Also, Inspiring Statuary is a good mana rock as it allows you to tap your equipment to pay for spells. And Balan, Wandering Knight can be a good backup for when Akiri becomes to expensive. Or to just go for the kill with double strike. If you have a 3+ equipments on the board he can easily be a [Big]/X haste double strike beater from your hand for 6 mana (assuming greaves or boots in play).
Also, Inspiring Statuary is a good mana rock as it allows you to tap your equipment to pay for spells. And Balan, Wandering Knight can be a good backup for when Akiri becomes to expensive. Or to just go for the kill with double strike. If you have a 3+ equipments on the board he can easily be a [Big]/X haste double strike beater from your hand for 6 mana (assuming greaves or boots in play).
I almost always cast Akiri on Turn 2, meaning that I'd have to pay full price of the Hero's Blade. Not worth.
As for Inspiring Statuary, I am going to flatten my curve significantly so that wouldn't have much of an effect, if any.
Didn't like the ETBT for just one color and Haste, so Flamekin goes for the massive color fixer of Reflecting Pool.
Winter Orb screws my opponents much more than me, cut the Sandals as something that isn't as attractive now.
Orim's Chant will let me have a proactive counerspell, and will stop damage my from opponents if Kicked. I've added Silence as part of my 'counterspell' package. They'll be some serious growing pains with these proactive counterspells.
Curious how this goes, I've found voltroning down an entire table difficult is why I usually have a backup strat.
How's Arguel's bloodfast been performing for you it seems out of place in the deck.
Hence the decision to add Winter Orb and add Static Orb next time I buy things for the deck. I want to tempo down the table so I need ways to hurt their mana production that doesn't really effect me due to rocks and my wincon's Vigilance to dodge the Static Orb's effect.
Arguel's Blood Fast is because the deck can't do triple colors, which shuts me off from Necropotence. I am pretty desperate for card draw, which is why I'm going to be adding Windfall in a future update. The deck dumps its hand pretty quickly, so it would be nice to get a refill and possibly 'force a mulligan' for other players. I can play the Blood Fast cheaply and have mana open for interaction, then if nothing happens get myself an extra card here and there. With Sword of Feast and Famine, it is even more effective.
I had to see an Akiri and Tymna the Weaver deck in action before I fully appreciated Duelist's Heritage. As an Enchantment, I initially dismissed it but it cranks up Akiri's Kill Clock. Masterwork of Ingenuity rarely gets to become something useful, so I cut it for a guaranteed speed up.
With the speed up of the meta that I'm playing Akiri in, she doesn't die as often so Lightning Greaves' Haste is less necessary. The Shroud was too punitive when I wanted to slap on different equipment. With how quickly this deck vomits out its hand, I could benefit from Windfall - especially if I 'force mulligans' where a players good hand is now worthless.
Silence is another proactive counterspell, which is why I cut an overcosted Disenchant in the form of Orim's Thunder. The Kicker is also less relevant.
Faith's Reward is not needed as much because of how much faster Akiri plays, by the time I could hold mana open for this Instant the game has probably been already decided. Isochron Scepter has been added as a way to have more card advantage, plus I have a full suite of powerful 2 mana effects.
I put in an Adarkar Wastes to remove the ETBT Arcane Sanctum. It got cut because I was putting in a U/W land and Black is the least favoured color combination.
If you look for a replacement for Faith's Reward, Reverent Mantra can be cast for free and will save Akiri in a lot of situations. could guarantee an unblocked hit too. Of course, you need to discard a white card which is difficult in a 4 color deck, so I feel the need to bring up something I brought up earlier: cutting black and going full Jeskai.
See, you are now turning this into a voltron/stax like deck. If you are ok with running Winter Orb and Static Orb then I assume running Armageddon and variants will also be considered fair game. Aside from Silas, you run only 4 cards that require black: Daretti, Anguished Unmaking, Blood Fast and Rakdos Charm. By going Jeskai you reduce the strain on your mana base, and I think Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist would be the perfect replacement in such a deck as he lets you regain your footing quicker through draws while your opponents are struggling and will not be able to damage an opponent as often as you do. As for replacing these card for a Jeskai stax plan:
Of course you would probably need to make a few additional changes to the deck to incorporate the stax elements more fully but this way black is easily cut from the deck. IIRC the primary reason to keep running black was so you could sunforger for good BW or BR instants but since you're not forging anymore...
