Being monocolor, new sets don't bring a lot of new cards to the table, made more difficult since in a polymorph build you it's difficult to play any of the value and midrange blue creatures they print.
But Jace's Sanctum caught my eye. Any idea of how good this could be? 4-mana is certainly a lot (it's the same as Talrand, and similar to talrand, does nothing the turn it's played), but it's a sapphire medallion-type effect (not quite, but most of the cards are instants and sorceries so it does discount most) and scry 1. Not sure if I'll play it but I think it's worth at least considering.
I'm not sure about Jace's sanctum: every card that is not an instant or sercery needs to be really strong to be included in Talrand. I have seen Talrand players not play Jace the Mind Sculptor because he was not an instant or sorcery (though that is quite extreme).
The advantage of the medalion is that it comes down early, allows you to play Talrand a turn sooner, and can be discarded to thirst for knowledge if you play that. At a CCM of 4, this enchantment seems cluncky and does nothing on his own, which is really bad for such an expensive spell. Then, if you can untap with it, it gives more speed to your deck.
I am very skeptical on its inclusion, but it may be worthy of testing, the card won't cost much ($) anyway
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Modern Grixis Shadow, Storm Legacy: Grixis Delver, Sneak and Show Duel Commander:Kess High Tide Vintage Big blue(MTGO)
I agree with all your points. The fact that it shares the same CMC as Talrand is troubling. I'd have to swap out one of my other 3-4 CMC cards and the only ones I'd be inclined to cut are Rhystic Study or Bident of Thassa and I think both are better. Rhystic Study plays the mana game similar to Jace's Sanctum (Sanctum makes some stuff 1 mana less, Rhystic Study "makes" opponent's stuff 1 mana more) but at 1 less mana. Bident and Sanctum both have the same crappy floor (do absolutely nothing) but I think Bident has higher upside. The other alternative is to replace Vedalken Shackles because that card's been creeping up in price, but the deck is still meeting the budget restriction. Shackles' low price on tcgplayer is ~$11; if it reaches $15 I might start thinking about it, but Shackles is pretty dumb.
apparently mystical tutor is now banned in 1v1 EDH
so that's one obvious change I need to make. No mystical tutor also makes temporal mastery weaker too.
In any case maybe it's a good time to test mental misstep. I don't play a lot of 1v1 EDH but what prominent cards are there that this can hit? The obvious ones are swords to plowshares/path to exile and thoughtseize/duress. I assume bolt is played often too.
Once again, the new set, battle for zendikar, is spoiled, and there aren't many legal cards worth considering. I don't see any usable cheap counters or cheap bounce. None of the big eldrazi creatures interest me as potential polymorph targets since their big effects require them to be cast.
The anticipate reprint made me realize I didn't spend any time talking about this card as a potential 2-drop filterer. Obviously it's worse than Impulse, but I'm not sure if this is better or worse than Telling Time, or if it go in alongside Telling Time.
Horribly Awry is very limited, but most generals are 4 or less CMC, although the exile part doesn't matter against generals. Still can hit their value creatures though. I'm not sure if this is better or worse than regular essence scatter though.
Noyan dar, Roil shaper is interesting in that it'll be a different way to play talrand. Being 1 more mana is a big deal though, but you do get access to white which is nice, and being a 4/4 to talrand's 2/2 means he's not as useless in combat and also should probably not die to burn. Although I think talrand making expendable 2/2 flier tokens is better than turning your lands into 3/3s that can get caught up in sweepers.
The actual card that interests me the most is Blighted Cataract. 6 mana plus cracking it is a loooot, but it's a land, and monocolor decks can easily afford to play these nonbasics.
Also my quick review for Commander 2015. Most of the new blue spells either cost 6 mana or are creatures that interfere with Polymorph, so it's not very exciting. Mystic Confluence caught my eye though. For starters, it's strictly better than Jace's Ingenuity although that's not saying much. Note that you can use the Mana Leak mode on different spells. Unsummon is a powerful effect and can be a big blowout. Ultimately this does a pretty good Cryptic Command impersonation. I still like Cryptic more, but Cryptic is dumb as hell (plus is way overbudget) so I think this card will still see good play, especially if you can't afford Cryptic. 5-mana is a lot but this card looks flexible and could be worth consideration. However it's not chump change (as of this writeup it's like $8+) so I may wait to see what the price stabilize at.
* = I don't think this card will be played outside of very fringe/budget decks
** = Will appear once in awhile but is generally outclassed.
*** = Keep an eye out on this card. Appears highly volatile in terms of playability.
**** = Potentially a new staple in EDH.
***** = Will likely have a massive impact on EDH.
If I don't talk about a card that is in the set that's because either it's a reprint or I think it's not going to do anything at all.
**Crush of Tentacles - Blue sweepers will always be worth considering, even if they don't hold a candle to Cyclonic Rift. Whether or not it's better than something like Evacuation or Devastation Tide, I'm not sure. The Surge cost can be awkward to cast, because if you're casting a permanent spell then there's a pretty good chance it's just going to get unsummoned when you Surge this anyway which is kind of a waste of time usually, so it appears that it's mostly limited to instants and sorceries.
*Deepfathom Skulker - Coastal Piracy/Bident of Thassa on a creature but at 2 more mana. That's a fair bit of mana to invest. At least it can attack for itself though and has an expensive unblockable ability. Still, this kind of effect seems more effective when it's at lower mana costs, and with the two aforementioned cards I don't really see the point of this card.
****Overwhelming Denial - Last Word is crying in his grave. In theory this sounds not too bad to play Talrand and have UU backup to surge this card. However, on the opponent's following turn it will again cost 2UU, which means it is much more difficult to protect Talrand then. You might catch an opponent offguard once, but when he sees this card he will wait before casting his removal spell. Regardless this card can be awkward to use in Talrand.
**Sphinx of the Final Word - It sounds like a pretty strong card against blue control decks. However, it still dies to sweepers and can't get around Diabolic Edict type of effects. And given that Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir fills a similar role (give the middle finger to blue control decks) but at 2-mana less and with flash, I'm not sure how much play this will see. My guess is that it'll be a "second" copy of Teferi if you need multiples of this kind of card.
would sunder be good? I personally do not like MLD (although this doesn't technically destroy the lands), but I'm more open to them in 1v1, so it's a question about powerlevel. Like most MLD, it doesn't really do anything if you're behind, but it seems like it'll close the game quickly if you're ahead. Has anyone played sunder or MLD cards in 1v1 and how do they perform?
Also I decided to look over the more expensive cards (or at least relative to what I thought their price tag was back when I assembled the deck). I would like some advice/opinions on the following cards that I could remotely consider cutting. Price is low on magic.tcgplayer.com. The current budget is $103.78.
Jin-gitaxias, core augur - $10.40 - I could cut this for another polymorph target, but Jin Gitaxias shuts the door so hard if it doesn't get killed. Also, it is reasonably possible to catch someone off guard with a well-timed high tide -> Jin gitaxias.
Ancestral visions - $11.99 - It's so powerful when it's drawn early that I find it hard to cut this. But $12 is a pretty high price tag.
Cyclonic Rift - $3.65 - Maybe it's not as good in 1v1 as it is in multiplayer, but I think this card is pretty bonkers. However I don't have a lot of experience with 1v1 so maybe it is worth cutting?
gitaxian probe - $2.35 - This is pretty pricy for a common, but I think it's too good to cut for now. It costs 0 mana and triggers talrand, or alternately you get to see if the coast is clear to jam in talrand.
Lightning greaves - $2.38 - There are multiple types of cards that help protect the general, but this one is, AFAIK, the most mana efficient. Right now I think it's worth the price tag.
Rhystic study - $2.99 - Doesn't trigger talrand, and it won't get as many triggers in multiplayer as it does in 1v1. I don't have enough experience with this card though so I can't say for sure.
Temporal mastery - $5.61 - Clunky time walk effect. Ridiculously good when miracle'd but it can be hard to do it without brainstorm or telling time to set it up.
Time Warp - $13.29 - Time walk effects are powerful, but this is pretty pricy.
Vedalken Shackles - $9.99 - Doesn't trigger talrand, but I've never been unhappy to see it. Unless the opponent has zero creatures and never casts his general.
Myriad Landscape - $2.36 - Ramp is hard to come by in monoblue, but thsi is pretty pricy for a ramp option. I could perhaps find another low CMC mana rock. However, while it does ETB tapped, the fact that I can crack this at the end of the opponent's turn means I usually won't be caught with my pants down while I try to ramp.
Reliquary Tower - $1.78 - This deck almost never actually discards due to hand size outside of having a jin gitaxias in play, in which case it's kind of win more anyway.
Delay - $2.00 - I have no idea why this is $2. What format is this even played in? Regardless, it's still a pretty efficient counterspell but at $2, maybe I should explore more options, but I want something that I can put on isochron scepter and doesn't have many conditions. Maybe miscalculation? Maybe I could just stick with something like nullify as decks do rely on their general, but nullify doesn't usually protect talrand.
Anyway, of the cards I listed, the only one that I am going to cut right now is reliquary tower. However I would like to make a few more small cuts (or alternately do a big cut, like jin gitaxias or ancestral visions). Any opinions?
***Engulf the Shore - The instant speed means it might be the go-to sweeper for monoblue decks.
Chance that I play it in this deck: 4/5
**Epiphany at the Drownyard - It's not an X-version of fact or fiction, it's steam augury which is much worse. In multiplayer you can play politics to get the pile you want, but in 1v1 you're always getting the inferior pile. Seems worse than fact or fiction and the regular instant X-draw spells, even if you reveal 2 extra cards (XU vs 2XU for stroke of genius or XUUU for blue sun's zenith).
Chance that I play it in this deck: 1.5/5
**Jace, Unraveler of Secrets - I find it funny that his unsummon is strictly worse than the version on his Mind Sculptor counterpart (ignoring the fact that Mind Sculptor is a broken POS). With that said, he's a pretty slow draw engine, since unsummon isn't that strong in EDH unless you're unsummoning your own creatures to reuse ETB effects, though I'm sure there are worse things you could play.
Chance that I play it in this deck: 1/5 (too high budget)
**Pieces of the Puzzle - A take on Peer Through Depths. This is 1 more mana and is sorcery, but it gets an additional card and the rest go into your graveyard. With that said, this requires significantly more instants and sorceries to get the full value compared to Peer Through Depths. My Talrand deck has over 40 instants and sorceries and often I only see one legal card when I cast Peer, so this card can whiff pretty often. If you can get 50 instants/sorceries in the deck then maybe you can play this safely.
Chance that I play it in this deck: 2/5 (sounds risky to tap out and risk not getting the full value)
***Thing in the Ice///Awoken Horror - Could be useful in instant/sorcery-heavy blue decks so you can quickly trigger the transform on command. Once it transforms you can attack for 7 a bit then maybe bounce it back to your hand. Sounds like a lot of work but it's only a 2-mana creature. You'll have to drop it early so you can get the transformation in a reasonable amount of time.
Chance that I play it in this deck: 4/5 with no polymorph/proteus staff, 1/5 with
**Trail of Evidence - It's a spell-version of Bygone Bishop. With that said, a deck that plays this card would want to have a lot of instants and sorceries and I'm not sure how many of those decks also care about disposable artifacts.
Chance that I play it in this deck: 2/5
**Drownyard Temple - This is a unique effect and I think it will find a home, perhaps in stax or against stax where being able to get some kind of mana back after a land wipe will be useful. If you really want to go deep, have a mill theme to get this into your graveyard and you can bring this back as a rampant growth. That's somewhat narrow, but again, the effect is unique so it's not something to just write off.
Chance that I play it in this deck: 3/5, but would need more discard (e.g. compulsive research)
Quick reviews of eldritch moon, conspiracy: take the crown, and kaladesh.
EM
Fortune's Favor - It's an amazing card in design but its power level seems hard to judge because of how difficult it is to use.
Chance that I play it in this deck: 1.5/5
Summary Dismissal - Catch-all counterspell is nice, but not at 4-mana.
Chance that I play it in this deck: 1/5
Unsubstantiate - While it's card disadvantage like all bounce effects, having a semi-Venser effect at 2-mana is certainly powerful and a strong tempo play. It's a similar vein to why Remand is so good in modern, although you replace the cantrip effect with the ability to affect the board, which has its perks. Once Talrand is out though, any instant/sorcery helps generate card advantage.
Chance that I play it in this deck: 4/5
CONSPIRACY: TAKE THE CROWN
None
KALADESH
Ceremonious Rejection - 1-mana hard counters are always worth considering even with restrictions attached to them. Like many of the other 1-mana counters this is a meta call.
Chance that I play it in this deck: meta/5
Insidious Will - Same thing with Summary Dismissal, 4-mana is a tad too much.
Chance that I play it in this deck: 1/5
Metallurgic Summonings - This card functions as another Talrand. However, it costs 1 more mana and the creatures it creates are usually worse than 2/2 flying drakes (most of the instants and sorceries are 1-2 mana, so you're making a bunch of weenie ground creatures). It's a very nice bonus to be able to recur a bunch of instants and sorceries, but I think it's just a little too expensive. I would certainly like more input from other players though.
Chance that I play it in this deck: ???/5
Torrential Gearhulk - It's a very bad snapcaster mage, but the reason why it's even worth considering is the fact that it's not terrible to hit with Polymorph (keep in mind this guy only hits instants). If dig through time was still legal I would consider it more strongly, but without DTT it's a longshot, but it's worth mentioning.
Chance that I play it in this deck: 1.5/5
Here's an article from mtggoldfish about their version of a budget talrand deck. It's a bit different because it was geared for multiplayer and it is about 2 years old, meaning some things have changed since the article was written (namely the removal of tuck, but a few other things like different ban list). Still a solid read though.
****Baral, Chief of Compliance - Interferes with Polymorph so I won't play him, but he's taken over 1v1 for a good reason. He feels so strong I might consider him even WITH polymorph.
****Baral's Expertise - Baral interferes with polymorph, but his expertise works very well with it. Sorcery speed sucks, but you basically bounce your opponent's board and get a solid card for free. With talrand out it's two drakes for even more value. Plus, since you make the drake off the expertise before the free spell resolves, you can actually go T4 talrand -> T5 expertise and cheat out polymorph and still target the drake.
***Disallow - 3-mana is a lot for counters, but this is a solid catch-all.
***Whir of Invention - The improvise will rarely factor in, but the instant speed makes this highly relevant. There are enough good artifacts in the deck that this is worth considering.
AMONKHET
****As Foretold - Being a mythic this will depend on its budget, but this sounds pretty strong.
****Pull from Tomorrow - Will be replacing blue sun's zenith shortly. It's probably the best instant X-draw spell if you aren't trying to generate infinite mana, since this only lets you draw while you can point a stroke of genius or USZ at an opponent to deck them.
Mostly just some playable instants and sorceries, although Ulesh is an interesting fatty in case I need to cut Jin gitaxias for budget reasons. It lets me stock up on more sphinxes as my fatties of choice if I need to cut budget (unfortunately Consecrated Sphinx costs too much money).
**Kefnet's Last Word - It might not be bad in blue decks as you basically get the best permanent on the board, and since blue decks tend to rely on mana rocks for their mana ramp, you can still produce some mana on your next turn. Being unable to steal planeswalkers does kind of suck though.
**Strategic Planning - Reprint from a card that was only in portals, it's nice to have this blue cantrip kind of card that's not ridiculously expensive. Still it's questionable if you want to play this over Impulse as it digs one card deeper and is instant speed. The cards you pitch go to the graveyard though which is usually a bonus.
***Supreme Will - Bad Mana Leak or Impulse is still solid. If you're interested in one of those two cards, chances are you're interested in this card.
**Swarm Intelligence - Winmore card, but resolving it should easily let you win the game. Since you want to cast something immediately after throwing it down, however, you often need more than its 7 mana upfront to actually gain value out of it, as this will get blown up ASAP. Will likely be similar to Mind's Dilation as these huge CMC blue enchantments with ridiculous effects but are hard to get into play due to their cost.
***Tragic Lesson - It can be a usually worse Thirst for Knowledge but if you need to bounce a land, particularly at instant speed, it can be pure upside, and you get to choose if you want to discard or bounce a land.
****Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign - Very cool card, and may replace Sphinx of uthuun as a huge blue ETB creature at the top end. This is a funny sphinx general (although you do lose out on cool sphinxes like Magister Sphinx). The mana reduction is nice as sphinxes do cost a lot of mana, but its biggest draw is its ETB effect on all of your sphinxes including itself. You get a 4-card fact or fiction (compared to 5), but it is 1 mana less than Uthuun which is definitely worth looking at, and if you have other sphinxes (e.g. Consecrated Sphinx) that's excellent collateral. Also since it's any sphinx, tokens made from something like Hour of Need also count.
Combining Commander 2017, Ixalan, and Rivals of Ixalan into 1 post.
COMMANDER 2017
Nothing very good for Talrand. It's a tribal set, but Talrand isn't really a tribal deck (despite making drake tokens).
IXALAN
**Chart a course - Super budget and unexciting, but OK.
**Entrancing Melody - Sorcery that can gain control of a creature, but seems kind of mana intensive unless you're stealing a tiny dude. At CMC=3 or higher it's just better to play Treachery, so the bar is pretty high.
***Search for Azcanta /// Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin - Not an instant or sorcery, and the front side is not that exciting, but it transforms fairly quickly and its back side can make mana and get you a nice card for a fair price. Would require testing but I don't think it'll be super broken.
