I don't see why the deck couldn't be a green splash with blue glue (serum visions, thought scour, snapcaster) if you can find enough stuff to do with the cards you stick in the yard with commune/thought scour. Probably means playing flip jace+snapcaster and some higher powered instants/sorceries (maybe verdict?).
Not sure it's a better deck but it's worth exploring.
It's really a shame Hooting Mandrills got the short end of the beatstick.
Thought scour and serum visions with snapcaster could be good glue,with counterspells paths and such. I fiddled with it but couldn't get thrilled.
Can't play control with dorks in my opinion if you want to beat midrange.
If you play aether vial you should remove all dorks and cluster more around 2 and 3. Probably play serum visions or spell pierce.
Given the huge number of 3 drops we want to play, it's a pretty reasonable idea, but usually you want to jam a lot of 2 drops if you go that route (which means Thalia, Qasali Pridemage, Voice, most likely).
Green devotion shell seems potentially really good, especially since it can make and make use of big mana. Retreat untapping a guy to untap a double sprawl'd land is pretty good value.
Ace--I like it except the DSpheres. This deck doesn't really need sorcery speed removal in my opinion. You've got to interact to stop combos primarily. I realize you can commune for them and what not, but they're still not what you want to be doing I don't think.
Toon, I really like where that deck is going. Splashing abrupt decay really shores up the Twin matchup (and many other combos). It doesn't look like it weakens you too much.
Can't say I am a fan of the red splash but I can see the reasons.
It's a 2-for-1 that's a method of uncounterably putting either a Knight or a Retreat into play. It costs some mana, but with dorks getting to 5 mana doesn't seem difficult, and especially so with retreat+dorks, or knight as pseudo-ramp.
Anyone tried it? It's more mana efficient than wargate, potentially, but obviously not as precise, but also synergizes pretty well with Courser of Kruphix (providing a shuffle effect and a way to take advantage of knowledge of your top card).
Because it's a cast trigger it's not vulnerable to stuff that is normally a problem for us, like tempo counterspells and such. Having your Chord remanded feels pretty poor, but this guy does not want to interact--he just wants to spit out free cards.
Man, I really like the looks of that abzan company list. Might try that build out. Might be what's missing is the ability to attack on another angle.
Having chord and Anafenza and double gavony to make your mana dorks work for you feels really strong. Knight to tutor up gavony really slots into their gameplan too.
The ability to chord up and coco up all those fulminator mages is really, really strong vs. Tron too. Probably gives you a pretty decent post-board matchup.
I'm not sure it's mathematically proven or anything but I find the coco variants to be worse than Abzan coco combo, and a lot worse than coco elves. Just this man's opinion but if you can play a combo that requires slightly more pieces (3 vs. 2) but they're cheaper and you can tutor for all of them, why wouldn't you do that?
Bant beats down a little harder, but at the cost of a lot of worse matchups.
I dunno, I definitely think discard is stronger glue than dorks though. Playing dark confidant as a way to dig for the combo might not be the worst either. I'll fiddle around with it.
Being able to abrupt decay exarchs (and random combo pieces) and inquisition combo decks brings a lot to the table.
So, when you untap with knights and no retreats regularly, do you then proceed to never activate or attack with knight until you draw a retreat (because if you arent attacking then you wont win until you can combo simply because you arent attacking)? Because if you do either at any point, you then turn your opps removal back on, and steppe remains useless. If you are sitting there with any untapped knight while townshipping with multiple other creatures in play, then your opponents spot removal is already poor simply because you are townshipping with multiple creatures in play. So, usually a winmore scenario to 'protect' your useless (because you arent activating or attacking with it) knight while you township your opp to death.
If you have an untapped knight on board, but can't swing because they'll remove it, you're much better off with Sejiri since you can wait for retreat to pop up. If you don't have Sejiri, the knight just dies instantly. And in an unknown meta, sometimes you git someone.
If you play Knight and another smaller creature with Township in play, and untap with both, you're vastly better off having Sejiri since you force them to remove neither creature or risk having their removal blanked. vs. if you did not have Sejiri, they can just remove the most threatening creature (Knight usually) and you don't have the combo as an out.
You can also sit there swinging with the other critter and there's nothing they can do, whereas they could go for tempo plays like removing an attacker to try to buy time--not an option with an untapped knight.
I would not advocate cutting into your normal land slots for Sejiri, but it is a good 23rd or 24th land - it's at least as good as a spell in many situations.
I use it as a 1-of in my UW Midrange deck and it's been very good. People have poo-pooed it a lot, but I haven't found anything better as a 5th removal spell--the number of deceiver exarchs I've reality shifted is very high
I could see Knightfall supporting two because of the lifegain and extreme bear defense. But really what's missing from Knightfall midrange (in my experience) was abrupt decay.
I dunno, when I was actively testing I tended to untap with knights and no retreat pretty regularly, and using the knight to threaten allowed me to swing for gavony beats with the team. Eventually playing chicken leads to blanking removal.
It was really, really bad when you drew it had and had a tap-plains though. Really bad.
Not sure it's a better deck but it's worth exploring.
It's really a shame Hooting Mandrills got the short end of the beatstick.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
Can't play control with dorks in my opinion if you want to beat midrange.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
Given the huge number of 3 drops we want to play, it's a pretty reasonable idea, but usually you want to jam a lot of 2 drops if you go that route (which means Thalia, Qasali Pridemage, Voice, most likely).
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
Love to see a list
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
Can't say I am a fan of the red splash but I can see the reasons.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
Genesis Hydra
It's a 2-for-1 that's a method of uncounterably putting either a Knight or a Retreat into play. It costs some mana, but with dorks getting to 5 mana doesn't seem difficult, and especially so with retreat+dorks, or knight as pseudo-ramp.
Anyone tried it? It's more mana efficient than wargate, potentially, but obviously not as precise, but also synergizes pretty well with Courser of Kruphix (providing a shuffle effect and a way to take advantage of knowledge of your top card).
Because it's a cast trigger it's not vulnerable to stuff that is normally a problem for us, like tempo counterspells and such. Having your Chord remanded feels pretty poor, but this guy does not want to interact--he just wants to spit out free cards.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
Having chord and Anafenza and double gavony to make your mana dorks work for you feels really strong. Knight to tutor up gavony really slots into their gameplan too.
The ability to chord up and coco up all those fulminator mages is really, really strong vs. Tron too. Probably gives you a pretty decent post-board matchup.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
Bant beats down a little harder, but at the cost of a lot of worse matchups.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
Suggest starting from Maty's list if you're looking at bant midrange, though I do think hangarbacks are sweet
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
Being able to abrupt decay exarchs (and random combo pieces) and inquisition combo decks brings a lot to the table.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
If you have an untapped knight on board, but can't swing because they'll remove it, you're much better off with Sejiri since you can wait for retreat to pop up. If you don't have Sejiri, the knight just dies instantly. And in an unknown meta, sometimes you git someone.
If you play Knight and another smaller creature with Township in play, and untap with both, you're vastly better off having Sejiri since you force them to remove neither creature or risk having their removal blanked. vs. if you did not have Sejiri, they can just remove the most threatening creature (Knight usually) and you don't have the combo as an out.
You can also sit there swinging with the other critter and there's nothing they can do, whereas they could go for tempo plays like removing an attacker to try to buy time--not an option with an untapped knight.
I would not advocate cutting into your normal land slots for Sejiri, but it is a good 23rd or 24th land - it's at least as good as a spell in many situations.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
I could see Knightfall supporting two because of the lifegain and extreme bear defense. But really what's missing from Knightfall midrange (in my experience) was abrupt decay.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
It was really, really bad when you drew it had and had a tap-plains though. Really bad.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall