I built this list and have tested it for a few games, and I really like the direction it goes in, but it needs more win-cons main. 2 Form of the Dragon are necessary, I think. I'm also adding another Detention Sphere. Lilliana is such a beating for us. But all-in-all the deck is super fun to play and I think it has real legs.
So i'm just testing various versions of the deck and kinda wondering why no one uses Mistveil Plains it seems great when you draw your pieces or have them discarded.
My updated list. Very slight changes, but they are a result of testing. I'm confident with the manabase, finally. That took a while to straighten out. The second Form is necessary. Losing game one because your Form gets discarded is incredibly embarrassing. Hoofprints didn't cut it. It was too slow at generating tokens for the games I was trying to stall with Verdict and Remand. Ascension, on the other hand, will churn out flyers very quickly once it hits four counters.
I can't comment on the strength of the Tron lands in this deck, as I haven't tried them, but I know I would play Terrarion so you only need one artifact to make WW for Ideal.
I was actually thinking about that, but the fact that it comes into play tapped was enough for me to skip it. But I guess it doesn't have to be that big of a deal.
tried this deck a few times it really doesnt do well X_X its fun tho
Not sure what you were doing, but I have to say this is wrong. Modern is about as wide open as a format has ever been. Ideal works, son. Is it the best combo deck? No. Can it steal a tournament? Yes.
This deck has about 7-8 slots that can be adjusted for any metagame. You simply didn't tune your version correctly.
OK, we've got a new card: Possibility Storm. Any potential here? It's a hard lock a la Knowledge Pool with Curse of Exhaustion, which gives an actual out against combo. Wargate is dead with it, but if you're running a bunch of cantripping sorceries, you can cast them until you nail an Enduring Ideal, and use the deck manipulation to put it in the right spot. Meanwhile, your opponent can't reliably cast counterspells.
OK, we've got a new card: Possibility Storm. Any potential here? It's a hard lock a la Knowledge Pool with Curse of Exhaustion, which gives an actual out against combo. Wargate is dead with it, but if you're running a bunch of cantripping sorceries, you can cast them until you nail an Enduring Ideal, and use the deck manipulation to put it in the right spot. Meanwhile, your opponent can't reliably cast counterspells.
If you flip Wargate after you have cast some other sorcery, would it not resolve with x=0?
edit: Isn't Possibility Storm a hardlock with Curse of Exhaustion by itself? The first spell that triggers PS is cast, exiled, and they flip cards until they hit another of the same type. At that point, they have the choice to cast that spell or not, but they can't play a second. Right?
edit: Isn't Possibility Storm a hardlock with Curse of Exhaustion by itself? The first spell that triggers PS is cast, exiled, and they flip cards until they hit another of the same type. At that point, they have the choice to cast that spell or not, but they can't play a second. Right?
I was looking for a different deck to play for my LGS's monthly Modern FMN, and I found this thread and got excited again. I played Ideal a few years ago in Extended (when it was a real format), and even though it wasn't Tier 1, it was still really fun to play.
After reading through the entire thread, I came up with this build, based primarily on Barley's posts:
I've just started playing the deck again on MTGO, trying to prepare a bit for the end of the month FMN. Anyone have any new tech or comments?
I like it overall, but I'd honestly swap out the volition reins. If you feel it can be supported (mana wise), a cryptic command seems like a great singleton, the colored cost is kinda rough though. Still, because the deck is slower resultant from the seething song loss, cryptic feels like a good choice.
hey, I have been testing out a build focusing more on the possibility storm lock and i thought i would post it here. I built the deck more for multiplayer, and less for duel settings, but I have noticed that the deck just feels about a turn too slow. this may be due to my individual meta (bogles, UW tron, RDW, and various assorted combo decks) or it may be my version of the deck. I thought i would post it here to see what you guys think of it though.
I have really enjoyed possibility storm though, it allows you to hit enduring ideals with much less mana. a turn three possibility storm turn four supreme verdict into enduring ideals will both mess with your opponent's consitency and hit an extremely early enduring ideals.
What do you guys think? Do i have some weak links in here? Is this style of enduring ideals deck just strictly inferior too others?
