I love the look of the deck, but it looks like there could be trouble against a couple of decks. The main deck I see having a problem with is U/R Ascension decks. How do you play them?
Have you guys found that the combo takes to long to get into play/use effectively? I like to run my Venser builds with green so I can ramp mana quickly, but it seems like a lot of people have been using it in straight U/W. Just seems to me like getting to the combo on turn 5 would be a bit more difficult.
Any responses letting me know how it's been working, and what kind of scenarios/decks it plays against that it works really well, would be greatly appreciated.
Looks like it's a pretty solid deck. I didn't start playing standard until Shards/Zen, but I used to play against a guy that played cruel control and I HATED playing him. I play exclusively online right now so I can't yet try it out, and I don't know if I want to drop the money on her when she comes out. Think she'll be good in a lot of red decks?
I've tried phantasmal image, with venser and sun titan, and wow!, only playtested vs vamps, valakut and mono red, not FNM, and didn't use sideboard, but i like the results.
Vs vamps: phantasmal image to nighthawk, then day of, 2 phantasmal image to grave, blade spicer and phantasmal as a copy of blade, sun titan, returning all phantasmal of grave to play , turn 7 venser -1 and win. 3-0
Vs valakut, phantasmal image to primaveral, tutoring 2 tectonic edges, o-ring titan and works! with sun titan/ edges ( 2 per turn) with venser i won. 2-1
I have to say that this match he was mana screwed most of the time, and i counter the ramp..
Vs red: mental mistep to guide, and phantasmal image helps until day of, then returning with sun titan, they can use bolts but images return every turn with sun titan, and by turn 6 they dont have enought cards in hand to deal with that. 3-0
i will give them a try, it helped me firts turns, and then return with sun titan.
-Play 3 phantasmal image in a single turn as a copy of a frost titan, tapping all is LOL!
Sorry for my writting, im from Spain.
Could you post the decklist you're using? Seems like it works pretty well against the current meta.
I don't know if it's really possible at this point...or until Lich rotates either, unless you could find a loophole somewhere. There's just way too many artifact exiling spells in standard right now to make it viable at all.
Only turns into a 5/1 in that case, Hex Parasite only gives +1/+0. Makes it stay in burn range which kinda sucks, but they would be able to burn it in response to its ability anyway. That's the price we all pay though going up against red.
I do like the leyline of sanctity thought, but splashing white makes us more inconsistant, and depending on how much white you want to play and you dont get it into your starting hand, it could make fo an awkward draw up until most likely turn 5 or 6 at the earliest.
i donno what you guys are talking about Torpor orb is gonna be crazy. its gets sided in almost every game ive played on MTGO.
I agree, and wih the bannings I'm predicting Valakut making a huge comeback and needing the Torpor. Don't know how effectively it will be used against the birthing pod decks though.
Combo gets owned by Combust (can't be countered or redirected to spellskite)
Why can't Combust be redirected? Is it because Spellskite isn't white or blue? I figured Spellskites ability to ignore that part of the spell until it resolves, and then it would be an illegal target and fizzle.
I wish they would create a "rich pauper" format that allowed uncommons. I think that would still acomplish the goal of pauper (large card pool of inexpensive cards) and also make it more exciting and open up more deck types.
There's still a ton of expensive uncommons that can create very unbalanced decks. The point of pauper was to make a super cheap format for people just starting MTG so they don't have to buy expensive cards just to get discouraged and quit.
Sitting here today I dont know where I'll have the room but I'll make room for this guy. An early Meamorph for more ramp, more proliferate, more control or late game for more beats and/or more lock. Its just a perfect fit for this deck.
With a good pilot making solid decisions he could really make a solid fun deck into a scary deck.
I'll find room for Metamorph and Into the Roil for even more reach.
I agree completely. The biggest problem is what to take out of this cluttered deck!! He will work wonders in my U/w Venser build blinking it back in as something else.
So this is kind of a mono-u Architect build, but I added Venser in to the mix and he has been working out pretty well. It was lacking something to use all my mana on, so I was asking my friend and he told me to put in Chimeric Mass. The deck is untested with the mass in it, but it has been working out pretty well.
Just another deck to play around with Venser with He's been my go to man, and I love playing with my Bant Blink destruction deck, but this is just to play something different for all those that are bored with their regular builds.
i've tried silence an it wasnt all that great to me. why not run some dicards like duress or inquisition of kozilek? it "can also ensure you some spell resolution" and lets you see your opponent's hand at the same mana cost.iok gets rid of the pesky sfm and hawks as well.
Well, we were playing this about 5 months ago when Caw-blade didn't exist. At that point it was worth playing silence, because we were playing a group of decks that weren't quite as quick as Caw is...except maybe boros. IoK might be the better way to go if you are using this deck again, not sure what to tell you though.
I would suggest not using a 5 color ally deck. It was feasible during shards block because of Ancient Ziggurat, but with that and the tri-lands out of standard it would be much harder to do this.
If I were you I would stick to a 2 color build and maybe splash a 3rd if you want. I personally like to have white and blue as my main colors and splash any of the other three. If you take a look at my sig, I have a couple variations with U/W on my ally blog.
Any responses letting me know how it's been working, and what kind of scenarios/decks it plays against that it works really well, would be greatly appreciated.
Could you post the decklist you're using? Seems like it works pretty well against the current meta.
Only turns into a 5/1 in that case, Hex Parasite only gives +1/+0. Makes it stay in burn range which kinda sucks, but they would be able to burn it in response to its ability anyway. That's the price we all pay though going up against red.
I do like the leyline of sanctity thought, but splashing white makes us more inconsistant, and depending on how much white you want to play and you dont get it into your starting hand, it could make fo an awkward draw up until most likely turn 5 or 6 at the earliest.
I agree, and wih the bannings I'm predicting Valakut making a huge comeback and needing the Torpor. Don't know how effectively it will be used against the birthing pod decks though.
Why can't Combust be redirected? Is it because Spellskite isn't white or blue? I figured Spellskites ability to ignore that part of the spell until it resolves, and then it would be an illegal target and fizzle.
There's still a ton of expensive uncommons that can create very unbalanced decks. The point of pauper was to make a super cheap format for people just starting MTG so they don't have to buy expensive cards just to get discouraged and quit.
I agree completely. The biggest problem is what to take out of this cluttered deck!! He will work wonders in my U/w Venser build blinking it back in as something else.
16x Island
4x Glacial Fortress
3x Seachrome Coast
Creatures: (18)
4x Grand Architect
4x Kraken Hatchling
3x Thrummingbird
3x Treasure Mage
2x Wurmcoil Engine
1x Triskelion
1x Steel Hellkite
3x Venser, the Sojourner
2x Mindslaver
4x Everflowing Chalice
4x Preordain
3x Contagion Clasp
1x Contagion Engine
2x Chimeric Mass
2x Ratchet Bomb
3x Divine Offering
2x Argent Sphinx
4x Flashfreeze
1x Platinum Emperion
1x Blightsteel Colossus
2x Blue Sun's Zenith
So this is kind of a mono-u Architect build, but I added Venser in to the mix and he has been working out pretty well. It was lacking something to use all my mana on, so I was asking my friend and he told me to put in Chimeric Mass. The deck is untested with the mass in it, but it has been working out pretty well.
Just another deck to play around with Venser with
Well, we were playing this about 5 months ago when Caw-blade didn't exist. At that point it was worth playing silence, because we were playing a group of decks that weren't quite as quick as Caw is...except maybe boros. IoK might be the better way to go if you are using this deck again, not sure what to tell you though.
He didn't mean that is was related to ponder. He meant that there were things to think about with it.