I had a full night of testing out Cryptic Incursion last night. I started with it in a build vary close to Biefall's, with fewer creature. I took out the oozes as they just wouldnt go togather and made minor changes to fit them in and have it run smooth. The end results?
If you are going down the path of fewer critters you want to stay away from Cryptic Incursion. Without as many blockers it just doesn't hold up vary well. And if you are playing against a deck with many threats you want your open mana to be casting spells not for healing and it can be hard to do both in the early game.
With that in mind. It did do it's job and there were plenty of games where I was able to cast it for 12+ life. Tonight I will be running it in more a midrange build where I think it will hold up a lot better. Should be able to get a nice time to cast about T4 or 5 after some early summons.
I might of jumped the gun alittle on removing the Ooze from the 75 altogather, it was late. But the point I was trying to make was the only match up where I think the Ooze is better then Lifebane is RDW. Even then Lifebane has stuff to offer. Being a control deck information is our best friend. He still blocks/trades just as well. And lets face it if we are playing RDW and they burn Lifebane they would of just as easily burned Ooze.
Trust me I can understand wanting to cut off aggro as much as possible game one, as it's our hardest match up. But at the cost of making all of our other game 1's weaker then they need to be? I have gone whole test sessions and haven't seen aggro at times. Plus as the meta shapes up more and more aggro gets less powerful compared to the other control decks who just get stronger and stronger the more the meta settles in.
: On my phone so wont spell check, at work. Srry Lol
Lifebane Zombie He's back! Sadly it means losing one of my pet cards but it's looking like the lifegain he carried is needed less now that we are better suited for aggro and against the other main decks it's needed even less. Lifebane just offers more now I think plus crypt Incursion does more then make up the heal.
Doing some testing now on some cards we might have overlooked and so far it has been going vary well, tho I have not hit a aggro list yet since I added these. Going through some cards I pulled out some that I think should atleast be brought up. I will start with the main one I am testing now.
Crypt Incursion: Yes it doesn't play well with the Sooze but like the ooze it goes with psychic strike and the rest of the deck nicely. As of now I have two Frilled Oculus in the main with two more waiting in Sideboard. The Ooze I have sitting at 3 main, So what I'm trying to go for here for siding against aggro would be like -3 Scavenging Ooze, -3 Read the Bones, and -1 Hero's Downfall (leaving one MB) for +3 Crypt Incursion, +2 Frilled Oculus (4 MB now), and +2 Returned Phalanx. This should really slow down their ground game aswell as offer up some trades since they are trying to push as fast as they can, on top of our kill spells. Then hitting a Crypt Incursion should give us the time we need to take over from there.
Some of the others I found that might be next on the list or maybe talked about some here are:
Shrivel: Yea does the same thing our charm does only at sorcery but having more might not be bad or even played with the charm T4 to pretty much clear their board other then maybe the Dragon.
Downsize: Turn 3/4 is when they are really looking to start turning up the heat for a alpha strike and this might help to 1, Live another turn and 2, likely take something from them in doing so. I don't know might be worth some testing.
Sedge Scorpion: Deathtouch makes for a nice 'stop sign' only problem here is he sadly dies to any spell pointed his way then you are back in trouble.
Corpse Blockade: As above, Only he is harder to kill off from spells but has to have a critter to sac to turn deathtouch on. If we move to play a more ground blocking game like said above for Crypt Incursion then having this out with a Frilled Oculus or Returned Phalanx might really make them think before attacking.
Gridlock: We are playing blue which gives us plenty of 'tap down' kind of effects. I'm just using this card more as a idea holder. It might not be the best for what we are looking for but we are blue and have stuff like Inaction Injunction. Is it enough to by some time? Maybe to build up lands for a backbreaking [CARD]
Gaze of Granite[/CARD].
Just some food for through please let me know where you might stand with these.
Against Control:
-2 Sphinx, -3 Reaper, the rest depends on the list (if it has BBV, Obzedat, and other stuff, leave the appropiate removal suite)
+3 Thoughtseize, +3 Negate, +3 Hydra, +3 Duress
Against Aggro
+2 Bow, +1 Gaze of Granite
-2 Aetherling -1 Opportunity
I have always been on the fence about the Bow. And again, I find myself asking is it the best option. The thing is we first started bringing it up for two main reasons.
First, To help hold out against early aggro. But seeing as how the lists are going more and more anti-aggro mainboard. Meaning we will be taking less of that early damage anyway. At the time we had Thoughtseize MB + our shock lands + RtB's. If the Bow is going to be in the sideboard for aggro isn't there something better to fit this spot to side in against them?
The other reason we started down the path of the Bow was to help heal some of our self inflected wounds (Thoughtseize MB + our shock lands + RtB's). Well we have learned with aggro running all over the place Thoughtseize is better off in the SB. Some of the lists are even losing some of the RtB's too. So we are doing alittle less damage to ourselfs.
By moving it to the sideboard (I do think this is better then MB) we are splitting up the two reasons we started to test it to start with. If we side in Thoughtseize for control we don't really need the healing as staying in control matters more then life totals. So what I'm asking is, If it is only being used for the heal and against aggro is there something that would be better or is the healing still needed even tho we are packing better weapons to fight aggro MB?
Ended up X-1-1, ALL my matches were against control (4 UW, 2 Esper, 1 American control).
Short comments: Miscutter Hydra won me EVERY GAME, hands down the best card in the 75 if your meta is ruled by control (specially because the SB contains 12 cards against the control matchup, this list makes it nigh unwinnable for them). The Sphinx didnt shined in any game, as it always ate a Far//Away or Verdict, so if you want to improve your aggro matchup, I recommend you switch these guys out MB for something else that can fight it efficiently as we dont have to worry about control anymore.
I'll write up a tournament report tomorrow, but I will try to contact a mod too because the TO hasnt posted and I would like to update list variants and tournament reports.
Congrats! Vary well played. I see you moved the Bow's to the SB. Bringing them in for aggro?
A couple points on the matchups against aggro and control.
Our worst matchup is against super-fast aggro for 2 reasons:
1) We don't have "sweepers" for 3 for 1 value. They get like 4-6 creatures on the board and we have a Puterfy... Woo.
2) We don't have significant amounts of Lifegain. Ooze is good, but requires a graveyard to effectively gain life. Yes Bow is good, but at a tempo loss of 2cmc per turn... Not a significant source of early life gain.
Against control, we need to nullify their crutches and be aggressive. Creatures, early/mid that beat down will get us there. We only need to not get swept out by verdict and not allow Sphinx to resolve.
Considering these factors is what led me to my current version. I will post it soon after some more testing. But let's talk specific cards to conquer the challenges listed above.
1) Abrupt Decay: Personally, I think this card is a trap. It is a great card, don't get me wrong. But it is confined to the point that it hurts our game plan. It deals with early aggro well... But so do many other cards. Yes it can hit dsphere and Ashiok and Underworld connections, but we have other spells that can answer those. Abrupt drawn late will almost always be a non-factor and that's why it is poor. BUG needs cards that are great early and late, and Abrupt doesn't hit both those criteria. When the opponent drops an Obzedat, trys to resolve Elspeth or drops a Blood Baron or Dragon, Aburpt is NOT what we need to be holding.
2) Far//Away is one of, if not the, best card in the deck. I think this is a minimum 4-of. Early game tempo play, mid game get two creatures off the board, or save our creature from a Verdict... With this card in hand we can deal with Hexproof creatures, blood baron, a pair of Reckoners, save our Reaper, the list goes on. It is essential against killing early aggro, and it helps protect our creatures before Aetherling.
3) Duress: I see this and Thoughtseize as side board cards. Why when they are so good? Because having more counterspells is more important. Sure you might be able to see the Verdict and pull it, or grab the Revelation/Jace. But they might draw one next turn anyway. We need to make sure that they don't resolve. Against aggro decks, they also aren't that great. With Duress, you might hit something, you might not. And spending 2 life on turn 1-2, just to grab their Firefist Striker is not a good play. Without significant lifegain, we cant afford to run thoughtseize MB because there are too many bad matchups for us. We need counterspells more than duress/thoughtseize. Counterspells only miss "uncounterable spells" but those are few. Counterspells hit creatures and don't cost us life. The information gained from looking at the opponent's hand is good, but BUG isn't a deck that needs this. We have a plan with a good set of cards that are nearly impossible to deal with. Maximize our cards and we don't need to "throw them off their game" with hand destruction. We control the board, not their hand.
4) Opportunity/ReadTheBones/Jace/Divination/etc. BUG is NOT the deck that has the best Card Advantage and we shouldn't try to be. We cant afford the life loss from Erebos/Underworld. Revelation decks will generate more CA then us over time. But we can easily win before CA becomes a problem. We stop them from hitting their CA, we beat em on the ground with difficult to remove creatures and we have Aetherling earlier because we run 2 of. We need to limit the amount of CA cards we run because we need to focus on the board. 2-3 Jace with 2-3 CA cards tops. I would say 4 cards main deck between Jace/opportunity/etc. The small amount of midrange CA we get with these, carry us to victory.
5) Sylvan Caryatid/Omenspeaker/Ooze/2-3cmc creatures: We need to be able to apply pressure on the board in the early game by having not only good defense, but also good offense. The reason I don't run Caryatid is because she doesn't pressure aggro potentially killing x/1s, and she doesn't pressure control because to them she is a temporary ramp card they plan to sweep. Early damage against control is essential for us being able to close out against them before late-late game. We don't need to over-commit to the board, but we do need to have some pressure in the early creatures that we play.
6) Golgari Charm: I've talked about this before, but I think this has far more impact in MB than is on the surface to be recognized. It helps in aggro because we can regen our creatures from seemingly terrible situations. It helps against control protecting from sweepers and blowing up DSphere, their best removal spell. It can wipe a board of x/1s, it blows up Whips and Hammers... It does so much so well. But most importantly, the stuff it can do is generally back-breaking. If we build with some early pressure, Control NEEDS to wipe the board and when they do, we have an answer.
7) Reaper Of The Wilds. This card IMO defines what our game plan is. She hits the board pretty early, she pressures control while being untargetable, and stonewalls aggro that can't remove her. We beat control protecting her via her abilities, Far//Away and Charm. We beat aggro by slowing them down via Reaper, and then getting CA and eliminating their threats and using their dead creatures for Lifegain and eventually dropping bombs (Aetherling/Sphinx) that they will lose to. Reaper should be a 4 of in my mind, no hesistation.
I 100% agree with this. I just did a reworking of my list last night and it is looking a lot better. I think we need to refocus on our game plan. There were some cards that got moved to the sideboard and maybe even getting cut altogether that I realized were in the list more because I wanted to play them, then cards that were better for the deck. I deen trying to keep my list as much of a control feel as possible but it's not really there, even more so then some of these lists running 14+ creatures.
I was going over some of my older lists of my deck and I think it might be time to try doing some retesting now that more and more higher CMC spells are making their ways into peoples lists.
First, Deadbridge Chant. I will start by saying it does suffer from the same down side as Assemble the Legion being that it has no effect till your next turn and if top decked at the wrong time can be a vary bad thing. However, again like Assemble, if left alone it can turn the game around fast. You can think about it as adding a Cantrip to all your spells in a way and might be a sort of CA engine some here are looking for. With the added bonus of maybe sticking a finisher and still having all your mana open.
This brings me to the next one. Plasm Capture, I had turned it down before but before we were more about the Demon which really didn't need it but now with Reaper of the Wilds taking his place in more and more lists it would allow for a T4 counter then T5 Reaper and still have the 2 mana open to enable his hexproof as soon as he hits the table instead of praying he makes it till you untap. The extra mana also goes good with Deadbridge Chant or any of our Planeswalkers so we can play them and still keep plenty of mana open for counters or kills. Of course as well as jumping way ahead and slamming a T5 Aetherling and still having his blink mana.
Going to be retesting these and always open for info or thoughts.
Another tip: With the huge resurgence of aggro decks, move all Thoughtseize(f you are running them) to SB, stick to Duress if you are running disruption MB. As Thoughtseize will go SB in all this matchups we better prepare for it in G1, as we have the upper hand against UW, Esper with our pack of removal/counter which is superior than theirs (plus we have more CA and our creature package is anti-spot removal)
I been thinking much along the same lines and is a good tip and frees up room MB. There is more I want to add but at work and will post again when I get home.
I do think charm has applications against aggro as well, regenerating your team when they went all-in can be quite backbreaking. I can see this alot. With my build I'm focusing more on holding out against aggro first, with counting on Reaper w hexproof & Vraska to get there against control game one, and sideboard for the next. IMO, this deck will be weakest against aggros that go wide.
This is true, right now I have 2 Gaze of Granite's in SB to help slow down aggro since most of their army are low CMC bodies but I do agree it can be just too slow at times. The Charm might fill this role better.
Abrupt Decay doesn't hit everything... Whip, for instance, and that one will probably be relevant moving forward.
Gaze is expensive, and personally, i dont feel like you need the mass removal when we aleady have a great removal package via Abrupt Decay, Far//Away, etc. Better IMO to just use Ratchet Bomb from the sideboard.
Counters? I'm confused because Golgari Charm doesn't "counter" anything. It is one of only a hand full of spells that can null Supreme Verdict (Boros Charm, Rootborn Defenses, Legion's Initiative) not by countering, but by regenerating.
Swan Song seems fine, but IMO only if we are running Dumbledore Sphinx or Ratchet Bomb MB. Otherwise, how do you block or stop the flyer?
I know Abrupt Decay doesn't hit everything, I know I worded it weild but the point I was trying to make was, Abrupt Decay hit alot of the same things as the charms 1st ability + alot more and even for the things that it doesn't hit we have better options, Putrefy covers alot of the things that Abrupt Decay misses on (whip) plus again more, being able to kill creatures.
I do agree with you on Gaze. I started out with it main and have since moved it to sideboard for now.
As for the last ability I know it doesn't counter the spell but I guess what I was trying to say is there's no need to regen if there's no board wipe (countered) again with a counterspell having alot more targets.
It's not that I'm trying to hate on the card. It's just... I don't know for one I just feel like whatever I took out of the deck to add them I would be losing more answers then the charm added, If you get what I'm trying to say. I will say that I havn't tested it yet and will have too.
As for the Swan token we can easily race that + the sphinx + Bow of Nylea shots it dead.
Golgari Charm should be considered for this deck. It is a new-meta all star.
1) Destroy DSpheres, Spears of Heliod, Hammers, Bows, Whips, Chained to the Rocks and more.
2) Wipes the legions of 1/1 Elspeth tokens as well as red/white 2/1's, Heliod clerics, etc.
3) Regenerates the team vs Supreme Verdict, and can regenerate any blow out Brave The Elements/rootborn tricks.
I think this should at least be a 1-of if not 2-of MB if you are running midrange creatures (desecration demon or reaper of the wilds).
The thing that is holding me back from the Charm is that we already have all these things.
1) Abrupt Decay deals with most of these with the added bonus of hitting many non-enchantment threats.
2) Not seeing this being too big of a problem for our list and if it is we have Gaze of Granite.
3) We have plenty of counters, some that are even cheaper then the charm, Swan Song.
It's not that the Charm is bad, And I get that you get all those abilities packed into one card but you are losing stuff in the long run too. All of these can already be done plus more with what we have so while it is nice to have them all on one card you are losing out on all the other stuff that what we are using now does.
Had to put my BUG testing on hold some for real life stuff as well as getting ready for all the drafts from last week. I'm loving that more seem to be getting onboard and trying out new paths. I think BUG stands in a real good spot right now with answers for alot of different decks. We have great answers for creatures, planeswalkers, enchantments, artifacts, hexproof, hand disruption, and much more. We have plenty of great tools to pick from.
It's nothing too fancy but it's proved to be vary good at what it does, which is clearing the board and holding it till you land a beater or Vraska and ride them for the win. One of the big things about going for more of a straight build like this is it has real good balance. Always welcome for input on your thoughts.