**primal Amulet /// Primal Wellspring - 4-CMC is fairly high, and the flip side is not super exciting in Talrand which is a deck that relies mostly on cheap, dorky instants and sorceries. It is nice to copy something like Time Warp, but that's pretty magical christmasland kind of scenario.
RIVALS OF IXALAN
****Flood of Recollection - 2-mana get back almost anything from the graveyard is sweet, even if this exiles itself.
***Nezahal, Primal Tide - Could be interesting as a polymorph target, depending on whether I have budget problems.
**Silent Gravestone - If you need a graveyard hate card that is more than just a one-shot ability (vs Tormod's Crypt or Relic of Progenitus) this could see value. This does hurt a few cards in the deck but shouldn't be that bad.
But Jace's Sanctum caught my eye. Any idea of how good this could be? 4-mana is certainly a lot (it's the same as Talrand, and similar to talrand, does nothing the turn it's played), but it's a sapphire medallion-type effect (not quite, but most of the cards are instants and sorceries so it does discount most) and scry 1. Not sure if I'll play it but I think it's worth at least considering.
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
The advantage of the medalion is that it comes down early, allows you to play Talrand a turn sooner, and can be discarded to thirst for knowledge if you play that. At a CCM of 4, this enchantment seems cluncky and does nothing on his own, which is really bad for such an expensive spell. Then, if you can untap with it, it gives more speed to your deck.
I am very skeptical on its inclusion, but it may be worthy of testing, the card won't cost much ($) anyway
Currently Playing:
Modern
Legacy:
Duel Commander:
Vintage
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
so that's one obvious change I need to make. No mystical tutor also makes temporal mastery weaker too.
In any case maybe it's a good time to test mental misstep. I don't play a lot of 1v1 EDH but what prominent cards are there that this can hit? The obvious ones are swords to plowshares/path to exile and thoughtseize/duress. I assume bolt is played often too.
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
Currently Playing:
Modern
Legacy:
Duel Commander:
Vintage
The anticipate reprint made me realize I didn't spend any time talking about this card as a potential 2-drop filterer. Obviously it's worse than Impulse, but I'm not sure if this is better or worse than Telling Time, or if it go in alongside Telling Time.
Clutch of Currents and Rush of Ice are 1-CMC cards that have awaken costs. However I imagine that I'd rather play Silent Departure as it adds value to the Quiet Speculation package.
Horribly Awry is very limited, but most generals are 4 or less CMC, although the exile part doesn't matter against generals. Still can hit their value creatures though. I'm not sure if this is better or worse than regular essence scatter though.
Noyan dar, Roil shaper is interesting in that it'll be a different way to play talrand. Being 1 more mana is a big deal though, but you do get access to white which is nice, and being a 4/4 to talrand's 2/2 means he's not as useless in combat and also should probably not die to burn. Although I think talrand making expendable 2/2 flier tokens is better than turning your lands into 3/3s that can get caught up in sweepers.
The actual card that interests me the most is Blighted Cataract. 6 mana plus cracking it is a loooot, but it's a land, and monocolor decks can easily afford to play these nonbasics.
Skyline Cascade seems pretty goofy too, for a land.
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
+ Mental Misstep
+ Blighted Cataract
- Mystical Tutor
- 1 Island
Also my quick review for Commander 2015. Most of the new blue spells either cost 6 mana or are creatures that interfere with Polymorph, so it's not very exciting. Mystic Confluence caught my eye though. For starters, it's strictly better than Jace's Ingenuity although that's not saying much. Note that you can use the Mana Leak mode on different spells. Unsummon is a powerful effect and can be a big blowout. Ultimately this does a pretty good Cryptic Command impersonation. I still like Cryptic more, but Cryptic is dumb as hell (plus is way overbudget) so I think this card will still see good play, especially if you can't afford Cryptic. 5-mana is a lot but this card looks flexible and could be worth consideration. However it's not chump change (as of this writeup it's like $8+) so I may wait to see what the price stabilize at.
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
** = Will appear once in awhile but is generally outclassed.
*** = Keep an eye out on this card. Appears highly volatile in terms of playability.
**** = Potentially a new staple in EDH.
***** = Will likely have a massive impact on EDH.
If I don't talk about a card that is in the set that's because either it's a reprint or I think it's not going to do anything at all.
**Crush of Tentacles - Blue sweepers will always be worth considering, even if they don't hold a candle to Cyclonic Rift. Whether or not it's better than something like Evacuation or Devastation Tide, I'm not sure. The Surge cost can be awkward to cast, because if you're casting a permanent spell then there's a pretty good chance it's just going to get unsummoned when you Surge this anyway which is kind of a waste of time usually, so it appears that it's mostly limited to instants and sorceries.
*Deepfathom Skulker - Coastal Piracy/Bident of Thassa on a creature but at 2 more mana. That's a fair bit of mana to invest. At least it can attack for itself though and has an expensive unblockable ability. Still, this kind of effect seems more effective when it's at lower mana costs, and with the two aforementioned cards I don't really see the point of this card.
****Overwhelming Denial - Last Word is crying in his grave. In theory this sounds not too bad to play Talrand and have UU backup to surge this card. However, on the opponent's following turn it will again cost 2UU, which means it is much more difficult to protect Talrand then. You might catch an opponent offguard once, but when he sees this card he will wait before casting his removal spell. Regardless this card can be awkward to use in Talrand.
**Sphinx of the Final Word - It sounds like a pretty strong card against blue control decks. However, it still dies to sweepers and can't get around Diabolic Edict type of effects. And given that Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir fills a similar role (give the middle finger to blue control decks) but at 2-mana less and with flash, I'm not sure how much play this will see. My guess is that it'll be a "second" copy of Teferi if you need multiples of this kind of card.
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
Jin-gitaxias, core augur - $10.40 - I could cut this for another polymorph target, but Jin Gitaxias shuts the door so hard if it doesn't get killed. Also, it is reasonably possible to catch someone off guard with a well-timed high tide -> Jin gitaxias.
Ancestral visions - $11.99 - It's so powerful when it's drawn early that I find it hard to cut this. But $12 is a pretty high price tag.
Cyclonic Rift - $3.65 - Maybe it's not as good in 1v1 as it is in multiplayer, but I think this card is pretty bonkers. However I don't have a lot of experience with 1v1 so maybe it is worth cutting?
gitaxian probe - $2.35 - This is pretty pricy for a common, but I think it's too good to cut for now. It costs 0 mana and triggers talrand, or alternately you get to see if the coast is clear to jam in talrand.
Lightning greaves - $2.38 - There are multiple types of cards that help protect the general, but this one is, AFAIK, the most mana efficient. Right now I think it's worth the price tag.
Rhystic study - $2.99 - Doesn't trigger talrand, and it won't get as many triggers in multiplayer as it does in 1v1. I don't have enough experience with this card though so I can't say for sure.
Temporal mastery - $5.61 - Clunky time walk effect. Ridiculously good when miracle'd but it can be hard to do it without brainstorm or telling time to set it up.
Time Warp - $13.29 - Time walk effects are powerful, but this is pretty pricy.
Vedalken Shackles - $9.99 - Doesn't trigger talrand, but I've never been unhappy to see it. Unless the opponent has zero creatures and never casts his general.
Myriad Landscape - $2.36 - Ramp is hard to come by in monoblue, but thsi is pretty pricy for a ramp option. I could perhaps find another low CMC mana rock. However, while it does ETB tapped, the fact that I can crack this at the end of the opponent's turn means I usually won't be caught with my pants down while I try to ramp.
Reliquary Tower - $1.78 - This deck almost never actually discards due to hand size outside of having a jin gitaxias in play, in which case it's kind of win more anyway.
Delay - $2.00 - I have no idea why this is $2. What format is this even played in? Regardless, it's still a pretty efficient counterspell but at $2, maybe I should explore more options, but I want something that I can put on isochron scepter and doesn't have many conditions. Maybe miscalculation? Maybe I could just stick with something like nullify as decks do rely on their general, but nullify doesn't usually protect talrand.
Anyway, of the cards I listed, the only one that I am going to cut right now is reliquary tower. However I would like to make a few more small cuts (or alternately do a big cut, like jin gitaxias or ancestral visions). Any opinions?
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
ancestral vision just got unbanned in modern and went from ~$10 to $60 in the snap of a finger
Man am I gonna miss that card...
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
***Engulf the Shore - The instant speed means it might be the go-to sweeper for monoblue decks.
Chance that I play it in this deck: 4/5
**Epiphany at the Drownyard - It's not an X-version of fact or fiction, it's steam augury which is much worse. In multiplayer you can play politics to get the pile you want, but in 1v1 you're always getting the inferior pile. Seems worse than fact or fiction and the regular instant X-draw spells, even if you reveal 2 extra cards (XU vs 2XU for stroke of genius or XUUU for blue sun's zenith).
Chance that I play it in this deck: 1.5/5
**Jace, Unraveler of Secrets - I find it funny that his unsummon is strictly worse than the version on his Mind Sculptor counterpart (ignoring the fact that Mind Sculptor is a broken POS). With that said, he's a pretty slow draw engine, since unsummon isn't that strong in EDH unless you're unsummoning your own creatures to reuse ETB effects, though I'm sure there are worse things you could play.
Chance that I play it in this deck: 1/5 (too high budget)
**Pieces of the Puzzle - A take on Peer Through Depths. This is 1 more mana and is sorcery, but it gets an additional card and the rest go into your graveyard. With that said, this requires significantly more instants and sorceries to get the full value compared to Peer Through Depths. My Talrand deck has over 40 instants and sorceries and often I only see one legal card when I cast Peer, so this card can whiff pretty often. If you can get 50 instants/sorceries in the deck then maybe you can play this safely.
Chance that I play it in this deck: 2/5 (sounds risky to tap out and risk not getting the full value)
***Thing in the Ice///Awoken Horror - Could be useful in instant/sorcery-heavy blue decks so you can quickly trigger the transform on command. Once it transforms you can attack for 7 a bit then maybe bounce it back to your hand. Sounds like a lot of work but it's only a 2-mana creature. You'll have to drop it early so you can get the transformation in a reasonable amount of time.
Chance that I play it in this deck: 4/5 with no polymorph/proteus staff, 1/5 with
**Trail of Evidence - It's a spell-version of Bygone Bishop. With that said, a deck that plays this card would want to have a lot of instants and sorceries and I'm not sure how many of those decks also care about disposable artifacts.
Chance that I play it in this deck: 2/5
**Drownyard Temple - This is a unique effect and I think it will find a home, perhaps in stax or against stax where being able to get some kind of mana back after a land wipe will be useful. If you really want to go deep, have a mill theme to get this into your graveyard and you can bring this back as a rampant growth. That's somewhat narrow, but again, the effect is unique so it's not something to just write off.
Chance that I play it in this deck: 3/5, but would need more discard (e.g. compulsive research)
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
EM
Fortune's Favor - It's an amazing card in design but its power level seems hard to judge because of how difficult it is to use.
Chance that I play it in this deck: 1.5/5
Summary Dismissal - Catch-all counterspell is nice, but not at 4-mana.
Chance that I play it in this deck: 1/5
Unsubstantiate - While it's card disadvantage like all bounce effects, having a semi-Venser effect at 2-mana is certainly powerful and a strong tempo play. It's a similar vein to why Remand is so good in modern, although you replace the cantrip effect with the ability to affect the board, which has its perks. Once Talrand is out though, any instant/sorcery helps generate card advantage.
Chance that I play it in this deck: 4/5
CONSPIRACY: TAKE THE CROWN
None
KALADESH
Ceremonious Rejection - 1-mana hard counters are always worth considering even with restrictions attached to them. Like many of the other 1-mana counters this is a meta call.
Chance that I play it in this deck: meta/5
Insidious Will - Same thing with Summary Dismissal, 4-mana is a tad too much.
Chance that I play it in this deck: 1/5
Metallurgic Summonings - This card functions as another Talrand. However, it costs 1 more mana and the creatures it creates are usually worse than 2/2 flying drakes (most of the instants and sorceries are 1-2 mana, so you're making a bunch of weenie ground creatures). It's a very nice bonus to be able to recur a bunch of instants and sorceries, but I think it's just a little too expensive. I would certainly like more input from other players though.
Chance that I play it in this deck: ???/5
Torrential Gearhulk - It's a very bad snapcaster mage, but the reason why it's even worth considering is the fact that it's not terrible to hit with Polymorph (keep in mind this guy only hits instants). If dig through time was still legal I would consider it more strongly, but without DTT it's a longshot, but it's worth mentioning.
Chance that I play it in this deck: 1.5/5
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
+ Anticipate
+ 1 island
+ Engulf the Shore
+ See Beyond
+ Exclude
+ Gush
+ Foil
- Ancestral Vision
- Reliquary Tower
- Wash Out
- Treasure Cruise
- Rhystic Study
- Time Warp
- Temporal Mastery
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/budget-commander-talrand-sky-summoner
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
****Baral, Chief of Compliance - Interferes with Polymorph so I won't play him, but he's taken over 1v1 for a good reason. He feels so strong I might consider him even WITH polymorph.
****Baral's Expertise - Baral interferes with polymorph, but his expertise works very well with it. Sorcery speed sucks, but you basically bounce your opponent's board and get a solid card for free. With talrand out it's two drakes for even more value. Plus, since you make the drake off the expertise before the free spell resolves, you can actually go T4 talrand -> T5 expertise and cheat out polymorph and still target the drake.
***Disallow - 3-mana is a lot for counters, but this is a solid catch-all.
***Whir of Invention - The improvise will rarely factor in, but the instant speed makes this highly relevant. There are enough good artifacts in the deck that this is worth considering.
AMONKHET
****As Foretold - Being a mythic this will depend on its budget, but this sounds pretty strong.
****Pull from Tomorrow - Will be replacing blue sun's zenith shortly. It's probably the best instant X-draw spell if you aren't trying to generate infinite mana, since this only lets you draw while you can point a stroke of genius or USZ at an opponent to deck them.
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
Mostly just some playable instants and sorceries, although Ulesh is an interesting fatty in case I need to cut Jin gitaxias for budget reasons. It lets me stock up on more sphinxes as my fatties of choice if I need to cut budget (unfortunately Consecrated Sphinx costs too much money).
**Kefnet's Last Word - It might not be bad in blue decks as you basically get the best permanent on the board, and since blue decks tend to rely on mana rocks for their mana ramp, you can still produce some mana on your next turn. Being unable to steal planeswalkers does kind of suck though.
**Strategic Planning - Reprint from a card that was only in portals, it's nice to have this blue cantrip kind of card that's not ridiculously expensive. Still it's questionable if you want to play this over Impulse as it digs one card deeper and is instant speed. The cards you pitch go to the graveyard though which is usually a bonus.
***Supreme Will - Bad Mana Leak or Impulse is still solid. If you're interested in one of those two cards, chances are you're interested in this card.
**Swarm Intelligence - Winmore card, but resolving it should easily let you win the game. Since you want to cast something immediately after throwing it down, however, you often need more than its 7 mana upfront to actually gain value out of it, as this will get blown up ASAP. Will likely be similar to Mind's Dilation as these huge CMC blue enchantments with ridiculous effects but are hard to get into play due to their cost.
***Tragic Lesson - It can be a usually worse Thirst for Knowledge but if you need to bounce a land, particularly at instant speed, it can be pure upside, and you get to choose if you want to discard or bounce a land.
****Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign - Very cool card, and may replace Sphinx of uthuun as a huge blue ETB creature at the top end. This is a funny sphinx general (although you do lose out on cool sphinxes like Magister Sphinx). The mana reduction is nice as sphinxes do cost a lot of mana, but its biggest draw is its ETB effect on all of your sphinxes including itself. You get a 4-card fact or fiction (compared to 5), but it is 1 mana less than Uthuun which is definitely worth looking at, and if you have other sphinxes (e.g. Consecrated Sphinx) that's excellent collateral. Also since it's any sphinx, tokens made from something like Hour of Need also count.
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
COMMANDER 2017
Nothing very good for Talrand. It's a tribal set, but Talrand isn't really a tribal deck (despite making drake tokens).
IXALAN
**Chart a course - Super budget and unexciting, but OK.
**Entrancing Melody - Sorcery that can gain control of a creature, but seems kind of mana intensive unless you're stealing a tiny dude. At CMC=3 or higher it's just better to play Treachery, so the bar is pretty high.
***Search for Azcanta /// Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin - Not an instant or sorcery, and the front side is not that exciting, but it transforms fairly quickly and its back side can make mana and get you a nice card for a fair price. Would require testing but I don't think it'll be super broken.
**primal Amulet /// Primal Wellspring - 4-CMC is fairly high, and the flip side is not super exciting in Talrand which is a deck that relies mostly on cheap, dorky instants and sorceries. It is nice to copy something like Time Warp, but that's pretty magical christmasland kind of scenario.
RIVALS OF IXALAN
****Flood of Recollection - 2-mana get back almost anything from the graveyard is sweet, even if this exiles itself.
***Nezahal, Primal Tide - Could be interesting as a polymorph target, depending on whether I have budget problems.
**Silent Gravestone - If you need a graveyard hate card that is more than just a one-shot ability (vs Tormod's Crypt or Relic of Progenitus) this could see value. This does hurt a few cards in the deck but shouldn't be that bad.
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)