Something I found a long time ago: just because something doesn't 'cost' a card doesn't mean it's worth a deck slot. All the reasons you gave are nothing specific to Visionary (or any creature for that matter). Look at how many EDH lists run Opt (hint: none).
You're never 'forced' to ressurect him, but often you will have the mana and there will be nothing else pressing to do (e.g. you're holding a number of reactive cards or you have a comfortable board presence and don't want to overcommit). I honestly consider him one of the better EDH creatures ever printed. I have also, in the span of a turn, returned him from GY, cycled him, returned him again, and then played him (wanted a shuffle effect), and then he's a relevant board presence. Even aside from that, a colorless activation that fixes color is really good.
I'd say it is rather bad without Earthcraft. It's slow, it's just asking for a LD or Bounce effect. When there's enough other possible unbound card interactions, you may as well go with the ones that stand best on their own. This isn't one of them.
You say Eternal Dragon and Karmic Justice don't do anything and then want to add Elvish Visionary? This is honestly rather perplexing. That said, I've had a lot of good luck with Martyr's Cause and would recommend it for any token-centric deck that can make use of sac outlets for combo (i.e. Reveillark).
Your first example was a bad one, since Opt doesn't combo (and isn't even a creature) like Elvish Visionary. The Visionary is excellent at getting you to your combos.
As for Eternal Dragon, I agree that it is a "good" card in the abstract. HOWEVER, with all the search in the Rhys deck, Eternal Dragon is unnecessary.
Finally, had you read my other post more thoroughly, you would see that I wanted to take out Squirrel Nest for Ant Queen.
As for Eternal Dragon, I agree that it is a "good" card in the abstract. HOWEVER, with all the search in the Rhys deck, Eternal Dragon is unnecessary.
Eternal Dragon is in a basic Plains slot. If he had never been printed there would just be an extra land in the deck instead of him and I think he is much better than a land even if I never cast him.
I've personally liked Squirrel Nest. Worst cases it gets LDed but they just wasted a spell on a "useless" enchantment? With Rhys out, you can build up an army of squirrel very fast with little to no mana investment. With Earthcraft out, you win. Also, maybe a little different is my deck runs both Vigor and Coat of Arms, giving Squirrel Nest more power as you tap the land to pump your squirrels bigger.
Verdant Force is a casual card, and is amazing in huge multiplayer groups. I remember I have the infiLark engine out but didn't want to combo to avoid being a douche to my casual group, but I ended up just bringing him back and again. Rhys can be VERY unfriendly but I think he's more suited as a friendly multiplayer card since he's a very flavorful general.
EDragon is bad in the deck. I'd rather play Kodama's, and Ant Queen seems like the GW Sliver queen for this deck with Cradle. Acidic Slime is hands down best utility card and infiLark combo card in the deck now. I've played with Martry's Cause, and it seems like a waste of space, but it's a lifesaver against doublestriking Rafiqs, Nicol Bolas the creature and so much more. It's a good multiplayer card because you can prevent damage to your allies as well.
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I like designing decks and I am primarily a control player. Using Drain to fight Workshops is like using Exclude to fight Dark Confidant.
Eternal Dragon can do the following:
1. Pitch to Survival
2. Fix your mana
3. Tutor up Mistveil Plains
4. Clunky draw engine with Genesis or by himself with a lot of mana
5. Shuffle effect
6. 5/5 flier for 5WW
My advice is to take out a basic Plains, put in Eternal Dragon & playtest. You will see that he is better than a basic land.
Eternal Dragon can do the following:
1. Pitch to Survival
2. Fix your mana 3. Tutor up Mistveil Plains
4. Clunky draw engine with Genesis or by himself with a lot of mana
5. Shuffle effect
6. 5/5 flier for 5WW
My advice is to take out a basic Plains, put in Eternal Dragon & playtest. You will see that he is better than a basic land.
Also, why is Mistveil Plains so good? All I can think of is that it can sometimes save stuff from graveyard hate or let you tutor for something again.
If my opening hand is 2 Plains or 2 forests and Eternal Dragon then there is a good chance I can keep the hand because Eternal Dragon can colorfix. If instead I have 2 Plains or 2 Forests and Elvish Visionary I'm just asking to get color screwed.
Mistveil Plains isn't great but is useful for the reasons you mentioned.
If my opening hand is 2 Plains or 2 forests and Eternal Dragon then there is a good chance I can keep the hand because Eternal Dragon can colorfix. If instead I have 2 Plains or 2 Forests and Elvish Visionary I'm just asking to get color screwed.
Mistveil Plains isn't great but is useful for the reasons you mentioned.
My complaint with Mistveil Plains is that it comes into play tapped and seems very situational. I've recently become a huge fan of basic lands with Ruination and friends running rampant.
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My complaint with Mistveil Plains is that it comes into play tapped and seems very situational. I've recently become a huge fan of basic lands with Ruination and friends running rampant.
I have to play against Ruination sometimes but every deck I play against has graveyard hate and it helps a little to protect combo pieces. Probably should be running more basics though and Nantuko Monastery never seems to do much as this deck gets to Threshold fairly slow.
So i've been looking around cause I am in the process of building a Rhys deck and like what I see here. One thing I am curious about is out of all the Rhys decks i've looked at none have Mobilization, is it to slow? Also, I love the infinite in the deck but I don't think i'll pull it out unless one of my friends trys to go after me, we tend to have a pretty casual meta.
Also, Sigil Captain is a bad card, but is it almost playable in casual metas, cause when Rhys copies em they would have the 2 +1/+1 tokens copied as well correct?
So i've been looking around cause I am in the process of building a Rhys deck and like what I see here. One thing I am curious about is out of all the Rhys decks i've looked at none have Mobilization, is it to slow? Also, I love the infinite in the deck but I don't think i'll pull it out unless one of my friends trys to go after me, we tend to have a pretty casual meta.
Mobilization was tested and the 3 mana activation is what kills it. With Ant Queen just being printed I don't think there is any chance of Mobilization coming back in. If you pull off an infinite combo people will almost certainly gang up on you, it's the price you pay for randomly winning games with combos.
EDIT: Sigil Captain is perfectly fine for casual, especially with Doubling Season. My deck is focused heavily on volume of tokens, not quality of tokens.
Yea, I figured the cost is what drove zation out, I've been gearing up the deck and I've just been looking for ways to make it fun but not, SPOOGE lol.
As for the infinite, I know one guy that just made a blue deck that does nothing but skrew with the entire game, so as soon as he trys shenanigans, bam, no more mana for him, because there is no reason I couldn't just blow up all his lands with Acidic Slime instead of just tapping him down right?
Yea, I figured the cost is what drove zation out, I've been gearing up the deck and I've just been looking for ways to make it fun but not, SPOOGE lol.
As for the infinite, I know one guy that just made a blue deck that does nothing but skrew with the entire game, so as soon as he trys shenanigans, bam, no more mana for him, because there is no reason I couldn't just blow up all his lands with Acidic Slime instead of just tapping him down right?
Honestly, if you aren't going to fully abuse the infinite combos I wouldn't even include them. Stuff like Kamahl + Crovax or Mirror Entity + Gilt-Leaf Archdruid are very annoying but generally far more acceptable in most groups than infinite loops/creatures. It also puts you in a situation where you are forcing yourself to play your deck suboptimally. You could just play the way you described and just destroy the blue guy but everyone will know you have the ability to use infinite loops whenever you want and that might be enough to automatically put a target on your head.
Yea, I figured the cost is what drove zation out, I've been gearing up the deck and I've just been looking for ways to make it fun but not, SPOOGE lol.
As for the infinite, I know one guy that just made a blue deck that does nothing but skrew with the entire game, so as soon as he trys shenanigans, bam, no more mana for him, because there is no reason I couldn't just blow up all his lands with Acidic Slime instead of just tapping him down right?
REALLY?! REALLY? Just call it Mobilization next time.
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why isnt there a crop rotation? w/ lands that produce tokens and esp....gaea's cradle, I dont see why it wouldnt be included
Crop Rotation would be OKAY, but thinning the deck of multiple lands is usually more beneficial than finding a single Gaea's Cradle that will put a target on your head. It is most important to get the other combos going ASAP.
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"Psychologically, you have to have confidence in yourself and this confidence should be based on fact." -- Bobby Fischer
Donald, I'm picking this up again lol. Dagsson is just the worst deck in multiplayer. I won my 6-man FFA tourney with my opponents playing nothing (Sharuum player played out Ravager, Jitte, Sculpting Steel, Merike Berit played out Thousand year elixir, Uril played out farhaven elf) and they died to me after getting locked out for 4 turns by Tangle Wire and Winter Orb.
However, the next few multiplayer games I played, the deck just drew way too much hate from everyone else that I can't resolve anything lol.
My meta consists of (troublesome decks that I want to deal against)
-Rafiq with Jitte/Forbid/Capsize/flyers/Spitting Image/Treachery/good cards
-Mayael (shouldn't be a problem aside from board sweepers)
-Sharuum (a terrible deck but occasionally gets bad with good cards being played)
My main question is how do I deal with creature steal or Faith's Fetters on Rhys? What is the style of playing? I noticed that if you play out a single overpowered card like Skullclamp/Earthcraft without a good board, you attract so much hate. Do you usually play these "scary" cards when you have a good chance on going off/chaining into multiple spell and get enough board advantage to face hate? I hate multiplayer. Politics don't make sense in multiplayer a lot of times. People are scared of cards that aren't even scary in the present situations, and end up killing the player with the scary cards but leaving the player with the best board position untouched and eventually giving him the win.
Which would you think is a better multiplayer strategy?
- Rhys with tokens/card advantage/combos with Survival and LD strategy or
- UBw generals (Zur is possibly bad in multiplayer due to the same reason Dagsson is terrible since he draws too much hate) that mainly play board control with mass sweepers and cards like Debtor's Knell, Necropotence, Confinement, Enduring Renewal, Wrath/Damnation, Demonic Tutors, counterspells, big beaters, i.e. good cards.
Rhys seems to be a more fun general with emphasis on synergy within the deck while UBW decks have a much stronger card pool and plays single solid cards. I'm just wondering from your experience in EDH multiplayer, which is a better strategy? Synergy with the general or playing strong cards and recursion that control the overall board?
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I like designing decks and I am primarily a control player. Using Drain to fight Workshops is like using Exclude to fight Dark Confidant.
Donald, I'm picking this up again lol. Dagsson is just the worst deck in multiplayer. I won my 6-man FFA tourney with my opponents playing nothing (Sharuum player played out Ravager, Jitte, Sculpting Steel, Merike Berit played out Thousand year elixir, Uril played out farhaven elf) and they died to me after getting locked out for 4 turns by Tangle Wire and Winter Orb.
However, the next few multiplayer games I played, the deck just drew way too much hate from everyone else that I can't resolve anything lol.
My meta consists of (troublesome decks that I want to deal against)
-Rafiq with Jitte/Forbid/Capsize/flyers/Spitting Image/Treachery/good cards
-Mayael (shouldn't be a problem aside from board sweepers)
-Sharuum (a terrible deck but occasionally gets bad with good cards being played)
My main question is how do I deal with creature steal or Faith's Fetters on Rhys? What is the style of playing? I noticed that if you play out a single overpowered card like Skullclamp/Earthcraft without a good board, you attract so much hate. Do you usually play these "scary" cards when you have a good chance on going off/chaining into multiple spell and get enough board advantage to face hate? I hate multiplayer. Politics don't make sense in multiplayer a lot of times. People are scared of cards that aren't even scary in the present situations, and end up killing the player with the scary cards but leaving the player with the best board position untouched and eventually giving him the win.
Which would you think is a better multiplayer strategy?
- Rhys with tokens/card advantage/combos with Survival and LD strategy or
- UBw generals (Zur is possibly bad in multiplayer due to the same reason Dagsson is terrible since he draws too much hate) that mainly play board control with mass sweepers and cards like Debtor's Knell, Necropotence, Confinement, Enduring Renewal, Wrath/Damnation, Demonic Tutors, counterspells, big beaters, i.e. good cards.
Rhys seems to be a more fun general with emphasis on synergy within the deck while UBW decks have a much stronger card pool and plays single solid cards. I'm just wondering from your experience in EDH multiplayer, which is a better strategy? Synergy with the general or playing strong cards and recursion that control the overall board?
UBw/control decks are "better" for the reasons you stated. However, in my opinion, they take no skill to play and are not as fun.
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"Psychologically, you have to have confidence in yourself and this confidence should be based on fact." -- Bobby Fischer
Donald, I'm picking this up again lol. Dagsson is just the worst deck in multiplayer. I won my 6-man FFA tourney with my opponents playing nothing (Sharuum player played out Ravager, Jitte, Sculpting Steel, Merike Berit played out Thousand year elixir, Uril played out farhaven elf) and they died to me after getting locked out for 4 turns by Tangle Wire and Winter Orb.
I read your report, you went to win and were successful in a 6-man. Nice job.
However, the next few multiplayer games I played, the deck just drew way too much hate from everyone else that I can't resolve anything lol.
I have a Jhoira deck that is the same way, just draws massive hate but the suspend stuff then blow up the world plan is strong enough I can still get wins.
My meta consists of (troublesome decks that I want to deal against)
-Rafiq with Jitte/Forbid/Capsize/flyers/Spitting Image/Treachery/good cards
-Mayael (shouldn't be a problem aside from board sweepers)
-Sharuum (a terrible deck but occasionally gets bad with good cards being played)
Jitte is a serious problem, you need to have multiple ways to deal with it early or it can completely shut you down.
My main question is how do I deal with creature steal or Faith's Fetters on Rhys? What is the style of playing? I noticed that if you play out a single overpowered card like Skullclamp/Earthcraft without a good board, you attract so much hate. Do you usually play these "scary" cards when you have a good chance on going off/chaining into multiple spell and get enough board advantage to face hate? I hate multiplayer. Politics don't make sense in multiplayer a lot of times. People are scared of cards that aren't even scary in the present situations, and end up killing the player with the scary cards but leaving the player with the best board position untouched and eventually giving him the win.
Faith's Fetters shouldn't be a problem, I run a ton of sac outlets and enchantment removal, it hasn't ever been a problem. Just try to have both sac outlets and enchantment removal in enchantment form and creature form. For example, I've got Skullmulcher as a creature than can sac my stuff and Martyr's Cause as an enchantment. Since G/W can really only search out creatures & enchantments effectively (Enlightened Tutor is an exception) you want your silver bullets to be these card types. Regarding the scary cards, of which there are many, ideally you play out defensive cards first to protect them. I almost always wait until late game to play a critical mass and try to win quickly. In political games you are basically wanting to stay busy without being a target and hopefully your opponents will get in fights with each other. Always try and make your land drops every turn and try to keep 7 cards in hand if at all possible. Try not to get into fights with people or cause people to get in fights with you, you want your opponents wasting their resources on each other.
Which would you think is a better multiplayer strategy?
- Rhys with tokens/card advantage/combos with Survival and LD strategy or
- UBw generals (Zur is possibly bad in multiplayer due to the same reason Dagsson is terrible since he draws too much hate) that mainly play board control with mass sweepers and cards like Debtor's Knell, Necropotence, Confinement, Enduring Renewal, Wrath/Damnation, Demonic Tutors, counterspells, big beaters, i.e. good cards.
Zur is the better general, no question. However he should draw a lot of hate wheras Rhys will let you play a more political game. I probably have more wins with my Wydwen deck than my Jhoira deck despite my Jhoira deck being "better" because I'm not getting hated on and Wydwen is very political.
Rhys seems to be a more fun general with emphasis on synergy within the deck while UBW decks have a much stronger card pool and plays single solid cards. I'm just wondering from your experience in EDH multiplayer, which is a better strategy? Synergy with the general or playing strong cards and recursion that control the overall board?
My Rhys list is very strong, I've been tuning the deck for a couple years now and have more than my fair share of wins. Despite it being a pretty explosive combo deck it can attack from many different angles, which is something I really like a deck to be able to do. It also has some ridiculous late game bombs like Replenish which are fun because of being so stupidly overpowered. Hope that helps!
Preparing for Zendikar release so made some changes:
-Gilt-Leaf Archdruid
The Archdruid/Mirror Entity combo wasn't as strong as Crovax/Kamahl combo for creature based land destruction so I cut the Archdruid.
+Luminarch Acension
I expect this card will be insane in this deck. Check the spoiler if you want to see what it does.
-Choke
+Conversion
A player in my group has started playing Akroma, Angel of Fury almost exclusively which is making people afraid to bring their mono blue decks to the table. Since Akroma is already hosing blue I might as well hose Akroma.
Preparing for Zendikar release so made some changes:
-Gilt-Leaf Archdruid
The Archdruid/Mirror Entity combo wasn't as strong as Crovax/Kamahl combo for creature based land destruction so I cut the Archdruid.
+Luminarch Acension
I expect this card will be insane in this deck. Check the spoiler if you want to see what it does.
-Choke
+Conversion
A player in my group has started playing Akroma, Angel of Fury almost exclusively which is making people afraid to bring their mono blue decks to the table. Since Akroma is already hosing blue I might as well hose Akroma.
I knew you were a HOSER!!!
But i would start doing the same. Playing agist Akroma, Angel of Fury sux balls..
And Azami is complaning to me all the time, so i have to give her a good present for the 2010.
And, i dont recall to many Zen updates, at least not to the point where they were key cards that affect the board dramatricly.
Zendikar just didn't add much to the deck, these are the cards I considered:
Conqueror's Pledge - Not very good at 5 mana and for 11 I can just cast Storm Herd if I want that type of 1 shot token making. Emeria Angel/Rampaging Baloths - Without something to fuel them like Burgeoning or Exploration they just make tokens too slowly. Beastmaster's Acension/Eldrazi Monument - Both make the tokens bigger but I've avoided these types of cards for the most part since they tend to be win more type cards. Beastmaster's Acension is at least tutorable and I can see how it could win games out of nowhere so I'll try it out. Oran-Rief, the Vastwood - Will add in place of Urza's Factory but I haven't tested it yet.
@asw122 - I'm surprised you couldn't get more tokens out of your Rhys deck. There are multiple infinite combos that make tokens in here and I am regularly able to get 100+ on the battlefield even without them.
@ilcapo - Akroma was not present last time we played so Choke is back on the team.
Final Zendikar update will be:
-Condemn
+Beastmaster's Acension
-Urza's Factory
+Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
Complicated... but awesome... basically a one card combo since all you need is any creature in your hand...
Your first example was a bad one, since Opt doesn't combo (and isn't even a creature) like Elvish Visionary. The Visionary is excellent at getting you to your combos.
As for Eternal Dragon, I agree that it is a "good" card in the abstract. HOWEVER, with all the search in the Rhys deck, Eternal Dragon is unnecessary.
Finally, had you read my other post more thoroughly, you would see that I wanted to take out Squirrel Nest for Ant Queen.
I'm glad that you agree with me on Martyr's Cause.
Eternal Dragon is in a basic Plains slot. If he had never been printed there would just be an extra land in the deck instead of him and I think he is much better than a land even if I never cast him.
Verdant Force is a casual card, and is amazing in huge multiplayer groups. I remember I have the infiLark engine out but didn't want to combo to avoid being a douche to my casual group, but I ended up just bringing him back and again. Rhys can be VERY unfriendly but I think he's more suited as a friendly multiplayer card since he's a very flavorful general.
EDragon is bad in the deck. I'd rather play Kodama's, and Ant Queen seems like the GW Sliver queen for this deck with Cradle. Acidic Slime is hands down best utility card and infiLark combo card in the deck now. I've played with Martry's Cause, and it seems like a waste of space, but it's a lifesaver against doublestriking Rafiqs, Nicol Bolas the creature and so much more. It's a good multiplayer card because you can prevent damage to your allies as well.
Using Drain to fight Workshops is like using Exclude to fight Dark Confidant.
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Eternal Dragon can do the following:
1. Pitch to Survival
2. Fix your mana
3. Tutor up Mistveil Plains
4. Clunky draw engine with Genesis or by himself with a lot of mana
5. Shuffle effect
6. 5/5 flier for 5WW
My advice is to take out a basic Plains, put in Eternal Dragon & playtest. You will see that he is better than a basic land.
I never actually said to replace Eternal Dragon with a basic plains. I replaced him with Elvish Visionary instead.
Also, why is Mistveil Plains so good? All I can think of is that it can sometimes save stuff from graveyard hate or let you tutor for something again.
If my opening hand is 2 Plains or 2 forests and Eternal Dragon then there is a good chance I can keep the hand because Eternal Dragon can colorfix. If instead I have 2 Plains or 2 Forests and Elvish Visionary I'm just asking to get color screwed.
Mistveil Plains isn't great but is useful for the reasons you mentioned.
My complaint with Mistveil Plains is that it comes into play tapped and seems very situational. I've recently become a huge fan of basic lands with Ruination and friends running rampant.
I have to play against Ruination sometimes but every deck I play against has graveyard hate and it helps a little to protect combo pieces. Probably should be running more basics though and Nantuko Monastery never seems to do much as this deck gets to Threshold fairly slow.
-Nantuko Monastery
+Plains
Also, Sigil Captain is a bad card, but is it almost playable in casual metas, cause when Rhys copies em they would have the 2 +1/+1 tokens copied as well correct?
Mobilization was tested and the 3 mana activation is what kills it. With Ant Queen just being printed I don't think there is any chance of Mobilization coming back in. If you pull off an infinite combo people will almost certainly gang up on you, it's the price you pay for randomly winning games with combos.
EDIT: Sigil Captain is perfectly fine for casual, especially with Doubling Season. My deck is focused heavily on volume of tokens, not quality of tokens.
As for the infinite, I know one guy that just made a blue deck that does nothing but skrew with the entire game, so as soon as he trys shenanigans, bam, no more mana for him, because there is no reason I couldn't just blow up all his lands with Acidic Slime instead of just tapping him down right?
Honestly, if you aren't going to fully abuse the infinite combos I wouldn't even include them. Stuff like Kamahl + Crovax or Mirror Entity + Gilt-Leaf Archdruid are very annoying but generally far more acceptable in most groups than infinite loops/creatures. It also puts you in a situation where you are forcing yourself to play your deck suboptimally. You could just play the way you described and just destroy the blue guy but everyone will know you have the ability to use infinite loops whenever you want and that might be enough to automatically put a target on your head.
REALLY?! REALLY? Just call it Mobilization next time.
Crop Rotation would be OKAY, but thinning the deck of multiple lands is usually more beneficial than finding a single Gaea's Cradle that will put a target on your head. It is most important to get the other combos going ASAP.
However, the next few multiplayer games I played, the deck just drew way too much hate from everyone else that I can't resolve anything lol.
My meta consists of (troublesome decks that I want to deal against)
-Rafiq with Jitte/Forbid/Capsize/flyers/Spitting Image/Treachery/good cards
-Mayael (shouldn't be a problem aside from board sweepers)
-Sharuum (a terrible deck but occasionally gets bad with good cards being played)
My main question is how do I deal with creature steal or Faith's Fetters on Rhys? What is the style of playing? I noticed that if you play out a single overpowered card like Skullclamp/Earthcraft without a good board, you attract so much hate. Do you usually play these "scary" cards when you have a good chance on going off/chaining into multiple spell and get enough board advantage to face hate? I hate multiplayer. Politics don't make sense in multiplayer a lot of times. People are scared of cards that aren't even scary in the present situations, and end up killing the player with the scary cards but leaving the player with the best board position untouched and eventually giving him the win.
Which would you think is a better multiplayer strategy?
- Rhys with tokens/card advantage/combos with Survival and LD strategy or
- UBw generals (Zur is possibly bad in multiplayer due to the same reason Dagsson is terrible since he draws too much hate) that mainly play board control with mass sweepers and cards like Debtor's Knell, Necropotence, Confinement, Enduring Renewal, Wrath/Damnation, Demonic Tutors, counterspells, big beaters, i.e. good cards.
Rhys seems to be a more fun general with emphasis on synergy within the deck while UBW decks have a much stronger card pool and plays single solid cards. I'm just wondering from your experience in EDH multiplayer, which is a better strategy? Synergy with the general or playing strong cards and recursion that control the overall board?
Using Drain to fight Workshops is like using Exclude to fight Dark Confidant.
VERY CHEAP LEGACY SALE (priced to move before April 09!)
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?p=8172551#post8172551
UBw/control decks are "better" for the reasons you stated. However, in my opinion, they take no skill to play and are not as fun.
I have a Jhoira deck that is the same way, just draws massive hate but the suspend stuff then blow up the world plan is strong enough I can still get wins.
Jitte is a serious problem, you need to have multiple ways to deal with it early or it can completely shut you down.
Faith's Fetters shouldn't be a problem, I run a ton of sac outlets and enchantment removal, it hasn't ever been a problem. Just try to have both sac outlets and enchantment removal in enchantment form and creature form. For example, I've got Skullmulcher as a creature than can sac my stuff and Martyr's Cause as an enchantment. Since G/W can really only search out creatures & enchantments effectively (Enlightened Tutor is an exception) you want your silver bullets to be these card types. Regarding the scary cards, of which there are many, ideally you play out defensive cards first to protect them. I almost always wait until late game to play a critical mass and try to win quickly. In political games you are basically wanting to stay busy without being a target and hopefully your opponents will get in fights with each other. Always try and make your land drops every turn and try to keep 7 cards in hand if at all possible. Try not to get into fights with people or cause people to get in fights with you, you want your opponents wasting their resources on each other.
Zur is the better general, no question. However he should draw a lot of hate wheras Rhys will let you play a more political game. I probably have more wins with my Wydwen deck than my Jhoira deck despite my Jhoira deck being "better" because I'm not getting hated on and Wydwen is very political.
My Rhys list is very strong, I've been tuning the deck for a couple years now and have more than my fair share of wins. Despite it being a pretty explosive combo deck it can attack from many different angles, which is something I really like a deck to be able to do. It also has some ridiculous late game bombs like Replenish which are fun because of being so stupidly overpowered. Hope that helps!
-Gilt-Leaf Archdruid
The Archdruid/Mirror Entity combo wasn't as strong as Crovax/Kamahl combo for creature based land destruction so I cut the Archdruid.
+Luminarch Acension
I expect this card will be insane in this deck. Check the spoiler if you want to see what it does.
-Choke
+Conversion
A player in my group has started playing Akroma, Angel of Fury almost exclusively which is making people afraid to bring their mono blue decks to the table. Since Akroma is already hosing blue I might as well hose Akroma.
I knew you were a HOSER!!!
But i would start doing the same. Playing agist Akroma, Angel of Fury sux balls..
And Azami is complaning to me all the time, so i have to give her a good present for the 2010.
And, i dont recall to many Zen updates, at least not to the point where they were key cards that affect the board dramatricly.
Conqueror's Pledge - Not very good at 5 mana and for 11 I can just cast Storm Herd if I want that type of 1 shot token making.
Emeria Angel/Rampaging Baloths - Without something to fuel them like Burgeoning or Exploration they just make tokens too slowly.
Beastmaster's Acension/Eldrazi Monument - Both make the tokens bigger but I've avoided these types of cards for the most part since they tend to be win more type cards. Beastmaster's Acension is at least tutorable and I can see how it could win games out of nowhere so I'll try it out.
Oran-Rief, the Vastwood - Will add in place of Urza's Factory but I haven't tested it yet.
@asw122 - I'm surprised you couldn't get more tokens out of your Rhys deck. There are multiple infinite combos that make tokens in here and I am regularly able to get 100+ on the battlefield even without them.
@ilcapo - Akroma was not present last time we played so Choke is back on the team.
Final Zendikar update will be:
-Condemn
+Beastmaster's Acension
-Urza's Factory
+Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
What do you guys think of Expedition Map in this deck? I know it is the nuts in Sharuum decks...