2x Assemble the Legion
1x Anger of the Gods
2x Slaughter Games
2x Pithing Needle
1x Whip of Erebos
2x Underworld Connections
2x Boros Charm
1x Thoughtseize
Round 1: Junk
G1 I Chained his Smiter, 'seized an Abrupt Decay and saw 2 Golgari Charms, VoR, Ooze and an Obzedat. He played a Caryatid, I cast a Demon, then an Aurelia, he fed the demon with Caryatid, but I swung for 12 and he could not recover, even with Obzedat and company. He didn't have much green mana, especially without Caryatid, so we moved on to the next game.
G2 was pretty much one-sided: I was stuck on two lands the whole game, Devour Flesh'ed an Ooze, but then was beaten down by a Smiter.
G3 I tried to kill everything he cast, got a Reckoner and started swinging, brought him down to 7 life, he managed to kill it, then I cast a Baron and he scoops with no answers to the Baron.
Round 2: Minotaur Aggro
G1 I kept a hand a bit too heavy and slow, 'seize a Hammer of Purphoros, see Mutavault and the renamed Searing Spear, have an Anger, but never get to cast it. Gates, Temples, gg. Cackler and Zealot killed me quickly.
G2 was more even, I Dreadbored something, got a Reckoner, she attacked me with a common minotaur that regens for 2B, a minotaur lord and a zealot. I block, next turn Anger, wipe the board, she sticks a Hammer and I can't answer every golem she makes.
Spoiler: the woman who made and piloted this deck did win the IQ. She says that her brew is fast enough to kill control and midrange, and the creatures can stonewall aggro all day since they are 2/3 and tougher, and traditional aggro beats with 2/2s. Seems quite true.
0-2
Round 3: RDW
G1 was like Cackler-Zealot-Reckoner-Fanatic, nothing else to say.
G2 he doesn't have a 1 drop, starts swinging with Zealot, but doesn't kill me in the first 5 turns when I was shooting all the creatures he had. Then I proceed to cast a Baron and win.
G3 I don't remember much. There was some 2-for-1 because of my Reckoner, then probably an Anger, Helix his Mutavault and it was over.
On a side note: the woman I faced in the second round was sitting at the table next to me, playing against mono black devotion. She got that Cackler-Zealot-Minotaur lord-Fanatic sequence, he played a Nightveil Specter on his turn, she reveals her last card which is Lightning Strike, and he swears so loud that he gets a warning. He almost flipped the table.
2-1
Round 4: Esper Control
G1 was the hardest grind since my Jund vs UWR games. I lost about 12 life to my shocklands, 'seizes and RtBs. I discard his Aetherling, then punish him for playing another Aetherling without a blue mana open with a Doom Blade. He sticks an Elspeth, I get a Whip and a Reckoner. He kills it, I play another one. He makes 3 tokens each turn, ticking Elspeth up. I attack with a Reckoner, he chump blocks, I ping Elspeth, recur a Reckoner with a Whip, cast Anger, kill Elspeth and gain 6 more life. We were both running out of cards until he topdecked a Revelation and killed me with two Barons (one to attack, one to prevent me from attacking) while I had an Obzedat and a Whip which he DSphered after two turns. There were many more cool details in this game which made it probably the most interesting game of today. Performing a Whipzedat combo feels great, too.
G2 I got all the luck in the world. He Thoughtseizes me, sees nothing important, discards something. I 'seize a Dissolve from his hand and see SR, cast threats that he needs to answer, Slaughter Games his Revelations, he misses his 5th or 6th land drop, then plays a Jace, Architect of Thought. I topdeck my 6th land, pay 2 life, Rakdos's Return him for 4 and wreck all his hand. I start beating him down, he topdecks a Baron, I reveal Devour Flesh and we move on to game 3.
G3 I felt like I had a chance if we had time. I 'seize and probably take a Dissolve again, see 2 Verdicts, Elspeth and Dispel in his hand, he 'seizes me, takes a Dreadbore. I have a Sire of Insanity, Aurelia, Helix and whatnot, but time runs out, we go to turns and I can't kill him that quickly.
1-1 (draw)
Round 5: Mono Black Devotion
Remember the guy that almost flipped the table? Well, you know who my last opponent was. I mentioned that I had 7 points and he had 6, so he had no chance of making it to the top-8 even if he won, while I would certainly be in top-8 with 10 points (I was on 9th place at the moment), but he was not in the mood for helping anyone and conceding.