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The biggest changes are cutting a lot of the colored mana rocks for colorless mana rocks and color appropriate lands.
When thinking over my Jeskai options, I finally settled on Kraum because the deck's weakness is draw. I did think of Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker for a moment, but he would just be another Akiri variant. I need someone to compliment, not copy. If Akiri becomes too expensive to play again, Kraum is evasive, fast and fills my hand.
Hot Soup was added as yet another way to avoid Blockers.
Reverse Engineer draws three cards once and will probably cost two. Land Tax costs one, can be fired and forgotten from Turn 1 and draws three cards a turn.
I decided that the deck will probably be full of Nonbasics to make sure I hit my tricolor needs. With that, I axed Sword of the Animist for Static Orb. I put this Stax element in because Akiri's Vigilance means that I can keep swinging while my opponents need to make decisions between what they untap.
I haven't had much of an opportunity to play this deck until tonight. Aggravated Assault stands out like a sore thumb in trying to resolve and activate. O-Naginata is easy to slap on, gives Akiri evasion and provides a lot of power at a very low mana cost.
I think Hero's Blade is beter than O-Naginata since it auto equips.
Also, I understand why Whispersilk Cloak fits the deck, but at the same time it gives shroud which makes further suiting up Akiri harder. Have you thought about running Champion's Helm in it's place?
EDIT: Thought Vessel is better than Fractured Powerstone, unless you play a lot of planechase perhaps. Also, I think Infiltration Lens deserves a spot here though I don't know what to cut for it.
I think Hero's Blade is beter than O-Naginata since it auto equips.
Also, I understand why Whispersilk Cloak fits the deck, but at the same time it gives shroud which makes further suiting up Akiri harder. Have you thought about running Champion's Helm in it's place?
EDIT: Thought Vessel is better than Fractured Powerstone, unless you play a lot of planechase perhaps. Also, I think Infiltration Lens deserves a spot here though I don't know what to cut for it.
Akiri comes down before Hero's Blade so I would be paying 4 mana to Equip it.
Whispersilk has caused me some problems with Shroud but the unblockable is nice. The only reason why I don't have the Champion's Helm is that it is very expensive. I think it's $20 USD. Sometimes my LGS price under USD, so I'll have to check in with them to see what they currently value them at.
Same deal with Thought Vessel, it's $6 for a mana rock. This deck does not draw enough to justify the unlimited hand size, so I rather spend 50 cents than ten times that amount for a marginal increase.
I am hitting the point where I've got to ask myself "Is it worth spending this much money on such a small return on investment?"
Oblation goes in because I realized the deck doesn't have enough spot removal, so while Render Silent is great at stopping combo decks, I rarely felt like the 'you can't cast any more spells' clause to be effective. It was also hell to keep mana open for. Oblation is easy to cast and deals with anything.
The Aether Grid was a cute idea: snipe utility Creatures and tap down my Winter Orb/Static Orb so I get full value. Instead, I rather get another Artifact to increase Akiri's power. I do regularly cast Kraum, so this means I could be potentially drawing two cards a turn (or more in Magical Christmasland with my utility guys). It could also be useful making opponents swing with their utility Creatures that they don't want to.
I don't run enough Equipment to justify Stoneforge Acolyte, I'd require 25 Equipment to make the 1 in 4 possible. I'm at fifteen, especially after this cut. Welding Jar is a solid idea but I don't know what to cut, if the deck has a main problem it is the lack of draw.
I was deciding between Tenza and Sword of Feast and Famine. Sword is great, but I don't quite use it as I don't really have much use for free mana. If I had more pay mana to draw, I'd be right there. In the end, I'm going against my gut and cutting Tenza. I think the +3/+3 and Trample with only Equip 1 is better. But damn, Feast is broken so I'll try that out.
Fractured Powerstone was the weakest mana rock, so it got cut for Mox Amber. I could've axed Everflowing Chalice but there have been times when I through it onto the field for 0 Kicker just to get Akiri's power up by one.
Right now I'm considering more draw, even if it is Impulse or other tutor-style of draw. Maybe even Pull from Tomorrow.
The deck just wasn't working. At first, it was supposed to be my 'artifact deck' and then it turned into a Voltron deck. When I realized it frequently beat Pods of Casual players, I upped its power level so that I wasn't a pubstomping sociopath. This caused it to drastically shift, as I kept having to cut away fat to make the deck sleeker and deadlier. This included removing my initial desire to build: Sunforger. In higher tiers of play, the deck suddenly couldn't hold its own. I tried switching Commanders, cutting out Black. Suddenly, I couldn't get a consistent draw nor was I fast enough to outrace the Pod. I might be able to kill one player, but since everyone is racing to combo off at high tier, this deck couldn't keep up.
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Could use more Hero's Blade
Also, Inspiring Statuary is a good mana rock as it allows you to tap your equipment to pay for spells. And Balan, Wandering Knight can be a good backup for when Akiri becomes to expensive. Or to just go for the kill with double strike. If you have a 3+ equipments on the board he can easily be a [Big]/X haste double strike beater from your hand for 6 mana (assuming greaves or boots in play).
If my post has no tags, then i posted from my phone.
As for Inspiring Statuary, I am going to flatten my curve significantly so that wouldn't have much of an effect, if any.
Made the following changes today:
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Winter Orb
1 Orim's Chant
1 Flamekin Village
1 Fleetfeather Sandals
1 Utter End
Winter Orb screws my opponents much more than me, cut the Sandals as something that isn't as attractive now.
Orim's Chant will let me have a proactive counerspell, and will stop damage my from opponents if Kicked. I've added Silence as part of my 'counterspell' package. They'll be some serious growing pains with these proactive counterspells.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
Arguel's Blood Fast is because the deck can't do triple colors, which shuts me off from Necropotence. I am pretty desperate for card draw, which is why I'm going to be adding Windfall in a future update. The deck dumps its hand pretty quickly, so it would be nice to get a refill and possibly 'force a mulligan' for other players. I can play the Blood Fast cheaply and have mana open for interaction, then if nothing happens get myself an extra card here and there. With Sword of Feast and Famine, it is even more effective.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
1 Duelist's Heritage
1 Windfall
1 Silence
1 Isochron Scepter
1 Adarkar Wastes
1 Masterwork of Ingenuity
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Orim's Thunder
1 Faith's Reward
1 Arcane Sanctum
With the speed up of the meta that I'm playing Akiri in, she doesn't die as often so Lightning Greaves' Haste is less necessary. The Shroud was too punitive when I wanted to slap on different equipment. With how quickly this deck vomits out its hand, I could benefit from Windfall - especially if I 'force mulligans' where a players good hand is now worthless.
Silence is another proactive counterspell, which is why I cut an overcosted Disenchant in the form of Orim's Thunder. The Kicker is also less relevant.
Faith's Reward is not needed as much because of how much faster Akiri plays, by the time I could hold mana open for this Instant the game has probably been already decided. Isochron Scepter has been added as a way to have more card advantage, plus I have a full suite of powerful 2 mana effects.
I put in an Adarkar Wastes to remove the ETBT Arcane Sanctum. It got cut because I was putting in a U/W land and Black is the least favoured color combination.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
See, you are now turning this into a voltron/stax like deck. If you are ok with running Winter Orb and Static Orb then I assume running Armageddon and variants will also be considered fair game. Aside from Silas, you run only 4 cards that require black: Daretti, Anguished Unmaking, Blood Fast and Rakdos Charm. By going Jeskai you reduce the strain on your mana base, and I think Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist would be the perfect replacement in such a deck as he lets you regain your footing quicker through draws while your opponents are struggling and will not be able to damage an opponent as often as you do. As for replacing these card for a Jeskai stax plan:
Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast -> Thassa, God of the Sea Card selection > creature destruction in a mana light environment. Also guarantees hits.
Anguished Unmaking -> Chaos Warp
Arguel's Blood Fast -> Dovin Baan (Also stax piece redundancy in his ultimate)
Rakdos Charm -> Depending on it's primary function in the deck Scribbling Claws for GY hate or Vandalblast for artifact removal (Blow up everyone else's rocks in one go).
Of course you would probably need to make a few additional changes to the deck to incorporate the stax elements more fully but this way black is easily cut from the deck. IIRC the primary reason to keep running black was so you could sunforger for good BW or BR instants but since you're not forging anymore...
If my post has no tags, then i posted from my phone.