EDIT: Made the Decklist more clear and updated it.
hey, I have been testing out a build focusing more on the possibility storm lock and i thought i would post it here. I built the deck more for multiplayer, and less for duel settings, but I have noticed that the deck just feels about a turn too slow. this may be due to my individual meta (bogles, UW tron, RDW, and various assorted combo decks) or it may be my version of the deck. I thought i would post it here to see what you guys think of it though.
I have really enjoyed possibility storm though, it allows you to hit enduring ideals with much less mana. a turn three possibility storm turn four supreme verdict into enduring ideals will both mess with your opponent's consitency and hit an extremely early enduring ideals.
What do you guys think? Do i have some weak links in here? Is this style of enduring ideals deck just strictly inferior too others?
Possibility Storm is a very interesting card, to be sure. I had not previously considered it for Ideal, but it might work out. I would hesitate to use PS as a shell card for casting before Ideal, simply because the Ideal deck is totally focused on actually casting Ideal, and to gamble on first casting PS and then casting a sorcery and hoping that Ideal is then revealed is not my idea of consistency. Go for it, though!
I am playing this now. I dropped Remand because I always wanted to tap out for Prism and Wargate instead. It just didn't fit the play style, in my opinion.
The new idea is that Possibility Storm is much-needed redundancy for Ideal. After PS hits play, you want to cast Sleight, Visions, or Probe to trigger the enchantment and flip Enduring Ideal - in a perfect world. Wargate can also get the job done. I found that I needed a bunch of sorceries because the world isn't perfect, and you may need to try more than once. Either way, it's fun and exciting to gamble on the top of your library for an effect that can be broken. The major reason I like PS besides the fun is that it is both an engine and lock piece in one. It messes with the opponent's game plan, which is perfect and it tries to facilitate Ideal. Once you do hit Ideal, you can have Curse be your first enchantment for a hard-lock. It's pretty sweet.
The locks are now [Possibility Storm + Curse of Exhaustion] and [Form of the Dragon + Phyrexian Unlife]. It's pretty nice to have an opponent who can't play Magic or hurt you. Dovescape is an all-in-one deal as a replacement for the times you simply resolve Ideal the old fashioned way. It's still a smart idea to get it to protect your combo immediately, rather than waiting a turn with PS + Curse. You can gamble and get PS and just hope they don't flip another good card, but Dovescape is obviously safer.
I played this to a 3-1 record and made top 4 at my LGS on Sunday. It was definitely fun to play and I think there's potential with Possibility Storm and Enduring Ideal. I don't think I hit it right on the head, but this is a great start. My loss was to UBRg Delver when I couldn't find protection for my bomb spell. I did at least attempt to go off in every game though. That was at least something.
The choice of enchantments were very strong since there's so much redundancy within the effects yet they cover basically every situation you could find yourself in. I really, really want to fit Peer Through Depths in the deck. It may actually take Wargate's spot. Anyways, I'm excited to try this again at the next event.
Has anyone tried izzet charm in this? I don't get to play a whole lot of really competitive magic to test out decks, but in the limited amount I have been playing this deck, izzet charm has been an all star. all three modes of it can be useful, although I most often use it to loot. I am currently running an RWU build using the possibility storm + rule of law lock. I chose rule of law over curse of exhaustion because I play a lot of multiplayer games. and after casting enduring ideals, it doesnt' matter if you lock yourself out of spells anyway. Possibility storm has also been a great piece of the deck in my opinion. It disrupts your opponents answers, and can help you ramp into enduring ideals. as the only sorceries in my deck are supreme verdict and enduring ideal, I have had plenty of times where possibility storm has turned supreme verdict into an ideal and let me lock my opponent our right on the spot. This is a link to my decklist if anyone is interested.
You can't really compare multi-player games to duels very easily. In our case, we are discussing one vs. one. You are pretty much obliged to play Curse over Rule since you will draw it during a tournament. And when you do, you still want the ability to cast Storm without locking yourself out of the game.
I dropped Silence and Wargate from my mb for Pyroclasm and another land. I don't see enough counterspells to justify mb Silence. And I really want to keep the deck three colors, and assume a slower role in each game so that's why I cut Wargate. As a result, Boseiju went to the sb and is supplemented by the Silences there.
Edit: Here's what I'm testing now. Halimar Depths is so good at any point in the game. In the early turns, it sets up land drops, mana ramp, and cantrips perfectly. Incidentally it prevents you from drawing enchantments. It's just too good for our purposes.
I have found that I need two Phyrexian Unlife for the same reason as Form. I'd actually like to fit three since it has a reasonable casting cost, but there's no space. Even though I have two Unlifes, I still decided to keep Meishin for those corner cases where I'm under immediate duress and Unlife won't suffice (if they can burn me for instance). Meishin is definitely the most scrutinized card in the list. It's still trying out for the team.
Wall of Omens has been incredible, to be honest. I was skeptic of it since playing creatures turns on the opponent's removal. But, the only spells that outright kill the wall are black or white. The black ones are still leaving your opponent down a card on the exchange and Path will actually put you two cards up. Red typically can't reach four toughness without dumping two spells. All around, I like the addition.
Damping Matrix/Suppression Field is something I wanted to test at the last tournament, but didn't want to bring a dud to an unknown meta. I wish I had one last time. They stop Birthing Pod, Splinter Twin, Kiki-Jiki, all the artifacts from Tron, Cranial Plating, Aether Vial, Deathrite Shaman, and Grim Lavamancer - just to name the ones I can think of at this moment. Plus, Field stops fetches which might be mb worthy. It seems pretty brutal to more than a few top decks.
Serum Visions is actually better in this deck thanks to Possibility Storm. There's no fear to casting Form with a PS in play since it will go on the bottom of your library, which is why blind drawing isn't as bad. Visions sets up your turns better, which is the same reason Halimar Depths should be played more. Our best first turn is Halimar Depths + Lotus Bloom - I kid you not. I may drop the Sleight of Hands for Court Hussar yet. He plays around Pyroclasm and does double duty soaking up some damage, just like the Wall.
I understand the difference between multiplayer and duels. Curse of exhaustion is much better in duels because you don't need to lock multiple people out. I was not suggesting that anyone else run rule of law in a competitive duel meta. I was simply explaining what i have done in my play.
I noticed that your deck runs a large number of sorceries? have you considered switching a couple of your cantripping sorceries into izzet charms or telling time? I think that they both have great functionality in a deck like this and will make you able to more consistently cheat enduring ideals into play for cheap, I play a playset of izzet charms as my only instants so that i can have a counter spell or creature removal or a looting effect guaranteed even after possibility storm. In my build i am only running a board wipe (supreme verdict, although i suspect pyroclasm might fit the spot better, I haven't tried it yet.) and enduring ideals. This means I often have very good odds of hitting enduring ideals off of a possibility storm. The question I pose to you is, do you think that having one mana cantrips is important enough to sacrifice your post possibility storm consistency?
Also, how important do you feel is the redundancy between the possibility storm, curse of exhaustion lock, and the dovescape, meishin lock. Did you really find yourself needing to use both of them?
with Theros coming out soon, is there any chance that either the Gods or their weapons would be any good in this deck?
The Hammer of Purphoros is certainly an interesting card, but it doesn't protect us or deal the damage like Form of the Dragon does, so i'm not sold on that one. The Bow of Nylea provides some interesting abilities, the most notable being the 2 damage to a flyer or gaining 3 life, which requires that we have green mana to activate it, and is a bit of a non-bo with Peace of Mind.
All of the Gods will need at least two other enchantments out before they become creatures. Form and Meishin only have 3 colored mana symbols each, with the God that's only 4 devotion total. I think this really depends on how the rules update will count hybrid mana symbols towards devotion. If Dovescape gives us both 3 white and 3 blue devotion, Heliod is definitely playable. Thassa is more damage, a turn off the clock with Form, so i'd play one of both of these if it turns out this way.
Another interesting part of the spoiled cards are the bestow creatures. The archon is a better Lucent Liminid in this deck, and has first strike. Purphoros' Emmissary has a sort of evasion, but again, Form of the dragon is just better all around.
As far as the gods go, I think heliod and purphoros have potential, but they both fall short just a little bit. I don't think thassa is what we want at all.
