So, this deck is only peripherally related to Surrak Dragonclaw. I chose him because he's in the Temur colors that I wanted for this deck idea and provides a cheap, flash-ing 6/6 beater to serve as a win condition. I did consider (and reject) Riku of Two Reflections because of a combination of his cost (I don't want to dump a bunch of cash into what's a fundamentally silly deck idea) and because I don't think he could really go for the red zone like Surrak could. Maelstrom Wanderer was also considered, but randomly flipping into cards in this deck didn't seem like a very good idea.
The deck looks to take the most powerful color-hosing cards from green, red, and blue (Douse, Lifeforce, Nature's Wrath, Choke, Insight, etc) and combine them with color-hack cards from blue (Whim of Volrath, Glamerdye, Blind Seer) to make those cards apply to the colors my opponents are playing or to change the colors of spells and permanents to match the hate cards.
Green and Red are enemies with Blue, of course, which means I had to make a few compromises in the deck building. Lots of the cards (Boil, Choke, Curse of Marit Lage) hose a color in the deck. Most of those cards nuke basic lands of a particular type. My "solution" to the problem was to avoid using basic lands or dual lands with basic land types, resulting in a somewhat unwieldy land base. I don't think this is an especially competitive deck (unless the stars align and its matched up against a bunch of decks that happen to align with its hosers) so I'm not too worried about the curve problems that a bunch of ETB tapped lands causes. I did include a couple basics because there are some Wave of Vitriols running around my meta.
The deck was originally just going to be U/G, but it turned out there weren't enough playable (*with the definition of 'playable' being a bit looser in this context than usual) color hosers in just those colors to really fill out the deck. I chose red as the third color because it seems a bit better at color hosing than white and black do. Even still, there were a few deck slots left over. I filled those with a few of the staples (Cyclonic Rift, Recurring Insight, Blasphemous Act) that I already own to hopefully keep the deck alive long enough to set up a real color-hose enchantment wall.
I'm assembling the last few pieces of the deck and hope to bust it out this Friday. I would appreciate any thoughts on the deck, however - possible favorite color hosers in U/R/G that I'm missing? Or another Whim of Volrath type spell that I'm missing? I also worry that the deck might need a bit more card draw in an actual game - any ideas for that?
All good decks start with cards from Alliances
The deck looks to take the most powerful color-hosing cards from green, red, and blue (Douse, Lifeforce, Nature's Wrath, Choke, Insight, etc) and combine them with color-hack cards from blue (Whim of Volrath, Glamerdye, Blind Seer) to make those cards apply to the colors my opponents are playing or to change the colors of spells and permanents to match the hate cards.
Green and Red are enemies with Blue, of course, which means I had to make a few compromises in the deck building. Lots of the cards (Boil, Choke, Curse of Marit Lage) hose a color in the deck. Most of those cards nuke basic lands of a particular type. My "solution" to the problem was to avoid using basic lands or dual lands with basic land types, resulting in a somewhat unwieldy land base. I don't think this is an especially competitive deck (unless the stars align and its matched up against a bunch of decks that happen to align with its hosers) so I'm not too worried about the curve problems that a bunch of ETB tapped lands causes. I did include a couple basics because there are some Wave of Vitriols running around my meta.
The deck was originally just going to be U/G, but it turned out there weren't enough playable (*with the definition of 'playable' being a bit looser in this context than usual) color hosers in just those colors to really fill out the deck. I chose red as the third color because it seems a bit better at color hosing than white and black do. Even still, there were a few deck slots left over. I filled those with a few of the staples (Cyclonic Rift, Recurring Insight, Blasphemous Act) that I already own to hopefully keep the deck alive long enough to set up a real color-hose enchantment wall.
I'm assembling the last few pieces of the deck and hope to bust it out this Friday. I would appreciate any thoughts on the deck, however - possible favorite color hosers in U/R/G that I'm missing? Or another Whim of Volrath type spell that I'm missing? I also worry that the deck might need a bit more card draw in an actual game - any ideas for that?
Cheers!
1x Surrak Dragonclaw
CREATURES (3)
1x Blind Seer
1x King Crab
1x Spinal Villain
SORCERIES (10)
1x Acid Rain
1x Anarchy
1x Blasphemous Act
1x Boiling Seas
1x Flashfires
1x Hull Breach
1x Recurring Insight
1x Trait Doctoring
1x Tsunami
1x Wake of Destruction
INSTANTS (16)
1x AEtherspouts
1x Alter Reality
1x Boil
1x Cyclonic Rift
1x Evacuation
1x Glamerdye
1x Hibernation
1x Magical Hack
1x Mind Bend
1x Omen of Fire
1x Quickchange
1x Reap
1x Seedtime
1x Sleight of Mind
1x Spectral Shift
1x Whim of Volrath
ENCHANTMENTS (25)
1x AEther Flash
1x Breath of Dreams
1x Burning Sands
1x Carpet of Flowers
1x Chill
1x Choke
1x Compost
1x Curse of Marit Lage
1x Elephant Grass
1x Freyalise's Charm
1x Havoc
1x High Seas
1x Insight
1x Lifeforce
1x Magnetic Mountain
1x Mind Harness
1x Mind's Dilation
1x Nature's Wrath
1x Roots of Life
1x Scald
1x Swirl the Mists
1x Thelon's Chant
1x Thelon's Curse
1x Wrath of Marit Lage
ARTIFACTS (6)
1x Distorting Lens
1x Gruul Signet
1x Isochron Scepter
1x Izzet Signet
1x Simic Signet
1x Sol Ring
LANDS (39)
1x Botanical Sanctum
1x Command Tower
1x Copperline Gorge
1x Exotic Orchard
1x Faerie Conclave
1x Forbidden Orchard
2x Forest
1x Frontier Bivouac
1x Grand Coliseum
1x Halimar Depths
1x Hinterland Harbor
2x Island
1x Karplusan Forest
1x Kazandu Refuge
1x Lumbering Falls
1x Mirrodin's Core
1x Mossfire Valley
2x Mountain
1x Raging Ravine
1x Rootbound Crag
1x Rugged Highlands
1x Rupture Spire
1x Shivan Reef
1x Spirebluff Canal
1x Swiftwater Cliffs
1x Tarnished Citadel
1x Temple of Abandon
1x Temple of Epiphany
1x Temple of Mystery
1x Thornwood Falls
1x Transguild Promenade
1x Vivid Crag
1x Vivid Creek
1x Vivid Grove
1x Yavimaya Coast