There was something off about the deck. It felt powerful because it was resilient and could answer numerous threats but would frequently lost if it went to heads up. I tried to figure out why and my theory is that the deck didn't have enough Haymakers. I joke about my Jodah deck as 'Haymaker Tribal' and despite it having an intentionally terrible mana base, it frequently wins in heads up. This deck frequently gets a lot of mana, between the ramp, doublers and searchers, so I can easily afford the Haymakers. This is the change to add some end game bite to the deck:
Wayward Swordtooth is better late and early, especially if I keep up steady draw, compared to Farhaven Elf.
Considering the amount of nonbasics this deck uses, Knight of the Reliquary seems like a no-brainer. Especially since early game it can fetch my Ramp lands and late it can get Emeria, the Sky Ruin for recursion, Kor Haven for Safety or Rogue's Passage to punch in. Stoneforge Mystic only hs two targets after this update, so I figure another deck will probably gladly pick her up.
Grand Abolisher and Conqueror's Flail are artifacts of when the deck was Saboteur Tribal. They made sure I could get in for my triggers as people would mess with my combat step. My theory is that now that I'm using more Haymakers, I don't need to protect my combat step as people are going to have to innately answer my Creatures. In their place is Kalitas for grave hate and general badassery and Gitrog for draw, ramp and a sizable body.
Selfless Spirit protected my board, but I didn't really feel the effect that well. I'm putting in Tendershoot Dryad. In fact, I was astonished to find out my list didn't have a Tendershoot. That thing is bonkers, in goes another Haymaker.
Karlov was difficult to manage, I didn't gain enough life. Or rather, the deck would gain huge chunks but he prefers a steady stream of little instances. Archangel of Thune goes in as a way to give my deck more ways to end the game, as I found that a small Tymna the Weaver holds back my ability to win. As she grows in size, I no longer go parity or take damage to draw cards, it becomes draw and gain. That's when I frequently feel like the deck is in good shape. Thune will let my team of haymakers grow.
Vizkopa Guildmage was just good for a single combo finish and that's it. With removing of two-thirds of the 'protect my combat step', she became less of an attractive option. Sheoldred is definitely a Haymaker that puts a clock on the board.
Kambal slowly drained my opponents but I couldn't really take advantage of his Shocks. Archfiend of Despair will certainly end my opponents and is an example of these Haymakers I am talking about.
With a lot of the cuts, Sun Titan loses a lot of things to recur, so he gets the axe. This is probably a mistake but I've noticed over a few games that he very rarely recurred things lately. I had a lot of nonpermanents or things costing over 4 in my graveyard. With the deck's curve going up, I thought it was unlikely he would get better. In his place is Razaketh, who will fetch me whatever I need to win the game, in addition to being a Flampler.
Krosan Grip hasn't been doing much lately and I knew I was going to replace it with a piece of Ramp. This is where Temple of the False God comes in. Temple isn't a Land, it's a Ramp piece. That way when I see my hand, I don't see a Land but a Cultivate or Pir's Whim. You're not going to get mad at either of those spells for keeping a crappy hand and be unable to Ramp but that's the frequent mistake people make with Temple. With the addition of Knight of the Reliquary, I can also fetch it, especially since I've caused this deck's curve to jump up.
With all of the Black I've added, I cut a bunch of the utility lands and added in Swamps. Urborg will help with the Quad Black of Phage the Untouchable, triple Black of Razaketh and many double. Plus Urborg enables Sheoldred's Swampwalk. I didn't need the Hall of the Bandit Lord, a lot of the time the ETBT clause made it an unattractive land drop, so then it was never ready when I wanted to surprise one-shot a player with Phage. Gavony Township's goal of making things big is nice, but I rather have the coloured mana for the moment.
I do think there's going to be quite a few shuffles as I know some of the cards that I put in synergize with cards I've cut. Time to play and figure that out.
Revel requires a lot of hoops to jump through, even with Smothering Tithe. The deck already wants to gain life, so the Reservoir will help with that. There's inherit synergies between the Reservoir and Archangel of Thune. The deck also repeatedly goes above 50, so it should be easy to laser people, and with Razaketh, the Foulblooded and Dragonlord Dromoka it should be easy to setup and protect the Reservoir.
I had Suffer the Past in a way to surprise kill a player, gain life and/or remove key cards from a graveyard in response to a Regrow effect which are abundant in my Meta. Suffer has done it's job and it's been... OK. Not sure if that's how this type of answer is supposed to feel, I'm not exactly underwhelmed but with the amount of people thinking the card is bad, I'm willing to test something else in its slot. Heroic is quite good and will help me protect my board from various disruption. Let's see if I miss Suffer.
It would be nice for this deck to have a Counterspell, so I decided to add Lapse of Certainty. Rout seemed like the obvious choice, as it isn't my preference in comparison to my other Wraths. Having it come as a surprise is nice but I can't recall a game where Rout was clutch. Having a hard Counter, even a bad one, can make one hell of a difference. Especially since no one is counting on it.
This deck gains tons of life so Bolas's Citadel felt right. Zendikar Resurgent felt the most like-for-like, as we're trading mana doubling for free spells and cantrips off of Creatures for being able to play cards off of the top of my library. I think I'll miss Resurgent but I don't really abuse the mana doubling and I've already seen absurdities with the Citadel.
1 Wayward Swordtooth
1 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1 The Gitrog Monster
1 Tendershoot Dryad
1 Archangel of Thune
1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
1 Archfiend of Despair
1 Razaketh, the Foulblooded
1 Temple of the False God
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Swamps
1 Farhaven Elf
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Grand Abolisher
1 Conqueror's Flail
1 Selfless Spirit
1 Karlov of the Ghost Council
1 Vizkopa Guildmage
1 Kambal, Consul of Allocation
1 Sun Titan
1 Krosan Grip
1 Hall of the Bandit Lord
1 Gavony Township
1 Plains
Considering the amount of nonbasics this deck uses, Knight of the Reliquary seems like a no-brainer. Especially since early game it can fetch my Ramp lands and late it can get Emeria, the Sky Ruin for recursion, Kor Haven for Safety or Rogue's Passage to punch in. Stoneforge Mystic only hs two targets after this update, so I figure another deck will probably gladly pick her up.
Grand Abolisher and Conqueror's Flail are artifacts of when the deck was Saboteur Tribal. They made sure I could get in for my triggers as people would mess with my combat step. My theory is that now that I'm using more Haymakers, I don't need to protect my combat step as people are going to have to innately answer my Creatures. In their place is Kalitas for grave hate and general badassery and Gitrog for draw, ramp and a sizable body.
Selfless Spirit protected my board, but I didn't really feel the effect that well. I'm putting in Tendershoot Dryad. In fact, I was astonished to find out my list didn't have a Tendershoot. That thing is bonkers, in goes another Haymaker.
Karlov was difficult to manage, I didn't gain enough life. Or rather, the deck would gain huge chunks but he prefers a steady stream of little instances. Archangel of Thune goes in as a way to give my deck more ways to end the game, as I found that a small Tymna the Weaver holds back my ability to win. As she grows in size, I no longer go parity or take damage to draw cards, it becomes draw and gain. That's when I frequently feel like the deck is in good shape. Thune will let my team of haymakers grow.
Vizkopa Guildmage was just good for a single combo finish and that's it. With removing of two-thirds of the 'protect my combat step', she became less of an attractive option. Sheoldred is definitely a Haymaker that puts a clock on the board.
Kambal slowly drained my opponents but I couldn't really take advantage of his Shocks. Archfiend of Despair will certainly end my opponents and is an example of these Haymakers I am talking about.
With a lot of the cuts, Sun Titan loses a lot of things to recur, so he gets the axe. This is probably a mistake but I've noticed over a few games that he very rarely recurred things lately. I had a lot of nonpermanents or things costing over 4 in my graveyard. With the deck's curve going up, I thought it was unlikely he would get better. In his place is Razaketh, who will fetch me whatever I need to win the game, in addition to being a Flampler.
Krosan Grip hasn't been doing much lately and I knew I was going to replace it with a piece of Ramp. This is where Temple of the False God comes in. Temple isn't a Land, it's a Ramp piece. That way when I see my hand, I don't see a Land but a Cultivate or Pir's Whim. You're not going to get mad at either of those spells for keeping a crappy hand and be unable to Ramp but that's the frequent mistake people make with Temple. With the addition of Knight of the Reliquary, I can also fetch it, especially since I've caused this deck's curve to jump up.
With all of the Black I've added, I cut a bunch of the utility lands and added in Swamps. Urborg will help with the Quad Black of Phage the Untouchable, triple Black of Razaketh and many double. Plus Urborg enables Sheoldred's Swampwalk. I didn't need the Hall of the Bandit Lord, a lot of the time the ETBT clause made it an unattractive land drop, so then it was never ready when I wanted to surprise one-shot a player with Phage. Gavony Township's goal of making things big is nice, but I rather have the coloured mana for the moment.
I do think there's going to be quite a few shuffles as I know some of the cards that I put in synergize with cards I've cut. Time to play and figure that out.
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 Aetherflux Reservoir
1 Revel in Riches
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 Heroic Intervention
1 Suffer the Past
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 Lapse of Certainty
1 Bolas's Citadel
1 Rout
1 Zendikar Resurgent
This deck gains tons of life so Bolas's Citadel felt right. Zendikar Resurgent felt the most like-for-like, as we're trading mana doubling for free spells and cantrips off of Creatures for being able to play cards off of the top of my library. I think I'll miss Resurgent but I don't really abuse the mana doubling and I've already seen absurdities with the Citadel.
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