I'll disagree and say that in my opinion going Sultai for Assassin's trophy is not what the deck needs at all.
Hitting lands is a very corner case, we don't need any extra tools against Tron or Valakut like Jund did, and we have 4 Fields of Ruin if we need to check some creature-land (and fatal pushes).
We don't really need what Trophy brings, and while sure, it might be nice to trigger traps from time to time, it's just like Path was in Esper Mill, if your opponent knows what he's doing, it likely won't trigger when you need it.
The 3 color mana base is a huge downgrade from UB and brings in a lot of bad opening sevens and lifeloss, not to mention the main reason I don't buy it, the HUGE tension with Mission Briefing. Mission Briefing is the cool toy for mill GRN brought, not Trophy, and the UU goes really bad with BG.
I'd recommend Sqlut's list, my own was a couple cards off from it (I played 2 Fraying Sanity instead of 2 Inquisition and 1 Azcanta and 1 more Mesmeric Orb in place of 1 Crypt Incursion and 1 Land), but with him being an actual Hareruya Pro that has tested intensively and posted VERY good results with it, I guessed I'd better stick with his choices. Played it last week to a 3rd place in my LGS, with my loss incredibly being to Amulet Titan, after beating Phoenix, Grixis DS and a Waste Not deck.
You can watch his stream in Twitch, he also has a pretty detailed sideboard guide, definitely the top content available for the archetype.
You have a pretty decent match against Lantern, even more now with Mission Briefing I would say.
Mesmeric Orb is a must deal card for them, and it even gets through Witchbane Orb.
Any mill you get through puts them very behing, you can draw 3 with visions, shuffle quite a ton with extractions and fetches and field, etc...
Mill definitely is favored against Lantern, it's just Witchbane orb and Academy Ruins that could be somewhat annoying. I like to play 1 of Ipnu's Rivulet since it is a useful little mill when flooding or needing to activate Shelldock/Visions, but it's also instant speed milling to break soft locks like Academy Ruins.
If you're too worried about Leylines/Orb you can always play 1 Echoing Truth maindeck, or some Manic Scribes that mill without targeting.
So, my maindeck had Crypt Incursion and Sanity in for the longest time, this version was the one I came up with just a couple of days ago when I came back to the deck. Just saying that to clarify I love those cards and have played plenty with them.
This is why I made the changes (I only played a bunch of matches with this version, so they might be correct or they might be wrong, so far, Profane Memento is the one I'm happiest about).
Memento is a dead card in the same matchups that Incursion is (Incursion having a slightly higher floor, but irrelevant mostly, since it's likely a control matchup if they're dead, and gaining 6-9 life there won't likely help). It is not bad when you draw it late at all. It is bad as your topdeck if you're hellbent and need mill, sure, but if you still have Mill available, play it and mill and it will still be relevant. Obviously, Incursion is much better late game, but it is a lot more vulnerable to discard/skullcrack/ooze and other things. Most importantly, in the matchups where you need the lifegain the most, it is sometimes too slow. I still have them in the sideboard for the extra effect if needed, but haven't been too happy with them when boarded in.
They cost 3, so they are very uncomfortable with Bridges, and we have to change our gameplan to fit them in, while Memento just fills slots in our curve and lets us keep doing our thing.
Overall, Memento maindeck felt awesome this far, and it is a bet against all the aggresive, creeature heavy decks (humans, spirits, burn, bant coco, bridgevine, hollow one, affinity, etc...). Just like Bridge, they both can be dead cards, but they both can win games on their own (yes, memento can be that absurd, that's why I insist you try it out if you haven't)
Fraying Sanity is my favourite mill card. The deck feels so much more potent when this is out that it's nuts. I cut it because I wanted to give creatures a try now that bolts are all over the place, since they actually save a lot of life. Playing with Bridge makes me like the 3 drops a lot less, and Fraying Sanity has it's matchups where it is too slow, so I decided to put it in the sideboard for control matches mostly.
I would LOVE to make room for it mainboard, but it might not be the time. As I said before, I will try a more 1 shot kill, comboish version with 4 Sanity for sure, since I don't enjoy the "bridge" wins too much.
So, mostly a meta choice on my part, since all the cards you mentioned are in my SB, but so far I stand by it and prefer the Mementos maindeck and the other cards in the SB.
You can certainly read it as a pre-sideboarded thing for the current meta.
I returned to Mill yesterday, went 2-2.
Both losses were 2-1, both wins 2-0.
Lost match 1 to Hardened Scales, though I punted that one not realizing I could've used surgical extraction on my own graveyard to get my flooded strand out of my hand and be empty handed, I drawed 4 lands in a row and was killed by a bunch of 1/1 Thopters. Bridge was huge winning g1 (he had no answers maindeck) and should've won me the match if I saw that line. The other game was close as well, he got me with 1 card in hand and modular triggers to pump a 1/1.
Won against CoCo easily on the back of Profane Memento, that card coming down early is just stupid against creature heavy decks. G2 I had 2 Mementos down and eventually cast Damnation, no coming back from there.
Won against Bogles, this one goes to Ensnaring Bridge t3 both times, mulled to 5 game 2 just to find Bridge, I don't think we have much of a chance otherwise. Milled the seal of primordium and gg.
Lost against Bridgevine, another close one, lost a g3 where Memento kept me alive and looking good until I punted letting a Viscera Seer resolve before pushing my Scribe to get rid of the 3 bridges from below in the yard. He just activated it, I pushed my guy and realized he could activate it for his other 3 guys in response... An army of zombies got to me then.
G2 I started out fast and a Visions drew me a Nihil Spellbomb at the perfect time to clean most of his deck out and finish him in time. Can't remember g1, but they were all pretty close games.
If you haven't, try Profane Memento. The card is great at buying time in so many matchups right now, I was very happy with it and Bridge.
I played without Fraying Sanity for the more controlling build, so my plan was mostly delay with Memento until I get Bridge down, extract the answers to Bridge when I see them and then close the game. It worked pretty nicely, but with GRN I'm for sure making changes, I don't particularly enjoy the games I win hiding behind Bridge several turns... I understand it is likely our best chance, it's just a personal preference, I want to try to actually win fast enough that I don't need a lock like Bridge. Maybe after losing enough I will come back to just playing Bridge, haha.
I think there is still a lot of merit to a comboish build setting Fraying Sanity - 2 Mill spells kill in t4, specially after GRN releases. We'll see
Edit: Forgot to add the list I played for context: Here it is
Now, this one is very hard to evaluate since it is a ton of mana upfront and will likely not be worth it most times.
It does have a couple very cool interactions though, one with Fraying Sanity (if you stack the triggers properly, this mills them for the size of their graveyard EOT). Another with Memento, since all the creatures are put back into the graveyard and re-trigger it.
It's a weird card so it's hard to evaluate quickly, but it certainly is something to play around with.
EDIT: Another Mill card out, Drowned Secrets. Feels too slow, maybe for a different build, mostly blue with several cantrips, mission briefings, etc..
That Lost Legacy effect for 1UB is a nice sideboard card for us.
Very reasonable cost, it's extra ways of removing annoying cards (titans and such if they make a comeback), combo pieces without even milling them first, or their boarded answer to Bridge to lock them out!
I also like the black tutor a lot, and Mission Briefing as well. A lot of room for tinkering post GRN for UB mill I feel, and I do like how the deck's positioned currently.
Mission Briefing is an interesting one, the snapcaster effect that we really wanted!
Since it's not flashback, it lets us recast Archive Traps from the gy for free, as well as any other snapcaster shenanigans.
Surveil 2 is also useful to dig a bit and reduce dead draws, whether it's more valuable than the 2/1 body will depend on the match I think, but being able to "flashback" Archive Traps makes it very interesting.
Edit: Mausoleum Secrets is worth testing if you're playing several creatures, since getting a surgical, a push, a brutality or crypt incursion at instant speed can be great, and may also make Darkness worth it as a 1 of, in a more toolbox approach.
Profane Memento is the best tech against burn. Resolving a Crypt Incursion can be too late, and a player who knows your deck will make it hard by keeping skullcrack up until last minute.
Profane memento can be dropped t1 and puts in work as we advance our gameplan. Putting only 6 creatures in the yard is already 6 life gain, not to even mention if you get multiples out.
Manic Scribe is another good one against burn, 3 toughness can stop their goblin guides.
Another other good option is to go creatureless, since that turns off their Searing blazes.
Obvious MVP is Collective brutality, since all modes are seriously relevant against burn.
I haven't played the deck in quite a while, but with the last build I was playing with the 4 memento maindeck, creatureless and with brutalities and Crypt Incursion in the SB Burn was an okay matchup.
What do the Masters of mill think of howling mine? It seems to me that it would both help us keep a full grip and shorten our opponents clock, even if only by a turn.
Mostly though, I'd be adding it to a more controlling build.
Thoughts?
I think we can get our card advantage from Visions of Beyond, Howling Mine doesn't really do much for as.
You could build a different mill deck with Howling Mines, Dictates of Kruphix, Fevered visions, Jace TMS, Sphinx Tutelage, as well as some other cards that might abuse the fact that they have full hands (Exhaust and some of those opponent can't play spells this turn cards might be good).
The obvious downside is you are really dependent on having Tutelage out, and unless you find some other way of breaking all the extra draws, you're probably helping them more than it's worth it.
Do a search on "whenever" "draws" "card" on gatherer for more ideas
Congrats on the result!
The main thing I think you should consider is some graveyard hate in the sideboard! We fill graveyards, so decks that benefit from that need to be kept in check somehow. Nihil Spellbomb is my favorite for UB Mill for the 0 cost crack and chance of a redraw. Tormod's crypt is fine with no redraw but no cost, Relic is not good for us since we drop a ton of cards for them, so exiling 1 at a time is useless, and you need to keep 1 mana open for it to be "safe".
Ravenous trap is the other choice, but again I don't like that it has a condition on it, the time will come when that hurts you. The instant speed can be a surprise and if you play Trapmaker snares you can fetch it, so I understand its appeal, but I prefer Spellbomb.
3 of those in the sideboard will make you Living End, Dredge, RB Hollow, Storm, etc... matchups a lot better. Even Jund, shrinking Tarmogoyfs is no joke.
The only deck that worries me is the UW control. Their ability to cryptic Snappy back into hand give them essentially 8 Cryptic Commands, which is already 2 cards in one. I'd have to play the matchup, but my guess is the optimal play vs UW Control is to Extirpate Cryptic Command ASAP. From there you have a chance, since they have no real creature threats. If you can then get their Logic Knots, they'll pretty much roll over.
I don't see much else that you cannot handle from a sideboard or Crypt Incursion/Ensnaring Bridge.
UW Control is a pretty good matchup for me. They give us plenty of time and have a ton of dead cards (paths, verdicts, etc...).
Jeskai with the spell snares and lightning bolts to face is a lot scarier, I have a very hard time beating Jeskai, but can usually beat UW without much hassle since I don't play creatures and I can put all my pressure on their countermagic. Field of Ruin deals with colonnade, push with snapcaster, and the echoing truths maindeck are very useful to bounce detention spheres and get them by surprise.
I'm still surprised at 0 Ipnu Rivulets in most builds. Is it just worse than Shelldock Isle? The life loss hurts but being untapped is a big deal.
I think that's the card to close out against control.
I play it as a 1of and am happy with it. It's helped close some games, or hit some card I really want to surgical. The life loss hasn't come up really, and having it tap for U and enter untapped is key. It is certainly less important than Shelldock, but it is useful. I also like that it's instant speed, so it
is another out to the Academy Ruins "lock".
If you play Hedron Crab you probably want Oboro instead, since you shouldn't get too low on basics, we run 4 Fields of Ruin and the Crabs will get pathed in a lot of matches.
One point is that any variation of the deck posted here can hit a 5-0, it's really not conclusive.
Each one needs to figure how your deck wants to play.
If you want to play "burn" style or even tempo, Search is no good likely, since taking a whole turn off for a scry is pretty bad. It could be a sideboard option against control/grindy matches at most.
If you'll be playing a more controlling deck then search is a great card is probably worth it. My point with this approach has always been: control is hard and requires a lot of deck space, and mill as a win condition requires a lot of deck space at well. I think trying to combine them leads to either a bad control deck or a bad mill deck.
In my opinion, if you're playing creatures you want both Crabs and Scribes, either one alone just enables all the removal and will be under performing most times. I'm still fond of the creatureless tempo style, since we can mill them pretty fast, and with Echoing truth/Fatal Push/Memento/Darkness we can cheaply delay their kill enough to get there.
Manic Scribe/Crab are good at delaying as well (scribe mostly with the 3 toughness), from my deck I would cut 4 Memento and 1 Breaking, 1 Scroll, 1 Echoing Truth for a 4/3 split of them. I like the creatureless approach better since it makes it harder for the opponent to interact with us.
Anyway, for any conclusions we should wait until the meta settles from all the Jaces and Bloodbraid elves and see what we will be facing most. I'm pretty optimistic for the deck, I think we will be in a better position than against the previous meta.
I want to check if the Shelldock not being able to play fuse cards bug is fixed before playing leagues, I hate playing a bugged deck and having to file for compensation.
I don't think that's a bug, fuse only works if you cast the card from your hand.
The bug was/is that you can't cast any half, obvioulsy fusing them won't work, I didn't mean that.
It stopped working a couple of months ago (casting Entering from under shelldock was pretty fun a couple of times, haha), it is an acknowledged bug listed on their site, so they're likely to fix it soon I guess (or maybe they have already, I didn't get the scenario to test it yet).
Here is the stream VOD of the guy who made the 5-0 with the "turbo" mill deck. It is pretty long, I haven't watched it to find the 5-0, it would be interesting to know what decks he faced.
The decklist doesn't look very nice to me, maybe watching the gameplay will show some value I'm missing
Just as a note, that 5-0 was pre-unbannings, so it didn't play against Jace or Bloodbraid.
Whatever uptick in artifact hate there could've been after Lantern won the PT it will certainly take a back seat to Jace and Bloodbraid elf decks for a while. Also, no Lantern decks in top 32 of GP Toronto toned the "Lantern is broken" song down as well.
Jace has a chance of replacing the Nahiri/Emrakul pack, as well as Gideons of the trials, yes, and it would be wonderful news for mill if that happened! I'm pretty sure the Jace hype will slowly die and he will be just another powerful card in Modern, similar to Liliana of the Veil.
Maybe somebody finds a shell that makes him really broken (UW Miracles so far has been pretty underwhelming), but he is certainly not the "4 of in any deck running blue" that people were panicking about.
I think Mill will be better positioned with Jace in the meta.
He really doesn't do that much against us, Mesmeric Orb can ruin all the fatesealing and brainstorming, and bouncing creatures against us is just pointless (or impossible if you don't run any).
And as dosequisguy said, he might replace other win conditions that were more annoying for us.
Sadly Jace will probably hurt Lantern, I was pretty happy picturing an uptick in Lantern decks after the PT, haha.
Bloodbraid elf is more dangerous, but not particularly so either.
I haven't played the deck in a while, I will probably test it out again now after all the changes the PT, GP Toronto and these unbannings will bring.
EDIT: So, I played a bunch of matches online (just queues, not even leagues, granted) and I'm loving the Jace hype everywhere! I've beaten UW Miracles with Jace and Augurs 2 times and another Miracle/Counterbalance list running Jace once, Mesmeric Orb is a powerhouse, Echoing truth gets rid of the angel tokens, terminus does nothing, Jace does nothing and is way too slow... loved playing the deck again and went 6-1 in 7 matches, so not too shabby! My only defeat was to Burn, and it was a close one!
I want to check if the Shelldock not being able to play fuse cards bug is fixed before playing leagues, I hate playing a bugged deck and having to file for compensation.
My decklist since I haven't posted here in a while.
Hitting lands is a very corner case, we don't need any extra tools against Tron or Valakut like Jund did, and we have 4 Fields of Ruin if we need to check some creature-land (and fatal pushes).
We don't really need what Trophy brings, and while sure, it might be nice to trigger traps from time to time, it's just like Path was in Esper Mill, if your opponent knows what he's doing, it likely won't trigger when you need it.
The 3 color mana base is a huge downgrade from UB and brings in a lot of bad opening sevens and lifeloss, not to mention the main reason I don't buy it, the HUGE tension with Mission Briefing. Mission Briefing is the cool toy for mill GRN brought, not Trophy, and the UU goes really bad with BG.
I'd recommend Sqlut's list, my own was a couple cards off from it (I played 2 Fraying Sanity instead of 2 Inquisition and 1 Azcanta and 1 more Mesmeric Orb in place of 1 Crypt Incursion and 1 Land), but with him being an actual Hareruya Pro that has tested intensively and posted VERY good results with it, I guessed I'd better stick with his choices. Played it last week to a 3rd place in my LGS, with my loss incredibly being to Amulet Titan, after beating Phoenix, Grixis DS and a Waste Not deck.
You can watch his stream in Twitch, he also has a pretty detailed sideboard guide, definitely the top content available for the archetype.
Mesmeric Orb is a must deal card for them, and it even gets through Witchbane Orb.
Any mill you get through puts them very behing, you can draw 3 with visions, shuffle quite a ton with extractions and fetches and field, etc...
Mill definitely is favored against Lantern, it's just Witchbane orb and Academy Ruins that could be somewhat annoying. I like to play 1 of Ipnu's Rivulet since it is a useful little mill when flooding or needing to activate Shelldock/Visions, but it's also instant speed milling to break soft locks like Academy Ruins.
If you're too worried about Leylines/Orb you can always play 1 Echoing Truth maindeck, or some Manic Scribes that mill without targeting.
This is why I made the changes (I only played a bunch of matches with this version, so they might be correct or they might be wrong, so far, Profane Memento is the one I'm happiest about).
Memento is a dead card in the same matchups that Incursion is (Incursion having a slightly higher floor, but irrelevant mostly, since it's likely a control matchup if they're dead, and gaining 6-9 life there won't likely help). It is not bad when you draw it late at all. It is bad as your topdeck if you're hellbent and need mill, sure, but if you still have Mill available, play it and mill and it will still be relevant. Obviously, Incursion is much better late game, but it is a lot more vulnerable to discard/skullcrack/ooze and other things. Most importantly, in the matchups where you need the lifegain the most, it is sometimes too slow. I still have them in the sideboard for the extra effect if needed, but haven't been too happy with them when boarded in.
They cost 3, so they are very uncomfortable with Bridges, and we have to change our gameplan to fit them in, while Memento just fills slots in our curve and lets us keep doing our thing.
Overall, Memento maindeck felt awesome this far, and it is a bet against all the aggresive, creeature heavy decks (humans, spirits, burn, bant coco, bridgevine, hollow one, affinity, etc...). Just like Bridge, they both can be dead cards, but they both can win games on their own (yes, memento can be that absurd, that's why I insist you try it out if you haven't)
Fraying Sanity is my favourite mill card. The deck feels so much more potent when this is out that it's nuts. I cut it because I wanted to give creatures a try now that bolts are all over the place, since they actually save a lot of life. Playing with Bridge makes me like the 3 drops a lot less, and Fraying Sanity has it's matchups where it is too slow, so I decided to put it in the sideboard for control matches mostly.
I would LOVE to make room for it mainboard, but it might not be the time. As I said before, I will try a more 1 shot kill, comboish version with 4 Sanity for sure, since I don't enjoy the "bridge" wins too much.
So, mostly a meta choice on my part, since all the cards you mentioned are in my SB, but so far I stand by it and prefer the Mementos maindeck and the other cards in the SB.
You can certainly read it as a pre-sideboarded thing for the current meta.
Both losses were 2-1, both wins 2-0.
Lost match 1 to Hardened Scales, though I punted that one not realizing I could've used surgical extraction on my own graveyard to get my flooded strand out of my hand and be empty handed, I drawed 4 lands in a row and was killed by a bunch of 1/1 Thopters. Bridge was huge winning g1 (he had no answers maindeck) and should've won me the match if I saw that line. The other game was close as well, he got me with 1 card in hand and modular triggers to pump a 1/1.
Won against CoCo easily on the back of Profane Memento, that card coming down early is just stupid against creature heavy decks. G2 I had 2 Mementos down and eventually cast Damnation, no coming back from there.
Won against Bogles, this one goes to Ensnaring Bridge t3 both times, mulled to 5 game 2 just to find Bridge, I don't think we have much of a chance otherwise. Milled the seal of primordium and gg.
Lost against Bridgevine, another close one, lost a g3 where Memento kept me alive and looking good until I punted letting a Viscera Seer resolve before pushing my Scribe to get rid of the 3 bridges from below in the yard. He just activated it, I pushed my guy and realized he could activate it for his other 3 guys in response... An army of zombies got to me then.
G2 I started out fast and a Visions drew me a Nihil Spellbomb at the perfect time to clean most of his deck out and finish him in time. Can't remember g1, but they were all pretty close games.
If you haven't, try Profane Memento. The card is great at buying time in so many matchups right now, I was very happy with it and Bridge.
I played without Fraying Sanity for the more controlling build, so my plan was mostly delay with Memento until I get Bridge down, extract the answers to Bridge when I see them and then close the game. It worked pretty nicely, but with GRN I'm for sure making changes, I don't particularly enjoy the games I win hiding behind Bridge several turns... I understand it is likely our best chance, it's just a personal preference, I want to try to actually win fast enough that I don't need a lock like Bridge. Maybe after losing enough I will come back to just playing Bridge, haha.
I think there is still a lot of merit to a comboish build setting Fraying Sanity - 2 Mill spells kill in t4, specially after GRN releases. We'll see
Edit: Forgot to add the list I played for context: Here it is
Mnemonic Betrayal
Now, this one is very hard to evaluate since it is a ton of mana upfront and will likely not be worth it most times.
It does have a couple very cool interactions though, one with Fraying Sanity (if you stack the triggers properly, this mills them for the size of their graveyard EOT). Another with Memento, since all the creatures are put back into the graveyard and re-trigger it.
It's a weird card so it's hard to evaluate quickly, but it certainly is something to play around with.
EDIT: Another Mill card out, Drowned Secrets. Feels too slow, maybe for a different build, mostly blue with several cantrips, mission briefings, etc..
Very reasonable cost, it's extra ways of removing annoying cards (titans and such if they make a comeback), combo pieces without even milling them first, or their boarded answer to Bridge to lock them out!
I also like the black tutor a lot, and Mission Briefing as well. A lot of room for tinkering post GRN for UB mill I feel, and I do like how the deck's positioned currently.
Since it's not flashback, it lets us recast Archive Traps from the gy for free, as well as any other snapcaster shenanigans.
Surveil 2 is also useful to dig a bit and reduce dead draws, whether it's more valuable than the 2/1 body will depend on the match I think, but being able to "flashback" Archive Traps makes it very interesting.
Edit: Mausoleum Secrets is worth testing if you're playing several creatures, since getting a surgical, a push, a brutality or crypt incursion at instant speed can be great, and may also make Darkness worth it as a 1 of, in a more toolbox approach.
Profane memento can be dropped t1 and puts in work as we advance our gameplan. Putting only 6 creatures in the yard is already 6 life gain, not to even mention if you get multiples out.
Manic Scribe is another good one against burn, 3 toughness can stop their goblin guides.
Another other good option is to go creatureless, since that turns off their Searing blazes.
Obvious MVP is Collective brutality, since all modes are seriously relevant against burn.
I haven't played the deck in quite a while, but with the last build I was playing with the 4 memento maindeck, creatureless and with brutalities and Crypt Incursion in the SB Burn was an okay matchup.
I think we can get our card advantage from Visions of Beyond, Howling Mine doesn't really do much for as.
You could build a different mill deck with Howling Mines, Dictates of Kruphix, Fevered visions, Jace TMS, Sphinx Tutelage, as well as some other cards that might abuse the fact that they have full hands (Exhaust and some of those opponent can't play spells this turn cards might be good).
The obvious downside is you are really dependent on having Tutelage out, and unless you find some other way of breaking all the extra draws, you're probably helping them more than it's worth it.
Do a search on "whenever" "draws" "card" on gatherer for more ideas
The main thing I think you should consider is some graveyard hate in the sideboard! We fill graveyards, so decks that benefit from that need to be kept in check somehow. Nihil Spellbomb is my favorite for UB Mill for the 0 cost crack and chance of a redraw. Tormod's crypt is fine with no redraw but no cost, Relic is not good for us since we drop a ton of cards for them, so exiling 1 at a time is useless, and you need to keep 1 mana open for it to be "safe".
Ravenous trap is the other choice, but again I don't like that it has a condition on it, the time will come when that hurts you. The instant speed can be a surprise and if you play Trapmaker snares you can fetch it, so I understand its appeal, but I prefer Spellbomb.
3 of those in the sideboard will make you Living End, Dredge, RB Hollow, Storm, etc... matchups a lot better. Even Jund, shrinking Tarmogoyfs is no joke.
UW Control is a pretty good matchup for me. They give us plenty of time and have a ton of dead cards (paths, verdicts, etc...).
Jeskai with the spell snares and lightning bolts to face is a lot scarier, I have a very hard time beating Jeskai, but can usually beat UW without much hassle since I don't play creatures and I can put all my pressure on their countermagic. Field of Ruin deals with colonnade, push with snapcaster, and the echoing truths maindeck are very useful to bounce detention spheres and get them by surprise.
I play it as a 1of and am happy with it. It's helped close some games, or hit some card I really want to surgical. The life loss hasn't come up really, and having it tap for U and enter untapped is key. It is certainly less important than Shelldock, but it is useful. I also like that it's instant speed, so it
is another out to the Academy Ruins "lock".
If you play Hedron Crab you probably want Oboro instead, since you shouldn't get too low on basics, we run 4 Fields of Ruin and the Crabs will get pathed in a lot of matches.
Each one needs to figure how your deck wants to play.
If you want to play "burn" style or even tempo, Search is no good likely, since taking a whole turn off for a scry is pretty bad. It could be a sideboard option against control/grindy matches at most.
If you'll be playing a more controlling deck then search is a great card is probably worth it. My point with this approach has always been: control is hard and requires a lot of deck space, and mill as a win condition requires a lot of deck space at well. I think trying to combine them leads to either a bad control deck or a bad mill deck.
In my opinion, if you're playing creatures you want both Crabs and Scribes, either one alone just enables all the removal and will be under performing most times. I'm still fond of the creatureless tempo style, since we can mill them pretty fast, and with Echoing truth/Fatal Push/Memento/Darkness we can cheaply delay their kill enough to get there.
Manic Scribe/Crab are good at delaying as well (scribe mostly with the 3 toughness), from my deck I would cut 4 Memento and 1 Breaking, 1 Scroll, 1 Echoing Truth for a 4/3 split of them. I like the creatureless approach better since it makes it harder for the opponent to interact with us.
Anyway, for any conclusions we should wait until the meta settles from all the Jaces and Bloodbraid elves and see what we will be facing most. I'm pretty optimistic for the deck, I think we will be in a better position than against the previous meta.
The bug was/is that you can't cast any half, obvioulsy fusing them won't work, I didn't mean that.
It stopped working a couple of months ago (casting Entering from under shelldock was pretty fun a couple of times, haha), it is an acknowledged bug listed on their site, so they're likely to fix it soon I guess (or maybe they have already, I didn't get the scenario to test it yet).
Here is the stream VOD of the guy who made the 5-0 with the "turbo" mill deck. It is pretty long, I haven't watched it to find the 5-0, it would be interesting to know what decks he faced.
The decklist doesn't look very nice to me, maybe watching the gameplay will show some value I'm missing
Whatever uptick in artifact hate there could've been after Lantern won the PT it will certainly take a back seat to Jace and Bloodbraid elf decks for a while. Also, no Lantern decks in top 32 of GP Toronto toned the "Lantern is broken" song down as well.
Jace has a chance of replacing the Nahiri/Emrakul pack, as well as Gideons of the trials, yes, and it would be wonderful news for mill if that happened! I'm pretty sure the Jace hype will slowly die and he will be just another powerful card in Modern, similar to Liliana of the Veil.
Maybe somebody finds a shell that makes him really broken (UW Miracles so far has been pretty underwhelming), but he is certainly not the "4 of in any deck running blue" that people were panicking about.
He really doesn't do that much against us, Mesmeric Orb can ruin all the fatesealing and brainstorming, and bouncing creatures against us is just pointless (or impossible if you don't run any).
And as dosequisguy said, he might replace other win conditions that were more annoying for us.
Sadly Jace will probably hurt Lantern, I was pretty happy picturing an uptick in Lantern decks after the PT, haha.
Bloodbraid elf is more dangerous, but not particularly so either.
I haven't played the deck in a while, I will probably test it out again now after all the changes the PT, GP Toronto and these unbannings will bring.
EDIT: So, I played a bunch of matches online (just queues, not even leagues, granted) and I'm loving the Jace hype everywhere! I've beaten UW Miracles with Jace and Augurs 2 times and another Miracle/Counterbalance list running Jace once, Mesmeric Orb is a powerhouse, Echoing truth gets rid of the angel tokens, terminus does nothing, Jace does nothing and is way too slow... loved playing the deck again and went 6-1 in 7 matches, so not too shabby! My only defeat was to Burn, and it was a close one!
I want to check if the Shelldock not being able to play fuse cards bug is fixed before playing leagues, I hate playing a bugged deck and having to file for compensation.
My decklist since I haven't posted here in a while.