those saying it'll be great in edh... wtf game are you playing? it'll die before it does anything almost every single time. its okay in a super *****ty casual build if you can get it into the yard with necrotic ooze having been out already, or maybe if you give it haste... and uh... can already swing for lethal? toughness matters decks? basically any time this thing isn't eating a wrath or removal, you've already got your edh game locked up and don't need it. basically, if you can kill me by making my life total 13, i had already lost the game. if you can't kill me after using this thing's ability, i don't care because i'll just combo out on my turn or something.
its fun and flavorful, but its not really as great in edh as you think.
wtf game are YOU playing? If I corpse dance this tree with Ayli out, isn't that kind of good?
I've only played one pre-release, but I played ghostly wings after a friend suggested I throw it in, and it was a lot better than I thought it would be. It's pretty versatile, it gets one of your creatures through, bounces one of theirs, enables madness for free, or helps with delirium. There are quite a few creatures that take a lot of work to get going, whether it's from transforming or adding and removing counters from them, and I think bouncing opponents creatures is better in this set than most, there aren't a ton of cip abilities that can hurt you like ROE did. I'm fine with tossing an extra land to bounce a creature if I really need to.
I got to live the dream and play an almost perfect u/b zombie control deck, went 5-1 and came third out of 54, losing to the guy who won with a mardu aggro/nahiri/under the floorboards deck. This deck was exactly what I wanted to play, it had a nice lowish curve, with some high toughness and deathtouch creatures to stall the ground, and some good flyers to finish the game. It had great removal and interaction, and Geralf's Masterpiece was always a bomb, and I was lucky enough to draw it almost every game.
Accursed Witch was insane, there were times when people didn't RTFC and would trade decent creatures with it, and then I would flip it and toss it to their side of the table, and they would cry.
Stitchwing Skaab Was great and very hard to deal with, after playing out 5-6 lands I would just hold extras in my hand to either loot or bring back the skaab... I won a game against an online Sorin because he had to keep killing it and I kept reanimating it.
Ghostly Wings overperformed all day, if I was behind I was just bouncing a creature with it, if I was ahead I could throw it on a 3/5 and go to town. It was interesting to note that I don't think I actually madnessed any spells all day, I only brought the Masterpiece back once from the graveyard, and I only flipped Thing in the Ice, though when it did it was a Cyclonic Rift since I have so many other horrors...
I'll definitely be trying this archetype in draft, although I don't think I'll be able to draft a deck as good as this one was...
Two other suggestions that I think would be really strong are Wake the Dead and Rally the Ancestors. Play them, bring back your GY, retrigger ETB abilities, trade off an opposing attack the sac everything remaining for life.
Especially Wake the Dead is incredibly powerful but very little played and I think it would fit this deck like a glove.
Wake the Dead's a fantastic idea, I used to run that in my Bladewing deck and only cut it because I couldn't consistently make use of the the creatures ETBing, and it comes with the plus of putting them back into the graveyard if I'm stopped from doing that myself. Definitely something I'll consider. As for Rally, I'm a little more wary, yanking out the big creatures (here's looking at you, Ashen Rider) takes *a lot* of mana which I might not be able to deliver on reliably, especially if I want to keep up mana to sac those creatures away before they exile themselves.
Definitely seriously considering Wake the Dead.
Now I need to get a Wake the Dead too, that card is perfect for Ayli, I'd never even heard of it before. I have my list here if you feel like checking it out: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/23-01-16-ose-ayli/ It's a little less focused than yours, a bit more midrangey.
The split second is sometimes relevant too... Batterskull, jitte with counters, sensei's top, helm of obedience. I generally just bring it in against blade decks and MUD.
I've been playing a Tasigur deck for a few days that I based on the legacy "Lands" combo/control deck... It's pretty fun, it runs almost no creatures and abuses glacial chasm and life from the loam to keep people from attacking you. The win cons are dark depths/thespian stage combo, worm harvest, avenger of zendikar and Titania. Titania is kind of sub par in this deck, and I'm looking to replace her with something. The decklist is here in case anyone wants to check it out or has any advice:
I knew Pyrotechnics would be good, but I didn't realize it would be the mvp of my deck. I played a banner just so I could play it on turn 4 against aggro and it was always a blowout. I played abzhan midrange with a red splash for 2x pyrotechnics and 1 bathe in dragonfire. Pyro would either kill 2-3 small creatures, 1 serious threat, or finish off opponents. It was really versatile.
This card is powerful and everything, but I find it kind of unsettling. I mean, you can slap a bunch of random abilities onto a creature but eventually it stops making sense. How is some red dude with an axe drawing us cards? Temur is such a flavor fail in general, everything is super clunky.
Something that nobody has mentioned is Jund stax... I played Xira Arien token stax for quite a bit and it was pretty strong. You get the best enchantments in jund- Bitterblossom, necro, arena, sylvan library and awakening zone for tokens and library manipulation, along with oppresive lock pieces like nether void, the abyss, stranglehold, and contamination. You get really good spot removal, and devastating sweepers like death cloud, ruination, jokulhaups, pernicious deed, etc. The biggest strength is definitely the enchantments though, jund has so many powerful enchantments that cost 4 or less it's obscene.
wtf game are YOU playing? If I corpse dance this tree with Ayli out, isn't that kind of good?
Accursed Witch was insane, there were times when people didn't RTFC and would trade decent creatures with it, and then I would flip it and toss it to their side of the table, and they would cry.
Stitchwing Skaab Was great and very hard to deal with, after playing out 5-6 lands I would just hold extras in my hand to either loot or bring back the skaab... I won a game against an online Sorin because he had to keep killing it and I kept reanimating it.
Ghostly Wings overperformed all day, if I was behind I was just bouncing a creature with it, if I was ahead I could throw it on a 3/5 and go to town. It was interesting to note that I don't think I actually madnessed any spells all day, I only brought the Masterpiece back once from the graveyard, and I only flipped Thing in the Ice, though when it did it was a Cyclonic Rift since I have so many other horrors...
I'll definitely be trying this archetype in draft, although I don't think I'll be able to draft a deck as good as this one was...
1x welcome to the fold
1x thing in the ice
1x just the wind
1x sleep paralysis
1x broken concentration
1x ghostly wings
2x lamplighter of selhoff
1x niblis of dusk
1x seagraf skaab
1x stitched mangler
1x stitchwing skaab
1x gisa's bidding
2x murderous compulsion
2x rancid rats
2x rottenheart ghoul
1x throttle
1x ghoulcaller's accomplice
8x swamp
Now I need to get a Wake the Dead too, that card is perfect for Ayli, I'd never even heard of it before. I have my list here if you feel like checking it out: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/23-01-16-ose-ayli/ It's a little less focused than yours, a bit more midrangey.
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/tasigur-combo-lands/
I don't think you play much legacy... Jace is barely played at all. Here's a short list of cards over 3 mana that are played:
Batterskull
Emrakul
Sneak Attack
Helm of Obedience
Wurmcoil
Tezzeret
Terminus
Natural Order
Past in Flames
Tendrils
etc... This card could see play in legacy MUD over Karn for sure, it's so much better.
Something that nobody has mentioned is Jund stax... I played Xira Arien token stax for quite a bit and it was pretty strong. You get the best enchantments in jund- Bitterblossom, necro, arena, sylvan library and awakening zone for tokens and library manipulation, along with oppresive lock pieces like nether void, the abyss, stranglehold, and contamination. You get really good spot removal, and devastating sweepers like death cloud, ruination, jokulhaups, pernicious deed, etc. The biggest strength is definitely the enchantments though, jund has so many powerful enchantments that cost 4 or less it's obscene.