Thassa will be almost exclusively just a scry 1 a turn. If we have dovescape in play, we want to be hitting meishin asap to lock our opponent out of hitting hus with their myriad of birds. once meishin and dovescape are in play, thassa will be able to turn into a creature, but will probably have very little power and won't be a fast clock.
heliod has slightly more potential. I have been running luminarch ascenscion in my build as a backup for situations where my opponent manages to stick a leyline of sanctity and i can no longer use form of the dragon as a win con. the problem with the ascension is that it takes so long to get online that you can very easily die in the mean time. once again, in those situations we want to drop meishin earlly anyway because we can't keep creatures from attacking with form of the dragon.
purphoros has the most potential in my mind. Although to make purphoros feasible, i think we need to mix him with assemble the legion. this would probably lead to a fairly sizable change to the shell and I am hoping to test it out and see how it works. purphoros with assemble the legion puts your opponent on the same clock as form of the dragon, but doesn't drop you to 5 life. it also requires two cards and doesn't protect you as well from your opponent's attacks.
without attacking : first turn with purphoros = 2 damage
second = 4 damage (6 total)
third = 6 damage (12 total)
fourth = 8 damage (20 total)
You do however get 10 chump blockers over the course of the four turns, which may be enough, especially with purphoros's pump effect to make them stronger blockers.
I hope to test it out and see how it works, but I don't know that it will be quite worth it.
I am still holding out hope that heliod's spear will be playable for us, but so far I don't think anything spoiled in theros is going to be better for us than what we already have.
I don't think you need Meishin tbh. Phyrexian Unlife and Form are already redundant at stopping creatures. A third option was overkill in my opinion and I dropped it.
I think the correct number of sorcery spells for Possibility Storm is somewhere between 8-12. This is complete conjecture based on limited personal experience with the card. No math was involved
Thus far, I don't think Theros offers an improvement in any area of Ideal unfortunately. Form is still the best win condition because it's also defensive. There hasn't been anything to compete for Dovescape or Possibility Storm yet. And Phyrexian Unlife is mostly in there because of Form, so it could be changed if a better win condition comes out. I've definitely been keeping a close eye on the spoilers just for this deck.
I have been brewing with another version that focuses a lot more of playing hate before the combo. It forgoes Possibility Storm to just play more pieces of disruption, and it's been pretty brutal so far. I have yet to come across a deck that can sidestep all the hate I placed in this deck. Here it is.
Suppression Field is a card that sees very, very little play because most Modern players own fetches. They want to play with those fetches, hence no Fields. That opens an excellent window for us to play it plus Blood Moon to produce quite the impressive mana hate package. In addition to taxing fetches, it hurts so many other cards in the format that I have a hard time remembering them all... Vial, Pridemage, Scavenging Ooze, Ghost Quarter, Tec Edge, Birthing Pod, Kiki Jiki, Splinter Twin, equipment, Expedition Map, Cranial Plating, Springleaf Drum, every Planeswalker, Oblivion Stone, Mindslaver, Martyr of Sands, etc. Seriously, it goes on and on. To top it off - cards in hurts in your deck? Zero. /grin
However, Suppression Field and Blood Moon offer no resistance to any creature that gets in play before they are. Hence, the need for some sweepers. First you lock them out from playing more threats, then you kill the ones they have and ride your hate pieces until Ideal happens. This strategy has been showing more positive results than Possibility Storm.
Molten Psyche is a complete test spell. Since Possibility Storm was cut from this version, and there are cards in here that just suck to draw (like the enchantments or Blood/Prism in the later turns or a second Blood Moon), I thought it might provide utility two-fold. I want it to find Ideal in those situations and hopefully shuffle back in the chaff that needs to be in my library. It's just a test, so we'll see.
So what's the one thing that can still hurt me? Triggered abilities of creatures. To answer that, Torpor Orb has been awesome. Thank you for that suggestion. Well, what do you guys think about this version? I wish I could stop brewing to have some more consistency here, but I can't! haha
I built this list and have tested it for a few games, and I really like the direction it goes in, but it needs more win-cons main. 2 Form of the Dragon are necessary, I think. I'm also adding another Detention Sphere. Lilliana is such a beating for us. But all-in-all the deck is super fun to play and I think it has real legs.