I do like the idea of a build that uses Prophet of Kruphix but I feel like if you are going to go this route there are some changes to really get the most out of it. First I think the Prophet puts Desecration Demon ahead of Reaper of the Wilds because even if they sac to tap it to stop it from attacking you still get it to block. I know this is going to sound crazy but she might be enough to make running Underworld Connections or Erebos, God of the Dead a better idea in place of Jace, Architect of Thought. We already have plenty of Scry and lifegain and if you think about how it would play out, being able to use them on both your turn and theirs I can see how this would be vary good.
On your turn: Land (enchanted with Underworld) pay 1 life draw a card, :symg::1mana: and Bow of Nylea gain 3 life. This is like paying :symg::2mana:: Draw a card and gain 2 life Then being able to have all your mana open again on their turn and if nothing needed to be done you can do it again on their end step! Just a thought worth testing.
I like the list and the way you are going with it, adds some things for me to think over about mine. I do like the Bow alot better here where you don't need as much since you replaced the Demon with Reaper of the Wilds.
I do agree with you PW hate is going to be needed but I'm not sure if cutting all the Putrefy's from the main board is right. I have a strong feeling Whip of Erebos will be seeing plenty of play as well as some of the other weapons and as of right now you only have two possible answers to them in your whole MB (Swan Song, and 5 possible if you count Thoughtseize). As well as no way to remove it if it lands. I think we might get a better game one % if we do a split of Hero's Downfall and Putrefy in the main with the backup in side so we can go more one way or the other if they are running PW's and no weapons or the other way around.
If you are going down the path of fewer critters you want to stay away from Cryptic Incursion. Without as many blockers it just doesn't hold up vary well. And if you are playing against a deck with many threats you want your open mana to be casting spells not for healing and it can be hard to do both in the early game.
With that in mind. It did do it's job and there were plenty of games where I was able to cast it for 12+ life. Tonight I will be running it in more a midrange build where I think it will hold up a lot better. Should be able to get a nice time to cast about T4 or 5 after some early summons.
Trust me I can understand wanting to cut off aggro as much as possible game one, as it's our hardest match up. But at the cost of making all of our other game 1's weaker then they need to be? I have gone whole test sessions and haven't seen aggro at times. Plus as the meta shapes up more and more aggro gets less powerful compared to the other control decks who just get stronger and stronger the more the meta settles in.
: On my phone so wont spell check, at work. Srry Lol
1 AEtherling
4 Reaper of the Wilds
3 Sylvan Caryatid
3 Lifebane Zombie
2 Frilled Oculus
Instant: 18
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Doom Blade
1 Hero's Downfall
3 Putrefy
2 Far // Away
1 Golgari Charm
2 Psychic Strike
2 Syncopate
1 Essence Scatter
2 Crypt Incursion
2 Underworld Connections
Lands: 25
4 Watery Grave
4 Breeding Pool
4 Overgrown Tomb
3 Temple of Mystery
3 Temple of Deceit
3 Swamp
2 Island
2 Forest
2 Frilled Oculus
3 Mistcutter Hydra
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Crypt Incursion
3 Negate
3 Thoughtseize
2 Duress
Lifebane Zombie He's back! Sadly it means losing one of my pet cards but it's looking like the lifegain he carried is needed less now that we are better suited for aggro and against the other main decks it's needed even less. Lifebane just offers more now I think plus crypt Incursion does more then make up the heal.
Crypt Incursion: Yes it doesn't play well with the Sooze but like the ooze it goes with psychic strike and the rest of the deck nicely. As of now I have two Frilled Oculus in the main with two more waiting in Sideboard. The Ooze I have sitting at 3 main, So what I'm trying to go for here for siding against aggro would be like -3 Scavenging Ooze, -3 Read the Bones, and -1 Hero's Downfall (leaving one MB) for +3 Crypt Incursion, +2 Frilled Oculus (4 MB now), and +2 Returned Phalanx. This should really slow down their ground game aswell as offer up some trades since they are trying to push as fast as they can, on top of our kill spells. Then hitting a Crypt Incursion should give us the time we need to take over from there.
Some of the others I found that might be next on the list or maybe talked about some here are:
Shrivel: Yea does the same thing our charm does only at sorcery but having more might not be bad or even played with the charm T4 to pretty much clear their board other then maybe the Dragon.
Downsize: Turn 3/4 is when they are really looking to start turning up the heat for a alpha strike and this might help to 1, Live another turn and 2, likely take something from them in doing so. I don't know might be worth some testing.
Sedge Scorpion: Deathtouch makes for a nice 'stop sign' only problem here is he sadly dies to any spell pointed his way then you are back in trouble.
Corpse Blockade: As above, Only he is harder to kill off from spells but has to have a critter to sac to turn deathtouch on. If we move to play a more ground blocking game like said above for Crypt Incursion then having this out with a Frilled Oculus or Returned Phalanx might really make them think before attacking.
Gridlock: We are playing blue which gives us plenty of 'tap down' kind of effects. I'm just using this card more as a idea holder. It might not be the best for what we are looking for but we are blue and have stuff like Inaction Injunction. Is it enough to by some time? Maybe to build up lands for a backbreaking [CARD]
Gaze of Granite[/CARD].
Just some food for through please let me know where you might stand with these.
I have always been on the fence about the Bow. And again, I find myself asking is it the best option. The thing is we first started bringing it up for two main reasons.
First, To help hold out against early aggro. But seeing as how the lists are going more and more anti-aggro mainboard. Meaning we will be taking less of that early damage anyway. At the time we had Thoughtseize MB + our shock lands + RtB's. If the Bow is going to be in the sideboard for aggro isn't there something better to fit this spot to side in against them?
The other reason we started down the path of the Bow was to help heal some of our self inflected wounds (Thoughtseize MB + our shock lands + RtB's). Well we have learned with aggro running all over the place Thoughtseize is better off in the SB. Some of the lists are even losing some of the RtB's too. So we are doing alittle less damage to ourselfs.
By moving it to the sideboard (I do think this is better then MB) we are splitting up the two reasons we started to test it to start with. If we side in Thoughtseize for control we don't really need the healing as staying in control matters more then life totals. So what I'm asking is, If it is only being used for the heal and against aggro is there something that would be better or is the healing still needed even tho we are packing better weapons to fight aggro MB?
Congrats! Vary well played. I see you moved the Bow's to the SB. Bringing them in for aggro?
I 100% agree with this. I just did a reworking of my list last night and it is looking a lot better. I think we need to refocus on our game plan. There were some cards that got moved to the sideboard and maybe even getting cut altogether that I realized were in the list more because I wanted to play them, then cards that were better for the deck. I deen trying to keep my list as much of a control feel as possible but it's not really there, even more so then some of these lists running 14+ creatures.
First, Deadbridge Chant. I will start by saying it does suffer from the same down side as Assemble the Legion being that it has no effect till your next turn and if top decked at the wrong time can be a vary bad thing. However, again like Assemble, if left alone it can turn the game around fast. You can think about it as adding a Cantrip to all your spells in a way and might be a sort of CA engine some here are looking for. With the added bonus of maybe sticking a finisher and still having all your mana open.
This brings me to the next one. Plasm Capture, I had turned it down before but before we were more about the Demon which really didn't need it but now with Reaper of the Wilds taking his place in more and more lists it would allow for a T4 counter then T5 Reaper and still have the 2 mana open to enable his hexproof as soon as he hits the table instead of praying he makes it till you untap. The extra mana also goes good with Deadbridge Chant or any of our Planeswalkers so we can play them and still keep plenty of mana open for counters or kills. Of course as well as jumping way ahead and slamming a T5 Aetherling and still having his blink mana.
Going to be retesting these and always open for info or thoughts.
I been thinking much along the same lines and is a good tip and frees up room MB. There is more I want to add but at work and will post again when I get home.
This is true, right now I have 2 Gaze of Granite's in SB to help slow down aggro since most of their army are low CMC bodies but I do agree it can be just too slow at times. The Charm might fill this role better.
I know Abrupt Decay doesn't hit everything, I know I worded it weild but the point I was trying to make was, Abrupt Decay hit alot of the same things as the charms 1st ability + alot more and even for the things that it doesn't hit we have better options, Putrefy covers alot of the things that Abrupt Decay misses on (whip) plus again more, being able to kill creatures.
I do agree with you on Gaze. I started out with it main and have since moved it to sideboard for now.
As for the last ability I know it doesn't counter the spell but I guess what I was trying to say is there's no need to regen if there's no board wipe (countered) again with a counterspell having alot more targets.
It's not that I'm trying to hate on the card. It's just... I don't know for one I just feel like whatever I took out of the deck to add them I would be losing more answers then the charm added, If you get what I'm trying to say. I will say that I havn't tested it yet and will have too.
As for the Swan token we can easily race that + the sphinx + Bow of Nylea shots it dead.
The thing that is holding me back from the Charm is that we already have all these things.
1) Abrupt Decay deals with most of these with the added bonus of hitting many non-enchantment threats.
2) Not seeing this being too big of a problem for our list and if it is we have Gaze of Granite.
3) We have plenty of counters, some that are even cheaper then the charm, Swan Song.
It's not that the Charm is bad, And I get that you get all those abilities packed into one card but you are losing stuff in the long run too. All of these can already be done plus more with what we have so while it is nice to have them all on one card you are losing out on all the other stuff that what we are using now does.
For now my list is looking like:
3 Reaper of the Wilds
3 Scavenging Ooze
3 Sylvan Caryatid
1 Aetherling
1 Prognostic Sphinx
Instants & Sorceries: 20
2 Abrupt Decay
3 Putrefy
2 Hero's Downfall
1 Far // Away
2 Syncopate
2 Psychic Strike
2 Swan Song
3 Thoughtseize
3 Read the Bones
2 Bow of Nylea
Planeswalkers: 3
2 Jace, Architect of Thought
1 Vraska the Unseen
Lands: 24
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Watery Grave
4 Breeding Pool
3 Temple of Mystery
3 Temple of Deceit
2 Forest
2 Island
2 Swamp
3 Lifebane Zombie
2 Gaze of Granite
2 Swan Song
2 Fade into Antiquity
3 Devour Flesh
1 Notion Thief
2 Abrupt Decay
It's nothing too fancy but it's proved to be vary good at what it does, which is clearing the board and holding it till you land a beater or Vraska and ride them for the win. One of the big things about going for more of a straight build like this is it has real good balance. Always welcome for input on your thoughts.
I do like the idea of a build that uses Prophet of Kruphix but I feel like if you are going to go this route there are some changes to really get the most out of it. First I think the Prophet puts Desecration Demon ahead of Reaper of the Wilds because even if they sac to tap it to stop it from attacking you still get it to block. I know this is going to sound crazy but she might be enough to make running Underworld Connections or Erebos, God of the Dead a better idea in place of Jace, Architect of Thought. We already have plenty of Scry and lifegain and if you think about how it would play out, being able to use them on both your turn and theirs I can see how this would be vary good.
On your turn: Land (enchanted with Underworld) pay 1 life draw a card, :symg::1mana: and Bow of Nylea gain 3 life. This is like paying :symg::2mana:: Draw a card and gain 2 life Then being able to have all your mana open again on their turn and if nothing needed to be done you can do it again on their end step! Just a thought worth testing.
I do agree with you PW hate is going to be needed but I'm not sure if cutting all the Putrefy's from the main board is right. I have a strong feeling Whip of Erebos will be seeing plenty of play as well as some of the other weapons and as of right now you only have two possible answers to them in your whole MB (Swan Song, and 5 possible if you count Thoughtseize). As well as no way to remove it if it lands. I think we might get a better game one % if we do a split of Hero's Downfall and Putrefy in the main with the backup in side so we can go more one way or the other if they are running PW's and no weapons or the other way around.
I can see how the stronger lifrgain may help but how does it help to stall the board? The deathtouch only triggers on your attacking creatures.