G1 I 'seize a Demon and see a Nightveil, Erebos, Downfall and Mutavault. Kill the Nightveil with Anger, then he sticks Erebos, gets another Demon and a Grey Merchant. No Downfalls, no chance.
G2 I cast Sin Collector, see a Lifebane Zombie, Demon, Underworld Connections and some lands. Scry with a Temple, see a Baron, have to put it on the bottom so he whiffs with his Lifebane. I Slaughter Games his 2 Erebos, play a Whip, he plays Nykthos, draws a couple cards with Connections, plays a Demon which I feed with a Sin Collector for a turn, then he plays Grey Merchant and I die.
0-2
2-2-1 in swiss, 7 points, finished 14th out of 28.
The meta consisted mostly of monocolored decks - cheap aggro in white and red; mono black and mono blue devotions; some kids with monogreen. Then there were a few Esper controls and a couple midranges in Naya, Junk and 1 Dega (me).
There were maybe 2 or 3 times when I kept a hand with a shockland and a scryland, didn't get 3rd land in time and lost in 2-3 turns. I definitely don't want to go up to 27 lands, so I probably will play 7-8 scrylands and no guildgates. Downfalls seem necessary at 2 or 3. Magma Jets would be okayish against RDW and similar aggro, and poor against most other decks, but today I needed all the scry I could have. If the next set adds some consistency to the deck, it will be like ten times better. Not sure if we need 12 temples, though. Last Breath is another card to consider - it gets rid of Specters, Merchants, Cacklers, Zealots, Frostburn Weirds and many other things and we don't worry about the opponent's life total.
I did struggle with all the artifacts my opponents brought to the table. Gotta admit that Wear//Tear would help a lot. Never used Boros Charms, expected them to be burn spells and save my creatures from sweepers, but the charms weren't relevant. 2 Duress instead of them would be better.
Chained to the Rocks was amazing, I want to go up to 3-4 copies, really. The monocolored decks have almost no ways to deal with this enchantment and others.
Aurelia won me the game every time she managed to stay alive for a turn. That's impressive.
Desecration Demon was fine, he either ate the aggro player's creatures or he got caught in a Detention Sphere.
Reckoner helped against aggro while beating midrange, and Baron/Obzedat were not invincible, but powerful nonetheless.
So this deck tries to play threats that are hard to answer, but when your opponent does it better, it's kinda frustrating. Today I couldn't do anything to artifacts/enchantments, Blood Barons (except for the singleton Devour Flesh), Obzedats, and there are only so many Thoughtseizes you can draw in a single game. I'll wait until I get the rest of my cards for this deck, playtest and keep tuning, though I don't have much time for it.
Overall I have mixed feelings about this day, it was my first competitive event and I liked it, but being one match short from getting into top-8 does upset me a little. I hope you find this report useful, feel free to comment on any of my mistakes/card choices/anything else.
There is also Grand Abolisher if your mana base can get WW. No spells on your turn means safe combo. And he'll draw removal, too.
A feature I'd love to see is the "international shipping" filter, so that I don't click and find out that 'this listing is US only'. That option would make it so much better. Well, I guess it's been said before me.
By the way, should I trade that foil Primus now or later? Would like to know people's opinion.
Flavor didn't really suffer from this!
On the other hand, the rules change allows for some degenerate plays like aforementioned double Gaea's Cradle activation, and makes some powerful creatures just bonkers. Interesting how they'll handle it. More banhammer blows?
I used to love hexproof, it was cool and flavorful, but with this change I wish they replaced all instances of hexproof with shroud. Or we'll see some "%CARDNAME% can target creatures with hexproof as though they didn't have hexproof" card developed to fix what they broke when fixing what wasn't broken.
If he gets a new card, though, I'd like a 3CMC utility planeswalker that can accelerate your mana, maybe even protect himself and has some ridiculous ultimate. But that would be too good.
I tried Crypt Incursion, and it has been spectacular in playtesting. Swings game in our favor in Reanimator matchup (you get the life to keep fighting their beaters and exile what they might reanimate), but is not completely useless in other games, either. If you survive against aggro for 4-5 turns, you are probably below 10 life, and your opponent has 3-5 creatures in graveyard, so Incursion helps you stay alive here if you don't see Swagtusk in your hand. It's not impressive against control, where you can side it out for Sire of Insanity. Sire is cool, but I see him only as a sideboard card, as it is awkward against non-control decks.
Edit: oh, reading is tech. Doesn't hit flashback spells etc. Still it's a nice card and I'll try it out.
Edit: oh wait, there's also Damnation!
Btw, the aggro approach is fine and has some nice interactions, but I'm a bit tired of pure aggro.