Moderm - Mono blue Tron and Eldrazi variants
Legacy - Building Eldrazi Stompy
My team for ever ever:
Sport Club Internacional
www.internacional.com.br
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Razorverge Thicket
3 Arid Mesa
3 Misty Rainforest
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Temple Garden
1 Island
1 Plains
1 Halimar Depths
1 Wooded Bastion
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
3 Peer Through Depths
4 Wargate
3 Lotus Bloom
4 Pentad Prism
4 Enduring Ideal
2 Form of the Dragon
2 Dovescape
2 Phyrexian Unlife
2 Detention Sphere
4 Remand
3 Supreme Verdict
4 Path to Exile
3 Tormod's Crypt
1 Grafdigger's Cage
3 Silence
1 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Blood Moon
2 Luminarch Ascension
What about Tron lands?
4 Enduring Ideal
2 Form of the Dragon
2 Meishin, the Mind Cage
1 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Detention Sphere
1 Dovescape
1 Greater Auramancy
4 Chromatic Star
4 Chromatic Sphere
4 Expedition Map
4 Ancient Stirrings
4 Sylvan Scrying
4 Urza's Power Plant
4 Urza's Tower
4 Horizon Canopy
3 Razorverge Thicket
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
Just an idea. Don't shoot me down even though it probably sucks.
Anyone interested in this?
PT1:
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/standard/12458_Tearfully_the_Complete_AggroIdeal_Part_1.html
PT2: http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/standard/12467-Tearfully-the-Complete-Aggro-Ideal-Part-2.html
Here's the link: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/autocardanywhere/eobkhgkgoejnjaiofdmphhkemmomfabg?hl=en
Not sure what you were doing, but I have to say this is wrong. Modern is about as wide open as a format has ever been. Ideal works, son. Is it the best combo deck? No. Can it steal a tournament? Yes.
This deck has about 7-8 slots that can be adjusted for any metagame. You simply didn't tune your version correctly.
Cubetutor Link
If you flip Wargate after you have cast some other sorcery, would it not resolve with x=0?
edit: Isn't Possibility Storm a hardlock with Curse of Exhaustion by itself? The first spell that triggers PS is cast, exiled, and they flip cards until they hit another of the same type. At that point, they have the choice to cast that spell or not, but they can't play a second. Right?
Yes that is correct.
H/W List http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=112656
After reading through the entire thread, I came up with this build, based primarily on Barley's posts:
1 Plains
1 Mistveil Plains
3 Razorverge Thicket
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Wooded Bastion
1 Halimar Depths
4 Seachrome Coast
1 Island
2 Temple Garden
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Misty Rainforest
4 Arid Mesa
Spells - 29
4 Pentad Prism
3 Lotus Bloom
4 Wargate
4 Remand
3 Peer Through Depths
4 Sleight of Hand
3 Supreme Verdict
4 Enduring Ideal
1 Detention Sphere
1 Meishin, the Mind Cage
1 Phyrexian Unlife
2 Dovescape
2 Form of the Dragon
1 Volition Reins
4 Path to Exile
3 Tormod's Crypt
3 Silence
1 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Luminarch Ascension
1 Rest in Peace
1 Zur's Weirding
1 Blood Moon
I've just started playing the deck again on MTGO, trying to prepare a bit for the end of the month FMN. Anyone have any new tech or comments?
I like it overall, but I'd honestly swap out the volition reins. If you feel it can be supported (mana wise), a cryptic command seems like a great singleton, the colored cost is kinda rough though. Still, because the deck is slower resultant from the seething song loss, cryptic feels like a good choice.
2 Celestial Colonnade
4 Hallowed Fountain
2 Island
2 Mistveil Plains
2 Mountain
3 Plains
4 Sacred Foundry
3 Steam Vents
4 Pentad Prism
4 Wall of Omens
4 Enduring Ideal
4 Supreme verdict
4 izzet charm
3 Detention Sphere
1 Form of the Dragon
1 Luminarch Ascension
1 Meishin, the Mind Cage
1 Leyline of Sanctity
1 sphere of safety
1 Phyrexian Unlife
4 Possibility Storm
1 Rule of Law
1 Rest In Peace
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/enduring-possibilities/
I have really enjoyed possibility storm though, it allows you to hit enduring ideals with much less mana. a turn three possibility storm turn four supreme verdict into enduring ideals will both mess with your opponent's consitency and hit an extremely early enduring ideals.
What do you guys think? Do i have some weak links in here? Is this style of enduring ideals deck just strictly inferior too others?
EDIT: Made the Decklist more clear and updated it.
Possibility Storm is a very interesting card, to be sure. I had not previously considered it for Ideal, but it might work out. I would hesitate to use PS as a shell card for casting before Ideal, simply because the Ideal deck is totally focused on actually casting Ideal, and to gamble on first casting PS and then casting a sorcery and hoping that Ideal is then revealed is not my idea of consistency. Go for it, though!
The new idea is that Possibility Storm is much-needed redundancy for Ideal. After PS hits play, you want to cast Sleight, Visions, or Probe to trigger the enchantment and flip Enduring Ideal - in a perfect world. Wargate can also get the job done. I found that I needed a bunch of sorceries because the world isn't perfect, and you may need to try more than once. Either way, it's fun and exciting to gamble on the top of your library for an effect that can be broken. The major reason I like PS besides the fun is that it is both an engine and lock piece in one. It messes with the opponent's game plan, which is perfect and it tries to facilitate Ideal. Once you do hit Ideal, you can have Curse be your first enchantment for a hard-lock. It's pretty sweet.
The locks are now [Possibility Storm + Curse of Exhaustion] and [Form of the Dragon + Phyrexian Unlife]. It's pretty nice to have an opponent who can't play Magic or hurt you. Dovescape is an all-in-one deal as a replacement for the times you simply resolve Ideal the old fashioned way. It's still a smart idea to get it to protect your combo immediately, rather than waiting a turn with PS + Curse. You can gamble and get PS and just hope they don't flip another good card, but Dovescape is obviously safer.
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Hallowed Fountain
2 Sacred Foundry
2 Steam Vents
1 Breeding Pool
1 Temple Garden
1 Plains
1 Island
1 Halimar Depths
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
4 Sleight of Hand
4 Serum Visions
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Pentad Prism
2 Wargate
3 Silence
4 Lotus Bloom
4 Enduring Ideal
4 Possibility Storm
1 Curse of Exhaustion
2 Form of the Dragon
1 Phyrexian Unlife
1 Dovescape
1 Meishin, the Mind Cage
1 Detention Sphere
4 Path to Exile
2 Supreme Verdict
2 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Silence
1 Rest in Peace
1 Blood Moon
1 Greater Auramancy
1 Stony Silence
1 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Detention Sphere
I played this to a 3-1 record and made top 4 at my LGS on Sunday. It was definitely fun to play and I think there's potential with Possibility Storm and Enduring Ideal. I don't think I hit it right on the head, but this is a great start. My loss was to UBRg Delver when I couldn't find protection for my bomb spell. I did at least attempt to go off in every game though. That was at least something.
The choice of enchantments were very strong since there's so much redundancy within the effects yet they cover basically every situation you could find yourself in. I really, really want to fit Peer Through Depths in the deck. It may actually take Wargate's spot. Anyways, I'm excited to try this again at the next event.
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/enduring-possibilities/
I dropped Silence and Wargate from my mb for Pyroclasm and another land. I don't see enough counterspells to justify mb Silence. And I really want to keep the deck three colors, and assume a slower role in each game so that's why I cut Wargate. As a result, Boseiju went to the sb and is supplemented by the Silences there.
Edit: Here's what I'm testing now. Halimar Depths is so good at any point in the game. In the early turns, it sets up land drops, mana ramp, and cantrips perfectly. Incidentally it prevents you from drawing enchantments. It's just too good for our purposes.
I have found that I need two Phyrexian Unlife for the same reason as Form. I'd actually like to fit three since it has a reasonable casting cost, but there's no space. Even though I have two Unlifes, I still decided to keep Meishin for those corner cases where I'm under immediate duress and Unlife won't suffice (if they can burn me for instance). Meishin is definitely the most scrutinized card in the list. It's still trying out for the team.
Wall of Omens has been incredible, to be honest. I was skeptic of it since playing creatures turns on the opponent's removal. But, the only spells that outright kill the wall are black or white. The black ones are still leaving your opponent down a card on the exchange and Path will actually put you two cards up. Red typically can't reach four toughness without dumping two spells. All around, I like the addition.
Damping Matrix/Suppression Field is something I wanted to test at the last tournament, but didn't want to bring a dud to an unknown meta. I wish I had one last time. They stop Birthing Pod, Splinter Twin, Kiki-Jiki, all the artifacts from Tron, Cranial Plating, Aether Vial, Deathrite Shaman, and Grim Lavamancer - just to name the ones I can think of at this moment. Plus, Field stops fetches which might be mb worthy. It seems pretty brutal to more than a few top decks.
Serum Visions is actually better in this deck thanks to Possibility Storm. There's no fear to casting Form with a PS in play since it will go on the bottom of your library, which is why blind drawing isn't as bad. Visions sets up your turns better, which is the same reason Halimar Depths should be played more. Our best first turn is Halimar Depths + Lotus Bloom - I kid you not. I may drop the Sleight of Hands for Court Hussar yet. He plays around Pyroclasm and does double duty soaking up some damage, just like the Wall.
4 Halimar Depths
3 Seachrome Coast
2 Rugged Prairie
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Sacred Foundry
2 Steam Vents
2 Cascade Bluffs
1 Island
2 Mountain
2 Plains
Creatures (4)
4 Wall of Omens
Spells (34)
4 Serum Visions
3 Sleight of Hand
4 Lotus Bloom
4 Pentad Prism
3 Possibility Storm
4 Enduring Ideal
2 Form of the Dragon
2 Phyrexian Unlife
1 Dovescape
1 Detention Sphere
1 Meishin, the Mind Cage
1 Curse of Exhaustion
4 Pyroclasm
3 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
3 Silence
1 Blood Moon
4 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Rest in Peace
1 Stony Silence
2 Suppression Field
I noticed that your deck runs a large number of sorceries? have you considered switching a couple of your cantripping sorceries into izzet charms or telling time? I think that they both have great functionality in a deck like this and will make you able to more consistently cheat enduring ideals into play for cheap, I play a playset of izzet charms as my only instants so that i can have a counter spell or creature removal or a looting effect guaranteed even after possibility storm. In my build i am only running a board wipe (supreme verdict, although i suspect pyroclasm might fit the spot better, I haven't tried it yet.) and enduring ideals. This means I often have very good odds of hitting enduring ideals off of a possibility storm. The question I pose to you is, do you think that having one mana cantrips is important enough to sacrifice your post possibility storm consistency?
Also, how important do you feel is the redundancy between the possibility storm, curse of exhaustion lock, and the dovescape, meishin lock. Did you really find yourself needing to use both of them?
The Hammer of Purphoros is certainly an interesting card, but it doesn't protect us or deal the damage like Form of the Dragon does, so i'm not sold on that one. The Bow of Nylea provides some interesting abilities, the most notable being the 2 damage to a flyer or gaining 3 life, which requires that we have green mana to activate it, and is a bit of a non-bo with Peace of Mind.
All of the Gods will need at least two other enchantments out before they become creatures. Form and Meishin only have 3 colored mana symbols each, with the God that's only 4 devotion total. I think this really depends on how the rules update will count hybrid mana symbols towards devotion. If Dovescape gives us both 3 white and 3 blue devotion, Heliod is definitely playable. Thassa is more damage, a turn off the clock with Form, so i'd play one of both of these if it turns out this way.
Another interesting part of the spoiled cards are the bestow creatures. The archon is a better Lucent Liminid in this deck, and has first strike. Purphoros' Emmissary has a sort of evasion, but again, Form of the dragon is just better all around.
Just some food for thought.
Thassa will be almost exclusively just a scry 1 a turn. If we have dovescape in play, we want to be hitting meishin asap to lock our opponent out of hitting hus with their myriad of birds. once meishin and dovescape are in play, thassa will be able to turn into a creature, but will probably have very little power and won't be a fast clock.
heliod has slightly more potential. I have been running luminarch ascenscion in my build as a backup for situations where my opponent manages to stick a leyline of sanctity and i can no longer use form of the dragon as a win con. the problem with the ascension is that it takes so long to get online that you can very easily die in the mean time. once again, in those situations we want to drop meishin earlly anyway because we can't keep creatures from attacking with form of the dragon.
purphoros has the most potential in my mind. Although to make purphoros feasible, i think we need to mix him with assemble the legion. this would probably lead to a fairly sizable change to the shell and I am hoping to test it out and see how it works. purphoros with assemble the legion puts your opponent on the same clock as form of the dragon, but doesn't drop you to 5 life. it also requires two cards and doesn't protect you as well from your opponent's attacks.
without attacking : first turn with purphoros = 2 damage
second = 4 damage (6 total)
third = 6 damage (12 total)
fourth = 8 damage (20 total)
You do however get 10 chump blockers over the course of the four turns, which may be enough, especially with purphoros's pump effect to make them stronger blockers.
I hope to test it out and see how it works, but I don't know that it will be quite worth it.
I am still holding out hope that heliod's spear will be playable for us, but so far I don't think anything spoiled in theros is going to be better for us than what we already have.
Can't wait to see what crazy combos will unfold.
Draft My Cube!
I think the correct number of sorcery spells for Possibility Storm is somewhere between 8-12. This is complete conjecture based on limited personal experience with the card. No math was involved
Thus far, I don't think Theros offers an improvement in any area of Ideal unfortunately. Form is still the best win condition because it's also defensive. There hasn't been anything to compete for Dovescape or Possibility Storm yet. And Phyrexian Unlife is mostly in there because of Form, so it could be changed if a better win condition comes out. I've definitely been keeping a close eye on the spoilers just for this deck.
I have been brewing with another version that focuses a lot more of playing hate before the combo. It forgoes Possibility Storm to just play more pieces of disruption, and it's been pretty brutal so far. I have yet to come across a deck that can sidestep all the hate I placed in this deck. Here it is.
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Clifftop Retreat
2 Rugged Prairie
2 Battlefield Forge
10 Plains
// Spells
2 Dovescape
2 Form of the Dragon
2 Phyrexian Unlife
1 Greater Auramancy
1 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Oblivion Ring
4 Enduring Ideal
3 Molten Psyche
4 Lotus Bloom
4 Pentad Prism
4 Suppression Field
4 Blood Moon
4 Pyroclasm
2 Wrath of God
3 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Stony Silence
4 Silence
2 Rest in Peace
2 Torpor Orb
2 Ghostly Prison
Suppression Field is a card that sees very, very little play because most Modern players own fetches. They want to play with those fetches, hence no Fields. That opens an excellent window for us to play it plus Blood Moon to produce quite the impressive mana hate package. In addition to taxing fetches, it hurts so many other cards in the format that I have a hard time remembering them all... Vial, Pridemage, Scavenging Ooze, Ghost Quarter, Tec Edge, Birthing Pod, Kiki Jiki, Splinter Twin, equipment, Expedition Map, Cranial Plating, Springleaf Drum, every Planeswalker, Oblivion Stone, Mindslaver, Martyr of Sands, etc. Seriously, it goes on and on. To top it off - cards in hurts in your deck? Zero. /grin
However, Suppression Field and Blood Moon offer no resistance to any creature that gets in play before they are. Hence, the need for some sweepers. First you lock them out from playing more threats, then you kill the ones they have and ride your hate pieces until Ideal happens. This strategy has been showing more positive results than Possibility Storm.
Molten Psyche is a complete test spell. Since Possibility Storm was cut from this version, and there are cards in here that just suck to draw (like the enchantments or Blood/Prism in the later turns or a second Blood Moon), I thought it might provide utility two-fold. I want it to find Ideal in those situations and hopefully shuffle back in the chaff that needs to be in my library. It's just a test, so we'll see.
So what's the one thing that can still hurt me? Triggered abilities of creatures. To answer that, Torpor Orb has been awesome. Thank you for that suggestion. Well, what do you guys think about this version? I wish I could stop brewing to have some more consistency here, but I can't! haha