1 Kraum, Ludevic's Opus
1 Dispeller's Capsule
1 Hot Soup
1 Mask of Memory
1 Everflowing Chalice
1 Fractured Powerstone
1 Prismatic Lens
1 Day's Undoing
1 Reverse Engineer
1 Chaos Warp
1 Wear // Tear
1 Mana Confluence
3 Island
2 Plains
2 Mountain
1 Silas Renn, Seeker Adept
1 Dimir Signet
1 Orzhov Signet
1 Talisman of Dominance
1 Talisman of Indulgence
1 Loxodon Warhammer
1 Arguel's Blood Fast
1 Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast
1 Hallowed Burial
1 Blasphemous Act
1 Anguished Unmaking
1 Rakdos Charm
3 Swamp
1 Sulfurous Springs
1 Caves of Koilos
1 Crumbling Necropolis
1 Nomad Outpost
1 Vault of Whispers
When thinking over my Jeskai options, I finally settled on Kraum because the deck's weakness is draw. I did think of Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker for a moment, but he would just be another Akiri variant. I need someone to compliment, not copy. If Akiri becomes too expensive to play again, Kraum is evasive, fast and fills my hand.
Hot Soup was added as yet another way to avoid Blockers.
The first update after the big change:
1 Land Tax
1 Static Orb
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Spirebluff Canal
1 Reverse Engineer
1 Sword of the Animist
1 Plains
1 Mountain
I decided that the deck will probably be full of Nonbasics to make sure I hit my tricolor needs. With that, I axed Sword of the Animist for Static Orb. I put this Stax element in because Akiri's Vigilance means that I can keep swinging while my opponents need to make decisions between what they untap.
Otherwise, mana upgrade.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
1 O-Naginata
1 Aggravated Assault
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
Also, I understand why Whispersilk Cloak fits the deck, but at the same time it gives shroud which makes further suiting up Akiri harder. Have you thought about running Champion's Helm in it's place?
EDIT: Thought Vessel is better than Fractured Powerstone, unless you play a lot of planechase perhaps. Also, I think Infiltration Lens deserves a spot here though I don't know what to cut for it.
If my post has no tags, then i posted from my phone.
Whispersilk has caused me some problems with Shroud but the unblockable is nice. The only reason why I don't have the Champion's Helm is that it is very expensive. I think it's $20 USD. Sometimes my LGS price under USD, so I'll have to check in with them to see what they currently value them at.
Same deal with Thought Vessel, it's $6 for a mana rock. This deck does not draw enough to justify the unlimited hand size, so I rather spend 50 cents than ten times that amount for a marginal increase.
I am hitting the point where I've got to ask myself "Is it worth spending this much money on such a small return on investment?"
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
1 Oblation
1 Bident of Thassa
1 Render Silent
1 Ghirapur Aether Grid
The Aether Grid was a cute idea: snipe utility Creatures and tap down my Winter Orb/Static Orb so I get full value. Instead, I rather get another Artifact to increase Akiri's power. I do regularly cast Kraum, so this means I could be potentially drawing two cards a turn (or more in Magical Christmasland with my utility guys). It could also be useful making opponents swing with their utility Creatures that they don't want to.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
Last changes:
1 Damping Sphere
1 Mox Amber
1 Tenza, Godo's Maul
1 Fractured Powerstone
Fractured Powerstone was the weakest mana rock, so it got cut for Mox Amber. I could've axed Everflowing Chalice but there have been times when I through it onto the field for 0 Kicker just to get Akiri's power up by one.
Right now I'm considering more draw, even if it is Impulse or other tutor-style of draw. Maybe even Pull from Tomorrow.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
1 Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain
1 Vedalkin Archmage
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
The deck just wasn't working. At first, it was supposed to be my 'artifact deck' and then it turned into a Voltron deck. When I realized it frequently beat Pods of Casual players, I upped its power level so that I wasn't a pubstomping sociopath. This caused it to drastically shift, as I kept having to cut away fat to make the deck sleeker and deadlier. This included removing my initial desire to build: Sunforger. In higher tiers of play, the deck suddenly couldn't hold its own. I tried switching Commanders, cutting out Black. Suddenly, I couldn't get a consistent draw nor was I fast enough to outrace the Pod. I might be able to kill one player, but since everyone is racing to combo off at high tier, this deck couldn't keep up.
So, I've decided to tear the deck apart.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs